Sunday, October 28, 2007

Adventures in Care-a-lot, Episode 6


A review of Oopsy Does It is coming soon, just to let you know.

In this episode, Cheer learns the joys of procrastination and delegation, and Oopsy tries to tame a shooting star. And there isn't any Grizzle, not even a cameo.

Part One - Cheer, There, and Everywhere
The episode starts with everyone running into the town square, except for Oopsy, who has no clue what's going on. Share fills him in: the Star Shine Parade, "a day full of food, fun, games, and a big parade," is coming up, and it's time to pick who'll make the centerpiece of the main float, the Star Shine Star! Funshine and Cheer are there to pick a name out of a box, but not before Funshine ominiously states that the parade is always great because Cheer supervises the whole thing. Surely you can see where this is going.
Sure enough, Funshine draws Cheer's symbol out of the box, and she's so pleased she covers her eyes and promises to make the best star ever. Everyone else either leaves or decides what else they do to prepare. Share plans to get flowers, and Grumpy grumbles about how he has to make the float every year, until Share points out that he likes doing it. Funshine'll organize the games, and Oopsy and Wingnut volunteer to give Care-a-lot an extra clean-up. They go to a random shed to get rakes, only to be attacked by various pieces of equipment, ending up with Oopsy in a barrel.
Funshine tells Cheer that she'll be too busy to supervise, but Cheer decides to "check in" on everyone before getting to work, and for some reasons asks the star buddies (calling them Twinkers, or just one? I'm really not sure) for confirmation. First stop, Love-a-lot's house! Except that it's really Harmony's candy shop. (If Harmony's place is all hearts, then what does Love-a-lot's house looke like? Perhaps a neo-roman temple of sorts...) Harmony's trying out new candy flavors, and Cheer unfortunately tries the extra-sour one. Harmony mistakes Cheer's sudden retreat as a glowing recommendation, and gets cracking on another batch.
Oopsy and Wingnut run into Cheer at the fountain, and swap stories about their encounter with Harmony's candies, before getting down to raking leaves. Luckily for Oopsy, Wingnut has a leaf blower, which quite naturally (this being Oopsy and all) goes out of control and chases the two out of town.
Cheer plans to just check on Share before getting to work, but when Share doesn't have enough flowers, Cheer takes it on herself to help her get more from Cloud Hill. Once all the flowers are picked, Share remembers that Cheer is supposed to make the Star Shine Star, but Cheer assures her that there's enough time for her to make it while still checking on a few more things. Which is when Oopsy shows up, still being chased by the leaf blower. After being chased and seeing all the flowers blown away, Cheer has enough and makes a lasso from her belly badge and captures it. Or not. There's more chase action as Cheer is dragged along, but finally she gets a handle on it and turns it off. Oopsy is a spared Cheer's wrath only by the fact that it's getting dark, and she still has other things to check on. Not to mention a star to make.
All the decorations are in place, and Cheer is finally ready to get to work on the star. Until she notices Grumpy's garage and decides to check on his float (whether it's really the last thing on her list is debatable). Grumpy insists that the float is a total disaster, even though it looks awesome. Turns out it won't run, and Grumpy hasn't been able to get the frangdoodle unbent. Cheer wants to help, and Grumpy wants the help, but is concerned about the Star Shine Star. Cheer once again promises to get right on it once she's done helping him, so Grumpy leaves it at that. They work well into the night, so much so that Bedtime tells Cheer to get to bed (and, as we'll see in the next episode, when Bedtime tells you to go to bed, you better do it). Conveniently forgetting about the star, Cheer goes to bed secure in the knowledge that she checked on everything.
The next day, everyone is putting the finishing touches on the parade route. Funshine tests a frisbee, nearly whacking Grumpy, who complains about how he hates having his fur ruffled (a euphemism for having things fall on him, I'm sure). Cheer, having overslept, shows up in a rush and announces the start of the parade. Funshine reminds her that they need her star first, inconveniently reminding her that she never actually made it. Everyone is disappointed, insisting there's no parade without a "centerpiece" on the float. Cheer goes a little passive-aggressive, telling everyone she doesn't blame is they don't forgive her for being too wrapped up in what everyone else was doing to make the star, so of course everyone else has to step in and tell her to stop being so hard on herself, and point out the ways she made the parade possible (fixing the float, getting the flowers, etc.). Funshine merely touches her shoulder, and she thanks him for this. But she still wishes she had done what she was supposed to do when she had time. Ah, the lament of all procrastinators. Still, there is a solution.
Inspired by the three star buddies that have been hanging around all episode, Cheer uses her belly badge to make a platform on the float, and they become a boy band! Thus, the day is saved, and Oopsy falls in a barrel again.

