Thursday, December 1, 2022

One Size Fits Ed / Pain in the Ed - (Ed Edd n Eddy Season 4 Episode 3) - 'Toon Reviews 52

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 TwitterNow on with today's review:

One Size Fits Ed

Whatever happens with the Eds’ scams, they still have potential to be executed to an entertaining degree, and more often than not they are.  This is the case for this cartoon where the scam in question is imaginative and out-of-the-ordinary to say the least as the comedy comes from how the different Eds go about it.  

It begins with a wishing well scam that looks very convincing where it appears deep and authentic, but the appearance is just an optical illusion hiding how shallow it really is.  The well’s appearance easily manages to fool Jimmy with a clear motivation to become a star, something that’s only been explored once in the past.  After seeing him fall for the well, the Eds’ different points of view on things start becoming clear.  Eddy only cares about the money they managed to get while Double D expects him to have taken notes on how the well looked so convincing.  While Double D’s philosophy on the brain being fooled by what the eye perceives is true, it’s natural that he doesn’t get that the whole point was getting money.  Eddy doesn’t care for the lesson, but does have the right idea to make Jimmy’s wish come true to hold up the believability of the scam.  

Then Ed comes in with a truly out-of-the-norm getup where he acts as a sumo wrestler, and he really owns the role through his active state and uttering of fighting sounds.  With that, the Eds have a basis to make Jimmy’s wish of stardom come true.  It should be said that it can feel jarring to see him act all innocent and hopeful about his wish when he was portrayed as very despicable in the season premiere.  

Anyway, he’s suddenly whisked into a diaper and put on an intense road to stardom courtesy of the Eds.  It’s naturally overwhelming for young Jimmy, but the idea of being a star out of this makes the ordeal worth a try in his eyes.  The first order of business is having Jimmy look the part by having him eat a lot, and Jimmy himself happens to have a huge stock of peaches and cream.  There’s an exciting montage of getting that entire supply of food into him, and by the end of it, Jimmy has the appearance of a full-fledged sumo wrestler.  Seeing him so obese brings the impression that he’s lost all hope of stardom, but he is easily convinced that becoming a sumo wrestler means becoming a star.  He does seem to be majorly inconvenienced since he’s so fat he can’t move, but at least in Eddy’s mind, he has the means to reach great fame anyhow.  Even when immobile, Jimmy wins a practice round between him and Ed who ends up in his huge mass of flesh and is flung out.  

This doesn’t solve other issues with Jimmy’s obesity, but Eddy still believes he can find success, until Double D mentions that sumo wrestlers only receive great fame in Japan.  With that, the next move is to get Jimmy there as Eddy utilizes some very wild attempts that each with a realistic outcome.  He tries mailing Jimmy to Japan, but not only does the mailbox break when Jimmy’s stuffed in, but Eddy learns he would have had to pay $200 to ship the obese child.  

Then Eddy and Ed plan to fling Jimmy to Japan with their own catapult made from a street lamp.  This move proves to be the most misguided one of all where when Jimmy is flung, he doesn’t get very far at all no matter how grand the plan was staged to be earlier.  In the end, Eddy, Ed, and Jimmy are humiliated with the former 2 in all body casts and the latter in an intense exercise program to lose all his weight.  Despite that, Eddy still has a mind for scams, proving his perception of life as misguided as ever.  

Thanks to execution through use of character and creative concepts, there’s solid entertainment to come from this misguidedness.

 A-

Pain in the Ed

Looking at the nature of how the Eds go about their routine, it’s actually more complex than simply getting money from kids so they can get jawbreakers.  A lot of their attempts also involve getting respect and popularity, although as usual, they can come off as misguided in the end.  This is made clear at the start of this cartoon where Eddy believes people will think he’s mature by showing off armpit hair which is really just pieces of carpet glued to his pits.  Nobody buys his act, and he’s made to look foolish when trying to be mature.  While the following subject seems very disconnected, it does have something slightly in common with the idea of maturity.  

As an example of Ed’s unfortunate and downright abusive treatment from his own family, he shows up with a violin he has to practice playing.  Right from his expression and mood, he was clearly forced into it and is clearly unhappy.  It’s an unhealthy showing of his relationship with his family where he has to play it to avoid their scorn.  Nevertheless, he goes along with it the best he can while his friends share their views on Ed having to play the violin.  While Double D is moved by Ed practicing an instrument of class and sophistication, Eddy sees violins as being for ‘sissies’ and that Ed should get rid of it.  

