Matt Zimmer (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
matt_zimmer) wrote2012-02-23 08:01 am
matt_zimmer) wrote2012-02-23 08:01 am
Rocko's Modern Life: Season Two Review (Spoilers)
Also reviews for the latest episodes of MAD, The Looney Tunes Show, The Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad, The Cleveland Show, and Napoleon Dynamite.
MAD "Dolphineas And Ferb Tale / Victorious"
Meh. I liked the "What's Wrong With This Picture" segment but that lasted all of fifty seconds. The rest of the episode sucked. Nice to see Teen Titans' Cyborg getting work though. *.
MAD "My Little War Horse / The Tonight Show With Jay Lion-O"
Pretty darn funny. I loved the My Little Pony spoof and we got our second Teen Titans sketch in two weeks in Teen Titanic (which also featured cameos from characters from Batman: The Brave And The Bold and Young Justice). ****.
The Looney Tunes Show "Point, Laser Point"
This was the season finale? They should have come up with something better. Duck Dodgers' second season finale was freakin' epic. I've noticed that this show doesn't mind finally showing some of the character's families or backstories which was a no-no in the old cartoons. Here we met Sylvester's mother and brother and Porky's mom cameoed in the Merrie Melody. I didn't love the episode. ***.
Merrie Melodies "Table For One": Kind of catchy. ***1/2.
Road Runner And Wile E. Coyote "Shut Your Trap": This was cute. I love how the Road Runner eats birdseed. ***1/2.
Episode Overall: ***.
The Simpsons "The Daughter Also Rises"
Am I the only one a little squicked out by how many romances they've given Lisa and Bart recently? Bart is almost understandable but Lisa is freakin' 8. The episode wasn't all that great either. **1/2.
The Simpsons "At Long Last Leave"
This was actually a pretty special episode. They pulled out all of the stops for the 500th. This is the first milestone episode of the show that actually FELT like a milestone episode too. I loved it.
Loved hearing Jackie Mason and Kelsey Grammer again too. Who let Sideshow Bob out of prison?
Classic episode. *****.
Napoleon Dynamite "Pedro vs. Deb"
I didn't like this one because I was completely on Pedro's side here and the episode was trying to make it seem that both he AND Deb had a valid point of view. There was NO excuse for what Deb did. None. I really didn't enjoy this episode. *.
Napoleon Dynamite "Bed Races"
I have always hated Uncle Rico but this episode wasn't too bad. It was actually kind of sweet in places. I love Napoleon and how his inner demons with wrestling with the truth presented themselves in insane ways. ***1/2.
The Cleveland Show "Dirty Dancing 3"
This episode was all kinds of messed up. Best bit was at the end with the audience's mixed reactions to the resolution of the story. Funny stuff. I also loved the subplot of Roberta turning into Donna, especially Federline's reaction. ***1/2.
The Cleveland Show "Brown Magic"
Eh. Not my favorite. Rallo was cute as the dummy but the episode sort of had everyone being jerks to each other. **.
Family Guy "Tom Tucker: The Man And His Dream"
I knew it. I KNEW James Woods survived "And Then There Were Fewer". Woods is SUCH an important part of the show that he has an automatic "get out of death free" card.
I loved the idea of Tom Tucker being in Halloween 4. I also thought his bit on NCIS was hilarious.
They need to tread lightly with Joyce Kinney and Tom. I don't want them to have the same hate/hate dynamic he and Diane Simmons shared.
Funny episode. ****.
Family Guy "Be Careful What You Fish For"
Ricky Gervais is awesome. That is all.
Loved the episode. The dolphin made me laugh a lot. Not much else to report. ****1/2.
American Dad "Wheels & The Legman And The Case Of Grandpa's Key"
A classic. Full stop. The best episode in years. This felt like it could have been made in the show's golden years of seasons two and three. It had the classic unpredictable American Dad plot twists which was made all the more pleasurable as this was the first time in a LONG time that the show was able to surprise me.
