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The Adventures Of Teddy Ruxpin: Escape From The Treacherous Mountains
Reviewed: 06/27/2015
Which Is Usually A Lot Of Ribs At His Expense Once Again!
Now that we have rescued Princess Aruzia and all this stuff; we can finally get into the real meat of this arc and the real reason why this show had it but was messed up in the end: Teddy and company getting the crystals for real and having one epic battle with the Gutangs. Will the writers find some way to screw this one up; or will the characters overcome these shortcomings and give us an incentive to watch the show? So let's rant on shall we...?
Opening Moment #1: Recap of the previous episode. I'm guessing these recaps were done long after the story ended because in one instance, Teddy admits that they didn't know it was Tweeg as the old lady. This better be mentioned in this episode; or it's a logic break. That's all I am going to say about it. I also realized that when the babyfaces arrived up the stair of the wizard's home, Grubby walking up the stairs looked really awkward. At the end; Teddy outright says that they need to find a way out. Yeah; how long are the real characters going to take before doing that? After all; there is one major loose thread left in this arc and it's the most important one left: Finding the treasure of Grundo.
We begin this one with a western pan shot of the Treacherous Mountains and The Hard To Find City as it's already daylight. The music here sounds like a coughing frog in between flute music. So we cut to a sky shot of the same ruined building that Princess Aruzia was held captive as the babyfaces are walking out from the left side of the building. Shouldn't they be walking out of the building? If not; what have they been doing since nightfall? They rescued Aruzia within minutes and there was no indication that it was morning then. Then for some stupid reason, Grubby's Gutang mask has been turned around so Grubby cannot see anything just to show him bumping into the back of Princess Aruzia. I then discover that indeed, they are already trying to get out of the THTFC since Teddy is pondering directions to get to the airship. The babyfaces turn around left; but Grubby cannot see for absolutely no reason whatsoever since in the previous episode; Grubby's mask was in it's proper position. This is so contrived and forced that it's not funny. Yeah; he bumps into the nearest Guntang that he could find and knocks it on his seat. The Gutang protests this outrage; albeit for understandably different reasons. Grubby confuses the Gutang with Teddy. How could anyone confused that Gutang's voice with Teddy's voice. If you are going to do that spot; have Phil Baron voice the Gutang in question; then the joke becomes funny. This makes Grubby look really stupid. The Gutang blows him off as Grubby finally realizes that his mask is on backwards. I betcha he blows his cover right there, panics and bails. I check the video... Actually; Grubby puts his arms in and twists the mask and manages to do this and walk off without blowing his cover. GREAT! The Gutang is confused; but then realizes that something is wrong. Geez; they didn't bother to show why he was suspious even though those six arms...ERRR...legs are clearly showing here. So he blocks Grubby and demands to know what his name is where pointing the spear at him. Grubby says his name; headbutts the Gutang, and the Gutang is dizzy, falls over the edge and lands in a tree covered planter face first. Ooookkkaayyy.
Then we pan up to see the babyfaces praising Grubby for taking care of the guard (after Grubby basically says that "I needs to stop headbutting."); thus implying that Grubby's backwards mask spot was planned right from the start. So there was a storyline reason for Grubby to look stupid. GREAT! So we scene change back to the sky shot as we see more ruins and babyfaces walking. We exchange notes for a while, talking about how the Gutangs are terrible in preserving buildings, and then Teddy discovers a large building covered in green vines (which looks absolutely nothing like the place we saw in the clip show at the end of the series mind you.) and automatically, he states that it's the same one on the map (the phony map mind you.). I have seen the map; there is no indication of a building like that on the real map (let alone the phony map); so Teddy lying again. Everyone's in glee as Arin uses his sword to cut the vines and I don't see why he even bothered since the entrance was clearly open. The babyface walk inside and the lighting is the mature lighting nature, so there you go. However; the Mud Bulps aren't involved, so it's perfectly fine here. There is a giant vault door in the shape of a Digivice from Digimon 01 and now I'm wondering how much Digimon stole from that show? There is a pedestal in the middle of the room and the animators are actually trying to make this area look dark; but showing a shot of the legs of the babyfaces walking towards the vault door which looks like a dorky flashback. Grubby complains about the lack of treasure and too much dust as he sneezes on the pedestal. Teddy makes it to the vault door and on the door is a crystal like carving contains the second half of the medallion from the beginning of the arc. So much for wanting to find the airship now.
