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The Adventures Of Teddy Ruxpin: The Jim Henson Version
Reviewed: 10/27/2019
The Moment You Realize That This Was Supposed To Be The Original Vision Of Teddy Ruxpin!
Well, it's finally time to admit the truth...The animated version of Teddy Ruxpin you saw produced in Canada was never the original vision that the show was supposed to be. The fact that Teddy Ruxpin is being rebooted soon in 2020 with digital puppetry (and CGI of course) points to the original vision of Ken Frosse wanting Teddy Ruxpin to be on par with the Muppets and that Jim Henson Productions is directly involved in the reboot. Alchemy II was directly involved in this production and Devonshire Studios recorded the music for this special which was on television during a block called the ABC Weekend Specials, which of course designed to show off special productions that were one offs. I'm not going to speculate on how good or bad these specials are because I have not seen most of them. They are what they are at the time. It was mostly family friendly stuff and Teddy Ruxpin was the epitome of family friendly at this point. As mentioned before, the special debuted on November 30th, 1985 on ABC and was a test to see how over Teddy Ruxpin. Apparently, it was a mixed result because (a) they wanted to continue the series (it also helps that the end was a cliffhanger of sorts despite finishing like a movie) and (b) they couldn't continue it because it was too expensive (it also didn't help that the special was 43 minutes long and had to be edited down to the point where continuity was more shot than the animated series). It also didn't help that many of the costume designs looked creepy as well (something the animated series managed to avoid). So, yeah; for better or for worse, this was the beginning of Teddy Ruxpin on television. Now, it's time to see it from my eyes and I already know the plot because I ranted on the first five episodes of the animated series and outside of some new stuff, extended scenes and some silliness, the animated series and special are more or less the same. So, how does this special fare? Let's rant on shall we...?
This special was written by Ken Frosse and directed by Lee Bernhardi. Lee started off as a stage manager for the Hollywood Palace in 1966 and production assistant for Jimmy Durante Presents the Lennon Sisters in 1969. Director credits include Lily, The Julle Andrews Hour, Barney Miller, The Rich Little Show, Night Court and One In A Million among others. Jake & Jill is his most recent credit in 2001. He also directed The New Mickey Mouse Club in 1989. He has 21 Director credits, 5 Misc credits, 5 Second Unit Director credits and 1 Self credit (Tattletales in 1974) to his resume.
Episode opens with a shot of Teddy Ruxpin's residence with the best thing about this special: Ilana Ruxpin singing Come Dream With Me Tonight in a flashback sequence with her baby son Teddy in the living room. Sadly, Michelle Baron is not the singing voice (reports claim it is B.J. Ward doing the vocals. Unlike the animated series, many of the voices actually worked on TaleSpin at one time, except Kate Leigh of course) and the music here is very different here. It sounds great and I'm guessing music licensing rights was an issue because as much as I love Michelle Baron, B.J. Ward singing was great here. The white logo shown here is a basically the same one they use in the animated series, only the colors are different and Teddy's head isn't shown unlike here. Also, the backgrounds here were really good and the character designs are perfectly reasonable in spite of the massive differences in between the two. Ilana looks closer to her storybook persona than the animated persona. They show Christopher Brough, who became an exec and producer for Shadow Raiders, Beast Machines: Transformers and Reboot among others, so you cannot say he wasn't a success after this production. In fact, he was part of the animated series of this very brand two years later. The other surprise, one of the final lines Ilana sings was never in the animated series. Also, B.J. Ward in her first appearance completely outclassed Phil Baron and Phil Baron hasn't even debuted on this special yet. Although, lyricosis strikes the again because it sounds like Ilana sang "In search for treasures blind". When Ilana sings the final verse, we zoom into a model of the crystal medallon and the Map of Grundo with flashing lights in the background. It was a minute long, and it was great...and now we come to the beginning as seen in the animated series, only with the red subtitle: "15 Years Later". I'm guessing Teddy was supposed to be 18 years old, since Teddy in the flashback appears to be three years old, but I'm guessing Teddy is supposed to be sixteen. The sun is arising as Teddy appears in between two trees overlooking Gimmick's Valley.
