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Nintendo_Maximus  19:57:27 Wed Apr 7 2004 Offline 103 posts Advanced Member  Reply |
I would like to announce that under this thread, I will be posting my reviews of the TV movies produced by Disney Television Animation. Among those I'll be reviewing will include: "DuckTales: Treasure of the Golden Suns"; "DuckTales: Time is Money"; "Super DuckTales"; "Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers To The Rescue"; "TaleSpin: Plunder & Lightning"; "Aladdin: The Return of Jafar"; "101 Dalmatians: Dalmatian Vacation"; and of course, "Kim Possible: A Sitch In Time". These reviews will include my overall ratings, as well as the special features I think they'd have if released on DVD. I'll start posting the first review tomorrow. But be warned - I have long summaries!
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Philip_Kippel 20:43:07 Wed Apr 7 2004 Offline 1099 posts Supreme Member Reply |
I look forward to reading your reviews, Kacy.
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FilKiFan  21:13:22 Wed Apr 7 2004 Offline 1767 posts Administrator Geek Around Town  Mood Now:  Post Mood:  Reply |
Ooh! I want to see these!
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Nintendo_Maximus 20:11:55 Thu Apr 8 2004 Offline 103 posts Advanced Member Reply |
OK, now that I'm here, it's time to give you my first review. I'll be giving these reviews in chronological order. To start, here's...
 DuckTales: "Treasure of the Golden Suns" Introduction I was only a few months old when "DuckTales" made its debut on television. So when I was viewing it, I had no clue that it was based off of comic book stories written by the now-late Carl Barks. In fact, by the time the show vanished onto the Disney Channel, my only memory of it was my videotape of the theatrical movie, "Treasure of the Lost Lamp" (which has yet to be released on DVD). I didn't even know that the reruns were airing on ABC in 1997 until it was too late. That's why, when cable finally came into my current house, I tried to catch as much of the show on Toon Disney as I could, even after the bad move of image-changing put the classic shows in such bad time slots the viewers would have to fake sick in order to watch them. Well, I didn't try to catch it as much as its first spin-off, "Darkwing Duck", but when the image changed, I knew I had to watch the show more and more. In fact, I tried to catch these good ol' shows beforehand in other people's houses. And from those TVs, I found out that "DuckTales", and a lot of the early animated Disney shows, had TV movies, all of which were later split up into multi-part episodes. And this one, "Treasure of the Golden Suns", was the first. Part 1: "Don't Give Up The Ship" Disney's first-ever animated TV movie opens up in the city of Duckburg, the hometown of a vast majority of Disney's duck characters. And the first character we see, or rather hear, is none other than the show's main character, Scrooge McDuck. He's a-swimmin' in his big-ass Money Bin when he suddenly realizes he's late for somethin'. So, with a quick change out of his swimsuit and into his normal attire, he starts his trek through Duckburg, annoying entrepreneurs and beggars in his miserly ways. Scrooge, more well known for his comic book appearances, was created by Carl Barks in a 1947 comic story where he lived up to his "Christmas Carol" namesake, but by now he's no stranger to animation. He made his animated debut in "Scrooge McDuck and Money" (1967) and also had a starring part in "Mickey's Christmas Carol" (1983), although his actual first animated appearance was in the theme song for "The Mickey Mouse Club". And he still is, his most recent animated appearance being a "House of Mouse" episode where he screws everyone with his excessively low budget. I didn't like him much in that "House of Mouse", but maybe I had just gotten too used to his "DuckTales" persona from watching the show's reruns over the summer. Speaking of which, he's living up to his namesake here too, by trying to avoid spending as much of his cash as possible. But where's he heading, you ask? And since this show's main good guy cast is made up of ducks, where's Donald? Ah, there he is. Donald's role is rather minimal on the show, considering he's in the Navy, but he does appear quite a few times during the first season. And here's an oddity about him - even if you don't count this telefilm, Donald has still appeared in more feature-length movies than his old co-stars. If you haven't caught up with the times, here are his others: "The Reluctant Dragon" (1941), "Saludos Amigos" (1943), "The Three Caballeros" (1945), "Fun and Fancy Free" (1947), "Melody Time" (1948), "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" (1988), "A Goofy Movie" (1995), "Fantasia 2000", and the upcoming "Three Musketeers" adaptation I'm looking forward to. Anyway, Donald is saying a heartfelt goodbye to his trio of misbehaving nephews, whom he's leaving in the care of Uncle Scrooge. This one scene has got to be the most emotional family moment I've ever seen between Donald and the three kids. And to think, I was bad-mouthing him for those tricks he pulled on them in the "Trick Or Treat" short! Huey, Dewey, and Louie aren't very keen on staying with Scrooge for who knows how long, and Scrooge isn't keen about it either, but they gotta do it, because Scrooge is "the only guy Don trusts with this". So there you have it. Don't worry about Donald, though; he ends up playing a bigger part later on in the film. Scrooge takes the boys to his mansion, adjacent to the aforementioned Money Bin, and introduces us to his butler/chauffeur, Duckworth. Ironically, the character is a dog on the show, although his American comics counterpart is a duck named Dudsworth. You wouldn't believe how silly the close-captions look when they mention Duckworth (the butler) when the speaking character is in fact referring to Duckburg (the city). The boys are forced to have their meals sent to them in the attic, but they also receive a letter from good ol' Unca Donald (who'll play a larger part later on) about his non-adventures in the Navy. The boys manage to get their feathered butts out of the attic to fool around the mansion before Scrooge decides to leave the house and head for the Bin. Duckworth has firm orders to not let the kids leave the house, but the boys' action of tying him up with a curtain sash says otherwise. ("This is definitely going to delay dinner.") Scrooge pokes fun at a song from "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" and reluctantly lets the trio hang around ("We missed ya, Uncle Scrooge!" "Missed me? What'd ya throw at me?"), provided they don't touch anything. Easier said than done, Scrooge. After scolding HD&L for going fishing in the vault, he mouths to himself, "I'd rather face all the Beagle Boys than those three!" Hmm, speaking of the Beagle Boys, it's at this point that we're introduced to them.[/URL] Or rather, three of them. Now see, the Beagle Boys are a large group of pathetic robbers with their main goal being to rob Scrooge's Bin. The groups usually come in 3 or 4. In comics and in the aforementioned "Sport Goofy in Soccermania", they were rather ugly in comparison to their TV counterparts, and they didn't have any real differentiating personalities or names. But here, they have better personalities and have been given names, although new character Ma Beagle (not appearing in this film) replaces the Grampa Beagle character as their ringleader. That's what I liked about the Beagle Boys on TV - they're easier to tell apart in "DuckTales" than they ever were in the comic books (at least, those I've seen). For example, the supposed take-charge guy of this group is Big-Time, the hungry one is Burger, and the large one with the missing tooth is Bouncer. If you wanna see the comic book Beagles in action, head off to your nearest comics specialty shop - they've been appearing in the new publications of the old Disney comics. Now these three particular Beagles have received some bombs disguised as bon-bons, and that ain't much of a surprise, since Ma Beagle sends 'em that all the time. But these explosives come from someone who calls himself El Capitan. So, that night, the Beagles blow up their prison walls and head for the abandoned theatre they're to meet El Capitan. El Capitan, who has a raspy voice and spends at least half of his screen time in a trenchcoat, is supposedly the main villain of this movie, because he appears in more parts than any of the other villains in this movie. What's he want? He wants them to break into Scrooge's Money Bin and steal something they wouldn't normally be interested in - a small wooden ship. Back at the Bin (while the Beagles were just getting their bombs, that is), Scrooge tries to get the boys off his mind by kicking out all sorts of solicitors, causing envy to everyone who's bothered by salesmen in real life. Among them is the leader of the Junior Woodchucks, who utters the show's first-ever mention of the Junior Woodchucks Guidebook. When I was taping these episodes, I happened to check out the first three new issues of "Walt Disney's Comics and Stories" at my school's library. Among the stories I read were two Junior Woodchuck stories featuring this guy. Apparently, the only thing I really learned about him is that his name (which was always made into an acronym) is different in every story, examples including "Great Glorious M.O.N.K.E.Y.S.U.N.C.L.E." and "Great I.R.O.N.H.E.A.R.T." Did he have a problem of some sort with his name? Or were there just a million Woodchuck Leaders and the writers never told us? But the Woodchuck Leader is then quickly forgotten until the end of this part, for then Scrooge has to scold HD&L again, because they put their hands on a small wooden ship in his museum! In fact, that's the ship El Capitan wants the Beagle Boys to steal. That night, HD&L decide to run away, during which they utter some of the sound bytes used in the more recent Toon Disney bumpers for the show. In fact, if you watch the current commercial, you'll realize that nearly every sound byte in that 30-second ad come from this movie! They don't hear Scrooge admitting he's been rough on them, though. Burnt! But don't count your chicks before they're hatched, because the kids catch sight of El Capitan on the street. And before they can get a closer inspection, they find themselves trying (and failing) to stop the Beagle Boys from stealing that darn ship. During this, they make an ironic line in the form of stacking themselves in a move they call "the human ladder." The irony comes from them being ducks. Scrooge is awoken by the alarms (he either has great hearing or he installed his alarm system in his mansion as well), but by the time he gets to the Bin, the Beagles have made off with the ship. HD&L try to explain it to him, but he won't listen. So they take it into their hands to foil the crime themselves. Especially since the Beagle Boys happened to drop a clue as to where they were hiding out! After having a hard time landing a hand-made hang glider, the boys (who spend the rest of this part wearing the Woodchuck headwear) find the baddies in the abandoned theatre, where El Capitan (who's not actually French - he addresses Scrooge as "Señor", and the nephews as "Los niños", neither of which sound French to me) reveals to the doggies that the ship is actually a map leading to a sunken treasure ship full of gold. But before he can say anything more, the little ducks nab the ship and escape into the daylight. Say, wasn't it dark just a few minutes ago? Were they all up all night? The Beagle Boys chase HD&L all the way to Scrooge's chocolate factory, where Scrooge himself is answering questions for an interview. And it turns out he's grown quite fond of those pesky nephews. When the two trios crash in, a food fight breaks out, during which Burger and Bouncer are made fools of, and Bigtime comes close to (but fails in) getting Scrooge to giving up the ship. The Beagle Boys end up being covered in chocolate and brought back to the jailhouse, and Scrooge realizes that this odd map may have something deep to it. Oh yeah, and that Woodchuck Leader reappears to hand out a lot of merit badges to HD&L. Say goodbye to "Great I.R.O.N.H.E.A.R.T." for now, 'cause that's all he has to offer for this movie. El Capitan, on the other hand, has plenty more to offer... Part 2: "Wrong Way in Ronguay" Now I'm quite sure the cops were taking away the Beagle Boys without chiseling them out of their chocolaty coats at the end of part 1, but here we see them giving Burger Beagle some air so that he can make a silly line before they take him away with his bros. That's when we're then introduced to the next of the film's several villains, and a regular antagonist on the show - Scrooge's arch-nemesis, Flintheart Glomgold! For those who haven't got comic shops to go to, Flintheart is also a long-time villain from Scrooge's comic career. His main goal is to surpass Scrooge as the world's richest duck, but he isn't doing a good job. Plus, his own title is in dispute with another of Scrooge's adversaries, John D. Rockerduck, also labeled as the second-richest duck (and who also came around years before Flintheart was even introduced). But whether or not he knows if Rockerduck exists, Flintheart has just gotten a call from El Capitan, who asks, "Mr. Glomgold, how would you like to be the Richest Duck in the World?" And that's an offer Flinty can't refuse! Flintheart heads over to Scrooge's mansion and offers to buy that messed-up chocolate factory. That doesn't sound important, but it will be. Right now, Flintheart's makin' a little bet with Scrooge, where they have to outdo each other's cash within the following two weeks. The loser eats Flintheart's hat. Fortunately for Scrooge, he has a (slightly odd) map on his side, and thanks to the nephews deciphering its code (it's a complicated process, but if you do it right, you'll find the latitude and longitude are of the exact same spot Louie points to!), he knows where to look - Ronguay, South America! Oddly, Flintheart had a South American background in the comics, although here he's also from Scotland. "Pack your swim-fins, lads; we're goin' for sunken treasure!" Scrooge utters, letting out another soundbyte reused in the current Toon Disney advertisement. Willingly taking HD&L along for the ride, Scrooge takes a plane. Problem is, it's not takin' 'em to South America. Why? The pilot's a robot made by Flintheart's company, that's why! (I think they may have edited a bit of this scene out before going into syndication. This is evidenced by a sudden jump in the background music.) But as if that ain't enough, when they arrive in Ronguay, they're stampeded by fleeing citizens, for a rare centennial series of rain-related misfortunes known as the Monsapis are a-comin'! After getting some supplies and a llama (because "some rich Yankee" already got the last pack mule), Scrooge and the boys trek off into the desert, where problems come in the form of sawed-off "Danger" signs near quicksand pits. In case you don't get it, Flintheart is trying to sabotage the journey so that he and El Capitan can find the treasure first. And in case you don't know, the ship-map left an imprint in the chocolate (ala one of the Indiana Jones movies) back in part 1, hence why Flints bought the factory. Unfortunately for the bad guys, their pack mule eats said chocolate map, so now Flintheart has to let his nemesis live because he has the only map now. El Capitan, though, is rather impatient in getting to the gold. Why? That will be explained later. After Scrooge utters another of his commercial soundbytes ("Are you all right?" "Fortunately, I landed on me wallet."), he makes a Malaysian umbrella, which he says he learned while hunting uranium. Hunting uranium? That sounds rather silly. But what sounds even sillier is how he confesses that he's "worked and sweated to stay one step ahead of wolves like Glomgold" (and Rockerduck). "Wolves like Glomgold" - that's irony! They find a cave that may help them (during which they drop the map, but that's not important, is it?), but it seems rather empty, so they take a snoozer, during which Scrooge has dreams about the Midas Touch. But the goodies soon find themselves to busy to point out the irony of their dialogue - they find themselves crossing paths with Glomgold and "that guy" (I think they took the map), who try to trap them in the cave, and because of those dang Monsapis, the water level's rising! Fortunately, Team Scrooge doesn't go much farther before finding what they're looking for - a shipwreck full of gold! All they gotta do now is get it moving. Say, they found that ship while looking out over a cliff; how did they get down? After repairing up the ship and getting it out of the now-flooded Ronguay, it looks like smooth sailing for the goodies. Unfortunately, it isn't, because a gun-toting Flintheart and El Capitan had been hiding in that ship, springing out at the right time. By the way, El Capitan has taken off his trenchcoat by this point, revealing his whole self at this point (his hat jumped off earlier in the cave). I assume he left his coat in the cabin. Flintheart gloats as he lowers the good guys into the sea on a life-boat, while El Capitan takes out his log book and "acts like he used to own this ship!" But Flintheart then makes a mistake by tossing one of the ship's many gold coins to Scrooge ('cause it's crucial to the next part), because El Capitan doesn't want to lose any gold. The bad guys' stupid bickering gets the ship sunk, and Flintheart ends up being rescued by the nephews, explaining why the Vault Disney "Villains" list doesn't feature any TV villains - the manager saw Glomgold's poor actions here and thought all DTA villains were this pathetic. I diagree, though - to me, Flinty will always be more villainous than Aunt Sarah. But since now Scrooge made more money in the time of their bet, Flintheart has to eat his own hat. And judging from his reaction, it tastes terrible. What's worse for Flintheart is that this isn't the only time he'll lose big bets like this to Scrooge. The other two times would be the four-part episode about a contest to endorse a firefly fruit, and the later TV movie that introduced Bubba. The boys, on the other hand, are wondering what became of "the old stranger"... who, it turns out, ain't quite dead. But even though he's swearing more revenge, El Capitan won't be seen again till later on. Part 3: "Three Ducks of the Condor" Part 3 of the movie is where the story really gets started, and it also marks the first appearances of a few more major characters on the series. It begins with Scrooge having called a coin inspector and several nanny applicants over. The nanny applicants are supposed to look after HD&L, 'cause Scrooge didn't think he'd be taking them along on all of his adventures. The coin inspector, Mr. Changemaker, is another story. Remember that coin Flintheart tossed to Scrooge at the end of the last part? According to Changemaker, "it's a coin from the Treasure of the Golden Suns!" Now Scrooge has a reason for this movie to go longer than an hour - he's got another treasure to go huntin' for! First thing he's got to do, is go find the owner of the other coin, who's over in a fortress the Andes, and who also hates visitors. But he obviously "hasn't tangled with the likes of Scrooge McDuck!" Scrooge doesn't have to worry about HD&L getting into mischief, 'cause they've just met their most fearless governess yet. Her name is Bentina Beakley, and she's brought along her granddaughter, Webbigail Vanderquack. Webby's kinda your average little girl, 'cept she's a duckling. And except for Ariel (who would be more heroic in her spin-off TV series), she's kind of the last of the weak-willed Disney heroine characters. Mrs. Beakley, meanwhile, is able to tell HD&L apart more easily than I can, and since she works for free, she gets the job. The next character to be introduced here is Gyro Gearloose, also a long-recurring character from comics. Scrooge needs Gyro to provide him with a way to reach the Andes, where he'll find the other Gold-Sun coin, and a way to reach the Valley of the Golden Suns. Gyro's a screwy inventor of some sort, and for some reason, he looks better here than he did in the comics. Must be my being more familiar with "DuckTales" before ever reading Disney comics. Many more recurring Carl Barks-related comic characters would make their animated debuts on the show, ranging from: a sinister sorceress with evil plans in store once she gets her hands on Scrooge's first dime; Scrooge's love interest from his days in the Klondike; Donald's annoying cousin whom Donald is competing with for Daisy's affections; heck, even Mickey Mouse's old nemesis, the Phantom Blot, was first seen on this show before making his mark in "Mickey Mouseworks" shorts by stealing radium cards and color schemes! Unfortunately, Daisy's nowhere to be seen on "DuckTales", so her three nieces, April, May & June, would have to wait until a "House of Mouse" episode to come to animation. But never mind them, 'cause after Gyro shows us his new flying machine known as the Golden Condor (which may or may not be the prototype of the Thunderquack), it's time to meet the only pilot capable of flying it... LAUNCHPAD MCQUACK!!! Launchpad is without a doubt one of my top favorite Disney characters, and a lot of "DuckTales" fans may agree with me, because he was so popular he'd migrate over to another show to become Darkwing Duck's sidekick. And he's still popular today - I recently saw him return to official merchandise in the form of the new comic books. I'm not talking about "DuckTales" comic stories being reprinted in Uncle Scrooge's new comic books - Launchpad just starred in a new story in "Mickey Mouse and Friends" #258. The appearance of Launchpad in that comic justified my wasting $2.95 on it. I like LP so much I think he should've piloted the Gummi Ship in Kingdom Hearts, and he should've placed first on Laughing Place's top 25 Disney Supporting Characters. He's that good. I mentioned earlier that Donald would play a larger part later on in the movie, and here it is. His crew's in Panama, and they're giving him a three-day pass. That's gotta be good for him and his officer, because Donald has gotten rather clumsy as of this time. I don't know if Donald was ever this clumsy anywhere outside of "DuckTales", especially since I was rather used to his role as a part-owner at the "House of Mouse" by the time I got Toon Disney. Then again, maybe it has something to do with the fact that since Clarence Nash has by now passed away, Tony Anselmo takes over for Don's voice, starting with this movie. Incidentally, it's my opinion that in this show Donald seems to look the best he's ever been drawn by Disney TV Animation. HD&L are quite peeved that they don't get to come along for this part of the journey, but I guess they needed some down time. Scrooge and Launchpad begin their journey, picking up Donald on the way. Donald picks a fight with Launchpad, who questions if he hurt the guy's vocal chords, so obviously the classic and modern generations of Disney ducks have gotten off to a bad start in their relationship. The three ducks end up crashing into the Andes, which is natural for Launchpad, who reluctantly goes looking for the wreckage of the Condor. It's either that, or he gets pushed down the cliff. Donald and Scrooge head off to meet the local antagonist of this chapter - Walking Slowly, High Priest of the Gold Sun! Slowly's the "sinister tyrant" type of villain, as he's got a lot of people bowing down to him because he's got a Sun Coin, all the while endlessly chanting "Gold Sun! Gold Sun!" His evilness comes from having a black moustache. Stereotype, anyone? On the subject of the people who worship him like the kids who worship Kool-Aid Man in his comic book, they start doing the same to Scrooge, since he also has a Sun Coin. Slowly goes over his background, about how his ancestor, Marching Slowly, and his piggy companion, Juan Tanamera, stole a boatload of treasure from the Valley of the Golden Suns. But the ship, which we saw sinking earlier, was then stolen by El Capitan (How? More on that later), who left them with one coin. The pair made a map to said valley and split it up. Marching happened upon these "Gold Sun!" chanters, while the servant wound up losing the other half of the map over in Antarctica. As Scrooge argues with Slowly, he sends Donald to go help Launchpad fix up the plane. Launchpad, meanwhile, having reached the bottom of the cliff, has found the remains of the Golden Condor, but then he's found by several more chanters, who believe him to be "children of sun". They want him to fly a real live condor. Quoting Launchpad: "I hate flying coach!" 