#1:Behind:The Music Electric Mayhem - This sketch is a behind the music about what the band from The Muppet Show is up to nowadays (or in at least in 2005 when the episode was made). The parts about Animal getting put to sleep, Janice getting Hepatitis C from sleeping with Tommy Lee, and Zoot getting arrested for smuggling cocaine are great examples of Robot Chicken's hilarious dark humor that still crack me up to this day.
#2:Voltron Got Served - This classic sketch is a dance competition between Voltron and some monster guy (I never watched Voltron so I don't know his name, sorry!). But the sketch had plenty of hilarious dance moves between the two characters and it was funny listening to Seth Green rap on the DVD version.
#3:No Need For Glomer - This is a sketch about Punky Brewster becoming a teenager and abandoning her unusual looking magical pet, Glomer from the cartoon version of the show. It ends with Glomer making her explode after Punky accidentally starves him to near death. For some reason, this sketch cracked me up and still does. Probably because of Seth Green's voice when he does Glomer.
#4:AAAHH! Real Monsters Meet Samara - This parody is about one of my favorite 90s cartoons combined with the horror film, The Ring. I found it to be quite ironic that the monsters thought VHS tapes were stupid because AAAHH! Real Monsters is from the 90s. Also, even though Oblina's voice actress passed away, whoever voiced her in this did a great job.
#5:The Dark Cristal - The Jim Henson Company executives finally decide on making a sequel to The Dark Crystal but make it a little too hip for the classic Henson crowd. I found the fact that they wrote a rap about the whole story of an obscure Henson film to be hilarious. If Jim Henson were alive to see this, he would've loved it! It would've certainly made him feel better about the film's lack of success at the box office.
#6:Beavis and Butt-Head Meet the Teen Titans - Combine the best superheroes in Western animation with the best dumbasses in Western animation and you get hilariously disastrous results. Butt-Head saying
"That chick has orange boobs!" about Starfire cracked me up and so did Beavis saying to Raven,
"Goth music sucks!". Raven's actually a demon not a goth, but I can see why Beavis got confused about that.
#7:Villains in Traffic - Skeletor, Cobra Commander, Mumm-Ra, and Lex Luthor are stuck in traffic. Sounds like the setup to a corny joke doesn't it? Well actually it's a really funny sketch that I recommend you check out if you want to see the childhood characters you loved to hate getting stuck in traffic.
#8:Watership Fraggle - In this sketch inspired by the cult classic animated horror film Watership Down, The Fraggles from Fraggle Rock go on an adventure to find a new home after Doc puts a bomb inside the Fraggles hole not knowing that it's actually a cave. I liked a lot of the jokes in this one especially what Uncle Traveling Matt thought cars were called. I shouldn't say it on this blog because it has a strong cuss word in it (I only use up to PG words on here), but I can say this:it's really funny.
#9:Dora the X-Plorer - This one is about Dora as a teenager celebrating her Sweet 16 or Quincenera and it is referred to in Mexico. The part where grown up Boots goes crazy and attacks people like real monkeys do when they get older was really creative and so was the part about Dora attempting to steal beer by stuffing it in her backpack.
#10:Pikachu Dance Party - I've always what happens to Pokemon when their owners very jerkishly trap them inside a Pokeball for days and how the heck do they fit in those things? Do Pokemon have the ability to shrink but then get larger whenever it's time to fit or are Pokemon little creatures that can grow at command? Actually, it's neither. The Pokeball is very big on the inside and there is a huge Pikachu rave going on with a bartender selling martinis, female Pikachus dressed in suggestive clothing, and lots of cursing being thrown around in Pokemon language.
Sunday, April 16, 2017
Tuesday, March 7, 2017
Matt Reviews:Robot Chicken
Why did the chicken cross the road? So he could star in this awesome sketch comedy series of course. I've been watching this series a lot lately and it is really funny, creative, and well done. I can safely say that I am a fan of it even though I only started watching regularly in January. What is Robot Chicken you may ask? Robot Chicken is a stop-motion animated sketch comedy show that parodies pop culture. Trust me, they parody EVERYTHING! If it exists, they pretty much have a sketch of it. From Spongebob to The Muppets to Pokemon to Looney Tunes to Teletubbies, Robot Chicken has done it all. I like the original characters in the show as well and my favorites are The Nerd, the titular Robot Chicken, Petroleum Pete, and of course Witch Pudding (I can't say her real name. This is a family friendly blog). The Witch Pudding special was not what I expected at all and it I mean that it in the best way possible. I expected it to be a bunch of sketches like the show normally is, but no, it was a whole plot about Witch Pudding in which she meets a village of Schlorps (an obvious parody of The Smurfs), defeats the evil Raccoon Wizard, and makes more insults and drops more F-bombs than ever before. In other words, it was really hilarious! I have plenty of sketches that I consider my favorites but there is at least one good sketch in every episode. Sometimes even the short sketches (or "channel flips" as Robot Chicken Wiki calls them) are really funny as well. But my absolute favorite thing about the show is the sheer madcap insanity that constantly goes on right before your eyes. It's amazing how they can squeeze all that craziness into 15-minutes and then combining it with characters from our childhood? Wow, that's awesome! But like Family Guy, the one thing I don't like about Robot Chicken is when they make fun of Jesus. Although they do it very infrequently compared to Family Guy, it still gets on my nerves because there are so many people that would completely okay for them parody that they should probably Jesus out of it. I think they should stick to people that are just celebrities and leave religious figures out of it entirely but that's just my opinion. The fact Robot Chicken often looks a kid show and has a lot of graphic violence reminds me of another one of my favorite shows, Happy Tree Friends making it even more appealing to me. I have DVDs all 3 Star Wars specials as well as Season Four and One in their entirety. But considering the other things I talk about in this blog constantly:does it surprise you that I'm a huge Robot Chicken nerd. The show is essientally every thing I liked rolled into one. I also really like the detailed stop-motion animation that has only gotten better over the seasons. The celebrity guests on this show are too many to count but some my favorites are "Weird" Al Yankovic, Kristin Chenoweth, Tom Kenny, Jim Cummings, Kevin Shinick, and Dom DeLuise who was thankfully able to be on this amazing show before he passed away. But all in all, this show is one of the best random animated comedies out there and I think it's so much better than Family Guy. It's probably one of my favorite shows on television now. Scratch that. It IS one of my favorite shows on television!
