A Young Taz's Fancy - Dark Toons 

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What I liked most about Tazmania was how it gave Taz a background; it's something that kinda stuck with me even when watching the classic toons.

I love the way one of your cats literally sits behind you on the chair, it's adorable!

The gag about the yellow background has an actually pretty interesting backstory. Apparently Jim Cummings only did his Taz lines while having to go to the bathroom because he felt it really gave him a sense of urgency and so they wrote it in that he could only see yellow which later changed to just a permanent yellow sky... Is what I'd say if any of that was true.

Tazmania was an underrated series that I really enjoyed. A dark toon you might consider is the Casper cartoon "There's Good Boos To Night" (1948) where Casper befriends a fox he calls "Ferdie", and Ferdie is killed by hunters, but comes back as a ghost fox.

I’ve always remembered and loved the two part episode of this show called Here Kitty, Kitty. Just to summarize what happens Taz’s sister Molly adopts a cute little blue kitten who is seemingly innocent when he’s around more than one character, but when it’s just Taz the kitten demonstrates a far more menacing personality. And for Taz, it causes a not only causes a whole lot of trouble, but it also puts a strain on his relationship with Molly while also humorously terrifying him.

Glad Tazmania is getting some love. My favorite show of the Tiny Toons universe

I remember watching this cartoon as a kid. Underrated indeed.

I wasn't expecting this. I'd love to watch Taz-mania. Also happy birthday Doug.

This came out of nowhere. Hope you do the Tex Avery short, "Who Killed Who". The title card literally has a gun. Happy Birthday, Doug.

What I remember best about TAZ-MANIA was that Taz's father sounded like Bing Crosby and there was an episode where his brother, Taz's uncle, visited and he sounded like Bob Hope!

Poor Taz, the way he loses his love is so dark. I've watched this cartoon, but only a very few episodes, and one of my favorites, and a possible future Dark Toons episode, is the 2-part "Here Kitty Kitty Kitty", where Taz's sister finds a stray cat who looks cute to everyone, but when it's around only Taz it becomes a wild and dangerous beast, resulting in two amazing climaxes.

I've never felt tougher after watching creepy cartoons 😎

I'm still mind blown by how much of my childhood Rob Paulsen was in. Hell, I didn't know he voiced 3 characters in Taz-Mania: Francis X Bushlad, Axl Gator, and Timothy Platypus. As for Taz-Mania, I remember watching it, but I couldn't tell you anything about it, aside from the intro, and that it aired on Fox Kids.

Happy birthday, Doug! I absoloutely loved Taz-Mania as a kid!

I never watched this show since I was a baby at the time of its reruns, but from what I've seen and read about it, I like how even though Taz is a teenager in this, he doesn’t dress, look nor act like a stereotypical ‘90’s teenager. It’s a small thing but it makes him and his plights more accessible and relatable to almost any age like SpongeBob.

I absolutely adore Taz’s high pitched screech! 🤣🤣🤣

I didn’t watch a lot of cartoons like Looney Toons and cartoons like that but I remember this people talking about this one. I also remember watching this one and it’s actually pretty amazing.

I loved this show as a kid, it is indeed very underrated compared to other 90s WB cartoons. Even Freakazoid has a huge cult fanbase now, yet nobody talks about Taz. Tasmania deserves more love. And yeah, the fact Taz thinks his girlfriend died and never really finds out she wasn't real is kinda dark for this show.

All you had to do was show me the thumbnail and already I'm belting out, "Come to Taz-mania, come to Taz-mania"

That feed the kitty cartoon kind of sounds similar to that scene in Monsters Inc when Sulley thinks Boo being crushed in that machine. Wonder if Pixar was inspired by that?

Such an underrated gem of a cartoon, yes I am that one guy who can sing the entire theme song verbatim

Man, this just unlocked sooo many deeply buried memories! I used to watch this show after school, almost as much as the aforementioned Tiny Toons and Animaniacs, but for some reason I'd all but forgotten about it. I still remember a surprising amount, though, like most of the characters and the theme song... actually, come to think of it, the theme song is probably *why* I remember most of the characters. Doug's right in that this show, unlike the other after-school WB cartoons, is rarely talked about, even though everyone I knew in my school was crazy for Taz. Like you tell me to picture 90's fashion, my mind immediately goes to those button-up jerseys with pictures of Taz in baggy jeans and a backwards cap on them. But yeah, considering all the fly-over-kid's-heads dirty jokes the writers of these 90's WB shows were famous for sneaking in, this is really a series I gotta revisit sometime.