'Nother commercial soundbyte. Donald, happening upon this ritual, helps LP out by flashing his camera in the "overgrown budgie's" eyes. Now the chanters are going "Bird Man!", and Launchpad ends up crashing the condor into the temple. Slowly isn't keen on giving Scrooge his half of the map, but he doesn't take kindly to Don and LP's clumsy antics, so he reluctantly agrees to trade Scrooge said map half for the other Gold Sun coin (which Scrooge has). But that trade will have to be quick. Scrooge doesn't trust Slowly, and Donald's got to get back to his ship tomorrow, so they'll have to repair the Golden Condor quickly. That night, Donald and Launchpad work on fixing the plane, and if you don't know, they're finally getting along well now. The next afternoon, the trade occurs, and just as Scrooge must've been expecting, Slowly tells all the "Children of the Sun" that he [Slowly] is the only High Priest, and that Scrooge was an imposter. As expected, big chase ensues, with the chanters flying real condors as they chase the three ducks in their 24-karat Thunderquack prototype. During the bitter struggle, Slowly yells some more, and Donald loses his camera (and his hat), but that isn't important. As the heroes make their heroic escape, the badly-aiming chanters crash into Slowly, who drops his coins, which go over the cliff. He commands his harem to go down and get them, but since he don't got 'em no more, they won't listen to him no more. Sorry for the double negatives. Later, Scrooge jettisons the plane so he can ride the currents to Antarctica, where the other half of the map is, and Launchpad drops Donald off at his crew's ship just in time. Says Launchpad to the lieutenant: "Ease off, lieutenant; can't you see he just flew in from the Andes?" Adds a tuckered-out Donald: "And boy, are my arms tired!" Part 4: "Cold Ducks" After spending about 15 minutes with Scrooge, Donald, and Launchpad in the Andes, it seems like the right time to check on things with the nephews back at the ranch. It seems that HD&L are having the same relationship problems with Mrs. Beakley and Webby that Donald and Launchpad had in the previous chapter. That is, the boys are making Elmer Fudd quotes (imagine Elmer saying "Be vewy vewy quiet; we're hunting Beakwey," without his speech impediment) and irritating the newcomers with Duckworth's tuning fork, whereas Webby, whom the boys consider a tag-along, is trying to make peace by attempting to draw caricatures of them with her Crayola crayons. (Your choice - detail, or product placement?) An agitated Mrs. Beakley seemingly tries to give the boys a dose of their own medicine, but their room is instead shaken up by the reappearance of Launchpad. The future sidekick of Darkwing Duck is making a grand entrance in a big-ass cargo plane bigger than my own house, looking for "Mr. McDee's provisions." Where'd he get that giant plane? Never explained. If I wasn't such a Disney TV Animation aficionado, I'd say that these telefilms make even less sense relating to their own selves than the direct-to-video sequels do to their original theatrical counterparts. Launchpad starts tossing everything crucial and non-crucial into the plane. During this, HD&L, trying to avoid Webby tagging along, try to hide in the fat plane, but that clearly doesn't work. Launchpad unknowingly takes off with the kids in the plane, and when a scarf-bearing Mrs. Beakley catches sight of Webby in one of the window, she ends hitching a ride on the landing gear. Fortunately, Launchpad manages to get "Grammy" inside before she slips and becomes a stain on the sidewalk below. Mrs. Beakley demands Launchpad to turn the plane around and drop them back off at the mansion. The pilot refuses, because he's got to get this stuff to Scrooge before his homing beeper dies. Well now, it seems like the nephew trio, Webby, and Beakley will have to come along for the ride. With what's in store for them here, they oughta be glad this plane's big enough to hold Congress and their Round Table. Not shown: Duckworth has rigged the enemy base with explosives. The background designs of Antarctica done for this one movie were well-done, especially in comparison to some later Disney animation shows. Don't get me wrong; as much as I love "Teamo Supremo" and supporting Crandall & Brenda as a couple, that show's backgrounds aren't worth a can compared to this. Plus, whenever someone takes a step in the snow, he leaves a footprint. This is quality TV animation we're dealing with here. Since Antarctica's the coldest place on Earth, it's a good thing Launchpad thought to bring winter clothes for everyone. But how did he think of that, seeing how he didn't expect that he'd end up taking three boys, a girl, and a nanny on the trip? They don't find Scrooge, but they do have a run-in with a little girl penguin chased by a walrus, toting Scrooge's stuff. Mrs. Beakley's scarf attracts the "walking overbite" like a red cape, and Launchpad ends up being dragged along, so HD&L reluctantly end up having to save them. This one scene is the only time when the boys are fully suited that we can tell them apart. It seems that the character designers were so busy giving differentiating personalities to the Beagle Boys that they forgot to do the same for Huey, Dewey & Louie. It's even worse when you realize that they (and Webby) share Russi Taylor for a voice actor. It was only in the 1996 spin-off series "Quack Pack" that the boys could really be different, both in personalities and voice actors. So whenever you find someone bashing "Quack Pack", remind them that it was the only time Huey, Dewey & Louie ever had different character traits. Oh, well. At least the boys are better off here than in "House of Mouse", where, due to Tony Anselmo voicing them as well, they sound exactly like Uncle Donald!! Thanks to the nephews, the walrus falls to his doom, and Launchpad lands in a snowbank. Says he: "Hey, nice landing. On a scale of 1 to 10, I give it a C+." The nephews ponder over why the walrus was wearing Scrooge's things, and then dismiss Webby's new penguin friend as "another tag-along." Fortunately, they take Mrs. Beakley's idea of backtracking the walrus's tracks. What do they find? A cave, that's what! Inside, they find that Scrooge has left his mark here. "Wow! It's beautiful!" Launchpad says, summing up the background design. After slipping on a frozen river, though, he stupidly fires a flare gun that causes the river to break apart and send him and the nephews towards a waterfall. Huey utters that they'd better duck, because "either we're getting taller or the roof's getting shorter!" Ironically, Launchpad would say a similar line in the theatrical movie, released about four years later. Fortunately, the males survive the waterfall (it's not very tall), but they don't know where they're going. Behind, Webby and Mrs. Beakley realize they'll have to find them. Shockingly, that penguin girl who's been following them speaks up, 'cause, considering the cast's been made up of talking ducks and dogs, it's only fair that the penguins talk too. She couldn't talk before 'cause her parents told her never to speak to strangers. The penguin gal, Skiddles, happens to know of a shortcut, but they'll have to work fast. Apparently, since everything in Antarctica is white and/or grey, color is treasured by penguins like it's something sacred. Skiddles is right. Shortly after arriving in the never-named underground city of the talking penguins, Launchpad and the trio are ambushed by the mayor and some goons of his, because they want their colorful clothes. The penguins here all have British accents for some reason; maybe they're almost as stereotyped as every weasel to appear in Disney animation. I sometimes wonder if LP only pretends he's stupid, because as it turns out, he shares fashion taste with Goofy when it comes to lingerie. Wearing long johns in a snowy location is a good idea, compared to HD&L's decision to wear just t-shirts under their attire. Then, when he tells the top-hatted penguin mayor that he knows Scrooge McDuck like a brother, the "renegades from a prom" throw him and the boys into their jailhouse. Fortunately, Huey (who seemingly foreshadows his "Quack Pack" personality) finds out that Scrooge, also stripped of his duds, happens to be in the next-door cell. He found the other half of the map to the Valley over in the museum, but before he could get it, the penguins arrested him and took his half of the map. Scrooge is positive that there's still hope when he hears that "Mrs. Beakley's still wanderin' around", but HD&L, having been created in a time when women weren't independent, believe that "she'll be captured easier than we were." Elsewhere in the city, Mrs. Beakley, Webby, and Skiddles come upon a giant prehistoric walrus frozen in ice. Discarding it, they head to Skiddles' house, where Webby disguises herself as another penguin and Mrs. Beakley finds out what it's like to be a TV dinner. You'll miss it if you blink, but at one point Webby takes off her coat to reveal she's not wearing anything underneath. I know that cartoon ducks never wear pants, and Donald's lost his shirt a lot of times, but seeing a "nude" Webby still disturbs me. In comes the nondescript appearances of Skiddles' mother. The father? Never seen. Mrs. Beakley goes off in search of everyone's clothes, leaving Webby and Skiddles in the house (or so she thinks). Instead, the little girls head off to the Color Museum to discover that Scrooge's map (both halves) has been encased in the thickest ice possible. Mrs. Beakley, in the meantime, somehow gets ahold of the stolen clothes (obviously, it must've been cut from the full version) and pops up at the jailhouse. HD&L are a little grateful, because now we can tell them apart again, but they're even more grateful when she reveals that she got the tuning fork along. The boys use it to break free, destroying the jail in the process. Unfortunately, it also breaks the ice keeping the giant walrus at bay, so obviously, they've got another enemy, aside from the citizens of Penguintown, to escape from. Not pictured: Magica DeSpell is destroying San Antonio. Launchpad heads upstairs to warm up the plane. Scrooge plans to use that tuning fork to get the map out of the ice once they get to the museum, provided they avert the snowball-throwing penguins first. Before reaching it, he and the boys come upon Webby and Skiddles. Then the other penguins run away, because here comes Hippo the War Walrus!! Sorry, I couldn't resist referencing my Strong Madlib. The War Walrus crushes the museum, along with Scrooge's hopes of getting the map out. Calling back to the small walrus earlier, Mrs. Beakley (who happened to be along with them, even though we didn't see her following Scrooge-tachi) waves that scarf (which they had given Skiddles) at "Lardo" like a red cape. Taking control of the scarf, the boys run like crazy from "Lardo" the War Walrus as they try to get to the plane. ("Webs, don't fail me now!" yells Louie.) Not far behind, Mrs. Beakley, Scrooge, Webby, and Skiddles dash away from the bigger birds in town. The group soon ends up at the edge of an ice-cliff, with Mr. War Walrus about to clip their wings off. Suddenly, Launchpad comes a flyin' in, scooping up the whole cliff point in that cargo plane. Even the War Walrus fits in. I told you it was a big-ass plane. The penguins are amazed by this development, but Skiddles' mother, who wasn't in the mob earlier, is upset because "they've stolen her baby." The War Walrus is still hungry for duck soup (which is responded by "Hey! You wanna keep it down to a low roar back there?", said by an unaware Launchpad), but before he can sink his tusks into anyone, the gang grabs ahold of the rungs sticking from the ceiling, and Scrooge smashes an alarm that sends "Mr. Blubber" plummeting into the ocean below. Now that the War Walrus is frozen solid again, it's time for plot resolution for the time being. The boys regret all bad things they've said about Mrs. Beakley, and it also turns out Webby managed to reproduce the map using "her color sticks." Skiddles returns to her folks via colorful parachute, with Webby's crayons and that scarf as parting gifts. That said and done, it's on to the Valley of the Golden Suns!! Part 5: "Too Much of a Gold Thing" After everything Scrooge and his pals went though in the last two episodes, you'd think it'd be smooth sailing to the Valley of the Golden Suns. But it isn't, because there's one other villain we've seemingly forgotten. Remember that El Capitan fellow who was getting help from the Beagle Boys and Glomgold? He's still around, sitting in a wooden motorboat in the Wakka-Wakka River, and, figuring that Scrooge has now deduced how to get to the Valley, he plans to follow him and then take it from him, "because I, El Capitan, deserve every bit of it!" What confuses me is how he's somehow back in his trenchcoat, which I'm quite sure sunk to the bottom of the ocean along with that ship back at the end of part 2. Up above, Team Scrooge is approaching the jungle in their big-ass cargo plane. Webby, who has somehow changed back into her normal clothes despite never being shown ditching that penguin disguise, is reading the Junior Woodchuck Guidebook that hasn't been mentioned since back in part 1, while HD&L notice that Scrooge is pacing around yelling at everyone. What's up? According to Mrs. Beakley, "that madman McDuck" has caught gold fever, a stupidly-named diseases that causes its recipients to itch for gold so much they forget what's important. Believe it or not, that becomes important later on. Scrooge's case gets progressively worse over the course of everything before the last commercial break of this chapter. Right now, he's scratching himself like he's covered with fleas. He orders Launchpad to speed up landing the plane, causing them to splat onto the wall, predating a similar situation in Darkwing's "Comic Book Capers". As they come in for a landing, they unknowingly knock El Capitan out of his rowboat. But right after they land, they find themselves being carried away with the current. Scrooge orders LP to return them to the sky, and LP replies, "Don't worry. When the going gets tough, the harder they fall, heh?" The heroes nearly fall over a waterfall, but like all cartoon characters in this situation, they narrowly survive, on account of Launchpad opening the loading-bay doors. Scrooge, the trio, Webby, and Mrs. Beakley take a raft outwards, with Launchpad assigned to stay behind and get the plane floating again. At this point, HD&L are rather annoyed with "Captain Greed's" gold fever, but it soon vanishes in a coupla minutes. They haven't gotten far when they run into an angry squadron of alligators. After Scrooge wastes an oar on the first one, he makes a look like he's going to kill someone, but instead punctures the raft, propelling them away from the gators. Now that they're safe on dry land, they can continue onward to the treasure, 'cause there's a pathway leading there, and "what are they waiting for?" Not far behind, El Capitan comes out of a bush and follows them. "Yes, amigo... what are we waiting for...?" Not depicted: the McDuck Mansion threw up on Rockerduck. Incidentally, I should note that I'd actually seen this part of the movie before the others. That was way back in 2001, I believe, when Toon Disney was actually showing classic shows like this in good time slots. I didn't have cable then, but my grandma had temporarily gotten Toon Disney, and I happened to catch this one day. Unfortunately, we wound up having to visit my cousin right when the second commercial break came, and I didn't get to see how this ended until after Toon Disney decided to start airing the newer, not-classic shows so much that they barely show this anymore. And now with that goddamned Jetix, it's even worse than before! Memo to Disney's TV scheduling department - ditch Jetix. Anime and Power Rangers DO NOT belong on Toon Disney. Later on down the road, the nephew trio notices that they're something strange about a road like this. The oddity - it leads to a trap!! It's this fortunate realization that saves Scrooge from being crushed by two giant logs on ropes. Not long afterward, they come up to an "older model" escalator, where Scrooge makes a silly heroic pose. Takes quite a while for them to get up to the valley, and without railings, it's quite unsafe. By now, Scrooge is experiencing the next step of gold fever - funny twitches. Just when it looks like they've reached a dead end, Scrooge and the kids use a tree limb to open the invisible door. What's in there? Wait for it. While this is going on, Launchpad's doing work of his own. He has to anchor the plane to the shore, shut the doors, and pump out the water. His transportation to the land? A round rubber ring that looks like a giant donut. Unfortunately, he doesn't quite get the plane hooked onto land easily, because he has an unfortunate tangling with a huge snake who doesn't take kindly to large dim ducks swimming in his river. Needless to say, this near-drowning experience winds up changing Launchpad's opinion of snakes for the worse. Can you guess who Launchpad refers to here? Back to Scrooge-tachi. They've finally found the Valley, but just now they've only stumbled upon the first fraction of the treasure - a ring of giant golden discs! Just this much is even more gold than in Fort Knox, according to Scrooge, who stupidly tries to loosen one of them from the wall, believing he can carry it back to the plane. It ain't happening, Scroogey. Maybe it could fit in the plane, but you wouldn't be able to carry it. The disc does loosen, but it ends up falling down the walls, taking the gang with it. Luckily, they manage to jump off at the right time and somehow survive without breaking any bones. The disc hits a hill-disguised building hidden inside the valley, making a "BONG"... meaning those discs are just loose change compared to what's inside that tower... and on the exterior too! If you can't tell, now Scrooge is experiencing the next gold fever symptom - hiccups. Says he - "If I melted this down, I could remake the Statue of Liberty out of solid GOLD! One for every day of the week!" It's at this point he decides to signal Launchpad using the flare gun, but since "that idiot" is currently having problems with that dang snake, he obviously didn't notice it. And doesn't Battle Kat eat those things? The interior of the Temple of Gold more than lets us know why it's best to describe the Valley as "the Goldest Place on Earth". Practically every room is made of gold and stocked full of it. It's so much gold that Scrooge really loses his mind and briefly turns into a cat. They head inside the central chamber inside the temple and come upon skeletons of deceased explorers who'd also been infected by gold fever. Scrooge refuses to believe he'll meet a similar end, and he doesn't believe the nearby gold well leads anywhere. Instead, he just goes about exploring the courtyard, seeing what this place has to offer. HD&L follow, now starting to catch gold fever themselves. The three other rooms in the courtyard show why I gave this temple the above definition. There's a room with gold dust, a room with gold bricks, even a room that's just like Scrooge's Money Bin! As Scrooge and the nephews make fools of themselves in the golden chambers, Webby tries to translate a "stone" tablet that someone managed to write before he died. And it means business. It tells those able to transcribe that anyone greedy enough to open all the doors will set off... ANOTHER TRAP!! Scrooge discovers that a little too late, unknowingly setting off the curse. He gets KOed by one of the gold bricks, and then all the doors shut, so now they're trapped in here. And just when things couldn't get any worse for our heroes... El Capitan shows up, pointing a shotgun at them. HD&L are quite surprised at the appearance of El Capitan (who has seemingly lost his trenchcoat again), considering he'd apparently drowned at the end of part 2. He makes them get into the pot hanging over the aforementioned well, telling them that he's been waiting 400 years for this. Mrs. Beakley says he's mad, and he replies, "Of course I'm MAD! I'm mad for GOLD!!" And he finishes with a very sinister laugh. He tells "Los niños" that he stayed alive through sheer willpower, and begins to lower them into the so-called lava pit. Scrooge regains consciousness and begins shivering in spite of the intense heat, which is the final step in gold fever. That's 'cause the lava is also made of gold! Scrooge declares this to be "the real Treasure of the Golden Suns", and upon hearing this, El Capitan brings them back up, saying that he "won't have them tasting a single drop of his gold." But Scrooge, having worked too hard for this, refuses to give El Capitan "his" gold. By the way, neither of the gold addicts have noticed the curse is in effect. Scrooge and El Capitan begin fighting, failing to notice the curse's effects, this bit being that the floor's starting to collapse. They temporarily stop in order to dodge the collapsing floor and jump to safety, in a shot you might recognize from the theme song. Then, when they've gotten to the only safe place, they start fighting again. But then, the next step comes. The walls start moving, looking to dump them all into the golden lava below. It's at this point that Scrooge finally snaps out of his fever and uses the vines growing on the walls to climb out, like Mrs. B. suggested earlier. El Capitan, on the other hand, is pretty much incurable, because even in the face of death, he still utters drunkenly, "Look at all the pretty gold!!" Scrooge, heroic character that he is, decides not to let "the wheezer" die, even if this mad dog is the main villain of the picture. The next step of the curse has the giant gold discs reflecting their light into the lava, causing a volcanic eruption. Launchpad has by now climbed back on top of the plane, and believing this to be the rescue flare, gets the plane back up and running. He's apparently anchored and dried it by now. How? Never shown. But he saves everyone (including El Capitan) right on time, because now the temple's melting. Yay for LP. Upon getting out of the destructing Valley, our heroes land back in the river, and El Capitan breaks loose. But when he comes to the spot of where the Valley would be, it's now been buried under a mountain of dirt. Frustrated yet undaunted, El Capitan starts trying to dig up his gold, which will most likely take him another 400 years. Scrooge heads back to the plane, saying that he wishes he had gotten at least one souvenir. And it turns out he did - another one of the gold lava's eruptions gave the cargo plane a new paint job! Scrooge looks forward to relaxing, saying he's through with treasure hunting, or so he thinks. Just like most adventures films like this, the story ends on our heroes flying off into the sunset. Possible DVD Features This is the part of the review where I'll talk about what possible bonus features could be included on (hopeful) DVD releases of the movies. But that might be a difficult task with the "DuckTales" telefilms and "Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers: To The Rescue", concerning they both go on for two hours without commercial breaks. Therefore, you'd need a disc where the movie's space isn't compressed. And for a VHS release, you shouldn't put in trailers at the beginning of the tape, since all other Disney movies have been released in SP format. Then again, they released the 135-minute "Fantasia" as part of a three-disc DVD set, so maybe it wouldn't hurt this movie either. Besides, what they can't fit on this DVD, they can fit on the DVD for the theatrical movie, "Treasure of the Lost Lamp". I imagine they'd include Scrooge's original animated debut, the 1967 featurette, "Scrooge McDuck and Money". Plus, I think there should be an audio commentary, 'cause that's always a plus in my book. Problem is, I don't think you could really discuss a two-hour movie in the entirety of its runtime. Plus, who'd do the talking? Certainly not Carl Barks, who created Scrooge; the poor guy died in recent years. Maybe Alan Young, Scrooge's voice actor. But it wouldn't hurt to feature the DVD version in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, like on the "Kim Possible" DVDs. Or even better, a THX-certified track, or the kind of 5.1 Disney Enhanced Home Theater Mix like on the DVD release of "The Lion King"! They could also feature this movie in French and Spanish language tracks, although judging from the limited audio on "Kim Possible: A Sitch In Time", it probably won't be coming. I wouldn't mind seeing it in widescreen either, although it probably won't happen, because I don't think "DuckTales" was designed for widescreen. Oh, and they should include the whole movie. As in, the entire, uncut movie, 'cause see, when the film originally aired as a TV movie, they had to condense it, and the serialized version is actually the full version. And the same goes for the next three I'll be reviewing. Ironically, as I was reviewing this movie, I found out there actually was a home video release of this movie at one time. It wasn't on NTSC VHS, but rather on a Japanese laserdisc released in April 1989. And since it was bilingual, that means you could probably watch it in English and Japanese! I don't have an interest in laserdisc, but since it looks like Disney's never going to release this to DVD, I wouldn't mind finding this laserdisc so I could convert it to DVD. However, the cover art, based off of part 3, kinda stinks, though, because Donald seems to look like he's the film's star, and El Capitan's nowhere to be seen on the artwork. Good luck finding it, though - it's rare! Overall "Treasure of the Golden Suns" is clearly Disney at its finest. It's a good animated introduction to characters made famous in Carl Barks' comic stories. "DuckTales" is a gem in Disney animation for bringing comic book characters to the medium more people are familiar with when they think of Disney. Plus, Launchpad would become one of the most popular Disney characters, and he still is. El Capitan is also quite an amusing antagonist for literally willing himself to stay alive in order to find "his" gold. But Disney absolutely refuses to give this film, and most others, a DVD release. Quite frankly, Michael Eisner has no clue how quickly he could retire if he put all the animated telefilms on DVD where they belong. On a scale of one to ten, "Treasure of the Golden Suns" gets a A. | ||||
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Nintendo_Maximus 16:57:03 Fri Apr 9 2004 Offline 103 posts Advanced Member Reply |
It's time for review #2!
