Maurice LaMarche Movies

Noble dog Balto returns in this direct-to-video sequel to the popular animated adventure that bears his name. Balto (voice of Maurice LaMarche) has retired from his chores as a sled dog, and his son Kodi (voice of Sean Astin) has taken his place. But Kodi's livelihood may be in danger when mail airplanes come to the frozen North, which threaten to make the post office's dog teams obsolete. In order to determine who can deliver the mail faster, the pilot of the carrier plane challenges the leaders of the dog teams to a race; however, when the mail plane is involved in a serious accident, Balto and Kodi must put aside the rivalry to help save injured pilot Duke (voice of Keith Carradine). Balto III: Winds of Change also features the voice talents of Jean Smart, David Paymer and Kathy Najimy. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This episode was originally part of a "special edition" of ABC's "T.G.I.F." lineup, in which all of the network's Friday-night sitcoms were linked by events occurring on Sabrina the Teenage Witch. After Sabrina's talking cat Salem swallows a "time-ball", Cory (Ben Savage) and his friends are transported back to the 1940s. While Cory is in Europe fighting the war, his pal Shawn (Rider Strong) and his gal Topanga (Danielle Fishel) remain in America. When word comes that Cory is missing in action, Shawn grimly prepares to carry out his promise to marry Topanga in the event of his friend's demise--while Cory, suffering from amnesia, dallies with a delectable mademoiselle named Versailles (Yvonne Scio). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Four years after Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Ralph Bakshi tapped into the live action mixed with cell animated world in this adult-themed production telling the story of an edgy comic book artist who crosses the line into his own cartoon universe. The story begins with a prologue in postwar Las Vegas, where Vegas cop Frank Harris (Brad Pitt) is catapulted into the cartoon Cool World after crashing his motorcycle. The Cool World is a jive-animated parallel dimension created by animator Jack Deebs (Gabriel Byrne). Among Jack's many creations is the knock-out broad Holli Would (Kim Basinger). Holli wants to become human -- or a "noid" in Cool World parlance. So, she compels Jack to fall into his own cartoon void where her attempts to seduce him could have grave consequences for both the animated and the "real" world. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Faces of Earth offers four different programs that each deal with different aspects of how and why the planet looks as it does. The films touch on a variety of topics including volcanoes, earthquakes, land masses, and natural resources. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

The story that began in Bender's Big Score concludes as a massive rift in space and time unleashes a cosmic terror of epic proportions and the citizens of planet Earth discover a strange new religion. A revolting, planet-sized alien has taken control of Fry, transforming our time-sleeping hero into the Pope of a new religion that encourages mankind to abandon planet Earth. With no more humans to get in the way, robots the robots will finally be free to take over. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Everyone's favorite football-headed city kid graduates from television to the big screen in this animated comedy-adventure based on the Nickelodeon TV series. Arnold (voice of Spencer Klein) and his good friend, Gerald (voice of Jamil Walker Smith), live in a tight-knit neighborhood in the middle of a big city. Like most of their neighbors, Arnold and Gerald love their community, and when they learn that Scheck (voice of Paul Sorvino), a wealthy and powerful developer, plans to buy up their neighborhood, tear down the buildings, and put up a massive shopping mall in its place, they decide something has to be done. While the adults come up with a dodgy scheme to blow up the streets in their neighborhood, Arnold and Gerald hatch a more practical scheme, with the help of Helga (voice of Francesca Marie Smith), who can't decide if she likes Arnold or hates his guts. Arnold and Gerald learn that their neighborhood was designated a historical landmark years ago, but can they prove it before Scheck moves in with his bulldozers? Hey Arnold! The Movie also features the voice talents of Jennifer Jason Leigh, Christopher Lloyd, and Dan Castellaneta. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Created by Tim Cahill and Julie McNally Cahill, the half-hour cartoon series My Gym Partner's a Monkey managed to wrap up its title and its premise in a single package. Thanks to a bureaucratic snafu, 12-year-old human youngster Adam Lyon was transferred to Charles Darwin Middle School, where the teachers and students were all anthropomorphic animals. Regarded as "slow" because he lacked jungle smarts, Adam quickly gained acceptance by virtue of his "book smarts," which were far above those of his fellow students. Adam's best friend and gym partner was class clown Jake Spidermonkey; his classmates included underachiever Slips Python, the shy and gangly Ingrid Giraffe, and school bully Virgil "Bull" Sharkowski, who spoke in an incongruously high-pitched and squeaky voice. Among the adult authority figures were Principal Pixiefrog, gym teacher Coach Gillis (who conducted classes while swimming in a fish bowl), and drama instructor Miss Chameleon. Previewed by Cartoon Network on December 26, 2005, My Gym Partner's a Monkey was slated to join the cable service's weekly lineup on February 24, 2006. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Season one of the animated gagfest Pinky and the Brain offers 19 half-hour episodes, beginning with Das Mouse, in which the Brain, a genetically engineered lab mouse who fancied himself a criminal genius, conspires with his goofy fellow mouse Pinky to hypnotize the world into submission -- a job that requires a considerable amount of special white crab meat that can only be found in the wreckage of the Titanic. Subsequent schemes by Pinky and the Brain to take over the world (if only they can get out of their cages) are equally as logical and sensible. In later episodes, Brain creates a voice mail system that he hopes will screw up telephone lines throughout the world; Pinky poses as fable Tokyo-smashing behemoth Gollyzilla, as none of the characters' voices match their lip movements; the boys attempt to infiltrate a moon landing in order to advertise their own brilliance on the lunar surface; and a plan to immobilize mankind necessitates the purchase of a multi-billion-dollar clothes dryer. Also: Brain cooks up some exploding crêpe suzettes with which he hopes to conquer France (and, surprise, the country doesn't immediately surrender). A takeoff of Around the World in 80 Days finds our heroes vying with the Pompous Explorers Club to beat Jules Verne's record. And to persuade the world that Abraham Lincoln has returned to life to help him become an all-powerful ruler, Brain takes a crash course in ventriloquism. Then there's the episode "Mouse of La Mancha" the story of Don Cerebro, who dreams the Impossible Dream of World Domination...not to mention the all-stops-out Graham Greene spoof "The Third Mouse." (Gee, doesn't Brain sound just like Harry Lime when you close your eyes?) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

With Pinky and the Brain occupying two timeslots per week in its third season, it's no wonder that we're honored with a stunning 51 episodes this year, with those slightly cracked genetically-engineered lab mice Pinky and The Brain still trying and trying and failing and failing to take over the world. In the season opener "Leave It to Beaver", Brain relies on outside help in his effort to change the course of mighty rivers. Later on, Pinky and the Brain finally gain the recognition they don't deserve by making comedy films; to fund another world-domination scheme, Brain claims that he and Pinky are members of a new endangered species, the Mousealopes; A.A. Milne will never be the same after 'Brainy the Poo" tries to steal valuable hunny from a beehive (he's a little pink, rain cloud, all right). And in episode acknowledging the fact that they're just cartoon characters, the boys decide to quit the series after several egregious examples of network interference. In the course of their many forays into time travel, our heroes journey to 1946 and land smack-dab in a black and white film noir; stopping over in the 1960s, Pinkie becomes a guru for a familiar-looking group of moptops; Brain does a good job breaking up the happy Elsinore household of Hamlet and his family in the episode "Melancholy Brain"; our heroes' attempt to make a slave of Emperor Franz Josef is foiled by Sigmund Freud in (get a good grip on yourself!) "Leggo My Ego"; and back in the present, Brain resorts to boring Mankind into submission by serving up a retrospective of past episodes in "Schpiel-Borg 2000." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide