It’s finally happened. The time for Fortunate Fawn is here…
Is this anime REALLY worth $1 or even 33 cents? Tough call. Also this was once called The Yearling.
Fortunate Fawn
It’s finally happened. The time for Fortunate Fawn is here…
Is this anime REALLY worth $1 or even 33 cents? Tough call. Also this was once called The Yearling.
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That was consistently funny, which is especially surprising given the really weak source material. I laughed like a child when Flag picked up the rifle. Also huge props for the Chrono Trigger.
You are a talented mofo, Phelan.
Haha, thanks!
A nice review of what looks like a really bland, tedious anime, though considering the title I was expecting Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Fortunate Son” to show up at some point.
Y’know what? I genuinely am happy you did this review. I’ve been morbidly curious as to what the heck this was about (thought it was a movie but I guess not) since that Aladdin video five years ago. And think of it this way; you managed to take this crap, boring movie and make it funny and enjoyable. That’s no mean feat, man.
I look forward to that Heidi review in 2022.
Yes! There is a God! The first Phelous review I ever saw was his Aladdin, so this has been a long time coming for me! Phelous delivers the goods.
Why are there so many classics about a boy killing his animal companion?! What is the moral of these stories? “The author enjoys manipulating the reader’s emotions?” or “Fuck your dog, just shoot it.”
It’s meant to show that the boy is becoming a man by taking on adult responsibilities and making difficult decisions. In the case of Old Yeller, the dog had become rabid, requiring the boy to shoot it. In The Yearling, the deer is eating the corn the family needs to survive, and Jody’s father orders him to kill it, but he can’t do it, so his mother shoots the deer but only wounds it, requiring Jody to finish the job and put the deer out of its misery. The book also deals with Jody’s often difficult relationship with his parents, their hillbilly neighbors, the Forresters, who steal their hogs (Fodder-wing is a Forrester, but he and Jody become close friends despite their families being at odds), natural disasters, and the difficulties of surviving in the wilds of central Florida in the 1870s. It’s a coming-of-age story, but the anime seems to gloss over all the harsh realities of the novel and just focus on the stuff with the deer, which is only a portion of the book. Unfortunately, that makes for a rather dull story.
That actually sounds pretty interesting if only that part about shooting the deer wasn’t in it. After being blind-sided and devastated by Old Yeller as a kid, I’ve lumped all old movies involving a boy and his whatever in the same “something bad happens to the dogs” category whether it does or not. There was Where the Red Fern Grows, A Dog of Flanders, and Call of the Wild. I just don’t trust those movies.
These stories somehow still sound like better love stories than Twilight even though they are very cliched.
I would love to see a movie that parodies that trope. It would still be better than 99% of what Hollywood makes these days.
A Shaggy Dog *BLAM!* Story? 😛
Shoot your stupid mutt and get a cat. They are the master race.
I always expected the master race would be a lot less lazy and useless… unless it’s in a ‘pick up my shit, so I can pretend I’m in charge’ type of master.
Hey, they kill pests like rats don’t they?
The ones not scared of their own shadow, I suppose… of course, those furry little psychopaths then leave the corpse out as a ‘displease me and you’re next’ gesture.
I’m one of the unfortunate who saw this anime, I think around 1993, and if I remember correctly, that Fodderwing fella dies in the last episode. Don’t know if that happens in the book or the movies, I never read or saw anything else about Yearling, but I was quite into animes. I barely remember anything else about it, and from this review it’s easy to understand why.
Jeez, spoilers much?
Yeah, um…I can see why you never seriously planned to review this until now. You managed to make it funny as always, but pharmacists could bottle this cartoon and sell it as a cure for insomnia. If you don’t feel like going to sleep after watching this thing, you ain’t sleepin’!
Also, nice to see Andrew again. I hope this means he’ll start making videos again soon. I’d like to see more episodes of Animated Anarchy.
Boy, this cartoon is just so whimsical, I think I’m vomiting up sucrose and–is that corn? Oops!
Lol…Why bother getting the licence to the series if you’re only going to release two random episodes?
The Rita Repulsa says: “Magic fawn! Make my fortune grow!”
I want to say this is like a weird combination of Charlotte’s Web & Clutch Cargo, only without the singing or Syncro-Vox.
Maybe this anime was targeted at ldtimers with weak hearts in small rural towns with only 5 cable channels.
I can’t believe an animation studio spent money on more than 50 of these. Imagine the boredom of the animation team, spending 8 hours a day for years working on this.
Lol, poor Phelan….At least you got paid to review it. Huehuehue.
A sequin jacket? How do you wash it?
