Pfish & Chip in: "Short Pfuse"

Directed by: Butch Hartman
Created and Written by: Butch Hartman, Michael Rann, Eugene Mattos
Layout Designer: Bill Proctor
Background Stylists: Tim Maloney, Leonard Robledo
Music: Bill Fulton
Voices: Butch Hartman, Bob Picardo, Jeff Bennett, Pat Fraley, Steven Calabro
Song "I'm Pfish - I'm Chip": Music by Joseph Rozum, Lyrics by Butch Hartman, Michael Rann, Eugene Mattos
Produced in Association with: Delaney and Friends Productions, Canada and Fil-Cartoons, Inc., Philippines.

(First things first: Big apologies for taking so long to update the blog for this entry. I searched every corner of the Internet for a good quality video of this short in order to take some decent screenshots, with no luck. I had to settle for some off-screen recording, rendering the screenshot quality of this entry really bad. Apologies for that as well.)

Okay, so after two shorts that were heavily focused on story and character, we move to one of the zaniest shorts in the run, where the entire premise is built upon explosions. Lots and lots and lots of explosions. This cartoon is pretty insane, borrowing part of its plot from a Tex Avery cartoon and several of its gags from other classic Looney Tunes stuff. However, at no point the short feels like a rip-off or plagiarism, since the setup and characters it uses definitely give this cartoon its own identity, resulting in a great homage to the classics.

Bomb Squad duo Pfish and Chip must defuse a bomb planted by the Mad Bomber, and when they fail to do so, they're lectured by their Chief, who decides to take a nap and now our two main characters must ensure isn't disturbed by any noise. I'm sure you can tell where this is going, as from this point on, the cartoon is basically a collection of jokes of Pfish and Chip having to get rid of several bombs the Mad Bomber sets all over the place, while making sure the Chief doesn't wake up. After numerous attempts, the short ends with a musical number, and the Chief finally wakes up.

Right off the bat you can tell the main influence of this short is the Tex Avery classic "Rock-a-Bye Bear", which is where pretty much the whole "Make sure the boss doesn't wake up" plot comes from. To be honest, I'm not sure why they felt they had to add this part of the story. In the Tex Avery original, it made sense since the whole cartoon was built around that. This short, however, is supposed to revolve around Pfish and Chip trying to stop the Mad Bomber, so the entire "Chief takes a nap" thing feels tacked on. It could have been taken out entirely and most, if not all of the gags would have worked just fine. Heck, during certain scenes, several bombs explode and the Chief is not even addressed, so you kinda forget this part of the plot is even there.

Besides that, there isn't much bad to say about the short. It's a great collection of explosion gags, and the fast pacing and great timing really makes everything shine. The gags come one right after the other, with the cartoon taking no breaks in between, and this is all combined with very good animation and some truly great facial expressions. This stuff, specially the latter, adds a lot to the execution of the jokes, because they make visually pleasant something that may sound cliché on paper. Look no further than the scenes involving the baby made out of explosives and the pizza delivery scene, which seem like obvious jokes, but Chip's reaction in the end totally sells those scenes.

There are some amazing shots in this cartoon, too. The opening scene is a great setup, with a vast establishing shot of the Big City and then zoom to our main duo at work. It does a good job at setting the mood of things to come, and also establishes the premise of the series and the two main characters. Another great scene is the one where several "side effect bombs" start going off, causing Pfish and Chip to transform into various "forms". It may look a bit like padding, but the constant, and sometimes unexpected changes keep the entire sequence interesting.

Oh, and the musical number. Yeah, we have one of those here. It's a really amazing montage, with a catchy song and gorgeous animation (easily the best of the whole cartoon). It's out of nowhere, but it does give the short a unique touch, as musical numbers certainly weren't common occurrences through WAC. I don't think there's another one until "Zoonatiks", and we don't see that short until very late in the run.

Perhaps the only other thing in this short I'm not a fan of is Chip's voice. It's not awful, mind you, but being voiced by Butch Hartman, it definitely feels like one of those cases where the only the creator can picture the right voice in his head, so he might as well voice the character. This is obviously not an uncommon practice, going all the way to Walt Disney voicing Mickey Mouse, and I've seen this being pulled nicely by other creators like John Kricfalusi, Seth McFarlane, and J.G. Quintel. Here, however, there are a lot of scenes where Chip's voice comes out unintelligible, with several pauses between words and a weird accent that sounds like gibberish (I'm still not 100% sure what his solo during the song is supposed to say). It's particularly notorious when contrasted to Bob Picardo's Pfish, who sounds as polite as you could get, and I understand this was probably the intention, but I still have a hard time figuring out several of Chip's lines. It's not terrible, but I feel they could have hired a more experienced VA to do the voice.

