Story - Steven J. Fisher & Teleplay - Larry DiTillio

Ed Friedman

A conceited Glimmer, her head swollen by a minor success in battle, gets her whole self - and She-Ra - shrunken by some experimental Horde powder. The tiny heroes must find a way to get back to normal size - and Glimmer has to learn to be less boastful!

Kowl, Bow (Horde Inspector Kowl), Glimmer, Princess Adora (She-Ra), Spirit (Swift Wind), Hose Nose (Snout Spout)

Mantenna, Hordak, Catra, Scorpia

Horde soldiers, Twiggets (Sprocker, Spritina), Horde scientist, robot guards, fribbian, mornik, bluebird mother and babies, Arrow

wagon, Scorpiamobile

In the lovely village of Name Undisclosed, a terrible battle in the neverending war against the Horde has resulted in Bow and Kowl getting pinned down in a lonely hut by a Mantenna-led troop of Hordesmen. Due to some startling negligence on the part of our mustached hero, Bow has left his eponymous weapon elsewhere; and since Kowl's only weapon is unflagging verbal abuse, it looks like the Great Rebellion is in dire straits! Fortunately, the Horde don't know that the erstwhile leader of said rebellion, Glimmer, is free and up in a nearby tower. Just before Mantenna can unleash a blast of his new Dissolve-O-Beam on the hut, Glimmer swings in by rope and smacks against the weapon, lifting its muzzle and causing it to fire into the town's water tower. Water from the toppled tower floods the square, putting the Horde army in full retreat. Glimmer has saved the day! She is at first humble on receiving thanks from her friends, but Kowl assures her she has acted with undeniable bravery and should feel no need for modesty.

...A statement he soon has reason to regret; for Glimmer revels in her victory and goes around telling everyone in the Whispering Woods of her exploits. Like any good fish story, with every retelling the forces arrayed against her grow larger in number. Bow and Kowl complain about their bragging friend to a just-arrived Adora (her absence until now is the sole reason Glimmer had this chance to shine), and Glimmer quickly demonstrates her new boastfulness to the Eternian princess by requesting that she, Glimmer, be given more difficult assignments. Adora tries to take her fellow princess aside for a session of constructive criticism, but the girls' chat quickly turns heated, with Glimmer denying any arrogance on her own part and instead accusing Adora of being jealous. Luckily Bow breaks into the spat with news from a rebel spy about a Horde research station operating out of Small Oak.

Meaning to continue her lesson on big-headedness, Adora takes Glimmer with her to the site; but the overconfident Etherian bungles their reconnaissance mission by teleporting herself to the roof of the station, becoming quickly detected. A group of sentry robots appears and grabs her, prompting Adora to change herself and her horse so that She-Ra and Swift Wind can swoop in and perform a rescue. Even after She-Ra has shredded the robots, Glimmer refuses to admit she has overreached, instead claiming she could have handled the problem on her own. In fact, she attempts to recount her water tower tale to She-Ra, who avoids the ordeal by saying she's heard it all before. This confuses Glimmer, who hasn't spoken to She-Ra since doing the deed; and rather than give up and allow them to leave the rooftop, she instead begins thinking over all the people to whom she's told her story, and bogs She-Ra down coming up with explanations for why Adora is missing.

This delay by our heroes allows ample time for the villains inside the base to plan an attack. It turns out that Catra, the lab's supervisor, has been managing her scientists in developing a shrinking serum to use on the rebels. Fresh off of an irritating video call with boss Hordak, who is unsatisfied with their progress and plans to send Scorpia to supersede her, Catra decides the intruders on the roof are the perfect test subjects for the latest batch of shrink dust. Before She-Ra, Glimmer, or Swift Wind can react, Catra directs a pair of Horde soldiers to douse the heroes with the sparkly blue stuff. The head scientist is waiting nearby with a little petrie dish to scoop up the resulting mini-rebels; but the dust doesn't take effect as quickly as expected, giving our friends time to fly away. They head right over to a nearby lake and the helpful hero Hose Nose (in his Filmation debut, and sporting the wrong name - his action figure's monniker was Snout Spout!), who hoses them off; but not quickly enough! Soon after Hose Nose has wordlessly departed, the trio start to feel funny - and then start shrinking!

