Return to 50 Webs
Disclaimer#1: All images, characters and material is (C) 1990/1991 Walt Disney Company and is being used without permission. The webmaster has made sure that no money was made in the creation of this web page and that all material used here is used with the up most affection and respect to the Walt Disney Company and the Tale Spin Team.
Disclaimer#2: The views expressed here are solely the views of the webmaster and no one else. The webmaster has no intentions to change anyone's minds about a particular subject and respects the views of the viewers. Comments about this and other editorial can be E-Mail at gweagle@eastlink.ca or signing the Cloudkicker guest book.
The Adventures Of Teddy Ruxpin: The Medicine Wagon
Reviewed: 05/29/2016
Tweeg Goes Full On Woo!
Nope; I'm not kidding about the caption for this episode, Tweeg is a quack in the fullest sense of the word. He is the Mike Adams of Grundo; only Tweeg is much much funnier. Anyhow; this episode features Tweeg giving the trio a bunch of stuff in exchange for stuff to turn buttermilk into gold. Sadly; for him and the trio, none of their dreams will come true here. So let's rant on shall we...?
We begin this one at a table in Tweeg Tower as Tweeg is sitting in his chair whining and twiddling his fingers on the table near a red covered book. Tweeg is broke, you see. I'm guessing it's to replace his clothes and the water tower he broke in the last episode; which would make sense actually. So we pan over to LB and three bounders looking down at empty boxes; as Tweeg also states that they have run out of nutmeg and other stuff to do his wacky quackery of turning buttermilk into gold. This is like Shampoo Woo; only more edible. LB and the bounders all blow him off and want to quit because this always happens during payday. LB hops on the table and kicks away some stuff as he suggests selling all this useless junk including a red book titled Magic Potions. Tweeg takes the book and defends it; saying that it contains the secret to turning nutmeg and buttermilk into gold. I was hoping LB would ask why he hasn't just copied the recipe from it on a piece of paper; just to see if Tweeg respond by saying "That's copyright infringement. Not even a villain would stoop to that low." Then LB says: "Stooping is what you do best!" LB says it's just a thought, calling him Tweyg as Tweeg blows it off because it's Tweeg you see. The bounders laugh anyway as Tweeg opens the red book which apparently double as the MAVO handbook. Apparently; Tweeg is defacing the cover of the handbook to aquire heel heat because the book cover was originally green. So Tweeg reads the handbook as we go to chapter seven which is cheating and swindling people. Also known as CEO'ing. AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! POW! OUCH! Ummmm...Tweeg is giddy as LB suggest showing MAVO how good he is with magic potions as he giggles. HEE HEE! Tweeg tells LB to knock it off and then we get the TOING sound as he has an idea as he walks off claiming that he's going to be rich. LB takes this as getting paid and the bounders love it. Tweeg of course blows it off because he only said he was going to be rich as he walks off. LB follows him as he admits that he was hearing thing. Tweeg forgives him (Riiigggghhhhhtttt) as his plan is basically create fake medicine and sucker people into thinking they need them. In other words; Tweeg would be Mike Adams' hero and financial consultant. Tweeg checks the telescope and of course he's targetting Gimmick, Grubby and Teddy. Gimmick is tending to a barbeque as Teddy and Grubby come out with stuff for the picnic table. Tweeg is giddy as he proclaims that he feels like singing as he waltzes into his tower as LB wants overtime payment for this as he hops into the tower.
