"Foster's Goes to Europe" is the sixth episode of the third season of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends.
Plot[]
SPOILER: Plot details follow.
One afternoon, Bloo is giving misleading lessons about Europe and teaching his students French; even though he is just using a fake accent, they clearly understand what he says. When Mac arrives, he sees that nobody is ready to go to Europe. Eduardo states he's ready, but he has twelve trucks full of his stuffed animals. Mac tells him that they'll be unable to get all of them on the plane. Upon hearing about planes, Coco panics. Wilt says that Coco is scared of flying, despite being part plane and part bird. Mac orders Ed to pack what he needs and pick one stuffed animal, and Wilt will help him. As for Bloo, he isn't too sure about Europe, but he assures himself that he will amaze people with his French skills, but the rest don't seem to impress him. Mac assures that it will be an excellent experience and mentions that they have a Super Fun Land Amusement Park; that got Bloo excited and packing. An imaginary friend named Eurotrish (who has a habit of singing, albeit horribly off-key) comes to Mac, explaining that she dreams of going to Europe to see her creator and family, but Mac only has seven tickets and Bloo says, in his fake accent, that she can't attend. Mr. Herriman approaches Mac to show him that he made a schedule to spend time in Europe, but he has to redo because of time zones, much to Mac's frustration.
Meanwhile, Frankie Foster, is giving Madame Foster instructions of taking care of the house, but Madame doesn't seem to be paying attention, even going far as to untie balloon friends. Mac finds Coco hiding and assures her that the plane is safe and there's more of a chance of getting in an accident on the Foster's bus than on the plane, which calms her down. When Bloo is about to finish packing, Mr. Herriman gives him a schedule so he won't have anyone run amok on the trip. Madame gives Bloo a cookie, which makes him begin to have second thoughts. Mac comes into the bedroom and sees that Wilt and Ed aren't ready, as Ed is having trouble picking which animal to take, so Mac picks for him and fills Wilt's suitcase, telling them they need to go. Mac waits at the front, and Mr. Herriman gives him an updated schedule. Frankie is making sure that Madame is taken care of while Coco, Wilt, and Ed, who is wearing a seemingly stuffed coat, are ready. Just then, the doorbell rings. It is revealed to be Madame Foster's arch-rival Flo Jerkins and her friends. Bloo arrives, but tells Mac that he's not going, but staying with Madame Foster, so he gives his ticket to Eurotrish.
Frankie realizes that her grandmother is going to throw a wild tea party. With Eurotrish taking Bloo's place, Mr. Herriman takes all the schedules to redo them again. When Mac orders everyone else on the bus, Coco runs off. Wilt points out that Mac said that there's more of a chance for Coco getting in an accident on the bus than the plane and goes back upstairs to finish packing, while Ed assures he's ready to go, only for his stuffed animals to fall out of the coat he is wearing, so he tells Mac that choosing was impossible. Bloo catches Frankie on the phone and tells her to order pizza, but she's calling for a sitter, because Madame can't be trusted alone, with Madame admitting it while running in the hall with scissors. Bloo complains that a sitter will spoil his good time. Eurotrish waits on the porch singing about going to Europe, but Bloo interrupts her and takes back the ticket. Mac finds Mr. Herriman in his office working on the schedule and says that they won't need schedules if they're late, but Mr. Herriman assures that having a schedule will be needed in order to have a successful trip and that it will take a moment. Mac decides to help to speed things up, but Mr. Herriman isn't sure what to add. Wilt is in the bedroom straightening up his suitcase, but he ends up discarding everything. Eurotrish comes in and sadly reports that she is unable to go to Europe because she doesn't have any tickets. Wilt gives her his, stating that he has no room, which cheers her up. Bloo tells Madame that he doesn't do well with sitters, and Madame understands, but at that point, Madame's sitter, the very elderly Mrs. Treemont, has arrived. Madame tells Bloo that she has a remedy to put the sitter to sleep, which makes Bloo change his mind again. Mac and Herriman are finally finished with the schedule and hand out the copies. Wilt says that he won't be going, and Ed has picked his stuffed bunny Paco, who has Bloo's ticket, which Mac takes and gives to Wilt. Mac finds Bloo and tells him that there might be a Super Fun Land in Europe, but he says he'll go to the one down the street, and according to him, they take real money.
