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| The Main Cast: Jughead, Betty, Archie, Veronica, Reggie, Dilton and Hot Dog |
Hiya Toonsters!
Halloween is just around the corner, and it is time for another review before All Hallow's Eve. Last time around, it was about Mummies Alive!. But now, we have gone from mummies to mysteries, WEIRD mysteries, that is, which is the subject of this review. Before that, let give a little backstory to the very cartoon and the characters that I will be talking about.
It is no secret that I am big fan of comics. Even though I am a big fan of comic superheroes, there is one comic series that I also like, and those are from the universe of Archie. Created in 1939 by John L. Goldwater and Bob Montana, the Archie comics revolves around teenage high school student, Archie Andrews, who has adventures (and sometimes misadventures) with his dear friends, including Jughead Jones, his best friend since their childhood, Betty Cooper, the girl next door, Veronica Lodge, the rich socialite, and Reggie Mantle, sometimes his friend, sometimes his rival. They have their fun and adventures in their hometown of Riverdale. Sometimes for a crazy adventure, or teaching Reggie a lesson after all the pranks he pulled or get together for a band, simply named The Archies. Even though I don't have a big comic book collection, let alone those from Archie Comics, I was introduced to Archie, by means of television. My first introduction to Archie was in the late 80s with The New Archies, where Archie and his friends were 10-year-old kids, compared to the teens that we normally see. That's right, Archie had his share of animated adventures since 1968, with the Filmation Archie cartoons which included Dallas McKennon, best known for voice the iconic clay figure Gumby, as the voice of Archie and John Erwin, who later became the voice of the most powerful man in the universe, He-Man, as Reggie. It is because of The Archies that Sugar, Sugar became one of the most popular songs in the late 60s, especially being an Archie fan. Anyway, I am getting ahead of myself. My review is that of another Archie cartoon, but an Archie cartoon of a different sort. Unlike the other Archie cartoons, this one was leaning towards something out of Scooby-Doo, but without revealing the criminal behind the mask. This one is a little darker than all the previous cartoons combined, but not as dark as Riverdale a few decades later. Before the aforementioned Riverdale, this show was the precursor of things to come. So don in your trusty beanie and start typing on your laptop for the weirdness that is going to happen, and I mean, "Weird". This is Archie's Weird Mysteries.
Archie's Weird Mysteries is a 40-episode animated series, produced by Les Studios Tex and DIC Entertainment, released on October 2nd, 1999 (Why 40 episodes instead of either 13 or 65 episodes, I'll never know). This was DIC's first Archie cartoon since The New Archies back in 1987. Unlike the previous Archie cartoons, such as the Filmation cartoons and the aforementioned New Archies, Archie's Weird Mysteries takes it to a different direction, for this show borrowed elements from Scooby-Doo (minus the unmasking), The X-Files and everything B-Movie related, including movies such as Attack of the 50-ft Woman and Invasion of the Body Snatchers, among others. It could be science-fiction, it could be horror, it could be a mystery to solve. Either way, in a small town like Riverdale, things are about to get weird, in more ways than one.
Story: I know there isn't much in story, since the show is 40 episodes long, but according to some of DIC's promotional commercials, the only logical explanation is this. After a botched experiment at the Physics Lab in Riverdale High, strange, or more accurately, weird stuff is starting to pop all over the town. Riverdale itself is being overrun by ghosts, vampires, werewolves, aliens, sea monsters and everything in between. And it is up to Archie and his friends to overcome all the insanity around the town (as long as he has an article to finish for the Riverdale High News).
Premise: Since this show only lasted 40 episodes, the format goes as follows. We get a sneak peek of the episode in question, almost in the style of a "B" Movie. After the title intro, the usual weird mystery of the day begins, Archie and his friends try to solve (and sometimes done in multi part episodes) and it all ends with Archie writing the weird mystery article for the Riverdale High News, lather, rinse, repeat. Not much to say here, too. So, let's move on to the characters.
Characters: I know we got a whole lot of characters in Archie Universe, especially side characters like Mr. Weatherbee, Mrs. Grundy, Big Moose, Big Ethel, Pop Tate, and Hot Dog. The only characters I will focus on are the main characters themselves, starting with...
