Friday, October 31, 2008

Adventures in Care-a-Lot Episode 19

I have this one and the next one all set up, so you'll see episode 20 up within a day or two.  The first ep this time around was all kinds of cute (and makes me think that Trueheart needs a paramour, seriously), but the second one bugged me to no end (no pun intended, though).

Harmony: Unplugged
What better way to kick off a Harmony episode than with a song?  Accordingly, Harmony and Trueheart just happen to be walking around Care Square, and Trueheart spurs Harmony on to sing about all the friends they meet.  That includes Share in the candy shop (where Trueheart explains about the 'singing about the bears we meet' thing, and Love-a-lot doles out some praise that Harmony modestly dismisses), and Funshine and Cheer, who are playing a pong-like game of Belly Ball.  Later, Trueheart has an inspired idea: Harmony should give a concert of all the songs she sang that day for all of Care-a-lot!  Harmony likes the idea, since she apparently got a lot of ego-stroking during her tour of Care-a-lot.  Trueheart adds to this by sucking up to her a bit, and gets the honor of being Harmony's manager for her trouble.  A little later, the two brainstorm ideas for the concert, and Harmony sings an uninspired song about Trueheart, but Trueheart says it was good anyway, and continues to suck up to her as Harmony declares herself the best singer in Care-a-lot (just wait until Heartsong Bear shows up, honey).
The next day (or maybe later the same day), Trueheart and Harmony are handing out flyers for "Care-a-lot Concert Time" and Harmony's ego continues to grow, as she claims to be the only one singing, even though Trueheart thought she'd be a back-up singer, and what about all those birds that have been hanging around Harmony lately?  Still, Harmony insists that since she's the main attraction, she should get her name in the title of the concert, and what does she need back-up singers for?  As Harmony skips out on flyer duty, Trueheart starts to see the damage all her sucking up has done, but is powerless to stop it.
In preparation for the concert, Harmony gets a new wardrobe, including an Elvis-style cape.  She tests it out by flinging it dramatically at the (imagined) crowd, and then orders Trueheart to pick it up.  Trueheart complies for reasons that probably have to do with her being the manager, but still feels a bit spineless to me.  Harmony also demands water, and retires to her trailer.  Tenderheart can't help commenting on the change in Harmony, and tells Trueheart that if she doesn't like it, she should say something.  Trueheart tells him that she doesn't want to upset Harmony before the concert, since everyone's looking forward to it and all.  Later, she runs into Cheer on her way to Harmony's dressing room with her latest demands (including only green gummy bears).  Cheer commends Trueheart on her commitment to friendship, but Trueheart is starting to think she's just being used by Harmony, as she displays the mile-long list of demands Harmony wrote.  Cheer confides in her that she knows some bears have decided not to go to the concert because of Harmony's new conceited nature, and Trueheart can't blame them, since Harmony changed all the songs to be about herself instead of others (not to mention very loud).  Cheer also tells her to tell Harmony how she feels, and by now, Trueheart is more receptive to the idea.
Trueheart approaches Harmony as she rehearses and pours her heart out about being left out of the concert and only fulfilling Harmony's impolite demands, but Harmony is having none of it
stating that it's her right as the star of the show to be pampered. Trueheart tries to put her talent in perspective by reminding her that it's just her character trait to be a singer, like it's Grumpy's to fix things, and Oopsy's to continually fall down without actually getting hurt (seriously, she says that).  Harmony sees her point, but is distracted by cupcakes, and nearly misses Trueheart telling her about the bears who won't be coming to her concert.  Harmony claims the others are just jealous, and Trueheart tells her, no, it's because she's gotten a big head.  Harmony flips out at this and kicks Trueheart out, but Trueheart's all "You can't fire me, I quit!" and the two go separate ways.
The night of the concert arrives, and the only one in the audience is Trueheart.  She explains to Harmony that she tried to get the others to come, but they were so turned off by Harmony's ego that they declined.  Trueheart also reminds Harmony that she tried to warn her, and Harmony finally sees the results of her ego-tripping.  She spouts out the typical "I've learned my lesson" stuff, and denounces her cape.  She wonders if she can be forgiven (and I'm with Trueheart's expression there.  The situation does not call for that level of dramatics), but Trueheart forgives her, which is a start.  Harmony wishes she could get everyone to come to concert so she could apologize all at once; Trueheart puts her mind to the task and comes up with a plan!
Later on, with everyone gathered at those picnic tables, Trueheart gives Harmony a short introduction, and then Harmony rips off Oopsy's song from Oopsy Does It as her apology song.  But everyone forgives her anyway, although Wingnut is visually aroused by her song, strangely enough.


