Time is Money Part 1: Marking Time (DuckTales Vol 3 Part 15) - 'Toon Reviews 25

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Time is Money Part 1: Marking Time

The second season consists solely of two story arcs, and the rest of the DVD is their separate parts.  This episode is the first part of the first arc.  It’s about time travel to the past, making for a prehistoric adventure of dinosaurs and caveducks.  The arc starts as a standard fortune hunting plot, but then focuses on incorporating some of the prehistoric elements into the main series.  The following few reviews will elaborate on how good of a change this is. 

The fortune hunt starting it all is as enjoyable as always.  Scrooge further impresses with deal-making when he buys his rival Flintheart Glomgold’s westernmost island.  It seems worthless compared to the other islands, but that’s Scrooge’s brilliance at play.  That island has a cave filled with coal that turned into diamonds over millions of years.  This has got to be one of the best moments of Scrooge making a fortune out nothing. 

However, he’s not without drawbacks here.  Flintheart eavesdrops on Scrooge’s claim of the diamonds and separates the island so the diamond cave isn’t the westernmost, all unbeknownst.  Because his greed won’t let him put up with going without the find he justly bought, Scrooge has Gyro Gearloose make a time machine to go back in time to reclaim the cave.  Right here, we have a problem.  The story has Gyro make a time machine powered by a huge clock and a popsicle-like fuel source, bombastium.  While that’s very creative, the episode, and the whole arc, ignore the fact that Gyro already has a time machine Scrooge can use, the time tub.  That wasn’t even a one-off invention. It’s been used and mentioned multiple times.  With no mention of the time tub, it seems this new time machine was made just so the arc could occur, even if it doesn’t make sense.  It’s this time machine’s complications that cause Scrooge, the boys, and Launchpad to end up on the island a million years off the mark. 

Now, if you can ignore this leap in continuity, this prehistoric adventure is enjoyable enough.  It’s also cute through the appearance of a caveduck named Bubba.  When he first sees Scrooge appear out of the time machine, he sees him as a god-like figure and shows him loyalty with any random object around to offer.  This, along with his lonely cave home with only a pet triceratops given the name Tootsie for company, hint that he’s all over Scrooge because he’s never had his own true family.  If that’s the case, then that makes Bubba’s bonds with the gang endearing.  That said, Bubba is also very reckless with his antics adding to the group’s already stressful conflict and doesn’t provide much productivity apart from hanging out with the boys.  Along with his scrappy voice and broken English, it’s clear that Bubba is all right for one appearance, but isn’t exactly the best character to see a lot of. 

That said, finding Bubba does prove beneficial to Scrooge’s goal.  Bubba’s cave is where Scrooge found the coal-turned diamonds, so he leaves marks to claim the cave a million years ahead of his deal with Flintheart.  Near the end of this episode, Bubba also plays a big part in helping the group escape a huge T-Rex.  Even so, the problems with Bubba persist, so it’s a bit conflicting when he and Tootsie end up on board the time machine with the others.  These feelings are only going to grow for the rest of the arc. 

In spite of a few disregards of continuity for the plot to work and minor character gripes, this is a thoroughly fun adventure to start the arc.  Now we move onto where the time machine sends everyone next…

A-

The Ranking

1. Once Upon a Dime
2. Duck in the Iron Mask
3. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. McDuck
4. Spies in Their Eyes
5. Nothing to Fear
6. The Uncrashable Hindentanic
7. Dime Enough for Luck
8. Duck to the Future
9. Launchpad’s First Crash
10. Jungle Duck
11. Ducky Horror Picture Show
12. Time is Money Part 1: Marking Time
13. All Ducks on Deck
14. Till Nephews Do Us Part
15. The Status Seekers

The next DuckTales review is about the time period Scrooge and the gang end up in... which has nothing to do with the rest of the arc.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is "The Beeper Queen" and "Oskar Can't Read" from Hey Arnold.

If you would like to check out other DuckTales reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.

