SpongeBob - "Walking Small"

You want to walk tall? Then just watch "Walking Small" that often airs after "Texas." Note to viewers this is the third and final Plankton-focused episode of the first season. So now, let's begin.

In this episode, Plankton decides to bring up the future sight of the Chum Bucket Mega Bucket on the Goo Lagoon. And he uses SpongeBob as bait to get everyone to leave Goo Lagoon. With a few comical situations like SpongeBob being "insertive," and SpongeBob misunderstanding Plankton's phrases to the guy in sandals borrowing his metal detector. It all gets better when SpongeBob's finally become improving like shaking sand everywhere, stealing the hot dogs, kites, and destroying volleyballs. Will SpongeBob reverse the damage, or will Plankton's plan succeed? Watch and find out. Okay?

What I like about this episode is that it's not focused on Plankton trying to steal the formula. Instead, it's focused on him trying to make a much bigger restaurant in Bikini Bottom. It's petty funny when he cries over the fact that he bought two ice cream cones, you know, because this is a Sean Dempsey animation directed episode, Dempsey has a fetish for crying! Also, SpongeBob's Jerry Seinfeld like stand-up comedy was pretty funny. I even like how he reverses the damage, like for example, bringing the hot dogs and kites back to the beach-goers, and being a surfboard for Scooter. All Plankton needed was aggresiveness and being assertive, sorry "Putting Your Hoof Down," you stole that idea.

Overall, this episode is pretty funny, especially with Plankton shouting through his megaphone, SpongeBob taking his sweet time eating his ice cream, and of course, his Jerry Seinfeld reference. He is a true altruist folks. By the way, Plankton does have a point, SpongeBob is soft because he IS a sponge.

In the end, Plankton deserved to have his plan reversed, he totally deserved it. I also like Larry the Lobster's speaking cameo asking for the volleyball and saying "Let's just go home I guess," which speaking of which, all of you should go home right now until the next review.

CatDog - "Hail the Great Meow Woof"

All the great me! All hail the great cartoon reviewer! That's right, I'm reviewing "Hail the Great Meow Woof."

While playing with a kite, Cat and Dog chase it through the outskirts of Nearburg, where they come across a tribe worshiping Rancid Rabbit as the Great Rancid. After accidentally knocking down Rancid's statue, the tribe to worship CatDog, also referring to them as the Great Meow Woof. And with that, the formerly great Rancid decides to seek vengeance.

Will CatDog win? Or will Rancid win? Well, I'm not telling! Because you've got to watch and see for yourself.

This episode is filled with a lot of stuff that made me laugh from beginning to end. Not just that, this is a sure sign this episode was originally written for the first season, since Gary Goldstein was credited and this was his last episode he storyboarded. That being said, I can see why it was never in the first season. It was also the last episode where Derek Drymon was the supervising director and where Erik Wiese served as a storyboard artist, after this episode, they both went on to work on SpongeBob. These are the reasons why I think this was originally for the first season. Anyways, I also like the fact that "Abra-Cadabra" are the magic words for the magic stuff Rancid puts onto CatDog.

Overall, this episode has a little bit of something for CatDog fans. You get CatDog fighting off Rancid Rabbit, ultimately winning, and the Greasers (sigh), unfairly beating up Cat and Dog.

I also like the fourth wall break they did at the very end where Cat says "Iris out!" in which the episode actually does.

All I can say is, "ALL HAIL THE GREAT EPISODE! ALL HAIL THE GREAT EPISODE!" Okay, okay, enough of that. thank you.

CatDog - "Winslow's Home Videos."

Now I'm going to review something that was on a certain Nickelodeon tape before a popular 1998 movie came along. I'm of course talking about the CatDog short episode, "Winslow's Home Videos."

