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The Fury Is Out On This One is the second segment of the sixth episode of the first season of Dragon Tales.
Summary[]
Max gets quite frustrated after not being able to tag anyone at Dragon Tag and throws a pod whipping at a tree, releasing a Fury, a little creature who grows bigger when anyone gets angry. To stop him from getting even bigger, Emmy and the dragons help Max calm down.
Plot[]
The episode begins with Max building a block tower and it keeps falling down, making him get upset. Emmy then comes in and suggests they go to Dragon Land.
When the kids go to Dragon Land, they discover the dragons are playing dragon tag. Ord tags Max, making him ‘it’, and he goes on to look for the rest of his dragon friends. However, he ends up getting very frustrated due to the fact that he can’t fly or run very fast. After crashing into a dragon berry bush, Max really loses his temper and throws a pod whipping at a tree, which then releases a small creature called a Fury. As Max is complaining why he’s so mad, the Fury grows bigger, shocking him and his friends. The Fury then runs away, ensuring that he’ll be back.
The gang decides to go talk to Quetzal, who explains that Furies would grow bigger and bigger when someone can’t calm down. And since Max was the one who released it, that means he’s the only one who can defeat it. Quetzal tells Max that it’s okay to get mad once in a while, but whenever he does, he should try and calm down which will cause the Fury to shrink. Thinking that it might be hard for him to do so, Max’s friends offer to help him out.
The kids and dragons all start looking for the Fury, which they do in a nearby creek walking on a log. After Max falls into it, he complains that he always goes last, and his anger makes the Fury grow even bigger. Max still feels mad and doesn’t know how to calm down. Zak and Wheezie explain that they would sit on a quiet pillow when they got mad, but since the dragons couldn't find a quiet pillow, they have Max sit on a quiet rock instead and Zak insisted him in taking slow deep breaths. Max was still pretty mad but started feeling a little calmer even as the Fury started annoying him again. Then Max discovered that the rock he was sitting on was actually a turtle, making him fall into the pond, making him even more upset than he was before. The Fury then grows even bigger and hops away. Max is about to give up, but Emmy reminds him that at least he tried, and it worked for a little bit. Max then decides to try again.
The group tries to find the Fury again after he ran off. They stop at a huge rock wall. But as Max tries to get a better view, he falls onto a bouncy bush, making him (literally) hopping mad. The bush then sends him flying to the air, landing on the other side of the rocks next to the Fury. With Max finally really having enough, the Fury grew even bigger than Ord, scaring both Max and his friends. Finally, Emmy tells Max that he should try counting backwards from ten, as that’s what she does whenever she goes mad at him. At first, Max gets frustrated, as he doesn’t remember the order. His friends then help by telling him to use his fingers. When he does, the Fury begins shrinking, and no matter how much he tries to encourage him to stay mad, Max refuses to listen and continues. The first time, he stops when he gets to 3, so he then starts over from 10. By the time he gets to 1, Max starts to feel better, and the Fury shrinks smaller and smaller, until he's back to his normal size and Max manages to trap him back in the pod.
Later, Max told Quetzal all about what happen, saying that it was hard to let go of his anger, but his friends and sister were very helpful. With the Fury gone and Max not feeling mad anymore, the gang decides to get back to their game of dragon tag, with Max still being it. But, while chasing after them, he trips over a log and starts to get mad again. He starts counting backwards, but once Cassie and Emmy come along, it turns out only to be a trick and he was kidding by fooling Emmy and tagging her, making her 'it'. The episode ends in Dragon Land itself.
Cast[]
Transcript[]
The Fury Is Out On This One (transcript)
Memorable Quotes[]
Max: But how can I calm down? When I get mad, I get......SO MAD!!!!
Home Video release[]
VHS[]
- Let's Play Together (2001)
- Let's Share! Let's Play! (2001) (Blockbuster-exclusive)
- Say How You Feel! (2005) (Reader's Digest tape)
DVD[]
- Let's Share! Let's Play! (2001)
Goofs[]
- When Max’s friends tell him to try counting on his fingers, Emmy’s eyes slide slightly off-frame for a brief second.
Notes and Trivia[]
- Moral: Everyone gets angry once in a while, but the most important thing is not to let it control you. Whenever you get too angry, try to find a way to calm down. You can control your anger rather than let it control you.
- This is the first time Max has an antagonistic role in the show. The second time being "No Hitter," and the third and last time being "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do."
- This episode is noticeably animated on a higher budget, as the characters move a bit more fluid and dynamic compared to the other episodes.
- The title of this episode is a play on the expression "the jury is out on this one", which means a decision on something hasn't been made.
- This is the first episode where Max and Emmy do not return home to the playroom in the end. The second episode is "Eggs Over Easy," the third episode is "It Happened One Nightmare, "and the fourth and last episode is "To Fly With A New Friend, Pt. 1."
- As such, this is one of the episodes where Max and Emmy aren't saying "I wish, I wish, to use this rhyme, to go back home, until next time.", with the others being (previously) "Knot a Problem" and (later) "Frog Prints", though they do go home in those episodes.
- This is, however, the one second segment to end in Dragon Land, instead of the playroom.
- It is also the one such segment to focus on a human character.
- The Fury is like the Rhino in the film adaptation of James and the Giant Peach, as they both use negative feelings as a weapon (fear for the Rhino and anger for the Fury); the more someone feels a certain way, the stronger both villains get. They can only be defeated by those who feel that way, which they do by getting over said feelings (James Trotter by looking at the Rhino a different way and no longer being afraid of it, and Max by learning to calm down in front of the Fury).
- The Fury is also like the White Lie from the Powerpuff Girls episode "Lying Around the House" and Fib from the VeggieTales episode "Larry-Boy and the Fib from Outer Space," as all three include manifestations of negative feelings/ideas that get bigger, stronger, and more dangerous from certain vices (overreaction and a bad temper for the Fury, and lying for the other two), and likewise can only be defeated (in the form of shrinking) by whoever was responsible (the Powerpuff Girls and Professor Utonium for the White Lie, Junior Asparagus for Fib, and again, Max for the Fury) by doing the opposite (the Powerpuff Girls, Professor Utonium, and Junior Asparagus by telling the truth, and Max by calming down).
- The difference in that is that when the Powerpuff Girls, Professor Utonium, and Junior make their respective full confessions, the White Lie and Fib disappear. Once Max has calmed down, on the other hand, Fury does not disappear, only shrinks enough to be put back into the pod he had been released from.