Sunday, July 21, 2019

Scare Happy Slappy / Witch One / Macbeth (Animaniacs Vol 3 Part 12) - 'Toon Reviews 32

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Episode 62
Scare Happy Slappy
 
Cartoons set against a holiday tend to immerse themselves in the spirit of the featured time of year.  This one, however, mostly uses it as a mere backdrop for the ensuing cartoonish antics common to Slappy Squirrel cartoons.  This means that what we get can easily be viewed without seeing it as Halloween related.  It can still be enjoyed as part of the norm, but it’s still great cartoon comedy we’ve come to expect as it is brought from a character who knows how to make an art of it. 

While the cartoon is more about the gags than the holiday, there’s still plenty of Halloween atmosphere all throughout.  The opening scene of kids trick-or-treating, the Warners arriving with a short lively song number, and Skippy trick-or-treating as Buster Bunny from Tiny Toons help set the scene.  In fact, the latter element is the catalyst for the entire cartoon when he convinces Slappy to let him get candy from the place where Slappy’s old enemies live. 
At the interest of character continuity, this cartoon is the first time since Episode 16 to feature the likes of Walter Wolf, Sid the Squid, and Beanie Bison teaming up to beat Slappy.  Just like last time though, they’re too dumb to just get together and combine their strengths.  Thankfully, there isn’t much focus on them which keeps the experience much funnier as the true emphasis is on the ways Slappy and Skippy outwit them all while trick-or-treating.  They approach each clobbering attempt with complete awareness of what they’ll be dealing with, and enter with the absolute appropriate measures.  They each build up with every character and have a nice Halloween touch with amenities of the holiday playing a role in each scheme.  Beanie, the dumbest one, has a simple trick of having Slappy pick a hand that will get her clobbered with a mallet, but the squirrels twist things around and get him beaten instead.  It’s all in the name of awarding them candy corn, which to hear Skippy talk is considered a hollow victory.  Sid’s scheme is more elaborate with dynamite stuffed into pumpkins, but are flashy and out in the open, so Slappy and Skippy easily see this as the trap it is.  The result is a comic explosion of pumpkins with one for each of Sid’s tentacles occurring as he gets tired of waiting for the bang. 
Finally from Walter, there’s a whole haunted house of gags which is seen as a grand finish for a Halloween cartoon.  It goes all out with gags for Slappy to expose.  There’s an electric rocking chair, apple bombs in an apple bob, and toxic green punch that at here age would make a good laxative.  Walter’s biggest contribution are special walnut candies designed to blow her up, but it makes for the most surprising gag when off screen, Slappy puts axel grease under him.  This makes Walter slip around, drop the candies, and bring a big explosion to close the cartoon with.  With that, the cartoon ends as a work of Slappy typically doing her usual thing when it just happens to be Halloween. 
It may not be a true fright fest, but it’s still a good helping of cartoonish laughs enhanced by favorite customs of the holiday.
A-

Witch One
Here now is a look at the final time we’ll ever see Rita and Runt at the center of a cartoon.  Their starring roles weren’t always the strongest, but when they were good, they were some of the show’s most extravagant experiences with strong chemistry and musical staging.  I’m pleased to say that this cartoon is a grand performance to go out on. 


For one thing, it’s one to really embrace the renowned musical formula.  Not only does Rita sing, but it also expands to the featured setting as well.  We open with nice theatricality to establish the conflict as villagers pass by and greet good day to each other while the judge and his crow go out to hunt witches all set to music.  For historical context, the conflict involves one of the most unjust occurrences in American history, the Salem witch trials.  From what I remember from school, this cartoon provides a light-hearted look at how unjust the conditions were to be declared a witch.  The judge just goes around, points out a tiny thing like someone using a broom, and immediately condemns them for taking part in witchcraft.  For some reason that’s a reason for more of a witch than an obvious witch character like classic Warner Bros cartoon character Witch Hazel just standing nearby.  Then again, the unjust practices are just as in line with the history books and fictional stories I’ve read on the subject. 
The interesting guidelines for the plot established, Rita and Runt enter the cartoon to get tangled up in the judge’s mad witchcraft spree.  It’s during their introduction that brings out the sole disappointment with this cartoon being their final starring role.  While Rita goes through Salem to hunt for food, there’s an effective duet where she and the judge sing about the perks of being a cat.  There’s Rita showing pride in herself while the judge sees it as another reason to hunt a witch since cats are commonly associated with witches.  They meet up with each other, and Rita is immediately captured.  From there, Rita acts as a damsel in distress and needs to be rescued despite proving on occasions that she is capable of defending herself.
Unlike other instances of this, Runt isn’t clueless or oblivious to Rita being in trouble and tries to save her.  He ends up caught in a stockade at first, but his efforts are undeniable.  Plus, it makes for a creative occurrence where he meets a monotone horse, completely uninterested in what’s going on, and keeps calling Runt Wilbur ala Mr. Ed.  Still, in his unmoved mannerisms, he ends up getting Runt out of the stockade. 
After this is another tie to the denseness of the Salem witch trials. Rita is put into a witch test of being dumped in frozen water she obviously won’t survive.  Through bumbling maneuvering by Runt, Rita is saved while the judge is thrown in. While he survives albeit frozen, he gets a taste of his own practices by being called a witch himself. 
Rita’s final song highlighting her experience is more moving than usual.  Maybe it’s the sweeping music parodying a certain famous animated musical Runt thinks they’ll get sued for.  To me, it’s really moving when you consider what this means for the characters.  After many unique musical works from a dramatic cat and dumb dog, they’re pretty much over, and Rita and Runt will now be relegated to cameos.  Only in the 1999 feature film Wakko’s Wish will they have a lot of focus once again.  At least they have a good legacy ending with this well constructed cartoon of interesting premises, passionate music, and many great moments from the featured characters.
A
 
