Oh Yeah! Cartoons: #14: Mina and The count

Nickelodeon 

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#14 Mina and the Count 

                                           What a Cartoon!   Season 2 episodes 4c, 5c, 7c, 9c, and 13c

        This  is going to sound weird, (what ever that means for this blog)  but our journey takes us away from Nickelodeon and "Oh Yeah! Cartoon" for a moment.  That's because this one has a longer story than some of our others

        Mina and the Count was created by Rob Renzetti , and it started as  a student film and eventually made a premiere on Cartoon Network's  "What A Catoon! Show" that's right it first aired on Ted Turner's cartoon station. 

   So here's how this post is going work, we are going to look at the five "Oh Yeah! Cartoon" shorts,but we are going to start with the "What a Cartoon!" short just to have some fun continuity. 

What a Cartoon! Mina and the Count; Interlude with a Vampire 

              Vlad the Count is doing what he does best going out and looking for fresh blood, for vampire reasons. We first meet Mina, our main character, and then our vampire guy wakes up because it's nighttime and that's when they wake up.  He shows up in Mina's room and uses his vampire hypnotism powers and realizes he made a mistake he was supposed to get her older sister who's 17 and not Mina who's 7.  (Ooops)  He accidently gets her out of the trance and she's attached to him and won't let go. ( a normal reaction to a creature of the night)  

       He tries to do anything to have her let go,  and ends up having to play with her.  Most of the cartoon has Vlad running off and being found  and having bad luck along the way. Her father hears the noise and sees Mina's room is a mess and her out of bed, the vampire hides as a doll (that works) and flees before dawn. Later he beats up Igor for screwing up.

 

  Mina and The Count: My Best Friend

     Oh Yeah Cartoons! Season 2 episode 9c

                 

        We now make our journey back to "Oh Yeah Cartoons!"  There are some changes not just to the animation, but the voice actress for Mina changed from Ashley Johnson to Tara Strong. The interesting thing about the switch over is that there is no re do of the pilot. It's just throwing you into maybe knowing already. 

       Mina is in school  and does a report about her best friend, talking about the vampire. (She  put in  the work though)  anyway a  boy makes fun of her because the whole vampires aren't real. The  boy's name is Nick so, hmmm wait.  

        Vlad seems to accept that he's Mina's friend, interesting, anyway he shows up and she tells him what happened.  He decides to teach her how to uh fright. It's kind of sweet to see him try to show her how  to scare to stop the bully.  Next day, she dresses like a vampire and tries to  make Nick not make fun of her, this doesn't work. 

 

       The next next day, Nick tries to stalk Nina but instead gets a note and gets to meet Vlad. The twist is kind of fun and you should watch it for that, but I'll say the resolution is good for Mina, at least. 

More after the jump 

FrankenFrog

Season 2, Episode 13c 

             Vlad is doing surgery on something, and that something is a doll,he fixed Mina's doll. Igor didn't die after all so that's something. Back to school, it's frog dissection day (which is  like Christmas but weirder)   Mina gets an idea after seeing the dismembered frog , recounting her doll, and starts doing surgery and brings the doll back to life. 

         This scares everyone, even though it seems to just be a normal frog. Burning the school seems a bit much. Calling the swat team is also a bit much.  Vlad finds a way to get to the school (the whole day time thing)  He gets stuck in a suitcase though.  Mina finds him and can't get him and the frog might actually be evil as it takes Mina.

            Frankenstein's monster shows up,  has a connection with with the frog and that seems to stop the problem. The ending remembers the doll.  

The Ghoul's Tribunal 

Season 2, Episode 4c

    This one feels like it would be a direct continuation of the first one. Igor is bothered that Mina show up. Anyway, it's card night for the count.  Now he has to hide Mina which is going to be harder than he thinks because she really thinks he playing.  

            We have some other monsters including Frankenstein's monster and his wife. This cartoon isn't hide Mina the whole time, because she's found pretty easily. Mina tells the monsters that she and the Count have fun and the Mummy says he's going to take Vlad to the tribunal.

      Igor feels bad because it's kind of his fault, so he comes in as a lawyer and brings Mina in, I'm not sure what this trial is going to happen. He has Mina disguised as a wolf girl to convince the tribunal ,this works.   That's pretty cool. 

   The mummy gets in trouble with Frank for hitting on his wife..the end. 

    The Vampire who Came to Dinner

                  Season 2, Episode 5c 

          Vlad is coming over Mina's house for dinner. We get to see Mina's older sister,  the one who was supposed to be bitten in the first one,  we also have the Dad again.  The cover story is that he's her violin teacher.  Also so I mentioned the sister, apparently something was retconned as Vlad says he thought she didn't have an older sister, unless  I missed something. 

