From: jfl@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Juan F. Lara)
Subject: Raw Toonage, Little Mermaid
Organization: Taronga Park BBS
Date: Sat, 26 Sep 92 15:30:58 -0500

Dear friends

     Here's some comments on the Disney shows on CBS.

SPOILER WARNING



THE LITTLE MERMAID

"Urchin"

     Little to say about today's TLM.  It was adequate, with Ariel keeping an
orphan merboy from falling into the mob.  We had Danny Cooksey, now well into
puberty, as Urchin.  But the idea of mobsters ( crustacaeans here ) in the
Little-Mermaid universe is too ridiculous to work.  What's more, the Lobster
Mobster and his shrimp sidekick were merely annoying.
     I often find myself forgeting that the merpeople are merpeople and often
think of them as the equivalent of humans in this world.  So I often find it
a bit jarring when the merpeople interact with fully sentient fish.  It's like
if the Rescue Rangers could talk to people.

RAW TOONAGE

     How elated I was to see Don Karnage hosting this week's show!  It was like
hearing from an old friend that you thought was gone for good.  But here he is
showing us how a pirate finds lost treasure, and giving as a new slew of Kar-
nagisms.  This was the perfect format for him.
     Some highlights from the show ( all from my so-so memory ).:

     I laughed when that parrot stole Karnage's map, and so he pulled out a 
spear to look for treasure.  "Another way to find treasure is the pick and
pull.  Pick and pull.  Never get these mixed up." 

     And then "And you must always be careful not to pick on a ( BOOM! ) land
mine."

     I laughed when Karnage found only a boot with his metal detector, and 
throws it away, only for gold coins to fall out of it.

     And then when he pulled out a TaleSpin lunchbox with Baloo on it. "Hey. 
Who put this bear on my lunch box?"

     "Instincts are the best stincts, and my instincts tell me the treasure is
right over here." And so he marks an X and digs in.  But then a talking skele-
ton pops up and tells Karny to leave him alone, "or else!"  Karnage:  "Never 
ever disturb any undead person that uses 'or else!'."

     The final segment.  I never expected Captain Hook.  But it was a crock 
that Hook defeated Karnage in a sword fight.  We all know that Karny can whit-
tle Hook down to the hook. :-)  At least there's this hilarious dialogue.

        Hook:  Since when do you Air Pirates say "Ahoy".
     Karnage:  Since we put all of you Sea Pirates out of business.

     The Karnage bits were easily the best part of the show.  It looks like RT
is worth seeing just for the guest bits alone.  And Karnage's appearance gives
me hope that maybe Gadget just might appear after all ( pretty please? :-).

He's Bonkers:  "SureLuck Bonkers"

     Bonkers and Co. star in a Sherlock Holmes parody that turns to be a better
short than last week's.  The short had a lot of funny slapstick, and Bonkers 
did a great job as Holmes.  At least not every HB short has the same format.
     I think the dog's name is Jitters, as Bonkers calls him "Dr. Jitters" in
this short.  I liked his last line "I hate my life."
     I noticed that Bonkers has Karnage's voice, but Darkwing Duck's voice man-
nerisms, at least here.  I hope they change that in future weeks, as Bonkers 
should have his own mannerisms.

Totally Tasteless Videos:  "All-Potato Network"

     Another miss.  This was a "K-ACME TV"-type parody of TV shows using spuds
in each one.  So it's basically one joke stretched painfully over 8 minutes.
If you could laugh at that just more than once, this was O.K.  I couldn't.  I
could only go "huh" to a lot of the gags in fact.  The animation had an inter-
esting style, though.

Marsupilami: "The Puck Stops Here"

     A step down from last week.  The short had an ultra-contrived means of 
getting Marsup to play ice hockey with a villain, dooming the short.  The jokes
also just weren't funny.
     I still like Marsup, though.  From the style of his voice, the writers 
are trying to make him into Buster Bunny.  And I think they could succeed with
good material.  But he does have good material here.
     And I hated the villain ( I think his name is Norman ).  Norman is nothing
but big human bully, and he's plain boring.  Marsup needs a good adversary to
play off of.  But Norman has no appeal whatsoever.  It looks like he might 
appear in all the Marsup shorts, and that could sink the line.
     And I was annoyed how Norman had Negaduck's voice.  Voice recycling is
a pain.  C'mon guys, have somebody else besides Jim Cummings do voices.
     I read in the credits that Kevin Crosby Hobbs is the producer of the Mar-
sup shorts.  You can do better than this, Crosby. :-)
______________

     A lot of negative stuff today.  But "He's Bonkers" had a good short, and
Karnage's appearance was excellent.  So I'll still be back next week.

     See ya around.

Sincerely -

Juan F. Lara

"Come Along.  You Belong.  Feel the Fizz."
 - Profound Wisdom from the Cola Cult