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The Adventures Of Teddy Ruxpin: Escape From MAVO
Reviewed: 02/10/2019
Death By Popcorn~!
Well; now we finally finish up the Death of Innocence arc with Teddy, Leota, Wooly, the Anythings, Arin and Aruzia rescuing Grubby and Gimmick from MAVO; as MAVO's overzealousness is about to be their downfall. How does this episode fare? So; let's rant on shall we...?
Episode opens with a shot of a lake with a rock island in the middle as the camera pans southeast and then east to the campsite as Wooly and Leota are standing around, noticing Teddy in his sleeping bag still sleeping. Leota is amazed that Teddy is alive as Wooly consoles Teddy as Teddy slowly wakes up and gets rid of his double vision. Teddy is relieved; but he claims he had a strange dream involving some Illiop taking care of him; as Wooly notices that someone was here as there are out of nowhere footprints. Although; they all came from the direction Wooly took; so I doubt this. Leota thinks it might be the Hermit of Leeke Lake; which I love as a name for a lake by the way. Wooly is slobbering and confused as Leota claims that the Hermit is a legend, who has his own TEDDY RUXPIN SONG OF DOOM. Apparently; no one has any idea who this Hermit is. He could be a fish, a monster, or a Fob or a sneaky MAVO spy. Leota claims that no one has met him face to face. Well; that's a lie because Teddy just met him sort of face to face and soon will meet him face to face in the next arc. Teddy and Wooly are doing poses which look awkward as the footprints head to the stream. More searching; but nothing is found as Wooly claims that the Hermit is scary. Well; his backstory is scary and kind of tragic, but that's another time. Letoa assures him that it's just a legend; which Teddy points out that legends usually have a nugget of truth to them. Leota admits that legends are used to explain stuff they cannot understand. This would be the point if Kit was in the same area that he would have blown off this pointlessness and come up with the plan to rescue Grubby and Gimmick; but he's not in this show, so Teddy has to do it. Wooly grabs the sack of cotton candy as Teddy is wonder why he has it and Wooly acts as if he knows Leota's plan, despite Leota not telling him the plan in the previous episode. Leota, Teddy and Wooly walk away stage right as in the foreground, the Hermit appears in the bushes. Scene changer of doom as the Airship arrives at MAVO headquarters in plain sight. The Anythings (all six of them) jump out as Aruzia's plan is to let the Anythings do whatever it takes to rescue Grubby and Gimmick in one hour. The Anythings agree and run to the door as Arin calls them brave. I would call them smart; because they can shapeshift and these heels are too dumb to notice.
So, three Anythings do the Anything Chain Ladder spot to pull the doorbell chime. Then they jump down and all of them turn into milk bottles. The door then opens and out comes Iggly to grab the milk bottles. Yes; even villains have to like milk; so no wonder kids hate milk. They watch the show and hated milk because the heels love milk. Scene change to the kitchen of MAVO as Iggly puts the milk bottles on the table. Iggly leaves and the Anythings transform back into Popples and then run to the cleaning cart and then transform into cleaning products. Back in is Iggly yelling for Tweeg and LB to get in here. LB's singing sucks; but that is clearly intentional because it serves the purpose of annoying Tweeg to no end. Tweeg cannot stand the fact that he's wimpy and green, which are his best traits mind you. Tweeg claims that there should be a rule against singing; but Iggly doesn't blame LB one bit and orders Tweeg and LB to get moving right now. Iggly is also dumb as he has yet to notice the milk bottles are all gone. Tweeg grabs the cart and does his whiny catchphrase; which everyone should have figured out by now. Scene change to a dark hallway as LB is still torture singing Tweeg good while the two goofballs are scrubbing the floors. Zoom in towards the cleaning cart and the Anythings are just amused by this. That was great! Then the Anythings notice GOUL has arrived. GOUL; who has not appeared once since the first episode of this arc; now shows up for no good reason, just so the Anythings could transforms into book for GOUL to take. GOUL walks away as LB's song is so great now. GOUL arrives at Quellor's throne room and puts the books on a bench. Quellor is sitting at the throne as GOUL asks why Quellor wants to see her. Quellor then tells the Troll Nephews; who only Sludge has been formally introduced; to leave. Drudge and Trudge are right there and they speak for the first time in this series! They just appear without any introductions nor reasons why they are there. This show was rushed even more than TaleSpin was! The Anythings then transform from books to Popples to paddle balls. Why?! Why not?! The Troll Nephews take the paddles and then we get the more whiplashing terrible continuity in the entire show: Suddenly; we scene change back to the dungeon with Gimmick and Grubby as a green old troll is carrying a cart containing the Anythings as plants. WHAT THE-----?! This makes no sense at all.
