115: Laziest Town (prod 122)

Filming in September 2004. This photo is too cute for some witty comment.

(From now on, all screenshots in these reviews are taken BY ME.)

Original airdate: June 6, 2005

Story by Magnus Scheving

Written by Noah Zachary, Cole Louie, Magnus Scheving

Directed by Raymond P. Le Gue, Magnus Scheving

Executive producers – Magnus Scheving, Ragnheidur Melsted, Raymond P. Le Gue, Mark Read, Brown Johnson, Kay Wilson Stallings

Starring Magnus Scheving, Stefan Karl Steffanson, Julianna Rose Mauriello

Puppeteers – Ronald Binion, Gudmondor Thor Karason, Jodi Eichelberger, David Matthew Feldman, Julie Westwood, Amanda Maddock, Sarah Burgess

The Laziest Town – an episode of LazyTown I haven’t watched in about two or three years. I remember a lot, but is it really the same now?

The episode begins with Sportacus having his breakfast. Knowing him, it’s not normal. He grabs a ping pong paddle. A ping pong game for breakfast..? Ew. He grabs a banana and starts peeling it and eating it like a normal person.. nah, joking.

 

He slices the banana (not peeled) in midair with the ping pong paddle, drops to the floor and catches all the slices in his mouth. I know he’s my favourite character, but come on. That’s just weird, dude.

Sportacus decides he hasn’t had enough, so he wants some apples. But his supply has run out, so he decides to go get an apple. Now instead of just riding to town, doing a somersault frontflip and grabbing onto an apple (or apple tree), he ties his feet in a rope and attaches the magnet to the metal part of his door and LITERALLY DIVES to an apple tree.

Then he flips back to his ship. Honestly pretty complicated and not needed, but admit it, it was awesome.. and about a million times cooler then catching banana slices in your mouth while having a potential stroke on the floor.

Milford is in his office, checking his to-do list – polishing his shoes, writing a new speech, checking the energy meter, eating the ba na na -CHECKING THE ENERGY METER? So, he goes to the energy meter to see where the ball marking how energetic the kids are is. And it’s on the bottom.

It turns out Robbie is in a ‘disguise’ (literally wearing his normal clothes.. with a mustache) and is giving out TRIPLE-scoop ice creams.. for a penny. (Penny Pestella reference??!1!!!1?) It is a very good plan. Milford literally asks ‘WHY AREN’T THE CHILDREN PLAYING???’ as if they’re obliged to (LOL) and calls help from Sportacus.

Milford thinks he is a failure of a mayor, but Sportacus tells him it’s okay to eat ice cream sometimes. Then Milford elaborates further by bringing him to the office. Sportacus gives the kids some apples to energize, and they look all smiley and ready to do anything! After one SINGLE bite.

So, they go to the Mayor’s office and see the energy meter at 0, and if they don’t amp it up to 100 by 5 p.m they’ll be named ‘The Laziest Town on Earth’! If you think about it, if they did even get the ball to 75, there’d be at least one town lazier then them.. but nevermind. It’s a kids show. So Sportacus runs on the spot while eating his apple and gets it up to 5.

Then he stops running and it’s back down to zero percent. So the kids and Sportacus promise Milford that they’ll keep moving and the plan is great until Milford announces everyone must move. Robbie at least has the decency to move sometimes (he’s more active then he thinks he is) and Bessie gets Milford to do everything for her. So, Bessie, a protagonist in this show.. is being lazy, which is exactly what the main antagonist is doing.

Sportacus tells the kids to meet him on the sports field in five minutes and to run as fast as they can.. Ziggy then forgets why he has to run – so the energy meter goes up. Sometimes, I just don’t know about that boy.

Robbie’s world has fallen as he tries offering the kids more ice-cream cones, but they all decline… Ziggy, however declines too, but it takes him about 10 seconds to come up with the strength to say ‘Maybe Later’. What a sigma! No, I unironically do not that say that word on a daily basis.

Robbie is shocked and he himself says ‘WHAT THE SIGMA?’.. nah just joking. He does say ‘WHAT?!’ though. So Milford is busy trying his best to explain what’s going on to Bessie, but of course, the annoying whiny woman she is, she starts talking about how she doesn’t have any clothes to wear.

Sportacus has taken the super spinner from the airship (we get to see him use it again in Sportacus on the Move!) The first move is jump rope (background music from Superhero Moves CD), and in the office, the ball on the energy meter is up to 5. I’m surprised with a dude like Sportacus it’s not at 75 already.

Milford is lifting weights (he’s the mayor AND he can exercise, what a dude!) while Bessie is going on and on about her outfit. Then she discovers that Milford is sweating and is offended, accusing Milford of wanting Bessie to ruin her clothes. Fatness & fanciness, or Healthiness & happiness? Anyways, the kids have finished jumping, and the next move is pushups. Robbie is annoyed and he reports this to the mayor.

Satan- I mean, Bessie has came to pester Milford once more with different hor- CLOTHES and asks Milford to tell her what he honestly thinks. He tells her clothes don’t matter while exercising.. and she is offended. Again. I HATE BESSIE. Now the energy meter is at twelve, and Robbie is in the mayor’s office with a mustache. Then he takes it off and throws it away.

His excuse? He forgot to shave. Anyways, he tries to file a report but Milford asks if this can wait until later, and he tells them about the ‘prize’ they’ll win if they don’t get up and move. What does the laziest guy in town who hates moving do? Moves.

It backfires when Milford announces to Robbie he is moving the energy meter UP to 30. So he promises to himself to not blink, breathe and/or move a muscle.. until he sneezes.. and moves a lotta muscles.

So the meter goes up to 30 and the super spinner’s next move is skiing. They all perform the song ’Go For It’, and I cannot tell how much people have trashed this song. It’s amazing! Who cares how Jellyana’s voice sounds? She’s still a pretty good singer, not to mention the fast-paced instrumental and lyrics! This song is awesome!

So, the energy meter hasn’t reached 100 yet so Stephanie comes to the conclusion that one person isn’t moving. Two, actually, but she tries to go convince Bessie to move. Bessie is relaxing in her clothes when Bessie gets a phone call from Milford and she answers it really fast.

Stephanie has the idea for Pixel to set up every phone booth in LazyTown and have Bessie run & pick them up. Pixel gets his computer. Now, from the plan, it sounds like there are about 30 phone booths in the town.. right? NUP. There are THREE. 3. TROIS.

Anyways, they start the plan and Bessie runs as fast as a human can make a puppet run. Milford calls the first phone and tells her she is doing wonderful. She is exhausted at the second phone (can relate) and Sportacus gives her a bottle of water.

So she keeps running, and she slows down again. But Sportacus throws her an apple (that hits Robbie in the head LOLZ!) but to really up it a notch, the Chariots of Fire theme song reprised by Mani Svavarrson plays as she runs to the last phone booth in slow motion. She’s made it! Woohoo! I’m surprised she didn’t get Milford to run for her, but she did it! Woop woot!

So, Sportacus has spinned the super spinner a buncha times to get multiple moves and do them all at the same time as fast as he can, but even he gets tired. They have failed. The meter is only up to 90. It’s 5pm.

Until Robbie starts to dance and move frantically out of excitement that his plan to stay still so the meter doesn’t reach 100 and Sportacus is so ashamed he leaves town.. and then the meter reaches 100. Three cheers for Mr. Rotten, and he’s not enjoying a single second of it.

So he leaves to his lair and they sing Bing Bang. Robbie is so annoyed he promises he’s never ever gonna move for the rest of his life until Robbie’s phone rings and he picks it up about ten seconds. It turns out to be a wrong number. Then he rages.

I love this episode. Bessie saw herself as someone who was only good at answering the phones, but she was the person who got the energy meter up to 90.

Filming in July 2007. Glad to know Stefan was in the costume!

