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Cartoon of the Week -- Here Comes the Grump
11 years ago
General
Here's an obscure series from DePatie-Freleng studios that I enjoyed watching on Saturday mornings back in 1969-70.
Opening Title:
In the following full episode, some may recognize the voice of Princess Dawn as Stefanianna Christopherson, who also voiced Daphne on the original Scooby-Doo series.
Does the Grump's dragon seem familiar (not to mention the Grump himself)? That's because they're basically expy versions of Yosemite Sam and his dragon from "Knighty Knight Bugs," also directed by Friz Freleng.
I still like the "Grump" show for its whimsical locations and characters (anybody else think that the Shushers of Sleeping Town looked like crazily distorted Smurfs?). My only regret is that they never did a "final" episode where Terry and Princess Dawn finally reached the Cave of the Whispering Orchids. It would have been nice to have brought the series to a close like that.
Opening Title:
In the following full episode, some may recognize the voice of Princess Dawn as Stefanianna Christopherson, who also voiced Daphne on the original Scooby-Doo series.
Does the Grump's dragon seem familiar (not to mention the Grump himself)? That's because they're basically expy versions of Yosemite Sam and his dragon from "Knighty Knight Bugs," also directed by Friz Freleng.
I still like the "Grump" show for its whimsical locations and characters (anybody else think that the Shushers of Sleeping Town looked like crazily distorted Smurfs?). My only regret is that they never did a "final" episode where Terry and Princess Dawn finally reached the Cave of the Whispering Orchids. It would have been nice to have brought the series to a close like that.
There were a few shades of the Phantom Tollbooth and the Valley of Sound, as well.
In addition to Toolbooth's Valley of Sound ("No Noise Allowed"), the Shushers also reminded me of the Lethargians in the Doldrums. The difference being the Lethargians were lazy and slept a lot by choice, while the Shushers were doing it out of fear.
Originally I was going to showcase my favorite episode from the series, The Blabbermouth of Echo Island -- but wouldn't you know it, Grump's dragon doesn't sneeze on him in that episode -- not even once. And since I wanted to show how much the dragon was similar to the one in "Knighty Knight Bugs," I had to settle for a different episode. ("Grouch Grooch" is still one of my favorites, though.)
Still find it hilarious that even after the Shusher Smurfs were released from their invisible prison, they STILL took the Grump to the woodshed. Just for good measure. ^.^
At least the Shushers had one key difference to the Lethargians: the latter were out and out sinister, at least in the animated version (and to a lesser extent the book version). The Shushers just didn't want to get trashed. The Grump got exactly what he deserved for crashing their Silent Partner Party.
For some reason, this became a brain worm: "There's a Bip, her pet... and there's Terry, a boy she just met..."