"Josie in Outer Space;
Hey, everyone. Welcome to a new year, a new world, and a new season of
Andrew’s Funshine All-Star Superstar Supercade Saturday! …Show.
Unlike last season -- in which I reviewed only four cartoons in one night as if it was a pilot TV-movie, this season features even more reviews of even more cartoons every week like that pilot was a massive hit and got picked up to series. While I can admit that last year was a bit more rushed, sloppy and rudimentary (it took me two months to pen my reviews of the cartoons that debuted in 1971 for publishing on March 6), my hope is to make a much better, stronger, tighter and funnier season for you to read and watch (and yes, because this segment reviews cartoons, I'll call each yearly collection a "season"; I hope you enjoy this season as I did putting it all together. So, let’s begin.
Let’s talk about Josie and the Pussycats.
Uhh, on second thought, let’s not; you know what it is, so let’s go CliffsNotes here.
Josie and the Pussycats are a popular all-girl teen pop/rock band with a gimmick based on their “long tails and ears for hats”. Josie McCoy’s the lead singer and guitarist (obviously); Valerie Brown is the backup singer, bassist and tambourinist; and Melody Valentine is the drummer. Together, they - along with their super-wealthy and ultra-wimpy manager Alexander Cabot III, beefcake roadie Alan Mayberry, Alex’s ice-queen of a twin sister Alexandra Cabot and her possibly-humanoid cat Sebastian Cabot - trek across the globe to play their “sweet, neat, groovy song(s)” with their “guitars, sharps and flats” for their adoring fans and - of course - end up tangled in and must solve and thwart mysteries and spy capers plotted by some scary, weird dudes -- where the action’s at.
There are many H-B cartoons across its history; heck, even in the 70s. But like Scooby-Doo, few titles were as endearing, rewatchable and unforgettable as this one. Like the former, it's fun, funny, charming, well-written, schmaltzy and cheesy (perhaps, it's charm comes from it's cheese). And its characters are are
So what would happen when this out of this world music group ends up literally out of this world? Where will they end up? Why won’t Alexandra accept that Alan doesn’t want her and the Universe refuses to see her as a musical artist?
They’re - and It’s - Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space.
Unlike the original - in which the group travel the world for gigs and end up in perilous situations that involve their combined prowess and intellect (yes, even Alexander’s cowardice and Melody’s ineptness) to save it and rock on another day, they here have to use their combined prowess and intellect to save themselves and survive. Yeah, it sounds super dark, but just watch their (mis)adventures on other planets and you’ll understand the assignment.
Let’s go back a bit. In the title sequence, the Cats and co. are doing promo work alongside NASA with a photo shoot in front of a new spaceship. Alexandra (not happy for either not being in the photo at all or with her far left hand placement in it) shoves herself to the front; this causes a domino effect of knocking down everyone else and then herself into the control room panel, accidentally pulling down the gear shift and igniting the rocket -b sending the gang off to and across the atmosphere. (In my opinion, it’s great to see the Pussycats still hot and groovy in the years since the original and getting an honor as big as a photo shoot in front of a rocketship. So aeronautical!)
And now, we flash forward.
Throughout the series, the Pussycats and company (and new friend Bleep) do all they can to save the universe (and themselves of course) and forever disrupt and destroy the diabolical diatribes of awful, appalling, abominable, atrocious aliens. (sorry, alliteratives too augmentative?)
Characters:
Since we know about the main characters of and from the original series, I won’t go in depth about them here. But just to remind you:
- Josie McCoy is the red-headed and level-headed lead of the Pussycats (in my opinion, Josie is the least interesting, while she is the lead, she offers nothing to grab my interest. Literally every other character has a trait or flaw to them that puts them ahead of her in my mind, and while she's not like Daphne, even her damsel-in-distress moments are more memorable than Josie's... being there.)
- Valerie Brown is the brilliant brunette bombshell bassist - she’s also the first ever black female Saturday morning cartoon character. Here, she also commandeers the vessel, and her advanced intellect and heightened vernacular not only continues to be a major asset to the gang, both are even more utilized to the point where if she wasn't a member of the band, everyone else would have an extremely slim shot of getting back home on even out of any planetoid they end up in (and even less so if Alan wasn't their roadie).
