Airdate: October 26, 1993
Opening Line: "Chicken Chow Main-y"- Wakko Warner
Good Idea Bad Idea. Good Idea- Taking a deep breath before jumping into a pool. Bad Idea- Taking a deep breath AFTER jumping into a swimming pool
Moby or Not Moby: The Warners try to protect Moby-Dick from Captain Ahab.
Good Idea Bad Idea Good idea- Going alpine skiing in the winter Bad idea- Going alpine skiing in the summer
Mesozoic Mindy: In the Stone Age, sabertooth dog Buttons must protect wandering cave girl Mindy.
Good Idea Bad Idea Good Idea- Kissing a loved one Bad idea- Kissing a total stranger
The Good, the Boo, and the Ugly: Chicken Boo poses as a lawman in the Old West.
Good idea Bad idea Good idea- Doing your own yardwork Bad idea- Doing your own dentalwork
"Moby or Not Moby" provides examples of:
- Adaptational Backstory Change: In the novel Captain Ahab wanted revenge on Moby-Dick for biting off his leg. In this version he just wants to kill him for his blubber.
- Exit, Pursued by a Bear: Or in Ahab's case, pursued by a whale.
- Expy: Starbuck appears to be modeled after Scotty from Star Trek.
- Egomaniac Hunter: Captain Ahab is a maritime example. He's obsessed with catching and killing Moby-Dick.
- Getting Eaten Is Harmless: The inside of Moby-Dick's belly is an impossibly large Ribcage Stomach filled with shipwrecks and nautical gear. There is no sign of any digestion taking place and Captain Ahab is unharmed and does not seem to be in any danger.
- Green Aesop: The Warners attempt to convince Ahab through a song not to kill whales since they are an endangered species.
- Just Desserts: Ahab spends the short being a jerkass to everyone. After he loses his fight with Moby he attempts to swim away from his sinking longboat but the whale gives chase and swallows him.
- Monster Whale: Moby-Dick plays this trope straight: He's a large, powerful, and angry man-eater.Yakko: We have an enormous bathtub.
- Parody: This short is a parody of the novel Moby-Dick by Herman Melville.
- Public Domain Character: Moby-Dick, Captain Ahab, Ishmael, Starbuck and Queequeg.
- Rule of Cool: When Ahab throws his harpoon at Moby, the whale grabs it out of the air with his fin. He uses it to pick his teeth and then throw it away.
- Shout-Out: When Captain Ahab gets swallowed by Moby-Dick, he encounters Pinocchio inside the whale's stomach.
- Swallowed Whole: Captain Ahab by his own quarry, Moby-Dick.
- Tempting Fate: Stranded at sea, the Warners wish for a ship, any ship to save them. The S. S. Minnow, the Edmund Fitzgerald and the Titanic arrive, prompting Yakko to wonder if they should have been more specific.
- Troll: As soon as the Warners arrive on the Pequod they annoy the crew. Especially Ahab.
- Uncertain Doom: The short ends with Captain Ahab inside Moby-Dick's stomach. Is he going to be digested to death? Or is he just going to live from now on trapped inside the whale? Likewise the Warners are stranded at sea and the only ships around to help are ships famous for sinking.
"Mesozoic Mindy" provides examples of:
- Alliterative Title: Mesozoic Mindy.
- Anachronistic Animal: Edaphosaurus and Smilodon show up along side the cast of dinosaurs. note
- Artistic License – Paleontology: Yes, we know humans and dinosaurs didn't exist at the same time, Let's just leave it at that. Additionally dinosaurs form different time periods appear together.
- Ascended to Carnivorism: A Diplodocus tries to eat Buttons for some reason.
- Badly Battered Babysitter: Buttons. He gets chased by a brontosaurus and eventually tossed into the ground by it, gets launched into the air by an erupting volcano and has his tail set on fire, gets eaten and then spit out by a sabre-toothed tiger, and gets launched into the air by the Mother Dinosaur, landing in the tar pit and getting Mindy's Parents' clothes dirty as a result, all trying to keep Mindy safe.
- Bittersweet Ending: This episode ends with Buttons safely returning Mindy to her cave. Unfortunately, as he landed in the tar pit as a result of being launched through the air by the Mother Dinosaur, he gets Mindy's Parents' clothes dirty, getting himself punished by them. However, Mindy does hug Buttons and tells him she loves him.
- Chasing a Butterfly: Mindy chasing a dinosaur egg with legs is what sets off this episode's plot.
- Eggshell Clothing: The Baby Dinosaur that Mindy chases spends a majority of the short as an egg with legs. It hatches completely near the end of the short.
- Hollywood Prehistory: The short is set in a land where Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic fauna all coexist.
- Iris Out: This episode ends with a heart-shaped one on Buttons and Mindy after Mindy hugs Buttons and tells him she loves him.
- Papa Wolf: When Buttons sees a Mother Dinosaur looking for her baby about to eat Mindy, he stands up to the Mother Dinosaur to protect Mindy.
- Rump Roast: when Buttons is launched into the air by an erupting volcano, his tail catches fire. He is eventually able to douse the fire in the lake.
- Shout-Out: The opening to the episode is almost a shot-for-shot remake of the infamous scene from the Rite of Spring segment of Fantasia wherein the plant-eating dinosaur look up in alarm at the approaching Tyrannosaurus rex — only with Mindy in said predator's role.
"The Good, the Boo, and the Ugly" provides examples of:
- Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like: After Chicken Boo defeats the bandit, he loses his disguise and is run out of town by the very townspeople he saved the lives of.
- Cowboy Episode: In this short, Chicken Boo gets into a Wild West showdown with a bandit.
- Stealth Pun: Since the short is a spoof on Spaghetti Westerns, everyone at the saloon is eating noodles.
Note: The end credits for this ep do not feature the establishing shot of the water tower. Instead it features Buttons covered in bandages wimpering until Mindy comes in to give him a tight hug and chase him around the yard. The scene then fades out and fades back in on the tower.
Closing Tower Gag: "OK, I love you, bu-bye!"- Mindy
