"Buster and the Wolverine" Episode Discussion

[wiley207]

Since I was bored, and I am surprised this didn't get a discussion yet (and being a fan of classical music and all), I decided to create a discussion thread of an early Tiny Toon Adventures episode, "Buster and the Wolverine." It was episode 24 of the first season in airing order, as well as the 7th episode in the show's production order (hence why I referred to it as an "early" episode). By this point, the Looney Tunes-esque humor with the 1990s twist TTA and Animaniacs was known for is starting to kick in more, but still has a bit of "80's cartoon adventure plot" to it as well.

NOTE: As of December 18, I just redid the shots from a higher-quality source (i.e. the DVDs), so it now looks better.


Written by: Paul Dini and Tom Ruegger
Storyboard by: Jim Willoughby, Chris Otsuki and Art Leonardi
Directed by: Art Leonardi
Animation by: Kennedy Cartoons


The first scene is rather amusing, we start on the Acme Acres Cereal Bowl (parody of the Hollywood Bowl), and we see what looks like the shadow of a beautiful woman that is going to lead the orchestra...


Unfortunately, it's only Elmyra, presenting to us "Buster and the Wolverine." (For those who don't know, this is supposed to be a parody of "Peter and the Wolf.")

Each character is represented by a musical instrument; Buster on the trumpet (on which he plays a solo with a super-long sustained note), Furball on the violin, Sweetie on the flute, Hamton on the tuba, and Babs on the harp, but she's not satisfied with her choice of instrument...

So she tries to improvise with an electrical guitar, which doesn't work out.


And poor Plucky Duck is stuck with a bicycle horn. He winds up accidentally swallowing it, but gains the ability to make it honk as he bounces or dances.


On a winter day, just like the real story, the Looniversity Marching Band (which the six lead characters make up) is out in the woods rehearsing, until the wolverine approaches. And according to Hamton, it's a vicious, rotten and nasty one! The instrument representing it is timpani drums.


To try and catch the beast, Plucky has them draw straws, with Hamton obviously roped out into doing the deed, but it doesn't last for long once the Wolverine has Hamton in his clutches!


One by one, each member of the band is captured. Babs tries to fool it by impersonating a female wolverine. I don't see why the Wolverine was falling for it; she's just wearing a rubber mask with her ears exposed! She could've just put on a brown fur coat with it. Nonetheless, it temporarily works, leading into this amusing gag...

The wolverine's box of chocolates contains mice in the candies! The Kirk Douglas-esque mouse never fails to make me smile.


A running gag in the episode is several appearances by the Mynah Bird from the old "Inki" Merrie Melodie cartoons of the 1940s, complete with his theme music (Hebrides Overture by F. Mendelhesson, but I honestly prefer Carl Stalling's eerie arrangement of the tune over the one Morton Stevens did here.)


Right after Sweetie is captured, Furball actually talks! This was his third (and last) time he spoke, and was voiced by Frank Welker, the man that provided his other vocal effects (unlike when Rob Paulsen voiced him in "Cinemaniacs.") Here, Furball's voice sounds more like a sped-up Fred of "Scooby-Doo," while when Furball first spoke on "Hare Today Gone Tomorrow," he sounded more like Baby Skeeter of "Muppet Babies." Just an observation. For the record, Furball goes on how Sweetie is now gone and that it's not fair, then says that it's because HE wanted to eat her!


Once only Buster's left, it's up to him to perform the "heroic rescue." (He knows of this among hearing Babs's "AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" which he mimics in a hilarious manner.) Among finding the bloated wolverine, he's sad at first, until he does a tribute playing of his trumpet when the rest of the band joins in inside the beast! So Buster plays "doctor" in an amusing manner in order to get his pals out, which manages to be successful!


The chase is once again on, and this time it takes us to the Acme Acres Cereal Bowl, where the Wolverine is finally captured.

So far, not bad for an early episode of Tiny Toons; it has some pretty decent jokes and one-liners. One little problem with it is some of the voice-acting. Buster Bunny's voice seems to crack quite a bit here as if he were hitting puberty (luckily Charlie Adler eventually learned to control this so Buster would start to sound less like Chicken or Ickis.) Sweetie also tends to randomly yell some of the words in her dialogue (like when Candi Milo also voiced the Red Riding Hood character on "Two Stupid Dogs"), but I haven't seen much Sweetie episodes after this yet, so I'm not sure if this began to decrease afterward.


Music plays an important part here too. Morton Stevens did a pretty good job scoring the episode, and the WB orchestra was really doing their part. However, for a "Peter and the Wolf" parody, they did miss one detail: the characters' respective "themes" only show up at the beginning! And with the exception of Buster's, they aren't that memorable, compared to the real "Peter and the Wolf" (the "Cat" theme from that even showed up on "The Ren & Stimpy Show" when Wilbur Cobb would put in an appearance!)


I think my favorite bits in this episode involve Plucky still sulking over his bike horn and asking for another instrument; first a pipe organ and then a set of bagpipes (both of which he also dislikes, with the latter he even puts on a mock Scottish accent!), but then a huge synthesizer set that can even shoot out lasers! Pretty cool stuff, until the Wolverine cuts the wire for it (which is conveniently plugged into an electrical outlet located on a rock!)


The only major flaw with this episode, IMO, is the animation. It's pretty much your typical early Kennedy Cartoons outing, but while a couple of those episodes I really like the animation for (like "Gang Busters" or "Best O' Plucky Duck Day") and a few others I don't mind, this one isn't really one of them. There is some sloppiness, bounciness, off-model characters and distracting model-switching. BUT... this is the first episode where Jon McClenahan (a.k.a. Jonny Mack for those who are more familiar with his ToonZone username) animates for the show, and his stuff looks pretty good. Let's see the ups and downs of the animation here, starting with the downs...


For starters, there's quite a bit of Glen Kennedy animation in this episode. Maybe not as much as "Hare Today, Gone Tomorrow," but still a bit too much. And while quite a bit of it does look nice and smooth, some of it is still rather sloppy and weird-looking. You've got characters with that "cigar-chomp look" when they speak, the "confused-mouth 'O'" look, sticking their index finger in the air when talking, running off with the legs stretching followed by the rest of the body (as pictured here), etc. etc. etc.


Not to mention the infamous Glen Kennedy dancing cycles popping up when they aren't really needed, such as this shot when Elmyra is narrating "...and the Looniversity Marching Band was rehearsing." Maybe Plucky there is thinking "Why is Buster dancing for no reason again?"


I really don't like how Buster and Hamton were drawn in this shot (their eyes get too long and their eyebrows are thick, etc.) and Furball, Babs and Sweetie also don't look so great here. But it's Hamton and Buster that stick out like a sore thumb.


This is also probably the first time we see that ugly "skinny limb" animation style Kennedy Cartoons did in some of their early episodes (such as "The Return of the Toxic Revenger.") It's prominent during the scene when they fall into the ice and Plucky gets his bagpipes only to soon be caught by the Wolverine...


...but the "skinny limbs" look also shows up during that walk cycle they show a few times. Buster and Babs's faces look pretty ugly, and their movements are rather choppy and stilted.

Now on to the good stuff...

As I said, this is the first time we see Jon McClenahan's animation on the show. The distinctive Startoons style really shows here, with the cute wide-eyed Buster and Babs Bunny designs and the fast movements. In fact, the "tuba magnet" scene in Acme Looniversity up to right before Buster jumps into his rabbit hole was Jon McClenahan's work.

This scene also has THREE face-distortion gags for the wolverine alone! This first is right after the tuba pops off of the wolverine's head, drawn by Jon McClenahan...


...who also drew this funny one, after the wolverine gets smashed in the face with the door.


But the third one (when Buster smashes the cymbals on the Wolverine's face) was drawn by Glen Kennedy. The transitions between Glen Kennedy and another animator like Jon McClenahan or someone else are rather jarring and distracting in this one.


However, during Furball's introduction scene, Glen Kennedy draws a VERY cute-looking Furball, IMO. It looks better in motion; it's got that smooth, bouncy feel to it.


I also like Plucky's cute little dance when he first notices he can honk his bike horn inside his belly. His head looks kinda like a green Daffy as he does so, too!


Then there's this bit, when the wolverine goes brutal with a drum set. It appears this may have been animated by John Williamson; it reminds me quite a bit of his work in the intro scene to "Slappy Goes Walnuts."


This shot of Sweetie when the Wolverine sneaks up on her was animated by the late Harold Duckett.


...and if I'm not mistaken, this appears to be Willy Ashworth's work.


Starting with Buster's reaction to the Wolverine swallowing his friends whole, Jon McClenahan did more animation here too. This shot of Buster as he says "They're still alive!" DEFINITELY has the Startoons look and feel to it (it seemed one of the Startoons trademarks was a character being drawn in a profile view like this, with big eyes.)...


...and this Startoons animation also continues throughout most of the doctor scene. Sure makes up for that skinny-limbs walk cycle, doesn't it?


