Scare Happy Slappy / Witch One / Macbeth (Animaniacs Vol 3 Part 12) - 'Toon Reviews 32

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Episode 62

Scare Happy Slappy

 

Cartoons set against a holiday tend to immerse themselves in the spirit of the featured time of year.  This one, however, mostly uses it as a mere backdrop for the ensuing cartoonish antics common to Slappy Squirrel cartoons.  This means that what we get can easily be viewed without seeing it as Halloween related.  It can still be enjoyed as part of the norm, but it’s still great cartoon comedy we’ve come to expect as it is brought from a character who knows how to make an art of it. 

While the cartoon is more about the gags than the holiday, there’s still plenty of Halloween atmosphere all throughout.  The opening scene of kids trick-or-treating, the Warners arriving with a short lively song number, and Skippy trick-or-treating as Buster Bunny from Tiny Toons help set the scene.  In fact, the latter element is the catalyst for the entire cartoon when he convinces Slappy to let him get candy from the place where Slappy’s old enemies live. 

At the interest of character continuity, this cartoon is the first time since Episode 16 to feature the likes of Walter Wolf, Sid the Squid, and Beanie Bison teaming up to beat Slappy.  Just like last time though, they’re too dumb to just get together and combine their strengths.  Thankfully, there isn’t much focus on them which keeps the experience much funnier as the true emphasis is on the ways Slappy and Skippy outwit them all while trick-or-treating.  They approach each clobbering attempt with complete awareness of what they’ll be dealing with, and enter with the absolute appropriate measures.  They each build up with every character and have a nice Halloween touch with amenities of the holiday playing a role in each scheme.  Beanie, the dumbest one, has a simple trick of having Slappy pick a hand that will get her clobbered with a mallet, but the squirrels twist things around and get him beaten instead.  It’s all in the name of awarding them candy corn, which to hear Skippy talk is considered a hollow victory.  Sid’s scheme is more elaborate with dynamite stuffed into pumpkins, but are flashy and out in the open, so Slappy and Skippy easily see this as the trap it is.  The result is a comic explosion of pumpkins with one for each of Sid’s tentacles occurring as he gets tired of waiting for the bang. 

Finally from Walter, there’s a whole haunted house of gags which is seen as a grand finish for a Halloween cartoon.  It goes all out with gags for Slappy to expose.  There’s an electric rocking chair, apple bombs in an apple bob, and toxic green punch that at here age would make a good laxative.  Walter’s biggest contribution are special walnut candies designed to blow her up, but it makes for the most surprising gag when off screen, Slappy puts axel grease under him.  This makes Walter slip around, drop the candies, and bring a big explosion to close the cartoon with.  With that, the cartoon ends as a work of Slappy typically doing her usual thing when it just happens to be Halloween. 

It may not be a true fright fest, but it’s still a good helping of cartoonish laughs enhanced by favorite customs of the holiday.

A-

Witch One

Here now is a look at the final time we’ll ever see Rita and Runt at the center of a cartoon.  Their starring roles weren’t always the strongest, but when they were good, they were some of the show’s most extravagant experiences with strong chemistry and musical staging.  I’m pleased to say that this cartoon is a grand performance to go out on. 

For one thing, it’s one to really embrace the renowned musical formula.  Not only does Rita sing, but it also expands to the featured setting as well.  We open with nice theatricality to establish the conflict as villagers pass by and greet good day to each other while the judge and his crow go out to hunt witches all set to music.  For historical context, the conflict involves one of the most unjust occurrences in American history, the Salem witch trials.  From what I remember from school, this cartoon provides a light-hearted look at how unjust the conditions were to be declared a witch.  The judge just goes around, points out a tiny thing like someone using a broom, and immediately condemns them for taking part in witchcraft.  For some reason that’s a reason for more of a witch than an obvious witch character like classic Warner Bros cartoon character Witch Hazel just standing nearby.  Then again, the unjust practices are just as in line with the history books and fictional stories I’ve read on the subject. 

The interesting guidelines for the plot established, Rita and Runt enter the cartoon to get tangled up in the judge’s mad witchcraft spree.  It’s during their introduction that brings out the sole disappointment with this cartoon being their final starring role.  While Rita goes through Salem to hunt for food, there’s an effective duet where she and the judge sing about the perks of being a cat.  There’s Rita showing pride in herself while the judge sees it as another reason to hunt a witch since cats are commonly associated with witches.  They meet up with each other, and Rita is immediately captured.  From there, Rita acts as a damsel in distress and needs to be rescued despite proving on occasions that she is capable of defending herself.

