CK's Cartoon Corner

[superaielman]

Re Daria:

Quinn's growth through the series is fantastic.   It helps that she's up against the series's only true villain (Sandi) and starts getting the best of her later on.

[Cmdr_King]

Untrue!  The real villain of Daria is and always will be Ms. Li.  Not that you're wrong about Quinn and how she interacts with Sandi.

[Luther Lansfeld]

Sandi and Quinn interaction is probably the best part of the show, aside from how much Daria reminds me of my best friend in high school.

[Grefter]

Oh hey Daria.

The way the show flows and blurs together (especially on binge watches) isn't just you.  That is going to happen when you don't really have a status quo that resets each week.  Daria uses the monotony of sitcom structure the same way a school year feels.  There is consistency and beats to it, but because the narrative just flows through the whole season it gets hard to remember exact sequences of events.

When I have a chance I will look up peak story beats that still tear out my heart even 15 years after being the target audience.  I think it is more season 3 stuff that is the peak for the drama.  Aaaaaand just realizing that thinking abou Daria and listening to the Cure in public is a bad idea.

Edit - case in point.  Looked up the episode that destroys me that I thought was season 3.  Final episode of season 5.  Literally the last TV episode of the show.

[Cmdr_King]

Daria (Season 3)

I have to be direct.

Season 3, aka "I guess I am just human or whatever".

Well, some disclaimer is needed.  There's several episodes this season that are strongly detatched from anything resembling reality, which while good for humor completely clashes with the show at large (Depth Takes a Holiday, Daria!, and The Lawndale File.)  The overall tone of the episodes leads me to think these are direct and very barbed piss takes at MTV execs.  "Oh, so we need a Holiday episode?  Oh, we'll do your Holiday episode."  For the record, Jake gets all the actual good songs.

Lane Miserables is also at odds with the rest of the season, but not the show as a whole.  So I'm not really considering it as part of the rest of the writeup, anyways.

The remaining 9 episodes go back to my first statement though.  While season 1 plots were largely about establishing the Morgandorfer household, and season 2 focused on Daria's relationship with the world and especially her classmates, season 3 is about putting Daria in regular teenager situations and letting her Daria-ness simply write the episode from there.  It's less focused on character development than either previous season, instead seeming content to take the characters in their mid-development state and have them experience normal life situations for a change.  Basically everyone's at a sort of equilibrium, forced to acknowledge their shortcomings but not yet forced to overcome them.

Best Episode: Daria Dance Party.  In a season largely defined by relative normalcy, I find myself drawn to the episode that's basically "normal but with personality along the edges".

Weakest Episode: The Lawndale File.  When you subtract the semi-topical in 1999 (2000?) cultural references it's just a bland episode with no narrative drive beyond outrageously trumped up paranoia.

Rating: 7/10.  The stasis most of the cast is in is a bit disappointing, but the funny steps up the game a bit to make up the gap. 

[Grefter]

Huh and yeah reviewing, I was totally off on Season 3.  It is so shaped in my memory by the first and last episodes.  "Through a Lens Darkly" is definitely the first real peek into Daria's introspection and coming to terms with just how much of a facade she puts up and what that is.  Very teenager moment in your development as a person (and something that we all need to be reminded of constantly?).  The audience meeting her auntie is kind of a big deal I think as well since it establishes a mentor/adult that Daria actually engages with as a peer.

The final episode is obviously some of the most important character points in the series...

Also want to go back to an episode in season 2, Arts'N' Crass.  I could have sworn that was a later series than that... but it establishes some serious character for Helen that can seem lacking at first.  Regardless of how difficult she can find Daria to be and how distant she can seem at times, she will 100% side with her when she knows she is in the right and is there for her daughters.  It is an amazingly genuine sequence at the end of the episode and one that (as sooooo many things in Daria) I project a bit too much on.  I wasn't a difficult kid, but I was a strange one sometimes and I know there was times my parents stepped up to bat for me in spite of knowing exactly how I am.

Edit - oh and yes God God Dammit is the best and greatest musical tune ever penned.

[Cmdr_King]

Daria (Season 4)

If I'm wrong please correct.

Also the theme of this season.

The show to this point was largely cases where Daria was ultimately in the right, and the conflict was over her being needlessly harsh in her delivery.  Here the focus character of a given episode will pretty consistently be in the wrong.  Jane is really bad at relationships and relationship/friend balance.  Daria legitimately pisses off Jodie with her self-righteousness.  Psycho Therapy very nearly sends Helen to tears.  Dye!  Dye!  My Darling is an exercise in managing to make every single character do something very wrong and being angry at themselves over it later.  Fortunately for the show (seeing as basically everything in the movies and season 5 is based on this episode) this flow logically from the season.

