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: Grundo Graduation
Reviewed: 06/11/2017
The End Of Tweeg's Roof Draws Near!
Well; here we go, the final episode of the first half of 2017 for me as we get the conclusion to the forest fire angle and Wooly graduates. So, how does this episode fare? Let's rant on shall we...?
We begin this one with a shot of the forest as smoke is coming out and then zoom to a closeup shot of the theater door as the entire place is now on fire. Now; I'm going to ignore the obvious logic break of the fact that no accelrate was used in this fire and thus it couldn't burn completely out of control like it is now; because I can hand wave it away as fuzzy cartoon logic. No; the biggest continuity error is that the fire has gotten worse as everything outside is still throwing pies at each other, even though the fire wasn't all that bad when Wooly opened the windows in the last episode and everyone stopped when Wooly screamed even before that. They then instantly stop attacking without any indication from Wooly (unlike the last episode) and runs over to the theatre and stand there. Worse; they were yelling for buckets of water and none of them brought any. This sequence was an absolute trainwreck and was tacked on only because execs seriously believed that no one was watching the previous episode. Head into the theater as everyone is on stage and Leota tells the panicky students to crawl on the floor and do not panic. The first one, yeah; that makes sense; but not panicking is a case of easier said than done. To be fair; you shouldn't panic, but when you are in a life or death situation; it's natural to be panicky. Heck; it's more natural than being naturally scientific. So they crawl to the double doors and Leota checks the door, claiming that it's not hot and wants Wooly to open the doors. Wooly opens the door and the scencery makes it look like they have a chance to make a beeline through the lobby and to outside without any trouble whatsoever. And yet; they have to pretend that they cannot get out. Most kids today would point to this and say "THAT WAS FAKE~!". Another reason why CGI technology today is your friend, not your enemy. I'm looking at you in particular, ToonEGuy. I'll address him one day. Maybe. So basically; this stupid moment only serves to set up them going up to the window. Which Wooly already did when he was screaming fire earlier. This episode feels like a media-res episode that isn't supposed to be media-res to begin with. So the window shutters are opened and any woodsprites who can fly are told to fly out to get help; except for Leota, who stays behind.
A red haired woodsprites flies over a line of woodsprites doing the human chain bucket carrying spot as she makes it to the fountain to a grandfather woodsprite with glasses as we discover that it's the red haired woodsprite's father. It's really terrible; and sadly for them, not just the fact that the theater is on fire. So a purple clothed female elf tries to run in because one of her children is in the theater and has to be restrained. The elves promise to help out as Katy is flying around surveying the damage. The elves and woodsprites are throwing buckets of water; but they are so tiny that the fire is completely no selling it. Katy flies towards Gimmick Valley as Leota is slowly getting the elves carried by woodsprites; which is ironic considering that they were fighting each other minutes before the fire started. This whole thing is going too slow for Leota's liking; but what can you do when fire lives to consume. Backdraft, everyone. Jump cut to Katy looking around and notices Armanda and her army of marching ladybugs. When I first saw this episode; I didn't see this coming because I was so trained into believing that Armanda was a one shot character and we would never see her again. So yeah; color me surprised even now. They get cut off by Katy as one of the ladybugs is green-faced during this as Armanda is trying to get Katy to calm down. Even though she knows Katy; she doesn't know enough to not sign language with her. Not that it matters; since even though Katy is signing, the smoke in the background is more than enough for Armanda to notice anyway and she and the ladybugs scramble to pluck flowers from the ground and fly into the air. What a way to bury Katy there guys?! They fill the lavander tulips with water and fly up towards the theater; as we get this racing car sound effects in the background. It sounds so dorky at this point that I was giggling. There are three V formations in the ladybugs as they head to the theater fire far away; so this show cannot keep anything up to scale. Katy bails stage left as we head back to the window above the crowded theater as the remaining two children in the theater are grabbed by the woodsprites and flown to safety. Even more interesting; one of the male elves is actually part of the same family which the female woodsprite went to earlier on. So yes; the father and mother are both elves, and yet their daughter is a woodsprite. Huh. Somehow; I'm more interested in this angle than the angle that is currently playing out right now.