Whatever his friends’ views are about violins, there’s one other big point against Ed playing it; he isn’t good at playing it as he produces more noise than actual music.  He does put in the effort, but since he never achieves good results no matter how much he practices, there’s a major unfairness over him being forced into this.  Along with Double D protecting his ears from Eds’ violin playing despite how much he likes the instrument, this makes Eddy seem in the right for wanting to get rid of it.  It seems like Double D is with him as he suggests staging an accident to make it seem like it wouldn’t be Ed’s fault if the violin was destroyed.  However, every time it seems like they’re alone so Eddy can destroy it, they turn out to be spotted by Jimmy who can easily rat out what they did to Sarah.  

Eventually, they come up with an elaborately staged accident where they have Ed practice in a target below their interpretation of the Statue of Liberty.  It being in the center of the cul-de-sac in front of everyone definitely seems like enough to make it look like the violin’s potential destruction is not their fault.  There’s even an amusing Rube Goldberg device out of this involving a stretch of chewed gum, scarring Jonny, and using him to catapult a bowling ball through a funnel.  It’s big on creativity and staging all in the name of destroying a violin.  

What’s more, the sequence has a twist where Double D, who came up with the stunt, sabotages the plan where a pig who’s eaten a magnet moves Ed’s sheet music stand.  By doing this, the violin is saved from harm much to Eddy’s frustration all because Double D couldn’t forsake his love for the sophisticated musical instrument.  It’s after this though when there’s another twist to audience expectations where in an attempt to save the violin from Eddy, Double D is the one to break it with a trip.  As he mourns the loss while Eddy celebrates it, there is a legit cause for worry on Ed’s part.  For his sake though, it’s good that he’s able to convince Sarah he’s practicing by substituting Eddy’s hairs for violin strings.  

It’s all well-executed entertainment of the daily lives of the Eds as they tackle attempts at improving their reputation and the antics that come with them swiftly escalate.

A

Series Ranking

1.      An Ed is Born

2.      One + One = Ed

3.      The Day the Ed Stood Still

4.      A Glass of Warm Ed

5.      It Came from Outer Ed

6.      Rent-A-Ed

7.      Once Upon an Ed

8.      Fa La La La Ed

9.      Urban Ed

10.  Ed…Pass it On

11.  Laugh Ed Laugh

12.  Dawn of the Eds

13.  Don’t Rain on My Ed

14.  Wish You Were Ed

15.  Dueling Eds

16.  Mirror, Mirror On the Ed

17.  Gimme, Gimme Never Ed

18.  Ed-N-Seek

19.  Keeping Up With the Eds

20.  Who Let the Ed In

21.  Avast Ye Eds

22.  Flea Bitten Ed

23.  Fool on the Ed

24.  Ready Set Ed

25.  The Ed-Touchables

26.  Who What Where Ed

27.  Dear Ed

28.  Momma’s Little Ed

29.  Brother, Can You Spare an Ed?

30.  Hot Buttered Ed

31.  Ed or Tails

32.  Stop Look and Ed

33.  See No Ed

34.  Shoo Ed

35.  Rock-a-Bye Ed

36.  Ed in a Halfshell

37.  Scrambled Ed

38.  Pain in the Ed

39.  O-Ed Eleven

40.  Vert Ed Go

41.  Oath to an Ed

42.  Ed, Ed, and Away

43.  Button Yer Ed

44.  An Ed in the Bush

45.  Read All About Ed

46.  Rambling Ed

47.  Home Cooked Ed

48.  Honor Thy Ed

49.  Floss Your Ed

50.  Quick Shot Ed

51.  Look Into My Eds

52.  The Luck of the Ed

53.  Is There An Ed in the House?

54.  Knock, Knock Who’s Ed

55.  A Boy and His Ed

56.  Eds-Aggerate

57.  Three Squares and an Ed

58.  One Size Fits Ed

59.  Will Work for Ed

60.  Boys Will Be Eds

61.  High Heeled Ed

62.  Know-it-All Ed

63.  For Your Ed Only

64.  Dim Lit Ed

65.  Cry Ed

66.  Eeny Meeny Miney Ed

67.  A Pinch to Grow an Ed

68.  Pop Goes the Ed

69.  Hands Across Ed

70.  An Ed Too Many

71.  Sir Ed-a-Lot

72.  Over Your Ed

73.  From Here to Ed

74.  A Key to My Ed

75.  Once Bitten Twice Ed

76.  X Marks the Ed

77.  It’s Way Ed

78.  In Like Ed

79.  My Fair Ed

80.  To Sir With Ed

81.  Nagged to Ed

82.  Tag Yer Ed

83.  If it Smells Like an Ed

The next review follows Eddy and Double D team up with the Urban Rangers to rescue Ed from the Kanker sisters, and there's a fun challenge of the neighborhood kids trying to retrieve a quarter stuck on the sidewalk.