Right away, I can see why they opted for hand drawn animation two years later: The opening with the house was lush because it was a miniture model of the area; and no actual characters were used. The scene with Ilana was fine because it was confined to a small area equal to the size of the stage. Now, they have to do a scene which require the actual characters being in a large area according to the storyline and the entire set design is exposed. It's sad because in 2019, CGI would have done wonders here, but it's 1985, what can you do? Teddy for the most part, looks reasonable; but Grubby's feet have no toes nor fingers. Teddy and Grubby are voiced by Phil Baron and Will Ryan as expected, although Phil seems to be breaking in the voice slower than Will. So, they decide to do a campfire for the night, which means that they have to do mature lighting as the camp fire ensues. The good news is that the place is well lit enough to see what is going on, but it also shows why cartoon lighting is often used. Grubby is roasting roots over the campfire and Teddy comes in asking if they are edible and Grubby don't care about that. He offers the roasted root stick to Teddy and Teddy is sniffing it, but not eating it. He stammers as Grubby is cutting him off, claiming how great they are. The root stew angle in the animated series was much better than this because it was funny and I can laugh at Teddy for lying like he does. He doesn't even get a chance to lie here and Grubby keeps cutting him off. Not funny. Grubby then asks if Teddy is home sick and Teddy admits that he is sort of; but it's only been a couple of day since he left on this adventuring stuff. I should note that Grubby points out that Teddy's the first Illiop to leave Rillonia in a long time, so he's heavily implying that Burl left a long time ago. Teddy admits that Illiops stop being adventurous a long time ago, but this map Teddy carries has lit a fire in him being adventureous again. It's also heavily implied that Grubby and Teddy were much younger when they first met as they have been friends since they were little kids. This contradicts The Day Teddy Met Grubby, since when they met it was shown that they were friends for a few years at best. Teddy then slurps the roots and we then scene change to a closeup shot of a sign that reads: Beware of Bounders. There are ferns in the foreground and rocks in the background on the zoom out shot as the babyfaces realize that going into danger is the only way now. Yup, they will spring the trap.
Teddy gets all confused and thinks the sign writer is illiterate and meant Boulders? Nope, Teddy; Bounders don't roll, they hop. And out comes at least three Bounders and oh my goodness, this is Nightmare Fuel personified! The designs are actually accurate to the animated series, but the animated series toned down the scary faces, which is a good thing, thank you. Teddy and Grubby run past the hard camera and the Bounders (all five of them) hop awkwardly and decide to mug for the hard camera. It's almost like the people in costumes couldn't resist seeing a camera for the first time. So, we fade to black (I'm guessing that it was a commercial break, but what do I know?) and return with the SCOOBY DOO CHASE SEQUENCE THE BOUNDER EDITION as we get another set, which looks more reasonable than the Gimmick Valley one earlier. By the way, this chase sequence is one of the slowest chase sequences I have ever seen that wasn't in a Z-grade movie. Maybe this sequence should have been sped up. And now the Bounders have stopped hopping, and are power walking stage left as the sound effects guy uses a couple of spring sound effects and then just stops. Oh, hello Newton Gimmick; you look much older than you used to be. If you watched the animated series, then you know where this is going. The major difference is that Gimmick is voiced by the late Tony Pope, whom did voice work for the TaleSpin episode: Save The Tiger! He actually sounds similar to John Stocker, but not quite. He still stutters and giggles the same as John, but sounds more like an old man. Gimmick introduces himself and then invokes the magnifying glass asking if Teddy is an Illiop; Teddy says yes. Teddy introduces himself and Grubby from Rillonia and they are on a marvelous journey. To invoke copyright on all your marvelous videos! AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! So, Gimmick invites the two for a bite to eat as his house as we do a segueway scene changer and head to Gimmick's Valley; in which the backgrounds are much better here as Gimmick asks about this marvelous journey and Grubby isn't so keen about that, because he's a old man you see and all old men are dirty, am I right? Teddy blows off the suggestion and decides to ask Gimmick (who is an ordinary old man outside of his wacky name) about the map, claiming that it came from his great-great-grandfather.
