Destroy All Podcasts DX Episode 153 - Cartoon All-Stars To The Rescue
Hosts: Jeremy, Zuey
This is about The Smurfs, Michaelangelo, Garfield, Alf, Alvin & The Chipmunks, Slimer, Muppet Babies, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tigger, Pooh, and many other cartoons teaching you how to steal your little sister's money so you can buy drugs with it.
Click [HERE] to pull out the manhole in front of a hapless drug addict.
Video after the cut.
| Posted 6 September, 2010 - 02:03 by Destroy All Pod... |
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Comments
13 comments postedOkay, first of all, Mel Blanc died specifically so that he did not have to appear in this feature. (No he didn't, but I can pretend, can't I?) This cartoon was so insipid that I almost wanted to start taking drugs just to spite it.
One thing I will say is that the animation is pretty good for it's time, and all of the characters from the different studios were all animated fairly accurately to their respective series. Nobody looked out-of-place at all. The only minor exceptions were the Muppet Babies, who actually appeared to be animated a little better than normal, in my opinion.
This is from that weird interval in time right when Saturday morning cartoons were dying but before Ren & Stimpy, so the choice in cartoon stars is kind of bizarre. I, for one, am GLAD that this was too late for the Transformers, because I'm sure that either Bumblebee or Wheelie would have been in this.
One thing you guys kinda missed is that this follows the same motif set by Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Story", in that they show Mikey his past, present, and future.
Oh, and am I the only one that kind of smirked when ALF and Garfield were making eating jokes? If something like this was produced today, it would totally be about childhood obesity.
There are some serious scale issues on that VHS cover. Why are the ducklings so much smaller than everyone else, including the Smurfs?
Heh, it was unfortunate that Mel passed away a year before, not sure if he was even informed of this being made or not at the time of his death, though one of his last performances was doing a voice in Jetsons The Movie, which had to be filled at the last moment by a Jeff Bergman, who also voiced Bugs and Daffy for this special.
The production of this special seemed to have been handled by Disney's TV Animation Dept., though it was farmed out to Wang Film Productions in Taiwan, which is why it may have given it that look that differed from the way these characters were seen in their respective shows. I thought the Muppet Babies looked decent here than they did in their own show for example (which was done at Akom). I personally didn't care for the animation anyway since it felt like everything else on TV at the time. The writer certainly could've been improved more but perhaps they didn't have time for rewriting the drafts on this.
Which is sad when you have to consider that was the bulk of both character's personalities anyway.
Oh man, I think the last time i saw this was when i was in 5th grade back in I think 1997 or so. Yes, we had a drug week, because the whole 90's was about "dont do drugs" compared to todays message of "dont get fat".
I guess the ultimate drug high is when you get Bugs Bunny telling you to stop using drugs, or thats who you see before you OD.
LOL at McDonalds being the one who sponsored this, being that they're practically drug pushers themselves with their horrible food .
Also I remember the end with Barbera Bush giving the message.
What made this more pathetic was that Saturday morning was hijacked for a whole half hour for this to air on all the networks at the time. I can remember every station that had at least something on for kids during the morning having to play this as some commitment deal. While I'm not bias on McD's being a part of this, I sorta have to blame the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (the EMMY people) for having the nerve to churn this out.
I saw this when it came out, and we recorded it, and I watched it many times afterwords. Not 'cause of the message they were trying to get across (what was it again?), but because- as you stated- it was an awesome crossover unlike anything I'd ever seen before.
(The last official crossover I've seen between franchises was the "Kingdom Hearts" video games, which I never played because it wasn't my type of game genre and I don't have a console.)
Did you guys really post this unedited? 'Cause my eyes started glazing over after about 10min. Sorry, but it's true. Wasn't anything in particular you said, just the OT stuff was getting to me.
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CollectionDX Staff
Wow, you've cracked our code. We plant a secret sedative in every podcast, like a hidden boredom bomb! Our goal is to suddenly knock you out so that we can sneak into your house and steal all your food.
I'm sorry. I just... don't get bored with your podcasts (or rather, the few I've heard), but this one I did. When you were on-topic, it was fine. But, it just seemed to drag on a hair too long or something, IDK.
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CollectionDX Staff
I lol'd when Pooh Bear got thrown into the cabinet.
While most people probably are only familiar with this from the "free rental" videotape they probably found at a video store or saw in class, it made it's debut premiere on April 21, 1990, and on all the Big Three Networks, some UHF indie stations as well as a few cable networks like Nickelodeon. Saturday morning was pretty much hijacked for a half-hour to give us this 30 minute PSA we already heard one too many times before, but the Academy of TV Arts and Sciences felt we didn't hear it far enough. I do remember though seeing a standee at McD's that promoted this special for a month before it aired, so they certainly got some of us pumped up for nothing.
It seemed like back around that time, the video arcade was seen as the euphemistic seedy bar or strip joint for kids, the way it was often depicted by concerned soccer moms and non-profit organizations at the time.
Incidentally, George C. Scott played that smoke drug dude that hands around our main protagonist.
Most of the cartoon characters seen in this video at least reflected the shows that were either on Saturday morning or weekdays at the time of the special (the 1989-90 season), so they would've been fresh in all our minds as tots just watching these concurrently.
Tanuki testicles of course were verboten on our shores as far as standards and practices are concern (of course that didn't stop 'em from releasing Pompoko as long as they call 'em "magic pouches").
For more CA-STTR fun...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQwrJKPoJDw
Another group's approach...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=far2DviXRac
To be perfectly honest, the subject matter wasn't something that had broad appeal per say, and we did sorta babble a bit.
I do like the cartoon, and I do like the message. Kids shouldn't be doing drugs- if only because everything should still way exciting to them (like they shouldn't/couldn't realize how crappy the writing was in the Transformers animated motion feature, which means they DON'T need weed yet), and they are largely incapable of true discipline or self control, which is highly dangerous when combined with drug use. Hell, most adults shouldn't do drugs either.
I love my brother to death, but drugs totally messed up his life in many, many ways.
But I also know people who are highly benefited by medicinal marijuana use (hell, or even just enjoy it for recreational purposes, albeit responsibly. They hold jobs down and shit.)
I also think certain drugs can be used to prompt a sweet spiritual adventure, which I am all for, except when *I* took shrooms, I had the worst trip of my life. I still feel like it was a amazing and life-altering experience though, and I would do it again.
Just like the new cookie-monster says "cookies are a sometimes thing", Zuey says "drugs are a sometimes thing.... Unless you're a kid."
-Well, basically what I'm saying is that I'm going to kill you.