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...