Despite a couple of isolated flaws, "Short Pfuse" is still a great cartoon. Good animation, good jokes, fun characters, it's an overall nice package that makes a great short. It's one of the more memorable shorts out of the ones that didn't become series, so the fact it didn't become one is quite a shame. We'll see Pfish and Chip later in the WAC run, but after that, that will be it for these characters.

And with that, this blog is 25% done.

I like the opening with Pfish and Chip trying to disarm a big bomb, with Chip asking for all kind of bizarre tools, ending with a duck. Like, what it's supposed to do? It does set up that this is a pretty absurd short, so it works in that context.

A job well done. I like that as Chip gives the thumbs-up, the stock sound for closing the Windows OS plays.

Oooops.

I like the picture of Pfish and Chip in the newspaper headline. They look so pathetic it's funny.

The Chief is not pleased. Pretty good animation in this scene.

Also like the part where Chip mocks Pfish by repeating his last line ("Think happy thoughts").

Great reaction here as the Mad Bomber replaces his coffee with a grenade.

Another good joke with Chip running with the bomb earmuffs, but having to stop when a traffic light tells him so. I love how he calmly stands there as the Mad Bomber walks by, Broadway style.

Side note, but why, oh, why does Chip wear bunny slippers? That's a really... random design choice.

The gag with the dynamite baby is kinda obvious, but Chip's expression in the end is what sells it. I love how long the last shot lingers before the baby explodes.

Another great expression with Chip realizing the bucket is a bomb.

Didn't mention this in the review, but the scene with Zoid the robot also has some nice animation.

The scene with the numerous bombs with side effects is probably what's most remembered about this short. Some of my favorites:

"Blues Bomb..."

Interesting that during Elvis Bomb, Chip's lines are done by Jeff Bennett, doing his Johnny Bravo voice.

Clown Bomb is probably a hint to the second Pfish and Chip short.

"Word to your mother"

Of course, Chicken Bomb.

And... Static Bomb. Heh.

This is probably my favorite shot of the scene where Chip snaps and tries to wake up the Chief. Looks a lot better in motion.

This is fantastic. After setting up the whole room with bombs, Chip asks Pfish for a match, when he simply responds "I don't smoke", Chip picks him and lights his head like a match. Easily the best gag of the cartoon.

As I mentioned, the musical numbers is great, and it definitely has the best animation of the whole cartoon. The timing with the music is all brilliantly directed.

And of course, we end with a joke like this one.

O. Ratz with Dave D. Fly in: "Rat in a Hot Tin Can"

Written and Directed by: Jerry Reynolds
Created by: Jerry Reynolds and Russ Harris
Animation by: Charlie Cooper, Andy Kuhn, Kyle Hayworth
Backgrounds Stylist: Andy Friz
Music: Jerry Reynolds
Voices: Harvey Korman, Marvin Kaplan, Nancy Dussault
Produced in Association with: Perennial Pictures Film Corporation, Indianapolis, Indiana.

So we move from a story-focused cartoon to another one, but this time, we exchange the 4th wall breaking jokes and inter-galactic setting for more character interaction and a more down-to-Earth plot and location. Add in some good use of humor, nice character animation, and absolutely wonderful voice acting, and you get a really good cartoon, and one of the best WAC shorts so far.

The premise here is our title characters trying out numerous ways to survive through a very cold winter. They try numerous ways to keep themselves warm, including trying to enter a shelter for the homeless, getting a blanket from a three-story clothesline, and trying to power up an electric heater. All of them end in failure, and our main characters have to find another place to spend the winter (much against their will).

There's actually a very nice feel to this cartoon. I've compared stuff to Looney Tunes, Hanna-Barbera, and Jay Ward before, and if I had to do that with this short, I'll say this one is more like... DePatie-Freleng. The backgrounds seem quite inspired by Pink Panther cartoons, and it's great that despite being a winter setting, they manage to make them very colorful, with lots of details and eye candy to check out. The scene at the beginning inside O. Ratz's trash can has lots of objects that are fun to point out, including a newspaper with a rather interesting headline.

