| "Wishology" | |||
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| The Fairly OddParents episode | |||
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| Episode no. | Episode 95–96 (part 1), 97–98 (part 2), 99–100 (part 3) | ||
| Directed by | Gary Conrad | ||
| Written by |
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| Produced by | Butch Hartman | ||
| Production code | 714 (part 1), 715 (part 2), 716 (part 3) | ||
| Original air date | May 1, 2009 – May 3, 2009 | ||
| Running time | 45 minutes per episode, 135 minutes altogether[1] | ||
| Guest stars | |||
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| Episode chronology | |||
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Wishology is a television film trilogy and the ninth movie special of the animated television series The Fairly OddParents. The first part of the trilogy, "The Big Beginning", originally aired on the cable network Nickelodeon in the United States on May 1, 2009; the second part, "The Exciting Middle Part", aired on May 2, 2009; and the last of the three parts, "The Final Ending", aired on May 3, 2009. The trilogy was written by Kevin Sullivan, Scott Fellows, and Butch Hartman, and was directed by Gary Conrad. According to Nielsen ratings, the first and third parts of the trilogy were viewed by 4 million people, while its second part garnered 3.6 million viewers. Critical reviewers displayed mixed reactions to how three-dimensional objects interact via computer animation with the series' usual two-dimensional artwork in the film. Composer Guy Moon, who has worked throughout the series, won an Annie Award for his music in the first part of the trilogy in 2010.
The film centers on the show's main character, 10-year-old Timmy Turner, his fairy godparents Cosmo and Wanda, and his baby fairy godbrother Poof, all of whom grant Timmy's wishes. Robots known as Eliminators appear in Timmy's hometown, Dimmsdale, to destroy the "chosen one", Timmy himself. Jorgen von Strangle, a non-floating fairy general who uses an oversized wand, takes him to the Cave of Destiny, a cave that contains prophecies for the "chosen one". The cave is located in Fairy World, a place that sits on a cloud in space and is connected to Earth by a rainbow bridge. Jorgen explains a legend inscribed on the cave wall about the ancient fairy warriors who fought Eliminators and their master, a giant black hole called The Darkness. To defeat The Darkness and Eliminators, Timmy must retrieve and use three special wands: the white wand, the second wand, and the ice wand.
In addition to the main cast, the trilogy features guest performances, most notably, Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley from the rock band Kiss, who serve as protectors of the white wand. Patrick Warburton provides his voice for the agents of the Military Extraterrestrial Research Facility (abbreviated M.E.R.F.), and Brendan Fraser voices Turbo Thunder, a warrior who believes he is the true chosen one. In addition to its cultural references to various media, the television film contains parodies of fantasy and science fiction films: The Matrix, The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, The Terminator, Men in Black, and Star Wars.
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Timmy makes a wish to star in his own movie trilogy. He is interrupted by Jorgen, who takes his fairy godparents away and sends Timmy home. When he gets there, Timmy's parents and school friends don't remember him, and an Eliminator appears after Timmy calls out his own name. In an alley, the Eliminator projects a space vortex through its mouth to inhale Timmy. Jorgen saves him, and the two arrive at Fairy World. Meanwhile, the fairies are hidden as gumballs inside a truck stop bar by Jorgen. After being blown into a bubble from a kid's mouth, Cosmo takes Wanda and Poof with him as he floats away. The rest of the fairies use Cosmo's method as their escape plan.
At the Cave of Destiny, Jorgen explains to Timmy the cave prophecy, where in ancient times fairy warriors, represented by stars in space, fought and eliminated The Darkness with light. The ancient fairies also hid a powerful white wand, which is to be found and possessed by the chosen one, Timmy Turner. As stars in space disappear and The Darkness approaches, Timmy arrives back on Earth and tracks his godparents down in Las Vegas, where the Middle-Aged Rock Festival (M.A.R.F.) is held. The M.A.R.F. features the rock band Kiss, who reveal to Timmy that they are the galactic protectors of the white wand, which is their star-shaped guitar. The Darkness and Eliminators arrive at the venue, and the fairies arrive to defeat Eliminators while Timmy defeats The Darkness with a rock solo performance on the white wand. A celebration follows at Fairy World, where Turbo Thunder appears and takes the white wand from Timmy.
