Show #191: Clerks - The Animated Series

Libby Cudmore and Joseph Wade of The OST Party drop by the shop to speak to the staff of SOTSM about some items on their receipt they feel short-changed by, such as this animated adaptation of Kevin Smith's debut feature given a new lease of life by Seinfeld scribe David Mandel and the talented folks at Disney TV Animation. That's correct! This is technically a Disney cartoon, and that's not the only surprising detail in a discussion loaded with corporate interference, jokes which aged like milk and tales of misspent youth in the company of Kevin Smith and Kevin Smith-adajacent media. Don't forget to pick up something off the hot food counter for your Post Podcast Repaste on the way out!

Listen up!

Show #157: Rock-A-Doodle

Rain delays play but now you finally get to hear us wade through the washed up mess that is Rock-A-Doodle!

Click Here To Download (Right Click, Save As)


Don Bluth, Donny old boy, we keep coming back to you despite our best interests and we're starting to wonder why. Rock-A-Doodle is expectedly the incoherent muddle that unfortunately has come to overshadow the bright spots in your career, but perhaps we're drawn back because of the infinitely more fascinating circumstances surrounding the inception and production of this film. Literary history, real life tragedy and obvious better story ideas that somehow got passed over are uncovered within!

THE SHORT VERSION

Horny animator strikes again

Evil owl fellas

Seamless interplay

Show #155: Chuck Norris Karate Kommandos

Because we're about due for a bad idea we try and ascertain an explanation for the persistent notoriety of Chuck Norris Karate Kommandos.

Click Here To Download (Right Click, Save As)

Our foray into Ruby Spears-fronted celebrity tie-in cartoons was surprisingly fruitful last time with Mr T and his gang of mystery solving teens. Can the formula work again for Karate Kommandos, a show more often experienced solely via out-of-context video clips? Colourful ninjas, high henchman turnover, moral codes and not-so-secret agents get in the mix!

THE SHORT VERSION

Para-gators

Super ninjas

Sweaty wisdom

Show #147: ULTRAFORCE

Pouches? Ponytails? Shredded jeans? SLIME? The Nineties called and they want ULTRAFORCE back!

Click Here To Download (Right Click, Save As)

Recent pop cultural trends have shown there exists a need out there amongst some audiences for their comic book media to be stern, mature and taken seriously. However history has proven that this is not a new occurrence and just like the early to mid 1990s this approach more often than not left them ripe for ridicule. Ultraforce is an exemplar of this heady period where common sense feared to tread and naturally we fall down a rabbit hole of questionable business practices, even more questionable fashion choices and a whole lot of weird ooze.

THE SHORT VERSION

Slimy supermen

Misunderstood monsters

Stealth saxophone

Show #142: Skeleton Warriors

Jake Bourke joins us from within his ancestral tomb to rise again with the Skeleton Warriors!

Click Here To Download (Right Click, Save As)

Remember He-Man? Gary Goddard certainly did and he seemed unwilling to let go of the idea if this short lived cross-media franchise is anything to go by. With some striking visual motifs and a pretty cool action figure line where could it have gone wrong? Skeletons on rocket bikes, animal anatomy, the nature of evil and more are discussed under a haze of questionable audio quality!

THE SHORT VERSION

A solid concept

Tony Jay's Cosmic Golden Skull

Missed cross-promotional opportunities

Show #141: Rude Dog and The Dweebs

Brian Smith makes a stunning return to SOTSM with yet more ill-advised cartoon-as-promotion craziness courtesy of Rude Dog and The Dweebs!

Click Here To Download (Right Click, Save As)

Hearkening back to a simpler time when rude meant bad, bad meant cool and an entire thirteen episode cartoon series could be made on the basis of the imagined virtues of a sportswear company mascot, Rude Dog and The Dweebs has a bafflingly persistent cultural cache despite the almost complete lack of merit in the show itself. So suitably enough we find more interest in topics surrounding it such as company spokes-animals, the etymology of rudeness and late 80s/early 90s animation in general. This podcast is many things to many people but above all it is RUDE.

THE SHORT VERSION

Dogs in cadillacs

The original

Spacecats IS a thing after all!

Show #129: Rock and Rule

Click Here To Download (Right Click, Save As)

An obscure B-side from the early days of Nelvana Animation, Rock and Rule lives up to about thirty percent of its title. Not rocking like one would expect from a post-apocalytic movie involving demon summoning, neither does it rule in the characterisation or plotting areas. The design, animation and atmosphere all make a good showing but feel like they would be better employed in service of a more consistent movie that had a firmer idea of the audience it wished to court.

THE SHORT VERSION

Super rockers

Super slackers

Super heroes

Show #127: M.A.S.K.

Working overtime to get this show out to you, Greg Driver of Ace Comicals stops by to take us for a spin into M.A.S.K, aka Mobile Armoured Strike Kommand!

