01.04
Alright, let’s see what I’m going to tackle this week.
Dexter’s Laboratory:
“Star Spangled Sidekicks”
In this first short, Dexter and Dee Dee are watching Major Glory’s TV show, as he faces against Doctor Diablos, an obvious Doctor Doom spoof. Even though this episode only seems to last less than thirty seconds, it totally pumps the siblings up, especially when Major Glory himself announces to his viewers that he’s looking for a new sidekick at their local mall. Talk about convenience, huh?
Being as obsessed with super heroes as any boy his age, Dexter wants to charge and become the new sidekick, except for a little fact that Dee Dee has no shame in pointing out- Dexter’s a shrimp, a fairly weak one, at that. There’s no way he could hold his own as a sidekick. Meanwhile, Dee Dee is sure she’s going to be a way better candidate since she’s a bitch taller, more coordinated and has actual style.
We see the two work on their designs and characters, with Dexter using resources from his lab, and Dee Dee working from home, as they arrive at the mall the next day. Now it’s Dexstar, a flashy, gadget-loaded avenger, vs. Diva Dynamite, who in pink footie pajamas recites a patriotic poem that wins her hero over. Both are impressive, but the girl in pink wins this round.
Glory and Diva even take on Doctor Diablos when he makes a surprise attack on the event, while Dexstar gets sickly after throwing a couple of punches. It’s at this time that Dee Dee rejects her new job to focus on her main responsibility, her brother’s safety. Which is kind of a bull ending, but oh well.
Even though it seems like I’m not so hot on this short, it is fun. There are a couple of strong gags, and it ultimately works as a piece that argues about superior methods of crime fighting, gadgetry or honest butt-kicking, with a favor to the latter. But hey, Dexter gets better at this.
“TV Puppet Pals”
So the second short starts out and just as you’re expecting Monkey… what’s that? Majory Glory? Valhallen? Krunk? What are they doing here?
Well, we’re done with Monkey as the star of his own shorts, one more aside later on, and for a while now, we’ll become better acquainted with the Justice Friends, as they star in their own shorts. These are meant to be a combination of Super Friends and buddy sitcoms, featuring the three super heroes sharing an apartment, and they even come with their own laugh track
The short starts out with Disgruntled Postman, a Joker-like baddie, attempting to send a bomb to the White House, until Majorrrrrr Glory stops him pre-lick. Glory saves the day and even cracks a corny (but geniusss!) joke via a news interview, which he only has a half-hour to make it to the apartment to catch.
Meanwhile, Valhallen comes to the lair of a record producing Minotaur, who has a couple of sirens captured to make sweet, sweet music with. Before he can even save the day though, Valhallen realizes that he has to catch a monster truck rally on TV and zooms off.
At the same time, Krunk, along with a little girl, is trying to get a cat out of a tree, doing everything but actually climbing up, but considering how big the guy is, I can understand that. Eventually, they rescue the kitty, and just in time for Krunk to catch his favorite show, TV Puppet Pals!
You can tell how this is going to turn out. Three programs airing at one time with only one television in the place. Krunk is watching his Puppet Pals in peace, while Glory and Valhallen fight over the TV, until they smash the set as a result, leading a sad ending for all but surprisingly Krunk.
Well this is a lot better than Monkey. There are actual jokes and attempt at character here. We only get a taste of how the tip-top Major Glory, laid back rocker Valhallen, and childish Krunk will manage as roommates and characters with chemistry, but in this one short, I laughed more than I did in all of the previous Monkey shorts combined. Definitely a step in the right direction.
“Game Over”
Like the earlier Dexter short, this one starts of with the boy genius and his sister bonding a little. Bonding as in Dee Dee being up in Dexter’s face with her superiority, as she beat Dex in a Altered Beast-esque game.
And Dee Dee might have a chance to beat her baby brother again, as their dad comes in to surprise Dexter with Master Computer, an “old and dated” game that he conquered when he was three. They switch into the lab to play the game, which is more Atari to Dexter’s X-Box (er, Playstation 1, if we’re being historically accurate).
A play through of this title lends to another victory for Dee Dee, which aggravates Dex so much that he yells at her to leave him alone. So this time Dexter’s the wad.
As Dexter begins to yank the cartridge out of his computer, the game takes over his mainframe and sucks him into the game. And if you can’t tell, the rest of the episode turns into a Tron parody from here.
Jeff Bridges Dexter ain’t though, and he fails as he tries to save his life. It turns out Dee Dee is his only hope, but does that mean she can save the day? We’ll see.