Now; I would have just ended it there and go to the trio instead. However; this is Teddy Ruxpin and when singing is involved; the characters just have to sing a song. Now it's Tweeg's turn to sing as it's okay; but the piano music makes him sound like a babyface. So there is a lot of desks, bounders and paper airplanes in this one. A sleeping potion gets involved, one of the bounder hairs gets put in the test tube and then we walk out and the music changes from piano music to Western music as it's the Medicine Wagon; which we finally see in it's full bloom. Oh wait....I remember now; that's the same wagon Miss Maggothart drove in Double Grubbys; so she stole it at the end of this arc somewhere. So we get a lot of singing about woo and quackery as Tweeg puts on a top hat and mustache. Yeah; the disguises here are flimiser than the ones in TaleSpin. The bounders completely give away the whole scheme as they are kicking much higher than I can at this point. Even when I was eight years old actually. Tweeg slams objects on the bounders and then gets on the wagon. LB hops beside him and gets a hat on him for his troubles. The purple haired bounder is the horse for this wagon this time as Tweeg puts a pig nose mask on him. We get a bell sound and someone clearly forgot to turn the audio off because someone is clapping in the background even though there is no one there to do it. At least have Tweeg clapping to himself for a wonderful performance if you are going to do that spot; but we don't see him doing it. So we go to the picnic table in front of Gimmick's house as Teddy and Grubby are at the table. Teddy is bringing out the salad and sandwiches while Grubby is checking the glasses and jug of what appears to be root beer. Grubby is hungry and Teddy is asking Gimmick to come over. Gimmick points out that he has a new invention; which is not a barbeque; but a sandwich compressor. Gimmick explains with an example of a sandwich being too big for Grubby to eat; and Teddy cannot imagine one, so Teddy is implying that Grubby's jaw is the same as Shaggy Rogers. Grubby finds an sandwich that he admits he cannot eat; and it's less than half the one Shaggy eats on an average episode of Scooby Doo. Teddy Ruxpin lying; where have we heard that before? Oh yeah; the root stew.
So Gimmick takes the sandwich and puts it in the giant sandwich compressor; the most useless invention since the invention of the zero as Gimmick pulls the lever (WRONG LEVER~! Sorry fans; but this is a Teddy Ruxpin rant and I must be on my best behavior.) and this compressor has a train whistle on it wailing. So it's a steampunk sandwich compressor. I'm surprised Buzz didn't steal it in TaleSpin. The sandwich compressor slams down on the sandwich; we wait five seconds as Teddy says Wow off-camera; which is basically a sublimital message since WOW means Worlds Of Wonder, the licensee of the Teddy Ruxpin doll. The compressor comes up and it's not a giant slice of bread as Gimmick brings it out. Grubby calls this a breakthrough in the world of stuffing your face. Except, the sandwich is too big in the sense that it has more surface to eat. Sure; it fits the jaw more easily, but you haven't compressed it so that it's small enough to handle in this case. Teddy is tossing the salad which he calls a special Illiop salad. Which contains squash, cinnamon and honey. No thank you; the squash is a deal breaker for me. Grubby claims that he was busy creating a drink made from roots; as Gimmick and Teddy asks if it's roots. Because you see, root stew tastes terrible and it's the secret weapon for making Teddy Ruxpin lie. Grubby accuses them of peeking; as he pours glasses of brown liquid into the glass. He gives the glasses to Gimmick and Teddy. They drink up and instead of merely selling that they like it but it tastes terrible; they sell it like they legit love the taste of it. Yeah; Grubby created root beer; only Grubby has zero clue how to name it other than he leaves roots to dry for a long time. I'm guessing he used a lot of ginger root and peppermint root; and sugar cane root since that would give it sweetness. Boy; the music sounds warped in the background here. Whomever got the rights to it had the soundtrack in a musty place. Grubby actually comes up with a name while Gimmick and Teddy examine the glasses. Grubby calls it root beer and Teddy giggles proclaiming that he couldn't have come up with a better one as the Medicine Wagon with one of the bounders at the rear with a rope tied around it's horn holding a pencil in it's mouth. Why? Moreover; why are the bounders agreeing to this when they aren't getting paid for it? At least in Flight School; when Dunder wasn't getting paid for bolting the Thunderyaks together, the reason was that his pay cheque was used to pay off the 12 year olds since Spigot messed up the order and had to cover it up. In other words; Martin Donoff has a better clue than these writers. There is a poster of Tweeg on the side with glasses on as the bounder in the back is speaking gibberish.