Original airdate: October 25, 2004

Story by Magnus Scheving

Written by Noah Zachary, Cole Louie, Magnus Scheving

Directed by Raymond P. Le Gue, Magnus Scheving

Executive producers – Magnus Scheving, Ragnheidur Melsted, Raymond P. Le Gue, Mark Read, Brown Johnson, Kay Wilson Stallings

Starring Magnus Scheving, Stefan Karl Steffanson, Julianna Rose Mauriello

Puppeteers – Ronald Binion, Gudmondor Thor Karason, Jodi Eichelberger, David Matthew Feldman, Julie Westwood, Sarah Burgess

Cry Dinosaur – This episode used to dissapoint me and I really used to hate it. A lot. And I don’t know why.. I really REALLY do not. So, considering it’s been two years since I watched the full episode and not that crappy PBS Kids Sprout cut, so maybe I’ll revisit it today.

The episode begins with Sportacus challenging himself to step or touch all the buttons on the floor of his airship in a small amount of time. He manages to do so in 18 seconds. AWESOME!!

It’s a sunny day in LazyTown, so Sportacus decides to open his door and look outside. However, someone has drawn a dinosaur face on a balloon and it freaks Sportacus out. A superhero who has risked his life a number of times and literally lives in the sky is afraid of something that expired millions of years ago??

Anyways, Stingy, Stephanie and Ziggy are messing around in a tent trying to decide where to move it. Sportacus jumps from the door of his airship. He’s afraid of an extinct creature but not jumping thousands of feet in the air? Anyways, Sportacus shows Ziggy the balloon and he runs away until Sportacus tells him he brought it back.

Meanwhile, Robbie is peeking in his lair and he is even more freaked out then Ziggy. His heart is beating – LITERALLY! While Ziggy is thanking Sportacus he loses hold of the balloon and it goes back in the air.. ready to pop in a few seconds. Stephanie tells Sportacus they’re having a campout and that they’re going to

-stay up all night

-tell ghost stories

-eat hotdogs

-tell ghost stories

-sleep on sleeping bags

-m m m m h h h n n g

-and tell ghost stories.

Sportacus can tell Ziggy is afraid of the dark, so he tells him that everyone is scared of something. Ziggy asks if Sportacus is, and he says no. One of the most hilarious things I have ever heard a character from a show targeted at six year olds say is ‘no’. Then Ziggy proceeds to ask him if he is afraid of a bunch of scary creatures and common phobias, then Sportacus reveals he is afraid of dinos. Robbie is eavesdropping, and…well, you can guess what happens next, right?

So, he puts on his dinosaur head and tries to walk around his lair, but he keeps bumping into stuff. He takes it off and thus concludes that the reason dinosaurs are extinct are because they keep bumping into things. Props to Robbie for actually knowing dinos are extinct.

Filming in July 2004. JRM’s ready to illegally download the show she acts in!

Original airdate: October 4, 2004

Story by Magnus Scheving

Written by Noah Zachary, Cole Louie, Ken Pontac, Magnus Scheving

Directed by Magnus Scheving, Raymond P. Le Gue

Executive producers – Magnus Scheving, Ragnheidur Melsted, Raymond P. Le Gue, Mark Read, Brown Johnson, Kay Wilson Stallings

Starring Magnus Scheving, Stefan Karl Steffanson, Julianna Rose Mauriello

Puppeteers – Ronald Binion, Gudmondor Thor Karason, Jodi Eichelberger, David Matthew Feldman, Julie Westwood, Sarah Burgess

YOU ARE A PIRATE! The famous song featured in today’s episode of LazyTown, but is it good enough to get me to pirate it?

The episode begins with Sportacus eating his ‘Sportacus Club Special’ which is just a regular boring ass lettuce and tomato sandwich. Come on bruh. Put some meat on that thing.

While this opening sequence reminds me that this show never talks about meat other then Let’s Go, LazyTown! (1997), it does at least technically put eating wheat based foods in a positive light.

It’s a beautiful perfect sunny day in LazyTown, and Sportacus decides to take a look at what the kids are doing. Stephanie is in a pirate costume and yelling for help.

Sportacus thinks she is in trouble (why didn’t the crystal beep.. hmm??) and goes to town to save her. He cartwheels over those weird yellow walls and jumps over signs to save her. But Ziggy tells him he is in the water and he has stepped on Stingy’s fish.

Trixie then tells him that they are playing pirates and Steph is walking off the plank. Cue a hilarious argument between Stingy and Trixie about who’s captain. Stingy wants to elect himself because he has the piggy-parrot, but Trixie has promoted herself because she has a hook. There’s no challenge here. Sportacus says goodbye and runs back to the ship (nobody’s gonna steal it man), then Stephanie walks the plank. Meanwhile, Robbie is in the lair talking about those ‘rotten kids’ and how they do nothing but make noise. Remind you of someone? Robbie then grabs his largest pair of noise cancelling headphones but he can still hear them. LOL. Now Ziggy has a sword.

Pirate Ziggy is talking about how you should give him your loot, and by loot he means caanddyy. AAAHRGH! LOOK AT THAT BALLOON SWORD! TAKE ALL MY FUIT GUMIES!!1!1!!! Anyways, Ziggy dives to the floor once he sees Mayor Milford and sneak attacks, ‘ballooning’ his face.

Milford politely asks him to stop it and Ziggy tells them they’re playing pirates. Then he takes the kids to his office to tell them all about LazyTown’s very own real pirate named Rottenbeard who spread his meanness all across the town and took everything he wanted. Stingy is excited mainly at the word ‘took’.

Rottenbeard took a lot of things, except the famous ‘LazyTown stone’, which is the secret to living in LazyTown. I think the secret is ‘balance’, guessing that’s what the whole show is about. Anyways, they all walk outside to find it, and the stone says ‘LAZyToWN SHOULD ALWAyS BE’.

Now everyone is kerfuffled (it’s so simple, the secret to living in LazyTown is ) about what the secret is, and Milford says Rottenstein broke it and stole a piece.

Robbie is watching and he has another amazing idea – to make a fake stone, knowing that they’ll have to do whatever it says on it. He quickly crafts a new stone (HOW DOES HE DO IT!!!!???) and tries to replicate the broken piece. He carries the stone, but it is deemed too heavy for him and he falls down. Then he gets an EXACT REPLICA of the broken piece in his hand. HOW????

Meanwhile, Milford is reading the kids a chapter about a hero who stopped Rottenbeard’s Lazyways. Does this remind you of anyone..? No.. okay. He jumped off a wall and landed on the ground, somersaulted behind Rottenbeard, crawled between his legs, and defeated him.

Rottenbeard promised to himself one day he will return (a new generation of him will). The kids decide to dig for buried treasure chests, and while they’re having fun to pretend being pirates, a new friend joins them – Robbie Rotten in his newest disguise as Rottenbeard.

He’s talking to them about a buncha stuff about pirate business, I don’t know, it was about 30 seconds, I skipped it. So, Rottenbeard gives Stephanie a piece of paper and it reads Robbie’s grocery list. LOL! He takes it back and gives her a map of where to find the ‘precious booty’.

Then they all get on his boat and perform ’You are a Pirate’, which I didn’t really care for excluding Stephanie’s verses. Meanwhile, the kids have been digging for what seems like forever, and Ziggy is right in front of the X. Robbie tries hinting to dig down by saying ‘you have to look under your nose sometimes, look down’ and he doesn’t get the hint.. gosh. Then Ziggy finally sees the X (Are we talking about THOSE films or the letter..?) and Trixie gives Stephanie a toy shovel to dig with.

She finally finds the treasure chest and opens it. It is the fake missing piece Rottenbeard has made. Nobody has noticed what it says though (the characters in this show have some very strange brain capacity), but Stephanie so happy she sends some mail to Sportacus.

The letter reads ‘We found the LazyTown stone. -Stephanie’ and Sportacus instantly knows what she is talking about. He takes two tennis rackets and rides to town. Milford deems this a historical day in history (no, I didn’t stuff that sentence up, LOL!!). Sportacus blows the dust off the missing piece, and it now reads ‘LAZyToWN SHOULD ALWAyS BE LAZy’. Everyone is pretty disappointed and sad that they have to lie around and do nothing now. But, this is exactly how they were like years.. before Stephanie came

Trixie is flipping through the ‘History of LazyTown’ while Stephanie is over at the stone, sulking about how she has to spend her summer doing nothing ‘all because of some stupid st-’, just when she leans on it and the desk it is on falls over. Then she finds another treasure map and shows the kids.

So, while Ziggy and Stephanie are the only ones digging, Trixie is reminicising how she is the captain because she has a hook AND the map, and Stingy is singing Wonders on the Sea.