Mac says in Europe, they have desserts made from their own states and tea time, making Bloo find Eurotrish and take her ticket again. In the foyer, Mac collects the tickets, but he sees that Wilt is only bringing a pair of shoes (until he discards the bag). Frankie makes sure that Mrs. Treemont is settled. Ed comes down with a trunk with Paco in it and Coco reports that she has gotten over her fears. Mac has all the tickets and asks everyone if they need anything else. Everyone goes to the bathroom, eats a quick lunch, and goes to the bathroom again. Soon, everyone is on the bus and ready to go, but the bus won't start. Wilt checks the hood and finds that the spark plugs are gone, meaning someone sabotaged the bus.
Everyone blames Coco, as her eyes move back and forth suspiciously. Mr. Herriman points out that the schedule does not call questioning and leaves once again to redo them. Coco lays an egg which contains plane tickets. When Eurotrish sees them, she sings that she wants a ticket, but Bloo says that they don't need more tickets and tears them all. He then goes back inside, Wilt takes Ed to the bathroom, and Frankie says that she'll be back. When Mac turns to Coco, she is gone, and Mac gives up. He tells Frankie that he'll call his mother to pick him up, stating that no one is interested on the trip. Mac was looking forward to everyone having a good time, but Frankie assured everyone is officially ready, and she called a shuttle bus to take them to the airport. Mac bids Madame Foster goodbye, and she gives him a big hug. The gang finally departed. When they reach their gate, Mac realizes that the tickets are missing. Everyone returns home in a huff, and they blame Mac for losing the tickets. Mac swore that he had the tickets in his backpack. Frankie finds Mrs. Treemont sleeping on a chair, and she says that Madame is in bed. Frankie comes into the room to tell Madame Foster that everyone is back, but finds her bed filled with Ed's stuffed animals. It turns out Madame Foster swiped the tickets while giving Mac a hug, and she gave the other tickets to Jerkins, her friends, and even Eurotrish.
In the end credits scene, Eurotrish finally arrives in her family's hometown. She sings in front of their house for a warm welcome, but her irritated creator tells her to stop singing, which was the reason they sent her away in the first place. Depressed, Eurotrish decides to return to America.
Running gags[]
- Eurotrish singing about going to/being in Europe, only to be abruptly interrupted.
Reception[]
This episode received negative reviews by many critics and fans alike due to numerous reasons.
Fans and critics were bothered by the harsh mistreatment Mac gets and the ending where Madame Foster swindles Mac's tickets. Fans and critics had claimed Madame Foster's actions as "way out of character" for her and suggested that while she may act a bit goofy and crazy, she wouldn't be as cruel as this.
Critics and fans alike also complained about the fact that Mac, Bloo, and the rest of their group (excluding Madame Foster) do not end up going to Europe, when the episode, itself, is titled "Foster's Goes to Europe". Some fans were even originally hoping for the episode to show some sort of European adventure/vacation. What viewers got, obviously, wasn't the outcome. Because of these issues, many fans of the show, and critics alike, had claimed that the title/title card used for this episode was very misleading and false advertising on the part of the writers, especially since it's only Madame Foster going to Europe along with her friends and Eurotrish, not with Bloo, Mac, Eduardo, Wilt, Coco, Mr. Herriman, and Frankie.
Trivia[]
- This episode shares the same air date as the premiere of the 5th season for Ed, Edd n Eddy.
- It is revealed that Coco is scared of flying, which is ironic considering she looks like a plane mixed with a tree and a bird. Her origin to her fear of flying is never explained.
- There is no follow-up episode of the Foster's gang actually going to Europe later on. On top of this, nobody in the Foster's group has any desire anymore to even still want to go to Europe. There also isn't any anger shown towards Madame Foster by any of the group in the later episodes for stealing the tickets, and there is no reprimand on Madame Foster for her selfish nature here.
- The episode does not show how Madame Foster was able to sneak past Mac, Bloo, and the rest of the gang when at the airport. In some way, seeing that the plane was close to taking off when the group arrived, Madame Foster and her friends (and Eurotrish) had to have snuck past Mac and the others while they were there. However, the episode never shows or explains how, besides the fact that her bed was filled with Eduardo's stuffed animal toys.
- It is revealed in this episode that Frankie hates airport food.
