"Where's Your Big Bad Apocalypse Now?" (ICWXP)

Featured Short:  "Soapy the Germ Fighter"

The Short

Our child Jimmy is upset about washing up when he gets dirty, afraid it'll make him a "sissy."  But a specter named Soapy, a giant talking soap bar, projects himself into Jimmy's room to clear up a few misconceptions about cleanliness.

Shorts like this where a talking mascot sells us viewers on the wonders of a particular product/activity of the week are a dime a dozen.  Soapy the Germ Fighter is just the latest.  What makes Soapy stand out is that unlike a lot of shorts Soapy isn't a cartoon character, just some guy in a cardboard box pretending to be a talking bar of soap.  Somehow this makes the short even creepier than it would have been, because it sucks the whimsy out of the attempted education.

The short's point is put across well, though it tends to drone and nag a little.  Soapy is fine as an educational short, I suppose.  It just has hilariously ill-conceived title character.

The Episode

When we last saw the Cine-Sorrow gang, they had just received a message from a mysterious stranger and they have uncovered a new bot named Flux Namtari.  This latest episode starts out with Topsy and Cylon uploading fifty years of pop culture into his head, a lot of which is expected, some of which isn't.  I'm not ashamed to say it, I laughed really, really hard at the Sesame Street parody where the Count sings to the tune of "Bodies."  As for Flux Namtari, I wish I could say more about him, but honestly he does next to nothing in the episode.

Meanwhile Rick is sick of life at the theater and decides to take on the zombie apocalypse head-on.  Gearing up with weapons he charges out into the streets and finds that there is only one zombie present, a Star Trek cosplayer.

I mentioned in the previous ICWXP review how I hoped after the previous episode's expository setup that the series might find this grander view of the host segments and achieve something special.  To an extent they do.  These segments are pretty good, and I laughed a lot.  Though I feel ICWXP needs to evolve it's riffing style if it wishes to really impress me.

The riffing starts off by riffing a string of commercials, the best of which is a bizarrely upbeat commercial about S.T.D.s that sings "V.D. is for Everybody!"  The commercial is so bizarre and the reactions by Rick and the Bots are so genuine that I found myself laughing throughout.  There is also an interesting period where they play with the theater format and have one of their commercials get hijacked by popup ads.  It's hit and miss, but it's clever and innovative.  I really do like that these guys aren't afraid to play around with and expand the format like this.

Moving on to the main event, after the V.D. commercial and the popups, Soapy the Germ Fighter feels a tad bit humdrum by comparison.  The riffing isn't really below par for ICWXP, but I felt that the energy that was in the room from the warm-up offerings was suddenly drained.  There are some good jabs, though mostly the guys seem to have a one track mind in this offering (pedophilia among other jokes of a sexual nature), and there's not a lot of joke diversity.  Rifftrax also riffed this short during their Live show of Mothra, which I remember being quite funny.  I was hoping ICWXP would knock it out of the park, but it just kinda sat there for the most part.

Dropping out of the theater we're given the weakest host segment of the bunch in which Soapy pays a visit to Cine-Sorrow, which de-evolves into one giant unfunny poo joke.  I understand the concept, and I get why it's supposed to be funny, but it runs way too long and it's amusement dries up quickly.  From there we begin to set up further exposition which threaten to flesh out the world of ICWXP, though we fade to black and the episode ends first.

While I had some problems with this episode, I'd say between the Count sketch and the V.D. commercial I've probably laughed harder at this episode than I have at any ICWXP entry thusfar.  I really want to recommend the episode on the basis of that, but the centerpiece short is a disappointment and the accompanying Soapy host segment is a dud, leaving the entire middle portion of the episode to be a drag.  But the beginning and the end of the episode are quite good, making this one an episode worth seeing.  However I find myself a little impatient and feel that I might not be so lenient on the series if it stays this inconsistent.

Good

The DVD

"Where's Your Big Bad Apocalypse Now?" is available on icwxp.com as a single disc or a part of their Season 2 Collection 1 pack, with the first and third episodes of this season.  Video is a crisp animorphic widescreen (with a horizontal stretched presentation in the theater), though audio can come off a bit soft.

Like the last two ICWXP releases, special features are plentiful.  First up is a 25 minute blooper/behind the scenes reel, which offers some okay blunders and cool behind the scenes shots.  I especially enjoyed the look into how they film the theater scenes, which is charmingly low tech.  It helps one appreciate just how much effort these guys put into the show and how much they squeeze out of a low budget.  There are also some great extra jokes with the Count.

Next up is a 30 minute Q&A with the cast, where they answer the question everybody has been wondering:  "ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL?"  Subjects range from interactions with the MST cast, movie selection, and possible expansion of the series.

Coming up next is a short from ICWXP writer Josh Way's solo series Fun with Shorts, "The Benefits of Looking Ahead."  I plan on covering Josh Way in the future but am still working out how exactly to tackle his tremendous output, so I won't be giving a full review of this short.  The short itself stars Nick from What to Do on a Date as he plays a teenager without drive deciding what to do with his life.  The riffing, while not perfect, is a step up from the riffing on the Soapy segment in this episode, giving me a more satisfying experience with the riffing on this disc as a whole.

Up next is a heavy metal video of a band called Sicadis.  Not my speed.  Moving on.

Finally we have another audio commentary by Rikk Wolf and Nick Evans.  Like normal the audio commentary skews technical, so people who are interested in independent production may want to give it a listen.  They talk the choice of short and the conception of the web ad segment as well.