A review by Nalini Haynes
A long time ago in the time of the dinosaurs, Danger Mouse and Penfold (two actual albeit cartoon mice) saved the world time and again under the supervision of Colonel K, and often from the dastardly schemes of Baron Greenback. Recently I received a Danger Mouse DVD for review. To my delight, I discovered a new season of Danger Mouse updated for a new generation.
Each of the 16 episodes is about 11 minutes in length with a double-length pilot, targeting children but really engaging generations of fans. When I was a teenager, the whole family sat down to watch it together: mum, my primary-school-aged siblings and me.
Although Wade from twitter complained that the new series isn’t as madcap insane as the old series, I loved it for keeping stories to a single episode instead of spending a significant portion of each short episode recapping previous episodes and predicting the next episode.
I also loved the knowing winks to modern technology, like the sat-nav that took them the most dangerous route and various other spoofs.
After a day engaging with research methods and disability studies at university, I thoroughly enjoyed coming home (for those two days) and zoning out to the mindless fun that is Danger Mouse. The series only lasted me two days because I binge-watched it but, even then, I was restrained to make it last two afternoons. The trailer is below and over here.
According to IMDB there’s another season in 2016 (not received) and yet another in the works. And it’s being shown on BBC iPlay and Australia’s ABC. Keep it coming!
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Director: Robert Cullen
Stars: Alexander Armstrong, Kevin Eldon, Dave Lamb
