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The Adventures Of Teddy Ruxpin: Autumn Adventure
Reviewed: 09/26/2017
Pumpkins On Parade~!
Welcome to the beginning of the Holiday arc where Teddy introduces Halloween to the Grundo world (until the Jungle Grunges show that they celebrate it, too) and this is where the seeds of MAVO turning on Quellor begin to be planted in this episode alone. Plus; Tweeg is an idiot, and a smart guy all wrapped up in one. Oh; and there's a certain dance involving pumpkins as the main event of this episode. I hope you are all ready for it. So let's rant on shall we...?
We begin this one on a dark and stormy night at MAVO; which is considered a normal day at the club for them anyway. Pan east to a shot of two gaint slug like bats watching inside the window of the throne room as we have a sky shot of Quellor sitting on the throne reading the newspaper, and he apparently is a huge Wade Barrett fan. Also present are the troll nephews (Blue Troll = Sludge, Green Troll = Drudge and Orange Troll = Trudge) because they are dumb. Out of nowhere is a flask of green slime with the red words "Tweeg" on it. Oh; I remember now: the troll nephews have fooled Quellor into thinking Tweeg was killed and reduced to a steaming pile of goo during the Wizardweek Arc. I might do that arc first next year. Might. Geez; I wonder how much money the troll nephews paid Louie for that story? The picture is truly a symbol of fake news. Sludge is stammering like an idiot and Quellor asks if it's true, Sludge lies; which is perfect because he's a slimy heel. Quellor grabs the flask and calls it "Tweeg under glass"; as he thanks the nephews and leaves. The nephews of course are lying as we hit the flashback from the Wizardweek Arc in a forest with the troll nephews grabbing the green slime from the tree. The trolls narrate that if Quellor finds out that the slime is not Tweeg (geez; I would think the shade of green color would be a dead giveway, but not to Quellor), then they are dead meat. I should point out that the footage is archive footage because they didn't take the time nor effort to edit out the original audio from the flashback. The newspaper is on the throne chair as thunderclaps ensue. We get a close up picture of the newspaper and then scene change to inside Tweeg's tower as Tweeg is reading the story of himself and enjoying it as it makes him so happy. Tweeg cuts a promo like he's a persecuted normal villian and LB gleefully retorts that one for me. Tweeg claims that he's a master villain, not a common one; and even wants the newspaper article framed -- because he was framed a lot, har har -- and puts the newspaper on the table. LB asks about the article and Tweeg no sells it because the headline says it all. How internet-ish of you, Tweet!
LB flops on a bag of flour and calls Quellor just crazy after Tweeg is glad that Quellor is no longer wanting to throw him in the dungeon and for that, he's going to walk into MAVO and visit him, bringing out a box of chocolate covered slugs; which the craftsmanship is so poor, it's not even funny. Tweeg is truly the stupidest villian in the history of villains in North America. Still smarter than the Juralians, that is for sure. Tweeg even eats one for fun and causes LB to stick out his tongue in disgust. I'm shocked Eastlink hasn't considered a commercial for this moment. So we head out into the forest as it's clearly fall at this point as the trees are changing color. I should note that the other two episodes didn't get the memo and the color of the trees did not change. I guess those two episodes at Nogburt Castle were supposed to air first, but logically; if the harvest feast is the Canadian edition of Thanksgiving; then that's still a logic break since Canadian Thanksgiving still takes place in the fall. Tweeg starts humming in the wagon with his chocolate slugs box on the wagon as LB is hoping he doesn't sing. So Tweeg sings literally seconds after that. HAHA! LB stops for a few seconds, blows him off and then drags the wagon away. So we head to a stream as Grubby is grabbing mud out of the river and plops it onto a wooden skeleton frame as he and Teddy are making Mud Bulp costumes. Grubby calls the event back in Rillonia, Abobinumoon; which sounds so stupid. You couldn't call it Autumn's Moon, guys?! Anyhow; Teddy claims that Grundo doesn't know how to play make believe. I think Tweeg would have something to say about that, if he knew what you were talking about Teddy. So they create Mud Bulp costumes and since this is done quickly; we need a TEDDY RUXPIN SONG OF DOOM to waste time. The make believe song contains a funny line where Grubby is insisting that no one leave if it scares you, which is pointless because people left this brand in droves, thanks to trusting horror movie directors who think they are creative, when in reality; they were trying to make a fast buck like most of us would.
