The Sound
and the Furry
1½ out of 5 Krakatoa Specials
Summary
A shady female mechanic/con artist preys upon unsuspecting pilots in various
ports. With her carnivorous pet
crocodile, Al, and the unwilling help of four little furry gremlins, she
sabotages their airplanes and then charges outrageous fees to fix them.
She then takes the money and runs --- usually with an angry mob in full
pursuit.
In the opener, “Crazy” Edie is
busy bamboozling a skinny bear pilot in her usual fashion, saying, “…Now
you’re lucky that your atmospheric flapdoodle ain’t busted up.
‘Cause we’d be talking serious cash, buddy.”
Suddenly, she points behind him.
“Look! Cleanser’s
Comet!” When he looks up, she
slips the gremlins into the engine, hits a tuning fork, activating a shock to
the electric collars of four gerbil-like creatures.
They freak out and dismantle the engine. “Aw, silly me.
Just the old moon!”
When some engine part lands on the ground, Edie laments,
“Well, I’ll be dipped --- your flapdoodle!”
Gidget:
That had me on the floor!
Cody:
*snickers*
The victim leans over to examine it; she then picks his
pocket, jumps into her helicopter and scrams out of there, just barely escaping
a torch-bearing mob of angry victims.
Next stop:
The gremlins are kept in a glass aquarium, just overhead
while Al is making coffee for Edie. He
accidentally hits the switch, opening the hatch and releasing the tank.
It drops into the ocean, floating until it reaches Wildcat, who is fixing
the Duck’s engine.
“Hey, a lobster tank!”
He lets them out and they push the prison overboard.
It’s love at first sight and he has new pets:
Stanley, Frankie, Maxine, and Homer.
When struggling with his wrench to fix a stubborn part of the engine, he
loses his grip and accidentally sets off their collars.
They dive in and rip it out.
The lion mechanic is impressed. “You guys are the nicest
lobsters I ever met and the strongest too!”
Baloo comes in to remind him that it’s time to go.
“And it’s warm out. You
won’t need the hat.”
Wildcat: “But
I’m not wearing a hat.”
Baloo groans and leaves.
“Come on, Wildcat --- time ta ace that air show!”
Unfortunately, Edie and Al have been watching and waiting for their
chance, and snatch the little furballs again.
“Howdy, boys! Miss
me?”
Then she gets an idea.
Gidget: A
wonderful, terrible idea! (Grinch ref.)
Next stop: The
air show.
Edie is practically rubbing her hands with glee.
“We’re gonna clean up here, Al.”
Nearby, Baloo says smugly to Wildcat, “Yessirree, you and
me are gonna clean up here!” Telling him to check the engine again, Baloo
leaves, and Wildcat bumps into Edie, who is busy slipping one of the creatures
into one of the contestant’s planes.
He asks, “Who are you?”
“The Queen of
Sheba.”
“Really? I
never met a real queen before.”
She winks. “Gotta
go, buddy. Drop by the palace
sometime!”
Tries to warn Edie that Maxine is in one of the
contestants’ planes. “Maxine’s
in there!”
Edie: “Of
course she is. She’s part of the
show, see?”
Wildcat: “Now
why didn’t Maxine tell me she was in show business?”
She lures him into a metal shed (and unknowingly, Homer too),
locking it. “Your friends are
waitin’ for ya.”
Systematically, she sabotages each plane, but before she can
reach the Sea Duck, Baloo is off and running, knocking the crates in the air,
juggling and tossing them into the cargo hold.
Like his skill with paper airplanes (Feminine Air), he has surprising
style.
Announcer:
“That’s a personal best for Baloo!”
Edie hits the tuning fork, trying to sabotage the Duck, but is still in radius to the shed. Homer’s collar is zapped and he’s shocked into taking the shed apart, and the walls fall down.
Wildcat:
“Pretty strong for a little guy, aren’t ya?”
Baloo flies the Duck through the obstacle course and wins.
“I won! I bet
they carry me on their shoulders!”
Gidget:
Boy, his ego is bigger than his stomach.
This isn’t football, you know. And
why would your competitors cheer for you?
Cody:
Like you said, his ego’s bigger than his stomach.
The other pilots suspect Baloo and Wildcat of wrecking their
planes.
Hippo pilot: “Didn’t
Baloo say something about a ‘secret weapon’?
Winged goggle pilot: “Yeah…
and his mechanic was snoopin’ around my engine!”
Baloo approaches them triumphantly.
“Hey, guys, whaddaya say?”
“Tar and feather him! Tar
and feather him! Tar and feather
him!”
Suddenly realizing that he won’t get his piggyback ride
after all, Baloo turns and tries to run the other way.
“I’ve heard of sore losers, but this is ridiculous!”
They catch him, but since there’s no tar or feathers, only
airplane grease and utensils, they start chanting, “Grease and spoon him!
Grease and spoon him!” and cover the poor bear with grease and spoons.
Baloo: “All
right, ya happy now?”
“No. Not until
we wreck your plane!”
“No!
Not my baby!!”
Baloo screams.
Wildcat and Homer enter the fray.
“This is Homer and he says all the other lobsters are in
trouble.”
The pilots are about to turn on him too. “Grease me up,
boys!”
Just in time, Homer jumps out of Wildcat’s pocket and
begins to frantically pantomime what happened.
First he staggers around with his arms out, like a zombie:
Winged goggle guy: “The
son of Franken---!”
Hippo pilot: “My
mother-in-law!”
Wildcat: The
Queen of Sheba!”
More charades, and it becomes clear, sort of.
Wildcat cries, “The Queen of Sheba wrecked your planes!”
Hippo pilot: “Now
why would the Queen of Sheba want to do that?”
Gidget: LOL!!
Homer pretends to steal a pilot’s wallet and Wildcat adds,
“She’s a thief!”
They recall that Edie hasn’t fixed any planes, and tell
Baloo, “Okay, Baloo, we’ll lay off your plane until you’re
proven guilty.”
Baloo
gives a sigh of relief. “Whew!”
Meanwhile, Edie is frantically
searching for her ‘help’ and flushes them out by striking the tuning fork.
Homer promptly takes the Sea Duck apart.
Unfortunately, this gives away her hiding place and the pilots give
chase, but she reaches her helicopter and takes off with the critters.
Al tries to race Wildcat (who hijacks an ice cream cart) to the end of
the landing strip, but is left behind. Wildcat
pedals so fast that he remains miraculously airborne until he can hop aboard.
In
the cockpit, Edie smugly cuts her losses. “Well, I’m short one gator, but I
still got my help!”
“Nuh-uh,
Queenie!” Wildcat reveals himself.
Gidget:
Pervert.
They struggle in the cargo hold, and
the craft goes out of control. When
Wildcat tries to reach the tank of critters hanging from the ceiling, Edie
climbs on him, accidentally tickling him under the armpits.
She loses her grip and falls on the tuning fork in her pocket,
accidentally setting off the collars. Stanley,
Frankie, Maxine and Homer all explode into action and tear the joint apart.
Edie
shrieks, “Traitors! Turncoats!
You’re all fired!”
She
grabs a parachute and thinks the helicopter and its occupants are doomed. But
Wildcat tells the critters to join paws and they manage to slow down their
descent until they land on top of Edie’s parachute.
“Hey you! Get
off my cloud!”
Gidget:
Wasn’t that a song by the Rolling Stones?
She yells at Wildcat, “You still gotta catch me, chump!”
before noticing to her horror that she landed back on the airfield.
Baloo and the boys are waiting for her with grease and
spoons. “Nice of ya to drop in.”
“Well, I’ll be dipped!”
Which she is.
Baloo adds snidely, “And
spooned!”
Gidget
(gets creepy visual): Good-night,
everybody!
In the end, Baloo and Wildcat fly the
critters back to the bayou and set them free.
Wildcat promises to visit.
Baloo
says, “Well, it looks like ya made some new friends, Wildcat.
I know you’re gonna miss ‘em.”
Gidget (sniffs):
First nice thing he’s said to him in this episode.
Wildcat
shrugs. “Yeah, but it’s a good
thing they’re not staying with us after all.”
“How’s that?”
“You know how hard it is to find lobster food?”
Baloo groans and they go home.
Quibbles and Bits
-The way it wobbles around the sky in a crazy, unwieldy pattern, Edie’s
helicopter looks extremely unsafe. I
guess she won’t fix her own aircraft either.
-Edie stupidly has the two switches for ‘Coffee’ and
‘Hatch’ next to each other on the same panel, which is why Al keeps losing
the ‘critters’.
-For someone who’s supposed to be inconspicuous, Edie does
her sneaky work on the airfield in pink polka-dot clothes.
Where does she shop --- Clowns ‘R’ Us?
Gidget: Baloo
is such a jerk to Wildcat in this episode. Ordering
him around and insulting him, I mean really! In fact, everyone
is mean to poor Wildcat! Contestant
No. 1 (goofy looking guy with a winged helmet and googles) snarls, “Outta my
way. That’s my cue.”
He even picks him up and setting him down a few feet away.
The pilots are mean to him.
Cody:
I didn’t think that was mean when the pilot thought Wildcat was
screwing around with his engine. It
was more a warning and at least he got Wildcat out of the way so the props
didn’t shred him.
Gidget:
I didn’t see that --- I was too offended by his tone.
Yeah, if someone screamed at me to ‘Get out of the way, stupid!’,
I’d be too angry to recognize it as a warning.
Come to think of it, that would be a good murder method, wouldn’t it?
The victim would be too offended to heed a cleverly worded ‘warning’.
:D
-That obstacle course is incredibly dangerous --- Baloo flies
into a cavelike tunnel, where a pig baker and a gunman are firing cream pies at
him, sliming his windshield. Gigantic
searchlights (like in prison break movies) blind him.
Then he has to fly through boiling lava, down a waterfall, then plunge
the plane undersea to bypass a mechanical octopus.
Cody:
And since when do planes double as submarines?
-After being greased and spooned, Baloo is trying to protect
his plane from the angry pilots. During
his ‘trial’, when Homer is ‘explaining’ to the other pilots about Edie,
Baloo is clean. Then, when they
promise to lay off his plane until he’s proven guilty, he’s again covered in
grease when he says, “Whew!”
-When Homer sabotages the Duck, Baloo yells, “My baby!
My baby!” He and Wildcat
see why the planes have fallen apart (Homer’s collar was triggered), and Baloo
smiles for some weird reason.
Neat Little
Details
-Billie Hayes (Crazy Edie) was a
character actress on children’s programs, including the 1970’s Sigmund and
the Sea Monsters as Witchipoo. And
Mrs. Half-Nelson in “Bringing Down Babyface”, of course.
Edie
reminds me of Madame Medusa of 1977’s The
Rescuers. Both are loud,
shrieking harpies. Both are con
artists. Both have crocodiles for
pets and terrorizes their small victims into slave labor.
-Doesn’t Maxine remind you of CDRR’s Gadget, albeit without clothing?
Long blonde hair, blue eyeshadow and mechanically capable.
And a pink collar.
Cody:
She does! Even the hairstyle
is the same!
Gidget
(as Disney artist): Hey guys,
where’s the Gadget spec sheet? I
need to trace something!
Contestants:
1 – Winged helmet guy pushes Wildcat around
2 – Some nameless nobody
3 – Hippo pilot who appears in several other eps without
dialogue. Here, he does speak, and
he’s very unpleasant. We also find
out he’s married.
4 – Wiley Pole (no dialogue, but he’s a jerk, as usual.
Notice how he follows mob mentality when it’s time to grease and spoon
Baloo!
Gidget (as Baloo):
“Hey,
I ain’t that kinda bear!”
5 – Baloo
Baloo: “Heh-heh…
just savin’ the best for last!”
“The guys
are in trouble?”
Wildcat’s attempts to understand the squeaky twitterings of Homer the gremlin remind me of Lassie barking to humans that ‘Timmy’s in trouble? You mean he’s trapped in the mineshaft without food or water? In the dark? Quick, take us to him!”
Cody:
It was silly.
The obstacle dude controlling the lava temperature sits
reading ‘Ka-Boom!’ magazine, and lazily reaches over to turn the dial from Off/On/Hot/Boil/BlowTop.
Notice how similar the endings of this ep and Paradise
Lost (dinosaur episode) are. In
both, Baloo is comforting Wildcat when he has to bid his animal friends goodbye.
And also, Henry (the shrinking creature that Molly adopts in Mommy
for a Day) and the gremlins in this ep are all from a bayou.
Wonder if it’s the same place. And
again, a sappy goodbye scene when Molly bids Henry adieu.
Funny Stuff
Edie: Al, hurry up!
you know how cranky I get without my mornin’ coffee!”
