The Final Episode #76: Danger Mouse (1981 - 1992)

 

Well I'm finally going to discuss those wild wacky rascals over in England. You know sausage and bangers, Monty Python and stiff upper lips. Yeah that place. The first show I'm talking about is weird because it's a pretty fun show but it's not the one I'd have thought would be the first British show I would have ever talked about. I would think that would have been something like Monty Python (how would you discuss the Final Episode of a sketch comedy show like that? I guess we should try to talk about one of them to see). The biggest reason I'm talking about this show is so that I can talk about it's spinoff later on in October. I'm pretty sure you know what the spinoff is if you know anything about this show. I've decided to do things like that in order. So for example if I want to talk about the new She-Ra series from like 3 years ago I'd have to talk about He-Man original series, the She-Ra original series, New Adventures of He-Man and the He-Man reboot from like 2001 to 2002. I'm doing stuff in order now just to not forget which shows I've done or not. It's easier this way.

I don't want anyone to think that Danger Mouse was a bad cartoon or anything. I think it's a very fun little cartoon, it's just that I like the spinoff much better. I'm really not sure why I'm trying to keep Count Duckula a secret but I'm gonna stop right now. That show started out as a 22 minute cartoon where as Danger Mouse started out as a 11 minute cartoon. Then became a 5 minute cartoon. Then 22 minutes. Then 25. Then 22 minutes again. It's like all over the place. I can't say this for every 22 minute episode but holy piss would this episode worked better and been funnier and more enjoyable if it was 11 minutes and not 22. This is not a bad episode it's just really dragged out. They clearly had an idea that works for 11 minutes but not 22. You get a lot of repeated jokes and a lot of them feel dragged out. I guess I'll get to that when I talk about the Final Episode in full.

So Let's discuss some history of this show. It was created by Cosgrove Hall studios, a British Animation studio that started in 1976. It lasted longer than I thought only being closed in 2009.  It was started by Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall and the most popular stuff they worked on was Danger Mouse, Count Duckula and a cartoon based on the book series The Wind in the Willows. I think I've seen that Wind in the Willows cartoon. They appeared on ITV when it was known as Thames Television. Thames Television has THE greatest ident in TV history. I just wanted to mention that here. That ident stayed in my damn head for decades. It's that good. The fact they changed or were sold to ITV or whatever makes me angry. You don't end an ident that cool you worthless fucks. 

Anyway Danger Mouse was based around the British Spy action series Danger Man with that rascal Patrick McGoohan. Or however you spell that name. Danger Mouse was a spy (with a eye patch) that would stop villains like Greenback (a frog creature guy) with his friend Penfold (a little mouse guy). There's not much else to the over all plot with this series. Anyway The voice cast of this series was great. David Jason, who was on a British sitcom I've never seen but have heard of called Only Fools and Horses. I hear it's a very good British sitcom and it lasted for quite some time. He does several voices for this cartoon. Another voice actor was Terry Scott who was in several Carry On movies. I love those foolish ass movies so much. Very fun stuff. Edward Kelsey is the last voice actor I'm gonna talk about and his biggest claim to fame was some British radio show which he had been on for 34 years. He was also on Doctor Who but everyone in Britain has been on that show.

This show's history on television has been kinda interesting too. It was on the air from 1981 to 1987 and then a 4 year break until two more series were put out in 1991 and 1992. I don't know why they did it that way. Maybe to work harder on Count Duckula. I don't know. I'd like to know why. Americans know of this show because it was on Nickelodeon, not once but TWICE. It was there from I think 1984 to 1987 and then came back for a few more years once the new episodes came out. I guess they removed it because of no new episodes. I dunno. I can't exactly call up Gerri Laybourne and ask her. Yes I know the names of people who worked at Nickelodeon in the 1980s. I'm that lame. I also lied about the history of this show being interesting. I just wanted to put in another paragraph.

So I guess it's time to finally get to the Final Episode discussion. The cartoon starts out pretty excitingly with a Mars (which is now brown not red) to be knocked out of place by a new white planet. The TV reporter talks about how they are going to have a contest to name. Penfold makes some long joke about naming the planet Whipple. I won't ruin the whole thing here because It's the only amusing part of the episode really. They repeat it several times through out the episode. So Danger Mouse and Penfold go to bed to wake up to see that London is missing.

They drive around in Danger Mouse's cool little spy car and run into some aliens making the area all nice and shiny and easy to hit like they are playing some kind of game. They go on in a bit that starts out midly amusing but ends up going on too long because this episode was too long. Anyway they find about the alien space ship which woah looks like a pool cue (which I found out they call it snooker in Britain. They name things really weirdly in that place) and Danger Mouse has a bit with the chief that is just repeating jokes and not really doing anything even remotely new with them. 

So how does Danger Mouse save the world from being knocked into a black hole that I guess must have been created by the aliens so they could play their pool game (I'm sorry I'm not calling it snooker. It's a dumb name.) Well he got everyone on the planet to jump to the right at the right moment which moves the earth. They then talk about how London is still missing and the episode ends with some jokes about the Narrator having an accent or something. He would argue with someone who would call him. It's a fourth wall breaking joke that's not very good.

FINAL VERDICT: You know I had seen earlier episodes of this show that I liked a lot. I really think this show worked best as a 11 minute cartoon. This 22 minute episode is just way drawn out and not as amusing. If I were making a YouTube video involving a tier list of Final Episodes this one would make it to the second worst tier. Probably high in that tier as there are still a few fun moments it's just that this story could have worked better if it were shorter. That's just my opinion on the manner.