[10/10] A truly spectacular start to this series, perfectly introducing not only the plot, characters and world, but also the general vibe and aesthetic of the show. The dark menacing score by Kevin Manthei, the sharp designs from Jhonen Vasquez, the way the series weaves early-2000s CGI into the traditional animation with more skill than virtually any other media at the time... It's transcendent. This is a show made by talented artisans being given a budget to match their ambition, and it's also a goofy kids show, at the exact same time.
Don't let the sound of the score fool you, this series is one of the primary originators of the 'lol random' humor that was so prevalent in the 2000s. The thing is that no imitations ever managed to do it better. You either love GIR or you're wrong, because he is perfect and is perfectly played by Rosearik Rikki Simons. If you grew up on this thing like I did then you probably have entirely too many of his non-sequiturs stuck in your brain, never to escape. Praise really must be given to all the voice actors in this cartoon, this episode alone featuring standout work from Lucille Bliss, Kevin McDonald, Wally Wingert, and Melissa Fahn, to name a few. But it's Andy Berman as Dib and Richard Horvitz as Zim that truly stand out, which makes sense, given they're our leads. Berman does an excellent job capturing the paranoid neurosis of a child who KNOWS the supernatural is real but is also considered a laughing-stock for espousing this knowledge. His desperation to prove how correct he is by capturing Zim is palpable through Berman's voicework, and he'll only get better from here. Horvitz, on the other hand, truly gets to shine, as this first episode of Zim's self-titled show is appropriately quite focused on him. Horvitz lends the character a self-serious yet clearly unhinged quality, oscillating wildly between low and high pitches, short, sharp shouting and long, drawn out emphasis. It sounds like it might be annoying, and to some audiences it indeed might be. The Tallest would certainly agree with them. But to me, Horvitz's voice is like a song - a harsh, grating song that perfectly captures exactly what this little demon of a character is all about. No one could possibly do it better.
The dark, cynical and always filthy version of Earth that Zim lands on is perfectly represented by the putrid coloration and detailed backgrounds that seem intent on making every aspect of the environment feel stained or degraded. It is perhaps this choice above all others that highlights Zim's alien nature, as the pristine bright greens, pinks and purples of himself and his alien technology truly contrast against the way the world he now inhabits is represented.
Plot-wise, the episode is fairly simple, while also being gloriously convoluted. Why the Tallest don't just vaporize Zim or send HIM to the world of slaughtering rat-people might baffle an initial viewer, but the answer seems to lie within the episode itself. They hate him, but they also take great personal pleasure in mocking him and tricking him into accepting broken robots and questionably-existent assigned planets. Yet the even greater question for a new viewer might be 'why is Dib the only one who notices Zim is a really poorly disguised alien'? Sure, you could answer that with 'because otherwise the plot doesn't work', but I think it's more than that. It all ties back to the cynical world that Vasquez presents Earth as. As will become increasingly obvious as the series continues, everyone on the planet is either legitimately too stupid to notice Zim's alien nature, or they simply do not care. While this depiction may grow a little tiring as the series progresses, for now it is perfectly realized while not going overboard, with the kids in Dib and Zim's class at least very briefly entertaining the idea that their classmate might not be human.
Overall, this is an exceedingly entertaining episode of television, with great animation, great voicework and great music. It's exactly how a strange series like Invader Zim should start, and I can't recommend it highly enough.
This is one of the gayest episodes of a show that doesn't have any explicitly gay main characters that I have ever seen. I love it.
This one’s really important, as far as the evolution of Warner Bros cartoons goes. It introduces Daffy Duck (not yet named), and with him, a heretofore unseen type of cartoon character. One that fought back against those trying to hunt him, one that ignored the cartoon’s ‘script’, one that acted in absurd ways just for the heck of it. In other words, it introduced the ‘screwball’ character, an archetype that would prove to be one of Tex Avery’s favorites, and one that needed to exist in order to eventually have the likes of Bugs Bunny around.
