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Episode 82
Wakko’s
2-Note Song
Music
has always been a key element of the series, working in time with the gags and
antics, and standing as its own highlight. That’s why it’s just
wonderful to observe that the episode we’re now looking into is all about
music. Kicking it off is this short
cartoon that may not be the most grand-scale or funniest, but makes a good
effort to showcase how quality material can come from anywhere.
It starts with Dr. Scratchansniff taking the
Warners out for another road trip. I have to assume that he’s assigned to do
this since I can’t imagine him willingly doing so after a certain song. In regards to the actual plot, Wakko passes
the time by playing two notes on an accordion.
Dr. Scratchansniff is annoyed by this and writes Wakko’s work off as
nothing but noise. Through wise guy
conversations, the Warners are insistent that despite what Dr. Scratchansniff
says, two notes can be enough to write a song.
That said, Wakko does need some help in convincing Dr. Scratchansniff of
his point as Yakko and Dot use what they have to add in some percussion. This slowly starts to work, but what really
starts convincing Dr. Scratchansniff of the two-note song’s potential is the
most creative moment of the cartoon. The
Warners suddenly change the scene from inside the car to various places
suitable for any music genre Wakko’s song can convey. It can be a country song, a blues
composition, or a polka. Regardless of
where they play though, there’s clear progression to Dr. Scratchansniff warming
up to what Wakko has composed. By the
time the Warners bring up a parade to play the song as a big band number, he’s
practically joining in.
Then afterwards,
Dr. Scratchansniff is off making his own song with his own minimal materials
even if the outside world doesn’t get it.
However they feel though, it’s undeniable that there’s well-staged
progress to Dr. Scratchansniff seeing benefits in the oddball ways the Warners
operate. Above all, it’s another cartoon
that gives a strong lesson of what makes great entertainment while being
solidly fun all at once.
A+
And
now it’s time to talk about the many songs of this episode starting with:
Panama Canal
Some
of the most memorable songs of the series are those that manage to be
educational as well as fun to listen to.
Not only that, but what the songs teach are unusual facts to the average
person. Putting them to music makes for
an exciting way to learn them that can’t be replicated anywhere else. With this song for instance, I believe that
nothing else can make learning about the details of the Panama Canal as
enjoyable.
It follows Yakko on a boat with a shipment of low-cal sodas ready to
pass through the Panama Canal as part of his journey. That doesn’t sound like much, but it’s
certainly enhanced a lot with a song worked into everything. Set to the tune of a song about another
well-known canal, Yakko applies all the key details of how the Panama Canal
works in a solid well-paced manner.
There’s how it’s the best pass through the Caribbean Sea, how the water
levels of different locks raise and lower, and even how ships are given a decal
when paying to go through. This is
honestly the best way to get what’s needed to be known about how the Panama
Canal works. It never gets too complex
nor does it overpower the fun had with the upbeat music scores. That said, most of the important education is
in the middle verse while the others merely describe the journey, so what you
learn isn’t all that plentiful.
Thankfully, what is taught in the song is all that’s necessary, and it
ends up being another great musical work from this one-of-a-kind animated
series.
A
Hello Nurse
It’s
no secret that this show’s songs don’t need to be educational to be great. They can easily stand out as fun musical
numbers on their own, especially as they highlight major elements of the
series.
This song is a very soulful
number about the woman Yakko and Wakko are easily the most interested in, Hello
Nurse. Of course, her attractive figure
is enough for characters like them to fall for her, but the song sets out to
showcase how amazing she really is.
Backed by Wakko going all out with a passionate singing voice, there’s
an extensive character study of Hello Nurse.
A few past works have
presented her as smart and pro-active, though those traits have not been as
prominent as her appearance. This song
is easily the best place to see those smart qualities on display.
According to Wakko, Hello Nurse has a high IQ
and many awards and college degrees, is politically correct, knows how to stay
healthy, and generously takes up community service. With all this said, it’s no doubt a far cry
from her usual portrayal as a nurse simply known to look good. Those achievements and qualities combined
with her legit attractiveness certainly earn her the title of ‘woman of the
year.’ Wakko clearly seeming impressed
by these qualities as well as her beauty also develops his crush on her
somewhat, as it implies he sees Hello Nurse as more than eye candy. It kind of does feel like it’s too bad he’s
only seven, not to mention a different species.
At the same time, everything in the song feels too hard to believe given
that looking good is what Hello Nurse is more known for than any
accomplishment. However, at the end of
the song, both Wakko and Yakko say that if Hello Nurse is not everything they
said, lightning should strike them dead.
Lightning does indeed strike them, but they’re clearly not dead. In other words, the song ends ambiguously if
Hello Nurse really is as amazing as the song makes her out to be. I’d like to believe she is, or at the very
least, a role model for any female to be the best they can be. That’s enough to make the song all the more
empowering, though it’s enough that it comes off as passionate character study
with the perfect music style and performance.
A+
The Ballad
of Magellan
Education
is once again at the forefront as this song looks into the voyage of one of the
best known explorers in history, Magellan.
Simplifying his most famous voyage to find the East Indies down to a few
verses, the result isn’t just a great song, but one of the most entertaining
stories from this show.
Backed by the
Warners singing his tale in perfect harmony, the song expertly divides the
phases of Magellan’s voyage. Out of the
music is a noteworthy routine of his biggest challenge. Magellan would think that he found the East
Indies, but it always turns out that he landed on a completely different
island. With each verse ending with him
finding the wrong island, he relentlessly lets out frustrations, sometimes to
extreme degrees of chopping down the mast of his ship.
