Reviews

When the family misbehaves at the power plant picnic, Homer grows concerned that his family is too dysfunctional and proceeds to put everyone in to family therapy with shocking results (pun intended).

As mentioned, this first season episode is a tad jarring for modern Simpsons fans to watch. Almost the entire family (with the exception of Bart, who was really the only one with a defined personality by this point) is acting out of character. Homer's concern about his family's behavior seems more like something expected from Marge, especially seeing as he's willing to pawn the family's TV set to pay for the therapy sessions. Marge getting drunk at the picnic is more like something that Homer would do. And Lisa seems more like a female Bart and is almost as bratty as he is.

With this in mind, the therapy session is clearly the major highlight of the episode. It's also the first episode where Bart utters the immortal line, "Don't have a cow", Mr. Burns first says, "Release the hounds", and it's the first appearance of Itchy and Scratchy, so it features some significance in Simpsons history.

Clark Kent interviews a man named Walker who is about to be executed in a few days for murdering a woman and stealing her necklace. During the interview, Clark (being something of a walking lie-detector) begins to have his doubts on whether Walker is actually guilty. He begins to investigate the case and ultimately finds evidence that could clear Walker, but unaware to him, before he drove off to the mayor's office with the evidence, his car had been planted with a bomb. Superman now has to deal with the dilemma of everyone believing his alter ego to be dead, and even worse, with the evidence clearing Walker being destroyed in the explosion, he now has to find a way to prove Walker's innocence before he's killed, even if it jeopardizes his identity.

This episode is one of the many reasons why I love Bruce Timm's adaptation of Superman. We get to see Superman use his brain as well as his muscle, Luthor is no where to be seen (don't get me wrong, he's a great villain, just a little overused), with the moment where a teary-eyed Lois, who always seemed more interested in Superman, reveals that she had feelings for Clark, or Superman commenting on how he needed to be Clark Kent or he'd go crazy, and a bone-chilling ending which I dare not give away. You'll just have to see it for yourself.

I was a huge fan of the old Ren & Stimpy cartoons when I was a kid, and I had heard about John Kricfalusi and his company, Spümcø, getting fired by Nickelodeon. Sure, I was a little upset about that and I had to admit, while I still watched them, the Games Animation cartoons didn't compare to the early Spümcø cartoons.

Then, years later, I heard that Spike TV was bringing back Ren & Stimpy with Kricfalusi placed back at the helm. I was so excited, I began doing the Happy Happy Joy Joy dance. If only I had known.

First of all, Billy West wasn't coming back. OK, initially, I had wondered if there may have been some bad blood between him and Spümcø. There wasn't. So why wouldn't he return to one of his best known roles? After watching the first episode of the new Ren & Stimpy, I found out why.

I had to force myself to sit through the first episode. The old Ren & Stimpy cartoons were funny because they were gross, these episodes, however, were just gross. I could've done without watching Ren and Stimpy happily eating phlegm, vomit, and various other bodily fluids, the sex scene was just wrong, and above all, did Kricfalusi forget how to write gags? The endearing charm of the original cartoons was gone, the pacing was off, and any sense of strange quirkiness was replaced with mere gross-out humor. I didn't laugh once the entire episode. The following episodes were a little better, but not by much. I was also bothered by Ren's altered personality. I understand he was supposed to be a jerk with a tendency for insanity. That was the basis for much of the humor in the original cartoon. Still he did have his nice moments and signs of vulnerability. In Adult Party Cartoon, he became a flat-out sadist with no redeemable qualities.

As for one final problem; The title of the new show was Ren & Stimpy's Adult Party Cartoon. For some reason, "adult cartoons" these days revolves around nothing more than sophomoric humor. I mean, come on, even South Park will touch on social commentary now and then!

When I first saw The Triplets of Belleville, I wasn't sure if I liked it or not. I was certainly impressed with the use of 2D and 3D animation, and the overall weirdness kept me interested. Then I saw it again and again, until it finally got to the point that I couldn't get enough of it.

Sylvain Chomet has clearly put a lot of work into this movie and it shows throughout the entire movie. Even as strange as the characters and the animation is, it still looks very believable, and the bizarre humor shines beautifully. All I can say us the character, Bruno the dog, stole quite a few scenes with his hatred of trains, particularly the scene where they were eating frogs for dinner.

In all I have to say this is a great movie, although I wouldn't recommend this for kids. A few scenes might not be appropriate and I doubt many would have the patients or the ability to understand it completely. But it is a must for animation buffs.

