The Zany Bishojo Evalana answers you 1

This one goes out to Esme, who asked: "Your thoughts on ALL of the Care Bear Couples (for AiCaL) that you have heard about!"

Well, I don't really follow the shipping circles, but here are my thoughts on the few couplings I've heard of or thought of myself:

Grumpy/Share
This is the first coupling I called, based on the very first episode (A Little Help & Telltale Tummy) and confirmed by the second (Growing Pains & King Grumpy) ^_~ This is one of the few couples that I'd be fine with actually being canon. They're just so cute, with Share being so sweet, reaching out to him, and Grumpy being gruff, but with a secret soft spot for her. They'd both be the "little things" kind of couple, where their actions speak louder than words.

Grumpy/Cheer
I see this couple more as a holdover from the older series, which definitely had their Cheer/Grumpy moments. I've seen supporters of this couple in AiCaL cite "A Case of the Grumpies," but IMO, I saw her attempts at cheering up Grumpy as a project ("I'm sure I can do it," she said with such smug confidence), not because she had feelings for him (if you know what I mean). And that's really how I see their relationship, and Cheer's relationship with anyone, really. She's the one in charge, and the others are just the players in her plans.

Funshine/Share
Um, I don't really have any thoughts on them. I just don't see it. I guess this came from "Care-ful Bear," but I think that he would have felt bad no matter who got hurt. And as we saw from The "Best Bear in Care-a-lot," Funshine is just generally a good guy to everyone.

Funshine/Cheer
Of any pairings involving these two, I think that this one is the most likely, although it would probably stay the "practically a couple, but they don't realize it" kind of thing. They both tend to get ideas in their heads that they can't let go of. And if the idea was each other.... ^_~

Oopsy/Wish
I know I'm not the only one who noticed how similar Oopsy's usual drawn-in belly badge is to Wish's. My personal theory is that Oopsy has a crush on Wish, hence the badge similarity and why he was all gung-ho about Twinklets, but Wish has no clue. She really seems more the motherly type than a romantic, so she's a shoo-in for selective obliviousness.

Oopsy/Cheer
This one comes directly from Oopsy Does It, where Cheer was pretty much the only one who put any stock in Oopsy. And then she cheered him up with that song when they were locked in the dungeon. They'd be a nice couple, probably.

Grizzle/Share
Okay, maybe this one is just me, but seriously, "Rebooted" gave me a vibe for this couple. I mean, Share was the first one to be sympathetic toward Grizzle, and she gave him the lollipop and a hug (fortunately, Grumpy was not jealous. Or if he was, he kept it inside, but Grumpy doesn't really seem like the type to do that, y'know?), and she was the one who pointed out that Grizzled cared at the end. Maybe Share has a thing for the grouchy types, hm? ^_~

Love-a-lot/Tenderheart
A holdover from the 2000s version, but still a cute thought. I kinda see AiCaL Love-a-lot as being a little fickle, crushing on all the boys, but never looking for anything serious. Love-a-lot = ultimate fangirl.

Funshine/Love-a-lot
For me this falls under the "Funshine is a good guy" and "Love-a-lot is fickle" umbrella. You could actually get a lot of pairings out of those two for those two reasons alone.

Surprise/Funshine
Mostly based on "The Best Bear in Care-a-lot," how he was actually able to surprise her, and she respected him for that. But I think they'd be just friends.

Bedtime/Sweet Dreams
Yes, I know that she hasn't shown up in the series, but they made a plush of her in AiCaL style, so it's inevitable. And seriously, her only purpose is to be Bedtime's girlfriend. I guess he got lonely, being the only nocturnal bear.
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Super Secret Slash Section (don't read if you don't want the images)
Don't take these too seriously. They just amuse me, in a crack kind of way.

Grumpy/Funshine
Blame this one on Oopsy Does It. You know the scene ("Want another Care Bear Stare?"). Plus that one part in Rainshine Meadows where Grumpy said he hates seeing Funshine unhappy ^_~

Tenderheart/Funshine
From Dare Bears, I guess. They seem to hang out a lot.

Oopsy/Grizzle
This one comes from ODI. It would probably be an emotionally abusive relationship, as Grizzle would alternatively play on Oopsy's insecurites and make more, depending on the situation.

Grizzle/Mr. Beaks
You know it! ^_^

And there you have it. Feel free to ask me more questions, and I'll answer them to the best of my ability.

Shocking Discovery - Disney Fairies

Poking around the IMDB, I found the cast list for the upcoming Tinkerbell movie. An interesting ensemble, to say the least. I mean, I'm always glad to see Kristin Chenoweth listed, and it's no surprise that Rob Paulsen and Jeff Glenn Bennett are involved, but do we really need Jesse McCartney? Granted, my only experience with him is vaguely in the game Kingdom Hearts (my sister played it, so I caught the cut scenes here and there) and at the end of Horton Hears a Who, but still, it annoys me. And what's Angelica Huston doing there, anyway?
The girl herself (Tinkerbell) is voiced by Mae Whitman, who is not only Katara from Avatar: the Last Airbender, but was Suzie on Johnny Bravo (which is more impressive to me. Ah, my youth...). But the real reason I'm bringing all this to your attention is for two reasons. The first is that I'm happy to see that Vidia is in the movie (she wasn't on the movie site, so I thought she wouldn't be in it), but I just cannot make heads or tails of her voice actress: Pamela Adlon. Probably best known as Bobby Hill on King of the Hill, but I'll always think of her as that kid from Time Squad. So I'm very curious to see what she does as Vidia, because while her usual raspy voicings are not what I think of when I imagine Vidia's voice, it might work. But I really won't know until the movie comes out, which won't be until the end of October.

Creating mythology, part three

You know, I had forgotten this, but the Princess Bumble's first characterization was actually a lot more impatient and impulsive. In fact, her biggest story was how she got it in her head to actually do everything in the song, "Much More" from The Fantasticks, and started with "swim in a clear blue stream where the water is icy cold," since Bumble Lake was a pretty close match and nearby. Disregarding the fact that she couldn't even swim. Fortunately, she took her entourage to watch, and they rescued her, but she got a very bad cold. In some versions, this was the catalyst that brought Princess Gloria to visit her, but in other versions, they first met when Gloria made an impromptu visit to see the fabled Land of the Bees, but came again anyway when she heard her friend was sick.

Also, the idea of a coup was influenced by the finale to Pippin. I know what it's really about, but just listening to it, it could be about a group influencing him to do anything, really.

