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The Luck Stops Here

Reviewed: 03/06/2009

...but the fun with Gadget still marches on!


Welcome kiddies to the final disc of Volume one of the Rescue Rangers as we wind down to the final nine episodes. I think that it cannot get any worse for the Rangers after four thumbs down episodes on the previous disc. We start with an episode that I honestly have never seen before. So let's rant on and be surprised shall we...?!

This episode is written by Kevin Hopps and LuAnne Wood and the teleplay was done by Kevin Hopps. The story was edited by Bryce Malek and supervised by Tad Stones. LuAnne Wood actually was a production assistant at the time for DTVA and was even a script coordinator for this series actually including this very episode according to the end credits. The animation is done by Wang Films/Cuckoo's Nest Studios .


Annoying Moment #1: And we return to the second version of the opening sequence again.

We begin this one in the park of doom as various humans are enjoying themselves and Wang Film's animating the scene is downright ugly that it looks like a bad video game. Seriously; watch the little girl trying to grab the balloon and see what I mean by piss poor animation. Man; that is a bad sign right out of the starting gate. We pan over to the fountain and on top of the water as the Rangers are on a red whoopie cushion raft pumping air for Gadget as she is bell diving under the fountain. Monty and Dale are wheezing since they are doing all the work. Don't you just hate it when that happens? You are short of breath and you have an annoying laughing chipmunk on your ass like there is no tomorrow. Monty of course wants to chin up and like Super Mouse he pumps faster allowing Dale to oversell like crazy. Chip is wondering how the suit is working as we cut to the level of the fountain floor as Gadget is testing out her diving suit which is a million times more classy than her yellow glove space suit in Out to Launch.

Sadly; people start throwing their coins at Gadget; so she unhooks her metal sandals and floats up to the surface to blow off the humans for wasting their MONEY, MONEY, YEAH, YEAH on a wishing well. And speaking of wishing wells; we see a balding red haired man with glasses wearing a yellow shirt and green pants with his brown briefcase dancing like a goof wishing for something. Ummm; the real wishing well is in the LAND OF WUZ; so you are in the wrong cartoon man. The man kisses his money away (oh man; this stuff just writes itself) and throws it at the Rangers; earning another blowoff from Gadget love. If this is a Gadget focused episode; then good because it means it won't be a Monty focused episode. Monty blows Gadget off because she should go sneering down at luck. I agree since she needs all the luck she can get after Eisner and the Aussie Stereotype are done burying her. Monty pulls the suit off Gadget's legs which is a wee bit disturbing for me and Monty pops into the water proclaiming that it bailed them out. If that means the last three episodes involving Monty focused episodes then I concur.

The goofy glasses man finds a four leaf clover in the grass and is giddy for more good luck; but the black cat appears to negate that one. I'd say on the karma scale; this man is toast. He bails as he runs into the recycled old lady from Battle of the Bulge and her various dogs on a leash which tie her up. Whatever. Goofy red haired man runs complete with Hanna Barbera looping effect, sound effect and trademark sequence to boot. Man; Wang Films managed to pull off the tri-fecta of cheap HB effects so now you really know that you are watching more than just a mere classic here. Black Cat bails in opposite direction as the dogs go after it with screaming old lady in tow. Yeah sure; whatever. More Scooby Doo running leads to boy making a mess on the ground with oil and skateboard tuning which leads to red haired man slipping on oil and into the air doing an awesome back flip in the process and lands on the skateboard and rides. Damn; if he landed on the ground with broken bones; he would sure damn be lucky....he would be set for life with the lawsuit money that would come to him afterward.

He then takes a really nasty gravity defying bump into the back of the bench and flies into the air as his briefcase dives into the fountain and the man lands on his ass on the green bushes with a MAN-SIZED bump. HOLY CRAP?! Was there a cinder block hidden in those bushes? The briefcase somehow opens and manages to grab Gadget and lock itself up. Explain THAT one kids?! The raft is destroyed of course as the Rangers are shocked while red haired man panics and runs to the fountain and grabs the briefcase. However; the black cat returns and he runs stage left because that'll give him bad luck see. Monty orders a dazed Zipper to follow the briefcase because we just need to get Zipper's ten seconds of work out of the way. Zipper salutes and flies off as the male rodents clean their ears out so that Monty can swear in DUBBED AUSSIE STYLE (bloke). He apparently is harmless enough. About as harmless as Hoppo's singing the national anthem at the Wuzzle 500. AHHAHAHAHAHA! POW! OUCH! Ummm... They ponder how much trouble Gadget could get into and they realize that it is big trouble for them. Sadly; there are metal parts magically appearing on the surface of the water to give them clues; but they don't know what the technology is. Go figure...

