Adult Animated Comedy Television Series Review: The Simpsons - Sex, Pies, and Idiot Scrapes

The Simpsons: Sex Pies and Idiot Scrapes review was previously published on Jupiter Beagle on September 29, 2008.

Primetime animation is commonplace today, but in the 1980s that wasn’t the case. The Flintstones aired in primetime, but it wasn’t until the breakthrough success of The Simpsons that primetime animation became the American television staple that it is today. True, the Simpsons no longer seem fresh or innovative, but it’s amazing that a show that is in its twentieth year on television can still elicit laughs.

Sex Pies and Idiot Scrapes, the twentieth season premiere, finds Homer once again trying a new profession for size. This time, after being arrested for taking part in a St. Patrick’s Day brawl, Homer visits a bail bondsman to post his bail. After getting a taste of the life of a bounty hunter, Homer decides to become one himself. On his first hunt, Homer is accidentally saved by Ned Flanders, and the two decide to become a bounty-hunting duo.

The unlikely pair unsurprisingly get themselves into some very funny situations while they attempt to catch crooks. Long-time fans of the series will be pleased to see a plethora of character cameos in this episode.

The side story has Marge also trying out a new profession. She meets an Irish baker and agrees to bake cakes for him at his bakery. I’m not going to ruin the twist, as this is only a 22-minute episode and I don’t want to give it all away in a review. But, Marge’s job turns out to be quite different from what she was expecting. I was very pleased to see that the side story actually worked well in this episode. It was also nice to see that the writers managed to mesh both stories together in a believable and in-character fashion at the end of the story.

This episode wasn’t perfect, but it was a good start to the new season. Some of the jokes fell flat, especially during the beginning of the episode, but I actually found myself laughing out loud at some points. There wasn’t any character development, but everyone stayed in character throughout the episode. It’s not a series classic by any means, but Sex Pies and Idiot Scrapes is an enjoyable, if somewhat average, episode.

Final Verdict:
3½ out of 5

Adult Animated Comedy Television Episode Review: Simpsorama

Simpsorama is a crossover between Matt Groening's two most popular creations, The Simpsons and Futurama. While the two had crossed over in comic books, this was the first time they did so on television.

The episode begins with the children of Springfield Elementary in the twenty-first century putting objects into a time capsule that will be opened in the thirty-first century. When the hole is dug for the time capsule, nuclear ooze flows in from the nuclear plant owned by the town's money-pinching billionaire, Mr. Burns.

During a thunderstorm, the lazy robot Bender arrives from the thirty-first century. He has amnesia until his processor is reset, at which time it is revealed that he was sent back in time to kill Homer Simpson due to the Simpson DNA from the time capsule that mixed with the nuclear ooze to create mutants that wreak havoc in the thirty-first century. The main crew from the Planet Express in the future, Leela, Fry, and Professor Farnsworth, are sent into the past through Bender's chest compartment.

This leads to funny interactions between characters with similar personalities, such as Bender and Homer, and Professor Farnsworth and Professor Frink. It is stuffed full of humor that is more of Futurama's style than that of The Simpsons. That doesn't mean that there isn't anything here for Simpsons fans as there are plenty of jokes from Simpsons characters as well.

The Simpsons and Futurama worlds are fictional in the world of the other, so it's best that don't overanalyze it. If you just sit back and enjoy the comedy, it is a lot of fun. The comics still contain the best crossovers between the two properties, but this one is really enjoyable as well. The only drawback is that some characters didn't get many interactions. It's too bad the Family Guy crossover, The Simpsons Guy, was given an hour instead of Simpsorama as this crossover is much better.

Final Verdict:
4½ out of 5

Adult Animated Comedy Television Series Review: The Simpsons - Treehouse of Horror

The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horror review was previously published on Jupiter Beagle on October 15, 2008.

Treehouse of Horror is the annual Halloween-themed episode of The Simpsons. It has become a place for the Simpsons’ creators to do wonderfully bizarre things to their characters without having to worry about series continuity. But, here, in the second season’s Treehouse of Horror, things started off much more innocently.

