Born to Spawn/Uniform Behavior (Rocko's Modern Life Season 2 Episode 9) - 'Toon Reviews 24

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Born to Spawn

This cartoon is on one of the more natural parts of life.  It’s something that everyone goes through whether they like it or not, and that’s facing adulthood.  Despite being a so natural, there’s plenty of room for the show’s ways of creatively portraying things. 

Filburt is usually neurotic, but in this cartoon, facing adulthood makes his usual physical trauma worse.  He gets overblown with rashes and develops a huge bump on his head as the planets align.  When he arrives for his 21^st birthday, his strange behavior is given a reason as he sculpts a cake into his birth island, Kerplopitgoes Island.  Being a turtle, he’s naturally drawn to return to his birthplace upon turning 21, which I believe is loosely based on migration patterns of real turtles, sea turtles to be exact.  If this is true, then this is an ingenious way to show that despite being anthropomorphic, the characters of this show are still technically animals at heart. 

Nevertheless, Filburt’s human-like traits of neuroticism are intact.  For his own nerdy reasons, he fears going back to face adulthood which feels somewhat believable, prompting Rocko and Heffer to keep an eye on him so he doesn’t go.  For that, the cartoon mostly consists of their attempts to have Filburt stay put from there.  However, as long as the planets are aligned, the natural order is in force.  This means, whether it’s against his will or not, Filburt constantly pushes to get out of Rocko’s house to go to Kerplopitgoes Island.  The ways around the attempts aren’t anything special though.  Filburt just puts on disguises to take advantage of Heffer’s unintelligence and somehow convinces Spunky to use power tools to get him out of a cage.  Even if these aren’t impressive ways around having him stay put, these moments uniquely show adulthood happens no matter how much people try to stall it.  Plus, they lead to a funny outcome when Filburt does finally escapes.  There’s a news report of him using a boat-themed seafood restaurant to get to Kerplotitgoes Island while clamoring for fish sticks.  Rocko and Heffer find out about this on a TV when they run errands which admittedly begs the question why they left Filburt alone to begin with. 

Anyway, they travel to Kerplopitgoes where we get another clever visualization of adulthood.  With the planetary alignment, all sorts of turtles come to party for the occasion of Filburt’s 21^st birthday.  They all look handsome and have a strong desire to party with an upbeat background tune selling the tone of affairs.  The tone of the moment sets itself up as emotional as Filburt acts like he wants to stay and party and Rocko and Heffer being forced to deal with it.  The fun party continuing and the music still playing further shows that life goes on despite all emotional events. 

However, all that emotion is devalued when as soon as the planets stop aligning, Filburt and the other turtles turn back to normal and go home.  It’s really devaluing that they built up so much genuine emotion only to retcon everything.  Then again, I guess this can be seen as growing up and never feeling older.  Plus, while it was said that Filburt had to return to his birthplace, it was never confirmed that he had to stay there.  Basically, even if it makes a waste of apparent emotional weight, the ending has merit when all is said and done.  It also can’t be faulted for being an interesting look and depiction of what growing up is like and how the whole universe is powerless against it.

A

Uniform Behavior

Dumb characters sometimes provide little to no good to the people around them, but that doesn’t always hurt their appeal.  Sometimes, this direction can offer a dumb yet imaginative approach to one of life’s challenges.  That’s where Heffer comes in.  Sometimes he’s a total freeloader who makes things worse, and sometimes he’s helpful in his own way. 

This cartoon is simply on a misguided way he operates on a normal day.  He causes a problem to his family’s finance with his weight and disregard for safety rules by wrecking the car after not wearing a seatbelt.  His best option for a job to get the money to fix the car is as an evening security guard at Conglom-O. 

The first point of interest to this direction is how seriously Heffer takes this job.  It may seem hard to believe since he’s already really dumb and his earlier disregard for seatbelts.  However, in Heffer’s own bizarre, dumb, yet creative way, he grows to understand the importance of adhering the law.  He has a dream of being visited by a group of udders of justice whom he vows to remember the teachings of as he takes on the role of security guard.  Also of note is how he seems to follow the basic rules of being a security guard from watching the monitors and going out to patrol the halls on a trike right on schedule.  He even has a believable opinion on the assignments through finding watching the monitors dull and 12:00 patrol to be more exciting with a lot of action. 

That’s not to say Heffer’s completely devoid of being dumb.  He applies his security guard mindset even when he’s not on duty, giving tickets to Rocko and Filburt for menial deviant acts and sees nothing wrong with it.  He also has no knowledge of who works at Conglom-O as he arrests Ed Bighead, a well-known employee, for taking a few lightbulbs home.  This right here is typical letting power go to Heffer’s head along with his principal trait.  He’s clearly not doing things right even if the effort he shows is big and genuine. 