Robbie hears their racket and goes back to stop them from finding the real piece. For the laziest guy in town, he puts on his disguise pretty fast. But it’s too late, they’ve already found the treasure chest.

Rottenbeard says it’s impossible to find treasure when you’re tied to a tree.. then he ties them to a tree. LOL!! Sportacus does an astonishing frontflip onto the treasure chest. Oh, boy, get ready for this awesome G-rated fight scene directed by amazing action movie legend, Magnus Scheving!!

Rottenbeard steals Stephanie’s sword and he swings it over his legs, but Sportacus dodges the attack with a jump. Reminds me of when Bruce Lee did the same move in ‘Fist of Fury’. Robbie swings again, but he flips onto the ground. Rottenbeard swings forward and Sportacus rotates his leg. Sportacus retalliates by.. throwing the treasure chests in Rottenbeard’s hands..? It works, because he falls to the ground. LOL!!

Stephanie manages to read the books with her leg, and Trixie tells Sportacus to grab a sword. He grabs his tennis rackets and whacks him straight on the butt. LOL!! Then he steals Trixie’s sword. The two circle each other and Sportacus twirls his tennis rackets. Rottenbeard twirls his balloon swords, but they decrease in size all times (LOL!!) until he gets it juuuusssstttt riiiiiigggghhhhhttttt..

Sportacus jumps on the wall like the hero in the book did (who strangly looks like the “Robbie Rotten Comes to LazyTown” (1999) counterpart of Sportacus) and Robbie nearly falls into the hole the kids dug. Then he charges at Sportacus, and Sportacus steps to the side. Then he falls over the wall.

Sportacus flips over Rottenbeard and whacks him on the butt again! Then he slides over his legs, reluctantly “gives him a little push” (softly kicks him), and Rottenbeard has fell into the kids’ dug hole. Jacky Chan who? This is the epitome of foreign fight scenes. Then Robbie’s disguise is revealed and he has a bunch of dirt in his mouth (haha!).

Sportacus unties the kids and he takes the treasure chest over to the rest of the LazyTown stone. He blows the dust off the REAL missing piece and it says.. “LAZyToWN SHOULD ALWAys BE.. FOLLOWING THE LAZyRANTS TUMBLR ACCOUNT”.. nah, just kidding. It actually says that ‘LAZyToWN SHOULD ALWAyS BE HAPPy’.

And everyone is supper happy about that! Milford says it’ll be especially easy because they just have to smile. Then they perform Bing Bang.

Meanwhile, Robbie is in his lair, trying to take Milford’s advice to smile, but the mirror breaks. A little bit harsh, but kinda funny.

THE END.

10/10 episode if I must say. Stephanie’s verse is pretty cool in the featured song, and it also features the closest thing we’ll ever get to a LazyTown fight scene.

Filming in July 2004. A CARROT! HEALTHY, NUTRITIOUS, AND FRICKING DISGUSTING!!

Original airdate: September 27, 2004

Story by Rocky Garibaldi, Tom K. Mason, Dan Danko, Magnus Scheving

Written by Noah Zachary, Cole Louie, Magnus Scheving

Directed by Magnus Scheving

Executive producers – Magnus Scheving, Ragnheidur Melsted, Raymond P. Le Gue, Mark Read, Brown Johnson, Kay Wilson Stallings

Starring Magnus Scheving, Stefan Karl Steffanson, Julianna Rose Mauriello

Puppeteers – Ronald Binion, Gudmondor Thor Karason, Jodi Eichelberger, David Matthew Feldman, Julie Westwood, Amanda Maddock

Rottenstein is one of the most recognized episodes of the show. So today I’m going to be revisiting it.

The episode begins with an awesome Sportacus move that was taken from the pilot in 2003 – he throws a watermelon in the air, does a cartwheel, jumps in the air and does a handstand on the watermelon. Then he stands up, kicks the watermelon and then does the power jump. Then he eats the watermelon. Not only is it the best trick he’s ever done but the melon doesn’t break!

The episode begins with the LazyTown kids growing some sports candy in their.. well.. gardening clothes. Stingy has marked everything he’s grown with a sign that says ‘Mine’ (A lil bit excessive) Ziggy attempts to carry a box full of tomatoes because he’s the world’s strongest hero.

However he manages to carry it.. actually Sportacus does. Ziggy ponders about how Sportacus is so strong and then he says he gets it from Sports Candy (a carrot). But Robbie is eavesdropping. We all know where this’ll go, right..?

He then does a cool flip to demonstrate. However, his crystal beeps and he frontflips over Robbie out of the screen. Robbie then asks himself about ‘HOW HE DOES THAT?!?!’ when Sportacus literally just explained it. Everyone tells Ziggy to EAT THE CARROT but Robbie stops him.

Robbie asks Ziggy how Sportacus gets his strength and Ziggy says ‘this’. Robbie mistakes the carrot for a box. LOL! Might be the funniest moment in the episode. Ziggy starts talking about how he is going to eat them for the rest of his life, then Robbie leaves. Ziggy then forgets everything he just said and decides to have it later.

Meanwhile in his lair, Robbie Rotten, the man that despises health, fruits, vegetables, exercise and sports-candy, is examining his very own sports candy. A carrot. He then realises that if anyone has sports-candy that they will be moving around and healthy, like a sickness.

Then he has the great idea to make Sportscandy sound like a sickness, which will mean the kids won’t eat Sports Candy. He decides it is disguise time and he walks through the wardrobe, shaking his head and blubbering (LOL) until he gets a doctor outfit.

So, anyways, they sing ’Good Stuff’ (I used to be obsessed with this song) and in between moves Robbie is seen sprinkling dots onto the food that the kids are growing. Ziggy gets some spots on his ‘sick’ lollipop and him too. Everyone has some spots and they don’t know. Once again a really smart plan (but didn’t last long)

Dr. Rottenstein “examines” them and he says that it is a rare case off the spotty vegititius – the rarest disease in the entire world. Then he announces that to cure it they must eat junk food.

He also says that the person whose name starts with S and flippity flops around a lot (it took them about 6 guesses, even when Robbie said ‘a name starting with S’, someone guessed Pixel) must stay away from LazyTown forever.

Everyone is devastated (I would be too) but Sportacus knows something is wrong. He writes letters to Stephanie, Ziggy and Pixel. Meanwhile, Stephanie is lazing around in bed while Milford has given her a tray full of.. peanut butter, marshmallows, chocolate, fries, burgers, butterscotch, chocolate syrup, soda and shakes. I am just surprised nothing fell off. Props to the producers.

Sportacus does his usual routine to send letters (he sends Stephanie’s first.. hinty hint?), but Ziggy is the only one who actually knows he got a letter (he was also super excited to dig in until he realized the dots were fake). Maybe it’s just me, or does Ziggy progressively become a better character over episode? But at the start of a new season he’s back to square one.

Meanwhile, Robbie is enjoying his life. Junk food and television. He couldn’t be happier! Ya do realize where this is going, right? He’s the villian, he will never ever ever EVER EVER EVER!! catch a break.

Anyways, during a ridiculous use of metaphors (It’s not like sports candy just comes from the air!), he realizes Sportacus has a bunch of sportscandy and sports equipment in his airship. He has a plan to make a small visit to the airship once Sportacus leaves.

Sportacus has still left his ladder up while meeting Ziggy. Ziggy tells Sportacus about how the disease was fake and that they were actually getting worse from their junk food. Meanwhile, Sportacus’ airship flies away and he has to go get it back.

Robbie is in the airship and this is just so shocking to me. I’m just used to seeing Robbie in dark places with inventions and gadgets, but now he is in his worst enemies’ airship. The following sequence is pretty funny. He messes with buttons and manages to get himself hurt.

Anyways, he messes with this pedal looking thing and the airship goes cuckoo thanks to Sportacus fighting the ladder. He looks completely crazy while doing it, but it’s kinda cool he can basically carry an entire airship.

Ziggy is going to his friends’ houses and begging for their help but they are too weak and lazy thanks to the junk food. So Ziggy decides to finally eat that carrot he was supposed to and he throws some carrots through his friend’s windows. Character development is awesome!

