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Gravity Falls: Fight Fighters
Reviewed: 10/22/2017
Mabeldoken~!
Oh; here we go again: After being challenged to a fight by Wendy's boyfriend Robbie, Dipper is shocked when his favorite Fight Fighters fighter, Rumble McSkirmish, comes to life to defend him, but Dipper soon loses control of Rumble and has to find a way to stop him from seriously injuring Robbie. So yeah; the Wendy/Dipper angle must continue. So, how does this episode fare? Let's rant on shall we...?!
Fight Fighters is written by Zach Paez and Old Man McGucket. Storyboards were done by Erik Fountain and Mark Gracia; while direction is done by John Aoshima. Animation is done by Digital Emation Inc.
Episode opened with a shot of the town of Gravity Falls BEFORE HAPPY HOUR (Sunset) at a cornerside arcade as we head inside with Soos, Stan and Mabel wearing a white sweater with a clover leaf on it. Soos is basically showing off arcade games and making claims that video games taught him what real life is all about. Somehow; I'm not surprised by that revealation. So we are shown parodies of Pac-Man, Frogger and Dance Dance Revolution as Old Man McGucket gets his contracted ten second appearance dancing around like a complete joke. Oh wait...Soos notices the things unplugged and the machine is out of order. I love how the most physical game is out of order and Old Man McGucket don't care at all. Speaking of funny; there is an Insert Token machine; in which Stan inserts one, and he wins....nothing. HAHA! Stan is not amused; and this is the best arcade machine ever. Cut to inside a closed off room with out of order machines as Dipper and Wendy are playing a parody fighting game called Fight Fighters. It's basically Street Fighter Alpha 2 with contrived voice acting. Which is fitting in the 1990's. See Mega Man 8. The arena here is very typical of a Japanese fighting game: Very colorful and detail-oriented. Also; extremely heavy on Japanese culture too. So it's Rumble McSkirmish (The Ken Masters of this game) against Doctor Karate (who looks like a cross between M. Bison and Guile) and this ends in fifteen seconds with Rumble winning (Dipper of course); as it ends with a "Winners Don't Lose" because we cannot have an anti-drug PSA, due to them not working and the industry being accused of selling the drug known as video games. Don't blame me for that; look at the video game culture nowadays. Wendy accuses Dipper of cheating and Dipper tells her to take it back; sounding like Rumble. Time for round two as Dipper and Wendy simply ignore each other and try to kill the referee in the background. Nothing happens as we see Robbie putting up a poster called "Robbie V & The Tombstones". Wait; so Rob Van Dam wanted to be the Undertaker? We also get our second death reference of the episode barely a minute in.
Robbie turns around and notices Wendy and Dipper playing the fighting game as he comes up from behind like a dude bro and makes small talk with Wendy...AGAIN! Okay; now I'm pissed off at this because the feud between Robbie and Dipper should be over now. Robbie claims that he's only putting up posters for his new band, since he's the lead guitar player of said band; as Dipper accuses him of wearing makeup. Robbie claims that it's eye paint for men. Oh by the way; since Rumble did in fact speak during the fight; Rumble McSkirmish is voiced by Brian Bloom and according to Wikipedia (DANGER! DANGER!): Bloom was born in Merrick, New York, the brother of producer/actor Scott Bloom and musician Mike Bloom. Bloom had an early interest in acting, including appearing in several commercials as a child, but made his big break in the Sergio Leone film Once Upon a Time in America. From there, he was offered the role of Dusty Donovan in the hit soap opera As the World Turns, which he played for several years. During that run, Bloom became the youngest winner of a Daytime Emmy Award in the category of Outstanding Young Leading Man during the 12th Daytime Emmy Awards show for his performance on the series. Despite his success, he soon grew tired of the scheduling involved in that field and eventually left the series to star in several television movies and myriad guest appearances. After leaving the soap opera, Bloom starred in several made-for-television films with teen subjects, including Crash Course (1988), Dance 'til Dawn (1988) and Desperate for Love (1989). This opened his appeal to later roles, which would include spots in Melrose Place, 2000 Malibu Road, CSI: Miami, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Drive and HBO's Oz. Bloom also starred in a series of 1994 television movies playing Bandit, a part loosely based on the iconic Burt Reynolds role.
Bloom is expanding his resume to include voice work on both animated projects and video games. His hobbies include writing, cooking, and designing and building furniture. He owns and runs an online store called Animal World Network. Bloom practices a rare martial art known as bojuka. His recent work has been a series of commercials for the 2009 Cadillac Escalade Hybrid, directed by filmmaker Joe Carnahan, the voice of Alex Shepherd in Silent Hill: Homecoming and Kane in Kane & Lynch: Dead Men and its sequel, Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days (among many other notable video games) the role of fanatical cult leader Jonas Sparrow in the Joss Whedon show Dollhouse, and the voice of Jackie Estacado in The Darkness II. He voiced Captain America in the animated show The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes and the video games Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Marvel Heroes. He recently voiced William "B.J." Blazkowicz in Wolfenstein: The New Order He is presently cast in a number of voiceover parts, both in video games as well as direct-to-video projects. Bloom continues his working relationship with Carnahan, playing private mercenary bad guy "Pike" in the 2010 movie The A-Team, which Bloom also co-wrote with Carnahan, who directed the 20th Century Fox feature based on the popular television series. Bloom was also cast in the voiceover role of Beck Bristow for the "Meet Beck Bristow" episode of the animated television show Sealab 2021. He began his career as Young Patsy in Once Upon A Time In America in 1984 and then as Tony DiSpirito in A Different Twist. Gravity Falls is his DTVA debut and only appearance. Dragon Age: Inquisition as Varric Tethras is his most recent credit, among others. He has 164 acting credits, 1 Self credit, 1 Writer credit (The A-Team movie), and 1 soundtrack credit (Metal Gear Solid 4: Gun Of Patriots) to his resume. And since the announcer also spoke during this fight...
