Where's the love for Rocky and Bullwinkle?

[minor muppetz]

I recently rented the Boris and Natasha movie, first time I saw it since 1997. And after all these years, I still think it's better than the Rocky and Bullwinkle movie, though now I feel it could have been better.

While it is often funny, at times it feels more like a Lifetime original movie (and I don't watch Lifetime) or a crime drama (I don't watch those, either). Interestingly, it was originally broadcast on Showtime but was intended as a theatrical release, and at the beginning the narrarator references looking at tickets for the film, but the quality looks more video than film to me.

I'll say that one of the best things about the movie is the narrarator. Pretty much all of his dialogue is funny. I sort of want to say over-the-top as well. And the narrarator is voiced by Cory Burton, who replaced Bill Scott on Gummi Bears. I wonder if he was hired because he'd replaced Bill Scott on a cartoon, though Scott wasn't the narrarator on the original series.

One of my biggest problems with the movie is the fact that the actors playing Boris and Natasha don't have the right hair. Boris has a full head of hair here, while Natasha's is too short. And in the movie Natasha becomes a famous model and they especially mention her hair being one of her signatures (and they also say it was inspired by a Pottsylvanian hero as they show a photo of Moe Howard).

My next sentence or two will reveal "spoilers", though it seems the movie is hard to find and I'm not sure how many of you actually have a bif desire to see this movie. At the end there are many plot twists as almost every supporting character reveals themselves to be after the microchip Boris and Natasha were after, for different reasons, but for the most part they are pretty much bad guys. Boris and Natasha's neighbors reveal themselves to be "Agents Moose and Squirrell", obviously implying Bullwinkle and Rocky, but they also say they cosmetically altered their appearance "once again", but this movie would be the first time they were known to have altered their appearance like that. It seems they would have been the only true "good guys" in this case, though when Natasha finds out, Rocky/"Tish", whom Natasha had developed a little friendship with earlier, seems to genuinely apologize to Natasha over the revelation.

Also, I have read that the producers apparently couldn't secure the rights to have Rocky and Bullwinkle actually appear, in their usual form. I wonder why, since they could get the rights to make a movie based around Boris and Natasha. I wonder if that's why they hired actors with the wrong length of hair, but then again, the original animated versions of them appear in the title card. I didn't see any character copyright notices in the end credits (I also didn't see any character copyright credits in the first three Muppet movies or Follow That Bird).

While Dave Thomas and Sally Kellerman seem to play the characters well, at times they seem to play them as too real. I guess I sort of have that problem with many live-action adaptations of cartoons, certain characters seem to develop more than the original cartoons allowed. I also feel it's strange that Sally Kellerman got top billing, when Boris' name comes first in the title and duo billing. Kellerman was an executive producer in the film, so maybe that's why, or maybe she was a bigger name drawl than Dave Thomas at the time (though I hardly know anything else she was in, besides M*A*S*H and Follow That Bird).

On a scale of 1 to 5, I'd give Boris and Natasha a 3 and a half.

 

[MissMusical12]

I recently rented the Boris and Natasha movie, first time I saw it since 1997. And after all these years, I still think it's better than the Rocky and Bullwinkle movie, though now I feel it could have been better.

While it is often funny, at times it feels more like a Lifetime original movie (and I don't watch Lifetime) or a crime drama (I don't watch those, either). Interestingly, it was originally broadcast on Showtime but was intended as a theatrical release, and at the beginning the narrarator references looking at tickets for the film, but the quality looks more video than film to me.

I'll say that one of the best things about the movie is the narrarator. Pretty much all of his dialogue is funny. I sort of want to say over-the-top as well. And the narrarator is voiced by Cory Burton, who replaced Bill Scott on Gummi Bears. I wonder if he was hired because he'd replaced Bill Scott on a cartoon, though Scott wasn't the narrarator on the original series.

One of my biggest problems with the movie is the fact that the actors playing Boris and Natasha don't have the right hair. Boris has a full head of hair here, while Natasha's is too short. And in the movie Natasha becomes a famous model and they especially mention her hair being one of her signatures (and they also say it was inspired by a Pottsylvanian hero as they show a photo of Moe Howard).

