{"id":228496,"date":"2025-05-07T09:26:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-07T09:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/animation\/cartoons-about-cartoons-part-34\/"},"modified":"2025-05-07T09:26:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T09:26:10","slug":"cartoons-about-cartoons-part-34","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=228496","title":{"rendered":"Cartoons About Cartoons (Part 34) |"},"content":{"rendered":"


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With Roger Rabbit\u2019s success, a drastic change took place in the production of animation for both the big and small screen. While a few product-based franchises continued to hang on (such as Transformers, G.I. Joe, etc.), stars new and old began to pop up on the airwaves, having no particular product to push, but existing solely for the sake of their own humor. Producers, convinced that an audience interest in comedy animation was both back and widespread in demographics, began to be willing to dig into their pocketbooks to finance not only productions modeled in storylines from the leads of classic animations or comics of the golden era, but to give then enough of a budget that the confines of \u201climited animation\u201d began to be removed. Increasingly, year after year, posing and fluidity of animation, detail of background work, and overall visual style tended to become better and better, and more expensive \u2013 but producers didn\u2019t seem to care, as the investments were paying off, and the viewers flocked to the sets with renewed interest. It began to seem as though the dividing line between theatrical animation and television animation was breaking down, with the TV product looking more and more like the classic theatricals of the past. And the past certainly was not forgotten, as it seemed that for every new character who appeared, there also seemed to be an old one from the fond memories of our childhoods who would discover new life via a new television setting. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Solid franchises began to be established, particularly from Disney and Warner Brothers, mining the seemingly bottomless stables of characters within their ownership as either potential stars of their own series, or as valuable cameos to spice up episodes of other characters through surprise visits stirring up the brain cells of those of us with long memories of extended supporting casts and one-shot characters of the past. Disney would strike Scrooge\u2019s gold with adaptations of its classic Carl Barks comics and new adventures focusing on Uncle Scrooge and Donald\u2019s Nephews, in the ultra-successful \u201cDuckTales\u201d, then follow up with series vehicles for Chip \u2018n\u2019 Dale, Baloo and the Jungle Book gang, Goofy, and Winnie the Pooh, with still later franchises based upon its short subjects and feature characters \u2013 perhaps culminating in the return of Mickey Mouse and the gang to stardom in \u201cMickey Mouse Works\u201d and \u201cHouse of Mouse\u201d. Warner (and in several instances, Steven Spielberg) countered with open use of the entire cast of Warner short subjects as supporting players in \u201cTiny Toon Adventures\u201d, further discussed below, acquired rights to and re-initiated the franchises of Batman and Superman in a bold and graphic animation style not seen since the days of Max Fleischer, successful revival of Tom and Jerry in classy, nearly full animation and in multiple direct-to-video prestige productions, and further outlets for their characters of old, including numerous nearly-forgotten characters in cameo, in \u201cThe Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries\u201d.<\/p>\n

Even Michigan J. Frog, a character remembered by avid cartoon fans from only a single theatrical appearance in Chuck Jones\u2019 One Froggy Evening<\/em>, would rise to become spokes-character for the WB network. An amazing Renaissance for the industry, which would further spill over into feature production, not so much in use of older characters, but in substantial increase in number of features produced and number of studios producing for the big screen. Eventually, this trend would lead to the establishment of a new category of Oscar presentations in 2002 \u2013 Best Animated Feature \u2013 a category which could not have readily existed in prior years, as there wouldn\u2019t have been enough potential nominees available each year to make it a real contest.<\/p>\n

