Yeah, so it's been two weeks since I last posted. I was sick. And I'm self-employed, which means if i miss work due to sickitude, I make it up. Which means 40-minute-a-day diversions like watching and blogging about cartoons get pushed aside. But now I've got some time again.
Raid of the Alien Mice
We had a good run of episodes I really liked. Now we're in the series doldrums, I guess. Just kind of drifting . . . Drifting . . . Looking for a direction . . . Maybe we need a new gimmick. Y'know, like MONSTER MICE. 'Cuz that's sure better than searching space for new planets and talking about PEACE . . .
Nighttime on Arus. A meteor shower. The princess stands at a window. She wishes for peace on her planet. The mice wish for cheese.
YEEEEAAAAARRGGGHHH!!!!!
Several meteorites hit the ground near the castle, depositing an imperial probe droi--oh, no. It's full of evil mice. An alarm goes off in the castle and the team awakens. They gather in castle control, but don't see anything--except for some scurrying little shadows. Damn mice. Except the mice have been with Allura all night.
Allura switches costumes a bunch of times. Animation errors.
The mice go to check out the alarm, and run into demon mice. Apparently the mice are sappers equipped with explosives. They blow up a door and start a fire. Again Coran starts scanning things. They see holes chewed in the metal--and Cheddar caught in a mouse trap. Aaand . . . Nannie. The big tough mouse trapper herself. Ugh. Nannie
The team walks back to their rooms as the power goes out. They run to check on the generator. Hunk brute forces the doors open. And they see glowing red eyes in the darkness. RED EYES THAT START SHOOTING LASER BEAMS AT THEM. They return fire, and then Keith shines a flashlight on them and see . . . the DEMON MICE.
On Planet Doom, Haggar checks up on the progress of her mice with her crystal ball. Good lord, was someone at Toei hittin' the Disney a little too hard here?
In castle control, Coran shows the team a Demon Mice as it zaps security cameras with its eyebeams. The mice work their way toward the main computer. The team prepares to stop them--Cheddar volunteers to go demon mouse hunting. Coran gives him some sort of homing device. did he just have it in his pocket? The team stands outside the Master Computer Room/ Cheddar finds the alien mice, and lead them directly to the computer room. The mice get in the MC Room, and Coran tells Keith there's a robeast outside the castle.
Damn, was this episode done by the b-team? That's a terrible looking robeast. For the longest time, I had remembered this episode as part of the "new" voltron episodes, the US-only episodes WEP commissioned for a second lion season. It's not. But the animation quality is pretty low in some parts. And the robeast design is on a par with some of that season.
The team has to run to their lions, since there's no power in the castle. the robeast shoots lasers out of its fingers and keeps the team under cover, away from their lions.
Pidge can't follow the Demon Mice into the computer. But Cheddar can. He finds the mice and confronts them. By making faces. They chase him through the conduits of the computer, then shoot lasers at him. Before the lead mouse challenges him to a boxing match. Allura tells him to use the karate chop Pidge taught him. He defeats the mice and leads them into the main room, where Pidge blasts 'em.
Really. This is really happening in this episode.
The robeast is looking for the other three team members with its searchlight eyes. They're almost to the lions, when the robeast sees 'em and tries to stomp on eith. Lotor is dissatisfied with the progress, so the robeast sets the forest on fire in an attempt to cut them off from their ships.
All the alien mice have been killed and power is restored. Allura and Pidge get to their own lions as the robeast corners the team in the middle of the forest fire. Allura plays National Park Service and extinguishes the fire, then scoops up the three guys. Lotor gets excited 'cuz they're all in one lion, but Pidge holds off the robeast as she returns them to the castle. And there's a net in one of the turrets? Wow, Alfor planned for everything when he designed this castle.
The robeast grabs green and blue lions, and it's up to the rest of the team, who make their way through stock footage to their own lions. They use a lot of boxing terminology as they pound the robeast, and Pidge and Allura escape, enabling them to form Voltron.
They land as Voltron and throw the robeast. He gets back up and forms some sort of Robeast nunchaku. Volts forms the blazing sword, and that's pretty much all there is to this story.
Later, Nanny gives the mice cheese as a reward for defeating the Demon Mice. Pidge tries to snitch some, but the mice bite him. And then there's some more dialogue. About Allura's wish. Boy, this is sooo much better than Vehicle Voltron.
Look for the Little Shadows
Y'know, there are some anime fans who simply assume the Japanese version is better. There is something to be said for that, because things get lost in translation, rescripting and dubbing can get rushed and result in low-quality work, and sometimes the people working on the project just don't quite "get" the source material.
And then, sometimes, the source episode is just shit.
Like this one. Not even the original voice actors, music, and better pacing can change the fact that they're up against . . . demon mice.
Argh. (Weirdly enough, I actually enjoy the demon frog episode).
Okay, let's look at this in terms of Galra's strategy. They first tried frontal assaults. That didn't work. Then they started to find ways to separate the team so they couldn't form Golion. This "Divide and Conquer" strategy has pretty much been the way they've gone. Now, there's a bit of a shift in strategy. Galra is using sabetours (albeit stupid mousey ones) to disrupts Golion's infrastructure. Instead of kidnapping members, they're going to make it hard to form Golion by, basically, forcing them to go to the lions on foot. And, y'know, all the other advantages that come from disrupting the foundations of your opponent's organization.
OK, maybe I can outlast the rest of this episode by going on about Galra's flora and fauna. So, we've seen Galra cobras. And some sort of flowers that cause DEATH due to human allergies to their pollen. Now we meet Galra rats, who have laserbeams in their eyes. No wonder the Galra empire is full of ornery bastards like Daibazaal. Their goddamn RATS shoot LASERS!
Ugh. When the beastman appears, he makes the worst noise ever. Nothing in this episode is good. And the beastman's name is Catgun. I think the main staff was all on vacation when they did this one, and got some second-stringers from Sunrise or something.
Platt has gradually been speaking more in recent episodes. In this one, he's basically a full speaking character. I dunno. Is it a good thing that even the MOUSE is developing as a character?
On the plus side, this episode's combination sequence song is the red lion theme. Kicking at the magma.
Whew. I am glad this one is over. At least next episode is one to look forward to.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment