Okay, I got the name of that cartoon series: "Nu Pogodi" (Just you wait!), about a wolf and a rabbit.

And here's the link to what I believe may be the entire series on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WV3hIdOcRLk

In Russian, no subs., but not much dialogue anyway.

UGH.

I just slogged through three of the worst episodes of The Transformers of the entire series, all back-to-back-to-back. I've been watching in marathon chunks so far; I made my way through the first eleven episodes of S3 yesterday morning at least liked, if not loved, all of them. But this trio was so awful I had to stop for right now. Here are the offenders:

"Madman's Paradise"
There's some kind of formal diplomatic shindig on Cybertron. Daniel is annoyed and skulks off. Grimlock - dressed in a white apron and a black bow tie, carrying a tray - ditches the event to go with him. They stumble into a room that sends them to a different dimension of wizards and such. It wasn't the generic fantasy setting that bothered me, though admittedly it's my least favorite genre/milieu/whatever.

The problem is that Grimlock is a complete and total buffoon here. On top of that, he's a total buffoon with some of the laziest dialog so far. I think he says "Me, Grimlock..." no fewer than 74656 times in this one episode. Yeah, he refers to himself in the third person. We get it. He doesn't do it in every single sentence.

"Carnage in C-Minor"
I have a hard time even summarizing this one, it's so stupid so I'm skipping on to what bothered me even more. It's as if this one was made by people who had no idea what the show even was. The Constructicons combine to form Devastator at one point. Perceptor shoots Devastator in the chest once and that forces them to fall apart. Um, what? After making such a big deal out of how big and bad Devastator was in the first two seasons, now he's this easy to knock down?

That can be chalked up to blaise storytelling, I suppose, but it's sloppy on a technical level, too. Faces often don't look right, especially Soundwave and Ultra Magnus. At one point, Blaster is speaking but it's Ultra Magnus's lips that are animated. These things permeate the whole thing. Character scales fluctuate wildly. Even in his alternate mode as a Walkman, Soundwave is as big as Galvatron in most shots. That's the biggest effing Walkman of all time.

(It's kind of inadvertently funny, though, that this episode set in 2006 ends with Blaster erasing Soundwave's taped recording of destructive harmonics.)

"Fight or Flee"
Typical, generic story of a war that comes to a peaceful Utopian society. The Decepticons stumble onto a planet with unlimited Energon where an offshoot of Autobots fled millions of years ago to get away from the war. Only one of these guys sees the Decepticons as a threat; everyone else is predictably and insultingly gullible (someone actually says he thinks they're "just misunderstood" during a town hall meeting). In the end, of course, these Autobots are compelled to take up arms and fight against the Decepticons. Not only that; Rodimus Prime unilaterally decides to blow up the entire planet to keep the Decepticons from keeping hold of its unlimited resources.

The moral of this story: if you don't fight, you're a "wimp"/"sissy" (both terms are used in the episode by Cyclonus). Not only is this pure far-right militarism banality at its worst, but it can't even be bothered with any kind of message about how regrettable it was that the war ruined the good thing they had going for all those years. Nobody says anything about how they hope one day to make what they had there a reality everywhere, or anything of the sort.

At least when they did this same story idea on She-Ra, Princess of Power, She-Ra talked about admiring the ideals of peace and feeling bad that the pacifists were drawn into armed conflict.

UGH.

Think how many lives have been lost due to the Autobots not bothering to share their unlimited supplies.

Or: Think how much more good could have been done with those unlimited resources if everyone they'd withdrawn from could be bothered to stop their warring ways long enough to do something other than demolish things left and right.

Oh, here's one more thing that irked me about that episode: The lone guy who sees the Decepticons as a threat is immediately targeted by Galvatron and thrown in a jail. That begs the question why a Utopia needs a jail in the first place.

Was it a jail or just a cage for their intergalactic zoo? Maybe they throw the ones that go crazy in jail and it's not really for bad people.

It sounds like a decent cartoon could be done about the dark side of the utopia. Maybe they do something like The Lottery or The Wicker Man so the magic everlasting source of energon keeps flowing.

It was pretty clearly a jail, complete with a tiny window with bars.

Incidentally, I just checked Wikipedia and IMDb about the writers of this trio of episodes that so irked me.

"Madman's Paradise" was written by Craig Rand. He only has two other credits on IMDb at all: a live action sci-fi flick from '86 called Land of Doom, and the Garbage Pail Kids cartoon (though no episodes are specified).

