The Short, Quick Summer/Transcript

Arthur Read: It's the last day of school. When that bell rings, summer starts!

Mrs. Fink's class: (singing) Summer is fun / It's just begun / There's lots of sun / We'll play and run / Summer is number one / La la la la la...

Mr. Ratburn: Only two minutes left in the school year, there's time for one last math problem.

(Arthur takes a paper labeled "SUMMER STUFF" out of a book.)

Arthur: This is my list of all the great things I plan to do this summer.

(Fade to a calendar. The month shown on it is June. The top image shows flowers, which are zoomed in and revealed to be in Arthur's yard, where he and Buster are playing badminton. Arthur hits Buster in the head with the shuttlecock.)

Buster: Ow! Hey, watch the birdie!

Arthur: Sorry, Buster.

(The calendar switches to July and shows a beach. Arthur and Buster are playing volleyball. Sue Ellen is playing the saxophone and Binky is singing on a stage.)

Binky: Rocking at the beach! Rocking at the beach!

(The calendar switches to August. Arthur, Buster, and Francine are watching the clouds.)

Arthur: I see a hippo.

Buster: I see a train racing an octopus.

Francine: That is the most ridiculous- Hey! He's right!

(There is, in fact, a train-shaped cloud chasing an octopus-shaped cloud. Fade back to school.)

Mr. Ratburn: The answer is seventeen and a half. Have a good summer!

(The kids run out of school.)

Arthur: Summer is here!

(Title card)

THE SHORT, QUICK SUMMER

Written by: Joe Fallon—Storyboard by: Denis Banville

(Bird singing, thunder crashing)

Binky Barnes: (V.O.) The Short, Quick Summer.

Arthur: (yawns) It's another perfect summer day, Pal. What should we do? We could go to the park, or go swimming, or play—

Jane Read: How about shopping for back-to-school clothes?

Arthur: Yuck! Why would I want to do that?

Jane: Because you start school next week!

Arthur: (gasps) It's the last week of summer already?! It can't be! It is impossible! It feels like summer just started and it's already over!

(In the living room)

D.W. Read: Are we playing cave?

Arthur: We're not playing anything. I'm looking for my list.

D.W.: What list?

Arthur: The list I made when summer started of all the things I wanted to do! And I don't think I did any of them yet!

D.W.: Was losing the list on the list? You did that.

(In Arthur's room)

Arthur: I only have one week left to do all the things on my list!

D.W.: (screaming) A ghost! A hairy ghost! Aw, it's just your dopey dog.

(Outside)

D.W.: (playing in the sprinkler and laughing)

Kate Read: (giggles)

Jane: Where's Arthur? He's missing all the fun.

Arthur: (searches for his list in a trash can) If I were a list, where would I be? (grunts, falls inside and rolls down the driveway)

David Read: Arthur, you could get hurt playing like that.

Arthur: Who's playing? I'm not having any fun at all!

(In the tree house)

Buster Baxter: Come on, Arthur. Let's play Kangaroo Court. Sue the kangaroo cohorts in a quazy courtroom! And it's just fun, not educational. Can't beat that!

Arthur: I've gotta find it! Summer's almost over and I hadn't done anything!

Buster: Sure you did. What about the carousel?

(A flashback starts)

Buster: What are you doing, Gunky?

Gunky: This old carousel's done its last go-round, boys. I'm outta business.

Buster: Why? Everybody loves the carousel!

Gunky: Mr. Crosswire has bought it and I hear he's a-rippin' it down.

(Arthur and Buster gasp. Cut to Mr. Crosswire in his office, showing off a drawing of a carousel with a cent sign over it, and crossing it out. There is a drawing of Crosswire Motors with a dollar sign above it.)

EdW Crosswire: This is where I want the new grease pits.

Crosswire Motors Worker: We'll have the designs ready by next week, Mr. Crosswire.

(Arthur and Buster gasp. Fade to The Sugar Bowl.)

Binky: Grease pits could be fun, too.

Buster: We wouldn't get to play in them. They're for his car business!

Binky: Oh, that rots! We've gotta do something!

Buster: We need to band together!

(Everyone cheers. Cut to a bulldozer at the carousel site, where people are protesting the grease pits.)

Ed Crosswire: What is going on here?

Buster: I banded together the band to save the carousel! We don't want grease pits!

Binky: Not unless we can play in 'em!

Grandma Thora: (holding a photo album) Everyone grew up on this ride, including this young boy.

Ed Crosswire: Why, that's me! And Daddy! I'm so cute! Okay, okay, it's staying.

(Cheering.)

Gunky: Your idea worked, Buster! You saved the carousel!

(End of flashback.)

Arthur: That was something you did, not me.

Buster: Yeah... Boy, I had a great summer!

#

Arthur is at the Sugar Bowl with Buster, Fern and Sue Ellen.

Fern: What could be dumber than wasting an entire summer?

I went to poetry camp. I was the poetry champ.

This ribbon on my chest means that I’m the best

And now it’s hard to stop making rhymes. I must have tried a thousand times.

#

Arthur: Only two days left! I flunked summer! When school starts, I'll probably flunk recess too!

#

Arthur has found his “to do”-list.

Arthur: I did everything on this list. Thanks for asking me to read it, D.W..

D.W.: I was trying to make him feel rotten and he feels great. I’m a failure as a little sister.

#

Arthur, Buster and Francine are sitting in the Reads’ garden roasting marshmallows over a barbeque.

Arthur: It’s the last night of summer.

Buster: Yup.          

In their imagination they are cowboys sitting around a campfire at sundown.

Francine: There’s a lot of places I’d like to see, and they’re all just beyond that horizon.

Buster: But there’s no more time. School starts tomorrow.

Arthur: Yup. School’s going to be relaxing after all the adventures I had this summer.

Francine: Yup.

Arthur: Another marshmallow anyone?

Buster: Yup.     A coyote howls.