What's the story? There isn't one. It's pretty much just Winslow showing the viewers about all the crazy stuff that Cat and Dog have done together like breakfast for example, putting in too much hot sauce onto a taco, causing Cat to breath fire, their quiet bike ride in the park being ruined by those greasers, and of course, Dog's game of Sailor Dog getting a bit out of hand. Although, it wasn't previously recorded. It was actually recording already in Cat and Dog's own bathroom. It's like as if there was a title card that said, meanwhile or something. Anyways, a giant wave hits the house and Winslow ends up stuck upside down and the episode ends.

Much like the Krusty Krab Training Video, this episode didn't need a plot to be funny, it needed to be funny to be funny. Thanks to Dean Stefan and Dan Povenmire, this episode pulls out all the stops, like putting on too much hot sauce on a taco, Cat burning Dog to a crisp accidentally, the TV jumping up and down during the greasers' attack, and of course, Dog's pretend squid attack that is accidentally making Cat a bit wet. Dog's not being mean he just doesn't know any better. It doesn't help either that Dog decides to bring up a tidal wave and ride it all across the house! HOW DOES HE DO THAT?! And for that matter, how can they surf inside?!

Even on the Rugrats Movie DVD and VHS without the title card, this episode in my opinion was pretty funny, and it was the last of the three three-minute shorts that aired during the second season, Much like "Dog the Mighty" however, I thought this was from the first season.

All in all, Winslow was a great host for his home videos, and Carlos Alazraqui has a lot of charm portraying the role making sound an awful lot like Rocko from Rocko's Modern Life. As a matter of fact, a lot of people who worked on Rocko's Modern Life worked on this show.

In conclusion, this episode is a short but funny comedy fest.

CatDog - "It's a Jungle in Here!"

Dawn your Tarzan gear or your safari gear and let's explore the forest within CatDog's house as we review my personal favorite season two episode, "It's a Jungle in Here" from about July 1999/ Let's begin the exploring, shall we?

While preparing their house for a special visit from Cat's classmate, Sally, Dog forgot to plant up the grass floors. So, he and Cat go to the plant store to buy some grass manure to cover up the hole. Unfortunately, due to Dog's small brain, Dog puts in too much of the manure that overnight, it turned into a big, safari-like jungle, and worse than that, Sally has already, that's bad news.

Will Cat and Dog make it to the door? Or will they be sacrificed to Jungle Man? Stay tuned to find out.

This is really one of those mid-season two episodes that still feels like early season two episodes, because Ken Kessel returned after a four-episode absence to be one of the supervising producers, and Russ Mooney also helped out as the supervising director of the show with Robert Porter. I kind of like the character design of Jungle Man, he looks like a cartoon version of Animal from The Muppets or something, but that's just me. And, much like Dog the Mighty, Andy Rheingold did a fine job writing the script for this episode, seeing this was perhaps one of his last ones he did for CatDog, before leaving the writing to Jon Ross.

All in all, this is a pretty good episode. It's got clever comedy, a clever plot, and a clever twist ending where Sally decided to get in touch with her wild side since she got tired of being a neat freak. Hmm, I wonder if this is what inspired Figure it Out to make Figure it Out: Wild Style a few months later? Oh, well, I don't know, but what I do know is that CatDog appeared on Figure it Out Wild Style a few times.

You have to see it to understand it. That show was pretty fitting for that comedy duo.

Watch this episode if you come across it, folks.

SpongeBob - "SpongeGuard on Duty"

Here's my favorite SpongeBob episode from the third season. Before I begin, let me give a little background. This episode along with The Algae's Always Greener aired on March 22, 2002, the same day ChalkZone premiered, as well as the new episode of The Fairly OddParents at the time, "Action Packed/Smarty Pants." Now, with that out of the way, let's begin the review.

While at the beach with Patrick, SpongeBob says Larry the Lobster as a lifeguard, who gets all the attention, wooing the ladies, talking to the surfer dudes (one of them voiced by Carlos Alazraqui), as well as banishing the old people of Bikini Bottom from Goo Lagoon for some odd reason. SpongeBob wants to be a lifeguard like Larry, but Patrick on the other hand thinks that lifeguards are a nuisance. He decides to go to the snack bar to control his anger. After a flying ice cream truck accident, Larry mistakes the white ice cream sticking to SpongeBob as lifeguard material. He compliments him on the looks and let's him be the assistant lifeguard. However, when Larry leaves SpongeBob in charge of the beach, SpongeBob quickly learns that being a lifeguard is a huge responsibility, like saving people from drowning, and the problem is SpongeBob can't swim. How will he handle doing this by himself. Go find out.