Between that and the highlight reel aspects of I Loathe a Parade, I'm wondering if they'd known at the start of this season approximately how much show they'd have left.  World views have been rent asunder, and leaving Season 5 to rebuild our self-images using pieces old and new before making the true leap at the end of the show, leaving this life behind forever.  If that makes any sense.

Best Episode: I Loathe a Parade.  I gotta admit, I'm a sucker for all the callbacks. 

Weakest Episode: Groped by an Angel.  Of the many things Daria as a show has proved itself highly qualified to discuss, it turns out atheism is one it has to fall back on trite and predictable responses for.  Oh well.

Rating- 8/10.  Ramping up, calling out, kickin' ass.  Pumped man.

[Cmdr_King]

Daria: Is it Fall Yet?

Alternately titled "8 or whatever short tales about Lawndale".  Because there isn't really a plot here, but a series of character vignettes.

I am willing to assume this is on purpose, and the point is to show how badly the cast fares when everyone mutually cuts themselves off from their support networks.  You could also call it "Self-induced crippling social isolation: The Movie".  The argument could also be made (actually the argument IS made, by Tom, in this movie) that this is an apt title for the show, but unlike the normal of the show here everyone has done it, not just Daria.

The net result is closer to season 3 than season 4.  There's less status quo, but the general idea of everyone being stuck with their own thoughts but not really being able to do much about them is there.  While I could recite everyone's general subplots, on the whole I don't find them terribly interesting in isolation.  As so often comes up in these reviews (I guess that's the word for them?), some events are logically required to further the story but are really dumb and annoying to sit through.  In this case, all items related to Daria's issues with Tom.  Yes, you can't go from "Self-induced Crippling Social Isolation: The Real-Time Event" to "functioning relationship" over the course of a month, and yes I know you can't just have that shit happen off screen.  But you do need to give me some other material in between lest I get twitchy.

I should probably be offended by Jane's subplot.  I can't find it in me to be so.  I think I'm too surprised Jane didn't pick up she was being hit on.  Really goddamned blatantly.  It's strange to me that Jane, raised in Casa Lane, would have such a strong assumption of hetero-normativity.
Dumb summer jobs are dumb summer jobs.

So bassssically Quinn and DiMartino have to carry the movie.  They succeed!  DiMartino getting, well, ANYTHING is kinda nice because the dude is only second to Stacy in being unfairly shit on by life.  But Quinn of course comes surging back from a season or two of relative irrelevance to reclaiming her status as The Other Main Character here.  It makes sense though; for most of seasons 2, 3, and 4, Quinn was defined by the Fashion Club, and their group subplots.  It's nicely mirrored in her actual plot here; she'd been acting below her own intelligence to avoid being outcast.  This was always her MO, from episode 1, but the stability of the Fashion Club meant she was able to go on auto pilot about it; she wasn't putting thought into how to be accepted, just time and energy which isn't the same as what she was doing in Season 1.  So after what is at least 1, and more likely 2, years in-universe of slacking off she's presented an actual challenge that she chooses to meet.

Rating- 7/10.  Absolute initial response was somewhat higher, but actually writing everything out yeah, it's not quite 8 material.

[Cmdr_King]

Daria (Season 5)

Haters gone hate hate hate hate.

Yeah this is my favorite season.  The hatemail from Daria fandom will be arriving any day I'm sure.

So each season sectioned off a particular part of Daria's own character arc.  1 establishes her clash against societal expectation, 2 expands her exposure to the world at large, 3 has her doubting her own motives and hypocrisy, and 4 the world and her closest friends actually challenging her on above.  So after shuffling through an angst period in the first movie, season 5 is largely about Daria just... giving life a fair shake.  Being Daria she will pace back and forth on the "Do Something" precipice, and really this is Tom's function in the show (aside from being a gender flipped satellite love interest, which is cute and I do appreciate it).  Since he's an outsider to the cast, while still being largely trusted by Daria, he can be the voice that says "no, seriously, give it a shot, the worst that happens is you're sorta embarrassed."  And then she gets really mad at him for a while then admits she was being a doofus and life goes on.  A similar running theme exists for most of the cast; it's okay to give a damn and try.

This of course means that Helen was right all along, because apparently she's got the superpower of actually holding two full on conversations at the same time.

It doesn't get the best episode nod, but this write-up does have to make specific mention of Boxing Daria.  Fittingly it's only the very last episode that reveals Daria's Secret Origins, because it is only at this moment, after the entire series of her character arc, that we can actually appreciate it properly.  And more importantly, that Daria herself can; she was wrong about everything.  That life was worth giving as many tries as it took because eventually something would take and living without those things was hardly living at all.

