That topic song really sells it. Nickelodeon and Shout! Factory have released CatDog: Season 1, Part 1, a sum of ~ units-disc, 10-episode collection of the fondly-remembered Nicktoon. If you had kids (or were a small tub, fercrissakes) back during Nick's play in the late '90s, you couldn't dispose away from that infectious, twangy CatDog theme song. Seen today, this funny slender cartoon holds up fairly well...although prior viewers will probably respond in the highest degree to this nostalgic collection. No extras included with these only so-so transfers.
The preface is fairly...straightforward. Conjoined twin brothers Cat (noise talent of Jim Cummings) and Dog (utterance talent of Tom Kenny) are rightful what their names suggest: a cat and a dog, fused into a cross-bred "CatDog," with no rear ends and and nothing else opposing front legs for locomotion. Though they share the same trunk, their personalities are like death and day. Urbane, slightly cruel Cat is at all times thinking up ways to get Dog to act further like him, while goofball Dog is the compliant stooge who enjoys nothing more than vigilance TV and chasing garbage trucks...through a screaming Cat scraping along steady the sidewalk behind him. Living in one equally conjoined house of two various styles (a dog bone and a catch), overlooking the city of Nearburg, CatDog spends its/their days either bickering with each other over some disputed activity the other brother doesn't be lacking to do, or dealing with the shenanigans of Winslow T. Oddfellow (voiced power of Carlos Alazraqui), a smart-oracle Brooklyn mouse who lives in their wall, or the german tinder gang, the Greaser Dogs: Cliff, Shriek, and Lube (the noise talents of Tom Kenny, Maria Bamford, and Carlos Alazraqui)
As a lifelong TV give up, as well as a parent of young kids back in the 90s, I accept a lot of good memories discovering Nickelodeon through them during that period. The Disney Channel may be under the necessity been around longer, but Nickelodeon back afterwards was new and hip (and importantly, serene innocent enough for children to absolutely watch it), and it was drollery for parents to sit down through their little kids on a Saturday and arrest entertaining toons and live-action course like Doug, The Ren & Stimpy Show, Rocko's Modern Life, Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, Clarissa Explains it All, KaBlam!, The Angry Beavers, Family Double Dare, Pete 'n' Pete, Hey! Dude, and CatDog. CatDog may not be in possession of been one of the higher-rated or most excellent-loved shows from that list, but it was consistently amusing throughout its 68-incidental narrative run.
Of course, the conception itself of CatDog could learn you wondering every time you watched the present to view. I'm sure I wasn't the and nothing else parent trying to explain to a narrow kid how CatDog went to the bathroom (it perpetually goes back to the caca according to little kids, doesn't it?). Leaving that evident consideration aside, you could always watch CatDog and awe how they did anything together or apart. Just the physical construction of the sign provided a certain level of questioning that was sufficiency to keep your attention, even granting that a particular episode wasn't totality that funny. To the animators' credit, they institute endless ways of fudging the physical impossibilities inherent in such a created being (the "rubber hotdog" method, with self-determined stretching possibilities, seems to be the ut~ used), and it's quite a fortune of fun to concentrate just attached the drawings to see how CatDog is positioned in its various activities.
In addition to visual inquisitiveness, the character as conceived (by animator Peter Hannan) is inherently interesting psychologically, too. After all: they're stuck in the same time forever. They have to get in company with each other (the show's essentially redolent nature helps here, because they noiseless care about each other, regardless of the ensuing mayhem), if it be not that they always want to do a portion on their own, away from their certain companion. That's probably why mean kids especially liked the underdog CatDog; they be possible to sympathize with a creature not different themselves, because they're not clever to really spend time alone outside of a parent or older sibling looking past their shoulder all the time.
Most importantly, however, the show achieves its most basic goal: it's diverting. CatDog's gags are usually wealthy, there's an air of contemptuously ironic, even sardonic humor to the proceedings (cozen you think the cynical, sophisticated, utter-upon Cat sounds more than a small like Frasier?), and the slapstick is dependable. Throwaway gags like their doorbell (a dog and cat screeching at reaped ground other) or the close-ups of Cat's assurance as he's dragged around ~ the agency of Dog work every time, while bigger comedic constructions like the quick, imaginative The Island score big laughs (in this smart outing, CatDog gets stranded on a freeway island...and turn it into a holidays dreamland). Good outings here included CatDog Food, at which place the twins become TV spokesmen (Cat is funny as a fat, bloated egomaniac), CatDogPig, where the twins attach more and additional "job applicants" to their body in an effort for each to win arguments through a majority vote (nice, grotesque animation here), SquirrelDog, where Cliff finds used up what it's like to have ~ing CatDog when Squirrel is attached to his back ("Please express me I'm not a humor!" "Shut up, you freak!"), and Party Animal, a firmly-paced Winslow-centered entry, where he throws a reduce the heat of party we never see. I can't say that I remembered in ~ degree of these episodes from almost fifteen years back...however I had a good time watching them again (and so did my latest form into ~s of little kids, who had at no time heard of CatDog)...and you have power to't ask for more than that from a vintage toon.
The DVD:
The Video:
Unfortunately, the filled-screen, 1.33:1 video transfers despite CatDog: Season 1, Part 1 take heed only a step or two over VHS dupes, with a soft, somewhat fuzzy image and muted colors that fade to pop...as they did whereas originally shown.
The Audio:
The Dolby Digital English stereo audio trail is lively, with a solid re-recording of the same height, and little hiss. Close-captions are suitable.
The Extras:
No extras for CatDog: Season 1, Part 1.
Final Thoughts:
CatDog may not hold been in the top echelon of Nicktoons, yet it's consistently amusing and inherently fascinating, honest from the construction of CatDog him/thereself: you've got a parcel of gag possibilities chopping off the hindquarters of a cat and a dog and sticking the bodies side by side like a bizarro kielbasa. Excellent tone work from a talented voice calculate helps big-time, as well. A delicate trip back to Nick's '90s. I commit CatDog: Season 1, Part 1. Paul Mavis is one internationally published film and television writer of history, a member of the Online Film Critics Society, and the originator of The Espionage Filmography.
Agree? Disagree? You be possible to post your thoughts about this critique on the DVD Talk forums.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.