Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Adventures in Care-a-lot, Episode 2



The first part, titled Growing Pains, starts with everyone admiring Share's garden. Cheer expresses a desire to have her own garden, and Share tells her it'll take a few weeks. A few weeks later, Share wakes up to find no one in her garden, much to her surprise. Oopsy shows up, and spills the beans--he was actually going to Cheer's new garden, where everyone else is (but being Oopsy, he went to the wrong place). Unable to wrap her mind around the idea that someone else could have a garden, she follows Oopsy, and is not pleased with what she sees. Cheer's garden not only has bigger flowers (and a toy bush), but a tire swing and topiaries.
Back in her own garden, Share laments that it isn't as big as Cheer's, and tries to think of a way to make it better. Unable to actually think of anything, she goes to Grumpy for ideas. Grumpy, meanwhile, is working on a fountain for Cheer's garden, prompting a scene of awesomeness. Seriously, the betrayal in Share's voice when she finds out he's helping Cheer, and Grumpy's whole "You're not jealous, are ya?" accusation really made this episode for me. If these two aren't a Care Bear Couple, then they oughta be. Grumpy gives Share some grow glitter (he can't reach it, so he uses his belly badge to make a cloud to get it--I love it!), warning her to use one pinch and one pinch only. Surely you can see where this is going.
Share spreads a pinch of grow glitter over her flowers, and sure enough, they all spring up. Still insecure over whether her garden is better than Cheer's, Share reasons that two pinches will do the trick. And it does, as everyone flocks from Cheer's garden to hers (mainly for the now-giant lollipop tree). Cheer manages to stop Funshine from leaving, but that's about it.
Over in Share's garden, everyone's impressed, and Share couldn't be happier. Meanwhile, outraged that Share's trying to outdo her, Cheer has Funshine making a row of suns to help her flowers grow bigger, while she applies buckets of water. While Cheer wonders how Share got her garden to grow so big, Grumpy arrives with the now-fixed fountain and explains about the grow glitter. Again, there's great betrayal and "Now you sound jealous," action here. Grumpy gives Cheer his last bag of grow glitter, setting forth a chain of grow glitter use by Cheer and Share, while all the other Care Bears go back and forth between the two until they're too confused to do anything but stare at the rapidly growing foliage.
Funshine alerts Grumpy to the situation (since he spent the whole time working in his garage, apparently), who at first scoffs, but when he sees the ginormous gardens, the look of pure horror on his face is priceless. Funshine and Grumpy try to talk to Share and Cheer, but the gardens are too overgrown. Share is unable to reach the tops of the plants, but still worries that Cheer's garden is bigger. So she uses the grow glitter on herself (which you're probably not supposed to do), and instantly grows taller than her flowers. Seeing this, Cheer does the same, and the two proceed to both argue and use more grow glitter on themselves.
Cut to Grizzle's lair, where he's just about to take off in his Sticky Plane (which will somehow seal the Care Bears in stickiness). He opens the hangar to take off, only to find the gigantic heads of Cheer and Share. So much for that plan.
Back in Care-a-lot, Cheer and Share continue to argue, creating havoc for those on the ground. Grumpy makes a cloud plane using his belly badge (Funshine contributes a sun propellor) and goes to confront Share and Cheer: "Somebody used more than just one pinch!" I just love the annoyance in his voice here. With just that and a cold stare, Grumpy gets the two girls to fess up to their jealousy, which in turn makes them shrink back to normal size (not the gardens, though). They resolve to make a new garden together, so they won't be jealous. Oopsy runs in, but is sadly too late to see the "giant Care Bears." End part one.

