Godzilla 1978 Animated Series "The Firebird" Review

 

Now depending on where your seeing this review then you'll know that i'm a fan of the Godzilla franchise having seen alot of the original films in Japanese and i've seen all of the American films as well. However there are a few things related to the jolly green monster that i'm yet to take a look at and one of those is his original animated series and no i'm not talking about the one from nineties i'm talking about the one from 1978 and so here is my review of the debut episode of "Godzilla" called "The Firebird" enjoy.

The plot of the episode is a bird made of fire is causing havoc in the Arctic and so it's up to our heroes the crew of a ship called The Calico and Godzilla to put a stop to the creature before it's to late. Plot wise the episode was fairly good i'm not going to say that it's the best Godzilla plot out there because honestly the first film will always have that honour for me but in terms of a kids Godzilla cartoon made in the lade seventies it was a decent plot since it did a good of telling the story as well as showing us what this version of Godzilla is like.

Starring in this episode and the rest of the series is Ted Cassidy as Godzilla and Don Messick as Godzooky. Also starring in this episode and the rest if the series is Jeff David as Captain Carl Majors , Al Eisenman as Pete Darian , Hilly Hicks as Brock Borden and Brenda Thomson as Doctor Quinn Darian. Honestly I find out really odd that they brought Lurch from the original Addams Family to play Godzilla since Hanna-Barbara already have a guy who can do the roars of any creature on there pay roll that being Frank Welker so they didn't cast him is freaking beyond me.

In terms of what I thought about the acting in the episode it was honestly alot better then what I was expecting it to be. Which in this case isn't really a good thing since the Japanese Godzilla films even the bad ones have good acting in them but here the acting is just OK which for a franchise this legendary isn't a really a good thing yes the fact that they have the great Don Messick putting a solid performance does help things but one man doesn't make a team in this case.

Doing the animation for this episode and thus the rest of the series is Hanna-Barbera Productions and if you've seen in animated show from the sixties or grew up in the nineties then chances are you've seen there work. Hanna-Barbera are known to be very cheap especially when it comes to the animation and yeah the same is true here since there are alot of repeating backgrounds and there are some shots where you see the back of a person's head and you here them talking which is classic way to save money on animation since you don't have to animate the lips moving.

I really do not think that this is the best showcase for what Hanna-Barbera could do since even tho they have fairly low standards when it comes to the animation this episode doesn't even meet that. That doesn't mean that the animation in the episode is terrible because in all honesty it's not but there are better animated Hanna-Barbera shows out there and there are better animated shows from around the same time period as this show.

Now then this is a Godzilla show after all and so you'd think that this episode would feature alot of our favourite monster. You would be so wrong since he only shows up a handful of times in this episode most of which he's only there for a few minuets and then he disappears but he does show up and take part in the final fight with the firebird which I will get more into later in the review but I do feel that this episode especially should have featured more of Godzilla since his name is the name of the freaking show.

I actually like the design of Godzilla here they really didn't change that much from the original Gojira which for me is a good thing. For some reason tho they made his skin green which really isn't that big of a deal since the original Gojira is in black and white and so you could really make his skin any colour you wanted and it would make sense but what I really don't like is the fact that they gave him a permanent scowl which would work if he was the villain of the show but here he's meant to be the good guy and so they really didn't need that scowl at all in my opinion.

Now let's talk about everyone's favourite most useful character oops I mean't everyone's least favourite useless character in the how and this episode Godzooky. Why the hell the producers thought that this character was needed is beyond me since they already have a character designed for kids to like that being Pete and so why this useless character was added is beyond me. I honestly wouldn't mind the character that much if he actually did something useful in the episode but he doesn't infact it's him wondering of that causes Pete to get himself into danger looking for Godzooky.

Like with Godzilla I like the design of the villain of this episode who if you can't tell by the name of the episode if The Firebird. I just think that having a creature made entirely out of fire is just so freaking awesome and it highlights the creativity in the Godzilla franchise so you can have a monster or creature made out of anything and it would make sense so yeah I honestly cannot fault the design of this character whatsoever.

