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The Adventures Of Teddy Ruxpin: Through Tweeg's Fingers
Reviewed: 06/20/2014
Which Is Usually A Lot Of Ribs At His Expense!
All right; it's time to finish off this story arc as the king's condition is getting worse, the Gutangs attack again and Tweeg tries to be evil and fails in epic fashion for my amusement. Oh; and the Wooly What's-It is back too. I just hope the animation and continuity hold up. Wait; why am I asking for that? That's a fool's errand. So let's rant on shall we...?
We begin this one on a pathway in the middle of nowhere on a sunny day with that green bird with a blue furry neck and upper wings flying around as we pan over to Wooly's house. Apparently; Beanly has returned to his house and they are having coffee at Wooly's table. Yes; Beanly somehow came back for no reason and Wooly is apologizing to Beanly for not finding this guy, even though the guy is looking for is sitting down drinking coffee from a banana yellow mug with a patch on it. So the mugs in this word are made of cloth? Beanly comes close by saying that he's looking for the Hairy What's-It, as he grabs his bag and is about to leave. This is a prime example of the writers acting episodic because we just saw him leave in the first episode of the story arc; so why is Beanly back here? More importantly; why are they acting like they met for the first time? So stupid. So as Wooly is watching Beanly leave; Beanly offhand proclaims that he will never find this creature and Princess Aruzia will be so disappointed. Wooly asks about him knowing Aruzia and Beanly claims that he is her uncle; or cousin depending on what frame of mind Beanly is in. Beanly goes on about being the royal messenger of the kingdom of Nogburt as Wooly asks what the message is. Beanly looks to his sides; and then proclaims that he was supposed to give a message to whatever to come to King Nogburt along with Teddy, Grubby and Gimmick. Wooly remembers that because he helped rescue Princess Aruzia in the first story arc; which prompt Beanly to say that this is a coincidence (which shows that Beanly has no concept of context at all) and goes to his bag and gives Wooly the royal letter with red seal. Wooly needs more help than Beanly in saying banquet by the way. So you couldn't just cut the entire beginning scene of the second act in King Nogburt's castle out; and extend this scene by 30 seconds? This is a classic case of not knowing what they are doing. Also; I discover that the banquet was being held on July 4th; and there is a Grundo Savings Time in this world, implying that Grundo is but a time zone. It's now July 7th in that timeline. That is just peachy; and Beanly needs to retire now.
Anyhow; Beanly tips his hat and is about to leave, when Wooly asks about directions to the castle. Beanly states that he's going their now, but since he's forgetful; he doesn't remember much. Wooly want to tag-along with him; which Beanly accepts without question because Beanly wants to know how he did it. So we head back to King Nogburt's castle as King Nogburt is now speaking in bed for the first time since the end of the second arc. Nogburt apologizes to the trio for what happened at the banquet as Aruzia, and the court jester (Okay; I think you get the joke by now, so I'll move on...) are there. Teddy forgives him of course even though the king did nothing wrong; and then they change the subject of his health to showing off the portable duplicating machine via Gimmick. They need something to duplicate; and Aruzia apparently has a bronze armlet with a white middle and green circular jewels encrusted to it. So we play closeup exchanging by the babyfaces before Gimmick grabs the thing and puts it on the bed. He turns on the machine and apparently Gimmick is almost as forgetful as Beanly because the armlets duplicate so much that we are getting a great demonstration of dividing human cells as there are loads of these armlets on the bed. They also keep increasing as Grubby is telling him to turn the thing off; as Gimmick stammers claiming that he forgot to turn off the auto switch on the thing after duplicating peanuts. So we get the armlets spilling onto the floor spot and burying most of the babyfaces as the court jester bails stage left. So the floor is covered with armlet and for some reason the thing switched off by itself as Gimmick pops from the carnage; as his spectables are missing. Because every glasses wearing stereotype must act like Velma from Scooby Doo. He asks where they are and we pan over to Grubby wearing them; prompting the babyfaces to laugh. I didn't find that all that funny actually. Gimmick squeezes Grubby's nose before getting his glasses back as Aruzia asks Gimmick about the armlets disappearing and Gimmick states that the effects are lasting longer and longer; meaning he lied to us that the machine was perfected. That is just peachy.
