The M Stands for "Mighty" Part One

There were a few cartoons I was absolutely a die-hard fan of in the 90s.  You had your Batman: The Animated Series, you had Gargoyles and Duck Tales and Darkwing Duck.  You had Captain Planet and the Planeteers.  Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain.  The 90s were essentially a golden age for cartoons, one that faltered in later years and is just now really coming back.

But by far, the series that I absolutely loved to the point that I used to schedule records on a VCR to watch it when I realized it was on television at four in the morning... was Mighty Max.

So starting with episode one, let's look back and see what made it so great (and pray it still holds up).

Podblast! Talkin' Toons

I'll admit, I'm still testing out what does and doesn't work with this blog so far, but I'm halfway through the month and still going strong!  Which means I can try something new, this time taking a look at something that's taken over my listening moments lately:

Podcasts!

...you know, those little episodic deals that are like radio shows that you can download?  Sometimes they actually are radio shows?  Anyway.

Every now and again, I'm going to take a look at one of the podcasts whose episodes (pods?) are filling up my mp3 player, and we're going to start with the one that lured me down this rabbit hole in the first place.  The initial podcast that, upon consumption of a ridiculous number episodes in a single day, left me not just wanting more, but craving it.  Instead of feeling like I was drowning in the audible presence of the same individual, I instead felt like I had been alone for days with no reminder of my own humanity, and desperately needed that connection again just to keep myself sane.

I'm speaking of course of Rob Paulsen's podcast Talkin' Toons.

 

Doesn't look familiar?  How about now?

Yeah, if you ever watched a cartoon since the 80s, you've heard the voice of this Emmy award winning actor.  In case you question this, I dare you to check his imdb site and scroll through to any show you remember watching when you were young.  I bet you he probably did a voice on it somewhere.

A few years ago, as Mr. Paulsen puts it, he had a break between jobs and decided to keep himself busy by starting up his own podcast, simply answering questions and talking about being in the business of voice work in animation.  Thus was born Talkin' Toons, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a personal reason for listening.

I always wanted to do cartoon voices growing up.  Even young, I knew I couldn't compete with the "handsome hunks of Hollywood" for any kind of acting, but I loved to do characters and play pretend. I'd sit and listen to accents and speeches, watch tons of cartoons (as people have already guessed) and would sit by myself, trying to twist my voice just to see what I could get out of it.  I even studied cartoon "acting," as it were, trying to figure out how I could get my voice to carry all the weight that many actors could get with facial expressions and body control.

The funny thing was, growing up I was also learning sign language, which is exactly the polar opposite of learning how to manipulate your voice, since most of signing isn't even hand usage, but facial expression and body posture.  But both teach the art of nuance, since even the slightest inflection in a voice or shift of posture while communicating could change the entire message of what you were saying.

I will admit, I always felt a little guilty taking such a love of sound, since I grew up with a Deaf sister.  The fact that she would never hear a bird sing, a car horn blare, or even just the sound of the wind in the trees, much less funny cartoon voices, made me both doubly appreciate those funny little voices on the television as well as keep my feet on the ground, as I never wanted her to feel bad that she couldn't take part in something I enjoyed.

Sadly, I don't think voicing cartoons was ever meant to be, as my love is still there, but life simply didn't run in that direction for a possible career.  But it hasn't stopped me from having Mel Blanc as one of my all-time heroes and following the careers of voice actors both for American and Japanese animation.  Sometimes, I'll admit, I do still think about that dream and wonder.

Of course, some voice actors rise above the rest, with talent that simply makes you truly wonder if the pay scale in Hollywood is fair.  Your Maurice LaMarche, your Tom Kenney, your Frank Welker (especially your Frank Welkers), your Tara Strong and Jennifer Hale and all these other talents bring such life to drawn characters that we all have such strong ties to.  For Rob Paulsen, I know he can bring a smile to every face in a room full of people with a simple "Hellooooo, Nurse!" or "Narf!"  I've listened to him say that he's reduced people to tears with a "Cowabunga" or...well, there's a reason he regularly has to sing this at live appearances:

In his podcast, Rob tells stories of getting started in acting, tells tales of recording sessions, and, starting after a few basic Q&A episodes, starts bringing in other talent to interview.  Have you wanted to hear the story of the man who voices both Tigger and Pooh (Jim Cummings), or perhaps you want to listen to stories by June Foray, the voice of Rocky the Flying Squirrel (95 years old and still acting!)

Every week, another great episode from Rob (who, I'll point out, doesn't get paid to make this, and is busy already doing...well, just look at that imdb page!), and each one is just as enjoyable as any before it.  The man has a genuine warmth in his voice, and just by listening you can hear both the love he has for his art and the love he has for his fans.  Every name he reads of someone with a question is handled like it's an old friend.  I'll admit, when he read my name aloud to ask my question, I almost fell out of my chair and couldn't wipe the grin off my face for several hours.

