Sumo of the Opera

Sumo of the Opera is the 23rd episode of VeggieTales (1993-2015)/VeggieTales Reboot (2016-present).

The main story combines elements of both the Creed/Rocky films and The Karate Kid trilogy/Cobra Kai/The Next Karate Kid, with music largely taken from Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado.

Its lesson is on Perseverance.

August 31, 2004

Characters

Major

• Larry the Cucumber as himself and Italian Scallion
• Jimmy Gourd as Jim Gourdly
• Junior Asparagus as Hadrian
• Pa Grape as Mikey
• Bob the Tomato as himself and Bobby
• Apollo Gourd as himself
• Khalil (as Lutfi)

Minor

• Jerry Gourd as himself and the Cameraman
• Madame Blueberry as herself
• Mr. Nezzer as himself
• Mr. Lunt as himself the Sushi Chef (cameo)
• The French Peas as themselves
• Archibald Asparagus as himself (cameo)
• Scooter as himself (cameo)

Songs

• VeggieTales Theme Song
• VeggieTales on TV Theme Song (TV version only)
• Mail Song (TV version only)
• Schoolhouse Polka with Larry: Schoolhouse Polka
• Wrestlers of Japan
• A Joking Sumo I
• He's Accepted the Challenge
• A Sumo Can't Go Wrong
• The Feeling of Finishing
• What Have We Learned (Sumo Version first then Lufti sings and hums the second verse)

Trivia

• The Italian Scallion (or simply just “Scallion”) is not to be confused with The Scallions.
• The title of the video is a play on the novel The Phantom of the Opera.
  • The Italian Scallion's mask is also a possible reference to Erik's mask in that story.
• This is the only VeggieTales episode to have more than two segments (three if you count the Silly Song).
• This is the final episode to be entirely produced in Illinois, Big Idea's home state.
• This episode marks the first time when Qwerty displays the verse after the "What Have We Learned" song plays.
• This episode took two months to produce, beating the records held by Dave and the Giant Pickle and The Wonderful World of Auto-Tainment!. The former took four months to produce, while the latter took 12 weeks to produce.
• Larry's trouble getting to the toy drive is based on Mike's experience when he was in Chicago before trying to help out at a toy drive, though unlike Larry, Mike didn't have any troubles getting there.
• This is the first episode for a few things:
  • The first episode distributed by Sony Wonder after Warner Home Video.
  • The first time when Qwerty breaks down.
  • The first episode to have Mr. Nezzer, Mr. Lunt, Jerry Gourd, Apollo Gourd, Archibald Asparagus, The French Peas, Junior Asparagus, Pa Grape and Madame Blueberry animated by Jam Filled Toronto

• During the scene where St. Patrick was preaching the people of Ireland, the crowd is actually animated versions of the crew at Big Idea (see image)
• When this aired on Smile of a Child, both the main story and mentions of it were removed (this included the the first half of the What Have We Learned song). But the main story was included on separate airings.
• The numbered bus routes Larry mentioned after he came back are actual bus routes in Chicago.
• There were a few differences between pre-production and the final version:
  • Brian Roberts states that there was a Jerry Lewis gag after Maewyn and the ship crew landed in France, but it was cut due to time.
  • There was a line after Hadrian asks if his bike was finished, Scallion says "Yo, Hadrian, know why the kid crossed the playground? To get to the other slide. Get it?". This was absent in the final version.
  • Mike Nawrocki stated that when Scallion was mopping the floor, he was going to do a full-body wipe transition when passing the camera. However, this caused him to do a transition to a shot of himself, so it was replaced with the fan transition.
  • The scene of Apollo Gourd saying he doesn't need to train was after Scallion was eating at the sushi restaurant. However, it was pushed after the first training at the recycling center.
  • Originally in the storyboards and concept art, it was going to be an entirely new model for the Sushi Chef. That was probably Hop Sing, who was mentioned in The Ballad of Little Joe script.
  • After the first training at the recycling center, it was suppose to be night time, and it shows Hadrian throwing newspaper.
  • After the crowd sings, the script has Mikey, Bobby, and Jim Gourdly saying "Wait, wait. The story's not over." However, in the final version, it was only Jim who says "Wait folks! The story's not over!".
  • At the end of the show, Lutfi revealed himself to be Khalil. This was brought over to Lessons from the Sock Drawer.
• The artwork used for St. Patrick was done by Joe Spadaford and Chuck Vollmer, while Brian Roberts did the animation.
• Going Up! and The Story of St. Patrick also appeared in Lessons from the Sock Drawer.
• Schoolhouse Polka also appeared in Sing-Alongs: Do the Moo Shoo.
• Going Up! and Schoolhouse Polka also appeared in the TV episode Bully Trouble.
• This episode is featured in Growing Patient Kids!.
• The sound effects that's used for Scooter after Apollo defeated him is a mix of both chattering teeth and a jackhammer.
• This is the only episode in the Vietnamese voiceover not to use the somewhat non-religious cut in foreign dubs aside from the rest of the pre-Sheerluck Holmes and the Golden Ruler episodes that use a somewhat non-religious cut in some foreign dubs.

