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7.8/10
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Rocky, a plucky flying squirrel and Bullwinkle, a bumbling but lovable moose, have a series of ongoing adventures.Rocky, a plucky flying squirrel and Bullwinkle, a bumbling but lovable moose, have a series of ongoing adventures.Rocky, a plucky flying squirrel and Bullwinkle, a bumbling but lovable moose, have a series of ongoing adventures.
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Rocky and Bullwinkle is "Must See TV" today as it was for me when I was four years old. Back then, the story lines went over my head, but the star characters were so strong, their personalities so vivid that they have stood the test of time while many of their contemporaries and those that followed have languished in obscurity.
Looking back at the very onset of the show with the Adventures Of Rocky & Bullwinkle DVD set, the show seemed to attempt to find itself both from a story nature and the art (Rocky's appearance changes quite drastically between episodes seven and eight of the "Rocket Fuel" serial and again between episodes five and six of "Box Top Robbery"), but once the show found itself deservedly attracting a grown-up audience, the story writers let it all hang out. Pop culture wasn't the target of the show, it was culture of all persuasions. It came fast and furious and that's what made the show so funny. Consider the following from the "Treasure Of Monte Zoom" serial, when Boris Badenov sets fire to a bridge:
Bullwinkle: "This is an ethical dilemma fraught with portents!"
Rocky: "What does that mean?"
Bullwinkle: "I dunno...I heard it on 'Meet The Press'."
Rocky and Bullwinkle has shown that brilliant writing and terrific heroic characters can offset the low-budget animation, and that heroes that can thrill us and make us laugh will have a spot in our hearts for life.
Looking back at the very onset of the show with the Adventures Of Rocky & Bullwinkle DVD set, the show seemed to attempt to find itself both from a story nature and the art (Rocky's appearance changes quite drastically between episodes seven and eight of the "Rocket Fuel" serial and again between episodes five and six of "Box Top Robbery"), but once the show found itself deservedly attracting a grown-up audience, the story writers let it all hang out. Pop culture wasn't the target of the show, it was culture of all persuasions. It came fast and furious and that's what made the show so funny. Consider the following from the "Treasure Of Monte Zoom" serial, when Boris Badenov sets fire to a bridge:
Bullwinkle: "This is an ethical dilemma fraught with portents!"
Rocky: "What does that mean?"
Bullwinkle: "I dunno...I heard it on 'Meet The Press'."
Rocky and Bullwinkle has shown that brilliant writing and terrific heroic characters can offset the low-budget animation, and that heroes that can thrill us and make us laugh will have a spot in our hearts for life.
There was a station in Huntsville, Alabama that used to play Rocky and Bullwinkle early on Sunday mornings. The reception was poor, but I would wake up early, nonetheless. I never got the jokes, but I knew that there was something there that I was missing and laughed anyway (Remember the Ruby Yacht of Omar Kiyam? Hilarious! What kid gets that joke?). I loved the other shorts too--Mr. Peabody, Bullwinkle's Corner, Dudley Doright, Fractured Fairy Tales, Mr. Know It All--which all seemed to be just as funny, and in some cases funnier, than the moose and squirrel.
I am only 27, but the show reminds me of better times, and I enjoy watching it to this day, finally being able to get the jokes. I can never find it, but when I do, and I rarely do, I sit and watch and remember. I am not sure if I will ever see the live action/animated version of the film, however, because I hate what modern technology has done to the animated characters I grew up loving in flat monotone colors. Isn't this the only way to view Rocky and Bullwinkle, and if Peabody the dog and his boy Sherman ain't in it do I really want to pay money to watch? Oh well, maybe the film will make the TV show more available. One can only hope.
I am only 27, but the show reminds me of better times, and I enjoy watching it to this day, finally being able to get the jokes. I can never find it, but when I do, and I rarely do, I sit and watch and remember. I am not sure if I will ever see the live action/animated version of the film, however, because I hate what modern technology has done to the animated characters I grew up loving in flat monotone colors. Isn't this the only way to view Rocky and Bullwinkle, and if Peabody the dog and his boy Sherman ain't in it do I really want to pay money to watch? Oh well, maybe the film will make the TV show more available. One can only hope.
Although this show has held up well for over half a century, there's no denying that it's extremely strange and probably not something that today's kids would even get.The first bizarre thing to happen is Peabody explaining how he has come to own a boy.It seems like the kind of origin story that could mess up a kid.After the first episode they make an intro for them and it shows Peabody in various places in time even though he explained in the first episode that he built the Way-Bac machine just so his boy could have a place to play.But it's weird in a good way and I love the constant recapping of the story for some reason.I was going to watch the whole first season before I reviewed this but after hearing Bullwinkle read a poem called "I Love Little Pussy", I had to get this done.Yes that's really a poem that he read.Game over, Bullwinkle wins.
