Rugrats - "Pickles vs. Pickles"

And now, for my Mom out there, I'm going to review one of here favorite episodes during the third season, "Pickles vs. Pickles." Another Angelica related episode. Let's see if I can give her a positive review on this.

After having some dinner problems with her parents, Angelica decides to "sue" her parents With hiring F. Lee Barnum, voiced by Neil Ross, and even recording everything Charlotte, even mocking her line "We've tried to reason what you, but you wouldn't listen." This goes so far that Charlotte and Drew go visit their lawyer, Mr. Hershowitz, voiced by Dan Castellaneta. He highly suggests to settle the matter out of court. After hearing a ridiculously long list of demands from Angelica that her lawyer faxed to Mr. Hershowitz, they decide to just go for court.

This episode is pretty dark and funny at the same time. One minute it goes serious, and then one minute later, it gets so dramatic you can't even ignore it. I especially like Charlotte's funny quotes towards Mr. Barnum, and even Angelica using Cynthia and a toy Zebra as her witnesses, and even goes to the point of being a copycat in front of Mr. Hershowitz. The funny thing about this episode is that Tommy is not in this episode, but, on the other hand, while I do kind of speculate on what Tommy would've done in that particular episode, I'll just have to say, yeah, he really wasn't needed.

So, have we reached the verdict? Guilty or not guilty? NOT GUILTY! I here by sentence this episode to be recommended to anyone who ever loves episodes that show us court scenes. Plus, I like the ending where Angelica tells the audience, works every time.

Did I mention that Paul Germain and Jonathan Greenberg wrote this? It kind of reminds me of the Garfield and Friends episode, "The Kitten and the Council." And yes, I will review that episode at one point, but not right away.

SpongeBob - "Plankton!:"

This is perhaps my favorite episode in the entire series. This first aired on July 1999, back when SpongeBob was just knew back then and all the other older shows still rerun more than this one, like Rocko's Modern Life for example. Okay, let's see if Plankton's first appearance is as good as I remember.

Now, after SpongeBob messes around with Squidward, the krabby patty comes to life and it's actually revealed to be Sheldon J. Plankton! Stealing the krabby patty! Once Mr. Krabs get rid of him, he states he's been trying to steal his secret formula for years, you mean before SpongeBob was hired at the Krusty Krab? And later that night, Plankton meets up with SpongeBob and tries to pretend to be a good guy, kind of like the wolf from The Little Red Riding Hood, he gives SpongeBob a golden spatula and he also likes booster seats. However, SpongeBob is smarter than you think, even if that plan failed, Plankton will not give in once he has the formula!

Later, Plankton sneaks into SpongeBob's house, and goes into the brain and controls it to steal the Krabby Patty Formula. Nobody could help SpongeBob, not even Squidward, because Plankton called him a mediocre clarinet player, which sadly is kind of true, He has a terrible way of playing the clarinet. This episode kind of reminds me of a Dexter's Lab episode if you ask me. Will SpongeBob get Plankton out of his head before it's too late? Stay tuned to find out!

This episode is a lot better than it's sister episode, "Jellyfishing," don't get me wrong, I like that episode, but it's not THAT good. It's very funny and filled with sci-fi elements to it. It has the second appearances of Mr. Krabs, The Krusty Krab, and Gary, and it's also the first appearance of Plankton, and it's also Mr. Lawrence's first experience on the show as a writer, if you don't count "Tea at the Treedome." I especially like how Karen analyzes Plankton when he gets his comeuppance, saying "Plankton - 1% evil, 99% hot gas." I even like how Plankton thinks all the food SpongeBob mentions for the Krabby Patty was actually the formula, causing him to come out of SpongeBob and say "COME TO PAPA!" but lands in the analyzer before even taking a bite.

Okay, final thoughts, while the first two episodes were trying their best being it was the first two episode, this episode really kicked up the SpongeBob spirit. I especially like the colors in this episode. It's all colorful, even at night time and I even like the musical score for Plankton that was composed by The Surfdusters, who also composed several other episodes in the show.

Go ahead and check the episode out if you wanna be more nostalgic about the first season.

One more thing, the episode kind of reminds me of a Dexter's Laboratory episode.

Hey Arnold! - "Olga Comes Home"

I don't usually watch the first season episodes because, the animation's not as good as the episodes that Sae Rom animated a season later. But, this is a good episode I liked from the first season. Here, let me give you the basic plot.

The episode centers around Helga who has to deal with her big sister, Olga, who's coming home from college to spend spring break with the other Pataki's. Helga gets so jealous, when suddenly, the doorbell rings, mail comes on, and it turns out to be Olga's grades from the college she attends. And Helga discovers that Olga as usual, has gotten straight A's in all of her classes. So, with an evil smirk on her face, she decides to change one of the grades to a B+! When Olga sees the B+, she goes into a deep, deep depression, much to the chagrin of Bob and Miriam, but to the delight of Helga. Will Helga admit her faults? Fat chance.

