September 2013 ~ antickmusings

Hi, I'm the Amateur Critic. I review just about anything.

Since LarryBoy and the Fib from Outer Space was a big hit for Veggietales fans, they were more excited for the sequel. In 1999, Big Idea gave us LarryBoy and the Rumor Weed.

Just like the Fib from Outer Spaceepisode, I loved this movie, because of the bold look it takes and the epic-ness of the story; but that’s a personalopinion. To be critical, this movie has over-the-top dramatic moments, as well as weird ones. Plus, the focus isn’t really on LarryBoy, but on the side characters… well, LarryBoy shows up more in this movie, but there’s still that feeling that he doesn’t actually solve the problem. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

It’s epic, but it’s also overdramatic in many ways. Despite all that, I still love it. Well, I got a few minutes to waste here, so let’s take a look.

Opening scene:

We start with two peas walking out of a movie theater…
-Looks like déjà vu, because this was actually the opening scene to LarryBoy and the Fib from Outer Space.

The two kids come across a shady scallion that demands money from them. And what was the bandit ask for? $1.28.

-Wow! This must be some ghetto robber. But wait: listen to him explain why-
Bandit: “I’ve been watching you, kid. Every Monday morning, your mom gives you a dollar and twenty-eight cents… and I want it!”
-So, this guy isn’t just a bandit, but also a stalker. You know, this sort of takes a whole other meaning nowadays. If a total stranger stalks your kids and goes after them for money, then he’s either a pedophile and/or some jerk-off that likes picking on kids.
-Plus, $1.28 is a lame sum of money to steal. You can buy a pack of gum with that kind of cash!
-Example:
Someone saying: Hey, bandit! I’m gonna steal a Kinect system from some old person! You wanna join me?
Bandit: Forget that! This kid has $1.28!

So the bandit steals the kids’ money and climbs up onto a rooftop to taunt them. On the rooftop, he runs into LarryBoy, who just happened to know that the bandit was coming there and about what he took from the two kids.

-I guess LarryBoy used his psychic powers? IDK. (A plot hole?)

LarryBoy confronts the bandit and intimidates him.

-How much you want to bet that this scene reminds you of Batman?

Anyway, LarryBoy sticks one of his plungers to the criminal, shakes him until the money falls out of the pockets, and throws him onto the top of a police car… that was conveniently there behind the building.

-Okay, wait a minute. Did LarryBoy and the cop carpool to get to where the bandit was escaping to? That makes no sense! Because look:
1. LarryBoy was conveniently on the rooftop to apprehend the suspect.
2. The cop w/the police car was convenientlybehind the building having donuts & coffee.
Wow! LarryBoy must be a bounty hunter!

We then cut to LarryBoy chatting with his butler Alfred, when he knocks some retired-Venus fly trap off the rooftop. And get this: there’s some technological bullshit when the plant gets electrocuted by a live telephone wire from someone gossiping on the phone; and then the plant falls into a storm drain and zaps because… electricity and water aren’t the best of friends?

We cut back to LarryBoy saying good night to Alfred, because Alfred has to volunteer at a grade school tomorrow. (…Ooooo-kay.) Then LarryBoy turns toward a bunch of buildings and vows to go after space aliens that land in Bumblyburg.

-Wow, did he forget that he’s in the Rumor Weed episode, and no longer the Fib from Outer Space one? It’s like the producers kept switching his scripts on him.

After the rooftop scene, we see that the electrocuted plant from earlier transforms into… a wannabe-Venus fly shows her pearly whites towards the camera.

-Her smile is worthy of a Crest toothpaste commercial.
-Now, I’m not going to cover the theme song sequence, because the sequence is nothing but spoiler alerts of what this movie is gonna be about. (Good call, movie… good call.)

