This is going to shock some of you, I was once a child. Oh, I know, it shocks you, but it's true. When I was a kid, things were very different from the way they are now. There was black, and white. There was right, and wrong. For example, playing outside was right, doing drugs was wrong. To show us how wrong drugs were, The Government made a cartoon about it. This cartoon was, even though it was all propaganda, quite possibly the most exciting thing in the world when I was young. It was called Cartoon All Stars to The Rescue, and it was AWESOME.
Ok, to understand this, first you have to understand the time and place it came from. First off, cartoons were big money. Thanks to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles the whole industry had been revolutionised. Cartoons were now no longer simple entertaining pieces of paper; they were the single most powerful advertisements in existence. So instead of hocking cheap plastic toys and junk food, the big man himself, George Bush the First, enlisted their help in winning the War On Drugs. Drugs were, in the late 80's and early 90's, a big deal. They were the big evil everybody hated. All of your favourite sports stars and video games were branded with the slogan "Winners Don't Use Drugs" and there was a lot of money spent on ensuring that drugs were kept out of our lives.
Now that you understand WHY it was made, let's talk about the cartoon itself. Essentially it's the story of Micheal, an average teen who succumbs to peer pressure and smokes Marijuana. Because he's a dipshit and can't get off it himself, a whole bunch of massively successful cartoon characters take time out of their busy animated lives to save the day. Now just to reiterate how big a deal this was when I was a kid, i'm not talking about Norman No-Joint and Sally Crackhead who nobody has ever heard of, I'm talking about Garfield, ALF and Slimer. Everyone is in this damn cartoon. Daffy Duck, The Great Gonzo, even a Ninja Turtle. This was the single biggest cartoon crossover there has ever been, and probably ever will be.
So the message was obviously that drugs were evil (they were personified by an anthropomorphic smoke puff who serves as the "Bad Guy"), but when this came out, I was 6. At 6 years old I didn't care what Marijuana was, hell i didn't care about what drugs were. What I cared about was all my favourite cartoons being in one place at one time. This was a brilliant strategy. The movie not only showed me what drugs and marijuana did to your body, they did it in such a way that made me believe all of it. Thanks to the clever use of The Good Guys, who in 90's cartoons were nothing less than pure and righteous, telling us that drugs were bad.
The problem with this logic, was of course, that I was 6 at the time. At 6 you are basically incapable of thinking for yourself. When I saw it again, when I was 14, obviously things changed a little. No longer did Alvin and The Chipmonks words inspire me to put down the crack pipe. This brings us to the first question. Who exactly was this cartoon aimed at? Kids didn't understand the heavy handed drug elements, and adolescents would probably view the cartoons as lame kids stuff, which means despite its good intentions, the cartoon is about as effective as lollypops on cancer.
The other thing that strikes me as strange about this is the other subtext. Oh sure, the outward projected image was "Don't do drugs", but the aftertext was: "unless you want all your favourite cartoon characters to come to life and tell you what a fucktard you're being". Now call me strange, but that seems like a pretty cool deal to me. Take a hit, meet Huey Dewey and Louie, they sing a crappy anti drugs song about saying NO, everyone leaves happy. See, that kinda thing strikes me as something I would want to do if I was an impressionable youth with an unhealthy obsession with cartoons. I don't care if they were telling me I was a twonk, meeting cartoon heroes would be awesome.
This makes this cartoon somewhat of a curiosity, a walking contradiction. While it debases drugs, showing their effects on the brain and body in a humorous and entertaining way, it also creates a very blurred outlook on reality which, and here comes the irony, feels like some kind of drug trip. I mean where else are you gonna hear Winnie thePooh talking about Shooting Juice? Seriously, the answer is nowhere. The other thing that is conspicuously absent from the show is any of the villains. I mean it's not like it would hurt to show the bad guys smoking a few. Just imagine if The Beagle Boys, known criminals and general troublemakers, were shown to smoke pot? The kids hate the bad guys, and don't wanna be like them, there's a deterrant. What about one shot of Odie taking pills? They know he's stupid (idiots take drugs), plus you don't have to pay for another voice actor.
Aside from the subject matter, it has to be said the animation here is absolutely amazing. Very fluid and easy on the eye, there was a lot of money spent on this thing. There are lots of bright early 90's colours making sure you remember this is supposed to be entertaining and this was in the day when computer animation for all intents and purposes didn't exist, so to have a team of animaters churning this out by hand is pretty impressive. Also, none of the characters stand out, it looks like they are all relatively at home in their settings. It's very nicely done.
