Sick Product of a Sick System

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

The cartoon was not only a favorite of mine as a child, but of my late father's as an adult. There were the gimmicks of where every phone booth he heads into to change from Shoe Shine Boy to Underdog explodes, as well as how he always crashes through roofs and walls even when there are door or window openings nearby, as well as his talking in rhyme. But what makes the comic work is the witty writing.Examples include how he makes Simon Bar Sinister dizzy by flying in circles around him, thus preventing him from using his snow gun, or the clever ways he defeats a flotilla of alien flying saucers, or how he makes the Wicked Witch of Pickayoon wealthy by compressing lumps of coal into diamonds, or how he sends villains directly into confinement or jail. Too bad the DC Superman didn't have that level of cleverness...but then he didn't have Underdog's computer brain.

In heraldry, a coat-of-arms with the "bar sinister" or "bend sinister" indicates a bastard. This isn't the only case of cartoons sliding in somewhat "adult" references.Dudley Do-Right once chased a villain to a place called "Colderinell" (say is fast). I might not have spelled it right, but the concept is the same.I'm certain there are many others like it that I didn't catch but hey, I was a kid at the time.I have to agree with several other reviewers that the cartoons of those days beat the heck out of those seen today. I think cartoons started going downhill when "...and it would have worked if it weren't for those meddling kids" became the tagline.

I grew up watching Underdog. Although the series ended in 1973, it continued in reruns for many years after (at least through 1979-1980, when I remember watching it.)Underdog always spoke in rhymes. Normally, he spent his time as "Shoe Shine Boy", and was just that. But when he took one of his super power pills, he transformed into Underdog and saved his love interest, news reporter Sweet Polly Purebred. His nemesis was usually Simon Bar Sinister (voiced by Allen Swift, who is a true living legend of animation voiceovers).The storylines were always pretty much the same, but there was usually a lesson to be learned at some point in the show.It didn't end there, however.After Underdog had beat up Simon Bar Sinister for the 300th time, the show often segued into "Tennessee Tuxedo", a silly cartoon (also involving lessons learned) starring a penguin as the title character (voiced by Don Adams of "Get Smart" fame), his dimwitted walrus pal Chumley, and Mr. Whoopee, who would give them science lessons with his magic expanding chalkboard.There were a number of other cartoons that ran along with Underdog, including one about 2 American soldiers in the old west tangling with two Native Americans (who would probably be seen as racially offensive today). I can't recall the others.It was a great, fun kids show back in its day.

It was great stuff, fun, educative, and morals were a bit higher then than they are now.10/10