Sunday, November 24, 2019

Urban Ed / Stop Look and Ed (Ed Edd n Eddy Season 2 Episode 8) - 'Toon Reviews 37

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Urban Ed


Sometimes, one of the Eds’ elaborate scams is all that’s needed to make a cartoon great.  They may be morally wrong, but the effort put into them is clearly so painstaking, you can’t help but feel they should get some payment for what they do.  This cartoon features one of their most elaborate scams ever with one standout moment after another.  The main idea for it comes very naturally as well. 
All the Eds agree that life in the cul-de-sac is downright dull which slowly brings up talk about the big city and how they all have something to love about it.  Since they can’t actually go to the city, it’s decided that they should just bring the city to home.  The result is the major antithesis of elaborate effort that goes into the best of the Eds’ scams.  With a bunch of piles of cardboard boxes and crowds of cardboard cutouts, their simple lane is transformed into a bustling metropolis.  You’d practically become convinced that this really is a city save for the obvious cardboard textures.  Appropriately, the cul-de-sac kids are legitimately impressed with the Eds’ work, suggesting that they long for something more exciting than home too.  However, Jonny is the one kid who’s totally apprehensive about the city, claiming that it will only corrupt the minds of the common civilians, but no one listens.  Oddly enough, even Plank ditches Jonny and there’s no prior scene showcasing him misplacing that hunk of wood. 
From there, the cartoon becomes a collection of moments throughout this cardboard city all bringing a fresh atmosphere from this simple scam.  Eddy and Double D imitate city-like traffic with a horn and a motion sensitive airbag.  Jimmy becomes overwhelmed by the crowds of cardboard figure but perks up when he sees a shoe store.  Double D shines Kevin’s shoe, but gets paid with a bottle cap (‘life in the big city, pal.’).  Ed and Eddy imitate pigeons by dropping white yogurt near Nazz as she carries a lot of packages.  Ed later throws in an anvil which even Eddy feels is going too far, claiming this ain’t a cartoon.  As Slappy Squirrel once said, “don’t tell him. He might crack.”  Jonny is desperate to find Plank who seems to be just as corrupted by the city as he speeds past him on a motorized wagon on his own.  He even makes his way into the city’s version of the slums as Eddy shadily calls him into a dark alley to make a deal with him. 
This moment though causes the city’s undoing as Jonny tackles Eddy and steals his jar of money desperate to get his pal back.  The resulting moment is an exciting climax where Eddy has to chase Jonny up a cardboard building to retrieve his money with all the kids watching and spotlights flashing below.  Plank’s even among the crowd and convinces Jonny to end Eddy’s charade once and for all by letting the money fall.  There’s scrambles of cash for the kids to gather, but the Eds are sadly left with nothing except for a worm.  Plus, the city collapses shortly after the kids leave. 
While this is an unfortunate lose for the Eds, the positive impact of the cartoon remains.  Jonny gets his friend back, and the good memories of the Eds’ authentic cardboard city will always remain.

A+

Stop Look and Ed


The Eds are very different when it comes to personality, and sometimes not seeing eye to eye can lead to a major undoing of good progress in either money or social status.  That’s the case with this cartoon which thankfully comes off exceedingly entertaining and relatable. 
While the Eds are testing out another convoluted scheme of theirs, its backfiring leads to the cartoon’s conflict.  Their newly made jawbreaker satellite lands in a tree, but a tree is marked by a sign that tells people to keep off the grass.  Double D wants his friends to strictly adhere to the sign because it’s the rule, typical of his overly organized ways.  Eddy, however, proves to be the most relatable by daring to not take what the sign says seriously.  For once, it seems like Eddy’s the more reasonable one by pointing out that stepping on the grass, despite disobeying the sign, leads to nothing bad.  Granted Ed goes pretty far by tearing off a section of the grass, leaving bare dirt for him to slam his head into. At least he humorously becomes a woodpecker, except with dirt. 
This instance sets into motion the rest of the cartoon where Eddy leads the rest of the cul-de-sac to be a little rebellious and have fun going against what signs say.  Though they’re skeptical as usual at the Eds at first, they do see the benefit of what’s being told.  Things like playing in wet cement, eating dessert before dinner, and other things are really harmless despite what adults tell them.  Even Rolf, who’s usually hard at work with chores, is convinced into taking a break and enjoying himself. 
The genuine fun everyone has with this rebellion is enough to start making the Eds look popular among their peers, one of the main things they’re after.  This in turn highlights a crack in the Eds’ dynamic with a major lack of perspective.  Double D is the ultimate wet blanket and stickler for rules, giving an overdramatic outburst of how what Eddy’s bringing on is sure to throw the cul-de-sac into chaos.  No one listens to him, and his friends even go so far as to imprison him in his room by tying his prized hat to the ceiling.  This scene also brings up the mystery of what’s under that hat when it comes off, Ed and Eddy are disturbed by what they see, except we as an audience don’t see it.  Sadly, we never will by the way. 
As for the spree of broken rules, when Eddy and Ed are done with Double D, there’s a showing of how much their rule-breaking influence has grown.  Some broken rules are totally harmless like Nazz drinking root beer and burping loudly or Rolf relaxing like a lazy good for nothing.  Still there are unethical things like Sarah and Jimmy eating a literal mountain of ice cream and Jonny running around naked, and destructive things like Kevin breaking dishes.  Overall though, it’s easy to chalk it all up to innocent fun for the most part.  This is why you can feel for the fun being spoiled when Double D appears and declares that he called everyone’s parents who are coming home to check on them.  This undoes all the good, or fun, that the other Eds have caused by putting everyone into a panic to fix everything.  However, they’re the maddest at Double D for squealing on them, the one rule no one would want to be broken, including myself. 
Either way, order seems to be restored as the kids lock up Double D at the end, but it's disproportionate that Ed and Eddy are there too since they were squealed on like the others.  Despite that little head-scratcher, this is still a really fun cartoon with a relatable premise and interesting crack in the main character dynamic.
A

The Ranking

1.      One + One = Ed

2.      Urban Ed

3.      Who Let the Ed In

4.      Ready Set Ed

5.      Dear Ed

6.      Stop Look and Ed

7.      Rambling Ed

8.      Home Cooked Ed

9.      Floss Your Ed

10.  Knock, Knock Who’s Ed

11.  Know-it-All Ed

12.  Eeny Meeny Miney Ed

13.  Hands Across Ed

14.  A Key to My Ed

15.  In Like Ed

16.  To Sir With Ed

 
 
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode as the Eds are bribed into checking out a hunted house, and Double D's forced to help kids all over the cul-de-sac while he's sleep-deprived.

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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