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It’s time once again to experience
a season’s worth of one of the best mixes of screwball comedy with relatable
slice of life:
Rocko’s
Modern Life (Season 3)
Basic Premise
Some
people say that a show can never be two things at once. I for one call that complete nonsense, for
with the proper execution, any program can achieve more than one desired
goal. So long as the result is fully
entertaining and memorable, then that’s all that should matter. Rocko’s
Modern Life is one of many programs to fit that category and fully succeeds
in doing two things at once. Like the
majority of the shows I look into regularly, it is of the slice of life variety
following the everyday life of a common everyman in his eccentric world. There’s major simplicity in the storytelling
but it never feels like that. That leads
me to the next thing it does on a regular basis which is basically goes all out
with the wild side of animation. The
interpretations of life’s challenges are always seen from a comedic angle with
funny drawings and reactions to any little thing. Working together, these elements teach a
frequent message about how nothing is ever easy for everyone. Because of how strong the entertainment has
been to this show for two seasons now, there’s plenty of anticipation going
into the show’s second half starting with this third season.
In
addition to more of the usual formula at play, Season 3 will be featuring
plenty of expansion to Rocko’s world.
Some of them will make interesting statements about people’s backgrounds
and career paths. Others will offer new
major changes that dare to shake up the status quo. More importantly, many of what this season
will offer will be an even bigger exercise of the challenges of modern
life. You’ll also get a few interesting
tidbits about certain cartoon as noted by the commentary on them from creator
Joe Murray via the Complete Series DVD.
With accessibility to a major inside source, why not spice up reviews
when the time is right? Now that I’ve
gotten you prepared, it’s time for another go at the Nickelodeon series that
redefines dangerous days and modern life.
Now on with the reviews:
Bye Bye Birdie
Now
this is a very interesting way to kick off the season. This cartoon starts out as a funny take on a
light-hearted task common to regular life, but shows no hesitation in taking a
dark turn but still keeps humor intact.
For that, it’s a very impressively staged story.
It starts off innocently when Rocko is asked
by Filburt to look after his pet bird he suddenly has, Turdy, while he’s going
to the hospital in hopes of having something wrong with him. For a while, the direction follows the hijinks
that typically come with looking after a pet.
Rocko studies up on the bird with a book that was left for him to try
and give Turdy the best care possible, but things still go wild. Turdy has an uncontrollable tendency to peck
at anyone such as Rocko and even worse Spunky as well as peck the
house into oblivion. There’s also a
funny running gag where even when Rocko clearly has his eyes on Turdy, the bird
always inexplicably escapes to cause problem for O-Town. Even if Rocko can’t explain
these actions, it’s hard not to laugh at random people coming to his door to
call him out for what Turdy did.
Extreme
measures are taken with Rocko shackling Turdy to himself to ensure the bird stays
with him, but that’s when the dark turn comes in. Heffer enters the room and carelessly sits on
Turdy, killing him. I’ve seen a good
many pet-sitting stories, but never have they ever featured the pet getting killed
while in care. That alone makes this
cartoon stand out not to mention how even in this dire situation, there are
still effective bits of humor. Heffer,
not wanting to admit he messed up, pulls off stunts to make it look like Turdy
is still alive. He works the bird as a
puppet and even more creatively dresses him up in beach clothes to hide the Xs
on the eyes and has him spin around on a record player. Those are inventive ways to use a corpse to
say the least.
Further making this
scenario stand out is how there’s some real life influence. The writers were inspired by an article of
people who took care of a dog for other people, the animal died, and they put
the corpse in a suitcase they later loaded onto a bus. That’s a crazy way of covering up death and
the cartoon really captures the feel. It
also connects to the ending when Filburt returns and is ready to expect that
Turdy is dead. He believes that it’s
because of the animal’s really short lifespan only for that suggestion to be
instantly shot down when Heffer comes in admitting he sat on Turdy. It’s like that family who must have believed
their dog ran away before most likely seeing reports of its corpse on that
bus.
Anyway, Turdy’s funeral
impressively keeps up the comedy.
There’s a creative burial at sky, half-hearted or overdramatic parting
words, and everyone ready to do something fun afterwards. It may seem disrespectful, but it’s hardly a
problem considering how much trouble Turdy was for his caretakers. Plus, there’s genuine happiness out of this
when an earlier scene of Turdy going after a monkey grants Filburt with baby
monkey-bird hybrids. That answers a
question of what two different animals mating together would come to and it
ends the cartoon well. It all unfolds in
a story that stays fresh and comedic in spite of any dark yet believable
occurrence.
A+
Belch of
Destiny
It’s
easy to tell that Heffer and Filburt are essentially children in grown men’s
bodies, and this cartoon takes it to the extreme. At the same time, it teaches a relatable
lesson that just because certain activities are juvenile, if people genuinely
enjoy doing them, there’s really no shame.
Heffer and Filburt are senior members of a youthful scout troop called
the Weasel Scouts. That is, they’re
grown men in a scout troop clearly meant for younger kids, but that’s not the
biggest problem. Heffer in particular
tends to be quite dangerous around the scouts with his antics in various
activities for merit badges leading to severe injuries and home
destruction. He tries to be friendly in
spite of the circumstances but it’s hard to find it ok anyhow since he’s the
one responsible. At least the story
later has him lament his lack of apparent talents and he looks for a true skill
to represent the Weasel Scouts who want to win a trip to Astro Camp.
Just through being a glutton, he uncovers one
in talking in a hilarious belching voice, and he builds up on that talent
through practicing whenever he gets the chance.
Basically, Heffer develops that belch talk into an art form all his own
even to the point of using it to quote an adult film Taxi Driver. Just to make it
convincing, someone who is legitimately good at belch talking had to come in to
say these phrases for Heffer, an example of devotion to making the crazy setup
believable. As a result, it works out
that Heffer goes from zero to hero as his talent makes him a celebrity among
Weasel Scouts and wins them a trip to Astro Camp.
Then all of Heffer’s growth comes to a halt
when his wolf dad gets involved. He had
previously wanted his adopted son to become somebody, but apparently a belching
celebrity among a child’s scout troop isn’t good enough. Honestly, this shouldn’t matter because it’s
still legitimate progress in building a social status, and it’s uncomfortable
that Heffer’s parent is unaccepting of this.
What’s worse is that Heffer buys into the insults and vows never to go
to another Weasel Scouts meeting again.
Why should one bit of opposition lead him to abandon what he enjoys and
what he’s really become a part of? It’s
really not right.
Out of this is an
impressive scene where a Weasel Scout in an all-body cast Teddy gets up and
takes control of an Astro Camp rocket to go back to Earth. They refuse to leave unless Heffer joins
them, but he’s still too depressed.
Thankfully, his dad sees sense when he’s reminded of his own peculiar
talents which actually got him to the married life he has now. There’s a nice moment of sharing them with
Heffer and he becomes accepting of his son’s belch talk despite still admitting
that he wants him to be someone better than that. It’s not enough to forget the discomfort, but
at least it all ends well. Plus, the
whole story is still a relatable one about what it’s like to find a talent
helped by measures taken to really make it come alive.
A-
The Ranking
1. Bye Bye Birdie
2. Belch of Destiny
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where Rocko here's an origin story of really bad coffee, and Heffer joins a sausage cult.
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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