It's All Relative



After years of waiting, Claire and Melvin make their FredtheMonkey.com debut.

Cast (in order of appearance): Sceb, Fred, Space Chicken, Claire, Mitch?, Mr. Deutsch, Melvin

Places: Kitchen, Living Room, Claire's Room, Mr. Deutsch's Room

Date: February 3, 2012

Running Time: : 5:21

Transcript
(cuts to the house, panning and zooming into the house while music is playing)

(cuts to a two-shot of Fred and Sceb reading a newspaper, zooming into them)

Sceb: (laughs) Oh Marmaduke. Always getting into trouble because you're bigger than everybody else in the comic.

Fred: You know what I miss? That comic about the boy and his pet tiger.

Sceb: Calvin and Hobbes.

Fred: Yeah! That one! How come they never put it in the paper anymore?

Sceb: Yeah, the artist has been retired for like 15 years.

(closeup of Fred)

Fred: Man, that must be sweet. (what did he say here) doing nothing without a (what did he say here) in the world... sign me up!

(closeup of Sceb)

Sceb: Uhh, no. When they say a cartoonist retires, they actually mean he either starves to death, or is locked up in some sort of mental institution.

(closeup of Fred again)

Fred: Man, that must be sweet. A big room with patted walls that you can slam your head into over and over... sign me up!

(long shot of Fred and Sceb with Claire and Space Chicken walking into the room)

Space Chicken: (carrying a small box that says "FRAGILE") Hey guys! Look who's here!

Sceb: Claire! How you been, kiddo?

(closeup of Claire)

Claire: Hi Uncle Sceb! I haven't seen you in forever! How's your plan to take over the world going?

Sceb: Oh... (extreme closeup of him smiling evily) slowly but surely...

(cuts back to the long shot of the 4 characters, only change with Fred having a look at Claire, despite not looking at her)

Space Chicken: And this is Fred. Fred, this is our niece, Claire. She's gonna be staying here while she goes to school in the area. We just finished taking most of her stuff up to the guest room.

Claire: Nice to meet you.

(closeup of Fred, pause, then cuts to a closeup of Claire)

Claire: Umm... Uncle SC told me a lot about you.

(cuts back to Fred, another pause, then cuts back to the long shot)

Space Chicken: Okay... yeah... anyway, we're gonna go get her settled in, so... see you guys later.

Sceb: See you later. (Sceb looks at Fred angrily) What is wrong with you? (Fred looks at him angrily back) That was mean even for me!

(pans to the two of them)

Fred: Who does he think he is, inviting her to stay without telling anyone?

(closeup of Sceb)

Sceb: He told everyone. At the last house meeting. Which you showed up to, but then slept through.

(closeup of Fred)

Fred: I don't remember that.

(cuts back to Sceb)

Sceb: You slept through it! On the table! Where we were having a meeting!

(two shot of them)

Fred: Well it's just not right! You can't make a decision that affects everybody without asking me first.

Sceb: (rolls his eyes) I don't recall you asking anyone before you cut that giant hole in the living room ceiling and called it a roof window.

(cuts to a guy (may or may not be Mitch) sitting on the couch in the living room watching TV)

Man on TV: And here's your final Jeopardy clue. (ding) This author won a Nobel Prize in literature for his popular German poetry. Good luck.

(Jeopardy music plays, then a eagle is heard, and the guy starts to frown and look around, then an eagle flies in the room and his feet lands on his eyes, and the man starts to scream, then it cuts back to Fred and Sceb as his scream is heard)

Fred: That's totally different! He brought a girl to live here. I'm gonna have to start wearing pants.

(closeup of Sceb)

Sceb: You've never worn pants. Like, ever. Even when you go out.

(two shot of the characters again)

Fred: Yeah, and now I'm gonna have to. I'm glad you see where I'm coming from on this.

(cuts to outside the house again as it pans from up to down with the house being on the screen, then it cuts to Claire and Space Chicken in her room with SC holding a giant jar with coins in it)

Space Chicken: Claire... I won't ask why you have a giant jar of coins, if you quickly tell me where to put it down.

Claire: Oh. That's my quarter collection. Um... how about the top shelf for that bookcase. Thanks Uncle SC.

