Hello everyone, this is CEO100able! The year 2020 has been seeing rough times, and it's the perfect time to talk about something unusual: fictional characters not getting along or understanding each other. In the real world, people have experienced these things as it is part of life, and several TV shows, movies, home videos, and video games have seen it all. Oh no, and here are various examples I have experienced over the years! I'd recommend to everyone (parents, teachers, and people who grew up with the following media listed below) that they read this blog post.
1. Scoop (Bob the Builder: Snowed Under)
This Bob the Builder Christmas special from 2004 is the
worst example of characters not getting along! While Scoop and the rest of the
Can-Do Crew were preparing the Bobblesburg Winter Games, Scoop had anger
issues. But how? Well, he always gets cranky when the other construction
machines briefly play around, don't do something right, etc. As a result, the
other characters working with him would always disapprove his behavior and
Scoop would get into several conflicts with them, as well as harshly refer to
Rolly as a “big clumsy lump,” Muck as a show-off and Benny as a know-it-all.
That’s very rude! A lot of negative customer reviews for the US version of this
movie on Amazon.com talk about how bad it really is and how the children of the
parents who posted those reviews over the years did not enjoy it at all, and I
agree with all of them, so I would definitely not recommend purchasing and
watching this presentation during the Christmas season at all!
2. Lucy Van Pelt (various Peanuts movies, especially "I
Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown")
This character has been always antagonistic toward her
siblings and other children of the Peanuts gang. But the 2003 Peanuts Christmas
special, “I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown” was a major example, so it
will be my focus on this list for this Peanuts character.
Christmas is always a great time for watching Christmas
episodes of TV shows, Christmas movies and specials, but nowadays, there are
some Christmas presentations not worth watching at all, and “Peanuts: I Want a
Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown” is one of them in this case. Don't even think about watching it during the Christmas season as I would definitely not recommend it at all! See the "Plot" section of "I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown" on the Peanuts Wiki on Wikia/FANDOM for more information:
https://peanuts.fandom.com/wiki/I_Want_a_Dog_for_Christmas,_Charlie_Brown#Plot
3. Lizard Tail (18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker; Arcade, PlayStation
2, GameCube and Dreamcast versions)
This rival is crazy and has anger issues in all home ports
of this classic SEGA video game (confirmed by a British YouTube user named
PacGuy765/Prince Jamie the 7th/Kanto Officer Jenny/Retro Planet in
his comment on Highway Forever's YouTube upload of the UK PAL GameCube version
of this game). As you, the player, drive your big rig down the roads of famous
American cities and towns, you sometimes hear this guy severely blame things on
you, like a traffic jam. Interestingly, this doesn't prevent me from enjoying
the PlayStation 2 version of this game. I don't know why, it just doesn't.
4. The Brickster and the Brickster Bots (LEGO Island Xtreme
Stunts; PC and PlayStation 2 versions)
This surprisingly underrated LEGO Island series video game
is definitely a major example of antagonists not cooperating with good
characters! After all the filming stages for the “Xtreme Stunts” movie end, the
Brickster talks to several characters at LEGO Studios as part of The Director’s
celebration party, starting off with some positive words about their hard work.
However, he mentions that he has been using the movie as a cover for his latest
scheme: the Brickster Bots have built him a huge tower on the top of Space
Mountain, and he plans to use it and a supercomputer to deconstruct the world!
On top of that, he took the Infomaniac to the top of the tower just because he
interfered with his horrible idea! The minute he runs off to activate the
supercomputer, Sky Lane tells the silent protagonist, Pepper Roni, that he
needs to prevent the Brickster’s plan from happening and rescue the Infomaniac,
and Nick Brick, one of the island’s police officers, tells Pepper to use a car
parked nearby to head for Space Mountain immediately. Ironically, the vehicle
you have to drive actually belongs to the Brickster.
If the player chooses to talk to Nick Brick manually (which
is optional), he will provide additional information about what you need to do,
and most of the other characters the player can talk to before driving the car
to the mountain will remind you what you’re supposed to do by this point, and
some of them will just make short comments about the Brickster’s actions. One
character, D.J. Jackitt, makes a radio announcement when choosing to talk to
him about them, saying, “We’ve got the latest news straight in. That rascally
Brickster has turned back to his old ways and threatened to wipe out
everything. The people are counting on local hero Pepper to save the day.”
