The Spectacular Spider-man

The nice things about reboots is that you can have fun in playing with the various aspect of established characters.  Will Peter Parker invent web shooters like he did originally, or will they be part of the genetic parcel that made him Spider-man?  Will we concentrate on classic villains or the more grim and gritty villains that are probably not as well known to the non comic book reading populace.  These decisions will in large part decide whether your version rocks or rockets to the bottom. 

So then is the Spectacular Spider-man .... well spectacular?  Honestly, yes I had a hoot watching.  The key I think is they found a natural way to bring the classic sixties villains with villains like Venom without have to drown the viewer with back story.  See, it works like this; the freaks come from two competing labs.  Oscorp is both corporate and amoral as is its CEO Norman Osbourne.  The other is the lab of Dr. Conners who is both a revolutionary and very desperate.  The engine that drives these two labs to make super villains is the the organized crime boss known as "The Big Man."  He's working on the theory that if he can't swat Spider-man then he'll keep him to busy to interfere with business.

They wisely kept Peter in high school and they made Gwen Stacey more of a friend (at least at this juncture) than a love interest.  Peter is still the lovable loser that things never seem to go right.  The writer for this show is sharp and witty.  The animation is sleek and the villain designs are mostly spot on.  Once again animators have shown up the big screen guys.  Maybe they should change places?

Garvity Falls

I love this cartoon. It has the vibe of "Eerie Indiana" and a teen "X-Files."  Brother and sister Dipper and Mabel find themselves with their Uncle Stan who runs a gift shop at Gravity Falls.  It seems to be one of those places where all the weirdness in the universe collides and the kids try to keep up.

It's just fun.  There's some real wit here.  I love the characters.  The animation is simple but lovely and fluid.  This is certainly the sort of cartoon I'd have my kids watching.... at least til there are reruns of "Animaniacs."

Rock And Rule

When I was in college we would on occassion take on a midnight movie. Besides "Rocky Horror," the one that got the most replay was "Heavy Metal." Heavy Metal was a deeply flawed film. It has all the story telling sense of a pithed hamster. But it has four things that made it fun. 1) It was a cartoon with boobies. 2) It had John Candy. 3) It had awesome music. 4) It dropped a car from space and that invalidates all other arguments.

It's a shame that I wasn't introduced to "Rock and Rule," at that time it would have made an interesting battle of the movies to see the two films back to back. Both try to be more adult animation, both are infused by the spirit of rock and roll, and both have a inbuilt cult feel. Rock and Rule is better at story telling but I think its not as strong musically. Both have problems with characters and pacing. I liked the animation of Rock and Rule a bit better. So really it would be a close call except Rock and Rule did not drop a car from space. Sorry Charlie.

The Story takes place in the deep future. Like in "Wizards" mankind has killed himself off. The Earth is now the home of mutated cats, dogs and rats. This works real well cause the studio that made this film is Nelvana and funny animals is sort of their house style. In this world there is Mok who may be an animal but certainly isn't funny. Mok is the world's greatest rocker but that's not enough for him. He's studied real magic and now he's getting ready to release the mother of all demons. All he needs is a special voice.

That voice belongs to Angel (singing voice from Deborah Harry) who's in a local band with annoying boyfriend Omar and two dweebs. Omar and Angel are always fighting over who's song should be song. Mylar the rat tries to horn in as their manager when he gets wind of Mok's interest but he's easily blown away. Omar is not so easy and has to have his mind screwed with with magic holograms to get him and his posse out of the way. That just leaves Angel, Mok and Mok's goon who are basically Beagle boys on skates to go to Nuke York City and raise up a demon.

It's this section where you can really see Nelvana is trying hard with this picture. The back grounds are great and the animation has a great fluidity. The Character designs are strong, specially Mok who has some of that beautiful ugliness of Mick Jagger mixed in with a sphinx. The story is a bit of a hack and the main characters are either no personality (Angel) or completely insufferable (Omar). Not surprisingly from a company that dealt more with comedy the best characters are the comic ones. The Beagle boys and Omar's posse are both just great fun.

The second part sort of wanders a bit. It tries to be a little darker as they are trying to be an adult animation. The film couldn't bring itself to do the full monty, and it is really an afront that the majority of panty shots come from Cinderella the Beagle boy's "little" sister. It's like looking at panties on a linebacker. Despite that Cindy is a great character and oddly reminds me a lot of Harley Quinn. I kept almost waiting for a Mr. J shout out. Meanwhile Omar and the gang are trying to find Angel. Angel tries to escape. Mok screws with all their heads giving Omar a magical lobotomy and sending him on his smiley way.

Good thing that. Turns out demon raising isn't so easy and much of Nuke York is destroyed. Never a quitter though Mok figures he just needs to get more power and so goes back to his home town which has power to spare. His computer also warns that a true song and a true heart can reverse the summoning but no ONE can sing it. Not knowing an loop hole when he hears one Mok blows his computer off and starts the grand summoning. This somehow brings the boys back from lala ville so they all go to save Angel. Now I have to say I'm quite impressed with the demon raising. It's sort of like seeing the hello kitty people do their best to show Cthulhu. So turns out when Omar and Angel sing together they can put a lid on the super demon and Mok and most everyone lives happily ever after.

But they still didn't drop a car from space.
Dammit.

In Praise of Aquaman

For many a year Aquaman has been the running swimming joke of the superhero community.  Doubtlessly, it doesn't help that he pals around with Superman who can do everything.  The standard joke is:  "Hi I'm Superman I can fly, I'm invulnerable, I've get super strength, I got freezing breath and laser eyes.  What do you got partner?"  "Um hi I'm Aquaman, I can speak to fish."  Really the only two people who could come out worse in comparison is Hawkman, and Batman (but the Batman is safe cause he's the gawd dangged Batman!)

Even before his successful revamp in "Brave and the Bold," Aquaman was pretty cool when you got see his solo act.  Check out the old 1960's cartoon version if you need proof.  There he's clearly the King of the Seven Seas and he takes his realm seriously.  He's always trying to stop an undersea volcano or earthquake and fend off alien attacks in his spare time.  He rides a rocking giant sea horse.  He has his own "Aqua cave" filled with high tech gadgets.  He has two side kicks and a walrus that acts like a dog named Tuskie.  He can do funky things with water just by forming it into a ball or spinning around real fast.  Heck, he has all the resources of the undersea city of Atlantis at his disposal.  Pretty rocking fellow if I do say so myself.

So remember that the next time you want to make fun of him for speaking with fish.  Cause the sea king can kick your butt five ways to Sunday and that's before they blew off his hand and replaced it with a hook.

Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva

Professor Layton is a character in a series of games for the Nintendo DS.  Very popular games so I gather.  They are games based on mysteries and puzzles and from what I could seem they look like a lot of fun.  "Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva" is so far as I know the character's first foray into film.

Professor Layton is a triple threat; he's brilliant at puzzle solving, he's a gifted archaelogist, and he's the perfect gentleman.  He's aided by Luke a young boy who wants to learn to be just like the Professor.  Aparently, this film takes place early in the Professor's career, but since we don't see anything like an origin story it doesn't really matter.

The plot starts when the Professor receives a letter and two opera tickets.  Turns out an old student of the Professor has made it in the world of Opera.  There is something amiss, though, as a friend she thought dead turns up in the body of a young child claiming she has won eternal life.  That her current opera is also about eternal life she wonders if there is a connection.  The Professor agrees to look into things.

The Professor soons find himself in a dangerous game with hundreds of people seeking to win eternal life.  There are puzzles to solve and bad guys to smite and a mystery to solve.   This was fun film that was light and light hearted.  The look was very nice reminding me of "The Castle of Cagliostro."  The mix of 2d and CGI animation didn't mesh 100%, but it worked well enough.  I like the main characters well enough, but I have admit my mind was weirdly drawn to the comic relief cop character.  I have never seen anyone who had a pompadour for chest hair.  You don't see that every day. 

Marceline's Closet

I've always said that generally the best episodes of Adventure Time involve the Vampire Queen Marceline. She just messes with Finn's radar so badly that it always leads to enjoyable hijinks.   This time while waiting for Marceline to come home, they sneak into her house even though they were told not to.  When she does come sooner than expected they find themselves trapped and take refuge in her closet.  They get a good view of Marceline just being a person and doing those things people do when they think they are alone, like nose picking.  The boys try to sneak on out, and fail but they learned a lot. 

Maybe too much.

This was a fun episode and I was amazed at the honesty of it.  Also, I admit the moment when Finn tries to sneak out and accidently caught sight of Marceline in the tub made me have about the biggest Adventure Time laugh ever.  For all his heroism Finn is just a boy and that glimpse was both mortifyingly embarrassing and way too much information.  He goes back in the closet and tells Jake, "Not going out again." 

Definitely not intended by the animators but as I watched this episode I flashed back to the similar scene in "Blue Velvet."  One crazy part of my brain was hoping that a madly animated Dennis Hopper vampire would come in and completely blow Finn's mind.

Batman: Year One

There's a reason why superhero origin stories get retold so often. The public if only by osmosis is generally hip to how Bruce Wayne became the Batman so the artist or film maker is free to put something of his own stamp on the tale and not have to worry about losing the non geeks in the audience. Batman: Year One was first a graphic novel and now a DC direct to DVD animation thatis about Batman's first year on the job.

Except it isn't.

The nice thing about this particular retelling is that the real hero our favorite police man, Jim Gordon. This is his first year in Gotham as well, and he has to worry about corrupt cops and his pregnant wife and now some weirdo is running around dressed as a bat. Obviously, a very stressful time for Gordon. He tries hard to be a good man in a very bad year, but he's not a superhero. Sometimes he fails, as when he fools around with another cop. It is Gordon's struggles that make this a compelling story.

Other parts, not so much. I don't like the retcon of making Catwoman a prostitute. It just seems lazy thinking to me, and doesn't really fit the character of Selena. Batman's part of the story is so well known that it can't help but feel by the numbers at time. Though I do like that they show that because under the batmask he's still just a man that wounds just don't magically heal on their own. As an aside, when Bruce dies the M.E. is going to have a field day looking at the scars. Parts of his body must look like an old oak tree.

So, over all I liked it, but its not a perfect show. DC has done better, but they still do better with animation than their track record with movies. There is no DC animation equivalent to "Batman and Robin."

Goodbye Brave and the Bold

"The Brave and the Bold," did several things that will always cement it as one of my most beloved TV shows.  First, it was pure Batman love.  It wasn't just love for the dark gritty Batman, but a love of all things Batman even the silly things.  Only on Brave and the Bold would you see Batman wearing a different colored batsuit every day to foil a crazy plot, or be part of a crazy race where all the heroes and villains have theme cars. 

The second thing the show did was bring to TV some of the more obscure characters in the DC universe.  Only on the Brave and the Bold would you see Kamandi the Last Boy on Earth, or Detective Chimp.  It was fun to turn in every week because the cold open always meant you could never be sure who would show up in the first five minutes before they would go on to the main story.  They even made Aquaman cool, OUTRAGEOUS!

Now, the show did one other thing.  It had nearly the best last episode of any TV show.  I'm going to miss the show, but boy did it go out in style.  The Batmite decides that the show has literally jumped the shark and decides to speed up the process so that the network will go back to a dark and gritty Batman.  Using his reality changing powers Batmite soon has Batman saddled with a cute little daughter named Kiki and a Neon Orange Talking Luge with its own catch phrase-"Let's get low and gooooooooo."

The fiend!

As people turn off the show the only one who can help Batman is the fairly insane Ambush Bug.  In comics, the Ambush Bug started as an annoyance for Superman and then was morphed into a mad magazine style character making fun of all of DC.   Here, he is absolutely aware that they are in a fictional universe and are fictional characters.  So, knowing that if Batmite suceeds they will disappear he tries to fight all the crazy changes and bring the real Batman back.  It's not easy, at one point in a totally meta moment Batmite changes the voice actor doing Aquaman.