So, we make G-rated prison jokes for a while as the troll proclaims that the plants are from their mothers as the Anything plants are placed inside. The cell door is then locked as even Grubby and Gimmick are calling shennigans on this one. And it is as the Anythings transforms into their normal selves. They claim to have a plan and they want to inspect Gimmick and Grubby and this confuses the double G's. If you cannot guess the next transformation the Anythings do here; you have no business reading this rant. Meanwhile; we head back outside of MAVO Headquarters with Wooly, Leota and Teddy hiding behind a rock. Leota proclaims that this is close enough and Wooly asks Teddy to help Wooly with the sack of cotton candy. Teddy is confused; but Wooly is certain that he has got this adventuring down. This is a stealth mission; not an adventure, Wooly. Just so you would like to know. Head inside the cell again as the Anythings mess up the double G's design with Gimmick's head on backwards. So the Anythings transform back to themselves, gets the bugs out and try again; and this time, it's perfect. Despite the voices sounds like the Anythings; they do manage to get the characters mannerisms down pat. Well; they could always chalk it up with them having a cold. They also mourn Teddy's "death" as the Anythings assure Gimmick and Grubby that everything is all right with them, and want the double G's to leave via the back door and meet Arin and Aruzia at the back door on the edge of the Great Plateau. So, the double G's hide behind the wall while the Anything G's run interference on the old green troll; and they do a great job in convincing the troll that the plants are missing and generally confusing him. He opens the cell door and looks in and as this is happening, Grubby and Gimmick slip out without incident. I am so sad because the Anythings are awesome and this is their final episode and we will never see them again. Scene change back to behind the rock outside as Teddy and Leota are amusing by Wooly's new disguise; which is basically a Evil Wooly Whats-it with a devilish tail on the end. I can not take this costume seriously; this disguise is goofy! Wooly cannot believe he is wearing this and Teddy laughs to end the segment nine and a half minutes in. I admit; this is a funny disguise. Outside of one really bad transition of scenes; this has been good so far.
After the commercial break; we have Teddy and Leota hiding behind the rocks at the front door as Wooly is at the double doors and Teddy wants Wooly to knock on those doors good. Now; if I was booking this, he would knock these doors down and squash Iggly in the process as a payoff to doing it to the Wizard in the previous episode. Nope! Iggly comes to the door and answers it without incident! Wooly cannot play a decent monster to save his life; I mean that too. Iggly might be better off as a Fob, considering the hazard pay of MAVO being so low. Wooly wants to join MAVO and Iggly has his clipboard. Rule 97, Subsection 41: Recruitment only happens during MAVO recruitment drives. I thought monsters were supposed to be unreasonable; so Devilish Wooly grabs Iggly by the lapels and threatens to make him a doorknocker if he cannot join MAVO. During this; Teddy and Leota sneak inside without further incident. Iggly gets hung by his robe on the door as Iggly decides to change his mind about the recruitment process. So, Wooly fills out forms for a while as Teddy and Leota go through the hallways and Grubby and Gimmick miss Teddy by about fifteen seconds. So, back to Devlish Wooly and Iggly doing the recruitment form filling as 401-b is MAVO saving bonds. I wonder if they are the same ones Donald Trump uses. Anyhow; Devilish Wooly puts Iggly on his feet and tells Iggly to be quick about talking to Quellor. Iggly walks inside and passes a giant rug containing maybe Iggly's ancestor on a sabretooth cat welding a spear and a shield. I wonder if that cat is the dreaded mysterious Droolbeast?! Anyhow; Grubby and Gimmick are hiding behind the giant rug as Gimmick wants to leave and Grubby agrees with it; only Gimmick talks like a scientist and Grubby is Grubby. So the double G's make it to the front door and open it to notice Devlish Wooly guarding the door. Gimmick recalls the Anythings orders and decides to go find the back door; if they can find it. Jump cut back to the throne room as Quellor slams his fists and blames his underlings for completely messing up this simple job of capturing Teddy, keeping the Airship and gaining the crystals. And Miss Maggotheart is serving him tea during this whole thing. Wait; Quellor is just now blaming his own underlings instead of himself for being stupid?!
