Top Cat Review

Cartoon fans Hanna-Barbera have produced alot of shows over the years but one show that nobody really talks about is the show that i'm going to talk about today so here we go with me review of Top Cat.

Now this is actually one of the shortest HB produced shows with only a single season of thirty episodes being made to put that into prospective the original Wacky Races technically had thirty four episodes while Scooby-Doo has had many many shows so when I say this is the shortest show they produced you can take that to the bank.

In America the show was indeed called Top Cat but when the show began airing in the UK the title was changed to Boss Cat the reasoning behind this was because there was a cat food company called Top Cat but tho even tho they changed the title they didn't count on the fact that the shows theme song says the word Top Cat quite alot and they didn't remove the name from the opening and closing credits so it became known as Top Cat anyway.

For those who either didn't know or straight up forgot the show was started airing on September 27th 1961 and finished on April 18th 1962 and was aired on ABC. The basic set up for the show was that Top cat and his gang would try various get rich quick schemes only to be cought by officer Dibble and I have to say that this set up does indeed work as it makes the plot of each episode feel fresh and different from the one that came before it.

The cast for this show consisted of Arnold Stang as Top Cat , Maurice Gosfield as Benny the Ball , Allen Jenkins as Officer Dibble , Marvin Kaplan as Choo-Choo , Leo De Lyon as Brain and Spook and original Mr. Slate actor John Stephenson as Fancy-Fancy. As with all previous HB shows the voices were impressions of famous celebrities of the time but for the life of me I cannot remember who they were impersonating but I can say that the acting really wasn't that bad all of the actors did a good job and they all put in a funny performance.

What I found out while watching the show was that even tho the show is set in New York there's only one character that speaks with a New York accent and it's Choo Choo (the above image FYI) and I can't figure out why that's the case since all of these characters are meant to be from New York wouldn't it there for make sense for them all to have an accent?.

What i thought was even more shocking was the fact that every episode was written by someone called Kin Platt I was shocked because it takes along time to produce a single episode of an animated show so having one writer write the whole thing start to finish was even in those days kind of unheard off.

The show was not only produced by Hanna-Barbera but the pair also directed all of the episodes heck no wonder they stopped at thirty episodes both the writer and the producers / directors most of been worn out. I will however say that the animation is pretty much the standerd HB affair with repeating backgrounds and in some episodes extremely limited animation but what kind of annoyed me was whenever they would show an overhead view of the city everything would be still even the people (if there were any) would just be still I know HB did things on the cheap but I didn't realise they were that cheap.

Here's something that might possible ruin alot of childhoods but Top Cat switches from being a con-man to a member of the mafia and to a confidence trickster really think about it for a second he cons the rest of the gang into giving him there money , he tricks people by saying that they are the best at what ever they do and there are episodes where he has to act like a mafia boss and most of the time he gets away with all of it Top Cat is the world's best criminal.

I couldn't do a review of this show and not mention the theme song to me the theme to Top Cat is one of the best themes in cartoon history it's catchy as heck , you can very easily sing along to it and it tells you straight up about the main character it does everything a good theme song should do and it does it all in forty seconds heck it's so good they reply it at the end of each episode.

Overall I highly recommend you check out this gem from the past it has some good jokes and some not so good jokes and the Spook character really hasn't aged that well but it's still wroth watching and it's way better then the last two Top Cat movies the show gets an 7 out of 10 from me.

   

Scoobynatural Review

Hello Scooby fans and Supernatural fans it has finally happened after being announced ages ago the crossover finally happened last night and I have to say that even tho i'm not a Supernatural fan I did watch this episode so here we go.

The plot of the episode is The Winchesters get sucked into a TV that happens to be showing Scooby Doo and they have to team up with the Scooby gang to find out what's going on. I did a little digging around and I found out that the episode they get sucked into is in fact a real episode it aired as part of Where Are You and is called A Night of Fright is No Delight but I do have to say that there was pretty much no plot for this episode outside of the set up.

Starring in the episode we have Jared Padalecki , Jensen Ackles and Misha Collins as there regular characters and guest starring as the gang we have Grey Griffin , Matthew Lillard , Kate Micucci and the only cast member from the original Scooby series Frank Welker. Honestly for me the voice acting from the Supernatural cast felt wooden and I think that's because there not used to doing voice work but it's still very noticeable as for the Scooby gang there acting was really freaking good.

