Phineas And Ferb The Movie: Candace Against The Universe Review

 

Disney fans the company has been on a role as of late with the company releasing a new film over the past few weeks. Even this week then released two movies on the exact same day that's how much they are killing it when it comes to releasing movies and well since I just reviewed one of the movies that they released it only makes sense that I now take a look at the other film they released today and so here is my review of "Phineas And Ferb The Movie: Candace Against The Universe" and so enjoy the review everyone.

The plot of the movie is Candace and Vanessa get kidnapped by aliens and so it's up Phineas And Ferb and the gang as well as Dr. Doofenshmirtz to get them back before it's to late. Yeah the plot of this movie is just so much fun and is exactly what you think of when you hear the name of the movie and just as fun  which for a Phineas And Ferb movie sequel is something that you honestly want from the story.

Starring in the film is Vincent Martella as Phineas , Ashley Tisdale as Candace and David Errigo Jr. as Ferb. Also starring the film is co-creator and co-writer , Dan Povenmire as Dr. Doofenshmirtz , Alyson Stoner as Isabella , Maulik Pancholy as Baljeet , Bobby Gaylor as Buford , Dee Bradley Baker as Perry and Mama , Olivia Olson as Vanessa , Ali Wong as Super Super Big Doctor , Wayne Brady as Stapler-Fist , Thomas Middleditch as Garnoz , Diedrich Bader as Borthos , Thomas Sanders as Throat-Lobster , Caroline Rhea as Mom , Richard O'Brien as Dad , Mitchel Musso as Jeremy , Kelly Hu as Stacy , Tyler Mann as Carl and co-creator and co-writer Jeff "Swampy" Marsh as Major Monogram. 

As for what I thought about the acting in the film it was honestly as good as I was expecting it to be which is solely due to the fact that the acting in Phineas And Ferb was always really good. As such it only makes sense that the acting in this movie be good as well and while I will miss the original voice actor for Ferb his replacement does a damn good job in my opinion and I wouldn't mind if he took over voicing the character in future appearances.

Doing the animation for the film is Snipple Animation , Yearim Productions and Synergy don't worry if you haven't heard of any of these studios because I haven't either. Either way the animation is where I have my first issue with the film because while it does indeed look good it also looks like something that you'd see in an episode of the show and not like something that you'd want to see in a movie.

Just for comparison the scene just after the title appears in the previous movie you can tell right away that there's been a visual upgrade. Now if you take a look at the opening scene from this movie it looks like something that you'd see in the show it looks like there's been no visual upgrade at all which is a shame because when the animation wants to look like something you'd see in a movie it really goes all out.

I was a fan of Phineas And Ferb when the show was on the air and while I didn't watch every single episode and every single special I watched enough to get the in jokes and long running jokes. As such like many people i'm sure when I saw the characters again I felt like I was seeing old friends which is perhaps the best feeling that I could ever have when watching a movie and I say it was like that because it was like I was catching up with an old friend that hadn't seen in years.

I will admit that I was kind of disappointed that they didn't have the characters from Milo Murphy's Law appear in this movie since the two shows do take place in the same universe and so it would have made sense for those characters to appear. However at the same time this is more of a Phineas And Ferb reunion and so you really want to have as much of those characters in the movie then you do characters from another show.

I'm not going to give anything away in this review but there was a shot in this film which reminded me so much of the 1981 Canadian American animated film Heavy Metal. I'm not going to say what the shot is but I will say that it appears near the end of the movie , I honestly wasn't expecting to be reminded of a very adult animated movie in a kids film but here we are this movie found away to exactly that and I loved it.

Just like with the previous movie there are alot of badas* moments but I honestly preferred the ones in the previous just because they were so cool. That's not to say that the moments in this film aren't badas* because they are it's just I prefer the ones in the previous movie then the ones in this one , nothing is going to top all of the previous gadgets and inventions being brought back for one huge knock down drag out brawl.

Now then boys and girls since this is a comedy that does mean I have to talk about the jokes that are in the movie. Which I honestly feel were really funny there are alot of really solid jokes in this movie all of which made me laugh alot there's even a really funny call back to a character on the show i'm not going to say what it is but that was my favourite joke in this movie just because it caught me so of guard and it was honestly a really funny and well written joke.

