Bonkers

Premise

Bonkers D. Bobcat, a formerly popular cartoon star, had washed out of show business and became a cop. He was made the junior partner of Detective Lucky Piquel in the Los Angeles Police Department, a grim and ill-tempered human who hates toons. Throughout the series, the pair work together to solve crimes in the Hollywood, Los Angeles, California region. Bonkers repeatedly tried to win Piquel's praise, but usually just ended up ruining missions with his goofy antics, which would often prove to save the day.

After working with Bonkers for several episodes, Piquel was given an FBI job in Washington, D.C. by "New Partners on the Block" and was initially happy at finally being able to leave Bonkers, but finally realized that after all the time spent hating working with Bonkers he had grown to love him. He took along the police radio, the light, Toots and Fall-Apart Rabbit. At the end of the first "Lucky" episodes, Bonkers was given a second partner, the attractive cool-headed Officer Miranda Wright. Although also human, she was far more patient and tolerant of his antics than was Piquel. With Miranda, Bonkers was more the brunt of the slapstick.

Characters

Bonkers D. Bobcat

Bonkers D. Bobcat (voiced by Jim Cummings) is an overly energetic and hyperactive cartoon anthropomorphic bobcat who works in the Toon Division of the Hollywood PD and was once a big name cartoon star from the He’s Bonkers shorts (Raw Toonage) for Wackytoons Studios. He was fired due to his show being bumped out of first place in the ratings. He was introduced to law enforcement when he unknowingly saved cartoon celebrity Donald Duck from a park mugger (mostly due to the help of officer Lucky Piquel) and was given full credit for the mugger's capture. Police Chief Leonard Kanifky mistakes Bonkers' fictional escapades for real police work and asks him to work for the Hollywood PD, which he accepts due to being unemployed. Although Bonkers means well, he usually messes up cases for his fellow officers due to his lack of experience.

Supporting characters

Fall Apart Rabbit (voiced by Frank Welker) is Bonkers' clumsy best friend and stunt-double back during Bonkers' Hollywood days. He literally falls apart at the drop of a hat and must wear bandages over various body parts to keep himself from dismantling. By the episode "New Partners on the Black", Fall Apart Rabbit travels with the Piquel family.

Fawn Deer (voiced by Nancy Cartwright) is Bonkers' main love interest and co-star when he was a cartoon star. Bonkers is willing to do just about anything to please and impress her. Fawn reciprocates his love for her, having kissed him on numerous occasions.

Detective Lucky Shirley Piquel (voiced by Jim Cummings) is a police detective and Bonkers' main partner. He is a serious, hard-boiled detective whose by-the-book nature is at odds with Bonkers' decidedly more maniacal approach to crime solving. By "New Partners on the Block", he was offered an FBI job in Washington DC and leaves with his family, Toots, Police Light, and Fall Apart Rabbit

Marilyn Piquel (voiced by Sherry Lynn) is Lucky's child genius daughter. She is an aspiring artist as well as a script/story writer and has deep connection to toons such as Bonkers, with her favorite toon being TV star Skunky Skunk. She is more than capable of taking care of herself and aids her father in a number of his cases often being the words of wisdom or a source of knowledge to Lucky.

Dilandra "Dyl" Piquel (voiced by April Winchell) is Lucky's understanding wife who supports her husband and at times encourages their daughter Marilyn.

Officer Miranda Wright (voiced by Karla DeVito) is a police officer who works at the same police station as Lucky. While originally seen as a Kanifky's secretary in "Hear No Bonkers, See No Bonkers", she becomes Bonkers' second partner by "New Partners on the Block" and tolerates his antics. Her name is a play on Miranda rights.

Shirley Wright (voiced by Erin Gray) is a news reporter and Miranda's older sister.

