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: Tweeg's Mom
Reviewed: 09/22/2018
Worst...Mom...Ever~!
Well; it's time to finally have Tweeg see his mother and finally make the first steps into the Monsters & Villains Organization, or MAVO for short. And apparently, Illiops are folk demons to these monsters in true psychological projecting fashion . How does this episode fare? Let's rant on shall we...?
We begin this one near the base of a mountain at a tower covered in pine trees with the entrance at the bottom floor instead of the top floor. Then we get one of those moments that makes me wonder if it's part of the script or the audio guys forgot to edit out the first few seconds of audio of LB swearing under his breath before singing badly. LB is complaining about equality again to a rotton troll and Tweeg blows it off because he's thinking. The sad thing about this is; he is more believable in thinking than most jerks in real life. Oh; and Elinore is a stinking, nasty troll; and that's why he loves her. Tweeg is a walking Stockholm Syndrome mixed in with various "-paths" as he sings the TEDDY RUXPIN SONG OF DOOM about his mommy. This song is living proof that CPS doesn't exist in Grundo and that's really bad. I betcha Elinore was also a huge failure in life. LB's reaction is like a "Wanna Get Away" commercial; only with no awkward football referee to save him. I realize that the whole Tweeg/Elinore feud is suppose to be comedy; but it's getting sadder and sadder, and basically turning Tweeg into a bad babyface instead of a whiny, cowardly heel like he is supposed to be in storyline. Yeah; this song is a great two minute description of the entire feud in a nutshell. Tweeg does the flying back bump over the wagon for fun as the wagon arrives at Elinore's house. Tweeg wants LB to wait outside as LB accuses him of trying to reduce the amount of embarrassment faced when Elinore gets nasty. Tweeg blows it off because he is her favorite son. LB: Her only son. Yup. Tweeg does the stink eye in disgust and asks LB where the bag of "diamonds" are and they are in the wagon, DUH! Tweeg goes to the back and admires the four crystals; so yes, LB did take one of them as described in the previous episode. How he did it without any pockets....Oh wait, I shudder. Tweeg then decides to keep one for himself by stuffing it in his pocket. Then puts the bag in his cloak anyway. Tweeg also orders LB to defend the wagon, so to speak because it's filled with villains, as LB does the Vinny laugh witty retort in response. So, even LB has a clue about Tweeg's heel/face alignment.
So LB flops into the wagon and sits down cross-legged (which cannot be easy for him) as Tweeg walks towards "Mommy's House". Scene change to a spiral staircase with bats and stone cave entrances. Scene change to a hallway with a brown whelp dragon with wings sitting down acting like it's restless. Pan west to a wooden door; which magically opens itself and we are now outside Elinore's room as Elinore (think rich, nasty troll version of Ilana Ruxpin and you are almost there, only voiced by Abby Hagyard of You Can't Do That On Television) is doing her hair and sparying herself with Garlic Essence Perfume. Geez; she's also a vampire hater as well. I thought vampires were heels...Oh wait... And it makes her cough, so we cut to Tweeg at the door which annoys Elinore so much that she comes out of the room with her cane and orders Sparky (the brown dragon I mentioned earlier) to go to the door and threaten Tweeg to go away and never come back basically. Okay; she didn't know it was Tweeg, but she would imply that because she is the poster parent for child abuse. Sparky don't care as Tweeg continues to annoy Elinore with the door bell as Elinore decides to answer the door herself. Elinore thinks it's a door-to-door salesman and she even implies that she is going to commit violence on said salesman. Or in Tweeg's case; assault and battery. Elinore throws her cane away and opens the door, sees Tweeg, is shocked and appalled and slams the door in his face. This somehow destroys the barrier off the door from it's hinges. I don't why the animators bothered to do that, actually. Tweeg is selling a broken nose as Elinore relents and adjusts her hair in the mirror. Sadly; it doesn't adjust her personality in any way. Elinore basically drags him in the house as Tweeg is sucking up to her; but no dice. He's useless to Elinore, by the way, which Elinore admits outright. Elinore inspects Tweeg and shows off her psychological projection skills in that Tweeg has a pale shade of green despite Elinore pretty much having the same shade as well. We get harp sounds as Elinore outright explains that Tweeg is a hybrid Grunge/Troll combination and they makes him a babyface. OW!
