As many of these reviews will show, Enid is by
far the more interesting of K.O.’s co-workers.Her flaws are much more relatable and tolerable.Her bored expressions, sarcasm, and clearly wanting
to be left alone when dealing with difficult, impatient customers feel so
common to workers in customer service.However, through her relationship with K.O., she’s much more comfortable
to break from her annoyed and uncaring state. This makes sense since K.O. is
very likable and friendly who can allow anyone’s good side to shine.
This cartoon’s opening scene of Enid happily
performing a stunt with K.O. as she begrudgingly helps annoying customers
greatly demonstrates this idea.While
most customers are unmoved by Enid’s deadpan attitude, one customer, a wizard
called Wally the White, comes to the counter with long anecdotes about things
Enid is clearly not interested in.Because Enid brushes off his nonsense and ignores him, Wally gets upset
and berates her.Although Enid does
ignore Wally, this is a case where the deviant one is more sympathetic.It’s not right to ignore, but Wally was more
inconsiderate that he didn't do anything that required Enid's attention, and he acts like what
Enid did was a horrible crime which it isn’t.Plus, considering his simple pathetic design, he doesn’t seem like he’s worth
anyone’s time although K.O., sensitive and caring as ever, is affected by his
words making him strive to get Enid to prove that she’s friendlier than Wally
lets on.
Both Wally’s persona and K.O.’s
desire to get Enid take an interesting turn the next day when K.O. arrives to
the shocking sight of Enid turned to stone.The very idea of being turned to stone is frightening alone, although
here, this occurrence is taken more lightly than normal.At times it’s taken a little too lightly with
K.O. being the only one to notice what’s happened to Enid while others say
she’s completely normal despite something clearly off about her skin tone. There are even more cartoons to show how dense the
cast can be for the purpose of a plot just so you know.
Even if it is through contrived means, it is
still effective that K.O. being the only one to see what’s wrong with Enid suggests
he truly does see the good in others that most people can’t.That alone is one of the biggest signs of him
being one of the most endearing main protagonists, and one of the biggest
supports to him becoming a great hero. It grows even more in a heartwarming
scene where K.O. laments about not getting Enid enough to turn her back to
normal.
As for Wally, this situation
brings an interesting idea that even those who seem pathetic can turn out to be
very dangerous. It’s revealed that he turned Enid to stone, and when his spell
wares off, he swiftly does it again intending to take her home to work a
permanent spell on her.This leads to an
entertaining chase of K.O. running after Wally who carries stone Enid away
while quickly finding a way around the spells cast on him.Although he ultimately needs help himself, it
turns out to be enough for Enid to turn back to normal under her own power and
tell off Wally for being so petty.The
wizard still may think badly of Enid, but the ending is satisfying enough with
her being impressed that K.O. at least understands her true self.
It leaves an interesting impression
celebrating how in depth characters can be when given the proper care and made
better by creative elements and genuine chemistry.
A
The Ranking
I Am Dendy
You Get Me
Let’s Be Heroes
You’re Everybody’s Sidekick
Jethro’s All Yours
My Dad Can Beat up Your Dad
Let’s Be Friends
We Messed Up
Sibling Rivalry
Do You Have Any More in the Back?
You’re Level 100
The next OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes episode features genuine development for Rad, but is held back by an even bigger display of denseness when everyone thinks K.O. is Rad all because of a nametag.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews from Star vs the Forces of Evilit's a review on "Goblin Dogs" and "By the Book."
If you would like to check out other OK K.O.! reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.
Characters with single parents always beg a
question on what happened to the other parent, and it can get believably
uncomfortable when that character is mocked for missing a parent.Only
having a mother, it makes perfect sense for K.O. to go through something like
this, and that’s what happens in this cartoon.
While purchasing burritos, K.O. is bullied by a kid lizard named
Chameleon Jr for taking too long.Once again taking bad advice from Rad, K.O. escalates the confrontation with his own
harsh words, the whole scene offering a clever interpretation of the idea of
words hurting others with the words appearing huge out of the kids’ mouths and
knocking them about.Soon, the tensions
escalate even more when Chameleon Jr says his dad can beat up K.O.’s dad,
although K.O. doesn’t have a dad, making him feel uncomfortable.K.O. then goes for the next best option of
having his mom take on Chameleon Jr’s dad.
When Carol finds out about what happened, Rad’s bad conflict-handling
advice is counteracted immediately as she does the responsible thing for a
parent to do by firmly lecturing her son for escalating the conflict.At the same time, she also shows concern for
K.O. lamenting about being put down for not having a dad.This already portrays Carol as one of the
best moms in TV animation, and it grows even more when she
sets out to not tell K.O. how to deescalate bad situations, but show him how
it’s done.