This is a clever plot. A person who wants to be lifeguard like Larry the Lobster, a wannabe if you will. I will say that SpongeBob's over-protection is a bit out of hand if you ask me. Going so far as to say "Uh, somebody went," disgusting the citizens and Scooter says "It's a lagoon, dude," even going WAY to far as to tie up everyone in do not cross taping! It's not out of character, but it's too much protection. I kind of like how Patrick stops in the middle of the water and hits butt twirls and makes him flinch in pain shouting "CRAMP!" Also, the weird thing is that the water was only two feet deep, since we saw Larry pick up SpongeBob and Patrick from being over the top while "drowning."

So, bottom line, this story is quite silly, in a good way. I especially like some of Larry's lines like "Gnarly, dudes!" and one fish saying "That's the last time I read and swim." I even like Larry beating the fish up to help him breath. That lobster is quite a hero.

All I can say if you can't swim, all I can say is that practice makes perfect.

And Patrick still doesn't have any ice cream.

The Fairly OddParents - "Birthday Wish!"

Here's another favorite episode from Season 5, "Birthday Wish!" starring Vicky's little sister, Tootie. This is the second Birthday episode I'm reviewing, so let's uh, let's begin.

The story is that Timmy Turner feels bad for Tootie because her birthdays are always ruined by her older sister, Vicky. She wants a party where everyone wasn't too scared of her to come. Feeling bad for the child who's been abused by Vicky, he lends his fairies, Cosmo and Wanda to Tootie for the rest of her birthday, and to make up for all the birthday's he's been ignoring from the delivery man. And, amazingly enough, the party is everything that she ever wanted. It isn't until Denzel Crocker comes into the picture and discovers there was real butter creme icing on the giant birthday cake. And, as usual, Mr. Crocker goes for another evil scheme to prove to the world that Timmy (technically Tootie) has fairies.

The thing that surprised me about this episode was that I thought this would be more about Vicky than Tootie, but boy they proved me wrong. It focuses more on Tootie and her birthday wish, Vicky even gets thrown out of the window to give Denzel the villain spotlight. That, and Timmy was really generous to lend his fairies until 9:00 which is her bedtime. I also like Chester and AJ's minor appearances, as well as Chet Ubetcha reporting on Tootie's birthday. With all the presents, on the cake or anywhere in between, you never know who's going to show up. But don't worry, we're giving you enough Mr. Crocker to go around.

The bottom line is that I too felt bad for Tootie in this episode, especially since nobody ever came to her party due to them having Vicky in them.

I even like all the jokes here, like Cosmo saying "Go for the coma!" And of course, we couldn't forget Crocker's "FAIRY GOD PARENTS!" chant.

I even like how they made Denzel Crocker interact with Tootie for a change instead of Vicky.

If you like birthdays as much as I do, please, at least check this one episode out. It really is worth your time.

The Fairly OddParents - "Future Lost"

If SB-129 was in love with The Jetsons, this would probably be the innocent love child. It's called "Future Lost."

While cleaning out stuff in the attic, Timmy Turner comes across a book that takes place in the future of the 21st Century, with futuristic technology. And without any surprises, he wishes that all of Dimmsdale was in the future like in the book he found from Mr. Turner. By the way, the title of the book was called Stevie Sparks. Everything looks so futuristic that even Mark Chang shows off his regular form to the kids. Everything goes fine until the Big Brain takes over the world and brainwashes the robots into making the humans do their bidding. How will Timmy get out of this? Stay tuned to find out.

