Okay, this page was originally supposed to be for "specials" in the sense I had of them growing up, such as the Garfield specials, or any sort of holiday specials, or... other stuff, I dunno. But I don't really tend to think of it the same way anymore, for some reason. Maybe because I just don't tend to see anything that seems the same. So, whatever, this page can also have one-shots, miniseries, TV movies or just longer-than-usual episodes of regular series. Or, really, whatever I feel like putting here, from time to time, I guess.
Let's begin...
Charlie Brown
There have been lots of Charlie Brown specials over the decades, far more than I've seen. And I've probably seen some I don't really remember at all, now. But this one was the first, and the best, with a great story and great songs. Charlie Brown becomes director of the Christmas play that all the kids are in. Which doesn't seem to have much direction, and no one pays attention to him. And then Lucy sends him to get a Christmas tree. And there are all these totally mod, aluminum trees or whatever. But he gets this crappy little real tree that's just about dead. And so everyone thinks he's a blockhead. But then they end up decorating it with decorations from Snoopy's doghouse, which had won a Christmas display contest or whatever. And um, Linus reads a Bible passage at some point. I dunno, I shouldn't have to explain this, you've all seen the damn thing, a million times! But it's really great, anyway. It just never gets old.
Well, this is a classic Halloween special. I'm sure I liked it when I was a kid. Um... so, there's a party. And trick-or-treating. And Snoopy as a flying ace, of course. And most importantly, Linus and Sally sitting in the pumpkin patch waiting for the Great Pumpkin to bring toys. I dunno what else to say.
There's like a misunderstanding... Peppermint Patty sort of invites herself and everyone over to Charlie Brown's house for Thanksgiving dinner, and Chuck and his friends have to work to prepare something, since his folks were going to go to his grandmother's place, or whatever... and the dinner they make is uh, rather unconventional... I dunno what else to say.
Well... I know I've seen this, but I don't remember it that well, and don't really care about it now, except for the concept of an Easter Beagle....
Well, I vaguely recall watching this when I was a little kid. Charlie Brown and the gang went to France, I guess. I remember Snoopy's flying ace thing. And I remember someone, probably Peppermint Patty, saying "Lafayette, we are here." And... I don't really remember much else, actually, but I do have some sort of nostalgic feelings for this, so I reckon I'd like to see it again sometime.
Everyone goes to camp for the summer, except Peppermint Patty, who's jealous of everyone else. Especially Marcie, who over the phone keeps pretending to be having a bit too much fun with Charlie Brown. Meanwhile, there's a kid named Joe Agate who is a champ at marbles, and wins a bunch of them off the other kids at camp, including Rerun, who found a jar of his grandfather's marbles in the attic before coming to camp. So Charlie Brown gets angry and decides to win them back for Rerun, after a training session with Joe Cool (aka Snoopy).
Anyway, the special wasn't that bad, I guess. Not exactly essential Peanuts, but at least it didn't hurt trying to watch it, like some other new special I tried to watch a few years back but couldn't stand (which isn't included here). I don't even think I finished watching the whole thing. So it was a nice surprise to find that this one wasn't bad.
Caution: spoilers.
Based on the series Dexter's Laboratory. It starts with Mandark trying to steal the neurotomic protocore from Dexter. And failing. Once he's gone, DeeDee comes into the lab, and enters Dexter's time machine. After she disappears, a group of robots emerge from the time machine, to "destroy the one who saved the future." Dexter destroys them all fairly quickly, then uses the time machine himself, because he wants to see how cool he is, saving the future.
He emerges in his lab, which is now some family's rec room. When they learn he has no number (in lieu of a name), they call the police, from whom he escapes. But then a robot shows up, does a retinal scan, and calls him Number 12, and takes him to his work station. Which of course belongs to his future self. Who is a sniveling wimp. Number 12 has a menial job working for the company of which Mandark is president (and he likes to torture Number 12). Dexter has no idea how he could have turned into this wimp, but he discovers some brilliant plans for using the neurotomic protocore, hidden away. He decides to take Number 12 even further into the future, but they foolishly leave the protocore sitting out in the open, and Mandark steals it.
Further in the future, Dexter and Number 12 emerge in the lab, which is now a museum dedicated to Dexter, the omnipotent leader of Dextopia. The neurotomic protocore has been utilized to make the world a place of universal wisdom, peace, and harmony. And Mandark is now just a brain in a jar, who wants revenge against Dexter. Though the Dexter in this time is a senile old guy who can't remember how he saved the world. (Actually, he's just like Dexter was in one episode of the series where he tried to age himself so he could stay up late and watch TV, but ended up making himself too old. That's not important to the movie, but I thought I'd mention it because I always liked that they did that.) Anyway, now the three Dexters go into the past- sometime after Number 12's time, but before the omnipotent leader's time.
