If you’re from outside of Canada, you’ve likely never heard of The Raccoons, although it did air in the US on the Disney Channel, I think? It was a cartoon created originally as a Christmas special titled The Christmas Raccoons for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in 1980 by showrunner Kevin Gillis, who produced this show and more recently Atomic Betty.
After a series of TV specials, like The Raccoons on Ice and The Raccoons and the Lost Star, The Raccoons finally started airing as a regular television series in 1985 and ran until 1991.
It’s hard to describe exactly how beloved The Raccoons is up here in Canada, but I think you can liken it to something like The Smurfs. It was a wholesome, fun cartoon that anyone could enjoy. Oh, and they played hockey!
So, why am I bringing this show up now? It’s Halloween, for crying out loud!
Well, I always remembered watching an episode of The Raccoons that I thought was their Halloween special. I distinctly remembered watching TV one day and seeing a commercial that a monster episode was going to air around Halloween and that I was stoked! Well, I recently stumbled upon that promo – big thanks to the Betamax King on YouTube!
I saw this video a while ago, so I decided to add this episode of The Raccoons to my Halloween watch-list, which I curate during the off-months in preparation for September and October – yes, I’m a geek. It was just last week when I finally got to sit down to it!
And… this is most definitely not a Halloween special. Don’t get me wrong, it was fun and it definitely (kinda) had a monster in it, but it was apparent fairly quickly that this was simply aired around Halloween, but was not produced with that intent.
The Raccoons features anthropomorphic woodland animals that live in Evergreen Forest. It’s focused on three raccoons: married couple Ralph and Melissa and their live-in friend, Bert? Kind of a weird relationship there. They’re usually up against Cyril Sneer, a wealthy industrialist who is always trying to make a buck. His son Cedric is a friend to the eponymous Raccoons. It turns out the Sneers are aardvarks? I’ll be honest, when I was a kid I thought it was weird that they were the only two “monster” characters in the show, because I could never place what animal they were supposed to be. You live and you learn!
“Monster Mania!” is set during the summer. One day Bert and Melissa are hanging out by the lake (better watch out, Ralph!) and they see a fire-breathing monster emerge from the lake! Melissa grabs her trusty camera and manages to snap a blurry picture of the creature.
Ralph runs the local newspaper, The Evergreen Standard, so Melissa publishes her picture and the news story, which picks up national attention, bringing lots of news crews and monster hunters to the Evergreen Forest. This all plays perfectly into Cyril Sneers pockets as he benefits on the extra publicity.
The episode is an obvious nod to “real-life” stories about the Loch Ness monster or Ogobogo in Lake Okanagan, British Columbia. It even receives the moniker “Evie”, much like “Nessie” or “Oggy”. If you’re a regular reader, you know how much I love old paranormal TV shows, especially around Halloween, and they often prominently featured these stories, so I appreciate this premise for their “Halloween” episode.
As usual with the show, it features environmentalist motifs. Cyril Sneer wants to mow down the lake to make an amusement park to benefit from the monster’s exposure and all the news crews and thrill seekers visiting the lake are trashing the surrounding area. Guess who wins in the end? The environment!
When writing about The Raccoons you just can’t leave out the amazing music produced by Lisa Lougheed. For this particular episode, the producers featured a song called “Growin’ Up”, which plays in a hilarious scene while some of Sneer’s cronies – who were totally oblivious pigs – are trying to do a water-skiing demo. This is just one of the great songs Lougheed performed and produced for the series over the years, but the most notable song she did was without a doubt “Run With Us”, which was the outro music to every episode. Walk up to just about any Canadian in their 30s and 40s and ask them to sing “Run With Us”. I promise, you won’t be disappointed.
Anyway, spoiler alert – Cyril Sneer built the monster as a hoax to drum up business and, of course, The Raccoons foil his plans once again. Ralph – who was jealous at Melissa’s success the whole episode – gets to eat a little crow, too. Happy ending!
You know what’s really cool? It looks like Kevin Gillis is trying to reboot the series! I’ve seen some concept art for The Raccoons: The New Adventures, and it looks really great and pays homage to the old show quite nicely. I’m really looking forward to it! What’s also awesome is that it looks like all of the old episodes of The Raccoons have been legitimately posted to YouTube by the production company Run With Us Productions, so you can actually kick back and watch “Monster Mania!” for yourself!
It’s admittedly not a Halloween episode – in fact, another episode that aired years later titled “The Phantom of Sneer Mansion” would be a better fit – but it did play a part in my Halloween in 1988 and it was a great trip down memory lane revisiting The Raccoons!
Happy Halloween!
R