Reviews

The animation and character design is actually pretty good. The story is also somewhat okay. But, the problem is that this movie has a save the rain forest message that interferes with the story. It's not nearly as bad as a Captain Planet episode in that regard, but considering this is a movie, it takes up much of the story. I will say that it is worth a watch. In fact, I had to watch it in my high school Geography class. But there lies the problem, this movie wants to be a PSA or Educational movie, but has fairies, talking animals, and an evil monster villain. It treats humans as the devil. Also, most of what would be a okay story is taken up by obvious save the rain forest propaganda. The propaganda just feels like filler, too. It's not educational, and technically doesn't even count as a PSA.

Pryde of the X-Men is a good show. This pilot, which aired in the 1980s, didn't get picked up for a full fledged series.

The episode starts with a pretty decent theme that reuses footage found later in the episode. Magneto is being transported by the military, when he and an officer has a battle of racism. The White Queen casts an image of the trucks sinking in quicksand, which makes the military freak out. Meanwhile, Kitty Pryde is arriving at the mutant academy. Professor X cast an image of himself to guide Kitty to him. We are introduced to the X-Men and their powers. But, it seems there is an emergency and the X-Men leave Kitty and Professor X to be attacked by the Juggernaut and Magneto. The X-Men arrive to see theit home in ruins and Kitty and Professor X knocked out. Blah Blah blah the X-Men stopped Magneto evil plans, but it seems Nightcrawler must die, only he doesn't.

The episode is very campy. Also Stan Lee stops the episode a few times to give us the exposition and act number. Wolverine is also more grumpy than angry. Kitty is whiny. The story isn't as good as the 90s or 2000s X-Men.

The voice talent is once again all stars. The animation is great. The story is interesting, and the characters aren't totally unlikeable. There are also some redeeming factors to Kitty and Wolverine. Basically, this show is a pretty fun watch.

Coconut Fred's Fruit Salad Island is an overall meh cartoon.

First of all Coconut Fred is a ripoff of Spongebob Squarepants. While ripping off a show doesn't make another bad, Coconut Fred doesn't know anger, pain, suffering, sadness, or worry. This problem compounds itself because Fred has god-like powers. Those who are with Fred make it through the episode fine, and those who don't make it through half dead. Most of the characters fears Fred (even one of his friends). Fred also is the cause of nearly all the shows problems and he is almost always the one who fixes the problems. Fred, like Bubsy, has a catchphrase, "Yay me!" While Fred's catchphrase is never used as much as Bubsy's in a single episode, it is still nonetheless ironic considering he is basically both the god of destruction and god of creation.

Coconut Fred has at least 1 all star voice actor, and the watch isn't terrible. Overall the show's greatest fail is that it is just an average watch. Nothing more. Nothing less.

The Battletoads cartoon pilot, which aired alongside the Bubsy cartoon pilot on Thanksgiving 1993, is pretty decent.

In it 3 trouble making friends, Morgan Ziegler, George Pie, and Dave Shar, are banned from hanging out with each other by their principle. The 3 teens then try to make new friends, however, the other students only find them annoying. Meanwhile, a space princess, Princess Angelica, and her alien bird professor friend, Professor T. Bird, are escaping an evil space queen, known only as the Dark Queen. The 3 trouble making teens end up becoming "intergalactic superheroes (the Battletoads)." The 3 teens end up getting Princess Angelica a job and asking T. Bird to fix a sports car. Princess Angelica gets captured and the heroes save her. The principle sees the heroes hanging out and tells them they are suspended, the teens informs him that they are in fact "intergalactic heroes" which makes the principal think they are insane. The teens transform into their Battletoads form, which the principal takes as them being "evil freaks" and the toads are surprised that they didn't get a better result. The Dark Queen attacks and the Battletoads save the day. When the toads ask if they are still in trouble, the principal says no, and tries to suggest that the idea wasn't his. The principal meets the professor, who mistakes a pen for a teleporter, and sprays the principal in the face with blue ink. Princess Angelica tells the toads they're her heroes and hugs them. The toads high five in a freeze frame with the words "The Beginning..." showing.

The show is heavily inspired by the 1980s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon series (even having its head writer the same). It also uses a lot of surfer lingo and even has a surfer theme. The animation can be a little rubbery and inconsistent at times. The designs of the characters are also slightly off from their video game counterparts. There is also some voice acting that is over done a bit. The show also has some catch phrases that are not the best. Finally, like the Bubsy pilot, even for 1993 parts of the pilot seems a little dated.