Remarks

• Several fourth wall breaks were done, such as:
  • Maewyn interrupting Lutfi while he's telling the story.
  • Archibald popping up explaining what the silk screen is made of and what a haiku is.
  • Scallion looking at the audience when Mikey states he injured his knee.
• Considering Maewyn is in England, the church minister should've used the term "Football." However, this would have been confusing to American children watching the show.
• It is stated that Maewyn prays 100 times a day. Taking in mind 24 hours, that means he likely prays 4.16 times per hour, or if taking in mind a typical 8 am to 10 pm routine of 14 hours, 7.14 times per hour.
• While it may seem incorrect that St. Patrick refers to God as three persons (rather than people), this word is often used in theology to refer to the trinity.
• A semi second flash flare happened when Jim Gourdly was explaining Jerry on Scallion's history.
• One of the rules of sumo wrestling is that if any part of your body except your feet touches the mat, you lose. If that's the case, when Apollo Gourd fainted from dizziness, shouldn't Scallion have won?
  • On the other hand, the veggies don't have feet, so they probably don't apply to this rule.
• Bus 92 is the route Larry took to get to the toy drive. If you look up at CTA, it takes you to Foster, which was the original location of Big Idea.
• It's never explained how Larry listened the story, got to the toy drive, and came back in the short amount of time between the ending and the closing countertop. Mike Nawrocki acknowledged this in the commentary. Though, it could be possible that Bob's phone has an "on speaker" mode.
• In the previews section, The Complete Silly Song Collection is listed as "Silly Song DVD Collection."
• Though it may not be considered a goof, the concept art of the mall had the Big Idea logo in English, but it's in Japanese in the final version.

Goofs

• In Going Up, Larry at first gets stuck on the fifth stair, though if you count how many stairs he hopped on the previous shots, he should've gotten stuck on the seventh or higher.
• During some parts of St. Patrick, some of the body joints of Maewyn are disconnected at times.
• The bearded sailor swapped his voice with the other sailor after they were cooking ham.
• The horns on Apollo's helmet clip through the black before he enters the room.
• Scallion is missing his tooth when Mikey asked him why he wants to face Apollo.
• When Scallion expresses his disgust in the raw eggs, his man bun disappears. However, it reappears later on when he gets the first attempt to go up the escalator.
• The lip-syncing is off at parts.

Inside References

• Madame Blueberry's house in Going Up is Mr. Butterbun's house in The Strange Case of Dr. Jiggle and Mr. Sly
• In the concept art, Scooter's character was Moyer.
• If you look closely at the news article on Alexander, you can see the word "Jonah."
• Mr. Lunt's chef costume is an altered version of his costume from The Ballad of Little Joe.

Real-World References

• Star Trek is a science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry. Lutfi stating that we'll just believe the Irish folk are speaking English is mostly referring to the alien species' mostly speaking English, especially in The Original Series. It is a common joke, although it is explained in-universe that the crew has universal translators which render the alien languages into English.
• According to the script, the animation style for The Story of St. Patrick is partially inspired by the animated sitcom South Park.
• The title is a reference to Phantom of the Opera.
• The small pile of rocks Maywen knocked over is a miniature version of Stonehenge.
• Because it's a spoof of the Rocky films and the Karate Kid trilogy, a lot of references and mentions were used, including:
  • Larry's character, the Italian Scallion is the spoof name of Rocky Balboa's nickname, the Italian Stallion.
  • Mikey is a composite of Mickey and Miyagi, the two mentors from the films.
  • Hadrian's name is a spoof of Adrian, Rocky's love interest and later wife. The repeated phrase "Yo Hadrian" is in reference to Rocky's famous call of "Yo Adrian!"
  • Some of the scenes of Scallion training (punching the can bags and running up the escalator) are similar to the training montages Rocky does. The seemingly ridiculous nature of the training techniques and their usefulness in the final fight is a major plot point in The Karate Kid.
  • The illustrator of Mikey's images is Danny LaRusso, who was the main character from the Karate Kid films & Cobra Kai.
  • Eye of the Tiger is the name of a song by Survivor, which was used in Rocky 3.
  • Po-Tato is a spoof on actor Mr. T, who is famous for saying "I pity the fool!". He was also known as Clubber Lang from the third Rocky film.
• E.S.N. (Emperor's Sports Network) is a play on words for ESPN (Entertainment and Sports Programming Network), which is headquartered in Bristol, Connecticut.
• When Jim Gourdly explains The Italian Scallion's back story, the picture of Larry on the silk screen has a sketch of him wearing a shirt similar to the signature shirt of Charlie Brown from Peanuts.
• The Mikado Mall is named after the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta "The Mikado," from which many of the songs in this show take their tunes (e.g. "A Joking Sumo I" & "A Wand'ring Minstrel I"). Some of the stores there are play on words of real stores, such as:
  • Origami-R-Us (Toys "R" Us)
  • Samurai's Secret (Victoria's Secret)
• Colors of the Wind is the name of a song from Disney's Pocahontas.
• The S. S. Minnow is the name of the ship from "Gilligan's Island."
• "Schoolhouse Polka" is a reference to Schoolhouse Rock, a cartoon series from the 1970s that teaches math, grammar, science and history.
• Alexander the Grape is a play on words for the Macedon king, Alexander the Great.

Fast Forward

• A unofficial follow up called Lessons from the Sock Drawer would be made, using some of the same shorts.
• Perseverance would be taught again years later.
• A recoloring of the truck from Going Up would reappear quite a few times in later episodes.

Episode Transcript

• Sumo of the Opera/Transcript

Gallery

• Previous episode: A Snoodle's Tale
• Next episode: Duke and the Great Pie War