Wrestling fans very rarely do I get to talk about both cartoons and wrestling and well I found a cartoon that not alot of not only wrestling fans but also cartoon lovers don't know about and i've seen it's debit episode. Let me tell you something brother this debut episode is really freaking something and incase your wondering why there are two episode names in the review well i'll get into that later but for now here is my review of the first episode of "Hulk Hogan's Rock 'N' Wrestling" called "The Junkyard 500" and "Junkenstein" enjoy.
The plot for the first half of the episode which is called "The Junkyard 500" is that Junkyard Dog and Rowdy Roddy Piper decide to have a race to see whose car will get put into a movie where as the plot of the second half of the episode which is called "Junkenstein" involves Junkyard Dog and André the Giant building a Frankenstein type creature that then decides to destroy the town the wrestlers live in. Oh boy where do I begin first of the plot to the second half of the episode is weird and really doesn't make sense even for a cartoon and the plot to the first half of the episode is so rushed that it's over before it even begins both of which are very bad things.
Starring in these episodes and the rest of the series are Brad Garrett as Hulk Hogan and Charlie Adler as Rowdy Roddy Piper. Also starring in these episodes and the rest of the series is Lewis Arquette as Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka , Uncle Phil as Junkyard Dog , Jodi Carlisle as Wendi Richter and The Fabulous Moolah , George DiCenzo as Captain Lou Albano , Ron Feinberg as André the Giant , Pat Fraley as Hillbilly Jim , Ron Gans as Nikolai Volkoff , Ernest Harada as Mr. Fuji , Aron Kincaid as The Iron Sheik , Chuck Licini as Big John Studd , Joey Pento as Tito Santana and Neil Ross as Mean Gene Okerlund.
Oh boy how do I describe the acting in these two episodes let me put it like this the acting in these two episodes makes the acting in Captain Marvel look OSCAR worthy by comparison. That's how bad the acting in these two episodes are don't get me wrong the actors are clearly doing there best but there not really given anything to work with in terms of character or personality but I will admit that Brad Garrett does a really good Hulk Hogan impression so there's that at least.
Doing the animation for these segments and the rest of the series is i'm assuming DIC Entertainment since there's no listed animation company. I will give the animation this for being a cheap cash in there is a lot more effort thrown into the animation then what is really needed but with that being said yikes is the animation in these two episodes pretty freaking bad even for an eighties cartoon the animation is really bad.
The worst thing that I can say about the animation is that it looks cheap nothing about the animation in these episodes looks expensive it looks like it was thrown together over a weekend. Which should never be the case I don't know if the WWE then WWF gave DIC any money for the project or if the series was solely funded by DIC but there needed to be more money thrown at the series so that the quality of the animation could have been better.
I sad that I would explain why there are two episode names in the title of this review and well i'm a man of my word. Each episode would either have one twenty two minuet episode or two eleven minuets segments and in the case of this episode there are two eleven minuet segments why they couldn't make up there mind of a format for the show is truly beyond me since it would make the show feel more consistent but what do I know I just watch cartoons and wrestling all of the freaking time it's not like I was the target auidence for this show or anything.
Speaking of the wrestling there is no wrestling at all in these two episodes which to me is weird since it's a show based on a wrestler and has wrestlers as it's main cast. As such you'd think that the makers of the show would think of a way to include actual wrestling somewhere in these segments but nope they don't in fact it feels like there going out of there way to ignore the wrestling aspect of it's characters but it could also be because of either censors or parents groups and not the fault of the show makers or those involved with making the show.
Each segment both started and ended with a live action segment featuring the actual real life wrestlers from the show. Which makes me question even more why they just didn't cast them to voice there characters since they were already involved with the show with these segments so why not have them join the show as the voice cast as much as I love the voice actors that they got for this show it makes no sense in having them when you already have there real life counterparts filming live action segments for the show.
For those that don't know this show ran for two seasons starting on September 14th 1985 and ending on October 18th 1986 and was broadcast on CBS. As far as I can tell the only way that you can watch the show right now is on Youtube since as far as I know it's been scrubbed completely from the WWE Network and there are no DVD's released however if you still have a VHS player for some reason you can still find VHS tapes of the show on Ebay UK and I assume the American Ebay.
Now then since there is alot more comedy in these episodes then there is actual wrestling that means I have to talk about the jokes in these episodes. Which are just the typical jokes you'd find in a Saturday morning cartoon in that there not really that funny but at the same time I can see kids in the eighties laughing at some of the stuff that happens in these episodes but all comedy is subjective and so just because I didn't find the episodes funny doesn't mean that you guys won't you guys might find these episodes to be funny as hell.
Overall I can't say that this is a bad show because it wasn't really made for me nor was it made for my generation. It was made for the wrestling fan that grew up in the eighties and who grew up watching Hulk Hogan and these wrestlers but that doesn't make it a good show and it doesn't make these segments any good either in fact I think that these segments are fairly bad as such this episode gets a 4 out of 10 from me.
All images used in this review were gathered from the Pro Wrestling fandom wiki page , Wikipedia and Google Images. Honestly I wasn't expecting to find any high definition images for this episode and yeah I got exactly what I expected as such I can't really recommend any of the websites but if I was pushed i'd say use the Pro Wrestling fandom wiki page just because they have alot of images from the episodes but that's just me tho.
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