Disney Afternoon Discussion Thread

All topics relating to Disney-branded content.
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Goliath
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Post by Goliath »

@ slave2moonlight: Goof Troop episodes can be seen here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/wonderbar

The Wizards and Doubleduck stories are all made in Italy. That country has always had their own, unique 'universe' when it comes to the Disney comics.

But since this thread is about the Disney Afternoon, we should continue with Bonkers. Any thoughts?
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Post by slave2moonlight »

Though it came several years later, to me Bonkers was always the answer to the old rumors of a Roger Rabbit TV series and even sequel. Obviously, since it was about humans and toons occupying the same world, and a toon division of the police being formed to deal with toon criminals. It was sort of like the Roger comic book in that way. And, of course, Bonkers has some obvious similarities to Roger, both in their personalities and appearances, and the fact that they are toon movie stars hanging out with human detectives and all. Of course, the show was 100 percent animated, which is an interesting way to do a show about cartoons and humans as separate species or races, or whatever. Anyway, I used to really love this show when it came to the Lucky Piquel episodes, with the cameos of characters like the Mad Hatter, Von Drake and so on. Was a bit disappointed that the Big Bad Wolf they used was not THE Big Bad Wolf, and in the episode with Mickey they never showed him. This is another one I really haven't watched in some time, though I have the U.S. VHS releases, which are surprisingly low-quality tapes (the pilot one at least was). I remember the Lucky episodes being much better than the Miranda episodes, even in art quality. Though, Miranda was a cutie, so I did like that at least.

It's interesting to note that Bonkers was actually carried over from the earlier series, Raw Toonage, which I actually was never able to see until after Bonkers, and only a little bit. Bonkers, of course, premiered on Disney Channel like some of their other animated series, oddly enough, with Miranda episodes only. It was really weird when they finally showed it on Network TV and it was completely different.

We haven't talked all that much per show about merchandising, but that's something that, as a collector, I really love. Maybe I've talked about it myself though, at least in terms of comics and videos, and the Electric Tiki statues. Bottom line, when you look at the way Disney merchandises their shows these days, merchandising for the Disney Afternoon shows was pretty week. Of course, some prefer things that way, but I like to at least be able to find one or two nice collectibles for each subject that I love. Most of these shows had something or else out there, but often it wasn't that great. Anyway, Bonkers stuff wasn't often seen. I know there was a Happy Meal (or Burger King Kids' Meal) set out there, and I think I may have seen a Bonkers plush on Ebay once (would have loved that back when I collected Disney plushes like crazy, but I no longer do that). But, off the top of my head, I don't recall anything else (can't remember if there was a comic, but maybe, and if so I probably have it). What I was lucky to find were two bendable figures of Bonkers and Fall-Apart that I still display on my shelf. I normally don't like bendables, but these actually look good and it's the perfect style of toy for these characters. Though, I still wish Electric Tiki would do them, because I'd rather have that.
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Post by Goliath »

It was odd that Bonkers directly followed Goof Troop, yet didn't make it to Dutch tv screens until many years later. I think it was 1998 or even 1999 when it was shown for the first time. Together with Gargoyles, it is the only Disney animated tv series to have aired only in English with Dutch subtitles. Only a VHS was released with the pilot dubbed in Dutch (very badly, by the way), but no other episodes have ever received a Dutch dub. It's also (with Gargoyles) the only DTA show that didn't air as part of a 'Disney program'. Like the US had 'The Disney Afternoon', we had similar blocks called 'Disney Festival'. Here's the leader of the program:

<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/94jkd ... ram><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/94jkd ... en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>

Bonkers only aired from monday 'till friday on 7:20 AM. So I used to get up early to watch the show before I got to school (I was already in high school by then). The show was broken in two parts, with the 7:30 morning news report in between, which I used to make myself breakfast. Then it was: finishing watching Bonkers and off to school! That way I could at least start the day with a laugh. I used to love this show, and I was excited when Bonkers-comics started to appear in the aforementioned 'Duck Tales' magazine. (Although I do remember reading those comics even before the show had aired.)

