Camp Lazlo: Where's Lazlo?

Camp Lazlo: Where's Lazlo? is a television special based on the animated series Camp Lazlo. Sequentially, this movie was released during the third season of Camp Lazlo, but chronologically the events occur at the start of the series. The plot centers on how the Jelly Cabin trio met, and Lazlo's struggle to "fit in" to the strict atmosphere of Camp Kidney.

By season three, when this special was released, the personalities of the characters had evolved beyond the personalities of the earlier episodes, but these evolved traits were incorporated into this hour-long movie.^[1]

The movie lays some foundational character traits, for example:

• Scoutmaster Lumpus as a quasi-dictator
• Edward as a resentful toadie
• Raj as a low-keyed, middle-of-the-road personality
• Clam as an angry and short-tempered child
• Chip and Skip do not have their trademark flies until Lazlo arrives

The movie doesn't also feature the Squirrel Scouts as well.

When the movie aired for the first time, it was aired in a letterbox format. Later airings were shown in full screen.

Plot

The story opens with Lazlo missing, and Clam and Raj relating the tale up to this point.

The first segment reveals how Raj and Clam meet. They meet a common enemy, Edward, who is the camp bully. Most of the other campers follow Edward's lead and after a scuffle, Lazlo makes his appearance. What follows builds Edward's growing resentfulness towards Lazlo, and Lumpus' dissatisfaction with the three new scouts behavior. After choosing to name their cabin after the jelly bean, Lazlo builds a totem pole to decorate their new cabin, when Lazlo hears an animal in distress. Given Lazlo's nature, he goes to find it and help it, while Clam and Raj choose not to accompany him.

Lazlo finds a bear with a pinecone stuck in his nose, and pulls it out, earning the bear's gratefulness. The bear, now named Fluffy, follows Lazlo home and he hides it in his cabin. When Edward tells Lumpus that Lazlo has left camp, they both attempt to confront Lazlo, but are instead met by Fluffy. Protecting Lazlo, Fluffy attacks Edward and Lumpus. While everyone hides in Lumpus' cabin, Lazlo follows Fluffy out of the camp; when Lazlo's torn beanie is later found, the others assume that Lazlo was mauled by the bear and possibly eaten.

Lazlo, Clam and Raj are together again

When Edward can find neither the bear nor Lazlo, he concocts a story about how he scared Fluffy off by his "skills", and demands the camp's respect. The next series of scenes deal with both Edward spinning a web of lies, and Lumpus trying to come to grips with Lazlo's disappearance, but only due to Lumpus's fear of Commander Hoo-Ha, not over any real concern for the missing scouts.

Finally understanding that Edward was lying (Clam actually figuring it out, by remembering that the bear that Lazlo brought to camp was brown, when Edward mistakenly said it was black), Raj and Clam find Lazlo, alive and well, in the Prickly Pines restaurant, Beef Lumberjacks. Lazlo explains the incident, but Lazlo is reluctant to return to Camp Kidney, because he refuses to put up with the unfair rules. Clam and Raj leave Lazlo, but they've unknowingly ended up convincing Lazlo to return.

Upon Lazlo's return, he finds an angry-turned Fluffy ravaging the camp, but this time, he has two pinecones stuck in his nose. As the bear approaches Edward and begins to attack him, Lazlo calls Fluffy off. When Lazlo understands the bear's situation, he tells Edward to help Fluffy by pulling the pinecones out of his nose. After Edward pulls the pinecones out, he is free to go and then, the rest of the camp cheers. Fluffy thanks Lazlo for helping and the two share a hug, then the bear takes his departure from Camp Kidney.

As the story closes, Lazlo appears from off-scene. Seeing Lazlo, Clam and Raj are overjoyed and rush to greet him, to which he replies that he has been at the latrine. The movie then ends with Lazlo asking them if they were talking about the story with Fluffy.

Awards

On September 8, 2007, Where's Lazlo? won an Emmy in the Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming One Hour or More) category.^[2]

References

External links

• Animation Insider review, February 14th, 2007, by Kendall Lyons
• Camp Lazlo: Where's Lazlo? at the Internet Movie Database
• "Camp Lazlo: Where's Lazlo?" at TV.com