Overall yeah this is a fun movie and out of the two movies that Disney released this week this is easily the better of the two. However with that being said I honestly feel that the previous movie is the better of the two simply because that film ends storylines set up in the show where as in this movie that doesn't happen which yeah I guess makes sense but it also means that's no real reason for die hard fans to see this movie outside of seeing these characters again as such this movie gets a solid 7.5 out of 10 from me.

All images used in this review were taken from either Google Images or the official Phineas And Ferb fandom wiki page. Since I got all the images featuring Phineas and Ferb from the official Phineas and Ferb fandom wiki page I have no choice then to recommend that site for high definition images from either this movie , the previous movie or anything from this franchise but feel free to use whatever website you guys want. 

  

 

 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987 Animated Series "April Fool" Review

 

Turtles like i'm sure alot of you I grew up watching the the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon series. As such I thought that it would be interesting to take a look back at one of the shows episodes mostly because over the years the show has become known more for it's errors and I wanted to see if I could spot any in this episode as such here is my review of the episode "April Fool" which is from season 3 and if episode 11 of the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated show and so enjoy the review.

The plot of the episode is April is going to a posh party and so Irma gets her dressed up as a princess meanwhile Shredder tries to get his hand on some valuable science stuff and mistakes April for a real princess and so it's up to the turtles to stop him before it's to late. Plot wise as to be expected from this show the story was pretty thin but to me that's part of this show charm since it then allows for the characters to interact with each in a more natural way but at the same time I would have liked it if the story was better.

Starring in the episode is Cam Clarke as Leonardo and Rocksteady , Barry Gordon as Donatello and Bebop , Townsend Coleman as Michelangelo and Rob Paulsen as Raphael and Second Malacurian Guard. Also starring in the episode is Peter Renaday as Splinter and First Malacurian Guard , Renae Jacobs as April O'Neil and Princess Mallory , Jennifer Darling as Irma , Uncle Phil as Shredder and Pat Fraley as Krang and Emperor Aleister.

I will fully admit I had no idea what to expect from this episode acting wise as such I found the acting to be at best OK. Which really does pain me to say since like I said I grew up with this show but I have to be fair and that does mean finding bad things in things that I love and one of those things is the acting in the episode which yes for the time isn't bad but when you compare these performers to other actors who have played these roles in animated form then these actors come of looking bad which is a shame because these guys had to build up all the characters personalities from the ground up.

Now then since this show had alot of different animation studios working on it for each season and I cannot find who did the animation for season three so i'm just not gonna look further into it. As for what I thought about the animation it was honestly really good at least for the time that the show was being made and given that alot of the shows made around this time had fairly average to bad animation to see a show where the animation was actually good is a good thing.

There is one scene in this episode which is really freaking trippy and that's the scene where the turtles enter the party threw the window. Since the party there going to is a costume we see costumes such as Superman and Batman which is fine but then we see someone came dressed as one of the Ninja Turtles which is just so freaking weird to see and it makes you wonder why the turtles tried to break into the party when they could have just walked in through the front door.

There is no way in hell I could talk about any episode from this show and not talk about the fact that in several countries around the world including my home country the UK this show isn't known as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles but is instead known as Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles. The reasoning behind this has something to do with the word Ninja apparently people thought that an action show with the word Ninja in the title would cause kids to do some Ninja stuff which is just stupid as all hell and it didn't end with the show either since the first movie over here in the UK was called Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles as well.

I will say that this episode is pretty predictable I straight up called one of the plot points in the episode which is never a good thing. I say that because if you can very easily say what that plot point is then it makes the episode predictable and boring to watch which should never be the case you should always never see the plot point coming as it keeps things interesting and thus makes the episode alot more fun to watch.

As the title would suggest this is an April centric episode and for once we actually see her out of her banana outfit. Which yeah is a good thing because my god does April look hot as a princess but even tho it's an April centric episode we don't really get to find out that much about the character which is a shame but given it's about Ninja Turtles and not about her I guess it makes sense but at the same time there's no need to put her name in the title if the episode isn't going to be that much about her but the title did make for a nice pun.

Speaking of the comedy since this version of the turtles leaned more on the comedy it makes sense that I talk about the comedy in this episode. Which I really fell is the episodes weakest aspect since alot of the jokes were made at April's expense which just made the turtles and Splinter seem like d**ks and they just weren't funny but Michelangelo being able to sniff out pizza is something that is both funny and is actually in character.

