Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue is an animated drug prevention television special starring many of the popular cartoon characters from American Saturday morning television of the 1960s through the 1980s. Financed by McDonald's, the special was originally simulcast on April 21, 1990 on all three major American television networks: ABC, NBC, and CBS, most independent stations, as well as cable networks Nickelodeon and USA Network. McDonald's also distributed a VHS home video edition of the special, produced by Buena Vista Home Entertainment, which opened with an introduction from then-President George H. W. Bush, and First Lady Barbara Bush.
The plot chronicles the exploits of Michael, a teenager who goes from eating bagels to smoking marijuana and stealing his father's beer. His younger sister, Corey, is worried about him because he started acting differently. When her piggy bank goes missing, her cartoon tie-in toys come to life to help her find it. After discovering it in Michael's room along with his stash of drugs, the various cartoon characters proceed to band together and take him on a fantasy journey to teach him the risks and consequences a life of drug-use can bring.
Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck both star in the special. Bugs also alludes to Wile E. Coyote when he mentions where he got a time machine from.
Notes[]
- This is the first time in which Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck are voiced by someone other than Mel Blanc after his death, in this case Jeff Bergman.
- In the scene where ALF and Michael traverse the Hall of Mirrors, ALF makes a football penalty joke; this is a reference to an earlier scene in the film where Michael and Corey's father mentions having watched a football game earlier.
- Bugs and Daffy are the only cartoon characters featured in this special to have originated in animation; Pooh and Tigger came from literature, the Muppets and ALF were puppets first, Slimer debuted in a live-action movie, the Chipmunks were first heard in music, and Donald's nephews, the Smurfs, Garfield, and Michelangelo all first appeared in comics.
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