This show started airing on NBC on September 9th 1978 and the series lasted a full two seasons ending on December 9th 1979 and the show was paired with another show called Jana of the Jungle where together they formed The Godzilla Power Hour. With each episode being around twenty two minuets each I honestly don't see why they had to pair Godzilla with anything since they could have got a large amount of people watching this show just based of the Godzilla name alone but I guess it was more for Jana then it was Godzilla since Jana doesn't even have her name in the title.

Now then since this is an action show that does mean that we have to talk about the action that is in the episode. Which i'm not going to lie I found to be rather enjoyable yes it's not up to the standards of the usual Godzilla action scenes like we don't get to see Godzilla destroying any cities but we do get to see an honestly pretty cool final fight between the king of monsters of the firebird which is honestly my favourite part of the entire episode.

Overall I can't say that this is a bad episode because in all honesty it's not and I can't even say it's a bad representation of Godzilla either. What I can say tho is that for a show based of the Godzilla franchise this episode lacks alot of the things that we love about the Godzilla franchise which i've mentioned in this review but at the same time there is some enjoyment to be found from this episode as such it gets a 6 out of 10 from me.

All images used in this review was gathered from either the official Godzilla fandom wiki page or Google Images. I fully admit I wasn't expecting to find any high definition images not only from this show but also this episode and yet I was shocked to see that the vast majority of the images used in this review or pretty HD as such I have t recommend either website if you want to use images from this episode or this show. 

 

 

Spider-Man: The Animated Series "Night Of The Lizard" Review

 

Marvel fans i've taken a look at many Marvel movies in the past and I will be looking at more in the future however the one thing that i've very rarely done is look at the companies previous animated projects. Which is a shame because alot of those shows especially the ones in the nineties served as my introduction to those characters with all that in mind here is my review of the very first episode of the 1994 Spider-Man animated series "Night Of The Lizard" enjoy comic book and animation fans and everyone inbetween.

The plot of the episode is there's a new creature in New York and Peter Parker and Eddie Brock are both tasked with getting pictures with the winner receiving a prize meanwhile Spider-Man has to find out who the creature is before it's to late. Plot wise I felt that the episode was pretty good with the story moving along at a nice pace but the story wasn't the series best in my opinion but it did a good job f setting up most of the main cast of characters.

Starring in the episode is Christopher Daniel Barnes as Peter Parker / Spider-Man and Edward Asner as J. Jonah Jameson. Also starring in the episode is , Linda Gary as Aunt May Parker , Rodney Saulsberry as Joseph Robertson , Liz Georges as Debra Whitman , Hank Azaria as Eddie Brock and Bud , Joseph Campanella as Curt Connors / Lizard , Giselle Loren as Margaret Connors , Toby Scott Ganger as Billy Connors and Ken Chandler as Sam.

As for what I thought about the acting in the episode it honestly wasn't that bad but at the same time I feel that it could have been alot better. While the acting was indeed good and was very passable for the episode that's all it was and that to me isn't a good thing since you should always be trying to put in a solid performance that could rival better shows and not turn in a performance that would earn you a paycheck.

Doing the animation for not only this episode but also the whole series is TMS Entertainment who have mainly worked on anime like Akira and episodes of Batman: the Animated Series among many others. The animation here I thought for the time that this show was made it was honestly really good i'm not going to say that it's amazing animation because it's really not but for a mid nineties animated show it's really good.

That said however there is something that we have to talk about and that's the fact that not only this episode but this entire series makes use of CGI. Which is just as bad as you'd think it would be don't get me wrong as a kid growing up when this show was I thought that the CGI looked really good but yikes it hasn't aged well at all the only good thing about the CGI is they don't use it often in this episode but when they do my god do you notice it.

Now this is something that I never noticed before now but to me the character of Debra Whitman (Liz Georges) looks so much like Betty Ross from the nineties Incredible Hulk animated series. I know that these shows were produced at least a year apart and so chances of the studio working on The Incredible Hulk getting there hands on the Debra character model are very unlikely but one cannot help but wonder why they chose to make Betty Ross character look so similar to Debra.

Now as you can no doubt work out by any of the above images this episode and the show aired on Fox Kids starting in 1994 and lasted until 1998 which I think makes it the longest running Marvel animated series of the nineties but I might be wrong. Either way way there is no way in hell you can tell that this show was made in the nineties apart from the dated CGI since the episode doesn't make any kind of reference to things from the nineties which oddly makes the episode feel timeless.