I think he was implying it was Theodore the Wise from the animated series as well. Scene change to LB going up the steps of Tweeg Tower and oh lord, LB looks terrible here as he has the goofiest smile in history that makes it look scary. His going up the stairs is also completely awkward to boot. When he gets to the top, he is walking despite the bouncing sound effect being in play. Really sloppy. So we head inside Tweeg's residence as Tweeg is doing something and looks like the Tweeg from the animated series, only more wicked, I guess. He is voiced by Will Ryan this time and it shows since it sounds less whiny. So, Tweeg notices LB has a stick in his mouth and pulls it out. Only, LB could of just opened wider and the stick would have probably fell out; exposing that it was glued to the upper portion of his mouth. Then LB has to talk, and he doesn't sounds like the one in the animated series at all. Tweeg of course thinks he has found the secret recipe to make gold out of buttermilk and LB blows him off and he's not nearly as funny as the animated series one. They did keep the LB calls Tweeg wrong names gimmick. See what I did there? So, LB claims that the gold is getting stale, and man; the timing makes no sense here as Tweeg blows LB off again because he demands silence. LB claims that Gimmick has visitors. And Tweeg starts to panic because visitors equals conspiractors. Gimmick is a thug whom wants gold, you see. LB then claims that Gimmick is dying to make buttermilk dounuts; which is funny actually. Tweeg is not amused as he is outside on his look off, using the telescope. Telescope shot shows the trio at Gimmick's house, which looks a lot more unstable than in the animated series, shooting the breeze in a G-rated way. So, Tweeg orders LB to run down and try to make out what they are saying and LB hops down awkwardly repeating the promos just to annoy me. Tweeg is readying the cannon and no matter what animation style they use, this moment will never get old. Tweeg fires the cannon just like that and we cut back to the trio as Teddy and Grubby panic, but Gimmick calls it nothing. The animated series Gimmick was more caring than this Gimmick it seems. So, when the cannon hits the ground, you can clearly see it's green carpet on the ground and the indentations make it even more obvious. Gimmick explains his backstory with Tweeg and Teddy has the look of "Are you kidding me?" in response. Gimmick, you are nuts!
Tweeg shoots a second cannonball and it bounces into the other cannon balls and Tweeg is flustered and hopeless. As usual. Even more hilarious: Gimmick claims that he never saw Tweeg when he first moved in. So, basically, he knows him, but it's due to having cannonballs that say "Return to Tweeg". Don't worry, Gimmick will see him for real soon enough. So, LB is nudged againest the house, practicing the fine art of not being seen as Gimmick and Teddy go over the treasure map. I would think the bouncing sound effects would give this away, but it doesn't. Teddy also shows the medallion, which on some angles, looks like a glorified pen. LB bails and we see the most heinous looking Fobs ever in the background, including a green and purple Fob. The guise of this is that the treasure is in the Hard To Find City and the medallion is made of gold and some sort of crystal. Also, Gimmick, Teddy and Grubby walk from the house to the conveniently placed Airship as Grubby calls it a boat. Gimmick admits it started out as one; but his house wasn't close to water. Of course! So, they exchange notes for a while, most of this was from my rant in the animated series, so I'm basically only noting funny or heinous moments. So, Gimmick bails to pack some provisions after talking about sharing treasure and then he walks to the house and puts the map conveniently into LB's mouth like a stupid idiot and calls him horrid. Geez, what a bigot Gimmick is?! LB awkwardly hops up to Tweeg Tower as Tweeg is pacing around as he blows off LB for being an idiot as he pops the treasure map out of his mouth. LB proclaims that he would take the treasure map somewhere else, implying that he was going to shove it up on Tweeg where the sun don't shine. I'll leave that as an exercise to the reader. Tweeg then gets it as LB calls him Twang as we scene change to Tweeg making the fake map and asking LB to put the "gold" in the conveniently placed safe, LB complies and closes said safe. Tweeg rolls the fake map up and orders LB to bring the fake map to Gimmick. He puts it into LB's mouth and sadly not the same way as Gimmick does it, so Tweeg is less abusive to LB than Gimmick is. Ponder that for a moment. Scene change back to the Airship, as they are using the cheapest plastic sliver hose they could find to create the chimney for the stove, because apparently, they needed a real fire to make this work. Another reason hand drawn animation was better back in those days.
CGI today would make this a moot point, but whatever. Gimmick bails again because he lost the map, of course and thinks he put it in the house. As Gimmick leaves, we see two Fobs in the foreground talking for no reason at all as LB shows up and spits the map out in the most unconvincing possible. I know this because Grubby is complaining again because he doesn't like this Airship design and Teddy isn't so sure either. So, Teddy and Grubby are skeptics that have no expertise basically. LB bails, Gimmick gets the map and returns to the Airship. Teddy grabs the map and bails to put it with the supplies and then we scene change to the Airship Balloon being inflated from below the bowels of the ship. And now Grubby wants to point out the problem to Gimmick, and Gimmick nicely blows him off because he's the one with expertise, you see. I think Grubby has a point there, and this was never in the animated series, if I'm not mistaken. So, the balloon inflates as Teddy is giddy, Gimmick is giddy, Grubby knows this is bullstuff and then the Airship tips over and drops on it's side as the air balloon messes it completely up. Jump cut to a bunch of Fobs looking on and then back to the tipped over airship as Gimmick finally admits that something isn't right as the Fobs taunt Gimmick a bit to end the first third of this special nearly 13 minutes in. So, we return and suddenly, they are in the air (which is basically a stage painted like a sky with clouds and everything.) and Gimmick thanks Grubby for redesigning the airship. Yes, not only did they make Gimmick look like a bigger fool here than in the animated series; they made GRUBBY look like a genius despite being the street smart one of the group. If this was Ken Frosse's idea, then no wonder people were laughing at him. Grubby calls it a slight modification as Gimmick decides to console the map for more details. Teddy asks how they can made the Airship work in the right direction and Gimmick stammers like a stupid idiot. And they will not WATCH OUT FOR THAT TREE~! Running into the tree looked cringeworthy, if you are a tree lover. Which of course, means that you feel Leota's pain. The late Russi Taylor (who voiced John D. Rockafeather in My Fair Baloo in TaleSpin) voices Leota this time and holy crud, she sounds almost exactly like Leota in the animated series. The mannerism are so indentical that I wondered if the voice actor's name in the animated series was a alternate name for Russi Taylor.
Sadly, Leota's character design here looks horrible here. Teddy calls her a tiny flying lady and Grubby asks what she is and she is a woodsprite, which Gimmick of course blows off because in his tiny little mind, there are no such things as woodsprites. Considering that his expertise on inventing is not good, I don't think his expertise on fictional characters is much better either. Leota gleefully blows off Gimmick for that gaffe. Teddy of course stops her justified anger and rage by calling her pretty. Today, calling her pretty would just make her anger even more justified. So, we exchange notes for a while as clue to Gimmick: When the person you claim doesn't exist understands the concepts of flying more than you do, it's time to stop calling yourself an expert. At least Leota is an adult, if it was Kit in 1937, you would be hosed even further. So, we HIT THE MONTAGE~! The guise of this is that they build the propeller and use navigation as Teddy nearly breaks one of his fingers nailing nails with a hammer. This is all done in silence with the music playing in the background. There were also blueprints shown as I should point out that this was all done on the ground as we scene change to the trio launching for take off as they thank Leota and Leota waves back. Leota tells them not to get stuck in anymore trees as Ilana is singing the part with the giant airship being built in the background. This gives us the Airship balloon look and it's similar to the animated series, but much darker colors. Scene change to the trio above the desert as the Airship noises are similar to the animated series. Gimmick is on prop duty, Grubby is shoveling coal and Teddy is doing nothing...AND THE ROCK SAYS NOTHING! Teddy is confused because they should be over Moss Forest by now. Of course they aren't because Gimmick was so stupid to give the real map to LB and got back a fake one because Tweeg is a slimy heel who fails at life. Grubby and Teddy check the map out and right away, they realize the map is a fake. I think it took almost four episodes before the babyfaces figured out that the map was fake, which means the Jim Henson version did something better than the animated series! About time they did. They blame Tweeg of course as we scene change to a sky shot of the airship as Grubby proclaims that they are out of fuel, so Gimmick tells them to land the airship as the compass Gimmick is holding is so flimsy, it looks Z-grade to me.
