MovieChat Forums > The Raccoons (1985) Discussion > Am I the only one who thinks that the '9...

Am I the only one who thinks that the '90s episode were bad?

posted 18 years ago by njdimic
9 replies | jump to latest

I recently found this cartoon, and I reminded myself how great it was. The stories were great, the characters were funny and likeable. And then I was dissaponted with the '90's episode (I don't know which season was that) and with how big downfall was it. I mean, they added new characters who stole the spotlight from the oldtime favorites, they changed the entire concept of the show - I mean, the 1st season showed Raccoon gang as the rebels against Cyril Sneer the tyrant. And then later, the show kinda lost that aspect, which was bad. The plots were not as good as the old ones, the new ones were way more immature, unlike the 1st season which had a dose of suspence and action. And probably the most important thing - Cyril Sneer and the pigs, weren't that bad, as they were before. I loved those guys as some of the best villains I saw in some cartoon, and they became, ughhh, good...What gives?
That was preety long, huh? My point is, does anyone else think this way, or am I the only one?

[–] drawah64 18 years ago

Yeah, I agree completely that the quality went down over time. I prefer the first season the most, because that one had the most interesting, exciting stories (and lots of incredible music not heard later on!)

Eventually, the series kind of became more about the characters' social problems, as opposed to mixing that with adventure and excitement. The animation wasn't as good later on, either. The designs were all changed a bit for the worse, around the fourth or fifth/last season.

And of course, Bentley and Lisa weren't originally supposed to be reoccuring main characters, and when they moved into the forest permanently they got a bit annoying.

Still, I'd much rather watch a bad episode of the Raccoons than a good episode of most new shows!

[–] rattatatatatatahatatama 18 years ago

I think all the episodes were great, I don't really notice a chane in design of the show but if there really is it would I guess be in part with the fact that in the later years the company that was funding the money was going downhill which is why the show stoped in the first place

[–] bluecatcinema 18 years ago

I liked the way they were going: Giving Bert a love interest, making Cyril nicer, It showed real character growth in my opinion.

[–] drawah64 18 years ago

That's true. This series, unlike most other cartoons, has a real sense of character development over the course of the show.

Bert became more mature, less rambunctious, sort of "settled down" a bit
(although I preferred the older, sillier Bert)

Cyril Sneer became less evil (didn't like that because in the first season, his evil schemes always jump-started the stories, and when he got nicer, the show became less interesting. His lightening up was put to good effect sometimes though.

Schaeffer eventually opened a restaurant

Cedric: He became more assertive and confident

Melissa: in the specials she was quieter, and was more passive. in the series she started to stand up to ralph more when she thought he was wrong. Her character development is similar to Cedric's.

Ralph: I'm not sure what exactly it was, but he definitely seemed different at the end of the series... Maybe more outgoing, or-- comfortable with the others? Around the beginning he seemed more introverted.

[–] njdimic 18 years ago

Indeed! Let me put the difference between those two seasons this way - the basic plots for the first season were like "Cyril wants to make bussiness which in some way hurts Raccoons and they have to stop him" and the other season...well let's just say that a story in one episode was that pigs have to hide from the jam-making contest judges that their mom made their jam. I've got nothing else to say. (for now)

[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]

[–] zartok-35 18 years ago

The first season was alright, you could tell it was made at a different studio, but the episodes written by B.P. Nichol and Carol Bolt tended to get far-fetched. The episodes of 1987 and 1988 were the best of the buch in my opinion. They had decent animation, a mojority of the cast from 1985, and the storylines were very good. In 1989, a lot of old writers from season one were dropped, and Darson Hall was tried out. He survived well into the "Post-Paquette ear". In the 1990s, the show was on it's last legs. The worst thing about the 1990s episodes were the cast changes. Keith Hampshire made pig1 sound more like an old lady than a pig, and Stuart Stone made Bentley sound 5 years younger. Mary Crawford and Alan Templeton were losing their touch....certain episodes turned out to be really stupid. Aside from that, it wasn't that bad. The show certainly dropped in the "Post-Paquette era", and eventually died off in 1991 when Kevin Gillis got into a fight with Sheldon Wiseman...

[–] jmfabiano524-1 12 years ago

While the voice changes had to be done (Nick Nichols died, and Noam Zymberlain was going through puberty), yes, it just didn't seem the same. My friend always said that the '90s episodes got more preachy too, and indeed they had a few Very Special Episode moments. It didn't help that The One That Got Away was the last newer episode I saw on the Disney Channel run before they went back to the beginning, as that would have been a big downer to go out on. (though full circle, as the first Raccoons special was environmentally driven)

I don't know about Bentley...he wasn't a Scrappy per se, though I can sympathize with the people who love the original cast more.

I am currently going through the series, as tapes off of CBC, so it'll be interesting to see my reactions to the later episodes.

[–] iriszizka1991 11 years ago

I'm going to have to give my opinion here but the quality of the writing of the show suffered immediately following the ending of the first season.