Kids just being kids!
Original air date: 6/10/2005 (produced in 2003)Episode number: 57-58
School's Out! The Musical is the third Made-for-TV Movie Musical of The Fairly OddParents!.
The movie starts 37 years before the series, when HP and his assistant Sanderson, coming off a defeat from the Fairies, come across a baby clown whose parents had thrown him off a train in an effort to save him (the train was approaching a gap in the track but switched to a stable one at the last minute). Thus HP begins setting up a Long Game, with the infant clown as the centrepiece.
In the present, summer has started and the school's out, to the dread of the adults of Dimmsdale as the kids start running amuck. The Pixies, seizing their chance, work behind the scenes to make the kids' actions even more destructive. In comes a man named Flappy Bob, who offers to take care of the kids in his "Learnatorium": an over-sterilized, over-protective, and educational-laden dull place. When the kids are forced to go there, Timmy comes to the conclusion that "adults ruin everything" and wishes kids were in charge of the world.
Seems like a good enough wish, right? Of course, if you know this show, it naturally leads to unforeseen consequences engineered by HP himself and Timmy has to find a way to set it right.
School's Out! The Musical contains examples of:
- Abusive Parents: The Pixies towards Flappy Bob, having used and manipulated Flappy Bob for almost his whole life after they found him. Averted by Flappy Bob's real parents who are absolute sweethearts and spent years searching for their son after they lost him (they did get sidetracked with visiting Las Vegas, though).
- All There in the Script: The end credits reveal that the names of Flappy Bob's parents are Flooky and Flunky.
- Anti-Villain: Flappy Bob was raised by HP and Sanderson on the belief that dull and boring was fun from the moment they found him, as an unwitting pawn in their 37-year plan to take over Fairy World and install perfect order. At the outset, he just wants kids to be kept safe and to curb their destructive behaviour by enforcing the only kind of fun he grew up knowing.
- Award-Bait Song: Parodied/Invoked with Cosmo and Wanda's soppy love duet "With You", which they sing in prison after being arrested by Jorgen... with the specific purpose of driving him to tears so they can steal the key to their handcuffs while he's distracted.
- Batman Gambit: The Pixies' plan relies on, in order: Dimmsdale's kids growing completely out-of-control during their summer vacation; their parents getting so fed up with it that they agree to send their kids to Camp Learnatorium; Timmy being so bored by Camp Learnatorium that he wishes kids ruled the earth; and the world's children doing such a good job of it that there's no need for fairy godparents anymore. Then they reveal themselves to Flappy Bob and allow him to make the world exactly how he wants it, which Timmy cannot stop as he does not have his fairies, before taking over Fairy World. While they do occasionally nudge things in the right direction, such as magically amplifying the kids' rampages, everyone nonetheless acts just as the Pixies' plans requires them to.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Wouldn't be Fairly Odd Parents without it. This time, it's Timmy's "kids ruling the earth" wish, but instead of going horribly wrong, it goes horribly right. With all the world's problems getting solved in a matter of days, there's no need for fairy godparents anymore and they're all pulled back to Fairy World. This allows the Pixies to fill the magical power vacuum - just as
they'd planned - and it all goes downhill from there. - Big Bad: HP, and the Pixies in general. The whole premise of the special is that they've raised Flappy Bob to assist in their plan to take over Fairy World and the Earth by forcing their boring and bland ways on everyone.
- Big Finale Crowd Song: The special ends with the whole cast singing a Triumphant Reprise of "Kids Just Being Kids" as they celebrate the world returning to normal and everyone can finally enjoy summer vacation.
- Big "NO!":
- Timmy's reaction to Flappy Bob signing the contract that gives the Pixies control of Fairy World (and, by proxy, Earth).
- Also his reaction to the resultant Flappy Bob/Pixie-controlled Earth, an incredibly dull place where everyone dresses in casual office attire, and the kids are stuck in Flappy Bob's edutainment summer camp for their whole vacation.
- Boastful Rap: The Pixie Rap, which doubles as a Villain Song.
- Calculator Spelling: When Flappy Bob says "I'm so conflicted" and chooses the calculator between it and the arcade machine in "Where's Is the Fun?", he writes the numbers "00734" on it, which become "HELLO" when it's turned upside down.