DuckTales: "Time is Money" Introduction Back when "DuckTales" was tops on the tube, Disney wasn't quite into their evil "End All Shows After 65 Episodes" law, so another season was a-waiting the viewers. It just didn't come around in 1988. So viewers were probably disappointed when they just found reruns in September 1988. Or did they? Because come November of that year, they had a surprise waiting for them on "The Wonderful World of Disney" - a new two-hour DuckTales movie! So in other words, "DuckTales" was here to stay, or at least for another few years or so. Part 1: "Marking Time" The second season of "DuckTales" opens up on a desert island with Scrooge arguing with his old nemesis, Flintheart Glomgold, whom we saw being forced to eat his own hat in the premiere movie. Huey, Dewey, and Louie stand close by (and rather still), wearing those dang Junior Woodchuck hats as Flintheart refuses to accept less than $20 million for the island Scrooge is trying to buy from him. Or at least, Scrooge is trying to buy Duckbill Island, the westernmost link of Flinty's chain. Take a good look at the map, and you'll see that this string of islands looks just like Donald! Scrooge finally reluctantly agrees to pay the price Flintheart wants, taking half of it out of his hat, as it's all he's got at the moment. "If I had known you were going to be so greedy, I'd have brought my good hat!" But he's got till noon on Friday to pay the rest, or he loses his down payment and his purchase. HD&L are eager to know why Scrooge is wasting millions of bucks on the seemingly most worthless of the Glomgold Islands. And so's Flintheart himself, who, unbeknownst to our heroes, has security cameras following them. Scrooge shows the boys a cave he came upon while exploring the islands last week. This cave's got skeletons, cave drawings, and... BIG DIAMONDS!! Flintheart's mighty PO'ed that Scrooge has bought a diamond-full cave from him. He's already lost big bets like this to Scrooge before, and he doesn't want to do it again, so he decides to do what any villainous rich guy would do - call up his rival's biggest neckpains. That night, as Scrooge and the boys get some shut eye, the same three Beagle Boys from the first film (Bigtime, Burger, and Bouncer) plant dynamite all around the cave and hook 'em up to Flintheart's explosion-causing thing. In case you don't know, the Beagle Boys have been known to team up with Flintheart or Magica DeSpell on various occasions, and this is one of them. Scrooge-tachi is rudely awakened, and they scramble off toward the cave. Unfortunately, now that Flintheart's blown the island in half, now what remains outside the cave is the westernmost island that Scrooge bought, and now Flintheart owns Duckbill Island's diamond-infested cave. Confusing? Only if you're not watching this. And Scrooge still owes his enemy $10 million! He's in deep trouble, I tell you. Flinty disappears for a while after this, but returns later, 'cause he's the main villain of this movie. If you were disappointed that he had a minimal part in "Treasure of the Golden Suns", and you've never seen "The Firefly Fruit Contest", this is the movie for you. Scrooge turns to Gyro to help him reconnect the island, but that's a plan that would take a while. If it didn't, this wouldn't be a two-hour movie, now would it? Fortunately, Gyro happened to discover a new element called bombastium, which looks like a glow-in-the-dark popsicle. But the cool part is that they go back in time! And Gyro has happened to build a bombastium-powered helicopter that could solve Scrooge's current problem, called the Millennium Shortcut. Sounds like something from "Star Wars" to me. If my dialogue for Bowser King Koopa Katastrophe Spoof hasn't told you, I've found time travel to be the second-most overused plot in cartoons, next to the shrinking plot. And this isn't the first time this show did it. The first season had several episodes that had Scrooge and/or the nephews traveling through time. And although this is probably the last time time travel was done on "DuckTales", it's not the last time Disney tried it, period, as it would also be done in two "Darkwing Duck" episodes, an "Aladdin" episodes, a "Teamo Supremo" episode, and of course, "Kim Possible: A Sitch In Time". As expected, Launchpad's the only pilot Gyro had in mind for flying this. Sorta makes you wonder why Squaresoft didn't bother calling Launchpad to pilot the Gummi Ship for Kingdom Hearts. Maybe they thought we'd get tired of seeing him crash it in every world. Gyro's also invented a hand laser disguised as a pen. With their plane set up for the job, they head back to the right time. Unfortunately, a near run-in with a plane and Launchpad's stupidity sends them too far back in time. Right before Scrooge-tachi arrives in the prehistoric time they're ending up at, we meet new character Bubba the Cave Duck, who's just about the cutest of Disney's male duck characters! Upon their arrival, they wind up saving him from becoming lunch for a magenta T-Rex. Scrooge steps out of the Millennium Shortcut like ET exiting his space ship, and Bubba bows down to him. Scrooge doesn't take kidnly to ending up in 1,000,000 BC, and he doesn't take kindly to Bubba, but the little cave duck's showing him eternal devotion, not to mention calling him "Skooge". He also gives Scrooge his marker. This gives him a fabulous idea - if he finds the cave and leaves his marker all over it, Flintheart can't do anything about it! Bubba accidentally smashes an egg on Scrooge, who tries bribing Bubba into going home. Bubba responds by nabbing Scrooge and running off. But wouldn't you know it? Bubba happens to live in what would become that diamond mine! It's in there that we're then introduced to Bubba's pet, Tootsie the Triceratops, named after what Launchpad says when she steps on his foot. In here, the heroes find the priceless skeleton of a Rogetsthesaurus (misspelled in the close captions as "Roget's Thesaurus"). As Launchpad loads the skeleton into the copter, Scrooge starts leaving his signature all over the cave, while Bubba listens to some tunes with the nephews. They go missing in action temporarily, right when the freezer busts and the bombastium starts to melt. But just when Scrooge and Launchpad find the boys, they return to find the time machine missing. Bubba, now an honorary Junior Woodchuck, helps them find it. He does a wolf imitation while he's at it. It turns out that T-Rex who tried to eat Bubba stole the Millennium Shortcut while Scrooge and LP went looking for the nephews and Bubba (& Tootsie). In a complicated process, the heroes distract "Jerkzilla" away from the plane, using taunts and banana peels. HD&L want to take Bubba & Tootsie with them, but Scrooge doesn't agree to it. But after what seems to be a tearful goodbye, right when the heroes are taking off, the big dino comes back, and he's rather PO'ed at being tricked into slipping on a road of banana peels. He grips his teeth at the Millenium Shortcut, badgering them, but our heroes think the Rogetsthesaurus bones are preventing them from taking off, so Scrooge reluctantly jettisons them, hitting the T-Rex while they're at it. During this, Bubba & Tootsie stow away on the plane, and Scrooge blames them for the stalled take-off and losing a fortune. But before they can say anything, they're starting to travel forward in time! Part 2: "The Duck Who Would Be King" The second installment of the adventures dumps our heroes not where they were trying to go. Now the controls are jammed, and Scrooge continues to blame it on Bubba. Scrooge and Launchpad go looking for help, with Bubba wanting to come along. ("No Bubba, you stay. Launchpad come," Scrooge orders.) What they find is Tupei, "a 14-karat mirage" which brings up deja vu for those who still remember that place in the Andes back in part 3 of the "Golden Suns" fiasco. A sinister tyrant named Mung Ho, who has the same kind of black moustache as Walking Slowly, is executing a innocent girl named Sen Sen for her beliefs that he is an imposter and that the "Great One" will come riding atop a giant lizard. Launchpad falls for her, and he blows their cover by sticking up for her. Now he and Scrooge are going to get executed. Fortunately, on cue, Bubba arrives riding on Tootsie, and nearly everyone (but Mung) believes him to be the so-called "Great One". Mung tries to convince Bubba to let him (Mung) help him with his tasks, but Bubba chooses "Skooge" instead, and all the townsfolk repeat his signature. "That's Scrooge!" "Whatever." Running gag startup! Scrooges tells the citizens to go fetch Bubba's "flying chariot", and that Sensen be set free. She escorts them to Bubba's new palace. Scrooge tells Sensen that as soon as they get the Millennium Shortcut back, they gotta leave. But she's determined to keep Bubba here. The villagers return with the chariot, with Launchpad wanting to stay a little while to get acquainted with Sensen. Scrooge says no, despite her saying that it'll be his destiny to stay. She's right. The bombastium's melted, meaning they can't return to Duckburg just yet. So now they have to take it to the snow peaks to refreeze it. As the others take that into their own hands, Scrooge mutters about not wanting to stay here until Sensen mentions Bubba's treasure room, which is just like the Money Bin. Feeling nostalgic, Scrooge dives in and repeats some of his dialogue from the very beginning of "Treasure of the Golden Suns". Sensen then reveals that Mung Ho took all this treasure from the people. Since Scrooge doesn't go for dishonesty, he takes "Great One" with him to have a talk with that scoundrel. Bubba calls a trial with Mung Ho as the defendant. The tyrant watches in horror as everything he's taken is ordered by Bubba to be given back. Including his clothes. Embarrassed without usage of "I'm a good little doggie" (but probably not as embarrassing as a certain silly scene Scrooge would find himself in the next chapter), Mungsie makes up some garbage about him defending the city from a gang of bandits every year. But it turns out, he's in cahoots with the bad gang, and he's just been paying them in the previous years. And now he's ordering them to "ransack the city and destroy Skooge!" Scrooge, meanwhile, doesn't think either he or Bubba can fight the cutthroats... until he remembers he's still got that laser pen! In the meantime, HD&L head up the mountain, with Launchpad fawning for Sensen. After refreezing the bombastium, Louie unwittingly demonstrates it and comes back from ancient Rome - perhaps prefiguring the "Darkwing Duck" episode "Inherit the Wimp"! Launchpad, on the other hand, continues to pine for Sensen. Now see, LP's had a lot of love interests, that LP. They've consisted of a female agent from his stint as Double-O Duck in the first season, a shark in the Valentines Day special, and an alien princess he revealed to have met as a kid in "Darkwing Duck". In the case of Sensen, he's carving monuments of her in the snow, but he ends up causing a giant snowball to come rolling down, taking him, the boys, and the refrozen bombastium with it. Back at the palace gates, Scrooge faces off against Mung and his many bitches, among them a big guy with a scimitar that can cut a boulder in half. I'm kinda surprised this is a two-hour "DuckTales" adventure and not an anthro version of the first Ranma movie. Scrooge whips out his laser pen and reduces said boulder to mashed potatoes, not to mentions chops down some trees and cuts off the big guy's blade. Unfortunately, the pen runs out of "ink" before he can do anything more. Mr. Big Mean Dude knocks Scrooge out and prepares to smash him with his foot, but Bubba intercepts him by leaping at him, club drawn, ala some anime. When Bubba takes Scrooge back through the gates, Mungsie orders to to be knocked down, ala "Beauty and the Beast". That's when Launchpad and HD&L come rolling in - literally, in their giant snowball! Sensen had predicted that, and she also predicts walking iron. Mung Ho whines for his minions to destroy everyone, but wonders aren't ceasing, for then Launchpad leads the gang into the giant mech hidden in the statue, calling back to a gag of his earlier. His operation of the iron "statue" scares off Mung's army, and eventually Mung himself, and Launchpad soon finds that he can now add snowballs and statues to his crash list. Later, as our heroes prepare to leave, Scrooge turns over the leader role to Sensen, who tells him that Bubba "the Great One" saved him from Big Dude earlier. She also says goodbye to Launchpad by planting her lips on his. Now he's happy, and our heroes can return to Duckburg. And the Tupei citizens finally get Scrooge's name right, to which he replies, "That's Skooge! Whatever." Part 3: "Bubba Trubba" While the narrator's recap forgets to mention the previous episode's events, our heroes finally arrive back in their own time, right after the moment they left. Gyro has already begun repairing his roof, which they'd wrecked when they left, and needless to say, they end up wrecking it again. While Bubba is fascinated with modern inventions, Gyro realizes there may be trouble rising from this development. Timeline-changing trouble, to be exact. Scrooge tells Gyro to fix up the Millennium Shortcut so they can send "that prehistoric pest" back where he came from. Meanwhile, Bubba has already started justifying the episode's title. Scrooge and the nephews arrive back at McDuck Mansion with Bubba & Tootsie in tow, and it's at this point that Mrs. Beakley and Webby, who mistakes Tootsie for a pony, come into the movie. She gets into a quick argument with the boys, and Scrooge ends it by telling them to go play with Bubba. Just when Launchpad tries to follow, Scrooge pulls him back, telling him and the staff that they have work to do. He's going to tell the world that he's outfoxed Flintheart Glomgold on national TV. And then Bubba vacuums his clothes off. I'll bet Donald knows how that feels. Scrooge's introduction of Bubba and his new legal markers in that cave become the talk on TV. When Flintheart and the Beagle Boys hears this, ol Flinty's rather pissed about it. He's also pissed because he didn't get to appear in Kingdom Hearts. That, and the fact that he keeps being left out of so many Disney Villain lists. So, thanks to some help from Bigtime, Flintheart hatches a plan to capture Bubba, and turn him against Scrooge so that he'll destroy those dang markers. It'd only be till the next time Disney characters went time-traveling that one of the villains would hatch a plot like this. Well, okay, Ursula had a rather complex plot herself. Scrooge, meanwhile, is getting quite pissed himself, although it's because Bubba & Tootsie are causing him all sorts of problems in his Money Bin. He pays Gyro a visit, wanting to know how long it'll be till he can take that neanderduck home. Gyro, telling him it'll be one more day, also tells him that by bringing Bubba & Tootsie back, he's created a paradox big enough to swallow the Money Bin. Scrooge doesn't believe that, but then he's got good reason to fear when a sudden gust of wind takes a couple of dollars away, 'cause... it's starting! After quite a few problems from this kid, Scrooge hands his reins to the nephews. "Take 'im to school, take 'im to the zoo, take 'im to the cleaners, but just take 'im away from me!" So HD&L take a fully-clothed Bubba to class, where he starts up a sudden song-and-dance number, being joined by all the students! Even the teacher joins in! Too bad they didn't bother featuring this on the Disney Afternoon soundtrack released about a year later. I'll have to transcribe the lyrics someday. But although the teacher easily got swooped into the song, the principal isn't so hot about it, and he makes HD&L stay after school for going into song in the middle of class. Bubba reluctantly heads home, during which the Beagle Boys unsuccessfully try to capture him. Back at the ranch, Scrooge refuses to believe that Bubba's problems aren't his fault, and he orders Mrs. Beakley to spend time with him. So she takes him to the snooty Duckburg Rose Society where he wears a mammoth fur tuxedo. Again, the Beagle Boys try to capture him by capturing Tootsie, but this time, Bubba's coming to the rescue makes a big mess of things, costing another fortune and also banning Mrs. Beakley from the Rose Society until May 1999. Well, since it's 2004, she can go back now, right? Wait, this was written in 1989. Launchpad is next to take care of Bubba, but he's not willing to do it. Until Scrooge offers him a new scarf. In the thick of it all, Bigtime tries an old lady approach to capture Bubba, but it fails as Bubba finds a "shiny" to "give to Skooge." LP takes 'em to the Duckburg Museum, where Bubba is shocked at the sight of all the fake dinosaur statues, and he causes even more trouble by wreaking havoc in the museum. Oh, poopy. Scrooge tries to keep Bubba preoccupied till the time machine's finished by sticking Bubba in the bathroom while he goes swimming in the vault to relax. He suddenly finds himself by his conscience, who informs him that in spite of everything Bubba's doing to him, he means no harm, and by the time he stops blaming Bubba for everything, his troubles will be over. This whole scene makes me think back to that bit in "Mickey's Christmas Carol" where Jiminy Cricket came in as the Ghost of Christmas Past to show Scrooge his past. Doesn't anyone else find it weird that they had Daisy as Isabelle in that flashback? Why didn't they think of using Goldie? Were the animators just not up for that task yet? We may never know. But then Bubba really screws up. By messing up with a hose, he lets the Beagle Boys in, thinking they can help him. Scrooge, having listened to his conscience, re-quotes some more of his "Treasure of the Golden Suns" dialogue before discovering this fatal turn of events! Part 4: "Ducks On The Lam" Now having gotten into the Money Bin, the Beagle Boys waste no time kicking Scrooge, Bubba, and Tootsie out. Needless to say, even after that pep talk from his conscience, Scrooge is now at the point where he hates Bubba with a vengeance. I'm certain the kids who appeared in the good old Toon Disney bumpers feel that way too. He tells Bubba to get out of his sight, and proceeds to work on getting his Bin back from those dang Beagles. Meanwhile, inside the Bin, the Beagles happily gloat that now they have the vault of money they've been trying to loot for years, so they call up Flintheart and gloat to him about it, telling him they don't need to work for him anymore. See, the Beagle Boys may confide in Flintheart and other fiends like Magica DeSpell, but I wouldn't have been surprised if they all secretly hated each other. Flintheart doesn't take kindly to this, so he tells the trio that they didn't think of how to split with the cash. And Scrooge has by now called up the army. But Flintheart, ever living up to his first name, has an evil plot up his kilt. After telling the Beagles what to do with the security system, Flintheart drives up to Scrooge to gloat to him. Scrooge makes more irony by calling him "a despicable, conniving vulture." Flintheart then lives up to his name by making Scrooge angry through way of reminding that he still owes him $10,000,000. After Flintsy drives away (or so it seems), Scrooge orders the army to charge into the Bin, but that plan is foiled by the Beagle Boys operating the defenses. He even hires some ninjas, but they get scared off. Obviously, he ain't getting anywhere, so he decides to borrow the required cash from one of the banks he owns. Problem is, he said that out loud while Flintheart was listening with a megaphone. Mr. Glomgold calls up Bigtime, telling him he has another job for him. Bigtime calls up the banks (through videophone), pretending to be Scrooge, and claiming that there's an imposter running around. The people at the banks are too blind to notice that "Scrooge's" mouth isn't moving. They're apparently deaf as well, because they don't notice that "Scrooge" didn't sound like Alan Young when he called. We don't see the banks thinking Scrooge isn't Scrooge, because it probably got cut in syndication. His clothes torn, Scrooge returns home and has HD&L help him look for "loose change." And when you're as rich as Bill Gates, you have a lot of loose change! Unfortunately, they only find $2,000,000. Scrooge tries one more bank and becomes furious when they continue to talk about "fish in their pockets". The bank manager, as stupid as he is, thinks this is the imposter and has him arrested. Meanwhile, a saddened Bubba walks around Duckburg, looking for friends and sports. Pay attention, and you'll notice that his attempt at playing Frisbee nearly destroys the statue of Duckburg founder Cornelius Coot, a Barks-created character who isn't mentioned often on the show. Obviously, he still isn't popular with the citizens. And lo and behold, he gets thrown in jail too. After landing in his cell, Scrooge continues to blame Bubba for all this, and that's when his conscience, also in prison-stripe clothes, reappears. Scrooge gets into a fight with it, furious with every bad thing that's happened today, including no one believing he's the real McCoy. Says the conscience, maybe he isn't; the real Scrooge wouldn't blame his mistakes on luck, destiny, or little boys. "I'm ashamed to be your conscience!" Scrooge begs for another chance, and the conscience gives him a little guessing game. If he can't get the money he needs in the bank, what he could do is... get it in the diamond mine! After thanking his conscience for helping him, Scrooge now needs to figure out how to get out of jail, since he has no "Get Out of Jail Free" card at the moment. It just so happens, though, that Bubba & Tootsie are over in the next cell. Scrooge apologizes for being so mean to Bubba earlier, and Bubba responds by giving him the "shiny" he found in the last episode. He also has Tootsie break down the wall. The two (three?) of them escape with the dumb cops on their tail. After finding a good hiding spot in the form of a lamppost, they elude the cops, who it turns out really are dumb if they never look up once in a while. But before Scrooge can make a call, Flintheart shows up and calls the police, pretending to be a "concerned citizen", half of which he isn't. Note the name he states - Yuri's Market. Is that a specialty shop for lesbians? Scrooge uses his inhuman deduction powers to deduct that Flintheart's behind this imposter business, but before Flintheart can make another insult, Bubba & Tootsie send the lamppost crushing down on him. He then does a Tarzan imitation. The angry duck with the same title as John D. Rockerduck gives chase after the cave dwellers as Scrooge tries to get away in a shopping cart. While Flintsie shouts "Wizard of Oz" references at Bubsy, Scrooge nabs the phone and calls Louie, ending up (unknowingly) with all three of the nephews on the phone. Scrooge tells them to get Launchpad to ready the plane, and have Gyro bring the time machine over. With that, he "reaches out to touch someone", and Flintheart gets hit in the back of his head by his own phone. Over at the mansion, Gyro drags the Millennium Shortcut over just as Scrooge and Bubba (& Tootsie) arrive and the sun rises. The boys find it rather odd that Scrooge is now getting along well with Bubba. Bubba, though, doesn't want to go home because he's gonna miss "Skooge". But after saying goodbye, Bubba gets in the time machine, and Gyro brings him and Tootise back to their own time, but not before revealing that it'll take up the last bombastium bar. The cops arrive at this point, and Scrooge changes into his normal wear and huddles the nephews into the plane, 'cause it's off to Duckbill Island to get that dang payment! The cops are angry with Duckworth for letting "the imposter" escape, but the butler assures that there's only one Scrooge McDuck, and the old guy who just took off in that plane was he. He then makes a line of irony - "In the words of the immortal Shakespeare, 'hit the road, Jack.'" Part 5: "Ali Bubba's Cave" The final installment of the second (third?) "DuckTales" movie opens up on Huey, Dewey & Louie not quite putting their heart into a game of jacks because they already miss Bubba. Scrooge feels their pain. This heartfelt moment is suddenly interrupted by Launchpad not being careful with driving the plane. Fortunately, it doesn't take long for our heroes to reach Duckbill Island, and even more surprising, LP brings them down without crashing. "Oh, great, there goes my reputation," grumbles the future follower of the Terror That Flaps In The Night. Unfortunately, he landed them on the wrong side of the island. So they walk to the cave. But when they get there, they discover that a wall has been built around the cave. Whodunit? Flintheart Glomgold, that's who! Y'see, it turns out he has inhuman deduction powers too, and he figured this would be the last place Scrooge would go, so he grabbed the fastest jet he could, and now here he is. Oh yeah, and he brought Bigtime, Burger, and Bouncer with him too so they could watch Scrooge's humiliating defeat. After shouting several insults at his nemesis, Scrooge makes a plan to fly over the gate. Launchpad is still confused as to why his landing was scratch-less. Suddenly, the ground gives way underneath, causing them (and the plane) to fall underground. There, they find a cavern. And one of the pathways could lead to Bubba's cave! So they use the plane to try and widen a crack for them. Now it's crashed. So our heroes now have to hike through the cavern. During this, they run into all sorts of Duckbill Island-only animals not found anywhere else. Meanwhile, Bubba & Tootsie arrive back to their own time, and it seems the trip took long enough for Bubba to ditch his prison garb. I'd also like an explanation as to how Gyro disappeared from the time machine. Bubba is at first happy to be home again, but he soon misses "Skooge", especially after finding the "Stone Age Valentine" he gave Scrooge back at the beginning of the movie! So he decides to go back - er, forward in time to find Scrooge. Problem is, he hasn't worked the Millennium Shortcut himself. He ends up being the reason the Sphinx lost its nose. He also helps get some Bosworth guy I've never read about fly. He next ends up on Mt. Rushmore, and he still can't find Scrooge. And the bombastium's almost gone! Bubba cries, making me feel sorry for him, but then gets an idea. He draws a picture of "Skooge" on one of the numbers and points the arrow at it. The Millennium Shortcut pops out an eyeball that takes a good look at the picture, and sets itself on autopilot to find Scrooge. Hmmm, now that's a feature not mentioned before. Back in the present, Scrooge-tachi find themselves dunked into an underground lake, but no one thought to bring a raft like in the first movie. Launchpad's jacket, though, is airtight when zipped. So they use him as a raft! Just when they've reached land, they find themselves on the run from... A SEA MONSTER!! The heroes reach dry land and try climbing up a cliff, but it turns out the sea monster can also climb. And he isn't afraid of fire either. Oh damn. And what's worse is that Scrooge has only 15 minutes left to pay Flinty. He throws a stalactite at the sea monster, who turns out to be pussy. The goodies run for their lives, but Mr. Overgrown Salamander's fast on land. What is he, a mutant? Scrooge-tachi hides behind some boulders, which turn out to be puffball mushrooms. The monster starts squishing them, causing Scrooge to sneeze after it seemed LP would. Oops! Just when it looks like the sea monster has cornered our heroes, who should arrive but Bubba! His sudden appearance scares off the sea monster, and delights everyone else. With the reunion aside, Scrooge asks Bubba if he knows a quick way to the diamond mine. And he does. He quickly leads them to a lower part of the cave we didn't see before, and there's enough sparklers to win Scrooge's fortune back. Up above, though, Team Glomgold is swimming in the upper floor's diamonds when they hear Team Scrooge's voices. Flintheart looks in a hole and takes notice of the good guys, who don't notice him up there. He orders the Beagles to roll a rock with which to trap them. It works, and Flintheart laughs meanly as Scrooge starts to feel like giving up all hope. What could save the day now? Certainly not an ad for the Clean Between Machine toothbrush, I'll tell ya that. Fortunately, Bubba has a great idea. HD&L use some diamonds to reflect sunlight onto a pool of water below, heating it up into a steam cannon, with a big-ass diamond as the cannonball. It works! The boulder is blown to bits, and so's the cave roof. Flintheart's not happy with this development, and he times Scrooge as he and the boys climb upwards with a diamond worth $10.3 million. With just two seconds to spare, Scrooge shoves the shiny rock in his ass (not literally, of course). But then the cad claims that the time was already up and that he lied about them having 12 seconds left. But since he's already lost a couple dozen times, he certainly wouldn't have wanted to lose now, so I'm betting that his claim that Scrooge was too late is a lie itself! That liar! To think, I put him on my favorite Disney characters list! But with that, he shoves the goodies off of "his" island, but not before tossing that diamond into a crack in the wall, triggering the steam cannon again. Just when it looks like Disney's done an ending where the good guys don't win, the cave erupts and sends all the diamonds flying onto the island portion that Scrooge does own. Now Scrooge has all the diamonds and Flintheart has none. Upon realizing he's lost once again, Flintheart throws a hissy fit, and the Beagle Boys get the feeling that maybe crime isn't all it's cracked up to be, but they give it a miss. Epilogue: Bubba misses his cave, so Scrooge has a replica of the old homestead built outside the mansion. Now isn't that a happy ending? Well, aside from the possibility that Webby is afraid she won't be listed in the credits for the criminally small role she had in this movie. (I wouldn't worry, though, since HD&L have the same voice actor.) Y'know, with Donald having returned to star alongside his nephews in "Quack Pack", Bubba's probably still living near the McDuck estate. In fact, I can't help but wonder if he still likes "Skooge" even if after how badly Scrooge treated everyone on "House of Mouse". Possible DVD Features Aside from the technical specs I figured on for "Treasure of the Golden Suns", I don't know what you could include on a DVD for "Time is Money". Maybe a montage of time-travel scenes from other Disney films, considering that they've done that a lot. But considering that the Disney Pirate Montage on the DVD for "Treasure Planet" didn't contain anything relating to the pirate-themed episodes of "Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers", "Darkwing Duck", and "Teamo Supremo", I doubt I'd be interested in that. Another choice would be one or two of the second season episodes starring Bubba. But that'd be a little too much, wouldn't you say? Overall "Time is Money" also ranks as one of my favorite Disney movies. Launchpad has even more screen time here than in the first movie, so that's a plus. Bubba has also ranked as one of my favorite Disney characters, 'cause he's so cute. Too bad the writers didn't know what to do with him after they finished this. Flintheart, meanwhile, seemed smarter and eviler this time around, but it didn't save him from not having his own entry on Vault Disney's "Villains" page. Rating: B. | ||||
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Nintendo_Maximus 19:44:46 Sat Apr 10 2004 Offline 103 posts Advanced Member Reply |
Better late than never, it's my next review!
