The next section of Veggie Land is based on Hollywood. I actually worked on this one and Ahoy Boat simultaneously. That's why both chapters were three days apart. Enjoy this chapter.
Chapter 5: Veggiewood
Gil is taking a break on a bench, waiting for Oona to dry up. Closing his eyes, he cracks a smile.
"Veggie Land sure is incredible. This is the best day ever."
XOXOXO
After about 15 minutes…
"Gil! Over here!" Oona calls him with-
"Guys!"
Gil gets off the bench and approaches Oona, who is with Mr. Grouper and the rest of the Bubble Guppies.
"Finally, I'm so glad we're all together again!"
"So am I." The teacher agrees. "But excuse me Gil, what time is it?"
"It's time for lunch!" The blue-haired guppy replies.
Zooli, Oona, and Nonny grab their trays holding their lunches and sit at a nearby table.
"I got a veggie burger and sweet potato fries. What did you get, Oona?" Zooli asks.
"I got a salad and french fries." The pigtailed-girl responds. "What about you, Nonny?"
"I got a veggie pizza and… quench fries?"
Nonny's quench fries sip their sodas and sigh as they quench their thirst.
Zooli and Oona couldn't help but giggle looking at Nonny's lunch.
After eating, everyone takes a good look of the section of Veggie Land they're in. Mostly Gil, who reads a sign.
"Veggiewood? Where famous vegetables make fun films?"
"Yeah, they all have stars on the pavement. See?" Goby points at the numerous stars with random names.
"Oh, I get it!" Gil declares as he knows what the land is based on. "Clever."
"Everybody!" Mr. Grouper grabs their attention. "Here's a ride I've been meaning to go on."
Mr. Grouper leads his students to an attraction called The Great Vegetable Ride. The exteriors are based on a real-life famous Egyptian Pyramid theater.
"A movie theater?" Zooli asks sarcastically.
"Boy, I sure wonder what this attraction offers." Deema also says sarcastically.
"Me too!" Gil says, not sarcastically.
Once inside, Mr. Grouper and the guppies see a bunch of (recently-drawn) posters of numerous made-up films starring… well, vegetables.
Films such as Carrotblanca, Attack of the Killer Potatoes, Cucumber's Play, The Lord of the Onion Rings, Who Framed Roger Radish, and so on and so forth.
"This is awesome. Right, Gil?" Goby asks.
"You said it, pal! I wonder what kind of ride this is."
"Hello, folks." A snail who works in the theater greets the guests. "Welcome to the Great Vegetable Ride. If you please follow me, I shall escort you to your theater."
Everyone begins following the worker and they look around some more.
"Are we gonna watch a movie?" Gil couldn't help but ask.
"Watch a movie?" The snail repeats. "No, no, no. You're gonna be in the movie!"
The group stops and sees-
"A train?" Gil makes another question. "What does a train have to do with anything?"
"Oh, you'll see." The snail replies. "Now please hop in and fasten your seatbelts."
The train came with eight carts, each having room for two passengers. Gil and Molly take the first cart. Oona and Nonny take the second. Goby and Deema take the third. And the last cart goes to Zooli and Mr. Grouper.
The train's driver turns to the group and happens to be…
"Hello, boys and girls." Harry, the train's engineer who also happens to be Old Number 9's engineer. He's sporting sunglasses, a red shirt and hat, and blue overalls with white stripes. "Today, I will take you on a tour of the greatest vegetable films of all-time cinema!"
Finishing his announcement, Harry starts the train and blows the whistle.
"Oh boy. I wonder what we'll see first." Gil comments, not knowing it's the same engineer he raced with against two advanced trains.
"Gilly, you just wonder and wonder. Don't ya?"
"Well, this place is WONDER-ful!"
Molly shakes her head, amused her best friend is in joy.
"Now if you look on your left," Harry begins, "you will see an onion crying in the rain."
The onion happens to be Mr. Grumpfish, dressed as an onion with an umbrella.
"I'm crying in the rain. Just crying in the rain." The crying (actually grumpy) onion wasn't putting in much effort to sing his lines or dance. He just holds his umbrella above him. "What a miserable feeling and I'm upset again."
Sure, Mr. Grouper and the Bubble Guppies (minus Gil) knew about how it would start. But they didn't know Mr. Grumpfish was going to be very non-motivational in his segment.
"Man, not a good start." Gil states.
"I'm sure it'll get better." Goby assures him.
"Coming up, you will see a herd of potatoes chasing after frightened civilians!"
Harry wasn't kidding. A bunch of potatoes (Little Fish in potato costumes) go after shrimp and snails.
"Oh my! I hope they're okay." Oona exclaims.
Gil got a little scared, "Yeah, me too."
"Next up-" Harry stops. "Shiver me timbers! We have a bunch of pirates of the carrot-bbean having a sword duel!"
The train passes a pirate's ship. Pirate lobsters are fighting off carrot-pirates (also lobsters, dressed in carrot costumes and pirate accessories) with plastic toy-swords.
"Wow, how amazing!" Zooli says.
"No kidding!" Gil agrees with her.
Nobody notices but one of the carrot-pirates falls out of the ship and lands on top of the train's chimney.
"And now-" Harry notices the chimney is growing and growing. "Uh oh!"
BOOM
The train explodes! Harry and the carrot-pirate land on top of the ship. But Mr. Grouper and the kids are not harmed. However, the carts keep on moving and are heading towards a wall!
"Uh oh!" Everyone exclaims in unison.
"Hang on, everyone!" Mr. Grouper yells out.
CRASH
Everyone crashes out of the ride and the train's carts go in different directions. Oona and Nonny crash into a fountain. Goby and Deema crash into a restaurant. Mr. Grouper and Zooli crash into a gift shop. Gil and Molly…
"Oh no, not again!" The girl yells and grabs Gil's arm before-
SPLASH
Their cart crashes into another small river. This time, Molly didn't get wet and neither did Gil.
Molly lets go of her friend's arm and sighs in relief. "Gilly! Are you okay?!"
"Am I okay?" He repeats her question. "That was totally wicked! Man, Veggie Land is filled with twists and turns!"
"Really? He even thinks that was part of the ride? We could've gotten injured or worse!" Molly states in her thoughts.
"By the way, where are we going?" Gil asks Molly.
Molly looks further into the river and notices the two are going into a tunnel. There happens to be music playing inside.
"Wait, aren't we going inside-"
Now both guppies are in the tunnel, which is another ride!
There's a ton of vegetable-shaped dolls in various outfits, singing and dancing. The backgrounds showcase different kinds of fields. And a song is playing.
"It's a small garden, after all! It's a small garden, after all! It's a small, small garden!"
"Yep. We are in It's a Small Garden."
Gil raises an eyebrow. "I know the vegetables are singing those words. But how did you know the name of this ride?"
Molly's eyes widened. "Oh, um, um… Oh, yes. It says so here on the map." She pulls out the map and opens it for Gil to see.
"Oh yeah, you said something about a map earlier today."
The two stay silent, watching the many wonders of this ride. Listening to the vegetables singing…
"It's a small garden, after all!"
…and singing…
"It's a small garden, after all!"
…and singing…
"It's a small, small garden!"
"Um, this is starting to get annoying." Gil rests his head on his hand.
"We just had to make this song a chant, didn't we?" Molly comments in her mind.
After what seemed like an hour (15 minutes actually), the duo finally reached the exit of the annoying-chant tunnel and arrived next to the platform to get off.
"Finally. That was my least favorite ride so far." Gil hops off the cart, followed by Molly.
"Same here. The song's gonna be in my head all day." She tells Gil.
XOXOXO
Both friends make it to the middle of Veggiewood and find what other attractions the place has.
