Episode 409 - Camp
(AKA Camp Campingston Falls)Cast:
Brendon Small/Dwayne/Female Counselor - Brendon Small
Jason Penopolis/Coach Jon McGuirk/Male Counselor - H. Jon Benjamin
Melissa Robbins - Melissa Bardin Galsky
Paula Small - Janine Ditullo
Mike & Miguel - John Flansburgh & John Linnell (They Might Be Giants)
Synopsis: Brendon, Jason and Melissa attend Camp Campingston Falls, where they are met by incredible heat and counselors who just don't like them. McGuirk runs off into the woods after a bad expierience with The Crywalkers.
Lawn Gnomes:
· A pig runs in the woods with a gnome on its back during McGuirk's hallucinations.History:
· This was the official season premiere for season 4.
With They Might Be Giants appearing as camp counselors, this was the first time · HM ever had a guest star episode that was advertised as a "guest star episode".Brendon’s Filmography:
· No films in this episode, beyond a shot of the ending of a movie Brendon shows at camp. Which somehow involves squirrels.
Song Lyrics:
· Camp Campingston URG8
Oh Camp Campingston I adore you!
(Camp Campingston, you are great!)
We'll make braided bracelets
(Camp Campingston, you are great!)
We'll make friends in summertime
(Camp Campingston, you are great!)
And we'll keep our friends til the wintertime-· Taste The Fame [Tabs]
We know you have your choice of camps
We know there is a world of camps
But there is only one performing arts camp
Taste the lights!
Taste the action!
Taste the fame!
Camp Campingston Falls!Wallet making...
Reenacting...
Canoes and friends and fun
For one week, taste the lights
Taste the fame!
Camp Campingston Falls!
Taste the fame!
Camp Campingston Falls!· I'm Just a Note
Guy #1
I am just a note
I am all alone
I need a friend
Where is my friend
Guy #1 (Guy #2)
I am just a note (I'm another note)
I have a friend (You are not alone)
We're singing in (We're singing in)
Harmony (Harmony)
Guy #1 (Guy #2) [Dwayne]
We are friends (We are friends) [What's up guys?]
I am not alone (They're not singing...) [I got here late]· Rabbit Troop Sucks
Rabbit Troop Sucks (Rabbit Troop Sucks)
Rabbit Troop Sucks (Rabbit Troop Sucks)
It totally blows (Blooooow)
It totally blows (Blooooow)
It suucks· Clean Bean
Gotta be a clean bean (Clean bean)
Camp Campingston Falls (Campingston Falls)
(repeat)· Welcome to Hell
Welcome to hell
You're gonna burn in there
You're gonna- [scene cuts]Welcome to hell (repeated throughout the rest of the episode)
Random Observations & Facts:
· Melissa's Schedule:
Day 1 - Orientation
Day 2 - Bugleblow[?]
Day 3 - 4:00 Swimming Fun Time [Ripped off by Melissa] Spooky Story
Day 4 - Up & At Em
· Different troops include (indicated by necklace): Moose Troop, Bear Troop, Rabbit Troop.
· Brendon's movie seems to be the trio as chipmunks.
· Sign: [Arrow Pointing Right] "Music Circle" [Arrow Pointing Left] "Canoe Cove"
· Images McGuirk halluncinates (See Movie references):
McGuirk's decapitated head with soccer balls
Stephanie covered in blood.
A woman coming her hair in a mirror.
Lynch....dancing.
A man looking out over a lake.
Walter & Perry in a hallway covered with blood.
A clown smiling with bloody teeth and a rope in the background.
Melissa kicking McGuirk's severed head.
McGuirk aging rapidly.
Scorpions walking over McGuirk's dead body.
· The Male Counselor has his food labeled by celebrity: "Alfred Hitchcock - Stir Fry", "Woody Allen - Take Out" and "Quentin Tarintino - Big Kahuna Burgers".
· While looking for Melissa, Brendon shines his flashlight on a plant that looks like Melissa.
· Melissa quickly sneaks away when Mike & Miguel come to wash Brendon and Jason.
· Dwayne, Mike and Miguel dress up as Cerberus, the mythical three-headed dog who guarded hell, for the final show.
· Melissa takes McGuirk's advice and floats on the marshmellows to rescue him.
Movie & Other References:
· McGuirk's Hallucination Sequence:
- Stephanie covered in blood = Famous scene from "Carrie"
- Woman combing hair in mirror = "The Ring"
- Lynch... = Buffalo Bill's dance from "Silence of the Lambs"
- Man looking out over river = "The Ring"
- Walter & Perry in blood covered hallway with "Rec Cos" on the wall = The twins from "The Shining"
- Clown in front of rope = "It"
- Big Kahuna Burgers are a reference to Quentin Tarantino's movie "Pulp Fiction". If you've seen it you know what I mean.
