"Burn, Hazelnut, Burn" is the 1st episode of the fourth season of Pepper Ann. It aired on February 6, 2000.
Contents
Synopsis
Pepper Ann's disparaging review of a new action film prompts the movie's director to challenge Pepper Ann to make an action film of her own -- which falls apart when everyone offers their input on the project.
Plot
Pepper Ann is made the official film critic of the Hazelnut Middle School paper. Her criticisms are harsh, yet entertaining to her fellow classmates. One day, Pepper Ann is approached by film director Cameron Landisburg who tells her that he read her review of his most recent movie and criticizes her for not understanding the filmmaking process. Pepper Ann challenges him by saying that she could make a better movie than him and he accepts. Lydia initially supports Pepper Ann, but will not provide the funds to help make it.
Pepper Ann approaches Trinket to be her executive producer on the movie and agrees on a couple of conditions. Nicky informs Pepper Ann that she needs to write a script (she was going to improvise) and learns that rather than herself and Craig Bean cast in the leads, Cissy and Wayne Macabre would be the leads instead, much to her shock. Nicky fails to get a French bistro and they are forced to film the majority of it at a bowling alley. Pepper Ann is further annoyed to learn that Trinket hired Tessa and Vanessa to be script doctors.
A rough cut of the movie is put together, but Pepper Ann is devastated to learn that Milo, her director of photography, chose to go with a shaky cam style. Pepper Ann writes another article saying how wrong she was to judge other movie makes and gets a call from Landisburg congratulating her nonetheless. Pepper Ann and her friends watch the final cut of the movie and learn that it is not all that bad and they actually enjoyed it. Pepper Ann immediately starts thinking of a follow up and once again drags Milo and Nicky into it.
Cast
- Kathleen Wilhoite as Pepper Ann Pearson
- Jeff Bennett as Dieter Liederhosen, Additional voices
- Danny Cooksey as Milo Kamalani
- Clea Lewis as Nicky Little
- April Winchell as Lydia Pearson, Additional voices
- Wallace Langham as Wayne Macabre
- John O'Hurley as Cameron Landisburg
- Kath Soucie as Cissy Rooney
- Jenna von Oÿ as Trinket St. Blair
Desk Gag
"Look, a French Poodle!"
-Poodle speaks in French, with subtitles at the bottom of the screen reading "Pepper Ann is a most amusing show."
Trivia
- The episode's title is a reference to 1997 movie An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn.
- The episode gives a very dated view of film criticism as it perceives that film critics do not understand the film process. While this may be true for Pepper Ann, a 12 year old girl, this is certainly not true for most people in the business.
- Cameron Landisburg is named after film directors James Cameron, John Landis and Stephen Spielberg.
- While Tessa and Vanessa James appear, they have no speaking lines.
- On Disney+, this episode segment is placed first next to "The Wash-Out".
