#claras route is bananas so far
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shriika · 1 year ago
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who up pathing their logic
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knickynoo · 1 year ago
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Back to the Future: The Animated Series, s02ep01 “Mac the Black” Review and Commentary
Previous episodes linked here.
In this episode: Marty is a liar, liar, pants on fire, Doc and Clara seriously need to work on keeping the DeLorean locked up, and I am nearly broken by the funniest scene this goofy cartoon has ever done.
Took about a month off from doing these reviews, but I'm back and ready to tackle season 2. I still don't know if Tumblr fixed the issue with the photo and gifsets getting messed up (and won't until I post this), so if the images are getting stacked again, it isn't my fault.
Let's jump right in.
Doc's season 2 opening broadcast begins on a deserted island, on which Doc has become stranded while attempting to sail to Jamaica.
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He was trying to follow the same route a pirate did in the 1600s—using only his sail and the wind to guide him. It did not go well. Doc lets us know that he forgot to bring along a compass. What a goofball.
His predicament reminds him of something, and he says, "You know, at one time, my son Verne wanted to be a pirate. Well, actually, what he really wanted was an earring. Or was it a tattoo? This one's a bit complicated, so I'll let Marty explain it." This then brings us right into the cartoon, where Marty takes over telling the story.
Hope you get off that island, Doc!
As we head into the cartoon portion of the episode, Marty tells us that the whole thing started when he lied to Jennifer about a concert. *sigh* If anyone was hoping that Season 2 Marty would be better than Season 1 Marty, I regret to inform you that we're not off to a great start. You see, Marty was supposed to get tickets for himself and Jen for the "Walk DMC" concert (ha! clever), but he didn't. In fact, we learn that Jennifer had asked him two months prior to get the tickets, but he forgot. So far, this is typical Marty behavior. He tries to smooth-talk a guy who works at the concert venue and explain his sad story. Because apparently, it wasn't just that he said he'd get the tickets. He told Jennifer he was "a friend of a friend of the drummer" and they could get front-row seats. He also told her they could join the band's after-show party and have pizza with them.
You lie?? You tell MULTIPLE LIES to Jennifer?? Jail for Marty.
The worker responds by tying a nearby garden hose to the railing to craft a large slingshot to put Marty in and catapult him away. And you know what? Good for him.
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After flying through an alleyway and crashing into several garbage cans, Marty lands in front of Jen wearing a look of shame on his face and a banana peel on his head.
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So sad. Poor little garbage-covered banana-head boy. Maybe don't tell lies; ever think about that?
Jennifer asks why Marty couldn't just remember to buy the tickets in the first place. Instead of owning up to his forgetfulness, Marty doubles down and lies even more, trying to convince Jen that the whole band got sick and had to go home. She is not happy with him. The jock from last season who Jen was tutoring (Kelp) comes by then and asks her if she's doing anything tonight. "Yes, I'm saying goodbye to Marty McFibber," Jen replies as she hops into Kelp's car.
Wonderful. 10/10 reponse, Jennifer.
We leave Marty running after the car as the scene transitions to Doc's house, where he's working on a machine that will help them all with the tedious process of canning all the tomatoes from their garden. As expected, it malfunctions immediately. Doc gets sucked into the machine, and IT CANS HIM.
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I need you all to understand how long I laughed at this scene.
Please. I—
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That is a whole entire man in that little glass jar. Look at him!! He is just sitting on the counter inside a container! Doc can be easily stored in a cupboard now!! Even though the quality is terrible, you can see the distress on his face. This machine seriously just sucked him up and smooshed his 6'1" frame into a jar!!
The series should have ended right then and there, with this being the last scene because I don't think there's anything that can possibly come close to this in terms of cartoony humor. It can only be downhill from here. I had actual tears in my eyes while trying to grab these screenshots.
After freeing himself from the jar, Doc discovers that the problem was due to a washer being missing from the machine. He soon finds it when Verne wanders in showing off his cool new earring (made using the washer and a piece of bubble gum).
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Verne explains that he wants an earring so that the cool kids will stop teasing him for always wearing his coonskin cap. Clara and Doc forbid him from piercing his ears, and Verne stalks off angrily. He puts on the TV and starts watching a pirate movie, which gives him the idea that he'd be able to get an earring if he was a pirate. Uh oh.
