YMMV / Capitol Critters

• Animation Age Ghetto: Arguably what killed the show. Despite having some very mature themes and being marketed and conceived as a prime-time series for older audiences, it was designed, written and paced like a Saturday-Morning Cartoon. This was in stark contrast to the show it was competing with, then known for taking chances in deconstructing conventional cartoon and sitcom tropes, while Critters and its fellow Dueling Shows played them straight.
• Awesome Art: The show has some gorgeous, fluid character animation and lovingly detailed background design.
• Awesome Music: The show took great advantage of having a live orchestra to perform its score, something more and more shows were beginning to do in the wake of Tiny Toon Adventures' success. (Bruce Broughton providing the theme music for both series, and scored the first episode of Capitol Critters.)
• Cult Classic: It has a small but dedicated fanbase. Its reruns on Cartoon Network earned it something of a "I (vaguely) remember this show exists" reputation among 90s kids and furries.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Muggle and VP Cat are very well-liked by the small fanbase. To a lesser extent, Felix as well.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Max X Miko.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The president elected in 1992 (Bill Clinton), when this show first ran, was the first President to actually have a cat (Socks).
  • The fact that there's a character named Muggle, which would later be associated with the Harry Potter franchise.
  • The word "Capitol" being in the title, as it would later be associated with The Hunger Games.
• Iron Woobie: Max definitely qualifies, being rather level-headed and sane for someone who just watched his own family gassed to death and was nearly murdered by a drug dealer.
• Jerkass Woobie: Jammet, he's an obnoxious, loud, self-centered prick but when you see the episode where he gets a girlfriend and has to break up with her, you'll want to hug him yourself when you see him crying in his mother's arms.
• Moral Event Horizon: The drug dealers in "Opie's Choice" cross this when they try to force Max into an overdose.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • Within the first few minutes of the pilot episode, Max's whole family is brutally killed by exterminators. Sleep well, kiddies.
  • When Max is mistaken for a doped up squirrel's drug pusher, a pair of rats decide to retaliate by force feeding him enough caffeine to induce an overdose and you see him barely conscious afterward and he almost dies.
• Retroactive Recognition: Felix shares a voice actor (Patric Zimmerman) with Revolver Ocelot.
• Strangled by the Red String: Max has only known Miko for a day and suddenly calls her his world and wanting to go to Tokyo with her. However, Jammet, Trixie and even Miko herself tell him that they barely know each other and Trixie tells Max the real reason he wants to leave with them is so he can feel like part of a family again.
• Uncertain Audience: The biggest contributing factor of the show's premature demise. The creators aimed for it to be a prime-time show aimed at adults, but with Multiple Demographic Appeal like The Simpsons. The weightier topics covered on the show (like racism and drug addiction) were lost on kids, and adults were turned off by the cartoonish slapstick worthy of a Saturday-Morning Cartoon and lack of biting satire.
• Values Resonance: Many of the topics discussed in the show, such as gun control and fair trials, are still being discussed years after the show's cancelation.
• The Woobie: Max, he watched his entire family die in the first episode and in another episode he almost dies from a forced drug overdose. Poor little guy.
  • Muggle becomes one in the episode The Kilowatts Riots.
  • Berkeley has her moment in The Lady Doth Protest to Munch.
  • Opie and his family in Opie's Choice.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: From all outward appearances, it looks like something that should have aired on Saturday morning, complete with its own Burger King kids meal tie-in. In reality, this was one of three early 1990s cartoons (joining Family Dog and Fish Police) that was made for primetime and had adult content as a competitor to The Simpsons. Cartoon Network airing the show during the morning/afternoon time didn't help its adult appeal either.

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