So we head to some apartment buildings in town as the red haired man walks up the stairs and into his apartment room and slams the door. Zipper cannot get in; so he uses the mail slot to fly inside and see a very clean room with various inventions on his two desks, a mirror and a picture of the red haired man and apparently his daughter who has blond hair. Or maybe his cat has blond hair; I don't know. We pan over to the briefcase as Zipper flies up to the ceiling light which the light bulb is broken for whatever reason and there is some wall damage on the walls and ceiling. Something tells me this apartment is not well kept and the red haired man is in trouble of being evicted. Zipper spirals down to the briefcase and uses his arm to open the briefcase lock which springs up. I'm guessing he is a fly thief now as Gadget pops up from the briefcase after Zipper bails to the back of the table in a pointless spot. Gadget and Zipper look around from the briefcase to see the red haired man tinkering with inventions with his tiny screwdriver which is slightly bigger than Norton's tiny manhood. He finishes tinkering with the MICKEY MOUSE HAND MIXER OF DEATH and then dances a jig for good luck as Zipper blows him off as crazy with Gadget giggling with him. I love real comments that aren't supposed to be real comments. The man flips the black switch which is not only borderline racist (or not) but is dangerous to boot as it dances around and then stops mixing with zero damage whatsoever causing the man to sulk.

Well; it could have been worse, so I think karma is giving him better luck this time around. The man is so down on his luck as Gadget watches on seeing various inventions such as his blender and pasta puller just spell epic fail for this guy. Man; this guy is whinier than Norton Ninmul; that he almost sounds like he is a thin version of him. Long lost brother perchance?! Sadly; his name is Clyde Cosgrove so the connection is negated. Although considering that Norton is a criminal; I think he might have changed his name to protect himself from the shame of being with a whiny dork with a tiny manhood laser. He goes over to his wall and looks at the picture of the golden horseshoe that he won along with the golden blender award he won years ago when he looked even more dorky than now. He proclaims that his Meal-O-Matic will never be ready for the Kitchen Appliance Convention. He then takes the golden horseshoe and rings it to wake up Kismet who is a lazy blond fat cat with pink lace around it's neck and sleeping on purple pillows. Somehow; this girl would make a perfect lady for Mr. Fat to marry and the vampire face just spells evil heel right there. Never mind that she sleeps in a bed that even I cannot afford to have. This guy must have a lot of money to buy that stuff as the cat walks from her bed as Clyde grabs her and places her on the table while treating her like a baby. Geez; if he treated ME like that; I would screw him too. Ooops; did I give away the plot again?! Sorry about that....

So Kismet rubs around the invention and manages to turn it on as it sputters. Clyde is impressed as the Meal-O-Matic takes an egg from his ear and uses the man's head to crack it open and lay the white yolk on his noggin. HEE HEE! Not as funny when Sunni gets it; but close enough as the invention goes dead again and Kismet lays down and meows while admiring her nail which is a sure sign of a heel right there. The man doesn't blame the cat though as he blames himself. Man; this guy has self-esteem issues since it was the cat who turned on the thing in the first place. Gadget rubs her tail and she's sad at all this failure as she finally gets of golly #1 for the episode nearly seven minutes in. She wants to help him as she runs into the bad scene changer and we see Gadget and Zipper with a big ass screwdriver going to the meat grinder thingy proclaiming that Cosgrove has a few screws loose. I doubt a screwdriver is going to help him in any way; unless you are making reference to his sex life. Then that might help him. Slim chance I know; but still it would help him. Gadget places the screwdriver into the meat grinder thingy as Zipper comes out and the sparks fly so much we fade to black in the good old Post-Production Glitch #1 for the episode.

