French DVD box art
"Travel Trees Can't Dance" is the third episode of Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders. There is some confusion about the order of episodes, and it might actually be the fourth episode, following "Song of the Rainbow". Its international titles include Catalan "Els arbres transportadors no ballen", French "La Chevauchée magique en péril" ("A Magic Ride in Peril"), German "Der Zauberbaum" ("The Magic Tree"), Polish "Drzewa Merlina nie tańczą" ("Merlin's Trees Don't Dance"), Portuguese "As árvores andantes não sabem dançar", Russian "Деревья-проводники не могут танцевать", Serbo-Croat "Stabla putovanja ne umeju da plešu", and Spanish "Los árboles del viaje no".
After the events of previous episode, the wild magic in Avalon is no longer stable and Travel Trees are being affected as well. Princess Gwenevere and her flying unicorn Sunstar get separated from the Jewel Riders by a wild magic outbreak in the Northwoods part of the Great Forests. To make things worse, Lady Kale follows them to source of the outbreak so she could steal the Jewel of the Northwoods and use its magic for evil. Gwen and Fallon will have to best her to reclaim it.
Synopsis
Featured elements
- Regular characters: Princess Gwenevere, Tamara, Fallon, Lady Kale, Merlin, Sunstar, Archie, Rufus and Twig, Queen Anya, King Jared, Drake, Grimm, Moondance, Travel Trees, Queen Anya, Wintermane
- Locations: Northwoods, Dragon Beach, Crystal Palace, Great Deserts, Jungle, Misty Lake, Great Woods, Thornwoods
- Items and concepts: Jewel of the Northwoods, Wild Magic, Horn of Merlin
Plot summary
Princess Gwenevere and Sunstar are practicing their riding/flying skills through a natural obstacle course at Dragon Beach. Afterwards, Gwenevere decides to use Travel Trees for the first time to get home quickly. However, as soon as she gets home, the trees whisk her off to the Northwoods.
Gwen and Sunstar fly along for a while until they find a magical dance hall populated with anthropomorphic animals — a Wild Magic outbreak is to blame for this — and dance with the animals. But the evil Lady Kale has spotted and followed Gwen via Grimm, and now has her dweasels spy on her. The dweasels end up getting wrapped up in the magic dance party.
After the dance party, Gwen and Sunstar ride off and find a Crown Jewel stuck in a Travel Tree circle. But Kale gets there first, grabs the Crown Jewel, and shoots down the Princess and her unicorn with a magic blast before flying away. Gwen and Sunstar fall right into a portal to the out-of-control Wild Magic, where they barely manage to ride out with the help of the Sun Stone.
While all this is going on, the other Jewel Riders and Archie are trying to reach Gwen via Travel Trees. The trees keep sending them to the wrong locations. Eventually, everyone meets up again in the Northwoods, where Gwen recaps everything that has happened.
Meanwhile, Kale immediately tries to figure out how to use her new Crown Jewel, but fails to control it and a flare burst stuns Grimm and crashes her Dragon Wagon. Kale survives the fall but gets separated from her animals, including Grimm, who is unconscious when he falls into a lake and is then rescued by the dweasels. Wandering in the mist, Kale enters the magic dance hall, where she dances with an anthropomorphic fox and discovers that the Crown Jewel influences how the trees grow. The witch now calls for the dweasels to bring Grimm and take her out of there with the jewel.
The Jewel Riders see Kale make more Thornwoods to stop them from getting to her, so they decide to call for reinforcements. They summon the Horn of Merlin to make the Pack appear. Now that the party is all together, they enter the newly-grown Thornwoods and use their Enchanted Jewels to turn the trees back to normal. Kale creates a giant thorn tree claw that attacks the party, but Gwen defeats it with her Sun Stone. Fallon then uses her Moon Stone to cast invisibility on herself to sneak on Kale and snatch the Crown Jewel away. After a brief dance fight against the arrived dweasels on the dance floor, Fallon tosses the Crown Jewel to Gwen.
The Princess flies off on Sunstar but Kale makes a chase after them by Grimm. During the pursuit, they fly a slalom through a dangerous maze of rock arches. Sunstar succeeds navigating it as they had practiced flying earlier, while the villains crash.
Safe now, the Jewel Riders gather in the center of the maze. They return the Crown Jewel of the North Woods to the Jewel Box, securing the first Crown Jewel, and hear an advice from Merlin: Keep things in balance.
Behind the scenes
Original script
- Main article: Travel Trees Can't Dance (script)
It is an early draft of a script for "Travel Trees Can’t Dance" from when the show still has been under the working title Princess Guinevere and Her Jewel Adventures. Much like the Show Bible and Enchanted Camelot script, there are interesting differences like Sunstar being named Amber and Tamara being named Harmony. Inspirations cited in the script include the 1930's Fred Astaire movies and the Death Star trench attack scene from the first Star Wars movie. There was an additional scene of a short chase of Kale after Fallon in the labyrinth near the end.
Avalon: Web of Magic connections
- After Kara first obtained her Unicorn Jewel, the rest of the party told her to not use magic alone. Gwenevere goes through the same thing except it is about riding the Wild Magic.
- Colfax (Cotax in the original edition) is a talking fox who works for the Fairy Underground. Gwen dances with a talking fox in the episode.
- Gwen with her hair down looks exactly like Kara from the original edition — specifically, the cover to the Be*Tween single.
- Kale’s whip attack with her Dark Stone is similar to Adriane’s lasso spell.
- Gwen’s ride through Dragon Beach and the crystal pillars mirrors a similar scene in Avalon where Zach, Adriane, and Wind Dancer fly through the Serpent’s Teeth.
- The craft fair is like all those benefit fundraisers Kara is always hosting. Gwen even kicks off the craft fair in this episode.
Media
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