Archibald "Archie" Andrews: The main character of the Archie universe himself. The red-headed, freckle-faced teen of Riverdale High. For the majority of his life, Archie is a bright high school student who always get into crazy adventures. One minute he's trying to balance out between his studies and trying to go on a date with Betty or Veronica and the next minute, trying to teach Reggie Mantle a lesson after being pranked on, typical teen stuff. Not to mention, he is also the lead singer of the Archies. Not in this cartoon (to the best of my knowledge). Archie serves as the eyes and ears to every mystery that is popping up all over Riverdale. Archie does his Weird Mysteries column for the school paper at Riverdale High. With the exception of one episode, Archie's main outfit is a black t-shirt, blue denim jeans and a brown bomber jacket. Archie was voiced by voice actor and stage performer Andrew Rannells, who was best known for doing voice overs on the 4Kids anime dubs, including Yu-Gi-Oh, as the voice of Mako Tsunami aka Ryouta Kajiki aka "That Freaky Fish Guy!"
Forsythe Pendleton "Jughead" Jones III: Forsythe Pendleton Jones III, but his friends call him Jughead, has been Archie's best friend since their childhood. Sometimes cynical but mostly laidback and smart, Jughead always helps out Archie when Arch has a problem he couldn't handle himself. Even though he is not a hopeless romantic like Archie, it didn't stop him from being friends with some, especially Betty and Veronica. He is sometimes accompanied by his sheepdog, Hot Dog. One of Jughead's favor things is eating some hamburgers, which he usually eats that Pop Tate's Malt Shop. In the comic, we usually see him with a squinty face. But in this show, his eyes are wide open. And he wouldn't be Jughead without his favorite beany crown on his head. His best moments in the show were not only overcoming the ghost of a deceased librarian in the episode, "The Haunting of Riverdale", but also resisting the temptations of that evil megamall to save his friends in the episode "Mega-Mall of Horrors". Jughead was voiced by Chris Lundquist.
Elizabeth "Betty" Cooper: The girl next door and another close friend of Archie since childhood. Bright, smart, caring and head of the cheerleading squad at Riverdale High, Betty was the ideal All-American girl. She is both best friends with Veronica Lodge, and she is also one of two possible love interest to Archie, the other being the aforementioned Veronica. Her appearance is that of a white blouse, red dress jacket, red miniskirt to contrast Veronica's blue dress and of course, her blond ponytail. Her moments in the show were befriending a cute alien, which turned out to be an intergalactic criminal in the episode, "Extra-Terror-estrial", learning from her mistakes due to her lack of judgment when doing good deeds in the episode. "Misfortune Hunters", and along with Veronica, saving Archie from the humanoid sea monster Dorsa Finn in the episode, "Green-Eyed Monster". Betty was voiced by actress, producer, director, writer and stunt performer America Young, who is best known being the second voice of Barbie, second only to Jodi Benson herself.
Veronica Cecilia Lodge: The rich socialite daughter of billionaire Hiram Lodge, Veronica (or Ronnie as she is called sometimes) can be a bit spoiled and self-centered sometimes. Despite her status as a spoiled, rich girl, Ronnie prefers to hang out with her otherwise normal, sometimes middle-class friends, including Archie, who she affectionally calls him "Archiekins." She is also a possible love interest to Archie himself, the other being her best friend/love rival, Betty Cooper. Where Betty is a blonde, Ronnie is a raven-haired brunette, and her blue dress is the contrast to Betty's red jacket/skirt combo. In the original Filmation cartoons, she spoke with a southern accent and in The New Archies, she sounded like a valley girl. But in this show, she speaks like the starlets of the Golden Age of Hollywood, including Lauren Bacall (Jessica Rabbit much?). Her spotlight moments on show were dealing with multiple versions of herself in the episode, "Me! Me! Me!", turning into an evenly spoiled giantess in the episode, "Attack of the 50-Foot Veronica", and trying to deal with love-struck zombies in the episode, "Zombies of Love", among other things. Veronica was voiced by Camille Schmidt.
