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Crock Around The Clock
Reviewed: 04/01/2008
Is This Some Fairy Oddparent's Foreshadowing?
Editors Note: Myspace has the pilot episode Bulls of A Feather so I'll do that episode last while I finish episodes 4-13 first. I have got to find a Flash Player that will play the first third of episode two since I managed to get that third of episode two to work at Reboot; but I cannot get it to work on my Flash Player either on Firefox or IE. I am so screwed. Anyhow; time for our first episode for rant purposes to introduce the heels to the wonderful land of Wuz; plus allow us full voice acting from Kathleen as Butterbear plays a huge role in this episode. Yeah; they are pretty much evil schemers like the heels were in 101 Dalmatians: The Series; but this is a preschool cartoon so it at least has that excuse. 101D has no such excuse. So let's rant on shall we....?
This episode was written by Ken Koonce and David Weimers. I do not know who story edited this episode.
We begin this one in the WONDERFUL LAND OF WUZ as Narrator Stan would say. And you know it's wonderful when the thunderstorm going on is preschool colored. We head to Rhinokey's house as Stan proclaims that the weather is going to be nasty and colorful. I love real comments that aren't supposed to be real comments. And of course Rhinokey pops out just to crack another bad joke. Memo to Rhinokey: If you laugh like that; you are telegraphing to everyone that the joke isn't funny. Orange lightning shuts him up though for one second as he cracks a second bad joke and pulls the flower drapes on his window. We head to Moosel's lighthouse as we see Moosel (wearing the yellow rain hat) and Eleroo on the top of the look off. The telescope of doom makes it's debut on DTVA. Moosel wants to build an ark because it could rain forever allowing Eleroo to blow him off in a nice way. Eleroo gets scared after another thunderclap and then agrees to build one. Yeah; go figure. We head to Bumblelion's beehive house as Bumblelion boards up his windows from the inside. Now call me crazy; but would it make sense to board up from the outside. Don't tell me Bumble is going out of character and is afraid of a little thunderstorm there?! We then head to Crock's wooden tugboat as we see the debut for rant purposes of Crock who is half dinosaur and half crocodile. Ironically; the character designers made him look too much like a crocodile and nearly killed off the continuity that this series was shooting for. The thunderstorm wakes him up from his slumber on the hammock and you can just see the Balooness coming out of him and Crock's a heel here.
Crock (Disney's official line is Crock; but some in the know believe that it's Croc.) is voiced by Alan Oppenheimer and is in a much more suitable role than he was with Rhinokey. We head to the grass roof as we see two more Wuzzles (Crock's henchmen) fixing the roof for leaks. The half boar; half rat is Brat who speaks in grunts and babbles. He looks like an ugly mutated version of Beastly from Care Bears: The Nelevana Edition. The late Bill Scott voices him. The final heel Wuzzle is Flizard who is half lizard, half frog and all light purple with a really weird gold cap on his head which is shaped like a deformed horn. He looks like a mutated off-spring of LB from Teddy Ruxpin with arms actually. He is voiced by Brian Cummings and that is pretty much it for the major heels. There is Tycoon and a couple others; but they are bit players for the most part. Brat steals the hammer for goodness knows what reason (you think I can make out what Brat is saying? I'm amazed Crock can.) and nothing happens. Which is still enough for Crock to wonder what the fuss is about. Oh man; if this is what DTVA considers conflict then no wonder this show tanked.
Flizard explains the whole thing as a tropical fruit storm coming. If you don't get what a tropical fruit storm is then you have no business reading this rant. Crock calls it bullfinch feathers which has got to be the silliest BullS*** response I have ever heard and goes back to sleep. On the other hand; at least it's a million times better than hearing character saying “Crud! Snot! Fudge!” and such over the years in recent animation shows. Heck; I prefer aileron since it was fitting in TaleSpin. Crock proclaims that his boat can take it and the yellow thunderstorm punishes him by making Crock eat thunderbolt. HAHA! Sadly; Telecom screws the spot up (BS&P no doubt) because Crock should be covered in soot and the hammock should be in pieces; rather than disappear altogether. First logic break of the episode and I expect more to come at the rat this is going. This is what happens when you create a preschool show in 1985. Oh; and Crock fall was the weakest bump this side of Getting Antsy and even Crock blows it off. Crock jumps off his boat and decides to go to his favorite shopping store. This logically leads to no bump and.....
