Pipe Dreams/Tickled Pinky (Rocko's Modern Life Season 2 Episode 2) - 'Toon Reviews 24

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Pipe Dreams

Leave it to this show to bring creative, if surreal, entertainment out of any little problem.  For this cartoon, it targets the less-than-pleasing occurrence of clogged toilets. 

We already see creative gags as we start at a beautiful river and go through a tunnel up to Rocko’s toilet where the water comes from.  From there, the conflict kicks in when Heffer clogs the toilet while doing his business, given that he is a fat steer.  The clog gets worse when he thinks stuffing the toilet with lots of toilet paper will fix everything; it doesn’t.  With the plumber charging far more than Rocko can afford, surprisingly not in a jerky manner like one would expect, Rocko and Heffer try to fix the clog themselves. 

From there, this cartoon doesn’t have much of a plot and is more of antics mined from the attempts to solve the problem.  However, for a show like this, that’s not a problem.  The antics stress the series’ main theme of how challenging life can be while also being very entertaining.  One gag gets creative with exactly what ends up causing the clog when Rocko tries using a simple plunger and pulls out more unusual things than all that toilet paper.  Pulling things like a bowling ball and safe says a lot about Heffer’s bathroom habits.  The gag doesn’t really go all out though as it turns into a struggle with unsticking the suction part of the plunger.  A gag that does go all out, however, is a following one with a toilet snake as it’s put through the toilet and pops up in random places.  This doesn’t just apply to Rocko’s bathroom, but also a tree and even Mr. Bighead’s toilet just as he’s about to use it.  There’s also a gag that exists in the name of fun. Rocko and Heffer talk like people in a commercial as they bring out a product called Tropical Plumber to fix the toilet.  It even comes with a catchy island slogan from the fruit mascots whom Spunky eats before the substance can work. 

For all this time, the story sets up that Heffer’s bathroom habits caused the clog.  However, following the use of an over-the-top industrial plunger on the toilet that blows a hole under the house, a completely different clog source is revealed.  There’s a huge goldfish named Lolita suck in the pipes.  She apparently was Rocko’s pet, but he flushed her when she decided to take a nap and he thought she was dead.  Lolita giving a long-winded rant about being flushed and trapped in the pipes for three and a half years is a very creative and hilarious outcome.  The delivery of her smart talk in a voice that hardly sounds feminine especially sells the comedy. 

That said, this reveal feels a little too random and contradictory of what clearly appeared to cause the clog earlier.  Also, while her rant is funny, it’s hard to know how to feel about everyone getting mad at her.  Being annoyed by the rant is one thing, but they berate her and Rocko even when she’s not yelling.  Out of this, we do get a nice conclusion where the plumber from earlier gets Lolita out of the pipes with a small metal part from a sardine container and takes her to an aquarium.  It even leaves Rocko himself on good terms with the fish forgiving him and him not being charged.  That said, one last gag shows that the neighborhood still isn’t totally safe from his plumbing problems. 

While it feels like the conflict’s driving force can’t be decided on, this cartoon is still a good demonstration of the show’s strengths of mining creativity of life’s little moments.

A-

Tickled Pinky

There are times when certain diseases or medical problems show up and no precautions can prevent them.  One such disease is appendicitis.  I never had it, but from what I know, getting it can be very frightening as you’re put through severe stomach pains at any given moment.  What Rocko is put through in this cartoon brings a believable, if creatively depicted, sensation of the disease. 

We start with a jackhammer display that seems to have nothing to do with the story.  However, that sells how appendicitis occurs when Rocko first feels the pain while minding his own business.  It’s honestly frightening when you think about it.  This doesn’t mean there can’t be creative and humorous antics to depict what he’s put through.  The pain is creatively interpreted by all of Rocko’s organs as schoolkids and his appendix being too sick for class.  In the real world, when the ambulance fails to get him, Heffer astounds by rushing Rocko to the hospital himself.  It’s a nice play on expectations, and is one of Heffer’s most caring moments. 