Speaking of procrastinating….Wasn’t Andrew supposed to review something back in the Channel Awesome days?
This anime’s target audience is probably the same target audience as Sazae-San (the most long-running animated show ever). I’ve never seen that show but I have heard of it. It is basically about normal life. It sounds very boring to me.
Oh gawd, I didn’t even realize it was “Slice of Life” anime. I can’t even sit through SoL comedies like Lucky*Star without getting bored.
I only know of 3 good slice-of-life shows: Arthur (the aardvark on PBS Kids), HeartCatch Precure (which is the best magical girl anime I’ve ever seen LFAMO 😀 It’s also where the character in my current avatar [Yuri Tsukage/Cure Moonlight] is from if you can’t tell), and Gundam Build Fighters/Gundam Build Fighters Try (I haven’t seen it yet but I’ve heard good things about).
Huh. For some reason I thought The Yearling was a John Steinbeck novel. I must have been thinking about something else. Either way, the animation on this is OK, but of course that can’t save it from being dull as dishwater.
To be fair, the John Steinbeck novels they forced me to read in highschool were probably about as boring as trying to marathon this anime series.
I had to read Shiloh (a book that has the same exact story but with a dog instead of a deer) in Elementary School so I feel your pain…….:(
I read a book that was similar to this but it had a dog instead of a deer. It was called Shiloh. It took place somewhere in my home state (Virginia) named Shiloh. I also watched the movie based on that book and I actually laughed through most of it (I just couldn’t help it). My teachers thought I was off task because I was laughing inappropriately. From what I remember of that book/movie was still better than this lame anime.
HOLY FLIPPIN’ CHRISPS! I’ve had a very vague memory for yeeeeeeaaaaaars of watching a cartoon as a small child, and all I could recall of it was a blond child and a deer watching a little waterwheel thing. I’ve searched for it many many many times, but of course could never find it. It’s this one! This is that elusive show that has been pushed down in the deepest darkest pit of my memory! I’ve been curious to find out what it was for so many years! And now…. what a disappointment XD
Ah, just found out it was on tv when I was 4 years old. I guess you have to be 4 y.o. to enjoy this boring cartoon
Phelous reviews “Fortunate Fawn”; could the Spoony review of “Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future” be next?
Probably not.
Spoony hasn’t reviewed movies in years. I guess the threat of having to review Rap Rat broke him. I watched 5 minutes of Rap Rat & I can see how spending hours or days making a video of that would fry anyone’s sanity.
Umm uhhh, ummm. Umm uhhh, umm … umm uhhh … ummm. Uhhh umm, uhh umm … um uhh! Umm, ummm uhhh, umm. Uh ummm, uhhh ummm …. uhh? Ummm …
Sounds like you’ve been playing too much Yooka-Laylee or Banjo Kazooie.
This reminds me of the some of the terrible cartoons they’d play on Nickelodeon’s Special Delivery in the 1980’s before that channel began making their own content. Usually the cartoons were based on fairy tales. I have feeling many of them were Korean anime. I’m too lazy to look it up. Anyone else old enough to remember that?
Were you thinking of the Hans Christian Anderson anime series? The Beauty & the Beast anime Phelous reviewed was from that series.
From what I could find, Special Delivery was literally whatever Nickelodeon could purchase and broadcast on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. The cartoons I’m thinking of are Grimm’s Fairy Tale Classics or Grimm Masterpiece Theater by Nippon Animation. What company made Fortunate Fawn? Nippon Animation also created Noozles which Neckelodeon broadcast in the late 80’s early 90’s called.
Going through the Nippon Animation filmography on wikipedia I found the company also made Anne’s Diary: The Story of Anne Frank. I’m would be to terrified to watch this.
Haven’t seen the Anne Frank one, but definitely grew up on the others. Always got Noozles & Little Koala mixed up.
An Anne Frank anime sounds worse than Cross Ange.
Hey! Danger Mouse and Inspector Gadget were awesome! D:
Ahh, it was everything I dreamed of and so much less. Loved the MST3K bit – timely!
It’s cool, I squeed over the tinyfox too. The armadillo curling into a ball was kinda cute too. xx
I now reeeeally want a QL reboot with Phelous and Al…lison.
This anime makes the second half of the final episode of Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans look like the HD Remaster of Gundam SEED!
To be fair, it is my favorite anime along with it’s sequel, SEED Destiny (HD Remaster); quite a unpopular opinion if you ask me.
The second sentence was meant to about Gundam SEED not this trainwreck.
