Elena Of Avalor "First Day Of Rule" Review

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

The Perils Of Penelope Pitstop "Jungle Jeopardy" Review

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

 

Superman: Man Of Tomorrow Review

 

Ladies and gents we have a tradition here which is whenever a new DC direct to DVD movie comes out I get the review out the exact same day. Well a new animated direct to DVD DC film has just been released and sadly due to all the news that came out either yesterday or during the night depending on where you live not alot of people are going to know about or talk about this film and so here is my review of "Superman: Man Of Tomorrow" enjoy.

The plot of the movie is Lobo and a creature known as Parasite have there sights set on a new superhero called Superman and so it's up the last son of krypton and his new friend J'onn J'onzz to stop them before it's to late. I honesty feel that the plot of this movie is perhaps it's weakest aspect since it's so thin that at times it left me wondering what the actual plot of the movie was which should never be the case for any kind of movie direct to DVD or not.

Starring in the film are Darren Criss as Clark Kent/Superman , Alexandra Daddario as Lois Lane and Star Trek reboot film franchise star Zachary Quinto as Lex Luthor. Also starring in the film is former Agents Of Shield star Brett Dalton as Parasite , Ryan Hurst as Lobo , Ike Amadi as J'onn J'onzz/Martian Manhunter , The Janitor himself Neil Flynn as Jonathan Kent , Bellamy Young as Martha Kent , Piotr Micheal as Perry White and Jessica Cruz voice actress the one and only Cristina Milizia as Maya, Petey and Kaylie.

The acting in the film I feel to be one of the film's stronger aspects since alot of the actors in this film do a really job at portraying these iconic characters. Just because the acting is one of the best things about the film doesn't however mean that alot of the acting is that good because it's not there are some fairly average performances coming from some solid actors and that to me at least brings the film down since a story like this demands solid performances from all of the cast not just a small majority of the cast.

Doing the animation for the film is a company called The Answer Studio don't worry if you haven't heard of them I honestly haven't done either. After seeing the animation in this film tho i'm inclined to see what else they've worked on since the overall quality of the animation in this film I felt to be rather good altho with that being said there was one thing that bugged me and that was the rather thick lines they give the characters which to me was very distracting and it really wasn't needed in the film in my opinion since it took me out of the film at various points and it just looked weird on any of the characters.

Now this film was due to have it's premier take place yesterday during DC Fandome but for some reason the premier was cancelled. The official story being that they wanted to avoid the film being pirated which given that the film was getting a digital release a few hours later seems a rather bad reason to cancel the premier since alot of people will most likely use other methods to see this film anyways.

As mentioned this film came out when DC was holding there big DC Fandome event where they dropped alot of news. As such I feel that this movie is going to get swept under the rug just due to all the news that came out of the event and all the trailers that they dropped which is a shame because I do feel that this is a good movie and as such I do feel that people should talk about this movie even if it's just in there mouths for a few hours.

As you can no doubt work out by the fact your seeing this review on a Sunday DC chose to release this film on a Sunday instead of there traditional release of Tuesday. On the one hand I can see why they chose to do this because again DC Fandome was the night before and so people would be in this DC craze but at the same time I feel that releasing it on a Tuesday would help the movie more since alot more people would be in tuned to buy the movie then because that's what they are more used to buying the movie.

Now as the plot synopsis would tell you this is basically an origin movie for the character of Superman but the issue with that is we know that he's going to make it out alive. This isn't really a knock on the film since telling an origin film for Superman is indeed a good idea and while there are certain things that I can't talk about due to spoilers your just going to have to trust me when I say that this idea could have been done better.

This film is one of the longer direct to DVD DC films with the film cocking in at one hour and twenty six minuets long. Which to me is a bit on the long side for this film which honestly could have told this story just fine in hour and fifteen minuets but as it is there are portions of the film which do feel boring and stretched out which did cause me to loose interest in the film at several points which is honestly something that i've never said before now and is something that I hope to never say again at any point in the future.