I loved Teddy Bonkers and I love how absolutely great Stan turned out to be at playing detective. He actually "got" the idea MUCH more clearly than Roger gave him credit for.
The Klaus as a cute animal part didn't go anywhere but that's just quibbling. The episode was fantastic. *****.
American Dad "Old Stan In The Mountain"
This was a riff on Stephen King's Thinner. To be honest, the Stan stuff kind of bored me but Francine and Roger attending his ex-wife's funeral to collect her hair for his wig was gold. I wish that had been the "A" story. ***1/2.
Rocko's Modern Life: Season Two
This is one of the few Nicktoons I've always wanted to own on DVD. Ren and Stimpy is the other biggie but from what I understand there was a ton of editting on the season sets so I'm going to hold off getting that until John K. actually gets off his butt and releases a definitive edition. Rocko creator Joe Murray is nowhere NEAR as lazy and has delivered a second set as great as the first with the added bonus of some special features.
I was a bit surprised at how funny some of this stuff was. It's the absurdity that gets me every time and this is one of the few shows from the 90's that holds up decently. I love Batman: The Animated Series and Gargoyles as much as the next nerd but both of those cartoons are starting to show their age. Which is weird because Rocko is decidedly NOT designed to be as timeless as BTAS was. It just turned out that the foibles of modern life the show explored still plague us today. Really. All of the horrors the show explores? Nothing has changed or improved since this first aired.
Best episodes are the classic Christmas special Rocko's Modern Christmas, the return of Bloaty and Squirmy (Down the Hatch), and the Ed Bighead bowling spotlight (Gutter Balls) which is suprisingly a bonafide classic for a regular episode. The only two episodes I didn't really care for are the Heffer spotlight Uniform Behavior and the ski resort one. Other than that all of the episodes are terrific. Set Overall: ****1/2.
1. I Have No Son
Sort of an autobiographical episode about the Bighead's cartoonist son named Ralph (!). I was getting a serious Ralph Bakshi vibe which from what I read about the episode seemed coincidental. But Ralph Bighead is actually called R.B. at some point so forgive for reading things into it. The Fatheads were hilarious too. ****1/2.
2. Pipe Dreams / Tickled Pinky
Pipe Dreams: Heffer is absolutely disgusting and I am always torn between being amused and grossed out by him. Either way, as funny as he is, I don't really actually like him. ***1/2.
Tickled Pinky: Surreal episode that made me laugh hard. I love it when the show does crazy stuff like this. ****.
Episode Overall: ****.
3. The Lounge Singer / She's the Toad
The Lounge Singer: I know it was probably out of this show's budget but they should have gotten a name crooner for Philburt's singing voice. They got Robert Goulet for Recess and that country singer for Boomhauer's singing voice on King Of The Hill and I think it would have been MUCH funnier if they had gotten someone famous. ***1/2.
She's the Toad: I was bored by this until Bev started working at Conglom-O. Then the paced picked up. Those nose pickers were absolutely nasty. And hilarious. ***.
Episode Overall: ***1/2.
4. Down the Hatch / Road Rash
Down the Hatch: Bloaty and Squirmy! The exploding pets and germs bit was hilarious and Spunky is easily my favorite character. He is just so adorable and I loved Rocko going insane trying to prevent him from exploding. Speaking of exploding, the exploding cat? That alone makes this episode a classic. Bloaty and Squimy are just icing on the cake. *****.
Road Rash: I absolutely adored those helpful bikers. Love it. ****.
Episode Overall: *****.
5. Boob Tubed / Commuted Sentence
Boob Tubed: I think the nightmare of automatically accidentally purchasing stuff due to machine error is VERY relatable. ****.
Commuted Sentence: I hate Rocko's boss. He is easily the worst portrayal of a comic shop owner in television history. Comic Book Guy should sue him for defamation of character. **1/2.
Episode Overall: ***1/2.