When they emerge from the time machine, Dexter's lab is in ruins. Everyone in the world is primitive and stupid, because the Overlord is hoarding all knowledge and technology for himself, forbidding anyone else from learning. They meet yet another Dexter, who is a totally buff hero. He relates exactly how things got this way. He wants to fight the Overlord, but his resources are limited. But the four of them go back to Dexter's lab, to build a robot to attack the Overlord. Of course, Mandark is the Overlord, and he's waiting for them- along with himselves from the other three eras we've seen, to fight the Dexters.
The battle reaches a stalemate, then DeeDee pops out of the time machine. I don't want to give away anything else that happens after that, but it's amusing. And the world is saved. And every part of the story comes full circle. Yep, it was a really awesomely cool and funny movie, one of the best things I think the series has ever done.
The Fairly OddParents in: Channel Chasers, Nickelodeon
IMDb; Movie Tome; TV.com; Wikipedia
Review to come.
Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends, Cartoon Network
The first movie from the series Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends (cartoons 3), unless you count the pilot. Which, frankly, you'd be better off doing, because nothing in the history of the series can truly compare to the pilot. Though plenty of episodes come closer than does this movie. There's nothing really wrong with it, but... I don't think it could possibly stand on its own. You almost certainly have to be a fan of the series to appreciate this, and even then... it's just sort of meh.
Okay, that's unfair. It's not bad. It's just not as good as I'd hoped. Anyway, it turns out that every five years, Foster's hosts a reunion for people to visit the friends they created who are currently living at the home. Bloo, of course, gets upset about Mac visiting him every day, thus denying him the joy of a five-year reunion that all the other friends get to experience. That was totally Bloo, and totally predictable. Meanwhile, Wilt is acting oddly preoccupied and evasive. It turns out his creator never attends these reunions, and no one actually knows anything about his creator. So... Wilt takes off.
Of course, Frankie, Mac, Bloo, Eduardo, and Coco take off in the Foster's bus to look for him, accompanied by Eduardo's creator, Nina, who's now a cop, and Douglas and Adam, a couple of nerds who discovered Coco in a jungle somewhere. (Since we have no idea who created Coco, I wouldn't be surprised if she gets her own special like this someday.) Bloo, meanwhile, is constantly coming up with theories about crimes Wilt might have committed to force him to run away.
Naturally, since Wilt can't stop himself from helping people, he keeps getting sidetracked on his way to look for his creator. And as the movie goes on, we keep seeing flashbacks to when he was still with his kid. And eventually Wilt engages in a basketball game against another imaginary friend, named Larry, to whom he lost a game years ago. Since then, he thought his kid didn't want him anymore, because he let him down. In the course of one of these flashbacks, we see what happened to Wilt's missing arm and wonky eye.
Of course, eventually Wilt and his kid, now a famous basketball player named Jordan Michaels, meet up again, and the gang from Foster's finally catches up, and there's a happy ending for everyone. I dunno what else to say. Except, the movie does have a few nice touches, like the names of new characters. I especially liked the names Douglas and Adam, plus Adam had a "42" on his shirt.
Kim Possible
Review to come.
Review to come. This was meant to be the series finale. However, several episodes aired after this, which were set prior to the movie. Also, a new season was later ordered, to begin in Fall 2006.
This was like a 15 minute short that aired the night before Halloween, 2005, on Adult Swim. It had some familiar voices like H. Jon Benjamin and Melissa Bardin Galsky, and familiar writer/producer Loren Bouchard. The Devil had a daughter with some human woman, and now the girl is grown up. She's supposed to be the Antichrist I guess, but she doesn't seem interested in that. And the Devil calls her on her cellphone alot, it seems. And she seems about as interested in talking to him as most young women out looking for some fun are interested in talking to their dad on the phone. I dunno, it's all kinda weird, and casual, and I dunno. Lucy goes to a club where it seems the second coming of Christ is a DJ. I dunno what to say really, not much happened, the show seemed kinda pointless. It's not really memorable or all that interesting or anything, but it's going to become a series. Maybe it'll be better than the special, or maybe it'll suck, I dunno.
