Snowballs/Frog's Best Friend (Rocko's Modern Life Season 2 Episode 12) - 'Toon Reviews 24

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Snowballs

I’m not a winter person, but I do enjoy snow themed activities.  This includes seeing cartoons dedicated to such activities.  This right here is a really fun one working off of a premise that reminds that there’s no harm in working in some fun when you have a job to do if it doesn’t go too far. 

Rocko’s job is to drive through the mountains to another town to pick up comic books for his boss.  However, Heffer, who’s coming along, takes in the spirit of the location and urges Rocko to take the opportunity to break from the drive to try skiing on the way.  The admirable thing is that Rocko doesn’t buy into this until there’s a legit reason to go to the nearby Mount Frosty ski resort.  While driving, officials from Mount Frosty cause an avalanche that jams the traffic, quickly convincing drivers to turn off the highway and go to the resort.  As you can tell, it’s a total scam to get people to come, and it doesn’t stop there. 

Rocko has a lot of money from Mr. Smitty, most of which is meant for the comics he has to pick up.  The ski resort has a tagline that everything is $5 which makes it seem like going skiing would be a fine way to pass the time while the road’s blocked.  The catch is that every THING is $5, so Rocko and Heffer have to pay for more than just all day passes.  I normally would be disturbed by this ploy, but I honestly find it as a pretty humorous take on how roadside attractions tend to be rip-offs. 

There are also plenty of solid ski related gags from Rocko building up his skills.  Being inexperienced, he gets a few funny clunks from trying to get on the chairlift, showing that getting on is harder than it looks.  There also a few funny run-ins with trees while he’s on the slopes, but he does get noticeably better, and Heffer shows genuinely friendly support. 

Eventually, Rocko is deemed ready to try the most dangerous slope at the resort, the Devil’s Crevice which works as a solid payoff to everything in this cartoon.  It starts off with a slow impactful buildup as the chairlift takes Rocko and Heffer up the mountain into space.  Rocko, scared by the height, is shocked to learn that he’s been completely ripped off with no more $5 to back out of skiing.  There’s no turning back, so he has no choice but to do the slope. 

The run through Devil’s Crevice makes for an exciting climax.  There’s a collection of shots at different angles to emphasize the steepness of the mountain and the speed of the skiing.  It’s also made funny by many creative gags like Rocko skiing through traffic of people and cars, and breaking out of the side of the mountain and bringing out a frozen caveman.  Finally, his comic problem is solved when he suddenly finds himself doing a ski jump and wins money instantly. 

Everything works out with Rocko fulfilling his duty thanks to Heffer using the money to buy and deliver the comics in his place, and we’re left with an awesome ski experience.  However, there’s believable after effects of this with Rocko ending up in an all-body cast and never wanting to ski again.  It’s not a total happy ending, but the fun stuff is still very much fun. 

In the end, this is a great cartoon big on winter excitement, even if winter’s not your season.  That said, while it does show that working in fun is fine if circumstances allow, you should probably make sure you’re good at skiing first.

A

Frog’s Best Friend

In this cartoon all about the Bigheads, it’s shown that sometimes, characters who act like total grumps for most of the series can be sympathetic.  A big reason for this is that the grump in question, Ed Bighead, has to deal with someone who acts even worse than him. 

Starring alongside the Bigheads is Earl, a monstrous dog who appears in the theme song, but surprisingly isn’t a regularly seen character.  Right at the start, Earl proves to be nothing short nasty when a fairy frees him from the science lab wanting to put him down, and he thanks her by eating her.  Through showing no regret for his, Earl is certainly no sympathetic creature.  His viciousness is further shown when he gets to the Bigheads’ house.  Not only does he destroy a fly man’s truck, but delights in chasing down Ed.  By the way, it’s a particular highlight to the cartoon as Ed is chased in a vast variety of ways. 

In a more plot-based direction, another highlight is someone finally standing up to Earl, Ed’s wife Bev.  When she catches Earl digging up her flowers, Bev shows no hesitation in telling him off, something most would be too terrified to do.  It does the trick to get Earl to back down, and Bev becomes drawn to the fear and sadness in the dog’s eyes.  She also deduces that Earl is subjected for experiments and is so moved by this state of affairs that she adopts him.  The moment is staged to make it feel like Earl has a soul and does deserve to be given a chance to be good.  Not to mention, the scene demonstrates Bev’s appeal as a character.  Everything brings an impression that Earl can be a decent character if another one disciplines him.  This sounds like a good direction for the cartoon, but that ends up not being the case. 

