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Hey Duggee Series Two #4 Rant

Reviewed: 03/18/2026

Stick? Isn't It Time For... DUGGEE~!

Well, my hunt for some perverse entertainment struck again thanks to Family Junior up here in Canada. I had considered revewing "The Fabulous Show with Fay and Fluffy", but the cross-dressing angle is just there and it's just a storytime segment show for the most part. It's a fun show, but it isn't qualified to be an Easter Sadism show. You need perserve, creative entertainment, where the creators just don't give an elf. That's when I saw our following subject from the UK, only this time it's a BBC show. This show is an awesome fun mess of an episode that intentionally is trying to get onto the trainwreck scale. Welcome to the Rant Shack, Hey Duggee! Just watching this show made me giggle in an amusing way because the characters and everyone making the show is fully committed to make this story stand out. Hey Duggee started out in 2014 as part of a Christmas special for the BBC and then was made into a show. The premise according to Wikipedia (DANGER! DANGER!):

The programme's characters are talking anthropomorphic animals, with Duggee communicating in woofs. The episodes are based around The Squirrel Club, an activity club for children that Duggee leads. The children – the club's Squirrels – take part in all kinds of activities, have adventures and earn badges for their accomplishments. Each episode shows the Squirrels completing an activity or adventure relating to a badge that they earn at the end of each episode. There is no set formula for every episode, with many referencing or parodying pop culture.

I disagree with the last sentence as there is a sort of set formula to the episodes, but they often would go off-script in certain ways. For example, there are always at least FIVE opening sequences in the series, each assigned depending on the Squirrel member. Like Peppa Pig, the endings are sometimes different, although more visual than audio this time around. The finishing sequences are mostly similar, but the middle is clearly like a Peppa Pig episode even with the structure of the stakes being exactly the same in all episodes: The Squirrels do stuff to earn badges. Then you have the narrator who is voiced by Alexander Armstrong, the voice of Captain Dog, who talks to Duggee, despite Duggee being a full on anthro dog with clothes on, doing human things, but talks literally like a real dog. It's Koi Fish from Fish Hooks all over again, and yes; everyone in the show somehow understands him. To be fair, at least it's not Molang where every character does the Duggee/Koi Fish speaking and you have zero way of understanding what the hell they are saying regardless of language. I've been wanting to review a bit of this show since it looks perversely entertaining to me and finding episodes on Family Junior is easy, but those episodes are more recent. I want to do the early episodes and finding them is another matter. It's not as easy as Peppa Pig, let me tell you. The episode titles speak for themselves, except for the pilot episode "Chop! Chop!" which I couldn't find even partial footage of it. Believe it or not, there were supposed to be SIX Squirrels in the group, but that got cut down. Also, the hippo Squirrel was originally supposed to be an anthro pig. I wonder who was responsible for rejecting that one?! Anyhow, this should be a fun ride. How do these episodes fare?! Let's rant on shall we..?!

All episodes are directed by Grant Orchard. The Stick Badge is written by Diggy-Hicks Little and Duggee. The Spooky Badge is written by Myles Mcleod. The Going Slow Badge, The Colour Badge and The Harvest Badge are written by Danny Stack. The Voice Badge is written by Phillip Warner. The Space Badge is written by Sam Morrison and The Obstacle Badge is written by James Henry. I'm not going to do tributes here. The animation is done by Studio AKA.

Opening Moment #1: This opening features Tag bouncing out of bed as per a previous episode. The title card features a pink snail going slow against the sky in an oval shaped badge with pink and white stiching.

The Going Slow Badge: Short opens with all the Squirrels playing their toys and being hyper about it. The music is also fast paced as the narrator asks what Duggee has planned for them today. The Squirrels all run stage left as Tag does the "bump vase and it doesn't fall, much less shatter" spot. Yes, Tag was trying to paint a vase and he sucked at it. The kids run around a circle as Enid wakes up on a purple rug on the floor looking confused. Outside of cheering and one mess, this scene is difficult for me to accept the premise of this episode. Oh wait, the kids all knock down their stuff and make a mess. Still too subdued for me to take seriously since the vase doesn't fall and shatter. Duggee is sitting in a rocking chair asleep as the kids arrive to ask what Duggee is doing, over and over again. There is a mini table with a table cloth with a teacup on it as Duggee don't care about what the Squirrels think. The narrator proclaims that Duggee is taking it easy and the Squirrels are intrigued by this notion. They are not disgusted by this notion, they don't see it as poison, they are very interested in this "taking it easy" angle. Duggee woofs in calmness as the narrator translates this as "going slow" and the kids stop selling and are confused. Roly is loud as usual as Duggee does the most dramatic point to his chest to reveal the badge ever. The kids are no longer thrilled about this going slow because slow paced is for boring busy bodies. Even though one of the advantages of going slow is that it gives meaning to everything you do, regardless if it is good or bad. Tag is about to say that going slow is boring, but Happy seems to get it already. Duggee explains via the narrator that you get to see more as the kids look at a blooming flower, a white daisy with a red middle circle. They also have a bird tweeting band as the birds are in the trees whistling in red/white striped coats and hats. Now THIS should be the definition of peace, but it's not because no graveyard is involved. The butterflies flutter and Roly I bet would like to invoke the true meaning of peace on dem birds! See more, hear more, feel more as Duggee blows a flower and fuzzies litter the skies. Hey, there are worse things to litter the skies than that. The kids all giggle as Duggee is beaming while using his finger to let a white bird perch on said finger and tweet.

The kids are in awe as we get a water color stylized scene changer of Duggee being the sun. Doesn't Duggee realize that this means he is the personification of hell?! The Christians said this in doublespeak, so it must be true. Hell Duggee winks above a meadow field as we zoom out to Tag painting the picture. SUZY SHEEP~?! Seriously though, this was great segueway. Roly and Happy are feeding the birds with bird seed, good for them to actually using food for the birds instead of anthro food only used for human eating. The other kids are taking it slow as Duggee is feeding a unicorn with an apple with stars on the apple's skin. The narrator calls this magical. I love real comments that aren't supposed to be real comments. We zoom out to see the forest brimming with life and a rainbow, which is what peace should be about, but it is often not. Norrie lays down on her back to watch randomness become art like a train made of a cloud. Considering Duggee's world, I wouldn't put it past it that those clouds are not random images. Norrie is loving this going slow, but it's all going to die as shouts of Gloria beckons. Oh, no....Now, you would think this name would be random or something. Actually, no. There is a female cheetah in track and field gear running stage left while a male voice is yelling Gloria. Now, I have that 1982 song from Laura Branigan in my head. The male is a pig who cannot run well and needs to take it slow. I was hoping he would say "big finish coming up", so I can get Super Dave Osborne in the reference in. Oh well, the naughty mice are racing in their race car, which is a felony in most states, except in Duggee's world of course. Enid of course is chasing it, which is not a crime and it's just plain stupid. The kids are like "they do not respect the slow", the irony of it all. What a bunch of busybodies these Squirrels are?! However, Tag respects the slow because he respects Tortoise, as he shouts almost like Roly now. Tort slowly crawls in wearing a small hat that floats on the head, wears blue rimmed glasses and had pea green cheeks. Tort and the kids meet and greet as Tort claims that he's not going slow at all because he's going to the hospital because his beloved is delivering children. Now the kids have turned a 180 and want to go fast as they bounce off. Tag then returns and is demanding Tort to run as Tort responds: I am running you hypocritical jerk kids! Paraphrasing here of course.

