#Someone should make that into a story. Flying whales…. And they hunt them while riding airships….. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

caelum-in-the-avatarverse · 4 years

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Written for Kataang Week 2020. Prompt - Keeping Warm.

There’s a blizzard at the South Pole, and the Water Tribe has traditions.

~~~

Hi guys! So after doing Azula Week earlier this month I was like "Oh yeah I feel like I could manage Kataang Week too!" so this is that. We'll see how it goes. Fair warning - I am not much of a shipper. I do like Kataang, a lot, but writing romance is kinda...eh. So expect me to use this week more as an excuse for character exploration and worldbuilding than actual shipfic, lol. You have no idea how many times I started to write “oral tradition” in and then had to slap my wrist like NO this is a SHIPPING WEEK and if you use that phrase people will assume it’s mature and then be disappointed when it isn’t. XD

Warnings: There's nothing explicit going on here, but we do hear about a past animal attack and said animal's death.

Enjoy!

~~~

Something heavy, furry, and large was dumped over Aang’s head, and he sputtered and laughed and breathed in the scent of well-conditioned animal hide even as he extricated himself from the massive fur pelt. “Katara, come on, you know I don’t get cold!”

Katara lifted a corner of the fur, flopped down beside him, and flipped the fur back over herself. “It’s a blizzard. Humor me,” she said, eyes sparkling in the light of the fireplace.

“You know I can easily enjoy a snowstorm in nothing but a cape.”

“Blizzard, not snowstorm,” she said, snuggling up beside him. “I don’t care about your Airbender temperature-regulation abilities, that’s a South Pole blizzard out there. It’s going to get cold by my standards.”

“I survived a North Pole blizzard without any extra layers just fine,” Aang chuckled.

“That wasn’t a blizzard, that was a regular old flurry, and you were running on adrenaline,” Katara said, snuggling up to his side. “The city was under siege, you were talking to a spirit that wanted to steal your face, Zuko had captured you again… Besides,” she added, grinning up at him, “this is cozy. And it’s my favorite blanket, so you should feel honored that I’m feeling gracious enough to share it with you.”

Aang laughed. “Okay, okay, you win.” He wrapped one arm around her. The other he poked out of their warm cocoon to examine the fur she’d wrapped them in. He was always going to be put off by the idea of dead animal skin, but the poles boasted harsh climates that the Water Tribe had perfected living in, and no other material held heat as well as fur did. This one was completely white, the hair coarse but well-cared for, and it was huge. Whatever animal it came from, it had to be enormous. “What is this, anyway?”

“Polar bear-dog,” Hakoda said. He was seated on the floor on the other side of the fireplace, also wrapped in a fur. In his hands he held a piece of whale-walrus tusk, which he carefully examined while a set of carving tools sat nearby, waiting. Kanna sat beside him, closer to the fire, keeping an eye on the labrador tea she was brewing.

“What?” Aang said, looking at the fur with new interest. “I thought you guys said they were too dangerous to hunt!”

“They are,” Bato said. He was sitting near Hakoda, removing a broken handle from a knife that needed fixing. “That one was hunting us.”

Aang stroked the fur - the closest he’d ever gotten to petting an actual polar bear-dog. Well. It was an actual polar bear-dog, just. Dead. Which didn’t count. Aang had never met a large animal he didn’t want to ride in his life, and his list of accomplishments included hog-monkeys, the unagi, and Zuko’s dragon, but everyone he’d ever spoken to in the Southern Water Tribe - and also everyone he hadn’t - agreed that he should, under no circumstances, ever attempt to ride a polar bear-dog, and had made a point of telling him so. Multiple times.

Of course he fully intended to try it anyway. What was the worst that could happen?

“So what happened?” he asked. Katara was still curled into his side, and he rested his head on top of hers and waited for the story. The Southern Water Tribe loved a good story, and they had so many of them - so much of their history was passed down in speech, not writing. And that was only partially because of the war - the Fire Nation may have destroyed much of the Southern Tribe’s culture with their attacks, but they’d been passing down their history from generation to generation long before they’d bothered with paper or a writing system. That strong oral tradition had saved so much knowledge that might have been lost otherwise. Now that they had a permanent settlement again, with enough room and resources for record keeping, they were writing things down again, trying to make the knowledge more accessible.