At the hospital, Rocko endures much turmoil going through the motions of the treatment.  He has to fill a mountain of forms before diagnosis while in pain.  It’s harsh for Rocko to be put through this, but signing forms despite your ailment does seem believable.  There’s also a nice appearance from Dr. Hutchinson who, in her high-spirited ways, determines Rocko’s ailment by his lightning-shaped pain lines.  In his room, TV keeps reminding him of her claim that his appendix must be cut out.  These moments may be Rocko’s more painful life-endurances, figuratively and literally, but they’re enjoyable and humorous for their creativity.  In addition, even in pain, Rocko remains his usual friendly self.  It shows in a scene where he finds many bottled cut organs, and he hallucinates them pleading to not have his appendix cut out. 

Eventually, he passes out and dreams of his appendix, Pinky, come to life and saddened about getting cut out and never seeing his organ friends again.  It gives him a believable personality of a child with a life-threatening disease, one of the most tragic things imaginable.  Rocko then acts as someone akin to an organization like the Make a Wish foundation, and goes out to fulfill Pinky’s final requests.  However, they’re all very extreme activities that build upon each other.  This may be a dream, but it feels like all these activities are meant to equate the pain Rocko’s actually feeling while passed out.  Plus, it all ends endearingly with Pinky saying it’s time for him to go just as Rocko’s had enough, and they both share a final embrace.  This sensation is a clever one to depict that in reality, the operation is over, and Rocko’s appendix is cut out.  The last scene of Rocko burying his appendix while the spirit of it and other organs that were cut out is saddening in a funny sort of way.  It’s a funeral where Rocko’s saying goodbye to someone close to him, but humorous as a creative idea for body parts that are normal to lose being the dearly departed. 

It’s not easy to make pain scenes enjoyable, but in this cartoon, they’re successfully enjoyable all throughout.  It’s all thanks to creative ways of showing the pain, emphasis on relatability, and even genuine heart.

A+

The Ranking

1. Tickled Pinky
2. I Have No Son
3. Pipe Dreams

The next Rocko's Modern Life review invites you to come crawl with Filburt as he becomes a lounge singer, and Bev Bighead astounds with how well she runs Conglom-O in her husband's place.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is the OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes season finale, "You're in Control."
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.

'Toon Reviews 9: Star vs the Forces of Evil Season 1 Episode 9

Freeze Day

The main plot is yet another instance of fun and hijinks from Star’s magic, but it’s still a ton of fun with great moments from the characters involved.  Star’s wand spell here is freezing time which is cast when Marco panics about being late for school.  It’s not because of needing to be in time for class or to keep up a perfect attendance record.  It’s all about being there for something as simple as nodding at his crush, Jackie Lynn Thomas, who apparently passes by his locker at a specific time every day.  Even if what Marco wants to do is a relatively minor concern, it’s still great that Star reserves her spells to help him.  At the same time, she also allows Marco to take advantage of time being frozen as they spend a lot of time messing around with everything immobilized.  Personally, I wouldn’t call this too reckless because when it’s revealed that Star can’t unfreeze time, it’s made clear that this would’ve happened regardless of her and Marco’s lollygagging.  You see, they have to travel to a dimension called the Plains of Time to fix time, and they learn the reason time hasn’t gotten unfrozen is because Father Time was knocked off his wheel when the spell was cast and didn’t get back on it.  Now, Father Time himself is a pretty enjoyable character for finding pleasures in simple things like mud which is believable considering all the time he spends running on that wheel to keep time going.  Of course, he’d jump at the chance for a break from it even if time needs to keep going.  So, Star and Marco chase Father Time through the plains which provides the bulk of the episode’s creativity particularly with clocks that alter their ages.  It’s only when they track Father Time in a part of the plains that record all of the universe’s history which houses a one-eyed creature that shows the lives of anyone it looks at.  It’s a truly creative addition to the dimension and makes for cute looks at Star and Marco’s childhoods.  As for Father Time, Star and Marco see firsthand that he really hasn’t done anything besides running on the wheel, so they set something up for him to see everything while doing his job.  This is a more interesting and considerate direction for the story to take than the easy route of convincing Father Time that boredom from his job is something he has to deal with.  The adventure also proves beneficial for Marco when they get back with time working properly.  He not only nods at Jackie, like he’s done for years as shown by the creature, but even talks to her.  It’s just a simple “hi” but it really is a good first step in the progress of his relationship with her.  Ultimately, I can say that this spell-hijinks episode is made good by the character development woven into the mix. 9/10

