Loopy Language - Toonstalgia

Slang and Insults from Life with Loopy

Life with Loopy was a series of short cartoons featured on KaBlam! about the life of Larry Cooper with his sister Loopy. I love an interesting use of language. So here's a list of everything I mined from the series.

All definitions are my personal interpretations.

word or phrase - meaning, "Episode appeared"

clam up - be quiet, "Whale of a Time"

crabcake - complaining person, "Whale of a Time"

don't get your REMs in a wrinkle - don't get upset, "Sweet Dreams"

don't get your stuffing steamed up - calm down, "Kung Fu Loopy"

eat an avalanche - shut up, "Mother Nature Bowl-Off"

goober - loser, "Hi-Fi Frankenstein"

grouch bag - a grumpy person, "Trouble with Inflation"

jumping Jupiter - exclamation, "Bargain Hunters from Beyond the Stars"

land lovers - people who cannot fly, "Butterfly Loopy"

mellow out - a plea to a person to calm down, "Egghead"

moldy crabapple - the moon, "Lunar Loopy"

move your fins - run, "Goldfish Ghost"

Mrs. Blusterbuns - a braggard, "Mother Nature Bowl-Off"

Mrs. Windbag - a blustery, noisy person, "Mother Nature Bowl-Off"

muffinhead - silly person, "Egghead"

natureboy - forest ranger, "Back to Nature"

pain in the thorax - unnecessary aggravation, "Butterfly Loopy"

peabrain - small brained, "Goldfish Heaven"

pipsqueak - a child, "Mother Nature Bowl-Off"

put a rocket in a socket - exercise, "Secret Agent Mom"

roofrat - someone who walks on the ceiling, "Upside-Down Loopy"

shrimp - a child, "Loopy and the Lost Voice"

slumber bum - lazy person, "Sweet Dreams"

snot sausage - a person with the flu, "Loopy and the Flu Bug"

space cowboy - a person exploring the moon, "Lunar Loopy"

squirt - a younger person, "Butterfly Loopy"

stinky pits - a person in need of a bath, "Back to Nature"

turniphead - an annoying person, "Back to Nature"

unbutton your earflaps - listen to me, "Goldfish Ghost"

vomit launch variety - stomach flu, "Loopy and the Flu Bug"

What's the motivation for the acceleration? - Why are you going so fast?, "Send in the Clones"

So you want to know what year that cartoon was made?

A Basic Primer on Reading Roman Numeral Years

I've been watching Toon in with ME with my nephews. It's exactly the kind of show I love. Puppets, cartoons and a little bit of corn. My younger nephew wants to learn to read the dates. In other words, he wants to be the one to read the dates.

Some cartoons have number dates, others have roman numerals. I like the roman numeral dates. It's traditional. It's like a traditional clock, you need to learn how to read it.

It couldn't be simpler to read the year unless they used the numbers but where's the fun in that?

The Roman Numerals

M - 1000

C - 100

L - 50

X - 10

V - 5

I - 1

Common Specific Arrangements appearing in years

MCM -1900

XC - 90

IX - 9

XL - 40

IV - 4

A smaller number like "I" in front of a larger number like "X" means subtract.

Examples

MCMXXXVI - 1936

MCMLVIII - 1958

MM - 2000

MMXXII - 2022

Emergency +4 - Toonstalgia

Emergency!'s Adaptation into a Kid's Cartoon

I never heard of Emergency until quarantine. My mom likes the show. She started watching twice a day on Cozi Tv. One day, I was doing a quiz on the best cartoon lineups of the 1970s. I recognized some of the titles from repeats from when I was little (mostly Scooby Doo). When I got to 1973, I saw "Emergency +4" and I knew research was required. Oh boy did I get some joy sparking.

The show has a motive, to teach kids lessons about dealing with emergencies. It is a pretty accurate adaptation of the show. There are key differences like the rescues tend to focus less on their work with emergency rescues and less on their paramedic work. There's also the four children, the monkey, the dog and the bird that's described as a myna bird in my research but looks like a falcon to me.

Randolph Mantooth and Kevin Tighe reprise their roles as Johnny Gage and Roy DeSoto from Emergency! The characters look like them. It's nice to hear them and see them look like the characters I am so accustomed to.

The show operates on the amateur detective show rule of causality. Wherever Desoto and Gage go, accidents just happen. Just accident after accident.

The episodes of the show I've been able to source don't focus on the kids over the adults or the adults over the kids. The actors providing the voices for the kids do a very good job. The voice for Jason Phillips is the most recognizable actor out of the four. He has had an impressive voice over career. His most recognizable character is probably Goldie Wilson from Back to the Future. The voice for Carol, Sarah Kennedy, was in an episode of Barnaby Jones which makes me laugh because of my nascent fixation on that show. She was also in Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In's sixth season. The sixth season had a little kid and a ventriloquist and Richard Dawson.

The kids can vacillate between hypercompetency and spontaneous irresponsibility. It wouldn't be hard to believe they would go on thin ice if their actions the rest of the time didn't make it so clear they would know better. I love the characterization of Carol, the distaff of the team, as mechanical. She fixes a generator in one episode. She secures a ceiling against collapse in another.

You cannot miss the first two minutes of the show because something major happens in the beginning of the episodes. An avalanche, a nearly deadly accident, a volcanic eruption and more before the first commercial break. Sometimes the first two minutes feature a catastrophe they are managing for the rest of the episode. This is fine in an era with the pause button. But I expect this was a bit of a stress when you had to get there on time. For me, there are shows like Bump in the Night that I watched every single time they came on but still didn't see some episodes till I got the DVDs because I slept in a lot on Saturday mornings and often without meaning to.

Fred Calvert caught my eye in the credit. I racked my brain to remember why I knew that name. Then I looked it up. Fred Calvert got the Thief and the Cobbler to the finish line. But that's a story for another day.