I have to say that I liked how they did Lizard in this episode which is they basically made him a Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde type of character. With Lizard not really being able to remember much of what his human half is doing and what Curt's memories are all of which make him a vastly interesting character since your now wondering if the character is acting like this because he's evil or is it because he feels threatened by Spider-Man basically breaking into his home.

Let's talk about the show's theme song because it really needs to be talked about just like any other superhero show that came out around this time the theme song is so freaking good. Which shouldn't come as a surprise since it was performed by the lead guitarist of Aerosmith Joe Perry it's just a shame that the lyrics don't quite match up the awesome electric guitar but the theme song is still so freaking good.

Now then since this is an action show that means that we have to talk about the action that's in this episode. Which yeah is exactly what you'd think it would be like for a nineties animated action show in that there's not much action when there it's just two people fighting but that to me works in the episodes favour since the focus of the episode isn't the action it's the story being told and the characters but I still would have liked to better action tho.

Overall this episode wasn't that bad since it does a good job of setting up the world and the characters in the show. That being said however I do feel that this episode could have been since there are alot of issues with the episode which i've covered in this review but at the same time I feel that those issues serve as part of both the show and the episodes charm and so to change them would cause both the episode and the show to loose something and so this episode gets a 7 out of 10 from me.

All images used in this review were gathered from the official Marvel Animated Universe fandom wiki page and oddly enough nowhere else. I wasn't expecting tho find any of these images to be high definition and so I wasn't shocked at all to see that there are very little HD images as such I can't really recommend you use the official Marvel Animated Universe fandom wiki page but if you want to use it then I say go for it.

The Little Mermaid "Whale Of A Tale" Review

Disney fans the company has produced many animated films over the years and well some of those films were so popular that they eventually got there own TV series. Now how good those shows depends on who you ask but there is one thing that people cannot deney which this trend that Disney started started with The Little Mermaid and so I thought that i'd take a look at the very first episode of the show to see if it still holds up and so here is my review "Whale Of A Tale" enjoy.

The plot of the episode is Ariel and Flounder come across a baby killer whale and name it spot due to the spot on it's tail and the duo along with Sebastian are ordered by King Triton to train the whale before releasing it back into the wild. Plot wise the episode is pretty weak due to the fact that there aren't really any stakes and so there's no real reason as to why we the audience should be invested in the story but with that being said the story is exactly what you think of when you think of a TV show based on Disney's version of The Little Mermaid and it tells the story well enough that you barely notice any of the flaws that I just mentioned.

Reprising their roles from the film are Jodi Benson as Ariel , Samuel E. Wright as Sebastian and Kenneth Mars as King Triton. Joining them in this episode is Edan Gross as Flounder and Frank Welker as Spot. I love the fact that the crew behind the TV show actually reached out to get back as many of the original voice cast as they could since for many myself included these actors simply are these characters and so it makes sense that they would bring them back for the TV show instead of recasting all of the parts.

In terms of what I thought about the acting in the episode it was honestly a lot better then what I remember it being. Which for me is a very good thing but at the same time what makes the acting so good is the returning cast since they know these characters and so they know there character would react and how they would talk and so there performance feels true to the characters which is always a good thing.

Now this episode had animation provided by Walt Disney Animation Japan as well as Shanghai Animation Film Studio and Shanghai Morning Sun Animation. For an early nineties show the animation was alot better then it really had any right to be since alot of shows that came out around this time had animation that just looked cheap but nope here the animation actually good of course it's not on par with the movies but for a TV based of a movie it looks alot better then it really had any right to in my opinion.

This show is a prequel to the movie and so that means that you already know how this show and I guess this episode is going to end. Which I do consider to be a flaw for this episode since it makes the episode feel predictable which is a shame because given how the movie ended there's alot that you could do with a TV series set after the events of the movie but for some reason Disney went with a prequel series rather then a sequel series.

The heart of this episode for me at least is the friendship between Ariel and Spot without any dialog coming from Spot you get to see how much she means it / him which makes there bond a truly standout point of the episode. On the flip side of that you get to see Ariel become somewhat of a mother to Spot something which she even says herself in the episode and I thought that that was honestly a really interesting thing to do.

