LTA: The Unknown Legacy of MoBrosStudios/Retrospective

 It's interesting to think that 2013 will one day be but a decade ago. Things that were new to us, will hold as much nostalgic value as more conventional mediums. It got me thinking about the YouTubers I used to follow, in 2013/2014... and how a stark majority of them turned to shit. Angry Video Game Nerd? On the borderline. Nostalgia Critic? Need I say more? Sonic93? Stopped watching her before she came out with those videos. Bobsheaux? Is someone ever gonna question the ethics behind charging money for most reviews? Taco Man? More of the same, but his humor is somehow more cringeworthy than Oney's.

There was one exception to the rule and one I actually anticipated more above the other. The first YouTube Poop I saw... was some CatDog poop I saw by accident when I assumed you could find full episodes on YouTube. The second... was also something fairly random. Even before them I remember stumbling across some old Simpsons YouTube Poop. But it was the third, by MoBrosStudios.

What stood out to me the most about MoBros, aside from my first exposure to high end editing in YouTube Poops, is that he had an established personality. While most Poopers tend to let their work speak for itself, at least earlier on, I had a good sense of who MoBros was. Other poopers had also tried this, like NPCarlson and Trudermark, who wanted to express his personality toward some adolescents.

Have his poops stood the test of time? No shit they did. While AwfulFawful/Scat Rat had overshadowed MoBros, he stood out for a different reason, plots. He had crafted his own narratives for his poops, produced his own animation (or edited it well enough to make it look that way), and Skellington's Revenge is an example of how well he does it.

He has talent, but how well has he affected the public conscious?

Drawback

I maintain MoBros is talented, but there are some issues that can go beyond his YouTube Poops. Though one thing for that, I imagine he borrowed a lot of points from Stuart K. Riley's own listicle, he just framed it differently to avoid more detailed comparisons.

Things to look out for are the same examples used when dissuading poopers from using their own voice; I mean then again it's so uncommon and that's the most notable example. There're also points like dissuading usage of Spadinner/dinner spaghetti, but one thing I gotta give MoBros credit for is that he used a better term for it, but wait didn't Stuart use that term at one point before?

Also feel like Stuart made a better point on using long titles than MoBros, and also, both made the argument that too much unedited footage was the worst offense. Also don't use Windows Movie Maker's rainbow effect, both made that clear.

I won't call him a plagiarist, but it's obvious where his inspiration lies.

Also, a quick opinion on his Creepypasta readings, looking back on them, others did it better. Something about Mutahar and Yuri's level of not giving a damn better suits how expendable many of these pastas are. The worst thing you can do with Creepypasta readings is be relatively serious about it, it's a bad reflection of your character. Good pastas of the past either aged poorly or people read between the lines.

Selling Out

Some may recognize MoBros for his Anim8ball series. Can you guess what it entails? I've noticed a little trend with many content creators. At one point, they relegate themselves to doing reviews almost all of the time. Just Stop did this, and I feel he's becoming as corporate as he implies Santa Inc to be. I Hate Everything is all about movies these days, just don't expect insight on new movies, just the same tired examples over and over again.

This became at least 80% of MoBros' brand, with the other being any time he puts toward YouTube Poops. I'm not saying he sold out as bad as the other two, but it's something to keep in mind for later on.

MoBros is perhaps best known for making three reviews related to SpongeBob SquarePants. Three... particularly scathing reviews. Now yes, he did address these and apologize for them, but I'm not gonna hound him over something in the past as if it occurred in the present, otherwise I'd be DaftPina. I want to make it clear I'm going into his legacy.

MoBros didn't necessarily like the newer seasons of SpongeBob, well new for the time. Back then, I actually shared the sentiment. Something about them struck a nerve with me, and part of what got me into MoBros. in the first place was a sense of validation that I wasn't the only one who hated the episodes. 

I question if he was the first, but MoBros' videos certainly helped make cartoon reviews more popular, if not eschewing a new wave of it, and therein lies the problem. With popularity comes influence, and just to make this clear, MoBros employed the angry reviewer schtick, one of the more contagious personalities. 

Why were there so many Angry Video Game Nerd wannabes? I mean he was getting pretty popular at that point, but there it is, popularity. The format is so general yet so specific, people sought to mimick what they saw in order to get some equal cred. Hell, Irate Gamer became an early YouTube partner until people whined enough to get that revoked.