Zoom in and it reads "On The Pure May Find Of Kno". Okay; here's a problem with this: The half Teddy has reads "Spirit Treasure Ledge". So completed; it would read: "On The Pure Spirit May Find The Treasure Of Knoledge". Even in official materials; you can barely see a mark of a "y" in Teddy's half of the medallion. So the other half should read "Only The Pure May Find Of Know" since a "w" is also missing that is also not on Teddy's half of the medallion. This is really stupid. And then we cut to everyone walking towards Teddy as Teddy brings out his half of the medallion. Guess what the shot looks like: The door half is exactly as it should as I mentioned before: Only The Pure May Find Of Know; which together with Teddy's half reads "Only The Pure May Find The Treasure Of Knowledge". So the medallion is complete, rainbow sparkles fly as the medallion is repaired good as new and then it falls right into Teddy's hands. You don't need to remind us Teddy. Then the pedestal starts making sounds and a beam of sunlight from the opening in the ceiling; causes a wall to open to reveal tons of gold and jewels. They found the treasure of Grundo as Teddy wants to share it with everyone since they all found it; which is true. Grubby is the only one who accepts as he goes in and handles pearl necklaces, gold coins and stuff; claiming that he'll be the richest Octopede in all of Rillonia. Not the world mind you; Rillonia. As you'll see in the final arc; an entire city of just Illiops. What an idiot?! Arin and Aruzia care more about each other than the treasure; so I guess Nogburt has so much money to pay for whatever vandalism Arin did, so there you go. A second light from the ceiling (how? I don't know) shines on the pedestal and it rises to reveal a smaller pedestal and placed in carvings are six blue/white crystals shaped like a pentagon; but the end of the pentagon is like a triangle. So the babyfaces are confused as they head to the pedestal (I wonder if it's the video quality that is shot; because some shots are darker than others) as we talk and Aruzia repeat her pray pose from earlier in the scene.
One of the crystal pops into Gimmick's hand and it says imagination on the top. Grubby's says: Honesty (BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!). Arin's says: Bravery. Aruzia's says: Trust; Teddy's is friendship. Since there are only five babyfaces; the sixth one arises and they all say "freedom". For each babyface, the crystals all make sense. However; there is a great ongoing story with each crystal. The first one for instance is Imagination; and that one was the one that allowed the babyfaces to grow and shrink; allowing them to see worlds that they would only imagine. Honesty refers to Grubby's personality and that crystal made a double of him. Bravery allowed the babyfaces to rescue Fuzz from Tweeg by becoming invisible, Trust gave oxygen; thus a trust in the power of the crystals, Friendship can be slow or fast with Grubby and Freedom would be the ability to fly and in a really great move, they left that crystal without an owner, implying that it could apply to anyone. Great non-verbal cue there. As for the seventh crystal later on; I don't know if it had a name, but I think it would be Rememberance and that is represented by Burl Ruxpin. Scene changer of doom as we head inside the very room where Aruzia was held as a Gutang finally finds the two and we get a gaping logic break: Both Gutangs are shown and they both has masks on. If you call from the last episode; the babyfaces subdued the Gutangs and one was pulled away off-camera so they could steal his Gutang mask. Somehow; he got another one despite the fact that the second one is still knocked out and worse; he's right beside the first one. Bad, bad, bad form there guys as the Gutang notices the cage is empty and then knocks on mask which somehow wakes the poor Gutang up. They wake up and realize that Aruiza has escaped; and it's time to sound the alarm. So a Gutang finds a conveniently placed giant gong and this show has officially written itself into a corner now. Scene change back to the babyfaces in the temple with Gimmick hearing the sound of the alarm and Aruzia pointing the obvious to us. A gong we never saw in the previous episode until now. Yeah; it's a motif now.