So that leaves Wooly and Leota left and Wooly is the only one who cannot leave since he's too big for a woodsprite to carry. So why not have three or four of them grab him and lower him down to the ground? Because they have to do the ultra stupid trampoline ring spot silly; a spot they already did in One More Spot. It's amazing how that episode is actually a setup thread for this entire angle with the fire in the crowded theater. I'm amazed that this show had that much foresight. They certainly have none when it comes to shot continuity, that's for sure. The fire has now spread to the top floor and has engulf nearly 90% of that area in less than five minutes. As the savior woodsprite is waving at the family (yes; I'm not reviewing this in sequence, please forgive me) who has a woodsprite in a majority elf family; we cut to Armanda using her antenae to call squadron one to pour water on the houses, because now the entire village is on fire as shown in several shots earlier that I missed. The green faced ladybug with a white scarf and helmet sells it back as Armanda is the head leader and I cannot make out what else he is saying as they dive bomb and throw water on the fire. Good thing this isn't a grease fire; that fire would get much worse. Sadly; the fire is still no selling everything and as I expected; we cut back to the theater as Wooly has to do the trampoline spot now and jump from the window. This is so stupidly dangerous as Wooly is scared; but Leota is scared as well, but she is not going to let anything happen to her star pupil. I shouldn't laugh at this; but I did and I'm sorry that I ever did. So Leota takes his hand and promises not to let go; that grip doesn't convince me one bit. So Wooly jumps and we get a logic break: Okay; one of the woodsprites grabs Wooly's tail and Wooly screams; and the woodsprite apologizes. Then he does it again and Wooly doesn't sell at all as two more woodsprites grab him by his feet and tumble into the trampoline cloth and Wooly apparently suffered a concussion, but is otherwise, all right. There were a lot of cuckoo bird sounds in the background during this, so you know this was a stupid idea. So everyone is all right and that is legit by the way; outside of Wooly's tail. I think originally; the spot was that Wooly unintentionally burnt his tail because it has soot on it when he was checking it after landing; but I guess BS&P didn't like that and changed it to a woodsprite yanking too hard on the tail; which made absolutely no sense at all.
So we still have a fire to fight as Wooly joins in with the water bucket carrying spot of doom and notices the giant barrel near the water system and is now completely regretting ever letting Gimmick talk him into being little to just feed his insecurity for being just too big. I should note that before he joined in; he grabs a bucket, fills it with water and gives it to the woodsprite who said that they still have a fire to fight. So; that was a nice sequence of continuity, if nothing else. Scene change to a pathway as Tweeg and LB are walking through the forest as Tweeg is gloating over his victory as blood runs faster and gives his cheek a green glow. Tweeg has now scared LB because he's thinking twice in one day. Geez; if Drake Mallard did that, we'd all be in trouble. BLAM! Hee hee! Missed again! YOU ARE NOT...POW! OUCH! Ummmm... A lot of firefly like sparks are shown in the foreground and now we are going to create the ultimate troll metaphor: Splash damage. Only instead of innocents, it's mostly on the troll this time. LB calls Tweeg, Tweeze and admits that he didn't screw this one up completely. Sadly; truer words were never spoken as they notice the sparks and LB deduces that they are fireflies. Tweeg is confused by this as one of them flies around and heads for Tweeg Tower and lands right on the roof. The setup took like a minute; but the payoff was so great as Tweeg's plan has now cost him the roof of his house. It also explains why he was repairing the roof in Double Grubby's as well; so that is a neat payoff to the whole thing as it made him look like a compentent villain while still making him fail at life. Glorious! So the roof is on fire now; as we head to Gimmick's house (and of course they will never see the fire anyway) as we head inside Gimmick's workshop as Gimmick claims that the PRM is fixed while saying about five different ways of saying "without question". I got a question: Why don't you test it? Because I don't trust your word. Grubby agrees with me as they have already failed to have this fixed at least six more times BESIDES the two that we saw in the last episode. Gimmick is confused; but he pretty much admits that he did. Yeah; I cannot take anything Gimmick says seriously. Teddy is the sensible one and wants to test it one more time; but then Katy flies in through the window and crawls onto the floor, tired.