Click Here To Download (Right Click, Save As)

The lesser cousin to the 80s cartoon stalwarts it borrows from, MASK has some nifty ideas but finds itself lacking in the execution. All the usual suspects are here; relentless background music, inconsistent visual quality, an irritating child character taking up precious screen time. Pockets of quality exist in the mechanical design and the better directed episodes, but spread all too thin over a long series. We can all agree that the opening theme is still fantastic though!

THE SHORT VERSION

Sweet rides

Time to try and not get fired today

Scott Trakker: Robo Racist

Show #82: Shut Up Huffer!

Niall & Dwayne merge with Greg Driver and Paul Shipley to form a super robot dinosaur to tackle the awesome might of season one of The Transformers!

Click Here To Download (Right Click, Save As)

A podcast much delayed, but we shall never be silenced. Even by the cold, hard reality that another cartoon from our youth ain't quite what we thought it was cracked up to be, a fanciful memory eroded by cruddy animation and a relentless soundtrack but not enough to wear away a solid foundation of great voice acting, cool robots and crazy schemes. Considering our appreciation of the subsequent properties which arose from these humble origins it's only fair that we give their source its due, a source of passion that was stayed with us unwaveringly even after all these years.

THE SHORT VERSION

Flawless artistry

Power struggles

ROBOT DINOSAAAAARS

Show #66: Here's Your Son Back, He's Better Now.

Bionics on! Brian Smith of Dynamite In The Brain completes our super future family, and we're so very proud to be talking about Bionic Six!

Click Here To Download (Right Click, Save As)

Springing from the fertile creative mind of Gordon Bressack and brought to life by director Osamu Dezaki and TMS, Bionic Six is a great looking show with a lot of great ideas but doesn't always nail it in the execution. Great sci-fi action is all too often undercut by grating, wisecracking dialogue and some of the high concept ideas ultimately go to waste or leave the audience royally confused. Catchy theme song though!

THE SHORT VERSION

The voice of a generation

Robot Gorillas

Spot the odd one out

Show #58: Powered By Puns

It's a spine tingly dingly Halloween edition of SOTSM with the cursed comedy and horrifying humour of Count Duckula!

Click Here To Download (Right Click, Save As)

Springing from Cosgrove Hall's Danger Mouse into his own spin-off series is everybody's favourite vegetarian vampire duck and his gang of gruesome servants. The comedy routines are often a bit stale and the frequent use of cultural stereotypes for cheap laughs do the show no favours either but it's buoyed up by some great voice work, extending to the narrator who does an excellent job selling the supposedly sinister side of the cartoon. Your tolerance of David Jason's American accent as Duckula may make or break it for you so consider yourself forewarned! HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

THE SHORT VERSION

Cultural insensitivity

Old jokes

True terror

Show #40: Tony Stark's Cybernetic Long Johns

Greetings culture lovers! Imagine what would happen if Niall and D, better known as SOTSM, came face to face with the bizarre influence of Season 1 of Iron Man 1994? You don't have to imagine! It's coming up next!

Click Here To Download (Right Click, Save As)

Iron Man 3 is in cinemas very soon so we thought we'd glance back at a less successful adaptation of old Shell Head and boy is it a doozy. Animation inconsistencies, characters fascinated with watching videos all the time, awkward attempts at humour and some particularly heinous CG sections add up to a not-so-spectacular package. Luckily the series found its feet (and a better production team) by Season 2 but that's a thrilling tale for another podcast. See ya!

THE SHORT VERSION

An improvement.

SEAMLESS.

More Comic Interludes!

Show #37: Stiffen The Snake

With the second live action film on everybody's minds right now it's as good a time as any to delve into the original feature length adventure of America's highly trained special mission force in G.I. Joe: The Movie!

Click Here To Download (Right Click, Save As)

This is the biggest exposure that some of us here at SOTSM have had to the 1980s cartoon of the G.I. Joe toy franchise and boy does it throw you in at the deep end. Departing from the series' usual military hardware based firefights in favour of a battle against ancient serpent men from beneath the earth, this film isn't as fondly remembered as contemporaries such as the Transformers movie despite their similarities in introducing a plethora of new characters for the toyline and the dramatic (almost) death of a key figure.

At the very least it is an endearingly silly romp with animation that delivers on the promise of the show's intro, including a gorgeous opening action sequence that neatly sums up all the best points of G.I. Joe.

THE SHORT VERSION

'MURIKAW!

Drama

These snake men hate our lives and our freedoms!

Show #21: AT LEAST YOU'D BE ALIVE

A podcast episode cut down in it's prime! Nevertheless we will relay to you the saga of part two of Using Corps Figures As Proxy For Brand Name Toys, aka Sky Commanders!

Click Here To Download (Right Click, Save As)

In what should have been a joyous occasion we instead mark the consignment of Sky Commanders to the Warner Archives Collection never to be seen again by non-American eyes. But then again were you REALLY after an 80's cartoon about heroic mountaineering experts? If so then this is the podcast for you!

THE SHORT VERSION

In Loving Memory...

Defective Equipment

Behind those shades are the eyes of a killer