2001 Parodies / Soccer Coach Slappy / Belly Button Blues / Our Final Space Cartoon (We Promise) / Valuable Lesson - (Animaniacs Vol 4 Part 6) - 'Toon Reviews 39

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Episode 81

2001 Parody (A)

You can tell that the bulk of this episode is going to have a special theme to it as the first thing seen is a parody of a scene from one of cinema’s artistic feats 2001: A Space Odyssey.  

In this bumper, the Warners act out its interpretation of early man in one of the earlier scenes from the film.  Like the Neanderthals in the parodied material, they find a big black rectangle known as a Monolith.  However, because this show tends to work comedy into everything it covers, the Monolith is actually a big TV.  As part of the joke, the Warners freak out like cavemen when the first thing they see when they turn it on is Baloney the dinosaur.  They calm down when the channel is changed to the WB logo.  As Yakko later says perfectly audibly, now if only they can reset the clock.  Leave it to this show to successfully bring comedy to one of the most striking scenes in cinema history.  

However, there are more fresh takes on 2001 to come in this episode.

Soccer Coach Slappy

It’s really hard to believe how hard Slappy Squirrel cartoons falter without the emphasis on cartoon violence as an art that defined her throughout the series.  The cartoons she stars in during the Kids WB era place her in mundane situations that she takes on as a merely disgruntled old squirrel, and there’s no antic-fueled edge.  While the cartoons she’s had so far in this era have had some sort of stand-out tie-in to her established character strengths, this one is her at her least engaging.  

Slappy has taken on the role as coach for Skippy’s soccer team and approaches it as a standard open-minded figure.  The only traits truly in line with her character are constant pop culture references and statements of wanting to get home in time to watch something.  That’s nice and all, but it’s hardly enough to define the best of Slappy.  Actually, Slappy herself is more of a supporting player in this cartoon with Skippy being the one to get the most focus.  

The result is one of the least funny and most mundane routines in the series.  He keeps getting hit in the face with the soccer ball which causes him to cry.  Unlike his constant crying in “Bumbie’s Mom” which was over a much more understandable cause for distress, the crying here is just pathetic.  It’s so incessant, so loud, and over something not nearly as bad as he makes it out to be.  In fact, this late in the series, it feels like Skippy should be over crying this much.  He later adds on talking in a dazed disposition resulting from getting hit, but that just makes the setup more confusing.  This is still repetitive, but talking all dazed is much more appropriate to expect from Skippy.  Why not just stick with that and forget about the crying?  No wonder even his voice actor, Nathan Ruegger, hated the idea of him constantly crying.  Also repetitive is how Slappy insists that Skippy just sit out of the game as Skippy refuses.  I would admire his boldness if Skippy had legit merit in constantly wanting to keep on playing, but every time he keeps on playing, he’s still getting hit in the face.  What’s even the point of going on with this routine that really isn’t all that funny to begin with?  

Anyhow, because of his insistence to play despite getting hit with the ball, Slappy finds the perfect spot for Skippy. He serves as a goalie in the World Cup, and getting hit in the face is enough for the US to win a game.  I suppose it’s a decent enough payoff to everything in the cartoon, but is it really worth Skippy continuing to cry?  It still doesn’t come with any funny expressions or creative outcomes, so it’s still a pretty shallow and lacking end to the cartoon.  The premise is far below Slappy’s great original standards, and there's nothing strikingly funny to walk away with.  It may not be so bad as a cartoon by itself, but it’s one of the Kids WB era’s harshest reminders of how much things have changed not necessarily for the better.

D+

2001 Parody (B)

Since the episode opened with a parody of the prehistoric scene, it’s fitting that it has another bumper parodying one of the space scenes in 2001: A Space Odyssey.  It follows the Warners in a spaceship as Wakko space walks out to another Monolith all set to the Blue Danube piece like in the original scene.  The comedic catch is that the Monolith is actually a big remote this time, and turns Jupiter into a TV that displays the next cartoon.  It’s once again a respectable parody in bumper form, and they get a strong payoff later on.  

