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The Adventures Of Teddy Ruxpin: The Mushroom Forest
Reviewed: 01/05/2019
The Nothings Become Anything They Already Were.
Well; it's time to finally bring the beginning of the end of the Teddy Ruxpin: Storybook series and dive into the real meat of this show. However; this is a serial show and it requires a slow build towards the Death of Innocence, so we begin with basically the aftermath of Quellor and Teddy officially meeting each other. MAVO is slowly becoming embolden to violence and hatred towards Teddy and anyone who supports him while Teddy and company are acting as if nothing had happened as they are in the desert doing nothing of note until it gets too hot and they go to the Mushroom Forest to cool off and meet some new friends who look like Popples knockoffs. Yeah. How does this episode fare? So; let's rant on shall we...?
Episode opens in the Great Desert with the Airship turned into a house. Pan west to see Newton Gimmick crawling on his hands and knees with a maginfying lens for no real reason I can think of; while Teddy and Grubby are trying to cool off, struggling. I realize The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time wasn't released until a decade later, but the Gerudo Valley theme from that game would have been perfect for this scene. Then I realize that the music in the background is an excuse to break the record for the TEDDY RUXPIN SONG OF DOOM literally ten seconds in. Teddy claims it's so hot...well; it's the desert, DUH~! Basically; it's the type of heat that makes you lazy and you want to stay in bed. Also; pour water on your head and think there is an omelette. So, this song was basically there to pad the running time, because why is Gimmick so interested in research here? Shouldn't he be researching on why MAVO wants the crystals, or even why MAVO hates illiops? Not only would this be useful due to the fact that MAVO is clearly going to go after Teddy Ruxpin now, it would make the story of this show much more compelling than the usual good vs. evil, even if it ends up that way. So, the song ends after some jump cut of artwork and no animation, the song warps at the end; and Grubby complains about going to the desert in the summertime. Gimmick's response: The rock formations are awesome. What a troll Gimmick is?! Grubby gleefully retorts that one for me as Teddy suggests going to the Mushroom Forest because it's near the desert, it's cold, it's damp and it's dark all year round. Gimmick jumps down from the rock formation and claims that he has an idea: Let's go to the Mushroom Forest. Wow; we just start the prototype for Darkwing Duck's gimmick four years later. Grubby is leafing himself and asks why they didn't come up with it in a sarcastic tone, as Teddy giggles. Everyone gets into the Airship and then we head to the war room of MAVO Headquarters as Quellor and Mrs. Gaslighter known as the Great Understander of Legends (GUOL) exchanging notes.
I love that she claims that she knew all along the crystals were fake; which is a lie as seen in the previous episode. Not to mention that they made no effort to take the other crystals down during this scene. I guess it's because of the lazy artwork; but still, bad logic break. Iggly is guarding the door as Quellor is angry that "The Illiop, Ruxpin" (get used to this; he'll be saying it so many times, it becomes an idiom.) has the real ones. There is basically nothing of note that was said that wasn't said before; except this scene contains two major appearances: (1) The Gutang Leader, who wears a medal and a bad mohawk helmet and (2) the official debut of the Troll Nephews, just like that. No formal introductions, nothing. They appear OUT OF NOWHERE and are supposed to be the #2, #3 and #4 heels of MAVO from this point forward. Stupid! The Gutang Leader is awesome here as they offer their services for a small fee and Quellor asks him "Don't you do it for evil sakes?" (paraphrasing here) and the leader responses: "Yes, but it costs extra!" HAHA! See; the Gutangs do have a sense of humor. And yes; he is called the Gutang Ambassador as Quellor agrees to the terms, because the Gutangs have slightly more scruples than John Bolton. I just realize in a non-verbal cue that the Troll Nephews were bodyguards of the GA because the instant this is announced, they run off and celebrate like they just won the Wrestlemania main event. This might also explain why we never saw these three losers until now. Quellor than orders Iggly to fetch for the jailbird known as Jack W. Tweeg; the one responsible for this mess. Iggly goes into the dungeon circle area complete with spiral staircase. Get used to this; you'll be seeing it a lot more as time goes on. There is a stylized purple rat running around as Iggly enters and goes down the stair. We pan west to a prison cell with a shadow of Tweeg wearing striples, almost literally from head to toe. Tweeg grabs the bars and starts protesting this outrage. LB is somewhat happy about this as Tweeg and LB are wearing ankle chains. Iggly opens the door and marches them upstairs, while telling them not to talk in the corridors.
