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:
Episode 58
Oh, Oh, Ethel
It’s honestly hard to figure out what to think of this
cold opener. It’s obviously a take on
ads for theater shows, but what it leads to just makes you say that this skit is
a thing…and nothing more.
We have Slappy
Squirrel advertised to star in a show about Ethel Merman, but when she finds
out, she gives a rant that she thought it was going to be about Ethel
Mertz. At that, I would be like her and
question what the joke is, because I really don’t get the direction. My best guess is that it relates to Merman being
a talented singer and performer and Mertz being a funny neighbor sidekick from I Love Lucy. Slappy is obviously more of the comedy type
than the singer type, so that would explain her frustration. That said, her reluctance to sing and temper
over getting pelted with farm fresh produce for her crankiness do bring a decent
laugh to close things out.
Still, this
whole thing, while not bad, is very random, even for this show.
B-
Meet John Brain
For this Pinky and the Brain cartoon,
it’s interesting that instead of trying to get dominance by force, they go for
a far fairer route that most people take to get power.
As it’s an election year, Brain tries his hand
at running for president of the United States.
It makes for another one of his better thought-out plans when it comes
to interceptions, shows with a huge audience, and the writing of his
speeches. He has all the ideological
goals set up for his rule as presidency that most people in real life would
want actual presidents to adhere to. Whenever
he unknowingly makes his way onto shows to announce what he’d do as president,
he’s all set to go with his self-presentation.
He’s all for things like cutting deficits and lowering taxes, some of
the most common desires people would want from a president. On a more humorous note, he makes himself
seem wholesome by having Pinky pose as both his admiral best friend, and his
wife. The fact that Pinky excels at
these assigned walls makes perhaps the funniest takes on cross-dressing.
All the while, there’s an interesting image of Brain painted in the eyes
of the American public from everything he shows of himself. While the weight of things like everyone working
for him and keeping a strong force are questionable, people see him as a
visionary believing in making better jobs and healthcare. Then you have Brain mention being a little
guy and wanting to keep away from cats.
Those are more in line with his status as a mouse which the public sees
as metaphors with little guys being common citizens and cats being like
bureaucrats. Given the literal meaning,
you’re kind of left wondering if Brain is saying these things for the greater
good or not. I mean, one of his primary traits is flat out telling people he’s
trying to take over the world. They
don’t usually care about that, but since he’s as honest about his claims as he
is about his goals, there’s a lot of questions begged about the lengths of
Brain’s goals.
The literal meaning of
the claims turns out to be Brain’s undoing when he’s ready to present
himself. He’s successfully won over the
public which is great considering his tendency to overlook key elements. However, after all the progress and
legitimately hard work, when Brain reveals himself as a mouse, everyone who
loved him flat out turns on him. No
matter how much he tries to explain that he means his promises to rule well,
the species he is turns out to be that big of a deal-breaker. Seeing Brain’s disappointment in the people
turning on him just makes the failure one of the saddest. It wasn’t by an insight or a boneheaded
action. Human nature is to blame this
time as you can tell from the treatment Chicken Boo gets when his identity is
revealed. By the way, the reference to
that Chicken near the end is appropriately timed.
Now, Brain does have a human suit he often
wears to look presentable, so that begs a question why he didn’t just use that
if he often sees this outcome coming.
Maybe it can be argued that he didn’t use it in his TV interceptions so
it wouldn’t make sense to use it at that moment. Despite that, this is a strong
thought-provoking and sympathetic look at Pinky and the Brain playing politics.
By the way, in case you’re wondering
how Pinky would do running for president, there’s an episode of their spinoff
about that, but that’s for some other time.
A+
Smell Ya Later
As far as Slappy Squirrel cartoons go,
this is standard stuff, but still very solid when it comes to execution. Actually, the direction is changed up a bit
where rather than just focusing on Slappy herself, equal focus is on her and
the adversary going after her.
He’s a
dog named Stinkbomb, a basset hound who spends most of his time chewing for
fleas and spelling himself. Other than
that, he’s going after the squirrels in accordance with his canine instinct and
passing off wisdom to his wide-eyed impressionable nephew Bumpo. Stinkbomb is as simple as antagonists can get
like much of the enemies Slappy already has, though he does stand out slightly
with the voice of Jonathan Winters. His
acting and comedic stylings bring out a lot of charm as a grumpy old man,
especially in all the ways he’s bested by his enemies. Plus his grumpiness brings the closest thing
to an edge when Bumpo, who only seems to look cute, ask simple questions, and
want to sniff his uncle, is with him.
