Rugrats - "Pickles vs. Pickles"

And now, for my Mom out there, I'm going to review one of here favorite episodes during the third season, "Pickles vs. Pickles." Another Angelica related episode. Let's see if I can give her a positive review on this.

After having some dinner problems with her parents, Angelica decides to "sue" her parents With hiring F. Lee Barnum, voiced by Neil Ross, and even recording everything Charlotte, even mocking her line "We've tried to reason what you, but you wouldn't listen." This goes so far that Charlotte and Drew go visit their lawyer, Mr. Hershowitz, voiced by Dan Castellaneta. He highly suggests to settle the matter out of court. After hearing a ridiculously long list of demands from Angelica that her lawyer faxed to Mr. Hershowitz, they decide to just go for court.

This episode is pretty dark and funny at the same time. One minute it goes serious, and then one minute later, it gets so dramatic you can't even ignore it. I especially like Charlotte's funny quotes towards Mr. Barnum, and even Angelica using Cynthia and a toy Zebra as her witnesses, and even goes to the point of being a copycat in front of Mr. Hershowitz. The funny thing about this episode is that Tommy is not in this episode, but, on the other hand, while I do kind of speculate on what Tommy would've done in that particular episode, I'll just have to say, yeah, he really wasn't needed.

So, have we reached the verdict? Guilty or not guilty? NOT GUILTY! I here by sentence this episode to be recommended to anyone who ever loves episodes that show us court scenes. Plus, I like the ending where Angelica tells the audience, works every time.

Did I mention that Paul Germain and Jonathan Greenberg wrote this? It kind of reminds me of the Garfield and Friends episode, "The Kitten and the Council." And yes, I will review that episode at one point, but not right away.

Gullah Gullah Island - "The Binyah Binyah Polliwog Show"

Now, I'm going to review an episode of a certain show that aired on Nick Jr. from 1994 to at least 1999, if you count the reruns. That of course being "Gullah Gullah Island." This is an interesting episode because portions of this episode are featured on a certain video produced by Lyrick Studios and the Character Counts Coalition. That of course being

Kids for Character, which also starred Tom Selleck, The Puzzle Place, Barney the Dinosaur, Lily Tomlin of The Magic School Bus, Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop, and Babar. Clips from this episode are featured during the "Caring" segment, except, they were edited pretty badly, why couldn't they show the complete episode? I still like Eddie Coker though. Anyway, let's begin the review.

The story has Binyah Binyah getting into a few accidents. For example, he accidentally knocks down the clubhouse that James, Ron, and the kids were building out of blocks. Once that's been forgiven, they play a game of limbo with a broomstick, when suddenly, it goes too low that Binyah Binyah eventually breaks the broomstick.....IN HALF! (insert Supermariologoan reference here) James gets so frustrated and angry that he tells Binyah Binyah to take a time out far, far away! Poor polliwog never stood a chance. But anyways, moments later, Natalie tries to help James remember the good times he's had with Binyah Binyah, as well as experience a flashback where he and his friends first met Binyah Binyah. When James finally decides to forgive Binyah Binyah, it doesn't help that the polliwog is gone missing! Will James be able to forgive Binyah Binyah? Stay tuned to find out!

I was curious about this particular episode, so, I had to look up the full episode myself. And I'm going to lay down some of the stuff Kids for Character cut out right now. They cut out the theme song, the opening where they build the clubhouse, they cut the two verses of "Underneath the Broomstick," and they cut the part where Shaina and Ron meet up with Ranger Mike, THEY CUT THE RANGER MIKE SEGMENT FOR PETE SAKE! And they cut James remembering the time he first met Binyah Binyah, and they also cut off the song all about Binyah Binyah Polliwog, as well as Natalie's closing message. So, the only way to really see this thing is uncut on iTunes, Amazon Prime use to have this, but not anymore. And don't bother buying the made-on-demand DVD of the first season that includes this episode because it's difficult to play on your computer.

Okay, enough complaining about the edits, let's talk about what I do like about the episode. It's educational, it had some good laughs, and it had a good moral, sometimes we all make mistakes or do these wrong, and we feel embarrassed or sad when somebody scolds us. But that's no reason to run away. Just because someone's angry at you doesn't mean they don't love you, believe me, love is a lot stronger than anger, and when the anger goes away, the love will still be there. This is a good moral that taught us all about caring and forgiveness, kind of like how "God Wants Me to Forgive Them?!?" did. And it has a nice song called "Friends and Family."

