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Short Story
Are you familiar with stories about short characters wishing
they were big? In my life, I’ve seen a
lot of them play out the same way. The
short character gets a chance to become huge, but they grow so much that they
cause havoc for everyone which convinces them to go back to normal. If that setup sounds familiar to you, then
you know what to expect with this cartoon.
Rocko is certainly very short compared to nearly everyone else around
him, but this cartoon is where he starts getting self-conscious about his
size. Part of his desire to be bigger
comes from a relatable instance of being impressed by O-Town’s resident super
hero, Really Really Big Man. However,
most of it comes from people being jerks to him about his size. There’s a
customer who purposefully has him get a comic off a really high shelf, and his
horrid boss Mr. Smitty docks his pay just because he can’t see Rocko behind the
counter. Not only that, but Rocko is
shown to be so short that he needs to stand on a box to work and sit on a
balloon to drive his car. That kind of
contrives his height anxieties since these things to make Rocko taller never
show up anywhere else. This is an example
of everything we know about a show being compromised just to fit the standards
of common plot archetypes. That’s not
the strongest storytelling direction to take.
Then comes the part where Rocko gets a chance to become bigger. However, it’s not exactly in reality. He has a car crash after driving with his
height balloon deflated and passes out into a dream world modelled after Oz mixed with a bit of Wonderland. While what happens is kind of cheapened since
we know right away it’s all just a dream, I admit that what follows is best
kept for a dream. Even for a show with
extreme cartoonish depictions of everything, the use of fairies granting wishes
isn’t exactly a strong fit for its reality.
Speaking of which, a fairy, humorously portrayed as one of those
recurring garbage rats, is the very way Rocko gets bigger.
Fitting for the familiar story threads, Rocko
not only becomes bigger, he becomes gigantic.
At this size, he causes havoc to everything he comes across with planes
flying into him, buildings coming down, and a sneeze causing violent
gusts. It’s a concern that Rocko is totally unaware of what he’s causing, but it doesn’t stop his innocent remarks
to his new perspective of things from being charming. Unsurprisingly, he’s seen as a monster for
this, causing O-Town to call on Really Really Big Man to take Rocko out.
This leads to the comedic highlight of the
cartoon where RRBM brings a light-hearted edge to the super hero role. There’s mild humor from how he calls Rocko
out for destroying the town, and he even stops fighting for a while to teach
Rocko a lesson for being himself.
There’s even subtle indications that he has a stalking problem as he
brings up Rocko’s major feats as a shorty.
So, from that Rocko is convinced to become small again with the help of Dorothy’s
red slippers magic oven mits.
Normally I’d say that it would’ve made more sense for Rocko to become
smaller than a giant but bigger than his old self. Here, his old size works
given that it’s the only height that can save Spunky who falls in the sewer. Since this is just a dream, Spunky is never
in real danger, and it ends as Rocko finally wakes up for one last Wizard of Oz reference. Those who wronged him apologizing and a Joe
Murray cameo are a plus.
In the end,
this short story isn’t the show’s most creative, but it’s a pleasant little
watch all the same.
B
Eyes Capades
For the last cartoon for Season 2, this one isn’t anything
big or special, but rather a cartoon that’s par for the course. Being par for the course is still quite great
for this show, this time tackling the relatable instance of needing
glasses. This is especially relatable
for me and my family who are visually impaired.
The first thing we typically get to fix that is a pair of glasses, and
many of the hassles that come with them are on display here.
The central event for the cartoon is
something particularly creative.
Jackhammering is made into a sporting event with people using them for
tricks, and Rocko is apparently very talented at that. As he prepares for the event, he makes
noticeable mistakes such as tripping over Spunky and feeding him fertilizer
instead of dog food. The biggest blunder
is when Rocko finally practices jackhammering, he almost crushes Spunky. Out of all this is one of Heffer’s biggest
moments. For all his dimwittedness, he’s
fully aware of the trouble Rocko is inadvertently causing and is the one to
convince him that something must be done.
