Repost: Sweeney Todd and...

I was recently listening to the OBC of Sweeney Todd, and it reminded me of something I put together a few years ago and posted on my livejournal.  I'm not really sure why I didn't post it here, but I probably had my reasons.  Anyway, it still amuses me, so I'm posting it here now:


Out of all the wrong things I have ever come up with, this is probably the most wrong: Sweeney Todd, played by the cast of The Mr. Men Show. I don't remember exactly how I came up with the concept, other than I was watching the movie with my sister the other day. But I was thinking about it today at work, and I couldn't let go of the idea. Here's what I came up with (mild Sweeney Todd spoilers):

Sweeney Todd - Mr. Persnickety
This is probably the least justified of any of my casting ideas. I just like the idea of Mr. Persnickety as Sweeney, although I can't exactly say why. It would certainly give new meaning to the lyric "For neatness he deserves a nod." Of course, after a while I justified it by the fact that he's had a pretty prominent name change, which works with the show. "So it is you, Mr. Fussy." "NO! Not Fussy! Persnickety. Mister Persnickety."

Mrs. Lovett - Miss Naughty
At first I thought of Miss Helpful in this role, because of all the stuff she does to help Sweeney, but I wasn't entirely satisfied. And I just couldn't picture her singing "A Little Priest," so I thought about who could, and the first Little Miss I thought of was Miss Naughty. And once I thought of that, it just clicked. After all, it's been established that she's a terrible cook (then again, Mrs. Lovett's problem was lack of good ingredients, but still), and her hair is kind of like HBC's Lovett. Besides, she and Mr. Persnickety definitely have chemistry ^_~

Johanna - Miss Chatterbox
I based my casting more on the actual musical than the movie, and Miss Chatterbox is definitely the most Johanna-like, since her songs with Anthony are basically her talking over him ("Was that a noise? I think I heard a noise, no, it couldn't be, he's in court. Still, I heard a noise, didn't you hear that?")

Anthony - Mr. Tickle
Basically because I wanted Mr. Tickle to be in there somewhere, plus, he's kind of Anthony-like. The most Anthony-like out of all the other Mr. Men, anyway.

Judge Turpin - Mr. Small
Beadle Bamford - Mr. Nosy
I went back and forth on who should be the Judge and the Beadle for a while. I was actually thinking that I hadn't cast Mr. Small and Mr. Nosy yet, and I wanted them to be included (since they're my favorites), and I suddenly thought of the Judge and Beadle, since they're usually together in the show. I didn't want Mr. Nosy and Mr. Small to be the villians, of course, but it just seemed so right once I thought of it. At first I wasn't sure which should be which, so I thought they could alternate (in general, any time Sweeney's in position to slit Turpin's throat, it would be Mr. Nosy, since, well...). But then I realized that with this course of action, Mr. Nosy would have to sing "Pretty Women," and I didn't want that. So I imagined Mr. Small singing it with Mr. Persnickety instead, and that solidified him as my choice for the Judge. I wish that I could somehow convince the voice actors to make an actual recording of that song. I'm also half-tempted to write a parody of it called "Little Misses."
But Mr. Nosy also makes a better Beadle because, as I recall from the show, there's a scene where he goes to inspect Mrs. Lovett's bakehouse, and finding her not in her shop, simply sits down at the piano in her parlor and starts playing it. Which is very much something Mr. Nosy would do.

Pirelli - Mr. Stubborn
The thought of Mr. Stubborn as Pirelli is what made me seriously think out the rest of the cast. It's hard to describe, but there's just something so perfect about Mr. Stubborn playing Pirelli ("Who has the nerve to say my elixer is piss? Who says this?").

Toby - Mr. Scatterbrain
I'm not really satisfied with this casting, but I can't seem to drop the idea of it. But, being Mr. Scatterbrain, he wouldn't play Toby half the time (if any), and would sing a song from another musical (e.g. "Bushel and a Peck" from Guys and Dolls) instead of "Not While I'm Around." And he'd pull out some other prop instead of a razor at the end.

The Beggar Woman/Lucy - Miss Sunshine
"There was a barber and his wife, and she was beautiful." For some reason, that line speaks Little Miss Sunshine to me. Of course, then you have to imagine her as a half-crazed beggar woman (and another thing which is better left unimagined, so I won't inflict it upon you). But the real reason I thought of Miss Sunshine for this role is the lyric "They figured she had to be daft, y'see."

And everyone else can be the chorus. "And what happened next, well that's the play, and he wouldn't want us to give it away."

At the time, I thought about writing up a fanfic of the Dillydale Players rehearsing for this production, with Mr. Happy as the director (who of course didn't get that it was supposed to be all dark), but really the only scene I came up with was Mr. Tickle using his extendable arms to make the line "Until then I'm with you there" from "Johanna" literal.

Lite Sprites - The Cartoon

In a rather strange move, Lite Sprites only gets 11 minutes for its special, which I guess is a sign of the times, but still strikes me as odd.  The special also has an official title, so I guess it's more of a pilot.

Shine On
The special opens with Prisma using her color wand to make multicolor marshmallows, and then call up "glimmer" the other Sprites to remind them about their upcoming slumber party.  Oh, it's one of these.  Geh.  So yeah, the girls have wands that not only spread color, but act as cell phones, apparently?  Each of the Sprites takes a moment from their work (or in Astra's case, snoozing), to confirms their plans, though Bleak refuses to commit to actually showing up.  Prisma also reminds Astra not to fall asleep, but of course that's just what she does.

Cut to that evening, with all the girls, even Bleak, gathered to celebrate the new moon.  Prisma calls on Astra to light up the sky with stars, as not doing so will let the shadows take over Lite-Topia.  Since this is only an eleven minute special, Astra is ready to comply.  And apparently she has to keep doing this through the night, as Prisma brings up the second matter of business, keeping Astra awake all night.  Okay, if it's so important for Astra to stay up at night, then how come she wouldn't let the girl catch her z's during the day?  Regardless, no sooner are the words out of Prisma's mouth than Astra falls asleep again, which Bleak, our resident snarker it seems, blames on how dull this "party" has been so far.
Meadow's in charge of fun and games, so she pulls out what she considers to be the most fun thing ever: magazine quizzes!  Bleak is not convinced, especially when the first one is "Reveal your inner lipgloss!"  The other girls are into it, though, and clamor for another, which Meadow readily provides: "When did your BF become your BFF?"  For these girls, it's a no-brainer: the day they found their light wands!  Bleak points out she wasn't actually there, but that turns out to be only half true, as Meadow decides to recount the story for them.