- Cassandra Truth: Downplayed. While Flappy Bob refuses to believe that the Pixies are manipulating him, the possibility gives him a lot of self-doubt, and he repeatedly wonders aloud whether Timmy was telling the truth. Indeed, his very next line after signing the Pixies' contract is: "Maybe you're right; this could be a giant mistake". Only when he hears the truth from the Pixies' own mouths does he realize Timmy was right.
- The Chessmaster: After the kids get sent to Flappy Bob's, HP and Sanderson play on Timmy's anger to sway him into making his own decisions, which results in him deciding to wish that kids ruled the world.
- Clown Species: Flappy Bob was originally the clown-baby of clown-parents in a circus, but was given up when they thought that they were about to die in a train accident, so that he may carry on their "super hilarious (and kind of creepy) clown heritage". Then the accident didn't actually happen... Unusually for this trope, Flappy Bob is shown to be wearing makeup and able to pass as a normal person when it is removed.
- Crowd Song: The opening song, "Kids Just Being Kids", is sung by the children and parents of Dimmsdale as the former start their summer vacation while the latter panic.
- Cue O'Clock: Timmy has a watch that has seven "play" hours and just one "work" hour.
- Crapsaccharine World: The world ruled by children has allegedly no war, and is in perfect harmony. That is if you're a child or (as evidenced by Vicky) a teenager. For adults, it's blatantly oppressive and totalitarian. The contrast is best illustrated in the song "Ten and in Charge". For Jorgen, the last straw was witnessing the fairies being forced to do the chores no children want to do themselves.
- Darkest Hour: "Unfundamentals" is dedicated to this trope, showing how horrible things have gotten with the Pixies taking over Fairy World and Earth being made completely boring and restrictive for children.
- Exact Words: HP's iron-clad contract with Flappy Bob states that the world will be shaped according to Flappy Bob's wishes. Too bad Timmy helps Flappy return to his fun-loving roots.
- Gave Up Too Soon: Flappy Bob's backstory. When he was a baby, the circus train his parents were on was speeding towards a ravine with a bridge out, so they placed him in a rocket and blasted it off in order to save him. Turns out, they didn't notice there was another bridge across the ravine, meaning they just sent their baby off in a rocket for nothing.Flappy's Mom: [angrily] I thought you said there was no other way!
Flappy's Dad: [crying] I'm a clown! - Gone Horribly Right: Timmy's wish that kids ruled the earth. The kids promptly solve all the world's problems within a matter of days, but the world is now such a nice place that there's no need for fairy godparents anymore, and they're all pulled back to Fairy World. Just as the Pixies had planned it.
- Good Cop/Bad Cop: Parodied when Jorgen interrogates Cosmo and Wanda and has to do both, due to "budget cuts". Being Jorgen, his "good cop" act lasts for all of about five seconds.
- Gross-Up Close-Up: For Chester's bare feet.
- Heel–Face Turn: After Flappy Bob overhears the Pixies bragging about how they'd been manipulating him his entire life, and insulting his intelligence, he realizes Timmy was right about the Pixies using him and starts working against them.
- Heel Realization: Flappy Bob teeters on the edge of one for most of the film, as Timmy tries to prove to him that the Pixies' idea of fun is wrong and that he's being manipulated, but he doesn't actually cross the line until he overhears the Pixies bragging about manipulating him, at which point he realizes that Timmy was right.
- Hidden Depths: This is the first time the Pixies show their hip-hop rapping skills.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The Pixies sending Flappy Bob to law school was what allowed him to find the loophole needed to beat their contract. The contract itself probably counts, considering it contained the loophole with which the Pixies were defeated in the first place. Not to mention the fact that if the Pixies hadn't bragged about manipulating Bob, he wouldn't have performed his Heel–Face Turn in the first place. Yeah, the Pixies really screwed themselves over.
- In the Blood: Flappy Bob's parents were both circus clowns and he has constant urges to do silly clown actions.