It all makes for wild fun, but then it gets very sincere at the end.  The bug finally convinces Batman that he is being manipulated by Batmite.  But that also means that Batman realizes he's fictional.  Suddenly he asks in seriously "...then why am I doing this?" With the help of the Bug, Batman understands why he is important to US the audience.  With that new purpose in mind he fights to stop the Batmite's plan. 

Batman fails.  In the end the suits decide to cancel the show.  With his new awareness though, Batman has a final cast party as the tear down the bat cave revealing it to be a set.  Then, he turns to us the audience and he gives a little speech telling us he will still be with us.  The end.

It was a brilliant show with a brilliant end. 

Last Night on Young Justice

An interesting episode. The team is no longer functioning well after everyone's virtual death last time. So Black Canary tries some therapy sessions. As you can imagine there's a lot of teen angst dredged up. Not everyone though is ready to deal with it. Black Canary tells Kid Flash that he's in denial and he glibly says "THAT I can deal with."

Speaking of not dealing, Super Boy does his usual bad boy thing of running off. Taking his pet, giant, mutated wolf and his alien sphere he joy rides around when his sphere becomes a bitchin' bike. That's when he runs into the Forever People. I love the Forever People, they are sort of a cross between hippies, superheroes, and demigods. They come from one of Jack Kirby's weirder phases. Luckily, being into peace and all they don't do the usual let's have a superhero on superhero fight. But they do join with Super Boy to fight Desaad and his evil Apokalypse technology. It all made for a fun little adventure in what would have otherwise been a downer episode. Also, it sets up a future meeting with Darkseid.

That should be interesting.

Green Lantern: The Animated Series

Well I was well prepared not to like this. I thought the movie was pretty much "meh," and that also sums up how I feel about the character of Green Lantern ala Hal Jordan. The animation looked craptastic and then I saw the main villains were going to be Red Lanterns. Red Lanterns! They are so close to a parody of nineties style super heroes that it hurts.

So given all that I was surprised to end up really liking it.  The animation is still craptastic, but it does have a fluidity to handle the battle scenes which helps a lot.  There are a lot of battle scenes!  They mix it up to between Lantern fighting and spaceship battles.  There were parts that just made me cheer like when Hal made a baseball bat with his ring and went to town on some red lantern whippersnapper. 

But a show should be more than a lot of cool fights, though I like me some cool fights don't get me wrong there.  Luckily, the writers here are operating at optimum levels.  They have obviously planned things for a long interesting story arc.   The first thing they did right is they isolated Hal from his little blue bosses who are the eternal kill joys.  Using and then breaking a one of a kind prototype of a green lantern ship they are now 18 months away from any help from the blue geeks of Oa.  They second smart thing was having Kilowog be Hal's wing (ring?) man.  Kilowog is huge alien with a nice sense of humor who keeps Hal from getting to puffed up. 

The even made the Red Lanterns interesting.  They are filled with righteous rage over something the green lanterns and their bosses did.  This is why they are literally burning with red energy and killing any green lantern they can find.  In the pilot, though, one of them has enough conscience to feel bad about blowing up a planet just to kill lanterns.  In the end, he tries to get Hal to kill him to put him out of his misery.  Of course Hal doensn't so it will be interesting to see what happens with that character.

Another thing that made for an enjoyable hour of TV was that there were some mini shorts included based on DC characters.  Nothing earth shattering, but a teen titan belch off was fairly funny.  I can say I definitely enjoyed the entire package and I'd watch it when it starts in 2012.

Star Trek the cartoon

I don't know of anyone who is a fan of Filmation, the company that brought Star Trek to Saturday morning. The reason is that it was guilty of the very worst crimes of cheap animation. Repetition of animation, bad drawings and designs, and just a sordid cheapness.  The only reason there is anything good to say of Filmation is that would occasionally  luck into a property developed by someone else.  Such was the case in Star Trek.  Basically Gene Rodenberry, a lot of his crew and most of the original actors came on board for about a season and a half of cartoons based on the TV show.

