210: Friends Forever (prod 218)

 

Original airdate: February 16, 2007

Story by Magnus Scheving

Written by Noah Zachary, Mani Svavarrson, Magnus Scheving

Directed by Jonathan Judge

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 - Gudmondor Thor Karason, Jodi Eichelberger, David Matthew Feldman, Julie Westwood, Sarah Burgess, Ronald Binion, Emily Decola, Mary Robinette Kowal

Friends Forever is probably one of the most heart-warming episodes of the series and would’ve fitted better as a finale then Toys.

YouTube keeps annoying me thanks to V3, so beware 480p screenshots from a (luckily, widescreen) DVD rip from the 2000s.

It’s a new day in LazyTown, and that means a new move for Sportacus. But this day calls for a harder move - pushup twist. He decides to attempt it, and he succeeds!

I swear, if you cannot guess how he was able to do it- THE CLUE IS IN THE IMAGE!! Well, if you can’t, you weird, bruh. Anyways, in the new Sports Park, Stephanie is finishing off her painting of the sign. She yells for her friends to check it out.

She tells them what it is, all the kids are literally standing right in front of it and yet Pixel still needs his binoculars. But, it’s reasonable as he’s actually looking at all the games. Ziggy questions her setting up the field, and she says she did, of course, since they’re friends forever. They all put their hands together, and on 3 and yell ‘FRIENDS FOREVER!’ Stephanie decides to show them all the games - Hit the Can.

Swinging it around like a cowboy, Stephanie gets a score of 50! Ziggy yells out 'This is so cool!’, startling Robbie who’s having a power nap. So he goes to check out what’s happening, and currently, Stephanie is attempting to do the power slammer.

But it is way too heavy and she is toppling over. And here comes what might be the most epic rescue of season two - Sportacus does a few flippity floppities to the sport park, swings into a cool handstand to LIFT the paint off the wagon, and kicks it back so Stephanie lands safely.

Sportacus lifts the hammer to see how heavy it was, and it really was heavy. So he decides to give them Sportscandy as they might need it later. Foreshadowing. Stephanie tells Sportacus this is their Sports Park, Stingy says it’s his, Pixel says it’s THEIRS, and they go back and fourth until Stingy brings out his menacingly deep voice. XD. Jodi is HILARIOUS! Stephanie shows him the Sports Park & one game captivates him most - Hand Walker. He tries it, of course, and he does it! Ziggy is pretty scared. Stephanie explains you go handle to handle with your hands only.

Once he finishes, Stephanie tells the kids about her idea of a contest and Stingy wants to win without even knowing the prize - which is a ticket to Sportacus’ airship. Sportacus leaves after wishing them all good luck. Meanwhile, Robbie is for some reason blowing a blue balloon (again, for some reason), when he overhears Trixie wanting to go to the Sportship and questioning who’d want that.

Midway through - he gets an idea to go out there and let ALL the air out and he does a slightly useless demonstration with the balloon that sends it flying. It’s disguise time and he disguises himself as a daredevil. The kids perform 'New Games Everyday’. At the end of the songs, the kids say they’re having so much fun and nothing could be better then this. Here comes Robbie with his shaky cup.

Like with Stephanie, there’s a contest - but this time is for whoever stays in the longest. Who does so gets a ticket to Sportacus’ airship. Steph says she has one like that (but yours is REAL! Look at his excessively purple card.), and Robbie says he has ten. The kids get in the shaking cup, Stephanie asks 'Friends Forever??’ but she is ignored.

She decides to sit on a bench. Sadly. And she takes off the photo of her and her friends. Meanwhile, Sportacus has left his ladder out, meaning Robbie can easily enter the airship. He throws away the fake tickets and keeps the real one, which I dislike, since there is no explanation for how he obtained it. Anyways, he climbs the ladder to the airship, and Sportacus flips over to him.

He asks who he is, and Robbie replies with 'a lucky winner’. He was reasonably expecting one of the kids, and Robbie shows him the ticket for proof. Now Sportacus is happy to have him. Robbie asks for soda, and he pulls out WATER.

