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The Adventures Of Teddy Ruxpin: Beware Of The Mudblups
Reviewed: 06/14/2015
Why?! Solar Flares Kill These Guys!
When we last left our trio; Gimmick was dumb enough to give the map to LB while not looking and was given a phony map which steered them towards the great desert. Thanks to Leota the Woodsprite; she showed Gimmick how to stop becoming a birdman and become an airship flier. Sadly; the trio forgot to cut some more trees to get firewood beforehand because they ran out and they are about to crash in the desert while Tweeg and LB are still trying to find themselves out. So now; we come to the episode as the trio meets mud men and a prince for the first time as the storyline slowly comes together. Will this be a better episode; or will Teddy sing us to death?! So let's rant on shall we...?
Opening Moment #1: We have the recap of the first episode with Teddy narrating. Teddy wastes no time in lying to us; claiming that LB stole the map even though the footage clearly shows that Gimmick was dumb enough to give the map to LB while he wasn't looking. This took about thirty seconds give or take.
We begin this one in the Great Desert of Grundo as we pan over to the airship coming down and we have continuity errors out of the wazoo now. As they drop down it seems that they are going to hit the ground level, then they replayed a shot of the airship bouncing off the pillar from the last episode in between this. It's bad because before that shot; they showed the airship heading straight for the rock pillar instead of over it. Gimmick solution to this whole thing: Cross fingers and hope for the best. Okay. Teddy covers his eyes. Grubby falls over the rail which at first I assumed he fell out of the airship; but he didn't. The airship bounces a few times and then slides in missing the rock by about six inches. Gimmick looks up and giggles. The airship bag runs out of air like a balloon as crossing fingers apparently worked, although Grubby is going to need crossing his toes surgery after that one. Scene changer of doom and we head into the desert as we exchange notes and walk. A lot. In the hot sun; with lots of hot sand, which Grubby sells. Grubby's feet are much more sensitive to heat than Teddy's it seems. Gimmick explains that this desert is so huge that it extends from Boggly Woods to the Mushroom Forest. Wait; I thought Trembley Falls was closer than Boggly Woods according to the map. Another line that could have been easily redubbed. So Grubby runs to some shade behind some rocks. Grubby drops onto his underside in relief as Teddy laughs at him. Yeah; Teddy Ruxpin; the personification of kindness laughs at his expense. Then the ground begins to rumble (along with the animators once again showing that they have no idea what they are doing. See; the rocks crumbling in the foreground where there is no rocks to crumble.) as we get rock spikes coming up and the ground is opening up. Grubby has to run like crazy as the rock pillar crumbles and rejoins the trio. So the ground cracks open and this forces everyone to bail; but Grubby gets swallowed up and Teddy has to climb up in order to prevent himself from suffering the same fate. Teddy calls down to Grubby as Grubby responds while holding onto a rocky ledge with all of his limbs. Sadly; he's underneath the rock though.
So this leads to the Illiop/Perloon chain ladder as the rock ledge pops from the side and Teddy grabs Grubby's foot...ERRRR...hand. Whatever. Gimmick pulls both friends to safety as they lay on the sand while the rock ledge tumbles into the abyss and that is that. The far shot when Teddy speaks makes Teddys' face look like he has a bird's beck. That amused me. Gimmick creditability streak continues as he points out that this is Trembley Fault, making the whole Boggly Woods thing even more of a continuity error. Grubby thinks he caused it, so Gimmick explains that it's not his fault because Gimmick has to give off the educational line of the episode. I'm going to say this and a lot of people are going to hate me for it; but, educational stuff like this is great. However; that said, you should only use it when it makes proper sense to what the storyline calls for. Don't do educational lines as a throwaway spot is what I am saying. Captain Planet; I'm looking at you. Teddy of course cuts this charming exchange at the knees because they need to get the heck out of there, so Gimmick wants them to gather firewood, so they split up to scour the desert and that is that. Scene changer to the mountain side as we see Tweeg's wagon being pulled up the mountain road by LB. Tweeg is still gloating over putting one over Gimmick as usual. I should note that LB is now pushing the wagon from the backside now; which does come off weird. LB asks how long while calling him Twink again (homosexual of course) so Tweeg blows him off because his name is Tweeg. This causes LB to name him Twonk now. HA! LB asks again and Tweeg tells him that he'll inform him when they get there. LB complains about doing all the work and Tweeg not being an equal partner. Tweeg responds by claiming that he's an equal partner; only more equal than LB. That is so George Wallace of you; Jack! LB accepts this answer as they are nearly the top of the hill and it's all downhill from here. So the wagon is stopped at the middle as LB asks about spliting the treasure and Tweeg proclaims that they'll cross that bridge when they come to it. I think we all know where this is going...
Yeap; LB pushes the wagon over the hill and Tweeg panics. HAHA! Tweeg has to speak so much dialogue that his actual acting of panicking doesn't begin until about thirty seconds after he gets pushed down the hill; even though his facial expressions of panic show up the instant he's pushed down the hill. Idiots! So the wagon goes down the spiral hill to fetch a pail of LB's...Ummm; no. Not stooping to that low in this rant. LB bounces after him; calling him Twonk again because Tweeg isn't going to steal his half of the treasure. This prompts the wagon to locate a conveniently placed large rock and crashes into it; destroying the wagon for the second time in the last 10 minutes or so. LB sums up this nicely as cheaters never pay off; and neither does Twink. Sadly; without the laugh, the joke isn't as funny. Scene changer into the desert with footprints that look very undefined, along with some cacti. Pan over to the far sand hills; and the cut to the trio walking together, so apparently the search for firewood was too boring even for this show. So the search for firewood has gone on empty and Gimmick trips and falls on his face right in front of a lump of coal. Gimmick grabs the lump of coal and examines it; causing him to giggle with glee because their fuel shortage problem has been more or less solved. Everyone is glad because they are standing in front of out of nowhere lumps of coal (because the original shot only showed one lump of coal). So the ground opens up like a sinkhole and this time, the babyface fall into the sinkhole in one of the few awesome animation spots in this arc. This causes Teddy and Grubby to be knocked out; but Gimmick is perfectly fine as he has more coal. There is a pickaxe and a shovel close by (remember the out of nowhere two brooms from Father's Day? I smell setup and I can see where Teddy got setting up LB from.) as Gimmick is so happy because they finally have their coal and all they have to do is dig it out; which Grubby is not pleased with since there is a catch to it. Gimmick of course points out that nothing is a catch when you set your mind to it and Teddy has to point out that it's time to sing another song. Of course it's time to sing.
So we start singing the digging song, which should be Digger's main theme; but he's not important so he's hosed. Gimmick gives Teddy the pickaxe and Grubby the shovel; and we're off. I have a feeling that Teddy is going to wish he never sang this song, because a lot of loud noise can wake the dead easily. So Teddy goes over and drives the pickaxe into the coal. Grubby has the bag with him as Gimmick is shoveling coal into the bag; while Grubby sits there talking about wanting a nap. In this heat? DUMB! Then; for the second straight time in as many episode, the song grinds to a halt as there are sounds of bats and a train squeal in the background. Teddy is wondering what that noise is; then watermelon noise with squishy water sounds. Grubby asks if anyone lives around here as the walls crumble and out comes four mudmen with red eyes. You know what's funny about this: Teddy and company are supposed to be babyfaces, and yet the coal they dig is in fact owned by these mud men. In term; the babyfaces are stealing their coal! Teddy and Gimmick get caught instantly; and Grubby tries to climb the walls; but slides down and gets caught literally seconds later. The mud men can in fact speak some English (so they do not speak in Pokemon speak; at least in this arc) as the babyfaces are lead away. Grubby panics at first; and then just walks on. Bad shot continuity there guys. There is also a piece of hair on the film now, clear as day. YAY! This is basically the cartoon version of Night Of Horror now. So they are lead to a cave in which there is a mudman king complete with crown sitting on the throne. Oh; and he can speak English even better than the guards. Gimmick has no foggy notions in him; which is good because I don't want to know when he has clear notions. The mud men point out that they are intruders and are stealing the coal; which is in fact true.