Once Pepper Roni has arrived at the base of Space Mountain,
the player will be automatically taken to an actually fun minigame that can
only be placed once per profile, in which you go on foot and ride on a
skateboard through a series of obstacle courses that the Brickster apparently
built to try and stop you, except you can succeed with stuntman skills! The
skateboard section, in fact, looks scarier than being on a roller coaster! Once
you’re halfway through, the Infomaniac, from the top of the Brickster’s tower,
will shout at you to climb up the spiral sections of the tower but avoid the
rolling barrels on your way to the top, when suddenly, the Brickster laughs and
thinks no one can get near him besides the Infomaniac and also believes it’s
the end of the world! With that, after doing some platforming on the player’s
way to the top of the tower, the Brickster says, “You shouldn’t have come here,
but you’re just in time to watch the world deconstruct, and you… along… WITH
IT!!” Then, Sky Lane provides Pepper Roni instructions on what to do to defeat
the Brickster, which takes place in a boss fight, similar to Super Mario 64 for
the Nintendo 64. At a few points, the Brickster Bots fly by really fast, trying
to stop the player, so they have to be avoided at all costs when the Brickster
is being defeated once and for all.
When the battle is over, Nick Brick, Laura Brick, the
Brickster, Pepper Roni, Sky Lane, and the Infomaniac are at the police station,
and Sky Lane reprimands the Brickster for trying to take over the island. Then,
the Brickster tells everyone that they all had a house built for them, yet he
never had his own set of bricks, a major indication of jealousy. He also
reveals that he only had pieces that people lost on their backs of sofas, but
nobody cared; Nick Brick tells him, “Brickster, it’s either best behavior, or
you’re back behind bars.” But the Brickster thinks he can come up with a larger
plan of having all the bricks in the world at some point in the future, so the
Infomaniac informs him that he’s finally getting his own LEGO set: the jail
set, and he’ll only play with it from the inside. So, the Brickster stays in
there for a few seconds, and ends up escaping once more just to watch the new
“Xtreme Stunts” movie.
This group of antagonists is totally crazy! Nevertheless, LEGO
Island Xtreme Stunts is my all-time favorite LEGO Island installment, as well
as one of my childhood favorite action/adventure video games, alongside “102
Dalmatians: Puppies to the Rescue” and “Cars: The Video Game.” It fixed all the issues with the PC and PlayStation 1 versions of LEGO Island 2: The Brickster's Revenge, which had poor voice acting for some characters, some glitches, etc.
5. Jelly Otter and Pinch Raccoon (PB&J Otter; episode:
The Silent Treatment)
Both characters from PB&J Otter (a late 1990s kids' TV
show that’s supposed to be resurrected on Disney+) are adorable, but there was
a time when they didn’t get along at all. Once, they were going to have a tea
party, but for some reason, Pinch decides that Jelly should have a makeover
first. So Pinch tries to work on it using a bunch of makeup and styling gel,
but the results turn out to be poor, and she and Jelly end up having a crazy
argument, refusing to talk to each other ever again. As this goes on, Peanut
tries to confront Jelly that they aren’t having any fun at all, so he gets them
to do a noodle dance. Surprisingly, despite both Jelly and Pinch not
apologizing to each other by saying “I’m sorry,” they become friends again and
finally have a satisfying tea party.
6. Gordon (Thomas & Friends; episodes: Duck Takes Charge
and Forever and Ever)
Duck Takes Charge: When Percy announces to Henry, Gordon, and James that Sir Topham Hatt is
getting a new steam engine to help Percy, they are rather irritated. Later,
after the new steam engine, Duck, arrives on the Island of Sodor, the three of
them become bossy toward Duck. Percy and Duck try to stop them at Tidmouth
Sheds, but all the loud noises, including their whistles distracts Sir Topham
Hatt, so he goes out to investigate and tells the larger engines to stop, but
Gordon informs him that Percy and Duck won’t let him, Henry and James in. Sir
Topham Hatt commands Duck to explain what he’s been up to, which he politely
does, saying, “Beg pardon sir, but I’m a Great Western engine. We do our work
without fuss. But begging your pardon sir, Percy and I would be glad to inform
these, um, engines, that we only take orders from you.” But not before the
larger engines attempt to blow their whistles again and Sir Topham Hatt orders
them to remain silent again in order for him to talk to all the engines present.
