Runtime: 100 spellbinding minutes
Directed by: Many people
Starring: An astounding collection of famous faces; all can be seen on the film's extensive Wiki page
From: Time Warner
How did I have no knowledge of this all-star event until a few nights ago? Starting tomorrow my schedule should be back to normal. The past few days have had its ups and downs but overall, I’m fine and those negatives don’t need to be dwelled on. A Letterboxd mutual posted a review then I was bamboozled by what I read. I apologize for what will be an extensive review but it’s necessary in this case.
EDIT: I just fixed some glaring & embarrassing mistakes.
As this mutual mentioned, Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue (something that I need to review one day as I haven’t viewed it since 1990; I recall it also leaving me bamboozled as a nine-year-old) aired a day before this so of course I cared about that 34 years ago and if I even heard of this at the time… it is bizarre that apparently me and most others forgot about this oddity. To be brief, at the time there was a LOT of proselytizing about the environment and the fate of the planet. This played on ABC, April 22, 1990.
What occurs simply has to be told as is. We get to see Danny De Vito and Rhea Perlman as a couple viewing the special, because why not? At some bucolic little parade, after we see cameos from Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig and Tweety Bird, Robin Williams as “Everyman” doing a routine where he’s disrespecting the planet. What a shame then that Mother Earth shows up and suddenly becomes sick, necessitating a trip to the hospital. She’s played by… Bette Midler! Thus, Murphy Brown (yes, the character played by Candice Bergen) tells us that Midler is sick in the hospital as Doogie Howser (no, really), Edward James Olmos, Dana Delany and James Brolin attempt to save her. I swear this is all true.
Then, Dr. Carl Sagan suddenly shows up to explain global warming and the ozone layer! This is all incredibly unsubtle & preachy, the cameos smack you in the face with how the famous faces pop in and out with a whiplash effect. For example, Downtown Julie Brown as herself shows up to interview… Harold Ramis as Elon Spengler, the apparent twin brother of Egon. Is that canon? He dresses as a Ghostbuster, only he says he’s a “Wastebuster”. He then talks to Nathan Thurm! He’s a Martin Short character from SNL back during the lowest point of the show. In fact, Lorne Michaels was an executive producer so many of those comedians appear.
I could really write paragraphs simply recounting what happens but I’ll try not to drone on… oh wait, it’s Doc Emmett Brown! A total WTF scene was seeing Doc Brown, Doogie Howser, Olmos, Delany, and Brolin in the same scene where Midler is in a hospital bed as he shows a video “from the future” which is artfully-presented grim misery. In 2057, “the last of the rainforests” will be gone.
Oh yes, and if that wasn’t enough insanity and wasn’t overstuffed enough, we also get several casts of shows that weren’t on ABC talk about the environment for a few minutes including The Golden Girls and Married with Children. Yes, this is bugnuts. Dennis Miller back from his Weekend Update days does a themed Weekend Update. If you think that it’s awkward to see the controversial Miller now, wait until you see The Cosby Show cast, including of course BILL COSBY. Then, there’s Cheers, which has more than one that’s aged poorly. At least there’s Jim Henson doing Kermit the Frog and other Muppets for one of the last times.
There are other collaborations that many of us can enjoy besides the ones already mentioned. Williams does a scene w/ Dustin Hoffman as a lawyer. Kevin Costner does a scene w/ Meryl Streep. Now, there is more than one copy on YouTube; pick the one almost 100 minutes long which was obviously taken from an old Warner Brothers Video release. Time Warner presented this. To be blunt, I know that “the environment” is unfortunately a controversial topic in the United States; most here will agree that global warming is a thing but causing more derision is “celebrities preaching to non-celebrities about something”, and this special is 100 minutes of that.
The three star rating is not because this is good, but rather because I was captivated by this forgotten piece of entertainment and seeing multiple pop culture icon characters together… such as E.T.’s cameo! It was nice to see all those famous faces… such as Quincy Jones (RIP) RAPPING then introducing such rappers as Will Smith, Heavy D., Queen Latifah, Ice-T and Tone Loc spitting rhymes. Then, there’s Geena Davis (as Kim) on THE DATING GAME where the three potential partners are Pat Riley-yes, the famous coach!-Dan Gauthier of Teen Witch fame and… RODNEY DANGERFIELD! By this time I don’t know how my brain didn’t break and I suffered an aneurysm.
By the time that we see Michael Douglas (as himself) and Robert Wuhl (as a random fan) talking to Magic Johnson about recycling—I was spent. This should be best viewed as the surreal experience it is, a time capsule from the past, and viewing the nonstop onslaught of celebrities; many I did not mention. I don’t know if it did anything to help in the battle against global warming… although those lessons are still relevant in late 2024.
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