Review: Rick and Morty “Rise of the Numbericons: The Movie”
Overview
Morty finally gets to use attend a regular old math class taught by his one and only math teacher, Goldenfold. He may not be paying attention, but at least he’s there. Class is quickly interrupted by a character we’ve seen before – the rapper Ice-T. In the Rick & Mortyverse, Ice-T is also Water-T – an H2O-based character we met in ‘Get Schwifty.’ He’s also the prince of an elemental letter planet. It’s revealed that Goldenfold and Water-T have some kind of longstanding beef that started when Ice-T was a student in his math class. Their argument is one that sees them on opposite sides of the age old battle of rap music vs math, but, nonetheless, Goldenfold and Morty go to Water-T’s dying planet to try and help solve a complex math problem. Solving the problem is the key to rescuing the Alphabetrium dynasty from the ruthless Numbericons – a cold and calculating group of space rivals. Betrayal ensues.
Our Take
The past 6 seasons of Rick and Morty has created a landscape peppered with interesting and unusual side characters. Some of those characters seem like obvious choices to anchor episode-length stories of their own, like Snowball the Dog or Time God Jessica. How are things doing on the planet of the super dogs? Probably great – they’re adorable super dogs! Did Time God Jessica die when Mr. Frundles destroyed the planet? Probably not – she has time powers! Other characters seem destined to die slow deaths on the ash heap of one-offs, like King Flippy Nips. Nobody cares about that dude and his boring problems.
So where does Water-T fit on the scale of Snowball to Flippy Nips? Somewhere in the middle! The whole Ice-T/Water-T thing is a very stupid idea, and it’s always nice when the seed of something very stupid is given what it needs to grow into a big dumb tree. I didn’t have a lot of lingering questions about Water-T after we first encountered him, but now, years later, those unasked questions have been answered, and how! It’s anlso important to note that Ice-T was kind enough to lend his actual voice acting talent to this alpha-numeric adventure – his gung-ho effort is appreciated.
The world-building in this episode has details that go beyond the moronic, bordering on the sublime. Framing everything as a big blockbuster movie is the perfect way to hold it all together. There’s Sinister 7, the prime number femme fatale. There’s the requisite MacGuffin – a necklace known as the ‘I of Harmony.’ There’s the primitive squiggle letter people and their forgotten and useful culture. There’s a big reveal when a friend turns out to be not a friendly ‘S’ but a fiendish ‘8.’ It’s got all the parts that must be the things we love, because that’s how all of our movies go! It’s also a Rick-less episode, which is a bold move. He would fully be ragging on what’s happening, slowing down the proceedings with unnecessary complications.
It makes sense that Morty would fit in perfectly with a by-the-book blockbuster movie plot, and he’s pretty pleased in regards to the speed with which they’re moving through the paces. This episode lacks pretty much everything that we’ve come to expect from Season 7 – it is utterly without nuance, and perfectly pointless. ‘Rise of the Numbericons: The Movie,’ dares to be stupid. Does that make for a fun enough half hour of television? Pretty much!
It’s nice to see the show feel like it’s ok to just fuck around a bit – the elemental letter world is akin to the “Silver Cops” saga on R&M’s spiritual sister show, Solar Opposites. This episode is a time-waster in the best sense of the word – a bunch of noise that signifies nothing. What makes this kind of random world-building episode enjoyable is all in the draping – does this world hang together properly when forced to dangle on the hook of its own logic? Or are there dangling bits of illogicism that threaten to unravel the whole thing, like a poorly knit sci-fi sweater? ‘Rise of the Numbericons: The Movie’ passes the sweater test, and while it may not be my favourite episode of the season, but I respect and honour it’s right to exist and live among the rest of this season’s annals of excellent eps.
Do we know if Hulu will be the only entity to have the dub, or if it will be on other platforms, too? The show in general is definitely going to be on multiple platforms.