Anyhow; Eunice informs everyone to leave so the King can rest some more as Nogburt still appears to be miserable. The court jester doesn't look all that amused and bails stage left. So then we scene change to a sky shot of the hallway with a guard guarding the door smiling. I can see why; because it's time for the Tweeg/LB sideshow to commence. We pan up as Tweeg and LB are on the flimest wooden scaffolding even designed by Nogburt Castle. LB is talking and Tweeg tells him to shut up because that will give them away; which LB replies (and I'm paraphrasing here): Don't worry; no one will take us! (Vinny laugh). HAHA! Tweeg tells him to not mind the bad jokes (Oh really Tweeg? His jokes on you are his best gimmick don'tcha know...) as they lower the scaffolding; as we discover that they are outside King Nogburt's royal bed chamber. Tweeg paints the walls; and then yells at the guard to duck as he paints the wooden door. That is a great way to get the guard to move; I'll say that much. And the color stylists' creditability streak continues as the pink paint has turned red for no reason. So Tweeg opens the door ajar and then he stammers when he sees all the armlets in a pile in front of Nogburt's royal bed. Then we get another continuity error as we cut to a shot of Tweeg and LB looking from the door from a further angle; and the door has no red (pink) paint on it whatsoever. Tweeg of course yells that he's going to be rich; which LB has little faith of that happening. Then Eunice actually notices Tweeg and asks why he is even here; causing Tweeg to stammer like an idiot. LB then proclaims that we are going to be rich; and Eunice tells Tweeg to find something to haul away all the armlet away which causing Tweeg to do the TOING sound in shock and amazement; before turning to glee. So he bails and returns with a sack; and starts filling up the sack with armlets; and then we cut to outside the castle on a roadway as Tweeg takes the sacks and puts them in the wagon.
Tweeg goes on and on about getting all this gold and he thinks Elinore will be jealous of him; and that Quellor will make him a member of MAVO. I thought bringing the salt crystals over to MAVO got him into the group? So does that mean that it's like he's a MAVO member in name only; like several TNA guys were "Frontline In Name Only"? Is this a trial separation or something? LB does his usual retorts; and then Tweeg decides that giving them to Elinore would only serve to her taking all the credit for herself like a heel (thus turning Tweeg babyface by proxy); so he'll go to MAVO directly instead. So LB pulls the wagon away stage left with Tweeg in the front as usual; and we then pan to a sky shot at the ramparts of the castle as the babyfaces including Queen Lillabert are watching. Lillabert is confused over them not accepting payment of their services. Ummm; they already got their payment, you just don't know what it is. At least it's a case of her not seeing it rather than being like Old Beanly and having no idea how to remember what was shown nor said. So then Eunice shows up and informs us that the Grundoberry juice was poisoned (which we all knew without doubt in the last episode when Gimmick was testing the sample. Again; this is what happens when you try to do a serial in a episodic culture) which stuns Lillabert as they ask if there is an antidote which Eunice claims that there is. However; it is a rare flower grown in one place know as the Jungle With No Name; which causes Aruzia to panic because that is more than a day's travel. Plus; they only have 24 hours to adminster the antidote to King Nogburt. Of course; Teddy points out that they can take the airship which would get them there in no time. However; this actually presents a problem because that will leave them open to a Gutang counterattack; which Aruzia is now crying because if they don't use the airship, then her father will die. And yes; she does say die here. I point this out because many people think Ken Frosse is a fuddy-duddy; when he is not. Again; his response to the movie Ted should have been a clue to how far he was willing to take this show in terms of BS&P.
