Sunday, August 18, 2019

Super Strong Warner Siblings / Nutcracker Slappy / Wakko's New Gookie / A Quake! A Quake! (Animaniacs Vol 3 Part 20) - 'Toon Reviews 32

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Episode 70
Super Strong Warner Siblings


A big thing to this episode is that it’s the first one to air as part of the TV block known as Kids WB.  Oddly enough, every prior episode aired part of not a Warner Bros block, but rather Fox Kids in accordance with syndication allowing it to play on any network.  Despite this move bringing low ratings from young kids and less reasons for more episodes, the show airing on a Warner-owned network feels like justice has been settled.  It only makes sense for a show so devoted to Warner Bros be a mainstay of a network named after the company.  I mean next to Michigan J Frog, the Warners practically headlined the entire block, and rightfully so.  They’ve got the charisma, the animated roots, and of course the names to do it.

As for the first episode to air as part of Kids WB, how does it kick things off?  Well, in a fitting manner, it features a cartoon parodying another huge hit from Fox Kids it would never get away with mocking on that network, Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers.  I was never into that show, but in preparation from this review, I watched a few episodes of it we happened to own on VHS to better understand what was being parodied.  From what I saw, that show is honestly wide open to be made fun of.  It’s just about as cheesy as you can get with fast non-cohesive editing, obviously fake special effects, lackluster acting, overuse of electric guitar, and more.  A lot of it has to do with the show, originating from Japan, being hastily redubbed and reorganized into a basic more child-friendly narrative.  Little kids may enjoy it, but even that’s debatable given how messy, hyper and directionless the final product ends up becoming. 
With all these factors in place, this Power Rangers parody has all the material it needs to put itself together. Even if you have the slightest knowledge of the source material’s cheesiness, there’s a lot of fun to be had here.  Like the actual rangers doing healthy activities like going to the gym, the Warners perform uncharacteristic community service acts before their adventures.  As they do however, they give a rather mocking and condescending tone as they sing about serendipity to little kids, or do complex math at a lab. It’s total awareness of how lame it is to do these things as a pastime complete with a gag of offering one kid a bag of money and another a worthless fat free yogurt. 
As for the action, the main antagonist is a total goof on the Power Rangers’ major antagonist, Rita Repulsa.  With a ridiculous design, constant screaming, and especially the bad lip sync from her and her animal henchman, she’s an element this parody totally nails.  The fast ways they come up with plans to attack the Warners is also quite mocking.  This brings on the action scenes that are just as exciting as much as they are a hilarious kind of stupid.  There’s constant shouting of the word “RIGHT!” from the Warners, incessant electric guitar and background singing, and frequent shots of jumping around.  None of this even matters when a simple use of cartoon props like giant tennis rackets save the day. 
When Rita Repulsa sends down a giant bug, the action-themed gags keep coming which do their part to mock Power Rangers’ odd production decisions.  Dr. Scratchansniff comes posing as Zordon, complete with a pixelated mouth and he says even points out that his mouth is all fuzzy.  In addition, unlike the original rangers calling on the power of dinosaurs, the Warners call on non-threatening animals, an anteater, platypus, and blowfish for the ridiculous costumes.  Even then, it’s a robotic version of their water tower that takes out the bug with plenty of random action shots of sword clashing and building smashing.  It’s just like all the staging of Japanese stock footage spliced into the film in the actual Power Rangers series.  The fight is capped off by an explosively fast outburst from Rita Repulsa, and Thaddeus Plotz furious over the studio damage.  At least he has that fat free yogurt.  Finishing the parody is a bogus lesson on how playing with giant bugs isn’t cool, as if to say it’s a waste to try and force a moral into an episode when you don’t need one.  That’s a huge lesson the show being parodied, and other kids shows for that matter, ought to learn.

This cartoon puts the transitional cartoon to a new network off to a great start.  Mining its target for all its lame production decisions, it’s a fun mockery filled with sarcastic pleasantness, humorous takes on action scenes, and a distinctive show of comedy.  Other parodies of this show can never top the genius craftsmanship of this one.

