Empower Failure

### Synopsis:

Hamster and Gretel get superpowers from aliens while Kevin grapples with being "superhero adjacent".

## Production Information

### Directed by:

Dan Povenmire
Amber Tornquist Hollinger (additional director)

## Broadcast Information

### International airdate(s):

August 13, 2022 (Canada)
December 4, 2022 (Israel)

### Running time:

15 minutes

**"Empower Failure"** is the first segment of the first episode of the first season of *Hamster & Gretel*, and the first episode overall, which also serves as the series premiere. It is paired with "Oakey Dokey", and premiered after the Lost Song Event of *Z-O-M-B-I-E-S 3* on Disney Channel and Disney XD on August 12, 2022.

Kevin, Gretel and Hamster are being visited by aliens, which bestow the latter two with superpowers while seemingly skipping over Kevin. Hamster and Gretel quickly become adored superheroes around town, while Kevin has to deal with being "superhero-adjacent", and figure out where, or if, he fits in the team.

## Plot

The series starts with a dream sequence of Kevin, as he does a voice over, while riding in a convertible, as he feels free, but then it cuts to him in reality actually driving his mom's minivan taking his little sister, Gretel to soccer practice, as he is unhappy to do this.

The car then breaks down, Kevin and Gretel get out, taking a look at it, as an alien space ship hovers over them, telling them they're about to get "superpowers". Kevin and Gretel get excited. The ship beams down a green light covering the siblings and the minivan with it, bestowing powers to them, and the ship leaves telling them to use their "powers wisely" and "for good". Being happy about their new powers, Kevin & Gretel test them out by flying into the air, Gretel succeeds, and comes down out of the sky with her superhero suit on, but Kevin doesn't. Kevin tries some more to see if he has powers, but it ultimately doesn't work, but as they continue, a sound of the rumbling and moving comes from the minivan, as something flies out. It's Gretel's hamster named Hamster, who got powers instead, as this leaves Kevin powerless. The cold open ends with Hamster & Gretel carrying the broke down minivan with Kevin in it.

After rescuing a cat from a well, in which Gretel refuses to listen to Kevin's instructions despite Hamster efficiently doing so, Kevin takes the duo to the mall for a signing where Gretel's friend Bailey is there. Despite noticing the similarities between Gretel the hero and Gretel her friend, she ignorantly cannot put two and two together. However, Kevin has told his cousin Fred, mostly due to her indifference to people in general. At the comic book store, Fred realizes that Kevin has a crush on employee Hiromi and sets the two of them on a date to go to the Duck Boyz concert as she just so happens to be friends with the guitarist.

On the day of the concert, a new super villain named Professor Exclamation announces his intent to take over city hall as the police are also attending the concert and therefore preoccupied at the moment. Despite Kevin not wanting her to, Gretel heads out with Hamster to stop the evildoer. Kevin arrives at city hall to stop Gretel so that she does not get hurt, but Gretel tells him that she can take care of herself and that she appreciates him. Kevin decides to sit back and watch Hamster and Gretel take out Exclamation's robots. However, just as he leaves to head back to the concert, Hamster and Gretel are entrapped in a dome by Exclamation, who reveals it runs on the city's power grid.

Kevin rushes back to the concert and asks Fred to get him up on stage, disguised as a Duck Boy, to send a message to the whole city to turn on their appliances and every electrical thing they have in the house. Kevin confronts Exclamation and reveals that he is overpowering the grid. The dome releases Hamster and Gretel who knock out Exclamation and take him to the police. Gretel thanks Kevin for being her support. Afterwards, Kevin arrives at the concert and apologizes to Hiromi, as he had to leave to help his sister. She forgives him, finding his love for his sister cute, and asks that he drive her home. As Gretel tells Hamster that he has no taste for love, Hamster suddenly talks, surprising her.

