The plot chronicles the exploits of Michael, a young teenage boy who is using marijuana as well as stealing and drinking alcohol. His younger sister, Corey, is worried about him because he started acting differently which becomes a concern for their parents (who are also starting to notice his changes). When Corey's piggy bank goes missing one morning, her cartoon toys come to life to help her find it. After discovering it in Michael's room along with his stash of drugs, they proceed to work together to do an intervention and take him on a fantasy journey to teach him the risks and consequences a life of drug abuse can bring.
Plot
An unseen person steals a piggy bank off the dresser in the bedroom of a young girl mamed Corey. The theft is witnessed by Papa Smurf, who emerges from a Smurfs comic book with the other Smurfs and he alerts the other cartoon characters in the room (Alf from a picture, Garfield as a lamp, Alvin and the Chipmunks from a record sleeve, Winnie the Pooh as a stuffed animal, Baby Kermit as an alarm clock, and Slimer who passes through the wall).
Alf, Garfield, Alvin, Simon, and Theodore track down the thief and they discover that it is Michael, Corey's older brother. Alvin opens the box under the bed, and Simon identifies its contents as marijuana. Meanwhile, Corey expresses her concerns about Michael's change in behavior since they used to have a close sibling relationship, which he angrily denies, causing him to get upset and storm out of the house. The cartoon characters realize that something must be done about his addiction and they set off after him, leaving Pooh behind to look after Corey.
At the arcade, Michael smokes marijuana with his old "friends" and "Smoke", an anthropomorphic cloud of smoke, who try to convince him to try harder drugs. They run out and are chased into an alley by a police officer, who is revealed to be Bugs Bunny wearing a police officer's hat. He traps Smoke in a garbage can and uses a time machine, which he had borrowed from "some coyote", to see when and how Michael's addiction started. Bugs learns that it occurred through peer pressure by some older high school students, when Michael was around Corey's age. After the two return to the present, Michael meets up with his "friends", and they decide to smoke crack. He is hesitant until one of them steals his wallet. He and Smoke chase after her until they fall down a sewers hole and meet up with Michelangelo, who tells them that the drugs are harming his brain. Baby Kermit, Baby Miss Piggy, and Baby Gonzo take him on a roller coaster-like tour of the human brain. After later finding himself at a park, Huey, Dewey, and Louie, and Tigger join the rest of the cartoon characters in trying to teach him the many "Wonderful Ways to Say No".
Michael wakes up in his room, believing his interactions with the characters to be nothing but a nightmare. Corey walks in his room and she tries to talk to him, but he loses his temper and angrily yells at her, nearly hurting her arm and shoving her against his bedroom wall. He comes to his senses and tries to apologize to her, but she runs out of his room frightened. Smoke appears and tells him he did the right thing, but he doesn't seem so sure about it. He then looks at himself in a small mirror and is shocked to see Alf looking at him. Alf grabs him and pulls him into the mirror. Inside a hall of mirrors, Alf shows him his reflection of how he is today, then one if he does not stop taking drugs: an aged, corpse-like version of himself. When he insists that he could quit if he wanted to and that he is in charge of his own life, Alf takes him to see the "man in charge". He is horrified to see that it is Smoke himself.
Corey and Pooh go back into Michael's room and find his box of marijuana. Smoke appears, traps Pooh in a nearby cabinet, and starts tempting Corey into trying the marijuana for herself. She believes that if she does so, she and Michael could have fun together again.
Meanwhile, the drug-induced carnival in Michael's mind leads him to Daffy Duck who reads his future in his crystal ball – after failing to read it from a bowling ball – and it is a sicklier version of himself than before. After one last warning from the cartoons, Michael, now ashamed of himself and his drug addiction, runs back into his room in time to stop Corey from using the drugs herself. He tells her that he never ever wants to see her end up like him, and admits he was wrong for using them in the first place, though he is unsure if he can change despite his obvious desire to do so. She advises him to talk about his problems with her and their parents. Smoke tries to persuade him otherwise, but Michael grabs Smoke and throws him out a window into a garbage truck. All of the cartoon characters appear on a poster on Michael's wall as a reminder to always say no when confronted by drugs. He releases Pooh from the cabinet, who jumps into the poster with the others and smiles down at Corey as they go downstairs talk to their parents about his drug addiction.
Characters
The characters, from 10 different franchises, are (in order of appearance):
The Smurfs: Papa Smurf, Brainy Smurf, Hefty Smurf, and some other unidentified Smurfs (although Smurfette is seen on the poster and VHS cover, she actually doesn't appear in the special; Harmony Smurf and Baby Smurf make picture cameos)
ABC George H. W. and Barbara Bush anti-drug message promo7 Network Bob and Hazel Hawke anti-drug message promo
The special was screened in Australia in November 1990. Like the U.S. broadcast, it aired simultaneously on Australia's major commercial networks (Seven Network, Nine Network, and Network Ten). Prime Minister Bob Hawke introduced the Australian screening.[8] It was screened in New Zealand in December on both TV One and Channel 2 simultaneously. Prime Minister Jim Bolger introduced it instead of the U.S. president. It was screened in Canada on the CBC, CTV, and Global Television Networks and most independent stations shortly after its original U.S. broadcast, although all of the characters had their respective shows aired on either CTV or Global but not CBC. Canadian Prime MinisterBrian Mulroney introduced it. The special was broadcast in Brazil in 1994, as Rede Manchete made Portuguese Brazilian dubbing in Herbert Richers Dubbing Studios.
The production has been considered a time capsule of animation history during the time period of the US war on drugs,[9] and has been ridiculed as “propaganda”[10] and “preachy”.[11]
^Flint, Peter B. (July 11, 1989). "Mel Blanc, Who Provided Voices For 3,000 Cartoons, Is Dead at 81". The New York Times. Retrieved June 26, 2008. Mel Blanc, the versatile, multi-voiced actor who breathed life into such cartoon characters as Bugs Bunny, Woody Woodpecker, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Tweety Pie, Sylvester and the Road Runner, died of heart disease and emphysema yesterday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 81 years old.
^"Jeff Bergman". behind the voice actors. Retrieved 6 June 2014.
^Toons join the drug war!TV Week, November 3, 1990
