Muzak

Thursday, August 1, 2024

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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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).

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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).

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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.

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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.

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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!!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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(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.

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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.

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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.

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And he yells. THE END!

8/10 - Great plot, funny dialogue!