Poochini

I found this cartoon on what would normally be the shopping channel on a strange Sunday morning. For broadcast television in the U.S., Sunday morning is a deadzone relegated for public affairs and community programming (i.e. religious shows, kiddy-friendly cartoons, talking head news shows). My point: I would be sleeping in instead of flipping through the channels and I would have missed seeing a mini-marathon of this show.

The first thing that caught my attention was the voice of Billy West (an actor prolific in voicing cartoons and who first came to my attention as Stimpy of "The Ren & Stimpy Show"). The second thing that caught my attention was animation style that was reminiscent of 'Ren & Stimpy.' For awhile, I was hoping this was the return of John Kricfalusi to some type of television. I wouldn't call myself a fan of his work, but finding his work on television is like watching the night sky for shooting stars. "Ren & Stimpy" just wasn't the same without his twisted sense of humor. Later, I found out some of the creative team for Poochini worked on some of John K shows. These connections do explain the similar style and tone. But then again, one can find John K's influence in almost every cartoon since Ren & Stimpy.

I was mildly amused with Poochini. It somehow tells the story a family dog's reaction to his odd human family. (Poochini possesses that odd ability to speak in a language the audience understands but his human costars do not.) I didn't catch all the episodes so I lost some of the humor involving the even stranger neighbors. But from what I did see, I can tell the show isn't normal Sunday morning fare.

In one episode, Dad White wants Poochini into a hunting dog. He fails miserably in unseen attempt to take on a bear. So he decides to take Poochini duck hunting. In one scene, Mr. White hides in a pond in order to attack a duck from underwater. He uses a straw to breathe. His plans work to some extent. A duck lands where he's hidden. But the duck does his business in the water and flies off. Mr. White ensuing reaction was of course hilarious.

In a later episode, Poochini catches a TV news report about aliens in the area. Poochini connects the reporter's description of alien behavior to his family. His fears about the family are further confirmed in scenes so gross and warped that I suffered a rare guilty pleasure.

In the final episode of the mini-marathon, Mr. White builds a robot dog as a playmate for Poochini. Poochini sniffs the robot dog. 'Cold,' he says between sniffs. 'Detached.' Poochini decides to hide from this monstrosity especially after the robot dog mechanically does its business and proceeds to eagerly re-ingest whatever it had just expelled. The episode continues building upward to a level of creative storytelling that is sorely missed in Saturday morning cartoons.

After each episode, the audience is treated to helpful maxims about tolerance (and other kiddy mind control). However, I questioned whether children who watched this would be kind and respectful to others or would be off somewhere repeating the show's antics. If it was the latter, I have these words of advice: 'Just Say No To Swallowing and Regurgitating Goldfish.'

At the time of this writing, Billy West is not included in IMDb's credits for this show. In fact, there aren't many names attached in the cast and crew section. There could be a number of valid reasons for it. But I think it's even funnier that the show was distributed 'in every country except the USA, South Africa and Malaysia,' according to ASIFA's May 2000 newsletter. I think it's on DVD somewhere in Germany. I wish my VCR still worked.

Rubbish show. If your idea of fun is to laugh at animal abuse, this is your show, basically the show is about a dog with a family that mistreats him, specially the child who normally abuses him. As we all know, animal characters subjected to violence is a regular staple of cartoons, but in this show in particular is rather sad and cruel, as the dog is not a humanized figure (other than having a voice), it's just a dog being abused, what a brilliant idea for a show. Funny? Not really, I think is a disgrace artistically, morally and storytelling wise it does not go farther than this crude premise. Keep your kids away from this one and if you as a grown up enjoy this show, you are probably the guy who grew up beating dogs and cats.

Poochini's Yard is a throwback to the old Looney Tunes library when a cartoon was just a cartoon. Not sure why people get their panties in a twist over this show. It is much more harmless than shows that are on now, especially if you want to talk animal abuse. Family Guy has done worse to Brian and people still watch it.

However, Poochini wasn't a show that lasted very long, but those who watched it will remember it. The show produced a single DVD that includes a handful of episodes, including the Christmas short, Poochini's Tree. It was a funny show, and missed. Billy West and Dee Bradley Baker are great voiceover artist who both lent their talents to this wonderful show.

I had hi hopes for this show knowing that Billy West voices the main character Now when I watched this show. This show is a disgrace! The character's are unlikeable. Poochini is this Dog who was own by a rich person who died and got picked up but a family who don't treat him right. The family are also d*cks don't believe me watch some episodes on Youtube. They have a mean duo of neighbors, they have gross habits, the episode "The Tail" had a trio of gay guys with bad voices. Man the character's aren't nice to each other. Also the animation is so BAD. The animation for the characters look so ugly they look exactly like the animation for "Scaredy Squirrel". And when I see the character design I feel disgusted. The voice acting is the thing I cannot stand! When I watched an episode of this show in English the voice actors sounded like they weren't even trying hard to put effort into the voice acting. Also the plots are so boring and inappropriate. I watched an episode where the son makes fun of him for having a tail and Poochini gets paranoid that he's stupid for having one and he realize that having a tail dosn't make him stupid! Not to mention this show shows inappropriate themes! This should not be on Nick or any of the current family cable networks! Kids are probably going to do the same thing as the White family did. So this is my review of Poochini. This show is a bad show don't watch it!, don't let your kids watch it!, and move on and ask current kids networks to air the good shows like Sailor Moon, Cardcaptors, Oggy and The Cockroaches, Fix and Foxy, Zig and Sharko, Coconut Fred's Fruit Salad Island, etc. This review was just my opinion on this show if you agree press the like button you don't dislike it. I'm sorry if I ticked off fans of this show. This show is just not my cup of tea.