Look Into My Eds / Tag Yer Ed (Ed Edd n Eddy Season 1 Episode 7) - 'Toon Reviews 33

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Look Into My Eds

The huge exaggerations and extreme gags to depict outcomes of schemes alone should give a good indication that this show knows how to go all out with creative concepts.  This is proven in this cartoon where the Eds once again find success with one unusual gimmick but then get obsessed with it which brings them down majorly. 

Following a failure of another scam involving a runaway cardboard bus, everything for the main plot unfolds when Double D spots the mail coming.  He gets a psychology manual he’s been waiting for, but the thing that gets everyone’s interest is a hypnotizing wheel.  This is where the creative concept, in this case hypnosis, officially takes the forefront and the cartoon really knows how to have fun with it. 

Just spinning the wheel and getting anyone looking at it under the user’s control is what’s to be expected from hypnosis, but there are many possibilities to it regardless.  The things the hypnotized victims become are wildly unpredictable and humorously executed.  Kevin becomes a monkey complete with all the appropriate mannerisms including biting Ed when hungry, and later getting money in a cup like a street performer.  Sarah is a similar case, although she actually starts acting like a frog with her tongue long enough to catch flies, the very reason Ed asks her to be turned back to normal.  Jimmy goes from fragile child to a buff muscle man although still intimidated by monkey Kevin.  For even funnier outcomes from hypnosis, Jonny is completely unaffected due to not getting it, but to him, it’s made Plank ‘a mindless zombie.’  That’s one of those things that give suggestions that there’s more to Jonny’s friend than just being a hunk of wood. Now all of these are just when Eddy has a hold of the hypnotizing wheel.  When Ed gets a hold of it for a while and uses it on Rolf, there’s an even broader hypnotic take as Rolf is turned into one monster movie creature after another who attacks Eddy. 

From what’s seen of it so far, the hypnotizing wheel grants the Eds with a lot of power over their peers. It reaches the point where a big screen is set up so they can really reach out to the entire cul-de-sac.  However, it’s at this point where they really act mad with power and don’t consider they’re taking away other people’s free will.  Eddy acts like a power mad mastermind, Ed loses all sense of reason, and Double D just studies the strange behavior.  These are the lengths no good person should go to, but they do so anyway. 

When the Kanker sisters arrive on the scene and get in the way, while they’re creepy and thuggish as usual, it’s bearable due to being appropriate consequences for these actions.  Due to Lee’s character design of hair covering her eyes, she can’t be hypnotized, and then she and the others grab the hypnotizing wheel.  The cartoon then ends with the Eds seeing what it’s like to be hypnotized as they start acting like actual dogs and are chained outside the Kankers’ trailer.  It’s still a largely sad outcome despite them needing to be punished, but it’s believable that someone at the trailer park is bound to snap their fingers eventually to break the trance. 

Some characterizations may be off-putting, but with how well it utilizes cartoonish conventions, this cartoon further exemplifies this show as an animated marvel.

A-

Tag Yer Ed

It may be part of the formula for the Eds to have a hard time being respected and their attempts to gain respect constantly failing, but sometimes material doesn’t turn out well.  Sadly, this cartoon is a largely unpleasant experience when following the formula, making it a true dud for Season 1. 

It doesn’t start out that way though.  There’s an enjoyable sequence at the beginning of the Eds putting together a breakfast of what’s to become a staple cereal for the series, Chunky Puffs.  There’s decent humor from getting the prize inside, and when trying to get milk from Rolf’s cow, there’s also something funny about everyone’s unease to touch the udder.  Even if this is enjoyable and sets up a running gag of Ed eating Chunky Puffs throughout the cartoon, this sequence plays absolutely no role in the main plot. 

If that’s not enough, what this cartoon is really all about is the thing that brings it down.  By chance, Double D is thrown a football from Kevin and Rolf, and he’s too weak to throw it back.  It’s from here where the show’s typical brand of mean-spiritedness starts going too far.  Kevin and Rolf just tease Double D over how weak he is and it’s enough to make the audience feel uneasy.  Rolf’s strange interpretations of Kevin’s insults are pretty funny, but it’s not enough to make up for the unpleasantness.  There is some out of line behavior on the Eds’ part out of this when Eddy insists that Double D can be strong when Double D himself is fine with his true self.  Nevertheless, it becomes very pathetic that whatever Eddy sets up for him to do, Double D literally can’t pull any of it off.  Technically it’s a comedic exaggeration of his weakness, but the major teasing from everyone watching suck out all the fun and just feels downright mean. 

The later direction also leaves these moments devoid of fun.  Although Double D hasn’t proven his strength anywhere else, Eddy believes he can pull off a wrestling match just fine.  Double D is trained, but there’s still no progress at all.  Even when Eddy has him practice by fighting Plank, he can’t do that.  Eddy really does all the work by moving him on top of the board, and yet he legitimately believes Double D is ready for the big leagues.  The Kanker sisters show up to engage the Eds in a tag team wrestling match, and Double D ends up facing them with his friends by his side. 

The one thing that would make the match work is if Double D found inner strength after much failure to do so.  Instead, the payoff isn’t satisfying at all as he shows the same weakness when fighting the Kankers, and is immediately asking for his friends to tag him.  While the match still goes badly, there is at least some good humor from Ed and Eddy fighting.  Ed’s all set to beat his opponents but doesn’t because he’s not allowed to fight girls, and Eddy is turned into an accordion that plays a lively polka. 

While all the Eds end up in a knot afterwards, the kids still tease them, but at least aren’t dense enough to know the Kankers are the real bad guys.  However, this whole cartoon is still one of the weakest uses of the series formula.  Aside from formerly introducing Double D’s fragileness, showing it be a problem for him with no bright spot before failure is a very static experience.  It’s nothing but unpleasantness all throughout despite a few humorous bits here and there.  While far from the worst thing ever, this cartoon is easily the earliest series low.

D+

The Ranking

1.      Dawn of the Eds

2.      Ed-N-Seek

3.      The Ed-Touchables

4.      Vert Ed Go

5.      Read All About Ed

6.      Quick Shot Ed

7.      Look Into My Eds

8.      A Pinch to Grow an Ed

9.      Pop Goes the Ed

10.  An Ed Too Many

11.  Sir Ed-a-Lot

12.  Over Your Ed

13.  Nagged to Ed

14.  Tag Yer Ed

 

The next Ed Edd n Eddy review gets the Eds in a prank war, and has them set out for befriending Kevin in the name of a garage full of jawbreakers.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is "Made of Honor" from Steven Universe.

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