Johnny Bravo

Check out the last review here! (http://that90sguyreviews.blogspot.ca/2016/03/the-lion-king-ii-simbas-pride.html)

    The animated television series Johnny Bravo was an iconic show that was a part of a lot of people's childhoods...and it also was not what I was planning on reviewing today but oh well, these things happen.

    "Johnny Bravo", like MAAANY Cartoon Network programs of its' day started off as shorts on "What A Cartoon!". Specifically, 3 shorts which aired in 1995, 1996, and 1997. Later on in 1997, Johnny got his own series which only lasted for 1 season before being put on hiatus. It was picked back up again in 1999 and lasted 3 more seasons before ending in 2004. Johnny was initially a show where each episode was made up of 3 segments, each 7 minutes long. In the 4th and final season, they lengthened each segment to 11 minutes long and made it so that each episode only contained 2 segments. Personally, I prefer the first way of doing things because Johnny Bravo was such a light show that it really didn't need segments that were too long, and also because the "3 segments" format of doing things has just become less and less common in recent years, but truely it didn't make a big enough difference to detract from the viewing experience.

     The series followed the titular "Johnny Bravo" a 20-something man who is very muscular and cares a lot about his appearance. Strangely enough, despite these two qualities that jjust scream "popular kid" he only really has two friends. Even more sad is the fact that one, Carl Chryniszzwics (wait what kind of name is that?) , a total geek, and the other, Suzy, is an elementary school girl. And to cement Johnny loser lot in life, we have the fact that he doesn't appear to have any job and definitely still lives with his mother (Bunny "Mama" Bravo). Oh, and even his mother doesn't ever really take him seriously.

    Now you'd think someone in Johnny's position would focus his life on getting a job, getting out of his mothers' house, and making some friends his own age (besides just Carl), but no. Johnny spends all of his time trying to pick up chicks and failing miserably despite his attractive appearance. Ironically enough, it's not even the fact that he's unemployed that repels the girls (he almost never gets far enough to let them know that). Instead, it's Johnny's dumb, shallow, and arrogant personality that manages to instantly repel women 90% of the time. The show generally focuses on the antics Johnny gets himself into trying to impress women. Now, the suspense is not in whether or not he succeeds, because he always fails. The suspense is instead in how ridiculous the way he fails will be and how exasperated Mama and Lil' Suzy will be with him afterwards.

    Honestly you'd think this would get irritating with such an obnoxious protagonist, yet Johnny always manages to balance on that thin line between "too obnoxious" and "not obnoxious enough". He's just ignorant enough of his surroundings to pull off that "lovable idiot" character and he shows on multiple occasions that he's actually pretty kindhearted. Notably, he once is running late for a date and stops to help a kitten out of a tree (though that ends up leading into a complicated time travel plot). INTERESTING SIDENOTE: Considering how appearance-centered and dumb he is, I always assumed Johny was a popular jock in high school who never grew out of it, but we actually see in a flashback episode that he was scrawny and unpopular in high school and bulked up BECAUSE of that. Now, you never see Johnny ever get a second date or a real girlfriend, and he always remains a loser, but you know he'll be ok so long as he has his supporting cast, and you know that so long as he has that cast, he will not only be a loser, but a hilarious, lovable loser. And THAT is why I love Johnny Bravo. If you're a fan of things such as the Flintstones or Tom and Jerry, this will be your cup of tea.

"Thank you, thank you very much."

The Lion King II: Simba's Pride

    Check out my last review here! (http://that90sguyreviews.blogspot.ca/2016/02/tiny-toon-adventures.html)
   
    This sequel to one of my favourite movies of all time was oddly enough never released in theatres, only getting a release directly to home video (VHS and DVD), This was the custom when it came to Disney animated sequels at the time, they created countless direct-to-home video sequels through the 1990s and 2000s, yet you'd honestly think they'd make an exception for the sequel to the highest-grossing animated movie ever at the time. Hmm oh well.