For all his havoc, he’s interestingly punished in different manners of speaking.  Some consequences are self-inflicted as Heffer takes a soda break.  Everything is tinted a hellish red making it seem like he’s selling his soul for a soda.  If that’s not enough, everyone he wrongfully gave a ticket to appears in the seats behind him as if to suggest he’s a little aware that he’s gone mad with power.  While it’s a small sign, the staging is enough to show that this scene is all in Heffer’s head.  What’s clearly not in Heffer’s head is his consequence from outside sources.  His unintelligence has him run out into the streets naked which gets him arrested. 

Ultimately, while Heffer was ultimately a detriment to the well-being of society, he’s still a fine character to take the starring role.  He’s appropriately punished, shows that he was at least trying to do his job well, and while he remains in prison, he has genuine acknowledgement of what he did wrong.  It isn’t easy to successfully make a problematic dumb character a likable lead, but this cartoon stands as a good example of how with the right execution, it can be done.

A+

The Ranking

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

The next Rocko's Modern Life review is of Rocko having a bad hair day and Ed Bighead facing the consequences of being a jerky bowling coach.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is the DuckTales episode, "Jungle Duck."

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.

The Lounge Singer/She's the Toad (Rocko's Modern Life Season 2 Episode 3) - 'Toon Reviews 24

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 Lounge Singer

Already this cartoon captures my interests with music being a key element.  Plot-wise it’s very basic, but as I often say, basic stories can still be greatly executed.  This is mainly apparent when the featured characters put their own spin on familiar conventions. 

That’s what happens with Filburt here.  He’s typically a nerdy turtle and not a huge talker.  He soon turns out far more talented than he lets on as he performs a lively lounge song, “Come Crawl With Me”.  It’s a super number affluent with class. 

Even with these talents, Filburt’s usual anxieties are intact made obvious by not wanting to be noticed singing.  However, Rocko ends up hearing him perform, and the suggestion for Filburt to perform professionally is brought up.  It’s no surprise Filburt isn’t wild about the idea, even if it is his secret dream as inspired by other singers, such as his personal favorite, Buddy Gecko. 

A few things that make the familiar stage fright angle stand out are comedic exaggerations like how Filburt immediately breaks into hives thinking of an audience.  Things like this continue at Filburt’s actual lounge singing attempts.  When advised to picture the audience naked, shots of less than pleasing looking people make Filburt deem the idea too disgusting. 

A placebo-driven approach is then taken when Filburt buys a set of motivational tapes from Buddy Gecko.  As expected, they help him through all performances, but really stand out with more creative interpretations.  A phrase about letting stage fright flow out of Filburt is depicted as an actual liquid of a peculiar color flowing out.  This isn’t even him imagining this since a janitor notices the spilt stage fright in reality.  It may be suggestive and tongue and cheek, but it’s the best thing to think of if you ever heard such a motivation.  We even a gag out of an implication that Buddy is just using the tapes as a marketing ploy.  The other side is on a completely unrelated topic and Filburt using it in his act.  Humorously, it only makes him more popular. 

From there, thanks to the motivational tapes, Filburt quickly moves up in lounge singing backed up by a sudden narration from Rocko.  Ultimately, Filburt makes it to the place he always aimed to perform in, Las Vegas, only for him to lose his motivational tapes there.  It happens through his biggest idol himself, Buddy Gecko, sitting on them, and he doesn’t even care, confirming that they were just a placebo. 

Although it’s no surprise that Filburt has a nervous spasm after losing his motivation, the familiar setup is still immensely entertaining.  For one thing, his anxieties come with a hilariously ridiculous fantasy of being chased Frankenstein-style and being called a menace by the UN just for being a lousy singer. 

Also, the way Filburt overcomes his fears for good brings solid creativity and humor.  Picturing the audience naked turns out to be a helpful method for his singing when he unknowingly performs in front of a nudist pig clinic.  In addition, his performance of the earlier song is livened up through being joined by Buddy who proves to be cool despite being a con artist.  This performance simply makes the cartoon with an entertainingly endearing conclusion.  Even if Filburt does return to the status quo by going home in the end, it’s still nice that the last scene shows him genuinely keeping up with his talents. 

This cartoon goes to show how even the most clichéd plots can stand as something special when working in character development, style, and of course great music.

A

She’s the Toad

Out of the Bigheads, Bev has always been the better natured one.  She’s an amiable neighbor and housewife unlike her constant curmudgeon husband Ed who’s usually stressed from his job at Conglom-O. 

The first scene features many exaggerated depictions of how overwhelmed he is about a business proposal he’s to present.  The problem is that he doesn’t have one prepared, and the mention of how it determines if he’ll keep his job makes him a total wreck. 