That being said there are a lot of good things too. The animation company (Dic) actually has done some pretty notable animation work. A few examples are, most of the Mario cartoons, Captain N: The Game Master, most of the early Sonic cartoons, the Zelda cartoon, and The Real Ghostbusters cartoon. Also the show had some great voice talent. Again, like Bubsy, even though the show has a lot of problems, I still find it enjoyable. Finally, I think the with the new Battletoads (reboot) game announced, that the cartoon series can also be rebooted into something more enjoyable for a wider audience. Overall, I have to say that this cartoon pilot is still good, but slightly worse than the Bubsy pilot.

This pilot, which aired on Thanksgiving 1993 alongside the Battletoads pilot, is very decent.

The Bubsy cartoon pilot starts out with an intro that doesn't use footage found elsewhere in the episode. After the intro, we see Bubsy Bobcat wake up his unwilling sidekick, an armadillo named Arnold, who has a fear of being ran over by a truck (and was having a nightmare about it). Arnold fears Bubsy more than a truck, however. Bubsy's twin niece and nephew, Teresa and Terrence Bobcat, are visiting him for their birthday. They harass Arnold. Bubsy not noticing his friend is scared, turns on the TV to the news, when the anchor is finishing up a story of armadillos being ran over by trucks. This makes Arnold freak out, and he curls into a ball. The twins thinks he wants to play, so they use him as both a basketball and bowling ball. The news goes on to a story about an scientist and his assistant, Virgil Reality and Oblivia, who invented a helmet that can alter reality. Bubsy then says he wants to test the helmet. When asked why, Bubsy gives a speech complete with black and white live action stock footage. However, it seems a female fat cat, named Ally Cassandra, who is the show's main villain, was watching too. She quickly calls for her henchmen, Sid the Vicious Shrew and Bozwell Buzzard, who quickly comes. Ally tells the duo to steal the helmet. Bubsy meanwhile, makes it to Virgil's lab after calling to test the helmet. Oblivia answers the door, and she gets Bubsy's name wrong. Bubsy asks how the helmet works, and Virgil tells him. Bubsy goes on to wish he could fly, which causes him to fall from a great height along with the the rest of the cast. Arnold ends up with the helmet and his fear of trucks takes over. Bubsy grabs the helmet and has everyone (minus Arnold) sent back to the lab. Arnold then crashes through the roof. The twins end up with the helmet and greedily wish for birthday presents. Sid and Bozwell come flying in, only for Sid to get injured instead. Bubsy realizing that the twins must have the helmet, goes outside to look for them. Finding the twins have turned the area into a carnival, Bubsy gives another speech before getting hit and dragged by the coaster car, with Sid and Bozwell already seated in the coaster car. Both Virgil and Oblivia run away. Bozwell and Sid get sick, while Bubsy orders the twins to stop the coaster. The twins follow their uncle's orders, but the Bozwell, Sid, Bubsy, and Arnold fly off. The twins (who made themselves giant with the helmet) step on Bubsy and Arnold. Bubsy scolds the twins, who cry because its their birthday. Bozwell and Sid get the helmet and the twins. Ally now has the helmet, and Bozwell and Sid want to cook the twins. After getting upset, Bubsy cheers up and gets his motivation back. Virgil offers Bubsy a high tech device to track the helmet, but Bubsy opts to look up the villains in the phone book and call them. After out smarting Sid, Bozwell informs Ally of the situation. Ally tells Bozwell and Sid not to answer the door, but Bubsy out smarts Sid again. The helmet gets tossed back and forth, having both dreams and nightmares become reality. Bubsy gets the helmet, but it seems it is about to explode Bubsy, risking his own life as well all the other major characters in the show, he has the villains tied up by using the helmet. Oblivia gets Bubsy's name right. Bubsy gives yet another speech, and puts the helmet back on, but instead of exploding, it electrocutes Bubsy and Arnold ending the episode.

The show does rely on puns, running gags, and stock footage a lot. Also Bubsy's catch phrase is used a lot (it is even the name of the episode). 3 times in the pilot Bubsy gives a speech and with 3 different pieces of stock footage (meaning that there were 9 different pieces of stock footage in the one episode). Oblivia doesn't get Bubsy name right until the end of the episode and her name is a joke (literally). Virgil's name is also a pun. There are some other running gags like a truck gag, Bubsy abusing Arnold, and Sid being abused. The plot is silly too. The pilot is also a little dated, even for 1993. The villains weren't in the original game (the only one out at the time).

But the reason why I ranked it so high is because it is actually still fun to watch (for me at least). I can see that the show wasn't suppose to take itself real seriously. The show has all star voice talents. Also one could argue that the villains from the game (the Woolies) were meant to show up later in the series. Also, at least 1 of the villain designs and 3 of the heroes were used in Bubsy II (and at least another hero on the box art). I feel like, in terms of cartoons, Bubsy could certainly be rebooted into something much better for a wider audience, and with the new Bubsy (reboot) game coming out later this year, that might be a real possibility.