    The Lion King II: Simba's Pride, is the sequel to the ever-popular "The Lion King", and came out 4 years after the original, in 1998. This runs just about 10 minutes shorter than the first movie, at 1 hour and 20 minutes and serves as the finale to The Lion King franchise....which is strange as it wasn't exactly a huge franchise at the time. Oddly enough, despite being such a popular movie, Disney never really milked The Lion King when it came to making movies or tv shows or things like that. Of course, they did it up with the merchandising and the storybooks for kids but they only made two "sequels": This one and the 2004 "The Lion King 1 and 1/2" which is less of another sequel and more of a retelling of the original movie from the perspective of the comedic relief side characters Timon and Pumbaa (a la Rosencrantz and Guldenstern Are Dead). Prior to this movie, the only Lion King anything we got (other than of course the first movie) was a very comedic show on Timon and Pumbaa. Only very recently, years after Lion King mania has died down, have we gotten The Lion Guard, a TV series more focused on the actual lion family...and it's totally aimed towards children. Either way, all of this previously mentioned media is set in the gap between this film and its' predecessor. To date, this is the chronologically last thing to happen in the franchise and I feel it might stay that way for a long time (not that I can't hope otherwise). Overall, it has much more of a feeling of an ending than the previous film. While The Lion King ends with the main character having a baby and than a title card flash, this movie ends with no hints at future generations and a card that actually says "The End" 

    But speaking of The Lion King ending with Simba's baby, this movie actually opens up with the exact same scene the last movie ended with, but with a lot more buildup and detail. You should note that there are a few differences between this version and the original, most notably the baby: The baby here looks chubby and also happy and excitable, whereas the original baby looked slimmer and also more confused yet serious, you might think i'm nitpicking but it's actually pretty noticeable. This of course has fueled countless conspiracy fan theories about the babies actually being two different babies but we're not going to get into that right now. Putting all that aside, you have to got to love the bookends with these movies. The first movie opens up with our main character (Simba) being presented as a baby and then ends with him presenting his own baby, but more rushed and less pomp as we're not setting up for a movie this time around. The second movie begins with the same scene as the first movie ended off on, but they redo it with all the pomp of the first movie's opening scene, as yet again we ARE introducing a protagonist who's gonna carry the movie. This time, Simba's daughter Kiara.

   If you've been living under a rock for decades and somehow do not know the story of The Lion King, you should read my review on that movie (http://that90sguyreviews.blogspot.ca/2016/02/the-lion-king.html) but if you don't want to, I'll summarize it very quickly here as you really have to know that movie to understand this one: Mufasa is the king of lions and all of Africa, he gets killed by his own brother Scar who then tricks Mufasa's son, Simba, into running away, one day Simba gets brought back by his childhood friend Nala and he slays his evil uncle (just like Hamlet). Unlike Hamlet, this ends pretty good and Simba becomes king and lives happily ever after...until this movie.

    The premise of this movie is that Princess Kiara ends up falling in love with Kovu, a kid who's mom is the leader of the Outlanders: a group of lions who supported Scar and got exiled when Simba came back, and because of that, they hate Simba. So basically, two young people from feuding clans fall in love regardless of their family differences and then have to work through those family differences if they want to be together (kinda like...Romeo and Juliet....this entire franchise is literally Shakespeare but with lions, I love it). Like the first movie of course, this ends a lot better than the plays it based itself on and spoiler that isn't even really a spoiler: happy couple stays together, everyone gets along in the end. 

Special Note: This movie keeps the previous movies protagonistic comedic relief in the form of Timon and Pumbaa, and yet it loses the previous antagonistic comedic relief: Scar's minions, the hyenas. Their replacement is Kovu's brother, who is only one guy and is a bit more serious than they were anyways, so this film just isn't as funny as the previous one. However, for me at least, I watch the Lion King for the drama first and foremost so this doesn't take that much away. 

    This movie just will never get as much recognition as what came before it, considering it never got a theatrical release (or it's own broadway muscial for that matter), and frankly it doesn't deserve too: The story is just plain not as strong as it's predecessor. There are plenty of movies that outdo what came before them (Superman II and Star Wars Episode 5 come to mind) but this is not one of them. However, that doesn't mean it's a bad movie or even a movie that gets as much credit as it deserves. Many will tell you this is not a good movie, however I beg to differ. The animation is still great (probably even better than the previous one) and to be honest, I actually enjoyed this movie's musical soundtrack even more than the last one's. And though it might be stuck in the shadow of it's predecessor story-wise, it's still a good movie that's 100% worth a check-out.