There’s some solid gags throughout, but the pacing still isn’t quite there. Some gags, like drunk fish rowing a boat and singing “On Moonlight Bay”, go on for entirely too long. Others, like a duck eating an electric eel, feel pointless. And some are references that have been lost to time, like a reference to old-school comedian Joe Penner.
It’s the gags with the duck that would eventually be called Daffy that shine the most. Switching roles with the dog in the water, helping Porky with his gun, and, most noticeably and importantly, referring to himself as “just a crazy, darn fool duck”, along with what would become his signature ‘whoo-hoo’ hopping around. It was something audiences hadn’t seen before, and it stuck with them, more than anything else in the cartoon.
Later cartoons would do most of what this one did, but better, so it’s not entirely necessary to bother with this one outside of historical interest. But if you want to see Daffy’s true origin point, and the introduction of the ‘screwball’ character type, then this is the cartoon for you.
The last few minutes of this cartoon really make me want to give it four stars, but the sad fact of the matter is Pluto takes up a large part of this short’s runtime with largely boring antics.
Mickey, Donald and Pluto are going climbing this time around, for edelweiss flowers and eagle eggs, apparently. Why they brought Pluto is a bit of mystery, as he seems to only exist as dead weight (in both a literal sense, to Mickey and Donald, and a metaphorical sense, to this cartoon). Donald goes for the flowers and gets entangled with a baby goat, Mickey tries to take some eagle eggs and gets attacked by an eagle mother, and Pluto pretty much reacts to things and gets drunk.
Donald, for neither the first nor last time, is the true star of this one. His scenes shine, whether he’s trying to hit a baby goat with an ice stalactite, headbutting an angry adult goat, or charging a flying mama eagle, he’s a joy every time. The finale of the short, when Donald tries to rescue Mickey from the attacking birds, is a high-intensity ride from start to finish, and it, coupled with Donald’s scenes, make me recommend the short, overall, despite the lackluster Pluto bits.
Another Porky Pig cartoon by Frank Tashlin, and it’s a significant step up from the last. There’s a lot of good gags in here, even if the pacing is a bit off and there’s a significant amount of racism to deal with.
Porky is part of the French Foreign Legion this time around, but unfortunately for him, he’s just a camel scrubber. There’s good gags throughout, many of them based around the Commandant, and his fun character design. Porky also displays much more of a personality in this one than in the last Tashlin cartoon.
The two things that drag the cartoon down a bit, though, are pacing and racism. There’s several shots that go on way too long, especially in the beginning, stretching the short out more than was necessary. And then, of course, there’s the racism, which is expected given this is a 30′s cartoon set somewhere in the middle east. The depiction of Ali Mode is not great, from his appearance to the gibberish that he mostly speaks in.
The end of the cartoon is paced dramatically faster than the rest of the short, with quick cuts back and forth to fast gags. It’s got a great energy, and is honestly the main reason to give this cartoon a look, if you can deal with the abhorrent racism.
It’s time for another Mickey, Donald and Goofy cartoon, and it’s a fun one, the only problem is they forgot about Mickey! With rent that’s six months overdue, Sheriff Pete is selling Mickey and Donald’s house and everything in it. Goofy, the friendly neighborhood ice delivery man drops by, and the mouse and duck recruit him in their scheme to take all their stuff and run for it. It goes poorly.
The cartoon starts off strong, with some great animation on Pete, and an amazing sight gag of him nailing things to the wall. Goofy drops by, and then there are three main segments of the cartoon that follows.
One, we’ve got Goofy and the piano. Try as he might, Goofy can’t seem to get the piano to stay in his truck - it keeps rolling back into the house. This escalates to the point of perfect absurdity, and though it goes on a bit long, it had me laughing, so no complaints.
Next is the Donald segment, which isn’t nearly as strong. It’s “stuck” humor, something Disney uses liberally in most Pluto and some Donald cartoons eventually, and generally it’s not my thing. It’s a bunch of Donald flailing and being angry, and some of it’s pretty good, but it’s very one-note.
