TV Review #2: Monster By Mistake (1999 - 2003)

 

About a week ago I stopped watching some YouTube channel. I won't mention the name because I've forgotten it. It was because they did a review of the movie House (1986), and it wasn't positive, just because of the name, and since this guy plays a character for his youtube channel and when a person plays a character on YouTube they usually go so in on how bad something is. Usually even overplaying it. I didn't even watch the video and it kinda annoys me how he compared it to Evil Dead 2 (1987) when honestly the only thing both movies have in common is that they are horror comedy films. Well that and they take place in a dwelling of some sort. That's about it. I'm just sick of the HEY LET'S MAKE SOMETHING LOOK EVEN WORSE THAN IT IS THROUGH WACKY CHARACTER YOUTUBE SHIT. I don't even know if the video was some kind of swerve but I don't care because it's grown old. Hell even the AVGN honestly has way way way more misses than hits these days and I only watch his videos because of nostalgia for really early YouTube. Let's not even bring the Nostalgia Critic into it... even if I do still watch him shamefully, but that's because I like to have something running in the background. I've started to make it better videos than Nostalgia Critic. Like Nick Knacks. I should write about that series so I can get him an entire zero new viewers!

You may be thinking "Why the jelly Jesus fuck are you on about YouTube people being goofy?" Well person I created wholesale to make a dumb joke I will answer this here. I did it because I wanted to see if I could write a more positive review of something I feel is bad. Not like praise it but at least make comedy (usually about how bad of a blog this is) and weird comments only I would find funny while trying to discuss something I don't like. Maybe I just want to try something new, or try to turn the tables even though It's not possible with a blog. Maybe I just thought the YouTube beginning sounded nicer before I really thought about it and I don't want to scrap it because I'm very lazy. The main point being I want to try to do a serious look at something I did not like as a child. Like really really REALLY did not like. 

Monster By Mistake was probably the show I disliked the most as a child. It was an incredible dislike. As people who are members of a discord I am also a member of know that I disliked Casper as a child, but I would still at least watch a Casper cartoon. Not many but I can at least say I've seen them. I don't think I ever saw more than the theme song (which is probably positive note #1, it's a pretty jazzy tune that I still kinda like to this day) I didn't like the characters or the stories the show told from what very very little I did see. I was also apparently 14 when this show came out. I could have sworn it came out earlier and I needed a bit more from my cartoons. At least some fun comedy or very interesting plots. This was a show clearly made for like kids that were 5-6 years old, and not the smarter 5-6 years old. 

You might be asking yourself, what in the jelly jumping Jellybeans is Monster By Mistake? Well dear friend of mine, Monster By Mistake is a Canadian CGI cartoon and if you know about Canada animation or co-animation products, It's either really good (The Raccoons, Reboot, Beast Wars) or will make you want to vomit profusely until you pass out (Yvon of the Yukon, What's With Andy?) and my feelings as a child were this show was incredibly ugly looking and that Reboot and Beast Wars were much better. This show was created by Mark Mayerson who I don't think has done anything else and I don't think he even has a Wikipedia page. Everyone whos done a single thing has one of them. Catapult Productions, CCI Entertainment and Studio 365 were the people who wrote the stories and CGI'd them very badly. 

Now for a few positives because I've gone over how the stories weren't interesting to me as a child and really still aren't as adult. I will say that the entire premise DOES have some promise. Maybe better writers and maybe not awful CGI and this show would have been something I would have left on in the background instead of instantly turning to literally anything else, including informercials and Color Bars. Remember those?! The premise is that an evil troll looking thing has tricked a boy named Warren with a spell book and whenever he sneezes he becomes well a Monster. His sister Tracy gets the spellbook and they routinely try to turn Warren back to normal during their adventures. Oh and there's a jazz playing Ghost because I guess they wanted a jazz playing Ghost in this cartoon. It's not an amazing stone cold wholly original premise but if made differently I could see this entertaining me, at least as a child.

