Let's Watch This... Again: An Episode of "Mighty Max"

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.

Wow, it's been a while since I've done a re-review, hasn't it? I wonder why that is. Let's fix it...

Mighty Max, created by Mark Zaslove and Rob Hudnut, was based on a toyline that was kind of like Polly Pocket but for boys. It premiered in September 1993 as part of a syndicated children's block called "Amazing Adventures" and received two seasons and a total of forty episodes. The premise? I'm going to be lazy and copy-paste the description from my first review: a kid named Max, voiced by Rob Paulsen, gets a small statue of a bird one day in the mail. It's inscribed with Egyptian hieroglyphs that translates to, essentially, "Congratulations, kid. You're the Chosen One. Go to the mini-mall and wait for a sign." Max is so shocked that he drops the statue, and inside as it turns out was a magic baseball cap that allows Max to travel through space and time. Long story short, he winds up meeting a magic fowl named Virgil (voiced by Tony Jay) and a Viking named Norman (voiced by Richard Moll). They travel around the world defending it from such foes as brain-sucking aliens, werewolves, a giant octopus, crazy scientists, etc.

I previously reviewed the twenty-fifth episode of the show, "Tar Wars", in which Max and his compadres ventured into the La Brea tar pits and encountered a caveman and a saber-toothed tiger. I found the episode just okay. That was back in 2019, so today I'm going to review another episode of the show, this one part of the first season: the sixth episode, "Rumble in the Jungle". Will I like this one more? Let's find out!

We start off in the jungles of Africa - somewhere in the Congo, I believe - where Max's mother (Tress MacNeille) is being chased by what appear to be members of Tarzan's fan club. Eventually, they corner her in front of a large rock and carry her off, as per the orders of this gorilla watching from nearby. Who IS this strange ape?

Marvin the Martian called, he wants that thing from the top of his helmet back.

Then we cut to Max, lounging in a hammock in his backyard. So apparently Max's mother just left him at home, by himself, while she went off to Africa? I don't know how old Max is supposed to be, but even if he's a teenager, I don't think leaving him at home alone while you go to ANOTHER CONTINENT is a good idea - his father is never seen or mentioned, so apparently his mother is all he's got. Great parenting, Max's mom!

Suddenly, Max sees an airplane doing some skywriting aimed directly at him. It tells him to go to the library and "turn left at Shakespeare". I assume that somewhere in Max's town there's a street named after William Shakespeare and that's what they mean. Either that or there's a section of the library exclusively for Shakespeare's works and he has to turn left when he finds it.

"Oh, crap, I was supposed to write 'SURRENDER DOROTHY', wasn't I? Ah well,
I'm sure the Wicked Witch will understand..."

We never actually see Max at the library, however, we just cut to him being spit out of a portal in the middle of a Roman colosseum. Virgil and Norman are there too, and Virgil tells Max that his mother is in a "great deal of jeopardy"... according to some scrolls he's reading, that is.

"This scroll says that our show is going to fall into obscurity after it's taken off the air
in 1994. We won't even get a DVD release!"

So off Max, Virgil, and Norman head to the Congo, which is apparently very close to Rome seeing as they're able to get there pretty quickly. Unfortunately, the path they're crossing gives way and they fall into the brush below. After that, they find an abandoned jeep, with a tank still full of gas AND the keys still in the ignition. "This reeks of foul play," Virgil claims. Seeing as you're a bird, shouldn't that actually be "FOWL play"?

Please laugh. I'm trying so hard...

Sorry, Max, you're too young to have a driver's license. I think. I still have no idea
what age you're supposed to be.

Then those George of the Jungle cosplayers we saw chasing Max's mother before show up again and give chase. Max momentarily calms them down with the power of rock 'n' roll (good thing he brought his handheld radio), but then that gorilla in Roman duds shows up again in a zebra-pulled chariot and says in the voice of Dr. Claw that rock 'n' roll is the work of evil spirits. "Must prefer Sinatra," Max mutters. Actually, I think a gorilla's favorite genre of music is swing. Get it? 'Cause they're always swinging on vines? At least in cartoons?

...that was at least sort of funny, right?

A screencap from that cult classic, King Kong vs. Emperor Nero.

Fortunately, my jokes aren't the worst ones here: Norman then randomly chuckles and says, "Monkey see, monkey DO." Apparently, he needs to read up on his primate facts, because as we all know, gorillas are APES, not monkeys. Max, Virgil, and Norman make a run for it, the gorillas and cavemen in hot pursuit, eventually diving into a river to get away. But because it's a river in something animated, it leads to... let's see if you can guess. Is it..