Tiny Toon Adventures

    Please check out my last review here! http://that90sguyreviews.blogspot.ca/2016/02/the-lion-king.html

    Sorry that I missed the last two weeks and I'm super late this week but I've been really busy with people's birthdays and the like. Anyways, we're back today taking a look at Tiny Toon Adventures!

    This series aired 3 seasons from 1990 to 1992 and is honestly the first thing I think of when I think of a "90s Cartoon" (after Animaniacs, of course). It aired a total of ninety-eight 22-minute episodes, the vast majority of which were one story each. On top of this, it released a 1 hour and 20 minute long direct-to-home video film in between seasons 2 and 3, and 2-3 years after the series ended it would air two 44 minute long TV specials (one of which was Halloween themed). Thus it ended in 1995 with 100 episodes and a movie. 

    The premise is simple. You remember all those Looney Tunes characters that you love? Well, here they are but they're kids. Enjoy. Interestingly enough, this actually worked really well but only because of a couple things. First of all, these are not simply the usual characters as kids (like the later Baby Looney Tunes would try to do) nor is it the usual character's children or grandchildren. Instead this show tries a far less cliched route and introduces us to totally original characters who serve as the OG Looney Tunes' apprentices. Sometimes they're similar to their mentors, and sometimes they're not. That was the beauty of it, they were their own characters.

    If you check out the picture at the top you can see some of the most important Tiny Toons kids (how old were they anyways? Apparently 13-14 and they act like it but they sure do not look it to me). These include: Buster and Babs Bunny: Bugs' students and the hosts of the show. The male Buster reflects Bugs' clever side while female Babs' reflects his zany side, they're the hosts of the show. Fifi la Fume (Pepe's apprentice). Calamity Coyote (Wile E.'s genius successor), and the Tasmanian Devil's heir Dizzy most notably. However, just like with the actual Looney Tunes the cast is VERY large, too large to list quickly. But a few key toons you don't see in the bus picture would include Hampton J. Pig (Porky Pig's analogue), Plucky the Duck (Daffy Duck's counterpart), and the "villains" (if you can call them that) Montana Max and Elmyra Duff. 

   The villains were probably the least like their predecessors, with Max being a lot less gunhappy than Yosemite Sam and Elmyra actually loving animals (too much) compared to Elmer Duff who hunted them. 

    This series led to Warner Bros. expanding a lot in the area of animated, televised comedy and can be credited for making one of my favourite shows of all time (Animaniacs) possible. It also led to Pinky, Elmyra, and the Brain but that's another issue for another time. And if you look at it completely by it's own merits, it's a honestly very funny show that managed to be entertaining for the kids and also sneak in some very adult themes. *Cough* episode where Buster, Plucky, and Hampton get drunk *Cough*. Point is, if you haven't seen this yet, go see it right now. Peace be upon you. 

The Lion King

 
 

   Sorry for the late post, I actually did this yesterday but my internet went out. Check out the last review here! http://that90sguyreviews.blogspot.ca/2016/01/gi-joe-real-american-hero.html

     Today, I'll be doing something a little different: I'll be looking at a movie, as a matter of fact, my all-time favorite movie, The Lion King.

    The Lion King debuted in theatres in 1994 and told the life story of Simba, the Prince of the Pridelands: A lush sahara teeming with a variety of animals that live in peace and harmony, and the guardians of this balance are the lions. Simba's father, Mufasa, is the king, and is a pretty much flawless character. He's selfless,  he's brave, and he's wise. Simba is no Mufasa. Simba's a good kid with good intentions, yes. He's well-meaning and adorably energetic, yes. But Simba is not his father. He's a flawed main character who makes a lot of mistakes, lacks confidence in himself, often fails to see the big picture, and can be just a little bit selfish at times. But he's the hero of our story and we get to see him grow from a scared little kid to a big strong lion who ultimately saves the day.

