QBT Alvin! And The Green One-Eyed Monster From Underwater!

'''QBT Alvin! And The Green One-Eyed Monster From Underwater!''' is the eighth episode of ShapeTales and the first QBT Alvin episode.

Plot
The episode begins with Percy and Lil' Rectangle seeing what appears to be a comet. Jimmy and Jerry Cylinder, who staff an early-warning radar station, alert QBT Alvin of an approaching alien. QBT Alvin begins to search for the alien but gives up after finding nothing. The scene then shifts to Little Johnny Cylinder and Little Trixie Cylinder having a tea party. Little Johnny decides to take his father's prized "Art Bigoti" bowling plate for his teddy bear, saying that since it is a special bear, it deserves a special plate. While trying to retrieve it he accidentally breaks the plate. The tennis ball-sized monster "Planktonus Minimus" (Plankton, for short) emerges and convinces Little Johnny to lie to his dad claiming "A little monster couldn't hurt anybody." Little Johnny lies to his dad and claims that Little Trixie is demonstrating her new apple chopper which works perfectly but broke the plate by accident. However, Little Johnny soon discovers that every time he lies, his "little monster" grows larger and larger. He and Plankton go downtown where Little Trixie, Percy, and Lenny form an angry mob and confront him about his lies. When Little Johnny tells a lie about alien cows coming to earth and destroying the plate, Plankton grows to be a 50-foot tall giant who holds Little Johnny prisoner and starts wreaking a quarter of havoc and destruction in the city.

QBT Alvin is then summoned and is forced to pursue Plankton and Litle Johnny in his Alvin-Mobile as Plankton tries to escape by climbing to the top of the 100-foot tall water tower. QBT Alvin transforms the Alvin-Mobile into the Alvin-Plane and flies into the sky. He then ejects above Plankton, but is grabbed and squeezed until one of his plungers pops out. As Plankton starts to eat QBT Alvin, Alfred informs QBT Alvin that Little Johnny is the only one who can stop Plankton. Little Johnny then admits the truth about his lies to his parents (who are watching from below) and as he tells the truth, Plankton shrinks into nothing but air. Little Johnny then apologizes to his father.