So, Elinore asks him if he did anything really rotton as of late. Ummm; run for president disguised as Donald Trump? Nah; that would be too stupid, even for Tweeg. So, Tweeg shows off the crystals and once again, the continuity is shot completely here as there are sometimes four crystals and sometimes all six. Elinore grabs the bag and is shocked to hear that these "diamonds" are from the Hard To Find City. So, how did Tweeg know where the "diamonds" were since he doesn't even know what they are? Elinore is much more skeptical (thus reinforcing the stereotype of heels being the skeptics of course) and calls them hunks of glass. A stylized Grundo mouse in a mouse hole is scared of where this conversation is going, so we do have an eyewitness to this abuse, but the mouse is not sentient to give an official statement. Then finally; we get the first visages of Tweeg's father as Elinore opens the picture frame of a Grunge grandfather and it's a door to a safe and on the door's inside, there is a picture of a Grunge surfer with purple hair and purple shorts on a surfboard, surfing the waves. Tweeg loves his father because he was such a nice guy. You see, Elroy Tweeg is a Grunge who married Elinore and they had a son named Tweeg. But Elroy is no where to be seen. At least not yet; outside of a picture. Now; if this were today, Elroy would be the horrible person in this on the surface because he abandoned Elinore for no reason whatsoever and thus it would turn Elinore into a nasty, unlikable person. Also; what a way to defame interspiecial relationships and inter racial marriages with this angle, too! So, Elinore opens the vault door and takes off her jewel lens, and as she is inspecting the "diamond", Tweeg is stealing a red ruby (which looks like a cherry) from the vault. Elinore then is angry because it's not a diamond at all as Tweeg hides the ruby behind his back. However; Elinore states that this is much more useful than that and Tweeg is on his knees crying and begging. What a pathetic little troll this Tweeg is?! And to think; we all grew up with him, so Tweeg's song is prophetic now. Elinore wants Tweeg to come with her...and put the ruby back, which Tweeg does. HAHA!
Elinore proclaims that he might just have the chops to be rotton after all. And why not; considering who he has as a mother. So we fade to black and after six straight minutes of set up; we head back to Gimmick's Valley and Teddy calls the situation terrible as Grubby says the stupidest line I have ever heard: Maybe Gimmick hid the crystals and just simply forgot. Even though Teddy himself knew where he put them and Grubby was with him the entire time in the last episode! DUMB! And the place is still ransacked by the way. Teddy thankfully refutes that argument for me. Of course; they have to explain the whole ending to the people who didn't see the last episode. Which is fine; although they could have moved this scene to the beginning and it would still make sense. Of course; they accuse Tweeg and LB of stealing and vandalism. They're only half right as Teddy is literally talking to the hard camera as if he is about to break the fourth wall; but isn't. Basically; the same techinque used by Hanna Barbera in the 1960's; only sloppier. So, the trio goes to Tweeg's Tower (which would be the first time in the series) and rings the door bell; but there is no answer. So, they discover that the door is open and walk right on in as if this is a counter for LB breaking and entering their house, vandalizing the house and stealing from the house. I realize that this is a false equalivancy fallacy, but the law typically doesn't care about that fallacy. So, they look around and Gimmick tastes the buttermilk in the cauldron, even though it's slimy green in color. Teddy then notices the better drawn ad for MAVO and reads on for all of us. The only thing of note is that the place is near the Great Wall Of Ying; and Grubby sees this as a long way away. Teddy suggests using the airship and Gimmick is trying to weasel his way out of this; but Teddy questions his courage and Gimmick basically lies about having lobster courage. Then for the second time in as many scenes; Teddy is literaly talking directly towards the hard camera. He needs the crystals back and there's no time to waste, so let's do this then. Teddy and Gimmick walk way as Grubby claims that there is no use arguing with an Illiop.
