02.06
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbqFGapihP0
Contrary to popular belief, Bonkers was not originally planned as a TV series for Roger Rabbit that was changed at the last minute due to complications. Rather, Bonkers was developed as a fully original cop drama spoof set in Toontown, based on the success of noir-esq Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Taking Chip ‘N Dale Rescue Rangers off of the block, Bonkers premiered on September 3, 1993, during it’s third season, and lasted on the block until it’s sixth season in 1996. New episodes stopped airing spontaneously on December 21, 1995, ending with a basic 65 episode run.
Bonkers tends to be a show with a relatively low fan base, in terms of the Disney Afternoon block’s standards. While a few people consider Goof Troop to be the end of the block’s peak, quite a few more tend to consider this to be that show. Myself, I’ve always been a fan of the show, but mainly a specific part of it. You see, there are three different shows in Bonkers, and while two of which are similar to each other, it’s good to consider that these are still different.
Bonkers was planned as a full half-hour show on the block to begin with, in which a popular cartoon character, Bonkers D. Bobcat, has his show cancelled After wallowing in his own self-pity, he realizes that life on the force must be for him, so he goes to work on the street. He’s given a partner with Miranda Wright, an attractive no-nonsense cop. The two share an odd-kilted relationship with each other.
Meanwhile, Disney took a look at the 19 episodes that survived of the Miranda episode and realized that the show needed a bit of an overhaul. In favor of the particularly flat Miranda, the harsher, more aggravated Lucky Piquel was made to be Bonker’s partner instead. Proving to be a more popular endeavor for Disney, 42 of the Lucky episodes made it on screen.
Between the planning of both series, it came to the attention to the production staff that perhaps some of the original cartoons that Bonkers starred in prior to getting the boot should see the light of day. Alongside follow-up segments for popular Belgian comic strip character Marsupilami and a new random group of shorts entitled Totally Tasteless Videos were also planned for a new show called Raw Toonage. Made for CBS, 12 episodes were made, including segments for each series. Each episode was hosted by wrap around segments featuring popular characters from some of Disney’s animated series at the time, such as Don Karnage, Scrooge McDuck, or The Little Mermaid’s Sebastian. Why this show was made for CBS when only The Little Mermaid aired on the channel’s Saturday morning block makes little sense to me, but hey, they were entertaining anyway.
Check this baby out.
Due to a smaller production schedule and conflicts with the original series, Raw Toonage made it on the air before Bonkers did. Despite this, the 12 Bonkers shorts that aired as a part of Raw Toonage were put on the actual show as 4 episodes containing 3 of them per episode.
Twenty One of the Lucky episodes made it to the market first as, alongside the first Raw Toonage compilation, the first season. Nineteen of the Miranda episodes, including a new episode bridging the gap between the two eras of Bonker’s line of duty, were fit into a second season. Another 20 Lucky episodes as well as the last three compilations made up season three, while the last 9 Miranda eps became the show’s fourth and final season. This is a pretty confusing run considering the frequent jumps.
Greg Weisman, one of the head producers of the show during the Miranda run, considers his the a good combination Roger Rabbit and Hill Street Blues, while resenting the Lucky run. He seemed to be so proud of his episodes that he would use a similar relationship between Bonkers and Miranda for his own show, which I’ll get to at another point in this series.
You see, while I am one who is big on creative control on a series by the people behind it, I think Bonkers is one of the very few times a show actually benefited from having executives mess with the final product.
For one, the animation is definitely sharper in the Lucky episodes. Look at Bonkers designs from the Miranda and Raw Toonage episodes, than compare it to his look in the Lucky episodes. Bonkers had big red spots in his original look, blue eyes ears that looked like golf clubs, and a pretty small tail. With his newer look, Bonkers has smaller black spots, black, cartoony eyes a bigger, striped tail, and shorter ears. Personally, I think this design looks better, a bit fuller, more out there, which is exactly what he needs to look like. The old design looks fine, but the new one looks crisper and more huggable. A good fit for the show. Too bad I don’t have a plush version of Bonkers, because I really like both of his designs.
