Brain Freeze

"Brain Freeze"
Season/Series:	17
Number in season:	10b
Original Airdate:	May 14, 2014 November 19, 2013 May 2, 2013
Credits
Written by:	Andy Yerkes Peter K. Hirsch
Storyboard by:	Gerry Capelle
Episodes
Previous "Binky's Music Madness"	Next "The Tattletale Frog"
Read transcript

"Brain Freeze" is the second half of the tenth episode in the seventeenth season of Arthur.

Summary

A new ice cream shop has just opened up across the block. With whimsical flavor names, futuristic furniture, and a cute mascot named Puk Puk, Yumbobo is threatening to put Brain's shop out of business. It's gonna be a rocky road.

Plot

Arthur, Muffy, Buster, and Francine look at a poster for an ice cream store called Yumbobo. Brain criticizes their overly-fancy marketing. As Binky enters to tell them about Yumbobo's penguin mascot, everyone except Brain runs outside.

Brain Freeze

Brain visits Yumbobo, and despite enthusiastic staff and unique flavor names, he is still not impressed. At his house, he examines that all of Yumbobo's flavors are the same as the ones in his store. He shows Buster, who suggests that Brain add gimmicks to prevent his store from going out of business.

Brain offers a free "chemical analysis" with customers' ice cream, which Francine and Muffy do not find interesting. Muffy suggests that he sell an "experience" instead of ice cream, and makes a fake story about the ice cream shop's history; Brain refuses to lie and leaves.

Worried that the ice cream shop could go out of business, Brain daydreams his mother being employed at Yumbobo. He goes to Jack's Joke Shop and buys a polar bear mascot costume. He stands outside the ice cream shop, but gets his free samples taken by Binky and a bee gets into his costume.

Serving himself at the ice cream shop, Buster attempts to juggle ice cream, but ends up mixing the flavors together. He tastes it and enjoys it, and Brain gets the idea to create an ice cream mixing lab at his shop. Two Yumbobo employees visit the store, to which Brain says, "I knew you'd be here sooner or later!"

Characters

Major

• Brain
• Francine Frensky
• Mustard Seed
• Buster Baxter

Minor

• Muffy Crosswire
• Binky Barnes
• Arthur Read
• Mrs. Powers
• Elderberry

Cameo

• Marina Datillo
• Timmy and Tommy Tibble
• Prunella Deegan
• Sue Ellen Armstrong
• Fern Walters
• George Lundgren
• Rattles
• Slink
• Molly
• Little Boy
• Maryann
• Chiekh
• Nigel Ratburn
• Francis Haney
• Emily
• Maria Pappas
• Lucy
• Carl Gould
• Paige Turner
• Chip Crosswire
• Catherine Frensky
• Puk Puk

Trivia

• It is revealed that the Powers family has owned their Ice Cream Shop for 4 years.
• It is revealed that Brain's grandfather's name was Alan, suggesting that Brain was named after his grandfather.
• This episode aired on Australia and UK before the United States.
• This is the last episode where Drew Adkins voices Arthur Read before William Healy replaces him.
• This is the last episode where Jake Beale voices D.W. Read before Andrew Dayton replaces him.
• Karma: The Yumbobo group stole Brain's business, so they get caught when they made disgusies.

References

• Yumbobo's gelatinator probably takes its name from gelato, an Italian type of ice-cream.
• Mustard Seed may be named for a fairy from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.
• Tahitian Trance probably gets its name from the Vanilla tahitensis plant, which can be used for flavoring, though Vanilla planifolia is cheaper and more common.
• Exocolato Intrigue probably gets its name from the Aztec word xocolatl, which the Spanish turned into chocolate.
• Wimbledon Wonder is likely named for the custom of eating strawberries and cream at the Wimbledon tennis tournament.
• Buster uses three terms from the 16th century:
  • Mountebank means charlatan. It comes from Italian monta in banco, meaning climb on a bench (to attract attention).
  • Hoodwinking originally meant blindfolding, then became a term for deceiving.
  • Flim-flammery means deception. It may come from old Old Norse flim, meaning mockery.
• Brain's Plantain Passion is named for cooking bananas.
• Ursus maritimus is the scientific name for polar bear.
• One new flavor in Brain's Blending Lab is Nanamint, a combination of Nanaimo Bar (a Canadian dessert) and mint.

Gallery

• 
• 
•