Where's the love for Rocky and Bullwinkle?

minor muppetz

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One thing that I find interesting is that whole "defamation" lawsuit of sorts (sort of) filed by Derwood Kirby over the whole Kurward Derby thing, but that's really not the only time something like that has happened on Rocky and Bullwinkle: another example I can think of is from a Fractured Fairy Tale with an old wise man named Merlin LeRoy... you can't tell me that's not a playon the name of the big producer/director Mervin LeRoy.
Were parodies protected by law back then (I would think so, considering all the classic WB shorts with parody titles that came out by then), or was fair parody use more recent?

Watched The Weather Lady for the first time, and noticed at one point Rocky refers to Boris by name, as if he knew Boris was the usual enemy (or maybe he'd heard Boris referred to by name and I missed it). That's rare (another instance, to an extent, is in Goof Gas Attack, where Rocky points out he knows who the villian of the whole show is, only to become stupid right before mentioning his name). It seems like they usually don't even recognize them as their usual enemies when they see them in their regular clothes (like in The Treasure of Monte Zoom).

Was watching the "Painting Theft" episodes today, and noticed that Boris eventually offered to buy Bullwinkle's paintings at several thousand dollars a piece. He and Natasha leave with the paintings, but I wonder if he really did purhcase them or if they weaseled their way out of paying. We don't really see (and somehow I think that even if they did become rich they'd still steal).

Also noticed an error in the last chapter: Boris and Natasha both set out for Potsylvania in their regular clothes, but when they arrive Natasha is in her art collector disguise (without the sunglasses), but then she's suddenly back in her regular dress by the time Fearless Leader accepts Boris' paintings.

Also noticed on the fourth season DVD, in the second half-hour contianing "Painting Theft", it includes the segment where Bullwinkle pulls a lion out of his hat, but the audio used comes from the one where Bullwinkle pulls a tiger out of his hat (so we see Rocky react without moving his lips). I wonder what went on there.

I think I've mentioned that Boris and Natasha have a happy ending of their own in "The Last Angry Moose" (they keep all the money they scammed out of Bullwinkle with no apparent cosnequence), but it seems they also had a minor victory in "Greensperent Oogle". No, I'm not talking about the fact that they are never actually shown getting blown up on their land mines (so we don't know if they ended up as lucky as Bullwinkle), I'm talking about the fact that Boris seemed to keep all the money he'd stolen as a result of the Oogle Bird's predictions.

I wonder if much from the various storylines and supporting segments were ever cut for time on TV broadcasts. I figure it makes sense for the commercial intros to be cut for time, and makes sense they were cut on the VHS releases. They seem out-of-place without being followed by a commercial. But then the "Bullwinkle Show" syndication package includes both Bullwinkle's Corner and Mr. Know-It-All (or a "Fan Club" segment in place of either) in each episode. I would think that the time cut from losing the commercial intros would add up the time to an added one-minute segment.
Was reading The Moose That Roared, and looked at the listing of various "miscellaneous animations" for Rocky and His Friends/The Bullwinkle Show. It lists "special feature introductions" (jolly juggler, hat tricks, etc.) and "commercial introductions", but it also has seperate lists categorized as "old special feature introductions" and "old commercial introductions". I wonder why they listed those as they did. With "old special feature introductions", I felt it made sense, as the two listed (Bullwinkle does a soft shoe routine and "hat trick: bear") don't appear in syndication, but none of the commercial intros appeared in syndication. Were these considered "lost" at the time the book came out (though all were included on the DVDs)?
 

minor muppetz

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You know, quite a few reference books and websites mention that Nell Fenwick loves Dudley Do-Right's horse over him, but outside of the first Dudley Do-Right segment (and perhaps the opening) was this fact recurring? In the movie she seems to love Dudley but doesn't show any emotion towards the horse (one of many things I found wrong with that movie... But then I've only seen it once). There have been other segments where she Dudley tries to win her heart (such as "Finding Gold" in which Dudley digs for gold because of her), and she seemed to like him in a few (there's one segment where she insist that she and Dudley get married), but otherwise I don't know of anywhere else where she shows affection for the horse.
 

