Let's Watch This: An Episode of "The Adventures of Raggedy Ann and Andy"

Let me take you back in time to 2012. Around the time that Hurricane Sandy barged into New Jersey uninvited, I became aware of an animated movie called Raggedy Ann and Andy: A Musical Adventure.

If you're a huge animation fan like me, there's a pretty good chance you already know about this 1977 Richard Williams-directed film. Its main claim to fame is being very, very trippy. Like, on par with the Pink Elephants scene from Dumbo levels of trippy. Trippy and also very, very FREAKY. It certainly scared the pants off of me when I watched a review of it. Just seeing screencaps of it creeps me out.

I know what you're thinking: a movie about Raggedy Ann? That cute little rag doll? How could THAT possibly be scary? Well, the film starts out innocently enough, but around the beginning of the second act takes a turn for the bizarre. Look it up for yourself if you don't believe me.

And so, thanks to that movie I found myself freaked out by Raggedy Ann for a while. And while my being unsettled by the film remains to this day, I think I've gotten to the point where I can at least LOOK at a picture of Raggedy Ann herself without being frightened.

Now, since the movie, there have been other animated things based on the Raggedy Ann stories, most of which having little connection (if any) to the movie. Chuck Jones produced a Christmas special and a Halloween special starring Raggedy Ann and Andy in 1978 and 1977 respectively. And in 1988, to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the characters, CBS created a cartoon show called The Adventures of Raggedy Ann and Andy.

This show, much like the Chuck Jones specials, has very little connections to the 1977 movie. Raggedy Ann, Andy, and their pal the Camel With the Wrinkled Knees (who is my personal favorite character from the movie) do have the same designs as they did in the film, albeit drawn "cutesier"... and that's about it. Each episode would have the dolls and their fellow toys venturing to somewhere like Ancient Egypt or a village populated by anteater-like creatures called the Perriwonks, usually having to foil the plans of an evil wizard called Cracklin. It wasn't nearly as surreal or as nightmarish as the movie, but I think that's honestly for the best.

The show received one season of thirteen episodes, with reruns continuing to air for a while before the show fell into obscurity. There have been a few DVD releases of it, if nothing else. I guess it's up to me to help spread some awareness of the show, so today we'll be watching the eleventh episode, "The Little Chicken Adventure" (every episode of the show is called "The [SOMETHING] Adventure"). This is The Adventures of Raggedy Ann and Andy.

The episode begins with the toys' owner, Marcella, prancing around dressed as a unicorn. Otherwise known as what some Bronies do in their spare time. The reason why she's doing it is because she's been cast as a unicorn in a play. She puts her fake horn on a rocking horse and then leaves to rehearse some more.

When Marcella's out of the room, the toys come to life. Something interesting is that Raggedy Ann and Andy are voiced by actual kids in this show - Ann's voiced by Christina Lange (you might recall that she did Velma in A Pup Named Scooby-Doo) and Andy's voiced by Josh Rodine. Honestly, when I first watched this show, it was pretty jarring to hear them with actual kid voices because I was so used to Didi Conn and Mark Baker's voices in the movie, but y'know what? It actually works just as well. I can't say the same for Kenneth Mars' take on the Camel With the Wrinkled Knees, however, which I find really off-putting.

Speaking of voices, the rocking horse is voiced by Rob Paulsen. His name is Tally-Ho, but we don't learn that until after he suddenly vanishes in a flash of light. Wait, what?!

I'm just now noticing that Marcella has a potted cactus in her room.

Ann, Andy, and the Camel run outside and find Tally-Ho standing by the fence... and then he vanishes again! Actually, he didn't vanish - he just teleported. But then he actually DOES vanish! "Unicorn horns are supposed to be magical," Ann points out. "That unicorn horn must be real!"

…where the heck did Marcella get a real unicorn horn? What, did she go to Diagon Alley or something?

"We've got to find Tally-Ho!"

"Okay, but if we run into any sentient taffy pits or demented purple-skinned knights obsessed
with practical jokes, I'm heading home..."

So the three of them head out to the Old West... yes, apparently Marcella's house is in walking distance from what looks like a desert in Arizona... where they find Tally-Ho. Suddenly, his unicorn horn is lassoed and yanked off - right before Tally-Ho gets lassoed himself. Figures they'd run into a rocking horse rustler. I hear those are a real problem in Arizona or wherever this desert is located...

Pull harder, guys! If the rustlers get their hands on Tally-Ho, they'll sell him to
Toys R Us with all the other rocking horses they've nabbed!

As it turns out, the one with the lasso ISN'T a rocking horse rustler. It's a Native American boy with pointy elf ears. He says that he thought Tally-Ho was a unicorn, and he needs to catch one. "You mean unicorns really exist?" Ann asks. Well, DUH, Ann. It's already been established that magic unicorn HORNS exist. If unicorns aren't real, where do you think the horn came from?

Okay, so the Native American boy needs to rope and ride a unicorn because if he doesn't, he won't pass his tribe's "Test of Bravery" and he'll never get a new name. What's his name now? Little Chicken (not to be confused with Chicken Little). Tally-Ho laughs at this, because Tally-Ho is apparently a jerk.