Literally one second later; Tweeg is already yelling at Iggly and swearing revenge. He cannot get Iggly's name right and proclaims that once the truth comes out, Quellor will make him assistant Surpeme Oppressor as Iggly asks LB: "How do you put up with this guy?!" LB: "It ain't easy, let me tell ya." So we head to the war room as Quellor asks Tweeg how he is doing in prison and Tweeg protests that the insects are as big as bounders. LB is gravely offended by this comparison and Quellor isn't all that thrilled either. Tweeg claims that there was a terrible mistake and Quellor puts on the Gruffi pose full blast; causing Tweeg to stammer like a stupid idiot. Tweeg then completely blames LB for this whole mess. Granted; LB did steal the crystal bag many episodes ago; but it was at Tweeg's request, so Tweeg cannot get out of this one. Quellor rightfully blows Tweeg off for this and orders Iggly to return them to the dungeon, because the prisoners are going to do some hard labour. Iggly uses his axe pole to threaten Tweeg and both Tweeg and LB and led away stage left. Scene changer ensues as we head to the Mushroom Forest, which has a lot of mushrooms, DUH~! So, the airship lands and the steps are thrown down. All the babyfaces leave the airship and Grubby feels better already. Apparently; a rock with a face is written in by teleport and Gimmick trips over the rock; and falls, losing his glasses in the process. Suddenly, the rock with a face turns into a plant with a face complete with popping sound. Holy shapeshifting, Teddy Ruxpin! Gimmick is confused and wondering why the thing is now a plant instead of a rock. Grubby thinks it's just a bush; which in this case, he's half right. Well; the heat getting to Gimmick is correct at least. Grubby then sees a pink mushroom and tries to sit on it; but this mushroom has eyes and yelps in pain; then runs stage right and hides behind the bush of doom. Huh. Gimmick --scientist stable genius (hey; I would believe Gimmick is a stable genius compared to Donald Trump; for instance) -- thinks this is all impossible. Grubby asks: "So why is it possible now?" (paraphrasing here).
Gimmick has the Gruffi pose on and stammers like a stupid idiot. It's less funny than when Tweeg does it as Grubby is angry about this and demands Gimmick to think about it while he gets his "chair" back. Scene change to the Hard To Find City as the concrete runaway is full of Gutangs in their flying machines. Zoom into the opening window with the GA, and the Troll Nephews looking on. The GA gives out the orders to the Gutangs and the Gutangs obey and enter their flying machines. Only 75% of them take off into the air at first, which is 12 flying machines. They split into three groups of four and fly away in various directions. Scene change back to the mushroom and the bush cowering in fear of the mean babyfaces...Okay; just Grubby was being mean here. Gimmick and Teddy try to assure them that no harm will be done; I think it's too late. Mushrooms are fragile things; especially mushrooms who can shapeshift. Grubby apologizes for sitting on the mushroom as the bush and the mushroom proclaims that they are a nothing. Gimmick blows it off. Hey Gimmick; if his name is called Nothing, then his name is Nothing! You are called Newton Gimmick and Gimmick is a noun. By the way; as you saw with the bush, they can shapeshift; so either they are not called Nothings, or the nothing name is supposed to be ironic. The mushroom blows him off awkwardly and then bounces off as Grubby thinks the Nothing thing is a spieces, so he calls him Mr. Nothing, and the mushroom says "This". So, it's Mr. This Nothing. Teddy -- Grammar Teacher -- thinks that Mr. Nothing is referencing his name and not that his first name is "This". Then the bush and mushroom pop and turn into what appears to be this show's version of the Popples, only they can shapeshift instead of turning into furry little balls. I once had a Popple when I was a kid; don't anymore. Goodness knows why. The pink one is called "This" for real; as he explains that "Nothing" means they have no shape of their own and can turn into anything non-unique. Problem: They do have a unique form -- which they have transformed --. So, yes; the Nothing name is in fact ironic.
The Nothings are also shy as This is stumbling and fumbling on it's words as the brown Nothing runs into the bushes. Grubby goes after them as Gimmick is summarizing the Nothings as Grubby wonders where the brown one went and apparently; the brown one was a pink mushroom. Something tells me the color stylist messed up here since I think the mushroom was supposed to be the same color scheme as the brown Nothing, since the change went to the brown Nothing kissing Grubby in the face. The brown Nothing runs off and as Gimmick and Teddy watch on, there is a sunflower with a face written in by teleport. The flower with a face uses the petals to tickle Gimmick; Gimmick's selling was not good as the flower bounces towards the other Nothings. Teddy is amused as he shakes hands with This. He also has the usual greeting he has been using since Sign Of A Friend. The brown one proclaims that his name is That and the flower who transforms into the cyan blue rabbit like Nothing is The Other. I'll just call him Other, basically the same name. Grubby is confused and the Nothings all giggle. So, This -- still not 100% sure of himself -- wants to play a game and the babyfaces all like this. The Nothings are hopping with suction cup popping sounds; which means this is clearly a Popples parody. The Nothings game is the most obvious one they do, which is Hide & Seek. And this seems totally unfair; given the expertise the Nothings have in hiding. So, we scene change back to the Mushroom Forest as we get the second TEDDY RUXPIN SONG OF DOOM which is basically the babyfaces all playing hide and seek. Grubby loses the coin toss; so he must play the role of finder in this case. By the way; it wasn't a coin toss, basically the last person who says "I'm not it" is "it". Everyone bails as the foreground seems to be there to hide Teddy's feet in case the color stylists gets Teddy's feet wrong again. Grubby is counting and hiding his eyes on a giant mushroom. Grubby of course; does some peeking and Teddy of course gets up from his hiding spot and sing blows him off for peeking. HAHA!