As I mentioned last time, everything written in the previous entries was all to lead up to this last part. But what I really mean by that is I came up with this next section first, and created the other two to bolster it, as it were. In this third part, the daughter of the former Princess Bumble, granddaughter of Bumble the Reformed, decided she was not satisfied with a cold and frigid Bumbleland, and set off on a quest to do something about it. She only took one bee with her, named Juniper, although in the very first concept she had three followers, and one was a girl (named Honey, naturally. This was before I came up with the "themed-naming done by queen" idea). I eventually took most of the details of her quest and turned it into my first NaNoWriMo novel, only I turned a couple of characters she met along the way into the main characters, saving only their reason for joining Bumble (they had to turn their friend, bewitched into a coat, back to normal) and making it the main quest catalyst. For the Bumble version, though, I toyed with a few different ideas for the end of the quest. In most versions, she found something, usually at the Royal Wonder Academy (blatantly stolen from the second season of Fushigiboshi no Futago Hime). My very first thought was the Moonstone, to go with the Sunstone in Flutter Valley, and thus tied to its power. It actually made the seasons progress in a week, so Bumbleland essential experienced a full year of seasons in a month. I also considered having her garner a favor from the Princess Ponies and use their wands to make Bumbleland as she wished it, but since I either never saw that episode or completely forgot what happened (and never bothered to watch it again, even though it was released on DVD), I never really considered this seriously. And in at least one version, she decided to just leave things as they were in Bumbleland, having a greater appreciation for it now that she'd seen the world.

Whatever the outcome, eventually her mother stepped down as queen and she took over. I came up with a very small concept of her own daughter's adventures, mainly that she became friends with Princess (now Queen) Gloria's grandson (he was good at playing the piano, she was good at coming up with lyrics), and he fell in love with her. When he asked her to become his queen, she declined, stating that she couldn't abandon her hive (never mind how they would produce an heir. In MLP-universe, anything is possible, either with magic or friendship or true love). This threw him into such despair that he was easy prey for some evil guy. Evil Guy filled the prince with a dark aura, causing him to act upon his basest desires: he had his Princess Bumble captured and locked up in a cage inside a labyrinth so that when the Bumbleland Army came looking for her, they got horribly lost. Fortunately, the Princess was able to sing and lead them to her. Meanwhile, the Queen Bumble took matters into her own hands and confronted the prince, somehow knocking the dark aura out of him. Just in time for the Evil Guy to announce himself, and a new age of Evil to dawn... Personally, I left it at that, because when it comes to thwarting evil, it's best left to the Little Ponies, right? They certainly have a knack for it, anyway.

And that's all she wrote, as they say.

Lost Images - Sushi Pack

Here are some images from the episodes I blogged before I had my Pinnacle.

From Deep Freeze:




Deep Sea Diver Dude:



Go With the Glow:





Satel-lightning:



World's Tastiest Heroes:

Ask The Zany Bishojo Evalana

To make up for posting so much about Sushi Pack lately (including posts I haven't finished yet), here's some reader participation:

Everyone has things they blog about. Everyone has things they don't blog about. Challenge me out of my comfort zone by telling me something, ask a question, or name a subject that I don't blog about, but you'd like to hear about, and I'll write a post about it. Ask for anything: latest movie watched, last book read, my religion, political leanings, insecurities, thoughts on yaoi, favorite type of underwear, graphic techniques, etc.

So go at it, folks!

Sushi Pack - Rex Marks the Spot

To sooth my broken heart at my VCR's betrayal (read: no "When Will Ben be Zen?" and "Wharf City on the Half Shell" on youtube for a good long time), I'm once again skipping So Says Who? and Darkness and Spice (I'll get to them, I swear!) to do a quick take on Rex Marks the Spot, the better of the two very Tako-centric episodes (Taming the Gaming will come later, just because I want to point out how much of a mess it is). And it is very Tako-centric, which equals one very happy Evalana (seriously, I kept squeeing all through this ep).
But first there's some plot at the beginning with a German scientist who created tiny trash-eating dinosaurs. It's not very interesting, although I did like the line about "a bunch of children's books written by celebrities" being in the pile of trash for the thing (Rex) to eat. Now, this next part I'm only describing because I cannot figure it out. Rex, which is small enough to fit in a test tube, doesn't want to come out, so the scientist sends out the other one, Clayton, instead. While Clayton chows down, Rex sheds a tear, then goes into a rage, and ends up knocking over some chemicals which it then splashes down into. And like I said, I just don't really get what's supposed to be going on in Rex's head. Any theories? Anyway, the only point of all that is to show that the scientist did not naturally create something that grows with the trash it eats, but that it was a side effect of the chemicals.
Finally, we get to the meat of the episode, which starts with Ben proclaiming, "Check it out, Sushies!" (Is that like "Scoobies?") He comes bearing pinky rings that he got from a mail order comic promotion back in the day (whenever that was), and seeing them now, they instantly reminded him of tiny crowns, perfect for sushies. The Pack is instantly enamored of them, and Maguro uses her telekinesis to grab them and crown everyone. Tako is noticeably absent. The others admire themselves; Ikura is especially into it, and Kani finally has an outlet for her crownlust, as seen in The World's Tastiest Heroes (the absolute only thing remotely interesting about that episode, so don't expect me to blog that one here). Ikura decrees they wear the crowns on all missions, but Ben finally points out that not everyone has one. The others whip their heads around to notice Tako, who insists that he's okay without a crown. Of course, the many-headed thinking routine tells a different story... (Mostly I think he's just offended because Maguro was the one who crowned everyone and she forgot about him.) Wasabi offers Tako his crown, but Tako again insists that crowns are not his style. Ben, sensing the truth, tells Tako to just say the word if he wants to wear a crown later. Leading to this lovely exchange:

Kani: Yeah, we can't read your mind!
Tako: There's nothing to read.
Kani: That explains so very, very much.

