Latest User Reviews 
During Tex Avery’s self-imposed, year long hiatus in 1950, the director chair for his unit was filled by ex-Disney animator/director Dick Lundy, with the apparent hope that he’d be able to bring Barney Bear out of retirement again (or at least that's my understanding given that only one cartoon he made didn’t star the bear). If the year of the short’s release doesn’t tally, then you should know that MGM stockpiled their shorts and released them as needed.
This was a cartoon that I quite liked back in my childhood, though Barney Bear’s cartoons are hardly likely to get the pulse racing, they are more gently in their humour and make a nice break from manic cartoons from Warner Bros. and, well other directors MGM shorts.
For the most part both characters are amiable to each other, although not enough that they could drown you in sentiment but there’s no real antagonist to speak of, which could be said to be a nice change from all the hunter/hunted cartoons that there are out there.
The gags, such as they are, revolve mostly around Jimmy Squirrel doing little things that keep Barney awake. Cracking walnut shells, having a nightmare, and other low-key things like that. If you’re used to and expect the wacky rapid-fire style of other MGM shorts than this may disappoint; it’s more in line with Dick’s other shorts he did at Disney, after all he was a Disney short director. Besides, when he tried to emulate the more zany aspects of the director he was temporary replacing, he never quite hit the mark.
It’s cute, but not too cute as to be nauseating; quietly fun and while it’s not the most gag-filled short ever made, it doesn’t have to be; it fits Barney Bear and the expectations that I have for his character: and it works.
Sometimes, that can be all that you need to be classified as good.
Nuts. And here I thought Bobobo-bo Bo-bobobo was weird. Watching this recently, I wondered to myself "How much can I put up with a character so single-mindedly annoying that you just want to kill her?" The answer turned out to be quite a lot.
Describing the plot of this show is darn near impossible. There's not even any continuity. The show constantly destroys its own storyline just to suit its purposes. While you're watching a whole bunch of manic nonsense and Excel doing whatever it is that Excel does best, every once in a while you'll see something that makes you bust a gut. A good example of this is when a character tells Excel that it's better to show her a flashback rather than tell the story, and a character in the background just suddenly falls off the screen.
Almost like an animated version of Monty Python.
Heavens I love this show. Slice-of-life animes aren't known for possessing cohesive story arcs and thus tend to be rather plotless. Strawberry Marshmallow is unabashedly so.
Many animes are cute for the sake of being cute. Sugar: A Little Snow Fairy is a great example of this, and such animes are aimed at the younger set. Every once in a while, though, some animes will take their "cute" and covertly inject a little piss. What you're left with is an anime that's cute for the sake of making you nervous. Strawberry Marshmallow is such an anime and exemplifies the controversial "moe" style.
Strawberry Marshmallow is an anime that tries to follow the Azumanga Daioh style. While it may not have a successful brew of comedy as Azumanga, what's notable about Strawberry Marshmallow is that it doesn't mine the farm of "fast and silly" but instead finds ways to make ordinary situations seem funny through a mix of dead pan and timing. Several running gags and a couple allusions, some Japanese and some Western, occur.
There have been complaints that the dub is terrible, however I find that the English dub makes one of the gags that much funnier. There's a running joke that starts in episode 2 around the character Ana, an exchange student from the UK who has actually forgotten English. Japanese is represented as perfect English, or so we are to assume, while attempts at English are represented as "Engrish". The show will occasionally break the fourth wall by stating something to the effect of "She's speaking perfect Japanese" which will net the response of "Is she?" You really can't replicate this kind of humor.
Strawberry Marshmallow, in addition to being moe, has sometimes been classified by its fans and detractors as lolicon, possibly due in part to the nature of the "slice of life" style anime. Slice of life tends to ask its viewers to "look inside the world of" whatever style of life it sets up for us. Well any anime that asks its viewers to "look inside the world of" preteen girls is likely to be giving off some level of creep vibes.
Indeed, Strawberry Marshmallow seems to have built up an entire subculture centered around this disarming level of innocence and cuteness in the form of various art styles. The girls' eyes aren't just big as saucers, they seem eternally vacant. The show heads off any criticisms aimed at it with the inclusion of Nobue, who in addition to being a smoker, seems to derive occasional pleasure from various acts the preteen girls do in a rather fetishistic way, as if to say "Yeah we know we're weird. Shut up about it."
