The Quest's come under attack by a crazy Nazi stranded on top of a two-mile high plateau. He ends up stealing their plane and blowing himself up with his own grenades. I'm not sure how the Quest crew got down from the plateau without their plane, but oh well, it's just a cartoon.
French-Canadian loggers are smuggling gold but their operation is thwarted by Johnny, Hadji, and Native-American friend White Feather and his large wolf.
This is a pretty lame episode. The loggers disguise themselves as werewolves to frighten off others in the woods. But unfortunately for them, the Quest crew does not scare easily. It's really a slow story with little of Race or Dr. Quest. Johnny and Hadji don't bring much to the table on their own and Bandit battles a skunk. Gee, can you guess what happens?
It's another encounter with Dr. Zin. He's got another hair-brained scheme that's making the locals a little nervous, so they call in the Quests to help. Seems Zin is developing a weapon, a volcano, that he wants to sell to the highest bidder. I'm not sure how the volcano gets moved to whoever pays for it, but he's a great criminal mind so we just have to take this at face value.
In the meantime, Zin has also developed some neat "flying platforms" that his henchmen use to defend his volcano project. The platforms out maneuver cars and motorcycles and can out run them, too. I'm not certain why Zin doesn't just market those and make his cash. Zin makes the fatal error of not just putting a bullet in Race and Dr. Quest and they escape and put an end to his science project. Dr. Zin will never win if he keeps that up. Race is too much of a bad ass.
The Quest team is held hostage by an insane scientist named Ashida who has some nasty, oversized dragons and a large, world-champion wrestler at his evil disposal. It takes a real man's man in the form of frickin' Race Bannon to earn back the freedom of Dr. Quest and the boys. Of course, Race does so with all of his usual expertise and cool-headed tenacity. And as an added bonus, no mercy is shown to Ashida, who dies in the jaws of the very dragons he created.
Race, Jonny and Hadji crash land their plane in an area of Brazil populated by a savage tribe of pygmies. The boys manage to find a rocky cliff where Race is resourceful as ever, using rocks, logs and the belt that keeps up his pants to fight off the determined pygmies.
There are a lot of drawings during the battle with the pygmies that are used repeatedly. In fact, Race appears to push the same bolder off a cliff about three times. An arrow also sticks into a log in the exact same location at the exact moment three times (or more). Whether these shortcuts were due to rushed production or a lack of a budget is a mystery.
Hapless villains and a thick-headed story about voodoo spells and an underwater submarine base make this a Jonny Quest episode that's easily forgotten. There are also some very poorly animated shots of Jonny and Hadji. Some of their facial expressions are drawn so poorly its laughable and there is a stunning difference between the best and worst still shots.
A story about a crazy old man and his dinosaur. This one is a little weird. The Quest crew has a number of close calls, including a crocodile attack which is quelled with a barrage of gunfire delivered by Race, Dr. Quest and Jonny and Hadji. Boys with guns in cartoons. Those days are gone.
Anyway, Race and Dr. Quest go after Turu the Terrible and bring about a bazooka-influenced demise to the creature. The old man who "trained" Turu bites the dust, too. But, the Quests manage to come out on top by freeing some slaves and discovering a new metal for the space program. It's all in a day's work.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that Race and Dr. Quest use the jet-packs to fly up the mountain to Turu's lair. Love the jet-packs.
The Quest crew have to make an emergency landing in the Andes mountains. The very convenient landing strip they utilize belongs to an old World War I flying ace who happens to have some old planes around and tricks Race into a dogfight.
I rate this as highly as I do because the animation is just incredible. The artwork is right out of a comic book and really demonstrates what could separate "Jonny Quest" from other Saturday Morning cartoon fare. Well Hell, actually what separated it from 95% of all other television shows of its time. It's really remarkable and is the polar opposite of the "Double Danger" episode that preceded it.
Bandit is the hero in this episode so it's predictably juvenile. The ease with which Bandit slides into scuba gear by himself while swimming is remarkable, so is the fact that he hops a ride on a dolphin that just happens to know where a specific Coast Guard boat is. Then Bandit barks enough to convince the boat's captain that the Quest's are in trouble. Ugh. This one's really bad.
