Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation thoughts

[DaffyDonaldQW93]

I was going to wait until the library, but I'm glad I got my copy of "How I Spent My Vacation" at a Goodwill-like store. It was the most recommended videos in one of my discussions. If you've seen the movie or watched the butchered 3-part version, then some of the stuff I'm about to tell you is no suprise.


(WARNING: THIS THREAD CONTAINS SPOILERS)


Some of the stuff I liked is what made TTA great. And it wasn't preachy like the first season was. Making it into a DTV movie truly expressed the humor in Tiny Toon Adventures. Allthough TTA had adult humor ever since "The Looney Beginning", this is the installment of the TTA saga that made it truly adult.

Spoiler

Especially like when Hamton's family invited a stranger that ended up being a "Texas Chainsaw Massacare"-like criminal that turned out to be a villian, epsecially for Plucky, Buster and Babs. (I did not see "Texas Chainsaw Masscare" I just saw a Garfield spoof in the book "Lights, Camera, Hairballs" partly used to tie in the sequel to the live-action/CGI movie.)

This film reminded me of the Garry Marshall film "Valentine's Day". Say what you want about that movie, but it's basically the same idea, only with more action.



But there was some moments that made me giggle or smile. Most of them are spoilers.

Spoiler

Fifi La Fume fanboys who have a crush on her, prepare to cry and/or eat your heart out. There was a hotter skunk who was pink, tall and in a wet suit, and he got Johnny Pew's attention instead of Fifi's by giving her his autograph instead of what Johnny did to poor Fifi! I liked it that Fifi was mad and she realized that the actor of her dreams nothing but a fake! It nearly brought back the child inside

When Hamton's family played "Spot The Car", for a brief second you can see a wacky expression on a flatted Plucky on Uncle Stinky's butt. It made me think of the intro to "The Plucky Duck Show", because I saw that clip before in the main title of that short-lived spin-off.

Spoiler

Buster and the possum that didn't want to eat the bunnies played a wondeful rendition of the Tiny Toon Adventures main title only it sounded like they added more verses. It was probably the most overused melody of the movie, including a breif use of the original version recorded for the opening of the series

Spoiler

A scene I could relate to was when Fowlmouth talked about what was going to happen. Which is why the MPAA gave the Skunkaphobia movie an F rating (Not suitable for Fowlmouth)

Spoiler

Hamton's family is just too many weirdos and is maybe a little TOO IDEAL for Plucky. You've got Hamton's parents who don't treat Plucky like normal parents would, Uncle Stinky who is the messiest, grossest, rudest pig who seems like he came straight out of the farm. Hamton's family gave Plucky no chance to read comic books, no fast-food from the drive-in, no air conditioning, no water, invited a stranger who was a criminal to Plucky and turned off the radio halfway when the number to turn the criminal in was being announced.

Spoiler

And when Hamton's Family and Plucky finally got to Happy World Land, all they did was tour the place in a monorail and NEVER went on the rides

Spoiler

Some other highlights, include when Dizzy got naked and started a new trend originally to cover himself up for Mary Melody and the gang. The Roadrunner (no, not Little Beeper, but the original Roadrunner) was flattened twice by a mail truck (You thought "Soup Or Sonic" was the only time the Roadrunner was defeated). There was a THX spoof, my only drawback is that they had an explosion synth sound and then they should have gottenLucasfilm's permission to use the trademark "Deep Note" instead of the generic cue the composer used. After all, Speilberg was friends with Lucas. I also loved the Fourth of July trick to the gators, and Superman was repsonded with "Get your own video" by Babs. Also, the whole climax to the Back-To-School sale and the "Plot Hole" was great.

The first thing I saw in the movie before the FBI Warning and the classic WHV bombastic synth fanfare logo was that stupid fruit snacks commercial which made the viewing unecessary when I was a kid. I relived it on YouTube recently before buying the tape. I lost the remote, so it was just a 30 or 60-second frustration. I bet the WB execs and merchandising department wanted to advertise the merchandising tie-ins of the show when putting these videos out. They had no idea there would be post-show reruns on Kids WB and Nickelodeon when they discountinued the fruit snacks. Who made these fruit snacks? Private labelers for grocery stores? Keebler? Kellogg's? The Something Foods Company? (OK, I made up that last one, but seriously, who made 'em. I saw no Betty Crocker logo, so I'd be REALLY suprised if General Mills made them under Betty Crocker.)




