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husbants · 1 year

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What do you think Dan and Phils next big project is? (Solo or joint)

Good question and I wonder how much they even know, but they've been like... suspiciously quiet recently haha. Phil, especially.

Starting with Phil, I do hope a solo project of his gets picked up. Maybe one already has been and it's being worked on right now. I really hope that his recent stepping away from online presence (aided by Dan going on tour) is/was for more than just health reasons.

Phil strikes me as much more of a collaborator than Dan, who we all know is an enormous control freak (affectionate). Even if Phil is a showrunner/ director, I do sort of think he'll still be one of a larger group, even if the idea is widely his. If this theorhetical project is fiction, I'd lean towards something horror or sci-fi, since we know Phil loves those genres. He's, like, extremely briefly mentioned working on something fictional (and for many years, at that), so if he's still enthusiastic about that story, I'd love to hear or see it. Phil is so creative and quirky that I think whatever he'd come up with would be really special.

I also think Phil would really excel as a game show host, which we know is another one of his passions. Perhaps he's working on coming up with/ pitching a game show? I know dnp were trying to get a Truth Bombs game show at some point, so I don't think that's entirely out of the question.

Part of me also thinks Phil is much more enthusiastic about bringing the Dan and Phil (TM) duo back, but that's just enormous speculation. I honestly think some time in the future they'll return to traditional media like presenting, interviewing, and/or radio together, though.

Unpopular opinion, but I'd rather something besides Dan is Not Okay from Dan. I want Dan to act so, so badly, I genuinely think he'd be good at it, but I'd really prefer if he wasn't, like, playing himself? If DINOK ends up happening (and who knows, he could be working on it right now with all of the random places he's been spotted recently) I'll still enthusiastically tune in, but I'd personally rather something that doesn't sound like a mediocre Phil-less phanfic. Also, unfortunately, I'm just not sure it'd gain much traction beyond his already established audience. I think if he were to do a show where he's still actor/writer/director but plays a character who is not just Seinfeld-ifyed him, it'd work better to establish himself beyond his YouTube persona.

Speaking of Dan's yt... dude?? Where are the rest of the Dystopia Daily videos? I guess I was naive, but I genuinely thought he wasn't going to just drop off the face of the earth again after tour. I understand taking a break, but I figured there'd be some retrospective or the last (?) DD episode/ videos by this point. Maybe he's too busy with whatever the random traveling project is, but, like, I just find it odd that a recording of WAD hasn't even been hinted at or announced. I feel like WAD ended extremely unceremoniously and Dan's recent disappearance has made it even weirder for me.

So... with Dan? I do sort of think he's working on something right now. What that is? Who knows. But I think it began almost immediately after WAD finished up, and that's why he hasn't been able to wrap WAD up in a pretty bow or focus on yt at all. If I had to guess, it's crunch-time and it'll be announced/uploaded/whatever sometime in June. Dan loves doing things in June.

Sorry I rambled a ton. But. Yeah. That's kind of where I am thinking about upcoming dnp projects and what they could be working on.

...

Never mind; scratch all of that: they're definitely bringing the gaming channel back.

#ask

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fly-pow-bye · 7 years

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Powerpuff Girls 2016 - “The Last Donnycorn“

Written by: Jake Goldman, Haley Mancini

Written & Storyboarded by: Kyle Neswald, Benjamin P. Carow, Julia Vickerman, Cheyenne Curtis

Directed by: Nick Jennings, Bob Boyle

The last Donnycorn is in captivity. The galaxy is at peace. Oh, I wish.

It’s a start of a brand new season of PPG 2016, to the delight of very few people. The ratings weren't very good, and the merchandise isn't selling. What could possibly salvage it? How about a special episode that is a whole half-hour long? It’s so special, the title card has all three colors! And who else should be the main focus but the character everyone wanted to see the least?

Donny: Help me, help me! They’re after me!

For those who are lucky to not know, this is Donny the Unicorn. This is Bubbles’ “BFF” that has once beaten her to a pulp in a “transformation ray”-caused rage, and ditched her for a “friend” who turned out to be a killer robot in disguise. I would write about any of the positive experiences Bubbles has had with Donny if she had any, but she’s still his BFF anyway because...he has a horn?