Now then boys and girls this is also an action show and so that means that we have to talk about the action that's in this episode. Which I honestly feel is the episodes strongest point since the action is really fun to see and is in my opinion when the animation truly comes alive which makes sense since it is an action show and so that's where you want your best animation to go and it helps that they give the turtles some really cool action moments.

Overall yeah this was a pretty bad episode but the issues that I had with the episode could also be given to every episode of this show' Like I said several times there are some good things in this episode there's just not as many when you stack them up against the bad things which is a shame because when this episode wants to be fun it can be a fun episode as such this episode gets a 7.5 out of 10 from me and all the images that I used in this review were gathered from either Google Images or the official Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fandom wiki page

  

Beware The Batman "Secrets" Review

 

DC fans there are alot of shows out that feature Batman both animated and live action and there's going to be a lot more in the future. However there's one show that people seem to forget and honestly that's a good thing since this is so far the only animated show where they used CGI animation which is something I will get into later on in the review and so here is my review of the second episode of Beware The Batman called "Secrets" enjoy.

The plot of the episode is Batman has to find out who the new villain called Magpie as well as work out what her evil plan is and stop her before it's to late all the while Bruce Wayne has to get used to his new bodyguard / driver and a secret that Alfred has kept from him which changes nothing but we need a title. In all honesty the plot of this movie is really good and is a key example of what a Batman show can be like if it's well written but at the same time the plot felt like it was at times at least very fast paced.

Starring in the episode is Anthony Ruivivar as Bruce Wayne / Batman and Sumalee Montano as Tatsu Yamashiro. Also starring in the episode is J.B. Blanc as Alfred Pennyworth, Batcomputer and Lunkhead , Grey DeLisle as Margaret Sorrow / Magpie , Ian James Corlett as Joe Braxton and Police Officer , Kurtwood Smith as Lt. James Gordon , Tara Strong as Barbara Gordon and Cree Summer as Bethanie Ravencroft.

In all honesty the acting in the episode isn't that bad and alot of the voice actors do a solid job in the episode. The main issue I have is that I can't buy Anthony Ruivivar as either Bruce Wayne or Batman to me he sounds like someone who is trying to be Batman and not helping things is the fact that he does little disguise his voice when he's Batman which is a key thing for the character to do since it helps sell that Bruce Wayne and Batman are two different people.

Doing the animation for this episode and i'm assuming the whole series is Xentrix Studios and Oktobor Animation. I'm going to be freaking blunt here the animation in this episode looks cheap as hell and because of that it looks bad which is never a good thing even more so for a character who had a mega hit animated show in the nineties. You can tell that this was done cheap because there's very little to know characters walking on the street when ever there's an action sequence it's usually one on and and the episode is mostly set at night.

I say that these are ways to tell if it's done cheaply because the fewer characters you have walking on a street means you have fewer characters to animate , if an episode is set in night then it means that you don't have to light it that much and for the action just refer back to what I said about the characters walking because it applies here as well. Gotham City is meant to be the busy place and yet it looks freaking empty and so there's no reason for Batman to be around anymore because it looks like there's no people to save and thus no crime to stop.

To me this show looks alot like the 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles TV series (which as you can tell by the poster is also called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) which is not a good thing. It's not a good thing because all it did was remind me that I could be watching a much better show and know where is this more apparent then in the design of Batman because just like what they did with the turtles during the action scenes they gave Batman no eyes which I guess works since it would be hard to explain why Batman has the same eyes as Bruce Wayne but at the same time all it did was remind me of a much better show.

It's honestly not that hard to see why this show was a failure because it has a lot of bad things just in this episode alone. Since this episode can be boring as hell which then causes you to question alot of the issues with the episode and possibly find more and so when you can't even make one episode of the show entertaining then I have to question how boring the other episodes of the show are or even how boring the series as a whole is.

I have to seriously wonder who this show is of because given that it's animation and that it aired on Cartoon Network for most of it's run one would assume that it's for kids but then there's villains like Magpie who as you can see by the above picture is wearing something that isn't exactly kids animated show friendly. She's wearing something that is the opposite of kid friendly hell i'm surprised that they got this episode past the censors with that outfit.