Probably another reason why people are hostile to this character as Grubby takes a look at the poster that is back on the table for no reason as he shudders before we fade to black. So, we return to the road as Elinore is on the wagon, and Tweeg and LB are pushing said wagon. I laugh like LB does as Elinore is literally reading the riot act on Tweeg, like a child abuser would. She also completely blames Elroy for this and regrets ever marrying him. To say that this couple was incompatible is the understatement of this entire series in a nutshell. Elinore then talks about how great MAVO is and how awesome Quellor is his title is the Surpeme Oppressor. Geez; that sounds like half of the white dudes you see on a daily basis. And of course; she can relate to him because she cannot wait to see him again. Also; Elinore orders Tweeg to be on his worst behaviour to impress the MAVO dudes, who probably won't buy Tweeg's behaviour anyway. Elinore calls Tweeg and LB deadbeats of course as LB calls it like mother, like son. Completely inaccurate, since that implies Tweeg is effective as a heel. He's not even close to that. LB calls this touching and that ends the segment nearly 10 minutes in. The entire setup for this was great, albeit it took too long; and there was a minimum amount of trio segments involved for the most part. In fact; in this entire episode, the trio is on-screen for literally five minutes tops!
After the commercial break; we finally head to that clone of Castle Greyskull with a twisting road towards a rope bridge known as outside of MAVO headquarters. Our brown cloaked troll with a pole arm ax is guarding the place. Iggly Barnosaclum; aka Law Enforcer of MAVO. So the wagon stops about 500 meters from the bridge as Elinore steps on LB to get off and apparently takes the weakest bump off-screen in the process, and then shrugs it off and tells the two heels to wait right there. So, did Elinore slide off and fall down; or did she land on her feet perfectly? I don't know! So, Elinore walks up the path towards the bridge; just to point out who Iggly is and her relationship to him as the keeper of the door. She also demands the bag of crystals and Tweeg shows more effort in giving it to her than any of those other times he fails at life. Also; Elinore walking up to the bridge was clearly done to kill time because Elinore could have done all of this at the wagon. In many cartoons; too much stuff goes on. In this one; nothing of note goes on that we don't already know and there is too little stuff going on. Also; Elinore steals one of the crystals for herself, just because. Elinore then starts sweet talking Iggly as Iggly runs to meet her and Iggly notices her right away. Elinore than demands to see Quellor right away because she has important business with him. Paragraph 18, Subsection 24: No one sees Quellor. Ever. Well; Elinore was being extremely demanding about it. However; she does have a bag of crystals as her "Trump Card" (oh; how apporos...) as Iggly is now talking directly towards the hard camera now. There's a lot of this going on in this episode for some reason. Elinore shows off two crystals to Iggly and Iggly grabs them. He decides to go see Quellor and heads inside the headquarters and there is a lot of hole motifs everywhere. Iggly makes it to the giant door and decides to steal a crystal of his own, reducing the number to one. Paragraph 48, Subsection 27: Always steal when the moment presents itself. So, Iggly knocks on the door and some monster yells "enter" despite there being a sky shot and Quellor sitting on his throne and no one else being there. Sigh.
I have no clue who said that; but it wasn't Les Lyle, that was for certain. Anyhow; MAVO is in fact in the storybook series, but Quellor himself was designed for television. Here is your random Wikipedia moment of the rant (DANGER! DANGER!): MAVO was a radical Japanese art movement of the 1920s. Founded in 1923, as a re-institution of the Japanese Association of Futurist Artists, the anarchistic artist group displayed an outdoor exhibit in Ueno Park in Tokyo in protest of conservatism in the Japanese art world. The group leader was Tomoyoshi Murayama (1901 - 1977). The group deployed an interdisciplinary array of performance art, painting, illustration and architecture, to communicate anti-establishment messages to the mainstream. Fueled by responses to industrial development, the MAVO group created works about crisis, peril and uncertainty. Art Historian, Gennifer Weisenfeld has written that Mavo sought to reintegrate art into daily life. Other artists involved in the movement include Masamu Yanase, Kamenosuke Ogata, Shuzo Oura and Shinro Kadowaki, and later Osamu Shibuya, Shuichiro Kinoshita, Iwane Sumiya, Tatsuo Okada, Michinao Takamizawa, Kimimaro Yabashi, Tatsuo Todai, Masao Kato and Kyojiro Haiwara, among others.[1][2]“Mavoist” artists sought to disrupt or blur the boundaries between art and daily life. They rebelled against the establishment by combining industrial products with painting or printmaking, usually in collage form. Their performance art protests against social injustice deployed theatrical eroticism, that mocked public norms for morality at the time.[3] Quellor is apparently a echo version of No Heart From Care Bears Family which Nelvana was producing at around this time. Needless to say; the Care Bears are much more over than Teddy Ruxpin; until recently as Teddy Ruxpin is getting a television series reboot. So, Iggly kneels and Quellor tells him to get to the point; so Iggly gives him the last crystal that was not stolen.
