Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue (1990) (TV)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Directors:

Milton Gray
Marsh Lamore

Writers:

Duane Poole (writer) and
Tom Swale (writer)

Release Date:

21 April 1990 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Comedy | Family | Fantasy

Plot:

Many different cartoon stars like Bugs Bunny, the Muppet Babies and Garfield join forces to convince a boy that drugs aren't cool.

Plot Keywords:

Cat | Little Girl | Bear | Teenage Boy | Tiger

Cast

Ross Bagdasarian Jr.	...	Alvin / Simon (voice) (as Ross Bagdasarian)
Jeff Bergman	...	Bugs Bunny / Daffy Duck (voice)
Townsend Coleman	...	Michaelangelo / Dad (voice)
Wayne Collins	...	(voice)
Jim Cummings	...	Tigger / Winnie the Pooh (voice)
Joey Dedio	...	The Dealer (voice)
Danny Goldman	...	Brainy Smurf (voice)
Georgi Irene	...	(voice)
Janice Karman	...	Theodore (voice)
Aaron Lohr	...	(voice)
Jason Marsden	...	Michael (voice)
Don Messick	...	Papa Smurf (voice)
Lorenzo Music	...	Garfield (voice)
Laurie O'Brien	...	Baby Piggy / Mom (voice)
Lindsay Parker	...	Corey (voice)

Runtime:

USA:30 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Spain:T | USA:Unrated

Company:

Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (ATAS)

Trivia:

The first scripted program to be simulcast on NBC, CBS, and ABC in the USA.

Quotes:

Theodore: [shocked after discovering that Michael stole Corey's piggy bank] I can't believe it! Corey's own brother?
Gordon 'ALF' Shumway: Wally never did this sort of thing to The Beav.

Movie Connections:

References "Leave It to Beaver" (1957)

Soundtrack:

Wonderful Ways to Say No

The wonders of LSD...

This film spends a lot of time preaching against marijuana. However, the plot and visuals are so insane that it seems more like the poster-child for LSD.

Plot: The heroic struggle of Michael as he battles his drug addiction while being subjected to the humiliation brought on by the likes of Winnie the Pooh and Papa Smurf.

Yea, yea, there's a good message, but it's obscured by the fact that the writers have taken a rather stale PSA idea and tried stretching it into 30 minutes. This includes a song sequence, where you're told that there's a million, rational ways to say "No!" such as "I can't smoke pot, I have homework!"

The writers can't make up their minds what to do with the characters they've brought in royalty-free. At first we see they all have to hide from the human characters, but within five minutes we see them all running around in plain sight without anyone noticing. Soon they begin interacting with the human cast, and the only one who's even slightly disturbed by this fact is not the drug-abusers, it's the little sister who talks to her teddy bear (Pooh, by the way.) Further, there's the little drug demon floating around. Because you know, pushers don't give kids drugs. He too is ambiguous - while he might be symbolic of Michael's addiction and hence is not supposed to be seen by other people, he laters goes and haunts little Corey to get HER into drugs. So I guess he's...uhhh.....moving on!

The whole plot finally culminates in some insane sequence in which Michael is in what would appear to be the Saturday Morning Carnival of Souls, aka a theme park from hell where the various cartoon characters beat him up and ignore him and stuff. For example, Miss Piggy eats him in a sandwich and spits him out. If the writers were not high when writing this, I must recommend they try getting high because they can't get crazier than this. Of course, the film ignores the fact that Michael's been having highs for two years by this point, so why this tripping sequence would frighten him is beyond me.

I realize I'm completely whaling on this film, but I actually just saw it again because I went through the trouble of tracking it down on eBay because of it's sheer infamy of being a BAD cartoon. The level of unintentional humor is is brilliant. Take this scene for example - Michael's dad is rooting through the fridge for a beer. He notices many of them missing and mentions it to his wife. The ever-observant Mom tells him "Don't worry, you probably just drank them last night watching football." While we're obviously supposed to be learning that Michael is drinking beer (in addition to the pot and crack), we instead read further in and realize - Hey kids, it's okay to have chemical dependencies as long as you're a grown-up! Scenes like this are worth the tiny price tag of this film. Oh yea, and the fact you get to hear Simon the Chipmunk say "Marijuana."