This episode takes place in Bart’s treehouse (hence the name). The Simpsons kids (Bart, Lisa, and Maggie) are up in the treehouse telling scary stories while Homer eavesdrops on them. The episode is really a series of three short cartoons, interspersed with scenes showing that the kids are the ones telling the stories.

The first story, “Bad Dream House”, has the Simpsons family moving out of their familiar home on Evergreen Terrace in Springfield. Their new house turns out to be alive and decides to get the Simpsons family out by possessing the family members, turning them into psychopaths who want to try to kill each other.

The second story, “Hungry are the Damned”, parodies the episode of the Twilight Zone TV show called “To Serve Man”. The Simpsons are abducted by two aliens known as Kang and Kodos. They give the Simpsons huge amounts of food and take pleasure in watching the family stuff themselves. This makes Lisa suspicious, so she searches the ship to find out the aliens’ true intentions.

The last story is a retelling of the short story “The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe. This is easily the most memorable segment of the whole episode. Here Bart is the raven that drives the main character, Homer, crazy while he thinks of his lost love Lenore (who is shown in a portrait as Marge). The story is spoken from the text directly from Edgar Allen Poe’s story and is narrated by James Earl Jones.

The first episode of The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror is excellent. But, the best episodes in the series are still to come. Even so, The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror has become a Halloween tradition in many American households (mine included), and this is the one that started it all. Everyone should see this at least once.

Final Verdict:
4½ out of 5

Animated Comedy Television Series Episode Review: Quack Pack: Episode 1 - The Really Mighty Ducks

This review was previously posted on the McMurray Internet Channel website on March 7, 2019.

Quack Pack was a 1996 show starring Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, Huey, Dewey, and Louie. It was based on the Donald Duck shorts, which was referenced in the theme song as it begins with the title card and music from the original shorts.

The fact that it was based on the shorts gave it a slapstick, abstract quality. This, combined with the show’s inclusion of human characters and the choice to not include characters like Scrooge or Launchpad, caused it to be negatively compared to DuckTales, a well-received show that also was on the Disney Afternoon cartoon block.

This caused it to only run for one season containing thirty-nine episodes. However, with the recent DuckTales reboot, it’s worth checking out Quack Pack again. It’s actually a fun little show, and some of the show’s character ideas actually made it into the modern DuckTales, with a few tweaks.

This is the first time that gave Huey, Dewey, and Louie had regular preteen voices rather than duckling speak. It’s also the first animated production where the twins were given individual personalities. Both of these carried over into the 2017 DuckTales series, however, personality traits were swapped. In Quack Pack, Huey was the schemer, Dewey was the intellectual, and Louie was the adventurer. In the 2017 DuckTales series, Huey was the intellectual, Dewey was the adventurer, and Louie was the schemer.

The episode itself is a fun one. Professor Ludwig von Drake, a mainstay in both comics and animation, shows the twins his inventions as the twins want to use one to help them clean their rooms. Of course, being preteens, they choose the superhero machine over the room cleaning machine. Huey gets super speed, Dewey gets a massive brain, and Louie gets super strength.

This leads to a fun series of sequences where the twins use their powers for frivolous things and end up doing more harm than good. Ultimately, Donald decides to use von Drake’s machine for himself, since he can’t convince his nephews to clean their room.

He accidentally turns himself into a villain, and things get really over the top and fun from here. Donald turns the universe into his battlefield, using Saturn’s rings as a slingshot and shooting planets and stars at the twins. This wonderfully shows how abstract and slapsticky the show can get, but this is where Quack Pack shines. It’s less like DuckTales and more like Freakazoid, and that’s the show’s best quality. When an animated show has an abstract sense of humor, nothing is off limits, and this episode demonstrated that in spades.

Quack Pack is a fun, underrated show. The Really Mighty Ducks is a fantastic way to introduce the show. It’s abstract and silly and it isn’t afraid to go all out, giving a fantastic bit of animation, and some super fun and silly scenes and references in the process. If you go into Quack Pack with the mindset that you’re in for something super fun and silly, you should have an enjoyable time with it.