(Space Chicken groans, and then Fred walks by the door)

Fred: Look at them. (closeup of Fred) (what did he say here) around like they own the place. We'll see who owns what why when where how! I've got a plan to settle this score quite handily! (laughs)

(cuts to Claire and an annoyed Space Chicken)

Space Chicken: You realize we're right here and can hear everything you're saying, right?

Fred: What? I-uh... Uh... It was Sceb!

Claire: Wow... (zooms in on Claire and SC) you weren't kidding. He's a little... strange.

Space Chicken: (sighs) Don't worry. He'll come around. Or just continue to drive us all to the break of madness. Either way.

(cuts to the house again panning from up to down with the house being in the scene, then it cuts to Mr. Deutsch looking at a piece of paper)

Mr. Deutsch: Why is it that every time I make a quiz open book, everyone still fails? You know what? Next time, I'm gonna write the answers on the board. Just to see what happens.

Fred: (offscreen) Come on in, Melvin...

(Fred and Melvin walks in the room)

Fred: I'll show you where you can live without telling anybody that you're gonna live there! Oh, hey Mr. D. I thought Space Chicken was in here. Have you seen them anywhere?

Mr. Deutsch: I think he went with Claire to pick out paint colors for her new room.

(closeup of Fred)

Fred: Pfft. Of course. He didn't even ask me what color I wanted.

(closeup of Mr. Deutsch)

Mr. Deutsch: Well, it's... her room.

(cuts back to Fred)

Fred: Yeah, but if I'm walking down the hallway and the door's open, I'll have to look at it. That guy has no consideration for other people.

(long shot of the 3 characters)

Fred: Well anyway, if you see them, will you tell them that I invited my cousin Melvin to live here without telling him and if he has a problem with that then good 'cause that was my intention (or attention).

Mr. Deutsch: Wait... what do you mean live here? Claire took the last room in the house.

Fred: No, there's that one next to the basement stairs. It just needs to clear out a little.

Mr. Deutsch: (thinks, then gets ready to speak to Fred) Uh... that's a coat closet.

Fred: Whatever, he's fine. (to Melvin) Aren't you fine? (to Mr. Deutsch) He's fine. He lived in Canada for a while. This'll be like the Rich Carlston (or Charleston or whatever) for him. (leaving) We'll see you later.

(pause)

Melvin: One time I got electrecuted! (Mr. D looks worried) (laughs for a while like "Ah ha ha ha ha") Oh. You really had to be there.

Fred: (offscreen) Come on dummy!

Melvin: Cherrio! (leaves)

(pause)

Mr. Deutsch: Why do I stay here?

(text "THE END" and "and yet... only just the beginning..." appears in green, along with ending music)

Director's Cut Transcript
(cuts to the house, panning and zooming into the house while music is playing)

(cuts to a two-shot of Fred and Sceb reading a newspaper, zooming into them)

Sceb: (laughs) Oh Marmaduke. (rolls his eyes) Always getting into trouble because you're bigger than everybody else in the comic.

Fred: You know what I miss? That comic about the boy and his pet tiger.

Sceb: Calvin and Hobbes.

Fred: Yeah! That one! (points at Sceb) How come they (looks at the newspaper for a while) never put it in the paper anymore?

Sceb: Yeah, the artist has been retired for like 15 years.

(closeup of Fred)

Fred: Man, that must be sweet. (what did he say here) doing nothing without a (what did he say here) in the world... sign me up!

(closeup of Sceb)

Sceb: Uhh, no. When they say a cartoonist retires, they actually mean he either starves to death, or is locked up in some sort of mental institution.

(closeup of Fred again)

Fred: Man, that must be sweet. A big room with patted walls that you can slam your head into over and over... sign me up!

(long shot of Fred and Sceb with Claire and Space Chicken walking into the room)

Space Chicken: (carrying a small box that says "FRAGILE") Hey guys! Look who's here! (Fred, by the time, still frowning)

Sceb: Claire! How you been, kiddo?

(closeup of Claire)

Claire: Hi Uncle Sceb! I haven't seen you in forever! How's your plan to take over the world going?

Sceb: Oh... (extreme closeup of him smiling evily) slowly but surely...