The two times he actually affected the plot in a way that serves the girls is in a situation that he caused the girls to in in the first place. That’s counting the comic he was in; Donny did nothing good in Horn Sweet Horn. Let’s see if he’s any better here, I say not knowing the answer immediately. Just letting you know, I might not be honest about that.

As one can tell from that opening quote, the episode starts with Donny waking the girls up at night because he is in danger. Bubbles immediately starts running and screaming along with him, because she's his BFF, and that means she just does everything Donny does. Blossom comforts Donny, saying he’ll be safe with the Powerpuff Girls. Donny accepts this, saying that he’ll be safe in the only place he knows outside of Unicorn Land. I think that's supposed to be a joke.

By the way, they were apparently sleeping in their normal clothes instead of their pajamas. Clearly, the animators must be paying more attention to that kind of thing since this is the special half-hour episode. How can the writers distract from this? Cue an explosion from a Terminator Unicorn.

Terminator Unicorn: (looks at Bubbles) Sugar.

(looks at Buttercup) Spice.

(looks at Blossom) Everything nice.

(looks at Donny) Wimp.

I can think of a thousand different insults for Donny, and I guess that could be one of them. Donny’s being followed by a muscular unicorn who is eventually called a Killercorn. He may as well be the Terminator Unicorn, as the only way this reference could be less subtle is if he was also a governor.

The Powerpuff Girls attempt to fight him, as I cringe for the inevitable Monster Punch, Girls Down scene, but Donny stops them before they even try. He uses his teleportation ability, because he’s a magical unicorn, to transport them...

...to a bowling alley. Donny has the ability to teleport, but only to bowling alleys because the episode felt that would be funny. Buttercup yells at Donny for being a chicken, which Donny responds to by...acting like a chicken. The main problem of the episode makes itself apparent: the episode's plot hinges on him being the comic relief, and like most comic reliefs, he's not funny.

Donny tells his story on how he got in his situation, asking the Powerpuff Girls to go to the bathroom first so he doesn't have to interrupt himself. Buttercup tells him to get on with it. Anyone who can guess what happens during the middle of this exposition gets absolutely nothing. No, it doesn't turn into an Austin Powers reference to fill the half-hour running time, though I was expecting that.

Donny’s story starts in Unicorn Land, which, of course, comes with a chorus saying its name. Donny is playing Frolicball, just go with it, but he accidentally makes the ball roll into a dark, black forest. He falls into a hole into a dark, black cave with a magic mirror in it. He decided the best course of action is to make funny faces at it, which somehow causes 5 evil unicorns to come out of it. He does the most courageous thing he could think of: running away. To be honest, I wouldn't blame him.

However, the Powerpuff Girls do; even Bubbles sarcastically tells her BFF that he ran away like a coward. Before Donny could defend himself, the Killercorn arrives in a stolen helicopter. Donny attempts to transport them to the bowling alley in Citiesville, but the Powerpuff Girls aren’t having any of it. Even the original writers couldn’t do Citiesville justice, I have no hope for the reboot writers.

The Powerpuff Girls rush in, and to nobody’s surprise...

...they actually beat him up. Wait, what? Sure, the punches and kicks are covered up by hit flashes, but I was not expecting that from the reboot that takes the Puffs down with glitter and crayons. It helps that these are the same relatively good hit flashes from People Pleaser and not the slow Nike swooshes.

Buttercup: I call that three strikes, you turkey!

Wow, a decent one-liner that ties into the setting. Hopefully they had enough faith in it to not outright tell people it was supposed to be funny...

Blossom: Nice! (fist bumps Buttercup)

Damn it. Speaking of damn it, the Killercorn gets back up. Buttercup forms a bazooka aura, and actually blow him full of hole with bowling balls! Wait, we can have a robotic unicorn get blown full of holes by what is essentially a gun, but we can’t show him getting punched in the face? Whatever, it’s still a decent scene.