Of course, Kani's first line should have started (or ended) with "Unlike Maguro..." You know, if one were to read it that way, this episode could be a good basis for a Kani/Tako ship. Not that there isn't some Maguro/Tako in there, too, but this ep has the strongest Tako/Kani interaction I've seen to date. That I remember, anyway.
Back with the scientist, Rex is now huge, still growing, and somehow gained the ability to change things into garbage with his breath. Later, Sophia reports on Rex destroying the city, and the Pack gets ready for action! Maguro calls on Tako to give the catchphrase, but, still offended, he's not enthusiastic at all. Maguro implores him to tell her what's wrong, but Tako denies everything and runs off. Both Wasabi and Maguro have a bad feeling about the upcoming mission.
Out in the city, the Pack watches Rex turn a car into garbage, and they turn to Tako for a cunning plan. Unfortunately, Tako is too apathetic to come up with anything, and goes to face the beast himself. An offhand comment makes the others suspect that Tako really *does* want a crown, despite his previous comments. Tako shoots ink at Rex halfheartedly, complaining about the "stupid crowns" as he does, but Rex easily turns it into sludge, which it then slurps up off the pavement. Ikura attempts to cover Tako, but his attack on Rex meets exactly the same fate. Seeing Rex amble off to make more and more trash, Ikura predicts their doom. Maguro again turns to Tako for a plan (man, I know he's the thinker of the group, but think of your own plans once in a while!), but he brushes her off. Maguro snaps and demands he share his feelings, for the sake of the mission. Tako goes into his many-headed thinking routine once again as he wonders if he should lose his too-cool-for-school image and just admit he wants to wear a crown, when a whole 'nother Tako shows up to remind him of his pride. "Am I that vain? NO!" The other Tako pushes the real Tako out of the picture and goes on an absolutely hyperbolic rant about feelings. And I still can't listen to it without giggling. This, pure and simple, is what makes Tako so great.
Maguro calls Tako out of his reverie, and he suddenly lets loose all his true feelings in a humongous word glurge. Not just that he wanted to wear a crown, but that he thinks the others have an image of him as this cool and spicy handsome guy who would never do something as silly as wear a plastic crown. And he also throws in his apparently secret like of Bossa Nova music (I came right out and cheered when I heard this; I like Bossa Nova music, too!), thoroughly confusing everyone else. Tako reiterates his point: he wanted a crown but was too proud to say it (he's so cute right here ^_^). So Kani slaps her crown down on his head, saying they can share. See what I was saying earlier? Tako feels better for having let his feelings out, and Maguro feels better now that the mission can proceed. Speaking of the mission, Tako finally has a plan to stop Rex! He gives the crown back to Kani, since there's work to be done, and starts giving out orders, with only three minutes to get everything done! Kani works on the Sushi Craft, Ikura gets ready to give Rex the slip by doing push-ups, Maguro hones her concentration, and Tako and Wasabi grab as much trash as they can find (not too hard in the city's current state). After three minutes, everyone except Kani meets up, but Tako knows Kani won't let them down. Sure enough, she shows up with a pimped up plane in record time, and the Pack gets pumped up to take on Rex, since they only have one chance, according to Tako.
In the heart of the city, Tako attaches a trailer to the Sushi Craft and Maguro uses her telekinesis to load it up with all the trash Tako and Wasabi collected. Wasabi laces the trash with his hot sauce power, and Rex is drawn to it like a fly to, well, you know. Kani fires up the craft and Rex chases after it, conveniently forgetting that it can create as much trash as it wants. After a suitable distance, Ikura covers the pavement with salmon balls, sending Rex down a slippery slope. The Pack deserts the trailer, which rolls right to Rex. As Rex chows down, Tako has Ikura go get the scientist and the antidote. The wasabi in the trash sends Rex in search of a drink, but Wasabi also laced the nearest fountain with his particular brand of spice, so Rex is out of luck. The scientist arrives with his formula, the main ingredient being hot dog water, and as I've paid my dues in the dish room of my school's dining hall, I can tell you, hot dog water is powerful stuff (especially when there are still hot dogs in it :d), and Maguro sends it to Rex, who drinks it posthaste and shrinks back down to fit in a test tube, which is exactly where the scientist puts him. Maguro congratulates Tako on his plan working, and Kani's just glad he got over himself. Tako makes a vow to let his feelings out more often, and also makes a horrible pun.
Back at the lab, the scientist is ready to put Rex back with Clayton, only...where's Clayton? The Sushies are not too worried about the implications of this, and the episode ends.

I don't really do justice to how much I love the wangstastic Tako here, especially in his more wordy states. So don't take my word for it, read watch it for yourself.

Sushi Pack - Red Hot Chili Planet and Sweet Tooth

I can't believe I'm blogging these eps before So Says Who and Darkness and Spice. But I have to get this out of my system, so here we go. These two eps combined make up the Sushi Pack Handles the Issues combo, the issues being global warming and childhood obesity, respectively.


Red Hot Chili Planet, or Some Like it Hot
"That's not Wasabi-talk; that sounds Dutch."
Ben sneaks the Pack members into the local cinema via a Styrofoam container while funky music plays in the background. Inside the container, Maguro eagerly anticipates the documentary they're about to see, but Tako would rather see a sci-fi flick, and Ikura agrees, until Maguro points out that other movie involves bears, then he retracts his statement. Safely inside the theater, the Pack relaxes in the A/C, but Wasabi is way too cold and tells Ben to complain to the management. Ben, as you may recall, cannot understand him, so Ikura translates. The others point out that the cold is just fine with them, and since the majority wants it cold, that's the way it's gonna stay. This will be important later.
Hearing Wasabi's complaints, someone from the row behind them gets his attention. Who is it? Why, yet another group of returning for the first time villians, the Hot Squad! They invite Wasabi to join them, since they're all about the heat, but Maguro wants to know just what they're doing at a documentary about global warming. The Hot Squad leader claims they're just there because they like movies, but the documentary starts, so everybody quiets down. Until the narrator starts describing the effects of global warming, and the Hot Squad breaks out the cheers and wolf whistles. Even Wasabi chimes in at one point.
The question I have is, are we meant to take this seriously, or are the writers just poking fun? Knowing the forces behind the show, I'm guessing that the film is more a parody of An Inconvenient Truth than anything the viewers are meant to take to heart. I haven't seen An Inconvenient Truth, though, so I can't say how much of a parody it really is. But what it's really here to do is to help explain what the Hot Squad's plan is all about later in the episode. Once the film is over, everyone cheers, except for Wasabi, who froze into an ice cube during the show.
Back at The Green Donut, Wasabi, still freezing, cranks up the heat, but Tako cranks it back down when he notices. Wasabi is not pleased, so Tako puts the issue up for a vote. Predictably, only Wasabi votes for warmth, so the majority rules against him once again. Wasabi tries to appeal to a higher power, in this case, Ben, but as we've established, communication for them is nil. Ikura translates again: Wasabi wants a recount! Ben, seeing the futility of this, suggests a compromise, but gives no advice on how to actually go about this. The others fail to see a good way to compromise anyway, so Wasabi splits. Tako puts his many-headed thought process into action, and I think it says a lot about their relationship in that he describes Wasabi as "innocent, yet dangerous" and "daring, yet gullible." He tries to figure out where Wasabi would go, and immediately thinks of the Hot Squad. Now, when I first saw this clip on the official website, I thought that this was his view of a generic "stranger," and that made this scene much, much funnier. As Tako freaks out, Ben tells the others they should have compromised, although he still doesn't give them any ideas on how to do it. Break for commercial.
By the end of the break, Wasabi is already on the other side of town, grumbling to himself about the others. His ranting is cut short by a most curious sound coming from the old abandoned warehouse... His investigation shows the Hot Squad polka-ing their eyes out, proclaiming this as their only weakness. With their dance break over, they gather around their plans for a huge cover that will trap all the smog and stuff in the city, heating up the city enough to destroy the Sushi Pack, naturally. I'll be honest, I don't really care about their plan, so I'm not going to give all the technical names of the stuff involved. All you really need to know is that their overall goal is to heat the entire planet up to epic proportions.
Wasabi accidentally makes himself known to the Squad, and when they corner him, he whams Play on their boombox and gets away while the Squad members dance helplessly. He hightails it straight to a payphone and calls up the Green Donut, but unfortunately, Ben is the one who answers. Wasabi tells him everything anyway, and Ben tries to understand, but the leader of the Hot Squad shows up and melts the phone receiver with his breath. Ben tells the other members of the Pack about Wasabi's message, but can't seem to get Wasabi's words down pat, though not for lack of trying.
The Hot Squad assumes that Wasabi was sent as a spy, but Wasabi denies this, so they assume that he wants to join them. Wasabi hadn't thought of that tactic, but agrees, and the others welcome him into their group. Back at the Green Donut, Ben is still trying to talk like Wasabi, but to no avail. Then Ikura gets an idea(!): super-hot chili sauce will give Ben the kick he needs! Surprisingly, this works, and Ben gives them all the details he got from Wasabi . He doesn't seem too pleased with his new power, though. Wouldn't it have been faster to just go searching for Wasabi? What about the trackers they have, as seen in Wassup Wasabi? and So Says Who?
Meanwhile, the Hot Squad is conflicted about Wasabi. The red guy doesn't trust him, but the leader is sure Wasabi loves heat as much as they do, but changes his tune once they catch Wasabi ripping up their plans. They rush him, but once again all Wasabi has to do is hit the boombox and the Squad is powerless against the music. Then, like a dummy, he turns it off again, only to turn it back on again, but on a country station this time. Oops. The leader wisely melts the entire boombox this time, but it's too late, the rest of the Sushi Pack shows up in their plane. The two factions leap up for an epic battle, but both are distracted by Wasabi sneaking off in the plane. Tako wonders if it was all an elaborate trap, and it certainly seems so, as the Hot Squad attacks and easily overpowers the Pack. Just as the Squad endulges in a victory dance, a familiar refrain plays in the air: more polka! It turns out Wasabi just left to get a new boombox and tuned it to a 24/7 Polka Power station. While the Hot Squad is incapacitated, the other Pack members make up with Wasabi, apologizing for not compromising, but they still don't come up with any ways to actually do it. Instead, Wasabi just leads them in a cheer of "Sushi Pack forever!" while the Hot Squad dances in the background. And then the episode just ends.