Tweeg tells the purple haired bounder to stop as he greets the trio and asks what ails them. Being in a well meaning, but bad cartoon maybe? Nope; Teddy says everyone is fine and Tweeg is repulsed (well selling it as such anyway) by Grubby and calls him such an odd creature (even though Tweeg has seen him like at least three times in this series before this episode; so he's lying) as Gimmick is angry at this. Why? At least Tweeg didn't call him Bugface (Grubby #2 - Double Grubbys) or a giant potato bug (Teddy Ruxpin - The Day Teddy Met Grubby) as Teddy introduces Gimmick and Grubby as an Octopede; as Tweeg states there goes the neighbourhood. Considering his paranoia in Double Grubbys; that is such a statement to make. Tweeg brings out a green bottle called MP #87 (Magic Potion #87); which is probably the year this episode was released. That is not a good sign as Tweeg gives the bottle to Grubby; as Tweeg claims that it'll make him handsome; even though Grubby looks like a total babyface. Tweeg opens the cork and it appears this magic potion is basically soda water. The prototype for homeopathy; and only Tweeg would make a mockery out of it without even realizing it. Tweeg also says that bottles never lie. If you are a diabetic and saw all those sugary foods; you wish those bottles did lie that they contained so much sugar that it actually contained much less than that. Tweeg claims that he made a centipede cute once; which I believe him actually. If he's comparing himself to said centipede. Teddy insists that he doesn't need it; because he likes him like he is; so he's calling shenengins on this. Tweeg claims this is nonsense because a green complexion is great. So Tweeg basically called Teddy a bigot. So he basically grabs the bottle and pours it down Grubby's throat. When the writers do a better job in convincing me that someone was forced to drink something in this show than the Cartoon All Stars To The Rescue; that shows how ineffective that PSA special was. No amount of star power could change the fact that the PSA was a horrible message through and through. Gimmick does the Gruffi poses and refuses anything from Tweeg; but Tweeg grabs him anyway and shows him a container containing mud as Tweeg claims that it can grow hair on solid rock as said on the container. Teddy is not impressed by this; but Gimmick likes this. Tweeg calls Teddy shorty even though he is the exact same height as Grubby and Gimmick! What a heel, eh?
LB brings out the CONCUSSION SWING OF DEATH (A rock on a rope attached to a stick which is attached to another stick); which LB calls the Gravitional Extender Thing-ambob. I like concussion swinger of life better, LB. Tweeg takes the CSOD and calls it perfect for Teddy as Grubby is telling him to try it. Teddy then asks if he thinks he's too short. Here's the problem with this: Teddy is the same height as his friends; so Teddy has to act like an idiot in order to make this work. If he was Kit's height; this would work as a way to show Teddy's insecurities about being smaller than his friends in comparison. Here; it simply doesn't work and it makes Teddy look gulliable (and thus have no sympathy for him), instead of feeling sorry for him getting duped by a professional criminal like Tweeg. So Teddy takes the CSOD and puts it over his head as Tweeg orders and Tweeg claims that Teddy has done this before; as Teddy claims that he hasn't. Tweeg then claims that he could have fooled him as LB does the Vinny laugh of doom again. Tweeg brings out his notepad and writing as he demands fourteen pieces of silver, which Teddy claims that they only have one. Grubby then chimes in that they have none since they spent it on groceries, so Gimmick is asked what he can swap as Gimmick claims that he has nutmeg, flour and buttermilk; in which Tweeg says deal. How convenient of him to have all this and the woomeister accepting it carte blanche. So Tweeg was right after all about being rich; rich in buttermilk. Tweeg proclaims that they drive a hard bargin as we get a mind boggling logic break: LB has lost his hat and he's behind the wagon now on the sky shot as he laughs; and we fade to black. We head back to Tweeg Tower with Tweeg and the bounders as Tweeg is loving life as being a genius in woo and quackery. Tweeg takes the red book and reads it as LB calls him Twoze and tells him to read the fine print. Tweeg takes the magifying lens and checks the book as the book proclaims that he must cheat and swindle fifty people including one little old lady and take candy from a baby. LB calls him Tweeze and accuses Tweeg of not being able to hack it as Tweeg blows him off proclaiming that he'll swindle and cheat; he'll take the candy and the kids diaper causing LB to repulse. I betcha that's the same reaction from Michael Eisner when Kit actually grabbed onto the baby's diaper in A Bad Reflection On You Part One. Tweeg proclaims that there is only one name they'll chant and it's...Tweeze! BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! He means Tweeg. Of course! No wonder LB insults him; you know Tweeg's brain has fried when even he is saying his own name wrong. He says it about a dozen times as the segment really ends eleven minutes in. Everything was going about as fine as a storybook series angle was going to be; which is merely okay. Tweeg and LB of course are stealing the show; making it impossible to care about the trio who are the stars of this show. I'm glad Teddy is getting rebooted as a doll; and hopefully, the television series will come and be better than this.
