Ungifted/Transcript

Ungifted

Introduction

A fairytale castle is shown.

Arthur (narrator): Once upon a time in a faraway kingdom lived two good friends. Arthur and Buster in medieval peasants’ clothes stand near a boot-shaped building with a cow. They were very poor, but had a prize possession. One day, the two discovered they had run out of money.

Arthur finds dust in his pockets, Buster finds moths in his satchel.

Buster: I know! If you take our cow to town, I bet you can trade her for something really good.

The cow moos. Arthur nods.

Arthur and the cow stand in a medieval marketplace.

Arthur (narrator): Sure enough, once Arthur and the cow arrived in town...

Brain arrives dressed as a rich burgher.

Brain: Wow! Nice domestic bovine animal. Would you like to trade it for this big bag of gold?

Arthur: Sure!

Arthur gives Brain the cow’s rope and walks off with the bag.

On his way through a forest Arthur meets Muffy carrying a basket with a goose and golden eggs.

Muffy: What's in the bag?

Arthur: Gold. I traded my cow for it.

Muffy: A bag of gold? Pah! That's nothing. This goose lays golden eggs!

Arthur: Really? Wanna trade?

Muffy: Well, I do have a whole flock of these gold-laying geese at home, and I hate cleaning up after them. Okay!

They exchange the bag for the basket and go their ways.

The goose keeps pecking Arthur.

Arthur: Ow! Ow! Ow!

Binky comes along.

Binky: Why're you letting that goose push you around? You're higher up on the food chain, you know.

Arthur: Ow! He lays golden eggs. Ow!

Binky: Oh. Well, here, you can have these beans for him. They're magic. You just stick 'em in the ground, and you can grow anything!

Arthur exchanges the basket for a handful of beans.

At home Arthur digs a hole in the field.

Buster: You traded our cow for what?!

Arthur (narrator): And even though Arthur planted the beans hoping that he could climb the giant beanstalk to find a singing harp and great riches, nothing ever grew. Except some more beans.

Arthur stands beside a single bean plant scratching his head.

Buster: And I don't even like beans!

Title Card: Buster Roars (Horse)

It is raining over the Baxters’ condominium. Bitzi Baxter looks through the umbrella stand.

Mrs. Baxter: Oh, it's pouring out, and we've lost all our umbrellas!

She finds a ruler and a backscratcher.

Buster: Wanna wear my foil hat?

He points at a tinfoil hat on a dresser.

Mrs. Baxter: I think I'll pass. But would you check the hall closet? There might be an extra one hidden in the back.

Buster searches the closet and throws things out. He finds a box insiede.

Buster: Hey! What's this? "The Grain Reaper." He shakes the box. Cool. A model.

Mrs. Baxter: Well, would you look at that? I bet that's something your uncle Stu got when he was a boy. It's probably been here this whole time!

Buster: Is it okay if I put it together?

She pets him and finds an umbrella.

Mrs. Baxter: Sure.

***

Buster reads the building instructions. The almost finished model stands beside him

Buster: "Attach piece A12 to piece C44."

He glues on a piece. Arthur comes in.

Arthur: Buster! We've got to get to the movie theater. They're giving away signed Dark Bunny posters to the first twenty kids!

Buster: Er, uh-huh. Now, where does this little wheelie guy go?

Arthur: What's that?

Buster: A thresher called the Grain Reaper. It's a model of a machine from the nineteen-sixties that separated grain from stalks of wheat. I found it in the closet.

Arthur: I didn't know you were into old farming stuff.

Buster: I'm not. But it's been really fun putting it together. Check it out. It's almost finished. I just can't figure out where this piece goes. Oh, well, I'll stick it here.

He glues a small wheel on top of the thresher.

Arthur: This is pretty cool. You really made it all by yourself?

Buster: Uh-huh. It took me an hour!

Arthur: I've never seen anything like it. What will you do with it?

Buster: I don't know. Hey! Maybe I'll give it to you. It can be your birthday present two months early.

Arthur: Okay! Thanks!

***

Arthur walks up to the movie theater carrying the model. Binky comes out with a rolled-up poster.

Binky: Are you here for the Dark Bunny posters?

Arthur: Yeah! Are they still giving them out?

Binky: No, got the last one. (laughs) Arthur turns to leave. Hey, wait. What's that in your hand?

Arthur: This? Buster gave it to me. It's called a thresher.

Binky: A thrasher? There's a pro-wrestler named the Thrasher!