Grade School Scene:

Alfred is telling a story to a classroom of kids.
-Now, I’m not giving anything away here, but one of these people is the main victim. I’ll give you a hint though: listen for the line: “I think I better go home and recharge my batteries.” Another hint: just look at the reactions that the kids make after they hear the story and after the line is being said. So… if you guessed Alfred, then you’re right!
-Plus, Alfred just says that line and doesn’t say anymore. Uh… explain, Alfred! No? Nothing at all? Well, okay, but this is gonna come back and haunt you later on…

After school:

Junior and Laura walk home, pondering what Alfred meant when he said he needed to “recharge his batteries.”

-In answer to your question, you two: It means to “get some rest.” How hard is it to tell these kids about figures of speech?! They’re old enough to understand! I mean, what grade are they in at their grade school? (And don’t say kindergarten!)

After pondering this, Junior & Laura finally confirm that Alfred is a robot. You heard right: a robot.

-See what you can do with over-reactive imaginations? This is the future of our kids if we don’t teach them what’s real and what’s not real.

Then the kids come across a talking weed, played by G. Boch.

-G. Boch was the same person that played Madame Blueberry (in this video) & in the other Veggietales video of the same name, until someone else took over the role in later Veggietales videos.
-Plus, it’s anything for a paycheck. Why? Because compared to Madame Blueberry’s French accent, it sounds as if G. Boch is recovering from laryngitis.

Anyways, the weed asks the kids what they’re talking about, and get this: the kids stupidly tell her that they think that Alfred is a robot. The weed promises to not tell anyone else…

-How much you wanna bet that she isn’t gonna keep her word? Just don’t count on it; believe me, she won’t.

Neighborhood scene:

The Rumor Weed goes door-to-door… or hedge-to-hedge, starting this rumor about Alfred being a robot. One neighbor believes that robots are dangerous; another neighbor claims that he read a book about robots taking over the world.
-What sucks is that everyone in that neighborhood believes this weed, and they just add onto the rumor. Also, how lenient are these people? They invite a total stranger to gossip about someone!

Larry Manor:

Larry and Alfred are in their garden, which consists of one petunia (God knows why). Then the phone reads, and Alfred goes inside to answer it.

Larry turns and sees that a Rumor Weed is in the flower bed strangling the petunia.

-That petunia had only a few weeks left until retirement, you moron!

Larry tells the weed to go away, despite her trying to gossip about Alfred. The arguing is interrupted by Alfred, saying that the mayor is on the phone.

Larry walks into the house and tells Alfred about the weed.

-Tell me if you think that Alfred’s apron looks girly, because of the flower that’s on it.

Larry takes the phone from Alfred, and… Madame Blueberry is the mayor of Bumblyburg?

-Again, what some people will do for a paycheck. I mean, wasn’t she happy doing her debut video? And that video talked about being thankful for what you had! So, switching from a spoiled French chick with butlers to a mayor seems contradictory.

Anyway, Mayor Blueberry tells Larry to get LarryBoy, because many of the talking weeds are all over town… ruining lawns and making the property values plummet.

-Since when did this movie become about economics. Kids can’t understand that yet.
-And you know, the movie makes it clear that nobody else but Alfred knows about LarryBoy’s secret identity, and that Larry is LarryBoy. So, with that in mind, why does the mayor call a random citizen to get their superhero, since the LarrySignal is only used for nighttime? Does she look in a phone book and pick any random guy’s number? Explain, movie!

Larry agrees to “get LarryBoy.” He hangs up the phone and says a clichéd line: “Alfred, we got some gardening to do!”

-And no, it does not involve your petunia that was mangled just now.

Rumor Weed Song scene:

The Rumor Weed goes into Mr. Nezzer’s yard. (Yeah, he’s the insane zucchini from the Rack, Shack, and Benny video.) The weed does an evil deed: singing… or rapping? What’s this?
-Is this a song at all? I mean, you can totally understand the lyrics, but… what’s the melody? The weed is just rapping the lyrics, along with the neighbors as her back-up singers- I mean, rappers.

In the “song,” the weed explains that a rumor can be true or false; it can spread like crazy after it’s out there; and it can ruin one’s reputation.

