'Toon Reviews 18: Rocko's Modern Life Season 1 Episode 12: Who's For Dinner?/Love Spanked

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:

Who’s For Dinner?

 

Most cartoons we’ve covered this season have featured Heffer as a gluttonous but still likable friend.  This one stands out more for going deeper than that by exploring his dynamic with his wolf family. 

It happens when Rocko’s invited to Heffer’s house for dinner.  Although he says he’s inviting him because he’s trying to find a ride home, the hesitation in his voice suggests that he’s a little worried about introducing his best friend to his family.  This would be hard to believe since we’ve seen his wolf family a few times before this cartoon, but you can chalk that up to these reviews arranged in airing order instead of production order. 

Even so, those few appearances didn’t really show what the family is like personality-wise, so this cartoon feels like a proper introduction to them.  We have the loving mother, the isolated and easily-agitated father, the grumpy grandpa with a particular disdain towards wallabies (though he’s near-sided so Rocko’s OK), a mysterious cross-dressing brother, and a mostly silent sister who snaps when things get too intense.  Altogether, this family features an interesting background for Heffer which stands out more since he’s a completely different creature from them, though it’s much stranger for the wolves to deal with than Heffer who seems to go about his life with them just fine.  He even takes part in wolf mannerisms like eating a dead elk raw like wolves typically would for dinner.  If anything it’s Rocko who feels out of place amongst this strange family, not just at dinner, but also through seeing how his friend lives with a family following customs not typically suitable for steers as seen through a few visual gags of noticing the wolves have a room full of Red Riding Hoods and cabinets of the three little pigs on his way to the restroom. 

He’s also likable for being friendly and accepting of his friend’s setup despite his discomfort, but brings about a huge shift in tone when he points out that Heffer was adopted, something Heffer apparently never knew.  It would be an issue that Heffer never really figured out something so obvious, but he’s been established to not be so bright, so this is acceptable.  However, he’s still genuinely shocked about the reveal that he decides to run away and find his real steer family.  It’s not a bad idea for a plot, but it’s a bit of a jarring change of pace for the cartoon that’s mostly established itself as a simple evening with Heffer’s family.  At least they’re still seen looking for him frequently alongside scenes of Heffer being depressed, getting fatter than usual during his search.

As for Heffer, his actions may be extreme, but they are understandable since he is a completely different species from the wolves, and you have to wonder what his real family was like.  With this in mind, when he finally finds the farm he came from, he gets a vision of his dad who’s extremely cold and bitter not wanting anything to do with his son.  It begs the question of how valid this is since it’s just a vision and doesn’t completely solve the mystery to Heffer’s origins, but it’s still a decent one to get him to see sense that his true family are those who love him, even if they are different from him. 

This is one of the more wholesome cartoons of the season for solid introductions to the personalities of Heffer’s family, and is especially a good watch for anyone who was ever adopted.

A-

Love Spanked

 

Finding love is an aspect of life that’s featured a lot in shows.  In a show that gives creative interpretations of life’s challenges, it’s interesting to see how a cartoon tackles this topic. 

Rocko’s love interest here is his neighbor, Melba Toast, and he’s so obsessed with her, he rushes to see her get the paper every day.  The fact that Melba isn’t even seen gives her an interesting feel of mystery of what Rocko sees in her and symbolizes her as a crush who feels unattainable. 

Speaking of unattainable, the cartoon’s relatability is felt when Rocko finds out that Melba now has a boyfriend, which is always a common problem to deal with when someone you like is taken.  Heffer tries to help Rocko by getting him a personal to meet other girls.  Given Heffer’s track record of roping Rocko into strange alternatives to challenges, you can probably guess things won’t go as planned, but you can’t fault his effort to help. 

As it turns out, the dates Rocko goes on offer one mishap after another with many of them turning out far too eccentric for his liking.  They include a pink bunny with a huge desire for embracing while her father quickly goes from calm to enrage out of nowhere, a heavy elephant woman who’s impossible to sail with without sinking, a jogger who gives a moose as a token of appreciation, and a fitness woman who delights in using Rocko as a weight.  This set of dates is mildly amusing in a way, but aside from a few exaggerations, they don’t feel as investing or creative as other interpretations this show has turned out, so the sting of their failures is more prominent.