This is how we know it's fictional.
I kid.

Best Episode: Lucky Strike.  This one has the major resolution of Quinn's story arc, so that's huge points there.  A lot of my favorite gags for the series are in this particular episode as well (like every word from Li and DeMartino's mouths for starters).  More than that though, much like Pinch Sitter way back in Season 1, this episode is one of those unqualified wins for Daria.  I mean, Jeffy (I think) managed an original though.  That's a hell of an accomplishment.

Weakest Episode: Sappy Anniversary.  A lot of my comments on Is It Fall Yet?  apply here.  I get the concept, it advances the story arc, but god it can be tedious to sit through 20 minutes that SHOULD have been resolved with the exchange "I feel like you take me for granted" "Howso?"  "Well we never really do anything special or celebrate anything" "I guess that's fair.  What should we do then?"  Of course I'm sure I've met grown ass men and women who couldn't have that conversation, but sometimes verisimilitude is a bitch y'know?

Rating: 8/10.  Smooth all the way down.  Ayup.

[Cmdr_King]

Daria: Is It College Yet?

You're standing on my neck.*

Like the last movie, this one features a lot of vignettes of the non-core cast.  Unlike the last movie, these ones actually all tie back to the main plot in a meaningful way.  Not necessarily advancing it, but at least working off the main concept.

It's Graduation Season!  Hurray!

It's College Application Season!  Booo!

Honestly I'm not sure what to say about the main plot thread.  Daria's college application process doesn't really speak to anything I've evver had to do, I guess.  The resolution of her and Tom's relationship, well... is fitting and makes perfect sense but doesn't inspire terribly interesting commentary.  Tom was something Daria needed in her life but their actual relationship wasn't one meant to last. 

Howeeeever.

Here's what's interesting.  Tom's main function in the show is, as noted above, to be the voice that says "Go ahead, give it a try".  So Jane's arc in the movie?  Daria has to be the voice that says "go ahead, give it a try" for her.  Much as the last episode of the series shows Daria's arc come full circle, here most of her and Jane's friendship comes full circle. 

And they claim they wrote this show as they went.

Rating: 7/10.  Good ending for things, but lacks major hits on the feels-o-meter.

*Hey, just because it's not in the movie doesn't mean the last Daria write-up SHOULDN'T end on la-la la la la.
la-la la la la

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

This entire set of writeups actually makes me want to give Daria a try. It never got any airtime over Brazilianistan and it sounds very well constructed.

[Grefter]

Caria is legit one of the best made young adult pieces of television ever made.

[Cmdr_King]

Avatar: The Last Airbender (Book 2: Earth)

"It's time to ask yourself the big questions.  Who are you, and what do you want!"

Though less obvious in season 1, like most modern american fiction Avatar draws a great deal from Star Wars.  So unsurprisingly season 2 is really more about the villains than the heroes.  Season 1 had a hero-driven goal and the villain had to react to them.  Here, the actions of the villains change the landscape and our heroes are constantly amending their plans to work around them. 

Also of course the heroes fundamentally lose.  Pretty badly.

Season 2 is notably more consistent than the other two in general.  Both season 1 and season 3 start off with a string of episodes that largely meander.  while some casual misadventures are to be had here (Avatar Day and The Cave of Two Lovers mostly), I find myself appreciating the random lore elements of those episodes a lot more than equivalent episodes in season 1.  In part, Aang/Katara/Sokka have a much better group dynamic at this point, meaning that they react more enjoyably to outsiders and their concerns.  But also I think the writers just have a better sense of what sorts of stories are actually interesting to the audience compared to which ones are interesting to the writers.  Backstory on a previous Avatar is much more engaging than backstory on a one-off village.

But of course the bigger factor here is that we've got two more major characters in the cast.  Four if you want to think of Ty Lee and Mai as major.  At this point in the show, it's clear that Zuko is as much the main character as Aang a lot of the time, and so Azula fulfills the role of being an antagonist to both of them, generally pretty successfully.  "Pretty and poetic, but also scary in a good way", y'know.  Toph meanwhile is basically the best.  She brings something the group just hasn't had: a) actual confidence and b) blunt honesty.  We don't have to pussyfoot around anymore, Toph's got this one.

Best Episode:

"Leaves on the vine falling so slow 
Like fragile tiny shells drifting in the foam
 Little soldier boy come marching home
Brave soldier boy comes marching home."

Weakest Episode: "You're in Ba Sing Se now. Everyone is safe here."