Among the comedy from Ed’s disproportionate faces and nonsense is a big moment for Bev.  Her positivity brings an idea of how Ed’s normal job would go if she was in his place.  It’s felt when she decides to write the proposal for Ed, claiming that someone has to do it.  Ed’s nervousness reaches the most hilarious depiction as he literally shatters when he’s about to leave with what Bev wrote up. 

Still, Bev astounds with her devotion when she comes up with a quick solution.  Granted, it’s very ridiculous with Heffer and Filburt wearing a bulky Ed costume to read the proposal.  The sequence of them walking around as Ed is a laugh riot all things considered.  Just the sight of that bug-like two-person costume that comes close to falling apart and Heffer’s Ed impression are easily chuckle-worthy.  The big laughs come from both Heffer and Filburt not understanding business ethics.  As funny as this sequence is, the humor falls flat when Heffer and Filburt flat out expose themselves.  I know they’re not too bright, but it’s hard to buy that they’d be stupid enough to remove the costume at the wrong time.  However, they say Bev set them up to say the proposal as her husband, and that sets up an intriguing new direction. 

The board of directors love her proposal and tell her she should run the company.  This brings a firsthand look at Bev working her good nature beyond being a housewife at this big business.  Just from her determining how much rates would go up from all the directors stopping their nose picking, you know she’s got things worked out.  This is true as Bev proves herself as an effective Conglom-O employee in a following montage.  The only thing that could’ve made this more impactful is if her business role was actually explored.  Maybe if there was less time on Heffer and Filburt messing with Ed in that disguise while he’s staring blankly at TV static in bed.  It’s a funny image of Ed’s shot nerves though. 

As for Bev, at the height of her success, a brief remark that she misses her husband shows that her true nature is very much still intact.  All the employees, in a humorous getup of wearing water coolers show devotion to the new worker do something about her little concern with another humorous getup of Ed hats. 

This is unfortunately meaningless because when she hears things couldn’t be better, Bev decides to leave Conglom-O.  She says she believes Ed is more for the job than she is, but there’s little to no support to her claim.  Bev ran the company great while Ed was a total wreck for the whole cartoon, so it feels like a bad decision for her to just leave.  The cartoon brought a convincing and welcome change for the status quo only to turn things back to normal as if the idea was never brought up.  It makes the whole thing seem like a waste.  At least the humor is still in full force in the end with Bev literally driving the building to a vacation for her and Ed and one last funny bit with Heffer and Filburt’s disguise. 

Although this cartoon goes nowhere after seeming like the contrary, what it does for characters and comedy make it good and fun enough as it is.

B+

The Ranking

1. Tickled Pinky
2. The Lounge Singer
3. I Have No Son
4. Pipe Dreams
5. She’s the Toad

The next Rocko's Modern Life review is on an interesting cartoon about Spunky eating a deadly vitamin featuring the return of Bloaty and Squirmy, and Rocko and Heffer go on an exciting road trip.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is a Steven Universe review of "Greg the Babysitter."

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 18: Rocko's Modern Life Season 1 Episode 8: A Sucker for the Suck-O-Matic/Canned

 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:

A Sucker for the Suck-O-Matic

The purpose of machines is to make daily tasks easier, but in life, things can still go wrong when using them.  When this scenario is brought to light in animation, there’s a lot of creative potential to how you can interpret it.  This show is the perfect place to exercise that potential, and that’s exactly what it does as we watch Rocko get a new vacuum cleaner to clean his unbelievably messy living room. 

His old one is very faulty and can’t suck up stuff very well, which is a very believable reason to get a new and more powerful vacuum cleaner.  He finds one in a commercial Heffer is watching which goes all out hyping up the new vacuum cleaner called the Suck-O-Matic as the best cleaner there is that matches the seductive feel commercials in general seem to have.  There’s even a creative interpretation of how manipulative they are with a scene of the TV reaching out and taking Rocko and Heffer’s brains as they watch, rendering them temporarily mindless to buy it without second thought. 

Once he has the Suck-O-Matic, there are some off-putting things about it like it not looking the way it did on TV and innumerable safety warnings that Rocko and Heffer gloss over like most people in real life would when reading instructions.  I see myself doing that.  Nevertheless, the big vacuum cleaner works very impressively with how fast it sucks up large amounts of dust, cities of bugs akin to something like Godzilla, and other little remnants of things all around the living room.  It has the impression of a vacuum cleaner you wish existed in real life.  However, the fact that the Suck-O-Matic can also suck up really huge things like all the layers of Rocko’s car and an entire plane further indicates that it could go mad with power. 

