Dastardly & Muttley e le macchine volanti

As even the most shameless of us old-cartoon freaks will readily or reluctantly admit, most of Hanna-Barberra's made-for-TV output from around 1966 onward was, to put it plainly, *c*r*a*p*!. Severely limited, almost minimalist animation; lame premises; imbecilic storytelling and humor, and those uber-repetitive characterizations and chase sequences and whole entire series....BUT every now and then even the humdrum HB hive knocked one out of the ballpark. "Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines" aka "Stop That Pigeon!" was a rarity in its hilarity -- it couuld make you laugh until your head almost fell off. There was a lopt of funny there -- the flabbergastacious flying machines! those two maladroit minions! (especially KLUNK with his psychotic genius-jargon babble-gab)! The heroic pigeon who was just so freaking OBNOXIOUS with his little tootly-tootly bugle that you wanted the bad guys to shoot him right out of the sky! And of course that greatest of all bad meany cartoon canines, the masterful MUTTLEY! Oh, how I loves me some Muttley. He's one of the funniest two-legged dogs who ever walked the cartoon Earth on two legs, especially when he gets pissed off or disgruntled. I can still do a passable Muttley Mumble myself: "Saggafrassinbaggamakkinsuggasuumbtcgmuttafubbarickrassrdly!" Not his sneaky wheezy dirty-old-dawg laugh, though; that's actually inimitable.

As bad as Hanna-Barbera is at making spinoff shows, this "Wacky Races" spinoff is pretty good (as well as "The Perils of Penelope Pitstop"). It stars Dick Dastardly, and his dog Muttley who have traveled back in time to World War I. They along with some other pilots (Zilly, and Klunk) form the Vulture Squadron, and have one mission: To stop a carrier pigeon from crossing enemy lines. Like in "Wacky Races", Dastardly fails at his task, but still the results are humorous.

I really have to give Hanna-Barbera a lot of credit. Their spinoff shows were really bad, but their "Wacky Races" spinoff shows were great. 10/10.

I find this Bad Boy Spin-Off of Wacky Races (1968) is very Hilarious, Because of Dick Dastardly, Muttley, Zilly and Klunk's plans are trying to capture the Yankee Doodle Pigeon, But their plans have been failed and backfired, It features the Delightfully Villainous Bad Boy Dick Dastardly, His Canine sidekick Muttley, The Cowardly Zilly and The Intelligent Inventor Klunk, Who speaks with Sound Effects Language, While Zilly translates in English. I'll give this Hanna-Barbara Series a 10/10.

Back when "Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines" debuted, I was a fan. I'd enjoyed the two in "The Wacky Racers" and so it was natural I'd watch this spin-off. And, for a five year-old, it was enjoyable. Several decades later, the show was shown on the Boomerang Channel and I decided to give it a watch for nostalgia's sake. And, to my moderate surprise, the show was absolutely terrible. A horribly low cel count (common in the poorly animated 1960s and 70s that was dominated by Hanna-Barbera), completely one-dimensional characters and terrible writing (with very repetitive and flimsy plots involving catching a stupid pigeon...PERIOD) made it an absolute chore to watch. After a few episodes, I swore I'd never see this abomination again!

So why do I think I liked it to back in the old days? Much of it simply was because bad writing and low cel counts were the norm for 1969. Now, with the improvement in the quality of cartoons, it's obvious when you watch any of the old shows of 1969 that they simply don't stack up with the recent offerings by Nickelodeon or the old classic Looney Tunes shorts. And, I assume with kids today seeing better quality cartoons, that they, too, would be a bit bored by this Dastardly cartoon.

I remember watching this and Wacky Races and loving them both. Personally now I do prefer Wacky Races, but this is a great show as well. The premise may be a tad narrow at first, but it is very interesting well for me it is anyway. The visual gags and dialogue may be corny at times, but they were always funny as well(ie. the ludicrous flying machines, Klunk's gibberish, Dastardly's hilariously sarcastic remarks about Klunk's inventions, "Drat and Double Drat" and the General's shouting), and the animation is cheerful. The theme tune is simple but really memorable, the lyrics are close to uproarious at times. The story lines can be somewhat repetitive, but they are still fun, and the voice acting is solid. The characters are also great fun, Zilly is hilarious and Dick Dastardly's mutterings are worth plenty of chuckles but for me Muttley steals the show, he is a bad character but he is lovable as well, with his mumbles, silly laugh and priceless facial expressions, Muttley for me has the whole package. The voice acting also from Paul Winchell and Don Messick is superb. Overall, it is corny and silly but it is hilarious as well.

Stop the Pigeon! 9/10 Bethany Cox