This actually had the shortest run of any Batman TV show lasting only one season with twenty six episodes. To say that this show is bad would be a huge understatement since Cartoon Network who will air hours upon hours of Teen Titans Go removed this show after its eleventh episode with the remaining episodes airing on Adult Swim which is where the show finished it's run with the final episode airing on September 28th 2014 and the show started July 13th 2013 with it's hiatus announced on October 23rd 2013.

Now even tho the above picture doesn't tell you this but this is an action show and there is action in this episode which means we have to talk about the action in the episode.There really isn't that much action in this episode at all most likely because this show was so obviously made cheaply that they just couldn't animate action scenes but what little action there is in the episode is at best passable which for a Batman show isn't good enough.

Overall this is a decent episode but given that the show it's from is considered a failure I have to assume that the over episodes aren't that good. I want it known that I have seen the first episode and I don't think very highly of it so this is more of an educated guess then anything but either way it's not a goof thing at all one episode being bad is OK but two your really pushing it as such this episode gets 3.5 out of 10 from me.

All images used in this review were gathered from either the official Beware The Batman fandom wiki page , the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fandom wiki page and the official Batman fandom wiki page. I really cannot recommend either website for images from either this show or this episode mostly because there really aren't any and the one's that they do have are the same quality on both websites and I checked there's very little images from this episode up on Google Images but if you like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles I can highly recommend there fandom wiki page for images since alot of those are very high quality.

  

Guardians of The Galaxy: The Animated Series "Road To Knowhere" And "Knowhere To Run" Review

 

Marvel fans the company has put out alot of animated content over the years but ever since Disney bought them they've seen to be putting more and more animated shows out.  Some are pretty good and some are flat out bad but they all have one thing in common there all released a year or two after a live action movie a great example of that is Guardians Of The Galaxy where the movie debuted in 2014 and the show debuted in 2015 and so here is my review of the first to episodes of Guardians Of The Galaxy: The Animated Series called "Road To Knowhere" and "Knowhere To Run" respectively so enjoy everyone.

The plot of the episodes is the Guardians discover an object that only Peter can open and have to hide the device from Thanos. That's most likely the vaguest plot summery i've ever given but it's also the only one that I could give since these two episodes are really lacking in terms of story with there being very little actually going on as such I don't really see why this had to be a two part episode this story could have very easily have been told in just one episode.

Starring in the episodes are Will Friedle as Peter Quill / Star-Lord , Vanessa Marshall as Gamora and David Sobolov as Drax. Also starring in these episodes are Kevin Michael Richardson as Groot and The Broker , Trevor Devall as Rocket Raccoon , Dave Fennoy as Korath , The great James Arnold Taylor as Yondu and Cosmo and Isaac C. Singleton Jr. and the mad titan himself Thanos. For once I don't have to get a cast list for both episodes because every character who appears in the first episode appears in the second.

As for what I thought about the acting in these two episodes it's honestly not that bad but it's also not that good either. The main issue that I have with the acting is that barring a few performers the actors don't really sound right for there characters take for example the actor playing Korath the voice he uses for that character doesn't fit the character and it's the same with Rocket and that to me is very distracting but tho in the case Rocket the performer actually does a solid job even with the voice that doesn't fit the character.

                                                                            

Doing the animation for these episodes and the rest of the series is Studio Mir who people will know for there work on The Legend Of Korra. I honestly feel that the animation in these episodes is one of the best animation seen from the current Disney Marvel animated shows which i'm not quite sure if that's a good thing or not since the animation here does look fairly average at times espically during the scenes where the characters are standing still but when it comes to action the animation in my opinion is really good.

As you can no doubt work out by the poster but these episodes and the show uses designs based on the 2014 film Guardians Of The Galaxy. Which I guess makes sense since that movie was awesome but at the same time it stops the show from having an identity all it's own since it's reminds people that they could be watching something better hell the first song that they play in the episode is Hooked On A Feeling which is now more well known for being in Guardians Of The Galaxy then being a song released decades before the film was even made.

Now before you all say anything yes I know that alot of the images i'm using aren't from these episodes but in my defense none of the fandom pages have alot of images for this episode and there's not that many HD images on Google so i'm doing the best that I can. That being said I liked the fact that we got to see a bit more of Knowhere in these episodes which I liked because the idea of Knowhere is such a cool one and the first movie didn't give us alot of time on Knowhere and so to it come back and play a big role in these episodes was a good thing in my opinion.

