02.06
My childhood is over. It took 19 years for it to happen, but it’s time to let my carefree years of youth go past me and prepare for the “joys” of adulthood. I just watched the last adventure of Ed, Edd, n’ Eddy, the cartoon which I invested more time in than any as a child and still kept up with through it’s decade-long run on Cartoon Network.
It’s funny and kind of sad to think about it, really. I never got to spend too much time with my mother as a kid, never liked my sister, and while I’ve had my fair share of friends, they seemed to of came and went throughout my life, with a few notable exceptions. It was the continuing adventures of the Ed boys, three best friends who shared the same name and passion for jawbreakers, and a good deal of other animated series that would keep me company when I couldn’t be or just didn’t want to deal with people. While a lot of the series I loved either ended too soon, like Sheep in the Big City or Invader ZIM, turned to crap in the long run, like Dexter’s Laboratory or The Powerpuff Girls, or would just come and go due to having already finished runs, like Rocky & Bullwinkle and Yu Yu Hakusho, I still had Ed, Edd, n’ Eddy to rely on to keep me entertained from age 8 to 19, with even the series I kept up with as I got older taking a step down towards it. I still enjoy all of these shows, but in the long run the only three animated series I’ve found to impress me as much as the Ed’s have would be Batman: The Animated Series, Gargoyles, and King of the Hill, which also just recently ended a massive run of it‘s own.
Still I was rewarded for my patience as a kid. The moment I saw the debut promo for it in 1998 around the time The Powerpuff Girls was set to air on CN, and saw who I’d soon to grow to love as Ed, Eddy, and Double D, run around the screen for a minute with their multi-colored tongues sticking out in the air, I could tell already that I’d love this show, and couldn’t wait for January 1999 to come. The vibrant colors used in not just their tongues but in the character’s themselves, and how detailed their movements are as they race each other were like an orgasm for my 7 or 8-year-old eyes. Granted I had no idea what an orgasm was at that age but I knew I needed more of it.
I also remember the night it aired, on a Monday, before Cartoon Network had the absolutely brilliant idea to air all of their original series together on Fridays to broadcast new episodes. I got giddy waiting for CN to air the first episode of this new show. Powerpuff didn’t disappoint two months earlier and with Cow & Chicken and Johnny Bravo still airing new episodes, I had a feeling that CN could do no wrong. The whistled-and-jazz tinged intro which has now become as integral a part of my subconscious as my mother’s voice or the soft coating of my dog’s fur, arrived on the television screen, and I was instantly introduced to three characters I’d recognize for the rest of my life as kids of my own; Ed, the lovable oaf who’s with his pals every step of way, just waving and smiling to the television screen; Edd, or Double D, or Edward, the intelligent perfectionist whose verbal and grammatical corrections and OCD tendencies ring true to me this day, fixing the intro screen to a T; and Eddy, the man with the plan, the “brains” of the operation, if you will, standing in front of the intro, gazing at his bad self.
Only a simple open, but in thirty seconds we get to learn just about enough of the characters that we needed to
As for the rest of the episode, I remember the first of two shorts involving the Ed boys interrogating the neighborhood kids after a small percentage of the kid‘s materials were stolen, and the second introduced the Ed‘s to the Kanker sisters, a trio of horny girls whose goal was simple throughout the show‘s run: to make the Ed‘s their boyfriends if it kills any of them in the process. I later learned that these were far from the best the show would have to offer, but were still great introductions, as they introduced the basic themes of the show, and got a grasp of why I wanted to stick around for so long. The Ed’s want money for jawbreakers and will go to great heights to earn a few quarters, but what they really want is to fit in with the rest of the kids in the cul-de-sac.
Most people remember the show as a group of kids with the same name making a bunch of scams to get cash for jawbreakers, but watching some of the earlier episodes again, it looks as if the Ed’s just want to be accepted by the “cool” kids, which doesn’t seem to happen. They get mocked constantly, aren’t invited to parties, and get pushed over for insignificant events. The only people who seem to accept them are the Kankers, whom not even the Ed’s don’t want to deal with, and occasionally Johnny 2×4 and Rolf, the other oddballs of the gang, but even they have given the boys their fair share of beatings. It seems that as the show goes along the Ed’s wanting to be accepted by people who treat them like crap is less of an issue and they’re more willing to go with the flow, but that the alienation still hurts them. Eddy especially takes the blow the hardest, as we can see how boldly he’ll fib to impress the guys and that he‘d basically lick Kevin‘s feet to be invited to his house.
