Episode 24
Yakko’s
World of Baldness
Rather than starting this episode with a parody of another
show’s intro, we get a full-blown faux commercial. Considering that it’s provided by the
Warners, there’s a humorous spin to the commercial as it advertises
something really ridiculous and off-the-wall which is shaving one’s head and
painting the scalp in a selected color.
In addition, it’s all advertised by the best-suited Warner, Yakko. His high energy and
fast-talking mannerisms are synonymous with the manipulative
promotion you’d expect from commercials.
Heck, Yakko’s advertising talents have even been showcased a lot in past cartoons, especially “Hooked on a Ceiling.”
It’s this kind of attitude from him that adds appeal to something
that very little people would be willing to do by enthusiastically going through
every step of the process against a scene that depicts them. Whether it’s the actual head-shaving and
scalp-painting process, what color for the scalp to be painted, and even an
alternate of having Wakko gnaw all the hair off, there’s a lot of hilarity from
there being a business of the ridiculous stuff the characters are doing, and
Yakko’s salesman attitude makes it all stand as enticing. It feels as if it’s worth getting your head
shaved even though it’s an unethical thing to do, especially when Yakko goes
back on the reported price for the shaving, and says that they’ll do it for
free.
Then the whole commercial is
capped off with a funny scene of Yakko and his siblings getting
their heads shaved themselves. It turns
out to be a great way to kick off the episode with a wacky yet greatly
presented concept brought to us by the perfect character for the job. 10/10
Opportunity
Knox
With this cartoon, we get one of the strongest instances of
Pinky and the Brain working as a team. Usually,
since they both have very different and clashing personalities, they’re not on
the same page especially with how Brain’s complex and intellectual plans
frequently escape Pinky’s simple mindset.
As a result, Pinky is just along for the ride with little need to assist
Brain. Granted, the formula has shown
that Brain’s plans will fail regardless of Pinky, but there are a few exceptions
such as this cartoon where they’re both vital to the plan taking shape.
This time, the plan is to drive to Fort Knox,
put the guards in a helpless sneezing fit with a special pollen Brain put
together, and steal the gold to get enough power to take over the world. It’s another one of those plans where it
seems like all the important steps are in place. We’ve already discussed the purpose of the
pollen, and it’s even demonstrated at the cartoon’s start in a scene that pokes
fun at how we’re unable to cure the common cold. However, there’s also the aspect of exactly
how the mice are supposed to get to Fort Knox.
Brain simply plans on using Acme Labs’ minivan to drive there at night
and has taken avoiding getting in trouble into account as well as how he’s
going to drive such a big vehicle.
The
latter point to the plan is where Pinky’s usefulness comes in. Because they’re both so small, none of them
can drive the minivan alone, so Brain has to rely on Pinky to help perform all
the appropriate driving controls.
Surprisingly, Pinky is able to perform Brain’s commands very well. Granted, it does lead to certain mishaps like
him mistaking the windshield wipers for the turn signal and getting his tail
burnt which he doesn’t notice at first, but he still pulls through and performs
his assigned tasks successfully. If it
wasn’t for Pinky, Brain wouldn’t have been able to get around a large vehicle,
or fight through highway hypnosis. Moments like this greatly prove that while he
may be dumb, Pinky is actually one of the most loyal sidekicks any character
can ask for. For that, he’s pretty much
the best dumb character in TV animation.
In fact, this portrayal of Pinky only makes the interesting layer to the
plans’ obligatory failures stand out more than usual. The mice do make it to Fort Knox
successfully, and they even take out the guards with the pollen so they can get
to the gold, but when they actually get to the gold, the plan immediately fails
as the heavy weight of the stuff crushes them.
In other words, the whole failure is on Brain not considering options to
have two small mice lift heavy gold. As
a result, you’re both sympathetic for their pain, but also find it a little
funny that it all failed because of one bit of ignorance and that this amounts
to more proof that maybe Brain isn’t as much of a genius as it seems.
For the insight in the mice’s dynamic from
their moments of teamwork to further looks into how smart they really are, this
cartoon is easily one of the most interesting they’ve put out. 10/10
Wings Take
Heart
In the spirit of the original Looney Tunes, this cartoon shows willingness to break from
the core cast and star one-off characters in an idea that’s abstract
and totally different from what we typically expect. Nevertheless, what we get here has a lot of
impressive qualities to it which in turn helps it stand as a greatly unique way
to step out of its comfort zone.
