Let's Watch This: An Episode of "Bonkers"

Ah, Bonkers! This is one of the more divisive shows to air as part of The Disney Afternoon. You either love the show or you hate it. There doesn't seem to be an in-between.

The show focuses on a goofy cartoon bobcat named Bonkers D. Bobcat, voiced by Jim Cummings. Once he was a big cartoon star, but then his show got cancelled. Thankfully, there are other career options for toons in this world, and he winds up becoming a cop. He's paired with human detective Lucky Piquel, a toon-hating cop (also voiced by Jim Cummings) and wacky shenanigans ensue as they fight crime.

Those that dislike Bonkers mainly seem to have their hatred stem from the belief that he's a Roger Rabbit knockoff. Many even believed that the show was originally supposed to be a Roger Rabbit show but they had to replace Roger with Bonkers it due to rights issues or something like that. According to Greg Weisman, one of the show's developers, this was not the case, Bonkers was merely inspired by Roger. However, despite the detractors, many love Bonkers just as much as (or even more than) Roger. As for me, I'd only seen one episode of the show at the time of writing this review (the one where Mickey Mouse shows up and we never actually see him, we just hear his voice and see his shadow). Since then, I've actually watched more episodes of the show... which should probably give you some indication as to whether or not I like the show. Hey, if it's got Jim Cummings voicing the main character, surely the show is worth watching, right?

So, let's watch the episode "Weather or Not" and see if Bonkers is indeed worth going bonkers (get it?) over.

The episode begins on a dark and stormy night. However, Bonkers doesn't mind - the rain brings back memories of a musical he did called "It's Raining on My Forehead, But My Tootsies are Getting Soaked". Lucky then shows up, and per usual he's in a mood. He just got back from the dry cleaners, and the rain, rain, rain came down, down, down on his nice, dry suit. He's ticked-off at Bonkers because Bonkers told him the weather would be nice and sunny (that's what the weatherman said). Bonkers is bummed because he thinks this makes him a crappy detective, and he vows to do something about it.

Bonkers: one half Roger Rabbit, one half Tigger.

That "something" is order a Toon Detective Delivery Course Kit or something like that, which is rather quickly delivered by a cartoon tortoise who sounds like Pete the Puma. "Sorry!" he says. "Got caught in traffic! How about a tip?" "Sure," Bonkers replies. "Never leave wax lips sitting on the dashboard when it's over-eighty in the shade." I'll have to keep that in mind.

After his two shorts with Disney, Toby Tortoise took some odd jobs to put bread
on the table.
(For those of you who don't know who Toby Tortoise is, please Google it)

Bonkers is sure that his new Toon Detective Delivery Course Kit or whatever it's called will make him the greatest detective in the history of detectives. It's got everything that a detective might need - even an Inspector Clouseau mustache! Just then, he and Lucky get a call from da Chief... who wants Lucky to pick up a few dozen submarine sandwiches. That initially doesn't sound so important, but soon Lucky comes to the conclusion that da Chief is testing him to see if he's worthy of being a lieutenant. But before he heads off to Subway or wherever, he makes sure to check the weather on TV. Say hello to the weatherman, Cyrus McCloud.

Who honestly looks more like the host of a kids' TV show than a professional
weatherman.

The weatherman is helped with his broadcasts by five toons known as "the Weather Toons" - Sunny, Cloudy, Snowy, Sparky, and Toony Tornado.

The Weather Toons, everybody.

The forecast calls for "Cloudy with some light drizzles". "That's all I need to know!" Lucky exclaims, and off he heads with his umbrella in hand and a raincoat... only to discover that it's not cloudy outside with some light drizzles. It's unbelievably windy. Yes, it looks like a rather blustery day.

I'm making a lot of Winnie the Pooh jokes in this review, aren't I? Must be because Jim Cummings is voicing Bonkers and Lucky.

Lucky is not pleased at Cyrus McCloud or his little toon sidekicks, but then he hears Cyrus mention that it's Valentine's Day - and Valentine's Day was actually the month before, so the TV must be showing reruns of the weather for some reason. "It's time to pay that TV station a visit!" Lucky tells Bonkers.

