The Nightmarionette

Hamster and Gretel battle a villain who projects people's greatest fears before their eyes. With Kevin and Fred's help, Gretel must face her biggest fears in order to defeat him.

## Production Information

### Storyboards by:

Heather Gregersen
Allen Del Mar Oka
Eddie Pittman

## Broadcast Information

### Airdate:

October 1, 2022 (Disney Channel)
October 17, 2022 (Disney XD)

### Running time:

11 minutes

"**The Nightmarionette**" is the first segment of the ninth episode of the first season of *Hamster & Gretel*, and the seventeenth episode overall. It is paired with "Abuelita's World" and premiered on Disney Channel on October 1, 2022.

A villain called the Nightmarionette is terrorizing the town by using a mind-scanning staff in order to create realistic projections of people's greatest fears. Hamster and Gretel have fallen victim to his trick as well, so Kevin and Fred help them overcome their greatest fears in order to fight back.

## Plot

While looking through their old belongings per request of Dave and Carolina, Kevin and Gretel come across Mr. Grumpypuss, a sockpupet Kevin used to entertain Gretel when they were younger. Their trip down memory lane is interrupted when they receive a distress call from downtown alerting them to the presence of the Nightmarionette, who can create life-like projections of the biggest fears of his victims. During their battle, Hamster and Gretel are struck by the Nightmarionette and are subjected to their fears of vacuum cleaners and toaster-scorpion hybrid creatures, respectively.

Kevin and Fred use their knowledge of immersion therapy to train Gretel to overcome her fear, while Hamster goes to a pet store to confront his fear. Afterwards, the heroes confront Nightmarionette at the Danville Gold Depository, where Gretel avoids sucumbing to her fear of the toaster scorpion, only to be overpowered when Nightmarionette reaches into her unconcious and creates a blender-lobster hybrid. Racked with fear, Gretel flees, but regains her confidence when Kevin uses Mr. Grumpypuss to entertain her. Hamster and Gretel then defeat Nightmarionette, who is forced to pay for items he broke when he lands in a historic shop.

## Cast and characters

* Meli Povenmire as Gretel Grant-Gomez
* Michael Cimino as Kevin Grant-Gomez
* Beck Bennett as Hamster
* Hiromi Dames as Hiromi Tanaka
* Carolina Ravassa as Carolina Grant-Gomez
* Matt Jones as Dave Grant
* Michael-Leon Wooley as Nightmarionette
* Liza Koshy as Veronica Hill
* Joey King as Fred Grant

### Additional voices

* Brock Powell as Little Alfonzo
* Brook Chalmers as Janitor
* Carolina Ravassa as Female Security Guard
* Dan Povenmire as Action News Announcer
* Dee Bradley Baker as Bank Security Guard, Male Clown Police Officer
* Fabio Tassone as Music Store Owner, Elephant Rider
* Hiromi Dames as Female Police Officer
* Hunter King as Joanie
* Khary Payton as Male Taco Police Officer
* Tiana Camacho as Talking Tania

## Running gags

### Image scene transitions

Kevin and Mr. Grumpypuss
(used to transition to Kevin and Gretel driving to the bank)Hamster and Gretel, terrified
(used to transition back to the Grant-Gomez residence)Hamster's cage with used newspapers
(used to transition to Gretel's immersion therapy session)The toaster-scorpion nightmare projection
(used to transition to the 4 Legs and 2 Eyes Pet Shop)

## Transcript

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

## Background information

### Trivia

* This episode was advertised as a Halloween special, and aired apart of Disney Channel's "Calling All the Monsters" programming block.
* This episode (along with "Abuelita's World") premiered on Disney Channel exactly one year after the series premiere of *The Ghost and Molly McGee*, another Disney Channel original animated series.
	+ This has also premiered on the same day as the 30th anniversary of Cartoon Network, one of the two major kids network's rivaling Disney Channel (the other being Nickelodeon).
* There is a similar character known as the Nightmarionette from the popular horror video game series, *Five Nights at Freddy's*.

### Allusions

* ***Pinocchio*** - As a punchline to the Nightmarionette being constantly referred to as a puppet, the ending of the episode, which has the villain stuck in harp strings in a harp store, makes multiple references to the classic 1940 Disney film (in itself an animated adaptation to the 1880s novel *The Adventures of Pinocchio*) in a row; the historic district the store is found in resembles the Italian village the story takes place in, the store owner speaks with an Italian accent and looks remarkably similar to Gepetto, and Hamster stares at the moon on top of a hanging sign while wearing an outfit similar to that of Jiminy Cricket, and giving an insightful summary about what Gretel has learned.
* ***Kamen Rider V3*** - Gretel having to fight a toaster/scorpion monster and a blender/lobster monster to stop the Nightmarionette is similar to how Shiro Kazami/Kamen Rider V3, fights monsters based off an animal and an inanimate object, to fight the villainous organization Destron, in the 1973 Japanese tokusatsu program.
* ***Scarecrow*** - The Nightmarionette exploiting people's fears to commit crimes is similar to this DC Comics supervillain.

## References

1. ↑ https://itunes.apple.com/us/tv-season/hamster-gretel-vol-1/id1635863430
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 https://www.dgepress.com/disneybrandedtelevision/shows/hamster-gretel/episodes/the-nightmarionette/