A) A waterfall

B) A gift shop

OR C) The house of Max's weird uncle who collects dirt in jars?

If you guessed B or C, I think you need to watch more cartoons...

And why don't people ever put signs in front of rivers reading "WARNING: THIS RIVER LEADS
TO A WATERFALL. DO NOT SWIM IN IT" or something like that?

Over the falls they go, pleasing the Dr. Claw-voiced gorilla. Of course, as soon as the simians leave they emerge from the water, and Virgil suggests that perhaps Max's mother had the misfortune of running into the gorillas as well. "Let's make like an ape and follow them before they get away!" Max says, and they wind up following them to this charming place:

"This is AMAZING! A whole alternate gorilla civilization!" Virgil clucks. "How extraordinary!" Sneaking inside, they discover that the caveman are the gorillas' slaves, forcing them to build things and tying them to posts when they do things to make them mad.

Wait a minute... intelligent anthropomorphic gorillas enslaving primitive humans? I think it's pretty obvious what science fiction movie this episode was inspired by...

Spoiler alert, Max: it was Earth all along! Those maniacs, they blew up the Statue of Liberty! Darn them! Darn them all to Heck!

"I wanna know...
Can you show me?
I wanna know about these strangers like me..."

One of the cavemen shows Max where his mother is - locked in a cell, having to deal with mosquitos. But before they can get them out, the gorillas show up and the leader is all "OH NO YOU DON'T!".

Considering how many pop culture references Max made in "Tar Wars", I fully expect
him to make a Planet of the Apes reference himself at some point.

The gorillas take them to the alpha male of the pack, voiced by Jim Cummings, who does not believe their claims that they come from "beyond the valley". The one in Roman gladiator garb insists that Max and his crew "bring evil thoughts" and that they must be eliminated. "Might doesn't always make right, Bonzo!" Max snaps (for those unaware, this is a reference to the 1950s film about a chimpanzee Bedtime For Bonzo). "We can do things in our world you guys never even DREAMED OF!" For example, they have telephones and laws and airplanes. On the other hand, the gorillas don't have Twitter. Or Discord. So who's better off?

"They bring evil sorcery! They must be destroyed before their words and deeds harm us!" the roman gladiator gorilla declares. The alpha male, however, isn't sure what to think, so he tells them to just lock Max, his mom, Virgil, and Norman up until he makes his decision.

So when does he start singing "I Wanna Be Like You"?

The good guys are able to escape their cell with ease, then Norman gets to quench his thirst for violence by attacking the gorilla guarding it. Then they run into that caveman who helped them before. He gives Max a rock, which as Maxine can tell you make great gifts. In return, Max gives the caveman a comb. "Gee, I hope this doesn't mean we're engaged or anything..." he says, the first line out of his mouth that I actually find funny.

But as they're trying to escape, a gorilla spots them and sounds the alarm. It seems like the gorillas have them trapped... even though one of them is a big, strong Viking who effortlessly plowed through a bunch of the apes just a few seconds ago, but seeing them gives the primitive human slaves the determination to rise up against their gorilla captors, pelting them with rocks and stuff. Is this what they call "gorilla warfare"? Ba-dum kssssh.

"If you have any poo, fling it NOW!"

Eventually, Norman manages to topple over the giant stone gorilla head on top of the temple they're standing on, sending it falling down onto the apes, but even THAT isn't enough to take them out. Geez, I know gorillas are strong, but they're not made of iron. Fortunately, the alpha male shows up and tells everyone to knock it off - but he's still going to have the good guys executed. Max insists that if they just let them leave, they'll never return to the Kingdom of the Apes, but the roman gladiator gorilla... y'know what, since they never mentioned this guy's name, I'm going to call him Larry... doesn't believe there is anywhere outside the kingdom for them to go. "It was only twenty to one! You wouldn't be so tough by yourself!" Max tells him. "Fair enough!" Larry snaps. "I'll fight YOU!" Dang it, Max, what have you gotten yourself into?

"C'mon, couldn't we settle this over a tall frothy glass of Um Bongo? They drink it in the
Congo, don't they?

Max knows that he's no match for, as Virgil puts it, a bloodthirsty eight-hundred-pound gorilla wanting to tear him limb from limb, but don't worry, he has a plan. He asks Virgil for their "portal map", and as soon as Virgil hands it to him, he... makes a run for it. Did he really need the portal map to do that? Well, anyway, he finds the jeep from before and drives off in it, but Larry still manages to catch up. Fortunately, the portal map tells him where to find a portal he can send Larry through.