A++

Nutcracker Slappy


Throughout the Kids WB episodes, Slappy Squirrel is going to start moving away from using cartoonish violence to get through life and deal with common annoyances around her.  Still, her extreme measures to make things peaceful are very fun for the most part, and her relationship with Skippy is as endearing as ever.  Plus, creative things can be done with her cartoons even without the explosive physical violence, such as with this cartoon. 
It’s a dialog-free cartoon in which Slappy tries many random measures in the name of opening a simple walnut shell.  Setting the mood is the use of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite accentuating every movement and gag she and Skippy use to open that nut.  In accordance with the music there’s also a bit of dancing, which is enough to get Slappy to protest to the director.  By that, I mean the in-universe director Charleton Woodchuck who’s as snobby and pretentious as he was in his lackluster first appearance.  He gives some poetic nonsense about why he’s making his directorial debut several minutes of opening a nut even if it goes against Slappy’s nature.  She only goes along with it under the threat of not getting paid, a believable reason to goad actors into putting up with weak scripts. 
After that humorous detour, the music continues, though Slappy does put her own spin on the setup.  Her aggression towards using sharp objects to open the nut clash with the dainty nature of the melody, yet still fits in.  It’s impressive that a few notes from the shower scene in Psycho meshes with a bit of Tchaikovsky as well as it does.  Also adding in humor’s favor is setting the Chinese dance to croaking frogs whose pond the nut later lands in.  This is the most in line with the tone though because after that, Slappy completely makes the dance routine all her own as the Russian Dance starts playing.  With a vast assortment of explosives and heavy vehicles, there’s high energy and fast timing as she goes to the extreme with getting that nut open, although none of them work. 
This would be perfectly investing if there weren’t so many cuts to Charelton freaking out at what he’s seeing letting it be known that what we’re seeing isn’t real.  It would’ve worked better if his reactions weren't in time with the music and all we saw of him was Slappy’s protest and the end.  Speaking of the end, there’s one last funny interaction to close everything where after all that trouble, the nut opens with nothing inside, at least until Slappy shoves Charleton in.  I bet it’s something most actors wish they could do with frustrating “nuts” of directors. 
Ultimately, this is a great fun outing with Slappy putting up with an uncharacteristic setup yet still managing to make it her own.  If you’re into classical music, this cartoon is all the more worth checking out.

A

Wakko’s New Gookie


Do you ever notice moments in shows where changes that nobody asked for are added, or if normal customs are given something new despite being fine as they are?  One thing to appreciate this cartoon for is teaching the message on how there are times when changing things up isn’t always necessary. 
Wakko has been known for several outlandish behaviors throughout the series, one of them being his trademark funny face known as a gookie.  In this cartoon, as it is the start of a new season for Animaniacs, Wako believes he needs to change up his gookie for the audiences.  Truth be told, he brings a plethora of funny faces before settling on an open smile with his tongue hanging.  Like most people with changes, Wakko takes a logical route to see what the majority thinks of his change.  However, despite everyone saying the new gookie is good, it just doesn’t have the same appeal as his old one. 
Enhancing Wakko’s interviews on his new style are exactly who he approaches for opinions.  Most of them are celebrity caricatures that are more well-known for all time than solely of the decade of airing.  We have Dick Clark on the golf course, Catherine Hepburne recounting Spencer Tracy while giving her opinion, and Larry King asking his viewers to give their thoughts.  It’s a vast galaxy of stars to broaden the appeal of movie buffs of all ages thus making the cartoon resonate so well.  The sole exception to opinions Wakko gets is Michelangelo in a reference to one of the most acclaimed cartoons of the series, “Hooked on a Ceiling.” 
With all these references said, the main point remains regarding the message of change.  By the end, Wakko learns to not be down about people not being really into his new gookie.  Everyone likes his old one and it therefore does not need to be changed.  That right there is an entertainment philosophy to live by.  Things may change, but change should really only happen if necessary.  If things are fine as they are, there’s no need to update.  In a world of rebooting old properties in an unsuitable medium and adding in elements no one really wanted, this is a cartoon that should be looked into.  With its insightful message and universal ways of teaching it, it may be very short, but it could also very well be beneficial for all time.

A

A Quake! A Quake!


