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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.
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