End Credits: "Taste The Fame"
Reviews:
spectre316: I suppose I'm not in the majority. :PI didn't really like this episode all that much. Sure, I laughed here and there... but it all seemed sort of forced to me. A lot of elements that made certain HM episodes in the past great are collected here, and all of them are, oddly enough, sub-par.
The counselors were a tad annoying. Fortunately, the musical number in the end nicely makes fun of them in pure classic HM style.
TMBG is a great band. The role the band plays in the episode is not particularly outstanding, nor is it particularly disappointing. They did an alright job on that.
This episode, along with the stealth pilot, didn't impress me much. I sure hope this season gets better. C+
Animation Otaku: Great episode. From beginning to end it had me laughing. The highlight would probably be McGuirk's line of "Brendan, you have to try theese leaves, they're poisionous. Dwayne and the TMBG guys were great, all the songs rocked. I liked Melissa bitching at Jason and Brendon for being too stupid to pack clothes. And those counsellors were really jerks, although Brendan and Jason aren't the best guys out there at writing/directing and acting.
The whole uncomfortable scene at the end was really funny. Especially Melissa keep going after Coach was already breathing again. The cult was really hilarious, especially when McGuirk was like "They want to like, hug me, and stuff." Hmm, to list everything I liked would go on for awhile.
Anyways, this was a great start to the new season. I thought the animation was actually pretty good at parts too. The plot was nice and it was well written as always. The performance at the end was pretty good as well, nice just how they took potshots at everyone. I give this episode an A+, for being just so great. Hope the remaining episodes are at least as good.
Delthayre: Ah, it is a marvel to have Home Movies back on the block. I was laughing with impressive regularity throughout the episode. I knew from the moment he ran into the woods that McGuirk would run across the kids eventually, but I didn't care that it was predictable, because it was funny along the way. I always love how Home Movies can do a simple, almost childish gag, but make it funny.
They Migh Be Giants made a fine appearance and weren't intrusive and very much worked in the show. They had strong chemistry with the rest of the cast and the writers never made me resent their presence by letting it break down into an exscuse for a musical number.
It was, in the end, an average episode of Home Movies, but the Home Movies average is very high. *** out of *****
HomeMoviesFan: This was genuis. I mean genuis infinity. (on a side note, I advise that the next HM review thread, HM haters stay out) I couldn't stop laughing, and I still love McGuirk. (hopefully H. Jon Benjamin won't pull a Chef and only appear in cameos four times a season in the future) Nice to see the kids FINALLY in summer break. TMBG did a great role in this episode, HM knows how to use there guest stars. (no Brendon saying "Look, it's the guys from They Might Be Giants!") Unlike Simpsons (later years), HM incoporates them into actual characters. John and John as camp counselors is greatness.
The animation...superb! The 3D sequence when the Cry Hunters meet up with McGuirk at Camp proves a movie could be possible. (during the summer I tried to write an HM movie [I wrote songs and 15 minutes of script]) The woods scenes were great and some of it rivaled tonight's Simpsons episode (which also had damn good animation)
There was one flaw, though, and that was still too much swearing. The F-word is only great when used in moderation, not all the time. I think they're there to remind some idiot viewers that they're watching AS. (the ones who can't get the genuis, you know, AS.com members)
The jokes flew fast, with great one-liners ("You HAVE to try these leaves, Brendon. They're poisionous.") to great scenes (The big show) to great characters (The female camp teacher did resemble the FPC lady from "Shore Leave"). Melissa's water fear was a good new character development, though it still bewilders me to this day why some people are afraid of water. But, man those camp teachers were real asses. And that was why this episode was great. No...TMBG was why...that's right...
Mynd Hed: I thought it was a good, solid episode. The lame summer camp was true-to-life-- I went to far too many camps like that as a kid. (-: McGuirk's scenes were all good, but for different reasons. Initially, the manhug club was funny because it, too, was true-to-life if you've ever been involved with any of those wannabe-Fight-Club men's bonding groups. But that sort of humor quickly gave over to some nice horror movie homages (including some great bits straight out of "The Ring") which quickly gave way to some more traditional HM-style humor involving McGuirk being just plain weird. (-: Melissa's aquaphobia is another highlight of the episode as far as I'm concerned.