Sweet Tooth, or The Power of Positive Snacking
"Show your face, Red Alert Code Seven Alarm Activator and Evil Doer!"
This episode opens late at night, with a dark figure on the prowl. A periscope from the hole of the Green Donut's sign spies what is obviously Maguro dropping a candy wrapper on the ground. Secret snacking, Maguro? The dropped wrapper sets off an alarm, warning the Pack of a Code Seven, and Kani, Ikura, and Tako leap into action! They arrive on the scene, spout some lines, and then goggle in shock when they find out it was just Maguro testing their reaction to the alarm, and not having a secret snack after all. She berates them for arriving without Wasabi in tow; apparently the others didn't notice, and have to think pretty hard to realize that he's the one missing. Speaking of the little glob, he shows up shortly after, panting and wheezing. The others are shocked, simply shocked, at Wasabi's out of shape condition, and send him back home to bed. Wasabi does not appreciate their concern. While he goes back to the Green Donut, Ikura asks just what a Code Seven is, anyway. A litterbug, according to Maguro, and the others freak out, although whether because litter is really that serious of a problem, or because she wasted their time with that, we don't know.
Or maybe it's because the next scene immediately shifts to some kind of cah-razy cartoon (except live action) starring a redheaded kid with a very toothy grin named Sugar Jimmy. Living in a world populated by animate flowers and clocks, he puts on his peppermint specs to see his viewers, ala Romper Room's magic mirror. Jimmy reveals the worries of a few of his viewers, and reminds them that all their problems disappear with just a bit of his ridiculously named and supposedly nutritious chocolate bar. We cut to Wasabi watching the show and chowing down on the bars, while Jimmy extols their virtues and declares 12 to be the recommended daily dosage. Meanwhile, the other Pack members arrive and Kani, spotting the many wrappers surrounding Wasabi, assumes that the real Code Seven activator has been there. But no, it's just Wasabi, who falls from the counter to the floor, much to the others' surprise. Back on TV, Jimmy leads his viewers in his pledge to eat all the bars they can find, which Wasabi relishes with glee. Tako calls him on his bar addiction, but Wasabi denies it, and Jimmy's show ends.
During the show, Ben pulled out his chemistry kit and analyzed the nutrition content of the bar. ....Oh, Ben. He can do anything the plot requires him to do. Anyway, his analysis shows a nutrition value of less than zero. Wasabi just can't believe his beloved Jimmy (he even has a doll!) would feed him a load of bull, but Kani shows him the evidence in his very own body, and Tako points out his lacking flame powers. With Wasabi essential out of commission, the others huddle up to make their plans: Tako and Maguro will investigate Sugar Jimmy, and Kani and Ikura will slim down Wasabi.
Since it's a commercial break, I want to take a moment to say this: fat Wasabi is the cutest! It may not be the proper sentiment the show wants to convey, but it's true. He's just so plump and squishable! *squee* Seriously, if he stayed like that (and nobody harped on him for it), he might have moved up to three on my Sushi Pack rankings list. Yes, I am that shallow.
The next day, Kani and Ikura wake up Wasabi and tell him about their plans for a Sushi Pack music video: all they need is a theme. Ikura suggests some whole grain cereal and juice while they think it over, and Wasabi doesn't even realize what's going on. Later, they get dressed up in Jazzercize wear (Kani is so cute!) and get down to exercising! Ben mashes play on the boombox and watches, equal parts bemused and concerned while Wasabi benchpresses, jumps rope, and jogs on the toilet paper. After their workout, Kani "just happens to have" some teeny tiny apples and carrots, which Wasabi wolfs down, none the wiser. You know, I think that the bars were less to blame for Wasabi's weight gain than the fact that he'll eat whatever you place in front of him, both figuratively and literally. Ikura reminds him that they still need a theme for the music video, and Wasabi enthusiastically shares his inspiration.
Over at the studio, Tako and Maguro witness the end of Jimmy's latest show. Once the cameras are off, Jimmy becomes an absolute brat, demanding imported bottled water and complaining about how the chocolate in his bars rot his "shiny Jimmy-teeth." He berates his costars and fires his stage manager, who also happens to be his mother. Maguro and Tako have to let Wasabi know about his idol's true nature, and they have the perfect plan...
Later that day, Wasabi is back to his lean self (aww...). Ikura comments, "It's amazing what a little exercise and healthy food can do." Yeah, amazing. You know, considering the Pack's reaction to Wasabi's weight gain earlier, it's likely that he put it all on within a day or two, so it's not surprising that it all came off fairly quickly. What I'm really wondering now is how Wasabi had the stomach for a million human-sized chocolate bars in the first place. I mean, seriously, he's tiny! And why did Ben buy him all those bars in the first place? Regardless of my questions, Kani rewards Wasabi by telling him they're all going to see a taping of Sugar Jimmy's show.
The next next day (I'm assuming), the Pack watches the show from high in the rafters, and Tako slips off, donning a maintenance disguise. He goes to the Grandfather Clock character and gives him a tune-up. "It'll only take a minute," he says, "and you've got plenty of those." Haha. Back on the show, Jimmy uses his specs time to propagandize against those who, like Ben, analyzed his bars on their own time and found them nutritionally lacking. According to Jimmy (dressed as a scientist), his bars are made by leprechauns. Maguro makes a few disparaging remarks, and Tako, showing up again, pretends he heard what she said, but it's obvious he didn't.
The Grandfather Clock announces the end of the show, and Jimmy's mother resumes her stage manager duties. Jimmy is not pleased to see her, but she's the only one who knows where to get his bottled water. Only this time she slipped him water from the janitor's sink. When Jimmy rebuffs her, she rips off his mask, revealing a 22-year-old brunette beneath a nine-year-old's facade. Wasabi is shocked! Jimmy's mother tells him he's through, but Jimmy is confident that even without the bars he can merchandise himself to death, until the director reveals that the Grandfather Clock was ten minutes fast, and everything that just transpired was seen by his viewers coast to coast! (Apparently, it's a live show.) Even Wasabi can't hide his contempt for Jimmy, and his mother slimes him and announces he's finished. Jimmy reacts appropriately (as appropriate as falling down and crying is, anyway).
With a couple of minutes left in both Jimmy's show and the episode, the Sushi Pack hijack the cameras to debut their music video, which they probably shot the day before, in between scenes. And it is...not good. A bad rap about eating fruits and veggies, and then the episode is over.

