Monday, June 24, 2013

Angry Beavers

Going way out on a tangent here!

When my daughters were little ones during the 90's and early 00's, I used to watch cartoons with them. Being an anime fan, I am not completely out of touch with cartoons.

There were a lot of them that we enjoyed. One that I recommend for any wee one is Doug, as it's warm and fuzzy, but not disgustingly so, and it has neat little story lines and lessons that don't come across as being so. Hey Arnold fits this too. Really cute, and with some humor.

Other shows we liked during various stages of my daughter's young lives were Rocco's Modern Life (gotta love a show with a B-52's theme song!), The Big Comfy Couch, Rug Rats, The Wild Thornberries (with Tim Curry doing a great voice), Fairly Odd Parents (probably the best of all for adults, as it has a LOT of jokes only an adult would catch, such as "OK, I will let you go back in time, but do NOT interfere with the election of George McGovern as president") Aah Real Monsters, and Cat Dog.

Of course, Spongebob Square Pants is suitable for all ages, especially when under the influence of any drug as the creator of this show must have been.

But just recently, I was reminded of The Angry Beavers, and I'm really missing it.

What  brought it to mind was a mention of old Hollywood Horror B movies, which are generally low budget horror movies from the 1950's.
The main protagonists in The Angry Beavers, Norbert and Dagget, like those movies. I also like those movies. It figures.

If you clicked on the previous link, you know basically what the show is about. But I can tell you that it too is one of those shows that has references to styles, events, people, and etc. that only an adult would catch.

The show often references the peace/love/drugs "movement" of the 60's and 70's. This is usually when Norbert's unobtainable love interest Tree Flower is in the episode. Other references are free toys inside boxes of cereal, cut out and save the coupons for neat toys on those cereal boxes, and some other historical bits.

Their favorite B movie actor, Oxnard Montalvo, is in episodes well worth a YouTube link, one of them here. Oxnard is the guy who is not the scientist:

Food of the Clods
 
 If you're not familiar with B movies, you'll miss a lot of references and jokes. But it's still good.

I can't find a link to a video, but one of my favorite episodes was where Norbert wanted to be a Lipizzaner Stallion. It was magnificently absurd!

TV.com link

Here's a link to a bunch of episodes on YouTube. If you find this show airing in your area, it's worth watching, even without your kids.

Full Episodes