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Episode 46
Turkey
Jerky
The show is now back to using holidays as a basis for cartoons. This one takes us back to the first Thanksgiving with a comedic take on one of the most memorable moments of American history. Mind you, the entire origins of Thanksgiving aren’t what the cartoon’s all about. The most there is to that is at the beginning. There’s a brief narration of the Pilgrims settling in a new land of freedom and that's about it.
The actual plot starts within a year of their original settlement as
they plan a feast to celebrate their freedom and harvest. Amidst an interesting
portrayal of the Pilgrims who suggest random modern meals comes the most
authoritative of the group, Myles Standish.
He hunts for what is today the most popular food for Thanksgiving
dinner, turkey which is said to be very elusive. For that, it’s a funny turn of events that the
only one around is a looney one with a gimmick of constantly warbling “Turkey in the Straw.”
If that’s not enough, that turkey is Mr.
Gobble pet of the Warners posing as Native Americans. The cartoon already started off fine, but the
Warners make it especially great. In
their respective getups , they make some elaborate entrances
attributing to their Native American names even though the names are never
brought up again. However, when they
find out that Myles Standish wants to shoot Mr. Gobble for dinner, the Warners’
hijinks are in full force. Some of them
get deliberately overdramatic, particularly when Dot goes crazy with begging
Myles to spare the turkey and gets an Emmy.
Other antics totally twist the situation around by giving Myles a
therapy session as he brings up a pet hamster he once had. Just as he’s about to go off topic, the
Warners tie him up for solitary confinement and roll his psychiatry couch off a
cliff while telling him to stay away from their turkey. It’s a gag that catches you off guard with
something only to get to the point later.
That’s not even the best gag. The bigger and more creative ones follow. Myles chases Mr. Gobble into a teepee which
to make a clever visual gag has several smaller teepees nesting inside where
the Warners pop out again. Wakko eating
Myles’ musket and shooting bullets at him in a comedic manner is also executed
to great effect. Then there’s Myles
getting crushed by a tree and coming out as sap, getting hit by a random piano,
and the nesting teepees making him small enough to be chased by the
turkey. These gags are some of the most
imaginative ones of the show as some you’d be hard pressed to find in any
cartoon.
How Myles is finally bested is interesting
through messing with his mental state as opposed to just a physical blow. When he tells everyone to go away, the
Warners and Mr. Gobble do that and take the background too, leaving him alone
in a white void where he finally goes nuts.
No wonder the Warners make him the turkey to bring to dinner where one
last comedic scene inspires the name Thanksgiving among suggestions of random modern holidays.
I do have to
wonder why no one questions there being no turkey to eat. That was the whole point of Myles going
through all this trouble after all. The
ending does show people of different kinds coming together for a wholesome
feast though which is what Thanksgiving is best remembered for. It’s basically the best tie we have to the
holiday’s meaning within this gag-a-minute encounter with the
Warners just in a Native American setting.
Through genius gags and solid use of characters though, as a typical
gag-driven escapade, it’s a great one.
A
Wild Blue
Yonder
This episode contains one of the show’s occasional one-shot
cartoons that tend to be more sentimental than the usual fare. As a work of that kind, I find it very
endearing and interesting.
It’s a simple
story about a bluebird hatching from his egg and immediately realizing his
mother isn’t there. Not knowing that she
simply left to get him food, the bluebird flies off on his own to find
her. It’s as basic a setup as you can
get, but as is usually the case, it’s the execution that makes the cartoon so
good.
The setup of the cartoon is a
slight break from the norm most noticeably with the use of dialog. It’s not a talk-heavy work, but it’s not
devoid of talking either. All there is
to the cartoon is the little bluebird childishly observing the world around him
with simple sentences that mostly amount to single words. With such a minimal use of words, the
technical direction consisting of the artistry and music is the driving force
of the story. Through this approach,
little scenes like a big fighter jet flying by and the bluebird getting
determined enough to fly after it have a lot of power and emotion.
It also helps that the bird thinking the jet
is his mother is a pretty interesting concept.
Throughout the cartoon, this cute little hatchling flying after an adventurous
jet feels like an epic flight through the sky through the elevating music and
aerial shots. It hardly even matters
that he’s totally misguided. He’s only
just been born and from is childish tone of voice, of course he’d think any big
flying thing is his mother.
The story
also throws in interesting scenarios that come out of the birds pursuit, most
of which building the stakes. One of
them is in front of fighting planes shooting at each other that turn out to be
a movie trailer at a drive-in. However,
that’s an opportunity for the stakes to build when the next danger is
real. The bluebird follows the plane to
an air force camp as it comes in for a landing.
He’s united with it as it takes off again adding an effective childlike
innocence as he believes the bullets the plane is carrying are eggs. This is where the danger is really felt with
the bluebird unable to know that the bullets are meant to explode upon a target
town. For how endearing the bluebird has
been, it’s not hard to fear his demise as the bullets fall and he’s worried
that the “eggs” will break. Fortunately,
the bluebird is all right and flies away just before really getting blown up even
if it’s too late for the “eggs”.
The
following scene of the bluebird returning to the nest to find his real mother
is incredibly heartwarming and a rewarding payoff to the danger. Given the atmosphere of the cartoon, its
effect is stronger than ever with the visuals and music selling the heart of
mother and son meeting at last. However,
to not be too sappy, we end with a slight edge as two more realistically drawn
bluebirds hatch and the one bluebird is disgusted as they think another jet is
their mother. That’s one interesting way
for newborns to learn about the world to say the least.
The one-shot cartoons aren’t often the best
of this series, but the effective mix of newborn innocence and action-filled
settings make this one of the better ones.
A
Cartoon Ranking
- Chairman of the Bored
- Hot Bothered and Bedeviled
- Bubba Bo Bob Brain
- Baghdad Café
- In the Garden of Mindy
- Critical Condition
- O Silly Mio
- Phranken-Runt
- Puppet Rulers
- The Three Muska-Warners
- Clown and Out
- …And Justice for Slappy
- Jockey For Position
- Sir Yaksalot
- Potty Emergency
- Turkey Jerky
- Survey Ladies
- General Boo-Regard
- Puttin’ on the Blitz
- Raging Bird
- Windsor Hassle
- Of Nice and Men
- Wild Blue Yonder
- Dough Dough Boys
- The Big Kiss
- Draculee Draculaa
- Babblin’ Bijou
- Fair Game
- No Place Like Homeless
- I Got Yer Can
- Spell-bound
- Smitten With Kittens
- Astro-Buttons
- Boot Camping
- Moby or Not Moby
- The World Can Wait
- Noah’s Lark
- Skullhead Boneyhands
- The Good, the Boo, and the Ugly
- Hiccup
- Moon Over Minerva
- Broadcast Nuisance
- White Gloves
- Katie Ka-Boo
- Mesozoic Mindy
- Hollywoodchuck
- Kiki’s Kitten
- Can’t Buy a Thrill
- What a Dump
Miscellaneous Ranking
- Animaniacs Stew
- Testimonials
- Buttermilk It Makes a Body Bitter
- Alas Poor Skullhead
- Cartoons in Wakko’s Body
- You Risk Your Life
- Casablanca Opening
- Mary Tyler Dot
- The Slapper
- The Great Wakkorotti: The Summer Concert
- Animator’s Alley
- Useless Facts
Song Ranking
- The Senses Song
- The Planets
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where the Warners have an adventure in a movie buff's haven, a video store, and Pinky and the Brain try their hand at time travel.
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