Unfortunately, he’s able to put himself back together Iron Giant-style, and finally take two of the Powerpuff Girls down. Just in case you didn't who the Killercorn is supposed to be, he says a big twist on the most famous line of the movie.

Killercorn: Hasta la pasta, Donny!

Wait, why replace the word that doesn't rhyme with pasta? What does pasta have to do with anything? I expect better from the writers who came up with "A Star Is Blossom", "Odd Bubbles Out", and, well, "The Last Donnycorn". The Killercorn fires his laser at Donny, only for Bubbles to fly in and take the shot for him. This, of course, knocks Donny's BFF out, and he reacts in a realistic manner.

Donny: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I get that he's the comic relief, and doing a big no after someone dies is a common thing in fiction, but the way the face is drawn feels like this is being played for laughs. This could have been an emotional moment as Donny is all alone, his all-powerful BFFs defeated, against an unstoppable foe that cannot be reasoned with. This should be a dark time, but that face ruins it. Eventually, even Donny realizes he ruins everything, but not now.

The dark time ends when, in a plot point taken directly from his last full-but-not-as-full-as-this-one-length episode, Donny uses a macaroni trophy, a running gag in the first part of the episode, to reflect a laser beam right back into the Killercorn. While disintegrating into a sock, just go with it, he slowly mentions that Donny is the chosen one. That is a saying that gets brought up a lot in this episode, and it never feels more than forced.

The Powerpuff Girls instantly wake up and realize that Donny gained the courage to save them. To celebrate, he decides to teleport to a different bowling alley in Unicorn Land...

...which is currently in ruins. They even get surrounded by the evil gang of unicorns! For the first time in the series, we have a commercial break.

In a great twist, it turns out it was not the evil unicorn gang, but Donny’s parents in disguise. I read Goosebumps books that had better chapter break twists. Oh, and there’s also Gretel, a chunky unicorn that speaks entirely in raspberry noises. See, it’s funny because she’s different!

We get even more exposition about the rest of the evil unicorns. They’re known as the Four Unicorns of the Apocalypse, and their leader, Stanicorn, is stealing the magic of all of the unicorns so he can break free and rule the universe. They got banished into a mirror, Donny freed them with the power of silly faces, and we’re all doomed. However, if they can get to the evil mountain lair and make that funny face to the mirror again, they'll be re-banished again.

The Powerpuff Girls get dressed up in unicorn disguises, available at your local Sears for just $49.99. Unfortunately, an argument between Bubbles and Donny over where a bathroom is causes them to rip each other’s costumes apart, revealing themselves to the guards, and getting them thrown in a jail cell. Well, at least there’s one problem in the episode that wasn’t caused solely by Donny.

Just outside of the jail cell, the four unicorns of the apocalypse finally introduce themselves. There’s Joeicorn, who symbolizes War, Petercorn, who symbolizes rock and roll, Tanyacorn, who symbolizes being a token female, and I already realize they gave up on the whole “four horsemen of the apocalypse” reference a quarterway through.

Oh, and there’s the aforementioned Stanicorn, who apparently symbolizes not having a sense of humor. He shows this off with a zoomed-in face gag, and lasering Blossom’s bow before she can fist bump Buttercup after making fun of his height. Is he supposed to be this show's haters?

They leave the room to get some shepherd’s pie, and Donny cries some more about how he’s a “big dumb-dumb” while they’re trapped in a jail cell. This is the equivalent of a He-Man episode where Orko whines about how he's a useless magician. I'm sure that episode exists, and it probably wouldn't be very good.

One would think a jail cell would be nothing to a group of girls that can lift buildings full of people. In the original, they broke out of jail by busting through a wall, but I assumed the reboot wouldn't do that. I mean, these are heroes that got their arms broken when they got tail whipped into a wall.

However, that's what they actually do! Or at least Buttercup does with an off screen supersonic punch. They immediately go to the mountain, which is apparently unguarded now, and confront the evil unicorns. This kind of makes the jail scene pointless as they could have just combined the fight scene with these introductions, but I appreciate that the reboot knows how strong the Powerpuff Girls are supposed to be. Blossom tells Donny to get to the mirror while they take care of the unicorns.

