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The Adventures Of Teddy Ruxpin: Grubby's Romance
Reviewed: 09/16/2018
This Will Never End Well.
Well; it's time to continue the second arc of this series as Tweeg has realized that he may have to do the job to keep his entitlement intact with his mother; so he orders LB to make Gimmick disappear and steals the bag of crystals, all while Grubby dances with a catapillar who turns into a butterfly and we get this show's first attempt at romance. How does this episode fare? So; let's rant on shall we...?
We begin this one near Gimmick's house as Grubby and Teddy are bringing sacks of stuff onto the airship. And no, I don't know what is in them; so it's not what you think. Yet. So, they enter the airship, go into the hull and put the sacks down while humming this really goofy tune. I honestly don't know what song they are referencing here as they go upstairs and then Grubby panics and slams the trapdoor. Grubby then slowly opens the door as there is a shadow of something on the trapdoor. We discover that someone...okay, it's Gimmick...created a giant flower like a beanstalk. Sadly; there are no clouds, so there is no giant castle on the clouds. Grubby acts like he wants to be in a "Wanna Get Away" commercial as Teddy notices Gimmick coming in with what appears to be the prototype for the final model of the Portable Reducing Machine, or the Mini-Sizer as I like to call it. Gimmick says his catchphrase less than a minute in. If his calculations were correct, he wouldn't be recklessly turning plants into beanstalks. It also has it's unique sound effects now as Gimmick zaps the plant to make it small. Teddy tells Grubby to come out and stop acting like an idiot as Grubby claims that he knew that. Yeah, I'll bet. So, the PRM uses a crystal; which again shows the episodic thinking of the writing team as they still haven't decided on if all the crystals do the same thing, or one crystal does this and another crystal does that. They ultimately decided on the later, by the way. So, Gimmick puts the PRM on a barrel and everyone goes inside because Teddy wants to go to the Hard To Find City again for more research. Why would you do that, when there are Gutangs who hate your stinking, rotton guts? It's not like Gimmick needs to go there to do his research. This is awfully reckless of Teddy; even more so then allowing the PRM to be unattended since LB did steal a map from Gimmick in the first arc. Oh; and here comes Louie on his bicycle helicopter heading towards Tweeg Tower. LB comes out and notices the mail is coming. Louie drops a giant sack of mail right on LB and buries him.
Tweeg comes out because LB claims that Tweeg's mother is sending him an allowance cheque. Probably to show how incredibly childish her son is; which says more about Elinore than Tweeg. There is a lot of white bills in this sack as Tweeg searches and somehow finds a letter from his mother. But there is no cheque in the mail; it's an ad for some organized cult named MAVO and even LB is confused. Oh come on, now! Especially since Tweeg knows who MAVO is and always wanted to do something rotton. LB gleefully retorts that one. So, Tweeg reads the letter and we scene change to somewhere in Elinore's house as we finally get to see the stinky wart-infested troll that makes Peppa Pig look like a saint in comparison, Elinore Tweeg writing the letter at her desk. She claims that Tweeg is an absolute disgrace to the family. I would love to hear dad's side of the story, if he is still around. Wink! Wink! Nudge! Nudge! More on that in The Surf Grunges because, oh boy; what a tale to spin on that one! She basically cuts off the allowance and until he becomes a MAVO member, he ain't getting anymore coin from her. She also smashes her pen in disgust while trying to sign the letter. So, we head back to reality (no, not really) as Tweeg is appalled by this. Considering what happens after he is a MAVO member; getting a real job sounds like a better prospect for Tweeg at this point. On the other paw; we would never get Miss Maggotheart, the greatest troll in the entire world, whom I'm still wondering why she isn't the leader of MAVO. Tweeg cannot believe that she would do this to him. She's a heel and probably would have done it on whim anyway. At least when others do this; it's because the one with the allowance was defrauding them. Tweeg defrauding Elinore would have given him a raise, knowing heel thinking. Continuity error number one: The poster of MAVO clearly says two weeks; but in the dialogue, Tweeg clearly says that it's one week only. Even in episodic self-contained episodes; that's a bad logic break if I ever saw one. So, Tweeg decides to do some evil things to Gimmick as he checks the telescope and panics; because Tweeg is paranoid.
