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Post by Trey_Vore on Dec 3, 2006 0:20:14 GMT -5
Good review, Belchic. I just reviewed this episode as well, check it out.
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Post by Belchic on Dec 27, 2006 1:02:26 GMT -5
Here's my newest episode review!
"Home is Where the Bark Is"
Classification: Fine example
Score: 10.0
So starts the beginning of a wonderful series!
"Home is Where the Bark Is", the first official episode of "101 Dalmatians", and also, coincidentally, one of the very best. This episode captures a lot of essence of the animated movie, and it's probably the closest the series ever gets to the movie. It also shows a fine example of what kind of fun lies ahead in the series.
We start off in the big city, where the dalmatians were living where the movie left off. When Roger and Anita find a house in the country they decide to move to (which was also said in the movie), three specific pups, Lucky, Cadpig and Rolly, are not pleased to hear such. Once they move to the farm, they try to get aquainted with the other animals living on the farm (most of which happen to be the same animals that Pongo and Perdita met in the movie). Well, in summary, the three pups just don't like it, so the next day, they decide to go back to their own home.
This, I might also add, is one of the three episodes in the entire series where Spot doesn't play a role in the plot. She is seen for a split second in this episode, yet she doesn't speak, she just clucks, so if you missed her, than you blinked.
When the pups return to their old brownstone, they discover that it's not as fun any more. There are more important things than comfort: family. This is when Lucky decides to make the decision that they're going back home. We see in this episode that Lucky is really the one who makes all the decisions while Cadpig and Rolly just follow him; this makes it very understandable that Lucky is the leader. I must admit, the various attempts the pups made to get out of the brownstone were entertaining to watch. The little short stack they made to get out through the chimeny is likely to be a foreshadowing of "Leisure Lawsuit". (*wink, wink*)
While I'm not really as interested in Cruella as I am with the puppies, the scheme she pulled off in this episode was very well thought out. It really expresses how villainous she can be. We also sort of get an idea as to why Cruella wants to get the farm from the Dearly's since the original owners wouldn't sell it to her.
In the end, the pups decide that they moved to a good home, and they end up getting used to the surroundings and make good friends (more or less) with the other animals.
In conclusion, if you're getting started with this series, this episode, by all means, is a perfect place to start. It shows a perfect example of what kind of fun is in store for you on this series. "Home is Where the Bark Is" has hands down earned my reccomendation.
"I'm having trouble getting centered! It's all this unfamiliarity! I need a sense of place!" -Don't worry. You're guaranteed to get used to it. "Home is Where the Bark Is"
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Post by ilovecadpig on Jan 1, 2007 18:09:29 GMT -5
I can't understand you hated Our own digs and Goosepimples so much! I love those episodes!
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Post by Belchic on Jan 26, 2007 23:13:45 GMT -5
Despite ilovecadpig's chagrin, I still got another review on the way. Hopefully, I'll get it up later tonight.
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Post by Belchic on Jan 27, 2007 2:36:10 GMT -5
"Shake Rattle & Woof / Cadpig Behind Bars" Classification: Painful to watch Score: 8.9 The pups didn't deserve any of this. Both of these episodes were really painful to watch for many reasons, but beyond that point, they are both superb episodes and stand out to me as some of the series' best. "Shake Rattle & Woof" This episode starts off with Roger recording the barks and clucks of the main pups to make some kind of remix song. I must say that the "Woof Rap" was a really cool thing to listen to, and I was adored by the jumps that Cadpig made each time she barked. Cruella overhears the pups barking and decides to put a big show on Dearly Farm presented by her with the main pups as the stars. The pups seemed to love the idea, especially since Cruella let Roger be the director. Trusting Cruella is very unethical for the pups, since this was the same woman who tried to make coats out of them. On the night of the big show, there turned out to be very terrible scenery set up in the barn, and Cruella has ended up getting the pups' names wrong. In addition, the pups were forced to wear these stupid costumes while they performed. What a load of rubbish! Since Roger was the director, he wouldn't let that happen, but just then Cruella used her power to demote Roger to pooper scooper and make the new director herself. This put the whole Dearly family on the verge of quitting, but if they do for any reason (as stated in the contract Roger signed), Cruella gets the farm! She can do that, you know. Man, I hate fine print! I felt like I wanted to smack Cruella in the head right then! Well, I must admit, the show did go successful, and I wouldn't have minded if they added in some Village People references. By looking at their costumes, I could tell that each one closely resembled the personalities of the main pups: Lucky as the star, Rolly as the tough guy, Cadpig as the sweet one, and Spot as the comic relief. Overall, this was a mediocre episode. "Cadpig Behind Bars" While I don't tend to like Lt. Pug at all, this one is definately a superb episode of the series. In this episode, Lucky, Rolly and Cadpig all show solid developments in their characters, and I didn't miss Spot. Still, this is another painful episode, since Cadpig gets seperated from the group for a majority of this episode. As I've said in a lot of my other reviews, I'm always feeling hurt when the main pups get seperated, and I prefer to see episodes where Lucky, Cadpig and Rolly all do stuff together. Regardless of that fact, this is still one of the strongest episodes in the series, as it shows a fine example of what Cadpig's character is really like. Cadpig is the favorite of most fans of this show, and this episode happens to have her as the central focus character. The entire series had plenty of episodes with either Lucky, Rolly or Spot as the central focus character, but it really lacked episodes for Cadpig. While my personal favorite in the series is Lucky, Cadpig comes in at a close second. There are a lot of aspects I love about Cadpig that make her what I believe such a great character. She's tiny, she's got a lot of blue on her, she's quite strong for her size, and above all, she's just cute. I find both Lucky and Cadpig to be very interesting characters in the series. The other characters in this episode were quite unique as well. I wouldn't have minded if some of the dogs in the pound became recurring characters. As for the dog catcher, I wouldn't have expected Don Knotts to make a vocal appearance in an episode to a series like this (even though he did appear numerous times in "Scooby Doo"). I thought it was hillarious all the things Cadpig did in the pound that drove the other dogs crazy. It shows a perfect example of her character, and it's classic Cadpig. I don't know what else to say about this episode. They are both painful episodes, but also amongst the most excellent episodes and are a solid way to get initiated into the series. I would strongly reccomend this pair as one of your first viewed episodes. "Sure, you do. It's in there somewhere. The sensitive, nuturing, patient part in all of us." -Aww...I know I have a feminine side! "Cadipg Behind Bars"
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Post by cw on Jan 27, 2007 2:51:11 GMT -5
You forgot "See, I always knew you had a soft, gooey center! Maybe a little bit gooier than expected..."
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Post by Trey_Vore on Jan 28, 2007 1:40:47 GMT -5
Well, I really liked your "Home is Where the Bark Is" review; but for your "Shake, Rattle n' Woof/Cadpig Behind Bars" review, I think either you'd need to decrease the rating or use a different Classification. I don't know, it can be a little misleading. Something that makes sense to me is like how I described "Spots and Shots/On the Lamb" to be "Painful to watch" and I gave it a 3.9.
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Post by Belchic on Dec 26, 2007 2:20:10 GMT -5
My second fanfic review is up! Here it is:
“Everybody Loathes Jerko”
Classification: Exactly Why I Watch This Series
Score: 9.6
All puppies of the board unite for this fanfiction…in color!
This is my second fanfic review. This time, it’s for the fanfic, “Everybody Loathes Jerko”, written by Trey_Vore. I gotta say, that it was quite a shock that not only did the author write out the episode, but he also drew out the fanfic. I felt like I was reading an actual comic to an unaired episode of “101 Dalmatians: The Series”! It’s almost as if Disney Adventures magazine finally made a “101D:TS” comic for their magazine (the only difference is it contains O.C.’s).
This fafnic of Trey_Vore’s is definitely more entertaining than his previous one as it is visual, for one thing. The author also used all of my fanmade characters (Belchic, Noggin, Jerko, Konami and Tippy), and in this fic, he nailed their personalities perfectly. Belchic is saying all the cool phrases I’ve been intending to have him say all the time like “Diggity Dow! It's my turn now!”. I think the author already knows that if Belchic had been a full-fledged character in the series, he would have been voiced by the actor I intended to provide his voice, Matt Hill, who voiced Ed on “Ed, Edd n Eddy”; the scene where Belchic dared Lucky to transform into a vampire is obviously a reference to the episode, “Mirror, Mirror, on the Ed”. Noggin is also a lot more sarcastic in this fic, which is how I had intended him to be.