Announcer is voiced by Matt Chapman and according to Wikipedia (DANGER! DANGER!): Growing up in the 1980s, the two were creating comic books, filming Super 8 movies and eventually toying with a video camera.[1] Matt is the primary voice actor of the site Homestar Runner. He currently works as a writer and director for the children's television series Yo Gabba Gabba!, as well as for the Disney Channel animated series Gravity Falls and The Hub live-action series The Aquabats! Super Show!, where he also contributes occasional voice work and supporting acting roles. Most notably on The Aquabats! Super Show!, he played the main antagonist of the season one episode "CobraMan!", playing a sleazy carnival barker named Carl, whose voice and appearance were modeled directly after Strong Bad. Matt wrote the Wander Over Yonder episodes "The Bounty" and "The Timebomb" in collaboration with the show's writing staff. Mostly known for being part of the duo (with Mike Chapman) who created Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People. So Robbie bumps Dipper out of the way to take over playing the game; and cracks his hands to annoy me some more as Dipper claims that he hasn't finished the game yet. Robbie then admits that he's only trying to spend time with Wendy as Wendy claims that it's only one round. Yeah; I'll bet. So it's round three as Robbie and Wendy are playing; Wendy proclaims that she's going camping with her father; which I discover is Manly Dan from Manliness Vs. Dipper! Robbie don't care as he holds Wendy, she giggles while Robbie looks at Dipper with comtempt; since if you recall, Dipper hit Wendy in the eye with a baseball (it was once in time line; but more like five times in storyline) which would have been unintentional if Dipper hadn't known that the only way to make Mabel happy was to hit Wendy in the eye with a baseball and let destiny play out as intented. That's why it's considered intentional. So yeah; this feud must continue and Robbie has turned babyface in my eyes. Dipper sees the target and it's time to fight...
...WE HIT THE OPENING~! We head back to the Mystery (S)Hack and head inside the dining room with Dipper, Soos, Stan and Mabel (with Waddles on a white milk box) gambling for cookies...and Mabel wins the house! HAHA! Everyone blows her off for cheating and I say, sod off you whining insecure men! Everyone has Gruffi poses on because Stan claims that Mabel doesn't know what they are playing and Mabel thinks it's Go Fish. HAHA! Heavy metal guitar playing ensues and we get rumbling as Soos cleans out his ears, claiming that he sounds like there is a radio station inside his head. Mabel's response: Try blinking to change the channel. Soos grunts, no luck. There is a difference between blinking and grunting, Soos. Just so you want to know. It's Robbie singing for Wendy of course as Dipper realizes who it is and Stan calls him a jerk who makes goo-goo eyes at Wendy all the time. Not unlike when Stan makes goo-goo eyes on everyone's money. Soos was gravely offended at being called "Big Dude" all the time; so yes, Soos has a thinner skin than me. Mabel asks Dipper if he wants to sic Waddles on him again as Waddles is munching on the table and snorting; then munches on Mabel's left arm. Dipper says no and stands up to handle this. Everyone is shocked by this attempt at conflict because in storyline, Dipper is so insecure that he usually flees from any sort of conflict. So we head outside with Robbie playing guitar and being generally annoying as hell. Dipper has the Gruffi pose on and blows off Robbie because she's not here you here. Since Robbie hates Dipper; he thinks Dipper is full of crap, even though Wendy HERSELF told him that she was gone camping. Dipper basically calls him out for not listening to her and this gravely offends Robbie. Yeap; he's a dudebro douchebag now as Robbie calls him out for wanting to be Wendy's boyfriend. Robbie backs him up and invokes the pointy finger of death as Dipper is now claiming that they aren't dating partners at all; just friends. Robbie calls Dipper a 12 year old kid who wears the same shorts everyday. Ummm; projection much there Robbie?
So Robbie decides to go to his smart phone and call Wendy so Dipper can arrange a date with them together and Dipper begs him not to as Robbie is taunting Dipper like crazy as the phone rings and Wendy answers it. Dipper then slaps the phone out of his hand and it crashes; shattering the cellphone. Dipper promises to buy a new one for him; but Robbie grabs him because he does not believe in Restorative Justice, nor the rule of law. Guess who makes the save here? You would think Waddles out of nowhere, right? Nope; it's Grunkel Stan. WHAT?! Stan then simply closes the window and wants to get out to see this fight. Yeah; I spoke too soon. Dipper takes a hard bump into an out of nowhere; conveniently placed trash can and Robbie challenges him to a fight at Circle Park at 3:00 pm to end this feud. Good; I'm so sick of this feud in place of Dipper's true purpose, which is to solve the mystery of Gravity Falls. Stan finally comes out in his underwear and shirt eating a box of popcorn and sulking because he wanted to gamble on this fight with his buddies. If you ever want a true scumbag that's better than Donald Trump; call Grunkel Stan. He eats popcorn and he would pick Robbie to win as we jump cut to inside the dining room as Dipper is pacing around panicking while the rest are at the table gambling on crackers again. Dipper waves his noodle arms around as Stan suggests bonking him on the head; it's nature's snooze button. Does Stan realize that the Dumptruck screw punch of doom only works if you have muscles? Mabel's reaction: Learn to hate each other in secret like girls do. Isn't that a dishonest thing to say? Stan of course shows how much more sexist and homophobic he is by saying that Dipper should listen to Mabel and share dresses as well. Again; if you ever want a true scumbag, call Grunkel Stan. BOOM! We wish Stan was roasted for that as Dipper thinks that Robbie is so dumb, he'll forget about it. Yeah; that would have been possible, if you didn't shatter his damn cellphone in the process! Soos gets off death reference #3 of the episode as he references teenagers as killing machines. I wonder why...?