First though, it’s time to endure a cartoon starring the blackest of all sheep in the cast…

Belly Button Blues

Yes, even after so many weak cartoons starring her, this stretch of episodes continues to give us cartoons starring Katie Ka-Boom.  Granted it’s only two cartoons, but you have to wonder what the crew even sees in her and why an episode would need her to fill up airtime out of other characters to showcase.  This wouldn’t be a problem if the featured character was more likable and the premise was actually funny, but most cartoons starring this character are the show at its worst.  I understand the clever visualization of a girl seeming nice and turning monstrous, but with believable fear surrounding her destruction on her family, there’s no enjoyment.  Thankfully, the Kids WB era allows for much more understandable reasons for the rage of Katie Ka-Boom.  

For one thing, when she comes down in a new fashion style that’s well noted for exposing her belly button, it’s instantly rejected. Her mom says clothes like that aren’t fit for this family, and her little brother, Tinker, won’t stop making fun of seeing her belly button.  These instances are legitimately inconsiderate of Katie’s tastes and choices that really no one should have a say in.  They’re also really foolish, especially on Tinker’s part for teasing his sister like that despite how well-known how violent her rampages can get.  The only innocent moment is Katie’s dad, unaware of the whole situation, commenting on her belly button.  Too bad this is what has her go into monstrous mode.  

Right on cue is Katie’s big monstrous transformation suitable for the scenario as a big green creature roaring out clothes with a big green vortex representing her belly button.  It’s still not very funny considering the legit fear and carnage from the destruction, but as Katie states she’s not changing her clothes, it’s still easy to understand her side.  For the first time, it sounds like she’s not being accepted for what she likes.  However, understandable is not the same as justifiable given how she doesn’t even care about what she’s destroying.  This is cemented by her nonchalantly getting a jacket to cover her clothes and belly button because it’s cold.  With her inconsiderate attitude towards what she caused and her family still not accepting what she likes, it seems like no one really wins.  

There are still flaws galore with Katie Ka-Boom, but thankfully this cartoon has some form of merit to it as well.

B-

Our Final Space Cartoon We Promise

Those two 2001: A Space Odyssey parodies have led up to this entire cartoon playing to a famous sequence near the film’s end.  

Resembling mankind in the distant future traveling through the void of space, the Warners are presented waking up from hyper-sleep in a spaceship set to autopilot.  There’s a funny jab at the idea of suspended animation as well as the idea of Tang powdered orange juice that they’re offered for breakfast.  All this joking around, however, gets the attention of the autopilot system, AL, an obvious spoof on the dark system from the parodied material, HAL.  Like the real thing, AL is very monotone over his dominance onboard the ship as well as annoyance for the Warners not complying with his customs. 

It should be obvious by now though that annoyance is what the Warners specialize in.  No matter what threat AL brings, the Warners stick to their comedic mindsets and show very little worry, instead cracking a lot of jokes over everything he says.  When AL threatens to cut off life support, the Warners go into an escape pod to talk, flat out telling the system not to read their lips like the real HAL did.  This turns out to be unnecessary as they don’t even say anything.  They just sit around and make faces despite apparently agreeing that it’s ok to wear white shoes after Labor Day in space.  

Then in taking out AL, they don’t do it because he’s dangerous but rather because he’s simply really boring.  He still keeps talking even when the plug’s taken out, but that’s merely a setup for a joke.  Because he’s long and droning, AL is actually Al Gore.  Really this should be a jab at any politician.  Using specific names is enough to effect the timelessness of this show, even if it already has been effected several times.  It’s standard to end on a joke, but I honestly can’t imagine a fresher take on one of the most celebrated movies in history.  

Also note how it’s true to its title as literally no more cartoons in the series after this one take place in space.

A

On the whole, the works parodying 2001: A Space Odyssey are simple when it comes to jokes and funny interpretations of scenes, but still work as a comedy-driven version of the film.  Maybe it’s not one of this show’s finest parodies, but it’s successful in what it sets out to do.

A

Valuable Lesson

If cartoons want to teach morals, then more power to them.  However, I believe that it should be a conscious choice as opposed to an obligation from airing on a kids’ network.  This cartoon is a successful jab at the idea of shows being forced to tone down its edge and teach its audience something.  It’s the very thing to come from a show with a vast collection of adult jokes that sneak under the radar and offers problem solving through gags instead of talking things out.  

