02.06
Ah, yes, Hanna-Barbera, the legendary animation studio that was originally spawned from MGM, which brought us some of the most popular cartoons over the last half century, including series that have since been littered into American pop-culture like The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Scooby-Doo: Where are you?, Johnny Quest, Top Cat, The Yogi Bear Show, and The Huckleberry Hound Show, just to name a few well-known examples. Of course, when you think of Hanna-Barbera, it would be one of the aforementioned shows, among other classics, that would most likely come to your mind, while something like 2 Stupid Dogs would pass right over your head without you even realizing it. And this is for an understandable reason, as the particular show which is subject to this review came around the early 1990’s. Now, just saying that alone doesn’t mean much, but for Hanna-Barbera, after a bit of a name change and some new versions/spin-offs of their old classics, this period of time was when the company all of a sudden decided to try to go for some new, fresher, and more “hip” (at least for the time) shows that were radically different from anything that they had been known for before. Along with shows such as Wake, Rattle, and Roll and SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron, 2 Stupid Dogs was one of the cartoons subject to H-B’s new direction.
Now, I don’t want to get bogged down with a whole retrospective here, since this IS meant to be a review of the show in the title, as well as a bit of a mini-review of the Super Secret Squirrel shorts that aired with it. However, I do want to stress the point that, despite the series being mostly forgotten today, I largely see it as one the in-between chapters or links between the classic style of H-B cartoons and their transition into the modern Cartoon Cartoons that many kids grew up with and loved on the Cartoon Network channel. I consider it to be this for 2 particular reasons: one reason is that it shows a lot of experimentation with the new style that they were going for (which would be further evolved and fully developed with shows such as Dexter’s Laboratory and Johnny Bravo) while still retaining some classic, more slap-stick elements of the type of humor found in H-B’s previous shows; the second reason is that 2SD and SSS had much of the staff that would later be working on said Cartoon Cartoons on hand for the project, which of course means that 2SD could be attributed into their experience of working with a new style. Key examples of the latter reason are Craig McCracken (of Power Puff Girls fame, as well as Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends) and Genndy Tartakovsky (do I really even need to say what this guy is famous for? Because, if you really don’t know, then you shouldn’t even be reading this review).
Before going ahead and cutting to the chase, I should also mention that 2SD was mainly directed by Donovan Cook, who is most known for his work on directing the Disney animated features Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers and Return to Never Land.
Now, as for the actual series itself, summing up the premise can either by the simplest thing or the most convoluted thing. I’ll choose to go the simple way and say that it basically lives up to its namesake. The show follows 2 nearly brain-dead dogs who aren’t even given actual names, but instead have come to be referred to as “Little Dog,” voiced by Mark Schiff, and “Big Dog,” voiced by Brad Garrett (and they are barely even “referred” to with any form of individualization with the series itself). Little dog is a hyperactive character who usually has an appetite for just about any type of food, and who also does a majority of the talking in the series between him and Big Dog (the latter of who barely ever talks at all). Interestingly enough he actually shows some odd signs of intelligence at times, such as in the occasional form of knowing something about history or something of common human knowledge. Also interesting is how he is shown to be more easily scared, especially of cats (who Big Dog usually has to scare away). On the other hand, Big Dog is a lazy, mostly unspoken character who usually tends to just follow Little Dog around. His characteristics include him being usually indifferent towards his surroundings (but nevertheless still aware of them) and also oddly showcasing brief moments of intelligence in which he will either mutter or quote some sort of philosophical phrase.
Both characters mesh very well together, and have an interesting chemistry about them that just makes them fun to watch in action. Besides these 2, most other characters consist of a few recurring ones who show up in different roles in various episodes, the 2 of whom come up the most being Kenny Fowler (a geeky kid who occasionally requests the dogs to help him with his problems) and Hollywood (a big beefy man who often tries to discipline the dogs, and sometimes other characters, in the context of the theme of his role in each episode that features him). The recurring characters are entertaining enough to watch, but Hollywood deserves special mention for how much comedic value he brings to the table in each and every single one of his different roles, and also for his famous running-gag line: “Isn’t that cute? BUT ITS WRONG!”
Now, as for the actual show itself, it’s not so easy to sum up its level of quality. I can safely say that I loved every minute of the series when I watched it as a kid, and for better or worse, I still got a lot of entertainment value out of it on my reviewing of most episodes. That said, part of its appeal to me back in the day was how it felt a bit rebellious at the time to the traditional, and occasionally somewhat more “educational” or parent-friendly feel of a lot of cartoons appearing at the time. As I did mention, the show was produced at a time of experimentation for H-B’s animation studio, and 2SD had plenty experimenting going on with it. For one thing, the show doesn’t ever really have a completely defined feel. While this may seem like a complaint, I actually find that it works in the show’s favor with how varied its episodes can be. For instance, there are episodes like “The Rise and Fall of the Big Dog,” in which Big Dog is mistaken for a foreign ambassador, while Little Dog is convinced that said ambassador is his old pal, rightfully living up to show’s namesake. By contrast, episodes like Hobo Hounds and the episodes involving the recurring character Red are radically different, with the former being a brilliant homage to/parody of the black-and-white cartoons screened before feature-length films in the 1920’s-1930’s, while the latter are an equally fantastic group of episodes which successfully mock the children’s fables that many of us grew up with. In fact, mocking popular children’s fables has been one of the most popular forms of parody in American cartoons for more than half a century, and 2SD’s takes on them are among the best that H-B has ever done with those types of episodes. There are, of course, various other episodes that are still thoroughly entertaining today and hold a good deal of re-watch value, ranging from things like “Bathroom Humor” to “Family Values” (an ingenious parody of The Brady Bunch).
