Wacky Races 1968 Review

Guys i've already reviewed the reboot of Wacky Races so I thought lets review the original series and it's spin-offs but for this week i'm just tackling the original series the spin-offs will follow in the following weeks so racers start your engines here is my review of the original Wacky Races.

For those that didn't know there was a show called Wacky Races before the reboot the show aired in 1968 and ran until 1969 with only one single series to it's name spanning seventeen episodes with each episode having two separate Wacky Races but what's interesting is the fact it was only cancelled because parents groups thought it was to violet even tho kids see alot worse in Scooby-Doo! this is the one that got canned. 

The set up for the show is eleven wacky racers race to see who is the world's wackiest racer and set up alone makes this better then the reboot because they actually feature racing and the race doesn't stop so the show can have a plot and that's what Wacky Races should be racing and nothing else and unlike the reboot there's alot of racers and the show makes good use of all of them.

The series starred Paul Winchell as Dick Dastardly , Private Meekly and Clyde the leader of The Ant Hill Mob , Don Messick as Muttley, Professor Pat Pending, Gravel Slag, Little Gruesome, Ring-a-Ding (also a member of the mob) and Sawtooth , Daws Butler as Rock Slag, Big Gruesome, Red Max, Sergeant Blast, Peter Perfect and Rufus Ruffcut , John Stephenson as Luke and Blubber Bear , Janet Waldo as Penelope Pitstop and Dave Willock as The Narrator. 

In all honesty I loved Paul Winchell as Dastardly in this series he's so evil and yet at the same time you want to see him win at least one race and unlike the reboot which gives Dick a British accent here he speaks American and it suits him better then a British accent does. There's not really much more I can say about the rest of the cast that hasn't all ready been said because of how legendary the voice actors are but I will say I really did think that The Narrator was played by someone from the racing world and was sad to see that was not the case.

The animation was done by Hanna-Barbera with the famous duo of William Hanna and Joseph Barbera directing and producing every episode of the show and I have to say that for me at least the animation wasn't that good I get that they made shows on the cheap but even so the animation seen in this show isn't there best work and I noticed alot of animation errors as well and not just in the early episodes either they were through out the whole series I honestly lost count of how many times Muttley's ears were colored wrong.

What this show does really well I thought was it focused more on Dastardly and Muttley the villains of the show I don't think there's been a show before it or since that had the villains get more focus then the heroes and because of that those two are the most developed out of all the characters but sadly for me tho the least developed is Penelope Pitstop at the most she gets a sentences worth of dialog in must of the episodes and that's it and I think that's because when they were making the show she was seen as an after thought and her character and car were created because the makers thought the show needed a female driver oh and by the way her official creator is Iwao Takamoto who's a legendary character designer.

People who talk about this show often talk about Dick Dastardly being capable of winning and it's true he is actually a good racer once you stop and think about it he often starts out last and yet works his way up to first place the only reason he doesn't win is because he stops to do his tricks which even after they've failed he still tries to work his way back into the race that takes alot of skill and I have to give him credit for that.

The show was written by Larz Bourne , Dalton Sandifer , Tom Dagenais and Michael Maltese I think that the all of the stuff Micheal wrote was largely ignored because I didn't find the show to be that funny and I know Micheal is a very funny writer I can easily see someone who's seeing this show for the first time laughing alot but I grew up with the show and I didn't find it that funny for some reason altho I have to say that I did enjoy the puns those were freaking funny as was sassy Dastardly and the show is very entertaining.

I have to talk about Penelope some more because I feel like she is such a product of the times she is the most feminine driver out of the cast of the characters , she always needs help from someone and her cars gadgets or beauty products now you could say that's part of her character and you'd be right to say that but at the same time if this version of the character was made today people would be calling the makers of the show sexist.

Now since the show's main goal was to find the world's wackiest racer I think it's fair to assume that the racer with the most wins would be that racer so i'm here to tell you who the top three wackiest racers or tied for number three with a total of eleven points it's The Ant Hill Mob and Penelope Pitstop and number two it's Rufus Ruffcut and Sawtooth with a total of thirteen points and beating them by one single point it's The Slag Brothers.

It wouldn't be a review of Wacky Races without talking about the cars I really liked the cars in the show they each suited there driver or drivers perfectly and each of the cars are just as Wacky as the people behind the wheel and I have to say that my personal favorite car belonged to the person with the best name on the show the Convert-a-Car driven by Professor Pat Pending the car can do anything the episode or scene requires it to do and I love the play on the Patent Pending.