Talking about how as a kid watching a character to react to something horrible happen to their loved one (even though it’s not really happening to their loved one), reminded me of that scene in Monsters Inc. when Sully thinks Boo is going through the trash compactor and his reactions are played up for laughs. That scene KILLED my siblings and I as kids. We were dying with laughter at his reactions, they were very well animated. I see now that it was likely inspired by those past cartoons, which is cool to learn!

3:03 Rob Paulson did voice Dog in this. That makes three turtles he's played at various times: Raphael, Dog and Donatello.

I remember watching Taz Mania back in 2019 when VRV still had Boomerang on their platform. I haven’t finished the entire series but I did enjoy its concept and humor

I remember Taz's dad talked like Bing Crosby, and when giving his fatherly advice would always devolve into just literally saying the words "blah blah blah, yakkety smackety"

Man, the modern and consistent misunderstanding of the Pepe Le Pew gag as him being rapey baffles the hell out of me. Penelope Pussycat isn't running from him because of his unwanted advances. If anything, she's usually confused about his advances until she smells him and then runs to get away from the horrifying stink. There is at least one, maybe more, episode where he gets dunked in perfume and then SHE chased HIM! And he runs away! He's terrified of her sudden lust!

I didn't watch much Tazmania as a kid, but the small bits that I've seen were oddly dark and unsettling to me. There's an episode called "Bewitched Bob" where a bunch of witches show up at the hotel Taz works at and need him as an ingredient for their spell, which seems to involve some sort of eldritch monster. There's also the episode where Taz keeps getting mauled by his sister's cat. I think there's a sequel to this one too.

I have to admit, _Feed the Kitty_ legitimately traumatized me as a child. Even now, I can't watch it without tearing up. As far as I'm concerned, it's the darkest toon ever. I hate it so much. It's seeing someone witnessing their beloved pet and best friend being murdered, and having no means to save them. Not funny at all, just terribly upsetting. All that aside, I loved Taz-Mania as a kid. One of those less popular shows that no one really remembers. I even have the SEGA Genesis games.

Oh my god taz-maina you are right it IS underrated. I mean it’s no Tiny Toons or Animaniacs but it still good. I think the moment I remember the most is theres there one scene (I think) where Taz was going after this little baby animals and near the end the baby ask his mom something like “hey mom what would you do if someone tried to eat me “and the mom just goes “I throw him to the alligators” (not sure if that was it but I know it was some big animal of some kind). The theme song was also pretty good

I loved it as a kid, Taz was my 2nd favourite Looney Tunes character behind Daffy. It was and wasn't dark. To everyone else it wasn't dark because we all knew it was just a costume, but to Taz it was really dark as to him it was a real girl.

I wouldn't be surprised if Doug loved two sentence horror stories

Yeah, I used to watch it on Fox Kids and Cartoon Network. It's also the main inspiration for the Crash Bandicoot games.

Happy Birthday Doug my boy! 🎂 Also today is Danny DeVito Birthday as well too. So happy birthday to two of my favorite people.

I remember this show a lot as a kid and really loved it. I think this was made to make up for the fact that Taz was the least used character in Looney Tunes history. Thoughout the franchises original run from 1930-1969, Taz appeared in only 5 shorts. Reason being was that Edward Selzer (who was the head of Warner Bros. animation at the time) thought the character was too violent for kids and thus demanded Taz be not shown again until Jack L Warner ordered him to bring the character back after receiving TONS of letters from people who were fans of Taz and wanted to see more of him... It's crazy that someone so popular was used less in the original run. Also, The sky being yellow in Tasmania IS a thing, however it only turns yellow when there's a nasty storm coming so I guess in this cartoon...they have a lot of storms XD

I'd like to recommend The Halloween Tree. It's enjoyable, has heart and is basically 4 kids being taught lessons about Halloween by literal death while they try to recover their dying friend's soul

What for you bury me in the cold, cold ground?

When I was a kid in the UK, we didn't get any of the Warner Brothers cartoons on the mainstream channels, the exception was Taz of Tazmania, and I loved it as a kid. I don't think I ever saw this episode though.

I remember this series! The episodes that come to mind are... I think Taz hunting the kiwi with the boar/pig guy? Another episode about the rats and a pool, and a final one about Taz, his little brother, the gators, and a hand puppet? -Rub

I do remember watching this show when it was on and remember liking it. I should go back and rewatch.

I saw a few episodes when it was airing, but I don't think I saw this one. The one I remember most is when Taz's sister knits a blanket and a kitten that his family adopts shreds it. Then Taz re-knit the blanket, and only got caught because he missed a stitch. Have you considered doing any of the "My Life As a Teenage Robot" episodes? I don't know where it fits on that "made for kids" meter, but the episode "Return of the Raggedy Android" was very creepy.

Oh man, I think I remember this show! I vaguely remember the characters and even this episode! That moment when the human whacks the costume with that stick. Oh my gosh, that sound effect! And Taz's reaction! Hilarious.