Unlike the first movie these episodes actually give Cosmo something to do which is great because after re-watching these episodes I like this character. To me what makes the character of Cosmo so likeable aside from the fact that he's a cute doggie who is most certainly a good boy is the fact that you can have him team up with any character in this show and the interactions that they could have would be different each time and that makes him fun to watch as well as a fun character.

One of the things that I didn't like about these episodes is that even thor Thanos is the main villain for both episodes he doesn't really play that big of a role in the plot. Which is a shame because as the movies show us he can be a cool villain and so it's a shame to see him wasted in these two episodes hell when it comes to these first two episodes we don't even see him in person until the final act of the second episode with alot of his screen time being present via hologram which really isn't as good as seeing him in person.

The other thing that I didn't like about the first episode is that they turned Groot back into a baby for no reason whatsoever. There's no reason given in the story as to why Groot had to be a baby again and him being in baby form has to impact on the story he's in hi baby form for a few seconds and then due to the events of the episode is really tall and then in the second episode is back to his regular normal form and so I have to ask what was the point in having in his baby form when your not going to do anything with him and it's not going to play a role in the story , to me it seems like the creators of the show saw a rough version of the movie and so included baby Groot just to appeal to people who thought that version of the character's cameo was cute and nothing more which is stupid as hell reason to include that version of the character.

The show started airing on September 5th 2015 and finished airing on June 9th 2019 with the series airing on Disney XD. I will always say that three seasons is good run for any animated show good or bad and the same is true here they had a solid run with seventy seven episodes under there belt which regardless of what you think of the show that's an impressive amount of episodes for any show in my opinion.

Now then since this is an action show that does mean that we have to talk about the action that's in these episodes. Like I said the action is where the animation is at it's best for me since everything just leaps of the screen and is stunning to look at during the action scenes it's just a shame then that the action itself is pretty tame we don't get to see the guardians punching or kicking anyone at best we see them shooting the bad guys and that's it which is fine for one or two action scenes but when it's the majority of them it get's boring to watch fast.

Overall these episodes despite there many faults are still fun to watch which for a Guardians Of The Galaxy product is an important thing for me. Even tho i've just said these episodes are fun to watch they do still gave there faults all of which i've covered in this review and i'm sure there's a few of you out there who will tell me that i'm wrong for liking this show but I do feel that it's the best animated show from Marvel under the Disney banner as such these episodes get a combine score of a 7 out of 10 from me.

All images that I used in this review were gathered from either official Guardians Of The Galaxy The Series fandom wiki page or the official Disney fandom wiki page. I honestly cannot say which is the best website to use for images from either this show or these episodes since the Guardians Of The Galaxy The Series fandom wiki page doesn't have that many images and the ones on the Disney fandom wiki page aren't that HD so use either website.

 

                          

Elena Of Avalor "First Day Of Rule" Review

 

Disney fans for some reason during this run of reviews based of animated episodes i've barely covered any Disney shows and while I don't really see that changing anytime soon it is something that I find odd. Simply because alot of the shows that I grew up with are Disney shows however due to the fact that the series ended I think on Sunday altho it might have been Saturday I thought that i'd take us back in time and review the very first episode of Elena Of Avalor called "First Day Of Rule" enjoy Disney fans.

The plot of the episode is Princess Elena sets out on a mission to prove that she's ready to be queen only for her young sister to be kidnapped and so it's up Elena and friends to rescue her and get back one of the town's ship's which has gone missing. Now here I would usually say or have said recently that the plot is the weakest aspect of the episode well here i don't actually think that since the plot of the episode is one of it's more stronger elements with the story being both heartwarming and funny as well as being quite charming.

Starring in the episode is Aimee Carrero as Princess Elena , Jenna Ortega as Princess Isabel and Keith Ferguson as Zuzo. Also starring in the episode is Christian Lanz as Chancellor Esteban , Julia Vera as Luisa , Emiliano Díez as Francisco , Jillian Rose Reed as Naomi Turner , Jorge Diaz as Gabe , Chris Parnell as Migs , Yvette Nicole Brown as Luna , Carlos Alazraqui as Skylar , Constance Marie as Doña Paloma , Lucas Grabeel as Jiku , Rich Sommer as Daniel Turner , Joseph Haro as Mateo and Joe Nunez as Armando.

