As part of Cartoon Network month I'll be introducing mini-guides to all of Cartoon Network's home made shows starting with the ones made from Europe.
With all these lists I'll only be showing cartoons made by Cartoon Network and not any other company. I'll be giving a brief summary of the show and what I thought of that show whether it be good or bad. To start with I'll be talking about 9 shows made by Cartoon Network Europe in order of air date.
1. Fat Dog Mendoza - 1998
Show about a ball shaped, smart mouthed dog and his owner who is a crime fighting superhero along with a city of other Superheroes.
Verdict: Lousy story, they couldn't be bothered to properly name the lead human character and poor humor, animation isn't too bad.
Fact: UK made (Ashamed to admit) never released in US.
2. Spaced Out - 2002
Show about a family who ends up living on a space station as part of an experiment by a big business man.
Verdict: Entirely forgettable, not the best animation.
Fact: French-Canadian made, never released in US
3. The Cramp Twins - 2002
Show about twins that look nothing alike causing mischief in a city obsessed with hygiene using the same skin color scheme as "Doug"
Verdict: It's okay, voice work grates on the ears a bit, but passable as a series; animation is basic, enjoys playing the eco-warrior a bit too much.
Fact: British made, been on several networks in it's broadcast history.
4. V-Birds - 2002
British Cartoon Network's attempt at making an animated pop band to take on major chart toppers of the era.
Verdict: Don't know what they were thinking, even attempting this was stupid.
Fact: British made (Sadly) never released in US, I've covered this show before as a Cartoon Vault entry.
5. Robotboy - 2005
A Japanese sounding scientist through fear of losing his creation to his enemy sends it to a long time fan. Said creation is a Robotboy with human like personality.
Verdict: Characters tend to go in and out of favor frequently and a lot of it Stereotypes the Japanese.
Fact: British made, one of few shows to get away with minor curse words.
6. Skatoony - 2006
A part live-action game show in which kids compete against Cartoon Characters for prizes, presented by Chudd Chudders and The Earl.
Verdict: It's a nice distraction from the normal and the presenters are quite entertaining.
Fact: British made, Chudd Chudders & The Earl served as Cartoon Network UK Presenters for a while before handing duties over to a Welsh Voiceover. Series started as a web game.
7. Eliot Kid - 2008
Show about a kid named Eliot who over exaggerates every situation he's in.
Verdict: Can't stand the show, rated one of my least favorite cartoons.
Fact: British & French made, never released in US.
8. Chop Socky Chooks - 2008
Show about Kung-Fu Chickens......Thats it.
Verdict: The art style is creepy, CGI or not. Voice work is top notch, but doesn't evolve past crappy villain.
Fact: British & Canadian made through Aardman Animations who made Wallace & Gromit. Cancelled halfway through American broadcast.
9. Hero 108 - 2010
Show about a group of humans fighting to make peace with a number of animal tribes who have been tricked by a communist dictator into thinking humans are enemies.
Verdict: Clever design and originality, great characters and story; although it does become a little too childish at times.
Fact: Based on a MMORPG from Taiwan, cartoon had collaborators from the UK, France & US.
Back in the early 00s, Cartoon Network became interested in showing animated movies; most of these are failed straight to video releases but how well are these films known? How well do you remember "The Scarecrow"
Released in 2000 by Richard Rich (no not that one) better known for the Disney films The Rescuers, Fox and the Hound & Disney Princess Clone The Swan Princess; but you'd probably want to forget his other works, The King & I animated movie & The Black Cauldron (Yeah he wrote that as well)
Anyway, the Scarecrow is another Disney knockoff about a Scarecrow who comes to life and disguises himself as a human to help a girl named Polly & a bunch of orphans get out of poverty which is being caused by a selfish count who steals taxes so he can learn how to dance and woo the prettiest girl in the village who happens to be Polly. The villain can be best described as Gaston's snobby older brother trying to essentially do the same thing he did, in fact the plot is very similar to Beauty & the Beast seeing that's the first Disney film you try and copy.
Anyway, the Scarecrow is helped out by a rat called Max voice by Corey Feldman who was the only celebrity available to do this and a witch who sounds like Tenchi Muyo's Princess Ayeka. The whole plot revolves around dancing, musical numbers, corny animated movie songs & typical Disney Happy Ending. In fact the music & dancing doesn't exactly match the scenery as it's set during the Pilgrim years and yet they dance like their from the 50s & 70s and the music features synthesizers & electric guitars.