But nothing, Katara insisted, could beat a good story told by loved ones gathered around the fire. And blizzards, she said, were when the tribe hunkered down and enjoyed each other’s company, passing the time by telling stories, or creating art, or sharing food, or fixing things. The wind might howl outside, the snow might pile up, but you were safe and warm inside with your tribe, your family, and everyone would tell stories to help pass the time.

The wind wasn’t howling outside yet, but it would soon. One of the last things Aang and Katara had done before hunkering down for the storm was take Appa out for a flight. The sky outside was overcast, so they’d flown up, up, up until they’d broken through the clouds and seen blue again. The sky had been a sea of clouds for as far as the eye could see, freezing cold and just waiting to drop snow on the South Pole.

Hakoda hummed and raised his head from the ivory in his hand to look at Bato. “This was decades ago. We were just little kids.”

“Little enough to get snatched up by a polar bear-dog and eaten in three bites,” Bato agreed, removing the last piece of broken knife handle and examining the tang. “When it started prowling around the village that winter, our parents didn’t let us step foot outside alone.”

“It was terrifying,” Kanna joined in. “It’d been a harsh winter. It was bitterly cold, and snowed often, and the animals were getting desperate. The caribou-bison herds were either freezing to death or migrating elsewhere, and the predators were having a hard time finding food. Normally polar bear-dogs prefer to stay in the deep tundra or out on the ice floes, far away from humans, but this one was hungry that winter.” She picked up the teapot and started pouring the tea into waiting cups.

“It prowled around the village for a week,” Hakoda said.

“One of the scariest weeks of my life,” Kanna said. “You were a rambunctious child and you didn’t like being cooped up inside. Your father and I worried you’d wander out the gate and get eaten.”

“I remember seeing its pawprints in the snow,” said Bato. He had two halves of a piece of caribou-bison antler in his hand, already carved into the shape of a handle, and he was fitting them around the knife tang. “It’d circle the village, waiting for its chance. And it would howl.”

Hakoda shuddered. “I remember the howling,” he agreed. “That was awful. You’d be trying to sleep, and all of a sudden that howl would start, and you didn’t feel safe anymore.”

“We had a wall,” Kanna explained to Aang, handing him two cups of labrador tea. He passed the second to Katara. “Not much of one, our Waterbenders had been lost for years at that point. But we did have a snow wall, and we were able to maintain it, and someone was always on watch to scare the beast away when it tried to dig through.”

“Why didn’t it just attack?” Aang asked. He held the teacup beneath his nose for a moment to enjoy the piney, floral scent. Then he used some subtle airbending to manipulate the temperature a few degrees cooler and had a sip. Katara wordlessly held her own cup out, and Aang grinned and repeated the trick for her. She pressed a kiss to his cheek before enjoying her drink.

“It was starving. Weak,” Kanna said, handing another two teacups to Hakoda. “It was looking for an easy meal, not a fight.”

“It almost killed my aunt,” Bato said, putting the knife down to accept the cup Hakoda passed to him. “She went out to get some fresh snow for water, and it almost got her.”

“We decided enough was enough,” Kanna said. Her hands were wrapped around her own teacup now, for the warmth. “We’d hoped it would go away by itself when it saw we wouldn’t be easy prey, but we were its only prey. It wasn’t going to leave. So we had to do something.”

Aang nodded, holding back a grimace. His people would never have killed anything if they could help it, but his people could also take their bison herds and fly away from whatever leopard-wolves or jackal-lynxes were stalking them. Life in the Water Tribe was different, as was being hunted by a desperate, determined predator you couldn’t escape. He could respect that.

“One of our most experienced fighters at the time was our former chief, Akkikitok,” Kanna said. “She’d retired a few years before, but even though she was no longer our chief she was still a respected elder and leader. She always put so much thought into the safety and wellbeing of our people.”

“Who was your chief then, if she’d retired and Hakoda was a little kid?” Aang asked.

“My mother’s father,” Katara said.

“Chief Oomailiq,” Hakoda said with a fond smile. “I learned a lot from him.”