That being said, this doesn’t mean that every episode is gold, though. In fact, there were several instances in which I found the show hasn’t quite aged well. Like I said, at the time of its original airing it was rebellious and seemed hilarious to me no matter what, but upon recent viewings, there are episodes like “Sheep Dogs” and “Love” that just don’t seem to hold up very much. There is nothing truly bad about such episodes, but a lot of their jokes will just come off as plane and uninspired by today’s standards, after such styles of humor have been evolved upon by even the most standard of modern cartoons. One of this show’s general weaknesses, which only really become more apparent in the less entertaining episodes, is its overall lack of solid structure to any given episode. As I said, I liked the show’s good variety on the whole, but I do like to see some consistent structure within individual episodes, but this is where the series falls too short for me, since the writers clearly focused more on cramming in as many jokes and humorous instances as possible, that the episodes themselves start in one place and then takes completely random turns after that. To be fair, though, it at least keeps things unpredictable, and considering that each episode itself is only roughly about 7 minutes long, most episodes are still able to keep themselves entertaining long enough to keep the viewer interested throughout each of their run-times.
Having said all of this, I still can’t help but stress how very enjoyable 2SD is when it’s doing things right, which is more often than I usually give it credit for when I’m not actually watching it. I suppose I could say that for everything about it that I find hasn’t aged well or serves as a negative element to the show, I can easily think of more good things to outweigh those factors. For one thing, the episodes themselves may lack the more well-structured and sophisticated styles of later H-B productions such as Dexter’s Laboratory or Johnny Bravo, but that same apparent set-back also gives it the advantage of being able to get away with a relentless amount of jokes that can still work extremely well due to coming out completely unexpected, and as a result makes the writing seem sharper than it actually really may be. And of course, while it doesn’t choose to follow the very classic but narrower structures of previous H-B cartoons, it still carries the same charm in its bits of slap-stick humor. Overall, putting nostalgic value aside, “2 Stupid Dogs” is certainly a mixed bag, but I can safely say that most of the content of that bag consists of good things.
BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE!
As promised, I can’t forget about the fun little rodent that ran with the dogs. Super Secret Squirrel was actually a revival AND somewhat of a parody of H-B’s Secret Squirrel from the 1960’s, which was itself a spin-off of The Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel Show. In 1994, H-B decided to revive the series as SSS, producing 13 new short episodes to air between the 2SD episodes within a single collective episode. Together with his trusty sidekick Morocco Mole, Super Secret Squirrel (who is usually just referred to as Secret for short) is tasked with tackling bizarre cases with some truly over-the-top super villains behind them.
To be honest, there really isn’t that much for me to say about the show. To give my general thoughts on it, I find it to be at least just as fun as 2SD is. Like 2SD, it does show a lot of experimentation with less traditional forms of gags and humor, but unlike 2SD, it does tend to play it safe more of the time and stick to its own very defined form of humor. It is comprised of slap-stick humor mixed in with various puns (some are very clever, some are just pretty “meh,” and a few can possibly cause you to cringe). As an example, in one gag, Secret gets smacked by an inflated balloon and Morocco makes the comment: “Gee, inflation sure hits hard these days.” Honestly, though, the show seems very self-aware of its campy nature, and that in itself gives it an undeniable charm.
It’s worth mentioning that the original iterations of Secret Squirrel and Morocco Mole were voiced by the legendary Mel Blanc and the extremely talented Paul Frees, respectively. Even for a series of mere shorts, that would be a lot to live up to for Jess Harnell and Jim Cummings who voiced the new iterations of those 2 characters, respectively as well. Of course, as you would imagine, while they do clearly try their best to impersonate both former voice actors to the best of their efforts, the difference is still as clear as day. But, even so, its because of the big difference that it’s easier to look at the efforts of the 2 voice actors as making the characters their own roles, rather than just trying to pretend to be another VA altogether, and I personally find that to be a fairly satisfying result.
That about sums up my thoughts on Super Secret Squirrel; I know its not much of a review, but I did already say it would be a miniature version of a review rather than a full one. Overall, it’s a fun deviation from the plotlines of the dogs, and it really helps each full collective episode that the shorts are featured in feel more versatile and simply more enjoyable on the whole. Hell, if there were a single DVD of the collected SSS shorts available on the market for no more than $10, I’d certainly buy it and felt that my money was well spent. I’d also gladly buy it with a collection of the entire series of 2SD, and for that package I’d be willing to fork over a considerably higher amount. In my eyes, looking past just nostalgia factor, neither series is near perfect, but both series are still charmingly fun. I wouldn’t recommend them to anyone who didn’t grow up around the late 80’s and 90’s and who weren’t exposed to those sorts of cartoons at an early age, but for those of us who have had that disoriented but quirky style of animation engraved into our early childhood life memories, then consider both 2 Stupid Dogs and Super Secret Squirrel to be a pleasant blast from the past.
Yours Truly,
Ensatsu-ken
Originally posted on Thursday, August 12, 2010.