Go ahead and watch this episode on iTunes, you can also find the two songs "Underneath the Broomstick," and "Friends and Family" on the 1995 VHS tape, "Binyah's Surprise." Watch it if you run across it.

Allegra's Window - "When is Reed Coming Home?"

I'm pretty sure a lot of you don't remember Allegra's Window, but it was a good show. It centered around a little girl named Allegra who witnesses what goes on in the world around her in Hummingbird Alley. Now, with that out of the way, let's review one of my favorite episodes, "When is Reed Coming Home?" And no, that's not a question, that's the title of the episode.

The plot of the story is that Reed, played by Bob Stillman, has to go on a business trip, and Lindi isn't sure about when he'll be coming home, Reed assures her that he'll be back late tonight after she and her friends have gone asleep, followed by a nice song written by Jeff Kindley called "He Has to Go Away, He'll Be Back Soon." Meanwhile, Riff constantly listens to music, unaware of what's going on. When he stops at Reed's for some tuna tiddly-widdlies, he notices that Reed has already left, leaving him to believe that Reed had moved out of Hummingbird Alley. But his friends reassure him that Reed loves both him and Lindi, and after all, he is his number one alley cat.

The episode is pretty good, it's cute, and has a lot of good musical numbers. Especially the one with the birds singing about how their mother bird who had left them to find them worms, and even Riff himself had a good number that was written by theme song writer, Barry Harman, called "He's Gone!" where he laments about Reed leaving despite the fact that he would eventually return. Fun facts I should mention is that Martin P. Robinson, the voice of Riff, also served as Muppet coordinator for the show, and Emily Squires, a veteran Sesame Street director, directed this episode, heck even Dick Weiss, who was the lighting director for several Nickelodeon shows that were taped in Florida, also served as one of the many lighting directors for Sesame Street during the 80's. It's like Nick Jr.'s own version of Sesame Street if you ask me. Another factoid I should mention is that Jim Jinkins, the creator of Doug, served as one of the creators of the shows, Allegra's Window aired after Nickelodeon's version of Doug ended, so, it was possible for him to work on both shows.

So, bottom line, this was a cute show, too bad it never had a DVD release, mostly due the fact that Cartoon Pizza (formerly known as Jumbo Pictures) closed operations, it's also because of the fact that Disney acquired Jumbo Pictures, much to the execs at Nick's chagrin. So, there's no chance of there being a DVD release any time soon. And even if it did, it would be from Amazon's Creative Space Made on Demand stuff, and you know how much I had those kinds of DVDs, it's hard for you to play them on your computer. All I can say is go watch it on Kimcartoon or at least buy the first season on iTunes.

Well, that's all the time I have today, good night.

The Magic School Bus Gets Lost in Space

Now, I'm going to review an episode from the award-winning animated television series, The Magic School Bus, starring the voice of Lily Tomlin as Miss Valerie Frizzle. Today, I'm reviewing my favorite episode of the show, which is also the first episode of the series, "The Magic School Bus Gets Lost in Space."

The plot of this story is that Arnold's know-it-all cousin, Janet comes to visit their school. And Miss Frizzle decides to take the class on a 3, 2, 1, field trip! No big shock there. When the space museum is closed, Arnold proves to Janet that nobody is better than Miss Frizzle by asking her to send him and their friends into Outer Space as their field trip, And that's exactly what she did, and Janet remarks "Highly unusual." Most of the episode is them traveling to other planets and Janet finding stuff from those planets to prove she was in outer space, heck, she even goes to far as to make Arnold do the chores for her, this is overkill and then some. It wasn't until the asteroid Janet was trying to bring back accidentally sends Miss Frizzle and Liz flying, and so, the rest of the cast, with the help of Janet's know-it-all experience, figure out where she is by passing Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, and finally, Pluto, where the Frizzle is. But. enough of that, what do I think of the episode?

This episode is great! It taught us a lot of outer space stuff, like the nine planets in particular, not counting the sun, It's educational, funny, and interesting at the same time. The highlight of the episode has to be the part where while on Mars, Miss Frizzle and her class jump off the top of the ice cliff shouting "ICE CREAM!" and landing into the red dust, no wonder why it was called a red planet, and Ralphie mistaking Arnold's silhouette for an alien. If you ask me, I think most of the humor comes from Ralphie and Carlos, whom for some reason didn't get called out for his lame puns like Meteor-wrong.