- Wilt states that Mac got permission from his mom to go to Europe with his friends at Foster's and Mac says at one point that he's calling his mom to come pick him up. This is very convoluted, since it's mentioned later in "Infernal Slumber" that Mac stated that his mom doesn't know he visits Foster's every day and that if she found out, she would never let him go there again. No one translates Coco's story of how Mac got permission from his mother to go to Europe with his friends at Foster's, and so it is not properly explained.
- This is the first appearance of Eurotrish.
- Mac and the rest of the Foster's group doesn't specify what countries in Europe they were actually, specifically, heading over and going to see. They do make slight references like the Eiffel Tower and Stonehenge (locations obviously in France and England), but don't list out any countries that they would've visited. The episode even treats Europe as just a country, rather than focusing primarily on it as a continent. Mr. Herriman does say "transcontinental excursion"; however, they still just say Europe as a whole. This is very confusing when any person starts to regard the actual size and actual scale of Europe. In reality, there are at least 50 countries in Europe (all which includes the Main European Countries, a few De Facto Countries, a few Transcontinental Countries, a few Dependencies, and even a few Independent States all throughout the entire continent). They don't specify whether they were primarily heading to, nor how they would've traveled from country to country. Sections of the continent include Western Europe, Eastern Slavic Europe, Nordic Northern Europe, Middle Eastern Europe, Central Europe, and Southern Mediterranean Europe. It can be presumed by the viewer that the group was just going to travel around the entire European continent, but no specific country is stated.
- Bloo states in the beginning that nobody in Europe speaks English; yet, realistically speaking, countries that are within the EU have at least 24 official languages, which includes English (all official languages includes the following: Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish and Swedish). While English isn't a primary language in Europe, the European Union still recognizes it. There are even parts of Europe like the UK and Ireland which focus heavily on the English dialect. On top of this, obviously, anyone who travels to Europe is bound to find some bilingual individual(s) in Europe who can speak English. Western ideas have influenced the European population in some way, shape, or form, and one of those ideas is the reduction of language barriers in such a continent.
- Eurotrish sings a total of 4 times throughout the episode.
Goofs[]
- Bloo is seen watching a Deo commercial from "The Sweet Stench of Success" at one point in this episode. This is strange, because this episode was after they were proven "false advertisements". On top of this, the man who was behind the ads, the promotion of the fake product, and the management of the company, Kip Snip, had gotten arrested afterwards when he openly stated to the world on live television the truth; that his products don't help and make people smell worse. It is also presumed at the end of that episode that Kip Snip is currently spending time in prison. Knowing all these facts, it is extremely confusing as to how those Deo commercials were not pulled off television; or even how the fraud product is still advertised and possibly still sold in stores instead of being recalled and pulled off shelves in the Foster's universe. It's also not known either if this was live TV that Bloo was watching, or a taped recording of his Deo commercial days; nor is it explained if this episode takes place before or after Bloo became Deo. Knowing the whole list of possible civil and legal litigations that could be placed on the Deo Brand Deodorant company in the Foster's universe makes this point even more confusing.
- In addition to this, Wilt is also shown to have a Deo deodorant, in spite of the fact that it makes people smell worse.
- Since Mac, near the ending, couldn't find his original tickets, why couldn't Coco just lay more tickets like she did earlier in the episode?
- In this episode, while plane tickets are present for traveling to Europe, there is no mention for the need for passports or visas. Legally speaking, passports are required for international travel, and visas may also be another further requirement if you post for travel to a certain country (depending on their laws for tourists and travelers). A passport is an official government document that grants you permission to travel internationally, and serves as your identity and citizenship proof for your defense. Passports are required by most countries outside of the U.S. for entry. Chances are, if you don't have a passport and/or a visa for that specific European country you're wanting to visit, you probably will not be allowed in. Some countries may even require more documented requirements depending on their laws. Unless the Foster's universe canon gives exemptions to imaginary friends; individuals like Mac, Frankie, Madame Foster, Flo Jerkins, and the rest of Madame Foster's friends probably wouldn't be granted any sort of entry to Europe unless they also had such documents presented (unless passports and visas don't exist in that universe, which still isn't clearly stated by the writers). It just seems weird why there seems to be no need for passports or visas for international travel, and knowing such points makes this more confusing to the viewer(s) who have traveled, or are planning to actually travel outside of the United States.