The Christmas Tree / Punchline (Part 1) / Prom Night / Punchline (Part 2) - (Animaniacs Vol 4 Part 23) - 'Toon Reviews 39

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Episode 98

The Christmas Tree

Once again, an episode contains a Christmas cartoon despite the fact that nothing else relates to the holiday in the slightest.  To make things even more baffling is how the entire episode opens with a Christmas variant of the theme song when it’s not a total Christmas show.  However, that’s not the only issue with this cartoon.  

You may remember that in spite of a few exceptions, Slappy Squirrel has been largely devoid of the cartoon violence edge that defined her since the show’s beginning.  Instead of showcasing such acts as an art to live by, most of her performances have involved getting roped into situations that annoy her more than anything.  She hasn’t even used anything creative, cartoonish, or extreme to turn things around.  For at least the first half of this cartoon, an impression is brought that her cartoonish angle has been dropped entirely in favor of portraying her as an old squirrel and nothing more.  

This is a shame because there’s a lot of nice wholesome values in the first few minutes of the cartoon.  Scenes of a tree in a Canadian forest getting cut down and later set up and decorated for the Christmas season at Rockefeller Center give a warm feeling of the holiday.  It’s also felt with sights of carolers and ice skaters around the center seen throughout the cartoon.  

Truthfully, once Slappy is first seen and becomes the cartoon’s focus, things go down significantly.  It is normal for characters to end up in sporadically different roles and occupations in this series.  That’s the nature of ‘anything goes’ cartoons, and Slappy has had her share of them, but no matter how characters are portrayed, they succeed for being true to their basic role.  This is not the case for Slappy in this cartoon.  I’m fine with her living in the wild and having her tree uprooted to be in Rockefeller Center. Without an emphasis on her being a master of cartoonish arts though, this isn’t the true Slappy Squirrel.  She might as well be any old squirrel hibernating, storing food, being treated like a mad squirrel for animal control to take away, and having always lived in a forest.  She’s also portrayed as dumb, blind, and absent-minded which were never traits of her character.  When she goes out for nuts she stored for the winter, it never occurs to her that she’s not in the forest, not even when she uses an ax to get to the nuts within a donut shop.  When she does notice the cityscape, it still takes her forever to realize she’s not where she thinks she is. She claims they built a city around their tree and mistakes an electric box for the Christmas lights as chipmunk neighbors with tiki lamps.  Slappy may not be ethical, but she’s never been this dense.  

It’s undeniably frustrating that she’s like this for much of the cartoon, but thankfully, she starts acting true to herself in the second half.  When she finds out she’s in New York and not the forest, she’s upfront with her stance and takes it to the Rockefeller Center CEO.  She’s like a generic protester on first encounter, but when he blows her off, she really taps into her cartoonish antic side.  She and Skippy decide to make the CEO see what it’s like to have his home moved by bulldozing his house off its property into the streets of Time Square.  It’s a mildly humorous showing of Slappy’s true comic capabilities and comes with hilarious encounters with homeless people for the CEO.  This is what it takes for Slappy’s conflict to be resolved, but nothing is learned as Rockefeller Center just uproots another home for their tree; the Warners’ water tower.  At least they’re respectful enough to shut out the lights when they ask.  

While this cartoon is enjoyable and decent Christmas material, it’s hard to get fully invested for how much it strays away from what one of the show’s best characters is all about.  Being the final Slappy Squirrel cartoon makes this an even bigger sting.

B-

Punchline Part 1: Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?

Among many characters getting their last time in the spotlight in the episode is Chicken Boo.  In fact, I believe that what’s done here is practically the best thing ever done with the character.  

Everything unfolds in a spoof on news shows which specializes in finding deep meaning in one of the oldest jokes in recorded history.  The simple riddle of why the chicken crossed the road is humorously treated with sophisticated and dignified speculation reserved for the true big mysteries of current events.  This alone is a strong enough setup for the following sketch.  Chicken Boo himself poses as a news reporter whose microphone apparently needs fixing with his partner, Ted Foppel doing all the interviewing.  

