Seal Appeal
Manny and the tools enjoy a whale-watching trip with Dr. Ortega- until a fog starts rolling in, forcing them to return to shore. But, before they can make it back, they spot a buoy with a broken light that urgently needs to be fixed before the fog hits- but that won’t be easy, as a seal is resting on the buoy, and Manny needs the seal out of the way in order to work safely.
Tropes in “Seal Appeal” include:
- Continuity Nod:
- While whale-watching, the tools spy the baby whale they saved in “A Whale Of A Tale”.
- Mr. Lopart is out sailing, captain outfit and all.
- Delicious Distraction: Dr. Ortega tries to lure the seal off of the buoy they need to fix by throwing fish to feed it into the water nearby. This works… for about five seconds.
- "Everybody Laughs" Ending: One occurs when Mr. Lopart once again tries to insist that everything is fine, only for another sailing pratfall (the sail spinning around, scooping him up, and swinging him over the water before depositing back on the boat).
- From Bad to Worse: When the tools and Dr. Ortega try to lure the seal off the buoy by making fake seal calls, they manage to accidentally call more seals, which then go sit on the buoy.
- Instantly Proven Wrong: An "Everybody Laughs" Ending happens when Mr. Lopart tries to insist that he has everything under control, only for another sailing pratfall to occur.
- Parrot Expo What:Manny: Una niebla is coming.
Pat: Una what? - Pet Dress-Up: Mr. Lopart once again put Fluffy in a first mate hat and life vest.
- Rhyming Title: Has one.
- Standard Snippet: The “Sailor’s Hornpipe” plays in the soundtrack when Mr. Lopart is seen sailing.
- Third Time's The Charm: Three attempts are made to lure the seal off the buoy- using food (which doesn’t work), using fake seal calls (which just summons more seals to the buoy), and using the fact that the seals are oddly attracted to Flicker’s light (which works).
Pat Lightly
Mrs. Portillo calls Manny- she needs a new birdhouse installed in her backyard, as she fears the old one is too small for the growing family of birds that call it home. But Pat, fearing what will happen if his clumsiness takes over while he’s near fragile bird eggs, refuses to work…
”Pat Lightly” provides examples of:
- Aesop Amnesia: Pat already learned not to be so clumsy all the way back in “Tool In A China Shop”, although it’s not like this time will stick either.
- Blowing a Raspberry: Any attempt of Pat to whistle just leads to him doing this, until he figures out how to whistle properly near the end of the episode.
- Call-Back: The birds from “Time Out” return, and need a bigger birdhouse as the mother, Beaker, has laid five eggs.
- Covered in Gunge: Turner and Mr. Lopart both end up splattered with chocolate after the latter’s chocolate fountain goes haywire.
- Epunymous Title: On the concept of a “light pat”, and the name of Pat the hammer.
- Humanlike Animal Aging: Songbird chicks, which are altricial (lack feathers and generally look very un-cute when hatched) in real life are here presented as cute precocial chicks.
- Making Room for Baby: In a variation, the birds that live in Mrs. Portillo’s backyard need a bigger birdhouse after the mother bird lays four eggs, as the current birdhouse just doesn’t have room for that many chicks.
- Percussive Maintenance: Mr. Lopart attempts to fix a nonfunctional chocolate fountain by hitting it with a spatula.
- Stealth Pun: It’s offhandedly shown that Rusty likes bananas. Rusty is a monkey wrench. Monkey wrench.
- Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: All of the newly-hatched chicks inexplicably have eyelashes.
