This started off as a review of the 1990s cartoon show Monster Farm, but I wound up having to abandon the review when I discovered that there are no full episodes in English of the show online. So my review of Monster Farm is gonna have to wait until someone posts a full episode of the show (by which I mean both segments, it's one of those "two shorts in one" cartoons) in English on the internet. Sorry.
As we all know, spinoffs can be tricky. Taking a character from one show and putting them in another where they're the main focus doesn't always work out. Sometimes it does - I love Frasier, for instance, though I'm not even a huge Cheers fan so make of that what you will. And what about Pinky and the Brain? That was a spinoff of Animaniacs, and everybody loves it.
But for every Frasier or Pinky and the Brain, you get a spinoff that sucks. I tried to review an episode of The Cleveland Show but I wound up deleting the review because it wasn't giving me enough joke material. I'll tell you what I thought of it right now - it STUNK. There's also Planet Sheen, which you'd think would be good since Sheen was the funniest character in Jimmy Neutron but was total crap.
And speaking of spinoffs focusing on the funniest character from the original show, at some point when iconic PBS Kids show Arthur was in its eighth season somebody got an idea: everybody loves Arthur's best friend Buster, right? He's quite possibly the funniest (and one of the nicest) of Arthur's friends. So let's give him his own show!
The result was Postcards From Buster, which premiered in October 2004 on PBS Kids as part of its "PBS Kids Go!" block. The show focused on Buster (voiced by Daniel Brochu, just like in Arthur) traveling around the world with his father, Bo Baxter (voiced by Marcel Jeannin), who's an airline pilot. Buster records his experiences from around the world with a video camera, encountering live action children and learning about wherever it is that he's visiting. Four seasons were produced, with a total of fifty-five episodes - most of which took place in the U.S., probably because it's easier to fly or drive to Chicago or Seattle than to, say, Columbia.
I remember watching this show when it was on, but was never really interested in rewatching it. But ever since I reviewed Arthur's Missing Pal, I've had the urge to do a review of Postcards From Buster, so y'know what? Let's watch an episode. It's obscure enough for me to cover on this blog. I considered doing an episode that took place where I've lived so I could tell you firsthand if it's an accurate representation of the state, but apparently there weren't any episodes where Buster went to New Jersey (where I was born), and the episode where he went to Virginia (where I live now) had him going to Virginia Beach, where I've never been. I have been to Vermont, so I could do the episode where Buster goes to Vermont and meets a kid with two moms, but that's probably the most well-known episode of the show (I'd rather not into more detail about the controversy it caused, if that's okay). We'll be watching the tenth episode, "Moose on the Loose", which takes Buster to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. I've never been to Wyoming, but that's not particularly interesting.
The episode starts off NOT with Buster in Wyoming, but rather in the abode of Arthur Read (voiced by Cameron Ansell), back in Buster's hometown of Elwood City. Arthur laments that Buster is so lucky because he's going to Wyoming, and he sent Arthur a letter going on and on about all the cool wildlife he's gonna see there. I feel Arthur's pain - we don't have a whole lot of interesting wildlife in Virginia. Mainly just deer, which is pretty cool, but we don't have anything like moose or bison or bighorn sheep. We do have black bears, but I've never seen one in person (not that I'm complaining - if I saw a carnivorous animal like a black bear coming towards me, I'd probably panic).
Arthur's dad (Bruce Dinsmore) suggests that he and Arthur go out into the backyard and see what they can find. Meanwhile, Buster is aboard his dad's plane with a band called Los Viajeros, downloading a picture that Arthur sent him. The picture turns out to be of a hideous slug, but Buster initially assumes that it's an alien because one of Buster's main character traits is his obsession with aliens. I remember there was even an episode of Arthur that pointed this out.
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| Judging from the expression on his face, maybe Buster just finished watching Arthur's Missing Pal. |
Buster declares that he will top Arthur's photo of a slug by filming a wildlife documentary with footage of that elusive Wyoming animal, the moose. Arthur will be so impressed... or maybe not, seeing as one of their classmates, George, is a moose, ergo Arthur sees a moose every day when he walks into the school building. Of course, this is getting into the whole "Arthur has a pet dog but his friends Binky and Fern are dogs, how does that make sense?" thing...
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| The state mammal of Wyoming is actually the bison, not the moose, but "Bison on the Loose" doesn't have the same ring to it. |
We then get a montage of live action footage of Wyoming accompanied by a song about Wyoming wildlife, particularly the moose. Buster's dad tells him that they're going to Grand Teton National Park. While we're on the subject of Buster's dad, why does he appear to have two pairs of ears? I know it's just the hairstyle, but it makes him look way more human than a rabbit SHOULD look.
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| Actually, isn't it strange that Buster's parents both have full heads of hair but Buster just has a few strands sticking out of his head? Is Buster bald? |
Buster apparently doesn't know much about moose, because he says that nobody's ever filmed a moose overtaking an antelope and eating it. Moose, as Buster's dad points out, are herbivores and only eat plants. Makes me wonder if George, who as we've established is a moose (albeit an anthropomorphic one), is a vegetarian...
We get some more live action footage of Wyoming and honestly, it looks like a really nice place. When Buster and his dad arrive at Grand Teton National Park, Buster looks for moose, but the only wildlife he finds is a bird flying overhead. Everything else is trees, berries, rivers, and bison poop. "I could've stepped in this. Nature is full of dangers," he declares.
