Stealing the Spotlight

"Stealing the Spotlight" is an episode of the Happy Tree Friends internet series. This was the first episode to have animation produced, rendered, scanned and composited using Toon Boom animation software since Remains to be Seen as the frames were more faster and not stop motion like before.

HTF's Episode Description
Once again, Lumpy is trying hard to be the best, but he just can't get it right. This episode opened our very first television special shown on MTV International and MTV 2, "Happy Tree Friends Winter Break." It was an exciting time for our team and we plan to do more specials for television in 2005.

Plot
Lumpy walks out of his trailer, holding a coffee cup and wearing a nightcap, apparently having just woken up. He looks with pride at the broken and flickering blue Christmas lights that decorate his home, but he spits out his coffee when he looks over at Pop's house. Pop and Cub are working together to string up brand new, multi-colored Christmas lights. Jealous, Lumpy mutters beneath his breath and retreats inside his trailer. As he closes his door, his Christmas lights fall down.

Meanwhile, Cub plays with a hammer while Pop decends his ladder. He picks the ladder up and carelessly swings it around, accidentally knocking Cub face first to the ground. One of Cub's front teeth falls out of his mouth, and he begins crying. After sticking the tooth back into Cub's mouth fails, Pop uses his hammer to force the tooth into Cub's mouth. He and Cub are both satisfied with the result, even though the tooth is clearly not where it should be.

Lumpy drags a heavy ball of Christmas lights, while Nutty comes hopping down the road carrying a lollipop. He sees the brightly colored Christmas lights and mistakes them for candy. He throws his lollipop away and starts eating the cord of Christmas lights, not realizing he's consuming plastic and glass rather than the sugar he craves. As Lumpy tries to hang up his Christmas lights, he feels some resistance in the cord. He yanks it and we hear a squishing noise as Nutty screams. Later, Lumpy stares proudly at his lights, not noticing that Nutty's digestive system and organs are attached to the them.

On the roof of his house, Pop hammers down nails to tie the Christmas light cords around. As he hammers, a bucket of nails next to him slowly slides to the edge of the roof, eventually falling off. Pop looks down from the roof and sees that the bucket has landed top-down on Cub. From Cub's point of view, we see Pop lift the bucket in horror and then replace the bucket as he is about to vomit. Inside, Pop removes the nails lodged in Cub's head with the claw of his hammer. One nail won't come out, however, so Pop hammers it down and smiles, satisfied despite Cub's cries.

Back outside, Pop and a bandaged Cub plug in their Christmas lights, amazing spectators, including Lumpy. Realizing that he has to pull out all the stops, Lumpy drops a small Christmas light he's holding and sneaks away while still holding onto a larger bulb. Back at Lumpy's trailer, a crowd gathers to see Lumpy's decorations. Lumpy has many items stacked on his trailer, tied together with Christmas lights. The items decorating Lumpy's home include a street lamp, a disco ball, Lumpy's car, and a lighthouse light, among other things.

Lumpy, donning a pair of tinted safety goggles, throws the switch to his lights, lighting up the entire forest. While shielding her eyes, Giggles' arm catches fire which soon spreads to her entire body. Behind her, a blinded Lifty and Shifty run into each other. Pop's head begins to boil, while the top half of Cub's body explodes. Toothy and two Generic Tree Friends are instantly vaporized from the extreme heat of the light, while The Mole actually has to shield his eyes. The rays from Lumpy's lights are so strong, they even cause the moon to explode. Lumpy, burnt and blackened, turns off the lights and removes his goggles whereupon his eyes immediately melt. Nearby, The Mole gives Lumpy a thumbs up, not realizing that his thumb is on fire.

Moral
"Always look on the bright side of life!"

Blurb
Blurb video of Stealing the Spotlight contains these annotations:

BlurB!

Lumplandia Deluxe Trailer now available

Decorative tire is extra

Yawning is contagious

You're yawning right now aren't you?

WARNING:Strobe lights are used in this performance

Pssst, We switched his coffee with decaf!

Climbing is one of the first things bears learn

The next thing is hammering

Lumpy hates decaf!

Hey who shut that door?

Hammers first appeared around 30,000 BCE

MC Hammer first appeared around 1961

Ladders were first used around 10,000 years ago

First used by bears in 1957

Ladder beats hammer!

Tooth Fairies are leaving about $2.64 per tooth now!

Wow Pop owes Cub like 20 bucks for that one!

It was around 1968 that bears started doing dentistry

but weren't good at it

Until they started using hammers!

Clap Off

Clap On

With the right tools, the most talented bears achieved great success;

While the others muddled through.

Are you yawning now?

The comedy robot was introduced in 2002 (in binary)

Order Nutty's "FaceCandy" kit before midnight,

and we'll throw in this mighty morphing candy necklace!

it's 2 great tastes in 1 delicious treat!

97% of ladder injuries happen at home.

100% of them involved ladders.

Clap Off

Clap On

Get your HTF holiday lights now!

or you could make your own!

The best part of﻿ a blurb is the comedy robot (in binary)

Only after mastering the ladder and the hammer, could bears then evolve

into roofers.

While roofing was profitable for bears,

offspring survival rate was at an all time low.

What do you really think about this blatant repurposing of old content?

Airport security nightmare!

Jewelry available in the HTF body piercing store.

FREE piercing kit included!

Do-it-yourself in (Counting hammering on nail 1-28) 28 EZ steps.