Reginald "Reggie" Mantle: Sometimes his friend, sometimes his rival, Reggie Mantle is the Joker to Archie's Batman, but in a kid-friendly kind of way. He is sarcastic, mean-spirited sometimes, known to make practical jokes and when it comes to sports, especially at Riverdale High, Reggie is far better athlete than Archie. But his arrogance and his pranking often backfire drastically, whether it is from Archie playing back at him or by his own doing. Cases in point, being possessed by a cursed medallion and being obsessive over treasure in the episode, "Ship of Ghouls", being replaced by aliens with a duplicate of himself in the episode, "Reggie or Not", having his own Weird Mystery stories becoming real in the episode, "Compu-Terror" and being wrapped up in the situation involving a werewolf in the episode, "Fleas Release Me", among other things. In short, despite his inferiority complex and his narcissism, Reggie is just an innocent bystander/unwilling victim who always shows up at the wrong place, at the wrong time, especially being involved in some of all the weirdness in Riverdale. Reggie was voiced by Paul Sosso.
Dilton Donald Doiley: The smartest kid in Riverdale High, Dilton has an I.Q. of 198. Spending most of his in the science lab in Riverdale High instead of his garage, he sometimes helps Archie and his through a problem that is not normal for an ordinary human being, from trying to bring Veronica back to normal size to fixing problems from his experiments gone wrong. His catchphrase is "I'll be super-amalgamated!" Dilton was voiced by Ben Beck.
Animation and Music: Since being a DIC production and co-produced by Les Studios Tex, the animation is a mixed bag, some of it colorful (mostly in the daytime) and some of it dark, but the character designs stay true to how they looked in the comics and in the previous Archie cartoons. As for the music, mostly plays a spooky vibe to it, but nothing memorable, so we will leave it at that.
Differences with Riverdale
As we all know, Archie's Weird Mysteries pre-dates Riverdale 18 years. But the only difference between the two is while Weird Mysteries is a bit dark, but a bit kid-friendly, being animated and followed the guidelines of the E/I quota, Riverdale, as a whole, is much darker. While no one got hurt in Weird Mysteries, Riverdale, on the other hand, you get hurt, very badly or even worse. Dark cults, mass-murderers, alternate realities, this what separates this Archie show from the previous. Not to mention adding more characters that were never in the previous one, including Cheryl Blossom, who is in the comics (just to add tension in Archie's relationship issues), but never in any other Archie media until Riverdale. Cheryl Blossom became a show regular, mostly involved in many of Archie's escapades against all dark forces that threatened Riverdale, including the first season, which involved the murder of her twin brother, Jason Blossom. Unlike her comic counterpart, Cheryl isn't pining for Archie's affection like Betty and Veronica does. She is quite an enigma. One minute, she acts like a spoiled brat with an inflated Valley Girl-like ego, and the next minute, she becomes a pyrokinetic superheroine fighting evil. That girl is something else. Another difference is Veronica's father, Hiram Lodge. In most Archie media, he is just another rich socialite. But on Riverdale, he is rich, but he is mostly portrayed as a crime boss and archenemy to Archie, which cause some tension within the relationship with Veronica. Did I forget to mention that Ronnie and her family were reimagined as Latino, especially being played by Camilla Mendes and Mark Consuelos respectively? And one more example is Sabrina the Teenage Witch herself. Even though Sabrina Spellman had her own show and multiple cartoons, with the exception of the Filmation cartoons, she never joined up with Archie and his friends until appearing in the Riverdale universe, whether it's in her own spinoff, Chiling Adventures of Sabrina or appearing the in main show itself, especially when things go bump in the night and trying to help Archie stop a powerful mage from destroying Riverdale itself. Bottom Line, Riverdale's dark atmosphere makes Archie's Weird Mysteries look like another Scooby-Doo mystery. Very dark, indeed.
Overall, Archie's Weird Mysteries may have been different from the previous Archie cartoons but with a dark, 'B' Movie twist (and not so violent and gory), but if it wasn't for this, there wouldn't be no Riverdale. Indeed, that show was a sign of things to come. If you are a fan of Archie, or into anything related sci-fi, horror, mysteries and anything in between, this show is for you. Usually, I end my blogs simple and straight forward. But in this one, I will end it in a way that ends every episode of Archie's Weird Mysteries. Happy Halloween, Toonsters!
Archie: "Talk about a long, dark journey. In my quest for knowledge and recreation, I have stumble across many worlds as I go. Just like in the comics, my world has multiple realities that differ from one another. Whether it's in a happy reality where Sugar, Sugar was thing, a world where we are pre-teens, or in a dark, twisted reality, almost straight from a Nancy Drew story. Either way, no matter what reality we live in, one thing is for sure, strange things happen here...In a little town called Riverdale".