What I like is how they handle Olga's depression in this episode. You see, unlike "The End of Silliness," at least Olga's depression here isn't trying to make light of the actual mental illness, and is instead more depression in the way of something really bad happen to him and he feels sad about it It's portrayed way better than in that VeggieTales episode I mentioned. It's funny too, I like Helga's William Shakespeare bit she does when she decides on whether or not to change Olga's grades. I also likes Big Bob's efforts to get Olga to snap out of it, leading up to, "BUT THESE ARE THIRD ROW CENTER SEATS, OLGA!"

So, what's the final verdict? The episode is quite good actually. For a first season and the only one that was not done by Sae Rom Animation, it manages to tell a story quite good. I still had to question Helga's character design during the first season, she looks a little bit too much like a monkey. I wouldn't be surprised. It was written by the same person who wrote "Monkey Business" a couple of months later in 1997.

The moral here is that sisters will always keep secrets even if what the other did was wrong and dumb.

SpongeBob - "Texas"

Now, let's review an episode that was later in the first season of SpongeBob, this episode is of course, Texas. No, not the state of this country, I'm talking the episode in general.

The episode is that Sandy gets homesick from being away from Texas after a ocean wave destroyed her Texas shaped sandcastle. So, after she sings about how she misses Texas, Patrick and SpongeBob come up with a plan to try to have Sandy stay in Bikini Bottom. But it doesn't help that when Sandy gets on the bus and leaves for Texas, Patrick says out loud "What's so great about dumb old Texas?" and Sandy overhears this and comes back really ticked off about how he said that. Will they handle this problem, easily? Watch to find out!

Let's now go for the pros and cons on this episode. First off, I like the song that she sings called "Texas," with music composed by Junior Brown and lyrics by current SpongeBob crew members Vincent Waller and Sherm Cohen. The one thing is I never liked is that Patrick and SpongeBob make fun of Texas. You should never insult Texas in any shape or form. It also doesn't help that when they run off for the Krusty Krab, Sandy gives chase and ropes away Patrick and crashes into an explosion. And just when SpongeBob reached the door to the Krusty Krab, it almost looked like he was about to get torn apart by Sandy. Why doesn't he just fight back? Or for that matter, why not this guy?

Yeah, have the Beast come in, save SpongeBob by fighting Sandy like he did with the Killer Wolves from Beauty and the Beast, but also tell SpongeBob, if you haven't made fun of Texas, this wouldn't have happened. But that's just me.

So, bottom line, this episode is okay, it's just not my kind of episode, it's just another typical Sean Dempsey animation directed episode that has crying in it. Maybe it's just me but Sean Dempsey might have a fetish for crying or something.

This is just a weak, weak, episode, with SpongeBob having no brutal strength to fight back at Sandy just because he made fun of Texas, and the fact that there was nobody to save him.

Again, this is all my opinion. If you don't agree with me, that's totally fine. At least the episode that came along with this, "Walking Small" was better.

ChalkZone - "Chocolate Brunch" Review

Now, let's review the 3-minute short episode of ChalkZone starring Snap. It's called, Chocolate Brunch.

Around breakfast time, while looking for food, Blocky finds some eggs and he and Snap bring them back home. By the time Snap finishes cooking the eggs, they hatch and they reveal to be chocolate bunny rabbits. Snap, being a carnivore that he is, wants to eat the bunnies, but Blocky won't let him, slapstick ensues! Pat Ventura was pretty good at writing this stuff more than those Jamal the Funny Frog shorts on Oh Yeah! Cartoons. No wait, he storyboarded this, not wrote it, Jenny Nissenson wrote this episode. Sorry about the incident.

This short is REALLY FUNNY! I couldn't stop laughing at all the slapstick in this episode. Snap never feels out of character, it's just that he feels hungry, why couldn't they go for the waffle fly they were chasing at the beginning? And I like that after the bunnies pop out of the buns and say to Snap, "Daddy!" causing a boing sound effect and Snap cries in a comedic fashion and ultimately gives in simply by saying, "Oh, I just can't do it!" The one thing that still bugs me is that they had to pitch shift Blocky's voice despite the fact that he's voiced by Robert Cait. What was wrong with his natural voice, and another thing, I like Candi Milo as Blocky more than Robert. However, I have nothing against Robert Cait.

What's the verdict? It's a genuinely funny episode! At least Snap and Blcoky's hunger were satisfied when the mother bunny gave them chocolate milk. All I can say is that that's a nice turn around from being an angry monster trying to kill Snap and Blcoky to an actual mother figure for those bunnies. All I can say is that don't do any of this stuff, especially steal her eggs, if you mess with the mother bunny, she'll mess with you.

Peace.

SpongeBob - "Squeaky Boots" review

"Squeaky Boots," the first Mr. Krabs centered episode on the show. So, how did this came to me for me to review, well, let's begin.