She-Ra, Glimmer, and Swift Wind find themselves the size of ants, with a landscape of gigantic proportions looming around them. Creatures that seemed harmless and cute before, such as a frog-like fribbian in a nearby pond, are suddenly threatening and huge. The fribbian in fact attacks poor Glimmer, and She-Ra must hop on its back and ride it into submission. Afterwards, the heroes would like to fly back to the lab; but Swift Wind finds his shrunken state leaves him too weak to carry two passengers. Forced to roam on foot through the wilderness, the heroes soon encounter an unfriendly mornik (a sort of ferret-ish chipmunk), and She-Ra discovers that her normal ability to communicate with animals has departed with her size. She improvises by flaunting her red cape at the creature; like a bull, it becomes enraged and charges, allowing She-Ra to trick it into stuffing itself inside a hollow log.

But our heroes' adventures in the land of the shrunken are still not over! For soon after this altercation, Glimmer gets plucked up in the talons of a bluebird. The avian parent has designs on feeding Glimmer to her chicks, so She-Ra flies Swift Wind up to the nest and tries to lasso her friend out of the air. Unfortunately, Swifty still isn't up for carrying that much weight, and both girls are pulled off! As they plummet towards the ground, they seem doomed to end in a tiny splat on the forest floor; but luckily their fall is arrested by a normal-sized human palm. It's Bow! The rebel archer has happened by in just the nick of time, though he can hardly believe his eyes. She-Ra requests Bow's help, and they devise a plan to try to get the princesses and horse back to full size.

Bow tucks the shrunken trio into the various pockets of a set of green fatigues - his disguise for sneaking into the Small Oak base. Announcing himself as "Horde Inspector Kowl" (regardless of the fact that the only Horde inspector we ever met wasn't dressed anything like this), the be-helmeted hero attempts to talk his way past the guards at the gate; but it turns out they want to see his non-existent entry pass. The Horde soldier Scorpia then turns up in her Scorpiamobile, giving our Horde Inspector ample opportunity to butter her up with compliments and claims of having seen her "great victory." An ego-stroked Scorpia is happy to allow the inspector in on her own authority, and Bow quickly makes his way to the main lab. There he locates the head scientist, and lays on the charm once again, coaxing the location of the shrink-reversal formula out of the guy.

Elsewhere in the base, a sniping Catra has encountered the visiting Scorpia, who threatens to tell on Catra to the inspector. (Catra has settled her competition in a room of the base that appears to be full of mechanical trash.) Realizing this "Kowl" is a phony, Catra sets off the intruder alarm, giving Bow all the excuse he needs to hustle the scientist out of the lab under the guise of keeping him "safe" from the rebels. Left alone with the enlarging ray, Bow makes quick use of the device, and She-Ra, Glimmer, and Swift Wind are at last restored to full size.

Scorpia, Catra, and her guards storm into the lab; but with all these standard-height rebels back in business, the Horde doesn't stand a chance! Dodging a barrage of Horde laser blasts, She-Ra uses her sword as a grappling line to pull the villains off of a catwalk and into a vat of nasty green liquid. Bow reveals that while hiding from the lasers he turned a valve that will result in the lab's destruction, so the heroes make a quick exit, followed by a defeated and very disgruntled Catra (and Scorpia).

Back at the Whispering Woods, an abashed Glimmer declares that she has learned her lesson about getting a "big head," and from now on will ensure it gets no bigger than the rest of her. A smug Bow declares his pleasure at finally having "She-Ra right in the palm of my hand;" a joke which no one enjoys.

