The Pearl Hunt

[ Theme Song ]

Ricky: I hate detention, especially when it's the stingers' fault. Crudd: Oh, what a cry-baby. (Ricky swims up to the Rockfish) Ella: Please! (Ricky and Crudd both growl at each other, but Pipo arrives and pushes Ricky back to his friends) Pipo: Do you think Mr. Lulu is gonna quiz us today on yesterday's lesson? Ricky: I sure hope not. Ella: What do you mean? It's simple. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Ricky: You sure. Babbles: (mocking) "You sure?" (The Rockfish all laugh) Ricky: You stingers got a problem? (Ricky and Crudd both growl at each other again, but Pipo pushes Ricky back to his friends) Lulu: Children! Pipo: The sun is beating down too hard on them. It's beating down on their brains. (Annabel giggles) Lulu (clears throat) Children! Crudd: I'm gonna beat down on you if you keep that up. Lulu: That's enough. Let's calm down now and begin class. Babbles and Ricky: But he's the one who started it! Lulu: Children! Crudd: Ugh. the tattle-tale is playing the teacher's pet. Ricky: Say that to my face! Lulu: Children! Crudd: I'd love to. Lulu: (echoing) SIlence! (Everybody stop talking and they all listen to Lulu) Follow me.

Lulu: Darn stain. Oh, never mind. How would you all like to be rewarded with something very precious? I've hidden three pearls in the reef. There will be three teams. Each team must bring back to me a pearl like this. (He shows the students the pearl. Lulu places the pearl in a shell) Ella, you will team up with Glitz. Glitz: Excuse me? Lulu: Ricky, you will team up with Babbles. And lastly, Annabel, you will team up with Crudd. Crudd: Ugh! Pipo: Uh, Mr. Lulu? What about me? Who am I with? Lulu: Pipo? Uh... ah, yes, right. You'll be with Ella and Glitz. Pipo: Huh? But I want to be with my pal Ricky. Babbles: Yeah, that's true. It's not fair. (The students all argue at once) Lulu: Silence! Look at me. I have two pincers that never agree with one another. And yet they have learned to get along. You are all going to have to learn to cooperate, and it's not with all your arguing that you will get the great reward I promised you. Glitz: That reward is all mine for sure. Ricky: (to Ella) Okay, well, good luck. Glitz: We don't need luck. We're gonna win, squirt. I always win. Lulu: Good. Now I'm gonna give a clue to each group, so pay attention. (Later, Ella, Glitz, and Pipo are searching for their pearl) Ella: Mr. Lulu said, "There where I hid the pearl we can see the sun set." That means west of the reef. Glitz: So what are you waiting for to go find it? (Pipo swims down to eat a purple sea anemone) Ella: That's not all. He also said that the pearl could be found in the dark in the middle of the day. Glitz: (to Pipo) Hey there, you. Aren't you gonna participate? Pipo: Well, what? Can't you think for yourself? You scorpfish have to have somebody else chew your own food for you. Glitz: All you chew on is plankton. Can't you see we're trying to think here? Ella: You know, Pipo, she's right. This is supposed to be teamwork. Glitz: Ah, thank you. Pipo: Maybe so, but I would've preferred being on Ricky's team. Whereas here I'm stuck with a scorpfish. (Glitz is about to charge to Pipo, but Ella stops her) Why did Mr. Lulu do this to me? Glitz: But of course! Why did he put us together? Because we complement each other. We can't go on the sand, but you, Ella... Pipo: Huh? Ella: That's true! Maybe Mr. Lulu hid the pearl over there. I'll go! Glitz: You see? You don't need me at all. (Meanwhile, Ricky and Babbles are both searching their pearl) Babbles: Where you goin', Flippers? Going to beg Ella for help? Ricky: Mr. Lulu said the pearl was in the shade until midday. He must've hid it next to the hut on the beach. Babbles: No way! He was surely talking about the garbage dump. There's shade there somewhere... I think. Ricky: You can tell you never pay attention in class, stinger. I'm gonna go look on the beach. Babbles: Whatever. So, while you go get a suntan on your shell, I'm gonna go get the pearl. We'll just see who's right.

