Bubsy (pilot)

Bubsy
“What could pawsibly go wrong?” Everything, my dear kitty. And your show not getting picked up for a full series.
Series: Bubsy Part of Season: 1 Episode Number: Pilot Air Date: November 28, 1993 Writer: Ray DeLaurentis

"Ah Bubsy, Oh! Worse than a truck!!"

— Arnold Armadillo to Bubsy

Bubsy (with the episode's title being "What Could Possible Go Wrong?")is a 1993 animated cartoon pilot based on the video game character of the same name. It was produced by Calico Entertainment (a defunct subsidiary of World Events Productions; known for making cartoons like Denver, the Last Dinosaur, Widget the World Watcher, and Mr. Bogus) and Imagination Factory Inc (a subsidiary of Calico Entertainment; they both produced The Adventures of Zorro and Bad Baby.).

Much like the Battletoads cartoon, which aired last year, this episode was original meant to serve as the pilot of an all new Bubsy the Bobcat show, but was never picked up for a full series due to negative reviews. While the show didn't get picked up for a series, the show's pilot was included as part of the PC port of Bubsy in Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind.

Plot

It is Bubsy's nephews' birthday so Bubsy ditches it along with the issues with Arnold being around them and decides to watch TV. He ends up seeing a commercial for a virtual helmet presented by Virgil Reality, who explains that the helmet makes whatever you think into reality and decides to go test it.

However, a fat millionaire cat named Ally Cassandra also sees the commercial and wants the helmet for herself, so she orders Bozwell Buzzard and Sid the Vicious Shrew to obtain it and they decide to eat the nephews as a sub-plot.

Why It Pawsibly Went Wrong

1. Over-usage of noises that never stop nor end at all. Even Ally scratches her nails on a chalkboard twice.
   1. Speaking of noise, there are a ton of obnoxious stock sound effects that are randomly placed to what's going on-screen.
2. The scenes just happen too quickly without proper flow or fluency, resulting in this episode feeling very rushed.
3. With that said, the writing is also terrible and lackluster.
4. The humor fails miserably due to the lack of subtlety, pacing, structure, and timing.
   • The verbal/wordplay jokes are just simply unfunny and forced.
   • Bubsy's friend, Arnold, being tortured and abused by everything and everyone like a painfully hapless schlimazel, is a really irritating running gag that gets badly twisted and it just makes you feel extremely bad for him. Especially when he shows signs of extreme paranoia and phobias that are also rather pitiful to watch rather than comedically so.
5. Almost all of the characters are bland, cliched, and unlikeable:
   • Bubsy is a selfish, egocentric, obnoxious, idiotic, arrogant jerk who doesn't seem to care about the bad things that happen around him even when they're his fault. He constantly says "What could possibly go wrong?" with such terrible timings, sometimes even when he's shown to be a complete schmuck.
   • Bubsy's love interest Olivia is irritatingly dumb and the running gag of her constantly forgetting his name is obvious and annoying.
   • Bubsy's twin nephew and niece, Terence and Teresa, are spoiled brats and never redeem themselves. They are arguably even worse than Bubsy himself.
   • Ally and her henchmen, Bozwell and Sid, have some behavior traits similar to the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog's Scratch, Grounder, and Dr. Robotnik. Examples of this include Buzz being the logical bumbling minion(what Scratch is) while Sid being the innocently clueless bumbling minion(what Grounder is), whereas Ally is completely ruthless and flamboyant as the main antagonist. It's similar enough to make them look like cheap knockoffs. They are also an obvious rip-off of Cruella DeVille and her bumbling minions Horace and Jasper from Disney's 101 Dalmatians.
6. Despite this cartoon being based off of Bubsy the Bobcat, none of the characters from the first Bubsy game, like the Woolies for example, appear in this pilot nor are they even mention. Tho to be fair, they most likely would have appeared in later episodes of the show had Bubsy not been cancelled.
7. It overuses stock footage that looks like it was stolen from Godzilla films or vintage Doctor Who episodes instead of animating the cutaways, showing the laziness of this production.
8. An overabundance of characters saying "What could possibly go wrong?", and it gets said TEN TIMES.
9. Obnoxious, poorly done, and annoying voice acting, particularity with Bubsy(being voiced by Rob Paulsen, who actually hated working on this pilot).
10. The cartoon's plot is completely formulaic, especially for a video game cartoon.
11. The theme song, while being groovy and catchy, looks like it's trying to rip off the 1966 Batman theme song (by sound).
12. Aside from the mean-spirited running gag of Arnold getting abused, there are other mean-spirited moments present in the pilot, such as the scene where everyone gets into a massive brawl over the virtual helmet.

Redeeming Qualities

1. Compared to other poorly-made video game based cartoons, Bubsy does look accurate to his original design.
2. Arnold and Virgil Reality are really tolerable characters, and are generally the only likable characters in the pilot.
   • Arnold, in particular, is kinda funny at times with the goofy sounds he makes, all thanks to Pat Fraley’s talent that was wasted in this pilot (this is whenever he's not being put through pain for no discernible reason).
   • Sid the Vicious Shrew himself, is also just as tolerable and kinda funny at times, even if he is stereotypical with cartoons that feature dimwitted minions that are just as bumbling and comedically accident-prone, it also helps that his voice is provided by Jim Cummings.
3. Arnold saying:"Ah Bubsy! Worse than a Truck!", his down-to-earth reactions (i.e mocking Bubsy for his painful incompetence at being a hero and his overused catchphrase), and Bozwell cooking all of the unlikeable characters in a scene are all pretty nice jokes compared to this pilot's sense of humor.
4. The theme song, while being a rip-off to the classic Batman theme song, is catchy and groovy. Plus, the soundtrack and music overall are somewhat cool and okay to listen to (compared to the stock sound effects).
5. The animation is at least passable, even though it has countless errors.

Reception

Bubsy has received negative reviews by critics and fans alike, with a 3.7 out of 10 on IMDb. The show never aired after the pilot was shown.

Rob Paulsen, Bubsy's voice actor, stated that Bubsy was one of the worst characters he ever voiced next to Coconut Fred.

Michael Berlyn, the creator of Bubsy, also hated it. He even stated that he and the rest of Accolade's executives cringed the first time they watched it.

Trivia

• The writer was Ray De Laurentis, who would later work on future properties such as Pet Alien, Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue!, The Fairly OddParents, and T.U.F.F. Puppy.
• It was animated by Sei Young Animation, an animation studio based in South Korea, which was known for animating Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, The Legend of Zelda, and The Adventures of Super Mario Bros 3. Not to mention, they also animated some anime.
• The live-action footage was used from Archive Film and from NASA. As shown in both pages.
• It was sponsored by Taco Bell. "The TV pilot had a more southwest, angled feel, and that was okay since the sponsor was Taco Bell (if I recall correctly)" -Michael Berlyn, Sega-16's interview
• It has a bunch of pages/articles dedicated to its backstories and more.

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