One scene that made me believe that this fic would not get made into an actual episode is where Belchic had that flashback to when he told the story about how Mooch got flagged. Material like that would not be allowed for a Disney cartoon, obviously. I don’t even think “Family Guy” would allow anything like that; “South Park”, maybe.
One thing that I really enjoyed about this episode is the fact that a major part of it involves Lucky, Cadpig, Wizzer, Dipstick, Jewel, Two-Tone, Rolly and Patch forming the ultimate Dalmatian puppy totem pole, which of course happens to be one of my favorite fanarts by the author, and I was pleased that he decided to build a fanfic around it. The formation of the totem pole really got me in suspense, especially when Jerko was plotting something along with it. I gotta admit, I also enjoyed the little reference the author made to an inside joke of mine (Cadpig saying, “I wanna wear the pink one, Mommy...”).
I also liked how the pups were discussing their line-up in the totem pole. One thing that kind of bothered me was Cadpig being uncomfortable with Lucky being on top. I thought Cadpig didn’t mind supporting Lucky, so that seemed a bit out of character for her. Same with Rolly being relieved that he wasn’t on the bottom, unless this was intending to be a reference to his line in “Shipwrecked”.
I was glad to see the pups complete their totem pole, but when Jerko destroyed it, things went downhill from there. I was actually quite shocked that Two-Tone was the one who ended up getting the most scarred. One thing I didn’t understand is how the pups all turned into a giant fireball and shot into the water troff (sp?). Some explanation on that would have been nice. I also enjoyed the reference the author made to something he started about Cadpig having eaten Lance the lobster, which was continued by me later on. Another scene I didn’t quite understand was the little “Yu” conversation that Sanka and Konami had. This could possibly be a reference to Yuri, a recent O.C. of the author who has some sort of a problem with those two. All I can say about Jerko in this fic is that I felt that I’ve created a monster.
The ending, I felt was rather rushed, but I am glad that Jerko got what he deserved! I mean, sure, they did get into a cloud fight with Jerko, and he escaped, but he also landed into an unexpected trap! Ha, ha! Even though, he is my O.C., he is a bad guy, and I always like to see bad guys get pwned! The surprise ending with Tic-Tac at the very end sort of leaves the readers in suspense, and the way the author made the closing credits was just plain awesome; he nailed all the voice actors just like that!
In conclusion, this fanfic of Trey_Vore’s was definitely (in my opinion) much better than his “Street Fighter” fic. I definitely recommend this for hardcore fans of the series. The fact that he drew it out will definitely get a reader’s attention!
“Good. I was afraid that I was going to have to bash him over the head with a 2 x 4 and make Lucky do a Rick Roll.” -You so made the right choice on this one! “Everybody Loathes Jerko”
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Post by Trey_Vore on Dec 26, 2007 5:17:14 GMT -5
My second fanfic review is up! Here it is: “Everybody Loathes Jerko” Classification: Exactly Why I Watch This Series Score: 9.6 All puppies of the board unite for this fanfiction…in color! This is my second fanfic review. This time, it’s for the fanfic, “Everybody Loathes Jerko”, written by Trey_Vore. I gotta say, that it was quite a shock that not only did the author write out the episode, but he also drew out the fanfic. I felt like I was reading an actual comic to an unaired episode of “101 Dalmatians: The Series”! It’s almost as if Disney Adventures magazine finally made a “101D:TS” comic for their magazine (the only difference is it contains O.C.’s). This fanfic of Trey_Vore’s is definitely more entertaining than his previous one as it is visual, for one thing. The author also used all of my fanmade characters (Belchic, Noggin, Jerko, Konami and Tippy), and in this fic, he nailed their personalities perfectly. Belchic is saying all the cool phrases I’ve been intending to have him say all the time like “Diggity Dow! It's my turn now!”