'Toon Reviews 21: Xiaolin Showdown Season 1 Episode 4: Katnappe

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Katnappe

One of the show’s biggest strengths is its extensive variety of villains.  Eccentric and whiny Jack Spicer and seriously thinking Wuya are the most prominently seen.  However, there are several episodes devoted to other villains of different interests and personas. 

This episode’s featured villain, introduced at the end of the previous one, is Katnappe.  She's the alter ego of a girl Jack knows who’s obsessed with cats, right down to dressing like one and making incessant cat puns.  She also means serious business in fights, taking out Jack’s robots with her bare claws or her small yet destructive robot kittens.  Now that Jack’s constant failures to obtain Shen Gong Wu are becoming an issue, Katnappe is the best way to counteract them. 

Speaking of Shen Gong Wu, although it was revealed and obtained in the last episode, this episode shows a lot of the Golden Tiger Claws.  They’re a glove of claws that rips a hole in the fabric of the universe that can transport the holder anywhere he or she desires.  It’s a cool fictional idea brought to life, and the scenes of the Xiaolin Warriors trying them out feel believable to how they’d work in reality.  The appeal of the Golden Tiger Claws crosses paths with Katnappe when Omi challenges her to a Xiaolin Showdown for the more constantly used Changing Chopsticks.  However, Omi’s desperate desire to use the Golden Tiger Claws in a Showdown is his downfall.  He doesn’t prepare himself for a baddie like Katnappe and loses them and the Chopsticks to her. 

The episode then goes in an interesting direction.  Instead of waiting until the next Xiaolin Showdown to beat Katnappe, the Warriors try to better understand her so they can stop her on their own. Doing so comes with enjoyably crafted escapades.  First, they’re put through a seemingly easy task of stealing a jade elephant from Master Fung for a week without chores.  They lose the challenge when he prevents their chances of winning by breaking it.  That’s victory enough for him, and the kids pay the price by hand scrubbing the floor (or skating with scrubbers in Raimundo’s case). 

This event plays a role in learning the importance of knowing Katnappe before catching her.  They get their chance to learn about her through reports of her robbing malls after she quit working for Jack and Wuya and stole the Golden Tiger Claws.  Although she defeats them swiftly, their research and first encounter give significant information about the shady cat fanatic.  It all leads up to a grand conclusion where they put her interest in leisurely locations and cats together and track her down to a cat-themed amusement park.  The park itself is mostly used as a backdrop for the confrontation and doesn’t have its rides and attractions play an actual role the takedown which is a missed opportunity.  Still, it's satisfying enough that everything the warriors went through pays off.  There’s even boldness from Omi who badly wanted to use the Golden Tiger Claws. He sends them to the center of the Earth so no one, including villains, will be able to use them.  Even if he doesn’t get the chance to use them (at least not until later in the season), it’s great that he’s mature enough to do what’s right for all and not just himself. 

This episode has a lot to love.  There's a new fun and creative villain, a big look at one of the more interesting Shen Gong Wu, and an engaging villain defeat strategy whose steps neatly fall into place in the end.  That’s entertainment enough for me.

A

The Ranking

1. Katnappe
2. The Journey of a Thousand Miles
3. Like a Rock
4. Tangled Web

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode that puts Raimundo on the path of great development and introduces a special kind of Xiaolin Showdown, the Shen Yi Bu Dare.

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

'Toon Reviews 14: Animaniacs Vol 1 Part 14: La La Law/Cat on a Hot Steel Beam

Episode 14

La La Law

Most of the time, the Warners use their animated antics to face off against someone who’s antagonistic or rude to them, but there are a few times when they use them to help get someone out of trouble.  The endearing thing about them using their zaniness to help here is that it’s for their psychiatrist, Dr. Scratchansniff, someone they love to mostly joke around with. 

He gets a parking ticket even though he put his money in the meter, and when the Warners find out about this, they decide not to stand for this injustice and push Scratchansniff to claim that he doesn’t deserve the ticket in court.  Of course, knowing how out of control they can get with their ways of life, Scratchansniff would rather just pay for the ticket, but the Warners insist on taking action and hilarity ensues. 

