Best Pirate Cartoon Ever???

[Capt. Lazarus Gage]

Has Anyone else watched the cartoon The Misadventures of Flapjack?? I caught my nephew watching it a few weeks ago, and now I can't get enough of it!!! This is the best most deranged pirate themed cartoon I have ever seen!!! If you have not yet viewed this unique gem of animation you are definitely missing out!!

[callenish gunner]

just watched this on Fancast; south park Cartman the pirate

[Sjöröveren]

I just saw an old Bugs Bunny cartoon yesterday (on the DVD of the old "Horatio Hornblower" with Gregory Peck) called "Captain Hareblower" Great classic Bugs Bunny stuff, with Yosemite Sam as "Pirate Sam." I was impressed at how they got the look of the ship correct. Most drawings of ships done by people without any knowledge will make huge mistakes, but the naval architecture in this cartoon was quite good. I guess I've just become too much of a tall ship nut to not look for that sort of thing.

[Capt. Lazarus Gage]

Yeah, I saw the pirate south park last night. Freakin hilarious.

[LadyBarbossa]

Yes, I've seen the Misadventures of Flapjack.

It's cute yet corny. Not sure if it's bad or not. I think this cartoon epitomizes Will Turner's quote: "This is either madness... or brilliant."

~Lady B

[Captain Tito]

I just saw an old Bugs Bunny cartoon yesterday (on the DVD of the old "Horatio Hornblower" with Gregory Peck) called "Captain Hareblower" Great classic Bugs Bunny stuff, with Yosemite Sam as "Pirate Sam." I was impressed at how they got the look of the ship correct. Most drawings of ships done by people without any knowledge will make huge mistakes, but the naval architecture in this cartoon was quite good. I guess I've just become too much of a tall ship nut to not look for that sort of thing.

Is that the one where Bugs throws the match down into Sam's powder magazine?? I remember that one a ton of times when I was but a cabin boy turnin on the Saturday morning 'toons. There was also another one where Bugs goes aboard Sam's ship, thinking its a pleasure cruise, but he's tricked into being the crew.

[Poopdeck Pappy]

Is that the one where Bugs throws the match down into Sam's powder magazine?? I remember that one a ton of times when I was but a cabin boy turnin on the Saturday morning 'toons. There was also another one where Bugs goes aboard Sam's ship, thinking its a pleasure cruise, but he's tricked into being the crew.

If you buy the Captain Horatio Hornblower DVD it includes Captain Horatio Hareblower cartoon as a special feature.

[Raphael Misson]

So, I watched the movie Scooby Doo: Pirates Ahoy, which I now feel the need to prattle on about. (Note: SD:PA is not the best pirate cartoon ever, but I am not about to start a new topic for this.) (Also note: this review contains spoilers...if it is possible to spoil a Scooby Doo cartoon. I mean, come on... the gang will happen across a mystery, the adults will be less than helpful, Fred will plan things, Shag and Scoob will be the bait for a trap that doesn't work as intended, Daphne will be vapid and probably get into trouble, Velma will notice things Sherlock style and piece together the puzzle and the bad guy in the mask would have gotten away with it...IF…well, you know. Did I miss anything?)

We start with the most shocking thing in this movie for me: the WB logo. When did WB acquire the Hanna Barbara studios? I really need to start paying better attention. Apparently this has been a good thing, as the animation has improved dramatically. Remember how Fred's eyes were sometimes out of line like some sort of unfortunate ocular damage occurred between scenes? Or how Daphne sometimes had white sclera (look it up) and sometimes didn’t? Or those backgrounds that got repeated over and over and over and over like someone was filming the characters walking in front of scenery that was on a giant vertical treadmill? All of that is gone. (*Sniff* I actually sort of miss it.)

We open with floating embers which is clearly meant to recall POTC:CotBP. Then we are treated to scenes of every stray Bermuda Triangle disaster theory known to man - aliens, mysterious fog, the Kraken, a maelstrom, etc. This is all just window dressing, possibly designed to get the kiddos not familiar with the concept up to snuff, but there it is. Again, note elements from the POTC movies. (You'll see a lot of that.)

At last! Something fresh and original. (HB animation never looked so good.)

We focus on a small ship containing what will later be revealed to be a astro-cartographer named Johnny De- er, Rupert Garcia. A mysterious glowing fog envelops his ships and skeletal pirate zombies smash things and abduct people while trying really, really hard to summon the feel of the Moonlight Serenade scene. (When the pirate zombie captain came aboard, I actually found myself mumbling "You best start believin' in ghost stories - you're in one!")

