Adventures in Care-a-Lot Episode 22

Luck O' the Oopsy

Not an episode where Oopsy and Good Luck team up to try and counter Oopsy's clumsiness, although Good Luck does play a part.  No, this episode is about the Care-a-Lot Grand Prix, an anything goes race.  Share hopes that everyone can win, and corrects Grumpy when he tries to tell her that there can only be one winner.  According to Share, trying your best is all it takes to be a winner.  Yeah, you go, Share.  Cheer plans to use rollerblades, Funshine's going to fly on a sundisc and Share makes herself some skis.  Grumpy feels he has them all beat as he unveils his latest and greatest creation, a super cloud car named Stormy.  His thunder is stolen by Oopsy flying by on a jet-powered board with Wingnut in tow.  He strikes a few poses as he goes by, inspiring awe from the watching bears.  His attempt at a trick landing only lands him a parking spot in the Gathering Tree, though.

Later, Oopsy stops at the grocery store to pick up some snacks, while Grumpy parks Stormy and also enters the store (Best Friend Bear is the clerk).  As you may have guessed, they run into each other.  Grumpy sends Oopsy to the opposite end of the store, but Oopsy does not take the hint, and follows Grumpy around as he shops.  Grumpy repeatedly rejects Oopsy's attempts to sell him on some milk, and ends up walking into a display, and 

ends up covered in eggs.  Oopsy tries to help, but just accidentally drops his milk on Grumpy's head.  Grumpy quickly pays for his groceries and leaves the store.  Oopsy follows after him, trying to make amends, but Grumpy is having none of it.  Oopsy forcibly tries to help with the groceries, but Grumpy forcibly tries to keep him from doing just that, and the honey, jam, and flour wind up all over Stormy.  Oopsy starts to give his catchphrase, but Grumpy stops him, claiming to be sick and tired of hearing it (although it's more likely he's sick and tired of Oopsy getting away with things by saying it), and even calls Oopsy 'bad luck.'

This brings Funshine and Share onto the scene, although they don't really do too much.  Oopsy promises to wash Grumpy's car before the race, but Grumpy is loathe to let him do it.  Share helps to convince him, but what really does it is the creepiness of Oopsy literally groveling at Grumpy's feet.  Grumpy has no choice but to give in, but promises that he'll be watching the entire time.  Later, Grumpy supervises the cleaning while Share plays hopscotch in the background.  There is a very contrived sequence here wherein Share should have known better than to do what she did, as should have Oopsy, but the end result is Grumpy's car being irreversibly sticky.  Grumpy once again declares Oopsy is bad luck, but Oopsy waxes the car, and this manages to take care of it (I doubt it would work in real life, though).  Grumpy is even impressed, until he hears that the wax takes 48 hours to dry, which he doesn't have, since the race is the next day.  So Oopsy tries drying it with a hairdryer, but this only reduces Stormy to dust.  Grumpy once again calls Oopsy bad luck and storms off.  Oopsy starts to think he is bad luck after all, and though Share tries to dissuade him, there's no denying that accidents happen around him more often than not.

At the library, Oopsy searches for an answer to his problem in a stack of books, but the stack just falls to the ground, proving his point.  Good Luck, on page duty, comes by to help pick up the books and asks Oopsy what's wrong.  Oopsy gives him his problem in a nutshell, and Good Luck just tells him that everyone has good and bad days, even him.  Oopsy, however, is distracted by Good Luck's four leaf clover belly badge.  Inspired, he runs off to a field of clovers and plucks one.  Now, if there's a whole field of four leaf clovers, wouldn't they cease to be lucky?  I mean, four leaf clovers are lucky because they're hard to find, right?  Well, Oopsy believes it to be lucky, anyway, as he tucks it into his helmet and takes off on his jet board to practice.

On the day of the big race, Grumpy shows up in the all-new Stormy II, and makes a point to line up on the exact opposite side of the starting line as Oopsy.  Good Luck acts as announcer for the race and Love-a-Lot waves the starting flag.  As the racers take off, Good Luck finds Oopsy's clover on the ground.  As the race progresses, Grumpy finds that his newly (and quickly) built car just doesn't have the same oomph as Stormy I and trails further and further behind, while Oopsy leads by a mile.  He crosses the finish line to much acclaim, although Wingnut demands his fair share of the praise as Oopsy's racing partner.  Even Grumpy begrudgingly congratulates Oopsy and finally admits that Oopsy isn't bad luck after all.  Oopsy credits his win to the clover, only to find it missing.  Good Luck tells him that he never had it during the race, and that he made his own luck (and Good Luck should know).  Funshine adds that it was Oopsy's practicing that won the race, and Good Luck adds some advice about making your own luck.  Oopsy decides that having friends is what makes you really lucky, as the episode comes to a close.

This episode had some good 'heh' moments, like Oopy's third milk solicitation (the rule of threes).  It's nice to see some other bears working, especially in the library ^_~ On that note, there was plenty of good luck for Good Luck Bear fans.  Very nice to see him get a chance to shine.  