Big Gino / Jamie O in Love (Hey Arnold Season 4 Episode 4) - 'Toon Reviews 28

If you like this review and want to stay updated for what else I have in store, become a follower of this blog, click here to like the official Facebook page, and click here to follow me on Twitter. Now on with today's review:

Big Gino

Shows can easily appeal to both kids and adults with a strong use of stories and characters.  A broader approach is having a story star kid characters who also make references adults are more likely to get.  In this case, the adult reference is of one of the most acclaimed films ever, albeit one I’ve personally yet to see, The Godfather.  This cartoon doesn’t just reference that film, it has an interesting take on its tone by combining it with childlike mannerisms and interests. 

There’s a Godfather-like kid called Big Gino, who’s actually quite small, with his own personal mafia of schoolkids.  Sid offers to sell candy from him, and makes big bucks fast although he’s supposed to give Gino some of the profit.  Instead, Sid uses all his earnings to buy a toy he’s always wanted, a rocking horse.  For not holding up his end of the bargain, Gino and his gang show they mean business via a G-rated version of the infamous horse head scene from The Godfather. 

At Arnold’s encouragement, Sid goes to Big Gino to explain his mistake and try to work something out.  Through hamming up the established homages and references, Gino says the best way for Sid to repay his debt is for him to be part of his gang.  From there, Sid joins the kid mafia by pressuring kids into buying things from Big Gino, and enjoys the power and perks that come with it.  It’s a usual case that Sid would be easily swayed to do anything no matter how extreme, and it’s interesting that he values Gino treating him like a friend more than any money he gets. 

That said, it is kind of unclear if Sid does benefit monetarily from joining the kid mafia.  Arnold, the reasonable one, looks into the situation logically as he watches Sid get easily swayed by Gino’s influence.  He brings up to Sid the question if it’s really wise to consider Gino his friend.  After all, since he did have Sid’s favorite toy destroyed, he’s still not exactly the understanding type.  Sid thinks nothing of these claims, but he does get conflicted somewhat not long after.  Gino hears Arnold badmouth him, and assigns Sid to give him a swirly, i.e. put Arnold’s head in the toilet.  It’s pleasing that Sid grows a backbone out of this through getting conflicted over doing this.  He even goes up to Arnold, explains the truth on the matter, and asks him if he could give him a swirly.  Of course Arnold says no to that, but it’s far better than the expected outcome of Sid being awkward about the setup instead of open and honest.  It’s a welcome and logical change of pace coming from him. 

However, he also repeats old flaws of ignoring Gino who keeps checking up on him to see if he got the job done.  You’d think Sid would know the consequences of not listening to Gino by now.  Then again, Sid usually isn’t all that logical.  He’s caught by the kid mafia after a time asking Sid who he really values.  While it is at the last minute, Sid does show some logic by choosing Arnold over Gino, even if it means getting tossed out of the gang and getting a swirly himself.  This probably would have happened if Sid told the truth from the start, but it’s still great that he makes the right decisions on his own accord.

So, in addition to having a lot of nice class from what it parodies, this cartoon benefits as a strong starring role for Sid, which is honestly pretty rare.

A

Jamie O in Love

One big thing that typically works against something turning out good is if it stars a character who’s one-dimensionally bad for no reason and gets little to no consequences. 

This is the case for Gerald’s older brother Jamie O.  Prior to this cartoon, he’s mostly made cameos with occasional scenes of his overbearing jerkiness.  Now, it’s the catalyst for an entire cartoon which already starts working against it.  There’s also no believable reason to why he treats his own brother so badly other than a stereotype that it’s just what tough older siblings do.  It’s frustrating to watch the innocent put up with such one-dimensional brute force that no one bothers to do anything about.  Yes, siblings mess with each other, but it’s usually balanced out with some form of love.  They’re part of the same family, so they should understand they need someone to look up to in life. 

Then one day, Jamie O suddenly adopts a completely new persona where instead of mercilessly bullying Gerald, he’s blissfully at his service.  He’s making him deserts, buying him stuff, and driving him places.  Given how hard Jamie O was unapologetically messing with Gerald at the cartoon’s start, this is practically surreal, and also out of nowhere.  It’s so strange that Arnold and Gerald spy on Jamie O to see the cause for his change in behavior.  Through picking up the details, it isn’t because he’s seen the error of his ways.  It’s all because he’s in love with a cute looking girl named Cherice.  Even if it’s great to see Gerald get served this much from his brother, the fact that Jamie O is doing this out of love is pretty shallow.  Is there some sort of code that tough boys are supposed to lay off their animosity because of a crush?  Love for an outsider wouldn’t just automatically get rid of another part of one’s character, bad as it is.  It also doesn’t make sense that Jamie O would be this willing to server Gerald.  He already puts in a lot of labor and money for Cherice, so how can there be this much of them left to spare? 

