Pfish and Chip
1995, 1997
**********
Pros: Great animation, Some funny gags and lines, Pfish
Cons: Scattershot gag humor, Some annoying voice acting
When I was but a little dragon, Cartoon Network ran the What-a-Cartoon!, which intended to give creative power to individual cartoonists so that they could get their visions out in the open. This series sparked the careers of talents like Genndy Tartakovsky and Craig McCracken, but as a kid I never gravitated toward such styles of limited animation (I’m still not a fan of it; I grew up in an era when we actually had standards for the artwork in our cartoon shows). The cartoon that grabbed my attention the most was Pfish and Chip.
This was no surprise since the animation of the show is brilliant. The characters, which are drawn in classic toon style, are expressive and the movement is fluid. Stylization and exaggeration are well executed, and the character designs can be adapted to whatever the gags put them through. To me, this is exactly the way a cartoon should look, so I was very surprised when I revisited the show and found out who was responsible for it.
Okay, suffice to say, I don’t like Butch Hartman cartoons. They pretty sum up everything I hate about modern cartoons, and I’ll express my feelings about them right now. This rant could get a bit brutal. GAASSPP… They’re poorly animated with flat, bland artwork reflecting a skill level only one step above what is required to make stick figures. The characters’ body language is stilted and they often have awkwardly blank expressions that stare off into nothingness, thus rendering their deliveries of jokes just as bland as the animation. The jokes are just random gags with no real impact. The dialogue is painfully forced, and the characters don’t talk in a way that is credible. Judging by most of what I’ve seen on art sites, people apparently see this style and think that's good enough for professional work. I'm sure he's a nice guy and everything, I just don't care for his cartoons. There, that pretty much covers it. So don’t expect me to waste any time doing a review of Fairly Oddparents or T.U.F.F. freakin' Puppy. I guess the only reason I’m reviewing this show, aside from its nostalgic value, is that I can actually give a relatively accommodating review of it. As I mentioned before, its animation is surprisingly good.
The show revolves around an easy-going shark named Pfish (Robert Picardo) and an aggressive Lynx named Chip (Butch Hartman) who work in a bomb squad whose method of diffusing bombs consists of this recurring “joke:”
1. Chip asks Pfish to hand him a [insert random object]
2. Pfish hands it to him
3. Repeat
They frequently fail to prevent bombs from detonating and are constantly chewed out by their Chief ( voiced annoyingly by Jeff Bennett). I must say that the show has a very promising premise: one person is a laid-back Type-B personality, another is a high-strung Type-A personality, and the two attempt to diffuse bombs together. This premise may be great for character/situation-driven comedy and sometimes it’s taken advantage of, but most of the time it’s wasted on scattershot gag humor. I normally don’t like this type of comedy, since I find it lazy and I prefer humor that comes from the characters and the stories. Otherwise there’s nothing to bring the show together as something that’s good as a whole. True, some of the gags in scattershot shows like Family Guy are funny, but a great many of them are not. The trope is usually a crutch for people with little talent, but the “scattershot” term is very appropriate. When you fire a machine gun blindly into a dark jungle in Nam, a couple of those bullets might hit Charlie, but that doesn’t make you a good marksman.
The show’s first episode, “Short Pfuse,” pits our heroes up against an antagonist known as the “Mad Bomber,” a shadowy, featureless figure whose dialogue consists exclusively of maniacal laughter. He is an incredibly bland villain. His mysterious appearance might work if there was some pretense of suspense, but this is a zany gag cartoon. His lack of language insures that he will not have any witty or memorable lines. His only gimmick is that he has gag bombs. In other words, there is nothing intrinsically special about this character. As for those gag bombs, it’s an extremely lazy comic tool. In one scene the two are overwhelmed by bombs that do random things to them. It’s a silly fill-in-the-blank joke format that anyone can do in two seconds, even after a few Bourbons.
 |
| Flutterbourbon actually looks pretty awesome. |
 |
| Aaand...then this happens. I'm not sure why. I think it might actually be some sort of attempt at humor, I'm not sure. |
The second (and last) episode of the series features the two facing off against a clown who blows stuff up.
 |
Nooo, that clown's actually funny.
Granted, the gags in this episode are far more varied and random than in the previous episode. Blammo the Clown doesn’t limit himself to bombs and he torments the protagonists with completely random gags. Like the Mad Bomber, he also doesn’t have any lines, although instead of laughing, he’s just mute. I must point out that if you’re going to make a cartoon about people who defuse bombs and you want a good antagonist, you should probably put the effort into making one memorable recurring villain. Obviously, when bad guys are limited to people who plant bombs, you’re not going to have a very diverse Rogues Gallery.
If there’s one thing that brings this show together, it’s Pfish. I just love this character. I like his personality, and I find it amusing how he never takes the situation seriously enough. Most of the lines that actually are funny come from him, and he’s the only permanent part of the show that actually does seem to be inherently funny. He’s very well voiced by the Doctor from Voyager, and it also helps that he’s absolutely adorable.
 |
| This was supposed to be gun, but 4kids wouldn't have it. |
Pfish and Chip only had a run of two episodes, so it might seem like I’m being a little harsh on it. Still, I feel that had it been allowed to continue, and its rough edges had been smoothed out a bit, it had the potential to be a very enjoyable series.
FAVORITE QUOTES
CHIP: Number 3 Clamp!
PFISH: Hmm-hmm hmhm hmhmmm, doo-dah, doo-dah…
CHIP: Do you feel "Camptown Races" is an appropriate song for this situation?
PFISH: Would you prefer something peppier?
CHIP: I prefer SILENCE!!!!
[Pfish and Chip after getting a chewing-out from the Chief]
PFISH: Well, you were very rude in there.
CHIEF: I’m taking Mommy to the circus, but Teddy’s staying here! So nothing better happen to him. Comprende?
PFISH: Oh! Habla Espanol? [continues to talk in Spanish]
CHIEF: I don’t care if you have a hog in your shorts! Put up these wanted posters and GET OUT!
[they leave the Chief’s office]
CHIP: “Hog in your shorts…”
PFISH: What if I had one, you don’t know.
[Pfish has just returned from New Mexico]
PFISH: Chip! I got you a cactus!
No comments:
Post a Comment