What is that type of music that everyone finds popular nowadays?
That's right: yodeling.
???
Originated from Germany, yodeling was, by far, one of the most popular traditions in music... in the 1830s.
But in today's world, some people treat this foreign tradition as a sacred text. Don't believe me? Then check out LarryBoy and the Yodelnapper.
Finally, someone saw yodeling as still the "holy grail" of music. Forget rapping. Do away with country. To hell with heavy metal... yodeling is treated with respect in this movie... maybe TOO MUCH respect. I mean, this movie's main focus is on yodeling that we get a mixed message, which is rare in the LarryBoy movies.
As for the movie itself, it's very clichéd, and a bit confusing, because of the mixed message. In fact, all they're doing is trying to "promote" yodeling. Plus, I feel that the yodelers in this movie would've made much better characters... in fact, some of them do... but I'm getting ahead of myself.
So, before we get into this yodeling fest gone haywire, it's best to talk about the book that it was based on.
The LarryBoy Cartoon Adventures, along with the video series, spawned a chapter book series. For this movie, it was based on the book under the same name: LarryBoy and the Yodelnapper.
The book was easy to read and understand, because the message was clear near the end. Also, the credibility was used to the story's advantage. This movie, however, made everything less credible, because-
1. after you read, you can definitely tell that the movie skipped parts from the book
AND
2. the message is almost bypassed by the excessive yodeling enthusiasm
Now that we've mentioned the book that this movie was based on, we can go on ahead and dive into LarryBoy and the Yodelnapper.
Opening Scene:
We come across Larry and butler Archie, who are the first ones in line at a toy store. What are they getting: a doll with a hula skirt.
-Apparently, this is the Monster High doll or Barbie of their town...
-Plus, why is Larry in line for a girl's toy? He's a guy! He shouldn't be collecting girl things. What, doesn't the store sell Hot Wheels or any Nerf guns anymore?
Archie questions him about getting another Hula friend, because apparently, Larry has a whole bunch of the dolls back home. However, Larry is determined to complete his collection.
As soon as the store opens, everyone crowds into the building like a Black Friday or holiday rush... stampeding over Archie in the process.
-Wow. That's gotta hurt.
Larry is on a pogo stick to pursuit of the "sacred" Hula doll. But he accidentally knocks over a science lab set, which creates this chemical BS, turning the substances into one giant clay monster...
-Okay. How does that work, exactly, huh?
The monster romps and stomps, creating a much bigger frenzy than the mock-Black Friday madness that just happened not too long ago.
Larry sees all this, and changes into LarryBoy.
-Okay. So a pile of stuffed animals is the new alternative to a dressing room.
LarryBoy tries fighting the monster, but... (like the Super Ego from Leggo My Ego) the monster must of had his Steroid Wheaties & rough-houses our hero.
But LarryBoy finds a way to stop this beast: by lulling it to sleep with a toy saxophone.
-That's it? That's one monster that can be stopped by almost anything. Well, this is only the opening, so the movie can get away with that.
After putting the monster to sleep, animal control is called in to take it away.
-Uh, no. The monster just sleeps in the store. Okay, that's one thing the movie didn't use from the book. This makes an unnecessary plot hole, because it begs the question: What do the people &/or LarryBoy do with the defeated monster?
LarryBoy suddenly remembers the Hula Heidi doll, but the store owner tells him that they're out of the dolls.
-Who bought all the dolls? Who knows?
(But my guess is the stick person that I drew...)
LarryBoy sees this as a crisis &... has an epileptic seizure(?)
-Dude, it's not the end of the world. Try eBay or Amazon. In fact, why are you collecting dolls? Are you afraid that the Yu-Gi-Oh era is going to die off?
Manor scene:
Larry goes home depressed... by jumping into the mud in self-pity. Archie tries cheering him up, but Larry wants nothing of it.
-Note that when Larry jumps in the mud, some of the mud splashes onto Archie's face.
That's no problem until seconds later, I promise you...
Archie informs Larry about a yodeling festival, featuring a famous yodeler that they know.
