The Good Deed Review

Hello, my blueberry daffodils, it’s me, AstonLevy… dancingly descending down to you with my very first positive review in the history of this page…

You know what? Lately, I’ve been too negative… I’ve been too angry, I haven’t taken any time to myself… I’ve been getting some nasty cricks in my neck… I’ve worked myself too hard on this page being a Negative Nancy all the time and all it did was sponge the joy and optimism out of me so I’ve decided to employ my patented relaxation plan.

What is my patented relaxation plan, you may ask?

Well, let me mellowly and calmly show you, my dearest friends…

Step 1: Chill…

Step 2: Take a week-long break from writing…

Step 3: Take some deep breaths…

Step 4: Play some relaxing Island Music…

Step 5: Indulge in a delicious Reese’s Blizzard from Dairy Queen (Only 5.99, comes with two different kinds of Reese’s candy… A veritable fusion of traditional Mini Reese’s Cups with Reese’s Pieces swirled in, it’s sweet and tender with a satisfying tasty crunch. Buy now! I am certainly not being paid to type this...)

Step 6: Wear my traditional Chinese straw hat* of Relaxation…

Step 7: Chase my blues away with one of my top 5 favourite shows ever… Wander Over Yonder.

Wander Over Yonder was a show created in 2013 by Powerpuff Girls visionary and my personal idol/hero, Craig McCracken, it starred a joyful, optimistic and friendly space nomad named Wander, who would travel the galaxy and help people alongside his brash, and hotblooded alien steed, Sylvia… The two of them would often go on zany adventures while outwitting their incompetent nemesis, Lord Hater. If I had to compare the show to anything, I’d probably compare it to one of my personal favourite video games, Super Mario 3D Land. Much like how 3D Land took the timeless gameplay of Mario’s classic 2D sidescrollers and adapted it into a three-dimensional space, Wander Over Yonder took the brazen, simplistic, timeless style of the 1990’s era of animation and lovingly carried it and blended it into today’s world of modern animation.

And let me tell you up front, it blends together flawlessly…

So why is Wander Over Yonder one of my favourite things ever?!

Let’s find out! Let do the Deed and review The Good Deed! (I’m so sorry for that pun.)

Right click the following links and open a new tab to enjoy some fine tunes as this review plays out. (Yes, the links are back, I was lazy the last two reviews so please enjoy them!)

(*I actually do own a Chinese Straw Hat… I’m wearing it right now as I’m typing this out.)

This is the Good Deed!

[link] We start with a shot of a distant planet in the depths of space, on the planet we can see a desert, a mountain, a forest, a village and a bustling metropolis. Outside the planet, we can see a small brown moon and a large glowing sun… And I bring this up because everything we see in this small establishing shot will be utilized in the episode, and the best part is that the shot takes up only a brief second, quick, simple and effortlessly conveys the setting of the plot.

The episode proper begins in the middle of a scorching desert, where we’re promptly introduced to the show’s main leads, Wander and Sylvia. The former playing a jolly tune on his beloved banjo and Sylvia whistling along as they merrily stroll through the bristling wasteland.

As they pass through the desert, the two of them come across a tired and dejected looking rabbit, and as they pass by, Wander’s jolly tune gradually gets slower as he notices the rabbit, the song gently fading as he steadily leaves the frame… which does a fair job setting the tone that the episode will be going for.

Then as we cut back to the rabbit, we see it’s stomach gurgling gently, then it straight up passes out from hunger and lies in a heap on the dunes, Wander himself witnessing it and wearing a rather concerned expression.

Then he makes excited puppy dog eyes, as Sylvia permits him to intervene, then we get the episode’s first joke, which consists of the classic “rewinding” joke, while Wander and Sylvia back up, it’s pretty funny, and that’s mostly because the joke is quick.

And I like that about my jokes, in a comedy show like this one, especially in an episode that has a small time-slot, you shouldn’t waste the audience’s time. If you make a joke too long, it eats up time that could be used for the plot, if the joke drags beyond a reasonable length of time, it wears out its welcome and becomes tiresome and irritating. Speed is also integral to a comedy show’s plot as well, a story should always start right away and try to get you to the fun as soon as possible, the plot and conflict has to be established as quickly so you can to give the story enough time to unfold. I’m not saying you should rush a story’s beginning, you still have to establish things after all. I’m just saying that the beginning of a story should be sharp, swift and streamlined, with nary a wasted second.