He becomes determined and cool in a circling shot and acts like a ninja throwing stars. Everyone takes a bite of the carrots he gave them and they all become strong enough to help Sportacus. They hold the ladder for him while he goes to save Rottenstein.

So anyways, Sportacus connects Rottenstein to a rope and pushes him off that little piece of floor that comes with the pole (what is that CALLED?!). He makes it safe. Then comes an awesome sequence when Sportacus stops the ship from crashing into Milford’s house.

Milford didn’t really care about potentially dying, but more about his new paint job nearly being ruined. Anyways, they all sing Bing Bang and the episode ends with Robbie sitting on that carrot he was examining. He throws it, but it bounces off the walls and woulda hit his face if he didn’t block it with a plate (the carrot was actually already on the plate).

This ending scene wouldn’t be as funny without Stefan Karl’s hilarious acting.

In all honestly – good morale, good song, good climax, and episode.

8.5/10

Filming in May 2004. JELLY, DO NOT EAT THOSE PACKING PEANUTS. THEY TASTE LIKE CHEETOS WITHOUT THE CHEETO TASTE.

BoredJedi (youtube.com/user/LazyBlueHaze) gave me an .iso of the “Superhero” Australian DVD from 2008. To finally put the .iso to use, I decided to take all the screenshots in this episode myself. I also watched it using VLC.

Original airdate: August 25, 2004

Story by Magnus Scheving

Written by Noah Zachary, Cole Louie, Mo Williem, Magnus Scheving

Directed by Magnus Scheving

Executive producers – Magnus Scheving, Ragnheidur Melsted, Raymond P. Le Gue, Mark Read, Brown Johnson, Kay Wilson Stallings

Starring Magnus Scheving, Stefan Karl Steffanson, Julianna Rose Mauriello

Puppeteers – Ronald Binion, Gudmondor Thor Karason, Jodi Eichelberger, David Matthew Feldman, Julie Westwood, Amanda Maddock

Happy Brush Day is the first of two episodes focusing on Ziggy’s birthday (not to mention the spinoff where he is the main star), so I guess the producers finally realized that Ziggy has some story potential.

The episode begins with some foreshadowing – Sportacus brushing his teeth in his airship. I call this foreshadowing because the episode is about brushing your teeth (kinda). Anyways, the citizens in LazyTown have just woken up happily (excluding Robbie who hilariously uses packing peanuts to drown the noise of his alarm).

Stingy is admiring his collection of four toothbrushes (Is it really necessary to own more than one toothbrush..??). Pixel is using one of his gadgets to brush his teeth (later on in the episode he has completely forgotten what it is) and Stingy keeps his in a lock. Meanwhile, Ziggy is still asleep using his lollipop as a cushion.

Anyways, Robbie is eating his scrumdiddlyumptious creamy cake (My god, I just want a bite of that), and Pixel walks over to Ziggy’s to tell him it’s his seventh birthday. This just aggravates me, WHO NEEDS TO BE WOKEN UP ON THEIR BIRTHDAY?! My birthday is in one of those 2 week school breaks, and in one of those days you couldn’t blow a horn to get me to wake up before 11am. But on my birthday I wake up at 7am with no problem. Anyways, Ziggy is mailing a letter to Sportacus while eating taffy.

Anyways, when Ziggy mentions his birthday, Robbie spits out his cake. He has another devious plan. In my opinion, I never really liked the idea of ruining Ziggy’s birthday. His plan was to make a machine that spewed taffy all over the place. 1 – Ziggy loves taffy. 2 – It’s his birthday. 3 – Ziggy loves taffy. Meanwhile, the kids are deciding what to get him for his birthday.

Anyways, when Stingy mentions all he wants is taffy every year, he pops up looking for taffy. Now, forgive me, since Taffy was invented in the US, but, it is really that good??

Also, if you didn’t notice (SOMEONE must have noticed), the background music for when he walks out the shot is a reprise of ‘Siggi’ from Afram Latibaer. Anyways, Robbie does his classic disguise time (I think this is the funniest of the first season).

Robbie decides that to accompany his outfit (that looks like something a fairy from a 2000s 3D animated straight-to-VHS movie classified “G” by the Australian Classification Board would wear) with a gift. Off camera he thinks up the perfect thing. Meanwhile, Sportacus has gotten Ziggy’s letter, which is one of those cards that plays an undeniably catchy tune when you open it.

Sportacus is having some trouble deciding what to give Ziggy as a gift (his first two choices being balls). Anyways, the camera cuts off to Milford putting up the birthday stage for Ziggy. Everyone is excited for the party until Bessie comes with her birthday speech for little ‘Wiggie’, then everyone is seriously dreading it. (judging from a transcription Chris Crow made on the GL forums, Bessie possibly just wrote down random words on a piece of paper and lied to herself.)

Anyways, after a bit of begging, Milford is convinced to start the party with the presents. Very surprisingly, Stingy decides to go first. His gift is a quarter-bitten piece of taffy. A single one. You can see from the box there were supposed to be nine pieces.

Anyways, Stingy takes back the box & the lid. I don’t know why it’s so funny. “Happy birthday, here’s my gift, gimme the packaging.” So anyways, Trixie goes next, and HER gift is a jack in the box. (If I was Ziggy, personally I wouldn’t take that kinda disrespect.) So anyways, Pixel gives him his gift which is in an envelope. Ziggy is thankful enough for the envelope (what a pure soul), until Pixel tells him to OPEN the envelope.

In the envelope is a piece of paper that reads “www.taffy.com” (it’s a real website and is still up to this day, it’s just not related to LazyTown at all). It turns out to be a website Pixel has made consisting of “jpegs of every taffy ever made!” I get this was written in 2004, but why JPEGS? PNG for the wiiiin!! (I’d geniunely enjoy that gift, but maybe with something else like LazyTown screenshots or old 80s action movie posters.)

So, anyways, Ziggy wants to eat the taffy and is kinda annoyed when Pixel says it isn’t possible. Anyways, when Bessie announces she has added five more extra minutes to her speech, Milford gives HIS gift, which is a huge square of taffy flavoured taffy.

Stephanie’s gift is her very own choreographed ‘Taffy Cheer!’ and everyone likes it so much Ziggy even says he could taste the victory taffy. Coming from a boy whose whole diet consists of candy, that is the highest compliment you can receive.

Anyways, Sportacus does a frontflip into the scene right about when Bessie is about to start her speech. (Is it just me or do the events if this show have TOO many coincidences some times?)

Sportacus is hyping his gift up very much. Ziggy guesses a truckload of different candies twice, but Sportacus does an amazing flip (he doesn’t have the box in his hand in this shot), lands on his feet and shows Ziggy the toothbrush (now he is holding the toothbrush but there is no box to be seen?).

Anyways, everyone has some questions. Pixel wants to know where the remote control is and if you have to plug it in. Eventually he searches it up in his database, but Ziggy still has no idea what it is. Then he reveals that he keeps some of his favourite foods in his food. Everyone is disgusted. Including me.

Anyways, they sing a whole two minute (recommended length for brushing your teeth) song about brushing your teeth the Twenty Times way. After it’s finished, Ziggy shows more interest in brushing his teeth until The Birthday Fairy (a disguised Robbie) shows up. Trixie makes fun of him, indirectly insulting Stephanie (you’re girlier then she is, and that is saying a lot!)

Anyways, Robbie (or Pixel) introduces his (honestly really cool) gift, the Electro Ultra Voice Activated Candy Matic! Robbie then reveals that Ziggy and only Ziggy can tell it what to do which is a pretty dumb thing. What if Ziggy falls asleep and while he does he says that his friends can have some of his taffy?

Anyways, Ziggy throws Sportacus’ gift on the floor, and I’m surprised Sportacus didn’t get mad. You know how bratty you have to be to throw your birthday gift away in front of the gifter? Anyways, Ziggy calls for taffy a bunch of times and he catches most of it in his mouth. Stingy is kinda annoyed.

Or as the subtitles say.. (SEETHING WITH RAGE). Anyways, Stingy climbs right up to the thing and yells TAFFY as loud as he can. Then his face gets splattered. Robbie, the liar! Anyways, while nobody is looking, Robbie deviously puts the level of taffy up to ‘red’, and taffy starts flying all over the place.. really fast! However, Ziggy can’t yell ‘stop’ because his mouth is full of yellow taffy.