...to inside BatRat's HOUSE OF SKIS (okay; it's only a general store but my pun is a million times better) as Butterbear has a reasonable amount of stuff and puts it on the register counter. BatRat (Note From The Future: It's PackRat, but I didn't know that until much later on in ranting for this series) rings it in and Butterbear assures him that it will be all. She seems to have more stuff than her body weight which is still better than her wooden voice that's for sure. She only takes about a fourth of it and leaves. I guess she's on a prepaid plan from RatBat (I know; but he has no name to speak of so I'm winging it at this point) since no actual money was exchanged. We then cut to outside where Crock is fishing stuff out of a trash can. I guess he's showing Kit how it's really done. Oh come on; you knew that was coming a mile away! He cannot find anyway to eat; but does find a parasol which pretty much shows how much heat Crock has at this point. The thunderstorm continues and it's turned white. Crock walks around the store as we cut to Butterbear putting stuff down as Crock sneaks up from behind and...opens the parasol just as the FRUIT STORM OF DOOM starts. Nice selling from Crock on getting pelted by the fruit. Well; this has got to be the weirdest form of symbolism in the series since this must be some sort of sick idea of people throwing fruit at the bad actors from the heavens. Sadly; the parasol has more holes than Microsoft's quality control assurance. Hey; it's a million times better than Crock's version so shoot me.
Butterbear foolishly turns away from Crock and Crock steals her parasol and puts it behind her tail. Yeah; he's a schemer, but this is a preschool show so it's apporos. And this is why no one likes Swiper the Fox either. Although hearing Kathleen do the Swiper No Swiping line would be a million times funnier than when Dora does it. Butterbear realizes that her parasol is gone and her emotional response to it is so wooden that it would be insulting to Al Gore and Stephen Harper. Crock offers her the Microsoft Parasol of Gloom as a gesture of good will only known to him and Butterbear thanks him while the acting still continues to sound terrible. Butterbear asks him about keeping his head dry and Crock nearly blows his cover but recoils. And since this is a 1985 preschool show I betcha Butterbear sells it like a dumb bear. Crock tells her to leave before she catches cold and she sells it and leaves. At least Crock was smart enough to wait until she was out of the sight before using her parasol. Crock leaves opening up the parasol and calls it the good greed of the day. That was just there. We head to Butterbear's house and that is somehow the most normal house in the entire village of Wuz. We then see Butterbear putting glass bottles against the mouths of steel pipes running up the walls of the house as they pour Melon Cherry Rain into the bottle as Narrator Stan would say in the narration. The animation is great and this is delightfully weird; but the story is pretty lame thus far.
We head inside Butterbear's kitchen as she is putting labels of Butterbear's Peanut Jelly on the glass jar. Peanut Jelly; an allergic reaction just waiting to happen. Sadly; this is 1985 and allergic reactions were not a huge deal like they are today. And she gets it from the PIPES OF DOOM as shown when she opens the bottom window on the ground floor and places a jar underneath the mouth of a steel pipe. And while the pretty animation goes on; I have only one thing to say: EEWWWWWWWWW!!! Narrator Stan proclaims that some Wuzzles are prepared for such rainy days. This of course logically lead too back inside Crock's wooden tugboat as he is relaxing on his blue love seat reading the LIBERIAL RED BOOK OF LIES. Damn; even in this cartoon and in 1985, that pesky liberal book NEVER seems to go away. And of course the leaking roof on top is dropping tomatoes on his head; further cementing the theory that humans are throwing fruit from the heavens. At least they know that tomatoes are a fruit. Brat eats some fruit on the rebound as he's the only one doing ANYTHING at this point. One of them finally hits Crock on the nose and he's calling it terrible. Maybe Brat and Flizard should have FIXED that roof already. No witty Joey Styles crank here. I'm not going to waste my A material on this episode or this series for that matter.