Teddy tells Aruzia not to worry because they'll get those flowers and defend the castle at the same time. Grubby acts all confused about how they are going to pull this off (he stammers; then he acts tough, and then asks how); and Teddy claims that he has a Krackpotkin plan. Okay; he didn't say the Krackpotkin part; it was a clue in how successful this plan is going to be. Anyhow; I'm guessing that this is late afternoon because when we fade to black and return with the airship rising from the castle; it is nighttime. AFTER HAPPY HOUR (after dark) indeed. In that case; I'll let it slide as a continuity error. Okay; here's one of those moments where I think the animators lost all sense of logic: So we hear from Teddy saying that they'll get to the Jungle With No Name (which is like saying Untitled) within a few hours. And then here come the Gutangs in their flying machines as Teddy states that it's like a full-scale invasion. It looks like the same amount of flying machines in the beginning of Secret Of The Illiops; so how can this be a full-scale invasion when that was a raid? So one of the flying machines fires spear arrows and this sequence takes literally forever to finish as everyone ducks. Now Gimmick ducks the last one (the other three spear arrows hit the side of the airship); and you would think that we would never see it again. Nope; we cut to a shot of the airbag of the airship and the spear arrow pops the balloon. Wait; what?! There's no way that spear should have even made contact because when Gimmick ducked which the arrow misses by two inches, Gimmick is effectively 10-12 feet (I'm not talking about two Octopedes Grubby!) underneath the airbag; so how did the arrow pop the balloon. And it wasn't like the arrow somehow went up and hit the balloon from underneath; it popped the balloon from the upper right side of the airbag. This is straight out of 1980's continuity; and the creators should be ashamed of this spot. So the airship flutters around like a balloon that is out of air and we get a sky shot of the ground; as they are about to crash, and that ends the segment nine minutes in. This would be good if the animators and the writers were not actively sabotaging themselves.
After the commercial break; we head to a shot of Nogburt Castle AFTER HAPPY HOUR (which died about two days ago their time) and then a western pan shot to notice that the airship has landed without much damage other than the balloon. I mention this because when the trio pops out of the carnage looking rather fine (and I'm dead certain Gimmick is lying about having minor injuries); we notice that the duplication machine is busted with springs coming out and one of the wheels that allows the airship to land is busted. Okay; I can see the duplication machine being busted; so what is the point of having a broken wheel on the airship? Which means to Grubby: No we cannot take off; nor make more copies of soliders as the Nogburt soliders which have been duplicated with the duplication machine (remember that the second crystal has the Valkyrie Profile logic of being images; but act like solid beings) come out in full force marching out of the castle (and this is surprisely well done considering Shin Won's normally awful animating of crowd shots); and taking the ramparts with catapults. Teddy claims that they now have a fighting chance. Sure you do; the numbers game is in your favor, like a heel. There are troops in the bushes and windows with bows and crossbows; as the Gutangs strike first because the babyfaces always have to give the first strike to the heels; and then they fire back as two arrows go through the tailsection of the flying machine before it gets crushed in the front with a boulder. Huh. Gutang bails off with the parachute (again; TaleSpin did this too, so it's nothing new) and the trio approves of this violence against airplanes. I shake my head and want to say it; but I promised to be on my best behavior; so let's move onto a Gutang being distracted by arrows so much that we get another continuity error: The spot is supposed to be that the flying machine heads straight for the roof and crash into the roof; but it crashes right into the side of the castle. Even more hilarious is the fact that it crashes into the side and it's only about two feet above the soliders that the sharpnel that flies after the crash should have killed them or seriously injuried them.
