James Fabiano reviews…THE RACCOONS!
By Scott Keith on July 25, 2021
I’ve just restarted watching my DVDs of recordings of The Raccoons, which I received from a friend who got them from off-CBC rerun recordings. As we’ve talked here and there about the show, I am letting you all in on the fun too!
(Scott sez: This show was never really on my radar, as I was more of a GI Joe/MOTU/Transformers/Robotech devotee and didn’t have time for the Raccoons. But I had many friends who were, and still are, fans.)
For the uninitiated, The Raccoons was a Canadian animated series that celebrated its 40th anniversary last year (one of the few things in 2020 that gave me joy). It started with a series of annual-to-semi-annual specials in the early ‘80s, followed by a series that ran from 1985-1992. Canadians and Americans alike got to see the show, with most people in the States probably knowing it from the specials being seen in syndication, and the series being seen up until 1993 on The Disney Channel.
There’s several tropes and wikis that can tell you more about the characters, and I’ll explain more as we go along, but basically, The Raccoons focuses on three roommate, well, Raccoons: Ralph and Melissa, a married couple, and their friend Bert, who is presumably adult but has the hyperactivity and adventurous nature of someone much younger. They live in the Evergreen Forest with their friends, a community of anthropomorphic animals that originally had their adventures framed by bits with the human characters who also lived there then disappeared as the series evolved. Their main antagonist is Cyril Sneer, a billionaire aardvark (no Hal Erickson, NOT a pink wolf who looks like an aardvark) who eventually becomes more like a frenemy of the bunch.
I am picking up within Season Three, and the show has pretty much settled into what it would be for most of its run.
Today’s episode….
PICTURE PERFECT!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
And we start at a quite pleasant place for myself, as this is a Melissa-centric episode and she is my favorite character of the show. Starting out as a mostly-quiet housewife in the specials, the series made her more into an independent wife and career woman, being the photographer for the Evergreen Standard, the newspaper the Raccoons work on. Melissa comes into her own by the start of season two, when her voice actor becomes Susan Roman, who you may know as the DiC/Cloverway voice of Sailor Jupiter. She is also drawn quite feminine and in a down to earth way 😉
Anyway, her job as a photographer is the focus of this episode, as she photographs Snag, the bulldog/aardvark hybrid pet of Cyril Sneer, braving a fire to rescue Cedric (Cyril’s son and also friend of the Raccoons. Earlier on this made him more of a tweener character, when Cyril was more of a direct villain. More on that later). This gets the attention of a major magazine publisher, who wants Melissa to work for them and thus leave the Forest. This is complicated by her not really wanting to leave, yet everyone wanting her to make the career move. Meanwhile, Snag’s rescue gets the attention of a Hollywood director who wants to use him in his next TV project. Cyril of course sees big bucks in doing so, but Snag too is conflicted about leaving.
Highlights/obsessions….
Mr.Barnes, the director, is a lion who is vaguely drawn like Snagglepuss (or Cool Cat if you prefer, and why would you?). He is one of my other obsession-forming voice jobs of the episode. As he comes off as slightly camp and artsy.
Then there’s John Roykirk, the owl editor of the World Times, who speaks in an Edward G. Robinson voice. And I am not surprised that he was Len Carlson, because of C.O.P.S. and his similar voice for Big Boss.
Cyril’s recalling his grandfather being in vaudeville before TV ruined everything.
Hey! Sophia Tutu! (this was a character, a female aardvark who had a bigger role in the specials and earlier series, yet was on the cusp of being phased out. She was Cedric’s girlfriend and served to cement Cedric as being caught between the good vs. evil sides. She also played damsel in distress in the Lost Star special. And oh yeah, she’s a bit of a ditz. Her memorable lines including, “Cedric, this is bigger than chocolate pudding!” and “The king and queen are coming….but we can’t tell you that, it’s a secret!”)
As such, this episode recycles a scene with Sophia and Melissa from an earlier episode, Going it Alone!. Odd moment of animation here : Melissa jumping on the suitcase to close it, then in the next frame she is just standing on the ground again talking.
Bert offers Melissa one of his “B” hockey jerseys as a going away present. (the only kind of clothing he ever wears, by the way)
Take a drink whenever Bert mentions peanut butter…”Peanut butter pancakes, or waffles?”
Melissa looking sad in the darkroom = my Drunk Melissa meme origin. As it looked like a BAR until closer inspection.
Melissa won’t follow Roykirk’s orders to take pictures…yet THIS WHOLE EPISODE’S PLOT WAS DRIVEN BY WHEN MELISSA STOPPED TO TAKE A PICTURE OF THE FIRE IN CEDRIC’S ROOM!
And it looked like Melissa and the other characters were about to roll the log TOWARDS Cyril when Snag and the rest are rescuing him.
“I got fired from my first job! Isn’t that wonderful?” And similarly, Melissa cheerfully telling everyone that they were dicks for not thinking about what she wanted to do.
That’s all for this time. Until next time, remember…
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