What follows is a very funny trip to
the optometrist with enjoyable exaggerations of what eye exams are like. Rocko
needs to get very close to a letter board yet still can’t read that it’s
spelling the Alphabet Song. The optometrist pulls random things out of Rocko’s
eyes. The tool he uses to test what lenses work best for Rocko is easily
converted into a tool to make fries.
Plus, the optometrist himself is very enjoyable with a wholesome sense
of humor throughout the exam while remaining focused on his job.
In the end, it’s no surprise that Rocko needs
glasses to see better. We get a humorous
encounter with the Chameleon Brothers as they give Rocko a vast array of
specs. However, none of this matters
when Rocko can only afford an uninteresting pair of glasses which come with all
sorts of relatable drawbacks. Most of
them boil down to self-conscious issues Filburt has with his own pair of
glasses. Among them is a great sight gag
where it looks like someone’s mugging Filburt, but turns out to just be washing
his glasses when he doesn’t want to.
These issues turn out to not apply for Rocko at all. His issues are far more inherent of his
actual glasses with how they look, and how it’s hard to keep them on while he’s
jackhammering. He ends up having them
flung onto the road where they get destroyed by traffic. I have to admit that the glasses being a
burden probably would have meant more if there was more time devoted to Rocko
having problems with them before they get destroyed. Maybe if there was less time on his
appointment and actually getting the glasses.
Still, the resolution to this problem is very fitting and
relatable. Rocko enters the jackhammer
competition seemingly without glasses. However,
he impresses the crowd with his skills and doesn’t hurt anyone. It turns out that he replaced his glasses
with contacts. I for one call contacts a
major step up from glasses since they’re without all of glasses’ issues. You wouldn’t even know someone was visually
impaired. The fact that it’s not
revealed until after Rocko’s performance is also good for tension’s sake. To make the conflict more balanced, we nicely
end with a jackhammer champion show that glasses do have their benefits as he wears
a pair when he’s not jackhammering.
While some parts of the cartoon feel too long or too short, it still
stands as a nice relatable story with creative ways of showing how things work
and imaginative events.
A
The Ranking
- Rocko’s Modern Christmas
- Tickled Pinky
- Boob Tubed
- Gutter Balls
- Uniform Behavior
- Kiss Me I’m Foreign
- The Lounge Singer
- Road Rash
- I Have No Son
- Snowballs
- Commuted Sentence
- Cruisin’
- Eyes Capades
- Born to Spawn
- Down the Hatch
- Junk Junkies
- Pipe Dreams
- She’s the Toad
- Hair Licked
- Short Story
- Hut Sut Raw
- Frog’s Best Friend
- Day of the Flecko
Final Thoughts
Another Rocko’s Modern
Life season has been successfully covered and boy did it bring a lot of fun
cartoons to talk about. It follows up on every strong point of the first season
and makes it feel fresher with interesting stories and standout moments from
the main characters.
When it comes to the usual cartoon setups with life
challenges exaggerated to great effect, they retain the same appeal. The ways they utilize animation are a
testament to the medium’s versatility and score a humorous and impressed
response for the majority of the cartoons.
As usual, even when the plots don’t have much to offer, they make up for
with the variety of ways Rocko and his friends approach the basic concept of life. Things like fixing a toilet, garage sales,
bad hair days, road trips, skiing, and more bring simple stories, but the
weight to them comes from the various associated antics. The extreme ways attempts backfire, crazy
people they run into, and climactic moments all the gags build up to ensure
that the saying that life is never boring is totally true.
With Season 2, the exaggerations are stepped up and go all
out with any bizarre concept. As a
result, many cartoons capitalize on the show’s main objectives, successfully
building upon an already winning formula.
A cartoon about Rocko needing his appendix removed brings a heartwarming
dream where it comes alive and Rocko puts up with all its crazy final requests. Big events are made out of certain characters’
habits with Heffer’s TV binging causing him to lose his brain and Filburt
getting strange ailments that force him to migrate to his birthplace. Even cartoons that totally go off the rails
like Rocko getting roped into marrying Filburt who takes the charade too
seriously are executed to great effect.
