City Ways

## Stats

**City Ways** is the 2nd episode of the series *Babar* that aired on April 2, 1989.

## Summary

Cornelius and Pompadour remind Babar about duties and things to do and attend. Celeste calls Babar over to watch as Pom gets out many hats and wears them on his head, making Flora and Alexander laugh. Soon enough, after chucking a tennis ball out the door, he sees Babar and Celeste and criticizes them for spying on him. He brings up that there are two children in school older than him that he invited over, but believes he is too boring for them to like.

Babar mentions that you shouldn't change your appearance to impress someone, and starts telling a story taking place after the events of his mother's demise. Babar had fled and made his way to the cityside, a place that he has never seen before. Entering, he finds a statue honoring a soldier and remembers the hunter, and he fears that everyone will be like that. But Babar realizes that everybody is rather friendly, when he goes over to a playground and the kids laugh with him. He also gets a bag of popcorn and catches a ball. Babar loves this new place and finds it is safe after all, that is until he gets on the road. He nearly dodges all the passing cars and lands over to a policeman guiding traffic. Because he tweets with his whistle Babar believes that whistling is how humans greet each other, so a whistle from his trunk causes a road pile up. An old lady, later to be named Madame, finds the helpless elephant and walks him safely across the street. Babar tries talking to some older people, but everyone just walks past him.

Babar spots some fruit outside a store and helps himself, when the shopowner comes out and cries that there is a thief. A policeman with a gun appears, reminding Babar once again of the hunter. He starts running and shouting until he is cornered, but rather of being shot, he is taken to court. He is asked to pay a fine of $432, but Babar doesn't even know what a dollar is. Fortunately, Madame comes to his rescue and enters the courtroom, because his incident is on the newspaper. Babar is taken to her house, where that night, in the pursuit of a storm outside, he dreams about his mother being shot. Madame talks with him about hunters and what they do and why they do it, despite them being unaware of the consequences after killing an animal. The next day, Madame decides to be a teacher for Babar, to show him the city ways. First and foremost, Babar is dressed up in his famous outfit, but complete with a derby hat. After Babar's morning lessons with Madame, they would always go driving around the countryside.

Eventually, Madame decides to have a "coming out" party for Babar and she invited the whole neighborhood. Babar thinks he isn't ready, but Madame tells him to just act like the charming little fellow she knows and loves. The night of the party, Babar thinks that no one will like him, so he comes down with a monocle and stick and greets himself fancily. Babar tries chatting with the guests, and then accidentally launches his monocle in a bowl of food. When he is asked by an artist about his opinion on his painting, Babar answers "yuck" but that's because he ate some of (what may be) black beans from the bowl that was on his trunk. Babar also tries to seat two guests but he steals a chair of one of them, and causes both of them to fall to the floor. Babar gives up and leaves the room. After talking to Madame, who tells him that there is "only one you", he goes back and apologizes to the guests. The guests enjoy him and also hear the story Babar told about his jungle. After the story, Pom learns that Babar had the most offerings by just being himself, so he runs off to meet his new friends in his same old style.