The Prince And The Pauper

**The Prince and the Pauper** is the 3rd episode of Season 2.

## Plot

In 16th century England (January 28, 1547), King Henry VIII is very ill and becomes bedridden. His ruthless Captain of the Guard, Poot, uses this to his advantage of robbing and being cruel to the people in the King's name. On a cold winter's day, Mokey Mouse, Grooby, and Pludo try selling what they have for food, Mokey selling firewood and Grooby selling snow cones. They dream of being warm and someday living in the palace. Meanwhile in the palace, Prince Edward (who looks exactly like Mokey) is doing his studies with his adviser, Huras Horsecola and his valet, Dilan Duck. He is bored and looks longingly out of his window seeing all the people and wishing he was with them. A while before, King Henry VIII's guards came in their stagecoach, while hauling off the food they stole from the townspeople. Then a string of sausages drooped out of the stagecoach and Pludo ran after them. Mokey tried to stop him, but the palace gates had already closed. He asked the guard if he could come in to look for his dog, and the guard let him do so, thinking he was Prince Edward. Then Poot caught him and tried to poke him with his sword, but the Prince saw this and wanted Mokey brought to him at once because "even the lowliest subjects of this Kingdom deserve respect" as he had quoted.

Inside the palace, Mokey is amazed at its splendour, but he accidentally slips on the shiny floor and crashes into some suits of armour. Just then, Prince Edward arrives and gets caught in the falling armour. Both remove their helmets and are amazed at the sight of each other. The Prince tells Mokey that his life is so boring with his constant lessons and banquets and envies the Pauper for his freedom. He then decides to switch places with him to see what life is like outside the palace. Mokey is hesitant to do so, but Prince Edward explains to him that everything would be fine. As the Prince reaches the palace gates, he is handled roughly by Poot, who doesn't believe that he's the Prince and then catapulted out. Pludo and Grooby find him afterwards, but Pludo turns his back on him, knowing he is not Mokey. Grooby, however, is convinced and doesn't understand why the Prince is avoiding him or acting like he doesn't know him. In the palace, Mokey is shown a long list of his royal duties.

Both the Prince and the Pauper are not having much success with their lives and cause disaster everywhere they go. As Prince Edward is walking through the town, he sees the Weasel Guards stealing a chicken from Clarbel, so he commands them to stop, but they just laugh and continue robbing the people. From this he finds out how the people are being treated in the King's name. Suddenly, Prince Edward sees a cart being pulled full of food and after showing the royal ring, demands the driver to hand over what's inside. The Weasels then come to arrest the Prince, but he's saved by Grooby and they ride away into the distance. Later in Poot's tower, one of the Weasel guards tells his captain about what has happened and Poot realises that it was the Prince he threw out of the castle and therefore knows how the people are being treated, so he begins making plans to get rid of him.

In the palace, Huras appears to Mokey saying that "his father" wishes to see him in his last few hours. He then takes him to King Henry VIII, who's gravely ill. Mokey enters the room of the dying king, and Huras closes the door, then the dying king tells Mokey that he must become king and rule the land justly and wisely, he sadly promises. Shortly afterwards the King dies. Mokey leaves the room and decides to go and find Prince Edward, but Poot sneaks up behind him and threatens him to be crowned King at his orders, or he would kill Pludo whom he had taken earlier as a hostage. In the town the bells ring out that King Henry VIII has died, Prince Edward is deeply sad and knows that he must now be the new King and put right what Captain Poot has done. Grooby sees his ring and offers his full-most support. As they are about to leave, Poot and some guards burst in and capture the Prince and lock him in the dungeon along with Dilan, while the coronation begins. Mokey tries his hardest not to be crowned, but Poot is behind the curtain strangling Pludo. Meanwhile, the Prince and Dilan are rescued by Grooby who is disguised as an executioner, and together, they take out most of the guards and rush to the Coronation chamber.

Mokey finally plucks up his courage and orders the guards to arrest Poot, but the villain defends himself by revealing the Pauper to be an impostor and demanding he be arrested. The real Prince arrives just in time and challenges the vicious Captain to a sword battle. Grooby and Dilan arrive and take out more of the Weasel guards, and thanks to Grooby's clumsiness, end up entangling some of them in a falling chandelier. An errant arrow rips through the rope choking Pludo, freeing him and allowing him to join the battle as well. Poot corners the Prince and is about to kill him once and for all when Pludo runs up and bites Poot in the rear. Poot then suffers further humiliation as his trousers get sliced down, exposing his underwear underneath, much to audience's amusement who laugh themselves silly and then he gets tripped by both Mokey and Prince Edward, before he finally becomes caught with the Weasel guards in the now-rolling chandelier. The chandelier rolls down the red carpet and crashes through the glass window into the street below. Both the Prince and the Pauper laugh and hug each other, but the archbishop doesn't know who the real Prince is until Pludo recognizes his master by licking Mokey affectionately. The archbishop then crowns Prince Edward as the new King of England, and with Mokey, Dilan, Grooby, Pludo, and Huras by his side, he rules the country as he swore he would with justice and compassion for all.

The End. (Credits to The Walt Disney Company)

## Characters

* Mokey the MOUSE/Tom Canty (The Pauper)
* Mokey's Clone/Prince Edward Tudor (later King Edward VI) (Prince: as a mouse) (Prince: debut)
* Sr Pelo/Mark Twain (The Narrator) (Mark Twain: debut)
* Captain Poot (villain)
* Grooby
* Dilan
* King Henry VIII (as a mouse)
* Huras Horsecola (debut)
* Archbishop (debut)
* King Henry VIII's Beasts (cameo)
* Clarbel Cow (debut)
* King Henry VIII's guards/Captain Poot's henchmen (King's guards: as weasels)
* Unnamed peasants (debut)
* Unnamed kids (debut)
* Pludo (debut)
* Driver Pig (debut)

## Deaths

* King Henry VIII (obesity-related sickness)
* Captain Poot (fell from a high place while on a rolling chandelier)
* Weasel Guards (fell from a high place while on a rolling chandelier along with Poot)

## Trivia

* This episode is a parody of the 1990 Disney short film of the same name.
* This is the first time Henry VIII appears as another animal (mouse) instead of a human.
	+ This is also the first episode where Henry VIII appears as an animated character.
* Mokey portrays both prince and pauper.
	+ Though the other might be Mokey's Clone.
* The Pauper's actual name is Tom Canty.
* Clarbel Cow is the only female character represented in this episode. Momi and Doftni do not appear in this episode.
	+ It is obvious that Doftni does not appear since she only made her appearance in the episode *Valentines Day*
* This is the longest episode. It has a running time of 25 minutes.
* Prince Edward first appears as a mouse.
* This is the first episode where King Henry VIII dies.