She shows up to the fight,
but instead of getting physical, she intends to get civil with Chameleon Jr’s
dad, Chameleon Sr.The whole scene is
set up as a great opportunity to further portray Carol as a great mom as she
tries to talk things over with the hulking monstrous Chameleon
Sr. for the sole intent of teaching her son a lesson.Even if she intends to talk things over, it’s
not easy to do that since Chameleon Sr. wants to fight, and Carol even begins to understand her son’s side of
things when Chameleon Sr. insults K.O.The fact that she decides to fight Chameleon Sr. anyway does devalue her
legit virtuous side from earlier, even if it is still admirable that she’s
willing to fight for her offspring’s well-being, showing that her actions do
come from a place of love.
Plus, even if
Chameleon Sr. does put up a strong fight, Carol’s a worthy opponent too, taking
on his harsh blows easily, and K.O. becomes wise enough to point out that this
fight isn’t deescalating anything.He
starts taking his mom’s advice to heart even while the fight goes on,
and uses the burritos from earlier to make peace with Chameleon Sr.However, it’s Chameleon Sr.’s being
unreasonable that keeps the fight going, although a humorous scene of K.O. dropping
the burritos while stuck in Chameleon Sr.’s mouth which set it on fire does
bring it to a creative end and is a shining moment for the aspiring hero.K.O. ends up
pulling a zipper on Chameleon Sr. as he falls, out of the mouth revealing him to be a hairless
man, making Chameleon Jr. realize his dad isn’t who he seems.
This ends the fight with a wholesome scene to
give a timeless reminder that bullies have hidden character depths too as well
as a nice scene from the chameleon family, and the cartoon has the pleasure of ending
with yet another wholesome scene of Carol and K.O.’s great mother-son
bond.Moralities may get confused in the
crossfires, but strong character moments, insightful messages, and creative
twists make this an entertainingly meaningful family-oriented cartoon.
A-
The Ranking
I Am Dendy
Let’s Be Heroes
You’re Everybody’s Sidekick
Jethro’s All Yours
My Dad Can Beat up Your Dad
Let’s Be Friends
We Messed Up
Sibling Rivalry
Do You Have Any More in the Back?
You’re Level 100
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where Enid demonstrates a relatable behavior to people in customer service and an unsatisfied customer responds to this by turning her to stone.
If you would like to check out other OK K.O.! reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.
Spunky
is certainly a really cute dog to watch and Rocko’s love for him is one of this
show’s more heartfelt elements, but you honestly don’t have anything that
interesting to take from him since most of his major appearances have him get
into trouble Rocko has to get him out of.Basically, Spunky is mostly a basic dumb dog as a character, and the
trend continues in this cartoon.
That
said, his dumb moment is certainly out of the ordinary in which he falls in
love with Rocko’s mop.The way Spunky
develops this crush is fairly interesting as he sees the way Rocko uses it
similar to how a romantic couple dance on TV, though it’s also random as
completely unrelated scenes of things like a donut getting dunked, a train, and
toast being buttered are cut inbetween Spunky falling for the mop.How do any of these scenes connect to his
crush?
Anyway, when Spunky finally
reaches the mop and it knocks him out giving him many visions of them going on
a date, it’s pretty cute and funny to see him get this excited over something
like a mop.At the same time, it’s hard
to get too invested since as the cartoon goes on, the story expects the
audience to take Spunky’s crush on the mop seriously, and whether or not this
is just a dog thing, it’s hard to get behind why Spunky should get together
with the mop.Apart from looking like
the romantic couple seen earlier, there is nothing special about the mop at
all, so it’s near impossible to look at Spunky’s love for it as more than what
it really is, a stupid joke only meant to be laughed at.Because of this, when Rocko finds out and
takes the mop away, it’s hard to sympathize with Spunky and root for his
attempts to get it back with little weight or strong reasoning behind him
wanting to be together with it.
Fortunately, the direction the story goes in paints Spunky’s obsession
with the mop as a problem as opposed to putting Rocko in the wrong for wanting
to break them up which is good considering how serious his crush was.Rocko finds an ad for Dr. Katz, a pet
psychologist, who specializes in breaking pets’ unhealthy attachment to
inanimate objects and takes Spunky there to cure his obsession.Following a pretty boring scene in the
waiting room where next to nothing happens, Spunky goes in to see Dr. Katz in a
room where only patients are allowed to go.However, we don’t see the operation Spunky is put through, so when Dr.
Katz comes back with him, saying he appears normal, it’s a little concerning
that Spunky’s lust for that mop is going about untreated after all.That said, there is a humorous twist to the
conflict when Dr. Katz declares that it’s the mop that’s sick which is really a
ploy for him to start dating it himself.
The trained doctor turning out crazy with infatuations is an effective
concluding point since the staging makes his love for it feel way more like a
joke than something serious like with Spunky’s love for it.Also, Spunky himself does end the cartoon
well by going after an actual dog with mop-like fur, so it’s satisfying enough
that this dog saw some sense in the matter…until it’s revealed that he was actually
going for a fire hydrant.At least this
crush makes more sense for a dog.
