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90 - Bootlegg'd - Ferngully: The Last Rainforest

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90 - Bootlegg'd - Ferngully: The Last Rainforest

Ferngully: The Last Rainforest has long been a blind spot in the Cartoncast catalog, but one we took pleasure in rectifying. This was the clearest expression of a single idea we've encountered yet, and is fondly remembered. As a piece of environmentalist literature, it falls somewhat short of a full message, but as a piece of entertainment it passes with flying colors. We found the "romantic subplot" to be especially compelling, if a little queasy. However, as Zane wisely said, our children, and our children's children, are 'the next great elder to be in the future'.

89 - ReBoot

89 - ReBoot

The Cartoncast was updating their servers, and everything was going smoothly until Ben and Zane found a virus hiding in the code. They tried to get in there with some forceps, but he was pretty wily. Finally, they sent in a Guardian, programmed to mend and defend, to defend its friends, to befriend to the end, and to end the virus. It did the job just fine, but it kept showing up when they played games, hacking the variables, radicalizing the AI, degenerating the graphics, until they couldn't even win at Pong. They banished the guardian back to the Net, confident it would never come back...

88 - Animaniacs

88 - Animaniacs

Well, it finally happened. The grain silo around which The Cartoncast headquarters was built finally burst open, releasing three ancient beasts (I'm gonna go with dogs?) into the world. These malicious beings of anarchy, chaos incarnate, ran amok in the headquarters, confounding the mild-mannered employees to the point of insanity. Only with the help of some good-natured lab rats and a chipper young possum could Ben and Zane seal them in their prison tomb to sleep another thousand years. Or until it got renewed, whichever came first.

87 - The Weekenders

87 - The Weekenders

Ben and Zane were just... just so tired you guys. It's been a long week. The Cartoncasters were looking forward to some well-deserved rest, spending time with a few friends, maybe go on a pizza run. Unfortunately, on Friday it looked like they would have to spend the whole weekend running around and dwelling on an easily-solved problem. After a real slog on Saturday they asked mom for advice, but it was all too reasonable. Finally, on Sunday they learned the true meaning of friendship or something. Which they forgot by next Friday.

86 - Slam Dunk

86 - Slam Dunk

Ben and Zane decided to take a hiatus from watching cartoons and popped down to the local basketball court. Despite some very troubling ethnic stereotypes, they had a reasonably good time, until Hanamichi Sakuragi showed up. This Kuwabara-looking goofball dramatically jumped into the backboard about fifty times before the Cartoncasters decided to pack it up. They would have asked him why he was doing it, but you just don't question a basketball genius.

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85 - Bootlegg'd - The Brave Little Toaster

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85 - Bootlegg'd - The Brave Little Toaster

Come to life and join Ben, Zane, and Dan for the adventure of a lifetime, or at least until our warranty is up. The Brave Little Toaster is a classic film made by proto-Pixar-people that gets a bad reputation for its honest take on serious themes (with a few...gratuities). Great for children, adults, and anyone willing to confront their own mortality. Plus toast!

84 - Bucky O'Hare and the Toad Wars

84 - Bucky O'Hare and the Toad Wars

Ben and Zane were doing their part by making sure no totalitarians were hiding in the closet, when opening the door created a gateway to another universe. The inhabitants were strange: humanoid animals with bizarre features who only spoke in rap lyrics. They met with a funky fresh resistance leader and his ragtag band of hype men who tried to enlist them, but honestly, the whole trip took a lot out of them, and they just wanted to kick back and enjoy some quality TV.

83 - Earthworm Jim

83 - Earthworm Jim

Ben and Zane were crawling around eating dirt on a dare, when Gary Lane, notable groovy guy, stepped up to them to tell them the good word of the Great Worm Spirit. Instantly hooked, they all trotted toward the nearest Church of the GWS, but were unfortunately crushed by a falling cow on the way there. Truly, the Great Worm Spirit gives with one end, and... ehh... does something gross with the other end.

82 - Disney's House of Mouse

82 - Disney's House of Mouse

Ben and Zane went to the new club in town, the House of Mouse, hoping for a pleasant evening of Fivel movies and Sherlock Holmes references. But what they found terrified them. The whole estate had been left untended for ages. Long-rotten bodies had been exhumed and made to dance in a macabre performance, and everyone from the greeter to the waiter was but a shadow of their former selves. They begged to be freed from their eternal show, but even the Cartoncasters' strongest venom could not stop the power of the magic kingdom.