Episodes of his podcast can be retrieved from iTunes or from his own personal website.  Every episode is free, but you might notice a special event on there where a bunch of actors who played every character from your childhood got together to read "A Christmas Carol" for charity.  My recommendation: listen to a few episodes, realize just how much these characters mean to you, and then pay a dollar for some entertainment.

And as Rob always says at the end of his podcast, "Laughter is truly the best medicine; you can't OD and the refills are free."

Thank you, Rob, for all the refills, may your supplies never run empty.

Reviewing is Magic: Episode 1

Blogs have transformed journalism.  What used to require travel, editing, and a lengthy printing process now reaches the masses in the blink of an eye.  Updates from major news moments occur in real time, and having a blog becomes a privilege for those willing to put themselves out there, but also a responsibility to make sure it is used in a manner that serves not just the writer, but also the reader.

So, on that note: My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.  

This series first crossed my radar when I listened to an episode of Talkin' Toons, a podcast done by voice actor (and overall great human being) Rob Paulsen.  His guest that week was the incredibly talented (and ridiculously good looking) Tara Strong.  From that interview I learned of the Bronys, a term I had previously heard as something akin to a derogatory word.  Time passed, and the idea of men watching the show passed as nothing more than a cultural curiosity, albeit it one I could never judge too harshly on, having grown up sitting through episodes of Jem and the Holograms and She-Ra: Princess of Power in order to get to other programs.  The less said about my brief stint watching Totally Spies while unemployed is a topic for another day (It's Clueless meets James Bond, and one is voiced by Commander Shepard!  What's not to like?)

The series crossed my radar again with several articles written by blogger, humorist, and Batmanologist Chris Sims of the Comics Alliance.  His description of some of the themes and challenges intrigued me, and phrases such as "a bear made out of outer space" only whet an appetite I was, up to now, unaware I had.  Flashbacks to when I first attempted to eat a fried banana at an Indonesian restaurant or when a friend showed me a television show devoted entirely to myths and debunking them with high explosives flooded back to me.

And so, in the spirit of "I <insert verb here> so you don't have to (but in some cases you totally should)," I present my new series reviewing episodes of a television show that first came out in 2010.  Because everybody deserves to know about a show this absolutely insane interesting.

So, because the first two episodes are a two-parter, I'm breaking this post into two parts.  Normally I'd just summarize a bit more, but this encourages me to post more show deserves an insightful look.  I'll do my best to stick to initial opinions, but some hints/spoilers from future episodes will surface.

So, episode one, "Mare In The Moon" begins with a history of the kingdom of Equestria.  And I'm going to say this right now, I love when a show plays with a theme, and MLP milks the "pony" theme for all it's worth.  "Anybody" becomes "anypony."  "Everybody" is "everypony."  Their kingdom is named Equestria because of course it is.  What else would they call it?

So the nation used to be ruled by two sisters, one who used her magical control over the sun (!) to force it to rise every morning, and the other wou'd control the night and make the moon rise.  The younger sister feels jealous because nights aren't as appreciated as days, she goes bitter, and her attempts to plunge the world into darkness causes her to be banished inside the moon.  For a thousand years.  Ponys don't shank.

This also means that the other royal pony has to be on charge of the sun and the moon from that day forward.  This is important, but doesn't really affect the plot in any significant way except to point out that damn, there are some potent magical abilities going on in this show.

I'll be honest, though, it took me until later to realize that the evil sister's new name, "Nightmare Moon" has the word "mare" built right in.  Well played, ponys.

The first real character we meet is Twilight Sparkle.  That's a real name, and not the description of what vampires are now famous for. She's a student to the ruler of Equestria, a total bookworm, and has a pet baby dragon named Spike because I don't know how pets really work in this world.

I'll be honest, in this episode the only thing, animation-wise, that really bothers me is Spike.  I always just get the feeling his eyes are floating an inch in front of his face, and his movements aren't as clean.  But that's nitpicking, because I'll be absolutely honest here...the animation on this show is superb.  The characters are expressive, the mouths move with the voices, the backgrounds have ridiculous detail to them, and there are little throwaway moments during scenes that are clean and easy to pick out.

Twilight's the only pony who seems to realize that a prophecy claiming the "Mare of the Moon" will be freed is about to come true during a major celebration, and the only thing that can stop her from banishing the sun forever are the "elements of harmony."  But her attempts to warn others are thwarted by a royal edict declaring "get your nose out of those books, go check in on the preparations for the ceremony, and make some friends you recluse."  That's not the exact wording, but the spirit's there.

Twilight Sparkle is sent to Ponyville (because of course) where she meets the five other major members of the cast.  First is Applejack, and if I'm being completely honest, I'll admit that she is one of my favorite characters on this show, and in the short running for "favorite new character of 2012."  I'll do more extensive character reviews later, but it's just awesome that, in this world, the most effective way to harvest apples is to kick the crap out of trees until they give up their bounty.
And if that doesn't work, she'll just lasso them straight off the branch. And she wears an awesome hat.  Hats always get bonus points.