Compare this
To the final version
Bonkers’ old design doesn’t seem to work as well as animation as his newer one does, or at least he just isn’t complimented with fresh work. There are Miranda episodes that look as great as the Lucky episodes, which tend to look quite good, such as Disney’s own studio in Japan, but for the most part, work on the Miranda episodes seemed uninspired. When Australia touched the Lucky episodes though, it was like magic. The show looked and felt as cartoony as it needed to be, and had a perfect beat to it. It seems like for these series, only TMS could compare to Walt Disney Animation Australia’s department, and since TMS cut back on their Disney work by the time Australia started their work, there was one undisputed king on the later show’s work.
But the real problem of the Miranda episodes are, of all things, Miranda. A little Bonkers goes a long way. Hr can be funny by himself, but a half hour of one obnoxiously goofy cartoon character could get old. That’s why Goofy had Max and Pete balance his character out in Goof Troop. Lucky is a great contrast for Bonkers, as well as the various other cartoon characters he has to deal with. Lucky tends to get easily aggravated when Bonkers opens his voice, almost ready to snap his neck. Bonkers and Lucky’s chemistry can be compared to Roger Rabbit and Eddie Valiant‘s, although Lucky isn’t as bitter as Eddie. Obviously, Lucky can’t be an alcoholic like Eddie, and Lucky has a family of his own, while Eddie was a loner, but they share a dislike for cartoons and an oddball relationship with their toon counterparts. There isn’t any malice between Lucky and Bonkers, just a bit of annoyance.
Miranda, on the other hand, doesn’t really do anything. When Bonkers goofs up, she responds meekly, often with just a response like “Bonkers, get serious now”, if anything. There isn’t really much of a connection between the two, or much of a character for Miranda. It’s a good thing for the human characters to be more restrained than the cartoons, but the straight man should have some kind of personality of their own. Lucky is a human who tries to be the best cop he can, but has a fair amount of anger issues which causes him to get over the edge. Miranda doesn’t really have any issues of her own, and is basically a flat Mary Sue.
Both parts of the main show do have a similar sense of humor, but I think Bonkers and Lucky’s chemistry gives Bonkers the edge it needs. The episode that probably uses Lucky’s character best is “Once in a Blue Toon”, when the two work on trying to reform the Louse, a giant cartoon character who eats everything in sight. While Bonkers and the Louse have a strange, albeit caring relationship with each other, the Louse doesn’t seem to care too much for Lucky and messes with him throughout the episode. Thanks to clever writing, Lucky becomes both relatable as he tries to prove to the goofy, gullible Chief of Police Kanifky that they are successfully doing their job, but can still be funny as he tries to avoid the Louse’s actions. Louse’s actions towards Lucky, like calling him a “dweeb” also can be entertaining as the bits of mischief he occurs aren’t intended to be cruel, but happen due to the character’s size and lack of sensibilities. To me, it seems as if the Louse just wants someone to befriend, which he found in Bonkers and Lucky. He doesn’t seem to do anything that is exceedingly harsh, so he can still be funny.
As for the Raw Toonage shorts, I can’t say much on them as I haven’t seen too many of them. From what I have seen though, most of the shorts are mediocre attempts to revive the atmosphere of theatrical shorts from the golden age of animation. One of these shorts, “Petal to the Metal”, even was shown before Touchstone Pictures’ 3 Ninjas, but it as well as the few that I have seen pale in comparison to the Roger Rabbit shorts made for theaters around this era. It is interesting to see where Bonkers came from, as well as some of his cartoon chums, but I prefer the actual episodes of the show to them.
Bonkers is not a perfect show, but at it’s best was a quick, highly enjoyable program. Maybe it wasn’t the perfect show for the block, but I for one enjoyed seeing classic Disney characters such as the Mad Hatter and Dumbo on screen again, even if only for odd one-off episodes. Check it out if you’re a fan of Disney animation, but don’t expect a masterpiece throughout the series run.
Originally posted on Thursday, June 10, 2010.