Thursday, January 26, 2017
Top 19 Animated Characters 2017
It's time for the 2017 version.
#19:Grizz (We Bare Bears) - Grizz is my second favorite out of the main bears on the show. My first introduction to him was the Hibernation and Food Truck episodes and he is certainly one of the funnier and nicer ones. My favorite Grizz-centric episode is the one where he falls in love with a burrito.
#18:Snot (American Dad) - Snot is Steve's best friend on American Dad who is voiced by none other than Curtis Armstrong. I know what you're thinking, who's Curtis Armstrong? Why don't I call him by this more well-known name, Booger, now do you know who I'm talking about? The guy from Revenge of the Nerds who burps and picks his nose all the time, I just painted a picture in you're head didn't I? Anyway, he and Steve can often be really funny together (even though I think Steve and Roger are way funnier together).
#17:Terra (The old Teen Titans series) - WARNING! There are some spoilers in this one. Now we are getting to a much more serious character that actually wasn't intended to be comedic in the first place! Terra was a girl that Beast Boy fell head-over-heels for and she claimed to be a good guy. Turns out, Terra betrayed the Titans like Lando Calrissian or something. The reason somebody mean like Terra made this list is because I liked how much character development we got for a side character. It certainly shocked all of the Teen Titans viewers when we found how villainous Terra really was and it was an interesting turn of events.
#16:Goldie (Doodle Toons) - Now I am talking about an independent animator on YouTube's work. I am a huge fan of the Doodle Toons shorts by Irish animator, cartoonlover98. I used to watch his YouTube Poop videos all the time (the Spongebob were by far my favorite), but then he released Doodle Toons and I became a fan almost right away. Goldie is by far my favorite character. She's funny, cute, sweet, and completely crazy. She will do ANYTHING to get a male character to notice her and that makes her even funnier.
#15:Peter Griffin (Family Guy) - Peter is the dad from Family Guy who's chin should most likely be censored! He is one of the funniest and dumbest characters in the whole series. This guy can go from constantly singing Bird is the Word to the point of driving his family to near insanity to imitating Jackass with his friends and causing mayhem all over the town. Peter is not a nice guy by any means, but his dumb antics make him hilarious. He's probably even dumber than Homer which is saying something because Homer Simpson is very dumb.
#14:Zoidberg (Futurama) - Zoidberg is an alien lobster who talks in a weird voice and says all kinds of crazy things. He is one of the funniest characters in the show, not just because of his voice, but because of the things he does. One of the funniest Zoidberg moments is in the episode where they go into Fry's body to stop a worm virus, I'm not going to say what he does in that episode that was so funny because it's slightly inappropriate, but it's still funny for older fans.
#13:Cuddles (Happy Tree Friends) - I know what your thinking, no, I'm not talking about some little kid show. Happy Tree Friends looks like a little kid show when you first see it, but it is more violent and gross than Jackass. One of my favorite characters in the series is Cuddles the yellow rabbit who wears pink bunny slippers. He can be really funny, especially his Elmo-esque voice that doesn't help make this series seem any less innocent. Trust me though, if you have little kids, do not let them watch this! They will either think it's hilarious or disgusting, but either way, you don't want that!
#12:Pleakley (Lilo and Stitch) - Pleakley is a green Cyclops-like alien with one eye who hangs out with both Lilo and Stitch. He has a very unique voice and always does unusual things like when he cooks dog for dinner in Stitch:The Movie. Pleakley is one of my favorite non-experiment alien characters in the whole series.
#11:Cleveland Brown (The Cleveland Show) - Cleveland Brown has nothing to do with the actual Cleveland Browns football team, he is the dad from the Seth MacFarlane cartoon, The Cleveland Show who has a lot of memorable quotes including,
"PARTY OVER HERE!" and
"Awh, that's nasty!".
#10:Ralph Wiggum (The Simpsons) - Speaking of cartoon people with memorable quotes, Ralph Wiggum comes to mind in terms of quotability. I could do a top 10 list of just my favorite Ralph Wiggum quotes, but I'll just write a few of them here:
"When I grow up I want to be a principal just like Skinner or maybe a caterpillar,"
"Me fail English, that unpossible!"
