To Eat or Not to Eat

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"To Eat or Not to Eat"
Main image Title card Title card 2
Season/Series:	15
Number in season:	5a
Original airdate:	October 14, 2011 February 15, 2012 November 18, 2010 October 3, 2010 December 20, 2012
Credits
Written by:	Ken Pontac
Storyboard by:	Rob Clark Karine Charlebois Guy Lamoureux
Episodes
Previous "Buster the Lounge Lizard"	Next "S.W.E.A.T."

Read transcript

"To Eat or Not to Eat" is the first half of the fifth episode in the fifteenth season of Arthur.

Summary

A brand new candy bar is in town! But why is it making everyone behave so strangely? And what exactly is this ingredient called Tri-Enzomated Zorn Jelly, anyway?

Plot

Buster imagines himself as a private eye, and he talks about how something was in the air and describes it with food. This makes him hungry, so he takes an apple from a cabinet in his desk, but before he takes a bite of the apple, a Big Boss Bar as a lady appears asking for help, which causes Buster to drop his apple.

To Eat or Not to Eat

Interwoven with Buster's film noir fantasy is the real events of the episode: while watching Bionic Bunny with Arthur, Buster sees a commercial for a new candy bar called the Big Boss Bar, which touts its "sparkles" effect on those who eat it. Buster excitedly goes to The Sugar Bowl to get one. When he arrives, he spots Binky leaving, having horded most of the Sugar Bowl's supply, but Buster manages to get the last remaining one and decides to eat it at lunch. When he shows it to Mrs. MacGrady, however, she notices that there are several ingredients on the nutrition label that she has not heard of, and she warns Buster against eating it, offering him an apple instead. Buster decides to take her advice until he learns what's in the bar.

As he ponders Mrs. MacGrady's warning, he observes as George begs to get a bar from Binky, who sells one of them to Fern who energetically covets the "sparkles." This starts to give him a funny feeling about the bar. On the playground, as Binky's customer base only grows, Buster shows the bar to Brain, who points out that the ingredients includes some radioactive elements and even beetles. Busters visits the library and checks the manufacturer's website to learn more about the ingredients, particularly "Tri-enzomated zorn jelly", but notices the website is riddled with poor design, and when he tries to click a link explaining the jelly, the site crashes. He also notices that after his friends finish enjoying the candy, they become tired, sluggish and begin to have headaches, and go through withdrawal. Now extremely suspicious, Buster goes to his mother, who offers to help him arrange a tour of the candy factory.

When Buster and his mother visit the factory, they quickly learn from its owner, Supreme Dog, that the ingredients in the candy are intentionally addictive. Buster, his suspicions confirmed that the candy is not safe to eat, tests this by offering one to Supreme Dog: the man's panicked refusal to eat his own product is all the evidence Buster and his mother need. Mrs. Baxter writes an article in her newspaper about it, exposing the candy factory's secret and ending the sales of Big Boss Bars. While Binky tries unsuccessfully to sell the now unwanted Big Boss Bars, Buster admits to being proud that he never tried the candy, while he eats an apple.

Characters

Major

• Buster Baxter
• Binky Barnes
• Brain
• Bitzi Baxter

Minor

• Candy Lady
• George Lundgren
• Fern Walters
• Arthur Read
• Mrs. MacGrady
• Ms. Turner
• Supreme Dog
• Bionic Bunny (on TV)
• Bionic Bunny Villain (on TV)

Cameo

• Jenna Morgan
• 3rd Grade Female Cat (Number 2)
• 3rd Grade Female Aardvark
• Luke
• Mary Perchanok
• 3rd Grade Male Dog
• Muffy Crosswire
• 3rd Grade Male Rat
• Kenny
• Paul Jacobs
• Otis
• Alex Davidson
• 3rd Grade Male Rabbit

Trivia

• This is the last time in the U.S that the "Buster Arrives on a Spaceship" title card is used.
• The picture on the newspaper at the end is recycled from Buster the Myth Maker, only recolored.
• On the commercial for the Rabid Dog Big Boss Bars, when the kid on the advertisement is doing a cartwheel after being energized after eating the Big Boss Bar, the background looks like the sea in SpongeBob SquarePants.
• Several Big Boss Bar ingredients refer to creators of Arthur:
  • Boudnikovium Oxide - Igor Boudnikov (animation)
  • Benadrihelenecossette - Helene Cossette (storyboard)
  • Butylated Hydroxydumoulin - Natalie Dumoulin (producer)
  • Catatonic Chiaravillarsulfite - Chiara Villar (production coordinator)
  • Chlorophyllum Ivantankushevellose - Ivan Tankushev (storyboard)
  • Cocoylkeithodonnell...cosimine - Keith O'Donnell (animation)
  • Toxi-RobclarkSB-sulfide - Rob Clark (storyboard)
  • XGbaileytriacid and sulfate - Greg Bailey (director)

Episode connections

• Buster's detective persona previously appeared in "Arthur Accused!" and "Binky Rules."

Cultural references

• The title of this episode is a parody of the line "To be or not to be," from the famous Shakespeare play, Hamlet.
  • This is the second episode whose title is a parody of that line. The first was "To Beat or Not to Beat."
• The Bionic Bunny villain is a parody of Mr. Freeze.
• Buster's fantasies are a parody of Film noir, a crime movie genre popular in the 1940s and 1950s.
• Oxylavamonotrine is fictional, but there is a red food dye called carmine that is extracted from cochineals, a kind of bug
• Buster remarks the Big Boss Bars will last for centuries thanks to all the chemicals in them. This is a reference to the urban legend that Twinkies have so many chemicals, they have an indefinite shelf life.
• The episode is a metaphor for drug addiction. Like the candy bars, drugs contain harmful substances that affect the body. When the people who eat the candy bars become tired and get headaches, this is similar to a drug user experiencing a crash after getting high from drugs such as heroin, cocaine, or meth.
• This episode is similar to The Smurfs episode Lure Of The Orb which is also about addiction

Production Notes

• In current American prints, the scene where George buys a Big Boss Bar from Binky in the schoolyard is edited. In the original and international versions, George shoves the entire bar in his mouth without removing the wrapper. In the edited version, George is already chewing the bar when the shot changes. This was likely done to prevent children from trying to imitate eating candy wrappers. Despite the edit, the video description still mentions George eating the bar "with the wrapper on".

Home Video

DVD

• Arthur Goes Back to School

Gallery