This episode is pretty cool. It really knows how to portray the future right, like how The Jetsons and SpongeBob did. I even like Denzel Crocker's muscular janitor version of himself. He still does the spasms, but this time he says "ROBOTS ARE EVIL!" Oh, Carlos Alazraqui, never change. I even like the idea of a 5-second school day. I wish my school had something like that, too bad it never works like that, the only upside is that I don't go there anymore because I've retired and went to work at the DAC. I even like the Cosmo and Wanda robots, especially the Cosmo Four Slice, where he can make toast. And the rockets are much better than wings.

Overall, this an episode that is really worth seeing. It is one of the last good ones before Poof came along. It has a lot of goods, a lot of humor, and a lot of action. I just wish that Big Brain guy who was voiced by Jim Ward wound sound more like Orson Welles.

Oh well, I guess we'll never know.

Overall, as of now, you don't have to be a Psychic Pokemon in order to see what's coming up in the future. Isn't that right, Alakazam?

KA-ZAM!

AAGH! That's my cue to say, watch it if you run across it!

By the way, that was a reference to the Professor's intro in Pokemon the First Movie.

CatDog - "Sneezie Dog"

Now this is a better episode about allergies than "The Big Sneeze." Yep, this one is from CatDog. Let's see if it holds up better than The Big Sneeze.

After taking Dog to doctor Rancid Rabbit after Dog sneezed Cat's statue of liberty down, Dog comes to the conclusion that he might be allergic to Cat. Throughout most of this episode, Dog and Winslow try their best to figure out how to cure the allergy.

This episode is SO much better than "The Big Sneeze." I mean, it got so many things right that "The Big Sneeze" didn't have time to develop. For example, having a character being allergic to another character is ridiculous, says Cat, and it has a better cure for the allergy. Shave Cat. And here's the twist, Dog was allergic to Winslow this whole time and with that, Winslow gets his comeuppance in the end. He deserved it. Why couldn't Angelica get any karma come to her on the Big Sneeze is beyond me.

The bottom line is that The Big Sneeze writers should've watch this episode and not make Chuckie go so far as to get away from Kimi. It's called, "TAKING NOTES!" The reason this is better than The Big Sneeze is because is funny throughout! I mean sure, there were a few funny points in "The Big Sneeze" with Phil and Lil, but those are just far and few in between. Writers, next time if your writing an episode about allergies, TAKE NOTES FROM THIS EPISODE.

But I digress. This episode is good.

Hey Arnold! The Jungle Movie Review

I didn't cry at the end of Hey Arnold! The Jungle Movie, just saying that right now. I know it's awkward to bring up, but with that in mind, not everybody;'s going to like this movie like I did. I just thought it be important that I bring that up before I say the rest. With that said, Hey Arnold! The Jungle Movie was the final chapter in the Hey Arnold series,. Everybody had waited so long for this movie to happen to see if whether or not Arnold can go find his parents. They said it was emotional, they said it was funny, they said it was dark, they said it was creative, some people didn't like it, the list goes on, yadda, yadda, yadda. They went crazy for it. I think it’s good. Yeah, you know. It’s good, uh...Okay, okay, let’s just go into the story.

Arnold Shortman, now in 5th grade and is in the last day of school has to do an important assignment from Mr. Simmons, voiced by Dan Butler, about doing a montage of all the great things they've done over the years, and the winner, will get a trip to San Lorenzo, and sure enough, Helga steps in and helps the football head win the contest by editing the montage together into one giant thing, and oddly enough, they won the contest, that's right, Arnold and his friends achieved a first-class one way ticket to San Lorenzo!

When they arrive in San Lorenzo, they meet up with the bad guy, Lasombra, voiced by Alfred Molina, disguising himself as Eduardo, Miles and Stella's Indiana Jones like friend, to lure them into his trap to find the precious corazon from the Green-Eyed People. Alfred Molina has been in numerous films, including the first Indiana Jones movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark, starring Harrison Ford. So, Arnold, Gerald, and Helga have to avoid Lasombra to find the Green-Eyed People and break them out of the sleeping sickness curse.