So there, that about covers it. If congintofalcon or Tom Ruegger has any thoughts (or maybe some other Warner Bros. Club member), feel free to drop by. Sorry for all of those spoilers. I just don't know how many non-TTA fans who never saw How I Spent My Vacation would've reacted.

 

[DaffyDonaldQW93]

hello? anyone?

 

[Narfpinky]

Howdy!

The forums have been down for the last 3-4 days(just came back online today so most may not know), plus being a holiday on an otherwise slow-at-times-forum is going to make for some slow replies. It'll happen in time.

 

[cognitofalcon]

Nice review, but spoiler warnings would be nice, I stopped reading up until about half way through, I haven't finished the movie, heh heh.

 

[Dudley]

I use to watch the movie every year or so back when I was young. And then I watched it again for the first time last year, and it still holds up. I love the adventures the characters go through, and everyone got a chance to appear, though not everyone did anything (like Montana Max). I also love the animation that TMS did, proving once again it was one of the best outsourced studios to use.

The credits gags were hilarious as well.

 

[DaffyDonaldQW93]

I use to watch the movie every year or so back when I was young. And then I watched it again for the first time last year, and it still holds up. I love the adventures the characters go through, and everyone got a chance to appear, though not everyone did anything (like Montana Max). I also love the animation that TMS did, proving once again it was one of the best outsourced studios to use.

The credits gags were hilarious as well.

Now, that's the best post I've read througout this thread. Allthough they hinted some of the anime style that was nearly traditional to TMS with some limited animation in some scenes, the animation was primitive for an outsourced cartoon. They did a good job sticking to the designs and added no realism.


Other than the consistent animation, Hamton's dad only knew "Pop Goes The Weasel", even when humming of a few bars of "Old MacDonald". Now that's one embarssing dad if you ask me. As Slappy Squirell stole from the person who coined it, "Now That's Comedy!".

I did notice that there was no Montana adventure, I thought they were ended up in Monty's mansion during that Fourth of July sequence, but the gators proved me wrong.

 

[Artayes]

One of my favorite movies.

Highlights-
1- every scene with Fowlmouth
2- Byron tagging along with Buster and Babs
3- Hamton's family
4- great plots that come together at the end
5- music
6- gags a plenty

This film was very well written and the TTA characters that got decent roles were all fantastic.

Arnold and Bookworm were completely absent, but other than that, all the recurring toons got some sort of role, even if a cameo.

 

[Classic Speedy]

This is my favorite scene in the movie (which is saying a lot, because there are a lot of scenes in this that I like): Plucky trying to get a simple drink of water. A very identifiable problem, especially on long car trips.

I love creative visual moments like this, where the car is seen through the rounded shape of the water drop and then the camera angle itself becomes fish-eye like as it zooms towards Plucky, taking the same shape of the water drop. Great stuff.

Of course, gotta have the oasis daydream...

...and the literal desert coming out of Plucky's mouth.

Funny gag with Plucky being stuck to the sticky car seat, thus being unable to quite reach the water. I love it when cartoons take something that happens in real life and exaggerate it like this.

And of course, who doesn't love Hamton's mom's line: "Good heavens, Plucky, if you drink that much water, we'll be stopping again in NO TIME." Lady, the guy's dehydrated! He'll probably sweat it out anyway!

And to top off the scene, as Plucky is dragged away, he tries to get just a DROPLET of water but can't even get that, as the droplet bounces off his tongue and back into the fountain. The fluttery music only accentuates this gag.

 

[Philmister978]

Now, that's the best post I've read througout this thread. Allthough they hinted some of the anime style that was nearly traditional to TMS with some limited animation in some scenes, the animation was primitive for an outsourced cartoon. They did a good job sticking to the designs and added no realism.


Other than the consistent animation, Hamton's dad only knew "Pop Goes The Weasel", even when humming of a few bars of "Old MacDonald". Now that's one embarssing dad if you ask me. As Slappy Squirell stole from the person who coined it, "Now That's Comedy!".

I did notice that there was no Montana adventure, I thought they were ended up in Monty's mansion during that Fourth of July sequence, but the gators proved me wrong.

I honestly got very little from that part of your post. No offense or anything.

 

[DaffyDonaldQW93]

I honestly got very little from that part of your post. No offense or anything.

