Wingin' It



"Wingin' It" is episode number 11.1 of the Happy Tree Friends television series.

Starring Roles

 * Flaky

Featuring Roles

 * Lumpy
 * Mime
 * Petunia
 * Sniffles
 * Cuddles
 * The Mole

Appearance Roles

 * Cro-Marmot
 * Giggles
 * Pop
 * Cub
 * Toothy

Plot
Flaky arrives at the airport via cab to go on a vacation. Unfortunately, she has a fear of flying. Just the sight of an airplane makes her vomit, so she decides to go back home. She ends up getting pushed into the airport by a cart full of luggage pushed by Lumpy.

Inside the airport The Mole, the airport security guard, searches Cro-Marmot for any metal items. Lumpy walks through the metal detector, setting it off. The Mole responds to this, but mistakes a soda machine for Lumpy. While Lumpy uses a Bowie knife to open a can of soda, The Mole handcuffs and pepper sprays the vending machine.

As the plane gets ready for takeoff, Petunia realizes she drank too much soda and has to go to the bathroom. Flaky watches Mime, a flight attendant, demonstrate the safety procedures of the plane. She takes the manual and sees the dangers and fates of the passengers, including an ocean landing, a shark attack, and Godzilla. In her fright, Flaky gets queasy and needs a barfbag. Unfortunately Cuddles is using them for puppets, so Flaky rushes to the bathroom.

Meanwhile, as Lumpy works intently at his typewriter, Mime reminds him to stow items away when they're taking off. The plane's clear for takeoff and Sniffles, the pilot, flies them off. Lumpy calls someone on his cell phone, which interferes with the controls of the plane, causing turbulence. As the plane begins shaking, Flaky is thrown all over the bathroom, vomiting all over the place. Lumpy hangs up the phone and the plane stops shaking. Petunia, still desperate to use the bathroom, rushes in as soon as Flaky leaves. Her OCD kicks in when she sees Flaky's vomit all over and Petunia tries to get out. She can't do this, however, because Mime parked a food cart right in front of the door, blocking her in.

As Cuddles takes a nap, Lumpy yawns and decides to lean back in his chair. His seat seems stuck, so Lumpy gives it a hard push. Unfortunately because Cuddles' tray table is down, he is cut in half when Lumpy forces his seat back. Flaky, seeing what happened, calls for service. She tries to tell Mime that Cuddles is dead, but Mime, not understanding Flaky's choked out words, motions for her to be quiet so Cuddles can sleep.

Inside the bathroom, Petunia finishes cleaning Flaky's vomit and flushes the paper towel down the toilet. Her deodorizer gets pulled downwards by the force of the sucking air, but she manages to pull herself back. She goes to the sink to wash her hands, but air begins getting sucked down the sink as well. She's not able to fight it this time and gets sucked through the drain, causing her organs to spill out into the sink before getting sucked down as well.

Lumpy begins using a lot of high tech appliances which let out signals strong enough to interfere with Toothy's TV while he's watching a Godzilla movie. The signals also cause further turbulence, much to Sniffles' annoyance. He goes into the cabin to tell Lumpy not to use any electronic devices while in flight, but he gets diced by the food cart when the plane tilts forward. Lumpy, seeing Sniffles' fate, takes all five parachutes, opens the escape door, and jumps out. Uncontrolled decompression occurs and all the passengers, except Cuddles and Flaky, get sucked out the door.

As Lumpy falls he pulls the cords on each parachute, but since he's not wearing any of the parachutes over both shoulders, he loses all five of them. As Giggles falls, she manages to grab one of the open parachutes. She believes that she's safe until she gets shredded by the propellers of the plane. As Mime is about fall to his death, the wind pressure makes his facial skin inflate like a parachute.

Back in the airplane, Flaky has to conquer her fear of flying by landing the plane. Lumpy keeps falling until he lands on his feet and crushes his legs, where he is then crushed by one of his machines. Mime gently floats down and lands on the ground. The wind picks up his skin like a kite and he flies off a cliff and gets caught in some tree branches. Mime has to tear the skin off his face and falls, bumps on the sharp rocks, and tumbles to safety. He's relieved until the landing plane's wheel runs over him.

Flaky still pulls the steering wheel to slow down the plane and it rolls into the ocean. She opens the door, releasing an inflatable chute. As she tries to slide down, her quills pop the chute and she falls in the water. She lands safely in the water and sighs in relief. Suddenly, a shark attacks Flaky and chews her roughly, until a loud roar scares him. The shark spits Flaky out and quickly swims away while Flaky cries in pain and fear. Godzilla roars again and Flaky screams in terror before the episode ends.

Moral
"Look before you leap!"

Deaths

 * 1) Cuddles' lower body is sliced off by a tray table when Lumpy pushes his seat back.
 * 2) Petunia is sucked into the drain of a sink.
 * 3) Sniffles is cut to pieces after a food cart smashes into him.
 * 4) Pop and Cub fly out the plane's entrance when it decompresses. (death not shown)
 * 5) Giggles is sliced up by the engines of the plane.
 * 6) Lumpy falls from a great height and his legs are pushed out of his body. He's then crushed by his filing cabinet.
 * 7) Mime is run over by the plane Flaky is piloting.
 * 8) Flaky dies after the episode ends, as Godzilla is heard in the background (Kenn Navarro confirmed this).

Goofs

 * 1) Lumpy's antlers change directions numerous times, sometimes during continuous shots.
 * 2) The Mole's mole changes places.
 * 3) Cuddles, Giggles, Mime, Petunia, and Lumpy are all featured on the safety sheet Flaky looks at. Seeing as how they're all currently on the plane, alive and well, it would have made more sense to use Generic Tree Friends on the sheet.
 * 4) Cuddles disappears from his seat twice. Once when Lumpy hangs up his cell phone and once when Lumpy reacts to Sniffles' death.
 * 5) Lumpy disappears from his seat when Flaky calls Mime over about Cuddles' death.
 * 6) Flaky disappears from her seat when Lumpy reacts to Sniffles' death.
 * 7) Lumpy's satellite is located where Giggles should be sitting.
 * 8) Lumpy only opens four parachutes, but, as Giggles falls, she passes by four open parachutes and lands on a fifth open one.
 * 9) The wings of the plane are fairly close to the front, but at the end, the wings have moved back to the center of the plane.
 * 10) When Mime's head is skinned, the skin of his nose is can be seen on both his exposed face and his loose facial skin.
 * 11) Flaky opens the door and releases the rubber slide when she lands in the water, even though the door was already open from earlier.

Trivia

 * 1) The zoom in when Flaky first looks at the plane references numerous Alfred Hitchcock movies.
 * 2) Mime's eye blinks after he is run over.
 * 3) This episode marks the second time Flaky has inadvertently popped an inflatable safety device with her quills. She previously popped a life raft in Happy Trails Pt. 2: Jumping the Shark.
 * 4) This episode also marks the third time Flaky has narrowly avoided being eaten by a shark, the previous two instances occurring in Happy Trails Pt. 2: Jumping the Shark and Wipe Out.
 * 5) This is one of the few episodes that Cub's death was not caused by Pop's carelessness.
 * 6) Originally, this episode was going to be named Sky's the Limit, however the creators changed it at the last minute.
 * 7) Petunia's death is similar and may be a reference to the 1988 remake of The Blob where the titular monster grusomely drags a handyman face first down a sink.