Miss Maggotheart has a beloved named Spittle. TMI Maggotheart! TMI! Thankfully; Iggly comes in before Maggotheart could finish. Quellor tells Iggly that Devlish Wooly can join; and he don't care as he punches Maggotheart off his throne chair! Ah; that's why she cannot be the Surpeme Oppressor. Quellor also tells Iggly to prepare the Eclipse to set sail for Gimmick's Airship and the crystals. Iggly is Iggly and this offends Quellor so much that he sounds like he has a headache when he tells Iggly to knock off the cheap flattery. I'm shocked Iggly didn't respond with cheaper flattery there. Scene change to the hanger with the Eclipse is as we see in the foreground, Teddy and Leota hiding behind sacks of stuff. Teddy notices where he hid the crystals and Leota calls the Airship evil. So; Gimmick is evil? I mean; it was his blueprints that got stolen. So, Teddy and Leota hide in the empty sacks as Teddy's feet are now brown, instead of the white soles that have been shown almost throughout this arc. So, Grubby and Gimmick arrive at the area and realize that they took a wrong turn somewhere. They try to retrace their steps; but then notice Iggly, Tweeg and LB coming and they return and hide in their own sacks. I should note that since the ten minute mark of Captured; this is the third time Tweeg and LB have appeared in the last 40 minutes or so, and only the second time has there any real interaction between the two. Basically; Tweeg has to put the sacks on the barge and Tweeg is offended by this because it's like they contain strong cement. LB is amused by this; and then the logic goes wonky as Tweeg just simply drags the bag and it's light as a feather now. Whatever; let's return to the front door of MAVO with more Iggly and Devlish Wooly. Then we get a great bad continuity moment: Wooly has scraps of forms; which fall on the ground. Iggly shows him additional forms as Devlish Wooly claims that he already filled them out even though the papers have disappeared. That amused me. Iggly claims that these are membership forms and the previous ones were application forms. Okay; that makes sense. Devilish Wooly offers to fill them; but wants to see the dungeon first because he ain't joining if there isn't a good dungeon, which implies that Wooly expects to be thrown into one at this rate. Iggly agrees to show him the dungeon.
So, we head to the dungeon as Iggly does the hard sell on the dungeon and asks for Devilish Wooly to fill out the forms. Devilish Wooly wants to look around as Iggly claims that the place is boring and it's time to fill out forms! Devlish Wooly growls, slobbers and provokes eye contact violence on Iggly and Iggly backs off and bails, promising to come back in a few minutes. Then we get a sequence that is both amazing and stupid at the same time: Wooly is breaking down dungeon cells (which all of them are wooden doors with bars on them; instead of metal barred doors and he finds the various cameoed monsters and villains from Captured in prison! So, this was the punishment Quellor was talking about earlier! Wooly also helps the green pirate troll to cheat at cards. See; Wooly can be a heel, even if it's a subtle one. So, then he goes to the next wing which contains barred steel doors as they are ripped asunder by Devilish Wooly, including the cell containing the Anythings disguised as Gimmick and Grubby. It doesn't matter if Wooly is in disguise or not because the Anythings have not met Wooly yet. So, understandly; the Anythings panic and split into two pieces and float and run around in a disorganized fashion. The top halves floating around is absurd; but otherwise the spot makes sense all things considered. Wooly blows them off for fooling around and then we scene change back to the back door of MAVO Headquarters, and Arin and Aruzia have made a fatal error in their plan: Not leaving the area to make sure MAVO doesn't notice the Airship in clear sight. Why you may ask? While; look who's walking towards the Airship? Miss Maggotheart, the best MAVO member on this show!! Arin and Aruzia are worried as Miss Maggotheart addresses them and it just occured to me that Miss Maggotheart not being on the Eclipse in Captured was a smart move; because she doesn't know what it looks like until now. Because if she was on the Eclipse; this would make her look extremely stupid in hindsight. So, Miss Maggotheart is giving them a parking ticket because the Airship is parked in a no parking zone; but there is airship parking...and then she catches himself and screams for the guards because the Airship is finally shown intself! The monster gallery runs out as Quellor notices Maggotheart screaming from the window and then goes to his throne chair. He then pushes an out of nowhere red button and it reveal a black box with a handle.
