Posts Tagged ‘animation’

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Police Academy: The Animated Series, Volume One DVD Review: From Caddish to Kiddie

It never fails to amuse me how something so decidedly adult in nature can sometimes turn into a franchise aimed solely at children. In Japan, the epic Godzilla character was conceived as a serious science-fiction look at the horrors of America’s nuclear bombing of Hiroshima. A few years and several sequels down the line, Godzilla had somehow malformed into a heroic favorite with the kiddies. Several decades down the line, America itself was treated to similar-but-altogether different mutation. The popular Police Academy series started in 1984 with an R-rated comedy strictly for adults, complete with nudity, drug use, public acts of fellatio (always a plus in my book), and more. Four years later, in 1988, Ruby-Spears and Warner Bros. inexplicably turned the franchise into a weekday afternoon cartoon. Read the rest of this entry »

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DVD Review: The Heathcliff and Dingbat Show

Article first published as DVD Review: The Heathcliff and Dingbat Show on Blogcritics.

As a kid, I had an almost unhealthy affection for Jim Davis’ Garfield. In fact, I was so taken in by the lazy, fat, comic strip (and later, cartoon) character that I felt a certain amount of animosity towards what I considered to be a lame Garfield rip-off: something called Heathcliff. Naturally, I was mistaken about which character came first, though by the time I hit puberty, I had reached that point where I really didn’t care one way or another for either creation. Here I am years later — still just as immature — but with a decidedly open mind towards the fictional feline I had once cast aside as inferior. (more…)

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The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan: The Complete Series DVD Review: Wham-Bam, They’re in a Jam!

Ever since his very first moving picture appearance in the now-lost 1926 film The House Without a Key, Charlie Chan had only ever been portrayed by an actor of Chinese descent but once — and that was in the 1972 Hanna-Barbera cartoon, The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan. Veteran Hollywood actor Keye Luke — a character actor fondly remembered by many as Lee Chan, the Number One Son to Charlie Chan in several Fox and Monogram mysteries made between 1935 and 1948 — escalated up the ranks to portray Mr. Chan himself.

[Read the rest at Cinema Sentries.]

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DVD Review: Sealab 2020 – The Complete Series

Article first published as DVD Review: Sealab 2020 – The Complete Series on Blogcritics.

You know, one really has to wonder where our advanced society would be today without the diligent pioneering efforts of animators William Hanna and Joseph Barbara. Why, without shows like The Flintstones, we might not have foot-powered cars made out of wood and stone. Were it not for The Jetsons, we wouldn’t be flying jet-cars and being waited on by robotic maids. And, if Hanna-Barbara not have given us the lesser-known animated cult classic, Sealab 2020, there stands an excellent chance that manned undersea scientific compounds would still be a figment of some sci-fi writer’s imagination. (more…)

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DVD Review: American Dad! – Volume 7

Article first published as DVD Review: American Dad! – Volume 7 on Blogcritics.

While the history books may prove to be the ultimate judges as to what people truly thought about the political ideals of George W. Bush and his controversial policies, there has been at least one thing to come out of it all that brings a good dosage of laughter to Americans near and far. Seth MacFarlane’s animated program, American Dad!, drew its motivation from the guidelines the Bush Administration dispensed upon the world during the former president’s regime. Now, since we’ve got Bush’s procedures as seen through the eyes of Mr. MacFarlane, you can bet your bottom Big Oil dollar that the comparisons are not going to be flattering to many Conservatives out there. (more…)

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Inch High, Private Eye: The Complete Series DVD Review: Kick-Ass Hanna-Barbera Fun

Once again, it’s time for us to dive into another vintage Hanna-Barbera classic from the folks at Warner Brothers. While not as famously known as its brethren Scooby-Doo Where Are You? or The Flintstones, the ’70s cartoon Inch High, Private Eye has achieved its own following over the years. Lasting only one season, the NBC morning kiddie show originally ran from 1973 to 1974, and brought us the amusing exploits of a bumbling private detective known as Inch High. His name is an appropriate one, too: Inch is literally only one-inch in height.

[Read the rest at Cinema Sentries.]

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Tom and Jerry: Around the World DVD Review: A Bad Trip

In all the world of home media, there is perhaps nothing as dreaded as the proverbial “best of” compilation — especially when it comes to cartoons. Instead of just releasing television shows or theatrical shorts in their original, unedited chronological order, some distributors insist on tossing a group of items together onto a single disc and calling it good. The latest assemblage of animation to hit the shelves of video stores near and far is something called Tom and Jerry: Around the World, and brings us nearly three hours of hijinks from the classic cat and mouse pairing.

[Read the rest at Cinema Sentries.]

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DVD Review: The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest – Season 1, Volume 2

Article first published as DVD Review: The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest – Season 1, Volume 2 on Blogcritics.

In the early ’90s, Turner Broadcasting System — the brainchild of everybody’s favorite media mogul/humanitarian/sports nut, Ted Turner — purchased the classic animation studio of Hanna-Barbara. The acquisition not only enabled them to program almost every classic (as well as the not-so-classic) Hanna-Barbara franchise onto their newly-launched Cartoon Network, but also gave Turner’s own in-house animators to start producing their own takes on many of the timeless characters William Hanna and Joseph Barbara entertained households over the course of several decades. (more…)

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DVD Review: SilverHawks – Season One, Volume Two

Article first published as DVD Review: SilverHawks – Season One, Volume Two on Blogcritics.

In the latter half of 1989, the brains at Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc. — the very same folks who had produced and released several timeless Christmas classics such as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer — followed-up their highly successful ThunderCats franchise from several years before by unleashing the SilverHawks upon legions of devoted Saturday morning cartoon viewers across America. In the second part of 2008, Warner Brothers released the first half of the entire SilverHawks television series to DVD; a release which, despite being a barebones affair, succeeded in delighting the show’s now-grown fans.
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DVD Review: Rockin’ With Judy Jetson

Article first published as DVD Review: Rockin’ With Judy Jetson on Blogcritics.

For those of you who remembered it and/or are at least vaguely interested about it, Warner Brothers has, at long last, released all of the Hanna-Barbera Superstars 10 specials –which originally graced television airwaves from 1987 to 1988 — on DVD. While some of these feature-length made-for-TV movies had been released onto home video via retail releases, a number of them only found their way to disc via the Warner Archive Collection — including the cosmic musical, Rockin’ With Judy Jetson.
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