Eliminators and The Darkness invade Yugopotamia—a planet that is home to squid-like aliens called Yugopotamians—and steal "fake-i-fiers", belts that allow users to transform into anyone else. Yugopotamian prince Mark Chang goes to Earth and notifies Timmy of this, and the group discovers that there is a second part to the cave prophecy: Timmy must find the second wand, located at the Blue Moon. Timmy and Mark teleport back to Dimmsdale, only to discover Timmy's parents and friends are now Eliminators in disguise. Because his real parents and friends have been kidnapped by Eliminators, Timmy seeks help from people who hate him: Mr. Crocker, Dark Laser, and Vicky. Setting their differences aside, everyone cooperates and boards Dark Laser's death pod and depart into space. During their rest stop at planet Frigidarium, the aliens inside the cantina are Eliminators who send Timmy's enemies to the Abracatraz Prison in Fairy World. Turbo Thunder saves Timmy and Mark from the corrupting planet, and the three eventually arrive at the Blue Moon, where the rock guardian grants Timmy the second wand.
Meanwhile, Eliminators incarcerate the fairies at the Abracatraz Prison and put Timmy's friends and family in the same cell with Timmy's godparents and Jorgen. After Poof frees the group and locates the wands, Jorgen takes everyone to the Blue Moon. Timmy's friends, enemies, family, and the fairies defeat Eliminators with a combined magical attack and have a reunion with Timmy, which is interrupted when The Darkness tries to inhale him. The second wand produces no effect, and Timmy realizes he has no other choice, so he sacrifices himself into The Darkness, after sharing a kiss with his long-term crush Trixie, leaving the others to mourn.
Timmy wakes up in what looks like his bedroom; in reality he is still inside The Darkness, and the world is merely an illusion. Timmy's fairy godparents and Jorgen come to rescue him, and they exit The Darkness successfully. Back on Earth, the Lead Eliminator uses Jorgen's wand to take Timmy's friends and family away. Military Extraterrestrial Research Facility (M.E.R.F.) agents launch an array of military weapons at the Eliminator, but he absorbs the ordinance and turns into a more powerful version, the Destructinator. He surrounds the Earth with a steel casing, which transforms the M.E.R.F. agents into his henchmen. They plant explosives inside Earth and give the Destructinator a detonation remote.
Timmy and his fairies return to the Blue Moon via M.E.R.F.'s escape pod to retrieve the second wand. A weakened Turbo Thunder reveals the second wand only opens underneath a secret cave, which contains magical wands and the final part of the cave prophecy: to find the ice wand. The group returns to Fairy World with the wands to free the imprisoned fairies before everyone heads back to Earth. The fairies arrive and use their magic to remove the Earth's metal casing. Timmy heads into space with the Destructinator following him; the Destructinator attacks him, which sends him back down to the Earth, at its north polar region. After Timmy tricks the Destructinator into inhaling the explosives, he reveals that he stole the detonator remote from him back in space and uses it to obliterate him.
A polar bear—the guardian of the ice wand—raises the ice wand from beneath the ocean. The fairies add an ice wand to each planet of the Solar System. Along with the white wand at Fairy World, the ice wands create a celestial smile that projects its light into The Darkness. The smile transforms it into a bright sun, The Kindness; Timmy concludes it was only looking for a friend. The group returns to Dimmsdale, where an Eliminator crashes in front of them and spews out everyone who had been sucked in. Everyone parties in Fairy World and celebrates the chosen one's accomplishment.
Series creator and executive producer Butch Hartman wrote Wishology, along with head writer and executive producer Scott Fellows and writer Kevin Sullivan, who joined the series beginning its fifth season.[2] Gary Conrad, who has directed several episodes of the series since its second season, served as the director for Wishology.[3][4] Composer Guy Moon, who has worked on the music for The Fairly OddParents since its inception, composed the music.[5] Like the entire series, Wishology was produced in hand-drawn animation mixed with computer animation by Frederator and Billionfold Studios for Nickelodeon.[6] The production of the three-part film required 18 months to complete, according to Toon Zone's interview with Hartman.[7]
Initial plans were to broadcast Wishology on Nickelodeon for three consecutive Fridays starting on May 1, 2009.[6][8] In the end, Nickelodeon decided to show the film from 8:00 to 9:00 pm, Friday to Sunday, May 1–3.[9][10][11][12] Wishology was also released on DVD, containing all three parts, on June 3, 2011.[1]
The cast of Wishology includes all of the main characters of The Fairly Oddparents. Timmy Turner and Poof are voiced by Tara Strong. Cosmo, Jorgen von Strangle, and Timmy's dad Mr. Turner, are voiced by Daran Norris. Wanda and Timmy's mom Mrs. Turner, are voiced by Susanne Blakeslee. Grey DeLisle voices Timmy's babysitter, Vicky, and Dionne Quan voices Trixie Tang. Jason Marsden and Gary Leroi Gray provide voice roles for Timmy's friends Chester McBadbat and A.J., respectively. Timmy's school teacher, Mr. Denzel Crocker, who has an obsession with proving that fairies are real, is voiced by Carlos Alazraqui.[4]
The rock band Kiss made a guest appearance in the trilogy. The band plays the role of the galactic guardians of the white wand in "The Big Beginning", and makes a cameo appearance in "The Final Ending". However, only two of the band's four members—Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley—provided voice roles of their Kiss personas, "The Demon" and "The Starchild", respectively.[9][13][14][15] Hartman and Fellows pitched the idea of a rock band in the storyline, where the band guards the white wand that Timmy seeks. The writers originally did not intend to feature Kiss in Wishology. Rather, they initially planned to create the rock band "Smooch", with its members with heart-shaped make-up on their faces, as an allusion to the original Kiss band. Nevertheless, they asked and received permission from Gene Simmons to feature Kiss, drawn as animated two-dimensional figures to blend in with the series' customary appearance. The film features a performance of the Kiss song "Rock and Roll All Nite", which is played towards the end of "The Big Beginning", during a concert party at Fairy World.[16]
In addition to the regular cast and Kiss, Wishology features other guest performances. Actor Gary Sturgis guest stars as the Lead Eliminator. Actor Patrick Warburton guest stars as the M.E.R.F. agents, and Brendan Fraser guest stars as Turbo Thunder.[4][6] Recurring voice actors Jim Ward and Kevin Michael Richardson reprise their roles as Dimmsdale news reporter Chet Ubetcha and space villain Dark Laser, respectively.[17][18]
At the beginning of the first episode, Wishology includes references from three recent films: The Matrix, The Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter.[6][8][13][19][20] In Timmy's first trilogy wish, Timmy—under his alias Teo—is dressed as Neo from The Matrix,[9][13] while his school teacher, Mr. Crocker, is dressed as Neo's antagonist, Agent Smith.[21] Timmy dodges Mr. Crocker's lasers in a style similar to that seen in The Matrix.[21] In his second trilogy wish, the group arrives at Middle-earth. Timmy is dressed as Frodo; Wanda and Poof are dressed as Hobbits; and Cosmo takes the appearance of Gollum.[22] In the third, Harry Potter-themed trilogy wish, where everyone is in a Quidditch match, Timmy is dressed as the film's main character, Harry Potter, and Poof takes the form of a quidditch snitch.[23]
Throughout Timmy's travel in space with Mark and Timmy's enemies in "The Exciting Middle Part" and during the beginning of "The Final Ending", Wishology focuses its media references on George Lucas' film series Star Wars.[9] On their way to Planet Frigidarium in "The Exciting Middle Part", the group dresses up as the main characters of Star Wars: Timmy is dressed as Luke Skywalker, Mark as R2-D2, Crocker as Chewbacca, and Vicky as Princess Leia.[24] Inside the cantina, Crocker clears his throat in a way that sounds like Chewbacca's voice.[24] All the aliens inside resemble other characters from Star Wars.[24] The opening sequence of "The Final Ending" features text that briefly recaps the conclusion of the previous part of the Wishology story in the style of the Star Wars opening crawl.[25]
The film contains a number of other cultural references. In "The Big Beginning", when he grabs a muffin before he leaves his house, Timmy accidentally chooses but then rejects the Fairy-versary muffin, the magic muffin used in the first The Fairly OddParents television film Abra-Catastrophe!.[26] During Jorgen's and Timmy's journey throughout Fairy World to find the Cave of Destiny, Jorgen swings through the trees in a manner similar to Tarzan.[27] The Lead Eliminator's attire of a black coat and sunglasses is similar to those worn by The Terminator.[13] The weapons M.E.R.F. agents use while fighting Timmy are similar to those used by the Men in Black.[28] At Dimmsdale, when he tries to figure out the chosen one riddle in order to find the white wand, Timmy is chased down by the police for allegedly becoming a quarter thief and smashing a statue at the Dimmsdale museum. To remain undetected, he uses a Mona Lisa painting to disguise his face, and one of the cops make note of his "Renaissance smile".[29] Towards the end of Timmy's rock solo performance at the M.A.R.F., Gene Simmons notes Timmy's long tongue when Timmy licks the guitar, a tribute to Simmons' own long tongue.[16]
