As a kid, this special aired on some channels. Basically bringing a lot of cartoon characters from the four different channels, it was allowed because of one thing: the special was made to be a anti-drug special (as this was back when TV stations aired PSAs meant to tell kids to say no to drugs, with one even having the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in one where a kid is nearly bullied into doing drugs because the friend called him a chicken). Now, this is one special that will never see release again because of rights issues with the characters involved, but as an adult, I'd say it is for the best.
So, basically, a plot is a boy named Michael is doing drugs and alcohol, and one day, he steals the piggy bank of his sister, Corey. However, the theft is witnessed by Papa Smurf, who lives in a comic book, who then calls some of the cartoon characters (who pose as inanimate objects) to take action. This leads to Michael going through the most messed-up intervention of all time, while the special's main villain, Smoke (a puff of smoke that looks like something out of the Beetlejuice cartoon, and voiced by George C. Scott, best known for his portrayal of George S. Patton in the movie Patton) plans to keep Michael on the drugs with lame excuses.
Yeah, as I said, this is one messed-up intervention to the point where it makes you think this whole special was made on the one thing it tells you to say no to. While people freak about about Simon knowing about marijuana is and Bugs Bunny knowing what a joint is, I can let it pass, as it helps to teach kids that the different illegal drugs have different names (besides, Bugs Bunny has been in a cartoon where he actually makes a cigarette, and another where he snorts tobacco, so that explains why he knows what a joint is).
But that's not the worst of it, while the special does show the dangers of drugs and even a scene Bugs uses a time he took from some coyote to show Michael how his addiction started, it is still far from good. The film adds in some references that kids would not know about (in the scene where the toons see Michael emptying the piggy bank, ALF makes a reference to Leave It To Beaver, which adults may get. but kids back then who never saw that old show would not, and another where he shows Michael what he'll become due to drugs, and when he asks who it is, ALF says it's not Freddy Kreuger, which kids would not know, but older viewers would since it's a reference to a series of films the target audience is not old enough to be watching), but some scenes are actually horrible and portray the characters trying to help poor Michael doing stuff that would basically kill him (one scene has the Muppet Babies lock Michael in his own brain when he trips on a skateboard, and another scene has him in a nightmarish amusement part, and one part has Dewey, one of the triplets from DuckTales, try to run him over in a roller coaster cart). Those scenes are classic textbook cases of out of character portrayals, and are so dark, I am shocked the companies owning the characters even allowed the creators of this short to portray their characters as such. They should be glad they never got complaints back in the day of kids who saw the special having nightmares of said characters locking them in a burning building or trying to run them over.
While it does teach a good moral, and ending is good, the special is horribly executed. While the idea of having these beloved cartoon characters come together to teach an important lesson sounded good on paper, the scared straight aspect of some scenes (especially the carnival scene near the end) makes it fall, as it seems too scary for the target audience the cartoon characters used targets, and the fact said audience would not get most of the references, makes this one confusing special. Thank goodness this only happened once. Imagined if this sort of idea continued, only with different characters and different topics (like 90's cartoons talking about guns and school shootings, or cartoon characters from the 2010's talking about bullying). This special is long out of print, and will never be reissued due to rights issues with the characters used (whoever wants to re-release this will have to make deals with the companies who own said characters, with some of them having changed hands over the years, as well as redo the intro message to have the current POTUS and FLOTUS talking about the special), but it has been posted on sites (including the home video release, which also has the Ronald McDonald Children's Charities commercial airing before and after the special). Best viewed to laugh at.
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