I realize that they are images; but as noted in Double Grubbys; they were treated as if they were actual solid beings. So; WHAT?! Gutang falls into the drink with a parachute which is pointless since Grubby fell into the moat without such a thing and he fell from a greater height than this Gutang; and without armor. DUMB! So from the tower entrance comes the court jester looking on as the Gutangs retreat from the scene. As this is happening; all the images start fizzling out just as the court jester is practicing the fine art of not being seen. Remember that Gimmick claimed that the effects were lasting longer and longer. Well; the length of time is really about four hours tops. So much for that idea. Speaking of stupid moments; the court jester stammers as he gets that they are not really soliders at all; and runs down the stairs and out of the castle. He runs to the royal stables and grabs a lantern. An ordinary lantern. Where is the signal lantern he used in the last episode which looked cool? I'm guessing this was done because someone complained about striking matches; which is on par with Disney Channel/Toon Disney editing out match strikes in TaleSpin. A lot of editing mind you. So the court jester runs out of the royal stables and who should appear but Princess Aruzia and Prince Arin. Where in the world was Prince Arin been in the last 12 minutes or so?! They notice the court jester with the lantern and then get the LIGHT BULB OF BLOODY CLARITY that the court jester is signalling for the Gutangs to attack. Now can you Illiper stop acting like total morons and admit that the court jester was a Gutang. I mean; the entire outfit might as well have a sign that sezs: "I am a Gutang", and I betcha the Illipers would never notice. I can understand Old Beanly getting confused because that is his gimmick; but Princess Aruzia and Prince Arin falling for this?! And of course; as they say this, the Gutang court jester lights the top of the tower like a lighthouse to make that attempt to stop him an epic fail. So we cut to the remaining Gutang airplanes as one of the Gutangs turns his back to look at the castle; and notices the light.
So the leader of this assault orders everyone to turn around and launch a new assault; and thus everyone turns around. So the court jester is about to leave; when Prince Arin yells for him to stop in the name of the king; and the court jester hides around the spiral staircase; and then appears to kick Arin in the chest. Arin takes the bump over the stairs and hangs onto the side of the steps for dear left. Yeah; an unarmed court jester beats Prince Arin with one kick. Lame! Even lamer; the court jester runs past Aruzia and Aruzia does absolutely nothing to stop him. If this was remade; Aruzia trips this court jester and he is captured and placed in prison. What a great way to make your two focal point babyfaces look completely weak there guys! So Aruzia helps Arin out (actually if this was remake; Aruzia would have tripped him up and is about to grab him; but notices Arin was hanging on and slipping; which prompts her to help Arin while the jester escape. This would actually be a really great sequence of spots; but of course this doesn't happen.); as the court jester goes into the royal stable and finally changes into a Gutang; so we never get to see their faces in the armored masks that they wear. I'm guessing that if the show had continued and not run out of money; then we would have seen what the Gutangs looked like. Chalk that one up for a dead end angle. So we go to the sky shot as four flying machines are flying over the castle like the castle is King Kong; and all Gimmick claims is that they got stronger than ever. There are only four flying machines left; and there were at least six of them during this assault. They are not stronger than ever; you just cannot admit that the duplication plan has fallen flat on it's face. More on that later. Anyhow; we cut to Teddy asking Grubby about having root stew; and Grubby points out that they used all of it during the last raid. Teddy goes over to Gimmick asking him for the status on the duplicator and that will take some time they don't have. So Teddy realizes that only a miracle can save them now...and in comes Old Beanly on top of Wooly doing a spot that Kit and Baloo would later steal. Then the Gutangs decide to fire arrows at the trio despite the fact that they have no counter to it; like heels should do. Wooly is angry as he yells at them to cut it off because they could hurt someone with those. Umm; they are heels Wooly; hurting was the point of this.
Anyhow; Wooly has some orange daisy flowers with him which pretty much gives away the finish well in advance as the flying machine fires more arrows at Wooly; and Wooly grabs one of them with ease, making the trio look weak. What a shock?! Wooly proclaims that he's getting kind of mad. I love real comments that aren't supposed to be real comments as he runs with the arrow and fires it northwest; over the Gutang's head and nailing the propellors; destroying the thing. Yes; it took one yeti like creature with a forgetful royal messenger to subdue two flying machines as Wooly manages to grab the wheels of the second flying machine firing arrows at him. Wooly's response to that is and this is an exact quote: "That's no way to make friends!". I laughed when he said that. He has no clue that the Gutangs are NOT here to MAKE new friends. Even more so; he grabbed the bottom of the machine and throws it into a tree; which crumbles the entire flying machine when it comes down. Way to go Wooly indeed! You sure made a new friend after that. No, not at all. We see the machine in pieces as the Gutang has a grade three concussion as Wooly wants them to play nice. How can you not like Wooly after this?! He beat the heels without even realizing how much of a scoiopath he sounds. Grubby approves of this beatdown as we see Arin with sword in hand running out of the castle with four Nogburt guards. So the Gutangs all retreat; and of course we have to break logic yet again as there were four flying machines when we started and two of them got destroyed by Wooly; yet three of them fly away stage left. The babyfaces all cheer for this logic break as Arin thanks the trio and Wooly for stopping the attack; but Teddy isn't all that thrilled because they failed in the real mission to get to the Jungle With No Name. So they walk off stage left without saying more; and we fade to black. We return to Nogburt's bedroom as they ask about the king's status and Eunice declares that he is knocking on heaven's door right now.