This was happy discovery was the lucky highlight of my week. Arguably that says more about my week than the show but I still really enjoyed the watch.

Inside Out Boy - Toonstalgia

What it is

Inside Out Boy was a series of claymation shorts that aired on Nickelodeon from 1989 to 1993 during the commercial breaks about a boy turned inside out. He had the power to be gross.

Thoughts

Actually, he had an adorable aesthetic if you didn't think about how being inside out would work.

I forgot about this. I totally forgot about this. But one glimpse and I remembered seeing the shorts in between episodes of Pete & Pete.

Each short featured a conflict and Inside Out boy resolving the problem. In one short he gets arrested for robbing a bank. He explains what happened and they let him go. In another short he helps a classmate cover for the fact that he didn't do a science fair project.

It's got a very cute style to soften the distressing premise of a boy with his organs and bones on the outside. The idea that swung on his swing over the bar is a perfect bit of kid logic. It made sense to me at the time I saw them. 

M.C. Mallet = M.C. Hammer

An M.C. Hammer joke as the center piece of a short. The 90s

Looney Tunes - The Impatient Patient 1942 - Toonstalgia

Toonstalgia

Quickly

When Daffy has hiccups, he turns to Dr Jerkyl for help.

Dr. Texas Rating

29 Likes

"It's good."

Thoughts

The elegant opening features layered images of trees and vines before transitioning into the cartoon style. Detailed art is used for the scientific equipment later in the short to great effect. These sections work very well because the setting is the focus without an animated character. The rest of the cartoon features sparer backgrounds. Dynamic characters benefit from spare backgrounds because neither is drawing focus.

Details

Daffy is a Western Union messenger seeking Chloe. He develops a terrible case of the hiccups. When he sees a sign for a doctor, he runs to the doctor for help. The doctor tries to help him with the "scare" cure. In the end, Daffy needs to reverse the doctor's transformation.

Looney Tunes - Daffy Doc - Toonstalgia

Looney Tunes - Daffy Doc

Toonstalgia

Quickly

Dr. Daffy wants a patient.

Thoughts and Details

This cartoon was released in 1938 during the Polio outbreak in the United States. An outcome of Polio could be paralysis of the diaphragm which would require temporary or in some cases long-term aided respiration. Many people were put into an "iron lung" while they recovered. I explained the iron lung and polio to Dr. Texas. He's 7. Unfortunately, world events have given him a strong understanding of the concept of viruses, epidemics and pandemics. 

This might give you the impression it was a bummer or he didn't like it. He did. He tends to favor cartoons that are a little more kinetic and surprising. Ironically, this cartoon has a very smooth plot. It reminds me of a 

This is the fifth Daffy cartoon. A few of these cartoons play on an idea that all ducks are daffy. In "What Price Porky", black ducks declare war on Porky and his chickens. This cartoon continues the characterization of him being ridiculous and reinforces the idea that he can and does do things because he's insane enough to do them.

Learning to Draw Daffy

This isn't the iconic Daffy. This Daffy fits his name as well as his gloves don't. It's a Daffy drawn while the character was in flux from cartoon to cartoon. I am very fond of this stage of Daffy.

Not everyone can learn from instructional videos. I find watching videos to be a passive activity. I learn by doing. I do my best to find resources that work for me.

A quick search turned up a character sheet on this style Daffy. It's not a typical model sheet, it lacks the convention of describing the details required to draw the character on model. It's basically step by step directions. It helps understand the shape of the character. It also helped me to put down my pen and grab my Blackwing.

I also paused my way through the short studying the look and the movement.

All About the Details

The plot of the cartoon reminds me of the Marx brothers in all the best ways. Daffy, the quackers doctor, feels put out when he's cast out of the surgical room for being too noisy. He searches for a patient and finds Porky passing by. A quick application of sedative (with a mallet) and Daffy has his patient. He resolves to perform a surgery. Porky flees. Nothing is really resolved. It ends with a chase into the iron lung.

Archie's Weird Mysteries - The Jughead Incident - Toonstalgia

Archie's Weird Mysteries - The Jughead Incident

Toonstalgia

Real Quick

Agents from a shadowy government agency arrive in Riverdale looking for extraterrestrials.

Thoughts and Details

The Simpsons did it. Stan Against Evil did it. Unhappily Ever After did it (a deep cut from my childhood that was intentionally crude at the time and the humor has aged even worse). The Obligatory X-Files episode. 

A pair of government agents, a lady with red hair and a man with dark hair, who work on strange cases are cartoon shorthand for Mulder and Scully that appears in many shows. The Simpsons did it best

Also another, "Jughead is the weirdest thing in town" episode. Jughead is easily one of the most likable characters on the show. He's kind, accepting and genuine. He also doesn't get multiple plots requiring him to be a spontaneous prior to the supernatural shenanigans. The show plays up Veronica's selfishness and entitlement frequently, Betty is nice, Reggie is Reggie, Archie's well balanced but he has a few negative traits for the sake of the plot. This could be a result of Jughead's characterization as "weird" but the effect is the same. He's just him and I personally adore that. 

The Joke that Saved the World

"How many pancakes can you fit into a doghouse if your mother is a washing machine and your father is a dryer?"

"None. Doghouses can't fly."

Presenting Tonight's Monster

Not Applicable. Technically, there's an extraterrestrial and secret agents but they're more narrowminded than monstrous. I mean, one of them wants to destroy Earth but he's not that committed to the endeavor.

Booba S01E03 Nursery - Toonstalgia

Booba - Nursery

Cartoons with the Nephews

Real Quick

Booba explores a room filled with fancy toys.

Dr. Texas Rating

30 Likes

"It was good. It was remote themed."

Thoughts and Details

We chose Booba because the nephews love it and any time I can think of something to do with them, I'm in. The jokes my nephews laugh the hardest at are the surreal turns and the unpredictable slapstick.