I think it could have been interesting if the end had revealed not an adult Jimmy, but that he really was this bratty kid who truly believed his bars were good for you. I mean, what if there was some kind of flashback scene that showed Jimmy in a meeting with the show's producers and/or head of merchandising, coming up with an idea for his chocolate bars, and Jimmy insisted they make them really healthy, but taste good, and be made by leprechauns, and all that. And they told him they would just to shut him up, or something? And then at the end, the truth about the bars would be revealed to Jimmy as well as Wasabi, and he would be shocked! And maybe even stop being a brat and start endorsing something really healthy, and everyone could learn a lesson, and there wouldn't be that awful rap video at the end. That's just a thought I had.

Creating mythology, part two

Last time in the planned fic I once had, we learned that Bumble had a strict mom and made a childish wish to only do what she wanted when she became Queen, which she then lived up to, or something.

I've read a couple of fics where, after the events of The End of Flutter Valley, Bumble went back to her old ways. While I suppose it makes sense, in my version, she made good on her promise to be nice, mostly because Sting was there to hold her to it. Part of her reformation included revitalizing the dwindling Bee population (for reasons I still haven't fully decided, but mostly due to her selfishness, Bumble hadn't given birth for the entire time she had been queen). Now, part of my obsession back in the day involved looking up facts about actual Bees, a few of which I incorporated into my planned story (one cool thing is that bumblebees, unlike honeybees, are shortsighted and only make enough honey for a couple of days at a time), such as the fact that the queen can make as many workers as she wants all by herself, but to make princess bees, she needs a male. The secret story that if I ever wrote it would only be for me is that the male Bumble picked was not actually Sting, but Pointer ^_~. Speaking of Pointer, after TEoFV, he and Sting finally buried the hatchet, mostly because Pointer, having had a taste of being Bumble's right-hand bee, decided Sting was very welcome to it.
I only semi-sorta wanted to write up the various plot bunnies that watching the rest of the series gave me in relation to Bumbleland, but the only one I even really fleshed out was based on The Magic Coins. Since that episode involved a drought, and the sun apparently being hotter than it usually is, I figured that this would mean two things: one, Flutter Valley would actually wither away because of the sunstone, and two, Bumbleland would start to thaw out. Due to those circumstances, the Flutter Ponies would take up temporary residence in Bumbleland, which would probably wreak a little havoc on the lives of the Bees (I never really fleshed this part out in my mind), but Bumble, distracted by her imminent egg-laying, doesn't notice. She would notice Sting and Morning Glory being close, though, and get a little jealous ^_~ And Rosedust would act as midwife when the time actually came (just before the rain at the end of The Magic Coins, naturally).
I actually came up with quite a bit about the bees that hatch from that first laying, 13 eggs in all, including one princess. As par the course, the princess would be good-natured, if a bit impulsive, and she actually becomes the lynch pin in rebuilding the trade routes, plus forging some new ones, as the princess of the largest nearby kingdom becomes obsessed with her, and they become friends and write to each other a lot.
The other 12 bees are all named after wildflowers, Alyssum, Aster, Bramble, Chicory, Clover, Cypress, Flax, Lupine, Mallow, Sage, Vervain, and Yarrow. I wrote down basic personalities for them all, but they mainly serve as foils for the princess, whom they would be very close to, being born from the same batch of eggs and all. She likes to solve their problems, although the only arc I planned was for Alyssum and his ground fixation (they ended up sitting in trees a lot).
Once the princess grew up a little more, one of two things happened. Either Bumble retired and handed over ruling to the princess, or the princess, egged on by her peers, orchestrated a coup d'etat and overthrew her mother, although she did negotiate a corner of Flutter Valley for the "older bees." Either way, she became queen before her mother died, and Bumble became known as Queen Bumble the Reformed.
I really thought of all that to get to the next Princess, Bumble the Reformed's granddaughter, but more about her next time.

Collecting interpretations

You know, for a film I couldn't stand for five minutes at first, I've become relatively obsessed with The Little Island. Since not too many people are talking about it (yet?), most of the hits I've gotten on it are from professional publications. The ones that say things other than "this is his first film, check it out" anyway.

What's interesting (to me, anyway) is that most of the things I've read and seen have different views of what's going on, just as I predicted. Here are the more interesting interpretations I found:

From Film Reference:

The Little Island, which took three years to make (and is said to be the longest film ever drawn and animated single-handedly), is a half-hour philosophical allegory; Roger Manvell called it "at once absurd and violent, madly serious and wildly funny." Three small, pear-shaped people land on a desert island. They personify, respectively, Goodness, Beauty, and Truth. Goodness and Beauty, dangerous monomaniacs, soon clash, piling increasingly grandiose structures on their rival concepts, until they metamorphose into ferocious monsters whose vast collision shudders the globe. Truth, meanwhile, bemused and conscientious, keeps score on a blackboard which takes on the shape of a nuclear bomb. The film uses no words; the most complex abstract ideas are brilliantly conveyed in purely visual terms.

Screenonline said of it:

a philosophical treatise playing out the obsessional imperatives of 'beauty', 'truth' and 'goodness' as competing monsters, indicated his interest in the compulsive side of the human spirit.

The book Cartoon Modern, previewed via Google Books, calls The Little Island

a dialogueless modern morality play-- "three figures representing Truth, Good, Beauty, done in cartoon terms, all marooned on the same symbolic island," according to Williams. In their attempts to convert each other to their idea of the absolute "right way," they ultimately end up destroying one another.

Another book, Masters of Animation, sums the film up succinctly:

Beauty, Truth, and Goodness, represented by horrid little monsters, pursue their obsessions to an inevitably disastrous conclusion.

Using Babelfish, I got this translation of a French blog:

Three small catches unload on an island. One incarnates the truth; the second, the beauty; the third, kindness. Very quickly, each one of them will try to impose its delirious monomaniaque with the others. This strange postulate is the starting point of thirty minutes a dumb cartoon film, going back to 1958....A pretty pre-psychédélique hallucination whose absurd humour announces Shadoks.

After reading those views, consider what Richard Williams himself has to say about The Little Island. From a Clapperboard documentary:

It was a half hour allegory...it was a satire on people who have fixed ideas. And I found, or thought at the time, that people either believed in Truth, and they were all very Eastern or into studying science or "we will find the answer to this!" and their lives were focused that way. Or they would be like I was, some sort of producing artist with a great aesthetic point of view, and who would believe in Beauty or something. Say like Hemmingway, somebody who judges his entire life by his artistic output. And then the social man, who'd be the great reformer or a person who spends his life being friends with everybody or terribly involved, socially. So that, I found that the film was about the man who believed in Truth, the man who believed in Goodness, and the man who believed in Beauty, and that...was their fixed conception, and never did the twain meet until they all collided and turned into a sort of terrible, monstrous battle in the end.