Gimmick denies all charger and I have to say this: Ummm; if you unintentionally walk on someone's property without premission and take something that you didn't know was someone else's; courts typically don't buy that argument. The king wants to make the babyfaces suffer (thus turning the mud men babyface; as if the fact that the "babyfaces" were in fact stealing their coal in the first place wasn't obvious enough.) and of course the babyfaces cannot help but insult him before Teddy addresses him as a king, and still unintentionally offends him, because the king is supposed to be the heel, but looks like a babyface caked in mud. Teddy offers to pay for the coal; but the king refuses and orders Grubby be put to work while the rest are put in the dungeon. Of course; the guy who does the least amount of work has to do the most work now. So Grubby is grabbed and walked off stage left and we fade to black and return in the hallway of the dungeons as the mud men are already at the cell. The cell door is already opened and one of the mud man throws Teddy and Gimmick in the cell. Hilariously; after all this, the mudman orders them to get inside; even though they are already inside! The dialogue in this episode is off; and I'm not talking about off-sync with the mouthflaps; I mean off-sync with basic logic. The cell door is closed and the mud man slowly leaves watching Teddy and Gimmick as if he thinks that they will make a sudden move or something. Teddy goes to the bars and wonders who these mystical creatures are and why they are unreasonable. Ummm; you tried to steal their coal, Teddy. That's why they are unreasonable. Gimmick is trying to figure out who they are; but stammers like an idiot. Oh come on Gimmick! They are made of mud, how hard can it be to figure out who they are when they are so unique. They are Mud Blups by the way; in case Gimmick still doesn't get the memo. Thankfully; Prince Arin is sitting in the dungeon at the back wall to tell Gimmick what those things are and comes out from the shadows. And like Baloo and Colonel Spigot; Gimmick realizes who it is right away since he's the son of King Nogburt. Introductions galore!
So Gimmick asks why Prince Arin is in prison underground and Arin calls this a long story with an unhappy ending. Oh hogwash! There are no unhappy endings in The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin! Aren't there?! So Teddy asks Arin what happened because we have lots of time. Yeah; lots of time for more talking. As if there wasn't enough in this arc already. Although this time; this dialogue is actually important. So Prince Arin is speaking and we cannot see him speak; we only see Teddy and Gimmick make faces on camera. Arin explains that he was searching for his sister who is Princess Azuria and then gets captured by the Mud Bulps. How? The only way Arin could have fought the Mud Bulps at all is if he was trepassing on their property as well. Heck of a lot these babyfaces are! Zoom out shot outside the cell and then pan west through the hallway. This goes on for a while as Gimmick calls this a sad story. I'm sorry; but there is no way I can call this a sad story if the babyfaces are dumb enough to trespass on other people's property. At least they haven't destroyed people properties with impunity. Yet. This ends with the Mud Blups at a table eating something after about two jump cuts. Teddy thinks that they can escape; but Prince Arin puts a stop to that theory because there is no way out of those halls. Ummm; yes there is now. Now; this is okay because Arin was captured much sooner than the other babyfaces, so I can accept his line of being stuck here for the rest of their lives (which is a realistic comment believe it or not. At least it's not forever; which indicates that people can actually die in this show. So nice little attention to detail.). However; before Teddy can say anything, the segment officially ends 10 and a half minutes in. This is slightly better than the first episode; but the animation problems are still there.