DuckTales: "Super DuckTales" Introduction Prepare yourselves, Duckmen. This is the DuckTales episode/telefilm. It's the DuckTales telefilm that introduced Gizmoduck. Airing just a few months after "Time is Money", viewers had another surprise, and another season to wait for now. And believe it or not, I actually did see this movie in its uncut form! See, while most animated Disney telefilms probably have never been shown again except in the form of edited episodes, they actually re-aired the unedited version of this movie on ABC in 1997! Unfortunately, as mentioned before, I didn't know "DuckTales" was re-airing on ABC until after it was gone, and therefore, I didn't tape this movie. But I did get to watch it, 'cause I didn't have cable then, and at that time, seeing "DuckTales" in my house was a sort of a godsend. But I couldn't tape it, because I didn't know it was on, and that's why I'm stuck with the edited version until Disney finally releases this on DVD (which they probably never will). Part 1: "Liquid Assets" The ultimate adventure of Scrooge McDuck opens up with our favorite bad bunglers, the Beagle Boys. To be more exact, the same three Beagles from the other two movies - Bigtime, Burger, and... Bouncer? No, no, it's Baggy Beagle. Since working for 400-something-year-old gold-hungry dogs and cold-hearted misers hasn't worked well for them, they're trying out an evil scheme of their own. They're trying to forge some blueprints, calling it a birthday present for their mother, Ma Beagle. For those more familiar with the unnamed clones of the Barks/Rosa comics, Ma Beagle is the ringleader of the Beagle Boys, supposedly replacing the Grandpa Blackheart character. As stated before, the Beagle Boys are far much better on "DuckTales" than in comics, because on the show they're not nameless thugs who are in serious need of shaving so badly that I wouldn't want to put my lips near the barbs on their faces if I was a woman or gay. Here, there are dozens of Beagle Boys, all with different names and personalities. There are even some female members, who are basically Beagle Boys with hair and upper private parts. Anyway, the Beagles are plotting for a new superhighway to go right through Scrooge's Money Bin. To quote He-Man: "Astounding feat!" Scrooge wakes up the next morning to look at the Bin from his bedroom window, suddenly noticing the bulldozers. He rides on over and demands to know what's going on, while wearing his sleeping clothes. Apparently, they're building the superhighway through his Money Bin, which is what the Beagle Boys have forged their blueprints into planning. He complains to the mayor about it, but it doesn't work. Agitated, Scrooge returns to his mansion and paces around in his pacing spot, just as Winnie the Pooh thinks in his thinking spot, and (the) Brain ponders in his pondering spot, knowing he'll have to move the Bin. Huey, Dewey & Louie come in to ask how he's gonna do it, considering that the biggest load of cash not belonging to Bill Gates is inside. Upon that factor, Scrooge realizes that he'll need to empty the vault, and for that, he'll need an accountant. Enter Fenton Crackshell, a duck who hates his job at the bean factory. He also hates it that the close-captions can't spell his last name right. His job is to tell his partner how many more beans are needed so that the jar has 275 beans each. Fenton wants a REAL job; one that'll get him a date with his love interest, Gandra Dee, whose first name is misspelled with a extra D in place of the G in the close captions. Feeling down, he goes outside and happens upon a Wanted poster. It's not the kind that shows a picture of a criminal on the loose, but rather more like want ads in the newspaper. And this one is for the job of Scrooge McDuck's accountant! Upon reading it, Fenton realizes this is his big chance. So the next day, he shows up at Scrooge's Bin, wanting the job. Scrooge thinks he's a nut, but Fenton simply refuses to leave till he gets the job. Because of those stupid censor people, the scene where Fenton does get the job winds up getting cut out because it has Scrooge trying to shoot him. If they think cartoons really affect viewers like that, why does Cartoon Network still show those three Chuck Jones shorts where Daffy Duck continually gets his beak blasted off as he tries to convince Elmer Fudd that he should be shooting Bugs Bunny? Here's what I have to say to the Censor Monkeys who cut out crucial parts of a story - "You're despicable!" Overjoyed with getting his new jearb--er, job, Fenton bursts into his "house" (in a trailer park), telling his mom that they have good reason to celebrate. But M'ma Crackshell (her real first name is never given) won't take him seriously. Meanwhile, the Beagle Boys have set up a phony realty service, and Bigtime, disguised as a realtor, persuades Scrooge into buying a rocky high place (with which to put the Bin) for a rock bottom price. Scrooge completely fails to notice that this "realtor" never stops grinning and is wearing a mask, nor does he noticed anything strange about the name being BB Realty, so he signs the contract. The next morning, he gets a rude awakening from Fenton. After Scrooge has one last swim in the vault before unloading it, he leaves the workers to pick it up, whilst telling Fenton that he likes his assets liquid. Taking that literally, Fenton has the money dumped into Lake Doughbegone. Needless to say, Scrooge is rather upset about this, especially since the lake's name suggests he's going to lose his dough. Fortunately, as Fenton counts, it's all there. Scrooge decides he'll just have to camp out here, so he tells Duckworth to return to the mansion and pick up some gear. When HD&L find out that Uncle Scrooge's going camping without them, they follow Duckworth to the site. When they show up, they get nabbed by Fenton, who has mistaken them for the Beagle Boys. Scrooge allows the boys to pretend to be camping, and instructs them to build booby traps. If you're checking, this is the point where I tuned in when the movie was shown in 1997. Launchpad tries to move the Bin by driving it, but he leaves a path of destruction. Leaving Fenton to watch over the lake with giant binoculars, Scrooge goes looking for LP. Scrooge finds that although Launchpad ran into a lot of things, he still got the Bin to the rocky high place in one piece. Unbeknownst to them, the Beagle Boys are hiding in a cave below them, plotting to blow the Bin down into Ma Beagle's backyard. They do so, and Ma Beagle is quite pleased with this birthday present. That is, until she discovers the vault is empty! She orders her three little fools to go find the missing money. Scrooge comes down disguised as a tax accessor, telling Bouncer that the Beagles will have to pay a very large fine or he takes the Bin back. While Ma Beagle fumes over this, Scrooge gives the signal to Launchpad to drive it to his other mountain, and he'll meet him there as soon he gets his money out of the lake. LP replies by referencing a line Gyro said in the last movie. When Scrooge returns to the lake, he finds the nephews fishing and Fenton stuck in his own net. He doesn't notice the Beagle Boys hiding behind the rocks, though. Later that day, Scrooge finds Bigtime trying to set the dam on fire. Fenton tries to help, but he only succeeds in nearly breaking the dam more, so HD&L handle the problem. Next, Bigtime goes around pretending to be a termite inspector, tricking Fenton into letting loose real termites! The coins start pouring out, and then Fenton uses a woodpecker call, believing "there's nothing woodpeckers like more than eating termites." Except pecking on wood. Now the dam officially breaks!! Part 2: "Frozen Assets" The money floods away, taking Fenton with it. Not far away, the three Beagles, now with Bouncer, who's the only one of them with a driver's license, follow it all the way to Ma Beagle's place. Now she's happy. Just then, Fenton pops out, and the Beagles are rather shocked at this, so he runs off (which isn't shown). Meanwhile, Scrooge returns to his pacing spot and paces around, complaining about this nightmare. Fenton returns, suggesting Scrooge to freeze his assets. This time, though, Scrooge believes he has a good idea. The next scene, the Beagle family's enjoying themselves lollying in the cash when a sudden cold front blows through. Turns out Fenton had an idea to blow dry ice down onto them. Now that the assets are frozen solid (hence the episode's title), Scrooge calls up Launchpad to commence Operation Ice Tongs. Launchpad commands a troop of helicopters to use... the clawwww... to reclaim the lake. Well now, that was rather easy! Scrooge has his Bin moved to a safer mountaintop, and all the money is brought there, although he knows he needs something to protect it now. Fenton calls him via pay phone to tell him about it. Unfortunately, the dime he used happened to be the first piece of currency Scrooge ever made - the Number One Dime! If you don't remember, Scrooge's fortune began with that dime, and he's not giving it up for anything. It has nothing to do with this movie, but Magica DeSpell is constantly trying to steal it so she can melt it into her amulet and become all-powerful. She hasn't been very successful, though, and she's not even in the movie. Scrooge is furious that Fenton used the Number One Dime to call him. After threatening Fenton into getting the Number One Dime back, Scrooge heads over to Gyro's, asking for a security robot to protect the Bin. He also mentions that the robot "should not let anyone in." Hmmmm... sounds interesting... Meanwhile, Fenton goes hunting for the dime at the Phone Company. But he finds out all the dimes deposited this morning have been transferred to the First Interfeather Bank. So he heads there, only to witness the Beagles stealing the bag it's in. He follows them to Ma's cabin and asks for a proverbial cup of tea. When he asks for the bag o' dimes, though, Ma B gets suspicious and has him beaten and thrown out. "Of course, you know," says Fenton, "this means a skirmish." He tries going in as the long-lost Bermuda Beagle. Ma B responds by saying she doesn't remember having a son named Bermuda, but she seemingly lets it slide, since she knows she's raised more kids than Apu Nahasapeemapetilon. But while it seemingly works, Ma B looks at the family photo album and finds nothing on a Bermuda Beagle. Fenton finds himself getting kicked out again. Pause it quickly and you'll see he wasn't wearing anything under his disguise. Next he tries fooling Burger as a candy machine, but Ma B sees right through him. Then, that night, he tries a Tooth Fairy trick on Bankjob, but it clearly doesn't work either. While that's going on, Gyro introduces the indestructible bus-like GICU2 (pun - Gee, I See You Too; no full name, though), which becomes automatic. Unfortunately, GICU2 then starts firing at them, because Scrooge said to make the robot one who wouldn't let anybody in. Maybe you shouldn't have let GICU2 destroy the remote, Gyro. Well, they can't rely on Teamo Supremo jumping out of their show's commercial to come help. Upon finding a hiding spot, Scrooge tells Gyro to go home and make another security robot, this time one with a brain. I can hear the Scarecrow now - "If only I had a brain." Sometime later, Gyro calls Scrooge up, telling him the you-know-what is ready. This new robot's a human-controlled robot he calls Gizmoduck. But since it's human-controlled, Scrooge needs to hire someone to be Gizmoduck. And since they don't want it falling into the wrong hands, they'll need a ridiculous code word that nobody uses. Gyro decides on "blatherskite". Outside, Fenton overhears the conversation and, knowing this could save the Number One Dime, distracts Gyro with the inventor's popcorn fireworks. He didn't hear the codeword, though, so he has problems getting the suit on till he utters his catchphrase, which he and his mother have already said a few times - "Blatherin' Blatherskite!" Gyro comes back in and finds Fenton, who introduces himself as "the guy Mr. McDuck hired" and takes off, but not before Gyro reminds him to take the instructions. Gizmoduck zooms on over to the House of Beagle and taunts when they try throwing a bomb at him. Realizing this problem, the Beagles jump into their car with the dimes and zoom off into traffic. Big chase ensues. Ma Beagle yells at extras, "If you don't like the way I drive, stay out of the hallway!" As the chase continues, Gizmoduck at one point ends up in the Beaglemobile, and as they try to throw him out, he drops the instructions into the car. That becomes important. After a while, Burger, unable to control his appetite, jumps out of the car to take an order at a fast food restaurant, but he ends up handing over the bag of dimes to Gizmoduck. That job done, he delivers the Number One Dime to Scrooge, who, proud of him, tells him to bring it to the Bin. But there's still that darn GICU2 to worry about. Part 3: "Full Metal Duck" As the close captions get their act together on character spelling, Gizmoduck picks a fight with GICU2, but then realizes he lost the instructions. Big fight ensues. GICU2 puts up quite a fight, but after a big struggle, Gizmoduck reduces it to a merry-go-round. Scrooge likes how well done that went, so he hires Gizmo, not realizing he's already hired the guy. Feeling ecstatic, Fenton greets his mum back at the trailer, and she's quite miffed at it. But when Fenton tries to go to bed, he can't quite get the suit off. So he has to sleep outside. The next day, Gizmoduck (Fenton) is guarding the Bin when HD&L show up, saying they're members of the Gizmoduck fanclub, and they'd like him to autograph their posters. And he even gives them a ride home. Watch for a cameo of semi-regular Doofus Drake. Now while HD&L think Gizzy's the greatest, the Beagle Boys have a different opinion. Bigtime calls a meeting with several other recurring Beagles, including Bankjob (distinguishable for his large size), Bugle (who wears sunglasses and loose-fitting sweaters and is also known as Bebop), and Babyface (who prefers to wear a propeller beanie). Like I said, these nameless thugs of comics are named on the show. Bigtime happens to know that they'll need a plan to get past Gizmoduck. In the words of Homestar Runner: "What is he up to?" Speaking of Fenton, he ends up having his suit disconnected by M'ma Crackshell's TV remote. Bad time, though, because then Scrooge calls him, telling him to meet him at the Statue of Duckburg. It's basically what the Statue of Liberty would've looked like if ducks were the dominant species. Apparently, Bigtime, Burger, and Baggy have barricaded themselves inside, and they have hostages, HD&L among them. How are they torturing them? With bagpipes, and if you're a cartoon aficionado, you know that for some reason, everyone hates bagpipes. Except Scrooge, since he's from Scotland, and they're playing a tune he's familiar with. Fenton can't quite get the suit back on, but he does discover that the TV remote activates television on it. Fact: The Gilligan parody here, "Gilligander's Island", was renamed "Pelican's Island" when the series spun off into "Darkwing Duck". There's some subliminal advertising for PBS before M'ma Crackshell says the code word and winds up in the Gizmosuit herself. Now that he knows the code word, Fenton/Gizmoduck heads off to stop the Beagles. Again, Fenton (I mean Gizmoduck) uses his brain to save the day. In this case, he dumps ice cream and chocolate syrup on the statue's torch, distracting bagpipe-blasting Burger. The nephews and extras are saved, and because of bad footing, Bigtime, Burger, and Baggy fall to their deaths. OK, I was wrong, they fall into a fountain and survive without any broken bones. Later, Gizzy gets a reward in the form of a refrigerator magnet disguised as a medal, as well as lots of adoring female fans. However, he still feels that Gandra Dee (remember her?) is the only one for him. He becomes a cultural icon in the town. Ma Beagle's pretty furious about hearing the radio talking all about Gizmoduck's heroics, because she has to cook excessively to spring her brats from jail. Just then, she finds in her back seat not a toothbrush ad, but rather that instruction booklet that fell in near the end of the last episode! Obviously, she's got a new evil plan to hatch. She sends complicated equipment to spring out Megabyte Beagle, the boy genius of the family, and also the only male Beagle family member I know whose name doesn't begin with the letter "B". He has a habit of confusing other people with his science-y talk, similar to how Penny Sanchez enchants Rudy Tabootie with the same thing on "ChalkZone". He rigs up a remote control to take control of the Gizmosuit. Once again, "Astounding feat!" Meanwhile, Fenton argues with his mom before his battery suddenly runs dead. Fortunately, M'ma has the cure - she repowers him by hooking him up to a car nearby. Believe you me, this experiment would be repeated in the two-part "Darkwing Duck" comic story "Watt's the Problem!" Repowered, Gizmoduck heads off to the Money Bin to answer for an interview by Fudd-speaking TV reporter Webra Walters (or "Mary Query", as the book adaptation of the first regular episode called her). Unbeknownst to them all, Megabyte takes control of Gizmoduck with a Gizmoduck remote control of his own, so that there's so much being done in his and the Beagles' favor. Gizmoduck goes around stealing everything there is to steal, including Gandra's pink Thunderduck (car). Then Ma Beagle decides to go for something big. Bin big. Meanwhile, it appears the citizens of Duckburg, who start holding up anti-Gizmoduck signs, are as stupid as the cops in the previous movie, because none of them give a second thought as to why Gizzy is acting like this when he hasn't before. Even Scrooge and Duckworth fall for this stupid trick. HD&L, on the other hand, still aren't going to easily give up on Gizmoduck, who at the moment is bringing the Money Bin to those no-good SOB Beagles! Part 4: "The Billionaire Beagle Boys Club" While Scrooge goes looking for the Money Bin, Gizmoduck (now called "Gismoduck" by those stupid close-captions) is told by Megabyte that the Beagles have a remote of their own, and Ma Beagle cooks up a plan to hide it. She decides on disguising it as a donut factory, making Burger hungry. Now that she has Scrooge's money, Ma Beagle goes out to buy everything she's always wanted. Yes, really. She's fairly buying things, although I wouldn't consider it fair to buy what she's buying. One of those things is Scrooge's mansion, which he has been forced to sell. When Ma Beagle shows up to buy it, Scrooge demands to know where she got the money, and she makes up some dumb excuses. After buying the place, Ma Beagle and her many little fools throw the hugest party and invite everyone except anyone who's been living in the mansion. (That's including Webby, who has been MIA up to this point. Meanwhile, Bubba is nowhere to be seen throughout the whole movie!) John D. Rockerduck, Scrooge's other business and monetary rival apart from Flintheart Glomgold, doesn't appear, but a similarly-named fellow named John D. Rockerfeather does. Now actually rather happy, Ma Beagle tries her best to get along well, which is hard for her to do. Scrooge, who's memorized the serial numbers on every dollar he's ever made, tries various attempts at crashing the party, but he keeps getting kicked out by the tuxedoed Beagle Boys. When the guests object to the Beagles being rude hosts, Ma Beagle reacts by telling them that she and her boys are taking over this town! Meanwhile, Scrooge-tachi is forced to sleep over at Launchpad's. While Scrooge weeps over losing his Money Bin, Huey, Dewey & Louie sneak out to the mansion to get proof, wearing burglar costumes. As you can guess, I can't tell them apart here, and neither can the nephews themselves. Now I know they were treated best in "Quack Pack". They sneak around the mansion, avoiding eyesight of Ma B and her brats, until finally Louie (or was it Dewey?) catches sight of Megabyte controlling Gizmoduck. He makes off with some of Scrooge's cash, but Megs catches sight of him. Another chase ensues, this time having various Beagles chase the nephews around. Funny moment: Ma Beagle: "Come back with that cash!" A few seconds later, Burger: "Come back with those desserts!" Fortunately, HD&L make a clean getaway, and Ma B gripes, "It's thieves like them who are making the world a lousy place to live for thieves like us!" While Webby plots revenge on everyone for the fact that she's not getting any lines in this movie, Scrooge immediately recognizes the buckeroonies that HD&L brought to him. He says he can't wait to see the look on Ma Beagle's face when she gets hauled away... TO JAIL!! But the way things turn out, the only one who does get hauled away is Scrooge. Ma Beagles lies to the stupid police officer that Scrooge stole from her, and because she's "very close" to the mayor, and he doesn't want to lose his job, the cop arrests Scrooge instead. HD&L and Mrs. Beakley (without Webby) try to pay his bail, but the cost is too high, and his trial's pretty much screwed, because the Beagle Boys were nice enough to apply for judge and jury (or so the warden thinks). They try sneaking a grenade-filled cake to Scrooge, but it only results in Mrs. Beakley getting arrested too. While thinking of another plan, Launchpad gives them an idea by way of his remote controlled Gizmoduck toy. HD&L sneak over to the mansion, where they find the Beagle family relaxing by the pool. After having Gizmoduck serve lemonade, Megabyte stupidly puts down his remote control long enough for the nephews to grab it and replace it with the one for Launchpad's toy. After having him rebel against Ma Beagle, they take control of a forlorn Gizmoduck and head off to the jailhouse to save Scrooge. The cops are still stupid enough to believe Gizmo's gone bad, and so does Scrooge, that is until after Gizmoduck saves him (and Mrs. Beakley), and HD&L inform him that Gizmoduck was under the Beagles' control. Fenton nearly admits his secret before they go looking for the Bin. They don't have to look far, because Ma Beagle and her minions destroy its disguise and start driving away with it. Scrooge-tachi (including Gizmoduck) gives chase after it. Gizmoduck bowls Bigtime, Burger, and Bouncer off the Bin and battles with Ma Beagle over the controls. But they soon ends up jettisoning off of the runaway bin, 'cause... it's heading for the ocean! Part 5: "Money to Burn" The escapade of Scrooge's Money Bin sinking under the sea wouldn't be so much of a problem if they didn't have everyone in Duckburg going after it. That includes Ma Beagle and the four main Beagle Boys. Scrooge, Launchpad, and Gizmoduck, on the other hand, take the McDuck submarine. Gizmoduck reveals that he's hooked up to the McDuck Enterprises Comquack Space Satellite, capable of finding metal for mining. Meanwhile, up in space, it's revealed that the satellite isn't the only thing detecting the Bin. There's a bunch of aliens out there, too! After all that Beaglemania, now we gotta deal with aliens, too? Woot! This movie's getting a better climax! Down under the sea, Scrooge & Co. find the Bin, but before they can reach it, their sub is suddenly snared by Ma Beagle's net. But just as Scrooge is ready to dismember the Beagle clan for all the trouble they've caused in the first four installments of the film... the aliens invade! They cut up the ocean like with the Parting of the Red Sea, causing the two teams to drop to the ground below, where the Bin is. The aliens then use... the clawwww... to abduct the Bin. As you can guess, Scrooge ain't happy about that. The aliens take off, leaving the goodies and baddies to float up to the now-unparted water. Now Scrooge has to chase after the aliens. He, LP, and Gizmo don space suits and give chase in the only thing Launchpad could find - the USS Jumpstart, the first rocket with a clutch! Thanks to the Money Bin springing a leak, the heroes make it to the aliens' unnamed home planet. It's full of civilization and somewhat reminds me of Tradeworld in "Buzz Lightyear of Star Command". They suddenly hear the planet's scatterbrained stuttering boss, the Master Electronic Leader, demanding that these non-robots be captured and destroyed. Gizmoduck gets user-friendly with one of the natives, who tells him that they plan to melt down the Bin to make more robots than the planet already has. He returns to Scrooge and Launchpad with robot disguises, and they sneak into the Master Electronic Leader's building, where they discover the big bot's plans, during which Scrooge ditches his disguise. As Launchpad heads back to warm up the Jumpstart, some of the robot minions show up, and they seem to be as powerful as Gizmoduck is. Oh, poo. Scrooge and Gizmoduck are taken to meet the Master Electronic Leader, or Mel for short, who believes that metal is the only substance needed. Like Denzel Q. Crocker's superiority over Vicky the Babysitter, Mel could in fact be the most fearsome nemesis Scrooge has come up against. Of course, he might've been dethroned by Merlock the Sorcerer in the theatrical movie. Mel is quite surprised that Gizmoduck doesn't seem to talk like a robot, but puts that aside when Gizmoduck admits there's a person inside him. So Mel takes the Gizmosuit apart (and away), revealing Fenton to Scrooge, who replies, "Fenton Crackshell?! You're right; he is inferior." Now that's not a nice thing to say about the guy who got your dime back, Scrooge! Since they're not robots, Mel orders them to be made into a usable substance, like axle grease. As they're taken away, Fenton admits he hadn't thought Scrooge thought this little of him, and he escapes from the robot carrying him as the other one takes Scrooge to the burner. Scrooge hopes there's still Launchpad to count on, but it turns out our fave Disney pilot's been captured too! How'd he get captured? Never explained. Fenton runs up to challenge Mel to a duel, but Mel, who claims to be the smartest, fastest thing in the universe, simply laughs and tries to throw him out. But Fenton's as persistent in here as he was at the very beginning when he was trying to get his job. After Fenton bothers him with some silly questions, Mel accepts the challenge. How's it go? They count how many ball bearings are in a jar until they drop. Mel thinks he can win this easily, but Fenton's the fastest counter in the country, and since Mel keeps stuttering, Fenton easily beats him every time. That's a callback to his old job back at the bean factory. After quite a while, Mel ends up blowing himself up, and it's especially disgraceful to him, considering it was a trick question. The robot minions storm him and start chasing Fenton, who yells his catchphrase again to re-signal the Gizmosuit. After blowing up the robots, Gizmoduck rescues Scrooge and Launchpad, and Scrooge forgives Fenton for misjudging him. Sounds like a happy ending, right? Wrong - the Money Bin's still minutes away from being melted down, and they're still stuck on this planet. While Gizmoduck fights off the robots, Scrooge and Launchpad get the Jumpstart working again. As they're taking off, though, they see the planet exploding behind them! Scrooge weeps, thinking Gizmoduck and the Bin have gone to the big metal pile in the sky. Suddenly, the aliens' ship turns up again, sucking their rocket in. But it turns out they're not being recaptured at all! A battered Gizmoduck comes in, showing us that he saved the Bin, smuggled it into the ship, and got it off the planet before it exploded. Happy ending now? Not quite. Just as our heroes are approaching Earth, Launchpad accidentally releases the Money Bin, and Scrooge dives into the vacuum of space just as it creates a comet effect. But instead of being burned up in the atmosphere... well... let's see... Epilogue: Back on Earth, the construction crew working on the freeway (the one that started this whole ordeal) see the Money Bin coming down and immediately run for their lives just as Huey, Dewey & Louie come by to watch. The Beagles are sitting back in their cabin, muttering in boredom about losing the Bin and Ma Beagle still not having a birthday present. It's at that point that the Bin lands in its old spot, sending the Freeway crashing down onto Ma Beagle's cabin. Launchpad and Gizmoduck exit the spaceship just in time for HD&L to greet them. BTW, since they're seeing them both at the same time, this pretty much screws up a later episode where HD&L think Launchpad is Gizmoduck. One gag later, Scrooge tells Gizmo to come early tomorrow, and "tell Fenton" that he's got important work too. With that, Fenton returns home and stands up to his lazy mother. Then he gets a date with Gandra, who it turns out wanted to date him but never did before because he never asked. Now we have a happy ending! Possible DVD Features Again, I don't know what you could put on this DVD. But please let the DVD have the uncut version! Overall OK, Disney, where's the DVD release for this movie? This and "Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers to the Rescue" were able to get their own entries in Disney A to Z, so why not? While I find it upsetting that Bubba forgot to appear (actually, come to think of it, I never saw Bubba and Fenton together in the same episode), at least Fenton's rather likable on his own show. When he appeared on "Darkwing Duck", he was rather hard to like. But I liked how they used the classic call-back bit for his duel with Mel. Meanwhile, the Beagle Boys seemed much more eviler this time around, but they still didn't get their own Villains entry at Vault Disney. The aliens were a bit of a cop-out, but then again, if they didn't show up, part 5 would be over rather quickly now, wouldn't it? Rating: A. I won't be posting a review tomorrow, because tomorrow's Easter, and I find it appropriate to take time off of my computer on holidays. | ||||
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Nintendo_Maximus 16:39:06 Mon Apr 12 2004 Offline 103 posts Advanced Member Reply |
Coming up next... it's another review!