            The older sister seems to have ended up with a crush on ole Vlad. (Which  is odd)  Also Vlad is hungry and Igor didn't make him a meal to cover him.  He hides his food because he doesn't want to vampire die.  Interesting to  note that the father is single.   

           The vampire can over hear the sisters fighting over him.  Also , Mina doesn't remember the whole garlic and vampires thing. He eats it just because he cares about Mina.  But he does go away ina hurry before he can have the sister's garlic themed stew. 

     

Playing  a Hunch

Season 2, episode 7c

               Scratch what I said, this one feels more like a continuation of the first one.   The Count is trying to get Igor to go away, because he doesn't want him to know he's still playing with Mina. Igor shows up again,  and  Vlad has to hide Mina.  Most of this cartoon is the Count trying  to hide Mina from Igor. 

            This is not the best plan.  Mina gets stuck in a spider web and Vald has to save her.  Mina is mostly unaware of what's going on as she thinks Vlad's story about it being a surprise party is true. Eventually, Igor sees Mina.  Vlad explains why he likes being friends with  Mina.  

        Igor tells  Mina she has to leave and ties up the count  

 

           Anyway,  that's Mina and the Count. I find it fun to watch, contrasting personalities are a classic dynamic  and there is some fun to be had here watching.  The animation is pretty nice, it uses simple backgrounds and our main characters have focus colors a warmer red for Mina and cooler blue for Vlad, using color as a contrast of personality.  There are some fun stories presented. So, I notice this has a lot of shorts, almost Fairly Odd Parents and Chalk Zone amounts,so why didn't it become a series?  

   Renzetti has explained why using Twitter.  (I'll contextualize as a long quote ,good for those without Twitter or if the tweets go away or Twitter dies or something, edits have been made in brackets to remove twitter's hashtags and usernames ) 

 

  How a Vampire Gave Birth to a Robot- A Thread! Like Dexter’s Lab and[Powerpuff Girls] , Mina and the Count started out as a student film

    And like the others, it became a What A Cartoon short at Hanna-Barbera. UNlike Dexter and Powerpuff, it did not become a series on  [Cartoon Network]

     There was a point where it was pitched as a middle cartoon for Dexter. Didn’t happen. After that, there was interest from ABC for their Saturday Morning lineup.Then Disney bought ABC.

The roller coaster ride of heartbreak continued at [Nickelodeon].
[Fred Seibert]  wanted to make Mina into a series and gave me six more shorts to convince Nick. They were so UNconvinced that they cancelled the last short.

[Nickelodeon] was always a little squeamish about a little girl and a vampire hanging out together. Although the relationship was completely innocent, it still gave them the heebee jeebees. My roller coaster ride of heartbreak ended with a crash. Mina and the Count were done.

I assumed
[Fred Seibert]  was going to give my last unfilled slot to Larry Huber (Chalkzone) or to
[Butch Hartman]  (FOP). Instead, Fred asked me to come up with another idea.

One of the ideas I pitched to him was about an angsty teenage girl who had an emotionless robot for a boyfriend. In her head, their relationship was very tempestuous. In reality, the robot didn’t feel anything for her.

Fred gently suggested that, considering how Nick had reacted to Mina, another story about a girl who has an unusual relationship with a non-human life form was not the best way to go. I had to admit he was right. I asked for a few days to think things over.

On my way to the grocery store, the idea suddenly struck me – make the angsty teenage girl and the robot one character. The entire storyline of the Teenage Robot pilot came tumbling out of my head right then and there.

I had tried for so long to make Mina and the Count into a series. But it was only my failure to do so that allowed [My Life as a Teenage Robot ]  to come to life. That’s how a vampire gave birth to a robot.

   First off, Thanks a lot Disney.   Anyway, while I don't see it I can see why Nick was  worried, I can see that if that's something they thought off, someone else would think of as well and complain. (This is before Twitter ruining things too)  I guess any change ideas wouldn't have been acceptable , mabe have a young kid vampire or something. It's kind of disappointing this didn't end up being a thing. It was fun to see. 

    I kind of see a tamer Billy and Mandy concept here, the stories are fun , even if the some of the endings just kind of end...  do think they are a fun collection and I  recommend watching.  It is at least nice to have some information as to why something didn't become a series.  My Life a Teenage Robot is fun series too. Shows that sometimes plans change and flexibility  is valuable. 

       That's it for now , tune in next time when take our vampire to a skating rink... at 2 AM.