Everyone notices this about three seconds too late as Kathy signs the W sign as Gimmick takes it as she needs a timble of water; which she gets. Teddy and Grubby ask what is the matter and Katy signs that there is a large fire engulfing the village and the babyfaces proclaim that this serious and they all run out of the house. Teddy took the PRM; Grubby took out two buckets and Gimmick went into a conveniently placed locker and puts on a fire helmet before leaving. Yeah; Gimmick does nothing here as we head back to Tweeg Tower as Tweeg's roof is burning now. That is what we call, splash damage folks. Tweeg and LB walk towards the tower through the forest as Tweeg is so cocky and claims that they will write books about him and LB chimes in; "and then burn them." Normally; people would be repulsed by this censorship, but this is Tweeg we are talking about and it's their written material anyway. Somehow; this really made me laugh as then Tweeg notices the fire and panics as Buffy and the other bounders just stand there on ground level and watch it burn. See; that is funny because they are heels who want to see Tweeg's world burn; because Tweeg fails at life. They are so unconcerned about this as Buffy wants to roast marshmallows. LB and Tweeg run in as even LB is yelling at them to do something and the bounders all gleefully answer that for me as Tweeg is ordering them to not just watch it; put it out and they no sell of course. Tweeg yells at LB to order them and LB instantly teases turning on Tweeg because they still haven't been paid yet. Get used to this; this angle get replayed all the time and none of the bounders will actually turn on Tweeg here because Tweeg is a whiny baby who begs for mercy and the bounders bounce towards the fire and agree to put it out because the cheque is in the mail. Yeah, I'll bet. Scene change to the sky with the babyfaces all on the airship as Grubby wants the airship to go faster while trimming the rope on the airship. They finally arrive at the burning village. So the airship lands and the babyfaces all hop out. Where's Katy? Teddy runs and cuts off the bucket sharing line as Wooly runs to a woodsprite with a bucket. Teddy notices him and grabs Wooly and we scene change back to the airship as Wooly is standing on the ground and Teddy comes down with the PRM. I believe this is the first time Teddy has used the device.
I should note that when Teddy was running in to find Wooly; the soles of his feet were white as they should be and then as he came out of the airship with the PRM; they are brown now. Teddy kneels down and pushes the green button on the PRM as blue beams of doom shoot Wooly and make him big again. He also got his adult voice back as Teddy tells him to grab the giant barrel and Wooly claims that he was reading his mind. I love this because this proves Wooly can actually think for himself a lot better than normal. Great! So Wooly grabs the barrel which has a large facuet on it now as Teddy runs in (and yes; his feet change back to white again) to get everyone to get out of the way as Wooly staggers in with the barrel and spills water on mostly the fire and we get a gapping logic break: At first, Wooly splashes water on what appears to be the theater; which is the source of the fire, but then we jump cut to the fire from the market being put out, which was not the source of the fire. Anyway; somehow this water is enough to put out the entire fire, which we saw no evidence that the water splashed onto the rest of the village as it landed mostly on the theater fire. The elves and woodsprite pop for it anyway; making the animators look like idiots. Everyone praises Teddy, Wooly, and Gimmick as heroes, which proves that they are clearly hiding the fact that this fight practically started the fire anyway. Grubby is probably hungry as the Newton Gimmick clone with glasses would say and everyone laughs. Oh; and Katy appears on Teddy's finger. Where was she all this time? We never saw her once until now. That is just lazy animation there, guys. So after all of this cheering and stuff; the entire cast turns around and we see that the whole place is damaged and most of the theatre's roof has been burnt as well. What a mess is probably the most accurate description of this scene and this episode so far as we end the segment 11 and a half minutes in. The story was all right; but the animation was just way off base and the logic breaks did not help either. This episode looked like it was written by an entirely different writing crew. While the first three episodes are understandable; but doing a two parter this way is asking for trouble. Sometimes it still works (Plunder and Lightning, A Bad Reflection On You); but when it doesn't...