6. Rocko's Modern Christmas
Can't Speeze Cheer From A Cheese Log. A Christmas special! And yes, despite the heartwarming ending it's pretty much as twisted as a regular episode. The last shot of everyone in the nieghborhood throwing out their Christmas trees simultaniously was classic. *****.
7. Hut Sut Raw / Kiss Me I'm Foreign
Hut Sut Raw: I didn't understand the joke at the end of why their camping gear was stolen. The shrews ending was pretty funny though. ***.
Kiss Me I'm Foreign: That giggling deportation clerk was REALLY disturbing to me. I loved Rocko getting married to Philburt and they mined some funny stuff out of the premise. ****.
Episode Overall: ***1/2.
8. Cruisin'
Insane episode. The first half is "normal" but once they get to the Bermuda Triangle it's a surreal nightmare. I always like Grandpa Wolf too. ****.
9. Born to Spawn / Uniform Behavior
Born to Spawn: Hilarious Philburt spotlight. The episode's only real problem is that due to the fact that this is a kids show they couldn't actually outright state what was going on. It was still funny to see Philburt in that seventies get-up and the idea that once everybody mated they became schlubs like Filburt again was awesome. ****1/2.
Uniform Behavior: I still don't like Heffer and an episode like this makes it easy to dislike him. Loved the nods to The Shining though. **.
10. Hair Licked / Gutter Balls
I loved the cartoon but I hated Heffer during it. He screws everything up. Those lizards giving Rocko various weird hairstyles were hysterical. ****.
Gutter Balls: The only Rocko cartoon I've ever loved more than this was the one where Spunky fell in love with a mop. This was GENIUS and the last gag of Rocko shyly saying that since he KNEW how much the trophy meant to Mr. Bighead... that he would keep it by his window facing Ed's house slayed me. I was laughing for a good ten minutes after that. *****.
Episode Overall: *****.
11. Junk Junkies / Day of the Flecko
Junk Junkies: Hate Heffer, loved the rest of the episode. ****.
Day Of The Flecko: How funny was it that Flecko's apartment rested in a giant turd? ****1/2.
Episode Overall: ****.
12. Snowballs / Frog's Best Friend
Snowballs: Even by Heffer standards the steer was beyond obnoxious. Didn't like this one. *1/2.
Frog's Best Friend: I think Earl works as an antagnonist of Rocko better than Mr. Bighead because with Rocko you have someone to root for. By the end I just wanted Earl and Ed to wind up killing each other. And yes, Earl ate and killed his fairy dogmother. ***.
Episode Overall: **.
13. Short Story / Eyes Capades
Short Story: The good: the return of Really Really Big Man. The bad: Everything else. But to be honest, Reallly Really Big Man makes up for a LOT. ***.
Eyes Capades: Excellent episode about Rocko getting glasses. I loved Philburt reciting all of the good things about glasses which turned out to be nothing. ****1/2.
Episode Overall: ****.
"Trash-O-Madness" original pilot version:
You know when you look at the original pilots to both The Simpsons and Family Guy they are so bad they are embarrassing but this is high quality stuff. It's easy to see why with only minor changes this actually made it on the air. The animation is a bit choppy in places but the style is nailed from the start. About as good as Ren and Stimpy's "Big House Blues" and Batman: The Animated Series' "The Dark Knight's First Knight". *****.
Behind the Characters with Joe Murray:
These are drawing tutorials from Joe Murray's blog. He also goes into how he created each character. Overall: *****.
Rocko: As Murray notes cartoon creaters often wind up unable to draw their characters on-model after animators have spent several years refining the character styles. *****.
Heffer: I would not have liked to have met the real-life inspiration for Heffer. ****1/2.
Philburt: I liked how Murray desribed Philburt's personality and I love that he talked about the episode where he married Dr. Hutchison. *****.
The Bigheads: Best of the tutorials because he talks about casting Charlie Adler and his hilarious woman's smoker's voice, his neighbors growing up who were the inspiration for Ed and Bev and the banned episode from season one. For the record, the banned episode showed up uneditted on the season one DVD set. *****.