This one is alright, but the weakest of the three shorts this week, if only because, like a lot of other Dexter stories this length, it comes and goes before it can leave much of an impact on you. That’s something I’ve been noticing with the show lately, but the first two are better at leaving an impact on the mind, the Justice Friends short especially.
The ending of “TV Puppet Pals” is my highlight, if only for Krunk’s laugh.
Johnny Bravo:
“Blanky Hanky Panky”
There’s a yarn thief in Aaron City, and they’re attacking town rapidly, leaving all but one piece to be missing: Johnny’s baby blanky.
It turns out the culprit is a weirdo in a cat suit, along with his trusty talking kitty companion, because all animals in Johnny Bravo talk. They make it to Johnny’s house, where the plan to get his blanket and leave. Too bad Johnny’s a little smarter than you’d expect with something like this. Kinda.
This one gets pretty weird, too. Too weird to describe. Noodles.
And just for the hell of it, here’s a list of things referenced in this short:
- Murder, She Wrote
- Beauty and the Beast
- Baywatch
“Talk to Me, Baby”
How about this one? Johnny’s at home, channel surfing, as he stops on the show for TV’s Vendela, a Tyra-like talk show host, except she’s white. She catches Johnny’s eye, so much so that he now plans to attend one of her shootings.
By a freak circumstance, it turns out that Johnny becomes the subject of Vendela’s show today, which is about bullheaded men just like him. Now, remember this type of talk shows, and whom their audience consists of. You can see how popular Johnny will become over here.
Especially consider Johnny’s fellow guest this week, an author of a self-health book similar to Of Course You’re Still Single, Take a Look at Yourself, You Dumb Slut. She hates men so much, that she angers up to a She-Hulk-like creature and shows Johnny what’s what, until Vendela pulls out her super powers to stop the madness!
The rest of the episode consists of Johnny making an ass of himself on TV, as everyone else makes sure he suffers. At first I thought this episode would be a little too mean towards Johnny, as he didn’t really do anything to the author, at least not to induce such a wrath. But by the end, I was completely won over, thanks to the sheer amount of gags thrown at us. There’s a great bit with a dinosaur that just cracks me up in there, as well. Good stuff.
I could go for a free lollypop now.
“Hip Hop Flop”
Ah, 90’s hip hop, pre-Tupac and Biggie. A lot of it is so silly, yet, you have to love how much fun the artists had back then, and the lack of pretension that was seen in gangsta rap. Being reminded of this era makes this episode go off to a good start.
This short starts off with Johnny catching a young girl excited for an upcoming concert of the Round pound, a hip hop trio that seems to be a combined spoof of the Fat Boys and House of Pain, with maybe even a bit of Run-D.M.C. added in. When he gets rejected for not being as fly as her favorite rap act, Johnny now attempts to take it upon himself to get tickets to the show.
By a stroke of storytelling cliché luck, Johnny meets up with the Round Pound as they attempt to obtain a record player, and mercilessly fail. Johnny then gets just what they ask for, and to repay the favor, the guys plan a dope makeover for our protagonist.
Talk about a culture gap here. The Round Pound try their best to fit Johnny into their style, yet the Elvis-like Bravo just doesn’t get it. In a Pygmalion-like turn of sorts, Johnny eventually gets it, and becomes the fourth member of the gang. Aww yeah. But don’t expect Johnny to win out just yet.
Another cute short, and any week where an episode is solid all the way through is a good one. Even if I can’t pick a particular favorite, since they’re all so strong. Or maybe especially if.
The ending to “Hip Hop Flop” gets to me every time, making for a nice little highlight.
The Powerpuff Girls:
“Major Competition”
THE CITY OF TOWNSVILLE IS ON FIRE AIIIYEEEEE!!!!!
What a way to start the episode off. Except this time, the Girls actually don’t save the day, and we have to watch among the citizens of Townsville as we find out who does. Also, take a drink when you spot the George Jetson cameo.
It turns out that we have a new hero in town, named Major Man. No relation to Major Glory, but he does have a similar demeanor, if slightly more douchey.
Major Man also has a tendency to discover crime and peril in Townsville way before even the girls can find out, which makes the city favor him and forget about the girls. Something’s gotta be up if he can do this, though.
It turns out something is indeed rotten in Townsville. Major Man has been staging his heroics up by personally creating each scenario where his actions are needed, and the girls find this out pretty early. A taste of his medicine is just what he needs…
Even if I didn’t tell you what Major Man’s major malfunction was, wouldn’t you have been able to guess it easily? This is a really weak short, with nary a gag or solid story hook in sight. There may have been worse to exist, but I’ll just say this- I had to take an hour or two off from even finishing watching this short, let alone write about it.