King of the Gobblebugs
This episode begins at night, with Grumpy chasing Grizzle in his garage for some reason.  Somehow Grumpy flips Grizzle into a barrel of sticky glue and chatises Grizzle for trying to steal his tools.  What?  Turns out this was all just a story Grumpy was telling to the others around a campfire.  Oopsy proclaims it the best story yet, and so 
Cheer tells him to tell a story, too.  Unable to think of anything, 
he tells the others about the ladybug he saw the other day.  From the bears' lackluster reaction, he realizes that they weren't looking for true stories (and Grumpy's story was obviously not true, c'mon), so he adds to the story, telling how the ladybug was really a huge gobblebug (the titular king).  At the end of his story, Grumpy declares it time to go home (but I thought they were camping?  There's a tent in the background and everything), so they do.  This was the first sign of the stupidity of this episode, which, up to this point, I had assumed would be about all the bears telling campfire stories.  Not so, unfortunately.
The next day, Funshine organizes everyone into a mob to go find the king gobblebug, and there's the obligatory shout-out to the original gobblebug episode.  Wait, they thought Oopsy's story was true?  When they were pratically begging him to embellish his story?  Oy, oy.  Just as everyone leaves, Oopsy finally gets out of bed, but only Wingnut is around, and he missed the crowd gathering, too, so he has no idea what's going on.  Oopsy knows he's "late, but not that late," which I think is a reference to "the late Dentarthurdent," but I'm not sure.  At any rate, the two of them decide to go search in the opposite direction of where everyone else went.
Over in Rainshine Meadows (where Oopsy claimed to have seen the gobblebug), everyone searches high and low, but to no avail.  Grumpy hypothesizes that the gobblebug has already left, despite the fact that nothing is, y'know, eaten.  As the other bears imagine the places it could have gone, Cheer realizes that Oopsy is nowhere to be found, and goes to look for him while the others continue searching for the gobblebug.  
Cheer flies on her rainbow over Care Square until she finds Oopsy, and Share shows up out of nowhere.  She tells Oopsy how worried she's been (for all of three minutes 9_9), causing Oopsy much confusion.  Share clears up his confusion by mentioning the king gobblebug, and smothers Oopsy in a hug.  Oopsy does not see fit to clear up the confusion, instead trying to persuade the two girls that the gobblebug has probably flown off to greener pastures, but the girls are persistant.  Share gets Oopsy to give a better description of what the bug looks like, and his made-up description sounds fishy to Cheer.  Oopsy tries to cover by saying he didn't get a good look after he 'frightened it off with his mighty roar,' but Cheer's skeptical look is strong enough to get the truth out of him.  Oopsy admits to just wanting to tell a good story (which, again, the others practically demanded), and Share chastises him for making everyone worry and waste all that time and energy looking for the bug.  Still, what's done is done, and the fastest way to get the truth to everyone is to split up.
Oopsy goes to find Grumpy first (get the worst reaction out the way first, eh?), and doesn't consider that he'd be anywhere but his garage.  There's an offscreen crash and Oopsy ends up in the barrel of glue from Grumpy's earlier story.  There is much sticky walking and things sticking to a glue-covered Oopsy.  Even Wingnut can't loosen any object without it getting stuck to him as well.  Oopsy theorizes that a bath might help, and heads for the fountain.
Meanwhile, Grumpy, Funshine, Tenderheart, and Surprise arrive in Care Square, unable to fathom why they haven't seen a sign of the gobblebug by now.  They are rewarded with a sight of Oopsy shambling towards them, looking for all the world like a king gobblebug (maybe).  They run off to hide, and Oopsy calls after them, but they only surmise that the bug ate Oopsy, not that it is Oopsy.  Oopsy stumbles into the candy shop and ends up with his eyes covered, which leads to more stumbling around.  Wingnut tries to explain what's going on, but Grumpy and Funshine charge into the fray without listening, capturing Oopsy with a cloud, encasing him in a sun cage, and giving him a Care Bear Stare.
It's at this point that Cheer and Share show up, and laugh at both Oopsy's appearance and Grumpy's pride in catching the 'king gobblebug.'  They tell the others to look closer, and suddenly the truth is out.  Oopsy explains how he came to look the way he does, and Grumpy facepalms (I love it!).  Oopsy also confesses about the story being fake, and Funshine is all "What?  Why?"  As if he wasn't there the night before or something.  Oopsy explains that he wanted to be more interesting, making Grumpy gripe, "Oh, you're interesting, all right."  Funshine clarifies Grumpy's statement, but from the way Grumpy rolls his eyes, he obviously feels his statement said it all.  Cheer advises Oopsy to keep practicing and he'll be a storytelling pro in no time (or maybe just add a "this is not true" disclaimer at the beginning of his stories), and admits that she and the others should have checked the facts with him sooner.  There's some talk about Oopsy being special and keeping the others on their toes, but eventually Oopsy apologizes for messing up Grumpy's garage, so the episode can end with him helping to clean it up.

