186 - The Powerpuff Girls

186 - The Powerpuff Girls

Egads! A gigantic monster is destroying the city! Thankfully, Ben and Zane have a direct line to the Powerpuff Girls, after an unrelated adventure where they both became the mayor. A quick call was all it would take. However, first they had to wait and listen about Bubbles’ new self-esteem issue, and the Professor’s new gadget, and a talking dog they found that’s probably evil, and on and on and on. They didn’t mind, it was all very entertaining and snappy, but, you know… the town was destroyed.

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185 - Bootlegg'd - The Prince of Egypt

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185 - Bootlegg'd - The Prince of Egypt

The Prince of Egypt has been lauded as one of the best told animated biblical stories - and rightly so. Heavy subject matter has to be sensitively portrayed, which can be a big ask in a medium primarily geared toward children. It takes a rare movie to balance biblical accuracy with enough gentleness not to stress younger viewers, all while still managing to be entertaining. With all that and a surprise appearance of Jeff Goldblum, this film delivered us to the promised land of holiday-related animation.

184 - Bootlegg'd - Rise of the Guardians

184 - Bootlegg'd - Rise of the Guardians

Happy… Easter? Yeah, this is another ostensibly Holiday movie, but really it’s an Avengers-style story of a team of superpowered mythological beings that unfortunately had to compete with the actual Avengers. These Guardians guard children’s dreams, hopes, and teeth against the literal Bogeyman with some impressive flair. Unfortunately this rabbit laid a big goose egg, but inside that egg was a fine movie.

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181 - Bootlegg'd - Eight Crazy Nights

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181 - Bootlegg'd - Eight Crazy Nights

The era of Adam Sandler is firmly in the past, and looking back on his popularity is a dizzying experience. He used his notoriety as “The Hannukah guy” to create an animated movie about the meaning of Hannukah. At least, that’s the concept. In execution, it’s just a whole lot of Adam Sandler without any physics or logical consistency slowing him down. If you actually enjoyed this movie, that’s a technical foul.

The Hannukah Song
Adam Sandler’s “Cock and Balls” skit
Hannukah is unimportant, trust me on this
Rat in a Hot Tin Can
”I wanna Kiss you all ovah” - last Adam Sandler reference I swear
Tim Heideker’s Rogan imitation is spot on
Big Brother is more than a 1984 dystopia
Klaus graphic novel
Jon Lovitz in the Simpsons
Pooping deer in Castle Crashers
Patton Oswalt’s immortal heckler takedown

180 - Bootlegg'd - Cinderella III: A Twist in Time

180 - Bootlegg'd - Cinderella III: A Twist in Time

Ben and Zane felt like something was off. They had a weird sense of Deja Vu, and their hands were real sweaty every time they picked up mice. Brie, the Cartoncast’s Fairy Godmother, revealed to them that time had been turned back, and they would have to re-watch Cinderella if they wanted to get out of it alive. It was good. Not great, but fun. And now they could get back to what’s really important: catching mice and training them to dress up and sing.

179 - Yuri on Ice

179 - Yuri on Ice

It was that time of year again, when the world was focused on Men’s Figure Skating. It was a hot and steamy competition so far, with everyone stimulated by the athletes, who themselves were clearly aroused by the competition. Ben and Zane did their best to keep score, but with only the barest knowledge of skating, they were reduced to the “hot or not” scale. They gave mediocre scores overall, especially since much of the routines were censored for the “family values” crowd. A winner was chosen by a surprisingly generous Russian judge.

178 - Arcane

178 - Arcane

Ben and Zane were due at the Hex-tech Animation Symposium in Piltover, but a wrong turn sent them to the undercity. Thankfully, a local known only as “Lucky Tim” offered to show them around. The undercity was vibrant, even if it lacked the refinement of the privileged class. All in all, a good detour, topped off with a surprise appearance of Imagine Dragons in The Last Drop.

177 - Scrambl'd - The Gumby Show

177 - Scrambl'd - The Gumby Show

All was not well in the Cartonland. Ben and Zane couldn’t quite put their fingers on it - literally. Their fingers were gone, along with their clothes and a lot of their finer details. The world moved along at a choppy place, they could scarcely hold onto their own shapes, and they could feel their eyes bend. While in this state, they could barely leave their rooms - which turned out to be fine, because their rooms had the raddest stuff imaginable: marbles, mirrors, rolling pins, gears, and gum.

176 - Voltron: Defender of the Universe

176 - Voltron: Defender of the Universe

Ben and Zane dropped the ball yet again. Instead of watching a show, they accidentally watched a fan dub of some show from Uruguay. What’s it about? Hard to say. There’s definitely explosions and feral cats, but beyond that it’s uncertain. The Cartoncasters decided that instead of talking about it, they would instead riff on Power Rangers, a bold step forward in merchandising unrelated media.

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175 - Bootlegg'd - Straight Outta Nowhere: Scooby Doo meets Courage the Cowardly Dog

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175 - Bootlegg'd - Straight Outta Nowhere: Scooby Doo meets Courage the Cowardly Dog

Horror has a fairly narrow relationship with cartoons. Scooby doo paved the way for others to tip their toes in, and Courage the Cowardly Dog angled toward an absurdist bent where horror and comedy meet. Unfortunately, not even these two titans of the genre can withstand the Curse of the Direct to Video Movie.

Thanks to Dan Caves of The Cocktail Party Congress and Nic Robes of What’s With You Scooby Doo for coming on the show!

Links of note:

174 - Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones?

174 - Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones?

Ben and Zane were having a hell of a time with a missing person’s case. Since Fillmore was off the case (he was a loose cannon who played by his own rules), they brought on the guy who connected them in the first place, Josh. As they looked for the child, whose description was remarkably similar to that of a speak-and-spell, they got a little sidetracked by a series of 80’s nostalgia. They didn’t come to any strong conclusions about what happened, but at least nobody missed the kid anyway.

173 - Mike Tyson Mysteries

173 - Mike Tyson Mysteries

Zane had been looking for Ben for months. Turns out, finding him wasn’t the hard part, the real problem began when he had to extract him from a cult of personality based around “solving the mysteries of the universe.” Thankfully, their leader was very easily distracted. But the Cartoncasters still don’t know how he summoned a ghost. Or why.

One-Legg'd - Vinni-Pukh

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Na Zdorovie, Comrade. Join local Eggsmith Tzain and Groom of the Stool Daniil Cavernovsky as they regale you with tale from better days. It is story of lovable fool Vinni-Pukh and he fails to live up to ideals of glorious Union by imposing on edible friends. But do not approach bear in nature, he is not usually so playful.

One-Legg'd - Bionicle: Mask of Light

One-Legg'd - Bionicle: Mask of Light

It was the early 2000’s. Children’s programming was a lawless expanse of deeply weird and traumatizing concepts. And some genius thought, hell yeah why doesn’t Lego make a movie? With a classic plot, accessible Lego-like visuals, and a lore that is too vast for us to get into right now, Bionicle: Mask of Light is the best way for the general population to see if they’re ready for Bionicle. Join Alex, Bionicle Madman, as we take a look.