Next time is the Amphibia Christmas special, "Froggy Little Christmas."

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

Sunday, November 27, 2022

Hollywood Hop Pop / If You Give a Frog a Cookie - (Amphibia Season 3 Episode 8) - 'Toon Reviews 53

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 TwitterNow on with today's review:

Hollywood Hop Pop

After showing something as incredibly dark as possession in the previous outing, going into this cartoon will probably not be so easy for most audience members.  It returns to Earth for even more antics from Anne taking care of the Plantars, and the human world customs the talking frogs are introduced to.  Even as these factors can’t help but hold this cartoon back, it’s not without merit in terms of premise.  

For one thing it does play to an established aspect of one of the major characters.  In this case, it’s Hop Pop who’s always aspired to be an actor, and since he’s with Anne, who lives in California, that means being near Hollywood where opportunities for that persist.  Much like the last starring role for Anne and the Plantars, Anne is very responsible for how they go about this lavish tourist site by making sure of keeping low profiles.  She even directly references the FBI agent currently after them, Mr. X, bringing specific things they’re dealing with to light.  

Despite her warnings, Hop Pop’s desires eventually lead him to an audition which he ultimately lands not by his acting skills but by being his genuine self.  He reacts to how the judges rate his acting by simply exclaiming “Say what?” and that instantly lands him the part.  In the process, he meets a short man named Humphrey who looks a lot like him and has similar acting desires, hoping this audition would be his big break.  It’s very remarkable that he takes losing it to Hop Pop very well.  

Now, the thing Hop Pop auditioned for was a commercial for elbow cream, which means that it airs on TV very frequently, making it easy for people to see.  Anne is understandably outraged by this, knowing this goes against the plan of keeping a low profile, and insists that they get the commercial pulled.  If that’s not enough, in spite of claims that Mr. X is a man too busy to watch TV, he does happen to catch Hop Pop’s commercial and sets off after the frog aliens again.  

At this point, while Hop Pop’s acting desires have been clear for a while throughout the show, it’s kind of concerning that he’d bring all this on himself and jarring for a character known to be so protective.  Plus, it’s hard to believe that something as minor as elbow cream would get so much inescapable publicity that also lands Hop Pop the possibility of an even bigger acting deal.  As Hop Pop contemplates accepting the deal, Mr. X soon catches them, leading to a chase through studio lots marked by humorous runs through various sets.  

Eventually, he ends up in the director’s office where he’s to accept the offer which is only going to further jeopardize his and his grandkids’ safety.  However, he does find a way to solve the problem at hand after learning Humphrey’s in a lower position than him stuck as a common custodian.  As he bears a strong resemblance to him, Hop Pop decides to let Humphrey take his place.  When Mr. X intervenes, he’s once again humiliated for supposedly mistaking someone else for talking frogs.  What’s more, it’s nice for him to give up his acting aspiration for someone else, especially for someone as likable as Humphrey.  

With this, it’s clear this cartoon has good heart despite any flaws.  It’s still held back for the fact that for how much this show references Hop Pop wanting to be an actor, it doesn’t lead to anything big to the story, and there are bigger priorities as it is.  This means this final product is far from the show’s most memorable and impactful, but nonetheless fine and commendable for what it is.

B

If You Give a Frog a Cookie

One of the best things about this season so far have been the many new human characters.  The ones that stand out the most are those that play an active role in assisting in the goals of the main protagonists.  This cartoon follows up on that promise with one of the characters it introduces while also allowing Anne to learn a valuable lesson.  

Having grown and matured a lot at this point in the series, Anne has developed a strong sense of care in looking after the Plantars as they did for her.  In fact, her major priorities here are doing whatever she can to cheer them up while they’re homesick from their world from making her yard feel like a swamp to making them cookies.  Her mom, however, warns her of overindulging the Plantars’ sadness as that could lead to problems that can be too inconveniencing for others.  Anne actually does understand this and tries to implement this lesson right away.  

Then things get complicated when she gets a call from Dr. Jan who’s heard of a scientist who specializes in portals which can help the Plantars return to Amphibia.  The only catch is that the background of this scientist is questionable and needs to be investigated.  Although Anne intends to do the patient thing, seeing the Plantars get their hopes up pushes her to see the scientist right now anyway.  

This leads the group to a local science center laden with fun interactive exhibits and hyperactive little kids craving snacks.  Before long, they find the scientist in question, Dr. Frakes, as well as her assistant, a more responsible and rational girl named Terri.  

