Well it seems we have a little bit of a streak going here were I pick obscure as hell or little known cartoons and well I hate to break a good thing when it's going. As luck would have it the franchise this show belongs to is actually on verge of coming back to back to life with a new movie due out in a couple and so I thought I thought i'd talk about an episode of the Bill & Ted animated show as such here is my review of the very first episode of "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures" called "One Sweet & Sour Chinese Adventure To Go" enjoy.
The plot of the episode is that Bill and Ted break a vass belonging to Bill's stepmom Missy and so the duo must travel back in time to ancient China to get a new one before she finds out. I will admit that the plot is just as wonderfully silly and over the top as you'd expect from a Bill & Ted story but at the same time the story is also pretty thin with it only really coming into play whenever the scene demands it and so I wouldn't blame anyone if they didn't like the plot to this episode but like I said it is still a fun story to see play out.
Reprising their roles from the films are Keanu Reeves as Ted "Theodore" Logan , Alex Winter as Bill S. Preston, Esq. and the late George Carlin as Rufus. For once i'm forced to end the cast list there because I can't tell you who else does any voices in this episode yes there are actors listed but it doesn't tell you who there playing and so it would be pointless for me to credit them since I can't tell which character they played.
In terms of what I thought about the acting tho the returning cast do a pretty good job voicing there characters but it's clear that there not voice actors and so they really can't deliver as good a performance as they could do in the live action films. As for the new cast the actress they got to play Missy was pretty good as was the actor who played Marco Polo who honestly did get a few laughs out of me but honestly that's really it since the new cast where just there apart from the two characters that I mentioned none of them really stood out for me.
Now even tho Hanna-Barbera Productions did produce the show's first season the actual animation for the first season and i'm guessing this episode was done by Fil-Cartoons. Honestly the animation wasn't as bad as it really could have been considering that this is a cartoon based of a movie and those typically don't have that good animation , here tho I felt that the animation was ta best passable which trust me for this type of show is really good thing.
Now I mentioned that Hanna-Barbera Productions produced the first season of the show and that's because for some odd reason for season two they switched production company with DIC Entertainment taking over production. Not only did DIC switch out animation studios with them going with both Big Star Enterprise and Spectrum Animation Studio respectively they also swapped out the entire main cast of the show Keanu Reeves , Alex Winter and George Carlin with there counterparts from the live action show of the same name.
Just to clear up any confusion about the title of this review there also a live action series based on Bill & Ted with the same name airing around the exact same time as the animated show was airing. Whoever freaking thought of having two shows based on the same brand and giving the same name needs to freaking fired because talk about confusing your audience they really should have given one of these shows a different name even if they just called the animated show Bill & Ted it would have worked since people wouldn't get confused about what show they want to watch or are talking about with there friends or family.
This show does have some very early CGI and luckily it only appears at least once in this episode that's if your not counting the intro to the show that is. The CGI was I assume provided by San Francisco Production Group altho there really is nothing to either back that up or shoot it down so take it with a huge mega grain of salt , I will say that the CGI even tho it's very early CGI is honestly pretty decent espically for the time in which this show was made and so I can't really say that the CGI in the episode is bad because honestly given the time that this episode and show was released it's as good as we could have ever hoped for.
Now I can't fond who wrote the theme song for this first season of the show but I have to say after seeing the intro to both this first season and the second season. I honestly prefer the first season song and intro just because it perfectly capture that rock and roll lifestyle that the two characters try and fail to create for themselves and it helps that the first season theme song is honestly really freaking catchy which is always a good thing if you ask me.
This episode aired on CBS on September 15th 1990 with it's first season lasting until December 22nd 1990. The show would see a second season except now as mentioned it would be produced by DIC Entertainment and would air on Fox Kids since Fox was airing the live action show as well with the second season running from September 14th 1991 until November 16th 1991 and as you can no doubt work by when the seasons ended the first season had alot more episodes then the second with season one having thirteen episodes and season two only having eight but still two seasons for a cartoon based of a live action movie isn't a bad run if you ask me anyways.
Now then since this is a comedy that does mean that we have to talk about the jokes that are in the episode. I honestly thought that the jokes were just OK at best which is honestly me being very freaking kind just because i've always been more of a Wayne's World fan then a Bill & Ted fan as such I feel loyal to Wayne and Garth but with that being said when there is a good joke in this episode it can be really funny.
Overall in all honesty this episode isn't that bad but that's also the issue since it's not really that good either. This episode falls into a weird middle ground since for every good thing I found about the episode I found two or three more bad things about it but I will give the series this it did help keep the Bill & Ted brand name going and yes the new movie Bill & Ted Face The Music will be out both on demand and in theaters on August 28th of this year and this episode gets a 5 out of 10 from this animation fan.
All images used in this review were gathered from either the official Bill & Ted fandom wiki page or Google Images. For once I can't really recommend either website since both had images that are high quality and low quality and so it's hard for me to say which one you should use for images from this franchise as such i'll just say if you want any Bill & Ted images be it from this show or the live action show or the movies use whatever website you want.