Adventures in Care-a-Lot episode 15

Sorry that I've been slightly AWOL lately.  To make up for it, I'll try to cover the slack over the rest of the week.  Starting with the past couple of AiCaLs.  First up, Desperately Seeking Mr. Beaks/Good Knight Bedtime.  Both of these episodes were pretty awesome, but the first one had awesomeness in spades.

Desperately Seeking Mr. Beaks (see, you already know it's going to be good)

Like all the best episodes, this one starts in Grizzle's lair, with Grizzle describing his latest plan to Mr. Beaks.  Only Mr. Beaks isn't there.  Grizzle goes on a search of his entire lair, but Mr. Beaks is nowhere to be found.  He even tears apart his recently-finished latest creation (for Care-a-lot's destruction, naturally) just to make sure Mr. Beaks isn't trapped inside.  With no place left to look, the answer is obvious: Mr. Beaks has been birdnapped!  And since the only other characters on the show are the Care Bears, it's time for a quick trip to Care-a-lot.

Grizzle stomps around Care Square, terrorizing the bears with vague threats about how they took "him."  When he runs into Oopsy, he spills the whole story about how Mr. Beaks is missing, and Oopsy feels his pain since all the bears, while not being that fond of Grizzle, rather like 

Mr. Beaks.  Grizzle continues to insist that a Care Bear took him, and Oopsy, knowing this isn't true,

 promises to help find Mr. Beaks "if" he's in Care-a-lot at all.  Funshine, Love-a-lot, and Grumpy show up at the tail end of their conversation and are brought up to speed by Oopsy.  Grumpy isn't so sure Mr. Beaks is actually missing, but Oopsy and the others are convinced by how upset Grizzle is, especially when they see him wiping away tears (I. Love. It!).

Realizing that they have a mystery on their hands (and not "the screwiest day Care-a-lot has ever seen," as Grumpy puts it), Funshine and Love-a-lot bond over their love of mystery novels and team up to solve the case!  Love-a-lot takes the lead by getting a description of Mr. Beaks from Grizzle.  We don't actually get to hear it, but you can just tell by the look on Grizzle's face that it was going to be one of glowing adoration.  Meanwhile, Grumpy has a plan that requires Oopsy's help (seriously?).

Later, Funshine and Love-a-lot are dressed for their role as detectives, and head out to interrogate some suspects, including Bedtime, Surprise, Wingnut, and those cubs who may or may not be Hugs and Tugs (this part was amusing enough to make me wish it included a few more suspects).  But all their leads come up empty, leading to a meeting in the library where Funshine and Love-a-lot clash over whether they need to focus on finding more clues or figuring out a motive.  Grizzle, fed up with all this useless investigating, accuses the two bears of covering up the real culprit, and goes off to search on his own.  Funshine concludes that being a detective is hard work.

After the commercial break, Funshine and Love-a-lot convene with Grumpy and Oopsy and fill them in on their fruitless search.  Grumpy informs them that they were too focused on playing detective than actually working, and Funshine owns up to it.  Plus, they really do want to help Grizzle.  Grumpy and Oopsy unveil the fruits of their labor: a perfect replica of Mr. Beaks.  Ah, so that's why Grumpy needed Oopsy's help; apparently Oopsy's seen more of Mr. Beaks than any other Care Bear?  Scratch that, I still don't get it.  Regardless, Grumpy theorizes that the new Mr. Beaks will cheer up Grizzle, and Love-a-lot comments that it's exactly like the real Mr. Beaks in every way.  Except for the talking, as Oopsy points out, and they all have a good laugh at Grizzle's expense.