Production

The series played 65 episodes, as part of The Disney Afternoon. They were not created in chronological order: The "Miranda" episodes were actually produced first. This discrepancy becomes evident when observing the look of the main character in both sets of episodes. In the ''He's Bonkers" shorts, Bonkers was orange with one brown spot, golf-club-like ears, and an undone tail. When the Lucky Piquel-era episodes (produced by Robert Taylor) were made, the character had a major overhaul: skinnier ears, two black spots on each his tufts, black Tigger-like stripes on his tail, and a different uniform. In the Miranda Wright-era episodes (produced by Duane Capizzi, Robert Hathcock & Greg Weisman) Bonkers' look is similar to the one in He's Bonkers. Actually it is considered as a mixture of He's Bonkers look and the "Lucky" episodes look. The series occasionally featured special extra compilation episodes of "cartoons" from Bonkers's pre-police actor days, all lifted from the He's Bonkers/Raw Toonage series. The two-part premiere can be seen to show the reason for the difference in appearance as he mostly appears with his Black Dot Lucky design, but when he goes into makeup, his sweater is put on, and when his head re-appears, his spots have turned brown, then his ears are 'puffed' up. While this works for explaining the two designs in context, "New Partners on the Block" does not show or explain why he then decided to use a somewhat 'make up'-like version for every day.

The Raw Toonage shorts were an after-thought of production. While Bonkers was in pre-production, the Raw Toonage team headed by Larry Latham produced 12 "He's Bonkers" shorts. These shorts were, in the context of Bonkers, explained to be some of the shorts Bonkers made at Wackytoons Studios before he was fired. The first short entitled Petal to the Metal was originally shown in theaters in 1992 before the feature movie 3 Ninjas, while the rest were shown on the program Raw Toonage. In syndication, the shorts were collected into four full extra episodes with fillers of new material in between.

Meanwhile, Duane Capizzi, making his producing debut, was brought into the fold and teamed with animation veteran Robert Hathcock and charged with making 65 episodes (a full season's worth in syndication). The episodes theoretically would feature Bonkers with Wright as his partner. These episodes came back from overseas animation studios looking less than spectacular, causing considerable concern at Disney. Ultimately, the original team was replaced, and a team headed by Robert Taylor came in. Only 19 of the original-order shows survived to air; they are what is known as the "Miranda Wright episodes" of Bonkers or simply as the "Miranda" episodes. Nine of these episodes were aired on The Disney Channel during the first half of 1993 as a preview for the series, before its syndicated premiere in the fall. The 19 "Miranda Wright" episodes are shown in October 1993 in the broadcast syndication. Greg Weisman (co-creator of Disney's Gargoyles) worked on the Miranda episodes, and Bonkers's relationship with Miranda inspired Goliath's relationship with Elisa Maza.

New Partners on the Block

New Partners on the Block was the "Lucky" episode that proceeded the 19 "Miranda" episodes and a transition episode that showed how Bonkers went from having Lucky Piquel as a partner to having Miranda Wright as his newest partner. The episode was much like the pilot episode/movie "Going Bonkers", using the CGI rain and bringing back the characters that were associated with Bonkers, those characters being Fawn Deer, Jitters A. Dog, and Grumbles Grizzly and, unlike the pilot, had more speaking and screen time.

At the end of the episode, Bonkers, along with Miranda and Lucky, capture the main villain, bomber Fireball Frank and rescue FBI agent Tolson in the process, making Bonkers and Miranda a team and giving Lucky a job as an FBI agent in Washington, D.C. Piquel. His family Dyl (wife) and Marilyn (daughter), Fall-Apart Rabbit, Toots and Brodrick the toon radio all subsequently relocated to Washington, D.C., allowing them to be written out of the show.

This episode was removed from rotation in the United States after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing due to its bombing/terrorism plot, and was consequently never rerun on Toon Disney, even before Disney's stricter censorship policies following the September 11 attacks. Another 3 episodes, "Fall Apart Bomb Squad", "Witless for the Prosecution", and "The Stork Exchange", were also never shown on Toon Disney for similar reasons. However, three of those episodes have been rerun in Europe (especially in Italy). In addition, those three episodes are available to stream on Disney+.

Home media

Bonkers was released on five VHS tapes and Betamax tapes in 1994 by Walt Disney Home Video, each containing no more than two episodes. They include the following:

Video games

The series inspired three video games. The first, titled Bonkers, is a platform game by Capcom, released for the Super NES in October 1994. In the game, Bonkers must retrieve three items stolen from a museum.

An action game by Sega, also titled Bonkers, was released in 1994 for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis. It consists of four mini-games in which Bonkers attempts to apprehend criminals from the series.

The third game, Disney's Bonkers: Wax Up!, was published for the Game Gear in 1995, followed three years later by a Brazilian-only release on the Master System. In the game, Bonkers sets out to rescue Lucky and several toons who have been captured.