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Author Topic: Season 16  (Read 12998 times)

LovingBeagles

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Re: Season 16
« Reply #165 on: May 08, 2013, 09:58:53 pm »
Oh... and people have been talking about how off-model Francine and Muffy look... I think I may have figured out another reason why that is (aside from the size and shape of their noses/mouths): I've noticed that when they're presented at a 3/4 angle, their eyes appear to be too close together, so that could probably be it.

Also, I have to ask... that Rafi guy working at the Sugar Bowl in "On the Buster Scale"... he sure does sound awfully familiar... that wasn't Michael Yarmush, was it?

I think one instance where Francine looked WAY off-model is when she realizes that the skateboard was just a miniature one. Muffy then suggests something about beanbag kittens. When Francine shakes her head at her, it looked like Francine had really short hair, like she had a bad barber, LOL.

I never noticed Rafi's voice being familiar. Was he in the credits? Did it say Michael Yarmush?

Snowth Woogle

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Re: Season 16
« Reply #166 on: May 08, 2013, 11:13:40 pm »
There wasn't a voice credit for him, but to me, he kind of sounded a little similar to Arthur in Season 5.

Which brings to mind, when exactly are we supposed to hear this supposed duet with Michael and Bruce?
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Crossover Dreamer

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Re: Season 16
« Reply #167 on: May 09, 2013, 12:21:08 am »
I haven't seen "Buster's Book Battle"/"On the Buster Scale" yet. The prizes I got for the library summer reading programs were books and free personal pizzas from Round Table Pizza. Could Kligor the Cyborg Detective of the 22nd Century be a parody of Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century? Maybe its one of those combo parodies.

The conflict between Buster and Brain in "On the Buster Scale" sounds similar to the conflict between Arthur and D.W. in "My Music Rules." Finally, a D.W./Brain parallel!
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Snowth Woogle

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Re: Season 16
« Reply #168 on: May 09, 2013, 05:00:13 pm »
Once again, I missed today's new episode, but not because I was busy or preoccupied, but rather, this time, for some reason, my PBS must have been experiencing technical difficulties, because there was no signal whatsoever, just a black screen.
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Crossover Dreamer

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Re: Season 16
« Reply #169 on: May 09, 2013, 09:35:57 pm »
I'm caught up with the new episodes now. I don't have a lot to say about today's. I had more to say about yesterdays even before I saw it. I was surprised to see them revive the parody of "Hercule Poirot." (How is parody name spelled?) I knew "Sue Ellen Vegges Out" would be about Sue Ellen becoming a vegetarian.

Back to "Buster's Book Battle": I thought it was clever to have a parody of "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" where they're Norse demigods instead of Greek.

Back to "On the Buster Scale," Cameron Ansell did the voice of the waiter. And as for the sitcom allusions, maybe Brain only able to name one movie he liked, a French movie from 1939, could be like on Get Smart Larabee's knowledge of the many adaptions of Little Women? That one's a bit of a stretch. He's completely different from Joey from Full House who likes many cartoons, and Beaver Cleaver who likes the many scary movies in the kiddy matinee.
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MCCJ

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Re: Season 16
« Reply #170 on: May 10, 2013, 01:52:57 pm »
Arthur was way out of line in today's episode as many have stated for So Funny I Forgot to Laugh. Even Mr. Ratburn mentioned this. I also thought it was even more stranger that Arthur called Buster the weird one.

raidpirate52

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Re: Season 16
« Reply #171 on: May 10, 2013, 04:12:53 pm »
I haven't been able to be on in a while...got a new laptop and all but today's episode made me want to vent my frustration with it...wow! I mean the "Funny I forgot to Laugh" one. Now I will say, I initially liked the episode for the first 9 or so minutes. I understand Arthur's position, as the everyman character I'm sure there's all a time in our lives we regretably said something that hurt their feelings. I didn't think that was out of his character...it was the email that really drove it over. I mean, really?

It seems a very far stretch to have Arthur do that, it seems too far for even the old Francine to do. I don't think it was the best way for Arthur to realize his mistake.

Going away from that episode, I thought the "The Best Day Ever" was a nice nostalgia filled episode. Really took me back, very appreciated. I actually was impressed by this run. Very good. Just not that moment as I said above.

Snowth Woogle

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Re: Season 16
« Reply #172 on: May 10, 2013, 04:37:22 pm »
Here's my take on today's new episode:

While the whole entry of "So Funny I Forgot to Laugh" wasn't EXACTLY as bad as I thought it was going to be, Arthur was still TREMENDOUSLY out of character. Like raidpirate said, I can understand Arthur's perspective about his intentions of just joking around and not intending to hurt Sue Ellen's feelings, but his actions were still considerably out of character for him... and I also agree, the email he sent to Sue Ellen was certainly not something one would expect from our favorite aardvark (nor that Sheepdog Appreciation Day drawing he taped on her locker... guess he forgot Francine's doodle of a Love Duck on his locker, or Fern's "Rat and Rat Jr." sketch). But again, the show has certainly jumped on the anti-bullying bandwagon right now. And I'm sorry... it'll probably take some getting used to, but Sue Ellen's new voice is kind of irritating.