Grizzle, meanwhile, has given up searching and is just plain pacing when the others find him.  At first he is overjoyed when Grumpy reveals the new Mr. Beaks, and doesn't seem upset at first when Grumpy tells him that it's not the real Mr. Beaks, just a new one he built.  But all too soon Grizzle pooh-poohs the new Mr. Beaks, since the real Mr. Beaks has a gravy stain on his wing, and no other Mr. Beaks will do.  Grumpy is insulted, even more so when Grizzle accuses him of trying to keep him from finding the real Mr. Beaks.  Love-a-lot and Oopsy leap to Grumpy's defense, but Grizzle just growls at them, knocking Oopsy over, and storms off.  Grumpy wonders what to do with the fake Mr. Beaks, and Harmony shows up out of nowhere and offers to take it off his hands, being quite smitten with it.  So is almost everyone else in Care-a-lot, and Grumpy soon has a profitable business making knock-off Mr. Beakses.

With everyone in Care-a-lot sporting their own Mr. Beaks, Grizzle has had enough!  He declares that their plan hasn't fooled him, and snags Grumpy's Mr. Beaks, claiming it to be the true Mr. Beaks.  The others try to persuade him that there isn't any plan or real Mr. Beaks in Care-a-lot, but Grizzle's having none of it, and leaves with "his" Mr. Beaks.  With Grizzle gone, the others comment on how having their own Mr. Beaks allows them to empathize with Grizzle, strange as that may be, and they yet again laugh at Grizzle.

Back in his lair, Grizzle gushes to the fake Mr. Beaks, only to notice the real Mr. Beaks hidden between a crate and a trashbin.  Grizzle exhults at finding the real deal, but now he has two Mr. Beaks to deal with, and it seems they don't get along... and that's it for this episode.

Now, really, this ep is six kinds of awesome.  The first three have to do with Grizzle being adorable ^_^, the fourth is related to Love-a-lot and Funshine's detective style, the fifth is everyone getting their own Mr. Beaks, and the sixth is the perceived (by me, anyway) bond between Oopsy and Grizzle.

Good Knight Bedtime

Now this is what all the Bedtime fans have been waiting for, A Day in the Life of Bedtime!  Or rather, a Night in the Life.  Although it does start during the day, with Bedtime dreaming that he's a knight in armor, protecting Care-a-lot from a gigantic Grizzle.  Although rather than jousting, he tickles the dream Grizzle until it runs away.  As everyone goes up to congratulate him, his dream ends, and he laments that he doesn't have the same courage when he's awake.  But the sun is going down, so it's time to get cracking on his nightly duties.  Bedtime leaves his (awesome) house to go sneak into everyone else's, although we only see him in Grumpy's and Share's (hm...no, wait, he goes to Oopsy's house, too).  Seems everyone is having bad dreams that not even his belly badge's power (Touch of Good Night) can help stem.  So he decides to check out what's going on in Dreamland.

Finding a convenient bench, Bedtime chants a rhyme while rubbing his belly badge, then falls asleep and his spirit is transported to the land of dreams, which looks an awful lot like Care Square.  In dreamland, he discovers that Grumpy is dreaming about not being able to fix things, Share is dreaming of not being able to share, and Funshine just can't have fun in a dream of not being able to make a play in Belly Badge Ball.  Not sure what to do about it in Dreamland, Bedtime waits for morning and holds a seminar in the library on how to change bad dreams to good.  His reminder that dreams aren't real seems to work, as that night the only sounds are the sounds of sweet slumber.

Meanwhile, up in his lair, Grizzle complains that his Dream Scheme Machine, which should be giving the Care Bears nothing but nightmares, is not working.  Mr. Beaks points out that the machine is set on low, but Grizzle misunderstands and takes it as a compliment ("Of course I'm low!  I'm mean, too.").  Once he gets the hint, he turns the machine all the way to high, and settles back to see what will happen.  Granted, I'm not too sure what Grizzle means to accomplish with this, and it's never really explained.  Perhaps he thinks that tormenting them with bad dreams will make the Care Bears too tired to fight him should he show up to conqure Care-a-lot?  This must be the case, since the next day dawns and only Bedtime is awake (which, as we learned in Emma's Dilemma, is not the natural order of things).  This is not lost on Bedtime, and (after peeking into Grumpy and Share's houses) he heads off to Dreamland to see what's going on.