I also must say that giving Len Carlson, Susan Roman and Alyson Court work is always a good thing. Bert Raccoon, Sailor Jupiter and Jubilee from X-Men deserve work. I must also say that watching some episode today to discuss this show that it's a lot more boring now then repulsive looking, and being bored as much better than being disgusted, right? It's hard to even talk about this any more because what made it really bad back then was the CGI animation, and if I'm being fair the animation from the studio Mainframe that did Beast Wars and Reboot hasn't aged amazingly either (still no matter what year 1999 or 2020, always looked nicer than Monster by Mistake.) I also can't even say this show was popular because stations like YTV and such needed to have a certain amount of Canadian content on their channels so that's probably the reason the show lasted forever. I do have a lot of questions about this cartoon that I'd love to talk to someone at YTV during this time about.

FINAL VERDICT: I think my attempt to review something I didn't like in a more thoughtful serious manner worked sort of. I guess I'm a perfectionist at heart but still want to just blather on into the ether. I'm also glad that YouTube entertainment has gone farther than LOL I POOPED MY PANTS AND VOMITED IN RAGE AND JUMPED AROUND LIKE A SPASTIC MONKEY BECAUSE THIS MEDIA WAS SO BAD and instead try to discuss anything in a more thoughtful way, like Nick Knacks. I may not agree with everything he says but the man does his homework and puts out a good video. Much better than most of the AVGN videos made by Screenwave.

The Disney Afternoon Review Showdown Part 1

 

Well It's finally time for me to go on and discuss every Disney Afternoon show. And some other shows that probably weren't techinally Disney Afternoon but were made by Disney made between 1985 and 1997 (The Disney Afternoon itself started in 1990..) and to start I will be rating the shows as either Super Cool and I Like It. Eh, It's Okay I guess, or Fuck Off Wuzzles (I think you can already tell how much I enjoyed that show)

The Wuzzles was the first Disney TV show made in the year of my birth 1985 and It's relativity obscure and only lasted 13 episodes. It's pretty much included in here because I didn't want some pedantic weirdo going "WELL ACKSHULLY" on me and that I've always been somewhat interested in the show because I've always been interested in obscurities (and it's always a crap shoot with them, sometimes it's something that should have been more popular and sometimes it's horse shit) and I'm going to be fair and say if I were born in like 1980 and were alive during the quick Wuzzles craze I have a feeling I'd have had fun playing with the actual toys because to be fair, it's a neat little idea. The actual show just feels lazy. I was going to make a joke about how the show feels like it was voiced by the interns at Disney but actual voice actors who actually do good jobs in other places voiced these characters. Hell one of them was the damn voice of Bullwinkle for crying out loud. I guess even the best can have their off days. This whole show just feels like a proof of product that they made to see if they could actually make animated shows for TV and the two episodes I watched show that off (and yes people on Youtube, you don't have to watch an entire show to know you don't like it) Thankfully A lot of stuff after this is actually good. Sorry Wuzzles but you get the Rating of Fuck Off Wuzzles.

Appearing on the same day as the Wuzzles apparently was The Adventures of the Gummi Bears, which is the better show because well, it clearly is, just from the one episode I watched (and yes I do intend to watch more) it had a better plot, characters and all that good stuff that makes a television show of any kind memorable and had better animation and voice acting which is important for the whole cartoon thing. I actually laughed several times at goofy stuff that was happening in the show which was much better than being bored to tears by the Wuzzles. Even the theme song was better. The overall plot of the show is the Gummi Bears and a boy named Cavin (which is a dumb name) keep the Kingdom of King Gregor from being taken over by the evil Duke Sigmund Igthorn. The medieval kingdom thing is a neat touch for a show such as this and Michael Eisner also was ahead of creating this show but I'm just going to go ahead and give most of the credit to the other two guys who probably fleshed it all out and made something out of it. Rating: Super Cool and I Like It

Now here's the best cartoon of this first part and one of the top Disney TV cartoons ever! Based mostly around the Carl Barks comics of the 1940s to the 1960s except with new character added in (and I'm sure lots of stories not based on his work) comes DuckTales and it's incredibly fun characters, fun adventure stories (and a lot that were more comedic too) and great comedy. This show still cracks me up and I'm 35 dang years old. The only thing I can think of thats negative is that the characters of Webby and her grandma kinda suck and Donald Duck only appears in a few episoes but nothings perfect in this world (I also think the Carl Barks comics are better because they have more Donald Duck but that's just me)  Rating: Super Cool and I Like It