Now then since this is an action film that does mean that we have to talk about the action that's in the film itself. Which like the acting is one of the films more stronger elements since the action in the film I feel is very entertaining and is honestly where the film shines since we get to see alot of really cool looking stuff happen hell even Parasite gets some cool moments in the final action scene and without giving anything away Parasite does something in the final battle which made me think of Godzilla i'm not saying what but when you see the film you'll know exactly what i'm talking about.

Overall this is a really solid film i'm not going to say that it's the best direct to DVD DC animated film out there but it's not the worst one either. To me this film feels very middle of the road since for everything that it gets right it gets alot more wrong which is a shame because on paper this film could be really good hell on paper it should be one of the best DC animated direct to DVD films but it's just not as such this film gets a 6.5 out of 10 from me.

All images used in this review were gathered from either the official DC movies fandom wiki page , Google Images and the official Batman fandom wiki page. I have to say due to the fact that the official DC movies fandom wiki page only has two images the best place to get images for this film is easily Google Images even tho they range from high definition to pretty low definition it's better then nothing at all and if you want to buy this film it's out right now on digital platforms and well be out on both DVD and blu-ray on September 8th 2020.

The Simpsons "Grampa vs. S****l Inadequacy" Review

 

Ladies and gentlemen i've reviewed alot of thing when it comes to animation and given that i've had alot of fun this past week i've decided to continue this trend for the foreseeable future. Since doing these reviews of animated episodes has allowed me to take a look at things that I normally such as the case with this review i've never thought of taking a look at a Simpsons until now and so here is my review of season 6 episode 10 of The Simpsons called "Grampa vs. S****l Inadequacy" and yes I will be editing the name of the episode but still enjoy the review anyway guys and girls.

The plot of the episode is Marge and Homer are having marriage problems shall we say and Grampa gives Homer a Tonic which actually helps things and so the duo get the idea to sell the tonic but things aren't that simple. The plot I found to be rather enjoyable and at the same time it was exactly what I expected from an episode of The Simpsons when it was in it's prime but at the same time the subplot with Bart and the kids or Springfield trying to adjust to life without there parents goes nowhere and the overall plot does seem rushed which given the twenty two minuet running time is rather understandable but it's still an issue.

Starring in this episode is Dan Castellaneta as Homer Simpson , Joe Quimby , Grampa and Barney Gumble. Also starring in the episode is  Julie Kavner as Marge Simpson , Nancy Cartwright as Bart Simpson , Nelson Muntz and Ralph Wiggum , Yeardley Smith as Lisa Simpson , Phil Hartman as Troy McClure , Harry Shearer as Al Gore , Ned Flanders and Dr. Hibbert , Hank Azaria as Raphael and Professor Frink , Maggie Roswell as Maude Flanders and Mrs. Frink and Pamela Hayden as Milhouse Van Houten.

Now I know that chances are I missed of a few actors and characters but the cast list and character list for even one episode is huge and so I had to cut it down. As for what I thought about the acting in this episode considering that all of these actors are legends due to this show it goes without saying that there performances are pretty spot on all of the main actors and even the guest actors in this episode do a really freaking good job.

Doing the episode for this episode and im assuming the entire series is Film Roman Productions who worked on the show between season 4 to season 27. Now im sucker for The Simpsons when it's in it's prime because I honestly feel that everything is better in those seasons and the same is true for the animation in this episode which while it's nowhere close to fantastic is alot better then animation seen when the show was dipping in quality.

Now I do kind of have a history when it comes to watching this episode because I started watching this episode along with a bunch of others when I was very young thanks to The Simpsons Too Hot For TV VHS. Which me and my younger brother watched alot growing up and so I know this episode inside out since for a long time it was the only Simpsons piece of home media that I had it's just a shame that I either lost or gave away that VHS tape because it must be worth a small fortune now.

This to me is a solid example of what the show was like when it was in it's prime because the episode is so well written and so so adult. I would honestly point to episodes like this if people needed proof that The Simpsons is an adult cartoon because the more recent seasons have made the show more kid friendly and that takes away from alot of what they can satire because there not aloud to put that much of there own spin on things now due to the fact that they've gone a more child friendly route which is a shame because when it wants to be The Simpsons can more adult then most adult cartoons out there which is really saying something in my own humble opinion.