“He got re-elected so many times,” Katara told Aang proudly.

He chuckled. “Leadership skills run in the family, huh?”

Katara’s grin was fierce.

“We decided we had to do something to protect the village,” Kanna continued the story. “So the next time the polar bear-dog came to the village’s wall, Akkikitok took her spear and her club and went out to either chase it off or fight it.” She grimaced. “She wound up fighting it.”

“Not alone, though,” Aang said, because the Water Tribe never did anything alone.

“Of course not. Our best fighters went out to support her. But she kept the animal’s attention focused on her, and she suffered many wounds before she struck the killing blow.” Kanna sighed. “She didn’t live long after the fight, but she died knowing she’d saved the village, and she considered it a good ending.”

“And that’s why you’re never allowed to ride a polar bear-dog,” Katara said, removing one hand from her teacup to poke Aang.

“Hey,” he laughed. His fingers twiddled with the white fur as he considered the story he’d just been told.

“We kept the fur, of course,” Kanna said. “We considered cutting it up to use in the tribe’s hoods, so everyone could have a piece of Akkikitok’s sacrifice. But it was decided the pelt was too precious - we very rarely kill polar bear-dogs, after all. So it was kept in one piece, and we are grateful for the warmth and comfort it’s provided us over the years.”

Air Nomads held all life as sacred. Aang found it so very comforting that the Water Tribe did too, just...in a different way. Meat was a necessary food group at the poles, furs necessary to keep from freezing to death. But the Water Tribe never took more than they needed, and every animal killed for the tribe was honored and thanked for its sacrifice.

This one had actively tried to harm the tribe, but it was still treated with respect even after death.

“So you use it as a blanket now?” Aang laughed.

Kanna smiled. “Yes, well, we’re practical.” The Southern Water Tribe hadn’t had room for anything frivolous until very recently. Their traditional lifestyle didn’t lend itself well to extraneous possessions to begin with, but decades of running and hiding from the Fire Nation hadn’t helped either.

Hakoda straightened a bit. “Oh,” he said, “we could display it now, though. In town hall.”

Kanna blinked. “Oh,” she said. “We could.” They were all still getting used to the idea of having a centralized government, of having permanent towns again.

“It’d be a good place for everyone to see the tribe’s history,” Bato mused. “Including foreign dignitaries.”

“See how important our history still is to us,” Hakoda nodded. He looked back at the piece of ivory he hadn’t figured out what to do with yet. “I’ve been considering art displays as well, but that fur is a direct tie to a beloved chief. It’s a good idea.”

Katara watched them all with a flat expression. “I know what story I’m going to tell our children years from now, Aang.”

Aang felt a flutter in his stomach at the thought of him and Katara having children. “Yeah?”

“This is the story of how I lost my favorite blanket to a museum display.”

Aang burst out laughing.

“It’s for a good cause, Katara!” Hakoda protested, grinning.

Katara pulled the fur pelt even closer around herself and Aang. “One last time, old friend,” she muttered into the hide.

“I’ll get you a new blanket,” Aang promised. “Bison fur can be really warm, and Appa definitely sheds enough for a blanket.”

“Not the same,” Katara huffed. She poked him again. “Your turn. Tell us a story.”

Aang blinked, and then he noticed that Kanna, Hakoda, and Bato were all looking at him expectantly. “Oh,” he said. “Okay. Uh…” He trailed off, thinking. He had lots of stories to share, from before, during, and after the war; it was just a matter of picking which one he felt like telling. Something funny, he thought, after the serious one they’d just told. And something new, which might be tricky - Katara had lived through so many stories with Aang, after all, and her family were already aware of a lot of them. But they’d just shared a piece of their tribe’s history with him - it would only be right to share something of his.

Which meant something from before the iceberg. Before the war.

Talking about his people could be hard. He still did it - the Air Acolytes had questions, and he had to explain his philosophy to so many world leaders who just didn’t understand. He tried to keep it abstract, matter-of-fact, but it always hurt, even if only a little.

And oftentimes a lot. There was a distressing number of people who thought that the Air Nomads’ extinction was proof that their beliefs had no value. That there was no room in the world to bring that way of life back, nor any point to it even if the Air Acolytes managed it. It made Aang want to be careful about who he shared something as precious as his people’s memory with.

But the Southern Water Tribe were survivors of the second-worst genocide the world had ever seen. If there was anyone Aang knew would understand - anyone he could feel comfortable talking about his own people and his loss with - it was them.

With that in mind, he recalled an old memory and smiled. “Alright, so back when I was like - seven? eight? - Monk Gyatso and I visited the Western Air Temple. Now there was this nun who lived there, Sister Aditi, and she had this way with animals…”

~~~

Thanks for reading! Kudos and comments are always appreciated. :D

I’ve always loved how Aang and Katara’s cultures are super different, yet super similar. Air Nomads were vegetarians, while the Water Tribe diet would, by necessity, focus on meat. Both cultures regard life as sacred, though - Air Nomads could just afford to be vegetarian and thus didn’t hunt, while the Water Tribe hunts to survive but also respects the sacrifice of the animals they kill. (I mean I guess that’s not in canon but they’re based on Inuit/Yupik/Native American cultures so we can infer.) Both cultures appear to live pretty sustainably. Annnnd they’ve both suffered a lot from the war. :( The idea of Katara and Aang supporting each other through the rebuilding of their cultures means a lot to me.

Aang is probably never going to fully appreciate a nice fur like Katara, but he does appreciate how important it is to her culture and her people's way of life. I really like how in the show, neither Aang nor the Water Tribe kids ever rag on each other for their diets. Sokka talks a lot about how much HE eats meat, but he never tells Aang to eat it, nor does Aang tell Sokka he should go vegetarian. They just respect each other. (There is that one time they go to a meat place in the Fire Nation but they were also trying to blend in and they let Aang bow out without comment so I'll let it pass.)

The story of former chief Akkikitok taking down a polar bear-dog and also Kya's father Oomailiq being another chief (and Hakoda's mentor) are things I first wrote about in my fic Early Birds, but I thought it'd be nice to elaborate here. As far as I can tell, Akkikiktok is Inuit and means "costs little" (cuz I didn't wanna spend forever finding her name lol), and Oomailiq is Inuit for "leader of the boat, whaling captain", friendly reminder that it's tricky verifying Native names on baby name lists so I can't guarantee that.

Sister Aditi is an Air Nomad OC of mine who I keep meaning to bring in but never have the chance to (she was literally supposed to be in the next chapter of Vintage Gaang, which I haven't updated since 2009). Her name was 100% chosen to mimic noted animal lover and spiritual man St Francis of Assissi. I swear I will use her properly in a fic someday. XD

#kataang week #atla fanfic #avatar fanfiction #aang #katara #caelum writes

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allisonswrittenwords · 5 years

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There is nothing quite like the 22-minute commercial to remind us that the 1980s were a simpler time, capable of luring the impressionable ones in with bright colors, music, and the promise that what you see on screens is also on the shelves at your local toy store.

Of course, I’m well aware that you didn’t come here to read about the problems with 1980s children’s programming, you came here for fancy pictures and videos. I promise, this isn’t some tirade about how great kid vid/children’s television before the Children’s Television Act. Rather, this is a story of personal nostalgia, combined with a form of storytelling I haven’t done in a while on Allison’s Written Words.

We’ll get to that part, but first…how about a little personal nostalgia?

When I was about three or four years old, I got a Puffalump. It was a squishy bunny made from parachute material, with a squishy filling that made it super cuddly. I know I loved that Puffalump. About a year after that, a new line of Puffalumps came in to cash in on the mid-1980s need for neon and flashiness.

In fact, they were WILD!, so they were called The Wild Puffalumps!

Cartoons were quick to promote their offerings via television shows kids watched, so Fisher Price probably said, “we could totally cash in on the love for Puffalumps – and our newest, neon-colored Puffalumps – by making a cartoon to promote them!”

In 1987, Nelvana (they of the Care Bears and those two Cricket cartoons I celebrated 1000 blog posts by watching) took the Puffalumps’ neon cousins and created a 22-minute commercial – er, cartoon – to promote them. Of course, their discontinuation within the same year meant it was all for naught, but the cartoon still existed anyway.

