Good grief! A new promo video of the brand new series of Danger Mouse, along with a preview of
its newly recorded theme song, has been unveiled on YouTube. The long-running
series, originally produced by Cosgrove/Hall, ran for more than a decade, from
1981 to 1992, and featured the voices of David Jason and Terry Scott, as the
one-eyed white wonder and his associate, hopeless hamster Penfold. The new
series sees comedians Alexander Armstrong and Kevin Eldon assume their roles
respectively, and the new video showcases their voiceovers, albeit briefly. So,
what do we notice so far?
Well, the first thing I noticed was that the programme
appears to be flash animated, as opposed to utilising traditional methods, as
practised by Cosgrove/Hall. This may not be of any great concern to many, as
the original show’s appeal mostly stemmed from its surreal and frankly very
British humour rather than its animation, which remained of a consistently low
budget. All the same, it does rather detract from the show’s overall aesthetic,
even if the flash animation is of a particularly high standard. There’s
something so distinctively unmemorable and mechanical about flash animation,
not to mention the fact that it seems to be becoming increasingly ubiquitous.
Even children’s series Arthur abandoned
traditional methods in favour of flash a few years ago, and it looks noticeably
inferior compared to the show in its earlier episodes. One can only hope that
it doesn’t downgrade the white wonder to any great extent. If the writing is of
a decent quality, this shouldn’t represent too much of a problem.
In addition, the theme music has remained essentially the
same, with the same lyrics and melody, only spiced up a little to maintain the
programme’s more modern reinvention. Personally, I don’t have a problem with
this, though I’ve already heard complaints concerning the theme’s remastering.
Realistically speaking though, the theme needed updating in order to gain new
followers, and the original is fairly dated by comparison. This is a new series
for a new generation, and deserves a reboot. What’s more, any hard-core fans of
the original have to accept that it could have been worse – the original theme
might have been sacrificed entirely, and that would never do.
Finally, we get a very brief soundbite of the new
voiceovers, which, I have to say, I have mixed feelings about. Alexander
Armstrong actually sounds like a very good likeness to the original David
Jason, and his refined, British accent is perfectly suited, though I can’t help
but feel as though it will reinforce the programme’s conveyance as a weaker
imitation of the original. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it already
implies that the revamp will pale in comparison as a mere copy. Penfold,
meanwhile, suffers from a completely different issue, in that Eldon’s vocals
sound nothing like the late Terry Scott’s, and he therefore seems to lack that
likeable, cowardly whine characteristic of the white wonder’s incompetent
associate. Admittedly, it’s only a brief clip we get to hear in the video, but
it doesn’t instil me with confidence, knowing that Penfold perhaps resembled
the funniest aspect of the original series, and the vocals helped facilitate
the comedy a great deal.
One thing that worries me in particular is that the new
series may not appeal to as broad an audience as the original series. The promo
appears to be very action-heavy, which isn’t what Danger Mouse was all about. While there’s not enough in the video
to form a judgement in this case, it remains of concern to me that those in charge
of the revamp might have missed the point.
Regardless, we won’t know for sure whether the show will be
successful until it finally airs, or indeed whether Danger Mouse will be as
great and fantastic as he was more than two whole decades ago. I must admit,
however, that I’m not quite amazed or astounded just yet. It’s clear that the
show’s creators have put a great deal of thought into the design of the show,
not to mention its allegiance to the original series, but any remnants of what
made the original series so appealing is yet to be seen.
Watch the teaser below:
No comments:
Post a Comment