Return to 50 Webs
Disclaimer#1: All images, characters and material is (C) 1990/1991 Walt Disney Company and is being used without permission. The webmaster has made sure that no money was made in the creation of this web page and that all material used here is used with the up most affection and respect to the Walt Disney Company and the Tale Spin Team.
Disclaimer#2: The views expressed here are solely the views of the webmaster and no one else. The webmaster has no intentions to change anyone's minds about a particular subject and respects the views of the viewers. Comments about this and other editorial can be E-Mail at gweagle@eastlink.ca or signing the Cloudkicker guest book.
The Adventures Of Teddy Ruxpin: The Surf Grunges
Reviewed: 09/23/2018
Yes; There Are Two Stereotypical Grunge Groups!
Well; it's time for the time filler and Storybook promoted segment of the show. Okay; the entire arc is based on the storybook series as Teddy and company visit the Surf Grunges because Gimmick's compass is not working. Meanwhile; Tweeg is in pursuit and I would like to say "hot pursuit"; but this is Jack W. Tweeg we are talking about. The W stands for...water...whatever...wussy. Memo to LB: You can have that one for free. How does this episode fare? So; let's rant on shall we...?
We begin this one near a beach as the Airship arrives and now Grubby and Teddy are confused. I'm confused too, because Teddy is still using the map from the first arc even though MAVO is nowhere near the Hard To Find City. This is bad continuity right there as Teddy and Grubby ask Gimmick about it and Gimmick wants to turn north and does it in such a way that Teddy and Grubby almost get whiplashed off the Airship. Now we know why Gimmick never takes over the propeller. The Airship is flying aimlessly and Gimmick is clueless, what a shock? Cut to a road with Tweeg whining at LB for not keeping on track with the Airship as Tweeg's insults are so off, that are not funny. Overstuffed pumpkin might work if Donald Trump was the commander of this heel group, in a projection type way. So, the wagon turns west and heads towards the beach and I know this because there is sand like color on the road now. Jump cut to the Airship as Gimmick thinks they are near a giant mountain; but Grubby and Teddy are basically implying that it's a beach as there are terrible fog effects here. Gimmick has his silly floating compass thing and is generally confused. Teddy wants Gimmick to turn around to take a closer look and Grubby instantly hangs onto the rail, but Gimmick is much more gentle this time when turning around. Gimmick then brings out his telescope and in the process, somehow whacks Grubby in the back of the head and knocks him down. Ooookkkkaaayyyy. Gimmick then uses the telescope to look at the beach and of course he has to call it some scientific name that only scientists would say, and it's suppose to help the kids get into science, but it doesn't work. Teddy basically calls it a beach and offers to stop on the beach so Gimmick can fix his floaty compass. So the Airship begins to land and here comes Tweeg and LB as Tweeg is so happy to see them land. LB is covering up the wagon with leaves as Tweeg does what Tweeg does best: talk a lot and work a nothing...AND THE ROCK SAYS NOTHING! LB even calls Tweeg Twitch; so that's two social media platforms whose names are stolen from this show. No wonder people think social media is bad.
LB also claims that this MAVO stuff is going to his head, which is quite normal for Tweeg, so why are you surprised, LB? Even more so as Tweeg claims that once they get the sixth and final crystal from the babyfaces, MAVO will not only make him a member, they'll make him the surpeme oppressor as we get a really dreamy dream sequence of being at MAVO's war room as the guards are putting a crown on Tweeg's head. As over the top that this was; this motive, as dellusional as it is, actually did happen later on in the series. You cannot say Tweeg doesn't try to go big or go home on this one, that is for sure. Even Elinore will throw money at him and double his allowance. LB retorts that multiples don't matter if the number you are multiplying with is zero. HAHA! LB asks if he has a Krackpotkin plan and Tweeg claims that he does, and then he stammers like a stupid idiot. HAHA! And of course, LB has the plan and Tweeg calls it stupid; and then proclaims that this is his plan. Surprisely; he didn't take credit for it. Yet. LB sarcastically retorts that one for me as we hear music and singing in the background already. Tweeg is annoyed by this as we pan over to the Airship as Gimmick, Teddy and Grubby have landed on the beach. Teddy is sweeping the floors as there is singing in the background and the voice singing it is the same one who is voicing it. And it's clear that they tried to lower the volume of the singing in order to make it sound like it didn't have lyrics, instead of just redoing the music, but not have Phil Baron and company not sing. Very sloppy move there. So, the trio looks at the far side of the beach and we finally get the Surf Grunges debuting on the beach as the singing gets louder as the Grunges are dancing. Apparently; handball is a popular spot in Grundo, despite we never actually get to see it in action. And handball is not beach volleyball either. Lots of walking, playing banjo and dancing ensues and the music guys stopped caring about logic a long time ago. Still better than the Illiop Party, sadly. Someone's laughing too much, another is on portable bongos.