While the Warners are using extreme gags to deal with a rampaging Attila the Hun, they’re quickly stopped by the presence of network censors.  They question them about the messages they’re trying to send the viewing audience with all their violent gags, but the Warners think nothing of what they say.  With that, the cartoon goes into full-on fourth wall shattering mode as the censors drag the Warners off to their offices for a reeducation on what kids’ shows should be like.  

Backing them up is a total fluff piece of a kids’ show, The Snugglers, a spoof on The Smurfs.  With a clear knowledge on the typical convention of shows aimed just for kids, this is a true dead-on satire of what stock children shows are like.  It tries so hard to be cutesy and gentle that it totally lacks heart.  Morals are also incredibly unsubtle as one episode has everyone sit around having cloying conversations and sappy songs about why people get angry.  I believe the Warners have a perfect reaction to something like this.  

However, the censors further prove their point when they show a difference between kids who watch The Snugglers, and kids who watch the Warners’ cartoons.  The kids who watch The Snugglers feel like they’re just acting a part with their statement of moral values sounding so phony.  You can say the same about the kids watching the Warners’ cartoons as they greet someone by blowing them up.  Still the Warners have the right idea as they find much more entertainment in the violence from the kids who watched their cartoons.  They add onto it by getting the censors to demonstrate what they’re not supposed to do by pulling explosive gags on each other when they can’t put their demands to words.  

Without explaining anything, the idea is made clear that the success of this very show makes morals nonexistent.  It works because it’s free to do what it wants and doesn’t work in morals because they’re not part of its nature.  Should censors really bear down on the show, it would compromise what makes it so unique.  Yet, there’s still room to make their demands work with the presence of Attila the Hun.  He spends the cartoon tracking down the Warners, and when he reaches them, the censors try to defend them, and get beaten themselves.  The catch is that their beating happens off-screen so it happens, but doesn’t show any legit pain, making the scene work in a humorous sense.  Consider this a warm-up for a broader showing of this moral later on.  

For now, this cartoon is an entertainingly impressive work that shows off what makes the series as strong as it is in the face of censorship.

A+

Cartoon Ranking

1.      This Pun for Hire

2.      Go Fish

3.      Valuable Lesson

4.      The Sound of Warners

5.      Dot’s Entertainment

6.      Buttons in Ows

7.      Star Truck

8.      Our Final Space Cartoon We Promise

9.      Yabba Dabba Boo

10.  The Party

11.  The Girl with the Googily Goop

12.  Gimme the Works

13.  My Mother the Squirrel

14.  Hercules Unwound

15.  Belly Button Blues

16.  Oh Say Can You See

17.  Soccer Coach Slappy

Song Ranking

1.      Multiplication

Miscellaneous Ranking

1.      Gunga Dot

2.      The 12 Days of Christmas

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode all about music with a 2-note song, the Panama Canal, Hello Nurse, Magellan, the Great Wakkorotti, and a wrap party.

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

Dot's Entertainment / The Girl With the Googily Goop / Gunga Dot - (Animaniacs Vol 4 Part 5) - 'Toon Reviews 39

If you like this review and want to stay updated for what else I have in store, become a follower of this blog, click here to like the official Facebook page, and click here to follow me on Twitter. Now on with today's review:

Episode 80

Dot’s Entertainment

It’s always great to get a cartoon that’s not only great fun, but also offers a solid message on what it takes to make good material.  Through going after yet another famous pop culture icon, this cartoon easily fits this criteria.  

It takes place on opening night of a Broadway production from Andy Lloyd Webby, an obvious spoof on Andrew Lloyd Webber.  Mr. Webby doesn’t take long to set himself up as a pretentious jerk begging to be taken down a peg.  During rehearsal, the actors for his newest play put their all into their performances, but for one reason or another, Mr. Webby sees no value in their talent.  He doesn’t cease to berate them for being what he believes to be this play’s weak point and eventually fires them.  Needing a new leading lady, he just so happens to randomly pick Dot from out of the chorus line.  Her excitement for fame is made perfectly clear by an accompanying montage parodying That Girl complete with her standing in for Marlo Thomas’ character.  

What follows is the most creatively staged blow to Mr. Webby’s ego that he can possibly get.  Dot plays along with his half-hearted compliments to her acting potential so that he doesn’t suspect a thing.  Then a comeback of some sort is foreshadowed when sandbags are dropped on two random men intended to be Dot’s co-stars and are replaced by Yakko and Wakko.  