He takes the model.

Arthur: I said thresher, not thrasher.

Binky: Maybe it's one of those convert-o-nauts that turns into something when you press a button.

Arthur: Careful! You're gonna break it!

Binky: Trade you for it?

Arthur: No way!

Binky: Really? Not even for this?

He unrolls the poster, which says “Dark Bunny vs. the Cisco Squid” and is dedicated to “My good friend Binky”.

***

Buster drinks a lemonade in the Sugar Bowl. Arthur comes in with the poster.

Arthur: Buster! Look! I got the Dark Bunny poster! And it's even signed!

Buster: Cool! But I think they got your name wrong. It says, "To my good friend Binky."

Arthur: Oh, yeah. That's because it used to be Binky's. I traded the thresher you gave me for it.

Buster looks shocked.

Buster: You gave my thresher to Binky?

Arthur: Um...yeah. But technically it was my thresher, right?

Buster: But I gave it to you. It was a present. Do you know how many hours I spent making it?

Arthur: You said it only took you one hour.

Buster: That's not the point! How about all those other presents I've given you over the years? Have you given those away too?

Flashback: Mr. Frensky throws a football for Francine to catch.

Buster: Like the football I gave you that said, "To my best pal Arthur," on it?

Francine catches the ball and the words are visible.

Flashback: Pal plays with an “I love Crown City” T-shirt in Arthur’s room.

Buster: Or that "I Love Crown City" T-shirt I got you?

Flashback: George hands a small wooden house to his dad.

Buster: Or that house I made you out of wooden sticks in first grade?

Mr. Lundgren throws the house in a shredder.

The flashbacks end. Buster looks angry, Arthur ashamed.

Arthur: I'm sorry. I didn't know it was such a big deal.

Buster: Big deal? Oh, it wasn't a big deal! It was just a present! From your best friend!

He walks away.

***

Arthur writes a card in his room.

D.W.: A card?? That's how you say you're sorry for stealing your best friend's treasure?

Arthur: It was a thresher, D.W., not treasure. And I didn't steal it! He gave it to me.

D.W.: Read me what you wrote.

Arthur: "I'm really really sorry I traded your gift for the poster. Am I still in the doghouse?" See? And there's this cute dog on the cover. On the front is a self-drawn weeping dog. And I'm even gonna give him a present too.

He shows a pair of mittens.

D.W.: Grandma Thora gave you those mittens!

Arthur: She did? Oh, yeah.

In a fantasy Grandma Thora sits in the Sugar Bowl while Arthur stands by.

Grandma Thora: (sobs) They took me years and years to make. How could you? (sobs)

She blows her nose.

The fantasy ends.

Arthur: Okay. I'll find something else to give Buster. He picks up a Bionic Bunny walkie-talkie. How about this walkie-talkie? No, he already has one of those. A pencil? Hm, that doesn't seem like enough.

D.W.: What about your new poster?

She points at the Dark Bunny poster on Arthur’s wall.

Arthur: But... but it's signed!

D.W.: It's a picture of a bunny dancing with an octopus! How can it be more important than your best friend?

***

Arthur stands in front of the Baxters’ house holding the poster while Buster reads the card.

Arthur: And I'm really sorry I gave Binky your thresher, so I brought you something to make up for it. Here. You can borrow this for as long as you want.

Buster: You're lending me something? That stinks! And it doesn't even look like a thresher.

He gives Arthur the card and poster back and walks out of the house. Arthur follows him.

Arthur: Okay, okay, you can keep the poster!

Buster: I don't want it.

Arthur: Well, can I buy you a milkshake, or take you to the movies? Come on, you gotta let me make it up to you somehow!

Buster: (sighs) I'm not just upset, Arthur, I'm worried. My uncle Stu's coming to dinner, and he told my mom he wants to see how the thresher turned out. He was really excited.

Arthur: Oh. (gulps) So what are you gonna do?

Buster: I don't know. Maybe I can run away to Alaska.

***

That night, Arthur tosses and turns in his bed. In his dream he and Buster stand in front of the Baxter’s bathroom while Mrs. Baxter knocks on the door.

Mrs. Baxter: Stu! You have to come out! You can't spend the rest of your life in our bathroom.

Uncle Stu: No! Never! You gave away Darlene to someone who doesn't even care about threshers.

Buster: Darlene was uncle Stu's name for the model. Maybe you should try to talk to him.

Arthur knocks on the door.