This episode does try to introduce a conflict between Abe and Homer and while it is handled slightly well. The issue that I have with it is that not only does it come out nowhere it also gets resolved really quickly which is a shame because there conflict with Abe admitting that Homer was an accident is honestly shocking but it's something that comes out of nowhere with little to no build up and so what could have been a truly interesting as it is it's just there.

One of the biggest issues of this episode is something that i've already touched on earlier in the review and that's the fact that they drop a whole subplot involving Bart and the kids of Springfield trying to work out what's happening to the adults. This is honestly something that should have been wrapped up since alot of time is spent developing the plot line and so to see it get dropped entirely just make the scenes that advance that plot line seem pointless since it goes nowhere and adds up to nothing which is a shame because it could have been a funny subplot or at least I think it could have been a funny subplot anyways.

I like the fact that this episode showed us how good of a father Abe was to Homer since there are a ton of times where Homer says that Abe was bad father. As such it's nice to see  an episode that tells us that that wasn't always the case Abe wasn't a bad father he was a good father who was just trying to do the best that he could which us something that I don't think we had seen up until this point in the shows history.

                                                                                 

Now then since this is a comedy that does mean that we have to talk about the jokes that are in this episode. I honestly think that this episode was really funny there are alot of good jokes in this episode and alot of them work really well with my favourite joke being when there in the library Marge and Homer try and lie to there kids about the kind of books there looking at and they pick out books that you don't want kids to see or even some adults to see you reading which I just thought was really freaking funny.

Overall I don't think that it needs saying but I really did enjoy this episode nostalgia aside it was a really funny and well written episode. That doesn't make the episode perfect tho since as i've mentioned in this very review I did have some issues with this episode which is a shame because if these issues were fixed I would say that this is a perfect Simpsons episode but as it is this episode gets an 8 out of 10 from me.

All the images I used in this review where gathered from the official fandom wiki page for The Simpsons and nowhere else. I fully admit I wasn't expecting these images to be high definition and so I wasn't that shocked to see that alot of the images weren't high definition but since I only went to the official Simpsons fandom wiki page I have no choice but to recommend that website for images from either this episode , the show or anything to do with The Simpsons.

Batman "Pretty Poison" Review

 

Batman fans it's been nearly two months since I last talked about anything from the classic Batman: The Animated Series. Well I thought that i'd rectify that by taking a look at another episode from the show but choosing just one episode from a see a solid episodes was a hard choice and so I chose an episode that I honestly have not seen and after watching it i'm kicking myself because such a good episode and so here is my review of the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Pretty Poison" enjoy.

The plot of the episode is after Harvey Dent is poisoned while in a date Batman has to find out who the culprit is and why they did it. I will say that even tho I had this originally written this part of the review to not include who the culprit is it quickly came to me that it would to hard to do the review with all the images and the cast list which have the character listed but I will say that the plot of the episode is so freaking good that you should watch it anyways.

Starring in the episode is the great and only voice of Batman in my opinion Kevin Conroy as Batman / Bruce Wayne and Richard Moll as Harvey Dent. Also starring in the episode Richard Moll as Harvey Dent , Efrem Zimbalist Jr. as Alfred Pennyworth , Diane Pershing as Poison Ivy / Pamela Lillian Isley , Ingrid Oliu as Officer Renée Montoya , Lloyd Bochner as Mayor Hamilton Hill , Robert Costanzo as Detective Harvey Bullock and Bob Hastings as Commissioner James Gordon.

As to be expected from this show the acting in the episode is top freaking notch which is something that I wouldn't usually say but for this show it really does deserve it. All of the actors in this episode do such a good job and it helps that the script for the episode is so good with all of the characters having alot of personality and so all the actors have to do is just say the lines and they'd have a great performance , I honestly can never praise the acting in this series enough because it really is so freaking good it's in my opinion the best acted as well as best written Batman show animated or not that's out there that's how good it all is.