"Carnage in C-Minor" was written by Buzz Dixon, who co-wrote one other episode of The Transformers, S2's "Prime Target", in which a big game hunter decides he wants to mount Optimus Prime's head on his wall. Beyond that, he managed to write an episode or two for quite a few 80's and 90's cartoons, including G.I. Joe's "Arise, Serpentor, Arise!" five-parter and Batman: The Animated Series's "Cat Scratch Fever". Most of my complaints with this episode were with animation, so Dixon's off the hook.

"Fight or Flee" was co-written by Tony Cinciripini and Larry Leahy. This was their first credited work on IMDb. After it, they wrote two low-budget movies, The Lawless Land (1988) and Confessions of a Hitman (1994; Leahy also directed). Cinciripini then wrote two more low-budget movies in the 90's; Leahy had nothing for 20 years until a movie apparently in post-production right now. They each have other miscellaneous credits, though; Leahy mostly as a script coordinator.

Conclusion: No one else in the business was any more impressed by their writing than I was.

Alright, so, I'm at Wal-Mart and see in their doorway that they are advertising "The Boxcar Children" animated movie, exclusive to the company. I go to the DVD section, find it and totally blind buy it. The animation on the cover looks horrible, it has way too many Dove Foundation stamps on it (6 of 'em-those blue background, white doves to show that it's family friendly) and the slip cover is so poorly made that it doesn't fit the keep case right. Yet, because I read almost every single "Boxcar Children" book ever written as a kid, this was a buy for me. I'll watch it soon and let other fans (It's ok, I know you're out there, even if you don't admit it!) know how bad it truly is...or hey, who knows? It might turn out to be watchable.

Saturday I busted open Mission Hill, that I got cheap from Big Lots years ago. I made it through one episode and part of the second one because I didn't want to get up at the end of the first. While I realize sometimes a show takes time to pick up, I couldn't see myself ever liking the hipster characters.

I checked wikipedia and saw people agreed with me as it got canned after two episodes. Then they tried to revive it but it got canned again. There's a market for it but the people I know that are similar to people in the show are also the type that wouldn't be watching WB or TV in general.

I just took a look at the writing credits for The Transformers. Here's a quick overview:

98 Total Episodes
43 Unique Writers
10 Writing Duos (accounted for in the Unique Writers stat)

Most of the first two seasons were written by Douglas Booth, Donald F. Glut (who I always think of as the guy who wrote the paperback novelization of The Empire Strikes Back), and David Wise. Booth wrote 16, and did not return after the second season. Glut wrote a dozen; only his last one was in the third season. Wise did not write for the third season at all, but he did pen the three-part "The Rebirth" that constitutes the fourth "season".

The third season opens with the five-parter, "The Five Faces of Darkness" written by producer/story editor Flint Dille. The remaining 25 episodes were from several different writers, most of whom only penned a single episode. Among them: Paul Dini ("The Dweller in the Depths") and Michael Reaves ("The Big Broadcast of 2006"), both of whom went on later to Batman: The Animated Series, and noteworthy duos of Gerry Conway & Carla Conway ("Forever Is a Long Time Coming" and "Money Is Everything") and Len Wein & Diane Duane ("Webworld").

One last thing; of the 43 unique credited writers, nine were women. Of those nine, only two wrote solo: Beth Bornstein, who wrote three episodes, and Susan K. Williams, who wrote one. Two of Bornstein's three episodes were for the second season, as was "Enter the Nightbird", co-written by Sylvia Wilson. If you exclude the five-part opener, that means that 8/25 of the third season's episodes were written or co-written by women.

I wouldn't have even thought about such things before, but I find it kinda cool now to see that someone clearly made an effort to open the door to women writers during that third season.

I've seen a couple episodes of that on [adult swim] over the years, but it always seemed to be the same episode each time. Now I know there's a good chance it actually was just the same episode.

This is definitely an interesting series that is severely underwatched. I really enjoyed the settings and way in which they told the story, but I would agree with you about your complaint. The series would have been better without that aspect. Sadly, a lot of series like this can't resist that kind of plot point though.

I watched that some time back. Like you I'd purchased a copy at BL some time back for just a couple of $$. I got the impression they were trying for something like a hip version of Clerks but really didn't know how to pull it off. Overall I thought it was tolerable but not something I'll do many, if any, repeat viewings of. The artwork annoyed me as well with it the frequent style changes and odd colors that were seemingly based on character's mood. It was/is a very odd program.