So we see the Gutang run in an organized fashion; even though they should be running in a disorganized fashion. So the babyfaces all argee to run out and I think they left without the crystals for some reason because although five or them were in the hands of the babyfaces; the sixth one was not. Plus; there was no indication that they actually took the crystals instead of putting them down. Anyhow; Grubby asks about the treasure outside and Gimmick tells him to forget about it and they'll come back for it later. Grubby runs back in and steals a diamond and then leaves. Outside; from the side of the temple pops Tweeg and LB. LB pretty much lops off the logic break by saying that they are running away with pieces of glass, so it means that they did grab the crystals on the way out. LB wants to follow the babyfaces; but Tweeg blows him off because it's just glass you see. Oh; how he would regret those comments about five episodes down the road when his mommy gets involved with his affairs. So they walk inside and we get a laughable logic break: LB's gimmick is that he's a Bounder and in order to walk, he has to hop. He doesn't hop here; and yet, the spring sound is still played anyway. Oh; and LB does not know the figuritive word for "booty" and thinks Tweeg is talking about expensive boots. That made me laugh. So they go inside and Tweeg looks around and sees the vault containing the treasure of Grundo. And of course he is SO happy to see it. Ahhhh! My heart melted. There is a comment where Tweeg says: Bestill my bleeding heart! I was hoping LB would retort by saying: You need to. If you have a bleeding heart, you are going to die. Yeah; it's a tasteless joke; but it makes sense with what Tweeg just said. Tweeg grabs LB and spins him around cheering victory as LB is taken down and his horn is damaged. LB sniffes and calls this an inspiring story...in...Oh wait; wrong character and wrong show. Tweeg calls this a special moment. Does this means that the guns will not be pulled out? In TaleSpin, that is a special day! Tweeg feels like singing today and in a surprising moment: LB actually says Tweeg's name right! Seriously! Thank you for killing the payoff to The Journey Home guys!
So yes; Tweeg enters the vault and basically sings his song about being rich as LB uses his feet to cover his ears; because he has no hands. Sadly; he stops covering his ears before the song even starts. So, way to go animators. Tweeg dives like Scrooge McDuck and somehow he has Scrooge's ability to swim in heavy metals too. Jack W. Tweeg equals Canadian Scrooge McDuck. Even LB has the ability as he dives in. Boy; do the nephews look bad now or what? I betcha Kit Cloudkicker could dive in Scrooge's Moneybin and swim like him. Heck; he could probably dive to the bottom if he wanted too. I will say this; the animation here is really good. The only thing of note is that Tweeg's elf shoes are now turning flesh green color as LB claims that it doesn't take brains to be rich and Tweeg blows that suggestion off. Sadly; the song grinds to a halt and we fade to black. Scene change to (I guess) the southwestern portion of the Hard To Find City on a sky shot as the babyfaces are running in as Gimmick wants to get to the airship now. I would think that Gimmick would know where the airship is; but it's moot because we never saw the airship land anywhere in the previous episode. So; I don't know what the story is. The animation here is horrid and the characters look completely unfinished. Of course Teddy has no clue where the airship is. That makes six of us at least. So Gimmick brings out his goofy floating blue ball compass with golden rods sticking in it; and Gimmick has no idea how to read it because there are no marking for the compass. So of course; Arin finds the airship tied down sitting on the edge of the cliff. How did the Gutangs not notice this? It's like an eyesore in the middle of the room. Yes; the Gutangs are dumber than Grubby and Gimmick put together. Ponder that one for a moment. One of the Gutangs spots the babyfaces and throws the slowest spear imaginable and Teddy and Arin have to pretend that the spear might hit them before backing off. Gutang does his "Darn, I missed" dance to signal the other Gutangs as the babyfaces realize that their cover is blown. Some cover guys! Why didn't they just keep wearing the Gutang masks?! This is the kind of writing that bugs me: You have a perfect foil to escape and go as you please; but then you decide to take off the foil which assures that you are going to be spotted? How stupid do you have to be?
