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The eponymous pilot of Craig of the Creek is an online-exclusive short that was first released on December 1, 2017, on the Cartoon Network app and CN On Demand. It has a run-time of 11 minutes.
Synopsis[]
Craig is a 10-year-old boy who spends his afternoons playing in the wooded stretch of suburban wilderness known as the Creek. When he loses his beloved staff down a storm drain, Craig must journey with his best friends Kelsey and J.P. to find the entrance to the sewers hidden in the Creek and get it back.
Plot[]
After returning home from school, Craig rushes to change his clothes and get his map, purse, and staff before heading out to the Creek, knocking his younger sister Jessica over twice in the process. As he prepares to enter, however, he is caught by his older brother Bernard, later joined by his girlfriend Alexis. Bernard criticizes Craig's get up and gloats about the importance of love and homework. After the two leave, a frustrated Craig accidentally drops his staff and it falls down a storm drain. He tries to go after it, but the staff is washed away into the sewers, and his head gets stuck in the drain.
At the Log, Craig mopes and seethes at Bernard's mockery of him as Kelsey and her pet parakeet Mortimor observe him. She calls on J.P. to pull him up from the interior of the Log. J.P. assures Craig that he would get his staff back, while Kelsey declares that she would make a new PVC sword for him. Craig declines her offer, as he feels that his staff was special and irreplaceable, so he insists that they try and retrieve it from the sewers. Kelsey monologues about the choice before she decides to join him.
The trio pass the Couch of Teenage Mysteries, run through the Poison Ivy Grove, and traverse the Treacherous Aqueduct (where a man spots them and orders his wife Judith to call the cops) before stopping at the Pet Cemetery to pay their respects to Mortimor's 47 predecessors. They then arrive at a crossing point of the creek where a rope swing would allow them to cross. However, Craig cannot reach it without his staff. The trio are forced to detour through Rainbow Alley, where they get caught up in a paintball war. They fall down into a trench occupied by a group of paintballers. Their leader, Paintball Mike, questions the trio, to which Craig explains their goal of reaching the sewers. Mike tries to dissuade them, warning about children who live within the sewers. Kelsey scoffs the idea as a myth, but Mike claims knowing secondhand information about a fourth-grader who got dragged down a manhole by them; she is easily convinced. Craig nevertheless insists that they are brave enough to face the sewers and any threats within. Mike gives the trio his three paint grenades to help protect them. J.P. accidentally activates his, and he is blown down the trench; an unnerved Craig decides to give him his grenade.
The trio arrive at the sewer, which is unmapped because he has run out of room on his paper. J.P. checks for any sign of life by hitting a stick on the metal pipe wall and yelling; Craig stops him in a panic. Craig asks if the two are ready to continue: Kelsey is enthusiastic, while J.P. warns that he has forgotten the way back home (much to Kelsey's chagrin). The trio proceed to enter the sewer. Craig spots a tennis ball floating down one tunnel, and they follow it to a chamber with a pile of items that fell into the sewer. As they search for the staff, Kelsey hears footsteps, and she tells him that they should leave, but Craig refuses to do so until he finds the staff. They then hear more footsteps before a kid in swim wear suddenly emerges from a pipe near the ceiling yelling, "Outsider!", scaring Craig and causing him to fall off the pile. As the trio flees, they encounter other kids yelling the same thing at them. They make it outside, but are quickly surrounded. A girl appears behind them carrying Craig's staff and reveals herself as their leader, "the Sewer Queen".
The Sewer Queen claims that the staff belongs to the sewers, "just like everything else that falls through the Hole of Giving". One kid finds Craig's phone and holds it up to her; the Sewer Queen accuses Craig of trying to show the world how weird the kids of the sewers are with things such as having webbed toes. She decides to punish the kids by making Craig drink the sewer water. Kelsey and J.P. intervene by knocking out the kid who found the phone and calmly asking the other captor to step aside before threatening to use the paint grenade on them, respectively. However, Craig defuses the tension by explaining to the sewer kids that the Creek is a safe place for everyone to be whatever they want to be. He declares that if he ever makes it out without a bacterial infection, he would refuse to hide who he is anymore, and that everyone else should as well. Inspired by his confidence, the sewer kids applaud. As they do so, J.P. accidentally activates the grenade. In a rush, Craig takes the staff from the Sewer Queen and hits the grenade into the sky where it explodes. The other kids cheer, and the Sewer Queen proclaims Craig as the true owner of the staff.
Just then, the sound of a horn reverberates multiple times throughout the Creek. It comes from a girl standing on a platform on a tree covered in clocks blowing on her sousaphone. After the last blow of the horn, she yells out, "Dinner!". The kids excitedly rush home; the Sewer Queen's mother is making sloppy joes. The Sewer Queen promises Craig that if he flushes the staff down the toilet again (which Craig notes is incorrect), she and the other sewer kids will retrieve it for him. Craig rushes back home for dinner and takes his seat at the table. Bernard notices that Craig "smells weird". Craig retorts, "I am weird," to Bernard's exasperation.
Features[]
Characters[]
- Craig
- Kelsey
- J.P.
- Mortimor
- Jessica
- Bernard
- Earl Williams
- Alexis
- Paintball Mike
- The Paintballers
- The Sewer Queen
- Sewer Kids
- Nicole
- Duane
- Beth the Timekeeper
- Priest Kid
Objects[]
- The Staff of Grandad's House
- The Purse of Holding
- The Tubinator
- Paint grenade
Locations[]
- Herkleton
- Craig's house
- The Creek
- The Log
- The Couch of Teenage Mysteries
- Poison Ivy Grove
- The Aqueduct
- Pet Cemetery
- Rainbow Alley
- The Sewer
Video[]
Trivia[]
- Craig's staff and purse are given the names "The Staff of Grandad's House" and "The Purse of Holding", respectively. These names aren't used in the series until "Secret in a Bottle".
- The pilot's continuity with the series is dubious, as Craig flashes back to meeting the Sewer Queen in "Jessica's Trail", yet there are many differences between the pilot and the series.
- Craig is 9 years old in the series[1][2] through most of the third season, but the pilot's synopsis says he is 10.
- Grandad is called by his real name, Earl.
- Many locations don't exist or have completely different names, such as the Log, which was renamed to the Stump.
- The Cartoon Network Arcade mini-game "Camp Cardboard" is based on the pilot rather than the series.
Cultural references[]
- In the pile of objects that fell into the sewer, a doll can be seen that resembles the titular character of Steven Universe.
Errors[]
- Craig's map spells Herkleton incorrectly as both Herkleston and Herkelson.
- A label on Craig's map reads "Animal Burial Ground" the first time he takes out his map, but when he takes it out again later it says "Pet Cemetary"[sic].
References