After the commercial break; we head back to the front porch of Gimmick's house as the trio is "shooting the breeze". Which is Grubby drinking MP #87 and hating it. Ah; so Tweeg's birth name was Buckley's; only this Buckley's tastes awful and it never works. Sadly; copyright prevents LB from saying it in any context...for the moment. Teddy is using the CSOD as it lives up to it's name as the rock is whacks him on the head. I would say "stop hitting yourself"; but everyone would just respond "Why? If he's concussed; he might get over.". Of course; he won't. Gimmick is looking at the directions on the mud container and opens it. Gimmick smears mud onto scalp as Grubby feels funny and literally turns green as he mocks Teddy for using the CSOD. This is not funny anymore guys; concussions can kill you and your family. Ask Chris Be...oh, wait. Teddy of course mocks him for being green; which is not as bad as concussions; but it's still quackery, so Grubby looks in the out of nowhere mirror from Gimmick and he hates it because green is his worst color. Keep in mind; Tweeg proclaimed that the potion would give him a green complexion, so in essence; Tweeg told the truth. In other words; Grubby looked completely gulliable. And he didn't look any different other than the color change. He is still as handsome green as he was when he was yellow. Teddy's gulliabilty is less stupid than Grubby's. Now Gimmick on the other hand is Tweeg telling total lies; but Tweeg hates Gimmick anyway, so it works. Speaking of Gimmick; flowers are spouting out of his hair. Under normal circumstances; this is actually funny. However; it stops being funny because the bees are coming. Yeah; and Grundo bees are green by the way; and look uglier than the bees in The Incredible Shrinking Molly. Teddy and Grubby hide inside the doorway as Gimmick is being chased by the bees; yee-haw! It's impossible to care about this when they are so gulliable in falling for the obvious disguises here. Kit would have noticed this in ten seconds and called the trio out on this. Gimmick hides underneath the table before he gets chased and he manages to get inside as Teddy slams the door; and all the bees bounce off of it and bail. Gimmick is relieved as we scene change to Green Grubby trimming weeds off of Gimmick's head; which is in fact funny. Teddy is sitting down with an ice pack on his head; which makes him look like a goofball.
Gimmick wipes off the muds and spreads it on a footstool. He uses the maginfying lens to check it out and notices that's it's just mud. Teddy has a terrible headache. Grubby is still green. I'm still bored. Gimmick is giddy as Teddy suggest planting the flowers in the garden; which is a reasonable thing to do. Although; smearing them on a cannonball and returning it to Tweeg as a present would be even better. I then discover that Teddy is in fact shorter than Gimmick; which would have been great if the animators could keep this consistant throughout the show. Scene change as we see Gimmick planting flowers in front of the house. Grubby and Teddy are back to normal as Teddy's headache is gone and Grubby is yellow again. Darn, he was so much more interesting as a green Octopede. Not interesting is that the music is warped in this scene. I don't know who handled the audio track for this show; but the audio sounds like it was put in the dumpster at some point. They admit that they were foolish and Gimmick decides to not let it bother him as it was a lesson to be learned; since he only lost some flour, buttermilk and nutmeg. What makes this dumb is: The ingredients Tweeg accepted should have easily given him away; but they didn't. They still didn't think it was Tweeg behind this. Not that it matters; since those items are replacable; but still. Teddy claims that there is two lessons: #1 is to be happy as you are. Okay; that is reasonable in 75% of life actually. Number two: Don't take anything from strangers. Actually; the lesson is: Always research the products before you try them. Teddy's lesson is dumb because 99% of people on planet Earth are strangers by proxy; and in order for you to co-exist on Earth; you sometimes have to trust them. A lesson Kit realized in Plunder and Lightning since Baloo was a total stranger to him before he became a friend and basically Baloo's son. My lesson works better than Teddy's in research the products is a more reasonable lesson. Grubby embraces them and that is that. So we head to Tweeg Tower as Tweeg is in the tower at the table with the bounders. Tweeg of course is cheering victory as LB calls him Tweek. LB claims that it takes talent to give away fake medicine and get nothing in return. Tweeg almost falls for it; and then recoils and blows off LB as LB points out that he got nutmeg and flour for it.