-Here, the neighbors listen to what she says, but there had to be some point where one of them should’ve thought, “You know what? We shouldn’t be saying bad things about Alfred. That would hurt his feelings.” But no, they keep listening to the weed, in accordance of the plot.
-Plus, what’s with the colors and disco lighting in this song? It’s like trying to i-Dose the audience with hysteria.

While that’s going on, LarryBoy comes into the yard and tries to get rid of the weed with a weed whacker and a hedge clipper. But none of the tools do any harm to the weed.

-Okay, wait a minute. If that’s the case, what is that weed made out of? It’s like she has steel fiber in her stem… or is it Kryptonite?

LarryBoy reports his failure to Alfred. Then Alfred tells him to scan the weed with one of the plunger ears. Larry does this, and the weed treats the ear like a microphone and then yanks on it. LarryBoy can’t pull away, because the weed has a strong grip…

-Okay, this is ridiculous! It’s just a weed! Did she take steroids before shooting this scene?

The song continues for another half-minute, with LarryBoy still stuck, but then let go and sent flying off-screen.

-Well, it’s a good thing the weed didn’t yo-yo him back with his plunger…

LarryCave scene:

Say, are you a big fan of scenes with over-the-top drama; overwhelming clichés; and the awkward moments where the characters are either trying to interact with the audience, or when the characters are looking directly into the camera without any reason whatsoever? Then this next scene is for you!

LarryBoy returns to the LarryCave, only to find out that the weed feeds off an unknown source, instead of the usual photosynthesis routine.

Alfred: “It doesn’t photosynthesize.”
LarryBoy: “Why do we care if it takes pictures?”
Alfred: “No, no…”
-Is this gonna be our comic relief? Telling one-liners?
-Yeah, and there are some obnoxious moments with the camera. Gee, how many obnoxious times with trying hard to interact with the audience were there?
Just 1 time.
And how many moments with the characters looking directly into the camera were there?

About 7 times.
For example, while Alfred is telling him about their satellite as their GPS to track down the weed… how the hell do they have that? Did they order it off of eBay? What’s with the satellite thing now? Explain, movie! Anyways, while that’s going on, LarryBoy looks at the audience and shrugs, as if to say, “Do you get what Alfred’s saying? ‘Cuz I don’t.”

Then Alfred explains that if they don’t stop the weed, then the town will be destroyed.

-My God, does Alfred’s voice go an octave higher as he says all this!

Finally, Alfred gets an idea on how to stop the weed… just by LarryBoy accidentally bumping into the joystick-thingy. They learn that the weed is actually a network of the little cretins, and Alfred confirms that the weed has to be attacked by its roots.

-You heard right! Some old fashioned gardening will do justice to a supernatural being… This guy is off his meds.
-Okay, I may be getting ahead of myself here. The reason for the framing of the shots in this movie is because the creators of Veggietales wanted to get ready to produce an actual feature-length film. In the bonus features area on the DVD, there was a behind-the-scenes reel where the creators, cast, and crew were interviewed about the movie. In fact, Mike Nawrocki, voice actor of Larry-Boy and co-creator of Veggietales, mentioned during the behind-the-scenes clip that:

“We started Rumor Weed as sort of practice, you know, for making a feature film… just starting to concentrate more on cinematography, and… lighting, and just, you know, how we frame the shots, and making it more film-like…” Well, that’s understandable: “learning the craft.”

So now, let’s get back into the review. I won’t be so hard this time.

LarryMobile scene:

(Now, I’m not gonna time explaining every single detail of this scene. So I’ll sum it up for you.)

LarryBoy is in his LarryMobile, and Alfred is telling him that he’ll be there every step of the way… even though he’ll on the video phone the majority of their time together.

-Now listen to what Alfred says as LarryBoy is leaving: “You can do it!”
Hi, motivational speech!
(Then Alfred is frowning and looking down and says…) “I hope…”
Good bye, motivational speech.