So... apparently in this world, there are Native American elves. Do you think this is common knowledge? In school, were Marcella and her classmates taught about them?

Do you think the Native American elves got together with the Pilgrim elves to have a feast
to celebrate their harvest? Do you think there was an elf Pocahontas? Am I looking too far into this?

Little Chicken explains that he has a magic golden lasso, the only thing in the world that can stop a unicorn from teleporting. He's made it his goal to lasso the greatest unicorn of all, Great White, who nobody has ever ridden before. And what luck, Great White just happens to be nearby.

"Please don't teleport away like I just said unicorns have the ability to do! Please, PLEASE
don't teleport away!"

Little Chicken manages to lasso him, but suddenly everyone is distracted by some sort of commotion a-goin' on down below. A bunch of unicorns are being rounded up by unicorn rustlers - pointy-eared creeps who pluck the horns from right off of unicorns' heads so they can sell them and become rich. So THAT'S where Marcella got the horn from!

Great White slips out of Little Chicken's lasso and teleports away. The Camel's reaction is to briefly make a Derpy Hooves face.

The My Little Pony references are basically writing themselves...

Then the unicorn rustlers trap the now-hornless unicorns by causing a rockslide. Why, I don't know. I mean, they've already got the horns. But anyway, they're cackling about how the horns will make them a fortune, but then Great White appears and is all "I DON'T THINK SO!". When the rustlers see HIS horn, they figure that it must be worth a fortune and lasso him. But y'know how only a magic golden lasso can stop a unicorn from teleporting? Yeah, Great White just teleports out of their binds. Epic fail, rustlers.

Here's a joke for you: what game should you never play with a unicorn? Leap frog.
Get it?

Little Chicken blames himself for what happened to the unicorns, but Ann says that there must be SOMETHING they can do. Honestly, though, I don't think Great White actually NEEDS any help at the moment, seeing as every time the rustlers lasso him he just teleports away.

After the rustlers continue to fail at unicorn-lassoing, Ann comes up with an idea - they can keep the rustlers busy so that Great White can free his herd. But how are they going to do that? "With a little unicorn magic!" she exclaims. And by that, she means they'll grab some unicorn horns from out of the rustlers' bags and put them on. If their intent is to trick the rustlers into thinking that THEY'RE unicorns, I see a few flaws in that plan...

I mean, Tally-Ho could easily make for a convincing unicorn, but the others? Nah.

Not that it matters, because when the rustlers see them they simply assume that they stole their unicorn horns and give chase. Thus begins a chase sequence as Great White tries to free his herd by... slowly trying to chip away at the rockslide. Yeah, that should free your herd all right. In about SEVEN MONTHS.

Blah-blah-blah, more teleporting, more chasing... where's a giant monster made of taffy who sings about how he can't stop eating himself when you need him?

Maybe I should've reviewed the episode where they save Christmas instead. It might've
given me more to work with...

The Camel is having difficulty controlling his horn's teleportation powers, so Little Chicken uses his golden lasso on him. Problem is, now the rustlers know that the golden lasso is what prevents unicorns from teleporting. But apparently that "golden lasso is the only thing that prevents unicorns from teleporting" thing is bullcrap, because the Camel promptly teleports onto Tally-Ho's back. Rustler 1 and Little Chicken get into a tug-of-war over the lasso while Rustler 2 nabs the horns and then slices the lasso in half. The rustlers then proceed to use the magic golden lasso on Great White, which shouldn't be a problem since we just saw the lasso does NOT, in fact, prevent unicorns from teleporting... unless maybe the rules of the lasso just don't apply to camels who are wearing unicorns' horns or something? 

Little Chicken throws in the towel and heads off, the others running after him. He leads them to a bunch of multicolored paint pots. Fortunately, Little Chicken knows the secret of getting through the paint pots without getting splattered (which prevents Marcella from wondering why her dolls now have gigantic red stains on them when they get back) - you just walk right by them. No, really.

Or maybe it's not that simple after all.

Little Chicken explains that they simply have to go in the opposite direction of the echo that they hear when they yell in the right direction. So they all shout "HELLOOOOOOO!", but they don't hear any echo. "If the right direction is the wrong direction, and we go in the other way, then we have to yell 'Good-bye'," Ann suggests. So they try THAT, and it works.

So they make it through unscathed... until Camel trips on a rock and some orange mud splatters on the piece of the golden lasso that Little Chicken has in his pocket. The orange mud dissolves the rope, because orange mud can do that, apparently. Andy says that they can use the orange mud to dissolve the golden lasso that the rustlers are using on Great White. "But if we destroy the golden lasso, Little Chicken will never get to ride a unicorn!" Ann points out. But Little Chicken says that if it's the only way they can save the unicorns, he'll do it.

"Do you have any idea how tired I am of people assuming that I'm Ann's boyfriend?! I'm
her BROTHER! HER BROTHER!"