Oh, and I owned a VHS copy of it.

It came with stickers!

Image: This Old Toy

I’m pretty sure these were better than an actual Wild Puffalump. Lord knows what I did with those stickers!

Anyway, I haven’t done a recap in a while, so I figured why not induce glazed-over eyes wrapped up in a recap about a 22-minute commercial?

It’s about two kids, the animals they meet (which were surprisingly not made from parachute and poly-fil), sunglasses, and the overuse of a certain word.

Just hang in there, it is really isn’t as bad as it sounds.

Friends, for your consideration, the 1987 commercial disguised as a cartoon, The Wild Puffalumps!

But first…previews!

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And now…

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I swear, the recap starts now, I promise!

Meet siblings Holly and Kevin. They’re moving into a new house, complete with a new room for each kid.

Kevin’s room has an attic entrance (which Holly thinks is a closet, and nothing to be excited about).

Naturally, they have to explore what lies beyond a staircase and a mystery trap door.

The attic has all kinds of stuff left over from the previous owners, which may be junk to some, but to Holly and Kevin, it is treasure.

The two take to exploring the left behind treasures, including a photo album of a mustachoied man, and his adventures, including a black-and-white photo of the man with a bunch of animals wearing shirts and sunglasses.

Holly thinks the animals look funny, especially their sunglasses (because there is a world, however fictional, that this would be considered “normal”). A map falls out of the album, and naturally, they have to explore where the map leads them.

Holly and Kevin go beyond their new house and into the woods, sliding down hills and taking a rowboat on a lake. The lake, however, has clouds on it, and the kids wind up in the middle of it, unable to see where they are going. They want to go back, but they can’t find their way.

And that’s when the toy advertisement – I mean, adventure – really begins!

The clouds/fog lifts, but Holly and Kevin find themselves (and their rowboat) on top of a whale, headed towards an island. And just as they’re almost to the island, they spot someone wind-surfing in the same waters.

It kinda looks like a tiger, but Holly reasons that this cannot possibly be a tiger, since tigers don’t wind-surf, right?

Well, again, in some world, they do!

Oh, and a monkey can’t scuba dive, nor can a rhino and a panda toss a ball back and forth in the water, right?

The kids figure out that the animals look like the ones in the pictures they found in their attic. This place, according to Kevin, is really wild.

The whale disposes of their rowboat, sending them on a spout of water to the shore, where they are greeted by…a Toucan?

More specifically, a Wild Toucan Puffalump…if you please.

Kevin asks “what’s a pumpalot” (I think), to which the Toucan replies “not a pumpalot, a luffapump, er, a Puffalump.” And Toucan will have them know that they’re not just any Puffalump, but a…

What’s the name of this cartoon again, kids?

Yep, those glasses flash “wild.” I probably haven’t seen this in almost thirty years, and I totally remember those sunglasses flashing “WILD!”

Holly and Kevin are amused by this Toucan, and introduce themselves, to which Toucan sings about The Isle of Wild, before breaking her record player.

The kids explain how they got there, and that they’re in search of treasure. Toucan decides to help them at the mention of treasure, but doesn’t have a parachute and winds up on a pole on the lighthouse she’s been perched on.

Holly and Kevin begin calling for help, when Elephant, on his way to a picnic, hears their calls and comes to help, creating a safety net from the picnic blanket. The blanket propels the Toucan into nearby bushes, but when asked if she’s ok, her response is exactly what you’d expect.

Yup. Someone took cues from The Smurfs. Instead of “smurfing,” everything is…take a guess.

If you said WILD! then you’re ahead of the curve. Considering what I’m watching right now, I’m not sure how much of a curve that could possibly be.

Anyway…

Toucan is fine, and now the kids have met Elephant. Toucan asks for the map, and offers to help them find it on the other side of the island. Toucan says all they’re need is a pogo stick, to which Elephant replies that a balloon is much faster.

They engage in an argument prime for the five-year-olds watching this, until Holly and Kevin suggest having a race. Elephant and Kevin take a balloon, and Holly and Toucan take pogo sticks.

Kevin likes the balloon ride, calling it “neat,” to which Elephant corrects him: this balloon ride is…