-Well, I bet this yodeler has a simple, yet still reasonable name like Struddles, or Charlie, or...
Enger Warblethroat
Okay, this must be a flirtatious yodeler. I don't know.
-And, my God, is Archie still talking with the mud still on him? I mean, he could be talking all day and he would still have that stuff on his face!
Fortunately, Larry is suddenly happy that there's a yodeling festival featuring Warblethroat, and he rushes off to get ready.
-Wow. That was quick. Do you think he'll be mood swinging the entire movie?
Yodeling Festival Scene:
Here, we're finally introduced to Enger Warblethroat, or...
-Sherlock Holmes? He's in this movie? My God! They're not even trying! That's friggin' Sherlock Holmes! Just compare this guy to Basil of Baker Street from that Disney movie...
(Just minus the mustache when comparing him to Basil...)
The yodeler performs, but is then sucked up a pipe.
The lady hosting the show informs the audience that Enger has been kidnapped.
-And so coins the term "yodelnapped."
yodelnap- adj. Kidnapping a yodeler against their will.
Larry hears this and changes into LarryBoy to pursue the kidnapping.
-I wish I could take this part serious, but I'm getting bombarded by the rush-dumbass humor.
LarryBoy isn't able to save Enger from being kidnap- I mean... yodelnapped.
Villain's Lair scene:
We then cut to the obvious set of the villain's lair. We see Enger inside a tube along with other obvious yodelers in their tubes.
-It would've been great if the other yodelers got any more screen time, but by paying more attention to the "yodeling" sanctions, superhero antics, forced comic relief, and even MORE enthusiasm on the genre yodeling, I don't know anything about the other yodelers. They're like drive-by cameos.
Ex. Here's one yodeler. We're done shooting you. Good bye.
Ex. Here's another yodeler. Out of the way. We just needed you for this one take.
Enger: "Where am I?"
-(laughing) Enger sounds like Arnold Schwartzeneggar. Who plays this yodeler?
But Enger's question gets answered when the villain appears to the yodelers. This is Greta von Gruesome; she's an evil zucchini that has a problem with greed.
-Is it me, or does this villain look like a cross between Zerg from Buzz Lightyear of Star Command and a singing opera lady?
Enger asks why Greta has kidnapped him and the other yodelers. Greta reveals her plans to them, saying that she has yodeling greed (or fetish), and that she kidnapped the yodelers so that they could only yodel for her. Enger refuses to yodel for her, but then Greta threatens him and the others by pouring smelt-flavoring pudding on their heads if they didn't obey her.
-Well, it's far better than MOST German cooking.
Daily Bumble:
The next day, Larry rides the elevator to work, when he gets a call from Archie... on his mop.
-As if they learned from Angry Eyebrows that mops aren't meant for phone calls. I guess Larry is immune to pink-eye.
Archie calls Larry to tell him that if he puts the mop next to the newspaper staff when they're talking about the recent kid- I mean, "yodelnapping" of Enger Warblethroat, then Archie will determine whether or not the data is useful in finding out who the yodelnapper is.
-Basically, Larry must make a big spectacle of himself in order to find out who the yodelnapper is.
Larry agrees to his, and then he runs into the newspaper's photographer, flirting with her in the dumbest way possible... by being caught between the two elevator doors.
-Stuff like this will never get a guy laid...
In the office, Bob the Tomato is talking with his staff members about who the yodelnapper might be. And of course, nobody knows the answer. And Larry is too busy shoving his mop at people to get info from them.
Giving up, Larry runs to his janitor's closet to talk to Archie. The two confirm that the newspaper doesn't know anything about the yodelnapper. So Larry decides to try his luck at superhero class.
Superhero class:
Unfortunately for LarryBoy, he gets no answers from Bok Choy, his teacher, because the Chinese cabbage is too busy mourning the loss of Enger Warblethroat.
-Dude, the yodeler didn't die. He just got kidnapped... I mean, "yodelnapped." Okay, is that a household name now? "Yodelnap"?