Dr. Texas did not believe me when I told him I've screamed like Booba after stepping on one of his toys.

Booba defies logic and reason and reality to rewind the video. 

The ball pit is animated satisfyingly but not realistically. The balls flow like water. They incorporate the sound of ocean for a subtle bit of surreal humor. I like that because I'd rather see something animated in an artistic way than a realistic way. 

I thought of this series as just "And this happens". While the plot is spare, the writing has been elevated slightly because there's a more natural transition between events. The show has different kinds of jokes and interesting camera shots.

Way Too Many Details

Booba is sniffing the floor. He runs head first into a giant pear. He takes a bite and it pops explosively. Booba falls into a box of shapes. He chews a piece of the pear and blows it up like gum. He floats up (a respectable helium gum gag) and the bubble/balloon is popped by the fan. He lands on the fan and runs on the blades. He loses his balance then his grip and he is flung into a ball pool. Booba swims. He climbs up a ladder and dives into the pool. He takes the remote, rewinds back to the top of the ladder. He does a more elaborate dive. He pretends to be judges giving him the gold for his dive. He steps on an army man and howls in pain. He acts like a monster and stomps the army men. He finishes that game and marches away holding his hand up in salute.

Archie's Weird Mysteries - Attack of the Killer Spuds - Toonstalgia

Archie's Weird Mysteries - Attack of the Killer Spuds

Toonstalgia

Real Quick

It's Pod People with potatoes.

Thoughts and Details

The theme song sounds "bleeped" with a blank where the word "Weird" should be until the end of the song. I have no proof other than my observation of an abnormally long gap between "Archie's" and "Mysteries" where "Weird" is in the title but not in the song until the last line. My guess is the word was originally "creepy" because of the beats in the blank. It sounds like they might have pulled the "Weird" from another line in the song where it says that things are getting weird and looped it into the title.

It seems like the artists and writers weren't working with a hefty budget but they made up for it by being creative and a bit fearless at times. The show is a familiar genre. It reminds me of the supernatural shows that were on the air before and around that time like "Big Wolf on Campus", "She-Wolf of London", "Weird Science", "Phantom Investigators" and many, many others. This is a positive for me. I lived for those shows. Archie's Weird Mysteries draw on a rich history of monster B-Movies and the familiar characters of the Archie series to create each plot. 

Art

The characters are unmistakably themselves (in art style, as with all adaptations there are differences in characterization). I attribute this to the characters already being visually established after over 60 years at the time of the show's production. There are aspects of the designs that are simplified for the sake of transition to animation like Archie's freckles. In this episode, the pod people are well distinguished from the characters without looking much different. They change the walk, the expression, the movements and generally make them more harsh. Jughead's Potato looks like Jughead but there's no mistaking him for Jughead. They may small differences to his model to look more harsh. It would have made for good suspense if what was happening wasn't explicit at first and we first saw the change in Jughead's behavior. But that wouldn't have fit with a Saturday morning cartoon.

Presenting Tonight's Monster

The Great Potato - A Giant multi-eyed, extraterrestrial tuber

Domo - Birth of Domo - Toonstalgia

Toonstalgia

Real Quick

Domo is born.

Thoughts and Details

My sister introduced me to Domo Kun years ago. I've loved him ever since. My mom sees him as an expression of anxiety.

Most of the shorts are 30 seconds and on the official Domo youtuber challenge. No excuse not to watch.

Way Too Detailed Synopsis

A giant egg falls through the snow into a rabbit warren. The egg hatches to reveal Domo.

Phantom Investigators - Top Ten Creature Designs - Toonstalgia

Phantom Investigators

By (W)holesome Productions, 2002

Top Ten Creature Designs

1. Wad - All Episodes

Wad is a talking piece of ABC gum. The concept is perfect for a mischievous troublemaker. In Omega Pizza Pi, Wad morphs into a sculpt of Albert Einstein. In a few episodes, he acts as a wad of gum and sticks to the bottom of a character's shoe. 

2. Elemental Spirit of Road Kill - Demon Driver

It's a bunny-eared amalgamation of dead animals and it's kind of cute.

3. Jinxy the Bad Luck Demon - All Episodes

Jinxy is a bad luck demon who regularly aids the Phantom Investigators by providing his expertise. He appears to mostly be portrayed by a puppet but the design translates well into stop motion when they need him to interact with other characters.

4. Casey - Spider/Mermaid/Pinball Machine/Brick Wall/Trash Can

Casey is a member of the team with transformative powers. They use it to comedic effect and to solve problems in creative ways. Most of the transformations skillfully incorporate Casey's appearance.

5. Mrs. Oglesbee - Stall of Doom

A former substitute teacher crossed with a toilet.

6. The Bonnie Lass/Possessed Skateboard - Skating the Plank

The patron lady of the pirate ship the Bonnie Lass appears in a few forms. The most effective is when she's at the head of the ship.

7. Mozzarathlulu - Omega Pizza Pi

A Cthulu inspired ball of rotten cheese.

8. Morgg - Ghosts on Film

Morgg reminded me of Prince of Space. I might be giving this extra points because I like the "character escapes old movie" and "characters are sucked into old movie" plots in paranormal shows.

9. Ankhen Amun - From Egypt with Love

The mummy is cute and expressive. The details like the canopic jar and the sarcophagus are impressive.

10. Pirate Ghosts - Skating the Plank

What can I say? I like cute skeleton creatures.

Phantom Investigators - Omega Pizza Pi - Toonstalgia

Phantom Investigators - Omega Pizza Pi

Toonstalgia

Real Quick

Ghosts stiff the pizza guy.

Thoughts and Details

In the 1950s and 60s, there was a moral panic about high school kids joining sororities, fraternities and secret societies. It was enough of a concern to make some headlines and inspire some scholarly papers. "Secret society" was also used to describe organized crime in the same period. It seems inaccurate to use the same words to describe high school students and the rackets extorting protection money from businesses. They both illicited ire and prompted laws aiming to legislate them out of existence. The high school societies were derided as exclusive and undemocratic. I doubt the writers were thinking about any of these things when they wrote "Omega Pizza Pi" but I was thinking about them when I watched it.