Then Gerald notices a catch to the crush when Cherice reveals to her friend that she really doesn’t reciprocate Jamie O’s feelings.  She’s just faking it so he’ll do stuff for him, also unfortunately making her seem one-dimensional.  Gerald’s all set up to expose this fraud to his brother, but that would be at the risk of losing the brotherly love he’s getting now.  It’s honestly confusing as to what the right thing for Gerald to do is.  It’s bad that Cherice is using him, but given how thuggish he was to Gerald, helping Jamie O should probably not be this pressing of a matter.  There also isn’t a good reason for this other than Jamie O’s his brother, but even then, he never really made much of an attempt to respect him as a brother prior to meeting Cherice. 

Even Gerald can't stand to see Jamie O break down over failing to get things done for a fraud, and that moment leads him to tell him the truth.  Jamie O later overhears Cherice badmouth him, and is basically back to normal.  Fortunately, he does seem to mean it when he says he’ll treat Gerald better as the cartoon ends with him expressing brotherly love, in his own authoritative way though.  At least it’s some form of respect.  The ending does save the cartoon from being outright bad, but a presence of one-dimensional jerks and shallow and confusing plot points leave a sting too big to ignore.

C-

The Ranking

1. Dinner for Four
2. Stinky’s Pumpkin
3. Big Gino
4. Phoebe Skips
5. Eugene’s Birthday
6. Student Teacher
7. Jamie O in Love
8. Full Moon

The next Hey Arnold review shows Helga's mom adopt a new role as the beeper queen bringing a great new home life for Helga...for a while anyway, and Oskar Kokoshka is revealed to be illiterate.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is the first part of the "Time is Money" arc from DuckTales.

If you would like to check out other Hey Arnold reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.

Til Nephews Do Us Part (DuckTales Vol 3 Part 14) - 'Toon Reviews 25

If you like this review and want to stay updated for what else I have in store, become a follower of this blog, click here to like the official Facebook page, and click here to follow me on Twitter. Now on with today's review:

Till Nephews Do Us Part

Included on this DVD is the Season 1 finale to make this series suitable for syndication, i.e. the 65^th episode.  There are more episodes to discuss after this though.  Marking such a milestone, you’d expect this episode to do something big.  While the main plot does mark huge moments for the featured characters, a few story decisions honestly don’t make it as grand as it could’ve been. 

Scrooge goes to an investor’s office to buy land in Malaria so he can search for the lost relish, that is to say land in Malaysia so he can find its lost relics.  There, he meets Millionara Vanderbucks, who agrees to settle a deal while getting intimate.  Scrooge sees something endearing in Millionara through their money conversations. 

If sounding obsessed over money isn’t suspicious, there’s Millionara’s behavior.  When she arrives at the mansion, she seems overly uptight especially with disgusted looks to the kids.  In other words, Millionara is a bad person and everyone except Scrooge is aware of this.  Because of this, it’s a big problem that Scrooge is too dumb to notice.  He’s greedy, but his good morality has always been key to his character.  Falling for Millionara and being quick to propose to her does no justice for him, and it’s unfortunate that this is the case to make the plot work. 

If that’s not enough, Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Webby discover she plans to take over Scrooge’s fortune and get rid of the kids and mansion staff after the wedding.  This makes Millionara a one-dimensional greedy antagonist whose possible depth is a lie.  It makes it too easy to not want the marriage to happen and frustrating that Scrooge easily goes along with her lies. 

Since all the other characters agree that Millionara is no good, the episode’s later direction is pleasing.  The boys invite Millionara along on a quest for the lost relics of Malaysia.  In classic Huey, Dewey, and Louie fashion, they pull off many hilarious pranks in an attempt to coax her out of wanting to marry Scrooge.  My personal favorite is when they try to scare her as a made up tribe with fake masks, and an actual tribesman appears.  The pranks really stand out because unlike instances like their classic Disney shorts and a few times in this show, there’s a legit reason for them here.  It’s for the greater benefit of themselves and their friends. 