(Ella gasps when she notices an opened shell with a pearl) Ella: Glitz was right! (She's about to grab the pearl, but the shell closes) Huh? Oh, no! (She picks up the shell and carries it to the ocean)

(Annabel is floating on a bubble that the clam made) Crudd: So, Mr. Lulu said we should come here? Annabel: It's my favorite spot to get my tentacles massaged. You coming? It's nice and hot. Crudd: Ohh. (He swims to where the bubbles are and floats on top of one of them) Mmm. These little bubbles are nice. But you think this is where the pearl is? Annabel: What pearl? Crudd: Well, the pearl we're supposed to bring back to Mr. Lulu. Annabel: Oh, yeah, that's right! But he did say, too, though, that we were supposed to have good time together, didn't he? Crudd: That's true. After all, there's no emergency going on in the lagoon now, is there? (Meanwhile, Ella brought the shell to Glitz and Pipo) Ella: It closed up as soon as I came near it. That's why Mr. Lulu said that the pearl could be found in the dark in the middle of the day. (Glitz tries to open the shell, but it didn't budge) There's no way to get it open! Pipo: This is driving me bananas! That means if we can't get it out of there, it's as if we never found it. Ella: ♫ Little shell, open up. ♫ Pipo: (chuckles) Yeah, right. That'll work for sure. Glitz: At least she's trying to help. Ella: Thank you, Glitz. Glitz: (looks at the shell for a few seconds) Ah, I know! Pipo, do you want to be of help, yes or no? Pipo: Yes. Glitz: Get ready to grab the pearl when I get it to open. Pipo: Whatever you say. (Glitz electrocuted the shell and causes it to open. Using his mouth, Pipo tries to pull the pearl out of the shell, but the shell immediately closes on his mouth. Pipo let out muffled screams in surprise) Ella: Pipo! (Glitz electrocuted the shell again, causing it to open) Aah! (Pipo got flung back) Pipo: Whoa! (Glitz and Ella both notice that the pearl is not inside the shell) Glitz: Huh? Huh? Pipo: I swallowed it! I swallowed the pearl! Glitz: I don't believe it! (Meanwhile, Babbles is holding a rock just as Ricky arrives near the palaver tree) Babbles: Hey, check this out! I found a funny-looking shiny rock. Maybe if we polish it, wr could pass it off as a pearl, no? Ricky: Yeah, maybe if we blindfolded everybody. Babbles: Laugh all you like, but you haven't found the pearl, either. Ricky: That's not true. I--I-- Okay, I haven't found anything. All we have to do is ask Mr. Lulu for another clue. Babbles: Yeah, right, Flippers. And while we're at it, why don't we just ask him to give us the pearl? Hry, wait! That's not a bad idea. (swims away) Ricky: Hey, wait for me! (Ricky follows Babbles, just as Annabel and Crudd both show up) Annabel: So, then did you like the little bubbles? Crudd: Yeah, that was great. (Annabel giggles, but she notices him swimming down to pick up a coin off the ocean floor) Annabel: Huh? What's up? You found the pearl? What a strange-looking pearl. Crudd: This isn't a pearl. It's something even better. (tosses the coin away) Catch! (Annabel catches the coin, and she starts to giggle as she plays with it. She tosses the coin back to Crudd) Yeah!

Babbles: So, you got it, Flippers? You distract Mr. Lulu, and I'll take one of his pearls without anyone noticing. Then the reward will be all ours. Ricky: I'm not so sure. Stealing is bad. Babbles: It's not stealing. It's borrowing, seeing as we'll give it to back to Mr. Lulu afterwards. What's more, we will have done so without arguing. He'll be proud of us. You'll see. Come on. Ricky: Okay. But promise you'll stop calling me Flippers. (Ricky swims to Lulu) Lulu: Huh? Hi there, Ricky. Have you found the pearl? (Babbles swims to get inside the shell school) Where's Babbles? Ricky: Um, uh, he's still looking. (a clatter is heard) Uh, I got a question, actually. Uh, could you re-explain the clue to me again, Mr. Lulu? Lulu: Of course. (Babbles chuckles, causing more clatter to be heard) Uh-huh. The pearl is in the shade until midday. Now, when I said that, it was morning. And since then, the sun has moved. But you must try to remember-- where is the sun in the morning? Ricky: In the sky? Lulu: Wrong! I mean, yes, it is, but not only. (Ricky notices Babbles have a pearl) It's to the east, and-- Ricky: Ah, okay. I got it. Thanks. (Ricky swims to the Playground)

