Once Upon a Chomp is the second segment of the tenth episode of the first season of the Pac-Man animated series.
Synopsis
The ghosts get a visit from a Fairy Ghost Mother, who gives them a book of fairytales that, when read aloud, will cause the events of the fairytale to actually happen. The ghosts read aloud Pac and the Beanstalk (a parody of Jack and the Beanstalk) in an attempt to trap Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man.
Plot
The Fairy Ghost Mother explaining the magical book to the Ghost Monsters.
The Ghost Monsters are shown to live in a dump with Clyde complaining about their conditions and how he wishes that they could get Pac-Man finally, which ends up causing the Fairy Ghost Mother to appear, much to the shock of the rest of them. Fairy Ghost Mother decides to help all of the Ghost Monsters by giving them a magical book of fairy tales and she tells them that if they read it aloud, the stories will come true.
Inky crosses his heart whilst double crossing Pac-Man.
It then cuts to Pac-Man playing golf calculating his next move where the ball stops short at the hole and Chomp-Chomp promptly eats it, angering Pac-Man and causing him to scold his dog before he pulls out another ball and tries again. Pac-Baby then crawls into the scene and promptly eats the ball as well; angering Pac-Man and making him pull out a remote controlled ball to try yet again. Pac-Man does his shot with Sour Puss coming into the scene where he uses a remote control to make the ball go around him multiple times, go over Chomp-Chomp and then eat a hole for itself, which finally has Pac-Man be able to celebrate. The Ghost Monsters show up and make Blinky read “Pac and the Beanstalk” but then Ms. Pac-Man asks Pac-Man to buy a dozen Power Pellets where Pac-Man complies with but on the way to the store, Inky in a trenchcoat tricks Pac-Man into getting “Power Pellet beans”.
Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man finish climbing the beanstalk.
Pac-Man comes back and shows Ms. Pac the beans, which she throws away into the golf hole and causes a giant beanstalk to miraculously grow, Blinky continues to read the story but gets scared when he hears that Pac finds a giant before all of the Ghost Monsters traverse the beanstalk. Ms. Pac is annoyed with the lack of Power Pellets but Pac-Baby points out the giant beanstalk in the yard, Pac-Man and Ms. Pac proceed to climb the beanstalk while Chomp-Chomp and Sour Puss are left behind to protect Pac-Baby.
Giant Pinky chases after Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man.
Pac-Man and Ms. Pac investigate the castle in the skies where the former starts to knock on the door, which makes the Ghost Monsters do their next role in making Pinky serve the role of the giant in the story upon enlarging himself. Pac-Man and Ms. Pac flee from the Ghost Monsters, Pac-Man gets the idea to spill a wet bucket to have the Ghost Monsters trip and fall, which works and gives them enough time to hide away. They end up mistakenly hiding under Pinky, which gives the Ghost Monsters the opportunity to chomp and trap them in a cage.
The Ghost Monsters taunt Pac-Man and Ms. Pac on how their scheme worked until Ms. Pac reminds them how it ends and motivates the Ghost Monsters to get out the hen that lays gold Power Pellets. Pac-Man then throws an apple on the giant spoon the hen was on to get the both powered up on Power Pellets. Clyde hides behind a slice of bread that Pac-Man covers with pac-peanut butter and then eats him. Sue hides under a cup, which prompts Pac-Man to spin the cups around and asks Ms. Pac to guess which one she’s under until Sue who is under the middle cup stumbles out, gets uncovered and eaten by Ms. Pac. Inky tries to disguise himself as part of a salad but his cover is blown when Pac-Man uses pepper on him causing him to sneeze and fly upwards into Pac-Man’s mouth.
The Fairy Ghost Mother flees from the enraged Ghost Monsters.
Blinky sheepishly hides behind Pinky and Pac-Man and Ms. Pac realize they cannot chomp Pinky so they retreat down the beanstalk before Blinky and Pinky can catch them. Blinky then realizes how the story ends as Pac-Man’s family eat away at the beanstalk and causes it to fall over with all the Ghost Monsters on it. Fairy Ghost Mother shows up to say it was a good story but the rest of the Ghost Monsters are angry at her and proceed to start chasing her while Pac-Man finishes reading the story.
Profiles
- TV Guide: "A magic book of fairy tales."[1]
- Tubi: "A fairy ghost-mother tries to help the ghosts by giving them a magical fairy-tale book about Pac-Man.[2]
Trivia
- This is the only episode of the series where some of the ghosts get chomped, but the others don't; in this case, Pinky and Blinky do not get chomped at all in this episode, while the other three ghosts do.
- In the original script:[3]
- Just before the ghosts (sans Pinky) chomp Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man, they would all say lines that parody the nursery rhyme "This Little Pig Went to the Market" (Clyde: This little Ghost Monster chased Pac-Man... Sue: This one got ready to stomp! Blinky: This little Ghost Monster got n-n-nervous... Inky: And this one is ready to CHOMP-CHOMP-CHOMP!) and would race towards the camera. In the final episode, the ghosts rush and chomp Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man offscreen.
- After Pac-Man finishes reading the storybook, he was originally going to get knocked off of the beanstalk stump he was sitting on due to Chomp-Chomp and Sour Puss chasing each other.
Errors
- When Blinky reads about the hen in the story, the magic book and his voice are given to Inky.