(cuts back to the long shot of the 4 characters, only change with Fred having a look at Claire, despite not looking at her)

Space Chicken: And this is Fred. Fred, this is our niece, Claire. She's gonna be staying here while she goes to school in the area. We just finished taking most of her stuff up to the guest room.

Claire: Nice to meet you.

(closeup of Fred, pause, then cuts to a closeup of Claire)

Claire: Umm... Uncle SC told me a lot about you.

(cuts back to Fred, another pause, then cuts back to the long shot)

Space Chicken: Okay... yeah... anyway, we're gonna go get her settled in, so... see you guys later.

Sceb: See you later. (Sceb looks at Fred angrily) What is wrong with you? (Fred looks at him angrily back) That was mean even for me!

(pans to the two of them)

Fred: Who does he think he is, inviting her to stay without (pounds hand on table) telling anyone?

(closeup of Sceb)

Sceb: He told everyone. At the last house meeting. Which you showed up to, but then slept through.

(closeup of Fred)

Fred: I don't remember that.

(cuts back to Sceb)

Sceb: You slept through it! On the table! Where (or when) we were having a meeting!

(two shot of them)

Fred: Well it's just not right! You can't make a decision that affects everybody without asking me first.

Sceb: (rolls his eyes) I don't recall you asking anyone before you cut that giant hole in the living room ceiling and called it a roof window.

(cuts to a guy (may or may not be Mitch) sitting on the couch in the living room watching TV)

Man on TV: And here's your final Jeopardy clue. (ding) This author won a Nobel Prize in literature for his popular German poetry. Good luck.

(Jeopardy music plays, then a eagle is heard, and the guy starts to frown and look around, then an eagle flies in the room and his feet lands on his eyes, and the man starts to scream, then it cuts back to Fred and Sceb as his scream is heard)

Fred: (makes a kind of shrug like pose) That's totally different! He brought a girl to live here. I'm gonna have to start wearing pants.

(closeup of Sceb)

Sceb: You've never worn pants. Like, ever. Even when you go out.

(two shot of the characters again)

Fred: Yeah, and now I'm gonna have to. (pats Sceb back (kind of like) I'm glad you see where I'm coming from on this. (Sceb looks like he's ignoring Fred)

(cuts to outside the house again as it pans from up to down with the house being on the screen, then it cuts to Claire and Space Chicken in her room with SC holding a giant jar with coins in it)

Space Chicken: (walking to Claire with a giant jar full of coins) Claire... I won't ask why you have a giant jar of coins, if you quickly tell me where to put it down.

Claire: Oh. That's my quarter collection. Um... how about the top shelf for that bookcase. Thanks Uncle SC.

(Space Chicken groans, and then Fred walks by the door)

Fred: Look at them. (closeup of Fred) (what did he say here) around like they own the place. We'll see who owns what why when where how! I've got a plan to settle this score quite handily! (laughs)

(cuts to Claire and an annoyed Space Chicken)

Space Chicken: You realize we're right here and can hear everything you're saying, right?

Fred: What? I-uh... Uh... It was Sceb!

Claire: Wow... (zooms in on Claire and SC) you weren't kidding. He's a little... strange.

Space Chicken: (sighs) Don't worry. He'll come around. Or just continue to drive us all to the break of madness. Either way.

(cuts to the house again panning from up to down with the house being in the scene, then it cuts to Mr. Deutsch looking at a piece of paper)

Mr. Deutsch: Why is it that every time I make a quiz open book, everyone still fails? You know what? Next time, I'm gonna write the answers on the board. Just to see what happens.

Fred: (offscreen) Come on in, Melvin...

(Fred and Melvin walks in the room)

Fred: I'll show you where you can live without telling anybody that you're gonna live there! Oh, hey Mr. D. I thought Space Chicken was in here. Have you seen them anywhere?

Mr. Deutsch: I think he went with Claire to pick out paint colors for her new room.

(closeup of Fred)

Fred: Pfft. Of course. He didn't even ask me what color I wanted.

(closeup of Mr. Deutsch)

Mr. Deutsch: Well, it's... her room.

(cuts back to Fred)

Fred: Yeah, but if I'm walking down the hallway and the door's open, I'll have to look at it. That guy has no consideration for other people.