This episode gets the conflict started at the 30-second mark, giving the rest of its story ample breathing room to tell the story it wants to tell.

As Wander asks the rabbit if he’ll be okay, you see the rabbit’s stomach slowly sag, as Wander’s worries become all the more serious. With a determined expression, Wander spies a conspicuous carrot dangling from a string, with a call of “Six Fingers”, Wander instructs Sylvia to throw him at the stick, the two of them using acrobatics and seamless teamwork to snatch the carrot from the string and deliver it to the hungry rabbit.

Now you may be asking yourself… Why is Wander doing this? Does he know the rabbit? Is the rabbit his friend?

The answer to the latter two questions is a resounding “No.” Wander is not friends with the rabbit, nor does he know him, Wander is doing this because that’s who he is. He’s a kind and generous soul who always goes out of his way to help people, even if the people he helps don’t ask… In fact, a lot of his greatest moments occur exactly when those in need don’t ask… He helps people because he can’t just sit back and watch people suffer… and that makes him effortlessly likeable, because almost everything he does, he does for someone else… but I’ll dig deeper into that a little bit later.

As Wander feeds the unconscious bunny his carrot, a humorous dramatic drumroll plays in the background as the bunny resuscitates before his eyes.

Then after a bit of banter about looking good while doing good, we hear a call of “Hey!” from offscreen… And as the two of them look at the voice, they see a duck man in a top hat riding this weird two-headed elephant thing.

And then Duck Man says…

“You stole my carrot!” in a very accusing tone. Wander’s mouth hanging agape as the information processes, but I’ll talk about that a little bit later too…

“I had my carrot on this stick to make my Hufferrumpels go, but now they won’t move!” says Duck Man, as his weird Elephant creature snootily shakes his heads and pouts, and again, because the joke is quick, it’s funny… that and the fact that it’s pretty funny to see his wild animal make a haughty pout. They even cross their forelegs in disgust, which is a funny touch.

“Huh… that’s weird…” says Wander. “Usually, when you start on the right path, you end up in the right place.”

“Ehhh… Not always, I guess…” says Sylvia dryly.

“Nope!” says Wander almost instantly. “I refuse to believe that!” (Give me one more minute, I’ll dig right into that along with everything else I’ve put on hold.)

So Wander, being the accommodating person that he is, offers to do right by Duck Man and buy him a carrot at the store… Why he couldn’t do that for the rabbit is because if he did that, then there wouldn’t really be a story… like Enter-sensei says, contrivance in and of itself isn’t a bad thing, it all depends on how natural it feels… and considering that the rabbit was dying earlier, I doubt that they had enough time if they went so I can buy it, no problem.

And in response to Wander pointing out that he’ll buy Duck Man a new carrot, we get this lovely joke…

“You can buy carrots at a store?!” says one of the Hufferrumpel heads.

“Then what are we lugging around this guy for?” says the other head.

Then the Hufferrumpels split as fast as they can and leave Duck Man all alone.

I guess the Hufferrumpels were more sentient and intelligent then I gave them credit for, more importantly the joke was funny and took place in less than 5 seconds.

But the best part of this scene comes after that with the very next line…

“Great!” says Duck Man drearily. “Now how am I supposed to get to my wedding?!”

And now allow me to take a slight detour and delve a little deeper into Wander’s character.

[link] An interesting thing about Wander is that he has very very little in the way of negative flaws… and even though I have mentioned in previous reviews how having no positive qualities can utterly destroy a character, having no negative qualities can hurt a character just as hard. Flaws make characters interesting, because it keeps them grounded and prevents them from being perfect gods that can do anything… in essence, flaws stop characters from being sterile and boring Mary Sues… but Wander is a special case.

