Taz-Mania Review

Ladies and gentlemen, the following episode of

Tooncast Beyond was recorded in 2012. So if the

references are extremely dated, we apologize.

Now on to this episode of Tooncast Beyond. It's

always always getting rain or shine Don't let

that mania, come to that mania We're topping

these heavy gates, starts to spin Like a Tasmanian

devil in his closest king Don't let that mania,

come to that mania Moms alive while your dad's

a boob on a log Molly's all fired up, we'll take

place with the dogs Don't let that mania, come

to that mania Didgeridingo and Wendell Teawolf

Francis X Bush lad is never uncouped Bushwacker

Bob and his mother -gold mum Come to that dick,

we'll eat us all up So we're gonna go down to

Tasmania That's right. Hello and welcome to the

54th episode of ToonCastBeyond brought to you

by the GeekCast Radio Network at audible .com.

I am your host, Steve Joermike, and today I'm

joined by Steve Megatron. Hello. Hello. Yes,

episode 54 was originally going to be Spirit

Stallion of the Cimarron, but since I have no

desire to see that DreamWorks movie, and I've

never seen it before and don't care to talk about

it, we changed it to another DeLorean time. And

today we're going to be jumping back into Dorian

for Tooncast Beyond episode with our heading

set for 1991 to talk about Tasmania. All right,

to get this thing started here, Tasmania is an

American cartoon sitcom produced by Warner Brothers

Animation from 91 to 93, broadcast in the United

States on Fox and Canada on YTV from 91 to 95.

The show follows the adventures of the classic

Looney Tunes character Taz, the Tasmanian devil,

in the fictional land of Tasmania based on...

Tasmania. It's just a different spelling. Similar

to other Warner Bros. cartoons of its time, such

as Animaniacs, Tiny Toon Adventures, Tazmania

frequently broke the fourth wall and often made

jokes showing that Taz could actually speak perfectly

normally when he wanted to. The intro indicates

that in this rendering of Tazmania, the sky is

always yellow, rain or shine. The title song

is performed by Jess Harnell and Jim Cummings.

I knew I recognized a wacko singing. I didn't

notice it. Well, when I listened to the theme

before recording, when I watched a couple of

episodes on YouTube, I definitely noticed that

it's wacko. What are your general memories of

Tasmania? Were you watching this when it was

on air? Oh yeah, I remember the show. It was...

It was funny seeing the misadventures of Taz

and then getting to see Taz's dad and his family,

which was kind of hilarious to me because I could

all speak and then you had the grouchy sister,

younger brother type thing and then you had the

parents and you had... You know, I'm not sure.

Not very many humans were in it. No, very few

humans, if any humans. I love the fact that the

Gators. Yeah. And then, you know, the Dingo,

the Platypus, you know, which is hilarious because

you have Rob Paulson and Maurice LaMarche doing

a lot of them in this show, a lot of the characters.

It just it it was it was really funny and then

you did have a couple of crossovers from Looney

Tunes Yeah, you know foghorn leghorn and in Marvin

the Martian sheepdog and you know so on but Just

It was really funny and it kind of kept in the

vein of Looney Tunes, but it was it was longer

Mean they still had in a sense shorts, but they

were all inclusive Yeah, and it was just it's

such a classic show it's such and it's interesting

that they would give And I know at this time

Warner animation was like, oh, hey, let's play

it pay homage to the classic characters What

you had that in tiny tunes with? The majority

of the Looney Tunes cast, but made for the 90s,

where you had instead of Taz, you had Dizzy Devil,

which is kind of an offshoot of Taz. But I was

surprised that they even, normally they don't

do, like they'll do Looney Tunes stuff, because

they, unless it's Bugs Bunny, they don't really

give people their own show. Like they don't really

give the characters their own show. I mean, Daffy,

He's had a couple of things that he's been in,

but the running joke with Daffy is always, that

rabbit's name over mine, what the heck, you know,

it's the whole ego tripping thing. And I was

really surprised that they gave Taz some life.

He's not just a, you know, stupid moron. He's

just not going, yeah. It's still to this day

and I know this isn't about this show specifically

but one of my favorite lines from Taz is in one

of the old classic Looney Tunes cartoons When

Bugs buries him and he comes up the other side

he goes why for you bury me in the cold cold

ground But no Taz many it was awesome it was

a very sitcommy style show um... very episodic

uh... there was no real continuity from episode

to episode and again it had it had the same thing

that any looney tunes cartoons would have where

it would have taz and his taz and his people

were the main and then you'd have these other

characters like the platypuses and the gators

as like a secondary cartoon kinda like the in

the vein of dexter's lab where dexter and deedee

are the main and then you have like major glory

and the just us friends and all that other stuff

And I really like that about this show I thought

that was great and you know like you said the

the thing with you know actually showing that

Taz is intelligent when he wants to be and He

you know has a family and a background and all

that stuff. That's absolutely awesome and amazing

The show was so cool breaking down the voice

cast You got Jim Cummings as the Tasmanian devil

You've got Maurice LaMarche as Hugh, his dad.

Miriam Flynn as Jean, his mom. Kelly Martin as

Molly. Debbie Derryberry as Jake. Rob Paulson

as Dog the Turtle. That sounds so strange. It's

not the creepiest role Rob has ever done. I would

say the creepiest voice role that Rob Paulson

ever done. The Dark Knight Returns. part one

slice and dice no mommy so creepy rob um you

got jim cummings and as bushwhacker bob uh rosalind

landor is constance koala homer simpson himself

dan castlin is mr thickley uh john astin as bull

gator rob paulson as axel Rob Paulson again is

Daniel platypus and Maurice Lamar's is Timothy

platypus Rob is didgeridingo Jim Cummings is

Wendell T Wolfe It's pretty much the Jim Cummings

Rob Paulson Maurice Lamar show for the most part.

