Moira's Birthday

## Moria's Birthday

**Moira's Birthday** is the twelveth episode of the animated series, A Bunch of Munsch that was aired on December 2, 1992 on Showtime in the United States, and then it was aired on December 1, 1994 on CTV in Canada, this was after *The Fire Station*, which is based on the 1987 Robert Munsch's book of the same name. It was followed by Blackberry Subway Jam.

## Plot

A little girl named Moira has a nightmare about a very scary and cursed boring birthday party, until she wakes up and realizes that it's her birthday today, and that she needs to invite all of her friends, as well as every other class and grade. Her parents tell her she can only invite 6 kids, (similar to her nightmare), and she initially obeys this by telling only 6 kids, but pretty soon after telling the only 6 kids in her group, they tell the other kids, as well as every other grade about the party, and plan on invading it. As soon as they invade the school asking and chasing her around if they can go, she, with some initial hesitation, agrees. Much to the kid's delight.

Eventually the party starts, and the parents have no food or are even close to being prepared for it. Then what they think is the only 6 kids Moira has invited, arrive. But then this is cut short when all the other kids really invited show up as well. They wreak havoc among the entire house partying, and while also terrorizing Moira's parents in the process. Pretty soon they eventually realize there is no food, Moira orders an enormous amount of pizzas and birthday cakes.

While this is all happening, Moira's father tries get the kids to do rather wholesome activities such as Pin The Tail on the Donkey, but the kids refuse to do these boring activities, and only want food only, and start to complain loudly that they didn't get enough, even after all the deliveries of pizzas and cakes. They then all leave the house temporarily to go and mass loot Super Super Market to get more food.

They then continue to eat and eat, and play loud music and such the entire time until sunset. They all pass out on the floor, and right when Moira is about to open up all her presents, her parents then question on who's going to clean up all the mess. She then gets an idea, and makes a deal with all the guests that they will get a free present if they help clean up the house. So they do, and get free presents each. Eventually the party is over, and her parents are traumatized by the whole experience still. But this is also cut short when they quickly receive another massive truckload of pizzas and cakes and for them to be piled on top of it. Moira suggests they throw another party tomorrow to make up for all the truckload, and they do in a fair ground with even more kids this time the next day. She then is seen in the end putting a photo of the fairground party in a scrapbook, while humming the song, "Party" from earlier that was sung by her and all of the kids.

## Trivia

* This episode takes place in the early 90s. Ironically around the time of the series' original release. This is the second episode to take place in the 90s, with The Boy in the Drawer being the first.
* It is unknown if Angela appearing in this episode is canon or not.
* Johnathan, from Blackberry Subway Jam makes a cameo as one of the students (behind the mailbox?). Ironically enough, this is a sister episode to it.
* Mortimer is seen in the background on the floor in a cameo appearance playing with a present. It is unknown if this is canon or not.
* This is the first time a location from another episode is shown again. In this case, Super Super Market, from Something Good.
* This is the second time another character from another episode appears again. In this case Angela, from Angela's Airplane, but slightly older, and in a later grade. Although it is unknown if this is canon or not.
* Moira's party dress resembles, and could possibly even be a reference to Verruca Salt's attire from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971.)
* You can hear a kid say, "Bro" when the kids complain about playing Pin the Tail on the Donkey the second time after eating a lot. This is commonly used today as, "Bruh" for an expression of annoyance, anger, or surprise.

## Differences With the Book

* The nightmare sequence is non-existent in the book version.
* In the book, the Pizza woman and the Baker man both question the orders in the same way as her parents, and personally tell her their time shortage over the phone. Whereas the animated version, they don't question it, and only the Pizza woman announces her time shortage.
* There were extra items the kid's brought, and some items are replaced to make it rhyme, which were Stew, Pork Sogs, Jam Jars, and Simmered Soup. But in the animated version, each kid individually announces what item they have, and some items are replaced or not mentioned such as Peanut Butter, Cow's Utter, Dinosaurs, and Ginger.

## Goofs

* Since Mortimer is only a baby, it is unlikely he would've been able to go to school during this time.
* The size of the house would not nearly be enough for 7 whole schools, not 200 presents at all. Plus there is no kindergartners, or any evidence of kids from other younger grades to be seen as they all appear to look the same age.
* There was no payment for the deliveries of the pizza and cake to be seen anywhere and at any point in the episode.
* There would have been numerous noise complaints due to the noise that the kids have been making the whole time.
* Voices, no matter how loud enough, would be able to shake the entire planet Earth.
* The Salesman, and the front Clerk Lady have brown hair, and look very different than how they looked in Something Good. As the Clerk Lady has a yellow jumpsuit instead of her green and white uniform, and the Salesman's colors are a lot brighter as well. Either this took place long after that episode, or it could've been animation errors.
* The giant shopping cart logo on the top of the store doesn't spin around entirely. This could have however been done for budget, or time constraints.
* The Pizza Delivery Woman's voice goes higher when she announces that she couldn't bring all of the batches right away.
* Moira's party dress gets bigger and smaller throughout the episode. This could however just be an animation error.
* A lot of the kid's voices change frequently throughout the episode. Some of the older kids sound higher, some a lot higher, and even some younger kids sound lower.
* A lot of the colors and kids frequently change throughout the episode .