Episode 6
Flipper
Parody
It’s common for an episode that comes up short to include
shorter material to make the running time long enough. In addition to the bridging segments
and scenes of the Warners leaving or returning to their water tower mentioned at the start of these reviews, there would also be cold openers that would
parody TV shows or commercials. Unlike
the other shorts, there’s enough variety to the cold openers that make them worth
talking about, and that includes this cold opener which is a parody of the
intro to the old TV series Flipper.
It’s very short with not a lot to it though,
but the shots of the Warners swimming underwater and jumping on the ocean
surface as well as the tune of the song they sing pay great respect to the
series. However, given the comedic tone
of these characters, there’s an edge of humor thrown in when, instead of a
lyric about the great life they live, they throw in new words about how they
cause confusion set to a physical gag of slamming a waterskiing Ralph the Guard
into a buoy.
So, we do open the episode
with a few short laughs, but the whole short isn’t enough to make it stand out
as more than what it’s intended to be.
It’s nothing special overall, but it’s harmless enough. 8/10
Temporary
Insanity
Although the Warners are meant to be viewed as an annoyance
for how much they pop in on others’ business and never stop joking around with
them, it’s impossible not to love them not just for their hilarity, but also
for a sense of innocence to their madness when they make a genuine effort to complete
certain tasks. However, their annoying
others is at its best when it’s targeted towards someone who’s a total
jerk.
At their home environment of the
Warner Bros studio, the character who always seems to deserve getting annoyed
by them the most is the CEO, Thaddeus Plotz.
His short-temper, major care towards money, and lack of patience do not
make him the most likable person to hang around, and given that he snubbed the
Warners a chance at attending a party even though they acted how he wanted them
to in the last episode, he’s fully open to being taken down a peg. This cartoon has such a thing happen to Plotz
when his secretary goes home sick, and the number she gives him is a call for
the Warners to take her spot.
As is
usually the case with these characters, their wackiness provides a unique
comical approach to the mundane secretary position.
It feels like they’re putting in genuine effort to the
job, but can only approach it as the silly cartoon characters they are. As a result, there’s not really a narrative
to follow since all we get is one gag from the Warners after another, but that
just goes to show that sometimes in animation, you don’t always need a plot to
show off the talents of everyone involved.
All you need is to place characters in one setting, and with clever
writing and direction, put all the jokes and humorous scenarios for the
characters to do on display leading to a collection of animated greatness
resulting from the setup.
From this
setup, the Warners certainly have a lot of animated greatness from how they act
as temporary secretaries. There’s Dot on
a fast-talking spree of putting callers on hold and then breaking to flirt with
Mel Gibson, Yakko making Plotz sign random papers as well as trick him into
signing a big check, each sibling giving their own off-the-wall approach to
forms of paperwork set to a lively tune, and everyone misunderstanding what Plotz
means by “take a note.” There’s also a
running gag where the Warners immediately stop
what they’re doing to fight over who answers the phone when it rings with Wakko
constantly failing capped with hilarious delivery of the
line: “I never get to get it!”
As
out-of-control as the way the Warners go about the job is, the fact that they
never seem to be messing everything up on purpose makes them worth rooting for
when Plotz loses so much patience with them that he feels obliged to attack
them. However, one last bit of the
telephone gag that includes a fast-paced chase around the studio that builds up the cartoon gags as the phone drags a bunch of poles into
the building satisfies everything on all fronts. It brings Plotz down a peg for losing too
much of his cool when dealing with zany kids just trying to help, gives the
collection of comedy a grand finish, and even gives a satisfying concluding
point for Wakko when he finally answers the phone.
In the end, we have a cartoon
overflowing with comedic genius that only the Warner Brothers and the Warner
Sister can bring with an onslaught of well-written gags, the perfect character
at the receiving end, and a strong sense of fun all throughout. 10/10
Operation:
Lollipop
This is our official introduction to Mindy
and Buttons, probably the most divisive cast members featured in
the theme song. In most of their
cartoons, the premise is highly identical.
Mindy is put outside to play while in a harness while her dog, Buttons, is in charge of keeping an eye on her.
However, when something catches Mindy’s eye, she finds a way to break
from her harness and chases after it while Buttons chases after her to keep her
safe, but constantly gets hurt in various ways depending on where Mindy runs
off to. In the case of this cartoon, the
thing Mindy chases after is a lollipop her mom gives her that gets stuck on the
side of a mail truck and the chase leads them all the way to the inside of a
mail plane taking off.