Now, City of Walls and Secrets is supposed to be seriously frustrating.  But even without that element, there's a serious flaw in this episode: Long Feng is just not a credible villain.  To an extent this is also intentional, he's supposed to be a petty tyrant who's out of his depth against the real villains.  The trouble I have is how BADLY he handles the gang.  They come into the city to talk to the King about the war that Long Feng knows damn well the Earth Kingdom is losing.  He's self-absorbed, not delusional.  And instead of shuffling the Avatar and his very capable escort out of the city to talk to, y'know, fucking Generals or something, he essentially holds him hostage in the heart of the city.  The thing of it all is that all they had to do was give Long Feng a reason to want the war not to end.  He could frankly have been a conspirator with some Fire Nation interest without altering the actual plot, but it doesn't even need to be that.  We see later that the heads of the Earth Kingdom military are personally loyal to the king.  So the war keeps them scattered lest they defy him and the Dai Li.  Shit, this plausibly IS the reason he needs to keep the Avatar silent on his own terms, in Ba Sing Se where he can watch him.  But you have to SHOW ME that.  Or at least give a clear implication of it, not just leave me hanging four episodes to speculate while I sit there thinking "You know that Aang could, AT ANY TIME, fight his way past all your Dai Li and force the truth to light.  Y'know, that thing that actually happens in three episodes?"

Rating: 9/10. Beyond all that though, there's just a lot more episodes that are willing to play with the audience's feelings rather than just being straight action-comedy.  Zuko Alone, Bitter Work, Lake Laogai (see quote at start of post, this almost got the best episode nod almost entirely for it), The Guru, and of course Crossroads of Destiny all have moments suitable for tearbending.  And as you may have noticed, CK rating scale is [/i]actually[/i] based almost wholly on feels.

[Excal]

While the second half of Season 3 is quite strong, I have to agree, Season 2 is where Avatar is strongest.  Bitter Work is easily my favourite episode, though Lake Laogai and Zuko Alone are excellent competition.  As is Appa's Lost Days, honestly.  That said, while I find Tales of Ba Sing Se to be hit or miss, I can't fault you for picking it for best episode.  Iroh's Tale is excellently done.

[Cmdr_King]

Oh, yeah, absolutely.  Appa's Lost Days was on the short list of "episodes I expect to get the Best Episode nod", I remembered it really hitting me last time I went through season 2.  On this rewatch it wasn't quite as impactful for whatever reason.  Still meant to put it on that list in the last paragraph though.

[Dhyerwolf]

This entire set of writeups actually makes me want to give Daria a try. It never got any airtime over Brazilianistan and it sounds very well constructed.

I'm shocked that you haven't seen this yet. It's definitely something I think would massively appeal to you. Would definitely recommend it.

[Sierra]

Avatar season 2 is pretty much 100% The Empire Strikes Back. I have no real problem with this because The Empire Strikes Back. I'm not sure if I like Tales of Ba Sing Se so much because Iroh is my favorite character or whether Iroh became my favorite character because I like Tales of Ba Sing Se so much.

While I normally shudder at the thought of not watching things in order, I suppose I'd have to second the notion that Ciatos skip ahead to seasons 2&3 if 1 isn't cutting it because wow there's some good stuff in those latter seasons. At least stick through enough of season 2 for Toph to show up, because Toph is amazing. I could rattle off a list of my favorite three characters and it wouldn't include any of the core trio of protagonists. (It's Iroh > Toph > Zuko, for reference.) That said, I think by the end Aang well transcends the initial kid power fantasy issues Ciato cited. Mostly because: even when everyone in the world is telling him that he can only win by killing someone, including past incarnations of himself, he refuses to do so on moral grounds, which really did feel like a satisfying culmination of a lot of little character beats they hit throughout the series.

[Cmdr_King]

Mike Judge's Beavis and Butthead (Volume 4/Season 8)

hehheh hehheh

So, extended joke about all the really dumb shit Beavis and Butthead have done over the years aside, this is our first entry where continuity is optional.  And consequently the hardest one to say anything substantive about.

So this is the entirety of the 2011 revival.  I also considered calling this entry 'Beavis and Butthead Open Bracket 2011 Close Bracket', but that'd be a reference I'm not entirely sure anyone present would get.

My main memories of the braindead duo are of the movie, and setting that aside what I remember of the show's original run finding individual episodes funny but being annoyed at the music video segments breaking up the flow.  The biggest change to the show for the revival was having most of the intermissions be for MTV's reality programs of the day (Jersey Shore, Teen Mom, 16 and Pregnant, etc), which is probably the most effective part of this season on the whole.  While the dorks gain about 30 IQ points for these parts which is weird, it's otherwise fairly consistent about having a good zinger or two.  Could just be I don't remember enough about the music of their original run to appreciate the bits back then.

