TV REVIEWS : Cartoon Series Deliver New Twists

Although some of the biggest names in animation and family entertainment--Disney, Warner Bros., Hanna-Barbera, Fox and Steven Spielberg--are offering new syndicated cartoon programs, the results are decidedly mixed.

Hanna-Barbera’s live action/animation combination, “Wake, Rattle & Roll” (7:30 a.m., Channel 11) focuses on Sam (R. J. Williams), a rambunctious kid who lives in a wonderfully cluttered cellar. The antics of an agreeable cast that includes Sam’s friend K. C. (Bonnie Smith), his robot pal Decks (voice by Rob Paulsen) and his magician-grandfather (Avery Schreiber) bracket two new cartoon series:

The quirky designs of the characters in “Monster Tails” suggest the artists have been studying Gary Larson’s “Far Side” comic strips; “Fender Bender 500,” in which teams of old characters compete in auto races, is standard kidvid fare. “Wake, Rattle & Roll” ranks as the most appealing show from Hanna-Barbera since “The Smurfs.”

The artists on Fox’s “Peter Pan and the Pirates” (4:30 p.m., Channel 11) had the unenviable task of competing with the 1953 Disney film. They’ve come up with original designs for the familiar characters: Peter is appropriately cocky, but Captain Hook lacks the “air of a grand seigneur “ James Barrie described. The limited visuals weaken the premise of the series.

“The Disney Afternoon” is a two-hour package that includes “Duck Tales,” “Chip ‘n’ Dale’s Rescue Rangers,” “Gummi Bears” and the new “Tale Spin” (4:30 p.m., Channel 9), featuring characters from the studio’s “The Jungle Book” (1967).

Incongruously cast as a devil-may-care pilot, Baloo has been given a cute cub as a sidekick and a whiny female companion--like Indiana Jones in “Temple of Doom.” Bits stolen from live-action have been mixed with the formula adventures to spice things down: Disney’s TV cartoon division seems dedicated to replaying the stalest moments from the films of Spielberg and George Lucas in animation. Little survives of the happy-go-lucky Baloo from the film: His head looks misshapen, the animation is stiff, and Phil Harris has been replaced by Ed Gilbert as his voice.

Disney trashes its own work in “Tale Spin”; Spielberg and his crew do to the classic Warner Bros. cartoons approximately what Attila the Hun did to Rome in the much ballyhooed “Tiny Toon Adventures” (5 p.m., Channel 11). The Tiny Toons are sort of adolescent versions of the beloved Warners characters: Bucky Bunny is Bugs; Plucky Duck, Daffy; Hampton, Porky; and so on. All that’s missing is the originality, wit and imagination of their models. There are lots of Tex Avery-style visuals, but director Art Vitello’s timing is so stolid, the explosions and wild expressions seem as dull as a flat-liner’s EKG.