- Melody Valentine is the golden-haired and golden-hearted but lame-brained drummer - and is the same here, but her relationship with Bleep does prove she has some intellect. (Melody as the main comic relief helps keep the series from being a full-blown drama and while I hate dumb characters in TV shows, she has a high amount of heart, care and humor to make her lovable to me)
- Alexander Cabot III is the Pussycats' rich, flamboyant and cowardly manager. Except here and now, he has legitimate reasons to be a coward - as he winds up taking the most unwanted space trip ever and ends up facing villains and even allies that can scare even the toughest dude at first sight, and it shows whenever he whines, shivers, nervously laughs -- basically every time we see him. Accidental space madness can do that to you.
- Alan Mayberry is the buff but bright blonde roadie (Alan has to be a hero for keeping cool piloting a rocket for the first time ever, landing on planets other than the one he lives on and conjuring ideas to escape jail and then the planetoid itself - but he handles himself great [considering he has a whiny, wimpy manchild of a manager who spews enough of the histrionics for everybody and a shrill, aggressive harpy who’s life mission is to snatch him from the girlfriend they both know he has and loves, he has his reasons]).
- Alexandra Cabot is Alex’s skunk-haired twin sister with nothing more to do than stand-by, snark and swipe Alan away from Josie - and failing at the latter every time, ending up as the resident joke. And, when she wants to, everything she does to try to help the crew makes everything worse -- especially involving navigating the ship back to Earth (particularly when the navigation is already computed straight back to Earth).
- Sebastian Cabot is Alexandra’s pet cat and cause of either solution or destruction -- usually to his master [and yep, named after the fat British dude known for playing Mr. French on Family Affair]. (Sebastian is one of the best parts of the original series and continues as this here)
The original was pretty much musical Scooby-Doo starring Daphne being the less-danger-prone leader; Fred on steroids; Shaggy hitting the lotto, laying off the pot and going overboard with his new attitude and wardrobe; black Velma (or Velma going the route of Martina Big) and Scooby as a cat who isn’t so lucky in the talking department. Oh, and throw in Alexandra (I ran out of Mystery Inc. members). The similarities are super obvious, but at least they’re still entertaining in their own ways.
Joining the gang on their new misadventures is Bleep,
a… fascinating alien who assists them in whatever they need to capture jailed members of the team, escape and/or embarrass and defeat the villalaien (alien villain) of the week then fix their ship and blast right back home (or rather [and most likely] their next cosmic cohabitation). Named so after the thing he says exclusively (and constantly), he becomes a member of the team, Sebastian's frenemy and Melody’s adorable, cuddly adopted pet whom only she can understand. (Yep, somehow, Melody can understand and speak Bleep’s one-worded, Pokemon-esque language. Goes to show that she’s totally talented at more than just drumming.)
Plot(s):
As mentioned earlier, the series features the titular characters blasting off into outer space, bumping into alien races and doing their darndest to help save the day (and play their music of course - because remember, they're still a band above all else) and get back home. While this is just that show with a sci-fi twist, I think this is a much better and funnier use of the characters and much stronger and cohesive plots and execution -- even if each episode ends literally the same way. This sequel also gives the animation staff a challenge of creating bright, colorful new worlds, new races/species and much more threatening and less affable villains, bigger scarier threats to our universe and new actions they take to stop them, and they understood the assignment and accomplished it with flying colors. All of its plots stand out to me and make In Outer Space a much better and entertaining series than the original.
- “Where’s Josie?” has the gang captured and duplicated by the corrupt former ruler (we also meet Bleep)
- “Alien Alan” has our favorite sensible muscleman captured, brainwashed and corrupted by the leader of a magnetized planet to serve as his submissive and suddenly sclera-ed servant.
- In “The Water Planet”, villalien Aquar uses a large vacuum-like machine to hoard water and moisture from other planets (and even the gang’s system and the spaceship) and onto his island-like planet.
- “The Sun Haters'' features the two titular villaliens, Lujak and Orco (no, not him) of the Hugos (huge-os) - a race of giants, attempt to block out the iconic burning star, and strengthen the demise of the people of the planetoid, with help of the gang’s spaceship. Giant shades took care of that, believe it or not.