Overall this was a really entertaing show and I generally didn't know who was going to win each race and while I do enjoy the reboot I think that this is the better version so for me the show gets a 7 out of 10. 

  

My Brief Thoughts On Apple & Onion

So then there's a new show on Cartoon Network out and when I say out I mean you can watch the first two episodes on demand the official premier isn't for a few more days but still here our some thoughts I have about Apple & Onion.

Just based of these first two episodes this looks to be an episodic show which I guess does make sense since this is a slice of life show but at the same time I do wish there was a slight narrative in the show but i'm only judging it of the first two episodes so who knows there could be a story developing in the future.

I had no idea this had a British cast as Apple we have the shows creator George Gendi but it's the voice of onion that truly shocked me as we have Richard Ayoade from The IT Crowd doing his voice and I have to say both actors are pretty funny in the first two episodes but the casting gets even more awesome as Onions dad is played by Stephen Fry that is just pure great casting right there and yes I know there's more actors in this but since this isn't a full review i'm not going to name every actor.

I'm going to come right out and say it the character look freaking weird to me and that's not just the side characters it's every character I get what they are going for making every piece of food into a person but that doesn't stop them from looking like they just escaped from a mental hospital and I can see the designs putting some people of watching the show.

I will say this about the show it's humor at least for these two episodes was pretty spot on I honestly cannot count the amount of times I laughed out loud and I think that's helped by the fact that Richard is a generally funny person and the kind of humor that this show has seems to be right up his alley.

Since i've only seen the first two episodes I cannot make a full comment on the animation but based on what i've seen the animation in the show is far better then most Cartoon Network shows these days I won't name any shows just because at some point it just becomes dull to bash on the same show time after time but lets just say it has a movie out this year with the name Goes To the Movies.

So far this does seem like it could be a great show for the network and if i'm still watching by the time episode twenty roles out then yes there will be a review but if i'm not watching it by that time then there's no review.

My Little Pony Equestria Girls: Forgotten Friendship Review

Pony fans when I woke up this morning I had no idea that by the evening i'd be here writing up a review on the newest Equestria Girls special so here is my review of My Little Pony Equestria Girls: Forgotten Friendship.

As far as I can tell the special is an adaptation of the book A Friendship To Remember by Perdita Finn and just going of the MLP Wikia the special does seem to be really faithful to the book. The plot is someone steals the memories of Twilight , Applejack and the rest of the gang apart from Sunset Shimmer so it's up to her to find out who did it and get her friends back. I'll admit I knew who the villain was from about the half way mark it's not a good mystery at all but the story it self is pretty solid.

The film stars the great Tara Strong , Rebecca Shoichet , Ashleigh Ball , Tabitha St. Germain , Andrea Libman , Cathy Weseluck and Kathleen Barr. In all honesty there's not much I can say about the acting since these actors have been playing there characters since 2010 so of course they are going to know how best to play there respective characters and thus all of the actors do a solid job and it is nice to hear new dialog from these characters since we are nearly a month out before the season 8 premier.

I will say that unlike Magical Movie Night which was just the Equestria Girls TV series sold as a movie there is one plot this time around and the animation for a TV special isn't that bad but the issue I have with the animation is this is following the movie which had better animation so anything that came out after that is going to look cheap by comparison but with all of that said it is not see the familiar animation style of the show.

The best word I can use to describe this special is cute and in all honesty I think that's the best word to use this spin off franchise it's cute nothing more and nothing less altho it does make me wish that this spin off franchise was canon just because it would present more story telling possibilities but i'd fully understand if any of you pony fans didn't like that.

There's a few good jokes in the special I personally laughed at lot at Twilight for spoiler reasons i'm not going to reveal which version of her but if you've seen this special then you'll understand why I thought that there were alot of scenes in this special with Twilight that were so in character they made me laugh and for some reason this spin off franchise is now meta because they make a lot of meta jokes and they are all really funny.

Honestly at this point with the Equestria Girls franchise I do wish they'd try something different which I know they are doing with the toy line but i'm talking more about the films and specials just because after a while they all start to blur into one and they all start to feel like they are the same thing and not a different film or special.

Overall if your into MLP or if you know someone who is into this franchise then they might like it but at the same time even if you are into MLP you'll see nothing new here and you'll know where the story is heading and who the villain is so with all of that in mind and bearing in mind this is more aimed for little girls because heaven forbid the guys get something aimed at them in this franchise I give this special a 5 out of 10.