We haven't had a screencap of Lucky yet, so here one is now.

At the TV station, they find Cyrus bound and gagged. And he's acting veeeeeeeeeeery suspicious. The toon camera suggests that Bonkers and Lucky check out the weather map for clues. "It'll be a snowy day in August before a toon camera tells me how to do my job!" Lucky snaps... right before snow suddenly falls on top of him.

Wait, Lucky said earlier that Valentine's Day was the month before... if the episode takes place in August, why did they celebrate Valentine's Day in JULY?

Anyhow, Lucky heads over to the weather map and finds a clue that the Weather Toons are missing. That must be why the station is showing reruns. Lucky goes to see da Chief, Leonard Kanifky (Earl Boen), and tells him about the missing Weather Toons. Da Chief just tells him to forget the case (in fact, he's much more concerned with his stupid sandwiches than he is over the missing toons). When Lucky tells Bonkers this, of course, Bonkers assumes that he wants him to solve the case on his own. So off Bonkers heads to solve the case.

First, he interrogates the weather station's makeup girl. She makes it pretty clear that she isn't too fond of the Weather Toons and their mischievous ways. Very suspicious...

"I'm Stripey McSnarl, and I, can tell you from experience,
That now and then a crook can cook a clever plan..."

Next, Bonkers interrogates Sam the cameraman. Dunno why they need a cameraman when the camera is a sentient toon camera and could probably just film everything on his own without a problem, but what do I know? Anyway, it turns out that Sam hates the Weather Toons too.

Bonkers makes for a much better Inspector Clouseau than Steve Martin did.

Bonkers' next suspect is the station's producer, Biffy Canova. Bonkers demands to know A) why he didn't report the Weather Toons' disappearance to the police and B) why he's trying to hide it with reruns. According to Biffy, the station has had lousy ratings, and if the Weather Toons didn't appear on TV the ratings would likely get lousier.

I never saw that Holmes and Watson movie, but I'm guessing that he makes a
much better Sherlock Holmes than Will Ferrell did too.

After Biffy leaves, Bonkers notices a trail of Red Herrings. Somebody better call Fred Jones. The trail leads him right to... Lucky. A very, very, very ticked-off Lucky. He chews out Bonkers for trying to solve the case even after da Chief told them to forget it, but then a mysterious shadowy figure sends a satellite dish falling on top of them and he realizes that perhaps this case IS worth solving after all. So they drive to Biffy's country house for some more investigating.

Biffy insisted on buying the most stereotypically spooky-looking house on the market.
For some reason.

They are greeted by Biffy's butler, who looks like this:

Quickly, they discover that Biffy has invited all of the episode's suspects - Cyrus, the makeup girl, and Sam - to his house for dinner. Zhe odds, vhat are zhey? Bonkers does his detective shtick... "You see, a crime needs a motive. So I asked myself, which one of you coulda done it?" he says. The makeup girl and Sam both had motives - they hate the Weather Toons. But Cyrus' motive may very well be the best motive of all - the Weather Toons were more famous than he was. Lucky thinks that all three of them did it. But now Bonkers suspects Biffy. He's the only one there with NO motive, so clearly if HE did it he would know that he would get away with it. But it turns out that he's innocent - he was in France that day. And he's got proof, too.

Eventually, it turns out that the butler did it. "I shoulda known, it's ALWAYS da butler!" Bonkers exclaims. Then it's revealed that the butler was actually just the Weather Toons themselves in a clever disguise.

WHAT A TWIST!

They staged their own disappearance so all of the people that Bonkers suspected would get the blame and go to jail for kidnapping. Why would they do such a thing? "BECAUSE WE DON'T NEED YOU!" they snap as they start attacking everyone. "We've got rain! Talent! Versatility!" Cloudy yells. Toony Tornado is ticked-off that they didn't invite him to play the tornado in The Wizard of Oz. Fortunately, Bonkers has an idea to defeat the Weather Toons.

I can't believe that Boo Berry and the Raisin Bran Sun were actually diabolical
villains the whole time! It's always the ones you least expect...

