Episode 14
La
La Law
Most of the time, the Warners use their animated antics to
face off against someone who’s antagonistic or rude to them, but there are a
few times when they use them to help get someone out of trouble. The endearing thing about them using their
zaniness to help here is that it’s for their psychiatrist, Dr. Scratchansniff,
someone they love to mostly joke around with.
He gets a parking ticket even though he put his money in the meter, and
when the Warners find out about this, they decide not to stand for this
injustice and push Scratchansniff to claim that he doesn’t deserve the ticket
in court. Of course, knowing how out of
control they can get with their ways of life, Scratchansniff would rather just
pay for the ticket, but the Warners insist on taking action and hilarity
ensues.
Posing as Scratchansniff’s
lawyers, the Warners bring an approach to the court case filled with
entertaining funny moments with the right fit for a court case setup. The whole thing is treated as if it were
happening as part of a court case TV series with how the case happened
appearing as a recap before the story begins, followed by an intro of each of
the Warners doing something funny while in an office setting common to most
lawyers, mostly hitting on good-looking men or women. Then the rest of the cartoon unfolds at
Scratchansniff’s trial and the Warners, while seeming destined to make
everything worse, enter the case confidently and with little worry or care, refuse
to let anything stand in the way of proving their client innocent.
They are on absolute fire when facing off
against the judge threatening to sentence Scratchansniff and their opposing
witness, the meter maid who gave him the ticket in the first place. Yakko in particular stands out comedy-wise
which is to be expected given that his thing is being a fast-talker and the
foreseer of the group’s plans. He takes
whatever the judge or witness say and responds to them with a witty comeback
such as using the sound of an intellectual world like “folderol” as a song cue,
or taking a threat of being thrown in contempt as a friendly invite. His biggest comedic moment here though is
through another example of the show pushing the envelope of what jokes it
could somehow get away with telling in which he takes major offense of the
sound of words like “subpoenaed” or “penal code.” What makes them work is that it’s never
spelled out WHY Yakko would be so offended, leading you to think hard about the
reason as an adult viewer, thus coming off as subtle and not taking you out of
what’s happening.
As for the case at
hand, with another amusing bit of wordplay involving how the meter maid doesn’t
wash windows, the Warners bring up the suggestion that the parking meter might
have been broken, making the claim that Scrachansniff didn’t pay invalid. However, aside from this mention, they wrap
up the trial not by seeing if this is true, but by getting the judge distracted
by having him tango with the meter maid and forgetting about the case. It’s a clever and humorous outcome and all,
but it makes the whole conflict feel empty and unresolved, and it’s frustrating
that we’re left without a clear answer if Scratchansniff really did pay.
Aside from that, this cartoon is still a great
success for showing that even in a stiff, serious, and relatively enclosed
area, the Warners are sure to bring some great laughs and do something
productive in the process thus making them great characters. 9/10
Cat on a
Hot Steel Beam
Here’s one of the more exciting Mindy and Buttons chases. It happens to have a few twists attempting to
break from the typical formula which hardly happens in the rest of the
series. For one thing, it doesn’t start
with Mindy’s mom putting her in her harness or giving Buttons an order, but
rather have them both in their usual places. That way, the cartoon’s driving force can
come in faster and invest the audience in the coming chase.
A cute little cat draws Mindy’s attention,
and she breaks from the harness to follow it while Buttons chases after
her. As for the chase this time around, it’s
very appealing with the many close calls to danger Mindy and the cat would run
into like being crushed by traffic or a pile driver. The music and shots of things getting closer
to hurting Mindy mixed with Buttons rushing towards her invest you in the
seriousness of what might happen if Buttons doesn’t reach her in time. Fortunately, while Buttons ends up hurt while
getting Mindy safe, those moments cap off the suspense in a comical way for how
he gets hurt. He gets flattened into a cutout by the traffic, stops the pile
driver while getting hardened by cement, and gets flattened into a disk when
the cement crumbles. It keeps you from
getting too sympathetic to stop enjoying what goes on, which is good because of
the place where most of the chase ends up occurring.
It goes through a large building under
construction. Design-wise, it’s an
interesting place to watch the chase unfold.
The walkways in the form of the steel beams are very narrow without a
lot of space, and you never know when a crane will bring up a new beam in case
you fall off, so there’s some mild entertainment from watching Mindy chase the
cat on the beams or Buttons trying to keep Mindy safe while staying on. For the latter point, it’s interesting that
the focus is more on Buttons keeping Mindy safe than on him falling which makes
for a memorable gag of him making a longer floor out of random objects in the
building that goes all the way to space as she walks off the beams capped off
by a cute Marvin the Martian cameo.
Going back to how this cartoon stands out a bit from others starring
Mindy and Buttons, during Mindy’s cute little “why” conversations with two
construction workers on a lunch break, the chase is actually made known instead
of going on when no one else bothers to notice.
When the construction workers see Mindy and Buttons on a high floor, the
situation is responded realistically with widespread panic. Backed by sirens wailing, the whole thing
being broadcasted on the news to everyone, including Mindy’s parents, and the
workers rushing to lower them to safety, it’s an nice change of pace that
treats what goes on like the big deal it is making it suspenseful enough to get
the audience’s attention. Buttons even
gets one more moment of awesomeness by saving the cat as it falls and giving it
to Mindy.
However, it makes his usual
scolding all the more concerning. While
this is par for the course, the scolding here is worse than usual when Mindy’s
parents berate Buttons for chasing a cat just as he gives it to Mindy right in
front of them right after he saved it.
It’s like they’re blind to the possibility that Mindy wanted the cat and
anything good Buttons could’ve been doing before landing, and that makes the
payoff to what Buttons went through even harsher than it already is.
Even with the more stinging than usual
scolding, it’s still easy to enjoy the fun, suspense, and rare twists to the
Mindy and Buttons formula this cartoon provides. 8/10
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
- La La Law
- Piano Rag
- Cookies for Einstein
- The Big Candy Store
- Garage Sale of the Century
- Wally Llama
- Where Rodents Dare
- Cat on a Hot Steel Beam
- 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 a space-themed episode of the show in which the Warners get abducted by aliens, and Pinky and the Brain do their take on the infamous War of the Worlds broadcast.
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