The trouble the show has though is that while the intermissions are generally good, they still play holy havoc with the episodes.  A lot of times there's not even enough episode remaining to actually properly set up a punchline because you have to spend the whole run-time just showing stuff happening to get to the end at all.  So in the end most of the good stuff is actually visual gags, which there's plenty of opportunity for at least.

I'd prefer to rate the episodes as what constituted a broadcast episode (so episodes that are two 10 minute shorts would go together), since some other shows with splits like that will be easier to handle that way, but well... without interval parts connecting them or the like I"m having trouble actually remembering both halves of the episodes that stood out to me, so I'm going to break them up.  It's simpler.

Best Episode- The Rat.  The entire middle segment of the Rat where they fail to set a rat trap is great.  But I actually really love the rat puppy-dogging after them afterward.  Something about the genuine affection they show for the thing really works for me, even though the ultimate punchline is just kinda there.

Weakest Episode- Bathroom Break.  Hits too close to home.

Rating- 5/10.  It's popcorn.  I mean, aside from The Rat and the two extended episodes, I'm having trouble what the actual gags were in any of the episodes, and I watch most of them yesterday.  I also distinctly remember declaring a lot of them kinda eh, even though I'm not sure which ones were and which ones had some good jokes I don't remember.  If I were cruising the channels looking for something to fill a dull half hour I'd certainly watch it ahead of a lot of other things, but the way I watch shows, binge watching video releases?  Yeah, doesn't hold up too great.

[Cmdr_King]

Avatar: The Last Airbender (Book 3: Fire)

So last time we noted that Book 2 was probably the most consistent part of Avatar.  This phrasing was always meant to preface that I was going to call Book 3 the best season.  I have since decided I may have been in error; while Book 2 undeniably is better at having a consistent narrative running through the entire season, the weaker episodes of Book 3 are considerably less weak upon reviewing than my memory credited them.  And as such the season as a whole is quite incredible because you have a pretty good beginning followed by, starting a Day of Black Sun, basically the most amazing run of television we've yet covered. 

I get why I thought this way though.  The last episode of the previous season ended with Aang straight up DYING and having to be revived with a one-of-a-kind resource, an action which also effectively ended the Hundred Year War in the Fire Nation's favor.  We establish in the first episode this season the resources Team Good Guys still have and their proverbial last stand is scheduled in advance.  So any time spent between that episode and the invasion on Day of Black Sun will come across to the viewer as dithering, a sense which is amplified by Aang's belief he's utterly failed the world and has to redeem himself and the resulting frustration.  For an extra layer, while Zuko's lack of turn in Crossroads of Destiny was a believable bit of his character, the early going of this season quickly establishes that he's also mired in self-loathing that we as viewers know is going to end with him fighting for Team Good Guys in the end, so again the buildup feels needless in a meta-narrative sense.  So on paper every episode between Awakening and The Invasion except maybe The Avatar and the Firelord are filler... but in practice, isolated from being impatient on a first viewing, most of those intervening episodes are actually quite enjoyable.  Actually, let's detour quickly to get this bit out of the way.

Weakest Episode: The Runaway.  This is basically the only Toph focus episode the whole season (since she doesn't get a life-changing fieldtrip with Zuko) and it's just not really a good fit for her.  The friction with Katara feels forced (primarily because Katara come across as uncharacteristically holier-than-thou rather than being more upfront with her concerns), the breakdown of her issues is too on the nose to feel natural, and despite the overall premise it's just not fun in the way Toph should be.

Meanwhilst I found myself liking The Headband and The Painted Lady a lot more on this runthrough than previously in particular. Nightmares and Daydreams was actually utterly hilarious, and the Beach of course is, well, another villain episode in a series known for its villains.  So while a bit heavy on exposition and maybe a touch slow the first half of the season is actually good.

The entire rest of the series starting with Day of Black Sun is an unstoppable train of emotion.  The series actually has the heroes straight up lose their desperate invasion gambit (because not only were they utterly defeated in Crossroads of Destiny, but the villains casually learned about the eclipse before they even made their move).  But the series begins wrapping up, which means everyone finishing their character arcs.  And then we have...

Best Episode: "I'm so full of hope that it's making me tearbend.  *cries*"
"My stomach is so hungry that it's making me tearbend *sob* I need meat!"
Such a brilliant take on the series recap.

Of course that's a lie.

Best Episode: "My mother lied to you.  She was protecting the last waterbender."
"What?  Who?!"
"ME!!!"
It's amazing just how closely Katara comes to going over the edge here.  In fact, had Yohn Ra not been retired, she would have.  Back in The Puppetmaster, she breaks down crying over having to use bloodbending to save her family's lives.  Her she uses it as her first line of attack against a dude that she's assumed is the man who killed her mother.  She literally forces the dude to his knees before even looking to see if its the right guy.  In that moment, without the extra time spent flying back to the Fire Nation, she would have killed him.  But I really like the resolution of the episode; she's not sure even in the end if it was right to spare this man, yet she's still a stronger, healthier woman for having faced him.