It also doesn’t feel right that Heffer later sweet-talks Rocko into going on a dating show looking for wallabies.  That’s an even more ridiculous way to find love, and since the personals didn’t work, it’s easy to predict that this won’t work either.  The game show is certainly entertaining with an energetic dolphin host making up stuff about Rocko, and a voting studio audience amusingly too bored to be there which enhances the environment.  It’s through this audience’s carelessness while pushing a random button that decides Rocko’s next date . Rather than getting to date two nice looking women, he’s roped into dating Heffer, whose silhouette makes a convincing human figure.  While it’s concerning that the guy who convinced Rocko to do the show, and his best friend at that, ended up as an option when he knows Rocko’s looking for a girlfriend, it eventually chalks up to bad luck on Rocko’s part since Heffer was just doing a stand-in for the third date. 

In the end, Rocko decides to just be honest to Melba about his feelings for her, but his attempts get sabotaged again when a love column of him pining for her ends up in the paper and she drives away embarrassed.  As a result, the whole cartoon is nothing more than things going wrong for Rocko with little to no good coming out of it.  He may be designed to endure life’s challenges, but he usually gets some positive outcomes, but not so much here.  That’s not even mentioning that this isn’t the best display of his friendship with Heffer who caused most of his misfortunes. 

It’s still easy to get a solid laugh here and there and the cartoon is still good overall since Rocko ends the cartoon content with where he is, but the overbearing misfortunes are not what I call the ideal love-themed cartoon.

C

The Ranking

1. Popcorn Pandemonium
2. Cabin Fever
3. Skid Marks
4. The Good the Bad and the Wallaby
5. Canned
6. To Heck and Back
7. Who Gives a Buck?
8. Dirty Dog
9. A Sucker for the Suck-O-Matic
10. Trash-O-Madness
11. Jet Scream
12. Rinse and Spit
13. Carnival Knowledge
14. Who’s For Dinner
15. Keeping Up With the Bigheads
16. Rocko’s Happy Sack
17. Sand in Your Navel
18. Spitballs
19. No Pain No Gain
20. Flu-In-U-Enza
21. Power Trip
22. Love Spanked
23. Bedfellows
24. Leap Frogs

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the last episode of Season 1 where Spunky falls in love with a mop, and Rocko discovers the dangers of laundromats.

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 20: Star vs the Forces of Evil Season 2 Episode 6: Starsitting/On the Job

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:

Starsitting

When Buff Frog, one of Ludo’s original henchmen, received a sack full of tadpoles as a bribe in the Season 1 finale, it would be hard for one to assume that he’d take to being a father of them so seriously.  As this episode shows, he really does take to fatherhood with extreme pride and devotion, giving him receiving the tadpoles much more weight and value. 

Also nice to see is that the events of that finale have given him a lot of respect for Star.  He entrusts her and Marco to look after the tadpoles while he takes care of some interdimensional business complete with a binder of rules to follow and special notice that one of them, Katrina, is especially delicate. 

From there, the episode is all about babysitting antics where the caretakers assume that the job will be easy but slowly realize that it’s a lot harder than it seems.  This is one of the more common plot threads that many of us have seen in other shows, but here it stands out a bit for how babysitting becomes difficult for Star and Marco.  They both have vastly different ideas to do it which don’t mesh well.  Marco aims to take care of the kids by sticking to the binder while Star straight-up ignores the rules and does what she can to let the babies have fun. 

At first, Marco seems like the one to side with the most since Buff Frog’s rules are clearly there for a reason, and it would be foolish and reckless of Star to just ignore them.  Sure enough, when she pokes one of the babies’ heads, though this act was mostly due to her giving into temptation since she did try to hold herself back, all of them go on a wild croaking spree.  Star also makes things worse by replacing their muddy lunches with cake, ignorant of the fact that these babies have a much different diet from her, thus resulting in an even bigger mess. 

Fortunately, out of all this, Star’s caretaking methods do prove to have some value.  It seems that all the activity she allowed the babies to do got all of them except Katrina to mature a bit by growing legs.  Granted, this just allows the babies to go out of control by running around the house with Star and Marco bearing the brunt of it all, so Marco’s methods still have value.  However, when all the babies are lost, it’s Star’s sense of fun that tracks them down when an earlier scene of playing music gets relevance when she does it again and all of them except Katrina come out to dance.  To further make a point of her advocacy for fun, Star gets to Katrina by throwing the binder at a floor full of bear traps.  The binder itself is fine though. 

