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Episode 55
Once again, a cartoon is created around a humorous
interpretation of an event in history.
The results are solid fun if you’re into comedic chases and messing with
big intimidating jerks taking what rightfully belongs to the littler
people.
The time period is during the
Gold Rush whose start is given a light-hearted interpretation. We have three random settlers minding their
own business travelling through the country singing a soothing carefree ballad. Then the instant they find a
small piece of gold, craziness ensues as many more settlers are drawn to that
once barren and peaceful section of country.
That’s pretty much the best way to depict so many people from across
America coming to one place in the name of gold. After all, who wouldn’t be attracted to a
place which is bountiful with a substance that can easily make you rich?
With the setting established, we’re all set
to follow the Warners through it all as they go mining for gold. Further proving that their cartoonish ways
put them ahead of the pack, they keep on finding gold like it’s nothing right
down to arranging them by size.
Unsurprisingly, their progress gets the attention of one particular
greedy claim jumper. Now, this claim jumper honestly isn’t too interesting as a
character. He’s incredibly basic in his
goals and personality when trying to take the Warners’ gold for himself. This wouldn’t mean much if he was funny, but
that’s simply not the case. His dialog,
schemes, and even his reactions to the prospect of gold only paint him as
exactly what he looks like. Plus, even
though they twist his tricks around through acts like finding big pieces of
gold in a spot he thought there weren’t any, the Warners seem easily
overpowered against him. Just after
finding those big gold pieces, the claim jumper easily sends them over a cliff
and steals their gold. It just doesn’t
feel right that these energetic and capable characters would just lose what’s
theirs so easily. Thankfully, they’re
plenty capable as they spend the rest of the cartoon getting their gold back.
Most of their gags involve surprising the
claim jumper by appearing with simple amenities like a glass of lemonade
ridiculously priced at one gold piece.
Perhaps you can see this as an exaggeration of the concept of
inflation. This also applies to rescues
when the claim jumper falls off a cliff, Yakko and Wakko rescue him, but let
him fall when he refuses to pay in gold.
The energy is also up when the claim jumper gets so mad that he chases
the kids for messing with him while frequently paying a toll to cross a bridge. Finally, he ends up losing all his gold in
exchange for fuses to light dynamite he got for free. It blows up a mountain containing the biggest
gold piece of all, but the claim jumper doesn’t get any of it as it’s
immediately taken by a huge crowd of people.
It seems like a coincidence that the Warners would lead their enemy to a
lot of gold and then have other people take it from him. Then again, it’s also in line with their
nature where they just seem to know things before they happen. This is further proven with one last gag
where they purchase the land from the claim jumper that seems worthless, but
they know it’s loaded with far more valuable oil.
For all the ways they seem to get easily
beaten around, in the end these kids truly are capable of forging their own
path to success. This isn’t the most
interesting time they’ve done it, but it’s still an entertaining showing of
their golden standards.
A-
A Gift of
Gold
This is yet another one of the show’s one-off cartoons, but
that’s not necessarily a weak point in this episode’s quality this time
around. While it’s true that most of
them are sub-par stories that seem more focused on being cutesy fluff than
grand scale animated experiences, there’s something impactful to this one. Granted, it’s still largely out of the show’s
standards and can be off-putting from people expecting the norm, but on its own
merit, there’s something interesting to gain.
It’s a look into what something as simple as a piece of wrapping paper
goes through during the process of wrapping up a gift and then being ripped
open and disposed of. The paper being
gold and pretty looking brings to mind an idea that looks really aren’t what
make a character. No matter how
beautiful things are in appearance, they can still be treated the same way as
things that don’t look nearly as stylish.
This gold wrapping paper may be the most beautiful in the department
store, but it’s still wrapping paper as it soon eventually discovers.
The underlying narration gives a believable
mindset to what it may be thinking thorough every phase of its journey. When it’s picked to wrap up a toy, it seems
like it’s the most special thing in the world.
Then these good feelings change when the present is offered as a
birthday gift. Giving a better
connection to what we know of the show, the girl receiving the present is
Mindy, and she seems pretty savage as she rips open the paper for the gift. It doesn’t feel right since she’s meant to go
for things out of innocence and affection for what seems cute. She never intends to cause trouble. Perhaps it’s done this way to purposefully
exaggerate the wrapping paper’s torture of being ripped.