Final Verdict:

4½ out of 5

Animated Fantasy Television Series Episode Review: Steven Universe Pilot

This review was originally posted on the McMurray Internet Channel website on March 5, 2019.

The Steven Universe pilot was originally released on YouTube and the Cartoon Network website, however, it has since been removed from both websites. It can still be watched as it was included on the Gem Glow DVD and the Season One DVD and Blu-Ray releases.

Watching the pilot is interesting because, other than the dramatically different art styles, the show is actually amazingly quite similar to what we got in the finished product.

Garnet has two gemstones here, which became a major plot point in season one of the television series. She also appears to be the leader, as she directs the other Crystal Gems on what to do.

Amethyst has the carefree, childish persona she had in the early seasons of the show, as demonstrated here by bringing the crystal skull home and then giving Steven the hourglass even though she knows it is dangerous.

Pearl is depicted as cautious here as well, demonstrated by how she tells Steven that he can’t see the hourglass as it is extremely powerful. She’s a bit out of character when she says that Steven will look like a clown if he sings his song in battle, but the way she bashfully covers her mouth when she softly laughs afterward is pure Pearl. Plus, the way Amythyst laughs uproariously and Garnet admonishes them not to make fun of Steven is definitely true to the characters they have on the aired version of the show.

Then, there’s Steven. His song is absolutely the highlight of the episode. It’s an extended version of the song "We are the Crystal Gems", which would become the theme song of the show. Steven’s song in this episode is so great that it was later used, verbatim, in the official extended version of the song.

As for Steven’s personality, he is exactly the curious, immature boy that he was in season one of the show. I could definitely see him accidentally use the hourglass to use a comeback when Lars insults him, which is exactly how season one Lars would act. Season one Sadie would definitely admonish Lars when he teases Steven as well, even though she had a crush on Lars at that point.

Plus, Garnet using the hourglass to win the battle after she learns that it can only be used for comebacks is exactly how she would do it in the show as well. Honestly, I prefer this use of the hourglass to the one that we got in the show in season one. Steven forming a band with past versions of himself called Steven and the Stevens was fun, but it didn’t really fit into what the show became after season one. It’s one of those weird one-off episodes that really doesn’t fit into the mold of the rest of the show.

This episode, even though it is not canon to the series, actually does fit into the rest of the show quite nicely. Yes, the animation is more detailed and rough than the clean look the show got when it aired. However, if it was re-animated to fit in with what the show became, it would have been a great season one episode. Add a star zoom-in on Steven’s face at the end when he said “this clown is going to save your lives”, and it would fit into the show surprisingly perfectly.

Final Verdict:
4½ out of 5

Animated Comedy Television Series Review: DuckTales - Woo-oo!

This review was originally posted on the McMurray Internet Channel website on March 6, 2019.

Disney XD has aired an excellent DuckTales series for the past couple of years. It combines the classic 1987 DuckTales series with elements from the classic Carl Barks and Don Rosa Scrooge comics, and wraps them in the modern style of Disney shows such as Gravity Falls.

Woo-oo was the premiere episode of the show, and it definitely started strong. Donald Duck is worried about his nephews as he goes to interview for a new job, so he drops his nephews off at his Uncle Scrooge’s mansion. There is obvious bad blood between these two, as the boys didn’t even know that Scrooge was their uncle, and Donald and Scrooge haven’t spoken to each other in years.

Once we get to the mansion, we’re treated to an excellent surprise in the presentation of the characters. The classic DuckTales was excellent, but for a show aimed at children, the children on the show were surprisingly un-fleshed out. Huey, Dewey, and Louie didn’t have distinct personalities, and the personality that they were given were those of boy scouts, or junior woodchucks, as the case may be. This time the show takes a cue from the Quack Pack series, and not just because the twins have the voices of pre-teens rather than ducklings. They now have distinct personalities. Louie is mischievous, as his brothers refer to him as the “evil twin”, and he agrees. Dewey is daring and is an adventure seeker. Huey is the only one who retains the junior woodchuck personality, and, probably as a nod to that fact, he is the only twin that wears a baseball cap.

