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'Danger Mouse' reboot considered

Started by Replies From View, March 15, 2013, 03:08:31 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

steveh

If you want to brush up your Gaelic, they're showing the (revoiced) originals on BBC Alba at the moment.

phantom_power

That nostalgia article is truly terrible. It seems to confuse nostalgia with living in the past. You are allowed to think of things from your childhood fondly while still leading a normal life in the present. You don't have to be stuck there, endlessly replaying episodes of Chorlton and the Wheelies on a fraying video cassette.

SavageHedgehog

The first episode aired this evening. I did like a couple of gags (particularly the stuff about them sharing a set with another show), and it wasn't completely terrible but this is one show aimed at people 1/3rd my age I wont be going out of my way to watch. Maybe I'm pining for the restrictions of a low budget, but the original Danger Mouse wasn't anywhere near as frantic, and it's humour leaned away from slapstick and violence and towards the verbal, which is not the case here. The voices seemed shrill and speeded up, and the characters weren't exactly out of character, but not totally consistent with their old selves either. More than anything it reminded me of the recent Dennis the Menace series, though thankfully not as crude.

Yes, I'm a sad bastard who owns the DVD set, watched a load of episodes when Hall of Cosgrove Hall died etc., and that's not the audience they're going for, but I'm no purist, I quite liked what I saw of that Bugs Bunny/Daffy Duck sitcom-esque show for example,but I think this isn't anywhere near either the original nor much of what's out there now. Though apparently the other episodes will be half as long, so maybe they will work a little better? I hope they leave Duckula alone.

biggytitbo

I watched a few episodes of Duckula recently and it was so slow, in a bad way, so a zipper modern version might not be a bad idea.


They better leave Victor and Hugo alone though.

Catalogue Trousers

Mixed feelings here. It is all a lot more stereotypically "children's telly", full of bangs and flashes rather than the clever, multi-layered humour of the original, and the fourth-wall breaking, while there in the original, was leant on a bit too heavily. Also, DM himself is (on the basis, admittedly, of just this episode) too flawless a hero. The original DM was a bit of a prat as well, which is a large part of what made him so likeable.

The voices are pretty good - the new Greenback and Stiletto are fine, Eldon makes a great Penfold, and Stephen Fry as Colonel K? A stroke of genius. The one slight flaw is Alexander Armstrong as DM. Again, too straightforwardly heroic. Jason's DM had a Seagoon-like quality to his voice - undeniably a hero, but (as already said) a slightly dickish one, which worked better.

Overall, though? It's pretty good. Not quite as lovingly and carefully done as the Clangers re-boot, but a solid 7 out of 10. I'll happily give it a bit more time to improve.

Replies From View

Quote from: biggytitbo on September 28, 2015, 07:35:51 PM
I watched a few episodes of Duckula recently and it was so slow, in a bad way, so a zipper modern version might not be a bad idea.

I haven't seen any Duckula at all recently but I bet you are wrong.

Phil_A

Quote from: Catalogue Trousers on September 28, 2015, 08:34:40 PM
Mixed feelings here. It is all a lot more stereotypically "children's telly", full of bangs and flashes rather than the clever, multi-layered humour of the original, and the fourth-wall breaking, while there in the original, was leant on a bit too heavily.

Yes. That would be my main criticism of the script, it was just a bit too smart-arse and knowing, in danger of veering into smugness.

Also, they've just got Dave Lamb doing his Come Dine With Me voice, as if that show wasn't ubiquitous enough. Ugh.

It looked nice at least. Animation very good.

Replies From View

Quote from: Catalogue Trousers on September 28, 2015, 08:34:40 PM
Also, DM himself is (on the basis, admittedly, of just this episode) too flawless a hero. The original DM was a bit of a prat as well, which is a large part of what made him so likeable.

I'm watching it now, and this is my main complaint too.  Perhaps that's just a public front though, as some of DM's private conversations with Penfold have him revealing his thoughts and personality more.  Hopefully there's some scope for his flaws and pratishness to come through.

Glebe

Quote from: steveh on July 15, 2015, 09:37:59 AMIf you want to brush up your Gaelic, they're showing the (revoiced) originals on BBC Alba at the moment.

And it's being made right here in Dublin!

Where the fuck is Stiletto? Given the amount of foreign accents, I can't imagine it was because they thought he might be a bit of a racist caricature - actually, maybe because he's named after a knife, PC gone mad, cuh. And they changed Greenback's voice!

I was fucking obsessed with DM as a kid, had a giant DM teddy and a DM schoolbag and everything.

Catalogue Trousers

Stiletto is there - he turns up in the "Safety Mice" advert. And Greenback's voice was presumably changed because while his original voice actor, Edward Kelsey, is still with us, he's 85 years old. (He also voiced Colonel K, although Stephen Fry's version is much closer to the original voice.)

