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:
The time has come once again talk about what may be the most prominent classic Cartoon Network show on this blog, and explore how much it’s changed after three amazing seasons:
Ed Edd n Eddy (Season 4)
Basic Premise
One of the greatest streaks of quality in animated shows comes from Ed Edd n Eddy. Its winning style of humor, defined personalities, and pure animated aesthetics make it a form of entertainment all its own. For that, it’s great fun to revisit the series and talk about what each season has to offer. However, there is a catch with this show’s streak. Back in the review set for Season 3, it was said that the season in question was the peak of the series, meaning that it was the best the series would ever get. By extension, that would mean that there would be significant weakness in the seasons after that. Take that as a word of caution going into Season 4 where the high quality of the three seasons that came before it is not exactly going to be matched. Now, there are still going to be some great highlights that come from the ongoing formula of the series, but not as many. That’s not even mentioning how the weaker cartoons are going to be especially weak. Really, it’s kind of bound to happen with the formula of a show when it’s been running for so long. Still, it will be an interesting experience to dissect Season 4 and see how it compares to those older seasons. Besides, just because there’s a drop in quality doesn’t mean it’s going to be a big drop.
Above all, this show still has great unique entertainment people just can’t find elsewhere. So off we go to the cul-de-sac of Peach Creek for more antics featuring everyone’s favorite Ed boys.
Now on with the reviews:
If it Smells Like an Ed
It would be appropriate to go into the show’s very first double-length cartoon thinking it’s going to be something special, let alone a strong start to the season. While those are the expectations, harsh cold circumstances affect the actual story to an unpleasing extent. This show has never had the nicest atmosphere, but it still consistently worked enough to bring successful comedy and entertainment. Here, the meaner undertones of the premise officially start going too far, causing the whole product to suffer as a result.
Everything opens with something that goes on to make the whole production frustrating. The kids of the cul-de-sac gather around a big papier mâché heart talking friendly with each other and singing a sappy song on their own fabricated Friendship Day; and it is all to a very saccharine extent. It almost feels like a completely different show with how sickly sweet everyone is acting, and some might even find it downright phony. The kicker is that this moment of overdone, unnatural, over-the-top friendly mannerisms makes these kids look like great supportive friends. The preceding events, however, completely contradict this perception and makes everyone look hypocritical. Once the Eds arrive on the scene and add a welcome break from the indulgence of sappiness from the opening scene, things really go downhill. As a retaliation to the one behind the affair of Friendship Day, the ever soft-spoken and fragile Jimmy, Eddy gives him a wedgie. It’s not the act itself that goes too far, but the fact that absolutely all the kids, excluding Sarah of course, relentlessly laugh at him. It wouldn’t be such a concern if the other kids didn’t make a big deal of being good friends just a few moments earlier. If that’s not enough, by not having them commit to their show of friendship earlier, even harsher moments that come up later have an especially big sting.
After that wedgie comes a series of mishaps that get everyone going. First, a simple, honestly insignificant paintbrush goes missing, and everyone immediately thinks Ed took it despite seeing him leave with the other Eds. Now, the blatantly baseless accusation here does make the other mishaps slightly fairer. Double D having a suspicious rag in his pocket makes it look like he wiped of Planks’s mouth, and Eddy is blamed for putting a hockey stick in the heart since it has his name on it. However, frustration builds from the kids refusing to listen to the Eds as they try to explain themselves and they stubbornly stick to the conclusions they jumped to. Some could say that it makes sense because their general nature of scams and ruining fun already don’t make the Eds look trustworthy, but there are two big counterpoints. One is that even if the Eds aren’t trustworthy, they still follow their scams no matter what, and continue to do so for the rest of the show’s run. The other is that right now, they were perfectly fine with Eddy giving Jimmy a wedgie to the point of laughing at him along with the Eds. If they, apart from Sarah, didn’t berate the Eds then, they have no right to berate them now. Basically, the conflict is already off to a bad start with the Eds wrongfully accused for things they didn’t do, and it’s made worse by it being fueled by total hypocrites.
