The Greatest Western Animation Episode Ever

[LumRanmaYasha]

Results:

"House and Garden" (Batman: The Animated Series) - 16
"Escape from L.A." (BoJack Horseman) - 17
"Last but not Beast" (Dexter's Laboratory) - 17
"See Me, Feel Me, Gnomey" (The Powerpuff Girls) - 10

"Escape from L.A." and "Last but not Beast" move on to round 2! The next match will be up shortly.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Round 1: Match 4


"The Wedding Squanchers" (Rick & Morty)

VS.


"Hot Water" (American Dad!)

VS.


"All This and Gargantua-2" (The Venture Bros.)

VS.


"All Fear the Freak" (Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated)

[gunswordfist]

Pass.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Same as GSF.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Pass.

[Dreamer2]

Ah, this is a tough/great one. I'm gonna go with:

All Fear the Freak
The Wedding Squanchers
All This and Gargantua-2
Hot Water

Too bad I've got to put Venture Bros. third, but I think I prefer the Rick and Morty episode by just a little bit.

All Fear the Freak is a masterpiece. And my favorite episode of that amazing show.

[Avaitor]

Same as Dreamer2.

[VLordGTZ]

All Fear the Freak
Hot Water
The Wedding Squanchers
All This and Gargantua-2

[LumRanmaYasha]

All This and Gargantua-2
The Wedding Squanchers
All Fear the Freak
Hot Water

Spoiler

All This and Gargantua-2 is hands down my favorite episode of Venture Bros. An epic hour-long story that involves almost every recurring character and resolves several of the shows long-running subplots and establishes a radical new status quo going forward.

The Wedding Squanchers is a gut-punch of a season finale that shows Rick at one of his most emotionally vulnerable and selfless moments. The payoff for this episode is even more brilliant, but the way this episode lets Rick's and our guard down and deals a huge emotional blow in the murder of Bird-person and Rick turning himself in to the Federation was unprecedented and kept us in suspense for one and a half grueling years.

All Fear the Freak is a strong finale to the first season with a big twist that Mayor Jones isn't Fred's father and was using him all his life to keep Brad and Judy away, which destroys his sense of identity and tears the already shaky ties of the group apart. The reveals of Jones' dealings with Pericles and the downfall of the original Mystery Inc. is also pretty interesting. And I love the ending where Scooby swears to Pericles that he'll reunite the gang and they'll come for him ending off with his signature howl is a pretty damn great cliffhanger for a season finale. Rewatching this episode really made me want to rewatch the show as a whole.

Hot Water is a great parody of Little Shop of Horrors and send-up of B-movie monster flicks, with fun musical performances and great guest role by Ceelo Green. It's one of my favorite AD episodes but the other contenders here just have more going on.

[close]

[LumRanmaYasha]

Results:

"The Wedding Squanchers" (Rick and Morty) - 11
"Hot Water" (American Dad!) - 6
"All This and Gargantua-2" (The Venture Bros.) - 9
"All Fear the Freak" (Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated) - 14

"The Wedding Squanchers" and "All Fear the Freak" move on to round 2! The next match will be up shortly.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Round 1: Match 5


"Fish-N-Chumps" (Rocko's Modern Life)

VS.


"Heart of Ice" (Batman: The Animated Series)

VS.


"Clarence's Stormy Sleepover" (Clarence)

VS.


"When OMAC Attacks!" (Batman: The Brave & The Bold)

[Avaitor]

Heart of Ice
Clarence's Stormy Sleepover
When OMAC Attacks
Fish-n-Chumps

Sorry I made such a long Clarence episode my choice, but it really kind of is the best of the show in one package.

[Spark Of Spirit]

When OMAC Attacks
Heart of Ice
Fish-n-Chumps
Clarence's Stormy Sleepover

Three of mine in one round. Yikes.

[Dreamer2]

Heart of Ice
When OMAC Attacks
Fish-n-Chumps
Clarence's Stormy Sleepover

[LumRanmaYasha]

Clarence's Stormy Sleepover
When OMAC Attacks
Heart of Ice
Fish-n-Chumps

Spoiler

I haven't watched the show in a while, so "Clarence's Stormy Sleepover" was a real treat and a great reminder of everything I love about it. A really well done hour-long story following multiple characters and focusing on their relationships and even giving the adults a lot of character development, especially Mr. Reese and Miss Baker. These were charming, hilarious, and heartfelt episodes that capture everything I love about one of the most imaginative and relatable kids cartoons currently airing.

"When OMAC Attacks" is really fun in how it handles the question of balance between good and evil and "eye for an eye" philosophy, with a clever solution on OMAC's part in not fighting Shrapel ultimately being what weakens and defeats him. I really enjoy how the theme of heroism is handled in the contrasts between Batman and the GPA and Buddy Blank and OMAC, and how the episode posits that both Buddy and OMAC are great heroes for different reasons.

"Heart of Ice" is deservedly iconic for its revolutionary characterization of Mr. Freeze. Every line of dialogue he speaks informs us of his character and really cut deep, efficiently selling us on the idea of him being a tragic character without needing to devote too much time depicting his backstory.

"Fish-n-Chumps" is fun for its horror angle in how Rocko and co. go out for fishing but end up being the ones being fished by literal fish fisherman. The recurring gag of Filburt repeatedly pestering Heffer to ask him what time it says on his new watch also pays off in great comedic fashion and is a great example of how to do a strong non-sequitur recurring gag.

[close]