Balance is the second half of the tenth episode in the first season of The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack. In this episode, movies are brought to Stormalong Harbor and Flapjack accidentally becomes a movie star by riding on top of a wooden board, showing his impressive "balancing" skills.
Plot[]
W. D. Muttonfluffer, a "cinematographist," visits Stormalong Harbor and entertains the entire population with his movies. Everyone in Stormalong is entranced by the movies, except for Flapjack, who leaves in search of adventure. Soon, the boy finds a wooden plank drifting in the sea, and gets on top of it, trying to find balance. As the pirates get bored of the films and leaves the theather, W. D. Muttonfluffer goes outside and finds Flapjack balancing, and asks the boy to do it again just so he can film it, finding the deed spectacular enough to show it on his theather, turning his movies popular again. K'nuckles, who spent more time watching the films rather than adventuring with Flapjack, now sees Flap as a star and asks if he could be a balancer in a movie just like him. Except that no matter how much he tries to stay on top, he keeps falling off of the wooden plank, making everybody, including Flapjack, laugh. Embarrassed, K'nuckles replies, "I don't like movies anymore!"
Trivia[]
- At the beginning, everyone (even Bubbie) liked the movies, except for Flapjack.
- This episode is drenched with references to the early days of film, with the main plot device, the so-called "Cinematogrograph," being a direct reference to the Lumiere Brothers' Cinematograph, which just as in the episode, was a portable device that doubled as film camera and projector, and was a popular travelling show that reached as far as India and China after being presented to the public for the first time in 1895.
- The looping film, in the other hand, references the perfomance of early Kinetoscope films, which were arranged in a loop that played for about 20 seconds. The Kinetoscope was developed by Thomas Edison and William Dickson after meeting with Eadweard Muybridge in 1888. Muybridge's work is also referenced in this episode, with the "walking cycle/sitting down in front of a grid pattern background" films being a reference to the photographic content from Muybridge's Animal Locomotion.
- This is also the first appearance and only major role of W. D. Muttonfluffer in the series.
Quotes[]
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Guy: It ain't every day you get to see something you've never seen before! |
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—a guy in the film theater, "Balance" |
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K'nuckles: Flapjack, any time, any place, adventure always awaits. Remember that and you'll never be without...uhh...adventure. |
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K'nuckles: Hey, aren't you that kid? |
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