. I think the author already knows that if Belchic had been a full-fledged character in the series, he would have been voiced by the actor I intended to provide his voice, Matt Hill, who voiced Ed on “Ed, Edd n Eddy”; the scene where Belchic dared Lucky to transform into a vampire is obviously a reference to the episode, “Mirror, Mirror, on the Ed”. Noggin is also a lot more sarcastic in this fic, which is how I had intended him to be. One scene that made me believe that this fic would not get made into an actual episode is where Belchic had that flashback to when he told the story about how Mooch got flagged. Material like that would not be allowed for a Disney cartoon, obviously. I don’t even think “Family Guy” would allow anything like that; “South Park”, maybe. One thing that I really enjoyed about this episode is the fact that a major part of it involves Lucky, Cadpig, Wizzer, Dipstick, Jewel, Two-Tone, Rolly and Patch forming the ultimate Dalmatian puppy totem pole, which of course happens to be one of my favorite fanarts by the author, and I was pleased that he decided to build a fanfic around it. The formation of the totem pole really got me in suspense, especially when Jerko was plotting something along with it. I gotta admit, I also enjoyed the little reference the author made to an inside joke of mine (Cadpig saying, “I wanna wear the pink one, Mommy...”). I also liked how the pups were discussing their line-up in the totem pole. One thing that kind of bothered me was Cadpig being uncomfortable with Lucky being on top. I thought Cadpig didn’t mind supporting Lucky, so that seemed a bit out of character for her. Same with Rolly being relieved that he wasn’t on the bottom, unless this was intending to be a reference to his line in “Shipwrecked”. I was glad to see the pups complete their totem pole, but when Jerko destroyed it, things went downhill from there. I was actually quite shocked that Two-Tone was the one who ended up getting the most scarred. One thing I didn’t understand is how the pups all turned into a giant fireball and shot into the water troff (sp?). Some explanation on that would have been nice. I also enjoyed the reference the author made to something he started about Cadpig having eaten Lance the lobster, which was continued by me later on. Another scene I didn’t quite understand was the little “Yu” conversation that Sanka and Konami had. This could possibly be a reference to Yuri, a recent O.C. of the author who has some sort of a problem with those two. All I can say about Jerko in this fic is that I felt that I’ve created a monster. The ending, I felt was rather rushed, but I am glad that Jerko got what he deserved! I mean, sure, they did get into a cloud fight with Jerko, and he escaped, but he also landed into an unexpected trap! Ha, ha! Even though, he is my O.C., he is a bad guy, and I always like to see bad guys get pwned! The surprise ending with Tic-Tac at the very end sort of leaves the readers in suspense, and the way the author made the closing credits was just plain awesome; he nailed all the voice actors just like that! In conclusion, this fanfic of Trey_Vore’s was definitely (in my opinion) much better than his “Street Fighter” fic. I definitely recommend this for hardcore fans of the series. The fact that he drew it out will definitely get a reader’s attention! “Good. I was afraid that I was going to have to bash him over the head with a 2 x 4 and make Lucky do a Rick Roll.” -You so made the right choice on this one! “Everybody Loathes Jerko” Thank you Belchic! This review is pretty throuogh and is certainly worth reading. 9.6, eh? Cool. It was certainly fun illustrating the fic, and I'm glad you supported it!
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Post by LuckyBolt on Jan 30, 2008 20:50:45 GMT -5
And about the books? You are not planning to make a review? =O
See ya!
X.X
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Post by Belchic on Jan 31, 2008 1:27:47 GMT -5
And about the books? You are not planning to make a review? =O See ya! X.X I will eventually. Don't worry. I just need to finish the book first.
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Post by Belchic on May 23, 2008 12:11:16 GMT -5
Hey, guys! I just finnished reading the book last night! I'll probably write up a review on it sometime in the near future.
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Post by Belchic on Jun 9, 2008 3:04:48 GMT -5
My review of the book:
Having been in love with the "101 Dalmatians" animated movie and TV series, I was tempted to check out the original book that started it all.
As most of you know, movies that are based on books have been known to get bashed for not following the book. Having seen Disney's original movie lots of times, I have come to realize that the book has many differences from the movie. Both the movie and the book have pretty much the same plot but they have different summaries.
The characters are strongly different. The man and woman of the family whom we know as Roger and Anita are only addressed as Mr. and Mrs. Dearly. As we know in the movie, the two main dogs are Pongo and Perdita. However, in the book, the two main dogs are Pongo and Missus; Perdita is another Dalmatian that the Dearly's adopted. There are also two nannies, while in the movie, there was only one. It also kind of disturbed me that Cruella had a husband and a cat in the book as well. The Colonel and Sgt. Tibbs of this book were really messed up; I mean the Colenel was pretty much the same, but Sgt. Tibbs was only known as Tib, and Tib (in this book) was a girl!
