Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue (1990 TV Movie) User Reviews

My 5-Part Summary/Review of Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue

[jake-stone79 · 7/10 · 16 May 2015]

Part 1: Hello. I'm Christopher and this is Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue. As we watch this program, we learn about the story of Michael, who goes through the first part summarizing his drug addiction. Corey, his younger sister, is starting to be concerned about him. Your favorite characters like Winnie the Pooh, Garfield, Smurfs, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Smiler, ALF and Baby Kermit, will teach him the disadvantages of taking drugs.

Part 2: This next part features Michael, with his friends, doing drugs. However, this creates a manipulating villain named Smoke, who tempts him to keep his drug business. Later, Bugs Bunny, also helps Michael refresh his memory by going two years back in time when he started drugs. Meanwhile, Corey gets help from Winnie the Pooh to convince her to talk to Michael.

Part 3: Getting advice from her dad, Corey tries to find a way to convince Michael into quitting. In other words, we see Michael continuing to do drugs with his friends. When his wallet was stolen, Michael fails to retrieve it when Michaelangelo and the Muppet Babies takes him and Smoke on a journey through the course of his body.

Part 4: Huey, Duey and Louie, who meet Michael, ask why is he taking drugs. In result, all of the cartoon characters sing to Michael about not one, but millions of ways to say no before Michael wakes up. When Corey comes in to ask, he threatens to hurt her, if she tells their parents about this. Changing his mind, too late, ALF then shows him his future after this and reveals the man in charge of his life.

Part 5: (I hate that smoke cloud.) Anyway, the fifth and final part of this program researches about Corey, being manipulated by Smoke who tempts her to use Michael 's drugs. While Michael is stranded in his imagination, he gets advice from Daffy Duck that his future will be much worse if he uses too much. Finally, Michael has done the most glorious thing he'd ever done with help: Quit.

Review: Loved every minute except Smoke's scenes and Michael's horrible future near the end.

"There's a million zillion wonderful ways to say no!"

[utgard14 · 6/10 · 5 July 2017]

Such a memorable part of my childhood. I recorded it off TV on VHS and watched it many times. Not because I was needing an intervention on drug use, just because I liked seeing all these cartoon characters together who normally never would be. Introduced by then-President George Bush and his wife Barbara, this is a made-for-TV drug PSA starring many of my favorite Saturday morning cartoon characters (and others that weren't my favorites). The characters include Garfield, Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, the Smurfs, the Chipmunks, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Alf, Slimer, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Michelangelo, Muppet Babies, and Huey, Duey, and Luey. They all come together to help a kid who's been seduced into using drugs by the villainous smoke monster "The Man in Charge." It's the kind of thing that ticks off certain crowds today and I'm sure it ticked them off then, as well. Watching it for the first time in at least twenty-five years, I see the preachiness of it more but it's well-meaning so I don't mind that much. The animation is decent for the time, with a couple of weird sequences that stand out. There's also a song, which is as corny as can be but adds to the camp appeal. Overall it's of interest as a nostalgia piece for people like me and as a curio for animation fans. Will it keep your kids off dope? No, of course not. Will it hurt? No, of course not. It's just fun. If baby Kermit & Miss Piggy taking a kid on a "trip" doesn't make you smile, you need to put out an APB on your sense of humor.

Great intentions, good execution

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 3 April 2016]

"Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue" is a half-hour animated short film from over 25 years ago. The title already says that this is a collection of famous cartoon characters and they are making a statement against drug abuse. The introduction comes from then President Bush (sr.) and his wife. Now I should actually give this one a perfect rating to make up for all the liberal drug abusers on here who gave it a 1/10, but lets not step down to their level of delusion. This is not a great film. The jokes are not too funny all the time and for a 1990 film, it still looks a bit out-dated in terms of the animations. But I still think it is a good and important achievement. Everybody will have favorite cartoon characters in here and lesser favorite. I loved the inclusion of Garfield (who almost gets eaten by Alf) and Donald's nephews and I wish these two could have gotten more screen time. I did not care at all for the Muppets characters. As a whole, I recommend the watch and, more importantly, I second the film's message. Stay away from marijuana and other drugs.

The wonders of LSD...

[Rebochan · 1/10 · 6 June 2003]

This film spends a lot of time preaching against marijuana. However, the plot and visuals are so insane that it seems more like the poster-child for LSD.

Plot: The heroic struggle of Michael as he battles his drug addiction while being subjected to the humiliation brought on by the likes of Winnie the Pooh and Papa Smurf.

Yea, yea, there's a good message, but it's obscured by the fact that the writers have taken a rather stale PSA idea and tried stretching it into 30 minutes. This includes a song sequence, where you're told that there's a million, rational ways to say "No!" such as "I can't smoke pot, I have homework!"

