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The Adventures Of Teddy Ruxpin: On The Beaches
Reviewed: 06/23/2013
The Biggest Party In All Of Grundo!
I don't know how you follow up The Journey Home and make it half decent; but that didn't stop the show from trying. So we even get a denouement of this series as the writers are clearly trying to use the three or so episodes left to get all the payoffs paid off; problem is that instead of focusing on two plots, they split the show into three angles: Teddy/Burl/Illana, Elroy/Tweeg and LB/Buffy. That ultimately creates the big mess as you will see here. And then there's the animation... So let's rant on shall we...?
We begin this one with a really slow pan towards Teddy's house as it's early morning and then we head to Burl and Illana's room as we get a shot of Burl's bare feet. Seriously; this is the only episode where Burl doesn't wear the bandaged shoes in his present form. Sadly; the animation continuity is so bad at this point, they would forget next episode and the final episode after that. As you can guess; everyone is sleeping and talking in their sleep too. Grubby is sleeping in a basket in the living room on his back wearing a SWANK custom made pjs and is eating a pillow in his sleep. Teddy is talking about crystals in his sleep and the front is opened and it's Digger. Wait; I thought Illiops were too polite and knocked on the door? And then a bunch of Illiops come in banging on drums, cymbals, and lots of bells ring. Ooookkkkkaaaaayyyyy. Everyone either wakes up or falls out of bed. In Burl's case he trips over his own blanket which looks so contrived and forced that you can tell the animators are not caring anymore. Burl falls flat on his face and Digger's awakening committee greets them and laughs. And it's so childish of them too. Teddy; the personification of kindness and fair play welcomes them anyway. Illana and Burl enter and Digger's smile is so priceless that if Scrooge saw this; he would probably threaten to kill Digger for this; and Digger would still have that smile that needs to be surgically removed. Burl questions them being here this early and he is as annoyed at Digger's smiling as I am. Digger explains that there is a huge cook out at the beach for the guests of honor; who are Teddy and Burl of course. Grubby smells the air and it smells like food. Oh and the Illiops bring out the food because it's a graceful free breakfast to the Ruxpin family. We do a scene change with the family all dressed up at the table as the Illiop put more food on the table as Teddy realizes that he is really home.
So we scene change to Ben's Beach again (I feel like I am in an extended Quack Pack episode; although I prefer it in this show than I did with Quack Pack) as the windjammer surfboards are prepared on the shoreline as Elroy is becoming more annoyed by Tweeg's laughable attempt at surfer lingo and LB blows him off because he cannot believe that Tweeg wants to turn babyface now. Wait; I thought LB was tired of being a heel? So why would be glad Tweeg was a heel? And I thought LB didn't mind Tweeg being a surfer (although he felt that he couldn't make it)? And LB calls him "twist" which has to be the most witty insult LB has ever given Tweeg. And getting into MAVO? Didn't they spend an entire episode showing that MAVO wanted to "off" both LB and Tweeg? None of this makes any sense! Tweeg calls MAVO a snore. Somehow; that is a real comment that isn't supposed to be a real comment. Anyhow; Tweeg is retired from the villain business (thus teasing a face turn) as he is going with Elroy who blows out their arguing for messing with his karma. Tweeg even apologizes to Elroy! Wow; didn't see that coming. So Elroy notices a wind coming as LB and Tweeg say their goodbye as Tweeg proclaims that LB never got it right despite LB saying his name right TWICE (one in The Journey Home and the other was just before they said their goodbyes here). Goodness; this is bad writing. LB hasn't been paid yet of course as Tweeg teases something, but then tells him that he'll be seeing him later. Elroy and Tweeg para-sail away stage northwest as LB just looks on. This just didn't have the emotion because Tweeg and LB are comedy guys and I couldn't take them seriously if I even tried. So yeah; this is the beginning of a three way angle split. More on that later.
