Let's Watch This: An Episode of "Rocket Power"

Who remembers Rocket Power?

Rocket Power premiered in 1999, the creation of Klasky-Csupo (the guys behind Rugrats). Running for four seasons, the show focuses on the misadventures of four kids with a passion for extreme sports - Otto Rocket, Reggie Rocket, Maurice "Twister" Rodriguez, and Sam "Squid" Dullard. They love surfing, snowboarding, skateboarding, rollerblading, all that stuff.

I remember watching the show when it was on, but until this review I hadn't seen an episode in years. Since the show ended in 2004, animation fans on the internet have been a tad divided about whether or not it's a good show. Some look back on it fondly. Others consider it dated and single out the main characters as being cliched and/or unlikable (particularly Otto). As for me, the one thing that I remembered about the show was that one episode where the fat chef guy had to put the hot dogs he was serving to customers in hamburger buns because he didn't have any hot dog buns. That's pretty much it.

Here on Animation and All Things Related, we (and by "we" I mean "me" what with me being the only one who posts things on this site) like to take a look at somewhat overlooked cartoons to see if there's anything of substance. Sometimes there is, sometimes there isn't. But what about Rocket Power? Is it any good? Well, let's find out.

This is one of those "each episode is actually two different episodes in one" cartoons, so we'll technically be looking at two episodes today. But we've done that before on this blog, so I guess it's no big deal. Anyhow, the first episode we'll be watching is called "Powergirl Surfers".

The episode begins with Otto (voiced by Joseph Ashton) participating in some kind of surfing competition. Twister (Ulysses Cuadra), Reggie (Shayna Fox), and Sam (Sam Saletta) are all very impressed, as is some guy named Slack Brizack or something like that (Dan "Bulldog from Fraiser" Butler). "Ever hear of Gnarly Surf Magazine?" he asks Otto. Otto says that he eats the magazine for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It's actually quite tasty, but the ink leaves a stain on your teeth.

Slack says that he wants to do a cover story on Otto. Twister burps because burping is automatically considered funny.

And apparently, Sam is suddenly very freaked-out by his hands.

Otto is super-excited. He brings up that Reggie is a really good surfer too, but Slack scoffs at the idea. "Nobody really cares about GIRL surfers. 'Cept maybe other GIRL surfers!" he claims. Oy, he's one of those stock "you can't do [SOMETHING] because you're a guuuuuuuuuuuurl" characters. Regardless, Otto encourages him to think about including something on Reggie too. But Slack is all "Girls are crappy surfers!" and Reggie storms off to show him just how good of a surfer she is.

This is admittedly a small thing, but... why are Otto and Reggie orange? Do they just have really good tans, or was their mother a carrot or something? Twister's kind of orange-skinned too, come to think of it.

No, Reggie did not decapitate Sam with her surfboard. I doubt you were
really thinking that, but that's what this screencap looks like to ME.

Otto isn't sure whether or not he should agree to Slack's offer. Twister is all "Go for it, dude!" and Sam is all "No, Reggie would get mad!" Eventually, Otto decides to take up Slack's offer, which indeed makes Reggie MAD!

I don't know why, but I find Otto's expression here hilarious.

Otto points out to Reggie that he pointed out to Slack what a great surfer she is. Reggie is still ticked off that Otto "let him diss" her, but in Otto's defense it's not his fault Slack looks down on girls. I think we're supposed to side with Reggie here, but Otto didn't say anything about Reggie not being a good surfer OR anything about girls being bad surfers. Not saying he was right to take the offer since Slack is obviously a massive sleaze, but instead of focusing her anger on Otto maybe she should focus it on Slack for being the one to put her down.

Reggie heads down to the Shore Shack, which is the restaurant that their dad Ray (John Kassir) owns. His chef, Tito (Ray Bumatai), brings up that he was once on the cover of a magazine called Hawaiian Princess Magazine. I really do not want to know what THAT was all about.

I hope it didn't involve Tito in some kind of "Hawaiian Princess" costume,
because I really do not want the mental image of that guy in drag...