    For all his great qualities, Mufasa is loved by all but one, his jealous younger brother, Scar (who........has a Scar on his face. Wow). Scar plots with the hyena clan (the mortal enemies of the lions) to get Mufasa killed. And when he succeeds (in one of the most heartbreaking animated scenes of my childhood). He convinces impressionable young Simba that it was HIS fault and gets Simba to run away (from his problems). Simba is taken in by a bromantic odd couple: Timon the Meerkat and Pumbaa the Warthog. Simba grows up and after a run-in with his childhood friend Nala, he returns to reclaim his rightful throne and defeats his evil uncle and the hyenas.

    The Lion King is a fast-paced, blink and you miss it, kind of story and it is fricking amazing. Honestly, it's a movie everyone should see at least once in their lives. It sounds like it's basically Hamlet with lions, and it is, but it's also so much more than it. It's one of the rare musicals I've watched where the songs haven't annoyed me but are actually very catchy, and it has grade-A animation. Perhaps it's nostalgia, perhaps it's the musical numbers that actually manage to be entertaining, plot-relavant, and not distracting, perhaps it's the compelling characters, or perhaps it's a combination of all, but the point is: it's pretty good.

    This movie was (at the time of its' initial release) the highest-grossing animated film of all time, a title it kept for over 20 years. It was famous for being the first Disney film to tell an original story (though i'd argue the story was a blatant ripoff of Kimba the White Lion. However, that's not what we're talking about today) and it was, interestingly enough, dethroned just a couple years ago by Frozen, another Disney animated movie that told an original story. Do I think Frozen was good? Yes. Do I think it was on the same level as this movie? No, but that's not the point. The point i'm trying to make is that this movie is a beloved part of a lot of childhoods, and if you haven't checked it out yet, you need to. My review honestly can't do it justice. If you happen to like it, there's some other material in the franchise you can read too including a direct-to-video sequel (The Lion King II: Simba's Pride), a direct-to-video retelling of this movie, showing it from the perspective of  Timon and Pumbaa (The Lion King 1 1/2: Hakuna Matata) and "Timon and Pumbaa" and "The Lion Guard" two spinoff TV series (the latter of which is still ongoing at the time I'm writing this). I'll probably get to reviewing those all later but for now, watch this movie. Even if you've seen it once before, it's honestly the type of movie that's worth a rewatch.

G.I Joe: A Real American Hero

   Check out my last post here! http://that90sguyreviews.blogspot.ca/2016/01/samurai-jack.html

 Though a bit more of an 80s Cartoon, G.I Joe did air partially in the 90s and i'm sure enough people remember this that it's worth talking about. 

    G.I Joe aired 4 seasons from 1985 to 1992. Notably season 1 and 2 were produced by Sunbow and Marvel, while seasons 3 and 4 were produced by DIC. This resulted in the two halfs of the series being drastically different with the art style and even the voice cast changing between seasons 2 and 3. If you ask someone to remember G.I Joe, they are inevitably going to think of the Sunbow seasons however as they were far more popular and if you look at them on their own, they have a more satisfying conclusion than the DIC seasons, but we'll get to that later.

    The series followed the U.S.A Army Special Unit "G.I Joe" which is made up of the most manly, patriotic, stereotyped, and jingoistic band of men you could possibly find. They were unrealistically muscly men who spoke entirely in forced, clunky expository dialogue and cheesy one-liners. However, G.I Joe existed in a world of programming where if something was marketed towards boys, it was marketed ENTIRELY towards male children and no one else whatsoever. And 10-12 year old boys did not tune in to watch gripping, realistic, and cleverly-written drama, they tuned in to watch cool badasses (that they wanted to be like) shoot things up with lazer guns. 

And by damn, Sunbow was gonna give the boys of America what they wanted even if it killed them

G.I Joe was made up of a WIDE menagerie of characters (that each were cool in their own ways) but a few of the more memorable ones included: 

Duke, the attack leader of G.I Joe and the resident blond-haired, handsome, lady-catching hero (as pictured above). 

Flint: The second-in-command who was also a dashing hero (as pictured with the beret).

Scarlet: The fiesty ginger (who existed to stave away the feminists) as pictured above.

