MUMBAI, MARCH 21: The crowds were slowly melting away from the stands. But Dino, Fred Flintstone's pet, was wowing more kids in one section of the Andheri Sports Complex here on Sunday, much after the heat and dust had settled over the Toon Cricket Series extravaganza. One wag dubbed him Dino `Kambli' as his claptrap won him a legion of admirers among the young and the not-so-young as eight legendary cartoon characters come alive. Dino's charisma and charming jigs were a big threat to the huge popularity of Scooby-Doo. Like Kambli, Dino kept the spectators in splits with his antics.There were more kids straining their vocal chords in support for Scooby's team against Dexter's side. And Scooby lost no time in getting Yogi Bear stumped. Oh, this time Yogi was not much smarter than the average bear. Scooby showed great promise as a bowler. It's another matter that he does not want to play in Australia, with the likelihood of encountering umpire Darrel Hair. Reliable sources in Cartoon Network say, that Scoobydoes not like Hair's action!Scooby-Doo, Yogi Bear, Dexter, Tom and Jerry, Fred and Wilma Flintstone and Dino enacted some of their popular tamashas in the middle, with appropriate tunes heightening the television effect. Cheergirls in blue and green, showing where their loyalities lay, added to the hype and hoopla.
There was one memorable moment when boy genius Dexter came on the to field with his omnipresent calculator. The commentator explained the move: ``He is trying to find out the speed of the ball against gravitational force...'' Dexter's team won in the end, against all expectations. Though Scooby's team lost, skipper Scooby clearly emerged as the `Toon Of The Match'. The proceedings tended to drag a bit nearly 150 minutes for five-over-a-side match seemed too much. But then the toons took time. There was the Tom and Jerry squabbling spree; Dexter fishing out his calculator trying to unravel the mystery of how boundaries could be hit when he had set a field that seemed impenetrable as per hiscalculations; Scooby-Doo chased by a rival player in the guise of a `monster' which made him leave the field in disgust.But the kids wanted more. Where are Popeye, Bugs Bunny, Powerpuff Girls, Dumb Deedee, Mask and others asked one tiny girl, who had come with her kid brother and father all the way from Cuffe Parade. Vishal Nair, a third standard student of St John's (Goregaon), was disappointed Scooby's team lost. And his father, who chose to support Dexter's side, kept ribbing Nair (jr). There were many like Nair senior who left the venue teasing their kids in good humour.
Vishal Vijaykumar, a standard V student of Holy Family High School, asked his dad: ``Will we get to see the cartoon characters often?'' Michael Richter, vice-president (marketing) of Turner Entertainment Networks (Asia) which telecasts Cartoon Network, had the answer: ``I guess we will be back around this time next year. I must say we are pleasantly surprised by the turnout''.
The crowd, in the region of around 10,000, was more thanwhat one gets to see in Ranji Trophy matches. If there was one thing the kids would have loved it is proximity with the characters they loved so much. The organisers may have had their constraints, but the barricade between the cartoon characters and the kids was sad.
Surely this was one instance when distance will not make the heart grow fonder.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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