Daemona's storyline in this episode seems to reflect Kira's desire for a life outside the Phantom Investigators. It doesn't make sense for Daemona to abandon her friends. Daemona usually seems more into the paranormal research than anything else. But Kira has too strong a sense of pride to go to the lengths Daemona does, so it wouldn't have worked. It's normal for Kira to be the voice of reason that Daemona ignores. It might have been interesting for them to draw on the fact that Daemona recently moved to town. Maybe the writers were trying to explore her character. The storyline might have also worked for Casey because he feels ostracized due to his intellectual pursuits.

One of the highlights for me is the skeletal cuckoo clock bird. I also love Wad's impression of Albert Einstein.

Way Too Detailed Synopsis

A pizza delivery guy walks into a creepy building with a delivery. Two ghosts in fraternity sweaters walk towards him with outstretched arms and crying, "Pie, pie."

Meanwhile, Daemona is trying out for the school debate team. She struggles at the try out because she is failing to cite an expert source and rambling in her nervousness. When she tries to cite her source, Wad distracts her with a fantastic Albert Einstein impression.

She explains to Kira she just wants to join the club for the annual trip to France. Toby finds Daemona after the try out to tell her he'll her get into the club if she does a few things for him like his laundry and grooming his dog (I would have laughed in his face).

Jericho calls with a case. He says she needs to hurry to the pizza place. He told them it would be thirty or less or it's free. Now, I'm wondering, does this mean they are normally paid? It makes sense. Also, how have I not noticed their video watches before?

Daemona (in a mask) meets the delivery guy at the pizza place. He relates his story. 

Kira again acts as a voice of reason.

The team delivers pizzas to the old Omega Alpha Pi fraternity house. The ghosts appear for the pies. They give them the pizzas and flee the old fraternity house. Daemona detects a demon in the basement of the house. They sneak back in. They see the fraternity brothers on their hands and knees eating the pizza for the amusement of an unseen entity.

They consult Felix Navarro on the subject of secret societies. He tells them about how fraternities can be traced back to the revolutionary war and that Omega Alpha Pi closed due to a hazing scandal. Felix gives them a Raisinator. 

Daemona leaves for the debate audition. The rest of the team goes back to the fraternity to make contact with the ghosts by asking to join the fraternity.

Kira, Casey and Jericho are trapped in the basement of the fraternity after a rotten floorboard breaks beneath their feet. They meet a Mozzarathlu, the spirit of humiliation. He's a wad of mozzarella with one eye and multiple tentacle like protrusions. He sprays them with rotten cheese to hold them in place.

Daemona leaves her audition after overhearing Toby and the other team members mock her. If only she had figured out they were jerks before she did their laundry. She calls on Jinxie, the bad luck demon to ferry her to the fraternity house.

Daemona arrives with a plan. Casey transforms into a pizza cutter. They aren't able to escape the building. The fraternity brothers relate their sad story of trying to belong and making a deal with the spirit. Casey figures out if the fraternity brothers quit, the fraternity will no longer exist and the contract they made with him would be null and void.

The Phantom Investigators finish him off with the Raisinator by reducing him to rat size.

Booba S01E02 Bathroom - Toonstalgia

Cartoons with the Nephews

Real Quick

"Booba finds stuff in the bathroom." Dr. Texas

Dr. Texas Rating

27 Likes

"From that ring, I know there could be a couple living in that house." Dr. Texas

Thoughts and Details

Eyebrow Watch - His eye brows still float separately from his body. The coloring is similar to his body making it look like they're furry flesh.

My younger nephew announced early in the episode that he loved the vacuum. I thought he was talking about the previous episode until the last two seconds of the episode.

I realized during this episode how difficult maintaining my format (including an overly detailed plot synopsis) would be with something with no real plot beyond gremlin thing makes a mess and very little causal connection between his actions beyond he does this thing then he does that thing. Anyway, onto the...

Way Too Detailed Synopsis

It opens with Booba stumbling in the dark with a spy film inspired theme. He runs into the light switch and turns on the light to reveal he's in a bathroom.  He's scared by his reflection. He runs into a waste basket and some kind of hair thing pops out and lands on his head. He makes music with a toilet brush, toilet lid and trash can lid. Booba breaks into a dance to nondiegetic music. He jumps onto the shower curtain then falls into the tub. Toiletries fall on his head. They smell good so he takes a taste. He's disgusted by the flavor and spews bubbles. He accidentally turns on the water to a scalding temperature and burns his tongue. He flies across the room into a cabinet of toilet paper. He walks around covered in toilet paper and scares himself. He flies into the sink. He notices a pink diamond ring sitting next to the faucet. He takes a taste then drops it down the drain. Booba attempts to retrieve the ring with his tail. He gets the ring but a crocodile also follows. He escapes the crocodile and crawls away. Booba finds a standard vacuum. The scene cuts to him riding the vacuum in front of the moon.

Booba - S01E01 Kitchen

Booba - Kitchen

Cartoons with the Nephews  

Real Quick

Booba explores the kitchen.

Dr. Texas Rating

32 Likes

"It's good. It's something where Booba gets hurt a lot. It's vacuum themed, kitchen themed and hurtful themed. Also clumsy themed. That's every episode. He learns about kitchens."

Thoughts and Details

Season 1, Episode 1

Booba's eyebrows float above his head and I couldn't put that out of my head for the entirety of the cartoon.

This cartoon has humans in the form of the people running to (or from) the fire.

The events of the cartoon are very "and this happens".

