Do we all remember that dramatic time when Jim Carrey suddenly burst onto the movie industry? Do we all remember that it was somewhat ironic, given that he had starred in Earth Girls Are Easy years earlier? If yes, then there is something else you may have missed in the media storm that was Ace Ventura, The Mask and Dumb & Dumber- cartoons! That's right, all three of these films had cartoon spin-offs! Want to learn more about them? Too late, I already started talking! These are...
Carrey-toons!
Where to begin? I think we should start with the movie that really thrust Jim onto the world stage...
This one is pretty self-explanatory: Ace is a pet detective who goes off to solve wacky and silly crimes related to pets. You would think that with an episodic television show that maybe the character or his back-story would expand. You would be wrong. Although, I do have a fun fact for you. One of the key people in creating this show was, wait for it, Seth McFarlane! Well, you gotta start somewhere!This one is also pretty self-explanatory, even if the show was never really about explaining things. Our two leads have gotten their dog-inspired van back and a new pet beaver...who talks and is smarter than them. You would think that this was the show done by Seth, but you would be wrong. This show is so spastic that even the titles can't even stand still for two seconds. It only lasted one season, so let's move on...
Finally, a film that seems like it should have a cartoon show. I mean, the whole movie was just dying to burst out into randomness at all times (but only did a few times because of the budget). You could make a great show with this random, all-powerful character who has no cares. Of course, they just made a fairly standard cartoon show with a guy in green who talks funny. At least Matt Frewer was the voice of Stanley Ipkiss.
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As bizarre as this whole thing was, it did not end there. The culmination of the Mask and Ace shows were two episodes that served as both series' finales. In the first part, Stanley's dog is kidnapped and he hires Ace Ventura to find him! Oh my God, you just created a time paradox! At the end of the episode, Ace's monkey takes the mask, which leads us into Part 2. In this one, both men end up in space to rescue a government hamster that sings Elvis. I did mention that the Ace Ventura show was really stupid, right?
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This trip to the Carrey-verse was not enough to save these shows and the era of Carrey-toons came to an end. I can live with that.
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Next in the series, a comic book company survives just long enough to put two obscure cartoons on the air. Stay tuned...
I definitely remember the Ace and Mask cartoons, but only vaguely remember the D+D cartoon.. If its what I think I remember, the characters were very stylized like many of the newer post-90s cartoons, and that it sucked
ReplyDeleteI actually watched the last episodes mentioned (the crossovers) and they were odd. I couldn't bring myself to watch any of "Dumb and Dumber," although it is on YouTube if you have the guts. All of it is somewhere- you just have to want to find it.
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