This logically leads back to Rescue Ranger headquarters as Monty and Chip bring in two of the metal parts as Monty swears in DUBBED ANIME STLYE which is rare for him to say the least. They of course cannot make heads or tails of this stuff because Gadget's the smart one of the group see. Dale comes in with a die which looks like the polar opposite of what Monty is holding which allows Monty to relate one of this BS stories in order to annoy me. It reminds him of the hieroglyphics he saw on the banks of Toluca Lake. Translation: He was watching Ed, Edd & Eddy. AHHAHAHAHAHA! How low on the dignity scale can you get; if you think watching that show and liking it with a straight face? Three boys trying to gain jawbreakers; that'll get them over as bad ass boys. NOT! Of course it ended up as the toe tracks of a two steppin Tolucalakian toucan. Wow; if this means Monty's stories are becoming plausible; then he has no heat left even as a gimmick. There is some bumping going on which ends up combining the words together to speak gibberish allowing Monty to swear in DUBBED AUSSIE STYLE (blimy!) . Dale dances around thinking he's awesome and then he turns dumb because he doesn't know with a gibberish is. Dumb men; go figure as this angle goes nowhere fast.

So we go back to Clyde's apartment on the desk as Gadget continues to fix the meat grinder thingy because we need Gadget to be awesome at this point in the series. Zipper flies in and pulls on Gadget's tail which stops Gadget love and pisses her off. When is Zipper going to learn to NEVER piss off Gadget Hackwrench. Sadly; Clyde grabs her by the tail and he's surprised at the sight of seeing a female mouse wearing a purple jumpsuit as he teases giving it to Kismet. Gadget panics (DUH!) and flips the black switch which turns on the machine and the veggies get pushed into the meat grinder thingy and turn into small little finger food artwork. Clyde is HAPPY because his Veggie Sculptor works as Kismet is SHOCKED and APPALLED (in that order) which basically means that she's responsible for these mishaps right out of the starting gate. Clyde tickles Gadget's neck (which she no sells) and Kismet is PISSED because she's now on bottom of the luck ladder in terms of lady luck for this man. Clyde finds a mayo jar and turns it upside down to keep Gadget in place as he bails to find a cage. Zipper comes over and tries to push the glass cage but no dice. I see they are drug testing in the DTVA world. Kismet scratches the wooden desk with her claws and meows in contrived fashion. Why do I suspect Sindy Mackay is voicing Kismet in this episode? Ah; now I know why Sindy sucks as a voice actress; she's a writer similar in the vein to Kathleen Helppie-Shipley who did a voice for Butterbear in The Wuzzles.

Wang Films' animation on Gadget's hands is odd when she is leaning against the glass jar. Sadly; Kismet is REJECTED as the door slams open and in comes the landlord. We know this because he dresses in all purple trench coats, is old, balding, and has an ugly nose that spells out heartless bastard heel. He's Mr. Gribbish as Clyde reveals which solves the mystery on the metal parts we saw in the previous scene with the Rangers thus tainting the suspense a little bit. He basically threatens him to complete the Meal-O-Matic; or he'll be sliced and diced right out of the business. Wow; that yell wasn't too bad; almost Fred Flinstone-ish in fact. Clyde laughs like a nervous wreck and Gribbish leaves slamming the door behind him assuring Kismet that she won't get a part in Darkwing Duck at all. You got to go flatter than that bitch! She re-pops herself as Clyde goes over with the steel cage and places Gadget by the ankle into the cage. He needs more than a lucky mouse to win; so he decides to bail and find a four leaf clover. Poor guy; he needs an enmma pronto! Clyde orders Kismet to take care of Gadget (although not in the terms Kismet WANTS to take care of though) and then leaves the apartment.

Kismet meows in a contrived fashion of course and then laughs with evil as we cut to the cage as Gadget picks the lock with her tail. I think BS&P panicked for no reason when they changed a scene twice just to prevent us from seeing Monty looking at Gadget while she picks another lock in the next episode I'm ranting; Fake Me To Your Leader. Man; I cannot wait until someone who has first run TaleSpin episodes on tape reveals the edits for THAT series because god only knows what would happen since I know the amount of stuff THEY got away with in the second run syndication episodes that I have on DVD. Gadget pops out but doesn't want to leave because she wants to help Clyde of course. Gadget finds the screwdriver and goes to the Meal-O-Matic proclaiming that he has lost his self-confidence. She puts the screwdriver into the machine as she proclaims that they are Rescue Rangers and they help people.

