Diary Of A Wimpy Kid:The Meltdown (2020 TV Special)

## Diary Of A Wimpy Kid:The Meltdown

Diary of a Wimpy Kid:The Meltdown is a 2020 Stop motion-CGI special

## Summary

When the schools get shut down because of a snowy day, the neighborhood transforms into a wintry battlefield. Some rival groups fight over territory, Some rival groups build massive snow forts, and some rival groups stage epic snowball fights. In the cross-hairs are Greg Heffley and his trusty-true to the end-best friend, Rowley Jefferson.

## Plot

The story starts off with Greg saying how everybody is outside enjoying the warm weather except him, as it is January, normally the middle of winter. Greg then says that the whole planet is warming up, and humans are to blame. However, as he says that he shouldn't be one to point fingers to, as he only recently got onto Planet Earth (being born). He then hopes that it doesn't warm up too fast, or he would have to ride a camel to high school. He then says he heard that the ice caps are melting and the sea level is rising. Due to his fear, he's tried to convince his parents to buy a house higher up on their hill so that they can avoid the water for longer, but his parents aren't too concerned, further increasing Greg's worry, and wishing that his parents would do something. However, the rising sea level isn't the only thing on Greg's mind, as there could be prehistoric animals preserved in the ice caps, and since they are melting, they may end up roaming the earth once again. Greg then says that he saw a movie about a caveman that got frozen in ice, and thousands of years later, when the ice melted, he was still alive. Greg doesn't know if that could happen in real life and thinks his night janitor is one of them.

Greg has to participate in International Showcase Week as a History project. Back in November, when there was an International Showcase, he wanted to be assigned to Korea, though he didn't get it because it has been voted a lot. After a random draw by his teacher, it was given to the lactose-intolerant Dennis Tracton. As a result, Greg did his project on China. However, he forgot all about it and has now to make it for the following day. Since Rowley refused to switch with him, Greg says that he was on his own and hoped his project will be fine.

In order to push curious students away, he pretended to only speak Chinese. (accidentally speaking Tagalog instead). However, a kid in his grade whose parents are from Malta takes offense to Greg's misrepresentation of their country. Fortunately for him, the rivalry between Brazil and Bulgaria flares up again, and the bell rings, dismissing school.

At night. The family finds out that Great Aunt Reba (which used to send Greg angry letters) died, and Susan reads Manny a book series about Preston Platypus, in which he is worried about something, then his mom tells him everything will be ok, and she is right, and Greg reads them because he hopes for a plot twist, but never appears, so he drew a picture of Preston's friends pushing Preston to the lion, in which the lion was ready to kill him, Susan took him to a counselor.

At "Aunt Reba's funeral", they had to wear black but realized they ended up at the wrong funeral and when they went to the correct one, the funeral ended. Greg and Rodrick breaking the Coffin, because of this, Greg is grounded for 2 weeks with no video games. Rodrick is grounded for 1 month, the only one who Doesn't get Grounded is Manny because he covered his eyes during the funeral

Mom ended Greg's punishment two days early, due to the Movie making program.

Greg then explains that the other kids in his street aren't good people for him to befriend, but the worst are the ones who live in Lower Surrey Street, as their half is flat, while Greg lives in Upper Surrey Street, which is on a slant. The kids at the bottom of the hill get to play in the streets all year and whenever someone tries to get their ball back or someone gets to the bottom of the hill, the lower street kids use their spots equipment. In the winter however, whenever the lower street kids try to go sledding down the hill, Greg and the upper hill kids pelt them with snowballs as payback. The two halves can't stand one another and, if one's family moves to a different part of the town, that person will be stuck inside all year round, since their new neighbors will still consider them part of the other team and the person's original side will think of them as a traitor for moving, a fate that Trevor Nix got when he moved down the hill. Despite the war between the kids, the adults actually get along just fine with each other, much to the kids annoyance.

Greg then talks about the pig, which was left at a kennel during their Christmas vacation, and when it gets mad about not going with them, Frank sends it to obedience school, but the person who runs the place calls him telling him the pig escaped. Greg's family puts up posters to find it.

Greg wonders if a human being or a pig can hibernate, finding temporary evidence in The Mingos, who don't show up in the winter. Because of this, Greg says that if they're NOT hibernating all winter, nobody knows what they're doing.

Greg then reminisces about the Safety Patrol, as he enjoyed it because of his access to hot chocolate. However, he got kicked out of Safety Patrol, so he can't have any. Ever since then, he has been filling a thermos with hot chocolate to recreate the feeling. He also explains how dirty his neighbors are. When he is sick, he receives some cherry lozenges for his throat which makes him popular among girls. However, the boys break into his locker to steal them for themselves.

Because of the cold, Greg and Rowley try to find a place where they could warm up. They finally manage to hide at Gramma's place while she is on vacation, but while they are drying their clothes off, they hear someone coming down into the basement and they arm themselves, thinking it's a burglar, but they end up almost attacking Greg's mother with a toilet plunger and a handbag.

Greg explains that the Safety Patrol is very strict on boys and reports anyone who dares to throw a snowball during a school day. They also allow girls to walk on the road but don't allow boys to do it.