Unfortunately, the payoff puts all these pranks to waste.  As Millionara complains about the creatures and tribes, Scrooge is quick to find that the names don’t exist and uncover the boys.  For how resourceful they are, it’s disappointing that they didn’t use real names for the pranks.  It also begs the question why they don’t just expose Millionara with what they heard right there.  My best guess is so there could be a big gathering of the main cast with cameos of nearly all the past one-off characters for Scrooge’s wedding.  That at least makes this syndication marking episode something special.  Scrooge also sees sense when at the last minute. He deduces that Millionara only wants to marry him for his money and calls the wedding off. This is capped off by a crazy ending where Scrooge is chased away by his jealous old crush, Glittering Goldie suddenly appearing out of the wedding cake to chase Scrooge. 

In all, while the episode is a little weak in parts of the story and characters, it impresses significantly in areas and builds up to a fitting end scene for the first season.  It’s not the best way to celebrate reaching the big 65, but it still feels like something special.

B+

The Ranking

1. Once Upon a Dime
2. Duck in the Iron Mask
3. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. McDuck
4. Spies in Their Eyes
5. Nothing to Fear
6. The Uncrashable Hindentanic
7. Dime Enough for Luck
8. Duck to the Future
9. Launchpad’s First Crash
10. Jungle Duck
11. Ducky Horror Picture Show
12. All Ducks on Deck
13. Till Nephews Do Us Part
14. The Status Seekers

The next DuckTales review is on the start of the "Time is Money" arc where we meet Bubba the caveduck.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews from Hey Arnold, it's "Big Gino" and "Jamie O in Love."

If you would like to check out other DuckTales reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.

Full Moon / Student Teacher (Hey Arnold Season 4 Episode 3) - 'Toon Reviews 28

If you like this review and want to stay updated for what else I have in store, become a follower of this blog, click here to like the official Facebook page, and click here to follow me on Twitter. Now on with today's review:

Full Moon

Do you ever feel uncomfortable or frustrated watching someone get berated and punished for something he or she had nothing to do with?  I personally never really like it because I see no appealing entertainment to the setup and feel somewhat hurt over how unfair the world is for that one character.  That’s what happens with Arnold in this cartoon. 

He’s just minding his own business when he finds Harold, Stinky, and Sid pull off a risky prank of mooning Principal Wartz.  The big thing about it is that we actually see them do it with a full view of their bare butts even if it is for about a second.  Then again, maybe because of that and the fact that butts are shown fully in other shows doesn’t make this al that risqué.  Anyway, because Arnold was present when the mooning happened, he’s reported to Principal Wartz’s office.  Even though he wasn’t a part of the prank, Principal Wartz is on his case as he pushes Arnold to reveal who was responsible.  Because Arnold makes it clear that he’s not a snitch and the prank had nothing to do with him, he’s punished with four weeks of detention. 

After that, this is all this cartoon is devoted to.  Arnold suffers through detention for an act he was not a part of.  It can be argued that he intends for this to happen because he won’t call out the real mooners, but even if that’s so, there are still many factors that make the setup unfair.  For one, it’s hard to believe that Principal Wartz would be unable to recognize the real mooners on his own.  It may have been from the back, but the heads and clothes of Harold, Stinky, and Sid are hard to miss.  Also, while the mooning shouldn’t have been done, it’s one of those wrong things that’s relatively harmless.  However, Principal Wartz keeps treating it like a heinous act and brings the ridiculous outcome of putting an eye out.  It may be normal for him to make a big deal out of every little wrongdoing, but given how it’s not very enjoyable, this trait really does not make him a good character.  Finally, he’s inconsiderate about Arnold refusing to tell and that maybe there’s a personal reason that he isn’t even trying to understand. 

With all this said, the problem isn’t that Arnold is refusing to call out the mooners, but that the world around him is overbearingly harsh for making a big deal of it.  If you factor out the unfairness of Arnold’s treatment, the cartoon is pretty repetitive which makes it mundane.  Once Arnold is in detention, the same events happen throughout the runtime.  He has a session where he’s lectured how mooning is bad, Harold makes sure he doesn’t tell on them, others convince him to confess, and Arnold refuses.  It’s hard to stay invested with the same events occurring. 