Anyways, it’s not long before the stage becomes a sea of taffy, Sportacus goes up to his airship to get some sports equipment to stop the machine and Robbie’s advice is to just eat the candy. Milford announces it and everyone starts eating.

Anyways, Robbie quickly gets tired of the taffy and he decides to go back to his car, but unfortunately he cannot drive away. Totally your fault, dude. You started this by putting it on RED. Anyways, his car is basically underwater, except the taffy is the water.

Meanwhile, Sportacus is in his airship, carrying some tennis rackets in his shirt (some of the frames are slowed down, possibly to meet the 24:42 time limit or just look cooler), and the taffy is up to the chins of the puppets. So Bessie grabs onto the birthday banner (in real life that would’ve just ripped off). Anyways, Sportacus has arrived and he starts hitting every single piece of taffy that comes his way, and for a few seconds the machine stops working.

Sportacus puts on his goggles (it’s taffy, not salty ass water) and he dives in to find Ziggy’s toothbrush. He doesn’t move for a few seconds and everyone thinks he’s dead (I don’t blame them) until he pops up with the toothbrush!

Stingy throws the toothbrush to Ziggy and he brushes his teeth the Twenty Times way. Finally, he gets the taffy out his mouth and yells STOP!!!

Finally! (: Anyways, Robbie puts his arm through the door and waves it out frantically so Sportacus notices him. Sportacus pulls off his hat and everybody realizes that it was Robbie all along!

Anyways, they sing the Bing Bang song while Bessie does her speech. Now this is the part I don’t like because it just scraps what Bessie and the kids said earlier in the episode – the speech goes on and on and on (and this year she added five more minutes), but the Bing Bang song is only 53 seconds and somehow she finishes her speech in the span of the whole Bing Bang song. Anyways, good episode.

THE END.

So kids, what did we learn in this episode of LazyTown? Brush your teeth every day and night or a bunch of taffy will come flying out of nowhere and nearly drown you.

7/10

Filming in April 2004. One of my favourite BTS pics and I don’t know why.

BoredJedi (youtube.com/user/LazyBlueHaze) gave me an .iso of the “Superhero” Australian DVD from 2008. To finally put the .iso to use, I decided to take all the screenshots in this episode myself. I also watched it using VLC.

Original airdate: August 24, 2004

Story by Ole Olsen Steen, Magnus Scheving

Written by Noah Zachary, Cole Louie, Magnus Scheving

Directed by Raymond P. Le Gue

Executive producers – Magnus Scheving, Ragnheidur Melsted, Raymond P. Le Gue, Mark Read, Brown Johnson, Kay Wilson Stallings

Starring Magnus Scheving, Stefan Karl Steffanson, Julianna Rose Mauriello

Puppeteers – Ronald Binion, Gudmondor Thor Karason, Jodi Eichelberger, David Matthew Feldman, Julie Westwood, Amanda Maddock

Sportafake is undeniably one of the most critically acclaimed and recognized episodes of the series. But.. is it really all that Spectacular?

The episode begins with Sportacus flipping around in his airship, fiddling with some of his things, ready to visit the town. He then flips into his pod and then flies straight into town.

Anyways, Milford has agreed to help fix some “odds and ends” around Bessie’s house because he just can’t say no to her. (S I M P. A L E R T ! ! ! ! ) Milford is however, not experienced in this type of stuff (he can’t use a hammer properly..). Bessie replies by saying it’s only a couple of things and then gives him a comically large list of things to do, assuming Milford can handle it. I don’t think Bessie has ever MET Milford before.

Anyways, Robbie is in his lair sulking about how nobody listens to him. He then starts a heartfelt speech about the topic, and once he’s finished he plays a stock applause sound on his speakers (he turns the volume up twice). Man, he needs some friends, but he’s so vicious and funny.

So, that aside, the kids have once again completely forgotten what Sportacus has been teaching them FOR SEVEN EPISODES, and they are relaxing in the hot sun. You think it’s hot in Iceland? Try experiencing a heatwave in Australia for a week.

Stephanie throws what seems like a very very very very mini hula hoop and asks the kids to play catch. They decline because they are too sweaty and Trixie asks Stephanie to go with the flow. She then attempts to sound like she’s at the beach by saying stuff no normal human would say unironically.

So, anyways, Sportacus has come to end this awkwardness (or add some more it seems) by asking the kids what they’re up to. Since they seem to be enjoying sitting down and doing nothing, Sportacus does a frontflip and lands in the chair next to Pixel.

However, it seems to just be a prank, and Sportacus says that they can play catch. (Why does nobody wanna be active until Sportacus says so?) Except for Pixel. But it turns out it is just another prank. This scene was cut out from the Discovery Kids and Super Sports Show DVD versions for uh.. y’know, racism?

So, anyways, they all enjoy themselves playing catch while Robbie is spying on them. Robbie assumes that they listen to Sportacus because of his mustache. He has the amazing idea to disguise himself as Sportacus (for some reason the number on the back of Robbie’s shirt has a 9 and not a 10.. maybe Robbie was Number 9 and that would explain why he never liked Sportacus).

However, he when he tries to exercise and stuff, he fails miserably. So maybe call him Weakacus. Anyways, back at Bessie’s house, Stingy is looking around and claiming random stuff (for example, a FENCE). Once he sees a ladder he says it belongs to his father (now that’s just greedy) and takes it. At the same time, Milford is trimming leaves off a tree when a big bee gets in his way and he decides to get off.

Meanwhile, the kids are still playing catch with Sportacus when his crystal beeps, and he promises he won’t take long. He climbs up in his airship and as soon as he flies away, coincidentally in comes Robbie. Is it just me, or does Stefan look hilarious with a mustache?

Anyways, Robbie climbs over the wall in his Sportacus costume with a gruff voice. It turns out he swallowed a hairball (one that looks like a ball of fluff from his chair). He coughs it out and throws it and it somehow breaks a glass window. The logic in this show is sometimes just.. non-existent. Also, look at JRM’s face in this screenshot!

Anyways, Robbie “plays” catch with the kids, and manages to get all the hoops on his arms before he yells at them to stop playing. Meanwhile, the real Sportacus is out to save Milford, and he catches him once he falls off.

Anyways, with the kids, Robbie has just yelled at them to stop playing and he declares that he wants the kids to start listening to him now. Ziggy obeys saying that they do that all the time.

Anyways, Robbie says that he wants all the kids to eat some bubble gum, and he spouts the excuse that it is good for your jaws. I mean, just at this point you could tell it’s not him. And that crystal, obviously made of plastic! Anyways, Pixel says he is joking but Robbie says ‘BINGO BONGO YOU ARE WRONGO’, the famous quote that was stolen from Steven Universe.

Robbie’s crystal ‘beeps’ and he goes to ‘save someone’, then he falls over the wall. Ziggy asks what he is doing, Robbie says he is taking a nap and Ziggy BELIEVES IT. Little by little every episode I like his character less and less and less. Stephanie feels something is wrong and she writes about it in her diary. She is afraid to say anything in fear that her friends will laugh at her.

Anyways, Sportacus has just finished saving Milford, and he asks Sportacus to help him with some of the work Bessie wants to do. He accepts to do so right after he saves someone.

It turns out to be Pixel and Trixie shaking Ziggy by the legs for some gum, which might be one of the most idiotic things they have ever done. It’s already in his mouth, let him eat it. Anyways, Ziggy spits it out on Sportacus’ mouth and he vomits the rest.

Maybe it’s better not to show a screenshot of the vomit.. anyways, Sportacus recommends that the kids play basketball. Sportacus’ crystal beeps and he goes to Bessie’s house. The fence wood has fell off, but Sportacus puts it back up in a jiffy. Then he goes to his airship, and they perform ’No one’s Lazy in LazyTown’ ONE OF THE ABSOLUTE BEST LAZYTOWN SONGS IN THE WORLD. The song ends when Robbie yells at them with a pile of junk food. Burgers, fries, pizza, popcor and chocolate. Stephanie wants to complain about it but Trixie stops her. They want to eat that food (and I don’t blame them!).

