"Spring Fever" Review (Pokémon Johto League Champions)

Welcome to the second review of Todd Snap searching for Articuno in Johto; so let's keep this going with my look at "Spring Fever!"

Picking up where we left off, everyone is headed into the mountains to search for Articuno when they decide to stop for lunch; and a Swinub sniffs out their food, then steals Misty's rice ball! Swinub then shares the rice ball with its fellow Swinub. After the opening and title card, Ash scans them with his Pokédex while Todd takes some pictures of them. Well, they are an easy way to get progress in your Photodex and in Pokémon Go; so there's that.

It turns out that their names are Su, Ein and Ub; and they're with our character of the day! Her name is Peggy, no relation to Hank's wife. They belong to her dad Rory, who's using them to help dig out hot springs in the mountains.  He's been contracted by a hotel to help find a hot spring to build a resort by; and everyone agrees to lend a hand as long as they're in the mountains.

Rory also has a Graveler to help dig out the springs as Todd gets another photo! You would not believe how tricky it was for me to get their picture in New Pokémon Snap: considerably trickier than the original game. 

Elsewhere, Team Rocket looks on from the distance and Jessie declares they will find a hot spring for themselves since she loves them so much! Makes sense to me, as does posing as diggers for the resort company. This can only end well!

However, when the initial search turns up fruitless; the "diggers" decide to just take Graveler and the Swinub to search for the spring themselves! Guess much like how some people view Netflix buying the rights to the new show and movies; they're taking cues from Dan Backslide.

Yet, surprise surprise: Graveler is too heavy and the Swinub are too wiggly to stay in the bag! The jig is up, and Jessie and James decide to bail.

Scooting away on a bobsled after their motto, some quick thinking has Ash and the others give chase in cardboard boxes! Much like the Winter Vacation specials, I'm having flashbacks to the sled scene from Christmas Vacation.

They to slip them up with some lubricant, but Meowth drops the bottle as Todd spins out trying to get a glimpse of Articuno! Everyone has had their own trouble spots: one of mine was trying to unlock the Green Illumina Orbs, definitely took me a few tries. Still, everyone now knows that Articuno is in the mountains; so the objective is to find and recover the Swinub.

Speaking of which, the attempts to find a hot spring lead to Jessie striking oil! However; the joy is short-lived when James discovers they just hit a pipeline that's already been tapped. ... No comment.

Ash's Noctowl; sent out as a sentry, finds Team Rocket just as they bail from hitting the oil pipeline; and Ash then sends out Totodile to do battle! Misty follows up with Poliwhirl, and Rory sends out the Graveler they failed to steal before! Jessie counters with Arbok, and James sends out his Victreebel, who promptly tries to eat him.

Rory rescues the Swinub, but James then sends out his Weezing! Todd takes a picture of the Swinub, who are livid that Team Rocket has used them this way, the charlatans! Rory sends them all into battle against Team Rocket, and Jessie then poses for Todd in this screencap that 4Kids didn't change at all.

At the risk of delaying this even more than I hoped, they're sent blasting off with help from Rory's Swinub using Powder Snow; and we close on them finding the hot spring at last! 

"Spring Fever" makes a good middle entry into this 3-parter; and though I've taken longer than I've hoped to get this out; I am glad to have done this to ease back into writing after the mess that was last year. Next time: the conclusion of this story as Todd and the others search for Articuno in the mountains! Later.