With all three Warners in place, the play is all set to get a comedic rework.  Allowing the play to go in a totally new direction, the Warners turn what Mr. Webby has in mind into a collection of silly parodies of Andrew Lloyd Webber songs.  The theme from “Sunset Boulevard” is turned into an overly dramatic song about Dot getting a root canal at the dentist.  The passionate “Music in the Night” number from Phantom of the Opera turns into a song describing how boring it is and how it puts the audience to sleep.  Wakko performs a soulful number about snack time while working off of another passionate song, “Memory” from Cats.  There is one song parody that feels out of place here which is the Warners’ take on “Do Re Mi” from The Sound of Music.  Mr. Webby even says that’s not even his song, and you can tell.  This is a parody of Rogers and Hammerstein, not Andrew Lloyd Webber.  My guess is that this song is here because there wasn’t a good way to incorporate it into “The Sound of Warners.”  It’s still a fun song though, and they all build up to a grand finale consisting of the point the Warners are trying to make with these parodies.  Playing off of “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” from Evita, they tell Mr. Webby the real cause for failure in his plays.  It’s not about the performances of the actors.  The real reason his plays don’t work are because of other factors, mainly the lackluster script.  That’s a solid lesson for people going into the arts.  You can push for the best performances, but it’s the writing quality that will truly determine if what you have is truly great. In the end, it’s not clear if Mr. Webby truly learns all this, but it certainly goes out well for the Warners.  

Marked with great parodies of some of Broadway’s most soulful numbers and a meaningful show business lesson, there’s a lot to take from this classy cartoon.

A+

The Girl with the Googily Goop

For another cartoon said to be made when the Warners were first created, it’s surprising how it doesn’t totally embrace the supposedly overly zany aesthetic.  I mean, it’s got a lot of merit going for it as a take on the cartooning styles of one of the biggest animation powerhouses of the early 1930s, the Fleischer Brothers.  There’s a much looser motion to the animation of everything, and it’s populated by innumerable anthropomorphic animals and sentient objects.  In addition, everything everyone says and does is perfectly timed to the background music as everyone proceeds to break into song on any moment’s notice.  Honestly, this is the great old school cartoon vibe one should expect to get from here.  

It’s unfortunately compromised somewhat when the Warners show up.  The story behind their presence in this cartoon, as stated in the opening prologue, is that the Warner Bros Studio needed extra cash.  To get it, they sold them out to parodies of the Fleischer Brothers working in New York at the time.  I’m not so sure if this ever happened with the actual Warner Bros Studio at the time, but either way it’s a plausible reason for the Warners to be in this cartoon.  The problem with their inclusion though is that they don’t exactly blend in with the zany overly-animated nature of the cartoon’s world.  They come in commenting on how creeped out they are over how everything’s alive and the erratic way the characters move. I suppose there isn’t anything too far-fetched about them responding to the world around them like this.  Even at the time, their style of comedy was different from something from a Fleischer character.  However, for cartoon characters said to go totally out of control at the time, they seem very restrained considering that all they do is talk about their surroundings.  

It’s not even just the world they comment on.  Their assigned plot is to accompany a parody of Betty Boop, called Googy Goop, to her grandma’s house and protect her from a wolf, i.e. your basic “Red Riding Hood” story.  Now Googy herself is certainly charming and likable, but not exactly interesting or funny as a character.  Her gimmick is being a target for the censors since the way she’s dressed and the black and white filming make her look like she’s wearing nothing.  Maybe the censor thing is applicable for modern times, but if I remember correctly, Betty Boop was portrayed like this in all her original cartoons, and no one complained then.  Yes, the Hayes Code was in place around the time, but that didn’t stop the cartoons from being made the way they were intended to.  Seeing the Warners sing about the censors complaining about Googy’s design is another thing to take the audience out of the classic cartoon feel.  

Thankfully, it’s fully realized when a harassing censor turns out to be the wolf who abducts Googy.  There’s a fun cartoonish antic-fueled climax where they chase them onto a sentient train, somehow crash into a cafeteria, and beat the wolf with a food fight.  Then, Googy, her grandma, and Dot, are free to express themselves with their own black dresses without any censor telling them otherwise.  It’s overall a solid take on how censorship can go too far by cutting out things that are actually harmless.  I just wish that the actual cartoon felt more like an actual classic Fleisher Brothers cartoon than a 90s riff on one.  Maybe it could be realized if it wasn’t presented as a long lost Warners cartoon.  Other than that, it’s a very fun and solid tribute to classic animation as it is.