One of the things that had me worried about the crossover was how are they going to explain the fact that they are now in a cartoon and I think they way they did it was very natural and in terms of the Supernatural world is also kinda makes sense in a strange and weird way.

This episode uses a mixture of live action and animation with the animation being done by Warner Bros Animation and being produced by Spike Brandt who's done a lot of Scooby related stuff. In all honesty the animation for this episode was better then what I was expecting it to be I was expecting the episode to look cheap and just be nothing more then a cash grab but it wasn't the characters had a lot of great movements to them and the backgrounds looked very detailed.

If there's one complaint I have about the animation it's the fact that it looks modern imagine how much cooler the episode would have been if the animation style matched the style from the 60's it would have been a nice little homage to the original show.

I do however like the fact that the designs for the Scooby match how they looked in the original series heck even the Supernatural characters have some nice designs to them and I would consider watching another Supernatural animated series (for those who don't know there was a Supernatural anime produced) altho just to go with what I was saying before it would have been a nice homage if the Scooby gang where drawn with thick lines like they were back in the day.

Honestly there's not much I can really say about this episode but I got the feeling that the makers of the show were Scooby Doo fans because of the fact that they make fun of alot of the tropes that were present in those early years while at the same time they go along with those same tropes and yes I to would take a bullet for that dog.

Overall this was a really fun but tho it doesn't make me a fan of Supernatural sorry guys but I did give it try a few years back and it's just not for me but like I said this episode was really fun and it gets a 7.5 out of 10 from me.

  

  

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic "School Daze" Spoiler Free Review

Hello fans of the hit franchise My Little Pony season 8 of Friendship is Magic has finally premiered after what seems like forever and what a pair of episodes we have to talk about today so lets get ready because I think I can hear the school bell ringing.

Now incase you was wondering if the show would even mention the events of the movie the first scene makes it very clear i'm not going to say if the movie is cannon or not since this review is spoiler free so if you want to know you'll have to ask me directly.

The plot of the episodes sees Twilight and her friends opening up a school for friendship (it's two early to say if the school will be a permanent fixture or not) and it follows there attempts to run the school. I have to say that i'm glad they have matured these characters to such a degree that they are now the ones teaching other creatures about friendship instead of being the ones learning about it it makes all of the character regression from Fluttershy seem worth it.

Now of course we have all of the regular cast so I won't both to credit them here since there obviously going to be in the episodes but hopefully joining the cast on a more permanent bases we have Vincent Tong as Sandbar , Shannon Chan-Kent as Smolder , Maurice LaMarche as Chancellor Neighsay , Gavin Langelo as Gallus , Lauren Jackson as Silverstream and Katrina Salisbury as Yona. 

I have to say I really liked the brain in these two episodes I won't spoil what kind of role he plays but I can see the fans getting quite upset with his character and I thought that the rest of the characters were really well performed  since most of these characters are new to the show I wasn't expecting the actors to really be good but for the first time out I was surprised.

Now i'm not sure if DHX Media do the animation or not since I found out about another company called Top Cow Animation but either way I thought the animation in these two episodes was pretty good altho since the last think I saw from MLP was the dreadful Forgotten Friendship special anything would be considered a step up everything looked like it could have been in the movie thats how good it was.

We have to talk about the elephant in the room the season 8 leaks let's not pretend that they didn't happen because they did and I like most of most likely didn't watch the leaked episodes now while i'm not opposed to watching one or two leaked episodes here tho six episodes were leaked and that's just not cool at all and sadly it's something that won't be going away anytime soon it's just something we will all have to deal with it's sad but true.

Overall the ponies are back in town (if you sang that part then well done you) this was a really fun episode sorry there's not really much I could talk about since alot of it could have been considered a spoiler School Daze gets a 7 out of 10 from this pony fan.

   

Nomad Of Nowhere Review

I talk alot about cartoons and I will continue to do so but I havn't really talked about westerns and as luck would have it there's a new western cartoon out and I really wasn't planning on making this a review in fact it was just going to be me giving out some thoughts on the show with a review to come later on but then I thought screw it so here is my review of Nomad Of Nowhere.

In terms of plot there really isn't one in fact to me the plot feels more like a Road Runner cartoon where you get the basic set up and you watch it all crash and burn and honestly I don't mind the fact that the show really doesn't have a plot this review is coming out after episode 2 so one might develop later on but for now there's no plot to speak of what so ever.