My next sentence or two will reveal "spoilers", though it seems the movie is hard to find and I'm not sure how many of you actually have a bif desire to see this movie. At the end there are many plot twists as almost every supporting character reveals themselves to be after the microchip Boris and Natasha were after, for different reasons, but for the most part they are pretty much bad guys. Boris and Natasha's neighbors reveal themselves to be "Agents Moose and Squirrell", obviously implying Bullwinkle and Rocky, but they also say they cosmetically altered their appearance "once again", but this movie would be the first time they were known to have altered their appearance like that. It seems they would have been the only true "good guys" in this case, though when Natasha finds out, Rocky/"Tish", whom Natasha had developed a little friendship with earlier, seems to genuinely apologize to Natasha over the revelation.

Also, I have read that the producers apparently couldn't secure the rights to have Rocky and Bullwinkle actually appear, in their usual form. I wonder why, since they could get the rights to make a movie based around Boris and Natasha. I wonder if that's why they hired actors with the wrong length of hair, but then again, the original animated versions of them appear in the title card. I didn't see any character copyright notices in the end credits (I also didn't see any character copyright credits in the first three Muppet movies or Follow That Bird).

While Dave Thomas and Sally Kellerman seem to play the characters well, at times they seem to play them as too real. I guess I sort of have that problem with many live-action adaptations of cartoons, certain characters seem to develop more than the original cartoons allowed. I also feel it's strange that Sally Kellerman got top billing, when Boris' name comes first in the title and duo billing. Kellerman was an executive producer in the film, so maybe that's why, or maybe she was a bigger name drawl than Dave Thomas at the time (though I hardly know anything else she was in, besides M*A*S*H and Follow That Bird).

On a scale of 1 to 5, I'd give Boris and Natasha a 3 and a half.

I am little interested in the movie, so finding it might be a treat.

For me, personally, I find Boris and Natasha to be the BEST characters in the Rocky and Bullwinkle franchise, other than Rocky and Bullwinkle themselves (I have all five seasons on DVD, plus "The Best Of Boris and Natasha" DVD which only has three story lines (all from season 5) on there. Nothing too special.)

Also, just out of curiosity, were Boris and Natasha ever really considered a couple? I kinda always kinda thought they were a couple (Didn't they almost kiss in "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle" movie?)

 

[D'Snowth]

Yeah, after failure after failure after failure, we have Natasha summing up how they've basically tried to eliminate Moose and Squirrel ever since they first got drawn, how she's sick and tired of it all, that they obviously suck at being spies... THEN, we have this:

"Boris... don't you vant Little Boris? Little Natasha? Vouldn't it be vonderful? Ve could rent cottage by Sea of Pottsylvania, and teach them to lie and cheat and be rotten... they vould be VORST children in vorld! They vould be MONSTERS, it vould be so awful... ve could be so happy..."

Then yeah, that start leaning towards each other, but Boris's cellphone begins ringing, to which, he whispers to a nearby hound dog, "Saved by bell."

 

[MissMusical12]

Yeah, after failure after failure after failure, we have Natasha summing up how they've basically tried to eliminate Moose and Squirrel ever since they first got drawn, how she's sick and tired of it all, that they obviously suck at being spies... THEN, we have this:

"Boris... don't you vant Little Boris? Little Natasha? Vouldn't it be vonderful? Ve could rent cottage by Sea of Pottsylvania, and teach them to lie and cheat and be rotten... they vould be VORST children in vorld! They vould be MONSTERS, it vould be so awful... ve could be so happy..."

Then yeah, that start leaning towards each other, but Boris's cellphone begins ringing, to which, he whispers to a nearby hound dog, "Saved by bell."

I do remember that part in the movie.....but...................., according to the booklet that came along with the Season 3 DVD (with character description of Natasha), it says that "Although Boris has repeatedly asked for her hand, she refused to part with it." (Or something like that....) Correct me if I'm wrong but I think Boris has tried to propose to her a few times (wording it the wrong way), but Natasha never really realized it.