What makes this particularly stick is that unlike many anime themes, say the gifted teens pilot big robots theme, Strawberry Marshmallow is subversive about it. Disguised within the pretense of "silly girls having fun with their older sister figure", you'd never know this show was trying to warp your brain. Well except for the occasional "dammit" uttered by a 12-year-old who looks like she's 8.
I saw this film in the theater with my family the 1st week it came out. I enjoyed it, but I was not strongly moved by the animation (just my opinion).
Take a minute and consider the incredible task that Disney (or any major studio) has with respect to making a film in 2009. I am referring to the film being adequate for children and politically/socially correct(in addition to entertaining).
A couple of notes...I thought several of the "evil" segments were too strong. I looked at some of the very young children sitting near us and wondered what they were thinking. Then I looked at the mothers and fathers of these youngsters and knew they must be saying "oh my gosh...is this too scary for my child." Then I realized that most very young children probably do not have a clue about those particular scenes and I relaxed (Similar to some of the "evil scenes" in The Lion King and Hunchback of ND films).
Now for the controversial segment of my review. I never thought of Disney as embracing Christianity in the films, however; in this case I saw it (accidental or intentional?)
I read several reviews by Christian organizations that did not like the evil scenes. What I saw in the film was numerous views showing huge magnificent churches with crosses, a church wedding and a star named Evangeline. (Evangelist...hello !). Look up the word roots of Evangeline and you will see it comes from "the good news".
Hideous, cringeworthy, soppy rubbish. When they first played 'Return of the Jedi', it's said that they got the reels back to front, and nobody noticed. Now, take the worst thing from that movie, make it into a cruddy TV series, and you might guess why, by this stage, I would rather have watched a documentary about ant-lions mating.
Loop
Dismal, depressing and run of the milltripe, written just before the late 80's renaissance. The comic was better, and somewhat groundbreaking, but as for the TV series, set fire to your kids before their brains are corrupted by this (luckily this is unlikely to happen, nearly 25 years on.)
The first time I ever saw a squirrel it was running up a tree in New Hampshire, in a town I was told was the hometown of the creator(s) of TNMT. I was fascinated by the squirrel, which is more than I can say for the show.
Loop
What good came out of the year 2000 short of repeats of Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain, and the rock heavy sitcom Generation O?
Honestly I'm drawing a blank.
Yes, the new millennium was a wasteland for cartoons, but I think Jackie Chan Adventures was one of the better ones. I don't remember too much of the later seasons. I think the cartoon was good up to where they were dealing with the Panku Box.
The cartoon, endorsed by Jackie Chan, accurately replicated Chan's trademarked slapstick humor and stunt-filled brand of flying martial arts. I'm not sure if such a thing has what you would call a broad appeal. But then again, perhaps Avatar: The Last Airbender doesn't have what you would call broad appeal.
But whereas Avatar was a martial arts fantasy adventure with some comedy, Jackie Chan is a comedy adventure with some martial arts.
'"It was hell". recalls former child.
That's a cartoon by the lare great B.Kliban, but sums up my feelings about this whole franchise. I was in my teens when started, and other than being forced to eat cat poo, it was probably the most surefire way to get me to throw up.
OK, it's much later, but:
'When Minty accidentally breaks the Here Comes Christmas Candy Cane, which apparently guides Santa to Ponyville, she tries to take on the role of Santa and gives each one of her friends one of her prized socks.' - oh, be still mine beating heart!
Elsewhere, a reviewer who claims to actually be an original MLP fan says 'What, may I ask, is wrong with Hasbro? [...] What happened to the days when the little ponies actually did things OTHER than worry about their hair and worry themselves sick over Christmas presents and birthday parties?
Recommended for first trimester embryos.
Loop
A showcase for Gerald Scarfe's confronting animation, and Roger Waters' psycho-ironic rock star lunacy. During the few shows of 'The Wall', Floyd, under Waters' coreography, performed behind a huge wall which was slowly constructed as they perforned; a metaphor of Waters' increasing sense of arena-rock alienation from the audience. Ironically, this stage show proved to be the ultimate in deliberate alienation.
In the film we have Floyd's (overrated) 'Wall' album, contrasted with Scarfe's brilliant, disturbing and cetainly not for the littlies animation. If nothing else, I think Scarfe and Waters were on the same page. Oh, and the whole thing was directed by Alan Parker - a true great.
Someone should have made a film of 'Dark Side of the Moon'. This was Floyd passed their prime. Ambitious, worth watching, but a bit of a egoflop.
Loop