Now I would like to point out that the Nomad is a mute character so the rest of the cast includes Danu Uribe ,  Elizabeth Maxwell , Ryan Haywood ,  Eddy Rivas , Stephen Fu and  Alejandro Saab. I'm going to come right out and say it the voice Elizabeth uses for the character Skout sounds alot like a grown up Applebloom and i'm not to sure how I feel about that since at times it is kinda distracting but then again it's also fun to imagine a grown up Applebloom.

Now it will not surprise me at all if I get comments from people saying they havn't heard of this show in fact the only way I found out about was due to random ad that showed up on the side of a random Youtube video and even then I have to do some research to see if it was a real advert or not.

I forgot to mention this before but this show is made by Rooster Teeth and sine the only other show of theirs I watch is RWBY I was shocked to see them handle a 2D show and I have to admit the animation wasn't that bad it's not that good either but that's besides the point there's a lot of nice and creative looking backgrounds but tho with that said the characters movements do seem to jerk around a bit.

As I mentioned before the Nomad is a mute character and for me that's where most of the show's humor comes from a character would say something to him / her and then the Nomad would do a funny reaction and I don't mind that at all since his reactions are quite funny but I could do without them using cartoon sound effects all of the time.

I don't usually like to talk about the designs of characters mostly because I have no idea what i'm talking about half of the time but I have to say that I like the character designs in this show Skout looks like how I picture a girl in the wild west would look and the nomad has a mysterious look about him that I just love.

Since RWBY cought on pretty quick with the animation community I hope the same thing happens here because truth be told we do need shows that are just plain silly fun as well as needing shows that are serious and groundbreaking we cannot have to much of one and not enough of the other and it helps that the show is also like I said before really funny.

Overall i'd say that if your a fan of Rooster Teeth then I would recommend you check this show out even if your not a fan of the team then I would still recommend it to you altho you will need to borrow some one's Rooster Teeth account to get the new episodes a week before they go up on Youtube this series scores a 7 out of 10 from moi and FYI there might be a review of the new Muppet Babies coming soon.

Krypton "Pilot" Review

Hello Superman fans over the years there have been tons of shows based on Superman but apart from a few scenes here and there there has not been a show set on Krypton well that all changes so here is my review of the pilot episode of Krypton.

Now for some unknown reason this show has taken a whopping four years to get here and even during that four year long waiting period nobody knew if it was going to be made or not and for the life of me i cannot think why it's taken this long for the show to finally air but all I can say is the wait was worth it.

The plot of the pilot is Superman's grandfather Seg finds out somethings he never knew about his family and that's all I can really say about the episode because anything else would give away the episode it self but I can say that I thought the story was a little bit slow paced at times which I do understand since it's a pilot episode but it's also a science fiction show.

I'm not kidding when I say this but the shows cast is mostly British people and i'm ok with that so starring in it we have Cameron Cuffe as Seg-El , Georgina Campbell , Shaun Sipos , Elliot Cowan , Ann Ogbomo , Wallis Day and Rasmus Hardiker. I don't know who did the casting for this show but i'm guessing they are a fan of British actors since alot of the cast are as I mentioned British and they all turn in really good performances which i didn't expect from a pilot episode.

I'm a huge fan of Superman: The Movie it is in my opinion the best Superman movie ever made and it stars the best greatest Superman ever period so I was glad that this episode incorporated something truly iconic from this movie into the episode and it actually fits in quite well i'm not going to say what it is but anyone with half a brain could figure it out.

Now what I noticed is that for some reason this episode has two directors listed and yet when I did some research about the show I found out that when they announced the start of production on this episode only one director was listed so i'm not left wondering if they did any re-shoots on this episode or not and if they did you actually cannot tell.

For a show based on a Superhero character there's shockingly not a lot of action in this episode at all I think in total there's only two or three action scenes spread out the entire forty five minuets and while that is kinda refreshing to see at the same time I did find myself wondering when there's going to be an action just so things would get interesting.

One of the few things I think we can all agree on is the fact that The Cw DC shows have great CGI and now I would like to formally add Krypton to that list of shows with great CGI since the CGI in this show to me was almost on par with the effects used for Grodd in The Flash season 3 yes they are that good.

