Heathcliff & the Sleeping Beauty is the second part of the seventh episode of the series Heathcliff and Dingbat. This is based on Heathcliff, rather than Dingbat. It is followed by second part of the episode Creep Crop Crack-ups.
Synopsis[]
The classical fairy tale about the Sleeping Beauty is told (with a couple of modifications of the original) through Heathcliff characters.
Plot[]
Prince Heathcliff is riding his horse and singing about a young princess he will marry. He stops singing and asks himself, what is he singing. He's passing around a castle, where a witch named Evilla is complaining to the royal couple about not being invited to Princess Sonja's wedding. The king attempts to apologize to Evilla that evil sorceres bring bad luck. The attempt fails, as the outraged magic-user casts sleep spell with one hundred years duration on the royal couple, When Sonja asks about herself, Evilla casts a double-strength spell on the feline princess, then she polymorphs herself into a crow-like bird. Sonja yawns and falls asleep. At the moat, prince Heathcliff complains about the lack of reception. The polymorphed Evilla flies by and tells Heathcliff that she cast a sleep spell on his princess for 100 years, then she vanishes. Heathcliff tells the audience that he shall lift the spell, then he directs his mount into the witch's castle.
Evilla the witch spots the feline hero through her crystal ball. She tells Nestor, her black cat, about a surprise she prepared for Heathcliff. An old suit of plate armor receives an animation spell and an order to stop Heathcliff. The feline prince leaves his mount near the moat and heads to the Evilla's lair. He calls her through the draw bridge that he came to talk about lifting the curse cast on Princess Sonja. The animated suit of armor appears with a lance and states that Heathcliff shall talk his back. Heathcliff laughs in his usual manner and moves the ground under the drawbridge, so the animated armor falls into the moat. Heathcliff leaps over the defeated opponent and heads to the castle, still laughing.
The castle's owner is awaiting Heathcliff on the balcony of the inner keep. The feline prince repeats to Evilla, what he came for - as a response, the evil sorceress animates the gargoyle sculptures and orders them to attack Heathcliff. The protagonist outsmarts the stone monsters by luring them into an ambush inside another castle building, using his cape as expandable rubber. One of the monsters springs the trap, when he notices Heathcliff outsmarted him. The creature is ejected right at its companion and the gargoyles are turned into debris. Heathcliff leaps right at the keep's balcony, discarding his hat, and begins to annoy the witch. Evilla elects to polymoprh the intruder into a frog, using her wand. Heathcliff grabs a mirror from the wall, so he can deflect the magic ray at the spell-slinger. After a brief moment of being a frog, Evilla dispells herself and polymorphs herself into a green dragon, so she can attack Heathcliff with fire from nostrills.
Heathcliff flees from the witch in dragon form into the castle yard, where he finds a temporary shelter on top of the flag post. The witch incinerates the post, which nearly burns Heathcliff. The protagonist leaps before the flames reach him and lands on witch-dragon's head, rendering her unconscious for a moment. Evilla refuses to negotiate terms of lifting her own curse, thus Heathcliff brings two bottles with cork-secured beverages and shoots the corks into witch/dragon's nostrills, rendering her without her fire attack and dropping her magic wand. The feline prince grabs it and creates a water poodle right under Evilla in the dragon form. The polymoprhed witch is complaining she can't defeat the trespasser. Heathcliff uses her wand to change her size into such small, that her own cat Nestor can chase her, which gives Heathcliff an opportunity to withdraw as a victor.
Back at the royal castle, Heathcliff dispells the sleep magic cast upon the royal couple, but the spell keeps affecting Princess Sonja. The feline prince lifts the curse by kissing Sonja's hand, which causes her to wake up instantly. She grabs her savior and kisses him at the lips, announcing that they shall have own family. Heathcliff breaks the embrace and excuses himself, that he has first to save a dragon from another cat, then he leaps from the castle's window and flees. Sonja is watching him, then she turns to the audience showing off the wand Heathcliff dropped. The episode ends.
Characters[]
Trivia[]
- This episode is an apparent pun of the classical Sleeping Beauty fairy tale, supplemented by ideas from various fantasy books and games. Due to airing date, it's possible the creators had access to First Edition Dungeons and Dragons books, since creatures like animated armor and gargoyles appear both in the episode and the D&D books from 1970s, as well as the concept of evil magic users dressing themselves in black.
- Everytime the witch casts a spell, be it sleep spell or animate object, she yells "Zappo!"