My Life as a Teenage Robot
Night of the Living Doo, Cartoon NetworkA mock-Scooby Doo special which was pretty hilarious and had some great guest stars, including Gary Coleman, David Cross, Mark Hamill, and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. I dunno what to say about it.
Saddle Rash, Cartoon Network
IMDb; TV.com; Wikipedia
A pretty hilarious western, if you ask me. A gunfighter with no arms comes to town seeking revenge against Tommy Morgan. The story is narrated by this old coot named Gummy. Bunch of interesting characters in the show, really good cast. Tommy and Gummy are both voiced by H. Jon Benjamin, who is familiar from plenty of other things. Played Ben Katz on Dr. Katz, also worked on Science Court, and did Jon McGuirk and Jason on Home Movies. And stuff. Anyway... it seems pretty unlikely that any more installments of this show would be made. And it probably wouldn't work as a regular series, anyway, though I wouldn't mind the occasional 15 or 30 minute episode. It really is funny.
Schoolhouse Rock!, ABC
IMDb; Retro Junk; Schoolhouse Rock Site; TV.com; Wikipedia
This was a series of shorts that were before my time. Just a few minutes each, they were like these little cartoons with songs that taught kids about history, science, grammar, politics, whatever. I suppose I must've seen a few reruns of these thing somewhere, sometime, but mostly it's unfamiliar to me. However, when I was in college, a CD came out called Schoolhouse Rock! Rocks (Amazon), which had contemporary artists doing covers of some of the old songs. I definitely oughta get me a copy one of these days. Of course, you could also get CDs or DVDs of the original stuff....
Star Wars: Clone Wars, Cartoon Network
IMDb; StarWars.com; Toonami UK; Toonarific; TV.com; Wikipedia
This is a micro-series, made up of a series of shorts about 3 to 5 minutes long (in the first two seasons) and like 12-15 minutes in season three. It's set between Star Wars episodes II and III (see Star Wars films). It's about the Clone Wars, The Republic versus the Separatists. Lots of great action, full of butt-kicking Jedi, clones, and droids... familiar characters like Obi-Wan, Anakin, and others, as well as new characters like the awesome Sith-wannabe Asajj Ventress, and the awesomer half droid/half alien Separatist, General Grievous (who is later seen in Revenge of the Sith, though I think he's cooler in the cartoon). It's a collaboration between LucasFilm and Cartoon Network, and it was made by Genndy Tartakovsky, creator of Samurai Jack (see tek's favorite cartoons), so hopefully that alone would tell you how cool this show is. Wish I could think of more to say....
Teen Titans
I'm not sure exactly when this is set within the timeline of the Teen Titans series (cartoons 2), but it first aired after the series ended, so maybe it's set after that. Anyway... some villain called Saico-Tek attacked the city and when the Titans started chasing him, he ended up at Titans Tower, which he threw a bunch of shuriken-grenades or whatever into it. But they ended up catching him, and he said he was sent by someone called Brushogun. (The name will make sense later, but I won't say why.) Then Saico-Tek disappears. Anyway, Beast Boy thinks it's time for the Titans to take a vacation, but Robin just wants to go to Tokyo to track down Brushogun.
When they get there, they meet a police detective named Commander Daizo, who leads a bunch of troopers in identical armor (though Daizo himself is dressed like Zenigata from the anime "Lupin III"). He tells them that Brushogun is just a myth. So, the Titans decide to use their trip to Tokyo as a vacation, after all. Beast Boy wants to go to a comic shop, but it's closed. But he manages to have some fun, anyway. Cyborg goes to an all-you-can-eat sushi bar. Raven goes looking for something to read. Robin and Starfire have some fun together, and their relationship begins to move beyond friendship (finally), though Robin decides to go back to looking for Brushogun. He ends up getting attacked by Saico-Tek again, and then gets thrown in jail. Meanwhile, the other Titans are attacked by various strange enemies.
Of course, eventually the Titans get back together, and learn the truth about their enemies, and have a final battle and save the day. And that's pretty much all I want to reveal about the plot. But, I thought it was all fairly fun and amusing and cool and stuff. Lots of treats for fans of the show, and for fans of anime in general. I dunno, I'll watch it again sometime and see if I think of anything else to say....
Actually, this could serve as the pilot to a series... or not. It'd be really cool if it became a series, cuz this show is just hysterical and stuff. There's this little club of friends who celebrate all things geeky, and it's really pretty cool to watch, for us geeks who like most of the same stuff they do. These geeks could probably blow the "Beat the Geeks" geeks out of the water....