First, Sir Topham Hatt tells Percy and Duck that he is
pleased with their work, but claims that they caused the disturbance. I don’t
see how they did that at all, so that has to be a false accusation! Sir Topham
Hatt then tells off the larger engines for making the disturbance, and tells
them that Duck is quite right, saying that it’s Sir Topham Hatt’s railway and
he gives the orders. Yet, as new steam engines continued to arrive on the
Island of Sodor, this key fact is forgotten about, and “Thomas, Emily and the
Snowplow” is a major example of being very inconsistent with the logic of “Duck
Takes Charge,” which I’ll talk more about later in this list.
Forever and Ever: If you’re familiar with the strange
changes of the twenty-second season of Thomas & Friends, you’re most likely
familiar with this episode as well. This is, in fact, the worst modern Thomas
& Friends episode I’ve ever seen! At the very beginning, Gordon is upset
that Edward doesn’t live at Tidmouth Sheds anymore, and acts harsh toward Nia,
who is just moving in. At Knapford Station, this is where Sir Topham Hatt tries
to be realistic, but is badly strict and incompetent this time, and therefore
does not treat Gordon fairly. You see, he expects Gordon to put up with his
changes on the Island of Sodor, and this is where the problem begins: as Nia
gets Gordon’s train ready, he remarks that she doesn’t usually push coaches.
This makes Sir Topham Hatt think Gordon was just being rude to Nia, saying that
she’s welcome to the Island of Sodor, so he orders him to apologize to her,
which he does.
I don’t think that remark was meant to be rude. I think
Gordon was just being honest.
Suddenly, Henry shows up, saying that he is staying at
Vicarstown. Since he and Edward are Gordon’s old friends, and since Gordon
thinks they deserved to stay with them, this makes Gordon go on a crazy but
mild rampage by acting like he should try and do jobs differently now that Sir
Topham Hatt is making changes to the Island of Sodor. With that, Sir Topham
Hatt may have made unfair changes, but he doesn’t care as he just reprimands
Gordon for not doing well at all, so he sends him to Tidmouth Sheds, which
Gordon also does.
Gordon then has a nightmare that the whole railway could
change around him in lots of strange ways. Nia approaches him and decides to
sympathize with him, saying that she may be far away from her old friends, but
they will always still be her friends, and so will be Edward and Henry. The
next morning, despite Sir Topham Hatt not coming back to Gordon to inform him
that it’s okay to get back to work (unlike old episodes), Nia also decides to
get Gordon to exit the sheds to pull the Express, which he ends up doing.
Oh… my… gosh! The plot of this episode is nothing but a
miserable pile of junk due to terrible scriptwriting and poor criticism
response decision making (yes, this episode was produced as an excuse for
dealing with balancing character genders out). It should have been banned from
TV repeats, DVD releases and digital releases because it could encourage
children to become terrorists despite the fact that on September 11th,
2001, seventeen years before this kids’ TV show episode came out, horrible
terrorist attacks took place in the United States (boy, were the 9/11 attacks a chaotic way to start the 21st century!). Yes, I’m politically
correct. Same with the following things that this episode influenced me to go
nuts about last year, in 2019:
*Thomas & Friends: Hero of the Rails Wii and DS video
game’s North American releases getting cancelled for no legitimate reason
*Microsoft Train
Simulator 2 PC game being cancelled due to Aces Game Studios shutting down as a
result of budget cuts
*The PlayStation 2 version of the 4x4 Evo 2 video game being
only released in Europe for, once again, no legitimate reason
*Lightning McQueen losing to a cheater named Chick Hicks in the final race scene of the 2006 Disney/Pixar Cars movie
However, since the poorly-produced Thomas & Friends
reboot (recently announced this year) is coming out next year, in 2021, there
is only one good thing we can hope for it: Edward and Henry will move back to
Tidmouth Sheds once and for all!
