Friday, July 28, 2023

Little Ed Blue / A Twist of Ed - (Ed Edd n Eddy Season 4 Episode 6) - 'Toon Reviews 52

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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. 

 

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