| Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue | |
|---|---|
 Official poster | |
| Genre | Social guidance television film |
| Written by | Duane Poole Tom Swale |
| Directed by | Milton Gray Marsh Lamore Bob Shellhorn Mike Svayko |
| Starring | The Smurfs,Alf,Garfield,Alvin,Simon,Theodore,Winnie the Pooh,Tigger,Muppet Babies,Slimer,Bugs Bunny,Daffy Duck,Michelangelo,Huey, Dewey and Louie |
| Voices of | |
| Music by | Richard Kosinski Sam Winans Paul Buckmaster Bill Reichenbach Bob Mann Guy Moon Alan Menken |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| Production | |
| Executive producer | Roy E. Disney |
| Producer | Buzz Potamkin |
| Editor | Jay Bixsen |
| Running time | 32 min. |
| Production companies | Main: The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation Southern Star Productions |
| Original release | |
| Network | ABC NBC Fox CBS USA Network Syndication |
| Release | April 21, 1990 (1990-04-21) |
Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue is a 1990 American animated children'scomedy-dramasocial guidance television film starring many characters from several animated television series at the time of its release.[1] The plot follows Michael, a teenager who is usingmarijuana, leaving his family worried. When his younger sister Corey'spiggy bank goes missing one morning, cartoon characters come to life from various items in her room and find it in Michael's room along with his stash of drugs, so they give him anintervention in the form of a fantasy journey to teach him the adverse consequences of drug use.
McDonald's released aVHS home video edition of the special distributed byBuena Vista Home Video, which opened with an introduction from PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush, First LadyBarbara Bush and their dog,Millie. It was produced bythe Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation andSouthern Star Productions, and was animated overseas byWang Film Productions. The musical number "Wonderful Ways to Say No" was written byAcademy Award-winning composerAlan Menken and lyricistHoward Ashman, who also wrote the songs forWalt Disney Animation Studios'The Little Mermaid,Beauty and the Beast, andAladdin.[2]
Financed byMcDonald's,Ronald McDonald Children's Charities, it was originally simulcast for a limited time on April 21, 1990, on all four major Americantelevision networks (by supporting their Saturday morning characters):ABC,CBS,NBC, andFox,[a] and mostindependent stations, as well as various cable networks.[3][4]
An unseen person steals a piggy bank off the dresser in the bedroom of a young girl named Corey. The theft is witnessed byPapa Smurf, who emerges from aSmurfs comic book with the other Smurfs and alerts the different cartoon characters in the room:Alf from a picture,Garfield as a lamp,Alvin and the Chipmunks from arecord sleeve,Winnie the Pooh as a stuffed animal,Baby Kermit as an alarm clock, andSlimer, who arrives through the wall.
Alf, Garfield, Alvin, Simon, and Theodore identify the thief: Michael, Corey's older brother, who has a box ofmarijuana hidden under his bed. Meanwhile, Corey expresses her concerns about Michael's change in behavior since they used to have a close sibling relationship, which he angrily denies, causing him to storm out of the house. The cartoons set off to take action regarding Michael's addiction, leaving Pooh behind to look after Corey.
At anarcade, Michael smokes marijuana with his friends and "Smoke", ananthropomorphic cloud of smoke personifying temptation, who try to convince him to take harder drugs. They are chased into an alley byBugs Bunny disguised as a police officer. He traps Smoke in a garbage can and takes Michael back in time using a time machine borrowed from the absentWile E. Coyote. It is shown that Michael's addiction started through peer pressure from older high school students when he was around Corey's age. Back in the present, Michael is hesitant to smoke crack with his friends before one of them steals his wallet. He and Smoke chase after her until they fall into a sewer and encounterMichelangelo, who tells them that the drugs are harming his brain and that listening to Smoke is putting him in serious danger. Baby Kermit,Baby Miss Piggy, andBaby Gonzo take him on aroller coaster-esque tour of the human brain. Michael finds himself at a park, whereHuey, Dewey, and Louie as well asTigger join the rest of the cartoons to sing about how to refuse drugs.
Michael wakes up in his room, believing his interactions with the cartoons to be a nightmare. Corey tries talking to him, but he snaps and shoves her against his bedroom wall. He tries apologizing, but she runs out of his room, frightened. Smoke approves of Michael's actions, but he starts having regrets. Michael then looks at himself in a small mirror, from which Alf grabs and pulls him inside. Inside ahall of mirrors, Alf shows Michael his current reflection, then an aged, sickly version of himself severely affected by drugs. When Michael insists that he can easily quit and is in control of his actions, Alf reveals that Smoke is actually in charge. Back in Michael's room, Smoke traps Pooh in a cabinet to keep him out of the way and tempts Corey to try Michael's marijuana for herself. She considers the possibility that it could mend her relationship with Michael.
The drug-induced carnival in Michael's mind leads him toDaffy Duck, who reads his future in acrystal ball and sees an almost skeletal Michael on his deathbed. After one last warning from the cartoons, an ashamed Michael stops Corey from using the drugs just in time. When he apologizes and expresses concern over whether he can change, she advises him to seek help from his family. Smoke tries to persuade him otherwise, but Michael throws him out a window into a garbage truck, deciding to no longer listen to him. Refusing to be defeated so easily, Smoke vows that he will return someday for revenge. All the cartoons appear on a poster on Michael's wall, and they agree to be prepared for if and when Smoke returns. Michael releases Pooh from the cabinet, who jumps into the poster with the others before the siblings go downstairs to talk to their parents.