At the beginning of "The Exciting Middle Part", while Eliminators destroy Yugopotamia, Timmy is in Fairy World in front of fairy game geeks. He plays The Chosen One Video Game, which utilizes a white wand guitar controller that imitates the actual white wand, like a Guitar Hero controller that imitates a real guitar.[30] When Mark's space pod plunges into the Earth and destroys an Eliminator disguised as Mark, the Eliminator's feet curl up in a way reminiscent of the Wicked Witch of the East from the Wizard of Oz.[31] At the site of the Abracatraz Prison where the kidnapped fairies are held hostage, its front gate contains an inscription that reads "Abandon all hope, ye who here enter",[32] which when translated into Latin reads "Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate", the phrase used at the entrance gate to Hell in the Inferno chapter of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. In order to get Dark Laser to come to Earth so Timmy, along with Mr. Crocker and Vicky, can board on his death pod and blast off into space, Timmy posts a video that ridicules him onto a video-sharing website called "TooYube",[33] whose name and logo are similar to those of YouTube. Before heading to the Blue Moon, Turbo Thunder flies Timmy and Mark from Fridgidarium to another planet, Thunder World. The planet features a "thunder wonderland", an amusement park with a Las Vegas Strip theme, evidenced by hotels and palm trees.[34]
In "The Final Ending", Cosmo is angry with the Lead Eliminator, who constantly attacks his family and godchild, so he transforms into a giant creature named "Cos-zilla", a reference to the Japanese movie monster Godzilla.[35] During Timmy's and his fairies' revisit the Blue Moon, they run into Turbo Thunder, who tells them how alone in the universe he was after the rock guardian threw him over the planet's horizon. Since then, he made a personified friend, a rock with a happy face, similar to Chuck Noland's companion Wilson the volleyball in the 2000 drama film Cast Away.[36] In his flashback, Turbo Thunder receives an invitation flyer to the "Chosen One Competition" in Fairy World. On the flyer, the phrase "Chosen One" is printed in American Idol font.[37] At the competition venue, the four fairy elders sit as judges behind a table in front of the auditioners like the American Idol judges do.[37]
According to Nielsen ratings, Wishology received 4.012 million viewers for "The Big Beginning", about 3.6 million viewers for "The Exciting Middle Part", and 4.071 million viewers for its last night, "The Final Ending".[38][39] "The Final Ending" and "The Big Beginning" ranked twelfth and thirteenth overall, respectively, on the list of top twenty television shows on the cable network for the week ending May 3, 2009.[38] The Fairly OddParents became the highest-rated cable network series that Friday for "The Big Beginning".[38] However, "The Exciting Middle Part" was topped by the teen sitcom and drama series Jonas, which premiered simultaneously on the Disney Channel.[38][39][40] "The Final Ending" ranked in third place for Sunday night.[38] The trilogy's ratings were highest for The Fairly OddParents since its preceding special. Fairly OddBaby, which attained 8.809 million viewers during its premiere and ranked the highest in the top 20 cable network shows for the week ending February 24, 2008.[41] Wishology remains the second-highest rated film in terms of viewership numbers since the premiere of the following special, A Fairly Odd Movie: Grow Up, Timmy Turner!, a live-action adaptation film of the same series, which attracted 5.8 million viewers in its original airing on July 10, 2011.[42] Composer Guy Moon won an Annie Award for his music in "The Big Beginning" in the "Individual Achievement Category" of "Music in a Television Production" on February 6, 2010.[5][43][44]
Wishology received mixed reception from critics. Eileen Cruz of Toon Zone mainly praised the television film. Specifically, she observes that it "manages to remain largely fresh the entire time" for an animated comedy episode over two hours long.[20] Aaron Bynum of The Animation Insider, however, gave a more negative review. He suggested it was only "moderately entertaining", saying it is "just another over-exerted animated epic of an over-extended property."[45] Cruz commented positively on the show's usage of a mix of standard and computer animation; however, she noted the blend between special 3D objects and their surroundings was "not perfect", though "not distracting either".[20] Bynum stated the animated film's usage of computer animation was "rather needless", and its cultural parodies were "tired and forgettable".[45] While he finds "The Final Ending" interesting enough to keep the viewer engaged, he also criticized the series as a whole. He said, "it would appear that the cartoon is no longer an exclusive journey into one child's ever-changing imagination; now, it's just a fanciful what-if".[45] Cruz praised the role of the band Kiss. She cannot think of too many other bands that "could exist in such a universe with such an exaggerated reality".[20] However, she criticized the voice portrayal of Turbo Thunder, finding it to be "entirely unattractive" and "off-putting," and thus "it simply didn't work for me."[20] Bynum, however, had a more positive reaction to the character. He noted Turbo Thunder was "hilariously pretentious and self-serving", and he "ultimately makes the second chapter ["The Exciting Middle Part"] a whole lot better by acting as a frenemy with similar goals."[45]
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