However the episode due to it's twenty four minuet running time can't really develop that or explore what it truly means to be a mother. As such it comes out of know where and doesn't play a part in the episode's climax Ariel just says it and that's it that's the only mention we get on the subject which is a shame because again there's alot you could do with that idea if the episode was given the proper time to fully develop that idea.

This episode and thus the show aired on CBS from 1992 to 1994 before moving over to the Disney Channel and Toon Disney Disney for reruns. What makes this episode however standout isn't where it aired but where's it didn't air because for some strange reason this episode isn't on Disney+ which is weird because Disney own the rights to the show and so they could have put up all the episodes but for some reason they added every episode barring this one for no reason whatsoever.

Now then boys and girls this is a musical comedy show and so we have to take a look at both of those aspects starting with the comedy. Which I honestly found to be rather hit and miss since for every good joke that the episode had there were two or three that followed it that didn't get a smile out of me which is a shame because they really went all out on the jokes but they just weren't that funny to me but given that all comedy is subjective maybe someone did find all the jokes in the episode to be freaking funny as all hell

Now that we've talked about the jokes in the episode let's now talk about the songs which were written by Jack Feldman. Yeah like the comedy both songs in this episode were very hit and miss for me with the first song "Just A Little Love" being in my opinion a pretty bad song which is full of early nineties cheesy music which dates it right away but on the flip side of that "You Got To Be You" is actually a pretty good song which oddly feels in keeping with the movie.

Overall this was a pretty fun episode but at the same given that it's a prequel and that Spot isn't mentioned in the film you know exactly what's going to happen. I can honestly see little kids or little girls getting more enjoyment out of this then little boys would but that's not to see that little boys will hate it it's just that this is a show aimed at little girls even so this episode gets a 7 out of 10 from this Disney fan.

All of the images that I used in this review were gathered from the official Disney fandom wiki page and for once nowhere else. I wasn't expecting alot of the images from the episode to be as high definition as they are but I was honestly shocked to see how many HD images there are of this episode and as such I have t recommend that you use the Disney fandom wiki page for any HD images from Disney owned shows or movies.

 

   

 

Victoria "Doll 123" Review

Now then guys and girls while I have done reviews of British TV episodes before they have mainly been Doctor Who episodes and well I wanted to branch out a little bit. As luck would have it I happen to have the first series of a British TV series on DVD and so this one really wasn't a tough choice at all and so I would add a touch of class to this review by reviewing the very first episode of Victoria with the episode being called "Doll 123" enjoy.

The plot of this episode is Princess Alexandrina Victoria of Kent inherits the throne of England after her uncle King William IV dies and so the new queen finds herself tested by both her new responsibilities and her loyalties. I have to say that I really did like the story that was being told in the episode altho the story for the episode would have been better suited being spread across the entire first series just because there's enough plot there to fill the entire first series of the show but like I said it was still an enjoyable story to see play out.

Starring in the episode and the rest of the series are Jenna Coleman as Alexandrina Victoria and Catherine Flemming as The Duchess of Kent. Also starring in the episode and the rest of the series are Daniela Holtz as Baroness Lehzen , Nell Hudson as Miss Skerett , Ferdinand Kingsley as Charles Francatelli , Tommy Knight as Brodie , Eve Myles as Mrs Jenkins , Paul Rhys as Sir John Conroy , Adrian Schiller as Penge , Peter Firth as The Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale and Rufus Sewell as Lord Melbourne.

To say that the acting in was superb would be a huge understatement because my god is the acting fantastic. I really cannot give the acting in this episode enough praise because every actor in this episode gives a truly great performance alot of that tho does come down to the script which was written by show creator Daisy Goodwin who gives each of the characters so many layers and so all the actors have to do is say her wonderfully written dialog and boom great performances by everyone in the shows cast.

Now there is some CGI in the episode and I cannot say for sure who it was done by but it was either Goodbye Kansas Studios , Milk VFX or Rowley SFX as all three are listed as providing CGI effects for the series. I honestly feel that the CGI in this episode was alot better then what it really had any right to be since when you hear of CGI being used in a TV series it usually means that the effects aren't that good and well the opposite is true here since all there doing really in enhancing what's already there and so the effects don't stand out as much and so they look just as stunning.

