BobO'Link

Over the past 3 days I watched Star Trek: The Animated series. I purchased the DVD set years ago because I found it for a good price (~$15) and then the BR a couple of years ago for the same reason (I actually got the region free UK BR set for less than I'd paid for the DVD set)

Once you get past the annoying and cliche' Saturday morning music on the first half dozen or so episodes and some cheesy writing on others it's not a bad show. The musical scores improved by the 8th or 9th episode with significantly less repetitive Filmation catalog junk. While not stellar, it's one of the better series from Filmation. I normally can't stand their work and it really took me some time to warm up to this series because of their animation style (as a kid I didn't like it and didn't watch any of the superhero stuff they did because of it - at least this is better than that work).

The repetitive score of the earlier episodes returned in the later half of S1, especially a 4-8 bar musical phrase they use constantly on loop to register suspense. It's not as loud as in early episodes but is still one of the little things that scream CHEAP to me and part of Filmation's look and sound. They have such an obvious look and sound that I can identify a Filmation production within 30 seconds (often just by seeing the open). Other studios cut corners but no one cut them like Filmation.

As the series progressed they added more odd looking aliens for no apparent reason than to have odd looking aliens with many looking like any of a dozen other aliens on other "SF" cartoons of the late 60s/early 70s. And the "monster of the week" format seemingly took hold with every other episode having some generic type monster attack. I also didn't care for revisiting previous live action episodes with animated ones in the same setting (the Time Portal [Yesteryear], Tribbles, the Amusement Park Planet [McCoy's Alice in Wonderland], Harry Mudd with another "beauty enhancement" scam that felt like a retread, crew put in an alien zoo [the original pilot]).

The Enterprise looks very good in its larger drawn horizontal fly by. However, they cheap out with smaller drawings by having a 3/4 angle shot (one that should come from a side and get larger as it passes to the right) simply flying by with no change in size. It makes it look wrong and off. A simple zoom as it moves across the screen would have fixed that (and it's not that hard to do). The main characters are also generally well drawn. With the voice acting, there are more than a few episodes where Shatner sounds like he's "phoning in" his performance. Generally the voice acting is well done in spite of he and Nimoy rarely being in the same room with anyone else. That's part of why I feel Shatner sounds like he does - there's no one to play off of or give direction so he comes off with a rather flat performance. Nimoy doesn't have that same "reading the script to a mic" sound.

Overall, I truly enjoy about 1/4 of the episodes and find another 1/4 reasonably well done. At least half are completely disposable and very generic feeling with a few rivaling the worst of ST S3 for the worst Trek ever. I'm one of those few who feel David Gerrold's "More Tribbles, More Troubles" falls completely flat and is one of those worst episodes. Still, it's one of Filmation's better attempts and many of their cost cutting measures are not present, although there are still more than there should be for a Trek series.

LJG765

Thanks for the rec! Will place in the opening post so I remember for next year.

I'm open to any and all suggestions! Keep them coming, everyone!

I haven't seen the others, but last year I bought Jonny Quest and totally agree. It was a fun watch!

I bought the DVD set several years ago after a friend told me that it existed. For some reason, I had never heard of it before. I really liked it. The first time watch was part of a a full Trek marathon, started with TOS, then TAS and finished with the movies. I very much thought that TAS was much, MUCH better than season 3 of TOS. Even as hokey as the cartoon was, the live action, s.3 was so much worse.

wishbone

I watched Jonny Quest for last year's challenge and the Blu-ray set is impressive. I was surprised at how many episodes I had not seen or remembered from watching Saturday morning cartoons. The tech designs still look cool. And for me not knowing that the voice of Jonny Quest was Otter aka Tim Matheson.

coyoteblue

Wizards: Tales of Arcadia landed yesterday. I told myself that I wasn't going to burn through all 10 episodes in one sitting, that I would at least split it into two five episode days. So I start watching and what to I do? I binge all ten episodes. The good news is there's gonna be one last dollop of Tales of Arcadia, a feature length movie (that would make it around 90 minutes, I guess), Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans. Netflix says it'll drop in 2021, so...might as well call it a year. I think it's been about a year between 3Below and Wizards, but Rise of the Titans is a movie, so maybe less than a year. Hopefully they'll put out a nice Blu box once Tales of Arcadia is complete.

And hey! We still have 4 seasons, and who knows how many years of The Dragon Prince to look forward to.

LorenzoL

I watched Scoob a few days ago and cannot tell you how disappointed I was. It started off really good, giving us a glimpse when they all first met but it just goes downhill from there. If I wanted to watch Blue Falcon, Dynomutt and Captain Caveman, I’ll expect to watch them in a movie with their name on them, not on something named after Scooby Doo.

LJG765

My unofficial goal of the challenge was to have at least one watch daily, but I've already failed. Had my sis visit so while I finally watched Hamilton, I didn't get watches that counted for the challenge in.