Jethro brings in a surfboard and in his first appearance, he trips and falls flat on his belly causing the female Grunges to laugh at his expense. I expect MRA's to go to their computers and be outraged like toxic macho man any minute now. I'm more upset about how badly the concussion spot was animated as they dubbed in chirping birds, despite there being no sign that Jethro was even concussed. And of course; three seconds later, he's already up and dancing. So, that was a clear no sell. Jethro also has a watch on his wrist for no reason. And then everyone is looking at the sun like total fools and the green haired Grunge puts on her shades and everyone runs to what I thought was the ocean blue; but then they all stop after the dreaded TOING sound is dubbed in and all them tumble onto the ground like little kids. Because you see, they were trying to leave; but the Airshop blocked their way. Gimmick explains the Airship to them and you have never heard more surfer lingo that was dated even in 1987 in thirty seconds in your life. And of course; these surf Grunges have no desire to read the room; or the Airship in this case as they jump into the Airship, just like that. Teddy introduces everyone as the Surf Grunges are already teasing touching the propeller, but no dice. Gimmick claims that Teddy and Grubby helped in the final design and Grubby is giggling under his breath, implying that Gimmick is lying by omission, since Leota was the main reason for the new design. So, the blond haired Grunge is Judy , the green haired Grunge is Jenny (later named Jenna Lee) and then, we get the worst continuity error ever: Okay; the red haired Grunge is supposed to be Jethro in the main storyline. However; the guy who introduces himself as Jethro is not the red haired dude. So, the brown haired Grunge is the one who was called Jethro in this episode; but every other episode, the red haired dude is Jethro. How can anyone make this obvious of a mistake? Worse; we don't get names for the three remaining Grunges either. WHAT?! The writers completely screwed up the intros for one of the big groups of this series.
Apparently; Not Jethro hops off because it's time for some water surfboarding. Everyone else follows and I have no idea what the real Jethro even said, because he literally mumbled here. I would mumble in agony due to the vast amount of mess ups just in this scene alone. Speaking of messing up; Gimmick continues to be absolutely clueless about his compass because it keeps showing that every direction is south, just like this episode is going on now. And to think; Gimmick's clueless is suppose to happen in storyline. Teddy states that Gimmick needs the tools to fix up; so let's just go without the compass. He still has the first arc map and notices that they are on a beach called Ben's Beach. So, Teddy points in a general direction, but getting lost is still a risk as Not Jethro is calling Teddy a baby, clearly confusing him with Tweeg. They want the trio to stay and do some surfing and Teddy insists on leaving, but the power of dooding peer pressure wins out and it gives more time for Gimmick to fix the compass anyway; which I doubt would work. Teddy finally relents and we HIT THE MONTAGE~ and get Surfing Grundo for real, man! Basically; it's a lot of surfing and a lot of epic fails from Teddy and Gimmick. Even meditation and hand holding cannot save Gimmick for the wipeout payoff. Of course, the Grunges have the surfing expertise, so they don't wipeout at all and can play music and sing at the same time. Grubby is the smartest non-surfer in the area as he just looks on. This song is one of the better songs in the series because the singers sound more professional than Phil Baron is. Grubby finds a surfboard and gets on it; and despite the surfboard being on sand and he can easily get on it; his balance is no good. Teddy and Gimmick are doing the Kit/Baloo spot where Teddy is on Gimmick's shoulders, even though Teddy is bigger than Gimmick. This causes a wipeout as Grubby admits that he doesn't want to come in; because as we would find out later in the Ying Zoo arc, he hates being wet. Heck; there was an entire song made out of this. Grubby is still having issues with his balance and he falls down, which causes the Surf Grunges to wipe out in stereo! HA!
The Grunges couldn't care less though as we jump cut to the beach with Gimmick literally getting buried by Jenna Lee and Teddy relaxing. It's always the scientist and/or the most over character getting buried by the writers. Grubby is still stumbling and fumbling so much that he falls onto his undercarriage and then gets a Krackpotkin plan as he bails. Not Jethro and Teddy are exchanging pleasure thoughts about this surfing break and somehow has redressed himself back into his original clothes, for no reason. Grubby returns with the Portable Reducing Machine and Teddy instantly panics because Grubby has zero expertise in knowing how to use it; but Teddy's yelling at Grubby causes Grubby to be distracted as he pushes the green button and we get the most awkward looking attempt at missing the surfboard ever and the beam hits the waves and Not Jethro is about to get his wet dream in the worst way possible. I also love the Chargeman Ken motif of Jenna Lee's surfboard being transparent on the far shot and then white on the close up when the beam hits the wave. Teddy is panicking like crazy...and the Grunges are loving life and do not care about this at all. They do not care about people drowning here and they still scatter and run in a disorganized fashion as the wave swamps practically everything that moves in the money shot...ummm...shot of the episode and that ends the segment ten minutes in with a floating object in the middle of the sea as we fade to black. That was totally random. This has been fine so far; but the continuity is so messed up here, that it taints the entire series in general. I mean; give every surfer a name and stick with it, writers! It's not that hard!