The songs of this show are at their best when they have an interesting subject behind them.  It’s also a plus if it turns out to be just as entertaining as it is educating.  With this song, it looks into a fairly obscure natural disaster, mainly by today’s standards as opposed to the 90s when the episode it was part of first aired. 
It’s all about the 1994 Northridge Californian earthquake and the destruction the populace was faced with.  Just about everything about the musical composition is a big winner through what it sets out to accomplish. 
It’s introduced with a dramatic ominous narration from Yakko which describes a normal night in Los Angeles in January of that year.  The moment the earthquake happens, that’s the cue to shift into lively musical number mode.  Setting itself to a piece known as “The Happy Farmer” there’s a fast-paced melody that perfectly captures the shaking sensation of quakes.  In fact, just from the tune alone, you feel like you’re a part of the sensation known to cause so much destruction for innocent civilians.  With the visuals though, the feel of the event is much better realized with shots of homes falling and ground shaking. 
For the show’s sake, it even shows the vastness of its own universe.  Rather than just focusing on the Warners and the main players of their world, they go around highlighting how the quake effects other members of the cast.  Buttons rushes to save Mindy from a falling house, Pinky and the Brain are almost crushed by a book, and everything except Slappy’s favorite chair gets destroyed.  The fast nature of the song not only takes the audience through the motions of the quake, but also how it’s effected by others. 
Keeping up with the tempo are random factoids about how earthquakes happen, with the main point being that it's unpredictable forces that cause the ground to shake.  There’s also a message that for how great L.A. is, the Northridge quake is just one of many natural disasters it’s endured throughout history.  It could be said that it makes natural disasters that can kill people seem too fun, but I can’t think of any other way to capture the earth-shaking field.  Plus, through emphasis on their destruction, there is awareness of the bad things they can cause.  It also avoids being too discouraging when as the song calms down at the end, the Warners decide to move to Beirut which according to research is a bad if not worse place to live.  Consider it a way of saying that bad forces of nature can happen no matter where you live, so don’t let them keep you from visiting or moving there. 
With all this said, this is easily one of my absolute favorite songs of the series.  The topic is interestingly out of the ordinary, the plentiful education fits the fast music perfectly, there’s a great use of characters, and the sense of fun is very apparent.  Trust me when I say it’s one of the songs in a cartoon you must check out if you haven’t already.

A++

Cartoon Ranking
1.      The Warners’ 65th Anniversary Special
2.      Super Strong Warner Siblings
3.      Baloney and Kids
4.      Ragamuffins
5.      Frontier Slappy
6.      Woodstock Slappy
7.      Wakko’s Gizmo
8.      The Warners and the Beanstalk
9.      Brain Meets Brawn
10.  Morning Malaise
11.  Meet John Brain
12.  Yes, Always
13.  Drive Insane
14.  Lookit the Fuzzy Heads
15.  Take My Siblings Please
16.  Wakko’s New Gookie
17.  Karaoke Dokie
18.  Nutcracker Slappy
19.  Witch One
20.  Of Course, You Know This Means Warners
21.  No Face Like Home
22.  Meet Minerva
23.  The Chicken Who Loved Me
24.  Scare Happy Slappy
25.  Smell Ya Later
26.  A Gift of Gold
27.  Ups and Downs
28.  The Helpinki Formula
29.  The Mindy 500
30.  Les Boutons et le Ballon
31.  Bad Mood Bobby
32.  Whistle Stop Mindy
33.  Gold Rush
34.  Up a Tree
35.  Cranial Crusader
36.  Mermaid Mindy
37.  Katie Ka-Boom: The Driving Lesson
38.  With Three You Get Eggroll
39.  Kung Boo
40.  Pigeon on the Roof
41.  The Brave Little Trailer
42.  Girlfeathers
43.  Super Buttons
44.  We’re No Pigeons
45.  Miami-Mama Mia
46.  Fake
47.  Katie Ka-Boom: Call Waiting
48.  Katie Ka-Boon: The Blemish
49.  Katie Ka-Boom: The Broken Date
Song Ranking
1.      A Quake! A Quake!
2.      Schnitzelbank
3.      I’m Mad
4.      I’m Cute
5.      Dot’s Quiet Time
6.      Coo
Miscellaneous Ranking
1.      Branimaniacs
2.      Macbeth
3.      Oh, Oh, Ethel
4.      Spike

The next look into Animaniacs starts a look into the final disc on the set where all the episodes give a further taste of what the show is really in for as part of Kids WB with a song about Variety magazine, a tenor concert at a baseball stadium, and Wakko playing bingo.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews is "Legs From Here to Homeworld" in 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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