The Final Episode #42: The Raccoons (1985 - 1992)

 

Well, Usually with my Facebook group I pick 5 shows and we vote on them, once one of those shows is gone we vote on the other four and I do all five shows before I go on to do anything else. It works out pretty well because they were all shows I planned to talk about. Right now there's a poll for 4 shows going on right now and only one vote. I'm impatient and I just want to talk about another TV shows ending so I decided to just do an different show. This show has been rattling around in my brain for a little while and maybe talking about it will put in the back of my mind again. Anyway I've decided that we will talk about the Canadian cartoon series The Raccoons.

I've said on this silly blog many times that the smoothest liar of all is memory. I stand by that. You could be certain about so many things but be proven to be wrong. Not saying we shouldn't trust our memories but if say money is on the line don't be 100% certain. Check that shit out. Anyway my memory was wrong again and I thought this show was animated by Nelvana. I had like at least a paragraph talking about how much I liked a good amount of Nelvana's output. They were a really neat Canadian cartoon animation company. Anyway that will have to wait till I talk about The Care Bears Family or Babar or one of their other shows.

The animation companies that did this show were Atkinson Film-Arts (sadly I do not think that Rowan Atkinson worked on these cartoons but it would have been cool if  he did because I am a big fan of Mr. Bean). They animated the first four specials and the first season in 1985. They animated the original Care Bears specials. So I get to mention the Care Bears more than once in this article instead of just once if I was correct about this show actually being animated by Nelvana. That's always a plus. I love those fuzzy rascals. At least I imagine Care Bears to be fuzzy. They would also help DIC Entertainment, the greatest of all American animation companies in animating Dennis the Menace and The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin. Then Kevin Gillis the creator of the Raccoons created his own animation studio with Sheldon Wiseman called Gillis-Wiseman Productions. 

So I must talk to the people in America about something. In Canada we have to have at least I believe 60% Canadian Content on our TV shows. They are not too picky with what counts. I mean Sailor Moon and The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin count as Canadian content because Canadian animation studios or voice actors worked on the show with the American people.. Yes, everyone in the original Sailor Moon dub was Canadian. No, I don't know why they used terms like Dweezil (I think that was the term wasnt it) to insult people. That might be a Vancouver thing. Probably is. People in Vancouver are weird.  Very very few of the cartoons and shows made purely by Canadians were good. They just felt forced and shitty. I mean I need to talk to you people about Yvon of the Yukon or Mega Babies sometimes. I pretty much skipped an insane amount of Canadian content because it was piss poor. The Raccoons is one of the exceptions to this rule.

The Raccoons was about several Raccoons living in a Raccoondominum. Melissa and Ralph were a married couple and Bert was their friend. They ran a newspaper and ran afoul of the big bad industrialist Cyril Sneer. Cyril was the name of my Grandfather. I like that name. It's fun to say and fun to type. Cyril Sneer had 3 Pig henchmen who were my favorite part of the show alongside Bert Raccoon. They were a hoot and a half to watch. That's almost an extra hoot there people! You don't give out hoots for nothing! Cyril had a son Cederic who was the nerdiest cartoon character of all time. OF ALL TIME. Then again have you ever heard of someone named Cedric who wasn't incredibly nerdy? Of course not. They also had some side characters like a sheepdog and a crocodile who was married to a chicken. 

The Final Episode of the Raccoons was entitled Go for Gold and it appeared on March 11, 1991 in Canada and an entire year later in the USA. August 28th, 1992. 3 Days before my 7th birthday. I hope you Americans celebrated that by watching this episode! Anyway this episode has Cyril Sneer retiring because he has what I think was a heart attack. He just collapses at his desk and is told to stop working. This ends up with Cedric becoming the head of Sneer Enterprises. He ends up meeting with a guy named Mr. Steel and he well swindles the hell out of him. for a Million Dollars.

You might be wondering how he swindles Cedric well he's going to do a triathlon with TV coverage and Ads and everything. Except the TV Coverage is just him covering it with one damn camera. The ad is so small people wouldn't even notice it. AND he gets his son Rod Steel to help him. Rod Steel is like jacked as FUCK. He also cheats. But you've seen this episode even if you haven't seen this cartoon. A ton of cartoons did this plot. It's the "RACE" episode. I don't mean race as in skin color I mean race as in running and shit. Care Bears did it (TWICE). The Simpsons did a soapbox derby race thing. It was a very popular plot to use during my time. The Raccoons does this plot well but it's also the 9,000 time you've seen this plot. No matter how well it's done you get pretty darn bored of it.

 I just want to talk about Cyril Sneer who I think was an interesting villain. He started out as pretty much wanting to destroy all of the Evergreen Forest just to make money. I should also mention that he's an Aardvark. and he's Pink. I don't think Aardvarks live in Canadian forests. Or are pink. But over the course of the show he was shown to have shades of gray. He helps Bentley a kid Raccoon from running away by telling him about how running away ruined his life. He literally throws money at the pigs when he finds out they ruined a place in the forest that even he cared about (It was a pond that everyone thought was their secret spot. The pigs dump toxic waste in the pond). It was interesting to see a character like that grow even if it was just a little bit. That kinda thing was pretty rare in kids cartoons back then. If you were a bad guy you were the biggest baddest dickhead humanly possibly.

FINAL VERDICT: I enjoyed this show. Sure it could get a bit preachy at times and a little saccharine too, but I dunno I don't mind that stuff very much. It's a very charming wholesome show. They are remaking it and I must say that the remake designs look awful. They look like a new cartoon these days. I don't totally mind that design style for new stuff but it always looks weird when they remake something within that style. However I won't get angry at it like the people who shit their pants over Thundercats Roar. I, uh, just won't watch it. It's pretty simple not to act like a jackass and not watch one of the 86,000 reboots and remakes and reimagining that are being pumped out.