Tag finally gets after about ten seconds of nothing and then we defer to Duggee who is pondering something over. Duggee then woofs gleefully as he has a plan, Stay tuned with a racing stylized scene changer containing a badge showing Duggee in an auto racing suit with goggles on. I'm guessing the brand in this world is Red Delta Blue Circle, or RDBC. I guess the sponser is the Resident Doctors Of British Columbia. Or maybe not. Duggee woofs sound like he had been hit in the groin by Roly, until I realize that Duggee just did the Road Runner's "beep beep" spot. It's funnier than Road Runners as well. We return with Tort loving the speed as the border is changing like I'm playing a Super Game Boy. That's because Duggee is literally driving a fire engine and is dressed like a firefighter. Wait, what?! They teased a race car driver and gave us this?! STUPID!! This episode was just good until that massive logic break! Happy is wibbly wobbly raising the roof in the process, at least that was funny. Then a speed boat with Duggee driving with a Captain's outfit. Okay, this is funny; but it should have started with a race car driver first! Horse gets involved, Unicorn gets involved, a Chinese Dragon boat gets involved among other vehicles as they arrive at the most colorful hospital I have ever seen. Which shows you how boring hospitals are in real life actually. No cross here, not even the green cross which is often used since the Red Cross is trademarked. Not even a paramedic star. The Squirrels and Tort run into the hospital and the waiting room contains Gloria with a broken leg, the naughty mice with unknown injuries, the big pig is the most injured despite being the slowest. The most amazing injury is a brown bear with a cleaver on it's head. Shouldn't he be seen first?! At least taking it slow has it's advantages since the Squirrels and Tort are only seeing if Tort's beloved delivered so to speak. Waiting would make sense here. Why isn't the hospital checking on the brown bear right fucking now?! It makes sense with the real world, but it's still horrible just the same. Ad hoc automatica. There is a no smoking sign, the closest anyone will see an image of a cigerette on this show. Tort is panting as he asks for the status of his beloved. In comes the nurse who is a yellow hen with a giant ass in a cyan blue scrubs carrying a clipboard telling Tort to not panic. Not to get in a whizz, so to speak. Wait, is Tort going to pee himself?!

Probably since the nurse refuses to let him see his beloved until he calms down. Sounds reasonable to me. Tort cannot calm down, so the Squirrels try to encourage the slowest animal in this world to take it nice and slow. Irony, everyone. Just to make the scene completely hypocritical, the nurse on the poster in the background has TWO RED CROSSES on her outfit. What was BS&P thinking here?! By the way, the clock in the background is 3 PM, which is the first clock to have a different time since the clock in Duggee's clubhouse never changes it's time in any episode. Tort calms down within seconds I should note as the nurse hen decides to let him come see Tort's beloved. By the way, Betty notices Bear's cleaver on his head and wants an explaination as Bear huffs in frowniness at 0.4 Rock Lobster Yeti. Jump cut to faces of Tort and Tort's beloved seeing more, hear more, feel more as they are watching ten eggs slowly hatch into baby turtles and everyone embraces. Awww, my heart melted as one of the baby turtles say their first two words literally within seconds. Take that Baby Alexander Pig! Heart comes out as everyone's heart is melted. Even Bear, despite having a cleaver cutting into his head. Bear is the most bloodless animal on this show. Tort thanks the Squirrels for their service and the baby turtle all yell YAY while bouncing up and down, thus one of them said three words within a minute of being born. Which is faster than George Pig, I do believe. The narrator asks if the Squirrels did well today as Duggee bails on all fours stage left and then returns with the badge as the narrator slows down to force the point. The kids cheer in unison as we see the parents arrive in their vehicles. Time for the DUGGEE HUG~! Duggee hug. The kids giggle and bail stage left to reveal their going slow badges, remembering to say it slow in the process. The parents hug in unison and leave with their kids in their vehicles. The narrator asks if this was fun and the baby turtles pop up and say their second/fourth word within two minutes, the first involving Duggee's name. The narrator and Duggee laugh to end the episode at 6:45. It feels so wrong without the narrator saying "Do stop it, Duggee" though. Stupid logic breaks aside, this was a very good episode as it's great to see a bunch of kids actually willing to try anything that would normally cause real kids to repulse once. *** 1/2 (70%).

Opening Moment #2: This opening features Betty playing with her chemistry set as per a previous episode. The badge in the title card is basically a track & field trim with various obstacle course stuff.

The Obstacle Course Badge: Short opens with the kids on the most oddest climbing frame ever as it looks almost like a Tetris block. Tag is bouncing off a plush mushroom since the thing isn't smashing itself into pieces and mashed together. Roly is hanging upside down and Betty is checking the wooden shape slots in the back. Norrie is climbing the rope ladder while Happy is trying to do chin-up on the bar. Roly bounces onto his ass on the ground after the narrator is impressed with their atheticism as we get rumbling because various animals in track gear are walking in. Such stars as The Naughty Monkey, Katrina, Mr. Crabs, a Naughty Mice, a Giraffe, a Delta Chicken, Ethel the Elephant, Hedgely the Hedgehog and Enid. Norrie asks where everyone is going as Duggee teleports out of nowhere and woofs. The narrator explains that this is the annual animal obstacle race. Oh goody, it's basically the Sports Day episode of Peppa Pig. The kids ask what this is as the narrator explains the rules of engagement by turning Duggee's head into a bouncing marble and using hollowed metal color shapes. Betty thinks the winner gets a prize and the narrator says "sort of", which is clear cut evidence that there is no prize and he thinks the kids will not enter unless there is a sort of stake in it. Considering how they handled the slow down angle, I think the narrator's fears are misplaced, to say the least. The kids asks if Duggee can assist them and Duggee woofs around walking on all four with glee. The narrator says it all because Duggee points to his chest to reveal the badge. They will enter as...wait for it...The RED TEAM~! Complete with stock footage explosion effects in the background. Okay, the setup to this was great, but "The Red Team", really?! That's the name?! I get it fits the colors of their uniforms, but for goodness sakes, why not the "Duggee Huggers"?! That name is buys! The Red Team name is so no buys! Furthermore, they are also wearing white, so it clashes with the name already! The next shot is a 1990's-2000's stylish CGI sequence that is something out of the Olympics and apparently, this is the 20th annual edition of the Animal Obstacle Race. The CGI stars contain various animals including Lord Fingel and Delta Chicken. Then the bell rings, so the shot is basically either a boxing or pro wrestling event from the 1990's. The feature two circles on the bottom left and bottom right are Pam, a kowala with a peach hat and Chuck, a brown bird who are both inside a birdhouse on the tree whom will provide play by play and color commentary for this event as they make small talk to each other.

Hennie is basically herself wearing blue, while Ethel is lifting a dumbell with his trunk. Just burying Mr. Elephant when he joined the cirus. That amused me. Then we get a logic break: Chuck claims that this is the 115th annual obstacle race, even though the opening sequence of this event showed two X's, which is equal to 20 in Roman Numerals. Then it should be CXV. Now, I know what you are thinking: The two X's was a gag that Chuck and Pam are 2 ex's. The problem is, the payoff would be the 2 X's annual obstacle race then! What a stupid gag?! Plus, Chuck and Pam have zero conflict with each other as they introduce the teams: Team Blue (Hennie, Crocodile, a horse, Giraffe, Whooooo (I think), and a praying mantis.) whom I would call The Fitness Freaks! Team Green (Lord Fingal, Hedgely The Hedgehog who looks pissed for some reason, a penguin, Mr. Crabs, Giant Hippo, and one member of Naughty Mice and Naughty Monkey. I'm guessing the Naughty Mouse is Johnny) whom I would call The Naughty Animals since The Flithy Animals is likely trademarked by WWE at this point. Team Yellow (Ethel, Katerina, Delta Chicken #1, Enid, Not Jake The Snake, and Doctor Frog's best friend, Deranged Coyote.) whom I call The Dancing Enids. There's an unacceptable amount of ear warmers in this event. Chuck is playing color here as we zoom out to see the six obstacles that will test of the limits of endurance. 2:1 odds the Duggee Huggers win this event. How is Hennie, Giraffe, Hippo and Ethel going to win when they are way too big for ANY of the six obstacles?! They should do a seventh event where it's a simple 400 meter dash with those four to determine the points since Hennie and Giraffe are at an impossible disadvantage here! The event is sponsered by King Tiger with his toucan guard as he officially declares the event officially open. The toucans are the whistleblowers to a king (four dollar term for God), how poetic?! I'm not calling this as Roly forgets to run on the start whistle, so the kids have to remind him to run and Roly just bounces in. Roly cannot climb the block wall to save his life as the Duggee Huggers are complete geeks now. It's never good when Delta Chicken can do this, but the Squirrels cannot. Maybe using Norrie first was a better idea, which show how poorly prepared the Duggee Huggers are. Hennie saying "mind you head" as she walks over the first obstacle was kind of silly because Roly did land on his head and now I cringe for real. Thanks for the warning, Hennie! Roly screams not fair, and that causes the blocks to topple and Roly crosses without incident. This was not a DQ as Chuck calls it an interesting move on his part.