This
is ultimately one of those cartoons that’s good for a laugh whenever Spunky’s
dumb dog moments aren’t staged as something to feel sympathetic towards.He may not be interesting as a character, but
he is a good one to bring about absurd yet interesting concepts.
B
Unbalanced
Load
Just
as we started this season with a cartoon fitting the norm of the show’s style,
we’re ending it the same way.This cartoon
offers nothing big for the characters or game-changing plot points.It’s an expected antic-driven look at Rocko
taking on one of life’s necessary challenges.That doesn’t make the cartoon any less entertaining.
This is a take on the huge task of doing
laundry which is one my family can really relate to.Rocko’s clothes have piled up and are
starting to smell bad, and right away we get an exaggeration to the importance
of the job when the excessive clothes attack Spunky, prompting Rocko to use a fire
hose of fabric softener stored in a glass case to save him.It’s a highly imaginative way to get across
how daunting managing laundry as well as constantly needing to remember to do
it is.
As you could imagine, the
exaggerations don’t stop there, and they continue the show’s theme that even places
designed to make tasks easier have lots of challenges to deal with coming in
when Rocko goes to the laundromat.Tasks
as simple as getting a machine to accept a dollar to convert to change are big
hassles as it keeps spitting out the bill no matter how hard Rocko irons it
out.Right away, there’s relatability to
the situation in spite of its exaggerations. I’m sure everyone has dealt with a
machine that wouldn’t take dollars at least once.However, the actual washing process has
bigger challenges.
Through a big washing
machine coming alive and coughing up the dirty stuff as Rocko tries to close it
and it getting filled with detergent the way a car is filled with gas, it’s an
imaginative way of showing the difficulties of having to operate the huge
machines that clean your clothes and sheets.
When Rocko gets the machine going, he shows a believable attitude of
having nothing to do while waiting for the clothes to get washed, but given his
luck, even waiting gives him a challenge when the big machine becomes runs
loose.Even if it’s not what most people
deal with when doing laundry, it creatively shows how machines don’t always
work as they should.We also get an
exciting chase as the washing machine drags Rocko by its plug while bouncing
along only stopping when Rocko does a relatable thing to machines that don’t
work, hitting it.
That’s just the
washing process though.The drying has a
lot of gags to it too such as getting Spunky to rush to cool himself after
getting caught in the dryer and getting static cling that attracts all the
clothes in the area.To top it all off,
there’s a huge personification of how clothes sometimes end up with holes when
talking socks take Rocko’s shirt, the only clean thing, down to a secret layer
to give it really big holes.This gag
admittedly happens too fast and doesn’t really need to be here after all the
other ones, but you can still enjoy it for how creative an interpretation it
is as well as its relatable weight unlike otherthings that go too far with ridiculousness.When it all ends, even with a fair
share of what Rocko encountered passing through, there’s an undeniable feeling
of satisfaction of how much laundry got done in spite of the obstacles.With all this said, we close this season with
a cartoon that’s par for the course as looks at modern life go, but the
strengths of all the antics are winning enough to make what we see a satisfying
finale.
A
The Ranking
Popcorn Pandemonium
Cabin Fever
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
Unbalanced Load
Rinse and Spit
Carnival Knowledge
Who’s For Dinner
Keeping Up With the Bigheads
Rocko’s Happy Sack
Sand in Your Navel
Spitballs
No Pain No Gain
Flu-In-U-Enza
Clean Lovin’
Power Trip
Love Spanked
Bedfellows
Leap Frogs
Final Thoughts
For a
slice-of-life show, Rocko’s Modern Life
is one of, if not the most unique shows of that kind.From the first season alone, it astounds with
how it both relates to challenges normal everyday people face in every little thing
they do and stretches the animation medium for creative ways to interpret the
challenges all at once.It can’t be so
easy to do both yet it comes off as consistently
entertaining and a show I can’t get enough of.