Anyone else have an unofficial challenge this month?

coyoteblue

Well, I'm aiming to break 400, if I can keep the pace. I'm trying to include at least one movie a day too.

LJG765

Good luck!

Trevor

Speaking of Hamilton, it’s difficult for me to watch anything when my wife is home because she’s always watching it. It is a wonderful film/show.

No unofficial challenge this month, just my usual checklist. I’ll probably watch lots of extra items on Disney+ though, as the TV is always there anyway!

davidh777

I tried to pick up Clone Wars from MYOC, but I wasn’t feeling it. Tried the original Ducktales (which I never saw despite being a Disney ducks fan) and wasn’t feeling that either, so I watched some ‘70s Disney movies.

Currently spinning Harley Quinn on HBO.

I agree that Scoob! was pretty meh. Too many superheroes, not enough mystery.

One consideration for next year could be DC movies. They’re a lot more prolific than Marvel.

LJG765

Ducktales and TailSpin used to be my favorites. I haven't watched them recently because I don't know if they hold up and don't want to lose that good feeling when I think of them...maybe give it another shot and just see if it wasn't just a bad first season?

Hmm, I think I was thinking about adding DC Movies but couldn't figure out a way of wording it when I added the Marvel. I'll add it to the suggestion board. I was also thinking Lego movies since there are a ton of those, but thought it might be a little too specific of a suggestion. Maybe combine Marvel/DC/Lego into one?

davidh777

I’ll never survive the first season of Ducktales if it doesn’t pick up soon. D+ lists the first season as 65 episodes. I might just jump to the new series.

LJG765

I mean, I really enjoyed it, but I don't know that I'd have it playing on repeat and I'm a big musical theater fan! My sister, on the other hand, has watched it 3 or 4 times already... I do plan on watching more on Disney+ myself. This challenge seems to be made for it.

Yikes! Never realized it had 65 episodes in just the first season! That's a LOT! Do they have the movie, Treasure of the Lost Lamp? You might want to try that before delving into 65 episodes...It's a little cheesy, but I still enjoy it.

Indy24LA

We've watched Hamilton twice, but I have listened to the soundtrack every day, mostly while working from home.

After so many years reading/hearing about Fire and Ice, I finally watched it for free on Vudu. It's very Bakshi. I am enjoying Harley Quinn but need to get back to Attack on Titan.

BobO'Link

I've tried to watch Bakshi movies several different times over the years - can't do it. I don't like his rotoscope style and the stories, all of them, seem to just drag on and on with little happening and/or making little sense. I *really* wanted to like Fire and Ice (that Frazetta cover is very good and most of the art/animation channels his work pretty well) but it, too, fell very flat for me.

mrcellophane

I watched Fire and Ice years ago and enjoyed it as a befuddling exercise in homoeroticism - so much animated muscle and side-butt. I added Lord Nekron to my list of "Closeted Villains Who Just Need a Hug". The only other Bakshi I've seen is The Lord of the Rings which I watched once when I was twelve and in the grip of my Tolkien-mania. I was disappointed and never watched it again.

I was listening to a podcast earlier this month that informed me InuYasha is on Hulu so I decided to watch an episode or two. When I started, I was immediately eighteen years-old again, sitting on my futon in my college apartment and watching my tiny television. It debuted on Adult Swim during my freshman year and was probably the first anime I watched and definitely the first one I watched regularly. I haven't seen an episode since I graduated college and had largely forgotten just how important it was to me at the time. It was a piece of media that helped me along the path of questioning my sexuality and eventually coming out. Thankfully, it holds up and is a lot of fun.

I also rewatched the first season of What's New, Scooby-Doo? which is prime comfort viewing for me. I'm behind on my Scooby-Doo viewing; the last series I watched was Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated which I thought was phenomenal. I'm sad to hear that the new movie wasn't very good. I'm not a huge fan of Blue Falcon or Dynomutt so there's not much incentive for me to check it out unless I get those "completist" urges!

LJG765

Okay, like I mentioned, I wanted to watch something every day, even if it is just a short for the month. Well, to help me out when I just want to watch something short and quick, I decided to finally watch the backlog of The Simpsons on my DVR. It's about 2 1/2 years worth (back to 2018). Anywho, after the 2018 Christmas special, they aired the very first special. Man, was it a blast from the past. 1989, that's 31 years...wow. I watched pretty much from the beginning-heck, I saw the original sketches on the Tracy Ullman Show and while I enjoyed it, I had no idea that it'd still be on the air.

BobO'Link

I totally forgot about his adaptation of the first half of the novel. It's received lots of accolades - and I just don't get it. I guess it's because I can't get past his rotoscope "animation" which I often find it to be a rather muddled mess. I also don't care for the Rankin/Bass "conclusion" ("Return of the King") to Bakshi's movie nor their adaptation of "The Hobbit." Like Bakshi's, their style just doesn't fit the stories.