After the commercial break; we head through the caves as there are raindrops coming down. How? This is a desert. Anyhow; we head inside as Arin, Gimmick and Teddy are complaining about digging for coal and putting it in bags. Well; maybe you should have got out of the sinkhole the second you got into it; you idiots! Of course; there is a Mud Blup on a rock pillar with what appears to be a stick. Yeah; they have two shovels and a pickaxe and yet a stick prevents them from fighting back. That stick better shoot mud balls because if it doesn't, the babyfaces look even more stupid than before. And then we sing the digging song away to waste more time. Arin is tying up bags of coal as we get a laughable error in logic: Teddy is singing this song while he looks tried and dowsey; and yet when Phil Baron is singing the song, Phil is singing it like he's singing normally. As in; the way he is singing the song makes no sense with the scene because Teddy is selling that he's tried and worn out. Can we find a voice director with a clue? So Teddy defies the Mud Blup as I'm so disappointed since the weapon he's welding is in fact a club. At least angry Phil Baron singing makes more sense here than the previous singing. More shoveling and more singing from Teddy, who sounds more and more cheerful as we go along. Okay; now they are merely just replaying a tape from the Storybook series because the tone of voice makes no sense with the scene. So Arin puts the bag down and does his own verse which is not bad and the tone of singing actually sounds reasonable. Sadly; he loses points on the dismount due to a repeat shot of him putting a bag of coal down in a pile and him saying forever. I realize that forever flows better than "rest of our lives"; but come on! It's not like you are trying to make the best cartoon in history here, and changing the line would be funnier in hindsight. Teddy is worn down as it's not the same without Grubby as one of the Mud Blups grabs Teddy to inform him that lunchtime is here. So we head back into the cells to see the babyfaces get thrown in on their faces again, only there are bowls inside the cell out of nowhere. How convenient of them to show up?!
So they get up and wonder what the Mud Blups are going to feed them as one of them arrives with a cauldron. Hmmm; I wonder what this food is and who is making it? So Arin is not thrilled about lunch as we scene change to inside the cell as they are sitting down trying to eat this soup like substance and Teddy tastes and spits it out; calling it terrible. However, to Teddy; this tastes awfully familiar to him. If you cannot guess who the cook is; you have no business reading this rant. Anyhow; Arin is hating this soup even more than usual as we zoom out to the cave as we see a Grudge in a grey trenchcoat with a 1950's projector filming footage for no reason. Geez; this puts a damper in Arin's thinking now, doesn't it?! It's Louie by the way as he practices the fine art of not being seen; which seems impossible to do with the lack of hiding spaces and that oversized camera. Gimmick claims that anything that tastes terrible must be good for you. No; it's not Gimmick. Teddy hears the sound of film rolling and looks out to see Louie with the camera and no one has any idea what is going on here as Louie tip toes to show up right in front of the cell door. So a Mud Bulp notices him right away and runs towards him; but Louie turns around and apparently, his camera has a headlight on him because the light shines into the Mud Bulps eyes' and he doubles up in pain. So much so that Teddy's hair is now bleach blonde like Digger's! Gimmick's glass rims also change from black to transparent clear as well; while Arin explains that because of the darkness, the Mud Blups are weak to light in their eyes. Okay; so I originally thought that it was just sunlight that causes the weakness to trigger. In this arc; it's any bright light. This makes no sense because in order for it to make sense; the whole cave would have to be in pitch black darkness that we cannot see anything going on. The only way this would make sense is if Louie's projector lamp is a man made sun lamp; which it isn't.
Louie bails into the caves as the Mud Bulp tears down the cell door because he's in pain you see. Yeah; a painful logic break to say the least! And apparently; this cell door is like a load bearing wall because we get more rumbling and debris falling from the ceiling as one piece hits the Mud Blup in the head and then everyone scatters in opposite directions. The cave completely collapses trapping the babyfaces and then the ceiling breaks open to reveal daylight. So Teddy gets boosted up and manages to see that they are at the top of the desert. So Teddy pulls Gimmick and Arin up like a chain which causes Gimmick to lose his glasses for about three seconds. Gimmick giggles as he cleans his glasses. Aren't you morons missing something? Something that has eight feet...ERRR..eight hands...whatever that creature is called. Now what kind of centipede has eight limbs. Hmmmmm... Could it be him? Thankfully; Arin figures this out within ten seconds and Gimmick wants to go to the airship for supplies because he has a Krackpotkin plan in mind. So we waste more time with scene changers and a lot more walking. You know; I would have gone back into the hole and take my chances with the Mud Bulps by luring them towards the hole in the ceiling since they have a perfectly good spot to blind them. But no; we have to waste even more time. That's because Gimmick has no idea what he is doing at this point. The heat is getting to him; and the logic even more so. So they make it to a cliff and lo and behold; there is the airship in the flesh. Wow; Gimmick got it right after all in spite of his moronicness. So yeah; that ends the segment almost fifteen minutes in.