Roly tags off to Happy as the second obstacle is called the Watery Ditch of Dread. Hey, a neat name for the spot finally! Everyone stops because they cannot cross, except for Happy who dives in causing the music to stop. HAHA! Happy loves water, you see. What a novel concept?! There's one little problem: Happy forgets to get out of the water and everyone else dives in and literally does Piggy In the Middle in the water. I howled with laughter. Everyone's a geek now! Ethel is spouting water as Mr. Crabs is reference Ibiza, a Spanish island which is independent from Spain. Norrie is whining as Happy bounces into making the tag. I don't know why Norrie is complaining since all the teams stopped in the water, so there are no advantage anyway. Pam and Chuck's commentary is servicable as we head to the main event of the first half of this event, the Pendulums of Peril. It is what you expect as everyone except Norrie is bumping off of them as penguin takes a literal sick bump in the head. When demented coyote knows how to bump safely, it's time to stop this. Someone put the penguin in concussion protocol, STAT! Pam wonders how Norrie is going to swing this in her favor and Norrie simply dodges and runs across without incident, while keeping within the dangerous course. Because she's a kind girl who follows the rules, you see. She made it look easy, because she doesn't want to take bump. Smartest one in the entire event so far. Norrie tags to Betty as this was easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy according to Chuck. It's also totally safe! Next up is the Moving Maze as everyone runs into the maze without a care in the world as Betty stops. Betty uses her notes and starts calculating as Roly is confused. Then we see the rest of the competition get completely wrecked in the maze as Lord Fingal is introduced to a bunch of branch sucking bushes, without branches for "safety". Even though he is taking multiple shots to the head. Still makes me cringe, I won't lie. The horse taking shots to the head and groin was far more cringeful than Lord Fingal, somehow. Betty figures it out, goes into the maze, dodges everything and makes it out in the lead. Betty tags Tag of course as Betty's eyes disappear on cue when she winks. Penlumate is the second last obstacle which is the Tunnels of Terror according to Chuck. It's basically a maze of tube slides with flower pots, so they don't look scary at all. The only thing scary is that the head shots continue to ensue, more shots than an average episode of TaleSpin. Hedgely complains about his prickles, screw him as we get a dramatic moment as Tag comes out first and there's one more obstacle left as Tag tags Duggee! HAHA! See, set up the joke and then pay it off.

So far, if Roly wasn't so clueless, Happy didn't lust for water and Tag was using skill rather than luck, this would have been a total squash by the Squirrels. Now it's time for Muddy Puddle of Death, because it's not as easy as it looks. Because you see, the mud is sticky and everyone is sinking. That's not mud, that's quicksand colored to look like mud. Enid just stands there licking it's paw as Enid simply walks over Duggee, Crocodile and I think Johnny like they were sinkers and floaters and then crosses the finish line for the upset win! I should have known they would go for that finish and it's better than the Duggee Huggers squashing everyone, so I'll gladly take it. Plus, Enid must have been grinning from ear to ear to be able to bounce off Johnny's noggin. That concussion I have zero problems with. Screw the mice, they aren't nice. Except for Mandy Mouse and her family, they are kind and not criminals, so they are safe. King Tiger present Enid with the trophy which is a gold cup, which I bet was made of plastic gold. The kids are confused as Duggee explains the prize and the kids bail stage left and returns with drinking cups as they call it their own. That is awesome! The kids do not care about losing anymore and I love it. Duggee is covered with mud as my dream to see him jump up and down in muddy puddles almost came true. King Tiger likes it so much that the toucans fly down with pitchers of blueberry juice, that was also awesome. Brady Bunch-equse sequence of the teams drinking blueberry juice with straw as all the mud is removed now. SUZY SHEEP~?! The narrator asks if the kids have done well and Duggee bails on all fours stage left from the Brady Bunch-equse spot and does the obstacle course backwards by himself and probably could have squashed his own team. Somehow the pond is now gone. SUZY SHEEP~?! Then does it forward on the return just to bury it some more, almost he probably dodged the last one for obvious reasons to have the course save face, I guess. Duggee presents the badge to the Squirrels and the kids all cheer. Here come the parents in their vehicles, as we do the DUGGEE HUG~! Duggee hug. The kids bail stage left and present the parents their badge, the parents hug the kids. The parents leave with the kids stage left in their vehicles as the narrator asks if this was fun. All the animals and Duggee are in position for a photo shoot as Enid pops out of the cup with Chuck calling this a slam dunk. Everyone laughs to end the episode at 6:45. It may be a basketball reference, but Chuck is not wrong. This was a slam dunk awesome episode, minus the head shots and logic breaks. **** 1/2 (90%).

Opening Moment #3: This opening features Norrie doing the snake charmer's spot on worm as per a previous episode. The title card is a ghost shaped badge, which is wholesome and not creepy much less spooky.

The Spooky Badge: Short opens in the clubhouse with the CHEST OF DEMONIC COSTUMES open and the kids are dressed up. Tag is a cowboy riding on Buckee, Norrie is a rainbow ballerina with a tiara, Happy is a clown with a bush beard and a brown afro wig, and Betty is only wearing glasses reading a green cover book. Roly pops up from the trunk to reveal that he's a literal egg-sucking dog. Damn, I was hoping that he would be a literal branch sucking bush instead. The narrator asks what they are doing and the kids admit that they are dressing up and they are going to show Duggee, so they bail stage right. Duggee is in his work overalls fixing the European washing machine, since American washing machine are top loading, not front loading. Canada seems to interchange between the two. Apparently, Duggee has made the washing machine have extra spin according to the narrator and it delivers. Too bad that is extremely stupid since washing machines are often unstable enough as it is without extra spin veloctiy. Duggee is dumb. There is shaking and rumbling, but no giggles from the Squirrels since they don't like this noise either. The washing machine spins stage right to the outside and this leads to the Scooby Doo Chase Sequence the Spin Cycle Edition~! Sadly, it stops before it can get any good as cleaning product on the top spills out and the door opens. The Squirrels run in as the narrator says it all. We HIT THE MONTAGE~ of everyone hanging up the clothes on the clothesline as Delta Chicken gets it's contracted appearance peaking the ground. Tag gets hung like a puppet unintentionally as four more Delta Chickens have been born since Series one as more clothes are hung up. There is underwear on the line, but only one sock and Duggee is not amused by this. The narrator asks about the sock as there is only five Delta Chickens peaking the ground. SUZY SHEEP~?! It's HAPPY HOUR (sunset) now as we hear spooky ghost noises. Then we see a ghost dog appear out of nowhere. 2:1 odds it's Lord Fingal being Lord Fingal. Now we have seven Delta Chickens peaking, and when they bail stage left, there are three lanes and at least a countless dozens of chickens running away. SUZY SHEEP~?! The kids are confused as I just realized that Betty is dressed like Velma from Scooby Doo. Happy is Shaggy, Roly is Scooby, and Tag is Freddy Jones. I should have known, this is a Scooby Doo parody, which they sort of did in Series one with The Castle Badge. More noises and Roly is Scooby to Happy's Shaggy now. Norrie is Daphne of course as she's wearing red ear warmers to simulate Daphne's hair style.