Roadblock: The token black guy who spouted a new catchphrase every minute, as though his purpose was to remind you that THIS CARTOON WANTS TO SELL YOU TOYS!!! (as pictured above)

and Snake-Eyes: The resident ninja (how?) of the team who saved Sunbow a fortune since he didn't speak and therefore didn't need a voice acotr. He too is pictured above, though he probably shouldn't be as ninjas are, as everyone knows, typically invisible. (But seriously, a ninja is an assassin, why would the U.S.A Army ever hire.......nevermind).

    G.I Joe mostly just dealt with one enemy all the time: Cobra, a terrorist organization  dedicated to taking over the world. Cobra also had a huge cast but a lot less of them were memorable. For the most part you simply had: 

Cobra Commander; The always-masked leader of the nefarious organization. Feared by most Cobra, laughed at by everyone from G.I Joe, he was kind of an arrogant brat who was more annoying than threatening half the time. 

Man was he cooler in the live-action movies

Destro and the Baroness: The 2nd-in-command of Cobra who was generally the first to call the Commander out on his shit and his girlfriend (COBRA'S token female)

Zartan: The leader of a gang of self-serving mercenaries who overtime become more and more loyal to Cobra, 

Let's play: Guess the Leader!

Storm Shadow: He's basically what happened when Cobra Commander saw that G.I Joe had a ninja and said to himself "I want one of those!" (NINJAS DO NOT WORK LIKE THAT)

Let's play: Guess the Ninja!

And last but certainly not least the man Cobra LITERALLY CREATED TO LEAD THEM (after they realized the Commander wasn't very good at it).......

Serpentor,

The Cobra Emperor:  

Only villain who was actually intimidating

  As I've gone on long enough describing characters, let's take a moment to describe the plot of the show. Cobra makes super-weapon. Cobra tries to take over the world. G.I Joe does not allow that. Repeat. For Two Seasons. 

    That was the entire show until we got to the movie. Than two more seasons of what was described above, Than two clip shows.........wanna talk about the movie? Let's.

    G.I Joe: The Movie was the crowning moment of the series. It's also where they jumped the shark (backflip). It revealed the Cobra had actually always been SPOILER ALERTasdfghjklacoverforanintraterrestrialsocietyofsnakepeopleasdfghjklSPOILERS END HERE.

I know you don't actually care and that you can't read that so I'm just gonna tell you anyways: Cobra was a cover for snake-people who desired world domination. I know it sounds ridiculous (it was) but it was actually kinda awesome. 

And that pretty much sums up G.I Joe?  Was i absolutely ludicrous? Yes. But did it give it's target audience what it wanted? Yes. Does that make it a failure or a success? You can believe whatever you want but i'm gonna go with success. 

See y'all next week. 

Samurai Jack

    Check out my last post here! http://that90sguyreviews.blogspot.ca/2015/10/my-top-10-favourite-90s-cartoons.html

    First off, suppppppper sorry guys that I've been on hiatus for way too long now, hope to get back on track. Now, this is way overdue, a review for Samurai Jack!

      Samurai Jack was the only cartoon I listed on my 10 Favourite 90s Cartoons list (http://that90sguyreviews.blogspot.ca/2015/10/my-top-10-favourite-90s-cartoons.html) that I hadn't reviewed yet and it 100% deserved to be there. it was an amazing show that was cancelled too early and luckily enough for us, that bad decision is finally being reversed! That's right, on the off-chance that you hadn't heard about it yet, Samurai Jack will be revived later this year. And what better way to celebrate that than by looking back on the original show!

    Samurai Jack aired three seasons from 2001 to 2003, meaning it's technically not really a "90s Cartoon" per say, but I think most of us can agree it was a great addition to our childhoods. The series followed the tale of a Samurai Prince who was thrusted into the far future by a demon and now has to fight a variety of baddies in the cyberpunk dystopia that is the future.We never actually get to know his real name but to the strangers he meets, he goes by the name "Jack".....and Jack is one of the coolest cartoon characters you will ever watch.