• Glimmer: Adora! / Princess Adora: Yes, Glimmer? / Glimmer: I think I should be given more to do around here. Talent like mine shouldn't be wasted on small jobs.
• Glimmer (to Adora): If you ask me, you're just jealous because I'm getting some attention for a change!
• Glimmer (in response to She-Ra hopping around on the back of a fribbian): Ride him, She-Ra! Ride him!
• Glimmer: Now I know what a bug feels like.
• Bow (reacting to having found a shrunken She-Ra and Glimmer): I see it, but I don't believe it!
• Scorpia (to Horde Inspector Kowl, with her eyelids lowered seductively): Uh, see you inside uh... uh, Inspector. / Horde Inspector Kowl: I'll look forward to it. After my inspection tour, of course.
• Bow: Oh, uh, by the way, when I ducked behind that vat for cover, I found a valve marked "Danger: do not turn." / She-Ra: You didn't turn it, did you? / Bow: Of course I did.
• Glimmer: I've learned my lesson: from now on, my head is getting no bigger than the rest of me.
• Kowl: Well, it certainly sounds as if you had an exciting day. / Bow: You don't know the half of it, Kowl. Why, do you realize that for the very first time, I had She-Ra right in the palm of my hand? / Glimmer (in disgust): Oh, Bow! / Bow: Hey, i-it was a joke! A joke! / Kowl: You're the joke, dear boy; and a very small one, I'm afraid. (laughs at his own cruelty)

• She-Ra mounts Swift Wind and flies off: As usual, this loop is utilized just after Adora transforms; it appears again when She-Ra takes off to chase a bird
• She-Ra, hands on hips, laughs with her head thrown back: At having stuffed an angry mornik into a hollow log

One full

4:44 - Loo-Kee is looking away from us, and up in a tree again, one of his favorite hiding places. This one is a spiky specimen seen on the far left of the screen, just at the beginning of a panning establishment shot of the Horde research base at Small Oak.
Did I spot him? YES!

In a lesson very pertinent and appropriate to today's story, Loo-Kee advises us not to get "a big head" like Glimmer did. It's OK to be proud of your achievements, but don't keep bragging about them. You're no She-Ra!