Ray agrees with me and points out that Otto DID stick up for Reggie, but Reggie says that doesn't matter. "I've got to show him AND that Slack dude that there are tons of great girl surfers!" she exclaims. Look, I don't blame Reggie for being mad, but again, Otto never said that girls were inferior to boys when it came to surfing. Maybe instead of holding a grudge against him you could, I dunno, maybe ask him to try vouching for her some more the next time he runs into Slack? Just a suggestion?

Tito brings up that one time he knew this girl who was a great surfer. He was her surfing partner. She was quite skilled at it... Tito, not so much.

And apparently she was also quite strong, considering she could lift
a fat guy like Tito over her head.

Reggie and Sam head down to the beach, where Reggie asks a female surfer named Trish (Lauren Tom) for her help. They're rounding up female surfers to protest against Gnarly Surf Magazine and their guuuuuuuuuuuuuurl-hating ways, but Trish politely declines. "I like ridin' waves, not makin' em," she says. After that, Reggie and Sam meet up with local old lady Violet Stimpleton (Edie McClurg), who tells Reggie that she's impressed by her wanting to stand up for what's right.

What's with these hair colors? Reggie has purple hair, Violet has pink...
is this all some sort of stylistic choice like in Doug?

We get a montage of Reggie recruiting female surfers as Violet lays out all the food she made. Sam digs into a "oyster sand wish".

Did he just bite into an oyster shell? Wouldn't that hurt your teeth?

Reggie tells the girl surfers that they need to show the world that girl surfers are just as good as boy surfers. Then Trish shows up. Guess she changed her mind.

So then we cut to the beach on the day of the surfing contest finals and... hey, is that Arnold? Seriously, look at that guy behind Reggie. I know it's not actually Arnold, but doesn't it look like him? I think it's the hair...

He appears to have Grandpa Phil's chin, too. Maybe this is a relative
of Arnold's?

Upon seeing all the girls surfin' up a storm, Slack is impressed and goes off to find Reggie. But then Sam tells him that he can't do a story about the girl surfers for his magazine because the event is being exclusively covered by another magazine - edited and published by Reggie.

"U MAD, SLACK?"

Then Otto and Twister (remember them?) show up and believe Reggie is trying to "ace Otto out of his cover". Reggie says that's not what they want to do (well, actually, it pretty much is)… they want to challenge Otto and Twister to a surfing competition. Okay, first of all, if you plan to beat Otto in a surfing competition then that does indeed qualify as "acing Otto out of his cover". Really? You're dragging Twister into this too? Like Otto, he didn't say anything about girls not being good surfers. Your beef should be with Slack, not Otto and Twister. You don't have to put boys down to make girls look good.

Predictably, Otto and Twister get clobbered by the girl surfers, and everyone has learned a valuable lesson about girls and how good they are at surfing. The end.

I was gonna put that one scene in Sonic Boom where Knuckles points out that having a girl point out that they're breaking gender roles undermines the concept of gender equality by suggesting that they're just an exception and not the status quo here to sum up why Reggie isn't particularly likeable in this episode, but then I saw people online claiming that the scene was offensive and I don't want anybody to get the wrong idea about me.

Now it's time for "Twisted Cinema".

It's apparently Movie Night at the Surf Shack, and tonight's presentation is a video starring Otto. Twister shows up with the video as Otto, Reggie and Sam are munching on Tito's new popcorn with a pineapple glaze. They find it disgusting, but I dunno, that sounds like it could possibly be quite tasty. Maybe I'm just weird...

Ray couldn't be bothered to get a projector? Everybody in the cafe's
gonna have to watch that tiny television set?

Twister's video is a montage of Otto doing stuff like skateboarding, snowboarding, surfing, that sort of thing. However, during the credits, he shows clips of Otto messing up. I guess he thought the video needed a blooper reel.

Everybody in the café starts laughing... except Otto, of course. Even Reggie and Sam are busting a gut because they're nice like that. It's honestly pretty hypocritical of Reggie seeing as she was going on and on about Otto not being supportive of her or whatever in the previous episode. Laughing at your brother's mess-ups is not exactly being supportive. In fact, I dare say that it's far more unsupportive than what Otto did in the previous episode.

I like how that one building is shaped like a giant radio (or is it a giant
jukebox? I'm not sure...).

