Bucky O'Hare - 01

"War of the Warts"
We're introduced to Bucky O'Hare and his anthropomorphic animal crew on his S.S. Righteous Indignation: first mate Jenny, the telepathic and telekinetic feline; four-armed gunner Dead-Eye, the trigger-happy former Corsair Canard; one-eyed pint-sized Blinky, the philosophical and vaguely religious robot; and the ship's engineer Betelgeusian berserker baboon Bruce, who makes a better warrior than mechanic. We're also introduced to some of their principal nemeses from the expansionist Toad Empire: the belching and bloviating Air Marshal; his bumbling slacker underlings the (fraternal) twin brothers Frix and Frax; their rather overbearing A.I. overlord Komplex; and the numerous storm-toad troopers serving under them whose headgear makes them all appear to have the same face. Also, since this is a cartoon principally targeted to young boys, we are ultimately introduced to our audience surrogate and viewpoint character: the precocious preteen math & science whiz Willy DuWitt. (Note: for some reason, at no time in this series will we ever be introduced to any female counterpart named Betty Wont.)

Points of interest:
3:25 That toad seems to be looking at a dirty magazine, especially since he's turning the pages with his tongue.
5:51 Doug and his cronies are riding their skateboards in the school's halls? Methinks their bad grades aren't the only problem they're having with their school. (Also, they're remarkably tall to be Willy's classmates; were they held back a few grades?)
6:26 Doug and company sure disappeared awfully quickly, didn't they?
7:03 Kinda odd that toads in escape pods would have the means to communicate with an enemy vessel.
9:45 Are the toads segregationists? Why are all the bunnies at the controls white-furred?
9:55 You really should have thought of this sooner, Jenny.
10:13 Proof that like other space operas, everyone in this show has universal translators: note the odd appearance of the characters in the code Jenny enters into her console here.
11:36 Those rib bones on the Air Marshal's desk seem to be from a recent meal. So... the toads have some manner of non-sentient meat animals they hunt or raise for food?
13:04 I like to think the toad gunner's croaking noise is his saying something in his native language the universal translators either can't or won't translate (at least, not for us viewers).
14:43 The one and only time Blinky mentions the universe in this series; in a later episode, he speaks only of attaining oneness with the Aniverse.
14:47 Mighty fancy vocabulary you're using, Bucky; I would have just said "I'm going down there to get a good long look at the damage this disaster has done."
15:41 The accelerator is not absorbing quite *all* of the energy, Willy; your flashlight and tape recorder are still working, as is the intercom system on the S.S. Righteous Indignation.