Nostalgia Critic was also popular enough, and we still haven't healed much from his heyday, with so many no name reviewers following his framework near verbatim. But between Bobsheaux and Irate Gamer, the latter does not have a Patreon account, nor does he shill for Express VPN, come to think of it in spite of getting some stuff wrong he got further than the Angry Video Game Nerd in many games he played. Even if he used Game Genie I at least know IG actually played the games, and the AVGN had used Game Genie too.

I'm starting to think the AVGN always sucked.

Where was I? Oh yeah, third generation influence. One of the more infamous points of influence for MoBros was TheMysteriousMrEnter. It's been a while since I brought him up, well on this site, to account for when I used a clip from one of his videos to compare to another reviewer, but for the sake of backing my points, I gotta bring him up.

The similarities between Enter's old SpongeBob videos and MoBros' SpongeBob videos tend to be undeniable. It wasn't uncommon for feelings against the episodes to be genuine, whether it was built on agitation for content deemed passable, or overselling for comedy or to build on how it made others successful.

Anyone who's serious about content creation tends to follow trends that would get them attention in the quickest way. No shit. Take that, apply it toward something that you're either passionate about or is easy to make content around and you got yourself a basis for your soon to be vilified channel.

Enter's old content wasn't very good, that's undeniable, though his initial batch of critics were far more insufferable, just get a load of the quackpot that wrote his ED article (and ducks are a part of his brand, that's why I used such a crappy derogatory term). But my point is that MoBros certainly had a profound impact on Enter's earlier reviews, along with Nostalgia Critic.

MoBros had actually done callouts on writers in his videos, well brief mentions anyhow, like with Aaron Springer. Does that excuse anything? Not particularly, but this establishes the influence. If anything, for what Enter did, either he tried to add to what made MoBros famous, or just did it because anger was in at the time, people just overanalyzed because they wanted to establish justification for bandwagoning.

At the end of the day, it's down to influence. If what I said can be considered true, MoBros essentially doomed a reviewer to ridicule through influence. No other reviewer quite hit as hard as him before Enter, so it checks out. It doesn't help that time after, MoBros cited Enter as an example of what not to do with reviewing, ignoring any potential irony.

Final Thoughts

So, am I gonna bring someone down because they indirectly ruined someone else? I essentially just did. But the point is, while MoBros cannot be attributed to popularizing the animation community, he indirectly inspired the worst of it. I bring it up because I feel he hasn't properly addressed it, just apologizing for his own old content.

No one, no matter how big and respected, should be above criticism, and I feel that MoBros has much to answer for. It's not so much for what happened now, but what may occur somewhere down the road.

Top 5 Shows I Hate

 Yes, I have done a list compiling the worst shows there, but that's it, shows that already ranked very lowly when it came to reviews so they can technically be considered the worst. This time around, as the title clearly suggests, I want to talk about shows that struck a nerve with me personally. It may not apply to all of you, but hey, if we all abide to the same standards we'd all be making movie reviews on YouTube.

Just one quick rule, I will not feature shows that are meant to appeal to very young audiences. The only shows that'll cut it are those that can be enjoyed by old and young audiences alike. There would've only been one show featured had the rule not been incorporated, and that's some obscure bible cartoon that's the way it was because it was trying so hard to appeal to young viewers. It's so devoid of anything more I can't even do a review of it. Just know it's like a proto-Cocomelon.

Also they have to be full shows, shorts won't cut it even if they have a few parts to it. Single seasons may also apply if they're egregious enough.

With that said, let's get on with the list.

#5: MP4ORCE: Beyond Real

Once again here to remind you the worst cartoon ever exists, well, worst professional cartoon of some degree. Okay saying this is the worst cartoon ever is a stretch. As of yet, only three people covered this, myself included, and the other only briefly when discussing a different show.

What makes this show particularly detestable, is that the crux of it was used for a vanity project which happened to comprise of a revival of Reboot. Let's be real, nobody knew this show existed, so if it didn't land the first time, it wouldn't land the second, and points are docked if you try to ride off of a show people liked to begin with.

Though I never watched the original Reboot, just the fact that even this offends me shows just how vile it all is. I won't stop bringing it up every now and again until more people talk about it. But just know there is nothing to like about this show. I went into great detail on two separate occasions.

#4: Ed, Edd n' Eddy (season 5)

Now don't get me wrong, I love Ed, Edd n' Eddy, and I appreciate how fans of it are willing to call a spade when they see it, but this particular season really got under my skin. I can forgive some of the worser examples of the show's faults in earlier seasons because honestly that's what help built its charm, but I feel like the issues got more apparent by this point.

It just didn't feel the same, Kankers were far more obnoxious, Edd became borderline unlikeable, Ed has arguably lost whatever braincells he had left, Sarah and Jimmy are apparently allowed to go to high school and both are arguably the worst characters, well one above another. Since this is the only full season they go to school, it can be considered its own thing for the sake of this list.

A lot of the show's worst episodes came out at this point, from particularly bad to some of the worst. That one time Danny Antonucci gave someone else the opportunity to direct, we got the show's worst episode, bar none.

The season finale was also undone by a surprise other episode, but at least the movie helped fix things, even if the hat mystery won't ever die.

This made it on the list because it actually nearly made me hate the show. I managed to get out of that thankfully.

#3: Camp Lazlo

It was between this and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, two shows that were the earliest programs I recalled hating. Camp Lazlo won out, obviously, because you could see the number above. As someone who really liked Rocko's Modern Life, this was a big step down for the show's creator Joe Murray. The man operates backwards, as we went for a show that popularized adult innuendos in kids shows, to a show that was probably held down by executive demands, make this just like SpongeBob so we can get that crowd to watch our network.

If you recall my review of the worst Oh Yeah! Cartoons shorts, you'd see I referred to a character as being Lazloian. If you can't tell this is the show that originated it for me. Lazlo is optomistic and naive, to an insufferable degree, but I feel like there is an air of self-awareness he exhibits. This may seem insignificant, but hear me out. If someone is genuinely naive, they can't pick up on what they're doing wrong, with their good intentions being the drive. I feel like Lazlo fell into these pitfalls so many times I can't help but wonder if these are all intentional.

Why am I focusing on this so much? Well excuse me for focusing on the main character and one we should root for. If the main character sucks, then that accounts for the show as well, there's no payoff to this either. Why experience it when you know you're in for a dour journey?

#2: As Told by Ginger (season 3)

Let's be real, there's more to the show than it's art style. While Ed, Edd n' Eddy can be seen beyond its faults, As Told by Ginger is full of problems, even from the start. Either it was wasted potential or the fact that Dodie exists, and other stuff that's actually objectively bad.

I feel like things came to a head with the third season. Let's be real, Butterflies are Free should've been where things ended. Things got a little more infamous as many of the show's worst episodes are present in this season, and by the time they got to high school, things are different enough that I can call it a different show. Maybe if things did go on longer we could get some resolve to these changes.

If they were brave enough, Darren's ego would lead to his downfall and... insert plot of a Degrassi episode where Rick shoots Drake, only this time he shoots Dodie, or the other Ms. Zorski, or the vice principal, at least two of them are expendable, and not particularly likable.

This is one of the few cases where I welcome the other episodes being moved to Nicktoons to finish out their run, because if I saw these as a kid, I'd probably think nothing of it at first until I see them again as an adult and get agitated. What makes this season particularly egregious is that, let's face it, high school sucked, and marks a point in your life where you want to do stuff but they turn out to be insignificant in the long run. Is being the star quarterback or attractive meaningful if you wind up becoming a used car salesman or convicted for molesting your next door neighbor? It happens.

I give it points for being brutally honest, but either they fall into common trappings or they ramp up the negatives to the point it becomes insufferable to watch. Check out Old School Lane's list of the worst As Told by Ginger episodes, a majority of the episodes that made it on happen to have made the list, I'm pissed Stuff'll Kill Ya didn't make it, but at least people are in agreement the other Ms. Zorski is cancer wrapped in a wheat tortilla.

She and Ginger didn't have the best introduction, but it wasn't enough to justify her often vitriolic attitude. What was it? Is she jealous that her sister was preferred by Ginger (because I'd believe it, if you want to treat people like shit, that's how you'll be seen)? Is it because of racism (imagine if they actually explored black on white racism, people will go crazy)? I wish it was the latter because that's the only way I can see justification for apathy after someone literally got out of surgery. I'm serious, it was as bad as I recalled in the episode.

No matter how insignificant, a character can ruin a show for anybody, and she just built upon how uncomfortable the season was. And it showed just how weak Ginger either has become or been, why else is she still friends with Dodie? And yes, Courtney was treated horribly in this, and she was the most well developed character in the entire series.

All this season did was reaffirm just how fundamentally flawed As Told by Ginger truly was.

#1: Zoey 101

Even before the allegations against Dan Schneider came out, I was never a big fan of his shows. I don't know if it was intuition, but it's amazing what came out. I liked Josh and he suffered a lot of the time, he turned out to be a hell of a lot better than Drake, who's facing allegations himself. I didn't like iCarly mostly because of Sam, and it turns out she suffered the worst behind the scenes. Victorious... well I hated the characters I was supposed to, so it has that in its favor.

