Clarence

Cartoon Network has this animated show called Clarence. Due to the artwork, I was highly skeptical. I was wrong.

I watched an episode where Clarence was annoying everyone with a bicycle horn, but whatever. Out of the 5 I've seen so far, my favorite is Dream Boat.

The episode begins in school'd detention. Sumo, the main character in this episode, writes vague answers on his detention slip. The detention teacher orders more respectful answers before he leaves.

We cut to Sumo playing with Clarence and Jeff. Just by seeing Sumo's home, an rv on a dirt field with a single tree with tire swing, you can tell he is street smart. After Clarence falls due to the tire swing breaking off the branch, Sumo's father tells him to clean the field since their three dogs knocked over the trash cans. He gets inside at night when he finishes to his dad, many brothers, mom, and his dad's friends. Let me add how funny I thought it was how Sumo picked a single chicken wing while his dad picked like five and his bros also went crazy. Sumo for some reason decides to announce he is going ot build a boat. His dad is a skeptic, and wants to see it so he can believe it.

Sumo reads a book about boats and his older brother complains about how boring it is.

Sumo is only building it with random wooden planks. Jeff and Clarence offer to help, but he declines. After being rejected by him for a movie, Clarence begs to Santa Claus (A plush of Santa hanging over his bunk bed. I thought that was funny too) that he will get the boat built so they can hang out again.

We see Sumo struggling with a flashlight, but his dad hangs another light over the tree. He goes back after warning his son to not get sick when it begins to rain. Sumo becomes very frustrated after only bending a nail, and somehow destorys the whole thing. Clarence and Jeff appear again in raincoats, only Sumo accepts the help finally.

A small montage occurs, and the boat is mainly made from a matress. Sumo's brother even offers to drive them to a lake. (He claims only to see them fail, but it is still a touching moment to me) The three friends dress as pirates and begin to make it float. It works at first, but only to sink and have them struggle in the lake. Sumo's dad saves them from a boat. Sumo narrates the last moments as his dad hands a camera to Jeff and has him take a picture with Sumo.

Apparently, the narration was his answer to the question on the slip,"What are your goals in life and how are you going to achieve them?". The detention teacher cries, and that's the last thing we hear before the episode ends.

The only flaw I had with this episode was: Why did Sumo suddenly decide he wanted to make a boat? Otherwise, even being new to the show, this episode showed character depth for me, and was surprisingly touching.

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Final Rating: 9 / 10

Stars: 4.5 / 5

Summary: Being a skeptic at first with Clarence, Dream Boat was a counter to this opinion of mine. It shows character depth with half main, half supporting character, and is touching. It also has its funny moments, an excellent balance.

#clarence #review