I mean, that's pretty much All of the male voice

actors in the show is pretty much all of those

guys Stan Freeward played a network executive

that was interesting. That was pretty awesome

episode. I think it's funny that they phoned

in Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam. Yes. They weren't

actually there. They're just like, uh, we'll

phone them in. Yeah. We don't feel like drawing

them or anything, you know. Yeah. But at least

the voices got there. But no, Tasmanian was awesome.

The episodes I watched back for... for purposes

of this podcast was the very first episode, the

dog, the turtle story. Taz rescues a turtle which

acts like a dog from a trap and adopts him as

a pet. But then he visits Outback family and

they all rescue Taz from Bull Gator and Axel.

I also found Mishap in the Mist, Two Fake Taz.

I found those. and again this is one of those

shows that has two episodes two cartoons in one

episode so it makes it be like a twenty two minute

show even though it's two eleven minute cartoons

yet in the commercials that adds up to thirty

minutes and all that but i really enjoyed the

show what about you what are your thoughts on

it i a i think it was really funny uh... i used

to watch this uh... uh... around a lot of the

other shows that were on around the time, like,

you know, Animaniacs and all that other stuff.

It was definitely one of those shows that I actually

wanted to watch in the afternoon. When I get

out of school, so, oh, yeah, I. I mean, the theme

song alone that that would it was just goofy,

you know, it was also you had the. You know the

kind of you know, jungly drums and and the birds

and then you you got them singing And i'd never

noticed, you know Like you said, you know, I

didn't know that that was just harnell actually

singing that you know and It's it's just funny

I mean everything about the show i'd love the

characters i love the animation style and i love

the voices it just i don't think a lot of these

characters would have been as cool without the

voice actors that played them right here uh...

i i i totally agree uh... tazmania is is one

of those shows that will live on in people's

hearts forever uh... It's something that will

always be around it was and You know, it's something

that you know People have and you know in the

future will raise their kids on because I know

you're gonna show this to your son at some Oh,

yeah, you know, oh, yeah and it's one of those

things where you know we always take the stuff

that we grew up on and show them to our kids

or whatever else and and everything else, and

it's so great. Tasmania, Animaniacs, Tiny Toons,

all the stuff that happened in the 90s is a testament

to animation back then, for what it was and what

we grew up on. Animation now, like this type

of animated show, you've got stuff like... I

don't even know, I couldn't even think of how

much. It's not the same now as it was back then.

I'm counting like shows like this, comedy shows

like this. I'm not counting like Turtles or Transformers.

I'm not counting the action shows, but the funny

shows, the stuff that people actually laugh at.

Well, the stuff that was worth buying. Yeah,

exactly. I mean, I'm not trying to say that I've

pirated any of this. I mean, because I didn't.

Right. But, you know, it's along those lines

of, you know, if it's a really good show, people

will, you know, flock to it. I mean, I'm not

going to let my kid watch some random crapshoot

show that's on television now unless I get that

vibe of, you know, days past with it or, you

know, kind of like You know the new turtles or

you know the new looney tunes or the you know,

just stuff like that I It has to have that resonance

of old And for me, it's just it's much easier

just to raise them on the stuff. I grew up on

oh Yeah, like this and you know animaniacs and

all the other shows I Got to tell you folks you

know we always say that we use Wikipedia for

research because it's Well, it's the fastest

and somewhat most reliable. But the Wikipedia

article for Tasmania is kind of sad. It barely

has any information in it. Pretty much all it

has is the listing of episodes and the general

information. It has no behind the scenes stuff.

no real you know information whatsoever other

than some of the legacy information which i'll

go over here in a second uh... theme song we

talked about it we love this theme song is awesome

and uh... that's the thing to a lot of the modern

shows don't really have any kind of a catchy

theme song well unless you're you know a sponge

and living under the sea nobody cares about him

He would become exhausted. We want to see a manta

ray living under the sea Depth charge fishpans

But yeah, yeah, I mean And that's the thing too

with these older cartoons like Tasmania the old

themes just I think that they just they resonate

better with people. Yeah, they I mean, the purpose

of them back in the day was to pump you up for

the show and it did a damn good job of it because

we always watched it. Very, very awesome. For

Legacy, we have several things here. Video games.

Five video games based on the show were made.

Two by Sega for the Sega Mega Drive slash Genesis,

Sega Master System and Sega Game Gear, and three

by Sunsoft consisting of one for the Super Nintendo

and two for the Game Boy. That's interesting.

For home video release, we have three VHS tapes

were released in 93, a DVD containing the first

four episodes of the series was released in Europe

in April 2010. on january seventeenth twenty

thirteen a dvd release of the first thirteen

episodes was announced for a may fourteenth twenty

thirteen release thanks to our good buddies over

at uh... tv shows on dvd hi dave we are getting

the first thirteen episodes of tazmania on dvd

later this may very very awesome i'm hoping that

this will sell well enough for them to put more

on dvd But it's going to be awesome. Yes, I will

be picking that up. Yes, awesome. But yeah, I

mean, TazMini, a very, very cool show. I think

before we run out of talking points, we're going

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Bumblebee and me, Life is a G1 Transformer by

Dan Gilvazan. Very, very awesome audiobook. Alright,

any final thoughts on Tasmania? I'd say overall

it was a great show and I wish that they'd do

more in this vein in today's age. Yes. Exactly.

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head back to... Another DeLorean time with Adventures

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Until next time.