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Episode 54
Brain
Meets Brawn
A trope as intriguing as the Jekyll and Hyde transformation
and the dynamic Pinky and the Brain relationship make for an effective combination. There are many opportunities to spin what
makes someone go from refined to monstrous at any circumstance. For that, there’s no doubt that this setup is
one of the things best suited for animation, literally the easiest way to make
anything happen. Add in two different
characters working off of each other to entertaining effect, and the result is
one of their most winning entries.
The
whole cartoon takes place in England with the mice being pets of Dr. Jekyll
himself. Seeing him take that potion to
become the Mr. Hyde monster inspires Brain’s plan for world domination playing
to one of England’s customs. The plan is
to go into the famed clock tower, Big Ben, to trap the world in infinite
teatime so all of England’s populace will be stuck having tea leaving the mice
open to take over. There’s a slight hole
in Brain’s logic through assuming that every single person will be ready for
tea at one specific time. Surely some
people won’t be able to make it to teatime and will be open to stop the mice. Then again, during the
opening when the police pursue Mr. Hyde, they all comically stop for tea, so
maybe there is a point in this cartoon’s context.
Anyway, once Brain gets Dr. Jekyll’s potion,
the usual convention is in full swing and brings many strong funny bits. Brain’s usual frustrations with Pinky’s
nonsense plays a role in the plan where Brain becomes monstrous whenever Pinky
makes him mad. By the way, the
transformation scenes are particular marvels with how Brain snaps fluidly from
pose to pose before becoming a big green monster. As for how he turns back, all Pinky has to do
is apologize and Brain quickly regains his true form. These rules seem basic enough, but Pinky
being true to himself and Brain’s low patience enacts the formula at random
times. Pinky’s simple observations on
the world no matter where they are be they on a clothesline or in a can bring
surprise appearances of that monstrous Brain.
They make for comedic falls from a heavy creature on a flimsy line or a
small mouse easily breaking out of something usually big enough to hold
him. Turning back brings some fun gags
too. Brain in his monstrous form goes to take out men guarding Big Ben, and
Pinky’s apology breaking the effect makes Brain drop them, knocking them
out.
When inside Big Ben for Brain to
get his strength to block the clock, there’s also good humor from Pinky’s poor
attempts to anger his friend on purpose.
It turns out attempts are angering enough, but failure is still in sight
on both accounts. Brain tells Pinky to
dislodge the pallet to put Big Ben in infinite teatime, but doesn’t really
explain what the pallet is. Also Pinky
apologizes and turns Brain back to normal at the wrong time, but then again,
that’s practically involuntary; anyone would do that without thinking. For comedy’s sake, we get one last elaborate
sequence of the mice getting knocked out of the clock as the bells play
“Chopsticks” like Pinky wanted. Also, we
end with one last comedic bit of Pinky unsure whether to apologize or hit Brain
as he shrinks to a smaller than average size.
That after effect is also a good reason for Brain to abandon the plan
even if he can just try again, along with a mention that he’s worried for his
health.
The Jekyll and Hyde formula
turns out to be a great for Pinky and the Brain featuring a clever use of mythos and gags from two characters doing their thing.
A+
Meet
Minerva
Despite being the cartoon meant to introduce Minerva Mink,
this is not the first time she’s been prominently featured in a segment, main
character or otherwise. I discussed a cartoon starring her before, but it wasn’t too strong. Minerva certainly showed potential, but there
was very little to her apart from being vain and opinionated over potential
mates.
Thankfully, in this cartoon’s
favor, something substantial is done with her intense beauty which, by the way,
really has a lot of thought put into it.
This direction really makes the infatuations towards her from all male
creatures make sense. Granted, Minerva
is still largely opinionated as we start with her blowing off a lot of calls
from people wanting to date her.
Unlike
the last time where that was the plot’s driving force though, Minerva’s stronger
potential as a character shows as she really uses her beauty to her
advantage. We have male creatures going
nuts over how attractive she looks while she’s simply going to the pond to
bathe. It even reaches out to the usual
Warners cameo where instead of just running through the scene, Yakko and Wakko
visibly run up to fawn over her before Dot knocks them silly. All throughout, she remains calm and
collected as she goes about her business without making a big deal of how
gorgeous she is. She looks amazing, she
knows it, and she doesn’t have to think too hard about it.
This comes into play
during the main conflict where a blue dog named Newt is assigned to hunt down
Minerva so his master can get her fur.
It’s here where Minerva’s beauty is put to its best use as she utilizes
it for retaliation against a mink’s natural predator.
We have Newt setting up traps and
deliberately telling Minerva that he’s here to hunt her, assuming she’s all
good looks and no smarts. This
assumption is clearly wrong as Minerva has all the smart she needs to accompany
her good looks. She plays to her
attractiveness by pretending to find Newt cute with a little kiss on the nose,
or having him do her favors like dig all the way to China for food or blow on
her wet legs. Acts like this send Newt
into a crazy spin of infatuation, easily the most elaborate bits of the
cartoon. The extreme reactions to things
like Minerva’s smiles and appearances of her outfits and body bring many huge
standout bits. They include funny line
deliveries from his voice actor and extreme stunts as he does her bidding or
literally falls over the mink’s beauty.
Newt still remembers what he’s meant to do despite what Minerva does to
him, though he’s led to carry it out in a crazed manner by the end. Heck, he even gets to the point of talking to
himself during a crazy stunt to blow her up despite clearly potentially messing with her
fur.
For all the ways Minerva’s beauty
helps her, she still has a shallow mindset when it comes to actually finding a
mate. We end with proof that she’s as
weak as everyone else as she goes crazy over a handsome male like Newt and the
other males did to her. Thankfully, with
all the benefits from her being so attractive, this ending moment hardly leaves
a huge sting, and the cartoon is still quite strong as it is. It’s a shame this is the last time we’ll see
Minerva in the spotlight considering how her strong wits make her stand out
from other characters priding themselves on good looks. It goes to show it really is harder than you
think to be a gorgeous mink, but an interesting experience nonetheless.
A
Cartoon Ranking
- Frontier Slappy
- The Warners and the Beanstalk
- Brain Meets Brawn
- Yes, Always
- Drive Insane
- Meet Minerva
- Ups and Downs
- The Brave Little Trailer
- Girlfeathers
Song Ranking
- I’m Cute
Miscellaneous Ranking
- Branimaniacs
The next Animaniacs review puts the Warners in the Gold Rush, tells an interesting story of the life of gold wrapping paper, and Dot kind of sings a song about wanting quiet.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews is the Season 4 finale to Steven Universe "I Am My Mom."
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