Customer Reviews

Click and Clack's As the Wrench Turns

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I love NPR Radio's Car Talk with the Tappet Brothers . Now saying that, I say this cartoon is nothing like the Car Talk show..so those looking for the car talk humor that you hear on NPR, IT aint here!

I saw all these cartoons on my local PBS station. The same stuff as you will get on this 2 disk DVD package

First the bad news...Tom and Ray Magliozzi seem to dumb down their radio personas and tried to milk their Click and Clack characters in this cartoon. The pilots are paper thin. The animation is drawn so badly, you wonder if the animators drew their characters out of the line purposely.

Now the good news...It is cute cartoon for kids. To have good family entertain is a rare thing and should be patted on the head. It has a sugar sweetness that adults can enjoy with the kids. Some of the lines are pure groiner for adults but kids will laugh at the Tappets wholeheartedly.

Will Tom and Ray be the next cartoon superstars? I truly doubt it. But they can try! I will still listen to both of you on Car Talk for my laughs!

it is great to get for family viewing..so buy it for the kids and watch it with them!

Bennet Pomerantz AUDIOWORLD

I am probably the only person in the United States that found this DVD hilarious. Unfortunately, my girlfriend and three cats didn't last the first disc.

For the Nay-sayers:
1. This is a cartoon. It is meant to be goofy and not taken seriously.
2. When was the last time you turned to PBS to watch cartoons and comedy? British humor (oxymoron) doesn't count.
3. One can compare the artwork of this DVD to "The Lion King: The Musical". As one reviewer wrote about the musical, the story and music are great once you get past the costumes.
4. Get real expectations. When listening to "CarTalk", the fun is trying to guess the caller's auto/relationship problem. The humor is secondary. With cartoons, the intellectually part of your brain is not required. How much intelligence is needed to watch "The Flintstones", "The Little Mermaid", or "The Simpsons"?
5. Story lines are simple. Doh! Cartoons are designed to numb the brain from reality of life.

For others looking for positives:
1. You have to WATCH each episode. There is background humor that takes place in the artwork. For example: one of the books is titled: "Fundraising: From B.C. to Barack". Some of the humor follows the approach used in "Police Squad in Color". Too many people use television as background noise as opposed to actual entertainment.
2. If you love the wise-cracks from "CarTalk", you will love each episode. The humor is steadily paced. These guys grew up in the era of Abbott and Costello. The humor of this time period took a little time to set-up and is not rapid fire. Current humor is designed for the ADHD viewer: How many jokes can one insert into a sentence. Sit back, take your Ritalin or Focusyn tablet, and enjoy the show. If you want rapid-fire comedy, see CarrotTop.
3. I bought a used copy. One cannot say anything negative when paying $1.74 + shipping.

I like the show and am anxiously awaiting the debut of Season Two. It might be a long wait. I will be patient. : )

People who complain that television networks aren't about taking risks need to see this show. It doesn't pander nor sugar coat complex adult political themes and never stoops to the level of mere entertainment. It's as close to video meditation as animation has ever come and for that alone, it deserves everyone's time. Do not confuse this with the Car Talk radio show. This is an entirely different animal. If you go in expecting some version of "Family Guy" you'll not be happy. Approach it with an open mind, however, and you will be rewarded with unrelenting bliss.

I got this from my public library because I'd never heard of it (well, I know the radio show, but I'm not a regular listener.)

I watched the first disc (5 episodes so far) and I'm going to give it 4 stars. It's actually pretty good, there is a lot of subtle (and not so subtle) political and other adult humor. As one reviewer mentioned, there are lots of little references to products and people; it's quite entertaining if you catch these.

OK, I'll admit the writing is weak in some cases, some sections are pretty dull or degrade to "potty humor." As for the criticism of animation, I didn't see that. I thought the animation was fine. After all, a show like South Park got it's fame from what looked like simple amateur animation.

As for the content, this show is more like South Park than the Simpsons or other prime-time animation. The successful prime-time shows have a balance of jokes and images which try to aim for both children and adults. Actually, I think children would find this show mostly boring. I don't think there's anything wrong with kids watching it, I just don't think they'd get the concepts (political fundraising corruption, outsourcing, etc.) And unlike the Simpsons, there's not a family of little kids or pets to give them something to find entertaining. And there are great adult references like a mention of a bottle of Lagavulin 1928 they found in the city politician's campaign-funded limo. If you know single-malt, you gotta like that reference.

So I'm really glad I watched this. I've actually ordered the set from an Amazon Marketplace seller, because I think I'll enjoy it again and also share it with my brother-in-law who works on cars, listens to click and clack, and I know he'll enjoy the humor.

Finally, please note that some of the reviewers gave this show bad reviews after watching one or two episodes, and this really isn't valid. It's like giving an album a bad review after listening to the first song, or leaving a restaurant because you didn't like the appetizer. If you get to the 5th show, about "Gigantic Motors," I thought it was great to tackle this topic -- The big motor company with the big rich and foolish executives continuing to make bad decisions and force their mega-vehicles ("The Compensator," -- I love it) onto a public that didn't want or need them. ("This year's model gets 50% better mileage than the last one. .. which got 1 mile-per-gallon. This one gets 1.5, that's a 50% improvement!) This is particularly funny (well, actually, not) because of all the billions of taxpayer money we've since been forced to spend to fund these guys, which, by the way, still flew to Washington DC in their own corporate jets as there were going to ask for bailout money. Another one on outsourcing was particularly good, too ("Welcome to India, may I take your jobs? heh heh just a joke")
OK, so one reason people might not find this show that funny is that it tackles subjects that are very real, current, and need to be dealt with, and maybe this show is one way to make us realize that!

This is the most ill-conceived garbage every conceived by PBS - they must've been desperate, and after the show was canceled I hope they fired the goobs responsible.

My wife and I watched the first two "As the Wrench Turns" shows on PBS. After the first one, I was so disappointed that I was ready to give up on it. My wife thought we should give it another try. We convinced ourselves that later episodes might be better. So we watched the second one. After that, neither of us cared if we ever saw another one.

The plots were boring; the humor was flat; the characters were annoying; and the animation was amateurish. It appeared that each show might be trying to convey a message, but they were never able to clearly state their point.

A previous reviewer talked about the shows' "complex adult political themes". I sit here with my mouth agape wondering what show he was watching. I guess those themes were sort of there (that "message" I mentioned earlier), but the shows did little to advance those themes. All they really did was tap dance around them. Maybe that's why they're called the Tappet brothers.

The only parts of the experience that I enjoyed were the short one-minute segments with Tom and Ray themselves talking about the hazards of driving while talking on the phone or while eating. There may have been more of these bits on subsequent weeks. I don't know; like I said, I quit watching. And I don't know if these segments are on the DVD.

If you are like me and watch a large variety of funny or entertaining or enlightening shows, "As the Wrench Turns" will seem stale and bland by comparison to just about anything. There are so many better shows available. Why bother with this?

Oh, but don't give up on their radio show; that's still very entertaining!