**EDIT**

Looks like I watched it for last year's challenge and gave it 7 out of 10 stars. I don't recall really liking it that much...

I recall an episode of Transformers from the 3rd season being a very obvious, but at the same time, subtle crossover with G.I. Joe, Only Human, I believe it was called. Synthoids, and a masked terrorist named Snake that sounded like Cobra Commander. IIRC, he even shouted Cobraaa!! as he was walking away at the end.

Well, I finished watching "The Boxcar Children." I'm not sure how much I liked it or not. On one hand, the animation is very poorly done, imho. Arms are wonky lengths and shapes, colors seem just a little bit off, movement is jerky. It's like someone had access to computer animation, but only for some of the original versions of the programs and used that to make an 80+ min movie. On the other hand, the movie stays true to the original source material. The voices are well done and fit who they're supposed to be playing. If I hadn't paid much attention to the picture, my rating of it would be much higher.

I couldn't get Portland and some essay from a Navy officer on the traits of the millennial generation out of my mind when watching this.

I just finished going through Puppets Who Kill http://www.hulu.com/puppets-who-kill and have a vacation coming up. I'm trying to squeeze in Comedy Central's TV Funhouse and some movies by the end of the month. Overall I'm pleased with how much unwatched stuff I've gone through.

Indeed that was "Only Human". It's also one of the episodes written by a woman, Susan K. Williams.

Just watched "Webworld", written by Len Wein and Diane Duane. The Decepticons commit Galvatron to an intergalactic psychiatric ward for treatment. I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, it starts off a surprisingly accurate portrayal of the process that a lot of people go through with having to reach the decision to get someone they care about to get help, and how upsetting being pushed into that can be for the patient.

On the other hand, the episode makes treatment appear horrific and in the end, Cyclonus helps Galvatron bust out of the joint. He doesn't seem happy about it, and even remarks to himself that Galvatron "really is crazy", but seems to write off helping him. Of course, this is the leader of the show's antagonists, so he can't ever really be in truly good mental health anyway.

I dunno. It's complicated.

I picked this set up from Barnes & Noble for $4.99 last night:



200 cartoons means it's a real mixed bag from all over the map, including some unusual buried treasure in there. I love digging through stuff like this. One thing I found is a beautiful color fairy tale cartoon, "Once Upon a Time," from 1937 that turns out to be a driving safety short! And a color one from 1935 called "Boy Meets Dog," produced by Walter Lantz, that turns out to be a PSA for tooth care and using Ipana toothpaste.

Happily for me, on Disc 3 there's a lot of Van Beuren cartoons, both b&w and color, from the early 1930s. That stuff is so surreal. "Circus Capers" (1930) has rip-offs of Mickey and Minnie Mouse that were so blatant that Disney sued them. (Maltin discusses this cartoon in his animation history book, "Of Mice and Magic," and points out, correctly, that the mouse character morphs into something more like a bear by the end.) The mouse characters in it are much more racily affectionate with each other than Mickey and Minnie ever were. What a find. It's on YouTube also and the YouTube print is much better.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/ZU71qHtAaY8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Perhaps you'd be interested in
http://www.amazon.com/Giant-600-Cart...ds=600+cartoon



I went through it last year and saw a lot of new stuff.

TV Funhouse was good for a watch but I'll probably get rid of it. Not a lot of rewatch value. It was also a weak followup to Puppets Who Kill. Apparently people in Canada don't get riled up as much as when the CBC shows things at 10pm that wouldn't even make it on the air over here.

I found another great cartoon on this set: "The Enchanted Square" (1947), a Paramount Noveltoon in Technicolor, with Raggedy Ann. And, again, I found a much better copy on YouTube:

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/qzfAeVK_3Bs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Aargh! This post reminds me that I bought of these sets, planning to take them home and compare reviews then return one, but forgot. Both sit unopened two years later.

I do hereby promise myself to watch one next August, and donate it as an end of Challenge prize.

Finally opened my BD of Sleeping Beauty (1959). I thought the remastered DVD looked good, but this is fantastic. It helps that the visual style of the film is so interesting--one of my favorite classic Disneys.

Was in the mood for some cartoons today, so I broke out my "Schoolhouse Rock" set and watched the remaining shorts under the Top Ten heading. So far my favorite one has been, 'The Shot Heard 'Round the World' , about the American Revolution.