Interesting fact I should mention is that in the original PBS broadcasts of the Magic School Bus, the show usually ends with the Producer, voiced by Malcolm-Jamal Warner, getting phone calls from fans about the show. These segments were both funny and interesting. Unfortunately, when Scholastic sold this show off to syndication rights, when the show reran on TLC and Qubo, they cut off the Producer segments, to make way for commercial breaks, THEY CUT THE PRODUCER SEGMENTS FOR PETE SAKE! So, the only way to really see them uncut are on DVD, if you have the complete series of The Magic School Bus on Newvideo, you can watch those segments any time you want. This segment had an alien calling about the pile of litter on Pluto.

Okay, final thought, this episode is a whole lot of fun. It's exciting, weird, funny, educational, visually interesting, and has a lot of fun traveling in outer space and giving the kids an adventure. Being someone who's interested in space, I should know. You can watch the episode on Video and DVD any time you want. One more thing I forgot to mention is that this show was actually animated by Nelvana up in Canada. Isn't that ironic? Nelvana producing an American project with American voice actors, I guess it makes sense since Susan Blu, the show's voice director is from America and all that sort of stuff, and Erica Luttrell, the voice of Keesha, would later go on to do voices in America for shows like Dave the Barbarian as Candy as well as Steven Universe.

Okay so, oh, THAT'S THE END!

Camp Harmony

And now, here's another Donut Man review, this time, it's....

Camp Harmony! This is another favorite Donut Man video, the second favorite, the first being The Donut All-Stars, since my Mom liked my review for the Donut All-Stars, I decided to review another Donut Man video.

The plot of this video is that The Donut Man (Rob Evans) takes Duncan (Steve Axtell), and the kids (otherwise known as the Donut Repair Club) camping at Camp Harmony, where they're their to not just camp but also make friends, and live in harmony, but Matt Taylor on the other hand, doesn't seem to be having a good time and he'd rather spend a regular camping trip, and so, without them noticing, Matt goes off exploring by himself, but that gets him into trouble near the pool where there's no lifeguard on duty, and so, Abbi and her friend Duncan come in and save the day. In my opinion, the Matt Taylor focused videos were the best Donut Man videos out there. Matt even forgets about what happened simply by learning that it's okay to still be their friends, and that exploring all alone was a foolish thing to do. Oh, and did I mention that he can't swim, and that he was standing on the diving board? Isn't that like a person with Vertigo trying to relax on top of the Empire State Building? But I digress. What else? Oh yeah.

The highlights of the video are not just the part where Duncan and Abbi save Matt from drowning, but also the songs as well, my personal favorite is the song that Rob Evans wrote himself with Roger Thrower called "Wonderful Saving Love," complete with Steve Axtell's puppets from Axtell Expressions, including Fireman Floyd, Willie (the boy sinking in the water), and Lifeguard Louie, as seen in this picture. This song really has a nice mix of Rock and Roll with a touch of Big Band attached to it, whoever thought Rob Evans could sing Rock and Roll?

My other favorite song in the entire video was The Donut Man's version of Daniel and the Lions' Den, complete with using Steve Axtell's lion puppet from The Donut All-Stars. The song has a nice rhythm and a nice saxophone playing in the background, and if I didn't know better, Rob Evans did the puppetry on the lion. I'm not sure if Rob Evans ever saw the VeggieTales adaptation of Daniel and the Lions' Den, heck, I'm not sure if he ever saw VeggieTales, but I'm pretty sure the VeggieTales' own version of Daniel and the Lions' Den better because the Wisemen were never thrown into the lions' den for breakfast, except, they escaped to Egypt. I'm not sure if whether or not The Donut Man made the part of the Wisemen being eaten all up up or if it was in the original bible story, but I digress.

All in all, this video is a stroke of genius, pure pure genius. Take a mix of biblical values, with puppets and costumes, great songs, and a rare actress like Martha Doggett playing the potter, and you've got yourself a perfect video all about camping and being friends with one another. I must say, Matt had to learn it the hard way. Also, much like The Donut All-Stars, this video also features Pia Manalo, the actress who played Min in the Barney the Dinosaur series. Hmm, I'm going to go ahead and blame the Texas Illuminati on this one.