Unlike other instances of this, Runt isn’t clueless or oblivious to Rita being in trouble and tries to save her.  He ends up caught in a stockade at first, but his efforts are undeniable.  Plus, it makes for a creative occurrence where he meets a monotone horse, completely uninterested in what’s going on, and keeps calling Runt Wilbur ala Mr. Ed.  Still, in his unmoved mannerisms, he ends up getting Runt out of the stockade. 

After this is another tie to the denseness of the Salem witch trials. Rita is put into a witch test of being dumped in frozen water she obviously won’t survive.  Through bumbling maneuvering by Runt, Rita is saved while the judge is thrown in. While he survives albeit frozen, he gets a taste of his own practices by being called a witch himself. 

Rita’s final song highlighting her experience is more moving than usual.  Maybe it’s the sweeping music parodying a certain famous animated musical Runt thinks they’ll get sued for.  To me, it’s really moving when you consider what this means for the characters.  After many unique musical works from a dramatic cat and dumb dog, they’re pretty much over, and Rita and Runt will now be relegated to cameos.  Only in the 1999 feature film Wakko’s Wish will they have a lot of focus once again.  At least they have a good legacy ending with this well constructed cartoon of interesting premises, passionate music, and many great moments from the featured characters.

A

 

Macbeth

Considering how well this show has done Shakespeare translations to humorously accurate effect, it’s surprising that there’s only three of them.  This particular cartoon is the last time they do it, though honestly it’s the weakest of them all.  It’s not that it’s bad, but it lacks the smart accuracy that made the other two stand out so much. 

Being of the famous witch scene from Macbeth, we have Dot take part in the scene with Slappy Squirrel and Hello Nurse while Yakko translates for a change.  The actual lines are basically magic talk as the witches cast spells while stirring a cauldron brew.  In that case, with legit magic involved, there’s no need for actual meaning to what’s said or even translation.  With magic, anything goes, and the direction doesn’t have to latch onto any specific meaning.  As a result, the translation doesn’t have the same clever construction as those with a definitive meaning.  That said, through reading the actual dialog, I can tell that a few lines are left out. 

At least, as nonsensical as lines are set up to be, the translations still have a cleverness to them.  The whole “double, double, toil and trouble” phrase amounts to a basic “abracadabra” or “bibbidi bobbidi boo” all intentionally unenthused coming from Yakko.  The magic phrases allow themselves to take themselves literally like fillet of a snake translated as cooking a snake which is another name for Yakko’s agent.  The line “root of hemlock” is seen as a cheer for a team called Hemlock while “digg’d in the dark” is a cue for rapping.  Other lines that mention things like a frog, bat, dog, dragon, wolf, or shark are accompanied by Wakko taking a literal meaning by throwing it in a cauldron.  As for the translation, Yakko alludes the lines to modern day nonsense like calling all the ingredients camp food, or that they’re what hotdogs are made of. 

The payoff to all this presents something wicked or scary in the eyes of much of the show’s cast.  Out of the cauldron, the thing that was being brewed in the cauldron turns out to be Mr. Director singing loudly who then gets knocked out.  Of course, that’s out of context to the real play, but it does give closure to the whole sketch without the audience needing to expect anything more. 

This is a strong cartoon if you’re in the mood for laughs from nonsense, even if the show has pulled off more impressive works when turning to Shakespeare.  It’s not the best end to a set of segments, but it’s as funny as ever when looking at it from the show’s usual standards.

A-

Cartoon Ranking

1.      Baloney and Kids

2.      Ragamuffins

3.      Frontier Slappy

4.      Woodstock Slappy

5.      Wakko’s Gizmo

6.      The Warners and the Beanstalk

7.      Brain Meets Brawn

8.      Meet John Brain

9.      Yes, Always

10.  Drive Insane

11.  Karaoke Dokie

12.  Witch One

13.  Of Course, You Know This Means Warners

14.  Meet Minerva

15.  The Chicken Who Loved Me

16.  Scare Happy Slappy

17.  Smell Ya Later

18.  A Gift of Gold

19.  Ups and Downs

20.  The Helpinki Formula

21.  Les Boutons et le Ballon

22.  Gold Rush

23.  Up a Tree

24.  Cranial Crusader

25.  Katie Ka-Boom: The Driving Lesson

26.  Kung Boo

27.  The Brave Little Trailer

28.  Girlfeathers

29.  Super Buttons

Song Ranking

1.      Schnitzelbank

2.      I’m Cute

3.      Dot’s Quiet Time

Miscellaneous Ranking

1.      Branimaniacs

2.      Macbeth

3.      Oh, Oh, Ethel

4.      Spike

 

The next Animaniacs review consists of material from lower tier characters where the Goodfeathers look after an egg, Mindy and Buttons are mermaids, and Katie Ka-Boom starts getting really ugly in a cartoon about her missing a call.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is "Jungle Moon" from Steven Universe.

