Review: Animals “Roaches”

 

Kill…roaches…dead.

Spoilers Below

Roaches

Gay cockroaches are in the middle of a few spousal disputes when an exterminator comes by and…well…exterminates them. One of them survives, Phil, and is taken in by a priest named Father Mike and a pregnant cockroach named Mary. When Mike finds out that Phil is gay, the priest begins to go off until the ring leader Graham shows up to help alleviate the tension and pitch the idea of leaving the wall.

While on their perilous journey, Graham comes in contact with a sticky trap and is subsequently shot by Mary. The journey continues with Mike, Mary, and Phil, and it doesn’t take long before the priest freaks out and gets stepped on in the process. The exterminator shows up and chases the last two cockroaches into the bathroom where Mary gives birth. Unfortunately, after Mary has the baby she dies and Phil is killed, but not before sending the baby down a drain that leads out to a creek with other cockroaches.

 

Seagulls

A number of seagulls are strung together by a plastic ring used normally for soda and it’s shot in the style of a reality show documentary. The pigeons spend most of the time bickering over nonsense all the while trying to escape the result of LITTERING! THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU FUCKING LITTER! Unfortunately for the group, when one goes, everyone else goes, and this includes when Max tries going on a date and the rest of his compadre has to tag-a-long. Fortunately, Geoff gets free and leaves his pals behind who embrace because they are of course family.

Our Take

You know you’re in NYC when you’re dealing with seagulls and roaches! This week’s episode reverts back to the dual animal plots each dealing with their own problems.

The “roaches” deal was highlighted by two different things…1) the incredible background designs showcasing the walls of cockroaches and 2) the ridiculous social decisions made by religious zealots that usually always end in someone getting killed for no good reason. SUCH a strong episode for guest voices, with “Roaches” getting one of my favorites in the biz Demetri Martin. Demetri’s voice acting delivery is hilariously different than most if not all of anyone in show biz. Almost a whisper, Demetri actually gets quite a bit more dialogue in the episode than he does in most We Bare Bears episodes, so if you wanna hear some more of “Ice Bear” bring it here, kids.

“Seagulls” was pretty funny in that the idea of a reality show was really, really good. My personal favorite of the group was the always reliable Ben Schwartz, not only because we almost share a last name, but because a lot of his voice characters seem so different than one another, that you don’t even catch that it’s him all the time. The recently pulled over and charged with cocaine Adam Pally delivered a “mute and you didn’t miss much” performance but all of the girls were hilarious.

The one gripe I had with the episode was that the house featuring the cockroaches had a dog left home while his mom went on TV to explain a virus outbreak, and there was a scene where the pup interacts with the cockroaches. What I would’ve done is put the “Seagulls” episode in an episode for another week, and maybe get the dog’s point of view of what was going on with the exterminator and what she thought when she saw the cockroaches. All we really get from the dog is a fart at the end which doesn’t seem plausible because she’s a lady, however, I would’ve liked to seen a different vantage point of the main premise. This is minor, and this show is giving us a strong second season.