OT: 2 Stupid Dogs

[BloodyChamp]

I've been meaning to post this and I just happenned to read the rant thread. FWIW I'm posting this about the dogs because I saw traces of the TTTP greatness in a cartoon of theirs I watched recently. It was the one where they found the dinosaur bone outside of the museum.

That was by far the best cartoon of theirs that I have seen. That show usually puts me to sleep but that cartoon was genuinely funny. It had sharp timing and original, multi dimensional gags. Then, the next cartoon was just as funny! The one with the big old angry guy as the substitute teacher!

That bring me to ask a question. Was there actually a window of time where this show was, well, good? If only the one cartoon would have been good, I'd have just wrote it off as a one hit wonder but they had 2 cartoons in a row to fill out the whole show. That make me wonder if they somehow turned out a few good shows in a row before the end.

[frizfrelengfan]

The only thing I know about the show is that one of the dogs was voiced by Brad Garrett ("Everybody Loves Raymond").

[Matt the Y]

I've been meaning to post this and I just happenned to read the rant thread. FWIW I'm posting this about the dogs because I saw traces of the TTTP greatness in a cartoon of theirs I watched recently. It was the one where they found the dinosaur bone outside of the museum.

That was by far the best cartoon of theirs that I have seen. That show usually puts me to sleep but that cartoon was genuinely funny. It had sharp timing and original, multi dimensional gags. Then, the next cartoon was just as funny! The one with the big old angry guy as the substitute teacher!

That bring me to ask a question. Was there actually a window of time where this show was, well, good? If only the one cartoon would have been good, I'd have just wrote it off as a one hit wonder but they had 2 cartoons in a row to fill out the whole show. That make me wonder if they somehow turned out a few good shows in a row before the end.

Actually, I used to be a HUGE fan of that show! I have no idea why people always called it a Ren & Stimpy clone. The characters look and act nothing like Ren & Stimpy. But getting back to what you were talking about...

I think the quality of the show varied from episode to episode like most modern animation. Why am I saying this? The episode you saw was from the show's second season in which only ONE new cartoon was produced per show. The other two cartoons were cartoons recycled from the show's first season. So the museum, being the first cartoon shown, would be that episode's "new" cartoon (i.e. from the 2nd season). The substitute teacher episode (one of my favorites, BTW) was a recycled short from the 1st season. And, to make matters more interesting, the show's 1st season also had a "new" Secret Squirrel cartoon in the middle of the show (with Jess Harnell reprising Mel Blanc's original voice role). I thought most of those were pretty impressive. They didn't seem to "bastardize" the original Secret Squirrel as might have been the case.

If you've started taking an interest in 2 Stupid Dogs (and now that I've enlightened things a little), I also recommend these episodes... "At The Drive-In", "Space Dogs", "Seeing Eye Dogs", "Spooks A Poppin!", "Hollywood's Ark", "Far-Out Friday", and "Cat!". I thought these were some of the funnier shorts in the series. I also contend that, for the most part, the series really took a downward spiral in Season 2. In addition to the omission of Secret Squirrel, the cartoons became less interesting and more brainless (maybe the writers wrote themselves into the characters too much:p ). However, there is one other episode from Season 2 that I enjoyed, "Cookies! Ookies! Blookies!".

[CueBallCat79]

However, there is one other episode from Season 2 that I enjoyed, "Cookies! Ookies! Blookies!".

Man, I think that one has got to be the best cartoons of that entire series, and my personal favorite as well. My least favorite episodes of that series were normally the ones where the two dogs would play second fiddle to someone else, usually Hollywood or the little psycho red riding hood. Sort of like the majority of the later Ren and Stimpy shows.

But there a good handful of Two Stupid Dogs cartoons that really put the characters in more active roles. These were the better ones, and were often snappier, more out there, and often had a better sense of art direction than some of the blander cartoons. "Cornflakes" is just 6 minutes of Hollywood talking amongst some badly rendered scenery with quick cutaways to the dogs being cute.


SPOILERS in case your looking forward to seeing the cartoon, BloodyChamp...


"Cookies, Ookies, Blookies" however, has this golden age feel to it. If not golden age then at the very least it has a much less restrained and very goofball feel to it than the majority of the Two Stupid Dogs cartoons. The premise is just the two dogs trying to get cookies from a girl scout but they believe they need first get the scout to come to a door to sell them cookies. They finally find a door to use but then discover they don't know how to open it. So the rest of the cartoon consists of the little dog trying to open the front door while the big dog keeps dashing out the back door (which neither dog thinks to use to their advantage) to see if the girl scout is still waiting for them to open the front door. And that's pretty much it.

But one standout scene drives this over the top. For some inane reason the little dog superheats the front door knob at one point with a blowtorch and then goes to open it with his bare hand. Instead of burning himself, or his hand catching fire, his entire body BURSTS into flames, the music goes absolutely crazy and the little dog screams like a maniac. The big dog keeps beating him with rakes and such and the fire only gets bigger and bigger until it's basically a gigantic fireball engulfing the little dog.

And the art direction is terrific too. The posing and the goofy faces are freshing from a series whose usually style is so rigid. It's like those first few Dexter episodes that were animated in the Philippines before Rough Draft took over.

[The Silver Fox]

funny show, one of the gems durring the time HB/turner started to crank out the orginal craptoons (cow, eds).

the epsode i remember was the one they did a spoof
of The Price is Right. if memory serves me right, i think the orginal voice of shaggy did do Bob's voice.

[mmtper]

I think there was one episode that was done in black & white with "rubber hose" Ub Iwerks-style animation. It was supposed to make us believe the 2 Stupid Dogs cartoons have been around since 1929. Pretty funny.

[BloodyChamp]

I'm bumping this up because I just saw another hidden gem on the show. It was the one where Secret Squirrel and M Mole were racing the rooster. Mole somehow gets kidnapped and tied up to a timebomb and Squirrel has to rescue him, throwing the race in the process it seemed. The "pig" gag came out of nowhere. I can't believe it made the cut! Not that I had a problem with it. I thought it was hilarious lol! You know who would have the problem with it...

[Mr. Semaj]

I enjoyed this show a lot when it was around.

It wasn't exactly a Ren & Stimpy "clone", but one of the first to be directly influenced from that show (creator Donovan Cook once worked on R & S as an assistant director). One of my many favorites was the one where they argue over the toilet seat.

As for the Secret Squirrel segments, I'm going to risk heresy and say that I enjoyed the retooled version over the original 60's version.

[Leviathan]

As for the Secret Squirrel segments, I'm going to risk heresy and say that I enjoyed the retooled version over the original 60's version.

Actually, taking the quality of Hanna-Barbera cartoons circa 1965 into account, that wouldn't be heresy at all.

This show, moreso than R+S, was a big influential part of my childhood. It's a hallmark of when Cartoon Network showed cartoons WORTH watching

[Studio Toledo]

funny show, one of the gems durring the time HB/turner started to crank out the orginal craptoons (cow, eds).
This show though started in '93 (along with Swat Kats, both were a breath of fresh air in terms of creativity and nothing like what H-B did before for many years). I used to watch that every Saturday or so in my area since it was originally syndicated once a week. At the end of both shows they would bring up the address of the studio for the folks to write in to tell them what they thought about these cartoons. I wish I had bothered to do so myself.

The later stuff was mostly done on Cartoon Network near the end of the studio's life before it became another subsidiary of Time Warner and relocated. "Ed, Edd & Eddy" was produced by Danny Antonucci (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Antonucci) up in Vancouver, H-B did not have any part in it (though Danny himself apparently worked on The Smurfs back in the early 80's Saturday Morning Hell).

the epsode i remember was the one they did a spoof
of The Price is Right. if memory serves me right, i think the orginal voice of shaggy did do Bob's voice.
You mean Casey Kasem? I haven't seen the episode in so long, I can't remember that voice at all, other than for the cute spoof, with Little Dog fainting after Bob brings up his "have your dogs spayed or neutered" plug.

[BloodyChamp]

Swat Kats~!

That was another unsung gem. It's a shame that it came out to late because it was a good cartoon.

[Saranczuk]

I don't remember much of the show, but I did watch it as a kid. I remember one episode where they were fighting over who gets to keep a toilet seat. Weird stuff...

[AardvarkDog]

Here's something I just realised after watching a certain 2 Stupid Dogs cartoon. In the episode "Cartoon Canines", I believe they were either paying tribute or making fun of the Spumco Studio. Back then, I didn't know what the heck they were doing, but now I'm older I understand the subtle hints they've used here:


- The name of the Camp Ranger, "Bob K". Sounds similar to John K, huh?
- The change in style in the dogs. I know they've altered it slightly in the second season but in this episode they seem pretty exaggerated and wild.
- The use of Spumco's fart jokes and surreal endings. (Blame the Canned Yams!)
- Bob's choice of cartoon style. "No cute-sie in MY core! Only funny cartoons! Y'know, lots of butt jokes!" I believe John K has a dislike for Disney's cartoons.
- Heck, even R&S make a short "cameo" here!


That's all I can find, overall. You can watch the short and decide for yourselves:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVP3hHymDwk

[cpdavison]

Gosh, A-dog, I just don't see it! :p

Craig D.

[Leviathan]

I actually vividly remember that short, particularly The Walrus ranger and the bit with him in drag kissing his own butt, and the Little Mermaid and Ren and Stimpy spoofs. I didn't get the Beany and Cecil spoof back then like I do now.

Also, in a way, the short is kind of like a merger between the Ren and Stimpy stle of cartooning and the Dexter/Powerpuff/Samurai Jack style.

[nickramer]

Well, John K. did do the voice of the wolf in the last two cartoons of the Riding Hood trilagy.

[Snowpeck II]

Its a shame Boomerang is taking this off the schedule on July 15th.


Greg