And then, finally, Pete re-enters the house, and we have the grand finale. You might notice that, after the first paragraph, I didn't mention Mickey once, and that about sums up his presence in this one. He’s there in the beginning and end, and gets one very short moment with the suitcase, but otherwise he’s off camera the whole time. For that reason in particular, this isn’t one of the better ‘trio’ cartoons, but, fortunately, it’s still a good short overall.
After “The Blow Out”, Porky became Warner Bros’ new big cartoon star, and so the pig starred in a huge amount of cartoons throughout the rest of the 1930s and into the early 1940s. This was one of the earlier ones. This Frank Tashlin cartoon suffers strongly from an identity crisis. It can’t decide if it wants to be a cutesy farm short, an action adventure, or an absurdist comedy. So it tries to be all three, succeeding most at the comedic bit towards the end.
The first three and a half minutes of this short are excruciatingly boring. Then we’re introduced to the fact that chicken hawks have been nabbing a bunch of Porky’s chickens (who are framed more as his friends than his livestock). Soon thereafter, a chick is nabbed, and it’s Porky to the rescue. The short really takes a turn towards the absurd when the hawks start acting as though they’re aerial football players, huddling up and tossing the baby chick to each other. The rooster even narrates as though it’s a football game!
A very uneven short, but with some surprising comedic gems toward the end. Looney Tunes is slowly but surely turning into the sort of series we remember it as.
This cartoon introduces a new character with a lot of potential that is immediately squandered. Mortimer Mouse is apparently Minnie’s ex, since he refers to her as “his old sweetie”, and the two seem to still be on good terms.
Minnie's characterization is terrible, at first oblivious and then apathetic toward Mickey’s feelings, and Mickey doesn’t come across any better, instantly jealous for no good reason and then, once he’s given a real reason to hate Mortimer, just a sullen grumbling jerk for the majority of the cartoon. Mortimer, at least, is an interesting foil to the normally pleasant Mouse, a cocky bully whose nature would have been better highlighted if Mickey hadn’t immediately been scowling at him.
But there are far bigger letdowns in this cartoon than bad characterization. There’s some racism, when Mortimer dons a terrible Mexican accent and antagonizes a bull on the other side of an open fence. Then he runs away, disappearing permanently about halfway through the short. The remainder of the cartoon is then mostly focused on running away from a bull. It’s an utter waste of a new character, as though the creators had a great idea but then realized halfway through that they had no idea how to actually capitalize on it.
But the most egregious thing, for me, is the cars. For some reason, Mickey and Mortimer’s cars have faces and can do things of their own accord. Mortimer’s car barely does anything, but Mickey’s car gets entirely too much screentime.
This is just a really sub-par cartoon, unfortunately, filled with bad characterization, half-baked ideas, and annoyingly expressive cars. It also killed the character of Mortimer immediately; he never appeared in another classic Disney cartoon, or in anything else for that matter, until the 2000s, when shows like House of Mouse revived him.
Though this cartoon doesn’t feature any of the future Looney Tunes cast we know and love today, or even any old stars like Beans, it’s still a classic. Tex Avery directs, though you’d be forgiven for not realizing, since the zaniness he’s known for isn’t on display here. In fact, this is a rather simplistic cartoon, in terms of setting, plot, and even character design. But it tells a short story that is still relatable today, about a kid whose interests don’t align with his parents’. Of course, in the end his parents end up supporting him and his jazzy singing, a conclusion that was never really in doubt. There’s some fun gags along the way, like the guy on the radio responding to Mama Jolson, but overall it’s just a sweet, heartwarming cartoon. Also, the titular song is absurdly catchy. Note: there is a small fat joke during the auditioning gags.
This one’s a classic as far as my childhood’s concerned. Its name is a reference to the Alice in Wonderland sequel “Through the Looking-Glass”, and it quickly becomes apparent why such a reference would be made. Dream Mickey steps through his bedroom mirror into a strange mirror image of that bedroom, where furniture and cards are alive, and often willing to dance. This cartoon, generally, would actually fit in quite well with Mickey’s earlier endeavors, thanks to the light plot and surplus of dancing. But what makes this one so much better than what came before is the framing of it as a dream, making Mickey’s waking world not the odd one, as was the case in those older cartoons, but the dream world he enters, instead. It’s also just super imaginative, particularly when the cards come into play. And once Mickey enrages the King of Hearts by dancing with the Queen, things get ridiculous as an army of cards attempts to make Mickey pay. It’s a tragedy that this is Mickey’s last solo venture, and one of the last ones where he stars as the main character, but at least we’ll always have this amazing cartoon.