But actually... that's not my real pick either.



"Your uncle's gotten to you, hasn't he."
"Yes, he has."

See, way back in 2008, the first time I actually watched Avatar was on the day Sozin's Comet came out.  They were marathoning it as a movie, I was kinda bored, thought I recognized the title as something I'd heard good things about. 

"Destiny is a funny thing, Prince Zuko"

So I just pop it on and it happens to be on a particular scene.

"Yeah yeah, I know you're good now"
"I was talking about my uncle"

After that I pretty much had to watch the whole thing from start to finish.

"I hate you uncle!  You smell, and I hate you for all time!!"
"You didn't... really say that, did you?"
"I might as well have."

Then a couple days later I snagged season 1.  But in the end, on a fresh watch from start to end, and despite excepting to nod The Southern Raiders for this position, I came back to that scene again.

"Uncle.  I know you must have mixed feelings about seeing me.  But I want you to know... I am so, so sorry uncle.  I am so sorry, and ashamed of what I did!  I don't know how I can ever make it up to you, but I-"*is pulled into a fierce hug* "How can you forgive me so easily!  I thought you'd be furious with me!!"
"I was never angry with you.  I was sad, because I thought you had lost your way."
"I did lose my way."
"But you found it again."
Best Episode: The Old Masters


Not bad for an angry jerk and a creepy old grandpa.

Rating-

Well.

See.  Rewatching the whole series?  Actually managed to raise my opinion of season 3.
So there's pretty much only one way this ends, isn't there?

10/10

[Grefter]

With you being wrong and not noting that The Blind Bandit is literally the only episode of the whole show anyone needs to see?

[Cmdr_King]

That was last season!  And honestly on rewatch while the Earth Rumble VI segment is legit (absolutely recommended for anyone with a passing knowledge of 80s Wrestling) the rest of the episode is only so-so. 

[Cmdr_King]

Inside Out

*squeeee* omygodohmygod PIXAR IS DOING SOMETHING THAT FEELS LIKE PIXAR AND NOT LOW RENT DISNEY

So let's itemize the obvious strong points of the film based on this then talk about specific victories and flaws.
- Fucking gorgeous.  Not just well animated, but the designs on the characters and small details therein are great stuff.  Joy is literally glowing!
- Excellent marriage of fantastic concepts with grounded, personal storytelling
- Excellent use of celebrity voices.  Lewis Black as Anger man.
- Uplifting humanist messaging without talking down to the audience.

There's one really glaring flaw that puts a huge dent in the movie for me.  In simplest terms, Sadness is just... despicable in the first half of the movie.  They use protagonist-centered morality too heavily, more than even works for the character involved frankly.  Joy narrates that she doesn't see why Sadness is there... and we as the audience ALSO don't see a reason for Sadness to exist for over half the movie.  If anything, the rest of the emotions are under-reacting to her, because she's generally presented as an unstoppable engine of sheer destruction, dedicated solely to destroying all Riley holds dear and reveling in the sheer carnage in its wake.  The best thing we can say of her in the early portions is that she seems to not particularly want to do any damage, and that it's simply in her nature to do so and she will invariably act in accordance with that nature unless forcibly held in check.  She doesn't want to be a monster, but is.

Intellectually we know this is untrue.  And having read ahead, I knew going in the actual function of Sadness in the movie's theory of emotion.  But her presentation is less that of a healthy functioning bit of humanity and more the personification of Depression, a hostile sickness who wants nothing more than to hold fiercely to the saddest of times and dwell on them to the exclusion of all else, until all they can actually do is lie motionless, crippled, forever.  And again, this doesn't seem to be the intent.  But at no point prior to being allowed control does Sadness actually express meaningful concern for Riley's well being.  Some offhand remarks about not derailing the system, but that feels more like her trying desperately to hold into a win and justifying it as being dangerous to do else.

And again, intellectually this is justifiable in story.  Of course Sadness doesn't know much of anything, Joy's been controlling her forever, and once she does have some control she does function as an aspect of the whole rather than an outside, destructive force.  But as the audience, this jars a bit with the first half of the movie.  We spent a lot of time considering her as a hostile force, without any clear signs this was untrue.  You can't define the view of the movie so heavily by the protagonist that we're blindsided by the actual development of the plot, at least not in this sort of story.

Everything else is great!

The interactions of characters in human space are jealousy-inducing.  The interactions of the emotions are generally pretty funny.  The journey through the mental space is a neat interpretation of psychology and neurology.  Every gag where we jump into a non-Riley person's head is great, both as movie storytelling and just for being funny.  Lots of little details to obsess over.