It started with them all (minus Prisma) at the Lite Tree, just as they are now, and she had just told a most hilarious joke.  As she remembers them all laughing uproariously, Bleak cuts in to remind her of what really happened: nobody got the joke.  At all.  Brooke continues the story with the entrance of Prisma, who had just had a crazy dream.  They were all there, making Lite-Topia just the most colorful thing you'd ever seen with awesome wands.  Bleak was quick to point out that it was just a dream, but when Prisma reveals that her dream started with them drinking peach nectar, just like they were then, the other girls were hooked.  Prisma continued to tell them about her dream, and how they went to a waterfall, and wouldn't you know it, Brooke was planning to show them a waterfall that day.  Convinced of her psychic powers, Prisma called for them to all visit the waterfall, and the girls quickly followed her lead.  Except for Bleak, who just rolled her eyes.
Down at the waterfall, Prisma spotted some colors from her dream behind it, and Brooke, by way of falling out of a tree and getting tangled in a vine, found a secret passageway inside.  Deep inside, they came to a fork, and it seems Prisma's dream didn't include which one of the two they took.  While the girls wondered what to do, Meadow imitated a game show host, and started to glow.  Which was in Prisma's dream, so off they went, finally ending in a crystal cavern.  There they discovered the wands, hanging from the ceiling, and since she dreamed it, Prisma goes right ahead and grabs one.  This knocks the others down right into the hands of the waiting sprites, but since Bleak wasn't there to grab hers, it instead cracked the ground and caused an earthquake that caved-in the entrance.  Definitely not part of Prisma's dream.

Back in the present, Prisma blames herself for getting them all stuck, but remembers that this is the part where Bleak saved the day.  It turned out that while Bleak was just hanging out at the Lite Tree, the earthquake shook open the opening of a passageway leading to the crystal cavern.  Hearing the other sprites' voices coming from the hole, Bleak leapt into action, climbing down the stairs, and found the other sprites completely unaware the stairs behind them.
In the present, she insists that this was nothing, and when the other sprites persist in hailing her as a hero, she turns to the story towards Astra, who was the one who brought along the extra wand for her.  With everyone safe and sound, Prisma remembered the next part of her dream, and thus the girls put their wands together with a call of "Shine on!" (Um, why?) and blammo, Lite-Topia was suddenly way more colorful than before.  Each girl waved her wand for a flash of light, but Bleak's instead made a zapping sound, making the others think it didn't work.  But for Bleak, it worked just fine, stealing the color from the door.
Best day ever, now that Bleak thinks about it.  With the story wrapped up, the other girls realize that Astra hasn't fallen asleep once.  Unlike Prisma's pet butterfly, which gorged itself into a food coma.  Which is hilarious, of course.  Astra refreshes the stars and even creates some aurora borealis for good measure, closing out the show.

Misc. Screenshots
Bleak steals color
Meadow shows off her breakdancing moves

So yeah, that's basically it.  For what it is, it's pretty good, though there are a few niggling things that keep coming to mind.  Like what was the point of making the main plot of the special a flashback?  I mean, 40% of the show was just getting the girls into position.  Why not not just have the story start where the flashback does, and use the extra time to do more showing and less telling?  (I'd be all for actually seeing Brooke fall out of the tree, rather than just hearing one of the girls mention it.)
Another thing that bothers me is bringing up the whole "shadows will take over if Astra falls asleep" thing.  Mostly because it turns this special from a cute little toy commercial into a bundle of wasted potential.  Who cares how the girls got their wands?  Show the shadows trying to take over!  Are the shadows sentient creatures, or just a force of nature?  What kept them at bay before the girls got their wands?  Don't get me wrong, the special works as is (again, for what it is), but if you're not going to pay off the mention of shadows, then don't bring it up at all.  Keep Astra up because it's a slumber party, or because the stars need extra help without the moon, but don't tease the viewers.
Speaking of the shadows, I find it interesting that they're (apparently) the antagonists in this world, and not Bleak.  After all, from the doll descriptions, she seems to fit that bill, being a rebel color-stealer.  Instead, she's one of the main girls, considered a friend, even if she'd rather be doing something else.   She's also what makes this special worth watchign, at least for me.  I tend to prefer the characters who, when living in a Sugar Bowl, buck the usual characteristic of everyone being nice and friendly (unless they're a villain), and being rather cynical.  Bleak pretty much echoed my thoughts during the most targetting-the-demographic parts of the special, and while I know I shouldn't be too hard on a special that is, after all, airing during the Hub's preschool block, it still amused me to have at least one character being sarcastic toward the others' never-ending upbeat attitudes.
Animation-wise, the special actually looks pretty good.  The girls suffer from basically being the same shape with different hair, but that really only stands out when you look at still images.  The voice acting is decent, but Meadow, Brooke, and Astra's VAs don't quite have a handle on their voices, making the characters sound slightly different from scene to scene.  None of the VAs have done much else (if anything), so that probably has something to do with it.

Dan Vs. - Ye Old Shakespeare Theatre

I loved tonight's episode of Dan Vs., though I'm not sure if the best part was Phantom of the Opera Dan:

 Or Dread Pirate Roberts Elise:

And of course, all the Shakespeare quoting was pretty awesome, too.

Answers from The Zany Bishojo Evalana

Max Jordan asks "We know about your like of My Little Pony, Care Bears, Strawberry Shortcake and Sushi Pack. What are some other cartoons you like?"
 I do tend to watch more shows than I blog about, cartoon or not.  I'm really not a regular viewer of any particular series right now, but I do always try to catch Adventure Time, Phineas and Ferb, The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, and WordGirl when I see they're on.  There was a time (i.e. two years ago) when I was kinda into Wow Wow Wubzy, and I almost made a blog post about it, but my interest in it passed.  The main thing I wanted to point out about it was that Walden's voice actor also did Rocko of Rocko's Modern Life, back in the day.  And about a year ago I found out that he was the voice of Bobbi Fabulous in the Phineas and Ferb episode "Dude, We're Getting the Band Back Together."
Generally, when I get into a cartoon, it's due to good voice acting, good writing, or both.  I don't care as much about what it looks like, though that must play a little bit of a part, because that's why I've had such a love-hate relationship with the 2003 SSC cartoon, which not only had neither good writing nor good voice acting, but had animation that looked enough off from the official art to make me feel ripped off (even though I was only renting the DVDs).  Granted, as the series went on, all three factors managed to improve, but still.  What I'm really trying to say is that for me, good writing can make up for lackluster voice work and vice versa.  But the shows that keep me coming generally have both.

A Few Thoughts on The Mr. Men Show

So, you know the Mr. Men Show, that flash-animated cartoon currently airing its second season on Cartoon Network? (If you don't, check it out.) Basically, it takes the characters created by Roger Hargreaves (and a few made by his son, Adam) and puts them in a sketch comedy, using short interstitials, longer sketches, and even the occasional song or dance break, all focused around a theme (ranging from "farm" to "canned goods"). I enjoy the show both for its humor, but also for the superb voice acting. Which is why I'm not that crazy about the British version.

The show was released simultaneously in the US and UK, but since the different countries aimed for different demographics, the UK version has been redubbed and the dialogue dumbed down a little. Mostly these are little things, like making a line more explicit or adding a quick explanation where there was silence, but every now and then the joke is basically killed. For example, in one sketch, Mr. Grumpy is on a music-themed game show and has to name what song Miss Sunshine is playing. She plays an excessively fancy version of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, but Mr. Grumpy loses a point because he can't help griping, "Does she have to play like such a looney bird?" In the British version, he just guesses a completely wrong song. The joke is lost. Still, there's at least one instance where the UK show has a better line than the US: Mr. Grumpy and Mr. Quiet visit Miss Naughty's restaurant, where the food is as bad as her tricks. Despite this, Mr. Grumpy tells her the food is delicious, commenting to Mr. Quiet, "Well, I'm not rude." In the British version, he instead stage-whispers, "That is not true." It could be just me, but the delivery of it just made me laugh out loud.