Gidget:
The sight of an ugly lizard in a frilly apron making coffee had me on the
floor. Reminds me of Goof Troop’s
Pete running all over the house in an apron frantically cleaning up before his
wife Peg comes home. And he wears
bunny slippers!
Cody:
I know! Seeing that ‘pet’
running around, fixing coffee in a frilly apron had me in stitches.
-A guilty Al pretends that the mishap
didn’t happen by hitting the coffee switch after the gremlins are dropped from
the hatch.
The critters ‘hide’ by curling up
on top of Wildcat’s head, disguised as a hat.
When
Edie is exposed:
Hippo pilot: “She’s
got my money!”
Wildcat: “And
my lobsters!”
Gidget: That
must hurt.
Cody:
(as Wildcat) Naw, only when she squeezes them.
LOL! And lobster guts come spurting out!
Quotes
Baloo
We are greeted with the scary sight of Baloo’s bulbous posterior as he
bends over rooting through the fridge for a sandwich.
Cody:
And millions of villagers scream in terror…
Gidget:
LOL! Well, as Hillary Clinton would say, it does
take a village… to fill up ol’ Papa Bear.
;-) I started working on the
‘Gruel’ review soon afterward, and again, Baloo’s opening scene treats us
to yet another unobstructed view his
big butt as he raids the fridge.
Cody: *groans* I’d managed to block out that horror. Thanks so much for bringing it back.
Gidget: I do what I can.
Baloo: “I better eat somethin’
light to settle my stomach.” (A
huge hero sandwich)
“Hey,
man can’t live on food alone.”
When his back is turned, the critters
steal his sandwich (for Wildcat). Baloo
is surprised to find it gone. “Huh…
it’s the strain of worryin’, that’s what it is!”
Wildcat: “Good thing I double-checked, Baloo. There was a lobster in the engine.”
Baloo:
“A furry lobster, huh?”
Wildcat: Yup.”
Baloo: Good thing you wore the hat. I think you’ve been gettin’ too much sun.”
Cody:
I like it when they’re about to grease and spoon Baloo’s plane,
Wildcat interrupts the mob, and Baloo says, “Don’t harm him!
He’s crazy!”
Wedges a wrench into Al’s jaws,
holding it open. “Chew on that
awhile, crocodile!”
“Crazy”
Edie
“Well, I’ll be dipped!”
Gidget:
It’s your flapdoodle!
“Al!
Quit tryin’ to eat the help!”
“If
Crazy Edie can’t fix it, it ain’t broke.
But it’ll cost you.”
Wildcat
Naming his new pets: “I like Homer, ‘cause it rhymes with ‘wrench’.”
“I must be a quart low on my elbow grease.”
Cody:
My favorite line was when Wildcat first sees Edie and Homer dives into
his pocket. Wildcat looks down and
says, “What’s the matter Homer? You
takin’ a leak or something?”
GIdget:
OMG!! No way! Now I have to
listen to that again! LOL!!
Cody: I
know! I couldn’t believe it,
either! I did a doubletake and had
to rewind it four or five times just to make sure I’d heard what I thought
I’d heard!
When locked in the shed:
“Homer, not only are we alone, but we can’t see Maxine’s show!”
Wildcat removes the hated collars and frees the little
furballs.
“No more ring around the collar!”
Commentary
Gidget: I give this sorry,
charmless episode 1½ Krackatoa Specials.
Cody:
*snores*
Gidget:
*starts to snore too, then shakes herself awake* Ahem. Wildcat is the
only reason to watch, because he’s his sweet self and holds his head high,
despite being surrounded by cretins, including Baloo.
As usual, he saves the day with unconventional ingenuity.
I can’t stand any of the other characters --- they’re mean and go
into ‘angry mob mode’ at the drop of a hat.
Everyone abuses poor Wildcat here. The
pilots are dillholes and Crazy Edie, despite being mildly entertaining, thanks
to the late Billie Hayes, is a one-note villain. And
Baloo, true to form, has no compunction about bullying unattractive females
(like Waiders of the Wost Tweasure).
Notice that it’s his hands throwing the grease on Edie.
“Let’s grease and spoon her!”
Cody:
Unh.
Since you pushed me into it, my rating for this would be 1 Krackatoa.
It’s as silly and unappealing as The
Incredible Shrinking Molly and Flight
of the Snow Duck. At least they
had a legit reason for going after Edie ---she robbed ‘em!
She shoulda been grateful it wasn’t boiling hot.