Meanwhile, Robbie is at Bessie’s house and he throws the fence wood away. To Bessie who has her eyes closed, it sounds like Milford is fixing it. Meanwhile, the REAL Sportacus is bringing them some Sportscandy, but they’re too full to eat. After all, they ate all of Robbie’s junkfood.

Anyways, Robbie is looking at the kids and he is filled with joy. Sportacus is confused. Stephanie goes over to Milford’s house to talk to him about the whole situation. Milford’s advice is to speak up about the situation, and ironically, Bessie yells his name and he runs right to her.

Anyways, while Milford is running to her, Bessie’s drink spills all over her dress. In comes Sportacus, and he says his work is just beginning. Then Robbie says HIS work is done. BAM! They walk into each other. Then they start testing each other to see if they will do the same things.

Anyways, Milford has now arrived at the scene, and even after the real Sportacus does his power jump, they still think that a race is the right way to declare who’s who. Sometimes I wonder why I watch this show, but then I realize if the LazyTown kids were smarter that would make for a really boring short episode. While Milford is at the end of the race track, Stingy is carrying a ladder and he says it is his. Milford agrees.

So, anyways, the race starts and Sportacus is bound to be the winner until his crystal beeps. So anyways, Bessie is standing in a wagon while Stingy accidentally hits her with it and the wagon goes rolling. Sportacus loses the race to save Bessie.

So, anyways, everyone believes Robbie is the winner, Sportacus must leave the town and that he is Sportacus until Stephanie speaks up and pulls off his mustache. Sportacus is glad Stephanie spoke up. Bessie is glad Milford helped her with some housework and almost kisses him, then they perform Bing Bang.

Robbie is in his lair on his fluffy chair, sitting down, and sleeping. Thus marks the end of the episode.

THIS EPISODE IS A LITERAL TREASURE TO THIS WORLD.

10/10 NO FURTHER EXPLANATION1111!!!!1111!11!!!1

107: Super Hero for a Day (prod 112)

 

Filming in June 2004. Bro is just chillin.

 

Original airdate: August 23, 2004

Story by Magnus Scheving

Written by Noah Zachary, Cole Louie, Adam Peltzman, Magnus Scheving

Directed by Magnus Scheving

Executive producers – Magnus Scheving, Ragnheidur Melsted, Raymond P. Le Gue, Mark Read, Brown Johnson, Kay Wilson Stallings

Starring Magnus Scheving, Stefan Karl Steffanson, Julianna Rose Mauriello

Puppeteers – Ronald Binion, Gudmondor Thor Karason, Jodi Eichelberger, David Matthew Feldman, Julie Westwood, Amanda Maddock

Hero for a Day is the seventh LazyTown episode, but the first one to center around the theme of being a hero. Ziggy wants to be a hero like Sportacus, but he stuffs it up multiple times.

The episode begins with a pun on the alphabet. Sportacus grabs a bowl and he puts some Sportscandy in it – carrots for Vitamin A, potatoes for vitamin B, and tomatoes for vitamin C.

Meanwhile in the town, Ziggy (a.k.a Sweetacus) is practicing saving someone.. on a lollipop. Is it just me, or has Ziggy been eating the same lollipop for 4 seasons? Anyways, he ends up eating the lollipop. Not so safe if you ask me.

Stephanie is at Pixel’s house, and Pixel has made the blueprint for the treehouse that they want to build (I have no idea if a program for this type of stuff exists). Stephanie asks when they will make it with real wood and stuff but Pixel doesn’t understand. Cue Ziggy who comes running in Pixel’s house.

He leans on one button and turns off all the tech in Pixel’s house. Considering how much Pixel uses his devices, I think Ziggy did something good, which is why I don’t get how angry he is.. until Pixel reveals he lost the clubhouse program. But I don’t think it was really all that serious for Pixel to start yelling at Ziggy. In Robbie’s lair he is trying to sleep but fails.

He is confused and annoyed as to why he can’t sleep – he’s counted sheep, he’s tired, and he’s slept on his blanket. Maybe try covering yourself with the blanket? Anyways, Robbie says he has been awake for three days, but his fingers show the number five. What a villain. Robbie then questions if he is asleep and that he’s in a dream. He tests it out by pinching himself. He then screams real loudly (and pretty funnily) accompanied by a “Snake-in-Eagle’s-Shadowesque” tune of mashing piano keys at the same time.

Milford is delivering a letter to the mail, but he has forgotten to put a stamp on a letter to the president. He puts the letters in his mouth and checks his pocket. Ziggy sees him and thinks he’s choking (if he was choking he wouldn’t be acting so normal..) and jumps onto his back. He then hits him on the back and makes him spit out the letters. Then they fly away because of the wind.

Sportacus’ crystal beeps while he is in the airship, and he gives the mayor back the letter by jumping high up in the air, grabbing hold of a tree branch, doing a little flip on it, letting go, then catching the letter in mid air. He then flips over to Milford then gives him the letter. How awesome!! He even tells Ziggy to take his super hero steps small at a time. He asks Milford if there are any small super hero jobs for him to do, but Milford says no. He then runs over to the kids making their treehouse, but runs right into a pile of wood. It seems that everyone except Stephanie is mad at him.. until he offers to carry some wood and breaks the blueprint into half.

While Sportacus is going back to his airship, his crystal beeps. Ziggy is trying to tape the blueprint back (can’t he take a hint..?) but he gets himself wrapped up in tape (you have to be real stupid to do that). He tries to do a flip like Sportacus, but Sportacus catches him while he is in midair. Anyways, Robbie decides to come out of his lair, but it’s too bright for him, so he uses some sunflowers as his sunglasses (and gets hurt in the process of exiting the lair, considering he can’t see).

Ziggy is sitting on a bench sadly until Sportacus comes up to him, asking what’s wrong. Ziggy says he is a super zero and Sportacus asks why he wants to be a hero and then he says to do cool tricks.. SUPERHEROES ARE SUPPOSED TO SAVE PEOPLE, ZIGGY. DOES SUPERMAN FLIP AROUND EVERY TWO SECONDS??

Anyways, Sportacus says that to be a hero that he needs practice. Cue a hilarious montage between the two. They practice putting on goggles, superhero poses, the signature move, pushups, jumping over hurdles, running on the spot, skipping rope, kata, tennis, basketball, and Ziggy messes up a lot but Sportacus doesn’t get angry. In the end, he ends up getting the ball in the hoop.

Ziggy is so inspired by Sportacus that he even stops eating his lollipop! It’s nice to see some character development. Anyways, Robbie is once again sleeping outside (reused footage from Sleepless in LazyTown, which was shot just before this episode), probably ready to complain about the noise. Meanwhile, Trixie, Pixel & Stephanie are pulling up one of the walls of their treehouse using ropes, and Ziggy makes them lose hold of the ropes.

Trixie decides to give Ziggy the jobs of putting up curtains, because no normal person can mess that up.. except ZIGGY FLIPPING ZWEETS. He jumps through the window and the three have to get him out themselves.

Trixie wants to scold Ziggy (I would too), but he says he’s fine, then he leans on the wall and their whole treehouse comes crashing down. LITERALLY. All their hard work destroyed all because of Ziggy.

Anyways, they restart working on the treehouse and sing Step by Step. Robbie is still on the bench trying to sleep when the kids start hammering (hey, go inside, much more quieter there!!) and he goes to complain about why they are building a treehouse. Then he mocks them when they talk about all the fun stuff they’ll do there. Stefan Karl is hilarious. Anyways, they go get more wood.

Ziggy is considering joining the circus, but then he reveals his fear of elephants. I really don’t blame him considering they can kill you with one stomp. He’s sulking across the streets of LazyTown. Meanwhile, Robbie is working on his plan to cut a tree branch so it lands on the treehouse. Pretty smart!

Ziggy is in his bed by himself sad, but he remembers that they are his friends and they will want his help.

So.. Robbie’s plan might’ve been smart, but he isn’t. While cutting the tree with a saw, HE LITERALLY SITS on the tree. He also says that the tree is too strong. “What is this made outta, wood?”

Anyways, Sportacus’ crystal beeps and he sees Robbie. Robbie asks for help.. then after he sees Sportacus he tells him to go away. I’d just cut the tree even more if I was him. That’s what I like about Sportacus. Robbie hates him, but Robbie is in danger, and Sportacus saves him.

