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Episode 52
Ups
and Downs
It’s not always easy telling a compelling story with just two
characters stuck in a confined space, but this show manages to find a way. Rather than focus solely on a conflict for
the entire run time, the biggest driving force to this cartoon working is the
comedy coming from the featured characters.
Ultimately, it’s not the strongest thing the show has ever done, but it
works well for what it is.
Further
contrasting with the in-universe suggestion that Wakko doesn’t get much fan
attention, Wakko is the Warner sibling at the spotlight in this one. Alongside him is Dr. Scratchansniff taking
him up an elevator for an appointment. During
the way up, the elevator breaks down and they’re both stuck where they
are. They’re able to call maintenance,
but the men on duty are far too incompetent to be of any help.
From there, the cartoon is just Wakko and Dr.
Scratchansniff stuck in that confined elevator, and the two working off of each
other is what makes everything enjoyable.
Wakko is filled with childlike innocence through the whole ordeal,
finding a reason to smile despite how bad the situation is. He never panics, isn’t too worried that he
forgot to bring his trusty gag bag with him to get him and Dr. Scratchansniff
out, and essentially goes with the flow.
Heck, the mere fact that there are cuts to random times in-between
scenes of him singing songs shows off his great level-headedness. They’re literally stuck in that elevator for
hours and Wakko is just having a grand old time. It’s kind of like he’s a role model to all
kids should they be caught in a hopeless situation.
Then you have Dr. Scratchansniff, and after
getting very few appearances in the last review set, it’s welcome to talk about
a cartoon where he plays a big role. He gives a
more human reaction to the situation that shows clear progression in how he
reacts to how bad things are. At the
start, he’s very worried, but tries to be calm and even goes along with Wakko’s
fun time-passing activities. Then he
soon gets tired and frustrated of how things are going making for humorous
temper explosions at Wakko and the maintenance guys made funnier by his
distinguishable voice.
Basically, the
humor comes down to a human going through the expected motions of being stuck
in one place working off an innocent child with a cartoonish mindset. One’s led to insanity while the other finds
ways to enjoy himself. It’s a purely
enjoyable recipe for laughs. Apart from
the dynamics, there’s also some excitement near the end when the maintenance
people jump on the elevator and get it to speed up and down. It’s a clever direction where even when the
main characters are stuck in one place, exciting action can still happen.
I will say that the payoff to all this isn’t
too great when we end with the maintenance guys opening the elevator, and it
closes with them inside. It kind of
makes everyone look frustratingly inept and incompetent and doesn’t do anything
about the still legitimately bad situation.
Plus, wouldn’t Yakko and Dot be wondering why Wakko hasn’t come home
yet? It would have been better if they
just got out of the elevator despite missing the meeting, then something would
have been gained.
Despite that, this is
a fairly funny cartoon that knows how to make the most of being confined to one
place.
A-
The Brave
Little Trailer
One-off cartoons may reflect the classic Warner Bros cartoon
tone this show is going for, but they can really catch people off-guard and
feel out of place. This one-off cartoon
easily feels the most out of place in several ways. Not only does it feature no trace of the core
cast so the audience has nothing familiar to latch onto, but it’s also not all
that funny or clever.
The title is an
obvious play on the story The Brave
Little Tailor with the last word adding in an r and a slight retool at the
spelling. It’s presented just as an
audience going in would expect it to be, as a simple children’s story of a
talking vehicle. Not to mention, it’s
kind of hard to ignore the feeling that Winnie the Pooh is narrating the whole
thing. This isn’t the first time we get
that voice, but it’s still a very odd decision that doesn’t fit the mold of
this particular series. It could be
overlooked if what we have is strong, and while it is very cute and enjoyable,
it’s nothing special.
We have this very
small trailer who starts off as very young and active as he fends off against
raging cyclones despite his size. In
fact, he’s far more capable of survival than most of the bigger trailers who
end up broken up by the winds and fed to a steam shovel. Then time takes its toll on the trailer as he
gets weaker and more worn out to the point where you wonder why he still has a
youthful voice. The bigger trailers are
jerks to him and claim that he should be sold for scrap like the other old
trailers. Another cyclone hits and the
trailer easily gets all the other trailers safe and even beats up that
monstrous steam shovel.