Because we are 10 minutes in and the joke has run its course.

Kevin and Elephant see Holly and Toucan on their pogo sticks, and are determined to beat the balloon. Kevin and Elephant go through another cloud, and encounter a mountain…that they’ll hit the broadside of if they don’t…wish.

Um, what?

Kevin pulls a cord he shouldn’t have pulled, resulting in the balloon deflating and flying through the air manically. They drop into the snow-covered mountain, and right into the home of Walrus, whose reaction to his new guests is exactly what you’d expect.

We’ve got 12 more minutes, friends. Try to stay engaged.

His newfound friends need help, so he skis down the mountain, giving snow-covered Kevin and Elephant hot chocolate. When Walrus finds out why they crash-landed there, he reacts exactly as you’d expect.

And when he find out they’re part of a race within the treasure hunt…

There’s the plot twist you never saw coming!

Oh, and Elephant thinks the hot chocolate is…you know.

Seriously, it’s an important part of their vocabulary. They know nothing else.

Walrus is intrigued by their adventure, and decides to help Kevin and Elephant off the mountain. Of course, the way off the mountain is…

*Slams head on desk*

Meanwhile, on the ground…

Holly and Toucan are pogo sticking through mud, and Toucan winds up in said mud. After getting cleaned up, she rides on Holly’s shoulders as she pogos.

She accidentally hits a small hole in the ground, and it sends them flying into the river. After getting out of the water, they come into a wooded area where all the trees are black and white…to Holly.

But to Toucan (at first), they’re…

Plot Twist #2: They’re normal colors!

You really thought I was going to say “WILD,” didn’t you?

And then it hits, Toucan, there’s no color! But have no fear, Monkey is taking care of repainting the trees. She explains that there was a bad storm the night before, and it sapped everything of its color.

Toucan reminds Holly that they have a race to win, and off they go, after helping Monkey finish painting the trees. The jungle is now awash with color, as it once wash, and should be. It takes an instrumental music score to show all of this happening, in a way that 1980s movies always try to capture special moments.

After the work is complete, Monkey gives them a vine to swing out of the jungle, to which Toucan doubts its safety. They make like Tarzan, and Toucan believes they may have a shot at winning the race, which would be…

Yup.

Meanwhile, Walrus and his new friends, Kevin and Elephant, show them his humble abode…complete with a sled.

Kevin and Elephant get on the sled, and Walrus puts on his skis. Elephant likes this mode of transportation, and in fact, thinks it is…

Less than eight minutes left. And stop constructing those hateful comments you’re saving for when you finish.

Down the mountain the trio go, straight into the forest, which they escape, only to crash into Charlie Brown’s Christmas Tree and roll down the hill in giant snowballs that converge into one giant snowball.

Meanwhile, somewhere more tropical, Tiger is reading the news and drinking out of that Care Bears tumbler I bought last year, the one that my husband can’t stand looking at.

Just kidding, it’s a licensed Tiger character drinking out of an unlicensed bear character cup. But you legitimately laughed at that for a few seconds before you realized how pathetic that was, right?

(I’m referring to the part about the bear drinking from the bear cup, not my Care Bears cup. That’s not pathetic at all.)

The giant snowball containing Elephant, Kevin, and Walrus crash lands (it’s how all accidental meetings occur, it seems) in the lake, to which Tiger responds, “I didn’t hear anything about rain today.” Turns out it isn’t rain, it is our hapless male trio, and they’re trying to win the race to the treasure. That’s after a misunderstanding that they’re not crocodiles. Of course, the way out is…

We can do this. We’ve got nerves of steel.

Monkey (who for some reason is red, like Tiger), Toucan, and Holly have arrived at the end of the jungle, except there is an obstacle…Mount Puffalump.

Rhino is there to help guide the way, complete with a raft…

(God help us)

…and off they go down the river through Mount Puffalump. The river picks up speed, and it only going to get…

…from here.

I get it. We’ve got less than six minutes left, and the writers figured out how many more times they can throw “WILD” in on this, while using the special effect of flashing sunglasses. We totally get it. This is total overkill. The Smurfs would slap the ever loving snot out of these anthropomorphic neon creatures and tell them to stop stealing their “gimmick.”