Then Little Chicken suggests that they hollow out one of the nearby gourds and carry the mud in it. Now the only problem is figuring out how they're going to distract the rustlers while they spread the mud on the lasso. The solution? White chalk! They cover Camel and Tally-Ho with it and put sticks on their foreheads so that, when the rustlers see them, they'll think that THEY'RE white unicorns as well. It works, the rustlers tie the lasso around a large rock so they can go grab the other two "Great Whites". Side note, at one point during this scene Tally-Ho talks without moving his mouth.

Here's another joke: what did the magical creature serve at his barbeque? Unicorn on the cob.
I'll be here all week.

Ann, Andy, and Little Chicken use the mud to dissolve the golden lasso, freeing Great White. Alas, Camel and Tally-Ho wind up running right into a strong wind that blows the white chalk off. "We've been tricked!" one of the rustlers complains, and then they spot Great White running free. Fortunately, the good guys have another plan to save the unicorns...

They hide from the rustlers behind some cacti, but y'know that cliché where a fly lands on the hiding character's nose and causes them to sneeze, giving them away? That happens to Camel. More running, more chasing, and eventually they trick the rustlers into flying off a canyon wall and into a river. The day is saved!

So they head back to the unicorn herd (by the way, it's nighttime by this point. Do you think Marcella has noticed four of her toys have gone missing by now?) and put their horns back on. Little Chicken will never get to ride one now, but he did the right thing, and that's what matters. This doesn't matter to the rest of his tribe, however, who mock him for being a little chicken.

So the moral of today's story is NOT to do the right thing, or else you'll be made fun of?

But then Great White teleports in and lets Little Chicken ride him. For this, the rest of his tribe dubs him "Great Rider". Tally-Ho speaks with Camel's voice, and then he, Camel, Ann, and Andy head home. When they get home, Marcella's dog finds the horn and puts it on, causing HIM to teleport - right into a tree. Nyuck nyuck nyuck.

What's the Verdict?

There isn't anything spectacular about The Adventures of Raggedy Ann and Andy, but it's a pleasant little show. I appreciate that it's not as freaky as the movie, the characters are kind of one-dimensional but likeable enough, and the voice actors all do a good job (my distaste for the voice Kenneth Mars gave the Camel notwithstanding). The animation is alright, there are some errors but the character designs and backgrounds are nice to look at. I doubt anyone over the age of eight would be all that invested in the show, but as far as cartoons based on toys go, it's not bad. If you like Raggedy Ann, check it out. If not, you can skip it.

It's kind of strange that we haven't gotten a new animated Raggedy Ann production in three decades (the character's most recent animated appearance was something called Snowden: Raggedy Ann and Andy's Adventure in 1998). With how obsessed we are with reboots and how adverse we are to original ideas nowadays, you'd think somebody would try their hand at a new Raggedy Ann and Andy cartoon. Ah well. Maybe someday...

Let's Watch This: An Episode of "Scaredy Squirrel"

NOTE: Please do not take any of the little nitpicks in this review (or any of my other reviews, for that matter) seriously. I write these reviews in the hopes of making people laugh. Those nitpicks are really just dumb little observations that I'm attempting to make jokes out of, not complaints that add to whether or not I like something.

NOTE #2: No disrespect is meant towards anyone who worked on the show I am reviewing today. I'm sure they are all very nice and talented people.

NOTE #3: If you like this show, that is great. Go ahead and like it. I'm not judging you.

Have you ever heard of a children's book series called Scaredy Squirrel? The first book featuring this character was released in 2006, focusing on a nervous squirrel named Scaredy who is afraid of everything and lives his life according to a routine. I've only read one of these books, but according to Wikipedia they all follow a specific formula: Scaredy identifies his fears, develops a plan to avoid them, winds up facing them, and eventually learns that they're not as bad as he imagined they would be. Sounds simple enough, right?

In 2011, Nelvana decided to adapt Scaredy Squirrel into a cartoon show. And that cartoon show is what we'll be looking at today!

Scaredy Squirrel premiered on April 1st, 2011 and received three seasons. The show isn't very much like the books. For one thing, Scaredy (voiced by Terry McGurrin) looks NOTHING like his literary counterpart. He works at a supermarket, which he did not do in the books, and lives in the city of Balsa City. He's still a neuronic germaphobe, though. There are also a bunch of characters that weren't in the books, such as his dimwitted best friend Dave the Skunk (Jonathan Gould), his grouchy boss Nestor (Patrick McKenna), and a trout named Sally (Linda Kash) who has a crush on him. The show aired on YTV in Canada and on Cartoon Network in the United States.

Is the show any good? I think I watched one episode years ago, but I don't remember much of it. Admittedly, Nelvana's track record on this blog so far (especially their 2010s output) hasn't been all that great, ranging from crap like Spliced and Hotel Transylvania: The Series to mediocre stuff like Birdz. But it's unfair to say that EVERYTHING Nelvana is responsible is bad - I mean, they gave us Rolie Polie Olie and Little Bear, after all. So what say we watch the show's thirtieth episode and see if Scaredy Squirrel is worth going crazy (you were expecting me to say "going nuts" since the show is about a squirrel, weren't you?) for or not?

