Reviews

This show had a really good premise: A frustrated daydreamer suddenly has to become a hero to defeat the villains he created and (unintentionally) brought into the real world. Unfortunately, the premise is the only good thing about this show; the acting is terrible, the writing is terrible, and the directing is terrible. The presence of Christopher Lloyd and a bunch of famous guest stars doesn't help; if anything, they emphasize by contrast just how terrible this show really is. I can only assume that this show was aimed at video-game players by people who believed that video-game players are idiots.

I would really like to see this show remade with competent actors, writers, and directors. This show could be amazing if it were properly and intelligently handled. As it is, I feel no need to watch it ever again.

I have been a huge fan of the Moose and Squirrel practically all my life, mostly because of the cleverness and originality that set their show apart from anything by Disney or Warner Brothers. Unfortunately, the makers of this short don't have nearly as much love for either the characters or the series.

There is nothing clever anywhere in this work; all the gags, and even the overall plot, are recycled from other cartoons and are all-too-easily predictable. For example, in one brief scene the villain uses extra-sharp skates to cut a line around Bullwinkle on a frozen lake; is there anyone out there who can't predict what happens one second later? And even the spoken humor feels forced, like too much effort was made for too little payoff.

If you are a fan of R & B, don't watch this short and don't tell other people about it; let it fade into obscurity, which is the fate it deserves.

Being a fan of the original RHPS, I watched this version from start to finish to give it a fair chance. I did so in vain.

I understand that some scenes and lyrics had to be changed for American broadcast television, but they changed too much; e.g., having Frank be a woman completely undermined most of the outrageousness that made the original a cult classic, and it made some of the songs and dialogue meaningless. Also, there were problems with casting: the woman playing Columbia seemed to be half-asleep and reading from cue cards, and Ben Vereen (who is usually a wonderful performer) was far from impressive as Doctor Scott. The overall performances, musical and otherwise, were on the same level as a high-school play, maybe even elementary-school. There were a few cute homages to the original film, like a banner that read "41st Annual Transylvanian Convention" (RHPS was released in 1975), but they couldn't make up for the rest of this televised disaster.

If you've never seen RHPS and want to know why people have loved it for decades, just watch the original, preferably in a theater with lots of people; let this haphazard, ill-conceived, made-for-TV mess vanish into obscurity, a fate that it truly deserves.

This series is most noted for the introduction of Scrappy-Doo, Scooby's nephew. Some say that this is what killed off the long-running series, but they're wrong; Scrappy actually *saved* the show from oblivion.

By the late 1970s, the run of Scooby-Doo shows was losing steam and needed something to revitalize it; an injection of "Puppy Power" did the trick. Even when the show went through various format changes (which would've happened with or without Scrappy), people kept watching and kept the ratings high because of that precocious pup. Indeed, that was why he stuck around season after season for almost a decade. Had he never come along, Scooby might now be as obscure and forgotten as Goober or Dinky.

"The Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show" marks the beginning of a long, strong run for Scooby-Doo, and for that reason alone deserves a special place in Hanna-Barbera history.

IMO, this cartoon series from the Netherlands was one of the 1980s' best.

The basic plot is about a group of animals trying to save the last remaining forest in Bluffoonia from the country's gluttonous ruler, but the individual episodes have a lot more adventure, humor, and imagination than you'd expect. The character interplay is terrific, and each 15-minute episode has two well-written (i.e., not just for babies) musical numbers. Any age can enjoy this show, and anyone can learn a few things from it without feeling like they're being lectured.

To everyone who thinks that nothing better than Care Bears came out of the '80s, and to everyone who's tired of cartoons that are either too juvenile or too "educational," I highly recommend The Bluffers.