So we head back to Teddy's house and into the kitchen as Teddy, Grubby and Gimmick are washing dishes and putting them away; throwing some of them like a Frisbee. Teddy states that it was thoughtful of the Illiops for the breakfast feast. Yeah; I agree with that, although I could have done without the drum banging. Anyhow; Grubby suggests that they return the favor and Teddy's idea is to demonstrate the crystals which is funny considering that the sixth crystal has yet to be discovered. Gimmick thinks this is so wonderful that he runs down a list of stuff he needs for the said demonstration; and is so distracted that he forgets that Grubby throws a plate at him and it somehow shatters despite hitting wood. Wow; those plates are more fragile than...Ummmm...I'll get back to you on that. Yeah; that ends the scene as we head back as apparently LB is looking from the shoreline as Elroy and Tweeg are para-sailing in the background despite clearly heading northwest. Continuity? What's that? Me not know how those two go together. LB blows him off because there is more to life than bad checks and insults. BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Projection much there LB? So LB turns around and notices Buffy (wearing a lime green bow on her horn this time) with shades on; on a blanket with an orange umbrella drinking a soda. If it wasn't for skin cancer; I would be doing this every weekend. No, not really. LB takes this well as she is the Bounder of his dreams. Okay. So we have them exchange notes and pleasure thoughts as LB plops down on the blanket butt first.
So we head to Rillonia's beach as we get a far pan shot of the entire beach as Teddy, Burl, Illana, Grubby and Gimmick enter from the west and there is a beach volleyball area set up along with a stage as most of the Illiops are already doing stuff before the guests arrive. Grubby calls this one big Illiop party and the family hugs each other because we have to force the point that they are back together again. Thankfully; they don't sing the song for the third time because we get a more fitting one as the Illiops finally take note from the volleyball field (and the orange haired Illiop gets bonked on the head from a stray volleyball for fun) as the babyface all walk down and we meet as we begin the song: "The Great Big Illiop Party". Now I love this song and it's set up really well; even though the animation just runs off the rails here. Gimmick shakes hands and gets his arms wrapped up in the process. Did I forget to mention that the band on stage is here and is completely different from the band that woke up Teddy from the beginning? There is a lot going on from serving the volleyball (Luxo). Remember what I said about the orange haired Illiop (Brandon would be the remake booking name for him) and then a soccer ball somehow gets involved which hits the orange haired Illiop in the midsection and he falls and one of the Illiops (the one with brown hair - Remake name: Ricken) catches him. And this is the shot where he (Brandon) changes from teenager to kid on the next shot. So we see a lot of eating going on as there is Grubby opening his mouth again. And apparently these parties have seven different bean recipes which seems to be mighty overkill to me. And they last through the night too; even the eating (Luxo eating a submarine sandwich for instance). We play push blanket trampoline which cannot be safe to do. I'm amazed that they had a lot of Illiops in this scene and not even Digger could buy more than two episodes worth of spoken lines. Heck; I don't think he even appears in 99% of this song (he does appear with Teddy in front of the stage when Illana and Burl embrace each other with smiles on their faces). In fact the chorus is sung by (Brandon), (Ashley) and a red haired Illiop (remake name: Tristan). You would think that if Digger was the planner for this that he would be singing the actual chorus with them. Besides; Phil Barron's voice is the only voice we hear singing anyway. The climax of the song includes shots of the band on stage; and they look great (Remake name: The Runaway Three.); someone getting buried in the sand; and the football victory spot as the color shaders really butchered Burl's right leg as it goes in between his fur color and the bandaged shoes. Yeah; this song was great, and the idea of it was good, but the execution of this was completely random and it looked like it was there to kill time. A shame because with proper care; this would have been awesome. Note that Digger isn't involved in the football victory spot and neither is (Brandon); but (Ashley) and (Tristan) are. Remember the small orange haired Illiop (remake name: Lucky) with the glasses on the bottom left of the screen for the last episode, along with (Ricken) in the middle. Anyhow; we get a shot from behind the back as Digger hears something and turns around. He notices something in the beach as Grubby realizes that it's Zelza's pirate ship. Yeap; the Octopede Sailor arrive on the scene. As the Backyardigans would say: "Now that's convenient!"