“Mr. Mojo’s Rising”
Hey, an anagram! Wait, that doesn’t fit. Does that mean “L.A. Woman” makes no sense whatsoever?
Like the previous short though, this one starts off with a wallop. Professor Utonium is quietly working in his lab, when all of a sudden, a shadowy figure comes and bonks him on the head and drags him away. The girls find out shortly after, when they come into an empty lab.
But wait! There’s a note. It turns out that Mojo Jojo has kidnapped the professor, but what reason would he have to do so?
This one’s a doozy. It turns out that Mojo used to be the professor’s pet monkey, a former test project and helper who was his right hand man until the fateful day when Utonium accidentally created the girls. Jojo did not leave the professor’s side automatically, though, as he himself was hit by this splash of chemical X, and had his brain multiply out of nowhere.
Despite Jojo’s newfound intellect however, Professor U dropped all attention from his pet to his new girls, which saddened the monkey so much that he left his care and became Mojo Jojo! How’s that for an origin story?
To add insult to injury, the professor and girls don’t even remember Mojo as one of their own. That’s gotta hurt. Utonium feels so bad for this after hearing his story that he decides to comply to Mojo’s wish and gives him the same powers as the girls. For the first time in years, the two supposedly brilliant men of science team up to make their greatest creation, a beam that gives Mojo the power he needs.
But of course Mojo uses these powers for evil, being Mojo. When it turns out that Mojo Jojo is about to finally have his victory, the twist of all twists occurs. You’ll have to watch the episode to know what I mean.
A much better short than the previous one, even if the gags are a little light. The story is much strong here, and Mojo’s character does indeed give it some much-needed energy. It’ll also come back as a key part in the movie, when or if I ever tackle it.
The first short isn’t all too bad, in hindsight. It has a pretty kickass song in it, which makes for my highlight this week.
Ed, Edd n’ Eddy:
“Look Into My Eds”
The Ed’s have a pretty good scam this week- an Ed-lead bus, perfect for a show whose adults are MIA. Except for the fact that the boys did not anticipate the power of a downward slope, which leads to a gigantic crash with the remaining kids on the bus.
But who cares about casualties, when the mail’s here? Double D’s book on psychosis comes in, as he tests it on Ed and Eddy. Somehow both are normal, by whatever rationale.
Eddy finds something way more awesome than a test in the book, though. He finds a hypnotizing device, which the boys test on each other to successful results. Now it’s time to test their newfound hypnosis powers on the rest of the kids.
First, Kevin becomes a monkey. Then, Sarah a frog. Next up is Jimmy bulking up beyond any rationale. And then both Plank and Rolf become zombies. Yeah, this is an odd one. And God bless it.
Eddy gets tired of playing around, and decides to take over the neighborhood now. They nearly get away with it too, if it wasn’t for those meddling sisters.
I tried to not write too much about this short, since I don’t want to ruin it for first timers, but it is gold, even if nothing really happens. This story wisely trades plot for jokes, and does so without maiming any of the characters in the balance, even when it’s essential to, which is the marks of a great comedic tale.
“Tag Yer Ed”
Isi t just me, or do you get hungry for cereal whenever you see Chunky Puffs on the show? Because this one starts off with the Ed’s about to settle down and eat some of their favorite cereal, except for one problem- bad milk. Chunky puffs + chunky milk= yuck.
The three head over to Rolf’s farm to get some milk, the hard way. This would be really gross if they knew how to milked a cow, so instead, it’s hilarious.
The Ed’s concede, and eat Chunky Puffs straight from the box outside. As we see them in peace, a football comes and hits Double D, at least on accident by Kevin and Rolf. He attempts to throw it back to them, except Edd is even weaker than Dexter is, and fails hard.
Eddy decides to take this opportunity to man Double D up by setting up a workout schedule for him, yet Double D can’t do a thing right. Eddy’s new goal now is to skip straight up to showing off his stuff, and sets up a wrestling game for poor Edd.
Match 1– Edd vs. Plank. Guess who wins?
Match 2– the Eds versus the Kankers. Again, guess the victor.
I’d rather not spoil these matches, so here you go. They’re both great stuff, as are both shorts this episode. I think the first is stronger, but they’re both loaded with gags that are hard to forget, yet easy to love.
In the second short, we learn how similar Ed is to Kuwabara, in a brief but respectable highlight.
Overall:
One of the best weeks so far. Only one short left me lukewarm, while I actively enjoyed the rest. I think my favorite was “Look Into My Eds”, but you can’t go wrong with the lion’s share of shorts in these episodes. I’m hoping for this trend to continue,