Now let's not get crazy with praise here.  Every bad thing I've said about Filmation occurs here in spades.  It's the type of cartoons that will have shots of the characters backs so as to not to have to animate lips.  Still there are some very nice things here.  First, being animation they were freed from limited budget of television production to some extent.  They couldn't animate lips but they could draw incredible spaceships and aliens that at that time really couldn't be done for weekly television.  I wish that the later series could draw off some of these designs now that they could be realized.  It would be fun to see a race of three armed three legged dog creatures working for the federation.

More importantly, D. C. Fontana got some decent writers to get some stories down.  Some worked for the show before, some where old hands with science fiction from magazines like Larry Niven.  The Larry Niven episode was a lot of fun since he brought his own alien race, the Knitzes, to play with Kirk and the boys.  The writing is definitely up a notch for Saturday morning and it helps a lot.  There's a good mix of new stories, and revisiting some old friends.  There's a good tribble follow up for example, and everyone remembers the one with Spock as a kid.  Some might complain that there is a bit too many cliches here, but hey I was six when I first saw these, I had no idea what a cliche was.  I like to think of it as a grand tarot of the major elements of science fiction.

Definitely worth a watch, and you might find some surprises.  I forgot for example, that one episode clearly had a holodeck on the old Enterprise way before it caused trouble for Picard and his gang.

Cartoon Network Does Great

Friday was the premier of the new season of action shows from the Cartoon Network and it was pretty awesome. A special note to "The Brave and the Bold," which is some of the most crazed fun on TV today. The intro had Wonder Woman and somehow they scored the seventies "Wonder Woman" theme and it was just magic. The main story involved the Green Lantern and it put the damn movie to shame. They even managed to make the Lantern's villains (some of the lamest in comic book history) cool. Before now, for example, the Tattoo Man was a joke. Watch the eagle tattoo come to life... ooo scary. But they redesigned the tattoo with a more tribal flair and it worked. Really, why the live action folk aren't taking notes from these guys I'll never know.

Also, I have to say that Young Justice just continues to grow on me. They are keeping a good eye on character relationships without going all soap opera which is a nice change of pace. The villains are very well realized. Cheshire is fast growing on me with her smug competence. The Sportsmaster was another walking DC joke that the Young Justice people have managed to make into a legit badass. Not bad at all.

Bravo Cartoon Network..Bravo..

Futurama

Well it's the season ending episode of Futurama and I think they went out on a high note.  Like fat lady opera high note. Like Meatloaf after not eating for a week high note.  Yeah, I liked it.  It's a silly episode, but you know sometimes those are the most charming.  In this thrilling installment we get three different stories in three different formats.

The first story is done in the style of black and white animation of the thirties.  Everyone is is grooving back and forth and the thirties slang is thick and fast.  Here the crew is going to an asteroid made of diamondium and Fry hopes to pry enough to make a ring for Leela.  In the end though, he creates a new color no one has ever seen and we the audience just sees as another shade of grey.

In the second we are now in the world of 8 bit video game animation.  The Professor has used the diamodium to make a lens to see the origins of everything.  Everyone is impressed, though to the audience it is just a square pixel, but now th Professor is left in a world where all the questions have been answered.  What is he to do? 

In the final segment, aliens who communicate by dance see their precious diamondium asteroid destroy so decide to wage war on an anime earth.  Our now japanized Futurama crew must find a peaceful way to end the war involving the involved dance of peace ever danced.  Oh, the audience will not see it as it has not seen the source of everything or Fry's new color.  An interesting little paradox.

The episode was funny and spot on in lampooning its varying sources.  A great end for a frankly mediocre year.  Definitely leaves me wanting to see the next season.