Part two is much better IMO, but mainly because it features lots of Grumpy. As awesome as Grumpy is when he's pointing out people's flaws, it's good to see him learn a lesson, too. This story is called King Grumpy, and it begins with Grumpy showing off his latest invention to Share, Cheer, Funshine, Oopsy, and Wingnut. The Bubble-phonium, which runs on water and makes musical bubbles. Everyone's impressed, until it explodes, washing everyone out of the garage. While helping Grumpy up, Wingnut rolls over Grumpy's foot, hurting it badly.
Share makes the diagnosis, which makes me wonder why Take Care Bear couldn't have been there. C'mon, writers! You've got the perfect opportunity for a cameo (which is why most of us are watching, I'm sure), and you just let it slip through your hands! But I do like Share's lack of tact in this scene:
Funshine: *comforting Wingnut* It was an accident. You were just trying to help Grumpy.
Share: But instead, you hurt him.
Wingnut: *tears up*
Share: Oh. *puppy dog eyes* But you didn't mean to! (Yeah, like being cute makes it all right...)
Cheer tells Grumpy to stay off his foot, but he doesn't want to just sit around. Wingnut offers to help, but Grumpy turns him down until Oopsy points out that it would make Wingnut feel better to help, just until Grumpy's better. So he agrees.
Thus begins the "Wingnut Helps Out" montage, with Grumpy protesting at first, as Wingnut cleans up the garage, does the dishes, vacuums, does the laundry, and other jobs that would be rife with hijinks in a different story. Finally, the house is so clean that you have to wear sunglasses just to look at it, and Grumpy has fully accepted Wingnut's help.
The next day, Funshine and Cheer check in on Grumpy, and find that his foot is okay. Fearing this will mean the loss of Wingnut's help, Grumpy fakes his foot being sore, with Wingnut none the wiser.
Later, Wingnut works on the Bubble-phonium and discovers the reason it broke: a Q bolt that was too small. In order to fix it, Grumpy needs a Q bolt expander, but Grizzle stole his a while ago. Hearing this, Wingnut immediately takes off. At the same time, Funshine and Cheer show up again, wondering if Grumpy's taking advantage of Wingnut's kindness. Grumpy takes umbrage at their accusations, so Funshine quickly backpedals, "Of course not. Friends don't do that to friends." "And if they did, just think about how you'd feel if they took advantage of you," adds Cheer. And they leave. Grumpy breaks the fourth wall to ask the audience if he's taking advantage of Wingnut, but decides he isn't, and goes to bed.
That night, Grumpy dreams that he's a serf and Wingnut's a king who orders him to move a statue all around. This makes him realize that, yes, he's been taking advantage of Wingnut, and he goes to apologize, even though it's the middle of the night. Not finding him in the garage, he goes to Oopsy's house, which is where Wingnut lives, apparently. Oopsy tells him that Wingnut left earlier, saying something about an "R nail reducer." Grumpy rightly guesses what happened, which leads us to...
Wingnut knocking on Grizzle's lair's door. It's the middle of the night, but Grizzle is still up, having a midnight snack (we aren't shown what the snack is, but I'd like to think it was a roast beef sandwich). Finding that Wingnut is not there to get his old job back (Wingnut started as Grizzle's henchman in Oopsy Does It, but switched sides before the end), Grizzle introduces him to his replacement, not UR-2, sadly, but Mr, Beaks instead. Wingnut gets down to brass tacks and asks for the Q bolt expander. Here we get some wonderful voice acting characterization as Grizzle initially turns him down, only to immediately agree to let him "borrow it," and Wingnut doesn't suspect a thing. He gets the expander, but is quickly trapped by Grizzle, who, being a villian, has a cage ready for all occasions.
Even later that night, once Grizzle is asleep (in his suit. That's can't be comfortable), Grumpy arrives to rescue Wingnut (now in the dungeon). But first, he apologizes to Wingnut, who forgives him pretty readily. Grumpy gears up for a hug, but gets a Q bolt expander instead. He uses it to open the cell door and the two escape via rocket (the same one from The Big Wish movie, I think).
The next day, with the newly expanded Q bolt in place, the Bubble-phonium is back in business. Grumpy promises to make everything up to Wingnut, which makes Wingnut so happy that he accidently squashes Grumpy's foot again. Grumpy insists that it's just a bruise, but tells Wingnut he can still help out around the garage if he wants, except that everything is clean, so there isn't much to do. On the contrary, Wingnut points to the hose, which is overfilling the Bubble-phonium, which explodes again as the episode ends.

I gotta get this out of the way: Grumpy is the cutest!!!! *squeegasm* Seriously, he's the best. He really made this episode for me. The first part was rather silly, but his parts made up for it. The second part kind of made me think of the Nelvana episode with Q-bot, especially the part where there could have been hijinks, but instead everything worked out perfectly.
Also: Pajamas! More pajamas! Also, Oopsy in pajamas. Share, however, apparently sleeps in the nude.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I agree with what the author wrote for the episode ‘Growing Pains’ “Grumpy” and “Share” should most defiantly be a couple if they aren’t already; and the same goes for “Funshine” and “Cheer"


Also I like how the boys each call to their girls trying to get them to end the flower feud already. : )