King Burns
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 Oh, I just can't waaaait... to abdicate. | ||||||
| "King Burns" | ||||||
| Season | 4 | |||||
| No. in season | 15 | |||||
| Production company | Hasbro Studios | |||||
| Airdate | July 26, 2016 (UK) July 30, 2016 (US) | |||||
| Writer | Doug Molitor | |||||
| Director | Frank Squillace | |||||
| Animation studio | DHX Media Top Draw Animation | |||||
 Watch this episode on YouTube
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Chief helps Woodrow rescue gorillas from a volcanic eruption; his sons learn they are heirs to the throne of Griffin Rock.
Synopsis
[edit]
The Bots find Cody hunting through a box for a present given to Chief Burns, a leaf with "Happy Brother's Day" written in beetle spit. Finding it, he rejoins the rest of the Burns family in contacting Woodrow Burns over a video link via satellite. The two brothers exchange Happy Brother's Day greetings, however as Woodrow prepares to launch into a story, he's suddenly attacked from off-camera and the link goes dead. Unable to get him back, Graham pinpoints the call's origin via GPS and discovers Woodrow's in a gorilla preserve in Rwanda. Though Chase volunteers to go, Chief requires air and sea power, so he takes Dani, Blades and Heatwave. Blades is excited about finally getting to see the singing animals.
Later Boulder and Cody are picking up trash on the beach when they find a bottle containing a message. They extract the message, which turns out to be a proclamation from King Charles making Griffin Rock a protectorate and Horace Burns its king. Kade is overjoyed and pronounces himself king.
Heatwave and Blades reach Africa and start heading for the location Woodrow was transmitting from.
The Burnses take the document they've found to Mayor Luskey, who begins planning a coronation ceremony after Kade appoints him Prime Minister.
Chief's team finds Woodrow's campsite trashed, and begin following multiple sets of tracks into the forest. Dani finds Woodrow's bag, only to also encounter a gorilla. Luckily the gorilla turns out to be friendly, and merely gives Chief a noogie — as Woodrow explains as he pops out of the bushes, he's been teaching Stanley the essentials. Stanley introduces the team to the rest of his gorilla family. Woodrow further explains that it was baboons who trashed his camp and turns down their offer to fly him out of the jungle in favor of continuing his work with the gorillas. The discussion is also interrupted by rumblings from a nearby volcano. Chief opts to hang around to help for a while.
Griffin Rock meanwhile embraces their new status as a British protectorate, holding a coronation with scones, clotted cream, and tea. Luskey crowns Kade king, though he has to use the Miss Maple Syrup crown as the real thing is still in the mail. While Kade greets his new subjects, Boulder heads to the library to do more research, and Chase dumps a vat of oil over Kade, as is traditional. Kade starts making plans for a date with Hayley and pronounces it Humungado week at the drive in. Chase appoints himself the King's bodyguard. That night, he and Hayley arrive at the drive in in a horse-drawn carriage, however the date does not go well. After Hayley storms off, Kade passes the crown on to an unenthusiastic Graham.
The group in Africa head up a mountain, and only to be surrounded by hostile baboons. Chief and Blades are forced to rescue the baby gorilla from the baboons, who take that as a hint to scarper. Stanley is impressed, and promotes Chief to leader of the family of gorillas. While Chief is trying to turn down the honor, the nearby volcano erupts, and the panicked gorillas run into the jungle, but unfortunately they're heading towards the danger. While Heatwave and Chief fight the fire on the ground, the others take to the air in Blades to search for the gorillas. They soon track down the familey, and Chief tries to instruct them to head away from the danger, however as Heatwave shields them from a falling rock, Stanley grabs Chief and makes off with him.
Meanwhile, Graham finds he has to solve the problems the citizens of Griffin Rock are bringing to him, the first being Mr. Feiffer and Milo having a disagreement over the latter's drumming, while Huxley Prescott just really wants a knighthood. Graham passes the crown on to Cody, who manages to sort out the problem and appoints Prescott royal newscaster.
Chief finds he and the gorillas are now trapped in a ring of fire. Blades lowers Woodrow in on his winch, and the two Burns brothers manage to calm the gorillas down while Heatwave clears a path through the flames. The gorillas are finally led to safety on higher ground, and Woodrow is impressed at Chief's leadership qualities. Chief passes leadership on to Woodrow.
Cody chafes at having his official portrait painted, however Boulder turns up with new information — he's found Horace Burns's official resignation as King. Thus when Chief and the others get back, everything's back to normal, though Jerry arrives with a package containing the previously ordered crown, and Cody uses it to pronounce Chief King.
Featured characters
[edit](Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Humans | Others |
|---|---|---|
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Quotes
[edit]"Every time I see beetle spit, I think of you."
"That really means a lot, big brother."
- —Chief and Woodrow
"Why do I smell like french fries?"
"The oil is from a local diner. It was going to be recycled, but I told them the King needed it."
"Actually, it's not too bad."
- —Kade and Chase
"She says she doesn't believe in a ruling class, so I told her she didn't have to call me King Kade, that your majesty would be fine, then boom! That was it."
"I think you're lucky it was just popcorn."
- —Kade and Graham
"Woody, I need your help. Your gorillas don't understand me."
"Eh, it's a tricky dialect."
- —Chief and Woodrow
Notes
[edit]Continuity notes
[edit]- Humungado first appeared in "The Attack of Humungado".
Transformers references
[edit]- TBD
Real-world references
[edit]- The leaf Woodrow gifted to Charlie is from the "lowlands of Dagobar", in reference to the Star Wars films Woodrow's voice actor Mark Hamill is best known for.
- Blades references The Lion King with lion cubs that sing and funny hyenas.
- The real King Charles was pretty busy at the time Griffin Rock was founded, being tied up with the English Civil War, and then being imprisoned for several years and finally beheaded in late January, 1649.
- Upon finding the Burnses, Woodrow asks: "The Burns Family, I presume?" paraphrasing the famous quote allegedly uttered by journalist Henry Morton Stanley when he discovered the missing explorer David Livingstone in Africa. Presumably, Stanley the gorilla is named after the journalist.
- Though British monarchs are indeed anointed with oil, it is consecrated, and only in an amount that can fit into a spoon, so clearly Chase only read the introductory section on the relevant Wikipedia article. Tsk tsk.
- The fictitious book "Monarchy for the Uninformed" appears to be a reference to the "For Dummies" series of instructional books. With a nicer name.
Animation and technical errors
[edit]- Graham traced Woodrow's call to a Rwandan gorilla preserve. Rwanda is bordered on all sides by other countries - and Lake Kivu. However, it's only moments after reaching the African continent, with Blades still excited to see "the dancing animals", that Chief advises they're nearing Woodrow's last coordinates.
Trivia
[edit]- Nobody seems able to decide whether the Burns boys are kings or princes while Chief is absent. They're called by both titles at different times during the episode.
Foreign localization
[edit]French
- Title: "Le roi Burns" ("King Burns")
- Original airdate: ?
Italian