I've given this episode alot of praise and trust me ill be giving it alot more by the time this review is done but there is one thing I have to talk about. That's the fact that this episode packs so much into it hour and nine minuet running time that I wouldn't blame anyone if they said they found it hard to keep up because honestly I was the same and that's why I feel that several story elements from this episode would have been better served being spread across the entire first series since it makes this episode a little bit easier to follow and it eases the fans in to the show a little bit better.

It would be foolish of me to talk about this episode and not talk about Jenna Coleman because she's is just so freaking good not only in this episode but in this series. She fits this character perfectly and she does such a good such a good job portraying this truly iconic person. It would have been very easy for Jenna to slip up here because like I said she's playing an actual person but no she get's the character perfectly even down to her rebellious nature and quick wit which is something that I really loved in this episode.

I honestly cannot bash this episode that much because I really freaking love it because of how well written the episode is. Nothing in this episode feels like a cliche or feels like i've seen it done better in something else everything about this episode and about this script feels very original and that makes the episode more fun to watch since you really have no idea about what's coming next and for me that's a great thing.

Even tho this film episode is over an hour long we don't really get to find out alot about the side characters. Which is something that I kind of expected since this is a TV show and so they will get more into detail about these characters in later episodes but even so for a first episode we barely get any scenes with these characters which I honestly didn't like since we're also not really given a reason to care about the characters either.

As mentioned before this episode is an hour and nine minuets and it really doesn't feel like it in my opinion. Yes the episode does have the amount of story to cover that running time and the episode does take it's time telling the story and it helps that the pacing for the episode is overall really good but the pacing does get slightly bad near the end of the episode when scenes start to drag on but like I said overall the pacing is really good.

Now then boys and girls this is a drama and so that means that we have to talk about the drama that's in the episode itself. Honestly this episode wasn't really that heavy on the drama pr at least not as heavy as I thought that it was going to be since it's more focused on telling a good story and setting up the character of Victoria and all the other characters but what little drama we did get I thought was really well written and well acted.

Overall this episode was really stunning in every way possible and it's one that I highly recommend people track down and watch. Now I won't say that this is a perfect infact i've listed some of the issues that I found with the episode in this very review but this episode does a good job of making you want to see more from this show and that's one of the things that a good debut episode should do in my opinion and so this episode gets an 8.5 out of 10 from me.

All images used in this review were gathered from the UK Amazon and the official Victoria fandom wiki page. I'll straight up admit I wasn't hopeful that there would be any high definition images for this episode but I was pleasantly surprised by how many images that were high definition hell even the above image is pretty HD as such I have no choice but to recommend you use the official Victoria fandom wiki page if you like this series and want high definition images from the series or even this episode and in case your wondering where this show aired in the UK it aired on ITV and in America it aired on PBS.

 

 

My First Impressions Of Star Trek: Lower Decks

 

Well then here's a post I really wasn't planning on doing simply because I forgot that this show was even coming out this month. I was going to produce a first impressions of this show but I honestly thought that the show was coming out later in the year like September or October I honestly forgot that that it was coming out today and well since i've just seen the first episode here are my first impressions of "Star Trek: Lower Decks" enjoy.

I really wish that I could tell you the plot of this episode or this show for that matter however it seems like there's no plot to either one. This episode does have somewhat of a story about making contact with an alien race and helping them out but it's so thin that it might as well not even be there and just based of this episode there seems to be no plot to the actual show and so I have to wonder why should I get invested in these characters if the makers of the show aren't bothering to tell any kind of story whatsoever.

Starring in this episode and the rest of the rest of this series are Tawny Newsome as Ensign Beckett Mariner and Jack Quaid as Ensign Brad Boimler . Also starring in this episode and the rest of the series is Noël Wells as Ensign D'Vana Tendi , Eugene Cordero as Ensign Sam Rutherford , Dawnn Lewis as Captain Carol Freeman , Jerry O'Connell as Commander Jack Ransom , Fred Tatasciore as Lieutenant Shaxs and Gillian Vigman as Dr. T'Ana.

Acting wise this episode does fair a little bit better in my opinion since all of the actors are clearly trying to give a good performance. However the issue is that the actors aren't given a good enough script and so they have nothing to work of when it comes to something like character and so even tho the actors are clearly trying to make this script work they just can't because the script won't allow them to.

