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: Fugitives
Reviewed: 07/30/2019
...From No Justice!
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. So, we continue the reign of terror of the new MAVO as Teddy and the Hermit finally reunite with Grubby and Gimmick; as MAVO is close in pursuit and all this gaslighting by GUOL is finally going to pay off in a big way. How does this episode fare? So; let's rant on shall we...?
Episode opens with a pan west shot of the snow leading to outside Zeb and Maple's residence as Maple has given Teddy a bag of food. Teddy thanks her and puts the bag in his coat as he's outside on skis. So is the Hermit as he gets a container of Ski Wax and I betcha it will be used and skis will not be involved at all. Hermit thanks him, but is either shy or Zeb is hard of hearing and Zeb is one of those who never blames himself for his own faults and blows off the Hermit in the process. So, The Hermit screams thank you in his face and Zeb goes flying. Maple does the your welcome in Zeb's stead because Zeb is a jerk, you see. Teddy thanks them and would like to see them again in Gimmick's Valley one day. Zeb is pretty much stalling while Maple claims that they will; which they didn't since this would be their last appearance on this show. Teddy and Hermit wave farewell as the two Illiops ski away and Zeb even concedes that he'll miss them because they were big friendly fellows. I cannot argue with that overwhelming logic there Zeb. So, Teddy and Hermit do a lot of skiing for a while. Teddy of course acts like an idiot in the corner and nearly buries himself in the snow; so Hermit has to stop and help him. Teddy giggles and we continue skiing. And finally they make it to Gimmick Valley before dark as Teddy is so giddy about the Hermit finally meeting Gimmick and Grubby for real and they ski down as we head inside the living room of Gimmick's house as it's apparently still dark and stormy outside. Color stylist is out to lunch as usual and no feet are involved this time. Grubby is pacing around while Gimmick is reading a book. I could make Al Khan jokes about this; but it's an old man reading and that's perfectly okay with him. It's when kids start reading, he claims kids will change the channel. Gimmick points out that there is nothing they can do about it. Grubby looks out the window agreeing with him and points out that Teddy is still out there and doesn't know about the one grey skinned, brown haired, green pant troll holding a spear guarding the house. And on the roof; there is a pink troll with a white face guarding. I don't like Teddy's chances here.
Gimmick sounds panicy now as we pan west to Teddy and Hermit approaching, and Hermit stops Teddy. Teddy is clueless to this; but Hermit insists on caution because it's too good to be safe. He's actually right about this, and so they decide to scout the area to make sure; although the dialogue is very subtle on this. So, it's night and Hermit and Teddy ski around the area and then Hermit shoves Teddy down and they drops with him as a spotlight almost shines on them. Teddy is told to be quiet as we discover that the spotlight being shown from the tall yellow troll on Tweeg Tower. Well, Gimmick doesn't have to worry about warning Teddy, the Hermit did it for him already. Teddy panics; but is reeled back by Hermit because this is a death trap basically and they have to wait for an opening. So, we continue the wait for a while as the moon is full and suddenly, out comes a purple fob and it's Fuzz? Wait, what?! Fuzz is now purple, after being green since The Faded Fobs. Yup, the color stylist really is out to lunch and again, no feet were involved. Purple Fuzz proclaims that he just returned from Rainbow Falls sliding on the ice. Teddy then suddenly remembers that the Wooly-Whatsit is usually at Rainbow Falls and therefore, Teddy has a Krackpotkin plan and Purple Fuzz is directly in the middle of it. Fuzz is confused and Teddy points out that no one would suspect him. If this were booked today, Fuzz comes out and all the monsters flee because they cannot stand his cuteness, rendering them so weak that no one can take them seriously as heels. Anyhow; the plan is for Fuzz to tell Gimmick and Grubby to leave and head for the Wooly Whatsit's house tonight as so requested by Teddy. Well, it's already night, so right now basically. Fuzz of course has trouble pronouncing Wooly's last name. Come on guys, Fuzz was WOOLY's partner in the WizardWeek event for goodness sakes! Fuzz hops towards Gimmick's house as Teddy and the Hermit bail in the opposite direction. We see the grey troll trying to sing the 10 billion bottles of slime on the wall and failing badly as Fuzz practices the fine art of not being seen. I don't know why since Teddy claimed that it wouldn't matter.
