Reviews

2 Stupid Dogs deserves better than simply being called a Ren and Simpy copy. It is in actuality one of the more original cartoon series of the past twenty years. Visually, as designed by Craig McCracken (of Powerpuff Girls fame), this show introduced a new style which has since been seen on almost every other show produced by Hannah-Barbera and Cartoon Network, such as Dexter's Laboratory and Johnny Bravo. The style harkens back to the simplified sixties, with its modernist architecture and industrial design, its costumes and its UPA inspired characters which contain as few lines as possible and are undoubtedly 2-d. Many of the stories also are throwbacks to the sixties mentality, especially the episode with a suspiciously Brady Bunch looking family (complete with a musical number), and the middle cartoon Super Secret Secret Squirrel, which is a wonderful parody of all those sixties secret agent movies and tv shows (Man from UNCLE, the Prisoner, James Bond, Our Man Flint, The Avengers, etc). This show deserves to be mentioned as being as important and influential a cartoon as DuckTales, Tiny Toon Adventures, Batman:The Animated Series, and, yes, Ren and Stimpy. It deserves a closer look!

This most recent little girl film is not quite as good as its predecessor, the brilliant Matilda and the daring and energetic Harriet the Spy, but it is still an excellent, quality film which deserved more response than it generated.

This film is one of the most original visions ever produced, sort of a demented Joe Dante fever at work. This is the type of film that should be lovingly fostered and encouraged. I guarantee that there's not quite another film out there like this one. A must-see.