TAKE ME TO THE PICTURES
Name of show that this character is from:
Wally Gator
Title of Episode:
Original Air date: March 4,
1963 (NETWORK: Syndication)
Where can I find this episode now?:
No
Longer Available
EPISODE TYPE: Growth Ray
(potion) , Godzilla Situation and Fantasy Situation
(see Common Themes section for more
on this category)
WHAT IS WALLY
GATOR?:
An
anthro, furry, alligator
IS HE MACRO ORIGINALLY?:
No
HOW DID HE BECOME MACRO?:
Overdoses on super vitamins that causes a dream
WHAT DOES HE BECOME AFTER HE GREW?:
Larger version of himself.
IS GROWTH SHOWN?: Yes
HOW
MUCH OF GROWTH IS SHOWN?: All of his stages of growth
seen but very quickly
MACRO NAME: Prehistoric Monster
QUOTE: "This is a fine way to go through life. I'll never be
able to ride the bus for half fare anymore. Sheesh!"
SEX: Male
LOCATIONS: City Zoo, streets of the
city and open area of hills
MACRO SIZE (Approx or Average ): 50
Feet
NATURE: Good Natured
DESTRUCTION LEVEL DONE: NONE
SYNOPSIS OF
EPISODE: Wally Gator is resting in a hammock looking weak and
out of it. He claims to the Zoo Keeper, Mr. Twiddle that he isn't long
for this world. Mr. Twiddle tells him that he just needs some energy
and to take some super vitamins he has every two hours and he will be
as good as new. Wally can't understand the confusing directions
on how many he should take when and just decides to down half the
bottle of pills at once and forget about it. His body starts to shake
and twitch suddenly and he expands in size to over 50 feet tall. Mr.
Twiddle tells him that he took to many and to stay right there so he
can get some reducing pills. Wally will have none of that and decides
to get out of there while he can and hops over the wall and heads into
the city.
As the now giant Wally walks down the street
complaining of his size. He gets hit with a bucket of water. He walks
over to a window with a woman leaning out of it and an empty pail
telling her to be more careful. She screams calling him a Prehistoric
Monster. Wally next pads over to some painters on a scaffold who are
talking of a baseball game. One of the painters sees Wally and freaks
out jumping off the scaffold as the other painter continues talking.
Wally answers the question in the other painters place scaring the
other painter who also jumps away in fear.
The police are alerted to a Prehistoric Monster
sighting and all charge onto the scene to surround Wally with their
cars. A head officer tells Wally to give up as they have him
surrounded. He tells them that he is no monster just an over grown
alligator. They take that to mean he is resisting arrest and start to
open fire on him. The cops call in the army for back up. As Wally
enters the country side a tank rolls up on a hill above him and fires a
huge blast at his face sending Wally running again. Missiles are
dropped on his head from above but just bounce off not hurting him as
the Air Force pilot calls base asking if he can use stronger weapons on
the giant Wally.
Meanwhile in a Monster Movie studio the owner and
director of the studio is firing his right hand men telling them they
are doing a bad job. That there is a monster on the loose and they
haven't hired him yet. He decides he will hire him himself while they
go look for jobs. He heads out onto the battle field where tanks are
shooting at Wally and tells the army to stop firing at his latest star.
He gets into a fire truck and in the upper ladder of it holding a white
flag at Wally. He tells Wally he will make him the most famous movie
monster ever. Wally agrees and says he will sign.
Before Wally can sign he is back at the zoo at his
regular size again in his hammock. Mr. Twiddle is telling him that he
passed out from taking too many pills and that it was all a dream.
Wally picks the bottle back up as Mr. Twiddle asks what he is doing.
Wally tells him that he is going back to being a big movie star and
will see him in the movies. As he chugs down more and more pills again.
REVIEW OF EPISODE: A very short
episode actually. The whole situation seems to end as quickly as it
started. But that will often be the case for episodes like this that
are sandwiched in between others keeping them short and to the
point. I am not a big fan of some of these Hanna-Barbera cartoons
of the 1960's. They all seemed cheaply made and just a carbon copy of
all their other cartoons in some way or another. We have one furry type
animal creature living and dealing with a society of all humans. Its
always the same backgrounds flying by us over and over and the same
story plots and ideas. But I'm a little too young to have grown up with
cartoons of this generation. But of course I have seen them all through
repeats either on cable or regular TV at one point or another. I just
never got the whole idea of Wally Gator. The opening intro to his
cartoon calls him a "swinging alligator in the swamp" and then every
episode has him as a prisoner in the zoo. I never quite got why they
focused on his freedom in the credits while he was miserable in the
zoo. But I digress, the point here is that this is a very low frills
and nothing special episode but also unique as it hasn't been done many
times in these carbon copy, cookie cutter type of shows done by H-B. So
this is a rare find even if far from spectacular.
This was a very lucky find, as even on cable this wasn't shown often.
