A/N: Norbert the Owl is not an OC, he's a scrapped character from the original draft for the movie to be voiced by Gene Wilder.

Our story begins at a vending machine in an RV park of all places as someone tried to get a bag of nacho cheese chips, but the bag was stuck, much to the hungry victim's misfortune.

"Oh, no! Come on!" The victim complained before being shown as a raccoon as he tried to reach in the vending machine to get the bag, even trying to use a boomerang to hit the glass and a claw toy to grab the bag, but no avail, and it soon got worse as the lights went out. "Come on, baby. Grab it! All right. What...?" he then groaned before seeing a high up bear cave through the glass's reflection which gave him an idea. "Vincent..." he said before thinking about it and then thought maybe that was a bad idea. "No, no, bad idea. Bad idea!" he then grabbed a small golf bag that he had with him and brought out a fishing pole to throw out onto the cave edge to pull himself up to get to the bear cave.

Though as he did that, there was a flash of bright light on the ground from nowhere in the middle of the nearby forest as a group of new animals fell out together which consisted of a mongoose, a hare, a beaver, a flying squirrel, and a mink and as they landed in the ground, the bright light disappeared, showing to be a portal as the raccoon climbed up.

"Well, I guess this is our new mission," remarked the mink, batting his nose around. "Wonder what that guy's doing...?"

"What guy?" The mongoose groaned as she stretched a bit.

"There's a raccoon up there," The hare remarked as he looked up. "And it looks like he's going into that cave."

"That might be dangerous for a small animal like him to go into a big place like that." The flying squirrel remarked.

"Then we may as well see what he's up to." The mink replied as he made his way up the mountain.

The other animals looked at each other and soon began to follow after the raccoon. The raccoon soon made it up at the top and nearly slipped and fell against signs warning out a bear, wincing as he hit some with a loud CLANG! He soon saw a few bags and decided to keep them for himself and decided to leave at that before he saw a large horde of human food with a blue cooler in the cave and dropped the three bags he had collected and decided to go get more and better food.

"I guess this guy doesn't know not to bite off more than he can chew..." Lionel, the mink, remarked. "He should just go with what he's already got!"

The other animals soon joined his side.

"Heh, I love this flying power already." The flying squirrel chuckled as she came down to her friends.

"Focus, Mo," The mongoose told the flying squirrel in a bit of a deadpan voice which could only mean that she was Cherry. "We don't have time for games. I guess we have to help this raccoon out."

The raccoon came closer, only to be met with the bear of the cave which startled him, but luckily, the bear was just stretching in his sleep and went back to his hibernating slumber, which was a relief to the raccoon. And so the raccoon kept on grabbing bits of food & adding it to his stockpile. Before he was ready to go, he caught sight of a familiar-looking canister.

"Ah yes, off-brand Pringles, um, Spuddies," Lionel muttered. "We'd better get out of here before that big bear wakes up. Doesn't seem like the type to take kindly to intruders."

"Spuddies... Reminds me of that rule Hilda told us about once." Cherry commented.

"Yep," The hare known as Atticus nodded before they memorized what they were told together in unison. "'The Witches' Council's intervention after the market was flooded by magically created Gucci knockoffs. You can't even conjure Rollerblade inline skates; instead, you will get 'Rollerblahs'."

The group soon went to leave, but the raccoon decided to risk it and go for the chips while the bear was sound asleep as he held onto the chips canister. The raccoon reached for the chip canister and opened it.

The second he did, the bear woke up. "RJ...?" he asked, blinking the sleep from his eyes.

"Ooh, snap." The group of animals gulped.

The beaver who was Thor was shivering, then took out random twigs and began to gnaw at them like corn on the cob while biting his nails, fearing the worst for the raccoon.

"No?" The raccoon smiled nervously at the bear.

"The moon's not full," The bear said, waving the object in his paw before he saw that it was a to-go coffee cup. "You woke me up a week early? Oh, no," he then said as he saw the food wagon. "Don't tell me you're dumb enough to actually try and steal my stuff. RJ, I'm gonna have to kill you." he then threatened.

"Please, I'm just a desperate guy trying to feed his family." RJ smiled nervously.

"You don't have a family." The bear told him.

"I meant a family of one," RJ smiled nervously. "Okay, wait, wait, wait, wait! Look, it's still in the cave. So, technically, not stolen!" he then said with pride.

However, the wagon was then suddenly rolling away outside of the cave which looked very bad for the sneaky raccoon. Atticus went to go stop the wagon while smiling nervously at the bear.

"Oh, no!" The bear gasped.

However, the wagon proved to be too fast, even for Atticus as it bounced down the mountain to ride in the middle of the road. The wagon eventually ground to a halt in the middle of the road.

"Phew," RJ sighed. "That was close..." But before he could get another word out, a truck came by, smashing into the wagon and destroying the food on top of it.

"...Whuh-oh." Lionel remarked, as the pissed-off bear swung at the raccoon, but he missed as RJ was running for his life down the mountain.

"So close." Atticus groaned before he helped his friends get out of the way as the bear got aggressive due to the missing food.

Cherry and her friends soon ran down the mountain after the bear and the raccoon before something very grave and dangerous would happen.