minor muppetz

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I was watching the "Rocky and Bullwinkle Saving Stamps" film on the first season DVD, and I wonder what studio did the animation in that. I know a few different companies provided animation on the show (a mexican studio did most of the animation, a Hollywood studio did the Dudley Do-Rights and some Fractured Fairy Tales, and I think Total TV provided animation for a handful of Fractured Fairy Tales). But the animation in the saving stamps film looks quite different from the animation on the series (can't quite pinpoint whether the animation there is better or worse... It has the quality of an activity book, but in cartoon form).
 

minor muppetz

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Against my best judgement I bought a copy of the movie on DVD, though it did turn out a little better than I remembered it (I hadn't seen it since 2001). It seems the opening sequence, taking place in the animated world, is very clever, for the most part (though the part with Bullwinkle mistaking "conversations" with "conservations" was kind of lame, even if the narrarator saying that their wordplay had gotten cheap). Still, I'd say that the movie starts to get lame when Rocky and Bullwinkle enter the real world.

One of my biggest complaints about the movie was that it seems it didn't have enough Boris and Natasha, but after watching today, it seems they were in a lot more than I remembered. Though it seems Natasha didn't get much dialogue. Interestingly, in both this movie and the Boris and Natasha movie, it's the actress who played Natasha who gets top billing over the actor playing Boris (and Boris is the one who gets top billing in the duo). I still find it odd that Fearless Leader gets more screentime, but since Boris and Natasha are the henchmen, maybe it'd be awkward for them to have more screentime in a movie (are there any movies where the henchmen are the main villians and their leaders get limited screentime?).
 

CountFan1998

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When Classic Media bought up the license after Universal dumped it, it gave them a new lease on life...
WHAT?!?!? Universal DUMPED R&B? Then, will the Jay Ward references stay at Universal's IOA (Islands of Adventure)? Why'd they dump them in the first place?
 

Drtooth

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WHAT?!?!? Universal DUMPED R&B? Then, will the Jay Ward references stay at Universal's IOA (Islands of Adventure)? Why'd they dump them in the first place?
I don't know if the park did... but Universal had a partnership up until the movie tanked. Just for distribution and marketing, of course...
 

CountFan1998

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I don't know if the park did... but Universal had a partnership up until the movie tanked. Just for distribution and marketing, of course...
Well Universal Orlando and Hollywood had a R+B stage show in 1993, so they've had quite a history with Universal...
 

Drtooth

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Like I said, I have no idea what's going on with the Universal Parks, if anything is still there or not... but I do know Classic Media has the distribution and marketing rights now. There was a Universal partnership up until the movie tanked... then there was nothing for years until Classic Media came along. We wouldn't even have the series on DVD if not for them.... Sony closing down Sony Wonder and problems with "Genius" entertainment gave it a large stop gap for 5 years.

Man, I HATE Genius entertainment. We all know what they were a subsidy for....
 

Dominicboo1

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Like I said, I have no idea what's going on with the Universal Parks, if anything is still there or not... but I do know Classic Media has the distribution and marketing rights now. There was a Universal partnership up until the movie tanked... then there was nothing for years until Classic Media came along. We wouldn't even have the series on DVD if not for them.... Sony closing down Sony Wonder and problems with "Genius" entertainment gave it a large stop gap for 5 years.

Man, I HATE Genius entertainment. We all know what they were a subsidy for....
Well I went about three years ago, and they still had the Doright ride. I don't know it it's still there though. It apparently changes a lot there.
 

D'Snowth

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Like I said, I have no idea what's going on with the Universal Parks, if anything is still there or not... but I do know Classic Media has the distribution and marketing rights now. There was a Universal partnership up until the movie tanked... then there was nothing for years until Classic Media came along. We wouldn't even have the series on DVD if not for them.... Sony closing down Sony Wonder and problems with "Genius" entertainment gave it a large stop gap for 5 years.

Man, I HATE Genius entertainment. We all know what they were a subsidy for....
Um, wasn't Season Five supposed to be out long before now? Or did they pull a Leave it to Beaver on us, and rather than release the season and the complete series set separate, they just released the complete series set only? Of course, I haven't seen THAT set either.
 
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