Duggee is so giddy against a pink background with cobwebs that he looks like a vampire, because they found spooky footprints, and Duggee points to his fanny pak midsection to reveal his Spooky Badge. I'm surprised Warner Brothers didn't give an elf about this. The kids gulp, which would be fine if Tag didn't sell it. This leads to the stylized badge scene changer as we get a clay model lit pumpkin with Duggee's face in pitch black darkness. I just love that Daphne Norrie is the only one not selling fear while the gang follow the footprints, even Duggee is sort of scared. Even Freddy Tag and Velma Betty are not so sure about this. Norrie finds the ghost floating on top of the pond making noises. Norrie is so happy to investigate this while the rest are not so thrilled, but not really scared. Cut to Mr. Crabs and Nigel exchanging notes on the situation because someone gave them sore heads. I would like to say it's them wondering why Warner Brothers hasn't threaten legal action for this episode, but I assume it's because the "ghost" stepped on their heads during it's "rampage". By the name, Nigel's last name is Crab as Norrie asks them about the ghost. Like these two are a parody of Thompson and Thompson from Tintin, only the crabs are not detectives. More noises and Roly and Happy are scared. I see the creators have finally understood the art of the emotion of fear on their faces. The birds all fly away, but an orange bird just freezes hiccuping near the hedges. Then, the ghost is at the wall as everyone is chasing after them, not smiling and giggling like they did in Series one. On the one hand, this makes sense, but the wrong emoting during these scenes was better than the right one since it gave a message to the audience that this was not scary and really, when you have little kids in the audience, this is a good thing. The chase continues for a long ass whomping time as Betty wonders how it's doing something. If it's teleporting, then ask SUZY SHEEP~ about it, Betty. The kids are doing the ladder spot using their heads as platforms, which has to suck for the males. They probably hated life now. Norrie is playing look out on the right as everyone stage left which is the long way around. Norrie is pondering over something as she's called to follow. Norrie bails stage left, the only one smiling and giggling. That's the spirit Daphne Norrie, that's how you sell fear in this show! Then the ghost makes a fatal error: Messing with the Angry Bull~! The ghost bails and it's the chase of the angry bull on a ghost with the bull making Hanna Barbera running sound effects. That was funny! Everyone screams and then bails stage left, and actually emotes fear properly! Because unlike the previous two episodes where the kids ran away, this one is a shoot.

Norrie is the only one during this entire montage who is just confused, which is fine. They run in Hanna Barbaera fashion by entering stage right, exiting stage left, then re-entering stage right. Now, this always breaks logic in that show, but in this show, they show a sky shot of them literally running in circles. AWESOME~! Yeah, the shapes are not exactly logical, but it works here still. The bull is pissed as Duggee is running behind him, and the bull sees him, turns around and we go into the opposite direction. Roly finally gets off Happy, runs like the wind and during this entire sequence, Roly just stops selling and runs away smiling and giggling! AWESOME~! This is a total burial of Scooby-Doo and I love it! Freddy Tag trips on a rock and faceplants just to make this even more absurd. Then the ghost does the same thing and it's concussed now as there is a purple tag on the ghost costume. Everyone comes in as Norrie notices the washing instructions on the tag attached to the white cloth. Norrie finds out who it really is and it's just one sheep as everyone dramatically oversells it as the scariest thing ever. Okay, I admit, I was expecting someone else. Still, a disappointment as everyone is confused, except Norrie as we hit the flashback because, Norrie is going to do the Scooby Doo finish: Explain how the Sheep became the ghost through science and luck. See, the sheep stepped into the washing powder that fell onto the ground, then the sheep walked into the washing line behind Duggee's back (notice Duggee was in the perfect spot to hide the spot), it stepped on Nigel and Mr. Crab, then went through a hole in the wall next to a berry bush Norrie was looking at earlier in the episode. So, how did the sheep boo?! Well, the sheep unintentionally swallowed one of Duggee's socks during the clothesline job and the sheep spits it out onto Duggee. Norrie declares this case has been solved as the narrator asks if the kids did well today. They sure did as Duggee bails on all fours and returns with the badge. The narrator uses a spooky echo as the background is dark with cobwebs. The kids all cheer as the parents arrive in their vehicles. Time for the DUGGEE HUG~! Duggee hug. The kids all bail stage left as they present the badges to the parents, which leads to the adults hugging them in unison. Yes, they got to keep their costumes as a bonus. The kids bail stage left in their vehicles as the narrator asks if this was fun. The red bird is on top of Duggee's head as the sheep continues to make spooky sounds which the bird is scared of. Duggee is confused to end the episode at 6:45. Damn, don't let Roly and Sheep duet here, there will be a bird genocide occurring for sure at this rate. The end credits feature spooky music with darkness and cobwebs. This was an awesome episode and one of the better parodies of Scooby-Doo ever for a pre-school show. **** 1/2 (90%). This would have been a perfect rating if "The Stick Song" existed to accent the running sequences.

Opening Moment #4: This opening features Tag boucing out of bed as per "The Going Slow Badge". The title card is a star white trim badge featuring planets and stars in space.

The Space Badge: Short opens AFTER HAPPY HOUR as the kids are in the clubhouse looking at the stars as apparently they are snowed in. The Delta Chickens make their contracted appearance as Betty is bored and sighing. Tag says that it's too dark to play outside as a literal nutty chipmunk bonks into a tree while Hippie Rabbit #1 is eating carrots. Okay, I have been shitting on the Hippie Rabbits in this show, this was not his fault. I did giggle when Norrie says that it's too cold and this causes Hippie Rabbit #1 to get entombed in snow, pop out and say "Not cool, man!" Cool is a form of cold in weather terms, so he gaslit himself. The narrator has to concede the point to Norrie as he wonders what Duggee is doing and the kids all cheer and run stage right. Shot of the stars sparkling with the weirdest sound effect I have ever heard for this spot and we head inside the observation room which has a rainbow colored trimmed window and a step stairs. Duggee is looking through a telescope as the kids asks what he is doing. Duggee is dressed up like it's non-casual day with the shirt with pocket protectors and a red bowtie. It's impossible to take this seriously when his telescope looks like it came from Fisher-Price. The narrator explains it all as Betty wants a go right away and Duggee spins the telescope down to Betty's height. Betty looks through it and then asks "what's it for?". This is like Kit Cloudkicker not knowing who is Whistlestop Jackson is in Whistlestop Jackson, Legend; only Kit's was funnier because it was clear that Kit was trolling here. Betty not knowing what a telescope is despite being the CLEVER CLOGS~ of the outfit is clearly done just to address the audience. If you are going to do that, let Norrie go first so when she asks the question, it doesn't make Betty look like a geek. Betty sees stars, comets and the solar system. The kids are in awe and asks what the solar system is. Duggee then points to his shirt to reveal his Space Badge and the kids are in awe. This leads to the badge scene changer as Duggee is in a space suit doing beeps out in space with train on the window of a space ship. Then he does a smile and the sound effects sound like a 1980's cartoon. Back to the clubhouse as everyone is wearing colored jumpsuits, including Delta Chicken, Delta Frog and Enid. Each one will cosplay a planet, except for Duggee whom cosplays the sun. HAHA! If you recall, there are several scene changers of Duggee's head literally playing the sun on this show.

Tag is confused as the narrator explains the sun as a giant star. But never a giant star as Peppa Pig, sadly. Oh, and Duggee literally turns into a star, so this further help my theory that Duggee is Doctor Who now. The background goes dark as the narrator cuts his promo. Roly cosplays the role of Mercury, the closest to the sun and he turns onto the planet with a giant rock for a nose. Happy is Venus, which is the hottest planet of them all as the planet has glasses on top. Norrie turns into planet Earth, because she's nice. Tag is Mars, Betty is Jupiter and bigger than she ever was because everything is to scale. Delta Chicken is Saturn, Delta Frog is Uranus and Enid is Neptune. Yes, Pluto is no longer a planet when this episode was recorded and it's for the best since that naughty evil elf known as Disney might be on a bigger suing spree than Nintendo ever was. Then the narrator uses the spider to at least say that Pluto is a dwarf planet now. Thankfully, it wasn't a dog, that would have cancelled this show and all characters would be placed in the vault forevermore. Then we get a sequence of the balls of masses spinning around the sun which looks CGI'ed. Finally, everyone stops and we return to reality (no, not really) as the kids wish they could see the planets up close. The narrator likes the idea, but those planets are millions of miles away. I'm surprised they used imperial measurements despite Britian uses standard measurements like kms, including Canada. This show is not intended for the US audience I should note. Duggee then gets giddy and inspired because he has a plan. Uh-oh! No, you're not going to do "The Golden Boots", show! Then we get the badge scene changer which is basically five badges doing a countdown to blast off! Yes, the one blasts off and we are now in space with a purple/red/yellow/blue space rocket that looks like a blimp. Please do not land on a planet, that's all I ask. If you land on the moon, please have them wear spacesuits. Anyhow, in Duggee's world, the planets are much closer to see than they are in real life. I realize that time constraints are an issue, but come on now. The sequence is better than Peppa Pig's despite having similar art styles. We head inside the rocket as everyone is in space suits which sadly look like prison jump suits. Delta Frog was more prepared as he's wearing the space helmet and good for him. Delta Frog knew that there might be some exploring on planets. The kids all talk about playing and Norrie wants to know where the space playground is. Duggee's look is like "WHAT?!" as the narrator has to diplomatically explain that there is no playgrounds in space. Except for Earth of course, and you live there, so it doesn't count.

