The Bottle Episode

**"The Bottle Episode"** is the first segment of the seventeenth episode of the first season of *Hamster & Gretel*, and the thirty-second episode overall. It is paired with "Micromanager" and has premiered on Disney Channel on February 25, 2023.

After finding out that the owner of a tchotchke shop has been stealing and shrinking landmarks to put in his bottles, Hamster, Gretel and Kevin have been shrunk themselves and trapped in a bottle as well, leading Fred as their only hope as she enters the shop.

## Plot

Supervillain Tchotchke Jones has been shrinking various landmarks around the city and adding them to his collection of bottles. However, when Kevin, Hamster, and Gretel arrive to his shop, they are shrunken and trapped in a bottle with the Muddy Bess, a historic steam boat. This leaves Fred as their only hope to escape. However, Fred, being a fan of objects in bottles, does not notice them. The heroes and Kevin decide to attract her attention by using the boat's steam to write a message on the bottle.

When their plan to write a message fails due to Fred being unable to read as it was written backwards, the three resort to creating a storm inside the bottle and build up enough pressure to launch the cork off. Fred then reveals that she knew Tchotchke had Kevin, Hamster, and Gretel trapped all along based on various clues including a bag of walnuts Hamster was eating earlier, fingerprints left on one of the bottles, and a titanium pen Fred gave to Gretel for her birthday. Tchotchke attempts to add Fred to his collection, but mistakenly shrinks himself thanks to Fred's quick action. She restores her cousins and Hamster to their original size and the three leave the store as Tchotchke laments his defeat.

## Cast and characters

* Meli Povenmire as Gretel Grant-Gomez
* Michael Cimino as Kevin Grant-Gomez
* Beck Bennett as Hamster
* Joey King as Fred Grant
* Liza Koshy as Veronica Hill
* Richard Kind as Tchotchke Jones

## Transcript

*Click here to read the full transcript of **"The Bottle Episode"**.*

## Background information

### Allusions

* The title of this episode is a pun on the term "bottle episode" , which refers to an episode in a live-action television series that makes use of as few cast members, effects, sets and props as possible to save on production costs.
	+ The episode itself is a bottle episode in the figurative sense too, as the episode takes place in a single location with only a couple backgrounds, and only uses a handful of characters.

### Errors

* The Disney General Entertainment Content press website has erroneously listed "The Bottle Episode" as the second half of Episode 117, and "Micromanager" as the first half, instead of the other way around.
* When Fred sees the mirrored message of "Help us Fred", she reads it as "bert zu bleh". However, the lowercase letter P from "Help", when mirrored, actually resembles a lowercase letter Q instead of a lowercase letter P, so the message should've instead be read as "bert zu qleh".

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://www.dgepress.com/disneybrandedtelevision/shows/hamster-gretel/episodes/micromanager-the-bottle-episode/
2. ↑ https://cabletvt.powerrangermail.net/index.php/topic,6985.0.html?PHPSESSID=9e5d848764ad573838c3577125bbd4d7