I hadn't thought about Tazmania in years. I remember this from when i was a kid and honestly I had almost forgotten about it. Really glad you covered the show and brought some light to an admittedly really underrated cartoon that just got overshadowed by the competition.

I remember watching this episode before Batman TAS and in that same episode was Clayface falling off a cliff. I thought to myself " What's with loveones flying off cliffs?!"

I loved TazMania when I was a kid! I don't remember this episode, but the show in general was a lot of fun!

Oh dang. I thought I had extricated this moment and this cartoon from my memory forever but you made it come flooding back. 😳

Wow, I had totally forgotten about this cartoon, but I remember watching it all the time as a kid now that you've brought it up! Specifically, I remember the opening theme song the most.

I had almost assumed that Taz-Mania was a show that was lost to time. The show is a lot deeper and funnier than has any right to be. Taz's dad in particular is a hilarious parody of stereotypical father types from 50s sitcoms. His "backstory" is basically a Casablanca parody.

8:02 I don't know what's funnier, the name "Wang Film" or the blurb calling Doug "Dumbass", or the use of the old Windows "Ta-Da!" tune! WOW, I forgot a lot from this show! Like how verbose most of the dialogue was. What a twisted set up. Also, Happy birthday, Doug!

This was one of my favourite Saturday morning cartoons here in the UK! Taz and Captain Caveman were my favourites

I will say, the same Looney Toons show that made Lola hilarious also did Pepe le Pew pretty well, basically making him a ladies man with several ex-wives.

I'm so glad you brought this up, I had completely forgotten about Taz-mania, but I loved it in the day. Apparently I don't find the color yellow as off putting. In the flood of distant memories washing over my amygdala, I remember not fully understanding Taz's dad (Hugh, IIRC). I got that he was supposed to be vocally modeled after Bing Crosby, but he had this fascination with orange juice that was lost on me. Well at the time my mom was watching the show with me and after one of Hugh's many suggestions that everyone sit down and enjoy a cool, refreshing, delicious glass of OJ, she noted my look of confusion and informed me that long ago Bing Crosby had appeared in several Minute Maid commercials. Not as random as I had assumed.

I forgot how funny this show was. It's amazing how much funnier some of these are as an adult

I remember seeing some of the old Felix the Cat cartoons when I was 6 or 7 years old that creeped me out. The one that stood out is called Bold King Cole (1936). I watched it again recently and I think it's worthy of a Dark Toons episode. There are probably darker episodes of Felix the Cat from the 1930s but I only saw a few episodes on an old VHS tape back in the day. Animation from the 1930s always seemed a lot darker to me. Something in the style of those early cartoons just feels eerie and menacing.

I used to watch taz-mania with my brother when we were little, and we loved it

If you do another one of these, might I suggest the out of season "Donald's Halloween Scare?" Basically, the plot summary is "Donald Duck becomes Jason Vorheese". It makes more sense watching it.

I would definitely recommend looking at some of Hey Arnold’s dark episodes, like when he tries to help a kid get over an addiction to chocolate.

I fucking love Tazmania!!! As a kid I had a tape with the episode where he played basketball with his shadow, watched all the time

Oh yeah... I remember this show, and that episode. To be honest, that costume was very lifelike for Bushlad to have in that situation.

Happy birthday Doug!!!🎉🎉🎉

🎶Down in Taz-Mania, Down in Taz-Mania!🎶 🎷🎷🎺🎺🪗🎸🎹🎻🎻🪕🥁

i totally forgot about this show but i definitely watched it on the regular

I liked this show as a kid and i remember two particular episodes that were pretty scary for me "Here Kitty, Kitty, Kitty" Part 1 and 2, mainly because of the cat. The second part was even made to look like a slasher movie. If you are interested in checking out more of this show, i'd love for you to cover those two episodes!

I wish there was a Tazmania Complete Series DVD Set I would have love to revisit this Cartoon

I nominate The Case of the Stuttering Pig for the next Dark Toon, one of the few Looney Tunes that legit scared me as a kid.

From someone who actually lives in the place the show is referencing it's pretty bloody accurate

Taz-Mania was one of my favorite cartoons growing up. Hardly anyone remembers it so I'm glad it's seeing some love here.

I've commented this on some of your other dark toons episodes (which I love by the way) but you should totally review The Sandman by Paul Berry (1991). It may not be meant for kids but it is certainly a dark toon. You'll love it.

Taz-mania was possibly my first exposure to Taz's cartoons

Taz should have twigged when she didn't respond to the rock God persona. Hilariously awesome

I totally watch it as a kid. Taz is a classic after all. It's a shame that kids don't know about it in these day an age 😕

"I believe I have the brutes attention." I did not expect to laugh as hard as I did

yup remember watching this cartoon and I vividly remember seeing this episode as a kid. Made me think for a bit but great stuff.