Well, we're nearing the end of the challenge...I hope everyone's been able to finish their watch lists!

I've had company this week so have slowed down, able to get to about one a night. I feel like I watched quite a bit though, and did manage to really whittle down my "stuff to watch" list at the same time.

Late last night, I finally finished The Transformers. In the last few years, I've gone back and re-watched all of Batman: The Animated Series and She-Ra, Princess of Power. The former, of course, was the first major escalation away from being glorified toy commercials and into genuine storytelling for kids programming.

The Transformers and She-Ra were contemporaries, which naturally invites some comparing and contrasting. I'll always care more about the Transformers characters, but the truth of the matter is that She-Ra was a far better written show. One thing that became tedious about Transformers is that a lot of episodes would just start in the middle of a battle. There'd be a retreat of some kind and then another pair of battles later, ensuring each segment was chock full of robots shooting lasers and insults at one another.

In She-Ra, though, each typical episode began with an overview of what Hordak's new objective was, explained in expository dialog with his underlings. We understood what he was trying to accomplish, and then watched as he gave it a go. Conversely, Megatron/Galvatron rarely seemed to outline any objective except destruction and theft of resources. Even when someone else (most often, Starscream) would ask what the objective was, he'd just clam up and hide behind being the leader and not having to explain himself to anyone.

On the protagonist side of things, She-Ra and her friends also had clearly defined objectives. Sometimes it was something as simple as making someone feel more included in the group. There were some of those kinds of episodes throughout The Transformers, but by and large even their entire motivation seemed to just be to react to Decepticon attacks. Rarely - especially after the first season - did it seem the Autobots engaged in anything independent from fighting.

The inconsistencies throughout the third season, which I attribute largely to there being so many different writers penning just one or two episodes apiece, are glaring. In "The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 2", for instance, Galvatron leads the Autobots across a massive spider-web. When the spider attacks, Galvatron flies off and laughs, "That's right, Autobots can't fly!" Uh, they were flying through and across space - unaided, no less - the entire season!

My favorite episode remains "The Burden Hardest to Bear". As much as I love Optimus, I've always identified more with Rodimus Prime. Where Optimus was a classic hero archetype, Rodimus was more flawed. There were moments throughout the season in which he expressed leadership fatigue and self-doubt. I'd never seen a hero leader exhibit those kinds of things; not She-Ra, He-Man, anyone in G.I. Joe, or any other shows I watched as a kid.

In "Burden", Rodimus reaches a breaking point. The Decepticons attack him when he goes off on his own and wind up stealing the Matrix of Leadership, which causes him to revert back to being Hot Rod. He shuns responsibility entirely and throws himself into being his former young self, but of course eventually realizes that he needs to be Rodimus Prime and he reclaims the Matrix. It's a really well done episode about self-confidence, responsibility, and having a sense of one's self. That episode resonated with me so strongly in 1987 that I could vividly recall and anticipate whole parts of it as I re-watched it all these years later.

One last observation, and it's a dramatic contrast with She-Ra: A whole lot of the dialog from both Autobots and Decepticons alike, especially throughout the first two seasons, consists almost entirely of trash talking insults. Commonly, these involved portmanteaus ("Autobrat", "Decepticreep"). Like the fighting, it permeates so much of the show that it becomes tedious in a hurry. One more thing to appreciate about "The Burden Hardest to Bear" is that it's one of the few episodes that gets away from that and has actual conversations.

I wasn't really conscious of any of this while watching She-Ra, but in hindsight I can see where that show's writers put a lot more emphasis into character relationship dialog rather than this kind of juvenile antagonism. She-Ra's enemies were a lot likelier to threaten her in some way than to call her an insulting name, announcing their intention to use the weapon-of-the-week. She-Ra's counter-taunts were much more along the lines of "Go ahead and try it, if you dare!" than "I'm gonna clean your chronometer!"

I'll always love the characters and some specific episodes, but now as 30 years ago, I feel strongly that the storytelling in the Marvel Comics was far richer than the cartoons. Bob Budiansky and his successor, Simon Furman, wrote more sophisticated plots and dialog, and explored and developed relationships far more in depth than anything that made it onto my TV screen in the afternoons.

tl;dr:

Rodimus Prime > Optimus Prime
She-Ra, Princess of Power > The Transformers
The Transformers Marvel Comics > The Transformers cartoon