Once he gets to Dreamland, it's all too clear that everyone is having a nightmare that Grizzle actually took over Care-a-lot (complete with a neon sign of his head), although the dreaming bears assert that Grizzle somehow took over Dreamland using his machine, even though he's nowhere to be seen.  Funshine tells Bedtime that the only thing to do is wake up (since he's the only one who can control his trips between Dreamland and the real world) and defeat Grizzle on his own turf.  Bedtime is not so sure he can do it, but Share plays on his knightly desires (since all their dreams are connected, she obviously knew about his earlier dream, even if she wasn't asleep at the time, I'm guessing), and with a reassuring touch from Funshine and Cheer, Bedtime finds the determination to go and confront Grizzle!  But when he tries to "wake up," he finds he can't, and decides it's due to Grizzle's machine.  So the others lend him their power, and it works, somehow.

Back in the real world, Bedtime is still fired up from his friends' confidence in him, and he goes to prepare, mostly by borrowing stuff from Grumpy's Garage.  He hops in a cloud car and heads off to Grizzle's lair, but once he gets there, he starts getting cold feet.  He tries to turn back, but his utility belt slips and he trips, knocking the teakettle off his head.  At first he sees his own reflection, but then it turns into the core four, with Share quoting her "knight in shining armor" line from earlier.  With his resolve renewed, Bedtime heads into the fray.  He confronts Grizzle in his lair, and asks/demands that he turn off the machine.  Grizzle instead derides Bedtime's choice of headgear, but Bedtime isn't fazed by this at all.  He instead introduces himself as a knight (to Grizzle's skepticism), "the only Care Bear that can control sleep and dreams," (which sounds kinda creepy when he puts it that way), and tries to use his belly badge's power against Grizzle.  But nothing happens.  Grizzle, in true villain fashion, gives away the reason: he built an anti-belly badge shielding device for just such an occasion (and it was actually turned on, too, showing a bit of forethought on Grizzle's part).  Bedtime attempts to fight with a spoon, but Grizzle counters with an umbrella and knocks the spoon to the ground.  Grizzle's attempts at banter only inspire Bedtime, as he just happened to pack a featherduster, and taking a cue from his earlier dream, he proceeds to tickle Grizzle silly (this is the time when Grizzle regrets installing nerve sensors in his mechasuit, but ah well), distracting him long enough for Bedtime to grab his spoon again, lob it at the shielding device, and knock to the lever to "off."

Once again able to use his belly badge, Bedtime attacks Grizzle with Touch of Good Night, sending the defeated bear straight to sleep, despite his protests.  Bedtime turns off the machine and pulls out a wire to keep Grizzle from just turning it on again later, and starts to leave, but being Bedtime, can't help but make sure that Grizzle is snuggled with Mr. Beaks (aww....).  Back in Care-a-lot, Bedtime is heralded as a hero, including getting a hug from Share.  He has just enough time to spout out the lesson before the full force of his extended night hits him.  As he ambles off to the nearest comfortable spot for some sleep, Grumpy suddenly realizes that Bedtime took his teakettle, and glares at Cheer as if she had something to do with that.  She doesn't help things by looking guilty.  And Bedtime falls asleep on the bench, which was closer than his house, I guess.  And...wait a minute!  The episode actually ends without everyone laughing at nothing!  Whoa....

Bedtime was so cute in this episode!  Seriously, I wasn't a fan of him before, but he really shone on his own.  When he isn't all sleepy-eyed, he's adorable!  Now I'm really looking forward to the upcoming Night Shift (hopefully the debut of Sweet Dreams Bear in AiCaL form).  Still, I have to say this: the Care Bears have really boring dreams!  I mean, they all have to share the same dreamscape, but they could still have more interesting nightmares than 'not being able to share.'