If I was booking this; they would be wearing the masks the entire time until the Gutang realizes that these "Gutangs" do not have the same legs as they do and then blow their cover. It's so obvious! A dozen Gutangs show up; they throw slow spears as Grubby bails and they all run with their arms out stretched. Why? I have no idea. The Gutangs chase them down the stairs and then we jump cut to a Gutang gonging the show basically. Why not? If you are dumb enough to fall for a bunch of people wearing those armored masks and think they are legit Gutangs, then you deserve all the mockery you get. You would think that Nogburt Castle wouldn't have fallen into that trap during that arc, but I guess Dumbwin booking equals funny. Sometimes it is; often it really isn't. More running and we have a charming run sequence that has a run cycle and Rocket Robin Hood-equse ground moving at the same time. Sky shot of the crossroads containing about 200 Gutangs or so and this was awesome. For once; hand drawn animation did something that would be left to Toon Boom now. I'm impressed actually. So the babyfaces somehow get surrounded by the Gutangs on all sides. Except for the path leading straight for the airship as they bail down the steps and board the airship. At least the animation has managed to keep the continuity straight with Teddy's feet so far. Grubby of course plays the "man must make the girl look weak" spot; but Aruzia completely ignores him. Gimmick orders everyone to take their position. Furances are filled, propellers are twisted, ropes are removed, the airship rises into the air; Aruzia still nearly gets killed by a spear to the head. Thankfully; she ducked and everyone thinks they are safe. So we cut to the sky shot of the ground, and the Gutangs are all with their spears, and wouldn't you know it: There are three airplanes out of nowhere never seen before on the ground. Someone was on the ball here it seems. So we cut to Gimmick at the airship; and suddenly, Gimmick notices the map/wrap that Tweeg unintentionally dropped in the last episode. HOW?! The thing was on the floor of the airship the entire time, right in plain sight of anyone inside the ship.
HOW COULD ANYONE MISS THAT THING?! STUPID! And why now? There's no payoff to this coming because the payoff to the crystals has already been completed. No one cares anymore about the map! Horrible! This show is finding ways to screw up even great moments in this series! So the map is unrolled and Gimmick wants to return to protect the old lady from the Gutangs, and the map falls into Teddy's hands and he realizes that it is the real map. You know; this could have been fine; if Teddy in the preview DIDN'T ADMIT that it was Tweeg as the old lady? Sure; the audience knows who it is, but Teddy and company aren't supposed to know until this moment. That way; at least finding the map now looks less stupid. It's still really stupid anyway; but now they look even more stupid because Teddy has to assume that the old lady was Tweeg, which makes him look like a jerk. Gimmick of course has to act like he knew it and makes a joke about amiss and amister. Bigot. So we see the airship in the air as Teddy realizes that they led him to the treasure. And who's fault was it? Gimmick of course, since he was dumb enough to give the real map to LB while not looking. So the Gutangs bring out giant crossbows, slingshots and catapults to the cliff. The Gutangs are ordered to shoot to kill basically as they are firing giant spear like arrows, rocks and another debris. This is fine because guns don't exist in Grundo and thank PZ Meyers for small favors. So we get another laughable logic break: We cut to the airship and all the weaponry is missing them with ease. Aruzia states that they are attacking them; and Grubby chimes in to say that it's worse because they are hitting them. No, they are not Grubby! They are missing everything. Talk about being on two different planets here?!
So Gimmick wants to get out of range, so we double down on the stove and the propeller as Aruzia wants to assist them. So yes; they are finally turning her into something other than a dasmel in distress. GREAT! Gimmick has her assisting Teddy...This leads to a "great" moment: One of the Gutangs tells their "leader" (It's hard to tell since the Gutang Commander wasn't officially canonized until much later in the series) that the babyfaces are out of range. The "leader" doesn't want them to escape; so he orders them to fire "THE ROCK"~! Someone better have a Botchamania ending with this moment; including a picture of the Rock's face on the catapult firing because it is just dying to be used here. Sadly; the rock is really a slightly large boulder in the catapult. It fires and it manages to destroy the propeller, except for the crank Arin was using. Now this is where Grubby's line was apporos; but he prematurely shot his mouth off before it happened, so the joke is dead. Again; these writers still have no idea what they are doing. So they then bring in a huge grappling hook with rope and they fire that into the back end of the airship where the propeller was. So the Gutang try to reel it in and even though the thing is merely an anchor that they could try to remove; they do nothing. Because you see; the commercial break is thirty seconds away so they have to act like all is lost. Teddy refuses to surrender, so you know he's aware that this is stupid. The airship gets reeled in some more and that ends the segment 12 minutes in. If you ever need a reason why doing a remake of this show without the Frosse's estate interference is a good thing, here's a good place to start.
After the commercial break; the Gutangs reel them in some more. Arin is the only one who is trying to pull the anchor out and of course he fails. There are five babyfaces on the airship; and only one of them tries and they all give up. Arin tries to cut the line with his sword; but only manages to peel the metal backing on it. Gimmick proclaims that the thing is made from metal, thus it's useless. That makes no sense because Arin did cut through metal the first time. Just keep hacking on it until it's cut completely you idiot. Or get the remaining babyfaces to help you dislodge the anchor out of the airship. Grubby thinks that it cannot get any worse; and personally it cannot because the Gutang are ordered into their planes in which they are called flying machines. Okay; I can accept that. However; what is the point of overkilling this scene? If they had successfully removed the anchor or cut the line; that makes sense. Instead; it's merely overkill. So the Gutangs get into the flying machines and take off. Aruzia points out that they are surrounded and outnumbered, wondering what they can do. I love the music; but it's not helping the lapses of logic in this scene. So Teddy wants Arin to bring out the slingshots and he does remembering to duck when a Gutang shoots four arrows at him and they stick into the airship wood. Teddy tells Grubby to bring out the root stew; which is now sitting on top of the stove despite not being there in any earlier scenes. Oh; and the stew has gone from green to brown, so it appears that Teddy is literally slingshoting his own feeces at the Gutangs. Awesome! So Grubby is asking why Teddy wants the root stew now for breakfest; but it's not for eating. You would think Grubby would have noticed that Teddy is still lying about the stew at this point and call him out on it. Nope; he's still clueless. Teddy fires his feeces...ERRR...root stew onto the propeller of the flying machine and as mentioned during the Nogburt angle, all the Gutangs have parachutes. All childrens' shows do this, so it's just BS&P being BS&P. The Gutang jumps, and uses the parachute to land and everyone cheers.
Teddy calls Grubby's root stew the stickest substance around and thus the ultimate BS&P ammo is born. Aruzia wants in on the fun as she scoops some root stew into a slingshot and that root stew is turning red like tomato sauce now. Aruzia picks her target and fires as she manages to get the stew to land right onto the control panel of a Gutang. The Gutang bails out as the machine nosedives and destroys the wagon carrying the grappling hook gun. Somehow; this does not completely destroy the grappling hook pulley system as the airship is still being held up in place. More flying machines surround the airship as Grubby talks about getting to the root of the problem. One of the machines aims for Prince Arin (Aruzia yells at Arin to watch out) and Arin slingshots more stew right into the kisser of a Gutang. He's forced to bail as he fires four arrows and at least one of them hits the wheels of the airship. Somehow; this did not deflate it. He lands right in front of another Gutang flying machine and blocks his vision as they have a staring contest in midair. So another flying machine flies near the grappling rope; Teddy slingshots more stew and it hits the back of the Gutangs' head; causing the Gutang to pump his fist in rage. Okay; I can understand the one where the root got into the face of a Gutang because there were holes there and it could have gotten in the eyes. But Teddy caught him in the back of the head which is armored; so he should have no sold that. Gimmick slingshots some and they reused the exact same shot they used about 15 seconds ago. That leads to the two Gutangs barely hitting each other in a DNA helix, but it was enough for them to bail out and parachute. In comes Louie and his helicopter bicycle. Why? Why not?! He almost collides with a flying machine and then flies up and over the airship and that was that. Why is he here?! I don't know. Anyhow; things get even worse as more flying machines are being loaded with mostly the Gutangs who were on the ground during the first swarm. Oh; and Grubby's out of root stew now. Then Teddy notices that the Wooly Whatsit is climbing the Treacherous Mountains on his own accord with ease. AWESOME!