After the commercial break; we see Teddy, Grubby, Gimmick and Wooly gathering up sticks and putting them in a pile. There is a woodsprite tree doctor flying around with assistants cutting down branches and checking on dead trees. And yes; he does say dead to a tree. Remember, this is before Captured when they did the major angle of teasing that Teddy was going to die. More on that when I cross that bridge. Wooly uproots the tree as Teddy is glad no one was hurt because forest fires do a lot of damage. And after the Porters Lake Forest Fire, I cannot argue. I still see the aftermath of it at least nine years after it happened. Grubby is working with Teddy when suddenly, a green tunic elf with a green hat arrives with pointy elf shoes and a brown tunic with shorts. Grubby turns around and stares at him; which is creepy. Even creepier is Gimmick coming in from behind him with the maginfying glass. In comes the barefoot elf who was sleeping on the lawnchair as he notices that the small clothes are not elf clothes because the stitching is all wrong since it's sloppy and far too big. Huh; this guy would make a decent foresnic scientist methinks. As for the elf shoes; he then catches himself and realizes that those are his shoes. In comes a soot covered green clothes elf yelling at him because those shoes were used to kick him. Shouldn't he be wet? So the mustached elf is the culprit. How? That only makes sense if the elf was almost naked when he came up since his clothes would also have to be stolen. Leota admits that there have been strange things going on around here. You don't say? After she says that, the elf with the Gruffi pose and blue overalls accuses a male woodsprite of stealing her hat; even though the one wearing it in the previous episode was a female woodsprite in a peach dress. Why does this episode test me so?! I wish Teddy would just call them out on this stupidity and get it over with. Yes; I'm taking Teddy's side on this whole thing as everyone claims that a green elf guy was wrecking havoc as the gaint babyfaces (literally and figurally) finally deduce that Tweeg was behind this fight. Which is true. The elves and woodsprites are reunited and want to create an angry mob; and Teddy of course has to break it up. Normally I would boo Teddy for this; but considering how stupid they were in falling for a sockpuppet and having their fee-fees so hurt by it that they fought each other; their fighting actually did start the fire since it was one of the fighting subject who threw a pie through the glass window and knocked over a candle.
Teddy doesn't even have to invoke the moral of "revenge isn't the answer"; because even without it, this is all on the elves for falling for Tweeg's deception. Furthermore; thanks to the fire, Tweeg got what he deserved because the fire caused splash damage on HIM! So not only is revenge wrong; it's completely pointless. The fire caused the revenge. So yeah; I'm completely on Teddy's side in this one, without question. I should note that one of the elves threatened to get his peashooter and normally it is supposed to mean that he gets a straw and shoots rocks out of it; but it's often a slang term for a firearm. I was disappointed with Wooly not yelling shut up and he only said "be quiet!"; because him saying the later is more believable than the former and I could take it seriously. I wanted so bad for him to say a bad phrase on the show so I could laugh at it and they didn't throw me a bone. So yeah, everyone kisses and makes up instantly because they have to work together. To the elder elf: Ask nicely for your shoes back, please. Gimmick proclaims that all his schemes backfire. You don't say?! Gimmick and Teddy wonder what will happen to Tweeg this time as we head to a burnt out Tweeg Tower AFTER HAPPY HOUR (after dark) as Tweeg is inside whining and crying about losing everything as the entire upstairs tower is destroyed; but the floor and table with candle are surprisely intact. He also lost his only pair of socks and blows off Elinore for being dirt cheaper than Scrooge McDuck, somehow. He has the Gruffi pose on as he proclaims that on the bright side, it's not raining just as storm clouds come in, and one of his pictures is buried. He sings the Star Light, Star Bright song; only it's Star Glum, Star Gloomy, why do these things always happen to me. Maybe if you got the water tower working; you might have salvaged the fire better, who knows. And of course it rains heavily on him as thunderclaps scream in the background and the candle light goes out. Fade to black as we head back to morning with the village repairing the damage and other than putting two bags of nails on the door; there was nothing of note here. Jump cut to inside the completely burned out theater as...Wait a second? Wasn't the theater inside the tree? So where is the tree? Because the roof is open and Teddy, Grubby, Gimmick and Wooly are looking on topside while the students and Leota are on the burnt out floor which the stage is now gone and the piano has been moved from the stage. Ack! I'm no longer counting the number of continuity errors in this episode; I just want to get this over with, so I can start my summer vacation from this gig.
