Baron Dave Romm
Tiny Toons
By Baron Dave Romm
Shockwave Radio Theater podcasts
We have a new president!
We have a new president. You may have heard: it was in all the papers, even the bad ones. And it's about damn time. At last, adults are in charge.
Tiny Toon Adventures, Season 1, Vol. 1
Only the first 32 (out of 65) first season shows of Tiny Toon Adventures are available from Netflix. I remember watching them at the time (fall 1990), from the first show on, though after the first week or so I didn't see them all in order. Still, my impression holds up: The first two episodes are brilliant, and I expected a lot. Alas, most of the other shows were merely good, with occasional brilliant bits. Some were better than others. However, Fields of Honey (ep. 30) blew me away, and remains my favorite.
Spoilers: You have been warned.
Tiny Toons is produced by the same people who brought you Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Executive Producer Steven Spielberg, Producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall) and takes place in a similar universe. The cartoon characters know they're actors, know they're toons playing a role, and occasionally talk to the audience or complain about their agents. Some of the episodes play like The Mickey Mouse Club, and are aimed for kids of roughly that age range.
The cartoon characters are second generation Warner Brothers, and most are modeled after familiar characters such as Bugs Bunny, or simply use the Warner Bros. characters. More on this later. The history will bounce off any kid, but doesn't get in the way. They all go to Acme Looniversity, though they're in Jr. High School, taking classes from the old time toons. Babs Bunny gives her age as 14 in the first episode. While they're pretty bland and sexless forms, the show takes on dating and school social interactions.
The Looney Beginning sets the tone for the series. Bugs Bunny rescues Babs and Buster Bunny (no relation) from the cartoonist's dustbin and draws Acme Acres for them to play in. Most of the toons and settings are introduced. The show was good but nothing special until Bugs convinces Buster to be the star of the show. (quotes from memory):
"I'll do it! I'll do it for the little people!" (he whirls around to be a small person)
"I'll do it for the big people!" (he transforms to a larger figure) "I'll do it for the strange medium sized people with bad haircuts!" (he becomes a hulking dweeb)
It was at this point I knew I would like the show.
Later, when they're in Wackyland (based on my favorite of the older Warner directors, Bob Clampett), the old Warner logo is chasing the new Warner logo, trying to bop it with a mallet.
It was at this point I knew the show would be brilliant. Alas not all the time.
Fortunately for all involved, they decide to go ahead, and the cartoonist comes back to find a completed idea, which gets produced.
The second
episode, A
Quack In The Quarks, continues the utter destruction of the
fourth wall, the remembrance of things past melding
of past and present, and the major references to popular culture that
your average eight year old wouldn't catch. As usual, the best
cartoons are for adults.
Plucky Duck, the younger version of Daffy, is even more egotistical and self-promoting. As he's going on about his heroic deeds, two new students enter the classroom. Very quickly, we they reveal themselves to be from a planet that needs a hero, and kidnap Plucky.
Knowing that Plucky is full of hot air, the gang sets off to rescue their comrade. "To the Prop Department!" announces Buster, leading the way. The Prop. Dept. looks like the warehouse from the end of the first Indiana Jones . "It must be around here somewhere," says Buster. He digs until he gets to a large crate labelled "1953". They pry off the wood to reveal... the spaceship from Duck Dodgers in the 24th 1/2 Century.
They pile into the ship and fly to the huge spaceship in orbit around the Planet where Plucky has been taken. Landing in the hold, they pile out amid other spaceships: Ships that look suspiciously like NCC-1701, Jupiter 2, various Ray Harryhousen models, and a Tardis. Most of the rest of the episode is a decent Star Wars homage. The villain is Duck Vader and Plucky learns a great lesson (which he forgets soon).
The series then spends a lot of time introducing the secondary characters. Most of these are no better than okay, though there are bright spots: Citizen Max, a pretty good homage to Citizen Kane, another Montana Max episode where he's stolen the gold nugget at the center of the Earth. (Montana Max is the next generation Yosemite Sam, keeping the nastiness and adding Richie Rich money.) Furrball, the unlucky cat, is stuck with some fleas. Gogo Dodo has some nice turns.
But my all-time favorite episode remains Fields of Honey. All the new toons have an older toon as their role model. Even the female toons. Buster looks up to Bugs Bunny. Hampton J. Pig admires Porky. Elmira is the flip side of Elmer Fudd. But Babs Bunny doesn't have a role model. None of the major Warner characters were female, and she's lonely.
They visit the Warner Brothers film archives, and encounter the Vault Keeper. Looking a little like the Time Trapper from LSH, he helps Babs in her search. After much film watching, she stumbles on old Bosko and Honey cartoons. Before Clampett came up with Warner's first hit character, Porky Pig, they had other toons including the blackfaced Bosko. In some cartoons, Bosko's girlfriend Honey appeared. I've seen a few of them: They're not really good and more than a little dated, but they shouldn't be forgotten.
Ah, but no one has seen Honey since the 1930s. Where can she find her mentor? An etherial spotlight comes on Babs, and a mysterious voice urges her to continue the quest. "I don't need to be Kevin Costner to take a hint," she says to the audience.
Many of the Tiny Toons half-hour shows are divided up into three segments, but a few take the whole show to develop the plot. Fields of Honey moves slowly for a kids cartoon, but a great deal is going on. Babs Bunny builds a movie theater then convinces her friends to come see Honey cartoons. An old lady toon, in black and white, comes to watch. She stands next to Babs, and as the audience laughs uproariously, she gets younger and younger to reveal Honey. "It's laughter which keeps us young!"
The Vault Keeper is revealed to be Bosko (and the source of the mysterious voice). The cartoon ends with a lesson about toons needing an audience. Funny and poignant, Fields of Honey brought a tear to my eyes, nearly twenty years later.