"The cotton candy in the attic makes my tummy itch,"
"I'm a Star Wars!"
"Hi Skinner, hi Super Nintendo Chalmers, I'm learnding!"
#9:Soos (Gravity Falls) - Jesus Remirez, or as you may know him as, Soos is the handyman of the Mystery Shack on Gravity Falls who always protects and looks out for his beloved friends, because you know what Willy Wonka says "The handyman can!".
#8:Beast Boy (Teen Titans) - Beast Boy is the little green dude who acts way more immature than the rest of the Titans, I seriously used to call him a Tween Titan because I thought he was younger than the rest. I like the backstory he was given in The Justice League vs. The Teen Titans movie, when we find out that he used to be a normal human but a curse turned him green and gave him the ability to turn in animals, I don't who or what cursed Beast Boy, but it was probably a witch because witches are green and they want him to look like one? That's just a theory, but I seriously have no idea.
#7:Linda Belcher (Bob's Burgers) - Linda is the loving wife of Bob Belcher and the mother of Gene, Tina, and Louise Belcher. She is constantly singing and will burst out it in song whenever she gets the chance to. She has a really funny voice and I didn't realize until much later on that she was voiced by a man all this time, weird huh!?
#6:Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy (Spongebob) - The fact that they put Ernest Borgnine and Tim Conway both on a kid's show is really cool. I wouldn't have known who either of them were if it wasn't for Spongebob. I like both of them and any episode involving is really entertaining. I remember one morning watching a marathon of Mermaid Man & Barnacle Boy episodes, I questioned why they played a bunch of them in a row, until Mom told me that Ernest Borgnine passed away. It was very sad to hear and the duo really hasn't been the same since, because to me Ernest Borgnine is the only Mermaid Man, I'm not saying that his new voice actor does a bad job, he's actually really good at it, but when somebody mentions Mermaid Man I'll always think of Ernest Borgnine.
#5. Giggles (Happy Tree Friends) - Speaking of characters with multiple voice actors, this girl has had more voice actors than the Simpsons family has had cats, okay fine, maybe not THAT many! But either way, she is one of the best characters on the show. She's funny and has a sweet side;which I have always preferred nice characters over mean ones because the while the mean ones can be funny, they can sometimes be a little bit much. But either way, Giggles is one of the cutest little cartoon rodents I've ever seen.
#4:Comic Book Guy (The Simpsons) - This is the worst. list. EVER! Just kidding, but Jeff Albertson a.k.a. The Comic Book Guy is one of the best side characters on the Simpsons and all of the references to geek culture they thrown into his quotes makes him even cooler, if you're familiar with Star Wars, Harry Potter, and video game/Internet culture;because if your not, your gonna miss a lot!
#3:Gene Belcher (Bob's Burgers) - Gene is the son on Bob's Burgers who likes dressing up as a Bigfoot, making fart on his little toy keyboard, saying extremely random out of the blue quotes, and entertaining his friends and family. Actually, I was a lot like Gene when I was a little. I loved to stand up in front of people, I had a very gross sense of humor, and I said completely random things out of nowhere. But to fully appreciate Gene, you need to listen to him, because some of his best quotes are said so fast and if you aren't paying attention, you might miss them. But if you keep an ear out, Gene will easily become one of your favorite characters.
#2:Stitch (Lilo & Stitch) - We are getting to one of my favorite childhood characters now. The cute, sweet little blue alien who lives with a Hawaiian girl. It's hard to get more creative than that. Once Lilo changed him by having him emulate Elvis Presley (which I thought was genius, by the way), we actually saw a sweet side to Stitch that we'd never seen before, and it continued throughout the series and onto the anime.
#1:Every character voiced by Kristen Schaal - Okay, I'm not afraid to say that every single Kristen Schaal character is awesome! Louise is my favorite on Bob's Burgers, Mabel is my favorite on Gravity Falls, even though she's not a cartoon Carol is my favorite on The Last Man on Earth. As far as having consistency with amazing characters, you can't compete with Kristen Schaal. I love many characters by Tom Kenny, Tara Strong, Kevin Michael Richardson, Rob Paulsen, Grey Griffin, Jim Cummings and many others;but as of right now, Kristen Schaal is unbeatable!
#19:Grizz (We Bare Bears) - Grizz is my second favorite out of the main bears on the show. My first introduction to him was the Hibernation and Food Truck episodes and he is certainly one of the funnier and nicer ones. My favorite Grizz-centric episode is the one where he falls in love with a burrito.
#18:Snot (American Dad) - Snot is Steve's best friend on American Dad who is voiced by none other than Curtis Armstrong. I know what you're thinking, who's Curtis Armstrong? Why don't I call him by this more well-known name, Booger, now do you know who I'm talking about? The guy from Revenge of the Nerds who burps and picks his nose all the time, I just painted a picture in you're head didn't I? Anyway, he and Steve can often be really funny together (even though I think Steve and Roger are way funnier together).