Then the kids asks if there is literally anything else, including toilets and there is no dice. The narrator then proclaims there are another things in space. Amazing things like the Milky Way which is not made of milk even if it looks a bit milky. Then the Asteroid Belt, which looks like a N64 game now as the space ship dodges for a bit. Next up is the Cosmic Comets which only three of them come close to the ship and that's it. The kids are in awe, personally, I'm bored now. Then we turn around Pluto for real as Delta Frog is now floating outside in space, that cheeky little frog. Tag wants to see some aliens, which may or may not exist even in Duggee's world. The kids are just showing off their alien fantasies against a space background for a while. Hey, Delta Frog might be a legit alien frog for all we know. The narrator decides to just say that it's possible, but not proven yet in a roundabout way for kids to understand. Then Betty notices Earth as the kids are in awe as the narrator proclaims that it's time to go home as Duggee flies into the sky of Earth with a puff as we get the grand tour of Earth with the kids noticing landmarks. Somehow, Enid is at the snow line during this as Hennie also makes a cameo before making it to the clubhouse. The roof of the clubhouse opens dumping it snow onto the ground and the rocket ship lands into the clubhouse without incident and that is that. Oh wait, it was all an illusion, because you see; the space rocket was made of cardboard and they never moved. That explains why we didn't see the space rocket take off at all: It would have exposed the business. Everyone bails out as Roly goes to the toilet and flushes it while the kids proclaim that space is amazing. Also, what an amazing worked space sequence that was?! The narrator asks if the Squirrels have done well today as Duggee pops up from the space rocket as we teleport the badge into view to officially give the kids their badge which is spinning slowly. The kids all cheer and here come the parents in their vehicles using one lane. DUGGEE HUG~! Duggee hug. The kids bail stage left to present the badge to their parents. The parents all hug the kids in unison and leave stage left with the kids in their vehicles. The narrator then asks if this was fun as the cardboard rocket ship is teleported outside and there are aliens in it. Hey, that makes sense, so Suzy Sheep, you are safe. That ends the episode at 6:45 as the end credits roll in space with Duggee floating north in his spacesuit. He smiles but doesn't do beep sounds. This was a perfectly acceptable educational episode albeit the middle was really just there. ** 3/4 (55%).

Opening Moment #5: This opening features Betty shredding corn with exposed teeth. When she yells "Duggee!", she runs and her cob of corn goes up and lands on the plate! Okay, then. The title card is a rectangle badge featuring cucumbers, carrots and onion in the garden with red and white trim stitching.

The Harvest Badge: Short opens on a field against a yellow background with the kids playing with their toys. Roly on skipping rope, Betty's twirling a ball on her finger, Happy is blowing bubbles, Tag is playing with a toy car and Norrie is blowing fibers off a flower. The narrator asks what Duggee has planned for them today as the kids bail smiling and giggling. Betty throws the ball high into the air and it lands on the floor. Not as impressive as the corn cob onto the plate in the opening. The ball has yellow spots, so it looks literally like a gear. We head outside to the garden with Duggee in his farming gear looking at his garden of onions, potatoes, pumpkins, watermelons and carrots. The pentagon of vegans meals in children's cartoons nowadays. The kids bounce in asking Duggee what he is doing and the narrator proclaims via Duggee's woofs that he is preparing for the harvest. Basically, all the plants are mature and bearing fruits and vegetables for everyone to eat. Then they see a sequence of the kids growing seeds and nature taking it's course. I know that some will claim that it was from the "Food Growing Badge", but the problem is that the kids only grew one thing apiece and then harvest it during the episode. This would have been better served if that episode allowed them to plant more seeds and then this would be the follow up. Apparently, the plants follow the old fashion baby born myth of the birds and bees which appear during the plant growing process. Okay, then. This ends with a fruit/veggie border and six mugshots of the Squirrels. The kids want to help and Duggee woofs in argeement as the kids bail smiling and giggling. Stylized scene changer features cucumbers, pumpkins, tomatos, potatoes and blueberries all popping up to make Duggee's mug. HAHA! We head back as the Squirrels are dressed up like farmers, Roly's baseball cap makes him look like he's saying "Make Onions Great Again". Such a geek. It's time for the harvest and it's time to dig in with the kids bailing stage right giggling. Time to HIT THE MONTAGE~! Tag breaks the soil with a potato that looks like his face. However, Tag claims it looks like Ethel, even though there is no ears on it to prove it. Tag does a fake trumpet promo and then Roly digs up a potato that looks like a rubber duckie. Roly quacks as Tag digs out the worst looking Duggee potato I have ever seen. The luck of the draw here is so magical. SUZY SHEEP~?! Tag woofs as Norrie and Betty are pulling out onions and Betty is juggling about a half dozen of them. Happy is the classy farmer type as he pulls out carrots and puts them in a basket. The last one is a decoy one as the long Worm has a carrot top for a hat. What a naughty worm to decieve Happy like that?!

Happy drops him and worm is concussed and I don't feel the cringe this time around. Tag is now wearing boots similar to Peppa Pig episodes as he carries a watermelon, Roly is balancing stuff on his head and failing badly. Fruits and Veggies galore are falling from the heaven against an orange background as they land in the wheelbarrow as the kids yell finished. At this point, they have earned the badge. But wait?! Since Duggee didn't introduce the badge yet, that means it's time to Cartoon Duck Syndrome this episode because the narrator points out the tiny flaw in the kids' plan: They only did two blocks of the harvest, and there are EIGHTEEN more blocks to go on the zoom out. Betty wonders how to reduce eighteen to zero and Duggee knows as he points to his chest to reveal the badge. Then he runs on all fours panting like a dog into the barn stage left! Duggee returns with a tractor and a rolling bed on the back as the Squirrels are in awe. Then we get one of the weirded badge scene changers I have ever seen on this show: A bunch of balloons with Duggee's visage woofing a song wearing colored hats and blue bowties. It doesn't fit the farm theme at all here. The white balloon seems to have a giant green cartoon bump on it's head. Head back inside the tractor with Duggee and the kids riding. The pipe is a vacuum that sucks up the stuff and puts it on the bed. One of the kids is trying so hard not to laugh at the bumping of the tractor, struggling. Worm pops up along with the mole who probably was the one who was suppose to have the strawberry cake in the second episode of Series one. And speaking of the evil ones: the gaslighting Hippie Rabbits pop up to call this cool, man! All three of them can kindly sod off! The rest of the animals are giddy, including the horse calling this fancy. This is not fancy, this is just there. This is just to kill time in a seven minute episode. The only part of note is the Delta Chickens bailing stage right while the kids might be cheering for their demise. I just knew Roly's bloodlust would extend to them, since they are technically "BIRDS~!". The Delta Chickens moved like the wind even though there was no chance of them getting hit. Then the Squirrels get cocky and go faster, and then the engine blows up and they stop. Duggee goes to the engine and opens up. The kids ask Duggee is he can fix it, Duggee thinks he can. Duggee makes banging noises and he does get covered with oil. I thought BS&P wouldn't allow it as all the animals appear from the western front looking amused. Delta Frog makes his contracted appearance and so do the Naughty Mice and Hedgely The Hedgehog.