Anyway, it seems that Dr. Frakes is a reliable cause for getting a working portal as she has clear resources for her studies.  They came to her one night of a strange supernatural occurrence causing a slight disturbance in the atmosphere; that occurrence being the night Anne and her friends opened the music box that sent them to Amphibia in the first place; them and a portable CD player that randomly showed up there one time.  Anyway, ever since then, Dr. Frakes has devoted months to her portal experiment, and is now ready to test it out.  When that happens, the portal proves successful in opening the portal, albeit not to Amphibia.  

Said portal also ends up blowing off the Plantars’ disguises, and Dr. Frakes soon discovers that they’re talking frogs from another world.  It’s here where her true nature is revealed as an unhinged intellectual lunatic willing to hurt others to prove her knowledge.  She catches the Plantars in a force field and takes them to be dissected.  

Now understanding the lesson about the dangers of overindulging others, Anne has to dash to save the Plantars.  However, she gets some welcome help from Terri who maturely explains that Dr. Frakes’ intellect doesn’t excuse her going this far.  What’s more, she’s very formidable in getting around the science center to stop Dr. Frakes.  She uses the little kids’ desires for snacks to clear the way. This is even passed on to Anne later on who puts her cookies to good use to help keep the kids back. Terri also shows no hesitation in throwing away her connection to a famous scientist to do what’s right; she manages to save the Plantars, but is fired from the center and apparently any other scientific institute as a result.  Luckily, despite these consequences, she’s content and confident about the future, and agrees to keep helping Anne and the Plantars in a more patient process of building a portal.  These are the makings of a likable character, enhancing the appeal of this area of the story.  

As a result, this cartoon is a good fit for the main plot points and is great and endearing on its own.

A

Fan Art



Series Ranking

1.      True Colors

2.      Hopping Mall

3.      Reunion

4.      Marcy at the Gates

5.      Anne-sterminator

6.      Olivia and Yunan

7.      Toad Tax

8.      The First Temple

9.      Turning Point

10.  Battle of the Bands

11.  Barrel’s Warhammer

12.  Anne vs Wild

13.  The Domino Effect

14.  The Third Temple

15.  Toadcatcher

16.  Prison Break

17.  The Second Temple

18.  Temple Frogs

19.  A Day at the Aquarium

20.  Mr. X

21.  Anne of the Year

22.  Contagi-Anne

23.  The Shut-In

24.  Best Fronds

25.  After the Rain

26.  Family Shrub

27.  Fixing Frobo

28.  If You Give a Frog a Cookie

29.  The New Normal

30.  The Dinner

31.  Hop-Popular

32.  Anne Hunter

33.  Wally and Anne

34.  Children of the Spore

35.  Fight at the Museum

36.  Friend or Frobo

37.  Sprig’s Birthday

38.  A Night at the Inn

39.  Bessie and MicroAngelo

40.  Handy Anne

41.  Scavenger Hunt

42.  Lily Pad Thai

43.  Dating Season

44.  Anne or Beast?

45.  Combat Camp

46.  Little Frogtown

47.  Cursed!

48.  Thai Feud

49.  Snow Day

50.  Civil Wart

51.  Maddie and Marcy

52.  Stakeout

53.  Croak and Punishment

54.  Taking Charge

55.  Flood, Sweat, and Tears

56.  Bizarre Bazaar

57.  The Plantars Check In

58.  The Sleepover to End All Sleepovers

59.  Wax Museum

60.  Return to Wartwood

61.  Sprig Gets Schooled

62.  Swamp and Sensibility

63.  Trip to the Archives

64.  Toad to Redemption

65.  Anne Theft Auto

66.  Adventures in Catsitting

67.  Hop Luck

68.  New Wartwood

69.  Ivy on the Run

70.  Night Drivers

71.  Quarreler’s Pass

72.  Hop Pop and Lock

73.  Plantar’s Last Stand

74.  Fort in the Road

75.  A Caravan Named Desire

76.  The Big Bugball Game

77.  Fiddle Me This

78.  Hollywood Hop Pop

79.  Truck Stop Polly

80.  Family Fishing Trip

81.  Hop ‘Til You Drop

82.  Spider-Sprig

83.  The Ballad of Hoppediah Plantar

84.  Girl Time

85.  Breakout Star

86.  Grubhog Day

87.  Cane Crazy

88.  Lost in Newtopia

89.  Sprig vs Hop Pop

90.  Cracking Mrs. Croaker

The next review is a very timely look at the Christmas special of this show where Anne puts together the perfect gift for her mom, the Plantars try to understand the holiday, and there's still room for significant plot development.

Next time is "One Size Fits Ed" and "Pain in the Ed" from Ed Edd n Eddy, the last secular review for 2022.

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