Reviews

This happens to the the best Sylvester/Sylvester Jr. cartoon short of them all! Myy favorite part was when Sylvester sneaked into the house & hid behind the television. Then he broke into song, singing this silly jingle.

"{{issykins Cat Food tastes real good. Satisfies cats like a cat food should. Hardens their muscles, soften their fur, Pussykins Cat Food makes them purr!" The woman threw Sylvester out in the window!

My other favorite part was when Sylvester loads up the house with mice to earn his keep. Then he wears a superhero outfit as Super Puss to get rid of the mice.. But the mice gets rid of him, his son & the fat woman!

Part of the "Follow The Bouncing Ball" series, the story starts as the sun sets. The owl wakes up, sets his sheet music on the stand as the forest animals perform "Nola" (in the champagne style of Lawrence WElk).

First, a spider who looks has Harpo Marx's face plays the harp, next the caterpillar plays five violins, then the singing frogs (the smallest frog sounding like Popeye, voiced by Jack Mercer), then a skunk playing a xylophone, field mice playing a clarinet, a mother pelican playing bells with her kid on drums, then a giraffe playing turtle shells. Then some bees form a cello, followed by an elephant playing his ivory tusks (piano), then the scarecrow dances with a hay lady. It concludes with a buzzard playing an oboe, with an worm on trombone, followed by a mother kangaroo on flute, with her son playing a sousaphone.

When that number's finished, the owl invites everyone in the audience to sing "By The Light of the Silvery Moon", The cartoon ends with the sun rising & a hen pecked hen getting her rooster to crow! He uses a record player to crow as he goes back to sleep.

I remember seeing this on KTXH-20 when they aired Young People's Specials. The Great American Music VIdeo's a favorite.

A garage band named Passages, had a friend who was their manager. He comes up with an idea to have a music video for MTV, shot at their high school. But each of the band members have their own ideas.

The girl does a video with the football team & marching band, performing "All-American Girl". The punk rock drummer does his own song, complete with a motorcycle gang while the black guitarist performs a reggae tropical number (Reggar Boy). Chaos happens as each band member wrestles for their cameraman's attention.

But they did do a compromise video that made it to MTV.

The cartoon opens with a parade of fruits & vegetables marching along, they are headed to see the Vegetable Vaudevile Revue.

ACT 1: The Crooning Carrot (in reference to a young Frank Sinatra) sings "Let's Get Lost." And to the delight of two Georgia peaches in the balcony box seats, they sigh, "Oh brother!" ACT 2: A corn who's a fire eater, attempts to swallow fire. Then he suddenly pops his kernels off, making his "naked". The audience booes along with a bunch of raspberries, sticking their tongues out at him.

ACT 3: A high diving act that has an green olive dive into a martini glass. He gets up & hiccups. A horseradish, turns into a horse & nays at the act.

ACT 4: The Apple Chorus does a kick dance (ala Rockettes) where they introduce Carmen Banana. She then encourages the audience to sing "Yes, We Have No Bananas." The cartoon ends with the fruits & vegetables doing the conga, with the olive hiccuping at the end.

This is the first Paramount cartoon to use a new opening for its "Follow The Bouncing Ball" series (Sing A Song of Six Pence).

The cartoon parodies the old news reels that were seen in movie theatres before television became popular. You'll find shorts about sports, the economy & news.

In the location of Trs-La, La; it features a singing cowboy singing a Paramount classic "Jimgle Jangle Jingle". Then he encourages the viewers (audience) to sing along.

It's also the only sing along where it's done in a round. The girls sing first & the guys follow (they both meet at "Though I may have done some foolin, this is why I never tell."), then it becomes a round again.

The cartoon closes with a camera focusing on the viewers and a statement that reads, "The eyes, ears, nose and throat of the world." Too bad all the follow the bouncing ball numbers have been deleted forever on the Harveytoon DVD set. But that's copyright for you.

If I have to compare the acting of Jodie Foster & Barbara Harris (the 1977 Freaky Friday) to Fred Savage & Judge Reinhold, the guys would win hands down.

It was cool to see that jam session at Vigar & Avery Dept. store where Charlie (in Marshall's body) played the drums with that rich boy guitarist. Luckily he got out of that when the boss found out it was his favorite customer's son. Also, when Charlie took on those bullies in the bathroom, pretending to be an undercover cop.

Another favorite part was when Fred Savage got to drive that police motorcycle to catch the bad people.

Little did I know that his ex-wife & Charlie's mother would later become a loudmouth, driving 4 boys crazy in the process (Jane Kaczamrek-Malcolm In The Middle).