There are more convenient occurrences and character entrances than can be counted in "Double Danger". Race Bannon's double, created by Doctor Zin, has captured Race and takes his place with Benton Quest and the boys. But Johnny and Hadji notice that Race is acting strangely. Then an old flame of Race's named Jane drops in out of nowhere to save the real Race.
For an evil Genius, Doctor Zin sure is poor at hiring his henchmen. Jane, Race and the boys escape with little effort. Hadji uses his magic to make the henchman's bullets disappear from his gun. Johnny somehow gets the henchman's knife, which must have been difficult because the henchman was wearing what looked to be only an adult diaper for the entire run time.
The animation is very sloppy in places, primarily in some of the facial expressions and lack of details. I had read that some of the artwork was rushed and outsourced for this episode. If so, it shows. There just a lack of detail in story and artwork. It's not typical of the show.
Action, baby! A UFO lands near the Dr. Quest's military installment bringing about a showdown with an indestructible robot spy. The robot emerges from the UFO and looks like a giant long-legged spider with one large red eye and attacks with antenna-mounted suction cups. Can you say awesome?!?
This episode blew my mind as a kid and I still love the way the robot sneaks around the base. Once its discovered, a gun-firing, tank-blasting battle ensues. I think a nice movie could be made from this episode if someone gave it a retro-50s sci-fi flavor. Then again, I don't want to see any live action Johnny Quest remakes.
Frickin' Race Bannon just kicks ass in "Treasure of the Temple". The Quest crew gets rifles and poison darts shot at them, get attacked by vampire bats, someone torches their tents in the middle of the night, etc. After a while, Race starts booby-trapping the bad guy and his flunkies. He pretty much toys with them...poor bastards. Even Dr. Quest slaps a little physical science on their ass. Anyway, this is loaded with cartoon action and violence.
It's the Hadji origin story and it’s a fast paced, gun firing adventure. Hadji saves Dr. Quest's life and the good doctor repays him by adopting him. Rifles, nerve gas…this was a Saturday morning cartoon!?!
This isn't the most action packed Quest story, but it is the first appearance of Dr. Zin. He's not exactly menacing in this episode; the closest he gets to Dr. Quest and the crew is a video screen. Zin really should work on his hiring because his thugs are pretty inept here. I do like the scene where Dr. Quest tests the "fake" gold by putting a drop of acid on it. The entire bar of fake gold erupts in a cloud of smoke and when the smoke clears, the entire bar of gold is totally gone. That is either the strongest acid known to man or that gold bar must have the consistency of butter.
This one is for Dr. Quest and Race Bannon fans. There is very little of Jonny, Hadji, or Bandit. Quest and Race go stealth to take out a missile base. It's not too action packed, but it's fun to see the two men put down the evil regime.
I like "Pursuit of the Po-Ho" but it's kind of a sloppily put together cartoon. The normal Quest gadgetry is sorely missing and this is a lot talkier than the previous three episodes. I can't seem to let go of the fact that Dr. Hartman's wife calls Quest after her husband has been captured, either. Quest and crew fly there immediately but wasn't there anyone closer to help with a rescue? I do like that Race paints himself purple to become a Po-Ho god.
There are so many things to enjoy in "The Curse of Anubis". For starters, the animation of the mummy is so well done. Honestly, it's comic book quality, this isn't cheesy Saturday morning animation. There are a couple of spooky shots of the mummy in the desert that are quite menacing. There's another chase, in fact it's a lengthy one with Jonny and Hadji on a mini-bike. This one also features the voice talent of Vic "Outer Limits" Perrin. Everything is awesome.
This is comic book quality animation from a time when not everyone watching Saturday morning cartoons needed to be coddled in bubble wrap. There's high adventure here. Monsters, evil scientists, gun-toting thugs...the works. Jonny and Hadji are in constant danger. Race Bannon is a total badass and Dr. Quest is the smartest scientist on the planet. Gadgets, lasers, hovercraft. It's all here.
This second episode of Liquid Television is actually more interesting than the first. The little segments mixed with the reoccurring features are stronger than the initial episode.