So he climbs to the top and grabs onto the tailsection of a flying machine while stammer blubbering. That's my new phrase for Wooly's stammering spot and I'm sticking to it more than Grubby's root stew ever did. Wooly is so slow that the Gutang had 10 seconds to get out easily. So Wooly smashes the flying machine and then runs in slowly and bashes flying machine after flying machine forcing the grounded Gutangs to bail. Wooly piles up more flying machines and crushes them against a brick wall and one Gutang is dizzy inside because he's stupid enough to not bail out. So a stray flying machine flies out and comes towards the airship. Arin fires root stew right into the kisser of the Gutang; but the Gutang fires eight arrows. The first three arrows hit the floor of the airship; then four of them hit the pole of the airship making stairs. Huh. I wonder what the next spot will be? One of them hits the bag of the airship. This would have a lot more dangerous; if the grappling hook pulley was completely destroyed, but it wasn't. So there was no real danger of the airship going down in the first place. Anyhow; Teddy grabs a spoon and gets the last of the root stew out of the cauldron. Teddy uses his teeth to hang onto the spoon while he climbs up the airship pole and to the side. Everyone is thinking that Teddy Ruxpin is completely insane to be doing this. Oh; if only Kit Cloudkicker was here...Oh boy! Anyhow; Teddy gets onto the airbag and pops out the arrow, throwing it away. He then grabs the spoon with his hand and slams the root stew onto the leak and that is enough to seal up the airbag good. Grubby and Gimmick sum it up nicely for me as Teddy climbs down and almost gets skewered by a couple of arrows in the process, but they miss. Teddy should be glad they aren't bullets and those arrows are slower. Meanwhile; Wooly continues to break toys for my pleasure. Then we get the stupidest, bravest thing ever (in other words; the Fobs were correct on Wooly): The last flying machine flies around and Wooly literally jumps off the cliff and grabs onto the tailsection of the flying machine. So the Gutang fires it's arrows and it looks like they are actually going to hit the babyfaces....
But that is not the case as they hit the side of the airship again. If you are going to tease the spot; deliver and have the arrows literally miss them by inches instead of feet. The flying machine goes into the grappling hook rope and it is cut which is completely useless now because the babyfaces beat the heels in a fair fight. The Gutang bails and parachutes before this and then the flying machine takes a massive nosedive into the abyss below with Wooly in tow and crashes like a Roadrunner cartoon when Wily E. Coyote falls off a cliff. Same camera angle, same crash, almost same explosion sound effect. The airship rocks as well and in a shock; did I just hear Grubby say "Oh my God! Wooly's gonna crash!"?! No; I rewound it three times. It's "gosh". Not that it matters anymore; since Disney has the word god used in Rescue Rangers and Darkwing Duck. TaleSpin used it in vain twice, including one with Kit Cloudkicker. So then we head to ground level with the pieces of the debris spread out and Wooly is on his belly and side looking dead. If he was supposed to die here; there's no way that they would be going through all this trouble to make us think he is really dead. They are using the most upbeat classical music they could find; so no way is Wooly dead here. And within ten seconds; Wooly wakes up and is perfectly fine. Yeah; I skipped Gimmick's laughable eluogy too; so what? Why did they bother booking this? I had an idea for Kit getting this death for the crossover and Kit would milk this until Teddy is literally apologizing to him for not protecting him and then Kit's mouth moves and he says "You are the worst actor I have ever heard. That was pathetic!" This makes Teddy snap and Teddy is so mad that he grabs Kit by the neck and wants to choke him causing his friends to restrain him as Kit giggles during the entire thing saying "gotcha". That would have been awesome. Sadly; nothing like that happened, so who cares if anyone else dies in this show? They would all be fine as well. At least with Kit; I would have him seriously injured, thus justifying the shock the other faces would have over Teddy's behavior.