Soos does the Gruffi pose as Dipper is sweating like he's in a convention of Oscars. Soos has a cousin named Reggie and the guy broke all of Reggie's limbs as we get death reference #4 (third kill reference in the episode) for the episode. Yes; Reggie was killed in storyline according to Soos. Nice way to kill Dipper's confidence there, Soos. At least Dipper's insecurity here is totally justified since Robbie is at least big enough to be a threat. Oh wait; he's fine, sort of. Dipper backs up into a corner (kind of like a lot of booking in iCarly, natch) as he panics. Stan proclaims that he has two choices: Fight Robbie or run like a wimp. Which is like: Either stay out of Russia or go in. Dipper chooses to run like a wimp; because he is a wimp. His hiding choice: The arcade (underneath a pinball machine that Soos is playing), which by the way; is the one place Robbie already has entered and noticed Dipper. Not a smooth move Dipper; as Dipper complains that Robbie is twice his size, even though he's not afraid of Soos who is twice the size of Robbie! The pinball game is Nort; which is Tron spelled backwards. Dipper gets off the fourth kill reference of the episode (death reference #5) as he wants to wait this out until 3:00 passes; his watch reads 11:29 as Dipper goes to the table and is flustered. Soos tells him to relax and not think of Robbie. Considering that Robbie knows where you hang out; I don't think this is going to work. Of course; Dipper looks up and sees all the posters of Robbie's band. Nope; I'm not counting those as death references; that's completely unfair and would drive the counter to 23 references. Not fair, show; since it's the same poster repeated eighteen times. Get over yourself. So we see Mabel and Waddles in the living room watching a television show featuring a woman with brown, curly hair and wears pink lipstick. She wears a pearl necklace, a light green shirt, an even lighter green skirt, a gold bracelet on each wrist and black flats. She has a somewhat wide upper body and thin lower body, with large arms and short legs.
Her name is Sassica and is voiced by Kimberly Brooks; whose first DTVA appearance was in Phineas & Ferb. She is blowing off a blond teenager wearing a purple coat, lavender half shirt, green pants and sandals. The show within a show is according to Alex Hirsch on Reddit: The show started as an inside joke with him and his friends in which he tricked all of them into believing Why You Ackin' So Cray-Cray (The shows name and her catchphrase) was to be an upcoming show hosted by Raven-Symone. Take that for what it is worth; which is nothing because outside of one short appearance, we never see her again outside of this episode. Crowd cheers as the announcer proclaims that they will return after the commercial break as we see the logo. The whole parody is based on talk shows tailored for women. Mabel is sitting upside down on a chair with Waddles snorting, as she feels bad for Dipper and him hiding from Robbie and being unable to face his fears. Well; it's easy to hide when you think Robbie is going to knife him in the throat and kill him. Waddles oinks as Stan is fixing an antler on a dead rabbit and blows off fears as chump speak. Of course; he is too short to grab the bottle of glue on top of a shelf. Mabel and Waddles walk over and ask if he needs a ladder and Stan no sells the deal. You see; according to the infinite scumbaggery...ERRR...I mean, infinite wisdom (I feel so dirty now) of Grunkel Stan, studies show that keeping a ladder in the house is more dangerous than a loaded gun. Yes folks; Stan said this. So Stan is a card carrying member of the NRA and even spewing NRA BS to boot. Oh; and Stan keeps ten loaded guns on his person because a maniac might actually try to sneak in a ladder. Remember that this aired three months before Sandy Hook; and Disney did their audit on guns in their products. Just to note: DVD release was 2014, and the lines were not cut. But somehow "C Is For Cookie" was. Copyright: It sucks! Mabel asks why he's so cray-cray; and Stan claims Mabel is projecting and storms out stage right. Mabel questions why Stan is so weird out by ladders. Answer: Stan has a fear of heights that he wants to keep a secret.
Mabel; I love you and I respect you for using Occam's Razor here; but that often fails in cartoons; most so this one. I betcha Stan is afraid of ladders because one of them tried to kill him. In real life; I would be cray-cray in suggesting that. In this show; I would get a raise and the Nobel Prize in science. Waddles oinks as Mabel has two choices: Either test him; or leave him alone. She chooses testing him of course, because Mabel needs yet another subplot. Personally; Mabel/Stan (almost typed Stand again) subplots suck; but this one might be better, so I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt this time around. Certainly better than dealing with the Dipper/Wendy/Robbie love triangle, that is for sure. Speaking of that; we head back to the arcade as Soos is in fact playing Nort; so once again, I jumped the gun. No, none of Stan's would-be ten guns were involved in this. One of the machines is called The Claw played by the same kid who was barefoot in the last episode and he has his shoes and socks back. Pizza Time is a parody of TMNT by the way; as Nort is the game based on the movie: based on the game. That's awfully redundant, considering that Disney owns Tron anyway. Yellow bike streaker gets cut off by purple bike streaker and it's basically sci-fi version of Excitebike; only the streak lines are deadly. Soos wonders what it would be like to be inside a video game. I have seen this in Scrooge's Last Adventure and nothing good came out of it, although the Internet banking angle was compelling enough to make the episode feel like something new and different. Bearly Alive was better sadly; and it aired before Scrooge's Last Adventures. It's things like that, that make me respect Fone Bone's opinion on Ducktales 1987 and Ducktales 2017 (1987 is trash, 2017 is great according to him). Soos gets inspired and opens the back panel of the arcade machine with his power tool screwdriver set. So Soos squeezes into the back of the arcade machine proclaiming that he should have thought of this years ago. Jump cut back to Dipper playing Fight Fighters and calling Robbie a jerk as he somehow loses to Doctor Karate. So yes; Wendy sucks at this game. Sad!
