Home Sweet Home
Mr. Alvarez calls Manny and says that he needs some loose floorboards fixed… because he’s planning to sell his house! After arriving, Manny discovers the reason for this move- Mrs. Alvarez is expecting another child, and both parents feel that their house will be too small for three kids. However, Susanna Alvarez is very upset about moving, and Manny and the tools don’t want to see the Alvarezes go either…
Tropes in “Home Sweet Home” include:
- Brick Joke: About halfway through the episode, Susanna says that she doesn’t want to move homes and Isabella babbles something. Susanna adds that Isabella doesn’t want to move either, and Pat is impressed that she “speaks baby”. At the end of the episode, after the move has been canceled, Susanna says she’s glad they’re not moving, Isabella babbles again, Susanna adds that Isabella is glad too, and Pat again comments on her being able to “speak baby”.
- Continuity Nod:
- The tools are seen playing “Nut-Nut-Bolt” (“Duck-Duck-Goose” with the name changed) at the beginning of the episode; they previously played “Duck-Duck-Goose” in “Join The Club”.
- Mr. Lopart’s jellybean dispenser dispenses its jellybeans into his special candy bags.
- A copy of the picture of Isabella that the Alvarezes sent Manny at the end of “Big Sister” can be seen framed on the wall of their house.
- Making Room for Baby: Mrs. Alvarez is expecting a third child, and Mr. Alvarez believes they need to move due to their current house being too small for the growing family; Manny eventually resolves this problem by converting their storage room into a room for the child.
- Reused Character Design: In a bizarre example, Mrs. Alvarez's design is reused from herself; the animators, instead of taking the time to make her a new model without a baby bump, simply had the writers say that she was pregnant with another child.
- Time to Move: Mr. Alvarez wants to move due to feeling that his current house will be too small for his family once Mrs. Alvarez gives birth to her third child; at the end of the episode, he’s been convinced to cancel the move due to a combination of Manny solving the space problem by converting their storage room into a room for the coming child, and the townsfolk of Sheet Rock Hills turning out to give the Alvarezes good-bye gifts (which makes Mr. and Mrs. Alvarez realize just how much they’ll miss Sheet Rock Hills if they leave).
Jackie’s Old Shed
Manny and the tools are relaxing in the park when they come across Jackie Greenway, who is busy emptying all of the park’s recycling bins. Upon hearing that recycling is only picked up once a week, and yet Jackie collects so much recycling that she has to physically drive down to the recycling center daily lest the park’s bins overflow, Manny decides to build a large bin to store all of the park’s recycling- and decides to put it right where an old, unused, falling-apart shed that needed to be torn down anyway is.
”Jackie’s Old Shed” provides examples of:
- Animal Jingoism: Fluffy the cat is once again seen being scared by Mrs. Portillo’s pet chihuahua.
- Continuity Nod:
- Elliot is seen at various points skateboarding around the park.
- Mr. Lopart is shown wearing the jogging suit he had in “Gopher Help”, and walking Fluffy on a leash like he was doing in “Learning To Fly”.
- Fluffy is once again shown to be scared of Carlos.
- Felipe is shown to already know what’s recyclable and what isn’t, which is information he learned in “Sculptor Manny”.
- At one point, Squeeze mentions that she loves balloons.
- Dog Walks You: This happens when Fluffy (Mr. Lopart’s pet cat, whom he’d put on a least for reasonsnote ) is scared and runs away from Carlos (Mrs. Portillo’s chihuahua), who then decides to give chase; Mrs. Portillo and Mr. Lopart find themselves being pulled around by their respective pets.
- "Everybody Laughs" Ending: One is caused by Pat being overly literal.Squeeze (about the recycling storage bin): It’s a lot prettier than the old shed.
Manny: You can sure say that again.
Pat: Okay. It’s a lot prettier than the old shed.
(Manny, the tools, and Jackie Greenway laugh) - Green Aesop: Recycling is important.
- I'm Okay!: Pat says this after he falls off the bench of a picnic table.
- Improvisational Ingenuity: When Kelly doesn’t have enough wood for Manny and the tools to build a storage bin for all of the park’s recycling (It Makes Sense in Context), Manny gets the wood he needs by recycling it from an old shed in the park that Jackie said she needed to tear down someday.
- Literal-Minded: Pat being this sets off an "Everybody Laughs" Ending:Squeeze (about the recycling storage bin): It’s a lot prettier than the old shed.
Manny: You can sure say that again.
Pat: Okay. It’s a lot prettier than the old shed.
(Manny, the tools, and Jackie Greenway laugh) - Offscreen Crash: This happens when Pat falls into the recycling bin on Jackie’s “cart”.
- "Pan Up to the Sky" Ending: The episode ends with a pan from an aerial view of the recycling bin in the park to a view of the brilliant blue sky.