Bonus Screenshots:
Harmony Unplugged

King of the Gobblebugs

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Kemeko DX - Grateful to the sun

Why, yes, I watch Kemeko DX.  It's kinda bugging me with the whole "mysterious mystery is mysterious" thing going on at the moment, though.  But stuff like this image amuse me.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Shugo Chara ep 47 - Drunk X Chara

Don't know why, but the fact that these X charas came from salarymen and have ties is amusing enough, but the one on the right being drunk just seals the deal.  Best X Charas yet.

Anniversary

It occurred to me that I completely forgot to note the one-year anniversary of my blog!  So here it is one month and a year since I first posted my blog.  In that time, I've made over 160 posts.  Wow...

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Halloween comes early to Gaia

Tonight marks the beginning of this year's Halloween event on Gaia.  This year you can either be a human, zombie, vampire, or dark elf.  I chose the latter.  Doesn't it go nicely with my kitty costume?

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Shugo Chara 43 - What I've been waiting for

The promise of Amulet Diamond (or Dia) finally came to fruition for me tonight.  I've been waiting for this since I saw the splash page from the manga on someone's blog (I've lost the link, sadly It was this place) that showed Amu and Dia character transformed (and this was before volume 4 was out in the States, so I didn't even know there was a fourth egg in the first place). Suffice to say, I fell in love with the design at first sight.  Too bad she had to turn back into an egg at the end of the episode, but the promo art for Doki (the second season) shows her, so there's hope for that.  Just eight episodes to go....

I would like to note, when I first heard that the bad guys' plan for mass-world-X Egg-making involved people listening to a CD, my initial thought was "what about the people that only get their music online?" so I was glad (storywise) to see that they somehow figured out how to get the power into downloads, too.

Friday, October 17, 2008

Adventures in Care-a-lot Episode 18

Although I said I wanted to get right down to this episode, somehow it took all week to finally carve out the time to do it justice.  Although it's mostly the second half that I was waiting for.

Whose Friend is Who? - "You mean, I get to help?!"
This episode did not feature Friend Bear or even Best Friend as some predicted, based on the title.  And come on, writers!  Those two obviously need an episode!  But no, the actual plot of this episode runs as follows:  McKenna returns to learn about working together, however, in helping her learn, Cheer and Harmony inadvertently shut out Funshine and Oopsy (and granted, they were only making a swing, so it was a case of preventing a "too many cooks" situation), who complain to Grumpy, and the three of them make a club for just the three of them.  To retaliate, Cheer, Harmony, and Love-a-lot make their own club.  However, Grumpy's club has a cool clubhouse, so McKenna wants to be a member of both clubs.  But when she tries this, not only is she rejected by Grumpy's club, but Harmony's club kicks her out.  So she comes up with a plan to make her own club with Wingnut and show the others how it feels to be left out of a club, and in the end everyone comes together again.
Now, that's all well and good, but wouldn't this have been better as an Earth episode?  What if, instead of the creation of the clubs in Care-a-lot, after learning to help others, McKenna went back to her hometown and got involved in a club war between her friends.  Then she would go back to Care-a-lot to get help from the Care Bears to make her friends stop being cliche-ish, and they would basically do what she did, I guess, and everyone would be friends again by the end.  And that's what should have happened.

Also, the ep would have made more sense if Harmony weren't involved.  I mean, shouldn't she have been keeping harmony here instead of adding to the dischord?  Couldn't one of the less-shown female bears have been given a bigger part for this story, like, oh I don't know, Friend or Best Friend?  Or even Wish, she never gets to do anything!  Seriously, writers, get on the ball!