While Ziggy is near, the tree branch is hanging like a loose tooth and is about to fall on Robbie. He grabs a pole, puts it against the wall and jumps over the wall, pushing Robbie over.

Ziggy has did it – he finally saved someone that wasn’t a lollipop. But Robbie is not grateful a single bit, so Trixie snaps a stick in half and Robbie jumps into Sportacus’ arms. Robbie says that everything is so tiring, then he falls asleep. Now, I’m not shipping Sportarobbie or anything, but you can visibly see Sportacus feels bad for Robbie.

Sportacus puts him to sleep on the nearest wall, and tries to be as quiet as he possibly can. Then they sing the Bing Bang song as loud as they possibly can. Meanwhile, Robbie’s sleep is interrupted by a fly. While swatting his hands, he falls off the wall. Thus marks the end of episode.

In all honesty, nothing special.

6/10

106: The Case of the Swiped Sweets (prod 109)

 

Filming in May 2004. They’ll be lucky if they didn’t have a business meeting.

 

 

Original airdate: August 20, 2004

Story by Magnus Scheving, Mani Svavarrson

Written by Noah Zachary, Cole Louie, Tom K. Mason, Dan Danko, Magnus Scheving

Directed by Steve Feldman, Magnus Scheving, Raymond P. Le Gue

Executive producers – Magnus Scheving, Ragnheidur Melsted, Raymond P. Le Gue, Mark Read, Brown Johnson, Kay Wilson Stallings

Starring Magnus Scheving, Stefan Karl Steffanson, Julianna Rose Mauriello

Puppeteers – Ronald Binion, Gudmondor Thor Karason, Jodi Eichelberger, David Matthew Feldman, Julie Westwood, Amanda Maddock

Swiped Sweets is easily one of the most recognizable episodes of LazyTown, thanks to the featured song ‘Cooking by The Book’. That aside, is it really a good episode?

Sportacus wakes up after a good nights sleep, feeling like he can do anything. He decides to make some orange juice.

He literally karate chops the orange in half, then squeezes it into his cup then takes a sip. What a great way to start the day. In Milford’s house, he is talking to himself about how he doesn’t know what to get Bessie for her birthday. The kids are listening to music (that was taken from the Latador CD in 1998) and Stephanie realizes that Milford has Bessie’s birthday on his mind. Stephanie tells him that if he messes it up like last year (Milford gave Bessie sunflowers, not knowing she is allergic) that Bessie will never talk to him again.

However, Bessie has gave Stephanie a large book of gifts so she knows what she wants. (In my opinion, just ruining the surprise.) They flip through the book and look through 3 possible gifts – a cruise boat (too expensive!), a vase (too breakable!), and a cake. They ultimately decide to bake a cake for Bessie.

However, Milford says he is too nervous to make it, so Stephanie offers to bake it for him. Pixel, Stingy and Ziggy sing the word “hellooo” as a choir and Pixel analyses some data. If I was Milford I’d just buy a cake, because with two six year old puppets and one eight year old puppet baking a cake for you, disaster is bound to happen. Anyways, they finish baking the cake and Pixel says it’s time to decorate it.

Pixel puts some whipped cream on the cake using Milford’s cake decorator but Stingy takes it claiming it is his, then Ziggy takes it not knowing what it is and squirts cream all over the cupboard doors.

Anyways, they start throwing cake, lollipops and whipped cream around the kitchen thus creating a food fight. Milford comes to check out what’s going on and he gets squirted with LOTS of whipped cream..

Hey, Milford, I think you got a little something on your face

Sportacus’ crystal beeps and he visits the Mayor’s house with two ping pong paddles. The two hide behind a counter, and I could swear this was a war movie if there was different music, the lighting was darker and it was in the movie aspect ratio. Anyways, Sportacus flips onto the kitchen counter, dodging all the cake and candy that comes his way.. for about 3 seconds until getting hit in the face with some cream. Sportacus says that food is for growing and not for throwing , and Ziggy tries to explain they were making a cake (a.k.a. a big lump of bread with pink cream all over it..) Sportacus tells them to try it again but without the mess.

He then goes back to his airship and the kids perform “Cooking by the Book” (an undeniably pretty good song..) while baking a proper cake for Bessie. I guess the cake was so good, because Robbie smelt it all the way from his lair. Robbie sees the cake and decides to make his own, but ultimately ends up saying swiped cake is better.

He does his classic DISGUISE TIME! And ends up with a detective disguise. He calls himself Hintslock Foams and actually comes up with a good plan to swipe the cake and convince everyone it was Sportacus. Anyways, his costume comes on the big plate like it did in Sports Day and knocks him over. He puts on the hat and reacts satisfied. LOL!!

Back at Milford’s house, the cake has gone amazingly well, but Milford is still paranoid, saying that Bessie could be allergic to cake too (another LOL moment!!). Anyways, they leave the cake out of sight while Milford calls Bessie.

He doesn’t know what to say, so Stephanie tells him to say “I’d like to invite you over for a nice surprise”, but he somehow stuffs it up and says “I’d like to invite you over to put flies on your eyes.” I don’t know how he won the election, but it makes for a lotta funny moments in this show. Anyways, Bessie says she will be there as soon as she can and Robbie takes the cake while nobody is looking. He puts some of the frosting on Sportacus’ ladder. I ain’t no Robbie enthusiast, but this is geniunely an amazing plan. The plans he has in the series are good, he just executes them terribly.

Bessie visits Milford’s house, but when the cover for the cake is lifted off, it reveals nothing there and Bessie declares another one of her birthdays RUINED (one bad gift doesn’t ruin an entire day, Brattie Busybody) Robbie is right outside and he comes in the house, SLAMMING the door on Milford TWICE to introduce himself.

He says the best way to find a cake burglar is to find cake clues. (Personally I think DNA, but OK) Just right then, Sportacus jumps out his airship, and his hand touches the exact ladder step that Robbie covered with cake (coincidences..) Robbie goes up to Sportacus asking to see his hands. Covered with cake!

Robbie arrests Sportacus and puts up the stage now. Court is in session and for some reason Milford is already in a judge costume. Anyways Robbie asks Sportacus the classic question – “Did nobody see you NOT eat the cake?” Which doesn’t make any sense until you think about it. Anyways, after 10 seconds, Robbie rests his case. Robbie tells Milford to cover his right eye and read one of those papers you see at the eye doctors that says “E S P O R T A C U S I S G U I L T Y”. He reads it wrong the first time (which was not really that funny) then reads it right the second time.

Robbie tries pushing Sportacus to jail, then he walks himself, then for some reason Robbie just falls down? It’s so random it’s.. funny. Anyways, Robbie uses something that looks like a handcuff then throws it behind him and it makes a jail. Funny enough, you can actually see the jail already behind them. Come on guys, the budget was nearly 1,600,000 AUD. Anyways, everyone is watching Sportacus being put in jail.

It turns out Sportacus has no problem with being in jail. He even reminds Robbie to lock the door (but he stands up and can easily get out). If I was Sportacus I would just climb out of there considering I did nothing wrong, but I guess he had faith.

Inside, Ziggy realizes that Sportacus has sugar meltdowns if he eats cake (took ya long enough), but he was stretching in the cell, meaning he didn’t eat the cake. I don’t know why Sportacus just didn’t say that himself. Anyways, Ziggy realises that no meltdown means no sugar and no sugar means.. actually, he forgot. How did the dude who solved it forget what he was trying to say?? Anyways, they start going detective mode while Sportacus is working out.

During the montage, Trixie appears in an eight second cameo. I’m glad she isn’t in the episode for much. Ziggy finds lollipops from the cake they baked and follows a trail of them, and they come from Robbie. He then realizes that he stole the cake!! (Shocker.) They decide they have to get the key. Pixel puts an antenna (how did an eight year old make that?) on Stingy’s car and Ziggy sits on the hood. Stephanie is in charge of the remote. She drives the car over to the tree where the key is.

Ziggy stands up and jumps to reach the key. However he’s too short so he uses a lollipop but the kids yell NO!! and tell him not to do it. What, did they think he was gonna throw it up the tree? Anyways, he licks the lollipop and sticks it to key. Success!!