I had more gripes about the British voices back when I watched the episodes, but as that was a while ago, I've mellowed out, so the only one I'm going to single out is that Miss Daredevil just does not sound right with a posh accent. So wrong. But it is interesting to hear Miss Whoops, Miss Scary, and Miss Naughty with lighter, more feminine sounding voices. And one last thing about the British version: it usually cuts out one sketch per show, which I'm assuming is to cover the extended version of the theme song (which I'll admit is better than the US version), although I believe the cut sketches and songs were included as bonus features on the UK DVDs.

Originally I had a couple more things I wanted to say about the show, but I can't quite muster enough words to justify talking about it, which I blame on it simply being too long since I first saw the show and writing it up now. What I mean is that I've come to accept all the changes that were made in the adaptation process (renamed/redesigned characters), so I don't really feel like talking about that anymore. So I just want to close with one thing: Mr. Small is such an enabler. That is all.

I Feel Like Bragging Now

Being as I am the kind of person I am, I derived more pleasure from learning a piece of info about an upcoming episode of a certain show than actually standing by the stage door and getting to see actual Broadway performers up close and personal. Of course, it stands to reason, as this combined my two greatest loves (musicals and voice acting), but I can't help but feel like my priorities were a little whacked.

And just in case you're wondering, I saw 9 to 5 yesterday, and noticed that Megan Hilty's bio mentioned doing a voice on Phineas and Ferb, so when she came out, I asked her who she was, since I couldn't think of it and I knew that I wouldn't have time to look it up by the time I got home. Turns out, the episode she's in hasn't aired yet, but she laid down the tracks back in February.

Nerima Daikon Brothers meets Phineas and Ferb?

I'm currently rewatching Nerima Daikon Brothers, and because I've been watching so much Phineas and Ferb lately (which is a really good show, btw, and you should all check it out), my brain keeps trying to match up the characters. I mean, in a general sense, Phineas would be Hideki, since they're both the instigators of their groups, Ferb would be Ichiro, the quieter, more laid-back one, and Candace would be Mako, mostly because they're both girls, but they are similar personality-wise. And of course Perry would be Pandaikon, which means that Major Monogram would be The Rental Guy, but since that's a Nabeshin cameo, Carl would be a better fit, just because of the hair similarity.

And part of me wants Doofenshmirtz to be Ichiro because I've been spending too much time in the DxP part of the fandom (but they're the most active part!), and Ichiro has his own song about how he feels about the panda (which, in the dub, includes the lines "They say you're an animal/But I say you're a mammal just like me"). But on the other hand, he could also be Yukika, who also falls for the panda, and since she's a gadget detective, that role probably fits him better anyway, except for the fact that she's a policewoman, which is two strikes for him (that is, since he's a card-carrying villain and a man) but that's really par for the course for him, when you think about it.

But going back to Nerima Daikon Brothers, it's been a favorite of mine for a while. I rented it when it first came out, but I only recently got around to buying it (hence the rewatching). It's only twelve episodes long, so one could possibly watch the entire thing in a day, although I'm not doing that. The series follows Hideki, Ichiro, and their cousin Mako as they fight to right the wrongs occurring in Nerima, with the not-exactly-altruistic motive of claiming the evil-doers' money so they can build a dome in their daikon field and give concerts. But what sets this anime apart from the rest is the fact that it is a musical. That's right, every episode features a number of songs, most of them less than a minute (also, the character designs are done by the same guy who did the character designs for Space Pirate Mito, although under a pseudonym). The whole show also spoofs and satires aspects of Japanese life as well as various celebrities (including a No Celebrities Were Harmed version of Michael Jackson), so if you do check it out, make sure to get the DVDs released by ADV, which includes liner notes and on-screen ADVidnotes explaining most of the references. On top of that, unlike for most animes, the dub includes translated versions of the songs, most of which fit the spirit of the song, even if they don't exactly match lyrically. Keep in mind, however, a lot of the humor on the show is of an ecchi (that is, slightly perverted) nature. Nothing explicit, but if that kind of thing isn't your cup of tea, then consider yourself forewarned.

As the name of the series implies, there's a certain amount of inspiration pulled from the movie The Blues Brothers. However, since I've never seen that, here's a mashup of the movie's trailer with footage from the anime:

Barbie and --what?!

Okay, look at this image of an upcoming Barbie line, and guess what the accompanying Direct-to-DVD movie is about:

You're thinking something involving fairies or royalty, right? Maybe a "Barbie does the Wizard of Oz" kind of thing? (Those dresses are giving me serious Glinda vibes. And those are obviously wands they're holding, right?) Well, think one more time before scrolling down.

Think you're ready?

Okay, here it is:

What manner of Tomfoolery is this?! Barbie and the Three Musketeers? I just... there aren't words for my feelings toward this. I mean, I haven't felt this kind of indescribable rage toward any of the Barbie direct-to-DVD movies just from seeing the cover. Maybe if they weren't wearing dresses.... Or if the dolls had the funky hats instead of crowns. Or if the doll's swords didn't look so unswordlike. And that cat with a sword? That's even worse, and makes potentially less sense, than the comic relief owl in that French animated version that I keep meaning to upload.

At the moment, there is hardly any information on the actual plot, nor has a release date been set, although a couple of books are slated to come out in August.

Analyzing Pierre

This is something I've wanted to do for a while, ever since I rediscovered Really Rosie on Youtube a couple of years ago. The conceit of Really Rosie is that Rosie is auditioning her friends for a part in her "movie," but it's really an excuse to animate the Nutshell books by Maurice Sendak, set to music by Carol King. The special is from the seventies, and the animation isn't the greatest, but you can really tell that the animators were having fun.  One section in particular holds a particular interest to me, the bit about the book called Pierre.  This sequence has a lot of little things I like, which I've put in bold.

There once was a boy named Pierre
Who only would say "I don't care"
Read his story, my friend,
For you'll find at the end
That a suitable moral lies there.
The prologue isn't too interesting, as it's just Rosie gesticulating toward the window where Pierre prepares, although she is rather melodramatic. By the end of this section, the apartment building has melted away, revealing Pierre in his pajamas. With hardly any effort, he launches himself in the air and neatly cartwheels into his bed.

One day, his mother said, 

When Pierre climbed out of bed, 

"Good morning, darling boy, 

You are my only joy." 

Pierre said, "I don't care."
Pierre's mother enters and stares at him lovingly, causing Pierre to burrow into his bed, but as the song dictates, he has to get up. He merely stands on his bed, stretching and yawning, and scratches his head. His mother doesn't do much until this point, when she pats him on the head to go with her "darling boy" line. Pierre flinches and then jumps up onto his pillow for height, so his mother can't do that again, presumably, but jumps off the bed soon enough and gives his mother a dirty look before shaking his head at her and walking to the kitchen, backwards. By the time he gets there, he's wearing his normal clothes minus shoes for some reason.


"What would you like to eat?" 