- Jerkass Has a Point: As boring and overly-sanitized as the Learnatorium is, its staff were completely right about Dimmsdale's kids being out of control and needing reining in. Of course, the Pixies are the ones who used their magic to make the kids' last-day-of-school shenanigans truly destructive, turning harmless toys and bikes into motorcycles and demolition equipment. Otherwise, the kids would just have let loose for a bit, then settled in for summer vacation.
- "Last Day of School" Plot: Right there in the title, it revolves around Timmy and the children of Dimmsdale being let out for summer vacation and upon being sent to an educational summer camp, Timmy wishes kids ruled the world.
- Lighter and Softer: While it still has its darker moments, it's certainly much more light-hearted than the previous two films.
- Long Game: The Pixies' 37-year plan to take over the Earth and Fairy World by manipulating the course of Flappy Bob's entire life. It actually succeeds, and is only undone when Flappy Bob realises how badly he's been used. HP, being immortal, decides to just start another 37-year plan.Head Pixie: When you're 47, you'll pay.
- Loophole Abuse:
- How the Pixies are defeated. Flappy Bob points out that the terms of the Pixies' contract state that Earth will be "safe and fun" as defined by him. And having undergone his Heel–Face Turn, how does he define "safe and fun" now? "Everything the way it's supposed to be!"
- This is also what made their plan possible in the first place; for some reason, when Da Rules were originally written down by the first Fairy Council, it included a loophole stating that the Pixies could only be granted wish-granting authority if they were ever left as the only magical race on Earth. Once the Fairies were withdrawn as a result of Timmy's wish, that left the field wide open for the Pixies to seize power.
- At the end, Wanda arranges for Flappy Bob to find his parents. As she points out, he wished for "everything the way it's supposed to be" which has a lot of room for interpretation.
- Lyrical Dissonance: "Jorgen's Polka", a polka song with a catchy, upbeat tune, sung by Jorgen von Strangle as he pulls all the Fairies back to Fairy World so he can (essentially) torture them.
- Manipulative Bastard: The Pixies, who raised Flappy Bob from birth and subtly manipulated him his entire life into a boring, plain businessman, as part of a 37-year plan to take over Fairy World and Earth. They also manipulate Timmy's frustration with the Learn-a-Torium to get him to wish kids would rule the world.
- Made-for-TV Movie: One of several for The Fairly OddParents.
- The Mirror Shows Your True Self: During "Where is the Fun?", Flappy Bob looks in a mirror and his true self as a clown appears as the reflection.
- Monster Clown: While not necessarily monstrous or evil, Flappy Bob is not what you would call a humorous clown and, until his Heel–Face Turn, he definitely is not interested in being funny.
- More than Mind Control: The Pixies, to both Flappy Bob and Timmy.
- For Flappy Bob, they subtly manipulate him out of his happy clown life into a boring and drab businessman, convincing him that being a clown is not who he should be. He soon realizes the truth later on into the special, snapping out of it.
- For Timmy, the reason the kids are sent to Flappy Bob's Learn-a-torium is due to H.P. and Sanderson actually enhancing their fun so they're "destructive and loud", and they are able to convince Timmy that being in a Safety Worst situation is not the best place for a kid, and that grownups always ruin everything. As a result, Timmy wishes kids ruled the world.
- Musical Episode: As one can guess from the title, this installment of The Fairly OddParents is a musical, with a lot of the plot carried on through song.
- Naked People Are Funny: Chester streaks a few times, with two instances showing his bare behind.
- Non-Ironic Clown: Flappy Bob's parents are implied to be this. Flappy Bob becomes this after he embraces his clown heritage.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: If the Pixies hadn't bragged about their manipulation of Flappy Bob, allowing him to overhear it and pull a Heel–Face Turn, their 37-year plan would have gone off without a hitch.
- Parental Bonus: Near the end, Flappy Bob's dad Flunky comments that he and Flooky "had a lot of fun in [Las] Vegas".
- Plot Hole: In one episode, Timmy was shown to be afraid of clowns. They're one of his greatest fears. However, in this movie, not only does Timmy seem unafraid of clowns, but he encourages Flappy Bob to embrace his clown heritage.
- Protest Song: "Adults Ruin Everything", as Timmy and the children are upset at their parents deciding what to do and he wishes kids ruled the world.
- Reprise Medley: The appropriately titled "The Reprise Remix" is one of "Where Is The Fun?", "Kids Just Being Kids", "Da Pixie Rap", and "Adults Ruin Everything".
- Safety Freak: Flappy Bob and his chain of suffocatingly sterile Learnatoriums. Bob was raised by HP and Sanderson on the belief that dull and boring was fun from the moment they found him, as an Unwitting Pawn in their 37-year plan to take over Fairy World and install perfect order. At the outset, he just wants kids to be kept safe and to curb their destructive behavior by enforcing the only kind of fun he grew up knowing, at the cost of making children everywhere miserable by creating a completely restricted and sterile world to appease their parents - just as his Pixie puppet masters have planned.
- Safety Worst: The Learn-A-Torium, as always. Then the Pixies make the entire world like it...
- Short-Lived Leadership: Timmy's reign over Kid World, and Flappy Bob's reign over the boring world the Pixies create, each last only a few days at the most. The former ends when Flappy Bob signs the Pixies' contract, letting them remake the world as they see fit, and the latter ends when Bob, post-Heel–Face Turn, exploits a loophole in the contract to set everything back to normal.
- Shout-Out: Flappy Bob's origin is a parody of Superman's, as his parents send him off in a rocket under the belief that they are about to die and he is found and raised by the Pixies after they find him in Kansas.
- A Side Order of Romance: According to this movie, Cosmo and Wanda met at a diner where Cosmo was working as a waiter. Despite Cosmo tripping and getting food all over himself while trying to serve Wanda, it was Love at First Sight.
- The Song Before the Storm: "Where Is The Fun?", which is performed just before Flappy Bob takes over Dimmsdale.
- Suddenly Shouting: When Flappy Bob, Gary and Betty are overlooking the world ruled by children, we get a scene of Mr. and Mrs. Turner and Mr. Crocker in the classroom before Chester. Apropos of nothing, Chester yells, "HEADS DOWN!" to which they comply.
- Take That!:
- Flappy Bob's father mentions that one of the places they searched for him was the US Congress: "It was full of clowns, but none of them were funny!"
- The joke about how Florida is still voting, even though Timmy was already named President of Kid World (a reference to the voting fiasco during the 2000 U.S. Presidential election, which is how George W. Bush came into power).
- Teenage Wasteland: While they're technically not teenagers, this complies with the definition of the trope since Timmy wishes that the kids were in charge. He becomes president and delegates authority to the various other kids. Subverted, as the kids make the world a much better place and achieve world peace in a day, but that backfires as they make the world such a good place that there's no need for fairy godparents anymore, so they're all recalled, the Pixies fill the vacuum, and ultimately take over themselves.
- Time Dissonance: All of the Pixies' plans to take over Fairy World take 37 years — not a big deal when you're immortal.
- Triumphant Reprise: "Kids Just Being Kids" returns at the end in a more celebratory manner as the children embrace their true fun and even the adults join in.
- Two Scenes, One Dialogue: The countdown to 3:00 is announced by Timmy, his parents, HP and Sanderson, and the fairies, all in different spots.
- Unwitting Pawn: Both Timmy and Flappy Bob for the Pixies.
- Vertigo Effect: When Flappy Bob reveals the loophole that allows him to defeat the Pixies' evil plan, complete with a dramatic sting.
- Villain Song:
- "WE'RE PIXIES! WE'RE PIXIES! CHECK OUT OUR MAD WICKED MIXIES!" True to the nature of the trope, it's one of the best songs in the special.
- "Jorgen's Polka" could also qualify, though Jorgen's more of a Well-Intentioned Extremist than a scheming villain.
- Wham Line: The line that foiled the Pixies Plan:Flappy Bob: And guess what I define as fun now? Everything being exactly the way it's supposed to be!
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: The Learnatorium staff, particularly Happy Peppy Gary and Betty. Sure, they want to suck all the fun out of everything, but it's out of genuine concern for the kids' wellbeing; they just want them to be safe and under control. Of course, it's implied that the Pixies deliberately cultivated the "extremist" part so that Timmy would rebel against it, setting up the final stage of their Long Game.
- Wingding Eyes: Timmy's pupils turn into clock hands as he stares at the clock and anticipatingly awaits the end of the school day.