Ziggy unlocks the cell and everyone is happy. Especially Stephanie who turned Asian for a while. She puts her hands up in a shape that looks like she is holding invisible katanas. Anyways, they go back to Milford’s house and bake an unappetizing looking cake to lure Robbie into.

Milford comes to the house and asks Sportacus if he broke out of jail (does Milford really think he did it?), but Sportacus reveals that the kids found out who really did it. They place the cake in the cell veeerryyy carefully, which I found useless, because Robbie wasn’t gonna hear them.

Robbie wakes up and smells the cake then he falls down from his sleeping paddock then sees a trail of cupcakes leading to the jail. Someone slams the door shut and everyone realizes it’s Robbie.

Robbie tries to decline he swiped the sweets. Ziggy says that he has frosting all over his face, then Robbie takes some and flicks it on Bessie. (In my opinion, that didn’t help, because he had tons more on his face.) Sportacus gives Milford the cake, and Robbie goes back to his lair (he carries the jail with him, LOL). Milford gives her the cake and they all sing the Bing Bang song.

Actually a pretty good episode. Not much to say, although that the lack of Sportacus scenes was annoying. Good episode, though.

7/10

105: Sleepless in LazyTown (prod 111)

 

Filming in May 2004. Magnus must be tired, so he’s taking a nap in costume. Even heroes need rest.

 

Original airdate: August 19, 2004

Story by Adam Peltzman, Magnus Scheving

Written by Noah Zachary, Cole Louie, Magnus Scheving

Directed by Steve Feldman, Magnus Scheving

Executive producers – Magnus Scheving, Ragnheidur Melsted, Raymond P. Le Gue, Mark Read, Brown Johnson, Kay Wilson Stallings

Starring Magnus Scheving, Stefan Karl Steffanson, Julianna Rose Mauriello

Puppeteers – Ronald Binion, Gudmondor Thor Karason, Jodi Eichelberger, David Matthew Feldman, Julie Westwood, Amanda Maddock

Sleepless in LazyTown covers the importance of sleeping at the right time. In this case, if you don’t sleep for long enough, maybe Robbie Rotten will make a deal in a game of baseball that if he wins that a superhero leaves town.

The episode begins with.. Sportacus going to bed, thus resulting in a night-time title card. What a great way to start an episode, with the end of the day! Well, foreshadowing..

Everyone in the town is well asleep, excluding Pixel who is staying up late to play his new video game. Robbie is of course TRYING to sleep, but he fails to do so, and he starts.. crying? He is also wearing cushions as an alternative to noise cancelling headphones. Stefan Karl is hilarious.

Anyways, it’s morning in the town and Pixel is still playing his video game. Robbie hasn’t gotten any sleep, so he decides to sleep outside, using pieces of his.. fluffy couch as headphones. However, a fly starts bugging him and plays one of the most hilarious sequences in LazyTown history. After he falls off the couch, tries to catch the fly and gets stung in the butt, he starts fighting with the fly, using a bin lid as his shield and.. nothing as his sword. He finally manages to get that fly in the bin, and he can sleep now.. or can he? Stephanie and Ziggy are teaching Sportacus to play baseball (Sportacus hit a home run for Sportacular Spectacle Day 2 years before this episode, so either he wants to see how good she is at it or he forgot how to play.) and Robbie starts whining about the noise.

Sleeping outside and whining about the noise is like eating a burger then whining about the meat. So anyways, Pixel has joined their game of baseball and is so tired from playing games last night he forgets he’s wearing a mask, and falls down after catching a ball.

Ziggy realizes he was up all night, then Sportacus talks about how sleep is one of his main sources of energy. However, Robbie is eavesdropping then comes to the idea of keeping him up (Sportacus really needs to start talking quieter) and goes back to his lair. He crafts the ball with a bunch of louds thing like a whistle (for some reason the final product comes out of a microwave..).

Anyways, after Pixel left the game of baseball, he came back with a gadget to keep his body moving which would NOT work in real life. Nickelodeon. Anyways, Robbie is now in his baseball clothes (why does a person who despises sport have a costume dedicated for one sports…??) with the noisy ball and is going to join their game. Meanwhile, Sportacus has thrown a ball and Pixel catches it without even knowing (blud fell asleep again). Robbie offers to hit now that Pixel is out, but Stephanie is surprised (he doesn’t even MOVE very much!). Sportacus lets him play, and Robbie says that whoever hits it farest wins and that Sporty must leave town if he loses. Sportacus accepts, Robbie says to prepare for the game in two days, and gives him the noisy ball.

Everyone goes to bed that night, Pixel stays up to play games AGAIN, and Robbie’s plan actually works. This genuinely shocked me. Sportacus stays up all night looking for that ball and ends up getting no sleep at all. Stephanie and Ziggy are already up and waiting to practice for baseball, but Sportacus is still sleeping and Stephanie sends a letter up to the airship.

Sportacus comes jumping over a wall to a bench where the two are waiting for him. Epic, right! He’s ready for action! Nope, he falls back asleep until Ziggy yells his name. I don’t get it. He doesn’t have energy to play baseball but he has enough energy to jump over walls. That’s what I hate about logic in this show. He tells them he’s fine and Stephanie realises he didn’t get enough sleep. He jumps onto the bench, yells for a pillow (the airship must have been surprised that he didn’t ask for Sportscandy or a sports equipment) and then takes a nap. The two try multiple efforts to wake him up – drums, tamborines an alarm clock, yelling his name, and the saxophone. Nothing works and the two are totally bummed.

Stephanie says they need help and Ziggy suggests they call Sportacus. If that was supposed to be funny, it definitely was. Anyways, they go to Pixel’s house, turn on all his TVs (that wakes him up) and ask him for help. Pixel accepts to help.. “right after a few more snores” then goes back to bed. I love this show. Robbie is spying to see the effects of the noisy ball, and Pixel’s gadget is being used on Sportacus.

Stephanie tells Pixel to put it on, but he’s asleep again (a rare moment where we see the angry side of Stephanie) and Ziggy presses buttons on his remote control and Sportacus (still asleep) starts moving around. (Why is there a button that makes someone do the splits..?)

Anyways, he wakes up and turns it on properly. However, Pixel amps it up a bit too high and Sportacus is inches away from running into a tree. (Why doesn’t his crystal beep when he is in trouble like in season 2?) Stephanie makes Pixel promise to get some sleep. At 8:08 pm, Pixel is still playing games (my lord, I will take a strand of his hair and deep fry it, put some beef salt on it and chomp it up) until he realises his friends need him. Anyways, in the hair- I mean, airship, Sportacus tries to go to bed, but that noisy ball starts acting up. He is so pissed he jumps all the way from his bed to his sports equipment cupboard and kicks the button to open it. It is so unintentionally cool.

He finds the noisy ball and does something to it, but we don’t know what. All we know is that he got rid of it or somehow figured how to turn it off, because when they perform Wake Up (undeniably one of the best songs ever) he gets up with a smile, and starts flipping and exercising.

Pixel feels so great that he wakes all his friends up himself. Once Sportacus is in town, they start talking about how good their sleeps were. Sportacus tells Pixel a secret – the secret is that what was keeping him up was the noisy ball. Pixel looks at the mark on it and realises the ball was made by Robbie himself.

Sportacus reveals his plan to Pixel (not the microphone, so it’s a mysteryyyy to the audience..), and he goes to lie on a bench once the kids come. The kids except Pixel are panicking, and Robbie arrives to the field. Pixel and Stephanie are throwing the ball at each other while Robbie isn’t ready, and those count as two strikes.

Robbie actually hits the ball, but only in front of his foot. That counts and now it is “Sportasnore”’s turn to hit. However, his plan is still going on, and he doesn’t hit it on the first 2 strikes. However, on the final strike he hits it SO HARD that it lands in Robbie’s lair, and Robbie loses the game.

They celebrate by singing and performing Bing Bang, and Stephanie changes clothes in between shots. Meanwhile, in Robbie’s lair, he sulks on his chair, but then sits on a lump, that lump being his noisy ball. The camera zooms in on the clock, thus saying “This is gonna be a loonggg night for Robbie.”

This episode is definetly one of the best. I didn’t like it much because I didn’t remember much, but I actually think this episode is amazing. With funny dialogue from every character, an epic song, this does not fail.

10/10