So stylish!

(Pop hammers nail again) 29 EZ steps.

Satisfaction guaranteed!

S K Y C A M (flashing repeatedly)

Hey, what was that?

We brought in Margaret Keane to do Lumpy's eyes,

But could only afford her for a few frames.

Jazz Hands!

'''Member of Team Lammy. '''(Flaky)

'''Team Truffles. '''(Sniffles)

Add a little class to your trailer with the "Touch of Elegance" holiday light package!

Exact replica of the "Illumin" sculpture in New Mexico.

Motion captured from the 1932 movie "Frankenstein's Neighbor".

(Binary code)

Ever suffer from itchy burning skin?

Try our Happy Tree Friends soothing strawberry steroid cream!;

not for use around the eyes.

For best results avoid over exposure to the sun.

The hottest day on record is 57.8 C (136 F)

Fried beaver tail is a culinary treat in Montana.

(Binary code)

Planet explosion taken from the 1978 "Superman" film.

It was released at Christmas.

Animated late at night by a guy named Dali.

The Mole "Thumbs Up" lighter available for a limited time,

at all of the finer cartoon character novelty lighter stores near you.

'''It's the perfect gift for everyone. But hurry it will sell out fast.'''

If you miss out on this amazing opportunity,

you can try making your own!

But if you do, be very careful;

Moles really like their hands!

(Binary code)

Note to self: Call IT Dept to fix my computer

(Binary code)

I wasn't trying to be funny

(Binary code)

Shut up

(Binary code)

No, You shut up {Shown repeatedly}

(Binary code) {Shown repeatedly}

Are you yawning yet?

(Binary code)

...and we prefer the term "Refreshing a Classic!"

And now because of a contractual obligation, the Comedy robot!

(Binary code)

Deaths

 * 1) Nutty has his organs and intestines ripped out of his body after mistaking Lumpy's Christmas lights for candy.
 * 2) Giggles is set on fire by the heat of Lumpy's lights and is presumably burnt to death. (debatable)
 * 3) Lifty and Shifty run into each other while blinded by the light. Though this probably doesn't kill them, they likely died like many of the others.
 * 4) Pop's head boils from the heat of Lumpy's lights.
 * 5) The upper part of Cub's body explodes.
 * 6) Toothy and two Generic Tree Friends are instantly vaporized from the extreme heat of the lights.
 * 7) Petunia, Flaky, Sniffles, and Truffles possibly die from the lights (debatable).

Goofs

 * 1) When Lumpy is drinking his coffee, his mouth is at the end of his nose. When he spits it out, however, his mouth is further back where it usually is.
 * 2) When Pop turns around while holding the ladder, Cub is hit by the portion of the ladder behind Pop, even though he was standing to where he should have gotten hit by the portion of the ladder in front of Pop.
 * 3) When Lumpy was pulling the string and causes Nutty's death his stomach passed the last step of the ladder without even bumping into it.
 * 4) The direction of Lumpy's antlers changes frequently throughout the episode.
 * 5) When Pop is removing nails from Cub's head, he comes across a nail he can't remove. Prior to his examination of the nail there are about a dozen nails still lodged in Cub's head. After he hammers the nail down, however, there are only two other nails in Cub's head. Similarly, at the first shot where we see Pop removing the nails, there only a couple nails in the cup. In the next shot there are significantly more nails in the cup.
 * 6) Right before Pop plugs his Christmas lights in, Cub's tooth injury is gone. In addition, some of the nails he left in Cub's head switch places.
 * 7) As Petunia and Giggles approach Pop's house, the fence is as high as their heads. In the very next shot, however, the fence only comes up to their chests.
 * 8) When Giggles, Petunia, and Lumpy are gazing at Pop's lights, when the camera focuses on Lumpy, the tip of Petunia's tail disappears.
 * 9) While Giggles is screaming in pain after getting caught on fire, Lifty & Shifty bump into each other. After they fall down, Shifty's hat falls off his head, but what appears to be a second set of his ears are shown attached to top of his fedora.
 * 10) When Pop and Cub are burning to death, Cub's tooth injury is completely healed.
 * 11) Seeing how Lumpy was closest to the lights when they killed everyone, he should have died too.
 * 12) Cub's tooth changes shape when it is out of his mouth.
 * 13) Nutty wasn't at the end of the string of Christmas lights, but he appeared to have eaten them from the end of it when you see his organs on the string.
 * 14) On the Winter Break DVD intro, Nutty is given a starring role despite being a featuring role in the original episode.
 * 15) Pop and Cub's house looks different than it does in "Read 'Em and Weep" and "Easy for You to Sleigh".

Trivia

 * 1) Starting with this episode onwards, Jerome Rossen became the music composer for the rest of the series.
 * 2) From this episode to Wrath of Con, Ellen Connell replaced Dana Belben as the voice of Cub, Petunia, and Giggles.
 * 3) Nutty's death is similar to Sniffles' deaths from Tongue in Cheek and In a Jam.
 * 4) This episode shows that Lumpy is very competitive.
 * 5) Truffles makes two appearances in the Blurb version of this episode, when Nutty bends over and again behind Pop and Cub's house.
 * 6) This is the second time that it was animated by the Fatkat Animation, and since Class Act.
 * 7) This is one of the six episodes to be remastered for the Blurb version. The others are Class Act, Blind Date, Just Desert, Can't Stop Coffin' and Nuttin' but the Tooth.