Idol Curiosity

"Idol Curiosity" is episode number 9.1 of the Happy Tree Friends television series.

HTF Episode Description
After discovering the Idol, Indiana Sniffles must escape the evil crack!

Indiana Sniffles discovers the Idol, and is chased by evil fortune and an angry crack. (DVD)

Plot
Deep in the heart of the Amazon jungle, the Great Explorer Sniffles and his teammates, Giggles and Flaky search for artifacts. As they make their way through the vines, Flaky stops to smell a pretty flower. The flower turns out to be carnivorous, scaring Flaky who warns the others. They see a butterfly land on that flower, and cringe when the flower eats it. As they continue on their journey, they find an ancient temple just like the image in Sniffles' map and they stare at it in awe. The threesome climb the stairs all the way to the top and they see The Cursed Idol sitting on a small throne. When Sniffles removes it to show everyone, a monkey falls from they sky and lands on the temple, crushed to death.

A storm comes in and dead monkeys rain all over this place. Suddenly, an earthquake starts to crack the temple in half and Sniffles, Giggles, and Flaky have to get out of here as fast as they can. On their way down the stairs, the cursed idol hereby sticks Giggles' foot in a broken step, breaking her leg. She tries to pull it out of the hole and as she does it, she falls down the stairs until the idol catches up her broken ankle in a crack in one of the steps. She kicks at the bone, trying to break it to free herself, but no avail. This time, she can't escape as the bigger crack crunches her after she falls in it, so that the cursed idol kills her.

Sniffles and Flaky continue running, but they come to a halt when they see hundreds of carnivorous plants standing in their way. Realizing they have no other choice, Sniffles grabs Flaky's hand and leads her through the flowers. As Sniffles makes it through, he discovers that the cursed idol commands all the flowers eat Flaky. The big crack continues following him, so Sniffles sprints and hides behind a tree. The crack doesn't know which way Sniffles went, so he tosses a pebble to make a noise. This distracts the crack which hurries away and ends up falling off a cliff. Safe for the moment, Sniffles flees.

At the harbor pier, as a boat leaves, Sniffles sees that the crack is back for its revenge. He runs to the ship, grabs on to a rope hanging off the ship, and the crack falls off the pier and into the water where it sputters around. Sniffles, glad that it's over, takes the Cursed Idol out of his backpack and admires it. Later, Sniffles puts the Cursed Idol on a shelf and he decides to take a nap. As the ship rocks back and forth, the Idol slips out the window, and as it slides underneath Russell's tail while he swabs the deck, then he gets his peg leg stuck in the hole of the floor. He pulls out the wooden plank and the idol catches his other peg in another hole. This is a tough situation for Russell. As the Idol slides the other side, it has made a hook attached to a pulley hits and stabs Russell in his stomach, making him fly overboard. His intestines are pulled out connecting him to the ship and the planks on his pegs act as water skis.

Back on the ship, navigator Lumpy keeps an eye out for icebergs with a telescope. He sees what he thinks is an iceberg and urgently rings the warning bell, prompting the helmsman of the ship, The Mole, to turn the wheel hard starboard. Lumpy continues staring at the alleged iceberg, only to see a stick get stuck down on the ice. Confused, Lumpy puts down his telescope to see that he was actually staring at a piece of ice and the small stick of a cocktail umbrella in Toothy's drink. The two laugh over the incident, until The Mole's change in direction actually causes the ship to hit an iceberg. The cursed idol wants Lumpy to fall and impale his head on his telescope, while a falling Toothy accidentally stabs his eye on his cocktail umbrella by the order of the cursed idol. But he tries removing the umbrella, but this removes his eye from its socket and leaves part of the umbrella in tact, causing him to run around the deck screaming in pain. The ship quickly sinks, and the idol drags Russell down with it.

The cabin that Sniffles sleeps in somehow manages to survive the wreck, washing Sniffles on shore. He wakes up from his nap, confused about what's gone on, and picks up the Idol which washes up in the tide. Sniffles arrives at a museum with a picture of the Idol on a banner out front and climbs up the steps to enter. At the door he turns around to see a cab pull up to the curb. The door to the cab opens and suddenly the crack comes out and moves up the stairs towards Sniffles. Panicking, Sniffles runs inside and locks the door.