Posing as Scratchansniff’s lawyers, the Warners bring an approach to the court case filled with entertaining funny moments with the right fit for a court case setup.  The whole thing is treated as if it were happening as part of a court case TV series with how the case happened appearing as a recap before the story begins, followed by an intro of each of the Warners doing something funny while in an office setting common to most lawyers, mostly hitting on good-looking men or women.  Then the rest of the cartoon unfolds at Scratchansniff’s trial and the Warners, while seeming destined to make everything worse, enter the case confidently and with little worry or care, refuse to let anything stand in the way of proving their client innocent. 

They are on absolute fire when facing off against the judge threatening to sentence Scratchansniff and their opposing witness, the meter maid who gave him the ticket in the first place.  Yakko in particular stands out comedy-wise which is to be expected given that his thing is being a fast-talker and the foreseer of the group’s plans.  He takes whatever the judge or witness say and responds to them with a witty comeback such as using the sound of an intellectual world like “folderol” as a song cue, or taking a threat of being thrown in contempt as a friendly invite.  His biggest comedic moment here though is through another example of the show pushing the envelope of what jokes it could somehow get away with telling in which he takes major offense of the sound of words like “subpoenaed” or “penal code.”  What makes them work is that it’s never spelled out WHY Yakko would be so offended, leading you to think hard about the reason as an adult viewer, thus coming off as subtle and not taking you out of what’s happening. 

As for the case at hand, with another amusing bit of wordplay involving how the meter maid doesn’t wash windows, the Warners bring up the suggestion that the parking meter might have been broken, making the claim that Scrachansniff didn’t pay invalid.  However, aside from this mention, they wrap up the trial not by seeing if this is true, but by getting the judge distracted by having him tango with the meter maid and forgetting about the case.  It’s a clever and humorous outcome and all, but it makes the whole conflict feel empty and unresolved, and it’s frustrating that we’re left without a clear answer if Scratchansniff really did pay. 

Aside from that, this cartoon is still a great success for showing that even in a stiff, serious, and relatively enclosed area, the Warners are sure to bring some great laughs and do something productive in the process thus making them great characters. 9/10

Cat on a Hot Steel Beam

Here’s one of the more exciting Mindy and Buttons chases.  It happens to have a few twists attempting to break from the typical formula which hardly happens in the rest of the series.  For one thing, it doesn’t start with Mindy’s mom putting her in her harness or giving Buttons an order, but rather have them both in their usual places.  That way, the cartoon’s driving force can come in faster and invest the audience in the coming chase. 

A cute little cat draws Mindy’s attention, and she breaks from the harness to follow it while Buttons chases after her.  As for the chase this time around, it’s very appealing with the many close calls to danger Mindy and the cat would run into like being crushed by traffic or a pile driver.  The music and shots of things getting closer to hurting Mindy mixed with Buttons rushing towards her invest you in the seriousness of what might happen if Buttons doesn’t reach her in time.  Fortunately, while Buttons ends up hurt while getting Mindy safe, those moments cap off the suspense in a comical way for how he gets hurt. He gets flattened into a cutout by the traffic, stops the pile driver while getting hardened by cement, and gets flattened into a disk when the cement crumbles.  It keeps you from getting too sympathetic to stop enjoying what goes on, which is good because of the place where most of the chase ends up occurring. 

It goes through a large building under construction.  Design-wise, it’s an interesting place to watch the chase unfold.  The walkways in the form of the steel beams are very narrow without a lot of space, and you never know when a crane will bring up a new beam in case you fall off, so there’s some mild entertainment from watching Mindy chase the cat on the beams or Buttons trying to keep Mindy safe while staying on.  For the latter point, it’s interesting that the focus is more on Buttons keeping Mindy safe than on him falling which makes for a memorable gag of him making a longer floor out of random objects in the building that goes all the way to space as she walks off the beams capped off by a cute Marvin the Martian cameo. 

Going back to how this cartoon stands out a bit from others starring Mindy and Buttons, during Mindy’s cute little “why” conversations with two construction workers on a lunch break, the chase is actually made known instead of going on when no one else bothers to notice.  When the construction workers see Mindy and Buttons on a high floor, the situation is responded realistically with widespread panic.  Backed by sirens wailing, the whole thing being broadcasted on the news to everyone, including Mindy’s parents, and the workers rushing to lower them to safety, it’s an nice change of pace that treats what goes on like the big deal it is making it suspenseful enough to get the audience’s attention.  Buttons even gets one more moment of awesomeness by saving the cat as it falls and giving it to Mindy. 