Rumble does his spiel claiming that a winner never runs away from a fight. But that's how George Washington and his revolutionary army won independence from the British; so what are you talking about, Rumble?! Dipper blows him off because Rumble has more than one life, you see. Dipper checks his watch and only a half hour has passed as he wishes that one of the video game characters could fight for him as he tries to put a quarter into the machine, but the coin drops onto the ground, as we see scratched on the bottom side of the arcade machine, a code. It says to unleash the ultimate power: Left, Left, Punch, Punch, Right, Left, Down, Kick, Kick, Upright, Punch, Punch, Punch, Kick. Dipper wipes off the dust to reveal the code and claims that he loves ultimate power, so he's basically Huey Duck from Quack Pack. So Dipper inserts coin and speaking of logic errors, here is the code Dipper entered: Left, Left, HOLD, Right, Left, RIGHT, Down, HOLD, Upright, Punch, Punch Punch...and the power goes out. Yeah; this code kills your power. Hmmm; is this a Playstation Arcade Game? AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! POW! OUCH! Ummm...Dipper claims that it didn't work and then the machine shakes and rumbles. Dipper backs up, wanting Soos as an energy blast of light engulfs most of the area; causing Dipper to shield his face. The game announcer yells to Dipper to select his character and Dipper selects Rumble McSkirmish and we get the machine pixelizing and out comes Rumble doing the Helicopter Kick; so yes, he's a parody of Ken Masters. The animation for his appearance was GLORIOUS; and I mean it. This is the sort of thing you couldn't do without CGI effects. Wooden floor also gets cracked as they stare each other down as Dipper asks if he's real. Nope; he's still pixel art which is in the real world. They slap skin and Dipper sells a hand injury; and probably would have blood on it if BS&P hadn't stepped in. OUCH! Dipper bites his hand and shakes it off to end the segment eight and a half minutes in. That last minute was pretty awesome, but it's still a stupid angle just the same.
After the commercial break; we head back to the arcade as Rumble is in his fighting stance already and greets child-boy (Dipper, everyone) as he's Rumble McSkirmish from the same hometown of Ken Masters. He shows off his moves and kicks Dipper right in the right cheek; causing a minor stitching bruise, no blood. Rumble walks to a chance machine and proclaims that he wants to be a powerful wolf before destroying. OH MY CHANGE MACHINE~ just doesn't have the same ring as OH MY GOD or OH MY CAR, though. Dipper sees his meal ticket to make Robbie back down and he won't even need to fight him. Considering that Robbie doesn't even know that Wendy was going camping, despite being TOLD by Wendy the day before; I think Robbie is a toxic macho man and he will fight Rumble and get totally destroyed; with the blood of Robbie being on Dipper's hands. Rumble panics as he flashes red, because he needs power ups; as Dipper wants to show Rumble to Soos. Dipper looks around and Soos is missing. Umm; he went outside to check on the Nort video game to see if he can get into one. So we head into the main arcade room with Soos being trapped inside the arcade game as a male teenager wearing all red and white puts a quarter inside the Nort video game. He is pleading for help because he's a goddamn idiot. He thought it was cool in theory; but it's boring in practice. I don't think boring is the right word for this. Painful; that's more like it. Red cap teenager screams and bails stage left. Soos claims that it's not just a game anymore. You don't say? It looks like a painful cartoon now. It's too bad Cuphead is a Microsoft exclusive at the moment; because it would look great on Nintendo Switch; and probably sell better to boot; knowing how the independent developers (the defacto definition of the term third party by the way) are doing well on Switch right now. So back to Mabel and Waddles in the Mystery (S)hack starting Operation: Get-Stan-Over-His-Fear-Of-Heights; or GSOHFOS. More like Operation: Make-Stan-Look-Like-A-Scumbag or MSLLAS; which is much catchier in my opinion. Waddles oinks as they walk stage left.
Mabel claims that she came up with that name. It sucks, sadly. So we head to the living room as Mabel has a JOKEY SURPRISE OF DEATH (this is the one time I wish Mabel channeled Jokey Smurf completely, no matter how much that makes me into a monsterous asshole...) and wakes up Grunkel Stan, who is sleeping in his chair. It's Great Uncle's Day; a day Mabel claims she did not make up. She's right actually; too bad this aired in September, since Great Uncle and Great Aunt's day is July 26th in the USA! So close, so damn close Mabel! So Stan opens the present and it's a set of red high heels. At first; he's overjoyed and then he catches himself and becomes confused. This causes Mabel to accuse Stan of claiming that the heels are too high; as Stan goes over to the television and adjusts the rabbit ears. Mabel then admits that she did this to prove that Stan has a fear of height; which Stan proclaims that she should be ashamed of herself of doing this on Great Uncle's Day. BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Projection much there, Stan?! Oh; and false equalivence much there, Stan? Oh; and for those who think Mabel NEVER gets called out on her BS; you can sod off now! And it's by Grunkel Stan, no less. So Stan claims he doesn't have a fear of heights as the television finally works and it shows the Most Terrifying Skydiving in the show as someone literally jumps out of a plane to do some skydiving. Still better than the Skydivers movie; I'll give this show that much. I betcha Stan sees this and runs out in a panic state. I check the DVD...Damn; I'm so good as he trips over the skull dinosaur head and lands on his back. Yip; Mabel was right all along. Stan finally admits that he has a fear of heights and asks of that is cray-cray. No; but not facing the fear of heights and overcoming it is cray-cray. At least Dipper has the fear of being DEAD as an excuse to not face his fear. So we jump cut to Dipper raiding the fridge in the lodge, while Rumble is doing E. Honda's hundred hands move to kill a fly. Dipper has clearly never played video games a lot; if he doesn't know how Final Fight works. Or Street Fighter Alpha either.
