Sunday, July 7, 2019

Oh, Oh Ethel / Meet John Brain / Smell Ya Later / Spike (Animaniacs Vol 3 Part 8) - 'Toon Reviews 32

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

No comments:

Post a Comment