This show is one of those "each episode is two segments in one" cartoons. Our first segment is called "I Think Therefore I Clean".

The episode begins with Scaredy and Dave in Scaredy's house. Scaredy shows off a rocket that he got a store called Huey's House of High-Tech Cleaning Supplies. You put trash in the rocket, and then it launches the garbage into space. I'm guessing this is what led to the creation of that garbage monster in the episode of Rocket Monkeys I looked at.

Honestly, this seems like a lot of trouble to go through just to get rid of trash. Doesn't Balsa City have garbage trucks?

And wouldn't sending trash into outer space result in the air becoming a lot smellier?

Then Scaredy gets a call from Huey, who tells him that they've got a new vacuum cleaner in stock. So he and Dave head over to buy it. "Behold, the Suckmaster 3000! A top of the line computer and a state of the art vacuum!" Huey tells them. It's so advanced that it sucks up Dave. I guess it really hates Patrick Star wannabes.

"And don't worry! Unlike other technologically-advanced machines in cartoons, there is little
to no chance of this vacuum cleaner going berserk and causing whacky shenanigans to ensue!"

I initially thought the vacuum was kind of a downgrade from the other things we saw on sale at Huey's - the aforementioned rocket, helicopter sponges, a battery-operated sink polisher, a solar-powered toilet brush... but when Scaredy brings it home, it turns out that it can do more than just suck up dirt. It can also clean windows, complete with jet-powered squeegees. It can sort socks, which Scaredy has no reason to own since he walks around barefoot all the time. It can even clean eggs off the ceiling (it makes sense in context).

Scaredy seems to be convinced that his vaccuum is a sentient being. He names it "Kath-kleen" and starts walking it around on a leash like a dog. Even Dave points out how strange that is, and when the idiot sidekick is weirded-out by your behavior, you've got a problem.

Is this going to wind up like those Swiffer commercials where the broom/mop/other cleaning
instrument acts all depressed over its owner "dumping it" for a Swiffer? I hope not. Those ads always
kind of bummed me out...

Then again, Dave's not exactly one to talk. He's walking a cuckoo clock on a leash.

He's a skunk... he's got a cuckoo clock on a leash... yeah, sorry, I can't think of
a funny joke to make here.

Scaredy takes his vacuum cleaner to do things like swing on the swing set, use a photo booth, go to an amusement park, go shopping, and even bring it to work with him. I swear, the further we get into the episode, the more I'm expecting him to straight-up MARRY this thing.

Suddenly, Scaredy hears Sally calling for help. Rushing outside, he discovers that her pet cat is stuck in a tree. It's kind of weird that non-sentient cats that can be kept as pets exist in a world full of anthropomorphic animals, but we haven't seen any anthropomorphic cats so far so I guess it's not that big of a deal?

While I'm asking questions, how is Sally - a fish - surviving out of water? I know, I know, it's a cartoon, I shouldn't take it too seriously, but still...

Maybe she's a mudskipper?

The vacuum cleaner rescues the cat and is rewarded for its heroism with a medal. Dave gets jealous of all the attention that the vacuum cleaner is getting - if you ask me, if you're jealous of a VACUUM CLEANER you really need to rethink your life - and dumps his mud slushy on it. Dave, you fool. Getting the high-tech appliance/robot/what have you wet ALWAYS results in it going berserk.

Oh, look. Its eye is glowing red. When the high-tech appliance/robot/what have you's eyes glow red, you should run for the hills.

Five bucks says that at one point Scaredy is going to ask it to clean something and it'll say
"I'm afraid I can't do that, Scaredy."

That night, the vacuum cleaner disguises itself as Scaredy, heads to Huey's House of High-Tech Cleaning Supplies, and demands that Huey give it all of the vacuum cleaners it has in stock. Because Huey is an idiot, he says "Nothing suspicious about that! I just got a big shipment in!". Thus, when Scaredy wakes up in the morning he is greeted by a horde of high-tech vacuum cleaners outside his window.

You never have this sort of problem with Roombas...

But believe it or not, Scaredy is actually EXCITED by the fact that there are a million high-tech vacuum cleaners running amok. And what are the vacuum cleaners doing? Well, they're... cleaning stuff. Yes, apparently "Kath-kleen"'s evil plan was to... clean the entire town. How diabolical.

Unfortunately, this leads to the mayor of Balsa City telling everyone that with the vacuum cleaners doing all the cleaning for them, they are free to be gigantic slobs, much to Scaredy's horror. Oh, and it turns out that Balsa City DOES have garbage trucks after all - one shows up to dump garbage on Scaredy.

Was this Dave's plan all along? To make everyone in Balsa City just as big of a slob
as him?

The citizens' dumping their garbage everywhere creates a new problem. The vacuum cleaners decide that since the citizens are responsible for all the garbage, they must eliminate the citizens. And the best way for the vacuum cleaners to eliminate the citizens, they decide, is by going all Transformers and merging into a giant robot. Considering what idiots the residents of Balsa City are, nothing of value will be lost.

"Transformers! More than meets the eye!"