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

Smitten With Kittens/Alas Poor Skullhead/White Gloves (Animaniacs Vol 2 Part 14) - 'Toon Reviews 22

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 39

Smitten With Kittens

Simple plots often offer more than most would think when they have interesting characters going through them.  Those featuring the most soulful characters in the cast, Rita and Runt, have potential to make any basic story emotionally impactful.  That’s something you rarely get from cartoons with other characters. 

As for this cartoon about the two of them finding stray kittens, while it is heavily reliant on simple cutesy scenes, it stands out for how it works as a character study.  The way to the cartoon’s principle elements has significant merit as well. 

It starts with Rita and Runt seeming to find the perfect person to take them in, an old woman who stands for animal rights.  Short moments of her berating restaurant workers for wanting to throw the strays out bring her most entertaining moments.  The very image of a scrawny elderly woman going up against society being one of the few decent humans Rita and Runt meet has a lot of spunk to it.  Rita and Runt themselves also have some amusing banter as the old woman feeds them scraps of food.  However, Runt’s unintelligence proves problematic when he decides to play chew-tug with a tablecloth.  In spite of getting an exciting chase through the restaurant out of this, this act ends badly for them when they’re kicked out. 

While this is very unfortunate for Runt who’s usually productive despite being dumb, as soon as they find the kittens, his earlier actions are balanced out.  The kittens themselves mostly exist to be cute and nothing more which isn’t very interesting or substantial.  The cartoon tries to get creative with them by having them sing in unison to ask for food, but it comes off as a little unsettling.  The character study angle is what makes their moments work.  Runt is instantly won over by the kittens, of course thinking they’re puppies, showing that for all the times he blows it, he means well and genuinely tries to be a good friend. 

The real standout character though is Rita.  She’s always had a complicated relationship with humans yet knows how she and Runt desperately need a home.  After failing to get one from that old woman, the presence of the kittens makes her pursuit for one complicated.  They treat her like their mama, and while she seems to warm up to them, she’s also quick to turn down the idea of being a mama.  After all, she’s a stray with her own needs to deal with, and dealing with kittens could get in the way.  It’s a relatable instance that I feel many people encounter, especially when the matter of having or adopting children is brought up. 

Putting Rita’s conflicting feelings about motherhood to music certainly helps them stand out.  It effectively lays down her pros and cons of being a mother to the kittens, and the soothing melody and Bernadette Peters’ impeccable singing nicely elevate it. 

Ultimately, instead of adopting the kittens, Rita decides to leave them in the care of that same old woman.  This decision takes the maternal pressures off her while also showing that she knows they need a home more than she and Runt do at the moment.  It’s a fitting conclusion for her and them.  Plus, while Runt is clearly more saddened by the kittens going away, one tear from Rita is enough to show that for how much she rejected being a mother, she’ll miss them too. 

While this is a comedy show, it can pull off emotional works very well which is impressive.  Some may find this too sappy for its emphasis on cuteness, but through how Rita and Runt approach the setup, it’s made engaging and even somewhat relatable.

A-

Alas Poor Skullhead

The last time an episode featured a miscellaneous segment of a Shakespeare translation, it was both hilarious and surprisingly accurate.  That’s the similar case here where Yakko, holding Mr. Skullhead, recites the famous “Alas, poor Yorick” monologue from Hamlet while Dot once again translates. 

It further shows how funny and insightful these types of skits are with what each Shakespearean quote amounts to.  While the original passage was written in old English speech, it’s instantly brought to modern day with believable translations, silly as some might sound.  In fact, the translation of the opening line, while modernized, is exactly in line with what someone would say when finding a skeleton, or skull in the original play’s case.  “He hath bore me on his back” equates to giving piggyback rides.  “My gorge rises” is translated as the speaker about to blow chunks.  A long statement about what happened to all of Mr. Skullhead’s gibes and gambols boils down to a simple question of why he’s not funny now. 

While the delivery of Dot’s translations are funny enough, the humor builds upon itself in a few notable ways.  One factors into the nature of Mr. Skullhead as a pile of bones.  Fitting for what’s often done with him in the “Good Idea Bad Idea” segments as well as an earlier starring role, his tendencies to fall apart sells his humor.  It makes the fact that an actual skeleton is treated as a person absurd yet appealing.  Plus, his bones falling apart ties right into the line of being chop-fallen. 

Another funny aside is Wakko digging up random objects in the background.  It even goes beyond being a background gag when he digs up Cher who runs away.  The accompanying Shakespeare translation isn’t the most accurate though. The original line referred to getting a dead guy to the speakers’ mother’s chamber while the translation is for Mr. Skullhead to follow Cher.  Still the rest of the line translation is accurate yet hilarious as ever. 