Dastardly & Muttley and The Perils of Penelope Pitstop

The Wacky Races were popular enough to spawn some spin offs. The first being Dastardly & Muttley. It was a logical thing. The villains provided most of the personality of the Wacky Races. What wasn't logical was where they shoe horned these two heels. For some strange reason they went back to WWI. There Dastardly runs the Vulture Squadron who's one job it seems is to stop one pigeon from delivering messages.  Muttley is of course his second in command and has been given the ability to hover with his spinning tail and a complete obsession over being given medals.  He also has two flunkeys working for him but the only interesting one is Kronk who's an inventor who communicates mostly by bird whistles.

The interaction between Dastardly and his cringing muttering cohort is still fun but the cartoon is not all it could have been.  Turning D&M into the Coyote doesn't play off their wickedness to best effect.  Also, the bird vs. plane thing just doesn't work.  The bird is so small he hardly registers on screen, and has no real personality.  The whole thing is shallow and the creators seem to have realized it.  They chop each episode in half and in the middle have a rather odd Muttley dream short where Muttley sees himself as some sort of hero.



The Perils of Penelope Pitstop is a much better cartoon. It has Penelope now the heir of the Pitstop fortune. Her guardian is trying to kill her and is secretly the Hooded Claw. Her protectors are the Ant Hill Mob and their living car Chug a Boom.

This is great fun. Every episode starts with Penelope caught in some trap. Sometimes she saves herself and sometimes the ant hill mob does the deed. In any case she is quickly recaptured by the Bully Brothers and once again put in peril. The Hooded Claw takes great joy in his villainy often breaking the fourth wall to taunt the narrator. I like that they gave the ant hill mob more personality. Some of the little guys like Zippy verge on being super heroes. Definitely a good job on using minor characters in a new way.

Wacky Races

 A while back I saw a failed pilot for the Cartoon Network for a new version of the Wacky Races.  I say failed, but I mean the Cartoon Network didn't pick it up.  It was a well animated and funny little short on its own.  It made me want to see the original Wacky Races which is now in DVD.

In format, it is like the old "Laff Olympics" in that teams are competing each week in a contest.  One person is always cheating (though honestly given what some do I wonder about the rules in use) and thus he always winds up n the in last and given just deserts.  It's better than the Olympics in that there are more teams so there is a bit more variety as to who wins and loses.  Dick Dastardly and Muttley are the eternal cheaters and they are fun foils.  Muttley is particularly fun as he cycles between fawning kissing of the hands to cynical laughter depending on what he things he can get away with.

The racers have a good balance of personality.  Of course Penelope Pitstop is the queen of the show, with the Gruesome Twosome and the Ant Hill Mob providing the best color.  I guess of all the racers the hillbillys are my least favorite.  They just don't add much and are just too much the stereotypes.  The animation is pretty much what you expect for the time.  It has a bit more of a loose quality than some shows but is a plus for a show that by its nature plays fast and loose.

Last Night's Futurama

Last night's episode enjoyment level will depend on how well you handle Dr. Zoidberg, "M"D. A lot of folks just can't handle his neo ethnic/vaudeville stereotypes.  I myself like his sad sack persona.  He's the show's bench mark of loserhood.  Even Fry can hold his head high when compared to Zoidberg.  So, I enjoyed a little extra back story on his relationship with the Professor.

It starts off in the past where we learn that Professor Farnsworth and Zoidberg went on a mission together under that grasping, greedy old maid Mom.  They were to gather samples from an alien Yeti, but the mission was compromised by the team catching hyper malaria.  For once Ziodberg was not useless and not only helped the Professor but promised to ease him out if he ever shows signs of hyper malaria.

We are then brought to the present day, and a typical day of medicine for Zoidberg.  He manages to have Fry go through every skin tone in animation, bisects Leela, and shave a few inches off of Hermes.  The crew has had enough, but the Professor is beginning to show signs of hyper malaria so he has need for Zoidberg to do as he promised.  Can Zoidberg be a better assassin than a doctor?  Of course not, which leads to the team making the most ludicris murder machine seen outside of a "Final Destination" movie.