Bok Choy then takes the time to share the lesson with his class about being content with what you have... and then he goes back to crying.
-And there's the problem! I really wish I could take the lesson seriously, but I feel like I'm too busy focusing on the yodeling, crying over the loss, and the comic antics... I don't remember the whole Bible verse that he just mentioned!!!
LarryCave:
LarryBoy returns home only to find that Archie planned something for him.
Seconds later, LarryBoy is dressed up as a yodeler. Archie explains that LarryBoy will pose as a yodeler.
-Wow, going undercover? What will his yodeler name be? I bet it's something simple like... um...
Noodle Blabberbop
Another flirtatious name? Come on! This is Bumblyburg, not Las Vegas, where everything happens and stays in Vegas!
LarryBoy likes the yodeler name, but now... Archie mentions a catch: Larry has to let the yodelnapper take him in order to find the other yodelers and set them free.
-This seems like a good plan, but there's this awkward moment where Archie explains this and then literally turns his head towards the camera to say the last word: "yodelnapped." Awkward, isn't it?
-In fact, I felt like Archie reached out from the screen and slapped me in the face. (In fact, it took me a while to take this pic, honestly...)
-Okay. This has spawned a segment that I liked to call: The "Awkward Face" Moment. As if the writers didn't learn from LarryBoy and the Fib from Outer Space; they rather have the Fib look like a pedophile than a serious villain-
I wish I brought up the "Awkward Face" Moment at the time of the Fib from Outer Space movie review, but the scene with The Yodelnapper had officially coined the segment. So, in definition to all other scenes like this in future movie reviews, an "Awkward Face" Moment is a scene where a character faces directly at the camera and says a cliché/weird line, making the scene unforgettably awkward.
-By the way, I'm forecasting another "Awkward Face" Moment in the future... but in a Penguins of Madagascar episode...
Archie: "Do you understand the plan?"
-Uh, no, because the "Awkward Face" Moment just blew me away, but could you email me your so-called "splendid" plan? Greatly appreciated...
Villain's Lair Scene 2:
Greta von Gruesome is reading the newspaper, when she comes across an article about a yodeler named Noodle Blabberbop.
-Okay, what the movie doesn't tell you is that there was a news conference for Noodle Blabberbop before this got onto the newspapers. Don't believe me? Just check it out in the book.
Anyway, Enger tries to reason with Greta, but forgot about the pudding threat from earlier; and he gets another dose of the German delight onto his head, as well as the yodelers.
-The yodelers must be like: "Gee, thanks a lot, Enger!" "Yeah, you made her angry again!" "Why did we make you the voice of reason again?"
Greta plans to yodelnap Noodle Blabberbop.
-There! I said it, finally! "Yodelnap"! It's not that hard.
Yodeling Festival Scene 2:
LarryBoy, undercover as Noodle Blabberbop, gets ready to perform, but then gets stage-fright at the last minute. Larry admits to Archie a sad secret: he doesn't know how to yodel.
-Wow. Was Archie high when he came up with his so-called brilliant plan? I mean, that's a good point Larry made. Archie didn't even ask whether or not Larry could yodel. In fact, they didn't even rehearse all of this!
Archie basically tells him to improvise. LarryBoy, still dressed in that stupid yodeler outfit, walks back on stage and tries to yodel, but is unsuccessful, pissing off both the audience... (and, possibly the people viewing this movie)
Finally, Larry comes up with a way to reeling the audience (both on the movie and the people seeing this movie): by clog dancing.
-Okay, wait a minute. Is this turning into America's Got Talent? If it is, then this review is over!
But that doesn't stop the yodelnapper from bringing down the pipe to suck up our hero.
But take a listen to what the host of the yodeling show says after Larry gets yodelnapped:
"What kind of bad, bad person would steal a sheep?"
-Geez, lady! A person got kidnapped! Forget the sheep! Are you high?!