The kids have a plan: Pick the food with the animals while Duggee is fixing the engine and looking more oily as time goes on. Oil might as well be blood on a pre-school show. The kids ask Duggee permission and Duggee accepts. I smell a trainwreck montage commencing. Roly has lost his muscle mass because he cannot pull a carrot out. Horse flicks a shovel to launch a carrot high into the air. Basically, the entire sequence is the animals and kids picking food out and Worm nearly dies by pumpkin. This was good for the most part, the brown cow doing the beep sound like a giant truck was funny, the airplane birds sequence was amusing, The woodpeckers during the apple falling from the trees sequence almost look like Woody Woodpecker. Roly of course misses all the apples, while Tag does not. Somehow during this, Duggee finds a Rubix Cube in the engine! Of course, it had to be a toy sucked up in the engine that caused it. This is probably Betty's fault, knowing her CLEVER CLOGS~! Okay, Hedgely being used as a strawberry spike picker was funny. The last major sequence deserves a special mention because it so like Duggee: A Rube-Goldbergish machine pulled by a horse and Norrie just pick pumpkins with Cow in a hamster wheel and sheep as the prongs, with Ethel sucking and blowing the pumpkins behind his back to Tag and Roly on a convyer belt. It is so absurd, and yet tame compared to later seasons where the writers just stopped caring. Roly and Tag put them in boxes and the red ant army delivers the boxes to Betty as the entire pile is so absurd, SUZY SHEEP~ would be speechless. Brady Brunch sequence of them cheering for victory ensues. Cut back to Duggee trying to start the engines and it finally turns over and works! Too little, too late Duggee, the harvest is over. Duggee turns around when the kids yell to him, and Duggee is shocked by the most absurd pile of stuff he has ever seen. There's no way this is believable at all. The narrator asks if the Squirrels have done well today as Duggee drives the tractor away stage right. Jump cut to the animals and kids eating and drinking at a table as Duggee runs back with the badge. The kids all cheer as the parents arrive in their vehicles. DUGGEE HUG~! Duggee hug. The kids bail stage left and present the badges to their parents. The parents hug their kids in unison and then leave with them in their vehicles. The narrator asks if this was fun with glee and excitement as Duggee takes a basket of strawberries and eats them with glee. The narrator is taken back by this to end the episode at 6:45. I think the original plan was to have the absurd pile of stuff bury Duggee, but was deemed too violent by BS&P. Oh well, this was a fun episode and the Rube-Goldberg machine is going to get even more so in future episodes. *** 1/2 (70%).

Opening Moment #6: This opening features Happy spitting beats as per a previous episode. The title card badge is literally a paint palette against a white background.

The Colour Badge: Short opens in the clubhouse as no one is here except for the narrator. Oh wait, they were hiding underneath the objects when the narrator speaks. I should have known. Roly lampshades himself, that was funny. Tag is a cowboy, not funny. The narrator asks what Duggee has planned for them today and the kids bail stage left, without making a mess. Cut to Duggee at the table wearing his artist clothes and his beret painting a picture. Uh-oh! I remember the last time this occurred and I couldn't stop laughing at how Norrie absolutely wrecked Duggee on his art drawing. The kids run in and ask Duggee what he is doing as Duggee explains that he is painting a coloring book featuring a tree with lemon circles in it. Apparently, this colouring book/paint has the same magical powers the paint has in Bringing Down Babyface since the paint dried instantly when Betty turned the page. Betty wants the bee yellow, so Duggee paints the bee and the flower yellow, and this painting is okay, but there is signs of going out of bounds during the painting sequence. Yes, Duggee has a painting tray with six colors, why do you ask? I don't think bees have yellow wings, although flowers can have yellow petals. The bee flies around the flower because of course it does. Tag is next as they turn the page and it's a fire engine, which is painted red. Somehow Tag's painting techinque is so amazing that he somehow manages to paint it well despite the paint logically should have gone out of bounds a lot more. This was one with a few small spots not painted. The fire engine rides as Tag makes the same siren sounds Freddy Fox makes in Peppa Pig. Happy is next and it's a pond. Cue bloodlust of water from Happy! Still better than Roly's lust for them birds! Happy paints the pond blue, outside of some blood-like splatter, he paints all right. The water moves as a uncolored fish goes up and down without getting blue colored, as this coloring book is magical. SUZY SHEEP~?! Happy is in splash mode as Roly rudely hip checks Happy out, so he has been watching Kitten Kaboodle from "A Star Is Torn" recently. Roly turns the page and it's a lizard, I think. Roly proclaims that lizards are green, which is not always true. That's not the problem. Roly's painting techinque is that of his true age and IQ. The lizard proclaims that it's messy. Thanks lizard. Thinking about it, this means that the birds have lawyers now, which is a good thing, thank you. Norrie then decides to turn the page to paint an orange inside the lines, which outside of Roly's technique is hilarious since the others did a fine job, although Betty never got to paint a picture yet. Norrie then has a problem because the colors of paint are blue, red, green, yellow, black and white. No orange painting. The narrator proclaims that Duggee can show them how because he points to his chest to reveal the Colour Badge. Which looks like a splosh of paint on his gear, which is a neat visual actually. The kids are shocked and then they cheer as we get a stylized scene changer of a Duggee badge colored in a sloppy fashion, and Duggee Badge winks.

We head back as Duggee brings out his painting plate and a bunch of squirt containers of paint. Green is not present here, because green only applies to light and screens. Unless it's printing, then it's cyan, magenta and yellow as primary colors. Mixing those later three produces black. Mixing the light/screens produces white and the paints produce orange, green and violet. I think all three combined, they produce grey. There is also the shades effect to account for as well. The BRY coloring mixing does have a lack of scientific basis though. Duggee mixes yellow and red paint to create orange paint in storyline. In real life, it would depend on shades of pigment. Norrie paints the orange and does a poorer job than everyone except Roly. HA! Next page is Betty with grapes, which are painted purple. In storyline, it's mixing red with blue. Betty's painting technique is no better than Norrie's. Tag might have the best painting techinque, and even that is not flawless. Next page is a plate of jelly, the staple of Peppa Pig and my tummy the world over. It's pink in storyline, even though jelly can literally be any color. I will not stand for the other colors being disrespected here. Of course, they picked pink here to demonstrate in storyline that white makes red into a lighter shade of pink. The jelly is wobbling, which in a way makes sense with the painting techinque, but it wobbles after the fact, not during it. Next page is a cup and straw as Happy wants it filled with blueberry juice. The problem is: blueberry is a darker blue, so in storyline Duggee mixs blue with black to make it darker. Happy paints it, and it's still messy, but not messier than Roly. The dark blue color bails like someone drank out of it. Next page is a sucker, which I'm sure some critics are telling the audience on this show right now. They mix red, blue, black and white to form lavander paint. Everyone paints it except Tag, who is confused. Roly's technique when together is somehow less messy as there is only one section of the sucker not painted in. A copyright approved Care Bear joins in to grab the sucker and it gets painted lavander, which tickles it. Now, they decide to make new colors and this is when the episode turned around for me. So far, it was just there; now it's time for the kids to troll us with mixed paints. First, white, blue, and green to make sky blue, which Roly calls "blammo". HAHA! The care bear don't care as the next page is a giraffe eating berries as it gets sky blue spots and the rest of the skin is called Lemon Berry, according to Norrie. Next page is literally the Naughty Monkey in a tree as the coloring book is just referencing the characters of this show now. This new color is called fizzysip: a bright purple with white spots. Naughty Monkey loves it, he gives less of a fuck than Evie Pig now. Not as funny as Evie, though.