The episode ends with both Star and Marco seeing the benefits of both their caretaking methods and Buff Frog coming back saddened that he missed his babies growing legs, but happy for at least being there to watch Katrina get hers.  This makes this babysitting episode stand out more for showing that there’s no set way of taking care of kids and having a lot of heart from the care and admiration everyone has for the tadpoles.  Star’s attempts at making the job fun can be a little much at first, but it all comes together as something enjoyable and cute despite everything.

A-

On the Job

It’s always a nice idea to merge two segments of one episode together into one cohesive plot.  This one highlights the events that occur before and during Star and Marco babysitting Buff Frog’s tadpoles. 

The start of the episode features a montage of Buff Frog reveling in the joys of fatherhood as he takes care of and has fun with his babies.  However, he also encounters some hardships as a father when he doesn’t have any food to give them.  Like many of us, Buff Frog proceeds to get around this problem by getting a job. 

Considering that Buff Frog once had a job as a villain's henchman, he’s determined to relive the same villainous image he had before even though his coworkers claim he’s gone soft now that he has kids.  This is kind of harsh as if it’s shaming the idea of having kids.  Fortunately, this mindset between Buff Frog and his coworkers doesn’t last long when Buff Frog finds a way to get his babies food.  The group spots rats trading corn, a food exclusive to Mewni, suggesting something odd about that kingdom’s security practices.  They try to capture one of the rats to demand them to tell them where they got the corn, and Buff Frog seems to have retained a lot of his henchmen skills as he leads attacks and interrogations of any rat who passes by. 

However, he’s constantly held back by everything he does reminding him of taking care of his babies.  It’s an interesting and somewhat relatable conflict of struggling to balance the tough and soft part of one’s character after having children which is nice to see at play.  It makes the team’s prior judgements of him going soft have more weight to them, but the scorn is balanced somewhat by the boss, a talking fly named Boo Fly, standing up for Buff Frog and thinking of good reasons for his actions even though he sees what Buff Frog is doing as a problem.  Also worth noting is that Buff Frog doesn’t get too caught up in thinking of his babies and knows he has to try and restrain himself when interrogating the rats. 

Unfortunately, one last slip-up involving accidentally bringing out baby toys ruins the team’s element of surprise and costs Buff Frog the best job he had.  It’s moments like this that surprise you with how sympathetic Buff Frog, someone who started out as a common henchman to an antagonist, has truly become through his development shown since the second half of Season 1.  His sympathy is shown even more through a text message from the previous episode originally shown as a comedic cover-up get much more emotional weight for Buff Frog to continue on with getting his babies corn. 

Ultimately, Buff Frog and the rest of the monsters end up not getting corn, but they do discover that there’s a hole in the force field surrounding Mewni’s cornfields, thus leading to something to look forward to from them in the future as is the ending shot revealing that the rats were bringing the corn to Ludo the whole time.  In addition, Buff Frog shows some benefits to his fatherly actions by saving the team who fired him when they get attacked by King River for invading, and they don’t go unnoticed which nicely makes up for everyone else treating his parenting like it was a problem. 

This episode has a lot of benefits overall with strong character development showing how far Buff Frog has come since the beginning, interesting plot points with promise for the future, and while attitudes towards having children can be too harsh at times, they genuinely improve in the end.  After this, I look forward to cover what Buff Frog gets up to next.

A

The Ranking

1. Ludo in the Wild
2. On the Job
3. Mr. Candle Cares
4. Wand to Wand
5. Starstruck
6. Starsitting
7. Star on Wheels
8. Camping Trip
9. My New Wand
10. Red Belt
11. Star vs Echo Creek
12. Fetch

The next Star vs the Forces of Evil review features Star, Marco, and friends go out for Goblin Dogs, and Glossaryk locking himself in a donut box after one bad wand training session.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews from Rocko's Modern Life it's "Who's For Dinner?" and "Love Spanked."

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 19: OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes Season 1 Episode 9: Do You Have Any More in the Back?

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:

Do You Have Any More in the Back?

Good characters are not 100% good.  It’s necessary to give them flaws to work through to show that they’re as human as the audience watching.  That said, flaws can get overbearing and don’t always make the character trustworthy.  That’s what happens with Rad’s role in this cartoon which does make for an interesting message about how sometimes, your friends aren’t the best role models. 