I guess they help good people; but I felt the premise was always help animals? Maybe I'm missing something; but that's okay since Gadget is the focus character and Kismet climbs onto the desk remembering to drop the mayo jar onto the floor (helpfully creating heat with the glass shattering sound) and Zipper panics again. Zipper pulls on Gadget's tail again and she ignores him because she's on an innocent sadist streak as Kismet stalks her prey. Zipper continues to pull on her tail as Gadget blows her off and continues her work. So Zipper goes over to a spool of black wire thread (?!!) and ties Gadget's tail against it as Gadget proclaims that she needs a paper clip. I personally think a paper clip will only cause a fire at this rate; but this is Gadget the innocent sadist; so I approve or her decision. Zipper struggles; but manages to pull the spool of black thread down which pulls Gadget out of harms way and Kismet lunges and misses making sure to take a wussy bump onto the floor with her face. Sigh. Gadget takes a better bump on her ass into a box of paper clips; DUH!

Gadget then gets off golly #2 for the episode 10 and a half minutes in after three and a half minutes of golly free action. She only needed one see as the blender falls and Kismet takes a really sick bump off her head from it as a result. Now that's the spirit Wang Films! Be slightly better than Sun Woo Animation! Kismet takes the thing off her head quickly and finally talks for the first time as she blows Gadget off because there is only one lucky pet in this apartment building and Gadget's luck has run out as Gadget hides behind the wooden leg and Kismet does some awesome damage to it; but misses Gadget's head. Okay; NOW she's becoming an effective heel. Gadget asks if there is any reason to eat her. Geez; that is a question you NEVER ask a cat Gadget love. Because the question type mouse will get the worst of the answer see. Kismet answers that Gadget is a mouse and then backs her up as Gadget explains that she was only trying to fix Clyde's inventions and Kismet admits to breaking them outright. See; if Clyde managed to have good luck; he would get rid of Kismet because then he wouldn't have a bad luck streak. In other words; Clyde was merely using her. Sadly; I don't buy her story for obvious reasons.

Clyde is simply too goofy to hate anyone as Gadget explains that Kismet will be thrown out of the streets if she continues her heelish ways because Clyde would then be thrown out since his invention would never work because Kismet keeps breaking them. HAHA! I love it when Gadget looks like the good gal here as Kismet ponders the moral implications of this and then decides to find her stuffed mouse in her kitty litter and decides to let Gadget fix the Meal-O-Matic after all; but only that device since Kismet wants to keep her reputation see. Kismet slices the mouse in the throat (HOLY CRAP?! This cat has a sick sense of honor here.) and the missing parts rain down in front of Gadget allowing for golly #3 for the episode at the 12 minute mark. And then the door opens and in comes Clyde dumping the lawn of the park right on Gadget and Kismet as he whines about them mowing the park lawn. Clyde decides to recoil since his four leaf clover must be in there somewhere. Kismet blows Gadget's bad luck off as she panics and that gets Gadget's goat because you make your own luck see. Well; in 90% of the cases; that is perfectly true as she dives into the grass and pops up the part of doom which flies into the air and nails Clyde right in the nose. HAHA! Clyde is SHOCKED of this as Mr. Gribbish storms in (AGAIN?!) and squashes Kismet into the door on the rebound. Man; for a lucky cat, she has a lot of bad luck on that spot. Mr. Gribbish basically yells at him because the movers are here and he better be ready; or get moved onto the street as he storms out and Clyde follows him as the door closes. Much better spot by Kismet as she pumps herself up to end the segment nearly 13 minutes in.

After the commercial break; we cut to Gadget taking parts out of the grass complete with Rescue Ranger Victory Fanfare. She proclaims that this will be as simple as putting a puzzle together. Sadly; she needs to know what the puzzle looks like so this won't be so simple. But nothing an innocent sadist cannot do; eh?! So we logically return to Rescue Ranger Headquarters as Dale is running on the White Pages Phone Book while Chip seems pissed off at something. Normally; I would think that logic would be that Monty should be running on the pages to lose weight; but of course Dale has a no work rate rule from Chip; so I doubt logic would ever apply in this world. Dale complains about getting the tough job and Monty nicely blows him off because the part is in front of the book. Then why not do it yourself you Aussie Stereotype?! Chip finally finds the address to Mr. Gribbish of course. It's on 3436 Flower Street for the two of you who care which one of them is me. Must be the floral district. AHHAHAHAHAHA!