Bonkers' plan works - he and Lucky manage to trap the Weather Toons in the weather map, and the five are placed behind bars. Da Chief tells Lucky that he oughta promote him for bringing the Weather Toons to justice... but then he realizes that he oughta suspend him for disobeying his orders not to get involved. After thinking it over, he decides to call it even. And then Bonkers decides to order a SUPER Toon Detective Delivery Course kit, much to Lucky's horror.

What's the Verdict?

I honestly really like Bonkers. Sure, Bonkers and Lucky are basically just Roger Rabbit and Eddie Valiant 2.0, but the show is genuinely funny, Bonkers is charming, the voice acting is good (Jim Cummings is in it so I guess that's to be expected) and the episodes manage to invest you in the "mystery" even if you (like me - apparently whoever wrote the show's "Episode List" page on Wikipedia never heard of spoilers) go in knowing the twist ending. I'd recommend checking out Bonkers - you can find it on Disney Plus.

I don't know why the writers of Animaniacs felt the need to mock the show every so often. Then again, what DIDN'T Animaniacs mock? The writers of that show clearly had a lot of axes to grind...

Let's Watch This: An Episode of "The Wuzzles"

Let's travel back in time to the 1980s, where plush toys reigned supreme. Particularly pastel-colored animal plush toys. This is the decade that gave us the Care Bears, after all.

At some point in the 1980s, toy companies all got an idea - get cartoon shows made based on these toys, and sales of the toys would go up, up, up... because who WOULDN'T want a plush toy of a cartoon character that they really like? And that, in turn, gave animation studios an idea - make a cartoon featuring cutesy pastel-colored animal characters suitable for making plush toys of, then get a marketing deal and watch the cash from toy sales come flooding in. For example, there's The Wuzzles.

The Wuzzles may have only gotten thirteen episodes, but it was a huge success with merchandise. Everybody wanted a Wuzzle. Plushes, books, bendable figures, a board game... not bad for one of Disney's lesser-known cartoons.

The show took place in the Land of Wuz, where everything is a combination of two different things. The main characters are animal hybrids - bumblebee/lion hybrid Bumblelion (voiced by Brian Cummings), elephant/kangaroo hybrid Eleroo (Henry Gibson), rhinoceros/monkey hybrid Rhinokey (Alan Oppenheimer), moose/seal hybrid Mooseal (Bill "Bullwinkle" Scott), hippopotamus/rabbit hybrid Hoppopotamus (Jo Anne Worley), and bear/butterfly hybrid Butterbear (Kathleen Helppie-Shirley). They do stuff, eating things like "appleberries" and living in "castlescrapers" and getting into whacky adventures.

They might as well be wearing t-shirts that read "BUY OUR MERCHANDISE".

But, as I've stated, despite how much merchandise had the Wuzzles' images on it, it isn't exactly one of Disney's more popular cartoon shows. Only thirteen episodes were made. There apparently aren't any home video releases. But every so often we'll get something small to remind us that this show existed. There was a Robot Chicken sketched that lampooned the show, for one thing. Also, the Wuzzles walk-around costumes used at the Disney theme parks were accidentally sold off, resulting in the characters popping up in some odd places - for example, Moosel appeared in a music video starring the Dixie Chicks, Eleroo makes an appearance in the 2003 movie Old School, Bumblelion showed up in a T-Mobile commercial, and Butterbear made a cameo in an episode of Sonny With a Chance.

So, is The Wuzzles any good? That's what we're here to find out. We'll be watching an episode to see if the show is an underrated classic or a piece of crap that deserves to languish in obscurity. Today's episode? "Bumblelion and the Terrified Forest". Let's get started!

The episode begins with Bumblelion and Eleroo watching a show called Buck Swashler on TV. The narrator is initially confused by this "Buck Swashler" character and asks if he's narrating the right cartoon. I love it when narrators have fun with their jobs.

Bumblelion and Eleroo had different reactions when watching Bee Movie. Bumblelion
was excited by the fact that a fellow bee was the star. Eleroo, by contrast, was too disturbed
by the whole "bee hooks up with a human" thing.

