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Post by Trey_Vore on Oct 15, 2010 4:45:44 GMT -5
As you probably know, Belchic and I both have this episode as our personal pick for the Series Worst Episode. The most evident reason being it takes the focus off the four Main Pups and focuses on Jasper and Horace, Cruella’s henchmen who we never had much reason to care about.
Not only that, it’s a clip show, and may I say…I HATE episodes like this…these episodes are just an easy way to save money on animation and writing.
After putting some thought into why I don’t like this episode, I think I came up with yet another reason:
This is probably the closest the series has ever come to taking a timeout to flip the bird on the audience. By that, it’s just a cheap episode that was done just because either someone felt lazy and wanted some free ratings.
If you don’t know what I’m talking about, here’s some other examples of series that have done something along those lines:
This is taken from the Simpsons episode “The Itchy and Scratchy and Poochie Show”:
CBG: Last night's "Itchy & Scratchy" was, without a doubt, the worst episode ever. Rest assured that I was on the Internet within minutes, registering my disgust throughout the world. Bart: Hey, I know it wasn’t great, but what right do you have to complain? CBG: As a loyal viewer, I feel they owe me. Bart: What? They're giving you thousands of hours of entertainment for free. What could they possibly owe you? If anything, you owe them. CBG: [pauses] Worst episode ever.
Seems harmless enough, right? But if you take into consideration what the character of Comic Book Guy is supposed to be, this is what’s basically being said:
CBG: I know I just pumped out some royal crap last night, but hey, I think I have the right to do that. Bart: What are you talking about? CBG: I’m tired of entertaining your feeble brain. Just give me some money because I want some. Bart: Um, we are giving you our ratings and they are paying your egotistical ass hundreds of thousands of dollars! We are not paying you to give us crap so quit your bellyaching! CBG: …F**k you.
Not so noble now, is it?
Another instance of such an act is this infamous short from Animaniacs:
Yeah, we give you our ratings and you flip the bird on us? You’re welcome.
Can you knock it for doing something different? No, but a lot of good hours of research is going to do if your product comes off as a big episodic snore. This is easily the Series’ Worst Episode.
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Post by Two-Tone on Oct 15, 2010 4:49:16 GMT -5
wow nicely done
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Post by babclayman on Oct 15, 2010 5:05:15 GMT -5
I will admit, Clipshows so rarely work. With me, As long as they have a good reason for showing these Clips, I can live with it.
I mean, in "Humanitarian Of The Year" at least there was a story happening, between these Clips. With Cruella competing with Nanny to win the Award of "Humanitarian Of The Year". And the Clips did get used and did offer something to the Plot.
I think Simpsons are able to do Clip Shows well, at least for it's first couple of clip shows, like the April Fool one or the Musical one. Also making fun of it and apologising for the Clip Show.
Though, With "Horace & Jasper", I will admit that the story to it was "We need a job *Clip* Your Hired *Clip* You're Promoted! *Clip* You're Promoted! *Clip* You're Promoted! *Clip* You're Job is to be a carer of the Dearly's "101 Dalmatians" . X3
"101 Dalmatians The Series" is an awesome Show, though each road does have at least one bump in it. Consider "H&JBCM" to be "Batman & Robin", if "101 Dalmatians The Series" is George Clooney...
Still, like said "101 Dalmatians The Series", Awesome show, this Episode is a bit of a bump though. X3
What you Pups think as well? X3
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Post by xardas on Oct 15, 2010 5:21:35 GMT -5
It’s more forgiveable when you take into consideration that all sixty-five episodes were created at the same time. Most animated programs now-a-days have anywhere between six and twenty-six episode per seasons. Add to that the fact that most episodes of the series contained two stories, and the writers had to come up with over one-hundred plots within a period of several months. The fact that they only made two clip shows is something we should be praising, not cursing.
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Post by Belchic on Oct 15, 2010 17:16:35 GMT -5
Huntsman, I know it's hard for you to hate anything about the series, but surely you must have one episode that you think is the least best. I do recall you telling us that Horace and Jasper do bring a good blend of comedy into the series. However, the reason many of us claim this to be the worst in the series is because it doesn't focus on the Dalmatians, and the Dalmatians is the main reason we watch the show, not Horace and Jasper.