In the classic DuckTales, Webby was much younger than the boys and was scared of the adventures that Scrooge and the boys had and usually stayed home. Here, Webby is around the same age as the boys and resembles Mabel from Gravity Falls in many ways, and not just because the two enjoy grappling hooks. She is strong, resilient, and outgoing.

Mrs. Beakley is also given an overhaul. Before, she had a grandmotherly personality and served as the traditional maid of the mansion. She is still the maid, but now she is super strong and has a no-nonsense personality.

Scrooge also is a bit different, and it’s not only because he’s voiced by the always-awesome David Tennant. He is a bit less grandfatherly than the 1987 series, and is a bit more of a miser, as he was in the classic Scrooge comics. He still cares for his nephews, but he’s a bit less of a family man than he was in the classic DuckTales series.

However, Launchpad is still Launchpad. He’s still a plane-crashing airhead with a heart of gold, and that’s for the best as he was the breakout original character of the classic series.

Beyond the characters, we’re treated to a fun adventure as the characters learn about Scrooge and Donald’s adventuring past. They also reinvigorate Scrooge, who had retired from adventuring. They get to see that he can still fight magical monsters despite his age, and he sees that he cherishes their youthful enthusiasm as they make him want to go on adventures once again.

Plus, in the end, we’re treated to a tease of the return of Scrooge’s archenemy Flintheart Glomgold. In that same tease, we’re also treated to more Donald Duck. His absence is one of the biggest drawbacks of the classic series. Donald is one of Disney’s major six characters, so it always seemed a bit weird that Donald was missing from the classic series, relegated to a few cameos. When I was a kid, the Donald episodes were always among my favorites, so it’s great news that he has a greater presence in the modern DuckTales.

Woo-oo was an excellent introduction to DuckTales, both for new fans, and for fans of the classic series. The fact that the characters are all given distinct personalities even rises it a bit above the classic series. It really is a complete treat for fans, new and old.

Final Verdict:

4½ out of 5

Animated Comedy Short Film Retrospective: The Cupcake Topper

I've been thinking about how to handle my projects, as I'm listing them in the Adventuress database. It wouldn't be right to do a traditional review, so instead, I'm going to do a critical retrospective for each project, listing the things I liked about them and the things that could have been done better.

The Cupcake Topper, the first short cartoon that I finished outside of shorts I made in Klik 'n' Play in high school, was released on July 14, 2009. It was created using Microsoft Paint, Paint Shop Pro, and Windows Movie Maker. The music was a waveform audio conversion of a tune in the Musical Instrument Digital Interface, MIDI format. The MIDI was public domain as was the tune itself, the 1902 ragtime medley by Scott Joplin, "The Entertainer". Although it was released after YouTube's December 2008 addition of 720p videos, it was started prior to that addition. Thus, it was created in the original YouTube video resolution of 320 x 240. With the higher resolution, I would have also added things in the background to give it depth, as there was nothing in the background except whitespace.

Obviously, the first thing that would be different if this animated short were created today would be the resolution. The original resolution for YouTube videos was very small and incredibly restrictive. YouTube has since supported high-definition videos, so this animation would be created in an HD resolution.

It was also created with a restrictive paint program, Microsoft Paint. The rotated images were created with another paint program, Paint Shop Pro. This made each frame look very pixelated, with the exception of the frames with rotated images. The latter were blurred, which created a disconnect between those frames and the rest of the animation. 

On the positive side, I do like the way it turned out. The chef could have more expressions, but what is there works well as she gets upset at the bird. My mother couldn't tell what the original object was, a large pushcart with cherries on it, so I simplified it to cherries on a plate. That solidified the short and moved it toward the finish line. It works quite well, with each cherry being pecked away until there were none left. It is matched up with the music well, and The Entertainer is the perfect song for this short.

One of these days, I want to go back to this and make a high-definition remake of it. However, I'm still proud of the original. It does a lot with the technical limitations that were in place on YouTube when I first started the short.

Addendum: The short is still up on YouTube here. The short (not including any future remakes) is licensed under Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0. Basically, do whatever you want with it, as long as you credit me (and let me know, I'd love to see what people come up with). Have fun with it. :)