This is when the Suck-O-Matic starts wreaking havoc.  When taking it outside, the Suck-O-Matic goes loose and sucks up everything in sight.  If that’s not enough, when Rocko tries to put a stop to the senseless sucking, the vacuum cleaner won’t turn off developing a mind of its own.  More creative ways of showing the problems with machines are shown in a fast-paced climax where Rocko and Heffer tries to stop the Suck-O-Matic.  They try returning it, but they lose the receipt, they look for the manual for how to turn it off, but it’s not helpful by literally telling them to prepare to die, and they narrowly avoid getting sucked by it themselves, but the vacuum cleaner breaks itself suggesting that everything is now safe.  However, this relief is ruined by Heffer taking out a chip caught in its throat just because, and everyone suffers from this boneheaded moment. 

They all end up getting sucked up and just carry on with their lives inside it.  In fact, the last shot shows all homes on Rocko’s block sucked up by the Suck-O-Matic, bringing an apocalyptic feel to the ending.  It’s a bit unsettling that the cartoon ends like this, but at the same time is fascinating for creatively showing how common buying machines off of commercials and enduring their problems is for many. 

With a great collection of exaggerated occurrences and creative outcomes from buying and using machines, this is another good example of a cartoon that’s relatable as well as imaginative.

A

Canned

Everybody needs a job to get by in this world even if it’s not the best but is all you can get.  I can only imagine how hard it can be to get a job after getting fired, but what Rocko’s put through gives a good idea. 

He’s let go of his from his old comic book store job for productivity reasons.  After that, the focus is on Rocko trying to find a new job in order to get by.  It even shows the importance of having a job when the now unemployed Rocko is without food for himself and Spunky, and has no money to pay the bills, the latter being creatively interpreted by traffic meters for all the things he pays for going down.  It’s amazing how positive Rocko remains in spite of this which makes him a likable character to follow as he looks to the want ads for a new job.  

The show's main  strength of exaggerating modern life’s challenges is seen through these new jobs.  Rocko uses a jackhammer to make a tattoo on rhino’s tooth as a tattoo artist, becomes a plumber’s assistant who’s only allowed to pull up the plumber’s pants, and has to say “Oh baby” over and over as a special kind of phone operator.  They’re all effective exaggerations of what could happen on these jobs, and jokes coming from the basic idea of the positions even astound with how much the crew was able to get away. 

Rocko’s job attempt that drives the plot however, is a worker at O-Town’s biggest business center, Conglom-O run by his crabby next-door neighbor, Ed Bighead.  By now, his animosity towards Rocko is crystal clear to anyone who’s been watching the show, especially shown in an earlier scene of him berating Rocko’s dog, Spunky, for eating his plants.  Ed tries to humiliate Rocko by giving him a job in the product-testing department.  However, all of the products Ed has Rocko try for humiliation purposes backfire when Rocko actually enjoys the product while Ed tries it out to see what’s wrong, and karma has him endure the product’s harsh effects.  Each use of a product demonstrates the show’s talents for creativity and interesting ways for Rocko to see the good in the product.  A nose modifier give Rocko various nose jobs he enjoys while Ed, who doesn’t have a nose, ends up with two in his eyes.  Rocko tries some gum that gives him a tree on his head while Ed gets an actual beehive on his head when he tries several gum pieces.  A hairstyle helmet gives Rocko several nice styles, and Ed gets a buzz saw.  Finally, Rocko is sprayed with mad giraffe repellant which protects him as the giraffes stampede at Ed instead. 

The basic idea is the same, but the scenes stand out uniquely and are especially entertaining when Ed, a jerk who wants to hurt Rocko who did absolutely nothing wrong, gets consequences for his unjust actions.  Still, he does come out on top by firing Rocko even though he did exactly what he was supposed to do as a product tester.  Thankfully, Rocko does end up with a new job in the end working at a new comic book store, Kind of a Lot O’ Comics.  It is weird to see him start working here in this cartoon since he already was working there in “Power Trip” but we can just chalk this up to faulty airing order. 

As a result, the cartoon stands as a nice watch centering on the importance of employment backed by a successful collection of jokes and a satisfying conclusion for a character often stuck with bad luck.

A+

The Ranking

1. Popcorn Pandemonium
2. Skid Marks
3. The Good the Bad and the Wallaby
4. Canned
5. To Heck and Back
6. Who Gives a Buck?
7. Dirty Dog
8. A Sucker for the Suck-O-Matic
9. Trash-O-Madness
10. Jet Scream
11. Keeping Up With the Bigheads
12. Spitballs
13. No Pain No Gain
14. Power Trip
15. Bedfellows
16. Leap Frogs

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where Rocko tries to win a prize at a carnival, and spends most of a day at the beach saving his dog from harm.

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.