Doing the animation for this episode and this series is Titmouse who have worked on so many TV shows , video games and film's that it would take me all day just to list all of there credits. Now I say this as a fan of Titmouse and what they've produced but the animation in this episodes while it is OK it's clearly not the studios best work which is a shame because when the animation in this episode wants to be good it can be good to look at but then there are times where the animation looks pretty bad and that makes me wonder who gave this animation the OK.

Now then this episode seems to be like a parody of Star Trek the issue is we already have a show like that called The Orville. Honestly The Orville is alot closer in spirit and tone to Star Trek then Star Trek: Lower Decks seems to be since The Orville is made by people who understand what made Star Trek such a phenomenon in the first place while also pointing out a few of the more funnier aspects of the show.

While the show was being promoted I saw lots of videos on Youtube comparing this show to The Orville which is fair enough. However none of them pointed out the obvious thing and that is the fact that the show visually looks alot like Final Space which I don't get because that was the first thing that you notice is that it looks like a cheap version of Final Space hell it's even an adult comedy so it looks like the makers of this show saw an episode on Final Space one night and decided to remake aspects of that show only they added the Star Trek name so it would get alot more media attention.

As with anything to do with Star Trek this show is being aired on CBS All Access because god forbid another network airs a Star Trek show. This also means that if you live in anywhere accept America then your screwed because there are currently no release dates for this show internationally but the team is hard at work on getting that fixed and so if you like Star Trek then chances are you'll have to wait a little bit longer to watch this show in other countries.

I want it known that even tho i've said some negative things about this show i'm not entirely against the show. Since it could serve as a way to introduce new fans to the world of Star Trek which at the end of the day is a good thing since it would hopefully get them to watch the classic episodes and movies be they from the original series , The Next Generation or the various other Star Trek shows I only hope that the fans that this show does create don't turn out like the new Star Wars fans where they bash everything that came before Disney buying Lucasfilm.

Since this is a comedy because clearly The Orville wasn't enough of a parody of Star Trek that means we have to talk about the jokes in the episode. Which for me personally was very hit and miss for every joke that got a smile out of me there were several that followed that didn't even get that , yes all comedy is subjective but when your jokes can't even get someone to smile then you've clearly told an unfunny joke.

Overall I cannot say that this was a good pilot because it's honestly not it does everything that a pilot episode shouldn't do. As such I don't really see my self watching this series on a weekly basis however it is one that I can see myself checking in on every few weeks just to see if it's improve however since this is the e first episode im not going to give it a rating since I want to see if this show improves or not but im not that hopeful.

All images used in this review were gathered from either the official Star Trek fandom wiki page , Google Images or The Orville Season 1 fandom wiki page. I will admit that the images from the fandom wiki page's as high definition as I thought that they would be but i'm shocked that there aren't that many high definition images of this show on Google Images as such I can't really recommend the Star Trek fandom wiki page just because they don't have that many images for this show but here's hoping they upload some soon.

 

Hulk Hogan's Rock 'N' Wrestling "The Junkyard 500" And "Junkenstein" Review

Wrestling fans very rarely do I get to talk about both cartoons and wrestling and well I found a cartoon that not alot of not only wrestling fans but also cartoon lovers don't know about and i've seen it's debit episode. Let me tell you something brother this debut episode is really freaking something and incase your wondering why there are two episode names in the review well i'll get into that later but for now here is my review of the first episode of "Hulk Hogan's Rock 'N' Wrestling" called "The Junkyard 500" and "Junkenstein" enjoy.

The plot for the first half of the episode which is called "The Junkyard 500" is that Junkyard Dog and Rowdy Roddy Piper decide to have a race to see whose car will get put into a movie where as the plot of the second half of the episode which is called "Junkenstein" involves Junkyard Dog and André the Giant building a Frankenstein type creature that then decides to destroy the town the wrestlers live in. Oh boy where do I begin first of the plot to the second half of the episode is weird and really doesn't make sense even for a cartoon and the plot to the first half of the episode is so rushed that it's over before it even begins both of which are very bad things.