Since hunting squirrels is in his nature, Stinkbomb is intimidating
enough for Skippy who needs help from Slappy to face him. As usual, there’s a good amount of fun in how
Slappy knows the conventions behind all of Stinkbomb’s schemes. It also helps that she happened to star in
cartoons with him back in the day. At
the same time, you have to wonder if the clip she shows is of a cartoon or a
flashback as it’s meant to explain how Stinkbomb got his name. For now, when Slappy joins Skippy to go back
to Stinkbomb’s yard to get nuts, she teaches him her usual wisdom on classic
cartoon violence making for memorable gags.
Stinkbomb goes in to maul Slappy, and his actions are staged as
surprisingly graphic. However, Slappy is
replaced with a dummy of her filled with dynamite that sends Stinkbomb sky
high, leaving Slappy to give a wisecrack about the dog’s smarts. When Stinkbomb disguises himself as a tree,
there’s great humor of Slappy and Skippy reading scripts to highlight how
pathetic the stunt is. It ends with a
moment to catch Stinkbomb off guard as Slappy’s script ends with the tree
filled with termites that she lets loose in the costume. When the termites chew, there’s also a funny
visual of Stinkbomb losing his fur and needing to put on a new set. Finally, Stinkbomb follows the squirrels back
home and runs up their tree only to be reminded that dogs can’t climb trees at
the last minute. When he finds a way
around this by going up with suction cups, they end up being used as the
plungers they actually are, and Stinkbomb is sent down the toilet.
After that, Slappy and Skippy are abruptly
done with the cartoon without giving the strongest send-off line. At least Stinkbomb gives a decent funny
payoff to Bumpo wanting to sniff him when he turns out to smell so bad, but he
believes that he hasn’t smelled this good in years. That said, ending with him makes this cartoon
feel more about him as if he’s just as worth rooting for as Slappy is, but
isn’t Slappy meant to be the protagonist here?
That’s just one reason why this cartoon is on the low-end of great
instead of flat-out great. Much of the
characters we follow may be very simplistic and not too interesting, but with
solid performances and funny gags, it’s as enjoyable as Slappy cartoons tend to
be.
A-
Spike
The last major segment of the episode
is another commercial parody.
This time
it features Chicken Boo in a take on the Just Do It Nike commercials which were
apparently big in the 80s and 90s even though I don’t really remember seeing
them much. It’s also a rather basic
parody by sticking close to the real thing, only changing a few words
around. I will say that since he’s
wearing cleats, it make sense that the brand name is Spike (pronounced Spike-ee)
instead of Nike.
The one thing that
makes this stand out in a comedic sense is shots of Chicken Boo getting beaten
up while wearing the cleats in various sports.
He’s not even revealed to be a chicken and he’s already experiencing
pain.
Really, this is all there is to
this very short ad. It can be funny if
you’re nostalgic for the 90s and are very fond of physical comedy. Otherwise, it doesn’t have much to offer and
is easy to be seen solely as the episode padding itself out.
C-
Cartoon Ranking
1. Frontier Slappy
2. Wakko’s Gizmo
3. The Warners and the Beanstalk
4. Brain Meets Brawn
5. Meet John Brain
6. Yes, Always
7. Drive Insane
8. Of Course, You Know This Means Warners
9. Meet Minerva
10. Smell Ya Later
11. A Gift of Gold
12. Ups and Downs
13. The Helpinki Formula
14. Les Boutons et le Ballon
15. Gold Rush
16. Up a Tree
17. Kung Boo
18. The Brave Little Trailer
19. Girlfeathers
Song Ranking
1. Schnitzelbank
2. I’m Cute
3. Dot’s Quiet Time
Miscellaneous Ranking
1. Branimaniacs
2. Oh, Oh, Ethel
3. Spike
The next Animaniacs review explores the Warners' glory days in one of their original cartoons from 1929, and Slappy finds herself in the middle of the Woodstock music festival.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews, take a "Gemcation" with Steven Universe.
No comments:
Post a Comment