In my opinion the acting at least in this episode was passable which is one the better things that you can say about the acting in a pilot episode. Alot of the actors in this episode at least aren't voice actors and it shows but over time these actors do get better hell i'd go as far to say this show is one of the better acted Disney animated shows in a long time but sadly tho in this episode like I said the acting is just passable which is a good thing because it shows that there's room for improvement.

Doing the animation for this episode and the rest of the series is ICON Creative Studio and also doing the animation for just this episode is Arc Productions. I'm going to freaking honest the animation in this episode at times looks like it belongs in a feature film but it also looks like it belongs in game cutscene because it really does rise and dip in quality which makes it hard to judge the quality of the animation but the fact that they managed to make this show as good looking as they did on a TV show budget is still impressive none the less.

When I first saw this episode back when it first aired I was really taken aback by how action packed it was. Since I honestly expected this episode to be the typical Disney fluff and nothing more but no this episode alot more action packed then alot of the other Disney shows both animated or not and I have to give Disney credit for taking this approach since it would have been super easy for them to create another kid friendly princess show but no they took the opposite approach with this episode and the series as a whole.

What confuses me to this very day is that they chose to air the prequel movie after the release of the series/. Making things worse is that they include clips from the prequel film in the opening few minuets of this episode which now makes the prequel movie which is a crossover movie with Sofia The First (the movie is called Elena And The Secret Of Avalor by the way) pointless because we know how it's going to end so why they didn't just delay the start of the series so it aired after the movie is freaking beyond me.

Here is something that you might not know but Elena is actually Disney's first Latina princess since Sofia while she is a princess isn't Latina. This was honestly something that I never knew and to me it makes sense since Avalor itself seems to be inspired by Latin lore and it helps that Elena herself is an honestly well written character since to me it would have been very easy to make this character a character that does no wrong and has no flaws but no they actually give her flaws and they make her do mistakes as well as give her a personality all of which serve to make her an actually interesting and well written female character.

Now the broadcast history of this show is pretty interesting because while it did start of airing on the Disney Channel on July 22nd 2016 but by the time show finished airing it was airing almost exclusively on Disney Junior. That to me is just weird because very rarely do you here about a show changing networks during it's run and it doesn't make sense since Elena Of Avalor is a more mature show and would be more at home on Disney Channel then Disney Junior.

Now then since this is an action adventure show that does mean that I have to talk about the action in this episode. Which given that this is a kids show with a twenty two minuet running time the the action is as average as you think it is which in this case does work in the episodes favour since the focus of the episode isn't getting us to the next action set piece but rather telling a good story and it helps that Elena has to use her brain and talk things out the "villains" of the episode instead of just punching them really hard.

Overall incase I haven't made it clear yet I thought that this was a really good episode and is in my opinion a fun episode as well. Yes this episode does have it's flaws like all first episodes do but this episode also remembers to be fun and to give us interesting characters who we want to see succeed in the end which is something that alot debut episodes fail to do as such this episode gets a 7 out of 10 from me.

All images used in this review were gathered from the official Disney fandom wiki page and that's it I went nowhere else for images from this show or episode. Which given that I only went to one place to get all of these images it goes without saying that the place I recommend for images from either this show or this episode is the Disney fandom wiki page because all the images that I found were really high quality and hell even the last image which was the lowest quality image in this review is still pretty freaking high quality that's how how the quality of the images are when you get them from the official Disney fandom wiki page anyways. 

 

The Perils Of Penelope Pitstop "Jungle Jeopardy" Review

 

Wacky Races fans it's not strange for a show to get a spin off however what people don't know is that Wacky Races had two spin off one focusing on Dick Dastardly and Muttley which is fairly well known but i'm not talking about that spin off. I'm instead going to talk about the debut episode a lesser known spin off and so here is my review of the debut episode of The Perils Of Penelope Pitstop called "Jungle Jeopardy" enjoy.

The plot of the episode is Penelope Pitstop is finishing the final leg of a around the world flight only she gets herself kidnapped by her arch nemesis The Hooded Claw and so it's up to her protectors The Ant Hill Mob to save her. Plot wise this episode and I believe this show is pretty weak since it's just the same plot every week only in a new location which here is a jungle and while the plot was pretty weak the episode was still entertaining to see play out.

