Original air date: 1/28/2003 (produced in 2002)
Episode number: 26b
Timmy enters the Dimm-A-Dance Film Festival where he tries to make a movie to impress Trixie at a film festival. When nobody likes the low-budget home movie he made with his friends, he goes back in time to get real footage, but he risks angering his friends after they were excluded in the new movie.
Tropes:
- An Aesop: Don't cut your friends out of a project just to gain recognition for yourself.
- Amateur Film-Making Plot: The main plot involves the kids making their own movies.
- Artistic License – History: Played for laughs: Upon arriving in the time of the dinosaurs to film, Wanda points out the cometthat will wipe them out... only for nothing to happen once it crashes. Timmy's solution? Poof up Sylvester Calzone to beat up the dinosaurs instead.
- Aside Glance: Discussed: When the Z-Wing Pilot brings up how Timmy showed up in his ship, Timmy calls him out for looking at the camera.
- Ask a Stupid Question...: Mom and Dad's movie about Timmy is called "Stupid Questions Our Son Asks Us". Its sequel is "Stupid Questions Our Son Asks Other People"
- Biting-the-Hand Humor: Trixie says that comedy is the lowest form of entertainment... next to animation.
- Bittersweet Ending: Timmy's movie turns out to be a hit and he wins the "best comedy" award, but Trixie rejects him again. However, he and his friends have made up.
- Boomerang Bigot: Played for laughs: After it has been well established that Sylvester Calzone has a habit of punching critics, when he shows up to mock Timmy's film at the end of the episode, Timmy rhetorically asks if he's supposed to be a critic. It doesn't take long for Sylvester to start beating himself up.Sylvester: Not be a critic, but your film stunk!Timmy: (annoyed) What are you, some kind of critic?Sylvester: Kid’s got a point. (decks himself)
- Cutting the Knot:
- While Timmy and Wanda start working out how he can use magic to make his film while still following Da Rules, Cosmo just out and out removes the page forbidding Timmy from using his godparents:Timmy: Tad and Chad's film kicks my film's butt! I've gotta make a better film!Timmy: But... it's a competition!Wanda: True, but if you just happened to go where cool action stuff was happening...Timmy: (cottons on) And I brought my film equipment with me and just happened to catch something on film...Cosmo: And (while poofing up Da Rules and ripping out a page) if I just happened to tear this page out of the rule book that says we can’t help you...Timmy: Then I would have shot a Dimmy-winning film!
- "Uh, if the comet didn’t kill the dinosaurs, what did?" "How about... Sylvester Calzone!"
- While Timmy and Wanda start working out how he can use magic to make his film while still following Da Rules, Cosmo just out and out removes the page forbidding Timmy from using his godparents:
- Did Not Get the Girl: Timmy's movie wins the best comedy award, but Trixie once again turns him down because the category is the lowest form of entertainment.
- Phlebotinum Killed the Dinosaurs: It turns out that it wasn't an asteroid or comet that killed the dinosaurs (a comet even lands safely by two dinosaurs). Instead, thanks to Timmy's wishing, it was Sylvester Calzone and his boxing gloves.Sylvester Calzone: Uh, you're the species! I'm the extinction!
- Rule of Three: When Timmy starts remaking his movie with his godparents, he keeps finding opportunities to have a legitimate film start take part. He keeps picking Sylvester Calzone.
- Smart Ball: Almost to his own detriment: From the outset, Timmy actually remembers there's a rule in Da Rules that prevents him from using his godparents to help him in a competition. Eventually, they decide to work around it.
- Shout-Out:
- Sanjay and Elmer re-enact Jurassic Park, A New Hope, and Gladiator.
- Later, Timmy and his fairies try to get footage of the Death Ball trench run.
- Arnold Schwartzengerman stars in Chad and Brad's film adaptation of Hamlet (which is also a Last Action Hero reference), which is filled with references to various Arnie movies like the the first two Terminator films and Predator.
- Likewise, we have Sylvester Calzone, who is also known for his boxing skills.
- Skewed Priorities: Upon discovering Timmy's friends jumping on his car, Timmy's Dad goes from being angered to gleeful, as he has the excuse to film it.
- So Bad, It's Good: An In-Universe example. Timmy's low-budget movie is so funny to the viewers that Timmy wins the "best comedy" award. Cosmo even lampshades this.
- Springtime for Hitler: Timmy's movie was submitted under the assumption it would fail only to be massively successful, but in comedy rather than drama.
- Take That!: The Hamlet movie and Timmy's attempts at making a movie are a potshots at Hollywood's schmack for making Actionized Adaptations or generally adaptations without care for the source material in favor of appealing easily to general audiences.
- Who Would Want to Watch Us?: Trixie lambastes animation and comedy as low-tier forms of entertainment.
