Walk on the Wild Side

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"Walk on the Wild Side"
Season	1
No. in season	6
Production company	Hasbro Studios
Airdate	April 21, 2012
Writer	Nicole Dubuc
Director	Nathan Chew
Animation studio	Atomic Cartoons
Watch this episode on YouTube

Boulder decides that the team needs an animal mascot, but maybe a zoo isn't the best place to find one.

Synopsis

Where do they get Bot-sized brooms, anyway?

The Burns family watch television as Mayor Luskey unveils the Mayor Luskey Library, a building made of wholly recycled materials. They're interrupted by a call from Mrs. Neederlander alerting them to a dire emergency. The Rescue Bots roll out with all haste and haul up to her house, only to find the emergency is that Mister Pettypaws is up a tree again and so is she. As she complains about their tardiness, the branch she's on gives way, and Heatwave has to make a quick and unappreciated save. Boulder retrieves her cat from the tree.

Back at the fire station, Chief Burns announces that they're celebrating Earth Day by cleaning up the building. Heatwave grouses about the waste of time their last rescue was, and Cody explains about pets. He calls up pictures of dogs acting as assistants to emergency personnel, and Boulder's interest is piqued. Moments later, Doc Greene and Frankie arrive to take Cody to the Earth Day exhibit at the zoo.

Cody and Frankie arrive at the zoo, and Cody starts taking pictures to send to Boulder, though Frankie is impatient to see the lemurs. The lemurs are all trained to sort recyclable material into bins, and thus are part of the Earth Day exhibit.

Cat up a tree? You might say that.

That night, Blades catches Boulder sneaking out. Boulder intends to adopt an animal from the zoo. Using his access to get in, Boulder decides on the zoo's cross-eyed lion, whom he dubs "Whiskers". While Blades turns the main power off, Boulder attempts to extract the lion from its cage, only for it to depart the zoo. As the two Rescue Bots give chase, the lemurs stage a breakout.

Blades and Boulder spot Whiskers going into an alley, but their attempt to corner the lion is interrupted by a garbage man. While they're distracted, the lion makes off, and they are forced to continue their search.

The next morning, the fire station gets another call from Mrs. Neederlander. This time, Chief Burns and Chase turn up to find a lion in the tree. With Blades and Boulder mysteriously missing, the other Burnses cram into Heatwave so they can go help. Shortly after they arrive, so do the missing Rescue Bots, and Boulder fills them in on why Whiskers is loose. Whiskers again gives them the slip.

"Go-Go-Greene forcefield!"

Cody soon runs into Whiskers while on his morning cycle to school. While he attempts to evade the lion, his phone is triggered and the nearby Frankie comes to his aid. The lion is unable to touch her, thanks to her forcefield bracelet, and runs off.

The lemurs, busy sorting Griffin Rock's trash, spot the new library, but are scattered by the lion. The Rescue Bots also spot the lion, and make an attempt to capture him, but he again manages to evade them.

"Four of us, weaponless, against the whole blasted Lemur army! WHAT CHANCE DO WE HAVE?"

Chief Burns is dropping Cody and Frankie off at school when he gets a call from Mayor Luskey alerting him to the fact that the lemurs are destroying the library in their drive to recycle. Their zeal extends to the books inside and the Mayor's toupée. As the front of the building starts to collapse, Chase arrives and knocks it before it can land on Luskey. Cody quickly works out that if they give the lemurs a treat, like they got at the zoo, they'll stop trying to recycle the building. Boulder fetches a scoopful of lemur treats, and once Graham attracts their attention with a bell, the lemurs go after the food. Boulder starts reversing through town, with Heatwave and Chase clearing the way. Dani soon spots the lion chasing after the lemurs, and Blades swoops in to catch him in a cage. The lemurs are soon returned to their enclosure, and the lion is in a new "Mayor Luskey Enclosure".

Back at the fire station, Cody presents Boulder with a potted plant as a pet.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"As you know, today is Earth Day."
"Isn't every day on this planet Earth Day?"
"Y-yes, but today is special."

—Chief Burns glosses over a topic that Blades can't quite grasp

"I was not aware humans could have domesticated animals as offspring."

—Chase

"Hurry! We have to find him before someone else adopts him!"

—Boulder

"Stop, citizens!"
"Um, animals have the right of way."

—Chase and Heatwave

"For me? Come on, boy, let's go outside. Wanna play catch?"
"I don't think he understands the concept of a pet, yet."

—Boulder gets excited about his new potted plant, while Heatwave isn't so sure.

Notes

Continuity notes

• The Burnses have never had a pet. Chief Burns has something against dogs. The team would eventually gain a pet, of sorts, who was regularly associated with both Cody and Boulder.
• Gadgets and powers:
  • Boulder can display pictures on the screen in his torso. This may simply be an extension of his previously-seen ability to use his windshield as a display.
  • Frankie has a force field bracelet, though it's unclear if it's a regular part of her wardrobe, as this is the only episode she uses it in during season 1.

Transformers references

• (tbd)

Real-world references

• The title could refer to any number of previous artistic works with the same name; a likely candidate is the song by Lou Reed.
• Griffin Rock celebrates Earth Day, marking this story out as taking place on April 22 and April 23.
• "Whiskers" is likely to be a reference to Clarence, the Cross-Eyed Lion.

Animation or technical errors

• (tbd)

Trivia

• This episode was first broadcast on The Hub out of order, after "Four Bots and a Baby", presumably so it would fall on the same weekend as Earth Day, with the only indication of the correct order being the episode numbering shown on the Hubworld website. Later repeat screenings on the Hub would correct the running order so this episode followed "The Alien Invasion of Griffin Rock". This reordering led to the DVD releases adopting a different episode order depending on the company releasing them.
• It was later adapted in storybook form as Meet Boulder the Construction-bot.
• Zoos are not animal shelters.
• As Mrs. Neederlander falls out of the tree, Heatwave dives and catches her just short of the ground. Wouldn't landing on Heatwave's metal hands be more painful than the grass?

Foreign localization

French

• Title: "La journée de la Terre" ("Earth Day")
• Original airdate: 1 November 2012

German

• Title: "Ein Löwe auf Abwegen" ("A Lion goes astray")
• Original airdate: 25 February 2013

Hungarian

• Title: "Egy kis vadulás" ("Getting a Little Wild")
• Original airdate: 12 February 2013

Italian

• Title: "Gli amici animali" ("The Animal Pals")
• Original airdate: 11 June 2017

Portuguese

• Title: "Animais de Estimação" ("Pets")
• Original airdate: 14 March 2013

Home video releases

2013 — Rescue Bots — "Energize" (Shout! Factory)
2013 — Rescue Bots — "Außerirdische in Griffin Rock" (EDEL:kids) — German and English audio
2013 — Rescue Bots — "Cody on Patrol" (Beyond Home Entertainment)
2015 — Rescue Bots — "Complete Season 1" (Beyond Home Entertainment)