Course, you wouldn’t know it watching Eliot while he’s ‘animating’ a car chase during an episode, complaining all the way, but then as Hart tells him, it was his idea.

Jim Henson and Nelvana prove themselves to be worthy partners in this animation production, which is probably one of the best users of blending animation with live-action that television has to offer. Of course the live-action part utilises muppets, so it may not be the most live-action that live-action can be; seeing that muppets can overact with the best toons around.

The normal everyday annoyances, usually the creation of his neighbours, friends or his wheezing bulldog superintendent/dogsbody(?) Bruno, are the things that inspire the stories of Eilot’s most famous cartoon series: The Adventures of Ace Hart, sort of an art imitating life thing, the old question of where does an artist get their inspiration from – which many of Eilot’s friends themselves ask – answered in a sly way, without shouting it from the rooftops. As well as the situations, many of Eilot’s friends are incorporated into the cartoon, the wheezing bulldog superintendent is a dead ringing – personality wise if not 100 in appearance – for crime boss Bubsy Vile.

In a kind of homage to those old detective pulps and movie serials, the villains tend to place Hart onto elaborate death traps which look like they offer no chance of escape, usually resulted in Hart yelling to Elliot as to how he suppose to save himself and anyone else sharing his fate. Like those old serials of the 1930s (and their common phase “to be continue next week”), the solution were/are usually a slight re-edit/redrawing of the scene, introducing some small element to the mix which offers just enough leeway to allow for Hart to do some implausible stunt, thus becoming free. Probably the most famous one being the one in the opening credits where surrounded by villains, Ace is saved by Elliot painting an elevator around the canine detective before descending into the hard concrete of the road, leaving the villains confused and a bit ticked-off.

For Hart is the only one who knows of the ‘real’ world and is constantly commentating on the story will his creator, usually with the two at odds with each other, or some outside influence. This makes for some fun moments, especially since both characters can be a bit hot-headed and inpatient at times. Arguments about the direction of the plot, or when there is a lack of action and Hart is getting bored, or vice-versa, it helps to make the series that little bit more special and earns it that extra half-star that separates the good from the excellent.

Nelvana is a company that generally is good at the animation side of things,* Dog City is no exception to this heritage. The animation is strong throughout, although by this time that is to be expected, television animation was out of the rut it had suffered through many a year. Yet its those interactions that are the series bread and butter and it uses them to great effect, in some ways its an extension of the concepts of Duck Amuck and the like, but it is a favourable comparison; as it is an extremely well made, entertaining and at time laugh out funny, Dog City is a show I wholeheartedly recommend.

*Of course, they have had their fair share of the bad as well.

The show is probably about two thirds cartoons and one third muppetry, with the muppet sequences used both as a framing device to introduce the cartoons, and - more memorably - as points of interaction between the cartoon and 'real' characters.

Eliot Shag is a middle aged German Shepherd (muppet) cartoonist/animator who lives in an apartment building and writes his freelance story 'Dog City' (I'm not sure at times whether it's actually animation or a syndicated cartoon, and the animations are visualisations of the cartoon - but I don't suppose it matters).

An episode will often go something like this. Eliot's day-to-day real life involving other tenants of the apartment building will form the inspiration for a 'Dog City' idea, and then the animated 'episode' is introduced. Or, Eliot's real-life happenings will intrude on the episode and influence the way it's written. Or both. The series is also full of animation references and gags. Eliot also interacts from his drawing board with his main character and alter ego, Ace Heart, the German Shepherd private eye in the cartoon series. Otherwise Ace's world is fully self-contained. He has an uneasy working relationship with crimefighter Cheif Rosie O'Gravy (like Colleen from 'Road Rovers', a collie), and there are a cast of occaisional underworld characters. Nobody but Ace has this awareness that they are in a cartoon. The cartoons themselves are very good, but it's the interaction with the 'real world' that pushes this series over the edge to four stars.

This may sound a bit confusing, so I'll give you an idea of how it works when it works really well.

There is one episode, whose name escapes me at the moment, where Eliot gets an unexpected visit from his old animation teacher. This guy is a famous but crusty old character who seems to have learned his craft in the 30's. He sees Eliot is writing an episode of 'Dog City' decides he's doing it all wrong, and periodically takes over the writing when Eliot is distracted or out of the room. Whenever this happens, the animation goes to black and white and reverts to a 1930's style, with the characters having dots for eyes, and so on. What's more, Ace, who is completely aware of what is going on, is being driven mad by having the animation and story style change all the time while he's trying to solve a case. Eliot comes in and finds this old guy fiddling with his story, and flies off the handle, telling him that that sort of style is old-fashioned and irrelevant now. They have a huge fight about it, and Ace argues with them from the storyboard. It's great.

Still most of the episodes consist of a more or less uninterrupted cartoon, which is why it gets by our rule about mixed live/animated products.

I'd love to get this on DVD. There are only two VHS tapes out there, with two or three episodes per tape, but they're definately worth chasing down, since the ones left on Amazon are pretty cheap. Also the episode I just described is on one of them.

Great show. I wouldn't even have known about it if a friend hadn't sent me one of the tapes back in about 1998.

NB: there is a movie available (at least in England) called 'Jim Henson's Dog City'. To my knowledge this has nothing to do with the TV series.

(Edit) I've taken half a star off, because I've seen some more episodes now that weren't quite of the standard of the previous ones I'd seen. But even they were darn good.