The grey troll finally decides to count it as 22 bottles instead; which means he can actually count to 22, which means he is better than Ole Anderson, who can barely count to three without cue cards. He also spots Fuzz going into the door and it's time for another edition of slapping modern critics who claim that this stuff only happens in modern cartoons when it happens on the cartoons they like: Fuzz stammers as he claims he's hear to see Grubby and Gimmick, and has no secret messages; which to anyone with a clue is a giveaway that Fuzz is a spy. And I betcha the monster just lets him in without a problem. I check the video...Yup, I'm so good. Oh, and Fuzz doesn't know Teddy Ruxpin either, which is a lie. Fuzz also remember to give himself a concussion in the process before going inside as the grey troll has lost his bottle train of thought. Grey troll is now purple troll; not that is surprises me as he sits down on the wooden chair and goes back to his singing. It's now 22 million bottles of slime on the wall. It just goes to show you that he knows how to say those numbers; but has no understanding of said numbers. And they scene change and somehow the wooden chair is moved from the side of the door to in front of the door. Good thing they did a scene changer here because that would have been a logic break otherwise and outside of the color stylist, that would be the first one not involving the color stylist. Oh, and the troll is asleep; which we would hope apply to all trolls in the real world forevermore. I don't like our chances here. So, the left window opens and out comes Grubby and Gimmick with a backpack of supplies and these fools are just screwing every single thing they tired here and the troll will not wake up. This troll is the heaviest sleeper of all time. GUOL should throw him in the dungeon. How do you not hear that, especially when you are literally ten feet away from the babyfaces?! How?! Furthermore, why hasn't the pink troll nor the yellow troll spotted them with the spotlight. Have they all gone to sleep and they are heavy sleepers? What a stupid decision by MAVO, then?!
And then just as I notice Grubby and Gimmick running away: The pink troll notices them running and then signals for the yellow troll at Tweeg Tower. So, they expected the two to escape in the hopes of finding Teddy?! That is a great heel plan actually. Yellow troll notices the signal and orders the red troll to summon the Eclipse. Red troll strikes a match and lits the fuse on the cannon and the cannon fires off-screen as we head to a campsite where the Eclipse is and at the campsite are two of the pirate trolls and Miss Maggotheart, whom is complaining about the noise again. Maggotheart then panics and orders them to sound the alarm as the campsite is literally feet away from Tweeg Tower. Which is actually smart considering what happened to Miss Maggotheart and her wagon with that cannon. So, the pirate rats bail as the pig like orc pirate turns a ship's wheel filled with bells and suddenly Jim Herd gets inspired years before the Ding Dongs were even a thing. So, all the pirates come out of their tents and instead of getting onto the Eclipse and preparing to follow them, they begin singing about how they are MAVO Pirates. Look, I love the new MAVO, but that decision to sing is DUMB. Follow the prisoners first, capture Teddy and the crystals, maybe capture the Hermit if you can, THEN SING~! Stupid! Also, this song would have been a lot better if it was sang during the Captured episode when they introduced the MAVO pirate concept to everyone. Not that it matters in the long run; since TaleSpin's Air Pirates and even Ducktales 2017 Sky Pirates are much, much cooler. The only thing of note is that the pirates themselves get to sing the song while Miss Maggotheart steals a gold coin, or more accurately, collects the tax. And the pirates also arrest the orc troll who got the coin. There are a lot of "we know it's alcohol, but we aren't telling anyone" references in this scene. The Sky Pirates Theme is much cooler as well; because there context to the song in that it pretty much told you what Kit experienced throughout that year, to even admitting that they murder people. The MAVO pirates only have body odor issues. So, everyone who plays video games basically.