Always love those reviews of Nostalgia Critic : D

Ooo! New dark toons! It’s the girl with the fraggle rock shirt! Hopefully one day you’ll do the SpongeBob episode I recommended! Great episode Doug! Great seeing you guys at GR Con.

Yeah I remember this cartoon! I kinda remember this episode. Now that I've watched this again with you as an adult, I remember how funny and sad this episode was. I was wondering if you'd look at the episode of Tiny toons where there's an escaped convict that looks like the younger version of Porky Pig and everyone confuses those two.

I loved this show as a kid! I only remember seeing this episode once, but having been a small child, I don't think I understood all the humor and all I really remembered was the costume falling until now

Speaking of dark toons. I remember this one episode of Adventure Time with the Princess Monster that creeped me out. It's straight up body horror, borderline non-g rated body horror.

I loved this show! I have it on DVD now! I forgot about this episode though.

Happy Dark Toons Day everybody! I didn't have time to watch this when it came out, so I'm watching it now.

Italian here. They used yo broadcast Tazmania in italy. I loved it!

Oh Tazmania, used to watch it as a kid. I should get a hold of the episodes for the sake of preserving it.

I don't know why, but this episode came to mind. It was a Back at the Barnyard episode called Hypno-A-Go-Go. Why I reccomend it is cause the main character is accidentally hypnotized to "Destroy Farmer" and there are a lot of close calls as well as funny moments from the series alone. I know there might be more from this series, and I highly reccomend watching it just to have a good time.

I remember seeing the Taz show as a kid Taz was my favorite I don’t remember lot from the show. Please view the Recess episode “Terrifying Tales of Recess (TV Episode 2001)”. That episode gave me nightmares as a kid.

I seen Taz-Mania ever since I was a little kid. It was that show it made Taz become my one of my favorite characters in The Looney Tunes.

You really gotta watch the Rugrats episode Angelica's Worst Nightmare

Might I suggest “The Last Laugh” or “Ghostfreaked out” from the Original Ben10

You should look at the Taz-Mania episodes Here Kitty, Kitty, Kitty and it's sequel.

Thank you for giving love to Taz-Mania! This was one of my favorite cartoons as a kid, and it just seems like people completely forgot it existed. I’ve been meaning to get it all on DVD, but haven’t yet. Say… have you considered reviewing Taz-Mania as a whole? I’d like to see you react to The Sandman, a stop-motion short from ‘91. I vaguely recall hearing something about it from when I was little, but I first watched the entire thing as a college freshmeat. Even then, as a nearly-adult fan of horror and dark stuff, it creeped me completely out! Another one to consider would be “Space Madness”, a short from Ren & Stimpy. The R&S Commander Hoak episodes were pretty dark in general, but this one gets pretty crazy, even moreso than the “Marooned” short.

I should have known this was made by the same people who made Tiny Toons and Animaniacs. It carries on the tradition of speedrunning through the character introductions in the second verse of the theme song.

That kid looks like an older version of the Easter Egg kid.

I remember watching this series back in the day...my favorite episode was the one where he sent in for a submarine. Taz had these epic daydream fantasies about his submarine and the adventure he'd go on...only to get a teeny-tiny little thing that fit in a glass...to his credit he plops it in and salutes the camera as it sinks in the water of the glass.

I remember watching some of Taz-Mania when it first aired when I was a kid, but it's like all of it got overwritten by other, more formative stuff down the line. To paraphrase Plucky Duck: memories go down the hooooooole.

I had VHS tapes of this show as a kid and watched then a lot. Sadly they accidentally got sold in a yard sale so I don't have then any more. When I found out I even tried to buy them back but the person who bought them refused and I never found another copy. Maybe now as an adult I can find a copy but I'm not going to hold my breath.

10:25 Hey at least bugs hooked him up later/earlier (made earlier but he's older, I guess, in it since this is "teenage" taz.) Great reminder of a show I forgot about

Maybe my favorite YT series of em all. Thank Doug!

Maybe another possible dark toon would be the episode from Taz-Mania might be Here Kitty, Kitty, Kitty parts one and two. I actually felt worried for Taz with how intelligent and psychotic the cat was. Also, Happy Birthday Doug.

“Pigeon Man” was a great episode of Hey Arnold with kinda dark themes.

For a dark episode, there's that episode of Tiny Toon Adventures where a circus abducts folks from Wackyland and holds them in cages as sideshow attractions. There are a lot crimes and cruelty on display in this episode. I was scared and sad to see my favorite character suffering.