A Mammoth Problem

**"A Mammoth Problem"** is the first segment of the thirteenth episode of the first season of *Hamster & Gretel*, and the twenty-fourth episode overall. It is paired with "The Bantam of the Elementary School Light Opera" and premiered on Disney Channel on November 26, 2022.

Gretel enters the science fair with a baking soda volcano, but is pressured into finding a better science project when a student named Nordle states it isn't impressive enough to win the fair, especially compared to his project.

## Plot

Professor Exclamation drops off his son Nordle at the Eastside Elementary School science fair, expecting him to win with a project he built for him. Meanwhile, Gretel worries that her project, a baking soda volcano, will not impress the judges due to the large number of students that made projects similar to hers. After butting heads with Nordle, Gretel ventures out to find a more suitable project, eventually settling on a glacier. However, Nordle's project destroys many of the other projects, including Gretel's glacier, which is revealed to contain a woolly mammoth that soon goes on a rampage.

Unable to get in touch with Hamster due to him watching exercise videos on TV, Gretel and Nordle must work together to save the city when the latter insists that he accompany the former. They lure the mammoth into a makeshift cave by feeding it cheeseburgers, after which they return it to the school with intent to enter it as a joint science fair project. However, the judges instead decide to award first prize to Bailey for her flatfish project. The two then decide to donate the mammoth to a mammoth theme park while Professor Exclamation struggles to remember where he's seen Gretel before when he arrives to pick Nordle up.

## Cast and characters

* Meli Povenmire as Gretel Grant-Gomez
* Michael Cimino as Kevin Grant-Gomez
* Beck Bennett as Hamster
* Priah Ferguson as Bailey Carter
* Pamela Adlon as Nordle Exclamation
* Phil LaMarr as Professor Exclamation
* Corey Burton as Farmer
* Jennifer Hughes as Farmer's Wife (uncredited)

### Additional voices

* Beck Bennett as Science Fair Judge
* Brock Powell as Hugh Jorgenson, Pilot 2, Laser Mammoth Announcer
* Corey Burton as Pilot 1
* Dee Bradley Baker as Mammoth, Phil, Potato Battery Boy, Balloon Race Car Boy
* Romi Dames as Volcano Girl
* Pamela Adlon as Volcano Boy
* Tiana Camacho as Exercise Woman

## Running gags

### Image scene transitions

Nordle, with his science project
(used to transition to Kevin and Gretel entering the science fair with her project)Gretel and Nordle, being competitive
(used to transition to Gretel starting to search for a better project)The iceberg Gretel found
(used to transition to Ernie's Glacier and Iceberg Moving Company unloading the iceberg at the science fair)Hamster, with welding torch
(used to transition back to Bailey at the science fair)

## Transcript

*Click here to read the full transcript of **"A Mammoth Problem"**.*

## Background information

### Allusions

* ***Phineas and Ferb*** - In the final scene of the episode, the farmer and his wife are given the mammoth for their mammoth theme park in a renactment of a recurring gag on this previous Dan Povenmire series.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://www.dgepress.com/disneybrandedtelevision/shows/hamster-gretel/episodes/a-mammoth-problem-the-bantam-of-the-elementary-school-light-opera/