Friday, January 4, 2019

Hut Sut Raw/Kiss Me I'm Foreign (Rocko's Modern Life Season 2 Episode 7) - 'Toon Reviews 24


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Happy 2019! Now that the holidays are over and a new year has come our way, it's finally time to get back in business with reviewing seasons of certain shows. Today, I'm starting by picking up where we left off with Season 2 of Rocko's Modern Life:
Hut Sut Raw


At times I feel like camping episodes only exist to make certain characters suffer.  Most of the ones I know feature people adjusted to city living put at the mercy of nature, and their lack of experience in the outdoors leads to endless hardships.  It’s not exactly the most entertaining subplot, and this cartoon about camping is honestly no different to the usual setup.  Then again, being from a show about the challenges of modern life, it was bound to happen eventually. 
We have Rocko, Heffer, and Filburt deciding to go camping with Rocko being the only one wiling to truly rough it.  With this in mind, consider that one of the points of the series is that Rocko, an average everyman, is continuously put through hardships that come with seemingly simple things.  It barely turns out unpleasant because most of the hardships feel inherent, are exaggerated for laughs, and most of the time aren’t inflicted by outside sources or dumb decisions.  This time, it becomes frustrating that all adversities Rocko and his friends are put through are self-inflicted. 
The route to the campsite reveals it to be a mall that imitates nature.  It’s the outdoors sport that most visitors, including Heffer and Filburt, enjoy.  While it is a fair point that this isn’t actually camping, it’s clearly what the guys are better adjusted to.  For that, it makes Rocko’s decision to ditch this clear sense of luxury near impossible to support.  He and his friends instead set up camp in a section of woods a distance behind the mall, and from there it’s nothing but survival struggles.  It’s just things going wrong for these characters used to suburban living and decent hygiene. 
The longer they endure the harshness of the wilderness, the more it’s hammered in that they are not cut out for camping like this.  They lose the tent and can’t get decent food and water.  It’s especially concerning that their hunger ends up feeling so genuine that it’s near impossible to have a fun time watching these characters take on modern life like it usually is.  Yes, they suffer on a regular basis, but the cartoons usually let the challenge happen and the characters keep their cool all throughout.  Here, the effects of struggling in the wild feel too believable to get invested on an entertaining level.  There are even some forms of suffering unfairly personally inflicted on the protagonists. Creatures steal their stuff, and when it seems like it’s raining steaks for them, they turn out to be for shrews who chase them away.  It’s honestly unfortunate that this mean-spiritedness hurts the cartoon this much when the show usually has a good handle on it. 
That said, there are still plenty of enjoyable moments in this camping trip.  There’s solid laughs from Heffer’s attempts to set up the tent before it’s destroyed, and Filburt declaring the lake water disgusting via a visual gag of fish dating in it.  Even when squirrels eat all of Heffer’s food, the occurrence is capped by humorous one-liners from them.  Attempts at finding food are also quite humorous with each character getting up to a memorable escapade although Rocko’s seemed a bit much for the censors.  Because of this, you can’t see it on DVD releases or modern reruns. 
Here it is now for your viewing pleasure though:
Also the conclusion is satisfying when they all go back to Rocko’s house to camp out there with all the modern amenities they could hope for.  Even so, it shows that they could’ve just done something like this in the first place to avoid their suffering. Maybe if their outdoor camping didn’t go as horribly wrong as it did, there’d be more of a point. There’s still a decent amount of enjoyment here, but like most camping episodes, it supports the belief that everyone should stay away from the great outdoors.
C+


Kiss Me I’m Foreign
Ridiculous concepts were pretty much made for animation.  The medium of no limitations can provide all the essentials to make anything work.  Among many oddball story ideas out there, this is one that’s very creative in setup and is believable through the strengths of the characters.  In addition, this cartoon is also one to put a humorous spin on some of the more complex issues of life such as immigration and citizenship. 
Apparently, Rocko hasn’t been qualified as a citizen of the United States so he has to be deported back home to Australia.  It’s a huge event that could force him out of the principal setting of the whole series though it’s not exactly staged as particularly emotional.  That said, it’s a bit unsettling that his neighbors hold a surprise party over Rocko being deported.  Thankfully, this is a matter of misunderstanding when most of the party is quick to turn things around so Rocko can stay, except of course for Ed Bighead. 
It’s from this relatable topic that brings on the bizarre story premise when Rocko’s citizenship is maintained through being roped into a marriage with Filburt.  This is one of those pairings of characters that convincingly work well as friends, but picturing them as a married couple is really crossing the line.  Attempting to make the façade convincing leads to a lot of awkwardness with Rocko and the others acting like Filburt’s a female.  Fortunately through awareness of how crazy all this is and hilarious images such as Filburt as a bride, gown and all, the awkwardness feels very funny to the audience. 
The approach to this interesting concept even continues to the actual married life.  Filburt takes the role of Rocko’s wife very seriously through adhering to all the usual motions of the general idea of married life.  Through it all, Rocko has no good reason to talk against it with the government official hounding him, and the fake marriage needing to be maintained to avoid deportation.  This makes for many humorous occurrences of Filburt as a happy housewife through preparing Rocko for his day and constantly calling him while he’s busy at work.  Filburt does turn from supportive to unreasonably frustrated out of nowhere, but this flaw is made to work through the cartoon’s nature.  It has the phony marriage feel like a real one considering that arguments are kind of a given from anyone living together.  Seeing him go from supportive to agitated and lazy is a stark yet funny contrast especially when his fights with Rocko are creatively interpreted as a boxing match.  Even funnier is that they transcend to friendly conversations like when Filburt explains his behavior and Rocko thanking him for being a good friend while still sounding tense. 
Clearly the cartoon does a lot with its out-there premise.  However, there’s room for endearment from Filburt needing to marry Rocko.  It effects the possibility of ending up with his true love, Dr. Hutchison.  By the way, the chemistry they show towards each other is a nice continuation of the events of an earlier cartoon.  It honestly makes certain moments kind of emotional, even if they’re followed by a joke later like when Dr. Hutchison is stopped just as she's about to break into song.  By the end, their relationship sounds possible after all when Rocko is named a US citizen in the end.  However, this feels somewhat contrived for a lack of a reason for the sudden citizenship and it’s never mentioned that Rocko and Filburt are technically still married.  It may end with a couple head-scratchers, but it’s nevertheless impressive for the cartoon to turn out as good as it does with a premise so bizarre.
One more thing, it’s remarkable that Rocko and Filburt, two males getting married predates today’s frequent LGBT representation by nearly two decades.  Think of how more meaningful it would’ve been if Filburt didn’t need to pretend to be female and the marriage remained legit.
A

The Ranking
  1. Rocko’s Modern Christmas
  2. Tickled Pinky
  3. Boob Tubed
  4. Kiss Me I’m Foreign
  5. The Lounge Singer
  6. Road Rash
  7. I Have No Son
  8. Commuted Sentence
  9. Down the Hatch
  10. Pipe Dreams
  11. She’s the Toad
  12. Hut Sut Raw
The next Rocko's Modern Life review is on another full-length cartoon where Heffer's grandpa, for all his stereotypical grumpy old man behavior, gets solid development during a cruise.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews, I pick up where we left off with Steven Universe Season 3 with the episode "Crack the Whip."
If you would like to check out other Rocko's Modern Life reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.

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