A-

Gunga Dot

Now this short segment is where the show’s creative aesthetic makes itself known.  It’s a take on an old poem by Rudyard Kipling, “Gunga Din” with Dot taking up the titular role.  However, the only true similarity this short and that poem have in common is that they both center on India and both titular characters job is to bring water to people.  The catch is that both elements are utilized for different contexts.  The original Gunga Din poem is about a soldier who brings water to the armed forces and is disrespected by everyone until he's shot dead.  Dot is a water server in a much more modern setting of an Indian oasis.  In fact, the short brings a comedic contrast through dramatic narration of intense Indian desert heat from ages ago clashing with modern resort problems.  

Dot has to deal with complaints from everyone there about no tropical drinks, no ice to cool off, no water to bathe with, and even no water in the pool.  All throughout, the people of the resort demand some water and berate Dot for not coming to serve them when they want her, inconsiderate that she’s the only one doing all the work.  It’s one of the boldest visualizations of the pains of customer service I’ve seen for sure.  I’m just grateful Dot’s mistreatment isn’t in line with any racist undertones seen in the original poem.  

Adding to the intrigue of the segment, the resort is filled with cameos from just about all the major players in the cast.  Dot, her brothers, and the Warner Bros Studio staff are a given, but that’s not all.  Even some characters now exclusive to the show have notable roles here that play to their well-known personalities.  Slappy’s frustrations with the service is among the most believable series of complaints in the sequence.  Bobby, Squit, and Pesto of the Goodfeathers have an edge to their demands while lounging in a dry birdbath.  Mindy is innocently patient through the whole affair, going with the flow of things while obliviously knocking Buttons into a dry pool.  Even Rita and Runt get a notable sequence as well as some dialog, which is huge at a time when they literally have no starring roles all to themselves anymore.  

That said, no side characters stand out more than Pinky and the Brain whose plan to take over the world by sucking up water in a remote river is also worked into the poem.  I do have to question how sucking up the water with that sponge was supposed to get them anywhere though.  With an intriguing setup and a huge variety in the featured characters, it becomes especially fun to watch them keep up with the rhyme scheme.  Every bit of narration, complaint about the service, and even Pinky and the Brain’s subplot matches the beat perfectly despite all randomness of the lines.  That’s impressive writing as well as good fun.  It’s one of the key factors in place where Dot snaps and resolves the customer service problems by unleashing all the water in the tower she lives in.  I don’t know about you, but this action forming the Indian Ocean feels more true to Kipling than his own poem.  I seem to know his work for giving creative reasons for natural occurrences, but don’t really get that in a story of a mistreated water boy working in the army.  

With solid comedy and relatable conflicts working off of a classic literary work, this short segment is among the best constructed from this stretch of episodes.

A+

Cartoon Ranking

1.      This Pun for Hire

2.      Go Fish

3.      The Sound of Warners

4.      Dot’s Entertainment

5.      Buttons in Ows

6.      Star Truck

7.      Yabba Dabba Boo

8.      The Party

9.      The Girl with the Googily Goop

10.  Gimme the Works

11.  My Mother the Squirrel

12.  Hercules Unwound

13.  Oh Say Can You See

Song Ranking

1.      Multiplication

Miscellaneous Ranking

1.      Gunga Dot

2.      The 12 Days of Christmas

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode filled with many 2001: A Space Odyssey parodies, Slappy Squirrel as a soccer coach with Skippy constantly getting beaten and crying, Katie Ka-Boom sporting revealing new clothes, and the Warners harassed by network censors.

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

My Mother the Squirrel / The Party / Oh Say Can You See? / The 12 Days of Christmas - (Animaniacs Vol 4 Part 4) - 'Toon Reviews 39

If you like this review and want to stay updated for what else I have in store, become a follower of this blog, click here to like the official Facebook page, and click here to follow me on Twitter. Now on with today's review:

Episode 79

My Mother the Squirrel

If the tail-end of my Vol 3 reviews is any indication, the Kids WB years are not exactly going to be kind to Slappy Squirrel.  Introduced as a retired cartoon star who uses her knowledge of cartoon violence to get around in modern life, she came off as one of the show’s most interesting stars.  At this point though, she’s not exactly teaching the art of cartoon violence.  With little to no emphasis on big explosions or cartoonish gags, it seems that the grumpy old squirrel part of Slappy’s character is the sole thing that remains in her cartoons.  Still, going into them with an open mind is sure to bring something worthwhile from the experience such as in this cartoon.  

