12 min. / English / Season 4, Episode 6a
In this episode of the long-running PBS show, Arthur, the titular aardvark’s little sister, D.W., composes an adventure story based on the Odyssey.
D.W. wants to hang out with her big brother Arthur and his friend Buster as they read together, but they exclude her because she is too young to read and write. D.W. gets upset and claims she can make a better story than what’s in the books, and Arthur challenges her to try. She expresses her frustration to her Grandma Thora about her inability to write a tale, but grandma responds by telling her how cavemen passed on stories by word of mouth (or, oral composition).
After this, D.W. recites a tale to Arthur and Buster about the warrior queen O-D.W-eus and her epic adventures, which is depicted in the animation with the show’s characters in the iconic roles. We first see the queen angering Poseidon (played by the monkey Francine) by stealing his unicorn. The god crashes the queen’s ship, but she and her crew of preschoolers survive. After eating plants that make them forget everything, they are seized by the Cyclops (played by the rabbit Buster). He eats a few friends in his cave, but O-D.W.-eus blinds the Cyclops — she ties one of his ears around his eye — and the crew escape using his boat and his sock as a sail. The boat passes by the island of the Sirens, who sing the song ‘Crazy Bus’ (a recurring song on the show), as the queen is tied to the mast. They pass between Charybdis and Scylla (played by the monkey Muffy and Arthur, respectively) and throw the Cyclops’ sock in Scylla’s face to escape once again. Finally, as they are reaching their home island, the boat is struck by lightning and only O-D.W.-eus reaches land, eager to share her story.
In the end of the episode, the boys at first claim D.W.’s story is no good. D.W. responds that they must not kow what a good story is, since she was telling them the Odyssey, which her grandma had shared with her. They then admit that it was actually pretty impressive, and ask her to tell parts of it again.
Animated Antiquity 
Leave a comment