#17:Terra (The old Teen Titans series) - WARNING! There are some spoilers in this one. Now we are getting to a much more serious character that actually wasn't intended to be comedic in the first place! Terra was a girl that Beast Boy fell head-over-heels for and she claimed to be a good guy. Turns out, Terra betrayed the Titans like Lando Calrissian or something. The reason somebody mean like Terra made this list is because I liked how much character development we got for a side character. It certainly shocked all of the Teen Titans viewers when we found how villainous Terra really was and it was an interesting turn of events.
#16:Goldie (Doodle Toons) - Now I am talking about an independent animator on YouTube's work. I am a huge fan of the Doodle Toons shorts by Irish animator, cartoonlover98. I used to watch his YouTube Poop videos all the time (the Spongebob were by far my favorite), but then he released Doodle Toons and I became a fan almost right away. Goldie is by far my favorite character. She's funny, cute, sweet, and completely crazy. She will do ANYTHING to get a male character to notice her and that makes her even funnier.
#15:Peter Griffin (Family Guy) - Peter is the dad from Family Guy who's chin should most likely be censored! He is one of the funniest and dumbest characters in the whole series. This guy can go from constantly singing Bird is the Word to the point of driving his family to near insanity to imitating Jackass with his friends and causing mayhem all over the town. Peter is not a nice guy by any means, but his dumb antics make him hilarious. He's probably even dumber than Homer which is saying something because Homer Simpson is very dumb.
#14:Zoidberg (Futurama) - Zoidberg is an alien lobster who talks in a weird voice and says all kinds of crazy things. He is one of the funniest characters in the show, not just because of his voice, but because of the things he does. One of the funniest Zoidberg moments is in the episode where they go into Fry's body to stop a worm virus, I'm not going to say what he does in that episode that was so funny because it's slightly inappropriate, but it's still funny for older fans.
#13:Cuddles (Happy Tree Friends) - I know what your thinking, no, I'm not talking about some little kid show. Happy Tree Friends looks like a little kid show when you first see it, but it is more violent and gross than Jackass. One of my favorite characters in the series is Cuddles the yellow rabbit who wears pink bunny slippers. He can be really funny, especially his Elmo-esque voice that doesn't help make this series seem any less innocent. Trust me though, if you have little kids, do not let them watch this! They will either think it's hilarious or disgusting, but either way, you don't want that!
#12:Pleakley (Lilo and Stitch) - Pleakley is a green Cyclops-like alien with one eye who hangs out with both Lilo and Stitch. He has a very unique voice and always does unusual things like when he cooks dog for dinner in Stitch:The Movie. Pleakley is one of my favorite non-experiment alien characters in the whole series.
#11:Cleveland Brown (The Cleveland Show) - Cleveland Brown has nothing to do with the actual Cleveland Browns football team, he is the dad from the Seth MacFarlane cartoon, The Cleveland Show who has a lot of memorable quotes including,
"PARTY OVER HERE!" and
"Awh, that's nasty!".
#10:Ralph Wiggum (The Simpsons) - Speaking of cartoon people with memorable quotes, Ralph Wiggum comes to mind in terms of quotability. I could do a top 10 list of just my favorite Ralph Wiggum quotes, but I'll just write a few of them here:
"When I grow up I want to be a principal just like Skinner or maybe a caterpillar,"
"Me fail English, that unpossible!"
"The cotton candy in the attic makes my tummy itch,"
"I'm a Star Wars!"
"Hi Skinner, hi Super Nintendo Chalmers, I'm learnding!"
#9:Soos (Gravity Falls) - Jesus Remirez, or as you may know him as, Soos is the handyman of the Mystery Shack on Gravity Falls who always protects and looks out for his beloved friends, because you know what Willy Wonka says "The handyman can!".
#8:Beast Boy (Teen Titans) - Beast Boy is the little green dude who acts way more immature than the rest of the Titans, I seriously used to call him a Tween Titan because I thought he was younger than the rest. I like the backstory he was given in The Justice League vs. The Teen Titans movie, when we find out that he used to be a normal human but a curse turned him green and gave him the ability to turn in animals, I don't who or what cursed Beast Boy, but it was probably a witch because witches are green and they want him to look like one? That's just a theory, but I seriously have no idea.
#7:Linda Belcher (Bob's Burgers) - Linda is the loving wife of Bob Belcher and the mother of Gene, Tina, and Louise Belcher. She is constantly singing and will burst out it in song whenever she gets the chance to. She has a really funny voice and I didn't realize until much later on that she was voiced by a man all this time, weird huh!?
#6:Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy (Spongebob) - The fact that they put Ernest Borgnine and Tim Conway both on a kid's show is really cool. I wouldn't have known who either of them were if it wasn't for Spongebob. I like both of them and any episode involving is really entertaining. I remember one morning watching a marathon of Mermaid Man & Barnacle Boy episodes, I questioned why they played a bunch of them in a row, until Mom told me that Ernest Borgnine passed away. It was very sad to hear and the duo really hasn't been the same since, because to me Ernest Borgnine is the only Mermaid Man, I'm not saying that his new voice actor does a bad job, he's actually really good at it, but when somebody mentions Mermaid Man I'll always think of Ernest Borgnine.