However, it makes his usual scolding all the more concerning.  While this is par for the course, the scolding here is worse than usual when Mindy’s parents berate Buttons for chasing a cat just as he gives it to Mindy right in front of them right after he saved it.  It’s like they’re blind to the possibility that Mindy wanted the cat and anything good Buttons could’ve been doing before landing, and that makes the payoff to what Buttons went through even harsher than it already is. 

Even with the more stinging than usual scolding, it’s still easy to enjoy the fun, suspense, and rare twists to the Mindy and Buttons formula this cartoon provides. 8/10

Cartoon Ranking

1. King Yakko
2. Hello Nice Warners
3. Slappy Goes Walnuts
4. H.M.S. Yakko
5. Hooked on a Ceiling
6. Temporary Insanity
7. Bumbie’s Mom
8. Les Miseranimals
9. West Side Pigeons
10. When Rita Met Runt
11. De-zanitized
12. Win Big
13. Taming of the Screwy
14. La La Law
15. Piano Rag
16. Cookies for Einstein
17. The Big Candy Store
18. Garage Sale of the Century
19. Wally Llama
20. Where Rodents Dare
21. Cat on a Hot Steel Beam
22. Operation: Lollipop
23. No Pain No Painting
24. Goodfeathers: The Beginning
25. La Behemoth

Song Ranking

1. Yakko’s Universe
2. Yakko’s World
3. The Monkey Song
4. What Are We?
5. Little Old Slappy from Pasadena

Miscellaneous Ranking

1. Gilligan’s Island Parody
2. Nighty-Night Toon
3. Flipper Parody

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of a space-themed episode of the show in which the Warners get abducted by aliens, and Pinky and the Brain do their take on the infamous War of the Worlds broadcast.

If you want to stay updated for more reviews, become a follower of this blog, click here to like the official Facebook page, and click here to follow me on Twitter.

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

'Toon Reviews 7: Hey Arnold Season 2 Episode 1

It’s time once again for all Football Heads to come together to look at more adventures in the big city.

Hey Arnold (Season 2)

BASIC PREMISE

When it comes to animated TV shows I really like, whenever I start reviewing one of them on this blog, I can hardly wait to come back to it after a while to look at another season.  One of these shows is the classic Nickelodeon show, Hey Arnold.  As I’ve discussed way back in my look of Season 1, this is one of the best animated series out there mainly through how sincere and believable it is through how it brings about different emotional responses through many highs and lows of life.  Amidst simple stories of Arnold doing a fun kid-friendly activity, there are several times when the show can delve into heavy, thought-provoking, and honest subject matter, which makes the world of the show feel highly engaging.  It also helps to have a cast of characters of many personalities and ages that somehow fleshes out everyone commendably.  Because of this, of course I really want to discuss how these strengths continue into other seasons especially since this old 90s cartoon show is relevant again thanks to The Jungle Movie.

I should probably point out that the order the cartoons are reviewed in may seem confusing to some who look at the order in some major online sources, and even the Complete Series DVD set.  That’s because in those sources, they’re listed in the order of how they aired.  However, going in that order can create a lot of continuity-related confusion, especially since this season introduces a game-changing element to the series.  Heck, the airing order of this season even lists cartoons made for the previous season.  Well, even if the cartoons aired in a certain order, I’ll be reviewing them in their intended production order as sited from the official Hey Arnold wiki, and how they’re listed in digital download sites like iTunes.  Hopefully, this will help clear up the way things are meant to unfold with every cartoon, and this practice will continue well into reviews of the other seasons.  Now that we got this out of the way, it’s time to look at more Hey Arnold via its second season.  So, let’s move it Football Heads.