Finally, the Eclipse launches as the song ends with Maggotheart in front with her sword and this is a lovely song that was sang at the worst possible time. So we sail away as we head inside the Wooly-Whatsit house with Teddy hugging Grubby and Gimmick and reuniting. Hermit is standing to the right of Wooly as Wooly assures that they are safe and no one can find them. Yeah, I'll bet. I would be more secure if Wooly also said that he will defend them from MAVO's thugs. Gimmick goes over and shakes hands with the Hermit and there was zero hesistation whatsoever. I guess the hesistation was reserved for Zeb and Maple. Grubby shakes Hermit's hand and Hermit looks heistiant in talking. So, we exchange notes on the situation for a while, it's the usual "MAVO wants crystals and MAVO must never get them at all costs" thing. Meanwhile; the pink troll outside overhears the conversation on the roof. She is so giddy about that promotion that she's the best mook guard I have ever seen. I wish she was a cross between a troll and a snozo and was Wooly's daughter, that would have been money. She bails and swings away from the house as the Eclipse is in the air at Gimmick's house as Maggotheart is showing a cloth and taunting the grey troll to wake up and face the musical oppressors. Which is the name of the next episode actually. The hanky doesn't work (what a shocker that was?); so she invokes the megaphone and sadly, the sound editing crew has no way to amplify the voice, so it sounds so stupid. To be fair, the original Plunder and Lightning movie had sound effects issues which were fixed in syndication. Grey troll wakes up and is confused; which is not a good idea when Miss Maggotheart is involved as she's making him pay like the unfair harrassing dues collector that she is. The troll gets trolled as pink troll runs in and manages to hop onto the roof and hop into the Eclipse to inform Miss Maggotheart that she has found the Illiop. She's wrong, she actually found TWO Illiops. That's even better. She's so modest and Maggotheart calls it a bad thing she did too, because if it was a good thing, the pink troll would be so paying dues more so than the grey troll.
So, the pink troll leads the way stage left and the Eclipse follows her directions as we head back inside Wooly's house as Wooly, Teddy, Grubby and Hermit are sitting close to the fireplace and Hermit claims that he doesn't remember much at all. Hermit then recalls seeing a house in the middle of nowhere; but when the door opens, the memory goes away. So, Gimmick comes in with the Crystal Sethoscope and Teddy thinks this is a great idea. Now, usually when it's used, there's a beam of light hitting the person's face; but there was no sign here and Gimmick still sold it as if there was a hit, but the crystal is blank. They are running out of money, or someone in special effects forgot to add them in when animating the finished product. Not a good look. Gimmick then explains right now that this happened with Tweeg before in Ying and it was due to Tweeg erasing his memory from the Black Box; which deduction takes over and that the Hermit had his memory erased and was placed in the Ying Zoo, which triggers Teddy Ruxpin having the flashback from his cell where he discovers his name and his mother's name. So, we return to reality (no, not really) as the Hermit notices that the fire is almost out, even though it looks all right to me and decides to go outside to get firewood. Now, that in itself is stupid on it's own; but look at the background when he says it: There is firewood in a box on the left side of the screen. Now, I know what you are thinking: Maybe this is a signal that he's going to run away again. Why would he do that when he's a surivialist in storyline and MAVO is all over the place?! No, this is stupid on all planes of thought. Hermit bails to get some firewood that Wooly does not need right now as Teddy finally blurts out what he was doing while spacing out and we do the detective work, stopping short of saying "Hermit is Teddy's dad" even there is no subtley to throw out the window for. Outside, the Eclipse arrives as Miss Maggotheart is using the telescope and being a wonderful time taunting them as the monsters grabs sacks, ropes and other weapons and climb down the rope ladders, as there is truly no escape for the babyfaces to end the segment 12 1/4 minutes in. Well, outside of some stupidity, this has been a good episode as I'm almost digging the GUOL edition of MAVO now. Now, they almost need to turn Quellor babyface to make sure MAVO doesn't fall off a cliff...
After the commercial break; back to the Eclipse overseeing Wooly's house. Maggotheart is using the telescope and notices the Hermit gathering up firewood, showing that he is not running away. Hermit gets some firewood and heads to the front door of the house, when Maggotheart unleashes the signal; causing the monsters to howl like wolves and owls. Hermit is forced to stop as it's four on one advantage heels cutting him off at the pass. Jumnp cut to inside Wooly's house as Grubby is complaining about the Hermit taking his sweet time and Teddy decides to go to the door to check on him and maybe help him with his fears of others again. Teddy opens the door and notices the Hermit is gone and deduces that MAVO has captured him, although it would have been a lot better if he looked up and noticed the Eclipse before going to that conclusion. Grubby and Gimmick are confused; but Teddy isn't as they were clearly looking to capture Teddy. Personally; I would waited until after Teddy said "They were looking for me!" with the angry face to go to commercial, since it made more sense that way. Oh well, what can you do? Head to MAVO Headquarters and into the war room with Elinoire pacing around and GUOL standing and growing impatient, so she is hating the slow pacing of this show in general. I'm amused that there are Eyes of Providence symbols in the walls. When I talk about satantic imagery, I'm often amused by it and don't consider it a hate crime, so when Spiderman does a similar pose even when it makes sense in a different context, I often laugh at it and say "even if it was, so what?" Elinore actually believes Tweeg could do a better job and he's lost in the woods as usual. HAHA! Nice to see somethings never change around here. Oh, in comes Miss Maggotheart acting like a cocky pirate leader, which almost gets up to Don Karnage's level. Almost. Elinore and GUOL ask nicely where Ruxpin and the crystals are, which is so hypocritical that it is so like them as heels.