Porky’s back, and so is Tex Avery - and this time, Beans isn’t around to weigh down the proceedings. This is, in fact, the first time Porky Pig’s been allowed to feature in a cartoon by himself, and the quality of the cartoon makes it unsurprising that after it Porky quickly became Warner Bros’ biggest cartoon star for several years. It’s a great plot, featuring an evil bomb enthusiast, and a kid version of Porky who just wants to get a few more pennies so he can have a soda. When Porky figures out he can get a penny from people by picking up things they dropped and returning them, he starts going around the town, rushing to help everyone. Of course, when the bomb enthusiast drops a clock bomb in front of a building, he emphatically does not want it back, but that doesn’t stop Porky from trying again and again and again. Eventually, the bomber gets caught while trying to escape his own bomb, and Porky is rewarded with $2000 - and of course the lovable pig knows exactly how he wants to spend it. A quality cartoon, and the start of Porky’s illustrious solo career that would lead Looney Tunes toward becoming the amazing series we know it as today.
This is, essentially, the first Donald Duck cartoon. By which I mean, it has the classic formula of most 40s Donald cartoons - Donald succumbs to anger and pettiness while dealing with an irritating force. The force this time is the orphans, who we first saw in the classic “Orphans’ Benefit”. They’re basically tiny Mickey clones, but way more mischievous - in fact, in this short they basically serve as proto-nephews (Huey, Duey and Louie) - little kid antagonists - even going so far as to call him “Uncle Donald.” Another reason this is basically a Donald cartoon is that Mickey has a small amount of screentime in the first third or so of the cartoon, and then he disappears completely from it. Make no mistake, this cartoon is about Donald. There is, unfortunately, a gross Native American bit, where the orphans put feathers on their heads and do the stereotypical ‘war cry’ thing. At the end, there’s also this bit where a bee is inside Donald, and it batters around inside, including in his limbs, which I find severely unpleasant. Overall, it’s an okay cartoon, but it’s basically a prototype of much better cartoons that will come later, and that coupled with the racism doesn’t give it much to encourage me to recommend it.
This is, undoubtedly, my favorite Jack King-directed Beans short. It’s got a simple plot with a natural end, no annoying secondary characters like Ham and Ex, and some genuinely fun gags. Like Boom Boom, it starts with some random gags before actually showing the main character, but this time it only goes on for about a minute and a half, and the gags are generally better. Beans is looking to ski in a race, but a big Pete rip-off breaks his skiis to try to discourage him. Beans finds replacements and joins the race anyway, and what follows is a fun race down a snow-covered mountain with some amusing gags and generally enjoyable antics. There’s nothing super stand-out about anything that happens, but it’s all done so competently and enjoyable that it’s hard to criticize. This is pretty much the only Jack King Beans cartoon I can truly recommend.
This is one of those celebrity showcase episodes that I generally dislike, but I actually enjoyed it more than I expected. Most of the celebrity scenes do fall flat, though, no longer meaning much of anything unless you’re a fan of old movies like I’m a fan of old cartoons. And the fat jokes with Oliver Hardy are really laid on thick, taking the cartoon down a whole star. Mickey and Goofy also pretty much just cameo in this one, and are given nothing to really do - Clarabelle, in a fun little flirting scene, is actually given more than them. But we do get some enjoyable stuff with the Big Bad Wolf, from Disney’s Three Little Pigs cartoons, and we get some really great stuff with Donald. It’s no wonder the duck rises to become Disney’s biggest star in the 40s - it’s an absolute joy to watch him. His scenes in the last third or so of the cartoon are the reason I rate this cartoon as high as I do. Overall, an interesting piece of history with some really obnoxious fat-people jokes but some really fun Donald Duck moments.
