It's a Wonderful Half Life is the eighth episode of CatDog from the second season.
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It's a Wonderful Half Life
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Episode
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Season 2, Episode 25
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Airdate
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August 27, 1999
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Previous Episode
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Next Episode
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Directed by
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Robert Porter, Barrington Bunce, Marlene May
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Written by
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Steven Banks
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Music by
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Denis M. Hannigan
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Characters Present
Summary
Cat and Dog dream of being separate animals.
Plot
The episode opens up with a fast moving steam train engine No. 9 pulling a boxcar and caboose rushing out of a tunnel, billowing clouds of steam and smoke, and blowing its whistle. As it does, it heads toward a curve that is next to a large cat head shaped mansion. The train is going too fast for the curve, but is unable to stop, so as it blows its whistle, the engine jumps the tracks and crashes into the mansion... and even knocks down the background. It is then revealed to be a model train set owned by Dog and a model building that Cat made since Dog's engine had inadvertentaly wrecked his house. Cat is very cross that Dog had wrecked his model dream house with his train. Dog apologizes, but grabs a part of Cat's house, and asks Cat how he could fit in it. Cat angrily grabs the part back, and furiously tells Dog that it is only a model, before he calls Dog a nincompoop. But when Dog shrugs and tells Cat that it was an accident, Cat, still angry, cheekily grabs and angrily throws the engine of Dog's train at the door, and when it hits it, the engine breaks apart, much to a surprised Dog's astonishment. Cat then angrily complains that Dog is always breaking his stuff. Dog, now angry that Cat had angrily wrecked his engine on purpose, furiously complains that Cat never wants to have any fun. Both are angered by the rude comments they angrily gave to each other, so they both furiously wished they were never attached to each other.
While this is going on, Winslow's door opens while he's working on something in his room using a jackhammer, and tells CatDog to keep it down. When Winslow sees that the two are angry, he warns them not to go to bed mad, and just as he closes his door, Catdog just toss the remanence of Cat's dream house and Dog's model train at his door since Dog's poor engine is a sad mess. As CatDog go to bed, they still mutter angrily about each other as they're violently beating their pillows, then start to fight over the blanket and end up ripping it in half, and that was when their dreams begin.
Both CatDog's dreams are styled after classic retro cartoons from the late 1920's or early 1930's and everyone is drawn like old MGM/Disney type characters. In Dog's dream (which is the dream that starts the whole main part of the episode), he is a hobo with a derby, a cane in his hand, a scarf around his neck, a pair of pants, and even a small rag tied around the end of his tail (and also a pair of gloves like most 1930's cartoon characters), but lives a very fun and cheerful life. He sings Life is Great with different cartoon animals, including the sun and a train. After the song is done, he is lying and relaxing under an apple tree while it also shows a life-sized version of Cat's dream house in the distance.
In Cat's dream, he is a multi millionaire tycoon and the owner of a plant inside his mansion that manufactures money just for him. It first shows him sleeping in his bed when he calls Winslow, his butler, by dropping his ball of yarn and it rolls and knocks on Winslow's door. Then Winslow comes out with Cat's breakfast, caviar and milk (Bossy '84 according to Cat), and after Cat is done with his breakfast, he then says that it's time to get to work and starts singing I Love Money. After the song is over, he orders his workers to speed up production so he could make more money. As they do, he notices the Greasers, who in his dream are workers for him, and fires them just for fun. After the Greasers leave after they're fired, the house suddenly shakes as a train speeds down the tracks next to it and causes a large room full of coins and dollars to come out and flood the room, burying Cat and Winslow. Cat, annoyed with how the trains go by and shake his home, says that he's going to buy the railroad just, so he could move the tracks further away from his home.
Later that day, a freight train that looks just like Dog's model train set before Cat grabbed and threw his engine at the door and broke it into pieces on purpose, steams into a railroad yard, and after the train comes to a complete stop as the engine's wheels stop moving, Dog climbs out of one of its boxcars and sees three other dogs kicking a can around and playing. He introduces himself to them and asks them if he could join in the fun, which they are more than happy to let him. But as they're playing, a truck full of supplies for building railroad tracks and Cat's limousine, driven by Winslow, suddenly pull up and Cat orders the workers to get started. Then he notices Dog and the three other dogs playing, then steps out of his limo and orders them to get off his property or else he would have them arrested. As Dog tells Cat that they were just having fun, Cat just furiously yells "Get out!" at them, making them leave, much to his devious delight.