This episode served as a bridge to Animaniacs, apparently, as they sort of look like Bosko and Honey (but like dogs, not like blackfaced entertainers). Another reason to like it.
"Mop-Topped Liverpudlians"
Fields of Honey briefly recapitulates The Ed Sullivan Show. Supposedly, Bosko and Honey are to be reunited on national tv, but Honey is a no-show, so Ed falls back to introduce The Beatles as "mop-topped Liverpudlians".
I always wanted to be a Mop-Topped Liverpudlian. It was my dream. Still is.
Oh sure, I never had the haircut (and now barely have the hair) and don't come from Liverpool. But this is show biz, and none of that matters. Alas, too late, I fear.
Dreams die hard.
Baron Dave Romm is a conceptual artist and a noble of Ladonia who produces Shockwave Radio Theater, writes in a Live Journal demi-blog, plays with a very weird CD collection and an ever growing list of political links. Dave Romm reviews things at random for obscure web sites. You can read all his music recommendations from Bartcop-E. Podcasts of Shockwave Radio Theater. Permanent archive. More radio programs, interviews and science fiction humor plays can be accessed on the Shockwave Radio audio page.
Thanks to everyone who has sent me music to play on the air.
The Weekly Poll
New Question
The 'All Things To All People' Edition...
Barack Obama is inheriting a myriad of complex problems. Some affect us all. Some are more important than others to particular interest groups and individuals. While I would like to see him become the greatest president ever, he is human and therefore not omnipotent. That said, the question is...
Is there a particular problem that you think President Obama may not be able to solve to the nation's and/or your satisfaction?
BadToTheBoneBob ( BCEpoll 'at' aol.com )
Results tomorrow
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Complete list of winners of the 15th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards:
Movies:
Cast: "Slumdog Millionaire."
Actor in a leading role: Sean Penn, "Milk."
Actress in a leading role: Meryl Streep, "Doubt."
Supporting actor: Heath Ledger, "The Dark Knight."
Supporting actress: Kate Winslet, "The Reader."
Stunt ensemble: "The Dark Knight."
Television:
Drama series cast: "Mad Men."
Actor in a drama series: Hugh Laurie, "House."
Actress in a drama series: Sally Field, "Brothers & Sisters."
Comedy series cast: "30 Rock."
Actor in a comedy series: Alec Baldwin, "30 Rock."
Actress in a comedy series: Tina Fey, "30 Rock."
Actor in a movie or miniseries: Paul Giamatti, "John Adams."
Actress in a movie or miniseries: Laura Linney, "John Adams."
Stunt ensemble: "Heroes."
Life Achievement: James Earl Jones.
SAG Awards
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First, his lawyers have to produce proof of the irregularities and inconsistencies that they're alleging riddled the vote tally with fatal flaws.
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'3D Sex and Zen'
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'3D Sex and Zen'
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Professional window dresser ChadMichael Morrisette said the winner of the eBay auction thought he was buying a pro-Palin item until he heard a radio report about it.
Morrisette created the look-alike mannequin of the Republican vice presidential candidate and hung it from his home's roof for Halloween. He removed it early out of safety concerns after the display prompted protests.
Morrisette told the Los Angeles Times the would-be sale price was more than $2,200. He hasn't said whether he would auction the item again.
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Basak guessed that 2,000 or more students showed up, but other observers put the total at hundreds of students, not thousands.
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"You have to use what you've got in the store. Frozen stuff, tinned stuff and if you're really desperate the dried stuff," said Alan Sherwood, a widely praised chef at the British Rothera base on the Antarctic Peninsula.
Rothera gets most of its supplies by ship twice a year -- in December and March -- with the occasional flight from Chile.
The 1959 Antarctic Treaty sets aside the continent as a nature reserve devoted to peace and science and bases have over the years stopped eating fresh wildlife. Seals were shot at Rothera for dog food until 1994 when dogs were banned from Antarctica to protect the environment.
But a 1950s recipe book at the base run by the British Antarctic Survey gives an insight into life as it used to be, with staff making penguin egg omelettes or cooking seal hearts.
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Newly-Found Score To Debut
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
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Dating from between 1787 and Mozart's death in 1791, the single-page score -- which features one complete musical piece and an unfinished draft -- was unveiled in September by the municipal library in the city of Nantes.
The miniature score, which is written on a sheet of paper 16 centimetres by 29 (six to 11 inches), was on Thursday performed for members of the press by French violinist Daniel Cuiller, musical director of the baroque music ensemble, Stradivaria.
The score was part of a collection of autographs donated to the city in 1873, but was only authenticated as a Mozart work in 2007.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Weekend Box Office
'Paul Blart: Mall Cop'
"Paul Blart: Mall Cop" wasn't ready to turn over his box-office badge this weekend as the film about a bumbling shopping center security guard earned $21.5 million to nab No. 1 for a second week in a row.
The third installment of the "Underworld" series fared well in its opening weekend. "Underworld: Rise of the Lycans," a prequel that looks at the roots of a feud between vampires and werewolves, made $20.7 million. Its two predecessors - "Underworld" and "Underworld: Evolution" - earned $21.7 million and $26.8 million, respectively, in their opening weekends.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. "Paul Blart: Mall Cop," $21.5 million.
2. "Underworld: Rise of the Lycans," $20.7 million.
3. "Gran Torino," $16 million.
4. "Hotel for Dogs," $12.4 million.
5. "Slumdog Millionaire," $10.6 million.
6. "My Bloody Valentine 3-D," $10.1 million.
7. "Inkheart," $7.7 million.
8. "Bride Wars," $7 million.
9. "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," $6 million.
10. "Notorious," $5.7 million.
'Paul Blart: Mall Cop'
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