Sadly; the roof caves in with the weirdest coconuts I have ever seen (if Brat is brown; why isn't the coconuts?) dropping on the hapless heels. Crock blows them off because they didn't fix the roof. The henchmen scatter like scalded dog despite Crock not looking all that angry. Assertive yeah; but not angry. Crock looks up and calls his roof cardboard despite clearing looking like wood. Logic break #2 for the episode and a really bad one. How can this be a BS&P error? Is wood a forbidden phrase in 1985? And you thought Nintendo was a censorship monkey? This leads to a shot of the Wuzzle's village in profile while it's raining fruit and that leads to Crock outside with the good parasol taking a good walk. Well; he's got more courage than I do at this point. He stops in front of the doghouse belonging to a Birddog. Yeah; even the pets are fused. Crock reveals a bone and calls out for the Birddog which the Birddog doesn't sell. See; Crock wants to live inside Birddog's house (which has got to be the ultimate burial act for him by the writers) and get Birddog out. Scene changer (and it's ugly man and pretty much a jump cut) and Crock knocks on the front door and it opens to reveal a BirdDog who is mostly bird and purple green in color. Could be worse I guess.
Crock does the professional door to door salesman routine on him (which is so funny on SO MANY LEVELS) and it works as BirdDog growls and then flies away. Yeah; even in 1985, dogs are dumb what a surprise?! Narrator Stan blows off both (Crock for stealing his house and BirdDog for being dumb) and Birddog gets pelted and then stops selling and swoops down as Crock enters the house and it's too big even for him. BirdDog bites Crock right on the tail onscreen which makes WD-France look like a total wussy when Kit bite Don Karnage on the bum and the Birddog's house gets destroyed by Crock on the rebound. Another piece of fruit bounces off Crock's nose as we head back to Butterbear's house as Butterbear sits in her red chair peeling fruit. Butterbear might look like Sunni and Molly in appearance; but their personalities are much different and Sunni and Molly's voice talents are a million times better. A knock on the door beckons and Butterbear is forced to answer it. We cut to outside to see Crock nailing the door and then he bails as the door opens and out comes Butterbear. Butterbear looks around and finally the official story finally starts to click in nearly six and a half minutes in as Crock appears from the outhouse (I think) and he's miserable as heck.
Crock sells a cold which is actually quite believable all things considered. Trust me; I have had a miserable winter with all the illnesses going around so at least I have some sympathy heat on Crock even though he doesn't earn it. Butterbear agrees to let him in as a gesture of good will until the storm passes and Crock sells it and comes in declaring that he would NEVER impose his will on her. Remember that for later. Crock quickly runs to the red chair and parks himself right in it as Butterbear arrives OUT OF NOWHERE with a tray of goodies. Geez; that looked pretty contrived if you ask me. Crock loves this that he almost blows his cover again; but recoils which looks contrived ; but Butterbear doesn't notice. She's THAT dumb. I think I know where Antia got her personality from. Butterbear does want some company and by god she's going to get some company and probably regret it after this. Narrator Stan calls this all a big Crock of Trouble which is just there to suck joke wise as Crock sleeps to end the segment nearly eight minutes in.
After the commercial break; it's morning in the WONDERFUL LAND OF WUZ (or WUSS depending on what mood I was in when writing this rant) as there is a Fruit Salad Rainbow in these parts. You can hear Hoppo singing in the background for no real reason whatsoever and no logic to go with it as we head to Butterbear's house and it's still raining fruit?! WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?! Even Narrator Stan is at a loss to figure this out. Logic break #2 for the episode as we head inside to see Butterbear still wondering why the rain won't stop and Crock eats more food on the red love seat. We then cut outside and actually see Flizard throwing fruit on the window! Logic Break #2 has been popped out of the episode. Good thing too; because that one was more glaring than Jack Tretton's interview with Vicious Sid. Narrator Stan proclaims that Flizard is faking the weather. No crap Sherlock! Brat is eating the profits as they are throwing fruit up from the catapult. I guess the land of WUZ is thirty miles from Drekmore. Oh; and Butterbear is looking from the front window which means she should clearly SEE Brat using such a device and faking such weather; but walks away from the window and asks about Crock's cold. Logic break #2 for the episode and a really glaring on at that. Even more so then the raining fruit one that was popped out.