Hoppopotamus and Butterbear are watching Buck Swashler on TV, too. Hoppopotamus considers it stupid. Buck Swashler ends the show by telling the audience, "There's nothing to fear when a swashbuckler is near!"

Bumblelion is so inspired that he decides to head out and become a swashbuckler himself. First, he attempts to save Moosel from a "sharkosaurus"... that turns out to just be a minnow shark.

Or maybe it's just a top-heavy salmon.

Meanwhile, Hoppopotamus heads over to the local beauty parlor for a makeover. As a result, we are treated to several fat jokes at her expense. Fat people - they're automatically hilarious because they're fat.

Then we cut to Eleroo, out hunting for "butterhoppers". This is a very disjointed show, isn't it? What happened to Bumblelion wanting to be a swashbuckler? Can we pick a storyline and stick with it?

Anyway, Eleroo chases a butterhopper into a cave, where Bumblelion coincidentally enough also happens to be. Food for thought - if Bumblelion is half-bee, is he capable of making honey?

How is that stalagmite not crumbling with his weight?

Bumblelion spots the shadow of the butterhopper that Eleroo was chasing, assumes that it's a "ding-bat", and tries to save Eleroo from it. Eleroo runs out of the cave, and the narrator returns to give us some exposition - a ding-bat is a cross between a dingo dog and a bat (and ugly all over).

Even the ugly monsters in this show look like they'd make great plush toys.

So Bumblelion emerges from the cave with the "ding-bat", who Eleroo is relieved to see is just that butterhopper from before. "I should've known. There isn't a ding-bat within miles of here!" he says. But as soon as Eleroo and Bumblelion walk away, the camera pans up to reveal that there are a pair of ding-bats sitting in a tree above them. Oh, the irony!

After that, Bumblelion runs into Hoppopotamus, who's just received her makeover. And it's here that we get Hoppopotamus' OTHER main character trait - not only is she fat, but she has the hots for Bumblelion. But the feeling is not mutual... Bumblelion likes Butterbear. It's basically a Running Gag throughout the show that Hoppopotamus wants to make a new breed of Wuzzle with Bumblelion and she will not take "no" for an answer. And yes, it's very disturbing.

You ever notice how we only ever see one Wuzzle of each kind? There aren't any lion/bumblebee hybrids besides Bumblelion himself running around. Maybe that's why Hoppopotamus is so desperate to hook up with Bumblelion - there isn't anyone else of HER species to date.

Say, what exactly would a Wuzzle of two existing Wuzzles be called?
A Double-Wuzzle?

So Hoppopotamus is all "I want to make hippo-faced, rabbit-eared babies with lion's manes and antennae with you!" but Bumblelion doesn't go for women that look like Gloria from Madagascar had a kid with the March Hare. He heads over to Butterbear's place to help her pick "pumpkinberries" to make a pie. But little do they know that they're being watched by a pair of ding-bats. Dun-dun-dun!

Oh, and then Hoppopotamus shows up and gives Bumblelion a hard time for not thinking she's attractive. But there's no time to argue about that now, the ding-bats have kidnapped Butterbear!

"A ding-bat's got my Care Bear!"

"Poor Butterbear. Looks like she's got a one-way ticket to trouble," the narrator points out. No, ya THINK? And according to Bumblelion, the ding-bats are taking her towards the Terrified Forest, where an evil "vampire-witch" lives. A comment from Hoppopotamus gives Bumblelion an idea - he'll channel Buck Swashler and save Butterbear. She'll be so grateful that she'll immediately fall in love with him. Hoppopotamus announces that she's coming with him because she still wants to hook up with Bumblelion.

Meanwhile, the ding-bats take Butterbear to a creepy old cottage in the woods where a bat-winged vulture lady in witch garb lives. This I'm gonna go out on a limb and say is the vampire-witch that Bumblelion mentioned. And she's not happy - she ordered her ding-bat henchmen to get butterberries, not a Butterbear.

"I ordered you to get me a butterBEER, not a Butterbear! I even gave you
a map to Hogsmeade!"

