If I haven't made it obvious yet, I'm crazy about cartoons. And being a '90s kid, a few certain 'toons have worked their way into my top favorites list, including Ed, Edd, n Eddy and Hey Arnold!
In a world of reboots and remakes, I tend to get a bit wary when a studio or network announces that they're bringing something nostalgic back. Sometimes that works out OK, like with the new Ducktales. Sometimes it goes horribly wrong. See: Anything related to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles after the 2003 series.
So when I saw Rocko's Modern Life was being brought back, that usual wave of worry hit. Would a studio ruin yet another '90s cartoon? My worries dissolved when I first saw the trailer for Rocko's Modern Life: Static Cling. It was going to be a one-time movie on Netflix, and the art style was kept the same. Not only that, this cartoon would be just as weird as it was in 1996 when it went off the air.
Fun fact: Rocko's Modern Life helped launch the successful voice acting career of one Tom Kenny, whom you may know as the voice of Spongebob Squarepants. Spongebob's creator, Stephen Hillenburg (may he rest in peace), also worked on Rocko.
Growing up, Rocko was admittedly not one of my favorite cartoons. I put it in the same category as The Ren and Stimpy Show and Invader Zim. It was just a bit too gross to be one of my favorites. And I get that's part of the show's charm and what won it such a cult following, but it never made it into my top 20 cartoons. I'd take just about any other Nickelodeon cartoon over Rocko's Modern Life -- from Rugrats to Rocket Power.
With that said, I recognize the cartoon had some hilarious material. It hit on several categories of entertainment and society with its blunt hammer known as satire. And I did still watch it, even enjoyed some parts of it.
I didn't realize until later in life just how raunchy the cartoon got. Several adult jokes flew over my head as a kid, like the fact that Rocko, at least temporarily, takes a job at a phone sex business. That raunchiness definitely returns with the new movie.
And before I go any further, I'll call this Netflix special a "movie," but in reality, it's just a long episode. The whole thing runs in about 45 minutes, which is plenty of time to reintroduce these characters and tell a wacky story.
My wife and I booted the show up last weekend after she informed me Rocko was also part of her childhood. There's certainly nothing wrong with that. I just didn't expect it. My wife's favorite movie is The Last Unicorn (a delightful piece of animation based on a fantastic novel), and she's all about cute. Cute animals, cute cartoons, even cute rocks. So for her to have grown up with such a gross show was surprising.
I didn't really know what to expect. It'd been a few months since I watched the trailer. But this special wasted no time getting Rocko, Heffer and Filbert back in the action. Let me say, this special comes out guns blazing, taking aim at every single piece of culture and society it can make fun of, obsession with Starbucks, smartphone addiction, overuse of drones, stubbornly clinging to nostalgia and so much more.
That was one of the best parts of the special. It wasted no time getting back to old high jinks. The show's creator, Joe Murray, was at the helm. And to bring a show back after more than 20 years, he had the artists working under him study art from the original. I loved how it stayed true to the source material.
I find parallels between the success of Rocko's Modern Life: Static Cling and Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie. Hey Arnold! is my favorite cartoon of all time. And similar to Rocko, Arnold went off the air in 2004 but was resurrected with a movie later.
I can remember marking my calendar for the movie's premiere on Nickelodeon (which I don't watch anymore because it's filled with teen sitcoms and unappealing cartoons like The Loud House). My little brother Noah, who unfortunately has developed a taste for garbage cartoons like Total Drama Island and Teen Titans Go!, was introduced to true cartoon perfection with the Hey Arnold! movie.
The cartoon's art was updated, but I liked the new style. And some of the voice actors were replaced because kids grow up, and their voices change. But everyone did great, and the movie was a fantastic return to form for a network that has fallen so far from its previous successes.
Nickelodeon Studios had a hand in Rocko's and Arnold's returns, and I'm glad to say they did a fantastic job with the looks, sounds and everything else from these '90s classics.
Being older now, I appreciate how blunt Rocko can be, and I mean truly blunt. The special featured a cloud literally called The Winds of Change, who delivers a moral lesson about letting go of nostalgia and being OK with the future.
On a final note, I was rather pleased with how this cartoon handled a special plot thread featuring a transgender character. For what it's worth in a crazy cartoon that borders on obscene, there was a surprising amount of tenderness and care put into this particular storyline that I won't spoil.
Rocko's Modern Life: Static Cling was nostalgia resurrection done right. I enjoyed pretty much everything about it. If studios are planning to resurrect beloved cartoons in the future (please leave Rugrats alone), they would do well to see how Joe Murray and his crew did this special.
MovieStyle on 08/16/2019