I think Grubby was supposed to count in the wrong; sequence but the song completely overwhelmed the counting audio during this sequence, so I couldn't tell. The Nothings turn into various plants and stones as Grubby turns around and it's time for the game to officially begin. Grubby cannot find anyone (seriously; he couldn't tell the mushroom, rock and flowers with eyes on them) and the song ends with everyone coming in from their hiding spots with the Nothings popping back to their unique forms. Grubby asks what is is game called and the crowd shouts back what the game is and Grubby realizes that he messed up. Whatever, as that ends the segment nearly 11 minutes in. I'm betting that they could get in the first two chapters of the 1987 version of this show in the new modern Teddy Ruxpin within one episode and still have five minutes leftover (keep in mind that these episodes are less than 20 minutes long without commercial breaks/OP/ED) to do the tease to Captured. This was all right thus far.
After the commercial break; we have four of the Gutang flying machines flying over Gimmick Valley as one of the Gutangs gives the thumbs down motion and they go down and land off-screen in Gimmick Valley. Scene change to the Gutangs at the door as one of them kicks down the door. They enter and start to do the most muted ransacking of a place you ever see. One the Gutangs looks like he's messaging the items on top of the fire places. Books fall down, the music is warped, wanton destruction ensues as one of the Gutangs dumps a basket containing a test tube with a cork and a scroll inside, with dividers, a light bulb and a maginfying glass. The last two items didn't shatter for some reason. The Gutang opens the test tube, brings out the scroll and throws the test tube away. I think that shattered off-screen, and if so, there was no cat screaming. I wonder where Fuzz went? Never mind; the Gutang reads the scroll and the others approach him because we discover that it's the blueprints for Gimmick's Airship. We fade to black as this was the Non-American commercial break; literally a minute after the previous commercial break. So we return to the Mushroom Forest for more seek and go hide with Grubby still not doing well in this game. Grubby is having so much fun, that he asks the Nothing to turn themselves into food. YOU TROLL~! Teddy blows him off for that, and Grubby claims that he was joking. Not funny, Grubby. So, we continue to exchange notes for a while as Teddy proclaims that they shouldn't be called Nothings anymore. I agree; that is demonizing them as less than Anything. So Teddy decides to call them Anythings since they can transform into Anything. Just don't make them fight in a Falls Count Anywhere Match with Vince Russo booking. So, this of course leads to another TEDDY RUXPIN SONG OF DOOM, which is called "You're not a Nothing; you are an Anything". That's a redundant name for a song. That and Grubby do the stiffest and most rapid Russian dance spot of all time. Not as funny as Launchpad's version of it. This is also the first time the Anythings were not awkward in anyway, so the power of song, everyone.
The Anythings do the ring dance, they feel awesome, they cheer. The song is fun; but nothing really special. Scene change to the sky with the second group of Gutang flying machines as one of the Gutangs claims that one of their spies has information on Teddy and company being at Leota's school house. You know; this would have made a lot more sense, if the Jester Gutang was in fact in those scenes hiding in the shadows when Teddy was at the school house; as a perfect build towards the Nogburt angle. Again; this is the price you pay for a episodic culture who believes kids are dumb. Considering the smarts of the current president of the USA; I never want to hear that kids are dumb ever again. Never ever again. And comparing Donald Trump to a child in order to prevent demonizing him as less than human is also dumb. We don't need to demonize Trump as a monster; just let Trump talk. Easy. Sadly; the Gutangs have a problem because out of nowhere comes the Wooly Whatsit who spots them instantly. So; the Gutangs fly to Leota's tree. Wooly wants to inform the trio and bails. Wait; they are heading to Leota's tree. So; why not tell Leota about this first; since she's the closest and in the most danger right now. I realize Wooly is dumb a lot of the time; but this is not the time to be struck dumb. Speaking of funny; we head to Leota's tree as Leota is teaching the students about the Hard To Find City. Two flying machines land and interupt the proceeding as Leota is angry and demands answers to this outrage as the students are huddled behind her. The Gutangs demand to know where Teddy is and Leota no sells because she doesn't know and she wouldn't tell them anyway. The Gutangs turns around and leave without incident. Ceamore comes out asking why the Gutangs are mean. Not dangerous and violent, just mean. There are a lot of mean people in this world; who have far more ethics and are less dangerous and violent than the Gutangs. Apparently; most of the meanies in this world are the Gutangs according Leota.