Zoey 101 particularly got under my skin. Jamie Lynn Spears has a particularly punchable face, and is certainly not up to par with her sister, who would've been seen as a joke, but now we understand the root of her turmoil, and I'm glad she managed to break from her conservatorship. She also approved some pretty smart lyrics.

But this is a case where I wound up hating everyone on the show. Everyone has a particular air of annoyance, and it felt like they were doing the right thing to feel better about their own selves. Half the time I rooted for Logan. Why did they feed him toilet water? Why did Victoria Justice throw his burger and nibble his ear? Why is Quinn potentially one of Schneiders most prominent victims which makes me reluctant to criticize her? Why is the black character one of two I like? Oh well because he's actually funny and kinda likeable. Well Chase is okay too most of the time. Blonde hair guy... James? Mitchell? Maybe it's guilt by association, he could do with better friends than Zoey and... Mithcelle? I only know Victoria Justice by name, maybe it goes to show how insignificant her character is in the longrun.

The only thing Jamie Lynn Spears is known for is getting knocked up, which plays back into the Schneider business and starring in a crappy Britney Spears biopic, along with any failed attempts at making a name for herself. One time, an MTV cartoon called Good Vibes featured a character with the same surname as Spears, she was a pregnant teenager. A one time character was a hell of a lot more likable than the actual Jamie Lynn Spears.

Can you help me better understand Zoey 101? Because I don't want to ever go back to it.

LTA: The Cat in the Hat's GBA Game

Years ago my mom bought a portable DVD player for the car. I used to watch the Cat in the Hat movie constantly, it was primarily through there, hence why I brought it up.

Though people hate this movie with a burning passion because they're under the assumption Dr. Seuss is alive and giving shits, I don't see the problem. It's not like the original, but it's still enjoyable, and just to remind you, I was a kid at the time I watched it, and the designs didn't scare me at all. I'm not saying it out of spite, I watched this movie constantly and was not disturbed by the Things or the Cat in the Hat. Either at a young age I understood how well or poorly things can be translated to live-action, or people like to exaggerate.

As was the way with many movie adaptations, they would release a game to capitalize on the hype. Interesting fact, around the same year this came out, NewKidCo published three Cat in the Hat games for the Game Boy Advance, maybe they were diehard fans, or they were known for tripling, often quadrupling down on licenses.

The fact that Universal Studios, (cha ching, and distributors for this film, hence that plug), had their own publishing arm meant that it was in their grasp. The game was released for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, Windows and Game Boy Advance. As with many Game Boy Advance games, I have no idea how or when I got it. I do know it was associated with a camping trip I took aboard an old naval ship, where I slept in a bunk bed under a heavy guy.

The game was published by Vivendi Universal Games and developed by Digital Eclipse. Digital Eclipse are perhaps best known for their compilations and conversions of old games, they showed how powerful the Game Boy Color truly was, brought over Dungeons and Dragons pretty well, you couldn't go five feet without seeing their neat little logo.

But don't get me wrong, it's not always sunshine behind that moon. They were also behind a number of shovelware titles for the Game Boy Color (though Little Nicky's the best of them all), brought upon the current worst E.T. game, among NewKidCo.'s glut, handled the Game Boy Color port of Mortal Kombat 4 as well as the Game Boy Color port of Marble Madness, often considered to be one of the worst ports for that game, at least the Game Boy Advance version showed potential.

Vivendi Universal Games also had promise, they published great titles like Metal Arms and Crash Twinsanity, and also helmed some of the most objectively good licensed games ever, like 2003's Hulk, The Simpsons Hit and Run and the Chronicles of Riddick. But on the other hand, they also published Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly and one of the lesser Leisure Suit Larry games until they were outsucked about five years later.

The Game

The story seems to follow the original books, with imagery from the 2003 movie. I take it this was made earlier on. The Cat in the Hat arrives, chaos is unleashed and it warps the house into a surrealistic nightmare.

You play as the Cat in the Hat, going to four different areas, each comprising of two platforming stages, one swimming stages, and half of them have boss fights.

For the platforming stages, this leads you to a number of bizzare areas, such as the pipe system, a medicine cabinet, the fridge, and keep in mind these are decked out to suit the platformer aesthetic. They all play like this, collect a certain number of items, usually 165, and destroy all of the enemies in order to open up the exit, usually 16.