That’s basically
all there is to this story thus making for something very basic with very few
standout elements in a series you usually expect to see more of a humorous edge
from. There are a few memorable
instances though such as the fun action of such a little trailer being able to outrun a big powerful machine like the steam shovel. It makes for many funny reactions to how the
steam shovel crashes down to the ground after failing to get a hold of the
trailer. Even if there’s no weakness to
this clearly competent trailer, you still get something fun out of his
confrontations with danger. The story is
also told in rhyme which makes for a slight break from the norm. It gets especially impressive when they work
in casual conversations into verse such as how the newer trailers initially
talk down to the little one. That said,
there are a few corny lines mixed into the rhyme like the trailer wishing he
was in Duluth and telling the audience about a quiz that never happens. Plus, while this cartoon is overly cutesy,
there is a small humorous edge at the end where the now aging little trailer
employs the steam shovel but doesn’t pay him for jerkiness.
These are all good attempts at enjoyment, but
overall, it’s just not one of the most standout efforts with a basic story
starring a mostly uninteresting protagonist.
It’s very good on its own, but may not be one you’ll want to revisit much.
C+
Yes, Always
One thing that makes this show stand out from others is how
it crafts its references. It doesn’t
just go for things the youth of the current generation knows. There are times when it looks into virtually
any little known media fact or obscure information tidbits and builds a cartoon
around that. This cartoon is one of the
biggest examples of that which dares to explore one of the main areas of animation,
voice acting. On a side note, unlike the
disappointing animator interview bumpers known as “Animator’s Alley,” this is a
much more insightful look at the production process. It kind of makes you wish that more cartoons
covered an area of what goes into the medium.
Anyway, the big takeaway from this cartoon’s subject matter is how it
relates to the famous person the Brain is said to be a parody of, Orson
Welles. I mean, the resemblance is kind
of there from the shape of his head to his tone of voice. The bulk of the dialog is taken from an
infamous blooper reel of a commercial Welles did for British food company
Findus in 1970. All his disagreements
and egotistical talkbacks to the voice director and audio engineer about the
writing and what he was talking over were highlighted in audio form.
This is the basis for what Brain gets up to
when going in to narrate similar scenes.
They’re also a good fit for his typical ego which he demonstrates at the
start as he belittles the crew. Just so
you know, they happen to be caricatures of actual Animaniacs crew members such as producer Tom Ruegger, writer Peter
Hastings, and voice director Andrea Romano.
That’s a nice little touch to make this cartoon about the production
process more authentic. As for Brain,
there’s something so Welles like about how he insults the crew, particularly
how he retorts Hastings writing his best material by saying Shakespeare already
did that.
Regarding Brain’s actual
recitation of Welles’ blooper reel, it’s impressive how much of the real thing
is used here. It makes the parody even
more authentic, and manages to replace any foul talk Welles used with more kid
friendly terms yet still fit the original’s tone. The same holds true with little ways the
performance stands as its own thing when Brain performs his usual banter with
Pinky posing as the director. Also, Pinky's
typical innocence tone also never clashes with what the cartoon is going for as
it enhances Brain’s intellectual bravado as normal. Even a brief moment where he mocks Brain’s
ego a little ala the original blooper reel feels all his own. That said, you will have to look up the
actual dialog to really understand the context of what’s going on in the
cartoon. Otherwise you can easily believe it’s just Pinky and the Brain doing
something completely out of the norm.
You can kind of say that for all references on the show, but it’s a
bigger deal here as an entire driving force for what we get. Even then, obscure to these characters as the
premise is, it can still work. Appearances of this show’s actual crew and a
scene at the end with Brain threatened to be replaced by a lookalike give the
impression of taking place behind the scenes.
That alone makes this cartoon very unique to say the least.
Through also daring to be obscure yet faithful
to the makeup of the show and characters, it’s easily quite the experience.
A+
Cartoon Ranking
1. Frontier Slappy
2. The Warners and the Beanstalk
3. Yes, Always
4. Ups and Downs
5. The Brave Little Trailer
Miscellaneous Ranking
1. Branimaniacs
The next Animaniacs review covers the Warners crashing Dr. Scratchansniff's drive-in date, an introduction to the Goodfeathers' girlfriends, and a song about how cute Dot is.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews is "Doug Out" from Steven Universe.
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