Overall, one of the best family movies of 1988.

This is one of the best Gimme A Break episodes of the final season. It was very cute that Matthew Lawrence got to play his baby electric guitar & sing with a house band. I thought that kid would have a musical future, but I was wrong (there were some consolation on Brotherly Love & Boy Meets World).

Back when this first aired in 1987, I had no clue whatsoever about this episode. Then 12 years later, looked it up in newspaper microfilm @ the Houston Public Library that when it first aired, KPRC (NBC in Houston) passed on carrying that episode due to a local community special. So a friend of mine mailed me a tape of that episode & it finally took me 12 years to finally see it!

This is the last fun episode, before the last two serious episodes (incliding the series finale).

Most BMW fans think this episode was a waste, but I disagree.

After having a quarrel with Cory, Topanga decides to clean out the closet, where she discovers a time continuum vortex. She gets pulled in and lands in a 1940's café (Rory's Shangri-La) in which it now goes to black and white.

There, Topanga meets the patrons of the café (played by the cast) and tries to remember who she really is.

But Matthew Lawrence (Wee Hawkin Willie, piano player) takes the cake in this episode, when he started singing "This Dame". A friend of mine thought he had a romantic singing voice (which I agree). Bravo, Matt!

Back in 2002 when Matthew Lawrence did The Hot Chick, I also saw Drumline that day. Drumline wins by default! If The Comebcaks had been released in March (as planned) the same time TMNT was released, TMNT would've won by default!

Granted, Matthew Lawrence did a fine job portraying a quarterback. He didn't have to resort to uttering dirty words which is a plus. But when he started playing with his private parts as well as another football players and touching a girl's boob, those were the minuses.

But the biggest minus that ticked me off is that every football player got to participate in the mock music video, except Matthew Lawrence (insert The Price Is Right's losing horns)! Another blown musical opportunity for him, just because he's shy about doing music.

In the past, Matt has disappointed me many times (Super Human Samurai Syber Squad) where he came so close to having a musical moment, but ended up failing.

Sure, Joey had a singing career with two albums to his belt and Andrew's starting a music career of his own. But it's very rare to find a Matt musical moment. The two that stand out would be on Brotherly Love where he played the guitar and sang "Pigeon On Your Car" (Art Atrack), which he wrote by the way, and that romantic Boy Meets World moment when he sang "This Dame" (As Time Goes By).

Matt, you've played jocks too long. Why not make a musical comeback. You have a good voice and I miss your musical side.

I first saw this special when Showtime aired it back in 1986. Why did I miss this when it was featured on NBC? Tom and his family moved from Tampa to New York City so that Pancho (Dad) could work. Unfortunately, he's a proud man that didn't like his brother Jack, give his son a guitar.

Tom meets up with a fellow shoe shiner named Patrick. When he saw Patrick's basement full of band instruments, Tom made up his mind that he wanted music for a career. They finally get an act together when they went to Delaney's Irish Restaurant, touching the heart of the owner and customers, performing "Danny Boy" (aka Londonderry Aire).

Dan Schneider pays homage to "I Love Lucy" on this episode.

After the house gets robbed, Josh tells Drake that they had to get jobs in order to get new furniture. They go to an employment agency where they are offered jobs at a fish assembly line. The name of the place is the Ball & Vance Fish Corp. (in honor of Lucille Ball & Vivian Vance).

Just like the candy factory episode, Drake & Josh have to package 6 pieces of sushi in a box on the assembly line. Not like Lucy & Ethel, they threw the sushi up on the ceiling. before the supervisor comes back. And of course, the supervisor comes in & yells "Speed it up a little!" This episode is nostalgic for fans young & old. Dan Schneider should be saluted for coming up with this story idea!

When it comes to Christmas, there are those who like to collect Santas, nutcrackers & other stuff. Me, I have a collection of 12 Days of Christmas.

I was thrilled when NBC first aired this is 1993, about a knight who wanted to woo the princess. He has the squire snatch her Christmas list, instead he gets the answers to the king's crossword puzzle! Like most Rankin-Bass specials, the narrator doesn't take part. But the partridge does take part in the story ("You thought I was only going to narrate the story").

During the singing of the carol, there were impersonations of famous people (Bob Dylan, Harry Connick Jr., Michael Jackson & Elvis Presley).

Though the correct singing is 9 ladies dancing, 10 lords a leaping, 11 pipers piping & 12 drummers drumming, it got jumbled as 9 drummers drumming, 10 pipers piping, 11 dames a dancing & 12 lords a leaping to have the story make sense.

Most Christmas special fans consider this to be the turkey of Christmas carol specials, I give it a 9!