Dipper is impressed by this power up screen coming out of nowhere. I wish that they just have it appear and disappear with munching sounds; if they wanted to channel 1990's arcade beat-em-ups. This looks more like a RPG to me. Anyhow; Rumble wants to go to the Soviet Union since he wants to defeat the world's most greatest Fight Fighters. Sadly; since this is 2012, there is no Soviet Union, although in 2017, is there really any difference between Russia and the Soviet Union now? Dipper pretty much admits that it's going to be impossible, in roundabout terms, however; he does have someone in mind in Gravity Falls. Apparently; the figher in Gravity Falls is called Maximum Power. So Dipper shows off the Robbie poster (and no that death reference doesn't count either); and we get off kill reference #5 and #6 (death reference #6 & #7 for the episode) as Dipper explains that he posts annoying status updates on social media and dates Wendy. Rumble crumbles the paper in disgust as this really out of place eight bit music plays. You couldn't find 16-bit music that Disney couldn't use? Listen; there is 16-bit chiptune music and it fits these characters more since the arcades are not like the NES. Okay? Dipper just wants him to scare Robbie away as Rumble laughs like a manaic and he does all the Street Fighter moves and drinks a bowl of punch almost like Ayla and Crono did in Chrono Trigger. Punch bowl is thrown down and shatters; along with the window being set on fire by his Hadoken, and the ceiling gets destoryed by his version of a Shoryuken. Dipper asks if he will be protected from Robbie and Rumble accepts the challenge, telling him to press start. Oh; and a start button comes out glowing red. Of course! So a door opens and Dipper thinks it's Stan; so he wants Rumble to stay perfectly still. That fails miserably and we jump cut to the kids' room as Waddles is sleeping on Mabel's bed while Mabel is pacing around trying to figure out a way for Stan to face his fears. In comes Dipper and Rumble for the meet and greet. Rumble's social skills are much more awkward than Dipper; which makes this a perfect friendship, methinks. POW! OUCH! Ummm...
Mabel writes down on a card the words "effervescent" (It's a word for enthusiastic), "apple fritter" and "riboflavin"; which Rumble repeats, which sounds more awkward than Mabel had intended it to be. HAHA! Dipper claims that Rumble is not a toy -- he's a fighting machine --; so don't play with him. I wish Dipper had repeated Gary Hart's Kabuki promo on Jimmy Valiant and say it exactly like Gary Hart. Mabel calls this plan "cheating" and surprisely, Rumble doesn't blow Dipper off there. Dipper admits that he's cheating and walks off stage left. Considering that Robbie's justice is toxic, I don't blame Dipper. Besides; Rumble is uber cool and awesome, so who cares? Rumbles leaves saying poop twice and butts once. BS&P RULEZ~ you see. Again; I kind of like creative swearing over BS&P swearing anyday of the week, so there you go. So we head to the streets of Gravity Falls as Dipper and Rumble walk in the middle of the road. Normally; this would be lame; but since most video game beat-em-ups do this; this actually makes sense for a change. So we exchange notes on Robbie's moves of doom. It's mostly one: being a jerk. Oh wait; and his throwdown of Dipper into the trash can. His taunt is clearly singing for Wendy on his guitar over and over. Dipper claims that he will wet his pants when he sees Rumble; and Rumble proclaims that his wet pants are no match for him. Yawn; Milo said peed his pants in Fish Hooks; so pee is clearly allowed in the new Disney. Rumble brings out the lead pipe of doom; just to channel his Scott Steiner side. Sadly; BS&P won't allow the best parts of Scott Steiner's promos, so this doesn't work. Oh well; the effort was there, which makes this even sadder. He claims that he punched an out of nowhere oil drum as Dipper insists that he only needs to scare. I betcha Robbie doesn't sell this at all and requires Rumble to kick his ass; because at least with that, Robbie would be a total idiot toxic macho man and justify the reason why Wendy shouldn't date Robbie at all. Rumble agrees and there is an out of nowhere sword and he welds it; just to complete the Final Fight parody. It only makes sense if you played the video game.
Dipper sums it up nicely as Rumble swings the sword like in Secret Of Mana, sort of. Jump cut to Stan watching television while drinking Pitt soda. Mabel rises up exactly like Cousin Kyle in Last Fan Standing; sadly, it's not as funny as Cousin Kyle, for obvious reasons. She screams and Stan does a really awesome spit take. Still not as good as Cousin Kyle, sadly. So Mabel blows her cover and asks Stan if he wants to take a walk to nowhere in particular with a blindfold on. Oh come on; you think Stan is going to fall for such an obvious trick? Stan teases falling for it and then sits down, accusing Mabel of taking him somewhere super high. Mabel is gravely offended by this; even though it's all true; so to make the lie stick; she puts on a pink sweater with the Scout's honor symbol on top. This is kind of stupid considering that the Scouts haven't admitted anyone but straight men until recently. Stan walks up and leaves, saying let's go. So yes; Stan is an idiot, but he's also a scumbag, so there you go. Mabel turns around, cackles like a heel (which was hilarious) and her sweater does the crossed fingers gesture, so she's not confident that this is going to work. She adjusts her hair and walks off. So we head to the park as the clock tower tolls it's three o'clock as Robbie is sitting down at the park. It's the most run down park I have ever seen. Robbie looks like someone who has a drug problem and needs help, rather than some toxic macho man. No wonder Dipper was telling Rumble to ease up. Too bad Rumble is an AI programmed by a 1990's computer geek. Robbie walks to Dipper and Dipper insists that they call this off before someone gets hurt. I've already covered the silliness of saying hurt after saying "killed" already in this episode. Robbie of course no sell; because he cannot lose to someone half his size. Bully has a reputation you know; which is why pride is a deadly sin, you see. Robbie calls Dipper scared; so Dipper snaps his fingers and out comes Rumble; as we have hit the peak of this episode goodness now. Robbie asks why he is blurry and Rumble asks if he killed Dipper's father (Answer: No, because Dipper's father is indeed alive. Spoiler alert everyone!) Dipper introduces Rumble as Robbie calls him Eye Patch as he taunts Rumble with his reward being bandages on his forearms. Rumble is PISSED off and screams because you see, Rumble thinks Dipper's father was killed by Robbie. So yes; death reference #8 (kill reference #7) is still overshadowed by the eight-bit music.