The giant vacuum cleaner robot sucks up the townsfolk... wait, did they really need to form a giant robot to do this? We saw "Kath-kleen" - ONE vacuum cleaner - suck up Dave earlier no problem. Well, anyway, Scaredy and Dave hide out in Dave's trailer, then Scaredy remembers that Huey told him there's a reverse button on the top of the vacuum cleaner. To accomplish this, Scaredy tells Dave to roll him up in all the dust that is gathered on his floor. And then Dave farts. Ha ha ha, farting is automatically funny.

After being rolled up in the dust, Scaredy becomes a giant dust bunny.

My allergies are acting up just by looking at him...

One not particularly interesting fight scene later, Scaredy pushes the reverse button and frees all the townsfolk. The robot falls apart, and Scaredy stuffs all the vacuum cleaners into a rocket ship and blasts them into outer space. They all wind up on the moon. Nobody gets mad at Dave for causing this mess (no pun intended) in the first place.

The next segment is called "Soup or Nova".

We begin with Dave visiting Scaredy at work to complain that a tornado (or rather, a "tor-o-nado" as he calls it) sucked up his lunch and trailer. Now Dave is homeless. But because he's an idiot, it takes him a few seconds to figure that out.

I'm just now noticing that Scaredy always has bags under his eyes. Poor guy, having Dave
for a best friend sure is wearing him out.

Scaredy is about to say that Dave can come live with him, but then he remembers that Dave is a slob, an idiot, incompetent, and would probably make for an even worse roommate than Leonard from The Big Bang Theory (yeah, I said Leonard. I'm a Sheldon fan). Unfortunately, Dave comes up with that very same idea, and Scaredy is too nice a guy to say no.

When they arrive back at Scaredy's house, Scaredy tells Dave that to avoid any possible conflicts that arise when best friends in a cartoon live together, Dave must be, you know, clean. Dave assures him that he will be the best roommate ever. And now, make your own reference to The Odd Couple here, I've never seen a single episode of that show. Well, the original, that is. I think I saw one episode of the reboot with Thomas Lennon...

"I call dibs on being the Ernie in this situation!"
"Aw, does that make me the Bert?"

As soon as Dave walks in, he starts causing stress in Scaredy's life. He wipes his feet on the wall. And the floors. And Scaredy's COUCH. And his ENTIRE HOUSE.

Okay, seriously, Dave. This isn't even you being too stupid to realize you're stressing Scaredy out. This is intentionally being a jerk. Nobody, no matter how stupid they are, wipes their feet on the floor of their friend's house.

I'm beginning to really not like Dave.

"For the sake of our friendship, we have got to not live together!" Scaredy tells Dave. But Dave begs him to reconsider and Scaredy, of course, tells him he has one more chance... which Dave promptly blows by wiping his chocolate-covered face on Scaredy's shirt. Scaredy puts his foot down and tells Dave he's living somewhere else. Good on you, Scaredy.

Scaredy and Dave run into a beaver named Buck, who just so happens to have room in his house for Dave to live. Hooray for pawning your problem off on somebody else! Now Scaredy can just relax and home and finish building a delicate house of cards. I do hope nothing happens to knock that house of cards down...

I genuinely do like how Scaredy straight-up calls the house of cards "delicate". It feels like
the writers are acknowledging that it's an obvious joke but they're still trying to have a little fun with it.

About one second later, Dave barges into Scaredy's house, letting in a huge gust of wind that blows the cards away. Living with Buck didn't work out, as beavers live underwater and skunks do not. So Scaredy takes Dave back to the supermarket, hoping that they can find somebody there willing to take him in. Immediately, they run into Nestor's mother (Jayne Eastwood), who says that she has a spare room, so Dave can stay with her. They go back to her house and... whoa.

Who has that many framed photos of themselves hanging up around their house? Is Nestor's mother just a huge narcissist? I think even Zapp Brannigan would be rolling his eyes at that.

The problem with Nestor's mother's house, aside from the multiple framed photos of herself on the wall, is that her "spare room" is actually Nestor's room. She was hoping to rent it out without him knowing. Wow, that's pretty cruel...

No, seriously, who has THAT MANY FRAMED PHOTOS OF THEMSELVES?

Next it's off to Sally's house, where Sally makes no attempt to hide how much she has the hots for Scaredy. Why does a fish have the hots for a squirrel? I don't know. I'm still trying to figure out why a fish has hair. And legs, for that matter.

Her fins also randomly become normal hands when she's playing the piano. What kind of
fish IS this?

After making Scaredy - and me - incredibly uncomfortable, Sally refuses to let Dave stay with her. Fortunately, Scaredy has an idea to get Sally to take Dave in. He disguises him as a cat. And it works, Sally doesn't realize that the cat on her doorstep is actually Dave in a cat costume and brings him inside.

I hate Dave, but even he doesn't deserve this.

Sally forces Dave to dance while she plays the piano, as cat owners are known to do with their cats. Scaredy thinks that he's free from having Dave as a roommate, but when he gets home and tries to pour himself some whole grain cereal, Dave materializes. Apparently, he left because he didn't want to eat cat food.