But what really shines about this short is the absolutely brilliant voice acting. Harvey Korman is great as O. Ratz, giving him a hilarious British gentleman accent, which is evident from the first moment he speaks ("My mother did not raise me to spend the winter in a garbage can"). It's a voice that fits perfectly with his character. Even better are his interactions with Dave, with a lot of the short's highlights being the conversations between the two ("Because I was born a humble rodent am I forced to wander these cruel street forever?" "Forever? Just a minute ago you said you wouldn't live through the night." "Either way, it ain't pretty."). It's also amazing how likable O. Ratz is, despite all the bad stuff that happens to him through the cartoon. He's just trying to survive, so you do sympathize with him, but his somewhat jerky attitude towards Dave also lets us laugh when something bad happens to him.

Perhaps the only thing about the short that's rather hit-or-miss is the humor. There are some really funny moments like O. Ratz getting an extension cord for his heater, but there are several scenes that end with O. Ratz getting run over by either a vehicle or a crowd of people. I guess it's supposed to be a running gag, but at the same time it feels like they forgot to add in a punchline and they just threw that joke in for lack of anything better.

All in all, O. Ratz is definitely among the best ones so far. It has a funny and likable duo for the main characters, it's well laid out and animated, and has some of the best dialogue and voice acting we've seen so far, definitely placing this short among the ones that deserve to be seen. It's too bad nothing ever came out of this short, but I guess that cements it as a really memorable one-shot.

Heh. That's actually pretty clever.

Some good animation with O. Ratz pulling the fly swatter and almost getting Dave. Also, check out the stuff he keeps around. A pizza box, newspapers, and a jar of something I prefer to think it's honey. I wonder what "GLO CUP" is, maybe one of those cups that glow in the dark? A bit desperate for a source of light.

I do like the part where O. Ratz gets his tongue stuck in the trash can's wall, followed by Dave pulling it off-screen and O. Ratz screaming. Also, check the newspaper headline "Mayor Vows to Wipeout Rats". Why would O. Ratz keep a newspaper with such a headline around?

Nice running animation on O. Ratz with the repeated feet.

More great dialogue. "Frankly I'm surprised street people are so sensitive to rodents." "Oh, shut up."

More great animation as O. Ratz climbs the drain. Also like how his plan fails by trying to jump to the roof but falling inside the drain instead.

This looks kinda painful. They could have tried adding some cracks to the brick wall, because as it is I feel disturbed imagining how O. Ratz's fingers and toes would end after this.

"'Why don't you just take the stairs to the roof?' Stupid fly, think of that before I got a brain concussion." I love how O. Ratz says the first line mocking Dave's voice, as for the rest of the line, well, you didn't think of it either, didn't you, O. Ratz?

Some nice squash-and-stretch as O. Ratz walks through the clothesline.

More great dialogue: "Your blanket seems to be frozen stiff." "Either that, or they used a cheap fabric softener."

For some reason I really like how this scene plays. It's not particularly funny, but there's a nice, warm feel to it that's really well executed. It seems O. Ratz finally will catch a break, but too bad it won't last long.

This is a great shot, as it shows the moment of defeat really well. Although they kinda overkill it with O. Ratz getting run by a car in the next shot. I think it would have worked better if they had just fade out on the screenshot above.

Some more good animation when O. Ratz trips on the heater buried in the snow. Also, this part is a great example of the colorful backgrounds despite the snowy setting.

I love the part where O. Ratz tries to pull an extension cord from a house, only to find out it's a mess of a tangled wire and he only makes things worse when trying to untangle it. The last shot above is hilarious.

And of course, Dave gives the wire a couple of gentle pulls and it gets miraculously fixed off-screen. It's absurd, but hilarious absurd.

I almost want to call this a "Getting crap past the radar" moment. There's no way any kids cartoon this day will get away with someone trying to put out an electric generated fire with a water hose. Great effects on O. Ratz getting electrocuted, too.

"Well, I hope that at least we're headed towards a warmer climate" "Don't count on it. I think I see penguins down there." Farewell, O. Ratz and Dave. Even if you didn't get a second outing, I hope you found some cozy cabin in the South Pole.