There is no doubt that "Rocky and "The Avengers" were the most intelligently funny tv shows ever made. Like "Sesame St", "Rocky" was written to appeal to adults as well as children and more than half of the humor was aimed at the grownups. The show is vibrant proof that you don't have to plumb the depths of scatology, profanity, and smut - as tv today does - to be funny. "Rocky" left us laughing our keisters off, and we didn't feel we had to take a shower after seeing it.
Huge irony, as animation (aided by computers) is being re-discovered in the present, that the highest compliment one can pay to an animated feature in our current age is to say that "the market is kids, but adults will find things in the script to enjoy also." Folks, here is big revelation. That trick is not new. In fact, the producers of this ground-breaking series, Jay Ward and Bill Scott, not only invented that approach, they virtually patented it. The segments, especially the poetry, fractured fairy tales, and trips back in history, had puns within puns within puns. And, of course, puns only work if you already know the answer, so in effect this series was written by adults, for adults, and, in order to bring home a paycheck, I am sure these guys had to console themselves with the inevitable truth that the vast majority of their audience would, unfortunately, be children. (But, through the magic of DVD, streaming video and God-knows-what-new-media will arrive in the decades to come, adults can finally get a chance to match wits with the writers of this half-century old show.) And the casting? William Conrad was a "force" in Hollywood in those days, directing behind the scenes, doing voice-overs, and ultimately had his own show (Cannon). Horton had one of the most distinctive voices in the history of TV, with a pitch un-matched even to the present. And Hans Conried actually appeared on talk shows of the era to show how many different voices he could do. Even the intros to the commercials were unique and ahead of their time -- "SAY ROCKY WATCH ME PULL A RABBIT OUT OF A HAT!" Defines the word "classic."
Did you know
- TriviaRepresentatives for Red Skelton contacted the producers claiming that Bullwinkle's voice was an unauthorized use of a character voice created and owned by Skelton for his character "Clem Kadiddlehopper". Jay Ward responded by having a segment on the show where Bullwinkle would address the issue . . . in a voice that was a deliberate imitation of Clem Kadiddlehopper.
- GoofsGiven the inherent absurdity of this cartoon, in which practically anything goes, and nothing is impossible, it could be argued that all of the show's continuity errors are deliberate gags, rather than goofs. They are kept on the list because they are interesting.
- Quotes
Rocket J. Squirrel: Bullwinkle, those are girls!...
Rocket J. Squirrel: Bullwinkle, this is terrible!
Bullwinkle J. Moose: It is?
Rocket J. Squirrel: What kind of game can you play with girls?
Bullwinkle J. Moose: Boy, this really is a children's show, isn't it?
[Bullwinkle looks into the camera]
Bullwinkle J. Moose: Parcheesi, of course.
- Crazy creditsDaws Butler (voice of Aesop's son, and numerous incidental characters) has his credit removed after the first season. This was due to a contractual stipulation with Hanna-Barbera, which stated that he could not receive on-screen credit for work at another studio.
- Alternate versionsThe commonly available episodes of "Rocky and His Friends"/"The Bullwinkle Show", as released on DVD between 2003 and 2011, differ from the original broadcast versions in several ways. "Rocky and His Friends", originally broadcast on ABC for two seasons (1959-1961), and its later incarnation "The Bullwinkle Show", originally broadcast on NBC for three seasons (1961-1964), are combined under the blanket title "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends". The combined five seasons are presented on DVD with altered title sequences. The opening and closing animation originally from Season 2 of "Rocky and His Friends" has been applied to most of the episodes from each of the first two seasons, with a newer title logo and appropriately re-dubbed voice-over for the show's rebranding as part of "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends". Furthermore, due to copyright issues, the original Frank Comstock theme music from "Rocky and His Friends" has been replaced by the music composed by Fred Steiner for "The Bullwinkle Show". The DVD releases also use the altered-for-syndication versions of the opening and closing sequences that excise any mention of the show's original sponsor, General Mills. The original opening animation from "The Bullwinkle Show" is not used for any episode in any season, as the episodes originally broadcast as "The Bullwinkle Show" (represented as Seasons 3-5 of "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends") use animation from earlier seasons of "Rocky and His Friends" (including the Season 1 animation that was replaced on the Season 1 DVDs). While the DVDs present Rocky & Bullwinkle's serialized adventures in their chronological order, there's some debate over which backup segments ("Fractured Fairy Tales", "Peabody's Improbable History", "Aesop and Son", "Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties", "Bullwinkle's Corner", "Mr. Know-It-All") should be paired with each episode, as the segments have been mixed and matched, separated and recombined countless times in the decades since their original broadcast. While the current DVD versions of these episodes are considered the "official" versions in circulation, they fall short of being accurate representations of the show as originally broadcast from 1959-1964.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Saturday Night Live: Howard Hesseman/Men at Work (1982)
- How many seasons does The Bullwinkle Show have?Powered by Alexa
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