Boomerang was the most likely place to find a gem like this but even
there it didn't show up as much as you would think. This was captured
in the late 90's on regular Cartoon Network who used to show many old
time H-B shows before they became what they are today and to fill in
some of the gaps of the long commercial breaks before the next show
they would show an old H-B cartoon to fill some of the time as they
were short and cartoons and would fit the bill. Wally Gator seemed to
be used a lot to fill in the gaps and this episode showed up one day.
Besides that time I never did see it show up again. So if you are going
to be looking for this, you are going to be looking long and hard. The
good news is that it is rumored to be coming to DVD eventually so the
wait won't be that long. But really this isn't anything special. I tell
it like it is. This was very short, not that exciting and honestly
kinda silly at times for my taste. Of course that won't stop people who
want everything macro wise, like yours truly and this is another one
you will want to capture if you want to see a giant alligator of sorts
on the loose.
The growth situation itself is very corny and far fetched. I'm really
surprised that the growth method used for this episode got through the
censors. Which were probably a tad lighter then they are now a days
here in the United States. The idea of just popping loads of super
vitamins to make one grow was a weird way to go about it as it was. But
to actually do it a few times as the growth method was bordering on a
very "try this at home" technique. I'm sure no one did copy this
as even kids can't be that dumb to think that taking half a bottle of
vitamins will make you grow to 50 feet in size, but still they probably
got away with one in this situation. To me the situation could have
been handled a lot better. There was no sign that he had fallen asleep
after taking the pills. It was quite instant from the moment he took
the pills and grew. Also I would have liked something a little better
then his being out of energy and Mr. Twiddle just shoves vitamins at
him as a solution. How about letting Wally out of there every now and
then rather then shoving vitamins on him. I do wish it wasn't a whole
dream situation. Just would have been more fun if it was what really
happened due to the fact that the whole dream explanation seems too
easy an excuse to use here. I say have fun with it and it's a cartoon.
It doesn't have to be a dream. You can get away with anything in a
cartoon. As long as it's fun and entertaining that's what people want
to see.
Wally as a giant was quite disappointing. There was some amusing
moments though, but for the most part it was a big let down. It was fun
as he just hopped out of the zoo and venturing out on his own as a
giant. But then the story seemed to come to a stop. They had no idea
what to do with Wally besides scare a few random people by just being
himself. One lady splashes him with water and he tells her to watch it
only to be called his new given name that would be used quite often in
"Prehistoric Monster". Then a silly routine involving some painters on
a building followed. Then we get cops and the army and a movie studio
involved. It just seemed like they were throwing every idea out there
as fast as possible to squeeze into the short time period they had to
work with. To me the story just wasn't that much fun as it wanted
to be. Things were happening to fast to get into. Far fetched moments
and it was more about Wally running away from everyone rather then him
having fun experiencing his new size. A giant Wally hiding behind a
house as the same animated bullets fly by him over and over isn't an
exciting situation to subject the viewers on. The audience is even
teased to the fact that Wally will star in monster movies but even that
is never shown only talked about.
When you go into this situation, don't have your expectations high. It
is an oldie, but not really a goodie as there is not much substance
here. Even his growth moments are very quick. He just shakes a
bit and then is suddenly big before us from hi waist downwards
perspective. I wish I could say better things about this episode but I
really couldn't find anything fun or amusing about it. It is far from a
dud though as there have been many worse then this episode. It just is
as no frills and as middle of the road and vanilla as you can get.
Almost makes you wish someone else handled the writing of this
situation to make a more fun situation then what we wind up with. One
point the pilot in the air force jet is asking if he can use a "super
duper bomb" to stop Wally. I mean come on. That is just horrible
writing. They couldn't think of something better then that? I
just wonder sometimes if the people who wrote for these toons even took
their own jobs seriously or just rushed to get anything done thinking
it will fly.
Definitely better then nothing at all as a giant Wally on the loose is
a giant Wally on the loose. He does loom against buildings and houses
and over the zoo even. So you will see some fun shots of what a giant
Wally looks like as compared to his surroundings. But most of the
situation dealt with him running away from bullets and getting hit in
the head with missiles from a jet above. Not as much fun as they
probably thought it should be but worth watching at least once just to
see something original and different. Almost makes me realize why H-B
didn't do many of these, the one time they do it really wasn't that
good. They are better off sticking to repeated running through the
hallway scenes of the same door passing by 100 times and leave the
growth moments to Disney.
RATING: C-
MEMORABLE QUOTES AND MOMENTS
IN EPISODE:
****************
Wally Gator: "I am not long
for this world Mr. Twiddle sir. I feel like I have been lodged through
a knot hole."
Mr. Twiddle: "You need some super vitamins to pep you up Wally. Just
take one of these pills every two hours and two every one hour for
three hours and three every two hours for one hour and you will feel
like your ol disgusting self again."