After the commercial break; we head back as Gimmick is throwing out water with a bucket on the Airship as the entire place is swamped with seaweed and a battered, but alive bodies of people. Judy somehow is on top of a rock as there are three barrels stuck in the water and sand. Grubby is wiped out as Jenna Lee is stuck in a tree loving that wave, because she has no sense of self-preservation. Jethro and Not Jethro are helping her down; along with another Grunge using the most unsecure purple blanket they could find and the strings of the blue short Grunge look like they are near the belly button. Tuck them in your pants, dood! Jenna Lee jumps down and everyone has a meeting of the minds, and it wasn't at the ice cream shop. Gimmick and Teddy apologizes for Grubby's stupidity, even though Teddy was the one who distracted Grubby in the first place. None of the Grunges care about it and enjoy themselves, so Judy teleports over and enjoys the seaweed for a long while. Apparently; Grubby also made the fish and the salt bigger because there are crystal like salt crystals on the beach. Not Jethro is impressed as Jenna Lee; is in fact Ginnie now. Like I said earlier, pick a name for all the surfers and stick to it! Ginnie flips her bongo drums and pours the water onto the blond haired male Grunge as she claims that she's a rookie and only one guy could ride that wave. Once again; none of the continuity makes sense as Jethro is climbing off a rock despite not being there and it's not even the same rock Judy was on. And he was running in the wrong direction too as Not Jethro is balancing on his surfboard as he proclaims that it's some surfer named Elroy. Ginnie Lee proclaims that Elroy was a great surfer; but his wife was horrible. Uh-oh! If you cannot guess who Elroy is, you have no business reading this rant. So we HIT THE FLASHBACK~ as Ginnie Lee is on bongos replaying Elroy's life in full, as he was the best surfer in all of Grundo. When he starts surfing clouds, then I will be truly impressed.
However; he then decided to marry Elinore and Elinore made his life a living nightmare and destroyed his surfing career basically. This was too much for Elroy and he jettisoned his wife and we never seen again...until Father's Day of course. He apparently rode off to sea in the biggest wave in history. This was really badly staged and it looked awfully lame; however, this actually changes my stance on the thing. Elroy left Elinore because the relationship was way too toxic; which is the right thing to do in this situation actually. And it's not like Elinore gives a darn about Elroy anymore, other than to insult him, to further her toxicity. The only thing that I don't like about this is Elroy not taking Tweeg with him; and I don't really know why Tweeg would ever side with his mother, other than Elinore being too much of an influence towards his son. So, we exchange more notes and once Elinore and Elroy Tweeg is brought up, Teddy and Gimmick are surprised and Grubby is so appalled that he chokes on the chicken leg he was eating, for no reason. The artwork is completely off-model here, even more so than usual. The Surf Grunges also bring up Jack W. Tweeg as well as Ginnie Lee proclaims that she saw Tweeg yelling at LB when she was stuck up a tree, despite the tree being only about ten feet in height. That's some eyesight Ginnie has as Not Jethro is running away stage left to ride some waves. So the babyfaces all exchange notes on the situation as Grubby and Gimmick want to get the heck out of there. Sadly; they cannot get away from the usual awful shot continuity as one of the crystals drops with the salt crystals and Teddy Ruxpin wants them to stay because he has a Krackpotkin Plan, only they have to wait for nightfall. So, we fade to black and return to the beach AFTER HAPPY HOUR (after dark) as the Airship has lost it's air and we have all the babyfaces sleeping on the sand in sleeping bag near a campfire. So, Tweeg and LB mess up the practice the fine art of not being seen complete with cuckoo clock sounds and horn goring by LB. LB calls him Tweezle for fun as Tweeg is going into sleeping bags. Not Jethro has a Teddy Illiop with no eyeballs. Huh.