Way Too Detailed Synopsis

Booba gets tangled in a beaded curtain. He stumbles into a kitchen. Booba opens the fridge door. He is enamored by swiss cheese. The problem is the cheese is on the top shelf and many shelves stand between him and the cheese. Booba prepares for battle. He jumps for the cheese. The cheese falls out of the fridge and makes a mess. Booba spots the vacuum robot. He awakens the vacuum and rides it around the room. Booba throws the vacuum in the oven. It explodes. Fire spews from the oven. Booba flees through a Booba shaped hole in the window.

Phantom Investigators - Skating the Plank - Toonstalgia

Phantom Investigators - Skating the Plank

Toonstalgia

"Aww...pig knuckles."

Briefly

Jericho's skateboarding rival has a haunted board.

Thoughts

I love the pirate puppets. Their sculpts are cartoonish glory. Evil Dead: Army of Darkness instilled a love of skeleton puppets in me at an early age.

Details, Details

Jericho's practicing for an upcoming skateboarding competition. He runs into a rival skateboarder, Rick, who has a lucky board. The encounter ignites Jericho's jealousy. His concerns increase when he sees Rick's new moves. Suddenly, Rick's skateboard trashes a record store all by itself.

Rick calls the Phantom Investigators for help with his haunted skateboard. They learn Rick's skateboard was carved from a piece of possessed driftwood. A pirate ghost appears and takes possession of the skateboard. Rick admits he can't afford a new skateboard but can't skate on a haunted board.

With Kira's abilities, they learn Pinky, the pirate, is the ghost attempting to reclaim the board. Pinky claims he only wants his plank back but reveals he might have more sinister intentions. Kira calls out Jericho for his petty behavior towards Rick. It's one thing to compete, it's another to revel in your competitor's misfortune.

Pinky gets his plank back and rather than rest in piece, he awakens his pirate comrades. They head off to pillage San Francisco. Daemona and the team retrieve her grandmother's soul collector. It's like a camera crossed with a Ghostbuster trap. They suck up the pirates with the soul collector. Then Jericho throws the soul collector in the ocean.

A fish releases the pirate ghosts. Pinky returns with his pirate ships a few moments later for revenge. Jericho demonstrates swimming talent to retrieve the soul collector from under water. Casey distracts the pirate by morphing into a mermaid. Daemona seals the pirates in a bottle (which would be the coolest thing to have on a shelf aside from the fact that she permanently imprisoned sentient entities inside of it).

Jericho shows kindness and mercy to Rick by loaning him his board so he can compete.

Phantom Investigators - Demon Driver - Toonstalgia

 Phantom Investigators - Demon Driver

Toonstalgia

Quickly

The Phantom Investigators are contacted by a boy whose father is obsessed with his car.

Thoughts and Details

I have a deep love of animation. I grew up on Sledgehammer by Peter Gabriel, Take on Me by A-Ha. Liquid Television, Kablam, Ren and Stimpy, Beavis and Butthead, Daria, Angry Beavers, Rocko's Modern Life, Looney Tunes, Bump in the Night, Clash of the Titans... I can't list them all and if I tried, I would miss too many. Also, I like ghosts and demons and monsters. 

The Phantom Investigators features a unique blend of stop motion, live action and puppetry. Life with Loopy on Kablam featured the same style. Life with Loopy and Phantom Investigators fit in the same world because of the style and the type of the fantastic aspects of the stories. 

The kids and average people are stop motion animation figures with 2-D heads. Wad is a stop motion sculpture and occasionally a practical effect. Jinx is a puppet and stop motion. The transitions between most of the medium switching is done well, never seamlessly. That's the point. It works together to create the unique style. The viewer isn't meant to miss when the show switches from the animated character to human hands in a close up. It makes me laugh because it's such a fun, silly, Anderson touch. 

The puppets are one of my favorite parts of the show. The car puppet in this show is an exaggerated monster with red eyes and pointy teeth. The Great Spirit of Road Kill is ridiculous and I love it.

Detailed Synopsis

Nate's dad is late to pick him up because he lost track of time working on his car. Nate wants to spend time with his dad but his dad is going to work on his car. His dad drives recklessly. Nate calls the Phantom Investigators for help. Their initial investigation uncovers something strange is going on.

The rest of the team is at Felix Navarro's garage working on the Ghoul Mobile. Daemona consults her great grandmother's books and Jinxy the Bad Luck Demon for enlightenment on Nate's problem. They do an infodump to explain the general function of magic in the world and set up key pieces of information for the later resolution.

Daemona figures out Nate's dad isn't possessed directly. The car is possessed and influencing him. When they discover the true nature of the car, it attacks them.

The Phantom Investigators find a package with a piece of the demonic car. Daemona and Jericho follow this lead to a long closed salvage yard. They learn the evil Barracuda car came from a deal Barracuda Bill made with infernal forces and once the car is reassembled, evil ghosts will rule the roads.

The Phantom Investigators challenge Barracuda Bill to a car race for the lives of their friends and the fate of the world.

When it seems they are going to lose, they call on an Elemental. The Great Spirit of Road Kill eats Bill.

Nate's dad surprises him with a camper to go on a trip.

The Off-Beats - An Off-Beats Valentine's Special - Toonstalgia

 The Off-Beats - An Off-Beats Valentine's Special

Toonstalgia

Brief

The Off-Beats hope for romance on Valentine's Day.

Thoughts

This special proved the show worked in a longer format.

The Off-Beats reminds me Peanuts cartoons in the best ways. I couldn't stop thinking about the iconic Peanuts Christmas dance scene.

Tommy stands up for himself. The end between Beth and Tommy is an honest ending. Beth has shown she doesn't have a strong sense of self. She isn't confident and won't stand up to Tina even though she's making herself unhappy. Tommy respects himself enough to draw a line. When the Off-Beats are together, they respect each other and want to help each other.

Simple Details I Love: Tommy sings the melody first stuck in his head in "Tommy's Song". February is a cat who lands on her head. Tommy refers to the "Populars clump", meaning they just accept that a bunch of kids walk around as a single unit and even sleep in that unit which is so weird to think about. I love having details like these to notice.