Wally Gator: "Lets see now ... two pills every five hours... or is it
five every two hours ? Oh fuddle de doo. Ill just take a couple days
worth and forget it!"
(Wally
Gator chugs down half the bottle of pills at once)
*****************
Wally Gator: "Say! What you
doing down there? Did you shrink?"
Mr. Twiddle: "No! I didn't shrink. You grew!"
*****************
(Two painters
are busy painting the side of a wall as giant Wally pads quietly behind
them listening)
Painter: "So there it was. Bases loaded and two outs and guess who
comes to bat? Mickey Mantle! Quite a predicament eh? What would you
have done Charlie?"
(Charlie
turns around seeing giant Wally behind him and looks panicked and jumps
off the platform)
Wally Gator: "I don't know about Charlie. But I would have ordered
another hot dog!"
Painter: "Hot dog? What are you some kinda of *does a double take* Prehistoric
Monster!!!"
******************
Police
Officer: "all right Prehistoric Monster. We got you surrounded! Now
give up and come along peacefully!"
Wally Gator: "But sir. I'm not a Prehistoric Monster. I'm just an
alligator who's a little too big for his age!"
******************
(A tank
rolls up on a near by hill to blast a huge Wally in the face. Wally
starts to run away)
Wally Gator: "Now I know why Prehistoric Monsters went extinct!"
******************
(Missiles dropped on Wally's
head bounce off not having any effect)
Air Force Pilot: "Squadron Leader to base. We don't seem to have
any effect with our convential bombs. Do I have permission to use our
super duper bomb?"
FINAL NOTES:
*This episode was the first of the second season. The show would only
last for two seasons (1962-1963) and be part of Hanna Barbera's
run of quickly made cartoons of all sorts of characters during the
60's. These particular episodes were made for a show called "The
Hanna-Barbera New Cartoon Series" that was shown in syndication. There
were three cartoon segments shown in each half hour of this show. Wally
Gator was one of them. The other two were "Lippy the Lion and Hardy Har
Har" and "Touché Turtle and Dum Dum".
*Almost every animal was used in some way in a cartoon series by H-B.
In this case it was an anthro alligator who hated living his life in
the boring zoo and always plotted his escape. For a short time these
episodes were shown on Cartoon Network and later on as part of the
Boomerang Network. As of this review the show is no longer shown in
either locations. There are plans for the entire run of Wally Gator
episodes to be released on DVD but only if Time Warner can clean the
master reels up to make them except able for transfer to DVD. This was
the only macro moment found in all the 50 episodes of Wally Gator.
* The title of this episode "Gosh Zilla" is meant to be a play on the
name of the Japanese movie monster "Godzilla" but making it sound much
nicer to fit into Wally's nieve and unsuspecting personality that he
often has. The name is misleading as besides the fact that he is
really big and green he is never called by the name in the title of the
episode nor does he do anything that Godzilla would do as Wally is more
afraid of everyone rather then a harm in any way.
*This will be one of the few times you will see a growth method done in
the manor shown in this episode. Wally over doses on vitamin pills and
instantly grew in size. While it may have been revealed to have been a
dream at the end, he also goes back to popping endless pills to go back
to his dream as the episode fades to black. Such a situation would
never be allowed in current day cartoons, due to the worry that kids
would copy such an action in the hopes of seeing what would happen by
over dosing on vitamins. Something that can be quite dangerous and
deadly to anyone mimicking those actions.
*Wally Gator's voice was done by a very famous and constant mainstay
for Hanna Barbara cartoons in the 1950s and 1960s named Daws
Butler. Daws did the voices for Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear,
Snagglepuss, Quick Draw McGraw and countless others over this time
period. He was also one of the first voices for kids cereal commercial
mascot "Cap'n Crunch".
Errors--
Factual --
Digesting a lot of pills like that wouldn't cause a growth to occur as
quickly as it was shown to have taken place. Even though it was a dream
situation, the pills still would have had to be digested for them to
take the effect that was shown. Even for him to pass out time would
have had to pass for the pills to start to digest.
Factual -- Wally's hat and cuffs
shouldn't have grown in size with him due to his taking pills to grow.
Only parts of his natural body should have expanded and nothing he was
wearing should have been effected by his growth. If any thing the cuffs
should have ripped and his hat should have looked very tiny on his
head.
Continuity -- Wally takes a lot more
pills then should have been in the bottle. He at first takes half the
bottle at the beginning to fall asleep then takes even more then that
at the end to go back to his dream. But more pills are being shown as
coming out of the bottle then was possible to even be in there.
+ Giant
Wally looming against various buildings and a house. Amusing moments
here and there that make watching this better.
-
:Poor growth execution and very silly and
corny moments. Bad script and lacks fun and excitement that you look to
with giant creatures on the loose in episodes like this. Could have
been much better. Cheaply animated.
PICTURES OF WALLY GATOR
AVI:
NONE