So, they don't even bother to so them landing on the sand as we jump cut to the trio on the ground as Teddy has the flimest piece of wood ever, which is par for the course in this desert. Grubby complains about the heat on his feet and Gimmick trips over a lump of coal, which he should get for Christmas after this debacle. When Teddy consoles Gimmick, you can clearly see the limitations of the costume as this made Teddy look creepy. Gimmick of course examines the coal and notices that there is more in the cave. So, scene change to Teddy stuffing the coal into bags and boxes and then makes the fatal error: Let's get more to be on the safe side. Teddy just got a wee bit too greedy, and I betcha this cost them prison time with the Mud Bulps. I prefer the animated series version of it, where it was less blantant thievery than this special. Night is about to fall as the babyfaces go into the mine to act like thieves. Grubby, the only one with the sense to ask, asks if anyone lives here and Gimmick of course claims that this is virtually impossible. Key word, virtually. Because here comes the mud golems known as Mud Bulps as they easily capture the babyfaces, although they are thieves; so the Mud Bulps are the babyfaces here. The babyfaces are forced to march and yes, these Mud Bulps can also speak. So, they head to the throne of the Mud Bulp King, who is basically a Mud Bulp with a mud crown that has a ruby insterted into said crown. The king orders the Mud Bulp to put Grubby to work at once and the other two to the dungeon. So, the one with sense is a slave and the others are prisoners. Pfft; whatever. I should also note that the rod the king is holding has more rubies inserted and looks bigger than it's body. Teddy protests this outrage and remind me to never have Teddy as my lawyer because he would be dumber than any lawyer in North America and I stand by that claim. This is proof that throwing money at a problem only works if billionaries were forced to throw all their money away. We have the shortest march to the dungeon in history as the Mud Bulp clubs look like they have cheese color spotlights on the top. So, Teddy and Gimmick are in prison and it looks unstable, although the place is supposed to be made out of mud, so it makes sense.
Teddy calls them unreasonable and Gimmick has zero clue who they are and in the background, Prince Arin shows up and states that they are Mud Bulps. Sadly, I have no idea who voices him; but the voice is different from the animated series for sure. So, we exchange handshakes, pleasure thoughts and notes for a while. Of course, they have to play fanfare in the background for no reason for Arin. Arin explains that Aruzia was kidnapped and taken away to a far land; but he got caught by the Mud Bulp and calls himself a failure and a coward. Wait, failure, maybe; but coward? Idiot would be more accurate in this case, because who would go into Mud Bulp terrority without backup? Gimmick I think gets his crowning moment of awesome moment in this special, pointing out that this is not being a coward. Teddy backs Gimmick up on this one, but Arin doesn't know what to do and we circle fade out to officially end the first half of the special almost 21 minutes in! We return in the dungeon as it has gotten darker as Teddy wonders what the Mud Bulps are going to do with them. Oh, and Louie is outside with his camera of doom and his face looks like Nightmare Fuel written all over it as well. Other than that, totally like the animated series. He is filming the babyfaces in jail as I believe two Mud Bulps come in and Louie invokes the XENON FLASH OF DEATH on the Mud Bulp (which would be edited out today due to the problem with seizures) and he's blinded and drops his basket of goodies before Louie bails out. The babyfaces are confused as I am since only one Mud Bulp was flashed. Maybe it was one Mud Bulp all along and I messed up. So the Mud Bulp spoons stuff to the babyfaces and they are instantly repulsed by the smell. Prince Arin calls this worst than most Mud Bulp food, but Teddy thinks this smells familiar. Yes, Grubby made root stew much later in this movie than in the animated series; which is an improvement since it created suspense instead of comedy. Speaking of bad comedy, before they can even eat the stuff and hate it; a cave in is in progress. Because, why not?! I love how Teddy is asking, are you all right...RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CAVE-IN~! That was funny, actually. The light shalt shine upon thee as Arin stands on Teddy's shoulders and notice that it leads to the surface.
Scene change to the trio getting out and heading back to the airship as we fade to black. We return and they head inside the airship and feel bad about Grubby being jettisoned like that. Jump cut to the babyfaces with jars with lights in them shining them on Mud Bulps and blinding them in the cave out of nowhere. WHAT THE--?! The more I watch this, the more I realize how rushed this was. There was no connecting scene, or even thirty seconds of them having an idea, they just jumped forward without warning. The animated series is far better than this. Louie is filming this still as the babyfaces find Grubby in the kitchen and the scene staged it like everyone except the babyfaces knew he was there, making the babyfaces look like idiots. And Grubby makes Teddy look like a liar with the Root Stew, which the Mud Bulps love. Geez, no wonder they put him on kitchen duty. By the way, we're almost 25 minutes in and not once has Teddy Ruxpin sing. Grubby decides to add more silliness by talking the Mud Bulp into giving Teddy extras. Jerk. So, without any suspense whatsoever despite teasing it via Gimmick yelling that Mud Bulps are coming, they all make it to the Airship without incident. Everyone lifts off as Teddy mentions the weakness to sunlight was Gimmick's observation. Grubby shakes Prince Arin's hand and we lift high into the sky. Prince Arin wants to go to the edge of the desert, but Aruiza's life comes first, and so the treasure can wait. Of course! Teddy's mind is made up of course and Gimmick backs him up of course. Grubby seems to be fine with it as well, so Prince Arin agrees with it. By the way, Arin's face now looks closer to the animated series than it did minutes ago. So, we sail easterly as we scene change to the ground with Tweeg and LB in the wagon as LB is whining and complaining about being there, and so Tweeg blows him off for whining. Tweeg then accuses LB of getting them lost and LB calls him Tweeg, effectively killing the angle dead. Although LB is right about Tweeg's map reading skills. Even Daddy Pig is better than Tweeg when it comes to map reading. Tweeg's excuse: Hands full with the map, heads full with the treasure. Sounds reasonable to me, LB. Tweeg orders LB to hurry up and we scene change back to the Airship in the sky as Grubby somehow spots a water fall and Gimmick wants to land there.