Crock nearly blows his cover right in front of DumberBear (yeah; I went there, but it's true) and recoils talking about fruitmonia. Somehow; I think the writers hate fruit. I hope they don't see that “Ain't Going To Kill You” PSA on television where the children scream and scatter like scalded dogs because they see an apple (How stupid do they think children are to do that?); because I can just see then screaming and running away from the TV set. Dumberbear walks off to the cellar to can some fruit (of course) and that allows Brat and Flizard to appear in the window. Crock stops selling (or lack of selling in this case) of the cold and goes to the window to blow them off because they are supposed to be cranking up a storm. Flizard tells him that they don't have enough fruit to make a storm last forever. Crock realizes this is a problem so he huddles over to the henchmen and hatches his MIMI JOKE ZONE PLAN complete which actual whisper yell. Thankfully; Narrator Stan butts in to blow Crock off so we don't get to hear the plan. Good spot there guys. We head downstairs in the cellar as Dumberbear finishes putting her jars on the shelf and then hears banging from upstairs as Crock is in the kitchen banging on the pots and pans on all day while groaning. Okay; that was a neat spot. He even breaks a RIC FLAIR BROOMSTICK OF DOOM for good measure. Shane Douglas fanboy!
He then flops onto the floor as Dumberbear opens the door and sees Crock lying there acting so bad that it is only matched by the wooden voice acting from Kathleen. Crock tells her not to worry as he has called the doctors and that logically leads to outside as Brat and Flizard appear in white doctor's clothes with the stretcher and the first aid kit. That stretcher looks like something out of WWII I should note. Maybe the LAND OF WUZ is three thousand miles east of Cape Suzette. They waltz in and Flizard puts down his first-aid kit and opens it up. Dumberbear asks if he will be all right and Flizard invokes the SLEDGEHAMMER OF PLOT right on his left leg. OUCH! Now that's pretty violent for a preschool show. I mean this is closer to something you would see on The Ripping Friends. Sadly; the spot was screwed up by Telecom and Crock's selling was not good. Crock blows off Flizard for doing that stupid spot. I'm SHOCKED Toon Disney allowed such a spot since that is easily an act that children could mimic. Kind of makes the gun pointing spots Toon Disney cuts on TaleSpin look like the hypocritical BS that they are. Dumberbear asks how bad is it and Flizard declares that it's so bad that they will have to operate. I know this is 1985; but this is getting just a wee bit over the top for a TV-Y cartoon here guys.
Flizard pushes Dumberbear into the next room because this will not be pretty or for the weak of heart. Geez; that's not a good confidence booster for pathos in DTVA isn't it? Flizard slams the door and there is bad screaming and doing damages to wooden stuff using sharp international object as if they are doing some heinously bad torture spots here. Only Crock isn't getting the spots at all and merely groaning. PSYCHOLOGY?! In a preschool cartoon? What are the odds?! Crock puts on the fake cast on the left leg which is apporos since Flizard basically BROKE it with the hammer earlier. They put Crock on the stretcher and both Brat and Flizard open the door and carry him into the living room telling Dumberbear that Crock is out of action for the next six weeks. Dumberbear sells it like the dumb bear that she is and declares that Crock will get the best medical care possible. Scene changer leads to Dumberbear cooking some chicken on the stove in the kitchen as the SMELL OF DOOM allows Crock to enjoy sitting in a wheelchair with a bum leg in the living room. Dumberbear finishes her work and goes into the living room and presents the meal onto the side of the wheelchair (which Dumberbear bought from RatBat no doubt) and Crock thanks her for it of course. He thinks he will be strong enough to run errands which Dumberbear blows off because he's in no condition to do that with a broken leg which may or may not be legit. How dumb is Butterbear not to notice that Crock spoke as if he wasn't injured?