Tweeg tells him to not forget the buttermilk; because you see, the buttermilk is the key ingredient for Tweeg to make gold from buttermilk. LB laughs it up claiming that MAVO is going to be impressed by this. I'll say; if my mind remembers, MAVO did in fact attempt to make this recipe in a much later episode, and it was an epic fail of course. Tweeg proclaims that he'll make gold out of buttermilk to really impress them and then realizes that he has the ingredients to make this recipe as he takes him and proclaims that he would wring LB's neck if he had one. I discover that the hairy bounder's name is Harry; or is it Hairy? Actually; the later name makes more sense, knowing LB. Apparently; Tweeg's wacky alchemcy creates bittersweet buttermilk donuts. They giggle for a while as we scene change to the second floor inside Gimmick's house as Teddy has the giant sandwich (which is now a real sandwich instead of one giant slice of bread) and Gimmick has a jar of "popcorn" while Grubby is clasping his hands wonder if this is going to backfire in his face. Gimmick proclaims that he plans to take the sandwhich and uncompress it so it can fit on the plate according to Grubby. The invention Gimmick has in his hands is called Popcorn Pizzaz. Is just "Popcorn" trademarked or something? Of course; if you read the label; there is an N at the beginning of the label; so it's clearly nutmeg. Anyhow; Gimmick pours the nutmeg into some machine as he tells the boys to stand well back because the PP is combustable. Teddy points out that you should not have an open flame present. Ummm; popcorn just pops into a kernal, it doesn't cause a lot of injuries unless it is to the eyes of course. Gimmick pours the nutmeg into the funnel as we smell nutmeg since nutmeg gives a large scent in large amounts; as Teddy and Grubby smell the same thing. Gimmick takes some and sniffs it; concluding that it's nutmeg. He wonders how he messed this one up; and Teddy claims that we all make mistakes. So true Ruxpin, so true. So we get a lot of warped music as Grubby admits making a lot of mistakes as Teddy deduces that Gimmick gave the salesman the wrong bottle and Tweeg got the popcorn. Teddy literally wants to warn them; but cannot because swindlers don't leave addresses. One wrong move and Kaboom! Kind of like Kaboom comics, right? Which one wrong move is using fire.
So we head back to Tweeg Tower as the furnance is heating up with lots of fire. Tweeg demands a nice hot fire as LB comes in with a log of firewood. The log is tossed into the fire as LB proclaims that Tweeg (or Twizt in this case) better be careful because you shouldn't burn the donuts. I think that is going to be the least of this heel's worries there LB. The bounders giggle as Tweeg blows them off because he's making gold. LB does a great retort of this and the bounders giggle. Tweeg blows them off because he's a full of himself heel reading his magic potions recipe. LB calls him Tweezy. So Tweeg proclaims that the pot is filled with buttermilk and flour are mixing well and are almost ready to be turned into golden donuts...ERRR...I mean, gold. So all this needs is nutmeg as LB uses his tail to grab the bottle of "nutmeg" (Popcorn whatever Gimmick thinks it will get past the legal department.) and tosses it to Tweeg as Tweeg has to pretend that he cannot grab this bottle; so he slips it up a bit before grabbing it. Tweeg claims that he's a great athlete and then he cannot open this jar. BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! So LB suggests heating up the cork; and Tweeg does exactly that as he puts the jar near the furance, and burns his fingers in the process; to which LB proclaims that it was a good idea. These two are great! HAHA! Tweeg blows him off as they play tug of war with LB using his foot to twist the cork. Even LB proclaims that this is taking too long, calling him Twize! The cork opens and LB bonks into the bounders in the process; to which Tweeg takes all the credit for opening the jar. HAHA! Eat your heart out Drake Mallard! There was a logic break: As Tweeg is demanding LB to get a spoon; LB is sitting there dizzy with no one around him despite in the previous shot; he was in a pile of bounders. LB bails and returns with the metal spoon behind Tweeg; calling him Tweek. The music is warped again as Tweeg grabs the spoon and calls LB a quarter wit. Geez; that was slightly insulting there, Twinkle! So Tweeg pours one heaping spoonful into the pot; but then reconsiders and wants two; LB suggests three