Rupert was hoping to spend the night camping in Nutwood Forest with Podgy, but his parents think he's too young. The boys make the best of it by camping in Rupert's backyard when time suddenly stops. Everything and everyone is frozen except for the two of them. It turns out it's the work of Father Time himself, who stops time every 500 years so he can take a vacation from keeping time flowing smoothly. Thanks to Podgy's usual antics, Rupert ends up taking the journey of his life (literally!) through Timeland. It takes 75 years, but by the end, he'll never regret being "too young" for anything again.
This episode provides examples of:
- Accidental Misnaming: Father Time does this constantly with Rupert and Podgy as a side-effect of The Fog of Ages. Podgy starts doing the same thing after he's aged up 75 years.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: The episode starts with Rupert looking forward to when he's grown up and can do whatever he wants. After going through adolescence, fatherhood, and old age in less than an hour, he couldn't be more thrilled to be a kid.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Father Time is... eccentric, to put it politely. Start with how much he loves spinning around in his chair and rolling it around his office.
- Deus ex Machina: As literal as it gets — Father Time simply undoes the Rapid Aging effect at the end, without the boys or audience getting to see how he does it, and no prior indication how it was possible.
- Don't Touch It, You Idiot!: Rupert warns Podgy (to no avail) not to touch the machine that turns out to be the Master Clock that controls all time.
- Just a Kid: Rupert gets a lecture about how he's too young to spend the night in the woods without an adult. What would normally be a commonplace, mundane attitude toward a Kid Hero becomes hilarious when directed at Rupert Bear.
- The Fog of Ages: Father Time is a bit... a lot scatterbrained. He acts like a Manchild half the time and can't remember Podgy's or Rupert's name no matter how many times they remind him.
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Fridge Logic: Father Time stopped time so he could take a vacation fishing in Nutwood. It hits Podgy at the end of the episode: "How could the fish bite if they were frozen in time like everything else?" - Girls Have Cooties: 10-year-old Rupert and Podgy speed forward to when they're teenagers with girlfriends. Frozen in horror, they're on the verge of a severe mental freak out when time speeds up again.
- Magi Babble: Thanks to Podgy serving peppered pickles while they're in a tent, he and Rupert are unaffected when time stops because "something about the protective qualities of canvas in conjunction with the pickles gas, the pepper cloud, and the reflex nature of the simultaneous sneeze blocks out the time freezing rays."
- Mathematician's Answer: Podgy drags Rupert into a grandfather clock, which they can feel being moved violently around (actually teleported).Rupert: Where are we, Podgy?Podgy: We're inside the clock, Rupert.Rupert: I know that! I mean, where is the clock?
- Move in the Frozen Time: This happens to Podgy and Rupert in the first act.
- Necktie Leash: Podgy drags Rupert into a grandfather clock by his scarf.
- No Antagonist: Father Time is not a villain, and everything that goes wrong in the episode is Podgy's fault, but due to foolishness, not malice.
- Noodle Incident: Rupert's father and uncles once planned to run off with a traveling circus. (Well, that partly explains where Rupert gets it from...)
- Parental Obliviousness: Rupert's parents think it's too dangerous for him to spend the night camping anywhere but the backyard. And these are people whose son has never made any attempt to maintain a Masquerade regarding his daily encounters with supernatural creatures or trips to Magical Lands!
- Pepper Sneeze: The pepper Podgy brings on their camping trip causes this at, fortunately, precisely the right moment.
- Place Beyond Time: Father Time's lair, and possibly Timeland itself.
- Rapid Aging: When Rupert and Podgy fall off the path in Timeland, they experience their lives at a rapid pace, aging 75 years in a matter of minutes.
- Spoonerism: Podgy thought they should try peppered pickles. You know, like from that nursery rhyme about Peter Piper? Rupert points out that was "pickled peppers."
- Stay on the Path: Father Time needs the boys to throw the main breaker to help him reset time. They have to go to the other end of Timeland to do it, and he warns them never to stray from the path. Podgy ruins any hope of that when he sees a rapidly growing and ripening apple tree.
- Strong Family Resemblance: The middle-aged Rupert mistakes his reflection for his father — he looks and is even dressed exactly the same.
- Time Dissonance: Father Time always takes a vacation for 75 years, presumably an insignificant amount of time for an immortal like him. He seems completely unaware of what a big deal 75 years is to mortals, being totally nonchalant about Rupert and Podgy needing to wait that long until he starts time again.
- Time Master: Father Time, naturally.
- Time Stands Still: Father Time does this every 500 years, but of course you wouldn't notice.
- Too Many Babies: This is part of Podgy's future during the fast-paced journey through their lifetimes.