Wander’s flaw is that he’s… too kind… as much as he thrives on helping others, he rarely takes the time to help himself, and he never takes the easy way out and gives up, always helping others around him even if it would shoot himself in the foot. He’s interesting because he tries to be a nice guy and do the right thing, but life almost never makes it easy for him to do that, as such, he has to work to be a nice guy and refrain from succumbing to bad decisions while trying to do right by people, in most of his episodes, his resolve to be a nice guy is tested and he does his best to navigate the gray areas of morality and hold fast to his convictions and morals as best he can, and the one thing that hurts him more than anything else is hurting somebody, even if it’s an accident.

So when he finds out that he potentially ruined Duck Man’s wedding, he is utterly and truly devastated… and it’s effortlessly gripping stuff.

But just because his resolve is tested, it doesn’t mean that he’s not up to the challenge… “No!” he says assertively. “I will not let our do-gooding undo you, dude. We will not only get you to your wedding on time but I will provide exciting race the clock action music!” he says as he seats Duck Man on Sylvia’s saddle. And true to his word, he provides a fun banjo solo as he and Sylvia race from the desert to the forest at lightning fast speed.

Then Duck Man sincerely thanks them for their help and they do right by him and get him to the wedding, it would almost be the perfect ending to this story…

“Stop the wedding!”

If not for the fact that the two of them just helped a wedding crasher interrupt someone else’s wedding.

Also Duck Man’s name is Bleeblebort but fuck that, I’m calling him Duck Man, I’ve grown too attached to the nickname.

So Duck Man professes his love to the bride of the wedding, and the bride (whose name is Marcia) reciprocates his feelings and cancels the wedding, leaving the groom alone on the altar as Duck Man elopes with his true love.

And if you think potentially cancelling a wedding would be a huge punch to Wander’s gut. Actually cancelling a wedding is like seven huge punches to Wander’s gut.

And the irony is hilarious…

“Wow! Unbelievable…” says Sylvia. “Two good deeds gone south… I guess we’re having an off-day…”

“NO!” says Wander semi-stubbornly. “Good never has an off-day!”

So then Wander gives one of the most sincere apologies I have ever seen in a cartoon to the abandoned groom, he’s even on his knees and everything as he shows more visible heartbreak than the actual groom, who actually seems pretty chill.

“Sir! I am soooooo sorry we caused your true love to leave!”

“Naw, she wasn’t my true love…” says the groom.

“Really?!” says Wander.

“We were just getting married to stop the feud between our families…” he says. “Which I guess… Is back on!” he says as he pulls out a fucking gun and a full-blown shootout ensues.

If cancelling a wedding is like seven punches to Wander’s gut, then causing a shootout which could kill innocent people is like twenty huge punches to Wander’s gut.

And I think what I like about this setup is that again, Wander was only doing this to help people, what started as the innocent feeding of a rabbit has spiraled into a never-ending cascade of bad luck and unintentional consequences for good actions. And I like how this episode takes the concept of “No Good Deed goes unpunished” to its logical extreme. It's almost like an episode of Milo Murphy's law... and a tiny pinch of Captain America: Civil War, what with the whole good deeds have repercussions thing, but this episode beat both Cap and Milo to it by three years.

So then they almost get shot and they both duck to the ground, with Wander saying this. “Okay, today might be a bit of a teensy challenge…” he says shakily.

“But I believe we can end up right! Right…?” he says even more shakily. And just because he’s up to the challenge, doesn’t mean that he can’t doubt himself.

[link] So then we have this ridiculous scene where Wander pretends to be a judge… as well as every other position in a courtroom, this joke is fast and bombastic as he argues with himself dressed in different legal costumes… complete with the archivist who takes down notes… as the hillbilly aliens look on in utter fucking confusion, the group of them just as confused as us as this weird but hilarious joke ensues. My favourite part of the joke is that we never see Wander change costumes, they transition from costume to costume, almost like his personas are real and that there are multiple people at the scene, and it makes his fake argument look all the more ridiculous.

My second favourite part is where he’s dressed as a cop going “I’m warning you! I’m warning you!” over and over, that’s charming as fuck.

Eventually, the hillbillies plead for him to stop, saying that they’ll stop fighting if he stops fighting himself, and then Wander shakes his own hand and it’s pretty damn funny, it’s almost like something that Pinkie Pie would do.

