angilbas
09-10-2001, 04:25 AM
On Canada's wet coast, we get "Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends" at 1:40 AM. Its original incarnations ("Rocky and His Friends"; "The Bullwinkle Show") were among my favorites when I started watching cartoons in 1962.
They're still fun to watch today, although changes have been made. I've seen no evidence of censorship, but my ears have noticed the (welcome) omission of the laugh track which the earliest Rocky episodes had.
Also, the soundtracks for the opening titles of "Peabody's Improbable History" (PIH) have been rearranged. There are at least three titles. The first has Mr. Peabody and his pet boy Sherman riding in a Roman parade with martial music. #2 is set in a museum in which Sherman walks past portraits of Mr. Peabody as historical figures; it had the same music as #1. #3 starts with the two characters in a car, which morphs to a stagecoach, then a chariot and finally a dinosaur; its music is less martial and uses lighter wind instruments, and it's the music YTV plays on each PIH title now.
The episodes of Rocky and Bullwinkle, Aesop and Son, Fractured Fairy Tales and Dudley Do-Right have limited animation and generic art similar to many other cartoons of the '60s. But some of the titles and bridging episodes are nicely animated. Aesop's animation is good as he carves his name in stone (just before his son arrives with the pneumatic drill). The animators splurged when they had Rocky fly around in opening and closing titles, and between-episode bits. And there's that enigmatic clip in which moose and squirrel are silhouetted in lightning, then pop out of the ground in a sunflower grove.
The voices: Bill Conrad and Edward Everett Horton as narrators; Daws Butler in his prime (often practicing his Cap'n Crunch voice several years before the character--and cereal--were created); Bill Scott, June Foray, Paul Frees, Hans Conried, Charles Ruggles, Walter Tetley. Great work by all!
The writers provided a spirited mix of wordplay for adults and puns for kids of all ages and nationalities. Never mind "One nation, in dirigible," as Mr. Peabody once said. ;)
-Tony
They're still fun to watch today, although changes have been made. I've seen no evidence of censorship, but my ears have noticed the (welcome) omission of the laugh track which the earliest Rocky episodes had.
Also, the soundtracks for the opening titles of "Peabody's Improbable History" (PIH) have been rearranged. There are at least three titles. The first has Mr. Peabody and his pet boy Sherman riding in a Roman parade with martial music. #2 is set in a museum in which Sherman walks past portraits of Mr. Peabody as historical figures; it had the same music as #1. #3 starts with the two characters in a car, which morphs to a stagecoach, then a chariot and finally a dinosaur; its music is less martial and uses lighter wind instruments, and it's the music YTV plays on each PIH title now.
The episodes of Rocky and Bullwinkle, Aesop and Son, Fractured Fairy Tales and Dudley Do-Right have limited animation and generic art similar to many other cartoons of the '60s. But some of the titles and bridging episodes are nicely animated. Aesop's animation is good as he carves his name in stone (just before his son arrives with the pneumatic drill). The animators splurged when they had Rocky fly around in opening and closing titles, and between-episode bits. And there's that enigmatic clip in which moose and squirrel are silhouetted in lightning, then pop out of the ground in a sunflower grove.
The voices: Bill Conrad and Edward Everett Horton as narrators; Daws Butler in his prime (often practicing his Cap'n Crunch voice several years before the character--and cereal--were created); Bill Scott, June Foray, Paul Frees, Hans Conried, Charles Ruggles, Walter Tetley. Great work by all!
The writers provided a spirited mix of wordplay for adults and puns for kids of all ages and nationalities. Never mind "One nation, in dirigible," as Mr. Peabody once said. ;)
-Tony