DVD Menu Disc 1: With Rocko and Spunky. ****.
DVD Menu Disc 2: With Heffer and Philburt. ****.
MAD "Dolphineas And Ferb Tale / Victorious"
Meh. I liked the "What's Wrong With This Picture" segment but that lasted all of fifty seconds. The rest of the episode sucked. Nice to see Teen Titans' Cyborg getting work though. *.
MAD "My Little War Horse / The Tonight Show With Jay Lion-O"
Pretty darn funny. I loved the My Little Pony spoof and we got our second Teen Titans sketch in two weeks in Teen Titanic (which also featured cameos from characters from Batman: The Brave And The Bold and Young Justice). ****.
The Looney Tunes Show "Point, Laser Point"
This was the season finale? They should have come up with something better. Duck Dodgers' second season finale was freakin' epic. I've noticed that this show doesn't mind finally showing some of the character's families or backstories which was a no-no in the old cartoons. Here we met Sylvester's mother and brother and Porky's mom cameoed in the Merrie Melody. I didn't love the episode. ***.
Merrie Melodies "Table For One": Kind of catchy. ***1/2.
Road Runner And Wile E. Coyote "Shut Your Trap": This was cute. I love how the Road Runner eats birdseed. ***1/2.
Episode Overall: ***.
The Simpsons "The Daughter Also Rises"
Am I the only one a little squicked out by how many romances they've given Lisa and Bart recently? Bart is almost understandable but Lisa is freakin' 8. The episode wasn't all that great either. **1/2.
The Simpsons "At Long Last Leave"
This was actually a pretty special episode. They pulled out all of the stops for the 500th. This is the first milestone episode of the show that actually FELT like a milestone episode too. I loved it.
Loved hearing Jackie Mason and Kelsey Grammer again too. Who let Sideshow Bob out of prison?
Classic episode. *****.
Napoleon Dynamite "Pedro vs. Deb"
I didn't like this one because I was completely on Pedro's side here and the episode was trying to make it seem that both he AND Deb had a valid point of view. There was NO excuse for what Deb did. None. I really didn't enjoy this episode. *.
Napoleon Dynamite "Bed Races"
I have always hated Uncle Rico but this episode wasn't too bad. It was actually kind of sweet in places. I love Napoleon and how his inner demons with wrestling with the truth presented themselves in insane ways. ***1/2.
The Cleveland Show "Dirty Dancing 3"
This episode was all kinds of messed up. Best bit was at the end with the audience's mixed reactions to the resolution of the story. Funny stuff. I also loved the subplot of Roberta turning into Donna, especially Federline's reaction. ***1/2.
The Cleveland Show "Brown Magic"
Eh. Not my favorite. Rallo was cute as the dummy but the episode sort of had everyone being jerks to each other. **.
Family Guy "Tom Tucker: The Man And His Dream"
I knew it. I KNEW James Woods survived "And Then There Were Fewer". Woods is SUCH an important part of the show that he has an automatic "get out of death free" card.
I loved the idea of Tom Tucker being in Halloween 4. I also thought his bit on NCIS was hilarious.
They need to tread lightly with Joyce Kinney and Tom. I don't want them to have the same hate/hate dynamic he and Diane Simmons shared.
Funny episode. ****.
Family Guy "Be Careful What You Fish For"
Ricky Gervais is awesome. That is all.
Loved the episode. The dolphin made me laugh a lot. Not much else to report. ****1/2.
American Dad "Wheels & The Legman And The Case Of Grandpa's Key"
A classic. Full stop. The best episode in years. This felt like it could have been made in the show's golden years of seasons two and three. It had the classic unpredictable American Dad plot twists which was made all the more pleasurable as this was the first time in a LONG time that the show was able to surprise me.
I loved Teddy Bonkers and I love how absolutely great Stan turned out to be at playing detective. He actually "got" the idea MUCH more clearly than Roger gave him credit for.