- “Now You See Them, Now You Don’t” centers around a race of lanky aliens and their planet and their diabolical invention of invisibility via the use of charged bubble gum
- “The Four-Eyed Dragon of Cygnon” features a bait-and-switch (SPOILER) from the assumed villalien - the titular dragon, and the true villalien - two aliens who fearmonger their people into hiding in their homes under their corrupt rule. Also, if you watch The Wizard of Oz, you’d know the ending a mile away.
- “The Hollow Planet” has two villailiens inventing a bomb-like ray to turn any adult into children and then brainwashing and conditioning them to enrich their plan of building an army of child slaves.
- “All Hail Goddess Melody” centers on Melody finding herself as ruler/deity of the planetoid Gezzner, all the while two villailiens - Maalox and Kodachrome -- I mean Merlox and Kota, try to stop her and keep their authoritarian reign intact
- And several episodes involving robot leaders and/or guards.
Although it is still as funny as the original, when a certain scene gets serious, watch out - it's depressing. At least the songs the band plays during the jail and chase scenes (along with Alex's whining, Alexandra's bitching and Melody's rambling temporarily eradicate the bleak and drool atmosphere for something more cheerful and ridiculous.
Animation:
While the original series was already bright and colorful in its own right - not only among the locations and villain lairs, but also among the outfits of the characters (both main and one-shot) [no matter how ridiculous], this one takes it all up to eleven.
The planetoids look and were drawn as unique and imaginative as possible -- as if they got inspiration from sci-fi movies and TV shows from the 50s and 60s (I know the gang’s ski--uhh, spacesuits and no helmets must come from Lost in Space). They look amazing. Considering Alex Toth (creator of Sealab 2020) also worked on this series, it makes all the sense in the world.
-- The aliens (both evil and good) look both great and scary. When any aliens appear, they look scary, but things change when we get to know them. They get scarier when they turn out to be evil, but look kind and gentle when they’re known as good guys. This is a brilliant effect of animation on viewers.
-- My main gripe is the movements of the characters -- they look wooden and stilted (and there are episodes involving robots). -- Another gripe is Bleep’s design. Bleep looks like one of the animators took both acid and uppers for the first just before designing him and the producers (including Bill and Joe) must have been on something to approve it for the show.
-- Another gripe is during the Pussycats’ purrfect performances while under temporary incarceration. When they sing, they somehow change from their spacesuits to their Cat costumes with their instruments in tow to play on. Unless the girls wore their costumes underneath their suits, but even then, no explanation anywhere. (This also happens with Alan in "Alien Alan" when the gang frees him from his mind control.) There's no explanation whatsoever at times of any instruments ending up in jail with them. I’ll chalk this up to lazy animation. But if it was to save money, I totally understand; in fact, that could explain the wooden movements and repetitive frames. They finally fix the problem in "The Warrior Women of Amazonia" -- the final episode. (Better than nothing, I guess?)
Fortunately, some episodes have the girl group improvise with some materials from the confinement’s walls and floor to make makeshift instruments, and others do have the vilaliens grant permission to the gang to give the ladies the genuine articles. Aside from those, this series is visually stunning. The planets, colonies and alien races featured look beautiful, and their designs look like something from a great sci-fi comic book. Many colors and shades are used to perfection and the villains look legit threatening without even speaking a word (in fact it’s hard to tell which is good or bad until they talk and which type of BGM is playing).
Voice Acting:
The voice cast from the original series are back and still in top form. While everyone did a bangup job, the best performances are by Casey Kasem as Alexander (I enjoy any time he talks in a paranoid or histrionic way and his snarky one-liners. You know what? Any time he talks), Cherie Moor as Melody (I always love her sing-songy voice, her Betty Rubble-like chuckle and her interactions with Bleep).
As for the one-shot characters, they’re the best parts vocal-wise. Whoever voices them (I’m gonna guess mostly Casey Kasem and John Stephenson) do a great job of conveying the correct and proper emotions into the one-shots with power, aplomb and conviction.
Music:
Let’s start with background music. Besides the usual cheerful, wistful, uproarious, and goofy beats featured in the original series and across Hanna-Barberra’s repertoire, this series also has some very dramatic music (new-ish and old) that emits genuine dread and unease during scenes of the gang entering a new planetoid (intentionally or un), a villailien revealing their evil plans to make the citizens suffer or take over the universe and the gang hitting a major snag in their plans to escape - either confinement or the planetoid.