Looking back at it, my enthusiasm has drastically lowered. I now see it for the Roger Rabbit rip-off it is. I think it would have worked better if the humans had looked like humans (like in Gargoyles) instead of cartoon characters. Having them look like toons undermined the whole idea of the show. I recently watched it again, and all the annoying side-characters (Bonkers' pals) got on my nerves real quick. I felt a lot of empathy for Lucky Piquel, who's my favorite character. The Miranda-episodes were a lot duller, but like slave2moonlight said, she was cute (even if she's a cartoon character), so I could forgive her for that. ;)

Isn't Bonkers the only (Disney) animated/children's tv show where a main characters leaves the show halfway through?
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Post by Avaitor »

Goliath wrote: Isn't Bonkers the only (Disney) animated/children's tv show where a main characters leaves the show halfway through?
Well, yes, and no, in regards to Bonkers.

The Miranda episodes were made first, but didn't test well with Disney, so they took out most of the staff who worked on it and replaced them with a new staff who replaced Miranda with Lucky. They even made a pilot episode with Lucky, as well as a wraparound episode explaining why Lucky left so they could get into the Miranda episodes that survived. The Lucky episodes aired first in syndication in a weird way, where one batch of episodes would have Lucky, while another would have Miranda, and so on and so forth.

Technically, yes, Lucky did leave the show, but he also was made in mind after a good part of the show aired.

On the top of my head, the only other main character I can think of that left the show partway through was Rose from American Dragon: Jake Long, but she did appear in the series finale. As to why that happened, that's a pretty messed up story that I'll get to at a later time.

I want to do an article after my TDA retrospective talking about some of the post-TDA Disney series that I enjoyed, and I already have six or seven shows in mind to talk about.
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Post by Goliath »

Hey, where did this thread suddenly go to? Page 3? Hell no! Not if I can help it. :wink:

What came after Bonkers?
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Post by Avaitor »

Aladdin was the new weekly show, but that year we also got Schnookums and Meat on Mondays along with Gargoyles on Friday's, taking over Bonkers' slot those days.
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The True Story behind Bonkers

Post by John Pannozzi »

Here's something you guys might wanna check out: Greg Weisman is most well-known for creating Gargoyles, but he used to be a development exec for Disney TV Animation back in the late '80s and early '90s, and he was in charge of the development of Bonkers. Over at af his site, he revealed some fascinating details on the history of Bonkers (including the controversal scrapping of the Miranda episodes, and the fact that NO, Bonkers did not start life as a Roger Rabbit series):

http://www.s8.org/gargoyles/askgreg/search.php?qid=1472

http://www.s8.org/gargoyles/askgreg/sea ... ?qid=10210

http://www.s8.org/gargoyles/askgreg/sea ... ?qid=10134

http://www.s8.org/gargoyles/askgreg/search.php?qid=9895

http://www.s8.org/gargoyles/askgreg/search.php?qid=8991

http://www.s8.org/gargoyles/askgreg/search.php?qid=8744

http://www.s8.org/gargoyles/askgreg/search.php?qid=5710

http://www.s8.org/gargoyles/askgreg/search.php?qid=5

You also might want to check out an interview Tad Stones did with Animation World Network a while back, it reveals a bit about the formation of WDTVA, and the creation of Rescue Rangers and Darkwing Duck:

http://www.awn.com/articles/profiles/ta ... iew-part-1

http://www.awn.com/articles/profiles/ta ... iew-part-2

http://www.awn.com/articles/tad-stones-interview-part-3
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Post by slave2moonlight »

Pretty interesting interview. Thanks for posting. Well, like he said, Bonkers was inspired by Roger Rabbit. I didn't mean that it was originally planned to be a Roger show, just that it was the "answer" to the desire for such a show. However, that was fascinating about Raw Toonage actually coming AFTER Bonkers. I do remember it that way, but I knew that I didn't get to see it till after it originally aired, so I wasn't totally sure when that one actually came out. That was cool that they realized the shorts though, and I did always like the idea of the hosts. I don't really see how it was supposed to be like "Saturday Night Live" though, since the hosts weren't usually in the shorts or anything. Or were they? I actually only remember two hosts: Scrooge McDuck and Sebastian. Yeah, Sebastian was in some shorts that I saw both on Raw Toonage and Marsupilami, but I don't think Scrooge's episode had any shorts with him in it... Anyway, clearly, I unfortunately had little exposure to Raw Toonage, and I don't remember just how, but I do recall there was a big difference in versions I saw on Network TV and the Disney CHannel version. Different shorts line-up or something...
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Post by Goliath »