When Max returns, the alpha male offers to let him take the throne, but Max says he just wants to head home and get a pizza. And for the gorillas to treat the cavemen as equals. The alpha male agrees. Huzzah!

Oh, and in case you're wondering where the portal send Larry to... well, it's SOMEWHERE in the middle of the desert, we know THAT. My headcanon is that it's what eventually became the actual Planet of the Apes. This was a prequel the whole time.

"Dang it, I forgot to TiVo my soap operas..."

When Max gets home, he tells the audience about gorillas and how they're the largest primates on earth. Did you know that there are only 50,000 lowland gorillas and only 320 mountain gorillas left in the whole world... not counting his Aunt Matilda, of course (I hope his mom didn't hear him say that)? "Always do what you can to help the world's wildlife," he tells us. Unless they're anthropomorphic warriors who enslave cavemen and want to have you executed, of course.

What's the Verdict?

I personally liked this episode of Mighty Max better than "Tar Wars". Max was a lot less annoying (I actually found a couple of his quips funny!) and there were a lot less pop culture references. I'm shocked they resisted the urge to make a Planet of the Apes joke. Plus, this episode has Jim Cummings lending his voice to it, and you know what a big fan of him I am. I do wish Virgil had a bit more to do, because he's pretty awesome, and I would've liked some sort of explanation as to how this tribe of anthropomorphic gorillas actually got started... why did these gorillas evolve but seemingly no other jungle animals did? Why are the humans still primitive cavemen?

If you'd like to watch Mighty Max for yourself, you can find episodes on YouTube in varying quality. Apparently, there wasn't ever a DVD release and I don't think it's on any streaming platforms, so that's the only way you can watch it right now. Enjoy.

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Let's Watch This - An Episode of "Mighty Max"

In 1993, animation was more popular than ever. It was this year that gave us such beloved shows as Animaniacs, Bonkers, 2 Stupid Dogs, Beavis and Butt-Head, The Animals of Farthing Wood, Rocko's Modern Life, and TWO Sonic the Hedgehog cartoons. It was also this year that the first Veggietales video was released. And in theaters, we saw the release of The Nightmare Before Christmas, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm... which was a box office bomb, admittedly... but hey, we also got, uh... what other animated movies were released in 1993?

Uh, okay... anything else?

Well, okay, maybe 1993 wasn't such a great year for animated MOVIES*, but it was a fantastic year for animated TV SHOWS. And today, we're gonna take a look at a cartoon from 1993 that is fondly remembered but didn't become a huge hit: Mighty Max.

What's the premise? Well, apparently, this kid named Max gets a small statue of a bird one day in the mail. It's inscribed with Egyptian hieroglyphs that translates to, essentially, "Congratulations, kid. You're the Chosen One. Go to the mini-mall and wait for a sign." Max is so shocked that he drops the statue, and inside as it turns out was a magic baseball cap that allows Max to travel through space and time. Long story short, he winds up meeting a magic fowl named Virgil and a viking named Norman. They travel around the world being awesome and defending the Earth from an evil dude named Skullmaster. The show features the talents of Corey Burton, Tim Curry, Tony Jay, Tress MacNeille, Frank Welker, and Rob Paulsen as the voice of Mighty Max himself.

Why didn't this show become a bigger hit? I honestly have no idea. I mean, it doesn't even have a DVD release (yet, anyway). Apparently, the merchandise was more popular than the show itself. Let's watch an episode of this show so we can figure out why it didn't become as successful as some other 1993 cartoons.

The episode that we'll be watching is called "Tar Wars". You know, just like that gag in the movie adaptation of The Flintstones? When they're entering the drive-in at the beginning and there's a poster reading "Now Showing: TAR WARS" outside? And in the Nostalgia Critic's review of it, he complains that he wants to watch "Tar Wars" instead? Remember that?

Well, anyway, here's the episode...

The episode begins at the La Brea Tar Pits, a place that I have never been to because I don't live in California or anywhere even remotely close to California. Right next to it is a construction site where they're building a subway.

No, no, the underground train type of subway, not the sandwich shop type of subway.

Apparently, they're building the subway so that it'll go under the La Brea Tar Pits, despite the fact that as one of the construction guys points out no way anything's gonna break through a million years of tar and solid granite. Of course, immediately after the guy says that, something does indeed break through the tar and solid granite - this thing!

"Like, zoinks, Scoob! It's Bigfoot!"

Cut to Max in Hollywood. Like I said before, Max is voiced by Rob Paulsen. And while I love Rob Paulsen as much as the next guy, I will admit, I find it kind of weird that this character who's supposed to be a kid has the exact same voice - or at least a very similar voice - that Rob gave Raphael, a TEENAGE Mutant Ninja Turtle. It's not as bad as, I dunno, when DreamWorks cast Rihanna as a little girl... or when they cast Kevin Hart as a kid... or when Disney cast Sarah Silverman as a little girl... but it's still kind of off-putting. Did they TELL Rob not to sound younger or something?

Anyhow, Max is talking to his mom (Tress MacNeille) on the phone. She wants him to meet her at the museum where I guess she works. But first, he sees Clint Eastwood... only to find out that it's just a cardboard cutout of him.

Or rather, a cardboard cutout of a crappy caricature of him...

Oh, wait, but it turns out one of them ISN'T a cardboard cutout! It's the real deal! But I'm not sure which celebrity it's supposed to be... Max does an Arnold Schwartzenegger impression as he leaves, so I'm GUESSING it's Arnold Schwartzenegger, but I could be wrong.

"Well, might as well go save the world. Probably aren't any movie stars around here anyway," Max says. So he uses his hat to teleport to the La Brea Tar Pits, and almost falls in one only to get saved by Norman (Richard Moll). Virgil (Tony Jay) is there too, and he tells Max that "Danger is near." Max asks in a stupid accent what it is this time that they have to fight, then after some construction guys run out of a large pipe screaming about how there's a monster or a demon or a beast or something starts boasting about how he shall face evil and battle the unknown and blah-blah-blah.

Then Max's mom shows up. "Of all the tar pits of all the cities in the world, she has to walk into MINE," Max quips. It's a reference to Casablanca. Because... that's a movie that exists, right?

Quick question - if Norman's supposed to be a viking, why doesn't he have a
viking helmet? You've gotta dress for the part, Norman!

They all go into the pipe and find a large hole that the whatever-it-is that came out of the tar and granite emerged from. And inside that hole is a cavern.

Shouldn't there be a Fraggle around here somewhere?

"I don't think any movie stars live in this part of town," Max says as they all explore the cavern. Max's mom asks what it is that they're looking for. Virgil says that he doesn't know, but he's sure that they'll recognize it when they find it. They find some cave paintings which Max's mom identifies from being from the Mesesoic Era. Then they find a big ribcage and Max says, "Maybe whoever lived down here ran a rib joint!"

Why is it that every line Max has is so cringe-worthy? Seriously, I should like this character... I mean, he's voiced by Rob Paulsen! But so far, I just find him annoying.

By the way, the mom is lagging behind, and she winds up encountering the whatever-it-is. The others hear her yelling and rush to the rescue.

Here's a screencap of Virgil. In my opinion, he's the best character on the show.

They find the mom, and then the whatever-it-is jumps out at Max.

There's something about this screencap that's making me uncomfortable...

"If I'm not mistaken, and I rarely am, he is neanderthal, a living specimen of human history," Virgil says. Norman decides to battle the neanderthal (voiced by Ron Perlman), and they have themselves a little brawl... and by that, I mean Norman gets his rear end handed to him.

"BAMM-BAMM! BAMM-BAMM! BAMM-BAMM!"

Virgil comments, "He appears to have superhuman strength. Perhaps Norman is in over his head." Normally I would say "No, ya THINK?", but I'm not gonna do that. Virgil is just too awesome.

But then the Neanderthal saves Max's mom from a falling boulder. Turns out he's not a monster, just misunderstood. He offers Max dinner, but Max says that he's "trying to cut down on million-year-old mammoth meat."

Dang it, now I want one of those Turkey Legs that they sell at Disney World...

"We must communicate with this caveman to learn what is happening here!" Virgil the Bird of Awesomeness says. Max then asks the caveman NOT what is happening here but rather what Betty Rubble does to keep her shapely figure. Fortunately, Virgil can communicate with the caveman. He's just that awesome. Oh, and the caveman's name is Gorr. I think. I could've spelled it wrong. Max, of course, makes ANOTHER reference to The Flintstones by calling him "Fred".

Max's mom points out the cave paintings. "They seem to tell a story," she says. "Perhaps this is the clue we've been searching for," Virgil suggests. And because he's awesome, he manages to translate the cave paintings for the audience - a million years ago, a strange meteor landed in the tar pits, and it gave Gorr immortality and incredible strength.

But the meteor gave these same powers to something else... specifically, a saber-toothed tiger that presumably just so happened to be nearby. And guess what emerges from the darkness?

Here we see some high school's mascot showing off how much cooler it is than
OTHER high schools' mascots.