Take her to the moon.

The issue I took is really distracting after the fact, but in the moment when you get to the endgame you're willing to forgive it all.  Although yes I was bothered in the first half by "god I really dislike Sadness and want her to fail.  That's... not good."  But hey.  As long as the emotions line up when they need to, y'know?

Rating- 8/10.

[Cmdr_King]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles [2012] (Season 1)

Strange show.  There's a reasonable amount of competent writing, reasonable level of continuity, and it's pretty clear watching the show that... whoever is doing most of this are big fans of the original cartoon who are determined to bring as much of its characters, concepts, etc as possible without sacrificing credibility to this show.  But... for most of the season's run there's just no emotional resonance to it whatsoever for me.  I watched like 19 episodes in and had any meaningful response (that is, something besides "eh", "'salright", or "that wasn't very good") to ONE episodes in that time (The Gauntlet, ie "the turtles fail their objective and then Shredder stomps the lot of them out of nowhere").

The stuff after that point is considerably better.  Focus shifts back from "turtles face new enemy (that they probably created)!" to "turtles have to use their talents to survive and keep each other safe", not coincidentally also being the episodes with the largest focus on April and Karai, who are... basically the best characters in this show.  Or at least this season.  Hell, this was a major contributor to the lack of caring for most of the season, April would go long stretches without even appearing, any time she WAS relevant was purely to Donnie's little-bit-creeper crush (although I will say, this is more about his personality lending itself to obsessive behavior than him being a budding date rapist at least).  Once that stopped the show had a much stronger emotional core because, for both logical in-universe reasons and reasonable storytelling reasons, the turtles themselves are not the best adjusted and she brings a balancing personality to the dynamic that Splinter doesn't always (he's got the kung fu dad "I'm strict and a little distant but if you harm my sons YOU WILL FUCKING DIE" thing going).

On the whole it's mostly intellectually interesting to me as someone who did grow up with the '87 cartoon, but it does get pretty decent at the end.

Weakest Episode- Probably Turtle Temper.  It's meant to showcase that these Turtles have the emotional maturity of teenagers rather than just... being called teenagers.  Which is succeeds at, but in a "these guys suck at being heroes still, sorry folks" way.  It's probably the most irritating of a story line the first half of the series repeats with variations about 7 times, mostly.  But more than that it feels like the most dissonant between "how badly the turtles fucked this up" (they got a bystander dragged into their fight and mutated) and "how much in the way of consequences or guilt they suffer" ie none.  As noted, I struggled to care too much about the first 3/4ths of the series so I may be forgetting one I liked less.

Best Episode- Enemy of My Enemy.  Gets consequences and dilemmas very right.  Everyone's emotions here feel very natural, and as well everyone feels like they get a legit chance to weigh in and develop because of it.  Leo goes against his instincts because it's a strategically sound decision and, due to his relative inexperience, he often errs in favor of them over trusting himself.  Just well presented and a major catalyst in the plot to boot.

Rating-

Wait, one last thing.

Space Heroes is fucking great and I should totally pick up Stat Trek: TAS shouldn't I.

Okay.

Rating- 5/10.  The strong finish feels like too small a portion of the season to go higher than this.

[Cmdr_King]

Tiny Toon Adventures (Season 1 Volume 1)

I have seen the face of God, and yea it was good.


Pictured: God

Back to that in a second.

Fittingly this show is among the bedrock of modern animation, seeing as it was unto itself a deliberate and methodical effort to reconstruct icons of the golden age of animation into the then-current day.  So of course a lot of times it can come across as being clever without really being funny.  But hey, these things happen.

Since there's not a huge amount of continuity or overriding themes, unsurprisingly.  So the most interesting aspects are how each character is used and who is most effective.  Or something like that.

Buster- He's... a lot better as a host than as a star.  Which is weird.  Despite the easy label of Hamton as the straight man of the show, Buster much more often fulfills this role narratively; he's grounded and provides a rational response to most of the goings on.  The main trait he shares with Bugs Bunny, primarily retaliating only when sufficiently provoked, plays into this well; he can employ cartoon logic but it's a conscious decision to do so.

Babs- Babs should by all rights be supremely annoying.  She's always on and can't hold a train of thought.  But because Tress MacNeille is God, she's instead the best character.

Plucky- He gets probably the second most focus episodes this season, understandably so because he's the most interesting lead.  Not necessarily does this lead to the funniest material, but it's generally the most consistent.

Hamton- It's weird how many episodes in you get before he's even relevant.  Once he is he's generally pretty good y'know.

