On a generic sunny day, Puss plans to eat two mice, and the Prime Minister and Princess race on tricycles. The Prime Minister wins and begins to gloat, yet the Princess is frowning, so he awkwardly says, "I was just lucky" and cycles off. The Princess grumpily blames the tricycle for being "too slow" and claims that tricycles in general are "for babies". The narrator points out that the Prime Minister is a grown man on a tricycle and his is quite fast, but the Princess chalks it up to him having longer legs and decides she needs a bicycle.
She goes to ask the Queen (who is helping the King exercise) for a bicycle, but she thinks the Princess is too young. The Princess points out that the Queen used the phrase "You're big enough" that morning. The Queen points out that she said, "You're big enough to tidy your sock drawer", not "You're big enough to ride a bicycle". The Princess asks the King, and despite him agreeing that riding bikes is difficult, buys her one because "she's got to start sometime".
The scene cuts to Puss riding the Princess's trike and the Princess getting a new bike. The narrator asks if she can go fast, and she reveals that she doesn't know how to get onto it yet. The narrator teaches her how but she falls down. So, the Princess goes to the General for advice. He teaches her how to sit on her bike, but she can only do so if he's holding on.
She rudely (indirectly) calls him careless, then goes and asks the Gardener to hold her bicycle. She tries to practice while he holds the bike in place, but after two minutes, the Maid says, "Are you going to ride that thing, or just sit on it?!" and tuts. The Gardener is too busy to keep holding the Princess's bicycle and suggests waiting until she's older, but the Princess has another idea: have the Gardener push her somewhere.
The narrator suggests "stabilisers", which seem to be a fancy word for training wheels, but she turns them down upon hearing that he doesn't use them. Then the King (who's still exercising) and the Queen walk by. The Queen wonders if the Princess is okay due to her sitting on her bicycle but not moving, but the Princess lies that she's "having a rest".
She then falls over again, getting mud on her face. The Maid cleans her up and tells her that everyone falls off the first time, but the Princess points out that she fell off the next five times too. The Maid tries to teach the Princess but the Princess has trouble pedalling, steering, and balancing all at once, and doesn't know how to stop. Eventually, she knocks everybody into the pond.
This makes everyone give up on trying to teach the Princess to ride a bike, so she sulks. When she sees the King riding a bike, however, she perks up and gets an idea: ride on the back of the King's bike.
This episode provides examples of
- Amusing Injuries: Puss lands in a rosebush at the end.
- Artistic License: The Princess's inability to ride a bike perfectly on the first go is seen as a sign she's too young. In reality, it takes time to learn to ride a bike.
- Bittersweet Ending: The Princess never learns to ride a bike, yet she can ride on the back of the King's.
- Death Glare: The Queen scowls at the King when the latter thinks the Princess is big enough for a bicycle.
- Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: The Maid walks by humming the theme tune.
- Fantasy Helmet Enforcement: Downplayed. Just like in the real world, characters ride tricycles bareheaded, yet the Princess does wear a helmet for her bicycle.
- Mocking Sing-Song: When the Prime Minister wins the race, he teasingly sings, "I beat you! I beat you!".
- Mundane Made Awesome: When marvelling at her bike, the Princess says, "Look— it's only got two wheels!".
- Not So Above It All: The Queen may be one of the few sensible people in the household (castlehold?) and one of the most dignified but she still hogs the cupcakes and talks with her mouth full.
- Percussive Therapy: When the Princess is mad about losing the race, she kicks her trike.
- Quote Mine: The Princess tries to claim to be big enough to ride a bicycle by whittling the Queen's earlier phrase "You're big enough to tidy your sock drawer" down to just "You're big enough".
- Slapstick: While the Princess falling off her bike isn't played for laughs, she does eventually knock everyone (including the Maid and Queen) into the pond, which is.
- Slipping into Stink: The Gardener ends up being knocked into the compost heap and the Prime Minister ends up being knocked into a mud puddle.
- Sore Loser: The Princess scowls and kicks her tricycle upon losing the race.
- Status Quo Is God: The Princess never learns to ride a bike, so the recurring theme of her and the Prime Minister tricycle-racing doesn't end.
