Do You Speak George?/Transcript

Do You Speak George?

Introduction

Arthur sticks his head out of a large heap of hay (later revealed to be a hay cart).

Arthur: (spits hay out of his mouth) Hey, Buster, where'd you go? Huh?    One of Buster’s ears comes out of the hay like a periscope. Then Buster’s whole head appears.

Buster: Here I am.     A foot sticks out of the hay.

Buster: Hh!  Is that my foot? Wow, I'm really flexible!

Francine: from out of the hay:    Pull me up!     Arthur and Buster pull Francine out.   Thanks. Is everybody here?     Fern appears, followed by Binky, Brain and Muffy.

Arthur: Yeah!   Sue Ellen appears.

Arthur: Isn't it great when we do things together as a group? Like when we had that huge snowball fight at the tree house.     

Flashback: The kids throw snowballs near the treehouse.

Buster: Go on, take that!       He and Arthur jump behind a snowdrift. A snowball hits Arthur.

Arthur: Ah!

Buster: (laughs)      A snowball hits him.    Oh!     Binky is hiding nearby.

Binky: (laughs)    He is about to throw another snowball when he is buried by snow falling from a tree.

Flashback: The kids stand on top of Moose Mountain.

Francine: Or that time we all climbed Moose Mountain.

Muffy: Okay, hold it. Don't move!     She has put a camera with self-timer on a rock. The kids all pose. Buster gives Muffy bunny ears.

Muffy: I saw that!

Fantasy: The kids ride a duck shaped rubber raft down a river.

Buster: How about the time we all went river rafting in that giant rubber duck?

Kids: (whoop and scream)

The fantasy ends.

Arthur: A giant rubber duck? That never happened.

Buster: Oh, yeah. That was a dream. But in it, we all had a great time!

The hay cart starts moving.

Arthur: Whoa! Here we go again!    

Kids: (cheer)    George comes running after the cart.

George: Wait! Wait up! You left without me! Again.      He turns around sadly.

Title Card. Slot Machine: George

Arthur and Buster are playing marbles during recess. It is Buster’s turn.

Buster: The trick is to use your thumb. You get more power that way.

Arthur: Would you shoot already! The bell's going to ring any second!    Buster shoots to hard. The marble flies past Arthur.    Whoa!    The marble lands next to a bench where Francine and Muffy are playing cards. Francine gives the marble to Muffy who hides it.

Francine: Shh!

Francine+Muffy: (giggle)      Arthur and Buster walk over.

Buster: Hey, did you guys see a marble?

Francine: Arblemoola? Utwhoola arblemoola?     [Marble? What Marble?]

Muffy: (giggles)

Arthur: What did you say?

Francine: Sorry, I forgot. You don't speak Oola.

Buster: What's Oola? Did I miss something in class? Are we going to have a test on it?

Muffy: Oola is our secret language. Catherine taught it to Francine and Francine taught it to me.    The school bell rings.

Buster: Cool! Teach it to us!

Francine: I can’t.  If I taught it to you, then it wouldn't really be a secret language, would it?  

Muffy: Eyeboola!     [Bye!]

Francine+Muffy: (laugh)     The girls leave.

Arthur: Who wants to learn a secret language anyway?

Buster: Yeah. Especially one with a name like Oola. It sounds like baby-talk. If we had a language, it would be much better.

Arthur: It would, wouldn't it?   Buster nods.

#

Arthur rings the Lundgren’s doorbell. George opens the door wearing a dressing gown.

Arthur: Hey, George. I got your homework. You feeling any better?    He hands George a folder.

George: A little. I'll probably be back at school tomorrow or the next day.

Arthur: Sithat tigrea!    [That’s great!]

George: Huh?

Arthur: It means "That's great" in the new language Buster and I invented. I’ll tell you the secret code, but you have to promise not to give it to Francine or Muffy. Okay?   George nods. Arthur takes out a notebook and writes “radio”. Take the last letter of a word and put it in front.    He erases the "O".   If you wind up with two consonants together, put an "i" sound between them. So, radio becomes "oradi." Pretty easy, huh?

George: Yeah, I guess. Um… ank-thoo? Oh, wait, that's wrong. Katankoo. No, that's not right, either. Oh! I'm trying to say "thank you."     Arthur puts the notebook in his bag.

Arthur: That would be "kithan uyo."

George: It would?

Arthur: Don't worry. It's kind of hard at first, but you'll get the hang of it. See you soon!   

Arthur leaves. George goes inside and closes the door.

George: Kithan uyo. Kithan uyo. Kithan uyo.

