HI there. I love and collect classic animation. Somehow, in my entire lifetime, Crusader Rabbit eluded me. I discovered it only a day ago, when Richard mentioned the series on Leave It To Beaver (season 5 episode "Beaver's Jacket"). This review is mainly about a few reviewers earlier in this review timeline, complaining about voice actresses portraying male characters.
This has nothing to do with gender confusion. It's not uncommon for females to voice male characters in a cartoon. Bart Simpson is voiced by a woman. Bobby Hill is voiced by a woman. Lots of classic animal cartoon characters have a woman's talent behind them. This kind of casting decision is not a political or social statement. Females have a particular voice quality that often makes them best to portray a young boy or an animal. The lovely June Foray was perfect as Rocket J. Squirrel in "The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle". To dismiss a series because a girl voices a guy is folly. It's also upsetting to see someone use the name, "Bimbo" substituted in every instance for "female". TV is not real life. Escape the real world and enjoy the show.
I managed to watch the first episode of Crusader Rabbit, "Crusader Rabbit vs Texas." It's filled with the fun, adult, irreverent humor via which I immediately identified it as a Jay Ward series. And, as such, the animation is cheerful, imaginative, and very static. TV animation, especially early animation, was on a budget and was very limited. Fortunately, the drawings are stylized and expressive and compensate for such limitations. Crusader Rabbit is whimsical for children, but written on an adult level, so the entire family can watch it and not get bored. It may seem dated to today's "sophisticated" audience, but Crusader Rabbit is a forgotten series that deserves more recognition for its significance in TV history.
This has nothing to do with gender confusion. It's not uncommon for females to voice male characters in a cartoon. Bart Simpson is voiced by a woman. Bobby Hill is voiced by a woman. Lots of classic animal cartoon characters have a woman's talent behind them. This kind of casting decision is not a political or social statement. Females have a particular voice quality that often makes them best to portray a young boy or an animal. The lovely June Foray was perfect as Rocket J. Squirrel in "The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle". To dismiss a series because a girl voices a guy is folly. It's also upsetting to see someone use the name, "Bimbo" substituted in every instance for "female". TV is not real life. Escape the real world and enjoy the show.
I managed to watch the first episode of Crusader Rabbit, "Crusader Rabbit vs Texas." It's filled with the fun, adult, irreverent humor via which I immediately identified it as a Jay Ward series. And, as such, the animation is cheerful, imaginative, and very static. TV animation, especially early animation, was on a budget and was very limited. Fortunately, the drawings are stylized and expressive and compensate for such limitations. Crusader Rabbit is whimsical for children, but written on an adult level, so the entire family can watch it and not get bored. It may seem dated to today's "sophisticated" audience, but Crusader Rabbit is a forgotten series that deserves more recognition for its significance in TV history.