And there you have it.
(File this one under "looking things up on Google so you don't have to.")

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Rethinking The Little Island

I've been thinking about it all day, and I've decided that I was too hard on The Little Island. Yes, parts of it run too long, and it doesn't always make sense, but it does convey a decent story if you stick with it. And the animation is fantastic, especially when you think about the fact that Richard Williams animated the entire thing himself. I've heard it took him three years to do it.
But most of what made me change my mind was the characters. Without any dialogue at all (except for some implied lines at the beginning), Williams created three very definite personalities. Truth, the underappreciated oddball science wonk, Beauty, the pompous narcissist (who is also the only bald character, btw), and Good, virtuous and simple, but with a temper.

I get the feeling that this is a film that everyone interprets differently, but this is the way it appears to me:
The three men, besides being symbols, are co-workers who decide, for whatever reason, to go on vacation together to the small island of the title. They don't know each other outside of work, so they use their time on the island to get to know each other, or rather, to force their beliefs on the others. Truth's motives are pure; he simply wants to share his thought processes with the other two, but goes a little too deep into his own psyche. I see his sequence as attempting to explain some kind of technical process to the others, either science or math-like, but Truth lacks the ability to put it in terms the others can understand, so they just shrug him off at the end. Also, note the foreshadowing of the nucleus at the end of his sequence. I think I said this before, but I just love his sheepish smile at the end, a little "Yeah, that probably didn't make sense."
Beauty shares his thoughts out of ego, to show that "this is how it should be done" to the others. Plus, his is the only process to have a punchline (the million torso frames), which means that this is probably a story he shares often, repeating what he obviously considers to be a very clever little joke. When the other two shrug at the end of his sequence, it's because they've heard that story (and the pedestal one) from him a million times, even if he didn't tell it to them directly.
Good seems to share his thoughts only because the other two have. "Oh hey, that reminds me!" His is a more historical story, covering the early history of the church before becoming autobiographical and ending with his thoughts on the arms race, as well as a broken heart. His is the only sequence not to get a shrug, perhaps because the last part was so unexpected from him, seeing as he started off by proclaiming his love of humanity.
(I still don't really get why this has to take place over days, though.)
The first fight between Good and Beauty starts when Beauty starts harping on the same things he already talked about before, and Good, having already heard it, tries to ignore him (most likely Beauty is talking about something that Good just cannot agree with) by talking about religion again. Truth, caught in the middle, doesn't like the fact that no one bothers to try and understand what he talks about, but the three inexplicably stop. Later, Beauty starts up again, this time purposefully needling the others, but Good in particular (Truth knows this and watches to see what Good will do). Beauty even has the gall to look innocent while doing it, enraging Good enough to bring up politics, which Beauty is not prepared for at first, but quickly comes up with an argument that enables him to dodge the debates Good throws at him, and even turns those debates against him (represented by him spearing Good's soldiers and then using them to play his harp). Truth,either feeling above the others' petty arguments or annoyed at being left out of the conversation, begins to plot some vengeance against the other two, represented by the snake (yes, I looked that up on wikipedia), but before he can act out, the three are once again taken out of their debate for no apparent reason.
Good, disgruntled at Beauty for using his arguments against him, thinks only of punching in the other fellow's face. However, his conscience, or morality, or what have you, represented by the giant fist, prevents him from acting on it; no matter how much he may want to punch out Beauty's lights, he morally cannot. Beauty, thinking only of himself, shoots a barb at Good's so-called morality, a sort of logical blow that renders Good's argument for it obsolete. At first horrified and a little scared at having his moral columns destroyed, Good realizes that this leaves him free to act out against Beauty, who continues, nonchalantly, to be a pompous jerk and needle Good. Good, no longer bound by his conscience, gets Beauty right where it hurts: he points out Beauty's physical imperfections, ending with his baldness (by plucking out his feather), and Beauty is finally put in his place.
After getting over the initial shock of being confronted with his flaws, Beauty rebounds and becomes just as ugly and Good said he was, preparing for the face-off to end all face-offs. It doesn't matter what it's about, neither one is going to budge an inch in their beliefs, nor will either one give up until they prove they are the victor. Meanwhile, Truth has been plotting his revenge on the other two for both ignoring and belittling him, and he sets out to create an utterly infallible argument using the media he knows best: science! Unaware of what is about to ensue, Beauty and Good continue to fight, each one merely matching the other, point after point after point (the rivets). Truth, his thoughts above the mundane things Beauty and Good discuss, calmly creates a mathematical theorem that grows more and more complex, as he creates it for himself, leaving the others behind. Strangely, his formula ends up showing that three of them are equal. Equality does not come without a price, however, as the only way to bring them all back down to earth (as it were) is to destroy what they have become. Hence the bomb. This is an unpleasant process, and all three quail at the thought of it, but they don't try to avoid it. Once it is over, they realize that they cannot continue on as they had on the island, and go back to their regular lives, hoping to put the entire incident out of their minds for good.

I didn't really mean to go on like that, but it was kind of fun. I don't really like how I ended, but it's hard to interpret a bomb outside of what's literally happening with it, y'know?

The Little Island, a cautionary tale (probably)

I blame the fact that I'm writing this at all on hearing Fastball's "The Way" on the radio at work the day after my failed attempt to watch The Little Island, and for a reason I barely understand, the song made me think of the short, and a few choice phrases I wanted to write about the little of it I did see. And so here I am, writing this up to save you all from having the same experiences. So please, enjoy (if you can) Richard Williams' first film through me.