That logically leads to outside on the launchpad as Monty hops into the driver's seat of the Rangerplane and Chip is ticked off because it's his turn to drive. Dale grabs Chip from behind as we get Male Look Worse Than Female Sequence #256. Chip and Dale flop into the backseat for some Chipmunk Wrestling Entertainment. Hey; it works for me, so I'm not going to call it inverted sexism. Monty of course breaks it up (oh; the irony?!) and then flips some switches on the Rangerplane because see; he piloted an autogiro (which Openoffice doesn't see as a properly spelled word and since it's not capitalized as a pro-noun; it is misspelled.) made of Canadian goose feathers and NEVER had a problem. Geez; coming from the guy who I have massive problems with; color me unconvinced. He pulls the red lever (WRONG LEVER!) and the Rangerplane goes backwards and smashes to an off-screen wussy bump. Oh please Wang Films! It was an off-screen bump for crying out loud! The Rangerplane struggles to chug along and moves forward as Monty laughs it up just to annoy me. So we logically return to Clyde's apartment building as Kismet is clawing around with Zipper. Huh? He's looks like he's a hostage here and there's no buildup or explanation why Kismet did this. I thought she turned into a tweener instead of downright heel in this episode? Gadget is at the Meal-O-Matic tinkering away as she gets off golly #4 for the episode nearly 14 minutes in. Well; that's the hazard pay you get when you do a Gadget focus episode I guess.

She wonders where all the rest of the parts go and Kismet explains that she sabotaged the other inventions which she already explained earlier. Gadget giggles that she knew that and tries to walk off; but said one sentence too many and Kismet grabs the tail and she's PISSED. You know; turning full heel here might have worked better if Zipper wasn't in the prone position earlier in the scene. I'm just pointing it out as an observation and not a condemnation. Gadget denies that she is not trying to make herself look better than Kismet (like she needs to since Kismet is nowhere in Gadget's league so to speak) as she pulls on the tail and gets off golly #5 for the episode. Gadget backs up and unintentionally turns on the Meal-O-Matic. The HANDS OF FATE grab Kismet and we get the Mister T throw around spot (Anyone who has watched the show or seen Albert Walker's review in the Agony Booth of Mister T's animated series; you know what I'm talking about here.) and then she gets thrown out the window. Gadget is SHOCKED because it wasn't supposed to do that. Yeah right Gadget love?! We all know you don't like cats who want to get their perverted paws on you; sure. Kismet is hanging on for dear life on a pipe on the other side of the apartment building and you can tell it's going to break off since the length of pipe she's holding is not part of the pipe artwork on the elbows.

It's little things like crappy straight pipe in a certain position that you can call the spots more easily. And damn; I'm good as the lead pipe snaps from the metal holding on the brick wall and Kismet takes a really wussy bump into the trash can. The animation was fine in the sequence; but still the suspense is muted a bit. Kismet takes a better bump when the trash can falls onto it's side next as Gadget is thankful that Kismet is okay. If I was thinking Kismet was dead of course and then the Meal-O-Matic decides to channel the powers of Mr. Fat and grab Gadget by her body. YIKES! I just knew Gadget was building the Meal-O-Matic as a way to practice her dirty spots with Mr. Fat. I just needed the episode to gain evidence for my theory to prove it. Zipper and Gadget try to free the hand; but no dice as Zipper takes a wussy bump into the calender. Well; he is a fly so the bump makes perfect sense. Zipper flies towards the electrical vent and uses the paperclip to short circuit the machine and do a pretty decent DALEK X-RAY OF DOOM spot to amuse me. See how good the episode is when the Aussie Stereotype is muzzled?! Kind of proves my point about Monty being a cancer to the series as a whole doesn't it?! Gadget thanks Zipper and misses saying golly as the HAND OF FATE is breaking from the machine (check the dangling wire coming out) and the arm goes out the window as Gadget looks down and gulps out on the zoom out shot of the building (minus straight pipe; good CONTINUITY from Wang Films)...

So Zipper comes to the rescue again as she pulls on Gadget's arm and the ARM OF FATE wire finally snaps and Gadget thinks she is safe; but the hand drops her just to amuse me and screw her. The arm finally releases Gadget and Zipper grabs her wrist and tries to pull her wrist. OUCH! That's going to break her fragile wrist there Zipper boy! AHHAHAHAHAHA! SLAP! HEE HEE! Ummm....I guess Michael Jackson has entered the building. Zipper of course is out of breath and they free fall right into Monty's arms as the Rangerplane finally shows up OUT OF NOWHERE. Monty calls it lucky and even Gadget has to admit that this was true. See; the whole morality play is that the Rangers believe that 90% of their success is skill and 10% of it is luck more or less. Gadget thinks it's 100% skill; and so this spot proves Monty's point that it's great to make your own luck through skill; but don't assume that it will work 100% of the time. It's a good thing since it teaches Gadget not to be so uptight and not to overestimate her skill set as a whole. See Kit Cloudkicker who has the skills; but needed that luck of Baloo appearing just in the nick of time to save him when the skills fail him in Plunder and Lightning Part four.

