Superman on Television
Krypto The Superdog: Episode Reviews
Season 1 - Episode 7: Bat Hound for a Day/Dogbot
Reviewed by: Felix Vasquez
Actors & Roles this episode:
Samuel Vincent - Krypto
Alberto Ghisi - Kevin
Nicole Oliver - Kevin's Mom
Brian Drummond - Streaky the Cat
Tabitha St. Germain - Andrea/Melanie
Bat Hound for a Day
Written by: Len UhleyDirected by: Scott Jeralds
In Metropolis, police coming back from a robbery in a jewelry store are dumbfounded to discover they can't figure out how the robber entered the store to steal the jewelry inside. Krypto watches from above wondering who could have done it, and meets with Bat Hound who explains that none other than Batman villain, The Penguin, had his birds break in to the store. Meanwhile on the other side of town, the birds commit another robbery, and Bat Hound and Krypto take off to catch them in the act. The Penguin's pet birds, two penguins, and a funny surfer dude vulture clean out a stash in a safe and raid the Natural History Museum in Metropolis grabbing gems by the bag full. A battle begins as Bat Hound and Krypto begin fighting the birds and, Krypto chases the vulture through the museum, while Bat Hound fights the leader and is put out of commission, Krypto is taken down by red kryptonite which happens to unfortunately be in one of the bags. Krypto now loses his powers and Bat Hound comes to the rescue re-training him to learn his methods for crime-fighting which include a montage of funny scenes as he trains and at one point walks up the side of a wall. I like Bat Hound because he has humor in taking himself too seriously; I love the gag in which he never likes to be referred to as Batman's pet, only his partner, and his gadgets which come out of his collar are pretty nice. It's bad enough Krypto is having a hard time getting used to being powerless, now the Penguin's birds break into a rich woman's mansion stealing more jewels and now it's up to Krypto and Bat Hound to go after them, and things take a turn for the worse when Krypto, who doesn't have a real handle on his gizmos, accidentally gets Bat Hound caught and now he has to save him. Krypto inevitably improvises with what he has and defeats the birds and gets his powers back in the end, and Krypto learns what Bat Hound does day in and day out.
Dogbot
Written by: Len UhleyDirected by: Scott Jeralds
At Kevin's house, Krypto is sulking because Kevin is going away to camp with his family, and when he's about to leave, goes to Krypto's ship to get a toy he was missing, accidentally revealing yet another surprise in the ship releasing a small robot dog. The robot dog which was a playmate for Krypto when he was a puppy, emerges and is triggered to play with Krypto. The problem is Krypto can't get him off his back as the robot dog follows him around everywhere. Frustrated, Krypto tries to explain that Kevin is his new playmate now, which automatically triggers something in the dogbot and it gets angry, seeing Kevin as a rival. Krypto suddenly hears from a distance a truck swerving on the highway and goes to the rescue leaving Kevin behind with the dogbot. As the truck is about to crash, Krypto comes to the rescue, and dogbot follows insisting that they play and drops the truck over the bridge as Krypto barely keeps it from crashing.
Krypto and Kevin seek a way to get rid of dogbot and pretend to play hide and seek but when they leave dogbot behind, he follows them and ends up kidnapping Kevin. Surprised, Krypto searches for Kevin as he gets trapped in a cave as it begins to collapse, Krypto scrambles to get to him, trying to find his way around dogbot's programming. The episode manages to further examine how mal-adjusted Kryptonian machines and life forms are to Earth and we see so with dogbot who was a pretty good enemy considering it stuck to its programming only, yet was so menacing. The series though, despite being entertaining has a problem with continuity. What I don't understand is, it's claimed in the pilot that Kevin needs a special ear device to hear Krypto talk in English, but he can still hear him without it on. But that's basically a minor little nitpick considering the show has managed to entertain decently.
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