The Little Island starts with stark, white on black credits over odd, cacophonous music. This only lasts a minute but feels much longer. Then we get a screen that portends to explain what this short is about (about 20 minutes too long, that's what), but really explains very little. "Many people in this world have ideas but sometimes only ONE idea.... Each of the three little men in this film has an idea....BUT ONLY ONE." I just really don't get what Williams is trying to say here. I mean, only one idea ever? Or just one idea that they keep trying to pass off as new? (I'm only focusing on the first part. The second part means that these little guys are symbolic, not real.)
Without explaining further, the short introduces us to the three men mentioned who appear on the screen naked but not anatomically correct. The first one has pretty wild hair; he believes in Truth, and thus we get to see it flash on the screen in at least fifteen different fonts before it turns into a lotus blossom, which I'm assuming is the pictograph for Truth. Then we're told the guy to the right believes in Beauty, and the word stretches in all directions before changing into a laurel wreath. The last guy, who believes in Good, gets shafted in the changing words department, as it's painfully obvious that most of the animation here is just two or three frames cycled, and then all he gets for a pictograph is a heart. So, lotus = Truth, laurels = Beauty, heart = Good. Remember that. We pan out to see all three men with their respective words flashing over their heads as the film slowly, slowly zooms out and the men get smaller and smaller and smaller.
In the remaining darkness, fireflies show up out of nowhere to chase each other, before blinking out of existence for a weird color and light show, which turns into the sun. The scene pans down, down, down through shades of blue until it finally reaches the ocean. The scene fade-transitions to the titular island and a buzzing sound starts up. The camera looks for the source to the right, but then looks left, as one of the few things that are actually fast in the short film flies by--a motorboat with the three, fully-dressed this time, men. They arrive on the island, and the boat leaves them behind. They blink, but then get excited (I think. They jump and tinkle like bells) and run around the very small island exactly once, before throwing off their clothes and just sitting. They look at the sun, and then they burn. And then they just sit. And sit some more. For DAYS, literally! The sun sets and rises in quick succession, and finally Beauty Guy has had it. He starts talking, only there's no dialogue, so he toots. The others just stare at him. I assume he's saying something akin to "Who's bright idea was it to come here, anyway?" Good Guy honks back at him, and there's more staring, and then Beauty Guy and Good Guy start fighting, with Truth Guy playing a little eyeball tennis watching them both. But it gets to be too much for Truth Guy, and he goes off at both of them. And then they all start honking and clanging at each other, and I really wish this part were over already. They're apparently one-upping each other over who can make the most noise. Like I said, you don't really want to watch this.
At last they stop, and the sun sets and rises a few more times. And then Truth Guy gets an idea! Since he only has one, obviously it's Truth. But he doesn't do anything. So he thinks of it again. Still nothing happens. After a third time, we close up on him, and it becomes obvious that he's going insane. His eyes rolling in his head and his hair goes all electricified. He starts bouncing in place while the other stare and the background keeps changing color. And then he somehow becomes a gazebo. Or possibly an hourglass. I'm really not sure, and he must not be, either, because his body starts rejecting the form, and he changes into a sunny-side up egg. Then he rolls his body down his leg and leaves an afterimage, and then he does the same on the other leg. This is where I skipped ahead to the end the last time I tried watching, but for your sakes, I'll soldier on. Truth Guy turns into a curlique entirely, rolls away, and blinks out of existence. But he's back again, fully found with rays of light emanating from his navel. He starts to spin, and turns into colored shapes that I don't feel like describing, except that there are also more eyes than he should have coming out of them. The eyes then join up and have adventures independent of the shapes, floating around the screen like a game of Nibbles. The eyes then fill up the entire screen and turn into polka dots, with the occasional dot blinking here and there. Then the screen clears and the original four eyes are left. The shapes return and combine with the eyes to create a Donglemonster! The monster sprouts arms that spin around his body, and then he explodes, leaving only a pink dot. The dot, apparently a ball, ricochets around for a while, before finally landing back in Truth Guy's head. Truth Guy gains a third eye on his forehead that engulfs the camera and "sees" (I'm guessing) various patterns that also come up and engulf the camera, paving the way for the next pattern. And then one particularly pretty pattern farts and the whole thing just whooshes away in flashing colors. Truth Guy comes to with a start and gives the others a sheepish grin. The others just shrug.
And then Beauty Guy gets an idea. He does the same "think of it three times" thing that Truth Guy did, but after the third time, he gets up and goes into an interpretive dance. And yeah, he's still naked. He leaps into the air and transforms into a svelte dancer in silhouette, but as he dances, he becomes more and more of a stick figure until he is merely a line moving around. Okay, this kind of interesting. Better than Truth Guy's weirdness, anyway, and better music. The line draws itself into Beauty Guy again, this time with some clothes and a set of pipes. He plays while prancing up and down the sides of the frame, spontaneously creating flowers with his steps, which is all well and good, but he keeps doing it and the flowers get bigger and bigger with each time around. He ends the song by becoming a flower himself in the center of the frame. We pan out and to the side to follow a set of stairs down to somewhere in the leafy green background while an unseen orchestra tunes up, and this is getting boring again. We stop on a statue of a naked lady, but an arrow appears pointing us back to the left where there are two...things? holding a box? And the William Tell Overture starts to play. But the things just stand there until the arrow shows up again and points them to the right. And they're off, carrying the box, which is actually a frame, it seems, to the statue. They frame her torso and the rest of her disappears, and the arrow spurs them on, so on they go, with the torso in tow. Only the torso splits in half, leaving each thing with a box. They stare at each other for a while, and then start moving again, trying to get themselves in sync and the torso back together again. It takes a while, as they start moving the frames around, putting the torso pieces out of context, and then the image inside each box changes. But finally, finally, they get it back together, only upside down. So the camera turns, and the things swap places, and the arrow spurs them on again. Where the heck are they going? And why to the William Tell Overture of all things? They climb a narrow stairway into the sky, going uselessly all over the place and finally enter a door and hang up the frame in what I'll assume is their house. They applaud themselves, and then the camera pans over to reveal that they have at least 30 copies of the same torso hanging on the wall. No, wait, waaaaay more than thirty. But in the midst of all the torsos is one picture that is different. The camera almost misses it, but goes back to see that it's a framed photo of the sun.
And then we're inside the photo, and a weird thing squeaks in on wheels while the sun sets. Only it stays at eye level with the thing for a moment, and then goes back up. Another, similar thing rolls in, and the first thing converses via cello concerto. The other thing is taken aback by this, and the sun comes back down. What the heck is going on, and why isn't it Good Guy's turn for insanity, or drugs, or whatever the heck is happening to these guys? I'm sorry I ever said this part was interesting. Anyway, having seen the sun, the other thing is able to speak violin, which the first thing resents and tries to beat him with more cello. This just leads to the two things having a musical fight, and after some back and forth, the first thing somehow creates a pedestal for himself. Not to be outdone, the other thing makes an even taller one and berates the first thing. And then they just keep growing their pedestals and sniping at each other and can't this be over yet? Finally they reach the limit of how high they can go, but they continue to quarrel. Being on the same level, they get in each other's faces until they combine into one griping thing. The camera pulls back, and we see more and more of these things, all griping away on pedestals. This is kind of creepy, but soon the scene dissolves away, revealing Beauty Guy just sitting on the beach, as he had been before. He smirks at the others, then stands up and takes a bow. The others just shrug.