The jokes were, outside the murder machine and Zoidberg's foiled attempts at medicine and assassination, ok but not great.  The Episode is better at having some heart.  It does bring old Zoidberg and oddly enough Mom into a better focus.  It's no "Jurassic Bark," but it's nice change of mood.

Idiots and Angels

Bill Plympton is one of those singular artists so unique they should be a national treasure.  His hand drawn animation style is so uniquely warped as to be instantly identifiable.  He has won a shelf load of awards and still he's mostly unknown, such is the unfairness of mass culture.

Like most of his works "Idiots and Angels," is nearly without dialogue.  It is the story of a jerk who mostly spends his time in a no account bar drinking.  He's a violent man and constantly irritated at the world.  Then one day he starts to grow wings.  Not only do they eventually give him the power of flight but they have the conscience he lacks.  If he steals money, the wings fly him back and make him give the money back.  He tries to fight his wings (one of his earliest use of flight was to moon airline passengers), but eventually a conscience becomes contagious. 

Definitely if you've not seen a Bill Plympton animation you should see this, and if you have seen one no doubt this is already on your netflix list.

Last Night's Futurama

Well last night was a Fry episode which is a license to be stupid with heart.  Fry's a good person, with maybe two grey cells (or at least off white) to rub together.  After running from pogo jumping robots and the even worse danger of fast food the gang was prepared to settle down to a meal using only good organic (and highly price jacked) products.  Fry suddenly doesn't want to eat something that could hatch into some beautiful life form.  Instead he'll hatch it and THEN eat it.  That plan doesn't work long because as Fry says, "You love something you've been sitting on for a week."  So when it hatches Fry takes the beast and names him Mr. Peppy and tries to raise him as a pet.  Fry  tries hard, but its a casual destruction machine that oozes corrosive secretions from every possible orifice.

Well if he can't keep Mr. Peppy then Fry will release him in the wild.  The problem is the "Wild" is a planet of Scotsmen who hunted the original Bone Vampires to extinction.  When sheep wind up as boneless sheep rugs it looks like Mr. Peppy is going to be killed.  Can Fry do the right thing?  Can Mr. Peppy express his love for Fry without giving him 3rd degree acid burns?  And how many aquariums of beer can Leela drink and still keep her honor intact?  This is a middle of the road episode but still funny.  I like that they keep Fry simple yet pure.  He might not be the rational center of the crew but he's the heart and soul of it.

Last Night's Adventure Time

Last Night's Adventure Time was something of a disappointment.  They made a big deal of making Princess Bubblegum younger to be a better companion to Finn, and then they age her back up in just an episode.  Granted, there was good reason.  Now that she was a minor, a real creep had come over to take control of everything.   He was very into discipline and soon had everyone in the dungeon.  Young Princess Bubblegum and Finn try to prank him away but that just gets them into the dungeon too.  Princess admits she has greatly enjoyed being young with Finn but she has to think of her subjects.

As I said a bit of a disappointment, but I did find it funny that Jake the dog literally phoned his role in this episode.  He kept calling Finn asking how he was doing with the Princess. He'd have helped but he was too busy playing videogames.  Ah, dogs.

Last Night's Futurama

Well this has been a banner season for Leela. Last episode that featured her, had her create a children's TV show and suffering the guilt of having everything turn out happily ever after. This episode focuses on Leela's goal oriented personality. It's pretty unique in the show because Leela first actually has goals (beyond say Fry's wanting to tie his own shoes) and she is compentent enough to achieve them. However, the trouble is with such a can do personality is when they can't do there's a risk of breaking a main spring in the think box.

That's what happens here when a delivery is eaten by a fourth dimensional whale. Before you can say "Call me fish meal," Leela is going all Ahab over the problem. The rest of the crew really isn't all that interested in the cargo or becoming whale food so there are nods at mutiny. It's a pretty fast paced episode and the jokes are good, but I still think last week's head licking time travel episode was more humorous. Still, I can always watch Leela.