So the song picks up from a piano song to a semi-country song as they cosplay birds and fish by tearing up green plants. They also wants to be each other, which doesn't work since Grubby has four extra legs..arms...whatever. Then we get a lot of choppy running stage right, while singing at the same time. So the song ends with Teddy and Grubby putting on their costumes as they are cosplaying Mud Bulps on vacation. No one is going to be fooled by this. Can you spot the mistake Teddy and Grubby make in this whole thing? Oh; and here comes Newton Gimmick walking in as Teddy and Grubby hide in the bushes because they want to scare him. Gimmick walks to some purple daisy like flowers and sniffs them. Teddy and Grubby of course start scaring him from behind like a bunch of heels. That is probably the only thing they did right in this entire sequence. Gimmick turns around and is not fooled; despite acting like it. The animation of Gimmick makes it look like he's teasing being scared and then isn't. Those Mud Bulp chants were horrible, Teddy and Grubby's legs, arms and Grubby's tailsection are completely exposed and they didn't wear any sunglasses whatsoever. This wouldn't fool a layperson and they expected Gimmick to fall for this? Idiots! Gimmick calls them fine costumes because he was fooled; but then realized that it's daytime. As if the exposed fur and skin of them didn't convince him. What an idiot, Gimmick is?! Ironically; if they had the exposed skin angle on, then it would make a good payoff to it later on in this very episode. So the babyfaces walk stage left as Gimmick asks if he can have one of those costumes and Teddy and Grubby say yes. Apparently; Wooly is having a Halloween party at his house, which puzzles me because I recall it was supposed to be hosted by the Jungle Grunges. All right; I'll let this go for now. Gimmick also wants to surprise the Fobs on the way to Wooly's house. So we head to Rainbow Falls with the Fobs at the river shooting the breeze. Oddly; the river is blue; but the falls is rainbow colored; which is an odd throwback to the first arc. Two of the Fobs have faded, of course.
So in the foreground behind the bushes are Teddy, Grubby and Gimmick (with glasses on in front of the Mud Bulps; just to be an even more dead giveaway) as somehow, Fuzz shows up as the babyface Mud Bulp run in and try to scare the Fobs. Fobs act like they couldn't have cared less. Fuzz basically says hello to them as the other Fobs swim over; and then Fuzz asks if they fell into the mud. HAHA! Grubby claims that they were supposed to be Mud Bulps; but the fobs laugh their butts off on that one. Let's see: exposed skin, no sunglasses, horrible acting, horrible voices. Like anyone is going to be fooled by this! Epic fail! This plan is doomed from day one as Grubby admits that he won't be surprised either as the Fobs claim that Wooly isn't afraid of anything. 2:1 odds that he's scared to death and bails on cue. Just a friendly little wager for myself. So we head to MAVO headquarters as LB is kicking...errr...knocking on the door as Tweeg and his wagon have made it. Tweeg apparently offscreen; picked some thorny bushes as roses for the moment as he'll do all the talking. He also is in pain as he claims that this will take diplomacy. That made me laugh for some reason. Then he puts the stuff into the thorny bushes for no reason as the door opens. WHY?! What is the point of that? Ickly Bognotsklum (which for rant purpose is the second appearance for him) answers the door and sees Tweeg picking thorns as this gravely offends Ickly and the LAWS OF MAVO. Rule 4, Subsection 2, Paragraph 12 in case you need to know. Hey Ruxpin fanboys; how about a compliation of the LAWS OF MAVO? That would make an interesting read to say the least. I'm shocked Ken Frosse didn't consider that for the storybook series. Tweeg turns around and Ickly stammers like a stupid idiot, because Tweeg is supposed to be dead and liquidifed, you see. He screams like mad and runs back in, leaving the door open. Tweeg shows this as proof of tact diplomacy. BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! The scary part is: Ickly's response is the same response normal human beings had when Donald Trump became president. Ponder that one for a while and despair.