So the place is burnt out and it's going to take so much time that Leota wants to postpone the graduation ceromony and everyone sells it like they are cancelling the show! Doesn't anyone in writing realize that cancel and postpone are two completely different words. Postpone doesn't mean "no show". Cancel means "no show". Wooly offers to help since he's big again and Armanda also offers to help. She basically teleported into the scene out of nowhere unannounced. You couldn't ask for a more awful mess than this episode. Nothing in this episode makes a lick of sense and the good stuff is overshadowed by awful animation and awful continuity! Goodness; please let this episode end now! So everyone offers to help and the student cheer on cue because the show must go on. Wooly in the next shot is already got his hair slicked back and is wearing a blue bowtie (and it's night on those shots to boot even though it was morning). UUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH! So we scene change to one of the woodsprites coming out as the theater is now part of the tree when she opens the shutters and various bugs come out of the theater and elves and woodsprites go in and then we do a whiplashing jump cut to AFTER HAPPY HOUR as everyone walks in with their formal clothes on their best behavior. So everyone sits down as the giant babyfaces watch on. Gimmick didn't think it was scientificely possible to work together to get it done; so once again, Gimmick is a dumb scientist. So Teddy points out that the show is starting as Wooly is the one who has to hold the curtains and set up the stage (as per the elf director on stage with a mustache) open to begin the ceremony. Leota is at the piano and then she teleports with her pink dressed woodsprite dancers, and all three of them are now uniquely drawn and colored compared to the previous episode. Yes; this is actually an improvement and it took nearly seventeen minutes to pull it off. So we open the curtains as we start with the air ballet as Wooly mans a spotlight. I'm guessing Katy is the one playing piano since I see a blond haired woodsprite at the piano. Then we get another gapping logic break as the four woodsprites look completely different on stage and are the four woodsprites we have seen before and Leota is not even with them. We have reached Z-grade levels the likes we have not seen in a cartoon.
So we scene change quickly to the director with his clipboard and pencil telling everyone to get on stage. Would it shock you if he wasn't originally the director assigned in the last episode? I betcha it doesn't. Wooly is still doing everything he can to salvage this show; but it's not anyone's fault in storyline, it's whomever booked this and the animators who are on completely different planets. So Wooly opens the curtains and suddenly, Leota is back at the piano playing as we do a Graduation concert like it's a Christmas concert. Katy signs her singing, I believe this is officially the last appearance of her in this show. Armanda is gone too, sadly. And then Katy disappears from stage on the far shot; just like that. And then reappears for more signing before disappearing yet again. The saddest part of this is the song is absolutely great and sang well. That's the biggest tragedy of this episode: It could have been great; and everything they did just kept getting messed up. So the director breathes a sigh of relief and I wish I could do the same; but there is still about three minutes left as Leota flies onto stage and it's time to get those diplomas as the crowd cheers. Despite the fact that there are bugs in the audience, we don't see Armanda everywhere. So yes; Digger is not the only one who got written out by incompentence. So Leota goes into her spiel about how the students worked hard in the last two days and everyone giggles. You don't say?! Maybe they should fight each other more often; it seems to get better results. I know that this wasn't Leota's intention; but still. Leota looks slightly annoyed as she formally presents Wooly with his diploma and flies up towards Wooly as the animators and music tries to make this sound great; but after eighteen minutes of messing the episode up; it's difficult to like this. Of course; the PRM gets messed up in between shots as Gimmick pushes the green button and the blue beams of doom make the diploma big as Leota presents it to Wooly. Wooly's awkward response was awesome though as everyone pops for him as Teddy is very proud of him and Wooly thanks him. At this point; I would have just ended it here; but we still have one more scene. So here's what happens: We head back to Tweeg Tower as Tweeg is sitting on a chair outside sleeping and soaking his feet in a water bucket as we hear music in the background which sounds like the Perfectly Good Friends song as LB bounces out of the tower. Tweeg sneezes and his feet are now human.