Kismet comes out of the trash as the Ranger plane flies away and she fully turns heel as she doesn't trust her anymore. She decides to bring some bad luck to Gadget as we cut to inside the apartment as the movers are in and they just put everything into a wooden crate with reckless abandon. Man; Gibberish must be extremely cheap to hire such heartless workers. Clyde pleads that his inventions are not ready yet; and they proclaim that he can work on them at the convention. Huh? Wasn't the original threat that Gribbish wanted the thing done BEFORE the movers arrived or else? Logic break #1 for the episode and a bad one at that. And this episode was moving on so well too. Clyde stammers like Honker after Drake bullies him as the humans leave the room. So we cut to the window outside as the Ranger plane flies to the window and Monty points out that they are too late. Gadget then blows him off as wrong as she sees the yellow moving van as it leaves the alleyway and orders Monty to follow the moving van. So that officially ends the segment sixteen minutes in.

After the commercial break; we cut to inside a building with a shot of a pink banner. I guess this is the Expanded Market Kitchen Invention Awards~! AHHAHAHAHAHA! It's called the Golden Beater Award which is really perverted and obscene nowadays when taken out of context. Naturally we get scenes of various humans demonstrating their new inventions since this is a convention to demonstrate kitchen inventions. And sadly; 99.9% of them will NEVER exist in real life no matter how over they are. One of them makes a lemon pie which is quite silly and one trick pony-equse. One judge likes it and the another one gives the thumbs down. Sadly; they aren't recycled from any other episode that I'm aware of as the chefs sulk at the mixed result. I see that one of them is apparently Simon Cowell's father; although I will have to wait until I hear him speak with a British accent before I can make that ruling. We then go to the next one who is wearing the same banana yellow shirt. Can these people please stop being inspired by Gedo when it comes to fashion sense? It's ends up being wiener spread for crackers. Talk about being pointless here as the judges are mixed again. The gold star judge is basically the Simon Cowell because he's over, he's grumpy and he has a gold star pinned on his blue trench coat. I wonder how Clyde always win his awards?! Hmmm...

The chef sulks and holds his chef's hat in shame. We then see the judge go over to the Yum Ice Cream and Meat booth which is helpfully labeled in pink letters. This should be fun for me to mock and praise all at the same time. One of the humans at the booth is a female country girl in blue which should assure a double thumbs down here as they combine veggies together into a form of veggie ice cream. Wow; talk about breaking logic here for a rib: We have a booth with meat and ice cream and yet they are demonstrating a veggie frozen treat. What's up with that?! And they expect THIS to sell to customers?! Naturally they hold their mouths and run off in pain and suffering for the double thumbs down. Yeah; because you are selling to kids and veggies in kid's minds are BAD...until Zora from Digimon 01 breaks it. At least she is not a strict vegan because if I see one more “I won't eat meat because it used to have a face” vegan character on television it will be too soon. The sooner I see “I won't eat meat because it clogs my heart” vegan character; the better because at least I can understand it from a health angle instead of a forced morality angle to please PETA whom cannot be appeased so to speak.

Anyhow; we waste more than a minute on that silliness as we go to the Meat-O-Matic booth as Mr. Gribbish Grumpy Chef (seriously; this guy is a grump) paces around in front of the booth checking his golden face watch that has no face of course and then walks away as we cut into a brick storage room as Clyde is dancing around wishing for luck that his Meal-O-Matic will work as it is sitting on the table completely unharmed. Okay; this goofy dancing is more interesting than the fair; so he should just quit the business and go into entertainment. He could be called the Dance-O-Matic and then sue Konami for royalties; or better yet, sue Rhinokey for creating the Joke-O-Matic for copyright infringement and for assault for a deadly punchline. The last one can be a Class Dance Action Suit. AHHAHAHAHAHAHA! And in storms Mr. Gribbish just to ruin all the fun, DUH! It's always the grumpy guys who ruin all the fun spots. See Gruffi Gummi. He screams badly because the judges will be here any minute now despite claiming that he doesn't want to put undue pressure on him and storms off again. Dave Butler he is not. Gadget gets off golly #5 for the episode 18 minutes in after four minutes of golly free action. Gadget is glad Kismet is gone and ponders figuring out a way to get Clyde to be talented again and Monty wishes her good luck and she gets pissed off by that and does the Gruffi pose. WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT ABOUT?! I know it's the Aussie Stereotype talking; but COME ON! Monty wasn't being mean to her and Gadget went all Queenie on us. This is totally out of character for Gadget since she already realized that she was in the wrong when it came to luck. So why do they continue the moral? Sometimes I think Seth Macfarlane is not the only one who doesn't know how to end a joke; or a plot line and Tad has even less of a good excuse than Seth does.

