The Egg and Ay-Yi-Yi!

Like the previous Tijuana Toads cartoon 'Mud Squad', 'The Egg and Ay-Yi-Yi' also has a premise that is quite old, not always appealing and can go either way of funny and cute or too silly and sentimental. Was actually very mixed on Crazylegs Crane as a character in this series, with him starting off with potential but began to grate the weaker his material got and all six of his Tijuana Toads cartoons range between mediocre and average.

'The Egg and Ay-Yi-Yi' is one of the average El Toro and Pancho versus Crazylegs Crane cartoons, and as far as the series goes it is somewhere around high middle. It's watchable and there are definitely good things, which applied to all the 17 cartoons in the series despite most of them being mediocre. But it is also quite uneven and felt like a cartoon of two halves, one quite a bit weaker than the other. Crazylegs actually isn't very well served here but the toads are in one of their better cartoons when talking about them as characters.

Beginning with what worked well, the first half was very cute (without being too much so) and quite amusing, one of the few cartoons in the series where the first half is good enough to make one interested in keeping watching. Did like El Toro and Pancho's attempts to feed baby Crazylegs, which was not dragged out too long or got repetitive.

El Toro and Pancho are usually annoying and not with an awful lot of personality, actually thought they were entertaining for the first time. The dialogue isn't as awkward as it usually is. Doug Goodwin's music score is lively and full of character with a main theme that sticks in the head in a good way.

However, 'The Egg and Ay-Yi-Yi' isn't as good when Crazylegs grows up. Crazylegs being voiced as too much of a goofball and acting too dim-witted and easily fooled made him not as easy to take this time round. He also doesn't have a lot to do that is memorable, the exception is the end which is not too inspired.

It is also a lot lower on the charm factor, the material is limited and is basically tired execution of recycled ground. The pace is a bit too routine and the story is nothing new. Again the voice acting is too broad all round and the animation has a cheap look throughout.

Summarising, starts off well but the second half is significantly less good. 5/10.