So, we again jump cut to the waterfall with no sign that the Airship landed and we see the worst costume ever for Wooly's design splashing water at the waterfall, which by the way looks like the worst designed waterfall ever. This is where CGI/digital pupptery would have worked perfectly. Even the animated series, despite lacking continuity with the rest of that series, had the much better waterfall. In comes the babyfaces as it's implied that the babyfaces ran out of water and Wooly looks dangerous. Molly would have blown this off. Molly Cunningham, everyone; since Henry is very similar to Wooly, only with a buffalo face and wings. Okay, Teddy just walks in and yells at him to get his attention. BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! So much for being kind. Imagine Wooly's voice being the same as the animated series, only scarier. Wooly is voiced by Will Ryan by the way, which is the second major voice he did here, but not in the animated series. Teddy asks for water nicely and Wooly blows him off, Grubby protests this outrage and is backed down by Wooly. So, the lobster courage of Grubby is still present in this one, too. At least they are keeping the Princess Aruzia is kidnapped thing consistent here than in the animated series. Sometimes, this special can do good. So, Wooly offers to help by taking them to see the Wizard of Grundo, whom we scene change to exactly that area. So, yes; the entire Jungle Grunges segment is animated series only. So, they make it to the door and why did they need ice fog for this scene? This feels like overkill to me. So Gimmick rings the door bell, which is a gong, so yes; even this special felt it was going to get the gong and they decided to beat the critics to the punch. Good to know. The Wizard's voice is also a vast improvement from the animated series as this one sounds rather creepy in this special. Wizard no sells the deal and tells them to go away, so Arin pulls the door bell this time and the Wizard tells them to go away. Arin asks if he can help with the princess as we see the Wizard at the door and he's much younger in this version than in the animated series. Once the wizard hears the word "princess" he recoils and we see him about to open the door and that ends part two almost 28 minutes in. So, we have a lot of stuff cut so far and most of this looks shaky at best.
So, we return as the door opens and he sees Wooly and shuts the door as there is some sort of rainbow light display for no reason. Wooly calls himself the Wooly Whatsit as the wizard lets everyone in; but Wooly as the door is slammed in his face. So Arin and Wizard exchange notes as they make it to the fortune table with the magic mirror, that neither one is magical. Wizard goes to the back and asks Louie who is sitting there cross legged reading the newspaper, which he wrote and starred in it I bet. Louie sounds exactly like Louie from the animated series. Wizard shows off-screen Prince Arin to Louie and Louie finds a reel of footage and basically gives away to the audience that Aruzia was kidnapped by Gutangs. You couldn't wait until the big reveal on the magic mirror, couldn't you special? It's not like you would have wasted anymore time if Louie hasn't mentioned it outright. Wizard informs him that she's been kidnapped and tells Louie to put the film on the machine. Louie sells it and Wizard returns to the fortune table. Did I mention that this version is tons more creepy than the animated series? The wizard orders them to concertate and Gimmick cannot even do that properly. Why is Grubby smarter than Gimmick in this version? Plus, he's saying this so no one notice that he's using science to create the magical effects instead of magic, but this wizard cannot do magic to save his life. There is a tanbornie hung on a string, which would be a revealing mistake; but is likely part of the wizard's fiendish plot to decieve us into thinking he's magical, when he is not. Then a drum is involved, playing the worst drum music I have ever heard. So, they do the casino pointing at letters spot as it's the Gutangs, which Grubby thinks it's a circus act of course. So, we look into the Magical Eye of doom, and imagine watching a Z-grade version of similar footage shown in the animated series, only in greyscale. Oh, and Louie's projector is also on it's last legs, it seems. The music played in the background looks like it was stolen from a Z-grade movie as well. The Gutangs looks like what they were in the animated series and so does Aruzia, only with blond hair. Arin notices her and Teddy asks where to find the Hard to Find City and the Wizard proclaims that it's to the north east, and makes sure to punch Arin in the stomach to prevent him from escaping and not paying him. OUCH! So we head outside as we lift off with Arin thanking Wooly and Wooly on the ground waving bye bye.