Even funnier when Robbie literally gags, implying he has never drank water before and enjoyed it, meaning he doesn’t drink it 99% of the time, but you need water to live.. Anyways, he asks for chocolate, and Sportacus pulls out an APPLE.

So he has the most healthy things you could ever consume. He even takes a tiny sip of water to be nice. Not very rotten in my eyes! Robbie asks him how he keeps the airship.. well.. in the air, and he pumps it up with air by jumping on this cool thing.

I thought it was one of the greatest parts of his airship when I was younger for some reasons - it’s bouncy and he flips off it. Then he asks how he lets the air OUT - by pulling a lever.

Meanwhile in the shaking cup, the kids are getting dizzy and Stingy is upside down (LOL), and Stephanie is reluctant to save the kids - but she remembers their promise - FRIENDS FOREVER! Pixel tells her to turn it off by using the lever, but it falls off! In the airship, Robbie asks if there is anyone to save. Sportacus says the citizens of LazyTown are all safe, and they go back and forth and stay awkwardly and the crystal beeps & Robbie says 'YES’ when Sportacus says someone is in trouble. LOL.

So he leaves Robbie to go look at the kids with the telescope. He leaves Robbie. Alone. In the airship. Unsupervised. Where he could easily release air from the airship.

Sportacus falls but he grabs on to something. Robbie decides to jump for it but the parachute doesn’t work like it should’ve and he’s just stuck hanging there. Literally.

Lolz. Meanwhile, Stephanie is rescuing the kids in a super duper cool way - using the HAND WALKER! She gets all the kids out one by one, telling them to grab her legs.

Sportacus loses grip of his telescope, and the kids notice it drop and they see Robbie and Sportacus in the air. They devise a cool plan to save him - Ziggy swings the can hitter and Sportacus grabs it, tying it to the airship door. Even more daring then Robbie, he JUMPS OFF whatever he was holding onto and tries to enter the airship by climbing the rope.

But one side of it unties, and Sportacus is left dangling in the air. Swinging from the left (take it back, now y'all, one hop this time, right foot, let’s stomp..) to the right!

He attempts to climb up but is not nearly as strong to. Stephanie remembers that Sportacus gave her some spare Sports Candy. They devise a plan to get it to him by using the Power Slammer - they put it on the lower side of the thing you’re supposed to hit. Stephanie hits it as hard as she possibly can, and it flies in the air and Sportacus swiftly catches it and bites it ONCE.

And whatcha know, he’s strong enough to climb up the rope and Enter The Airship (the greatest Magnus Scheving movie of them all..). The airship is gonna crash as the air supply is becoming lower and lower, and luckily Sportacus jumps into the airship and he cranks the lever as hard as he can.

Robbie is sooo clooosee to getting the pole in the town hall stuck up his posterior, but luckily, he has cranked the lever enough and it doesn’t crash. So it goes back to being an airship, he jumps on the bubble a few times. He then drives the airship back in the air.

Robbie’s glad he made it out safe and happy - but not for long! The useless parachute has ripped off the door, and he falls thousands of feet.. and lands in the shaking cup. How realistic.

Sportacus attempts to tip Robbie out of the shaking cup but it is way too shaky, so he grabs the lever and fixes it. It is finally revealed it’s Robbie, and he fibs about the shaking cup being fun. So Stephanie shakes it a bit more.

Sportacus thanks the kids for saving him, they do the 'shout-123’ thingy and perform Bing Bang! During the song, in an attempt to go back to the lair, Robbie gets stuck to the ceiling.

Cheap parachute.

10/10 - Moral: Never turn back on your friends. Amazing rescues too.

 

209: Pixel TV (prod 212)

 Original airdate: February 15, 2007

Story by Magnus Scheving

Written by Noah Zachary, Mani Svavarrson, Magnus Scheving

Directed by Jonathan Judge

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 - Gudmondor Thor Karason, Jodi Eichelberger, David Matthew Feldman, Julie Westwood, Sarah Burgess

If someone randomly asked me to name the ninth episode of season two of LazyTown, it’d take me forever to remember what it was. So, Pixel TV is pretty much unknown to me.