Chip' n Dale Rescue Rangers: "To The Rescue" Introduction If it's one thing you probably know Chip 'n Dale for, it's for serving as continual foils for Mickey, Donald, and the gang. But I myself liked them best when they were part of a crime-fighting team known as the Rescue Rangers. What's that? You don't believe me? I'm not surprised. Aside from entries in the reference book Disney A to Z, the Walt Disney World Go Kart Racing game released for Game Boy Color a few years ago and a few collectable pins over at the theme parks, Disney seems to be disregarding all references to Chip 'n Dale's golden years as stars of their own syndicated cartoon series where they teamed up with an inventive female mouse, her father's old cheese-crazy friend, and the big guy's sidekick fly to foil evil plots concocted by overweight felines, mad scientists, and other villains. Well, since I'm reviewing DTA Telefilms, I might as well show you their first adventure. Part 1 Unlike Duckburg, the city where the adventures of the Rescue Rangers occur was never given. Where was it? California? I suppose I could go with that belief. As the film opens up, we find Chip 'n Dale, longtime favorites in Disney Animation, preparing to launch a paper airplane on a kiddy skating shoe, dubbing it the Furball XL9. I don't know how, but the chipmunks have become more anthropomorphized now, to the point that they're now clothed like Donald and the gang in Duckburg. It's also nice to know that, with Tress MacNeille as Chip and Corey Burton as Dale, they also sound more different now than they used to, even though they had different voice actors prior to this. Everywhere else, the only way I can tell them apart is by their nose colors. After a lengthy bit of a flight in the goofy glider, the duo takes interest in a car chase. Turns out the driver in pursuit is near-retirement police detective Don Drake. Drake must be a popular name with Disney. In addition to Don here, the name would be used for Darkwing Duck's real first name. And if fan characters count, there's also my "Teamo Supremo" character of Crandall & Brenda's son. Anyway, along with this Drake is his talking pet, Plato the Police Dog, whom CnD apparently idolize. The victim they're after is poor thug Percy, one of the many Disney Villain Sidekicks, and ranking along Shego and Scooter Lad as one of my favorites. Speaking of Scooter Lad, I plan to write a fanfic about him being redeemed. I might even pair him up with someone, but who? Certainly not Brenda, or even Sophie the OC... Anyway, the police team (made up of Drake, Plato, and these two cops who appeared a lot on the show but whose names I never bothered catching) chases Percy into a lumber warehouse, where the thug gets some help from his not-very-shadowy boss. Why are they chasing him? Because he stole the Clutchcoin Ruby necklace. Why did his boss want him to steal it? I'm getting to that. In the meantime, CnD tag along to help Plato catch this guy. Percy tries his best to hide, but thanks to the meddling that CnD were known for in the classic cartoons, he ends up losing the ruby (and his pants) and gaining nothing more than a bruised butt courtesy of Plato's "Crime Bite", not to mention ripped underpants. The cops leave with what they came for, while Percy struggles to hide his private parts as his boss approaches him. Percy's boss is sinister crimelord Aldren Klordane (or as the stupid close-captions mislabeled him, Alvin Chlordane), who makes me think of what Scar would look like in human form. If you pay attention throughout the movie, mainly in the scenes Klordane is in, you'll see why I said that. He was tempted to drop some lumber on Drake in the warehouse, but "what he has planned will hurt Drake more than a ton of lumber." On the other hand, he doesn't quite believe Percy when the thug blames the loss on these chipmunks. At the police station, as Drake goes off to talk with the captain, Plato tries to give police tips to CnD, which becomes difficult because of their argumentativeness. While nobody's watching, Chlordane, er, Klordane sends in his pet feline, Fat Cat, to "make Drake's life extremely difficult." To be more exact, he snatches the ruby and stuffs its necklace into Drake's coat, along with airline tickets and gambling debts. Then, showing us that he can talk, as he (like El Capitan) is voiced by the multi-talented Jim Cummings, Fat Cat insults Plato enough to get him to start chasing him, attracting the attention of everyone in the station. Once the captain notices that the ruby's gone, Fat Cat knocks over the rack holding up Drake's coat so that the necklace and airline tickets fall out. Because of this, and the fact that Klordane supposedly drowned a year ago, everyone in the station thinks Drake tried to steal the ruby, so they arrest him and Plato. CnD, though, are positive that they've been framed, since they saw the whole robbery. They tell Plato that they're going to go find Klordane and get the ruby back. So now we have a set-up for a two-hour joyride such as this. The 'munks hitch a ride to Klordane's hideout, the Happy Tom Cat Food Factory, and get in just in time to spy on him having a conversation with Percy and several other thugs, none of which have names. Klordane mentions that rather than fence the ruby, he's going to bring it to the Professor, whom we'll meet in about an hour. He doesn't notice Fat Cat hiding it in his mouth, though, because he has a night out on the town. Once the humans have left the room, Fat Cat gets up on his feet and greets his cronies, Mepps the Alley Cat, Mole the Mole, Wart the Lizard, and Snout the Rat. Actually, just the first three; Snout's nowhere to be seen in this whole movie. CnD follow them to Fat Cat's casino, which happens to be in the giant novelty cat on top of the factory. Two extras accidentally KO each other upon trying to take care of CnD, so the little scamps snatch their clothes and strut into the casino. Fat Cat seems to know how to treat his customers, and Dale seems to agree with me, because he wins some acorns in one of the slot machines and tries to smuggle them out. Just then, Fat Cat shows off his talent as a singing villain by launching into his own musical number, "The Best of Everything", during which CnD manage to snatch the ruby away from him. Big chase ensues, which eventually ends in Fat Cat reclaiming the ruby. He needs it, since he plans to give it back to Klordane before the man misses it. Besides, if they got away with the ruby right now, the movie would be over pretty quickly, wouldn't it? Furious with these chipmunks meddling in his affairs, Fat Cat has Mepps drop them off the roof to their death... Part 2 ...Or so he thinks. The heroes manage to cheat death with the help of a wrecking ball and a garbage box, where Dale first utters "Zowie!" They overhear Fat Cat discussing with his men that they have to go to the Chinatown Laundromat and pay "the twins" for something. How are they going to get there? By hitching a ride on a pizza delivery van. CnD give chase in a wheel, and then a rich couple's car. Upon reaching Chinatown, Dale can't resist surfing on the wet scrub brushes the lazy employees have left lying around. Chip is greatly annoyed with this, and orders Dale to go home. Dale struts off in a moping fashion, believing that Chip's right about him goofing around. However, he picks up his mood, because goofing off is what he does best! BTW, I should mention that there are some scenes in the movie version that are cut from the serial version, such as that sequence in the limo. Now, Chinatown apparently hosts fights between fishes, and cats come to bet on them like people on horse and/or dog races. But that's not what Fat Cat has come for. He wants to visit the mysterious Siamese Twins. Not noticing that Chip is behind him, trying to hook that ruby with a makeshift fishing rod. The Siamese Twins aren't exactly reminiscent of Si & Am, but they're more sinister, because they're bound to slice up anyone making a wrong move. They also speak in unison, though slightly out of sync. Anyway, Fat Cat's come to purchase an incomparable fish fighter named Juice Lee for his own master plan. He can easily beat up a bunch of piranhas. The payment is 200 fins (100 fishes, I think he means). Satisfied with his purchase, Fat Cat prepares to leave when Chip drops in unexpected, much to the embarrassment of the Twins. Before they can shred him up like cheese, Dale comes to the rescue, surfing on that scrub brush again. During the massacre that follows, Chip somehow comes out of a washing machine wearing his fedora hat. How'd he get it? Not shown. Must've been cut out. Damn it! I'll go with the assumption that someone left their hat in there and it shrank in the wash. But in the midst of the great battle, Fat Cat and his bitches run off, 'cause hey, they've got a great cue now! Fat Cat and Co. head off for the largest cargo ship in the harbor, with CnD not far behind. After having Juice Lee take care of the two bored sailors on board, he orders his men to empty the cargo hold. During this, CnD fall into it, and there, we're introduced to the burly cheese-crazy mouse Monterey Jack (also voiced by Jim Cummings), and his sidekick Zipper the Fly. They live in a chest full of everything Monty's had. Now if you're guessing, longtime Disney Channel viewers weren't really surprised with this, since 13 of the show's 65 episodes originally aired on the Disney Channel in spring 1989 as a preview of sorts. What you might not believe was that this show was originally planned as a spin-off of "The Rescuers", but it was Michael Eisner who convinced the production team to place Chip 'n Dale as the main characters. That's right! If Eisner hadn't made that suggestion, Bernard and Miss Bianca would've been the stars! Believe me, I would've found this show boring if it had been titled "Bernard & Bianca's Rescue Rangers". Anyway, when CnD get the drop on Monty, he's quite peeved with them at first, but they eventually stop fighting and introduce themselves. But just then, Fat Cat and Co. start unloading the cargo and dumping it into the ocean, including Monty's "house". As the sun rises, Monty dives underwater and tries to save his house. In the meantime, Fat Cat sends Mole and Mepps to follow Juice Lee into the water (which must be hard on an alley cat such as Mepps) to hook up the pipes of his machine so that he can steal all the fish in town. See, Fat Cat's a cool Disney villain 'cause he has a master plan here to reach a hard-to-get goal. Like Sheldon J. Plankton's plots to get the Krabby Patty secret formula, Fat Cat's stealing the fish so that all the cats in town will have to come to him to get their fill. In the water, CnD and Zipper think Monty has drowned, that is, until he comes back up with the only part of his house he could save - a ship in a bottle! After brief explanations, the four head off to take on Fat Cat. Monty is dead keen on getting back at Fat Cat for sinking his house, so he rushes into the action without listening to Chip's plan. CnD wind up fighting Juice Lee, eventually tricking him into cutting Fat Cat's machine pipes and getting sucked in himself, right before Mepps and Mole suffer the same. Fat Cat's quite pissed at that, and he's also pissed at the appearance of Monty, who somehow enlarges to look like he's half Fat Cat's size in one shot (he's supposed to be a third of that). CnD come to the rescue, but don't get the ruby, per se, and instead end up destroying the steering wheel and Fat Cat's machine, causing all the fish (and Juice Lee) to go flying back in the other direction. Needless to say, Fat Cat is furious. But he ends up diving off the boat, for it's about to crash into the streets! Part 3 The heroes are unable to stop the ship from crashing into the streets, but fortunately, it slows down before killing anybody. CnD get off the ship to continue pursuit of Fat Cat, and Monterey Jack & Zipper are willing to join them on their quest, because Monty still hasn't given Fat Cat the payment for sinking his house. Elsewhere, Fat Cat and his men are paddling back to sea on a makeshift raft as Fat Cat complains about CnD meddling in his affairs thrice, and then Mole reminds him he still has to return that ruby to Klordane. Upon returning to the factory, Fat Cat ditches his clothes and bipedal ways, and jumps into the helicopter to return the ruby, with his master none the wiser. Man, someday I'm gonna write a fanfic detailing Fat Cat's POV on this movie. Maybe I'll call it, "To The Rescue 1 1/2: My Nutty Friend And Me". CnD, Monty & Zipper are nearby when this happens, but they're unable to stop either of them. But they (and we) overhear that Klordane's heading to Glacier Bay. We also see him delivering a prank phone call to the jailed Detective Drake, causing everyone at the station to think he's now going crazy. Monty says he knows how they can follow Klordane, but they'll have to go through an airport first. And the big problem there is, there aren't any flights to Glacier Bay. During that sequence, Monty shows us his weakness - he goes nuts whenever he detects the scent of cheese, and doesn't stop till he's eaten it. This causes a riot in the food joints. After explaining his bad habit to CnD, Monty tells them that he's taking them to meet an old friend of his, named Geegaw Hackwrench (or "Half-wrench", as the close-captions seem to think), who lives in an abandoned military plane and could get them to Glacier Bay. Inside, they run into a lot of traps, because apparently Geegaw hasn't forgiven Monty for a certain "Zanzibar" incident which is never explained. Finally, after getting caught by a well-planned trap (involving cheese), they're captured a mouse in a mech. But it turns out that isn't Geegaw, but rather his beautiful and highly-intelligent daughter. Give a warm round of applause for... GADGET HACKWRENCH!!! The inventive female mouse character of the show, and also voiced by Tress MacNeille, Gadget is also probably the most attractive Disney mouse I've known. And CnD seem to agree with me. BTW, if you want my opinion, Chip was the one who got more lucky to getting in Gadget's romance department, especially judging from the fact that most (but not all) of the show's fans seem to agree that Chip and Gadget make a believable couple, and I'm one of them. I'd like to do a Chip/Gadget pic sometime, but I don't think it'd ever top that Rudy/Penny picture I did for Valentine's Day, or any of my Crandall/Brenda pictures. Anyway, I could probably go on more about Gadget, but that'd take too long, so let me just sum it up this way. It was Gadget, not Belle, who was the first of the really dynamic Disney heroines. So anyway, Geegaw's nowhere around, 'cause apparently he's dead, although he may be sill alive according to some fanfics. Gadget agrees to take the gang along in her dad's old plane, the Screaming Eagle. With that, the heroes blast off into the air, attaching the Eagle to a plane flying nearby. Pay attention when they get close to Glacier Bay, and you'll notice that in addition to them all suddenly wearing winter coats and hats, Dale does his best imitation of Chip. (Actually, it's a dubbing error that results in Tress MacNeille reading one of Dale's lines, or the animators accidentally drew Dale speaking Chip's line.) Even odder, though, is these purple blade-things attached to Glacier Bay. Unfortunately, they wind up crashing the plane because Gadget was using wheels instead of skis. Dale makes a Hidden Mickey and a Santa Claus imitation. Gadget's rather upset with this development, but after the others give her a pep talk, she supplies them with a way to find Klordane in the form of an iceboat. Speaking of Klordane, where is he? Why, he's relaxing in his heated spotlights, watching as phase 2 of his operation goes on. At this point, we're introduced to Professor Norton Nimnul, the mad scientist working on a big-ass laser cannon for the crimelord. Now see, the Rangers battled a lot of assholes over the show's 65-episode run, but Nimnul is the secondary villain, with Fat Cat being the primary. There's a bit of an argument between the two over who gets naming rights on the Laser Cannon 13 before Nimnul plugs the ruby in and shows Klordane (and the viewers) what the cannon can do. CnD, Monty & Zipper are also taking view of this. Satisfied with the job the walking cannon does slicing up the ground so those choppers can lift it, Klordane compliments Nimnul and takes off in his copter, leaving Nimnul to take care of Fat Cat. The good guys try to get to the ruby, but Nimnul catches sight of them and sends Fat Cat to take care of them. Fat Cat's not keen on taking orders from a secondary villain, but makes an exception when he sees his targets. Trying to kill them again, Fat Cat throws snowballs at them, sending them flying off the flying glacier. Part 4 Or so he thinks, again. This time, the guys are saved by Gadget, who has managed to, in a way, repair the Screaming Eagle into what has become known as the Gyroplane. Y'know how in "The Simpsons" fifth season premiere, they had the church marquee announce the Be-Sharps as that before they actually decided on that name? A similar mistake occurs here, in the form of the Rescue Rangers symbol already being painted on the plane, despite the fact that they haven't started calling themselves that. But whether or not they can bicker about that, the now-airborne Rangers give chase after Norton Nimnul's Flying Glacier. Speaking of Nimnul, Fat Cat apparently seems to be adjusting to having to hang out with him, which is perhaps why Nimnul is listed as one of Fat Cat's known confidants. Come nightfall, Nimnul brings the glacier to a valley of some sort just in time to greet Klordane's train. He then has the choppers chop up the glacier into snow cone material to be loaded into the train. Nimnul rests his cannon onto one of the cars and gets out, not hearing Fat Cat making rude comments about him. The Rangers (if we can call them that yet) show up and smuggle inside the machine to snatch back the ruby. Nimnul and Fat Cat are quite upset with this, and they try to stop the rodents from making off with the ruby, but are unsuccessful. By the way, since Nimnul is also voiced by Jim Cummings, you might say that Fat Cat's trying to help himself here. With that scuffle out of the way, the Rangers head off with into the moonlight with the Clutchcoin Ruby. But nabbing it back may not have done any good, because the next morning, Klordane shows up to toss a gas bomb into Drake's cell before capturing him. Apparently, he wants Drake to see his evil scheme in action. Unfortunately for him, it may be that, because Nimnul (and Fat Cat) shows up to report that a bunch of rodents stole the ruby. Klordane, not wanting to hear about chipmunks again, orders Nimnul to go track the ruby down, "or I'll get an elephant gun." Over at the police station, Mrs. Clutchcoin shows up to reclaim her ruby, which the Rangers returned to the police station. The Rangers are positive that Plato will be released now, but they then discover that Nimnul, having tracked the ruby down, has sent Fat Cat inside to provide a distraction while he grabs the ruby. They try to use a complicated plan to stop him, but Monty's cheese craziness prevents them from doing so. With CnD and Gadget out of his way temporarily, Fat Cat lathers shaving cream on Plato and stuffs Mrs. Clutchcoin's Chihuahua, Poopsy, into Plato's mouth. While the cops thinks Plato's gone mad and have him sent to the pound, Nimnul grabs the ruby. As they're flying off to the pound, Chip blames Monty for that mess there, and Monty responds by yelling, and then jumping and parachuting out, with Zipper following. The Monty-less Rangers reach the pound and break in through the sunlight, angering the vicious guard dog. CnD and Gadget manage to hide from the Doberman in one of the cells, where they meet Frenchie the Poodle and his companion, Que Sera ("Sera"), lone members of the Pound Underground. Chip explains that they're here to save Plato, and Frenchie is more than happy to help them, since saving dogs is what the Pound Underground is here for. Frenchie and Que Sera help them find Plato's cell before diving back underground. The self-pitying Plato hams it up, wallowing in defeat, until CnD tell him that they're not giving up on this. So they and Gadget head off to fetch the key, but the guard dog (who, of course, can talk) wakes up from his sleep to stop them again, during which he has a bit of an argument with Plato. Fortunately, Frenchie and Que Sera happened to dig underneath this guy's feet, allowing CnD to fetch the key and open Plato's cell. Now here's a big error that appears for the first time here - when Gadgets asks if Dale's all right, her nose has turned black. Just then, the rude Doberman reappears to chase them again, but he is shortly KOed by Monty, who came back 'cause, as you recall, he doesn't have a home to go to. After getting away before the guard dog can reawaken, the Rangers re-welcome Monty & Zipper, and Frenchie makes one last appearance to declare that although Que Sera is anxious to free the other dogs, perhaps one day they'll be working with the team. Chip claims they aren't really a team, but judging from how things are going, I'd say they are. The next scene introduces us to the Rangermobile, which wasn't mentioned before. Here, Plato is riding on back like a water-skier (he has roller skates on all of his feet). There's also a thermometer on it, because the colder it gets, the better they'll be able to find Klordane. Not to mention there's snow coming from the subway. Our heroes are unsure as to why Klordane needed all that ice, but before they can get an answer, Plato breaks down the door for them, and just when they're coming in, it collapses on them. Klordane and Percy come in, finding Drake's dog, and Klordane declares it as "a little icing on his cake." Obviously, he's coming close to winning now... Part 5 The Rangers recover from the door falling on them and head off to find Klordane's big underground base of operations, where the minions are stacking up the glacier's snow and mixing up lime Jell-O. (It's aliiiiii-ive!) What exactly is Klordane up to, you might wonder. Well, as the Rangers scamper around through it, I suppose I'd better explain it here, just as Klordane himself explains it to a not-believing Drake. Klordane's having his men stack up all the ice into one big snowy evil fortress of evilness. Then, that's where the Jell-O comes in, but not before being mixed and heated by the laser, which is powered by that dang ruby. With the ice covered in the gelatin, it's the world's biggest plate of Jell-O. But Klordane isn't making it because he's very hungry and he likes lime Jell-O. He's making it so that it can trigger an earthquake right under the Federal Gold Reserve! Let me say it again... "Astounding feat!" Having made his big heap o' Jell-O, Klordane allows Nimnul to hit it, starting the earthquake that causes the ground to crack beneath the Federal Gold Reserve, sending a rainfall of gold coins and bricks to come down to the underground base. "And that, as they say, is that," gloats a victorious Klordane. Meanwhile, the Rangers come up to Plato, who has been chained to Klordane's train, apologizing to him, for it seems they've failed. But Plato assures them that no matter what, they must not let Klordane get away with this. It's at this point that he addresses them as Rescue Rangers for the first time. Chip, liking the sound of that, gives us the first historical utterance of "Rescue Rangers, away!" What should the Rangers do first? Trigger another earthquake, that's what! Fat Cat, however, has other plans, and stops them by trapping them in a floorless birdcage. Monty is still furious with Fat Cat for sinking his house, and then Fat Cat replies that "If I had it to do over again, I'd set fire to it!" Really furious now, Monty lifts up the cage and throws Fat Cat into the gelatin. Fruitquake #2 occurs, causing the Reserve to come crashing down, policemen and all. The giant Jell-O is squashed, and Fat Cat goes flying at the wall muttering that he hates the Rangers even more now. Say goodbye to Fat Cat, folks, 'cause that's his last bit of screen time here! The coppers come running out of the Reserve, arresting all the thugs, but Klordane escapes onto his train. Nimnul brings him the ruby, but as soon as it's in his hands, Klordane slaps him away as his train sails off, taking Plato with it. The cops try to follow, but Klordane throws some dynamite behind, causing rocks to block the cops' path. But the Rescue Rangers are able to get through the rubble, and thanks to Gadget's intelligence, they're able to catch up with the use of a shovel and a blowtorch. During this fast sequence, there's a brief cameo of Chauncey & Edgar from "The Rocky & Bullwinkle Show". They catch up to the train, and then head to the front car to fight Klordane while Plato frees himself using the blowtorch, but not before Chip makes the first historical utterance of "Rescue Rangers, away!" As they begin annoying and hurting him, Klordane is furious that Percy and Nimnul were right about their chipmunk encounters, although he doesn't seem to notice that they're all wearing shrunken clothes. He's also quite furious that they're foiling his plans. The Rangers can't stop the train, but they are able to change the direction of the tracks, much to Klordane's chagrin. Before he can exterminate them, though, the train breaks out of the subway and onto the streets, sending Klordane flying right into the police captain's office, with Plato applying the Crime Bite to his rear end and the Ranger bouncing off his head. Wow, what an action-packed climax to such a great film! Epilogue: Klordane confesses to his crime, wanting to get away from the Rangers and Plato. And since he's letting himself be arrested after robbing a Gold Reserve, that shows how he reminds me of Scar - he gets everything he wants before getting what he deserves! Plato is given his own Police Badge, but is willing to retire along with Drake. He gives the badge to the Rangers, since they're the one who deserve it. With the adventure over, Monty & Zipper are ready to leave for a cheese ship, and Gadget says she has to get back to her workshop. But just when it seems to be a tearful goodbye, a girl (named Sheila) comes in, saying her puppy's been kidnapped. Well then, that sounds like a job for the Rescue Rangers. CnD's new friends agree to stay with them, and thus begins the great series that was "Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers"! Possible DVD Features Unlike the previous two "DuckTales" telefilms, I definitely know what they can put on a DVD for this! I'd go with including the three cartoon shorts that Chip 'n Dale starred in. I also vote on the documentary "Behind the Scenes with Chip 'n Dale" that aired before the movie version's premiere on the Disney Channel, as well as the music video of the theme song performed by the Jets that aired right after said documentary. Oh, and make sure the DVD release is the uncut version. Overall What can I say? This is the "Lion King" of the Disney telefilms. There's so much action going on I feel like my brain's blowing up. Practically everyone gets to do something big! Well, except maybe Detective Drake. I find it odd that one of Fat Cat's men declined on debuting alongside his cohorts, but I was too busy enjoying the film to pay attention, 'cause this is such a great film! It's shows like this that make you wonder why Toon Disney wants to waste its evenings with anime and Power Rangers. The premiere adventure of the Rescue Rangers gets a A+.