You can catch enemies in bubbles, do a slam attack and glide up small cyclones with your umbrella, but beware on those, they wear off after a few seconds. You have three temporary abilities, a slam enhancement that allows you to get an extra bounce with your slam attack, the ability to glide higher on cyclones and the chance to run faster to make wide jumps and avoid dripping hazards. For health you have slices of cake that replenish your health one piece at a time, and cupcakes for full heals. There are also thing icons that will unlock bonus stages, which I will discuss later on.

Enemies consist of a bipedal dog that than crane its head out, a bumblebee guy, a snail with a cannon, a stegosaurus that rams, a quadrupedal dog that functions like the stegosaurus, a green and purple monster that hurls projectiles at you and a flaming gopher... bear... face on a ball that's on fire, which will get such cold feet that it won't appear in any other level again.

There is a specific way to destroy the enemies, you will find yourself lost and furious if you don't do it this way. You need to trap the enemies in bubbles and slam down on them for it to count as a kill. I know it doesn't seem like much, but first timers may miss this and wind up getting stuck without knowing that they didn't dispose of the enemy properly. I'd assume the bubble is meant to protect against the physical attributes of most enemies.

The underwater stages have you go and try and save the talking goldfish, whatever his name is, and these take forever. You have a long way to go, attacking catfishes, green whales, puffer pig fish, crabs, seals?, but I'll give it this, unlike that Barbie game JonTron talked about, it has enemies which include the loss of oxygen. 

There are two boss fights, and they're mostly bogus. The first one has you fight a giant living toaster, but all you gotta do is get it to move far enough to the left that its plug gets pulled. The other is a stuffed moose that actually puts up quite a fight. This one threw me off as a kid, but what you gotta do is hit it after it disorients itself after it drops down. I like how you can revisit boss stages, even if the bosses don't respawn, give you a chance to contemplate your dirty deed.

There's also a row of bonus stages, if you collect the thing icons, but they amount to the same thing. It's a driving game where you try to capture one of the things, or Thing 1, as it's the only one referred to by name. The only thing that changes is the scenery, greenery, the suburbs, the city then the city at night. Now sure the movie had low real estate on locations, and having the Things in the house would not make sense for a mission like this.

It can get annoying if you don't know what to do. You need to know to hold down the "A" button in order to drive fast. You have the option to use an extending hand to grab the thing from a distance but you can otherwise run him over.

And that's about it... I just summed up the entire game right there. There's a section on the top left that went entirely unused. It seems like something that would be opened if you complete the game 100%, but nothing happens, it's dead space. Heck, you don't even see Thing 2 in this.

I'm willing to believe this game was unfinished or rushed. The basic framework of each level would be enough, but the lack of that many bosses, at the very least having one for each floor, nor a true end beyond a small cutscene. You can complete this game in less than an hour if you know what you're doing. I don't know what they intended with that unused section, unless it was just to stare at an immovable door as you contemplate whether or not all of that effort was worth it.

At the very least the graphics were good and the music was decent.

This game had been considered an example of why licensed games get a bad rep, and this was taken from an excerpt from a review focusing on the Game Boy Advance version. Let's see, basic stages, basic gameplay, the fact this could've been rushed, I can't really argue with that now can I?

Final Thoughts

I loved the movie as a kid, and honestly I still like it now. It was fun to watch... and that's about it. The game, I honestly can't be nice about it, even if I grew up with it. It may be the first potentially rushed game I ever encountered as a kid. Let's be grateful that this didn't destroy Vivendi Universal and Digital Eclipse's reputations.

The Worst What a Cartoon short (vent)

 So I covered what I personally consider to be the worst Oh Yeah! Cartoons short. So now I feel like doing the same for its equivalent. If you know me you'd know what short I'd put on blast if I cover Random Cartoons, so that's out.

Ignoramooses

This short was spearheaded by Mike Milo, an animator who had involvement in quite a lot, even complete turd stains like Shnookums and Meat, The Critic and The Lion King... that Disney Afternoon series. This was actually one of two shorts Milo worked on, the other being Bloo and His Gang, no relation to Foster's, aka what is technically Craig McCracken's worst show.

Right off the bat this short annoyed me. If you have two idiots leading the way, it's always a gamble whether or not the experience would be bearable. It could be the naive kind of stupid where the characters are well meaning, or the arrogant kind of stupid where you can't help but wonder if they use their stupidity as a defense. The latter applies here.

A woodland analyst puts collars on the ignoramooses to track them, and soon enough... they lose half the plot. The mooses believe they have been claimed as pets and the hunter gets sedated by tranqulizers, in what is one of the only funny moments in the short, I mean humor is subjective.