The writers can't make up their minds what to do with the characters they've brought in royalty-free. At first we see they all have to hide from the human characters, but within five minutes we see them all running around in plain sight without anyone noticing. Soon they begin interacting with the human cast, and the only one who's even slightly disturbed by this fact is not the drug-abusers, it's the little sister who talks to her teddy bear (Pooh, by the way.) Further, there's the little drug demon floating around. Because you know, pushers don't give kids drugs. He too is ambiguous - while he might be symbolic of Michael's addiction and hence is not supposed to be seen by other people, he laters goes and haunts little Corey to get HER into drugs. So I guess he's...uhhh.....moving on!

The whole plot finally culminates in some insane sequence in which Michael is in what would appear to be the Saturday Morning Carnival of Souls, aka a theme park from hell where the various cartoon characters beat him up and ignore him and stuff. For example, Miss Piggy eats him in a sandwich and spits him out. If the writers were not high when writing this, I must recommend they try getting high because they can't get crazier than this. Of course, the film ignores the fact that Michael's been having highs for two years by this point, so why this tripping sequence would frighten him is beyond me.

I realize I'm completely whaling on this film, but I actually just saw it again because I went through the trouble of tracking it down on eBay because of it's sheer infamy of being a BAD cartoon. The level of unintentional humor is is brilliant. Take this scene for example - Michael's dad is rooting through the fridge for a beer. He notices many of them missing and mentions it to his wife. The ever-observant Mom tells him "Don't worry, you probably just drank them last night watching football." While we're obviously supposed to be learning that Michael is drinking beer (in addition to the pot and crack), we instead read further in and realize - Hey kids, it's okay to have chemical dependencies as long as you're a grown-up! Scenes like this are worth the tiny price tag of this film. Oh yea, and the fact you get to hear Simon the Chipmunk say "Marijuana."

Cartoon All-Stars, where are you now in this troubled time of ours?

[zmaturin · 19 February 2002]

I remember seeing this when I was 9-years-old and it blowing my mind- the fact that Alf AND the Muppet Babies AND Slimer would all be hanging out together was a truly amazing event in my life- perhaps THE most important moment of my developmental years.

However, I just recently realized that the show had an anti-drug message! It's subtle, I know, but it's there. My theory now is that all the "Cartoon All Stars" involved were just fulfilling their community service. Remember that time Theodore from "Alvin & The Chipmunks" got loaded and drove that school bus into a sidewalk full of people? Or when Brainy Smurf was indicted for his part in the magic mushrooms ring? Or when Tigger was caught BUI (Bouncing Under the Influence)? This was the result of their collective animated illegalities.

Anyway, my main question is: "How come I liked this so much as a kid but became a marijuana addict in college?"

Oh brother

[gizmomogwai · 4/10 · 27 June 2011]

This TV special was actually shown at my elementary school (I can't remember if I saw it on TV). Taking the most popular cartoon characters of the day (Bugs Bunny, Garfield, a Ninja Turtle, etc.), as merchandise that come to life to save a boy from drug addiction, Cartoon All-Stars acts as a public service announcement warning kids to stay away from marijuana and other illegal drugs.

It's a novelty to see all these characters in one cartoon (copyrights usually prevent that), and the underlying purpose is noble, but the end result isn't impressive at all. The laugh count stands at zero (maybe kids would like it more), and the musical number is a bust. As a story it lacks consistency and logic (the character made out of smoke can go through a brick wall, yet is trapped in a garbage can). More to the point, as a public service announcement, it's a failure. The cartoon is too heavy-handed; the kid seeing himself in green (looking into a magic mirror and then a crystal ball), seems over the top and dishonest. More importantly, did it work? Did this special actually stop kids from trying drugs? As I mentioned, my class and I saw this in school; I never did any illegal drugs, but plenty of others did. At most, after watching this a child may take the message for a little while, but by the time he or she gets to high school they've outgrown Winnie the Pooh and will likely experiment with marijuana anyway.

So what do we have at the end of the day? Cartoon All-Stars turns out to be a historical oddity, a place to go for unintentional comedy and surreal material. It also glorifies consumption of corporate merchandise- the Garfield lamp and the Kermit clock, both likely made in Asian sweat shops, will save the day. But that's a different issue. Show this to your kids if you feel you must, but don't expect any results.

Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue

[Terryfan · 9/10 · 4 August 2015]

As a kid I was raise and told how bad drugs and alcohol are bad for you and this video is part of the reason I avoid Drugs and never join the club.

I remember renting Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue as a kid a few times and seeing it on TV.

