- ROCKY AND BULLWINKLE & FRIENDS-SEASON 1 (DVD MOVIE)
Bullwinkle J. Moose has the world's largest collection of box tops, which makes him the prime suspect when someone starts redeeming counterfeit box tops for goodies in the stores.Rocky is a squirrel and Bullwinkle is a moose and they live off the money from repeats of their cartoon show. They team up with an FBI agent to stop the evil plans of baddies Boris and Natasha led by Fearless Leader who are planning to take over the world. This captivating adventure story is a film with a mix of animation and live action starring Robert DeNiro as Fearless Leader.ADVENTURES OF ROCKY AND BULLWINKLE - DVD MovieThe problem with live-action movies based on beloved cartoon characters is that humans are never as flexible, as unpredictable, or just plain as goofy as their animated counterparts. So it is with this blend of animation and live action. Rocky ! and Bullwinkle remain animated characters (trapped in our reality), while Boris and Natasha (Jason Alexander and Rene Russo), along with their boss, Fearless Leader (Robert De Niro), are transformed from cartoons to human reproductions when they escape from rerun land. They've come to our world to take it over; the FBI springs Rocky and Bullwinkle from the second dimension to stop them. But the writing in Kenneth Lonergan's script lacks the throw-away flair of the jokes that characterized Jay Ward's much-beloved animated series of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Part of the problem is that Russo, Alexander, and De Niro are so obviously working at acting cartoonish, instead of simply being cartoons. And part is that the script rarely comes up with the kind of wonderful wordplay in which Ward specialized. The moose, as usual, gets all the best lines, but they're too few and far between to salvage this underachieving summer film.
--Marshall FineMost of the tape is dev! oted to the misadventures of that sterling hero, Dudley Do-Ri! ght of t he RCMP. In one cartoon, Dudley, Snidely Whiplash, Nell, and Inspector Fenwick succumb to the show-biz bug and form a vaudeville act. Even funnier is Snidely confessing to having "a thing" about tying ladies to railroad tracks. He's ready to give himself up, but Nell defends him in a courtroom performance that Portia might envy. Rounding out the program is a visit to the first Mountie by Sherman and Mr. Peabody, Aesop and Son's retelling of "The Hound and the Wolf," and the Fractured Fairy Tale of "The Frog Prince." Rocky and Bullwinkle make only cameo appearances in this collection that includes Mr. Know-It-All explaining how to be a stuntman--er, moose. Also, Bullwinkle enacts "Simple Simon" with Boris as the pie man, but the nursery rhyme quickly degenerates into a variation on Abbot and Costello's "Who's on First" routine. The Jay Ward cartoons are always fun to watch, but at 39 minutes, this tape seems a bit brief. Fans who watch credits may not realize tha! t executive producer "Ponsonby Britt" never existed: Ward and Bill Scott needed one at some point, so they made him up.
--Charles SolomonWatch out American television viewers! Rocky and Bullwinkle do battle against Boris Badenov's band of TV antennae-eating rodents. Full color.Whether you're indulging in nostalgia for the cartoons of your youth or introducing your kids to Rocky & Bullwinkle for the first time, Volume 1 of the famous moose and squirrel's animated adventures is a sublime example of irreverent family entertainment. (It's been rated "Fun-E: Viewer Discretion Unnecessary.") The classic creations of Jay Ward Productions, Rocky & Bullwinkle packed more punch lines into a one-hour show than most cartoons manage in seven minutes, and this video leaps from the starting gate with a typically loony escapade. The snidely villains Boris and Natasha are scheming to retrieve "the Treasure of Monte Zoom" from the bottom of Lake Sal-de-Bain by pulling the plug on ! the lake's drainpipe! It's up to Rocky & Bullwinkle to arrive ! in ("Ta- da!") the nick of time--but not before the furry heroes (and the great narrator Paul Frees) serve up a barrage of vaudevillian wordplay that's as clever as it is ludicrous. (One of the show's great strengths was its self-deprecating humor; the writers knew how silly they were being, and were clearly having the time of their lives.)
Also included: Using the "Wayback Machine," Mr. Peabody and Sherman pay a visit to Robinson Crusoe, circa 1686; Bullwinkle tries his hand at poetry, and as "Mr. Know-It-All" provides instruction on how to sneak into movies; a classic segment of "Fractured Fairy Tales" (narrated by the great character actor Edward Everett Horton); and an episode of "Dudley Do-Right" in which Snidely Whiplash masterminds an ill-fated fur-smuggling scheme.
The animation is impossibly crude, but it hardly matters: The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle are best enjoyed for the one-liners and throwaway gags that are likely to entertain grown-ups even more t! han kids. The Marx Brothers would be hard pressed to deliver this much goofy fun. --Jeff ShannonNow here's something you don't see everyday, Chauncey. It's the complete first season of one of television's smartest, savviest, and most subversively funny animated series, ranked by TV Guide as one of the top 50 series of all time. Like the animators at Warner Bros.' Termite Terrace (birthplace of Porky, Daffy, and Bugs), producer Jay Ward, his partner Bill Scott (the voice of Bullwinkle), and the cracked writing staff did not write down to children. The dialogue is witty and sharply satiric. Characters break the "fourth wall" between the screen and the audience. They make sly references to the show's creators and the television network. They hurl barbs of mass destruction at Washington, D.C. politicians. And then there are the godawful puns. This four-disc set contains the series' first two serial adventures. "Jet Fuel Formula" is a cold war-era blast, as Rocky! (voiced by June Foray, the Queen of Cartoons) and Bullwinkle ! frantica lly race to re-create a rocket fuel recipe (actually Grandma Bullwinkle's recipe for mooseberry fudge cake), while being menaced by those no-goodniks Boris Badenov and femme fatale Natasha. "Box Top Robbery" reveals that the basis for the world's economy is not gold and silver, but cereal box tops.
Linking these cliffhanging episodes are such hilarious segments as "Fractured Fairy Tales," which upend familiar storybook favorites (Red Riding Hood, for example, is a predatory fur merchant after the unwitting wolf), "Mr. Peabody," the canine genius who travels through time in the company of his boy, Sherman, and forthright Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties, who must contend with his own horse for the affections of sweet Nell. Bullwinkle gets extra credits as Mr. Know-It-All and as the host of Poetry Corner. And watch him pull a rabbit out of his hat! These cartoons are as fresh and funny as when they first aired more than four decades ago. Boomer-era adults will be amazed at! the jokes that no doubt soared over their heads as children. --Donald Liebenson
0 comments: