"The Gecko's Tale" is the twenty-second episode of the Disney Channel animated series Elena of Avalor. It premiered on August 18, 2017.
Plot
The Royal Family of Avalor is taking a vacation on Ophidan Island, which Francisco calls the most perfect vacation spot in the seventeen seas. Francisco is rowing Luisa and Elena to the island while Gabe is rowing Isabel to the island. Francisco is having an easy time rowing Luisa and Elena to the island, while Gabe is having a hard time rowing Isabel to the island since he is rowing the luggage to the island too and Isabel has packed pretty much everything she owns for the sake of being prepared. Francisco and Luisa set up camp and then take a hike up Mount Ophidia. While they do so, Elena and Isabel go swimming. Elena happily dives into the water but Isabel would rather calculate her jumps to make her dives as smooth as possible. Elena tells her the best way to learn how to dive is to just dive and Gabe says he is also an excellent lifeguard and there is nothing to fear. Suddenly, Isabel spots and fawns over a gecko, which scares Gabe to the point where he goes in the drink. Embarrassed, Gabe tells Elena and Isabel to just forget that to the amusement of both Princesses who can't believe he is actually afraid of such a tiny harmless lizard. Gabe tells them he is only afraid of lizards only to get startled by a bottle in the water. Upon opening the bottle, they find a message inside about a mysterious treasure on the island from Antonio Agama. Gabe tells the Princesses that Antonio Agama is one of his all-time heroes: He was an Avaloran explorer who set out all over the world having adventures and finding lost treasures until he went out on a quest to find the Golden Gecko and has not been heard from since until now. Realising that he is in trouble and after finding a map of the island on the back of the note, the group sets out to help him, after Isabel is finished packing of course.
Elena, Gabe, and Isabel follow the map each at their own pace. They finally arrive at the spot where Antonio Agama's boat is. They find large prints that look like a gecko's, which Isabel says makes no sense since gecko's are tiny. They follow the prints into the jungle where sure enough they encounter a giant gecko who chases after them. During the chase, Isabel falls into a ravine but the gecko saves her. However, Gabe drives it off because of his phobia and shoves the Princesses inside a nearby tent. Gabe goes back out to fight the gecko with Elena going after him. Isabel stays inside when she sees a book with Antonio Agama's insignia on it and, upon reading it, makes an important discovery. Back outside, Elena tells Gabe not to hurt the giant gecko on the grounds it saved Isabel but Gabe insists it only did that because it wants to eat her. Isabel refutes this by revealing her discovery: The giant gecko is Antonio Agama. As proof, Isabel shows them the passage where she made her discovery. Reading it, Elena and Gabe learn that the Golden Gecko is a cursed artifact that turns anyone who removes it from it's pedestal into a gecko and the only way to return Antonio to normal is to put the Golden Gecko back. Together, they hitch a ride on a basket elevator down into the temple.
On the way down, Isabel reveals that the Ophindans worshipped lizards especially geckos and built temples like this one to worship the majesty of the gecko. When they arrive, Elena rushes toward the entrance. Isabel warns her big sister that the Ophindans built booby traps that go off if one steps in the wrong place or touches the wrong thing to protect their temples. The warning comes too late when Elena makes one of the booby traps go off. Isabel scolds her sister for this. Elena protests that there is no way she could know where every booby trap is, to which Isabel tells her to slow down and be more careful. In the next room, they start to cross a bridge. Suddenly, sand starts to pour on two big levers in a way that causes the bridge to retract. Isabel realizes that this is an Ophidan color puzzle and figures out which key they need to open the door, but not in time as the key is already beyond the group's reach. Elena grabs Isabel's Ophidan book and throws it into the gears, causing the bridge to halt. However, they still can't get through the door for which Elena complains about Isabel not grabbing the key when she had the chance. Isabel reveals there is another way out, since the Ophindans built secret tunnels in their temples so they could get around without triggering their own traps. Using the torch, Gabe finds one and they climb down using rope from Isabel's Go-Pack. They reach a spot where the floor has caved in. Elena and Gabe jump over but Isabel wants to calculate her jump first, to which Elena jumps back over, grabs her little sister, and has her jump over with her. The impact of them both landing at the same time causes the floor to cave in more, but the group runs to safety. Afterwards, Elena asks Isabel why she didn't just jump over when she told her to, to which Isabel tells her she wanted to be sure of her jump before she made it. Elena tells her sometimes one just has to trust oneself and go for it. The group then continues on.
When they get to the heart of the temple, Elena, despite Isabel's warnings, runs across the room and pulls the Golden Gecko out of the hole Antonio Agama dropped it in. However, before she can put it back, Elena triggers another booby trap that makes a giant corn maze. Elena tells Isabel to run but Isabel is afraid of triggering another booby trap. The maze cuts Gabe off from the others and traps the two princesses together. Isabel scolds Elena for setting off the trap to which Elena protests it was an accident and her way is better than double-checking every little thing which is why they are trapped. This hurts Isabel's feelings to the point where it causes her to cry. Elena apologizes to her little sister and tells her sometimes both their ways are the solution and Isabel apologizes too. Working together, the Princesses get out and return the Golden Gecko to its pedestal and break the curse. With the curse broken, Antonio Agama returns to normal. After Gabe sets off yet another booby trap, the group runs to safety. When they get to a bridge that starts to roll up, Elena tells Isabel to jump, and Isabel does so this time. After they get out, they head back to the beach, where Antonio meets Francisco and Luisa. When Elena spots another message in a bottle, Gabe throws it away. Elena protests that someone else might be in trouble, to which Antonio decides to make that his next adventure.
Cast
- Aimee Carrero as Princess Elena
- Jenna Ortega as Princess Isabel
- Jorge Diaz as Gabe
- Danny Trejo as Antonio Agama
- Emiliano Díez as Francisco
- Julia Vera as Luisa
- Dee Bradley Baker as Gecko
Trivia
- The scene where Elena and Isabel climb out together with their backs against one another is similar to a scene from both The Emperor's New Groove and the 60's Batman episode "Batman Sets the Pace".
- According to Robb Pratt, the inspiration for this episode was Indiana Jones.
- This is the only episode to not feature a song.
- According to Craig Gerber, a song was originally written for this episode, but was cut out after deciding it didn't fit the tone of the episode.[1]
- Instead of opening with a fade in, this episode opens with a phase.
- Moral: Sometimes you've got to do your math and research and sometimes you've got to trust yourself and go for it.
- The name of the island "Ophidan" is a reference to the word "Ophidia", which stands for a group of squamate reptiles including modern snakes and all reptiles more closely related to snakes than to other living groups of lizards.
- Gabe mentions The Jungle Book song "The Bare Necessities".
Goofs
- In the first two shots of the Group entering the heart of the temple, Elena doesn't have her earrings on.
International Premieres
Gallery
Concept Art
Screenshots
References
- ↑ "crisp-sweet-pink-lady post". Tumblr (August 19, 2017).