Gadget walks towards the wooden spoon and has a plan; but here comes Kismet OUT OF NOWHERE from the banana yellow box. Okay; this uncool color is seriously being overplayed here guys. I guess the fair was only about a ten minute walk from the apartment and since we didn't see outside the place; there is no logic break there. She claims that the movers give her a lift which actually makes sense since the truck was parked in the same alleyway Kismet was in. Good eye for detail there by the writers as Kismet stalks the Rangers. Kismet jumps onto the table as Monty takes the wooden spoon to defend himself and Kismet slices the spoon end of it into pieces; DUH! It's made of wood Monty. Next time; USE A STAINLESS STEEL SPOON! Monty gets the point of that spot and then runs like a scalded dog with the Rangers. Chip orders Gadget to bail which is in 1990's real life totally apporos when a vicious cat is out to MURDER you; but is considered sexist today despite not changing the fact that there is a VICIOUS CAT out to MURDER you! Gadget wants to fix Clyde's machine; but she is forced to bail as Kismet lunges and misses again. Maybe she should think twice before going for the all or nothing belly flop again.

Kismat gets up and chases the Rangers Minus Gadget Love around as the male Rangers jump into the mayo jar (must be Clyde's spare glass mouse cage) as Gadget runs down to ground and Kismet uses the green plate to seal the mayo jar. Yeah; this is the Make Males Look Weak Episode; but since Monty is involved; I don't think I mind it one bit as long as Gadget gets to play hero. Gadget runs up onto the to of the fuse box and then up the wires onto the top of the ceiling as Kismet is game to play cat and mousie. It sounds like Lady Bane so I doubt it's Sindy MacKay; which is A-OK with me. She manages to jump up onto the wires to cause Gadget to wobble in a neat spot and Gadget is now hanging for dear life over the floor. Kismet stalks her prey slowly as we cut back to the mayo jar which the top now changes from a plate to a cookie jar cover for logic break #2 for the episode. The male Rangers try to unseal the mayo jar ; but nothing comes out of it as Clyde walks back in sulking from the storage area and then looks left and is SHOCKED and APPALLED to see Kismet coming close to MURDERING his lucky mouse again. Kismet then acts even more heelish as she uses her claws to do the lift finger spot on Gadget.

Clyde then goes over to the Meal-O-Matic and starts speed fixing his machine as I believe this is where he gets his confidence back as the lifting fingers with claws spot continues as Gadget pleads for mercy. Well; Kismet is female; so it's completely fine as Gadget swears in DUBBED ANIME STYLE (gosh) to tell Kismet to reconsider her actions; but no dice as she points down and Gadget realizes that she is just over the blender which is turned on. Oooooo....Kismet and Mr. Fat have been trading notes together on death traps. Maybe they should marry; that would be a match made in hell so to speak. Gadget tries to keep her fingers on the wire; but Kismet keeps lifting them up with her claw like a true evil heel. So we cut back to Clyde as he grabs the Meal-O-Matic and then reads the riot act on Kismet. As if Kismet cares anymore which goes to show you that if you truly want a friend; you do have to buy a dog. Nintendo has truly shown the way. Clyde puts down the Meal-O-Matic and turns it on as it turns into the Gymnastic-O-Matic. So now we have completely ribbed on Mister T as the robot flips up very slowly onto the boxes in which Kismet is so SHOCKED at this turn of events that she forgets to finish the job on Gadget and the Meal-O-Matic stalls on cue about two feet away from Kismet.