The Flintstones Series Review

Hey there cartoon fans this review has taken me the longest to do and I have to say it was worth it to give you all the best possible review I could so lets travel back to the stone age and visit everyone's favorite stone age family The Flintstones.

For those of you who either don't know or have forgotten The Flintstones was a TV series that started in 1960 and ran for six seasons ending it's initial run in 1966 racking up an impressive 166 episodes a record which for a long time stayed with The Flintstones until it was beaten by another famous family The Simpsons and i'm guessing they will keep that record until the end of time.

The set up for the show is it's 60's America but in the stone age and as you can most likely guess from what i've just said there's no story for the show but the show isn't episodic because what happens in what episode might effect the next few episodes as was the most famous storyline for the show the birth of Pebbles which started near the end of the third season and a few episodes later she arrived on the scene.

This series has the late Alan Reed voicing Fred and the rest of the cast includes Jean Vander Pyl as both Wilma and later Pebbles , the great Mel Blanc as Barney and Dino , for the first for seasons we have Bea Benaderet as Betty but for the final two seasons we got Gerry Johnson and finally the great Daws Butler as Bamm-Bamm.

The casting for the show I thought was pretty spot on as you could tell I didn't name every actor only the actors who played The Flintstones and The Rubbles and I have to say I really enjoyed Alan Reed as Fred since I grew up with Henry Corden playing Fred I was shocked to actually find myself enjoying Alans portrayal of the character and the rest of the cast are really fantastic I can't really say much about Mel , Jean and Daws since they are legends but I freaking love the voice that Bea uses for Betty.

While watching the show I found out a few things that I didn't know about the characters like for example Betty's maiden name in the show was McBricker and how the couples first met in the two live action films they have stories with contradict each other but here they met at a hotel where both couples pretended to be rich fearing the other wouldn't like them if they knew the truth and that's the tip of the iceberg.

One thing I noticed that's a negative is the quality in the shows writing took a nosedive around the third or fourth season with the first two seasons being written by Looney Tunes veterans Warren Foster and Michael Maltese as well as Arthur Phillips. The stories in those two seasons were more relatable and had more funny gags in them but from the third season on wards they had a rotation of writers and the stories became more kid friendly which wasn't the intention of the show when it first came out.

   

It's time to talk about one of the elephants in the room the animation yes it is cheap and yes the backgrounds do repeat themselves alot in the show honestly you could make a drinking came about how many times the backgrounds repeat but I still found the animation to have a charm to it maybe it's because I grew up with the show and thus i'm already used to it but at the same time I do see where people are coming from when they say the animation in The Flintstones is bad.

This one i'm not sure is an elephant or not but there's alot of animal cruelty in this show it's not awkward to watch or anything like that but it does make you wonder what are there animal cruelty laws in Bedrock or do they even have any.

Now I know alot of people have said over the internet that the show is not funny and boring and while the latter can be said for certain episodes the show is pretty funny and I think that came down to the writing because if you watched the show during during the Pebbles and Bamm Bamm era then there were alot of unfunny jokes but if you watch the show before they were introduced you will find alot of jokes that will make you laugh out loud a few times.

Now not alot of people know this but during the shows run it had to opening and closing themes and if you want to get technical five opening credits for it's first two seasons the opening and closing themes were Rise and Shine which lasted until season 3 episode 3 where it was replaced by the more well known theme Meet The Flintstones. 

The opening and closing credits also changed in that episode because for the first two season the opening credits basically followed Fred going home , picking up a dress and turning on the TV while the closing credits was just him getting ready for bed in season three we got the more familiar intro so I won't talk about that but we got two more opening credits after it because after they introduced Pebbles they added Pebbles to the intro and then after that because they wanted to sell some toys they added a scene with Pebbles playing with what they were trying to sell and then finally we got Bamm Bamm added into the mix.

It's thanks to this show that we got The Flintstones franchise and I guess you could say it's still going strong with smash success that was The Flintstones comic book series but there have been a few bad notes with the live action movie prequel and the weird WWE team up movie.

Overall it doesn't matter what I say about this show because it's legendary and you have all most likely all ready made up your minds on if you like the show or not like I said before this has taken me the longest to do because Batman and The Looney Tunes Show both took at least a day to watch and review this review has taken me closer to two days to watch and review and since this show is all ready a legendary show i'm not going to rate it.

