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The
characters on this show are anthropomorphic animals, but still animals by
design. Their animal nature is touched
upon in this cartoon of biological customs that combine with relatable human
customs of manhood and pursuing relationships.
The animal aspect is uniquely reflected in Heffer, a steer who was
raised by wolves, meaning he’s a total misfit among his family’s primary
species.
Like wolves in real life,
they’re presented as getting together in a pack, in this case staged as an
elder council meeting. Inciting the
conflict, Heffer’s wolf parents, George and Virginia, see that the pack is
concerned that Heffer hasn’t done anything to be eligible for manhood, wolf
style. Really, Heffer should be excused
from this since he’s a steer and not a wolf which they even bring up a couple
of times, but apparently achieving manhood is a requirement to wolves. As another point, it hardly feels like
there’s a good reason that Heffer absolutely needs to be a wolf’s idea of a
man. He even has a brother whose main
trait is crossdressing.
Even if Heffer
taking part in this custom doesn’t really make sense, he still goes along with
it, making for more modern day human perspectives on the nature of animals. He learns that elks in O-Town get together at
a literal night club where only members of the given species are allowed
in. This makes sense with most animals
tending to be with their own kind. With
human nature very much intact with this cartoon, as well as the whole series,
Heffer easily fools the guard with his own fake antlers.
Once inside, under the impression of needing
to bring home an elk for a date, there’s a funny visualization of Heffer’s
heart giving all the clichéd characteristics of flirting. They’re all over the sight of an elk
resembling a beautiful ideal girlfriend named Elkie. There’s a lot of appeal to this love at first
sight with a funny take on love ballads of Heffer constantly rhyming the word
dreams and genuine chemistry between the two.
Heffer and Elkie clearly show great interest in each other as a young
couple, but things get complicated when he brings her home.
First there are a few subtle hints that
Heffer’s wolf family is all set on doing what real wolves do to real elks,
eating her. As the plan becomes more
explicit, Heffer reveals to Elkie his real species, and she’s outraged that she’s
been dating a steer. Not only is this
devaluing to her genuine chemistry with Heffer, but it makes the family
outright stating they’re going to eat her in front of her face slightly
disturbing.
Things are soon settled when
Heffer puts his foot down and declares that they’re not eating his girlfriend.
This is a great way of showing that for all dimwittedness, Heffer’s care for
others is easy to see. Though he and
Elkie decide to go their separate ways, they do so with dignity and
confirmation that their care for each other is indeed real. There’s also great closure to the conflict
between Heffer and his parents as George expresses pride in Heffer standing up
for his beliefs. It would be much more
satisfying if this counted as Heffer being a man in wolf terms as opposed to
bringing home an elk substitute unbeknownst to the elders.
Even with questionable story decisions
though, this is a credibly fresh take on presenting the cast of this show both as
relatable humans and the animals they really are.
A
Scrubbin’
Down Under
Although
Rocko is meant to endure most hardships of life, it never truly feels like the
world is out to get him. More often than
not, any problem he faces in each task feels very natural and doesn’t happen
because someone hates him for some unwarranted reason. The few times where it does feel that way are
some of the weaker works of the series, but I feel this cartoon leaves that
impression the worst.
It starts off fine
when Rocko learns he’s been nominated for an award for good customer service at
his comic book store job and is invited to the banquet. He takes great care to look his best for the
occasion, and Heffer comes along with a humorous loophole to the black tie
aspect of the banquet by wearing a fish covered in soot as his tie. Rocko even wins the award, suggesting that
this is going to be one of Rocko’s better moments.
In an ironic sense, this is where the cartoon
really goes down in appeal. With Rocko
winning the award comes relatable nervousness over what to say. That is a very believable challenge
associated with winning an award. When
trying to follow Heffer’s advice on what to say, the results could be
funny. However, the joke Rocko tries to
sway the audience with is not funny at all and painfully awkward. It doesn’t even make the least bit of sense
covering something as random as two peanuts or a thing like that.
The one thing that does get Rocko laughter is
the one detriment to his good hygiene; a piece of spinach stuck between his
teeth. I have to question why this would
be so humiliating. Isn’t it common for
everyone to get food stuck between teeth?
For Rocko to be laughed at for this feels far more mean than acceptable,
especially when his best friend joins in too.
I know Heffer is dumb, but he’s constantly shown to be a loyal friend
ever since the beginning. If that’s not
enough, Rocko’s spinach tooth makes headline news, granting him nothing but
even more scorn. Exaggeration or not,
this is just wrong and unbelievable over something as lame as this being a big
headline. These reactions being
conscious choices of the people and not because of being a normal part of a
process makes what Rocko goes through hard to bear. There is some relatability to him being
unable to get it out no matter how hard he brushes or flosses which is more in
line with the tone of the show. Then the
potential for appeal is quashed when Rocko tries an aggressive means to remove
the spinach with a jackhammer which gets him hospitalized.
While you probably watch bewildered that
Rocko’s unjustly punished even more, the rest of the cartoon gets really
confusing. A charismatic hygiene genie
called Gene comes to potentially get Rocko’s teeth cleaned at last. Before that, he puts Rocko through a vigorous
hygiene lecture that’s completely unwarranted.
A following short film about good hygiene would be acceptable if not for
the fact that Rocko DID follow good hygiene and doesn’t need to see this. Gene tries to justify the film by claiming
Rocko needs to clean other parts of his body and not just his teeth, but he’s
done this already too.
Finally, even
when Rocko does lose the spinach, he still suffers with notice of work needing
to be done on his brain. This is all
according to Gene who is apparently real, even though it seemed like he was part
of Rocko’s imagination before. Clearly
this show is going too far with its own bizarreness at this point. This along with never letting up on problems
for Rocko to a mostly unentertaining extent make this cartoon possibly the
show’s ultimate dud.
D
The Ranking
1. Wacky Delly
2. The Big Answer
3. Camera Shy
4. The Emperor’s New Joe
5. Ed is Dead: A Thriller
6. Bye Bye Birdie
7. Speaking Terms
8. Sugar Frosted Frights
9. The Big Question
10. An Elk for Heffer
11. I See London I See France
12. Nothing to Sneeze At
13. Schnit-Heads
14. Dear John
15. The Fat Lands
16. Belch of Destiny
17. Tooth and Nail
18. Rocko’s Happy Vermin
19. Manic Mechanic
20. Old Fogey Frog
21. Fish-N-Chumps
22. Fortune Cookie
23. Scrubbin’ Down Under
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the last episode for Season 3 with an all-musical cartoon about saving the environment, and a silent cartoon about Rocko buying a food processor.
If you would like to check out other Rocko's Modern Life reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.
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