Superman on Television

Krypto The Superdog: Episode Reviews

Season 1 - Episode 15: Melanie's Monkey/Funny Business

Reviewed by: Felix Vasquez

Actors & Roles this episode:
Samuel Vincent - Krypto
Alberto Ghisi - Kevin
Nicole Oliver - Kevin's Mom
Brian Drummond - Streaky the Cat
Tabitha St. Germain - Andrea/Melanie

Melanie's Monkey

Written by: Bradley Zweig
Directed by: Scott Jeralds

This has to be one of the funnier episodes of the series so far. While Kevin begins making the perfect banana split, about to chow down with Melanie and Krypto, Melanie begins crying unhappy that it's not a banana split because it has no bananas. Krypto turns into super dog and flies off, bringing home a huge bunch of bananas from the Brazilian rainforest. But little does he know he also brought along a visitor, a small squirrel monkey hiding in the bushel. The squirrel monkey is friendly at first and the group tries to find out where his parents are, but soon the monkey begins making all sorts of trouble knocking over the sundaes, hanging from the ceiling and crashing into things. They decide they must return the monkey back to its home. Unfortunately Melanie is already attached to it, so to explain that the monkey has a family, Krypto brings them along to return the monkey.

As Kevin and Krypto turn their backs asking a couple of howler monkeys for questions, Melanie trails off following the monkey and suddenly finds herself being stalked by a ferocious jaguar. The jaguar (sounding a lot like Ricardo Montalban) is intent on eating Melanie. Melanie is unaware of his presence and continues following the monkey around. The jaguar follows her, and realizes the hunt won't be easy as he finds himself falling prey to other jungle animals. He clashes with a boa constrictor, gets caught in quicksand, gets attacked by red ants and an ant eaters, trips on coconuts, falls into a river, gets bitten by piranhas, all while keeping a calm temperament, making these scenes all the more funny. This jaguar reminded me of the "Animaniacs" with the Buttons and Mindys segment.

This is a very funny episode, and really the first "laugh out loud" episode of the series as Jeralds presents the natural tact for comedy he showed in "Freakazoid", including the climax where the jaguar finally closes in on Melani only to have Krypto save her. Krypto sets the jaguar straight in a hilarious moment where the jaguar and Krypto have a barking contest. Krypto brings down the house - literally, making me laugh. But one little plot inconsistency puzzled me: If Kevin can hear Krypto, and every other animal, why is it so hard to understand what the monkey is saying? Regardless this ended up becoming one of the more entertaining episodes of the whole series.

Funny Business

Written by: Ken Koonce and Michael Merton
Directed by: Scott Jeralds

The Joker's hyenas Bud and Lou are hidden somewhere in the city as Krypto and Bat Hound perch upon a building roof trying to catch their scent, wondering what crimes they're committing. They finally catch on to their laughs. They go to hunt them running through the subway only to find a laughing toy. They discover from a rodent informant that the hyenas are stealing stuff around Gotham City for the evil Joker's comedy collection and are preparing for the big whoop. They're presently at the "Nyuk Nyuk Nook", where they took care of the guard dog by wrapping him in silly string. Krypto and Bat Hound stumble upon Bud and Lou mid-robbery but are attacked by weird bubbles which suddenly begin making Bat Hound, an often serious presence, laughing wildly and uncontrollably. As chase after Bud and Lou they keep getting foiled by their traps, and Bat Hound is more concerned about the pranks the two hyenas stole than catching the hyenas. They lose them unfortunately and discover they're robbing the local large comedy store and stake it out. As the hyenas begin their loot, they enter the store and Bat Hound begins looking in the funny mirrors. If you really keep an eye out during this scene you'll catch yet another funny gag from the animators when Bat Hound looks in the funny mirror he's shaped exactly like Scooby Doo, a clever little jab I found really amusing, along with the whole making Bat Hound in to a joker. He's funny enough in that he takes himself seriously, but now the gags he pulls just made this a much funnier episode this time around.

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