N/A

• Today's story writer, Steven J. Fisher, also brought us the script for 67006's "Duel at Devlan." And of course there's also the great Larry DiTillio with the teleplay assist.
• Mantenna makes use of a new and fancy-looking Horde weapon, dubbed "the Dissolve-O-Beam." Because it's on wheels, I'm tempted to list it as a vehicle; but it doesn't look like anyone could ride in or on it, so I will resist the temptation. In an act of great bravery and skill, Glimmer smacks the weapon with her ass.
• Our favorite villainous leader, Hordak, is working remotely today, and only appears in one short scene via televiewer.
• This is She-Ra's "Honey, I shrunk the hero" episode. He-Man also experimented with this gimmick - twice! There was the very entertaining "Day of the Machines" (MU068), in which everyone on Eternia seems to already own a shrinking ray; and the more logically problematic but still fun "No Job Too Small" (MU105), in which Evil-Lyn invents her own. Interestingly, neither of these episodes had the same writer, and neither of those writers worked on this script.
• We learn that the Horde has a research station (along the lines of Eternia's "Station Zeta" from MU113), allegedly peopled with a whole team of scientists which the animators represent with just one bald guy with pointy ears and glasses. He recalls other humanoid scientist minions, such as MU129's Maddok; though his looks reminded me more of the very longstanding Batman villain, Hugo Strange. This character will be reused - and given a name - in 67073's "The Time Transformer."
• While we're recalling He-Man villains of yore, check out those robot guards that grab a hold of Glimmer! They're identical to Skeletor's robot minions, who have been hanging about Eternia since the MOTU pilot episode (MU004). She-Ra destroys them as easily as her brother always has.
• Secret identity problems: For the first time in a while, She-Ra's secret identity comes under fire, due to our heroine's own unguarded words. She imprudently tells Glimmer that she's heard the woman's boastful rescue tale before, even though this is the first time Glimmer has met She-Ra since it happened. Glimmer's attempts to figure out how She-Ra could have heard about it only make things worse, as her recitation of everyone she's told the story reminds her that Adora is missing and needs to be found. Fortunately, the ensuing attack of Catra and her soldiers puts all these considerations out of Glimmer's pink little head.
• To get the shrink glitter washed off of them, She-Ra and Glimmer visit ... "Hose Nose," everyone's favorite robotic-elephant-headed hero. Hose Nose?!?!?! Um, I think Mattel would beg to differ, Filmation: that's Snout Spout. Based on the air date for this episode and the release year I have for the action figure, it appears this animated appearance of the character comes before his toy's release, so I guess they hadn't worked out all the details on this fella (fellaphant?) yet. We saw similar naming inconsistencies with Filmation's "Tung Lash" (Mattel's "Tung Lashor") in 67035. This debut appearance of the so-called Hose Nose is a brief one and he gets no lines of dialogue.
• Glimmer and She-Ra meet various examples of Etherian wildlife in their shrunken state, making for some dangerous encounters. The first of these is the "fribbian," a sort of part-frog, part-iguana creature, with an emphasis on the frog. The high point of its appearance (literally?) is when it hops frantically about with She-Ra on its back.
• The next animal on the list is a "mornik," a sort of weasel/chipmunk/ferret type of critter who, based on the way his face is animated, has a hilariously cranky disposition when encountering tiny humans. His rage increases, bull-like, when a red cape is flourished at him.
• Third and final on today's list of dangerous animals is the jay-like bluebird that tries to feed Glimmer to its children. The other animals looked like interesting hybrids of Earth creatures, but this one is just a bird.
• Swiss army sword: She-Ra does a couple of sword transformations in this episode; first is the old "sword to lasso" trick, which she uses to try to pluck Glimmer out of the air. Later, having been returned to full size, She-Ra changes her sword to a grappling line to pull down a platform in the research station. As a rare bonus, we then get to see her change the rope back into her sword.
• Scorpia arrives on the scene riding a vehicle which can only be called the Scorpiamobile. It's an awesome scorpion car which begs to be made into a toy - another opportunity provided by Filmation on which Mattel sadly passed. We'll actually see the Scorpiamobile again a few times, the next being 67034. We will also eventually learn, in 67045, that the vehicle is actually called a "crawler," but I've decided against using this official name as I feel it's too non-specific, confusing it with a very different Horde vehicle of the same name (see 67029).
• I had call earlier to bring up the MU113 episode "Happy Birthday Roboto," since both that story and this one feature a research station. Oddly, the two stories share another connection in the way the villains are disposed of. At the end of MU113, Modulok gets tossed by He-Man into a vat of unnamed green liquid sitting in the lab. At the end of this story, She-Ra's pulling down of a catwalk sends Catra, Scorpia, and some Horde soldiers into an incredibly similar green vat. Unlike with Modulok, however, who ended his screentime that day covered in goo, we see today's villains, having safely climbed out of the vat, escaping from the exploding base.