Broadening the appeal of the news show is this being another instance of bringing different members of the cast together for the common cause.  Ted calls upon a vast assortment of supporting characters to explain why they think the chicken crossed the road.  Pinky and the Brain make another surprise appearance in something very telling of their dynamic.  Brain gives an intellectual hypothesis of how the chicken crossed the road while Pinky, simply cuts to the truth that one of the reporters is a chicken but Brain thinks nothing of it.  The Goodfeathers are welcome additions to the topic as well. Their lack of knowledge on what happened comes with Pesto’s famous rant and Squit beatings based on a misunderstanding.  Easily the most surprising character in this matter is Runt who hasn't been in the spotlight for ages.  Though he’s arguably the dumbest of all the major players, he’s the one who settles the matter once and for all.  Through tracking a scent like dogs tend to do, he exposes Chicken Boo for his true species, answering the question that the chicken crossed the road to get to the news studio.  Chicken Boo may be chased away, but it’s impressive that he doesn’t really get ridiculed this time.  Brain even tries to insist that his theory is still right even when clearly proven wrong.  

This is an overall great take on news shows and shows what can be done with a simple joke with the proper execution.  There’s still more to this concept, but first here’s another cartoon…

 

Prom Night

At first glance, it can get upsetting that the penultimate episode of the entire series features a cartoon starring the worst character in the cast, Katie Ka-Boom.  However, as the final cartoon of this kind for the series, measures are taken to make it bearable.  In fact, it may be among the most bearable instances of Katie mercilessly threatening her ‘wonderful family’ with her extreme temper.  

She’s pleased to announce that she’s been invited to the senior prom despite the fact that she’s only a sophomore and technically too young for such an affair.  The catch is that she doesn’t plan on stopping at just the prom.  She also wants to go all out with her preparations and stay late after the prom for other festivities.  Her parents are actually in the right to point out that there’s something wrong with her excessive demands and insist that she follow a curfew.  

Given how Katie has been written for much of the series, Katie doesn’t take not getting exactly what she wants well.  Just the mere suggestion of a curfew is enough to put her in the monster mode.  The subject of a prom fittingly has Katie take the form of a roaring green creature in a purple dress with corsages as a disco ball appears overhead.  As for her family, like in all the other cartoons, they’re unjustly at the mercy of this anger, treating it like a legitimate war situation with no shred of humor.  

When Katie really gets out of control though, the standout element of this performance occurs.  Her dad knows that a curfew is what’s most appropriate and no matter how Katie rampages, he sticks to it.  This gets Katie to actually back down and slowly start to go along with the curfew right down to suggesting an appropriate time.  A compromise is met, and Katie goes from monster back to human in the calmest manner ever.  It hardly matters since her family is still in fear from her and the house still gets destroyed, but it is noteworthy growth from many of her other starring roles.  

Katie Ka-Boom is still a major sore spot in the series, but thanks to her family being brave enough to stand up to her for once, at least the cartoons have a good finish.

B

 

 

Punchline Part 2: What Came First? The Chicken or the Egg?

This is just a short segment continuing off of the idea of Punchline, this time giving an extensive news coverage approach on determining whether the chicken or the egg came first.  All it takes is an egg falling on Ted Foppel to convince him that it was the egg that came first, and it’s further proven with Chicken Boo falling on him afterwards.  That’s all there is to it, but it’s still a very funny take on a very standard riddle.

After seeing Punchline in just one episode, I kind of wish it became a recurring segment, at least for the last season.  The concept is fresh, what’s done with simple riddles is ingenious, and allowing core supporting characters to offer perspectives is a nice well-rounded touch.  Even if these segments exist here and only here, I can at least consider them one great way to send the series off…at least until the true series finale coming up next.

A+

Cartoon Ranking

1.      This Pun for Hire

2.      The Brain’s Apprentice

3.      Magic Time

4.      Bully for Skippy

5.      Wakko’s 2-Note Song

6.      Go Fish

7.      From Burbank with Love

8.      A Very, Very, Very, Very Special Show

9.      Valuable Lesson

10.  The Sound of Warners

11.  Night of the Living Buttons

12.  Dot’s Entertainment

13.  Pitter Patter of Little Feet

14.  Boo Happens

15.  Buttons in Ows

16.  Cutie and the Beast

17.  Boo Wonder

18.  Star Truck

19.  The Sunshine Squirrels

20.  Boids on the Hood

21.  Back in Style

22.  Our Final Space Cartoon We Promise

23.  Yabba Dabba Boo

24.  The Boo Network

25.  The Carpool

26.  The Party

27.  The Girl with the Googily Goop

28.  Mindy in Wonderland

29.  Jokahontas

30.  Gimme the Works

31.  Ten Short Films About Wakko

32.  Hooray for North Hollywood Part 1

33.  Papers for Papa

34.  My Mother the Squirrel

35.  One Flew Over the Cuckoo Clock

36.  Hooray for North Hollywood Part 2

37.  Amazing Gladiators

38.  Prom Night

39.  Cute First (Ask Questions Later)

40.  Soda Jerk

41.  The Christmas Tree

42.  Hercules Unwound

43.  Belly Button Blues

44.  No Time For Love

45.  Acquaintances

46.  Oh Say Can You See

47.  Soccer Coach Slappy

48.  Anchors A-Warners

Song Ranking

1.      Dot – The Macadamia Nut

2.      The Ballad of Magellan

3.      Hello Nurse

4.      Bones in the Body

5.      Noel

6.      The Big Wrap Party Tonight

7.      When You’re Traveling from Nantucket

8.      Panama Canal

9.      Multiplication

10.  Here Comes Attila

Miscellaneous Ranking

1.      Punchline

2.      It

3.      Gunga Dot

4.      Mighty Wakko at the Bat

5.      Ralph’s Wedding

6.      End Credits

7.      Moosege in a Bottle

8.      Rugrats Parody

9.      The 12 Days of Christmas

10.  Flavio Commercials

11.  The Return of the Great Wakkorotti

12.  Pinky and the Ralph

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the last episode of the series with a big emphasis on the huge Animaniacs cast and its music, including a moving musical tribute to everything great about the series to send everything off in style.

If you would like to check out other Animaniacs reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.

Cute First (Ask Questions Later) / Acquaintances / Here Comes Attila / Boo Wonder - (Animaniacs Vol 4 Part 18) - 'Toon Reviews 39

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:

Episode 93

Cute First (Ask Questions Later)

The pieces are in place for a solid fairy tale parody in this cartoon, but it’s debatable if everything all comes together.  Its purpose is to build upon the events of the story of Snow White with the opening rushing through the beats of the original story.  After the business with the wicked queen, the poisoned apple, the prince and two dwarves (fabulously cheap cartoon), and the queen’s demise, the story really begins.  

Driving the conflict is how Snow White herself is really no different from the queen.  As she and the others settle into the queen’s castle, she’s enthralled by the magic mirror saying she’s the cutest.  What’s more, once it’s revealed someone else is cuter than her, she loses all things likable and becomes crazed to retain her title.  That right there makes things feel really off.  The idea of Snow White is that she’s not just the cutest (or fairest one of all) from her appearance.  The real source of her beauty is her kindness and compassion, allowing for healthy relationships with literally all walks of life that bring out the best in herself and others.  In making her vain of her cuteness, it’s hard to accept this take on Snow White as true to nature.  You can argue this is just a parody that twists things around, but in this show, there’s always been some hint of what they’re really like.  Maybe her excessive kindness could have made for some solid humor instead of a flat out unlikable diva.  

At least there’s solid entertainment considering the very Warner sibling who prides in cuteness, Dot.  While the background of her capture is problematic, Dot never makes a huge fuss over how bad everything is.  She’s thrown in a dungeon for being cuter than Snow White, but is more concerned about the ongoing narration.  Best of all, when dealing with her captors, in typical Warner fashion, she knows how to handle everything.  When escaping the dungeon, she easily works her charms on the guard into letting her out, even if it does blatantly copy what she did in “Hearts of Twilight.”  

However, her shining moments come from how she deals with the shrill and annoyingly egotistical excuse for Snow White.  Dot points out wrinkles developing on her face when she gets mad, annoys her with getting a butterfly on her finger, and giving her a faux makeover.  Dot’s also capable of saving herself.  Yakko and Wakko show up seemingly to save her, but their diversion of creating something called a ‘chunnel’ goes nowhere.  In fact they seem more involved with that than saving their sister.  If the cartoon just cut to the prince knocking Dot and Snow White out just as the dwarves are about to throw Dot from a tower the first time, things would go smoother.  

Either way, Dot solves her own problem by convincing everyone to vote on whether Snow White is the cutest as they both dangle off an edge.  Snow White votes for herself, and she falls to her doom, and I mean doom as sound effects show she’s eaten by a gator.  Legit death is just too dark and realistic an outcome for a comedy show, and this being the resolution also doesn’t sit well with me.  It’s at least still a good showing of Dot’s character, as is blocking out the magic mirror to not hear of who’s cuter now though.  She’s practically more of an exaggerated version of Snow White already, in spite of not being nearly as kind, than the actual Snow White.  For that, this is a fine cartoon if you’re looking for material with a Warner sibling solving a problem in their own fashion.  With a misguided portrayal of a fairy tale icon and compromising humor for grim implications, it unfortunately doesn’t stand as strong as it could be.