#5. Giggles (Happy Tree Friends) - Speaking of characters with multiple voice actors, this girl has had more voice actors than the Simpsons family has had cats, okay fine, maybe not THAT many! But either way, she is one of the best characters on the show. She's funny and has a sweet side;which I have always preferred nice characters over mean ones because the while the mean ones can be funny, they can sometimes be a little bit much. But either way, Giggles is one of the cutest little cartoon rodents I've ever seen.
#4:Comic Book Guy (The Simpsons) - This is the worst. list. EVER! Just kidding, but Jeff Albertson a.k.a. The Comic Book Guy is one of the best side characters on the Simpsons and all of the references to geek culture they thrown into his quotes makes him even cooler, if you're familiar with Star Wars, Harry Potter, and video game/Internet culture;because if your not, your gonna miss a lot!
#3:Gene Belcher (Bob's Burgers) - Gene is the son on Bob's Burgers who likes dressing up as a Bigfoot, making fart on his little toy keyboard, saying extremely random out of the blue quotes, and entertaining his friends and family. Actually, I was a lot like Gene when I was a little. I loved to stand up in front of people, I had a very gross sense of humor, and I said completely random things out of nowhere. But to fully appreciate Gene, you need to listen to him, because some of his best quotes are said so fast and if you aren't paying attention, you might miss them. But if you keep an ear out, Gene will easily become one of your favorite characters.
#2:Stitch (Lilo & Stitch) - We are getting to one of my favorite childhood characters now. The cute, sweet little blue alien who lives with a Hawaiian girl. It's hard to get more creative than that. Once Lilo changed him by having him emulate Elvis Presley (which I thought was genius, by the way), we actually saw a sweet side to Stitch that we'd never seen before, and it continued throughout the series and onto the anime.
#1:Every character voiced by Kristen Schaal - Okay, I'm not afraid to say that every single Kristen Schaal character is awesome! Louise is my favorite on Bob's Burgers, Mabel is my favorite on Gravity Falls, even though she's not a cartoon Carol is my favorite on The Last Man on Earth. As far as having consistency with amazing characters, you can't compete with Kristen Schaal. I love many characters by Tom Kenny, Tara Strong, Kevin Michael Richardson, Rob Paulsen, Grey Griffin, Jim Cummings and many others;but as of right now, Kristen Schaal is unbeatable!
Saturday, January 21, 2017
My Top 5 Squirrel Characters
Since today is Squirrel Appreciation Day, I know we have some weird holidays nowadays, but either way, I am going to list my top 10 squirrels in fiction:
1. Nutty (Happy Tree Friends) - Nutty is by far my favorite Happy Tree Friends characters! He has a serious candy addiction and that makes him hilarious, plus his voice cracks me up and the episode where he marries a gumball machine was by far my favorite, despite the Debby Downer of an ending (although you would expect nothing less from Happy Tree Friends).
2. Scrat (Ice Age) - Why wouldn't Scrat make this list? He's so funny, cute, and keeps old cartoons alive. What I mean by that is the fact that he continues the old plot device of a character trying to catch something or someone but constantly failing. Some of the countless examples of that trope from old cartoons include Tom and Jerry, Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, Gargamel and The Smurfs, and for a very dark example, Sideshow Bob and Bart Simpson. Even if you don't like the movies, you might like this character because his scenes follow a plot of their own, almost like the cutaways on Family Guy, these scenes interrupt the plot of the movie but unlike the cutaways, there are more often funny than not. Don't get me wrong, Family Guy has a lot of really good cutaways, but sometimes they try too hard to be funny or are simply gross and offensive just for the sake of being gross and offensive. Scrat sequences on the other hand are always well thought out, well written, and funny to both kids and adults, which makes Scrat a good 2 on this list.
3. Sandy Cheeks (Spongebob) - Sandy is a squirrel that lives underwater. Let that sink in for a moment! The fact that a marine biologist like Stephen Hillenburg would include an underwater squirrel in his cartoon is hilarious in it's own right, but the fact that she likes karate and science (a very unlikely combo) makes her character even funnier.
4. Angry Squirrel (Family Guy) - This character was only in one episode and doesn't have a proper name but he's still really funny. He only appeared in one cutaway in which Brian starts barking as loud as he can at a squirrel and the squirrel makes a certain hand gesture at him, no not peace, the other one. What made that so funny is because you always think of squirrels being afraid of dogs but this squirrel was so brave that he flipped the bird directly at a dog that could possibly eat him, that is a well written example of an animal acting out of character.
1. Nutty (Happy Tree Friends) - Nutty is by far my favorite Happy Tree Friends characters! He has a serious candy addiction and that makes him hilarious, plus his voice cracks me up and the episode where he marries a gumball machine was by far my favorite, despite the Debby Downer of an ending (although you would expect nothing less from Happy Tree Friends).
2. Scrat (Ice Age) - Why wouldn't Scrat make this list? He's so funny, cute, and keeps old cartoons alive. What I mean by that is the fact that he continues the old plot device of a character trying to catch something or someone but constantly failing. Some of the countless examples of that trope from old cartoons include Tom and Jerry, Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, Gargamel and The Smurfs, and for a very dark example, Sideshow Bob and Bart Simpson. Even if you don't like the movies, you might like this character because his scenes follow a plot of their own, almost like the cutaways on Family Guy, these scenes interrupt the plot of the movie but unlike the cutaways, there are more often funny than not. Don't get me wrong, Family Guy has a lot of really good cutaways, but sometimes they try too hard to be funny or are simply gross and offensive just for the sake of being gross and offensive. Scrat sequences on the other hand are always well thought out, well written, and funny to both kids and adults, which makes Scrat a good 2 on this list.