We get a montage of Scaredy trying to find Dave somewhere to live, but for obvious reasons, nobody wants Dave in their house. Then they come across a creepy-looking mansion up on a hill, and according to a ZOMBIE RABBIT - yes, there's a zombie rabbit now, just go with it - nobody lives there.

"Welcome, foolish mortals..."

Dave is all "FREE HOUSE!" and Scaredy initially tries to stop him since there's a preeeeeeeeeetty good chance the house is haunted, but then he realizes that it's either this or having Dave live with HIM. So he lets Dave move in, even after the zombie rabbit tells him that rumor has it the house is indeed haunted.

That night, Scaredy can't sleep because he's worried about Dave, and when he gets a phone call that sounds like it's from Dave getting attacked by ghosts, he rushes to the rescue, but when he gets to the house he discovers that the "ghosts" are actually friendly goats. So it seems that Dave finally has a new home, right?

Whatever floats Dave's GOAT, I guess. Get it? It's like "whatever floats your boat", but...
yeah, sorry, I couldn't think of anything funnier.

Alas, no. All Scaredy has to do is sit in a chair and the whole house falls apart. So now Scaredy has Dave AND the goats taking up space in his house - at least until the replacement trailer and replacement creepy mansion he ordered arrive.

What's the Verdict?

This is ANOTHER cartoon I'm gonna have to put in the "mediocre" category. I think the books could've hypothetically made for a decent cartoon... maybe something intended more for a younger audience (the Disney Junior/Nick Jr. crowd, I mean). Every book follows the same formula: Scaredy is afraid of something. He faces his fear. He learns a lesson. There. You can get a season or two out of that. It wouldn't be anything Shakespeare-level, but it would entertain kids.

Instead, we get this. Scaredy is basically turned into a more neuronic SpongeBob, complete with a fat moron for a best friend. Speaking of which, Dave. I do not like Dave. Much like Entree from Spliced, he's literally just Patrick minus all redeeming qualities. Instead of laughing at his stupidity, I just felt sorry for Scaredy and wanted him to kick Dave to the curb. The jokes are hit or miss. Some of them I thought were pretty funny, others (mostly the ones involving Dave) not so much. The animation is typical Adobe Flash, not great but decent enough. As a whole, the show doesn't have much going for it. It just feels like somebody wanted to make another SpongeBob but didn't understand why SpongeBob works as a show. TV Tropes claims that the show gets better as it goes on, but this was the thirtieth episode of the show. The THIRTIETH. So I'm pretty skeptical of that claim.

But hey, if you like it, that's fine. Everyone's entitled to their own opinion. As for me, I don't think I'll be watching any more episodes of Scaredy Squirrel. Maybe if I find one of the books in the library I'll give it a read, though...

Did You Know? - Fun Facts About "A Bug's Life"

Welcome to another edition of a series that I like to call Did You Know?. Inspired a little by the Nostalgia Critic's "What You Never Knew" series, this series will allow me to share with you some interesting tidbits, behind-the-scenes information, and fun facts about an animated movie or TV series. Because I like sharing new information with people.

For this edition of Did You Know?, I wanted to talk about one of PIXAR's most underrated movies - specifically, their second film, A Bug's Life.

Sandwiched in between the first two Toy Story movies, you rarely see people talk about A Bug's Life nowadays. And if they DO talk about it, it's usually to claim it's one of PIXAR's weaker movies (and that Antz is better - I haven't seen it, but from what I do know about that film, I sincerely doubt that). Personally, I've always liked it. Which is ironic, because I'm terrified of bugs. Well, real bugs, that is... animated bugs I'm okay with for the most part.

There's a lot about this film that you might not know. In fact, there's a lot of things about the film that I didn't know before I did this blog post. You probably know that the Pizza Planet Truck from Toy Story is parked outside the trailer that you see just before Flik enters the bug city. You might also know that a young Ashley Tisdale (of High School Musical fame) voices one of Dot's fellow Blueberry Scouts. And you probably already know that PIXAR came up with the idea for this movie, Monsters Inc., and WALL-E at the same lunch outing. But did you know any of THESE things?

1) The first draft of the script had Flik as a red ant creatively named Red, and instead of being a member of the colony he was one of the circus bugs. After P.T. fired them all, Red would've convinced the circus bugs to trick the ant colony into believing that they were warriors so that they could mooch off them. They decided to have Flik/Red be part of the ant colony instead because they thought it would give him more of an arc and "handcuff" him to the main conflict better. The other part about the circus bugs intentionally tricking the ant colony in order to mooch off them was likely changed so that they didn't come across as unlikeable jerks.

When creating Flik, the filmmakers wanted to make him "the biggest geek you could possibly imagine" - which apparently wasn't very hard for them to research. Bob Peterson came up with a lot of ideas for how to make Flik even more of a geek (and doesn't realize it).

Concept art for Flik... or, as he was originally called, Red.

2) A Bug's Life used almost ten times the computing power that Toy Story required. It had a footage rendering server that was seven times as large as the one for Toy Story, twenty-three more animators, over sixty more shots, about two hundred and seventy more models and shaders, and one thousand and fifty-five more feet (characters' feet, that is - which makes sense, since, y'know, bugs) than Toy Story.