Another Jack King cartoon starring Beans, but this time Porky’s along for the ride too, in King’s first use of the character. Though the characterization of both of them falls pretty flat, overall it’s my favorite Jack King Beans cartoon so far. There’s some genuinely amusing and inventive gags, a fairly focused WWI-era war plot, and some decent animation. It takes almost three minutes for a recognizable character (Porky) to show up, but those first few minutes are fairly enjoyable anyway. There’s some light fat shaming of Porky in the middle of the cartoon, and possible ableism in the first part (I’m not totally sure what’s going on with the guy hitting himself in the face with a toy gun). It’s not a great cartoon, but it’s certainly not an awful one.
It's Terror Time Again
This is a fun one. It’s one of two classic cartoons featuring Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy and Donald all together in the same cartoon (not counting a cameo at the end of a Chip and Dale cartoon). It’s also the only classic cartoon to have those five characters and Clarabelle and Horace in it (though these two just cameo at the beginning).
Despite some pacing issues (Pluto’s segment in particular drags on a bit long with no interruption), it’s a delightful cartoon that gives each main cast member some time to shine (even Minnie, a little). And it ends with Mickey getting to save the day without damseling Minnie, which is nice (it’s Donald who must be rescued). Final note: Goofy feeds chewing tobacco to fish and then they spit it into a spitoon, and it’s really… gross.
This is an overall fun episode with lots of action for Sunni and Calla. There’s also some obnoxious casual sexism, with Sunni being expected because of her gender to be the one to learn how to make gummiberry juice from Grammi, even though she very clearly doesn’t want to. But still, she and Calla manage to save the day after Duke Igthorn kidnaps Grammi to try to force her to make gummiberry juice for him, so the plot has a lot of good stuff despite the shaky start. Sunni says something about it being “fun to be a slavedriver” at one point, though, which wow, writers, think that through better next time.
An unpromising combination of Jack King, Beans the Cat, and Ham and Ex winds up leading to the most entertaining Beans-without-Porky short yet. Though, unfortunately that’s not saying a lot. This time around Beans is going on a search for treasure, and Ham and Ex sneak along for the ride. They wind up in Iceland (which is… icy), at a haunted pirate ship. There’s some mildly fun skeleton shenanigans, and an enjoyable enough final chase after some pirates get de-thawed. Nothing super exciting, but overall a more solid cartoon than I’ve come to expect from the director/character combo.
Years before Disney would make a whole series about (much more attractive) gargoyles, Gummi Bears had an episode about one! This gargoyle is obnoxious and murderous, given as an anonymous gift to Calla’s dad King Gregor by Duke Igthorn. It’s just stone at first, but when night falls trouble arises. Calla and Sunni get a lot to do in this one, which is nice. A solid episode.
This is an interesting one. The cartoon starts with Pluto chasing after a cat and disrupting Mickey in the process. After being told off, Pluto goes to sleep and has a dream where he’s put on trial by cats for his crimes against them (which apparently involve chasing two of them to their deaths and giving another mental health issues). It’s a surreal cartoon, to tell the truth. A very interesting short to watch, but not exactly the most enjoyable. There’s a racist Uncle Tom bit during the trial, which drastically lessens the appeal of the cartoon.
A bird’s eating all the gummiberries, and each Gummi thinks they know the right way to handle the situation. Also none of them will listen to Cubbi, which means of course Cubbi is the right one. I hate it when plots revolve around half the cast refusing to listen to a friend. That said, this episode is fine.
Another Jack King Beans the Cat cartoon. This one’s mostly a vehicle for the characters Ham and Ex, who are just as uninteresting as they were in their debut. They spend the day with “Uncle Beans” at the fire station he apparently works at, and cause all manner of boring mischief. Beans is also, as you might guess, super boring The short ends with our ‘hero’ Beans gleefully spanking children. There’s really just… nothing to recommend about this cartoon.
You know how a lot of shows written by straight/cis people have that episode where it’s the men vs. the women? This is the Gummi Bears’ version of that. It sucks.