I remember the first time that I saw this movie. It was in the 11th grade on the last day of school in my American History class. Our teacher was a huge music buff so he got us to watch it. Unfortunately some idiot kid pulled a fire alarm and we had to evacuate the school, and I never got to see how it ended. I went crazy trying to find it until I came upon a video rental store that had a copy of it.

I have to admit as interesting as "American Pop" was, there were a few things that just weren't right about it. As one of my friends had pointed out, it had a very good soundtrack, but the animation wasn't really that great.

I think the problem with the animation was the fact that Bakshi did this movie almost entirely in rotoscope (which is a major animation no-no). Rotoscoping is when they animate by tracing over live action to create more realistic movements. It may be useful on a few parts but to do the whole movie that way almost seems like cheating and it doesn't leave much for exaggeration and creativity. In fact the one time where they kind of broke away from it during the scene where they were playing "Purple Haze" by Jimi Hindrix, and during most of the Woodstock scene, it began to look very interesting (in an acid trip sort of way), but it seemed like this movie could have easily been live action.

There were also times where it seemed that the voices didn't seem to fit the characters and almost became irritating, I almost cringed every time I heard that thick New York accent uttering, "That's 'cause my hands is poimanently puckered."

The two things that kept me into the movie was the story itself (I wouldn't have gone crazy searching for it if it weren't for that) and of course the soundtrack. I did regret that the jump between World War II to the sixties seemed to avoid the chance of listening to some more great music of the 20th century. I'd give this two and a half stars out of four.

Goofy has always been my favorite Disney character ever since I was little. The excessive slapstick in his cartoons has always kept me in stitches. This cartoon has never failed to disappoint me. Typically, most Disney cartoons although funny, tend to be very slow paced and gentle for children's appeal, so even for a Goofy cartoon, the slapstick humor in this short laid very thick throughout. Almost to the point where Tex Avery himself probably would've been proud.

The priceless scenes of Goofy constantly taking a beating, while very violent, is enough to ensue laughter for a very long time. Watching Goofy repeatedly crash into the ceiling and walls and doing that trademark yodeling scream of his, for some crazy reason, just never gets old.

I remember when I first saw this cartoon at about 5 or 6 years of age, and at first, I was a little creeped out by the early Tweety's crude appearance, but I was soon laughing my head off. Being directed by Bob Clampett rather than the future director of the Tweety cartoons, Friz Freeling, you can expect this cartoon to be a bit sillier. Not to mention that this is Tweety's second cartoon appearance so he's (yes, he is a boy) still in his developmental stages. Note that he's pink rather than yellow, he's a bit meaner than in his later cartoons, and he hasn't even been paired up with his arch rival, Sylvester, yet. Nonetheless, this is a very enjoyable cartoon, with a very memorable line, "Aw, the poor puddy tat! He fall down and go... BOOM!"

Let me say first and foremost, I can only take so much of the Tom and Jerry cartoons (with the exceptions of the classic ones from the early years) and I absolutely despised the ones from the Gene Deitch era, but this has to be the worse. When ever I see this cartoon come on Cartoon Network, I try to change the channel. This cartoon ultimately lacks what makes a charming Tom and Jerry cartoon. The drawings look like they were done by a kid, the music was awful, and I have to agree with the earlier comment about Tom's owner. A guy like that would be asking for a charge for animal cruelty and therapy for anger management. There is nothing likable about the guy and so your sympathy goes more towards Tom rather than Jerry like it should. In all advice, I would suggest avoiding this cartoon at all cost.

I'm sorry, it may seem like a cute idea, but there are a numerous amount of things that bother me about the show. First of all, I have to agree with one of the earlier comments that the show is just a lame a rip off of Jim Henson's "Muppet Babies" (without the funny fantasy segments). This especially goes for Granny, who I used to admire before this show. She had quite a personality in the old Looney Tunes cartoons, but here, they've turned her into a bland care-giver.

If that isn't bothersome enough, all the characters are friends in this show. It really makes you wonder what caused them all to be enemies when they grew up, and it had to be more than just animal instinct. And above all...WHERE'S PORKY PIG?! I see Petunia on a few occasions, but no Porky. This show is just a crying shame.

I remember watching this on Nickelodeon when I was little, I laughed, and I sang along when they got to the chorus. I had almost forgotten about it until Cartoon Network was airing the 100 Greatest Cartoons of All Time, and this cartoon made it on the list. I fell in love with it all over again! it just never gets old and is certainly worth at least one look...make that two looks.