Now as for "The Best Day Ever", while I generally like flashback episodes and clip shows, I was disappointed with this one, mostly because almost all of the dialogue in the flashbacks were redubbed by the new voice actors... I guess that's to avoid confusing kids watching as to why their voices would sound different in the same episode... and I haven't paid too much attention to the credits, but is Tabitha St. Germain voicing George this season? Not only did George sound like a girl, but Wally sounds like Martha (of MARTHA SPEAKS). Good entry overall, but again, the redubbing of the flashbacks lost some points with me.

I DID have myself having a "fangasm", as Sarge puts it, when watching Binky's flashback (okay, I admit, I never watched the actual episode), because when Binky was trying to do the Monkey Face for Mei Lin in the restaurant before Arthur showed up, I heard the exact same music that's been used on COURAGE THE COWARDLY DOG for Di Lung (the Asian punk who would yell, "Watch where you're goin' ya foo!")... I guess it must be production music or something.
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dth1971

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Re: Season 16
« Reply #173 on: May 10, 2013, 09:13:56 pm »
I'm glad now that Arthur Season 16 is completed, I am also glad that we got to see more of Fern, Sue Ellen, George, Molly, and Rattles in the spotlight. Although there was one of the new character Ladonna but no Bud. And also the first 1/2 was mostly D.W. releated episodes, there was none in the second half of Season 16.

I'm also glad these voice actors from the Cookie Jar (formerly Cinar) years made it to the 9 Story Arthur era - Eleanor Noble (George Lundgren, George's dummy Wally), Holly Gauthier Frankel (Fern Walters), Jessica Kardos (Sue Ellen), Ellen David (Bitzi Baxter), Maggie Castle (Molly MacDonald), Michael "The first voice of Arthur" Yarmush (Slink), and even the 4th. voice of Arthur - Cameron Ansell as a teenage waiter.

Will former Arthur voices - Justin Bradley, Mark Rendall, and/or Dallas Jokic - voice in other Arthur cartoon roles in the future?

Too bad we didn't hear any voice parts for Bailey (Muffy's Butler) in Season 16, not even (except for a Flashback scene) Arthur's Dad. And the Molena family was absent this season. So is Lydia Fox, and even (except for a few mentions) Capri DiVapida!

I hope to get a list of Season 17 Arthur episodes before the Fall 2013 season.
« Last Edit: May 10, 2013, 09:21:12 pm by dth1971 »

LovingBeagles

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Re: Season 16
« Reply #174 on: May 11, 2013, 01:05:01 am »
And I'm sorry... it'll probably take some getting used to, but Sue Ellen's new voice is kind of irritating.

While we're on this subject, I thought I'd take advantage of the opportunity to discuss it.

For a while, I actually preferred her new voice. There was something about Sue Ellen's original voice (Patricia Rodriguez, I believe) that kinda got me when I was younger...I guess it was that whenever she got mad or she was being demanding, her voice sounded pretty intimidating. So in a way, Sue Ellen's original voice kinda scared me during those parts (and seriously, there were PLENTY of those parts, as Sue Ellen can get mad pretty easily). So when Jessica Kardos replaced Patricia, I was a little cooler with it, as her voice was a little more smooth-sounding and softer.

These days, though, I'm not sure. Maybe I do miss Sue Ellen's voice to a degree, and she DOES sound like a snuffled-up Muffy or something like that (like Snowth said). I guess it just feels like for EVERY character who has had multiple voice actors, the crew is leaning towards higher voices...heck, it's pretty evident with Arthur.

EDIT:
Now as for "The Best Day Ever", while I generally like flashback episodes and clip shows, I was disappointed with this one, mostly because almost all of the dialogue in the flashbacks were redubbed by the new voice actors... I guess that's to avoid confusing kids watching as to why their voices would sound different in the same episode... and I haven't paid too much attention to the credits, but is Tabitha St. Germain voicing George this season? Not only did George sound like a girl, but Wally sounds like Martha (of MARTHA SPEAKS). Good entry overall, but again, the redubbing of the flashbacks lost some points with me.

Tabitha St. Germain did voice Martha. The Arthur Wiki says it is Eleanor Noble, who has been voicing George for the past few seasons (seasons 9-present, with a break in between). However, Wikipedia claims that she only voiced George from seasons 9-15. I don't exactly expect the Wikipedia page to be accurate though, given the whole "anyone can edit" thing.
« Last Edit: May 11, 2013, 01:46:05 pm by LovingBeagles »

Crossover Dreamer

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Re: Season 16
« Reply #175 on: May 12, 2013, 12:40:55 am »
I haven't seen Friday's episode yet. Can you please tell me what all the memories are from "The Best Day Ever"?

