The Wuzzles (1985)

“The hell is this?” That was my first reaction when I came to discover this program. For the longest time when I was younger, I always had the notion that Adventures Of The Gummi Bears was Disney’s first animated cartoon. I was pretty surprised to find a show had been produced prior to that one, as I knew a lot of Disney titles but never heard of this show up until that point I found out about it.

It was more than likely because The Wuzzles was a flop. With only 13 episodes made, it still stands with the lowest amount of episodes of any animated television program Disney has put out thus far. That, and with a long passage of time, has made a show like this almost forgettable. I can’t recall this show ever airing in Canada, and this is the only Disney series I have never laid eyes on. Truth be told, I never even saw the opening credits until I searched for the show on Youtube while writing this entry. I can kind of see why it wasn’t a big hit – because it looks weird. Of course readers who actually saw this series could prove me wrong, as I can’t base any real opinion on it since I’ve never seen any of the episodes.

The Wuzzles premiered the same day as Adventures Of The Gummi Bears on September 14, 1985, with one show airing on CBS and the other on NBC. It was Disney’s first venture into animated television for kids. From what I’ve researched the idea of the show came from then CEO of the Walt Disney Company Michael Eisner, in association with toy manufacturer Hasbro, to create a group of animal characters with a roughly even and colorful mix of two different species of animals. Yes, it’s really that weird. And the theme song mentions “livin’ with a split personality” as a reference to this, which sounds even weirder. And they all have wings on their backs…no I’m not making this up. It gets better…all of the Wuzzles live on the Isle of Wuz. Is this meant to mean “Wuztf?”, because that’s basically all I can say about this cracked “what were they smoking?” type of cartoon. Another reason it failed: while Disney later on would become known for making shows about entertaining kids first with good stories and characters, this series was the opposite. It carried with it the standard marketing ploy of the time to get products to sell, and The Wuzzles were marketed extensively with books, plush toys and a board game, among other things. And while not a huge factor as voice actors can be replaced, one of them who voiced one of the main characters died, which only nailed another nail into the coffin for the series.

While The Wuzzles was not successful here, it did fairly better in the UK where its pilot episode aired as a theatrical feature. What the show did have was a catchy opening theme, which would become a trademark of many Disney cartoons to follow. There are some random clips of the show on Youtube. I quickly viewed them, and just shook my head at lameness.

Walt Disney Television Animation

I’ve decided to kick off my reviewing of cartoons with the long and vast collection of shows Disney has been pumping out for the past 20 years. You should note that for these reviews and future ones for other shows, I’m going to assume you know a little bit about them to begin with. If you want specific information about characters, setting, and plot, you can find most of that stuff on Wikipedia and fansites. I’d like to hope my readers are well prepared and know their stuff before coming here. It would just take a longer time for me to name off all important characters, where the series takes place, and what the stories usually involve. That being said, for more lesser known cartoons and more so ones that are from Canada that don’t get much exposure anyplace else, I’ll shed more light on those. Who knows, I may just go back on all what I’ve said here if there is enough demand from people wanting to know more about characters/setting/plot for the more popular shows.

Television animation was in a dark state in the first half of the 1980’s. It was mostly used for pushing a popular brand of toys. Stories were drab, animation was horrible, and most of these shows haven’t aged well. The tide started to change by the middle of the decade with Disney – a company that brought us shows based on good stories, solid characters, imagination, and better animation. It wasn’t about pushing a product; it was about characters and their adventures, and entertaining kids first. Walt Disney Television Animation was launched in 1984 and a year later would premiere its first venture into television animation with The Wuzzles.

Since then Disney has come to produce and air a wealthy line of cartoons; to which they could and should be separated into categories. There was an explosion of syndicated television animation from 1985-1992 that revived all the old classic Disney characters with a modern twist. Shows like Chip ‘N Dale Rescue Rangers, TaleSpin, and DuckTales – these shows brought to life old favorites while ushering new characters into the mix, while other shows from this time like Darkwing Duck and Adventures Of The Gummi Bears were totally original, new ideas. All these shows in this time period followed a strict likeness to each other. Each had a catchy opening sequence that clicked in at a minute long, each used the exact same font in the ending credits text, and the ending credits themselves always had a background picture of scenery to that show’s setting and/or character’s residence. It can be argued, however, that not all of these programs were syndicated and that some were produced by seasons – a trend of back and fourth-ness that has continued to his day with Disney. While I never thought of it to be a separate section, what Disney put out between 1993-1996 differs slightly from what was produced prior, but in some ways you could still consider it a good couple years where they still made decent programs. These years saw more productions based on recent movies like Aladdin and Timon & Pumbaa, while still churning out innovative shows like Gargoyles and The Schnookums & Meat Funny Cartoon Show.