So, of course, LB has to do the dirty work in getting rid of the babyfaces and LB sulks and protests this outrage while bouncing down the steps. Answer to LB's question: Heels never get their hands dirty, for fear that it would mean they did the work and that turns them babyface. Even though, there are lots of way of doing evil things while doing the hard work and still be a monster heel in the end. Tweeg's a coward and fails at life, what a surprise? LB hops to the back of Gimmick's house as Gimmick is calculating stuff with some object that looks like mirrors on a pipe. Teddy and Grubby get on board the airship and no one bothers to take the PRM with them. LB hops over to the barrel and wonders what this button is for as it's getting windy now. So LB pushes the red button and the PRM zaps the airship and it gets reduced to the size of a small model toy. Tweeg was watching on and Tweeg is so happy to see them disappear as LB hops around happy and laughing. So, we scene change to on the ground with the model airship as the winds go from breezy to almost hurricane force winds; relatively speaking as Grubby is flying around and hanging on for dear life on the mast; with no sound effects because the wind howling had eliminated them. Ironic quote: Hang onto your socks! I guess that one was for Gimmick; since Teddy gets dumped since the propeller cannot be controlled. Gimmick runs in to help Teddy; but it does nothing to help him nor his face. The rope snapping spot occurs and the airship flies into the wind out of control as the wind effects look like they were taken from manga. A bug is hanging on for dear life and having better success than the airship. After some bumping and panicking, the airship suddenly lands perfecty on the ground like in front of a snail who looks dressed like a mayor or something. After some talking from Teddy; the next shot features a bug on a mushroom and a well-dressed grasshopper. The snail is not happy because he's going to be late again. And once again; everyone is hostile towards Teddy, only this time; Grubby is the only one who doesn't look out of place. I wish one of the bugs would say "What's that Gimmick?".
So, Teddy apologizes for crashing the party like he always does and apparently, only the butterflies can help them go back home; so, let's go to this Spring Dance Party for fun and excitement. So, we head inside as there is dancing, there is music playing (with the wrong music I might add as the music in the background doesn't match the insturments nor the timing of such) and one bug who on the far left of the room is clearly drunk, so yes, there is alcohol served at this event, but we aren't telling anyone. Ironically; only the drum has sound effects. Something tells me that the creators wanted to use the background music as the band's music and it was timed so poorly with the animation that it isn't funny. Grubby claims that he's horrible at dancing. No; you are horrible in the art of not seeing where you are going and reading a room, because otherwise, you would have not stuck out your foot and get stomped on by one of the dancers. Foot grabbing spot ensues and then he turns around out comes from the entrance up the stairs, a female catapillar with blond hair, which apparently causes Grubby to be temporary blinded for a few seconds. Oh; and Grubby gets charmed and the female catapillar seems okay with it, at least from the non-verbal cues that I'm reading. Then we get a dream sequence of Grubby and the woman catapillar dancing on the dance hall while Grubby is singing in the background in the real world. And it's clear it's a dream sequence because as they are dancing, they are going up into the air as gravity had taken a vacation in said dream. Grubby apparently hates dancing, because he cannot coordinate his feet properly, which I'm sure is a problem when you have six of them. At least he has that excuse going for him, unlike me. So, we are outside as the woman is playing hard to get; but otherwise, seems to want to have a relationship with Grubby, and then pinches his tails while hiding behind a mushroom. Uh-oh! That's trouble right there. We also get them sitting on the mushroom looking at the moon at night for a while. Then the boat ride on a boat made of a green leaf. Apparently in this dream, they have eyes for each other.
We return to reality (no, not really) and Grubby is acting so awkward that he forgets his name and thinks it's the same name as the catapillar that he has eyes for. She's Karen by the way. Karen wants to dance and Grubby is awkwardly trying to say no because he's horrible at dancing. He's also horrible at communication with a woman as well; although the feeling is sort of mutral. Grubby claims that he has eight left feet even though he walks on six. The writers cannot seem to keep this straight: Grubby in the animation clearly walks on six legs. You couldn't change the dialogue to modify one word? Especially since it Grubby says it when he isn't on screen, so a mouthflap sync issue isn't the issue here. Karen isn't buying this but is buying the obvious logic break and offers Grubby to at least try it out. Grubby is telling the surrounding dancers to make way and the bugs all stop dancing and simply watch Grubby and Karen dance. If this was Teddy and Karen dancing; this would be interesting, at least to the bugs. Grubby might be an Octopede; but he seems sort of ordinary in this bug world. It turns out that he's a fine dance with bad communication skills. Karen is having a good time, her voice is much better than Butterbears. And then the dream is dead as both dancers lose their footing and tumble into a pile like a bunch of little kids; but Karen don't care. Grubby doesn't either and they both hug and blush to end the segment nine and a half minutes in. This is actually a pretty decent episode so far.