Tweeg notices Gimmick's sleeping bag and goes over and tries to empty Gimmick's pockets and nearly falls on his rear in the process. Gimmick of course doesn't have them; and Tweeg probably did this as sort of some revenge fantasy he has with Gimmick. Or something. LB taunts Tweeg about that no room for error stuff as Tweeg is still frisking Gimmick and LB looks around Grubby and Teddy; and then the crystal sparkles and makes noise. This causes the second TOING sound of the episode as Tweeg is checking around the PRM as LB calls him Twist and Tweeg blows him off of course. LB grabs the crystal and it makes harp sounds. At least this show doesn't have the dreaded whip sound every three seconds, or else we know where Johnny Test stole his material from. Tweeg of course is talking nonsense and then turns around and recoils complete with TOING sound because LB has the final crystal in his mouth. Tweeg grabs the crystal and is so happy to steal it; even though it tastes rather salty; which is Tweeg's emotional gimmick by the way. That alone should have tipped everyone off that the crystal was fake. Tweeg and LB run off stage right and after about fifteen seconds of nothing; Teddy and company wake up admitting that they duped him. Teddy shakes all of Grubby's hands and I quit trying to see if the writers can keep this straight because they don't care either. Feet and hands are interchangable with Grubby, except for the two front arms of course. Gimmick is teasing putting more wood in the fireplace as we discover that the crystal was hidden inside Judy's guitar. So, everyone is picking up the stuff on the beach as Teddy wants to get more salt crystals for his next Krackpotkin plan; but Gimmick proclaims that he hasn't fixed his compass yet; so Not Jethro states that Gimmick can use nature to help him find the way. Teddy nicely blows these two off because Tweeg is going to MAVO; so they just follow him. If you want Occam's Razor; just ask Teddy. So, Teddy wants to leave and the trio goes into the Airship and of course, Teddy's feet...still no clue how to keep that straight...but that's par for the course in this show.
So the Airship's balloon is filled up and it rises into the sky as the Surf Grunges all wave goodbye. My heart sank when I discovered that these Surf Grunges cannot read; so they have the same problem as Pit from Kid Icarus. And then when the trio says goodbye, they mention Jethro, Jenna Lee, Judy and Jody. Again; I cannot make out the names and now, I'm even more confused than ever. I hope the reboot does a better job of this because this is a prime example of why critics do not like 1980's cartoons. I mean; you introduce new characters and you cannot even get the names right?! I can accept them having 1D personalities; but not getting the names right is something most DTVA shows do not do at all. Well; Mind Your Cheese's & Q's is a lonely exception though; but most people thought Rescue Rangers was a mess. And no; I'm not talking about Lassie's either. So after the messy goodbyes, in more ways than one, we head in the sky with Grubby on the propeller now as the Airship follows Tweeg towards MAVO as Grubby wants to know why they are bothering to follow them and it is said exactly after Gimmick calls this mission dangerous. Teddy retorts that those other five crystals could have wonderful properties and honestly, Teddy doesn't know why MAVO wants them, so it's best to get them back before MAVO can use them for whatever they have planned. Considering that I have no idea why it's a bad thing to have an Illiop with the crystals in the first place, I really don't know what MAVO's motive really is. Okay; I actually do because I watched the entire show, but I'm talking about this from a first time viewer of the show. I have no earthly idea why it's bad for Illiops to have these crystals. So we end the episode at 19:11. I don't know which team was animating this; but it was a mess on par with On The Beaches, and the Surf Grunges introduction was also a big mess as well. They got from point X to point Y all right; but what a mess of logic breaks and bad animation it left in between points. ** (40%). And in the preview; it's clear that another animation team is doing the animation because their artwork is radically different from the previous episode. Check out the Portable Reducing Machine for instance. It looks nothing like the one shown in the previous episode! Oh, this is going to be painful to watch, I just know it.
THE REVIEW LINE
Well; the setup to the climax of this arc is okay as this was clearly a time filler and it was used to promote another story in the Storybook series. I'm sure that with proper direction and people with a clue, these Storybook stories would translate well to television; but this is not the team to do it. The animation was poor, the shot continuity was poor, the writers couldn't keep the Grunges' names straight and in storyline, this series has two characters named Jethro and the red-haired one was the one who was supposed to be Jethro. This is so Z-grade it's not even funny. Teddy's plan was the best thing in this episode, along with Grubby swamping the place with the PRM; but it was messed up by animation errors abound. Even the Surfing Grundo montage was messed up; despite being all right. There was also mumbling in places, straight out of Urban Wrestling Federation, although it was only one scene, thank goodness. Overall; this was a fine episode that got swamped by logic breaks and bad animation. So, last up in this arc is Tweeg becomes a MAVO member and the trio somehow get the crystals back. And I do not like the fact that the artwork continuity is going to be shot six way from Sunday as well as seen in the preview. So...
Thumbs down for this episode and I'll see you all next time.