by Ryan Lewellen
This collection was released by Shout Factory on September 1st, 2015
Before the 90s, Nickelodeon had already become something truly unique. It was a station dedicated to creating and discovering (Are You Afraid Of The Dark came from Canada) imaginative and subversive programming expressly for children. First launched in 1979, the network offered an excellent array of programming for the purpose of educating and entertaining kids. It was in the early 90’s (in my humble opinion) when the channel reached its stride, and produced a feverishly original crop of animated television. Nicktoons, they were called, as Nickelodeon threw money at various young animators and writers who had fresh ideas, not all of which were completely safe, or tailored, for young, impressionable minds.
Shout Factory has collected a healthy handful of Halloween-centric episodes from that lovely era of ‘tooning, and Out Of The Vault: Halloween is surely enough to have millenials, and Halloween nerds frothing at the mouth. I fit into both categories, and as you can imagine, this collection has turned me into a rabid animal.
Childhood favorite, Rocko’s Modern Life, designed to attract guttersnipes and grown-ups alike, has aged gracefully. The wallaby’s misadventures prepared me for adulthood in so many ways, what with his employment woes, battles with lemming-like consumerism, and trials with doing the right thing. Rocko was an everyman, and the modern world was always trying to crush his spirit, but his spirit resisted, and his often macabre and hallucinogenic challenges always ended on a decently bittersweet note.
As featured in this new collection, Rocko has the most to offer in the way of horror-themed material. To Heck And Back, one of my personal favorites, involves his obese best friend, a cow named Heffer Wolfe, being sent to hell after chocking on a chicken ribcage. Rocko has to travel through Heff’s innards to remove the blockage before his greedy friend can be forever tormented by a masked demon named Peaches. Two other episodes offer some freaky fun, but the real treasure here is Sugar Frosted Freights, set on Halloween, when neurotic turtle, Philbert, goes on a sweets-propelled rampage. Rocko was the kind of show you could grow up with, and these shorts are only funnier now than they were back in 1993.
Let’s get CatDog and Hey Arnold covered simultaneously, as they are the least of the contributions here. I never liked CatDog, and I still don’t get it. The protagonists are attached middle-to-middle, no butts, and they have polar-opposite personalities. Seems like a fine setup for children’s entertainment, if not philosophical conjecture, but the material just isn’t there. The few jokes never land, and it mostly feels like a waste of time. Hey Arnold!, on the other hand, is harmless to a fault. His serene adventures were a welcome contradiction to the manic spasms found in Ren And Stimpy or Rocko, especially after Doug went off the air. The problem is, the show never amounts to much, but the three selected episodes contained here are perfectly enjoyable. He has one double-length short set on Halloween night, and another revolving around a haunted train. The show was an important animated part of the programming, finally getting some docile representation for the inner-city kids, so there just isn’t much one can say against the show. It just fails to standout amongst the other featured programs.
One of the more bizarre Nicktoon creations was AAAHH!!! Real Monsters — an abrasive watch, and a bitch to spell. Ickis, Oblina (RIP Christine Cavanaugh), and Krumm are, as the title suggests, real monsters learning from The Gromble (a kind of blue worm-dog wearing high heels) at a scaring academy. I remember seeing the pilot of this series just after returning from a successful night of Trick Or Treating in 1994. That episode, naturally set on Halloween, is featured on Shout Fractory’s collection, and is charming from beginning to end. This was one of the noisier Nicktoons, so prepare yourself for a lot of yelling, but all three episodes are very funny and totally cool. This Is Your Brain On Ickis features the voice talents of Jim Belushi as recurring antagonist, Simon the Monster Hunter, who Ickis physically possesses by entering his skull through the ear canal.
Lastly, there is the shockingly funny The Angry Beavers. I remember a fondness for this one, but I might not have realized its sophisticated wit. This is, without much contest, the funniest show offered by Shout Factory’s wonderful collection. Surprisingly clever, full of cultural references, bonkers wordplay and hilarious voice performances, BEAVERS might have been the best comedic production of the era. Chief among the three shorts collected, The Day The World Got Really Screwed Up is a double-length Halloween special dedicated to goofing on B-movies. It even [very] briefly showcases the talents of Adrienne Barbeau in its cast of other notable voice actors.
This October, get your hands on this fine collection of memories. It’s sure to get you into the spirit of things, and feed your nostalgic requirements as the same time.