So we scene change to Captain Zelza and Xena (Zelza is the one wearing the navy blue coat and red curly hair, Xena is the one with the light blue jacket and blond hair) coming out of the rowboat which is on the shoreline as we meet and greet. Xena is getting Grubby looking like he is in love again as Xena has a surprise and wants Grubby to close his eyes. Grubby does so and we think she's teasing a kiss; and then she walks away and a blonded haired middle aged Octopede kisses him on the cheek which is the second kiss in as many episodes for Grubby. Grubby opens his eyes and he notices his mother (with pink pearls) and his father with a white collar that seems to connect his black bow tie; with white hair on the sides of the head and he has a smoking pipe. Now I know some Teddy fans were surprised by this; but Grubby's dad is actually quite tame here. This episode I believed aired in December of 1987 which to my knowledge, Ducktales would air around that same period. I recall that in Doctor Jekyl & Mr. McDuck that Shedlock Jones not only had a smoking pipe; he lit the pipe on screen and smoked the pipe; onscreen. Huey even cut an anti-smoking promo on him too. I believe there was a background smoker in Spies In Their Eyes and I do recall a lit cigar in A Case Of Mistaken Secret Identity. Also Austin Featheridge had a smoking pipe in Balooest of Blueblood near the end of that episode. And none of this was cut out by Toon Disney either. I mention this because Disney made a vow to anti-smoking groups that there would be no smoking stuff in their shows and movies (the guise is that anti-smoking group demanded an R rating on any movie with smoking glorified in it, although their definition of glorified is so broad that they might as well not say glorified and that they would be just as accurate in their demands); and I would have thought that meant that the DTVA sets we got would be edited to get those out (few that there were). Well; that didn't happen and none of them got an R rating; but were unrated (and all of them were second run syndication without Toon Disney edits).
Okay; so where was I? Oh yeah; we get the "I cannot get the continuity straight from shot to shot" spot rearing it's ugly head again as after Mom and Dad embrace Grubby; Zelza and Xena somehow come into view despite being far away from them and behind them in the previous shot. And then we discover that Grubby has at least four brothers and sisters. Only two of them were of any importance for the series which is the female blond haired one wearing the green dress and green ribbon in her hair. The other one is actually Grubby's fifth sibling who is shown on the feet shot as a little female girl Octopede with white hair and a pink diaper/pink shirt which Grubby grabs. The others hug Grubby of course and then start hugging on Gimmick later on. And yes; both Octopedes I mentioned have actual names. The blond haired one is Liza and the youngest Octopede Grubby was holding is actually addressed by Grubby as Molly. Yes; Molly! One of the Gummi bears was named Grubby (A Barbic I do believe), Molly was Rebecca Cunningham's daughter and Teddy: Well; in this show Teddy was nice and kind. In TaleSpin; Teddy was mean, rude and was Kit's rival in track and field in A Baloo Switcheroo. Yeah; how many booking names did TaleSpin steal from this show? Then comes one of those logic breaks that makes me frustrated as ever: When Grubby's dad and mom shakes hands with Illana; Grubby's dad casually sezs that it's great to see her again. As in; they met before! What? I thought Illana never saw an Octopede until "The Day Teddy Met Grubby" in the flashback because if I recall; when Illana saw Grubby caught in the net, Illana I think called him a potato bug or something along those lines. Now this would make more sense if Grubby's family came to Rillionia searching for Grubby and just missed him when Teddy and Grubby went for their big adventure, but there is no indication now and later that indicate that this was the case. This is why a lot of people pan this show in spite of all the good ideas and elements: Bad continuity. You can get away with bad animation shot continuity; but not bad storyline continuity.