It is pretty cool how all these animation studios and networks actually join forces to help created this Public Service Announcement video feature your favorite cartoon characters plus some of my favorite cartoons were apart of this program.

Alf from "ALF: The Animated Series" Alvin, Simon Theodore from "Alvin and the Chipmunks" Huey, Dewey, and Louie from "Ducktales" Garfield from "Garfield and friends" Bugs Bunny and Daffy from "Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies" Baby Kermit, Baby Piggy, Baby Gonzo "Muppet Babies" Winnie the Pooh and Tigger from "The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh" Slimer from "The Real Ghostbusters" Papa Smurf, Brainy Smurf, Hefty Smurf from "The Smurfs" Michelangelo from "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles"

It's not too often you ever seen a crossover like this and from many different TV series which were very huge at the time. Growing up with these shows this special has that nostalgia feel to it.

Each character does their part in this special and make it special to see a crossover with a message to stay drug free.

The plot does it very well and gives each character their own right to shine the voice acting works very well and there are some moments of humor to lighten the mood but keeping it message in the plot along with the animation being impressive and why I love hand drawn cartoons.

Just take the time to show it off you might be surprise and it will inspire you to stay away from drugs

I give Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue an 9 out of 10

Getting kids not to try pot because all their favorite cartoon characters hate it...pretty weak!

[TOMNEL · 1/10 · 29 April 2010]

Do you kids love Kermit and The Chipmunks and Bugs Bunny and a dozen other cartoon characters? Then you'll love their preachy anti-marijuana short film, featuring characters at random who have nothing to do with the plot, and are only there so kids can say "Hey, I love that character, I don't want to smoke!" This is a seriously bad movie, and just on how bad it was, we can only hope it turned more kids to pot just for future reference that movies like this are horrible and don't work!

The plot makes no sense at all. This kid Michael is just flung from one set piece to another, with well known 80s cartoon characters inhabiting various set pieces. The thing just feels like a stupid nightmare, and undoubtedly the director took a few tabs of acid to come up with such odd and trippy sequences. The characters who normally would try to be making jokes aren't funny in the least, and this thing just comes off as really preachy. Marijuana is shown throughout, and the villain of the film is an anthromorphic smoke creature, but never are the actual effects of marijuana use touched upon. The cartoon characters talk about how it ruins lives, but never actually talk about what it does. The only results from smoking actually shown are Michael looking in a mirror and seeing himself as a weird goon. Of course, pot smoking makes people look like the phantom of the opera, that makes sense. Well kids, now that you know that, don't do it.

The song in this thing is ear piercingly bad. Most of the kids that watched this had to have gone deaf from this out of tune cartoon warbling.

There was literally no reason for most of these characters to appear, except to cover all the popular cartoons of the era. Slimer from Ghostbusters, the Smurfs, the Chipmunks all have pointless cameos that add nothing. Most of the roles are pointless, but their's are the worst.

This is an overly preachy short, that tries to hit kids despite that it has no logic behind it's method, and what better way to tell kids what not to do than with all their favorite cartoon characters together talking about it. This is a horrible mash-up of characters, and despite that it may have worked to help kids not smoke, it scares without information, instead of informing and using logic. And if smoking pot will make all your favorite cartoon characters appear, then why not try it?

My rating: BOMB out of ****. 27 mins.

Hilarious anti-drug movie ftw

[purplefeltangel · 10/10 · 2 November 2006]

When I was in seventh grade, our health teacher made us watch this movie. He prefaced it with a Serious Business Discussion about drugs, and then somehow managed to show us this with a straight face. Yes, it's THAT ridiculous . . . people were laughing hysterically throughout the whole movie and several people commented that if being high meant you got to meet the Smurfs, they wanted to get high.

The teacher refused to comment on whether or not he intended this movie to seriously affect us.

We were all born in the same year this movie was made, but I for one had seen all the cartoons with characters in the movie except The Smurfs, so it's not really true that you can't like it if you weren't young in the late eighties/ early nineties.

The only thing that could possibly have made this movie better is if the Care Bears were in it.

A historical artifact

[GHCool · 4/10 · 16 March 2007]

All of these characters will be familiar to people of my generation that grew up on these TV shows. I vaguely remember watching this in my elementary school. This video is very strange because of its blending of name-recognition commercialism and realism in dealing with a serious topic, an "Alice and Wonderland" style, a realistic ending that doesn't quite solve the problem, and the fact that so many different characters from each with different copyright holders appear together. Its easy to laugh at this film, but its also kind of astonishing that it was ever produced in the first place.

Did this show have an impact on its intended audience? Of course, its impossible to say for sure, but I'd like to think that it did. Seeing it now that I'm older and working in television animation was quite an interesting experience for me. Very few films, animated or otherwise, capture a moment in history so completely as this one captures the United States circa 1990.

Truly impressive

[Synetech · 23 November 2001]

A truly impressive collection of characters. I remember seeing this long ago when I was a child. Now that I'm older I understand what a big deal it was that sooo many celebrities came together to allow a lot of the biggest animated characters to do this show. It should be shown again.

OK, we need to talk. And not about drugs!

[lee_eisenberg · 1/10 · 29 March 2015]

The US spent the entire 1980s freaking out about the possibility of children using drugs, and Nancy Reagan's solution was JUST SAY NO. Therefore it's no accident that a cartoon got made telling the tykes to avoid controlled substances.

Well, aside from the fact that "Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue" features characters that people in the 2010s likely will have forgotten ever existed, its message is all wrong. While we should focus on keeping children from using narcotics, moralistic grandstanding is a guaranteed failure. The so-called War on Drugs has devastated entire communities in the US and overfilled our prisons, all the while turning Mexico into a near failed state. The right choice is what Portugal has done: it decriminalized drugs and treats drug usage as a health issue, not a crime. In fact, drug usage has DROPPED in Portugal ever since they decriminalized drugs. Many states in the US have allowed medical marijuana for years. Washington and Colorado both voted in legalized recreational marijuana use - soon to become law in Oregon - and their economies have benefited from it (my conclusion is that opposition legalized recreational marijuana use is, well, anti-capitalism). In fact, I heard a speech from Rick Steves (host of a travel show on PBS) stumping for Oregon's recently passed measure, and he noted that many European countries provide people with needles during their treatment to ensure that they don't buy the drugs from dealers. Pragmatism has proved to be the right way, while criminalization is the modern equivalent of prohibition (which only succeeded in strengthening the mafia).

What I'd like to see is a short in which a boy is in a religious fundamentalist family shoving their ideology down his throat...but then the characters from cult movies and TV shows or anything liked by nerds/geeks - Elvira, Ash (of the "Evil Dead" movies), Spock, etc - explain science to him until he has the courage to tell his parents that he doesn't accept the religious dogma. Maybe some of them smoke a joint at the end and remind the audience that marijuana is NOT an addictive drug.

Ineffective, Cautionary PSA Tale.

[Dawalk-1 · 2/10 · 5 August 2019]

Somehow, I didn't watch this when it aired, but I think it was three years later, after its airing, that I would have the opportunity to watch it when I rented a VHS copy of it from Blockbuster. I remember seeing the special on that itself, as I'm not sure if I saw the prelude with the late President George H.W. Bush giving that speech about the fight against drugs, but I know for sure I didn't see the musical performance given by some kids and the promotion of McDonald's after the end credits. I wouldn't know about that until I read that being mentioned elsewhere on another site. The purpose behind the making of this may have been the point, but like several others, I was just excited about the crossover thing with these mostly '80s cartoon characters from various shows of that same decade and that was what drew me into it.

Other than seeing the various cartoon stars of the day come together, again, now I'm not quite sure what I saw in it after watching. I guess I almost always wasn't that good at discerning and analyzing what was wrong with nearly anything I viewed on T.V. or VHS. This isn't one of my favorites. After reading others' reviews and comments on both here and on other sites, I now see it for what it really is more than not: A promo for the well-known characters' various shows more than about drug prevention. I remember seeing another drug prevention, PSA cartoon at some point in elementary school that had completely original characters rather than mostly established ones with newer characters. I hadn't seen it in years, but I did an online search for it and tried putting "D.A.R.E. cartoon" into the search engine, to be exact, it's actually called D.A.R.E. America. I wasn't sure of the title, but that was the first thing that came to mind and I found it on my first and only guess/try. I found video of that for viewing at Youtube, three copies, but unfortunately, they all have a Spanish dub only. Now that seemed so much better than this. Also, I thought the running time of it was closer to half an hour, but it's really just a little more than 12 minutes.There was a comment on another site stating that this get-together of mainly '80s animated characters could'd revolved around them battling the ultimate foe. That sounds like that would'd been a much more interesting idea. I like the sound of that more.

I can't explain too much about it that other reviewers before me hadn't explained what the problems are with it. But I'll try to mention what was already covered differently and more short-handedly. The point of its message being too preachy (though I probably wouldn't had gotten what the big deal with that would be back then, when I was little/younger), the inconsistencies (like with the Smoke character being able to pass through walls, but not a trash can), the explanations of why drugs are so bad for anyone being too vague or not specific enough. Therefore, all of these are what would make for bad writing. The established characters are somewhat themselves, but in this, they're also not 100% consistent. It may be nice too see them all in one place, but it's such a waste, as they hardly help out the main protagonist and drug abuser, Michael, they could'd been used so much better. They attempt an intervention, but the ways they do it are done badly. Of all the original characters, I like the sister of the special's protagonist, Corey, the most. I don't remember the musical number being all that bad, but I'll take others' word for it anyway and the rest of the music may be just alright. The art and animation seem fine enough, although somebody commented it not being on the same level as other animations from 1990, but I wouldn't know the exact difference. The cast, much of whom I'm familiar with, sound like they did a great job in there roles as usual (perhaps other than the singing).

