Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue is a 1990 American animated television propaganda film starring many characters from several animated television series at the time of its release. Financed by McDonald's, Ronald McDonald Children's Charities, it was originally simulcast for a limited time on April 21, 1990, on all four major American television networks (by supporting their Saturday morning characters): ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox, and most independent stations, as well as various cable networks. McDonald's released a VHS home video edition of the special distributed by Buena Vista Home Video, which opened with an introduction from President George H. W. Bush, First Lady Barbara Bush and their dog, Millie. It was produced by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation and Southern Star Productions, and was animated overseas by Wang Film Productions. The musical number "Wonderful Ways to Say No" was written by Academy Award-winning composer, Alan Menken and lyricist Howard Ashman, who also wrote the songs for Walt Disney Animation Studios' The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin.
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
In Corey's room, an unseen person steals Corey's piggy bank off her dresser. 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 open the box under the bed and Simon identifies its contents as marijuana. Meanwhile, Corey expresses her concerns about his change in behavior since she and Michael used to have a close sibling relationship, which he angrily denies, causing him to get upset and storms 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 pot 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. It turns out that it occurred through peer pressure by some older high school kids, when he was around Cory's age. After he has returned to the present, he meets up with his "friends" and they decide they want to do some 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 messing up 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".