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Post by Two-Tone on Sept 5, 2006 17:27:06 GMT -5
lol nice
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Post by Belchic on Sept 5, 2006 23:12:43 GMT -5
Fanfic review: Alternate "Love 'Em and Flea 'Em" Classification: Revealing Summary: A worthy rewrite. Score: 9.0 (superb, from 0 to 10) It can be hard to do a remake. It's supposed to be a revision, but at the same time, try to form your own identity. It can be established (through people's eyes) that only something that was a good idea, but was poorly executed, should be remade. Some remakes can be equally good, or even better, than the original (like 1996's live-action 101 Dalmatians or 2004's The Punisher), or be good but feel unnecessary (like the 2005 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and War of the Worlds), or be a poor revision altogether (I'm sure that no one liked 1994's remake of The Scarlett Letter or 1999's The Haunting). That said, I am aware that remaking one of what was undoubtably one of the best episodes of '101 Dalmatians: the Series', "Love 'Em and Flea 'Em" would be hard to do. However, the rewrite fanfiction by Belchic is a very pleasant read and I found it to be very enjoyable. It is nice to see Lucky come out unscathed, as it can be painful to see him get singled out. Rolly and Cadpig seemed to have more active roles and I didn't miss Spot here. The continued kinship between Lucky and Two-Tone, as well as their constant screentime together, was a nice addition (gotta love their chemistry). Another factor that I enjoyed was the further use of Nanny's old box of yard sale clothes; the disguise is likely to be an homage to the author's favorite fanart by yours truly. (For the uninitated: Ok, you can stop blushing. Wizzer and Dipstick continue to stay in the background, they got as much attention as they did in the original episode. The ending was true to the original, as expected, but with a twist; as soon as Mooch was going to attack Lucky, Noggin and Belchic appear and stupid Mooch got what he deserved. Ha ha. The only true fault that I can foresee is the fact it was a remake and I had an idea of how it would end, but the twist kept things fresh. This is a great alternate look at one of the series' best episodes (much to Jorb's chagrin. ;D) I will recommend reading the alternate "Love 'Em and Flea 'Em". "Wiggity Wheeze! Who cut the cheese?" --It's only funny until someone gets gassed, then it's hilarious, Alternate "Love 'Em and Flea 'Em" It's a good thing this was a fanfic, otherwise, there's no way you'd be able to put that picture up on tv.com.
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Post by Trey_Vore on Nov 20, 2006 23:31:16 GMT -5
This one's for you, Huntsman!
Episode review: Tic Track Toe/Lucky All-Star
Classification: Character Development
Summary: Per request of another reviewer...
Score: 8.6 (great, from 0 to 10)
I have decided to go ahead and review "Tic Track Toe/Lucky All-Star", another pair of what I consider to be among the best episodes.
'Tic Track Toe'--The Main Pups try to help a racing greyhound named Gogo conquer his newly acquired fear of bunnies.
Now, gambling is not my cup of tea; I hate to be putting my hard earned money at risk. Cruella learns this the hard way.
Gogo appears to be representing a timid character who is frightened easily. Gogo's plight, being afraid of bunnies, while as ridiculous as it sounds, is identifiable. People get scared over silly things and I guess bunnies are not off limits (Stephen King finds strange things for his characters to get frightened over); I don't think that Gogo will want to be watching "Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail" anytime soon.
For the Main Pups' 'cures'; Lucky doing the inkblot test was a little wierd to see, I guess he might be imitating what he saw on TV. Rolly, who tenatively gets the most mundane of tasks, finally managed to land a very funny part with the little chocolate bunnies (just watch it, it's funnier if you do). Spot's roleplay...just felt rushed. And of course, Cadpig got the best part disguising herself as a bunny (way kawaii!), I just wanted to smack Gogo for mauling her off camera.
Weaknesses that I found...well, it was a little strange to have Gogo suddenly be the Main Pups' hero only to have him never reappear. For one, the Main Pups always loved Thunderbolt (Lucky's hero); I am guessing Gogo was just flavor of the month or something (you know, the faddish hero who is the man for one day and forgotten the next).
