Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue

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Template:Short description Template:Use American English Template:Infobox television Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue is a 1990 American animated children's comedy-drama social guidance television film starring many characters from several animated television series at the time of its release.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The plot follows Michael, a teenager who is using marijuana, leaving his family worried. When his younger sister Corey's piggy bank goes missing one morning, cartoon characters come to life from various items in her room and find it in Michael's room along with his stash of drugs, so they give him an intervention in the form of a fantasy journey to teach him the adverse consequences of drug use.

McDonald's released a VHS home video edition of the special distributed by Buena Vista Home Video, which opened with an introduction from President George H. W. Bush, First Lady Barbara Bush and their dog, Millie. It was produced by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation and Southern Star Productions, and was animated overseas by Wang Film Productions. The musical number "Wonderful Ways to Say No" was written by Academy Award-winning composer Alan Menken and lyricist Howard Ashman, who also wrote the songs for Walt Disney Animation Studios' The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin.<ref name="CartResearch">Template:Cite web</ref>

Financed by McDonald's, Ronald McDonald Children's Charities, it was originally simulcast for a limited time on April 21, 1990, on all four major American television networks (by supporting their Saturday morning characters): ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox,Template:Efn and most independent stations, as well as various cable networks.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Plot

An unseen person steals a piggy bank off the dresser in the bedroom of a young girl named Corey. The theft is witnessed by Papa Smurf, who emerges from a Smurfs comic book with the other Smurfs and alerts the different cartoon characters in the room: Alf from a picture, Garfield as a lamp, Alvin and the Chipmunks from a record sleeve, Winnie the Pooh as a stuffed animal, Baby Kermit as an alarm clock, and Slimer, who arrives through the wall.

Alf, Garfield, Alvin, Simon, and Theodore identify the thief: Michael, Corey's older brother, who has a box of marijuana hidden under his bed. Meanwhile, Corey expresses her concerns about Michael's change in behavior since they used to have a close sibling relationship, which he angrily denies, causing him to storm out of the house. The cartoons set off to take action regarding Michael's addiction, leaving Pooh behind to look after Corey.

At an arcade, Michael smokes marijuana with his friends and "Smoke", an anthropomorphic cloud of smoke personifying temptation, who try to convince him to take harder drugs. They are chased into an alley by Bugs Bunny disguised as a police officer. He traps Smoke in a garbage can and takes Michael back in time using a time machine borrowed from the absent Wile E. Coyote. It is shown that Michael's addiction started through peer pressure from older high school students when he was around Corey's age. Back in the present, Michael is hesitant to smoke crack with his friends before one of them steals his wallet. He and Smoke chase after her until they fall into a sewer and encounter Michelangelo, who tells them that the drugs are harming his brain and that listening to Smoke is putting him in serious danger. Baby Kermit, Baby Miss Piggy, and Baby Gonzo take him on a roller coaster-esque tour of the human brain. Michael finds himself at a park, where Huey, Dewey, and Louie as well as Tigger join the rest of the cartoons to sing about how to refuse drugs.

Michael wakes up in his room, believing his interactions with the cartoons to be a nightmare. Corey tries talking to him, but he snaps and shoves her against his bedroom wall. He tries apologizing, but she runs out of his room, frightened. Smoke approves of Michael's actions, but he starts having regrets. Michael then looks at himself in a small mirror, from which Alf grabs and pulls him inside. Inside a hall of mirrors, Alf shows Michael his current reflection, then an aged, sickly version of himself severely affected by drugs. When Michael insists that he can easily quit and is in control of his actions, Alf reveals that Smoke is actually in charge. Back in Michael's room, Smoke traps Pooh in a cabinet to keep him out of the way and tempts Corey to try Michael's marijuana for herself. She considers the possibility that it could mend her relationship with Michael.

The drug-induced carnival in Michael's mind leads him to Daffy Duck, who reads his future in a crystal ball and sees an almost skeletal Michael on his deathbed. After one last warning from the cartoons, an ashamed Michael stops Corey from using the drugs just in time. When he apologizes and expresses concern over whether he can change, she advises him to seek help from his family. Smoke tries to persuade him otherwise, but Michael throws him out a window into a garbage truck, deciding to no longer listen to him. Refusing to be defeated so easily, Smoke vows that he will return someday for revenge. All the cartoons appear on a poster on Michael's wall, and they agree to be prepared for if and when Smoke returns. Michael releases Pooh from the cabinet, who jumps into the poster with the others before the siblings go downstairs to talk to their parents.