Leota is implying that only a handful of monsters and villains are mean and evil. That makes no sense to me; unless you are creating the angle that MAVO is not an evil organization after all. Personally; I would persue this further and slowly turn Quellor babyface; but that doesn't happen. Speaking of MAVO; we return to the dungeon as Tweeg and LB are scrubbing the dungeon floor and complaining. Well; Tweeg is at least, because he's a big whiny heel who fails at life. LB probably would if the scrub brush wasn't in his mouth. Iggly blows him off as in comes the GA with two Gutangs. GA has the test tube with the blueprints. Wait; didn't the test tube shatter off-screen when the Gutangs found the blueprints. Iggly turns around and protests this outrage as the Gutangs demands to see Quellor and Iggly no sells because he's in a bad mood; which Tweeg loves anyway. Then Iggly turns around and demands Tweeg to get back to work. HAHA! Iggly allows the Gutangs to go inside as everyone marches in. Tweeg celebrates like he won the Wrestlemania main event and then concusses LB with the SHANE DOUGLAS MOP OF DOOM for good measure, claiming that the horn is shaped like a dunce cap. Projection, thy name is Jack W. Tweeg. Tweeg wonders what they stole from Gimmick's house and LB thinks it's something good; since they stole all the worthless stuff. Word. So we scene change to the throne room as Quellor is sitting down on it with Iggly presenting the three Gutangs. GA presents the blueprints; but they come at a price; which Quellor walks down from his throne to protest because he hasn't got the Illiop yet. GA claims that the blueprints are worth four million pieces of copper. Oh; now I see why MAVO wanted to turn on the Gutangs at the end of this segment now. Quellor is protesting this outrage as GA decides to keep the plans to build the Airship #2 himself; so Quellor decides to relent and pay the four million pieces of copper as he informs Iggly to pay the Gutangs and get them out of his sight. Iggly complies as he takes the test tube and throws it to Quellor.
Quellor catches it and reads the blue prints as he is pleased, as he vows to destroy Teddy Ruxpin and like the unscruplous heel that he is, destroy the Gutangs with it. I don't think this angle went anywhere in the series. We fade to black and return to the Mushroom Forest as we conclude the Anything games and Gimmick proclaims that it's time to go. The Anythings huddle together and then This proclaims that the trio are now considered Anythings; because they can be anything they want to be. Okay, then. Gimmick talks about imagination as Grubby get the child corrupting balloon of doom showing himself as an Octopede Mushroom, which amuses me for some reason. They learned to be brave and friends as we head to the Airship with the TEDDY RUXPIN SONG OF DOOM playing for the fourth time; which is the We're Not A Nothing, We Are An Anything song again. The trio gets into the Airship; everyone waves goodbye as the Airship rises, the song is done to end the episode at 19:12. Now; you would think that this Storybook series stuff would mean the Anything would be done after the next episode. WRONG! This is merely the beginning. I like this episode more than the Crystal Book; because despite being going through the motions, at least the angles are building up this time for the story arc rather than being built for a later arc. And now; the beginning of the effects of the gaslighting have begun for MAVO; and it's going to get even more gruesome later. *** (60%).
THE REVIEW LINE
Well; this episode was perfectly accepting serial cartooning for the most part. While it wasn't all that special; the animation was all right for the most part, there were some really funny moments and the story made sense for the most part. I would have liked it more; if the whole spy thing with the Gutangs was built and paid off more; but I don't exactly blame the writers of this episode for previous arcs. Overall; this was a perfectly fine episode to start up the slow build; although if this were done today (and keep in mind, there is a Teddy Ruxpin reboot being planned for real), this episode and Anything In The Soup would be combined into one episode, sped up enough so that the last few minutes is Gimmick's Airship VS. MAVO's Airship. And personally, I wouldn't blame them for doing so. As I mentioned before; the slower pace of the 1980's works for me as a ranter, but kids want a much faster pace than this today, even if it's too much stuff going on and I cannot keep up. Next up is Anything In The Soup; which contains the "You Must Speak Up!". Yeah; that is trouble. So...
Thumbs in the middle for this episode and I'll see you all next time.