In the end this cartoon is worth watching simply so you can see as many of your favourite cartoon characters in one place at one time. They don't interact with each other much, but you can forgive that due to the fact that all they talk about is drugs. It's a strange propaganda film, but at the same time very entertaining. The message is good at heart and there are some jokes that never get old. All the biggest names are here and they're fighting the good fight. you can watch it here and enjoy it yourself:
http://www.moviesfoundonline.com/cartoon_all_stars_to_the_rescue.php
Ok, to understand this, first you have to understand the time and place it came from. First off, cartoons were big money. Thanks to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles the whole industry had been revolutionised. Cartoons were now no longer simple entertaining pieces of paper; they were the single most powerful advertisements in existence. So instead of hocking cheap plastic toys and junk food, the big man himself, George Bush the First, enlisted their help in winning the War On Drugs. Drugs were, in the late 80's and early 90's, a big deal. They were the big evil everybody hated. All of your favourite sports stars and video games were branded with the slogan "Winners Don't Use Drugs" and there was a lot of money spent on ensuring that drugs were kept out of our lives.
Now that you understand WHY it was made, let's talk about the cartoon itself. Essentially it's the story of Micheal, an average teen who succumbs to peer pressure and smokes Marijuana. Because he's a dipshit and can't get off it himself, a whole bunch of massively successful cartoon characters take time out of their busy animated lives to save the day. Now just to reiterate how big a deal this was when I was a kid, i'm not talking about Norman No-Joint and Sally Crackhead who nobody has ever heard of, I'm talking about Garfield, ALF and Slimer. Everyone is in this damn cartoon. Daffy Duck, The Great Gonzo, even a Ninja Turtle. This was the single biggest cartoon crossover there has ever been, and probably ever will be.
So the message was obviously that drugs were evil (they were personified by an anthropomorphic smoke puff who serves as the "Bad Guy"), but when this came out, I was 6. At 6 years old I didn't care what Marijuana was, hell i didn't care about what drugs were. What I cared about was all my favourite cartoons being in one place at one time. This was a brilliant strategy. The movie not only showed me what drugs and marijuana did to your body, they did it in such a way that made me believe all of it. Thanks to the clever use of The Good Guys, who in 90's cartoons were nothing less than pure and righteous, telling us that drugs were bad.
The problem with this logic, was of course, that I was 6 at the time. At 6 you are basically incapable of thinking for yourself. When I saw it again, when I was 14, obviously things changed a little. No longer did Alvin and The Chipmonks words inspire me to put down the crack pipe. This brings us to the first question. Who exactly was this cartoon aimed at? Kids didn't understand the heavy handed drug elements, and adolescents would probably view the cartoons as lame kids stuff, which means despite its good intentions, the cartoon is about as effective as lollypops on cancer.
The other thing that strikes me as strange about this is the other subtext. Oh sure, the outward projected image was "Don't do drugs", but the aftertext was: "unless you want all your favourite cartoon characters to come to life and tell you what a fucktard you're being". Now call me strange, but that seems like a pretty cool deal to me. Take a hit, meet Huey Dewey and Louie, they sing a crappy anti drugs song about saying NO, everyone leaves happy. See, that kinda thing strikes me as something I would want to do if I was an impressionable youth with an unhealthy obsession with cartoons. I don't care if they were telling me I was a twonk, meeting cartoon heroes would be awesome.
This makes this cartoon somewhat of a curiosity, a walking contradiction. While it debases drugs, showing their effects on the brain and body in a humorous and entertaining way, it also creates a very blurred outlook on reality which, and here comes the irony, feels like some kind of drug trip. I mean where else are you gonna hear Winnie thePooh talking about Shooting Juice? Seriously, the answer is nowhere. The other thing that is conspicuously absent from the show is any of the villains. I mean it's not like it would hurt to show the bad guys smoking a few. Just imagine if The Beagle Boys, known criminals and general troublemakers, were shown to smoke pot? The kids hate the bad guys, and don't wanna be like them, there's a deterrant. What about one shot of Odie taking pills? They know he's stupid (idiots take drugs), plus you don't have to pay for another voice actor.
Aside from the subject matter, it has to be said the animation here is absolutely amazing. Very fluid and easy on the eye, there was a lot of money spent on this thing. There are lots of bright early 90's colours making sure you remember this is supposed to be entertaining and this was in the day when computer animation for all intents and purposes didn't exist, so to have a team of animaters churning this out by hand is pretty impressive. Also, none of the characters stand out, it looks like they are all relatively at home in their settings. It's very nicely done.
In the end this cartoon is worth watching simply so you can see as many of your favourite cartoon characters in one place at one time. They don't interact with each other much, but you can forgive that due to the fact that all they talk about is drugs. It's a strange propaganda film, but at the same time very entertaining. The message is good at heart and there are some jokes that never get old. All the biggest names are here and they're fighting the good fight. you can watch it here and enjoy it yourself:
http://www.moviesfoundonline.com/cartoon_all_stars_to_the_rescue.php