*be
I like your skits Phelous. Even if they’re a bit long at times. D:
Has it really been 5 years since you last referenced this movie? Huh. I’ve forgotten how long I’ve been following your stuff. But, you know that age old rule. If you make a reference to something in your review, you’ll eventually have to review the thing you referenced. Still waiting on someone to do the Pumaman movie.
It seems strange that the company would only release two out of all the episodes, and not even the first ones. Maybe they could only get the rights to a couple. I remember Bennett the Sage mentioning that dub companies would have to pay for the rights to some less than stellar anime when they wanted to get the rights to dub some of the good stuff. Perhaps that’s how Fortunate Fawn, I mean the Yearling made its way over here. Though I’m not sure if EastWest has distributed any other anime.
Good luck for whenever you decide to delve into the insanity that is Video Brinquedo. It’s already sapped the souls of Film Brain and Mike Jeavons. It’s only a matter of time before they come for you.
They released a few more on other Volumes. I showed a couple other Vols in the video but it’s likely all haphazard with what episodes are on them.
Ah, right. I don’t know why I missed that. I guess it’s to make people have to buy multiple DVDs. Those cunning bastards.
It’s also been rough on Bobsheaux. Another guy I love that I would be thrilled if Phelous did a joint collab with someday.
Wow, pretty good MST3K AND Quantum Leap references in one episode!
If thought this was bad, then watch Cross Ange: Rondo of Angel and Dragon. I just watched the first 3 episodes of that piece of garbage and already I think it’s the worst anime I’ve ever seen. Imagine what if Gundam SEED/SEED Destiny, Valvrave the Liberator, Bubblegum Crisis, and Touhou were put into a blender located in some semi-medieval European place and all of the good things about them sucked right out of them, this would be the result. The worst part about it is that Mitsuo Fukada, the same man who directed Gundam SEED and SEED Destiny (my 2 most favorite anime series of all time) directed that abomination. >:( >:( >:( You have to watch the series for yourself to truly witness how incompetent it is!
What? I love that show! It’s absolutely brilliant in being exactly what it sets out to be, which is a fun scifi ride that doesn’t take itself too seriously but isn’t too goofy either. I’ve seen it like three times, and now I feel like watching it again!
Now, I know I’m not the only one in the comments section who has seen that anime.
I can understand that you might have dropped it that early as it doesn’t really do the 1-80 until the very next episode, and yeah, it’s not for everyone either (the humour is crass, but I find it endearing), but I like it so much i actually got the soundtrack (which is good, I might add).
My opinion on Gundam SEED Destiny is sort of the opposite to you, so I suppose we just got opposite taste.
But incompetence? You want to know what I then find incompetent? Beet the Vandel Buster. There you got a show so bad that nobody would butt into a conversation to defend it without being a troll. To get a grip of how bad it is, I even watched the whole thing, and I am not an internet reviewer, I got nothing out of it but a feeling of despair. I got a guy to watch the first episode as a joke and he feared recommendations from me for ten years. Do you know for how long that show ran, and I had to watch the whole thing out of compulsion? I have stared into the abyss, my friend. And indeed, it stared back.
Seriously, I do not recommend you watch Beet even out of morbid curiousity. It’s sort of like Lovecraftian horrors in that regard. And people say Sword Art Online is the worst. Bah!
I might despise Cross Ange but I still respect your opinion.
2 more terrible anime (at least in my opinion because I know people like these two series) I’ve watched are Attack on Titan (I dropped it right after the 1st episode because it was too bloody and gory for my tastes) and Sword Art Online (I dropped it after 2 episodes or so because it felt boring)
Also, actually I’ve seen the 4th and 5th episodes (I think) of Cross Ange and I still think it’s the worst anime I’ve ever seen.
…I love SAO. My favorite at the moment.
I really have some pretty weird opinions when it comes to anime.
Yet another bad anime I’ve seen is Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid. As someone who loves the Lyrical Nanoha franchise (especially the first 3 seasons), I found it to be “Mighty No. 9” levels of disappointing (even though it had some good moments here and there)…….which reminds me, I have to start watching the spin-off/sequel/whatever ViVid Strike tomorrow!
Farm folks are dumb, to keep a deer like Flag
Because it eats up all their food
Irritating kid has to get his gun
And put that deer down for good
It’s not for me, it’s not for me
I’d change the channel if it’s on
It’s not for me, no, not for me
Ain’t watching Fortunate Fawn
The cure to Fortunate Fawn is eating some Gundam SEED. See what I did there? XD
the cover was misleading; I thought it was gonna be some chicken scratch animation. But this is more of a low-grade made anime. The character design isn’t TERRIBLE.