Original airdate: August 17, 2004
Story by Magnus Scheving, Mani Svavarrson
Written by Rocky Garibaldi, Scott Gray, Magnus Scheving
Directed by Rufus Scott Church
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, Heather Asch, David Matthew Feldman, Julie Westwood, Sarah Burgess
Sports Day was the first LazyTown episode the crew worked on after the Lazy Dance. Not directed by Magnus Scheving, but instead Rufus Scott Church, this episode is very different from others with CGI and green screen flaws. Does the plot in fact make up for that?
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| Filming in Feb 2004. That face says pain and only pain. |
The episode begins with Sportacus brushing his teeth, then noticing the date on the calendar (of course, in classic Sportacus fashion, while he’s upside down) and realizing that it’s LazyTown Sports Day, then he rides his airship into town to see what’s going on. This cold open uses a terrible green screen of Sportacus doing the t-pose flip in the opening credits instead of just recording a new one.
Milford is trying to fix the town up to get the kids excited for Sports Day while Bessie is chit chatting on the phone. Nothing new, but it is so extravagating how Bessie does no work at all.. and why in the world does she have TWO PHONES?
Anyways, the LazyTown kids are hanging together outside and Stephanie is reading a book about the history of the town. She reaches a page about Sports Day and everyone says they won’t do it this year because they’re bad. Seems like everyone has forgot the lessons from the past episodes.. AGAIN. God, I hate when this happens.
Luckily for Stephanie, Sportacus has just arrived in the town and has a surprise for everyone - Ziggy guesses it’s chocolate twice, but Sportacus is actually trying to say it’s Sports Day. I don’t know why it’s so funny, but everyone just says “awwww” except Stephanie.
Anyways, nobody comes except Sportacus and Stephanie until Sportacus says that Milford is (well, trying to) fix the town up. Suddenly everyone has a change in character when Pixel says the field is ready for a race. 20 seconds ago you guys were dreading this idea!
Robbie is in his lair, deciding what to wear, declining every single outfit for the one he wears IN EVERY SINGLE EPISODE OF THE SHOW. God, I love the scripts of this show. Cherry on top? He gets a miniature version that couldn’t even fit a doll, BUT IT WORKS.
Anyways, Robbie decides to peep through the hole and look at what the LazyTowners are doing. He sees Bessie.. relaxing and gasps and gags. Very confusing knowing that Robbie is all for being lazy, but then the camera pans and we realize that he is gasping at the gang playing with a ball on the field. So.. weird. Not funny (well, his face kinda is..)
Robbie has his 400th Lazy Idea of the week, which is to buy the field, which in real life would not work unless you had a mayor as bumbling as MAYOR MILFORD MEANSWELL, who unknowingly accepts to the deal, until Sportacus steps in and says that he has to beat him and the gang at sports day. Robbie says that if he does win, that he will make the sports field a pillow stuffing factory, and Sportacus has to leave town. Sportacus handshakes him. See, that’s why I liked him. He was the only one who had guts to speak up. Robbie accepts the deal, and they start training.
Ziggy is put in the job of Sports Candy Supervisor, and his task is to get sportscandy for the gang to power up. Ziggy is the last person I would ever put in this role, so either Sportacus has lots of faith in his friends - or sometimes he is just plain stupid.
Anyways, the kids start exercising, running around. Pixel is doing pushups, Trixie is doing handstands, Stephanie is trying to stretch (and failing, which is totally out of character), and Ziggy is using giant lollipops at barbells. At least he’s doing something. Stingy is doing sit ups, and he can’t do them for his LIFE, unless you shake money or his piggy bank around his face. Robbie is being lazy in his lair, and of course, making gadgets for the race. For the man that made the deal, he really is not taking it seriously. Stingy is being the jerk he is and refusing to give anyone the baton in practice, and they (the puppets) all chase him as fast as they can, which might have been the only workout they did.
So anyways, Pixel is spouting data about how bad they were (shut up, french fry hair boy) and Ziggy brings out sportscandy (gummy people that Ziggy makes run, jump and spin into the mouth), but Sportacus says they need REAL energy. So instead of climbing up to get an apple from a tree, instead he decides to cartwheel and flip to the tree, then whacks it to make it fall down. Effective, but.. well.. it’s cool, too. I ain’t complainin.
Sportacus gives Stephanie an apple, then he does a spinning flip in the air. Why? He has more apples in his backpack. (It could have taken much more shorter to just.. hand everyone the apples..) Then they perform “Energy” while Robbie is watching. He scolds Sportacus for thinking he can win by eating fruits, then he yells one of the 2: “THAT’S DISGUSTING!!” or “IT’S DISGUISE TIME!”. If anyone can buy the script from Mark Valenti on eBay (no, seriously, he’s selling about 30 scripts from Season 1) and tell me what it says, deeply appreciated.
Pixel asks Sportacus if he’s ever eaten sugar before, and Sportacus tells him the whole story - he ate too much sugar, all his energy drained and he fell to the floor. That’s why he doesn’t eat it anymore. TLDR - Sugar gives Sportacus diabetes. I know this show is crazy on the health aspect, but that’s actually ridiculous even for Sportacus.
However, Robbie is in his classic mailbox costume, spying on them when Ziggy is told to get more apples. Ziggy tries to climb the apple tree, but he can’t reach it. His solution? A sugar apple that Robbie whipped up with Rotten Candy Faker Maker 4000. Robbie puts it on a fishrod and hits Ziggy on the head with it. Ziggy believes it is magic and he HAS to take the apple. Personally, I WOULDN’T take a floating apple.. but, Nickelodeon, man.
Anyways, Sports Day starts with a race between Robbie and Sportacus (Robbie starts two seconds earlier.. and loses in the end anyways). Mid-way, Ziggy gives Sportacus the apple, and he takes a bite and flops his way to a bench. Oh, no, he’s dead.
Stephanie gives Ziggy the baton and Robbie is now on the biking section of the race. Trixie is doing the scooter section, and everyone is kinda mad at Ziggy until Pixel finds out the apple came from Robbie’s gadget. If you ask me, I don’t think they should’ve been mad to begin with. Ziggy’s too nice to give Sportacus a sugar apple.
They give Sportacus a bite of the real apple, he wakes up ready for the baton and biking and rides over Robbie who has been taking a power nap. Stephanie gives him the skateboard, he jumps onto it and basically flies with it. Awesome! He wins the race. Robbie doesn’t see it and puts HIS ride onto power mode and crashes into an apple tree. Sportacus gets to stay in LazyTown, and they all sing the Bing Bang song. The end.
There are so many things wrong with this episode it’s aggravating. Horrible green screens, montage music that sounds like it wasn’t composed by Mani out of character dialogue, a mediocre song and once again, an absent Robbie ending. WHY?!
Good plot, but a very weak episode.
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