'Tic Track Toe' earns a recommendation from me.
'Lucky All-Star'--Lucky is green with envy when he thinks Roger is getting a new favorite pup in the form of Tripod; who later is picked to win a bone-digging contest.
I enjoyed the little throwback to the 1961 movie; Roger is not only a video game designer but a musician as well. This episode contains a favorite series moment for me; the part involving Lucky and Cadpig playing together helps support my claim (see my review for "The Dogs of DeVil/Dog's Best Friend") that Lucky and Cadpig are best friends.
The Main Pups are all in character; but the episode's main purpose is to establish the (friendly) rivalry between Lucky and Tripod. Tripod is an interesting character, he is a pup that thinks only of the challenge rather than the glory. His 'never give up' attitude makes him likable. I think of him as one of the other 84 adopted pups; Lucky, Cadpig and Rolly don't appear to react to him as a blood-related sibling. I think he's a pretty cool character (ranking along side Patch and Two-Tone as characters I liked as well as the Main Pups); he deserved better than to have to kiss up to Lt. Pug in later episodes.
And of course, Lucky finally learns the truth from Tripod that he was not after Lucky's spot as Roger's favorite. Just the competition.
The only flaws I can see is...well, Tripod does only have three legs, and he is a positive 'handicapped' character, but maybe give him some 'flaws'. Maybe shed some light on why he's so determined to be training for what seems like 24/7. Maybe he just formed it as a habit while he was in Cruella's captivity.
I can close by saying both "Tic Track Toe" and "Lucky All-Star" are great episodes. They are both charming and humorous and as previously stated, rank among the best. If you made me pick one of these two as the better ep, I think "Lucky All-Star" just edged out "Tic Track Toe". However, they both earned a strong recommendation from me.
"Remember Gogo, if you keep your face in the sunshine...be sure to wear sunglasses." --Now you tell me, my eyes hurt, "Tic Track Toe"
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Post by Belchic on Nov 22, 2006 12:35:55 GMT -5
Another strong review, Trey! You belong here!
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Post by Trey_Vore on Nov 26, 2006 1:01:34 GMT -5
Here's an older review that I never got to post until now.
Episode review: Hail to the Chief/Food for Thought
Classification: Filler episode
Summary: Keep your day job, Rolly.
Score: 5.1 (mediocre, from 0 to 10)
These episodes get some fairly low scores from me primarily because I'm not a big fan of Rolly. While Lucky has his desire to be popular or be a hero, Cadpig has her desire to live in harmony or attempts to pacify her violent tendencies and Spot has her 'impossible dream', Rolly's psyche will delve about as far as his gut will take him. I like Rolly as a character; he's proven himself to be a good friend and he gets his share of the laughs. But...he's just too 'meek' for me to truly cheer or sympathize with. Rolly, in my opinion, is the least interesting of the Main Pups and he just works best as a foil for the other three. The wishy-washy 'middle child' mentality of only wanting to be accepted doesn't make for anything overly exciting. Rolly does have his moments, but if Lucky and Cadpig wanted to dump him at the buffet for a few episodes in favor of more of characters like Patch, Tripod and Two-Tone, my objections would be somewhat minor.
'Hail to the Chief'--Pongo tells Rolly he hoped that one day, he would follow in his great-grandfather Rolondo on the eve of a Chief Firedog contest.
It does gather some laughs and was somewhat entertaining, but there was something about 'Hail to the Chief' that left something to be desired. It seemed to take up too much time to set up its plotline, and everything seemed to be finished in three minutes, flat. Maybe if this was a half-hour episode it would have been different.
The message of the episode was probably 'You can do anything if you put your mind to it', which is a good message. Cruella's plot to save her money--through the 'Dime-a-Drip' fire hydrants, was probably a statement on water conservation, but it did little for the plot; she needed Jasper and Horace to place her fire hydrant but she was only truly needed to accidently set the barn on fire.
Beyond the pacing problems, it was an okay episode.
'Food for Thought'--Rolly is lured into P.H. DeVil's Ice Cream factory as part of his scheme for animal testing.
Personally, I thought 'Food for Thought' was the superior episode, but that praise is only somewhat light. Like 'Hail to the Chief' before it, it just feels like it's over when it seems like it's getting started. The whole bit with Rolly floating around like a helium balloon just gets tiring for me.
The episode's message is likely 'Don't take candy from strangers', which is another good message.
The other characters who Rolly conspired to escape with were a nice addition; the glow-in-the-dark raccoon and the caffinated turtle had their moments. P.H. DeVil is a nice touch too; he makes out to be an entertaining villain and he can be humorous as well; it made 'Food for Thought' stronger overall.
Overall, I would say these two episodes were just okay at best. Rolly seems to go through a change but by the end, just goes back to the way he was. In the first cartoon, Rolly proves that he can be a hero, but in the second, he's still the same old Rolly. The fact that so much emphasis was placed on Rolly and Rolly alone hurts it; I thought Lucky, Cadpig and Spot were a little shortchanged in both episodes and they should have gotten a greater role. In 'Hail to the Chief', they were pretty much only there to heckle Rolly into being a real firedog, but later, in 'Food for Thought', they had to bail him out. The fact Lucky, Cadpig and Spot go through a change but Rolly changes only to change back leaves Rolly as the least engaging of the four. Stick with playing support, Rolly.
"Gluttony is one of the Seven Deadly Sins. And if you do that to me again...I am going to violate the other six on you!!" --I won't mind, as long as you do 'lust', "Food for Thought"
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Post by Belchic on Nov 26, 2006 2:51:30 GMT -5
I read up that review on tv.com. I've got my next episode planned, I just need to decide on what I'm going to say on my review.
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Post by Trey_Vore on Dec 3, 2006 0:05:24 GMT -5
To go along with Belchic, here's my next review:
Episode review: Virtual Lucky
Classification: Exciting
Summary: One of series' best episodes: now loading...
Score: 9.6 (superb, from 0 to 10)
The final episode of "101 Dalmatians: the Series" that was aired before our show was pulled from Toon Disney's broadcast lineup (painful memory, I know), "Virtual Lucky" also ranks as one of the best episodes of the series.
'Virtual Lucky'--When Roger shows Cruella a new game that he making, a glitch sucks Cruella and Lucky (and soon, Rolly and Cadpig) inside the game and they must play it to escape.
Roger finishes thinking up a way to finally beat his new video game upon seeing Nanny using a catapult and the 'glitch' starts to show. I liked the start, we all get frustrated with our computers sometimes. I also liked the little throwback to "Chow About That?" (catapulting into the Chow Tower must have been leftover material).
This episode helps us see that while we can hear the pups talking, the humans in the series can't (all they hear is barking). This soon changes, once Lucky and Cruella are sucked inside the game and Cruella hears Lucky speak for the first time.
The throwback to Dodie Smith I also liked; Dodie Smith based "101 Dalmatians" upon her pet dalmatian and Roger based his game on Lucky to make his game hero, "Barkio". I also liked seeing Roger's interpretation of Cruella as Medusa; this is obviously a revenge tactic for her past crimes. Being an artist, I got a big kick out of the M. C. Escher-inspired video game version of Cruella's mansion.
This episode got quite suspenseful towards the end; Cruella sounding like a true video game-type villain and Spot had to do everything in her power to keep Roger from shutting down the power in his computer or face losing her friends and Cruella forever. And of course, Cruella and the pups escape, with Cruella hiding her feeling about the game.
If there were any flaws that I saw, one of which would be Spot trying to keep having the same impact with her "Game Over" lines. Sorry, but it's not going to have that level of power after the third time.
In addition, I liked the different aspects of Roger's video game, but I have my doubts that it would be a "Player's Choice"-type of game. Video games have come a long way from the days of Pac-Man and Donkey Kong (games were the object is to delay your own death); a game needs to be a jack of all trades nowadays (an advancing plot, identifiable characters, a mix of different genres...almost like an interactive movie). I understand that this series was likely in production in 1995-1996, when 16-bit systems like the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis were becoming obsolete in favor of 32-bit systems like the Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation, not to mention Nintendo's N64. Video games weren't meant to be very long in the 16-bit era (and this is only a 22-minute episode) so we can say Roger is in charge of a handful of levels for his game in the future.