Replies From View

If it's bad for him to be named after a knife called Stiletto, they could always instead name him after a shoe called it.

billtheburger

Apparently, CBBC's Ed Pol is against such things like knives.
If I ever find that fun-sponge I'll show him what for.


Nowhere Man

When I was younger (about 11) I won a Danger Mouse DVD through a competition in
Spoiler alert
The Sun
[close]
. Oh the fucking shame of it!

Replies From View

Quote from: Nowhere Man on September 30, 2015, 04:41:17 PM
When I was younger (about 11) I won a Danger Mouse DVD through a competition in
Spoiler alert
The Sun
[close]
. Oh the fucking shame of it!

Imagine being only 11 when DVDs came out.

So ridiculous isn't it.

madhair60

Quote from: Replies From View on September 28, 2015, 08:52:02 PM
I haven't seen any Duckula at all recently but I bet you are wrong.

Duckula is brilliant, so is DM.  A lot of cartoons from my childhood I've gone back to and found to be a bit shit (Animaniacs etc) but Cosgrove Hall bits tend to be fairly timeless when I revisit them.

Sexton Brackets Drugbust

I find the Cosgrove Hall stuff stands up because of the limitations caused by the expense of the medium. Lots of sneaky reliance on funny writing to cover static shots or repeated animation.

Consignia

They also had a fair it of innuendo in them didn't they? Or maybe just the select couple of episodes they selected for a DVD attached to a Playstation magazine to fuel 18-30 year old nostalgia into buying the actual DVD sets.

derek stitt

Haven't watched kiddies telly in an age. When did animation get so different?

Replies From View

Quote from: derek stitt on September 30, 2015, 11:47:05 PM
Haven't watched kiddies telly in an age. When did animation get so different?

When computers.

studpuppet

I'm trying an experiment with my 9 1/2 your olds girls (they're twins and well used to experimentation). I sat them down in front of the reboot, which they liked (I did too, despite knowing that it wasn't really aimed at me).
I'm going to sit them down in front of a couple of original ones over the weekend, and if they prefer the new one then we're all a bunch of nostalgic sad-sacks that need to let go...

Replies From View

Quote from: studpuppet on October 02, 2015, 12:33:31 PM
I'm trying an experiment with my 9 1/2 your olds girls (they're twins and well used to experimentation).

I am glad you qualified this.

idunnosomename

I watched three of these, really did think the writing could have been better, and that it was too bloody noisy (the main theme tune, argh). Seems to have a very loose grip on reality which makes it all feel rather low-stakes (London destroyed in five minutes, Dangermouse pops into space in an instant regularly). The Welsh space-plant was a bit of craziness that reminded me a bit of Earthworm Jim, except not terribly funny. Only a few proper laughs, and hardly any jokes for the parents (the dig at London skyscrapers at the very beginning being an exception). I like all the voices though, including Dave Lamb (sorry).

The animation is rather crummy flash animation, but it's improved a lot since they started using it for kids' cartoons, not seen the skimping on backgrounds by using photography though. It's no worse than what Cosgrove Hall were doing though.

Replies From View

Quote from: idunnosomename on October 02, 2015, 10:03:17 PM
hardly any jokes for the parents (the dig at London skyscrapers at the very beginning being an exception).

A joke here that only parents will understand (clears throat):

Aren't London Skyscrapers tall?  Like the cock used to impregnate a woman!

idunnosomename

Quote from: Replies From View on October 02, 2015, 10:15:44 PM
A joke here that only parents will understand (clears throat):

Aren't London Skyscrapers tall?  Like the cock used to impregnate a woman!
Well it was more that they were increasingly daft shapes, gentle satire if you will

Unlike willies, which tend to stay much the same

Glebe


Replies From View

Quote from: idunnosomename on October 02, 2015, 10:57:50 PM
Unlike willies, which tend to stay much the same

Obviously never seen a Clifford's Willy.

studpuppet

Quote from: studpuppet on October 02, 2015, 12:33:31 PM
I'm going to sit them down in front of a couple of original ones over the weekend, and if they prefer the new one then we're all a bunch of nostalgic sad-sacks that need to let go...

Situation Report: we're all a bunch of nostalgic sad-sacks that need to let go.

Basically, the old ones are fine for us nostalgic types, but,
1. Some of gags date badly
2. Kids are just more savvy these days (a consequence of being brought up by people made savvy by watching things like Danger Mouse when they were kids)
3. Kids are used to louder shows with more things happening on screen at once
4. The animation looks terrible in the earliest shows - a bit like comparing a sixties Tom & Jerry with a forties one. Even I thought that.

Having sat through a few of the new ones, I like that they have kept the spirit of the original without being slavish; the scripts have the right amount of silliness and arch references for any adults watching, the voices are good matches to the old ones, and even the animation is not high-end by today's standards. In fact the only things that jar for me are the crash-bang-wallopness, and the narrator's voice - he's just annoyingly overdoing it. And there haven't been enough scenes in dark rooms with only pairs of eyes showing.