The only true drawback is that this segment doesn’t really feel like its own thing.  At the end, the Warners look down the hole Wakko dug that leads to the next cartoon.  It’s basically a transition when this whole time it felt like its own thing.  No matter what it is though, it’s so entertaining, it becomes clear that this show and Shakespeare go together exceptionally.

A

White Gloves

Being a series that gets creative with animation, cartoons with bizarre yet amusing concepts are welcome.  The one introduced in this cartoon has a lot of potential to be entertaining. 

It opens with a soothing melody where the camera beautifully pans through inner workings of a piano to Wakko performing.  The creative catch involves his gloves.  As part of the performance, Wakko’s gloves come alive and perform the rest of the piece and a few random tricks.  Instead of a gag for just the performance, the gloves being sentient lasts for the whole cartoon.  They escape from Wakko and go out on the town. 

From this opening, it shows that the gloves are best suited for musical entertainment.  At first at least, the cartoon appears to go in that direction.  The gloves take on the local dance hall and give a lively performance.  Their dancing nicely matches the music and given their background, this is the best way to have fun with the concept.  Applause from by the people in shadows with only their white gloves visible adds to the fun.  With a setup this crazy, it feels like the cartoon would be at its best if it were just about the gloves dancing the night away.  After all, this show has proven that great animation doesn’t always need a plot.  Sometimes, creative ideas used to their full extent are all that’s needed. 

Despite working great as elaborate dancers, the cartoon is about more than the gloves putting on a show.  There are dramatic details of the consequences of abandoning Wakko which unfortunately means the dance hall moments end just as they start getting great.  The new direction is too serious for this ridiculous concept.  The things the gloves endure are not expected to be seen as jokes and the audience is expected to feel sympathetic.  They’re run over by a streetcleaner, denied desperate work because they’re not work gloves, and one of them is sent to jail after being framed for stealing a TV.  It’s not that these plot points are badly told.  They’re decent ways to teach there’s no place like home.  However, the fact that it’s a pair of sentient gloves going through these realistically-portrayed hardships makes it hard to buy into what happens.  A ridiculous concept like white gloves coming to life just doesn’t work for drama. 

Plus, it brings up something about the concept that doesn’t make sense.  It makes sense for these white gloves to come alive since they belong to a wacky cartoon character.  However, taking place in the real world makes it hard to buy into all gloves being alive as the white gloves encounter several of them in their travels.  Heck, the dance hall sequence even implied that the clapping gloves were worn by people who were just filtered out of view.  More sentient gloves make the serious tone all the more frustrating.  This is the kind of concept that’s better off just existing for fun and music. The cartoon would’ve been better if it was just the gloves performing at the dance hall for seven minutes before deciding to go home.  At least the cartoon stands out for minimal dialog allowing the animation to tell the story, and the gloves finally returning to Wakko is a nice ending. 

I’m all for creative concepts but they’re not always executed well.  This one starts off fine with an approach fitting the fun of the setup, but it goes downhill when it introduces a serious plot which just doesn't work.  I don’t dislike the cartoon and feel that the story itself is fine, but if there wasn’t such a big emphasis on drama for something so silly, I would’ve liked it a lot more.

B

Cartoon Ranking

1. Chairman of the Bored
2. Hot Bothered and Bedeviled
3. Bubba Bo Bob Brain
4. Baghdad Café
5. In the Garden of Mindy
6. Critical Condition
7. O Silly Mio
8. Phranken-Runt
9. The Three Muska-Warners
10. Clown and Out
11. Jockey For Position
12. Sir Yaksalot
13. Potty Emergency
14. General Boo-Regard
15. Puttin’ on the Blitz
16. Dough Dough Boys
17. The Big Kiss
18. Draculee Draculaa
19. Babblin’ Bijou
20. No Place Like Homeless
21. I Got Yer Can
22. Spell-bound
23. Smitten With Kittens
24. Astro-Buttons
25. Boot Camping
26. Moby or Not Moby
27. Noah’s Lark
28. Skullhead Boneyhands
29. The Good, the Boo, and the Ugly
30. Hiccup
31. Moon Over Minerva
32. White Gloves
33. Katie Ka-Boo
34. Mesozoic Mindy

Miscellaneous Ranking

1. Animaniacs Stew
2. Testimonials
3. Alas Poor Skullhead
4. Cartoons in Wakko’s Body
5. You Risk Your Life
6. The Great Wakkorotti: The Summer Concert

Song Ranking

1. The Planets

The next Animaniacs review is modeled after typical TV viewing experiences with the Warners on a game show, Slappy Squirrel doing a commercial, and Pinky and the Brain trying to take over the world through kids' TV.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is RMS and Brandon's first episode in OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes.

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