"Virtual Lucky" is a solid entry into the series, it earns my recommendation as one of the "Best" episodes and I am sure 101 Dalmatians fans who like video games will get an enormous kick out of it (being a video gamer, I loved it). I will end by saying I strongly recommend "Virtual Lucky".
"I am Barkio! Enter my world, if you dare!" --It's a-me, Mario!, "Virtual Lucky"
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Post by Belchic on Dec 3, 2006 2:18:04 GMT -5
Nice review, Trey! Pretty similar to mine. You just gave me an idea of something I can add to the database!
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Post by Two-Tone on Dec 3, 2006 5:59:48 GMT -5
nice one
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Post by Trey_Vore on Dec 6, 2006 0:35:07 GMT -5
Don't hate me, but I just couldn't get into these two episodes I'm reviewing.
Episode review: Spots and Shots/On the Lamb
Classification: Painful to watch
Summary: Like, mega ouch.
Score: 3.9 (bad, from 0 to 10)
I really like "101 Dalmatians: the Series", I really do. However, I must admit that no matter how many second chances I give these two episodes, I just can't bring myself to like them. I never enjoy seeing Lucky get singled out; unfortunately, that's what these two episodes seem to base themselves around. While I don't mind it so much if it happens to Rolly (like in "Bad to the Bone"), Spot ("The High Price of Fame") or Cadpig ("Mooove it On Over"), seeing Lucky get singled out is always a chore for me.
'Spots and Shots'--Lucky ducks into Cruella's Mansion to avoid getting himself a shot from the vet.
This day started out so nicely...until the vet showed up, then it all went to hell.
I wanted to like this episode; it's message of "You may not like getting a shot, but it's better than getting sick", is good, if a little harsh. Unforunately, it's references, like the Frankenstein spoof, fall flat and the running joke of Lucky going to hide and the other pups just 'appearing' in random spots around the farm while asking Lucky if he was going to the vet failed to make me laugh. It was just a little strange. I wanted Lucky to come back and say, "Maybe. Are you?"
Another problem that I had was the fact Lucky spends too much time on his own; Cadpig, Rolly and Spot don't get very much screen time and the lack of cast support hurt this episode's score.
Also, how could Cruella necessarily catch a dog's disease? Dogs can't get human diseases like HIV, so how is this possible?
Eh...'Spots and Shots' isn't one of my favorites.
'On the Lamb'--Led by an adventure-hungry Lucky, the Main Pups try to hunt down Lambo, a deranged lamb running amok in Grutely.
Sorry, situation hasn't improved, I didn't care for this one either.
While I enjoyed the reference to James Bond (Rex Hunter is the show's answer), I get let down as soon as they involve the Bark Brigade. And yes, they go ahead and bring in Lt. Pug, the character nobody likes.
This episode can be good anyway, if the character the Main Pups go up against is at least interesting. But alas, Lambo isn't that foe. He was such a poor character, not having much to go around, speaking in a stereotypical lamb's voice (a lamb drags out its 'a's, much like how a snake drags out its 's's) and coming off as a failed spoof of Sylvester Stallone's "Rambo" character.
The ending, involving Lucky having his fur removed due to the tape he was smothered in, was painful. Him getting chewed out by Lt. Pug after rewarding Cadpig wasn't fun, and Spot's closing line didn't help matters. In the end, I felt this episode was pretty bland and I didn't enjoy it much at all.
'Spots and Shots' and 'On the Lamb' have not earned my recommendation; while I won't call them terrible episodes, and while not as bad as I originally thought they were, they are among my least favorites. While I thought 'Spots and Shots' was marginally better than 'On the Lamb', I can't really recommend either episode.
"Poor Pug. He's metaphorically challenged." --Another reason why we don't like Pug, "On the Lamb"
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Post by Belchic on Dec 6, 2006 1:22:03 GMT -5
Sorry that you didn't like those episodes, Trey. I don't like seeing the main pups get singled out either; I alway like seeing Lucky, Cadpig and Rolly do stuff together. Still, a well-written review.
