Brandy & Mr. Whiskers (TV Series) Dog Play Afternoon (2006) User Reviews

Karma will haunt you

[DylanTheDstryr22 · 10/10 · 22 January 2023]

Starting off, Dog Play Afternoon is a great example of the theater episodes cartoons tend to have (think a better version of Drama Queen from DC Super Hero Girls for example). It uses the "don't sabotage things behind others backs" moral and nails it by how the plot plays out, it affected both Brandy and Whiskers and left a mark on why sabotage is bad

Margo gets the lead role by putting fizz in Brandy's drink so she burps in front of the judges, causing her to lose the lead already can paint Margo as the bad guy. She is already a super unlikable character and this makes me hate her even more (it's a good thing). You really do feel sorry for Brandy because she didn't do anything.

Gaspar really hits bullseye on "shady conman" like always. I love his character style, the French accent, the stripes and the little mustache, really makes a good antagonst for the show. He tells Brandy he can get her the lead if he also gets him the other lead, she accepts. Conman victory again.

A problem with this plot though, aside from Gaspar turning her red, Margo pretty much got away with giving Brandy the fizz. Nobody ever confronted her or anything for it, she just straight up disappears from the episode after Brandy disproves her.

Whiskers being the male lead, makes Brandy regret her decision, but Gaspar blackmails her with telling everyone that Margo (rightfully) got juiced. She finds out Whiskers is the lead and she regrets working with Gaspar, but "a deal is a deal"

So Brandy does it, Whiskers ended up being injured from a falling tree branch that Brandy set up. What goes around comes around. This is why i like this plot, Brandy got what she deserved for playing dirty, out of guilt she bails from the audition.

This is where the episode's moral hits. Sabotage never works. Different way than usual too since Brandy resigned rather than get kicked out. Good character development on her part, shows that she has the heart to not go through with throwing her best friend under the bus.

10/10, the only nitpick is Margo disappearing but other than that its great.

The show must go on

[brandyharringtonfan · 10/10 · 22 January 2023]

This is my second time writing this as I accidentally deleted the first one, so I'm gonna make this simple and try to remember my first review. I hate this.

Today I am raising the curtains and reviewing this episode after stuck on what to write for so long that I almost cried, so I'm finally ripping off the bandage and writing it. This is a very creative episode with far and few problems in between. I forgot all of the rest of the potentially pointless garbage I wrote here so let's start the show. Cut.

Act I: I don't think I'm kidding anyone when I say that this episode's plot is very interesting. As "Brandy & Mr. Whiskers" is known for doing with tropes, this time they took a spin on the theatre episode trope by incorporating a "Strangers on a Train" parody into it with Gaspar and Brandy. This episode has a very nice feel to it and I love all the browns and blues in the unique backgrounds of the auditorium. Speaking of that, this episode's animation is somewhat weak compared to most episodes. The movements feel off and everyone's faces look unnatural. Which is strange considering that returning storyboard artist from season 1 Rossen Varbanov storyboarded this episode, which I may add is the second to last episode he storyboarded in this show.

Act II: I am dedicating this section to be entirely about Margo because I feel there was too much to write about her to include it in the paragraph below as it would be too crowded. She creates the only major problem in this episode and it's the fact that she somewhat gets away with what she did to Brandy. Margo ruins Brandy's drink by adding seltzer to it and sabotages her audition, which means she would have thought they were at least on an equal playing field in order to have even commenced it. Now, just this is perfectly okay for the story as it creates the first conflict of the episode by showing Margo and Brandy's frenemy relationship. Later on in the episode however is when this becomes a problem. After Gaspar and Brandy make their deal, he ruins Margo's not Belle Delphine bathwater which makes her red so she can't be Rosemary. The only type of punishment she gets for her beginning sabotage is losing her role and being called out for her selfish accusation. You could argue that is punishment enough, but I'd have to disagree as Margo torments Brandy in almost every episode she stars in (except "Radio Free Bunny" as in that one she isn't directly rude to Brandy, just would rather hang out with Whiskers despite being all over her in the beginning). She called her uncool and ditched her in "Lack of Brains VS. Brawns" and "The No Sleep Over", she made fun of her for playing with a toy in "Itty Bitty Kitty", and made fun of her along with Gabriella and the unnamed lemur for not having a boyfriend/not having a cool boyfriend "Brandy's Best-Ever Boyfriend". Those are sister episodes by the way, and those four were just a few examples.

Act III: Another thing you could say is that Brandy is actually the bad guy in this episode. To that I'd have to say no as she isn't trying to hurt Whiskers out of her own volition, he does end up getting hurt however, but not due to Brandy. He got struck by lightning, which may I add feels kinda forced in the episode due to the fact that they just had to make him get injured still? Gaspar blackmailed Brandy into hurting Whiskers or else he would tell everyone she turned Margo into a dirty lollipop, this makes him pretty unlikable in the episode, yet still funny and a saint next to Margo the satanist.

I'm biased, so 10/10. Let the curtain call comense.