Cruisin' (Rocko's Modern Life Season 2 Episdoe 8) - 'Toon Reviews 24

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Cruisin’

I know from experience that when you’re around the elderly, many of them can get pretty difficult.  At times, it’s easy to forget that most likely, younger people will live similarly to them.  This cartoon shows younger characters realize what older people go through.  At the same time, there’s a balanced perspective showing older people have lots to learn too. 

This is another one of Season 2’s full half-hour specials that develops supporting characters.  One of the interesting things about Heffer’s background is that he’s a cow raised by wolves.  This cartoon is about Grandpa Wolfe.  He’s not the ideal pick for a headlining character being your average grumpy old man and any background of him we get isn’t followed up on.  Still, what we get from Grandpa in the spotlight is fine. 

At the start though, he doesn’t make the viewing experience very pleasant as Rocko and Heffer drop him off at a senior cruise.  Worse, Grandpa’s bad attitude and Heffer’s poor cognition get Rocko and Heffer trapped on that cruise against their will.  From there, the younger passengers are forced to do harsh physical labor and put up with Grandpa’s unruliness. 

The start of the cartoon may seem harsh, a few things lessen the toll.  Throughout Rocko and Heffer’s servitude, there are interesting ways to flesh the elderly out.  Despite a few visual gags of mountains of false dentures for Heffer to brush and wheelchairs rolling around on deck, others show they’re quite active.  They include chasing Heffer who scratches their walkers and rebelling against their pureed dinners with a food fight.  As for Grandpa, while pretty unenjoyable with his treatment of Rocko, there’s legit background on him.  When he was young he was in love with a wolf named Winifred.  Apparently, his attitude was even present back then as Winifred points. 

Then in the cartoon’s second half, things get more interesting.  Rocko diverts the cruise ship from ramming ducks, sending everyone into the Bermuda Triangle.  At the mercy of animation, all sorts of inventive antics happen there like a random gremlin floating around and Heffer getting abducted by aliens for a minute.  The biggest feature is a strange clock that turns the young passengers old and the old passengers young.  There’s a fair share of interesting pointers to this turn of events.  Rocko and Heffer turned old get an understanding of what Grandpa and the other old people put up with as the youthful elderly mess around with them. 

Speaking of which, it’s an amusing occurrence to see the old people turned young, but still show awareness that they’re older than they look.  It’s for that reason Winifred still refuses to be won over by Grandpa’s flirting even if it doesn’t do justice for his character.  Even with his attitude, Grandpa does prove to have a heart after all.  For all his belittling of Rocko, he dives into the ocean to save him when he’s blown overboard being young and strong enough to do so.  He needs to be rescued himself later, but making the effort still counts a lot.  I believe that this is the perfect moment that gets the cruise out of the Bermuda Triangle with different generations showing consideration for each other. 

I’m always up for creative occurrences even if they do get strange or ridiculous, but applying virtues to live by is a welcome practice to have them leave an impact.  This may not be the show at its best nor does it have the most interesting character moments, but creative occurrences teaching an often overlooked life lesson make it stand out.

A

The Ranking

1. Rocko’s Modern Christmas
2. Tickled Pinky
3. Boob Tubed
4. Kiss Me I’m Foreign
5. The Lounge Singer
6. Road Rash
7. I Have No Son
8. Commuted Sentence
9. Cruisin’
10. Down the Hatch
11. Pipe Dreams
12. She’s the Toad
13. Hut Sut Raw

The next Rocko's Modern Life review covers Filburt migrating to his birthplace, almost, and Heffer brings an interesting approach to being a security guard.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews, almost a year after the last time I looked into that show, I start a new review set on the third DVD volume of Disney's DuckTales.

If you would like to check out other Rocko's Modern Life reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.

'Toon Reviews 5: DuckTales Vol 1 Part 26

Bermuda Triangle Tangle

This episode gives us an interpretation of what it’s like in the Bermuda Triangle, the triangular area in the ocean where ships are said to have gotten lost.  It unfolds when Scrooge and the boys set out to uncover one of Scrooge’s cargo ships that was carrying a shipment of chunky peanut butter of all things had gotten lost in the Bermuda Triangle.  As it turns out, this portrayal of the Bermuda Triangle has the creative feature of being so over-grown with seaweed that you can actually walk around without falling into the ocean.  Plus, it’s also shown to contain a group of sailors who live there after the seaweed got caught in the motors of their ships, stranding them in the Bermuda Triangle.  With this in mind, it’s also worth noting that the episode has an interesting theme of different viewpoints of leadership.  To explain, the sailors of the Bermuda Triangle are led by a guy named Captain Bounty who has everyone live off of seaweed, work with seaweed, and insist that there’s no way to escape with all the boats stuck in the seaweed and incessant threats of attacks from a seaweed monster.  Scrooge disapproves of Bounty’s mindset and insists on at least trying to escape all while Captain Bounty insists that he’s ruling with the most care towards everyone’s survival.  What makes these viewpoints work is that they’re both easy to side with.  Of course, you’d want Scrooge to escape, but even if what Bounty wants to do is just give up, when he mentions trying to survive, you see where he’s coming from.  As it turns out though, practically everyone, including Bounty’s followers, want to try and escape the Bermuda Triangle, and when Bounty finds out, instead of revealing to be a bad guy to force his ideals, he listens to everyone’s feelings on the matter and understands them.  So, they ultimately free the ships, and in the process utilize some of Bounty’s survival tips, specifically calming the seaweed monster with a harpsichord in a light-hearted turn of events.  Then, to make the viewpoint of leadership theme remain strong, after Scrooge gets all the sailors, and his cargo ship back to civilization, Bounty, while having grown from this experience, hasn’t been completely changed by it, and the episode ends with him returning to live in the Bermuda Triangle he calls home.  It adds to the appeal of his character, and seems believable to real-life scenarios, which can only benefit the episode in a major way.  Not only is this episode fun and creative with its depiction of the Bermuda Triangle, but it’s written with themes and character moments that make it highly respectful for all in the audience. 9.5/10

The Ranking

1. The Curse of Castle McDuck
2. Home Sweet Homer
3. Hotel Strangeduck
4. Maid of the Myth
5. Hero for Hire
6. Top Duck
7. Robot Robbers
8. Much Ado About Scrooge
9. Magica’s Shadow War
10. Duckman of Aquatraz
11. Launchpad’s Civil War
12. Bermuda Triangle Terror
13. Armstrong
14. Sir Gyro de Gearloose
15. Master of the Djinni
16. Sphinx for the Memories
17. Send in the Clones
18. Sweet Duck of Youth
19. Earth Quack
20. Down and Out in Duckburg
21. The Lost Crown of Genghis Kahn
22. The Money Vanishes
23. Where No Duck Has Gone Before
24. Dinosaur Ducks
25. Pearl of Wisdom
26. Superdoo!

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the last episode on the DuckTales Vol 1 DVD which is of the closest microscopic Disney adventure we had 2 years before Honey I Shrunk the Kids featuring "Micro Ducks from Outer Space."

If you would like to check out other reviews on this blog, click here for the guide to all the reviews posted so far.