Details, Details

Tina gives Tommy a nasty Valentine then forces him to shred the card to avoid getting into trouble. While forcing Tommy to shred the Valentine, Beth and Tommy develop romantic feelings for each other. 

Grubby Groo is holding a Valentine's Day dance at his Ad Hoc Cafe. Repunzil is excited but Betty Anne is disdainful towards the holiday. September is sad thinking about his absent love, February. Tommy hides his new romance from his friends. He confides in September who relates to his romantic woes.

Tommy sends Beth a Valentine. Beth sneaks away from the Populars clump. Tommy and Beth begin their secret relationship. Repunzil develops a crush on Tommy. Tommy flees from Repunzil's effort to give him a Valentine.

August asks for Betty Anne's coaching in how to treat girls. Tommy tells Betty Anne about his secret relationship with Beth. Tommy covertly steals seconds with Beth behind the Populars clump's back.

Tommy begins to feel unsatisfied in his relationship with Beth. Betty Anne breaks the news to Repunzil that Tommy has a girlfriend. Repunzil is sad but dedicates herself to helping her friends find love. Betty Anne is instantly infatuated with Grubby Groo's nephew Brad. August continues to seek his Valentine. 

During a late night meeting, Beth and Tommy decide to reveal their relationship by slow dancing together at the Valentine's Dance. August gives Tina a Valentine using the Heartrometer 4000. It doesn't go well.

Everyone converges on the Valentine's Dance. September reunites with February. Betty Anne asks Brad to dance. He agrees and she immediately passes out. August dances with a gadget.

When Tommy and Beth get their chance to dance together, Beth mocks him to save face with the Populars. Repunzil comes to Tommy's defense and tells them to stop mocking her friend. Repunzil offers her unconditional support and friendship. Beth goes to talk to Tommy. He breaks up with her because he wants to be in a relationship with someone who will be honest about their relationship.

After the dance is over, the Off-Beats dance together at Cafe Ad Hoc.

The Off-Beats - The Statistic - Toonstalgia

The Off-Beats - The Statistic

Kablam! S02E13 Kablam! James Kablam!

Premiered January 2, 1998

Quickly

A statistic sends the Off-Beats running for helmets.

Thoughts

This is the last Off-Beats short to appear on KaBlam! Though a holiday special followed. 

This show had charm and a unique identity. They are the "nerds" and the "outcasts" and they're not that. They are four people and a dog who like each other. The art is inspirational. No line is wasted. The characters are all unique (other than the triplets). The backgrounds are beautiful.

These shorts stuck with me in a way no others on the show did. I watched every episode of KaBlam!. There were more Sniz and Fondue and Life with Loopy and Action League Now. I still have my Meltman Burger King toy. But none of them meant quite as much as the Off-Beats. I wanted to be one of the Off-Beats.

The writing of this short is spot on. I love that August's affection for solving problems with gadgets leads to him attempting to replace Tommy with a robot. It makes perfect sense for the character. Tommy volunteers to be the one that leaves the group showing selflessness. The rest of the Off-Beats try to convince him he doesn't have to because they want to spend time with him.

Overly Detailed

Cold Open: September reads the newspaper. According to the Department of Safety, 1 out of 4 people will be hit in the head. He leaves and I wonder if September had stayed, would the statistic have effected the group? Tommy volunteers to stop hanging out with the group. With Tommy gone, it feels wrong so August, Repunzil and Betty Anne decide to find him. When Repunzil gets hit in the head by an alarm clock, Tommy flees. No matter where Tommy goes, people are getting hit in the head because he's completing the groups of four. When Tommy is nearly crushed by a fire hydrant, his fears are justified. August attempts to fill the absence with the TR77, a robot buddy. They go to see Tommy playing ping pong ball by himself by hitting balls across the room because no one told him he could raise the table and hit balls against it. A group of turtles inspires Tommy to buy a helmet. Betty Anne, Repunzil and August all buy helmets. The Off-Beats are together again, no matter what the world throws at them.

The Off-Beats - Paddleball Record - Toonstalgia

 The Off-Beats - Paddleball Record

Toonstalgia

Short

September struggles to survive August's attempt at a paddleball record.

Thoughts

Based on a rough count of the number of paddles per minute, I estimate it would take August a little over 429 hours to set the record.

Long Story

Cold Open: August begins his attempt for the paddleball record. Repunzil offers to take care of September. September declines.

August explains his goal of beating the record of 3,400,767 paddles. Repunzil waits anxiously for her favorite number, 42,009. September parties in August's absence until dinner. September, the talking dog, struggles to open the can with his dinner. When he begs Repunzil for help, she thinks he's being sarcastic again and laughs good naturedly then walks away. When August sees September's condition, he tosses his paddleball aside a few hits from the record. Later, after opening many cans of food for September, August and the Off-Beats prepare for another attempt at the record.

The Off-Beats - The Sprain - Toonstalgia

 The Off-Beats - The Sprain

Toonstalgia

To the Point

Betty Anne can't play bongos with a sprained wrist.

Thoughtful

KaBlam! ended the episode "Better Than a Poke in the Eye" with the Off-Beats Stunt Spectacular.

This episode reveals Grubby Groo's profession and gives an indication to why the Populars respect him beyond him being an adult. He runs the Cafe Ad Hoc and makes beloved ice cream sundays.

A mark of the style of the Off-Beats are the distinct head shapes. Most obvious is Grubby Groo. It's like a cashew. Head shape is nice way to create visually distinct characters.

