Escape from Snackatraz

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"Wait a minute...are you just holding on to the can?" "Your point being...?"
"Escape from Snackatraz"
Production company	Entertainment One
Airdate	March 25, 2022
Writer	Alan Denton & Greg Hahn
Directors	Paul O'Flanagan
Animation studio	Boulder Media Studio
Watch this episode on Netflix

The Lost Bots race to save a trapped bot from a gruesome fate.

Synopsis

The Lost Bots are running full-tilt towards the food court, though most of them aren't quite sure why. As Burgertron reminds them, however, it's Ice Cream-a-palooza, a festival of frozen dairy with rides as far as the optic can see. Granted, Burgertron hasn't gotten them tickets yet, but he's confident he can charm their way in. Their rush is brought to a halt, however, by the sound of Frostferatu's overly-dramatic cries for help from a nearby vending machine. Apparently, when the mall staff was stocking the machine with snacks from his store, Frostferatu was among the tasty treats taken and is now trapped inside one of the slots. Burgertron is eager to leave the bot behind for Ice Cream-a-palooza, so Frostferatu attempts to force him to help using his hypnotic powers...but this ultimately fails thanks to the glare on the glass. Bonz-Eye asserts that they can't just abandon him, but Burgertron is all too eager, suggesting they just inform the Sugar Shocks of what's happened to their squadmate when they reach the carnival. After all, it's not like Frostferatu's rescue is on a strict time limit...until Clogstopper reveals that he overheard Dave on the phone with his mom talking about how he was planning to enjoy a cupcake from the vending machine for his birthday. So yes, very much on a strict time limit.

With 20 minutes until Dave's break starts, the team decides to divide and conquer: Burgertron and Bonz-Eye will free Frostferatu, while Dimlit, Kikmee and Clogstopper leave to stall Dave. Bonz-Eye tries to come up with a strategy, but Burgertron just wants to hurry up and free Frostferatu so they can get to Ice Cream-a-palooza. To that end, he orders Bonz-Eye to slingshot him at the machine to try and break the glass, only to splat ineffectually against it. Elsewhere, the other three Lost Bots find Dave deciding to treat himself on his birthday by buying that expensive Mega Shogun Raptorsaur figurine he's had his eye on. Before he can confirm his purchase, Dimlit throws himself to the ground to create a distraction. While Dave stands up to investigate the noise, Kikmee discreetly raises the number of Raptorsaurs in his cart. As Dave looks back upon hearing the "purchase" sound, he's horrified to discover that he is now the owner of 1000 Raptorsaur figures, which are now on their way via express shipping. As he begins waiting in the queue to call customer service, the Lost Bots breathe a sigh of relief, confident they have bought their friends plenty of time.

Unfortunately, time doesn't mean much when Burgertron's only plan is "try the slingshot thing again 14 more times". Bonz-Eye points out it would be easier if they knew how the machine worked, and Frostferatu notes he's previously seen the flesh-creatures place "shiny discs" into a slot to retrieve items from inside. This gives Bonz-Eye an idea, and she and Burgertron rush to retrieve a pile of these "discs" from the fountain at the mall's entrance. After they toss the last one in the slot, Frostferatu tells them to climb up to the number pad and press "B-7", but Burgertron is in too much of a rush and decides to try and hit the button with a thrown coin instead...only to hit the button to dispense some licorice rope by mistake. Meanwhile, Dave has had no luck with customer service, and eventually leaves the office upon realizing he's late for his rounds. As he heads towards the machine, Dimlit manages to lure him to a nearby massage chair, with Dave opting to pamper himself for his birthday. While it seems to work at first, the bots worry that he might get bored and decide to turn up the intensity to maximum, leaving Dave strapped to the chair and screaming in horror.

Back at the vending machine, Bonz-Eye hears Dave scream and, realizing they're almost out of time, drags Burgertron with her into the machine. Tying the licorice strands together, she fastens a long rope that she throws to Frostferatu and begins climbing. And not a moment too soon, as Dave's thrashing finally causes the massage chair to come unplugged. Battered and bruised from his experience, Dave refuses to let his birthday go any more awry and begins marching to the vending machine. Dimlit attempts to flash a warning to the others, but Dave is closing in fast, and Frostferatu transforms to cupcake mode as he approaches while Bonz-Eye and Burgertron hide behind a bran muffin. Finally realizing how high the stakes are, Burgertron can only watch in horror with Bonz-Eye as Dave inserts his dollar bill...before the machine spits it back out. An enraged Dave repeatedly tries to force the money in, and upon finally getting the green light, he pushes the button...and Frostferatu gets stuck against the glass as he falls. No longer thinking rationally, Dave begins demanding his cupcake and shaking the machine, triggering its alarm. As Dave storms to the security room to shut it off, Burgertron apologizes to Bonz-Eye for not taking things seriously, agreeing that saving a fellow bot is more important than any carnival. Now determined, Burgertron lodges the muffin in the snack door and jumps up to dislodge Frostferatu, but the two begin plummeting to the ground, only to be saved by Bonz-Eye swinging in on the licorice rope.

