Saturday, August 17, 2019

I'm Mad / Bad Mood Bobby / Katie Ka-Boom: The Blemish / Fake (Animaniacs Vol 3 Part 19) - 'Toon Reviews 32

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Episode 69

I’m Mad


Can you believe that this song segment actually got a theatrical release?  In the summer of 1994, it was used as a short cartoon to lead into the Don Bluth film Thumbelina.  Then in an event where the show started reusing material, it was used to kick off this very episode.  By the way, this is the last time we’ll be seeing these shows composed of leftovers. 
At a first glance, it’s not exactly what one would expect from a theatrical Warners cartoon.  The animation, while great and bouncy, doesn’t differentiate much from the show.  Plus, the main subject isn’t exactly cinema worthy with the Warners simply arguing and complaining while Dr. Scratchansniff takes them for a drive.  That said, it’s a riot of fun and really great music in execution.  That’s not even mentioning that, considering what I remember from Thumbelina, this short is probably the true event of the release. 
Regarding the actual short, the best thing it does is actually with the arguing and complaining.  It’s hardly ever a pleasing direction to take characters in, with both sides coming off as unlikable and overly concerned about things that shouldn’t even devalue family bonds.  I believe that a good way to make arguing bearable is to do something fun with it, and the way this short does that is by putting it to song.  You can amount this to just another way the Warners put a creative animated spin on their daily lives honestly.  The phases of the day like Dr. Scratchansniff waking everyone up, mishaps at breakfast and teeth brushing and the actual drive amount to a cohesive musical conversation.  The tune is lively and full of energy which hardly gets you concerned that fighting is even going on.  It doesn’t even feel malicious as much as it’s reflective of how no one really likes getting up early to go for a long drive, hence getting on each other’s nerves. 
This makes for many memorable routines throughout the song.  Yakko and Dot’s verses consist of rants over getting in each other’s way and claims that one hit the other.  Wakko has solos that serve as monologues mostly about being completely bored despite being surrounded by a gold mine of amenities to 90s kids.  Even Dr. Scratchansniff stands out with his exasperated verses describing the parental trials of taking kids for a drive.  That said, I bet he must have been ordered to take the Warners out for the day since he knows how out of control they can get. 
The stress of the drive and arguing benefit the song by making it a joy to listen to, but it does calm down when they reach their destination, the circus.  It’s reflective of relief from a long drive with the best thing being such a fun destination.  We also get a promise of better behavior when the day’s over as a grand finish for the song, but of course, another long drive makes another round of fighting inevitable.  It even goes on as the short comes to a close. From what I heard from one of the DVD’s bonus features, it continues with a lot of words you’ll never hear from this show on the air. 
This song may not exactly be theatrical quality, but it’s still really great to see the Warners mine entertainment out of life’s most frustrating elements.  It’s the kind of thing that makes you wish everything was put to song.

A+

Bad Mood Bobby


The stretch of Goodfeathers cartoons lately has not been very strong with directionless setups and plots fueled by the unfunny ineptness of the featured characters.  Thankfully, this is actually the most endearing the characters have been lately.  Granted, it’s not the best thing this show has brought, but it’s still a good watch with a clear goal in mind for the story and humorous ways to resolve the conflict. 
It’s a simple matter of Bobby starting the day with many mishaps and, like most people would as a result, ends up in a very bad mood.  It’s a huge shift in demeanor given that he’s usually the laid-back member of the group.  The cartoon then follows Squit and Pesto doing what they can to get Bobby out of his funk and back to normal. 
Unlike most of their roles lately, Pesto’s approach is actually pretty logical believing that the best way to lift a bad mood is to make Bobby laugh.  From my experience, laughter is a good way to lift a mood when you simply feel out of it.  There are also a fairly good set of gags out of their attempts.  Making fun of a sad looking crow in a pet shop leads to said crow going out to kick them while still looking as melancholy as ever.  That said, I don’t really understand why he kicks Bobby when Pesto was the one insulting him.  At least we get a funny elaborate electrocution out of it.  An even better gag comes from wandering around Penn station where Squit and Pesto try to hold down Bobby to tickle him while standing on the tracks.  How fast the train comes by to hit them makes for excellent comedic timing with the slam coming right on cue.  It’s the kind of gag that knows how to get your attention.  I also get a kick out of Pesto’s feeble attempts at comedy with a lonely alley as his stage and Squit drumming a tin can for a rimshot. 
Along with the pain gags from all day, these bad jokes clearly do nothing to lift Bobby’s bad mood, and his edginess towards the standup comedy proves this.  A surprise appearance from the Godpigeon brings some of his most helpful advice.  It’s a random message that Bobby’s bad day doesn’t amount to something worse that can happen, like molting.  Making it funny is Pesto suddenly losing all his feathers just as the Godpigeon mentions that.  Beating up Squit over a misunderstanding afterwards is all that it takes for Bobby to finally start laughing like they were aiming for.  Then again, that’s typically the funniest part of Goodfeathers cartoons. 
The key to this cartoon’s success is its clear goals for its plot and gags that turn out funny instead of overly painful.  It doesn’t even feel repetitive in its attempts like most of their cartoons tend to, making everything that’s tried feel fresh and engaging.  With how much these characters start coming around here, it’s almost a shame we won’t be seeing much of them from here on…well, almost.