B

Acquaintances

The last stretch of material for this show seems to have been really interested in modeling cartoons off of pop culture icons.  Continuing this trend is a cartoon placing the Warners in an animated interpretation of the popular 90s teen sitcom Friends.  In fact, I may be largely unfamiliar with that show, but even I suspect that the animated interpretations of that show’s main characters basically ARE the main characters.  

The whole thing starts with the Warners making an unpredictable entrance as immigrants sailing to Ellis Island.  There’s a solid comedic take on the concept of immigrants changing long foreign names to easier shorter ones, but it goes on for far too long.  That’s an issue considering that the Ellis Island direction is never utilized elsewhere.  Really, the focus is on the Warners looking for a place to stay in New York before the Emmys, and the best place they can think of is with some acquaintances Yakko knows.  That said, the ‘acquaintances’ are really the cast of Friends and are introduced with a parody of such a theme song.  However, while the real things says that friends will be there for each other, the Warners’ version promises they’ll never leave them.  The issue is that they’re so annoying that the group wants to kick them out.  

From here, the cartoon is basically an episode of the parodied sitcom, but with the Warners as guest stars.  All throughout, it’s hard to really know what to make of everything.  A lot of it comes from whether or not it’s ok to try and find something funny out of the Warners basically pushing themselves into the lives of these people.  It’s nothing new for them to pop up in certain places unwanted, but their antics are always in the name of harmless fun, and often give jerks what they have coming to them.  Their antics here like riding on hair dryers, surprisingly showing up in the shower, kicking the group out when they try to throw them out are solidly funny and true to their ways.  At the same time, they’re painfully honest about their analyses of their lives claiming them to get up to nothing of major importance.  This would be fine if they did so in a comedic way, but flat out saying their lives are boring is far harsher than appropriate for their nature.  Then again, from my experience, I can get behind this considering this seems to be the case for teen sitcoms in general, and not just Friends. 

There’s not even much of the stand-ins for the cast aside from basic traits.  One is a ditz who plays guitar, one has a pet monkey, one has a running gag of starting thin but then gets fatter, and so on.  Other than that, they do nothing but complain about the Warners’ presence and get kicked out.  They talk about doing something major with themselves, but that goes mostly nowhere as they end up doing nothing comparable to the Warners’ manic behaviors and actions.  Then the Warners turn their show into The Brady Bunch for a few seconds, but before they go somewhere with this, they get thrown out very easily.  Ultimately, the Warners just interacted with the cast of Friends for a while, and nothing came of it.  Even when they end the cartoon by deciding to hang with the cast of Seinfeld at a coffee shop instead, it still feels empty.  I wouldn’t be surprised if the same thing happened with them interacting with this cast.  

Maybe something can be said of its jab at sitcom blandness, but the cartoon is ultimately a thing that happens, and unless you’re into 90s TV period pieces, no impact is left.

C-

Here Comes Attila

In an episode where many segments are majorly substandard, I’m sorry to say the featured song isn’t too good either.  It follows the educational format of many well-known songs, but doesn’t do that good a job at executing everything.  

From the title, you can tell that it’s going to teach about Attila the Hun, and the focus is on that for the most part.  The music is also quite catchy and the Warners give a solid performance too.  While it’s overall fun to listen to, it’s the educational content that makes the song so lacking.  Instead of devoting comprehensible verses to Attila’s conquests, they’re basically just breezed through without leaving much of an impact.  In fact, there’s more comprehensive details to Attila’s death than his accomplishments.  Like the first cartoon of the episode, emphasis on that feels much too gruesome.  They don’t even add any sort of humor to the subject as you clearly see Attila’s body covered in a tarp and thrown into a grave.  It’s a far cry from Magellan’s ghost watching over the place he failed to reach just after his demise.  Attila gets the real deal death portrayal with no attempt at light-heartedness.  What’s more, the cause of his death is a debatable topic, so it seems cocky of the song to say that it happened when he overate a bunch of ox.  