The Klaus as a cute animal part didn't go anywhere but that's just quibbling. The episode was fantastic. *****.
American Dad "Old Stan In The Mountain"
This was a riff on Stephen King's Thinner. To be honest, the Stan stuff kind of bored me but Francine and Roger attending his ex-wife's funeral to collect her hair for his wig was gold. I wish that had been the "A" story. ***1/2.
Rocko's Modern Life: Season Two
This is one of the few Nicktoons I've always wanted to own on DVD. Ren and Stimpy is the other biggie but from what I understand there was a ton of editting on the season sets so I'm going to hold off getting that until John K. actually gets off his butt and releases a definitive edition. Rocko creator Joe Murray is nowhere NEAR as lazy and has delivered a second set as great as the first with the added bonus of some special features.
I was a bit surprised at how funny some of this stuff was. It's the absurdity that gets me every time and this is one of the few shows from the 90's that holds up decently. I love Batman: The Animated Series and Gargoyles as much as the next nerd but both of those cartoons are starting to show their age. Which is weird because Rocko is decidedly NOT designed to be as timeless as BTAS was. It just turned out that the foibles of modern life the show explored still plague us today. Really. All of the horrors the show explores? Nothing has changed or improved since this first aired.
Best episodes are the classic Christmas special Rocko's Modern Christmas, the return of Bloaty and Squirmy (Down the Hatch), and the Ed Bighead bowling spotlight (Gutter Balls) which is suprisingly a bonafide classic for a regular episode. The only two episodes I didn't really care for are the Heffer spotlight Uniform Behavior and the ski resort one. Other than that all of the episodes are terrific. Set Overall: ****1/2.
1. I Have No Son
Sort of an autobiographical episode about the Bighead's cartoonist son named Ralph (!). I was getting a serious Ralph Bakshi vibe which from what I read about the episode seemed coincidental. But Ralph Bighead is actually called R.B. at some point so forgive for reading things into it. The Fatheads were hilarious too. ****1/2.
2. Pipe Dreams / Tickled Pinky
Pipe Dreams: Heffer is absolutely disgusting and I am always torn between being amused and grossed out by him. Either way, as funny as he is, I don't really actually like him. ***1/2.
Tickled Pinky: Surreal episode that made me laugh hard. I love it when the show does crazy stuff like this. ****.
Episode Overall: ****.
3. The Lounge Singer / She's the Toad
The Lounge Singer: I know it was probably out of this show's budget but they should have gotten a name crooner for Philburt's singing voice. They got Robert Goulet for Recess and that country singer for Boomhauer's singing voice on King Of The Hill and I think it would have been MUCH funnier if they had gotten someone famous. ***1/2.
She's the Toad: I was bored by this until Bev started working at Conglom-O. Then the paced picked up. Those nose pickers were absolutely nasty. And hilarious. ***.
Episode Overall: ***1/2.
4. Down the Hatch / Road Rash
Down the Hatch: Bloaty and Squirmy! The exploding pets and germs bit was hilarious and Spunky is easily my favorite character. He is just so adorable and I loved Rocko going insane trying to prevent him from exploding. Speaking of exploding, the exploding cat? That alone makes this episode a classic. Bloaty and Squimy are just icing on the cake. *****.
Road Rash: I absolutely adored those helpful bikers. Love it. ****.
Episode Overall: *****.
5. Boob Tubed / Commuted Sentence
Boob Tubed: I think the nightmare of automatically accidentally purchasing stuff due to machine error is VERY relatable. ****.
Commuted Sentence: I hate Rocko's boss. He is easily the worst portrayal of a comic shop owner in television history. Comic Book Guy should sue him for defamation of character. **1/2.
Episode Overall: ***1/2.
6. Rocko's Modern Christmas
Can't Speeze Cheer From A Cheese Log. A Christmas special! And yes, despite the heartwarming ending it's pretty much as twisted as a regular episode. The last shot of everyone in the nieghborhood throwing out their Christmas trees simultaniously was classic. *****.
