Simply Perfect

As Good As It Gets

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Roger Ramjet is an American 1965 animation series of short length episodes about a heroic man and his assistants known as the eagles (after, presumably, the American national emblem the bald eagle). The good people in the series are the Americans, who fight the bad villains such as the solenoid robots. The theme tune, with the notes of 'yankee doodle went to town', explains the simplistic manner in which Roger faces the enemy, his usage of 'proton pills', which give him superhuman strength a bit like the magic potion in asterix. The show is quite entertaining. It has a very American feel to it, but it is still quite amusing to watch.

I get the feeling that some people do not realize that this is a put on. It is a parody of a cartoon about a super hero. I mean, Roger is voiced by Gary Owens - the announcer from Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, for crying out loud! The theme song is hokey on purpose. Roger's jokes are groaners because he is a moron who stops criminals by sort of stumbling upon them, not through his great brilliance. His super powers came from a pill that gave him the strength of "twenty atom bombs for a period of twenty seconds"! Come on, that is obviously a joke! I don't remember Roger's name being misspelled on the screen as another reviewer suggests (maybe it was just a funny looking "g" that looked kind of like a "j"), but IF it was, it had to be part of the joke. Among Roger's enemies were the "solonoid robots" (spelling?) who said "mmm" between words. ("We-mmm-are-mmm-here-mmm-to...") They were certainly not to be taken seriously. If you are looking for a super hero cartoon, look elsewhere. If you are looking for campy fun, I think you may enjoy this. I know I do.

Roger Ramjet aired in 1965, and back then a lot of cartoons were said to have bad animation. (Of course, none of them compare to Japanimation.) Roger Ramjet actually had good animation, but the trouble was that the STYLE of the cartoon was bad. The beginning "credits" have a children's chorus singing a Roger salute to the tune of "Yankee Doodle", and a picture of Roger surrounded by a ring of stars. That part isn't so bad, but when the actual cartoon comes come, whenever the narrator says "Roger Ramjet" it shows a similar star-surrounded picture of Roger. If not that, Roger's name is displayed incorrectly in big letters on the screen (it says "Rojer Ramjet".) Also, for some reason when the narrator speaks (which is whenever the scene changes), the words he says come on the screen. In short, Roger Ramjet is the most generic cartoon I've ever seen.

I'd say that Roger Ramjet is one of the best "second degree" cartoons I've ever seen. The Cold War atmosphere, the tongue-in-cheek theme played on Yankee Doodle, etc.The closest modern cartoon would be the "Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot" series, made by Dark Horse.You know what I mean : shining teeth hero, stars-and-stripes in background, and (important) silly-joke-everyone-laughs at the end.