After the commercial break; we return at the airship as we see Teddy and Arin with jars of apple sauce. Wait; so if they were going to execute this plan with empty jars; then why didn't they redub the line in the first episode with him saying "and jars of applesauce" instead of "Grundleberry Muffins"? Again; this is what happens when your story editors are freelancers who do not coordinate properly. Plunder and Lightning was much tighter in plotting than this arc. So Gimmick is bossy as he goes into the haul, telling Teddy and Arin to eat the applesauce. I don't know why Arin and Teddy are complaining about this; unless they are implying that they hate apple sauce too. I can understand not liking the root stew; but applesauce? What a bunch of losers Teddy and Arin are? Gimmick gets some white candles from a chest and I know where this is going now. Teddy then asks if they should stop asking so many questions and Gimmick tells them basically to ask all the questions they want. I have one: What is this plan, Newton? So we fade to black again (I'm guessing this is the Non-American commercial break) and we head back in the cave (which is well lit I might add) to two Mud Bulps sitting down looking bored with their sticks. Now; this is the point where violence would actually be a refreshing change of pace from all of this talking. So the babyfaces walk in and the instant the Mud Bulp see the candles in the jars; they bail in pain. Never mind that the cave is clearly lit. Holy weaksauce weakness there BatIlliop?! So we see that the animator are trying to darken the scene, but it ain't working out at all. Two more MB run in and they get the LIGHT OF PAIN causing the MB's to bail out in pain. So Gimmick was right about the light causing the MB's to scatter; and now they must find Grubby. So then we hear Grubby's voice from farther down and we cut to Grubby inside a kitchen like cave stirring green slime in a pot. There is this overbearing xylophone in the background as the babyfaces meet and greet. Grubby says heck no to not having dreadful things happen to him; because he was their cook and the MB's love root stew. Great way to make the role models look bad. HA!
So Teddy grabs onto Grubby's arm and wants to escape now; but Grubby was making dinner, and it's root stew. Of course! Thankfully; Teddy encourages him to come as Grubby agrees to come as long as he takes the pot of root stew with him. Gimmick sounds panicky; but he's fine with this as for no reason whatsoever, the kitchen also contains Arin's sword in the holder. Geez; that was awfully convenient! Scene changer and we make a run for it as one of the Mud Blups spots them and we run some more only faster. Arin notices sunlight coming out; even though the shot clearly shows nothing of the sort. The next shot shows the babyfaces climbing up the ceiling towards the sunlit opening. Outside of a few crumbling rocks; the Mud Bulps run in (three of them) and it takes about five seconds of looking up before they sell pain. So Arin, manages to climb up onto the desert sand and then hilariously; Arin is shown talking about being safe and they fade to black while he is talking and goes to the next scene. Just painfully brutal editing there. So we pan west as the babyfaces have already made it to the airship already as we get another laughable logic break: When we go inside; the airbag is fully inflated despite on the previous shot to be completely deflated. Now there is a scene changer inbetween these shot; but the dialogue is as if they are talking in real time. This is stupid. Also, another logic break: So Grubby is talking and Gimmick tells the crew it's time to raise the airship up. Teddy is shovelling coal into the stove. Yes; somehow, they manage to get a bag of coal onto the airship despite never seeing them take a bag of that coal anywhere during their capture. STUPID! Why does this show test me so?! So Gimmick wants to go due south as he checks his compass which is a golden jar with a floating blue sphere thingy as Arin is checking the map (the phony one mind you) and states that the treasure is due north at the Hard To Find City. Now; you would think that Gimmick and company would inform Arin that the map they are using is a fake and thus they are going in a different direction for that reason. Right?!
