“That looks like Cranium” was my first thought upon seeing the previews for Teacher’s Pet. Sure enough, it was created by Gary Baseman, who designed Cranium, as well as Cheri and Bill Steinkellner from Cheers oddly enough. Despite the talent involved, this show is not an eighth as good as either of those other properties.
It’s about a dog called Spot (voiced by Nathan Lane) who wants desperately to go to school for no real reason explained other than adventure, which -yeah, it’s a bit of a long-shot you’ll find that in school. Donning glasses, an outfit, and the name “Scott” he enrols in the same fourth grade class as his owner Leonard, which also happens to be taught by Leonards’ mother, Mrs. Helperman. While Leonard finds out quickly enough who his classmate is, they hide it from his mother and everyone else. With nobody having the smarts or depth perception enough to see he’s just a dog in human clothes, he gets up to wacky antics as a pet passing for a student.
Obviously the premise doesn’t have a lot going for it and is just generally pretty dumb. But it’s not complimented by bland writing, characterization, and animation that seems better suited for something more surreal or unorthodox like Ren and Stimpy or Spongebob Squarepants. Nathan Lane’s distinct voice can be funny when properly utilized, like in The Lion King franchise (and then only about half the time), but here it feels like the comedy is more reliant on his voice than on any good humour. In fact, more often than not, he’s annoying. The show is clearly trying to incorporate Lane’s showmanship in an over-the-top manner, but it very rarely strikes a chord. And if you think Lane’s a big name to headline a Saturday morning cartoon, he’s accompanied by way too many good actors in supporting roles. In addition to Spot, Leonard has a parrot called Pretty Boy voiced by Jerry Stiller, and a cat called Mr.Jolly voiced by David Ogden Stiers. What the hell are they doing in this? Same goes for Wallace Shawn as the principal who has an over-established dislike of dogs. All three of these actors are very funny as we know from their previous work, but not in Teacher’s Pet, where they could easily be subbed out for any mediocre voice actor. This show also features a post-Independence Day but pre-Katara Mae Whitman as Leonard’s one-dimensional love interest. Mrs. Helperman is voiced by Debra Jo Rupp, who is kind of ideal for the part, and does have a good funny voice. Though her personality consists of being really enthusiastic about everything and frequently embarrassing her son -so essentially the same as on That 70's Show. The opposite of her would be the over-the-top, obnoxious and gross nerd character called Ian, whose voice the creators must think is funny, but only makes me want him violently killed.
Much like this character, Teacher’s Pet is very loud and obnoxious, as though it’s trying to make up for not being funny, by being in-your-face. There’s very little creativity to the plots, but in moments you can see it trying to be Recess or Pepper Ann or 101 Dalmatians. But it doesn’t have the strength of character for that. A number of stories revolve around the disparity of Spot being a dog and a student, like when he can’t help but stick his head out the window of a driving bus, or when he antagonizes a postman. And despite such incidents, no one can tell he’s a dog which is still the most absurd fallacy of this shows’ premise. Not to mention his and the other pets’ abilities to talk being largely ignored.
I like the uniqueness of Gary Basemans’ designs, but I feel they don’t suit animation as well as they do hand-drawn art. Or maybe that’s just because the world of this show looks flat and pale. Teacher’s Pet somehow got its own movie, even more inexplicably than Doug, a couple years after it went off the air, and has since been forgotten about for good reason. It was a one-note idea that led to a one-note show with a cast too good for it.
House of Mouse:
This might just be the most shameless show of the One Saturday Morning block. You can practically hear the cartoony dollar signs in Michael Eisner’s eyes at the idea of a club for all the marketable Disney characters. Everyone from the earliest shorts to the latest Disney hits could, and most likely would, appear in this show. It’s the ultimate exploitation of their properties. But House of Mouse existed for another reason too. There was a previous show called Mickey Mouse Works, which was essentially a series of new cartoons created with the classic Disney characters, with the intent of recapturing the feel of the old Disney shorts. Essentially, House of Mouse was a reworking of that show, reprising many of the shorts within a new framing device. Their repetition here in a context is why I didn’t cover Mickey Mouse Works itself.
However the Mickey Mouse Works shorts are mostly sub-par. I think because of recurring elements like Mickey’s house, it has the feel more of a variety show than independent sketches. But the overarching device was more interesting anyway, and I actually like the idea of the classic Disney gang running a club. Mickey’s the host of course, with Donald as his co-manager and Minnie as the bookkeeper. Goofy’s the restaurateur, Daisy’s the clerk, and even Max is there as the parking attendant. Pluto hangs around too, and Pete regularly features as an antagonist trying to shut them down. The only casting decision that grates on me is Quack Pack era Huey, Dewey, and Louie being the club band -luckily they don’t feature a ton. And yeah, while it’s hard to ignore how blatant the marketing is by showing so many Disney characters in one room reacting to things (the opening makes sure you notice the seven dwarves, Beast, the Mad Hatter, Winnie the Pooh, and Ariel among others), they are fairly confined to cameo roles, with a few exceptions. Because Disney owned Nathan Lane and he was simultaneously doing Teacher’s Pet, Timon has recurring speaking roles; Jerry Orbach actually does Lumiere for a handful of episodes and James Woods will be Hades for anything. But it is genuinely a treat to see lesser known Disney characters showing up, not just from the movies, but the original cartoons, like Clarabelle Cow, Horace Horsecollar, Mortimer Mouse, and Ludwig Von Drake. Hell, the house cleaner is the magical broom from “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” -that’s a really great detail.
In fact there are more than a few great easter eggs to Disney’s history, and this show delights in using them, even as main points of individual shows. One episode features the reunion of the Three Caballeros, another follows-up on A Goofy Movie with Max and Roxanne on a date, and another is a big homage to the black and white cartoon era. In fact, though most of the shorts shown are modern, they do intermittently introduce new audiences to the old cartoons, like in the Chip n’ Dale episode, and these are still quite good. It’s stuff like this that shows House of Mouse was trying to do more than exploit Disney characters. There was a real love for Disney history here and its evident on screen. At the same time, you can tell where House of Mouse was just incorporating unused pitches from previous Disney shows like Timon and Pumbaa, Aladdin, and Goof Troop. And some of the jokes at the expense of Disney characters could get pretty bad.
It’s easy to see this show as just a sell-out, and sometimes it really feels like it, but it was also an earnest celebration of Disney’s legacy. The comedy wasn’t bad, the classic characters are still funny and likeable, and the animation is decent (except on some of the film characters where it heavily pales next to their movies). I do wish the Disney TV characters showed up, as apart from a cameo by Pepper Ann and her mum, none of them do. Also it’s set in Toon Town, which suggests Warner Brothers and MGM characters should be appearing too, but maybe Mickey has some discriminatory policy against them. Regardless, House of Mouse was a surprisingly cute and fun show for any Disney fan, and of course as kids we loved it. And as far as soulless commercials for Disney go, this was one of the best ones.
Comments
Post a Comment