Some Thoughts About Final Space

Guys a few days ago TBS did something I don't think any other network has done and that's debut the premier episode or in this case episodes on Reddit and now finally i've seen those two episodes and here are some thoughts I have about Final Space.

Bottom line I really like it so far but i'm going to go into a bit more detail as to why starting with the mystery yeah there's a mystery in this show in the opening few minuets of both episodes one and two we see our hero is nearly dieing and yet we don't know why or what's caused this current situation plus there's this other mystery with another main character which starts in episode two.

The cast consists of creator Olan Rogers , Fred Armisen , Spongebob Squarpants , David Tennant , Tika Sumpter and Coty Galloway and I have to say that based of the first two episodes the cast are really good I honestly couldn't tell who David Tennant was playing in this show and I won't spoil it here just because it doesn't sound like at all nor does it sound like Scrooge Mcduck either.

Unlike most other cartoon shows I review this isn't episodic or at least these first two episodes aren't we see things set up in part one that pay off in part two and I hope we get more of that in future episodes I obviously cannot talk about the story just yet as we are only a few episodes in but I do like the fact that there seems to be a story forming.

Unlike Hot Streets where the animation was very mixed here the animation seems to be really freaking good and to be frank I was shocked at how good it really was just because I don't really think TBS has made a good cartoon series and yes I don't count American Dad as that show is made by Fox where as this show is made by TBS.

Not only is the animation really good but so is the CGI and the backgrounds I find it's very hard to see good CG in cartoons as it often stands out next to the 2D characters but here it honestly does look really freaking good and the backgrounds look like something you'd see on Rick and Morty or any Steven Spielberg produced show.

Guys to give you a fair warning these two episodes are violent as heck especially episode 2 where a main character has something happen to them and you see something I thought i'd never see in a cartoon and that's really all I can say about it without either spoiling the episode or making some of you feel sick but it's also something i'm glad they added since it makes the show feel more real somehow.

I don't exactly know if i'll do a full review of this series yet it all depends on how many episodes there are and if I can find the time to do it but this is a show I will be watching when it comes out that's how good it is I actively want to watch the next episode.

Overall guys this is a show worth watching it's dark and twisted in some places so if you like that kind of stuff then you'll love this and you watch the first two episodes now on the TBS website and on the TBS app or if you want you can wait until February 26th to watch them both on TV. 

  

Be Cool, Scooby-Doo! Review

Hello there Scooby fans i've had the pleasure of reviewing alot of Scooby-Doo related media but for some reason i've never gotten round to reviewing one of the many shows in this franchises history well now that all changes with my review of Be Cool, Scooby-Doo!.

The set up for this series is that the gang are going there separate ways at the end of the summer and thus decide to travel in the Mystery Machine seeking fun and adventure but also running into lots of mysteries. I have to admit I actually kinda like the set up for this show since we now know how it would all end there's a ticking clock added since every adventure could be the last one the gang go on together.

Now what is interesting about the cast for this series is that this was the first time since A Pup Named Scooby-Doo that someone other then Mindy Cohn voiced Velma here is she played by her new voice actress Kate Micucci who is joined by the other Scooby regulars Matthew Lillard . Grey Griffin and the only original series cast member still with the franchise Frank Welker.

I do have to admit it did take me a while to get used to Kate playing Velma since all I could hear was her character from Scrubs but once I got used to it I did and still do enjoy her performance. The rest of the cast deliver the kind of performance you expect from them at this point Frank is great which is no surprise since he's been playing Fred since the 60's and been playing Scooby since 2002 I will talk about Grey later on but she's good in this show as is Matthew Lillard.

When this show first came out it premiered and aired on Cartoon Network for most of it's first season but for some reason nearly a year after it last aired the final six episodes from season 1 aired on Boomerang at 1 am and it's aired on Boomerang for it's second season and I have to ask why did Cartoon Network air it for so long on there main channel and then for no reason put it on Boomerang to me that makes no sense what so ever so either they 

When the first images were released I admit i was horrified by the changes made to the designs and now to me at least most of the characters look like they would fit in with the Phineas and Ferb characters which no surprise since Zac Moncrief who is a producer for this new show was also a writer and director for Phineas And Ferb but tho I still think that Scooby does look kind of ugly but that might be just me tho.

Since this is basically a mystery show you'd expect at the very least more then half of the episodes would feature a good solid mystery that is not the case in fact if you pay close attention you can easily work out who the culprit is and that's not what a good mystery should do a good mystery should give you small hints as to the bad guy is and not make it obvious within the first ten to fifteen minuets.

I thought that the animation for the show was at actually really good it's a lot better then the animation for The PowerPuff Girls and Ben 10 reboots that's for sure there's a great amount of detail in the back grounds as well which was something that I liked and the characters have never had more fluid movements to them in any of the previous series and I know that will make a lot of fans of Mystery Incorporated angry but since I havn;t watched much of that show I will choose not to make any comment.

I'm just gonna come right out and say it Daphne in this show is best character because in this show they give her not only a purpose but also a personality in most of the shows she's just there and has the personality of a piece of wood but here tho she's the groups resident nut ball and every week she has a new quirk and alot of the time those quirks help solve the mystery of the episode.

Unlike the previous show which I believe was very serious this one is more light hearted and I think this is where Grey Griffin shines she has great comedic timing and that's something you can't teach as for the jokes them selfs they are laugh out loud funny I cannot count the amount of times I laughed just in the first episode alone the jokes aren't the smartest of jokes but they are funny none the less.

Overall this is a welcome addition to the Scooby franchise in my eyes yes it's as drama heavy as the previous show but I will say that you'll either love this show or hate it me I love it but I do wish the mysteries were better so it gets a 7 out of 10.

Hot Streets Review

Hot Streets fans the show has aired the final episode of it's first season and since i've been talking about the show non-stop when it was airing here is my review of the series as a whole.

The plot of the show is Agents Mark Branski and Donald French team up with Branski's niece Jen and her cowardly dog Chubby Webbers to take on paranormal phenomena. I admit when I did my first impressions review a few weeks back I thought the show would be episodic but my god was I wrong because alot of what happens prior to the finale either gets a call back or characters reappear and I have to say I really enjoyed the plot of the show.

Starring in the show is J.D. Ryznar , Scott Chernoff , Baby Daddy's Chelsea Kane , Rick and Morty Co-creator Justin Roiland and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.star Ming-Na Wen. I have to admit I had no idea Agent May was in this show until someone pointed it out to me over Twitter and yeah she does a fairly good job in this show Scott tho could use a few more acting lessons just because his delivery is sometimes a bit off and Chelsea Kane is funny as hell.

There's no getting around it Chubby Webbers is Scooby-Doo if Scooby-Doo! was made by Adult Swim I mean lets look at the facts both are dogs , both are brown , both have something to do with the paranormal and both are cowardly there's literally nothing that separates the two characters plus both have a human best friend.

Now prior to watching the final two episodes of the show I watched the pilot episode and if you guys think the actual series is strange and weird you havn't seen nothing yet the pilot is way more bizarre then the series it self it is and to be frank i'm glad they toned it down for the series just because I could see that being of putting heck it was even a chore for me to watch and I wanted to wanted to watch it.

When I was getting ready for this review I found  a great way to describe this series and it comes from a website called Inverse.com they describe the show as "Rick Sanchez from Rick and Morty gave the gang from Scooby Doo space drugs" and that is the best way to describe Hot Streets in my opinion just due to how freaking true it is.

Now I kinda get why people in the cartoon community don't talk about this show it aired at midnight so alot of people won't be able to watch it and to some like I said before due to how strange the show is it would put them of watching but I urge you to watch the show it's basically a stranger version of Rick And Morty which is not a coincidence since alot of people who write for Rick And Morty wrote for Hot Streets.

I'm not gonna lie the animation in the show can be pretty bad at times but I think that it adds to the overall charm of the show but bad animation is bad animation and I have no idea what they used to animate this show in but I wish they had gone the CGI route since they are alot of CG scenes in the show anyways so it would have helped the animation a little bit I think.

I feel that the humor of the show can be pretty mixed for every joke that doesn't work they'll throw in a joke that semi works but for me the best character to get jokes from is Chubby Webbers because for me he's like Kenny from South Park where you don't understand a word he's saying but at the same time you can't help but laugh at the situations he's in.

I don't really think this needs to be said but this is an adult cartoon but that said when i was doing research for the review I found out that one of the distributors for the show is Cartoon Network now I don't know if they still own Adult Swim and that's why there distributing this show but it feels strange that a channel for kids is distributing this strange and very adult show.

Overall this was a decent first season and I hope this show gets a second season because in my eyes this is a show that's worth watching but with all of that said it gets a 6 out of 10 from me.