Lately I've been watching the new Danger Mouse cartoon and I've not enjoying it very much sadly apart from the beginning. The first two episodes have been really great and faithful towards the original yet keeping it up with the modern times however it goes straight downhill from Episode 3 onwards.
Danger Mouse himself is all right even if he lost most of his wit in this series, the problem is that he is obviously voiced by Alexander Armstrong so everytime he speaks, I just see it as the Pointless man since he sounds almost the same. I think it is his proper voice. In the original series, while DM was done by David Jason, at least he tried to sound a little different (the Narrator was also slightly different in some spots, his voice in others depending on tone) by being higher pitched. Then again David Jason does have a range (since he also voices Count Duckula, sounds more cheery in Only Fools and Horses/Darling Buds of May, more annoyed in Frost and an upper class voice in Edgar Briggs). Xander does have a range since he does a good Brian Blessed impersonation and no problem with his actual voice [outside of the show] however I do think they should use a different voice to differate even changing the pitch is enough to make him more DM and less Pointless. Penfold seems all right voice wise, no complaints there.
The problem I've noticed was that in the new series, it seems that the writers are blurring the differences between Danger Mouse and Penfold. In the original there was a difference, DM was the straight man hero while Penfold was the comedic and cowardly sidekick. Even then Penfold had his heroic moments. In the new series, DM has done stuff that Penfold would have done such as eating breakfast on a tablet or breaking devices and Penfold doesn't seem very scared, toilets aside or comedic. When the characters are interchangeable in personality, doesn't seem like a good idea to me.
New characters I'm not keen on at all. I don't like Professor Sqwalkencluck since she is a big jerk (she even cheered herself when Nero became a super villain) plus egomatic (her programming in Big Head) and due to her Scottish voice and personality, an unlikeable person (at least by personal experience, I know not all Scottish people are like that). Also she is pretty much the main character from episode 3 onwards, some almost focused on her (Big Head Awakens, the one with the Welsh plant) or was heavily involved (Planet of the Toilets, one I mentioned earlier). I know the writers were trying to make her like Q however she seems to be forced in there like we must have a main female character in there otherwise the network would complain. I think if she isn't as much of a jerk and the interchangable character problem with DM and Penfold, I would have been okay with it. As for Jeopardy Mouse, she somehow has a Jennifer Lawerence vibe to her for some reason. I did miss out on her debut episode but at least judging by Quark Games so it might be better on her debut one. While it is great that the series has female characters (well more than just Penfold's aunt), I just not keen on their characterisations of them and seem like jerks at the moment.
As for the Narrator, he is not a patch on the original. In the original, sometimes he got sarcastic or complainy even running through the credits. Sometimes even blending in with the script. Now he is pretty much the Come Dine with Me person and acts like it but even more tamer most of the time, only a few times where he did get comedic [first episode and one regarding the end of Danger Mouse even though it is the last two minutes].
Even the villains are disappointing. Greenback is at least still himself but I am not keen on his new voice. I don't know how to word it without possibly accidently offending someone so I wouldn't mention it. I am pleasently surprised that Stiletto is in the new series since I honestly thought that he would get the chop and kept his Italian accent. Yay! Sadly Greenback and Stiletto have only appeared in 4 episodes to date, even then in two of them not even 30 seconds worth (this is about 20ish episodes, nearly half the series!). By comparison, Greenback and Stiletto are the main villains in the original usually alternating with one shot villains but at least more memorable (such as Mack the Fork), Count Duckula or Professor Crumhorn. Most of the new villains are dreadful and I mean dreadful! The snowman has no imagination at all, Panda-monium is as dry as a bamboo stick, Dr. Loocifer should have been a one shot villain and felt out of place in Quark Games and the the others I can't remember since they are forgettable. If it was the original series; DM or the Narrator (or both!) would mock their lameness. The Collector was an okay villain however I swear that I've seen a very similar villain in another cartoon!
I think the only character that the new series got it mostly right was Colonel K. He pretty much acted just like the original and one episode even had memory issues like the later episodes of the original series [the one where he didn't know who Penfold was]. Stephen Fry has done a very good job on his voice, hard to tell the difference between his and the original consider well Stephen Fry has a recognisable voice and it ain't that. So well done.
As mentioned in parts, the writing doesn't seem as strong and doesn't seem to have many comedic moments and more plot or action scenes. Characterisation is all over the place, apart from Colonel K. It seems tamer and strangely more British patroitism than the original series, the Queen to my knowledge didn't appear in the original series or uses of the Union Jack/Flag. There are even a couple of iffyness moments of writing:
In the episode where a punk rocker escapes from Arkwright Aslyum (how original!) and uses his soundblaster to make the world rude, the beginning is shown has a flashback to 1983 with a younger Colonel K defeating him. However the original series is set in the 80s so Danger Mouse would have been around and Colonel K would have been exactly the same age as he is now. Plus the narrator said it had no respect or something like that however the 80s was mainly respectable, counter culture aside. Also how would a speech turn DM and Penfold back to normal?
Sometimes even similar plots are handled better in the original, the Planet of the Toilets is similar to Mechanised Madness from the original with appliances going out of control, the latter being more entertaining than the former. The episode Danger Fan seems to have been recycled from a completely different cartoon with more or less the same script and motives, even the same villain name. If only if I can remember which cartoon it was... It was a 90s cartoon though. Was it Tick or Freakazoid or something?
I wonder if there is some executive meddling going off in the cartoon since BBC likes control on things (even if the series is owned by Fremantle Media who also own the original series).
The only really positive thing that I can say is that the new series has miles better animation than the original, nearly everything looks original [not as much recycling and if there is, I can't notice it], faster movement and even the backgrounds look great. By comparison, the original series recycled a LOT of animation (London backdrop, Post box, inside the post box, Colonel K's office, the scenes where Danger Mouse is talking to Colonel K/Penfold, the lift, driving the Mark III, Greenback's base, Danger Mouse's walking animation and that's off top of my head) in most of the earlier episodes and when it got to the half hour episodes where it uses original animation, some scenes just looked a bit strange. I think if it wasn't for the animation, would have stopped watching completely.
While it isn't as worse than I thought it would have been, just have been disappointed with the series and it isn't memories of the original either. If the series was like the first two episodes, I would have liked it more than the original but has it is. At least there's Wabbit to come so see how that's like.
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