After trashing the ship and not finding Rupert (who hides under his desk), the pirates leave and blow a hole in the side of it with their cannon. We see it sink. (Remember this.) Curiously, they will really, really need Rupert later, which makes me wonder if our pirates just don't have the right 'can do' attitude about all this skulduggery.

We switch to the Mystery Machine, which is driving about in broad daylight. Yes! Broad daylight! I didn't think the MM could even run on clear, sunny days. I figured it had some sort of anti-solar panel on top causing the van to shut off when it got too sunny. The gang seems to work only in really spooky, overcast conditions. I can even remember them going boating on a foggy, overcast day in the original series! ("Hassle in the Castle").

With the advent of the latest SD incarnation, What's New Scooby Doo?, there have been a few changes to the gang. Velma is now thinner and wears a longer skirt. It's nice to see cartoon stars taking an active role in improving themselves. Fred has eschewed his orange cravat and now features a blue stripe on his sweater. I guess they didn't want anyone to think he was supporting the Chicago Bears or anything. Daphne has also lost her green cravat and received a crossover skirt, about which I can think of no snarky comment. (Purple and green?) The show now has a slightly smart-alecky, self-aware vibe this is a trifle disconcerting to me. I'm going to guess that this came about with the live-action movies, although I haven’t actually seen any of them. Frank Welker voices Fred (and Scooby) and he sounds as good as he ever did. Casey Casem voices Shaggy as usual, although he sounds a little long in the tooth (if that's possible.) Daphne is voiced reasonably well by Grey DeLisle and Velma is voiced by Facts of Life star Mindy Cohn (!). As an added bonus to all SD fans, Scrappy is no where to be seen. But I digress...

The gang on set in their "new" outfits, wondering how we got off on this tangent.

The reveal of the Mystery Machine is just an establishing shot to get the gang to a boat dock to meet Fred's parents. Fred's dad is voiced by Tim Conway (who was featured in one of those less-than-adequate New Scooby Doo Movies - although they do get some points for not having Scrappy in them.) His mom appears to be voiced by Frances McDormand. You betcha'. Fred's parents address everyone in the gang by their real/full names, including Shaggy. (Norville. I suppose this is why he never lobbied for a better nickname than "Shaggy." Anything must be an improvement over "Norville.")

Some hijinks occur on the dock, a creepy man appears and disappears and then the gang and Fred's ma and pa board a cruise liner. The ship's hammy cruise director apparently has no other passengers to worry about and gives the gang and fam a complete ship tour. She is clearly modeled after Lauren Tewes - that hair - although her appearance is the only part of her which suggests this. The tour also introduces Captain Barack, who is, of course, goofy. All guys except non-descript sheriffs and villains in Scooby Doo seem to be a bit goofy. This may or may not have something to do with the stable of voice artists available to cartoons in Hollywood.

The captain stages several fake monster "mysteries" designed to convince the patrons that aliens and other assorted monsters are boarding the ship. This is because they're in the Bermuda Triangle, see? Curiously, several of the monsters Capt. Barack portrays are actually from seasons 1 and 2 of Scooby Doo Where Are You? including that old Bermuda Triangle favorite, the wolfman (!) who comes from the episode "A Gaggle of Galloping Ghosts." Of course, the gang sees right through all Cappy B's attempts as they are serious mystery solvers.

Velma reveals Cappy Barack for the fraud that he is.

Meanwhile, the astro-cartographer from the first scenes (Rupert) is picked up from the wreckage of his boat. On embarking, he proclaims "This whole ship and everyone on it is in terrible, terrible danger!" Everyone ignores this because it's tradition. (Reference any B horror movie where the teens try to warn people in positions of authority about impending doom.) Also, multi-billionaire nutter Biff "Branson" Wellington jets onto the ship a la James Bond, which even one of the gang notes is totally unbelievable because they are in the middle of nowhere. So now you know who the villain is - haughty rich guys always have two strikes against them in Hollywood and when they appear out of nowhere when a mystery is afoot, you can pretty much depend on them being the bad guy.