"I don't care." 

"Some lovely cream of wheat?" 

"I don't care." 

"Don't sit backwards in your chair." 

"I don't care." 

"Don't pour syrup on your hair." 

"I don't care."
As his mother enters with a bowl of cream of wheat, Pierre waits for her with his elbows on the table and a cross look on his face, although he quickly leans back in his chair and crosses his arms. One suspects he doesn't care because he knows that it doesn't make a difference: he's getting cream of wheat whether he wants it or not. He turns around in his chair and shrugs at his mother, who turns her eyes toward heaven with a "why me?" expression. When Pierre pulls a pitcher of syrup from nowhere, she can only feebly point at what he's doing as he pours it on his head, his expression unchanging.

"You are acting like a clown." 

"I don't care." 

"And we have to go to town." 

"I don't care."
"Don't you want to come, my dear?" 

"I don't care." 

"Would you rather stay right here?" 

"I don't care." 

So his mother left him there.
Pierre slides off the chair and solemnly picks up the bowl and places it on top of his head, then grabs the tablecloth and whips it off the table and around himself in one deft movement. He then reaches offscreen and grabs a broom which he brandishes like a spear. His mother implores him with vague handmotions, but Pierre tips the bowlhat forward and taps his foot impatiently. He then flips the broom over and uses the handle to spin the bowl, no longer on his head. His mother, defeated, turns to leave, but watches dejectedly as Pierre throws the broom back offscreen and whips the tablecloth off himself again, but leaves before he brandishes it like a bullfighter and then flings it offscreen in the opposite direction as the broom. Once again he takes to the air, landing acrobatically upside down on a folding chair. And the whole time he just has this nonplussed expression on his face. There's nothing special about what he's doing, apparently.

His father said, 

"Get off your head 

Or I will march you up to bed." 

And Pierre said, 

"I don't care."
Unlike his mother, Pierre's father is very expressive. Seeing his son on the chair, he first starts to bend over, to look at him eye-to-eye, then thinks better of it and straightens up. He minces around a little, clasping his hands under his chin, then points to punctuate his lecture, first at Pierre and then at himself (which I never noticed until I started writing this post), then back at Pierre, and then up, as in upstairs. During all this, Pierre does some footwork, leans his butt back in the chair (which is at the head of the chair, you may recall), and then does a little shimmy. All while standing on his head on a folding chair. His father is taken aback by his son's nonchalance, and even appears worried, clasping his hands some more. Pierre does more wriggling in the chair, but I can't really describe it all.

"I would think that you could see," 

"I don't care." 

"Your head is where your feet should be." 

"I don't care." 

"If you keep standing upside down," 

"I don't care." 

"We'll never ever get to town." 

"I don't care." 

"If only you would say 'I care,'" 

"I don't care." 

"I'd let you fold the folding chair." 

"I don't care." 

While his father implores his son just as his mother did, Pierre manages to maintain his balance even without holding onto the chair. For the "head is where your feet should be" line, his father indicates Pierre's feet, and Pierre defiantly sticks his feet out at his father and waves them in his face. His father then does a weird sort of indication of "upside down" while Pierre turns himself around on the chair without his hands and still doesn't fall off. This boy has powers, yet he doesn't seem to realize it. His father clasps his hands together again and moves in a rather melodramatic fashion, and Pierre grabs his feet. Seeing this, his father crouches down and turns his head to look at his son. Pierre straightens up, but his jacket starts to fall, so he pulls it straight.

So his parents left him there. 

They didn't take him anywhere.
Pierre's mother enters and his father straightens up while Pierre continues to wriggle in the chair. With backward glances askance, the parents leave, and Pierre directs his feet and scowl in their direction. But then he gets jumpy, and jumps straight up and off the chair, turning a cartwheel and smiling for the first time in this whole sequence. After the cartwheel, he walks backwards, a smug expression on his face.

Now as the night began to fall, 

A hungry lion paid a call. 

It looked Pierre right in the eye 

And asked him if he'd like to die. 

And Pierre said, 

"I don't care."
After walking backwards, Pierre yawns and stretches to indicate that night has arrived, and the lion enters the frame, unseen. It leaps out and makes itself known to Pierre, who looks at it, and then looks at us with a look that just says, "Are you kidding me?" Then he and the lion engage in a staredown while walking before they stop so the lion can try and intimidate Pierre with his fangs. Rather than being frightened, Pierre simply holds his nose to avoid the lion's (apparently) bad breath. Then he glares at the lion and strikes a melodramatic pose (it runs in the family, I see) before executing a simple pirouette and falling back on the lion, forcing it to sit. The lion glares at Pierre, then looks out at us, looking for answers. What's with this kid?

"I can eat you, don't you see?" 

"I don't care." 

"Then you will be inside of me." 

"I don't care." 

"And you'll never have to bother," 

"I don't care." 

"With a mother and a father." 

"I don't care." 

"Is that all you have to say?" 

"I don't care." 

"Then I'll eat you if I may." 

"I don't care." 

So the lion ate Pierre.
The lion tries to emphasize his deadliness by licking his chops, but Pierre just yawns and strikes another dramatic pose. The lion roars and Pierre appears to consider its offer, but then starts performing a bit of gymnastics. The lion watches with one eye shut, then opens both eyes as Pierre moves onto pirouetting again, ending with a dramatic flair. When the lion says the part about never having to bother with his parents, Pierre does consider this and smiles(!) before quickly going into more gymnastics. The lion doesn't do too much here but Pierre is in constant motion, stopping only to offer the lion an open-handed shrug, as if to say, "Hey, doesn't matter to me whether you eat me or not." Then he pulls the lion's mouth open himself and takes a (dramatic) flying leap in. The lion closes its mouth and apparently swallows, as its belly suddenly grows and it picks its teeth.

Arriving home at six o'clock 

His parents had a dreadful shock! 

They found the lion sick in bed 

And cried, "Pierre is surely dead!" 

They pulled the lion by the hair; 

They hit him with the folding chair. 

His mother asked, "Where is Pierre?" 

And the lion answered, 

"I don't care." 

His father said, "Pierre's in there."
A very quick fade to black, and Pierre's parents are suddenly strolling back in the house. A clock appears out of nowhere and Pierre's father notes it briefly. They stop, gaping at something offscreen, and then give a simultaneous gasp. They look at each other in horror and rush to the next screen, where the lion is tucked in Pierre's bed. It makes a horrible face and clutches at its stomach. Pierre's mother weeps into her husband's coat, then turns and starts pulling the lion's goatee. He doesn't seem to care, although when Pierre's father whips out the folding chair and starts brandishing it, he attempts to shield himself, especially when Pierre's mother starts in with her purse. Inexplicably, they stop, and Pierre's father puts the chair away behind the bed. Pierre's mother ever so melodramatically (I told you it ran in the family) implores the lion while Pierre's father glares at it, but it just makes the same horrible face as before and the parents gape at it. They stare at each other in horror and then Pierre's father bends down to listen to the lion's stomach directly. He straightens up and, horrified, points repeatedly at the lion's midsection. Pierre's mother begins to howl quite dramatically while Pierre's father rushes from one side of the bed to the other and the lion either nods or does something related to being sick. I'm not quite sure.

