Going into Walrus, I had low expectations. I had seen Roofhowse fumbling with a football as a poor attempt at laughs and I had seen some jock guy acting all macho. Was this special going to make me wonder why I even bother to follow Club Penguin at my age?
The answer? Yes, yes it did....but not as much as I thought it would. Amid the moments that truly made me cringe, there are some really smart jokes. Rockhopper delivers most of them (pirating videos, booty, leveling up on game, ect.), while the others only get a few good jabs.
Despite these moments targeted towards us elders, it's clear that this special has its sights on young children. There are numerous "ha ha, this character can't catch" and "ha ha, the machine isn't working and this guy is just spinning all around" moments that made me question my life choices. The entire stage play scene (which served only as a dump for Merry Walrus exposition and allowed all of our main characters to be in the same place) displays this point perfectly; everything in this scene is just dumb humor, with mindless background penguins laughing hysterically at very unfunny things. YUCK
Oh, and did anyone else grimace when a nonexistent audience clapped as our heroes got into the second sleigh?
This brings me to my next point: the story leaves much to be desired. Of course, outside of the PSA missions, CP has always struggled with making compelling stories. The plot in this special has a solid concept, but is rushed along too quickly for it to actually mean anything. Think about it: Roofhowse has three minutes to decide he doesn't fit in on the island, the journey to Merry's island lasts four minutes and has only one situation to deal with that lasts thirty seconds, and the conclusion is just a couple minutes long. There's so much more potential here. Add this to the numerous convenient events that allow the plot to move along, the overly dramatic "perilous" moments, the rushed side plots, and the fact that we don't get much time to care about the characters, and we have some problems.
Said characters also cause problems. Roofhowse is only likeable to a certain extent, Blizzard the jock is unlikeable to no extent, "Waffles" is boring and I can only recall one of her lines, "Prim and proper" is very insufferable, as she lacks any other emotion besides irritated, "Volts" is an unnecessary stand-in for Gary, and everyone else is a naked, mindless background penguin who just kind of runs around. Meanwhile, Rockhopper and Herbert managed to steal the show and the very, very likeable Merry Walrus deserves more lines. At least all of the designs are solid work.
Speaking of which, the animation and artwork in the special are of high quality. While the island, with its small buildings and large spaces looks a little funky, everything else goes off without a hitch, with the mixed in CGI causing only a minor annoyance. Meanwhile, the music isn't memorable and Cadence's songs are just OK.
The only other problem this special has is with its editing. There were several times within the special when I felt that the transitions were messy and too abrupt. The arrival at Merry's island is where this really came in; within maybe ten seconds, we see a shot of the castle from the sea, our characters looking at it from the Migrator, a wide shot of our heroes getting off the ship, the characters walking to the door, the characters arriving at the door, and the door opening. It feels so choppy.
Despite its clunky writing ("Everyone is always welcome in Club Penguin!"), rushed plot, and questionable artistic choices, We Wish You a Merry Walrus manages to do something that almost nothing in CP tries to do these days: entertain the older crowd of fans. It could be improved, but what we got was more fun than anything that's been posted on YouTube in the past two years.....and really every 2014 update in the main game, too.
Score: 7.5/10
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