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Director: John Eng
Airing Date: January 27, 1996
Stars: Duckman
Rating: ★★
Review:
‘Color of Naught’ is one of those episodes revolving around an evil plot by Duckman’s arch nemesis King Chicken. These don’t belong to the series’ best, and ‘Color of Naught’ suffers from sloppy story telling, with its rather random plot twists, and obligatory finale.
Iggy Catalpa (from ‘Joking the Chicken‘) returns for a short cameo, but more interestingly is the return of Angela, Duckman’s love interest from ‘About Face‘. Her interactions with Duckman install some interesting moments in an otherwise disappointing episode. The cameo of three guys from the ‘Weird Sciene’ television show (1994-1998) has aged less well, as this series has fallen into oblivion.
‘Color of Naught’ is noteworthy for the outlandish animation on the Beautex Salesman, and for King Chicken’s rather original way of destroying Duckman’s world, reducing characters and background art to black and white sketches, before turning into nothingness.
Watch ‘Color of Naught’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This is Duckman episode no. 26
To the previous Duckman episode: Grandma-ma’s Flatulent Adventure
To the next Duckman episode: Sperms of Endearment
‘Color of Naught’ is available on the DVD-box ‘Duckman – The Complete Series’
Director: Norton Virgien
Airing Date: January 20, 1996
Stars: Duckman
Rating: ★★½
Review:
‘Grandma-ma’s Flatulent Adventure’ for once centers on grandma-ma, the only taciturn member of the family.
After Duckman’s doomed day of caring duty for her, the family decides to take her to a nursing room. Duckman is taking her, but loses his car, with grandma-ma in it, on the way…
‘Grandma-ma’s Flatulent Adventure’ isn’t a very focused episode, and ties different story ideas rather loosely together. It seems to want to say something about our treatment of the elderly, but this is immediately diluted by the rather random nonsense filling the episode. In that respect Grandma-ma’s own adventure is a particular series of nonsensical events.
Highlight, however, is the brief episode in which the family visits three nursing homes, one all too conspicuously called ‘Soylent Green’. Nevertheless, the episode is more interesting for its outlandish staging, with its extreme camera angles and close-ups than for its content. All who are more interested in Duckman’s personal life are treated on some images of his wedding day with the currently deceased Beatrice.
Watch ‘Grandma-ma’s Flatulent Adventure’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This is Duckman episode no. 25
To the previous Duckman episode: Forbidden Fruit
To the next Duckman episode: Color of Naught
‘Grandma-ma’s Flatulent Adventure’ is available on the DVD-box ‘Duckman – The Complete Series’
Director: Paul Demeyer
Airing Date: January 13, 1996
Stars: Duckman
Rating: ★★★★
Review:
The best Duckman episodes contain an element of satire, and the best satire still rings today. And this certainly applies to the ‘Forbidden Fruit’ episode.
This episode starts with a VHS tape of a school psychiatrist recommending a tutor for Ajax, Charles and Mambo. After some mishaps (e.g. Michael Jackson) a sexy young French nanny called Régine Poulet applies. Bernice forbids Duckman to make one single sexual remark to the girl, but he gets sued for sexual harassment nonetheless. At this point the episode spoofs an all too sensitive reaction to an otherwise condemnable crime, and political correctness carried too far, complete with changing of names, like Hebrew to Webrew.
This episode’s satire can easily translate to the #metoo movement and to the cancel culture of this day and age. However, highlight of the episode is Duckman’s visit to Fluffy and Uranus’s gingerbread house-like home, which inside is stuffed with cutesy material like rainbows and unicorns.
Watch ‘Forbidden Fruit’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This is Duckman episode no. 24
To the previous Duckman episode: Noir Gang
To the next Duckman episode: Grandma-ma’s Flatulent Adventure
‘Forbidden Fruit’ is available on the DVD-box ‘Duckman – The Complete Series’
Director: Raymie Muzquiz
Airing Date: January 6, 1996
Stars: Duckman
Rating: ★★★½
Review:
The third season of Duckman opens with an obvious film noir parody filmed in black and white.
It starts with a shot of a drunken Cornfed walking the rainy streets followed by Cornfed’s voice over in a confession to a priest. Cornfed’s voice over alone is full of film noir tropes.
Cornfed’s story involves a Veronica Lake-like “dame” called Tamara La Boinque, who turns the two partners Duckman and Cornfed into rivals. Duckman and Cornfed (in trenchcoats) visit the Casablanca-like nightclub in which she works, where they encounter caricatures of Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet and Humphrey Bogart in their roles in that particular film. When Cornfed unmasks Tamara he throws in references to several other film noir titles.
This episode only features regular stars Duckman and Cornfed. Unfortunately, the comedy relies too heavily on parody, and the episode’s story in itself is hardly interesting. One even gets the feeling the studio could have done more with the film noir theme.
Watch ‘Noir Gang’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This is Duckman episode no. 23
To the previous Duckman episode: Clip Job
To the next Duckman episode: Forbidden Fruit
‘Noir Gang’ is available on the DVD-box ‘Duckman – The Complete Series’
Director: Mike Booth
Release Date: October 1996
Rating: ★★★½
This Bolexbrothers short tells about a rather fat, naked hermit. He lives in complete meditation on a platform high above the mountains and clouds.
One day he gets a visit from the ‘saint inspector’, a robot. The robot inspects the meditative state of the hermit, who only once reacts to the robot’s tests. This prompts the robot to look inside the hermit’s brain, which leads to a mesmerizing string of rapidly changing and rather disturbing images.
‘The Saint Inspector’ is quite an absurd film, and more than anything else demonstrates the limitless potential of animation.
Watch ‘The Saint Inspector’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘The Saint Inspector’ is available on the DVD ‘The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb’
Director: Gosce Vaskov
Release Date: 1996
Rating: ★
Review:
‘Mass in A minor’ is the first computer animated film made in Croatia.
This single fact must be the sole reason to watch the film. Otherwise, ‘Mass in A minor’ is utterly forgettable. The short is an unremarkable mood piece with flames as its main theme. The motion is perfectly set to Marijan Brkić’s new age music, but this cannot save the film, which has a cheap, ugly and utterly primitive look.
‘Mass in A Minor is available on the DVD ‘The Best of Zagreb Film: Be Careful What You Wish For and The Classic Collection’
Dr. Grob's Animation Review 