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Carnival
Knowledge
When
a cartoon is just characters doing something fun, it usually doesn’t make for
anything too interesting. However, it
can work when the characters and the humor are strong and impactful
enough. Since this show is unlike most
slice-of-life shows with its creative exaggerations of life’s challenges, these
guidelines apply to this cartoon.
Rocko
and Heffer spot a carnival and check it out for the rides, and for Rocko to win
something for once. The catch is that
Slippy, the slug behind the carnival, constantly rips his customers off through
rigging the games and having faulty rides.
From there, the cartoon is nothing but Rocko and Heffer enduring a shady
carnival that’s heavy on antics, but not so much on a plot. However, it’s works like this that show that
animated products don’t always need a plot to be good. Their true appeal comes from crafting
creative occurrences that can’t be done elsewhere. Whatever is drawn is without limits. The carnival antics are good examples of
this, sticking out even more for being set up by a con artist.
With rides, some are literal takes on their
names, like a teacup ride that overflows with actual hot tea, the Elevator to
Hell, or should it be Heck, that goes all the way down below, and a sawmill
ride where the flume goes into an actual sawmill. Others, like a merry-go-round, have simple
slapstick gags from the lack of safety and poor management like Rocko getting
comically crushed as his animal violently bobs up and down, and him and Heffer
getting flung off as it spins at insane speeds. Then there’s the Ferris wheel where the rides
start getting harsher on Rocko and Heffer when it seems safe as they’re
shackled in, but their cart is turned upside-down, allowing Slippy to steal
their falling pocket change. As for the
games, they’re more unforgiving to Rocko like a claw machine that steals valuables
like his watch, or a rigged bottle game where they don’t go down even when
Rocko hits them dead-on, and everyone, including Heffer, insists he was
off.
Even if there’s little story, a lot
of the gags, especially during the games, do have sympathy for Rocko who
genuinely wants to enjoy the rides and win a game which the management keeps
making impossible to do. This makes the
last ride and game come together for an effective climax. For games, he has to fling a frog from a
catapult onto a lily pad made even more difficult by the frog mercilessly
insulting him. Rocko’s growing
frustrations reach a breaking point as he uses a wrecking ball to send the frog
sky high. Then just when Rocko’s had enough
rides too after getting harshly bumped and ignored in bumper cars, he’s roped
into riding a roller coaster called the Nosebleed. It’s a fun ride with sights
of the frog from before yelling in orbit as the carts go up to space, ending
with a huge adrenaline rush as they race down to Earth emphasized by the
riders’ skins peeling off.
It’s after
that exciting roller coaster ride when the frog falls from space onto a lily
pad meaning that after being ripped off and beaten about a lot, Rocko has
finally won something, and the moment’s even bigger with the whole carnival
being impressed. Granted his prize is a simple finger trap, but it’s clear that
simply winning a game is more important.
You’ll remember the greatly staged gags more than the story, but still
being able to feel for some of the characters make this cartoon a particularly
noteworthy carnival of animated fun.
A
Sand in
Your Navel
Being
too cold or too hot is one of the harshest things to endure. I know from experience. I’d rather be too hot since it’s not nearly
as painful as being too cold, and there’s a lot more things to do to beat the
heat, such as going to the beach.
Speaking of going to the beach, that’s what Rocko and Spunky decide to
do when several sight gags around the house show that the heat is too much for
them.
Along the way, the show’s emphasis
on life’s challenges continues to shine through with one comedic exaggeration
after another making what happens stand out more than if they weren’t
present. They have trouble finding a
parking space where the best ones are too expensive and the cheapest ones are
of poor quality. Then, when they
actually get to the beach, they’re put through the relatable challenge of
finding a good space since, like most beaches on a nice day would normally be,
it’s completely crowded. We’re already
up to some greatly funny antics that stand out for their relatability to what
one would likely encounter at the beach.
The beach itself provides creative
interpretations of the hassles of just lounging there. However, more time is devoted to Rocko trying
to keep Spunky out of trouble as the dog’s curiosity requires his wallaby owner
to keep him safe. As a result, there’s
not much investment in the beach itself, but mostly on Rocko worrying about his
dog with the beach as a backdrop.
Granted, there are many beach-related antics that unfold like Rocko convincing
someone to give them their sandwich when Spunky lands inside it or
having to beat up a fish which eats Spunky up after he goes into the water to
fetch a stick. The latter is kind of a
boneheaded mishap since Rocko could’ve just thrown the stick away from the
ocean.
Anyway, Spunky getting himself
into trouble continues when he’s caught by a pelican, so even more time for
getting the full experience of a beach day is compromised for dog rescues. It still stands out for featuring another
joke the crew impressively snuck under the radar with Rocko having to get
through a nudist beach to catch the pelican complete with a censor putting a
black bar on his lower area even though it’s never covered regularly. It’s a clever way of saying how censoring
stuff isn’t as effective as others make it out to be. The nudist scene itself doesn’t stand out as
much since we never see the inside of it, and the show has gotten away with
showing nudist scenes before.
As for
Spunky, even if Rocko needing to save him takes up a bit too much time, it’s
still genuinely entertaining and there’s even some good emotion when Rocko’s
unable to catch the pelican, the scene feeling like he may never see his dog
again. It’s only through a ridiculous
yet creative circumstance when Rocko gets Spunky back by buying him at a fish stand
where he’s sold as a dogfish.
As it
stands, this beach cartoon is still greatly entertaining and relatable in parts
through how it depicts the challenges most people encounter at the beach. I just think it would’ve stood out more if
there was more of a balance between beach fun and looking after Spunky. Still it's a very good choice for a cartoon to
watch when you’re in the mood for the beach.
A-
The Ranking
- Popcorn Pandemonium
- Skid Marks
- The Good the Bad and the Wallaby
- Canned
- To Heck and Back
- Who Gives a Buck?
- Dirty Dog
- A Sucker for the Suck-O-Matic
- Trash-O-Madness
- Jet Scream
- Carnival Knowledge
- Keeping Up With the Bigheads
- Sand in Your Navel
- Spitballs
- No Pain No Gain
- Power Trip
- Bedfellows
- Leap Frogs
The next Rocko's Modern Life review brings Rocko, Heffer, and the Bigheads together for a weekend in a snowbound cabin, and Filburt tries being a dentist and ends up having to save O-Town from a giant mutant tooth.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews is "We Messed Up" from OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes.
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.