This out of nowhere spot is the official debut of the dreaded Black Box, which will play into pretty much every major angle; including what happened to Teddy's father of all people. It also has a broken gray handle as Quellor runs out ordering everyone to get on the Eclipse. Meanwhile; Arin and Aruzia escape on the Airship. Quellor gets onto the Eclipse as we get the most whackiest alarm sounds in the background. Tweeg is present and everyone is back in pirate uniforms again. So, we head onto the Eclipse at the sacks as Teddy, Grubby and Gimmick pop out and Grubby and Gimmick are shocked. This is the point where I would be crying and hugging Teddy if I was Grubby. Leota is written in by teleport. Oh; and thank you Teddy for blowing off these lame attempts of "never say die" in a nice way. So; the animation looks slip-slod as Grubby is worried about the Airship as the Eclipse is closing in on the Airship. This is both good and bad. Bad because the monsters are going to shoot arrows at it. Good because that will allow the trio to get back onto the Airship. Oh; and like Plunder and Lightning Part 3; the Green Troll Pirate has teleported from his cell to the Eclipse with a bow & arrow. Leota decides to fly around and block the arrows, which takes a ton of courage to do, while the trio has to get a plan to disable the Eclipse. Teddy asks for ideas and Grubby's idea was to hide in a sack of corn and Gimmick calls Grubby a genius. Yeah; I'll bet! Yes folks; the demise of the Eclipse involves corn. And you wonder why MAVO was so buried after this?! So, Leota is blocking arrows as the trio is pouring sacks of corn into the furnance; creating popcorn. Teddy, Grubby and Gimmick hide into the sacks again as Grubby has to crack a joke about this plan. So the Eclipse goes side to side as Quellor orders everyone to board; and then gets pelted with popcorn. We get the worst animation of a popcorn tomb ever as Arin invokes the LASSO OF BANE TO ALL ACTION CARTOONS EVERYWHERE to secure the Eclipse to the Airship. That sounds stupid to me. Somehow; this create three ropes out of nowhere for the trio to swing like Tarzan onto the Airship and Aruzia is so happy to see them. Arin is so happy to see Teddy alive (and still skirt the d word) as the Airship turns around and leaves. The Eclipse's balloon bursts as popcorn fills the air and nosedives towards the water below.
So we scene change back to the dungeon as Devilish Wooly is still looking around for the double G's; so I assume off-screen the Anythings revealed themselves. Wooly looks into the cells and then notices the Airship flying out the window, which he somehow thinks Grubby and Gimmick are on the ship. Whatsit's eyesight is awesome as Devilish Wooly decides to go home and take a nap. Scene change to the ocean as the Eclipse sinks and Quellor is hanging onto a life raft. Wait; I thought villains were against safety. I guess it's safety for me and not for thee with heels. Quellor is angry because his underlings are terrible heels because they got defeated by a 16-year old Illiop. That is pathetic; especially considering Don Karnage got outsmarted by a 12 year old and still looked like a menace in the end. The box Quellor had is officially named here and it's gone; but he wonders if Tweeg went down with the ship; and suddenly feels better. Of course; because something good had to happen in his life, considering it was Tweeg's fault for Teddy even meeting Quellor in the first place. Speaking of Tweeg and LB; they are holding onto a raft and swimming well away from the hard camera as Tweeg and LB insult each other for a while as they are rowing away from the shoreline. Probably for the best, knowing MAVO. Scene change to Iggly taking out a trash can and setting it on the ground in front of a door. He closes the door and then Arin and Aruzia take the trash can and bail stage left. So, we return to the Airship as Grubby is already confused by this. Arin says it's not garbage; but the Anythings as they return to their normal selves. Surprisely; everyone cheers and the Anythings are not surprised that Teddy is still alive after all this. So we wrap up this arc with Teddy calling this a special day, which proves that special days are not automatically good. Teddy is still not thrilled that he couldn't get the crystals back; but Grubby assures him that they'll get them back yet. We then pan down to the jungle as we see the Hermit in the foreground to end the most important arc in the entire series at 19:42. A very good episode marred by logic breaks and the a finish that was a complete burial of MAVO. No wonder the Troll Nephews got a lot more air time in future episodes, only comedy routines was going to make MAVO something other than a joke. *** 1/2 (70%).
THE REVIEW LINE
Well; the Death of Innocence arc is officially over and it doesn't quite hold up anymore. It's still good and there was some really funny and really funny for the wrong reasons type of moments; but the emotion is no longer there. This final episode has some really bad logic breaks and the Tweeg/LB segments were persona non grata since the MAVO angle took ever. Devilish Wooly was great and the Anythings were awesome. However; MAVO was completely buried in a really stupid finish which was an awesome visual on paper; but to be defeated by popcorn is where you basically kill off the organization and build the Gutangs up again. And this arc was the ultimate example of episodic thinking. We should have got the debut of the Troll Nephews; but they barely spoke and only appeared as background characters at best. The Black Box came completely out of nowhere and they should have been teasing it since the arc started (Heck; even Quellor should have considered threatening Teddy with it.) GOUL and Miss Maggotheart wouldn't on the Eclipse and should have been since GOUL is a major reason why MAVO is after Teddy in the first place. Again; storywise, this was a good arc; but it could have been so much more than that. And I hope the Teddy Ruxpin reboot will do more. I'm not saying that they should make the show dark and violent; because no one wants that. Better continuity, better attention to detail and better animation. This was supposed to be Teddy's near demise and Grubby acts like it's nothing. BAD! Next up for Teddy Ruxpin is the "Make Up For Lost Time" arc; which is basically speeding up the process on what two of the next crystals do and fleshing out the Black Box more. Oh; and Teddy meets face to face with the Hermit and finally; the Troll Nephews get fleshed out as characters. Yay! So...
Thumbs in the middle for this episode and I'll see you all next time.