Maple Town Episode 3
English Dub Title: Box Go Boom (Alternate title - the Silver Spoons)
Japanese Title: "Kie ta gin nosaji" (消えた銀のさじ)
Spanish Dub Title: Las Cucharillas Magicas
This episode focuses on Bobby Bear and his family. Bobby is the deuteragonist of Maple Town and a native of the town as opposed to Patty, newly moved to Maple Town.
We start out at Patty Rabbit's house. She wants to go out with her father on his mail route but her mother intervenes; she orders Patty to finish eating breakfast. We then cut to the general store of Maple Town, operated by the Bear family. Mrs. Bear is berating her son Bobby for trying to run out on his responsibilities. She reminds him that he has to polish silver spoons arriving today and to take care of his three younger brothers. It just so happens that Bobby has tied up his brothers inside a large sack and in their struggle to get free, end up wrecking the store.
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| Patty is told to finish eating before going out with her father |
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| Mrs. Bear yells at Bobby |
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| Bobby's got it in the bag...along with his brothers! |
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| Mr. Bear catches his son trying to sneak away |
Mrs. Bear throws her three sons out of the store and goes after Bobby; Bobby tries to run away but gets caught by his father. Mr. Bear then sneaks off, leaving his wife and his son behind.
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| Patty with the silver spoons |
Meanwhile, Mr. Rabbit and Patty pick up a mail shipment from the train station. Patty noticed a package addressed to Bobby Bear's house with a label on it identifying the contents as silver spoons. These silver spoons are the episode's Macguffin as they will drive the plot. Speaking of the plot, this box of spoons gets the attention of Wilde Wolf who wants to steal them.
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| Wilde Wolf spots the silver spoons |
Bobby is waiting for Patty at the post office and picks up the package of silver spoons. Patty wants to go along with him but Mrs. Rabbit stops her, commanding Patty to clean up her room. Patty does this by stuffing all her toys and belongings into a closet (admit it - you've done this too).
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| Patty stuffs things into her closet...which doesn't work! |
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| Wilde Wolf with his booby trap duplicate |
We then cut to Wilde Wolf who has made a duplicate of the box Bobby has. He plans to switch the silver spoons with his fake box. Unfortunately, when the switch is made, the two boxes get confused and that leads to our episode's conflict - nobody can tell which box has the silver spoons and which is the booby-trap fake.
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| The boxes get mixed up! |
To make things more interesting, Bobby's brothers get involved. After a hilarious scene with them getting thrown out of the general store (they were playing with toy guns while Mrs. Bear tried to work), Bobby and Wilde Wolf try to figure out which of the two boxes is the one with the silver spoons. Meanwhile, Patty meets up with Bobby in possession of the two boxes.
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| Bobby's three brothers play as their mom tries to work. |
The next scene involves Mrs. Rabbit heading to the general store and meeting Mrs. Bear. They talk and realize neither has seen Patty or Bobby in quite some time; this leads to worry for the children. As that happens, Bobby is immersing one of the boxes in a bucket of water, hoping that it will disarm the one that is trapped with a bomb. Bobby's brothers show up but Bobby warns them not to touch any of the boxes. When he isn't looking, the three brothers steal one of the boxes and run off. Bobby chases after them and is able to get the box back...until his mother takes it from him. Bobby begs his mom not to open it as it could be the trapped box but she won't listen.
As that happens, Wilde Wolf returns, finds the other box and takes it. Bobby is able to snatch the box his mother has and runs off with Patty in tow. Bobby's three brothers pursue as Mrs. Bear looks on in frustration. Wilde Wolf is hiding in the bushes and decides to go after them.
Meanwhile, Mr. Bear returns to the store and gets yelled at by his wife. She tells him about the silver spoons and the identical box; Mr. Bear decides to investigate and his wife follows him.
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| Attempting to exchange boxes... |
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| Bobby's brothers steal a box! |
Patty and Bobby encounter Wilde Wolf; he demands the two children give him their box, which he believes contains the silver spoons. Bobby agrees to trade boxes but Bobby's brothers run by to snatch the box Bobby has. Bobby goes after his brothers and Wilde Wolf, telling Patty to go get Sheriff Bulldog for help. As Bobby heads off in pursuit, Patty runs into her father on his scooter and they ride off together, Patty having told him en route what happened. The next scene has Patty, Mr. Rabbit and the sheriff all on the scooter with them encountering the Bears. That is followed by all of them riding on Mr. Rabbit's scooter...and coming to a full stop then the scooter's tire pops like a balloon from all the weight. That scene is one that I found hilarious by the way.
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| How many riders can fit on one scooter? |
Wilde Wolf finally catches up to Bobby's brothers and tries to reclaim the box from them. They spend time throwing the box back and forth to each other, keeping it away from Wilde Wolf. This gag runs a bit long for my taste yet it wouldn't look out of place in a Tex Avery cartoon. Wilde Wolf tires himself out and one of the brothers decides to open the box.
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| The Bear brothers toss the box back & forth, keeping it away from Wilde Wolf! |
Wilde Wolf at that moment gets his second wind and manages to snatch the box away. In slow motion, Wilde Wolf leaps down with the box in his possession, Bobby's brother falls out of the tree and Bobby leaps to save his little brother...which he does.
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| Bobby to the rescue! |
Wilde Wolf, thinking his box contains the silver spoons, throws the other box back to Bobby and rushes off to open his loot. Unfortunately, he took the wrong box and it blows up right in his face.
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| Whoops...wrong box, Wilde Wolf! |
Bobby is reunited with his parents and offers to do his duty by polishing the silver spoons. Later, everyone is back at the store but all is not well. Mrs. Bear yells at her son for using a dirty rag to polish the silver spoons. Mr. Bear tries to defend his son but while Mrs. Bear yells at him, Bobby and Patty slip out of the store. Mr. Bear and Bobby's brothers then sneak off, promising to be back for dinner. Mrs. Bear actually smiles after seeing them go and heads back into the store.
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| Bobby learns that no good deed goes unpunished. |
The English dub cuts out some talking from offscreen between Patty and Bobby. Why this was cut is something I'm not sure of.
FINAL THOUGHTS: This episode, like the first and second, is another strong one. It's interesting to see Bobby take center stage and we get a feel for both his personality along with his relationship with his family. I give this episode an A.
That's it for now! If anyone out there has information, I'd appreciate hearing from you. You can comment below or email me at mapletown(at)gmx(dot)com.
Be sure to check out my blog about my comics series Sunnyville Stories and my webcomic Tiffany & Corey. If you like this blog, be sure to buy me a Ko-Fi.
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