81 - Jonny Quest

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Andrew Spohn of the Amusement Sparks podcast arrived yesterday afternoon, by way of hydrofoil. Ben and Zane greeted him with open arms, but quickly grew apprehensive as Andrew explained Dr. Zin's evil plan to replace all maternal figures worldwide with suspiciously handsome secret agents. Will Andrew catch wise to the secret Race Bannon cloning facility in the Cartoncast basement? Or will Ben and Zane put an end to his curiosity, once and for all? Stay tuned to find out!

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80 - Bootlegg'd - Lupin III - The Mystery of Mamo

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80 - Bootlegg'd - Lupin III - The Mystery of Mamo

Join the Cartoncasters for this special Bootlegg'd segment, where we look at an anime film for the first time. Lupin III is a very successful, long running franchise, which showcases a Japanese twist on the much beloved spy genre. Its long history produced many incarnations of Lupin III with wildly varying quality, similar to the history of James Bond. The Mystery of Mamo is one of the more beloved examples, with all that quick-witted Lupin goodness, mildly soured by an emergency injection of Heinlein right at the finish.

79 - Popeye the Sailor

79 - Popeye the Sailor

Ben and Zane were touring the 1930's with the help of their Time Lord friend Phil. They took in the old-timey horse races and...sock hops? Anyway, as they passed the docks, they were shoved out of the way by a gigantic, meaty man. A sailor saw this and jumped out of his boat, using his clearly-diseased arms to take down the bully, punching him into several steaks. As the Cartoncasters went to leave, the sailor started muttering something that they couldn't understand, something about olive oil and "just needing a bit more of the green stuff."

78 - Capitol Critters

78 - Capitol Critters

It's been a while since Ben and Zane checked in with Buster Bunny. Time had not treated him well. The disillusionment of adolescence left him ripe for distraction and the glory of mob mentality. He fell in with the wrong crowd, started disrespecting his momma, and filled his dissatisfaction of the underclass with lewd distractions and senseless violence. If only he would listen to us say that in a race war, there is no victor.

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One-Legg'd - Gravity Falls

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One-Legg'd - Gravity Falls

Greetings, mystery eggberts! Because Ben shows no signs of watching this great show, Zane is using the nuclear option and just recording an episode without him. Helping him investigate the strangeness of the situation is Ethan, certified twin and conspiracianado. Listen as Ethan and Zane drop hints about the secret history of the U.S. government, dire visions of the future, and the lifelong question of what happens to the little light in the fridge when you close it.Ethan is full of spiders. Don't go peeking. born lie bit you florid mess.

77 - Daria

77 - Daria

While talking about the latest episode of Sick Sad World (are people illegally cutting baseball diamonds in half? Three sides and you're out, next on Sick Sad World!), Ben and Zane saw the new girl in school walk by. But then they got distracted by the weird kid's gambling ring, and the teacher's rampage, and the spat between the Canadian couple, and by the time they got back around to looking at the new girl they just kind of stopped caring. La la la la la.

76 - Thundercats

76 - Thundercats

Ben and Zane were visiting Eternia - sorry, Third Earth - and found a fascinating war unfolding around them. Apparently, some renegade members of a barbaric race were subjecting the natives to a dogmatic psuedo-mysitcal religious mandate. The leader of this band, He-man - excuse me, Lion-O - called himself 'The Lord of the Thundercats', and ruled by divine right. His mission, he said, was to lead a crusade against the so-called great evil of Skeletor - oh forget it.

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75.5 - Scrambl'd - Kid Radd part 2

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75.5 - Scrambl'd - Kid Radd part 2

In the second part of our in-depth summary of Kid Radd, we follow Radd from his quest to find powerful allies to fight the Moderators up through the dramatic conclusion and epilogue. As the party goes in and out of video game parodies, the author moves between drama and comedy to convey the central themes which are restated, just, so many times.

Read Kid Radd here

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75.0 - Scrambl'd - Kid Radd part 1

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75.0 - Scrambl'd - Kid Radd part 1

It's a Scrambl'd, it's a Bootlegg'd, it's a 2-parter! We're breaking the rules with an animated webcomic that does the same. A personal favorite that found inventive solutions to the problems of the medium and still holds up, in format and in story. Join us as we follow Radd, a video game protagonist taken from his game and put into a world where he has to fight corrupt politicians, violent sprites, and his own programming.In part 1 we go over the major themes of the story, as well as the plot up through Radd's visit to the Seer.

The comic can be found here.

74 - Fruits Basket

74 - Fruits Basket

Ben and Zane hadn't had a vacation in a while, so when they were invited to spend time relaxing in house in the forests of Japan, they jumped at the chance! It was hard to unwind though, what with various new people coming in at all hours, screaming at eachother, and then polymorphing into animals. Luckily they were able to slip quietly away during one of many introspective monologues.