So yes; he invokes the pointy finger of death and Robbie appears stunned as Dipper tells him to back off; or Rumble goes nuts. Robbie tells Dipper to stand down and pokes Dipper. In the rules of Stone Cold Steve Austin's contract, that is physical provocation and so Dipper invokes the Rumble clause and IT IS ON BABEE! Robbie tries to bail, but Rumble grabs him in a military press and slams Robbie down to the ground back first. OUCH! Dipper is literally telling Rumble to stand down because Robbie's done after ONE move. There's one problem with this Dipper; Rumble thinks Robbie killed your father. You think he's going to listen to you now; Rumble wants REVENGE BABEE~! Robbie spits a pile of dirt; like spitting out blood, which is enough for Rumble to grab him and throw him into the air. Why does Robbie have skeleton keys in his pocket? Especially when we never saw him on his bicycle. Robbie lands in the jungle gym and is stuck there ass first. OUCH! I think the jungle gym suffered a lot more damage than Robbie there. Robbie calls him crazy -- and like a berserk button that made Don Karnage a censor in Japan --; Robbie tumbles to the ground after Rumble destroys the jungle gym with a Hadoken. Okay; now Dipper has taken this too far. After THREE moves no less. Robbie bails like a scalded dog (well; he almost was, literally) as Dipper calls Rumble out on this because he wanted to scare him. Geez; didn't he just do that now, Dipper?! Death reference #9 (kill reference #8) ensues; and yes, this show is trying to beat Bearly Alive in the death references and is halfway to that with eight minutes to go. Rumble refuses to rest until Robbie is destroyed. Oh geez; so he doesn't just want to kill him now. Good move Dipper; not! Robbie's poster gets punched on a conveniently placed tree and to be fair; Robbie's face is punchable. Rumble then runs away from the park; destroying trees and powerlines with his Shoryuken. Trees are literally on fire now as Dipper calls this not good. Yeah; that is the sort of reaction mere assholes who aren't monsters when they are going to have blood on their hands and/or dirt on their conscience. The tree goes down and that ends the segment 14 minutes in. This is a fun episode; but this plot is out of control now.
After the commercial break; we head into Gravity Falls are there is more destruction and chaos than even an average episode of Johnny Test! Jump cut to Dipper entering and noticing a building for the Barrel & Crates company, which is completely set up like a Donkey Kong 1980's video game. Out comes Robbie from the window running and panicky as we cosplay Donkey Kong before our very eyes. Doesn't work as Rumble smashes through the wall and throws a barrel which nearly kills Dipper, causing Dipper to plead with him to stop. Of course that doesn't happen because we have a game parody to play out. If Rumble was dressed like Donkey Kong in a gorilla suit; this would have worked out better; and Robbie was dressed like a plumber; although that might turn it into a homage and Nintendo would snuff it out with their ninja legal team. Robbie jumps and collects points, natch. Robbie jumps down to the ground and bails stage right as Rumble destroys a bunch of crates like in Final Fight. So we get more chaos and destruction in the streets of Gravity Falls as Rumble uproots a no parking sign and throws it at Robbie as we channel the Final Fight parody even more so; complete with GO -> signal. I admit; this is funny, but it's funny because I understand the parody that the show is shooting for. Most moral guardians would look at this and scream bloody murder over it; and to a certain extent, I somewhat agree with them. This is too much, and I betcha Dipper never gets punished for it, or even called out on it. Which makes the screams for this to happen to Mabel look even more like lazy sexism. Dipper runs in and he slows down; suggesting him to pace himself because he might get a cramp. Dipper is having a cramp and that might be the least of his worries. Oh; and because the mini game in Street Fighter II was AWESOME; here it comes. So the rich man is giving the keys to the rich son to a blue car wrapped in a bow on the dock. Robbie runs away stage right, and you can guess the rest from there.
Rich Son's voice provided by Daryl Sabara and according to Wikipedia (DANGER! DANGER!): Sabara began acting during the mid-1990s, appearing on episodes of Murphy Brown, Life's Work, Will and Grace, and Friends before being cast as Juni Cortez in the Spy Kids series of family films, which became popular among pre-teen audiences. Sabara provided the voice of Hunter, the male lion cub on the NBC animated sitcom Father of the Pride. He has appeared in episodes of the television series Weeds, House, Dr. Vegas, and was one of the judges on America's Most Talented Kids. Sabara also voiced the main character, Hero Boy, in the 2004 animated version of The Polar Express. He then played a Jewish young boy trying to have a nice Bar Mitzvah in Keeping Up with the Steins (formerly known as Lucky 13), which received a limited release on May 12, 2006. He also guest starred in the Criminal Minds episode, "P911" where he played as a sexually molested child. He also provides the voice for Rex in the new cartoon network series Generator Rex. Sabara next appeared in the films Her Best Move and the interactive DVD Choose Your Own Adventure, played Ben on The Last Chance Detectives radio dramas by Adventures in Odyssey & Focus on the Family,[5] and also appeared as school bully Wesley Rhoades in Rob Zombie's Halloween. He then played Irwin in the theater play The Catskills Sonata, about a young Jewish busboy in the late 1950s. In 2003, Sabara made a guest appearance as the character Owen on an episode of Friends, during which Matthew Perry's character Chandler accidentally reveals to Owen that he is adopted.[6] He also gained a recurring role in the Disney Channel sitcom Wizards of Waverly Place as T.J. Taylor, a wizard who ignores the rules and uses magic the way he wants, often getting him into trouble.
