Underdog the movie

[JEANYLASER]

On August 3, 2007 Underdog premiere in theaters.

 

[D'Snowth]

Yeah, we already know.

 

[JEANYLASER]

Sorry! I know that too. Are you going to see the underdog the movie.

 

[Drtooth]

I'm staging a boycot! On that day, in protest I will watch NAUGHT but the original series on my old VHS... If I had money i'd go to target and buy the box set and watch that, but I will watch the VHS I have... provided I can find them.

 

[JEANYLASER]

You're are right Drtooth. Underdog animated series is better.

 

[Drtooth]

as two of out friends would say...

Boycotting the movie? That shouldn't be too difficult.

Yeah! No one was gonna see it anyway!

Seriously. I felt like actually protesting outside the movie and handing pamplets out about the real underdog. But i feared that people would actually watch it. Eep!

 

[The Count]

Well... Was going to start a thread, but this looks like a better suited place. Why is it the movie versions of the animated series from Jay Ward's stables perform so dismally? Current track record will improve to 0-4 with the release of Underdog next Friday, as it joins the box office bomb attempts of The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, Dudley Do-Right, and George of the Jungle. Seriously, the only one of these that I think Brandon Frasier was actually better suited for and was waiting after his other two roles was the movie portrayal of Tom Slick.

So should we look forward to or cringe when/if we hear Hollywood's casting the following:
Hoppity Hopper.
Tennessee Tuxedo and Friends.
Aesop and Son.
Mr. Peabody's Incredible Histories.
Super Chicken.

 

[Drtooth]

Count... we're friends and all, so I'm ONLY gonna say this once.

While Underdog shared an executive producer (Peter Piech) and the same Mexican animation outfit (Gamma studios) Underdog was NOT created by Jay Ward or his band of merry men. Underdog is a Total TV production. This has been the source of confusion for many, but I assure you, King and Odie, Tennesse Tuxedo, Commander McBragg, et all are NOT jay Ward productions. Even though, Peter Piech's Filmtel corporation did package some of these together in syndication. That's why you may have seen a fractured fairy tale or a Mr. Know it all during Underdog.

I know it seems like I'm being rough, but that's like when newbies come on the board and ask if Miss Piggy has been on Sesame Street.

 

[The Count]

Naw man... Is all good. Actually, that's good to know and it was presented logically, so your points came across clearly. Sorry if there was a twinge of misunderstanding... But as the Joe's used to say, now we know.
Would like to hear your thoughts on the movie potential for the others from these dual animation powerhouses though.

 

[Drtooth]

A lot of people had that problem. Really. But to add to the confusion was the fact that certain syndicated versions of Underdog and Dudley Do-Right had mismatching segments.

As Keith Scott put it in the book "the Moose that Roared:"

By now Gamma Productions was busy with Peter Piech's other enterprise, the afforementioned Total television...
The cartoons produced by Total television were written and voiced by an East Coast team. They were animated at Gamma, hence the confusion in certain TV reference books, which mistakenly lumped the Total Television output under the Ward Productions banner. These shows- King Leonardo and his short subjects, Underdog, Go Go Gophers, Tennesse Tuxedo- were pleasant diversions, but definately not up to Jay Ward's cartoon caliber. Some, like the short filler "Commander McBragg" simply didn't work well, quickly proving repetitious and screamingly unfunny.

He goes on in another chapter...

In fact, the Jay Ward cartoons have never really been off the tube. The syndicated version of The Bullwinkle show has been seen in various markets since the 1960's, even playing alongside a different version in 1969. This was Dudley Do-Right and His Friends, another of Peter Piech's Filmtel repackaging jobs: 2 Dudley cartoons bookended various rerun elements both from Ward productions and Total TV... thus began the confusing spate of shows featuring Aesop and Son next to The King and Odie, or Fractured fairy tales followed by Commander mcBragg. The situation led various TV historians to believe that jay Ward was responsible for a bunch of rather unfunny cartoons

that said, i will say again what I thought of the Bullwinkle movie.

How should I put this. You make soup or something, follow the recipie to the letter and make it completely perfect... then you throw in one little teeny ingredient to taste, and it completely ruins the whole thing? That's the Bullwinkle movie. They got everything right (The characters appeared as CGI cartoons, not live animals or CGIs that look like animal cartoon hybrids, they got June Foray to reprise her roles, and Keith Scott, Ward historian, writer of afformentioned book, played the male voices perfectly) but that girl spy upset the whole thing.

George of the Jungle I say was the best of the bunch. While not exactly perfect, it was very accurate to the humor of the series, and I thought NO one could have played Ape other than John Cleese. mainly since Paul Frees has been gone for years. Even the sequal was pretty good. Right down to the narrator making fun of the fact they were too cheap to get Brendan Fraisier back to play george.

Dudley Do-right was done wrong. Just as her husband screwed up the role of Inspector Gadget, Sara J Parker screwed up Nell Fenwick. While Brendan played George pretty good, he was all wrong for the part. Not to mention adding to it, they made it take place in current day, not 19th century Canada. But I will say Alfred Molina flawlessly portrayed Snidely. And the Animated opening was pretty dang good. other than that, the only thing to really get excited about was the Fractured Fairy tale written by Bill Scott (an old script for a Bullwinkle project that never came out).

here's a fun fact. The only reason they made a Dudley movie was that they said the narrator in George and Dudley sounded the same (that was of course, Paul Frees. Though Bill Conrad did do narration for later Dudley episodes).

one final thing. there IS going to be a Peabody movie, but thankfully it's all CGI animated. In the mean time, Cartoon network is set to have a new George of the Jungle cartoon.