Quellor is gasping at this, as if this is a big turnaround for his organization as Iggly explains it all. Quellor tells Iggly to summon the members to the hall because we are having an emergency meeting of the Monsters & Villains Organization; also known now as the Republican Party. Even more so since Iggly gongs this. This show is doomed now. Even more so when Iggly is buttering Quellor up and Quellor don't care. Also; Quellor already wants to make Tweeg a member of MAVO; which is only marginally better than being Elinore's son. Scene change and somehow the heels are all at the front door now. Iggly returns and basically states that Tweeg can come in and he might become a member of MAVO; but that might be pushing it too far. So, Iggly and company walk in as we yet another very long sequence of events of them entering the building and heading to the main war room, which is pretty much the first time for rant purposes and the series in general, since I have reviewed the throne room on multiple episodes thus far. Lots of spring sounds ensue as we get the first two MAVO members besides Iggly and Quellor: two brown skinned troll guards with spears and M lettered belts. So, they enter the main war room as the monsters used; are the incidental monsters for the television series, but otherwise have no names. The middle stone table has a trapdoor opens and out in a puff of smoke comes Quellor who clearly don't care about being stuffed in there for no reason. Note the top ceiling of the war room contains slots which are shaped like the crystals. Those become important here in this episode and later in the series. These slots are the reason why Teddy and company must make sure MAVO doesn't get the crystals. Quellor then slams his fist down for fun; because he's mean, natch. I do have a question: How come the Gutangs didn't know about the crystals despite owning the entire ruined city? I would love to see how this is explained away. This is also the debut of fellow gaslighter, The Grand Understander of Legends or TGUOL. Replace one letter and shift them around and she would be GHOUL~! So, Quellor addresses his people, as they would say.
Quellor proclaims that he has something that will be important to the future of MAVO and he's talking directly into the hard camera while saying this. Even worse; there is no one in the foreground despite everyone being around him. This is poor animation shot positioning and it shows a lot. I should note that the stone mural in the back where GUOL is has a stylized Eye of Providence in the background, a Mega-Man Stylized W and a mystic anhk to boot. GHOUL is the black/green robed green goblin; who may be the sister of Elinore and in fact, I hope the reboot takes this into account. Then we get more glyphics, which are written like they are in pencil by a ten year old just to amuse himself and go on forever; but according to GOUL; the guise is a message and a warning. MAVO is basically a Make Grundo Great Again type of organization and will never be free as long as the six crystals are not returned to them and the monsters will be doomed forever if the crystals fall into the hands of an Illiop, in which one of them has already been in the hands of such a creature. What is the doom you speak of? Because from where I'm standing, this doom seems to be turning the monsters all babyface. And later on in the series; that is pretty much what happens to LB. Quellor shows off one of the crystals as the monsters cheer and the thieves who have the remaining four crystals, all have goofy guilty looks on their faces. HAHA! Like all heels; they have no scruples. Quellor tells GOUL to continue with the translation. GOUL finishes the translation that I mentioned and this comes off as obvious gaslighting and this tells me that MAVO probably drove off the Illiops and that's why they live in Rillonia. As we'll see later in the series; they didn't get the job done on one of them at least. LB then gores Tweeg and whisper yells that Teddy Ruxpin is one of those that will doom them. Tweeg then talks to Elinore as he quotes LB as an realiable source. HAHA! Then Elinore whispers legit to Iggly. This was cute and this angers Quellor so much that he pounds his fist on the stone table again. He demands answers to this outrage and Iggly claims that Teddy Ruxpin is a lollipop. Projection much, there?
I say this because everyone at MAVO is a sucker for this gaslighting; because what have these Illliops done to these guys, other than exist? Teddy didn't even know about MAVO until today and he's only going to MAVO because TWEEG stole his property. It's Tweeg's fault that Teddy is even coming to your organization. LB in a low tone corrects him and Quellor still hears him and proclaims that the very existence of MAVO is threatened. How? Teddy's going to turn you all babyface? How is that possible? Quellor proclaims that no one is standing in his way of his dreams to get the remaining and he'll make anyone suffer if they get into said way. The monsters pop on cue and only Tweeg is wondering where the exit is. Lots of clapping ensues and then after nearly eight minutes of all heels all the time, we head into the sky with the Airship flying awkwardly in the sky. Grubby is on propeller, Teddy is shoveling coal into the stove and Gimmick is reading the map and proclaiming that they are near the edge of Meazly Meadows; but is clueless about what MAVO headquarters looks like. Grubby is not happy about that and we head back to MAVO as GOUL is in the middle of the stone table sitting in a chair that has a rope pully on it. One of the green monster is pulling up GOUL and we get a sequence of her putting the crystal in the slot. Quellor then orders Tweeg to get the rest of the crystals; and basically he needs to do this to prevent Quellor from killing him before he becomes a MAVO member. Okay, then. Quellor threatens the double fist on the stone table and that's enough for LB, Elinore and Tweeg to run out of the war room stage left. So, we head outside as Iggly gives Tweeg the crystal and claims that he misplaced it. Yeah, I'll bet. Iggly then orders them to get lost and get the remaining crystals; or Tweeg will be sorry. Paragraph 7, Subsection 29. Someone seriously needs to compile this and create an actual MAVO rule book; that would be more hilarious than the book of DA RULES (FAIRY GODPARENTS~!).
The heels all shatter stage left and run back to Elinore's house as Elinore orders Tweeg to get the remaining crystals back, and don't blow it this time because it's his last chance. Tweeg and LB run away stage left and then Elinore stops at the door and then tells the heels to wait because she is going to give her crystal back. She also lies about what happened to it, as usual. LB's spring sound when hopping is annoying now as Tweeg and LB run back to the wagon as she orders them not to come back with them and better yet, not come back at all and send LB with them as well. OUCH! LB gives Elinore a well deserved raspberry on that one. LB grabs the wagon with his teeth and we drive away to the corner around the mountains and I swear I have seen this area before in a previous episode. So, the heels stop as Tweeg does the worst math ever and brings out his crystal as this means four crystals are in the heels hands and there are two left. LB laughs in his face because...
--John Cena Mode On--
LB: That is balderdash! Four crystals in our hands, that's insane. It was...five crystals!
-- John Cea Mode Off--
Yip; LB confesses that he had one of them and Tweeg instantly blows him off as a stinking thief and LB can only laugh at him. He knows who the hypocrite is in this setup and we know where he got it from, too. LB was surprising him, you see. Tweeg giggles and proclaims that there is just Teddy Ruxpin left to find. Just his luck; we hear the Airship sound effects which allows Tweeg to turn around and smile with an evil grin to end the episode at 19:10. And that's why LB is his good luck charm right there, because he has no luck on his own. This was a very good episode that at least sets up the MAVO feuds with Teddy and Tweeg nicely; but there is a lot of clunkiness in the animation and Elinore is a heat sink full of heel heat. And GOUL is a demonizing gaslighter; there's no other role she is playing right now. It also helps that the babyface stuff was reduced to two scenes that lasted five minutes tops. **** (80%). The next episode preview is basically Teddy Ruxpin trying to be a dude surfer and is no good at it. Yeah; it's the official debut of the Surf Grunges and once again, Teddy cannot keep a secret as he pretty much shows footage of clips of Elroy's relationship with Elinore. The best part of that entire episode and Teddy basically spoils it. And you wonder why you don't see next episode previews on episodic television?
THE REVIEW LINE
I liked this episode actually; because Teddy's mug was on-screen about as long as Baloo's was in Flight School Confidential. This was the Tweeg show and it was so much better in terms of comedy and tragedy. The whole Elinore/Tweeg relationship is so beyond absurd now that I was laughing and crying at the same time. The story itself was all right and the animation was it's usual clunky self, but it did a decent job in building up the MAVO stuff, although it really made me question the motive of GOUL. This just seems to be nothing more than demonizing Illiops for no reason other than being babyface. It's too simplitistic, even for a children's show, even in the 1980's. Other than that; this was a really good episode and hopefully they will build on this in future episode, just so I can get GOUL's real motive for this gaslighting, because I'm not seeing one; even the "it's for money" doesn't work here. Next up is Teddy and company going surfing on Ben's Beach and Tweeg trying to steal the first crystal. And never let Grubby near Gimmick's toys either. And the real story of Elroy Tweeg that everyone has been waiting for since this episode started. So...
Thumbs up for this episode and I'll see you all next time.