The Ed boys have continued to entertain and develop throughout the course of the show. Ed is a naïve lummox; while his grasp of reality is virtually non-existent, he’s such a sweet and lovable character that his lack of common sense doesn’t subtract from his enjoyment as a character. If anything, the fact that he can barely speak a logical sentence only seems to add to his enjoyability as a character. He spews out illogical nonsense which he finds to be of great importance, and sometimes is able to save the day by saying nothing.
His love of science fiction is another notable feature. Some of the most memorably episodes of the series are “The Day the Ed Stood Still”, when Ed gets to enact his favorite monsters and scares the neighborhood kids into thinking he’s become the real thing, and even traps them all in his room, “It Came From Outer Ed“, in which Ed makes up what he finds to be the ideal scam, but only turns out to be an arbitrary calling for a curse, and “Knock, Knock, Who‘s Ed”, when the boys just try to find an adequate TV to watch Ed’s monster movie marathon. The big guy steals the show from his friends by just being Ed and stating how his lasagna hurts, that he forgot to wear underwear today, or just whatever comes through his mind.
Possibly his greatest episode though is “Little Ed Blue”, when the big guy trades his sunny disposition with a grunter, rougher attitude. Considering how big he is, that he isn’t in a good mood is a very bad thing, as it could very well mean the end for everyone around. The episode works so well because of Ed’s strong, random delivery. He sounds angry when he says “BIG TROUBLE”, but his voice actor and director is obviously having fun messing with his character’s status quo, and let him add his own twists to an angry big guy. Never mind the ending that would only come from a show as well-timed as Ed, Edd, n’ Eddy, the entire episode is comedy gold.
Double D is the typical brain of the group, but he’s proven to be more than just that. He’s a perfectionist through and through, fixing minor errors to seem as tight as possible in his ideal world. He’s also a major clean freak, polishing anything with moderate dust or stains on it, and prevents germs from entering the area he‘s in. And don’t even speak out of line, or he’ll throw a dictionary or thesaurus at you. His little quirks bring out the best and worst in him, which is why he finds good friends in Ed and Eddy but the rest of the kids don’t seem to get him.
His shining moments tend to have his pretentious little butt kicked, like how he tries to teach the cul-de-sac than acorns grow to trees in “Dim Lit Ed”, attempts to teach Ed and Eddy proper behavior in the appropriately titled “My Fair Ed”, and deals with becoming the local bully in the classic “final” episode “A Fistful of Ed”, where a series of misconceptions have the others fear him Double D’s sincerity in friendship and equality make the pain he endures in these episodes all the more unbearable to deal with, but at the same time rewarding as his inspired intellect gives him the notion to try to set everything straight. On rare occasions he’ll snap due to the pressures Ed and Eddy put on him but he’s always back to help his friends when they need it, which is why the writers come back to him.
And we have Eddy. Probably the most controversial character on the show, some people seem to not be able to deal with him because of how heartless he seems to be with his friends, but to me it seems that while he’ll ditch Ed and Double D when he can gain in particular, he acknowledges that they are the best friends he’ll ever have and losing them would be the worst thing he could ever do. He’s saved or at least repaid his friends back nearly enough time to justify the stuff he’s pulled on them.
Eddy’s lack of respect also seems to be a key factor in his erratic attitude. While we never get to meet his parents in the show it seems apparent that they never seemed to keep a close enough eye on him and cared more for his older brother, who treated him as the baby and nothing more. The after effect that would of taken place would have been enough for Eddy to not know how to at in front of people which would explain his tendencies to freak out in big crowds and push others aside for his wants.
Together the Ed’s make an unlikely and necessary trio, and one of the strongest groups of friends to be put together in entertainment in a long time. Without Ed, the two lose their brawn and heart, and without Double D and Eddy, Ed loses the closest things to guidance that he has in this world. Without Edd, the two lose their brain and resources, but without Ed and Eddy Double D would have no companions but his demanding parents. Without Eddy, the two lose their free time plans, but Eddy would never admit this to them, because he cares about Ed and Double D too much to reveal it to them. And together, you have three halves of a whole person working together to cure the never-ending epidemics of boredom, isolation, hunger, and poverty, and continue to entertain many.