They travel from South Dakota to Florida, and one thing I kinda gotta give it credit for is that at least the analyst, hunter, safari douche, has a suitable midwestern accent. Obviously the first big mansion they see they assume is where they gotta be... hijinks ensue as they drive the man to the brink of insanity.

Okay, so he's a hunter. They don't explicitly mention or give generous implications he is relevant to anything more than just frequent putdowns. Did he hire the safari guy to track the mooses down so he can kill them? Why else would he be surprised they came to his house to be a nuisance? It's kinda like Caddyshack, where Rodney Dangerfield comes to be an asshole and all of the sudden he is entitled to everything.

Either that or I couldn't read between the lines on that movie.

What I'm trying to say is that running someone ragged only works when there's a point to it. If the mansion owner is established right out of the gate to be a malicious hunter who abuses every animal he comes across, it's fair to expect consequences to be thrown his way. Here, it's left up to the imagination of the viewer.

Now granted, this is not so much a base for pilots rather just a dedicated collection, so I doubt he was going for a full series, which is fine, because this has absolutely no staying power.

So as a payoff, the mooses force the owner to become their personal servant to teach him a lesson in.... something, they don't make it obvious in a way that's reasonable. Is this meant to be a pro environment message? If so all this taught me was that those kinds of people are self-righteous, condescending, obnoxious and insufferable.

What do you consider the worst What A Cartoon short?

Top 4 Worst Episodes of The Simpsons (vent)

This is the part where I go into The Simpsons, its impact and assume it longevity hurts me on a mental basis, but that would imply I actually care. Say you hate the new episodes of The Simpsons and people will automatically believe everything you say. I gotta get this out of my system before it gets any worse.

To heck with the formalities, let's get right into the list, the top four worst episodes of The Simpsons, why four? Because the fifth kinda got away from me.

#3: There's No Disgrace Like Home

Don't forget, you're here forever, is darker without context. You are stuck with your dysfunctional family and can never change it.

This was around the time The Simpsons was still trying to find its footing, and this indirectly gave us an idea what would happen if a relatively sane man was caught in an insane family. It's unpleasant to say the least, especially when others are unwilling to commit to change for the better. Any effort you make to try and get people to fix themselves is met with glorified apathy.

Looking back on this and how worn out the dysfunctional family trope has become, it makes this harder to watch. I'm thankful Homer was made into an idiot right away because it would've been far more depressing if it came gradually.

#2: Two Cars in Every Garage, Three Eyes on Every Fish

Politics, that is all.

The writers on The Simpsons are left leaning, this was apparent since the beginning. I bring that up not because I want to put people down over their political views, but because left leaning people are the most willing to shove it into everyone's faces.

The idea is to push people to one side of the table, why else is Mr. Burns a Republican, and why else is so much faith put into Mary Bailey, whoever the hell she would've been? Make your own choice, but please consider this particular one.

Even back then this episode felt painful in my opinion, and showed an underlying bias the writers had (why else did most of them go to Harvard?). People who throw shit at one side tend to be just as shitty, I'll just leave it at that.

Dishonorable Mention

War of the Simpsons bugged me as well, but it was a good idea backed by poor execution and some borderline one-sidedness. I saw a hilarious review waxing praise and throwing in asinine allegories, that's all I can say.

#1: Moaning Lisa

Here's an equation, take a great A-plot and mix it with a terrible B-plot... the answer's right above. Moaning Lisa has the worst B-plot in the show's history, bar none. All that hard work, for a hollow and unsatisfying conclusion, oh but the A-plot is inspiring and shit, I don't care, I have to put up with the b-plot just to see that inspiring and shit a-plot.

vent over

The Worst Oh Yeah! Cartoons Short

 So recently MrEnter did a review where he talked about 10 of his favorite Oh Yeah! Cartoons shorts. Admittedly some choices were kinda predictable (obviously Mina and the Count would place very high, but I never heard of Protecto 5000 until now so maybe he found some untouched territory), but he was more or less going by how the shorts would've had potential to be actual shows. Some I kinda expect, given his previous experience with a pet project that only leeches care to bring up.

I'm here under the assumption one day he will do a list of the worst Oh Yeah! Cartoons shorts. I imagine Zoomates, that one short a pre-Family Guy Seth MacFarlane (just a reminder he used to work at Hanna Barbera) and Butch Hartman will place somewhere there, and though I wouldn't like it, he may place any short by Guy Vasilovich on there because of their more niche nature.

But if he does make a worst of, I really hope he includes this on there.