Present and Accounted For - "KA-ching.  We hit the jackpot!"
This ep begins at Love-a-lot's house, which is filled with framed pictures of her and Cheer (lots and lots of pictures of the two of them.  Hm....).  Most of them are of the two of them exchanging gift baskets.  Love-a-lot is woken up by Share wishing her a happy birthday, and Love-a-lot regales her with a tale of the ginormous gift basket she dreamt Cheer gave her.  But Share is gone by the time she mentions that any gift from her friend is sure to be lovely.  Turns out Share split to spill the beans on Love-a-lot's dream to Cheer, who is putting the finishing touches on this year's gift basket, which includes everything Love-a-lot mentioned, including a purple, sparkly skateboard.  Cheer claims she's just a thoughtful friend, but obviously she has psychic powers.  Either that or the dream was planted...  Later, Love-a-lot is given presents and wished many happy returns by almost everyone in Care Square, except for the one bear she's most looking forward to seeing.  As the day passes with no Cheer, Love-a-lot starts to lose hope in her friend.  
Meanwhile, Grizzle raves and rants over his many failed plans (illustrated by myriads of post-it notes all over his lair).  After storming out, his minions (as in the past few episodes, UR-2 and Sargeant Rocketbottom) muse on the situation.  Mostly UR-2, though, as Rocketbottom is portrayed as more of an idiot than usual in this ep.  UR-2 goes on to explain, using charts and a logic sequence, that when Grizzle isn't happy, nobody's happy (this leads to almost the best part of the episode, Rocketbottom glomping UR-2).  And apparently Grizzle hasn't been happy ever, but he's been more unhappy than usual for over a week.  Thus, they must come up with some sort of plan to cheer him up, and quick.
Later, or maybe earlier, Cheer pushes her gift basket (on some kind of truck) to Love-a-lot's house, and then climbs in a tree so she can see her friend's reaction.  But the exertion of pushing the present leaves her exhausted, and she falls asleep.  In the tree.  And her present goes rolling down the slight slope of Love-a-lot's front walk, of course.  Leaving it out in the open to be found by UR-2 and Rocketbottom, who are prowling around Care-a-lot in search of something for Grizzle.  Well, this gift basket seems to fit the bill, despite being covered in hearts.  And since it's just sitting out in the open, they take it back to Grizzle's lair.  Since it's only a 10 minute episode, a piece of Sargeant Rocketbottom falls off and lands in Care-a-lot, although it is goes unseen by Cheer, who is still sleeping in the tree.
She finally wakes up once the commercials are over, and seeing the present gone, assumes she missed seeing Love-a-lot find it.  She rings the doorbell, but Love-a-lot is not at home, so she leaves, disappointed.  I don't know why she would think Love-a-lot would stay home on her birthday.  Or anytime, really.  If there's a chance to say "I love it!" about something, you know Love-a-lot will be there.  Girl gets around.  Speaking of Love-a-lot, the birthday girl is drinking hot chocolate with Funshine at the moment, though it's obvious she's using it to drown her sorrows, since Cheer still hasn't shown up to wish her Happy Birthday.  She does not appreciate Funshine's attempt to lighten the mood with some humor.
Cheer runs into Grumpy, who refutes what I said earlier - no birthday girl (and especially not Love-a-lot) is going to stay home on her special day.  Cheer tells him that she hasn't heard a word from Love-a-lot about the gift basket and wonders how her friend could be so cruel.  Later, Grumpy runs into Funshine, and the two of them end up revealing what the other pink bear thinks is going on, and come to conclusion that a third party got involved and took the basket, and since they're the ones that know about it, they have to let Cheer and Love-a-lot know as well.  Only, not in the obvious way of explaining to each one what's going on, but rather, putting the two together in Care Square and watching a parody of High Noon play out.  The two pink bears put two and two together a little too quickly for my tastes (but then, I'm still hung up on Grumpy and Funshine not just explaining the situation outright), and then they make up by doing a weird hug-dance (which  is kind of cute, I guess).  Once that's over with, they turn to Funshine and Grumpy (as they should!) to find out what happened to the basket, but the two bears are as much in the dark about this as any of them.
The four bears go to investigate around Love-a-lot's house, but they have no leads until Cheer finds Sargeant Rocketbottom's missing part.  The bears ponder it, then look up toward the only place it could have come from...where Grizzle is just opening the gift basket.  He's quite keen on the purple skateboard, and even gets out of his mechasuit so that he can ride it with more control (Little Grizzle on a skateboard, having the time of his life--definitely the best part of the episode.  More episodes should lead up to something like this).  The Care Bears go to investigate, and seeing Grizzle skating around his lair, they are astonished.  Grumpy sagely notes, "He's never giving it back."  They are ambushed by UR-2 and Rocketbottom, and Funshine waves the missing part in Rocketbottom's face, but the robot simply takes it back gratefully.  UR-2 apologizes, but explains the situation, and notes that Grizzle is "almost happy," thanks to the gift basket.  The bears huddle up and Cheer and Love-a-lot come to the conclusion that the thought behind the gift is more important than the gift itself, and they rub cheeks.  They all agree that anything that keeps Grizzle happy (and out of Care-a-lot) is a good thing, and they tell UR-2 and Rocketbottom that because the two of them are such  good friends to Grizzle, he can keep the basket.  The robots thank them and offer a favor in return.  Since Rocketbottom added that they would do anything, the Care Bears call on them to be waiters at Love-a-lot's party that evening.  Rocketbottom accidently gets his head knocked into the punch, UR-2 fishes it out, and the episode is over.

Man, oh man.  This episode.  Oh man. Ooooh the subtext.  Granted, maybe this is just me, but seriously, I don't know how anyone can watch this one and not come out shipping UR-2 and Rocketbottom, even just a little.  The hints for Cheer/Love-a-lot are more subtle, but definitely there.  I have to admit, though, my personal canon has Love-a-lot being pretty fickle, so this year she was all about Cheer, but by next year, someone else could be her birthday offender.

Screenshots