#

Buster and Arthur share a table with George in the cafeteria.

Buster: Wiho ear uyo yitoda?     [How are you today?]

George: Kithan uyo.      [Thank you.]

Arthur: George, that's "thank you." Buster just said, "How are you today?" You didn't understand, did you?

George: No.

Buster: Have you been practicing?

George: Yes. For two straight days!

Arthur: Sit oto dihar rifo mihi.   [It’s too hard for him.]

Buster: (sighs)  Ripoo Egeorg!      [Poor George!]

George: What? What are you saying?

Arthur: Oh, um… it's nothing.

George: I don't think I want to learn your language!   

He stands up and walk to a table where Sue Ellen is sitting alone. Buster and Arthur exchange looks.

George: Can I join you? I was getting a headache listening to Arthur and Buster.

Sue Ellen: I know. They keep talking in that horrible gibberish. You should learn Oola. It's just like Pig Latin, only you...       Francine and Muffy suddenly stand next to the table.

Francine: Topsoola! What are you doing?     [Stop!]

Sue Ellen: I was just about to tell George how to speak...

Muffy: You almost contaminated Oola!

Francine: Remember Oola law? No one who has learned how to speak Arthur and Buster's language can be taught our language.

George: But I didn't learn it. All I can say is "thank you."

Francine: Sorry, George, but rules are rules. There's nothing I can do.

Muffy: to Sue Ellen:   We'll let you off with a warning this time, but be careful!    Sue Ellen bows her head.

George: I think you've all gone crackers!     He walks to another table where he sits alone and sadly eats his soup.

#

On the school playground George eats raisins and watches the other kids play.

Kids: (laugh)    Binky sits on the jungle gym playing with a yoyo.

George: Hey, Binky, you wanna make up a language with me?    Binky hangs by his knees.

Binky: A language, huh? Okay. Guess what this means.  (burps)   

George: Ooah! "I want a breath mint"?

Binky: Close! It means "Hand over the raisins." George hands him the raisins.  Hey, you're good at this!     

George walks over to Brain who is reading a book.

George: Why aren't you in one of their groups?

Brain: I find Oola very simplistic and the Arthur-Buster dialect has too many irregularities.

George: Oh. Yeah, that's why I don't like them. I mean, they're not even real languages. They're just mixed-up letters.

Brain: Exactly. You know, I bet we could invent something much more interesting.

George: Okay!

Brain: Let's each come up with some ideas tonight and then meet tomorrow at the ice cream shop.      They shake hands.

#

George is sitting on his bed in his pajamas. He is holding a notebook and Wally.

George: Oh, this is harder than I thought. Everything I come up with is too complicated.

Wally: Hey, I know! Why don't you just replace every word with "Wally"? Wally wally wally?

George: I have no idea what you just said.

Wally: Neither do I, but I like the way it sounds.    George puts Wally on a drawer.

George: (yawns)  Maybe I'll think of something in the morning. I'm beat.

He turns off the light and gets into bed.

#

In his dream George walks through a jungle wearing explorer’s clothes.

Wally: Why did we have to come all the way to the Gramazon Jungle? You know the humidity makes me warp!

George: There's a secret language that's right for me somewhere in here. I know it!    Two large toads are sitting in their path.    Whoa! What are those?

Red Toad: How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

Yellow Toad: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

Wally: They're dangerous Tongue-Twisting-Toads! I read about them in the guidebook!   They sneak past the toads.

Red Toad: How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

Wally: Be careful! The red toad’s tongue curls around George and lifts him off the ground.

George: Whoaa!

Wally: Get your slimy tongue off my puppeteer!     He bites the tongue. The toads hop away.

Red Toad: She sells seashells by the seashore. She sells seashells by the seashore...   

George walks on with Wally.

George: Ooh, that was close.

Wally: I'll say. Watch out for that gobbledygook!

They are standing in front of a bubbling swamp. Colored letters appear in the bubbles. George grabs a vine and swings over the swamp. He runs on.

#

George pushes some leaves aside.

George: Wally, I think we've found it!

In front of him a group of small moose are dancing to the sound of a drum in the middle of a village. A moose pops out of the woods.

Georgini: He has come! The Great George has blessed us with his presence!

Georginis: Yay!     They run up to George.

Wally: The Great George? What about the Great Wally?    A Georgini tries to touch him.   Hey, watch the wood, Shorty. I just had a polish!

Georgini: We are the Georginis. We will teach you our sacred language, and you can bring it back to your people.

George: Okay, but I should warn you. I'm not so good with languages. I have dyslexia, and, well, I get words confused sometimes.