The episode begins with Sportacus going to his screen, and Pixel is on his screen, telling him he’s live in four seconds. Sportacus tells the camera that LazyTown is always moving and so are we. Then he does a buncha cool moves.

In his house, Pixel is managing his antenna and is talking to the LazyTown people on his TV screens. He’s set up a LazyTown TV channel with good moves, good food and go, go, go! Stephanie will be doing Sportscandy, Bessie and Milford will be doing news, Ziggy and Stingy will be doing their cooking show (probably the funniest segment), and Trixie’s doing a talk show (that’s why she called Loud Girl).

Everyone has LazyTown TV, even Robbie, and for some reason, the LazyTown theme song plays on his television. He changes to Bing Bang, he changes to Sportacus eating, he changes to Pixel. And at the end of it all, he says.. ‘they have their own TV show?!’ and doesn’t he know it.

Robbie decides if they can have their own TV shows, he can too - since he’s handsome, talented and smart. If you’re so smart, try actually coming up with a plan that works. Anyways, he has a mini TV that fits on his arm, and now it’s time for Stephanie’s show. He says he needs a disguise and goes to.. an empty purple box. It makes more sense when you see all his disguises being dropped via a chute.

Colours is performed, and that song really annoys me because mid-way through there is a random cut to Sportacus. I am all for Sportacus scenes, but I’m also all for LazyTown songs. During the song, Robbie steals almost all her Sportscandy, leaving one strawberry. LOL.

Due to that, she cannot make her Sportscandy Rainbow Smoothie (for some reason she keeps on breathing during every word. Sportscandy *sigh* rainbow smoothie.) & Pixel is going to switch to the news so he gets into his Rob R. Robley costume.

When Stephanie turns the camera on (she films and and has her own TV show.. remind you of a blue elf?), Milford doesn’t talk. Pixel tells him to go. He asks, 'Go where?’ 'You’re on!’ 'On where?’ Haha. I love this season. Then Stephanie tells him the camera is on and to start reading the LazyTown Good News - Three butterflies on the sports field, and new flowers. This town would be so peaceful if it wasn’t for Robbie. Speaking of Rob, he shows up with a fan, that blows away his wig and notes.

It’s even funnier when you think that someone who was helping write this episode (I’m guessing Mani) said 'Let’s give Milford a wig purely to blow it off.’ XD! Now, Robley takes his place (Bessie is visibly angry, showing that she doesn’t like him purely to use him).

So he announces a buncha lies - Sports Candy makes you sick and all sports has been outlawed forever. By Pixel’s request, Stephanie switches over to Bessie’s weather show. But Rob takes that pole thingy Bessie’s holding and grabs it so hard she falls.

Rob says 'let’s take a look at the weather’ & signals for Stephanie to pan the camera up. Once she does, he says 'let’s take a look at the weather’ once again. WHY IS THIS FUNNY? WHY IS STEFAN SO FUNNY?? He takes off the birds, suns, clouds & adds a bunch of storm and rain, telling everyone it’s too dangerous to go outside so they must stay inside doing nothing. Now Trixie’s doing her yap show.

She’s supposed to have a guest, but doesn’t then she starts yelling at Pixel about how she needs a guest. Considering the fact he set up an entire TV channel, I think his brain can comprehend it, Loud Girl. Robbie disguises himself as her guest - some apparently famous dude called Purple Legend. Trixie yells at Pixel as he told her they were gonna have interesting guests (PL got steamrolled!), and PL says he eats ice-cream, cookies and candy all day, sleeps till noon, and Trixie says those are both boring. So, PL jumps on the chair out of anger! LOL!!

Trixie says if he’s so interesting, he should do something like sing or juggle or DANCE, and he decides to do some weird Irish leg dance or something. Trixie is laughing. LITERALLY.