Gorr and the saber-toothed tiger start going at it. Norman helps out, too, but eventually they all decide that the tiger is unstoppable and make a run for it. Eventually, Max gets an idea - once they're outside, they find a giant rock and use it to block the entrance to the pipe before the tiger can follow them out. Too bad the tiger just breaks through the rock as though he's the Kool-Aid Man or something. D'oh.

The tiger runs off towards the city, and Virgil points out that they must stop it before it... I don't know, eats Brad Pitt or something. They won't be able to run as fast as him, so they hail a taxi. I like how the taxi driver isn't at all freaked-out that there's a caveman and a saber-toothed tiger in modern times. Maybe he thought Gorr was just some guy in a costume or something?

The taxi driver's voiced by Rob Paulsen too, by the way. He also voices one of
the construction workers at the beginning.

Eventually, Gorr decides to just chase the saber-toothed tiger on foot. Then we cut to... this.

Are these guys supposed to be caricatures too?

Anyhow, they follow the tiger to a hotel. Gorr battles with it some more, Max makes a reference to Guns 'n' Roses, the tiger climbs a curtain and jumps on a chandelier, which promptly falls to the ground (why do chandeliers in cartoons always fall to the ground?), and eventually the tiger runs off, Gnorr in hot pursuit, to an amusement park called "Galaxy World". Virgil suggests that maybe the park is the tiger's old hunting ground.

They go on this attraction called "Pigzilla", starring what appears to be a cross between a wild boar and a dinosaur... and a dragon, considering it has fire breath. In Galaxy World, the pork roasts YOU!

"I'M guh-geh-eh-guh-geh-GOING TO DESTROY YOUR CITY, puh-peh-eh-puh-
peh-PUNY HUMANS! Eh-buh-dee-eh-buh-dee-eh-buh-dee-THAT'S ALL, FOLKS!"

Max refers to the tiger as "Tony the Tiger", which makes me hungry for Frosted Flakes. Then the tiger pounces from the top of Pigzilla's head and we get more tiger-battling. Eventually, Max runs into Gorr, who whacks the tiger with his club... into C-3PO and R2D2. I'm not kidding. C-3PO and R2D2 show up!

Well, okay, it's not ACTUALLY THEM... it's just a pair of robots that look very
much like C-3PO and R2D2. But come on, no way is that a coincidence. This HAS
to be a reference to Star Wars.

The tiger gets distracted by a projected comet, and while flash photos are being taken it runs off. Max is all "We've gotta find him!" and then Virgil points out that even if they do, how will they stop him? It's pretty much invulnerable! But Max has a plan...

We're back at the La Brea Tar Pits. Max uses a construction vehicle called a "loader" (the one with the big shovel at the front of it) to dig that meteor that caused this whole mess out of the tar. It attracts the tiger, and then... get ready for this... a bunch of mammoth skeletons emerge from the tar. Max breaks something in the loader and that causes the meteor to fall back into the tar. And that causes the mammoth skeletons to fall apart and slide back into the tar - Max's plan has been, to put it bluntly, an epic fail.

Gorr saves Max from being saber-toothed tiger food, and he and the tiger fall into the tar pit. "He was probably the world's first superhero..." Max says. Virgil agrees, but tells Max that Gorr lives on, protecting the world from the unstoppable saber-toothed tiger. "And I thought I had a tough job," Max says.

Then we cut to Max sitting in a chair by the pool talking to somebody named "Felix" on the phone. Really? That's it? That's how it ends? With Max still complaining about his not seeing any movie stars? Really?

Okay, that actually isn't how it ends... we then get Max telling us that the La Brea Tar Pits actually DO exist, they're the result of crude oil making it to the surface or something like that. A bunch of fossils have been uncovered there, including those of a saber-toothed tiger. Max then jokes that if only braces had been invented back then, nyuck nyuck nyuck. The end.

Well, that was... okay. The jokes weren't funny, but that's my only real complaint... well, that and the episode did drag a little. Just when you think they're finally gonna defeat that tiger, it turns out - nope, we've gotta keep the episode going for a few minutes longer. Also, the ending sucked. And Max is annoying. But hey, it had Virgil. He's awesome. Though he's an owl in a robe with the voice of Frollo, so I guess that's to be expected. Would I recommend watching it? Uh, maybe... if you like action cartoons, I guess.

Let it go, random dinosaur. Let it go...

* Once Upon a Forest, for what it's worth, really isn't that bad of a movie. But it WAS a flop (though that's mainly because it was released around the same time as Jurassic Park), so...