So, we fade to black and return as we get probably the funniest moment of Tweeg failing at life: Tweeg has the grappling hook against a mountain and it's barely six feet up. He gives up on the spot and whines as LB taunts him for my pleasure. HAHA! This should have been in the animated series, just to crack me up. So, we return to the air with the Airship in model form as we jump cut back to Tweeg on his telescope as he notices the babyfaces right away and his whining here is absolutely glorious. I was laughing so hard at this. And as he is whining about this, LB is calmly pointing out that they are landing. This is the best moment in this special by a mile. And it ends with Tweeg looking at the hard camera and saying "They're landing?" Also funny. So, we head to near the airship as Arin is making slingshots, Gimmick is doing nothing, Teddy is doing nothing and Grubby is making root stew AFTER HAPPY HOUR (after dark). Teddy of course is lying about the root stew despite Grubby thinking that Teddy might not like it. So, we jump cut to Tweeg and LB practicing the fine art of not being seen and they get on the ship by sitting on the back propeller of the airship. I'm not joking because they clearly show it when the Airship lands at the Hard To Find City at night. They land off-screen and then the babyfaces walk off as we pan over to Tweeg and LB bailing to find the treasure. Scene change to the babyfaces noticing a guard behind a staircase and Arin subdues him from behind, like a heel. Then Gimmick and Grubby start beating him down, while Teddy does nothing, because he's against himself doing violence, you see. So, they get the mask off, gag him and in comes the rope to tie the Gutang up. Very heelish, considering that the Gutangs own this place. I'm being sort of sarcastic here as we scene change to a shot of two Gutangs standing guard and they get subdue and masks stolen by the babyfaces. So, they do all this; but only three of the four Gutangs were shown to be subdued during this sequence as Grubby just pops out of nowhere with a Gutang mask on when the babyfaces go into the main building in the footage shown a while ago. I couldn't tell, most of the footage was far away for me to see. Four Gutangs are shown eating dinner in the background. None of them suspect a thing. Then we see the babyfaces stop as they notice a room with at least two Gutangs guarding in the cage Princess Aruzia, who looks similar, but appears to have Miss Piggy's face on one of the shots.
So, here what happened here: The babyface order the Gutangs to let her out. The Gutang guard ask who ordered them. Teddy tells them to get them after stammering and four babyfaces subdued two heels just like that. One of the Gutangs comes in for answers to this outrage and Teddy tells him that he dropped something and the Gutangs walks away grumbling about losing a game of poker basically. Aruzia notices Arin somehow in all of this and she has no British accent whatsoever. Katie Leigh voices Aruzia and she sounds like Sunni Gummi. I should also note that neither Aruzia nor Arin were red haired in this special as both siblings embrace. So, Teddy has the air pump voice on as they offer Aruzia a mask of her own and we scene change to outside as the babyfaces in masks practice the fine art of not being seen and head for the shrine. There is a lot of fog effects in this scene, way too many in my view. So Teddy goes to the wall where the second half of the medallion is and puts the two together. He reads the medallion off as spark effects are put in to weld the two pieces together and then the medallion shrinks to the sizes of Teddy's palm and drops into his hands. The crystals are basically flashlight bulbs as the treasure of Grundo appears before our very eyes, the definiton of written in by teleport. A spotlight appears on the pillar where the six crystals are. This is basically the animated series, with b-grade effects. Yeah; I skipped through most of the big moments here because it's mostly the same as the animated series, no need to go through the song and dance again. So, the babyfaces leaves as we see Tweeg and LB hiding behind some pillar in the foreground as Tweeg is already confused and LB is also confused. LB then realizes the building and the heels both go inside and lust for the treasure ensues, and it looks so poorly staged. Tweeg is so happy and cannot show that kind of emotion like he could in the animated series. I think lack of money was the least of this vision's problems. So, the Gutangs all recover and they sound like they do in the animated series as well as they sound the goofy alarm. Scene change to the Airship lifting off into the sky as the Gutangs come out to morning and get into their airplanes. So, the flying machines thing was an animated series creation. They use a lot of model airplane sequences in this one as they shoot spears which looked more toned down than the animated series. Arin and Aruzia dodge gunfire for a bit.