They rushed the lion into town. 

The doctor shook him up and down, 

And when the lion gave a roar 

Pierre fell out upon the floor.
Pierre's parents pick up either side of the bed and rush offscreen as it rapidly turns black. When the lights come back up, we see a tiny doctor standing on a table, shaking the lion. He stops and watches, and Pierre opens the lion's mouth and peeks out. The doctor looks at us with the same look both Pierre and the lion gave us earlier, then shakes the lion one more time, unceremoniously dropping Pierre on the floor. He then drops the lion, and the table rolls offscreen, leaving Pierre and the lion looking at each other, both unsure of what just happened there.

He rubbed his eyes and scratched his head 

And laughed because he wasn't dead. 

His mother cried and held him tight. 

His father asked, "Are you all right?" 

Pierre said, "I am feeling fine. 

Please take me home, it's half past nine."
Pierre does all that the lyrics describe while the lion goggles at him, trying to figure out how this should be, then finally gives up and lies down. Pierre nods at the audience when the narrator mentions he isn't dead. His mother enters the scene and lifts him up off the floor with her hug, and doesn't let him down until his father comes onscreen.  Back on the ground, Pierre first stands with his hands behind his back, for a moment, proudly, then piourettes again, ending with a yawn as he indicates the clock on the wall, which the lion also looks at.  

The lion said, "If you would care
To ride on me, I'll take you there."
Then everybody looked at Pierre
Who shouted, "Yes, indeed, I care!"

While Pierre continues to yawn, the lion waves a paw at him, and indicates its back.  Pierre gives the lion a bow, then straightens up when he realizes everyone offscreen is looking at him.  He has a moment of hesitataion before striking poses and doing more twirling.  He ends up down on one knee with a huge smile on his face.  

The lion took them home to rest
And stayed on as a weekend guest.
The moral of Pierre is:
CARE!

Pierre climbs on the lion's head with its help, and his father helps his mother onto the lion's back, but while he is climbing on himself, the lion starts moving, and Pierre strikes a kind of "whee" pose for a very brief moment.  Once everyone is offscreen, Pierre peeks back, broom in hand, and then runs back onscreen, turning a somersault with the broom and landing on the letters C A R E ! which bump into each other in their haste to get in the picture.  Pierre leaps from letter to letter, striking poses and using the broom to fancily knock each letter down and offscreen until he gets to the exclamation point.  He uses that one to vault offscreen again, and the scene goes to black.

While Really Rosie has not been released to DVD as of yet, the individual Nutshell Book sequences have come out on the DVD of Where the Wild Things Are as a special feature.  However, there are two things wrong with the DVD version of Pierre. First, whoever put this together decided to hide its roots as part of Really Rosie, so they show animation from the middle over the prologue, instead of Rosie narrating while Pierre prepares behind his apartment window as in the original. Second, the audio is the recording version. In the original, Pierre's voice actor voices his lines, but here, Carol King does them along with the narration. Not a huge deal, but it really bugs me. Especially in the lines "If only you would say 'I care'/"I don't care!" since Pierre's VA put extra emphasis on that one, but Carol King does not.  In the end, though, it's better to have something than nothing, I guess.

Would you believe I actually started this post in April and just didn't get around to finishing it until now?

Being spoiled

Normally I try to avoid spoilers--big spoilers, I mean. I don't mind little spoilers, like an image or a tiny piece of information. Usually the kind of thing you'd find in a "sneak peek" featurette. Sometimes I even rejoice for snippets of information, like the tiny, tiny clip of Vidia in the upcoming Tinkerbell movie. But I avoid summaries like the plague unless I have no plan to see/read the title in question. And I especially try to avoid finding out about episodes of shows that air in other countries before they air over here. Even if it seems like everyone and their brother is watching the episodes early. This has killed at least two messageboards for me, as I tend to stop going there to avoid being even casually spoiled. Which is what happened on a certain Codename: Kids Next Door forum, where I was hugely spoiled by someone using an image from the big twist of one episode (a rather infamous one) as part of a caption game. After that, and a few other spoilers in places that should not have had them, I had to stop going. And once the episodes did air, I just couldn't get back into the same spirit as I had there before.
Anyway, despite the fact that I try and avoid spoilers, I do give in to temptation sometimes. As I recently did, thanks to Youtube. Lured by the knowledge that Bridget Robbins sings, I watched the (very far off) upcoming episode of Strawberry Shortcake, A Princess Called Rap (A retelling of Rapunzel). Although this episode is approximately 5 DVDs away, it has already aired in the UK and on Playhouse Disney Asia, and someone posted in on Youtube. And that's not the only one, either. Youtube is rife with SSC spoiler episodes. Not that it's hard to avoid them, it's quite easy, really. I don't search for SSC stuff on youtube anyway, so most of the time I don't even come in contact with the spoiler videos. But, being spoiled once generally leads to being spoiled more. And sure enough, while watching A Princess Called Rap, I took a look at the first part of another episode, Sleeping Beauty, because one of the preview images was aged-up Apple Dumpling. I ended up watching the entire first part and part of the second before I resolved not to be spoiled anymore (I could tell where the story was going, anyway). I did see a new character, and Banana Candy being the worst messenger ever, before I left, though.
This whole post is just the intro to a three post series I'm planning on posting over the next two weeks. The first post will be spoileriffic, so if you don't mind, go ahead and read it. But if you don't want to be spoiled, better tune in later.

Raggedy Ann updated

I stumbled on this a while ago, and then I was thinking about it again today but couldn't find it readily, so I'm making this post more for my own reference than anything else. This article talks a bit about how there's going to be a new Raggedy Ann cartoon coming either this Fall or Fall 2009 (it's not entirely clear). There's a picture of the updated Ann with a cat, but I'm more interested in seeing what Andy will look like ^_~ Of course, my liking Andy is mostly influenced by the movie, but the original books have their moments, too. Like in one story, he gets his smile half-washed off accidentally, and all the other dolls freak out about it. And he's just like, "Hey, I'm still smiling whether you can see it or not," but the other dolls keep on about it, so he gets annoyed. (But fortunately, this all happened on Christmas Eve, so St. Nick showed up and fixed all the little problems the dolls had, including Andy's smile, so there you go.)

Series meme

Choose five series (no peeking before you choose them), list them, and then answer the questions below.
1. Harry Potter
2. Adventures in Care-a-lot
3. Paniponi Dash!
4. Pushing Daisies
5. Sushi Pack

1. Which is your favorite series from your list? And why?
Pushing Daisies, most likely. It's the one I worried about most during the Writer's Strike, anyway. I really liked Wonderfalls, which was made by the same guy, in fact it was the first live action show that I actually cared about and planned to watch every week. So of course I was devastated when it got canceled after three episodes. Which is why I was worried that the same thing would happen to Pushing Daisies. Fortunately, it didn't but then the Writer's Strike happened! You see, bad things happen to shows that I actually care about and don't watch just because everyone else in the room is watching it. But it seems to be safe now.
As for the actual show, I can't describe just what makes it so awesome, but it basically boils down to good writing and a great cast.

