Bonkers

Our Review

Disney’s late afternoon needed a detective show after DuckTales and Darkwing, and Bonkers is the strange answer: an anthropomorphic bobcat cop in a city of cartoon animals, produced under the Disney Afternoon banner with an early 90s buddy cop template. Brooklyn Hefferly worked with his partner J. Wajinski; later seasons rebuilt the show around Officer Bonkers himself with a live action wraparound hosted by a sunfish puppet named Officer Catfish.

The first season is the treasure: dark, funny, and written with the same Disney Afternoon punch that made TaleSpin work, with Jim Cummings bouncing between three roles. The 1993 retool loses most of the soul and the puppet segments, but 60 or so solid episodes still justify the visit, especially if you are completing the block era. It is the least remembered of the Disney Afternoon shows, and the least missed, which is its own kind of honesty.

Our score: 6/10. Season one is worth a weekend; the rest is for block completists.