The funny thing about Hey Arnold! The Jungle Movie is that really, this should be my favorite. It goes everywhere that I wanted Arnold to go to get to San Lorenzo, after the TV movie episode, "The Journal," aired on Nickelodeon, I said to myself, "The next part should be about what happens when Arnold finally comes to San Lorenzo to find his long lost parents and what happens when Helga reveals her true love for Arnold." And that’s exactly what happens. Moving on. And once again, we have a legitimate threat that does have a backstory that makes him sort of credible. So why don’t I like this one as much as The Lion King or MLP: The Movie, especially when everyone else in the world seems to regard it as a masterpiece? I don’t know. Maybe there’s too much focus on them trying to get out, maybe it's focused more on Arnold, Gerald, and Helga trying to find the green-eyed people, maybe we didn't get to see what happened to the other kids after the grown-ups stepped in to save them, but I digress. I'll address the Elephant in the Room, Lasombra! I never enjoyed the villain all that much, he just looked like Eduardo's doppelganger, and Alfred Molina? Why?! Why couldn't they cast someone legitimate like Mr. Lawrence or Jeremy Irons. I mean, look at Lasombra, he looks like a character Jeremy Irons would play. I get that Alfred Molina was Craig Bartlett's only choice for the voice of the villain, and I don't blame Alfred for this, it's just, it wasn't the right casting. So, if you had someone who was looking for corazon, you’d probably keep him away from your kids, too.

So, there, I've stated my complaint about the villain which I'm sure will get me a lot of hate for that, so, of course, you must think I don’t like this film. Well, no. I still think it’s a very, very good film. In fact, I actually do think it’s a great way to end the Hey Arnold franchise. It has my favorite characters, including Olga as seen in this picture here, as well as Rhonda, who spends most of the film having quite a bad hair day it still has a lot of good laughs, it has, surprisingly, a lot of suspense, and, hey, it's still Hey Arnold! And for a lot of people, this represents something that they grew up with as children, and maybe that’s why so many people do react the way they do at the very end.

A lot of kids who didn't know who their parents are were Arnold's age when the show first aired on Nickelodeon, so to watch themselves grow up and to watch the show actually grow up with them as well probably mirrors a lot of developments that a lot of people in the audience have gone through. Maybe in the end, this was the film's secret. It knew just when to come out and it knew just when to stop. It reached just the right age bracket and decided to grow up with us. And for those who didn’t grow up around the same age, maybe this film brought it back to them,..Maybe they hit something that not only do we all remember, but we all hold so precious and close to us. Whatever this film did, it did it right, the hopes of seeing Arnold finally finding his parents in San Lorenzo had finally come to pass. I'm afraid I have no other choice but to here by decree that Arnold is henceforth no longer parentless, which I suppose is what henceforth means, but no matter, Arnold, go on! Give all your parents the lost time to make up!

Let the world know, near and far, including but not limited to, my mom and dad, that this is not the end of Arnold's hopes and dreams! No! Quite the contrary, Arnold's life with his family has just begun!

But please don't reboot the series, please?

This review is dedicated with respect and admiration to the memory of Jack Riley.

The star of Rugrats and The Bob Newhart Show. we will miss you all.

Rest in peace: 1935-2016

CatDog - "Dog the Mighty"

Now, I'm going to review and recap a certain episode of CatDog that I adore very much, but not as much as Larry-Boy! And the Fib from Outer Space!, "Dog the Mighty!" Dawn your superhero capes and let's gets started.

In downtown Nearburg, Mayor Rancid Rabbit is proud to be here for the unveiling of the world's biggest burger. And then CatDog come in for the festivities, when all of a sudden, there was a malfunction with the machine bringing in the burger and it falls and is about to hit Rancid Rabbit and crush him. Luckily, Dog, without knowing how saves Rancid by eating a piece of that giant burger.

And with that, Dog was given a medal for his courage, bravery, hunger, and loyalty of rescuing Rancid from certain doom. Heck, even his picture was on the front page that Cat reads later on.

