Monkeying Around

**Monkeying Around** is the twelfth Season 3 episode of Leeko: The Beginning trilogy, and the seventy-ninth episode overall.

## Summary

After King Leonardo learns that Barbarion, a runaway circus monkey, wants to train with Leeko, he turns Barbarion into a monster.

## Characters

### Primary

* Leeko
* Milly
* King Leonardo
* Barbarion (*debut*)

### Secondary

* Barbarion's keeper (*debut; flashback*)
* Bubbles
* Chef Peppermint
* Chief Gordy
* Cindy (*no dialogue*)
* Daisy
* Dr. Medico (*no dialogue*)
* Felix
* Gamba
* Gene
* Hover
* Madeline
* Manny
* Marvin
* Mayor Bay Brittleton
* Miss Yuubin (*no dialogue*)
* Moonlight Man
* Mr. Mage
* Parker (*no dialogue*)
* Professor Antico
* Sir Pathogen
* Tommy
* Viruses (*no dialogue*)
* Whitehead
* Various unnamed Puffy villagers

## Episode summary

The episode begins in the Usapian countryside on a quiet morning. A large mallet-wielding orangutan approaches Mayor Bay's villa, giving the sheep a fright. Mayor Bay opens the door to greet the imposing figure, and is asked if he knows Leeko. Mayor Bay tries to affirm this, but he becomes scared of the creature - thinking him to be a monster - and insists he has never seen Leeko. The visitor then thanks Mayor Bay in broken dialogue and accidentally hits the mayor with his hammer before leaving. The monkey then visits Professor Antico in town and asks about Leeko, and the terrified professor points him in the direction of Peppermint's Table, then receives his own whack from the creature's hammer by accident. The creature then visits Chef Peppermint, then Marvin, giving each the same treatment. Later on, several Puffies visit Dr. Medico to get their head lumps from the monkey-man's visits patched up as they talk about the situation. They start to theorize why the monkey is here, and Hover later reports to Milly and Manny that the monkey-man must be trying to seek revenge on Leeko for something. Milly and Manny decide they should find Leeko first before be ends up in danger.

Later on, King Leonardo receives a report from Sir Pathogen about the situation with the gorilla, giving him a false version of the story. Assuming the monkey-man to be a debt collector for Nebula Enterprises, King Leonardo orders his soldiers to capture him and toss him in the castle dungeon. As the Viruses head out to find the orangutan, and Milly, Manny, and Hover search for Leeko, the orangutan finds the pink mouse sleeping while fishing in a creek. After the orangutan wakes Leeko up, he is surrounded by the Viruses as everyone convenes at the location. Sensing danger, the monkey-man pulls out his hammer and lets out a war cry which scares everyone, and then knocks the Viruses away. He then strikes the Royal Racecar that Leonardo and Tommy pulled up in, and forces them to retreat along with their soldiers, with the car ending up exploding later due to the hammer blow to its engine. The orangutan then returns his attention to Leeko and prevents him from trying to run away, then reveals his intentions by proclaiming his desire to be a Star Warrior like Leeko. The kids approach and try to make sense of the orangutan's requests. They soon learn that the orangutan's name is Barbarion, and that he is serious about learning from Leeko's example.

Soon, the rest of Puffy Town becomes aware of the real situation, as Leeko has difficulty communicating with Barbarion, who insists on following him around. Milly tries to explain to Barbarion that Leeko is not capable of teaching him, but the monkey-man insists on following Leeko anyway, explaining that he has no home to return to. Meanwhile, Tommy and King Leonardo spy on Barbarion and realize that he is not what they initially thought him to be, and start to scheme about ways to turn Barbarion against Leeko. They lure Barbarion away using a banana attached to a string, and then drill the idea in Barbarion's head that he needs to prove himself by attacking Leeko with his hammer. Seeing this, Milly and Manny are fooled into their initial assumption that Barbarion was out for Leeko, and King Leonardo goads Barbarion to keep up the chase. Later on, Barbarion finds Leeko sleeping in a rocky crevice and heads toward him, when King Leonardo and Tommy try to drop a boulder on Leeko to crush him. Sensing that his master is in danger, Barbarion rushes in and smacks the boulder away with his hammer. Outraged at this, King Leonardo grabs Barbarion using the arm on his Royal Racecar and carries him back to the castle.

King Leonardo contacts Nebula Enterprises and requests them to turn Barbarion into a monster, which Gene initially finds incredulous, but ends up carrying out. Shortly afterward, Milly, Manny, and Leeko are ambushed by the monster-ified Barbarion, who snatches Milly and carries her away. Milly cries out for Leeko to vacuum-mouth Barbarion's hammer, but Leeko is unable to do so. Barbarion then carries Milly up the castle walls, climbing to the very top. From there, Barbarion starts to roar and beat his chest as Milly remains firmly in his grip. Milly calls out for the Shooting Star while being shook back and forth, which comes to Leeko. After Leeko flies around Barbarion a few times, Milly cries out to Leeko to get the hammer again, and bites Barbarion's hand so he will drop it, allowing Leeko to vacuum-mouth it and get the Hammer Copy Ability. Hammer Leeko proceeds to bat Barbarion in the head several times while flying around him. As Leeko goes in for one more strike, Barbarion sees Leeko in a heroic pose and recalls his past.

Barbarion remembers how he was caught by a circus act and forced to perform there amidst a hail of cracking whips. While sitting in his cage, Barbarion was able to catch glimpses of various episodes of *Leeko: The Series* while his keeper watched. After becoming enamored with Leeko, Barbarion was able to escape the circus and ventured great distances in order to find him way to Usapia. Remembering all of this, the monster Barbarion starts to shed tears, and Leeko gives him one more wallop on the head, causing him to fall to the ground, taking King Leonardo and Tommy with him. After everyone recovers, Milly, Manny, and Leeko gather to find that Barbarion has returned to his normal self again. Barbarion then thanks Leeko for saving him from being a monster. Later that evening, Leeko and several of his friends gather to see Barbarion off on further journeys. As Barbarion bids them farewell, he nearly hits them with his hammer again, but this time manages to stop himself. The episode ends as Barbarion walks into the sunset while holding a picture of him and Leeko, and Leeko waves while holding an identical picture.

## Trivia

* This is the second time Leonardo asks Gene to turn something into a monster, the first instance being Rosa from the episode Baby Flower.
* This is the second episode of *The Beginning* trilogy to feature the Hammer Copy Ability.
* Several characters in this episode have lines that reference the movie *Planet of the Apes*, such as Professor Antico speculating that Barbarion is “from another planet run by apes”.
* When Barbarion is in his monster form, his actions mimic scenes from the movie *King Kong*, where he climbs to the top of Castle Leonardo with Milly in his hand.
	+ Adding to that, Leeko fights Barbarion on his Shooting Star like the jets in the movie, and the way he is defeated is similar to the ending of the movie.
* This is the twentieth episode in *The Beginning* series where Milly calls for the Shooting Star.
* The premise of Barbarion becoming a fan of Leeko after watching his TV show is an example of the fourth wall being broken.