His mother arrives and lays praise upon Pumbaa, who is there to present her cub to her, and casually ad-libs “I leap into danger as I would a pair of pajamas.” “Nice catch-phrase”, says Mom. But the bear tumbles out of the rocks at the foot of the hill, unharmed. All he gets for his troubles is a bite on the arm from the bear cub, and a tumble down the mountainside in an avalanche. Against his better judgment, Timon realizes it’s now or never to rescue the bear, and scampers up the mountainside. As the bear chases a butterfly over loose boulders precariously perched on a mountainside, the vainglorious Pimbaa hesitates at launching himself into the fray, stuck for words at composing a heroic catch-phrase for his entrance. Repeated mishaps occur as the pair encounter a baby bear who has an absolute knack for wandering into peril. Timon chalks up this delusion to Pumbaa’s traumatic experience of having electrical voltage jolting through his noggin, and declares that Pumbaa is no more a superhero than he is – “And do I look like a superhero?” “No”, replies Pumbaa, “You look like – a sidekick.” Pumbaa ties a cape on Timon, and dubs him “The Boy Furry”, then drags him away to do battle, over Timon’s futile protests that “I am not doing this-s-s-s-s.” Believing he has been chosen for destiny, Pumbaa shakes off the ashes, and declares, “I feel SUPER.” Before Timon can quite fathom what’s going on, Pumbaa produces a super-suit from nowhere, and becomes the real-life counterpart of his comic book hero – Lighning Lard, the Pig Powerful. No sooner is his plot exposition completed, than the storm delivers him a parallel electrical jolt. He recounts his hero’s origin story, with powers acquired by being struck by a bolt of lightning. Super Hog-O (Disney, Timon and Pumbaa, 3/5/99) – Reading his favorite comic book, “Lightning Lard”, Pumbaa ignores an impending storm above, despite Timon’s urgings to seek shelter. But Nickelodeon really sets the pace, with new franchises which manage to go a bit super-crazy in their number of power-packed outings.
Several classic characters continue to appear in revivals, taking their respective at bats at comic power-ups. The century is about to turn – and still the ‘supers’ soar above the animated world.
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