Then the vampire-witch (Tress MacNeille) sees Bumblelion and Hoppopotamus in her crystal ball. "Intruders in my Terrified Forest?!" she says. She orders the ding-bats to tie up Butterbear and then go after the "intruders". As for Bumblelion and Hoppopotamus, they've come across some terrifying talking trees.

Geez, and I thought the trees from Babes in Toyland were creepy...

After getting away from the trees, Bumblelion and Hoppopotamus have to cross a rickety rope bridge. We get another fat joke at Hoppopotamus' expense, but it's not her weight that makes the bridge collapse but rather the ding-bats sabotaging it. Bumblelion attempts to save her... and fails miserably, so she has to climb them both to safety.

The vampire-witch, meanwhile, is having problems making a good potion and moans about what a loser she's become. And as if THAT weren't enough, she accidentally turned her pet "gorantula" into a monster and it took over her castle. The rejected Gummi Bear offers to help her make a potion to change it back to normal. Meanwhile, Hoppopotamus is the victim of another fat joke as she attempts to channel Tarzan and swing across a pond full of mud.

Actually, she's not the victim of another fat joke. She's the victim of TWO MORE fat jokes. Bumblelion attempts to save her... and fails miserably again.

Errol Flynn you are not, Bumblelion.

Hoppopotamus winds up having to save him again, and as if things couldn't get any worse, a swarm of piranhakeets - half-piranha, half-parakeet - emerge from the water. Say, didn't The Croods also have piranha/parakeet hybrids?

Fortunately, they manage to get away, and the smell of barbecue leads them to the vampire-witch's cottage. Once inside, Butterbear and the vampire-witch fill them in as to what's going on - a giant "gorantula" has taken over the vampire-witch's castle and they're working on a potion to shrink it. They need butterberries to complete the potion, but they're out of season at the moment. But what luck, there are some in the laboratory of the vampire-witch's castle... where the aforementioned giant "gorantula" is. Then we get a reference to The Wizard of Oz (fitting, since we have a witch and a cowardly lion... well, a cowardly lion/bumblebee hybrid, anyway).

So off Bumblelion heads to the castle, Hoppopotamus running after him when she discovers that he forgot his whip. He has to climb a tree to get past a moat infested by what appear to be polar bear/alligator hybrids... as does Hoppopotamus, resulting in - get ready for this - ANOTHER FAT JOKE!

Bumblelion makes it to the laboratory, where he finds those pesky butterberries.

Looks more like cheese to me, but eh...

Back at the cottage, Butterbear decides that it's time to give the vampire-witch a "vampire-witch once-over", despite the fact that she believes herself to be a flop as a witch. Said "once-over" is just her getting a mohawk and a mole on her cheek. That's it. But she considers herself much better-looking now. Bumblelion shows up with the butterberries, then after Butterbear tells him that Hoppopotamus went after him makes a run back to the castle before the gorantula gets its hands, or whatever it is that gorantulas have, on her.

And we finally get to see what this gorantula - as its name suggests, it's half-gorilla, half-tarantula - looks like.

It wouldn't be a Disney cartoon without at least one example of some Grade-A
Nightmare Fuel.

The vampire-witch has finished the potion, so she hops aboard her "boomerang-stick" and heads to the castle to save Bumblelion and Hoppopotamus from the gorantula. We get yet another fat joke at Hoppopotamus' expense, then the vampire-witch uses a spell to transport them and Butterbear home. Hoppopotamus now loves Buck Swashler's show. The end.

WHAT'S THE VERDICT?

The Wuzzles is basically what you'd expect. Sure, it's a blatant attempt to sell plushes. And yeah, it's also very disturbing how much Hoppopotamus wants to get it on with Bumblelion. But the show has a lot of charm to save it from just coming across as a twenty-two minute toy commercial. The voice actors give it their all, the animation's good, the character designs are fun... actually, you know what this is? It's basically Spliced, but it's actually good.

If you'd like to give the show a watch, you can find a bunch of episodes on YouTube. Which is convenient, seeing as it's not on DVD (I'm not even sure if it got a VHS release). You'll probably find yourself liking it.