Illana is trying her best to salvage this episode (I really love her; but she's got a steep uphill climb at this point and the writers won't play nice either) and we get more animation continuity errors as in Illana's closeup; Burl looks like a complete drunken bum. Seriously; I am not making this up. Darn it guys; can you keep some continuity for more than one shot? Thankfully; they go to the side shot on the greeting as he looks like himself. Grubby's mother hugs Teddy which Teddy sells it as if he wants one. Okay. Grubby introduces Gimmick and the kids all surround Gimmick and try to tackle him down to the sand which is quite pointless; but still cute. Speaking of not maintaining shot continuity: notice Liza is in the group trying to swamp Gimmick? Well; in the very next shot, it looks like she walks to Grubby from the west instead of backing up towards Grubby from the east. Yeah; the continuity is AWFUL in this episode and I fear it's going to get worse. So Liza whisper yells in his ear and what does she tell him: Xena is in love with him which is really pointless now because everyone figured that out during the Ying story arc. Grubby blushes on cue which Teddy points out that he is in love again. Now Xena/Grubby would have been fine as a side story (and maybe be paid off in the next episode); but the writers have no idea what they are doing at this point, so that goes absolutely nowhere (in fact Xena never appears AGAIN after this episode is over).
Anyhow; we head to Ben's Beach again as we pan over to see LB and Buffy walking on the beach exchanging pleasure thoughts. Now this love angle is actually one that they manage to not completely screw up in the face of the many screw ups this series has had since LB and Buffy do have decent chemistry; but that doesn't mean that the writers don't try to avoid screwing up. LB kneels as he talks about this feeling and it's clear that LB is asking for her foot in marriage (because she's a Bounder of course). I do find LB's speech to be hilarious; but he's still sounding heelish despite the fact that he has turned babyface. Now granted; he's not a bouncing babyface, but they are booking LB as a tweener now. Okay; I can get behind him as a tweener. After some hilarious dialog about doing his best to be as heelish as possible; he asks Buffy if she wants to marry him and Buffy seems relieved by this and she accepts and wants LB to kiss her. Oh; this should be good. So LB and Buffy tease the kiss with their eyes closed which is really dumb because a wave swamps them good. HAHA! Now speaking of Z-Grade moments; the moment the wave swamps them; they do a scene changer and show them in the water with LB's legs in the air. Yeah; they cannot animate that sequence properly anymore. Even Scooby Doo does a better job than this. LB gets up and calls that a kiss to end the segment ten minutes in. Oh boy; this is just bad. Storyline was fine, but the continuity is just shot in this...
After the commercial break; we return to the Illiop Party Of "Would Be Awesome If Someone Else Was Animating It" with a pan shot of all the Illiops doing their reindeer games. Captain Zelza is with (Tristan) as we see Grubby and Xena at the BBQ pit as Grubby shows off his root kabob while wearing a chef's hat. It looks like a green pepper/meat kabob to me. Unless it's green onion which makes sense since onions are ROOT vegetables. Come to think about it; that would have paid off the evil onion joke the Fobs did in Father's Day, but whatever. Someone looks (It's Ricken by the way) way too excited as he's up a log pole in the background. Don't ask me why. Xena tries it and she likes it of course. We go to the far shot as Burl has a tray of lemonade as Grubby asks if he wants some and Burl no sells the deal since he has his hands full. Grubby offers to save Burl some; but Burl seems to have the same problem with telling the truth as Teddy does when it comes to roots. Yeah; those evil onions really must be an Illiop's weak sauce weakness in this show. So Burl goes over to Grubby's mother and Illana (I do find it laziness that two of the kid Octopedes got names; but not Grubby's mother and father. I mean; even Grubby Senior would have suffice here.) and they take some mugs of lemonade and talk about Grubby. Dad offers Burl to try the root kabob and Burl stammers before agreeing to it. So we cut over to the water as some of the Illiops and Octopedes are playing with the soccer ball as Mom is telling Liza to make sure Molly doesn't get caught in the waves. Then in comes Gimmick wearing a full white bathing suit with green spots all over it motioning to the kids to throw the ball to him. Okay; what happens next is absolutely awesome and if I did a remake of this show; I would keep this. So (Brandon) (next to him is the blue shirt Octopede. Remake name: Rooks) has the ball and he throws it right in Gimmick's kisser hard. Yeah; that is exactly what happens. And Teddy never scolds him for it either. Gimmick's glasses come off as he has to play Velma for a while looking for the glasses in the water; but an Octopede keep squeezing Gimmick's ear for some reason which by the sounds in the background is Molly. Gimmick turns around and notices that Molly is wearing the glasses. Now that is just sweet as Gimmick grabs Molly; thanks her as she puts the glasses back on and embraces her. One of the better spots in the episode by far.