3. Sandy Cheeks (Spongebob) - Sandy is a squirrel that lives underwater. Let that sink in for a moment! The fact that a marine biologist like Stephen Hillenburg would include an underwater squirrel in his cartoon is hilarious in it's own right, but the fact that she likes karate and science (a very unlikely combo) makes her character even funnier.
4. Angry Squirrel (Family Guy) - This character was only in one episode and doesn't have a proper name but he's still really funny. He only appeared in one cutaway in which Brian starts barking as loud as he can at a squirrel and the squirrel makes a certain hand gesture at him, no not peace, the other one. What made that so funny is because you always think of squirrels being afraid of dogs but this squirrel was so brave that he flipped the bird directly at a dog that could possibly eat him, that is a well written example of an animal acting out of character.
Wednesday, January 18, 2017
Happy New Year 2017
I know it's a bit late for this but I'm going to do another new years special.
Now it's time to talk about the things that happened in my life this past year:
-I took a writing camp at a real college and learning a lot about college.
-I met my friend Jaime who works at the local library.
-My family and I went to a Weird Al Yankovic concert.
-I wrote a story for a teen writing contest and won in my age group.
-I started watching The Simpsons, Futurama, We Bare Bears, Happy Tree Friends, Milo Murphy's Law, Geeking Out (a new show about geek culture), the 2003 Teen Titans series, and the MARVEL and DC superhero movies this year.
-Speaking of geek culture, we went to Comic-Con and met Adam Baldwin (who played Jayne Cobb in Firefly) and Mike Quinn (the Muppeteer who also played Nien Nuhmb in Star Wars).
-I saw Dr. Strange, Suicide Squad, Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, Batman vs. Superman, Zootopia, Captain America:Civil War, The Secret Life of Pets, Moana, The Jungle Book, World of Warcraft, and Star Wars:The Force Awakens at the theater this year.
-My cat ran off for the THIRD time and came back......again.
-I started playing the hilarious crossover game, Animation Throwdown:The Quest for Cards that includes practically all the good FOX animation shows (except for The Simpsons and The Cleveland Show), but the fact that it has my favorite, Bob's Burgers in it is enough to make me want to play it.
-Mom and I watched the movie The Lost Boys on Halloween this year because I feel like I'm too old to be trick or treating.
-We watched seasonal episodes of Peanuts, Bob's Burgers, and The Cleveland Show for each holiday;the Thanksgiving Cleveland episode was WAY better than the Halloween one in my opinion.
-Some cool new characters were confirmed for Super Smash Flash 2 including Bandana Dee from the Kirby series, Falco Lombardi from Star Fox, Luigi (who should've been in there in the first place), and Monkey D. Luffy from the One Piece anime and manga series.
I don't like how he always stares creepy at me, it makes me feel uncomfortable, but I'm looking forward to playing as him nonetheless.
-The new season of Family Guy (which is the first season since Season 12 that I've watched all the way through) has been really funny so far. Certainly a lot of cutaways and pop culture jokes, like I would expect from the show, but it is still one of the better recent ones thus far (even though I've only seen bits and pieces of seasons 13 and 14).
Being the huge Muppet fan I am and always have been;this is so far one of my favorite cutaways of the season.
Tuesday, October 25, 2016
The Top 7 Best Modern Cartoons
Today I am counting down the top 7 of the best animated shows from the 2000s to nowadays. Please note that this list has both kid shows and adult cartoons on it.
#7:The Cleveland Show - I know I'm the minority, but I like this show better than Family Guy. It has much funnier writing, better characters, and fewer cutaways (which is always a good thing). I like a lot of the show's characters especially Cleveland, Cleveland Junior, Rallo, Lester, and Tim the Bear. But I think that the writing is what really makes this show superior to Family Guy, it doesn't rely as much on making fun of pop culture or even the annoying bathroom jokes that Family Guy does on a regular basis. I truly think this may be the best Seth MacFarlane show he's produced yet.
#6:Happy Tree Friends - I know a lot of people don't like this show, but I personally find it to be quite funny. The show revolves around cute cuddly animals with all kinds of graphic violence. A particular example I can think of is where Toothy the beaver gets his eyeball stuck under a lollipop. The show is very creative and I enjoy the characters and plots even more than the graphic violence. My favorite character on the show is Nutty, the little squirrel with candy attached to him and my second favorite is probably Flaky, the little shy porcupine who can sometimes be very funny through her actions since the characters rarely speak.
#5:Phineas and Ferb - This show was one of the better Disney Channel animated shows. In the late 2000s, Disney Channel had nothing but tween sitcoms with annoying canned laughter at the time. I found it ridiculous because Walt Disney was an animator and would not approve of the lack of cartoons on the channel named after him, but then Phineas and Ferb came along:a creative and original show about two boys who create inventions along with their secret agent pet platypus. I have never seen a platypus on a cartoon before and found that to be very original as well plus the characters especially Doofenshmirtz, Phineas, Candace, and Baljeet were all hilarious in their own way as well, I recommend this show to people who like strange but creative adventure shows.