Starring in these episodes and the rest of the series are Brad Garrett as Hulk Hogan and Charlie Adler as Rowdy Roddy Piper. Also starring in these episodes and the rest of the series is Lewis Arquette as Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka , Uncle Phil as Junkyard Dog , Jodi Carlisle as Wendi Richter and  The Fabulous Moolah , George DiCenzo as Captain Lou Albano , Ron Feinberg as André the Giant , Pat Fraley as Hillbilly Jim , Ron Gans as Nikolai Volkoff , Ernest Harada as Mr. Fuji , Aron Kincaid as The Iron Sheik , Chuck Licini as Big John Studd , Joey Pento as Tito Santana and Neil Ross as Mean Gene Okerlund.

Oh boy how do I describe the acting in these two episodes let me put it like this the acting in these two episodes makes the acting in Captain Marvel look OSCAR worthy by comparison. That's how bad the acting in these two episodes are don't get me wrong the actors are clearly doing there best but there not really given anything to work with in terms of character or personality but I will admit that Brad Garrett does a really good Hulk Hogan impression so there's that at least.

Doing the animation for these segments and the rest of the series is i'm assuming DIC Entertainment since there's no listed animation company. I will give the animation this for being a cheap cash in there is a lot more effort thrown into the animation then what is really needed but with that being said yikes is the animation in these two episodes pretty freaking bad even for an eighties cartoon the animation is really bad.

The worst thing that I can say about the animation is that it looks cheap nothing about the animation in these episodes looks expensive it looks like it was thrown together over a weekend. Which should never be the case I don't know if the WWE then WWF gave DIC any money for the project or if the series was solely funded by DIC but there needed to be more money thrown at the series so that the quality of the animation could have been better.

I sad that I would explain why there are two episode names in the title of this review and well i'm a man of my word. Each episode would either have one twenty two minuet episode or two eleven minuets segments and in the case of this episode there are two eleven minuet segments why they couldn't make up there mind of a format for the show is truly beyond me since it would make the show feel more consistent but what do I know I just watch cartoons and wrestling all of the freaking time it's not like I was the target auidence for this show or anything.

Speaking of the wrestling there is no wrestling at all in these two episodes which to me is weird since it's a show based on a wrestler and has wrestlers as it's main cast. As such you'd think that the makers of the show would think of a way to include actual wrestling somewhere in these segments but nope they don't in fact it feels like there going out of there way to ignore the wrestling aspect of it's characters but it could also be because of either censors or parents groups and not the fault of the show makers or those involved with making the show.

Each segment both started and ended with a live action segment featuring the actual real life wrestlers from the show. Which makes me question even more why they just didn't cast them to voice there characters since they were already involved with the show with these segments so why not have them join the show as the voice cast as much as I love the voice actors that they got for this show it makes no sense in having them when you already have there real life counterparts filming live action segments for the show.

For those that don't know this show ran for two seasons starting on September 14th 1985 and ending on October 18th 1986 and was broadcast on CBS. As far as I can tell the only way that you can watch the show right now is on Youtube since as far as I know it's been scrubbed completely from the WWE Network and there are no DVD's released however if you still have a VHS player for some reason you can still find VHS tapes of the show on Ebay UK and I assume the American Ebay.

Now then since there is alot more comedy in these episodes then there is actual wrestling that means I have to talk about the jokes in these episodes. Which are just the typical jokes you'd find in a Saturday morning cartoon in that there not really that funny but at the same time I can see kids in the eighties laughing at some of the stuff that happens in these episodes but all comedy is subjective and so just because I didn't find the episodes funny doesn't mean that you guys won't you guys might find these episodes to be funny as hell.

Overall I can't say that this is a bad show because it wasn't really made for me nor was it made for my generation. It was made for the wrestling fan that grew up in the eighties and who grew up watching Hulk Hogan and these wrestlers but that doesn't make it a good show and it doesn't make these segments any good either in fact I think that these segments are fairly bad as such this episode gets a 4 out of 10 from me.

All images used in this review were gathered from the Pro Wrestling fandom wiki page , Wikipedia and Google Images. Honestly I wasn't expecting to find any high definition images for this episode and yeah I got exactly what I expected as such I can't really recommend any of the websites but if I was pushed i'd say use the Pro Wrestling fandom wiki page just because they have alot of images from the episodes but that's just me tho.