• Animation error: For a frame or two, a white artifact appears on the right side of the title screen - dirt on the film?
• In Kowl's opening scene where he is unrelentingly carping at Bow, he is animated very awkwardly and differently than usual. I've seen this inconsistency with Kowl's character before (see 67008); in fact Kowl seems to be the most unevenly drawn character in the series. I deduce that the animator team did not enjoy having to draw this particular bird.
• By the way, speaking of not liking this bird: Bow has the patience of a saint for not having smacked Kowl ages ago. How can he put up with the endless browbeating and jibes? Usually the pair trade insults, giving them a sort of R2-D2/C-3PO dynamic; but today Bow just stays cool and lets all of Kowl's insults bounce off of him.
• "If only I hadn't left my bow in the wagon," comments Bow, as he and Kowl huddle in a hut, pinned down by the laser fire of a battalion of Horde troopers. So let me get this straight. Your only weapon - the one you are literally named after, which you always carry with you everywhere, because it very neatly collapses into a tiny bar-shaped object that you can hide on your person - you left that weapon in the wagon? SMH. (Fortunately Bow more than redeems himself for this inane blunder by the end of the episode.)
• Glimmer gets scolded for all the mileage she gets out of retelling her thrilling rescue of Bow and Kowl. The scoldings are aimed at her boastfulness; but no one seems to consider yelling at Glimmer for the real downside of her act, her complete destruction of the village's water tower. What are the poor villagers of Name Undisclosed going to do without that water? You need to think about that the next time you consider swinging your butt around, young lady!
• It's interesting that, in order to set up Glimmer's boast-generating rescue, the writers have to conceive of a Horde/Rebellion battle to which Adora was not invited. I wonder what she was up to while this was going on?
• I actually had to go back to Episode 1 of the series and replay my DVD to convince myself I wasn't hallucinating my own memory of Bow having introduced Glimmer to Prince Adam as the "leader" of the rebellion. He really did. How far she has fallen! It's unquestionably unfair the way Glimmer's character has been wordlessly shouldered aside and demoted to someone who has to request of Adora that she be allowed to "do more around here." She was the freaking leader! Knowing this, it's hard not to sympathize with Glimmer's ambitions in this episode, or her barely disguised jealousy of Adora. (We'll see Glimmer's jealousy of Adora on full display in 67086's "Glimmer Come Home.")
• I enjoyed the subtle thematic connection introduced by Glimmer suggesting Adora is jealous of her (very likely the reverse is true, as noted), followed by the scene where Catra reveals a competitive hatred of fellow Hordesperson Scorpia. There's workplace dysfunction on both sides of the war, here!
• Continuity error: In listing the people to whom she's told her tale of derring-do, Glimmer counts off the Twiggets Sprocker and Sprag; however when we saw her telling the story to a pair of Twiggets earlier in the episode, it was Sprocker and Spritina who were present.
• Our story writers have to make some interesting choices for how the shrink dust affects our heroes, in order to make the situation more perilous and have them spend more time wandering around a giant landscape, fighting fantasy frogs and weasels. Swift Wind finds that he can no longer carry both women - a situation which physics would contradict, were this to somehow play out in real life. After all, remember that fact that we all learn about ants being able to carry twenty times their own weight! I'd theorize that a tiny Swifty would actually be able to carry more passengers than usual. Also, for no particularly sensible reason, She-Ra finds that her animal-communicating abilities have gone kaput. Why would being small do that?
• The interaction between the disguised Bow and Scorpia is very amusing, as Bow's many compliments of the Horde soldier seem to hint at a successful seduction. It's also very funny that the Horde soldiers outside the station apparently don't know who Scorpia is, and only consent to let her in once one of them finds her name listed on a clipboard.
• Animation error: unless the Horde scientist is also working on a hair-growth formula in his spare time, there's something wrong with his eyebrows. When Bow encounters the fellow in the research station, the follicles on his brow have become much bushier than they were in previous scenes. (Even if he was working on a hair-growth formula, why wouldn't he use it on his bald head?)
• Several episodes in the series have been at pains to show off Bow as a multi-talented individual - a sort of renaissance man (see my comments on this score in 67019 and 67023). But none of those moments have impressed me quite so much as the incredibly smooth way in which he infiltrates the Horde research station in today's episode. He sweet-talks his way past the guards and Scorpia, shmoozes the scientist so he can find the reversal formula for the shrinking powder, and cleverly hustles the scientist out the door when the alarm goes off, getting just enough time to restore She-Ra and her companions. It's like watching Tom Cruise lead an IMF team! (As a final touch, Bow also turns the valve which results in the entire base self-destructing. He'll have to be careful himself not to get a big head after this adventure.)
• In the scientist's explanation for his growth serum, we see a glaring, frankly absurd oversight on the part of Hordak. Apparently the scientist created the growing stuff first, and Hordak rejected it on the grounds that he "didn't want to make the rebels bigger." Sound enough; but why do you have to use this stuff on the rebels? Why not make your Hordesmen bigger? Hordak had the power to create Kaiju handed to him on a plate, and he said no thank you! Perhaps the writers decided to hold onto this technology for a future potential "She-Ra gets gigantic" episode.
• Continuing their episode-long bickering, near the end of the story Catra insultingly refers to Scorpia as "bug face," using the classic MOTU insult format of "[noun] face." It's very easily misheard, however, as "butt face," a far preferable epithet.
• I do like a good shrinking episode! This one was packed with exciting adventure, varied characters, and amusing interactions. At the risk of giving Steven J. Fisher a big head, I'd say it was a definite winner.