More mixing colors as now the color mixing booking names are out of control. Happy and Betty have the same colors, and Happy calls it Slump and Betty calls it Bazowie. An E-magazine of some sort. Shlump I have zero clue. Okay, the next page is painting Tino The Mouse and now he's pissed. Go sod off, you artistic purist! Oh wait, it's five seconds as he calls it marvelous! Of course, what a fool I am?! Ethel is next, painted in candy cane stripes of red and yellow called Rubylicious. Ethel loves it and trumpets this success. Next up is a gorilla, being painted in Popple Berry (Blue with yellow sports), and at this point, it's time to stop pretending this is an educational episode. This is just a bunch of kids and Duggee just making a farce for my pleasure. Yes, the gorilla cuts a promo, it's fine. Next up is Katerina the flamingo being painted with paaloom. Roly's painting technique is normal now, so that first one was him trolling all along. Katerina loves it, next page is King Tiger painted in Royal Wow! Purple with yellow stars, everyone. King Tiger loves it. Next up is the biggest art critic this side of Tino The Mouse, Enid. Roly's paint color is Sploosh (Strawberry Lime) as the last page is basically something out of a real coloring book. Everyone in the picture gets colored in, although Enid dodges all. The Delta Chickens are fobs now. Betty says they look funny, Delta Frog look like a rainbow tree, Duggee looks like a purple grape. Enid keeps running and gets striped painted. The cat version of a criminal, basically. Finally, we return to reality (no, not really) as Tag asks if they can be these wonderful colors. And that's exactly what happens! Somehow, Duggee is a lighter shade of purple than he was in the coloring book. SUZY SHEEP~?! Bonus calls for the expanding pages which are bigger than the actual coloring book! Tag decides that this might not end well, so the colors are reset. The narrator asks if the kids have done well today, as Duggee bails on all fours and returns with the badge. The kids all clear and here comes the parents in their vehicles. DUGGEE HUG~! Duggee hug. The kids bail giggling as they present the parents with their badges. The kids hug the parents and they all leave stage left in their vehicles. The narrator asks if this was fun and Duggee gets colored in by an out of nowhere paintbrush. Uh-oh! Someone got out into the real world, did the narrator do this?! Zoom out and it's Enid painting a completed picture. HAHA! The narrator and Duggee laugh to end the episode at 6:45. The end credits are in the coloring book style using various color paints. Started off slow, but it really picked up when the kids were just trolling the names of colors because they knew that this lesson was not amusing enough for them and the science was suspect. Very good ending as well. *** 3/4 (75%). The purple Care Bear clone is called Lolly Bear I should note.

Opening Moment #7: This opening features Roly meditating while looking like Rambo, as per a previous episode. The title card features a stick against a white background with a rectangle badge. Oh goodie, the official debut of the Stick Insect! I've have waiting for this episode as well.

The Stick Badge: Short opens outside BEFORE HAPPY HOUR (sunset) with the kids doing kid things as it's fall, so winter gear is worn here. Tag and Norrie are kicking a soccer ball, Happy and Roly are making a sandcastle on a pink wagon and Betty is reading the "Chicken Or The Egg" storybook from an earlier opening sequence, only the cover is pink. The narrator ask what Duggee has planned for them today and the kids all bail stage right. Cut to Duggee dressed as a lumberjack without boots on throwing a log down the second after the kids run in to ask Duggee what he is doing. Betty is not amused by Duggee's decision to collect wood. Duggee woofs a lot to basically say that they are having a campfire to sit around and toast marshmellows. The kids cheer for that one as they ask to help Duggee in collecting wood. Duggee woofs and he's dumb because the kids basically steal wooden objects from the denizens of this world, not the real world because that would be criminal. The brown bird protests this stealing of the door in the tree, I should note. Everyone else is merely stunned, or toppled over in the case of King Tiger losing his cane. The kids returns with the wooden objects and Duggee panics as the narrator points out rightfully that the objects they stole are still useful. Everyone gets their stuff back in a reverse sequence of the previous scene. Sadly, the brown bird is locked out of his house now and forgot to bring his keys from inside. I just realized that Roly was the one who stole the door, that bloodlusting bird brain. We return to the stone campfire spot as Duggee points out the sticks in the stone ring and Betty is confused because it's just a pile of sticks. What sticks?! Well, Duggee is here to demonstrate as he points to his strap on the overalls to reveal his Stick Badge. They do a color flag spot featuring little sticks, medium sticks and big sticks. That's sticks, branches and logs according to my translation from pre-school to nuanced-English. The kids seem to get it and bounce away stage left smiling and giggling. There is one tiny flaw in Duggee and the narrator's explaination: They didn't tell the Squirrels that the sticks had to be dead, so we spend a long ass whomping time with the Squirrels picking out branches and sticks from living trees and the narrator having to correct them and himself. Happy is closer though, but it's wet so it might not count. Roly is doing swinging on a branch that contains a bird's net. Oh, come on, show! We all know Roly wants to steal the bird's nest of little sticks. Finally, Betty finds one and just let's it lie there. The kids love finding sticks, so we get another sequence of them finding sticks on the ground now. Sadly, Roly's is so rotton that it crumbles to sawdust. Must be the bird's revenge for Roly stealing his door earlier. Kids bring in sticks, they are not off to heaven nor hell.

Tag rolls in a giant log, Roly's stick goes limper than my sex life. Somehow. Somehow, Tag was able to covert the log to five sticks on the run in. SUZY SHEEP~?! Norrie finds the most absurd stick ever. It looks like a whip. Happy's looks like someone threw out their science bridge project and Roly finds the stick insect. Finally, the plot can truly progress now! Rolly is shocked and appalled by this stick with eyes. That's Mr. Potato's gimmick! It also has a leaf as the stick insect is called "Stick". They already did the stick insect angle with Pedro F'N Pony in Peppa Pig, I should note. Stick insect is also known as a Brown Phasmid. Roly is so happy now that he runs in with the stick as the birds hopefully believe that Roly bloodlust for birds has ended and he'll eat Stick. Sadly, this will not happen. Betty is not impressed by this, so Roly calls it special and "Stick" shows up for real, shocking the other kids. Stick talks like a Pokemon, except he has two words "stick" and "sticky". The kids are amazed by this as Duggee and the narrator point out that it's not a wooden stick, it's a stick insect. The kids literally do the "If it looks like a duck..." analogy, and then when Roly proclaims that "it tastes like a stick", Stick is confused and not amused. The narrator explains that the stick thingie is just camoflauge to hide from enemies. Stick demonstrates this overdramatically. The kids are in awe of this, but Roly don't care. The kids and Stick say "stick" for awhile and then this segues into the greatest moment in Hey Duggee so far: Stick starts singing the best euro-pop children's song for all time: The Stick Song~! I love this! No one on Peppa Pig can top this! This turned the episode around for me. Stick is dancing while singing this song against colored sticks in the background. Stick pops Duggee's hat with branches in the background now. I wish they didn't change colors in the background so quickly during the Betty/Tag dancing sequence though, my eyes got annoyed. Roly claps as we get purple spots, then the slowest infinity background sequence ever, Norrie and Happy do a jumping jig, Stick bounces on sheep's back like it's a bed, that was funny. Delta Chickens dance and then Delta Frog with swirling colored squares in the background. Not as bad as the Tag/Betty sequence, but it did annoy my eyes a bit. The kids swaying was actually more annoying in terms of background color changes. They did make it up with Stick shooting white lasers against a black background though. Then the colors changes on the lasers as we head to Stick singing at the door of the brown bird as brown bird opens the door, and the song stops. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I hope Roly buries you in that mass grave he dug in one of his later opening sequences. Stick hides, bird is like "huh" and then closes the door. Stick stops selling and bounces to the restarted music.

