Sam and Max is one of those multimedia franchises that not too many people are familiar with, but those who are familiar with the franchise tend really adore and appreciate the stuff that comes out of it.
The cartoon, much like the rest of the franchise, is one of those cartoons that people tend to not really know about, but those who have seen it generally consider it to be an underrated cartoon from an age that seemingly had a lot of underrated cartoon.
This cartoon takes the over-the-top wackiness and meta-humor of standard nineties cartoons and cranks it up to an 11. The sheer insanity of the cartoon alone, for me at least, is able to outclass similar over-the-top cartoons like Freakazoid or Animaniacs. This isn't even talking about the plethora of adult and meta humor. The writing of each episode is very close the the rest of the franchise, just with no profanities and a significantly less gratuitous violence as the show needed to appeal to a child audience. Despite this slight "watering down" from their standard formula, I would say about 85% to 90% of what makes Sam and Max so charming is kept in tact. The writing is filled to the brim with witty banter, clever jokes, and sometimes just plain good ol' silliness all meshing together with completely nonsensical, yet coherent story for each episode. The animation and style of each episode is also well done with each background being extremely well detailed and very reminiscent of the comic books the two originated from. The animation itself also does a great job of expressing the titular characters with a great variety of subtle and expressive animation. The musical score just kind of exists with nothing being truly exceptional or bad except the somewhat catchy theme song, and I know no one in their right mind would just a background composition for a cartoon, but I feel it is at least something to point out for everything. If there is one big problem with the show is that it is very much for a niche audience. The writing is constructed in a very complex and off way that tends to go against a majority of standard storytelling rules while still being a great product. The characters over-explain everything they do and also tend to lose focus on life-threatening situations which to a lot of people can seem very foreign, but the way it is executed here is actually brilliant. This even goes into the very hypocrisy of the cartoon as one second they are talking in an extremely sophisticated manner using language that I've had to look up on a few occasions or having situations that made me bust out laughing, while other times the humor is a plain and simple as the nose on my head. This strange execution of the cartoon may set off quite a few people and thus, I can't say this cartoon is for everyone. However, if you are already fans of the Sam and Max franchise or want to see a cartoon that is both extremely silly as it is intelligent, then this may just be the show for you.