7. Henry and James (Thomas & Friends; episode: Duck
Takes Charge)
This group of characters sometimes had problems with anger,
and “Duck Takes Charge” is a large case.
8. Emily (Thomas & Friends; episodes: Emily’s New
Coaches and Thomas, Emily and the Snowplow / Thomas, Emily and the Snowplough)
Emily’s New Coaches: For a fabulous female steam engine
character, this episode was an awkward debut. When Emily arrives at the Island
of Sodor and chooses to take Annie and Clarabel, who belong to Thomas, he
becomes upset that someone else is using them. When Sir Topham Hatt needs
Thomas to pick up new coaches for Emily, he tries to tell him his grievances,
but Sir Topham Hatt doesn’t listen to him, reminding him that really useful
engines don’t argue.
Sir, excuse you? It’s not that Thomas was arguing with you,
it’s just that he was trying to get you to listen to what he had to say about
Emily’s wrongdoing. You can’t just falsely accuse someone of arguing with you
if he or she tells you something important you need to know about! Same with
what Percy had to say about a bumpy track section on Toby’s line in the next
episode, “Percy Gets It Right.”
For Sir Topham Hatt, the moral for both episodes is, listen
to what others have to say! It’s as simple as that! I believe he realized that
he was going to have to do a better job of listening to Thomas in the future,
don’t you? Well, at least Thomas and Emily became friends in the end as soon as
Emily apologized to Thomas for taking his coaches, but still…
Thomas, Emily and the Snowplow / Thomas, Emily and the
Snowplough: Ugh… what is this junky Thomas & Friends episode doing on my
list? After all, I never liked it at all when I first watched on YouTube back
in 2009. Well, it's due to the fact its plot has wishful thinking written all
over it as Emily was badly cranky toward Thomas when she was copycatting Sir Topham Hatt by telling him
in an inappropriate manner what he needs to do and shouldn't do, despite the
fact that in “Duck Takes Charge,” it was said that it's Sir Topham Hatt's job
to give engines orders!
To make matters worse, Sir Topham Hatt falsely accused Emily
of not listening to him even after she sincerely admitted that she forgot that
it was his idea to tell Thomas to get his snowplow put in place! Seriously
people, there's a difference between not listening to someone and forgetting
something. Not listening to someone means intentionally refusing to do exactly
as asked or told, etc. Forgetting something doesn't equal failing to listen to
someone. No dictionary writer has ever confirmed both terms the same thing!
Just to make things even more painful, Sir Topham Hatt tells Thomas that he needs to learn to listen.
I’m sorry, since when did Thomas never listen to anyone at all? This continuity
flaw sounded like he never listened to anyone at all throughout his life, even
though he already listened to Sir Topham Hatt, etc. in past episodes, so it would have been more accurate if Sir Topham Hatt told Thomas, "You must listen to Emily more carefully in the future."
9. Meteor (Meteor the Monster Truck/Monster Truck
Adventures; episodes: "Missing Mom," “The Big Time Out,” “The Pennant
Race,” “Meteor's Nightmare,” and “Rebel Rover”)
This is the main child character of “Bigfoot Presents:
Meteor and the Mighty Monster Trucks” (aka “Monster Truck Adventures,” a low
budget Biblical clone of “Meteor and the Mighty Monster Trucks”). He is kind,
but sometimes he can be antagonistic toward his friends. Let’s see a few
examples.
Missing Mom: When Meteor’s mother, Mrs. Rover, flies to Mars
to go on a mission there, he feels upset, and as a result, he refuses to get involved
with his other friends’ ideas and doesn’t act politely toward them. Throughout
the day, his friends are very stunned by his emotional behavior, and Meteor
ends up going on a short, mild, crazy destructive rampage around and on an old
train for monster trucks to crush.