So Wooly is so happy as Princess Aruzia goes over and gives the most hidden kiss I have ever seen on Wooly's cheek while Wooly is hugging her. Wooly is blushing so much as he discover that she is indeed Princess Aruzia. Arin proclaims that his bravery should be rewarded; and Wooly claims that he already got his payoff: a kiss from a princess which causes everyone to laugh. Arin asks Teddy if he wants anything; but Teddy states that he didn't rescue anyone for a reward as Gimmick examines the crystal he got and wonders what they do. Teddy isn't sure; but he has a feeling that they will make the actual treasure of Grundo they left look like an illusion. Grubby reveals a diamond to everyone and then it disappears in a bright light; so in other words, the treasure of Grundo was in fact the crystals and the medallion, not the treasure in the vault. So we head back to the temple as Tweeg is pulling a CHEST OF DEMONS away as he is ordering LB to help him. LB no sells because he has no hands you see. He also calls him Twink again. So Tweeg orders him to use his head and LB charges at him like a bull. The CHEST OF DEMONS disappears on cue in a bunch of sparkles, and we get the most laughable sequence ever: LB nails Tweeg in the midsection as the bounce sound is in effect the whole time and none of it matches with the bumps they took as they went down the steps. Tweeg gets up on his seat and bawls like a baby. HAHA! About time he got to the whiny heel part. I love it! The sound timing was completely off in that spot; but it was still funny either way. Fade to black and return to the airship with Teddy staring at the sky with the medallion around his neck. So the airship heads to a large castle in the background which Arin and Aruzia dub their home and that ends the episode and the arc at 19:41. If this would written today; this arc would be a three parter and it would be faster paced and there would have been a grand ending at Nogbert Castle as their parents would be introduced right there as a tease to the Nogbert arc later on. Of course; we'll never know if Tweeg and LB got out of the Hard To Find City, but then if they did, the writers would be a lot less clueless. This was the best episode of the arc at **** (80%); but it could have been so much more if the animation was better and the writers had a bigger clue. Again; Teddy Ruxpin has the elements to be an awesome show; but it keeps getting hamstrung by bad booking, bad animation and bad logic. In fact; 99% of the problem is not due to Ken Frosse. It's due to people working on this show not knowing what they are doing. At least the arc ends with an incentive to keep on watching next year: Finding out what the crystals do and there is a lot of storybook angles left to be done in the interm, so there you go. One closing note before I go to the review line: I think the music for the ED is great; and all the ED needs is an anime ending similar to the endings in Gundam SEED and Gundam SEED Destiny; only the music should be exactly the same.
THE REVIEW LINE
I will say this about this episode: It's a great episode marred by the usual stupid stuff only it was reeled in a lot more than the previous four episodes. The writing overall was solid as always; but there were mistakes here and there that annoyed me. The discovery of the map was completely there to kill time and there was really bad botchery of the sound near the end. I couldn't take Wooly's "death" seriously and the writers didn't either as he was up a good ten seconds later and no one cared. However; Wooly was awesome here and the Gutang battle was great inspite of the logic breaks. Tweeg's crying in the end was funny and overall, they paid off the crystal angle nicely and gave further incentive to watch the remaining 60 episodes upcoming next year. The arc did what it was supposed to; but it was a complete mess otherwise. This should have been a three parter and with today's animation standards, it can be done and still be faithful; or even close to the original. Personally; merely faithful would have been best as long as they got rid of the mistakes they made in this arc; mostly from animation. Sure; I would take a lot more liberties with this show than the creators of this show did; but then again, I write for entertainment; they were writing to sell Ken Frosse's doll. Hindsight 20/20 tells me that I'm right and they were wrong; but at least Teddy Ruxpin isn't a lost cause. As a toy; yes. As a story, no. Overall; it was a fine arc with a great last episode that pulled through and made it worth watching in the end. So that is it for this edition of the Father's Day specials. I'll be moving the Teddy Ruxpin stuff to it's own page soon, but at this time; I have zero plans to do this show on a full scale basis. Goof Troop is supposed to be next on my plate in regards to that, but that won't happen until September of 2016, due to the TaleSpin celebration stuff I am planning. I guess I'm going to do the From Here To Machinery transcript; but I'll wait until the first weekend in July to do it as I want some R&R on Canada Day. Tuesday; I'm planning to R&R as well and I have swimming on Sunday (maybe). Anyhow; the next arc is likely going to be the first MAVO arc for Fathers Day 2016; but nothing set in stone yet. So....
Thumbs up for this episode and I'll see you all next time.