As they exit the machine, the other Lost Bots arrive to congratulate them on their success. Bonz-Eye thanks Burgertron for helping and apologizes that they had to miss Ice Cream-a-palooza, but Burgertron reassures her that he was being selfish and that saving Frostferatu was the right thing to do. And as it happens, Frostferatu agrees, which is why he offers each of the Lost Bots one of his six tickets to the carnival in gratitude! Unfortunately, by the time they get there, Ice Cream-a-palooza is already over and the other BotBots are leaving, proclaiming how much they enjoyed this one-time-only experience. A heartbroken Burgertron falls to his knees and screams to the heavens in anguish...unaware that not far away, Dave is doing the exact same upon returning to the vending machine and finding his birthday cupcake gone. Fortunately, Dave finds the bran muffin in the door and declares his birthday saved thanks to this one bit of free food, even after accidentally dropping it into Burgertron's sticky remains.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

Burgertron: C'mon, pick it up! We gotta get to the Food Court yesterday!
Dimlit: How can we get there "yesterday"? (gasp) Do you have a time machine?!
Clogstopper: Time machines don't work, Dimlit. Except mine that one time...

"I was in the bathroom earlier, just minding my own business, when I overheard Dave doing his business...by which I mean talking to his mom on the phone. Don't be gross."

—Clogstopper is right. Stop being gross.

"'It is your birthday. Regards, Mom.' She always knows just what to say..."

—Dave gets his one and only birthday card.

"So we tried it your way. Now maybe let's try using our brains?"
"I used my brains. Some of them are on the ground over there"

—Bonz-Eye and Burgertron disagree on the current plan's success rate.

"YES! Grand touchdown field goal!"

—Burgertron knows sports.

"Okay, I've got an idea! What if we opened up a restaurant that served soup in a bag?"
"What? How would that stop Dave?"
"Does my soup bag restaurant need to?"

—Actually, we think Clogstopper might be on to something here. Sorry, Kikmee.

"Yes, and it was all thanks to by brilliant hypnosis powers, which commanded you to save me!"
"What? No, no no, I went on a whole heroic journey and had a change of heart and everything."
"Eh, agree to disagree."

—Frostferatu and Burgertron view the last 10 minutes very differently.

"BotBots!"

—Sprinkleberry D'uhnut sums up Ice Cream-a-palooza succinctly.

Notes

Transformers references

Pictured: the average TFWiki user.

• A new "generic" style of BotBot appears in the "Rocket Pop Roller Coaster" "poster", which lacks any notable details to tell what they transform into. Their helmets are vaguely Generation 1 Megatron-shaped though. This kind of Bot also never shows up again after this.
• The Mega Shogun Raptorsaur bears a striking resemblance to Age of Extinction Grimlock.

Real-world references

• The title is a reference to Escape from Alcatraz, a 1963 book detailing real-life attempts to escape from the Alcatraz prison island in San Francisco, which also inspired the film of the same name.
• Ice Cream-a-palooza is of course a reference to Lollapalooza, a massive annual four-day music festival held in Chicago. By the way, "lollapalooza" is an old-timey word for something "particularly impressive or attractive."

BotBots cypher translations

Hoo boy, this is gonna be a lot.

• The website Dave orders from is labeled "MERMAN" on its mainpage, but the upcoming episode "Phoning It In" will give it the name Mer-chants.
  • The text immediately underneath reads "SEASONAL SALEF". Intentional typo or not?
  • The header bar reads "BEST", "HOME", "BOOK", "VIDEO" and "GIFT".
  • The text Dave enters in the upper-right search box is gibberish ("ASKDWLDSKST" if you really must know).
  • The text above the Raptorsaur is "POPUIKN!"... possible typo of "POPULAR"?
  • The text in red circle next to the panda kigurumi is just "LR".
• The order screen for the Raptorsaur:
  • "TOUR SHIPPING BAG" up top (typo?), with "ITEM", "PRICE" and "QTY" at the bottom in light blue.
  • The Raptorsaur is called the "MERAL KAIJU SPECIAL EDITION" under ITEM, possibly another typo. The text under PRICE and QTY are gibberish.
  • The side box has "SUMMARY" up top, followed by "DO YOU HAVE PROMO", "SUBTOTAL" with gibberish to the right, "TAX" with gibberish, TOTAL with a lot of gibberish, and "CHECKOUT" in the arrow.
• The shipping page reads "YOUR ORDER IS OUT OF DELI" (at this point we have to wonder if this is intentional silliness, highly possible), with "EXPRESS SHIPPING" under, and "NEW ORDER" in the arrow.
• We get our first good look at the calendar on Dave's wall this episode, and... it's for the month of "JULY". Hey, we don't always remember to change our calendars either.
  • The days of the week naturally read "Su", "Mo", "Tu", "We", "Th", Fr", "Sa"
  • The adorable tiger at the bottom is saying "roarrr". Awww.
• The massage chair ad board reads "RELAX STATION".

Animation and technical errors

• According to the calendar in Dave's office, July 1 is a Wednesday. The last time that happened at time of release was in 2020, which was also a Leap Year, plus does line up show-production-wise. However, it is blatantly not July this episode, so who knows and we're probably reading too much into silly background things and it's not unlike Dave to have the wrong month on a calendar he doesn't check. Maybe he just likes the tiger illustrations, they are adorable.

Trivia

• Dave was apparently born on Leap Day.
• If Dave were an individual of lesser character, perhaps he could get rid of those extra Raptorsaurs by toy scalping....
• Dave's debit card expires in December of 2022.

Foreign localization

French

• Title: "L'évadé de Snackatraz" ("The escapee from Snackatraz")

Brazilian Portuguese

• Title: "Bolinho em fuga" ("Cupcake on the run")

European Portuguese

• Title: "Fuga de Máquinatraz" ("Escape from Machinatraz")

Arabic

• Title: "هروب من سناكاتراز" ("Escape from Snackatraz")

Indonesian

• Title: "Melarikan Diri dari Snackatraz" ("Escape from Snackatraz")