Thankfully, the conclusion makes all of this somewhat better.  Harold’s guilt over the prank does grow over time leading up to a noble act.  Just as Arnold’s about to get a mark on his permanent record for not cooperating, Harold, Stinky, and Sid burst into Principal Wartz’s office and confess that they’re the culprits.  It’s an amusingly dramatic moment that’s topped off by giving Arnold the respect he deserves.  Granted it’s not completely noble since Arnold had to endure all four weeks of detention, but their respect is still plenty genuine.  Still, the fact that they waited to the last minute and there’s a lot of Arnold’s unfair suffering make it one of the weaker entries.  I wouldn’t exactly moon this cartoon, but I wouldn’t keep coming back to it either.

D

Student Teacher

I feel like at this point, cartoons about Helga’s problems with her older sister, Olga, are pretty repetitive.  Olga comes home for some sort of break from college and Helga’s rightfully annoyed that her parents value Olga more than her, vowing to ruin her reputation somehow.  They don’t even follow up on positive developments like how Olga’s perfection is an act she’s not proud of and Helga deciding that her sister’s safety is more important than her grudge.  This setup holds any cartoon on this subject back, including this one.  However, it’s not without a few redeeming qualities. 

For one thing, it is nice that Olga points out that a big thing she wants to do now that she’s home is get closer to her “baby sister.”  This can be looked at as her giving Helga the love and attention she needs especially since you can see the parents look uninterested as Olga talks about this.  Helga is even somewhat open to this which is nice.  However, she gets uncomfortable with Olga’s new direction when she learns that she’s becoming a student teacher in her class for the semester. 

In a nice turn of events, Helga tells Olga the reasons for her discomfort.  She fears Olga, who knows things about her sister that others don’t, will ruin her reputation.  Olga understands what Helga says and promises not to.  This makes what happens the next day all the more frustrating when she tells the class a story about a girl with a bedwetting problem and reveals her to be Helga at the end.  You can argue that she did this to cheer up Stinky who failed a test, but was that the best example she could come up with?  It really goes to show why Helga has such a problem with her sister.  Her obliviously overly cheerful attitude makes her someone Helga really cannot trust. 

Even if her methods are extreme, it’s hard not to fault Helga as she pulls off elaborate stunts to ruin Olga’s instantly strong reputation as a student teacher.  Watching them all backfire though feels pretty mixed.  Olga finding a way around each challenge implies that Helga’s constantly at the mercy of embarrassment going off of that one story.  At the same time, it’s amusingly interesting to see how Olga makes the most out of a bad situation. 

As for Helga, she finds a way to end this thanks to Arnold, her love, taking an interest in her problem.  He encourages her to open up how she really feels about the matter to Olga.  The result is an ending with shockingly bittersweet tone.  Helga admits that she doesn’t like Olga as a student teacher and that they’re not getting any closer.  The only thing that can make her happy is if Olga leaves for another option as a student teacher…in Alaska, and she sends her sister off Casablanca style.  Even if Olga is more in the wrong in the conflict and doesn’t own up to how she embarrassed Helga, she’s somewhat sympathetic since she really did want to try and bond with Helga.  For her sake, while she’s left sad, cold, and confused, the last moment of Helga writing a postcard to her does show she has some love for Olga despite all complexities. 

The cartoon would have been stronger if it expanded upon previous developments with this sisterly relationship instead of hitting the reset button.  For all its shortcomings, I still value its effort for trying to get Helga and Olga closer in their own unusual way, even if it falls flat in a couple areas.

C-

The Ranking

1. Dinner for Four
2. Stinky’s Pumpkin
3. Phoebe Skips
4. Eugene’s Birthday
5. Student Teacher
6. Full Moon

The next Hey Arnold review introduces a kid version of the Godfather named Big Gino, and we see what Gerald's relationship with his brother, Jamie O, is like.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is the Season 1 finale for DuckTales, "'Til Nephews Do Us Part."

If you would like to check out other Hey Arnold reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.