Friday, November 22, 2019

Home-Cooked Eds / Rambling Ed (Ed Edd n Eddy Season 2 Episode 6) - 'Toon Reviews 37

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Home-Cooked Eds



Whenever the Kanker sisters show up, that’s the biggest sign of things going wrong for the Eds, and to some extent the entire cul-de-sac.  For how long I’ve known this show, I for the life of me can never really understand what their deal is.  Do they do what they do because they actually love the Eds and can never take the hint, or are they straight-up psychos?  However their role in the show works, one certain thing to take from them is that they’re completely unpleasant.  That’s a huge factor in making them being the cause for the Eds failing at a scam or becoming well-liked among their peers very frustrating.  This is why this cartoon stands out for one of the rare instances where they overpower them, at least to an extent. 
The reveal of the Kankers’ appearance in the cartoon is staged very cleverly as things begin with another one of the Eds’ scams.  Their idea for a service station falls through when Eddy ends up putting Rolf’s mud-covered (at least I think that’s mud) tractor in reverse and crashing it.  As Ed explains his disappointment in the demolition it caused, the group casually reacts to a trailer on Eddy’s lawn before suddenly realizing what the trailer means. 
A big blue trailer can only mean that the Kankers are nearby and they’re invading Eddy’s property.  Their excuse for their actions is that they’re on vacation and are using Eddy’s house as a resort.  I honestly can’t tell what’s more disturbing, their usual aggressive unrequited flirting or how they treat their invasion like a genuine vacation.  At the same time, treating what they’re doing like a vacation is a humorous perspective.  All the same, Lee, Marie, and May are still largely interchangeable except for their distinctive designs. Plus they bring a major feeling of discomfort whenever they’re the focus of a scene.  They especially go too far when they take to Eddy’s house treating it like a tourist trap wrecking his furniture, killing his fish, and raiding his leopard skin undies.  They also take disturbing to a whole new level as they make the Eds clean their unmentionables and throw off Double D’s organization by taking his belongings as souvenirs.  For the latter, they’re implied to have stolen even more than that when Plank is among their possessions. Only shots of Jonny glaring at the trailer and acting aggressive around the other kids showcase the effects their thievery leads too. 
So far, the Kankers getting the upper hand so easily is bringing the cartoon down, but this is where things really pick up.  Since they’re on Eddy’s lawn for a vacation, the Eds fabricate a storm to scare them off, and like their scams, the convincing and painstaking efforts show.  Just squirting hose water through a colander and a vibrating metal sheet make for convincing rain, and an industrial sized fan makes their storm a typhoon.  The windy angle practically makes the storm with the random things blown at the Kankers.  It’s satisfying enough that they’re hit by a tree blowing at their door, but I get more of a laugh from a random Jimmy cameo. Plus, the Eds successfully get rid of them as Ed throws their trailer clean off Eddy’s lawn.  For more of a consequence, when the trailer lands, Jonny gives the Kankers more of a beating diving in to save Plank and sending them flying again.  This makes the ending ambiguous for the Eds as the Kankers’ trailer is now on top of the fence between Eddy’s home and Kevin’s home.  The cartoon ends with Eddy and Kevin trying to land the trailer on the other person’s lawn, but at least it’s better than knowing for sure that Eddy gets stuck with them again.  For that, I can safely name this cartoon as a momentous occasion where the Eds overpower the Kankers for once…once again, at least to an extent.


A

Rambling Ed



This cartoon takes the expected tropes involving annoying house guests and makes it something thoroughly entertaining and fitting for the featured characters. 
For starters, there’s a very sympathetic reason for why this setup is taken.  The Eds are pulling off another one of their scams and do so to painstakingly convincing efforts.  Eddy as a fortune teller sets up a creepy atmosphere to convince Jonny and Rolf to pay him complete with a moving money can courtesy of Double D’s magnet work.  Even what’s obviously Ed in a flour sack comes off as a convincing spirit. Then all their efforts are compromised when Sarah barges in, seems convincing as a spirit who attacks Double D, but then breaks the charade by tearing down the curtain.  Never mind that this constitutes a refund, but then Sarah goes on a very aggressive and tyrannical rampage just because Ed left his smelly sock in her room.  It only gets worse when she demands him to do a long list of chores and is unpleasant all throughout.  It’s times like this where you really feel sorry for Ed and the legit abuse he puts up with from his own family.  The way Sarah treats him is completely unacceptable, yet his parents seem ok with it despite how well he means.  It’s impressive that he still remains so upbeat and friendly. 
All the same, Double D and Eddy have the right idea that Ed would be better off living away from him, so they have him pack up his entire room and move somewhere else.  Given how bad Ed’s home treatment is, I’m convinced that his parents would even care that he’s gone by the way. 
As for where Ed moves, Eddy gets the idea that the perfect new home is the shed in Rolf’s yard.  Benefitting Rolf’s character, though he’s still annoyed by the earlier scam, he’s nice enough to let Ed live here which is fitting since he’s known to be more tolerable of the Eds’ antics.  The story’s direction, however, does remind the audience that he can easily become intolerable when provoked, and the Eds convincingly provoke him.  They get out of Rolf’s shed a lot and mess around his yard when he’s simply trying to complete his chores.  Ed shows up bathing in a trough for Rolf’s animals, Eddy lounges on a stump he’s trying to move, and the group vertically sticks his tractor on an egg to funny effect. 
The worst actions come at night when the Eds straight up mooch Rolf out of all his food and deny him a comfortable place to sleep.  Any frustration Rolf gets is all too understandable, especially since there’s no real reason why Double D and Eddy stick around at his place.  Ed’s the one finding a new home, not them.  Still, after a difficult night like that, you can’t help but justify the claim that the “BURDEN OF HOSPITALITY IS TOO GREAT FOR ROLF!” which the entire cul-de-sac discovers.  As the Eds remain in their blissful annoying house guest mindsets, they get appropriate consequences.  Rolf lets out his frustrations by acting as a fortune teller and forcing the Eds to do all his chores for him.  Even if this is a major payback for being overworked and worn down by the Eds’ antics himself, I’d argue that this still isn’t as bad as what Ed puts up with from Sarah. 
Despite a fair share of confusing plot decisions, the sympathetic reasons for actions, humor, and character moments make this cartoon very solid, conventional as it is.

A

The Ranking

1.      One + One = Ed

2.      Who Let the Ed In

3.      Ready Set Ed

4.      Dear Ed

5.      Rambling Ed

6.      Home Cooked Ed

7.      Floss Your Ed

8.      Knock, Knock Who’s Ed

9.      Know-it-All Ed

10.  Eeny Meeny Miney Ed

11.  Hands Across Ed

12.  In Like Ed

 

 
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode of the shocking circumstance of Nazz coming over to babysit Eddy, and the Eds find a key to something they need to find out.

If you would like to check out other Ed Edd n Eddy reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.

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