Tooned In: Tales from Eternia and a couple tributes (Weekend of 8/28/26)

Good Weekend!

Well if you don’t know what the news was this past week, you probably have been living in a cave. Some days I wish I was. More on that later. First we have another Tales from Eternia to look at!

We’re in the middle of a straight up tag team match with Teela and Man-at-Arms against Evil-Lyn and Trap Jaw. Trappy makes the mistake of tossing a boulder on unstable ground, that causes a chain reaction where one word leads to another; in this case, the word is “earthquake.” Unfortunately, Rod Charlebois doesn’t add CanCon by playing the Missing Link Game after. Instead, the guys fall down a chasm caused by the quakes, and of note, Teela always refers to Duncan by his name in this series, so does it un-canon him being her adopted father? Anyway, Man-At-Arms and Trap Jaw are now trapped in an old mining cave and, you guessed it, have to work together to get out. And Teela and Evil-Lyn likewise must try to come up with a plan to help out, as Teela a little too enthusiastically states (despite, as she says, how fun continuing to fight would be). First, didn’t we have a hero/villain team-up a few weeks ago? Second, we’re getting the two times it happened in the classic series together: the women did it in Filmation, and was it Trappy and Duncan in the 2002 series? And this won’t be the only callback.

Meanwhile, Trap Jaw keeps being stubborn, as Man-At-Arms makes a discovery in the cave, machinery that Trap Jaw recognizes as a “drag storage” unit. That’s “DRAG STORage,” do you have it at home? He remembers it from his home world of Infinita, which is a thing in MOTU lore. So Trappy agrees to use his cyborg body to make the machinery into a means of escape. During this time, Teela and Evil-Lyn profess their admiration for each other’s skills. Then, this is happening:

Um, yeah. Not judging or anything, but…

Teela name drops Stratos as Evil-Lyn laments the Samantha Stevens-type expectations Skeletor and his men put on her. And speaking of Stratos…

So we get a double deep cut, as not only has Trappy been turned into a Dragstor-type sentient vehicle, but we also get the Stratos Riding meme. That alone made this review worth it. Anyway, the day is saved, amidst reassurances that everyone is still enemies.

Now, onto a bit more somber things. To pay respects to Dolly Parton, of course I want to have all her best qualities, well I know I can’t have at least one…or two (don’t give me that look, she’d make the same kind of jokes about herself…that’s one of the reasons why we love her…) I also put my feelings into my writing, obviously, so let’s honor her with a look at a couple clips of when she was on a 1983 episode of Alvin and the Chipmunks, “Urban Chipmunk”:

Yes, the title is probably a reference to the Chipmunks’ country-themed album of the same name. And wow, this show got perhaps the most A-list celebrity guests of the time than other Saturday morning cartoons. There’s Dolly, Mr. T, and (cheating using actual footage, but…) even Michael Jackson. I suppose I could cheat and count all the times Kidd Video used actual music video footage. What else? Milli Vanilli on that one Mario episode? Wait! Duh, The New Scooby-Doo Movies, of course! So Alvin was a distant second place, then.

So in the first clip, Dave tells the boys that Dolly Parton wants them to perform with her in Nashville. And I can platonically say that ‘80s David Seville was an insanely handsome man. This seems to be at a time when everyone was finding their voices, as Ross Jr. is nowhere as lively as his dad was having Dave making the announcement. In particular, his Simon gets REALLY good the more he leans into the brainy snark later on. Regardless, the Chipmunks sing a song basically about butchering English grammar to prove how much they love country music.

Next clip finds everyone arriving in Nashville, with Alvin, Simon, and Theodore in cowboy gear, and Dave taking a pratfall wearing furry assless chaps. And based on my above comment in the last paragraph, that’s not the worst image in the world. Dolly arrives, accompanied by a frowny guy with a pointy goatee and mustache, gee I wonder if he’ll be the villain? Of note, Dolly remarks that she’s glad the Sevilles are “back home in Nashville,” I wonder if this was some plot point I missed earlier? It’s possible, since Alvin is obviously smitten and probably cooked up one of his wacky schemes. The frowny cowboy talks, and….he is voiced by Peter Cullen, sounding like a sinister, not so over the top Ironhide to give it away. Alvin talks his brothers into going on a tour bus, to see all the local sites (Alvin: “Including Dolly Parton!” Did they say the Great Smoky Mountains? Again, Dolly would make the same joke, save your hate mail…)

So Peter Cullen. What can I say that hasn’t been said? Friend to kids who had few actual friends and needed his favorite characters on TV as his support group. He was the first person to give Mario a voice we’d hear on a regular basis. He told us the legend of Voltron. He even worked for what would be “his” toyline’s competition and introduced several new Masters of the Universe characters. And oh yeah, that giant transforming truck. If it wasn’t for Optimus Prime and his strong but gentle leadership, would we all be hit as hard when we saw The Movie and would we need “The Apology Tour” now? And boy is that going to hit even harder now.

And for that matter, Tim Curry. Again what is there left unsaid? I think my favorite tribute, and one that is more poignant now, comes from his time as Captain Hook’s voice:

“If I must die, I will encounter darkness as a bride and hug it in my arms. For I, at least, have lived a full life, Peter Pan. I have been a child, I have been a youth, I have been a man, a scholar and a gentleman. I have sailed the world with the finest navy ever to see sun, moon or sky set. In short, I have lived a full life. Whereas you are a pathetic creature ever locked in the pathetic egocentricities of childhood. You will never be a youth and you will never be a man. So – finish me now, and be done with it!”

But wait! We have another look at the Chipmunks!

This is a bit longer of a snippet. And this appears to give us some backstory to the earlier clips. Alvin, Simon, and Theodore are at the record store…for you kids, this would be the equivalent of iTunes or Pandora now. He’s fawning over Dolly’s greatest album (which seems to be called “New Dolly,” well New Coke was coming too…) as well as a cardboard cutout of the singer. Don’t ask about the physics about how cardboard can support his weight. At any rate, he discovers a contest where the winner gets to perform with Dolly at the Grand Old Opry…but Simon points out that you had to have been born in Nashville to qualify. “We could have been born in Nashville, remember, we’re orphans!” Alvin figures.

The meeting at the airport scene follows. Next, we have the boys in a bathtub as Dolly puts on her makeup in her dressing room. Not sure if they were supposed to be there or just spying. Freddie (the suspicious cowboy) is here, leading to this veiled exchange of song titles:

Theodore: Here he comes!

Alvin: I can’t meet Dolly looking like this!

Freddie protests that he doesn’t think the Chipmunks are really from Nashville, but Dolly disagrees, then Freddie is all “BUT PRIME, er, DOLLY!” No really, totally channeling Ironhide there. And I guess the boys were spying, as Dolly remarks she had no time for that bath after all. Night of the show, and Freddie is still complaining….but then Alvin calls to give Dolly the truth. She’s so impressed that she returns and invites them to play anyway, and Freddie is on board as well. Everyone’s friends, the end…and isn’t that how she would want everyone to be??