As a take on one of the show’s better one-off cartoons “Wild Blue Yonder,” it’s an alternate take on the little blue bird who hatches while his mother’s away.  Like in the previous cartoon, the bird believes anything close by is his mother, though is smart enough to not mistake a plane for one again.  However, he does see the easily agitated Slappy as his mother, and sticks with that mindset throughout the cartoon.  In the process, there’s something amusing about a child as innocent as the bird up against a total grump like Slappy.  Sure, she’s done better comedic routines, but there’s nothing really bad about what the bird puts her through.  Even when she becomes annoyed enough to flat out kick the bird out, there’s something cute about the bird still going back to her without even listening.  It also makes for some of the most awkward positions Slappy finds herself in as the bird keeps insisting she sits on him, giving her a very weird sensation down below.  Only advice from Skippy, who happens to have a book on the subject of birds, can give Slappy the slightest understanding of what this bird wants.  

It’s through this willingness to learn how to care for the bird that slowly has her warm up to the fledgling, though it may be through a tolerance of him flying under her.  The bird also proves his worth to Slappy by opening nuts too difficult to crack, and adopting Slappy’s crankiness by yelling at another bird, his real mother, to be quiet.  So by the end, despite their differences, Slappy and the bird bond very nicely.  It would make the transition in tone to Slappy’s cartoons a lot more acceptable if the bird stuck around with her for the rest of the series.  

Yes, for all its potential as the start of a fresh new dynamic, it’s really just as much of a one-off as the bird’s first appearance.  It becomes noticeable that the Slappy cartoons really won’t be as good as they used to be, but this cartoon manages to stand strong enough as a very cute cartoon by itself.

B+

The Party

In case it wasn’t obvious enough of how the Warners operate radically differently from the outside world, this cartoon perfectly showcases that idea.  Even in a setup as simple as a dinner party, they always find some way to apply outrageous comedy to almost every area.  

They invite people they usually antagonize like Ralph the Guard, Dr. Scratchansniff, and even CEO Thaddeus Plotz. This interestingly suggests they have no hard feelings to the people in their lives, although the former two people have been shown to be on good terms with the Warners as of now.  As for Plotz, who has yet to have developed such a good rapport with the Warners, he takes much more convincing when he’s told Steven is going to be at the party.  Clearly suggesting that they mean Steven Spielberg, Plotz is more than willing to put up with what the Warners have in mind for the evening.  

At the actual party, while it seems much more subdued for something thrown by the Warners, there are at least a few standout elements.  With the guests asked to bring dates, there are returns of a few memorable side characters like Ralph’s wife, and Dr. Scratchansniff’s date from “Drive-Insane.”  Plotz is only able to ask a totally random woman with a tendency to add a cadence to a lot of what she says, showing how low his social life really is.  The comedy brings a few awkward moments that kind of go both ways.  Some of them are just plain off-putting like the guests offered peanut butter sandwiches as a dinner appetizer.  It feels like the comedy’s supposed to come from a long sequence of nothing but everyone eating them and having nothing to drink to wash the food down.  Thankfully, other moments are a more enjoyable kind of awkward.  There’s a running joke of the Warners suggesting everyone to go meet Christopher Walken before cutting to his unusual physique and monotone voice.  Even if the joke is repetitive, it somehow gets funnier every time it happens.  Following the peanut butter sandwich scene, there’s also a humorous dance from Wakko who publicizes this party being an event where he wears pants.  It might not seem too big, but it’s more meaningful considering how he often claims that he’s not wearing pants.  The dance itself is fun to watch and is highlighted by a few trademark belches, although in playing to the awkwardness of the scene, everyone is appropriately disgusted.  