All the while as the voyage goes nowhere, the
Warners are ever nonchalant over Magellan’s frustration, yet it works in
keeping them funny and likable. It feels
like they know what’s going to go down after reading all about it somewhere and
are just along to watch history play out.
It’s practically appropriate that all they do is stand around and sing
about what’s happening while getting Magellan to relax while he’s going
nowhere.
That’s not even mentioning that
they emphasize all the important historical beats of the journey as they
sing. It’s not just about the wrong
island Magellan ends up in, but also details of how his ships are diminished
from a storm and how long it takes to get to certain islands. Their historical awareness is also apparent
at the end of the song which brings the whole story the darkest of dark
comedy. Magellan reaches an island, the
natives come to attack, he’s slow to figure it out, and is swiftly taken out
with a spear. A death just happened, and
the Warners feel half-hearted in their mourning of him. Then again, it works given its historical
accuracy, and at least Magellan’s ghost gets to see the East Indies even if he
can’t sell anything.
With this song, the
historical content is made interesting with great music, harmonious
performances, the facts easily sticking, and fitting comedy all the way. It’s no doubt one of the show’s musical
highlights.
A+
The Return
of the Great Wakkorotti
I’ve
enjoyed the Great Wakkorotti segments for what they are, but I do know of one
major drawback to them. It’s basically
the same routine every single time. The
only thing that really stands out are the different kind of classical music
pieces Wakko belches to. With all this
in mind, it’s no wonder why we haven’t gotten one of them since Episode 50.
When bringing the
Great Wakkorotti back for this special music-themed episode, there is an
attempt to do something new with the concept.
The setup is that Wakko gets laryngitis which means he can’t burp. To let the show go on, he goes for another
lowbrow action for a highbrow setting, hand farts. As a side note, instead of Yakko playing the
music on a piano, he conducts an orchestra consisting of familiar faces in the
cast.
Now regarding Wakko’s performance,
it’s a bit of a reminder that just because you change a formula up doesn’t mean
it’s going to be the better way to go.
The hand farts aren’t too disgusting by themselves, but they really
don’t lead to anything big or especially hilarious. With the burps, there’s a plethora of
expressive funny faces to go with the music.
Here, it’s just Wakko in the same pose for the entire piece making the
whole concert mundane. Even the break
with Dot freshening Wakko up to perform more doesn’t make as much sense. With the burps, pouring a lot of soda into
Wakko fits because you can see its tie to the bodily function. It’s hard to see how pouring hot dog stuff
into Wakko’s glove easily means more hand farts. At least they are well timed to the featured
classical music piece, the Chinese Dance from “The Nutcracker Suite.” Also, the ending of the performance is
confusingly disturbing. Wakko doesn’t do
anything, but the last hand fart sounds like all the others. Is the segment trying to imply that it’s a
real fart? If so, this isn’t the best
way of showing it, and is slightly discomforting.
This concert is all right for what it is
overall, but in my views at least, it’s below the standards of the earlier
Great Wakkorotti concerts, repetitive as they were.
C
The Big Wrap
Party Tonight
Really,
a good thing to go with an episode consisting mostly of songs and music-themed
segments is a grand finale. A wrap party
is the perfect subject for such a thing.
In context of the show itself, the featured wrap party can be a celebration
for a lot of things. It can signal the
end of the episode, by extension the end of the third season, and a few months
prior to airing, it marked the end of 1995 as “New Year’s Party Tonight.”
The song also has all the makings of a grand
finale. There’s a lively tune, great
performances, and populating the scene are several cameos of celebrity cameos,
and members of this show’s cast, and other franchises. Everything seen gives an authentic feel of an
actual party that you just want to be a part of. Even the Warners have the time of their lives
as they sing all about the party.
However, in highlighting the party, there seem to be two elements that
stand out above all others, the guests present, and the different types of
food. That seems to give the impression that the party is only there for people
to eat. I’m sure that’s how most people
approach parties, but there’s got to be more to a celebration than that, at
least in my opinion.
All the same, it’s
a solid excuse to see how many cameos the audience can spot, and their rhymes
with the food they’re eating are solidly written. Of course the more prominently featured
members of the cast like the Warners, the Warner Bros Studio staff, Slappy
Squirrel, and Pinky and the Brain are featured.
However, this song is a good opportunity for the more obscure members to
play a role. They include characters
without huge starring roles at this time like the Goodfeathers, and Rita and
Runt, and that’s not all. Characters like the Randy Beaman kid, the Flame, and even Vina Walleen from
“Bumbie’s Mom” show up for a verse. There
are also noteworthy interactions with characters from other Warner Bros TV
cartoons of the era. There’s Freakazoid
randomly popping up, and the Warners shaking hands with the cast of Tiny Toons.
The use of celebrity cameos also make the party feel very
authentic. I in particular manage to
spot the likes of Whoopi Goldberg, Robert DiNero, Dick Clark, William Shatner,
and Siskel and Ebert, and I bet other people can recognize even more.
As you can tell, this is a song with a lot to
take in, making it great fun to listen to every time you come to it.
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. Buttons in Ows
8. Star Truck
9. Our Final Space Cartoon We Promise
10. Yabba Dabba Boo
11. The Party
12. The Girl with the Googily Goop
13. Gimme the Works
14. My Mother the Squirrel
15. Hercules Unwound
16. Belly Button Blues
17. Oh Say Can You See
18. Soccer Coach Slappy
Song Ranking
1. The Ballad of Magellan
2. Hello Nurse
3. The Big Wrap Party Tonight
4. Panama Canal
5. Multiplication
Miscellaneous Ranking
1. Gunga Dot
2. The 12 Days of Christmas
3. The Return of the Great Wakkorotti
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode with Slappy Squirrel in a very rare dramatic role.
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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