The ant and the aardvark

[Beakerfan]

I caught a few episodes on Boomerang a while back ago, and I agree. I didn't find it very entertaining, and the concept has been quite overdone. However, I think that (at the time) cartoons were being pumped out at quite an amazing rate by both Hannah-Barbera and Warner Bros. There were many great ones produced, but some, like this show, fell flat.

 

[Sgt Floyd]

Yeah, I can't say I was too impressed with it either. To be honest I thought it was tedious and grueling to watch. Its not funny at all. It gives off that they were trying to hard to be funny, and when you try too hard, you typically fail miserably.

 

[Drtooth]

I quite love Ant and the Aardvark. The patheticness and anger of the Aardvark pretty much sells it. It isn't an original concept by any means, but it does manage to entertain me.

I'm not sure what to think of The Inspector. I find the cartoons funny and all, but completely out of character for Inspector Clouseau. I mean, I'd tend to think he'd be clumsy and bumble his way to solving crimes barely by dumb luck... but he's far more Inspector Zenigata than Inspector Clouseau.

But the one I REALLY hate is Crazy Legs Crane. How is that funny? It's the same hunter/prey thing used in the ant and the Aardvark, but with an annoying and racist dragonfly (is he supposed to have a bad Chinese accent, or is it a bad impersonation of Andy Kauffman's Foreignman?) None of the characters are remotely likable, and what's worse... while there is leyway in copying Tom and Jerry and Road Runner cartoons, a formual that everyone has done mind you... it has the audacity to rip off the very special Sylvester/Sylvester Jr. and the Giant Mouse cartoons by giving Crazy Legs an exact copy of Sylvester Jr. as a son/nephew... I forget which.

 

[D'Snowth]

It gives off that they were trying to hard to be funny, and when you try too hard, you typically fail miserably.

I think so too, and like I said, the entire dialogue in these cartoons, especially with the Aardvark's dialogue basically consisting almost exclusively of painful one-liners, it's like watching a bad two-person stand-up routine.... like everything that was uttered from them just HAD to be funny... even Looney Tunes had more substance and depth than this.

 

[Drtooth]

That said, look at some of those 1960's Freling Looney Tunes shorts. They're quite awful in a lot of cases. Some are fun, some are good... but they never really capture that lightning in the bottle of the 40's- late 50's Looney Tunes shorts.

 

[fuzzygobo]

Along with the Ant and the Aardvark, DePatie and Freleng produced another series called the Tijuana Toads. Toro and Pancho usually got to outwit the dim-witted Crazy Legs Crane, but sometimes got foiled by their own stupidity. Like the Ant and the Aardvark, they were originally released in theatres. But to make it to television, they became the Texas Toads, renamed Fatso and Banjo, and traded their Mexican dialects for Southern drawls. And then (horror of horrors!) they added the dreaded laugh track.
Please shoot me NOW!

 

[D'Snowth]

And then (horror of horrors!) they added the dreaded laugh track.
Please shoot me NOW!

Aww hey, I support the laugh track, it recreates the atmosphere of watching a comedy with others as opposed to by yourself.

But a lot of these cartoons are so bad, the laugh track doesn't even really save them.

 

[fuzzygobo]

Aww hey, I support the laugh track, it recreates the atmosphere of watching a comedy with others as opposed to by yourself.

But a lot of these cartoons are so bad, the laugh track doesn't even really save them.

I agree with that. Sometimes the canned laughter only serves to show how weak the gags are. As someone much wiser than me once said, "You can't polish poop!"

 

[D'Snowth]

I know some have said the same about The Flying Nun, that the only thing that saved that show was the laugh track... I love Sally Field, but I never saw it, though from what I've heard from others, it really does sound like an unusual, cock-eyed premise... so much in fact, it makes Hogan's Heroes sound like a better show, haha.

 

[Drtooth]

But a lot of these cartoons are so bad, the laugh track doesn't even really save them.

DePatie Freling made a LOT of crap in the 70's (who didn't? Worst decade of animation, I've been saying that for years)... Ant and the Aardvark is freakin' Disney's Beauty and the Beast compaired to the lame sitcom ripoffs they made in the era..

The Barkleys...

a crappy All in the Family ripoff

Baggy Pants and the Nitwits...

Charlie Chaplin ripoff added with pointless adventures of 2 Laugh in Characters that are somehow crime fighters

Houndcats...

Ripoff of Mission Impossible.