The Big Time Out: Meteor and José go nuts during a
team-based figure eight race with Sinker, and both of them end up knocking Big
Wheelie’s special starting light down! As a result of Big Wheelie's incompetent job of sending both of them to the timeout parking lot (unlike Sarge; not to be confused with the Cars character of the same name), they get into a "Did not! Did too!" conflict before they realize that they weren't good teammates.
10. Little Tow (Meteor the Monster Truck/Monster Truck
Adventures; episodes: “The Truck Who Cried Tow,” “Meteor's Nightmare,” “Charity
Drive,” and “Rebel Rover”)
Little Tow is a wonderful small tow monster truck character,
but sometimes has problems with his behavior.
The Truck Who Cried Tow: Little Tow keeps tricking his
friends into believing that he’s stuck, so they lose trust in him and Little
Tow’s mother, Señora Rosa (why did the producers decide to create a Hispanic
monster truck wife for Bigfoot instead of the actual American Ms. Bigfoot?),
grounds him from towing for a week.
11. José (Meteor the Monster Truck/Monster Truck Adventures;
episodes: “Race Relations,” “The Big Time Out,” “Teamwork,” “The Pennant Race,”
“Charity Drive,” and “Rebel Rover”)
This fire engine monster truck character had quite a bit of
attitude problems throughout several episodes of Bigfoot Presents: Meteor and
the Mighty Monster Trucks. He was also incompetent toward his friends.
Race Relations: José becomes jealous of Meteor due to the
fact José has four wheels while Meteor, a space rover, has six. Therefore, José
calls Meteor a “monster truck wannabe” when José tells Meteor about facts about
standard four-wheeled monster trucks. So, during a race at Crushington Park
Elementary School, Meteor proves how good he is, and wins the race. He then
reveals to José that just to encourage him to be friendly to him, Meteor shows
José a video of a cool stunt he recorded with his camera. José attempts to
apologize and Meteor says, “That’s okay, I know who I am.” I bet Meteor was
going to be José’s little brother figure in the end, don’t you?
The Big Time Out: José gets rough on Meteor during a
figure-eight race, sending themselves to the timeout parking lot.
Teamwork: José acts dishonestly about his knowledge of stunt
ramps by having a know-it-all attitude toward Ponytail, his partner of a race,
when she needed to tell him important facts about the skid ramp, thus José
slipped on it and fell into the green gunk near the island where the race was
supposed to be finished, and ended up being disqualified. Such pride could have
caused trouble for his future.
12. Ponytail (Meteor the Monster Truck/Monster Truck
Adventures; episode: "Teamwork")
I'd hate to put this little girl monster truck character
very near in the league of other characters shown on this list, but the reason
for that is because, even though Ponytail's usually kind, she was a bit rough…
only once. That's one of the reasons why the Teamwork episode from Bigfoot
Presents: Meteor is kind of bad. At first I found this episode kind of fun to
watch back in 2016, but after seeing it many more times, I began to realize how
annoying Ponytail's anger really was. You see, when she wasn't able to get José
to listen to what she had to say about the skid ramp as he didn't want to learn
about it, she would defy how the skid ramp race works by having José, a big
vehicle, push the skid ramp over and have Ponytail herself make the jump, and
whine about being paired up with someone else while everyone else was already
taken up.
I always thought that young children were really supposed to
listen to adult authorities, like their parents, but apparently, that's not
always how real life works; they're also supposed to listen to other young
children on things! I sure had a lot to learn, didn't I? Anyway, as the race
went on, while José was nowhere to be seen, Ponytail decides to let him have it
in a rather antagonistic manner, calling him “Mr. Know-It-All.” That may have
been exactly who José was in the first place, but to me, it's kind of
unnecessary to say that anyway because it doesn't sound like you care about
someone at all. Before you tell me, “She wasn't rude, she was realistic,” I
find how Ponytail came off like that throughout this particular episode sort of
uncanny and very cringeworthy. To make matters worse, she, along with all other
characters, laugh at José when he landed in the gunk!