Even with this unfortunate premise, in all fairness there is some entertainment to the mystery the Eds try to uncover in the name of proving themselves innocent. They find a red painted footprint on a sidewalk square, and deduce that whoever left it committed all those mishaps they were accused of. This leads to a montage of the group sneaking around to discretely see if the neighborhood kids match the footprint. It’s very enjoyable through the many gags that come from how they manage to compare foot sizes whether they do so by distracting them; secretly interfere with their activities causing other extreme gags in response; and even infuriating other kids to get a foot mark kicked onto them to use for comparison. There are no results in their attempt so far, but then following an amusing fourth wall break from Ed alluding to this cartoon being longer than usual, there’s another mishap.
The Eds find Jonny tied up, gagged, and covered in jujubes with the same footprint on the scene to indicate that this was done by the same mastermind behind everything else. While the Eds are casually observing this, the other kids show up, and it’s at this point when things get especially infuriating. They think that just because the Eds are near Jonny while he’s tied up, they did this to him. Once again, they refuse to listen to the Eds as they try to explain themselves making them more unlikable than before. Their relentless scorn and intentions for violent retaliation are just plain uncomfortable especially since it’s well-known that the Eds are innocent for everything. Major stubbornness fueling the conflict that’s never dealt with or leads to deserved consequences does nothing but hurt the entertainment. What’s more, Jonny may be the victim, but it’s disturbing that he just goes along with the kids’ unwarranted anger. His ears clearly weren’t covered so he should have heard what the Eds were saying and know they didn’t ambush him, yet he never explains this to the kids. It’s at this point where it feels like making things this unfair for the Eds is intentional which is simply messed up.
As the kids unjustly and relentlessly chase after the Eds, there’s at least another layer of intrigue to the mystery. Throughout this whole thing, there has been a huge emphasis on the candy, jujubes, and the audience is made aware that Rolf is the one in possession of them. This brings a convincing impression that Rolf may have set up the Eds, so when they find a trail of jujubes while the kids chase them, things seem all set up for the reveal. The trail leads the Eds into a shed and a silhouette suggests that they’ve tracked Rolf down and are now in the clear to expose him. Then, as if they haven’t already suffered enough, they’re actually at the hands of the dreaded Kanker sisters. The frustration and infuriation reach a new high with the Eds now caught between two unfair situations. There’s the hypocritical neighborhood kids who stubbornly want to beat them for things they didn’t even do, and the harassing Kankers whose actions speak for themselves. It propels the whole cartoon into entire new levels of pain with everything leading to suffering for the sake of suffering, all undeserved. The only way out is for the Eds to choose one of the two torments, ultimately going with the kids who tape them to a fence and throw fruit at them. It may be the ‘lesser of two evils’ but it’s still humiliating and doesn’t even fit the weight of the actions the Eds were accused of. Not to mention, it’s fully undeserved punishment which is never an ok plot point.
Regarding the mystery, there is a payoff to all the questions it brought up, and ignoring context, the truth behind everything is impressive. The Eds catch Jimmy giving Rolf a bunch of jujubes, and has a boot covered in red paint, indicating that Jimmy was the one who set the Eds up all the time. Once he’s exposed, Jimmy explains all the details behind how he pulled it all off. He simply unleashed the misdeeds at the heart behind everyone’s back, and set up the footprint and possibility of Rolf being guilty to keep the Eds from pursuing him. As for the Kankers, he braved their torment to have them make a deal to let them in on his scheme, which adds to a lot of questions if their crushing on the Eds really is genuine love. All of this is an interesting perception on Jimmy’s character where he may seem fragile and innocent, but can be very conniving and smart enough to pull off these kinds of stunts. In fact, it’s a fitting continuation of his time with the Eds in an earlier cartoon.