Villain's Lair Scene 3:
Larry is placed inside a tube, and is finally introduced to Greta von Gruesome. Greta tells him to yodel for her, but he tries to tell her that he can't yodel. Greta keeps dumping pudding onto his head for supposedly refusing to yodel. Finally, Larry reveals himself as LarryBoy; and, with his toy sheep, he bursts out of his tube.
-How the heck is THAT possible?
Next, LarryBoy sets the yodelers free from their tubes. But that doesn't stop Greta from intervening. LarryBoy suddenly recalls the lesson that he [somehow] learned from superhero class...
-... you know, the class that the teacher spent the whole time crying in...
LarryBoy explains that greed you make you feel miserable, but being content with the things that you already have will make you happy. Greta hears this, but obviously doesn't give a [bleep]; she presses a button, sending LarryBoy and the yodelers falling through a trapdoor...
...and into the infested breeding ground of... Hula dolls(?) But don't you worry: Greta modified these dolls to do her evil bidding, which comes to a disappointment to our hero and victims.
-Okay, this is getting silly! So, I'm wrapping this up!
LarryBoy, with Enger's help with his accordion, plays polka music to lead the dolls astray & explode.
LarryBoy fights a brief battle with Greta.
He ends up dumping her own pudding onto her, and then ties her up.
-It's about friggin' time if you ask me.
-Oh, wait. In the book, Greta tries to flee with all her stuff in her helicopter. LarryBoy tricks her into taking his toy sheep with her, making the helicopter to heavy for the thing to fly her towards escape... yeah. They don't add that in the movie, but that would've been a better defeat than this one that they could come up with!
Yodeling Festival Scene 3:
The yodelers return to the festival to give tribute to LarryBoy for saving them from the Yodelnapper. They rejoice by yodeling the LarryBoy theme song.
-No kidding! They're yodeling the theme song!
But that doesn't stop the clay monster from breaking the laws of probability, as he bursts onto the stage and grabs LarryBoy.
However, the toy sheep from earlier plays music for the monster to dance to. And the story ends on that note.
-Weird. LarryBoy is still in the hands of the clay monster... nobody's helping him...
Short: "A Polar Pickle"
Just like the other 2 shorts from the first 2 cartoon adventures, I won't talk about this one.
It's basically about LarryBoy trying to get a kid's stuffed animal back from a group of penguins that... apparently make the Penguins of Madagascar look and feel like pussy-fied birds.
-I'm telling you. It's 5 minutes of hell, because it's a short, trying to be a Tom and Jerry short, resulting in a sloppy short with forced slap-stick antics.
And that's LarryBoy and the Yodelnapper. Was it really worth it?
Granted, this movie wanted to promote LarryBoy some more. In fact, Big Idea was trying to do that, since Jonah stole the "golden ticket" to theatrical stardom.
But for this movie, I felt like the creators of LarryBoy left their brains at the Rumor Weed convention. I mean, all the good stuff seemed to end with Rumor Weed; and all the weird stuff seemed to start with Angry Eyebrows.
I can give this movie credit for creating an adaptation from the book, but there were so many things that were addressed in the book that they forgot to add it in the movie, which caused most of the plot holes.
Overall, the movie was questionable. The plot was awkward. The message was mixed in a bad way. I mean, it's not worth the constant enthusiasm of yodeling to make a movie look and feel great. Plus, the characters were morons(some of them were rip-offs); and LarryBoy was too watered down in this episode. And I bet you that this movie won't learn their lesson in LarryBoy in the Good, the Bad, and the Eggly. I'm doing that cartoon episode next, by the way. And thank God, that would be the last cartoon episode, because one, this is all ridiculous; and two, LarryBoy and the Bad Apple is the redemption that flew LarryBoy out of the hole of movie despair. But in fairness, I have no problem watching this crazy movie anytime, because it's LarryBoy... this is coming from a die-hard LarryBoy fan. Sorry...
Amateur Critic
Source: LarryBoy and the Yodelnapper
Pic of Basil of Baker Street courtesy of Disney's The Great Mouse Detective
Also used: Nintendo DSi on some of the pics
All rights go to Big Idea Entertainment