Starring in the episode is Janet Waldo as Penelope Pitstop and the great Mel Blanc  Yak Yak , Chug-a-Boom and The Bully Brothers. Also starring in the episode is Don Messick as Dum Dum , Snoozy , Pockets and Zippy , Paul Winchell as Clyde and Softie , Gary Owens as The Narrator and Paul Lynde as Sylvester Sneekly / The Hooded Claw. This was the easiest cast list so far because every actor whose in this series appears in this episode so all I had to was copy and paste all the names.

As for what I thought about the acting in this episode given that it has alot of voice acting legends it should come as no surprise that I thought the acting in the episode was honestly pretty decent. I can't say that the acting was great because it's not but none of that in this case is the actors fault it's the fault of the bad script which is just so basic and repetitive that it's not even funny and so the actors do the best that they can to make it work they just can't make this idea work.

Doing the animation for the episode and the rest of the series is of course the great Hanna-Barbera Productions. If you know Hanna-Barbera then you know that they are known for being cheap when it comes to there animation and yeah the same is here since there's very limited movement for some characters and there are alot of shots from far away where the characters are talking but the overall quality of the animation is I felt pretty decent.

I don't know why they chose to have Penelope be a damsel in distress character for this series since it's something that gets old very freaking fast. I honestly feel having Penelope get kidnapped every few minuets makes this episode feel boring because your just seeing the same thing over and over again but done in different ways which is why I feel that this show should have been around five minuets per episode and be paired with at least two or thee other shows.

Like I said this is one of two spin off's of Wacky Races and I do feel that this is perhaps the worst one of the two. Simply because it does nothing interesting with it's main idea where as Dastardly & Muttley In Their Flying Machines was a really entertaining show and even tho it had the same story going on in every episode each episode was split up into three segments so you where never that bored watching it which is something that cannot be said here.

Speaking of Dick Dastardly they name drop him in this episode and it's such an out of nowhere and cheesy line as well hell they even have the villain who's name dropping him turn to the camera as he's saying it. Why they chose to mention Dick Dastardly is beyond me because all it's going to do is remind people of a much better villain and character which is something that you never want to be doing in your debut episode.

For some reason both this show and Dastardly And Muttley In Their Flying Machines aired not only at the same time with both shows premiering on September 13th 1969 but they also aired on the exact same network that being CBS. As far as I can tell both shows didn't air as part of a programming block and so I have to wonder why did they put the two shows basically against each other since that's just stupid. 

One of the good things about this episode and this show is that they made The Ant Hill Mob the heroes of the show. Which to me is a solid idea because it now opens the door to some great comedic moments as well as giving us a chance to see how creative the characters can get when there put into a difficult situation and thankfully we do get plenty of chances to see how creative The Ant Hill Mob can be in this episode.

Now then boys and girls since this is a comedy that does mean that we have to talk about the jokes that are in the episode. The jokes I feel were a very mixed bag since while none of them were laugh out loud funny there are a few jokes that did get a smile out of me and those are the best jokes but sadly there are also alot of jokes that didn't even get a smile out of me but as I always say comedy is subjective and so what didn't make me laugh might make you guys laugh or what made me laugh might not make you guys laugh.

Overall this episode wasn't that good but it's not that bad either it's very middle of the road for me in every sense of the word. I say that because even tho the episode can be entertaining at times there are also times where the episodes feels boring and that's when the issues that I had with the episode really shine through since i'm forced to think about the issues that are in the episode as such this episode gets a 5 out of 10 from me.

All images used in this review were gathered from either the official Hanna-Barbera fandom wiki page or Google Images. I fully admit that I wasn't expecting to find any high definition images for this show or this episode and part from the very first image in this review I got exactly what I thought I was going to get as such I really can't recommend either website since it doesn't matter where you go for for images since the quality is going to be the exact same.

 

The Incredible Hulk 1996 Animated Series "The Return of The Beast Parts 1 And 2" Review

 

Marvel fans whenever people talk about the companies animated series there are a few shows that I see not being mentioned. One of those shows is the show that i'm about to take a look at the first two episodes of simply because this was a show that I grew up watching and it really does make me wonder why people don't mention this show despite having a really good cast and here is my review of the first two episodes of the 1996 animated series "The Incredible Hulk" with the episodes being called "Return Of The Beast Part 1" and "Return Of The Beast Part 2" enjoy Marvel and animation fans.

