Tommy sees something big and mysterious one day. What could it possibly be? The audience knows it's a toilet, but Tommy doesn't, and that's where the excitement lies.
This little short is incredibly memorable and exciting for being just 6 minutes. The limited runtime means we don't get a good look at all the characters, and most of them haven't even shown up yet. That's not a flaw however, as Tommy's babylike curiosity and enthusiasm for finding out what that thing in the bathroom is provides enough entertainment. Phil and Dil are the only other infants that appear, but don't get that much to do besides question Tommy when he tries to tell them about something incredible he saw.
In fact I weirdly enough wouldn't say that the dialogue is the biggest strength. It's certainly fine, just not there for much there than set up the basic plot elements and introduce us a little to the characters. We still get a solid sense of how most of them are like though, such as the twins being argumentative and Grandpa Pickles being a little aloof. The only possible exceptions are Stu and Didi, who we simply know loves their kids.
The voice acting is pretty good from all fronts. Even though Tami Holbrook wouldn't voice Tommy in the official series I think she gets the essence of the part down right, and wouldn't have minded if she was picked as the voice instead of Daily. The rest of the cast are the same, and I especially enjoy David Doyle as Tommy's grandpa. Even though his dialogue is near-intelligable (Perhaps because of like I mentioned the minimal focus on dialogue-based humor) he's nevertheless a very colorful presence.
All right, let's talk about the main reason for all my enjoyment: the animation. My God, every frame is jampacked with personality and life, with practically every second being freeze-frame worthy. Both the facial expressions (That goes not only for the regulars, but even the TV screen at the end) and the camera angles work together to take a deceptively plain premise and make it as crazy and wacky as possible. We even get a hilariously unnecessary but cool shot inside Tommy's mouth, his tongue almost looking like it belongs to a lizard. This is a weird comparison to make, but the atmosphere was almost that of an anime at times. Just something about the oddness of the animation as well, perspectives as well as the awesome score made it come off as somewhat alien and otherwordly. And maybe that's kind of the point.
I just realized that the story is the one thing I've forgotten to talk about. Well, it's thin pretty much by design. Tommy sees the toilet, some mishaps occur as he approaches it late it night, then he leaves the adults confused and pissed off seeing the bathroom in a mess afterwards. The whole Rube Goldberg-esque sequence as Tommy almost stumbles into the toilet, gets himself mummified with toilet paper and soap gets into his mouth is so fantastically over-the-top that it's perfect. Then at the ending you have him doing this really cute dance together with the dog Spike as they imitate the moves on TV.
It's not hard to see why the executives were fascinated by this "great white thing" and picked the show up for a full season order.
This little short is incredibly memorable and exciting for being just 6 minutes. The limited runtime means we don't get a good look at all the characters, and most of them haven't even shown up yet. That's not a flaw however, as Tommy's babylike curiosity and enthusiasm for finding out what that thing in the bathroom is provides enough entertainment. Phil and Dil are the only other infants that appear, but don't get that much to do besides question Tommy when he tries to tell them about something incredible he saw.
In fact I weirdly enough wouldn't say that the dialogue is the biggest strength. It's certainly fine, just not there for much there than set up the basic plot elements and introduce us a little to the characters. We still get a solid sense of how most of them are like though, such as the twins being argumentative and Grandpa Pickles being a little aloof. The only possible exceptions are Stu and Didi, who we simply know loves their kids.
The voice acting is pretty good from all fronts. Even though Tami Holbrook wouldn't voice Tommy in the official series I think she gets the essence of the part down right, and wouldn't have minded if she was picked as the voice instead of Daily. The rest of the cast are the same, and I especially enjoy David Doyle as Tommy's grandpa. Even though his dialogue is near-intelligable (Perhaps because of like I mentioned the minimal focus on dialogue-based humor) he's nevertheless a very colorful presence.
All right, let's talk about the main reason for all my enjoyment: the animation. My God, every frame is jampacked with personality and life, with practically every second being freeze-frame worthy. Both the facial expressions (That goes not only for the regulars, but even the TV screen at the end) and the camera angles work together to take a deceptively plain premise and make it as crazy and wacky as possible. We even get a hilariously unnecessary but cool shot inside Tommy's mouth, his tongue almost looking like it belongs to a lizard. This is a weird comparison to make, but the atmosphere was almost that of an anime at times. Just something about the oddness of the animation as well, perspectives as well as the awesome score made it come off as somewhat alien and otherwordly. And maybe that's kind of the point.
I just realized that the story is the one thing I've forgotten to talk about. Well, it's thin pretty much by design. Tommy sees the toilet, some mishaps occur as he approaches it late it night, then he leaves the adults confused and pissed off seeing the bathroom in a mess afterwards. The whole Rube Goldberg-esque sequence as Tommy almost stumbles into the toilet, gets himself mummified with toilet paper and soap gets into his mouth is so fantastically over-the-top that it's perfect. Then at the ending you have him doing this really cute dance together with the dog Spike as they imitate the moves on TV.
It's not hard to see why the executives were fascinated by this "great white thing" and picked the show up for a full season order.