Over Detailed

Betty Anne plays her bongos passionately until she hurts her wrist. The Populars mock her injury and her bongo playing. Grubby Groo makes Betty Anne a junkyard Sunday. The Populars are jealous. Tina fakes a toe injury to elicit sympathy and a Sunday. He takes sympathy on her and gives her a big block of ice. Betty Anne enjoys her sunday but is still sad she can't play her bongos. August loans Betty Anne his Bongomatic 6040D and it doesn't work. The Populars fake more injuries to try to get a Sunday. Betty Anne realizes she can play her Bongos with her head. Tina gets her Sunday but she can't eat it with both arms in casts.

The Off-Beats - Repunzil Enters a Sweepstakes - Toonstalgia

 The Off-Beats - Repunzil Enters a Sweepstakes

Toonstalgia

Briefly

Repunzil enters a sweepstakes.

Thoughts

The letter Repunzil receives is a reference to Publisher's Clearing House. It's clear to most viewers that she's not going to win money and she's acting irresponsibly.

Detailed Summary

Cold Open: Repunzil gets an entry to a sweepstakes.

Repunzil begins spending the money from the sweepstakes. Betty Anne tries to break the news to her gently by pointing out it's just an entry form. August explains the statistical likelihood of her winning the money is low. Tommy tells her she will not will the sweepstakes. Feeling unsupported, she accepts the friendship of the Populars. Tina immediately mocks the Off-Beats by saying they will get money and the Off-Beats won't. The Off-Beats attempt to talk to Repunzil and tell her the Populars are using her. Repunzil chooses to remain with the Populars because she feels they support her. But their friendship is conditional on her winning the sweepstakes  and she doesn't. In the end, the Off-Beats are there for her when the Populars shove her in a mailbox.

The Off-Beats - Tommy's Song - Toonstalgia

 The Off-Beats - Tommy's Song

Toonstalgia

Real Quick

Tommy has a song stuck in his head.

Thoughts and Details

This short works extremely well. The conflict is established within the cold open, Tommy has a song stuck in his head. Betty Anne and August attempt to help him get the song unstuck. Tommy's screaming is justified. He screams because Betty Anne can't hear him. The Populars, of course, mock his situation. The first time he tells them off in a funny way. The second time he gets revenge for their mockery of him and his friends by getting the song stuck in their head. The ending is a nice moment of catharsis.

Note: The melody from this short reappears in the Off-Beats Valentine's Special.

Way Too Detailed Synopsis

Cold Open: Tommy hears a song on the radio and it gets stuck in his head. 

A despondent Tommy turns to Betty Anne Bongo for help. She puts on a pair of ear muffs to protect herself from the song. This forces Tommy to yell to get her to hear him. She consults How to Get a Song Out Of Your Head. Tommy tries thinking of something else leading to a fantastic sequence on an alien planet. The sequence is ambiguously real. The Populars as a space slug mock him. Tommy yells at them. August uses his Turbo Charged Song Away to suck out Tommy's brain. August puts Tommy's brain back in his head but he has amnesia. September helps Tommy regain his memory. The Populars mock them. They call August the dorkiest of the Off-Beats. Tommy gets the song stuck in their heads. This frees him. Repunzil sings the song to them. Now it's stuck in everyone's head.

The Off-Beats - The Suave-O-Matic 5000 - Toonstalgia

 The Off-Beats - The Suave-O-Matic 5000

Toonstalgia

Quickly

Steve becomes Stefan. I mean, August uses a machine to make him cool.

Thoughts and Details

I showed my nephew an episode of KaBlam! It wasn't the episode with the Suave-O-matic. He picked because he always gives something more of a chance if he picks the episode. I knew it would go one of two ways because this isn't the first cartoon show from my childhood I convinced him to watch. He might enjoy it or he might start asking when it would be over and complaining about how boring it was. He liked it. He really liked Sniz & Fondue and it expanded his ideas of what cartoons are. It couldn't have gone better. As someone obsessed with cartoons for her entire life, it's nice when my nephews like it.

About the KaBlam! Episode - I want to try Harold's Glow in the Dark butter. Though I expect it would be carcinogenic.

About The Off-Beats style - The colorful, abstract backgrounds add visual interest to the cartoons without distracting from the characters. The backgrounds make the spare animation more dynamic. Thin black lines around characters and groups of characters separate them from the background. The thin arms of the children are hard to draw.

Way Too Much Detail

August is happily playing paddleball when the Populars come and mock him. He's decides to become cool rather than learning to love what makes him unique and disregard the hateful behavior of Tina and her sycophants. Understandable given his age. 

August puts on the Suave-O-Matic 5000, a backpack shaped gadget with transformative effects, that turns August into a "cool" version of himself. You can bet your sweet bippy the Populars like the new artificial August. He abandons his real friends in favor of the Populars. 

He sticks his head in a lion's mouth and parachutes and has other exciting adventures. But He still likes paddleball and this causes the Suave-O-Matic to explode. Somehow the Populars didn't notice the giant machine on August's back. The Populars abandon the now dorky August. August returns to his real friends who are happy to have him back and empathize with his desire for acceptance and don't give him a hard time.

The Off-Beats - Tommy's Coat - Toonstalgia

 The Off-Beats - Tommy's Coat

Toonstalgia

Quick Summary

Tommy is unhappy because his coat is at the cleaner.

Observations

Tommy's coat is one of few objects with elaborate moving patterns. The objects themselves are empty to reveal a second background with a single pattern. 

I honestly forgot the "Your epidermis is showing." joke.

Tommy reminds me of Charlie Brown.

Detailed Summation

Over the course of a year, Tommy's coat accumulates grime. Tommy's mom sends his coat to the cleaner. He is uncomfortable without his coat. He wants his coat back. He really wants his coat back. I cannot emphasize this enough, Tommy wants his coat. August loans Tommy his coat. He shows off the special features including the custom patterns. August's coat breaks. Tommy still wants his coat. Betty Anne tells Repunzil about Tommy's problem. He sees September playing a bag pipe with the same pattern of his coat. They run into the Populars. Tina mocks him. Betty Anne tries to warn them. Tommy has a delusional break and starts seeing them as his coat. Tommy attempts to draw his coat's pattern on himself. Betty Anne arrives with his coat. Unfortunately, the cleaner shrunk his coat. Tommy doesn't care. He has his coat back.