I've been watching some of the episodes of Family Guy after it came back from being cancelled. I'd forgotten how much profanity they use - which is not bleeped out on the discs (you can watch it that way but...). It mostly doesn't fit well and somewhat goes against the premise put forth in the opening theme song. The stories are OK but I prefer the original seasons.

LJG765

Ugh, so I saw the warnings but the talk of Fire and Ice got me curious. I didn't mind The Lord of the Rings so I thought, hey, how bad could it be? It was bad. Really bad. I won't list it all here, but two things bothered me the most. 1) if all they wear are loincloths and bras that don't actually cover anything, they'd would have frozen to death long before the last fight scene. 2) Other than one sword, none of the weapons actually drew blood or caused it to be spilled. Not even the axe towards the end. If you're going to animate a 80 minute long fight scene, at least do it realistically.

Travis McClain

Just wanted to pop in and comment on a few things:

The writing on Star Trek: The Animated Series was at least as good as half of the third season of TOS. It holds up well because the writing staff didn't write it like a Saturday morning kids cartoon. They wrote it like another season of TOS, with half the screen time but the benefit of being able to write more outlandish things than could have been created for a live action show. Aside from Shatner speaking like he's got a cold and just wants to go back to bed, the cast sounds like they took their parts as seriously as the writers. "Yesteryear" is one of the finest episodes in the entire canon. Breaks my heart each and every time I see it. On my combined TOS/TAS ranked episodes list, it was in the top 10. I think if I removed the movies, it may have been top 5. I've long felt that if someone were to revamp it with new animation, some new music to substitute for some of the more heavily recycled cues, and brought in new voice actors so that James Doohan, Nichelle Nichols, and Majel Barrett-Roddenberry don't voice 93% of every character, the writing on TAS would come through a lot more clearly.

As an aside, the reason that Filmation cut all those corners was because Lou Scheimer made the choice to keep animating in the U.S. rather than stretch his dollar by outsourcing the work overseas. I learned that on the supplements for the BCI Eclipse DVD release of She-Ra, Princess of Power. It doesn't change how simplistic and repetitive most of the aesthetics are, but I do respect that it's because Scheimer wanted to continue employing American animation artists at a time when most were losing their jobs.

I have actively disliked everything by Ralph Bakshi I have ever endured. My sense of it is that he often relied on having a genuinely intriguing premise more than developing and executing them. I have never once been invested in a single character of his, have never once laughed, have never once cared about anything other than reaching the end. That said, I still have not seen his Lord of the Rings, but plan to since I've been assembling a list of all the movies that were #1 at the box office on each of my birthdays. I'm hopeful that will be the exception to the rule.

LJG765

I totally agree about TAS! It was MUCH MUCH better than season 3 of the TOS! I not quite sure how you'll like LotR. It was more watchable than Fire and Ice for me.

I have been watching The Simpsons and I'm enjoying them more than I thought I would.

Anyone else enjoying an unexpected show/film series?

MrTerrific

The Harley Quinn series was much better than expected. I still laugh at everything Bane related.

Travis McClain

I've been largely disinterested in superheroes for awhile, but late last night I had a spontaneous itch to watch the adaptation of Batman: Gotham by Gaslight, which someone (Trevor, I'm sure) added to my digital library back when the UltraViolet ecosystem still existed (thanks, Trevor!). I had the original graphic novel way back when, but I honestly couldn't remember virtually anything about the actual story. I'm glad, because that kept me from scrutinizing all the changes and additions. I did, however, recall the aesthetics. I was a bit disappointed that the movie looks a lot more like Bruce Timm's designs than to Mike Mignola's, but then I dig Timm's designs so it still worked for me. The streets of Gotham, the dance number, and the finale on the fiery "Fox" (Ferris) wheel are all standouts of the animation. Gotham by Gaslight is one of the few animated DC movies I've seen that I've fully enjoyed. I'm not sure whether it makes me want to dive more fully into those, but it does make me want to revisit the source material.

Question: This was produced by Bruce Timm and his aesthetic is all over it. Does this count for him under the Winsor McCay winners section?

LJG765

Sure, as long as they are affiliated with the winner, it would count.

davidh777

Count me as part of the Fire and Ice watch party! Bob O'Link had me at the magical F words: "Frank Frazetta" and "free." I thought it was OK. I certainly didn't expect the animation to be like Frazetta like the movie poster, so standard Bakshit style was fine with me. And yes, the outfits were ridiculous, but I was OK with the material being sexy.

For the record, I usually watch LOTR every five years or so, even though I wouldn't really say I "like" it. It's just one of those things that's a familiar rewatch. I do prefer the Rankin-Bass bookends, but they're not that good either.

Yesh, they have TOTLL as a stand-along movie. Fortunately the second and third seasons are not as ambitious, at 30 and five (!) episodes, respectively.