Eventually Buster comes across a live action kid, leading to what the bulk of the series is composed of: footage of live action kids "interacting with" Buster. I'm not sure how they did this. I assume Buster's voice was dubbed in after they'd filmed the footage, so the kids just had to pretend they were talking to him while crew members fed them the lines. Or maybe there wasn't a script at all? And while I'm asking questions, why isn't this kid at all surprised that there's supposedly an anthropomorphic rabbit talking to them?
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| Heck, why isn't BUSTER ever surprised when he sees human beings? He lives in a city full of anthropomorphic animals. |
The kid introduces herself as Abigail and says that she's looking for birds. Thus begins a few minutes of explanation as to what birdwatching is, 'cause this is one of them "edu-tainment" shows. Then they hear a woodpecker.
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| I know the quality of the screencap is pretty bad. My apologies. |
Buster laments that Arthur probably won't be impressed by the woodpecker, or the raven that they also spotted, because he can find those back in Elwood City. What he really needs is to find a moose. If only Buster's dad had taken him to Frostbite Falls, Minnesota... come on, it's an episode about moose. I HAD to make a Bullwinkle reference at SOME point...
Abigail suggest that they go see her friend Gus down by the river. Gus is doing some fly-fishing, hoping to catch a trout. Buster asks if he can give it a try, and Gus agrees. Apparently the animators couldn't be bothered to animate Buster holding the fishing rod, so instead we just see the fishing rod sticking out from off-camera as Buster talks about how he's fly-fishing. Whee.
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| Their expressions imply that they're just now realizing they're talking to a cartoon rabbit. But hey, Bob Hoskins did it and look at how much praise HE got for it. |
After leaving the national park, Buster and his dad arrive at their cabin. Buster is excited to have a TV to watch because there's gonna be a special tonight on cable about moose. So he can just film the footage of the moose on TV and CLAIM to Arthur that he saw a moose. Buster is a lying liar. How does he sleep at night? Lying down? On his LIES?
Buster's plan to pollute the air with his filthy lies hits a snag when he discovers the cabin, which starts out as a real cabin but suddenly becomes animated when he turns his camera off, doesn't have a TV. He'll have to find a real moose after all.
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| I love how Buster's slippers look like Arthur. Did they ever actually make Arthur slippers? |
Buster starts writing in his journal about his day, but even THEN he can't stop being a lying liar. He writes that he saw a moose who led him to some kind of moose town where the moose drink spruce beer and eat antelope burgers (apparently Buster forgot about the whole "moose are herbivores" thing). Does Buster actually think that Arthur will buy this? I mean, Arthur's not stupid.
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| I assume that "spruce beer" is supposed to be a parody of root beer. Otherwise, a PBS Kids show got away with having characters drink beer. |
Buster's dad points out that maybe he should be writing about real events in his scientific journal, not crap that Arthur's likely not going to believe anyway. Speaking of Arthur, back in Elwood City he's taking photos of animals that he finds in his backyard, such as caterpillars and birds.
The next day, Buster talks about how great Arthur's photos are and how if he can't get footage of a moose, he'll never be able to show his face in Elwood City again (he could always just take a photo of George). He and his dad arrive in Jackson Hole, which looks like a town out of a 1950s Western movie. He goes into a hat store and meets a guy named Dusty who kind of looks like Sam Elliot, plus some kids who help him pick out a hat. Then he learns about how hats are made.
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| Buster has evolved into a rare creature known as the Cowboy Jackalope (scientific name Wyomingus Hornedrabbitus). |
As he and his dad drive back to the national park, Buster sees elk and coyotes, but not one moose. He meets up with Abigail, Gus, and another kid named Willie who knows a lot about moose-tracking - you have to look for scat (which is poop) and hoofprints in the snow. Finding some moose hair on a tree helps too. Buster decides to film some of the moose crap they find because, hey, it's better than nothing.
Eventually Buster decides on Plan B - be a lying liar and have one of the kids hide behind some foliage and pretend to be a moose, with an antler sticking out. Where the heck ARE the moose, anyhow? Did they all go south for the winter? Are they vacationing in Florida?
"I guess I'm not gonna find anything wild or shocking to send back to Arthur," Buster laments, because I guess the footage of the elk and the coyote he took doesn't count? The kids tell Buster that just being outside is really exciting, and then guess what? Buster sees a moose! Two of 'em, in fact!
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| "Hey, Buster! Sorry we took so long - we just got back from Florida." "Yeah, we wanted to get out of the cold, so we went to Tampa. How about those Rays, huh?" |
Y'know what would've been funny? If the moose Buster saw turned out to be George. I don't know what he would be doing in Wyoming, but eh...
How did Abigail, Gus, and Willie know that they were gonna find a moose? Reviewing the footage, Buster realizes that it was about looking for clues. Buster's a detective, shouldn't he know this already? Well, anyhow, he sends the footage to Arthur and we get another joke about moose poop. Poop is funny, right?
What's the Verdict?
Postcards From Buster is okay. Its main flaw is that way too much time is spent on live action footage. Couldn't they have at least tried to superimpose animation of Buster over the footage so we didn't have to just hear his voice? It makes the show very visually uninteresting. Still, it's cool to see Wyoming. Occasionally there's a funny moment - I liked Buster's imagining the secret moose society - but Buster himself feels oddly toned-down here. Part of what makes him such a great character is how quirky he is, and we didn't get a whole lot of that here. There's nothing here as funny as Buster's antics in the main show (even just simple lines like "You really think someone would do that? Just go on the internet and tell lies?"). As an edutainment show about the world and its various cultures, it gets the job done, but I'd recommend just sticking with Arthur. I'd gladly watch this over Planet Sheen, if nothing else.
I actually thought for a while that maybe this show would've been better if it were fully-animated, but then I found this:
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