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Post by Trey_Vore on Dec 23, 2006 19:48:41 GMT -5
I don't like seeing the main pups get singled out either; I alway like seeing Lucky, Cadpig and Rolly do stuff together. Dude...that is the last thing that I was talking about. Here's a review that I originally wrote for my first 101 Dalmatians: the Series episode review: Episode review: A Christmas Cruella Classification: A very special episode Summary: Lucky, Cadpig, Rolly and Spot tackle Cruella DeVil and a familiar Charles thingyens story in this very special episode. Score: 8.5 (great, from 0 to 10) I'll admit, the first time I saw 'A Christmas Cruella' was not on Toon Disney, but my Amazon-purchased '101 Dalmatians Christmas' tape. It offers a creative satire on Charles thingyens' classic 'A Christmas Carol' and I've made it a personal tradition of mine to start watching it sometime before Christmas in December. 'A Christmas Cruella'--Cruella is being a royal pain to her employees on Christmas Eve, and Anita only wants to spend a nice Christmas at home with her family. Once Roger stands up to her, Cruella fires Anita. After taking a blow to the head, Cruella starts taking a look at her Christmas Past, Present and Future, courtesy of Cadpig, Rolly and Spot. I have been familiar with the story of 'A Christmas Carol' since I was in grade school. Many forms of media cropped up to satirize it, including The Muppets, The Flintstones, All Dogs Go to Heaven, Mickey's Christmas Carol, and so forth. They vary in terms of quality, but 'A Christmas Cruella' is something important in my upcoming Christmas, and it's not simple blind fanboyism. In a way, I may prefer this holiday episode to some of the others due to the fact I really like the writing in this episode. Cruella is cast in the Ebenezer Scrooge role, who, in this episode, we learn that she had been wanting her parents to be with her for Christmas, while pining for a puppy that she never got. This gives Cruella a little background, indicating that she wasn't born evil. This makes her more believeable a character, because no one is evil for the sake of being evil. As the Main Pups go, Cadpig is cute as a button (like always) and in my opinion, she got the best bit part as Cruella's Ghost of Christmas Past. Rolly, as usual, got the least interesting part as the Ghost of Christmas Present, but it was helped by establishing the miserable Christmas the Dearlys were having (No thanks to Cruella firing Anita on Christmas Eve). Tripod, Wizzer and Two-Tone established that their Christmas was a bust though the presents that no one would be able to keep. Spot was a little better as the Ghost of Christmas Future, and got one terrific line. One immediate thing I did not like was, while Cadpig, Rolly and Spot all got a major speaking part in this episode, Lucky took the role of Tiny Tim and...he said nothing. Beyond a grunt, he had no lines at all in this episode. Just like his character in the original animated movie...little characterization. That's the only thing that made me dock this episode's score by a few points. Beyond that, 'A Christmas Cruella' is a wonderful holiday themed episode of the series that would make anyone's Christmas. The writing made it quite humorous and heartwarming at the same time. Watching it before Christmas morning has been a personal tradition of mine since I first got my tape. "Don't make me use special effects." --Cadpig toying with Cruella's imagination...yipes, "A Christmas Cruella"
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Post by cw on Dec 23, 2006 19:54:30 GMT -5
I think Cadpig did an excellent job as the ghost of Chrstmas past! I also think that Lucky was picked for Tiny Tim because there was no suitable part for him: all were taken up by the others. And of course, Cadpig's line was the among best she ever said. Excellent review.
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Post by dominus on Feb 5, 2007 20:23:35 GMT -5
I left TV.com quite some time ago, Mr. Vore, but I still remain a fan of your reviews. I realize that you may not be able to keep writing these reviews, as with each review you write, you come one review closer to the final episode you’re capable of reviewing. However, I’m looking forward to reading your thoughts on as many episodes as possible in the future.
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Post by Belchic on Feb 6, 2007 0:03:13 GMT -5
That was very painful, what you said, Huntsman.
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