2. If you were to pair two characters from 1 and 4, who would they be?
From Harry Potter and Pushing Daisies? I honestly have no clue. I don't generally think of anybody romantically with anyone else in HP, actually, although I know plenty of others do.


3. What is one thing you'd like to change about 3's plotline?
What plotline? Well, I'd probably make Becky not a genius 11-year-old teacher. I know it's me overthinking things, but it just bugs me so much.

4. If both main characters of 2 and 5 were falling off a cliff, which one would you save?
Depends on which main character, since both shows have a core five. I mean, if it was Funshine vs. Ikura, I'd save Ikura, since Funshine can probably use his belly badge to make a sun parachute, or those light balls he used in "Unbearable" to save himself. Actually, that's true of all the Care Bears except for Oopsy, so I'd save the sushi each time, unless it was Oopsy, in which case I'd have to save him, unless Wingnut was around, because then he'd do it instead.

5. Which event was the most horrible for you in 1?
I don't even remember anymore. I mean, I had Sirius' death spoiled for me because I didn't read the fifth book until a year after it came out, and it's been so long since I read the books that I can't remember my initial reactions. And I didn't really like the last one so...ah, there we go, hearing Mrs. Weasley call Bellatrix a bitch. That was the worst, because I imagine Mrs. Weasley as being a lot like my mom (although my family doesn't have nearly as many kids in it), and she would never use that word, no matter how mad she got.

6. Which is your least favorite character of 2?
I don't really dislike any of the characters, especially since most of them are not all that fleshed out. I guess if I really had to pick, it would be that General robot from "Heatwave." Or maybe New-B, although he gets points at the end for zinging Grizzle.

7. If the antagonist of 3 were to rape the main character of 1, what would you do?
Again, who is the antagonist? I really can't think of one for PPD.

8. What song reminds you of 5?
While I usually find songs that match characters from the shows I watch, I haven't done that for Sushi Pack yet, so I have to skip this one.

9. Of 1, 3, and 5, which is the easiest to think about?
At this point, Sushi Pack. HP is overdone for me, although Wizard People, Dear Reader is currently awesome, and PPD is easier to enjoy if I don't think about it too hard (see question 3).

10. Are the protagonists of 2 and 4 similar?
No, not really. Not at all, in fact. Too bad it's not 2 and 5, then I could post my decisions on which core five members match up.

Character Free-for-all

Select ten characters from any fandom:

1. Tako
2. Grumpy Bear
3. Grizzle
4. Raspberry Torte
5. Maguro
6. Merlock Holmes
7. Auraa
8. UR-2
9. Altessa
10. Luna Lovegood

Note: I did not see any of the questions before selecting the characters. If you want to do it, too, pick the characters now.

1. 5 and 9 are in a sporting event for charity, what event do they participate in? For what charity?
Sporting event, eh? Obviously, it must be a horribly mismatched three-legged race! Maguro would use her powers to manipulate the judges, so they win, regardless of actual performance. The charity? Something benefiting the Toy Town section of the Jewel Kingdom, perhaps.

2. If you could be 3's best friend for twenty-four hours, what would you spend the day doing?
Ah, yeah! First, I would get his guard down by working with him on some kind of awesome device to destroy the Care Bears (but not intend to use it, of course), and then I'd secretly hit the switch on the back of his suit and spend the rest of the day cuddling his little bear form ^_^

3. Is 8 more of a cat or a dog person?
Hm.... he really seems more like a cat person to me, although I can't really say why.

4. Create a live journal name for 10.
dontstopbelieving ...darn, she's hard to think of stuff for.

5. Out of 7 and 4 who would make a better preschool teacher? What type of games and activities would they do?
Auraa and Raspberry Torte, hm? Probably Auraa. He seems like he'd be good with kids, and he'd probably let the little buggers crawl all over him while trying to play horsey. That, and lots of fun dances that he cribbed from Fine and Rein.

6. Where would 6 like to spend an extended weekend? Wherever Sara Goodman happens to be, of course ^_~

7. 9, 4, and 8 have three seats in a row on an airplane; who gets the window seat, the aisle seat and the middle seat? What do they discuss?
Raspberry Torte and Altessa would fight over the aisle seat (Raspberry wouldn't be able to sit still for the whole flight, Altessa would want the extra leg room), but UR-2 would sneak in and claim it while they were fighting, but would be polite about it when questioned ("Well, neither of you were sitting in it, so I figured it was free."). Altessa would then take the window seat and Raspberry would sulk in the middle. Eventually Altessa and Raspberry would strike up a conversation about hair care, and UR-2 would go into sleep mode.

8. Write a haiku that 1 might write for 10 (5, 7, 5 syllables)
We've never met, but
Could you say hi to my friend,
The Giant Squid, please?

9. Out of 2 and 7 who would you rather perform a talent show with? What would be your talent?
I guess I'd pick Auraa, and we'd...swordfight? I don't know how, but he does, so if we choreographed it right, it could look cool.

10. 3 finds a wallet with two hundred dollar/pounds/etc with ID what does s/he do?
He'd keep it, being a bad guy and all. And use the money to buy more parts.

11. What is 1's greatest fear?
Not having people like his artwork. No, having his ink run dry just as he's about to finish his greatest work!

12. 5 was just arrest for ____, would 2 bail them out of jail?
Being a good guy, yes, but he wouldn't be happy about it. I really can't picture Maguro going to jail, though, unless somebody caught her for manipulating the judges back in question one.

13. 6 decides to throw a party, what are they celebrating? Is the party a success?
Probably the end of a big time case. Either that or his engagement to Sara ^_~ And if the time shifters are invited, things are bound to go horribly, horribly wrong. Oh, the chaos.

Strawberry Shortcake - Upcoming characters

I've mentioned my love/hate relationship with the 2000s Strawberry Shortcake series. A lot of the hate comes from the animated portion, with it's bad voice acting (with a few exceptions. Very few.) and wallbanging stories. But the love all comes from the character designs. There is something aesthetically pleasing about the characters, although I can't really describe what it is. I guess it's the potential that the official art holds. Looking at the characters, I get a sense of who they are, which is often dashed by their actual performances in the animated series. Case in point, Lemon Meringue. When her character design first showed up, I thought she'd be great, kinda snooty, but pretty enough that you didn't care. But when she finally turned up in the series, she actually had no personality at all, which is odd, considering how all of the characters are a blatant stereotype. Like Ginger Snap is the token inventor, Angel Cake is the Preteen Drama Queen, Orange Blossom is the hippie, Peppermint Fizz is the bad girl, Rainbow Sherbert is the pirate, Huckleberry Pie is the token boy, etc. I guess she's supposed to be the dumb blonde, but the majority of her dialogue is just a variation of "Huh?" That's not blonde, that's blank.
Anyway, I finally got to see Let's Dance, which I had been looking forward to because of Apricot, although as usual I was slightly let down (but only slightly this time). But one of the extras on the DVD (glad to see them after their absence on The Berry Blossom Festival DVD) was a "photo album" of all the characters, including a few that haven't shown up in the series (like Cherry Cuddler), and three that are going to be in the upcoming DVD:

Nerd Power!

Scarf Power?

Well, she looks...nice...

