Sick Product of a Sick System

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

Go in cold, and you're likely to emerge with your blood boiling. This has to be seen to be believed.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

I think if you remember this show, then you were truly a dedicated cartoon-watching 80s child. I still have a little stuffed Koala named Roo-Bear. I don't know about everyone else, but I happen to think the shows now just aren't anywhere near what they used to be.

The Adventures of the Little Koala was definely the show that took koala bears family including other animals in very mysterious adventures. Not only that, this was the show that first launched the whole Nick Jr. block along with Maple Town, as well as other show that keep running like The Mysterious Cities of Gold, Pinwheel, and more back in 1987.The show focused on the family and friends of Roobear, the title koala, as they learned weekly life lessons. Roobear lived with his parents, Mommy and Papa, and his little sister, Laura. The playful marsupial also had friends aplenty: Pamie and Nick, the penguins; Floppy and Mimi, two rabbits; Betty, another koala; Walter the kangaroo; Duckbill, a platypus; Kiwi, a kiwi bird; Miss Lewis, a reporter; and of course a mysterious cat in a brown coat with a brown hat and a blue mitt named Weather.Of course, not all the animals could enjoy peaceful company, and the bane of Roobear's existence were the Dead End Kid kangaroos-Walter, Colt and Horsie. They were the bullies of this magical world, and though they were drawn in the same endearing children's book illustration style, they provided the edge to stir up trouble.A Japanese import of all kind, The Adventures of the Little Koala made Nickelodeon a thing of the past. The next year has brought us another Koala show called Noozles which was also a very cute show.I definely remember that show, it was my childhood memories I grew up with especially for Nickelodeon. During the last showing in 1993, I really miss this show but then after 8 years ago, I found an older print of the show on video at my local video store. I was so happy, I had to buy it so I can see this wonderful show just like I have watched it when I was a little kid. It really was one of the first shows I have discovered Japanese Animation known as anime. >From Tohokishinsha Animation. A Cinar Production in association with Viacom International Inc. Joe's Rating: 4 stars.

"The Adventures of the Little Koala" was one of the last truly good shows on Nickelodeon. In the early 90s, the network had morphed into this cutesy channel that didn't have cartoons to offer older kids. They stopped playing shows like Maple Town and The Mysterious Cities of Gold, and showed "The Little Bits," "Maya the Bee," and a lot of boring live-action shows. Koala was a great, imaginative show with... Weather. I had a pretty severe schoolgirl crush on Weather because he was so smart and mysterious. As with some other characters in the show, there were two different guys who did Weather's voice, but both went uncredited. The more aloof, deeper voiced one I am sure was Vlasta Vrana, and it sure got my adolescent heart fluttering. Yeah, Weather was the man. He always had all the answers, and he always had cute little Mingle hanging out with him. Mingle was whiny at times, but still adorable and looked so cute with Weather. What a mismatched but complementary pair they were. This was a nice little show, innocuous and sometimes too toddler-oriented for its own good, but it still made for a lot of great times when I was little. I remember many of the stories, though one of my favorites was when Mingle had to fly down from the mountain to warn the village, and he crashed through a window. Then there was the one where Walter and his brothers brought that huge log to the village bazaar and the one where Roobear and his friends go "Back to Nature," and the one where there's this hundred year old camera and you have to sit still for 10 minutes for it to take a picture? And then the one where they try to make a painting of the big tree, and they do it on little pieces of paper? And the wind blows all the papers away and they try to put the picture back together. Ah, what wonderful memories.I wish they'd bring this show back, and I bet kids today would really enjoy it. I remember it so well even though it's been 15 years since I saw it: That's the kind of impact a great 80s cartoon like this one will have you. Now if only they still made good cartoons.... and what a shame that this one is in the Nickelodeon Vault along with lots of other great programming, and instead they air stuff like "Slime Time Live." Whatever happened to GOOD cartoons being the norm?

I remember that as a kid I didn't admit to watching this, probably because I was already 7 when it had just come out and thought it was for ages toddler to 5 ys. or the agegroup defined today as the "Nick Jr. crowd". Although this was the case, there were themes aimed at older children, themes preschoolers wouldn't have understood. Like both Rubear's and the troublemaker's (forget his name)longstanding crush on that other female koala Betty, and one episode I remember clearly, when that troublemaker called the female penguin's character chubby and she started running and became anorexic and passed out. Weather-the wise grown-up(cat?) who always hid his mouth with a scarf (and always had a little pet squirrel on his shoulder)used a metaphor of red balloons-blowing one up halfway and the other all the way, and asked the girl penguin which one looked nicer..that episode really stuck out... ....Which brings me to Weather. His name was Weather, though he didn't talk about the weather, just gave a lot of great advice. As weird as it sounds I've always had a crush on Weather and think his character should be involved in a spinoff of some sort!... Finally, this show marks when I first noticed the dramatic power of animation ...that it could be drawn and directed to convey emotion..it introduced me to animae, which I later became very fond of. I believe <The Adventures of the Little Koala> was also the introduction for many children of my age in the United States to Asian animation.