Some other filler occurs, but let's skip to the floor show at the costume ball (Fred: cowboy; Daphne: purple cat; Shaggy & Scooby: two-headed chicken; Velma: harem girl (!) ). The floor show at the costume ball features the creepy little man from the dock, who, as it turns out, is a hypnotist. If you have watched any SD shows at all, you should now realize that he figures into the creation of the zombie pirate deal. (In SD, hypnotism is nearly all powerful, projectors can be used to create 3D images of anything, anywhere and hidden wheels, gears and cranes (often in large robotic objects) are always soundless and undetectable until the end of the show when they are completely obvious even to a four year old child.)

Mr. Mysterio (that's the hypnotist's name) does an act where he hypnotizes everyone at the ball except his targets (Shaggy and Scooby.) This causes me to wonder a) What gives Shag and Scoob this sudden resistance to hypnotics? (In the original series, Scooby was hypnotized by a ghost clown with a coin on a string!) and B ) How can this guy be any good at all when he completely misses his targets but gets everyone else on the ship? I'm thinking that this ship is full of really gullible people. I wonder if there was a checkbox "open to suggestion" on the application?

Anyhow, even though we're already pretty sure he figures into the dastardly scheme, he releases everyone from their trance just as the pirates arrive and board the cruise ship. Let's talk about ship scales for a second. We see the pirate ship passing alongside the cruise-liner outside the ballroom window. Now, from my experience (which admittedly isn't much, but I'll put it out there anyhow), ballrooms and such-like are located at the top of a cruise ship. And cruise ships are freaking huge, usually poking 100’+ out of the water. We saw the size of the pirate ship in relation to the astro-cartographer's ship at the beginning and it was about what you'd expect for a pirate ship - say two or three stories high (presuming one can measure ship height in stories) plus the masts. So it's about 30’ to 35’ max. Yet there it is, right outside the window at 100’+. That must be some creative license they applied for on this project. You really gotta' know someone special at the DMV to get one a license like that.

Did your ship grow taller or is it just happy to see us?

Anyhow, the pirates board the ship and create Mayhem a la POTC. It turns out that the pirate captain ghost zombie guy (that's the title on his business card) is named "Skunkbeard," which I really think some re-enactor needs to consider adopting as their moniker. He sports a white stripe down the middle of his beard and probably has really bad halitosis or something. (One would hope.) Sensing that the plot is languishing, he absconds with everyone on board, most particularly Fred's parents. For some reason he doesn't take the gang, who are left to devise a way to sneak aboard themselves. Shaggy and Scooby go to the prow of the ship (that's sailor talk there) and do the whole "I'm king of the world!" thing that every geek must do when he's at the prow of the ship.

"I'm king of the dorks!"

We are now treated to several scenes of pirate zombie ghosts drinking and carousing on their pirate ship in a minor, Saturday cartoon way. This is sort of cool and very reminiscent of POTC. It also provides the first view of the pirate ship's masthead that I noted. It is noteworthy if you ask me. The masthead is a zombie mermaid that I was so cool that I got a screenshot of it for all to enjoy:

Not to go OT, but…oh, what the hell. I have long been planning to take all the bits and pieces of old 70s POTC skeleton models and turn them into a diorama for the top shelf of book case in my Pirate-themed living room. It occurred to me that since all the pirate skeletons are guys (as near as I can tell) it would be funny to have one looking longingly at a mermaid. Of course, she must be a skeletal mermaid, or why would he long for her? So I tried to commission a girl to make a POTC scale model of a skeleton mermaid for my diorama. For some reason or other that fell through, possibly because she thought I was crazy. This sculpture would have been a little like this masthead, though, except skeletal. Alright, end of OT point.

C'mon...ya' haveta' admit that that's really kewl.

So the gang is on-board the pirate ship, where they sneak around and release Fred's dad, who has been tied to a mast. I forgot to mention that for the costume ball, Fred's dad dressed up in the astro-cartographer's clothes. For some reason this made the pirates believe he was the astro-cartographer, despite the following: 1) the clothes are pretty normal-looking (albeit raggedy) and not particularly astro-cartographery, 2) Fred's dad looks almost nothing like the astro-cartographer and 3) the pirates never saw the astro-cartographer in those clothes as far as we know. You could argue that they looked for someone in raggedy garb, but they're at a costume ball.

Anyhow, the monsters (pirate zombie ghost monsters to you) head toward their destination using a 200 year old painting of the stars which was on the astro-cartographer's ship. (!!) Yes, the pirates appear to have gathered and completely reassembled Rupert's ship from the flotsam and jetsam that we saw the astro-cartographer floating around on at the beginning of the show. They did a pro job too; you can't even see the seams where they glued it back together.