It pains me to admit it, but this isn't as great as I once thought nor is it among the best cartoons ever made looking back on it. I have no idea how I could've missed it. It would've been much better as just another PSA ad that is much shorter like several others. In my review's title, I mention this cautionary PSA tale is ineffective for the reasons I mentioned above, so that means several may not had taken heed of the dangers and effects that drugs can cause, as the explanations were poorly done. Well, at least the one thing I can say that's the sole good that came out of this is, at least established toon characters from other '80s programs that weren't featured in this, fortunately for them, it's a great thing others didn't appear in this disaster. The aforementioned reasons are why it's no longer popular with me and some of the other reviewers on here, if it even ever was popular with them at all. Not the best anti-drug PSA ever made. Anyone who is interested in checking it out should see it at least once, even if it may not be one of the most perfect. If this were to be brought to DVD, I doubt it's worth owning, most nobody would be intrigued by this, other than the very young. Not recommended.

Bugs Smokes Nugs!

[thetotheads · 9/10 · 13 February 2007]

One of the greatest works of Anti-Drug propaganda, this time aimed at small children. The video opens with a Ronald McDonald House commercial that is humorous on a bad taste level ("Peel them taters!") Then look who's here, if it isn't then president George Bush and his wife Barbara, historically famous for raising the Anti-Christ. They give a well meaning message to the grade-school set, which obviously didn't take when you look at all that heroin those kids took a few years later. The half-hour animated special features simply everybody: Bugs Bunny, Winnie the Pooh, Muppet Babies, the Smurfs. Slimer from Ghostbusters, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Garfield and Alf, a We Are The World of dope hatred. "Drugs don't stand a chance against these guys!" says the tagline. Besides the obvious lesson that smoking a joint will make you try crack the next day, we find that if you smoke pot, you will hurt the Muppet Babies inside your brain. You'll derail the roller coaster inside your mind and make Kermie and Piggie fall out. Of course, it was pot that put those Muppet Babies in the Roller Coaster in your brain in the first place, so puzzle that one. Also, when you bottom out and turn into a shrunken zombie, said to happen on the third day after your first joint, then you'll have to face the man in the mirror: Alf. This is ironic considering all the heroin the head writer for Alf was shooting at the time (read Jerry Stahl's Permanent Midnight). A drug war relic. Eight Leaves: Kind. A drug movie's drug movie. Will make your eyes red with happiness.

A true oddity

[La Gremlin · 4/10 · 11 September 2001]

If there's one thing I want to distinguish myself from all the other great reviewers here, it's that I am the Queen of Finding Strange Movies in Thrift and Dollar Stores. That said, you can't possibly imagine how happy I was when I found this one.

I can even remember that Saturday morning when *every* station simulcast it, so you were stuck if you wanted to watch something else (then again, I guess that was the idea). As a kid, I didn't know if I liked the way all the different characters were stuck together (there are some crossovers that just do *not* work). But I guess the special had it's intended effect. Don't do drugs because you will have nightmares about the Muppets.

Now, if you watch this as an adult, on the other hand, you will be treated to the *strangest* anti-drug movie this side of "Reefer Madness". I think I'll just leave it at that before I get into trouble.

Thank you health class!

[Pataloca · 8/10 · 24 February 2004]

How weird is it when you are a senior in high school, taking health class (which is supposed to be taken in 9th grade) and your teacher comes out of nowhere saying "I don't really feel like giving you guys more work for me to grade, so I'm going to put on an anti-drug cartoon from 199...something"?

My point exactly. So, while sitting there, watching this piece of work (which they should show on television or at LEAST have on tape available for purchase) and remembering that exactly 14 years ago I sat in my living room watching Alf, Alvin, Simon and Theodore under a bed talking about how drugs are bad. (Simon had to be all smart by stating EXACTLY what marijuana was." I mean, this has to be some of the greatest stuff ever! WHY they don't do something like this again, or show it every year on National Anti-Drug Day (I don't know if there actually IS that day, but work with me)?

Now, quality programming of this magnitude just can't be found anymore. And that's sad. Just like how it's sad that girl stole Mike's wallet, and he never did get it back.