 

[minor muppetz]

I don't know if it was ever stated that Boris and Natasha were a couple on the show, but it seems implied. They constantly call each other "darlink" or "honey" or terms that I would only expect a couple (or people wanting to hit on, in which case it'd be odd if they were constantly hitting on each other but never became a couple) to call each other.

I thought I might have mentioned it in an earlier post about the "Boris and Natasha" movie, but I didn't see it in my big post, but in that movie they become a couple. At first they appear to be just friends/co-workers, but after they go to America Natasha seems to admire American life. They live together but sleep in different beds (though I guess not all couples who live together have to sleep together). Since the two live together their neighbors think they are a couple, and after Natasha denies it her neighbor still feels otherwise, putting the idea of them being a couple into her head, and also talking about some of the perks of being a couple in America over Pottsylvania (such as the fact that both the man and woman generally get treated equally in their relationship). Eventually Boris seems to appreciate her more, and (SPOILER ALERT!) at the end when Boris introduces them to somebody, he makes a point to introduce Natasha as his girlfriend.

 

[D'Snowth]

As far as Natasha goes, a LOT (and I mean a LOT) of women call other people things like darling, honey, sweety, dear, etc... it's just one of those things that they do.

 

[minor muppetz]

As far as Natasha goes, a LOT (and I mean a LOT) of women call other people things like darling, honey, sweety, dear, etc... it's just one of those things that they do.

But I'm pretty sure Boris also uses those terms towards Natasha. I think he calls her "honey bun" at the beginning of "The Treasure of Monte Zoom".

 

[D'Snowth]

I think really the only thing we can draw from the dynamics of Boris and Natasha's relationship is that it's mostly ambiguous at best... I'm sure anything going on between them wasn't even something that ran through the writers' minds, I don't know...

I DO remember one time, I think it may have been from the "Pottsylvania Creeper" arc that Natasha was going on about how Boris is sneaky, low-down, etc... then scooping him up in her arms and saying, "Boris, you're my kind of guy..."

Of course, there was the moment from "The Last Angry Moose", where the train they're all on goes through a dark tunnel, and Boris grabs what his thinks is Bullwinkle's money-filled mattress, only to discover once they get out of the tunnel that he grabbed Natasah instead, and when she asks how he could possibly mistake her for a mattress, he says, "Can I help it if you put on weight?" So... perhaps he's picked her up before, I don't know.

But yeah, I think all we're supposed to gather from them is that they're relationship is ambiguous at best.

 

[MissMusical12]

I think really the only thing we can draw from the dynamics of Boris and Natasha's relationship is that it's mostly ambiguous at best... I'm sure anything going on between them wasn't even something that ran through the writers' minds, I don't know...

I DO remember one time, I think it may have been from the "Pottsylvania Creeper" arc that Natasha was going on about how Boris is sneaky, low-down, etc... then scooping him up in her arms and saying, "Boris, you're my kind of guy..."

Of course, there was the moment from "The Last Angry Moose", where the train they're all on goes through a dark tunnel, and Boris grabs what his thinks is Bullwinkle's money-filled mattress, only to discover once they get out of the tunnel that he grabbed Natasah instead, and when she asks how he could possibly mistake her for a mattress, he says, "Can I help it if you put on weight?" So... perhaps he's picked her up before, I don't know.

But yeah, I think all we're supposed to gather from them is that they're relationship is ambiguous at best.

May I recall another moment? In the "Moosylvania" storyline, after one of Boris's plans fail (again), Boris is crying but then realizes that "It's impossible for them (Rocky and Bullwinkle) to file Moosylvania for statehood in Butte, Montana anyways." (or something like that.) Then Natasha hugs him and calls him her "evil twisted genius" and out of nowhere a heart comes out. Does that imply that they are a couple or was it just random?

 

[D'Snowth]

I am unsure, as both "Moosylvania" and "Moosylvania Saved" are among the very few story arcs I actually HAVEN'T seen.

Actually, I haven't seen much of Season Five, save for "Bumbling Bros. Circus", "Mucho Loma", "Pottsylvania Creeper", "The Ruby Yacht of Omar Kayam", and "Wossamotta U."... and I've NEVER seen the Season Five DVD ANYWHERE.