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Manic Mechanic
Some
of the most memorable cartoons to me involve Rocko’s car trouble. After highlighting going to driving school
and needing to take public transportation while his car’s impounded, the car
conflict here turns out to be much more morbid.
At the same time, there’s still plenty of room for humor given the
general nature of this show.
While
driving to a big event, the car stops working through making a sound Rocko has
never heard it make before. The big
thing is a visualization of the car’s spirit raising up and meeting auto
versions of the Grim Reaper and St. Peter on the way to a pearly garage
door. In other words, this car has died
and the visuals don’t hold back with getting that point across. Now being a machine, in reality, Rocko has
the means to try and get it fixed, although he and his friends soon have to do
it themselves considering the mechanics have no faith.
With all this said, Rocko and Heffer’s first
attempts at mechanic work are more in line with how fixing a car would feel in
real life. By that, there’s a lot of
long and confusing steps to the process and it’s not much fun which is
disappointing considering this show breathing a lot of fun into long complex
processes. Much of this comes from
sequences of Rocko listening to Heffer read the steps in the car’s manual with
very little comedic edge to them. At
best Heffer reads the manual in an accent given where it’s come from and Spunky
eats a lot of the car parts which are mildly humorous. Still the show has
easily had better laughs than this. When
Rocko becomes exasperated by getting nowhere, it feels very genuine and to me,
it wouldn’t be hard for the audience to feel the same way.
Fortunately, fixing the car picks up on an
entertainment level when Filburt shows up to see what he can do. For starters, his nerdy qualities make the
reveal that he knows about mechanics and car safety a convenient surprise. Then again, his main qualities also show that
his advice is largely unethical, though that brings on some good jokes. In addition to random technobabble when it
comes to working mechanics, Filburt goes as far as to approach the problem with
a tribal chant to get the car working.
It still leads to nothing, but the practices are outlandish enough to
offer substantial laughs earlier scenes lack.
As for the actual solution, it turns out that there’s a switch under the
hood set to broken, but needs to be set to fixed. That sounds like an unbelievably simple
solution that no one could have seen coming and make all the time trying to fix
it a total waste. When it’s flipped, it
even feels like it’s legit as the spirit of the car is permitted to go back to
Earth by the gatekeeper of car heaven.
Then, still keeping things interesting, it turns out that fixing the car
is much more complicated than that.
Heffer gets it moving before Filburt reapplies vital parts, so he and
Rocko have to chase it down before the car’s engine explodes. The result is an exciting chase as the car
goes all over from train tracks, to a roller coaster, to a derby Rocko was
going to enter it in to spite the mechanics.
The changes in locations as well as Filburt dawdling with his motor
scooter keep the sequence fun and the tensions high. The whole thing leads to a satisfying end
where the car, and I do mean the car, ends up winning the race with it running
out of gas before the engine could explode.
It does crash up again when gas is applied, but at least Filburt gets to
try his chant again.
While this is one
of the dullest of Rocko’s car conflicts, it still has its moments and the
payoff is of special mention.
A-
Sometimes
you can’t help but wonder how certain creatures must feel about being so low on
the food chain. Now, in real life, they
don’t think the same way people do. In the realm of animation where anything’s
possible though, there’s a lot that can come from applying human emotion to
lower creatures. For example, bugs are
often swatted at, or in the case of this cartoon, are eaten by frogs like the
Bigheads.
As an expansion on what was
seen before, Ed Bighead has a whole prison of bugs which, in addition to
imprisoning for messing up his yard, acts as a storage for food. He’s even seen eating some whole, and there’s
no comedic scene that allows them to escape him. The last cartoon may have had some morbid
moments, but this one easily tops anything from there. There’s actual genuine sorrow and fear from
all the remaining bugs in the prison as they act the way the average person
would to impending death. If real life
insects could think like they do, it’s easy to believe they’d act just like
that.
Then the focus turns over to
Flecko, one fly who was once the star of a cartoon where he greatly annoyed
Rocko like flies tend to do. Here, he’s
much more likable through being lucky enough to escape Ed, and make it to
Rocko’s house through the pipes. The best
thing about it is that Rocko is very friendly to bugs, and literally would
never hurt them. As a result, Flecko
goes back to free his friends in the prison, and they take up residence in
Rocko’s house. Now even though he’s
friendly to bugs, Rocko approaches the situation akin to most people who would
find their home infested with insects.
He wants them out, but isn’t firm enough to do so, and the bugs
constantly making fun of his pitiful attempts threatens to cost them their
likability.
This is thankfully not the
case for the rest of the cartoon. Ed
inevitably figures out his bugs are gone, finds them at Rocko’s, and goes to
collect them with a vacuum, claiming he’s sending them to camp. Even though he knows Ed is very bitter and
should be aware that frogs like him eat bugs, Rocko is somehow naïve enough to
believe this lie. When bringing Flecko
over so he can go to camp too through somehow getting that the other bugs are
still at the Bigheads’ and not on their way, he learns the truth. While Rocko isn’t too smart in this
situation, he isn’t cruel enough to let the bugs be killed despite not wanting
them around.
Through working with
Flecko, they easily take care of Ed by dropping something heavy on him. However, there’s still the matter of getting
the rest of the trapped bugs in the vacuum bag from Bev. I find that the solution to this is far too
easy. Rocko claims to have a taste for
some of the bugs, and puts a handful in his mouth. However, he ends up eating the whole thing,
and while Bev calls him a pig, it’s hard to believe this plan would work for so
many times in a row. Given her
authority, surely Bev would insist that Rocko’s had enough.
At least the bugs aren’t jerky enough to not come
up with a compromise. They’re accepting
of Rocko’s earlier offer to go live on an island, Hawaiian shirts and all, and
the cartoon ends with the impression of the bugs free to live in the wild. Given what’s done with them when they’re in
someone’s home, in reality or this show’s universe, this is the better way to
go.
As animated interpretations of
nature go, this is fairly solid with both sides being compatible, something
that can only be possible in such a one-of-a-kind medium. If only certain plot points weren’t so
contrived.
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. Nothing to Sneeze At
7. Schnit-Heads
8. Belch of Destiny
9. Rocko’s Happy Vermin
10. Manic Mechanic
11. Old Fogey Frog
12. Fish-N-Chumps
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of Rocko finding love in France, and an overweight Spunky allowing for an excuse for Bloaty and Squirmy to return.
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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