Another delightful ‘Mickey, Donald & Goofy’ cartoon. As would be assumed from the title, this time our trio are firefighters, trying to put out the flames engulfing a burning apartment building. There’s some really inventive uses of perspective and the fire they’re fighting against, and a cute “Three Little Pigs” music cue at one point. Clarabelle Cow also makes a nude appearance. A bit more action-packed and experimental than “Mickey’s Service Station”, this is a great short that’s getting us closer and closer to the perfection of 1937′s run of Mickey, Donald and Goofy cartoons.
Cubbi adopts a wolf cub after its mother is taken away. In the end he has to let it go live in the wild. I’ve seen this plot like five times in other shows and movies, and was over it on the second go. I can’t even pretend to care.
This cartoon is kind of big deal. It marks the return of Porky Pig, the Warner Bros directing debut of none other than Fred “Tex” Avery, and is animated by legends Bob Clampett and Charles “Chuck” Jones. It marks a bit of a turning point for WB cartoons, which had been almost entirely mediocre if not outright bad up until now, into something more sharply written and gag-heavy. The animation is really fluid and and enjoyable to watch, and the plot, about discovering gold and dealing with a robber, moves at a great pace and is entertainingly told.
That said, despite all of this praise, there are some major issues with this one. There is of course the fact that Beans is the actual main character, and he’s as boring as ever. There’s also some unfortunate but predictable fat-shaming jokes at Porky’s expense and a boring and sexist ‘woman as prize’ cliche. But most damning, there’s a heaping helping of heinous racism. There’s a pair of gross Chinese caricatures that feature prominently in the first half, and just when I didn’t think it could get worse the characters are covered in dust for a blackface joke. So, yeah, important, historic even, cartoon, but with a gigantic ugly side to it that unfortunately prevents me from being able to recommend it.
Sunni is growing resentful of her life at the same time that Calla is growing resentful of her own. Calla gets Cavin to show her peasant life while Sunni uses a magic hat that Zummi made her to take on Calla’s appearance and live the princess life that she’s been dreaming of. Of course they both run into aspects of these alternative lives that they dislike... and also Duke Igthorn. Calla finally finds out about the Gummis in this one, and by the end both her and Sunni have become friends! Given those two are my favorite characters in the show, I quite like this episode.
This time around it’s the debut (if you're watching chronologically) of Batman’s most iconic villain: The Joker. And what an episode it is!
Joker’s got a plan to rob the city blind. How does he do it? By filling the streets with laughing gas, so that no one can do anything but laugh as their wallets, purses, and other valuables are taken right off their person. Not to mention it’s easy to break into jewelry shops when the cops are incapacitated.
Batman, of course, comes to the rescue, but he’s actually defeated in the initial fight, where he has difficulty overcoming Joker’s mechanical cronie, Captain Clown. After narrowly escaping drowning, Batman goes another round with Joker’s henchmen before a climactic showdown with the clown himself in a waste processing plant.
The animated series version of The Joker has always been my favorite. This is, in great part, due to Mark Hamill’s amazing performance, though in this episode the Joker voice is still a bit underdeveloped. But it’s also because this version of the character blends the dangerous, sadistic depictions with the goofier, hard-to-take-seriously versions. Joker turns from being a goofy character to a terrifying one on a dime, and it’s that switch that makes him truly terrifying, unlike other, more constantly sadistic interpretations.
A great episode from start to finish, and a wonderful way to introduce this iconic show’s version of an iconic character.
This is one of the Mickey Mouse cartoons I used to watch a bunch as a kid, replaying it over and over again on a VHS tape. Mickey’s trying to rid his garden of bugs, but when Pluto accidentally runs into him, spraying him in the face with bug poison, he starts hallucinating that the bugs want their revenge. There’s a lot of really imaginative (and frankly, often horrifying) uses of the bugs, whether they’re eating fruits and veggies, walking around drunk on poison (I don’t know how that works either), or trying to kill Mickey and Pluto. Just a fun, imaginative cartoon.