By 1997 Disney had used up all their old characters, and changed direction with making more original, tween-oriented shows no longer featuring anthropomorphic critters but with “real” people – shows like Pepper Ann, Recess, and The Weekenders. I’d incase 1997-2002 as another chapter in Disney’s animated television history, as some of these shows in this timeframe have grown to become modern classics of their own. They were also part of the popular Disney’s One Saturday Morning block as well. The newest chapter of Disney’s television animation stems from 2003 to current time, which features a mix of anthropomorphic animal characters (Brandy & Mr. Whiskers), humans (The Replacements), and series based on recent movies (The Emperor’s New School).

I’d have to put the golden age of Walt Disney Television Animation between 1987 and 1992, as they put out hit after hit of (now classic) cartoons, and it was a very popular time for their animation block known as The Disney Afternoon. Sure they had shows before 1987, but they didn’t hit their stride until DuckTales became a huge success; which still stands as their longest running series with 100 half-hour episodes. Many of the cartoons during this time were heavily merchandised as well. Animation improved slowly, but it faltered here and there with Disney outsourcing their animation to other companies (a topic to cover for a later date). Between 1993 and 2001 while not in their prime, Disney still managed to make some good cartoons, although not heavily merchandised as the previous ones were (or in some cases not at all). It seems after 2001 the quality of many Disney programs fell fast and hard. No merchandise or hardly anything of value to really buy, boring ideas and repetitive scenarios, ugly character design and average animation, and no popular block to air them in anymore (lets face it, the current ABC Kids sucks and is mostly live-action programming now). This all leads to series closing up shop pretty quickly after beginning, and none of their recent efforts have made it past two years of production.

It’s hard to signify exactly where Disney jumped the shark, as even through a sea of tiresome cartoons they can still come out with a good show once in a while. What Disney currently has in production now is utter crap to what they used to put out; even their shows five years ago were of somewhat better quality. The Emperor’s New School, The Replacements, Phineas And Ferb – these shows just don’t compare. From being a cartoon making powerhouse to not knowing what the hell they are doing, Disney sure has fallen from its once high perch as a great network that made enjoyable animated programs.

Networks In The United States – Part 2

The Disney Channel – Launched April 18, 1983
Based in Burbank, California; early on they used to air some live action kids programming along with various half hour compilations of old Disney shorts. Again, like most networks from this period do early on – they aired several foreign animated shows and movies including Asterix (this was English dubbed at some point?), the original stop motion Paddington Bear series, and The Raccoons.

By the mid 80’s however, the network started to produce their own brand of television animation starting with the short-lived series The Wuzzles in 1985. Disney became a king of Saturday morning cartoons in its own right, as not only did their productions air on their network, but also aired on major networks like NBC, CBS, ABC, and even Fox. DuckTales, Chip ‘N Dale Rescue Rangers, TaleSpin, Darkwing Duck, Goof Troop, etc, are now considered contemporary classics. They had many programming blocks over the years, the most notable being The Disney Afternoon which began in 1990 to house all their television animation. Its name was shortened to TDA in 1994, and by 1997 started getting phased out and replaced by Disney’s One Saturday Morning block solely on the ABC network. This block had a short-lived spin-off starting in 1999 called Disney’s One Too that aired on weekends and weekdays. Both blocks were eventually phased out in the fall of 2002, as Disney’s One Saturday Morning simply became ABC Kids. In April 1998 the network spun-off a sister channel called Toon Disney; meant to air older Disney cartoons and other shows from The Disney Afternoon, which saw many older cartoons jump ship off The Disney Channel and onto this network. However starting in 2004 with the addition of the Jetix block on Toon Disney, most of the older programs vanished (Canadian counterpart Family Channel followed suit as well), although currently some older shows have made their way back on the network.

The Disney Channel/Toon Disney networks have expanded all over the world, but Canada remains one of the few places where it hasn’t – most likely because Family Channel has aired most of their programming. Has Disney Channel jumped the shark with its viewing audience and current programming? Absolutely – their pre-teen lineup of shows has taken over the network, the focus doesn’t even seem to be on animation anymore. They may have ruled Saturday mornings in the 80’s and 90’s, but these days their cartoons are garbage compared to the quality offerings they used to put out. Youtube has lots of Disney related stuff so check that out as well.

Where I’m Coming From – Part 3

Family Channel – Launched September 1, 1988
Out of the three main channels here that offer child’s programming and animation, the two of which were already covered, the Family Channel was the one that remained the utmost mystery to me and I knew next to nothing about this network compared to the others. It was only until researching the station for this post I found it premiered the same date as YTV did, and that it was the only English language children’s network in Canada to have off-air hours up until July 2007 when they switched over to a 24/7 broadcast schedule. While I said before YTV was the first channel of its kind here in Canada (since Family Channel debuted the same day), it still is because while Family Channel is a children’s network, it was a larger mix of live-action shows and other adult fare rather than animated programming. That, and it was a “pay extra” channel in a premium cable package that way back then we never got. YTV on the other hand you received on basic cable.

