Lee: You know, Wishbone, in a lot of the stories I know it's the animals that do the talking, and human beings are not necessarily the wisest creatures on the earth.
Wishbone: Finally, stories that tell it like it is.
Wishbone: Finally, stories that tell it like it is.
Originally aired on November 29, 1995.
Navajo storyteller Lee Natonabah is organizing a storytelling event at the library, and Joe volunteers to contribute a story about his late father, Steve Talbot. However, the more Joe looks into his father's life, the more he feels that he will never live up to Steve's accomplishments. Lee relates "The Story of the Deathless Voice," a legend from Native American Mythology.
Tropes
- Academic Athlete: In addition to his sporting achievements, which have been mentioned in previous episodes, it's revealed that Joe's father Steve was also very academically successful.David: I guess he was pretty good in math.
Joe: That's one way I'll never be like him. - An Aesop: The episode's message is about the importance of passing old stories on to the next generation. That's almost meta, considering that this is essentially the purpose of the entire Wishbone series.
- Call-Back: Joe goes to the tire swing where Steve used to push him, as previously mentioned in "Homer Sweet Homer."
- Cat Scare: In the fantasy story, the Dakota warriors hear a sound that they think might be the enemy, but it turns out to be a rabbit.
- Formula-Breaking Episode: This episode follows the divergent formula of "Bark that Bark" and "¡Viva Wishbone!" in which a character other than Wishbone serves as narrator. For this episode, that character is Lee Natonabah, and unlike with those two previous examples, it doesn't start off with Wishbone narrating before he takes over. Additionally, "Bark that Bark" and "¡Viva Wishbone!" both featured two fantasy stories whereas "Dances with Dogs" has only one like most episodes. Like with Uncle Homer in "Bark that Bark" and unlike with Senora Julia in "¡Viva Wishbone!", Lee's actor, Adan Sanchez, also appears as a character in the fantasy portion of the show.
- The Key Is Behind the Lock: In order to illustrate that Steve wasn't as intimidatingly perfect as the records of his grades and awards would suggest, Ellen relates two instances in which he accidentally locked the keys in the car.
- Nameless Narrative: None of the characters in the fantasy story have names. Wishbone's character is just referred to as, "a young warrior."
- Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: The title is a reference to the film Dances with Wolves.
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Steve once wrote an essay called, "An Experiment to Measure the Modulus of Elasticity of Polyvinyl Compounds as Applied to Spheroid Rebound Trajectories." Joe notes that, "I don't even understand the title."
- Time-Shifted Actor: An uncredited younger actor briefly appears as a six-year-old Joe.