He was also in The Boondocks as the voice of Butch Magnus Milosevic in the episode Shinin'. He appeared in an episode of The Batman as Scorn, the sidekick of the villain Wrath. The role was opposite his brother, who played "Robin". He costarred in the 2009 film April Showers, a movie written and directed by a survivor of the 1999 Columbine High School massacre. He played Kyle, a misanthropic teenager in World's Greatest Dad, with Robin Williams, and Peter Cratchit in the 2009 film adaptation of A Christmas Carol. He appeared in the comedy series Easy To Assemble, where he played a character named George. In the 2010 he appeared in the movie Machete, as well as the MTV movie Worst. Prom. Ever. which premiered May 10. In 2012, he co-starred in John Carter as Edgar Rice Burroughs. He portrayed the recurring role of Tim Scottson in seven episodes (spanning from 2005–2012) of the Showtime TV series Weeds.[7] He began his career as 'Baby' Brown in Murphy Brown in 1992 in uncredited roles. American Dragon: Jake Long as Hobie is his DTVA debut. Zombie Basement as Joel is his most recent credit. He has 64 Acting credits, 22 Self credits and 1 other credit (Finding Nemo as a voice) to his resume. His father is voiced by John DiMaggio; which we have seen a million times in new Disney at this point. So yes; "Oh My Car!" got referenced directly. I'm kind of disappointed by this because I wish he said the original Japanese line "Oh my god!" because DTVA at the time Final Fight/Street Fighter II was released; TaleSpin alone said "Oh My God!" three times in the show (Baloo's was Oh God by the way); twice by Don Karnage and once by Kit of all people! And of course; the rich dad don't care as they'll buy another car, because the rich son loves being rich. That part was in fact funny! More running and chasing makes Dipper something something as he grabs a glass of water out of nowhere, basically incriminating himself as the one responsible right there. BBQ gets Shoryuken'ed onto the ground. HAHA!
Back on the streets as Dipper makes it to a sidewalk corner and is tired as hell. Suddenly a brown truck arrives with Soos driving, still waiting the Nort arcade pieces. OUCH! Soos chuckles about it as Dipper admits that the video game guy was created by him as a bodyguard to deal with Robbie and now he has to stop him in order to make sure he doesn't kill Robbie (kill reference #9, death reference #10) as Soos asks if he needs an amiable sidekick with a pickup truck. Dipper says yes basically; Soos says "okay" and Dipper gets into the truck and they drive off. All right; then. So we head to the tallest water tower Mabel could find and there is a muffin spray painted red on the back of it. Now; if you have seen Inconvenicing; you know where this episode is going now. Mabel is holding onto the rail as the wind is whipping as she tells blindfolded Stan to take off the blindfold. Stan takes off the blindfolds (so says Mabel) and Stan looks down and just deadpans that he expected this. Mabel claims that this is much better than she expected as Stan is now holding onto the handrail (which we didn't see until Stan started shaking) and Mabel tells him to let go. Stan is straining and sweating, and no selling the deal. Of course! Mabel then claims that she smells anger and horomones, which is a deadly toxic stew in any sane universe, and this universe actually. Not Gravity Falls, oh no. Oh; and here comes Robbie who teleported onto the ladder as he climbed up. Robbie pants and proclaims that he's safe; but Mabel blows him off because he's ruining Stan's buzz basically. Robbie tells Mabel to shut up basically; so he's completely forgotten how punchable his face is...and here comes Rumble as Robbie panics. I wish the challenger sighted was Stan; because his face is more punchable than Robbie's at this point. In comes the truck with Soos and Dipper. Dipper gets out as Rumble's promos just continue to be nonsensical. Dipper runs in, pleading for him to stop. Hey; how about telling him that Robbie didn't kill his father, Dipper?! Rumble no sells and tilts the water tower; and then hundred hands ensues to break the wood structure. Mabel thinks they are safe and Stan blows her off.
So yes; he called out Mabel, TWICE in the same episode! Robbie tumbles over the rail and free falls. Rumble grabs him, and apparently we channel Mortal Kombat as Rumble tries to go for the FATALITY OF DOOM, while Robbie begs for mercy. Then suddenly; a quarter bonks into the back of the head and that completely stops it. Rumble turns around and notices Dipper using pieces of wood to make a cut scene; as Dipper proceeds to call him out. As in; actually challenging him to a fight. Dipper finally confesses to Robbie not killing his father (kill reference #10, death reference #11; so they are only four references away from tying TaleSpin's record) and admits that it was all a lie. Rumble cannot believe this and Dipper confesses to being a heel; sort of. Rumble wedgies Robbie on a tree branch as he goes into melodramatics about death before dishonor and working for a heel like Dipper and this is so great that I was expecting Rumble to turn on Dipper right now...and he does! AWESOME! This is exactly how this build to the finish needs to be done. Good for you, show! See; you can be as good as TaleSpin, when you have a clue. Soos comes running in as the red button is shown again; Soos pleads with him not to press it. Dipper claims that he has to and stand up to Rumble, no matter how stupid this sounds. Kill reference #11, death reference #12 ensues as Dipper don't care either way. Soos asks if he want to hide like wimp; but Dipper pushes the button and we begin with the Gravity Falls area which has a peace symbol in the background and a red raincloud. So we begin the Street Fighter II-equse fight. So Rumble kicks Dippers' ass as Soos takes a selfie of himself. Pfft; whatever. Rumble taunts him in a sexist manner as Dipper is offended and he UPPERCUTS HIM~! HOLY......oh crap. HAHA! Yip; he only took down 0.5% of his lifebar. Dipper panics and bails stage left as Soos climbs up the tree and tries to wave the health bar away and fails. HAHA! Dipper climbs up a tree branch to escape and Rumble has zero looking up animation frames whatsoever. HAHA! He tries to look up and he flops to the ground like Paper Mario. HAHA!