Not only does this show do its usual thing of making outrageous antics
relatable, but in Season 2, it proves itself as a show capable of doing
anything it wants to.
Many of the core characters in the cast are the main reason
why these cartoons work so well. Of
course, Rocko being an average everyman remains a likable lead remaining calm
and friendly in such a crazy nutty environment of O-Town. He may be at the receiving end of much of the
craziness, but no matter how much he suffers, it’s always nice when more often
than not, things work out for him in some way. In
some cases it can be to heartwarming effect.
That said, even the craziness of the world he lives in has plenty of
endearment. As a more regular character this
season, Filburt adds to the aesthetic of the show’s setting through his
neurotic yet entertaining quirks. His
phobic tendencies work off well with restrained or extreme traits of other
characters and he even approaches his own challenges interestingly. With Heffer, he was already seen a lot in
Season 1, and while he’s mainly a slacking gluttonous steer, all his good
traits from there nicely carry over to Season 2. Several instances show him as a devoted
friend to people in his life like Rocko, his mom, and even his grumpy old Grandpa. There’s even an instance where
he takes a job and proves capable of performing it, and his only undoing is
letting the power go to his head. When
it comes to dumb characters, it’s clear that Heffer is one of the better ones
who should get more attention. In
addition, it’s even nice to see the dynamic of the Bigheads at play. Ed is still mostly a jerk who always gets
what’s coming to him, but in a good number of Season 2 cartoons, there are
times when he’s legitimately likable.
This makes him better rounded than just your typical mean neighbor. The biggest one being right at the season premiere as he grows to be accepting of his son Ralph’s artistic passions. Bev also stands as a strong character by
frequently calling out her husband’s jerkiness and demonstrating authority in
their marriage. For that, it’s fitting
that she’s often quick to take initiative in bad situations such as bringing the good out of a bad dog and taking her husband’s place at work. Seeing more of side characters like the
ever-cheerful surgeon Dr. Hutchison and the versatile Chameleon Brothers also
helps the cast’s appeal. It goes to show
that with a likable cast, be they average or eccentric characters, any cartoon
idea has a good chance to work.
There are a few drawbacks though. For every great character moment, there are a
few times where what they go through is noticeably less enjoyable than
others. Sometimes instead of the nature
of life itself, some characters have to suffer because of one person being a
jerk to them. The biggest example I can
think of is some conflicts initiating because of Rocko’s boss Mr. Smitty being
far too unreasonable and cruel. Things
like threatening to fire Rocko just for being late and working him really late
to fix an error on a bunch of comics that was the illustrator’s fault make him
very unpleasant. It can be argued that
mean bosses are a part of life too, but I doubt they’d be this harsh, and it
often feels too real to be an exaggeration.
Even the nature of life can sometimes go too far with the torment the
protagonists deal with and present it as believable instead of a comedic
exaggeration. It's gotten to the point that jerk characters like
Ed undeservedly suffers in the one instance when he does nothing wrong. Those are times when the cartoons are far
less impressive than normal. Thankfully,
there’s only a few times that happens and the cartoons are still plenty
enjoyable on the whole. I only bring
these points up to show that the show simply isn’t perfect, but the flaws are
not dominant enough to devalue what it excels at.
With Season 2, Rocko’s
Modern Life is a show that knows what worked greatly the first time,
expands upon it, and makes what was an ingenious setup even better than
before. It especially stands out for even
bigger creative and abstract concepts and successfully makes them engaging
through how the characters approach them.
There’s a reason the show is one of the staples of classic Nickelodeon,
and the second season is solid proof of what it can do. If you think Season 1 is a hoot, you’ll be in
for an even bigger one the second time around.
Highly Recommended
After such a chaotic look at modern life, I think we deserve a break from it before looking at its next season. Here's the new review schedule which includes a show new to this blog:
- Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays: Hilda Season 1
- Tuesdays and Thursdays: DuckTales Vol 3
- Saturdays and Sundays: Steven Universe Season 3
Stay tuned for all of this, but until then:
Stay Animated Folks!
