Brandy and Mr. Whiskers: A Duo Character of the Times (Mid Aughts)

Hey, I finished The Ghost and Molly McGee, or at least, the 13 episodes that I force myself to watch. Pretty good timing on my end, because I can talk about that show right after I talk about this other duo character show that Bill Motz and Bob Roth served as executive producers on.

They also wrote a few episodes which I KNOW I watched, but were ultimately pretty weak episodes with plots you see before. Brandy saves Mr. Whiskers' life and now Mr. Whiskers is devoting himself to him. The duo get jobs but only Mr. Whiskers is taking his seriously. Mr. Whiskers has to fight a bully. It's stuff you've seen before. Honestly, the whole show is kind of like that too.

Brandy and Mr. Whiskers. Kind of like Dave the Barbarian, it feels like more of the same. Like Dave the Barbarian, I also watched this show when I was a kid. I actually remember catching it at 4 in the morning back when I had trouble sleeping. It almost makes you think this cartoony mid-aughts era of Disney is here to stay, except it doesn't, really. Because while Brandy and Mr. Whiskers was more successful than Dave the Barbarian, it was also infinitely more hit or miss.

6:01 PM · Feb 1, 2021 "the thing about this era of cartoons is they had a habit of like. still marketing the teen girl from it. so like. dave the barbarian generally advertised candy. brandy and mr whiskers advertised brandy... phineas and ferb did this with candace too"
6:48 PM · Feb 1, 2021 "i think it's funny when whiskers decides to be fucked up but this is the first time in four eps that i laughed"
6:52 PM · Feb 1, 2021 "the use of stock images is trying to do something but i dont think it lands as much as it should"
4:24 PM · Feb 2, 2021 "i think what ails brandy and mr whiskers as well as dave the barbarian is that they are trying too hard. like it's supposed to be funny but im not laughing as much as i should"
5:12 PM · Feb 2, 2021 "i have never oscillated while watching a show so much...."

It's one of those shows where you can see what it's trying to do and how it's trying to be funny, kind of like Shnookums and Meat, but unlike Shnookums and Meat, it tends to be pretty successful at times. While Brandy and Mr. Whiskers had a lot of cringey jokes, such as the ending...

 6:59 PM · Feb 1, 2021 "the end of brandy and mr whiskers has this fucking scary big eye cat i hate seeing it..."

It also had some clever lines and even some of those bad influence morals you see in season 1 of the Simpsons. Also I'm currently rewatching season 1 of the Simpsons. Some of the humor was also pretty ahead of its time, with weird png-style jokes I saw a lot of in the late 2010s and even now.

Brandy and Mr. Whiskers also reminds me of another show that aired a bit later, My Gym Partner's a Monkey.

4:24 PM · Feb 2, 2021 "brandy is a little bit of an adam lyon actually"

Both shows have the put upon protagonist trying to survive is an animalistic world, while also bringing their own ideals before eventually giving up and going with it. I guess in Brandy's case it isn't nearly as sad because she can ultimately cope with Amazon life and is still, forgive the figure of speech, top dog.

You notice a lot of these changes in season 2, and they're somewhat subtle, as the main characters are falling into their own, accepting that they will never leave the jungle. But also there's a mall now. And the mall has been there the whole time. Capitalism has existed in the jungle from long before Brandy introduced it. Or perhaps Brandy introduced capitalism to a society that had its own economic system in place and ruined everything. Thanks, Brandy!

Surprisingly, one of the characters I really liked in the show was Brandy's friend-slash-rival, Margo. Usually I'm not one to stan the mean girl characters, but considering she is usually only a mean girl to Brandy, I think she does a good job working as a sort of foil to her in places Mr. Whiskers can't.

6:32 PM · Feb 1, 2021 "i like the way some of the characters look. i think they work well in the world together"

 

 

 

 

 

 

6:32 PM · Feb 1, 2021 "also bug girl is cool"
6:38 PM · Feb 1, 2021 "i haven't rlly kept track of faves but i think margo is my fave brandy and mr whiskers character idr her at all but she's cool... i like her design"

 

 

 

 

 

3:47 PM · Feb 2, 2021 "i really like margo and her disrespect of men...."

Of course there's also Mr. Whiskers, the surrogate little brother to Brandy and the comic relief of the show. I think ultimately, Whiskers is kind of more what Disney would have wanted than, say, Dave and Fang. A typical annoying younger sibling who wants to be included, makes a lot of stupid jokes, and is annoying to the older sisters watching while funny to the younger brothers in a way that's sort of relatable. 

9:02 AM · Feb 2, 2021 "Mr whiskers bpd head canon"
5:01 PM · Feb 2, 2021 "mr whiskers explaining edgar allen poe to me is.... weird."

 Does it really work? I dunno. I don't have a younger brother. 

But compare that to Dave the Barbarian, which is less focused on the teen girl character Candy, and more focused on Dave. Dave's not exactly, annoying, but he is a coward, and I think that's more likely to annoy Fang than it is Candy. Candy and Fang do butt heads pretty often, in a sort of way that would reflect my sister and I if our ages had swapped. Still I never really considered it to be "relatable" in any way either, even if it is a more realistic family dynamic. 

I guess what I'm trying to say is maybe that over the top relatability of Brandy and Mr. Whiskers did something for it? Even though I, personally, think Brandy and Mr. Whiskers is the worse show.

As for other characters there's Lola, Brandy's best friend, who is just that. Ed, Whiskers' best friend who is decidedly weirder than Mr. Whiskers. Sheryl and Meryl, a couple of twin toucans who are about to fight each other to the death at any given moment (maybe not the best characters). And of course Gaspard Le Gecko, the world's horniest lizard. That's all I'm saying about him fuck that guy.

Also there was a character named Wolfy in an episode it's very fun when that happens.

4:52 PM · Feb 2, 2021 "points at the screen because i heard yet another one of my friends' names in a disney show"

Overall Rating for Brandy and Mr. Whiskers: C Tier