The next thing we know, LarryBoy drives through a forest, and then turns his vehicle into a plane. In the sky, LarryBoy is instructed to press another button, which takes away the wings and sends the whole vehicle falling.

-Now seriously, Alfred lost his meds! He’s putting LarryBoy in a dangerous situation. Well, granted, this just part of the mission. I mean, it’s not Alfred is trying to scare him in any way.
(Alfred shows Larry on the screen how much farther towards the ground they are.)

Yep, this guy is demented.

So, the LarryPlane… or Bullet… or whatever it is now, barrels through the ground towards where they think the Mother Weed is hiding. This gives the two guys some time to have a casual conversation…

LarryBoy: “I’m flying under the ground!”
Alfred: “Well, actually, you’re boring.”
LarryBoy: “Gee, Alfred, I know I’m not the wittiest of cucumbers…”
Alfred: “No, no, not that kind of boring…”

-Wow! Good one, movie. Good one. That was an unforgettable punch line!

So Alfred tells LarryBoy that the vehicle is heading into the sewer, where they think the Mother Weed is hiding in.

-Well, everybody’s epitome of trash talk has to go somewhere…

Sewer scene:

Everything is running smooth until LarryBoy makes his entrance.
(He crashes his vehicle through the walls of the sewer.)
-Uh, dude. Why not use the door?
(The airbag deploys, hitting LarryBoy.)
-I hope this guy has car insurance.

Then things go wrong when LarryBoy loses contact with Alfred in the sewer.

Alfred: “Master Larry, can you hear me?”
(then the scene cuts back to LarryBoy)
LarryBoy: “Alfred, can you hear me?”

-This sounds like a rejected T-Mobile commercial.

Alfred: “The sewer walls must be blocking the transmission…”

-Well, what did you think was gonna happen, silly?

So Alfred leaps out of his chair and attempts to “save” LarryBoy. His vehicle of choice? A scooter that goes no less than 20-30 mph.

-I thought LarryBoy’s trouble was supposed to be urgent!

Sewer scene 2:

LarryBoy tries to brave out his predicament. He sees a weed planted on the floor, and believes that that’s the Mother Weed that Alfred told him about. But then his relief is sucked out of him, when a much bigger weed approaches and reveals herself as the real Mother Weed, which comes to a disappointment to our hero.
-What a twist!

Scooter scene:

Alfred tries to flag down Officer Scooter, who’s trying once again to enjoy his coffee break. The cop’s reaction when he sees Alfred: “Aaagh! The robot!”
-I guess he had a hot date that he was late to (?)

Sewer scene 3:

LarryBoy runs back to his car and tries to contact Alfred. The big weed asks him how his ear was (you know, when the Rumor Weed was rapping her song and pulling on his plunger ear?).

He questions this, and then remembers:
LarryBoy: “That’s right! You’re connected!”
-Connected to what, the Internet? I don’t follow.

Then LarryBoy finds a piece of equipment that he thinks will do damage to the weed, and he says probably the most epic line of the movie:

LarryBoy: “Hasta la vista, weedy!”
-Wow! Did Arnold Schwarzenegger take over the screenplay?

Unfortunately, the epic line doesn’t save LarryBoy from more disappointment; because he presses a button on the machine, and it breaks, leaking out… blue [Fun Dip?] powder.

Town Hall scene:

Alfred arrives at town hall where the townsfolk are waiting for him there. He tries talking to the mayor about LarryBoy’s predicament, but apparently, the rumor about him got to her, so she doesn’t listen. The mayor tells him to stand back because he’s a robot. Alfred wonders about this, and thinks that she’s joking, because he still has his helmet on his head, and then stupidly says that the helmet “keeps [his] brain safe.” This scares the hell out of everyone, and they go into defense mode, crowding around him.

Sewer scene 4:

Meanwhile, LarryBoy is getting his butt kicked off-screen, and then thrown against the wall, where we see that he’s now battered and bruised. If Larry was going to take her on, then the Mother Weed was gonna have something to say about that:

Weed: Face it! You can’t stop this weed! Thanks to your friends out there, I’m getting bigger by the minute! (Evil laughter)
-Her laughter after saying that line… it’s like she swallowed a cat and then got a big fur ball stuck in her throat! Again, anything for a paycheck, G. Boch… It sucks for everybody.