Rudemate

Another McKenna episode.  What's up with McKenna showing up in the second half of every episode, anyway?  And usually with some unexplained new trinket.  Like in this episode, where she comes for an extended visit in Care-a-Lot (how'd she get permission from her parents for this?).  After beaming her up, Grumpy takes her bag, but it is loaded with rocks, apparently, and he can't lift it.  So she rubs a charm on a bracelet she just happens to be wearing, producing a little cloud to carry the bag for her.  Where the heck did that bracelet come from?  When did she get a badge/charm from Grumpy?  And how did the badges she got in previous episodes turn into golden charms, anyway?  Come on, writers, be consistent about this stuff!

McKenna heads to Tenderheart's house, where she'll be staying, and he has to remind her to wipe her feet.  She wipes one and leaves it at that.  Tenderheart leads her to his guestroom, telling her how he got it tidied up just for her, then leaves her to unpack.  To McKenna, this means 'strew everything across the room,' much to Tenderheart's surprise/dismay.  He offers to help her put things away, but McKenna is more interested in a snack.  Specifically, some 'Care-a-Lot Carrots.'  Tenderheart tells her he has some in the fridge and to help herself.  In order to get to the carrots, McKenna takes out half the fridge's contents and then leaves once she has what she was looking for.  Tenderheart is not pleased.

In the time it takes for Tenderheart to put everything back, the living room is an absolute mess.  Seems McKenna started out by looking for a book but made a fort instead.  Tenderheart decides to renege on his invitation, but his attempts to break it gently to McKenna are misinterpreted, and she starts playing 'volleyball tennis' in the house, knocking over paintings and lamps.  Finally, Tenderheart has had enough, and yells at her to stop.  He tells her off for not picking up after herself, and McKenna retorts that she shouldn't have to since she's the guest.  So Tenderheart kicks her out until she learns some respect.  With a huff, McKenna collects her things and leaves, slamming the door behind her.  The curtain rod on a nearby window falls down and Tenderheart sighs.  She decides to head over to Love-a-lot's house, and Love-a-lot welcomes her with open arms.  One screenwipe later and Love-a-lot's house is in the same condition as Tenderheart's.  Just like Tenderheart, Love-a-lot sends McKenna off with the same huff, slam, and falling curtain rod.

Word travels quickly in Care-a-Lot, and so when McKenna tries to hole up with Grumpy, he immediately rejects her, citing Tenderheart and Love-a-lot's ordeals as reason enough to send her packing.  McKenna insists she was just having fun, and again mentions that she was the guest.  Grumpy informs her that there's more to being a guest than making messes, but the fact remains that she has no place to stay.  Faced with a challenge, Grumpy comes up with an idea and tells McKenna to come to Care Square at the end of the day and he'll have a solution.  McKenna gives him an awkward hug and goes off to do who knows what.  In the meantime, Grumpy calls over Tenderheart and Love-a-lot to talk about McKenna.  Love-a-lot is all too eager to complain about what she went through, and Tenderheart completely understands.  Grumpy suggests that McKenna needs to learn to be a good guest, and Tenderheart adds that she needs some responsibility lessons, too, but he doesn't want her learning them in his house.  So Grumpy unveils his blueprints for a house for McKenna, to teach her respect for her own things, hoping that will trickle down to respect for other's things.  

They spend the rest of the day building the house, and just as they finish, McKenna shows up.  She bypasses any tension between her and Love-a-lot and Tenderheart by telling them she's staying with Grumpy, which Grumpy is quick to dispute.  Instead, the three bears show her the house they built for her.  McKenna swoons at the sight of the house, gives the three of them an awkward group hug, then goes to explore her new house.  Tenderheart and the others wait to see what will happen.

McKenna slides across the floor in her socks, jumps on the couch, and exhults in her new ruleless lifestyle.  To celebrate, she pulls of her socks and flings them wherever.  All too soon, the house is covered in garbage and dirty clothes, but McKenna pays it no mind, until her piled up stuff avalanches her right out of the house.  As she wonders how she ended up in this mess, the house itself gets ready to bust.  She quickly conjures up a lollipop to prop it up from her charm bracelet, but not for long.  She heads to Tenderheart's house for some help, but when he hears the particulars, he brushes her off.  Her pleas for help are rendered moot when Tenderheart notices the dirty footprints she tracked into his house.  He shows her the door and she leaves in despair.

Back at her almost-exploded house, McKenna bemoans her fate while tossing another piece of garbage on the pile.  Out of the blue, Tenderheart admonishes her for her lack of guest skills, reminding her that she has respect her own things as well as those of others.  McKenna finally gets it, and Tenderheart reaches out to her.  But she still has to clean up the mess on her own, he tells her, and McKenna understands, making a vow to always pick up after herself from now on.  After a while, Grumpy and the other two show up to see how she's doing, and the house is almost completely clean.  As she finishes up, McKenna apologizes for being a bad guest and confirms that she's learned her lesson.  She even invites the three of them to be guests in her newly-cleaned home.  They take her up on it, and McKenna mock reminds Tenderheart to wipe his feet.  The two laugh, and then McKenna follows them in, wiping both her feet this time.

Not a great episode, but it was nice to have a couple of non-core characters take the lead this time.  Disgruntled Tenderheart was awesome, by the way, but McKenna's face animation was really funky this time around.  Which is weird, because a lot of the episode had pretty good animation, but parts of it had really weird/bad animation.  How odd.