Man's Worst Friend (The Fairly OddParents)
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 More like "Show's Worst Episode"
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Man's Worst Friend is the final episode in Season 9 of The Fairly OddParents.
Despite not being the final Season 9 episode aired, it was the final Season 9 episode produced.
Plot
Foop wants the Turners thrown into misfortune and has an idea: he switches Sparky with Anti-Sparky. Because it works so well, Foop is ordered by the Anti-Fairy Council to exchange all domestic animals in Dimmsdale for evil ones from Anti-Fairy World. Chaos and misfortune ensue, and it’s up to Timmy and his fairies to get the normal animals back and save the day.
Why It's Man's Worst Friend
- This episode is almost like a downgraded version of "Anti-Poof" from Season 7, as Sparky's anti-counterpart, Anti-Sparky, was easily expected to eventually make an appearance similar to how Poof's anti-counterpart, Foop, was easily predicted to eventually make an appearance, albeit upon his debut in the aforementioned episode from Season 7. This shows how much the writers were worn thin with ideas for the show at the time.
- The only difference is that Poof is not in this episode, whereas Anti-Sparky is much meaner than Foop is, who is depicted as a coward to represent this fact.
- Timmy and his parents are spoiled rotten by being made rich for no reason, especially when the show already establishes the fact that Timmy has fairy godparents because he is a miserable child with neglectful parents and a mean babysitter (Vicky). The same thing even happens in the next infamous episode, "The Big Fairy Share Scare", except the writers instead use Chloe Carmichael to make Timmy and his parents rich. This is pretty bad for the show's premise overall, and it makes you want to question why does Timmy still has Cosmo and Wanda if he and his parents are now all of a sudden well off.
- Not to mention, Timmy has become colorblind, as he can't even tell Anti-Sparky apart from regular Sparky, even though it's pretty obvious that Sparky is yellow, while Anti-Sparky is blue, kinda like Amy Rose mistaking two different hedgehogs for Sonic in Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic '06.
- The "Sparky is the best dog ever" plot point is very annoying and forced to increase the conflict. If he was more loved for typical dog things instead of things like bringing the family money, it would feel more natural. At this point, it feels like the writers are trying to force the viewers to love Sparky.
- Like any later Fairly OddParents episode that features Foop, this episode misses many good opportunities to use his parents, Anti-Cosmo and Anti-Wanda, alongside him. Instead, we get the Anti-Fairy Council and the Grim Reaper (voiced by Paul Rudd), albeit in this episode's case. It does not help that Anti-Cosmo and Anti-Wanda themselves were both purposefully ignored by the writers shortly after Foop's debuted episode.
- Annoying and predictable running gags, such as Foop screaming in a high-pitched girly voice whenever Anti-Sparky yells at him, and Foop trying to use the potty but because of what the Grim Reaper said, he’s too afraid.
- Sparky is a complete wasted potential in this episode. He is lazily thrown out of the picture by being easily duped into fetching some stupid ball and does not return until at the very end of the episode, which is right after Anti-Sparky was defeated.
- The way Cosmo and Wanda got their wands eaten by Anti-Sparky is just another lazy attempt on the writers' part to force in drama and render them useless.
- Crocker is shoehorned in (what else is new) and thus, is only in this episode for not only humor's sake but also to help Timmy return all of the town's kidnapped animals. While not a bad thing, it's still really out of character for him, as he is a villain and thus, his main job is to hunt fairies.
- He gets framed and arrested despite no wrongdoings and did escape at the end.
- The way Cosmo defeats Anti-Sparky with a women's shoe at the end of the episode (which allows Cosmo and Wanda to get their wands back and change everything back to normal) is too convenient and lazy on the writers' part.
Redeeming Qualities That Are Man's Best Friend
- Good animation and voice acting as usual.
- The title card is very creative as it shows Good Sparky and Anti-Spanky half-by-half, but that won't excuse the episode's flaws.
- Timmy is still likable in this episode, as he retains his original personality, even if he is dumb by thinking Sparky and Anti-Sparky are the same character, which is surprising.
- On that topic, Cosmo and Wanda, aren't dumb at all and completely are back in their original personalities here. Cosmo isn't as dumb as he usually is.
- The Mayor of Dimmsdale is still likable and entertaining here.
- Chompy the Goat is not that bad of a character here.
- Girlfriend can be the most tolerable here.
- You can sympathize and feel sad for Mr. Crocker getting sent in prison even do he did no wrongdoings.
Trivia
- It was the final episode that Michelle Bryan and Gary Conrad directed.
- Due to negative reception from both fans and the executives at Nickelodeon, Sparky was completely written out of the show altogether after this episode, albeit in production order. As a result, this episode is Anti-Sparky’s first and only appearance in the entire series.
- Anti-Sparky somewhat bears a resemblance to Sparky's original design, where he was going to have blue fur, which was later changed to yellow as the audiences might mistake him for an Anti-fairy dog.
- The episode's title is also a pun of the word man's best friend.
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