PL purposefully bumps into the camera, ending the show since the camera broke. And they switch over to Ziggy & Stingy’s cooking show, but for some reason, Stingy can’t say anything. He tells Ziggy to introduce the show, which he does. They are going to make a castle with apples, and Stingy tells us the ingredients are apples (WOWZA!), 50 of them. Ziggy corrects him by saying fourty-nine since he’s eaten one. But they’re interrupted by Chef Robert, who cancels them both.

And he is making the most delicious food in history of food - the sugar candy chocolate candy ice-cream gooey-ooey yummy cake. The ingredients - 2 bars of chocolate, a ridiculously excessive amount of sugar, and the candy. The worst part is that he doesn’t even take the wrappers off the chocolate bar, or the lollipops off their sticks. Ziggy says it looks delicious but unhealthy.

Robert asks if he’s a chef who went to cooking school wearing a big white hat. The answer is of course, no, and he yells at him to go away. The next step is to put the mix in the fridge, but he steps on an apple he threw on the ground, slips and falls, and now the mix is on his head. Slapstick moment.

Anyways, Steph and Trixie managed to get the camera up and running, and now comes the best of all - Bessie’s puppet show. I’m being sarcastic, this sucks.

(During it, Pixel complains since this is being broadcast worldwide.) Robbie sees the puppet show, and he says 'Puppets, now they’ve gone too far!’ LOL. He decides now he has to stop the TV station once and for all, and he does that.. with a gorilla outfit. And the way he does it? Instead of scaring him into stopping it, he CLIMBS UP PIXEL’S ANTENNA AND SHAKES IT.

The TV’s now all glitchy and stuff, but he shakes too hard and almost falls down. Luckily, Sportacus appears (where ya been dude?) to save the gorilla. Milford is going live with LazyTown Good News. This is sure to make headlines! Milford asks the gorilla what he’s doing up there, and he RESPONDS with 'I’m breaking this antenna forever!’ But when he falls, Sportacus attaches a hook to Pixel’s roof, causing it to open so the gorilla lands in his house. Once he does, the head falls off, and it’s revealed that Robbie was doing all this nonsense instead of .. just.. not watching TV.

It turns out well in the end as Milford tells everyone it’s just Robbie, Sportacus goes back, & Stingy films Steph doing the Bing Bang. No Sportacus power jump unfortunately. In the lair, Robbie is attempting to forget about the day with ice-cream, but a news report about the day is played on the channel.

And he yells. THE END!

8/10 - Great plot, funny dialogue!

208: School Scam (prod 207)

Original airdate: February 13, 2007

Story by Magnus Scheving

Written by Magnus Scheving, Mani Svavarrson, Noah Zachary

Directed by Magnus Scheving, Jonathan Judge

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

Starring Magnus Scheving, Stefan Karl Steffanson, Julianna Rose Mauriello

Puppeteers - Gudmondor Thor Karason, Jodi Eichelberger, David Matthew Feldman, Julie Westwood, Sarah Burgess, Ronald Binion, Emily Decola, Mary Robinette Kowal

I hate learning 123s for quick calculation..

I’ve seen the opening sequence so many times I don’t even need to watch it to type this up - Sportacus makes the first three letters of the alphabet clouds using his skutla, and he says ‘Now that’s how to do the ABCs!’ Maybe it has something to do with the fact a short clip of it is seen in every single one of the last two seasons’ episodes.

Stephanie is finishing off some of her homework when Milford asks what she’s doing at the house, then she asks what he’s doing at the house, and he replies with 'I live here’ - which reminds me why I think Season 2 is the best season, the humour and music. Máni Svavarrson had some kind of role in both of those, one bigger then the other. So Mani, if you see this, you rock! Anyways, Stephanie reminds him he’s the principal of LazyTown School, and he should be ringing the bell and opening the door. So he starts ringing the bell.

Robbie is woken up by the bell and he mistakes it for his phone ringing, so he answers the phone. LOL, then he hears Milford’s voice, hangs up, and asks himself who is ringing it. He goes to check using the periscope and sees Milford, and looks away. He says school is a terrible way to start the day - for once he says something agreeable!