#4:Gravity Falls - Disney Channel, you have outdone yourselves again! Gravity Falls was a show about two twins named Dipper and Mabel who go to their great uncle Stan's house for the summer and all kinds of crazy things happen. This show dealt with all kinds of unknown paranormal things from gnomes to Bigfoot to minotaurs to time travel, this show had it all. I felt that the plot was the best part of this show as I like series with plots that twist and turn. I feel as if not enough kid shows have that ongoing plot to it and the humor was really witty and creative as well, it reminded me of the humor on The Simpsons in some ways. All in all, Gravity Falls was one of the best examples of how great this current era of cartoons is and I still miss it.
#3:Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends - Speaking of creative shows with great humor and original characters, let me take you to the wild world of Foster's. This show was about a boy named Mac who took his imaginary friend Bloo to a foster home for imaginary friends when his Mom thinks he's too old to have an imaginary friends. While I did like the show's core cast, I thought the characters that added later on specifically Goo, Cheese, and Jackie Khones were some of the best ones. Goo was one of the most imaginative kids in town but her problem was, when she started imagining, things she can't stop and since they live in a world where imaginary friends are real, this made this even more complicated and also made one of my favorite episodes what it was. I really liked Foster's and will still watch it to this day if their playing reruns.
#2:MAD - If your looking for a show with a plot with twists and turns, look elsewhere. MAD had no plot or main characters and was just a bunch of random animated pop culture parodies. A lot of people compared this show to Robot Chicken during it's original run, and while I do see the resemblance, I never really associated it with that. MAD was based off of Mad Magazine and had a lot of similarities and injokes for people who are fans of the magazine itself. It deserved to be called MAD way more than Mad TV because it actually felt like the magazine coming to life on the screen, Mad TV was just a Saturday Night Live-type show with occasional Spy vs. Spy and Don Martin references. But MAD had a Spy vs. Spy in every single episode and considering I like the magazine, that really made me like the show even more, but the best part about MAD in my opinion, was the parodies. While they were very topical (just like the magazine) and may not hold up years later, they were still very funny and witty. Sure some of it was gross and weird, but it's MAD, what do you expect? This show was a very entertaining show that would keep the ever-so-happy Alfred E. Neuman smiling proudly.
#1:Bob's Burgers - Wow, I have never seen a cartoon as good as Bob's Burgers. It has all the qualities of a great show:it has good writing, the characters are awesome, the music is good and funny, the pop culture references don't feel dated, the animation is top notch, and the voice acting is perfect. I love all the characters on this show, there's seriously not one that I don't like. Even the background characters are really good take Zeke for example, Zeke is a boy who goes to the Belcher's school and is rarely ever shown, but when he is, he is very funny. Every episode of this show is wonderfully writing, well thought out, and has great voice acting talent, to be honest, there's not one episode I don't like. But just a little a warning before you watch it:this show is not for kids. It may not be offensive like Family Guy and South Park, but it is edgy and I wouldn't recommend show it to a 3rd or 4th Grader as it may teach them words and other things that their not supposed to know in the first place.
Well, that wraps up today's blog. See ya soon, :D.
#7:The Cleveland Show - I know I'm the minority, but I like this show better than Family Guy. It has much funnier writing, better characters, and fewer cutaways (which is always a good thing). I like a lot of the show's characters especially Cleveland, Cleveland Junior, Rallo, Lester, and Tim the Bear. But I think that the writing is what really makes this show superior to Family Guy, it doesn't rely as much on making fun of pop culture or even the annoying bathroom jokes that Family Guy does on a regular basis. I truly think this may be the best Seth MacFarlane show he's produced yet.
#6:Happy Tree Friends - I know a lot of people don't like this show, but I personally find it to be quite funny. The show revolves around cute cuddly animals with all kinds of graphic violence. A particular example I can think of is where Toothy the beaver gets his eyeball stuck under a lollipop. The show is very creative and I enjoy the characters and plots even more than the graphic violence. My favorite character on the show is Nutty, the little squirrel with candy attached to him and my second favorite is probably Flaky, the little shy porcupine who can sometimes be very funny through her actions since the characters rarely speak.
#5:Phineas and Ferb - This show was one of the better Disney Channel animated shows. In the late 2000s, Disney Channel had nothing but tween sitcoms with annoying canned laughter at the time. I found it ridiculous because Walt Disney was an animator and would not approve of the lack of cartoons on the channel named after him, but then Phineas and Ferb came along:a creative and original show about two boys who create inventions along with their secret agent pet platypus. I have never seen a platypus on a cartoon before and found that to be very original as well plus the characters especially Doofenshmirtz, Phineas, Candace, and Baljeet were all hilarious in their own way as well, I recommend this show to people who like strange but creative adventure shows.