The cartoon instead focuses much more on Ed getting harassed by Earl while he’s under Bev’s care.  Normally this wouldn’t be a problem since Ed is usually the bad guy who deserves some comeuppance.  Here, Ed doesn’t really do anything bad, so he doesn’t deserve to suffer.  Every time Bev has him go out and bond with Earl, the dog proceeds to maul him without hesitation.  The worst part is that Bev doesn’t even notice this.  She could easily scold Earl to make sure he behaves, but instead she ignores his bad actions and anything Ed is enduring.  It doesn’t help that she keeps feeding Earl luscious steaks while Ed sticks to a very unsubstantial diet.  By the time Ed lures Earl into being launched into space, these actions, while extreme, feel like Ed’s right for doing this. 

For that, the ending where Earl comes back, Ed’s impounded and still denied good food while Bev does nothing is a total downer.  It just doesn’t seem fair that Ed Bighead, for all his bad moments, is left to suffer through the one time he’s in the right.  Earl should’ve acted good on a regular basis, or at least through Bev keeping an eye on him.  Maybe Ed could’ve made Earl act mean which would put Ed in the wrong when trying to get rid of Earl thus justifying the ending.  The potential for Earl to develop and be good is there through the genuine bond Bev has with him, but apart from that, it’s not fully realized and the wrong character is punished. 

The cartoon can still work overall if you know the general nature of Ed Bighead, but this sequence of events and their disappointments do not work in its favor.

C-

The Ranking

1. Rocko’s Modern Christmas
2. Tickled Pinky
3. Boob Tubed
4. Gutter Balls
5. Uniform Behavior
6. Kiss Me I’m Foreign
7. The Lounge Singer
8. Road Rash
9. I Have No Son
10. Snowballs
11. Commuted Sentence
12. Cruisin’
13. Born to Spawn
14. Down the Hatch
15. Junk Junkies
16. Pipe Dreams
17. She’s the Toad
18. Hair Licked
19. Hut Sut Raw
20. Frog’s Best Friend
21. Day of the Flecko

The next Rocko's Modern Life review finishes Season 2 with Rocko in a "short guy wants to be big" story, and also features him get glasses for a jackhammer competition.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews, DuckTales asks you if you're "Dime Enough for Luck." 

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.

Hair Licked/Gutter Balls (Rocko's Modern Life Season 2 Episode 10) - '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:

Hair Licked

It’s important to know that hardships in life don’t just come from things you want to do or have to do.  They can sneak up on you when you least expect them.  The show tackling this variation of the concept makes it well-rounded as well as more open to creative interpretations. 

This cartoon is an example of hardships that sneak up on Rocko at a very bad time when he endures a bad hair day when he needs his hair to be the best it can be.  The reason for this is honestly pretty flimsy and presents Rocko as far more naïve than usual.  When he asks his boss, Mr. Smitty, about a raise, he tells him that instead of that, Rocko’s going to be named employee of the month where he gets his picture in the newspaper.  Given how cruel Mr. Smitty usually is to Rocko, and how this sounds like a weak excuse for Rocko not getting a raise, it doesn’t feel like something Rocko should be this excited for.  Not to mention, this honor is meaningless since, as far as the audience can tell, there are no other employees at the comic book store. 

Disregarding that, the rest of the story plays out well as Rocko, having no decent existing photo, gets an opportunity for one when Filburt invites him for a photoshoot.  However, Rocko wakes up the next day to find his hair in a total mess and not suitable for employee of the month photos.  Following this, the cartoon, for the most part, is nothing but Rocko’s attempts at fixing his hair going wrong.  Heffer comes by and nobly tries to help Rocko by serving as the barber to fix his hair.  While he simply makes the problem worse, it's clear that he meant well to help as good friends typically do.  Heffer also has the best solution for the problem while also admitting that he was not the right fit for the role of barber.  He takes Rocko to the characters who seem to pop up in all the show’s plot-convenient professions, the Chameleon Brothers.  As usual, they bring solid style and class to what Rocko’s dealing with.  It’s fun to watch their artistry at work as they deduce how bad Rocko’s hair is just from him wearing a bag, how they use the barber tools, and finally their various hair styles.  By the end, it’s impressive that Rocko ends up with a nice photo-worthy haircut this early in the cartoon as opposed to near the end. 