Ziggy is attempting to walk to school, but his backpack is too heavy, and he falls into a wheelbarrow. Meanwhile, Stingy is being a moron. Trixie is carrying all his books when she says it’s his turn to do so, and he asks what more she wants (Considering he’s giving her his property). Stingy and Trixie see Ziggy fly by and Sportacus’ crystal beeps. He flies to LazyTown using the sky bike and flips behind Stingy and Trixie, and asks Trixie for.. a pencil??

And Stingy for.. paper. Stingy rips off the CORNER of his page, expecting Sportacus to use that. Trixie yells at him and he gives Sportacus a bigger one. So Sportacus does some boring calculations.

LazyTown’s too cool to cover MATHS!!! Anyways, he says he’ll save him once he is 5 feet away from the wall, and once he is, he throws a yo-yo, wraps it around a tree, and Trixie tells Ziggy to grab hold of it. He does, and Sportacus gets him off. After thanking him, Ziggy nearly falls down again thanks to how heavy his bag is, and guess what his 'school supplies’ were?

Ziggy is fictional. Ziggy is fictional. Ziggy is fictional. Ziggy is fictional. *deep breaths in and out* Anyways, Sportacus grabs an apple, Ziggy bites it, and he’s energized now. He runs to school so he isn’t late and also because he’s excited as Sportacus said he might check up on him. Robbie is somehow annoyed by this and vows to stop the kids from learning anything so they don’t become like 'Sportanerd’. LOL. But Stephanie does a frontflip in this episode, so uhh..

He decides to become a teacher so the kids learn nothing. He gets into his Professor H. R. Rottennen (what a boring long name) costume. At school, the kids perform I Like Learning. Once they finish, Milford arrives in the school, as well as Rottennen who introduces himself as the new teacher. When Milford asks why they need a new teacher, he yells at Milford - 'NO TALKING IN MY CLASS!’ and he says 'Yes, teacher!’

I love this show. Rottennen pushes Milford out the room. So, the kids starts the lesson.. by sitting in a student’s chair. LOL! The kids have to tell him he’s supposed to sit up at the front. He laughs, and does so. Anyways, now it’s reading time which yet again, the kids have to tell him. And here comes one of the funniest sequences from this show: He tells them to open their books, turn them around, and go to sleep!

I think it’s this shot that just makes me laugh. Because all you can hear is his snoring for 2 seconds. Stingy coughs into a MEGAPHONE to wake him up. Then he wakes up, falls off his chair, stands up, and starts doing karate to.. the air?

I could take this scene, speed it up and caption it with sometihng funny like 'bro thinks he’s bruce lee’ or 'one minute without zaza’, upload it to YouTube and get a million subscribers or something because that’s how advanced humor is nowadays (even though I think my imaginary captions are funny but whatever). Anyways, when he realizes he looks like a weirdo, he says he’s just stretching.

That’s why this show rocks - it teaches you how to live healthy while appealing with amazing music & humor. It’s been eighteen years since this episode was written and the humor still makes people laugh to this day. Anyways, now it’s time for maths (LOL that was like 25 seconds), and they get out their maths books - Thus spawning the incredible quote once again 'Open your books, turn them around, and go to sleep!’ Then they tell him that they’re supposed to be adding and subtracting, and when he’s lost words to say..

The bell comes in handy and the lesson has already ended. I wanna go to LazyTown School! After a while they have their next lesson which is outside. And Robbie tells them to sit down, lean, and go to sleep. LOL. But the kids keep on whining. Luckily, Sportanerd comes to the rescue.

He asks what new things they’re learning and apparently they’ve learned to jump and flip and stuff, but the kids reveal they haven’t learned how to jump the horse, and it takes a while for him to figure out what horse they mean. He attempts to do the jump aaaannnddd..

Oof! Hey Rotten, how are the family jewels? Then he turns upside-down, and falls off the horse. Then he says 'That is how you jump the cow.’ I actually chuckled at that one. Maybe it was Stingy’s response 'a COW?????’ Stephanie asks Sportacus if he can teach the kids new moves. He does a QUADRUPLE backflip off the horse! Anyways, Rottenenn has somehow gone underground and is cutting a hole in the ground.