Furball- Gets probably the most focus of this season which is fascinating.  What I like about Furball is that despite having vicious cat behaviors he's otherwise immensely more sympathetic than this character is anywhere else.  You almost want him to succeed in eating other characters because god, he deserves a win y'know?

Montana Max- Lots of fun.  Creepily prescient too.  I guess this mostly means that 80s style corporate raiders not only survived to the modern day but have if anything gotten so naked about their motives they resemble a goddamned cartoon character based on them.  But no, the writers are great about giving him interesting and creative levels of cruelty to inflict on everyone else so you don't really get bored of his abject sociopathy.

Elmyra-  The entire writing staff had animal-'loving' toddlers at this time.  I'm convinced of this.  Elmyra has just a couple of focus episodes but she is in EVERY other episode.  She's... let's call it incredibly uneven.  It depends entirely on how she's being used in an episode.  She'll sometimes be treated as a sort of force of nature, who can be anticipated and enemies maneuvered into heading straight into her.  She's quite good in this role.  As a lead she'll usually be an oblivious bringer of doom, which is hard to sit through most of the time.  And sometimes she'll be... treated realistically, a child-person with real feelings but an incomplete understanding of what she does and the writers try to make it sympathetic and it's... okay but clashes so bad with the other Elmyras.  Blah.

Of course some of this is because the show has different... reality levels for lack of better way to put it.  Sometimes bits are clearly actors performing, others dip in and out, others are clearly happening to the actors in their 'real' lives, but the show doesn't differentiate between them in a visible way most of the time.  I assume it's a "we can do whatever's funniest" thing, but a lot of times it detracts from the humor for me because it's just a little dissonant.  Or I'm watching too many things and confusing myself.

Best Episode- The Acme Acres Zone.  Definitely the funniest episode overall.  The first short is pretty average but everything about the Hamton one was good and I like the layers of humor in Babs' sketch.

Weakest Episode- Buster Bunny Time.  The last sketch is great but the first is kinda insufferable.  No.  Bad Elmyra.

Rating- 6/10.  Never really boring, and some scattered moments of good laughs, but not particularly standout.

[Cmdr_King]

Teen Titans (Season 1)

Hello again D- ah, wait, sorry.  For some reason this series gives Bruce Timm a producer credit but does not, in fact, adopt the DCAU canon.  Weird.

Okay so this series is definitely a slow starter.  I commented around episode 4 or so to the effect of "Oh Hynden Walch, you're the only good thing so far".  The team wants to have a very en media res going on which... if I'd been watching this in first run television I'd have dropped the show by episode 2 frankly.  Like dude.  You can't start the show by having two main characters have a huge falling out when we haven't even been introduced to the characters!  Actually hold up.

Weakest Episode- Divide and Conquer.  I don't even remember who the villain is in this game and it so doesn't matter because Cyborg getting into a pissy fit with Robin and leaving the team in Episode Fucking 1 is amazingly stupid.  Like, THAT'S the first impression you want me to take from this show?  The cast is a bunch of self important cry babies who fight among themselves constantly?  In a super hero team show?  The fuck.

Sisters being basically about one member feeling neglected and jealous only reinforces that trend.  ANd think, that's about Starfire, so they're dinging teh best part of the show in the process!
Okay you can argue that Slade is better, let's not slight Ron Perlman, but still.

Now once we get past those episodes (I'm in awe of the incompetence of the first four episodes as a creative decision, seriously how are you trying to sell the show at this point that you end up with these four episodes?), we get the first set of character focus episodes.  Those are all pretty good.  Cyborg's is a bit rote, but hey, neat B plot.  Nevermore is the first real suggestion that this show has some wit and talent going on behind the scenes.  Actually...

Best Episode- Nevermore.  Of course CK likes the mindscape episode.  Don't be silly.  More than that it's one of those episodes a budding series should always have, where it lays seeds for plotlines they don't have plans for... yet.  Especially in a superhero story, you need to make your world seem bigger than it is.  And y'know, beyond that it's just fun to see the rainbow Ravens and how the rest of the team actually does, in fact, give a fuck.

Switched and Masks are also good times.  Deep Six is a bit weaker but still enjoyable.
90% of the time the show gives me the distinct impression that they're blowing the entire budget on character animation and have one dude do all the backgrounds in MS Paint.  The other 10% is Detention, a 22 minute tribute to Yellow Submarine.  I approve.

But yeah, it's a strange show.  Rarely have I covered something where I actively thought multiple episodes were actually bad, so this is a first.  Once it gets going and focuses on the characters as people rather than its weird, misguided attempt to, uh, put the Teen into the Teen Titans I suppose you could say, it's pretty good.  Not super awesome, but good.

Rating- 6/10.