A Whale of a Song

"A Whale of a Song" is the first half of the eighth episode in the first season of Stanley.
==Summary==
Stanley worries about singing in a school play. To get over his fear, he decides to learn about whales.
==Plot==
One morning, Stanley is finishing breakfast and is getting ready for school. His mom thinks he's pretty excited since it happens to be the day of the school play, which Stanley forgot about. Once he does remember, he feels less than excited.
Stanley goes to his room to get his backpack, which Dennis says is under the bed. Stanley tells Dennis that he doesn't want to go to school because of the play. When asked why, Stanley says that he doesn't want to be in it because he thinks he can't sing, and if he tries, everyone will laugh at him, even Lionel. To help him get over his fear, Stanley and Dennis look in the Great Big Book of Everything for musical animals.
They look under whales and discover that they have their own way of singing. Interested, Stanley goes into the book with Dennis to learn more. They travel in a submarine to find some whales. Once they do, they find out some very interesting facts, including the fact that whales are actually mammals, not fish and that a group of them is called a pod. However, Stanley gets a bit impatient and wants to hear them sing. Once he does, he begins to sing along with them in his own way.
Stanley and Dennis hop out of the book just as his mom steps into the room. However, Stanley still feels discouraged that he can't sing and that everyone will laugh at him. But Dennis assures him that he can sing, as he did with the whales. To find out, Stanley sings the same song he did with the whales and Dennis, Elsie and Harry join in. Lionel happens to have heard the song and thought it sounded good.
Feeling encouraged, Stanley leaves for school, but accidentally forgets to close the book, which then causes a whale to escape from it and land onto the roof of the house. Realizing this, Stanley dashes back to his room and closes the book, capturing the whale back into it. Outside, Lionel feels a bit puzzled, thinking he just saw a whale on top of the house, but Stanley assures him it was probably just his imagination. The two brothers then head off to school, singing along the way.
That night, Stanley tells Dennis that he doesn't feel so nervous about singing anymore, since nobody laughed when he did. Stanley decides to sing one more song before going to sleep.
==Cast==
*David Landsberg as Dad
*Rene Mujica as Harry
*Ari Myers as Mom
*Shawn Pyfrom as Lionel
*Charles Shaughnessy as Dennis
*Jessica D. Stone as Stanley
*Hynden Walch as Elsie
==Quotes==
*Lionel Griff: The kindergarten kids are doing The Elephant's Garden. I was in that.
==Featured Animals==
*Humpback Whales
==Songs==
*The Whale Song
*This is My Garden
*Goodnight, Dennis
==Trivia==
*Moral: Don't think you can't do something because you haven't tried it, and don't worry too much about people laughing at you. You might find you're better at doing it than you think.
*Aside from one brief moment in Monkey Bar Business, Stanley has never actually sang prior to this episode. However, afterwards he began singing more often throughout the series.
===Goofs===
*At one point, when listening to the whales in the submarine, Stanley's right ear disappears for a single frame.
Category:Stanley episodes