Then comes the more somber part of the
wrapping paper’s journey as it’s thrown away as most wrapping paper typically
is. The narration continues to bring
believable emotion to how it could feel at this part. However, fate is constantly at play in this
gold wrapping paper’s case as it’s constantly blown to various locations. It
may avoid the dump, but it’s also brought to the middle of a highway, nearly
sinks in water, and gets part of itself torn off in a lower part of the
neighborhood. The big thing about this
is that things like this can happen with actual wrapping paper in real
life. The focus on it as it's put through
this suffering and the descriptions of it help its believability and sell the
emotional impact of the plight.
In the
end though, there’s a believable positive outcome for the wrapping paper. It’s picked up by a homeless man to wrap
another birthday gift and later saved by his son who appreciates all the little
things he gets since he lives in such poor conditions. That’s a healthy attitude for
the homeless, and the wrapping paper finding a true home with this family is
one of the show’s most endearing. It
helps that it comes with a wholesome proverb on life about how in a world where
so much is disposable, it’s nice when the little things are appreciated.
While this is still not a good fit with the
norm of the show, I can’t help but admire how successful this cartoon is at
making a simple piece of wrapping paper so endearing.
A
Dot’s Quiet
Time
Among the many things to love about the Warners is how they
make huge entertaining acts out of things in life that would otherwise seem
mundane. That’s not even mentioning how
much it helps that it sometimes comes with an exciting song.
Take this one for instance centering on Dot
simply wanting peace and quiet so she can read a book. However, the moment Yakko and Wakko come in
to play war complete with loaded cannons and ammunitions, she becomes
increasingly annoyed by the noise. This
is what brings on the song as she demands for peace and quiet. It goes all out with dynamics through the
direction of focusing on her rage enacted through her demands for quiet. Sometimes the camera zooms in on her face
every time she says quiet, and other times her demands are enhanced as she
finishes each verse with a scream or yell.
Along with the tempo of the music and all the words she’s able to rhyme
with quiet, something that could usually come off as annoying is perfectly
funny and expressive.
While she's looking for someplace quiet, the song portion
takes long gaps as Dot comes to various spots around the world, and ensuing
gags ruin the silence. That’s not
exactly the best route to take which makes you question why Dot was even
singing her desire for quiet in the first place. At least the fun is still intact from the
gags. She settles in a field that seems
peaceful, but little things from the bugs and animals doing their thing turns
out to be too loud and enraging for Dot.
There’s also a lot of energy through how fast we see Dot travel across
the world in the name of silence for a simple insignificant pastime. She goes to Paris to read in Notre Dame, but
its ringing bells dispel the serenity she initially finds there. She goes to Scotland, but runs into a man
playing bagpipes by chance. An even
bigger freak event occurs when she reaches an island just as a volcano apparently
erupts.
Then there’s the payoff to all
this when Dot finally gets her quiet from atop a mountain. After getting what she wanted all this time,
she sings one last verse deciding that she hates quiet and would rather read to
really loud music. Ultimately, her
cartoonish nature just has different preferences to her mind. It’s the most logical reason why quiet would
turn out to be so bad for her. While it
may go back and forward between being a song most of the time, what we have
here is still a fun look at how the Warners spend their down time.
A-
Cartoon Ranking
1. Frontier Slappy
2. The Warners and the Beanstalk
3. Brain Meets Brawn
4. Yes, Always
5. Drive Insane
6. Meet Minerva
7. A Gift of Gold
8. Ups and Downs
9. Gold Rush
10. The Brave Little Trailer
11. Girlfeathers
Song Ranking
1. I’m Cute
2. Dot’s Quiet Time
Miscellaneous Ranking
1. Branimaniacs
That’s
it for Disc 1 of this DVD volume. Stay tuned for the next review that kicks off the second disc with a particularly global episode with the Warners learning the International Friendship Song, Pinky and the Brain accidentally turning an infomercial audience into yodelers, a Mindy and Buttons cartoon in French, and Chicken Boo as a kung fu master.
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