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Little Ed Blue
By now, the characters of this show have expectations to their nature. Whenever they appear, the audience can guess how they’ll approach situations. The big thing to this cartoon is that it takes well established expectations of one of the characters, and makes a plot out of him being out of character.
It starts with one of Eddy’s scams looking set to work albeit for an unintended reason where the kids would rather have a food fight than watch a movie. Then failure quickly strikes when Ed suddenly appears, revealing the big shift in himself. He’s expected to be a lovable simpleton with a positive outlook no matter what. Here, the moment Ed shows up, he acts as the complete opposite, bitter, aggressive, and unfriendly. He throws everyone out completely unprovoked, and to show the extent of his rage, he even yells back at Sarah, leaving her intimidated for once. This instance may be the only bright spot to Ed’s sudden mean streak.
Nevertheless, Ed’s sudden new state of mind is a new priority for his friends as they set out to snap him out of his funk and make him happy again. Actually, Double D is all set on cheering Ed up like a caring friend would be while Eddy seems like he couldn’t care less. This latter perspective can be off-putting, especially when shown to this extent, given that Eddy has been capable of showing genuine care for his friends in the past. It's still an interesting case of alternate perspectives of a situation though.
As they approach Ed who spends most of the cartoon sitting on a stump in his foul mood, both his friends have alternate attempts at cheering him up. Double D is very caring trying to understand Ed’s feelings and smother him with kindness. Eddy’s methods are either reluctant when following Double D’s plans, or very forceful through his own plans that consist of yelling at Ed to get over his problem. None of their attempts do any good though as Ed always lashes back with brute mad force. Even with the aggression, there’s still clever creativity to how Ed keeps his friends’ healing attempts from doing any good. In general, he just never moves from his stump and only acts when his friends get too close to him. There also creative visual gags out of this setup like Ed slamming Eddy into a comic resulting in a page devoted to Eddy muttering “ow”; a whole turkey bulging in Double D’s stomach after Ed shoves it down him off-screen; and one of Ed’s toys used for a puppet show surprisingly working as a flamethrower.
A lot of amusement comes from Ed, even when out of character, and it reaches its breaking point when Eddy acts with one more burst of aggression to get over it. This provokes Ed to really cause “big trouble” as he mercilessly starts tearing up the playground. He really goes too far when he manages to grab Plank in his rampage and threatens to break him in two which could kill him. However, the hunk of wood seems to know exactly how to solve the situation as Jonny hears him suggest taking off his shoe.
When he does, Ed finally cheers up with a reveal that he was in a bad mood all because he had a pebble in his shoe. On one hand, it’s disappointing this was the cause of everything since there are many legit reasons for Ed to break from his happy demeanor, like his bad family life. This keeps this cartoon from being a strong character study it could have been, but then again, a simple reason for a bad mood kind of works for a simple character like Ed.
So, in its own way, the overall cartoon still works as a believable approach to sudden character shifts.
A
A Twist of Ed
Some shows have a formula to them which makes it easy to plan out certain events. In time, however, elements of the formula can simply not age well and make the audience want them written out. Sometimes, shows can fulfill that wish, but other times, they’ll make it seem like they’re ending problematic elements, but come up with a contrived excuse to keep the status quo. The latter possibility almost never works, and this is what brings the downfall of this cartoon.
One of the most problematic elements to this show’s formula is the Kanker sisters. They’re nothing more than harassing creeps who seem to exist only to make sure the Eds don’t win, whether they deserve karma or not, and they’re not even very entertaining. The opening to this cartoon really has their problems go too far as they get more into the Eds’ personal business than before. They just mind their own business only for something to not feel right only for a Kanker to suddenly appear and give them unwarranted harassing smooches.
After what they endure, the Eds decide that now is the time to do something about the Kankers to get them to leave them alone once and for all which sets this apart from other encounters. It really feels like they’re in for a much-needed status quo change. They even come up with a good idea for one when Double D becomes inspired by the concept of reverse psychology. It involves saying things in a way that brings the opposite effects of what the words suggested. After a demonstration involving telling Ed “not” to eat dirt, they try it out on their main targets.