Back home, Dog explains what happened to Winslow, ten times according to Dog, and Winslow thinks Dog is more than a hero, kind of like a superhero! But not like squid man, or The Powerpuff Girls, or Jenny Wakeman, or even Batman. But Dog decides it's a super-idea! Pun intended.

Dog's alter ego fantasy

Later that afternoon, Dog dawns his superhero gear, with a cape, his dog food bowl, and the medal intact, and refers to himself as Dog the Mighty! And even makes Cat his sidekick, Cat-Boy, much to his chagrin.

Dog the Mighty does various superhero related things outside their yard. Like find a helpless create-ture stuck in a tree, when in reality, it was a fat bird. And when Dog attempts to save the fat bird, it just catapults them off the tree, making Cat and Dog fly into the sky and crash into their chimney, complete with Dog's fanfare, "DOG THE MIGHTY!"

Sometime later, Dog takes Cat underground to show him the fortress of Doggy Two! Cat thinks Dog's superhero bit is getting a bit out of hand, but Dog on the other hand smells trouble, that's his superhero catchphrase by the way. Using giant binoculars, he sees something downtown Nearburg, and he and Cat-Boy jump into the Mighty Mobile and head for town.

In the alley ways, Dog finds a young girl trying to help a old lady cross the street, and mistakes them for ciriminals. After walking pass some criminals and a broken airplane, Dog pins the girl down and decides that  their work is done, cause he is Dog the Mighty!

At the laundromat, Cat was threatening to burn Dog's cape just as soon as it gets dry, but then a fresh honey comes walking by, Cat's eyes catch on her and tries to seduce her. Dog's cape gets dried enough for his nose to sniff around and declares and he smells trouble. The girl wonders who is the weirdo in the costume? and Cat replies, "I don't know, I don't know the guy. Never met him before in my life.

Dog looks outside and sees the bank and thinks it's being robbed. So, he and Cat catapult themselves out the laundromat and crash into the bank, after a little acrobat trick, Dog knocks down one of the people who work for the bank. This time, Dog has gone WAY to far, in fact he's so "Mighty ridiculous" and he's not a superhero, he's a super zero! Which causes Dog to get really depressed and everybody just laughs at him.

As evening approaches, Dog throws away his hero medal, no longer in the superhero spirit. That is until a conveniently placed news flash appears on the screen announcing that a rescue team has been called forth for a deadly gum leak at the Nearburg Bubblegum Plant, two workers are trapped deep in the goo. Cat wants Dog to watch.

Unfortunately, the rescue team was unable to locate the workers, Cat, realizing the errors of his ways, now knows this is a real crime and this is a job for Dog the Mighty! But Dog refuses, simply because Cat said he is a super zero. Cat doesn't give up encouraging him however. He dons his Cat-Boy outfit and shows himself to Dog and................

"I SMELL TROUBLE!" Dog finally gets his crime fighting spirit back and he and Cat go out to save the day. For real, this time.

The ball glows pink and the reporter, who for some reason sounds like narrator from The Powerpuff Girls, panics over this, constantly sweating and saying it's all over, but then Dog the Mighty and Cat-Boy arrive and head straight for the factory and rescue the workers just before the building blows up! And gum gets everywhere.

The Powerpuff Reporter declares that Dog the Mighty has saved the day. And Rancid Rabbit arrives in his limo to give Dog the Mighty more medals as an award for a job well done. The episode ends with Rancid's limo driver driving recklessly I might add into the sunset. The end.

This episode was a heck of a lot of fun. It knows how to satire superheroes, the comedy was spot-on, the moral was also put in perfectly well, don't go too far with your superhero gig, otherwise you'll get into a lot of trouble. When I was a kid, I thought this was from Season 1, when obviously it was in Season 2. Why did I think this? I don't know, maybe it was made early in Season 2 or something.

If you have the complete series of CatDog on DVD from Shout Factory, please, at least check this episode out, it really is worth your time.