Never on Thirsty
- Episode aired Dec 1, 1970
IMDb RATING
5.3/10
6
YOUR RATING
Photos
Storyline
Featured review
Croaking for lustre as well as water
'Tijuana Toads' 'Never on Thirsty' (1970)
Opening thoughts: 'Never on Thirsty' is the sixth cartoon in the Tijuana Toads theatrical series. Will admit to not caring for the series overall and consider it one of the weaker theatrical series from the studio. My general findings, or things in common, being great music, a few good supporting characters and the odd amusing gag but flimsy, recycled and repetitive stories, very stale and rehashed gags, the two titular characters being unappealing, instances of less than tasteful stereotyping and the voice acting being too broad. Other cartoons in the series did these flaws worse, but 'Never on Thirsty' still has all the flaws and does them badly. Not terrible but pretty lacklustre.
Good things: Doug Goodwin's upbeat and characterful score. Catchy main theme accompanying a colourful title sequence. The best character by far is the dog, there is a pattern in this series that the supporting characters (well most) fared a lot better than El Toro and Pancho. Although the dog's role has been seen many times in other cartoons and with similar material, he is still interesting and amusing with a suitably formidable entrance.
There are a couple of decent gags, the straw gag was amusing and well timed and even better was the ending. Which did risk being too cruel, but actually wasn't and was the one part of 'Never On Thirsty' that was unexpected. It was also the part that stuck in my mind the longest whereas most of the rest of the cartoon was easily forgettable after about 10 minutes.
Bad things: The animation is very scrappy, taking simple to extremes. It was too hasty and incomplete looking to pass for abstract, those backgrounds were very unappealing as were the flat colours and the dog's character design was always oddly proportioned. Once again, El Toro and Pancho irritated as lead characters and don't have large enough personalities or subtlety to be likeable or interesting and the comic timing isn't there. The voice acting is too broad and lacks clarity in the diction at times, making the already awkward sounding dialogue not always easy to understand.
Furthermore, the gags are too few and only two stand out. Pretty much all the material is done to death rehashes, it's not even the first time the candle/dynamite gag was used in a Tijuana Toads cartoon, and executed in a stale fashion. Due to some of it being old and had been reused more than once already well before this was produced. The story is routine at best, with a lack of energy, and is predictable (due to it being a reused plot) and repetitive. As well as being hardly any.
Closing thoughts: Very lacklustre. 4/10.
Opening thoughts: 'Never on Thirsty' is the sixth cartoon in the Tijuana Toads theatrical series. Will admit to not caring for the series overall and consider it one of the weaker theatrical series from the studio. My general findings, or things in common, being great music, a few good supporting characters and the odd amusing gag but flimsy, recycled and repetitive stories, very stale and rehashed gags, the two titular characters being unappealing, instances of less than tasteful stereotyping and the voice acting being too broad. Other cartoons in the series did these flaws worse, but 'Never on Thirsty' still has all the flaws and does them badly. Not terrible but pretty lacklustre.
Good things: Doug Goodwin's upbeat and characterful score. Catchy main theme accompanying a colourful title sequence. The best character by far is the dog, there is a pattern in this series that the supporting characters (well most) fared a lot better than El Toro and Pancho. Although the dog's role has been seen many times in other cartoons and with similar material, he is still interesting and amusing with a suitably formidable entrance.
There are a couple of decent gags, the straw gag was amusing and well timed and even better was the ending. Which did risk being too cruel, but actually wasn't and was the one part of 'Never On Thirsty' that was unexpected. It was also the part that stuck in my mind the longest whereas most of the rest of the cartoon was easily forgettable after about 10 minutes.
Bad things: The animation is very scrappy, taking simple to extremes. It was too hasty and incomplete looking to pass for abstract, those backgrounds were very unappealing as were the flat colours and the dog's character design was always oddly proportioned. Once again, El Toro and Pancho irritated as lead characters and don't have large enough personalities or subtlety to be likeable or interesting and the comic timing isn't there. The voice acting is too broad and lacks clarity in the diction at times, making the already awkward sounding dialogue not always easy to understand.
Furthermore, the gags are too few and only two stand out. Pretty much all the material is done to death rehashes, it's not even the first time the candle/dynamite gag was used in a Tijuana Toads cartoon, and executed in a stale fashion. Due to some of it being old and had been reused more than once already well before this was produced. The story is routine at best, with a lack of energy, and is predictable (due to it being a reused plot) and repetitive. As well as being hardly any.
Closing thoughts: Very lacklustre. 4/10.
helpful•100
- TheLittleSongbird
- Dec 14, 2023
Details
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content