Episode 13
Hello Nice
Warners
As a comedy show, it’s not surprising that the main goal of this series is to entertain people by making them laugh. It’s especially great that most of the time, it succeeds, and this cartoon is a great guide to good comedy from the perfect characters to star in it, the Warners.
They wind up in the
presence of Hollywood bigshot, Mr. Director.
He’s an animated interpretation of the late comedy actor Jerry
Lewis. I was never an avid viewer of
Lewis, but in the few clips from his movies and interviews I watched before writing
this review, his comedy style was that in addition to slapstick, he would constantly go from calm and
collected to loud and goofy with a funny voice in most scenes. These
comedy styles are reflected perfectly in Mr. Director, but he’s an enjoyable
antagonist even if you didn’t know anything about Jerry Lewis. He goes from serious, uptight entertainment
connoisseur acting like he knows everything about making people laugh, to loud
and easily excited shouting nonsense words without notice. This makes him an egotistical and intentionally
obnoxious character, and he’s made appealing when working off of the
Warners.
He wants the kids to star in a movie
he’s directing, and given how in their face he is, the kids are soon freaked
out by who they’re stuck with. They go
along with the movie, but they’ve got what it takes to deal with this nuisance
of a comedy “genius,” and that’s where the lesson on good comedy comes in.
When the Warners show off some physical
comedy in a scene where they give a woman with large feet a size-6 shoe, Mr.
Director doesn’t approve and approaches the scene with what he feels is true
comedy. He walks onto the scene and yells
everything, and when the Warners do the scene that way, they retaliate by just
frolicking around shouting “lady.” The thing
to take from this is the effectiveness of both sides’ comedic styles. All Mr. Director does to generate laughs is
be loud and annoying, but despite what he says, the scene doesn’t feel funny
because it’s just him bouncing around and being loud, making the whole scene grating
and unentertaining. The Warners’ comedic
style feels much more effective relying on clever wordplay with their co-star,
physical gags, and other antics. They
use one antic to build up a joke and another when executing it, making for far
more laughs than what Mr. Director’s style has got and demonstrating how much of a
versatile art comedy is.
This
versatility is shown even more when the Warners become the directors while Mr.
Director acts in their scenes to get a true taste of comedy. They include a cute frivolous moment to suddenly
lighten a big emotional moment which builds to a comedic blow to Mr. Director’s
head while he’s pitifully dressed as a dog in an Old Yeller parody, and in an Indiana Jones parody, Mr. Director is
caught off-guard by a monster and gets crushed by debris while trying to use
his whip. There’s more comedy when Mr.
Director’s had enough. His loud-talking is put to good use when it builds up to
him running away from the Warners, and leaving funny self-impressions in
backdrops, coming off as a hilarious way to set the kids free from him.
This is easily a top-tier work for the series
not just for being an entertaining short of the Warners retaliating against an
annoying, arrogant obstacle, but a great look on how there’s a lot to comedy,
and more importantly, how to use it well. 10/10
La Behemoth
This is the first cartoon starring the Hip Hippos, Flavio and
Marita, to air, although for reasons out of the crew’s control, their official
introduction cartoon appears in a later episode. As for what we’re in for with these
characters, they’re some of the weaker members of the cast. While other characters have dynamic traits and comedic shticks to them, Flavio
and Marita are nothing more than a happy, hippo couple living in the city and
keeping up with current trends. I don’t
feel like there’s anything bad about them, and they do make a likable couple,
but they’re just not very interesting to spend a cartoon with. At least for here, there’s an attempt to do
something interesting with these characters.
It starts out as basic and mundane as most of their cartoons are when
they’re too overbearing and dependent on their giraffe maid which honestly
presents the hippos as sloppy and not all that likable as first impressions go. In fact, it’s much easier to sympathize with
the maid when she has enough of the hippos’ nonsense and quits. So, Flavio and Marita are left without help
and take it upon themselves to do the housework themselves…and failing every
time. The only catch to this setup is
that it’s all staged as an opera.