Tales from the Goose Lady

Tales from the Goose Lady was created by Dave Wasson, who is best known for creating Time Squad for Cartoon Network and assisting on Making Fiends, but he is perhaps best known for his work on the beloved Disney show The Buzz on Maggie. Oh, he also worked on some crappy cartoon about a magical girl who wants to bone a guy and go all Hiroshima to do so.

This was actually one of two shorts Wasson worked on, the other being Max and his Special Problem. Well one of two shorts is generous, this is one of the special exceptions on Oh Yeah! Cartoons, where a short series came of it. As there are multiple episodes of something, we'd get to know the characters more and adjust to the atmosphere the shorts are going for. I.e., it is fair to judge it as a whole.

The series is basically like a satirical collection of fairy tales. Satire is always good... if you have something to say, and satire is a generous term to use for this. Basically just a collection of stories that have 25% of a connection to the tales they were meant to be. Oh, and these tales are handled by a demented Mother Goose parody who terrorizes two kids who don't want anything to do with her, him, how far does the joke go? Goose Lady has a Lazloian grasp on life.

Lazloian (Las-löh-ee-hn), noun: To express overt optimism to mask naivety or ignorance. Often used as a coping mechanism or to intentionally mess with people in a less obvious manner.

Each of these shorts follow a very basic outline, two kids, Dot and Randy, two very well behaved kids, encounter Goose Lady at the worst possible times. She tunes out what's going on to tell her crazy stories, often ending with a bunk moral that the two are quick to debate, then they get in trouble. If this was a one time short, I can forgive it, it was just a one time deal for a quick laugh. I can forgive multiple episodes being made, had the shorts had more variety and didn't end with some variation of the same dire conclusion.

Normally bad circumstances would come as a form of karma or have some kind of payoff or twist. Just the fact that they're self aware of the situation, and Goose Lady deals the first blow, and the fact we know she'd get away with it levies any suspense, and that she herself is self aware and actively hunts down the same two kids. Once was enough, I can remember the wraparounds in finer detail than the stories she has to tell.

Now look, if we can't change the circumstances, why not have Goose Lady visit different kids every time? That way we won't have time to be attached to her usual haunts. Honestly, maybe the idea of Goose Lady actually having good intentions could help make for a good series, where she is incompetent and winds up either telling the wrong story to the right kids, or vice versa. Heck, for a little variety have some stories turn out to help whether it be by stupid luck or genuine luck. Keep people guessing.

It's not that it's a joke I happen to not like, but it's the same payoff every five episodes, and goes to show how little every episode has to offer. Something pleasent, sudden intrusion, in one ear out the other, story, cockamamie moral, consequences. Something like Mina and the Count worked better because you never knew what you'd get out of it, thanks to how it handles its basic framework. Heck, why else did Fairly Odd Parents and ChalkZone ultimately get picked up?

Nepotism, and ChalkZone was actually a good show.

The only thing I like about these shorts is the art direction, it boasts some decent quality animation, thought it could be digital ink and paint for all I know. It automatically gets points for not following similar design aesthetics to shorts helmed by Butch Hartman and Bob Boyle, once you notice it, you can't un-notice it. Another plus is that Tara Strong and Grey DeLisle are nowhere to be heard in this.

Final Thoughts

Every showcase has its duds. Random Cartoons had Adventure Time, What A Cartoon had Ignoramooses, Shorty McShort Shorts had 90% of its episodes and this and the Fairly Odd Parents shorts were Oh Yeah! duds. Nothing could've saved these shorts, honestly. Better shorts were one-offs, less Wasson's were quicker to produce and fill air time. Course some prefer one time deals.

It seems Fairly Odd Parents and ChalkZone were destined to get their own shows regardless, one because it was a legitimately great series, another because of reasons I've yet to weather. My Life as a Teenage Robot got on lucky from a one-off short, though it could've been an alternate to Renzetti's Mina and the Count, which also had some serious luck going from a Cartoon Network showcase to a Nickelodeon one.

I feel like Wasson wanted this to be a one off, but the producers kept wanting him to do more, maybe the repetition was a cry for help? Maybe a bigger statement was lost on poor execution? Maybe this was doomed from the start and we should leave it at that?

Sure.

Solving a Personal Movie Mystery

 When I was a kid, my folks weren't very strict with what I was allowed to watch on television or listen to on the radio. I listened to two Guns N' Roses albums before I even turned ten, and I don't mean the neutered combined Use Your Illusion album. But television for me was a whole other breed. I had watched Nickelodeon a lot as a kid, but my folks would allow me to watch stuff like Spike TV with them, even The Sopranos.