The Off-Beats - Betty Anne's Glasses - Toonstalgia

 The Off-Beats - Betty Anne's Glasses

Brief

Betty Anne Bongo loses her glasses.

Notes

Episodes of the Off-Beats feature cold opens before a title screen. This cold open shows the inciting incident of Betty Anne losing her glasses while playing bongo.

Having a show that runs for multiple episodes, even shorts with only a few minutes, allows for the development of characters and recurring jokes. A recurring gag is Tommy's propensity for screaming and another recurring gag is the violent expulsion of one popular for making an innocuous observation. I like recurring jokes.

August's love for gadgets is established from the first episode. It reappears in this episode with his solution for Betty Anne's problem.

The name of Mo Willem's older character is at least a little ambiguous because it typically sounds like Grubby Groo sometimes. But the credits for the special call him Grubby Goo. But the script for the special calls him Grubby Groo.

September dresses up as Bill Clinton. 

We get the name of another popular for the first time, Beth.

Long Synopsis

Betty Anne performs on her bongo for the Off-Beats. During her passionate playing, she loses her glasses. The Populars find her glasses. Tina puts her glasses on. When Betty Anne asks for them, Tina denies seeing them. Repunzil compliments Tina on her new glasses. Tommy asks the Populars if they saw the glasses. He repeats. He asks again...slightly louder. August uses his eyewear detector which finds the glasses. But the Populars do not admit they have them. September and the Off-Beats dress up as the President and gets Betty Anne's glasses back.

The Off-Beats - Too Much Attention for September - Toonstalgia

 The Off-Beats - Too Much Attention for September

Summary

September is overwhelmed by attention from the Off-Beats.

Notes

This was the last short of episode 10 of season 1 of KaBlam! aside from Henry and June's closing. Interesting Fact - Television screens used to be made of glass. You'll understand the relevance of that fact if you watch the episode. 

According to KaBlam's wiki, this episode was written by Steven Dovas. Steven Dovas is also listed as part of the team working on Sniz & Fondue. One interesting credit for Steven Dovas aside from KaBlam! was Timberwolf, one of Chuck Jones' final projects. I looked it up and I have a lot of thoughts about it. But that's a different cartoon.

Even the Subheadings for the Synopses are Too Long

August asks September to join him in his helicart. He declines. The Off-Beats seeing September sitting quietly decides he needs company. September tries to sneak away. Betty Anne Bongo asks September to play bongos with her. September leaves. Tommy tries to talk to September in a dog language. September leaves. Repunzil pets September a little too enthusiastically. September leaves. Repunzil chases him. Seeing no escape, he gets a ride from August because he is more comfortable with August.

The Off-Beats - The Robo-Dog - Toonstalgia

The Off-Beats - The Robo-Dog

Summary

August gets a robo-dog when September won't play with him.

Notes

This is the first short shown on KaBlam! The exclamation point is not a sign of enthusiasm or excitement, it's part of the show name. This is a basic fact.

KaBlam! was a collection of animated shorts introduced by animated hosts, Henry and June who live in a comic book. I watched every episode.

Television shows are ephemeral. Some get released on physical media but others are lost. They disappear with time due to being forgotten or being remembered and knotted up in so many contractual complexities they might never be seen again. KaBlam! has not had an official release.

Old classics are reappearing on the collection of streaming services. Cable channels are digging deeper into their catalogs for content to fill their schedule. Reddit can help you find the name of that cartoon that only existed as a wisp of thought of a memory. But a cartoon you watched and loved could disappear as if it never existed. 

Detail I Liked

One background appeared to be a rubbing of pennies.

Way Too Long Synopsis

August complains he is the only one with a dog with PTO. He declares he will find another dog to play with. August buys a robot dog because he will play forever and August likes gadgets. While September sits in a pool, August shows off the Robo-Dog. They play fetch. This time with August throwing the stick. Robo-Dog carves the stick into a flute. August regrets the purchase quickly because he really wants to play with September. He asks Robo-Dog to take a break but Robo-Dog will not be ignored. August throws the stick countless of times. Each time the dog brings back a different wood project. September buys a Robo-Boy to play with the Robo-Dog then returns to his day off. August has a little nap.

The Off-Beats - The Twig - Toonstalgia

 The Off-Beats - The Twig

Summary

Betty Anne Bongo nurtures a twig.

Thoughts

It frustrates me that the shorts don't have credits. There's no  list of animators, writers, background artists, or voice actors. IMDB is a thing. The only problem is The Off-Beats shorts are only listed as part of KaBlam! My Dog Can Talk, "Your Shoe's Untied" and The Twig never even appeared on KaBlam! The earliest shorts were shown on Nickelodeon between programs. 

A quote about the Valentine's Day special noted the same independent animators and voice actors worked on the special. Conveniently this had credits.

Many of the voice artists did not continue in the industry. Mo Willems, the creator, voiced September and Grubby Goo on the show. Mischa Barton voiced Betty Anne Bongo. She started this around 10 years old. She later went on to appear in The Sixth Sense, star in The O.C. and continues to act. Dylan Roberts, the voice for August, continues to act.

Overly Long and Detailed Synopsis

Betty Anne Bongo is dancing along singing a song that will get stuck in the average viewer's brain for months. She finds a small twig and decides to save it. She tells it a poem. The twig loses a leaf. Repunzil's hair becomes an unwilling nest for the twig. She waters the twig. It loses another leaf. Tommy walks up. Betty Anne asks for Tommy's advice. He insists she should leave the twig alone. It loses the last leaf. Betty Anne, Repunzil and Tommy leave the twig behind. August and September find the twig. September proclaims it a perfect fetch twig and throws it for August to fetch.