Radio Free Bunny

 Radio Free Bunny (1-35 in production order)

Written by: David Warick & Amy Debartolomeis

Storyboard: Mrs. Tina Kugler

Directed By: Timothy Björklund (Not Björkland like I used to wrote. Apologizes.)

Date of Release: June/July 2005 in Disney Channel USA

Synopsis: One night, Whiskers gotten a radio transmitor in his ears which provide him tons of popularity to the Jungle residents, until his friends keep getting using him by it!

But first, an oral history of why this cartoon have to be reviewed before the other ones:

Few times before I launched this blog, I thought it was time to reviewing the series of Brandy & Mr. Whiskers, by a newer perspective by giving some historical context. It was a fan-fave for Furries fans, but for Disney-lite? Not so much. I have quit my interest for the series in 2020 when the fandom being something from the past. Returning to it years later and by finally glimpse to the series with its original voice-cast for the first time ever was kind of a breath of fresh air to the monotony we have on Cable Television for some years now.

And this is by this cartoon I saw it first, and thinking it three weeks later, it's representative of how this show may be very hard to watch for lots of audience, especially the die-hard animated ones. It was killed because of that and why this show works more at if the crew wanted to get back these dull 40s Screen Gems/Columbia cartoons in life with their uneven Warner characters knock-off and poorly Mel Blanc's mimical actings.

In this adventure, Whiskers is full of joy because he's going to reach new friends. But very fast, he realized that none of the Jungle animals like him. Brandy explain him that he can't and never will be popular by his own bad habits and weirdness. Less than two minutes left, we have to assume this is gonna be another trainwreck that tried too hard to be like Spongebob or Ren & Stimpy but fail!

One night, Whiskers is alone in the middle of the Jungle exploring the sky when he finally understood his unpopulaity. Even the constellation says "You Stink" which it's among one of the only genuine gags featuring in this episode. Less than he may worry off, a meteorite start to blast into the jungle. The rabbit creepily yell, proving Charlie Adler's usual way to yelling more louder than we need. David Warick and Amy Debartolomeis were both writers of this episode, and anyone can told them for which productions and characters they have to written?

A gag that sounds more funnier than this episode may actually offer!

Whiskers finally blasted by the meteorite, but then, it was just a radio transmitor that plays music... in his EARS!! This is the kind of gag that sounds funnier for those who worked in this show, by forget that people on their home would not accept any craps from any corporations in exchange. This is more weird than funny, that even the crew from those dull Screen Gems cartoons would never thinking about it.

Why has Brandy's angry expressions make her so expressive and adorable? I don't know and I don't care either.

Return to the Treehouse, the bunny revealed to Brandy and her "girlfriends" his newer assortment, which makes the many Jungle girlfriends at attracted and intrigued than Brandy's way to provide friendship. Brandy being such of a loser to not having the same kind of attention or recognition than Whiskers and his radio ears. Not to be outdone, but I really doubt the episode title is actually a pun of the Canadian TV show Radio Free Roscoe. This is only mere speculation that the old TV.com users keep to thrive it but I'll doubt that was the intention to made it a pun. Like some says the leopard Lorenzo name from Taking Paws was refered to legendary Garfield's voice-artist Lorenzo Music. Why? He has passed away long before the TV series started to be air. So this is pointless speculations that is part of why Wikipedia's kind of misinformation and cracks hung lots of serious animation scholars and artists like me.

When all the Jungle animals in the Water-fall discovering the Radio Free Bunny transmitor that plays music from any stations, we having a parade of sequence featuring animals (Even Pink Flamingos!) who dancing, swimming and even listening pseudo-intellectual fluff in the vein of Gaspard Gecko (Which make one rare great appearence in this show. Why didn't they using him more often and also in more cartoons?). Back to home, Whiskers just wanted some time of peace and rest, while Brandy in her bed tried again to persuade him that it's his radio ears that make him popular and not him. Of course, he wouldn't trust, but not sooner than later, Whiskers just realize the mistake he's done. In a Disney old-fashionned way, Whiskers will learned the lesson later in this half-baked adventure.

A tired Whiskers is there the rest of the cartoon is paddled out with hacky chases from all the Amazon Rainforest creatures. So that hold us the ultimate question: Is Whiskers is such a reject, an annoying loser or a victim of his own incompetence? Looking of this comeupance, it's by there the show start to be like a ordeal to watch. The rabbit keep to be manipulated, by even stretched all his body sections until Brandy save the bunny again of his fate. It would be only better if Brandy keep him to learn the lesson by himself, but it's there Brandy could be naturally, the only and true best friend Mr. Whiskers could ever have.

