Thursday, October 17, 2019

I See London, I See France / The Fat Lands (Rocko's Modern Life Season 3 Episode 7) - 'Toon Reviews 36

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I See London I See France

People fortunate enough to be able to visit foreign countries typically expect experiences unlike any other for culture, insight, and maybe even finding love.  For this cartoon, Rocko hopes to find all these things when visiting the famed city of France, but modern progress of tourism has changed things that may not be to his liking. 
He and Heffer are a part of a bus tour in France, and while Heffer and the other passengers take what they get, Rocko is here for the culture he can’t find anywhere else.  However, he slowly learns the hard truth that as nice as other countries may seem, they may not be so different from home.  First of all, while the tour is supposed to show all tourists the beauty of France, the tour guide doesn’t show off any of it.  He only gives attention to things like trash cans, weird looking guys, cars, and even clouds.  The weird thing about this is that they’re enticing enough for all the tourists except Rocko to go nuts over like they’re genuine highlights of France. 
Rocko however sees just how much of a rip-off this tour is and longs to see more of the real cultural spots like the Eifel Tower.  In fact, when he brings it up and gives information about it like a proper tour guide would do, he ends up getting more attention than the actual tour guide. This is refreshing for not making the tourists look so easily impressed and dense.  They are capable of showing interest in actual culture. 
The tour guide himself is actually a major highlight too.  It’s very funny how he slowly goes from calm and collected to completely insane whenever someone tries to one-up him in his job or dares to leave the tour bus.  This doesn’t even entirely relate to jealousy.  At one point he refers to a portrait of fruits as his wife and kids, so it’s implied that he’s already pretty insane. 
The frustrations of the tour, as well as the sight of a hot French wallaby convince Rocko to just break from the group, and go after her and get his real fill of French culture.  His pursuit of that girl brings about a fun sequence of events as Heffer goes after him and the tour guide fully snaps and chases him to get back on the bus.  It makes for the tour making more unscheduled drives through Rocko’s desired culture, mainly the interior of the Louvre.  This chase is then built upon by Heffer going after something fitting his interests, a car advertising a new Chokey Chicken in France.  The best part of the chase are its different players following each other in different areas of a scene.  It’s just fun seeing them suddenly pop up on bridges, then sailing down the Seine, and then walking up buildings. 
There’s even a fun take on cheesy love stories as everyone in France suddenly knows about Rocko going after that girl.  Every one in markets, streets, and museums encourages him as he finally makes his way up the Eifel Tower to meet her. 
Then comes one last hard truth where even the cultural side of France has been modernized.  The American franchise of Chokey Chicken has consumed the Eifel Tower, and it’s later revealed that the same has happened to other French landmarks.  The girl is also a total goof who likes messing around with chicken.  Rocko is at least nice enough to consider her a friend, even if this is told and not shown, but his disappointment is still clear. 
Other countries may be nice to visit, but commercialization and dominance of franchises can hold back on the enrichment.  Maybe the cartoon could have had a message where they can still be enjoyed despite this, but it’s still a memorable trip filled with great humor and decent atmosphere.

A

 
The Fat Lands
 
Back near the beginning of the series, one of the most genius ideas was making a sitcom out of the lives of the parasites living on Rocko’s dog Spunky.  Sure the plots are generic, but they stand out all the more because of looking into parasites.  It’s humorous watching beings normally associated with being pests live their lives as suburban citizens which Bloaty the tick and Squirmy the ringworm are portrayed as.  That’s not even mentioning that the sitcom feel continues to be realized as they’re introduced with the very same theme song from their first appearance. 
While what Bloaty and Squirmy get up to is still very generic, the type of species they are truly make it that much more enjoyable.  In addition, Spunky’s main condition for the cartoon brings interesting ways of impacting their actions.  Lately, he’s been doing a lot of overeating, and Rocko is very concerned.  For Bloaty and Squirmy though, what serves as a problem for Spunky brings opportunity to them.  Bloaty is comically bored of the same old routine, but Spunky gaining a lot of weight means new land for the parasites to settle in, and it’s set up like a Wild Western town.  If that’s not enough, they’re immediately named sheriffs upon arrival.  To them, they’re employed before they even properly move in. 
Going by the usual western conventions, this is one of the most obvious signs of the town is overrun by outlaws. That turns out to be the case, and the outlaws further fit into the setup of this world being on a dog’s back.  They’re mosquitos and are honestly a perfect choice for outlaws since unlike most parasites, they can easily invade their targets and intimidate people given their ability to fly.  Even with their threatening setup though, it’s not enough to intimidate Bloaty and Squirmy, mostly because they’re not totally aware of the threat the mosquitos possess.  The mosquitos themselves also have a slight light-hearted edge to their threats as well.  They’re main intimidation is through dance, they point out a good side of putting the money they steal to good use, and one of them is more innocent than the others.  Still, Bloaty and Squirmy understand they mean business when they plan to gas them with insecticide.  They have the right mind to escape, but in another funny twist, High Noon is an hour early because of daylight savings time. 
While this is going on, Rocko is getting Spunky’s weight treated from Dr. Hutchison who humorously alludes to how she’s constantly popping up in different doctor roles.  There’s decent progress to Spunky’s problem in reality because of her, but it would be better if what she does plays a role in Bloaty and Squirmy stopping the outlaws.  The solution does play to an earlier scene of one barren land attracting Spunky’s claws. Tricking the mosquitos to dance on that land gets them scratched away, but has nothing to do with Dr. Hutchison’s treatment. 
Following another funny setup of Bloaty and Squirmy treating the now bare Fat Lands like a hot desert, the treatment does, however, help resolve their problems.  With Spunky’s fat simply being suctioned out, the two parasites are suddenly home and go back to the status quo.  Then again, there is benefit here in showcasing how there’s really no routine like the old “wake up-work-home-TV-bed” routine.  With this being the last appearance of Bloaty and Squirmy, we can assume that this is what they’ll always be doing from now on.  Nevertheless, the life of what’s crawling on Spunky was certainly fun to see while it lasted.
A

The Ranking

1.      Camera Shy

2.      The Emperor’s New Joe

3.      Ed is Dead: A Thriller

4.      Bye Bye Birdie

5.      Sugar Frosted Frights

6.      I See London I See France

7.      Nothing to Sneeze At

8.      Schnit-Heads

9.      The Fat Lands

10.  Belch of Destiny

11.  Rocko’s Happy Vermin

12.  Manic Mechanic

13.  Old Fogey Frog

14.  Fish-N-Chumps

 
 
 
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of an episode really built on bad luck with Filburt getting a bad fortune cookie, and Rocko having a hard time getting his kitchen repaired for a party.

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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