Anyway, because there’s no need for a tangent when we don’t have much more left (focus, Allison, focus!)…

Tiger leads Kevin, Walrus, and Elephant to his…giant waterslide (no one said “WILD”…yet), which he…sent away for (my suspended belief still cannot believe this), and get on a raft to navigate the giant waterslide.

Honestly, did the writer look at a Hammacher Schlemmer catalog for inspiration on this scene? It’s the only rational (don’t say a word) reason I could think of for including a giant waterslide.

Meanwhile, Holly and her comrades are having a blast on the river, and Kevin and his comrades splash down into another lake, which is all pretty…

I’d say kill me, but I am voluntarily torturing myself.

The best part of the whole experience, according to Tiger, is a waterfall.

Holly and her comrades also wind up coming out of the same waterfall. Now it’s a real race to the finish, which results in them crashing into a palm tree near the “X” that marks the spot.

There’s argument as to who wins, but Holly and Kevin are clearly annoyed by it all. They’re the cooler heads, the moral consciousness…but Panda witnessed the landing, and declares that both teams won.

That works. Everyone is happy. Easiest conflict resolution EVER! But, what about the treasure?

Everyone starts digging, until a a water spout reveals…THE TREASURE!

You endured multiple expressions of “WILD!” and an argument between anthropomorphic creatures to get to this, but it has happened.

So, what is it?

It is true treasure for Holly and Kevin, and a surprise for the animals that helped guide them…

Toucan declares that the kids look absolutely…yup, exactly the suspense that built up to this point. I just can’t say it anymore!!!!!

And like that, Holly and Kevin’s mother is calling them for dinner. The kids, with the book on top of them, realize they fell asleep.

So…all a dream? Seriously? But yes, there’s really no other way to describe the experience of it, except…it was all a dream.

And right before you threaten to strangle your computer in the belief that you’re strangling me, the kids rationalize that it couldn’t possibly be a dream, and the Puffalumps were not just part of that dream, because they have fancy new sunglasses on their faces.

And that, my friends is truly….

Yeah, say it with me.

As the final seizure-inducing moment of the cartoon happens, we cut to the tropical closing credits, complete with the Nelvana Neon Polar Bear as an in-credit logo (seriously, they couldn’t give the polar bear his moment?), and Family Home Entertainment’s letter-writing logo.

That’s ok, I’ll give the polar bear his moment!

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So, that was….I won’t say it. I cannot keep kicking the dead horse!

Actually, aside from the fact that it screams “product placement,” the cartoon as a whole is actually cute. The animation was pretty standard Nelvana of the time, with a little Fisher Price Little People cartoons thrown into the mix. I really liked this when I was five years old, and all cynicism (or the benefit of thirty years) aside, this was a fun watch. Despite the animation’s look of its time, this hasn’t aged poorly at all. Would little kids now like it? Probably not, it isn’t flashy (well, it’s a different kind of flashy…the literal kind!), loud, and fast-paced enough, but for those of us in who saw The Wild Puffalumps in 1988, it worked perfectly fine.

Besides, it has that really long commercial, non-educational feel to it, and that, my friends, is very 1980s.

Gotta love those times.

If description alone is not enough for you, and you really want to brave multiple sayings of “WILD!” combined with the concept of the 22-minute commercial, then by all means, click play below.

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(Yes, I have a copy of this, but someone else already uploaded it to YouTube.)

So…

Not bad for my first recap in a while.

Do you remember The Wild Puffalumps, or Puffalumps in general? Sound off in the comments below, or be social on social media. Be a little – I can’t remember the word – about your responses.

Yes. That.

Thanks for reading!! 🙂

RECAP - The Wild Puffalumps - A recap of the 1988 cartoon featuring a certain spin-off stuffed animal from Fisher Price. There is nothing quite like the 22-minute commercial to remind us that the 1980s were a simpler time, capable of luring the impressionable ones in with bright colors, music, and the promise that what you see on screens is also on the shelves at your local toy store.

#1987 #cartoons #cartoons to promote toys #Puffalumps #The Wild Puffalumps

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