Royal Pain

After seeing how Star and her father, King River, are more in common than they may seem in “Diaz Family Vacation,” an episode of them spending time together would be a pleasing one to look forward to.  Well, in this episode, he comes to stay with his daughter after getting kicked out of the castle in Mewni, and his presence becomes annoying to not just Star, but the audience as well.  At first, their interactions are pleasing with River approving of Star’s recklessness with her wand.  The two share a lot of nice scenes of exploring what Earth has to offer and putting their own spin on them such as throwing random things into the toilet as they watch the water go down and using their own powerful clubs while playing miniature golf.  However, as time goes on, River becomes too destructive for everyone around him, and Star’s growing annoyance is easy to see.  She may be reckless too, but even earlier in the season she’s had some restraint.  What her dad’s doing is going too far.  It just gets worse when he acts like a slob late into the night when Star isn’t even remotely up for messing around, and the next day, he throws a wild party with all his interdimensional friends without any notice to his daughter's feelings.  As frustrating as it is to see Star have to put up with this unruly behavior, she never seems to take the hint that the way her dad’s acting is similar to how she sometimes acts around Marco, especially since he’s constantly suffering in this episode by getting his socks wet.  Fortunately, Star goes on to see Marco’s point of view when she takes care of an uninvited party guest, a living sun called Helios, who harasses everyone at the party in his own way complete with a spell that nicely connects to Marco’s wet socks problem.  Plus, River realizes how inconsiderate and reckless he’s been too which is the best payoff to his grating antics we could get.  Ultimately, they both learn to give others a heads-up before acting, and that does wonders not just for Star and her father’s bond, but also for Star and Marco’s bond.  This episode can get tiresome with how much emphasis is on the recklessness of the central characters, but the payoff makes everything worth it. 8/10

The Ranking

1. Blood Moon Ball
2. Mewberty
3. Diaz Family Vacation
4. Fortune Cookies
5. Sleep Spells
6. School Spirit
7. Party with a Pony
8. Freeze Day
9. Quest Buy
10. Monster Arm
11. Cheer up Star
12. Star Comes to Earth
13. Brittney’s Party
14. Matchmaker
15. Lobster Claws
16. Pixtopia
17. Royal Pain
18. The Other Exchange Student

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where, after so many mentions and scared reactions from certain characters, we finally pay a visit to "St. Olga's Reform School for Wayward Princesses."

If you would like to check out other Star vs the Forces of Evil reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.

'Toon Reviews 4: The Loud House Season 1 Episode 10

Hand-Me-Downer

 

 

 

 

 

 This is a really fun cartoon that offers a different perspective on life, particularly when it comes to receiving gifts, or as is common in a family as big as Lincoln’s, hand-me-downs.  Lincoln is revealed to have had quite a history with receiving hand-me-downs from his older sisters, and being rather unsatisfied with them, which I believe is common for people his age.  Most recently, Lincoln receives an incredibly girly bike from Lori, and it’s a hand-me-down he can’t simply hide under his bed.  Feeling embarrassed by the bike, Lincoln goes on to do something about it by taking Lynn’s cool bike for a spin without her knowing.  Despite Lincoln being in the wrong for taking a bike that isn’t his, it’s still easy to enjoy yourself as you watch Lincoln have some actual legitimate fun with the bike, and even get to hang out with a group of cool kids.  I think it's worth noting that one of the cool kids, Rusty Spokes, interestingly becomes one of Lincoln's friends.  It makes you wonder what happened between that and him hanging with these judgmental cool kids.  Of course, because of Lincoln being in the wrong, he ends up getting himself in trouble when Lynn’s bike ends up stolen and she needs it for a competition.  Once Lincoln fails to find the bike and ends up being kicked out of the biker team , he tells the truth where we get that different perspective on life I mentioned earlier.  While most people would simply store gifts they don’t like away, this cartoon shows that there’s a way to get a lot of enjoyment out of any gift you get, even if you don’t like it.  All of Lincoln’s sisters reveal that Lynn’s cool bike was one that was handed down to sister after sister who fixed it up to fit their needs.  I should also mention that we end get cute and somewhat humorous flashbacks of some of the sisters when they were younger.  I especially see a lot of charm from those that show a young Leni and Luan.  This is a truly good moment of sibling love here where the sisters offer this meaningful advice to Lincoln to just do something with hand-me-downs instead of lamenting over what he gets and Lincoln goes on to do just that after getting back Lynn’s bike.  There are a few stumbling points with this cartoon though such as how everyone who praised Lincoln on Lynn’s bike before act judgmental of him when he does the same thing on the pink bike and the fact that we never see who took Lynn’s bike much less see his/her comeuppance, both of which are kind of frustrating.  Those points don’t stop this cartoon from being a piece of enjoyment with something nice about life to keep in mind when the cartoon wraps up.  9/10

