An Easter Story

An Easter Story is the 21st episode of ObjectTales.

It is the sequel to The Heart of Christmas, and a parody of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol".

Plot
It is the day before Easter, and the local church is scheduled to have a new window unveiling service at the next day's morning service. Ebenezer Bowlingpin (Mr. Bowlingpin), who owns a local factory, used to attend church with his grandma when he was little, but no longer goes. Reginald Gilbert and his son Ernie (Dad Teapot and Little Tommy Cup) agree to pay Ebenezer a visit and invite him to the Easter service. Oswald Appythart (Mario the Candlelabra) and Ebenezer's nephew, Timmy Phelps (Jerry the Clock), are working in Ebenezer's factory to repay him after burning down his theater during the previous episode. Oswald and Timmy disagree over who should approach Ebenezer and ask for a day off for Easter. When the duo ask, Ebenezer lectures them about the history of how his grandmother started making Easter eggs. Ebenezer recalls that before his grandma died, she told him to tell everyone "Easter means no death". Bowlingpin misunderstands this, thinking that as long as he makes Easter eggs he will keep his grandma alive forever. When Reginald Gilbert and Ernie arrive, Ebenezer explains that he plans to tear down the church and build an Easterland theme park in its place. When the others protest, Ebenezer gets angry and ejects them all from the factory. The townsfolk soon learn about the news and are worried about the demolition of the church, but cannot stop Bowlingpin since he owns the property on which the church is located.

That night, while Ebenezer is asleep, he sees a vision of his grandma telling him he has missed the point of Easter, and at the stroke of midnight, he will receive a second visitor to help him understand. Meanwhile, Oswald and Timmy are trying to break into the factory to steal the Easterland plans despite being on probation for stealing the Heart of Christmas in the previous episode. Mr. Bowlingpin then wakes up from his vision and then intends to stay awake for the visitor. He falls asleep waiting for the visitor, and at the stroke of midnight, a clockwork egg suddenly opens and an angel named Hope emerges. She wakes Ebenezer and starts showing him Easter Past, beginning with a church service. A young Ebenezer and his grandma are in attendance, and Grandma Bowlingpin is trying to get Ebenezer to understand the story of Easter but the young Ebenezer is mainly focused on selling his eggs and wondering why the egg he received is empty. Next, Hope shows Ebenezer Easter from a year ago, when Ebenezer first started making plastic Easter eggs. He talks to an inventor named Sedgwick (Pa Broomstick) and gets Sedgwick to agree to invent plastic chickens that can make plastic eggs. Seymour is not paid, but Ebenezer does give him an early free pass to Easterland much to Hope's dismay.

Hope and Ebenezer return to Easter Present and visit the Reginald's house, where he and Woyer (Stooler) are discussing about the church. It is revealed that Grandma Bowlingpin paid for all of the church windows herself, and that just before she died she commissioned the new window that they were going to unveil on Easter morning. Ebenezer remains adamant that remaining loyal to his grandma's business and Easterland is the only way to maintain her memory. Hope and Ebenezer then learn that Ernie is sick and will die within a year if nothing changes. Ebenezer is shocked and does not understand why Ernie's parents are so calm with such news. Hope then takes Ebenezer back into the church and teaches him the story of Jesus' life, his Crucifixion, and eventually his Resurrection. With a deeper understanding of Easter's eternal significance, Ebenezer finally accepts his grandmother's passing.

Hope then welcomes Bowlingpin to 'Easter Future'. The church is about to be demolished, the orphanage is gone, Little Ernie has died, and without the Hope of Easter, the town's once-brave policeman has lost the courage to stop criminals. Hope disappears back into the egg and Ebenezer pleads for her to come back because they need her. He rushes back to the church to try to stop the demolition and wakes up. He finds out that it is still Easter Present and that he still has a chance to prevent Easter Future from occurring. Ebenezer rushes as quickly as he can to the church, and arrives just in time to stop the demolition crew.

Timmy suddenly rushes in and shouts that the factory is about to explode and that Oswald is trapped inside. Ebenezer rushes back into the factory to save Oswald, and they escape by being catapulted out of one of the factory's windows by one of the machines just as the factory explodes. It starts raining Easter eggs across the town and Ebenezer promises to help fix up the orphanage and get young Edmond get the medicine he needs with the money he has left.

Trivia

 * This is the first Easter episode.
 * This is the last episode for several things:
 * The last episode of ObjectTales to be done entirely by Big Hive.
 * The last episode Scott Nelson worked on.
 * The last holiday episode to be filmed in 4:3.
 * The last episode to not use the ObjectTales Theme Song until Saint Jackson.
 * This is the only Easter special filmed in 4:3.
 * According to Quinn in both commentaries, he got this episode idea in 1999 from a open sourced writer when they're were pitching show ideas. He liked the story, but someone else suggested they should a new Christmas special. So Quinn decided to make the Christmas one first, then Easter.
 * According to Quinn, he came up with the climax of the factory exploding after flying from Los Angeles.
 * The pictures at the Reginald's living room are a self portrait of Charles Dickens and Grandmum's Cottage. Eddie Hodge confirmed that he painted the self portrait.
 * On several TV broadcasts, this episode was split in two parts.

Remarks

 * It was never explained how Ernie became ill after the Christmas events.
 * Little Diana suddenly gained a British accent, which she lacked from the previous special.
 * In the previous special, the church's stained-glass windows have different patterns without a consistent picture. Here however, the windows each depict a moment in Jesus' life to tell his story.
 * The fireplace is glowing without any fire. Eddie and Quinn state it's just embers.
 * When the Feather Dusters first barged in the church, Jean Claude was in front. But when he talks to the Reginald, he's in the back.
 * In the credits, Percy's name was seen despite not appearing. It might possible he was one of the worker feather dusters.
 * Also in the credits, Ernie is credited as "Erne".
 * The credits states the video was released in 2003, but it didn't came out until February 2004. Although this could be when the video was finalized.

Goofs

 * The next scenes when Bowlingpin was planning to help Ernie is fuzzing compare to the in-between scenes.

Inside References

 * Reverend fainting is similar what he did in the first Captain Timerpants episode.
 * The tree seen at the graveyard is the same one from Henry.
 * Because it's a sequel to the Heart of Christmas, a few past references are mentioned.
 * Oswald mentioning they're working for Bowlingpin after burning down his theater.

Fast Forward

 * Timmy lifting Oswald would be used again in Big River Rescue.