I'd Rather Read It Myself

"I'd Rather Read It Myself"
Season/Series:	3
Number in season:	2B
Original Airdate:	September 28, 1998
Credits
Written by:	Joe Fallon
Storyboard by:	Robert Yap
Episodes
Previous "D.W. All Fired Up"	Next "Arthur Goes Crosswire"
Read transcript

"I'd Rather Read It Myself" is the second half of the second episode in the third season of Arthur.

Summary

Tired of the Tibble twins always being ahead of her, D.W. tries to convince them that she's already learned how to read.

Plot

The episode starts with Arthur telling the audience about how Timmy and Tommy Tibble drive D.W. crazy. He explains about how they want to prove they're better at everything. The Tibbles said to DW that they can scream louder than DW. D.W. said she don't care. But they screamed louder. Arthur told them that the Tibbles can ride a 2 wheeler than D.W.

☀If only D.W. could be the first to do something before the Tibbles...

* * * I'd Rather Read it Myself * * *

The Tibbles rush to see what's happened, as does D.W., and then the Tibbles' Grandma. In the front of the Tibbles' house, the Tibble twins dug a large pit, about a foot and a half deep and about 9 foot wide, and covered it with branches. On top of this, they'd placed a peanut butter cup candy as bait.

This is their (sic) "Burma-ese tiger trap".

The only trouble is that they haven't caught a tiger. Their unlikely captive is Mr. Haney, Arthur's principal. He bent down to pick up the peanut butter cup, and suddenly he was trapped!

• The Tibbles are a little annoyed that Mr. Haney broke their "Burma-ese tiger trap".
• Mr. Haney wants to know if he can keep the peanut butter cup.

Grandma Tibble is concerned at the fact she now has a deep pit in the garden. She asks the Tibbles if they got permission to dig such a deep hole.

Permission or not, the hole will have to be filled in. She'll have to go out. Can the Tibbles stay over with D.W.? She shouldn't be out long. It starts to downpour outside. Looks like soccer is out of the question. D.W. will have to find some way of entertaining them inside.The Tibbles color extremely fast -- there's a flurry of activity for a a few seconds. Then the Tibbles get up. They need something else to do. D.W. goes over to her coloring book and inspects the Tibbles' handiwork. She flips through the pages. All the pictures are scribbled over. Which Made her upset. Arthur's up in his room, doing 207,000 math problems for homework.

Ok then, if Arthur can't help, can he just give her some advice? He's had experience dealing with them as a babysitter. What keeps them quiet?

Arthur says the last time he babysat them, he found something that worked. That could work for D.W., except that she can't read stories, since she can't read anything. But then, neither can the Tibbles. D.W. returns to the den, where the Tibbles are milling about. She has an announcement.

She's going to read them a story.

The Tibbles say that that's impossible. Anything D.W. can do, they can do. They can't read, and neither can she. The Tibbles find something for her to read, to prove (or better yet, disprove) her claim. They point to the nameplate on the television in the den. The manufacturer of this television is "Elbozonic" according to the nameplate.D.W. claims that it says... television!

The Tibbles confer -- is D.W. right? They don't know. They can't read! It sounds good to them. Maybe she CAN read. However, they're still not completely convinced. They find a book in the den for her to read to them. It's a copy of the "3 Bears".

The Tibbles think they will be able to trip D.W. up now. "It's got lots of pictures, so we'll know if you're reading it right".

D.W. sounds uncomfortable with that. She picks up a heavy looking book. The Tibbles look inside. It's all words! They sound dubious.

D.W. tells them not to worry.They sit down, and D.W. starts reading. She flips to a random place in the book, and starts to "read".

This is the story of D., err... B.W.!

B.W. was a "smart, great, perfect girl".

We see what D.W.'s talking about. There's a splodgy background, with a picture of a paper doll-esque D.W. in her underwear. There's an arrow pointing to B.W. marked "B.W.". Both B.W. and the arrow are jiggling about.

D.W. (narrating): She was a princess, a genius, cool, and a nice person.

Paper doll clothes fly out and go onto B.W. in quick succession.

