Thursday, April 9, 2020

Cutie and the Beast / Boo Happens / Noel / End Credits - (Animaniacs Vol 4 Part 9) - 'Toon Reviews 39



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Episode 84

Cutie and the Beast
Right away, this cartoon has a lot to live up to when it sets out to parody one of animation’s most acclaimed and spectacular features, Beauty and the Beast.  The Warners star in this story modeled after said film, mocking elaborate musical tropes along the way.  In execution, the results are funny and entertaining, but some decisions make the experience falter a bit.  

After a prologue of the basic setup of a selfish prince turning into a beast until someone falls in love with him, the cartoon’s approach becomes known.  The Warners enter totally aware that this is just a cartoon, and are portrayed as actors who constantly redo their intros until they’re perfect.  Actually, Dot is the one who keeps flubbing her lines while saying her incredibly long real name, Princess Angelina Contessa Louisa Francesca Banana Fanna Bobesca III.  Her outbursts over messing up are hilarious and reflective of what real actors.  However, there’s a catch as both she, Yakko, and Wakko, act uncomfortably tense towards each other, arguing because of this.  Maybe it’s a routine of putting on an act as actors who can’t stand each other, but it doesn’t feel right to see the Warners this against each other.  Their dynamic is way better than this.  Still, I can’t fault the interesting humorous way they’re introduced, overlong as it is.  

The real entertainment bulk of the cartoon comes as the Warners then spend the cartoon heading to the beast’s castle while singing parodies of Beauty and the Beast songs.  Really, they seem to parody the idea of musicals in general with allegedly long songs, clichéd tunes, and off key singing.  It doesn’t feel like they’re specifically going after Beauty and the Beast songs especially since almost everyone can agree that the particular score is nothing short of amazing.  In the cartoon’s context, it feels wrong that one of them is used to ridicule Dot when Yakko suggests going into a spooky forest or they’ll face a fate worse than death.  That fate is another song by Dot, and that's enough for Wakko to scream over and Dot to go into an unpleasant fiery rant.  First, Dot’s singing is just as fine as theirs as many songs in the series have proven, and second that’s once again way too harsh for the Warners’ established dynamic. This overly bitter atmosphere really does not fit this cartoon.  

Thankfully things pick up again when they reach the beast’s castle.  The beast turns out to be the popular Looney Tunes side character, the Tasmanian Devil, or Taz.  
When Dot goes along with the expected story beats and falls for Taz, the cartoon’s highlight comes in as the song “Be a Pest” a parody of “Be Our Guest.”  It’s a sequence of many hilarious ways Dot tries to win over Taz while Yakko and Wakko elaborately admonish him when he throws her out.  With all the ways they annoy Taz and mess up the castle, the song is a tribute to how hilarious the Warners are, annoying to others as they may be.  By extension, it gives a hint of heart to their dynamic after the three of them acting uncharacteristically malicious to each other for the majority of the time.  

Bringing the story full circle is Taz giving up, letting Dot kiss him, and turning back into a prince.  It makes sense for Dot’s character to kiss the prince again to make him Taz again so that she’s the only cute one, but she really shouldn’t come off so harsh.  Then to fit the comedic roots of the series, the cartoon ends with the Warners laughing over Taz doing his ‘funny thing.’ This should be familiar to anyone who knows of Taz’s spinoff Taz-Mania which I am not.  

When parodying the legendary Beauty and the Beast, this cartoon has a lot of fun doing so with its brand of songs, comedy, and surprise cameos.  If it wasn’t for the several overly harsh moments from the Warners, it probably would be one of their best works.
A
Boo Happens
Continuing the trend of cartoons parodying popular movies of the 90s, this is a very interesting Chicken Boo cartoon.  Most of them feature him in a single major role that grants him his few minutes of fame.  This cartoon goes an extra mile while working off of the beats of what I feel is one of the most inspirational movies ever, Forrest Gump.  

Chicken Boo, as Forrest Boo, doesn’t just fit one noteworthy position.  He makes it big in a lot of areas, all of which are modeled after events of the parodied film.  Like Forrest Gump, Chicken Boo is shown to have made it big in football, ping-pong, serving in the war, and especially getting to meet the president.  There are also effective touches to make the cartoon feel like a tribute to the endearing direction of the film while also playing to the featured character’s chicken mannerisms.  There’s a floating feather that opens and closes the cartoon that makes a lot of sense considering who we’re following.  There’s a play on the famous ‘life is like a box of chocolates’ line from the film except chocolate is replaced with bird seed.  That said, it’s confusing to interpret life getting stuck in your craw.  It doesn’t make as much sense as not knowing what you’re going to get.  Further giving it the cartoon an authentic touch is how it makes up for the fact that Chicken Boo can’t speak English.  His life is narrated in a very authentic yet simple voice akin to that of Forrest Gump.  It all turns out to be a parody that respects its source material but still allow it to stand as its own thing.  

