Reviews

Bless the Harts is just a lackluster way for Fox to fill the King of the Hill-shaped hole they left in their schedule a decade beforehand.

Duncanville and The Great North are superior to this show in every way. The jokes are actually funny, the writing makes sense, and the character designs don't look horrible. This is just the poor man's King of the Hill.

As an art form, animation never gets any respect and is always treated as inferior to live-action.

This year's Oscars was a particularly horrid offender. These writers threw in jokes about how animation is stuff that only children enjoy, while parents merely endure it. We've known for years that the Academy has an anti-animation bias, but here, they stooped to a new low. The fact that the people saying these lines played the princesses in the live-action Disney remakes (all of which were bastardizations of the original animated versions) is what really made it insulting.

Phil Lord (co-director of The LEGO Movie) called the Oscars out on its bull, and for good reason.

"Daffy Flies North" is far from Daffy's best outing, but it's not his worst either. The cartoon is pretty cheaply animated, it overuses Hanna-Barbera sound effects, and the music is unimpressive, but the main problem with it is the slow pacing, which makes the short feel like it's twice as long as it actually is.

It's better than most of his pairings with Speedy, but those cartoons set the bar so low that it doesn't say much. Nothing about it is offensively bad, but it's hardly entertaining either. It's just another one of the mediocre post-Golden Age Looney Tunes shorts. It's just... there.

The Looney Tunes Show may have the seemingly questionable premise of transplanting the cast into a sitcom.... but it was managed wonderfully. The show gets too much unfair flack from people unable to adapt to change, when it is actually the most unique Looney Tunes series.

There have been other Looney Tunes cartoons that change the tone, such as a mediocre preschool cartoon and an absolutely dreadful action cartoon. However, WB finally managed to nail it here.

For all of the changes to the characters, they are still recognizable as themselves and manage to be hilarious as a result. The only character who was changed wholesale was Lola, and that's a blessing because her original incarnation was a Mary Sue with no real personality (yet another reason why Space Jam sucked). Here, she's crazy, hyperactive, and probably the funniest character on the show (and considering how hilarious Daffy is, that says a lot).

The humor is sharp, funny, and on point despite the lack of slapstick. Daffy's stupidity, Lola's craziness, Bugs' sarcasm, etc. Make them all comedic gold mines. Much like The Amazing World of Gumball (which, coincidentally, premiered on the same day), the show has a knack for turning even the most tired of sitcom clichés into something worth watching. Also, the show has romantic elements that don't work to its detriment, unlike the later episodes of Regular Show.

The show isn't flawless, though. The Roadrunner segments, much like the Rudy Larriva-directed shorts, are not faithful to the original Chuck Jones-directed shorts. Also, Daffy's mistreatment of Porky is sometimes pretty hard to watch ("The Float" being a particularly bad example). Furthermore, perfectly good characters like Marvin the Martian and Pete Puma were heavily underused, especially during Season 2.

However, the pros outweigh the cons enough that it still earns a good 10/10. The only Looney Tunes continuation better than it is HBO Max's Looney Tunes Cartoons.

I admit that I didn't have very high hopes for this show after the Diary of a Wimpy Kid animated movie soured me on animated adaptations of books. However, I gave it the benefit of the doubt because I loved both the comic strip and the books.

This show is actually faithful to its source material and definitely far better than anything else Nick's made in the past several years. Everyone is in-character, the jokes are actually pretty clever, and the animation is gorgeous; while the show is CG-animated, it imitates stop-motion very convincingly and in a way that complements the character designs well.

There's also a lot of medium blending involving Nate's drawings, and they all look just as they did in the original comic strip.

I definitely recommend this show, especially if you were already a fan of Big Nate. 8/10.

"Museum Scream" is a very poor Looney Tunes cartoon from the early 2000s. It was meant to be released in theaters, but they decided not to and it's pretty easy to see why.

The cartoon does have its redeeming qualities; the animation is actually pretty fluid and the pacing is fast. However, it also has sadistic gags that make it very uncomfortable to watch (even more than "My Generation G-G-Gap" from the same era), and the cherry on top is a poop joke courtesy of Tweety. Almost as bad is the scene where Sylvester is attacked by a scorpion, with all of the sting sites swelling.

The prism gag is creative and had some potential, but the multiple Sylvesters getting blown up by fireworks (with Tweety cracking jokes about the multiple deaths he just witnessed) is cringeworthy.

Dicky Moe, while better than the likes of "Down and Outing" or "High Steaks", is still a pretty poor cartoon overall.

The good thing is that the backgrounds actually look pretty nice.

However, this just feels like one of those direct-to-video Tom and Jerry movie adaptations. The cartoon is best described as Moby Dick, but with dull shenanigans happening in the background.