## Cast and characters

* Meli Povenmire as Gretel Grant-Gomez
* Michael Cimino as Kevin Grant-Gomez
* Beck Bennett as Hamster
* Liza Koshy as Veronica Hill
* Priah Ferguson as Bailey Carter
* Joey King as Fred Grant
* Hiromi Dames as Hiromi Tanaka
* Phil LaMarr as Professor Exclamation

### Additional voices

* Dan Povenmire as Alien, Phil Pollard, Backstage Guy
* Brock Powell as TV Announcer, Q/A Moderator, Concert Announcer

## Songs

* Almost Almost There
* Overload the Grid

## Running gags

### Image scene transitions

Hamster and Gretel
(used to transition to Dream Hall appearance, and again to the Grant-Gomez residence at night)Kevin
(used to transition to backstage of the Duck Boyz concert)

## Transcript

*Click here to read the full transcript of **"Empower Failure"**.*

## Background information

### Trivia

* This is the first episode of the season and series.
* So far, this is the only episode of the entire series to be fifteen minutes long. This is unusual for a Disney series; a typical episode of one is eleven or twenty-two minutes long.
	+ Incidentally, "Empower Failure" holds the longest running time for a premiere episode segment (this excludes series like *Gravity Falls* and *The Owl House* whose episodes are always 22 minutes long).
	+ Due to this, "Oakey Dokey" is 7 minutes long.
* The episode's premiere is similar to the premiere of fellow Dan Povenmire series *Phineas and Ferb*, which premiered after *High School Musical 2* in August 2007.
* This episode released early to Disney+ on August 17, 2022.
* This episode along with *Z-O-M-B-I-E-S 3* was simulcasted at 10:00 pm on Disney XD.

### Allusions

* The title of this episode is a pun on the word "empower", which refers to Hamster and Gretel gaining superpowers from the aliens, and the phrase "power failure" (another term for "blackout"), which is the tactic Kevin uses to stop Professor Exclamation.
* ***Batman* (1966)** - The episode uses a spinning "hero transition" similar to the transition from the 1966 *Batman* series. This transition will be used across the series from here onwards.
* References to other Dan Povenmire shows:
	+ ***Phineas and Ferb***
		- The scene in which Hamster and Gretel rescue the kitten from the well is set at Cliffside Park, which was first mentioned in "We Call it Maze."
		- When Bailey is giving her speech about Gretel, the boy next to her is wearing an orange/white-striped shirt just like the one worn by Phineas Flynn.
		- The back of a comic that Fred is reading is an advertisement for the Shrink-inator, an invention used by Dr. Doofenshmirtz, specifically the one used in "Let's Take a Quiz".
		- This episode also uses the score piece "Heartstrings to Hero" from *Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Candace Against the Universe*.
	+ ***Milo Murphy's Law***
		- Just like "Going the Extra Milo", the series starts with a cold open.
		- Ironically, going back to the *Batman* reference, the "hero transition" was previously used for Milo, Diogee, and Perry in "The Phineas and Ferb Effect".
		- As Gretel is fighting Professor Exclamation's robots, the "Yakety Sax"/Benny Hill-style tune from this show is heard in the background.
* **Mister X** - This type of pseudonym, commonly associated with villains, is parodied by Professor Exclamation; as he introduces himself, he pauses after saying "Professor Ex", before finishing his surname.
	+ Ironically, had his name indeed been "Professor X", then his pseudonym would be the same as that of Charles Xavier, a heroic character from Marvel Comics and founder of the X-Men.

### Errors

* In the cold opening, the UFO barely has any outlines on the base of the ship as it was animated by Snipple. The ending of "Oakey Dokey" fixes this as there are more 3D-style outlines on the base to give it more detail, and the episode was animated by Synergy.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://www.dgepress.com/disneybrandedtelevision/shows/hamster-gretel/episodes/empower-failure-oakey-dokey/
2. ↑ https://showbuzzdaily.com/articles/showbuzzdailys-friday-8-12-2022-top-150-cable-originals-network-finals.html