Nope! The reason they are going due south is because they are giving up on the treasure of Grundo so they can find Princess Aruzia. Now granted; this is a heroic act on the babyfaces part and noble and all. However; the trio pretty much has to go in the opposite direction of the map because the read Arin reads is a phony! Arin hugs Teddy and Gimmick anyway because people are more important than treasure. Now the moral is perfect; but I wish someone would speak up and say "Ummm; the map is a fake anyway. So for now; we have to find a lead on Azuria. Arin ends by saying that their friendship is the greatest treasure he ever found and we fade to black. So we return to the mountains as LB is calling Tweeg, Tweed now as he continues to complain about pushing the wagon up the hill. Tweeg's face looks horrible by the way on a close up shot as Tweeg claims that it is not fair for him to push the wagon up the hill; so LB should be pulling it up the hill. I see Tweeg is still finding his groove at this point. LB is so happy about this that he rushes to the front and pulls the wagon onto a flat portion of the road; causing him Tweeze. So we are now up to five different names for Tweeg at this point. Tweeg looks up and we see the airship in the sky as Tweeg is angry because Gimmick now has an airforce; making Tweeg look like an idiot because the airship was right in front of him when he was shooting off the cannon in the first episode. The animation is not good here either. The airship animation is fine; but the wagon is moving like a still dot on a map. Tweeg's face still looks horrible as he blames LB for this; like a slimy heel would. This is why I ding cartoons for using babyfaces doing this heel move in modern cartoons. LB is not amused because Tweeg's plan has officially backfired in his face. Which explains how horrible it looks right now. So we head back inside the airship and the final scene is basically Grubby spooning root stew into bowl and giving them to the babyfaces because they did save him. Arin assures him that he doesn't have to return the favor; but Grubby insists. I told you that stew is a weapon of mass fibbing. AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! So the babyfaces with the bowls dump the contents over the airship and if you cannot guess who gets splattered with the stew...you guessed it. Yip; it's Tweeg. Although; as much as I didn't like this scene, it did lead to Tweeg proclaiming victory and be struck from above while grandstanding, and the stew splashes all over him. HAHA! LB calls Tweeg, Twoggle here; so we are up to a half dozen names for the green goblin Grunge and that ends the episode at 19:11 with a really far shot of the airship flying away. The storyline is okay; but again, it keeps going on forever and there are too many continuity errors to enjoy the episode to it's fulliest. It feels like just another toy series at this point; instead of the epic adventure this show is supposed to be shooting for. Call it ** 3/4 (55%); if only because the ending made me laugh. So the next preview is the debut of the Wooly-Whatsit and his awesome naiveness; all in beautiful lavander colored. So apparently; the trio runs out of water (yes; they had more water than fuel somehow) and they meet the Native Grunges Division who like food and dancing; and this leads to Prince Arin transforming into a black knight from Dragon Quest One. Yeah! That's more like it! Who's fault is it?! Stay tuned. Amazing; the editing out of the "Protect Yourself" segment is much better here.
THE REVIEW LINE
All right; this was slightly better than the first episode, but again the usual problems with the show are the same: Animation is bad, the shot continuity is out to lunch, there are bad logic breaks (the Mud Bulp weakness is the most frustrating one) and too much talking and poor editing. The story is all right; but it's all that funny and seeing Tweeg as a serious heel is not working out at all. At least there was a funny ending in this one and the decision to rescue Princess Azuria over the treasure is good booking, just poor execution of it overall. I'm starting to see why people don't like Teddy Ruxpin now: It feels like amatuer hour for the most part. There is botched acting and editing everywhere and the whole amusement of the root stew is funny and all; but Grubby has to be really dumb to not notice that his friends hate that stew. Overall; another middling episode for the most part. So next time; we head to Rainbow Falls to meet the Wooly Whatsit (the lavander friendly yeti) along with the Grunges Native Branch (not the surfer branch; that comes before Tweeg is promoted to MAVO; which is still about ten episodes away.) as we introduce the SOUP OF VITAMIN Z and Arin becomes the IRON WARRIOR OF DRAGON QUEST~! Seriously. Now it's off to try to get the downloadable content from Super Smash Brothers and all. So....
Thumbs in the middle for this episode and I'll see you all next time.