While we do
basically get the same thing happening in these cartoons, I still find them
enjoyable for what they are since there is some variation to the formula
depending on where Mindy and Buttons end up going. Mindy herself prides herself on general
cuteness most of the time, but still has her own appeal for her comedic bits of
calling her mom “Lady” or a random male “Mr. Man,” constantly asking why
bystanders she meets do what they do (not shown here), and how relatable she is
to little kids who are easily attracted to something cute. It happened a lot with me when I was her
age.
Buttons is certainly put through a
lot of hardships of following Mindy into a danger-filled environment and
enduring the pain of them all, but it’s tolerable so long as he doesn’t get
hurt in a way that feels too realistic.
Here, the pain he endures isn’t very concerning since it’s basically
running into things or falling down a manhole only to pop out while humorously
running away from a gator. The more
memorable ways Buttons hurts himself come in at the plane such as when he’s
comically crushed by the plane’s wheels dragged inside during takeoff or
struggling to stand on the wing while opening the door to where Mindy’s
searching for the lollipop. Speaking of
Mindy, it’s hard for me not to hope she can get her lollipop back given her
clear sadness when it gets away from her as well as how she’s willing to try
and get it back herself without bothering anyone about it.
The way both she and Buttons end up home is nicely constructed too when,
while holding onto Mindy to keep her and her lollipop from falling out of the
plane, Buttons has his paw grab a mail bag that parachutes them all back to the
yard. However, since Buttons ends up
with letters all around him, Mindy’s mother scolds him because it looks like he
attacked the mailman when he was told not to.
This is another part of the Mindy and Buttons formula, and given that
it’s present in almost all their cartoons, that makes it a given that very few
cartoons of these characters will get top-tier status. After all the trouble Buttons is put through,
it’s really not fitting to see him deal with the scorn of his masters. Usually though, while it is mean, it’s not a
huge sting since these parts are short and don’t make the enjoyable factors any
less enjoyable, and the scolding scene for this cartoon is one of them to fit
this criteria.
So, even with the
formulaic and occasional mean elements, this and many other Mindy and Buttons
cartoons to come offer enough cuteness, excitement, and laughs to
make this cartoon worth sitting through. 8/10
What Are
We?
While most standalone song segments on this show are designed
to educate the audience on certain topics, there are times when a song exists
because the crew behind this show has a fun idea for one.
This song in particular plays around with the
idea of one of the biggest questions about the Warners regarding what type of
creatures they are. Their overall
designs are unlike anything of most animals, and while they may have some
characteristics of animals like dogs, and have been described as monkeys in an earlier segment, they just don’t seem to fit the complete mold of any one
creature. The uniqueness of their
species is just one interesting thing about these kids, but it still leaves
something big to ponder over.
Starting
off with them once again being too crazy for Dr.
Scratchansniff to reform, when the psychiatrist goes on a tirade about how they
aren’t normal, the Warners explain just what type of normal creatures they
could very well be the only way the can, singing. It’s a fast-paced ditty of the kids listing
various animals with several comedic bits from acting as many of them. They include Dot acting as a
cat and adding in a line on sharpening her claws on Scratchansniff’s couch when
he least expects it, Yakko acting as a horse with wild mannerisms that send
Scratchansniff through a wall, Scratchansniff freaking out by wilder
suggestions the kids think of, and any time they transform into other
animals. The whole song fascinates with
how the Warners can fit the mold of almost any animal imaginable, as well as
being a hilarious watch in general, just what we’d expect moments with the Warners
to be like at this point.
Ultimately, the
song doesn’t really provide an answer for what exactly the Warners are, which
can make the whole thing feel empty for some, but if you’re in the right mind,
their response that what they are is cute can be interpreted that as cartoon
characters, they can really be anything they want which is in line with their
unpredictable nature. In all, you might
not get any substantial answers to one of the biggest questions about the
Warners with this song, but you’re sure to get a nice dose of great
entertainment. 9.5/10
Cartoon Ranking
- Slappy Goes Walnuts
- H.M.S. Yakko
- Hooked on a Ceiling
- Temporary Insanity
- De-zanitized
- Win Big
- Taming of the Screwy
- Cookies for Einstein
- Operation: Lollipop
- Goodfeathers: The Beginning
Song Ranking
- Yakko’s Universe
- Yakko’s World
- The Monkey Song
- What Are We?
Miscellaneous Ranking
- Nighty-Night Toon
- Flipper Parody
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where the Warners end up in a piano concert of all things while hiding from their captors, and in Rita and Runt's debut starring role, we find out how Rita met Runt.
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