Once he comes back up, he tells the kids to go back inside and have a snack. When they all leave, he tells Sportacus that he didn’t quite catch the landing of when he jumped off the horse and would like if he could do it again so he can teach the kids how to do so. So he does it again, Rottenenn pulls a lever that came out of nowhere, and mixing some shots from Secret Agent Zero and new ones for this episode, he falls into his trap.

He then goes back to class, snickering until he sees the kids with their science gear and he yells. Gosh, I love this episode. Now it’s time for science. Rottenenn tells them to OPEN THEIR BOOKS, TURN THEM AROUND, LEAN FORWARD, AND GO TO SLEEP. I think this was the funniest because Stephanie has a huge smile on her face until she hears 'turn around’ and looks at Trixie like Trixie’s the camera and she’s the main character in the sitcom. LOL!!!

The kids are now annoyed a lot and they tell him that they want to do science, and he actually listens to them. He starts flicking through some pages, and finds a formula. He starts mixing a few liquids and coincidentally, that’s the exact same formula for..

AN EXPLOSIOOOONNNNNNN!! The liquid starts foaming, and all the kids run out. The only one still in there is Rottenenn. Robbie tries to open the door, but he breaks the handle, as well as Stephanie on the other side. The school explodes, Rottennen has to go to hospital, the end. Not really the end because the crystal beeps and Sportacus attempts to open the trap by getting the horse off it. Stephanie goes to find Sportacus, and she finds out he is trapped.

She tries to move the chair but she cannot since she isn’t strong enough. Sportacus asks if there is Sportscandy nearby & he tells her to do the jump/flip that he did to get the Sportscandy and push the chair. Sure enough, she does it! But in one of the shots she looks like she JUMPED to get the apple.

She takes one bite and pushes the chair. Conveniently, Sportacus jumps onto the chair. Meanwhile, Rottennen has ripped the curtain and tied it to a table and is going to jump out the window, but Sportacus is jumping through the hole on top of the door. When he gets in, he startles Rottennen, causing him to fall out but Sportacus stops the table with his leg.

He asks the kids for help to stop the chemical reaction. Trixie opens up the science book and Pixel figures out the right amounts and liquids to put in - a little bit of the orange, a lot of the red, a liquid par?? of the green one. And whoop-de-doo, the green one is at the end of the table.

It explodes and they don’t have school or a superhero anymore. The end. Well, not really, because here comes one of the coolest parts of the episode - Sportacus lets go of the table, flips across the teacher’s desk, AND GRABS HOLD OF THE TABLE!

In his office, Milford is wondering how the new teacher is going. XD. Anyways, attempting to put just ONE drop of the green liquid inside, the cloth nearly rips, but Sportacus does it! THEN the cloth actually rips, but luckily Sportacus grabs it.

Milford hears the twang of the curtain, asks himself what it was, and despite the fact Rottenenn is literally outside of his window, he ignores it, and thinks it’s nothing. Yes, the school nearly exploding & your 'new teacher’ almost falling to the ground is nothing. Sportacus lifts him up back into the classroom, and his glasses fall off. Sportacus puts the door handle back in place, and opens the door, asking if the kids are okay. Robbie takes his wig off, replying with a firm YES! And now, the disguise is revealed, which is kinda stupid, because how’d he forget the kids were there?

Robbie says he thinks he has some homework to do and leaves the room. The kids thank Sportacus and say they learned something new - Open your books, turn around, STAND UP AND DANCE! They perform Bing Bang. During the song, Milford nods his head, hinting that NOW he hears everything. Robbie attempts the experiment in his lair, saying that it will work this time and it fails.

He says 'Maybe not.’ and he didn’t open any books, turn them around, lean forward (he leaned backwards!) and went to sleep. He’ll feel that when he wakes up!

10/10 - This episode was so exciting and intense and it almost made me want to go to school.