| The Secret Decoder Ring | |
|---|---|
| |
| Series | The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy |
| Season | 4 |
| Production code | 421 |
| Writer | Zena Wyss
Mike Diederich |
| Broadcast information | |
| Cartoon Network US Premiere | April 15, 2005 |
| Paired with | Happy Huggy Stuffy Bears |
| Chronological information | |
| Previous Happy Huggy Stuffy Bears |
Next Wild Parts |
The Secret Decoder Ring is the 21st episode from season 4 of The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy. It was Produced in 2004.
Synopsis[]
Billy tries to use a decorder ring that he finds in a cereal box in order to discover the secret of the universe. Grim tries to warn Billy and Mandy off of seeking out 'secret of the universe', suspecting the hand of a figure from his past. The weird thing is, Billy and Mandy are not the only ones trying to discover the 'secret of the universe'...
Plot[]
The episode starts with Mandy going to Billy's house, where Grim is assisting him in eating numerous boxes of Blasto Bits cereal; 26 in total. His reason for his mass consumption is because of a cereal box prize: a decoder ring that will reveal a hidden message on the back of the box. Mandy helps herself to a bowl of Blasto Bits and finds the decoder ring herself. Billy begs and cries for the ring and Mandy gives it to him. Upon wearing the ring, Billy thinks he's now invisible, rips off all of his clothes (the only “clothing” being a fig leaf) and begins messing with Grim. He then decides to use the decoder ring for its intended purpose: revealing the supposed "secret of the universe" hidden on the back of the box. The ring shoots out a red laser beam and begins deciphering the message, then gives out, to Grim's amusement.
The ring then projects a holographic message from a woman addressing someone named Oki Wan Kadoke and frantically telling the trio that her planet is under attack, before being kidnapped by a hideous monster. After the hologram visuals fade, another one starts. The figure delivering the message this time is just a big pair of lips, who tells the three to go to the caves at the top of Gutterball Hill, which is inhabited by various animal ghosts. Once inside the cave, they must go down an abandoned mine shaft, and there, they will find the so-called secret of the universe in a bottomless abyss.
Grim takes a moment to think about the voice he just heard and soon realizes that he may know who that voice belongs to -- just then, he and the kids set off for Gutterball Hill, only to see that every kid in Endsville are all wearing decoder rings and got the same exact message to head for the hill. Irwin is riding his bike, which is then hijacked by Sperg. Moments later, Mindy shows up on a pink motor scooter and brags to the trio that she'll be the first to find the secret and won't tell anyone.
Instead of having to race the crowd to Gutterball Hill, Mandy demands that Grim uses his scythe to teleport them to the entrance of the cave. They go inside and reach the bottomless mine shaft pit that leads to where the secret is being kept. Grim nervously tells them they should leave the cave, making Mandy suspicious that he knows something they don't. One of the ghosts, a Kiwi, begins poking Billy with its sharp beak, followed by dozens of cave ghosts flying into them, pushing them over the edge and down into the pit. Mindy arrives just in time to see them falling below. Soon after, the other Endsville kids arrive, only to be too scared to venture into the dark depths of the mine shaft.
As the trio is falling down the shaft, Grim tells them they should've just turned back, prompting Mandy to demand that he tell them what the deal with him is. He begins to tell a story from his youth:
- Back when Grim was in high school of the dead, there a green worm monster named Lubber who had a very obsessive crush on Grim, to the point of where she would follow him basically everywhere and would even devour any and all other students at the school. When their high school principal discovered what was going on, she not only expelled Lubber but also cursed her to guard the secret of the universe at the bottom of the bottomless shaft (either for eternity or at least until the curse was somehow lifted, Grim can't remember).
As they reach the bottom of the pit, Lubber emerges and swallows the trio whole. She spits them out, only to see it was Grim she had eaten and is gleeful to see him again after so long. Lubber tells him that she's planning to leave the cave, revealing that she sent out the secret message via the Blasto Bits-cereal. Mandy then orders Lubber to cough up the secret she's been guarding for the last thousand years. Lubber tells Mandy to gaze into her wormhole to see the secret. Before the secret can show itself, Mindy shows up to demand that she be the one who sees the secret first.
Upon staring into the wormhole, Mindy reads the message aloud: “I was only kidding.” She questions the stupidity of this so-called secret but is pushed into the hole by an unseen force. This in turn breaks Lubber’s thousand-year curse and relinquishes ownership of the secret of the universe onto Mindy. Lubber flies up to the surface laughing, prompting the Endsville kids to run for their lives out of the cave with Grim, Billy and Mandy following behind. The episode ends with Mindy screaming from the bottom of the cave for someone to let her out.
Credits[]
- Story by: Zena Wyss, Mike Diederich
- Storyboard by: Mike Diederich
- Art direction: Rae McCarson
- Directed by: Robert Alvarez, Shaun Cashman, Randy Myers
Trivia[]
- A hidden message can be seen within the frames in the episode. It's possibly an editing error.
- During the first decoder ring hologram projection, a woman in a white dress and her hair styled in Hopi can be heard delivering a message to someone named Oki-Wan Kadoke. This is a homage to Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope, in which Princess Leia delivers a message to Obi-Wan Kenobi about the Empire via a holographic projection from R2-D2.
- Production-wise, this is the first episode animated at Digital eMation.
The hidden message
Gallery[]
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| The image gallery for The Secret Decoder Ring may be viewed here. |