After the commercial break; we head back to Gimmick's house as LB is ransacking the house and throwing stuff down with his head; because bounders don't have...you know. Again; the henchmen is doing all the work and doing it better than the cowardly heel. Apparently; the original Gaint Reducing Machine is still there; only repainted, because continuity is not this show's strong point. So, LB continues to prove that he's a better monster heel than Tweeg could ever be and destorys more objects in the kitchen and then tries to bite smash through a table. Sadly; this failed because the white pepper shaker drops on the table and the pepper engulfs LB's nose. LB sneezes and flies into the oven as a pan drops on his head. This means nothing; because LB sneezes again and crashed into one of the cupboard doors and inside the cupboard, Teddy's five other crystals are there. If you ever wanted a reason why Teddy created a belt for the crystals; that would be the reason. LB pops his head from the door with the sack of crystals in his mouth and bounces out of the house and straight to Tweeg Tower as LB is planning to keep one of them to make sure Tweeg doesn't try to job him out of his paycheque. Or something. Head to inside Tweeg Tower as Tweeg is pacing around looking annoyed as LB hops in. Tweeg notices him and demands the sack and LB asks him about the magic word. (Tweeg: Mine!) Tweeg steals the bag and almost concusses LB in the process. Tweeg checks the crystals out and he's giddy and of course, he takes all the credit for this plan. LB is protesting this outrage, rightfully so, but Tweeg don't care because the result is Gimmick is gone and he has diamonds, and it's all because of him because he sent LB to Gimmick's house in the first place. HAHA! Classic cowardly heel. So, after admiring the crystals for a while, Tweeg orders LB to get the wagon ready because they are going to his mother's place and LB is not thrilled of this at all, and is doing the sweared in DUBBED CLASSIC CARTOON STYLE as Tweeg's laughing goes beyond into the next scene.
So we head to the mushroom in the dream AFTER HAPPY HOUR (after dark) with Karen and Grubby sitting on top of it and exchanging pleasure thoughts. Apparently; this has been going on for the last two days as Karen cannot help but blush at Grubby's thought that she is pretty and that being true. I wouldn't go that far, but she's fine. So we then fade to black to what I assume is the non-American commercial break and we return to the airship in the morning and apparently, Teddy and Gimmick were sleeping in the airship the entire time. Wow; this world has no concept of a hotel or motel. Grubby runs in a panic because something awful has happened to Karen. Uh-oh! This relationship is already on the rocks. So the trio run and we discover that Karen is making a caccoon -- because she's a catapillar, you see -- and yet she has no earthly idea what this is or why. So, the educational level of these insects is not good. I would have rebooked this to Karen saying "I don't like doing this, but I have to because it's a part of my being." and that would at least kill off the dumb blond stereotype that this character was shooting for. Anyhow; Karen goes into the caccoon and says that she hopes to see Grubby again; so at least she's outright saying that it's not Grubby's fault and Grubby didn't do anything to cause it to happen. So, the relationship is not dead yet. Teddy and Gimmick offer Grubby to come back to the ship; but Grubby wants to stay with Karen, at least to make sure no one tries to kill while being in the caccoon; so he still cares about her. Teddy and Gimmick walk back to the airship and Teddy hopes that Gimmick has a science explaination for this and there really is one. Grubby sits down beside Karen as we fade to black and then we return to the airship as Teddy is now saying that Grubby has been sitting at the caccoon for days now. At least a week, even! Gimmick is not surprised by this as he is showing off slides on a projector as he explains that Karen is a beautiful bug; but if they were of normal size, Karen would be less than an inch. The guise of this is that, if Grubby was his normal size; the relationship would be over due to size issues beyond either one's control.
Also; we get the educational moment of the episode where they show Karen evolving into a butterfly. Which kills the suspense right there. I would have stopped with Gimmick asking what Karen turned into and instead of showing the answer to everyone, they run back to Grubby and as they arrive, Karen turns into a butterfly and then say the answer. Or barring that; put Karen's shadow as a butterfly as a tease so we don't see her official character design until the moment she becomes a butterfly. That's how you build the moment. This way; you are basically hand holding and children really don't like that. There are times when the hand holding is necessary to invoke the boundaries of what you can and cannot do, but this is not one of those times. Of course; when Teddy and Gimmick run to Grubby to inform him; Grubby turns around and claims that he already knows because a still frame of Karen is shown behind them and there's no animation at all. Grubby should have just turned around, be charmed and then show the close up of Karen flying in the sky. That would have made more sense and lop off both a bad animation sequence and a logic break at the same time. Again; continuity is not this show's strong suit. Again; some of the shots look off-model; just as the butterflies have arrived as promised by the bugs earlier in the episode. There is a lot of flying and Gimmick explaining that they were here all along, even though Karen was the only one who was in a caccoon. We never saw any of the other caccons in the background during this at all. This always the little things that hurt an episode and this is one of them. Karen nearly crashes into Teddy's head and then crashes into a leaf. Apparently; she needs a refresher course on this as she talks about getting Grubby back home and even Grubby has realized that it's time to go. So we have a long, drawn out sequence of the butterflies flying as the airship is prepared and raises into the sky and following the butterflies. Two things of note: Karen claiming out of nowhere that the butterflies have been to Gimmick Valley before and the dressed up snail being amazed by science before slowly sliding away stage left.