To further make the song fall flat on an informative scale, the Warners just add in random things in the name of finding rhymes for Attila.  They make up that he stole socks and pillows and bring in random things about him like wearing a fleece made of chinchilla.  Even the rhyming fails with a mention that his favorite ice cream was strawberry which has nothing to do with anything.  Then the one thing people will remember the cartoon for is a mention of Hanna-Barbera character, Magilla Gorilla since that’s how the song ends.  

All the songs of this show are written for fun, but when they teach something, the information easily sticks with the audience.  This song feels haphazardly put together and leaves next to nothing.  It can still be enjoyed as a catchy work by itself, but it’s disappointing that it’s so far below the show’s usual standards.

C

Boo Wonder

The Warners may not have gotten the best material, but it’s nice to know that Chicken Boo is able to end this episode on a good note.  This time his gimmick puts him in the role of Robin, sidekick of Batman, the Adam West incarnation to be precise.  

Making this cartoon further stand out from the giant chickens other works is how the world around Batman seems to be much smarter and more self-aware.  Tying into Chicken Boo’s typical formula, everyone except for the Caped Crusader himself sees that the sidekick is actually a giant chicken.  There’s his butler, a reporter, and of course his arch-enemy, a parody of the Joker called Punchline with a diabolical plan full of bad jokes.  Every time someone brings this up, Batman is quick to rush to Chicken Boo’s aid, giving him all the credibility he deserves.  I may not know much about Batman, but this is pretty generous than his canon treatment of Robin.  

This in turn makes it easy to take in the fun of the usual superhero tropes like suiting up, taking off in the Batmobile, and onomatopoeias appearing when fighting Punchline. It should also be noted that to really make Batman’s support of sidekick genuine, it’s Punchline’s insults to Chicken Boo that unleashes all he has.  

The day is saved ultimately, but in keeping with what always happens with Chicken Boo, the disguise comes off and he’s revealed to be a chicken.  Batman is quick devalue their bond and immediately kick him out because of this, which from what I remember is more in line with his feelings towards the real Robin albeit harsher.  

As usual, the downer ending prevents this Chicken Boo cartoon from being a total win, but with its good spirits with the likes of superheroes, it’s still solid entertainment.

A

Cartoon Ranking

1.      This Pun for Hire

2.      Bully for Skippy

3.      Wakko’s 2-Note Song

4.      Go Fish

5.      From Burbank with Love

6.      A Very, Very, Very, Very Special Show

7.      Valuable Lesson

8.      The Sound of Warners

9.      Night of the Living Buttons

10.  Dot’s Entertainment

11.  Pitter Patter of Little Feet

12.  Boo Happens

13.  Buttons in Ows

14.  Cutie and the Beast

15.  Boo Wonder

16.  Star Truck

17.  Boids on the Hood

18.  Back in Style

19.  Our Final Space Cartoon We Promise

20.  Yabba Dabba Boo

21.  The Boo Network

22.  The Party

23.  The Girl with the Googily Goop

24.  Mindy in Wonderland

25.  Jokahontas

26.  Gimme the Works

27.  Ten Short Films About Wakko

28.  Papers for Papa

29.  My Mother the Squirrel

30.  One Flew Over the Cuckoo Clock

31.  Amazing Gladiators

32.  Cute First (Ask Questions Later)

33.  Soda Jerk

34.  Hercules Unwound

35.  Belly Button Blues

36.  No Time For Love

37.  Acquaintances

38.  Oh Say Can You See

39.  Soccer Coach Slappy

40.  Anchors A-Warners

Song Ranking

1.      Dot – The Macadamia Nut

2.      The Ballad of Magellan

3.      Hello Nurse

4.      Bones in the Body

5.      Noel

6.      The Big Wrap Party Tonight

7.      When You’re Traveling from Nantucket

8.      Panama Canal

9.      Multiplication

10.  Here Comes Attila

Miscellaneous Ranking

1.      It

2.      Gunga Dot

3.      Mighty Wakko at the Bat

4.      Ralph’s Wedding

5.      End Credits

6.      Moosege in a Bottle

7.      Rugrats Parody

8.      The 12 Days of Christmas

9.      Flavio Commercials

10.  The Return of the Great Wakkorotti

11.  Pinky and the Ralph

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where the Warners once again show off their true strengths as characters in a Las Vegas magic show, and there's an awesome Fantasia parody featuring Pinky and the Brain.

If you would like to check out other Animaniacs reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.