To learn more about The Donut Man, visit the website.

http://www.donutman.streamlinenettrial.co.uk/

Also, to learn more about Steve Actell's puppets, click here:

http://www.axtell.com/

Or how about this page if you wanna learn more about the Laughing Louie puppet.

http://www.axtell.com/louie.html (all I can say is, don't buy it, it's too expensive.)

If you want to watch the Camp Harmony video, click here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCRjNhhuzcI

VeggieTales on TV - "The Gourds Must Be Crazy"

I know it seems unfair for me to talk about a TV airing of a VeggieTales story, but I thought I'd do it anyway because it's rather interesting. You see, since the third season of the TV adaptation never aired on NBC and moved to COZI-TV, I've noticed according to some fans that the house segments have gotten a little lazy, and while it is true, I can see they were clearly TRYING!

Let's start with the House segments. Mr. Lunt as Paco comes over to Bob's house to inform him that Jimmy Gourd doesn't have a letter for them today. And so, to help them get on with the show, he tells Bob and Larry to show them a story about loving their neighbors. So, that's what they did. Let's go in order shall we.

"THE GOURDS MUST BE CRAZY"

The story was originally from "Are You My Neighbor?" The plot of the episode is that Junior Asparagus is not sure if whether or not he should invite the new kid Fernando to his birthday party. And while his dad leaves him alone to think about it, Bob and Larry come into the house in their small spaceship, with an exciting and dangerous mission! The thing is the U.S.S. Applepies is about get smashed by a giant popcorn, and a much bigger problem is that the spaceship's electricity is not working! So, Junior comes on board and comes across three new characters, Scooter and Jimmy and Jerry Gourd. Jimmy Gourd teaches Junior that differences can be good if we just take the time to know each other, which, it's pretty much a true fact. And when Junior overhears Jimmy say "Sometimes I can eat a WHOLE PLANET!" this gives Jimmy and Jerry the opportunity to help save the U.S.S. Applepies, and how do they stop the popcorn ball meteor? By EATING IT! What a triumph. The episode also has a nice song, "I Can Be Your Friend," teaching us about being friends with everybody. This episode also served as a clever parody to Star Trek. The only things missing were William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy references.

But, that's not where the show ends, there's more.

"THE FORGIVE-O-MATIC"

Apparently, there was plenty of time left, considering that the story was only about 11 minutes long. So, what to do? Add in two more segments. This one is from the second show, "God Wants Me to Forgive Them?!?" where Scallion #1 presents to the viewers the Ronco Forgive-O-Matic that slices dices and erases your sins away. Junior comes up to the stage and corrects him that they don't need a Forgive-O-Matic to be forgiven, and that if we ask got to forgive us, then we can all be forgiven. So, Scallion #1 changes his commercial to making the machine into a french fry maker. Now, I wish I had something like that. And then, Scallion #1 presents a chia Forgive-O-Matic. The one thing that baffles me is the fact that they cut the George Burns "Good night, Gracie" gag, THEY CUT THE GOOD NIGHT, GRACIE GAG FOR PETE SAKE!

Whew. Okay, calm down, keep it together. One more to go.

"HIS CHEESEBURGER"

The final segment is one from "Madame Blueberry." Except, this time, instead of the reason being the Song of the Cebu incident since it never aired on the syndicated series, it was The Blues with Larry incident from the Dave and the Giant Pickle TV airing. While I'm not that fond of the Madame Blueberry episode, this song was one of the only few things that was remotely entertaining about the episode. What I did like for the TV airing of His Cheeseburger is that they cut out the part where Archibald says that Silly Songs is canceled until further notice. Instead, it cuts to the song immediately after Larry says "So what are you saying? Which was pretty clever, making the audience believe they're just going under a little hiatus from Silly Songs. Still the song is pretty good, My mom loves this song. Almost as much as Mr. Lunt loves his song.

The ending segment has Bob explain to the viewers that they should show everyone the same love we want them to show us. And Larry asks if Mr. Lunt loving that cheeseburger was okay then, and Bob replies that it was a funny kind of love but good.

That part was where it was true that they've gotten lazy here, because they didn't bother animating a few new things or anything. But at least they did their best for the characters to lip sync to the new lines.

All I can say is even though the Bob's House segments are rather lazy, please, at least check the episode out, it really is worth your time.

Here's the links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulyimHzt6YM (Part 1)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdLYiQq2ZzM (Part 2, complete with the cheeseburger song)