Pepe’s Rocket
There’s going to be a rocket-flying festival in the park, and Pepe has a new toy water rocket he’d love to launch. Unfortunately, when he sends it on a test flight he can’t find where it landed- and, even after searching the entire park, Manny and the tools can’t find it either.
Tropes in “Pepe’s Rocket” include:
- Comically Missing the Point: Pat does this twice while the tools are looking for Pepe’s toy rocket.
- When Pat has climbed into a tree:
Dusty: See anything up there, Pat?
Pat: Oh, yeah! Lots of leaves, and branches, and- ooh look, a butterfly!- Later
Dusty: I don’t understand. We searched every tree. The rocket just… disappeared!Pat: Maybe it flew into space! - Continuity Nod:
- While looking for Pepe’s rocket, Dusty gets her detective act on.
- The glue from “A Sticky Fix” is employed when Manny and the tools are making Pepe a new rocket.
- Failed a Spot Check: Mr. Lopart fails to notice that Pepe’s rocket has landed in his picnic basket until just before the end of the episode.
- Flyaway Shot: The episode ends with the camera receding vertically from the park, as the launched water-rockets race towards it.
- Hidden Depths: Mr. Lopart usually falsely claims to have these, but given how he actually did alright launching a rocket at the end of the episode, this one might actually be true.Mr. Lopart (to Pepe): You know, I used to be quite the rocketeer when I was about your age. “Launchpad Lopart”, they called me.
- Human Ladder: At one point, the tools form a tool ladder (with Rusty on top) in order to look in a knothole in a tree. The ladder of course ends up being knocked over, when Rusty is scared by a bird that makes its home in said knothole.
- I'm Okay!: Pat says this after falling out of a tree.
- Improvisational Ingenuity: When it seems like Pepe’s water rocket is unfindable, Manny and the tools make him a new one, out of two water bottles and a few other things.
- Offscreen Crash: This happens when a bird scares Rusty and causes him to collapse the Tool Ladder he’d been on top of.
- Picnic Episode: Downplayed; Mr. Lopart’s subplot involves him trying to have a picnic in the park, and struggling to locate a good spot; Pepe’s rocket ends up, unbeknownst to him, landing in his picnic basket after its test flight.
- Pun: At the beginning of the episode:Felipe: Who would’ve thought we could’ve turned this old toolbox into a lámpara. A lamp!
Turner: As I recall… I did.
Manny: Si. You might say it was Turner’s bright idea. - Quaking with Fear: Rusty, after being scared by a bird, can be seen hiding behind a bush and shaking with fear.
- Retro Rocket: Pepe’s water rocket, and all the other rockets at the festival, all look like this, as does the replacement rocket Manny makes after Pepe loses his. This is justified as, well, they’re toy rockets.
- Squeaky Eyes: In a bizarre inversion of the usual “eyes squeak when blinking”, when Dusty tells the tools to “keep their eyes open”. Pat’s eyes squeak when he forces them as far open as they’ll go.
The Best Vacation Ever
Elliot is extremely excited to go on a vacation to a tropical island- until he breaks his ankle and is rendered unable to go. Manny, the tools, and Kelly try their best to cheer him up but continue to fail- until Pat has an idea that just might save the day.
”The Best Vacation Ever” provides examples of:
- Animal Reaction Shot: Fluffy is seen rolling her eyes after the arm that’s supposed to wave breaks off of Mr. Lopart’s cardboard standee again.
- Artistic License – Physics: Somehow, when the motor that powers the waving arm on Mr. Lopart’s standee goes out of control and makes the arm start spinning in circles, this spinning action causes the entire standee to lift into the air like a helicopter, even though the “rotor” isn’t even pointed upwards. To make it even more absurd, when Mr. Lopart grabs the hovering standee in such a way that the “rotor” does end up being pointed upwards, it instantly falls to the ground again.
- "Be Quiet!" Nudge: Felipe does this to Rusty when the latter starts undermining their attempts to cheer up Elliot.
- Brick Joke: Early in the episode, Mr. Lopart is trying to manage a cardboard standee of himself with a motorized waving arm, which starts hovering when the arm spins out of control due to some Artistic License – Physics. At the end of the episode, the camera pans up to the sky… and the standee is seen, helicoptering its way through the air.
- Cheer Up Episode: The second half of the episode is devoted to Kelly, Manny, and the tools trying to cheer up Elliot after he breaks his ankle and is unable to go on his vacation.
- Cold Turkeys Are Everywhere: A variation occurs when the tools are trying to cheer up Elliot, who is unable to go on his tropical island getaway, as all the things they try to do to cheer him up involve the beach or water in some way: Stretch tells a joke about the ocean, Squeeze does a shadow puppet that resembles various aquatic animals (it’s supposed to be an alligator), and Dusty wants to sing “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”.
- Compartment Shot: One occurs of Manny looking into his vacuum cleaner when it breaks down at the beginning of the episode.
- Continuity Nod:
- Elliot’s vacation outfit is similar to what he wore in “A Day At The Beach”, except without the lifeguard uniform.
- Mr. Lopare at one point tries to use the glue from “A Sticky Fix” to keep his cardboard standee’s arm in place.
- Squeeze once again does a shadow puppet of an aquatic animal (this time, a giant alligator).
- Milton and his coop are seen in Elliot’s backyard.
- While providing music for Elliot’s “tropical vacation”, Manny plays his vihuela.
- The Cuckoolander Was Right: While discussing Elliot’s inability to take his vacation, Pat asks “If Elliot can’t go to a tropical island, can we bring a tropical island to him?”. Turner immediately makes fun of this, but it turns out they can, in fact, do it, by setting up a fake beach in Elliot’s backyard.
- Diabolus ex Machina: Elliot is all set to go on his amazingly awesome tropical vacation… and then he randomly breaks his ankle and is unable to go.
- Double-Meaning Title: “The best vacation ever” refers both to the tropical island getaway Elliot was planning to take, and the fake tropical island getaway Manny sets up in Elliot’s backyard after the latter breaks his ankle.
- Hypocritical Humor: When the tools visit Elliot in the hospital.Pat (at the top of his metaphorical lungs): EVERYBODY BE QUIET WE’RE IN A HOSPITAL!!
- Injured Limb Episode: Elliot ends up breaking his ankle, and is rendered unable to go on his vacation.
- It's the Best Whatever, Ever!: Elliot believes a tropical island getaway he’d been planning all year would be “the best vacation ever”; he ends up not being able to go on it after breaking his ankle.
- Offscreen Crash: This happens when Elliot runs into a barrel of brooms Kelly randomly had outside her store; notably, this isn’t played for comedy, as this is how Elliot breaks his ankle.
- "Pan Up to the Sky" Ending: At the end of the episode, the camera pans up from Elliot’s “island vacation” to a view of the beautiful blue sky- and a Brick Joke courtesy of Mr. Lopart’s airborne standee.
- Plaster Cast Doodling: Kelly brings this up to Elliot as the plus side of having a cast while he’s in the hospital, although no one ever ends up actually doing this.
- Steel Drums and Sunshine: Elliot’s “tropical island vacation” in his backyard comes complete with Pat hammering on a steel drum.
- Title Drop: Elliot repeatedly and persistently refers to his tropical island getaway as “the best vacation ever”.
- Umbrella Drink: Turner can be seen taking a sip from one during Elliot’s “island vacation” at the end.
- Vacation Episode: Double subverted; at first, it seems like the episode is going to be about Elliot going on vacation to a tropical island, until he breaks his ankle and has to stay home. Then he does get to go on a “vacation” of sorts when Manny sets up a fake tropical island getaway in his own backyard.