Characters

The characters, from 10 different franchises, are (in order of appearance):

Voice cast

The various character owners licensed them freely due to the public service aspect of the special.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

The special marked the first time the characters Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck were voiced by someone other than Mel Blanc, who had died shortly before the production,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> prompting Warner Bros. to enlist Jeff Bergman in his place.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="CartResearch"/>

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Broadcast

File:Anti-drug message featuring George H. W. and Barbara Bush from Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue (1990).ogv File:Anti-drug message featuring Bob and Hazel Hawke from Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue (1990).ogv The special was screened in Australia on November 9, 1990. Like the U.S. broadcast, it aired at 4.30 p.m. simultaneously on Australia's major commercial networks (Seven Network, Nine Network, and Network Ten). Prime Minister Bob Hawke introduced the Australian screening.<ref>Toons join the drug war! TV Week, November 3, 1990</ref> It was screened in New Zealand in December on both TV One and Channel 2 simultaneously. Prime Minister Jim Bolger introduced it instead of the U.S. president. It was screened in Canada on the CBC, CTV, Global and most English and French independent stations, as well as YTV shortly after its original U.S. broadcast, although all of the characters had their respective shows aired on either CTV or Global but not CBC. Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney introduced it.<ref>Cartoon All-Stars use TV to warn kids about drugs: [FINAL edition]. (1990, Apr 13). The Gazette</ref> The special was broadcast in Mexico as offered by major outlet Televisa on both major and independent stations (including Las Estrellas and Canal 5), on the same day as the original U.S. and Canada broadcast, with introductions by then-President Carlos Salinas de Gortari. The special later aired in Japan by TV Tokyo with Emperor Akihito introducing it. It was also broadcast in Brazil in 1994, as Rede Manchete made Portuguese Brazilian dubbing in Herbert Richers Dubbing Studios, and in Chile by major networks organized by the National Television Council the following year in September 1995. Chile's broadcast was introduced by Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle's First Lady Marta Larraechea Bolívar. A Russian dub was planned including an introduction by Mikhail Gorbachev but was scrapped due in part to the Collapse of the Soviet Union. He was replaced by film actor Nikolai Karachentsov.

In the United States, all superstations and a handful of independent stations (mainly in selected cities) aired the special, but some stations aired the special at a different period during the week the special aired on the Big Four stations and a number of cable networks. Superstations WPIX in New York City, WGN-TV in Chicago, KTLA in Los Angeles, KTVT in Dallas, WOIO-TV in Cleveland, WKBD-TV in Detroit, KHTV in Houston, WVTV in Milwaukee, KSTW in Tacoma/Seattle, KSHB-TV in Kansas City, and KWGN in Denver premiered the special at the same time the big four networks and cable systems premiered, with St. Louis' KPLR-TV premiered the special two hours later after its television premiere. New York's WWOR-TV and Boston's WSBK-TV would later premiere the special the following morning on April 22. The special also aired on selected cable systems, including BET, TNT, USA Network, Nickelodeon, and The Disney Channel.

The special was also screened in various countries across Europe. Italy premiered the special at 4:30 p.m. on December 29, 1990, with Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti and Italian journalist Sergio Zavoli introduced the screening in an interview on major networks Rai 1, Rai 2, and Italia 1. The special did received a non-televised screening two days prior at the Palazzo Chigi in Rome, with introductions by Rosa Russo Iervolino, the then-Minister for Social Affairs, Gianni Pasquarelli, the then-director general of RAI, and then-vice-president of Fininvest Gianni Letta. The Italian version was edited by RoyFilm with Italian dubbing by Fono Roma. Germany premiered the special that same month on most of its major networks (ARD, ZDF, NDR, SDR, and Sat.1) with introduction by German politician Annemarie Renger, and the special re-aired again on December 7, 1991 with introduction by Vice Chancellor Hans-Dietrich Genscher. Shortly after its German release, a VHS of the special was immediately planned for both review and educational purposes, but was never commercially released afterward. Sweden premiered the special on December 4, 1991 on TV4 with introduction by then-Prime Minister Carl Bildt, as well as a repeat on December 26 of that same year. In the Swedish broadcast, the special aired in its original English language with Swedish subtitles delivered by the station. Spain premiered the special on October 17, 1992 on Canal Nou, TVE and Antena 3, with introductions by Queen Sofía of Spain. The special also aired in Poland on the three TVP networks (TVP1, TVP2 and TVP Regionalna) and TVN on June 14, 1998, tied in with the Polish campaign Narkotyki. Zażywasz-przegrywasz (Drugs: you take it, you lose it).<ref>Narkotyki. Zażywasz-przegrywasz</ref> The special became a popular annual repeat on Ireland's RTÉ2 from 1994 until 2004.

Reception

Some modern critics have considered the production a time capsule of animation history during the US war on drugs, and have ridiculed it as "propaganda"<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and "preachy".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The Smurfs creator Peyo was upset with Hanna-Barbera's usage of his characters in the special without his permission, and refused any further collaborations with them.<ref name="Peyo1">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Peyo2">Template:Cite web</ref> In 2015, Jim Cummings told Justin Caffier of Vice that he enjoyed the recording sessions, but requested Winnie the Pooh's lines in which he talked about drugs to be rewritten, stating, "He's an innocent. It makes no sense for him to even know those words."<ref name="Vice">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Grunge">Template:Cite web</ref>

See also

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Notes

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References

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