Join me again when I decide to make part two of this thing where I will share some CONTROVERSIAL Disney opinions at you. Holy hell, here's one right now: Disneyland isn't that amazing but I'm not really a theme parks kinda guy. wanting to piss, puke and shit yourself when your on any kind of ride kinda kills most of the fun of a theme park don'tcha know? ANYWAY what are my other controversial opinions about THE HOUSE OF MOUSE... find out next time.....or read anything else on the internet.

The Final Episode #2: Inspector Gadget (Gadget and the Red Rose - February 1st, 1986)

 The Final Episode #2: Inspector Gadget (Gadget and the Red Rose - February 1st, 1986)

Inspector Gadget was one of my favorite cartoons as a kid. I watched the absolute hell out of it. Like I don't want to even know how many times I watched every episode. It had to be at LEAST 50 times each. It was mostly because for the first season Nelvana, a Canadian corporation helped with the animation. So season 1 would be shown in Canada about 5820 times a day on several different channels. I still find the show to be very amusing. At least the first season. The stories of a dumbass cyborg (would you consider Gadget a cyborg?) with all kinds of well gadgets installed in his body and his niece and dog (who actually solve all the crimes) IS great fun to me!

As a kid I never knew there was a second season with 21 extra episodes... and I'm glad I never did because it would have been an incredible disappointment to me to have to watch these episodes. They aren't objectively the worst I've ever seen they just aren't as well animated, well voiced (several voice changes), have pointless new characters (we will get to him in a second) and are just not as enjoyable. Like everything was done worse for the second season which ran from 1985 to 1986.

I do remember the first time I ever saw a second season episode, it was years after I did find out there even was one... and I was excited to find said episode... I had heard from a now defunct website known as Jump the Shark (where people discuss when any random TV show Jumped the Shark) and several people within that site said the introduction of Corporal Capeman (pictured above) was when the show jumped the shark... and yeah I can't disagree with them on that. This fucker is completely useless and not funny in the slightest, just like everyone on that site said... thankfully Townsend Coleman who voiced him went on to do much better work in a lot of much better cartoons.

Anyway, this episode is really nothing to write home about. It involves Inspector Gadget actually creating a seemingly worthwhile invention (which is weird in itself because the guy is a moron, like it's the whole show!) and Dr. Claw finds out about it so he gets this old gangster out of retirement to stop Gadget's new invention with his old invention a Tommy Gun that shoots out rotten potatoes and yes the gangster has a potato pun name (it's Spuds Malone... they should have just went and called him O'Riely and had him be an Irish gangster or something), anyway this episode has Gadget chase after Brain who leads him to the real Spuds Malone and it's done in a pretty uninteresting manner. No real jokes or crazy hijinx really.

FINAL THOUGHTS: It's not going to be the worst thing I'll watch for this blog but honestly, I can't really write much more about this episode cuz it's boring, so I'll just reiterate they should have gotten more money for better animation, made some actual jokes (the gun Gadget makes runs on acidic Sour Cream and when it hits Chief Quimby he goes "Needs chives, Gadget" which WAS pretty funny I thought.. but the rest of the episode wasn't) and not had made that stupid fucking Corporal Capeman at all.

The Final Episode #1: Captain Planet (101 Mutations, May 1st 1996)

 

The Final Episode #1: Captain Planet and the Planeteers (101 Mutations - May 11, 1996)

 The Final Episode #1: Captain Planet, 101 Mutations (May 11, 1996)

Captain Planet was created by Ted Turner in 1990... an environmentalist superhero! I must say that as a kid I quite liked this show. I thought the heroes were a bunch of likable scallywags and that the villains were incredibly entertaining! and I'm glad to say that I still do! Being positive rules!