Why it's very simple. TMS is really an anime studio, so when things get cheap the studio tends to have these brief slow movements that you usually see in anime, specficially when a character turns their head anxiously. The only time this happened in How I Spent My Vacation is when a bunch of dust cleared on a bird's-eye view angle. I don't remember the scene exactly, but another example is the Animaniacs short "Temporary Insanity" with where, after all of the telephone poles destroyed the WB office from electrocution a bunch of dust and dirt cleared out is when you see that limited animation.


However, they made everything have an American-commisioned style and high cel count, plus consistent and solid designs that you nearly forget that a Japanese studio did most of the animation.


If you understand this, end of story.

 

[Philmister978]

Why it's very simple. TMS is really an anime studio, so when things get cheap the studio tends to have these brief slow movements that you usually see in anime, specficially when a character turns their head anxiously. The only time this happened in How I Spent My Vacation is when a bunch of dust cleared on a bird's-eye view angle. I don't remember the scene exactly, but another example is the Animaniacs short "Temporary Insanity" with where, after all of the telephone poles destroyed the WB office from electrocution a bunch of dust and dirt cleared out is when you see that limited animation.


However, they made everything have an American-commisioned style and high cel count, plus consistent and solid designs that you nearly forget that a Japanese studio did most of the animation.


If you understand this, end of story.

Yes, I now understand it thanks.

 

[wiley207]

Why it's very simple. TMS is really an anime studio, so when things get cheap the studio tends to have these brief slow movements that you usually see in anime, specficially when a character turns their head anxiously. The only time this happened in How I Spent My Vacation is when a bunch of dust cleared on a bird's-eye view angle. I don't remember the scene exactly, but another example is the Animaniacs short "Temporary Insanity" with where, after all of the telephone poles destroyed the WB office from electrocution a bunch of dust and dirt cleared out is when you see that limited animation.


However, they made everything have an American-commisioned style and high cel count, plus consistent and solid designs that you nearly forget that a Japanese studio did most of the animation.


If you understand this, end of story.

Yep, I remember the animation of the office collapsing in "Temporary Insanity" seeming very anime-like. This also seemed to happen quite a bit during long shots when there were many characters. "Inspector Gadget" (which was often animated by TMS during the first season) was also like this.

I also thought the animation of the makeshift comedy club exploding in "Sir Yaksalot" seemed rather anime-like, the way the rays of light shoot out of the building right before the actual explosion (this seems common in general anime, especially on "Pokemon")

 

[Framwinkle]

Although I already had this movie recorded on VHS from TV, and had a very limited income at the time, this was one of the Tiny Toon tapes that I just had to buy because I wanted it in the highest quality possible. I love every part of this movie, except perhaps for Elmyra's part, but that's just because I'm not too crazy about Elmyra.

Plucky's failed vacation to Happy World Land was epic, and brings up so many memories of our actual family road trips. (Although, fortunately none of them were ever that bad!) Fifi's date with Johnny Pew was amusing, and I liked how it managed to tie in with Shirley's date with Foulmouth.

My favorite part, though, was Buster and Babs' river adventure. I liked the way their water fight escalated the way only a toon fight can do, and their voyage down river was pretty entertaining. Someday I'm going to learn how to whistle the Tiny Toon theme the way Buster played it, but I haven't quite got it down yet. I need to watch the movie more often before I can remember it right. The Superman cameo was great! I'm so glad that didn't get cut for some copyright reason later on.

It also contains two of my favorite scenes. First, when Babs is soaked with her fur all wet...

(I think I definitely like her ears better down. It's just so cute!)

And second, when she finds the shack full of fireworks.

It's just such a good portrait of Babs. A crazy rabbit, a lit match, and a room full of fireworks. Such potential for mayhem!

 

[Tinytooncrazy]

Well it probely helped that Warner bros owns Dc comics so that may have gotten around the copy right laws as much as I love that gag I find the ET one funnier. I loved many of the thing you just refernce as well many one time gags such as Mary new box look after Dizzy shred his fur, , not sutiable for fowlmnouth and of course the THUD gag the audience is not deft. I also Buster and Babs water fight and their river advetnrue , particualr Buster encounter with the boo sisters and Plucky hoilday trip from hell ending try to escape from A jason vareess/ Leatherface manic Mr Hitcher. Buster and Babs indanan jones mine carter scnene was farther well done as well I like how they used the plot hole to wrapped everything up. I also got the waiting for the clock to strike 3 lyrics and the happy world theme song in my head

 

[Robochao]

I still have this on VHS. It's possibly one of the greatest things ever made in my opinion.

I'd still like to scrounge up some money and get those DVDs though.