Overall this wasn't a bad pilot but it does leave a lot of room for improvement and it has nine weeks to improve because unlike The CW which renews any show Syfy isn't that kind and i'm not going to rate this episode since it is just a pilot and thus the beginning of the story but I might do a series review after episode 10 if i'm still watching by that point.

  

Shows That Look Like Anime But I Personally Don't Consider Them To Be

Hello animation fans there are a lot of animated shows made every year some good some not so good but what gets me is that there is still some confusion over what is considered anime and it's usually just based on the visual style so I want to tell you some shows that look like anime but technically aren't.

Before I start the list I want to say that just because a show is produced in America doesn't mean it's not anime for me that would come down not only to the setting and character names but also if it's based in Japanese mythology or folklore.

Avatar The Last Airbender 

This one is kinda forgivable since visually it looks like an anime and it does have some Japanese sounding names but this for me at least isn't an anime it wasn't even animated in Japan but it was produced by people who love anime and that kind of story telling and the same goes for the Korra spin-off / sequel.

RWBY

For me it seems that this show is more based on Asian mythology as a whole rather then just Japanese mythology but the characters names aren't Japanese and the show isn't made in Japan but I would understand it if you guys consider this show to be an anime heck you can find the show on most anime streaming sites.

Castlevania

This is one of those shows that when people first saw the trailer they said "this is an anime" I should know because I was one of them but it isn't anime since the show was made in America it has no bases in japanese mythology and no characters with Japanese names so literally anything that could be considered anime isn't in this series and bring on season 2.

Thundercats 2011

This one is a bit hard because it was animated in Japan and it has Japanese directors credited in it's credits but tho the show was made in America but based of this image alone you wouldn't really know that so I would fully understand if you said to me that you thought this was an anime. 

Robin Hood Daffy and Hollywood Daffy Review

Yes people you have read that right i've decided to review two Looney Tunes cartoons and only one of them I would truly say is a classic cartoon so lets get on with it shall we you Looney people you.

Robin Hood Daffy came out on March 8th 1958 and it's plot is Daffy as Robin Hood is trying to impress Friar Tuck who is played by Porky Pig and i have to say that I found the plot of this cartoon to be really funny there's just something about seeing Daffy dressed as Robin Hood that cracks me up and I don't know why that is.

Hollywood Daffy came out on January 22nd 1948 and it sees Daffy trying to get a job at Warmer Brothers and no I didn't spell it wrong in the cartoon the studio Daffy is trying to work for is Warmer Brothers but tho for me this story relied more on gags that younger people like myself just won't get instead of focusing on the story.

Starring in both cartoons is the great Mel Blanc I don't really need to say this since it's kinda a given but he's really funny in both cartoons the guy truly was a legend and he wasn't just a great voice actor but he was a great actor period there's not really much more I can say about the acting because the only actor in these cartoons is a true legend.

Now for some reason Friz Freleng who directed Hollywood Daffy isn't credited in the cartoon which is a shame because he is a great director and I cannot think of a single reason as to why he wouldn't want his name on this cartoon it's not even a bad cartoon.

The animation in Robin Hood Daffy is truly great it has a lot of great looking backgrounds and just look at the above picture of Daffy that is just pure freaking awesome but tho the animation in Hollywood Daffy for me was a little lacking which is a shame because it had a great set of animators working on the short and it had a great director but even with all of that talent the animation was just for me at least average.

In all honesty I don't expect people to know about Hollywood Daffy since it's not the best Looney Tunes or Daffy Duck cartoon out there but it still does deserve some attention from Looney Tunes fans since it has Mel Blanc doing his classic "Looney" Daffy voice which i'm sure does crack some people up.

If you want to know which cartoon I think has the best jokes for me personally it's Robin Hood Daffy just because of the image of Daffy Duck dressed as Robin Hood plus it's gags have a more timeless feel about them. The jokes in Hollywood Daffy however I feel aren't that timeless not many people will know who Daffy is meant to be imitating in the above picture but if you show them the classic "fight"from Robin Hood Daffy then there going to laugh.

Overall Robin Hood Daffy is one of the best Daffy Duck cartoons in my opinion next to Duck Amuck but Hollywood Daffy is still a pretty funny cartoon so Robin Hood Daffy gets a 9.0 out of 10 while Hollywood Daffy gets a 8 out of 10.