 

Hannah Montana "Lilly, Do You Want to Know a Secret?" Review

Disney fans you've seen me review episodes of animated shows before but I thought that i'd something a little bit different and instead take a look at an episode from a live action Disney Channel show. I thought that i'd do this because honestly no one talks about these shows which is odd because alot of us grew up watching these shows and so why shouldn't we talk about them anyways here is my review of the very first episode of Hannah Montana "Lilly, Do You Want to Know a Secret?" enjoy.

Now I would like to talk about the plot of this episode however there really isn't one which is perhaps the episodes biggest issue. Since there's no plot there's also no reason for me to invested in the characters and the story it's just alot of stuff happening for no reason and very little of what happens as we now know has a lasting impact on the show itself so it makes me wonder why they went with this episode to start of the show when they could have had one with a stronger story or an any story would have worked much better in the long run.

Starring in this episode and the rest of the series is Miley Cyrus as Miley Stewart/Hannah Montana , Emily Osment as Lilly Truscott , Mitchel Musso as Oliver Oken , Jason Earles as Jackson Stewart and Billy Ray Cyrus as Robby Ray Stewart. Guest starring in the episode are Shanica Knowles as Amber Addison , Anna Maria Perez De Tagle as Ashley Dewitt , Matt Winston as Fermine and Corbin Bleu as Johnny Collins.

As we all know the acting in any live action Disney Channel comedy is never that good and yeah the same is true here. All of the kid actors are overacting in every single scene there in and the adult actors are under acting with them barely putting in any kind of emotion. I honestly expected bad acting from the child actors because they are kids after all but not from the adult actors who should have put in some form of effort.

Now this was a show that i've grown up watching and i've seen all of the main cast from this episode in other things. As such it was a shock to me to see how young they all looked in this episode it honestly took me a second just to remember that this is how they all looked back in 2005 because i'm so used to seeing them all alot older I had completely forgotten what they all looked like when they were alot younger.

Honestly if this pilot was being aired today then it would get alot of negative attention due to the character of Fermine as played badly by Matt Winston. Just because the character the stereotypical gay fashion designer which trust me would get alot of people both on the internet and of the internet pretty freaking angry and honestly it makes me wonder why people haven't called this show out yet since they like to call out people over every little thing.

Honestly watching this episode again was weird as hell for me because it was like tacking trip back in time seeing all this old technology that's present in this episode. As well as seeing how this looks like a show made in the year 2005 which is honestly something that you don't get these days since the Disney Channel shows look like they could have been made in anytime even tho they always make use of whatever modern day technology is going around plus it was freaking weird to see old school flip up phones.

Yeah as top be expected there's drama in this episode and yeah it's not really handled well at all given the running time the writers did the best that they could do with the drama but if they had an actual story to tell and a longer running time then the drama would have worked alot better. As it is tho that big dramatic scene that all comedies have just doesn't work since we have to no reason to care for the characters and because the whole episode needs this drama to work the episode fails when the drama itself fails.

One of the biggest issues that many had when this episode was released is the fact that there are to many song interludes. Which isn't the case there's only about three which for this kind of show is the norm but with that being said they are all the exact same song so if you didn't like the song the first time your going to hate it by the end of the episode and so I don't know why they didn't include a mixture of songs just to keep those segments from feeling the same.

Yeah to say that the jokes in this film didn't really age very well would be a huge freaking understatement. Since yeah this episode really isn't that funny at all at least in my opinion anyways they depend so much on the stereotypical jokes of "your my brother and so your disgusting in every way possible" which just isn't funny it's lazy and alot of the times laugh track would go of when nothing funny was even happening or being said.

Overall i'm honestly shocked that they made anymore episodes after this episode since it's not that good of an episode. With that being said tho I can very easily see young girls still finding this episode to be funny and the song catchy but as someone who grew up with this show it's not really an episode that has aged well and so I have to again wonder why the creators didn't pick a stronger episode to be the premier episode as such this episode gets a 4 out of 10 from this long time Disney fan.

All images used in this review were gathered from either the official Hannah Montana fandom wiki page , the official Disney fandom wiki page and Google Images. Yeah i;m not going to lie the image quality is exactly what I expected from a show made in 2005 but with that being said there are some images that blew me away with how high quality they are as such I really cannot recommend any of these websites for high definition images of this episode but if you want to use any of these websites then I say go for it.