Rupert is forced to take the pirate zombie ghosts to the exact location shown in the painting, which he can detect using his special astro-cartographer powers. See, the painting is of a meteor crashing into the sea and it shows the stars in the sky around it. Lucky for the pirate zombie ghosts that the painter was one hand 200 years ago when this event occurred in the 500,000 square miles that make up the Bermuda Triangle. Also lucky for the pirate zombie ghosts is that Rupert can somehow figure out the exact location despite the fact that the position of the stars in the sky depend on the time of year and year itself. Once Rupert gets the pirate zombie ghosts there, they hoist the meteor out of the sea.

Meanwhile, the gang finds a storeroom below deck which contains, among other things, a barrel labeled "beans." I guess barrel o' beans is the zombie pirates favorite lunch-time treat. This may help explain Captain Skunkbeard's name. The storeroom also contains small models and projectors which means that the pirate zombies can clearly create the illusions of a UFO, missing WWII planes, a kraken and similar whatnot-hoosits anywhere they like. (Recall the rule about projectors cited previously.) This is all to explain the first scenes of the show, I guess, although those scenes looked as if they had taken place over a hundred years or more.

"Ok gang, let's split up and search for clues to this 'magical fruit' Skunkbeard mentioned."

So now the gang knows the whole pirate zombie ghost thing is a hoax and all there is to do is capture the monsters before they get the meteor on board. Naturally, Fred comes up with a plan and Shaggy and Scooby are the bait. (There is no mention of Scooby Snacks at this point, which I think is a crime. They did say something about them earlier, however, so it's not a total loss.) The plan goes all wrong, of course.

There are some classic WB gags embedded in here (perhaps another plus contribution from the new alliance) including a pretty close replica of the one where our heroes run into one of four doors and out of another as the villains try to follow. This recalls the classic Bugs Bunny/Yosemite Sam pirate cartoons. The pacing is a little too slow to be as effective as master gag-timer Friz Freleng made them, but you have to take a good gag where you can get it. Anyhow the zombies are all captured despite the failure of Fred's plan, because the meteor is supernatural and causes a real maelstrom. The end result of this is that all the zombies wind up in a net.

It turns out that this meteor is made of solid gold. Mr. Mysterio (Who is one of the pirate zombie ghosts! Gasp!) somehow knew this despite the fact that no one appears to have even been aware that there was a meteor there in the first place, other than some sharp-eyed painter 200 years ago. Mysterio hypnotized all the people they captured and convinced them to wear pirate zombie ghost outfits. He and Biff Wellington (Gee! What a knee slapper!) cooked up (see, I can be punny too) the pirate scheme to get to the asteroid. Their plan must have been predicated upon Rupert deciding to go into the Bermuda Triangle with his 200-year old painting, which seems pretty thin to me, but there you are. They would gotten away with it, except etcetera, etcetera.

After all this, the cruise continues on the pirate ship since the pirates sunk the cruise ship (Which I forgot to mention. Sorry.) The end.

Uh...oh, yeah. That happened a long time ago.

It's actually ok as Scooby Doo shows go. It is at least as good as the original Scooby pirate episode "Go Away Ghost Ship" featuring the less interesting Redbeard the pirate. This one is a trifle long, though. All that junk about Captain Barack pretending to be monsters along with some slow scenes could have been quickly trimmed and we'd have a much tighter and more active show. Still, it's reasonably good. You know, for kids.

Edited August 6, 2009 by Raphael Misson

[Raphael Misson]

Can anyone see the images other than the one of me? If not, I guess the software is picking them out. I'm just going to remove them.

Edited August 5, 2009 by Raphael Misson

[Raphael Misson]

Ok, let's try inserting the images again. They seem to be working and it makes that mess much easier to read.

[Jib]

Pirates of Darkwater. Best pirate cartoon ever. Way before it's time.

[Bright]

May not be the best ,but I ENJOYED IT NONE THE LESS ;-}

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXOSi39QS58&feature=player_embedded

[CaptainSatan]

I loved the Venture Brothers take on ghost pirates.

Edited August 7, 2009 by CaptainSatan

[Lady Alyx]

I like watching Flapjack as well. I recently got hooked on the Penguins of Madagascar...in one of those episodes (Monkey Love) the penguins are trying to provoke a fight and they show up as desperado's except for one penguin (Kowalski)shows up in his pirate outfit....I LOVED IT!...arrrrrgh!