So Tweeg tells LB to wait outside as he goes in to annoy Quellor and LB calls him Tweeze and he'll need it. Cue Vinny laugh as we head to Wooly's residence as the babyfaces are in front of the house pondering about scaring Wooly; but Gimmick rules that out because it's utterly pointless. Teddy decides to just knock on the door and not bother with the scare tactics, because they are horrible Mud Bulps. So Wooly opens the door, Teddy waves hello and I just won $20 from myself because Wooly is scared to death of the Mud Bulps. I called that one about five minutes ago, I should note. Wooly runs INTO Teddy and Teddy takes a sick bump as a result; which somehow causes Teddy to bonk into Grubby and Gimmick; laying all three of the babyfaces out. Wooly runs up an orange leaved leaf and screams for help while holding the branch like it's a rocking chair. The babyface run in; pleading to Wooly that they are not Mud Bulps. Despite all the evidence being true; Wooly somehow no sells this deal. Teddy takes off the mask along with the rest of them as Mud Bulps are bigger. Well; only slightly bigger. Notice that Gimmick's the only one who uses the obvious sunlight reference in the first scene. If it was after dark; then using the "eight legs" thing makes more sense. So they have messed up the whole dymanics of this thing. Another major problem with this is: Mud Bulps did wear glasses to protect their eyes in the Grungeball game in "Win One For The Twipper" way back in the Tweeg Redempation arc. So that makes no sense either. The eight legs is the only one that is consistant with it being a facade. I was half expecting Wooly to break the branch and fall down on the ground like a moron; but he jumps down and lands on his feet. We exchange notes on playing make believe and then they walk over to the house to reveal more details over dinner. So we head to MAVO as Quellor places the "Tweeg Under Glass" flask on a table with two lit red candles in between them. They are back in the throne room with the troll nephews enjoying themselves; as this is the first appearance -- for rant purposes only since she debuted in the second arc of this show -- of the Great Understander Of Legends! GUOL. She's the one who has been demonizing Illiops as a sort of evil on par with ISIL in storyline, the long and short of her gimmick basically. She is also brutish and short, literally in this scene.
So the troll nephews and Quellor have a toast to Tweeg's ghost, which is very stupid because they have been hating on him when he was alive; and toasting him would be a tribute to Tweeg; instead of whizzing on his grave. You couldn't say "Tweeg's Death" because that is what you mean? And it's even more inexcusable when you have been saying "death" throughout this series. Even "Tweeg's End", "Tweeg's Demise" or even "Tweeg's Doom" would have worked better, since it keeps up the idea that they still hate him for messing up the organization with his lies and schemes. So; Tweeg walks into the throne room after the heels drink up as Tweeg wants to let bygones be bygone as Quellor does a horrible spit take on GUOL. HAHA! I wondered who invented Sony Water~?! Sludge is the only one who is not selling this as he looks confused; despite being the one the most concerned earlier on that Quellor would figure it out. HAHA! Then he turns around, sees Tweeg and panics. Quellor's expression is like he's choking on his own spit as he demands answers to this outrage; so the troll nephews basically blame each other for messing this up. Quellor is ticked off and the urge to kill Tweeg himself is rising as he pounds on the table (A sign that you have no argument) as the "Tweeg Under Glass" bounces off the table and shatters on the floor. Oh; and he yells at them to get out of his sight, probably forever. The troll nephews run out of sight, practically by teleport as Quellor orders Tweeg be thrown in the dungeon, putting him in the worst prison cell in MAVO. Yip; Tweeg ticked him off now. Tweeg is pleading for mercy, he'll get none as the conveniently placed guards with spears grab Tweeg and drag him out of the throne room while Quellor walks upstairs and sits on his throne. Tweeg actually screams that he can bring Teddy Ruxpin to him as GOUL hears this and goes over to Quellor and states that they should listen to Tweeg on this; but Quellor wants none of Tweeg. Basically he says that if he wants her opinion, he'll rattle her chain; which is super creepy in hindsight. GOUL backs down and that ends the segment 11 minutes in. Now; if this were today, the writers would turn Quellor babyface for good (albeit a slow turn) because it sounds like Quellor isn't convinced anymore that Teddy is really a threat to them, crystals or not. Most of the time; it's been the heels threatening Teddy due to demonization from GUOL. However; since this show is in the 1980's heels are heels and babyfaces are babyfaces, and thus the twain shall not meet; so Quellor has to stay heel throughout the whole Hate Plague Arc, despite MAVO turning on him completely. So yeah; a product of it's time, written at the time.