Crock agrees with her to recoil and this is getting lame now. Crock throws him the PRINTER PAPER LIST OF DOOM into her lap (nice throw there) and Dumberbear realizes that this will take a while. Crock doesn't mind as long as she rolls him onto the porch outside for some fresh air which even has Dumberbear looking quite...um....flustered. So we head to the Wuz Park (helpfully labeled as such from the sign in purple letter in more preschool fun) which proves that while the physical creativity is top notch; the verbal is pretty lame. We pan over and see Dumberbear pushing Crock's wheelchair across the park path while Crock relaxes like the fake invalid that he is. Crock blows her off for not watching the bumps as Dumberbear does all the work. We go up the hill for some some time wasting as Crock's wheelchair is on two wheels and moving up at a 45 degree angle which looks really dangerous now. Sadly; NOTHING happens making as they make it to the top of the hill and that's it. Yeah; that was uber lame as we return back to Dumberbear's house as the babyfaces show up to see Dumberbear look bushed on her red lawn chair. This would be the routine exchange notes on the situation I saw a lot on Gummi Bears. We then take a real comment that shouldn't be a real comment spot as Dumberbear calls Crock very demanding and we cut to inside as Crock is eating like a pig. Too funny as Bumblelion notices Crock in the window and wonders what he doing here while calling him a freeloader. Dumberbear blows Bumblelion off for being such a meanie and then walks back into the house because she has a favor to complete. The babyfaces doesn't buy it as Bumblelion and the gang march off to prove that Crock is a crock so to speak.
Scene changer ensues and we head back into the living room as Crock is picking bones from his mouth as Dumberbear tells Crock that she is leaving for the marketplace to get some more stuff. She even takes her coat which is absolutely stupid on the writers and animators part because Butterbear never wore a coat even when it was raining fruit and it's not raining. Logic break #3 for the episode and another glaring one at that. Dumberbear is gone; so Crock uncorks the fake cast from his leg and starts walking which indicates that the hammer shot was indeed a work. Crock looks into the fridge and it's empty after fourteen lunches. Maybe if you weren't such a pig then there would be more food than there is now. Why do you think Dumberbear went to market? Crock goes into the cellar and sees all of Dumberbear's canned goods on the shelf. He's in CANNED FOOD HEAVEN as they say. Crock suddenly has a brainstorm and that leads to the scene changer which shows how ugly 1985 was at the time as Flizard and Brat load up the canned treats right into a black truck. Wait a minute? He cannot afford a roof over his head; but he has a truck? Why not just sell the truck and...oh never mind; my head hurts thinking about this cartoon more and more. We then cut into the cellar where Crock drills holes with the corkscrew handle as Flizard asks why he doing that. Crock calls this his way of proving that he didn't steal her canned goods. One problem: The holes aren't big enough for the jars to go in. Logic Break #4 for the episode and I betcha Dumberbear sells it as if that is possible. Even a 10 year old can figure this one out; but this is for 3-6 year olds so there you go.
Another scene changer leads to inside Bumblelion's room as he is watching television on his question mark chair. Is this some rib on Doctor Who #7? And if so; did the doctor ever visit the LAND OF WUZ? He sees a commercial ad on television which shows Crock selling Dumberbear's canned goods on Lazyboy Lane which gets Bumblelion the LIGHTBULB OF BLOODY CLAIRTY. If only Dumberbear would get that and realize how duped she is not to see that coming a mile away. We cut to outside the wooden boat as we see the entire roster of Wuzzle creatures (and sadly none of the main characters from the book I should note) buying all of Dumberbear's canned goods from Crock. Bumblelion is not amused about this and I don't blame him. Bumblelion storms in and somehow behind Crock (wearing the most foolish disguise in history that if he wore that in real life he would be in jail by the FASHION POLICE OF LAW) despite being in front of him when it see Crock in the faraway shot. Logic Break #5 for the episode and he calls Crock out. Crock sells it as if he isn't Crock of course. Geez; he sounds like Beastly when he does his disguises. I never thought the Care Bears ever stole something from the Wuzzles (okay; they stole about half of the show for the Nelvana edition; so shoot me); but they managed. He claims to be Crock's brother Wilfred who is the name of the lead character for the new Valkyrie Profile game on the Nintendo DS. Yeah; Nintendo stole another brand from Sony; what a surprise?