Watermelon Kiss is giving me some serious Yamato Nadeshiko vibes, especially since her mini-profile says she's "always looking for ways to be extra helpful." I just bet she's the character that's so nice it drives you nuts. Not that it'll drive any character in the series crazy, just the viewers at home.
Plum Puddin' is a girl once again, the second time she's changed since her original debut as a boy back in 1980 (speaking of which, where are the boys in the new series? I mean, I know that this it's primarily aimed at little girls, but come on!). Personally, I think she looks way too much like Tea Blossom. Other than that, she's got the nerd-prep look down. I think she's the first character to have glasses, which is fitting for the token nerd character. So, the question remains, who will she hit it off with better? Will she bond with Blueberry Muffin over their mutual love of books, or will she use her genius to band together with Ginger Snap and build some kind of super robot the likes of which has never been seen in Strawberry Land?
Out of the three, I like Banana Candy the best, although I dislike her name. What's wrong with Banana Split? Or what about Banana Cream Pie, huh? Too risque or something? But seriously, she's rocking that scarf. I have a feeling that the reason I like her best is the hair. I tend to go for the characters with fluffy styles.

And I just have one more thing to say:

Apricot, you don't have to be a pathological liar just to make people like you. You're cute just the way you are.
That is all.

Sushi Pack - Fish Tales

This ep opens with a news report on the Wharf City Museum's newest exhibit: the Golden Beachball of the Incas. Sophia Tucker talks with the mayor, who points out that the ball is protected both by lasers and by the Sushi Pack 24/7 just in case someone, i.e. White Oleander, tries to steal it. For reasons that are never specified, she wants it and has even teamed up with a DNA specialist, A. Scientist, to try and get it.
Kani's crabbier than usual, and Ikura wants to know why. Kani makes him promise, really promise, not to tell, and he does. They go off to the side to talk in private, unaware that Wasabi followed them. Kani spills the beans: it's molting season, and she's going to lose her shell soon, which is apparently like a big Hollywood production (I'm not sure what she means by this, really), so she's going to hide out on the beach pretty soon until her new shell grows in. Wasabi splits to tell the others.
Over at Oleander's hideout, the scientist whips up a DNA smoothie designed to give her a shell strong enough to bypass the museum's lasers, but it doesn't work. The scientist calculates that in order to make a smoothie that will do the trick, they need the hardest crabshell DNA in the world, which happens to belong to Kani. Oleander sends him to the museum to find a way to get that shell, so he dons a beard as a disguise.
Desperate to tell someone what he heard, Wasabi interrupts Tako's shift guarding the beachball and Tako translates for our benefit: Kani's leaving the pack to go to Hollywood! Wasabi also tells him to stop repeating everything he says (^_~). Tako goes immediately to tell Maguro. I just love the way she just tells him to go away, since she's mediatating. Of course, once she hears the news about Kani, now with the addition of a job as a stuntcrab, she loses her meditative cool. Kani shows up and tells Tako that the police chief wants to talk to him, and when Maguro tentatively asks if she's going anywhere, she just about bites Maguro's head off. The police chief fills Tako in on Oleander's supposed whereabouts and asks the Pack to look around, since she's taking a vacation day (it's a running gag on the show that the police chief always has something else to do other than fight crime). Maguro tells Tako about Kani's apparent confirmation, and they decide to go tell Ben.
Having heard all this, the scientist calls Oleander (her comment on Kani becoming a stuntcrab: "I bet that's a tough union to get into."), and they make plans to nab Kani once she sets out for Hollywood. Kani, meanwhile, is putting a few things together in preparation for her trip. Ikura shows up to tell her that Ben is coming to talk to all of them, and comments on how bad she looks. With her shell already starting to crack, Kani beats a hasty retreat, hopping a cab for Deserted Beach State Park without even waiting to hear what Ben has to say. The scientist relays all this to Oleander, and they get set to make their move.
Ikura joins the others, who are upset that Kani left without saying goodbye, but Ben points out that they don't know what's really going on. So he interrogates them one by one, whittling the story down, but Ikura stays true to his promise to Kani and doesn't tell them what's going on, only that it has nothing to do with Hollywood.
On the beach, Kani is trying to rush the molt, and finally manages to crack out of her old shell, but before her new one can harden, Oleander and the scientist strike! Not only do they capture her in a net, but they seize her old shell for the DNA. Meanwhile, Ben, learning that Ikura promised not to tell what Kani told him, elucidates on the nature of gossip, which in this context is "personal opinion painted as truth," in other words, a rumor. But since Kani really is gone, and Ikura isn't talking, the rest of the Pack still try to figure out where she's gone. Hollywood for real, or perhaps Paraguay? (Is this a crab joke? I don't get it...) Finally, Ikura has enough and, even though he promised Kani, he has to set the facts straight. Hearing the truth, everyone else feels dumb for thinking otherwise, but no one feels dumber than Ikura, since he could have set the rumors straight earlier. Now that everything is all right, Ben has to get back to The Green Donut, since he's the only one who works there, after all.
The new DNA smoothie actually works this time (good news for the scientist, whom Oleander threatned with physical violence if it didn't), granting Oleander a hardy shell on her back and pinchers for hands. The effect only lasts two hours, so she sets off. Kani, trapped in a cage due to her still soft shell, realizes that the heat lamp she's under will actually work to her advantage, hardening her shell extra quickly, and soon she's able to bust off the lock and get loose! The scientist tries to stop her but ends up smashing one of his beakers, blowing the roof of the sea cottage they've been hiding in, just as a police chopper goes by. Kani hitches a ride with it to the musuem, and manages to get there in time to warn the rest of the Pack. Oleander is not discouraged, as her shell protects her from all their attacks. She gets past the lasers and manages to grab the ball, despite her pinchers. But Kani, being a crab, comes up with the perfect strategy: the Pack uses their powers to make the floor as slippery as possible, knocking Oleander flat on her back, unable to get up.
Two hours later the police show up and take Oleander into custody. Ikura apologizes to Kani for spilling her secret, but she acknowledges that he made the right decision. And while she's annoyed with Wasabi for starting the whole thing in the first place, she's able to look back on it and laugh already, so it's all good.

This is going to haunt me for weeks, but why did Oleander want the beachball? Did she have some kind of plan for it? Was she just going to sell it on the black market? Maybe she had a trade set up for some kind of legendary ingredient, since she's a foodie villian and all. Whatever it was, it was worth changing her DNA, so it must have been big.

Sushi Pack - Deep Sea Diver Dude

Okay, this one starts off cheesily good, gets a little weak near the end, but still scores mega-points for being so unabashedly Tako-centric. Still, it definitely is one of the odder eps.

