Sunday, June 16, 2019

Ups and Downs / The Brave Little Trailer / Yes Always (Animaniacs Vol 3 Part 2) - 'Toon Reviews 32

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

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