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Category:    Home > Reviews > Animation > Children > Action > TV > C.O.P.S. - The Animated Series (Shout! Factory DVD)

C.O.P.S. – The Animated Series

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: C+     Episodes: C+

 

 

Back in the golden and silver age of fun children’s television, one of the golden rules was that the programming was supposed to be separate from the commercials and the results were some of the greatest shows ever made.  Mind you, this was not even the educational shows, but the commercial fare.  In the 1980s, that rule was trashed and this kind of TV naturally went into decline.  The line just did not blur, it collapsed and entire shows would be built around or based on toy lines.  C.O.P.S. – The Animated Series (1988 – 1989) is one of the most blatant examples of all.

 

This show was the product of the teaming of Kenner (now Hasbro) doing the toys and Hanna-Barbera/Filmation wanna be company DIC.  In the near future, the police have more technology available to them in a more technologized world, and they have to battle evil villains like “The Big Boss” and other over-simply named baddies.  The problem is that the whole world was as oversimplified as Fisher Price toys, but without the benefits.  The show is so bad, it is amusing and now, all 22 shows are here on DVD from Shout! Factory with extras and in a nice casing.

 

Though it is reactionary and to the Right ideologically, it tries to be a nicer version of that formula and the results are oddball.  Without realizing it, the producers made a show that was all over the place and did not know if it should be nice, tough, high-five its audience or be dramatic.  As a result, the toy line did not do that well and the show was cancelled after this season, but it did help set a new style of art between two and three dimensions that was not intended to be fancy or innovative; it was meant to make the characters look like the toys they were trying to sell, increasingly dulled colors and all.  It also tries to imitate some of the Japanese Animé that was just catching on at the time, but not very well.  You just have to see it to believe it.

 

The 1.33 X 1 image shows its age, in its limited animation, the flaws in the hand-drawn process you would not see today and the slight agedness of the prints.  Colors are somewhat muted, as was the style of the show, but there is something entertaining about the flaws versus the sterile look of similar product today.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is passable, but just fine for its age and as good as any sound one would have heard during the original broadcast.  Extras include rare concept art for some episodes, public service announcements involving the characters, a storyboard/screen segment on the opening and more sketch art for key characters and locales.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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