However, it’s for this reason that things continuing to go wrong for him doesn’t feel appropriate.  Although Filburt takes a lot of admirable photos, he does so with no film in the camera.  When he does reload, the moment is instantly followed by Heffer messing up again making Rocko’s hair an even bigger mess just as the photo is taken.  It’s as if Rocko might as well should’ve gone straight to work if his fixed hair was going to get ruined again.  Once again though, Heffer does adhere to his friendly side despite his dimwittedness and fixes Rocko’s hair by having it photocopied. 

While this move does capture Rocko’s hair fine, the end of the cartoon shows that the rest of him was seen as a total smudge.  After all this trouble, Rocko does not end up with a good picture in the paper at all.  Even Rocko being content with this obvious mess doesn’t work because the last shot includes sounds of many of his neighbors laughing at the stupid looking image.  He may be happy, but this ending implies that he’ll be laughed at the moment he leaves the house.  In short, the payoff to everything is poor.  Thankfully, through a friendly tone from the featured characters, solid comedy, and sheer relatability, the cartoon is still a pretty enjoyable bad hair day.

B

Gutter Balls

When it comes to characterization, it’s impressive when a jerk character has believable weight to certain behaviors.  Ed Bighead is such a jerk when it comes to certain activities like bowling. 

He’s the coach of a women’s bowling team consisting of his wife, Heffer’s mom Virginia, and a minor character, Tammy the pig.  With this team, he’s incredibly overbearing, making it sound imperative that he wins the trophy, a goal that’s completely petty and suggests he has no real life. 

He's so desperate, when no opposing team are available, he appoints three inexperienced bowlers, Rocko, Filburt, and Heffer to compete.  For good measure, Ed tries to inconvenience Rocko and his friends further.  Lackluster shirts are a start, but they become more amusing through the humorous style of bowling shoes.  Heffer’s especially leave a funny impression being huge platform shoes left behind by the only person you’d expect to wear them, a rock star. 

Even funnier is how frequently the inexperienced bowlers strikes.  They usually do so in many unusual ways through accidental tumbles or ending up using their feet to finish the moves.  The most impressive strikes work off of Ed’s attempts to sabotage his opponents’ strategies.  From balloon bowling balls floating and backfiring to Ed accidentally choking on Heffer and spitting him out for an accidental strike, it’s all entertaining karma.  I just can’t get enough of how these off-the-wall moves from amateurs get them so close to beating Ed’s team, and it feels so deserving.  This is especially true when Ed hits a new low by insulting both Virginia, who gets the least strikes, and her son very harshly. Once again, it's all over a petty little trophy.  It’s so bad that Ed is instantly called out for this move and his entire team abandons him. 

Now, Ed has always be a jerk, and looking at his scenes during the match by themselves, they seem to just simply add to his established traits.  The thing that sets his behavior apart from other cartoons is the weight to his feelings on bowling.  Throughout the cartoon, there are brief flashbacks to his last bowling match from back in the day.  He was once a master bowler, and in the last round, he only needed to knock one pin to win.  Even in these flashbacks, he’s not made to sympathetic through bringing the humiliation on himself.  He rolled a gutter ball on purpose, cockily claiming he didn’t need two tries.  On the second try, Ed didn’t just fail.  He brought on a comedic destruction that brought down the entire ally, but not one pin.  All of this is a believable reason why he’s such a harsh unforgiving bowling coach and is desperate for trophies, but it certainly doesn’t justify his rudeness.  It feels very right that his team deserts him. 

As for the ending, he arrives disguised as Bev to finish the match.  He successfully conquers his anxieties and bowls a perfect strike which in normal cases would be great character development.  While this is so, the cartoon knows this doesn’t make up for his behavior. When the real Bev suddenly appears, Ed is disqualified for impersonating his teammates.  Finally, the ending line where Rocko sounds like he’s going to give Ed the trophy only to say he’ll just keep it in his window is a hilarious blow to Ed’s ego. 

As a cartoon on its own, it’s a really fun bowling match with enjoyable character moments and plays on expectations.  However, through fleshing out a jerk character and still realizing he’s not good enough to deserve what he wants makes it especially great.

A+

The Ranking

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

The next Rocko's Modern Life review follows Rocko have a garage sale, and struggles just to get some sleep after working an all-nighter.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is the first half-hour Steven Universe cartoon, "Bismuth."

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.