And he bares an odd resemblance to a certain Professor who....nah

    Jack's was a show that was pretty unique for the early 2000s Cartoon Network lineup. You had shows like The PowerPuff Girls, Dexter's Laboratory, and Ed, Edd, n Eddy, all of which showed kids doing some pretty crazy stuff that most people probably never would. But they were all very humorous and you almost never had to actually worry about a problem not getting resolved. In Samurai Jack, the problem was already beyond resolution. The world has gone to hell and the only way for Jack to save the world is to get back to his own time and stop his archnemesis, the Demon Wizard Aku, from ever taking over the world in the first place. And speaking of Aku, he was one of very few villains in fiction who pulled off alternating between being an intimidating threat and a comic relief within the runtime of a single episode. 

    Aku had a crazy design and a backstory that basically put him on the same level of evil as the Devil himself (it's so good that I couldn't possibly spoil it), and yet he was hilarious and light-hearted when he felt like it. A lot of credit has to go to the legendary Mako who voiced him. 

    Another unconventional thing the series did was that it really didn't have much of a cast. It pretty much was just Jack dealing with a different sidequest every episode. Helping a new town or something of the like on his way back to the past every day. The only real constant was Jack and the only villain you could expect to survive to fight another day was Aku. Only one stranger Jack ever helped got to get a second (and a third) appearance and that was the big galoot called the Scotsman. 

And damn, did he deserve it, another really funny character who could kick butt.

     Because of the nature of this series, it was one of the only shows that really needed a conclusion....and it DID NOT GET ONE. The series ended in 2004 with a simple episode that really left everything about Jack's quest un-resolved. We thought we might get a more satisfying ending with the IDW Samurai Jack comic book series that ran from 2013 to 2015 but alas, we didn't. Let's hope this upcoming Season 5 can finally give us what we've all been waiting for!

    All in all, Samurai Jack was a very funny series that knew when and how to tell a dramatic story, and if you haven't checked it out you should. It had a kickass opening theme song to boot and the animation is perfectly passable. I'd recommend the three-part premiere episode as well as "the Birth of Evil" Aku's two part origin story, if you're looking for a good starting place, but really this was a series with no truly bad episodes, ask anyone. To all my Samurai Jack fans, let's get hyped for Season 5!

Animaniacs Episode # 79 - The 12 Days of Christmas Day 2

    On the second day of Christmas, my TV gave to me 3 weird monkey-dog things! (Seriously, what are the Warner Siblings?)

    Animaniacs (http://that90sguyreviews.blogspot.ca/2015/10/animaniacs.html) was a show that was....odd with its' Christmas-themed episodes. It had 4 of them. Now they had 2 in 1 December for some reason, but this (the third one) was the weird one......it aired in February. Now the 4th and final Christmas special aired in an even weirder time of year, but I'll be reviewing that episode later so I'll save that until then. But seriously, to the best of my knowledge, no one was ever informed WHY the Animaniacs Christmas-themed episodes aired on such weird dates

so I'm just going to presume it was a mistake.

Now this (like many an Animanicas episode) contained 2 cartoons and 2 short songs

My Mother, The Squirrel

Where Slappy ends up being imprinted on by a baby bird

The Party

Where Yakko and his siblings invite Mr. Plotz to a party with a "Steven" who Plotz presumes is Spielberg (Spoilers: He's not)

Oh Say, Can You See?

A bastardization of a classic American patriot song that sure has a lot more fun than the real song did, even anthropomorphising the candle that many American Revolutionists used to light their rooms when they needed to write

and

The Twelve Days of Christmas 

A bastardization of the classic Christmas song that inspired this series (SHOUTOUT TO THAT SONG, YOU THE REAL MVP) 

    All-in-all, not much of a special episode, and honestly not much to talk about. Just your usual Animaniacs episode, hilarious. I like it when we get to see how sad Plotz's love-life is. I like seeing Slappy have to deal with her total contrast: a happy-go-lucky newborn bird, and I like figuring out that it's NOT Steven Spielberg who the Warner Trio invited to their party. But what takes the cake to all that, the crowning achievement of this episode has to be.......the "say hello to Christopher Walken" meme

Why won't anyone say hi to me?

   But in all seriousness, this is not the best Animaniacs Christmas special and it's nothing special. Worth a watch for a giggle if you have the time but it's not a hard-hitter or a must-watch by any stretch of the imagination. See you guys tomorrow!