Because; it's bad enough that they cannot get the animation straight during the babyface segments, now the animators are messing up the heel segments, which typically are the best segments of the show. This episode officially kills me! I am begging for Miss Maggoheart to arrive now and steal the medicine wagon. Tweeg is complaining because the elves and woodsprites have stopped fighting and they are perfectly good friends. Tweeg doesn't care because he started a fight between perfectly good friends; but LB tells him to read the fine print; which is that they cannot be perfectly good friends ever again. I don't see why it should have mattered; but hey, putting the screws to Tweeg is funny and I'm perfectly fine with this. Tweeg is whining and swearing in dubbed anime style as he then checks the list and notices that there's one missing: Cheat and Lie. Which he did well as he is going to cheat and lie to MAVO about his deeds. I don't think this is going to work; but whatever. We love it when you fail at life even as a heel; so great. Zoom out as Tweeg sneezes and the camera shakes on cue, like an explosion painting of death from Chargeman Ken. This causes debris to fall as Tweeg groans to end the episode at 19:39. They tried really hard and it looked so horrible that we have our worst episode of the series, at 1/2* (10%). I'm sorry; I wanted to like this episode; but almost everything was completely out to lunch here.
THE REVIEW LINE
Oh my gosh; this was the lowest point of the series thus far. Let me just get the positives out of way and I'm going to defend this episode on a few points: Teddy Ruxpin's speech against the elves and woodsprites was dead on perfect as the evidence clearly showed that about a good 90% of the blame can be laid at the feet of the woodsprites for the fight and 100% blame for causing the fire. The only problem with the speech was that the revenge thing was pointless and tacked on because the fire caused splash damage to Tweeg anyway, so the little people got their revenge in the end, even if it wasn't intentional. And that was before they officially kissed and made up again. I also loved the presentation of Wooly's diploma and the Tweeg/LB segments were great. Now; it's time to stop defending this episode: This episode was awful, utterly, utterly awful. The animation was way off in this and there were so many logic breaks in both the booking of this episode and the animation continuity was so shot. Literally; nothing made sense with the previous episode and felt like a completely different episode. I have mentioned most of these visible, in your face mistakes. Stuff like the hat thief being a completely different person in between episodes; Leota's Air Ballet students looking completely different from the previous episode and then looking completely different during the performance literally seconds after they were shown for the second time. Leota wasn't even involved in the actual performance even though she was shown as part of the performance leading up to this. The entire opening to the episode doesn't even come close to matching the ending of the previous episode. BS&P decisions with Wooly's tail which made no sense. And so on and so on. The animation and continuity was abysmal at best. I have seen bad Ruby-Spears episodes that had better shot continuity than this episode. I could go on; but I am now getting angry and want to set fire on this episode on purpose! If you ever want an example why Canada has this unfair stereotype of being awful compared to American animation; this is a perfect example of it. And this was an episode where the booking wasn't all that bad. Overall; this is the worst episode of the series thus far and this really hurt the show because this was a main event angle for a really important payoff to Wooly's graduation. They blew everything they tried in this episode. So that ends the graduation arc and hopefully; when I come back in the fall, the Fall/Winter arc episodes will be much better than this. Oh; did I mention that Miss Maggotheart never showed up in this episode? So in other words; she shows up in Double Grubbys with the medicine wagon without any setup whatsoever. This is so Chargeman Ken-equse, it isn't funny. So...
Thumbs down for this episode and I'll see you all next time.