The gags aren't offensively bad, but they are all extremely predictable and bland. Also, the "black paint" gag is recycled from an earlier cartoon.

Pokémon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl aren't great games, but they are still enjoyable all-in-all. This is a given, considering what a wonderful region Sinnoh was. It's still a little disappointing given the fact that Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire before it fixed what was one of the worst games in the franchise and made Hoenn tolerable.

The Quality of Life is much better in these games than in the originals. One example is no longer being forced to lug around a Bibarel as you had to in the originals; HMs are now a part of the Pokétch and are unlocked as soon as you obtain their corresponding TMs.

The graphics are of debatable quality, but the overworld chibis are quite cute and the in-battle trainer models are well-crafted and faithful to their original sprites. In particular, we get to see the Battle Girls and the female Cyclists in all their 3D glory. Oddly though, they screwed up with Mars' model, and she's no longer as attractive.

The Underground also got a major rehaul, and instead of simply mining and decorating bases, there are now special areas where you can encounter wild Pokémon, including those that aren't in the DP Sinnoh dex (Magnemite and Houndoom, both of which had to wait until Platinum to enter the Sinnoh dex, come to mind).

While the Union Room is back, they made it so that you are able to access it anytime (after your initial visit) by pressing the Y button.

However, many of the issues from the original Diamond & Pearl that Platinum addressed have come back in these games, namely the underleveled NPCs, slightly weaker plotline, and the lack of Fire-types in the region (discounting the Grand Underground). Similarly to the previous two entries for the Nintendo Switch, the Exp. Share is mandatory. Just like the (sadly underrated) Sword & Shield, affection is also mandatory, despite Sylveon not being in the game.

Overall, the game warrants a 7/10. Good but not great.

Admittedly, the idea of Speedy Gonzales and the Roadrunner having a foot race is a great idea.

While it's not as bad as most shorts from that era, it's nothing to write home about either. The fact is that is recycles animation (and, by extension, gags) from previous Roadrunner cartoons. This also results in a jarring contrast between Sylvester (who is drawn in the DePatie-Freleng style) and Wile E. Coyote (who is drawn in Chuck Jones' distinctive style).

That being said, it could be pretty enjoyable if you haven't seen "Zoom and Bored" (which the short recycles its animation from) and the ending was decent.

At first glance, you'd think The Rattled Rooster would be a Foghorn Leghorn cartoon, but this stars a completely different, much slower-witted rooster in his fruitless attempts to catch a worm.

The gags this time around are really clever, like you'd expect in an Art Davis cartoon. Especially the scenes with the rattlesnake and the toothpaste gag.

To be honest, it's a shame that this worm didn't make any other appearances, since he had quite a bit of potential.

It's far from his worst, but it's still pretty subpar by both Daffy's standards and by Art Davis's standards. It's not unwatchable, though.

The animation is pretty poor, though that can be excused because of lower budgets in 1962 compared to the studio's heyday. Oddly though, Daffy lacks the white ring around his neck here. Of course, animation quality isn't indicative of overall quality.

Speaking of overall quality, the cartoon has its moments but isn't as funny as Daffy's other cartoons of this year (or Art Davis's other Daffy cartoons; "The Stupor Salesman" is much funnier).

The general plot also reminds me of "The Up-Standing Sitter" (where Daffy has to retrieve a baby chick who hatches and runs away from him while egg-sitting and has to contend with an angry bulldog instead of a crocodile) and "An Egg Scramble" (where an elderly hen runs across town trying to get "her" egg back and Porky tries to stop her). In my personal opinion, both of those cartoons are better.

I also found Daffy's wife to be a pretty aggravating character.

"Early to Bet" is a hilarious cartoon about a gambling bug that bites a cat, which gives him a compulsive need to play cards with a soft-spoken bulldog. The dog is surprisingly funny here, as are the penalties the cat is subject to after losing every game.

It is beyond me why it's getting so many negative reviews here. This cartoon isn't teaching any morals; people seem to be taking cues from Mr. Enter and snuffing out morals in shows that don't have them.

"Nursery Scandal" is a mostly nondescript cartoon fairly typical of that era of animation. There isn't much of a plot to speak of.

But that doesn't make the cartoon bad. In fact, this cartoon has a very impressive soundtrack, which keeps it engaging and is basically the main selling point here.

First off, let's get the elephant out of the room: THE TOENAIL SCENE DID NOT AFFECT THE EPISODE'S QUALITY IN ANY WAY. It was a scene that lasted ten seconds at most and had no importance to the plot. I personally found it pretty funny, all things considered.

But House Fancy is actually a pretty solid episode. I mean, Squidward actually managed to score a victory, which is rare for Seasons 6-8 of SpongeBob. Despite everything he went through, it was all made worthwhile.

And there were plenty of funny jokes like the golden toilet (hats off to the writers for making toilet humor actually work).