Now on with the reviews:

The Big Scoop

Newspaper stories don’t always seem to come out great.  They usually focus on one character posting embarrassing articles on everyone they witness ,and their close friends, and in some cases their families, responding by posting an embarrassing article on the person or treating them like they’re a heartless monster because of that one misdeed.  That never comes off as enjoyable, but the way this newspaper story is structured does justice for the characters involved.  When writing the school newspaper, Arnold, the kid in charge, strives to post only the facts, but Helga feels that the stories posted aren’t exciting enough for the school.  Given her aggressive nature, it’s fitting that she sets up her own school newspaper that posts nothing but what she feels the PS 118 students will like even if they’re completely fabricated out of photos of certain kids.  It’s amazing how convincing the fake stories like Arnold kissing a tree and Gerald playing with dolls come out in an era before Photoshop was a thing.  Clearly, the victims of Helga’s reports want to put a stop to this nonsense.  At first, Arnold and Gerald are set up to solve everything the way most characters in these plots would by posting embossing stories of Helga, but soon after, Arnold points out that stooping to her low is not a good way to deal with this.  Instead, they go in a much more mature direction by posting a story to flat out claim that one of Helga’s stories is completely untrue.  The story they target is of a pretty huge supposed occurrence where Helga overhears Principal Wartz talking with Ernie, the demolition man, about walls coming down and claims that this means the school is going to be torn down and replaced with an amusement park.  It’s really a ridiculous conclusion to come to and Phoebe's reaction to the claim is hard to believe, but given how much everyone bought her fake stories before, it makes sense for Helga to predict they’ll believe this one.  As for Arnold and Gerald, they take the time to research what’s going on, learn that what Helga claims is completely untrue and post it in their paper.  This, along with the subsequent scene of everyone demanding Helga to stop posting lies, effectively gets Helga to realize the errors of her ways and gives her a chance to change.  It’s certainly a much better way around the issue than to make her a pariah because of this, and this way around the issue means a lot more given her bully status.  While she still wants the news to be more exciting in the end, it’s great that she’s at last complying with Arnold’s leadership on being honest.  Ultimately, of all the newspaper plots of any show, this will always be the strongest one to me for the mature way of dealing with the typical beats it comes with. 9/10

Harold’s Kitty

Way back at the start of the show, Harold was seen as a one-dimensional big bully who just wanted to insult or pound anyone he felt was beneath him with occasional moments of softness.  As the show would go on, his soft side would grow even more, making him a genuine human character.  This cartoon is one of the best examples of his growing soft side.  We begin with him doing his typical immature, brash things like banging along a fence annoying an old lady named Mrs. Ryle and being snappy at the kids which makes them not want to him to play with them.  Then everything changes when he and Arnold find a lost kitten, and Harold agrees to take it home, and from there, we see a large display of Harold’s friendly side at work.  As time goes on, Harold gets more attached to the small cat, happily playing with him, buying him treats and toys, and pretty much going anywhere with him. It’s interesting, and of course adorable to see a huge, mean-looking kid like Harold find a liking, let alone really bond, with a creature as small as a kitten who he names Cupcake.  It’s hard to get enough of their moments together, and you can really feel for Harold when Arnold proceeds to put up lost kitten posters all over the neighborhood.  Speaking of which, it’s also great that this cartoon doesn’t solely rely on cuteness from Harold and Cupcake, for in the second half, Arnold discovers that the kitten belongs to Mrs. Ryle.  Considering how distressed Harold was at the sight of Arnold’s lost cat posters, he completely refuses to let Cupcake go, locking them both inside his house.  This may be a simple action, but then it just grows in tension as a commotion arises first by a crowd of the neighborhood’s residents gathering around the house, then both of Harold’s parents demanding Harold to open the door, and then with the whole police force, including the air force, interrogating Harold to come out with the cat.  So much craziness happens from this simple act that you just can’t help but get invested.  Ultimately, after hearing how the cat, really named Thurston, is the only friend Mrs. Ryle has, Arnold breaks through to Harold’s room and informs him of this, and if he loves the cat as his only true friend, he has to get him home, which Harold does.  Even with this separation of friends, it leads to a greater good with Harold and Mrs. Ryle reaching a truce over the cat, him being allowed to visit him, and everyone starting to get to know the real Harold.  In addition to being cute and really building up on intensity at times, this is one of the show’s strongest entries for having Harold’s story prove that anyone can be more than what they seem. 10/10

The Ranking

1. Harold’s Kitty
2. The Big Scoop

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode featuring Sid's very first starring role in "Arnold Saves Sid" and Arnold and Gerald decide to play "Hooky."

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