The next day, Otto complains to Reggie and Sam that he's been humiliated. "He wasn't supposed to use the shots of me beefin' it!" he says. I can kind of understand Otto's frustration here, why DID Twister include those shots? Was he TRYING to make Otto look like a klutz?

Twister shows up, and he still doesn't quite get why Otto is ticked-off. It should be pretty obvious right now that Twister isn't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed.

Could've been worse, I suppose. At least Twister didn't upload that video to YouTube...

"Dude, have I ever told you how much your hair looks like Cheetos?"

Otto vows to do a bunch of cool skateboarding, snowboarding etc. moves and have Twister film it so that everyone will once again see him as the best skateboarder, snowboarder etc. in the world. Sam and Reggie tell him that it won't work. Unless he plans to move to New Jersey.

Uh, I'm not sure I get the joke. Maybe it's because I'm actually FROM New Jersey and I don't recall anything about us being considered bad skateboarders, snowboarders etc.

"And what's the deal with New Jersey's obsession with pork roll?"

First, Otto does some skateboarding tricks, but winds up falling off the halfpipe. Deciding that it's Twister's fault because the video made him less confident in his abilities, he announces that Sam has replaced Twister as his "best bro". Problem is, Sam sucks at rollerblading. Because as we all know, it's scientifically impossible for a nerd to be good at extreme sports.

Out of context, doesn't it kind of look like Otto's about to eat Twister and the
camera?

Okay, maybe it doesn't and I just have a weird mind.

Meanwhile, Twister goes to the Surf Shack, where Tito gives him a word of advice: "The ancient Hawaiians have a saying... 'If you're walking on a beach and you step on a crab, even if you didn't mean to, you should go back and apologize.' After all, that crab could be in your soup later on!" Ray translates for Twister, saying that you can make someone feel bad without meaning to or knowing that you did it and that you should set things right.

Twister then meets back up with Reggie, who's watching Otto try out his new moves while Sam does his best Twister impression.

I bet the "N" on his shirt stands for "NERD". Y'know, 'cause Sam's a NERD
and as a result he's not good at extreme sports.

Otto falls off the halfpipe again, and if he wasn't feeling crappy enough three jerks show up and start mocking him.

There's another orange-skinned guy! Why do so many of the people in
this show have orange skin?

"That backstabber Twister better not show his face around ME!" Otto snaps as he and Sam walk off, which makes Twister feel sad. But then he gets an idea - Reggie could talk to Otto on his behalf! It's GENIUS! After all, Reggie is "better with words and sentences and stuff", according to Twister.

Had to get a screenshot of Reggie making this incredibly bored expression.

Otto is trying to do another stunt, this one involving jumping over Sam. It doesn't quite work out, but fortunately Sam isn't harmed. Reggie tells Otto that he should just shut up and forgive Twister already, but Otto says, "A best friend should be there for you, not make you look bad." But then Reggie gets an idea.

Those are some very ugly pants, by the way.

The idea, as it turns out, is to have Twister secretly filming Otto doing his cool moves, and then show it to everyone so they'll all think Otto is the greatest thing since sliced bread again. Otto will then forgive Twister and they'll all be happy and sing "Kumbaya" and crap like that.

Hey, wait a minute! That's for all intents and purposes the exact same plan that Otto had before. Y'know, the plan that Reggie claimed wouldn't work. You're being inconsistent, Reggie!

Upon seeing the new video, Otto forgives Twister and Sam is free to not be Otto's sidekick anymore, much to his delight.

And Sam and Reggie presumably learn nothing about not laughing at their friends'
mess-ups. Seriously, what was up with that?

WHAT'S THE VERDICT?

Rocket Power is another show that I'm gonna have to put in the "okay" file. I do have some problems with it (namely, Reggie's lumping Otto and Twister in with that Slack guy despite them not doing anything to put her down), but I really didn't see anything that awful about it. I suppose the show mainly gets flack for being very much a product of the 1990s, but I've seen far worse examples of that. I suppose I'd probably be more into the show if I were a bigger fan of skateboarding, snowboarding, surfing etc. Alas, I've never been a super-athletic person. If you are, eh, I'd say watch one episode and see if you like it.

And speaking of shows that are very much a product of the 1990s, here's a teaser for the NEXT edition of "Let's Watch This"...