7. Hut Sut Raw / Kiss Me I'm Foreign
Hut Sut Raw: I didn't understand the joke at the end of why their camping gear was stolen. The shrews ending was pretty funny though. ***.
Kiss Me I'm Foreign: That giggling deportation clerk was REALLY disturbing to me. I loved Rocko getting married to Philburt and they mined some funny stuff out of the premise. ****.
Episode Overall: ***1/2.
8. Cruisin'
Insane episode. The first half is "normal" but once they get to the Bermuda Triangle it's a surreal nightmare. I always like Grandpa Wolf too. ****.
9. Born to Spawn / Uniform Behavior
Born to Spawn: Hilarious Philburt spotlight. The episode's only real problem is that due to the fact that this is a kids show they couldn't actually outright state what was going on. It was still funny to see Philburt in that seventies get-up and the idea that once everybody mated they became schlubs like Filburt again was awesome. ****1/2.
Uniform Behavior: I still don't like Heffer and an episode like this makes it easy to dislike him. Loved the nods to The Shining though. **.
10. Hair Licked / Gutter Balls
I loved the cartoon but I hated Heffer during it. He screws everything up. Those lizards giving Rocko various weird hairstyles were hysterical. ****.
Gutter Balls: The only Rocko cartoon I've ever loved more than this was the one where Spunky fell in love with a mop. This was GENIUS and the last gag of Rocko shyly saying that since he KNEW how much the trophy meant to Mr. Bighead... that he would keep it by his window facing Ed's house slayed me. I was laughing for a good ten minutes after that. *****.
Episode Overall: *****.
11. Junk Junkies / Day of the Flecko
Junk Junkies: Hate Heffer, loved the rest of the episode. ****.
Day Of The Flecko: How funny was it that Flecko's apartment rested in a giant turd? ****1/2.
Episode Overall: ****.
12. Snowballs / Frog's Best Friend
Snowballs: Even by Heffer standards the steer was beyond obnoxious. Didn't like this one. *1/2.
Frog's Best Friend: I think Earl works as an antagnonist of Rocko better than Mr. Bighead because with Rocko you have someone to root for. By the end I just wanted Earl and Ed to wind up killing each other. And yes, Earl ate and killed his fairy dogmother. ***.
Episode Overall: **.
13. Short Story / Eyes Capades
Short Story: The good: the return of Really Really Big Man. The bad: Everything else. But to be honest, Reallly Really Big Man makes up for a LOT. ***.
Eyes Capades: Excellent episode about Rocko getting glasses. I loved Philburt reciting all of the good things about glasses which turned out to be nothing. ****1/2.
Episode Overall: ****.
"Trash-O-Madness" original pilot version:
You know when you look at the original pilots to both The Simpsons and Family Guy they are so bad they are embarrassing but this is high quality stuff. It's easy to see why with only minor changes this actually made it on the air. The animation is a bit choppy in places but the style is nailed from the start. About as good as Ren and Stimpy's "Big House Blues" and Batman: The Animated Series' "The Dark Knight's First Knight". *****.
Behind the Characters with Joe Murray:
These are drawing tutorials from Joe Murray's blog. He also goes into how he created each character. Overall: *****.
Rocko: As Murray notes cartoon creaters often wind up unable to draw their characters on-model after animators have spent several years refining the character styles. *****.
Heffer: I would not have liked to have met the real-life inspiration for Heffer. ****1/2.
Philburt: I liked how Murray desribed Philburt's personality and I love that he talked about the episode where he married Dr. Hutchison. *****.
The Bigheads: Best of the tutorials because he talks about casting Charlie Adler and his hilarious woman's smoker's voice, his neighbors growing up who were the inspiration for Ed and Bev and the banned episode from season one. For the record, the banned episode showed up uneditted on the season one DVD set. *****.
DVD Menu Disc 1: With Rocko and Spunky. ****.
DVD Menu Disc 2: With Heffer and Philburt. ****.