I can't believe I missed some obvious D.W./Brain parallels that finished during season 16! These are the ones I just discovered:

"All About D.W." D.W.'s stage fright and mistakes can be compared to Brain's stage fright and mistakes in "Arthur's Spelling Trubble" and "It's a No-Brainer."

"Brain's Chess Mess" Brain subbed for Rattles because Rattles said he was sick, which can be compared to "All About D.W." (again!)

These were the D.W./Brain parallels I was already aware of:

"Based on a True Story" D.W. doesn't think Bud's jokes are funny, which can be compared to "Cents-less" where Brain didn't think the number joke Muffy told was funny.

"Baby Steps" In this episode, we hear what Kate and Pal hear: D.W. and Brain speaking gibberish. D.W. hears Kate say "D.W.," which can be compared to "The Perfect Brother" where D.W. heard Kate say "Brain."

And, of course, "On the Buster Scale" and "My Music Rules."
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Snowth Woogle

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Re: Season 16
« Reply #176 on: May 12, 2013, 01:20:00 am »
I haven't seen Friday's episode yet. Can you please tell me what all the memories are from "The Best Day Ever"?
Binky's best day ever was essentially when they adopted Mei Lin, and he found a way to get her to stop crying by doing the "Monkey Face"... that is until she saw Arthur.

George's best day ever was when he was invited to Fern's poetry reading, but thought he couldn't do it without Wally, until Arthur convinces him otherwise.

Sue Ellen's best day ever was when she lost her diary in the library, but Arthur managed to find it.

Buster's best day ever was when he came home from his trip with his dad, and played checkers with Arthur.

Arthur's best day ever was... that day.
I stretch like a snake, and I shimmy and shake, and I bounce like a ball, and I say something cute when you give me a squeeze!

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Re: Season 16
« Reply #177 on: May 13, 2013, 02:13:27 pm »
I haven't seen Friday's episode yet. Can you please tell me what all the memories are from "The Best Day Ever"?
Binky's best day ever was essentially when they adopted Mei Lin, and he found a way to get her to stop crying by doing the "Monkey Face"... that is until she saw Arthur.

George's best day ever was when he was invited to Fern's poetry reading, but thought he couldn't do it without Wally, until Arthur convinces him otherwise.

Sue Ellen's best day ever was when she lost her diary in the library, but Arthur managed to find it.

Buster's best day ever was when he came home from his trip with his dad, and played checkers with Arthur.

Arthur's best day ever was... that day.

Well with the conclusion of this season what is everyone's opinion? Season 17 will air this Fall by the way.

LovingBeagles

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Re: Season 16
« Reply #178 on: May 13, 2013, 07:57:24 pm »
I promise I won't speak on this again until it does happen, but here's my honest thought.

I haven't seen "Best Day Ever" in full yet. That said, after seeing the intro on YT where Arthur counts down his Top 5 worst days, there is no doubt in my mind now the end is near for this show. I'm not saying I want it to happen, but come on...classic moments from the show, WITH the original animation intact, AND at one point Arthur's original voice wasn't even dubbed over? In fact - correct me if I'm wrong here - wasn't the last time Arthur even had a clip show 12 seasons ago (the DW birthday episode)? To me, everything at this point just screams "last hurrah."
The show has been going on for pretty long now. I guess there is that feeling that the show will end soon. I mean, Arthur has been on for 16 seasons, and there's gonna be a 17th one coming up. For an animated show, that's a lot of seasons. In fact, it was mentioned on another topic that Arthur is actually the second-longest running animated series in the U.S. behind The Simpsons.

Hard to believe that one clip actually was kept intact! Though Snowth has a point, younger audiences might be confused why Arthur sounds different in one clip from his Brain-sounding like voice today.

Maybe if the show does end, the last episode will be a VERY clear sign that it is about to do so. "The Best Day Ever", while I haven't seen it yet, does seem to have that vibe, though, based on a very small fraction of the episode that I watched, and on how others have summarized or commented on it.
« Last Edit: May 14, 2013, 07:50:35 pm by LovingBeagles »

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Re: Season 16
« Reply #179 on: May 13, 2013, 11:07:51 pm »
I agree with LovingBeagles that the last episode would be an obvious series finale. From the episode titles I read on ABC4Kids' website, none of them looked like series finale stories. So it looks like there will most likely be an 18th season.

I did end up watching Friday's episode. "So Funny I Forgot to Laugh" does have similarities to many previous episodes. ("Arthur's Eyes," "Locked in the Library," "Meek for a Week," "Prunella's Prediction," "That's a Baby Show!," etc.) Fourteen years later Tenzin is back.
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