So let’s roll back the clock here. My earliest memories of the channel are fuzzy – literally. I recall flipping through the channels as a kid, and when I’d reach the ones that were blocked out and found Family Channel I can remember hearing the music to some classic Disney shows, and sometimes you could even make out the picture for about five seconds until it got all distorted and scrambled again. As I said, it was part of an extra channels package, and long before Teletoon was around I whined to my mom to get the extra channels so I could watch Family Channel. She always said no but eventually with the free preview we received we all got hooked like druggies, and after it was taken away from us we all wanted more. I can faintly remember old bumpers when Family Channel had their really old logo running (the painted “F” with the sun in it). Like the two aforementioned channels the network played various cartoons and kids shows, but unlike them the Family Channel did and still does air programming with no commercials. That’s right! You can watch an entire television show or movie in its complete length, and the promos are only their other programs being advertised, airing between shows for a brief period. This is especially handy if anyone out there is into taping and archiving shows, a subject I’ll touch on at a later date.

I can’t really shine a lot of light on the programming offered on the network in its early days, as I stated I never received it. It also biases my opinion of the network because out of the 20 years it’s been on the air, I’ve only been viewing for about ten and remember even less than that. Like most networks of this nature tend to do when they first start out – Family Channel aired imported cartoons from other networks. Back then they really offered a mixed bag of animation, not only airing Disney cartoons but Nicktoons, shows from Hanna-Barbera, and various English dubbed Japanese animes and French productions as well. I have to thank one Youtube user for posting some very old bumpers from the network (here and here) which helped me out with this post – I knew of a 90’s Spirou animated series, but never knew it was dubbed in English let alone aired here over a decade ago. It’s also interesting to note that while YTV and Teletoon are known for many original and co-produced animated shows, Family Channel to my knowledge only has one original cartoon to its credit – the little known show Hoze Houndz which despite never getting that popular still managed to get 78 half hour episodes under its belt. Programming these days is divided into four blocks: Jetix (a block no one is ever awake to see), Playhouse (which airs mid morning for preschoolers), Mad Dash (which airs in the early morning then resumes at noon running till the evening for preteens), and Non Stop (which airs live action sitcoms which on weekends air all day long). I couldn’t tell you what blocks, if any, they had before – the only thing I remember are oldschool bumpers they had before and after they changed their logo and their name to just Family in 1999.

Family (as it’s now called) has aired many cartoons from many difference places for as long as YTV has, all commercial free. This Wikipedia article here has a list of past and present shows that aired on the network, although it’s largely incomplete and doesn’t list any of the older programming they used to offer in the late 80’s to mid 90’s. As I’ve continued to state the animated shows in that list will get covered here in time. Along with airing imported cartoons from around the globe, Family has been Disney’s Canadian outlet for its television cartoons and full length movies since its inception. Almost every one of Disney’s animated productions has aired here at one point, some having a far longer run than others. I have no proof though that The Wuzzles ever aired on the network, nor did Disney’s version of the Doug series or Nightmare Ned. I couldn’t tell you the longest it ever took for a Disney show to reach here because Family picks up new shows quickly after they premiere in the US, so the biggest gaps in time are perhaps six months to a year. I can tell you one of the longest Disney shows to air consecutively was Goof Troop, which ran in various time spots sometimes twice a day for nine years from 1996-2005. A recent runner up to this would be The Weekenders series which began airing in 2001 and has been airing three times a day since April 2006. Check out more on Family from its Wikipedia article here, unfortunately I couldn’t find any webpages out there with Family related banter. Youtube doesn’t really have a lot of Family related stuff so you’ll have to search it out; this user in particular has many promos and old advertisements so give his account a look. I have to give a quick thanks to this user. You know when you’re a kid and you see certain cartoons and live-action shows and years later can never remember what they were called? And once in a while you’ll remember blurry images of it in your head and sometimes wonder if it even truly existed? Well this user brought to memory a show I could never place but did remember – one of the last obscure television memories I had as a kid is finally solved. Do you…remember Kidstreet?

Has Family jumped the shark with its viewing audience and current programming? I’d have to say yes, but it’s not as big as a jump as YTV, and it only happened in recent years. The channel in its earliest days had a better variety of shows (many sitcoms) and showcased classic black and white films. They also had documentaries and music specials and concerts. Strictly animation wise I think its best years were set between the late 90’s to mid 2000’s. The main reason for watching the network, and I’m sure others will agree, was to watch all the popular Disney cartoons from the 80’s and 90’s. Like its US equivalent The Disney Channel, those older shows started to get phased out of the schedule starting in 2004 in favor of newer programming – the beginning of the end was when Goof Troop after nine years of airing was finally taken off the network in September 2005. It was the oldest cartoon airing at the time (13 years old) from Disney’s prime days in television animation, and that for me was the jumping factor because most of what they are airing today just doesn’t make the grade from what quality shows Disney used to put out. The Weekenders is now the oldest (Disney) cartoon airing on the network, dating back to 2000 (man does time fly). What I dislike about the network these days is that it’s become too much like The Disney Channel. This started in early 2007 when they started to show commercial style breaks from The Disney Channel and airing its (horrible teeny pop) music videos. I think once The Weekenders go, which will more than likely signal another change in the tide, I won’t be changing my television to channel 51 all that often anymore.