Now the prospect of Steven showing up is the only reason Plotz puts up with all this nonsense.  However, as you can guess, the Steven the Warners were referring to is not Steven Spielberg, but rather, the fat fanboy from the Please Please Please Get a Life Foundation.  Like the Warners say, that’s a long way to go for a stupid joke, but it warrants a few good laughs nonetheless.  With this cartoon, despite it not being the Warners’ best work, it’s proof that there is room for good entertainment even when low-key and simple.

A-

Oh Say Can You See

The Flame is among the more unusual characters in the cast of this show.  It’s not that there’s anything wild or eccentric about him, but a flame with a childlike voice lighting up a room as a document of American history is written isn’t in line with the main tone.  It’s cute for sure, but not exactly a winning staple of comedy.  Yet, his material has come off as fresh and atmospheric, or even brimming with American spirit.  This cartoon being the Flame’s final starring role doesn’t even come close to those works though it’s still decent as it is.  

It follows Francis Scott Key taken prisoner on a ship during the War of 1812.  While in a cell watching the battle rage on, the American flag still standing inspires him to write what becomes the American national anthem, “The Star Spangled Banner.”  The Flame goes through his usual motions once Francis summons him with a match.  He groggily comes to, freaks out that there’s a fire when he’s fire, and then realizes that Francis is about to write something.  After that, the cartoon is nothing more than the Flame reading what Francis writes for “The Star Spangled Banner.”  At least there are a few obscure historical references, like the lyric “by the dawn’s early light” originally being “through the dawn’s early light.”  For authenticity’s sake, the word through is crossed out, as would be the case with any song’s first draft.  

That said, there’s nothing to make the cartoon stand as anything special.  There’s nothing whimsical of the Flame’s surrounding like his first cartoon, nor is there a dramatic visualization of what’s being written like in his second cartoon.  Then again, there’s nothing whimsical about a ship’s prison hold and the flag still waving is dramatic visualization enough even if it’s not that impressive.  There’s hardly even stakes to the surroundings other than the Flame in danger of falling into the ocean as Francis tries to get to a boat when a cannonball sets him free.  Finally, when the song is written, it ends at a random scene of a baseball game.  I know the national anthem is common to hear in baseball, but it just feels shallow to say that things like that are all the song is good for.  

In fact, shallow is a good way to describe this cartoon.  It’s nothing more than the Flame watching someone write a document with no real stand out moments.  Maybe if the other cartoons in this episode were America-themed it would be easier to enjoy this.  As it stands, the work is fine, but is overall something that just happens.

C

The 12 Days of Christmas

It’s one thing for an episode to have an America-themed cartoon when no other segment follows that subject in the slightest, but this one goes a step further.  It includes a Christmas-themed segment when nothing else in here relates to that holiday.  While the audience is sure to be left dumbfounded by this direction, there is some remote humor to the given material especially when looking at the segment’s background.  

Apparently, Cody Ruegger, one of the sons of creator, Tom Reugger, learning the titular carol was the inspiration.  The final result gives a good idea of how that turned out.  Set against a fitting holiday setting of a concert with an orchestra composed of principal characters of the series, the little blue bird comes out to perform.  The orchestra plays the song, and the bird starts to sing.  This is where the humor completely bursts out as the bird’s rendition of “The 12 Days of Christmas” is very loud, very off-key, and consists of nothing but turtle doves.  To further drive this background home, the bird is voiced by Cody, giving a feel that this segment is an excuse to show how he learned the carol.  That goes to show that even when a little kid has the wrong idea about something, the results can be quite funny.  Being incredibly short allows the comedy to really stick and not go on longer than it needs to.  It allows the show to keep its status of being literally anything it wants to be and coming off as successful.  Coming from a personal recount of the series creator certainly helps.  

You still can’t shake off the oddness of getting a Christmas segment in a non-Christmas episode, but with the right attitude, it’s still good for a Yuletide laugh.

A-

Cartoon Ranking

1.      This Pun for Hire

2.      Go Fish

3.      The Sound of Warners

4.      Buttons in Ows

5.      Star Truck

6.      Yabba Dabba Boo

7.      The Party

8.      Gimme the Works

9.      My Mother the Squirrel

10.  Hercules Unwound

11.  Oh Say Can You See

Song Ranking

1.      Multiplication

Miscellaneous Ranking

1.      The 12 Days of Christmas

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode all about Dot via an Andrew Lloyd Webber parody, a take on Betty Boop, and a humorous version of Gunga Din.

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