The seventh episode of Tiny Toon Adventures.
The episode begins with Montana Max having recovered a giant gold nugget from the center of the Earth. Monty is pleased that with it, he is now beyond wealthy, when suddenly, an earthquake hits ACME Acres. When the earthquake stops, Monty continues boasting about how the giant gold nugget is his now and forever.
At the ACME Seismographic Institute, a public service announcement is filmed, starring Elmer Fudd. Elmer tells the viewers that a really large earthquake is coming to ACME Acres, which they have determined through very intricate scientific research, namely Shirley the Loon. He then tells the viewers that in order to be prepared for an earthquake, they should read earthquake safety pamphlets. The first and most important safety tip in the pamphlet is to get out of ACME Acres. After finishing the PSA, Elmer leaves for Aruba.
Inside Plucky's house, Plucky is revealed to have been watching a PSA, but he isn't afraid, and sings a song about how his house made out of grass and reeds can withstand any Earthquake. The song continues at Hamton's house, and Hamton sings about how he built his house with wood and nails, and it too, can withstand any Earthquake. Quite ironically, he gets hit with one of the boards as he finishes his verse. The song continues with Buster, who lives underground, and reveals that he lines his house with tempered steel. The song then continues with Plucky and Hamton, who are standing near a newspaper stand, with the earthquake that Shirley predicted as the headline. Neither of them believe that Shirley's prediction of an earthquake is anything serious, so they laugh it off, much to the ire of the illustration of Shirley, who zaps them in retaliation. In her verse of the song, Babs arrives at Buster's burrow and brings food and water, tossing them into Buster's burrow and hitting Buster on the head. Plucky and Hamton laugh at Buster and Babs and sing about how they think living underground will keep them safe from the earthquake. Buster and Babs then sing about how they'll be safe when the earthquake destroys Plucky and Hamton's houses. Plucky and Hamton then continue to sing about how Buster and Babs are afraid of the earthquake, and how safe they'll be when it hits.
As the song comes to an end, the earthquake begins. Plucky is at his house, reading a Toxic Revenger comic book, when the earthquake hits his house. The earthquake launches Plucky into the air, and at first, Plucky is relieved that his house survived, but when he comes back down, his house collapses. Plucky is upset that now he'll have to rebuild his house, but unfortunately for him, there's no time for that, as the earthquake is now chasing him.
Plucky runs to Hamton's house, and knocks on the door so that Hamton will let him in. Hamton walks outside, and an oblivious Plucky goes inside him. Hamton then goes inside his house and ejects Plucky out of his body. Plucky hides behind Hamton, who assures him that they're safe in his house through song. Just then, the earthquake forms a giant fist and slams it against the ground, turning Hamton's house into a pile of lumber, with a sign that says, LUMBER SALE on top of it. Plucky and Hamton then run away as the earthquake chases them. They get trapped on a newly-formed island, but are saved when a tree falls onto the island. They run across it just in time as the tree now sinks into the Earth. Hamton tells Plucky that they have to get to Buster's burrow now, but Plucky refuses, as he doesn't want Buster to gloat about how right he was. The earthquake then catches up to them, forming a giant fist which rolls them into a ball and bounces them, then tosses them into the basketball hoop near Buster's burrow.
Plucky and Hamton land at Buster's burrow, which is revealed to be sealed shut with a steel door. Hamton asks Plucky if he's developed a taste for carrot consommé yet, and Plucky tells him that right now, he's so desperate, he'd eat crow. Plucky bangs on the door for Buster and Babs to let him and Hamton in. Inside Buster's burrow, Buster and Babs are playing a game of chess, and when Buster leaves to check on the noise, Babs cheats to win the game. The earthquake pushes Plucky and Hamton away just before Buster emerges from his burrow. When Buster, thinking he heard nothing, goes back into his burrow, the earthquake pushes Plucky and Hamton over Buster's burrow again. An annoyed Buster emerges from his burrow again, but his annoyance doesn't last long, as he sees that Plucky and Hamton are in danger. They are holding on for their lives as a fault line forms over them. Buster warns Babs that Plucky and Hamton are in danger, and the two rabbits rush to the rescue, shouting, "We got you!", which, as Hamton points out, is not proper grammar. Buster and Babs are too late, as the twig that Plucky holds onto then snaps, and he and Hamton fall into the Earth below.
In the second act, Plucky and Hamton continue falling, and Buster and Babs are upset that they were too late to save their friends. Buster asks how this could have happened, when Elmer Fudd shows up and takes them to the ACME Seismographic Institute. There, he explains earthquakes by drawing the Earth on his head and hitting it with a mallet, which form fault lines. He tells Buster and Babs that earthquakes are ususally caused by internal pressure or violent continental drift, but there's also an old wives' tale that earthquakes are caused by Gremlins. He then shows them a video from 1930, where scientists believe that the center of the Earth is made of gold, which is guarded by roughhousing Gremlins, and if their gold is stolen, their angry tantrums cause massive earthquakes. Elmer believes this all to be just a myth, but Buster vows that whatever the cause of the earthquake, he and Babs are going to the center of the Earth to rescue Plucky and Hamton. Elmer warns Buster that he'll be crushed to a pulp, which convinces Buster to skip it. He asks Babs if she's interested in seeing a movie instead, but Babs is not one to give up so easily.
Meanwhile, Plucky and Hamton continue falling, and Plucky has gotten so bored, that being splattered would be a nice change. Plucky and Hamton reach the center of the Earth and get trapped in its gravitational force. Plucky then sees a speck of gold and runs after it. A Gremlin watches him and Hamton from inside a crater and captures them. The Gremlin then ties them up and accuses them of being gold thieves. He asks them where his gold is, and Hamton tells the Gremlin that Plucky has the gold speck. Plucky shows the Gremlin the gold speck, and the Gremlin asks him where the rest of the gold is, as the gold nugget must have weighed a ton. Plucky is ecstatic over the thought of a ton of gold, and he bounces around so much, that the Gremlin warns him that he'll cause an earthquake. Hamton manages to break free, and tells Plucky that they have to leave, but Plucky doesn't want to leave, as he wants to find the giant gold nugget.Meanwhile, Buster and Babs dig their way through the Earth to find Plucky and Hamton. Unfortunately, they burrow their way into a gigantic two-headed monster worm, which chases them towards a dinosaur skeleton. Buster manages to knock out the worm's front head with a dinosaur skull. He and Babs try to escape, but the wall is rock solid. Babs asks Buster if he has a plan, and Buster tells her he would, if he knew what it was. He then finds the other pieces of the dinosaur skeleton, and assembles them together.
Back in the center of the Earth, Plucky continues looking for the giant gold nugget, but Hamton is worried for their safety. The Gremlins catch up to them and chase them to the edge of a cliff, where they fall. Meanwhile, Buster and Babs have finished assembling the dinosaur skeleton, which is powered by fossil fuel, and use it to dig through the rock wall. As Plucky and Hamton hang on for their life, Plucky asks Hamton what's going to happen to them. Hamton reads over the episode's script and tells Plucky that Buster and Babs should have found them by now. The branch they hold onto breaks, and they fall into a hole. Buster and Babs are now in a volcanic cave, and Buster is concerned, as neither he nor Babs have found Plucky and Hamton. As Babs assures Buster that they can't expect to find them so easily, Plucky and Hamton roll their way down the cavern and into the dinosaur skeleton, causing it to collaspe. Buster and Babs are relieved to have found Plucky and Hamton, when the Gremlins catch up to them. The four friends run into a corner, and Buster realizes that the old wives' tale about earthquakes being caused by Gremlins was true all along. Babs realizes that the center of the Earth really is made of gold, but Hamton tells her that now the gold is gone, as somebody stole it. He and Buster are quick to point fingers at Plucky, who tells them he didn't do it, when all of a sudden, a Gremlin rolls a boulder at them like a bowling ball. The four friends scream in fear as the second act ends.
The third act continues where the second left off, as Buster, Babs, Plucky, and Hamton are still screaming in fear as the boulder rolls towards them. Buster then notices a RESET button and presses it. He, Babs, Plucky, and Hamton then form themselves into bowling pins as a mechanism lifts them just in time, as the boulder now rolls through the wall behind them. When the mechanism lowers, the four friends run through the hole in the wall, much to the ire of the gremlins.Buster, Babs, Plucky, and Hamton make their way back to ACME Acres, where they find that Montana Max has developed the world's biggest strip mine. Plucky is relieved to be back in ACME Acres, and kisses the ground, which has a trail of gold dust on it. Babs finds the gold dust, and when Buster does as well, he comes the conclusion that Monty stole the giant gold nugget. Another earthquake happens, and Buster also comes to the conclusion that they have to return the gold to the Gremlins, or the earthquakes will never stop. Time is running out for the four friends, so they have act fast if they want to get into Monty's mansion and recover the missing gold nugget. Buster and Babs then come up with an idea.
Inside his mansion, Montana Max is watching a news report, saying that he has officially cornered the market on gold, making him the richest boy in ACME Acres, when his doorbell rings. Outside his mansion, Buster and Babs are disguised as Biff and Buffy Vanderbunny, and Hamton and Plucky are respectively disguised as their butler and maid (much to the latter's ire). Grovely, Monty's butler, answers the door, and Monty catches up to him as Buster and Babs introduce themselves as the Vanderbunnys to him. Buster tells Monty that they saw him on TV and they need his help. At first, Monty refuses, but Buster tells him there's a large cash reward in it for him if he does. Upon hearing this, Monty changes his mind and yells at Grovely for not letting the Vanderbunnys in earlier. Buster and Babs explain to him that they're on a scavenger hunt, having already gotten the Sphinx, the Titanic, and the Trump Tower, and all they need to complete it is a giant gold nugget.
Monty leads Buster, Babs, Plucky, and Hamton to his gold coin vault, which Plucky swims in after Monty opens it. Babs stops him and tells him to calm down. Buster reminds Monty that he's looking for a gold nugget, and those gold coins simply won't do. Monty then leads Buster, Babs, Plucky, and Hamton to his gold bar vault. Plucky tries to take some gold bars, but Babs stops him. Buster then reminds Monty that he is looking for a giant gold nugget. Monty then reveals that he keeps the giant gold nugget in his most secure vault of all. Buster, Babs, Plucky, and Hamton are all impressed by the size of the giant gold nugget. Buster thanks Monty for helping him, but makes the mistake of paying him with his ACME Looniversity Student ID. Buster then tells Monty that he is a gold thief, and Babs tells him that the gold nugget he stole belongs to the Gremlins, which is why they've had so many earthquakes lately. Monty tells Buster, Babs, Plucky, and Hamton that he doesn't care, and they won't leave with the gold nugget. Another earthquake begins, and as Monty tries to hold back the giant gold nugget, it rolls onto the floor, and Buster, Babs, Plucky, and Hamton run atop it. As they run atop it, destroying Monty's mansion in the process, they roll it to a fault line, and it stops just over the edge of it. They all jump off the giant gold nugget, but Monty catches up to it. Monty then names the giant gold nugget "Goldie" and tells it how much he loves it. The giant gold nugget and Monty then fall into the Earth below. Babs asks Buster when the Gremlins will get their gold back, and just as Buster predicted, the gold nugget reaches the center of the Earth. Hamton then wonders what the Gremlins will do to Monty. Sure enough, as retribution for stealing their giant gold nugget, the Gremlins use Monty as a pinata.
Buster, Babs, Plucky, and Hamton, now dressed in their normal attire, end the episode by singing about how they saved ACME Acres before the earthquake completely destroyed it.
This episode provides examples of:
- Be the Ball: When Plucky refuses to go to Buster's burrow, the Earthquake forms a giant fist, which rolls him and Hamton into a ball, bounces them, then tosses them into the basketball hoop near Buster's burrow. Later in the episode, Plucky and Hamton roll down the volcanic cavern, where they meet up with Buster and Babs.
- Cranial Eruption: Buster has one of these when Babs tosses her food and water into his burrow.
- Credits Gag: Gremlins compliments of - Bob Clampett.
- Disguised in Drag: When Buster and Babs disguise themselves as the Vanderbunnys, Plucky is disguised as Skyler, their maid, much to his ire.
- Earthquakes Cause Fissures: The Earthquakes that the Gremlins start create fault lines, one of which Plucky and Hamton fall through.
- Grammar Correction Gag: Hamton and Plucky are hanging on the edge of a massive crack in the earth, with Buster and Babs hopping to the rescue, leading to this exchange.Buster and Babs: We gotcha! We gotcha!
Hamton: That's not proper grammar! - I Fell for Hours: Plucky and Hamton fall down a crack in the ground when a huge earthquake hits ACME Acres. After a while, they start getting bored and hope they eventually hit something just to break the monotony. They eventually end up at the center of the Earth where they float because their gravity reaches an equilibrium.
- Logo Joke: After the title sequence, Buster appears in the Tiny Toon Adventures Logo, which begins to fall apart because of an earthquake. Buster is then seen clinging onto the Tiny of the logo.
- Shout-Out:
- This episode's title is a reference to the 1864 Jules Vern science fiction novel, "Journey to the Center of the Earth''.
- While preparing for the earthquake, Buster, Babs, Plucky and Hamton sing a song that is a parody of "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" from the 1932 Walt Disney Silly Symphonies adaptation of the classic fairy tale, The Three Little Pigs.
- When Monty leads Buster, Babs, Plucky, and Hamton to his gold coin vault, Plucky swims in it.
- The Gremlins are based on the one from the Bugs Bunny cartoon "Falling Hare".