"Hey Gil," Molly calls him, "how about the one behind you?"
Gil turns around and reads…
Gil gulps and shivers in fright. "The Rotten Beets Walkthrough Experience? I don't wanna!"
"Come on, I'll go with you."
Molly gives a smile and softly pushes her friend towards the scary attraction.
From what they can see, there are trees without leaves, a dirty swamp, and of course, it's dark.
Gil gulps and shakes in fear.
Molly looks at him and extends her arm. "Just hold my hand and everything will be fine."
Gil trusts Molly and holds her hand with his own. Now the two begin to walk down the area.
Moving on, owls and crickets make their signature noises, raindrops are falling, and a small amount of fog is filling the area.
"Not bad, so far. Haven't seen any rotten beets yet." Gil says.
And now, the two are reaching a city. By city, there's just large photographs of the top of Big Bubble City and there are small automobiles for show.
Out of nowhere, five rotten beets get in front of Gil and Molly!
"Boo!" The five beets scare him.
"AHHHH!"
Just like in the Haunted Garden, Gil grabs a piece of wood and begins to-
"Gilly, wait!"
Gil didn't pay attention and since his back was turned to Molly, he accidentally bonked her on the head. Making her fall on the ground.
But he intentionally hits the five beets on the head over and over. After three hits on each head, Gil drops the wood, grabs Molly, and runs for his life!
"Oof! Wait, Gil! Ow!" The pink-haired girl was getting dragged and her back was bumping on the floor.
The five beets, who happen to be Goby, Deema, Oona, Nonny, and Zooli, take off their costumes, showing the big bumps on their noggins.
"That hurt." Nonny declares in his usual tone.
"Since when does Gil ever do that?" Deema asks. "He usually runs away after a scare."
"Yeah, just like that day with the knight's suit. And the other day when we held the dragon for the Chinese Festival." Goby remembers. "Ow, it hurts to just think right now."
Oona rubs her head. "I think we all need to take five."
"Make it ten." Zooli suggests.
XOXOXO
Molly was rubbing her sore head and back after she and Gil left the frightening walkthrough experience.
"Gil, I think that was a bit too far when you were hitting those beets."
"I'm sorry, Molly. But those animatronics looked really scary."
Molly knew those beets were actually real people in costumes, not animatronics. But she didn't wanna argue with Gil because if she did, he would know Veggie Land is not real. She sighs as she knows she needs to keep it a secret.
"Gilly, how about we go explore somewhere else?"
"Okay, Molly. But maybe someplace that's not too scary."
And with that, the duo leave Veggiewood.
To be continued…
Yes, that was a bit too much on Gil hitting his friends in disguise.
No, I don't hate any of the characters. Because they're all just receiving bad luck. I just think it's how slapstick cartoon luck is like. Donald Duck went through that from Goofy in the Potato Land short. Same with Gil going through a lot in every episode, even in the new ones.
If you guessed it, then yes. Harry is the nameless engineer of Old Number 9 from "The Triple-Track Train Race".
And the lunch joke with Nonny. Good? Bad? Well, people at amusement parks do get thirsty as they have to walk constantly to numerous areas and attractions.
For those wondering about the references in the Great Vegetable Ride, which is based on the now-extinct Great Movie Ride. They are Casablanca, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, Child's Play, The Lord of the Rings, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Singin' in the Rain, Killer Tomatoes (again), and Pirates of the Caribbean.
And the Rotten Beets experience is based on the Walking Dead attraction that Universal Studios Hollywood used to have. An experience not based on something from the Disney Parks. I never said I wouldn't include attractions from different theme parks, did I?
Also, I actually like It's a Small World, especially the Holiday version. But yeah, the song is repetitive. Thought I give Gil an attraction he wouldn't really enjoy. People have their favorite and least favorite things when it comes to amusement parks.
Where are Gil and Molly going next? You'll see.
Thanks for reading.