Here’s a rundown:

Blossom uses her ice breath to break the rocker-corn’s guitar. It’s later implied that she then gives him an off-screen beat down.

Buttercup’s fight is a little gross, as the war-corn literally pulls his horn off, only to get it chopped in half by Buttercup’s sword aura. Kind of noticed that only Buttercup uses the auras in this whole episode; I guess animals and office equipment weren’t needed.

After Blossom yells at Bubbles for having a pillow fight with the token female-corn, Bubbles hits her with a pillow so hard, she spits out blood.

Wait, WHAT?

Well, okay, it’s actually Valentine hearts, but this episode sure fooled me for a second. While these fights aren’t perfect, I still wish they could punch people on screen, they’re great compared to the Monster Punch, Girls Down scenes of the first season.

Instead, we get Annoying Unicorn Does Random Things. Every time they cut to Donny, he's getting leg cramps, playing video games, and, even when he finally gets to the mirror, he gloats about how he did it instead of doing the thing that he was supposed to do. Which, by the way, is to make a funny face, something he does at random most of the time, like when he's mourning his BFFs.

While Donny is doing all of that, Stanicorn finally gets enough unicorn magic to...

...get super buff. He fires some rainbow beams at Donny, but the Powerpuff Girls seemingly make a sacrifice and fly into it. This, of course, knocks out the Powerpuff Girls, bringing Donny to the same low point he was in 12 minutes ago. He does get some help from Obi-wan Kenobi his mother in a bubble.

Donny's mother: What's the most important thing about you?

Donny: That...that I'm terrible at everything?

Donny's mother: No. That you bring joy to others around you!

Yeah, I don't think so. After destroying the bubbles, Cho Aniki-corn grabs Donny to steal his unicorn magic. Because I guess he didn't have enough already. Donny counters this with a face so funny, this reboot's animators couldn't possibly animate it. Stanicorn finds this so funny that he explodes! See, if the most cynical person can find Donny funny, why can't you? The day is saved, but we can't have a Narrator to talk about it anymore. I guess he decided to skip Townsville. Wise choice.

New season, new rules for the last segment. I barely used the Remarks, so that's no longer here. There was one question I've answered in there in the recent reviews, so here you go:

Does the title work?

The title is a pun on the movie The Last Unicorn, except it’s not really a pun when you’re just combining a character’s name with what he is. It would be like calling Blossom a “Blossom-puff Girl”. It doesn’t really work.

How does it stack up?

The Powerpuff Girls actually act like superheroes and actually have some good scenes. The villains aren’t too bad either. The fight scenes between them are above the very, very, very low average of PPG 2016 “fight scenes”. By far, not only is this the best episode that has Donny in it, it's not that bad of an episode in my opinion. No surprise, they probably spent a lot of time on a double-length episode.

Part of this might be because of that abomination that came right before this, but none of this has to do with Donny himself. He may not have been infuriating as Mr. I Made A New BFF But You Better Not Be Jealous, but all he really does is whine about how useless he is and prove that he is, both in action and in humor. 30% exposition, 30% unicorn whining, 40% okay-at-worst action comedy.

So despite Donny’s best efforts, this episode breaks the streak of Disgusted Buttercups. I originally gave this a Happy Buttercup at first, but after some consideration, I decided to change it on 4/7/2017. Mostly to be consistent, while the good scenes are on the upper end of the scale, when this episode is bad, namely the scenes with the hell-horn in it, it's bad. As a whole, it's not that bad.

But that's my opinion.

And so the new season begins with a sort-of bang. Next episode is something the Powerpuff Girls clearly haven’t done before: an episode where a Powerpuff Girl meets up with an old superhero! Yeah, this season’s quality is probably going to be falling like the arches.

← Bubbs and Donny Get The Mail (Short) ☆ Green Wing →

#fpb ppg 2016 #fpb reviews #ppg 2016 #powerpuff girls #cartoon network

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