The plot of the two parter is Bruce Banner thinks he's finally come up with a way to rid himself of the Hulk and when he tries his experiment out at an army base under the watchful eye of General Thunderbolt Ross something goes wrong and so it's up to Bruce , Betty and Rick Jones to find what happend , who caused it and why. I'll admit that the plot of this two parter is perhaps it's weaker aspect since there's barely enough story to cover one episode let alone two as such I strongly believe that this story should have been told in one episode , not helping things is the fact that the story is pretty thin which makes it hard to work what the actual plot of the episode actually is.

Starring in the episodes are Lou Ferrigno as The Hulk , Neal McDonough as Bruce Banner and Genie Francis as Betty Ross . Also starring in the episodes are John Vernon as General Ross , Matt Frewer as The Leader , Mark Hamill as Gargoyle , The late Luke Perry as Rick Jones and Kevin Schon as Major Talbot and The Abomination. Yeah there really isn't that big of a cast list for these episodes literally every single person who appears in part 1 appear in part 2.

In terms of what I thought about the acting in the episode it was honestly so much better then what I thought it was going to be. Which for me is a good because I saw the cast list and thought that the acting was going to be pretty bad but no the acting at least in these two episodes is actually really good with all of the actors doing there best to make there roles there own which for this reviewer at least is a very good thing.

In a rather odd move there's no company listed as doing the animation for this show on the show's official IMDB page but after checking the IMDB page for both the episode I found that the animation at least these two episodes was done by Saerom Animation. I have no idea what Saerom Animation have worked on and after seeing these twp episodes I don't want to know because yeah the animation in these two episodes was at best OK.

On top of that there are really noticeable animation errors which no one bothered to check and fix with the most obvious being in the above picture where for one scene instead of having Bruce with brown hair he apparently died it blonde for a few moments. There are alot more errors in not only part 1 but also part all of which I feel could have been fixed if someone either at the animation studio or where ever the show was being produced actually did there job.

I like i'm assuming many other people had no idea that Mark Hamill was in this show and i'm not going to lie he was perhaps the biggest reason for me checking the show out this time around. He actually does I think a rather solid Russian accent altho to say it's an accent would be a bit of lie because all he does is heavily accented English with a Russian sounding voice but it's a really good voice in my opinion.

Fir some reason these two episodes don't deal that much with the relationship between Betty and Bruce which is a shame because the intro to the show makes that aspect seem really interesting. I would have liked it if either of the episodes devoted a small amount of time to the Betty and Bruce relationship since that's Bruce's way of transforming himself back to normal and so it would have been nice to get some insight about there relationship but hey we most likely get that in later episodes of the show of the first season or somewhere in second season.

These two episodes aired on September 8th 1996 and September 15th 1996 respectively with the episodes and thus the whole series airing on UPN. What I find to be weird is that from what I can gather the first season was pretty good and yet for some reason UPN thought that the first season was two dark and so for season ordered that She-Hulk be added to the main cast as a way to make the show seem more female friendly which to me is just dumb because surely making the show actually good would in turn make more people want to tune in it goes without saying but the show didn't get a third season with it's final episode airing on November 23rd 1997.

The villain of these two episodes and the show as a whole is The Leader who as mentioned is played by Matt Frewer. I honestly didn't mind the character in these two episodes since he has a good if somewhat confusing plan and is actually very proactive in getting done what let's the character down tho is we don't get that much time with him in these episodes with alot of the screen time being spent with Bruce and friends dealing General Ross.

Now then since this is an action show that does mean that we have to talk about the action that's in these episodes. To me the action in these episodes was honestly really good i'm not going to say that they were great because i'd be kidding myself but when you compare to alot of the things that are wrong with the episode the action comes of looking better plus it's always fun seeing Hulk smash things and blow things up.

Overall these two episodes are really good and are a really good representation of what to expect from the first season of this show. That being said these episodes are not even close to being perfect since they have alot of issues with them all of which i've covered in this review and what's worse is all of these issues are things that could have been fixed very freaking easily as such I these episodes get a combined score of a 5 out of 10 from me.

All images that I used in this review were gathered from either the official Hulk fandom wiki page , the Marvel Animated Universe fandom wiki page or Google Images. I honestly cannot say which is the best website to use for images either from these episodes or from this show because they all are roughly the same when it comes to quality which given that this show came out in the mid-nineties makes alot of sense.