Arin is upset over not noticing that the court jester was a spy and makes no mention that it was a Gutang. In other words; the king got what was coming to him because his siblings are as dumb as Old Beanly. What a way to make babyfaces there guys?! Teddy of course deflects the blame onto the trio for not getting to the Jungle With No Name in time; even though it means nothing because it was logic breaks that caused the airship to be destroyed. So then Wooly remembers that he has the flowers and gives them to Princess Aruzia to sniff and make her feel better. Yes; Wooly acted unconcerned that Aruzia's father was going to die; and Aruzia wasn't remotely offended by this. Wooly sold this like a scoiopath; and yet, it's funny because the babyface asked where he got the flowers from and Wooly claims that he got them from the Jungle With No Name. I won $10 from myself for this finish as Aruzia hands over the flowers to Gimmick (who did ask for them nicely) and uses the magnifying glass and deduces that they are a Floweris Minnesotais; which means Flower from Minnesota, indicating that the Jungle With No Name is basically the state of Minnesota in real life. That sounded insulting. Anyhow; Eunice takes the flowers and proclaims that there is no time to lose and will start the antidote at once. She leaves; and Aruzia embraces Wooly as she is so happy because Wooly basically saved Nogburt from certain death. That is the correct booking finish and this would have been a great moment if the writers and animator had not completely screwed up the build up to this. Aruzia's hugging looks emotionless and she screwed up because she sezs thank you twice in a row while hugging and it looked awfully akward. Like most of the animation on this show in general. Wooly's response was awesome: I only picked them; I didn't grow them! That is pretty funny; and it makes perfect sense. Of course; every episode has to have a Teddy Ruxpin Song Of Doom; so they basically sing about the Wooly What's-It. Yes; the Wooly What's-It has not only theme music, but a full song. Are you listening Charles WildCat?! You should have complained to Disney about it.
Basically; it's simply footage of Wooly walking around, climbing mountains and stuff while the critters all look on. Basically; the song is about what is a Wooly What's-It and at this point; the Wooly What's-It was a really big mystery to everyone; so I was shocked when I discovered that he was a Snowzo in storyline (mainly because they didn't didn't build it up until about ten minutes before we found out; which was better than the Hermit when everyone and their dog figured it out that it was Teddy's father, almost from the moment the hermit appeared). Basically; they showed Wooly in the same flower field as I realize that this is supposed to be how Wooly obtained the flowers. The only problem with this is that Old Beanly is NOT with him which if you recall from earlier, Wooly was tagging along with Beanly. So the writers and animators cannot keep continuity straight on an obvious sequence with only two people involved. This is a mistake Disney would almost NEVER make. If the song was supposed to explain how Wooly got the flowers (which it appears that this was the case); then at least know what happened like 15 minutes ago! It's not rocket science folks. Grubby hilariously calls him a mental giant in roundabout terms; which is accurate compared to the people creating this show. They also call him a pushover which makes absolutely no sense at all since he demonstrated that he can destroy two flying machines without a second thought. He walks off and then we scene change to MAVO Headquarters (which looks like a really out of control mushroom) as we hear some guard guy doing marching orders like a drill sarge which is himself. I should note that the pathway to headquarters is very narrow and contains a wooden bridge. So we see Tweeg and LB crossing the bridge and we see a brown caped troll guy with a hood which covers the top of his head and shadows his forehead area, wearing the symbol of MAVO as a necklace and a black robe; carrying a spear like device which seems to designed from recycle bullet shooting guns.
I approve of this as I realize that this is the rant debut of Iggy Barnostclum (I hope I spelled it right); who is the bodyguard of MAVO HQ. He is actually a fun serious heel as his gimmick is to recite the rules and regulations in an effort to tell the other guy to go away. I like this heel more than Miss Maggotheart; but that is just me as Tweeg demands to see Quellor at once; which Iggy blows off because no one sees Quellor without his permission. It appears that Iggy has more power than Quellor does in this show. And we are all surprised when everyone turned heel on him much later in the series?! Iggy citation is in page 16, line 12 which is as hilariously absurd as Zummi's spell chants. So Tweeg puts the sack down and opens it to reveal the armlets; which get a sound effect. Iggy then ponders this over; and we get a massive whiplash jump cut as the heels are walking on the other side; effectively causing Tweeg and LB to teleport about 15-20 feet from where they were standing. Iggy of course claims that rules are made to be broken. Of course they are Iggy; you three are supposed to be heels. You are supposed to subvert DA RULES (FAIRY GODPARENTS!). So we scene change to inside Quellor's throne room as apparently; we missed Iggy knocking on the door because Quellor acts as if Iggy was behind it before the door opens. That looked awkward. So Iggy comes in with the sack of armlets; and Quellor is hardly impressed with this haul. Even so; we pan over to the door with Tweeg and LB; as Tweeg is acting like this is his ticket to stardom. I should note that Quellor has seen the bag full of armlets and Tweeg proclaims that there is more where that came from; and suddenly Quellor seems interested in this and tells Tweeg to go back to the wagon and get the other sack. Tweeg is so happy to oblige as we scene change back to the wagon as Tweeg is mocking LB for doubting him. LB goes to the back of the wagon and the bag slowly starts to flatten out as the armlets are vanishing (since they are images after all) which LB notices. The animation is similar to the one last seen in the Halloween special (that wasn't aired on Halloween) of Ted E. Bear. HA!
LB tries to tell him that Tweeg has been had; but Tweeg doesn't care and cuts him off everytime because he is so full of himself; he'll have an animal change and become Darkwing Duck! BLAM! HEE HEE! Missed again Drake! YOU ARE NOT...POW! OUCH! Ummmm...Anyhow; Tweeg proclaims that he feels light as a feather and LB responds by proclaiming that that what the bag weighes now. Tweeg grabs the sack; opens it up and it's empty. Cue Vinny laugh from LB. BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Tweeg's face is so priceless here that he has successfully made the episode past average now; thus ruling out a thumbs down; in spite of what happens next: Out comes Quellor and Iggy walking across the rope bridge telling Tweeg that this paltry spoils will cover the expenses and demands Tweeg to hand over the second sack. Now the armlets disappeared BEFORE Quellor even arrived; and they had the original bag, so they should have known about Tweeg's "deception" a long time ago. But no; Quellor acts as if he never checked the bag out. He should have noticed this before he came out because it happened all during that. Bad, bad logic break there guys. Tweeg of course is so dead now that he puts the sack behind his back as it's clear no one is buying it; so Tweeg blames LB for it; and Quellor's whites turn light blue for absolutely no reason whatsoever. Quellor gleefully points out how stupid that excuse is and grabs Tweeg by the robe; and threatens to punish him severelly for lying to him before dropping him on his can with a good bump. Tweeg complains about this while doing a great bump onto the front of the wagon as Quellor leaves and Iggy points the spear in his face and recites Volume 27 (and Iggy is wearing red gloves for some reason), Article 23, fourth line down that anyone interuptting Iggy is subject to bigger punishment. Tweeg loses his sandals on cue as he gets up and simply walks off. LB mocks him as he calls him on a roll; but it's all downhill. HAHA!