and then Tweeg suggests four. Then he swears in dubbed anime style (what the heck); and pours in the whole jar of what he thinks is nutmeg; but is the Popcorn whatever Gimmick thought would get past legal. LB calls this weird; and if LB had brains he would have realized that there's no smell of nutmeg coming out of the bottle. Tweeg claims it's buttermilk turning to gold. Tweeg does this speech about LB always thinking he is wrong; and out shoots popcorn which LB calls as such. So why did Newton call it Popcorn Pizzaz then? I guess he sells the stuff; which might explain how he has the money to get groceries. Everyone gets pelted by popcorn as I'm going to say this: Normally in cartoons; this would be a throwaway spot in the middle of the episode and it is never brought up again. Only in this show; they not only brought it back; but it became the finish. And not just any finish; it was the epic finish to the entire "Death Of Innocence" arc. Yes folks; after everything that happened to Teddy and company in that arc; the finish to the arc is MAVO is beaten by a bag of popcorn. Seriously! Everyone bails and runs in a disorganized fashion, so Family Guy stole from this show; which is no surprise since Family Guy steals every eighties spot and perverts it in their own way. The popcorn wave ensues as they are literally run out of Tweeg Tower. Tweeg gets to the bottom and falls flat on his face. Then he cries like a baby as his shoes are as green as Grubby taking his medicine. I love this; but at the same time I wish they didn't bring it up again because MAVO losing to popcorn made them look like complete idiots. Although if I was booking this; I would have the popcorn in the background as a neat visual for the real finish which is basically to cut the airship balloon of the heel airship. That's just me of course. LB says it all here as he cannot stand to see a grown man cry; but Tweeg is a loft exception to the rule. HAHA! That ends the episode at 19:12. This was perfectly acceptable as an episode; mostly because Tweeg and LB are awesome. It's hard to sympathize with the trio when they are too stupid to realize that it's clearly Tweeg in that disguise. Animation mistakes didn't help, either and I blame the soundtrack warping more on handling, then just having bad music. Call it *** (60%). * for the trio segments; but ** for Tweeg's performance alone. He made this funny and he made everyone look like complete fools; and I do mean everyone, too.
THE REVIEW LINE
Okay; I kind of liked this episode, but there were some problems with it. Mostly; the trio's gullibility and the animation errors later on. As always; the Tweeg/LB stuff is perfect and this time, the editing was dead perfect at the end as they paid off the comedy and Tweeg got his sort of comeupperance for thinking that he outsmarted Gimmick again; when Gimmick was dumb enough just to give him the wrong jar. There is no way I can take Teddy, Grubby and Gimmick seriously being taken in by a professional swindler as they looked like the most gulliable characters on the planet. Teddy's insecurities on his height would have been a great storyline angle had they not messed up the animation and made him look the same height as the rest of the trio in spots. Most of the quackery was harmless; save for the rock on a stick; which is no longer funny in this day of age when we know so much about concussions. I cringed when Teddy was bopping his head with that thing. Yes; I realize this is a cartoon, but that was in 1987; and it's 2016 now. Times change. Also; as funny as the popcorn ending was, it is bad in the sense that the writers didn't take the hint and kept it as a ending joke, putting it in an angle where Teddy nearly dies and Grubby and Gimmick get captured by MAVO; and using it as a way to destroy the Eclipse after all the dramatic and dark (for this series) moments in the Death Of Innocence arc; rendering MAVO into a complete joke. Sure; Tweeg did the same thing later on, but at least it was supposed to be funny, because it's Tweeg. Overall; this was a fine episode, but it's nothing special outside of the popcorn finish. Next up is the real angle of the Rainbow Falls Arc: Tweeg gets sick with a condition called the Tweezles; which is fitting considering that LB calls Tweeg Tweezle before hand. This leads to the babyfaces helping the heel develop a good attitude and Tweeg repays them by selling Lemonade with Rainbow Falls. Yeah. So....
Thumbs in the middle for this episode and I'll see you all next time.