thehound - oct2001

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       At last! - The much-anticipated, tastlessly brilliant Mr Hell
       Show is finally being unleashed upon the dirty British public.
       Aaagh! - It's The Mr Hell Show! stars Bob Monkhouse as the
       voice of a devilish new toon star in a quickfire half-hour of
       outrageousness, with a stack of regular outlandish co-stars,
       and what's more it's a British-lead creation born from the
       minds of those equally outlandish folk at Peafur Productions.

       If you're a regular visitor you would have seen the Toonhound
       Mr Hell Show special which included a Q&A with Peafur's
       Alan Gilbey, way-y-y back last January. And if you aren't,
       haven't or didn't, go there now!



       Now, word is that Mr Hell, Serge The Seal Of Death, Champion
       The Wonder Snail et al invade BBC2 weekly from the 28th October.
       Keep your eyes on your tv guides for times, and set your video
       because The Hound here can guarantee that you'll want watch
       this more than once. I've guffawed, rewinded and guffawed again
       through the episodes I've previewed. The 'Animation Special'
       episode is particularly fine. Several industry icons are attacked
       with surgical precision, and the 'Cokey The Cat' pastiche of early
       toons takes the comedy ball from previous class acts like
       'The Simpsons' Chester Lampwig episode and cracks a big bad
       British Home Run...

       The Mr Hell Show is quick. Quicker than lightning when
       compared to previous British toon creations. It's an animated
       'Fast Show' with Cartman's tongue sown on. Our pointy-topped
       friend may not be to everyone's taste but even the most
       jaded of viewers has to admire the amount of comedic effort
       that's been shoehorned into each episode. I'm really hoping
       this finds its niche and that the Peafur team take a stab at a
       second season. Given a hellish wind this could turn into
       essential cult viewing...

       There are plenty of links on my Mr Hell Show page. But don't
       forget  the Q&A - You read about this one here first, folks!...

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        As everyone surely knows, that Black Day of September
        the 11th and its repurcussions have wreaked havoc on the
        movie and television industry. There's been much high-profile
        scuppering of various movie releases, but on a smaller British
        note, even 30-year old tv shows are feeling the pinch from all of
        this fall-out:

        Take poor old Captain Scarlet, just one week into its bright
        new relaunch from Cartlon and The Beeb. Lurking behind the
        series premise is the awfully relevant notion that those Mysterons
        are waging a terror campaign upon Spectrum and the Earth.
        Indeed, in an uncanny similarity with real events, the first
        episode climaxes at the top of that many-storeyed tower, with
        Scarlett plunging lord-knows-how-far before becoming indestrutbile.
        Then, the second episode 'Winged Assassin' features a plot to         involving crashing a plane directly into another aircraft...

        Yoiks! - Quite rightly, BBC pulled that there episode and
        the third one, in which London comes under attack. Episode
        four was shown in its place, but with the latest developments out
        there in Afghanistan I really can't see the rest of this series
        making it to our screens without one or two additional episodes
        being dropped from the schedule - especially the one which
        sees New York come under attack too. What a mess, eh?
        I even feel a little pity for Carlton Media who had the grace
        to pull their smart official site offline during that initial dark
        week...

        But the world goes on. And while I applaude the immediate
        sensitivity displayed, self-censorship can be a worrying thing.
        Now there appear to be bands of people out there wishing to
        excise past movies and shows, removing them all together.
        The hunger to remove all visions of Manhattan and its Twin
        Towers from past creations is also frightening. That's as bad
        as the Taleban, the Russians and the Chinese in their time seeking
        to remove all traces of their former lives from their media and
        physically, from their countries. If the Houses Of Parliament
        were blown up tomorrow would we really wish to see all
        traces of its existence removed from our world?

        Check out the Captain's link page here...

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       The good Captain wasn't the only toon victim of terrorism in the
       last month. Even DangerMouse fell foul of the the new sensitivity.
       Due for recent release was the 3rd DVD featuring our dynamic
       Greenback-bashing duo. Only, the title 'Tower Of Terror;' and
       a pic of twosome fleeing a quivering skyscraper was - quite
       rightly - deemed a little insenitive in the current climate...

       Frustrating, though, given that this DVD features an interview with
       Brian Cosgrove and a previousdly unseen pilot episode. Still,
       good things come to he who waits, eh, and it should be
       available any moment now...

       As I'm sure you know, there are a number of DangerMouse
       links for you here...

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      Barely a month goes by without some genre programme
      getting a poor show on terrstrial tv. This month it's the Beeb's
      who've dealt a poor hand to our jammy favourite Rex The Runt.
      Now here's a show where, even if you don't like it, the production
      credits demand that you should view at least one episode of the
      new series. I mean, heck, it's an Aardman show, created by the
      director of their forthcoming Dreamworks co-production 'Tortoise
      And The Hare'. That alone makes it one to catch. But can you?
      - Of course you can't, Bob!

      Rex's second series has been cruelly 'runted' into oblivion by
      those BBC2 schedulers: On Saturdays, hugely late and
      repeated Sunday lunchtime, ish. Will they never learn?
      Still, the first fine series is now available on a greensleeved video,
      so you can reschedule it in to a more suitable slot for yourself.
      Self-scheduling, yep, that would be a very Rex-like thing to
      do, I reckon. Anyway, curiously, there's no mention of a DVD
      release yet. I hope one pops out soon...

      Check out the links on my Rex The Runt page...

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      So what do you think? - I've revamped Bunty's Booty, introduced
      Cracking Collectibles and overhauled Gentleman Briggs, as
      promised. Now it's the turn of those new-fangled Fleetway St.
      pages, languishing in that halfway-house between revamp and
      and old age. To keep your Fleetway juices flowing before that
      happens, of course, you should stop by the most recent
      Toonhound Q&A with comics genius Trevor Metcalfe - he who
      brought us Sweet Tooth, Birdman & Chicken, Jasper The
      Grasper and a host of fun comic stars during his time with
      those comics - You'll be surprised at hoiw many toon stars
      he's drawn over the years...

      And when you're through, why not pop on by www.26pigs.com
      and buy a load of back-issues at their online auctions? Gaz and
      his 25 porker pals have created an auction section to rival
      ebay, tailored specifically to British comics and annuals.
      They had a few hiccups in their inaugral week, but all's going
      smooth now, even if yours truly found his High Bid for Monster
      Fun #1 toppled in the final stages - Drat, and double drat! - A
      hugely impressive development, is this, and it deserves all the
      support you can muster...

       - Till next time!

            thehound@toonhound.com