Belch's Brief Reviews--Jun 2, 2001

[DR. BELCH]

SS #12: "Replay"
I finally caught the episode I missed the first time around. Static finally has his own evil twin, an energy clone created by a meta- human/washed-up child actor Johnny Morrow. The town turns against Static, even his best friend Richie, until he proves himself innocent using a clone copy of the Shock Box and some slick thinking on Richie's part, patching Morrow's confession into the satellite and broadcasting it.
DYN that one of the cops who the fake Static attacks is voiced by the same actor who did K on Men in Black and Cornfed on Duckman?
Morrow schpiels his life story to the jewelry counter man like he's done it a thousand times before in every bar from here to Cucamonga. [Slappy voice] "Thank you, Mr. Exposition."
For my money, the has-been child actor gone rogue bit was done better with Baby Dahl on Batman...and by Julie Brown (the voice of Minerva Mink) on ComCent's Strip Mall.


POK JJ #350: "Forest Grumps"
Pokemon is like a box of chocolates--you never know what you're gonna get.
This one provided both a new Pokemon species--a bearlike creature called Ursury, almost certainly taken from the word "ursine" but reminiscent of the word "usury", which is the lending of money with exhorbitant interest rates--and a long-awaited peek into Jessy's troubled psyche.
While picknicking on the banks of another river (seems they stop at every body of water they pass to eat; didn't they just start last week's show that way too?). Team Twerp decides to let all its Pokemon run free. Not the brightest of moves, because Team Rocket has laid a trap and promptly catches every single one. If that isn't bad enough, when demanded to return the Pokemon, they answer by pulling down their lower eyelids with a finger, which seems to be the Japanese equivalent of the middle finger. The ep would have ended in three minutes if Yogi and friends didn't show up and attack, tearing the net and releasing all the Pokemon...then charging our heroes.
Now the fun part. In the scramble, Jessy mistakenly ends up with the twerps and Misty ends up with Meowth and James. It's doubly funny if you realize the same actress voices both parts, and even more funny if you realized that this is the scenario RockItShipper and I have discussed innumerable times--Jessy injured, scared and helpless, with Ash her only solace. Unfortunately the two potential lovebirds never get any alone time, since Mother Brock is always there... so no opportunity for animonity to evolve into passion. Pity.
Jessy sees how well Ash and company eat and the comraderie they share and starts to question herself. She flashes back to the past and her childhood dreams, where she's in her mother's arms rambling about being a doctor and an actress and a pokemon trainer. Yet here she is ten years and a failed stint at nursing school later, little more than a glorified prostitute for Giovanni, always hungry, always hurt, and now inches away from becoming bear chow. Her biggest problem is pride; that's what keeps her chained to this life, and if her self-esteem weren't so low she'd tell Giovanni to stick it where the sun doesn't shine and quit the Rocketeers.
Meantime, Misty has her own problems. She's stuck with the sugar plum fairy and the talking tomcat, shocked at the debaucherous and impoverished way they live. At one point after they scale a cliff and find themselves on a ledge over a huge dark chasm (said ledge, as they later learn, is only a few feet from the ground), she divides it down the middle and declares that they stay on their side. James notes that Jessy and Misty are more alike than they realize (again, doubly funny if you consider the voice casting). James complains that his and Meowth's half of the ledge is smaller than hers, and she tells him it's because their brains together are smaller than hers. I have a feeling that in the original dub the word she used wasn't "brains".
Jessy at one point tries to steal Pikachu, but is forced to return him when she runs into a Ursury. What a strange allegory for her conscience. All that wooden puppet boy had was a talking bug.
The two teams reunite, and soon Yogi, Boo-Boo, and every bear in the forest on their tails and are forced to take a rickety rope bridge to safety. That's when Jessy realizes the truce is over and cops an attitude......but Togepi's metronome attack blasts them off again.
Here's where it's evident that Jessy hasn't learned a d*** thing. She claims her problem and the reason she's always losing, tired, dirty, starving, injured, broke and miserable is--James and Meowth. Wrong. She's her own worst enemy, and defends her own bruised ego by projecting her faults onto them. This self-delusional attitude is very defeating. She strikes me as the one member of the team who has enough moxy to make it on her own, after some intensive psychotherapy and the right lover who can bring out her vulnerability without exploiting her. I don't know if Ash is that man, but if he once said to her, "You know when that Scyther chopped off all your hair and we laughed at you? I was being an a-hole and going along with the group. I thought you looked pretty with short hair", Jessy's heart would melt like a marshmallow. The question is, can she be trusted? Could Ash love her enough to bed her, feeling confident she won't steal his Pokemon and his wallet in the middle of the night, soap something obscene on the bathroom mirror, and skip town while he's asleep?
DYN that both Jessy and James become very excited and moan suggestively when they taste Brock's cooking for the first time? Shades of the Powerpuff Girls in "Candy is Dandy".
DYN that, having only three fingers, Meowth has an unfair advantage in "odds 'n' evens"?
Oh...the reason the Ursurys are so ornery? It's mating season! I just hope all that bear has on its mind with Jessy and James and Meowth at the end is mauling them a bit....

[I.R Joey]

Uh I saw that Static episode for the first time as well. It was kinda cliche, with the evil twin framing him, but I love the whole chemistry between Richie and Virgil. That part when they where talking to Daisey about their childhood hangout being destroyed was great.