Big City is home to adventures big and small for the Green family and their friends, and today’s episode of Big City Greens keeps those adventures a little more intimate, with some role-playing games amongst friends, and a family night singing Karaoke.
Mages & Mazes
Just looking at the title, you can already assume that this episode might have something to do with a Dungeons & Dragons-esque game and you’d be right!
Cricket, KiKi, and Tilly all head over to Remy’s because they were each invited by a raven he sent with a mysterious message. They go into Remy’s house where he introduces them to a game he’s been playing, Mages & Mazes.
The animation takes on a different style as the characters delve into the characters they’re role playing as, including Cricket’s “Bufflegs McSwole,” who really just wants to go around kicking enemies in the shins. As they continue to play, they discover that Remy is so strict about the rules, that the game isn’t really all that fun. When they finally confront Remy, he runs to hide in his room, and the three continue to play, achieving their goal with ease. They realize that the rules are actually what made the game worth playing, and embark on a new quest: To get Remy out of his room. Luckily Vasquez, Remy’s Bodyguard, can easily be defeated by rolling three 20s. The begin a new round of the game finding some middle ground between Remy’s playing style and the way they want to play.
Okay Karaoke
It’s a family night for the Greens (though Remy came along too) at a Karaoke lounge in Big City. TIlly is given the programmer to select a song and is overwhelmed by the selection, noting that she can’t find a song that truly represents who she is as a person. So, individually, each family member sings a song that they enjoy.
Bill sings a song dedicated to his first true love. One might immediately think this will be about Nancy, but alas, it was about his pickup truck. Each song is portrayed almost as a lite music video, and Bill’s takes on some traditional, nay, cliche, country music tropes. Nancy sings a punk rock song about standing up to authority, which is appropo considering her many run-ins with the law in Big City and beyond, and is quite startling to the rest of the family, save for Cricket who wants to embrace the message his mom sang about whole-heartedly.
At this point, other patrons are growing impatient with Tilly who still can’t decide what she wants to sing for her performance, with guest star Aaron Barrett of Reel Big Fish providing the voice of a guy who desperately wants to take the stage for a Ska performance, and guest star Macy Gray as Kara Karaoke, adding pressure to Tilly to make sure she picks a song or let someone else choose.
Gramma Alice, one not for new trends or technologies, hits the stage in a hilarious parody of a Merrie Melodies opening title card, and sings a song about how she refuses to adapt to anything new or “what the kids are doing.”
Of course, it’s Cricket and Remy that have the catchiest song, perfect because the song is about not listening to the lyrics, but listening to the beat and the hook. As Remy sings the lyrics that Cricket wrote about leaving your family and becoming a Carnie, he gets emotional and Cricket again says not to think about the lyrics, just dance.
The song concludes to the “boo”s of the family, and Bill yelling “Bad Message!” proving that everyone, in fact, was listening to his lyrics.
Tilly has a breakdown and is now locked in the bathroom while her family tries to help her out. On Cricket’s suggestion that a perfect song for Tilly doesn’t exist, she comes out of the bathroom and creates her own song on stage.
This mostly musical episode has short tunes that prove to be so catchy that Walt Disney Records released a Digital Soundtrack for the episode just yesterday.
Big City Greens airs on the Disney Channel, and is streaming now on the DisneyNOW app.