3) Each character is made up of many, many texture layers. The grasshoppers, for example, required around one hundred texture files each.

More concept art.

4) The film was inspired by Aesop's fable The Grasshopper and the Ant (which was also adapted into a short film by Disney in 1934). Mind you, in the original fable, the grasshopper wasn't a villain.

5) They initially thought of calling the film "Bug Story", but they became concerned that if they did everyone would think that PIXAR would name ALL of their movies "[SOMETHING] Story" ("Monster Story", "Fish Story", "Superhero Story", etc.) Besides, unlike Toy Story, "Bug Story" doesn't qualify as a pun (say "Toy Story" out loud, then think about where people usually buy toys... or at least did before online shopping took over).

Still more concept art.

6) This was the first PIXAR film to have the iconic PIXAR logo (with the lamp jumping on the letter "I") at the beginning.

7) A Bug's Life and Toy Story 2 were in production at the same time, so a lot of the same props appear in both movies - Buster's collar can be seen at P.T. Flea's circus (a tag on the collar reveals that it belongs to "Jenny", a reference to animator Jennifer Cha), as can a couple of the ice cube trays that Andy's mom has out at her yard sale. Also at the yard sale is a box of lighter fluid, which shows up as P.T. accidentally messes up the "scare the grasshoppers away with a giant fake bird" plan, and multiple boxes that also appear in the bug city. This video about the Easter Eggs in Toy Story 2 goes into more information.

Concept art by Peter de Seve.

8) Concept art shows that Gypsy was originally going to be a bee. Her moth ruff includes 15,000 individual hairs.

9) Robert De Niro was offered the role of Hopper, but turned it down. When Kevin Spacey was offered the role, he jumped (no pun intended... y'know, 'cause it's a grasshopper) at the chance. Hopper's line "Are you saying I'm stupid? Do I look stupid to you?" was ad-libbed by Kevin.

Concept art for the grasshoppers.

10) Rosemary Harris, Faith Prince, Deborah Rush, and Doris Belack all auditioned to lend their voices to the film. For which characters, I don't know.

11) P.T. Flea is John Ratzenberger's favorite of the many characters he's voiced for PIXAR because he gets a kick out of "those kinds of characters, people who just go into a rage for [no] explicable reason". P.T.'s "I'm Gonna Be Rich" song was ad-libbed by him. In addition to P.T., he also voices one of the bugs at the bar (the one that says "Hair of the dog you bit!"), a reference to his character from Cheers.

Concept art for P.T. Flea.

12) P.T.'s circus train is made out of animal cracker boxes - specifically, boxes of "Casey Jr. Cookies", a reference to the circus train from Dumbo. The cookies' manufacturer, according to the box, is the "J. Grant Bakery", which references Dumbo writer Joe Grant. Also on the box is a banner reading "Since 1957", which is John Lasseter's year of birth. The box also has a recommended daily intake of eight thousand calories.

13) Tuck and Roll were inspired by a drawing that Andrew Stanton did of two bugs fighting when he was in the second grade - subconsiously, because Andrew didn't find that drawing until after they'd created the characters. The idea was that, much like how the Ringling Brothers circus had acts from all around the world, it would be funny to have performers as part of the bug circus who spoke a foreign language that nobody else could understand.

Concept art for Flik. I'm really glad they decided not to give him hair...

14) When the filmmakers first started writing the "Flik tries to get Dot to pretend that a rock is a seed" scene ("But it's a rock."), they felt that it sounded "overly sincere". So they rewrote it to make it a bit more comedic and less sappy. As Jon Lasseter put it, "As soon as you start getting nice and sweet, you try to poke a hole in it and poke fun at it... we try to get sincerity through insincerity."

15) Look at this screencap of Flik in the bug city. Notice anything?

Yep - in the back is the poster for the Broadway adaptation of The Lion King! In the very same position as it was in Times Square in real life. In fact, the whole bug city is meant to look like Times Square.

That's not the only reference to The Lion King in the movie - earlier, Hopper describes the bugs' way of life as "one of those Circle of Life kind of things." That one is a bit less subtle.

16) Speaking of the bug city, all over the place on the boxes that form it are the names of the writers' kids. For example, there's "JuJu's Litter", "Hannah's Bananas", and "PJ Pop".

17) The millipedes who pull P.T.'s circus train are rarely seen in close-up shots because they were incredibly hard to animate. Part of the reason the circus bugs pull the train up to fly it away at the end is so they didn't have to animate the millipedes again.

Concept art for Slim.

18) Remember that Roger "Squidward Tentacles" Bumpass-voiced mosquito Flik encounters at the bar? He shouldn't have ordered a "Bloody Mary" - in real life, the male mosquitos don't drink blood, only female ones do (the blood is used to produce the eggs). Of course, in real life ants aren't blue and purple, nor do they talk or walk around on two legs...