So Gargoyles was the next Disney Afternoon series? Excellent, that's my favorite Disney animated tv series! :D

The first time I got to know Gargoyles, was through a little announcement in the weekly Dutch 'Donald Duck' comics magazine. It used to have a little segment in the 'mailbox' (readers writing in) with news and updates about new Disney films and tv series. The picture (concept art, I think) that accompanied the piece, and the generic description didn't make me especially curious. I seemed very 'un-Disney' to me. When it showed up on German tv, which I watched a lot because it showed the newst Disney tv series way ahead of The Netherlands, I never bothered to look past the 'theme song' (introduction at the beginning). I figured it was not my cup of tea. I guess I was too young at that time to appreciate it (I must have been 10 or 11 years old).

When it failed to show up on Dutch tv, it made me more curious about the series: why wouldn't they show it? On vacation in Spain, I discovered a 'Gargoyles' comic book (adapting the pilot) and while I don't read Spanish, I decided to buy it and now I *really* wanted to see it very, very bad! Unfortunately, I had to wait a lot of years before it was finally shown on Dutch tv. I was lucky, because it never received a Dutch dub. I can't imagine seeing the show any other way but in its original English. I even think it wouldn't even work in any other language, because the voice cast is so strong and really define the characters. It began showing as 'just some show in between all kinds of other non-Disney shows' on Sunday mornings. I was excited and didn't want to miss an episode.

Unfortunately, I missed a lot of them when they stopped showing it (or at least I thought so, because the show disappeared from the tv guide's listings). But it turned out they only changed the timeslot, and I had missed a lot of the story. Suddenly, I saw only three Gargoyles (of whom one I didn't know) and Elisa in a boat going around the world... What the hell had happened? I decided to keep watching and while a lot of questions I had weren't answered, I still greatly enjoyed the show, up until the amazing finale.

Ten years passed by without ever seeing the show again, and in my head, I had built it up to be this great, epic, wonderful, intelligent, mature animated tv series. Then I finally had the chance to see the show again on YouTube, and guess what? My memory had not been wrong: it still *was* amazing! I watched one episode after another in pure amazement, and with a much bigger appreciation for it, since I now got a lot more of the literary and historical references.

Obviously, Goliath is my favorite character. (That's where my screen-name comes from, and he was in my avatar until Bob took over.) I really was excited over his relationship with Elisa. I thought the writers handled that extremely well. It's strange how they could write that so well, that I was never even thinking: "well, a giant reptile and a human being... that's just not right!" :lol: They made it believable and never over-did it, and that's what made it so good. Then add to that one of Disney's best villains on the person of David Xanatos. I liked how you never knew what his next step would be. He wasn't predictable, like a lot of Disney's villains. He could be on the Gargoyles' side one time, and be against them the next time. Often, he completely surprised me in the very last seconds of an episode.

What made the series so good, is that it took its audience serious; it wasn't afraid to deal with mature issues; it had some pretty complicated storylines; and you couldn't miss an episode because important information could be revealed that you would need 20 episodes later: it made you always pay full attention. It sure had its weaker episodes: I never liked the episodes with The Pack. Those always had the some plot: Gargoyles fight with The Pack, Gargoyles win, the end. But weak episodes where far and between. Most of them were excellent.

The original intro, as the show doesn't exist in Dutch:

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Post by Giygas »

I actually hadn't seen Gargoyles until several years ago. (When part of the show was released on DVD) It's a shame that Disney doesn't see any point in releasing the rest of it.
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Post by Goliath »

Giygas wrote:I actually hadn't seen Gargoyles until several years ago. (When part of the show was released on DVD) It's a shame that Disney doesn't see any point in releasing the rest of it.
You can see how it ends on YouTube, the entire show is up:

http://www.youtube.com/user/nayrusavatar
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Post by Avaitor »

Felt like bumping the thread to wish the Disney Afternoon a happy 20th annviersary. If you want to read up my retrospectives, I put a link up on the first page of this thread. If you just want to chill around and share memories of the block, then go for it.
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Post by Brer Brandon »

In addition to the awesome Darkwing Duck comic they've been putting out the last few months, Boom!Studios also recently announced that in December a comic of Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers will debut.