Now then boys and girls this series had a different animation studio working on each episode as such the animation for this episode was done by Sunrise. I don't think that this needs saying but i'm going to say it anyway the animation in this episode is so freaking good every background and every character movement leaps of the screen it really does go to show that Warner Bros threw alot of money at this show.

Speaking of the backgrounds I freaking love them not only in this episode but in the show as a whole simply because they add to the atmosphere of the show. This show is filled with tension in every scene and the backgrounds help with that because how gothic they look to out it bluntly the backgrounds in this show could almost be seen as works of art they are that good and that stunning to look at and i'm surprised that people haven't talked much about them.

In case you couldn't tell by the episodes name or the fact that I listed the character when listing the actors but the main villain of this episode is one Poison Ivy. Yeah I really liked how they did her in this episode they made her out to be this femme fatale type of character with her using her charms to get exactly what she wants and that to me is perfect for the character of Poison Ivy since she is someone who hates the race f men for what there doing to the earth and so she would have no issue with using her charm to lure her male suitors to there death if need be.

This episode I believe is one of many that let's us get to truly know the character of Harvey Dent as played by Richard Moll. I honestly believe that letting us get to know Harvey before he becomes Two-Face is such a smart move because the origins of Two-Face is a tragic one and you can only really feel that tragedy when you've really gotten to know the man behind the monster as such this honestly works because when doe does eventually become the villain we really do feel it because we've had all of this time to get to know him.

Now sadly this episode isn't perfect because it does fail on a few things the first of which being the most important thing for any batman product and that's the mystery. This isn't really a fault of the episode itself but the name of the episode gives away who did it and so there's no more mystery because we know who did it and so all we have to do is find out the why and it also means that we are ahead of the main character which should never be the case at all in my opinion.

The other thing that I thought the episode did wrong was the fact that this was a single parter to me this episode would have had much more of an impact if it was at least two episodes. This way you could have that cliffhanger of if Harvey is going to make it out alive or not , doing this in one episode means that any suspense that you could build up you now can't because it has to be resolved in twenty two minuets.

Now then since this is an action show and there is some action in this episode that does mean that we have to talk about the action that's in this episode. I honestly feel that the action this episode while it was indeed pretty good that's all it was which for a series as good as this is not a good thing whatsoever and the fact that there's very little action to me just makes a great episode feel boring because we already know who the culprit is and so there's nothing that interesting to keep us watching the episode in my opinion.

Overall like I said this is a well written episode which shouldn't come as a shock since the writer of this episode Tom Ruegger also created and wrote Animaniacs and Tiny Toon Adventures. That being said the episode does have it's fair share of problems all of which keep the episode from being as good as we know this series can be but with that said this is still an rather enjoyable episode as such it gets a 7.5 out of 10 from me.

All images used in this review were gathered from either the official Batman fandom wiki page or the official Batman: The Animated Series fandom wiki page. I'll admit I wasn't expecting these images to be anywhere close to high definition and apart from the poster which is very HD I got exactly what I expected as such I cannot recommend either website because the quality of the images is the about the same on either one. 

 

  

Ewoks AKA Star Wars: Ewoks "The Cries Of The Trees" Review

 

Star Wars fans I promised you that I would be taking another trip to a galaxy far , far away and well I truly did mean it. For you see both this show and Droids were airing at the same time under the name The Ewoks and Droids Adventure Hour but where as Droids was made for the more adult Star Wars fans the show that i;m reviewing today was made for the younger Star Wars fans and of here is my review of the first episode of Ewoks AKA Star Wars: Ewoks called "The Cries Of The Trees" so then both Star Wars fans and animation fans alike enjoy.

The plot of the episode is an evil witch called Morag captures Queen Izrina (a fairy) and puts a spell on her so is forced to set the forest where Wicket and the other Ewoks live and so it's up and all of the ewoks to put the fire out before the whole forest is burnt down. For a show aimed at little kids the plot was shockingly alot better then what I thought it was going to be I honestly went into this episode expecting it to be pretty light hearted but nope it couldn't be further from that in fact the episode was pretty freaking dark and I loved that as well as the story.