19) A Bug's Life is the second example of a Disney movie having a theme park attraction based on it open before the film's release (the first time was when Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland opened in 1955, before Sleeping Beauty itself was released in 1959). It's Tough to Be a Bug!, the terrifying 4D show starring Flik and Hopper at Walt Disney World, opened in April of 1998, whereas A Bug's Life was released in November of that year.

20) I already mentioned the Pizza Planet Truck's appearance in the movie, but there are two more references to the restaurant from Toy Story in the movie. On top of the bar where Flik first encounters the Circus Bugs is the Pizza Planet "Mega Gulp" cup that Woody hides under.

And outside P.T.'s circus is a can of "Dr. Catmull's Old-Fashioned Root Beer", which could also be seen in Sid's room in Toy Story. This is actually a double Easter Egg - it's also a reference to Ed Catmull, co-founder of PIXAR.

21) Somebody on Reddit pointed out that there's a case of foreshadowing in the movie. What is the first thing we see (after the PIXAR logo, I mean)? The sun. But then a leaf falls on the sun, revealing that we weren't looking at the sun itself, but rather its reflection in the water. It's symbolizes the movie's theme of distorted perception - the ants learn that they're capable of more than they'd originally thought.

According to John Lasseter, the first shot of the movie was very important to the filmmakers because they wanted to show the audience a world they were familiar with - the human world - and take them down to that same world from a bug's point of view. Apparently, it was the most difficult shot in the movie to do.

"RUN! THEY'RE HERE TO LECTURE US ABOUT WHY ANTZ IS BETTER
EVEN THOUGH IT'S A BLATANT KNOCKOFF THAT JEFFREY KATZENBERG
TRIED TO BRIBE JOHN LASSETER WITH!"

22) The Queen's having a pet aphid named Aphie isn't too far a cry from real life. Actually, ants treat aphids more like livestock - they herd aphids for the sweet nectar that they produce and in turn the ants protect aphids from predators.

23) Slim's line "Boy, these folks are sure hard-up for entertainment!" is a reference to a very similar line in the 1968 film Three Amigos! (specifically, "They're really starved for entertainment around here.").

Concept art for Francis.

24) After creating the character of Molt and hiring Richard Kind to do the voice, the filmmakers realized they had a plot hole - if this one grasshopper was so tremendously stupid, why would the smart, tough, ruthless Hopper keep him alive? So then they thought, "Hey, what if we made him his brother?" and thus came up with a justification for Hopper not killing Molt (not that he isn't tempted). And having Molt around kept them from making Hopper too comedic and, as a result, less intimidating.

25) Joe Ranft initially just did the scratch track (a temporary voice track for use in the animatics before the actual actor could be cast) for Heimlich. Various German actors were brought in to read for the part, but they couldn't find anybody better than Joe, so they decided to just have him do Heimlich. Joe also voices the fly who yells "BURN 'IM AGAIN!".

Concept art for the Circus Bugs.

26) The very first sequence of the film to be animated was the one where the circus bugs screw up their act and set P.T. Flea on fire. The crew came up with lots of material for the circus bugs, but the film wasn't long enough to include all of it (at least without pushing Flik, the main character, to the side).

27) The Queen is based visually on Phyllis Diller, her voice actress - that crown she wears is inspired by Phyllis' hairdo and various hats.

Concept art for the city that Flik finds the Circus Bugs in.

28) Thumper (the crazy attack dog-like grasshopper) is, of course, named after the cute little bunny rabbit from Bambi, who is John Lasseter's favorite Disney character. They considered casting an actor to do Thumper's voice, but in the actual movie he's "voiced" by recordings of ape noises taken at a primate research center in Texas.

29) The reason why the bar where Flik meets the circus bugs is a can? Because bugs can crawl on walls and ceilings, and the crew thought that the idea of a bar with tables on the walls and ceilings in addition to the floor was funny. In the audio commentary, they admit that the scene in the bar was the one where they put in all of their "groaners" and sight gags... apparently, they drew the line at having a fly go up to another fly and say, "Excuse me, is this stool taken?".

Concept art for the bar.

30) To promote the film, Disney and PIXAR launched a "mall tour" based on the movie for a few months before its release in 1998. At various malls across the country, you could find a themed exhibit that included two live stage shows, a behind the scenes look at computer animation, and interactive games and activities. Neat, huh?

31) Finally, it's been said that life imitates art, and that saying might have more truth to it than you'd think. See, Dim was intended to be just a generic rhinoceros beetle not based on any specific species. However, in 2007 - a whopping eight years after the film's release - a new species of rhinoceros beetle (known as Megaceras briansaltini) was discovered with a horn that looked exactly like Dim's. Brett C. Ratcliffe, who discovered the bug, dubbed this "The Dim Effect".

Sources:

- The film's DVD commentary

- https://mickeyblog.com/2020/05/06/some-fantastic-facts-about-pixars-a-bugs-life/

- https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://en.wikipedia.org/&httpsredir=1&article=1091&context=entomologypapers

For more fun facts about A Bug's Life, I'd recommend watching this video. Or you could watch the DVD commentary like I did.

If you know anything about A Bug's Life that I didn't mention here, feel free to mention it in the comments section below.