“StuGo” Arrives and Introduces Viewers to Absurd Adventures

The day has come and we have the premiere of the latest animated series on Disney Channel, StuGo. For a breakdown of what we think of the show, be sure to check out our review here. Until then, here’s a recap of the first adventure in the new series.

Legitimate Summer Camp

Six over-achieving students are on their way to a special summer camp filled with learning experiences, all exposition that we learn thanks to a helpful narration. As it continues, we learn that the kids are arriving on this tropical island to partake in a learning adventure, and heading up to the science lab to work with the incredible Dr. Lullah.

However, the captain of the boat bringing them to dock says “don’t say I didn’t warn you!" Teasing some kind of doom that lies ahead.

Regardless of this, as we see them ascend the mountainside into Dr. Lullah’s lab, the excitement is permeating through the kids who are greeted by a dog-like creature whom we quickly learn is Lullah’s assistant, Mr. Okay.

The kids quickly learn why they are there, to help her with her crime, um, er, regular laser. Off to the side, Lullah tells Mr. Okay that this was a great idea, and she should have thought of it earlier.

Either way, the kids are very excited to be there and to help fix this device and get it done quite quickly. Turns out, there is a crystal that needs to power the laser that is basically dead. Since the kids don’t have a new crystal, Lullah considers their work a failure.

Clearly, failure is not something that these students are used to, and they argue back that its not their fault. It is explained to them that the crystal comes from a meteorite that crashed onto a further part of the island, and Lullah kicks the kids out of the lab. They failed, they’re not welcome there.

As the kids are disappointed and booted to the outskirts of the island, they remind themselves they are not failures, and rally together to get this crystal - with the help of a map as part of a stolen informational pamphlet of course!

In a last-ditch effort to abandon some preconceived “nerd" notions, the tallest and the oldest of the kids, Drewnipper Hedgemaze, has decided to becomes Chip Manhands. Larry also abandoned his shirt.

The island is clearly going to be rife with challenges as Merian quickly discovers that there are abnormally and freaskishly large hermit crabs making homes out of shipwrecks for their shells. Larry discovers a strange cloning device in which his arm gets stuck and elongated Stretch Armstrong-style. Palm tree coconut rockets, and a roller coaster-esque adventure are also included, the latter of which causes Pliny to lose the map.

Fortunately our narrator knows the way! But he is revealed to be a mutant, who is currently being eaten by another mutant. Fortunately, the kids save him and the journey continues….before it quickly ends at a lake of lava.

They didn’t come this far to fail though, and with the creative ingenuity of using those palm tree rockets, they are able to get to the crystal-bearing meteorite in the middle of the lava lake. However, they now don’t have a way back across the lake. Fortunately, with the help of one of those giant shipwreck-living hermit crabs, and Francis’ appealing orange slices, they are able to make it back to Dr. Lullah.

As they get back to the lab, the kids learn fairly quickly what the audiences has already known - that the whole summer camp thing was just a scam. And as for that crystal? Well she just needed that so she could carve her face on the moon.

Pliny tries to extort Lullah into a real summer camp experience, but to no avail. However, their boat is long gone, so it looks like they’ll be staying on the island for the summer anyway.

Dog Eat Dog

This is the portion of the premiere that we’ve already seen as part of the “Sneako Peeko" event earlier this month. In it, the kids are having a competition in which the winner will get the first pick in the weekly food delivery. Today, they are using the chemical eye wash in the lab to see who can last the longest getting a strong spray of water directly into their eyeballs. Kids, don’t try this at home.

As the food is delivered, the kids quickly discover the mutant residents of the island trying to steal it. They fight back, with Pliny taking action but gets caught in the signature roll maneuver of one the mutant’s whose top half is mostly gator. He gets away with the crate, and now the kids are without food for the week.

It’s okay, Pliny knows that she can just go ask Lullah for more. So she does. Do you think she was successful? No.

She is told that it’s a dog eat dog world out there, even on the island, and even though she has a massive food vault, she will not be giving the kids more than their weekly allowance of food. If they want their food back, they’ll have to fight the mutants for it.

But this pack of kids isn’t ready for the kind of fight, and in turn decides to use their brains over their brawn to try and outsmart the mutants with a number of different games.

When approached, one mutant compliments Pliny’s boots before quickly stealing those too.

Strangely, the mutants have an arena already prepped and ready for these kinds of showdowns. They agree to the games, with the mutants immediately picking a push up contest. Knees are okay, but arms are not.  

Other games commence and include: Book Reading, Book Ripping, Rock Paper Scissors, High Wire, and Pliny’s new game, “Give Me Back My Boots."

To get those back though, she must navigate through jumping geysers of water and steam. Kind of like what the kids were doing earlier, but far more intense. Unfortunately, Pliny gets blasted dead in the face by a geyser, rocketed into the sky, and we quickly learn that the blast has removed most of Pliny’s hair and glasses.

The mutants are also revealed to have been cheating and start eating the food. The kids decide to take Lullah’s advice and start fighting like dogs for their food. While the fighting takes place, the arena starts filling with water, destroying all the food in the process. Now nobody can eat. That’s okay, though. The mutants are used to it. Back to eating sand.

Seeing that the mutants have been living off of sand for who knows how long, the kids decide to work together with the mutants, considering they know where all the food is stored.

They are able to construct a contraption that breaks through the wall of the food storage, and the kids and mutants run through it collecting all their food.

Dr. Lullah is watching the whole time and suggests that while it may have taken them some time, they realized that they could work together and get what they wanted. She doesn’t try and stop them or the mutants, showing that maybe she might care just a little bit about these kids after all.

This episode of StuGo is now available on Disney Channel and the DisneyNOW website. It is expected on Disney+ in the Spring of 2025.