Bumbelion doesn't buy it and blows Crock off. He bails and hops into Rhinokey's car (with Rhinokey's waiting for him I should note) and they speed off. Crock gets on the conveniently placed motorcycle and speed off behind them. Yeah; that wasn't contrived in the very least; no siree! We head back inside Dumberbear's house as Dumberbear is sweeping the floor. Must have bought a new broom too I see; otherwise it's Logic Break #6. Bumblelion storms in without knocking like a spoiled like half bee/half lion and demands answers. Well; only one answer and that is Crock. That leads to seeing Crock doing lame stunts on the motorcycle to waste more time and then Bumblelion telling Dumberbear that Crock is duping her. Crock then takes a nasty bump into a rock and goes flying right through the top window and manages to get into Dumberbear's bedroom and flops right on bed; remembering to put the fake cast back on the left leg. Nice CONTINUITY there guys as Bumblelion declares that there will be an empty bed and opens the door; only to see Crock in bed asleep with the covers on. Bumblelion is screwed of course as Dumberbear states the obvious like the duped bear that she is. Sadly; Crock's cover is blown as the cast is on the wrong way which makes no sense in logic since the cast could NEVER fit in such a manner without the leg shattering like Sid Vicious in WCW in 2001. Logic Break #6 for the episode as Dumberbear nicely blows him off and they leave Crock to rest closing the door.
Crock replaces the cast before Bumblelion reopens the door and nothing else happens after that. Door closes as we head to the cellar as Dumberbear reads off her storage list and then notices that her stuff is gone despite showing no real emotion whatsoever. Crock comes down limping on a crutch and tells her that the Molehogs stole her food and burrowed through the floor to escape. Yeah sure. Well; at least they showed a bottle of opened stuff to make it look better; but it still doesn't explain how the Molehogs stole so much food to begin with. Dumberbear is amazed since this has never happened before and Crock tells her that they are bad this year. By now; anyone with an IQ of 20 or above would realize that this is all a load of BS; but Dumberbear takes gullible to a brand new low. Crock offers her a sack as an offering of good will and Dumberbear thanks him for it and wonders how she can repaid him and Crock giggles on that he'll think of something. This logically leads to RatBat's HOUSE OF SKIS as we see Bumblelion with the shopping cart buying nothing but honey. Well; he is half bee so it's actually apporos.
He then sees Dumberbear with her shopping cart and we have the standard exchanging of notes. That talk logically leads to outside near the wooden tugboat as Bumblelion shows Dumberbear that she has been duped since it was Crock stealing and eating her canned goods. Butterbear finally stops acting dumb and even then she sounds so wooden when she curses him for stealing her stuff. I'm glad Kathleen's acting career ended after this cartoon is over. The babyfaces are hiding behind the bushes and steals one of her canned goods back to show her the way. Butterbear proclaims that he treated him like his own mother allowing Rhinokey to crack another semi-bad joke about his mother throwing him out. Bumbelion rubs his arm and wants to really let Crock have it but Butterbear (yes; the running joke is over now. Live with it.) stops him because she has a better MIMI JOKE ZONE PLAN to really teach Crock a lesson. They huddle together and whisper the plan as Rhinokey proclaims that this is the best practical joke ever. I'll be the judge of that thank you. This officially ends the segment 15 minutes in. Again; this has been pretty blah thus far...
After the commercial break; we return to Butterbear's house as Narrator Stan does his intentional error speech of the episode. So what did he get wrong this time around? Well; he isn't going to get anything hard to swallow. Speaking of Crock; we head into the bedroom where Flizard and Brat hand Crock a can of paint and Crock paints his body in red spots. Teddy Ruxpin and his friends ribbed this spot later in their show and made it into a real illness so to speak. Crock closes the window as Flizard and Brat make like ghosts and disappear just as the door opens. Crock goes into his bad groaning noises as Butterbear enters with his dinner and Butterbear acts as if nothing is wrong or anything. Her fake acting sounds like her real acting which exposes Kathleen as a voice talent right there. Crock calls his illness the Tropically Googly Wuzzles. Well; at least they are keeping the WUZZLE PUNS OF THE DAY to a minimum in this episode as Butterbear is shocked to hear this. Crock explains the illness and the cause as Butterbear decides to accept this and proclaims that he will get everything that he deserves. Wow; that fake acting is so legit that it isn't funny. Butterbear leaves the room and closes the door as Crock proclaims that he is a genius. Only in your bubbly world Crock as the thermometer is still in his mouth and I'm amazed that he hasn't swallowed it yet.