 The next pony met is Rainbow Dash, a winged pony whose job is to control the weather by kicking and punching clouds so hard they explode.  I promise you, I'm not making any of this up.  Such precise weather control allows for pushing clouds across the sky, causing miniature rainstorms, and even generating lightning with a swift hoof to the cumulus solar plexus.  She's also extremely proud of the fact that she's one of the most accomplished fliers in the land, reaching rather ridiculous speeds for a winged equine.

No, I don't know how weather works in Equestria, either.  But a later episodes shows us the factories where weather's "built."  Go figure.

We next meet Rarity (no last name), another unicorn like Twilight Sparkle, and thus also able to use magic.  I'll admit, I've always hated characters like Rarity.  Prissy, afraid of getting "dirty" and completely into fashion and little else, it took me a loooooong time to warm up to this character.  She was squarely in the same camp I put Baby Piggy in Muppet Babies, Daphne in Scooby-Doo, and Michelle in the comic strip "Curtis." 

The next pony is another pegasus, Fluttershy, and this is where I get stripped of my "Man Card."  I am totally Fluttershy.  I'm not just saying that because of the "What Pony Are You?" quiz I took during a recent bout of insomnia, but because I see so much of myself in that character when I was growing up.  Fluttershy is kind and caring, but has a small problem with being social with strangers.  Her attempts to say her name to Twilight Sparkle come out as a mumble and only get worse with repeated attempts.  She freezes up and gets uncomfortable in large social groups,   Granted, I'm not quite to this extreme (I don't squeak when trying to talk, for instance), but man.  If Applejack is my character find of 2012, this is my "they must be reading my diary thoughts when they write for this character" moment.

The last new pony we meet is Pinkie Pie, and I'll admit, I've never been fond of the zany, crazy, talkssofastyouhavetolistenthreetimestounderstandwhattheysay characters, but again...in this show, it works.  It takes a few episodes for me to accept it works, but since the character holds to the same "type" of crazy with only a few moments of going more extreme, it at least shows a consistant character, and one whose craziness never overrides the basic ideas of the show, namely "friends come first."  Plus, the other ponies do enough talking about how insane Pinkie is to let me feel confident that it's not just me.  Again, we'll get deeper in the character later, but for now trust me that Pinkie Pie is to MLP what Deadpool is to comic books.

Anyway, after meeting all the ponies and having each of them, in their own way, claim her as their newest best friend (and Twilight Sparkle essentially sigh with disgust at the idea of meeting new people), we come to the big celebration where Princess Celestia (again, what else do you call a pony who forces the sun and moon to do what she wants out of sheer willpower?) is supposed to show up and make the sun rise...but instead, she disappears, and the Mare of the Moon appears, lording it over all the ponies with her magical power and bragging how the sun will never rise again.  But first she has to take out the pony "royal guard" with lightning bolts to the face.  Nice to know that being stuck in the moon for a thousand years hasn't softened her up any.

At this point, it jumps to a "To Be Continued!"  So let's break it down:

The Good:

I've said it before, but the animation for the most part is top-notch.  The story does a superb job of introducing the characters and giving us everything we need to know about their personalities, and nothing really feels like filler.  The plot itself would fit in pretty much any setting trying to tell an epic story, and if you can get over the fact that these are talking ponys, it becomes pretty fun.

Again, another shout out for Applejack, who I did not expect to find in a series like this.  She reminds me a lot of Rogue from the 90s X-Men cartoon, except I don't hate her so intensely that it puts me off southern accents for several years.  Also, another nod to Fluttershy for being the pony who makes me sigh and go "man, I've so been there" when I watch her try to interact with her peers.

The voice work is superb, and the voice staff have enough experience to be able to fully flesh out the previously mentioned personalities without going completely over the top.

The Bad:

Well, nothing's perfect.  Spike's animations bug me somewhat, but just because it isn't as clean or as deep as the rest of the animation (even background characters do a better job of looking complete).  Rarity is given the least personality outside of "I decorate, like to do makeovers, and totally want to get out of this dump and both hob and nob with the elites." Plus, the scene where Twilight Sparkle was delivered to Ponyville in a chariot drawn by two winged horses just felt somewhat uncomfortable, since the only response they give her thanks is a mix between a grunt and a whinny.

Overall:

As I said before, this show really didn't have to be this good.  Al I really remember of the original cartoon was it was essentally "Care Bears, but with horses, and nobody shoots rainbows out of their stomach to make bad guys explode."  Overall you can look past any gender issues in the show (Rarity excluded, of course) and simply enjoy a well-built story that happens to have an almost entirely female cast.  It's easy to understand how the "Brony" culture came around, and in today's world it really nice to have a show to bring up that goes "Hey, wouldn't it be great if people could just be nice to each other to solve their problems?"

For its purpose, I give the episode a solid B+, docked from A status only for a few minor quibbles.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to watch the Expendables to see if I can get my "Man Card" back.