So, we fade to black as we see the butterflies flying along the road as LB is pulling the wagon with Tweeg in tow trying to swat butterflies because he's mean. Or something. The airship arrives as Grubby panics; but the airship misses the right side of the wagon and flies by without any further incident. Grubby breathes a sigh of relief as we scene change with the butterflies and the airship arriving at Gimmick's house. Gimmick lands the airship; and we still have one "small" problem. Of course! They are still small; so of course a woman has to save the day by trying to press the green button instead of someone from the babyfaces climbing up and pushing the button. Karen goes over to the PRM and tries to press the button, but no go. So she flies backwards and then shoulder blocks the green button and that is enough for the thing to work as Gimmick's airship with the trio in it has been turned back to normal size; and this shocks Karen. So; we say our goodbye as Karen is heartbroken and I just love how Grubby claims that he'll never forget her. I'm sorry; but that is a lie because we ever see nor hear Karen come back ever again. Heck; we never see nor hear signs of Grubby even mentioning Karen in passing. This is the sort of booking that bugs me and this is why doing a serial is rarely done; because it absolutely requires bringing back whatever stuff from previous episodes and making sense of them. Remember, entertainment's purpose is to make money; and if your audience cannot keep up with what is going on, they'll tune out and it's on the person creating the entertainment to make sure they tune in. That's why a lot of shows are episodic; because of stuff like this. I'm certain that with better booking, and someone with a clue, the Grubby/Karen relationship would have been play with in future episodes if they reboot this aspect in the new series coming up; but here, this is a dead end angle. And it means all the tears shed mean absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of things. And to think; this episode was chugging along nicely until that moment. Oh; and to further makes this silly; it ends with a fade to pink heart before fading to black. Of course!
So finally; the babyfaces go into their house via the front door and are shocked and appalled to discover that the entire place has been ransacked. I just love how they instantly figure out that someone was looking for something and it's the crystals. Like, who would want them except for the Gutangs? Anyhow; another episode where the color stylist cannot figure out how to color the soles of Teddy's feet again as they run into the kitchen to the cupboard and the crystals are gone of course. Gimmick wonders who would do such a thing and then they yell in unison, the most boring voice ever that it's Tweeg. It's like they originally acted out the line, BS&P hated it and they retook it so it's just them reading the line; while the animation was completely unchanged to reflect them. DUMB! So we scene change to the road as Tweeg is on his wagon laughing and admiring the crystal while LB tows the wagon to end the episode at 19:11. This was a good episode marred by a really unfortunate finish that exposed the major issues with serial adventures. *** 3/4 (75%). The next episode preview was really a bad idea because Teddy basically gives away Quellor without any subtley whatever. He couldn't just say "You also meet a bunch of monsters from MAVO" and not show Quellor rising up from the middle of the stone table? I mean; I can understand him mentioning Elinore because she was already shown in a flashback earlier in the episode; but can you at least keep some secrets until the big reveal of your #1 heel. Besides; the original storybook series never had Quellor in it, so doing what I said would have created some big suspense for the television series. Just more poor decisions by this staff; and they wonder why Teddy Ruxpin was never over? I hope that when the new series comes that they consider the importance of suspense.
THE REVIEW LINE
Well; I want to say that I liked this episode and it was very good, but in the end, it was all right with a really sad finish. And not in a good way. The whole Grubby/Karen relationship was okay, albeit not realistic; although considering the show itself, that kind of just piling on for no reason other than for fun and profit. I wanted to believe that Karen and Grubby's goodbyes were believable; but due to the clash of styles of television coming together, it really hurt the scene to the point where people would point out how much of a lie it is. That's one of the main problems with serial show: The baggage of the past goes with it and if you try to sweep it underneath the floor; you are asking for trouble. Also; it doesn't help that a lot of scenes were not animated all that well and the ending of the trio yelling Tweeg was utterly awful. On the other hand; the whole storyline was acceptable enough to be entertaining and not make my head hurt, so that was a plus. Overall; a very good storybook episode that fell on it's own sword due to culture. So, next up is the official debut of MAVO and the most henious troll in cartoon history: Tweeg's own mother. She's also extremely unapologetic about it, too. And we also get the debut of Quellor the Oppressor, Icky the Guard and GUOL, the Gas Lighter. Because Illiops are evil. Or something. So...
Thumbs in the middle pointing up for this episode and I'll see you all next time.