Oh what was that like? Well even when I was young I was able to sum up the ending to Members Only in such detail the school gave my folks a call. That was it by the way. Not to mention in a later school we were screened the 2005 adaptation of War of the Worlds. Maybe that's why I wasn't scared of Son of the Mask, I was basically desensitized.

I had seen many flicks, part of them anyways, that stuck in my mind for better or worse, Summer of Sam, There's Something About Mary (well one scene anyhow), Parents (if there's one good thing I can say about Brad Jones is that he indirectly helped me solve that mystery, and Big Fish, among others. But, one movie had alluded me for so long, and the answer was right under my nose. Today I'm gonna go into my experience with a particularly interesting movie scene, and my very quick discovery.

Background

Years ago, ballpark estimate 2002-2004, I was at my grandparents house watching TV. I saw a movie featuring a woman fearfully looking at her refrigerator, then somehow turning up on a game show. Time after, the fridge comes to life and goes to eat her. That was all I remember from this movie.

Going into my later years, I had assumed I saw a relatively obscure b-movie with decent production values. I had rediscovered various movies through good luck and circumstance, and I had hoped to do the same with this movie. But this took quite a while.

My initial assumption is that this was something from the 80s or 90s, like something out of a horror comedy. Maybe it was some dedicated flick? Maybe this was part of an anthology? Maybe the scene was just some non-sequitur that had no bearings on the actual plot and existed solely to shock the viewer? But what would the movie it was part of be like? It was kinda like a Tim Burton movie, but lacking the gothic nature he's known for.

My only lead was this scene, and even the most specific searches didn't get me desirable results. All I got was some hokey short film out of it. My initial lead came in the form of The Refrigerator, a 90s horror film that may've been what I'm looking for. It wasn't, not even close. It didn't even look to have enough of a budget to achieve the effect I remembered in such detail.

So at this rate I gave up. There was no other way for me to find what I was looking for. However, that would change when I actually bothered to go on r/TipofMyTongue. Basically the Lost Media Wiki for those who just want to confirm stuff that is available. I went on their gaming equivalent r/TipofMyJoyStick to identify the only childhood game I couldn't remember the name of, and since I got such immediate results, I decided to try my luck there again.

[TOMT][Movie] Movie Containing a Nightmare Sequence Involving a Fridge Monster

"I caught this on television years ago, well just the scene in particular. The scene had a woman peek through a kitchen door, with the camera going to her refrigerator. It then cut to some kind of dream sequence where she was either on a game show or talk show. Toward the end of it, the fridge came to life, becoming like a monster and going toward her.

That is all I remember. I doubt this was anything more than just a non-sequitur, but this scene was so weird I just want to confirm it's real. The film looks to have come out some time in the 80s or 90s (given the animatronic quality of the fridge monster)

I'm not looking for The Refrigerator (1991), as it looks to be relatively newer than the film I'm discussing here. I don't know if this was just some b-movie that I caught on cable, or if this was a somewhat more mainstream movie that I don't know about."

This was the post I wrote on Reddit, hoping that once, finally, I can put this to rest.

And it was solved the day I posted it.

So it turns out the movie I was looking for, for all these years, was an incredibly popular movie that was essentially right under my nose. That movie was Requiem for a Dream. For those of you about to criticize me for making something out of such a groundbreaking and known movie, imagine if you're a kid who happens to see something incredibly bizarre out of context. This was well before I used the internet too.

Spoilers alert.

The context behind this scene involved one of the characters, Sara Goldfarb, fasting and using diet pills in order to fit into her daughter's red dress so she can turn up on a game show. As Requiem deals with drug abuse and addition, her mind would play tricks on her. I bring up fasting because it makes the fridge scene more logical. This would also explain the game show aesthetic as she would envision herself on the show, but things get weirder.

Her idealized self and the host emerge from the TV and begin judging her living quarters, as she had placed judgement of others above her own. The culmination of this marks the depletion of her sanity, and explains the fridge monster. As she had been avoiding eating to preserve an idealized image of herself, the fridge coming to life and to eat her marked that aforementioned break. Mind tricks are unpredictable, and that was one way to break her and send her on a frenzy.

Given how I phrased my Reddit post and finding out what I was looking for... it's kinda embarrassing. Not only was this a very known film, but even the fridge has its own wiki page on the Villains Wiki. I was way off on my estimation, as this came out in the year 2000, and it only looked older because this was produced for only a few million dollars.

But at least it was resolved.

Conclusion

It's funny how what I remember with the most detail can allude me based on the title alone. If you wanna see what I'm talking about with this scene, here you go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fr5aZPIm7o4&t=184s