Soon, the bear caught RJ and was about to eat him alive. "Vincent, wait!" The raccoon soon cried out. "I can get it all back!"

The bear, named Vincent, soon stopped to listen to what the raccoon had to say.

"What is he doing?" Atticus wondered.

"That's right!" RJ then continued. "If you eat me, you'd have to do it, but I can get it. All of it!"

"My red wagon?" Vincent asked.

"Redder!"

"The blue cooler?"

"Blue cooler. On my list!" RJ beamed before wincing. "Gotta be blue?"

"Yes! And I want my Spuddies," Vincent replied before grinning hungrily. "I love those things. 'Cuz with a Spuddie, enough just isn't enough."

"So true," RJ then grunted through the pain of Vincent's claws wrapped around his head. "Painfully true. And I'll tell you what. I'm gonna get you the giant picnic pack, family-fun size."

"They have that?" Vincent asked.

"I'm pretty sure." RJ nodded quickly.

"All right, RJ. I'm going back to sleep," Vincent then said. "When that moon is full, I'm waking up, and all my stuff had better be right back where it was."

"But that's just one week! That's impossible for one guy!" RJ cried out before the claws dug to his skull. "A week's perfect. I'll get some helpers." he then said weakly.

"Full moon, all my stuff," Vincent nodded. "And don't even think about running away. Because if you do, I will hunt you down and kill you." he then said before tossing the raccoon out to get started on his new job.

"Okay... Okay, buddy," RJ chuckled. "You just rest easy, alright? Because I'm on it! A week from now, we're gonna be laughing about this..." As soon as Vincent was gone, he began to panic.

"And so begins our opening montage," Lionel remarked as they began walking. "With music by Ben Folds, too! This song just... Speaks to me, y'know?"

"It's a pretty good one..." Cherry nodded. "Although I'm not 100% sure what we're supposed to do."

"Well, my thought is that we help this guy around a bit," Thor suggested, gesturing towards RJ. "I mean, we can't let him get eaten like a bear like that, even if it is the circle of life and just part of the animal kingdom."

"Looks like I have some company." RJ said to them.

"I guess you could say that," Atticus replied. "So, uh, hey."

"Who are you guys?" RJ asked.

The group soon introduced themselves to him.

"Interesting names," RJ then remarked. "The name's RJ."

"Nice to meet you," Lionel replied. "Cool voice... You sound kinda familiar."

"Sorry that bear guy wants to kill you." Thor replied.

"Ah, it's okay, I guess," RJ shrugged with a sigh. "I've been dealing with him for a long time."

"Can't you ask your family for help or at least some kinda support?" Mo asked.

"No, I can't," RJ bowed his head. "I don't have much of a family anymore. It's a long story."

"Well, if we're in the same boat, grab an oar." Lionel chuckled. "Hey, what's that up there?" he read the billboard over their heads. "El Rancho Camelot: Your Gateway to the Good Life!"

"Hey, yeah!" RJ's eyes lit up before he came towards the billboard and looked between the wooden support beams and looked out into the neighborhood that would have humans and of course, the food he would need for Vincent.

The group soon followed after RJ as they went to help him with his problem in this brand new adventure.

"I hope we can help RJ so that bear will leave him alone." Thor said to his friends.

"You're not the only one." Lionel replied with a nod, as they ventured forth into the suburban community.

The continued to go, but of course it took a while as night wouldn't last long.

Since Vincent was awake, it would also mean for other animals in the wild to wake up from hibernation after a long, cold winter into a beautiful new springtime. Some snow soon slipped and dropped into a sleeping turtle's shell.

"Oh, boy, that's cold! That's cold!" The turtle yelped as that jolted him awake. "The one place I didn't have a shell," he soon came out of the log he was sleeping in before looking all around as the snow was melting and that meant it was time for a new season. "Wow. Spring. That means there's only 274 days left' 'til winter!" he then gasped in preparation. "Norbert, did you see?" he then asked an owl in the tree high above him.

"My shift's over..." The owl replied sleepily, sounding a bit like a certain choclateer that Cherry once knew.

"Aw, you're no fun," The turtle told the owl before calling out to his honorary family. "EVERYBODY WAKE UP! HIBERNATION'S OVER!" Verne called.

A hyperactive young squirrel popped out of the bush. "Morning!" he exclaimed.

"Morning, Hammy." Verne told him.

"I gotta go wee-wee!" Hammy exclaimed as he dashed off at warp-sonic speeds.

"Oh! Not in the lake we drink from!" Verne told the squirrel before calling out to everybody else who was in the log, still asleep under the leaves. "Let's go, all right, the rest of you. It's spring! That means we gotta get to work."

"Finished," Hammy smiled as he came back before yelping and ran off again. "No, wait!"

"Come on, everybody. Wake up," Verne told the others. "Don't make me come in there."

"Y'all better listen," A voice replied from in the leaf pile. "I've been holding something in all winter, and I'm about to let it out."

Eventually, other animals came out, including two possums who were father and daughter and a family of porcupines with a mother, father, and triplet children.

"Thank you, Stella." Verne said to the skunk.