A-

Katie Ka-Boom: The Blemish


Everything wrong with the Katie Ka-Boom cartoon in the last episode is on display with this one.  In fact, they’re eerily similar with Katie’s problem coming up while waiting for a date. 
Making this one stand out though presents Katie as much more unstable than average.  Her family doesn’t even need to say or do anything to make her mad.  She just has a personal problem with herself when she finds a pimple on her forehead and overreacts from it.  This brings on the usual fare with her family running for cover and trying to reason with the usual lack of comedy and real fear and desperation all throughout. 
The fact that this rampage comes from something Katie uncovers by herself brings a lot of unfortunate implications.  It doesn’t matter how much the family prepares for Katie’s anger issues.  Literally anything can make her mad, so they’re basically never safe, and since we’re expected to take this ridiculous concept seriously, it’s just sad for their sake.  Also, there’s little to no genuine humor from Katie attacking her family over something as minor as a pimple which she easily covers once her boyfriend arrives.  I’m not sure whether or not to find it funny that he considers the destroyed house remodeling. 
This turns out to go by incredibly fast.  Granted, these cartoons are very short to begin with, but this is short even by regular standards.  It’s like there was a desire to show another Katie Ka-Boom rampage, it was shown ,and then the episode just moved on like it was nothing.  These cartoons might as well be classified under the bridging material like the Good Idea Bad Ideas, which by the way, this particular episode has a lot of.  Along with even more unbelievably subpar visuals from Freelance, this cartoon is just another major embarrassment from this series. 
If that’s not enough, while we won’t see any more of Katie Ka-Boom in this set of reviews, we still have two more cartoons starring her left in the series.  At least they’re better constructed than average, but that’s for another day.

D-

Fake


Speaking of cartoons that happen so fast, that’s the case with the one we wrap this episode up with, and it’s another one starring the Warners. 
They’re joining Dr. Scratchansniff for a wrestling match, and he’s very excited to see what happens.  The thing about this setup is that it follows the notion that actual professional wrestling is in fact, fake.  Wrestling not really being my thing, I have no idea where this notion comes from and I’m only recently starting to see said notion in modern animated shows. One thing’s for sure, this cartoon really plays it up with all the wrestling appearing unbelievably staged.  The fighters practically daintily hit each other. 
Through it all, the Warners are embarrassed to have to watch the fake wrestling and hide themselves under disguises much to Dr. Scratchansniff’s annoyance.  They silently say the wrestling is fake, and eventually, Dr. Scratchansniff gets so mad that he shouts that it’s not.  One of the wrestlers get mad, the Warners say Dr. Scratchansniff cried fake when asked who did it, their psychiatrist gets beaten up, and the cartoon ends.
I’m honestly kind of mixed with this ending.  It’s true that Dr. Scratchansniff cried out fake, but the ending could have been avoided if the wrestler just listened to the context.  He wasn’t insulting wrestling, he was advocating for it.  Also, it’s kind of hard to side with the Warners as they watch Dr. Scratchansniff get beaten up.  They’re appropriately freaked out by how badly he’s beaten, but they’re also glad to reveal it was him who called fake and don’t feel much sympathy for him afterwards.  It doesn’t even feel like Dr. Scratchansniff deserved the beating which in normal cases is the only reason the kids allow people to be tormented.  Finally, if the wrestler can inflict real pain, why did he not do that in the actual match and avoid giving the Warners something to point out? 
All of this amounts to a cartoon consisting of a barely funny occurrence in what is easily the most problematic Warners cartoon so far.
D+

Cartoon Ranking

1.      The Warners’ 65th Anniversary Special

2.      Baloney and Kids

3.      Ragamuffins

4.      Frontier Slappy

5.      Woodstock Slappy

6.      Wakko’s Gizmo

7.      The Warners and the Beanstalk

8.      Brain Meets Brawn

9.      Morning Malaise

10.  Meet John Brain

11.  Yes, Always

12.  Drive Insane

13.  Lookit the Fuzzy Heads

14.  Take My Siblings Please

15.  Karaoke Dokie

16.  Witch One

17.  Of Course, You Know This Means Warners

18.  No Face Like Home

19.  Meet Minerva

20.  The Chicken Who Loved Me

21.  Scare Happy Slappy

22.  Smell Ya Later

23.  A Gift of Gold

24.  Ups and Downs

25.  The Helpinki Formula

26.  The Mindy 500

27.  Les Boutons et le Ballon

28.  Bad Mood Bobby

29.  Whistle Stop Mindy

30.  Gold Rush

31.  Up a Tree

32.  Cranial Crusader

33.  Mermaid Mindy

34.  Katie Ka-Boom: The Driving Lesson

35.  With Three You Get Eggroll

36.  Kung Boo

37.  Pigeon on the Roof

38.  The Brave Little Trailer

39.  Girlfeathers

40.  Super Buttons

41.  We’re No Pigeons

42.  Miami-Mama Mia

43.  Fake

44.  Katie Ka-Boom: Call Waiting

45.  Katie Ka-Boon: The Blemish

46.  Katie Ka-Boom: The Broken Date

Song Ranking

1.      Schnitzelbank

2.      I’m Mad

3.      I’m Cute

4.      Dot’s Quiet Time

5.      Coo

Miscellaneous Ranking

1.      Branimaniacs

2.      Macbeth

3.      Oh, Oh, Ethel

4.      Spike
 
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode which is the first one to air on Kids WB instead of Fox Kids. There's a hilarious jab at Power Rangers, Slappy is forced to star in a cartoon set to the Nutcracker Suite, Wakko has a new gookie for the sake of change, and there's an awesome song about the Northridge Earthquake of 1994.
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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