And then Sylvia chimes in with “Oh, that made no sense whatsoever but good job! Good Deed Done!” I love it when Sylvia acts like the cool-headed realist and although it is insulting when a cartoon acknowledges that something makes no sense, it loses the sting of sleaziness when it gels with a ridiculous situation that’s actually funny.

Then the hillbillies celebrate as they use their guns to fire into the air, doing a fire salute in the name of friendship…

Which is sadly undercut when the sparks from their laser bullets set the village (Complete with adorable bird people) from the establishing shot on fire.

If starting a shootout is like twenty huge punches to Wander’s gut, then inadvertently causing an entire city to burn to the ground is like three hundred huge punches to Wander’s gut.

And he gets even more devastated as a result…

But Wander is devoted and proactive, and he immediately pulls out one of the hillbillies’ guns and proceeds to shoot the top of the mountain, causing the snow to melt and cause a rush of water, which not only extinguishes the blaze but also causes beautiful foliage to bloom all over the town.

The best part is that we’re only halfway through this episode… can you believe that? That’s the wonder of a frantic, breakneck pace, by being quick and keeping a steady and consistent flow, we’ve had a bunch of things happening and even though we’re only 5 minutes in, we already have a long, rich and meaty story to enjoy!

But because we have 5 minutes left, you know what that means…

So because Wander melted the top of the mountain, he also unearthed a massive 50-story tall monster called a Grakknor. And the Grakknor sets his sights on the bustling metropolis and goes on a rampage.

And if burning a village to the ground is like three hundred huge punches to Wander’s gut… Unleashing a monster and totaling a much larger city is like five thousand huge punches to Wander’s gut.

And Sylvia reflects Wander’s frustration with a poignant “Are you kidding me?!”

So we quickly cut to the metropolis, where we see a multitude of “Business Pigs” being all dejected and glum, because doing business is boring. Then the Grakknor comes and punches a building into the wild blue yonder.

But hot on his heels are Wander and Sylvia, and the animation gives them a lovely motion blur as they quickly get to the city, encase the citizens in a bubble and spirit them out of the city, where they settle on the brown moon from the establishing shot, which is actually covered in mud.

Then Wander, being visibly and audibly exhausted from all his hard work doing damage control, gives yet another sincere apology to the pigs for trashing their homes.

But the pigs didn’t like their city anyway and they’re glad to just have fun in the mud.

And Sylvia’s happy that Wander managed to pull through and help everybody, even the Grakknor is happily destroying the empty town and making a delightful snow angel in the town.

But unlike earlier, Wander isn’t confident that they’re in the clear… his tone nervous and shaky, a direct result from all the calamity that he started from the simple act of feeding a dying bunny.

Then the former business pig plants a flag in the ground, which makes the mud ripple, which makes a rock erupt from a volcano, which makes a hilarious and fast-paced chain reaction which ends in an asteroid nudging a sun a few thousand feet to the left.

Which inadvertently gets in the way of a certain character’s fortune telling session… [link]

“Wait… the skies have shifted!” says the fortune teller. “The stars do not say that you’ll be a strong and powerful leader, now they say that you’re immature, awkward and emotionally unstable!” she says coyly.

And this does not sit well with the fortune teller’s client… Lord Hater, who immediately flips the fortune teller’s table directly after being called immature and emotionally unstable.

He even says he’s not emotionally unstable directly before flipping the table in a fit of immature rage.

Then he swears revenge on the sun and storms out…

Then he comes back, completely calm asking if he’ll ever have a girlfriend.

And she says no and he rages again.

I fucking love Hater, he’s hilarious… but I’ll talk about why he’s my third-favourite villain ever when I review one of his episodes.

So, in a fit of frenzied rage, Hater orders his lieutenant, Peepers to obliterate the sun for ruining his fortune telling session…

And it’s even funnier when Peepers says this…

“Sir, I think any girl would be lucky to have you…”

Hater is not in a very complacent mood and rushes Peepers into blowing the sun up.