Town Hall scene 2:

The townspeople accuse Alfred of robot-related bullshit, until the ground starts to shake underneath them. The people are quick to accuse the butler for that.
-What? Is this a whodunit mystery game convention where the logic is that the butler always commits the crime?

Then all hell breaks loose when the Mother Weed pops out of the ground like a demented jack-in-the-box and kidnaps Alfred. The townspeople thinks that this is justice, because of the rumor.

Junior and Laura are standing in the crowd, watching Alfred get his salad tossed. (Well, he is a vegetable.) Then Junior’s dad comes by and learns that Alfred is being accused of being a robot. He questions this: he questions the accusers, and then he questions the weed herself.

-Finally! The voice of reason!

The weed tells Junior’s dad that she heard the rumor first from Junior and Laura.

-Listen to how she points out Junior and Laura in her speech. She shuts them down big-time.

Then Junior and Laura confess that they started the rumor, because of their misunderstanding of Alfred when he said he needed to “recharge his batteries.” Dad says that that was a figure of speech (Told ya.); and then he makes a really good speech about how rumors can hurt people, and that the only way things can get better was if people said nice things about each other.

This motivates Junior and Laura to right their wrong, by spreading the word that Alfred is not a robot.

The next thing you know, everybody follows suit, saying that Alfred is a “nice man,” which comes to a disappointment to the Rumor Weed.

Then there’s this nature-induced magical… whatever it is… and the weed turns into a flower, freeing Alfred, and him riding down the weed’s stem like a giant slide from an amusement park.

Everyone apologizes to Alfred for being stupid for listening to the rumor in the first place. And the story ends when LarryBoy comes slowly out of a manhole, and wondering what was going on with the flowers and stuff from one was once the weed.

-Since he’s still battered and bruised in this scene, this begs the question: Why don’t the people give him medical attention? Shouldn’t there be an ambulance in that crowd somewhere? There are so many characters in this town that there has to be a doctor on sight, right?

Final LarryCave scene:

LarryBoy and Alfred talk about what we’ve learned today.
-This definitely replaces the usual countertop scene in the other Veggietalesvideos.
-Alfred is off-screen until after the Bible verse is revealed. Then he says, “Enough with the puns. Can we please get on with it?” I’ve got to rehearse my lines for our first feature film Jonah!

The Bible verse that they mention is Proverbs 12:18. (Makes sense.) They talk a little about how the verse fits with the show…

-But too bad this message falls on deaf ears nowadays, because of social media.

They wrap up the show by clicking off the LarryComputer, and then the credits roll.

And that was LarryBoy and the Rumor Weed. So compared to LarryBoy and the Fib from Outer Space, was this an improvement?

Honestly, this movie was a little better than the original LarryBoy story, but like the first movie, the first one’s setbacks came back to haunt this one. There were over-the-top dramatic moments; it was very clichéd; and LarryBoy, like the first movie, didn’t actually save the day. The side characters are morons; and our main characters were too oblivious to the problem the whole time.

Despite all that, this movie was epic. The creators pushed everything in this movie: the scenes, the lighting, the storyline, and the pure suspense of the movie.

You know, this movie was the spark that got Big Idea to make their first feature-length film. I just wished that LarryBoy would’ve been that feature film. But instead, it later becomes a franchise with 2-D animated series that doesn’t make it to at least 5 episodes. Crud.

Anyway, this movie was pretty good to see. In fact, it touched down on an issue that still exists today: people starting rumors about somebody they know or don’t know. You know, this would make a great editorial for this movie. But I can speculate.

Amateur Critic

Source: LarryBoy and the Rumor Weed

All rights go to Big Idea Entertainment.

Hi, I'm the Amateur Critic. I review just about anything.

