The Ventriloquist Caper
| Saturday Supercade episode | |
|---|---|
| "The Ventriloquist Caper" | |
| |
| Segment | Donkey Kong Jr. |
| Season | 1 |
| Episode | 5 |
| Airdate |  October 15, 1983[?] |
| Writer(s) | Michael Maurer |
| << List of episodes >> | |
"The Ventriloquist Caper" is the fifth episode of Saturday Supercade's Donkey Kong Jr. segment.
Plot synopsis[edit]
Continuing their search for Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr. and Bones approach the Golden Gate Bridge while stuck in traffic. The latter reads a newspaper detailing an annual children's show at the Golden Bridge Theatre starring the Wrestling Gorilla, whom he believes can help them find Jr.'s father. To detour around the traffic, Jr. drives his motorcycle on the side of the bridge. As Jr. and Bones arrive at the theater, located in San Francisco, two shady figures, Slick and Shorty, peek behind a wall.
Inside the theater, Donkey Kong Jr. takes Bones backstage, where he believes the Wrestling Gorilla can found. However, it is nowhere to be seen. Just then, a boy named Peter Windson walks up to them to inform them that he is late. Soon after, a ventriloquist named Dandy Andy enters, entertaining the group with his doll, Andoo, as Peter praises him as the best ventriloquist in the world. As Donkey Kong Jr. mentions that he is very funny, Peter suggests that they should see his next show. However, as Andy walks by Slick and Shorty, who hide behind a curtain, the two shady figures wrap a curtain around him and Andoo and carry them into the basement, returning with their clothes, planning to pose as them during their next show.
During the show, the imposters steal the jewelry of two wealthy women and, after Slick sarcastically thanks the audience, rush offstage to the nearest exit. Jr. and Bones pursue the two criminals on ropes to block the exit, though Bones collides with one of the robbery victims, taking her coat and wig with him, and shortly after, his rope snaps, causing him to fall on Jr., allowing the imposters to head to the main entrance. However, Jr. pulls the rug from under them as they escape, causing them to trip, and they take them back to the auditorium. Jr. traps Slick in a chair, but Shorty escapes. Bones chases him onstage, but Shorty ties his feet to a rope and suspends him in midair. Jr. runs over to save him, but this also allows Slick to escape. He and Shorty drive off to a diamond exhibition at the San Francisco Hotel for the next heist, planning to steal the Regal Diamond, with Jr. and Bones in pursuit.
At the hotel, Jr. and Bones attempt to enter the exhibition, only to be stopped by a policeman, who tells that only performers are allowed. They then don disguises and pose as Dandy Andy and his doll in an attempt to enter the exhibition, but the policeman still refuses, calling them imposters, as Slick and Shorty have already entered the exhibition. Jr. and Bones then have the policeman skip rope and tie him up, then run into the exhibition. As Slick and Shorty run down a hallway in search of the Regal Diamond, Jr. and Bones follow them disguised as flowerpots.
At some elevators, Shorty notices that the flowerpots are moving, but Slick dismisses this, calling it impossible. However, Shorty sneezes on the flowers, revealing Jr. and Bones. They promptly trap them in the flowerpots they disguised themselves as and throw them into an elevator. Slick opens its control panel and flips the direction of the elevator several times, causing its cables to snap. However, Jr. bundles Bones's pants into a rope, then escapes through the hatch and throws it onto a nail, allowing them to continue their pursuit of the two criminals.
Meanwhile, on the floor where the Regal Diamond is stored, Slick manages to convince the guards to allow them to store Shorty in the safe room by claiming that "Andoo" might be lost. In the safe room, Shortly promptly steals the diamond and runs out, with Slick closing the door behind the guards as they enter. Just then, Jr. and Bones reach the floor, and the imposters promptly escape out an open window using suction cups. Jr. and Bones pursue them using plungers, though Bones is left hanging when one of his plungers becomes stuck. He manages to remove the plunger, but this also causes the other plunger to lose its suction, causing him to fall onto a flag. Jr. enters an open window on a lower floor, and when the two imposters climb onto it, he pushes it out. They then fall, only to be saved by Jr., who throws a plunger tied to a rope down to the window they are on and pulls it into the room he is in, also pulling Bones in by pulling the rope on the flag he fell on.
Back at Golden Gate Theatre, Dandy Andy thanks Jr. and Bones for stopping the criminals and saving his reputation. After Andoo entertains the group one more time, Peter notices the Wrestling Gorilla. Donkey Kong Jr. asks if the gorilla has more information on his father's whereabouts, to which the gorilla jumps excitedly and gives him information in monkey noises, which Jr. can understand. Excited, Jr. walks off with the Wrestling Gorilla, who gives more information, leaving a confused Bones to believe that they are acting.
Gallery[edit]
Title card
Animation and continuity errors[edit]
- As Bones pursues Slick and Shorty on a rope, he disappears for a few frames in the transition to the next shot.
- As Slick and Shorty head off to the main entrance, Donkey Kong Jr.'s head is miscolored. This also occurs in one shot at the San Francisco Hotel as the police officer accuses him and Bones of being imposters.
- As Bones picks up Shorty, his hand clips through him.
- When Donkey Kong Jr. and Bones arrive at the San Francisco Hotel, the signs for the hotel misspell San Francisco as "San Fransisco."
- When Donkey Kong Jr. pulls Bones out of the elevator, the latter is wearing his pants despite the former using them as a rope at the time.