So we go to the beach volleyball game as we have Teddy on serve with Digger on his left along with (Brandon), (Ashley) and apparently there are two other Illiops I couldn't catch against (I thought volleyball has only five players?) against Grubby's siblings excluding Grubby. So we have the glasses wearing Octopede who is wearing white gloves (Remake name: Justin), the red curly haired one (Remake Name: Zoe) and Liza. Wait so it's four against three for the Illiops? And aren't the Illiops suppose to play fair as part of their character? Anyhow; Teddy serves the ball as both (Justin) and Digger manage to bounce the ball off their rear ends (I'm not kidding either) and then Liza uses her middle left "foot" to bounce the volleyball up and Digger catches it calling this unfair because he's calling a "handsy". Liza points out that it's her foot and they all laugh. WHAT?! Okay; let me explain in so many words why this spot is bad: (1) Octopedes have hands instead of feet (2) In volleyball; you are allowed to hit it with your hands and (3) You cannot use your butt to bounce it back (Justin and Digger both violated that rule outright). Since Eliza is an Octopede; what she did was perfectly legal but what Digger and (Justin) did was not. The joke should be like this:
Digger: That's not fair! I'm calling a football violation
on you!
Liza: That wasn't my foot, that was my hand. {then
laugh}
Then the joke makes sense within the rules of volleyball. I mean; what she did was more legal than what DIGGER did with the ball. And on the laughing shot; the scene looks dark; so they cannot even maintain continuity on lighting either. GOD!! And the background shot of Tweeg and Elroy para-sailing in is Rocket Robin Hood league stuff to boot. So we scene change as we discover that Elroy's home is actually in Rillonia. Huh? Why? I don't think they ever explained that to my knowledge. Which is sad because a back story could involve Elroy seeking asylum in Rillonia and knows the Illiops. Anyhow; Tweeg is tired and Elroy wants Tweeg to mellow out and tosses the out of nowhere suntan lotion bottle. Tweeg takes the bottle and then flops to the ground showing off his mellowing out. Elroy calls it a start; but tells him to splash some lotion on his skin so he is a baked avocado. Okay; that makes no sense. It should be a baked apple pie; or something along those lines. Question: Does any surfer worth his salt ever use the term "epidermis" as meaning the word skin? Tweeg of course doesn't do it as Elroy lies next to Tweeg and we see them relaxing in the sunlight. Scene change to a shot of the bright sun and then cut to a closeup of Tweeg's face as his nose has completely burned to black. This has to be BS&P'ed since he never used the sun tan lotion to begin with; so his entire body should be burnt to a crisp. This would make more sense if he lathered himself in lotion and just missed his big fat nose which would be ironic. Another pointless shot of the sun and then we cut back to see Tweeg wake up and touch his nose and does the worst sell of someone in pain and crying. Wow; we are literally phoning this episode in if Tweeg isn't going to bring the goods. Elroy points out Tweeg's gaffe as he apparently knows about UV rays of the sun. So he offers the sun tan lotion to Tweeg and Tweeg rubs it into his nose which I think makes things WORSE according to science. He does suffer some pain from doing this though.