Then there's this closing shot of them doing their recital. Sure, Buster's mimicking the young Shaggy Rogers' dance move again, but Plucky's goofy little dance combined with the Mynah Bird joining in is pretty cool. Glen Kennedy's Mynah Bird animation isn't half-bad, either!

Overall, while this isn't one of the best episodes, it's still a pretty decent one as the standard Tiny Toons foundation begins to take shape. Any thoughs on this one?

[Speedy Boris]

Did you screencap these from a video file? They should look much better if you snap some shots from the official DVD sets.

Anyway, this was better than Kennedy's first outing, "Hare Today Gone Tomorrow", mainly because there were more animation styles to keep it from getting too visually monotonous. A bit I always like is when Buster imitates Babs's "Aiiiieeeee!!!", and his mouth opens really wide. That's a funny pose.

I still say the plot could've been double length, easily. And while there are a few funny moments (Buster playing a reeeaaaaaaalllly long note; the aforementioned sexy Elmyra silhouette and the box of human mice), it obviously can't compare with top outings like "Hollywood Plucky". The crew was still finding their writing legs, I think.

BTW, anybody else notice the Clark Gable caricature in the orchestra crowd? It sure looks like him.

[wiley207]

Originally Posted by Speedy Boris

Did you screencap these from a video file? They should look much better if you snap some shots from the official DVD sets.

Yeah, I still haven't gotten a copy of the Volume 1 DVD set yet (I do not have an Amazon.com account yet, so I can't order it from there or other online sources, and many stores I've seen do not carry any copies.) This is from that Teletoon print you often see circulating around the Internet. Next time I do an episode discussion on one I've got on DVD, I'm definitely gonna use that.

Originally Posted by Speedy Boris

I still say the plot could've been double length, easily. And while there are a few funny moments (Buster playing a reeeaaaaaaalllly long note; the aforementioned sexy Elmyra silhouette and the box of human mice), it obviously can't compare with top outings like "Hollywood Plucky". The crew was still finding their writing legs, I think.

Yeah, I agree with you on that too. Like I said, some of these early episodes still had that late 1980s-esque feel to the plots.

[Dr. Toonhattan]

Having just watched the episode again, I'd say the main things that jump out regarding Kennedy's animation are:
The super bouncy movements of the characters, which can be quite distracting.
The way they have their hands bent back on them selves, e.g. Furrball when they are drawing out straws, and the Wolverine after Buster squashes his face with the cymbals. It just look uncomfortable.
Another slight annoyance is how the characters' feet flap up and down as they dance. This also happens in Gang Busters, but I guess that's for another discussion.

The humour was pretty good though. I particularly liked the recurring gag of Elmyra's wig blowing off, and Plucky's Scottish accent while playing the bag pipes.

So all in all, a good episode for early Kennedy. 7/10

[Artayes]

wow, thanks for this very detailed and though-out summary of Buster and the Wolverine. The pictures are great as well.

You explained everything so perfectly about this episode and I really hope you do more! Great service to the Tiny Toon community.

[Speedy Boris]

Also, wiley, unless you know some info I don't, I'm not 100% sure that scene with Buster imitating the skipping crow is done by Willy Ashworth. I believe he actually animated the first instance of the skipping crow, when the toons are cornered in the school hallway. He may have done more than that in the episode, but didn't mention it to me.

On the subject of Willy, my e-mail conversation with him a while back pretty much confirms that the credits for "New Character Day" (listing Wang as doing the animation) were an error, as he said to have worked on that episode.

[wiley207]

Originally Posted by Speedy Boris

Also, wiley, unless you know some info I don't, I'm not 100% sure that scene with Buster imitating the skipping crow is done by Willy Ashworth. I believe he actually animated the first instance of the skipping crow, when the toons are cornered in the school hallway. He may have done more than that in the episode, but didn't mention it to me.

On the subject of Willy, my e-mail conversation with him a while back pretty much confirms that the credits for "New Character Day" (listing Wang as doing the animation) were an error, as he said to have worked on that episode.

Yep, I had the feeling that was definitely Kennedy, but I DID see a scene that briefly looked like Wang's work. Maybe this was an instance like "The Looney Beginning" or "High Toon," and that Wang was doing the ink-and-paint for Kennedy there.

[TenPoundHammer]

You mentioned Buster's voice cracking at times. I think you're right about his voice, Charlie did seem to do it a little higher at first. I pointed this out on "Cinemaniacs," where Buster sounds MUCH higher.

[Itchy]

A pretty bad episode to me, I could hardly sit through the last time I saw it.

[Speedy Boris]

Speaking of the soundtrack to this episode, it's kinda cool that they used "I Love a Parade", which wasn't used in a Looney Tunes short since 1938's "You're an Education"! Certainly appropriate, though, given the context of the scene.

[wiley207]

Originally Posted by Itchy

A pretty bad episode to me, I could hardly sit through the last time I saw it.

Lemme guess; it was due to the animation, right?

[Super Sonic]

Originally Posted by wiley207

Lemme guess; it was due to the animation, right?

For me personally, it is. It's just hard of me to enjoy the Kennedy episodes and other badly animated TTA outings. I never even watched High Toon when I got my Volume 2 set, since I knew they animated it.

[Framwinkle]

Originally Posted by wiley207

Babs tries to fool it by impersonating a female wolverine. I don't see why the Wolverine was falling for it...

Because first, as Bugs said in "The Looney Beginning", villains fall for cheesey disguises, and second, probably because he's not looking at her ears.



The animation in this episode is my biggest impediment to really liking this one. However, putting that aside, the story wasn't that bad. Not great, but not bad. It did feel like an early episode, but it had its funny moments. I kind of wish they'd let Furball keep his voice for future episodes, but not if it would have been this voice. The voice he had here annoyed me.

[dth1971]

It ends with Elmyra singing "Good evening friends".

[wiley207]

Originally Posted by Framwinkle

The animation in this episode is my biggest impediment to really liking this one. However, putting that aside, the story wasn't that bad. Not great, but not bad. It did feel like an early episode, but it had its funny moments. I kind of wish they'd let Furball keep his voice for future episodes, but not if it would have been this voice. The voice he had here annoyed me.

Yeah, I preferred Furball's voice on "Hare Today, Gone Tomorrow" better. And this WAS an early episode. If I recall, it was the seventh in production order, and it was the second episode Kennedy Cartoons animated.

[Robochao]

I really liked this episode. Also McClenahan's animation really livened things and up made it pleasant for the eyes.

He was the best thing to happen to the show's animation rather than everybody bouncing every single frame for no apparent reason.

Good stuff. The only thing I can honestly say animated by Kennedy Cartoons that doesn't look terrible is Eddie Fitzgerald's short "Tales Of Worm Paranoia" for Cartoon Network and early Goof Troop episodes. That's all I can stands and I can't stands no more!

Early episodes of Tiny Toons are really held down by this in my opinion. I mean what was the director doing? The director should've been giving some proper directions on how they wanted the characters to move or something. Just too silly.

[Artayes]

I know this is nitpicky, but I wish people would learn to spell Furrball's name right. it's Furrball, not Furball.

[Blackstar]

Originally Posted by dth1971

It ends with Elmyra singing "Good evening friends".

Way to give away the ending, man! You should've put that in a spoiler tag!

[Jonny Mack]

For what it's worth, the human caricature in the box of chocolates was supposed to be Kirk Douglas. I can't remember his line, but the impersonation was good (not that Kirk Douglas is real hard to do).

Looking back on this episode, when I saw the finished stuff it was hard to believe Kennedy's guys were using the same models I got. Not that MY drawings were on-model either - they were badly off, especially Buster. But I think my Wolverine, at least, was closer to what WB originally wanted.

Even though it ended up having those jarring style changes, I have to say it was fun to animate - my very first Tiny Toons episode. A lot better than shows I had worked on in previous years.

[wiley207]

Originally Posted by Jonny Mack

For what it's worth, the human caricature in the box of chocolates was supposed to be Kirk Douglas. I can't remember his line, but the impersonation was good (not that Kirk Douglas is real hard to do).

He was yelling "HELP! IN THE NAME OF HUMANITY!" But you're right, that's obviously Kirk Douglas.

Originally Posted by Jonny Mack

Looking back on this episode, when I saw the finished stuff it was hard to believe Kennedy's guys were using the same models I got. Not that MY drawings were on-model either - they were badly off, especially Buster. But I think my Wolverine, at least, was closer to what WB originally wanted.

Even though it ended up having those jarring style changes, I have to say it was fun to animate - my very first Tiny Toons episode. A lot better than shows I had worked on in previous years.

Yeah, I especially liked your drawings of the Wolverine when his face would get distorted the first couple of times. And I think your Buster actually looked decent, too. Maybe not the exact model style WB had in mind, but better-looking than Glen Kennedy's design for Buster (when it comes to his work, it's not really the bounciness or dancing super-cartoony movements that I dislike, it's the way he drew some of the characters that I dislike, such as that ugly-looking shot of Buster and Hamton I posted. His work for "A Pup Named Scooby-Doo" and "Darkwing Duck" looked better, IMO.)