Oh Yeah! Cartoons: #33: Max (a double bill)

Nickelodeon 

Previously,  A monster can really cook [Here] 

#33.1 Max and His Special Problem 

Season 1, episode 5a 

          Max has a pair of shorts and that means  I will be covering both.  This was created by Dave Wasson , whom you might know if you know about Time Squad. He also worked on The Buzz on Maggie.  This short about Max won him an Emmy. 

            So what is Max's special problem?  He works in a office space and doesn't seem to the most productive worker.  He also has comically large pencils. Anyway, he sneezes and sneezes so hard his brain has popped out. I like how his reaction is that "uh-oh".  Max's boss seems to understand some what and has him take care of it.  There's some dark moments int his too, like touching his brain hurts him, and I think he killed a guy with a pencil.  

            He goes to the doctor to get this taken care of, but then leaves his brain on top of a taxi which drives off then a dog takes it around town. (Dog takes a guy's brain for a walk, interesting) Thankfully Max finds his brain in a shop and goes to the doctor's office.  He now has to sign dreaded forms. This surgery has an audience to see this amazing marvel. The surgeons do some math and tic-tac-toe to figure out his payment. (this really something about our society) They find the best way to get the brain in there is to have have him un-sneeze it back into his head.  Back to normal day and this time he's able to keep his brain in his head when he sneezes, but burps his heart instead. 

             This short is very sound induced.  Only a few lines are spoken, so it's very much carried by sounds including the music and Max making screams, grunts, etc. It's an interesting direction that gives this short a distinctness to it.  The music itself is very jazzy. The montage of Max's brain being carried by a dog, being fed to by a kid, doing poetry, and being punched has a nice score.  The other sounds work to fill in the space like the sound of a pencil being taken out of a guys' head going 'pop' , the lights turning on in the operating theater. How the surgeons dampen the sounds. 

            The running gag of the guy that got an errant pencil stuck in his head shows up twice it's a nice carry over to connect back to Max.  There are little things that are fun to notice in rewatching. Pretty fun short and it was a very special problem indeed. 

More after the jump 

#33.2 Max & The Pigeon Incident 

        Season 1, episode 12a

       Max returns, hopefully all his organs in-tact.  Max seems to be in a different office still having a hard time with his work there. He's also hot and decides to let a breeze in and get some water. Max gets distracted by a pretty lady and knocks the little water cups over and tries to get them. Then he angers his boss who threatens to fire him.  Then he goes back to his office and a pigeon decides to take his pencil. (apparently Max only has one) 

               Flying : the one thing Max can't do, he's defeated. Then he gets locked out of the office when the window closes and he stuck high up, hoping to find a window that can open.  Max then ends up in the ladies' room and makes a woman scream and call him a sick-o  so he runs to the window and goes outside again. 

            Max knocks a window washer off and not kills him but does end up letting that guy be called the sick-o and beaten up by the women or something.  Max sees the pigeon and decides to grab power lines, don't do this at home you will die.  Max does get electrocuted but doesn't die, he ends up in his office before his boss can find him and fire him for not being at his work location. 

          

             Like the other one, it's limited in talking, but we do get more words spoken than the last one. This one isn't about Max chasing something like his brain, he's more going through a comedy of errors. The pigeon plays a role to get him out side and kind of helps him back to his office at the right time.   

         There's a simpleness to this concept of both of these shorts that works. It's a classic style cartoon. Could it have worked as a series? While not a very long one it has the concept there that could have worked for awhile about Max getting into ran situations and to see where it goes and what happens. It's very gag based and lots of sound design, which would be doing the heavy lifting instead of dialogue and snappy word jokes.  

 

      I found both shorts to be really fun and entertaining, pretty well paced too. I liked them.  That's it for now, tune in next time when we fight a pigeon.