Battletoads (pilot)
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| Battletoads (pilot) | ||||||||||||||||||
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 Here we go with a "rather not try"...
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Battletoads is a half-hour animated special made by DIC Animation City that is based on the 1991 video game of the same name and first aired on Thanksgiving 1992, it's the second cartoon(pilot) to be based off of a video game after the Super Mario Bros. Super Show!(which was created by the same company).
Just like Bubsy and The Groovenians(which aired one to ten years later respectively), this episode was original meant to serve as the pilot of an all new Battletoads Cartoon show, but was never picked up for its own show due to negative reviews.
Plot
Princess Angelica is pursued by the Dark Queen for the posession of her magical amulet. Luckily, Angelica's friend, Professor T. Bird, has a special potion that can turn trustworthy people into a great protectors. These protectors are known as the Battletoads, who were once the guardians of Angelica's ancestors. In search for people who can be transformed into the 'Toads, they travel to planet Earth. On Earth the two characters travel to Oxnard, California, where they meet George, Morgan, and Dave. Out of encouragement, the three become the new Battletoads and take on the Dark Queen's minions.
Why It Can't Get Past The Turbo Tunnel
- Extremely low production values even for a show made in the 1990s.
- The theme song is a surf song, which hasn't aged well, also it shows most of the clips from the actuate episode itself, which is lazy.
- Weak grasp of the source material, from Zitz, Rash, and Pimple being tragic and misfortune human teenagers, to them hailing from a high school in the state of California.
- Poor sound editing, particularly in the introduction scene, in which Professor T. Bird's dialogue is barely audible over the sounds of firing lasers.
- Some of the special's combat scenes drag on for way too long.
- There are noticeable plot-holes in this episode, some of which are never explain unless you played the NES game:
- Where did Princess Angelica and Professor T. Bird come from?
- What did Zitz, Rash, and Pimple do that got them sent to the principal?
- How are Zitz, Rash, and Pimple in their Battletoad forms able to shape-shift their hands?
- How the heck does Zitz, Rash, and Pimple know the words in order to turn into the Battletoads, and how do they also know the words to turn back into humans?
- Why did Zitz, Rash, and Pimple left Princess Angelica at the Donuts Shop were she could easily be captured?
- When they enter below the Dark Queen's Castle, Professor T. Bird tells Zitz, Rash, and Pimple to enter the base, climb the central shaft then brake in at the top. So in that case, why doesn't Professor T. Bird just land on top of the Dark Queen's castle?
- How can a few shots from the Dark Queen's Minions' laser tore down the Dark Queen's Castle?
- When the Dark Queen appears in her ship, the Whitsaw, why does she attack the Mall?
- Why didn't the Dark Queen install laser cannons on the outside of their ship(the Whitsaw)?
- As this was produced during DIC's heyday in the early 90's, the animation is very bland and at times poor, including the fact that some scenes take place in entirely blank or poorly-detailed backgrounds. It should be worth mention that The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! and its two sequels look ten times as better, and all three were created by the same company, as well as came out before Battletoads.
- Most of the characters are either annoying or are just plain jerks, with special mention going to the principal, who not only calls Zitz, Rash, and Pimple the "three biggest losers in the history of Walopoxnar Jr. High", but also cruelly separates them and even atemps calls them out again before Zitz, Rash, and Pimple reviled that they can turn into the Battletoads, he also suffers no repercussions for his actions agents Zitz, Rash, and Pimple, making him a Karma Houdini.
- Awful and cringe worthy comedy.
- Poor writing that tries way to hard to be hip and cool, such as the scene were Zitz, Rash, and Pimple trash talk the Dark Queen's minions as they fight them.
- Lazy character designs.
- The final battle is extremely anticlimactic, Zitz, Rash, and Pimple defeat the Dark Queen and her minions by... avoiding the Dark Queen's Minions' Laser Blasts which causes them to destroy their own ship.
Redeeming Qualities
- While the character designs are terrible, at least Rash, Pimple, Zitz, and even Dark Queen look decent.
- It explains how T-Bird met the Battletoads.
- There are some good call backs to the NES game.
- Although most of the jokes fall flat, there are a few jokes that work, such as Rash breaking the fourth wall by looking at the camera after banging away General Slaughter saying with a wink: Works every-time!
- The Dark Queen can be somewhat funny and an entertaining villain.
- As much as the theme song did not aged well as mentioned in WICGPTTT #2, it can admittedly be catchy.
- The voice acting is good, they even got Scott McNeil to voice two of the characters (Pimple/George Pie and General Slaughter), who would later on voice Dinobot and Rattrap from Beast Wars: Transformers, which would be created four to five years later.
Trivia
- The backstory of how Professor T-Bird met the Battletoads was acknowledged in the comic book tie-in, The Lost Adventure, for the 2020 reboot.
The Special
Videos
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Categories:
- Based on video games
- Cartoons
- 1990s programs
- TV pilots
- Animated shows
- Abusing the franchise
- Low-budget shows
- Shows/Creators/Writers that are aware of how bad they are
- Episodes
- DIC shows
- Syndicated shows
- Obscure shows
- Shows that only lasted one episode
- 1990s episodes
- Terrible grasp on the source material
- Bad media
- Bad shows