The characters, from 10 different franchises, are (in order of appearance):
The various character owners licensed them freely due to the public service aspect of the special.[5][6]
The special marked the first time the charactersBugs Bunny andDaffy Duck were voiced by someone other thanMel Blanc, who had died shortly before the production,[7] promptingWarner Bros. to enlistJeff Bergman in his place.[8][2]
The special was screened in Australia on November 9, 1990. Like the U.S. broadcast, it aired at 4.30 p.m. simultaneously on Australia's major commercial networks (Seven Network,Nine Network, andNetwork Ten). Prime MinisterBob Hawke introduced the Australian screening.[9] It was screened in New Zealand in December on bothTV One andChannel 2 simultaneously. Prime MinisterJim Bolger introduced it instead of the U.S. president. It was screened in Canada on theCBC,CTV,Global and most English and French independent stations, as well asYTV shortly after its original U.S. broadcast, although all of the characters had their respective shows aired on either CTV or Global but not CBC.Canadian Prime MinisterBrian Mulroney introduced it.[10] The special was broadcast in Mexico as offered by major outletTelevisa on both major and independent stations (includingLas Estrellas andCanal 5), on the same day as the original U.S. and Canada broadcast, with introductions by then-PresidentCarlos Salinas de Gortari. The special later aired in Japan byTV Tokyo with EmperorAkihito introducing it. It was also broadcast in Brazil in 1994, asRede Manchete made Portuguese Brazilian dubbing in Herbert Richers Dubbing Studios, and in Chile by major networks organized by theNational Television Council the following year in September 1995. Chile's broadcast was introduced byEduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle's First LadyMarta Larraechea Bolívar. ARussian dub was planned including an introduction byMikhail Gorbachev but was scrapped due in part to theCollapse of the Soviet Union. He was replaced by film actorNikolai Karachentsov.
In the United States, allsuperstations and a handful of independent stations (mainly in selected cities) aired the special, but some stations aired the special at a different period during the week the special aired on theBig Four stations and a number of cable networks. SuperstationsWPIX inNew York City,WGN-TV inChicago,KTLA inLos Angeles,KTVT inDallas,WOIO-TV inCleveland,WKBD-TV inDetroit,KHTV inHouston,WVTV inMilwaukee,KSTW inTacoma/Seattle,KSHB-TV inKansas City, andKWGN inDenver premiered the special at the same time the big four networks and cable systems premiered, withSt. Louis'KPLR-TV premiered the special two hours later after its television premiere.New York'sWWOR-TV andBoston'sWSBK-TV would later premiere the special the following morning on April 22. The special also aired on selected cable systems, includingBET,TNT,USA Network,Nickelodeon, andThe Disney Channel.
The special was also screened in various countries across Europe. Italy premiered the special at 4:30 p.m. on December 29, 1990, with Prime MinisterGiulio Andreotti and Italian journalistSergio Zavoli introduced the screening in an interview on major networksRai 1,Rai 2, andItalia 1. The special did received a non-televised screening two days prior at thePalazzo Chigi inRome, with introductions byRosa Russo Iervolino, the then-Minister forSocial Affairs, Gianni Pasquarelli, the then-director general ofRAI, and then-vice-president ofFininvestGianni Letta. The Italian version was edited byRoyFilm with Italian dubbing by Fono Roma. Germany premiered the special that same month on most of its major networks (ARD,ZDF,NDR,SDR, andSat.1) with introduction by German politicianAnnemarie Renger, and the special re-aired again on December 7, 1991 with introduction by Vice ChancellorHans-Dietrich Genscher. Shortly after its German release, a VHS of the special was immediately planned for both review and educational purposes, but was never commercially released afterward. Sweden premiered the special on December 4, 1991 onTV4 with introduction by then-Prime MinisterCarl Bildt, as well as a repeat on December 26 of that same year. In the Swedish broadcast, the special aired in its original English language with Swedish subtitles delivered by the station. Spain premiered the special on October 17, 1992 onCanal Nou,TVE andAntena 3, with introductions byQueen Sofía of Spain. The special also aired in Poland on the three TVP networks (TVP1,TVP2 andTVP Regionalna) and TVN on June 14, 1998, tied in with the Polish campaignNarkotyki. Zażywasz-przegrywasz (Drugs: you take it, you lose it).[11] The special became a popular annual repeat on Ireland'sRTÉ2 from 1994 until 2004.
Some modern critics have considered the production a time capsule of animation history during the USwar on drugs, and have ridiculed it as "propaganda"[12] and "preachy".[13]
The Smurfs creatorPeyo was upset withHanna-Barbera's usage of his characters in the special without his permission, and refused any further collaborations with them.[14][15] In 2015,Jim Cummings told Justin Caffier ofVice that he enjoyed the recording sessions, but requestedWinnie the Pooh's lines in which he talked about drugs to be rewritten, stating, "He's an innocent. It makes no sense for him to even know those words."[16][17]
Mel Blanc, the versatile, multi-voiced actor who breathed life into such cartoon characters as Bugs Bunny, Woody Woodpecker, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Tweety Pie, Sylvester and the Road Runner, died of heart disease and emphysema yesterday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 81 years old.
I do understand that this was final straw with Hanna-Barbera's relationship with Peyo. Apparently, they used the Smurfs without his permission and, being a smoker himself, Peyo was pretty upset with his characters being used for an anti-drug Public Service Special and thus terminated H-B's contract with him. The sad irony is that smoking finally took his [sic] toll on the beloved comic creator two years later.