Maggotheart is so loving life that she almost forgot to bill the special prisoner rate for their Illiop prisoner (which is probably the same one as the Ying Zoo rate no doubt) and in comes Trudge and Sludge with the Hermit tied up with rope and wearing a leather bag over his head. Good thing it isn't plastic, that would have killed him (directly) and the two goons (indirectly by Maggotheart). GUOL walks over and takes the mask off and Elinore screams in agony because it's not Ruxpin, you see. This is clearly the villains doing the old take the mask off trick from Scooby Doo, and the writers even remembered to have the captive be an old male. And who says there is no pop culture or meta references in old cartoons?! I blame them watching as kids and forgetting to watch them again as adults to make sure they were not seeing and hearing thing that are not there. Maggotheart wants to fine the Hermit for impersonating Teddy Ruxpin. That was also funny as GUOL blows her off and gets in the Hermit demanding answers to this outrage and grabbing him by the tunic looking like GUOL wants to kill him, proving my point that she believes her own lies about Illiops in general, thus self-gaslighting herself in the process. Scene change to the air as the Airship is in the air somehow, despite not even seeing it until now. Question: How did the babyfaces hide the Airship? More to the point; how did MAVO not notice it? I would have stolen that Airship and used it instead of the Eclipse and then have two ships to cover more area. Somethings never change with MAVO. Sometimes, overthinking is a good thing. Anyhow; Teddy wants to go in alone which is beyond dumb, and even Grubby, Gimmick and Wooly are second guessing this decision. Teddy calls this easy because he got Hermit into this mess, he's getting him out of it. No, Teddy; MAVO is gaslit; you do not give them poor excuses to justify their behavior. I'm just saying. Scene change to the war room of MAVO as Hermit is in a hanging cage above the middle of the war room as Sludge and Drudge are poking spears at the Hermit for fun. Pan down to Elinore putting her cane down saying this is one day when nothing goes right.
BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh boy! BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! For goodness sakes, this is the best MAVO has ever been! Sure, you captured the wrong Illiop; but you see, you now have a bargining chip and you know Teddy going to rescue him. Besides, Teddy would have likely come to find the seventh crystal as well, since it's needed to restore Hermit's memory. So, Teddy has a lot of incentive to basically fall into your hands. Quellor has been awful since the Death of Innocence arc, which is why you threw him in the dungeon and took over in the first place. And finally, Maggotheart demonstrates why she could never be Surpeme Oppressor: Maggotheart blows Elinore off for accusing her of this gaffe (which it was her fault by the way), GUOL demands silence and asks Elinore for her advice on weaknesses. Elinore claims that Illiops have none since they are strong, honest, brave, kind and loyal and GUOL gets inspired and sees the weak point: Loyality. So, here's the plan: Let Ruxpin come to them and try to find the Hermit in the dungeon. Miss Maggotheart claims that there is a flaw in the plan because she's certain Ruxpin will make it to the dungeon, evade everyone and find the Hermit. But Elinore plugs that hole because the Hermit is spending his time in Elinore's house, the only place Teddy and company have never been inside of. This is a brilliant plan. I don't understand why they need to put out an ad in the Grundo Gazette since Teddy is clearly going to MAVO anyway. Furthermore, isn't this admitting unlawful confinement to the world of Grundo? Don't you want only Ruxpin to know and he already knows? This sounds like a script writer trying to fill time and this is the only thing this writer could think of. Granted, heels are heels and it makes sesne for them to do this; but really? By the way; when Elinore reveals the plug in the logic hole, Miss Maggotheart acts like an idiot and has no clue what Elinore is talking about. GUOL summons Sludge and he comes down as GUOL has a job for him. I wish it was Tweeg, because that would have been money.