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Post by xardas on Oct 15, 2010 17:47:48 GMT -5
Huntsman, I know it's hard for you to hate anything about the series, but surely you must have one episode that you think is the least best. I do recall you telling us that Horace and Jasper do bring a good blend of comedy into the series. However, the reason many of us claim this to be the worst in the series is because it doesn't focus on the Dalmatians, and the Dalmatians is the main reason we watch the show, not Horace and Jasper. There are plenty of things wrong with the series. Would I have preferred that there weren't any clip shows? Of course. But there isn't much point complaining about it. It could have been worse.
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Post by babclayman on Oct 15, 2010 18:21:41 GMT -5
Well, to be honest Hunts. Every Television Show known has Plenty of Problems. But like you said, At least in the Time given, "101 Dalmatians The Series" was a well made product. It even won TWO AWARDS. One in "Excellency Of Animation", the other in "Best Sound Editing". So, you can say, It is quite a successful Series.
Horace & Jasper as well, I will admit are Amusing Characters at point. I will say, they were Hilarious in the Episode, "Channels" and I do like Development Horace gets when he begins to fancy, Nanny. X3
But like said, Each Series has at least one down point, "H&JBCM" Is one of the few weak ones.
Still, "101 Dalmatians The Series" An Excellent Series, anyhow. X3
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Post by Belchic on Oct 15, 2010 18:30:02 GMT -5
An excellent series? That's more of a matter of opinion, don't you think?
A successful series? That's debatable.
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Post by Trey_Vore on Oct 17, 2010 3:56:43 GMT -5
Here's some more thought that I did:
If you were to go on DeviantART and search for 101 Dalmatians, chances are you are likely to see characters like Cadpig, Jewel, Lucky, Patch, Rolly, Two-Tone, Roger, Anita, Pongo, Perdita and Cruella DeVil. These characters are kinda obvious.
Other characters you may see are Mooch, Wizzer, Dipstick, Tripod, Scorch, Vendella, Rebecca, Thunderbolt and L’il Lightning. These are characters that will basically see their share of fanart devoted to them.
However, there’s a chance you may notice there is not a lot of fanart out there devoted to Horace and Jasper. But there’s a reason why: you just don’t have any real reason to care about them.
Maybe this will make more sense. If you had seen the movie on which the series is based, you would know the story is built around Cruella DeVil wanting all the Dearlys’ newborn puppies to make a fur coat. But Roger and Anita refused to sell any of them, so the puppies were eventually stolen. But here’s the thing: it was not Cruella who stole and was going to murder those little puppies—that was the role Jasper and Horace were to fulfill; it was them who had no objections to their demise. Doesn’t this seem sick and wrong? It would be the same deal if they were plotting to kill a bunch of kittens or monkeys. They’re just animals people tend to care about. The reason Jasper and Horace seemed funny in the movies was because they were going to kill all these cute puppies, you just had no reason to care about what would happen to them.
Basically, the reason not many people are willing to devote a lot of art to Jasper and Horace is for pretty much the same reason not many people devote a lot of art to characters like Spot or Lieutenant Pug. You understand these characters fulfill a specific role, but they are just not characters you care about.
Another example is this: back in 1994, MTV had a hot show on their hands: Beavis and Butt-head. It was a show that fans of the network loved, it spoke to fans and was really funny. However, in light of some incidents they were accused of being responsible for (such as the 5-year old boy who set a bed on fire killing his 2-year old sister), this led MTV to put Beavis and Butt-head on hiatus and bring in some other mature animated series. Amongst them were Aeon Flux, The Maxx and The Head.
But there was another show at the same time. MTV had another show called The Brothers Grunt (done by Danny Antonucci and a.k.a. Cartoon—otherwise known as the animation unit that would later give us Ed, Edd n Eddy). MTV figured while Beavis and Butt-head was running in repeats, they could alternate between airing Beavis and Butt-head and The Brothers Grunt and…what do you know, two hit shows!
This caused a major problem though.
Fans would many times tune in to MTV.
You want this:
The show that was so cool everyone was talking about it.
Instead you get:
…this crap.
Fans started to absolutely hate seeing this “substitution” instead of what they wanted (we didn’t have the Internet back then, so we don’t know what was going on—as far as we knew, Beavis and Butt-head was cancelled and this show took its place) and now it’s a show that will probably see the light of day on DVD for no reason other than it is the show that got in the way of your Beavis and Butt-head fix.
Hope that helps.
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