While digging a hole to plant a tree for Arbor Day, Wishbone and the kids stumble upon a mysterious golden artifact, which they then try to identify. Meanwhile, Wishbone imagines himself as Professor Lidenbrock in Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne.
Two tie-in books were released — Wishbone Classics #9: A Journey to the Center of the Earth, featuring a less compressed adaptation of the original story with comments by Wishbone rather than the modern-day segments; and The Adventures of Wishbone #17: Digging to the Center of the Earth, a straight adaptation of the episode.
Tropes
- Adaptation Name Change: Notably averted. Many English-language editions of Journey to the Center of the Earth change the characters' names, with Axel becoming Harry and Professor Lidenbrock becoming Professor Von Hardwigg. However, Wishbone uses the original names.
- Adaptation Title Change: While the episode is titled "Hot Diggety Dawg," the novelization (from the The Adventures of Wishbone book series) is instead titled "Digging to the Center of the Earth."
- Adapted Out: The Journey to the Center of the Earth adaptation begins with the explorers entering the Icelandic volcano, leaving out all the stuff that got them to that point. As such, the characters of Gräuben and Martha are not included in this adaptation.
- Artistic License – History: At the end of the episode, the mysterious artifact turns out to be a medal from The American Civil War. During the Civil War, the only medal awarded to Union soldiers was the Medal of Honor, which does not resemble the medal seen in the episode, and the Confederacy never issued medals at all.
- As You Know: Shortly after entering the volcano, the explorers come upon an inscription left by Arne Saknussemm, at which point Professor Lidenbrock helpfully tells Axel about Saknussemm's earlier expedition. In the novel, translating Saknussemm's runes is what brought them to this volcano in the first place, so if we're going by the source material, this is all information that Axel knows very well indeed.
- Beneath the Earth: This is a Journey to the Center of the Earth adaptation, so the interior of the Earth is portrayed as utterly fantastical, with underground seas, subterranean jungles, and primeval beasts. The show's budget clearly hampered its ability to actually depict these wonders, but it did what it could.
- Composite Character: The Behemoth Battle between an ichthyosaur and a plesiosaur is pared down to an encounter with a single Sea Monster.
- Powder Trail: Axel lays one out so that he can ignite the guncotton from a safe distance.
- Shout-Out: To Star Trek: The Original Series:Sam: Wishbone, you finally found something real this time.
Wishbone: That's me and my nose... [William Shatner impression] ...boldly going where no dog has gone before, heh, heh. - When Trees Attack: Parodied. When Wishbone sees a tree moving outside, he thinks this trope has happened. After he gets outside and sees that Wanda has the tree in a wheelbarrow, he assumes that she successfully caught the runaway tree and is pleased to hear that she plans to put it back in the ground where it belongs.