So, we return to the Airship and yes, Louie arrives on his bicycle helicopter to give Teddy Ruxpin the newspaper that informs Teddy that the Hermit is a prisoner of MAVO and Teddy must give the Surpreme Oppressor the crystals to free Hermit. Teddy of course crumbles the newspaper and no sells the deal and he's going to resuce the Hermit. The only thing of note here was Grubby and Gimmick's concern for Teddy looking forward and thinking that there is more to the Hermit than just being at Leekee Lake. Head to Elinore's house as Elinore and Maggotheart are inside chaining up the Hermit and overkilling it in the process. They also do some tug of war on Hermit with the chain, just to overkill it even more. Having woman heels leading MAVO is so much better than the male Quellor because they are actually working together and they are using the babyfaces own strength against them: Working together and the babyfaces are winning; even if they have made mistakes along the way. Elinore calls in Sparky the one eyed Wuzzle: part dog, part dragon, part cyclops; and orders Sparky to watch the Hermit as Sparky sniffs Hermit for a while. Head back to outside of MAVO Headquarters as we pan west to the Airship as it's covered in snow. Teddy uses the third crystal with the torch and the pillar and becomes invisible as Wooly panics on cue. Gimmick assures him that nothing's wrong here as Teddy is walking on the snow towards MAVO Headquarters with the clear status on of course. Gimmick and Grubby wish him good luck and Teddy assures him that he'll be back in no time. Trouble. Teddy makes it inside without incident because he's invisible, so practicing the fine art or not being seen is easy. He's also very sloppy because he manages to walk into water someone was washing the floors with and then goes down the steps towards the cells. He grabs the key from the green troll we have seen in previous episodes involving the dungeon of MAVO, with ease I might add. I betcha the troll was fake sleeping too.
Teddy opens the cell and finds the "Hermit" staring at a wall with his back turned to Teddy. Teddy walks over and makes his last mistake: He turns visible with the torch and crystal shown. "Hermit" turns around and reveals himself to be Sludge, Teddy backs up as two green troll guards and GUOL walk up behind to cut Teddy off. Sludge grabs the third crystal and torch, tying Teddy's arms behind his back as GUOL grabs the crystal belt to finally get the thing they always wanted from the start. The heels actually won! Easily. And they took every babyface tactic and threw it back right in Teddy's face! This is so great, this is the high point of MAVO by a mile. Even higher than Captured. Sludge throws Teddy to the back of the cell, the heels get out, lock the cell door and GUOL walks away. Although I would have liked the scene better if Sludge was following her to make it less like Sludge was in jail as well, but whatever. The important thing is: The heels like Aces & Eights were when it was revealed that Bully Ray was the president, are now full effective heels now. So, Teddy is hapless regardless if he has the crystals now, because the heels have figured out that they have no scruples, so why not steal those babyface tactics and use them themselves?! So, the final sequence is Teddy going to the cell door as we get a shot of Quellor in his own prison cell and he walks over and both of them basically have a staredown and that ends the episode at 19:11. What an awesome episode this was?! GUOL MAVO is actually a threat! Sure, they will lose all this momentum in the end; but it shows how effective heels are when they finally realize that they have no scruples, so them using the babyfaces own tactics against them makes them look like a force to be reckoned with. I would have loved this more if there wasn't a lot of pointless spots and silly mistakes in the continuity though... **** 1/2 (90%).
THE REVIEW LINE
Well; I am shocked and impressed by how improved MAVO has been since GUOL took over. GUOL is actually compentent in this entire episode and almost everyone working there also seems to be a lot less stupid (with a few exceptions and none of those guys have any heat to begin with). Not to say that this was a perfect capture of Teddy Ruxpin (I could have done without the song in the middle of it since it made them look stupid); but the plan was so effective that nothing else mattered. For the first time; I can finally take MAVO seriously as a threat and sadly, they will lose that badwill (get it?) soon enough in the next two episodes. It also shows that heels can do babyfaces tactics just as well as babyfaces once they forfeit scruples so to speak. The story line was awesome and laid out well, despite the slow pacing and mistakes in the animation. I mean, why is Fuzz purple now after showing him green since Faded Fobs? Why bother with the Grundo Gazette when Teddy clearly knows where the Hermit was going to be anyway? That last one was pointless. Also, the firewood thing was hilarious considering that there was firewood in the background, making the Hermit look stupid since he is supposed to be a surivialist in storyline. Little errors like that annoyed me. However; the overall episode was fantastic and I was rooting for the heels because they finally got their heat back in a big way. So, next up is Musicial Oppressors which is the best name for an episode I have ever heard. Much better than Garage Banned or something along those lines. Sadly, this arc is going to finally go off a cliff now because somehow, Teddy has to win and he's been rendered hapless regardless if he had the crystals or not, and he's also about to lose his numbers game along with it. Not a good sign. So...
Thumbs up for this episode and I'll see you all next time.