The two finally falling on a cave after a series of mishaps that times going on more calm and serein. Brandy tell to Whiskers what he learned on this day and it's by that this dynamic to me works. They are not like any other cartoons characters of this era that took everything as hip or edgy. It can be only great if this disaster could ended on such of right note, but no! Whiskers' ears is broadcasted to a survival radio station and Brandy, like the others animals, made using him in order to get back to Florida at happenstance. And it's sadly in the edge of a volcano that Brandy and Whiskers, stuck on a pole, wait the rescuers. So, for all this time Brandy tell Whiskers he was only popular because of this radio transmitor in him, she using the rabbit but in a much sadistic and gratuitious way than all the Jungle have made to him?

Can somebody calls the censors for this? Like a cartoon character from another era says: "Don't Try This At Home! We're Professionnals!"

Alas, Mr. Whiskers begged the pampered canine dog to not boil him to the lava by the premise she has just made few minutes as late. The helicopter came close to them but while Brandy finally give up her attempt to "kill" him just for go back on Florida made another failed way for the pooch to return to home. (It would be the last attempt in the series before to be abandonned.) And that sadly end with a very verbally, violent talk between the two. All of that is not that funny and I just hope that Kaley Cuoko have crossed out her casting of Brandy Harrington to any CVs she sending for future shows. To think for this generation, Cuoko is much known for her performance on The Big Bang Theory (A show that seems more popular and watched than it is, by years to rerun it in syndication) or lately, to voiced the Adult Swim's Harley Quinn lead-role than it was for her first animated character voice. Make me wonder what will be a stand-alone Brandy Harrington production on her fancy Florida home, but I'll doubt anyone from Disney would get it back again after years to failed hard with their reboots of old movies because they are more concerned of make money than really gave respect back to their own working staffs.

This is by that the cartoon end. Brandy yell loudly to Whiskers "GO TO A ROCK!" and the helicopter that quit the Amazon Rainforest is the final scene of this cartoon. Wow! Now I can get all this hate the series having while it was new and very popular to online fans. This is not the '30s animation influence or the crass jokes that made me uncomfortable with these cartoons. It's in their writing. I repeat: The show feels and works like a mere imitation of what you get from the Post-Charles Mintz era of Screen Gems/Columbia cartoons. (Save their Fox and Crows. They're one of the only true gems the studio have done before its shutdown and then, become UPA at this point.) If you have seen one of them on YouTube, you know what I tried to meant.

P.S.: Sorry for the poor-quality of the screenshots. This is among the only copies I could found of the series online. When an attempt was done years on to shown pristine and HD copies of the series, it was sadly cropped at a point you could seen easily slices been reframing by also removing the credits in each episode's title card. So, stick with these copies if they're look well, complete and unedited.

Critique:

Eventually one of the most refined cartoon of the Björkland season of half-hour episodes, but that's not says anything. The gags are all over the place like while Mr. Whiskers can't stop to scream when a meteorite randomly started to fall his way. The central plot is about Whiskers is so unpopular not only by Brandy but also all the Amazon Rainforest animals and that something must to be fix. The constellation that says to him "You stink" is pretty effective, but ironically, it says a lot of the series' production at a whole. While Whiskers gotten the radio transmitor in his ears, everyone partying to him by pretending to gains an own of respect and popularity, if only he know it's this device that have steal Brandy's girlfriends? The second act, however, is there things fall apart and we got the same kind of tropes again-- Brandy save Whiskers, Whiskers realizes he was a loon by his radio earing thing, etc. And then, the third act is strangely the ugliest of all while Brandy discovering a radio frequency of a squad that may help her to go back to Florida. Whiskers realized how foolish he was by his radio earrings, but in all of these nice moments, there's a tension of "sadistic" Humor like Brandy taking a pole to the lava with the rabbit sticking in thereby be close to be dead (Is Brandy a cannibal now?). Radio Free Bunny represents exactly the problem with the show and this illogical, unfunny and unfocusing duo: Too overbearing for stand a chance, too much loudest lines from Kuoco and Adler (The rest of the voice-cast works better. Figures!) and the ending is just as hateful and distasteful like it just started.