Tony here. Time for the end-of-the-week Sunday Wrap-Up. It’s here that I look back at the week in animation and say what I thought worked, what I thought failed, and what I thought was the best-of-the-best of week. (I unveiled a new rating system a few days after I did the reviews for a few of these shows, so I’ll be adapting them accordingly from their letter grades.) Some spoilers below. Let’s get started.
On CN Monday, we had new episodes of:
- The Amazing World of Gumball — Yet another hilarious outing for the show. Focused a lot on the dynamic of the family and gave equal screentime to storylines involving each of them trying to become more functional. Gumball and Darwin’s plot worked the best, though Richard’s plot had some amazingly hysterical sight gags. 9.8/10 (Best of the night)
- Regular Show — Felt like a season one episode almost. The jokes worked and I loved the staging of Mordecai and Rigby getting too smart for everyone else. (Though I admit the grid was a bit too much like the one from “Don”). It was pretty clever how they set up what could have been a completely different episode plot–Rigby re-attending high school–and simply brushed it off. 9.3/10
- MAD — Most of the sketches surprisingly weren’t parodies of anything specific, sans the titular two. Of those two, the first one was good and funny, while the second failed to do anything with me–mostly because of a few minor research errors related to The Office and some generally missaimed jokes. Also both of the titles were really a stretch. My favorite was “Seattle: Los Angeles”, which was absurd, hilarious, and amazing, and one of my favorite MAD sketches, but the whole thing was more-or-less just solid. 7.9/10.
- The Problem Solverz — I have no idea what it is–perhaps it was my love of Japanese culture which this episode owes a lot to, or maybe I’ve simply adjusted to this show’s horrid colors and madness–but I actually found this episode totally decent. The surrealism actually sort of felt well-done at points, a lot of it being with Professor Sugar Fish, a wacky Japanese cereal mascot (again, my Japan bias) and nothing really upset me; not even the loud voices or colors. This season’s almost over, and they’ve finally made an episode I didn’t hate. 6.0/10
Then on CN Tuesday:
- Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated — Sadly I missed the opening, but I did hear that there was a brief cameo of Scrappy and Flim-Flam as statues, which is amazing. Rest of the episode was alright but nothing totally notable beside that opening. Still pretty cool to see more development with the overarching series mystery–this time involving Angel Dynamite. 7.0/10
- The Looney Tunes Show — This episode felt a lot like a classic short. We opened with Bugs and Daffy tunnel-traveling, which offered a huge nostalgic blast. Then the main plot had Bugs and Daffy competing over an attractive Hollywood scarlet (Bugs being the obvious and continuous victor throughout), and accordingly Daffy was sort of refitted from his typical dumbass routine on this show to a much more Chuck Jones-esque Daffy. That’s what made this episode work; not to mention it was pretty damn funny. 9.4/10 (Best of the night)
On Disney Channel’s Saturday Toonin’ block, we had a new episode of:
- Phineas and Ferb — Both episodes were fantastic. I liked the first–“Candace Disconnected”–better though. Joel McHale guest starred as a deadpan prototype Norm head and served as the episode’s strongest comedic anchor. Plus all three plots managed to entertain, which is always good in my book. The second–“Magic Carpet Ride”–was also good, but the main plot (while rather beautiful) felt sort of weak. Candace’s plot showed us some interesting new locations, while Doof’s showed us a new side of Roger. First: 9.5/10; Second: 9.2/10.
And on The Hub Saturday, we had a new episode of:
- Dan Vs. — One of my favorite episodes, definitely. Every joke worked perfectly, and the escalation of the entire thing was much more slow-burn and allowed the jokes to be more subtle. Hortense was a funny new character and her voice (provided by Tress MacNeille) was hilarious on its own. Lots of continuity nods, with a reappearance from my favorite recurring character, Crunchy, the hippietastic hippie. Plus I actually felt sorry for Dan. Just a perfect episode. 10/10.
So overall, the Best of the Week were:
- Dan Vs. — “Burgerphile”
- The Amazing World of Gumball — “The Painting”
- Phineas and Ferb — “Candace Disconnected/Magic Carpet Ride”
- The Looney Tunes Show — “Casa de Calma”
- Regular Show — “More Smarter”
That’s it for me. We’re nearing the end of the season for a lot of shows, so expect some emptiness in Sunday Wrap-Ups in the upcoming weeks. See you next week.
Toons with Tony 