Nice Concept, But Fails To Teach A Lesson

[jeremycrimsonfox · 3/10 · 3 April 2020]

As a kid, this special aired on some channels. Basically bringing a lot of cartoon characters from the four different channels, it was allowed because of one thing: the special was made to be a anti-drug special (as this was back when TV stations aired PSAs meant to tell kids to say no to drugs, with one even having the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in one where a kid is nearly bullied into doing drugs because the friend called him a chicken). Now, this is one special that will never see release again because of rights issues with the characters involved, but as an adult, I'd say it is for the best.

So, basically, a plot is a boy named Michael is doing drugs and alcohol, and one day, he steals the piggy bank of his sister, Corey. However, the theft is witnessed by Papa Smurf, who lives in a comic book, who then calls some of the cartoon characters (who pose as inanimate objects) to take action. This leads to Michael going through the most messed-up intervention of all time, while the special's main villain, Smoke (a puff of smoke that looks like something out of the Beetlejuice cartoon, and voiced by George C. Scott, best known for his portrayal of George S. Patton in the movie Patton) plans to keep Michael on the drugs with lame excuses.

Yeah, as I said, this is one messed-up intervention to the point where it makes you think this whole special was made on the one thing it tells you to say no to. While people freak about about Simon knowing about marijuana is and Bugs Bunny knowing what a joint is, I can let it pass, as it helps to teach kids that the different illegal drugs have different names (besides, Bugs Bunny has been in a cartoon where he actually makes a cigarette, and another where he snorts tobacco, so that explains why he knows what a joint is).

But that's not the worst of it, while the special does show the dangers of drugs and even a scene Bugs uses a time he took from some coyote to show Michael how his addiction started, it is still far from good. The film adds in some references that kids would not know about (in the scene where the toons see Michael emptying the piggy bank, ALF makes a reference to Leave It To Beaver, which adults may get. but kids back then who never saw that old show would not, and another where he shows Michael what he'll become due to drugs, and when he asks who it is, ALF says it's not Freddy Kreuger, which kids would not know, but older viewers would since it's a reference to a series of films the target audience is not old enough to be watching), but some scenes are actually horrible and portray the characters trying to help poor Michael doing stuff that would basically kill him (one scene has the Muppet Babies lock Michael in his own brain when he trips on a skateboard, and another scene has him in a nightmarish amusement part, and one part has Dewey, one of the triplets from DuckTales, try to run him over in a roller coaster cart). Those scenes are classic textbook cases of out of character portrayals, and are so dark, I am shocked the companies owning the characters even allowed the creators of this short to portray their characters as such. They should be glad they never got complaints back in the day of kids who saw the special having nightmares of said characters locking them in a burning building or trying to run them over.

While it does teach a good moral, and ending is good, the special is horribly executed. While the idea of having these beloved cartoon characters come together to teach an important lesson sounded good on paper, the scared straight aspect of some scenes (especially the carnival scene near the end) makes it fall, as it seems too scary for the target audience the cartoon characters used targets, and the fact said audience would not get most of the references, makes this one confusing special. Thank goodness this only happened once. Imagined if this sort of idea continued, only with different characters and different topics (like 90's cartoons talking about guns and school shootings, or cartoon characters from the 2010's talking about bullying). This special is long out of print, and will never be reissued due to rights issues with the characters used (whoever wants to re-release this will have to make deals with the companies who own said characters, with some of them having changed hands over the years, as well as redo the intro message to have the current POTUS and FLOTUS talking about the special), but it has been posted on sites (including the home video release, which also has the Ronald McDonald Children's Charities commercial airing before and after the special). Best viewed to laugh at.

A Lesson in life that doesn't work

[rorymacveigh · 3/10 · 18 July 2012]

This short was a few years before my time but I did have the misfortune to see it only once, and that was in about 1998 on CITV. Basically, it's a Cartoon Drug Prevention Scheme starring the most famous Cartoon Stars of the day including ALF, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Muppet Babies, Garfield, TMNT, etc. For a kid growing up at this time it would have seemed like a Miracle, all these stars coming together in one place seemed almost biblical. So with pretty much every kid with a TV set waiting for this amazing spectacle to appear, first thing we get is George Bush Senior and the First Lady, and by no means in Cartoon form either. I'm sure for a kid they'd either consider it a damning blow to their confidence or a preceding advert featuring George Bush giving a lecture on the American home. It's not the best way to start a cartoon special featuring all your favourite cartoon characters and after the first 5 seconds, most children would have switched off completely to all he had to say, so basically it was a waste of the Presidents time.

But after he's done with his speech, the cartoon starts and everyone is on the edge of their seats waiting to see what adventures were in store for them and their Cartoon Characters. Marijuana...