• Princess outfit.
• Scientist outfit with test tubes and atoms flying about,
• Then a riding outfit with a pony.
  The Tibbles interrupt D.W.'s storytelling... They're almost thinking that D.W. isn't actually reading to them. What's making them suspicious? B.W. is pretty close to D.W....

Timmy: If it was "D.W." I'd think you were making this up! D.W. says for them to be quiet, so she can get on with the story. They let her continue to read to them. B.W.'s room has bunk beds. It's time for bed. B.W. has the bottom bunk. Pony has top bunk. B.W. snuggles down in her bed, as does the heavier pony in it's bunk. It lies in its bed on it's back.Just one thing kept B.W.'s life from being perfect...

At the doorway to B.W.'s bedroom, light shines in from outside. In the light, we see an ominous long angular shadow.

The shadow is that of regular old Arthur. Arthur laughs. He looks quite evil in the light. As if having an older brother wasn't bad enough, B.W.'s brother Arthur wasn't a regular brother -- he was a "mega transformalizer".
Arthur stands smiling in garden. Arthur's body suddenly goes all boxy, like a robot's. His head turns into a nosecone shape and spins around. Arthur then transforms into a helicopter, and then into a rocket with a lima bean tin for the cylinder of the rocket. This blasts off, and heads skyward.

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Characters

• Arthur Read
• D.W. Read
• Timmy Tibble
• Tommy Tibble
• Mrs. Tibble
• Herbert Haney
• Jane Read
• Buster Baxter (appeared in fantasy)
• Walter (appeared in fantasy)
• Nadine (appeared in fantasy)
• Pickles (appeared in fantasy)
• Lucy's husband (appeared in fantasy)
• Jessica (appeared in fantasy)
• Spanky (appeared in fantasy)
• The President (appeared in fantasy)

Trivia

• The snowball incident is a central plot element in D.W.'s story, in which Arthur really did steal it.
• Arthur says he has 207,000 math problems for homework from Mr. Ratburn; this is an insane amount of work even for Mr. Ratburn to pass out. This definitely could be an exaggeration.

Cultural references

File:Gigantor3.jpg

Gigantor, called Tetsujin 28-gō in the original Manga

Bust-Rantor

• Arthur's ability to transform into whatever he pleases in D.W.'s story may be a parody of Transformers.
• The book is about Leonardo da Vinci.
• "Bust-Rantor" is a based off of Gigantor, the 1960s American adaptation of the Japanese anime Tetsujin 28-gō, with similar suit and theme music.

Episode connections

• In "D.W. Thinks Big", Arthur says that the ring bearer is always a boy. But in D.W's fantasy, Cora is the ring bearer.
• This episode combines events from episodes from seasons 1 and 2, such as D.W. All Wet, D.W. Thinks Big, D.W.'s Snow Mystery, So Long, Spanky, D.W., the Picky Eater, D.W. Goes To Washington, and D.W. Gets Lost.
• Numerous incidents from the first two seasons are prominently featured in this episode:
  • Aunt Lucy's wedding.
  • D.W.'s hatred for spinach.
  • D.W.'s missing blanket.
  • The death of D.W.'s bird Spanky.
  • Getting lost in the mall.
  • D.W.'s friend Walter the deer.
  • D.W.'s fear of octopi at Bear Lake.
  • D.W. and the balance beam.
  • D.W. learning to ride a two-wheel bicycle.
  • D.W. meeting the President.

Errors

• In the wedding scene that is based upon D.W. Thinks Big, the bride who may or may not resemble Lucy is not shown at the wedding and only the look-alike of Lucy's husband was shown there; and the Cora-like girl was being the ring-bearer instead of any male, although being a ring-bearer is a job for males.
• In the scene where the Crazy Bus is actually the evil Arthur-like mega-transforbalizer, the Blankie is shown to be blue; although it is pink in all of its other appearances.
• D.W. states in the story she made up that the lake had 7,000 octopuses in it, but it was a giant sea creature with eleven tentacle legs, which is three more legs than an actual octopus has. However, it might be likely that she cannot precisely determine multiple quantity due to her young age.
• When D.W. says that she can read before the Tibbles, there is no table. But when she says that she's read books since last Thursday, a table full of books appears beside her.

Production notes

• This is the first episode to use Octopus Arms as a title card.

Home Video

DVD:

• Arthur Writes a Story

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