118: Record's Day (prod 131)

 

Original airdate: June 9, 2005

Story by Magnus Scheving

Written by Noah Zachary, Cole Louie, Magnus Scheving

Directed by Magnus Scheving, 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 - Ronald Binion, Gudmondor Thor Karason, Jodi Eichelberger, David Matthew Feldman, Julie Westwood, Sarah Burgess

Twas a time in history where this was my favourite LazyTown episode in history. I loved the plot, the song, the climax, and I liked the quality of production. This was the thirty first out of thirty five episodes of the first season of LazyTown to be filmed.

The episode begins with a recycled cold open from ‘My Treehouse’. I guess it was recycled because Sportacus set a record of how fast he could get into the skutla (twelve seconds).

In the lair, Robbie is being awarded the Laziest Person award by Milford and Sportacus. Sportacus is giving him the crown on an orange fluffy pillow, bowing down, praising Robbie, asking for an autograph and Milford is talking about how Robbie has always been his favourite. This sequence is just so funny writing-wise, not to mention Magnus’ acting! Only one minute in and you can see why I love this episode.

However, it turns out to be a dream and the crown on his head is his underwear. He screams at the sight of his red heart boxers. LOL! The only thing that’s real is him grasping the LazyTown Book of Records in his arms. So he opens the book up and Sportacus has won every record - Fastest Run, Highest Jump, Most Races Won, Most Flips, Longest Throw, Most Energy, you name it and he’s won it! Except Laziest Person. Robbie declares that award his. Also, has anybody noticed the descriptions for the records are just Lorem Ipsum text?

So Robbie decides to set that record, but outside, where Milford can see it. Speaking of Milford, he is bringing Bessie a cup of fruit juice and asks if she needs anything else a buncha times and only stops when Bessie yells at him. (The kids ask Robbie what he’s doing and he tells them about Record Day, then they ask Milford to do it again but Bessie is against it because things were getting broken by balls. They promised not to break anything this time and they go to tell the others.

While the kids are walking to tell the others, Robbie tells them to be quiet and Trixie tells him that they’re setting their own records and he gets super mad. I don’t blame him either. Trixie is going to throw a ring through a.. life ring and set a record, Ziggy is gonna set a world record in ping pong until Stingy takes his idea so he does a record in golf, Pixel is gonna set a world record in video soccer (isn’t the whole point to be active..?) and Stephanie is gonna hit a baseball as far as she can, but when they try, they fail miserably.

Sportacus sees their failure, and he rides to LazyTown to help them. The sound of the airship wakes up Robbie. Sportacus asks the kids what’s wrong and Stephanie tells him everything. So he says that they should do a team record, but they need some energy. Stephanie goes under a tree and Sportacus does the flying kick from Defeeted - a ball hits the tree and an apple falls into Stephanie’s hand. Then they perform Energy, but with some different clips. This is personally my favourite version of the song.

During the song, Stephanie kicks a ball and it almost flies through Milford’s open window, but luckily Sportacus does a flying dive to catch it. The song ends and Milford asks to play, but he kicks the ball flying to Bessie’s flowerpot. They can’t play soccer anymore and Robbie fake cries. LOL!!

Then Milford has to bring Bessie the LAZY ● TOWN NEWS which has a very captivating headline - 'MAYOR MEANSWELL SNORES TO LOUD’. Anyways, the kids decide to set a baseball record but Robbie has a ridiculously smart plan to catch one of their balls, break something with it, and blame it on them. He tries the plan, and what do you know?

It makes a hole in Bessie’s copy of LAZY ● TOWN NEWS which she has been reading since My Treehouse, apparently and she declares that they can’t play with balls anymore. Who in the world voted HER for mayor? Not me that’s for sure. LazyTown’d turn into FashionTown. While Milford is a good character, Bessie takes advantage of him too much times in this show and never stands up for himself.

So the kids are super sad, but then they have the genius idea to ask Sportacus for help. But Robbie isn’t having it. So he grabs a soccer ballsack and tries out the newest gadget he has - a soccer ball launcher. Stephanie sends Sportacus a letter to say that they want him there.

You can see his visible happiness when he finds out the kids want him. So he decides to use the Sky Chaser (I always found the Sky Chaser epic, but not as epic as the skutla), but Robbie’s flying soccer balls almost hit Sportacus and he dodges them all. A ball flies into the airship and hits the steering wheel, and the airship starts turning.

While Sportacus is looking at the airship, a ball hits him in the head. He dodges every ball coming his way, and as Bessie says, 'saves himself’ by going back to the ship. As he tries to go back to the ship, a ball hits him in the chest and he grabs onto the platform.

How some people can watch this episode, see Robbie almost kill Sportacus because he wants to set a world record and still ship them or have Robbie as their favourite character is just BEYOND me. Then a ball hits him in the hand, and he’s hanging on with ONE HAND!! Two wouldn’t work for me. Sportacus is so epic! Sportacus grabs an apple he kept in his shirt, then a ball hits his hand and lands on Robbie’s head. He tells him to 'WATCH IT!!’

Excuse me, but he is hanging from a platform thousands of feet in the air. He can’t hear you and even if he did he wouldn’t give two f- fuji apples. Anyways, the kids finally decide they have to get him some Sports Candy. In positions. Ziggy has a golf club and is below the apple tree. Stephanie has a bat and is on the baseball court. Trixie is on the sports field with a ring. Stingy is in the treehouse with a ping pong paddle. Trixie hits a box full of soccer balls and it opens. Milford kicks it as hard as he can. BAM! I’d purposefully just hit Robbie with the ball (what type of ball..??)

Pixel hits the soccer ball with his head (which is how he scored the winning goal in Soccer Sucker - oops. Spoiler alert! Eh, screw you, the production team already spoiled it themselves in Dear Diary and you had no problem with that. IT’S CAUSE I’M BLACK!!!!) and it hits the tree. The apple falls on the ground and Ziggy hits it with the golf club to Stingy’s ping pong paddle.

Also, it might just be me, but Stingy moving his eyes is totally unnerving. Stephanie hits the apple with her baseball bat as hard as she can and Sportacus catches it! I’m just surprised eight year olds thought this up, because Milford definitely didn’t. So, Sportacus takes ONE single bite of the apple and suddenly has enough energy to climb up the platform and Stingy is laughing happily, like a maniac. So, another ball flies into the ship and hits a lever. The inbrake has released and the airship is moving! Sportacus hits a flying ball like Bruce Lee (Cheng Zhen) delivered his punches in 'Fist of Fury’. and the platform is up, and plays a recycled scene from 'Dr. Rottenstein’. It might be reused, but I enjoyed watching it in this episode more then that one. It’s like how drinking water makes the rest of the day calmer. Watching the prior scene just made the ending of the climax cooler.

While Robbie is leaving to the lair, Sportacus leaves the airship and tells them they were fantastic. They actually were. Sportacus, I can’t believe YOU, a superhero who lives thousands of feet in the air had to be saved by some eight year old puppets. Eh, you’re still my favourite. Milford tells them all that they’ve set a new record for the world’s longest team flying disc soccer golf ping pong apple relay. They all sing Bing Bang to celebrate. Then Robbie trips and sits on the soccer launcher.

He is launched into his lair and he lands on his orange fluffy chair (wasn’t it outside the entire episode…???) and sends it flying back to the lair. He then says that MUST have been some type of record. LOL!!

10/10. It has been years since I watched it and I still love it the same!!

 

117: Zap It! (prod 107)

 

Filming in April 2004. How did Robbie lose to a puppet???

Original airdate: June 8, 2005

Story by Matthew Donlan, Martin Cartlon, Magnus Scheving

Written by Noah Zachary, Cole Louie, Magnus Scheving

Directed by Steve Feldman, 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 - Ronald Binion, Gudmondor Thor Karason, Jodi Eichelberger, David Matthew Feldman, Julie Westwood, Amanda Maddock

Zap It. I hardly remember anything about this episode.

EDIT: So I just lost two hours work of my post.. so I am redoing it.. very short way. I apologize. I promise you that the next review will definitely be in proper form.

So Sportacus cleans his bed with a hockey stick and roller skates which makes me think I'd like cleaning my room if I did that too, Milford trips over Stephanie's skateboard, and asks if she can clean it later. Steph likes dancing, asks to do stuff later and owns a journal, just like me.

Milford says yes, they play a video game, Steph tries to leave but Pixel makes gagdet to get rid of stuff, they do it to Steph's room, Ziggy drowns in his candy pile looking for chocolate, Sportacus saves him and they demonstrate the Zapper 6000 to Ziggy, Robbie is eavesdropping and takes the remote control while they play video games while singing Gizmo Guy then Ziggy spills the soda that Pixel made disappear and Milford trips over the invisible mess that Stephanie left in her room. Robbie zaps Sportacus in a little kid costume, blah blah, Sportacus is invisible now, he gets the Zapper back, the town is restored to normal, the episode ends with Robbie's underpants getting zapped, the end.

6/10

I need to start writing reviews somewhere else. Maybe I should copy and paste them to Tumblr ? Normal review of 'Records Day' coming soon.

 

116: Dear Diary (prod 118)

 

Filming in July 2004. It looks like the puppeteers are putting their hands into the puppets' b-

Original airdate: June 7, 2005

Story by Hanna Maja

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

The first season of LazyTown was ordered 40 episodes, but the producers met their deadline and only produced 35. Thus being why there are four clip shows in this seasons - and I remember not being very fond of this one.

The episode begins with a recycled cold open from the episode before this - The Laziest Town. Only the banana scene plays and we get a new shot of the peel falling onto the ping pong ball, but couldn’t they have just filmed a new one or just recycled from an even OLDER episode? Taking it from the previous one is just.. Lazy in LazyTown.

Stephanie is in her room with her diary and Milford has messed up the laundry - his pants shrunk & one of his socks are pink. He offers to give it to her, but she is writing in her diary about everything that happens in LazyTown and she shows Milford a page about the first day she was in town (Welcome to LazyTown).

Then a page about when Milford spilled Bessie’s drink and when he nearly fell from the ladder (Sportafake), and then when they played against the Soccer Bot (Soccer Sucker). That scene just grinds my gears, spoilers! Soccer Sucker is the TWENTY FOURTH episode of LazyTown. THIS IS THE SIXTEENTH.

Milford asks about how Stephanie has time to write in her diary (she looks at the clock, durr) because she’s full of energy, and then she remembers the time they sang a song about it (Sports Day). Meanwhile, Robbie is eavesdropping on Stingy and Trixie fighting over a basketball.

Stephanie pops up and they stop talking to each other. Trixie asks Stephanie to prove that Stingy says everything is his a lot - like the time he said the seesaw was his (Welcome to LazyTown), the time he said the ladder was his (Sportafake), the time he said Ziggy’s candy maker was his (Happy Brush Day) and the song he made about it (It’s Mine!) which is genuinely amazing. Not because of the memes or anything. Then they mock the song and Stingy says that it’s his song (which he’s right, but the thing is they changed up the lyrics to ‘absolutely definitely mine’)

Stephanie says she writes everything good in her diary, and then she flips to a page with the song 'Step by Step’ (Hero for a Day) and when they built the treehouse. So 75% of this episode is recycled footage and shots. How annoying. So they go to a bench and decide to do some cartwheeling with music. Stephanie goes to get the boombox and Trixie says 'Oh, well I guess I’ll just stay here, okay’. It wasn’t really that funny, but the way 'Ok’ is said really topped it off. LOLZ.

Robbie wants to stop this icky friendness (Stefan Karl himself said deep down Robbie wants some friends) so he gets a pink piece of paper that was coincidentally next to him that he didn’t have at all before this scene and writes the following words- 'DEAR DIARY. MY WORST FRIEND IS TRIXIE MY SECOND WORST FRIEND IS PIXEL MY 3.RD WORST FRIEND IS ZIGGY AND MY 4.TH WORST FRIEND IS PIXEL’. He puts the slip of paper on the bench and Trixie reads it.

It’s funny because even a blind person could tell that’s not Stephanie’s cursive handwriting.. It’s not even in cursive. Not to mention, no idiot actually writes secrets in a diary. It’s not like the book has a high tech security system. The plan succeeds and Trixie reads it to everyone. Ziggy is pumped when Trixie says Ziggy is her 3rd favourite and starts bragging. LOL!!

Anyways, they all are super mad at her and Stephanie is sulking in her bedroom. Meanwhile Milford has washed his shirt and turned the letters on it upside down (how do you even do that..??).

He says he will use it when he will stand on his head (kinda funny) but Stephanie is too sad to respond. He asks what is wrong and Stephanie says Trixie is being mean to her for no reason (she does have a reason, so Stephanie is WRONG!!).

The above screenshot makes me realize that Stephanie’s eyelashes look really stupid. She’s obviously got her eyes open, but you can’t see them because of the stupid eyelashes. It looks like she’s crying black tears - 'Loud House’ style. Anyways, Milford’s advice is to ask her other friends what’s going on and Stephanie says Milford is the best. Maybe not in laundry, but, eh.

So Stephanie walks in Pixel’s house and they all shuffle to the other side of his couch and everyone is avoiding face contact and nobody’ll talk to her. She is pissed and walks off 'angry-black-mom’ style. I don’t blame her.

An instrumental version of 'Have you Never Been Sad’ plays over clips of Stephanie walking slowly and sadly. I nearly got teary eyed myself, but Sportacus came to the rescue. Enough crying. I need to see his backflips.

Stephanie tells the whole story to Sportacus and how she gives up on the whole thing. Sportacus then comes back with her own argument - Always a Way (Defeeted). After the song finishes, Sportacus goes to Pixel’s house to see what’s wrong and they say that she said mean things about them all. Then Stingy shows Sportacus the note.

But he doesn’t believe Stephanie wrote it (more proof for my headcanon Stephanie is Sporty’s favourite of the childs). He tells them to go talk to Stephanie about it, and Stephanie says she didn’t do it while Robbie is watching.

Her first piece of proof - her diary paper is white. Her second piece of proof - she only writes nice stuff - e.g. Stingy returning Sportacus’ crystal (The Great Crystal Caper), Pixel making the treehouse blueprint, when Ziggy worked out with Sportacus (Super Hero for a Day), and when Trixie saved her (Lazy Scouts). She should be a lawyer. While they are all hugging, Robbie snatches the diary again.

Except, this time, he is gonna write bad stuff about Sportacus ('Sportacus is SO annoying!’) But he gets distracted by a page Stephanie has written about him. She has written the following: 'Robbie really likes cake (Swiped Sweets). Sometimes he does funny stuff (falling in Welcome to LazyTown). Other times, he just wants to relax (Super Hero for a Day). But mostly, I think he’s a big softie.’ What a kind soul. Meanwhile, the kids notice it is lost and start looking for it. Robbie proves the 'softie’ statement by giving the diary back.

Robbie is curious as if she is gonna write about him and he puts his finger in the diary. Then she closes it and Robbie just says he’s curious. Aw, man, I feel bad for him. He did something nice then right after it Stephanie thinks he’s gonna snoop. ): To answer the question, Stephanie writes the following: 'Robbie Rotten can be super sneaky. One time he’. Then Bing Bang plays - a montage of scenes from the past 15 episodes in a 'sitcom finale’ style. (This is recycled for 'Greatest Hits’.) Maybe this would’ve fit better as the finale of Season 1 over Sportacus on the Move! The episode ends with Stephanie closing her diary on a page that says 'Living in Lazytown is great! Living in Lazytown is great! Living in Lazytown is great! Living in Lazytown is great!’ No joke.

This is one of those episodes that become better once you watch it more. Kinda like with some Sports Candy.

6.75/10

 

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.

10/10