Greg says that he has no qualms about snitching; in addition, due to the snow, students were tracking water into the school, resulting in their shoes being held in the headmaster's office. After a few kids started a fight with their wet socks, the teachers started ordering the kids to go barefoot, not improving the situation.

The next day, Greg tries vainly to invent a new way to walk in the snow, using pizza boxes with his shoes duct-taped to them after failing to warm up his winter boots, which end up melting into the bricks of the fireplace. However, his new idea fails, as he left leftover pizza in the boxes, causing the neighborhood dogs to attack. He also discovers that the janitor couldn't stand the sock smell and opens the windows to let some fresh air in, but forgot to close the windows at the end of his shift. Due to this, indoor temperatures drop to below freezing.

Because of this, the students try to keep warm any way they can, with one person even using a costume of a lion that was made for the school play. The principal then decides to dismiss school early after kids start eating hoards of food, even eating bugs from the Science Fair, thinking that they were going to be snowed in overnight. Since Rowley and Greg have to walk on their way home, they decide to the bus for Whirley Street. At first, they sit in there without being discovered until someone at the back throws a snowball and almost crashes the bus. This prompts the bus driver to stop the bus and refuse to start it again until the perpetrator admits they did it, going as far as to read a book for a solid hour. Greg looks in the back of the bus, hearing some kids whispering, however, an eight-grader realizes he isn't from Whirley Street, and all the kids on the bus blamed it on Greg, with the bus driver forcing him and Rowley to get off at once.

A few Whirley Street kids start running after Greg and Rowley, having believed the other kids on the bus lying about him throwing the snowball. They then decide to run from them, leading them into the woods.

Greg and Rowley are forced to run in the woods, where a mythical creature is known as the "Goat man" exists. Greg sees a light coming from a broken car, but he and Rowley then realize they're in the Mingos' camp as Greg finds Meckley Mingo's belt buckle. After getting close to a car, the hand puppet that Greg wears in place of a glove gets stuck on the door handle of the car, resulting in Greg abandoning him because of some unknown figures rising from the cars, which Greg and Rowley believe are the Mingo kids. He and Rowley then dash out of the woods, where Frank almost runs them over.

The next day, Greg has the house for himself, since Manny is at nursery, Rodrick is sleeping, and his parents are gone. But little does he know is Susan planned some chores for him by hiding the batteries in the TV remote around the house, but Greg found a way to get around it by watching in Mom and Dad's room's TV, which only uses one battery. He is unable to finish all of them and gets paranoid after Susan calls him. A group of girls try and extort money out of him in exchange for clearing his driveway, resulting in his parents telling him off until 8 o'clock, at which point, Rodrick wakes up to start his day.

The next day, Susan insists that Greg spends the whole weekend out in the snow to play like in the old days, even calling Rowley's father and advising him to do the same to prevent him from hiding in there. Without any option, Greg and Rowley build an igloo without a hole, which is quickly demolished by the neighboring kids. Frank tells them that the neighborhood kids have declared a medieval war waering medieval peasant clothes from the Middle Ages and Greg and Rowley must fight back to reclaim their territory, so both boys build another fort but discover that almost every kid in town was inspired by their idea. After the Lower Street Kids are caught sledding down their hill, they all team up and build a double-layered wall across the road to stop them. After a raging battle, the lower kids send Trevor Nix over to split the hill kids up with decoys. After being double-crossed by Trevor, the Upper Surrey Street Kids snow wall gets demolished.

Then they hear the Safety Patrol, who came for revenge after being pelted with snowballs during the weekends. This results in the battle turning into the Surrey Street Kids (on both ends) versus the Safety Patrol, but some girls on Surrey Street switch sides, throwing the battle into confusion. The Whirley Street kids slide on the hill and join the battle. Then all the kids hear a horn going off, with Greg and Rowley realizing that it is the Mingo kids, looking like they woke up from a three-month nap. Greg realizes that he had Meckley's buckle in his pocket without realizing it, possibly revealing that Meckley Mingo, who has Greg's hand puppet from earlier speared on a pole, is after him. Since the kids hate the Mingo clan more than everyone else, they turn to fight them, catapulting the battle into a free-for-all. Greg decides he has had enough, and he and Rowley hide, worried that they won't survive. Then the ground shakes, though it turns out to be the snowplow driver, plowing through all the snow and ending the battle.

After the war, Greg can't remember what they started fighting over in the first place, and the weather drastically warms. There is still snow on the ground, so Mitchell Pickett uses a snowmobile he bought with all the money he made selling snow supplies. Trevor Nix gets accepted in Lower Surrey Street for his role in demolishing the Upper Surrey Street kid's snow wall. Greg has heard that Trevor has been asked to play with the lower street kids. Greg just hopes that everyone will be grateful to him if he can make a good strategy that could allow human people to live with robots. Greg says he's glad that there are people like the hero type out there, but the world needs guys like him too. Greg says because if human beings are still around 500 million years from now, it's gonna be thanks to Greg Heffley's of the world who figured out a way to survive.

## Production

Production of the special began in October 26 2018 and ended in March 12 2020