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Episode 67
Miami Mama-Mia
To this cartoon’s credit, I admire the
change in scenery to the usual Goodfeathers setup and the concept doesn’t sound
too bad either. Unfortunately, the
execution makes the final product fall flat and doesn’t do much to properly
justify its story decisions.
We have the
Goodfeathers traveling down to Miami Beach to meet Pesto’s mother. Now, she herself is quite enjoyable when it
comes to smothering her son with motherly love.
Then she announces that she’s remarrying to a seagull, Steven Seagull to
be precise. Pesto isn’t happy with the
idea, and it’s really hard to find this behavior acceptable. I mean, I get it’s normal to not be happy
about a parent remarrying, but the lengths Pesto goes to in order to prevent
the marriage are far too extreme and diabolical. He actually wants to straight-up get Steven
offed so that there will be no marriage.
No acknowledgement of his typical tempers can possibly make this
decision work for Pesto’s likability.
The cartoon then follows Pesto and the others exploring Miami’s sights
with Steven, and the experience is just outright dull. Steven shows off his main personality to the
group, and not only is he incredibly bland, he’s also obnoxiously happy. There’s just no other trait to him that isn’t
overly friendly and believing that he’ll immediately be accepted as Pesto’s
dad. His dialog is also repetitive,
which is something I don’t expect to see from this show. Every time, the group comes to a sight in
Florida, Steven tells the Goodfeathers about a creature who lives there, and
Pesto asks him to grab one for his dark intent.
The kicker is that Steven says the exact same lines about how it’s
dangerous, but he’ll do it for his “son.” The writing for this show is usually
much more varied than this, and Steven’s overbearing happiness certainly
doesn’t help. Pesto getting eaten or thrown
away as a result is at least an enjoyable consequence, if only for a funny
visual gag showing where he’s ended up in as he rants.
In the end, his attempts end up completely
pointless as his mother and Steven get married anyway, and Pesto is suddenly ok
with it. Pesto’s change in heart is a
welcome conclusion, but nothing prior really prompts it. You could argue that all his backfires led to
this, but he still kept going despite the failures, so you can’t really chalk
it up to that. It ultimately just feels
like a waste of a cartoon if it was just going to end with the marriage
regardless of what Pesto did. There are
a few good laughs, but this is still a very mundane cartoon that’s sure to make
one question its existence.
C-
Pigeon on the Roof
It’s never a bad idea to do a parody
of a popular musical, especially this show where parodies are what it regularly
does. Heck, even the Goodfeathers have
pulled off a legitimately great musical parody before of West Side Story. It makes
sense that they’d do it again only this time it’s of Fiddler on the Roof. I can’t tell you how faithful the parody is to
the source material since I remember very little of that musical though.
In
some ways, you can tell that passion was thrown into this particularly from the
songs. They’re all well performed and
harmonized, invoking the atmosphere of the source material that I at least have
a general idea of. The opening song
gives bravado to something all the pigeons value as part of their lives, the
Martin Scorsese statue in the park.
There’s also a strong realization of tone in the song such as fun and
ambition as Pesto sings about being the Godpigeon while humorously filling
verses with various Italian phrases. The
songs also help bring legit frights like when Pesto describes a nightmare in
the graveyard, and romance like when the Goodfeathers and Girlfeathers sing about getting
together.
This is really all the
positives there are to this cartoon though.
The story structure holds the entire affair back for its sloppy
execution. It feels like three different
plots are going on all at once with very little done to connect them. First, it’s kind of about the Goodfeathers
honoring their Scorsese statue, but it doesn’t have anything to do with what
later unfolds. Then the focus is suddenly
on the Girlfeathers wanting to marry the Goodfeathers, and you think that’s
what the cartoon is about. One encounter
with the Godpigeon makes the focus shift again as Pesto decides he wants to be
the Godpigeon. Then, after one talk
about a dream where he’s said to have murdered the original Godpigeon, he
decides he doesn’t want the position anymore.
That just begs the question of why there was even a plot point of Pesto
wanting to do that in the first place if it was just going to go nowhere. Then you’d think the marriage subplot will be
the focus again with all the love ballads that follow, but no. We end with the Scorsese statue taken away
and replaced with one of Regis Philbin, and the pigeons sing about how they
don’t like it, doing nothing about the marriages. Again, it’s an entire waste of a plot if
they’re not going to do anything about it.
On another note, while the songs are good, their placement leaves a lot
to be desired. All the characters need
to do is say an offhand remark about something like becoming egg-hatchers or
being the Godpigeon to start breaking into song. It’s a weak excuse for a musical number and
corny as well if you ask me. Above all,
it further works against an already directionless cartoon. It has a clear ambition for an entertaining
musical parody and is still quite fun for its songs and a few moments, but the
execution leaves a lot to be desired.
C+
Coo
After that jumbled mess of a cartoon,
we appropriately lead into this apparently standalone song with Pesto
hilariously ranting about what that was all about. Bobby’s with him and, as usual, tries to calm
him down to “coo” it in song.
The song,
honestly, is far below the show’s standards with all the lyrics meaning the same
thing, that Pesto should just relax and stay “coo.” It’s not even very long and only further begs
the question what that was all about. In
fact, it would feel more at place to come at the end of “West Side Pigeons” since
the song is a parody of one from West Side Story and not Fiddler on the
Roof. Then again, the former musical
parody was far more competently made than the one we just got, so I don’t
really know what would make sense.
This
song just happens, and there’s nothing more I can say about it.
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. Gold Rush
29. Up a Tree
30. Cranial Crusader
31. Mermaid Mindy
32. Katie Ka-Boom: The Driving Lesson
33. With Three You Get Eggroll
34. Kung Boo
35. Pigeon on the Roof
36. The Brave Little Trailer
37. Girlfeathers
38. Super Buttons
39. Miami-Mama Mia
40. Katie Ka-Boom: Call Waiting
Song Ranking
1. Schnitzelbank
2. I’m Cute
3. Dot’s Quiet Time
4. 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 with even more mediocrity from the Goodfeathers and Katie Ka-Boom, but also some fun train-related fun with Mindy and Buttons.
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