Verne sneaks out of the house to steal the time machine, which he does a lot, by the way. You'd think that Doc and Clara would have that thing securely locked up given their youngest child's tendency to just take off into the night like that.
As he's speeding off down the road, Verne runs into (and almost runs over) Marty, who is sadly walking down the road. Marty cheers up at seeing his little buddy and asks Verne to give him a ride to his car. No, "Hey, Verne, what are you doing out all on your own?" or "Whoa! You're eight-years-old; you shouldn't be driving!!" He just. Gets in the car and lets Verne continue to operate the vehicle.
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Verne is happy to give Marty a lift to his own car, except he has to run an errand first. The display panel has been set for the Caribbean in 1697, and Marty is pumped to go hang out at the beach. He makes zero attempts to talk Verne out of this.
After arriving and donning some time-period appropriate clothing, the boys head straight into town, where Marty immediately gets himself into trouble. He overhears a pretty girl named Maria talking about how she can't return home to Spain until she meets the man of her dreams she's been waiting for: Mac the Black. Marty decides it's a very good idea to pretend he's Mac the Black (on account of he and Jennifer had a fight, remember? So, I guess he's just decided to throw the whole relationship away and pursue a relationship with the first girl he meets in 1697.)
Well, it turns out that Mac the Black is a wanted man, so a bunch of guys with swords chase Marty all around for a while. He then meets a group of pirates who are honored to meet him and have traveled far to find him. They've got a whole crew and a ship, and they put him in command of it and carry him off.
Meanwhile, Verne comes across a flyer advertising a cabin boy job on pirate ship. "Low wages, bad food, free earring," the paper says, and Verne is thrilled. He ends up on the same ship Marty is on, though Marty is less than enthused about the situation. He wants to just get back home and suggests he and Verne sneak out using a smaller boat.
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Verne refuses to leave without his earring, though. Marty is soon informed that they're heading to "Smiling Skull Island" to meet up with some of his "old crew." After arriving, Marty's act swiftly falls apart when he's met by the REAL Mac the Black. After a series of truly ridiculous events, Marty and Verne are captured and forced to walk the plank. They're saved from their fate at the last minute when the Spanish army attacks.
We learn that Maria, who Marty had met earlier, is actually "Special Agent Señorita Maria Estrada of the Spanish Armada." She's been trying to capture Mac the Black—along with the stolen Spanish fleet's ship—and thanks Marty for his help.
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With all the peril finally behind them, Marty and Verne hop back into the DeLorean and head home. Marty has learned a very valuable lesson about telling lies, and we get a scene of him and Jennifer on her porch, where Jen is finishing reading an apology letter Marty has written to her.
"Oh, Marty, that's the sweetest letter you've ever written. The longest, but the sweetest," Jen says as we get a look at her entire porch filled with paper. Marty had a lot to apologize for.
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Also, I still don't understand why Jen's character design looks like that. That is NOT Jennifer.
We return to Real Doc, who is still stranded on the desert island. He spots a ship in the distance, but it turns out to be a pirate ship that's about to shoot a cannonball at him. This brings us to our experiment portion of the episode, where we learn how to make a "cannon" using a soda bottle, vinegar, baking soda, and a cork. Watching it in action made me have fond memories from my youth of dropping Mentos into bottles of diet soda and watching it explode in the backyard. Good times.
After the experiment, we go back to Doc for a moment. He announces that he's off to the store to buy the supplies to make a soda bottle cannon to fire back at the ship (this man has problems). The pirates fire at Doc but miss, and he sticks his tongue out and blows raspberries at them in a taunting manner. The episode ends there. Doc's just. He's stuck on that island, I guess.
This was a weird one. Not really that enjoyable on account of Marty being (as usual) terribly out of character. Unfortunately, this is just Who He Is in the world of the cartoon. Very sad. I also am disappointed that we only got a few seconds of Clara and Jules. But the scene of Doc in that glass jar was phenomenal. Five out of five stars.
Join me next time to see Doc run into an old enemy from college who tries to eliminate him, Jules, Verne, and Marty by luring them into an active volcano.
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