Horse gets wrecked by his clothes on Stick's singing, Stick jumps up and down in Bear's oatmeal, that was funny. Stick also plays tennis the best as I found out and does a duet with King Tiger. I thought they would have stick as the cane for King Tiger, but no. Stick dances on the bundles of wood as the kids and Duggee are dancing. Duggee face looks like he knows he's going to get wrecked by the critics and he's just getting his money's worth. Fitting because this is the best music sequence in the entire series. This song should be in every Scooby-Doo chase sequence in this show until the end of time. Then we get the second funniest "fuck you" moment of the show ever: The song is stopped by honking because the parents have arrived a good one minute too early! HAHA! They are here for the campfire, you see. The kids bail to meet the parents. They explain who Stick is as Norrie's dad is impressed with this. Yes, Norrie's dad cut a promo as the kids proclaim that Stick is at the campfire and Duggee is making the fire because we cannot use matches on this show despite Mr. Rabbit using them in Peppa Pig in The Castle. But we have no problem teasing the death of a stick insect though! The kids do not give a damn about this as Tag is smiling. Tag's mother is the only one concerned about this. Tag is giggling as the narrator talks to Duggee about this, and then Stick pops from Duggee's hat and sings! More singing and dancing as the marshmellows are set, we have a marshmellow badge of Duggee's face, that was funny. It's now AFTER HAPPY HOUR as everyone in the episode is toasting marshmellows except for the birds and Stick. Aww, they kissed and made up. Stick continues to dance and sing as the narrator asks if the Squirrels have done well today. Duggee bails on all fours and returns with the Stick Badge. Stick provides the dancing as we do the most long distance run DUGGEE HUG~ of all time. Duggee hug. The kids bail stage left as they present the badges to their parents. The parents hug the kids in unison. Yes, Stick is still doing vocals and head pop-ups during this. The parents leave with their kids in their vehicles as the narrator asks over the noise if that was fun. Duggee is dancing to the song looking like a cross between a hippie and a swimmer with white gloves on. There are strobe lights on, thankfully none of the lights annoy my eyes. The birds and brown bird are looking into the hard camera acting like they are ready to eat Stick as everyone dances to end the episode at 6:45. The song continues into the end credits as Duggee and his doghouse are splooshed with neon paint. Stick is still bouncing and singing, along with a Duggee! Duggee! Duggee! chant from the kids. You know what this episode is getting! Best episode of the series to date, too! ***** (100%). Now, that was a comeback after the first half was chugging at barely ***!

Opening Moment #8: This opening features Betty doing chemistry as per "The Obstacle Course Badge". The title card is a big open mouth with a badge shaped like a talking balloon in the comics! .

The Voice Badge: Short opens outside with Duggee, Duggee's barn and the Squirrels in the background while they show Delta Frog, Delta Chicken, Spooky Sheep and Brown Cow either eating, pecking, or just looking. Duggee is walking to the clothesline to hang some clothes from the hamper while the kids are skipping rope. There is a tweeting yellow bird on the clothesline as the narrator notices Duggee is doing a spot of washing. Damn, we turned into a wrestling show now. Duggee pulls out some clothes to reveal a wizard's hat and Duggee is confused. The narrator calls this curious as the yellow bird is now annoying Enid who magically appears out of nowhere. SUZY SHEEP~?! The yellow bird annoys the rest of the animals, most of them don't care. Yellow bird lands on Happy's nose, like it's on a diving board, that was funny. The kids stop skipping rope and all of them are confused by this bird on Happy's nose. I wonder if they are concerned that this bird hasn't been smarten up to Roly's lust for them birds. However, it's because Happy cannot see since the bird is blocking his line of sight. Yellow bird, you are in danger now; especially with Roly around. Still, the kids are impressed by the bird's voice. Cut to Duggee putting on the magician's outfit. Why? I have no clue. The narrator is even more confused as Duggee finds a magic wand from a costume that has no pockets. Suzy Sheep would have been grinning from ear to ear on that one. Daddy Pig and Duggee are wrecked now. Yes, the magic makes noise and it has magic dust, so yes, magic is real in this world. What a shocker?! Yellow bird gets hit with the magic and now moos like a cow. At least we can blame Duggee for that one instead of Roly's bloodlust this time around. Yes, everyone's voices get swapped as Duggee is just gleefully using the wand to change the voices. This has to be revenge for all the times the kids trolled on Duggee. Problem is, this is going to backfire in his voice, I just know it. Most of the kids are confused and excited. However, Betty is gravely offended by this because she got Roly's voice and Roly got Betty's voice. The kids wonder what is going on, so they decide to ask Duggee about it as they bounce stage left. Yes, the animals all have different voices now. Only Norrie seems to notice Spooky Sheep's voice change though. Amazingly enough, this kills the bounce sound effect as Duggee is bewildered for some reason. Duggee then turns around and is smiling. Of course!

The kids and Duggee exchange notes on the situation and this leads to Duggee sounding like Enid and Enid sounding like Duggee. BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Total backfire on Duggee's part! Duggee is officially our GEEK OF THE WEEK~! The narrator is the only one who keeps his own voice as he is confused. However, the narrator claims that Duggee still knows what to do because he points to his hat to reveal the Voice Badge. Even when he has Enid's voice, the narrator still understands why Duggee is saying in meows. Anyhow, Duggee brings out a magical xylophone and plays it as the narrator translates that Duggee is doing this to remind them of their real voices. The kids all cheer as we get the stylized badge scene changer of Duggee blowing a trumpet looking like he's part of a marching band. And it rings like a doorbell. HAHA! Duggee is confused, and Duggee used magic in a careless way, so Duggee; that's your fault! So, here's the entire lesson in a nutshell: The kids help the animal find their voices by using sounds from the xylophone to mimic their real voices. Like the yellow bird tweeting, or the cow mooing, or the frog ribbiting. Rinse, lather, repeat. Brown cow had to clear it's voice before sounding right I should note. Roly pets Delta Frog's eyes after it gets it's voice back. Yes folks, I just described almost 90 seconds of action in less than three lines. Next up is the kids voices as Betty hates Roly's voice. The narrator suggest that the kids just say something they know. In other words, their catchphrase. Betty's is "I know", Happy's is "splash" as he jumps up and down in a puddle, Norrie la sings, Tag pops up from the hamper to reveal Super Tag, that's nice. Roly of course gets the bang treatment from Duggee because he yells "BIRDS~!". Of course, it had to involve his bloodlust and the yellow bird finally smarten up to it and flies away. Norrie and company cheer for victory as Duggee bails on all fours and returns to present the Voice Badge. The kids cheer as there is a lot of xylphone sound effects in this scene. Here come the parents in their vehicles as it's time for the DUGGEE... Oh wait, Duggee hasn't got his voice back. So, the kids yell DUGGEE HUG~ and that gets his voice back. Duggee hug. The kids bail stage left to present the badges to their parents. The parents hug the kids and then leave stage left with the kids in their vehicles. The narrator asks if this was fun and somehow Duggee changes the voice of the narrator from male to female! Apparently, we will be hearing this voice in a later episode, methinks. That ends the episode at 6:45. The female voice is the same one who voices Badger I should note. A fun episode. *** 1/2 (70%).

THE REVIEW LINE

Well, this was a three banger, five fun episodes of Duggee fun and silliness. There are two reasons I consider The Stick Badge the best episode of the entire series thus far: (1) The obvious: Stick and his over the top fun song. Yes, he said only two words, but the Europop and dancing style really made it stand out in this show. I have stated before that this should be their chase sequence song, it's so hilarious and it's not like this show didn't bury Scooby-Doo already. (2) The not obvious: Before Stick arrived, outside of the kids stealing wooden objects from the neighbours which was funny, the episode was just there. They managed to take an otherwise average episode and turned it into the best episode so far. There are TaleSpin episodes who wish they got the same happenings (Bearly Alive, I'm looking at you!). The Spooky Badge was clearly a Scooby-Doo parody as the kids were dressed in Scooby-Doo clothes and they did all the classic spots and buried them deep into the earth for my please. Best one was the Hanna Barbera running loop spots where the kids literally ran in circles. Also, it wouldn't be Hey Duggee without someone screaming and then running away happy and laughing! Bonus points for the surprise villain reveal at the finish of that one. The Obstacle Badge would probably have been almost as good as The Stick Badge if they reduced all the shots to the head in that one. That made me cringe and it was an otherwise awesome episode! The Voice Badge was the shortest Hey Duggee review I have ever done, mostly since I was able to explain 1 1/2 minutes of footage in just three lines. Overall, this was a great set of shorts, but it's downhill from there for Series 2 at least. So...

Thumbs up for The Stick Badge (DUH!), The Obstacle Badge and The Spooky Badge. Thumbs in the middle for the rest, and I'll see you all next time.

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