And I can’t even begin to sing the praises of the show without mentioning the excellent supporting characters. You have Kevin, the no-nonsense “cool” guy who Eddy looks up to for some reason. He’s tough but also has proven to be as lame as the Ed’s are perceived to be, particularly with how much he cares for his bike. Then there’s Rolf, the weird foreign kid who no one can make any sense out of. He involves his farm animals in everything he does, and will spew out illogical stories of what it was like back in the old village. Or Nazz, the cute girl who everyone gravitates toward to without even knowing why. We do know that she loves it, though, which is where part of the humor in the boy’s flirtation comes from.
We also have Ed’s baby sister, Sarah, who wears the pants in the family tree. She keeps Ed in charge and to make things even more challenging and entertaining, has a major crush on Double D and will retreat back to little girl tendencies in front of him. And then there’s her best friend Jimmy, the fruity little boy who loves Sarah and gets jealous whenever anyone steals her attention from him. He’s proven on enough occasions that he doesn’t just take things sitting down, so trying to guess what’s going on in his head is only part of the show’s fun.
Then we have Johnny and Plank, the all-time great duo. Johnny confides in his little block of wood everything and expects the world to accept the advise Plank gives back as seriously as he does. This subtle bit of humor once again is a great example of the many ways Ed, Edd, n’ Eddy dares to make you laugh.
The characters are all allegorical to common feelings and belongings we go throw during adolescence or just growing up in general, which is why the show has stuck to me for so long. I see the OCD in Double D reflecting my own issues, Eddy’s social issues being somewhat similar to mine, feeling jealous like Jimmy every now and then, and have felt like Rolf a handful of times as I go through new and exciting experiences like a new neighborhood or school. In hindsight, I’d say it would be hard for someone to not relate to at least one characteristic of any of the kids in this show.
In addition to the great characters the animation is a major turn on in the show. Danny Antonucci, the show’s creator, has obviously been influenced by the cartoons of Warner, MGM, and Fleischer, and the varied forms of movement and settings make it apparent. Nearly every cell of animation has some sort of attention to detail in it that is missing in most cartoons today. The coloring is another major turn-on, and the jump from hand-painted to computer colored in the last season only adds to the beauty of Antonucci’s creations. The characters themselves look not ugly in their pseudo-squiggle vision designs, but rather lovably obtuse, as they look as questionable as any kid would look at their peers, as is Antonucci’s vision.
If I had to pick an all-time favorite episode, I’d go crazy trying to do so. “The Good Ole Ed” and “Every Which Way But Ed” are hilarious send-offs to corny clip show episodes, calling off events that may of very well never happened, each in different and creative ways that make both episodes stand out on their own. “Once Upon an Ed” is a perennial favorite, the Rashomon story told in only a way the Ed’s could, with each one defying the laws of proper storytelling. I’d also have to give my props to “Mirror Mirror on the Ed” in which the Ed’s switch characters to go through each other’s shoes, and only mess each other’s worlds up in the process.
Or I could just go with the movie which I was supposed to review, but instead wrote up a list of why I love the show. To spare the amount of text you’d have to read I’ll say purely that basically everything I wrote about the show before hand is present in this movie.. The ending will make fans feel triumphant and that the two-year + wait for this movie didn’t feel wasted.
What I’m coming up to is that I’ve watched Ed, Edd, n’ Eddy since the beginning, when the show was a simple show about how a group of kids spent their summer time to an excellent film that let’s the Ed’s have their day. I’ve seen the animation develop from something out of Dr. Katz to quality even Disney would be jealous of. Seeing Ed, Edd, n’ Eddy’s final days makes me feel nostalgic for the days that it was on for me to feel like I wasn’t alone. It may only be a cartoon but this cartoon has been a part of my life for a good part of it and seeing it go will always leave an impression on me that I doubt any other series end would have.
Earlier I mentioned that Ed, Edd, n’ Eddy is on par for Batman: The Animated Series, which at it’s absolute best proved to be better written than any adult-aimed drama on the air and set the standard for how the modern action cartoon should look and be treated as, Gargoyles, which gave action cartoons an added depth by connecting everything into a cohesive and genius story together, and King of the Hill, which similarly gave us a great cast of characters and set them off to have their own revelations and misgivings for a record run. How the Ed’s will compete with these three will remain to be seen but I can tell that even twenty, thirty years on I can remember these four animated series as shows that I can enjoy at any time and find only more reasons to love as I get older.
Let’s get cracking on the complete series set already, CN. Then maybe I can take out the Legos and revel at the joys of buttered toast and gravy again.
Avaitor out
Originally posted on Tuesday, November 10, 2009.