Starring in the show is voice acting legend Cree Summer as Kneesaa , Jim Henshaw as Wicket and Jackie Burroughs as Morag. Also starring in the show is George Buza as Chief Chirpa , Doug Chamberlain as Logray , Paul Chato as Paploo , Alyson Court as Malani , Don Francks as Umwak , Pam Hyatt as Bozzie , Taborah Johnson as Latara , Eric Peterson as Teebo and John Stocker as Widdle Warrick. 

As for the acting in the episode it's alot better then the acting in one of the more recent shows i've watched which is Wuzzles but that's not a nigh bar to reach at all. I honestly feel that out of the two Star Wars cartoons that I watched this one has the better acting and that's because just based of this episode of course but the script is better and when you have a good script the actors are of course going to deliver a great performance.

Just like with Droids the animation for not only this episode but also the series was provided by Nelvana. I admit that I wasn't expecting the animation in this series to be good or even passable for that matter and so you can imagine my surprise when it turned out that the animation was actually really good yes it's not as good as something from say Disney for example but it's alot better then it had any right to be.

Unlike with Droids where they made some slight colour changes to C-3PO here Wicket is not only the same colour wise as he is in Return Of The Jedi but his design is actually pretty freaking close to what he looked in Return Of The Jedi as well. I of course have to single out Wicket because he's the only returning character from the films and they honestly did a good job of making him look like his film counterpart and making him look adorable as hell.

In terms of the timeline of when this show is meant to take place I think it's meant to take place before Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure. Which in turn takes place before Return Of The Jedi so what we have here ladies and gentlemen is a prequel set before another prequel which does mean that this episode and thus this show has the same trappings that all prequels that feature the same characters have in that we already know that there going to make it out alive and so there's no suspense at all.

What kind of is confusing is the fact that in both of the Ewok films and Return Of The Jedi the ewoks cannot speak English hell they barely speak broken English. Yet in this episode and thus this show they speak perfect English and speak in full sentences which really doesn't make any kind of sense whatsoever and this is perhaps the only time where Disney not making stuff canon is a good thing since it now clears up the fact that the Ewoks cannot speaking English that well and so they don't speak English in full sentences.

To me this is better then Droids was and alot of what makes it better comes from the fact that this show in some way expands upon the world of Star Wars. Since before this series aired we had no idea that there were other races living on Endor we just knew that the Ewoks lived there and yet this very episode tells us that there are more races living on the planet and so from that we can gather that some of them would have most likely helped out in Return Of The Jedi.

Now it's not all good i'm afraid since the opening theme song to this show is freaking terrible luckily I cannot find the name of the song. The theme song that they use for this show just doesn't match up with the fun nature of the show at all if anything some thing like Yub Nub would have worked more since it's a song from the movies and it's a fun song the song they have here is very downbeat and just doesn't go well with the show at all.

Now both for it's first season Ewoks aired alongside Droids as part of a programming block called The Ewoks and Droids Adventure Hour. However when Droids didn't return for a second season and Ewoks did the name of the programming block was changed to The All-New Ewoks and infact this show actually lasted longer then Droids did since this show started on ABC on September 7th 1985 and ended on December 13th 1986 so it lasted one season more then Droids did.

Overall I honestly think that this show is alot better then Droids simply because it's not only in a format that better suits these characters in that it's episodic and is made for little kids but it's also expands on the world of Star Wars. Now im not going to say that this episode is perfect because it's honestly not and so to say so would be freaking dumb but out of the two Star Wars cartons that we got in the eighties i'd rather watch this then Droids any day of the week as such this episode gets a 6.5 out of 10 from this Star Wars fans.

All images that I used in this review were gathered from either the official Star Wars fandom wiki page or Google Images. Just like with Droids I wasn't expecting to find any high definition images for this episode and so I wasn't surprised when I couldn't find any at all as such I really can't recommend either website but if I was pushed i'd say use either website since the images your going to find are of the same quality and so it makes no difference whatsoever.