There’s little to no dialog here, and I’m always for animated works that
are like that, since they push the potential of the art in telling a story
through the visuals and music.
This story
is very basic. A
little moth sees a butterfly and is immediately smitten with her. Right away the music effectively blends with
the cartoon’s actions in moments as simple as a drop of water waking up the
moth as he falls from his mushroom bed.
Then, when he first sees the butterfly, the music slowly
elevates while he watches her, ultimately leading to a beautiful orchestral
piece as they share a flight.
Just the simple scenes of them flying together feel like so much more
than they really are with sweeping instrumentals to go along with them, and
you feel like you’re flying along with them.
Now, since our lead characters are tiny
insignificant bugs, a conflict comes in the form of the moth getting whisked away
by larger objects of the outside world, and just when he's about to kiss the butterfly too. From then on, the cartoon is a
series of mishaps the moth runs into while trying to get back to the butterfly. With the lack of dialog, all that happens to
the moth stand out uniquely, largely helped by the expressive music. When he’s hit by large trucks, the actions of
him being pushed at a high speed are backed up with music that’s lively and
fast, greatly depicting what bugs in real life must feel should something
similar happen to them. Much more restrained
music comes when the moth is picked up by a vulture who takes him to the
nest where baby vultures intend to eat him.
However, through being restrained, the music simply isn’t threatening
and fails to invest you in the moth’s potential morbid danger.
From this moment though comes a much more
effective dramatic music piece when a forest fire breaks out, placing the moth
in even more danger. As it plays while
the moth struggles to get away from the spreading flames, the suspense is
perfectly buyable, and it builds when creativity depicts the flames
as a snake that draws the moth to it. Eventually the fire
is put out, and the moth is caught in a flood.
The music here is still appropriately suspenseful, but here it’s hard to
care about when you can’t help but question why the moth never just flies
to safety. He can do it fine later on when he
sees the butterfly, so there’s really no reason why he can’t fly
immediately.
At least the cartoon ends
well when he’s finally reunited with the butterfly…until she smacks him after
they kiss and flies away. It’s mindboggling why the cartoon ends like this.
These bugs clearly had mutual feelings for each other right from the
start and the butterfly was always ready to kiss. It makes no sense why she would suddenly
smack and get away from him.
It’s an
unfortunate sting on the cartoon for sure, but it still shines as a unique work
of the show that astounds with what the animation medium can do with great
music crafting many great things out of such a simple concept. 8/10
Cartoon Ranking
- King Yakko
- Hello Nice Warners
- Meatballs or Consequences
- Plane Pals
- Slappy Goes Walnuts
- H.M.S. Yakko
- Hooked on a Ceiling
- Temporary Insanity
- Bumbie’s Mom
- Les Miseranimals
- Hearts of Twilight
- Opportunity Knox
- Space Probed
- West Side Pigeons
- Battle for the Planet
- Four Score and Seven Migraines Ago
- When Rita Met Runt
- De-zanitized
- Win Big
- Guardin’ the Garden
- Taming of the Screwy
- Chalkboard Bungle
- La La Law
- Nothing but the Tooth
- Piano Rag
- Pavlov’s Mice
- Cookies for Einstein
- The Big Candy Store
- Ta Da Dump, Ta Da Dump, Ta Da Dump Dump Dump
- Davy Omelette
- Garage Sale of the Century
- Wally Llama
- Up the Crazy River
- Where Rodents Dare
- The Flame
- Roll Over Beethoven
- Wings Take Heart
- Hurray for Slappy
- Cat on a Hot Steel Beam
- Operation: Lollipop
- No Pain No Painting
- Chicken Boo-Ryshnikov
- Goodfeathers: The Beginning
- The Cat and the Fiddle
- La Behemoth
- A Moving Experience
- The Boids
Song Ranking
- Yakko’s Universe
- Yakko’s World
- The Monkey Song
- Wakko’s America
- What Are We?
- Be Careful What You Eat
- Little Old Slappy from Pasadena
Miscellaneous Ranking
- Yakko’s World of Baldness
- The Great Wakkorotti: The Master and His Music
- Hitchcock Parody
- Gilligan’s Island Parody
- Nighty-Night Toon
- Flipper Parody
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the last episode on the Animaniacs Vol 1 DVD. There's a cold opener of Disasterpiece Theater, Yakko becomes a detective searching for a diamond on a ship of many members of the cast, Rita and Runt are taken in by Cleopatra, and the Warners close the episode with a take on Shakespeare.
Also included in the next review is an announcement for come major changes in this blog's review process
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