Part Two - Twinklet
Do you know where baby stars come from? The Care Bears don't, but they do know where they're going: the Glitter Nursery in Glitter City. Apparently their migration is impressive enough for everyone to come out and watch. Oopsy, a big fan of "twinklets," as the baby stars are called, gets so excited, in fact, that he jumps around and lands on top of Grumpy, who in turn is dusted off by Wish Bear, who expounds on the event. Oopsy's banner gets caught by the wind, carrying him up, and a twinklet gets caught in the banner. Eventually it gets free and Oopsy comes crashing down on Grumpy again.
Wish points to something cowering under a bush: the twinklet that got caught in the banner. Since she got lost from the trail, Oopsy decides to take care of her himself. That's right, it's the obligatory "taking care of a pet is a big responsibility" episode. Everyone else tries to dissuade him, since no one likes that kind of episode, but Oopsy is certain he can give her a good home, and names her, of all things, Twinklet. Things are going great, until Twinklet wakes him up in the wee hours of the morning. Oopsy tries to persuade her to go back to sleep by looking at his nonexistant watch, and tries to get Wingnut (who doesn't really need to sleep, being a robot, but does anyway) to take her for a walk, but to no avail.
Later on, Share invites Oopsy to join in the "best ever" game of Belly Ball (is that the same as Belly Badge Ball, or a completely different game?), and when he goes to get his ball, Twinklet finds a mud puddle in the middle of the sidewalk and splashes Share. So instead of playing, Oopsy has to give her (Twinklet, not Share) a bath. Even later, Funshine comes to invite Oopsy to play four-square. By then, Twinklet is taking a nap, so Oopsy sneaks off to play. As soon as he's gone, Twinklet wakes up, escapes out the window, and goes on a rampage in Care-a-lot, trashing everything from Share's garden to Grumpy's garage, finally ending in Harmony's candy shop.
By the time Oopsy arrives, Twinklet's eaten enough candy to turn (permanently?) green. Funshine hands him a broom, pointing out the mess in the shop. Oopsy is rightly contrite, and promises to make everything right. Grumpy hands him a broom for his garage, and Share follows suit for her garden. Oopsy promises to take responsibility, but can't even handle the three brooms without falling over. Cheer doubts his abilities, and Oopsy himself admits that he didn't realize how much work taking care of Twinklet would be. Funshine assumes that Oopsy's learned his lesson and Wish can take Twinklet to the nursery, but since we haven't even gotten to the commercial break yet, Oopsy insists that all he has to do is build Twinklet a play area and everything will be fine.
The play place is great, but Twinklet doesn't like it. Funshine hypothesizes that it doesn't feel like "home," so Oopsy decides to stay with her in it until it does. But by the time night falls, both he and Wingnut fall asleep, so Twinklet takes off again. Oopsy wakes up a little while later, and freaks out when he sees Twinklet is gone, but Wingnut just goes back to sleep until Oopsy drags him along. Now, either they searched all night, or it inexplicably became day again, because in the next scene, Share is bandaging her flowers in broad daylight. Oopsy asks both Share and Grumpy (at his garage) if they've seen Twinklet, but both just shake their heads. I guess they're giving him the silent treatment. Oopsy thinks he spots Twinklet at Harmony's candy store, but it was just Cheer and Funshine with some kind of fizzing sparkler candy. Oopsy is finally starting to realize that he's not cut out to take care of Twinklet, but he's not ready to quit quite yet, not even when Funshine tells him Wish thinks the best thing to do is take Twinklet to Glitter City.
But he's had no luck finding Twinklet all day, even though he set up traps all over Care Square (we don't get to see this). Finally he hears Twinklet's squeaks (which he calls barking for some reason), and finds her on the Funderbolt tracks staring up at the starry sky. Seeing more twinklets go by, Oopsy realizes that Twinklet's home is not with him, but with the other stars. Wish, who apparently was watching this, surfs down on Twinkers, her star, and explains that he's going to the star nursery anyway (a likely story), so he can make sure Twinklet gets there safe and sound. Oopsy and Twinklet share a goodbye hug, and then the two stars head off into the blue.
Funshine commends Oopsy for doing what was best for Twinklet. Oopsy expresses his feelings by saying "I feel sad and disappointed," and thanks Funshine for listening to his feelings. Funshine tells him instead to be proud of how he listened to Twinklet's feelings. And this whole conversation drove me up the wall (I hate when characters talk like this. Hate hate hate). Meanwhile, Cheer tells Oopsy he'll see Twinklet again, and Oopsy agrees, since she'll be in the sky every night once she's full grown. For some reason this is hilarious. Also for no apparent reason, Oopsy decides to ride the Funderbolt, but lands in it head first and goes down the track upside down.

Normally I like it when the episodes go that extra scene before ending (like in Care-Ful Bear), but here, it really should have cut off with everyone laughing at Oopsy's non-joke. And there really was not enough Wish in this episode -_- Seriously, every time it was Funshine doing something with Oopsy (except for the four-square invite), it should have been Wish.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

The episode ‘Twinklet’ inspired me to make “Wish” and “Oopsy” COUPLE; I think they look rather CUTE together in that one picture you have of them. And you know this is probably the only episode where “Wish”, a usual SILENT background character
gets a more bigger part and actual SPEAKING lines as well! : )