Macbeth
Considering how well this show has done Shakespeare translations to humorously accurate effect, it’s surprising that there’s only three of them.  This particular cartoon is the last time they do it, though honestly it’s the weakest of them all.  It’s not that it’s bad, but it lacks the smart accuracy that made the other two stand out so much. 
Being of the famous witch scene from Macbeth, we have Dot take part in the scene with Slappy Squirrel and Hello Nurse while Yakko translates for a change.  The actual lines are basically magic talk as the witches cast spells while stirring a cauldron brew.  In that case, with legit magic involved, there’s no need for actual meaning to what’s said or even translation.  With magic, anything goes, and the direction doesn’t have to latch onto any specific meaning.  As a result, the translation doesn’t have the same clever construction as those with a definitive meaning.  That said, through reading the actual dialog, I can tell that a few lines are left out. 
At least, as nonsensical as lines are set up to be, the translations still have a cleverness to them.  The whole “double, double, toil and trouble” phrase amounts to a basic “abracadabra” or “bibbidi bobbidi boo” all intentionally unenthused coming from Yakko.  The magic phrases allow themselves to take themselves literally like fillet of a snake translated as cooking a snake which is another name for Yakko’s agent.  The line “root of hemlock” is seen as a cheer for a team called Hemlock while “digg’d in the dark” is a cue for rapping.  Other lines that mention things like a frog, bat, dog, dragon, wolf, or shark are accompanied by Wakko taking a literal meaning by throwing it in a cauldron.  As for the translation, Yakko alludes the lines to modern day nonsense like calling all the ingredients camp food, or that they’re what hotdogs are made of. 
The payoff to all this presents something wicked or scary in the eyes of much of the show’s cast.  Out of the cauldron, the thing that was being brewed in the cauldron turns out to be Mr. Director singing loudly who then gets knocked out.  Of course, that’s out of context to the real play, but it does give closure to the whole sketch without the audience needing to expect anything more. 
This is a strong cartoon if you’re in the mood for laughs from nonsense, even if the show has pulled off more impressive works when turning to Shakespeare.  It’s not the best end to a set of segments, but it’s as funny as ever when looking at it from the show’s usual standards.
A-

Cartoon Ranking

1.      Baloney and Kids

2.      Ragamuffins

3.      Frontier Slappy

4.      Woodstock Slappy

5.      Wakko’s Gizmo

6.      The Warners and the Beanstalk

7.      Brain Meets Brawn

8.      Meet John Brain

9.      Yes, Always

10.  Drive Insane

11.  Karaoke Dokie

12.  Witch One

13.  Of Course, You Know This Means Warners

14.  Meet Minerva

15.  The Chicken Who Loved Me

16.  Scare Happy Slappy

17.  Smell Ya Later

18.  A Gift of Gold

19.  Ups and Downs

20.  The Helpinki Formula

21.  Les Boutons et le Ballon

22.  Gold Rush

23.  Up a Tree

24.  Cranial Crusader

25.  Katie Ka-Boom: The Driving Lesson

26.  Kung Boo

27.  The Brave Little Trailer

28.  Girlfeathers

29.  Super Buttons

Song Ranking

1.      Schnitzelbank

2.      I’m Cute

3.      Dot’s Quiet Time

Miscellaneous Ranking

1.      Branimaniacs

2.      Macbeth

3.      Oh, Oh, Ethel

4.      Spike
 
The next Animaniacs review consists of material from lower tier characters where the Goodfeathers look after an egg, Mindy and Buttons are mermaids, and Katie Ka-Boom starts getting really ugly in a cartoon about her missing a call.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews is "Jungle Moon" 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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