"Winter Steele" makes its debut. I really liked this introduction. The rugged dialog of the puppets, about a female biker in pursuit of her lifelong nemesis/lover "Crow", makes for a funny installment.
"Stick Figure Theatre" features Alfred Hitchcock showing us the shower scene from "Psycho".
There is a 20-second short called "Rocky" about a fighter who gets the electric chair. It's frantic and is drawn with incredible detail.
A mouse tunes in "A Wonderful World" on a stereo, which morphs everything into a strange kind of tribune to old Harman and Ising Merrie Melodies cartoons. Whoever made this one was high on something.
Plus, there's more "Aeon Flux" to ponder. The aftermath of her attack has left bodies piled up and blood spilled throughout some sort of military compound where the soldiers appear to be infected with something. Oh, and there's a bug that crawls out of the lake of blood and onto the hand of a sinister looking guy. So, who knows if any of this amounts to anything. I can't remember.
I've finally found a movie that's even preachier than "Silent Running". There is nothing subtle about this 1970 disaster flick. If you want to watch a movie that offers seething hatred for humans, this is the one for you. There is nothing...NOTHING, redeeming about anyone in this film. It's not only exceeding dark and depressing, it's as heavy-handed as a lead pipe.
I could forgive it's hopeless, bleak take on EVERYTHING if it were even close to being a good film, or if it reveled in its B-movie trappings. But it doesn't and that makes it nothing more than a sermon about the evils of mankind.
What to jot down about such a silly movie? Whelp...I like big monsters so this checks that box. The Megalodon was fierce and threatening. Not to "Jaws" levels or anything, but it was a menace. The CGI was better than I thought it was going to be. I knew it wouldn't be at "Sharknado" lows, but it was a pleasant surprise.
Rainn Wilson was really good. His character Morris was all over the place emotionally. Jason Statham was, well...Jason Statham, square-jaw and all. But he played an ultimately charming and heroic lead. He has some real chemistry with Bingbing Li, who, as unacceptable as it might be to say in this day and age, was beautiful and smart. In fact, all of the female characters were terrific. Ruby Rose (Jaxx) and Jessica McNamee (Lori) were portrayed as strong leaders also, which was cool. Both genders pitched in equally for those who feel it necessary to always measure that kind of thing. It was amazing to watch how easily characters shook off the deaths of their friends and family. But people paid to see the shark, so no time to dwell on that stuff.
If you like your human carnage without much thought, this is for you. People die but at least the dog survives.
This is just a remake of "Ice" from Season One. New silicone-based life form infects victims with "Thing"-like spores.
Secondary characters in this episode: None
This is pretty boring. The Alzheimer's and dementia stricken old folks are good actors and you feel for them. But the mix of an experimental drug, and mushroom-growing care attendant id a bit too much. I guess the old man that takes too many of the mushroom-laced pills is the cause of the spirits being conjured.
Secondary characters in this episode: None
Charlie is discovered as shape-shifter, Olivia kills him and recalls details from meeting with Bell about "First Wave". Bell tells of future battle between universes.
Operation Tin Man turned Iraq War vets into human bombs. Olivia recovers from injuries with help of Sam Weiss. Are Observers here to take over universe/dimension?
Olivia returns from alter-world by flying out of SUV an hour after accident. Shape-shifter kills and becomes Charlie. Shape-shifter uses tool that stabs into upper palette. Nasty!
Spontaneous Combustion plot dull. Olivia sees parallel universe. Walter leaves with Observer. Nina held at gunpoint. Nina and Broyles meet about Observer sightings. Harris is killed. Why was he even on the show?
Scientist's wife becomes vampire-like, drinks spinal fluid. Scientist tells Olivia that William Bell funds ZFT.
Gross effect of exposed neck-spine area after attack.
William Bell, not Walter, experimented on young Olivia. Olivia dreams she is killing people but it's actually fellow Cortexiphan treated Nick Lane whose doing it.
This is a true Monster-of-the-Week episode. Animal Rights punks accidentally free a hybrid life form. Interesting looking beast. Walter cures an infected Charlie