And now it is Good Guy's time to think three times. He starts off with a sheepish grin and stands, clutching his heart and dances over to Truth Guy. He kisses his head, and does the same for Beauty Guy. He dances around some more and then turns into a star-heart combo, and then morphs into something else. Maybe a church, since he opens his mouth and organ music comes out. Whatever it is, he seems to be enjoying himself. With the clang of a bell, he is transformed into a gate of some sort, and a multitude of people pass through him, going in black but coming out white and apparently being lifted to heaven. Good Guy is very pleased. But then darkness falls and Good Guy morphs again, this time into a Crusader with a viking helmet. Blood flows over his sword, and he turns black and white. Huge arrows very quickly eliminate most of his trappings, leaving only the cross that was on his chest, which shrinks as things go back into color and covers his privates. What a time for a (also naked) lady to arrive! With a mere sway of her hips, she sends Good Guy into a furious red blush with his hair standing on end. He has to turn away, as he puts the cross on her private area and pushes her away. No sooner is she gone than a Snidely Whiplash type comes creeping in with a glass of wine. Good Guy summarily whacks him with a hammer (heh), and he slinks offscreen. Everything goes dark again, and Good Guy panics, very aware of his nakedness, as he tries to flee. Instead, he summons his armor back, this time with a million hearts in place of a cross, a ray gun, and a haze of radiation buzzing around his head. The gun goes off, but releases a heart, which shrinks a bit as we go back to Good Guy as he is on the island. Sadly, the heart cracks, and Good Guy smiles at the others in a haze of confusion. This time no one shrugs, as his was the most coherent story.
The sun sets and rises a few more times (don't these guys need to eat?), and Beauty Guy goes off to dance again. Such a narcissist, that one. He imagines himself as a neo-roman god, complete with harp, which he plucks while whipping his head (with feather headdress) around, making a rather annoying sound. Good Guy gets so annoyed that he transforms into the church again and tries to drown him out with more organs, even summoning up little children to sing with him. Beauty Guy invades his space with his plucking, so Good Guy moves over, and the camera can't decide who to watch. Meanwhile, Truth Guy watches them both from above, thoroughly annoyed, while the antsy music from his original thinking time plays. With all three going at once, the background music gets very annoying, so some higher power strips them of their imagined powers, leaving them naked on the beach once more.
There's a missing scene, but we return to Beauty Guy standing again, waving his hand at the others (I'd like to imagine he's doing that "I'm crushing your head" thing, but that's probably after this short's time). Oh, he's playing his imaginary harp again. This enrages Good Guy for whatever reason (probably the expression on Beauty Guy's face while he's doing it. I want to punch the guy, myself). I kinda like how during this part, Truth Guy just keeps looking at Good Guy, like he's watching to see what he'll do. And Good Guy gets so riled up that he summons back his armor and heart gun, plus a battilion of smaller soldiers with him. Beauty Guy is at first startled, but then goes back to his harp playing (I just want to make this clear, he's obviously doing this to get Good Guy's goat. I don't know why, he just is), and once again imagines himself as the neo-roman, but this time with a fencing sword. Good Guy's gun is actually a bazooka, and he fires a heart at Beauty Guy, who simply leaps out of the way. Good Guy fires again, with similar results. Beauty Guy poses with the sword quite a bit before lunging it offscreen, taking out all the little soldiers. Adding insult to injury, he plucks the helmet of one soldier like a harp and starts doing the head-swish thing again. Good Guy gets so mad that smoke rises from his armor, and Truth Guy has wisely levitated out of the way. He watches them, once again annoyed, when a thought hits him! As before, he starts to go insane, and he summons up a snake to do his bidding. But before he can actually order it to do something, once again all three are stripped of their powers.
Back on the ground, Good Guy and Beauty Guy fume at each other, and Good Guy makes a fist that triples in size. It actually grows so large that it floats off his hand entirely, and Good Guy goes white with fear as it comes down on his own head, shrinking him into almost nothing. While the others watch, he grows into immense dimensions, filling up the entire screen, but then the fist comes back and squashes him down again. So much for that. Good Guy immediate repeats his actions, only to beat down yet again. This time he comes back to normal size, having learned his lesson and joins the others. This inspires Beauty Guy (perhaps he reasons that he doesn't have a fist to beat him down, so he's free to do as he pleases?), and he immediately becomes the neo-roman again, this time with a bow and arrow, which he aims at the fist and shoots true. The fist, shot, leaves. Good Guy is so shocked that first his eyes leave his head and then his pupils leave his eyes. A drop of blood falls from the fist and lands on top of Good Guy, coating him red. He begins to tremble, and glowers at Beauty Guy, who is once again doing the head swish thing with the bow as his new harp.
Filled with rage and with the threat of the fist gone, Good Guy once again grows to immense proportions and grabs Beauty Guy by the neck. He throws the other guy to the ground over and over again, then stands on his legs while he plucks off his feather, and kicks the other guy away. Good Guy then flings the feather away, and it floats down, and down, and down (enough already!), right under Beauty Guy's nose. He picks it up and stares at it, the sign of his broken pride. And filled with a righteous rage, he transforms into an equally immense cross-dressing warrior! Good Guy is taken aback at first, but then smiles, welcoming the challenge. The two smile evilly at each other for a few shots, and then summon swords. And slowly, so slowly, one step at a time, they advance on each other. They get closer and closer and closer, and finally they start to run at each other, but it's still slower than it could have been. And they clash headfirst into one another, each one barely keeping the other at bay.
Meanwhile, Truth Guy, extremely annoyed at getting so little screentime during all this, has summoned up his snake again. But suddenly the snake morphs into a test tube filled with bubbling chemicals and Truth Guy morphs into a scientist! (CUTE!) He doesn't get to do anything, though, as the other two scrabble at each other below, neither budging an inch, despite the addition of tank treads. Suddenly they become mechanical, with each of them adding rivets, but it doesn't really help them any. Back up above, Truth Guy wanders over to a blackboard. He pulls out a piece of chalk and sucks on it, thinking. And he starts to write out calculations, but the board keeps expanding, forcing him to start over. Conversely, it could be that as his calculations get bigger, the board expands to fit them. Either version will do.
With his calculations done, Truth Guy puts away his chalk, dusts off his hands, and starts to walk away. Suddenly he hears a snickersnack! He ignores it, but there it is again! He turns and finds, to his horror, that he was not writing on a chalkboard at all, but a giant bomb! A bomb that just happens to be hovering over the still at odds other two. And the snickersnack is the pattern from his earlier thoughts, apparently a nucleus. The other two look up and see the bomb, to their dismay. Then we watch the nucleus for a while, before moving to alternating shots of horrified Truth Guy, dismayed other two, and the nucleus going snickersnack. As cute as horrified Truth Guy is, this sequence still runs too long to justify it.
And then the bomb goes off with a silent bang and seizure-inducing flashing lights. There is a quiet boom as everyone is knocked back to the way they were, naked on the beach. The three men suddenly lose their tans, regain their clothes, and hop onto the suddenly reappeared boat and sail off, leaving the island for good. There is a thumping in the background as we pan out from the island and pan up to the sky, reaching the sun and panning out into blackness with a handful of pinpoint stars. Minimal end credits, and it's over.

I know that I don't really get what all of that was supposed to mean, but after watching it all, I change my mind. You can watch it if you want to, and maybe you'll understand it more than I did. Parts of it run too long, but there is a bit of a plot there that wasn't apparent from the beginning, so stick with it.
Still, I'm left with questions. Why should good and beauty be at odds? And why does truth get so little to do? What was up with the snake? Outside of the symbolism, it seems to me that these three are friends, but Good perhaps always resented Beauty's narcissistic tendency's and only realized how much when they were isolated on vacation together. Or perhaps those two were always sniping at each other at work (I really get the feeling that they all worked at the same place) and Truth was the mediator for the group. And being in such close proximity, he realized it wasn't worth it anymore and let them go at it. Or maybe he realized that the others didn't really appreciate him (judging from his first thinking sequence, he's probably the weird friend they tolerate for comic relief), and that's why he didn't step in. The smart guy is never appreciated until it's too late, but by then he's created a bomb, and there you go then.
What I really want to know is, what the heck was Richard Williams on when he conceived of this thing?