, Ricky: Way to go. He didn't notice a thing! Babbles: That's because you did a good job distracting him. (tosses the pearl to RIcky) Teamwork! Not bad, Flip-- Uh, I mean, not bad at all. (A loud belch is heard) Ricky: Huh? (Ricky and Babbles both look up to see Ella, Glitz, and Pipo. Pipo is belching very loud) Babbles: Well, look who's here. (swims up to Ella and Glitz) You look kind of shell-shocked. Ricky: You guys didn't figure out the clue? Because we did! (Ricky shows Ella and Glitz the pearl) Ella: Glitz and I figured out the clue. We even found the pearl, but-- Glitz: Pipo swallowed it. Pipo: Worst three seconds of my life. (belches) (Ricky and Ella both swim to Pipo to aid him. Glitz looks down at the pearl) Glitz: Babbles, we gotta talk. (She and Babbles swim to a hiding place) Give me your pearl. Babbles: But it's not only mine. Without Ricky. I wouldn't have got it. Glitz: So that's how it is? You find the pearl together, and all of a sudden you're best friends in the whole world? Have you forgotten about your real friends? Have you forgotten about... me? Babbles: No, of course not, Glitz. Glitz: We'll split the reward, just the two of us, if you want. You wouldn't like to hurt my feelings, now, would you? Babbles: Oh... okay.

Crudd: Weren't we supposed to be finding a pearl? Annabel: One more game, and then we'll go. Crudd: Okay.

Lulu: Well, it seems you have all finally learned to get along. So, have you found the pearls? Ella? Ella: Truth is, we had a little problem. Glitz: (shows up with the pearl) But everything worked out and we found the pearl. Here it is. We won! So, what's the reward? Ella: (to Pipo) Did you spit it out? (Pipo belches as he shakes his head) Lulu: Just a minute, Glitz. First, let's see how the others made out. Ricky: Well, Babbles and I did pretty darn well. Babbles: Actually, no, we didn't find the pearl. Ricky: What? Yes, we did. What about the one that we borrowed? Babbles: Sorry, Ricky. Lulu: But this pearl! This is the pearl that was in this box earlier on. I recognize that little stain there. Glitz, Pipo, Ella, I want an explanation! Glitz, Pipo, and Ella: We had nothing to do with it! Glitz: (swims up to Babbles) I thought you found it, when in fact you stole it. (to Lulu) Babbles is the thief! (Babbles and Ricky both growl at each other) Lulu: You all cheated, is that it? Glitz: Wait a second! We really did find the pearl. It's just that Pipo swallowed it. But he's gonna spit it out now, right, Pipo? (She's about to electrocute Pipo. but Ella stops her) Ella: That's enough! Babbles: Come on, Flippers! Ricky: Never call me that again! (Ricky and Ella both back off from their respective Rockfish partner, and they bump into Pipo. Pipo spits out the pearl and Lulu grabs it) Lulu: This is indeed the pearl I hid in the shell. Pipo, it seems that you are the only one who deserves the reward, which is... having learned how to really get to know one another. Pipo: Huh? And for that, I nearly choked? Glitz: All this pearl-hunting business for that? Babbles: Do you have any idea what we went through? Ricky: I had to put with a scorpfish the whole day. (Everyone all start arguing) Lulu: Silence!

Annabel: Ha ha ha ha! So, why don't we go look for the pearl now? Crudd: How about taking a little detour via the bubbles first? Annabel: Super idea!