It’s a
very random change of pace for this very basic story and Flavio and Marita
singing does come out of nowhere, but it’s still a unique and interesting
approach. The opera
itself, like practically all the musical moments from this show, is very
entertaining and memorable. The music is
dynamic and dramatic to fit the tone, the technical things like the
lighting, backgrounds, and singing animation make what happens feel like it’s
out of an opera, and Flavio and Marita give their all into the
performances. There’s also many
effective jokes worked into the opera mix like Marita commenting on Flavio
repeating everything she sings, everything, including the phone babble, keeping
up with the tune, and breaks in the singing to comment on the hippos’ failure
to complete a chore. It’s a flashy,
purposefully overly-dramatic approach to an otherwise uninteresting plot.
It also wraps up the way you’d expect when
the giraffe maid conveniently shows up, and through Flavio and Marita simply
asking her to come back and clean for them, she agrees instantly. It doesn’t feel earned since we don’t have a
scene of them showing regret for their actions beforehand, and can be taken
that the hippos are just saying this to get the help they need, but at least
opera-wise, we get a triumphant finish.
From this cartoon, it’s clear that story-wise, the Hip Hippos cartoons
are not going to be anything special with lead characters who lack quirks and
good development. Fortunately, the opera
angle does make the time spent with them here enjoyable, but becomes pointless when
it, along with their maid, never show up in other cartoons. We’re still in for some decent stuff from
these characters, but it really won’t be much to offer compared to the great
entertainment this show is known for. 7/10
Little Old
Slappy from Pasadena
This song, much like “The Monkey Song” from the first episode, is an adaptation of an old pop song, this time of “Little Old Lady from Pasadena” from 1964 by Jan and Dean.
Unlike the former which put its own spin on some of the lyrics and had
the show’s characters perform, this one has an original recording
of the song as it’s written while playing over a cartoon of Slappy Squirrel
causing havoc while driving a red car over the speed limit just to deliver a
letter. The whole thing feels more like
a music video than an actual song segment and isn’t the best representation of
the show’s musical talents since it’s just the actual song and not their own
take on it.
Disregarding that, this is a
great segment set to a just as awesome rock number. The visuals of Slappy driving her car at
intense speed match the smooth and cool tone of the song and give solid
interpretations of the lyrics like Slappy tearing up a street called “Colorado
Blvd.” as she drives, her literally not being able to keep her foot off the
accelerator, and guys on motorcycles coming to “race her from miles
around.”
There’s even a lot of memorable
moments from established characters as they get caught up in Slappy’s drive. They include Ralph and Hello Nurse losing
their clothes to her speed, Plotz getting chased into a pool, and Mindy and
Buttons getting shot up into the desert by a fire hydrant as the latter
protects the former from getting run over.
If that’s not enough, classic Looney Tunes characters like the Roadrunner
and Wile E. Coyote get caught up in the action, with the Roadrunner standing
out for quickly being out speeded by Slappy.
It’s a really fun ride set to a great song, making what you see a nice
way to introduce yourself to the song if you didn’t know it already; that was
the case with me.
However, the fun ends
on somewhat of a downer when Slappy gets arrested for speeding as the song
ends. It makes perfect sense to happen,
but it doesn’t feel like someone who loves cartoon violence and fun to be THIS
accepting of punishment. Slappy would be
more inclined to retaliate in this scenario.
Well despite that, and that this isn’t the best way to show how great
this show is with music, it’s still an awesomely memorable ride with great
character moments all set to a rocking song to go with everything. 9/10
Cartoon Ranking
- King Yakko
- Hello Nice Warners
- Slappy Goes Walnuts
- H.M.S. Yakko
- Hooked on a Ceiling
- Temporary Insanity
- Bumbie’s Mom
- Les Miseranimals
- West Side Pigeons
- When Rita Met Runt
- De-zanitized
- Win Big
- Taming of the Screwy
- Piano Rag
- Cookies for Einstein
- The Big Candy Store
- Garage Sale of the Century
- Wally Llama
- Where Rodents Dare
- Operation: Lollipop
- No Pain No Painting
- Goodfeathers: The Beginning
- La Behemoth
Song Ranking
- Yakko’s Universe
- Yakko’s World
- The Monkey Song
- What Are We?
- Little Old Slappy from Pasadena
Miscellaneous Ranking
- Gilligan’s Island Parody
- Nighty-Night Toon
- Flipper Parody
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode in which the Warners act as lawyers stopping at nothing to prove that Dr. Scratchansniff doesn't deserve a parking ticket, and Buttons' pursuit of Mindy who chases a cat in a construction site brings unexpected results.
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