Yes, for a child uninitiated in the indecencies of the adult world, this seems pretty unbelievable, their favourite Cartoon characters who'd they'd be expecting to be flying off on some mystical adventure over the rainbow are going to spend the next 25 minutes lecturing them on drug abuse, and that's what this whole Cartoon is all about, each individual Cartoon Star coming up to this kid with drug problems and telling him that he's going to be a walking corpse soon enough. They even have an Alan Menken song just to rub it in. At this point, most kids would probably be searching their house for their father's draw of Nostalgic firearms so they can either shoot the TV or shoot themselves. But thankfully I didn't get to that part because I lost all interest after about 10 minutes.

Basically, this Cartoon is flawed to begin with. It is trying to give a life lesson in such a way that no child would be interested. A more subtle lesson would be much better, like the one given in Ozzy and Drix about smoking and other abuse to your body. You could say that its like an Animated Xanadu, all your favourite things coming together in one place but for a pointless reason. Also, the whole lesson is flawed from the start as it basically says that if you smoke marijuana all your cartoon characters will appear. I think I'll test this theory by going out, getting a joint from my local dealer, smoking it, coming back and I expect Alvin and the Chipmunks to be sitting on my bed so I can shake their hand and break out a musical guitar number with them. If they're not there when I get back, I'll be demanding a refund pronto...

Unfair REEFER MADNESS comparisons! This was good.

[Tresix · 8/10 · 3 October 2005]

A lot of people have been making what I think are unfair comparisons between this cartoon and the 1939 movie REEFER MADNESS. First of all, when MADNESS was released, there wasn't sufficient information out about the effects of marijuana on the human brain. Thus, the filmmakers didn't really know what they were talking about when they had their "weed addicts" getting all hyper and everything. Weed isn't like cocaine or heroin. Second, this show was aimed at very young children and children don't pick up on subtlety very well. Most of them take things at face value, so simply stating "Don't do drugs" without an explanation wasn't going to cut it. I was already in my twenties when I saw this and think that they did a good job without too much preaching nor hitting over the head with its message.

If you ask me, either this could use a rerunning or a remake/update. Things are starting to "go south" in a very big way. Too bad there aren't that many really good Saturday morning cartoons out anymore. Could you see the Rugrats or Lilo & Stitch in a production of this type? Darn you, corporate takeovers!

Dude, like totally awesome...

[manitou-full-moon · 8/10 · 8 July 2008]

Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue has to be one of the most hilarious things I have ever seen. It's an anti-drug video from the early 90s, where a bunch of media companies (Disney, Warner Bros, etc) teamed up to produce a cartoon special to tell kids that drugs are bad.

However, it soon becomes obvious that the kid's sister is pretty whacked out on drugs as well, despite her trying to persuade him to drop the drugs habit...

The kid, Michael, is smoking marijuana, and steals money from his sister, Corey, in order to get money for drugs. At that point, something truly weird happens and the cartoon characters dotted around Corey's bedroom come to life, and end up trying to "wake her up". Pooh Bear then talks to her (which couldn't happen... unless you're tripping...), and tells her to go and see her parents about his drug problem (but not about her problems, which are obvious because she's hallucinating a bear talking to her).

Michael goes to his "friends" who are smoking weed, and they take his wallet to buy crack. Then... then he appears to embark on a psychedelic journey where various cartoon characters talk to him, complete with glowing colours, and Michaelangelo the Ninja Turtle who appears to endorse drugs by calling him "cool". All along the way there's this character called "Smoke" which I guess is meant to represent his addiction to drugs. The other characters try to fight him off, and finally Michael manages to get rid of him when his sister tries to take drugs (although given she's seeing Smoke and Pooh Bear talking to her, she's riding the acid train already...). They then go and talk to his mom and dad about his problem. I guess they'd better get the sister to 'fess up too judging by what she was seeing. In fact, these people are pretty bad if they're letting both their kids get this messed up.

It basically is a piece of corporate propaganda - stern moralising via out-of-touch "cool" methods, in the way that dominated the 90s (see Don't Copy That Floppy...). In that respect it failed - drug use has indeed become a fact of life, seen in video games, films and TV shows, and being portrayed in a much more realistic way than the horror stories shown in this. Indeed, I would say that it would push kids in the opposite way - the message here is that if you take these drugs, your favourite cartoon characters will pop up out of boxes and magazines to see you and tell you about drugs! It's worth watching for the sheer hilarity of seeing squeaky clean cartoon characters express familiarity with drugs. It's hilarious for the fact that drugs apparently make you look like the Plastic Prince of Pop. And it's also hilarious just that anyone in a boardroom might think that anyone, child or adult, would take this seriously.

One of the dumbest things you'll ever watch!