I mean, the whole thing starts off with Kani, Maguro, and Ikura talking about their families and how they keep up with them. Now, I can kind of dig this for Kani and Maguro, but isn't ikura salmon roe? As in, eggs? Now, the conceit of the show is that the Sushi Pack were created by a freak lightning storm. There hasn't been an explicit origin episode (yet), but it's been mentioned offhand a couple of times. So, I'm just curious about how 'alive' roe is before being made into sushi. I mean, with the others, they obviously had life before becoming sushi, so it makes sense that they would remember their relatives when they came back to life, as it were, but an egg? Or really, more than one egg? The more I think about it, the less sense Ikura makes. No wonder he's so headstrong, he's got twenty or so eggs in his head.
Anyway, the point of everyone's families is to set up the episode's scenerio: Tako feels left out because he doesn't have any family. Neither does Wasabi, being a condiment and all, but they don't hang out and wallow in their mutual lack of family or anything. First, Tako walks in on Kani surfing her family's blog and she tells him about her little nephew having a growth spurt, and then he notices Maguro organizing postcards from her relatives on vacation, and then Ikura comes back with photos from his family reunion trip upstream (did he go to spawn or what?). At last, I realize why he's afraid of bears! After each encounter, Tako gets all down and says stuff like "I wish I had a brother or sister." And I confess, this just gave me a fit of giggles. I'm sorry, Tako, but angst just is not your thing, even with that eyepatch.
Later, Tako is sitting all depressed on a pile of dishes (which look like pancakes IMO), and while he engages in a small bit of feelings talk, I'll forgive him because he's Tako. Let's just pretend that Wasabi and Ben, who are entering the frame as he speaks, asked what was wrong. And apparently Tako's so depressed that it's effecting his ink flow. Ben doesn't have an answer for once(!), so Tako tells his story and we get a flashback: When he was just a baby octopus (born with an eyepatch, it seems) he had a thousand sisters. But one day he went exploring and got caught in a current (and was presumably caught soon after), and he never saw the rest of his family again. So technically he has a family, he just doesn't know where they are.
Hearing his story, Maguro tries to reassure Tako by telling him that the Pack is his family now and she thinks of him as a brother (probably not the kind of reassurance he was looking for ^_~), and the rest of the Pack agree. Ben is remarkably off-form today, but is saved from saying too much by a sudden tremor.
The cause is not an earthquake, but the titular diver walking down the street. The diver comes across a policeman and a driver, and sprays them both with water, making them both disgruntedly say, "Thanks, deep sea diver dude," for some reason. Seeing this, the Sushi Pack leaps into action! Noting that the diver is looking for something, and also noticing that the suit is leaking salt water (not just water, but salt water) and its supply hose goes all the way to the harbor, Tako knocks the diver over easily and opens the mask to find...a squid? A rather polite squid who apologizes for making a mess. She introduces herself as Hideki, Tako's cousin (isn't Hideki a boy's name?), and gives him an invitation to the Spring Shindig held by the International Neighborhood of Kinfolk (INK, anyone?). Once it sinks in that he has a family, Tako is thrilled and plans to leave right away. Maguro, fittingly, is the one to ask if he'll be back. Tako says he will, but is so excited that it sounds like he won't, and he bids his friends adieu. Hideki starts up the diver suit again, though she warns Tako that she failed diver's ed (badum ching!), and they head back into the ocean.
Ikura laments how slowly time passes without Tako, but Kani points out that only three minutes have gone by. Somehow inspired by this, Ikura wonders if Tako was tricked into leaving, since they don't really know if Hideki is his cousin or not. Could this be a plot to unravel the Sushi Pack?! Again, I find it fitting that Maguro corrects Kani: taking Tako is cephalopodnapping, not fishnapping. Regardless, they take off in their mini-sub. Ikura comments on how they've never been this low, which Maguro misinterprets. They follow the supply line that Hideki left (Maguro refers to Hideki as 'he,' but I'm pretty sure that Hideki is a girl, having not only the same up-curled eyes as Maguro and Kani, but her voice is pretty girly, too. But like I said before, Hideki is a boy's name, so I can see why Maguro is confused), and soon come to a big, black hole. Predictably, they try to go in, but it turns out to be a whale's eye, so they beat a hasty retreat.
Finally, they come to the real cave and use their gadgets to eavesdrop on two octopi and hear something that sounds cryptically bad, but obviously is not sinister. Regrettably, the Pack doesn't even consider this option, and they get into position to protect Tako.
They sneak into the shindig and spy Tako hanging out with Hideki and having a good time. As they go in for a closer look, the master of ceremonies (calling himself the Grand Octopu) pops up and introduces Tako as their "very special guest." This is when the rest of the Pack drop in and cause some mayhem, but the multitude of octopi retaliate and drive them back. Tako understandably demands to know what the rest of the pack was thinking, but the Grand Octopu is not upset at all. In fact, he's glad that the rest of the Pack showed up, since it means they get to hear the special poem he composed for Tako (I'm assuming he composed it), honoring him as Octopus of the Year! He also commends the rest of the Pack for coming to rescue Tako, even though he wasn't in any danger. And he gives them pens, making them honorary octopi. Maguro and Tako expound on the lesson that you can be part of more than one group and family is where you find it. And then the pens shoot ink all over the rest of the Pack, and they jump out of the ocean for a final pose. The End.

You know, I've gushed over the voice acting in Adventures in Care-a-lot, but I haven't really mentioned it for this show. That's not because it's bad, in fact, I think that Sushi Pack has very good voice work. Whoever does the cast directing does a very good job. Maybe too good... What I really want to say is that I really liked the voice actor and actress who did the Grand Octopu and Hideki.
Also, I feel like I recognize both Ikura and Tako whenever I listen to them, but every time I look them up on the IMDB, I haven't seen anything they've done. Well, I've seen one thing that Ikura did (Soujiro in Boys Over Flowers), but since that was the dub, I didn't watch very much of it, so I know that's not where I'm getting the feeling from. It must be all the "additonal voices" credits, I guess.

Just some random Sushi Pack stuff

I've been doing a little searching around, and picked up a few Sushi Pack-related pieces of info.
Two new episode titles are out, and I'm especially interested in the one titled "Starring Ikura." Sounds good for some overinflated egos. Possible lesson: be modest? don't sell out? Then again, with Sushi Pack, you really can't tell what an episode is going to be about just from the title. I mean, just look at the ones I've blogged. Or "When Will Ben be Zen?" I'm going to blog that one when it reruns, but seriously, from the title alone you would have no clue that it's about the Pack trying to cheer Ben up because a fake official is trying to shut down The Green Donut (the name of the bakery they live in, fyi).

Also, according to World Screen, DVDs will be coming --- in fall 2009 -_- I want screenshots sooner than that! The official quote:

Throughout 2008, a variety of Sushi Pack social expressions will be on shelves at retailers. In the fall, Carlton stores will carry an exclusive Sushi Pack specialty program at all of its stores. A Sushi Pack publishing program from Random House and DVDs from Fox Home Video are also scheduled to be released in Fall 2009.

What the heck are social expressions? I'm guessing greeting cards, but that's the first time I've seen them called that. And what is this mysterious specialty program, eh? I don't want to wait until the fall to find out. By the fall, I may not even be near a Carlton Cards.
No word on merchandise yet, but I did find an image of figurines (I want the Tako one!) from this blog, which also has some very weird early concept images.

Speaking of concept images, this blog has some images of personal vehicles (including Titanium Chef's motorcycle. Just more proof of his awesomeness), plus concept art from two upcoming episodes, "Sushi Roll Model" and "From the Planet Citrus."

Lastly, here's an article about the creative team behind the show, Studio Espinosa.