So his skullship fires a deadly planet-killing missile directly into the sun…

And unlike hero characters, villain characters can do horrible things on a hair-trigger and still be endearing, it all depends on context and the role of the characters involved.

And Wander sees the missile, and blames himself for it, and if totaling a city with a monster is like five thousand huge punches to the gut, then inadvertently making a megalomanical manchild with a short fuse blow up a sun and potentially kill an entire chunk of a galaxy is like seven billion huge punches to Wander’s gut.

And while Sylvia is gung-ho and optimistic that they’ll save the day, sadly… Wander is not.

Sadly, just because Wander is up to the challenge, that doesn’t mean that he’s unbreakable either… and it doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have limits.

And he wonders if stopping the missile will even be worth it, he’s hesitant to save the day if it means dooming even more people by inadvertently causing an even bigger disaster… and while it may seem selfish for Wander to let the sun blow up, but he never explicitly says that he’ll let it happen, he just wonders the use. He says “Maybe, we shouldn’t…” instead of “We shouldn’t.” and it’s a really sad scene when his convictions wear on him and he doubts if he can go on… the shot of Wander gradually sinking into the mud is a perfect symbolism representing the moral slip into embracing his inner darkness.

But the best thing about his mission is that he doesn’t do it alone, and Sylvia is there to pick him up when his confidence does waver.

“Wander… with the day we’re having, it’s entirely possible… but if a good deed leads to the destruction of the universe, it’s not a universe I’d want to live in anyway.”

I like this line, it means that if Wander does destroy the universe to save it, then it doesn’t stop him from being a good person, because he spent the last moments of his life trying to save life rather than end it, and the intent means a lot more than the unforeseen aftereffects of one’s actions… and that’s a beautiful lesson. Because mistakes never make you a bad man… it’s only when you let them corrupt you that you truly sink.

And that’s the value of Sylvia, she’s at her best when she’s an anchor for Wander in his darkest moments and Wander’s at his best when he doesn’t let his failures stop him for long.

So with newfound gusto in his heart, Wander sets out to stop the missile, leading to a beautifully animated race through space against the clock.

And with another call of “Six Fingers” Wander rockets upward, deflects the rocket with a well-placed kick and sends the rocket careening into Hater’s ship… with the “Villain being negligent of what’s happening while the subordinate notices it” joke used to full effect. His ship blowing up in a hilarious and karmic explosion.

Then as Hater and Peepers cling to the driftwood where their ship used to be, Wander and Sylvia pass by, and Hater asks for a little help… and then they do the rewind joke again… and after a moment of thought… Wander and Sylvia decline… while that may seem counterintuitive to Wander’s character, keep in mind, it’s drastically different when helping an evil person. And imagine what a powerful tyrant could do if Wander brought him along? He's not gonna cause another disaster by bringing a villain to a place where he can cause havoc. Especially after we saw him flip the table earlier. Wander wisely chose to keep his gut out of it. It’s been punched enough for one day.

And that was The Good Deed! And in the end…

It was pretty damn great! [link]

It was fast, frenetic, full of amazing set pieces and really showed off the great dynamic that Wander and Sylvia share, with great comedy, amazing animation, pitch-perfect timing and all kinds of fun and memorable moments.

And you know what the best part about that episode was?

There were absolutely zero wasted moments! Each and every thing that happened in that episode was completely necessary to the plot but also perfectly filled up its time slot to maximal effect.

For the first time, since I’ve started reviewing, I didn’t complain about any scenes wasting time! And that’s reason enough to celebrate! So thank you, Wander and Sylvia! Thank you for brightening my mood! I feel amazing! Like I can take on anything in the world! Alright, world! I’m ready for anything that you can throw at me! What am I gonna review next?!

Brawl in the Family…

You mean… the delightful Nintendo themed Internet comic... right?

Nope…

Oh no…

You wouldn’t…

You mean the Loud House episode, don’t you?

Yes…

…

Fine… I’ll take that episode on…

And I’ll do it calmly.

See you all next time!

This review was a self-imposed challenge brought up by , and true to my word, I didn’t do that thing he didn't want me to do! Special thanks to all my awesome DeviantArt friends for being there for me and supporting me and I’ll see you all next time!