The only real downside in my opinion was the songs, which weren't all that funny and kind of broke up the pace of what otherwise would have been a really great episode. But even though it's hardly a standout, a par-for-the-course Home Movies episode is still a treat in my book.
Overall Grade: B+
niceporch: i'm suprised to see that so many people liked this episode. i've seen every episode of home movies and this one kinda sucked.
i've always enjoyed the subtle humor of home movies. it's that, "did he just say what i think he said?" style that has always cracked me up. in this episode everyone's quirks were overemphasised and they lacked randomness, originality, and rawness.
the music was also subpar. i found most of the songs, except the catchy devil one, to be completely irritating rather than funny. the voice of brendon small as the woman counciler and the coach pop voice as the man counciler were obvious which made it difficult to see them as cool new characters.
along with overplaying the character traits, it was too predictable. such as when they ran into coach mcguirk and coach mcguirk trying too hard to be crazy.
amongst the dissapointments there were some cool moments. the "posionous leaves" and when melissa saved coach, and when she got all violent on him. it's really cool to see melissa all violent. they should play that up a lot more. and where were perry and walter. WTF??? my heroes.
Karl Olson: Though the story and humor was definetely came through (McGuirk stole scenes like bandit, as par usual, but the rest of the cast definetely got to shine as well, especially with the satanic play) what really took me by surprise was the quality of the animation. That has to be some of the best animation on Home Movies yet, especially with the shadowing in the night scenes, and with the 360 degree pan around McGuirk. Better still, it didn't feel like they were trying forsake their art style, just make it more rich and expansive. If the rest of the season looks this nice, that'll be very cool.
MovieGuy: "Camp Campingston Falls". Finally, we got season four of Home Movies. Some people think this is a bad episode... I don't.
First off, They Might Be Giants. The best guest stars HM has ever had. "Taste The Fame" is one of the best HM songs ever. It really takes guts to be on this cartoon.
Coach McGuirk. Wow. This is one of the best storylines he has had in awhile. That frame of Mr. Lynch was totally creepy. I loved we got parodies of "Carrie", "The Shining" and "The Ring". I wanna know how McGuirk was surviving under the ground.
Brendon, Jason and Melissa's storyline was hilarious. 'Nuff said.
My only problem with this episode was there was barely any other characters except the kids and McGuirk. But that doesn't bother me. All in all... A+Kenshin X: Heh. Great stuff here, guys. First off, Coach's side plot was hillarious. Loved the horror spoofs that briefly flashed but you were still able to get them. The main story with Brendon and Co. at Camp was great as well with some jokes standing out. Brendon's conversation with the Screen Writer was great. I thought the whole "We'll be the over-under dogs" was hillarious as well. TMBG guest staring was nice since instead of mentioning them as name they instead felt like regular characters, which is kinda how I like having guest stars on shows. The songs were catchy as well, Taste the Fame was my favorite, which makes me hope for a HM soundtrack evene more.The animation did stand out more than usual as Karl pointed out and thought it was wonderfully done. Here's hoping that the episode's aniamtion and pure quality of this episode can sustain throughout the whole season. A+
tigerrunner: It's good to see that Home Movies is back, and as good as it was when it left us in the 3rd season. The opening sequence with the Crywalkers had to be the most ridiculous, hysterical thing Home Movies has done since the Jazz battle in "Hiatus". And the episode kept going strong after that, with the kids and camp counselors providing the humor while McGuirk just creeped me out. It all culminated in the very funny final play (I don't think I'm the only person who cracked up when Jason first appeared on stage as the old lady). If things go at this pace, then season 4 of Home Movies will be the best yet.
5/5
The Landstander: I'm actually with spectre, this didn't do much for me. Season 4 had a style to it that differed from the first 3 seasons (especially compared to the first). Out of HM fans most are polarized to (or, at least, prefer) one side or the other. I think season 4 had some very good episodes (check my reviews!), but the style also led to overdone episodes like this one.
But I'll start with what I liked. They Might Be Giants had a neat role here, and I enjoyed their musical additions. In fact "I Am Just A Note" was probably my favorite part. I liked McGuirk's freak out sequence, and "Welcome to Hell" is a cool song. And the animation has gotten better; that 360 was nice.
But beyond that, the episode didn't work. It suffers from generic sitcom wackiness syndrome. The counselors, specifically, feel like a joke that might've worked in the booth but doesn't really translate to comedy on-screen. An attempt at making bad movie jokes also fell pretty flat. C'mon, "Batman & Robin"? "Kindergarten Cop"? It's a tad obvious.
Though I'll admit I'm probably in a minority, this one didn't do much for me besides what I specifically mentioned. A mediocre episode.