After the commercial break; we have the guards coming back to make sure the troll nephews don't escape this time and they all start blaming each other. If this were today; they are babyfaces. Quellor pounds the railing of his chair and yells at them to shut up. The nephews bow to their master and Sludge doesn't shut up. He told you to shut up; so shut up, you stupid idiot! Then, Quellor decides to give them one more chance and simply proclaims that he wants Teddy Ruxpin, basically giving GUOL exactly what she wants right there. However; GUOL is offended by this anyway; because she wants Teddy alive so they can have the crystals. Why? If Teddy is dead; he's no longer a threat to you, crystals or not. After all; your demonization tactics were that only doom and gloom will happen to MAVO (never mind that doom and gloom is suppose to be a heel move) if the crystals are in the hand of an Illiop. There is only one Illiop in all of Grundo and he has no crystals, so why not kill the only threat you claim is the one? Unless of course; you want the crystals to destroy Grundo, which would be justification for Teddy to protect them! Quellor's plan makes sense as he wants to nip this in the bud right now and get it over with. Also; why trust MAVO with this when they have messed this up like three times already! Quellor blows off GUOL and tells her to go pound sand basically. I don't blame him; Quellor clearly doesn't care about the crystals at this point. So the trolls asks what Quellor wants and Quellor sits back down on the throne and tells him to surprise him, as long as they don't fail him ever again. Okay. Fade to black and we return to the circular dungeon as we hear harmonica music; I guess it's a perk for spending the rest of your life in the dungeon of MAVO. Tweeg is using white chalk as he apparently has been in prison for ten minutes, despite having no watch to tell time. Tweeg is suffering as he throws the harmonica down onto the floor near the prison cell door and the door...opens? Tweeg calls this easy as he is about to pick up the harmonica; and we see GUOL at the door asking for Tweeg's help to capture Teddy Ruxpin alive, because the nephews might kill him.
