Animaniacs Are Back! Plus Reviews of Blood of Zeus, The Liberator, and the Mighty Ones!
Welcome to the podcast formerly known as Tooned Up, as we are rebooting and renumbering the show in the footsteps Mighty Marvel method with Renegade Animation #1, the show about all things animated! Our hosts Mike and Cameron are back with all the animation news, views, and perspectives they have to offer, and boy howdy, is it a lot! Click that play button and check out the show, and don’t forget to subscribe to our feed, and let us know how we’re doing in the comments below!
So our animation show isn’t the only thing getting rebooted this month, as Hulu has finally released the first season of the Animaniacs reboot, starring the original voice cast and the Pinky and the Brain actors, as well! My goodness, this takes me back to when I was but a wee child, coming home from school to sit down in front of the TV and watch Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs (the original show), and, of course, Freakazoid! Good times, lemme tell ya.
Gasp! They rebooted them into anime characters! But only for a moment in a single episode.
Anyway, here’s a few words from our Captain:
“One thing I can say for certain is that at the very least, the voice cast has not lost a single step. Rob Paulsen, Jess Harnell and Tress MacNeille slip right back into their iconic roles with ease, and are supported by a wildly talented new team of writers. The animation is stunning, the musical numbers are terrific, and the dialogue is sharp as a tack. Unfortunately, what’s missing from the reboot are the rest of the supporting cast aside from Pinky and the Brain, while the new characters introduced haven’t quite left the same impression. Nevertheless, the show is off to a good start.
Overall, while I do have mixed feelings about the reboot when compared to the original, on its own merits it can be quite a lot of fun. A few episodes in the back half of the season get a little more experimental, switching up the art style for two of the funniest standalone sketches in the entire series. Yes, it is unfortunate that most, if not all of the supporting cast has been jettisoned, and that none of the original writers were invited to return.
However, I urge everyone who has been excited about this reboot to give it a chance before passing judgement, you may end up really liking it.”
Personally, I think the original will always appeal more to me, as the writing just seemed sharper and funnier back in the old days, but this new show does have potential. And I totally agree that the cast hasn’t lost a step in all the years since the original went off the air. It’s good to have Yakko, Wakko, and Dot back! Hope they’ll stick around for a while.
Up next is a very unique animated offering called The Liberator. Here’s a review from the Captain:
“I’m a little late to this one, but The Liberator is a fascinating animated war drama miniseries based on the novel of the same name by Alex Kershaw. It’s the first production from Trioscope Studios, which specializes in a technique that blends live action actors, rotoscope and CGI. As somewhat of a history buff, I was invested enough in the story of Felix L. Sparks and his comrades in the 157th Infantry Regiment during World War II. The only real problem I had was simply the fact that there are already so many depictions of this era in media that it gets harder each time to cover new ground. Fortunately, I can confidently recommend this based on its own merits.”
I really like the look of this miniseries, especially for the World War II era. However, I do wonder why the filmmakers decided to go with this rotoscoped CG look when they’ve already hired live actors to play the roles. It does have a certain style and pizazz to it, though, and you can honestly say that no other depiction of the era looks quite like it. I’ll definitely add this to my watch list.
Next we have Netflix’s The Blood of Zeus, produced by Powerhouse Animation and reviewed by our Animation Guru:
“Now, with this being the studio behind Seis Manos and Castlevania, the action is definitely bombastic, big, and violent as all get out. It’s definitely the highlight of the show to get through the story and see the swords clash, the blood flood the screen, and limbs get torn and shredded.
However, while it has style, some great designs for the monsters and giants, I found the overall look of the film to be dull. Like it was meant to be some kind of gritty reboot of the Ray Harryhausen-driven fantasy epics he used to help create back in the day. It also doesn’t help that we have had stuff like God of War to compare this series to. For example, did Aries need to look like someone right out of that awful Legend of Hercules film from half a decade ago?
Another failing of the show is the story. Now, it has some pretty decent themes and commentary about anger and power and how it corrupts individuals, but outside of that story beat, it’s yet another Clash of the Titans remake-style tone and story. Also, can we have a greek mythological story where Athena is not the villain? It was something I noticed when I was looking around at other reviews and Greek mythology stories that Athena is always this petty bitter woman when every single God in that mythology can’t commit to one partner, and can’t stop putting their ding a ling into every single living thing. Seriously, all of these situations would be resolved if they kept it under their togas. On top of that, it doesn’t balance out the story and action enough. It’s more story-focused, and sadly, the characters aren’t that interesting in this season’s story. It’s fairly generic hero origin stuff like being the bastard son of Zeus, an evil twin brother who is the leader of these demons, and so on and so forth.”
Ouch! Y’know, I like the exaggerated style of Powerhouse’s Netflix series, so I might check this one out, but kudos to the Guru for keepin’ it real and letting us know about the weaknesses on display here.
Finally, we have The Mighty Ones, a rather zany-looking adventure comedy featuring the exploits of a sentient berry, leaf, twig, and a pebble. Okie dokie. Have at it, guys!
“I just wasn’t feeling it. There may be some occasional bright spots, and I respect the laid back sense of humor, but at the end of the day what it lacks is focus. It’s a weird concept, but doesn’t quite go far enough with its premise the same way a show like The Fungies managed to do. Not the worst series I’ve seen this year, but far from the best.”
“The problem with being a new show coming out at the end of the year is that you now have plenty of competition out in the world of shows and animation that you are going to be compared to previous releases. It isn’t all that fair, but it’s what happens when you are coming out at the end of 2020. This is the case for the new DreamWorks Hulu/Peacock original, The Mighty Ones, a new comedy cartoon by Lynee Naylor Sunil Hall.
While it gives off an impression as a laugh-out-loud random cartoon, it’s more like a lighter weight version of The Fungies. It’s more laid back and sillier than other shows, but it has a veil of that feeling of playing in the back yard as kids and having many imaginary adventures. It makes its own little universe that reminds me of a more cartoony version of Nintendo’s Pikmin series as the main characters are often the victims of the humans who live at the house shenanigans. The story set ups are the obvious high point of what makes this comedy stand out from the rest.
I think what holds it back is the fact the show is still trying to find its footing and what it exactly wants to be. It’s goofy, but we have already seen so many goofy and outlandish comedies from the previous decade, so this show doesn’t always do the best in terms of putting its best foot forward. While I dig how the epic scale of certain sequences is trumped by how small they are compared to the humans, I kind of want to know more about the humans in the background. Also, sometimes one or more of the characters will blend together too much. They will sometimes share the same personality traits and they could do a little more by making the four core characters stand out more.”
Those Blood of Zeus designs are cool, though.
Well said, gentlemen, and that’s all she wrote for the first installment of Renegade Animation! Some very interesting new shows debuted and it’s good to see some old favorites make their way back into the limelight after 23 years of being off the air. Hope you all enjoyed hearing about them, and we wish all of you Renegades who live in the US a very Happy Thanksgiving and a great long weekend! Stay safe out there, everyone!
Previously on Renegade Animation, Captain Kaye, The Animation Guru, Haley, and Teresa dove head first into the Spring anime season and took in the good, the bad, and the bizarre. And now… Squid Game: The Anime.