Danger Mouse and Powerpuff Girls both announced for comebacks

[Drtooth]

The first images of the new PPG series have surfaced and thankfully, they look nothing like the CGI special. In fact, I love the look of the girls so far, but there's just one little problem I have.

They're recasting everyone but Tom Kenny as the narrator.

I'm trying to keep an open mind, but it's disappointing they went this direction. I'm sure they'd do a good job and all, but what's the point of giving them sound-a-likes when the original actresses are still around? Tara Strong is still in like half of everything. It's not even moving the voice production to Canada or using non-union freelancers that commonly do anime dubs for cost cutting measures.

Still, I'm wondering why other than the money they'd bother doing a PPG remake anyway. It's not like the 6th season proved that there's many more stories to tell, especially since one of the episodes was about sunscreen safety.

 

[mr3urious]

I'm liking these new rounder, cuddlier designs, and the little beaded scrunchies in Bubbles' pigtails to go along with the hair clip in Blossom's ponytail. But it is disappointing to hear about the mass recasts. I could understand them recasting Tara Strong as she's stretched about as thin as Tom Kenny, but the others? Are they doing anything else notable as of late?

Anyway, I'd still like to see how this new PPG series would turn out. The new VAs could do a very good job and even make the characters their own, and the writers could squeeze some good concepts out of the series.

 

[Drtooth]

The recast thing is the only thing baffling to me. They're trying to make the series as new as possible, yet keeping the distinct look similar. I don't get it. if it was hugely different, like that dumb anime they did, I'd see it. But it seems they want to go in the direction of redoing the original with new voice actors, but keeping with the spirit of the original that's not that old to begin with.

I have decent hopes for the series, and I'm still going to check it out. Just... why the recast? It's not like they're Looney Tunes characters that can be recast at will for some reason. I hope the new cast does a good job and all, but still... not like these are 90 year old women who don't have the same delivery and voices they had when they were 20 we're talking about.

Also of note, CN is relaunching Ben 10 for some reason. It somehow has the added "we're introducing it to a new generation" bit when the last show just ended this year. And with a Robots in Disguise/Sonic Boom way too early in the morning slot to boot. They even used imagery of Ben in the Christmas bumpers.

 

[Drtooth]

Okay...uh, while the show isn't officially supposed to hit the US until next spring, Danger Mouse has already started airing in his home of origin, the UK. And thus...cough cough unofficially available if you look for it. BUT you didn't hear it from me, and I'll check this out again once it hits Netflix (provided the account I'm sharing with keeps getting funded)

So far, it's similar, yet different to the original. There's still a lot of verbal humor, but there's much more physical humor and action due to the fact this series is 2D computer generated, but of the higher, fluid quality. Danger Mouse seems to be a tiny bit more Darkwing Duckish, but Penfold's essentially the same. The episode essentially makes fun of the fact it's a reboot, yet it's one of those very soft ones that sort of continues the original. What I'm loving is how Stiletto is handled. While he had an Italian accent (a bawdy one at that) in the original one and the supposed Nick version had him redubbed with an English one (the only evidence I know of that happening is the Marvel comics), they handle things a bit more...interestingly. He kinda has both accents. A (purposely) very bad Italian accent mixed with a natural British one. And obviously this is a little more pop culture-y than the original. There's a Jimmy Camel interview with Baron Greenbacks. I'm assuming the Brits get Jimmy Kimmel or something, sounds like it's a nod to this being aired a few months later in the US. And the narrator still adds some wry observations at the end of the show, just not over the ending credits.

Over all, it's shaping up to be pretty good so far. I hope that in time they bring back Count Duckula on the show. And not the Count Duckula from Count Duckula, the original Count Duckula created for Danger Mouse (the character was different, as DM fans know).

 

[mr3urious]

I've never seen the original Danger Mouse growing up, so I had to watch a few episodes to get myself acquainted with the series. And after watching the premiere episode of the reboot, they managed to reboot it the right way. Character personalities are more or less the same apart from minor character Professor Squawkencluck re-imagined from a male mole to a female chicken, likely to add more diversity and a more fitting species for the character. Seems like she'll play a bigger role in the new series, too.

Animation-wise, DM looks really good, taking advantage of the lower cost that Flash and other digital animation software provides, yet not using it as an excuse to cut corners in the quality (though it still uses live-action BGs like the original) and using plenty of excuses to add more visual humor that the original couldn't provide due to budget reasons. Of course, this is from the same company that provided the subcontracting work for Gumball, so that's no surprise there.

 

[Drtooth]

It's really saying something that a computer generated 2-D animated reboot has more animation and action than the original cel-animated series. But then again, the production on the original was small. They had 7 animators working on that show, so obviously the animation was reused a lot and that's why the humor of the show skewed more to the verbal side of things.

As you know my little rant about 80's Nickelodeon, it took me until Youtube to see any episodes of the original. I didn't see the whole series (the original has been on Netflix recently as well), but saw several episodes and loved it. While I don't have that nostalgic hold on the series, I was able to pick up on some of the nuance. The new show changed a couple things and the humor is both similar and modernized. I'm sure some 30 year olds who watched the show back in the day will have some disapproving clucks, as of course they do. But so far, this is shaping up to be an excellent soft reboot/continuation series.

 

[Drtooth]

Seems Danger Mouse's comeback is bigger than we thought. Sony has expressed interest in a DM movie.

Now, all I can say is ehhh. It's Sony, and they don't have quite a great track record I think. And Genndy pretty much said he walked off of Popeye (but didn't leave Sony) because they wanted to modernize Popeye and he wanted no part of it. And considering they said "Darnit! Those Angry Birds and Bad Piggies need mars and legs," I'm interested in a film, but not really enthused until more details come to light. DM has a barely cult following in the states anyway.

 

[mr3urious]

And Genndy pretty much said he walked off of Popeye (but didn't leave Sony) because they wanted to modernize Popeye and he wanted no part of it.

What do you mean by that? Set in the modern day or making modern pop culture references or what?

 

[Drtooth]

He was very vague.

His quote is:

“We made a version that we were happy with, and the studio didn’t like that version“It’s still a mystery for me that they didn’t like that version. They wanted to do ‘Popeye’ for the brand recognition and I loved the character and grew up with it, so there was a tug of war. They wanted it really updated, and I can only update it a little before it isn’t ‘Popeye’ anymore. To be truthful, it was in the middle of the Sony hack and the studio was really struggling. It was just really bad timing.

Not very promising. I'll reserve judgement until the first actual trailer.

 

[D'Snowth]

Isn't this like the third of fourth reboot PPG has had? Why can't any of CN's other classic properties get the same kind of love and attention?