Trivia

 * HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is a markup language to create webpages.
 * As you'll notice during the Plankton scenes, he crushes every vehicle except for the VW bus. That is because Ron Smith modeled it, which is an exact one that he owned and refused to destroy it.
 * This was the first episode for several things:
 * The first episode where Jimmy and Alvin receive e-mail messages from kids.
 * The first appearance of Art Bigotti.
 * The first episode where both Little Johnny and Little Trixie get in a conflict, despite Little Trixie receiving no apology from the person who accused her for his own wrongdoing in this one.
 * The first episode where the animated Big World logo from 1997 is used.
 * The first episode Joseph Sapulich, Daniel Lopez Munoz, and Joe McFadden worked on. It's also the first episode with more crew members like Aaron Hartline, Cara Bukovski, Lena Spoke, Nathan Tungseth, Jennifer Combs, and Jon Gadsby.
 * This is also the first episode to have a lighting department.
 * The first episode not to have any of The French Rectangles since their debut appearances.
 * The first and only episode where Jimmy and Alvin don't say the normal closing signature sign-off message, "Remember kids, Circle made you special and he loves you very much!" as the QBT Alvin music video at the end replaced it. This would also apply to the TV version of the series nearly a decade later, but for a completely different reason.
 * This marks the last appearance for Rosie and the Circle until Merry Alvin and the True Light of Christmas.
 * There were a few differences between pre-production and the final version:
 * The beginning was going to have QBT Alvin stopping a burglar, but was cut due to time. This was, however, carried over in the next QBT Alvin episode.
 * Concept art shows Alfred with a motorcycle.
 * The shot of Dad from Little Johnny's perspective was going to be upside down.
 * When this episode aired on Qubo, the scene of QBT Alvin saying he's tired of searching was cut.
 * There is a rare teaser of this episode that's featured on the original 1997 Very Goofy Songs! (Originally "A Very Goofy Sing-Along!") VHS copy.
 * According to Mike Vischer and Phil Nawrocki on the DVD commentary, they received a few angry letters for this episode on several subjects:
 * Alvin insulted Jimmy at the beginning, despite no response from him.
 * Alvin was way too serious in this episode.
 * This episode was a bit controversial as it was too intense for some kids.
 * It was wrong for Little Johnny's Dad to faint twice in the water tower scene. They were originally going to make Little Johnny's Mom faint but it was changed to Dad because it would be deemed stereotypical of a woman to faint in a bad situation and they thought it would be funnier if it was the other way around.
 * This was featured as a bonus feature on a re-release of The Ballad of Little Antonio.
 * The back cover shows an image of Plankton smiling when he's about to eat QBT Alvin, which never occurred in the episode. The shot was either an alternative take or was edited for marketing.
 * Jimmy saying he doesn't remember the story is odd, considering he made a small cameo in the climax.
 * Plankton is really small when it lands, but why is it able to be seen from so far away, with the exception of the Cylinder's screen?
 * The Circle is either standing or sitting, but he's in the middle of the road while QBT Alvin is searching for the supposed alien. One can only hope he got out of the road in time before being run over by a car.
 * Little Johnny's house looks it is a single-story building, yet it has a staircase inside.
 * Little Johnny thinks he can climb the shelf without proper shelf-climbing equipment.
 * It's unknown how Plankton got into Little Johnny's house.
 * Alvin says he's been stuck in the Molasses Swamp for 38 turns, which is unrealistic since he would've been out by that point.
 * Officer Scooter doesn't drive away but instead chooses to flee on foot when Plankton is near him. It'd be just as easy to flee from Plankton on wheels.
 * The car alarm is where the gear shift should be.
 * Alfred's research reveals Plankton is a monster called a "Lie." Even with the magic of 1997 Internet, what kind of research did Alfred do to learn this? Apparently, no one except the Internet knows anything about the Lie for some reason.
 * Little Johnny's Mom calls her husband "Dad." This may have been done likely so giving Little Johnny's Mom's husband's real name away to the audience could be avoided.
 * The red-orange Plankton landing on the street is the exact same shot as the previous one, except for the different-colored Plankton and the fact it's flipped.
 * The previews menu on the DVD edition has a preview for the next episode.
 * In the DVD-Rom section, it shows pictures from Jimmy Neutron and the Giant Robot, Madame Triangle, and Angelo: A ShapeTales Movie.
 * Few nods from Are You A Muppet? are referred to in the episode:
 * Jimmy saying they've been searching for space aliens for two years, which was when the video was released.
 * Mention of Mr. Slushy.
 * Scooter was listening to I Can Be Your Friend, which appeared in his debut episode.
 * Alvin stating he's been stuck for 38 turns is a reference to ShapeTales Promo: Take 38.
 * "I'm a Triangle Records" is most likely a reference to Alvin's quote whenever someone mistakes him for a cone.
 * As the giant garage door for the Alvin-Mobile to be let out opens up, the fence it contains was previously used on the previous two episodes, The Mater That Surfed Christmas and Very Goofy Songs!
 * The game Alvin and Alfred were playing is Candy Land. The Molasses Swamp is an area that the player can get stuck on if they land on a black dot. It was changed to a Chocolate Swamp in the later editions.
 * Plankton climbing the water tower and holding a small figure is a reference to the climax of King Kong.
 * Jerry, in the laboratory scene, can be seen wearing Spock ears. Spock is a fictional character from the 1960s Sci-Fi television series, Star Trek.
 * When QBT Alvin accidentally knocks Alfred over, Alfred says "I've fallen, and I can't get up." This is a reference to a television commercial that ran in 1987 for a medical alarm and protection company called LifeCall, now called Life-Alert.
 * The song the Alvin-Mobile was honking was "Dixie Land."

Goofs

 * Some animation errors are seen when QBT Alvin is searching for the alien.
 * Pyramids 2 and 3 are sliding in place, and 3 is standing on the fire hydrant.
 * The wind-up lobster is hovering.
 * Something flashes after Alfred says "What do you mean, you can't find it?".
 * Alfred's bow-tie floats in some shots.
 * QBT Alvin's straps were missing in the shot where he tells Alfred he never found Plankton.
 * Part of the police car flashes after Plankton steps on it.
 * The light behind Alvin and Alfred blinks for a second.
 * Percy's mouth gets scrambled after QBT Alvin arrives to stop Plankton.
 * After the wipers pop out, the background freezes.
 * When Plankton tells Little Johnny he made a big lie, the background is black.
 * QBT Alvin is missing his tooth when Plankton is about to eat him.
 * The yellow part of QBT Alvin's costume clips through his body after Alfred's computer shuts off.
 * The cow from the billboard that Plankton destroys suddenly disappears after it passes by Scooter's police car.
 * Plankton mysteriously gains lips while chewing on QBT Alvin.
 * As Alfred is about to reveal who can stop Plankton before he unplugs the computer, his monocle somewhat clips into his nose.
 * Jimmy is shown without QWERTY behind him but appears in front of him in the next shot.