#4:Gravity Falls - Disney Channel, you have outdone yourselves again! Gravity Falls was a show about two twins named Dipper and Mabel who go to their great uncle Stan's house for the summer and all kinds of crazy things happen. This show dealt with all kinds of unknown paranormal things from gnomes to Bigfoot to minotaurs to time travel, this show had it all. I felt that the plot was the best part of this show as I like series with plots that twist and turn. I feel as if not enough kid shows have that ongoing plot to it and the humor was really witty and creative as well, it reminded me of the humor on The Simpsons in some ways. All in all, Gravity Falls was one of the best examples of how great this current era of cartoons is and I still miss it.
#3:Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends - Speaking of creative shows with great humor and original characters, let me take you to the wild world of Foster's. This show was about a boy named Mac who took his imaginary friend Bloo to a foster home for imaginary friends when his Mom thinks he's too old to have an imaginary friends. While I did like the show's core cast, I thought the characters that added later on specifically Goo, Cheese, and Jackie Khones were some of the best ones. Goo was one of the most imaginative kids in town but her problem was, when she started imagining, things she can't stop and since they live in a world where imaginary friends are real, this made this even more complicated and also made one of my favorite episodes what it was. I really liked Foster's and will still watch it to this day if their playing reruns.
#2:MAD - If your looking for a show with a plot with twists and turns, look elsewhere. MAD had no plot or main characters and was just a bunch of random animated pop culture parodies. A lot of people compared this show to Robot Chicken during it's original run, and while I do see the resemblance, I never really associated it with that. MAD was based off of Mad Magazine and had a lot of similarities and injokes for people who are fans of the magazine itself. It deserved to be called MAD way more than Mad TV because it actually felt like the magazine coming to life on the screen, Mad TV was just a Saturday Night Live-type show with occasional Spy vs. Spy and Don Martin references. But MAD had a Spy vs. Spy in every single episode and considering I like the magazine, that really made me like the show even more, but the best part about MAD in my opinion, was the parodies. While they were very topical (just like the magazine) and may not hold up years later, they were still very funny and witty. Sure some of it was gross and weird, but it's MAD, what do you expect? This show was a very entertaining show that would keep the ever-so-happy Alfred E. Neuman smiling proudly.
#1:Bob's Burgers - Wow, I have never seen a cartoon as good as Bob's Burgers. It has all the qualities of a great show:it has good writing, the characters are awesome, the music is good and funny, the pop culture references don't feel dated, the animation is top notch, and the voice acting is perfect. I love all the characters on this show, there's seriously not one that I don't like. Even the background characters are really good take Zeke for example, Zeke is a boy who goes to the Belcher's school and is rarely ever shown, but when he is, he is very funny. Every episode of this show is wonderfully writing, well thought out, and has great voice acting talent, to be honest, there's not one episode I don't like. But just a little a warning before you watch it:this show is not for kids. It may not be offensive like Family Guy and South Park, but it is edgy and I wouldn't recommend show it to a 3rd or 4th Grader as it may teach them words and other things that their not supposed to know in the first place.
Well, that wraps up today's blog. See ya soon, :D.
Tuesday, September 20, 2016
Mattucation:The Simpsons's Influence on Family Guy
The famous cartoon Family Guy was heavily influenced by The Simpsons. The Simpsons is a show about a family of people living in the fictional town of Springfield who go on all kinds of wacky misadventures. Family Guy is a somewhat similar show about a family living in Quahog, Rhode Island with an evil genius baby and talking dog. Parody artists have frequently referred to Family Guy as a Simpsons ripoff. The show's creator, Seth MacFarlane even adressed this in an interview by saying,
"The Simpsons made me want to go from working with Disney to wanting to make edgy cartoons. So without The Simpsons there would be no Family Guy,".
Seth has also referred to Peter Griffin (the dad on Family Guy) to be greatly inspired by Homer Simpson referring to how they are both dumb, overweight, lazy dad characters who drink beer a lot and don't pay attention to their kids. When Seth won an Emmy he adressed The Simpsons in his speech and jokingly compared it to Family Guy. Another thing that came from The Simpsons that Family Guy is well known for is the catchphrases. Similar to Homer's world famous "d'oh" many of the main characters have catchphrases. For example, Peter has "Freaking sweet!", Quagmire has "Giggity giggity goo," and Joe has "Bring it on!". The Simpsons also influenced Family Guy's frequent cutaway vignettes that parody American culture. Back in the early days of The Simpsons they had that cutaway formula down and would use it in practically every episode. Seth thought it was hilarious and decided to include those type of jokes in his show.
"The Simpsons made me want to go from working with Disney to wanting to make edgy cartoons. So without The Simpsons there would be no Family Guy,".
Seth has also referred to Peter Griffin (the dad on Family Guy) to be greatly inspired by Homer Simpson referring to how they are both dumb, overweight, lazy dad characters who drink beer a lot and don't pay attention to their kids. When Seth won an Emmy he adressed The Simpsons in his speech and jokingly compared it to Family Guy. Another thing that came from The Simpsons that Family Guy is well known for is the catchphrases. Similar to Homer's world famous "d'oh" many of the main characters have catchphrases. For example, Peter has "Freaking sweet!", Quagmire has "Giggity giggity goo," and Joe has "Bring it on!". The Simpsons also influenced Family Guy's frequent cutaway vignettes that parody American culture. Back in the early days of The Simpsons they had that cutaway formula down and would use it in practically every episode. Seth thought it was hilarious and decided to include those type of jokes in his show.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)