Since this is a Chicken Boo cartoon, there also needs to be a way for him to be exposed.  In a scene similar to Forrest Gump appearing before a crowd of hippies, the same thing happens to Chicken Boo, and with a simple cluck, everyone goes wild.  Everyone that is, except for the obligatory oddball who sees him as the chicken he is.  In fact, this cartoon stands out for having three of them, although two of them are meant to only appear alongside the president.  It’s during this hippie meeting where Chicken Boo loses his disguise and is officially exposed.  Out of this comes a scene where hippies, a group known for promoting peace, completely attacks Chicken Boo despite all the good he did.  Maybe it makes sense since he’s technically a fraud, but it still doesn’t seem right.  Also, the moment is staged like a flashback, so would this mean that only this one moment in his life is a bust?  Does he technically still have success in the other areas?  It just gets confusing when a cartoon tries to follow a movie parody while also stick to a character’s formula.  

Still, the authenticity works creatively and humorously, making this one of the more unique Chicken Boo cartoons.
A
Noel
Like in Episode 79, this episode contains a Christmas segment despite the fact no other part of it has any relation to the holiday.  That’s one of the odd structures to a good portion of the material on this DVD.  Yet, it still succeeds in being very endearing and very funny at once.  

The holiday atmosphere of the scene is very engaging with a snowy landscape covering the Warner Bros studio lot despite not being possible for the Burbank environment.  I mean, even in the show’s own logic, this is so.  Aside from that, you have all you need to know you’re in for something full of Christmas spirit.  That very thing is a humorous take on a well-known Christmas song.  

As the Warners are decorating their water tower, they slowly break into joking over interpretations of the word ‘Noel’ which has its own song dedicated to it, “The First Noel.”  That is the underlying melody as scenarios arise to work in words that sound like ‘Noel.’  Wakko writes a letter to Santa, but Yakko informs him he spelled Santa wrong as ‘Santla’ and lets him know that his name has "no L.”  Then, Wakko and Dot are suddenly like Jack and Jill, but when they go up a hill to fetch water, Dot complains that there’s “no well” to fetch the water from.  Then to get even more outrageous, the Warners are in a scene from Moby Dick where Captain Ahab is informed by his crew that there is “no whale.”  

As you can tell, these are all funny scenarios brought up for the sole purpose of saying things that sound like ‘Noel’ meant for mainstream crowds who don’t know what it really is.  The humorous catch is then explained with the final verse of how the melody is a song the audience should “know well.”  With replacements of Noel with funny sound-alikes, the Warners declare that they ruined the song completely which is understandable given the song’s religious background.  Even so, the staging of the music and the passion of the singing of silly lyrics is just enough to get the audience into the spirit.  

It’s a weird song segment that manages to work and maybe even be worth adding to Christmas traditions, not as much as other works from the show, but merit is present.
A+
End Credits
Although this isn’t the first episode to close out with something different from the usual credits, I’d say the way this one closes is worth looking into.  It practically plays out like a segment all its own.  

Just as the Warners sign off, the camera continues to focus on them as they comment on the hardships of acting while also riff on everyone they see in the credits.  For the most part, there’s more bitterness to their characters not unlike what was present in “Cutie and the Beast” which still doesn’t feel right for the Warners.  For characters designed to be off-the-wall, zany, and full of energy, acting so antagonistic to the crew and getting major headaches from acting doesn’t fit that description.  I could probably overlook this with a strong possibility that this is just an oddball routine specific to this episode.  

There is, thankfully, a major element to make their relentless riffing work relating to all their spiteful comments of people in the credits.  The complaints they have feel very in line with believable frustrations people can have with certain people of the crew.  Story artists are said to take really long coffee breaks and drawing the characters off-model. The voice director is said to tell actors to do their lines better and faster.  The composer claims to not write songs in certain characters’ keys “like that would do any good.”  Even the Warners’ voice actors aren’t spared of any scorn.  Also, while the Warners are acting pretty nasty, their riffs are lightened by Wakko being clearly out of it when it comes to attacking the crew.  It’s like he knows this is a routine that he’s struggling to catch up with, further making this sequence work on a comedic level.  

Then the very last thing seen in the episode is the Warners freaking out when they realize that they said all these rude things without turning off the mics.  You can only be thankful that this isn’t a real think that happened with the actual actors, then this show would be in real trouble.  Then again, we are on the final episodes anyway.  

It may not be the best fit for the Warners, but this is still a really smart and clever riff for the episode to go out with.
A
Cartoon Ranking
1.      This Pun for Hire
2.      Wakko’s 2-Note Song
3.      Go Fish
4.      Valuable Lesson
5.      The Sound of Warners
6.      Dot’s Entertainment
7.      Boo Happens
8.      Buttons in Ows
9.      Cutie and the Beast
10.  Star Truck
11.  Our Final Space Cartoon We Promise
12.  Yabba Dabba Boo
13.  The Party
14.  The Girl with the Googily Goop
15.  Gimme the Works
16.  My Mother the Squirrel
17.  One Flew Over the Cuckoo Clock
18.  Hercules Unwound
19.  Belly Button Blues
20.  Oh Say Can You See
21.  Soccer Coach Slappy
Song Ranking
1.      The Ballad of Magellan
2.      Hello Nurse
3.      Noel
4.      The Big Wrap Party Tonight
5.      Panama Canal
6.      Multiplication
Miscellaneous Ranking
1.      Gunga Dot
2.      End Credits
3.      The 12 Days of Christmas
4.      The Return of the Great Wakkorotti


Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode with a parody of Rugrats, a far more blatant parody of the Disney Renaissance, the Goodfeathers relocating to the Warner Bros Studio, and a take on "Mighty Casey at the Bat" starring the main ensemble.

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

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