So we scene change to a closeup of Elroy dumping sea shells into a small chest as Tweeg is rubbing lotion on his nose and then we scene change AGAIN to a shot of a beach shack which I assume is Elroy's as we head inside the shack and Elroy decides to show Tweeg around as there are a jar of red rocks which Tweeg claims that they rocks. Or something like that. Elroy then shows the kitchen as he's into the woo of the cosmic balance and the art of cooking. He also shows off his hammock and he's tired so he is going to catch some Z's. Tweeg gets the "TOING" sound because he notices a bucket of gold coins sitting right next to the pole near the hammock. Tweeg notices the gold; but Elroy seems to not care about it that much. Tweeg asks how he got the gold; and Elroy explains that he won it from his surfing days. Geez; if only he bought a lawyer to make Elenore go away. Then it wouldn't be so sad. Anyhow; he hops into the hammock and asks Tweeg to join him because he's greener than usual, outside of his nose. Tweeg stammers and decides to join in as we get more shot continuity problems as there are two hammocks now. So Tweeg closes his eyes and waits for Elroy to go into la-la land. And you would think that yelling for dad would have waken him up; but it doesn't here. Tweeg then gets evil intentions (good; this is an improvement from Just A Tad Smarter) and then the hammock screws him like it does to Baloo a lot of the time. Tweeg wants to give that hammock to LB and then he crawls underneath the hammock where Elroy is and proclaims that this is so wrong, but this is so great. HA! So Tweeg grabs the golden coins and tries to leave; but of course he is an epic failure in the fine art of not being seen because he talks way too much and I betcha Elroy catches him red-handed. Or in this case; green handed. AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Yeap; Elroy noticed as I expected him too. And Elroy looks so sly here so he;'s handling this thievery better than most people.
Elroy notices the weakness Tweeg has to gold as he approaches Tweeg as Tweeg is trying to weasel out of this by saying that he didn't know what came over him. Well; everyone has a greedy head for gold since it's over $1000 an ounce today. Elroy cannot relate to someone who loves gold more than the times they had in the last two episodes or so. Tweeg just give him back the bucket of gold and just walks out with a white sack proclaiming that he's returning to his tower and feels miserable basically admitting that he screwed up here. We cut back inside the shack as Elroy proclaims that Tweeg took after his mother as he dumps the seashells out of his sea chest and dumps golden coins in as he admits that all Tweeg had to do is ask for the gold and he would proudly give it to him because he felt the fame and fortune cost his only son. So Tweeg is preparing the para-sail as Elroy comes out with his sea chest and offers it to Tweeg as a gift. Tweeg kindly accepts it as he puts it in the white bag and Tweeg proclaims that this is not easy to say; but he thanks Elroy for the good memories he had in a short space of time. They embrace for a moment and then Tweeg gets on the board and sails out into the ocean. Elroy sheds a tear and he yells at him that he could have been a contender. Yeah; this was slightly less tragic than Burl's back story because Tweeg let his past life get in the way and once he was caught, he was too ashamed of it, despite the fact that Elroy basically forgave him (and admitted that his life screwed Tweeg up; even though Elenore did far more damage to Tweeg than Elroy ever could) and the goodbye seems really genuine from both parties.
Anyhow; we return to the Illiop party as all the Illiops and Octopedes gather around a table with Grubby, Gimmick, Teddy and Xena for no real reason that I can think of. So Gimmick and Grubby demonstrate the third crystal's properties and the crowd is in awe as Grubby proclaims to Xena that he wishes he didn't come back since the show was getting good. That's a Baloo-equse joke if I ever saw one and it works better on Rebecca than it does on Gimmick. Sorry Grubby. Thankfully; Xena tells Grubby to be nice as Gimmick gets the very first crystal and apparently; Gimmick heard every word Grubby said, so Gimmick puts it in the Portable Reducing Machine and zaps Grubby with it turning him big. HA! That doesn't last long as Gimmick pushes the small button (I don't really care if the panel is using a different button system at this point; the shot continuity is so bad that this is minor in comparison) and he turns back to normal. And speaking of bad shot continuity; the cut to the crowd going ooooo. The artwork is goofy; but Teddy Ruxpin is in the shot and he's in awe. WHAT? The problem with this is: Teddy has been doing this routine since "Take A Good Look" and Teddy was with Gimmick; not in the crowd with Zelza and Digger! Grubby calls it a good stretch and his dad and mom laugh it up. Gimmick then shows off number six (the rebel crystal not unlike Darkwing Duck's number six arm in Aduckyphobia) proclaiming that he will be conducting "science" experiments on the crystal to determine what it does. Well; at least this angle actually has a decent payoff.