They find the Kankers planning on how they’re going to approach the Eds again, and set to work. Just as they start flirting with Ed, instead of running away from them, he reciprocates their actions in his own over the top way. This includes being almost as uncomfortable as they can be through messing up hair and locking them in a dance. He’s so forward with his supposed affection that the Kankers are the ones on the run for once.
Then Double D advises the group to follow them home to their trailer to continue hitting them with reverse psychology to make sure the effects stick. From there, several actions from Double D and Ed show off fake affection to the Kankers that are presented as too over-the-top even for them. Some of them even force them into the Eds’ own quirky habits such as Double D labeling everything. As for Eddy, he surprisingly feels as scared and intimidated as usual not really wanting to go along with the plan despite its effectiveness and the good it can bring.
It’s because of this fear that things go downhill fast. Eddy sweats once, and the Kankers see that as a weakness to take advantage of. As a result, when the Eds set off for another round of reverse-psychology, the Kankers end up with the upper hand again with reverse-reverse psychology. The Eds fought hard, forcing the Kankers to fight harder, and in the end, nothing changes. It’s really disappointing with everything seeming like the show was set to put an end to this legit weak point to its formula only to stick to the status quo. Yeah, maybe the Eds should have quit while they were ahead, but it’s disappointing that the show won’t let them win when they were about to make a good change for themselves.
This ultimately isn’t the worst of the show, but the disappointment couldn’t be more apparent.
C+
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. One
of Those Eds
12. Laugh
Ed Laugh
13. Dawn
of the Eds
14. Don’t
Rain on My Ed
15.
Wish You Were Ed
16.
Dueling Eds
17. Mirror,
Mirror On the Ed
18.
Gimme, Gimme Never Ed
19. Ed-N-Seek
20. Keeping
Up With the Eds
21. Who
Let the Ed In
22. Avast
Ye Eds
23. Flea
Bitten Ed
24. Fool
on the Ed
25. Ready
Set Ed
26. The
Ed-Touchables
27. Who
What Where Ed
28. Dear
Ed
29.
Momma’s Little Ed
30.
Brother, Can You Spare an Ed?
31. Hot
Buttered Ed
32.
Ed or Tails
33. Stop
Look and Ed
34.
See No Ed
35. Shoo
Ed
36.
Rock-a-Bye Ed
37.
Little
Ed Blue
38. Ed
in a Halfshell
39. Scrambled
Ed
40. Pain
in the Ed
41.
O-Ed Eleven
42. Vert
Ed Go
43. Ed
Overboard
44. Oath
to an Ed
45.
Ed, Ed, and Away
46. Button
Yer Ed
47.
An Ed in the Bush
48. Read
All About Ed
49. Rambling
Ed
50. Home
Cooked Ed
51. Honor
Thy Ed
52. Floss
Your Ed
53. Quick
Shot Ed
54. Look
Into My Eds
55.
The Luck of the Ed
56.
Is There An Ed in the House?
57. Knock,
Knock Who’s Ed
58. A
Boy and His Ed
59. Eds-Aggerate
60.
Three Squares and an Ed
61. One
Size Fits Ed
62.
Will Work for Ed
63.
Boys Will Be Eds
64. High
Heeled Ed
65. Know-it-All
Ed
66.
For Your Ed Only
67.
Dim Lit Ed
68. Cry
Ed
69. Eeny
Meeny Miney Ed
70. A
Pinch to Grow an Ed
71. Pop
Goes the Ed
72. Hands
Across Ed
73. They
Call Him Mr. Ed
74. An
Ed Too Many
75. Sir
Ed-a-Lot
76. For
the Ed By the Ed
77. Over
Your Ed
78.
From Here to Ed
79. A
Key to My Ed
80. Once
Bitten Twice Ed
81.
X Marks the Ed
82. It’s
Way Ed
83. In
Like Ed
84.
A
Twist of Ed
85.
My Fair Ed
86. To
Sir With Ed
87. Nagged
to Ed
88. Tag
Yer Ed
89. If
it Smells Like an Ed
The next review might just be the show at its absolute worst as Eddy has to suffer Kevin learning his middle name, but at the same time, there's also a nice trip down memory lane, maybe.
Next time is the actual series finale to Amphibia, "The Hardest Thing."
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.