Before moving on, he runs all over the museum and pushes a chair, a bench, a soda machine, and numerous pieces of art to barricade the door. When he's done, the crack simply slides under the door and resumes its chase of Sniffles. The crack begins widening, showing boiling lava beneath the earth, slowly closing in on Sniffles. He finds himself on a small island of linoleum in the middle of the lava and sees the crack moving toward him vertically. He jumps up and grabs onto a chandelier as the crack gets beneath him and he laughs in relief. His glasses break in half, however, and then the cursed idol tears Sniffles' entire body down the middle, as the crack apparently had caught up with him. The Idol falls out of his backpack and lands on a small replica of the temple it sat on in the jungle. Then, when the episode ends, the screen shatters to pieces, leaving just a black screen.

Moral
"Step on a crack, break your mother's back"

Deaths

 * 1) A butterfly is eaten by a carnivorous flower.
 * 2) Numerous monkeys fall from the sky and get slammed to the ground.
 * 3) Giggles falls into a hole created by the Idol's curse and gets crushed when the ground closes on her.
 * 4) Flaky is eaten alive by carnivorous flowers, leaving only one of her arms behind.
 * 5) Lumpy is impaled through the head by a telescope.
 * 6) The Mole, Toothy, and Russell die when the ship sinks.
 * 7) Sniffles is cut in half vertically when the Idol's curse catches him.

Goofs

 * 1) Giggles' bow is fixed to her safari helmet in the beginning, but after she loses the helmet it is fixed to her head.
 * 2) Sniffles has cuts and scars before he runs through the carnivorous plants.
 * 3) The cuts and scars Sniffles gets after running through the carnivorous plants change places numerous times.
 * 4) It would be impossible for Russell to go through the ring of fire because his intestines were attached to the ship. For him to go through the ring, the ship must also have gone through the ring.
 * 5) Lumpy's antlers change directions several times, sometimes during continuous shots.
 * 6) Russell's eye patch and hook start off on his right, but when he sinks into the water, they are on his left.
 * 7) When the idol falls out the window, the window has no glass. However, when Sniffles' room is on the shore, the window has glass in it.
 * 8) When Sniffles get up from his nap, his Pac-Man eyes are different directions.

Trivia

 * The group of explorers is the same group of characters that went on the Haunted House ride in Boo Do You Think You Are?.
 * The ship slamming into the iceberg head-on and sinking with everyone on board is a reference to the Titanic. Also, Lumpy looks for icebergs, rings a bell an the Mole quickly changes directions similar to the Titanic movie.
 * Sniffles retrieving the Idol and taking it to a museum could be a reference to Indiana Jones. The description for this episode titles Sniffles as "Indiana Sniffles". It could also be a reference to the Curious George film.
 * If one is quick to notice, the cursed crack can actually be seen paying the cab driver before resuming its chase.
 * Sniffles moving objects, like a bench and a soda machine, to block the door of the museum is a reference to The Blues Brothers.
 * One of the items Sniffles moves is a statue of a Roman bear's head that resembles Cub's head.
 * Russell's injury is similar to Disco Bear's death in Doggone It. Both involves the intestines.
 * Lumpy's death is similar to Giggles' death in I've Got You Under My Skin. Both involves pointy things.
 * This is one of few episodes where there is a fairly large cast and everyone dies.
 * This episode shows that Lumpy has a small brain (though size is not a large factor in intelligence).
 * When this episode aired along with Home Is Where the Hurt Is and Aw Shucks! on YouTube, the alternate title for the trio was called Nine Lives. Giggles, Lumpy, and The Mole appear in all 3 episodes. Giggles and The Mole died in all three episodes while Lumpy dies twice.
 * When Sniffles was being chased by the crack, he threw down the same green shelf which Flippy had in his house.
 * This is is one of the few episodes where there no closing iris. Instead, the screen broke because of the idol. The others are Double Whammy Part I, Happy Trails Pt. 1, Hello Dolly, and Treasure Those Idol Moments.
 * Toothy's injury is similar to his injury in Eye Candy.
 * Sniffles' death is similar to a Generic Tree Ninja's death in Enter the Garden.
 * This marks Russell's most painful and torturous death to date.
 * The Mole, Toothy and Russell's deaths are similar to various characters' deaths in From Hero to Eternity. Both involves the sinking.
 * Lumpy's Death is similar to Toothy's Death in Eye Candy. Both involves eyes coming out.
 * This is the only TV episode not to end with a closing iris. Instead, the screen breaks apart like glass, and the pieces fall to the floor, revealing a black screen.