Arthur: Stu? It's me, Arthur. The kid Buster gave the thresher to. I just wanted to say that I'm really really...

Uncle Stu: So, you're the heartless boy who traded Darlene for a poster! She wasn't just a model, you know. She was my best friend.

A loud rumbling is heard outside the house.

Arthur: (gasps)

Uncle Stu: Oh no! That must be her mother.

Arthur, Buster and Mrs. Baxter run to the window. A cross between a thresher and a tyrannosaurus is standing outside.

Arthur+Buster+Mrs. Baxter: Aaah!

Stu runs to the window.

Uncle Stu: Stay away from the feeder! She'll turn us all into grain!

Arthur+Buster+Mrs. Baxter: Aaaargh!

The dream ends. Arthur wakes up at 7:01..

Arthur: I gotta get that thresher back.

He gets up and puts on his glasses.

***

Binky is playing baseball.

Arthur: Pssst! Hey, Binky! This is an emergency.

Binky: I'll say. That toy thresher you gave me really stunk. It didn't even transform into a robot.

Arthur: A robot? You didn't break it, did you? ‘Cause I really need it back, now!

Binky: Too late! I sold it to Brain.

Arthur runs off.

***

Brain is reading a book under a tree. Arthur stands next to him panting.

Brain: The Grain Reaper? Yes, I bought it from Binky yesterday.

Arthur: Do you still have it? Can I buy it back?

Brain: Sorry. I thought it had great historical value, so I donated it to the school.

Arthur: Ohh! He runs off. (pants)

***

The library is having an exhibition with models of farm equipment. Arthur stands with Mr. Ratburn next to a model of the Grain Reaper in a glass case.

Mr. Ratburn: Did you know the cylinder can rotate up to five hundred revolutions per minute?

Arthur: So, I guess that now Brain donated the thresher, there's no way I can get it back?

Mr. Ratburn: Oh, no. This is my own model of the Grain Reaper. The one Brain donated had a few pieces missing, so I put it in the school tag sale.

Arthur: (gasps)

***

The tag sale is held in the school auditorium. Arthur is talking to Mrs. Tibble who is holding the model.

Arthur: And that's why I have to buy that thresher back to give it to Buster before it's too late.

Mrs. Tibble: Why, that's the sweetest thing I ever heard. Of course you can have it back.

She gives it to Arthur.

Arthur: Wow, thanks!

Timmy snatches the model away from him.

Timmy: Hey, Tommy, go deep!

Tommy runs to the other end of the auditorium. Timmy throws the model like a football.

Arthur: My thresher!

He covers his eyes. Tommy catches the model safely and carries it to Timmy.

Timmy: Touchdown!

Arthur smiles relieves, then Tommy smashes the model to the ground.

Arthur: Aaargh!

Mrs. Tibble: Boys, that was very, very bad. Oh, Arthur, I'm so sorry.

Arthur looks at the smashed model.

***

The Baxters’ doorbell rings. Mrs. Baxter opens to Arthur who is holding something behind his back.

Arthur: Hi, Mrs. Baxter. Can I see Buster for a second?

Mrs. Baxter: Sure, we're just finishing dinner. Come in.

Arthur and Mrs. Baxter walk into the dining room where Buster is sitting with Uncle Stu.

Uncle Stu: And so I said, "That's no way to treat a poodle!" (laughs)

Buster: (laughs) No way to treat a poodle. Oh, hey, Arthur, grab a chair. There's plenty of chicken.

Arthur: Oh, that's all right. I've eaten. I just came to give you this.

He puts the model on the table. The parts have been glued together in an odd way.

Uncle Stu: Hey, nice sculpture. Did you make it yourself?

Arthur: No. I just remade it. It's your thresher. I got it back for you, but there was an accident. It came out kind of weird-looking, because I didn't have the instructions. Sorry.

Buster: That's okay. I kind of like it better. Hey! You found out where that little wheelie guy goes.

He turns the wheel which now makes another wheel turn.

Uncle Stu: I was never very good at making models. But you two seem to be.

***

Arthur and Buster look at models in a toy store.

Arthur: Are you sure you don't mind spending half your allowance on a new model?

Buster: Are you kidding? We can build something really cool together. It'll be fun.

Each boy holds a box.

Arthur: Hey, how about this one? The Dark Bunnymobile.

Buster: I was thinking more of this combine. Look, it even has a hay rake attachment!

Arthur shakes his head.