Friday, November 2, 2018

Spell-Bound (Animaniacs Vol 2 Part 13) - 'Toon Reviews 22

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Episode 38
Spell-bound



Many people know that Pinky and the Brain have their own spinoff.  Having seen that show before getting into Animaniacs, I agree that they work well as series headliners.  Their formula is winning enough to work in any scenario.  It appears that the Animaniacs crew felt the same way.  This episode is a full-length Pinky and the Brain segment seemingly testing if they really could work in a spinoff.  The final result is fun and entertaining with the mice and their winning chemistry, but it’s not their best performance. 
The setting is Camelot, centuries ago.  Pinky and the Brain are pets of Merlin who has a book of spells including one for world domination.  Right away, the setup defines itself with a comedic edge. The spells are just names of pop culture figures and Merlin uses them to make pies of all things.  Brain seizes opportunity and goes for the apparent Take Over the World spell.  Among all the humorously convenient ingredients, a red dragon’s toenail is missing so the mice have to face an actual red dragon to get one. 
The journey has a lot of laughs, though their appeal mostly lie in cameos from most of the core cast members.  More clever cameos are of obscure Warner Bros. characters outside this show like Witch Hazel and Hansel and Gretel from 1954 Looney Tunes short, “Bewitched Bunny.”  It’s at least fitting for the setting.  Even if the gags are mostly cameos, they work through Pinky and the Brain’s approach to them.  Sometimes there’s clever banter through the interactions.  Others build up Brain’s ego as some cameos are outwitted by his own shrinking spell, until one comically crushes him. 
Humor aside, the climax when the mice face the red dragon is a noteworthy highlight.  There’s a lot of silence as they try to lull the dragon to sleep as they clip his toenail.  When the dragon’s woken up, it’s nonstop action as he chases them through the way they came.  It’s epically staged and scored, and also funny that it’s over a toenail.  Back at the castle, the dragon flying around as Brain performs the spell spices things up by making the scene feel more intense. 
With all this said, you might be wondering why I don’t consider this one of Pinky and the Brain’s best works.  It’s because of how it perceives Pinky and the Brain’s personal dynamic.  They usually subvert expectations with Pinky having common sense despite being simple-minded, and Brain’s genius being their true undoing.  Here, it plays out just as you’d expect.  Throughout the segment, Brain does all the competent work while Pinky messes around, offering very little good.  He’s constantly playing his own version of “Greensleeves” and getting stuck for a rhyme, which gets old fast.  His fumbling is also why he and Brain need to get the toenail in the first place. 
The worst of it is during the actual scheme.  When Brain is about to say the spell, he specifically tells Pinky he needs absolute silence.  Despite always respecting his friend’s wishes, Pinky plays his song again anyway.  This distracts Brain as he finishes the rhyme, and instead of taking over the world, his head becomes a “Big Cheese.”  In other words, this is one of those times where the world domination truly fails because of Pinky’s unintelligence.  It’s disappointing considering how often these cartoons avoid the obvious cause for failure.  At least Brain as a Big Cheese is a memorably funny image and him smashing Pinky’s loot in the end feels appropriate. 
Even if their dynamic is not at their strongest here, Pinky and the Brain still work off each other and face their quest well enough to prove their worth as stars.
A-


Cartoon Ranking
  1. Chairman of the Bored
  2. Hot Bothered and Bedeviled
  3. Bubba Bo Bob Brain
  4. Baghdad Café
  5. In the Garden of Mindy
  6. Critical Condition
  7. O Silly Mio
  8. Phranken-Runt
  9. The Three Muska-Warners
  10. Clown and Out
  11. Jockey For Position
  12. Sir Yaksalot
  13. Potty Emergency
  14. General Boo-Regard
  15. Puttin’ on the Blitz
  16. Dough Dough Boys
  17. The Big Kiss
  18. Draculee Draculaa
  19. Babblin’ Bijou
  20. No Place Like Homeless
  21. I Got Yer Can
  22. Spell-bound
  23. Astro-Buttons
  24. Boot Camping
  25. Moby or Not Moby
  26. Noah’s Lark
  27. Skullhead Boneyhands
  28. The Good, the Boo, and the Ugly
  29. Hiccup
  30. Moon Over Minerva
  31. Katie Ka-Boo
  32. Mesozoic Mindy

Miscellaneous Ranking
  1. Animaniacs Stew
  2. Testimonials
  3. Cartoons in Wakko’s Body
  4. You Risk Your Life
  5. The Great Wakkorotti: The Summer Concert

Song Ranking
  1. The Planets
The next Animaniacs review puts Rita at a conflict when kittens claim her as their Mama, the Warners do Shakespeare again, and Wakko's gloves come alive.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews is the Steven Universe episode "Steven Floats."
If you would like to check out other Animaniacs reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.

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