Tweeg accepts the offer cart blanche and walks out of the cave with GUOL as Tweeg states that prison does strange things to a man and GUOL's response is "How would you know?" Wasn't Tweeg a prisoner of MAVO during the Death Of Innocence arc? So Tweeg is now officially smarter than most of MAVO. That is just peachy. So we head in the forest at sunset with Teddy, Grubby and Gimmick walking in the fall woods in their poor excuse of scary costumes as Teddy pretty much buries the Mud Bulp costume with Wooly dressing up like a jungle flower; assuring that Wooly's costume is the most believable of the four. Grubby calls Wooly good enough to plant and they laugh awkwardly as we pan up to the sunset and we scene change to a shot of the moon over the forest as we discover that....Okay; he's a gaping logic break: I thought Wooly was supposed to be having the party at his house, but the storyline has lead to the Jungle Grunges. I do know they went to Wooly's house; but it was for dinner. So why did they say that they were going to Wooly's house for a party? They couldn't change one word here in order to have this make sense. So they hide in the bushes as they think the Grunges will be surprised, but the Grunges are dancing around, channeling Ogre Battle motif of pumpkin people. This scares the babyfaces and they bail into the bushes. Teddy is on his belly and he gets up and one of the pumpkin headed dudes just notices them. So yeah; the Jungle Grunges are officially smarter than the lead babyfaces on this show. DUMB! Teddy is frightened and backs up as Sreena appears and the green tunic guy in the pumpkin heads calls her Treena. UGHHHHH! Stop confusing me, show! The grunges are not fooled at all as everyone meets and greets. Surprisely; that don't notice Wooly despite being the biggest guy in the room. That is just cold. I should note that Treena has no pupil in her left eye for some reason and she has a southern accent to boot. One of the Grunges calls the costumes "Mudpies"; so Gimmick corrects them. So yes; the Jungle Grunges celebrate the same holiday as the Rillonians do as it's time for the Pumpkins On Parade~! YEAH~!
Before we start; we see the troll nephews behind the bushes. There is a lot of dancing in shadows in front of the fire and a lot of backing up. This leads to the march of pumpkins; thus paying off the pumpkins on parade song. Treena hides behind a bush and joins in the march; and we jump cut to a trick-or-treat scene, so everyone knows that it's Halloween night. Grubby grabs a rolling pumpkin and proclaims that he didn't know pumpkins have feet. Well; in Ogre Battle, they do. And they try to kill you with giant pumpkins, too. This is more family friendly as Teddy has now joined the pumpkin march and of course I don't know where Treena is, so the pea green tunic is the only thing I can go on with this. Let's see how much the animators mess up the continuity in this whole thing. So far; so good though as three bats squeak and fly out of the trees. One of them shows off their mouth straight into the hard camera. Treena has somehow teleported away from the march to show off her club and then disappears back into the middle of the pumpkin march circling the camp fire. Surprisely; the continuity of this is almost perfect. The troll nephews continue sizing this up as Treena teleports away again to do the cheer as Grubby continues to show off pumpkins and asks if they really have feet. Ogre Battle ones do, though. Teddy don't know; so he probably played that game and got confused. Finally; the nephews sneak in and grab onto Teddy in a chain as Treena doesn't suspect a thing, because it's a Halloween party, thus we have to assume that it's a bunch of Surf Grunges in costumes. Teddy notices the troll nephews and doesn't suspect a thing; which is an excellent attention to detail because it's a costume party. His reaction actually makes sense in context. Drudge asks if it's Teddy Dustbin. I wondered where LB got that one from. Sludge isn't sure about this and Drudge for once uses logic and tells him to check Teddy's feet. Sludge sells and notices that it's Illiop feet clear as day. If it walks like an Illiop, and talks like an Illiop; it's probably the Illiop of doom GUOL is talking about. Drudge wants to get him now; but Sludge shows smarts claiming that there are too many witnesses.