His unconventional ways of doing things easily impress K.O. as he takes his advice all the way, which seems innocent enough.  Then the cartoon’s main challenge occurs when a customer askes for super shaving cream that’s not on the shelves, requiring Rad, K.O., and Enid to go to the back of the store.  The back of the store is a labyrinth of stock rooms and shelves, and from the look of it, it’s believable for people to get lost in it. 

This is where Rad’s unconventionality becomes an issue.  It makes him overly confident about the matter as he insists he knows everything there is to know about this area even though he’s clearly never been there before.  It starts out acceptable with insisting on using an old elevator to get down to the back instead of the stairs which is effective.  Then Rad takes charge of the task, clearly not knowing what he’s doing, and none of his practices go anywhere.  He acts like he knows the way, but he just leads everyone in circles eventually coming to an area akin to a secret cave or temple.  He says it’s ok to touch a blobby creature, but it turns out to be dangerous.  When an opportunity comes to use a map to get to where they need to go, Rad doesn’t take it even though the task is a total lost cause without one.  There are some mishaps that Rad believably couldn’t have known about like a flashlight that turns out to be a shapeshifting creature called a Mimic who turns into anything while attacking people, but with all these things in mind, it gets a little frustrating to put up with this much of an ego who’s no help at all. 

K.O. does have growing doubts in Rad, and what happens teaches him what is probably one of his most valuable hero lessons as of now.  No one ever knows everything, even those he looks up to.  It’s put to the test when two Rads show up. One is nice and considerate and the other is as egotistical as ever.  This scene is a big example of identifying characters big on their dominant traits which is one of the biggest ways to show a cast of characters’ diversity.  Also, K.O. realizing Rad’s flaws is a great move on his part through realizing the truth about his friend aided by his internal monologue giving a thorough observation of the two Rads.  It can be hard to accept that your friends are not always the best people, but this scene does show that adapting to times where reason outweighs emotion is the healthy way to go. 

In the end, K.O. points out the jerk Rad as the real Rad while the nice Rad is the Mimic.  In an interesting turn of events, even the real Rad couldn’t be a know-it-all for long and got the map, making up for his overbearing flaws a bit.  As for the shaving cream, it does look like K.O. got it on their way out, but it turns out to be the Mimic again, lessening the sense of accomplishment.  Still, the cartoon stands as one whose character flaws get too overbearing, but does inspire to give an honest judgement to everyone, even friends.

B

The Ranking

1. I Am Dendy
2. Let’s Be Heroes
3. You’re Everybody’s Sidekick
4. Jethro’s All Yours
5. Let’s Be Friends
6. We Messed Up
7. Sibling Rivalry
8. Do You Have Any More in the Back?
9. You’re Level 100

The next OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes review involves K.O. getting challenged to a bet that his mom can beat up a bully's dad.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is a look at the Star vs the Forces of Evil episode featuring "Starsitting" and "On the Job."

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

'Toon Reviews 20: Star vs the Forces of Evil Season 2 Episode 5: Starstruck/Camping Trip

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:

Starstruck

We all have our idols but very rarely do we ever meet them in person.  Given the various scandalous reports of famous people turning up in the news these days, that may be a good thing, for just because you idolize the work and actions of someone, the person behind those things might not always be a good person.  This episode brings this message to light when Star learns that her monster-fighting idol is not what she seems. 

Her name is Mina Loveberry who’s known in Mewni as a revered warrior and protector, and is on Earth for a vacation via "doctor's orders".  Right there Mina shows that she’s too crazy to have the makings of a competent warrior. Her first moments show her freak out over a bag stuck on her head.  It’s understandable that Star doesn’t notice this at first since Mina got the bag on her head while hiding in a dumpster like Star was doing. 

From there, because Star sees nothing too wrong with Mina’s behavior, she joins her in exploring Earth for any dangers which include Mina’s indescribably odd customs.  They include breaking into the national landmark of mud pits to become “mud sisters,” attempting to ride away on a preserved wooly mammoth which sinks, taking any random items they can find to make weapons even if they’re the park’s property, and doing whatever they please after hearing America’s the land of the free including arson. 

Through it all, Mina is definitely a major danger to society with all her customs causing serious harm in various degrees.  We already discussed that she commits acts like arson without care, but she also gets little kids hurt while they’re swinging, and possibly causes the park ranger to drown at one point.  I mean, he sinks in the mud pit, and we never hear from him afterwards.  All the same, despite being dangerous, Mina is still highly enjoyable for the eccentric way she goes about life and teaches Star her secrets of being a great warrior which really livens things up. 