So, they also fire the giant crossbow and catapults as Teddy wants to get out of range, but one of the weapons springs a net on the propeller. Wait, what?! A grappling hook snags the Airship as well; so why the net? That sounds like overkill to me. So, time to man the slingshots as Teddy wants Grubby's root stew for ammo and man, Teddy's shooting is awful in this special, as it took three shots to even making the pilot stick too sticky to use. One of the planes goes into the worst tailspin ever. And no, I'm not wasting anymore time here. It looks like the plane is spinning around as it spirals down without any sense of danger nor logic to it. Oh, hello Wooly; I didn't know you were going to be a part of this since there was no mention of Wooly following them in the special. The Gutangs selling of this was hideously hilarious by the way. More shooting and one hits the props of the flying machine and it goes down. Sadly, the Gutangs outnumber the root stew (making Teddy's aiming look even worse in hindsight) as a flying machine head straight for the Airship. So, yes; the scene with patching up the balloon of the airship is not in evidence here. Wooly does the leap of faith and jumps onto the flying machine and takes it down to the ground off-screen, with no crashing sounds at all. Fade to black and return as somehow, the Gutang completely no sold the crash and runs away. That mask is awesome. Wooly looks like he's dead; but I have seen the animated series and he will not be dead here. No one grieves because Wooly is up literally fifteen seconds later. Meaning he sold the thing better than the Gutang did. Wooly notices Aruzia in a confused matter and ask if she is a princess. Aruzia says yes; Wooly acts like he just won the Wrestlemania main event. By the way, as they are wrapping this up, Grubby pretty much calls out Teddy for not liking the root stew, so that angle is dead in the water now. So, Grubby is worried about the treasure, but Teddy don't care about that because the crystals appear to be whomever wrote the message on the medallion and these crystal will make the treasure look like an illusion. And speaking of the treasure, we head back to the shrine with Tweeg and LB as the treasure disappears without a trace, thus written out by teleport. LB now knows why they left it and Tweeg panics and whines because he fails at life. Scene change to a closeup shot of the medallion as we zoom out to on the airship as now Teddy is singing for real nearly 41 minutes in. Too little, too late. So we hold hands as Wooly and the Airship head away from the hard camera towards Nogbert Castle as Wooly waves to the Airship, Aruzia is shouting that it's home and Teddy finishes his song to end the special at 43 minutes approx. So, yeah; the animated series was a lot better than this, mainly because they fleshed out everything and gave us some really good stuff. There is so much better voices can do before the other problems are present for all to see. Call it ** (40%).
THE REVIEW LINE
Well; I finally got through this special and it's not as bad as some say it is; but it isn't as good as the five parter from Canada. Yes, the five parter had a lot of problems in it's own right; but there were improvements in much of that. Ilana's opening song is still the best thing on the special and there were a few really funny moments in this; but the editing of this was horrible and it felt rushed throughout. The voice acting for the most part was better than the animated series and the costume designs were actually fine outside of Wooly's. The background and sets were all right outside of some really poor choices. However, this felt like a Cleveland notes version of Teddy Ruxpin and would have been better as a hand drawn 88 minute special like Plunder and Lightning was. I think most of the creepy looks might have been due to the costume designer thinking that the heel must all be scary, which might explain the Bounder costumes. Personally, I didn't find Teddy all that creepy compared the rest of them. Overall, this was a below average special which is good enough for ABC Weekend Specials, I guess. Otherwise, I wouldn't bother. I hope the CGI reboot is much better than the animated and Muppet versions combined though. So, I guess I wait for Terry Bogard's Super Smash Brothers Ultimate presentation in November and maybe do some Ducktales 2018 featuring Don Karnage. So...
Thumbs down for this episode and I'll see you all next time.