Since the original Josie and the Pussycats is a musical cartoon filled with original songs in the vein of the chase scenes from season two of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, it makes radical sense that the sequel also features original songs. And just like the first series, every song is bright, sugary bubblegum pop-rock that I probably would’ve hated in public, but secretly would’ve loved in private. Titles are:
"Bubble Bubble, No More Trouble" (first from “Where’s Josie?”)
"Love Song of the Universe" ()
"(Hey) Did You Have Yourself a Day?"
“Love Brotherhood”
“Join the Party”
They’re fun, catchy, on-brand and (if you listen and enjoy them long enough) unforgettable.
Laugh Track:
Yes… unfortunately. While the fact that one was used here and in the original was annoying enough, it’s even more so when Bleep bleeps. It’s not funny -- no matter how much either Hanna-Barberra or the person H-B hired to work the damn thing thinks it is. And just well - and by that, I mean irritating - it blares on when something neutral happens or when a character makes a funny or not (especially when they don’t). Do these people watch these episodes beforehand to find a joke or gag and then properly place it there? And if they do… shame on them. These writers tried real hard and yet these engineers don’t know what’s funny if it bonked them on the head like an anvil. Maybe, a character getting bonked on the head with an anvil. (Fortunately, modern-day remasters on DVD, Blu-Ray and digital remove the laugh tracks for a clearer, softer, sometimes quieter(?) watch, which I personally enjoy.)
Random Thoughts:
-- I know personal hygiene and bodily functions just never existed on American television up to this point, but… one has to ponder, does the spaceship ever have a place to shower or bathe? And there must've been a place to wash the spacesuits too. (I also briefly wondered if they ever ate, but the intro scene of one episode revealed that they do -- but it’s those nasty freeze-dried, pill-sized pellets astronauts eat, so there’s that.)
-- As the series’ production was reaching its conclusion, it would’ve been better (or even smarter) to have the one-shot aliens give the characters help in their return to Earth close to its end -- and yes, have Alexandra screw things up. But in the final episode, have that happen (SPOILER: preferably by Prof. Benedict) and stick, ensuring that the gang finally made it back home and seeing their reaction of happiness, relief and elation.
-- You know? All the time the gang are in space, you'd think NASA Mission Control would try their hardest to contact them and give them the correct coordinates to them to return to Earth. (SPOILER) But that never happened at any point, and that makes no sense. I guess they'd use the gang's experience in space as a type of found footage documentary to recruit new astronauts and separate the men from the boys to get the strongest and bravest (and sane) to explore life from our home. How... illogical.
-- Alexander is a blank. That is all.
Conclusion:
As mentioned, Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space is way way way better than Josie and the Pussycats -- and I happen to love Josie and the Pussycats. While it’s the same characters doing the same thing (winding up someplace hearing about and foiling an evil plot by a super affable villain on the way to where they need to be [a gig or recording (original) or home on Earth (this series)], this series is a much better premise and execution. I highly recommend giving both a watch. It’s quite a fun time and a nice time waster. You’ll have a… rockin’ blast of a time! (heh? Get it?)
Anyway, that’s it for now. Thank you for joining me for the first edition of... the show. I promise there's much more to come this season, with more reviews of more cartoons and more splitting laughs and more exciting fun. And that'll continue next week when I come back to Earth and switch from one popular singular-sex band to another on the other side of the chromosomes as I go on a world tour with the white Jackson 5 known as The Osmonds in the White version of The Jackson 5ive known as The Osmonds. See you then.
Bye!
Oh yeah, and they never made it home.
(Okay, okay, they do make it back home on Earth in time for "The Haunted Showboat" - their episode of the second season of The New Scooby- Doo Movies. Bleep is nowhere to be found, they're back in their street clothes and they never mention their space trip. Considering the stuff they saw throughout their catastrophic cross-cosmic cruise, I don't blame them. Plus, seeing the two of the most beloved characters voiced by Casey Kasem -- Alexander and Shaggy -- appearing on-screen together [although they don't interact] was pretty awesome. Chickens of a feather, they cower together.)
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