Georgini: Our language has no words. It is a language of gestures and sounds. Behold.

The Georginis form a line. One of them plays a drum. They make a few moves finishing with…

Georginis: Ahh!

Georgini: That all means, "We are happy you have come."

George: Sorry, Wally, I think I'm gonna need both hands for this.

Wally: Hey! No, wait! What are you...   George sticks Wally on a branch. Then he dances with the Georginis.

George wakes up, reaches for his notebook and begins writing.

#

In the ice-cream shop George shows Brain a page with stick figures showing the gestures for “hi”, “here”, “stop” and “me”.

George: See? There's a separate gesture or sound for every word. So there's no spelling involved. Watch!   He pats his head and pats his belly, sticks his arms out, hungs himself and says:   Moo. That means "I like ice cream."

Brain: It'll never work.    He takes out some sheets of paper.   Now, I've come up with a language based on math. Each letter is given a number from one to 26. And then...

George: What do you mean, it'll never work?

Brain: Without an alphabet, you'd have to come up with thousands of sounds and gestures.

George: Yeah, but you could build on top of ones you already have. This is "I like."   He pets his belly with his left hand.   But this is "I like a lot."    He holds up his right hand while  petting his belly with his left hand.

Brain: Well, it's dangerous. What if you want to say something while you're riding a bike?

George: So? How much talking do you do on your bike anyway?

Brain: George, it just… looks really silly.    George gets up.

George: Fine! I'll just find someone else who wants to learn it. He leaves. Brain looks at his notes.

#

George does a Georgini dance for Prunella.

Prunella: (laughs)

George does a Georgini dance for D.W. D.W. makes the “crazy” gesture and points at George. Then she walks away.

George does a Georgini dance for Mr. Ratburn. He accidentally knocks over his mug spilling coffee on some papers on his desk.

George: Oops.

George makes Georgini gestures to a baby in a stroller.

Baby: (cries)  The mother pushes the stroller away. George looks sad.

At home George puts the notebook in a cupboard.

#

George walks over the school playground with a comic book. Buster and others are playing with a frisbee.

Buster: Ajenn! Rove eher!     [Jenna! Over here!]

Francine, Muffy and Jenna are playing with marbles in the sandbox.

Muffy+Sue Ellen: Eethroola. Ourfoola. Ivefoola.      [Three. Four. Five.]

Brain and Binky are spinning on the merry-go-round.

Brain: Ten, twenty-one, thirteen, sixteen!     [Jump!]

Binky: (burps)

George sits down on a tire swing and reads his comic book. Francine throw a marble that rolls over to the steps and into Arthur’s bagpack. Francine wants to retrieve it.

Arthur: Yeh, sithat ym giba!     [Hey, that's my bag!]    The both pull at the backpack.

Francine: Ivegoola emoola ymoola allboola!    [Give me my ball!]

Arthur: Tiwha?  [What?]

Francine: Atwhoola? Etloola ogoola!   [What? Let go! ]

Arthur: Pisto! Pisto!    [Stop! Stop!]    Buster and Muffy join them.

Buster: Efrancin, yla fof!     [Francine, lay off!]

Muffy: Ivegoola ackboola ouroola allboola!   [Give back our ball!]    George joins them.

George: STOP!! She just wants the ball!    He takes the marble out of Arthur’s backpack and gives it to Francine.     You know, things were a lot around here when everyone understood each other!    He walks away. 

#

George reads his comic book on the swings. The others come to him.

Francine: George, we've decided you're right.

Arthur: But Buster and I don't want to learn Oola, and Francine and Muffy won't learn Arster-Buthur.

Buster: Prunella told me you invented your own language. Maybe we could all learn that.

George has a fantasy in which he is standing on the jungle gym wearing a colorful robe while the others are standing below dressed as Georgini. They do a Georgini dance.

Kids:  Ohh. Ahh.

George: My language really is the best language in the world, because anyone can speak it. Anyone at all. Now no one will ever feel left out a…gain.     He notices Jenna who has her arm in a sling. She looks sad and walks away.

The fantasy ends.

George: I have a better idea. Why don't we all just go back to the way it was.    Everybody nods.

Muffy: Oh, here's your marble.

Buster: I was wondering where that went. Anybody up for a game?

Arthur: Yeah.

Francine: Let's go.

Muffy: Yeah!        They all go except George. Arthur stops.

Arthur: Come on, George. What are you waiting for?

George: Uh, nothing. Let's go!     He jumps off the swings and runs to play with the others.