As fun as Mina is, because she’s so obviously a menace to society, it’s concerning that it takes Star a long time to realize that Mina is nuts and just shoots down Marco’s legitimate warnings while he often has to deal with the aftermath of their destruction.  All the same, there are times where Star attempts to follow Mina along, but feels unsure about her idol’s customs.  Then when Mina gets to the last step of becoming a warrior which includes fighting everyone, including innocent people, to conquer Earth which has no one ruler, Star finally sees fault in Mina’s teachings and refuses to conquer the planet she’s come to care for.  Star’s biggest change in her views on Mina comes after the warrior takes on a monstrous form as Earth’s new leader, and when everyone around votes on it, Star makes the choice to vote on Mina not conquering the planet.  It all ends with Star facing the hard truth that her idol was not a skilled warrior, but a really crazy and destructive lady she’d rather not emulate. 

It’s sad that someone she looked up to wasn’t who she thought she was, but it’s a hard cold lesson that matters now more than ever.  For that, this is a fun and high-spirited episode that makes a strong point. 

A-

Camping Trip

A few instances in the series has shown that Star actually has a lot in common with her dad, King River.  They both have a huge desire for fighting and sense of adventure and are generally highly energetic.  Their bond is touched on even more in a cartoon focusing on the favorite pastime of going on camping trips. 

This camping trip starts off nice, simple, and relatable to one most people would do with the most hype built around seeing a geyser erupting today, but it becomes more interesting when River shows up.  Like Star, he takes extreme pleasures in every little thing there is to camping.  It’s his role that makes the mundane pastimes of camping such as fishing and hiking more exciting than they’d normally be. 

Interestingly enough, one of the reasons for his behavior is that he wants to relive his youth and prove he’s still cool enough to be there for his daughter which is both a believable reason and adds some heart to his antics.  Still, it shows that unlike Star who at times is capable of breaking away from being ridiculous, River gets even more ridiculous despite his reasons.  Among these highly ridiculous acts is going up to a bald eagle in its nest to get the bird to fly them to the geyser which ends up getting the three of them caught by the rangers.  River also does much more harm than good to Marco’s own desire to see the geyser through eating the map for no reason other than he was hungry.  He also shows that he hasn’t learned from his previous encounter with the rangers when the group is once again hounded by them when River steals a bear.  It’s at least always clear that he wants to help make the whole trip special, and wanting to act young and cool to impress his daughter makes this desire all the more understandable. 

There’s also a nice conversation Star and Marco have involving the geyser.  The real reason Marco wants to see it is so he can show Star to thank her for ishowing him so many interesting dimensions.  Not only does this camping trip stand out more from the antics of someone with a midlife crisis, but the heart of what it means for Star and Marco’s friendship adds to its endearment. 

Then following this conversation, and a statement that today is the geyser’s last eruption prompts River to perform his noblest act for the episode.  Finally reliving his youth with no trouble, he carries Star and Marco while running through miles of wood even doing impossible feats like jumping up a waterfall and running through a war reenactment.  It’s impressive that River turns out to astound with how fast he travels just to get his daughter and her friend to see something that means a lot to them, even if he ultimately fails. 

That said, it’s very satisfying that the trip there was just as exciting for Star and Marco and are appropriately grateful for how River came through in the end.  The moment is a bit devalued when they geyser erupts anyway and the statement of this being its last eruption turns out to be a lie, but it’s nice to see everyone in a good place anyhow, as well as a humorous ending of River looking a lot younger after getting sunburned from the eruption. 

Basic as this camping trip episode is, the character moments, especially from what we see of River, are strong and entertaining enough to make it worth watching.

A-

The Ranking

1. Ludo in the Wild
2. Mr. Candle Cares
3. Wand to Wand
4. Starstruck
5. Star on Wheels
6. Camping Trip
7. My New Wand
8. Red Belt
9. Star vs Echo Creek
10. Fetch

The next Star vs the Forces of Evil review covers Star and Marco take up babysitting Buff Frog's tadpoles, as well as what Buff Frog was doing while that was going on.

Next time on MC Toon Reviews is the OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes episode that asks "Do You Have Any More In the Back?"

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.