Finally, the ending of “Teamwork” is somewhat weak as it seems like a complete afterthought. I mean, you spend a few minutes
watching an episode of a kids' TV show with a series of conflicts like this,
only to not get a whole lot of spoken dialogue from the involved characters
about it in the end. You see, Ponytail still looked angry when Little Tow
rescued José, so I was expecting her to set José straight for not being serious
enough about the skid ramp after they were disqualified. But nope, she somehow
became friendly with him again immediately, without actually apologizing to him
for her bad anger even after he apologized to her about the fact that they lost
the race. This indicates that she knows that the truth isn't always meant to be
nice because she felt that José getting yelled at and falling into the gunk
were his comeuppances.
If you tell me, “Well, José deserved to have someone angry
at him for not listening to her about a ramp he didn't really know about at
first,” then let me tell you something… When two people apologize to one
another, it brings a perfectly happy ending to a conflict. In fact, when my mom
was alive (sadly, she passed away in early 2020 due to leukemia), she and I
would apologize to one another sometimes when she and I would get into a
conflict. I mean, even if someone doesn't care to listen to you on a serious
thing, don't you think it's cruel to call them derogatory names in an
enemy-like manner and not even care to apologize to them in the end but kindly
explain to them that criticism exists for a reason?
13. Chick Hicks (Cars)
This character is the main antagonist of the Cars movie
series. In the final race scene, he caused The King to crash. Chick Hicks may
have been a cheater and deserved to lose the race, but this time, the script
writing here is poor for a kids’ movie that is supposed to have a protagonist
beat the antagonist. You see, Lightning McQueen, the main character of the
series was supposed to win the race on the final lap, but instead of doing that
in order to defeat Chick Hicks, he just stopped at the finish line and let him
win just to help The King get back on the track and cross the finish line. Wow,
way to ignore the old saying, “Cheaters never prosper.” This is nowhere near as
clever as the “Race Day in Tonka Town” episode of the 2003 “Welcome to Tonka
Town” home video, which I’ll talk about next in this list.
At the end of the race, Lightning McQueen was told that
there’s more to racing than just winning. Apparently, kids may find it
educational, but they’re not amused with Disney’s logic here, and I was no
exception when I watched this movie on DVD when it first came out. It’s not our
fault that it is true, it’s how sadness has been brought to our world, planet
Earth. It’s a moral that needs to be changed once and for all. I’ve seen worse
than someone ruining their own dreams to win races, such as family members
losing their loved ones, the 9/11 attacks of 2001, and more recently, the
coronavirus pandemic. “Cars: The Video Game” and “Cars 3” made up for this
since it’s always disappointing to see main characters lose races.
14. The V8 Crew (Welcome to Tonka Town home video; episode:
“Race Day in Tonka Town”)
If you played the Tonka Town PC game when you were a kid
(which I did when I was a little boy), and if you had the 2003 VHS-exclusive
“Welcome to Tonka Town” home video (released only in North America) back in the
day (which I purchased for myself on eBay back in 2018), you’re probably
familiar with this group of antagonists. Their names are Grease, Pit Stop,
Tooie, and Turbo (who acts as their backup). In the “Race Day in Tonka Town”
episode, the V8 Crew had already won the annual Tonka Town race the year earlier
simply by cheating, which is very bad, and in the present time, they intend to
try to win the race again. As the race goes on, some of the characters try to
slow down or stop the members of the Tonka Town team (Chuck the Dump Truck,
Boomer the Tow Truck, etc.).
Once, Chuck the Dump Truck gets stuck in a hole at the
construction site, so with plenty of effort to get himself out, he launches
into the sky like an airplane, and as one V8 Crew member, Grease, comes close
to the finish line, something appears out of the sky. Is it a bird? Is it a
plane? No, it’s just Chuck the Dump Truck, who ends up flying to the finish
line, finishing in first place by nose. A very clever way to teach children
that cheaters never prosper! Speaking of which, after the race is over, Chuck
tells the other Tonka Town team members, “Like they say, cheaters never win!”
This right here is a prime example of what the final race scene of the 2006
Disney/Pixar Cars movie should have been. In fact, it’s a shame that this Tonka
Town home video is underrated and only had a VHS release considering the fact
DVDs were popular in 2003, so it deserves a whole lot more recognition.
