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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
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
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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