"Oh, I can clear a room, Verne," The skunk smirked as they came out of the log together. "Come on, that much I can do."

"Good morning, everyone!" announced the male porcupine. "Just a super-duper morning, eh?"

His spouse yawned.

"Oh, jeepers," said the male. "Not lookin' so good around the eyes there, hon."

"Bucky and Quillo were up every three or four weeks," his wife replied. "And Spike kept poking me."

"Well, he's kinda pokey," The male stated. "He's the sharpest of the bunch there."

"Mm-hmm..." The female nodded.

"You know what? How 'bout I take the day shift?" The male offered to his mate.

"Oh, Lou, that'd be just super." The female smiled softly.

"All right, kids, you heard your mother, and now you listen to me," The male soon told his children. "Shape up."

The porcupine triplets soon tackled their father as their mother watched.

"Oh, boy..." Verne sighed as he looked in the log and took out what looked like some frozen berries on a twig. "This is what I was afraid of."

"Where's the food? Is there any left? I'm hungry, so is there any left?" Hammy asked hyperactively.

"We ate all the food, Hammy," The young possum reminded the squirrel. "During the winter? We gotta go get some more now."

"Oh, right! I buried some nuts in the woods!" Hammy smiled excitedly before he zipped all around. "I know where they are. I'll be right back. Bye!"

Suddenly, more snow slipped and fell onto the father possum's head which made him gasp out before he fell dramatically in the middle of the ground like an over-the-top TV/movie actor.

Some of the others laughed as the young possum weakly laughed with them. "Dad, it was just snow." she then whispered, feeling embarrassed.

"But it could have been a predator." The father possum replied.

"Isn't playing dead a little... Weak?" The possum daughter asked.

"Heather, how many times must I say it?" The father possum reminded. "Playing possum is what we do. We die so that we live!"

"Maybe I should've flown south." Norbert muttered to himself.

"Kids, I'm the boss of you, so just calm down, okay?" asked Lou as his triplets were still on him.

"That's what we need to find you this year, don'cha know?" The female porcupine, Penny, told Stella. "A good fella."

"A fella for Stella..." chuckled Norbert.

"A good fella? A good fella?" asked the skunk.

"Jeepers, here we go..." Lou remarked.

"Why does everyone think I need a man?" asked Stella. "I look like a nest and smell like a swamp. So when you find a fella who's decent, good with kids, and has no sense of smell, call me."

Hammy soon zipped around while looking for food before he gasped as he saw something very big and green at the end of the forest.

"Hello?" Verne called to the other animals.

"I don't care who started it." Lou scolded his children.

"Ahem!" Verne cleared his throat sharply, bringing out the twig with berries.

"Oh, look, food." Penny then smiled.

"Well, I think you know what this means." Verne told the other animals.

"Verne!" Hammy gasped as he came back, raising his paw in the air.

"Just a minute, Hammy," Verne told him before he explained to the others. "This means we were nine berries away from starvation."

The other animals looked horrified about that.

"Sorry. That was a little intense," Verne then said. "I meant really serious hunger pains."

"Verne!" Hammy soon cried out.

"Not finished, Hammy," Verne told him before he began to pass the berries around to the other animals. "Morning, Lou, Penny. Hey, kids. What I want to tell you is-"

"Verne!" Hammy yelped.

"I'm not done, Hammy," Verne told the hyper squirrel. "If you have to go again, just go. Okay. So all I'm saying is we cut it a little close. So this year we need to make sure that we fill the log-"

"All the way to the top." The adult male possum known as Ozzie spoke up.

"Exactly," Verne nodded as RJ and the others were soon coming over. "All the way to the top. Because what are we?"

"Foragers!" The other animals replied as RJ soon noticed them.

"And what do we forage?" Verne then asked.

"Food!" The animals replied.

"Right." Verne nodded as a firefly soon flew over RJ's head and lit up as the raccoon suddenly had a lightbulb moment which meant that he had an idea.

"Guys?" RJ smirked at his new friends as the firefly flew away. "I think I just have the best idea ever."

"Okay, I think I know where this plan is going." Lionel replied.

"Yeah, same!" Thor nodded.

"...Do you?" Lionel asked.

Thor dropped his head. "...No."

Lionel patted him with his tail.

"Super, Verne, really super." Lou approved to the turtle.

"Okay, Hammy," Verne soon called on the squirrel. "What is it?"

"What is what?" Hammy asked in confusion.

"What is it you want to tell me?" Verne prompted.

Hammy soon remembered, but forgot what he wanted to ask about. "What was it, what was it, what was it, what was it? Wait. Right on the tip of my tongue," he then said before he remembered. "Oh, yeah! There's a weird thing I've never seen before over there. It's really scary. Follow me!" he then said before dashing off.

"Okay. Meeting called on account of weird scary thing," Verne then said to the other animals before they walked along. "Let's go."

"Foragers..." RJ smirked thoughtfully.

"Well, I guess we might as well go and meet them." Atticus suggested.

"Yep!" Lionel nodded as he scampered down the hill.

The group shrugged at each other and soon went after the group of animals who seemed to be like honorary family with each other.