However, any strength to this reveal is botched by the reasons Jimmy did all this in the first place; it was retaliation for the wedgie he received. This makes sense on the surface, but it’s really messed up when looking at the details. First of all, it’s a big example of an unjust setup that becomes the norm for much of the series at this point where when one Ed is out of line, all the Eds have to suffer too. In this case, only Eddy gave Jimmy the wedgie, so it would make more sense for only Eddy to be targeted, but Ed and Double D had to suffer too. Jimmy could have gone after the other Eds because they were all laughing at him, but so were the other neighborhood kids. If teasing got him to act against them, it would have been more fitting if the entire neighborhood except for Sarah were framed for things. By just having the Eds get tormented, the whole thing becomes unreasonably unfair, and that’s not all. The cartoon ends with what Jimmy did never being revealed to the others, and the Eds STILL have to suffer by being harassed by the Kankers anyway. Ultimately, the final product is just an exercise of the Eds suffering for the sake of it which is always destined to fail at entertainment. Worse still, it stings even more with the real mastermind getting off scott-free; and slipping on a banana peel doesn’t count.
This is technically a milestone as the first double-length cartoon, and it is completely botched. The premise has potential for a good mystery, but it’s brought down by several unpleasing choices. Almost all the characters are unlikable unreasonable hypocrites; there is no good resolution to everything that happens; and above all it just comes off as unentertaining, the worst thing a cartoon can be. The actual mystery angle is staged well and even makes for good gags, but that can’t make up for the unfair atmosphere that makes up the context. Unfairness, especially to this extent, means no heart, and no heart means nothing works. From personal experience, I used to consider it the worst of the show, though I have considered other cartoons to be worse as you will discover in future reviews. Still, for now, it’s going at the bottom of the ranking as a sign of how big a turn in quality the show is going to take starting with its fourth season.
F+
Series Ranking
1.
An Ed is Born
2. One
+ One = Ed
3.
The Day the Ed Stood Still
4. A Glass of Warm
Ed
5.
It Came from Outer Ed
6. Rent-A-Ed
7.
Once Upon an Ed
8. Fa
La La La Ed
9. Urban
Ed
10.
Ed…Pass it On
11. Laugh
Ed Laugh
12. Dawn
of the Eds
13.
Wish You Were Ed
14.
Dueling Eds
15. Mirror,
Mirror On the Ed
16.
Gimme, Gimme Never Ed
17. Ed-N-Seek
18. Keeping
Up With the Eds
19. Who
Let the Ed In
20. Avast
Ye Eds
21. Flea
Bitten Ed
22. Fool
on the Ed
23. Ready
Set Ed
24. The
Ed-Touchables
25. Who
What Where Ed
26. Dear
Ed
27.
Momma’s Little Ed
28. Brother, Can You Spare an Ed?
29. Hot
Buttered Ed
30.
Ed or Tails
31. Stop
Look and Ed
32.
See No Ed
33. Shoo
Ed
34.
Rock-a-Bye Ed
35. Ed
in a Halfshell
36. Scrambled
Ed
37.
O-Ed Eleven
38. Vert
Ed Go
39. Oath
to an Ed
40.
Ed, Ed, and Away
41. Button
Yer Ed
42.
An Ed in the Bush
43. Read
All About Ed
44. Rambling
Ed
45. Home
Cooked Ed
46. Honor
Thy Ed
47. Floss
Your Ed
48. Quick
Shot Ed
49. Look
Into My Eds
50.
The Luck of the Ed
51.
Is There An Ed in the House?
52. Knock,
Knock Who’s Ed
53. A
Boy and His Ed
54. Eds-Aggerate
55.
Three Squares and an Ed
56.
Will Work for Ed
57.
Boys Will Be Eds
58. High
Heeled Ed
59. Know-it-All
Ed
60.
For Your Ed Only
61.
Dim Lit Ed
62. Cry
Ed
63. Eeny
Meeny Miney Ed
64. A
Pinch to Grow an Ed
65. Pop
Goes the Ed
66. Hands
Across Ed
67. An
Ed Too Many
68. Sir
Ed-a-Lot
69. Over
Your Ed
70.
From Here to Ed
71. A
Key to My Ed
72.
X Marks the Ed
73. It’s
Way Ed
74. In
Like Ed
75.
My Fair Ed
76. To
Sir With Ed
77. Nagged
to Ed
78. Tag
Yer Ed
79.
If
it Smells Like an Ed
Very fortunately, the next Ed Edd n Eddy review will be a much more pleasing experience featuring an exciting race to the candy store, and fun with walkie talkies leading to recyclable scams.
Next time is the start of another new review set on Season 3 of Amphibia.
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment