"Three Ring Bind" is the seventieth episode of Goof Troop.
Synopsis[]
Max and PJ hide in the bushes from Pistol (as the ringmaster with a whip) because they didn't want to play circus with her. Because of that, she went to ask her dad to play. Pete unwittingly agreed to the proposal, but he couldn't take his affirmation back and must play with her, since she whined at his refusal (so that Peg will keep an eye on him). So then, Pistol sat on Pete (horseback) while he was forced to scamper around the house. Fortunately, Pete sees an ad on the newspaper of a circus. He told her that she'd get to go to the circus as her birthday present. But he won't be sending her to the circus; Max and PJ will.
At an abandoned circus, Pistol was talking eagerly about the circus. Even though it's closed, Pistol refuses to leave. When PJ then Max knocked on the ticket booth, the Ringmaster rudely tells them that the circus is eternally closed. Pistol confronted Ringmaster, so he threatened to call Giblet the Clown to get rid of them if they don't leave shortly. Giblet showed up and got rid of the boys, but not Pistol, since she's walked away. With Pistol left behind, the boys must repossess her before it will be too late.
In the circus tent, Pistol saw a monkey in a locked carriage asking to be freed, so she freed not only him, but a lion (Pistol called him "Kitty"), an elephant (Annie), a bear (Boris) and a seal (Pistol called him "Puppy-thing"). Pistol told them to play circus with her. Meanwhile, Max and PJ were searching for Pistol while Ringmaster unsuccessfully sold the circus because the client only wanted the animals.
Max and PJ find Pistol in the circus tent, where she started her role as a ringmaster introducing Annie, a peanut-shooting elephant, and Boris, a roller-skating/balancing bear. Max and PJ advised Pistol to get out of the circus, otherwise Ringmaster and Giblet will spoil the fun, and as fate had it, they showed up. Ringmaster and Pistol had a conflict between caging and freeing the animals, and then Ringmaster called Giblet to capture the animals. However, he failed and was flattened, as Boris fell on him from a previous act.
Pistol called the Ringmaster not to cage the animals again, and he underestimated her, only to be met with a swift kick on the shin. After that, he recovered Giblet from his flat state and told him to trap the animals. Pistol threatened Ringmaster to leave the animals alone, but he just hung her on a beam. Even then, she still attacked him. Monkey goaded Ringmaster, prompting him to take a net to catch Monkey.
Pistol releases herself from being hung. Also, Monkey got help from "Kitty" in a way that caused Ringmaster to be scared. Max and PJ had to fetch Pistol, while Annie wanted to walk off, but was tied to a pole, thanks to Giblet. Pistol called the animals to hurry, and mentioned peanuts (Annie's favorite food), which strengthen Annie to break the pole and collapse the circus tent. Despite the escape, the animals are trapped in a cage again.
Max and PJ promise to compensate for the tent, but Ringmaster tells them to just leave. He also tells them his plan of selling the circus animals as dog food. Hearing this, Pistol sneaks away and freed the animals without the knowledge of Ringmaster and Giblet. Of course, the Ringmaster is glad that Pistol was gone, unaware that the cage wagon is empty—Pistol had freed them and took them with her!
At night in Pete's house, Pistol feeds the animals with food from the fridge. Chainsaw witnesses the animals, and shrieks in terror.. To avert attentino the lion places Chainsaw in a kitchen drawer while Pistol and the animals head for her room with a cake.
Pete hears noises in the kitchen and saw the mess that was left behind, and thinking Chainsaw was the culprit, he boots her out of the house. Pete then checks to see if his children are asleep (so he could eat some food in private). He says his good-nights to his son, and as he is walking across the passage, he stepped on peanuts leading to Pistol's room.
Pistol tells the circus animals about a story with a happy ending about them and the Ringmaster. However, the animals had to conceal when Pete was about to enter her room. Everyone except Monkey went out of the window. Fortunately, Pistol managed to keep the secret of the circus animals from him. In the meantime, Ringmaster and Giblet were in search of the animals.
In the morning, Pistol attempts to ask her dad permission to keep the circus animals. Initially, Pete wasn't aware of it, but when he found out, he explained to her that he couldn't keep them. In addition, Ringmaster and Giblet showed up in time to retrieve the animals.
After the animals were taken away, Pistol is sad that the animals were going off. However, an accident by Giblet causes the truck the animals were held in to roll downhill along with Pistol, who actually climbed up the back to bid farewell to them. The truck is speeding away the traffic. Luckily, Goofy came by with his jeep, so Pete, Ringmaster, Giblet, Max, and PJ took a lift and chased the runaway truck.
In the wild chase, Goofy drives past a bumpy ride that includes a roundabout, a steep hill to chase the truck. But then the truck headed past the barrier of a bridge into the river. When they stopped, the gang thought that Pistol was gone, but the animals were on the other barrier of the bridge clinging onto the bridge. Pistol was sitting on "Puppy-thing" while the animals carried her up to safety. The Ringmaster was relieved that his to-be-dog-food animals were safe, but Pete refused the animal cruelty and bought the animals from him. Pete then tosses the Ringmaster and Giblet off the bridge and into the river.
Max asks Pete what he'll do with the animals. Pete gave it some thought. Later, the animals were invited to play along in Pistol's birthday party. PJ and Max were glad that Pete was a genius with using the animals. But then Max hinted to Pete about Pistol's interest in fishes, stating her desire to go to See More Seaquarium (an aquarium) next year, and Pete groans in exasperation.
Voice Cast[]
- Corey Burton as Circus Ringmaster
- Nancy Cartwright as Pistol
- Jim Cummings as Pete
- Bill Farmer as Goofy
- Dana Hill as Max
- Rob Paulsen as P.J.
- Frank Welker as Chainsaw, Giblet the Clown, Monkey, Lion, Annie the Elephant, Boris the Bear, Seal
- April Winchell as Peg
Gallery[]
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Trivia[]
- This episode is one of the select few that first aired on the Disney Channel in the Spring of 1992 as part of a sneak preview run for the series that began on April 5, 1992 in advance of its proper premiere later that year in September.[2] At present, it is not known what other episodes aired during this preview run, as only the airdate for "Three Ring Bind" has been found.[1]
- Waffles appears in the final scene, but he does not speak (or rather, meow). Ergo, Frank Welker does not voice him in this episode.
- See More Seaquarium, mentioned by Max at the end of this episode, was a featured location in the TaleSpin episode "All's Whale That Ends Whale", in which it was run and owned by Seymour until his arrest at the episode's end. Max's mentioning the place in this episode suggests that it is still in operation by this episode's time (albeit, probably run by a different, and more responsible, administration staff).
- A snippet from this episode can be seen in the opening intro: Pistol jumping on Pete's lap while wearing a ringmaster's hat and holding a whip several times.
References[]