Anyway, Captain Planet ran from September 15, 1990 to May 11, 1996 for a 6 season run... I don't think I was watching during the last season because well, I found out that Captain Planet has TWO theme songs. For the final season they came out with a new theme song and it is incredibly bad. like painfully bad. I don't even know where to begin to describe it so I will link to a youtube video of it here. It will change your life, for the worse.

CAPTAIN PLANET SEASON 6 THEME CLICK AT YOUR OWN PERIL

Hopefully you haven't gouged out your eyes and can read the rest of my writing (you will probably wish you had gouged your eyes out after reading this!) We can finally get into dicussing the Final Episode of Captain Planet intitled 101 Mutations.

If you couldn't tell by that title, 101 Mutations is about Dogs! Puppy mills in fact! That's right the eco-villains (which is what they were called in the show) finally stop trying to destroy the entire planet and just try to make some money via some cruel means. Dr. Blight is the eco villain of today.

Who in the first three seasons was voiced by Meg Ryan! Yep! Ted Turner threw his weight around at the beginning of the show... then he said okay to that terrible theme song (no I will never get over it. Stop asking)

The episode starts up with Dr. Blight talking to MAL about her evil Puppy Mill scheme! MAL in the later seasons was voiced by Tim Curry! always a pleasure to hear that angelic voice of his! I like exclamation points! It then turns over to Wheeler's 10 year old cousin Joey mourning his dog Skippy at a funeral (yes a very jolly point of the episode) and Wheeler decides to bring him to get a new dog. I know that 1.) he means well and 2.) they have to get the episode on the way but who the hell decides yeah I'll go get them a NEW dog RIGHT after the old one dies. Dick move, Wheeler.

Joey then finds out where the Pet Store is getting their dogs from... DR. BLIGHTS EVIL FARM OF DEATH. No it's called Puppy by the MILLions... that's a pretty good name for something as awful as a puppy mill. Anyway he goes there, gets captured, meets a new dog friend (and befriends Dr. Blights evil dogs!) He gives them chocolate. I guess these are dogs that can have chocolate, because he gives them a lot. 

The Planeteers then find a Humane Society guy working under cover in another puppy mill (Jesus a lot of them in this one area) AND they come across Dr. Blights puppy mill and of course stop her plot. (I don't really want to end up discussing EVERY second of these episodes. I do want you all to go and check them out.) 

FINAL THOUGHTS: This was actually a pretty fun episode. Lots of nice back and forths between the charters. The bad guys are incredibly deliciously, I don't give a shit, EVIL, and it was a lot of fun to watch. It didn't end with a big epic 3 parter where all the villains come together and bring back Captain Pollution or anything but I dunno if every show needs that. This was just a regular old run of the mill adventure for the Planeteers. I kinda like how that happens sometimes (mostly because they didn't know this was the final season, probably.) Anyway, I'd check this one out!

Talkin' About the Disney Afternoon

                                  

So I'm crazy and I feel like doing this among many other things because I waste my entire day on the internet and instead I should waste it watching stuff......It's still a waste but at least something maybe sortof was accomplished... more so than just yelling at twits on the internet. I will never stop being angry at how the internet went from a fun thing to a thing thats terrible, but I will at least try to make fun content instead of being angry at everything. like Twitter users.

This is going to be a multi part thing where I talk about every show on the Disney Afternoon. Including the Wuzzles because I want to cut off the one weirdo who might find this and go "AHEM THE WUZZLES WAS NOT ON THE DISNEY AFTERNOON YOU JUST MADE ME SO ANGRY I SHIT MY PANTS" If I actually finish this we might talk about One Saturday Morning and some newer stuff!!

Here's a list of cartoons I will end up discussing like the cool guy I am:

The Wuzzles

Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears

DuckTales

The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers

TaleSpin

Darkwing Duck

Goof Troop

The Little Mermaid

Raw Toonage

Bonkers

Marsupoilami

Aladdin

Gargoyles

The Shnookums and Meat Funny Cartoon Show

Timon and Pumbaa

Quack Pack

Mighty Ducks The Animated Series

So expect the first part of Reviewing Every Disney TV Cartoon Sorta Kinda Maybe to emerge from my head sometime in the next few days.