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Nintendo_Maximus 18:26:15 Tue Apr 13 2004 Offline 103 posts Advanced Member Reply |
I dunno what to say, it's another review!
TaleSpin: "Plunder and Lightning" Introduction When "TaleSpin" came around, it was clear that Disney's TV Animation department had something big on their hands. So when the show premiered, it was part of a two-hour syndicated weekday afternoon block known as the Disney Afternoon, along with the three adventure shows that preceded it, "Adventures of the Gummi Bears", "DuckTales", and "Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers". Now despite rumors to the contrary, "TaleSpin" is not a TV spin-off of "The Jungle Book". In fact, if you watch the series better, you'll realize that only three "Jungle Book" characters actually appear in "TaleSpin"! Pretty much most of the characters featured in "TaleSpin" are new, but there are some resemblances to the film. Let's delve in and see... Part 1 The premiere movie for the first show to appear within the Disney Afternoon opens up with a plane being suddenly attacked and boarded on by a band of Air Pirates! Their leader is Don Karnage, another TV Animation villain voiced by Jim Cummings, and another one who deserves the same merchandising deal that the movie villains are getting these days. After all, he starred alongside Fat Cat in a stage show at Disneyland, and he's the only TV villain to appear in the ice shows. The pilot objects, because he works for the nefarious Shere Khan, whom you may remember better for his hatred of men in "The Jungle Book", but is forced to hand over a box containing something. Having gotten what they came for, Karnage and his cronies shoot down the plane and head back to the boss's big airship, the Iron Vulture. But as Karnage rants about the plans he has in store for what's inside this box, it's suddenly swiped by young bearcub Kit Cloudkicker, who leads the pirates on a chase sequence that eventually results in him jumping off the ship and sky-surfing out of there with his trusty air-foil, hitching a ride over to a place called "Louie's". Soon afterwards, we change our focus to a nightclub owned by Louie the Ape, who is voiced by Jim Cummings here, because Louis Prima has seemingly died by this time. We still don't know why he needed to know how to make fire so badly that he had to kidnap Mowgli in the movie, but I'm assuming it's that he needed the directions so he could light his torches at night. Baloo Bear happens to be a regular customer here. Phil Harris doesn't voice him here, so the reins are handed to Ed Gilbert, but IMO Gilbert did a better job imitating Baloo's voice than whoever did the bear's voice in "The Jungle Book 2". Do you remember how in "The Jungle Book", Baloo came into Louie's place by joining in the song whilst dressed in drag? Well, since he wouldn't be able to quite do that in "Jungle Book 2" (since Louie wasn't in it), he does that same thing in this sequence her. The song here, "I'm Gone", was featured on the Disney Afternoon soundtrack, along with all the other songs in this movie. Just as they're finishing up the song, though, Kit comes a-crashin' in, and he notices that Baloo happens to be a pilot. Just then, Karnage and his boys bust in, and Louie tries to pick a fight with him, but those damn censor monkeys seem to have cut part of this sequence out. Karnage points his sword at Louie and announces that he's looking for a boy with a box belonging to him. He doesn't notice that Kit is hiding that box somewhere in the bar. Kit annoys the pirates and escapes onto Baloo's Conway L-16 cargo plane, which Baloo calls the Sea Duck. Kit discusses that one day he's gonna get a plane of his own, but before they can continued their discussion, the Air Pirates come a-shooting at them! Baloo doesn't know why the pirates are after him, but he does know how to get them to go away. Turns out the pirates can never get past the gunners on the cliffs surrounding Cape Suzette! Having eluded the pirates, Baloo takes Kit to his "company building". OK, it's a shack he likes to call "Baloo's Air Service". Problem is, Baloo's "Hakuna Matata"-esque lifestyle is preventing him from paying overdue bills. Baloo believes that he only works when he has to, and he considers making Kit his navigator. Kit explains that he has to get back to Louie's, but Baloo isn't in the mood to go back to the bar so soon. Then a man from the Cape Suzette National Bank shows up to tell Baloo that since he's far behind on his bills, his plane is going to be taken away. Baloo isn't at all happy about that, so he takes Kit's idea of taking a $3,000 job. But the job he takes is zoo delivery for gorilla-birds, which Kit apparently doesn't take kindly to. But as they're struggling to deliver the gorilla-birds, the Air Pirates show up again, this time causing Baloo to come in for a rough landing. At this point, Baloo realizes the pirates are after Kit, so he yells at the cub, demanding to know what the pirates want with him, and Kit reacts by walking off. Then Baloo discovers the gorilla-birds have run off! Kit goes hacking through the jungle, only to be captured by Karnage, who ties him upside-down to a tree, demanding to know where the box is. Baloo has, in the meantime, gone looking for the gorilla-birds, and just when he's caught them all, he overhears Karnage tormenting Kit. To rescue him, he reluctantly lets the gorilla-birds loose and has them distract the pirates while he saves Kit. They make their way over a pack of alligators to get back to the Sea Duck and take off. But it doesn't solve the problem that Baloo has bills to pay, so he isn't gonna own that plane no more. Kit lets it be known that he's hidden a big jewel at Louie's, and Baloo realizes with a jewel like that, he could buy back the Sea Duck! So he plans that they head back to Louie's in the morning... Part 2 The next morning, Baloo and Kit have a rather rude awakening in the form of the entrance of new character - Rebecca Cunningham, female bear, business major. Apparently, since Baloo didn't pay his loan this morning, she now owns the place, and the plane. This is the kind of failing business she says she's going to turn into a real moneymaker. Baloo objetcs, but Kit reminds him that they gotta go get the treasure. During some arguing, we're introduced to Rebecca's five-year-old daughter, Molly. Rebecca says that Baloo will have to pay her $50,000 to reclaim the Sea Duck, but until then, he's her staff pilot. Baloo agrees to this, because he can get to Louie's this way, and so long as we're introducing new characters, he introduces his oafish mechanic, Wildcat, who corresponds roughly to Bagheera the Black Panther. Afterwards, Rebecca then has the service's name changed to "Higher For Hire" (because it sounds cuter) and makes our heroes wear silly uniforms and the Sea Duck wear a clowny paint job. Obviously, Baloo's gonna need that money. Rebecca then sends Baloo and Kit to go deliver mangos, but no sooner do they get out of her eyesight, they ditch their uniforms and try to head off for Louie's. But Molly has stowed away, and she's willing to tell her mom if they don't allow her to come along. In the meantime, we get an introduction to the last of the three "Jungle Book" characters incorporated into this movie - Shere Khan. He's a menacing corporate businessman here, and even his employees are afraid of him. A frightened tiger employee tries to tell him that the stone he wants has been stolen by the Air Pirates, and Khan's not happy about that. More on that later. Meanwhile, Baloo and Kit bring Molly to Louie's, and they treat her to one of Louie's famous Krakatoa Specials. As Molly's being treated to the sundae, Baloo and Kit find the jewel, but Louie tells them it isn't a jewel, and therefore is worthless. But when Kit mentions that it was stolen from Shere Khan, Baloo takes another look at it, only to have it strike at him. "Maybe this night-light is worth something after all," he says. But just as they're leaving, the Air Pirates come back to attack. During the process, that dang paint job comes off. Remember that bit in the theme song where Karnage gets hit in the face by mango bits? That scene doesn't come from here, but it sure seems like it, because Baloo deploys that same tactic here! Unfortunately, this chase sequence ends up with them losing the cargo that way, so they've pretty much failed their assignment. Rebecca's not happy with that, but she eventually believes it when Molly tells her that Baloo's telling the truth. That night, Rebecca sings a lullaby to Molly in a scene that got cut for time from the reruns but can be heard on the Disney Afternoon soundtrack, as Baloo reveals that tomorrow, he and Kit will visit Shere Khan, wanting to know the reward for the jewel's return. But none of them notice Karnage and his men sneaking into Cape Suzette, looking for that dang box. The next morning, Baloo and Kit hide the jewel in Molly's doll (named Lucy), because it's smarter to find out how much Khan's offering for this gem's return rather than to just march in with it. Over at Khan Industries, Shere Khan tells "Mr. Balloon" that the jewel's an electrical alloy his scientists developed, and he's offering to pay "a hundred thousand lousy bucks" for its return. But when they return, they find that the pirates have ransacked the place and kidnapped Rebecca & Molly! (And the doll.) Part 3 Karnage has left a ransom note saying that he'll let Rebecca & Molly go only if Baloo and Kit give him the jewel. Problem is, he's already got the jewel, because the jewel is in Lucy, which Molly has, although Karnage doesn't know it. Kit blames himself for this mess, and he explains it to Baloo as he gives him the directions to Pirate Island on the Sea Duck. How does he know so much about the pirates? He was an Air Pirate himself once, and he got sick of hanging out with Karnage, so when he saw the stone, he made his move. Baloo takes sympathy for "Little Britches", who replies, "Thanks, Poppa Bear." See, Kit is quite similar to the mancub, Mowgli, while Wildcat corresponds roughly to Bagheera, despite being more oafish than sophisticated. In the Iron Vulture, Karnage skyjacks (in a way) another of Shere Khan's planes, but his men steal only seemingly useless stuff, like fish bowls, for a reason that will be explained later. After kicking the Khan Industrians out so they can give Khan a report of their thievery, they return to their hideout. Meanwhile, Baloo and Kit land in the volcanic island and make their way through the trap-infested trails, dancing with two unnamed extra pirates on the way. Not too far ahead, Rebecca seduces the prison guard into letting them out by saying she'll give him ownership of the Sea Duck if he promises to let them go free. But Rebecca didn't plan on Baloo knocking "Cinnamon Head" out and taking the deed. Just as they let the gals out, though, Karnage and his men return, and they're forced to hide from the pirates' eyesight. Dumptruck and Maddog ask Karny why they've been stealing so much junk lately, and he answers by showing off his master weapon with an uncreative name - the Lightning Gun, with which, he says, he will use to plunder Cape Suzette. "But aren't we robbers?" asks Dumptruck, and Karnage responds with his big musical number, "Sky Pirates", which is also featured on the Disney Afternoon soundtrack. Geez, with that CD including all the songs from this movie, I'm surprised it didn't include any songs featured on "DuckTales" or "Rescue Rangers"! The good guys try to sneak past the pirates disguised as other pirates, but Baloo's stupidly joining in the song blows their cover, but he refuses to tell Karnage where the jewel is. To cover their escape, Kit pretends to rejoin the pirates and gives them the jewel, but his acting makes Baloo very angry. The others make their escape, not knowing that Kit was faking, but the bad guys are right behind. With the pirates unshakable, Baloo hits a button that blasts the Sea Duck into the next dimension. Actually, it's an Overdrive function that allows them to get away very quickly. Upon returning to Cape Suzette, they're suddenly snatched by Shere Khan's men, who bring them to the big tiger himself, who has his rabbit scientist explain the stone that Becky (as Baloo calls Rebecca) has no idea about. Turns out the jewel's actually a sub-electron amplifier powerful enough to run Khan Industries. Problem is, Baloo didn't get it back, so he can't get those 100,000 "lousy bucks". He complains about everyone he's in the room with, and Khan dismisses him as "a very emotional man." Back at Higher For Hire, Baloo packs his bags into the Sea Duck and pays Becky for it in the form of gold dust he swiped from the pirates. Becky & Molly, though, don't want him to leave, though, because she "just doesn't believe that Kit's gone bad!" Part 4 With the film reaching its climax, Don Karnage and his men load the Lightning Gun onto the Iron Vulture and make their way towards Cape Suzette. Over in the city, Rebecca goes looking for new cargo pilots and planes. Not far away, that rabbit scientist informs Shere Khan of Karnage's new Lightning Gun, but Khan doesn't believe it until he see an explosion coming from the cliff guns. Obviously, if this Lightning Gun is easily able to destroy the cliff guns, Cape Suzette's in deep trouble. Khan calls up the air field to combat this menace, but it does no good. Up on the Vulture, Karnage announces to the citizens that he and his men are now going to plunder the city. But then, Kit snatches the amplifier and runs off with it, hiding in a radio room to call a mayday to any nearby pilots who aren't getting toasted to tell Baloo "that Little Britches has a message for him." Over at Louie's, Baloo is enjoying himself when a pilot runs in telling him that he's got a message from "Little Britches." When Baloo hears it over Louie's transmission radio, he realizes he was wrong about Kit's supposedly double-crossing him, so he jumps back into the Sea Duck and activates the overdrive again. Back on the Iron Vulture, Kit throws the amplifier at Karnage, shocking him, and then tries to escape on his air foil again, only to be snatched up by Dumptruck and his "interesting toy" broken by Karnage. How it would get fixed is never explained. Karnage, furious that Kit lied to him, orders Dumptruck to drop Kit over the edge, but Baloo comes to the rescue just in time. Oh yeah, since he spent a bit too long in that overdrive, it's burned out, so he can't go into overdrive anymore. Unfortunately, it doesn't change the fact that the pirates have got a Lightning Gun with which to shoot at them. They hide under a bridge in order to deter Karnage from looking for them. Afterwards, Baloo radios Becky & Molly (and the until-now nearly-forgotten Wildcat) that they're coming back. He can't convince Becky to leave Cape Suzette, and Kit agrees with her, so what is Baloo going to do about Karnage's Lightning Gun? Answer - armor up the Sea Duck in rubber things, because "Ms. Science says electricity and rubber don't mix!" Becky comes along for the ride, because that's her tires they're armoring the plane with. When Karnage hears Baloo and Kit taunting him on his radio, he orders his men to try and blow them up, but just as specified, the rubberized Sea Duck is unaffected by the Lightning Gun. Karnage tries sending his men to chase the Sea Duck, but they all end up getting lost along the way. And worse for him, Baloo reluctantly drives the Sea Duck right into the Lightning Gun, sending it crashing into the sea. The three bears survive, but the Sea Duck is pretty much destroyed. At least they've driven Karnage away... for now. Epilogue: The Sea Duck is repaired ("good as pretty and twice as new", according to Wildcat), but since Rebecca paid for it, she owns it again. So now Baloo is stuck as her employee again. But this time, he accepts the job, saying it's only until he's able to buy it back again. And that's how it goes, folks. Possible DVD Features I'm beginning to think there wasn't any real point to this section, because I clearly can't think of any bonus features for these movies, aside from the last one I reviewed. Maybe we can get an audio commentary, since this film's pretty much the same length as "The Lion King". Overall I like "TaleSpin", but not as much as some other Disney shows, so this one doesn't get as high a rating as the movies I've previously reviewed. On the plus side, Don Karnage is one of my favorite villains, and this is probably the closest he came to victory. Canadian TaleSpin fan Michelle Beaubien remarked in "The Disney Afternoon" #4 that Baloo and Rebecca remind her of the Kramdens on "The Honeymooners", so I guess the pairing makes sense. Especially since the Disney HooZoo seems to support it! Anyway, "Plunder and Lightning" is stuck with a B-. | ||||
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Nintendo_Maximus 21:01:00 Wed Apr 14 2004 Offline 103 posts Advanced Member Reply |
Once again, something that gets googled all the time... a new review!
Aladdin: "The Return of Jafar" Introduction Get ready now, I'm going to review the direct-to-video sequel to the feature animation movie "Aladdin". Now despite what nasty reviews at Amazon and the Internet Movie Database may tell you, this is actually a rather good sequel. Firstly, when you look at all the sequels as a whole, this is one of the few that isn't about the original's hero's offspring disobeying his parents. Secondly, we get an onscreen explanation to someone changing alignment. Thirdly, they needed a way to start off the "Aladdin" TV series! So let's just suck it in and get the review over with. Oh, and by the way, I should mention that some of the reviews claim this movie to be made up of the first four "Aladdin" episodes. It's not. The back of the VHS case clearly states that the movie runs for 66 minutes, meaning the movie is three episodes long. Get your facts straight, people. Unless, of course, this ran on TV with a lot of commercial breaks. It's pretty confusing that way, because I don't know how one part begins and how it ends, so I'll just review all three parts at once. Parts 1, 2, & 3 If Disney sequels have to honestly copy bits from the predecessors, this is no exception, because the title for this movie is shown the same way the original was. Not to mention that we're hearing "Arabian Nights" again. But here, though, it's an extended version of the version of "Arabian Nights" used for the theme song of the show. Anyway, the film opens up with a gang of crooks heading off to their hideout after a day of successful jewel-stealing. Actually, it'd really be successful if their leader, Abis Mal, didn't live up to his name. Worse for them, he's claiming all their stolen goods for himself for being their "beloved leader". But then, to make things cheesier, Aladdin & Abu suddenly show up to steal the jewels and escape on Carpet, which Abis Mal doesn't take kindly to. You might notice that some scenes from this sequence are in the show's theme song. Flying over Agrabah, Aladdin tosses all the glittery stuff without fear of coins impaling anyone's foreheads, but Abu, having a beer-like addiction to shiny things, doesn't want him to. And his problem continues even more when Aladdin presents a Jeweled Flower (which has no importance to the plot) to Jasmine, whom he manages to remain engaged to for the entire series. As Abu makes an animation goof regarding the flowers, Jasmine tells Al that her pop, the Sultan, has a surprise announcement at dinner tonight. Elsewhere, Iago the Parrot breaks out of the black lamp that he and Jafar were confined to at the end of the original movie. Jafar demands Iago to release him, but Iago has gotten sick and tired of taking orders from him, so he dumps Jafar's lamp into a well while going into a musical number he calls "I'm Lookin' Out For Me". If you're looking for them, most of the songs from this are available on the soundtrack for the series finale, "Aladdin and the King of Thieves", which was also direct-to-video. As he sings, Iago annoys the hell out of the merchants in Agrabah, eventually getting splattered by watermelons. Then, when he finds out that Al is living in the palace now (or so it seems), he tries a sympathy act to get back into power, but he clearly isn't fooling the street rat. Suddenly, they have a run-in with Abis Mal, who is unable to recognize Aladdin until his minions reminds him. A scuffle ensues, during which Iago winds up saving Al's life. Afterwards, Razoul and the guards show up and give chase after the thieves. Not exactly willing to thank Iago, Al cages him in the palace backyard, planning to tell the Sultan and Jasmine about it at dinner. Just then, as Al tries to keep Iago's appearance secret from Jasmine, the screen shakes, because Genie has just come back from the world travels he started up at the end of the first movie. It's clear that Robin Williams isn't reprising his role, as the reins are handed over to Dan Castelleneta, who has also voiced the villainous Megavolt on "Darkwing Duck". That's because Williams had a problem with Disney over the original for a reason that's escaped me. That's why, in everything Genie is in outside of the movie and the series finale (this video, the series itself, the "Great Minds Think 4 Themselves" interstitials, and Kingdom Hearts), Genie sounds like Homer Simpson at times. Don't fear, though; everyone else has the same voices as before. The now semi-phenomenal and nearly-cosmic Genie (Al set him free, remember) goes into another song, "Nothing In The World (Quite Like A Friend)", which sounds similar to "Friend Like Me" at times and for an unknown reason is missing from the soundtrack. Somehow, the time quickly shifts to night during the song, and as Genie's showing off the powers he can still do, Jazz (which is what I'm gonna start calling Jasmine for short) remembers that it's dinnertime, so Al invites Genie to dinner. Abu, on the other hand, is stuck having to guard Iago. Meanwhile, Abis Mal is trying to get a drink from a well, when he suddenly pulls out Jafar's lamp and winds up letting the evil man-turned-genie out. Lucky for him, too, because his men were ready to lynch him for being such an incompetent leader. Abis Mal is quite frightened by Jafar's genie form, so Jafar transforms into the form we're more used to. Sort of. Since this is the TV Animation department's first try at drawing and animating him, he looks rather different than he does in the movie. They'd get him more on par in "House of Mouse", but strangely, in "Mickey's House of Villains", they seem to have forgotten that Jafar's lamp is black, not gold like Genie's. Jafar wants to wreak his vengeance, but Abis Mal wants to make his three wishes first. He wishes for a sunken treasure, but Jafar annoys him by transporting him to the undersea treasure itself. Abis Mal wastes his second wish by wishing to return to the desert, and then Jafar tells him that he will reward Abis Mal if he helps him destroy Aladdin. Abis Mal agrees to help him, because Jafar will have to plan out a turn of events that will bring forth Al's death, 'cause now that he's a genie, Jafar can't kill anyone. But that doesn't mean he can't have it be arranged... At dinner, Genie is entertaining the Sultan with the antics of his hands. Don't bother asking me how he somehow got his cuffs back after they vanished in the first movie. Maybe the animators just needed a way to get the hands to dance Broadway-style. Anyway, the Sultan's announcement is that he's making Aladdin his new royal vizier, and Genie, who makes a big deal out of it like academy awards and t-shirts, replies to this by saying that he's betting Al would be better at that job than Jafar was. Outside, though, Abu opens Iago's cage so that Jazz's tiger, Rajah, can attack him. Iago flies into the palace, yelling that Al's about to return his favor. Because of Iago, Rajah makes a mess, and when Al reveals to everyone that he was hiding Iago, the Sultan is quite angry with him, and Jazz yells at him. That could've gone better, see. Al feels bad, and Genie, who at one point imitates Jiminy Cricket, orders Iago to try and get Al & Jazz back together. Iago doesn't want to, because he doesn't do nice, fun, or mush, but when Genie tells him it's gonna be tricky, Iago agrees to it, because "tricky he can do." So, with some help with Genie, Iago persuades Jazz to stop being so angry at Aladdin, by way of a song titled "Forget About Love". He ends up playing Cupid so much that when Genie tries to record their intimacy for posterity, Iago shoves him away, yelling that "they wanna be alone!!" Things are fine with the main couple for now (aside from the fact that Al somehow changed out of his "Prince Ali" garb and back into his normal clothes while we weren't looking), but it's not changing the fact that the evillest man-turned-genie in town is still around, along with his new lackey (so to speak), Abis Mal. Iago is relaxing in the palace, planning out his possible future with Al being the vizier, when Jafar and Abis Mal suddenly show up. Jafar wants Iago to be a tool in his plan to knock off Aladdin, but Iago clearly doesn't want to. But because he's afraid of his former master, Iago reluctantly agrees. He asks Al if he would like to take the Sultan on a trip to some place not far from Agrabah. The Sultan is still angry that Al was hiding Iago earlier, and Iago feels a lot of angst here, because Al trusts him, and he's going to lose that trust by leading them into Jafar's trap. Since they missed out on leaving with the others, and Al's trying to spend time with his future father-in-law, Genie and Abu stay behind to picnic in the palace grounds. Suddenly, Jafar shows up and captures them with his new song, "You're Only Second Rate". He also manages to capture Jazz later on, but we don't see that. He then heads over to the vacation spot, disguising himself as a legion of winged horses, with Abis Mal on one of his saddles. The "riders" capture the Sultan, and Al becomes furious with Iago. Al and Carpet attempt to chase Abis Mal and "the riders", but they are unsuccessful. Carpet gets nabbed, and Al goes over the waterfall, but Jafar lets him live, because he has bigger plans in store for the street rat. After chaining the Sultan and Carpet in the dungeon along with Genie and Abu, Jafar congratulates Iago for doing his job, and the guilty parrot replies, "Please, don't mention it." Jafar then slices a hole in the Sultan's turban, which Abis Mal complains about, because "that was a nice hat", and he wanted to wear it. Jafart (that there was an accidental misspelling; but it sounded so funny I decided to keep it in) tells him that this ripped-up turban and this dagger are the final pieces he'll be using to seal Al's doom. Geez, Jafar's got an even more complicated evil plot here than in the first movie! I love big evil plots like this. :P Aladdin, having survived the waterfall, treks back to the palace, only to be arrested by Razoul and the guards because they believe that he's murdered the Sultan! Al tries to explain what happened, but Razoul won't believe him, and then Jasmine seemingly comes in and shows him the ripped turban and the dagger. A certain nitpicker pointed out that there seems to be a plot hole in Jafar's plot, since everyone saw the Sultan leaving with Aladdin earlier, but then again, there are some possibilities about how the plan ended up working. For one thing, maybe Jafar hypnotized the guards and we didn't see it. I should also mention that, due to this movie being animated by different animation teams, the animation style continually changes, and it's obvious to notice. Fortunately, that problem was handled better in most of the later direct-to-video TV Animation productions. But anyway, that's not really Jazz accusing Aladdin there; it's Jafar disguised as Jazz! How he captured Jazz goes unexplained, but the point is that now Aladdin's going to be executed at dawn, and he's got a new collection of prisoners! The next morning, Jafar disguises himself as Jasmine again, taunting Jazz that he's going to "go tell your boyfriend goodbye for you." Just as he's left, though, Iago starts trying to set Genie free from the glass globe Jafar imprisoned him in. At this time, Jafar shows up at the pendulum to let the street rat know that it was he who's gotten him into this mess. Al tries to alert the guards that Jafar is back, but they don't listen to him. Just before Al can get his head cut off, though, Iago breaks Genie free, and Genie frees Al and the other goodies. Oh yes, and the Sultan somehow gets his turban back. Al's free now, but how are the good guys going to stop Jafar now? They can't just try and trap him in his lamp and throw him a far distance away again; he might get found again. By the way, someone at the now-defunct Disney Ever Notice site did a list of how the movie villains are killed off, but she made a mistake with Jafar, saying that he "got trapped in his lamp and was tossed away". I know that's what happened to him in the original movie, but it isn't how he died. How he officially died is explained here - the good guys figure that if they destroy Jafar's lamp, Jafar dies along with it. That's possibly why he takes damage when you hit the lamp when battling his Genie form in Kingdom Hearts. Iago doesn't want to help, but the good guys know he's done enough. But don't spit this out of your VCR just yet - while "Cinderella II" wouldn't bother explaining how Cindy reconciled with Anastasia, "The Return of Jafar" is showing us how Iago has switched alignments for the TV series and "Aladdin and the King of Thieves". In the palace, Jafar starts granting Abis Mal's wishes endlessly before forcing the petty thief to wish him free. During this, the good guys try various times to get the lamp away, but they aren't successful. But then, just when Abis Mal is about to wish for Jafar to be free of the lamp, he questions, "How do I know all this stuff won't disappear when I set you free?" Jafar tells him that in a moment, he's going to wish he didn't ask that. Abis Mal says, "But I thought genies couldn't kill people!" Jafar replies, "You'd be surprised at what you can live through!" That's when the good guys manage to steal the black lamp. Jafar becomes so furious with this development that he transform back into his genie form and begins annihilating the place. He almost destroys the palace and KOs Genie and Carpet as Al tries to get the lamp, only to end up floating on a stalagmite in the lava pits that Jafar creates on the lawn. During this, Abis Mal ends up getting stuck on a tree limb. But just when Jafart (had to use it again) appears victorious, Iago comes flying in and swipes the lamp. Jafar reacts by zapping the bird, but with his last ounce of strenght, Iago kicks the lamp, plummeting it into the lava, and destroying Jafar. He'd be seemingly missed among fans, but would end up paling in comparison to Mozenrath on the TV series. For what it's worth, he'd return to make one last try in an episode of "Hercules: The Animated Series" before becoming a total wimp in "Mickey's House of Villains", where he led a takeover on the House of Mouse, only to be defeated easily and cheesily. Epilogue: Iago survives his near-death experience, just like most nice Disney characters whom the writers pretend to kill off. Al ends up rejecting the offer of becoming the Sultan's vizier, because he wants to have adventures around the world, and that's where the TV show's adventures come in. Iago, on the other hand, isn't so keen on this... Possible DVD Features Well, since this actually probably will be coming to DVD after the original movie comes to a special edition DVD later this fall, we probably won't be needing this feature. Overall Sure, go ahead and curse this film just because it's a sequel. Well, haven't you ever noticed that those people also unfairly bash the TV show spin-offs of the movies? It makes you wonder whether those people either believe that follow-ups and spin-offs aren't as good as the originals, or they're just prejudiced against Disney TV Animation. Personally, I'm thinking of going with the latter. One of Roy Disney's editorial writers at SaveDisney claimed this to be inferior to this to the original "Aladdin", and while that's probably true, he also claimed that "Recess: School's Out", "Kim Possible: A Sitch In Time", and "Teacher's Pet: The Movie" sucked, which they actually didn't. See? Prejudice! At least this sequel doesn't have the same problems done in most of the other sequels. As in, it's not about Al and Jazz's offspring disobeying his parents and running away from home in order to get what he wants, and they haven't caused any plot holes relating to the first movie. Besides, Jafar had a cooler evil plot this time around, although some will probably disagree. But on the plus side, remember this - at least Jafar did more villainous stuff here than in "Mickey's House of Villains". Rating: B. | ||||
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Nintendo_Maximus 16:20:21 Thu Apr 15 2004 Offline 103 posts Advanced Member Reply |
I just shrink-wrapped it... a new review!
101 Dalmatians: "Dalmatian Vacation" Introduction For me, the late 80's to mid 90's was the golden age of Disney TV Animation, at least for the shows that weren't based on the movies. But then, shortly before Toon Disney came into existence, the TV Animation fellows decided they should make their non-movie-based shows as boring as possible, giving all the action and comedy to the shows that were based on the animated features. Some people are prejudiced against these spin-offs, claiming they "ruined the magic of their originals", but I'd disagree, that is, if I didn't have mixed feelings about 'em. I've sat through and/or enjoyed "TaleSpin" (which I still don't count as a spin-off), "The Little Mermaid Series", "Aladdin: The Series", "The Lion King's Timon & Pumbaa", "Jungle Cubs", "101 Dalmatians: The Series", "Hercules: The Animated Series", and "Buzz Lightyear of Star Command", but I never got into "The Legend of Tarzan" (because it was dull and they put it on the god-d*mned Jetix anyway) or "Lilo & Stitch: The Series" (because it replaced "Teamo Supremo" on ABC Kids). "101 Dalmatians: The Series", on one hand, managed to get a three-part episode to close it up, so here it is. But be warned, I can't get it into as much detail as the previous reviews. Why? My videotape on which I had recorded the movie went missing for absolutely no reason at all. And no matter how hard I looked, I simply COULD NOT FIND IT AT ALL. It was like as though the film didn't want me to be reviewing it. I'll probably never find it, even after continuous pleading to St. Anthony, so I'll just try and give you the review without the movie to help me. Part 1: "Road Warriors" So how do they begin the closure to the "101 Dalmatians" animated series? It starts off with the company building owned by Cruella DeVil, the main villain of the whole Dalmatian franchise. If you don't recall, in the movie she was obsessed with fur coats and felt that the kind made from Dalmatian fur was best. By the series, though, she's given up on fur coats, because Dalmatian fur isn't really worth making into a coat (or because fur coats are politically incorrect). So instead, she's now a corporate criminal and is intent on stealing ownership of the Dearly Farm, where the family from the movie has now been living. She wants the Dearlys and the Dalmatians off the farm because it's so close to her evil fortress of evilness it's not even funny. She's also now gotten a habit of reminding herself of things by recording it, starting her reminder with, "Memo to myself..." FYI, the Radcliffe surname was switched to the surname originally given in the novel the movie was based on, but I doubt they did that with "101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure". Anyway, here, Anita works for Cruella, but only in the fashion designer category, not in the villain's lackey category. Cruella is apparently low on ideas to steal for fashion this year, so when Anita tells her that she's going on vacation with Roger for a certain amount of time (why oh why did that tape of mine vanish mysteriously?) to get some fresh ideas... well, let's just say Cruella has now got herself a reason to plot some evil stuff for the film's run of 66 minutes. I forget what exactly Anita had been expecting Roger to take her on, but it seems Roger wound up having a lot more on his mind for the trip. Anita shows up as he's packing, and for some reason he thinks she's suspicious, so he reveals his little surprise. Due to the missing tape, I can't remember everything about it, but I think one part of it had something to do with Roger's old baseball team. And they're also supposed to top it off with getting their vows renewed, which is important, because it ends up being the point of most of the film! The way things turn out, the Dalmatians end up coming along. Pongo & Perdita coming along made sense, since R&A's wedding was theirs too. But for the pups, they need the big stupid spotted bus. In case you can't stay up late or can't fake sick to watch the show on Toon Disney, I'll fill you in on the main pups. Lucky, whom you may remember from the movie for getting in front of the television, is pretty much the leader of the main pups, and he's the one who knows that whenever Cruella's up to no-good, they gotta stop her. I think the woman voicing him is the same woman who does that Otto kid on "Time Squad". Kath Soucie, a woman of many cartoon voices, does the other two. Rolly, who was the one pup to get to be on Laughing Place's Top Disney Supporting Characters (I still think Launchpad should've come in first), is just as hungry here as he was in the movie, although here he's more about drooling for whatever food he fantasizes for rather than continually go, "I'm hungry, mother." Cadpig probably isn't so easily remembered by the viewers, mainly because she wasn't named in the movie. Despite the mistake they made in the 1996 live-action remake, Cadpig is the runt Dalmatian who nearly died at the beginning of the movie. She now makes new age ramblings all the time. Anyway, just as all the pups are loaded onto Roger Dearly's Magic School Bus, Cruella shows up, 'cause it seems she's coming along too. Looks like the Dalmatians are like the wolves - they travel in packs. So, with Cruella bringing half of her load along in a truck driven by Horace & Jasper Badun (Cruella's two lackeys), R&A's little second honeymoon has pretty much turned into a full-blown vacation with all the original movie's characters except for Nanny. Spot the Chicken was the fourth member of Lucky's petshop quartet. From what I've heard, she wants to be a dog, 'cause she pretty much doesn't like the stress of being a chicken, such as the jokes that result on why the chicken crossed the road. Spot was voiced by Tara Strong, whom I've known for being the voice actor behind Timmy Turner, Dil Pickles, and three Koopalings (Iggy & Lemmy in the SMB cartoons and Bowser Jr. in Super Mario Sunshine). Spot declines on the offer of coming along for the trip, because of the aforementioned joke. But then her mom tells her that she had the whole time planned for things related to clucking and sitting on eggs. Needless to say, Spot chickens out of that offer (no pun intended) and gives chase after the bus, setting up a subplot of Spot going looking for her friends. Along the way, she finds herself in a truck with a whole lotta other chickens to go to a supposed "chicken's paradise". But it doesn't take long for Spot to figure out that they're being taken to a slaughterhouse, a.k.a. a fast-food chicken restaurant. I love that chicken from Popeyes! But mainly the legs. Mmmmmm... Popeyes chicken legs. Anyway, Spot would eventually catch up with the Dearlys halfway through part 2, but afterwards, she doesn't really have much to do. Cruella, on the other hand, has plenty to do for the whole movie. So much to do, actually, that I can't remember them all. D*mn it that I can't find that video! All I remember is that she bosses Roger & Anita around, making Anita design when she doesn't need to, and making Roger stop at places he doesn't need to. And somewhere along the way, Horace & Jasper wind up driving Cruella's supply van over a waterfall. Lemmie just skip to near the end of part one, since I can remember it more easily. The whole troupe take a stop in front of that waterfall that the Baduns came riding down, and Roger reluctantly has to waste the last of his camera film on Cruella posing in front of said waterfall while Anita calls the church ahead of time to make reservations. Roger gets into a fistfight with Cruella because she threw his camera down the falls after he takes the photo while she's looking the other way. Just then, Anita finds out over the phone that the preacher who married her to Roger in the movie was an imposter - meaning she and Roger aren't really married! The way this show's tricky timeline's a-goin', I assume this occurs about two years after the beginning of the original movie. Roger is rather alarmed when Anita tells him this news, but he's soon OK with it, because as he says, "how many couples ever get married twice?" Geez, I hope Crandall & Brenda don't have this kind of trouble in their adulthood. Or do I? But I'm digressing, because Cruella is using this tidbit to her advantage. The farm would have to be owned by a Mr. and Mrs. Dearly, but since technically it turned out Anita isn't really Mrs. Dearly, they won't really own it within a week. So all Cruella has to do is make sure the Dearlys don't reach the church on time! "Memo to myself... cackle fiendishly." Part 2: "Cross-Country Calamity" Lucky, Rolly, and Cadpig overheard Cruella plotting at the end of the previous episode, so they know they gotta stop her from preventing Roger & Anita from being married for real, 'cause if Cruella succeeds, then she gets that dang farm. That night, while everyone is a-sleeping at the "Odor Motel" (so named due to the sign's neon lights burning out), Cruella sneaks off to meet Horace & Jasper, who have by now gotten the van out of the water. It's still drenched, though. What Cruella doesn't know, though, is that Lucky and Rolly have stowed away on the van as she does all sorts of things to disrupt the Dearlys' progress. Meanwhile, Roger & Anita wake up the next morning to find that Cruella has gone AWOL, and they're quite delighted with this, because now they can make up for lost time. Or can they? One of Cruella's tactics I remember involved a railroad, but I forget what happened because I couldn't find that darn tape. I do remember that there was a bit with the Twilight Bark, or as it's called on the show, "the Barking Chain." Check this out - they somehow managed to sneak in a cameo of Wile E. Coyote, who takes some time off from chasing the Roadrunner to spread the word of his fellow canines, predating him doing the same thing to answer the phone in "Looney Tunes: Back in Action". Spot manages to happen upon the pups by this point where the Dearlys are lost in the desert. I have so got to find that tape. Another of Cruella's sneaky tactics comes at the beach the family stops at. She tries to distract Roger with her patented "sexy girl" rubber costume, but it clearly doesn't work. She ends up morphing into a surfing board, which Lucky and Rolly, after having had such an adventure in the rapids (I can't describe it 'cause I couldn't find the tape), manage to cling onto her, and Rolly comments, "This is one ugly surfboard!" Getting close to the end of the second part, the Dearly troop reaches the ballpark of Roger's old baseball team, I think. Were they actually watching the team playing? I can't tell. Cruella deploys her next tactic - get the Baduns to trick Roger into signing a contract to join their phony team in Venezuela. But he knows what problems this'll cause, so he passes it up. But then Horace & Jasper drop the bombshell - they ask for his autograph, and he unknowingly ends up signing that contract!! When Anita finds out that Roger has seemingly chosen baseball over their wedding, she gets very angry, gets on her motorcycle, throws off her ring, and rides off, not noticing that Cadpig has snuck along, taking that ring with her, telling her many siblings that she's going to try and convince Anita to come back. Then, as it gets close to the fade-out, Spot and the pups overhear Cruella gloating nearby: "Oh, dear, they're going to lose the farm. How could this have happened? Oh, I know - I caused it!" And she cackles fiendishly again. Part 3: "Dearly Beloved" In a lone hotel room, Cruella continues gloating as she watches through the peepholes at the expense of Roger, who is in a slump. Lucky tries to help Roger out, eventually finding a black and white movie featuring a couple in the same situation Roger & Anita are in. But the guy in the movie decides that he's been a fool, and that he's gotta find his fiancée. And that's what Roger decides! So he and the dogs (and Spot) take off in his Striped School Bus again, much to Cruella's dismay. It's even more to her dismay because she hasn't a way to catch up. So, after a while, she enlists the aid of a gang of rude motorbikers. Problem is, they prefer to obey the speed limit, and as we saw at the end of the original movie, Cruella doesn't. Meanwhile, Cadpig successfully convinces Anita (well, not by talking to her, that is) to return to Roger. But along the way, she runs into a group of morons (and their Great Dane) who believe that aliens exist and are waiting for a UFO of some sort. One of those guys bares a strange resemblance to Jim Jinkins and is dressed like former Nicktoon star Doug Funnee. These idiots are apparently expecting a shaggy green visitor. Cadpig has a bit of a conversation with pseudo-Scooby before donning a shaggy green disguise and pretending to be the so-called "shaggy green visitor". What happens? She gets them to steer their "ship" to the city where the church is. Sheesh, these bits the road hogs and UFO conspirators seem rather out of place in the world of "101 Dalmatians", and I'm willing to bet they were thrown in to get the last part to be of the same length as the previous installments. 'Nother problem results when they get there, though - someone decided to hold a parade today! Keep an eye out for the giant cookie dough monster animatronics robot designed by one of Cruella's relatives, featured in the earlier episode, "Coup DeVil". The Main Pups (meaning Lucky, Rolly, Cadpig, and Spot) do their best to get Roger & Anita back together, and in spite of all the crowd problems, they do so, and the couple forgives each other as the episode's title becomes justified. Suddenly, Cruella shows up to announce that she's bought this church for the next coupla hours, but the Main Pups know that means her ownership of the church will delay the marriage long enough for her to steal the farm. I don't know how Cruella got stopped this time, but it had something to do with that road hog leader and several other men suddenly wanting to marry her. I guess even supposedly heartless women need good men in their lives. Long story short, Cruella ends up being a bridesmaid, Horace catches the bouquet, and the newlywed Dearlys drive the Spotted Bus into the sunset as Cruella bothers them about where they're going for the honeymoon. Oh yeah, and they top off that gag about the UFO, BTW. Possible DVD Features Y'know how on some Disney DVDs, they've incorporated TV episodes relating to the movies into the special features, like the "Goof Troop" episode on the DVD for "A Goofy Movie", and the "New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh" episode on the recent "Springtime With Roo"? I suppose that, since the movie is only a short 66 minutes, the DVD release could include a regular episode of the series, or two. I'd nominate the series premiere, "Home Is Where the Bark Is", and the episode that features Cruella's whole family tree, "Coup DeVil". BTW, I also found out that this was the only other DTA Telefilm to be released to laserdisc in Japan. What do we American fans get? Nothing, except a VHS release of the "Christmas Cruella" episode, which also includes "Coup DeVil". Disney should've given that laserdisc an American release, or at least an NTSC VHS release. Then I wouldn't have had any problems with this review because of my tapes getting lost. Overall I often tend to curse in my reviews when my tapes mysteriously vanish off the face of the planet. I've seen good reviews for "Patch's London Adventure", but I found this to be more interesting, even if Little Lightning's one of my favorite Disney characters (by way of sympathy, that is). Part 3's bits with the motorcyclists and UFO conspirators seemed as much of a cop-out as the robot aliens in "Super DuckTales", but again, the movie'd be over rather quickly if they cut out, wouldn't it? But believe me, it's hard to review a movie when you've lost your only copy of it. The doggies get a bunch of kibble and a C+. At least it ain't a D. | ||||
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Nintendo_Maximus 18:14:42 Fri Apr 16 2004 Offline 103 posts Advanced Member Reply |
Here's my last review until further notice...
Kim Possible: "A Sitch In Time" Introduction When I found out that the Disney Channel was finally showing another animated telefilm, I knew I absolutely had to record it. I had already missed out on getting the TV movies for "DuckTales", "Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers" and "TaleSpin" and I didn't want to miss out on another one. Especially one that would premiere after I had gotten cable! Plus, it was "Kim Possible" and everyone loves "Kim Possible", except people who are prejudiced against Disney TV Animation. "Kim Possible" is an early 2000s Disney TV Animation show that recaptures the action and comedy that was long missing in DTA shows since 1997. (I'd say the same for "Teamo Supremo", but that doesn't seem to be as popular.) Anyone who considers "Kim Possible" a disgrace to Disney is a big loser in my book. Not everybody likes Disney just for the Feature Animation productions, you know. Some people, like me, prefer the TV Animation stuff...and this marks the first and only time a DTA Telefilm got released on VHS and DVD after its premiere on TV. (Although I think that "Gargoyles: The Heroes Awaken" may have gotten the same treatment.) Anyway, let's see how KP's Sitch In Time fared with me. Part 1: "Present" The first animated Disney Channel premiere movie in quite a long time opens up with no sign of the usual theme song. They just roll the opening credits as we open up on Middleton High's cheerleaders, Kim among them, practicing to the tune of the song playing at the moment. It's "Work It Out" by Brassy. After this scene, we cut to a bit later on. It seems to be a new school year, judging from the "Welcome Back Students" marquee. The story gets moving as the title character and her best friend/sidekick, Ron Stoppable, exit the school. Ron seems rather glad that he and Kim are in all the same classes together this year. If you honestly can't tell, the show is wasting no time in telling us that Kim and Ron are an item. They've gotten to be my second-favorite Disney couple, with Crandall & Brenda in first place. I don't care if Kim has a crush on Josh Mankey--that guy's not even a semi-regular! With the way that they show hints at K&R's relationship, especially in the second season, I won't be surprised if an epilogue-ish future shows us Mrs. Kimberly Stoppable. Unfortunately, that may not be, because Ron's mother has out-of-the-blue been offered "a fabulous new job"... meaning that Ron's moving away! To Norway, no less. In Psycrow's words, "Maximum suckage". Ron finds this development to be "the end of the Possible-Stoppable Team", but Kim assures him that she'll find some way to bring him along for new missions, even though he is being transferred to a different continent. The next day, Ron gets a communicator of his own and Kim references the theme song before providing the sad goodbyes usually featured in Disney movie scenes like this. It's all shippy and all, but the K/R hints of this movie would pale in comparison to the Christmas episode, which aired about one to two weeks after this. There, Kim would shed tears for the first time because she couldn't find Ron anywhere on the planet and later willingly kiss his cheek after finding him. That night, though, Kim is continuously bothered by Ron over her communicator. But then, the movie really gets started when Wade, the computer geek who sits in front of his computer more than I do, calls. Apparently, there's a burglary happening over at the Tri-City Museum and Kim has to stop it, because stopping robberies is what she does best. I've already introduced you to the non-theatrical villains in the other telefilms, so even if you are watching the show, let's take a look at the robbers now, in the order that the movie introduces them. Monkey Fist is a weird man who had been mutated to have monkey appendages, thanks to a certain other villain who isn't in this movie. The species he's nicknamed after happens to be one of Ron's fears, but that has nothing to do with the movie. Duff Killigan is, well, an evil Scottish golfer. I could basically summarize him as what the animated version of Flintheart Glomgold would've been like if he was human and liked to play golf. Dr. Drakken (or Drew Lipsky, as his dormmates called him) is pretty much the show's main villain, because he appears in more episodes than the others. Believe it or not, he has a secret past with Kim's dad, but that was revealed much earlier on in the series...and that episode is available on the so-called "Secret Files" video released two and a half months before this film aired. They never did reveal why his skin turned blue, but he wouldn't be anywhere without his sidekick. Shego, Drakken's accomplice in nearly all of his schemes, seems to be the Disney Villain Sidekick that everyone wants as the top dog of Disney Villain Sidekicks, because she clearly seems more nefarious than Drakken himself. The description on the DVD case seems to agree with that, labeling her as the leader of the group o' evil. She also sounds like Mira Nova from "Buzz Lightyear of Star Command". How Shego came around goes unexplained in the whole series, nor do we know how she relates to Drakken. So what exactly are the bad guys after, you ask? Some sort of monkey-thingy, apparently. But it must be important if they can get a 66-minute movie out of them stealing it. Remember the Blue Monkey that the Acme Chairman was after in "Looney Tunes: Back in Action"? This statue looks just like it, except it's missing the jewel and a head. And I doubt it turns whoever is shot by its ray into their pre-evolved forms. I bet it's some sort of time machine, because, hey, the movie's titled "A Sitch In Time"! To summarize the fight, the baddies trap Kim in a mummy casket and make off with the pseudo-Blue Monkey, about eight hours before "her goofy sidekick" flies in from Norway. Right after Ron mistakes Kim for a mummy, the curator whines about the theft and explains that what the bad guys were after was the Tempus Simia Idol. And that was just the bottom half they stole; the head is elsewhere on the globe. So now, Kim has a new adventure to go through. And not just any adventure, but an extended one! Tell me--what makes Diego Vega think that TV Animation movies like this only water down the Disney brand? Get your head checked, Vega--not everyone likes Disney just for the Feature Animation films! After a scene where Wade agrees to help KP find the crooks, we cut to Drakken-tachi in their Jet O' Evil. For some reason, all the male villains can't take their eyes off of the Tempus Simia. It's because they're expecting something to happen with it right now, but first they have to find the head. They get into an argument over the fact that Drakken has such small hands when the Tempus Simia suddenly claps, meaning that they're close to the head now. Back in Middleton, filler character Monique attempts to fill in the void Ron left. That's when Wade calls up and says that he's tracked the villainous quartet down to Australia. Kim puts Ron on the line and invites him to join her on the mission, event though she knows that he'll be late, so she talks Monique into coming along. Monique isn't very keen on it and Kim has to deploy her patented Puppy Dog Pout. Is it effective? Yes. Can it top Huey, Dewey & Louie's "Plan B" routine? Probably not, judging from how I used both of them in the King Koopa Katastrophe Spoof. Soon, in Australia, they find themselves taking sailing skateboards in order to find the baddies, with Monique still attempting Ron imitations. Up ahead, Drakken, Monkey, and Killigan find the cave that they're looking for. But they argue so much over who gets to open the door and who gets to go in first that Kim could've easily gotten the Tempus Simia head away from them. The problem is...Shego shows up at the right time, just as Drakken wonders why this newbie has come in place of Kim's buffoon boyfriend. A big fight ensues, during which Monique does absolutely nothing to help. Monkey Fist manages to get the Tempus Simia head and the bad guys make off with it. Ron shows up late again. But the dirty deed ain't done yet. The bad guys' next stop is a Tempus Simia Temple where they have to put the head on the monkey. After Kim tells him about it, Ron swears not to be late this time. And he's right. He makes it, despite some difficulties with skiing, camels and elephants. Inside the temple, Drakken and Killigan play Paper, Scissors, Rock as they wait for high noon, when they have to attach the head. Then the three weirdoes argue over which of them gets to put the head on, with Shego trying to work it out. But before they can get their deed over with, Kim and Ron show up. 'Nother big fight ensues, during which we can hear "Get Up on Ya Feet" by Aaron Carter blaring from out of nowhere, though it seems more like an unfair football game. During this scuffle, Ron toys with Shego with this line: "Y'know, in this light, you're kinda cute." I hope that was an insult! But it eventually ends with Monkey Fist attaching the Tempus Simia together, opening a portal that he and the other villains escape through, during which Drakken taunts that "we'll meet again...in time!" Aw, nuts. But then again, if Kim won this time, this would've just been a regular episode, right? Part 2: "Past" That night, Ron feels that maybe Kim's missions would be better off if he didn't come along helping. That's when Kim suddenly looks in the Latin language guidebook (she has a test for that coming up) and discovers that "Tempus" is Latin for "Time" and "Simia" is Latin for "Monkey". Meaning that "Tempus Simia" means "Time Monkey", as it was advertised on the DVD description! Just when Drakken's taunt makes sense now, Kim suddenly turns around to see... Rufus 3000! It's not that certain KP fan over at Middleton Mania, but rather that fan's nicknamesake--a buffed-up, talking descendant of Rufus, Ron's pet naked mole rat. Rufus 3000 is here to discuss the fate of the world and he shows it by opening up a time portal and commanding Kim to step through it. I don't know if I'd take orders from someone smaller than myself, but then again, he has a deep voice like Mufasa's and he can get away with things like that! As Kim sees in the future, Drakken apparently took over the world and everyone's dressed like Shego. Rufus 3000 believes that "the Supreme One" (who would seem to be Drakken) had used the Time Monkey to tamper with Kim's past. In order to save the world this time, Kim is presented a wristband that allows her to time-travel. I wish I had a time-travel wristband--then I could probably go back in time and prevent Jetix from ever polluting Toon Disney! And do all kinds of good things! Basically, if I had a time-travel wristband, I could do all kinds of things to appease myself. Meanwhile, at Drakken's Evil Fortress of Evilness, the bad guys are wondering what plan they could do with the Time Monkey. Drakken announces that they will go back in time to when Kim will be most vulnerable...when she was in pre-school! But to make their disastrous change in the flow of time, they have to go undercover, using a "Juvenator" that turns them into pre-kindergarteners. It seems that the character designers have forgotten that Drakken hasn't always had blue skin. With their heights shortened and their voices high-pitched, the three stooges head back to that fateful day and begin to make their evil changes of evilness. Over in Norway, Ron is reminiscing his memories of Kim when a paradox occurs and the miniature versions of the three baddies suddenly appear in the pre-kindergarten photo! In the past, the evil guys are making monkeys of themselves in the classroom, all the while trying to crush young Kim's spirits. Not far away, Shego watches the pre-schoolhouse, irritated with the fact that her so-called "evil henchmen" are taking their sweet time in crushing spirits when Kim (the current one) shows up behind her. As they start one of their usual dogfights, over in the schoolhouse, the villains-turned-kiddies continue to annoy pre-K Kim when they're suddenly shouted at by a voice that can please even Ma Beagle. That voice belongs to pre-K Ron...and he's an even young cuter Disney character than Bubba the Cave Duck! The bad guys aren't as pleased with him as I am, though, so they gang up on him, prompting pre-K Kim to start kicking their butts. Girls have to stick up for their men, you know, even as toddlers. Ha! You never saw Snow White doing anything like this! The three baddies run off, changing back to normal as they do so, whining that "the little brat" is a savage. Plus, now they have to worry about "the big brat". Chickening out as always, Shego's Barbershop Quartet escapes into another time portal, which results in something you don't see every day on the show--Kim hitting her face on the pavement. After Rufus 3000 reappears to say that he's going to look for Drakken in the time-stream, Kim sits back to watch her younger self befriending young Ron. I've read a fanfic about the pre-school versions of Kim and Ron making love to each other right on the playground and there, all the kids had Elmer Fudd's accent. I swear that I haven't met any four-year-olds who talk like Elmer Fudd. Where have Drakken and his hyenas gone now? According to Drakken, they've now landed in the Middleton of the not-distant past, this time the day that Kim's website came around. I've been to that website. I've e-mailed Kim and teased her about her relationship with Ron, but she never e-mailed me back. Sheesh! At least Brenda responded to me when I e-mailed her! But enough about Brenda. We find the pre-teen Kim and Ron conversing on the phone, with Ron talking about how he can now get a pet. Pre-teen Ron sounds more like his hunky teenage self than the Bubba-esque cutie that we just met in the previous sequence. Kim has just started up her website, which she had originally planned on using for offers for babysitting jobs. I wish I could make a website...for free. Drakken's plan this time is to try and crush Kim's spirits during her first mission, but Fist and Killigan believe it'd make more sense to just crush her...and Shego agrees with them. Fist heads off to unwind while we see the origins of Kim's first mission. Apparently, it involves some billionaire collector whose name I don't care to disclose. That idiot and his servant got stuck in his own laser alarms, so they call up the braces-wearing Kim, who has just made the cheerleading team to the tune of another song on the soundtrack, and to the chagrin of Bonnie Rockwaller, the only non-villain on Kim's "Known Rivals" list. Just then, pre-teen Ron comes running in, alerting his girlfriend (I felt that I needed to say that, 'cause no one else was) that there's a major hit on her webpage. Upon arriving at the Upperton mansion of the unlucky billionaire, young Ron introduces his new pet, Rufus, whom he had named after his imaginary friend in pre-school and who can hack the gates into opening while the instrumental of "The Naked Mole Rap" plays from out of nowhere. But the kids don't know that they've got three of the nastiest beings in the Disneyverse following them. Inside the mansion, young Kim makes her way around the lasers while we hear LMNT's "It's Just You". But then, Monkey Fist returns to greet his teammates and he's brought a souvenir from the past to take Kim out of the picture--The Stone Guardian of Satsuma!! I don't know what a Satsuma is, but this thing's a giant monkey and, as we all know, Ron's scared of monkeys. And doesn't Battle Kat eat those things? Suddenly, the fully-grown Kim drops in, but she's not the only one to have dropped in to inform their younger counterparts that they're their future selves. Shego is grabbed from behind by a future version of herself, who likes wearing green capes, 'cause chicks dig capes. Future Shego wants her past self to grab the Time Monkey when the Stone Guardian guy flops. Why? I dunno, but it better be explained later. At this point, as the other bad guys watch with their popcorn and sodas, Rufus 3000 appears again, this time to drop off Ron, who has forgotten to remove his folk dancing uniform. Fortunately, it's the fully-grown Ron's stupidity involving the laser control that kills off Mr. Stone Guardian. Kim and Ron converse with their younger selves while the bad boys are arrested. Sounds fine and dandy, right? Wrong. Shego escapes into another time portal with the Time Monkey just before Rufus 3000 reappears again. And he's got some explaining to do... Part 3: "Future" It turns out Drakken isn't the "Supreme One" that Rufus 3000 was talking about--Shego is! That explains why everyone in the future was wearing Shego costumes. Since Big Blue Boy, the Human Monkey and Anthro-Golfer-Glomgold are all idiots who can't get along, Shego's the only one smart enough to take over the world herself! No wonder the DVD cover labeled her as the movie's main meanie! And to think, I had Drakken's name come first when I listed him and Shego in my Complete List of Disney Animated Couples! Kim says that she's taking the fight to Shego this time and this time, Ron's coming, no questions asked. At first, Rufus 3000 objects to this, but he eventually agrees to it and off they go into the future, much to the confusion of the pre-teen Kim and Ron watching right now. You remember that "DuckTales" episode where Scrooge got sent to the future and found that Magica DeSpell had taken over his company? Well, this is just like it, only with worse conditions. The Middleton of the future, or rather "Shegoton" as Shego has rechristened it, is full of angry people dressed like Shego who call out for robot drones in order to attack people who aren't dressed like Shego. The pair run for their lives, but eventually Kim destroys the drones. But now they need to blend in with the other doomed citizens. How? They go to Club Shego, for all your Shego costume needs! Now that they've disguised themselves, they need to find Shego. Shego's Evil Fortress of Evilness is chock full of the classics of traps...and Ron seems to be complimenting it--that is, until he discovers that Shego destroyed Bueno Nacho (his favorite restaurant)! But Ron spends so much time shouting threats at the statue of Shego that the orb drones reappear to capture them and take them to the Attitude Adjustment Center, which used to be the high school, and is now fittingly run by Bonnie. Oh yes...and did I mention that Drakken is now forced into the position of Shego's lackey? That's gotta hurt. Just then, while doing a mind scan, Bonnie finds that Kim and Ron aren't exactly willing to be mindless drones. But when she deploys brainwashing thingies, the wall suddenly explodes and look who shows up to the rescue--it's none other than the future counterparts of Kim's problematic little brothers Jim and Tim...and they're accompanied by Rufus 3000 and many naked mole rats! I recognized them immediately, but Rufus 3000 didn't, nor did Kim at first, and when she does, she finds it disturbing that her little brothers are bigger than she is. Says Ron: "Time travel--it's a cornucopia of disturbing concepts". All the heroic characters take a ride in a big blue jet that the Tweebs call "the Kiminator Mark XIII". What about Kim's parents? They have to visit the moon regularly. Where are the good guys going? To North Shegoton (Upperton), where their secret headquarters reside, and Wade's a giant! Where's the future versions of Kim and Ron in all this? Never shown or explained, unless you believe the DVD bonus features, which I'll get to later on. Anyway, to save the world now, the hero characters will need to snatch the Time Monkey away from Shego. They could also destroy it, because it might either snap the time-stream back to normal or destroy the universe. But first, they'll have to get into Shego's fortress. Since it wouldn't work to go on foot or in plane, they have to go in the sewers. Upon arriving inside the fort, the heroes discover that Shego hasn't forgotten about the other villains. Monkey Fist is the first one they run into...and he's got tons of ninja monkeys with him! Fortunately, they have the many Rufuses to take care of the monkeys. But the non-rodent heroes don't get any farther before meeting Duff Killigan, who is now a cyborg with a kilt. Wade and the muscular Tweebs stay behind to fight this one, meaning that Kim and Ron are on their own against Shego. In the next room, they find the Time Monkey just lying around for no reason...or so it would seem. Shego shows up and signals Drakken to come fight them. Seems rather weak, but it really isn't when we discover that Drakken, through diet, exercise and genetic manipulation, has buffed up! Big fights ensue, with Shego making use of the Simpsons lesson "It's better to watch stuff than to do stuff". But this time, Drakken wins the fight and Shego orders to make her suffer. But Kim is then suddenly saved by the sudden appearance of...the future Monique! (Remember her?) Monique begins blasting back at Shego, who falls off of her platform, only to land in Drakken's ever-lovin' arms (or so it may seem). Meanwhile, all the Rufi kick Monkey Fist's sorry a** into the next episode, but all the non-K/R good guys wind up having their butts handed to them by Cyborg Killigan. Up above, Drakken loses his shirt before finally nabbing Kim and Monique. Then Killigan and a disturbed Monkey Fist drag the other good guys in and Shego orders to have them erased from history, but Drakken believes that she should taunt them first. But they didn't see Ron taking off his shirt, so he could sneak over and steal the Time Monkey. (He was hanging on the nose of one of the Shego costumes, see.) That's right--Ron's doing a Strong Bad impersonation! Shego doesn't take kindly to it, though, so she tosses him away and gloats over everyone about her takeover. During which, she mentions that it was she who transferred Ron's mom to Norway, meaning that it was Shego who broke Kim and Ron up!! That b*tch! Ron's also furious with this, so he tears off his shirt again (metaphorically this time) and kicks some evil tushy, eventually ending up destroying the Time Monkey. With the Time Monkey destroyed, the time-stream returns to normal. The movie ends back where it began, but with the whole catastrophe averted. Now, if you're watching the TV version, they're using the standard credits usually used for the show. On the DVD, though, they've got the credits rolling over the last frame as we hear "This Year" by the A*Teens. Possible DVD Features I taped "A Sitch In Time" the very day that it premiered, because I feared that they wouldn't release it on DVD. I guess I had nothing to worry about, because it ended up coming to DVD just a few months later. But I think that they could've done a better job with the special features. Aside from the usual DVD-ROM features on every other Disney DVD, "A Sitch In Time" has mediocre features. We've got a music video of "The Naked Mole Rap", but it's only one of those 90-second advertisements that they show on the Disney Channels. They should've had a full version, since other songs like this get to have their full versions in music video form on other Disney DVDs, like No Secrets' version of "Once Upon a Dream" (which, unlike most Disney fans, I liked very much) on the "Sleeping Beauty" DVD, or that other music video on disc 2 for "The Lion King 1 1/2". And anyway, this "music video" makes me think more of the Cheat-powered music videos at Homestar Runner's Website. The Totally Awesome Tempus Simius Simulation Activity is a waste, although it is the only thing that'll ever show us the official crew's views on what the future Kim and Ron look like. Unfortunately, Adult Kim has an eyepatch and Adult Ron seems to have Homer Simpson's hair problem. Their kids must look good by comparison. And, as always, there's trailers for related material, including "Home on the Range", the video release of "Brother Bear", the highly-anticipated "Mickey, Donald & Goofy in The Three Musketeers" (are those the Beagle Boys in there?), the not-anticipated "Mulan II" and the special edition DVD release of "The Lion King II: Simba's Pride", as well as ads for fellow Disney Channel shows "Lizzie McGuire", "That's So Raven" and the forsaken "W.I.T.C.H." that might be replacing Kim's adventures later this year. I would've preferred that they included audio commentary by the show's creators, Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and voice actors Christy Carlson Romano (Kim) and Will Friedle (Ron), but unless Disney's planning to release the complete series in a DVD set (which they probably never will), it ain't here...and they've left the juicy features on the DVD for "The Secret Files", which isn't even a movie but rather three episodes strung together by new animation. But I wound up buying the DVD anyway, because I figure that if sales do good on this one DVD, it might get the other telefilms to DVD as well. Besides, the movie's featured in widescreen. Widescreen is good. Overall This marks the end of my reviews for animated Disney telefilms, at least until I bring another one into the house. But thankfully, this is going out with a bang, because "Kim Possible: A Sitch In Time" is the best movie I've seen coming from Disney in quite a while. The Home Video department should take my advice and release DVDs of telefilms like this, rather than the unneeded "movies" that are really just reheated material. Trust me, even the sequels are better than those videos full of edited material. On a scale of 1 to 10, Kim Possible's time-travel adventure gets an A+. | ||||
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FilKiFan 19:28:09 Fri Apr 16 2004 Offline 1767 posts Administrator Geek Around Town Mood Now: Post Mood:  Reply |
Haha, that last review was great. I just got the DVD, so it's good for me to see the review before I watch it!
Yeah, the DVD extras were lackluster. | ||||
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Guest [UnRegist 01:50:53 Tue Apr 4 2006 Reply |
I was wondering if you could help me out. I purchased a production cel recently and was told that it is from the 1980's series "Ducktales" starring Scrooge McDuck. This cel features nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie eating lunch in their room. They were not sure what cartoon or dvd it was featured on. I have attached a picture of it. If you think you know it would be greatly appreciated. My email address is LorraineMJensen@aol.com thanks for your time, Lorraine
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