As far as the puppies go, only four of their names were revealed. They do have some resemblences to the pups in the series. Lucky is the most accurate: he has a horseshoe pattern on his back and is always willing to act like a leader. Cadpig (who was known as "The Cadpig" in the story), like in the series was the smallest and youngest puppy and also pretty dramatic, but unlike the series, she was obsessed with TV (which was Lucky's factor in the series), plus she was very weak, dependent on the rest of her family, and throughout most of the book being carried around in a baby carriage. Rolly (known as Roly Poly in the story) is basically a chubby little puppy who keeps running into things, while the Disney people decided to make him a goofy character with a big appetite. Patch was a big pup whom was usually a bodygaurd for Cadpig (though rarely mentioned); in the movie, they made Patch about the size of Lucky and made him an adventure-seeking pup; in the series, he looked more like the way Smith envisioned him.
This is kind of a spoiler, but the fact that this book is called "101 Dalmatians" indicates that there are 101 in total. There's Pongo and Missus, Perdy, the 15 puppies of the family, and 82 adopted pups. There is one other Dalmatian who will appear in the book. I guess the people at Disney decided that three is a crowd as far as adult Dalmatians go, so they decided to kill off whoever was not needed as much and just added more puppies. They really killed off Perdita, but in the movie (and all other Dalmatian media), Pongo's mate happens to be named Perdita. I guess, the name, Missus, didn't have enough pizzaz to it. Oh well. I'm glad they decided to call them Pongo and Perdita. I think it sounds cuter that way.
As far as writing goes, the author really does go into real detail into this story. Maybe too much detail. Regardless, the book did get my attention page by page.
So, in conclusion, if you're a big fan of "101 Dalmatians" but haven't read the book, I highly reccomend you go out and look for it and read it. It's a really great book. Even though I thought the movie was better, it's still an awesome book. I give this book a solid 8 out of 10. So, by all means, check out this outstanding novel!
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Post by babclayman on Jun 10, 2008 1:42:44 GMT -5
Good review Belchic. I might do a review on the book myself.
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Post by Belchic on Jun 12, 2008 14:10:03 GMT -5
I haven't done any episode reviews for a while, so I guess I'll do one to get myself warmed up for Trey_Vore's fic. I'm gonna review another bad episode.
"No Train, No Gain"
Classification: Nerve-wracking
Score: 1.0
A colossal waste of money this episode was.
"No Train, No Gain" is undeniably one of the worst episodes of "101 Dalmatians" ever! I don't know what those writers were thinking when they made this episode, but it deserves to be rewritten. I mean, it's one of the earliest episodes of the series, and it was all going so well until this one came along.
Okay, so in the episode, Cruella is attempting to steal a train car, which happens to be the Colonel's house, and sell it to some rich kid. She is of course, using Horace and Jasper to transport it over there. The main pups hear about this and try to get it back.
I gotta say, this episode was lacking so many things. There were just so many things that pissed me off about it. For one thing, the scene where the pups jump onto the caboose of the train, but Rolly doesn't quite make it and is dangling for dear life. Lucky attempts to save him, but then Cadpig interjects that due to Rolly's weight, Lucky will fall off too. Since when does a character say something like that in a cartoon? Instead, Spot saves him. I hate that chicken!
I gotta say, I do enjoy the little specialty those main pups have of forming totem poles in order to do certain tasks, but this time, they managed to throw the Colonel in to one of these, which was nice, but why the heck did Lucky have to sit out on it?
What else is there to say about that episode? Well, there are all these puns that drive me insane. Also, the fact that it's a full-length episode just makes it less watchable, and on top of that, the ending to this episode is completely rushed! Is there ever such a thing as a cliffhanger?
The only thing I really liked about this episode is the part where Horace and Jasper mess up while singing "I've Been Working on the Railroad". "Just to pass the time a-hey!" That's good for a laugh.
This is just a horrible episode. It's almost as bad as "The Good-bye Chick". This is just another one of those episodes where if you're new to the series, skip this one for the day and watch some of the more superior episodes before catching this flik. If you want to watch this episode, be my guest, but just count me out. I'd rather watch "Ninja Turtles III" then watch this episode.
"Save that question for a rainy day, Cadpig." -More like save this episode for Armaggedon! "No Train, No Gain"
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