[lemon-lime-pie-2 · 30 October 2006]

I watched this a week or two ago in RAID(Reduce Abuse in Drugs) Our police officer left us this video to watch. We watch a video every week and this one was SO funny. I was sitting beside my friend, Wenster and we were both laughing together. We were told not to laugh but it was too funny. Of course it was not pointless because it was about drugs, but it was weird. It won't only change my life, but it will change yours as well! Nope. Jokes. But it was quite funny and anything but pointless. Watch this at school and you will be laughing nonstop but also getting the message at the same time. Its good, but stupid.

Check it out.

Ultimate Anti-Drug Special of the 90s!

[emasterslake · 8/10 · 5 July 2006]

This is one of the few best half hour animated TV specials you'd find.

Approved by Bush Sr. himself and NBC,CBS, and ABC.

It's about a teen named Micheal who's addicted to drugs and he eventually steals money from his sister Corey to buy more.

Corey finds out what he did to her piggy bank, but she was told not to tell their parents that Micheal is on Drugs.

Things seem bad till some unlikely heroes show up to help Micheal's problem. And they are highly copyrighted cartoon characters! Every famous cartoon character you'd find from the old school Saturday Morning line ups are on a mission to talk some sense into Micheal that drugs are bad for him.

Those who were around during the late 80s-early 90s won't have trouble in knowing who's who in this TV special.

It has a great moral to it. And a fun way of telling kids to say no to drugs. And highly appropriate for all ages. Course for those who are parents just be sure to explain some parts to your kids when you watch this program.

What's cool is they actually got permission to use more than 10 copyrighted characters. And they're even voiced by the actual voice actors that put life into them.

It's really cool to see, don't know if it'll have a chance in a decent DVD release.

But I highly recommend it to those who grew up watching the cartoons from 16 years ago.

A good anti-drugs PSA for children

[brunovalsi · 8/10 · 4 November 2022]

In 1990, an anti-drugs PSA featuring the most popular cartoon characters at the time (e.g Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Michelangelo, The Smurfs, The Muppets, etc.), and is it good? Yeah, it's a well made featurette that cares about the message it's giving and not just the cartoon characters.

One thing that it does really well is the portrayal of teenagers and drugs, for example: Michael is a very realistic character, he smokes and even almost uses drugs because he wants to be cool in front of his "friends", but it ends up seperating him from his family, and become hostile towards his little sister, who just wants to see him the same way he was before. She thinks there's genuinely something wrong with him while his parents just think it's typical teenage behavior.

Another character i like is the smoke cloud, i know he was a bit annoying at times, but story-wise, he's somewhat important, since he represents Michael's hesitance to let go of the cigars, drugs and insecurities.

Now, about the cartoon characters, they actaully have their normal personalities, now what do i mean with this? In a psa like these, you'd think the cartoon characters would inmediately tell him stuff like "Don't do this", or "drugs are bad", etc. But they don't, right when Michael meets bugs bunny, he doesn't outright tell him drugs are bad, but he pretends to be a policeman chasing him because of the drugs, this indicates that he has his original personality from the 1940s cartoons.

About the animation, it's really good, they somehow managed to make the other artstyles of the cartoon characters fit with each other really well, and makes them not feel out of place.

However, this movie is not without flaws either, as the song near the end is not really that good and is corny, and having Huey louie and dewey instead of mickey mouse, donald duck, and goofy was kind of questionable, since, Mickey, Donald and goofy are more popular and iconic.

Overall, Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue is a well made anti-drugs PSA, i really recommend showing this to your children so they won't do drugs in the future.

8/10.

ah, the terrifying experiences of my youth . . .

[ligl · 23 October 2003]

I was 9 when this aired, and in the habit of watching TV on saturday mornings, so I sure did see it.

And it scared the living crap out of me.

Drugs make your skin turn green and your eyes sink in, and your brain goes all haywire and you'll DIE!! The Muppet Babies said so!

So, to experience the full effect of this movie, be 9 years old. Preferably 9 years old in 1990, or you won't know any of the characters. Alternately, you can appreciate it by just having a really keen sense of pop culture irony.

Fun fact! A whole day of Congress was devoted to talking about this thing. It got gummint funding, so they talked about it, in the context of the drug war. The best statement made in the proceedings (as far as I remember, paraphrasing): "Gentlemen, we have a new weapon in the war on drugs. It is not a some tool or a some other tool or a caterpillar bred to eat cocaine . . . it is a cartoon." I wonder how many congresmen's eyes were rolling.

Anyway, this thing is an amazing artifact. For the then-hip clothing of the kids, for the lingo, for the fact that it's a bunch of cartoon characters telling you that drugs are bad.