Adventures in Care-a-Lot Episode 24

And here we have the last original episodes of the year, and possible the season, as the following two broadcast episodes were already released on DVD in early 2008.  I've been sitting on this post for a little while, so I had to get it out before I start posting about anything else.  The first story is fun, but the second, I'm sorry, just feels like a waste of time.

Forget It - "Yes, you may gloat with me, Mr. Beaks."

It all starts one morning, with Funshine walking down the street, feeling pretty proud of himself for reasons we are not privy to.  His stroll is interrupted by Tenderheart, showing off his new Grumpy-made pogo stick.  Funshine, impressed, wonders if Grumpy would make one for him as well.  Tenderheart offers to let Funshine try it out before deciding if he wants one, but Funshine is...hesitant.  Tenderheart basically jams his helmet onto Funshine's head and pushes the pogo stick on him, so Funshine gives it a try.  With a little coaching from Tenderheart, Funshine starts to get the hang of it, until the pogo stick goes haywire on him.  He hits the wrong button and ends up in the fountain.  He's okay, but even Grumpy can't fix the damage done to the pogo stick.  Funshine apologizes to Tenderheart, but points out that he was hesitant about riding in the first place. Tenderheart can't believe his friend is trying to pass the buck, and the two of them argue a bit before deciding not to be friends anymore.  Grumpy and Oopsy (who was in the scene, but didn't have any lines) just shrug.

Meanwhile, Grizzle unveils his latest creation: The Forget Me Ray!  With this device, as he explains to Mr. Beaks, he will erase any memory of himself from the Care Bears' minds, thus regaining the immunity he had back in Oopsy Does It, before they knew who he was.  Back in Care-a-lot, Cheer and Grumpy try to get Tenderheart and Funshine back together, but it hasn't been long enough for them to get over it and the two of them are still cold to each other.  Which is exactly when Grizzle shoots all of Care-a-lot with his ray.  However, as is usually the case with his rays, it doesn't do exactly what he wants, although this time it's close enough.  Instead of making them all forget him, they all forget everything.  Which means that Funshine and Tenderheart no longer remember their feud.

Grizzle shows up in Care-a-lot and introduces himself to everyone as Mr. Grizzle, and tells them what to do, since no one can remember what they're supposed to be doing.  First things first, he gets everyone to start painting Care-a-lot gray.  But when he goes to check on things, he finds the first group playing around with the brushes because they forgot where the paint was.  Grizzle realizes the tragic flaw in his plan: not only did the ray make the Care Bears forget, it keeps them from remembering, too.  So, he gives everyone a post-it note with their job on it and sends them off again.  But again, he does not find them painting, but looking at the clouds.  Turns out that the Care Bears forgot how to read, so they can't read the notes, either.  But Grizzle does not give up just yet.  This time he ties a gray string to everyone's fingers to remind them to paint the town gray and sends them off.

After implementing this not-very-likely to succeed tactic, Grizzle goes to Grumpy's garage to fix the ray while complaining to Mr. Beaks about it, which Funshine and Tenderheart overhear.  Funshine distracts Grizzle while Tenderheart sneaks the ray out, and they later use it on themselves.  They instantly remember their fight, but they both agree that they have to help their friends first and be mad at each other second.  Which is exactly when Grizzle shows up, demanding they return his ray.  Which they do, in a manner of speaking, by turning it on him.  Then they recruit the amnesiac Grizzle to return everyone back to normal.  After that, they send Grizzle back to his lair with all the paint, so he can "spruce it up."

With that taken care of, Funshine and Tenderheart resume being mad at each other, much to the other bears' amazement.  Not able to let it go, Cheer, Grumpy, and even Oopsy beseech the two bears to patch things up, and they do finally give in and apologize to each other for real this time.  And Grumpy reveals that he made them both matching pogo sticks for when they made up.  So maybe it was like a day in between the first few scenes or something.  Anyway, Grumpy warns them not to go near the fountain, and what's the first thing they do?  Fall in the fountain, of course.

As an epilogue, UR-2 and Rocketbottom try to figure out where Grizzle's new-found enthusiasm for painting came from.

Gone - "There goes one girl in need of a Care Bear Stare."

Did you know that McKenna actually has a friend who isn't a Care Bear?  As the opening montage shows, she does have one.  Unfortunately for her, as is usually the case with a suddenly introduced friend, her family has to move away.  McKenna and her friend share a sad farewell, and then her wristband starts glowing.  It's really the charm bracelet underneath, but in her current state of mind, McKenna does not look forward to visiting her friends in the sky.

Up in Care-a-lot, the Care Bears are preparing for the arrival of the Thunder Whales, and Share gives us a continuity nod while showing off the flowers she painted, which gives Grumpy a good segue into showing off his latest invention, a kind of mechanical tail that will let him talk to the Thunder Whales.  Oopsy is all kinds of excited for the whales to show up and Grumpy has to physically restrain him to keep him away from the mechanical tail.  Although Oopsy gives up on trying it out, turns out Grumpy didn't need any help making it go crazy and chase him.  Not quite ready for communication, I guess.

After that small debacle, McKenna shows up, even though she's not in the mood to do anything and just settles herself under a tree.  Cheer and Funshine resolve to get McKenna involved in the Thunder Whale's arrival, but don't think of just Care Bear Staring her back in good spirits.  She rebuff's Funshine's attempt, but agrees to help Grumpy, since she just has to push a button.  But even the sight of Grumpy being chased by his own creation is not enough to cheer her up, and she runs off.  Grumpy, of course, see the obvious solution of giving her a stare, but it's time for the commercial break, so she doesn't get one.

After the break, McKenna halfheartedly flips a coin into the fountain and tells Share that she wished her friend would move back.  So Share gives her the 'it's okay to feel sad when your friend moves away' talk, and wouldn't this really be more of a job for, oh I don't know, Best Friend Bear?  Share's deficiency is pointed out by McKenna: since all of Share's friends live right there in Care-a-lot, she has no idea how McKenna feels.  Share jumps over this fact by instead reminding McKenna that she has other friends, although I think she's just referring to the other Care Bears.  No time to think about that now, the Thunder Whales are almost here.

The whales show up, do their whaley thing, and for some reason Funshine and Cheer feel obligated to use their badges as twin spotlights to guide the whales.  Grumpy attaches the tail of the mechanical tail to Oopsy's head so they can at least say Hi, and Share and McKenna go in for a close encounter with one of the whales.  McKenna notices a distressed whale nearby and soon spots the source of its distress: one of the babies got caught in a tree.  So McKenna conjures up a cloud from her bracelet and lifts the whale to safety.  She is congratulated by the others and the whale comes back for a hug (aww), and then it's off the whales go for another year.  This makes Share realize that she does know what it feels like to have a friend move away (kinda), so, um, good?  The others point out that just as the whales return year after year, so too will McKenna see her friend again, and McKenna acknowledges that such things as e-mail and phones exist in the world.

So McKenna goes home having resolved her feelings over her friend moving away, only to find that her mom (and her friend's mom) sprung for a webcam, so now she and her friend can Skype all the time!  Happy ending all around, I guess.

Ugh, this ep was like pulling teeth, seriously.  Nothing happened, but they stretched it out to an full 10 minutes anyway #_#  At least McKenna has a hot mom to make watching the whole thing  worth it (a little, anyway).