15. Buster King (Shining Time Station; episode: "Bully
for Mr. Conductor")
This kid character is apparently a bad bully of Shining Time
Station. He is very aggressive and antagonistic. See the Shining Time Station
article for this character for more information: https://shiningtimestation.fandom.com/wiki/Minor_Characters#Buster_King
16. Director (Midtown Madness 2)
Note: This character is not to be confused with the LEGO
Island Xtreme Stunts character of the same name.
It's been confirmed by the instructor of this PC game in the
San Francisco Crash Course that this director character doesn't take kindly to
mistakes, although the way he gets angry is unreasonable. For instance, during
the first San Francisco midterm, you're supposed to drive a 1968 Ford Mustang Fastback
at 50 MPH or over, so if you crash into something and stay at less than 50 MPH
for one second, it's game over, and the director will yell at you, like “CUT,
CUT!! Are you trying to make me cry?! What do I have to do to get this scene in
the can?!” This used to freak me out as a little kid (yes, this was one of the
PC games of my childhood), so back then, I preferred the London Crash Course
lessons. But nonetheless, this game is very enjoyable and fun as it fixed many
of the first Midtown Madness game’s problems (issues with vehicle physics and
game controls, etc.), just like what LEGO Island Xtreme Stunts did when patching all of LEGO Island 2's issues. Midtown Madness 2 is one of my all-time favorite
open-world driving games, alongside Monster Truck Madness 1, Monster Truck
Madness 2, 4x4 Evolution, and 4x4 Evo 2.
17. Oscar the Grouch (Sesame Street; various media)
Frankly, this character of one of America’s iconic
children’s TV shows, “Sesame Street,” has been always cranky.
18. Angelina (Midtown Madness 3; Xbox)
This female colleague in most of the Washington, D.C.
undercover missions in this game has a serious attitude problem! She gets very
tough on you, the player, all the time, from delivering pizzas to being a stunt
driver.
19. Michael and Stephano Tortellini (Midtown Madness 3;
Xbox)
These Italian-American brothers in Washington, D.C. are
crazy about pizza, but they are just nuts. For example, in the Washington, D.C.
Police Officer undercover mission, “Stephano’s Madness,” Stephano is very angry
at Michael and he’s after him, so it’s up to the player to use the police car
to stop Stephano before it’s too late!
20. The Visiting Blue Basketball Team (Brum; episode: Brum
the Basketball Star)
The Big Town wheelchair basketball team were losing the
basketball final in the Big Town by 6-2 because of unfair play by this opposing
group of players. Cheating in sports is a bad idea! See the article for this
group of characters on the Brum Wiki on Wikia/FANDOM for more information: https://brum.fandom.com/wiki/Visiting_Blue_Basketball_Team
21. The Visiting Red Soccer/Football Team (Brum; episode:
Brum the Soccer Hero / Brum the Football Hero)
This is the cheating opposition of the soccer final in the
Big Town. Some teams of sports just can't get along. See the article for this
group of characters on the Brum Wiki on Wikia/FANDOM for more information:
https://brum.fandom.com/wiki/Visiting_Red_Football_Team
22. The Big Town Firemen (Brum; episode: Brum to the
Rescue)
While this group of characters isn't exactly a bunch of
villains unlike several other characters Brum has to deal with, the firefighters apparently didn't take kindly to Brum's idea of going onto the rooftop of a
very high building just to try and help a little girl retrieve her doll and
balloons. They said, “Now Brum, you shouldn't be up here! It's a good thing we
came along.” I felt that Brum did it safely. However, when I posted a comment
about this on luke brough's YouTube upload of this debut Brum episode produced
in 1991 (now deleted due to his YouTube channel being suspended for copyright
strikes due to some non-Ragdoll Productions content), I received a couple
replies from two other YouTube users saying that they agree with my remarks,
but Brum already put himself in danger, even though he should have clarified to
the firefighters that it was the responsibility of two crazy kids making the
doll and balloons get stuck up there, and the firemen should have explained to
Brum in a mature manner that it isn't safe to go onto roofs of high buildings. Thanks for your replies, guys! I appreciate them. This is one of the reasons why I personally prefer Brum's early 2000s seasons,
which aired on Discovery Kids and TLC in the USA (my home country).
23. Peanut Otter and Jelly Otter (PB&J Otter; episode:
Soap Box Derby Day)
To those who haven't already guessed by the title of the
PB&J Otter episode mentioned here, it's basically about a point-to-point
rally race for children involving custom-built race cars that roll down hills.
Anyhow, this episode is a similar vein to Bigfoot Presents: Meteor's “The Big
Time Out” and “Teamwork,” as well as the final race scene of the 2006
Disney/Pixar movie, “Cars.” Let me explain why…
While Peanut and Jelly were working on Peanut's car (which originally belonged to their father), Jelly
suggested they put glue onto the wheels to keep them from falling off, but
Peanut didn't understand the idea. This made Jelly concerned that Peanut won't
care to listen to her, complaining about him having his younger siblings always
doing stuff his way, so she runs off to build her race scooter, resulting a
lack of teamwork, followed by a very mild tag-back conflict, creating an intense
rivalry. This shows that both otter siblings weren't quite as crazy as many
other examples of misunderstandings and characters not getting along in media
mentioned above, thus this group of characters is marked as 23rd on this list.
But seriously? Jelly trying to let Peanut off easy all because of glue, putting
a stop to teamwork too soon, and fighting with him? That behavior combination a
bit uncanny, thus I believe this particular PB&J Otter episode encourages
kids to get upset with other kids if they don't care to listen and then get
into a fight later on.
As a result of all that nonsense, as the race went on, the
right-front wheel of Peanut's car fell off, causing it to swerve and teeter
perilously on the edge of a grass hillside. This is when mixing of realistic
and unrealistic things occurred; while the race was in progress, Jelly decides
to stop and rescue Peanut by pulling him to safety as his car slides down the
hillside (due to weight loss). Somehow, both otter siblings return to being
good friends. Jelly offers Peanut a ride on her scooter to the finish line,
thus they became team racers, which, on the bright side, reminds me of the “Mario Kart: Double Dash!!” 2003 video game
for the Nintendo GameCube. But sadly, on the negative side, that's how they
risked losing as they came in fourth place (the frowning faces on both otter
siblings as they crossed the finish line last looked disappointed that they
were being defeated).
While there was real danger involved when Peanut's car was
stuck on a hillside's edge, it's normally the job of available track crews to
help competitors (which unfortunately wasn't the case here), not other racers
on the track. So, do you know of any race competitor who, in real life, chose
to help drivers during races? You'd think Disney would have learned from this
particular plothole during the production of the 2006 movie, “Cars” (yes,
Disney owns both Cars and PB&J Otter, although both franchises used
different script writers). Another plothole is, how can two people safely ride
on a scooter in reality? That is so awkward. No wonder they went really slow in
the end, seeming that they couldn't catch up with the other competitors. Oh
well… plot-wise, there's always another soapbox race!
As much as this episode has odd plotholes,
behavior-encouraging scenes and the weak ending (that's why I only recommend
this PB&J Otter episode for non-serious viewers, especially young children,
which was PB&J Otter's target audience, for starters), there are great,
enjoyable parts of it that I liked. For example, I do quite like the “Everybody
Wants To Be A Soapbox Racer” song at the beginning of this episode as it's
apparently a knock-off of The Beach Boys' 1962 song, “Surfin' Safari” due to
the fact that both songs are structured similarly. How about a little
comparison to show you what I mean?
The Beach Boys – Surfin' Safari (1962):
Let's go surfing now
Everybody's learning how
Come on and safari with me
PB&J Otter – Everybody Wants To Be Soapbox Racer (1998):
Let's go
Everybody wants to be a soapbox racer
And during the “Everybody Wants To Be Soapbox Racer” song,
the car jumps performed in it remind me of Hot Wheels and The Dukes of Hazzard.
Phew, this has been another long blog post on my blog! I have been working on it since late 2019. Currently, this list is incomplete, so I will add more information to it sometime later. I hope you found it informative. See you next time!