Mr. Krabs buys two dollars on a pair of squeaky boots, and after failing to let his daughter Pearl have them, he decides to give them to SpongeBob, but only after SpongeBob convinces him he'll pay him. At first, Mr. Krabs likes the idea saying it's money/music to his ears. But it goes so far to make Squidward take a week off because he can't take "the world's greatest fry cook" anymore. After hearing Squidward's warning, Mr. Krabs sees that SpongeBob is still wearing them and the squeaking continues to annoy him! Will it never cease? Stay tuned to find out!

Let's start with the pros. I like the plot of the episode. Mr. Krabs needs to give something away and SpongeBob foolishly buys them. I like the visuals of Mr. Krabs going insane over the squeaky boots, similar to Edgar Allan Poe's Tell-Tale Beat Heart. In fact, why couldn't this episode be called "Tell Tale Squeak Boots?" Oh, well, I'll never know. The comedy's pretty good, especially Squidward's little lines in between, Mr. Krabs vs. the window, him having the hiccups, him slapping his face on his desk, and even screaming out to the customers who appeared out of nowhere that he took SpongeBob's boots, resulting in weird faces like this one right here.

Now for the cons. I never like SpongeBob crying, not even in this episode. I mean sure, it's not as annoying as in the Paul Tibbitt era, but it just makes me feel bad for the character, and I also never liked the fact that Mr. Krabs didn't buy Pearl the flipper slippers she wanted at the very beginning, hence Pearl's line, "You really shouldn't have."And her crying is so loud that it can even shake the entire underwater environment. And I didn't like how Squidward's presence was quite brief. I mean I understand he was annoyed by the squeaky boots, but that;'s not an excuse to be out of the rest of the story. Also, one thing that does confuse me was that Mr. Krabs gave away SpongeBob's bonus for his paycheck for no reason. But if I were give a reason, I would say that he probably use it to buy Pearl those slippers she so wanted.

Okay, enough of the cons. What do I think of the episode. It's good, it's not great, but it is good. Te comedy's spot-on, it's visually interesting, and it has Mr. Krabs having a problem that doesn't relate to money. I like the dream sequence where he counts his money, and he also keeps losing his legs in the process, but this episode has a leg to stand on, pun intended, and I like how SpongeBob uses his boots to talk, that's pretty clever. The episode was written by Steve Fonti, Chris Mitchell, and Mr. Lawrence, who also wrote "I Was a Teenage Gary." One more thing I will point out is that the episode really knows how to mix music together. Like when Mr. Krabs finally tells the truth, it mixes two of Gregor Narholz's musical scores "Killer Birds," and "Death Trap" mashed together as if they were one composition.

Bottom line: Go watch this episode if you haven't already.

SpongeBob - "I Was a Teenage Gary" Review

You scared bro? You should be. Because we're gonna review "I Was a Teenage Gary." Much like "Chip of Fools," this episode only aired around Halloween. I have to give a shout out to PIEGUYRULZ who reviewed this episode on his ScumBob episodes list. I'll do my best to explain why I disagree with him on this episode, now, let's begin.

What's the story? Well, SpongeBob and Patrick have to go to a jellyfish convention down at Ukulele Bottom, but SpongeBob doesn't have anyone to keep an eye on Gary. It isn't until Squidward arrives and wants him to keep an eye on things, but Squidward, being Squidward is just so neglectful of Gary while pet sitting, and of course, three days later, he forgets to feed Gary. Gary does get sick, and they call the doctor. Doctor Gill Gilliam and SpongeBob don't want to do it because they're too squeamish, which results in a funny moment where SpongeBob keeps moving Gary but Squidward accidentally ends up injecting SpongeBob in the process. And get this, all Gary needed was water, what a twist! But it's not over yet. What happens next? Well, I'm not telling. Because you've got to watch it for yourself.

I have to disagree with PIEGUYRULZ on his review because, I couldn't find anything wrong with this episode, I will say that the plot wasn't all over the place, there were a lot of funny gags, like SpongeBob eating the snail food and belching and saying "MEOW! Why did I just do that? Am I cracking up?" And there's an explanation on why SpongeBob staked Squidward near the end, it was because he wanted help, and karma was coming to Squidward. These are called Squidward Karma Trips. These episodes are justified because Squidward was acting like a jerk, and it was satisfying to see him get his comeuppance for his sour attitude. This is one of those episodes, folks.

There were some parts I will agree with PIEGUYRULZ that the ending felt incomplete, but on the other hand, I don't find anything here to hate. I can say it was a good episode. Too bad it only airs around Halloween. By the way, it was written by the same people who wrote Squeaky Boots, Steve Fonti, Chris Mitchell, and Mr. Doug Lawrence, the voice of Plankton, of course. All I can say is that episodes that were written by Mr. Lawrence are mostly the best episodes of the series, minus Hall Monitor.

One more thing: The entire thing about Squidward transforming into a snail scene is just a dumb lie! A RUMOR! JUST A JOKE! I DON'T BELIEVE A WORD OF IT!

Okay, calm down, keep it together. Thank you for reading.