I know I promised the LarryBoy and the Rumor Weed movie review to you all last week, but I'm still working on it. But here's another editorial that I had come up with while I was working on the Rumor Weed review.

Big Idea Entertainment isn't just all Veggietales... it has another show: 3-2-1 Penguins. The show is about these 2 kids that spend the summer at Grandma's, and... get ready for this part: their 4 toy penguins and toy rocket ship comes to live, and the kids go on crazy adventures with Rockhopper penguins.

What to say about this...? Well, the morals can be learned from the show, but the stories are weird and childish. The show has great setups, but disappointing payoffs. So what makes this show awkward? Let's take a look.

Before analyzing the show itself. Let's look first at the characters.

The two kids are 8-year-old twins. First, there's Jason, a boy with glasses (like his sister) who's the most nerdy sibling out of the two. And then there's Michelle, Jason's sister who's 5-minutes older than him (that was revealed in one episode), and she wears pigtails the entire show.

As for the penguins, we have Zidgel the spaceship's captain with a big hair-do, and he's clearly a James T. Kirk knock-off of Chanticleer from Rock-A-Doodle.

Then there's Midgel, the spaceship's engineer and pilot and has an Australian-accent (Okay).

Then there's Fidgel (man, these characters' names sure rhyme), the team's doctor/scientist who invents weird stuff and... resembles a lot like the kids' deceased grandpa.

And last but not least, there's Kevin, the fourth penguin who's... the fourth one.

So, with all of our characters together, what do they do? Go on adventures and take on villains.

Their main villain is named Baron von Cavitus, who's a knock-off of Zurg from the show Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, but is really a hamster who has anger issues and wants revenge on Fidgel from back in their school days.

(So that's it? A revenge over what happened back when you were still in school? Grow up!)

One of the most obnoxious villains that I remember seeing was the Lizard King from "The Cheating Scales of Bullamanka" episode. God, I hated this guy. This guy uses cheating to win competitions; and plus, he's supposed to be king? He doesn't seem so kingly.

In fact, he's looks more like the kangaroo mouse from The Rescuers Down Under... except in lizard form.

Another obnoxious villains that I saw watching this show is Uncle Blobb from "The Amazing Carnival of Complaining" episode.

How much you want to bet that this guy is just a failed attempt of a reincarnation of the Fib from Outer Space from the LarryBoy franchise? But in the end, he just power-hungry for real estate and wanting people to complain to oblivion. (But seriously, you can make this guy less obnoxious.)

So why do those things make me tick with this show?

Everything about this show flawed. The characters are rip-offs; the show doesn't meet up to the Veggietales standards; and what's up with the obnoxious villains? I'd rather see the Fib from Outer Space be the main villain, because... well, he's from friggin' outer space! That'd be a great idea! In fact, I can learn about space and planets by either watching NOVA on PBS or by going to a science museum.
Plus, there's nothing creative about this series, except for some of the characters dishing out one-liners. But why make another show that wants to be like Veggietales, but is actually trying too hard to be a cheap copy of Veggietales? In Veggietales, the creativity worked to Big Idea's advantage; but with 3-2-1 Penguins, it just didn't work.
If you liked this show, good for you. But don't expect that show to be as great as Veggietales.

Amateur Critic

Sources Used:
-3-2-1 Penguins
-Rock-A-Doodle
-Toy Story franchise
-Rescuers Down Under
-LarryBoy and the Fib from Outer Space

All rights for the show mentioned in today's editorial go to Big Idea, including a photo from LarryBoy and the Fib from Outer Space.
Rock-A-Doodle photo courtesy of Don Bluth.
Toy Story franchise and Rescuers Down Under courtesy of Disney.

antickmusings

Sunday, 22 September 2013

Editorial: Is The Rumor Weed Getting Stronger?

Saturday, 21 September 2013

"LarryBoy and the Rumor Weed" Movie Review

Sunday, 15 September 2013

Editorial: The Parts of "3-2-1 Penguins" That Make Me Tick

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