Butterbear goes downstairs and tells the babyfaces what he has and Hoppo blows it off because there is no such thing. Bumblelion declares that it is and Rhinokey gets all giddy because the MIMI JOKE ZONE PLAN is about to start. Butterbear proclaims that Crock is going to be treated as of he is really, really sick. I think you should know what is to follow since it's similar in nature to An Idol Rich was five years later. Cheap scene changer beckons and we head to inside Crock's bedroom as Crock is asleep. The door opens and slams shut which wakes Crock up and in comes Butterbear ready to screw....ERRR..make Crock feel nice and good at home. Butterbear tells Crock that she has researched into the Googly Wuzzles even more than he did and it's worse than she thought. However; she tells Crocks to relax because she'll make it all better. Butterbear walks away as Crock looks confused as Narrator Stan proclaims that Crock is so screwed now in roundabout terms. We head down to the kitchen as Rhinokey, Moosel and Butterbear are whipping up a soup that will make Crock's taste-buds run to cover so to speak. Geez; even the food is fused and not in a good way judging by Moosel covering his nose when he gave Rhinokey some liver spinach. Butterbear turns around and asks if the medicine is ready and Rhinokey proclaims that there is only one way to find out: Use Moosel as the taste tester. Yeah; let's give Moosel spots just to annoy me and of course Moosel uses his finger to test. It tastes horrible which means the medicine passes inspection.
Nice selling from Moosel though as Rhinokey pours the perverse medicine into a small bottle which somehow takes it all despite being too small. It's obvious logic breaks like this that tear my hair out because they can be easily fixed. We head inside Crock's bedroom as Butterbear opens the door and comes inside. Crock doesn't like medicine; but is game to try anything Butterbear can dish out. Crock closes his eyes as Butterbear puts some stuff on a spoon and then renders that pointless by pouring the entire bottle into Crock's open mouth. HOT FIRE ALARM oversell commences from Crock and it's a million times more believable than anything Drake Mallard has ever done. Butterbear asks if she made it too hot and Crock sezs yes in about three different ways since it's enough to make a forest fire; which is basically a flamethrower spot from Crock. Okay; that was pretty neat and this episode is actually getting better. Crock is having problems breathing; so Butterbear throws the covers away and invokes the mustard patch on his midsection to clear his lungs. Crock calls this a making of a sandwich and his breathing actually gets worse as it goes along. She covers up Crock with the pink covers (because we wouldn't want females to think that any male coloring would be appealing now wouldn't we?) and she points at the red spots. I see he's using the same quick drying paint that was used in Bringing Down Babyface. Crock tells her not to trouble herself; but Butterbear insists because he would die (not really; but this a preschool show; so there you go) and Crock eats mud pack.
In comes Bumblelion with the Gedo colored towels as he is going to give a message to Crock and even Crock realizes right there that he is screwed stiff. Remember that Bumblelion accused Crock of duping Butterbear earlier in the episode? Crock whips the mud like a dog cleaning himself and gets on his back which shows the dragon scales proving that he is a two fusion animal and not breaking CONTINUITY that the series was shooting for. Bumblelion invokes the rolling pin to make Crock feel some more pain; remembering to do it twice and latch it against Crock's throat. Rolling spin commences as Hoppo arrives wheeling in a new blue bed mattress and I'm SHOCKED and APPALLED (in that order) that DTVA would allow such complex speaking in a preschool show. No wonder this show tanked. Crock tries to get onto his own bed; but Hoppo forces Crock onto the blue mattress. Hoppo swears in DUBBED ANIME STYLE (darned buttons) as she invokes the TRIPLE THREAT RED BUTTON REMOTE OF DOOM. The usual electric bed spots follow including the dreaded BED SANDWICH OF DEATH! Both ways. Crock gets bounced out of the bed of course taking some of the wussiest bumps this side of Getting Antsy and Butterbear sezs poor Crock. Poor Crock indeed. Well; at least it was funnier than the car wash spots from the previous episode. Crock decides he has had enough as he takes off the fake cast and declares that he is faking. Geez; what a wuss this Crock fellow is? I thought he would wait until they rebuilt the room upside down before he would give up.