As I’ve mentioned
several times throughout these reviews, the main entertainment source is its exaggerations in the challenges that come with every little task
in everyday life.Most slice-of-life
shows feature characters simply doing a relatable task that isn’t too far off
from how people would do them in real life.I’ve seen a few shows of this kind that stand out for the charming approach to them from the perspectives of the characters involved, but the
approaches hardly ever stressed animation’s endless possibilities.With this show, it goes all out with
stretching the imaginations of the people behind this show with antics galore
out of anything in life they can think of.Day-to-day chores such as taking out the trash, vacuuming the living room, going food shopping, doing laundry and so much more are turned into big
adventures or dangerous escapades.They
could feature little sight gags like showing house flies react to certain
states of being or objects coming to life to initiate the cartoon covering the
task.The actual chores also get a lot
of entertainment mileage out of them too tying into a theme where no matter
what you do in life, things can still go wrong.It’s never a matter of being mean to anyone taking them on or
punishment.It’s simply a fact we all
have to deal with.As a result, it’s
easy to enjoy the characters enduring the difficulties of what they do instead
of feeling sorry for them which is also helped by the exaggerations.Through machines that go out of control when
not operated properly, the need to save less intelligent characters from
certain hazards, or believable obstacles to the tasks beyond anyone’s control, each
time Rocko and his friends do something in life is really funny, creatively
staged, and moving at a lively pace.It
even goes beyond life’s important tasks, and can apply to leisure like riding a plane, going to a baseball game or the movies, or ending up snowed in while in
a cabin in the mountains.Above all,
even if the antics are exaggerated, they’re highlights of the series for having
an air of relatability towards them that emphasize the difficulty of doing a
job or enjoying an activity.True, some
antics like giant mutant teeth and meeting sentient half-eaten food that cure
colds are too hard to believe for not really tying into anything relatable, but moments like those are very rare and don’t take away from
the overall strengths of the show’s style.The wild imagery and antics to life’s challenges combined with the usual
air of relatability make this show a good utilization of the art of animation
as a form of entertainment, but also able to make a point.It’s mainly for this reason that this
animated series is able to stand out as something great.
What makes
the comedic life difficulties work are the characters we follow through them
all.They too feel like perfect fits in
this show’s depiction of modern life in several noteworthy ways.Visually, they’re about as wild as the antics
used to represent the many different aspects of life, being anthropomorphic
animals that are either highly unusual for mainstream TV like wallabies, or common
animals with unique designs and color schemes like round yellow green-haired
cows, turtles with fat shells, toads with big heads, etc.
Interesting looks aside, the way the
characters are written is of special mention to how well they work.Rocko himself is mostly an average nice
homeowner, but the craziness that comes with everything he does from necessary
workloads to just hanging out make him interesting enough to follow.Nothing is ever completely easy for Rocko to
get through, and the comedic antics to these things emphasize this concept, yet
Rocko remains positive and friendly through them all despite occasionally snapping when pushed too far, which is often hilarious due to how rare it
is.Plus, even if things mostly go wrong
for him, these instances work because Rocko almost always has a good reason to
be content with his state in the end.
Other characters in the cast seem to be created to enhance the
difficulties Rocko has to put up with, but even then they’re very
enjoyable.Sure you have your shady salesmen or strict instructor, but they’re mostly seen as comedic takes on
people just doing their job.They also
apply to main characters too like Spunky the dog, who’s often too dumb to make
logical decisions, thus bringing on a lot of trouble Rocko has to endure, and
the gluttonous dim-witted steer Heffer, Rocko’s frequent companion who often
gives him ideas that land him in trouble and stands around and eat.Even if they do make life difficult, there’s
still a lot to enjoy from them like Spunky being particularly cute and bringing
out an endearing side to Rocko as he takes care of him, and Heffer showing on
many occasions that he means to be a good friend despite his faults.Plus, they make for some creative story
concepts with Spunky falling for a mop and having a sitcom of bugs on his back,
or Heffer facing the devil for being a glutton or uncovering the truth about his family.
Then there are the Bigheads,
whose starring roles often result in Rocko’s less negative outcomes.Ed’s mean attitude with unwarranted scorn at
his neighbor and Bev’s somewhat seductive moments are often met with karma
working against them via creative and satisfying consequences for their
behavior.It’s a nice interpretation of
how those with the best of attitudes are those who truly prevail in life, even
if there’s challenges to endure along the way.
Other characters like Filburt, Dr. Hutchison, the Chameleon Brothers,
Really Really Big Man, and more, also leave many memorable impressions in their
few appearances which make Rocko’s world all the more lively.They don’t stand out much in this season, but
they leave a lot of promise for development, which they get in the following
seasons.Just as the things Rocko gets
up to when going through life have a wildly imaginative aesthetic to make it
stand out as an animated series, the characters he follows are no different.
After this
thorough analysis of the first season, I can easily say that Rocko’s Modern Life is one of the most
appealing Nickelodeon shows ever created.With premises that effortlessly come off as hilarious and relatable all
at once and identifiable characters to follow all the way through, it pushes
the animation medium several lengths with its antics while also offering the
values you expect in slice-of-life shows.It might not be your thing if you like shows more restrained in
real-life, and that’s fine.However, if
you’re like me and enjoy creative worldviews, this is
definitely a show to track down on your favorite form of media.There’s more to explore from this show, but
for how impressive Season 1 is, all I can say about it is, “That was a Hoot!”
Highly Recommended
This concludes another review set. We'll be sure to look into more of Rocko's Modern Life at a later date, but for now, here's how the review schedule for this blog will go:
