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Sugar
Frosted Frights
When
it comes to holidays to make creative animated experiences out of, Halloween is
one of, if not the best contender. The
atmosphere, costume designs, and what can be done with its traditions seem to
leave itself open for imagination from my experiences. You can imagine how investing the holiday can
turn out when taking place in the world of a show that creatively interprets
modern life as well as this one.
This
show’s Halloween cartoons takes full advantage of the fright factor too with
funny parodies of spooky story tropes such as opening up with a creepy host
with a lit match. The funny part is that the match ends up burning the
host. This leads us to the actual story
where Rocko in an inflatable Really Really Big Man costume and Heffer with a
glow in the dark pumpkin face set out to go trick-or-treating. Filburt, however, is hesitant to go as usual,
and not just because of his usual anxieties over life in general. For all the Halloweens he can remember, he’s
spent them with his Crazy Aunt Gretchen who always told him about the dangers
of Halloween candy. Because of his time
with her, Filburt has been conditioned to believe that taking part in Halloween
will get him caught by the resident spook of O-Town, the Hopping Hessian.
Rocko and Heffer think nothing of that,
writing it off as a mere tall tale, and bring Filburt along to show him all the
joys of going out for Halloween. Through
a few blunders, Filburt ends up trying his very first piece of Halloween candy. It’s here where despite Crazy Aunt Gretchen
sounding like she was forcing a heavy mindset on Filburt, her words actually do
have some legitimacy. As hyperactive
kids tend to do when having sugar, Filburt goes incredibly insane with getting
more of it. Aside from pouring an entire
bag of the stuff down his mouth though, it’s hardly shown in reality. However, fantasy sequences of turning into a
demon scouring town for sugar to Night on Bald Mountain is very reflective of
how crazy candy makes this usually neurotic turtle. Plus it’s a great way to bring the scary side
of Halloween and the innocent trick or treating side together as one.
This craze leads Filburt into the cemetery
where the Hopping Hessian resides, and it’s only here when he comes out of his
sugar high. Still, there’s more legitimacy
to Crazy Aunt Gretchen’s warning as the Hopping Hessian is very present. Through a photo booth symbolizing his
territory, a crazy laugh, and searching for a
missing leg, the ties to a certain Horseman enhance the Halloween feel. The atmosphere ends up being very funny, but
also fearful when Filburt and the others end up hit by the Hessian’s missing
leg.
Then it turns out that this whole
cartoon was just a flashback with a present Halloween actually ending the cartoon. With Filburt referencing a story for a
completely different holiday and he and the others going over photos of last
Halloween, things seem to end humorously.
After all, that’s more appropriate for a show like this than scary and
ominous. Even everyone including the
Hessian and who he actually threw, Gordon the talking foot, wondering who took
the pictures feels more of a laugh than a fright.
This Halloween cartoon is a solid mix of both
frights and laughs. Its influences from
actual Halloween legends and even real-life physical disorders certainly help.
A+
Ed is Dead:
A Thriller
A
Thriller is kind of an appropriate way to describe this cartoon. It builds itself on conventions most would
typically find in horror films. Heck,
the whole thing starts off with Heffer doing a humorous take on the intro to a
show hosted by the great Alfred Hitchcock.
Moreover, the actual cartoon feels like a great fit for such a story,
not necessarily because of the nature of the genre, but mostly what’s known about
the featured characters.
The Bigheads
have been established as a mess of a married couple. Sometimes they’re completely devoted to each
other, but other times they’re constantly arguing to beyond the average
extent. Their neighbor, Rocko, is often
at the mercy of their hysterics despite only one of them actively disliking
him. At first, the cartoon features them
at their usual dysfunction with Bev admonishing Ed for not doing his share of
the yardwork.
Then everything changes
when Rocko sees and hears a frightening commotion over at the Bigheads’ house
at night. It’s not just their usual
fighting that’s prominent over there. In
silhouettes, Bev appears to be using an assortment of weapons on her husband
including a spade. In other words, it
looks like Mrs. Bighead has gone too far with her tempers at Mr. Bigbead that
she killed him. Rocko witnessing it all
gives him an appropriate fright right down to getting a sleepless night out of
paranoia. Even when he believes that it
was all a bad dream the next morning, the fright factor keeps on coming. He ends up on the Bigheads’ property and
keeps seeing all sorts of signs that reflect his dark theory. For one thing, Ed is nowhere to be seen, but
that hardly means anything. There’s an
actual hole in Ed’s shape, all sorts of sharp objects and electrical devices on
the bed, and Bev sounding sinister whenever she talks to Rocko.
Now, there’s always the possibility that
everything Rocko saw was a coincidence, but the possibility that Bev killed her
husband exists. There is at least one recorded moment in the show’s run where she attempted to flirt with another
person behind his back which many fans would not have seen on TV. Plus, she’s shown more favor to others than
to him with Earl the dog whom she adopted revealed to be still living with
her. Along with the believable sight of
Bev harming Ed, it hardly feels like Rocko’s overreacting. For that, there’s an effective climax when
Spunky gets over to the Bigheads’ yard causing Rocko to go after him with a
frightening storm highlighting the tension.
What follows is interesting staging for Rocko to learn the truth about
everything he saw. As Bev brings logical
explanations, the atmosphere doesn’t let up on the storm and dark music as well
as Rocko still accusing her. Even with a
break to what actually happened with the spade, the tense tone is still there
as Rocko keeps confronting her. Only
when Ed finally returns alive does he truly keep calm. If you’ve been thinking of a possible logical
reason for Ed’s disappearance, it would be easy to predict that it had to do
with a peculiar-looking wart on his butt seen at the start. It’s a typical moral of not overreacting, and
the episode cleverly reinforces it when it looks like Ed’s going to murder Bev
at the end, only for him to be gesturing a make-out.
This cartoon is a solid break from comedy
with an effective scare factor of the extreme yet possible unknown keeping with
what’s known about the cast.
A+
The Ranking
1. The Emperor’s New Joe
2. Ed is Dead: A Thriller
3. Bye Bye Birdie
4. Sugar Frosted Frights
5. Schnit-Heads
6. Belch of Destiny
The next Rocko's Modern Life review features fish fishing for people, and Rocko getting a bit avant-garde.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews, it's time to "Enter the Dragon" in Xiaolin Showdown.
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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