Rumble struggles like mad, and Dipper laughs at him. Dipper climbs down with Soos as they want to hang him on the wall; and Soos wants to challenge Dipper to rock-paper-scissors to get first dibs. So Rumble counters with the METEOR PUNCH SWARM~! I don't care if that isn't the name of the attack; my name is so much better. And another car gets destroyed, Dipper is now down to 0.5% health, and his hat is on fire...AGAIN! So Rumble pops to normal and invokes his HYPER COMBO FINISH~ on Dipper; who actually resigns to his fate and takes it like a man. He got punched literally thirty times; which is an absolute new record in the new Disney; on a child no less. Yes folks; Dipper took something even Kit Cloudkicker couldn't do. Now I want that TaleSpin reboot so bad now; just for this moment alone. Pixelized nuclear explosion ensues as Rumble wins and does the peace sign because Winners Never Lose. Dipper proclaims that he shouldn't be so sure about that, and it's a Game Over. Because you see, Rumble was a CPU character and Dipper was P1; therefore the game is over and it simply stops. Rumble dies in pixelized fashion while Dipper is in a crumbled heap on the ground. And wouldn't you know it; it ends with Dipper getting to put his intials in the High Score section. Yes; none of this makes any sense; but this is Gravity Falls, where the nonsense makes sense a lot more than Spongebob SquarePants. Sadly; the episode is not over as we cut back to the water tower with Mabel profusely apologizing to Stan for thinking this was a great idea. Oh come on, Mabel; at least Dipper is to blame for this stupidity. Stan don't care as he's loving life and wants to do a cocky dance as Stan dances like Louie and he feels great. He even starts climbing down as Mabel refuses to leave; and now Stan is accusing her of a fear of height. PLOT TWIST~! Mabel's a hypocrite! Jump cut to Robbie unhooking himself as Dipper (with black eye; so we are equal on this front, sort of) comes in. Robbie reads him the riot act and is PISSED as Dipper realizes that it's time to fight and so he does the exact same thing he did with Rumble. Perfect! This is how it should be.
Robbie teases punching Dipper in the face; but since Dipper was literally destroyed by Rumble, even Robbie is forced to save face and just gives up. He then acts like a scoiopath by claiming that it's because he needs to maintain his guitar hands. Oh; and here comes Wendy from her camping trip. Manly Dan makes his cameo appearance here as Wendy demands answers to this outrage as half of the place is on fire now and Dipper's face is jacked up. She accuses them of fighting each other and hates it when that happen. Ironically; they were teasing that; but never delivered. Dipper and Robbie claim that they fell trying to stop two other guys from fighting each other. Oh; that lie is so stupid that I betcha Wendy falls for it. I check the DVD...Damn; I'm so good. Well; it cannot all be perfect as Wendy bails to unpack and will text Robbie later. She also kisses Robbie and pulls the hat of Dipper as she leaves. The males breathe a sigh of relief and they get into an arguement about being one of the two "boyz"; so yes, this feud must continue. And once again; Dipper ruins Mabel's subplot to boot! Dipper wants to call a cold war pact; where they hate each other in silence because if they hate each other not in silence, like males do, then they lose Wendy forever. I hate this feud; and it's not going to end well for either of them. So we head to the Mystery (S)hack where Wendy is at the counter combing her hair, talking about Thompson and stuff. Dipper and Robbie laugh as Wendy drops her hair brush on the comb. She looks for it as the boyz invoke eye contact violence on each other. Dipper pumps his fist in outrage and Robbie does the cut throat sign! Wow; I thought BS&P would have edited that one out; and then Wendy gets up and continues brushing her hair as the boyz act like nothing just happened. Of course! So they all laugh it up and that ends the episode at 21:34. The last segment is basically a 16 bit version of Gravity Falls, with everything being in the wrong place. HAHA! Then a 16-bit character select screen straight out of Super Mario Brothers (USA) 2. Mabel mimics Mario from Super Mario 64; and Soos channels Pac-Man and eats all the characters up. HAHA! Sadly; it's all just a dream of Soo's addled mind; or a parody of the ending to Super Mario Brothers (USA) 2. If you didn't like video games, this was still a *** 1/2 episode; but if you love video games like me, this is a **** 1/2 (90%).
THE REVIEW LINE
You know what; I was coming into this episode feeling really mad that they are continuing the Dipper/Robbie/Wendy love triangle; but after seeing this, I have mellowed out on it somewhat. This episode was awesome; although I would have given it full marks if they had paid off the Mabel/Stan subplot instead of cutting it off. If you're not a fan of videogames, this episode is kind of over the top and stupid with all the video game references and lack of realism; but it works in this show mainly because the whole gimmick of Gravity Falls is the impossible being possible. The Mabel/Stan subplot was in fact good as I mentioned before; but Dipper/Robbie, in spite of all the hate I have for the feud, that plot was extremely good, albeit extrememly stupid at the same time. I got almost all the video game references and most of them were cool. I also love Dipper in this for the first time, I felt Dipper could become Kit Cloudkicker in that he took thirty shots to the face and still managed to come out with the win by outsmarting him. Rumble was awesome as well, from his contrived promos, to his character design based on 1990's video games and the show did enough to make it feel like a homage, while at the same time poking fun into it's flaws. I'm also surprised at the number of references of death and kill in this episode alone as they were three references away from tying TaleSpin's record; and this episode is clearly better than Bearly Alive, by a mile! Overall; I enjoyed this episode, and I hope they cool down on this love triangle because it's distracting from the main stake in this series; which is Dipper solving the mystery of Gravity Falls. So....
Thumbs up for this episode and I'll see you all next time.