Gadget feels screwed as Kismet declares victory; but the hand of irony reveals it's hand as the machine restarts again and grabs Kismet and we go off-screen as the writers actually tease Kismet getting MURDERED by the machine to pieces; but it's only about 90% of Kismet's fur that has been shaved off and then she gets dropped onto a box looking like a Kapoodle. Sorry; Kismet but the Wuzzle auditions ended about five years ago. Kismet screams badly (thus doubting my theory on Tress voicing this character) and then jumps out of the window of the building never to be seen or heard from again. Gadget laughs as once again; lady luck is on her shoulders; but then the Meal-O-Matic grabs her and then drops down onto floor level. We then return to the thrilling bury the males spot as the male Rangers FINALLY get the cover off of the mayo jar. Considering that it looked like a green plate earlier; color me feeling like I was buried as a human being. Or not.

Everyone climbs out as the Meal-O-Matic goes over to Clyde and Clyde grabs onto Gadget as I suspect Mr. Fat's lawyers are on retainer as we speak. Clyde asks if she is all right and then realizes that he finally fixed something without needing luck and luck items. He just needed a better reason to succeed and he puts down Gadget on the ground because she finally made him see the light. Thus both morals are solved and balanced: Gadget needed to realize a little luck to win never hurts the skill and Clyde realized that he shouldn't depend on luck alone when he has the skill to make it happen. It's one of those things that made TaleSpin so awesome: Use two characters on opposite sides of the morality play and they both come out winners when they balance their polar opposites with a bit from the other side. That builds character and also makes using morals more entertaining and more tolerable. Gadget runs off as Mr. Gribbish finally storms in again yelling and then sees that the thing is ready and he does a contrived complete 180 on his attitude as he get merely pushy and then he and Clyde walk out with the Meal-O-Matic since the judges are waiting.

We then cut to the actual booth as the Meal-O-Matic does a number on all food products and it buzzes to reveal a full meal of meat, potatoes and corn all hot and ready to serve. The judges don't even bother to taste the thing and it's a double thumbs up. I knew this thing was rigged in Gribbish's favor. At least TASTE THE DAMN MEALS GUYS! Logic break #3 for the episode as Mr. Gribbish takes all the credit for the thing working like an evil boss would. Thankfully; the Meal-O-Matic takes a life of it's own and stuffs food into Gribbish to shut him the hell up. Good for it; Gribbish is such a sucky character that makes Monty look good in comparison. He also gets ears of corn in his ears (SCORE!) and his hat pulled down as the judges give Clyde the Beater Award for Awesomeness Beyond the Call of Duty. No relation to the Waleg Award in any way as we pan north east to the Rangers as Monty ponders how he got the invention to work and Gadget mocks it as just being lucky and the Rangers are SHOCKED by her response as the episode ends at 21:10. Hey; this episode really rocked in spite of the mental lapses in animation and logic breaks. Nice to see Gadget finally get some excellent work in as well; although there were a few aspects of it that made it fall short of perfection. **** ¼ (85%).


THE REVIEW LINE

So our first episode of Disc Three is in the books and it was an excellent one marred by Wang Films hit or miss animation and a few logic breaks. It was well past time they did a Gadget focused episode and this one story wise was on the mark as Gadget carried the episode kicking and screaming while Monty's foolishness was reduced to a bare minimum. I also loved Kismet when she finally turned fully heel because she was nasty and had probably the Mr. Fat death trap genes to boot. I also like the fact that Tress voiced her; although at times I felt she was suffering from Sindy MacKay contrived voice syndrome. I also like Gadget performance a lot; but there were a few moments where I felt Gadget was going out of character completely for no reason over than extend the morality play and make it appear Gadget hadn't learned anything at all despite basically showing through non-verbal cues that she did. Clyde was all right; but was at his best when he was dancing like a goof, and Mr. Gribbit sucked as he only yelled and screamed the whole time. Lucky for us; he got shut up at the end after trying to pull a Vinnie Mac on us for the ending. Dale was Dale; but he wasn't used much as all which is not a bad thing at all. I'm sure some people will not like the “Male looks really weak” spots they did for this episode; but after putting up with Monty for so long, I don't have the emotional investment to be outraged at those spots even if only he deserved it. Overall; this was a good way to introduce disc three; but I wouldn't take it as a sign of good things to come since I gave Bearing Up Baby ***** and then it dropped to below a thumbs down with Out To Launch the next. The next episode is the return for the first time since..DUM...DUM...DUM....Catteries Not Included (seriously; it's been THAT long), the whiny dork with his tiny manhood laser in Fake Me To Your Leader. So.....

Thumbs up for this episode and I'll see you next time.

 

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