This reminds me of the time I saw Car Wash. I was at a family get-together and for some reason the topic of this film came up. My aunts were incredulous when I admitted I never seen it. "You haven't seen Car Wash!?" they asked, in all sincerity, as if it was kinda cinematic sacrilege.

Pfft. Cartoons are notorious for shitty miracles. From "Inspector Gadget and the Gadgetinis" to "Bubsy" to pretty much all those 70s cartoons based on live action shows (Lavern & Shirley! Lassie's Rescue Rangers! Fonz and the Happy Days Gang!)

It's literally the plot to Ice Age, but with cavemen.

I wouldn't necessarily categorize "bruising slapstick" as low-road, since slapstick is just as important to animated comic sensibilities than verbal wit. One of the things Dreamworks does well is handling visual speed with a "pause, rewind, re-watch" sensibility that becomes more impressive with each re-watch.

The ensuing foot-chase is sped up and scored to Yakety-Sax?

I adore Sudden Death, mainly because it's cheesy as hell in its pure awesomeness. It's dumbness works in its favor, having Van Damme fight people everywhere - and pretending to be a shitty hockey player goalie to escape some badguys. It's so damn fun, but surprisingly well-directed.

While I agree, integrity isn't… exactly Hollywood's strong suit, and that "name prominently displayed on the product" nets him a huge check every week, so yeah, he ain't saying shit. In fact, one of the things I've learned during my various meetings when in HW was that "filthier = better" in their minds. Apparently…

Just so we're in the loop, Seth MacFarlane hasn't really "worked" on Family Guy since season 6, right around the time the show went from "pretty bad" to "utter shit". This was confirmed over on cartoonbrew, so it's not necessarily his fault.

@avclub-0a7d7a81e8e3a20e4c34748e98ef45f6:disqus I will admit that I fell into the trap of trying to define what makes "hip-hop" or any type of music and musicians authentic. I'm not familiar with Macklmore's songs outside of Thrift Shop and Can't Hold Us, so it seemed like he was trying to make a point through a…

Well, the AVClub did an Inventory on what they themselves called novelty acts, which in their terms meant songs and singers that were indeed unusual but also had an that entertainment value. Some acts are indeed parodies, satires or jokes but tend to be produced so well that "ironically" likes become genuine likes.…

Oh, I LOVE Watts too. Novelty songs can be amazing! I just wouldn't exactly categorize it under authentic hip-hop.

He's not bad for a novelty-comedy rapper (see: Reggie Watts) but I would never ever put him in the real hip hop category.

YEEEEEEEESSSSSSSS

Totally forgot about Yo-Noid. I did think of the Spot game, but on a recent playthrough, it's actually pretty good, if insanely hard.

To be fair, references, whether corporate, pop culture or sexual, aren't exactly new in cartoons. It's actually sort of a late-90s idea that they're inherently bad/problematic due to our Puritian ideas and over-commitment to "protect our children," whatever that means.

I had this conversation with a co-worker, and we both agreed that, even though we'd watch every episode as a kid, we knew that it was inherently a corny show. Like, you couldn't express it at the time, but even at the age of 8, you know this is cheesy shit. It's novelty was in never seeing that kind of stylize action…

The reboot wasn't that better. I watched it and tuned out after the first season. I watched it again about a month ago and was surprised how dated it was - and it aired about 3 years ago.

I caught a few episodes of JEM recently, and it's bad, but in a good way. It's one of the few cartoons that had episode-to-episode continuity, which makes it kinda bold and radical (more like a soap opera). It's odd how now that the idea is pretty much defacto in TV, but back then, it was just a marketing gimmick to…

@avclub-0f0d67e214f9fef69b278e3d08114da9:disqus If Michael Bay is so obsessed with aliens, why doesn't he reboot that?

I unironically agree. I loved Hercuoids, mainly because it was just random in both its heroes and villains. Like, they were side characters from other shows left over in a bin, and they compiled them together and made Herculoids.