Sadly; the babyfaces AREN'T DONE YET as Hoppo points out that Crock's selling that he's got another illness. I'll leave that as an exercise to the reader. Or you can watch it on Youtube. It's THE END of Crock's life as we know it as Crock protests this and gets bounced back onto the blue mattress! They strap him to the mattress and Butterbear feeds Crock more medicine to continue the overkill in spite of Crock's protests. Okay guys; now you are being mean. Crock has confessed his sins; just let him leave. He's a pussy; he won't do it again. Honest. Otherwise; you are going to come off as being unlikable. Just like the Mister T kids from two years earlier. Thankfully; the scene changer prevents any more torture as we head downstairs to see the babyfaces sitting down proclaiming that Crock is soon to having enough of this. Soon? He's already had enough Bumble! He's a complete pussy. You're just being mean, nasty neighbors now. We cut to Crock as the gang prepares for the grand finale as Croc manages to wheel himself to the window (now that's effort BABEE!) and calls out for Flizard and Brat who magically appear from the window outside. Crock demands that they come back into their doctor outfits and get him out of Butterbear's house. Flizard and Brat sell and pop down from the window.
Crock then slowly falls asleep and that allows Bumblelion to enter the room and he wheels Crock out of the room. He and Rhinokey re-enter the room with the building tools as Crock sleeps outside. Scene changer and Crock is back into the upside down room and if you don't see the next spot coming a mile away then you don't have any business reading this rant. Crock wakes up and sees Butterbear and company walking into the room upside down. Now if they did this BEFORE Crock gave up the FIRST TIME then this would be funny. Otherwise; this is overkill and mean spirited antics by the babyfaces. See why this show tanked and yet TaleSpin performed this so well? That's why. Crock has had enough of the bad medicine he is getting (as if he didn't already?) and unsnaps the straps and takes another wussy bump onto the wooden floor. He gets up and runs out of the house and lands right on the stretcher that Flizard and Brat wheeled in which pretty much kills the CONTINUITY that they were shooting for. Shouldn't they be using the WWII version? Crock rolls across the pathway and down the hill; the steps and such taking more wussy bumps along the way. He then does the lame big spot of crashing into a brick wall (and not stopping to commit another logic break) and then does some AWESOME flips before free falling fast into the lake. Crock arises from the water and the WabbitFrogs croak on top of him in a funny visual gag.
That logically leads to Crock lying in his hammock wrapped up like he is auditioning for the role of The Mummy V. Crock is talking in his sleep yelling at Butterbear for tormenting him as Flizard and Brat continue to have problems fixing the roof. At least the spots are better this time around. Brat throws the wooden plank and it lands with a MAN-SIZED bump right on Crock's nose. Okay; let me get this straight: Throwing a cake in Hoppo's face by a babyface is a no-no; but a heel throwing a plank of wood on Crock is okay? Is this a good message to send to your kids? Crock blows them off sounding more like Rhinokey by the minute as a storm is brewing which means that Crock and the heels are going to get pelted by fruit again for bad acting. I check the Youtube video and damn I'm good. Crock goes back to sleep as we go to the far shot of the wooden tugboat as Narrator Stan gets the last word (which isn't funny) in to end the episode at 21:39. Well; it was slightly better than the last episode as the PSYCHOLOGY near the end was pretty funny; but the logic was messed up. And Crock is merely a pussy schemer like Cruella DeVil was in 101D. Thankfully; DTVA can make the excuse that this is a preschool show. 101D cannot make such excuse. ** ¾ ( 55%).
THE REVIEW LINE
This episode was basically the messed up template that would allow for Jymn Magon to use for the TaleSpin episode; The Idol Rich. If Crock didn't give up so soon; this would have been a really good episode. Sadly; Crock was a pussy and that pretty much kills any hopes for a good episode involving him and the show is forced to rely on all babyfaces to put an effort into each episode and only Moosel, Bumblelion and Eleroo can pull it off successfully (and Bumblelion barely so). Crock's faking was so obvious that it made Butterbear look like Dumberbear for much of the episode and Kathleen's wooden acting made me feel less sympathy towards her. Flizard and Brat were nothing; except for the hammer to the leg spot which was pretty violent even for this show. Then there are the usual glaring logic break that are so obvious that I was tearing my hair out in frustration. The animation was better however; but the bumps were wussy. Although this was made for preschoolers; so it was to be expected. Overall; it's another middling episode that had a good idea and somewhat okay execution; but they screwed up some area that made the experience just seem silly. Again; the limits of the BS&P is really hurting this series because the wackiness is in the gimmicks rather than characters and this is going to be a big problem if the show is merely going through the motions. So...
Thumbs in the middle for this episode and I'll see you all next time.