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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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