Havin' A Ball

"Havin' A Ball" is an episode of the Happy Tree Friends internet series, the fifth of the first season. This episode introduces the father-son duo, Pop, the bear father determined to make his son happy, and Cub, the pure and innocent child that dies a lot despite his cuteness.

HTF's Episode Description
A friendly game of catch goes horribly wrong for this father and son bear. Pop tries to impress Cub with his ball handling skills, but disaster ensues and a rescue chopper goes down. So sad that even the simple things go so wrong in Happy Tree Friends Land.

Plot
The episode begins with the new father and son Happy Tree Friends Pop and Cub playing catch with a big red and yellow ball. Unfortunately, Pop throws a little too hard and the ball bounces off Cub's head, and the ball lands right behind Cub. But it is revealed that the ball landed on the opposite side of a freeway, with speeding vehicles. Pop nervously tugs the collar on his robe, but not wanting to disappoint Cub, Pop has no choice but the cross the road. The same time Pop leaves the scene, a helicopter flies behind Cub.

Over the background, the sound of vehicles crashing and Pop screaming can be heard. Pop makes it across the road, with a skidmark over his face, and a steering wheel lodged in his right arm. Though severely injured, Pop successfully retrieves the ball. Unfortunately, when Pop takes one step forward, he suddenly begins falling down a cliff. Down below, a medical helicopter with Lumpy in the gurney is just right below of Pop. Realizing this, Pop begins screaming, as he gets sliced and shredded apart by the helicopter's rotor blades. Pop's sliced up remains stack up in a neat pile, and the ball lands right next to his remains in a puddle of blood.

Cub, who successfully climbed down the cliff with a rope, retrieves his ball back. But the instant he grabs it, the gurney Lumpy was on disconnects from the helicopter, and lands on top of Cub, crushing his entire body. Lumpy, noticing something tries in vain to move, but only succeeds in moving only a few inches. The helicopter (for unknown reasons, lost control) slams on to the ground, crushing Lumpy, and the ball still remains untouched. Before the iris closes in on the ball, as a final decoration, Cub's beanie lands on top of the ball.

Moral
"Eat your Veggies!"

Injuries

 * Pop gets run over and somehow gets a steering wheel in his right arm.

Deaths

 * 1) Pop is sliced up by the blades of a helicopter.
 * 2) Cub is crushed by a falling gurney.
 * 3) Lumpy is crushed by a falling helicopter.
 * 4) The helicopter pilot possibly dies in the helicopter crash. (debatable)

Goofs

 * 1) The safety pin on Cub's diaper changes position throughout the episode.
 * 2) Initially there is no cliff on the other side of the highway. It only appears when Pop walks it after retrieving the ball.
 * 3) When Pop falls off the cliff the steering wheel embedded in his arm falls away, but for a frame, when you get a close-up of Pop falling, it is actually back in his arm before disappearing again.
 * 4) Cub is almost as tall as Pop when they are playing with the ball.
 * 5) The blood in this episode is colored incorrectly.
 * 6) When Pop is sliced by the helicopter's blades, Lumpy & the gurney are about as big as the helicopter.
 * 7) In the scene at the bottom of the cliff, the cliff base is not actually visible until the helicopter crushes Lumpy (This is fixed on the DVD).
 * 8) Lumpy isn't shown on the gurney when the helicopter is first shown, although it is possible that Pop caused his injuries by crossing the road.
 * 9) Cub's remains are bigger than Pop's.
 * 10) When Pop is sliced by the helicopter's blades, some of his blood can be seen floating in midair. In the "classics remastered" version of this episode on YouTube, this scene is edited to make the blood appear on the side of the cliff.

Quick Shot Moment
When Lumpy tries to escape from the falling helicopter, there's a brief shot of Pop falling down the cliff.

Trivia

 * This is one of only two instances in an episode where Pop dies before Cub. This later happens in Stealing the Spotlight.
 * This episode is a reversal of the standard Pop and Cub formula. In future episodes, Cub dies because of Pop's careless actions or negligence. In this one, however, Pop goes out of his way to make Cub happy by crossing heavy traffic, so he can fetch Cub's ball. He doesn't kill or injure his son in the process and ends up losing his own life, before he can give the ball back.
 * If Cub did die, then is the first Internet Short in which all the characters die.
 * Some versions of this episode showed the side of the cliff at the end, but not all.
 * This is the first episode where road vehicles and a helicopter are seen.
 * The helicopter is very small compared to real life rescue helicopters such as the S-70A.
 * This is the first episode where Lumpy dies.
 * This is one of the few episodes with Pop and Cub's theme music.
 * Pop screamed similar to Lumpy when he saw the helicopter when he fell.
 * This introduces the method of killing other characters indirectly.
 * This is the first episode where Lumpy's antlers don't change directions.
 * This is the first episode without any female characters.
 * Some people think Handy was piloting the helicopter.