Yeah; these trolls are weak bodied, but somehow have more sense than Tweeg. I was proven wrong again! Jump cut to a tree as Grubby is scratching his back and his rear end with the costume off. He calls it itchy and then overhears the GUOL coming in the wagon with Tweeg and LB. GUOL is growing impatient as Tweeg proclaims that Teddy has to be here because they looked everywhere. Grubby puts on his costume and then hides, and here's a logic break: Somehow, Tweeg, GUOL and LB don't notice him despite hiding behind the same tree. How do you miss a guy with six legs is a mystery to me?! Tweeg instantly blows the troll nephews' cover right away and Grubby runs in yelling to Teddy that MAVO is after him...AGAIN! Sludge is confused and then they blitz at Teddy like idiot. It's at least thirty on six advantage heels; and yes, I'm including Tweeg, GUOL and LB in this ordeal, even though they are set against the troll nephews, since Quellor don't care if Teddy's dead or alive, as long as no one fails. Oh; and Wooly is at least six guys anyway because Sludge tries the Edmond Honda headbutt of doom and he bounces right off Wooly's belly like a moron. Even funnier; Sludge lands on Trudge and despite not being near Drudge, Drudge sells it like he was hit along with it. DUMB! Teddy runs at everyone to run, like shouting "Fire" in a crowded theater. Good thing there is no crowded theater, because there is a bonfire nearby. Everyone bails in various directions as the babyfaces and Wooly are cornered at an abyss below. GUOL screams for everyone to go after them, I don't know why; this plan is toast now. Teddy is thinking and it's hard as the troll nephews all run in clearly seeing the trio. Next shot: They make it to the abyss, but Teddy, Grubby, Gimmick and Wooly have disappeared; and there is a giant hill of mud next to the cliff. Of course, the troll nephews climb down the cliff because they are stupid idiots. An obvious mud hill is there, and the gang was wearing suits from mud. Idiots! So the babyfaces walk out of the mud hill, in costume as Grubby takes off the mask. Oh; and Wooly is playing look out on the tree and sees the nephews being cut off by real Mud Bulps.
Uh-oh! Even worse; there are four of them, and originally there were three fakes. Sludge still sells them as thinking they are fakes and grabs a Mud Bulp leg. HAHA! Sadly; only three show up on the closeup as the Mud Bulps grab the troll nephews as they realize that it's not the babyfaces and that was that. Wooly climbs down as he sums up the troll nephews part well. So then we see Tweeg, LB and GUOL run in and instead of hiding in the mud mill again, they simply sit down on the cliff. Now; you would think this would backfire since Grubby basically blew their cover yelling at Teddy to run the first time. Nope! The heels ask for directions; they point down the cliff and the heels go down the cliff. I should also point out that there was a lot of orgastic noises during the running sequence by the heels; but that goes with the terrority in Canadian animation. It sort of puts twerking in it's proper prespective, doesn't it? The heels climb down, Teddy and company take off their masks and laugh literally seconds later, ending the episode at 19:06. And all of this will be completely forgotten by the time The Hate Plague Arc comes about as the nephews return for the Christmas episode and GUOL doesn't return until the arc starts, so we never find out how Tweeg escaped from GUOL, nor how the troll nephews escaped from the Mud Bulps at all. You wonder why serials often fail? It's because people have been told that episodic is best. That's why. This was a fun, albeit extremely messy episode, mostly due to the Pumpkins On Parade song. *** (60%).
THE REVIEW LINE
Well; if you were rating on the Pumpkins On Parade song and dance; that was a great moment and it was well executed for the most part, including the finish to this episode. Sadly; the writing went south quite a bit in this because the entire Quellor/Teddy feud is messed up now. GUOL's motivation makes no sense and her demonization is clearly backfiring on her at this point; and the ending is really stupid because the episode simply stops. Also; the nephews return by Christmas and there's no indication of how they escaped the Mud Bulps; and there's no indication how Tweeg and LB escaped from QUOL. So in essence, this episode was completely self contained with nothing connecting anything to it. This is one of the reasons why this show failed and Gargoyles didn't: None of the self-contained episodes make sense with the story arc. If you are treating this like a serial show; you have to make sure that on some level, there is a connection between the episodes, even if it's not totally clear. Here, there is no such connection and thus no one cares what happens next. So dumb. At least the Harvest Feast had a connection to Wizard Week. Again, I think the Thanksgiving two part episodes were suppose to come first, then the Halloween one; but even them, there's no connection between this and the last two episodes of the Holiday Arc, so what gives? Overall; this is a messy episode with logic breaks (although the shot continuity was good in this one); but it was still funny and fun, so other than what I said in this review line, no complaints. So that ends the Holiday Arc for rant purposes. I'm either going to do the Wizardweek arc or the start of the MAVO arc for real sometime next year. Either way, there will be no avoiding Tweeg's mother anymore. So...
Thumbs in the middle for this episode and I'll see you all next time.