Arthur Makes a Movie

Summary
When Arthur and his friends are too young to watch a James Hound movie, due to being rated PG-13, the gang gets together to make a movie that stars Arthur and puts Muffy in the director's chair.

Plot
Arthur goes to the movies with his family and is watching a promo for the latest James Hound movie. Unfortunately, Arthur and his friends are too young to watch a James Hound movie as the movie is rated PG-13 and they're only 8 years old as Arthur's father tells Arthur that he only has five more years to be 13 years old. Arthur is instead forced to watch a movie of D.W.'s choosing: Kitty Come Home.

Arthur and his friends later discuss the James Hound movie. Upset that they can't see the real one, Francine said they just have to wait until they are older, but then Buster said that James Hound will also get older and by the time they will be old enough to see the movie, "he'll be ancient".

Brain said that they will get a new actor to play as him and Buster said that he won't be as good as the one right now. Then they decide to make their own James Hound movie with Muffy's new video camera.

They first decide to make the scene where Hound rides his motor bike and squirts dust at two villains so that he can escape. Arthur plays the role of James Hound and Buster and Brain play the villains chasing him.

However, Arthur cannot find a black bow tie to wear like James Hound, and is forced to wear a red polka-dot tie lent to him by Francine, and must use baby powder in place of a real smoke screen.

Francine uses two board erasers full of Chalk dust to shout out the takes. When Arthur squirts the baby powder dust at Buster and Brain he accidentally squirts himself due to an unexpected wind gust and crashes the bike.

Buster asks to do the scene where James Hound fights the evil Genius in his space station shaped like a giant crab, during which he stops the villain from turning all sea life on Earth against the humans on the land.

The gang find that to be too difficult to film, but instead they make a toy jet and have Muffy film it flying. Unfortunately, Pal grabs a hold of it during filming and uses it as a chew toy. Brain decides to do the scene where Hound's Genius Sidekick IQ saves the world from nuclear disaster.

Brain plays IQ and Arthur plays James Hound again and they use the library's computer as the controls of the missile, but when Brain clicks the number 1 on the computer it makes the lights go out in the library. They manage to get them running again though.

Francine decides to do the scene where Hound saves the pretty lady from a shark in which Francine plays the pretty lady and Arthur once again plays James Hound. They use Muffy's pool as the water and D.W.'s toy shark Sharky as the shark.

D.W. uses diver shoes for the takes. Arthur as James Hound saves Francine and they exchange some cheesy romantic remarks, much to Arthur's embarrassment. Unfortunately, Muffy hasn't figured out her camera and accidentally ejects their one good scene into the pool.

The gang shows the tape to their older friend Prunella, but get into a heated argument when they realize how amateurish they did and accuse each other of not doing their part to make it better.

However, Prunella surprisingly enjoys the movie, even if it wasn't much like the James Hound movie, which she herself did get to see. The gang is happy with the final cut, as they did have fun making it.

Characters

 * Arthur Read
 * Buster Baxter
 * The Brain
 * Francine Frensky
 * Muffy Crosswire
 * Prunella Deegan
 * D.W. Read
 * David Read
 * Jane Read (doesn't speak)
 * Paige Turner
 * Emily (doesn't speak)
 * Bailey (doesn't speak)
 * Ms. Albright

Trivia

 * Prunella saw the movie, even though she is only one year older than the gang and the movie is rated PG-13.
 * Arthur states that James Hound's bowtie is black, even though in the real trailer it can be seen as red.
 * At least in the fictional world of Elwood City, the PG-13 rating is apparently legally enforced, while in reality, it's not.

Cultural references

 * James Hound is a parody of the James Bond film series.
 * Kitty, Come Home is most likely a reference to Lassie Come Home.

Episode connections

 * This is Sharkie's first appearance since its debut in "Arthur's Family Vacation".
 * Another PG-13 movie (Wacky Zack the Zombie King) is mentioned in George Blows His Top.
 * When Brain and Arthur film the missile scene, Arthur refers to Brain as "I.Q.". In "Return of the King" a student from Glenbrook Academy named I.Q. who is seen as Brain's doppleganger would be encountered.

Production notes

 * On some post-9/11 airings and on video releases, the I.Q. imagine spot is edited, so we don't see the missile stop right before hitting the White House; instead, it freeze-frames on the Brain as I.Q. pushing down the "1" button, as we hear Arthur saying "We did it!" (with a noticeably different voice actor), and then it goes to the parade scene.

Animation errors

 * Right before Muffy says "hello, little ants", Bailey is replaced with Carl Pacheva.

Home Video
DVD: VHS:
 * Arthur Makes a Movie (2014 DVD)
 * Arthur Makes a Movie (2005 DVD)
 * Arthur Makes a Movie (VHS)