\"\"We\u2019ll begin this week with a Saturday-morning staple, Invasion of the Big Robots<\/strong> (from Film Roman\u2019s Garfield and Friends<\/em>, 12\/2\/89). A regular anticipated delight of \u201cGarfield and Friends\u201d was a different funny one-liner which Lorenzo Music would provide for each program in voice-over at the end of the opening credits \u2013 much in the manner of the changing Simpsons couch and blackboard gags. Some of these may have been lost to time during the show\u2019s re-syndication, due to their topicality to the show\u2019s original Saturday-morning time slot on CBS. One of these possibly-lost openings had the cat stating, \u201cThe Garfield Guarantee: No giant robots, and no aggravating little blue people\u201d (referring to NBC\u2019s biggest ratings-getter, Peyo\u2019s \u201cThe Smurfs\u201d). Oddly, however, within approximately one season, Garfield would break this guarantee, with an episode that begins with Garfield awakening in his cat box, and rising to saunter over to the kitchen for a snack. He notes something unusually dark and modernistic about the wall decor, and assumes Jon must have been redecorating. Suddenly, a strange voice is heard, and Garfield looks up, to find he is not in the kitchen at all, bit in the cockpit of a space ship, with a captain at the controls who looks like a cross between He-Man and any number of Hanna-Barbera or Marvel action heroes, named Star Wolf. He radios the leader of an alien planet about the impending attack of the Moto-Rods. Garfield realizes, in an attack of shock, that he has somehow awakened in the wrong cartoon. Star Wolf passes him, then stops to observe the strange orange creature with huge eyes. He assumes Garfield is a mutant gnome from the galaxy of Ra, come to spy on him and steal the energy jewel of Wizzig. Garfield attemts to explain that he is only a cat, in search of a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich. \u201cI\u2019ll immobilize him with a polar laser orbitron\u201d, says Star Wolf. \u201cHey! Geez, if you don\u2019t have a BLT, just say so\u201d, says Garfield in an attempt to pacify. But a blast from the hand-held device sends Garfield running. He calls out for any sign of Jon or Odie, then encounters a canine \u2013 but not the one expected. It is a realistically-drawn German Shepherd, wearing a rocket belt around its waist, and snarling fiercely. \u201cYou\u2019re extremely not Odie\u201d, responds Garfield. The cat runs to a launching area where a space capsule rests in wait for takeoff. Garfield slams the door of the capsule in the dog\u2019s face, stunning him. Garfield then spots an assortment of buttons upon a glassy panel framed in lights, which he assumes is a candy machine, to at last provide him with something to eat. Instead, it is the master control for the capsule, through which Garfield inadvertently decodes the launching sequence. Star Wolf assumes the gnome is stealing the \u201cPower Pod\u201d, as the pod capsule blasts off out of a hatch, its destination set for the planet under attack.<\/p>\n

\"\"A trio of giant robots, closely resembling the basic styles of Tranzor Z or Voltron, is laying waste to a city, picking up and smashing tall buildings. Garfield\u2019s Power Pod enters the atmosphere, and makes a link-up as the head unit of the lead robot. (A funny touch is that the link-up is in much less complex fashion than most anime robots, the power pod containing extenders shaped like the connections of a giant electrical plug, which neatly fit into matching socket openings in the robot\u2019s neck.) In a standard anime metallic sound-effect, the robot is energized, and under Garfield\u2019s control. It marches forward, while Garfield shouts for it to stop \u2013 a command picked up through a microphone on the pod\u2019s dashboard. The robot halts, and Garfield realizes who is in command. He issues an order to the other two robots: \u201cStand on one leg.\u201d They obey. Garfield engages in a game of \u201cGarfield says\u201d, and soon has the other robots strutting and clucking like chickens. Producing a pair of drumsticks (not of the chicken variety) from nowhere, Garfield begins hammering-out a tap-dance rhythm upon the buttons of his control panel. The other robots lift a couple of roofs off the tall buildings to don as straw hats, and uproot some lampposts as canes, then perform a tap number that shakes the city buildings and stuns the populace, finishing a chorus of \u201cSwanee River\u201d with an \u201cOff to Buffalo\u201d exit. As for the robot he\u2019s riding, Garfield spots another set of controls inside the pod, indicating that the robot is one of those type that can \u201ctransform\u201d into other things. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>At the press of a few buttons, the robot changes in shape to a vintage 50\u2019s automobile, a giant refrigerator, a gumball machine, and finally a giant parking meter. The time on the meter is apparently set to expire, and the robot\u2019s systems short circuit, causing an explosion. The power pod is blasted from the head of the robot, transporting Garfield into space again, and out of the galaxy. The pod comes to rest on a green, forest-covered world, where Garfield emerges, happy to be rid of the robots. That is, until he sees what he is now surrounded by. An assortment of adorable, fuzzy animals who appear to have stepped out of the frames of Walt Disney\u2019s \u201cBambi\u201d. Garfield is definitely in the wrong cartoon again. A Thumper-look alike informs Garfield, \u201cWe\u2019re the cute creatures of the forest, and we\u2019re going to teach you how to be nice to everyone and never, ever be mean.\u201d \u201cGiant robots! I want the giant robots back!\u201d, shouts Garfield, racing back to the pod, and blasting off for parts unknown. \u201cHey, he\u2019s not so cute\u201d, says the rabbit, as he and the other animals watch the pod rise into the skies. \u201cHow\u2019d he ever get his own show?\u201d<\/p>\n