Later that night, the Greasers, now homeless and warming themselves by a barrel fire in an alleyway in the city after being fired by Cat, plan to get their revenge on Cat by singing We're Gonna Get That Cat, until the song ends by showing the headlights of a car (possibly Cat's limo) then that of a train and an engine. They soon carry out their plan as Winslow is driving Cat back home in his limousine so he could count his money. First they toss a trash can in front of Cat's limo, causing it to screech to a stop, then the Greasers surround the car, saying that they'd like a 'word' with Cat. But just as Cat says that they're gonna get them (meaning him and Winslow), Winslow chickens out, tells Cat to speak for himself, and runs away saying that "This butler's history!". Much to Cat's anger, Cat calls out at Winslow to come back, but when he doesn't, he steps out of his limo, calls him a rat, and bellows out that he's fired while throwing his hat onto the ground. Unfortunately, he then instantly becomes nervous again when he realizes that he is now at the mercy of the Greasers by himself.
Meanwhile, Dog and the three other dogs he was playing with earlier are now sitting by a fire tossing cards into Dog's derby. As they are, the three dogs' mother calls them to tell them that it's time for dinner. Dog asks them if they could stay and play one more game, but when their mother calls to them again and the other dogs tell him that they have to go home, they leave poor Dog alone by himself, just before he starts to sing about how he would like a home and a friend for life.
After he finishes his song, he spots the Greasers chasing Cat toward a freight train sitting in a siding. The Greasers then threaten Cat's life for firing them just for his own enjoyment, but before they could hurt him, Dog, who appears leaning against one of the boxcars, interrupts them and tells them that three against one isn't fair. After saying this, Cliff tries to rush Dog, who bravely trips him with his cane, then takes care of Shriek and Lube and makes a break for it with Cat, but right after he does, the train is ready to pull out. The engine's bell rings as the train slowly starts to move out of the yard when the engine starts to pull away. Dog and Cat run alongside the moving train to try and jump on board, but are still chased by the Greasers, who are in hot pursuit. Dog manages to jump onto one of the boxcars, then leans out of the door and reaches for Cat's paw. Back with the real Cat and Dog, their dream clouds are shown moving slowly closer to each other as Cat's dream counterpart gets closer to Dog's in his dream. Then just in time, Dog grabs Cat's paw and pulls him onto the train, just as the Greasers jump and try to grab Cat, but end up face planting onto the ground as the train steams away. Cat, grateful to Dog for saving his life, offers Dog to live with him. Just as Dog is now happy that he has a home, since Cat is now happy that he has a friend while they both sing a brief song about it as the train speeds down the tracks, their dreams unfortunately end abruptly when the engine blows its whistle one last time as the train reaches a section of track still under construction and crashes with a large explosion to presumably destroy the whole train.
In the morning, CatDog wake up suddenly and fall out of their bed from the train crash in their dreams. After having their dream, they finally make up their quarrel. As Cat offers that they fix Dog's model train and his engine, Dog offers that they should fix Cat's model dream house first, in which Cat agrees. Then Dog rushes the both of them to fetch the power tools while the episode ends outside their house with a lot of crashing and yelling from the two of them coming from inside, and even some smoke coming from the window while they are fixing their models like Cat's dream house and Dog's model train with his engine, tender, boxcar, and caboose.
Trivia
- Mr. Sunshine and Eddie do not appear.
- The scene where Cat calls for Winslow by dropping his ball of yarn and rolling into his bedroom door in the beginning of his dream is a reference to the classic movie Citizen Kane.
- One of the three dog kids that Dog plays with bares a close resemblance to Bimbo from Betty Boop.
- Throughout Cat and Dog's dreams, all of the characters are in black and white while everything else is in color.
- This episode, especially the characters in the dreams, are a spoof of early cartoons of the late 1920's and early 1930's. This episode makes a historical comparison of the lifestyle of the Roaring '20s (Cat's dream) and the Great Depression (Dog's dream).
- Cat's workers also resemble characters similar to Mickey Mouse and the Animaniacs.
- The engine of the train in the opening scene on Dog's model train set, and in scenes of his and Cat's dreams, is No. 9 and is a 4-4-0 engine or an 'American' type steam locomotive. Steam trains of this wheel arrangement, a total of which about 25,000 were built, were used most common on American railroads during the 1800's and 1830's (until 1928) and were given the name "American" in 1872 because of all the work they did on every railroad in America. These types of engines have eight wheels (four leading wheels, four driving wheels, and no trailing wheels).
- In the scene where the Greasers are about to harm Cat and when Dog saves him from them, it shows that the train has several boxcars, but when it shows the train starting to move as the engine's bell rings, it only has one boxcar.
- When the background is knocked over, the mansion is ruined, except Dog's train engine, that Cat grabs and throws at the door to break it apart.
- The last time this episode (along with "Shepherd Dog") aired on Nicktoons is August 22, 2011.
Transcript
For a full transcript of It's a Wonderful Half Life, click here.
Gallery
The gallery for It's a Wonderful Half Life may be view here.