And for you DuckTales fans, the last few issue of Uncle Scrooge have been featuring new DuckTales stories.
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Post by Elladorine »

I got in the mood to watch this today and thought this might be the most appropriate thread to share it in.

<object width="420" height="315"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ggmVm2ljDuw?ve ... ram><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ggmVm2ljDuw?ve ... n_US&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="420" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>

While not officially part of the Disney Afternoon, this special can be seen as sort of a prequel to DuckTales as it aired the same year as the series debuted. Both Tad Stones and Joe Ranft worked on the story. :) While Scrooge is voiced by Will Ryan rather than Alan Young, it's the first time Russi Taylor voices the nephews like she'd continue to do for DuckTales and beyond.

Anyway, it's a fun little special, and more cartoony than DuckTales turned out to be. It's disappointing that it's never been available in region 1 on DVD though.
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Post by Dr Frankenollie »

That was a charming cartoon, Enigmawing; even though Alan Young is the superior Scrooge, Will Ryan was rather good in the role. Thank you for sharing.
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Post by Mayhem »

I have a feeling I have this on VHS somewhere at home, gonna go have a look see...
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Post by Elladorine »

Dr Frankenollie wrote:That was a charming cartoon, Enigmawing; even though Alan Young is the superior Scrooge, Will Ryan was rather good in the role. Thank you for sharing.
No problem! Scrooge is one of my favorite characters and I have a lot of great memories with this one. :)
Mayhem wrote:I have a feeling I have this on VHS somewhere at home, gonna go have a look see...
Cool! I used to have the original airing taped off TV myself. :) I actually saw a clamshell VHS of it at a Goodwill a couple of years ago; I'd have picked it up but it wasn't in English. :lol:

* * *

And while I'm here, how many of us grew up with this opener?

<object width="420" height="315"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/2ku7PQadlR8?ve ... ram><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/2ku7PQadlR8?ve ... n_US&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="420" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>

:D
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Post by Mayhem »

The DA opener animation was actually produced right here in the UK, at the Disney London studios (as it was then). I was in contact with one of the guys who used to work there, and managed to procure a few, different, bits from the archives... sadly he had already sold the fully coloured cels he had. I believe a few of the people there ended up getting moved to the main Disney studios during the 90s when this London office was closed, and he worked on Hercules amongst other projects.
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Post by Elladorine »

Mayhem- wow, that's amazing! :) It makes you wonder how many people looked forward to the segment those images contributed to every day.
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Re: Disney Afternoon Discussion Thread

Post by D82 »

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEOuv4LonkY[/youtube]


Disney held a special event about The Disney Afternoon for D23 gold members this past weekend. Here are an article, some photos and a video from that event:

Here are also several details from the panel revealed by some of the attendants:
  • - Gummi Bears was inspired by Michael Eisner's son who came home from summer camp and had a craving for gummy bear candies.

    - Rescue Rangers was gonna be called "Metro Mice", "Miami Mice" or "The Rescuers" and didn't originally have Chip and Dale. It was even considered as a spin-off of The Rescuers.

    - Feature Animation at Disney was not originally happy with the concept of TaleSpin. Jungle Book characters in planes?

    - One concept for Disney Afternoon was "B Players" about small side characters waiting on the backlot for their next gig. Baloo was intended to be the star of this show, alongside Horace Horsecollar and Clarabelle Cow.

    - Darkwing Duck was originally titled "Double-O Duck". The title was changed because the James Bond people told them they could not use it.

    - Jim Cummings worked on all of the original Disney Afternoon shows.

    - Disney afternoon shows voice overs had no rehearsals, prior reading of script, all cold reads and ensemble recodings.
    Sources: https://twitter.com/SarahSterling_, https://twitter.com/minkus, https://twitter.com/natalie_adriana, https://twitter.com/laughing_place
Last edited by D82 on Thu Aug 24, 2017 7:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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