And speaking of paying off; we scene change to the ocean as Tweeg is para-sailing and standing on his head blowing off the waves; which is a clear cut sign that the wave is going to screw him over. And then Tweeg realizes that he betrayed his father and goes on and on; and then asks what he is doing. I have asking the same question concerning the continuity of this episode..and the wave screws him over and we have another scene changer (we must have had 20 of these in this episode alone) as Tweeg is face down on the shoreline as a starfish is on his nose. HAHA! I find that funny for some reason. Tweeg slowly wakes up and we get the TOING sound again as he notices a group of Illiops including the mayor from The Journey Home (remake name: Shoemacher), (Brandon), (Ashley) with her back turned, (Brandon) in the background and Digger. Take a picture of that scene; only (Ashley) and (Ricken) will be making appearances from here on out. Tweeg hides behind a rock and really feels sick because there are a lot of "Teddy Ruxpins" in the picture (his words, not mine). HAHA! I love real comments that aren't supposed to be real comments. So we see Gimmick (and the last shot of (Tristan)) at the table saying that the demonstration is over and it's time for fun again. The crowd pops as Tweeg laughs it up because very soon he'll get his fun at the expense of a nimcoopoop Gimmick, a brainless Octopede and all them Teddy Ruxpins. Again; Tweeg's words, not mine. Yeah; this is exactly how this episode ends at 19:11. Wow; the storyline started fine, but then it degenerated into randomness without much continuity nor reason. The animation is so Z-grade it's not funny and way too many scene changers that weren't needed? What a drop from The Journey Home eh? ** 1/4 (45%).
THE REVIEW LINE
Wow; we are really falling from grace here as the writers have absolutely no idea where they are going with this and splitting it up into three angles and basically aborting one in contrived fashion. The LB/Buffy angle wasn't screwed up much; only because they completely stopped showing it after the commercial break. The Elroy/Tweeg one was the most intriguing one of the three; but they basically aborted it by having Tweeg almost succeed in stealing the gold from the bucket and while both left on good terms, it was way too soon and didn't have the emotion and tragedy that it should have gotten. And then there is the Illiop Party which is a fun angle; but they drifted the most continuity wise. The shot continuity was off by a mile during these sequences, none of the jokes made sense, lots of logic breaks (Seriously; Grubby's dad and Illana met before. Why?) and laughable animation and even lighting. It was so frustrating because they had a perfect setup; the song to introduce it was perfect, but the animation and continuity was so off that it looked like a bad 1960's cartoon from the Mighty Hercules era and even Canadian animation should be better than that. And the way they treated Digger once the Illiop party got started really grinds my gears. He's Teddy's childhood friend and the most focus Illiop among Teddy's inner circle (outside of Burl and Illana) and then he gets dumped as a background character for the rest of the episode. The unnamed Illiops got more screen time than HE did. And to make matters worse: Digger will NEVER return after this episode and neither does Grubby's dad and mom (and most of the Illiops); but Grubby's sibling all do, and also three background Illiops ((Ricken), (Ashley) and (Lucky)) and only one of them was shown a lot.). The Octopede Sailors are gone after this as well, despite the fact that they were teasing Grubby/Xena all over again.
This is exactly why Teddy Ruxpin gets panned and why I see it as second rate now: horrible continuity, horrible animation (and continuity) and breaks in logic that a Disney Television Animation Crew would have caught and fixed. Not all of them; but most of them anyway. And to think, the episode wasn't half bad otherwise. Sure; it's sweet, but that's Teddy Ruxpin for you. This isn't even Mr. Wet Blanket's fault either. This was just a poor phoned-in effort by everyone involved. Even Tweeg's acting was phoned in which is an awfully poor sign. Next up is LB's Wedding and at least that angle hasn't been screwed up; but if you thought the continuity was shot in this episode, well...I don't like the odds; that's all I have to say. So....
Thumbs down for this episode and I'll see you all next time.