This will lead to the big kangeroo court trial in Uncle Grubby by the way and also indirectly leads to Elinore being in charge while it ends with Quellor finally confronting Teddy for the first time; thus opening up the "Death Of Innocence Arc" in earnest. So we head to the fields of Nogburt on an eastern pan shot as the peanut plants are growing. Okay; peanuts (or potatoes; doesn't matter) take four to five months to grow; so it's doubtful that they would sprout after just five days. Second and this is an absolute logic break: The guards basically fizzled out in six hours or less; and it has been at least 24 hours since the peanuts were duplicated and planted. So they should all disappear with no plants spouting at all. NONE OF THIS MAKES ANY SENSE! So we see Nogburt, Grubby, Gimmick, Teddy and Prince Arin (Aruzia has disappeared from the scene for no reason) show off the fields and Grubby asks about the disappearing peanuts; which Gimmick points out that they have sprouted; so the vanishing doesn't count anymore. WHAT?! Teddy's explaination is more rational since he does claim that some things work better than others. Even so; the objects are still not going to last long enough for the 4-5 months required to grow them to full bloom. And there is no sure way of preventing them from disappearing before they eat the plants when they are harvested successfully. What a copout finish this is?! And...this is clearly an emergency stop gap because peanuts are the only thing growing in this kingdom. It doesn't solve the original problem which is to stop drought conditions from happening and there is no assurance that the Gutangs won't come back to finish the job. The amazing thing is: They are going to solve the drought problem; but it won't happen for at least another 25 episodes! Gimmick thinks that his adjustment on the duplicator worked and Nogburt is thankful because it gives them (false) hope and we get the sound effect to end the episode and the Nogburt story arc at 19:40. This is a perfect example of a good idea and the storyline was told well enough to make it worth watching; but the mess of animation errors, continuity errors and dumb booking in general makes this otherwise good story fall close to below average. The ending makes no sense at all! That's all you need to know about this cartoon series in general. No wonder TaleSpin turned out so well. ** 1/2 (50%).
THE REVIEW LINE
We end the Nogburt story arc on a mixed note as I have never seen a bigger whiplash of episode quality like this episode. Tweeg and LB were great as they set up the finish almost perfectly in terms of storyline and really set up the start of the "Death Of Innocence" arc (read: Captured); and Wooly had one of his better performances in the series although the first story arc was him at his best, so this wasn't all that awesome. Still; the main problems are the same flaws I am seeing in this show in general after watching nine episodes of this: They have a great story idea, and they have the characters to pull it off; but the writers have no idea how to even write a story that makes sense or have proper continuity (see the Wooly What's-It song: It was a great song and they actually did explain how Wooly got the flowers, but no Old Beanly even though we saw Wooly and Old Beanly tag along together earlier in the episode) ; the animation is Z-grade level awful (how many times have they screwed up the shot continuity and there wasn't many times to screw the shot continuity in this episode; but they managed to anyway); and that ending is a copout at best. This is so frustrating because they have a great idea; but they required Disney Television Animation level animation and writing, not this kind of treatment. And people wonder why so many critics think Canadian animation is always bad. For all the flank that Johnny Test gets; at least the shot continuity there is almost good, and it doesn't do anything that most modern cartoons don't do in America anyway. The problem with Johnny Test the show is Johnny Test the character himself. If Johnny Test wasn't the worst child character in history; Johnny Test the show would have been a show that surpasses even the Simpsons in terms of heat, intensity and quality. I mean that too. Here; it is like a 1960's cartoon done wrong in 1987 and it is more inexcusable when Gummi Bears and Ducktales have set the standard for television animation quality. It makes Teddy Ruxpin look like a third rate show at best. God bless Teddy Ruxpin but; he is climbing a major mountain and his legs get clipped from underneath him at every turn by this writing team and animation team. It's too bad because if this were remade today in Canada; it would look like a great adventure show that brings it in quality. They have the elements to pull it off. Yeah; I'm repeating myself here; but it's sad that this is happening. So that is it for that story arc and I will return for Father's Day with his show in 2015 and 2016 (I'll probably do the first story arc and second story arc next time; but no promises there); and by that time; I'll move the section to it's own folder; probably next year. So I'm off to rant on Mighty Ducks; which has better animation, but is a lot less than the sum of it's parts in almost every single other area. So....
Thumbs in the middle for this episode and I'll see you all next time.