There really isn't much to cover on this film, in fact Rotten Tomatoes doesn't even have a rating for it, even Freddie FRO7 is more well known than this.
The film is okay, not a master piece, hardly a ground breaker, not something I expect from Cartoon Network's attempt at showing animated films but between this and a few others I'll bring up later, it stands in a much better light.
Allow me to take you back in time to October 1st 1992 when Cartoon Network began it's life; introduced by Droopy Dog the first of Cartoon Network's presenters, we were then treated to Cartoon Networks first broadcast cartoon Bugs Bunny in "Rhapsody Rabbit"
Bugs Bunny is one of the cartoon old guards as this particular cartoon was made in November 1946 in which Bugs Bunny plays Hungarian Rhapsody No.2 at a concert but is constantly interrupted and later upstaged by a mouse, and if that concept sounds familiar then you may have seen Tom & Jerry's "The Cat Concerto" released six months later in April 1947 which won a short film Academy Award (This is back when Cartoons did win Oscars)
This is where this Urban Legend began.
During the era both cartoons were submitted for the short film entry by their respective companies Warner Bros & Metro-Goldwyn Mayer, the plots of both cartoons were the same, both featured the same music and both released round the same time. Both companies accused each other of plagiarism and even accused Color Motion Picture company Technicolor of staging the plagiarism in the first place by sending prints of the cartoons to both rival companies.
In the end, "The Cat Concerto" won the Academy Award while "Rhapsody Rabbit" didn't even get a nomination, 45 years later "Rhapsody Rabbit" earned a title that no one can take away from it as first aired Cartoon Network Cartoon.
To this day the issue has never been resolved with many believing the situation to be coincidental but others point fingers at Tom & Jerry as being the guilty party as their cartoon was rushed to make that years nominations and the fact that Bugs Bunny's cartoon was copyrighted first.
Either way it doesn't change history and gives more work to cartoon historians.
(I so want to do that as a career)
Back in 1997 at the height of Dexter's Lab's fame, an episode called "Rude Removal" was created. The episode was quickly shelved because of it's content which included copious amounts of swearing, even after being censored it was still shelved; in 1998 the lost episode had been seen at a small amount of conventions but since then it was lost completely and many questioned it's existence until last year when Craig McCracken reported that it indeed existed in completed form which was later confirmed by the show's creator.
Late last year, Adult Swim showed interest in the episode and wanted to air it on their channel but it wasn't until January this year that the episode actually aired on Youtube on Adult Swim's channel but was sadly made into a private video so I can't show the episode here. (Sorry there are rules with this sort of thing) but the episode has been re-posted numerous times and should be easy to find so happy hunting.
The episode starts off as normal with Dee Dee annoying Dexter while he's working on a device called the Rude Removal Machine, a fight breaks out and the two accidentally make rude clones of themselves while the originals revert to British Accents and act all friendly and polite.
This is where the infamy comes in as the Rude Clones do nothing but swear and curse which later involves Dexter's Mom as they insult her constantly before returning to the lab to be stopped in their place; after succeeding in removing the clones the episode ends with Dexter's Mom preparing the soap for washing out Dexter & Dee Dee's mouths and so ends the lost episode of Dexter's Lab.
The language in this short is real, while censored it's still very, very real.
It's not uncommon for cartoon makers to go off the boil and make something too rude for broadcast in order to off load some of the pressures of animating.
Even as early as the 40s where many popular characters such as Bugs Bunny & Mickey Mouse were making war propaganda cartoons and racial stereotyping to match the mind set of the era. These days a mostly squeaky clean cartoon like Dexter's Lab would revert to a swearing episode just to offload stress.
For the whole month of June I shall be presenting Cartoon Network Month!
For the 30 days of June I shall be covering everything that made Cartoon Network such a big name including the likes of Adult Swim, Boomerang & Toonami.
Expect: Top ten lists, more entries to the Cartoon Vault, Anime reviews for some of the major heavy weights of the industry and some select entries for the Walk of Fame.
Stay tuned for more on Cartoon Network Month!