Sleuth or Consequences

 

 

 

 

 

If you want a cartoon of this show that’s both fun and features a great amount of love between siblings, this is a good candidate to some extent anyway.  The whole story takes the approach of a crime scene investigation which is made even more fun by the fact that it’s over something as simple as Lincoln trying to figure out who clogged the toilet as a comic convention he wants to go to draws near.  Aiding in the fun of the investigation is Lucy serving as Lincoln’s second-in-command.  She’s already proven herself as one of my favorite Loud siblings for how her interest in death and darkness and her near-emotionless personality make for a perfect clash between the other siblings and the environment of the Loud House in general.  Seeing a large dose of her as she and Lincoln interrogate the other sisters is certainly really welcome.  Many of the interrogations have a lot of entertaining qualities too as they all explain why they’re innocent, especially those of Lynn, which serves as a nice setup to the ending gag, Lori, Luan, Leni, and Luna.  The cartoon’s heartfelt part comes in with a good bit of character development for Lucy.  It’s later revealed that as much as she loves the darkness, she sometimes needs a break from it by reading an overly saccharine book called Princess Pony. To avoid being made fun of, she threw the book in the toilet to try and hide it, but it ended up clogging the toilet.  This adds some good depth to Lucy’s character with this newly revealed vulnerable side making her come off as more than just a spooky little girl.  We also get one of Lincoln’s best brotherly moments where he willingly takes the blame for the clog, sacrificing his chances of going to his convention and opening himself up for teasing, but saving Lucy’s reputation and his actions are deservedly rewarded with a handmade comic by Lucy.  This moment of heart gives the cartoon a lot of value for feeling genuine and successfully making the audience care about what the characters involved go through.  There’s lots to love, though I do show concern of how the rest of the sisters come off as jerks for teasing Lincoln for his interests and appearance even if it does greatly foreshadow Lincoln’s actions at the end.  For how heartwarming Lincoln and Lucy's sibling bonds are shown to be here, it's really unfortunate that his bonds with the others aren't shown to be nearly as such.  It's like they're an opposing force delighting in being mean and judgmental instead of decent human beings and loving siblings we know they can be.  It's a good thing there are plenty of moments in other cartoons to show that even with their tendency to tease, they do still love him and that the moments of teasing among other bad times are just off moments that anyone can have no matter how good they are.  Even with the teasing parts though, this cartoon is one of the best forms of proof that this show can do so much with what seems like so little. 9/10

The Ranking

1.      Undie Pressure

2.      Project Loud House

3.      Space Invader

4.      Driving Miss Hazy

5.      Left in the Dark

6.      Picture Perfect

7.      Sleuth or Consequences

8.      Hand-Me-Downer

9.      No Guts No Glori

10.  Changing the Baby

11.  Sound of Silence

12.  A Tale of Two Tables

13.  Overnight Success

14.  In Tents Debate

15.  Linc or Swim

16.  The Sweet Spot

17.  Heavy Meddle

18.  Get the Message

19.  Ties that Bind

20.  Making the Case

 

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode with one of the most out-there cartoons, "Butterfly Effect," and an environmental plot gone wrong in "The Green House."