ROCKS 5A: Danger Mouse

WELCOME EVERYBODY TO THE FIRST DISCUSSION IN THE FIFTH STRAND OF THE NEW CLUB "R.O.C.K.S." - REWATCHING OLD CLASSIC KIDS SHOWS!
A big thanks to everyone that are joining us through all of this.

Threads 5A and 5B will focus on the 80s classic Danger Mouse, and for this show, we're doing things slightly differently. Because this series has 10min episodes and 20-25min episodes (in some cases these are 5x5min episodes edited together to tell a continuous story), we're going to do two longer ones and two shorter ones at a time.

This week we're watching:

Rogue Robots (10m)
Lord Of The Bungle (10m)
Public Enemy No1 (25m)
Danger Mouse On The Orient Express (25m)

Just the usual friendly reminder to everyone that, whilst fans are obviously welcome to passionately discuss and give their views on these episodes, please remember to keep things on a friendly footing and respect your fellow posters.
Also, please do not post where or how to find the full episode online. And do not post asking others to PM it to you. You are however allowed to watch the show in whatever manner you want.

Rogue Robots and Lord of the Bungle are fun short episodes. Of the two I preferred Rogue Robots. I found the over all story/plot of Lord of the Bungle to be very silly.
I really prefer the longer episodes.
Pubic Enemy No1 is a really good episode.
Danger Mouse on the Orient Express is my favourite Danger Mouse episode. I still have the Video Collection VHS video I got when I was about 4 years old and have seen it probably over one hundred times.

The writing and dialogue between the characters is very witty and intelligent for a children's TV show.
The voice cast is also very good. David Jason and Terry Scott are terrific.

One thing that always annoyed me about Danger Mouse was the inconsistent animation. Some scenes the characters are clearly shown to be their normal size like Rescue Rangers, like having the base in the Post Box etc but in other scenes they are shown to be much larger like human size.

It was fun to revisit this series after such a long time. I had only seen a couple of DM episodes back in the 80s and hadn't watched the series again until now.

The inspiration from James Bond are obvious and numerous. It was fun to try and identify them! :) The stories were at times silly, like Mark said, especially "Lord of the Bungle". I mean turning elephants into sugar cubes is a bit bizarre even for a cartoon! :00 But still the writers managed to keep the story somewhat entertaining. Oh, and Mount Kilimanjaro does not look like that! ;)

Cosgrove Hall really did push the limits of cost cutting when it came to animation. Even Hanna Barbera's cartoon look like big budget movies when compared to CH's ones. The limited movements, and often times the characters mouths were hidden when they were talking (like DM and Penfold in the car) so that the animators would not have to animate them. The cut out and pasted pictures of London's cityscape in the background, static scenes, straight line motions etc, were many of the tricks employed to spend as little money on animation as possible.

Yet for some strange reason, the eventual look of the cartoon is still quaintly pleasant and does not look disgustingly cheap. And the limited animation meant that the writers had to rely more on witty verbal jokes than physical comedy. I suppose that is why even today when we watch the cartoon as adults, we can still enjoy them. Compare that with some of the early Disney shorts, which while beautifully and richly animated, relied solely on slapstick humor, which most adults get bored of very quickly. I myself find it difficult to watch some of those Pluto shorts in which he is struggling with one problem throughout the cartoon, even though as a kid I used to love it. :biggrin

My really big issue with DM is the lack of background music. That is something I feel CH shouldn't have been so miserly with. Many scenes feel "empty" because there is no background score. They didn't need to hire John Williams but any type of simple music would have helped to fill in the audio.

It's funny that you should mention "Rescue Rangers", Mark because I was just thinking about the similarity between these two shows. Both revolve around spy rodents solving problems in the human world usually caused by other "evil" animals. :)

"Wilycub, post: 120474, member: 25043" said:

It's funny that you should mention "Rescue Rangers", Mark because I was just thinking about the similarity between these two shows. Both revolve around spy rodents solving problems in the human world usually caused by other "evil" animals. :)

I know in G.I. Joe Cobra Commander came up with some pretty absurd scheme...but I fail to understand how turning elephants into sugar cubes and putting them in tea was going to help Greenback achieve his goal.

Come to think of it Rescue Rangers is also quite similar to the Disney movie The Rescuers.

I have a few scant memories of Danger Mouse as a kid. It's weird looking at it again through adult eyes. It parodies a lot of the secret agent stuff - Bond most obviously, but I'm sure there must be more than a hint of Danger Man in here, otherwise why call it Danger Mouse?

Like many 80s shows, it had a very small voice cast, and made very effective use of dual roles. David Jason as the title character is pitch perfect, as is Terry Scott as Penfold. Edward Kelsey as both Colonel K and Baron Greenback is also spot on.

The basic storylines are a little offbeat at times, and I'm not convinced I'm a fan in that department. But the jokes are entertaining enough.

Public Enemy No1 was the only one of the four that I definitely remember from my youth. 5 continuous shorts shown over a single week, as was often done with shows at the time. Probably the reason why 5-parters were the number of choice for multi-part stories. DM On The Orient Express seemed to be more of a single entity, and the windmill sequence rang a faint bell. I'm not sure if I'd ever seen the other two though. I can't be sure either way if the elephants turning into sugar cubes is familiar or not.

The static animation, yes, Cosgrove Hall were very low budget in animation terms - the classic is the completely black screen with only the character's eyes showing. It works because we understand the joke. It probably also helps that we have the British sense of humour driving the dialogue. The fact that there's something witty to laugh at helps.

How much I actually like it, I can't quite decide. I was always first and foremost an action cartoon junkie, but there is action here. The jokes can be good, or sometimes so bad they're good. It's one of those things that shouldn't have worked but somehow manages to.

"LiamABC, post: 120477, member: 25438" said:

It's one of those things that shouldn't have worked but somehow manages to.

I think that's one of the best ways to describe it! :)

I think the key factor is the British sense of humour, wordplay, double-entendre and so on. The British sense of humour enables it to break the fourth wall in a way that's inaccessible to American shows.

"LiamABC, post: 120487, member: 25438" said:

I think the key factor is the British sense of humour, wordplay, double-entendre and so on. The British sense of humour enables it to break the fourth wall in a way that's inaccessible to American shows.

I agree. It's the writing that really made Danger Mouse so popular. There are a lot of USA and Japanese cartoons with beautiful animation but really poor writing.