Superman on Television

Krypto The Superdog: Episode Reviews

Season 1 - Episode 11: Dogbot to the Rescue/Bad Bailey

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

Dogbot to the Rescue

Written by: Michael Maler
Directed by: Scott Jeralds

As school closes out, Kevin stays behind to wait for Krypto to come and pick him up., But Krypto is first held up rescuing a mother bird and her babies, then as Krypto rushes to pick Kevin up he is distracted by a large fire downtown. He decides to go to help put out the fire. Disappointed at not being able to pick Kevin up in time, Krypto looms in his ship saddened, as Streaky begs they go out and have fun, but Krypto tries to figure out how to do different things at once. Streaky has the idea of painting Dogbot as Krypto, and programming him, under his command, to play with him, giving Krypto more time to do his own things. Things go awfully awry when Dogbot gets confused and begins playing superhero, ruining things more as he starts attacking good people and helping bad people and destroying things which it thinks need repairing which makes for some of the funniest gags on this episode. Especially when he tries to fix a draw bridge on the highway, and goes to put out a barbecue fire by brushing a mountain of dirt on the owner of the barbecue. The cartoon manages to add a little more depth to the character of Krypto as he scatters back and forth between duties and spending time with his friend Kevin. This cartoon holds up pretty well as it shows the sheer dysfunction behind the properties of Dogbot as a constant, unintentional villain in the series.

Bad Bailey

Written by: Wendell Morris
Directed by: Scott Jeralds

This episode is a little more layered with story and character this time around as we get to witness a non-alien/megalomaniacal antagonist for both Krypto and Kevin. Krypto wants to play, but Kevin is disappointed as his evil cousin Bailey is coming over. It's pretty clear Bailey is a bad seed picking on Kevin right away and dropping his prize trophy his mom gave to him and setting him up to take the fall. Things go from bad to worse as Bailey begins riding Krypto against his will, wrangling him despite Kevin's protests. Suddenly Krypto gets an SOS as a car is about to crash, stopping but accidentally knocking a puppy into a sewer where it will drown. Krypto immediately throws Bailey off him, knocking him into the sand as he takes off to help, but things actually manage to get a lot worse, when Krypto comes back and Bailey captures Krypto's secret identity and promises to snitch on him.

Kevin pleads for him not to, but Bailey makes him his slave instead, making all sorts of outlandish demands from Krypto like a space helmet, museum mummies, and a real live shark. Director Jeralds, being a former director of previous "Scooby Doo" cartoons, also directed the "Superman" animated pilot "Last Son of Krypton", and, my favorite cartoon of all time "Freakazoid", manages to capture a lot of the excitement in this episode. I really like the animation as it is pretty funny, especially the ending; as Bailey keeps making demands, Kevin vows Krypto won't follow his orders anymore, and Bailey goes to snitch. Kevin and Krypto get even in the end, setting Bailey up in a hilarious way. Bailey vows to uncover Krypto's identity, which will surely make for another good villain for this series.



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