I think it’s finally official: the 90s are starting to sneak their way back. Tori Spelling’s got a bestselling autobiography (and supposedly there’s a new 90210 on the way), people are figuring out some long-forgotten music of the “alternative” flavor is holding up pretty well, there’s this, and also mid-90s cult kiddie fare like Sam & Max is getting the DVD-box-set treatment.
An independent comic hit in the late 80s/early 90s, creator Steve Purcell was able to spin off Sam & Max’s underground success into 1993’s Sam and Max Hit the Road, a popular LucasArts video game, and ultimately into a critically acclaimed but short-lived (12 episodes total) FOX Kids cartoon called The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police. Thanks to a consistently healthy following, the duo has lived on in some form ever since the cancellation of the show, most recently in a new series of computer games from Telltale.
The sharp, nostalgic minds at Shout! Factory (apparently somewhat in cahoots with Telltale) have collected the entirety of the FOX TV series into a nice little DVD set. All the episodes of Sam & Max are here, including three separate animated shorts for FOX and a new one called “Our Bewildering Universe.” Other extras: a conversation with Steve Purcell, an inside look at Telltale Games, a playable demo of the “Ice Station Santa” game, original concept art for the TV show, and a detailed overview of the original comic series.
As far as the quality of the series itself, it’s amiable enough, but largely uneven. The sense of artistry and craft found in late 80s-early 90s TV cartoonage like DuckTales, Real Ghostbusters, Ren & Stimpy, and Batman: The Animated Series was obviously long gone by the time Sam & Max made it to production. There is some decent goofy character design from Purcell, but overall the show suffers from a cheap and lazy look.
Some pacing and timing problems in early episodes are smoothed out a bit as the show progresses. The plots are for the most part wacky and energetic, and it does try hard to be funny and clever. To that last point, Sam & Max is very much a devotee of the unappealing-but-popular-at-the-time Tiny Toons/Animaniacs school of cartoon humor, which grew out of a reaction to the discovery that arrested-development/nostalgia-obsessed Gen X 20 and 30-somethings like myself were watching weekday afternoon and Saturday morning kids shows. Unfortunately, this Tiny Toons/Animaniacs school of thought tended to equate “manic,” “shrill,” and “faux-smart, obscure pop culture references” with “funny.” True, John Waters can often pull that equation off astonishingly well. But the spasmodic Animaniacs and its ilk just tended to be tiresome and laborious.
I appreciate the effort to recreate that mixture of smart and silly old Looney Tunes shorts, the Marx Brothers, and classic Simpsons accomplished so brilliantly. But the snarky and smug rapid-fire quips in shows like Sam & Max always seem more interested in calling attention to how intelligent the writers are and how the shows are Not Just For Kids! than in pulling off a truly funny gag.
Sam & Max fans will probably enjoy this set. Anyone else can take a pass.
Grade: C+