(long shot of the 3 characters)

Fred: Well anyway, if you see them, will you tell them that I invited my cousin (points at Melvin for a while) Melvin to live here without telling him and if he has a problem with that then (points at Mr. Deutsch) good 'cause that was my intention (or attention).

Mr. Deutsch: Wait... what do you mean live here? Claire took the last room in the house.

Fred: No, there's that one next to the basement stairs. It just needs to clear out a little.

Mr. Deutsch: (thinks, then gets ready to speak to Fred) Uh... that's a coat closet.

Fred: Whatever, he's fine. (to Melvin) Aren't you fine? (to Mr. Deutsch) He's fine. He lived in Canada for a while. This'll be like the Rich Carlston (or Charleston or whatever) for him. (leaving) We'll see you later.

(pause)

Melvin: One time I got electrecuted! (Mr. D looks worried) (laughs for a while like "Ah ha ha ha ha") Oh. You really had to be there.

Fred: (offscreen) Come on dummy!

Melvin: Cherrio! (leaves)

(pause)

Mr. Deutsch: Why do I stay here?

(text "THE END" and "and yet... only just the beginning..." appears in green, along with ending music)

(cuts to "It's All Relative" title with a "Watch More Fred The Monkey" button and a "Own a Space Chicken" button)

Easter Egg
NOTICE: This easter egg is only for the Director's Cut.

Click the "s" in "It's" to see that the man fell on the floor, and to also see what was the correct response to the Jeopardy game.
 * Man on TV: No, I'm sorry, that's incorrect. And what did you wager? Everything. Leaving you with 0. No one got the final question right. The correct response was: it was a trick question: there's no such thing as popular German poetry. Thank you for watching Jeopardy, good night.
 * (Jeopardy music plays, then easter egg ends)

BEYOND THE TOON
It took me 10 years to make this cartoon. TEN. YEARS. I drew the storyboard and original concept in 2002, before this website even existed. And now it's finally, FINALLY finished.

The original script/storyboard changed somewhat over the past decade, but the principal remains the same: This is the grand introduction of Claire the space chicken and Melvin the Monkey. Expect to see more of them in the future, as they are now regular cast members!

Keen eyes may notice that the character model of Claire was altered slightly since her cameo in 3-2-1 Relaunch Part 5.

-JK

EVEN MORE: Spell Check!
Sometimes people get them wrong, so here's a clarification: Claire is spelled with an E, and Cloe does not have an H!

Trivia

 * This cartoon was originally going to be released in November 2011, then December 2011, and then January 2012, but ended up on the website on February 2012. This is because this cartoon has no deadline and JKR takes his time ALL THE TIME.
 * On December 21, 2011, there was a sneak peak of Fred and Sceb in the kitchen with a newspaper.Fred_sceb_kitchenTableNew.png
 * First time the redesign of the Kitchen was seen.
 * First timewe saw the redesign of the Living Room.
 * First time we ever saw Claire's Room.DELETE.png
 * This is Claire and Melvin's ever first speaking appearance on FtM.
 * This is the second FtM cartoon in this design with a play button at the start.
 * This is the first cartoon in where you can click play after the toon is over.
 * This was described as a Feature Toon.
 * Fred's look at Claire was similar to his look in Mailbag 5, only that in this toon the mouth was much smaller.
 * In the living room, there was a picture of a Perry the Platypus and Space Chicken plush and another picture of a Fred statue that Tom made on the Minecraft server JKR plays on (in which the statue got burnt down).Perryscandpainting.pngFredClaireLook.png

Remarks

 * With Claire's debut, Cloe is no longer the only girl in FtM (well, she probably still wasn't anyway).
 * In addition, in the Spell Check, Cloe was mentioned.
 * Claire is most likely voiced by Q.
 * Mr. D is the only human character of the regular cast to appear in this toon.
 * Once again, like Halloween e-Card, this toon is in the current design, but has 24 fps. It was then confirmed by JKR that 24 fps is the new fps, as 24 fps is the fps of animated films.
 * Claire had a very slight difference in this toon than the other toon they appeared in. The only change is that her earrings are gone and her antennas changed shape.
 * The guy with the green shirt and blue hat may or may not be Mitch. And if so, JKR doesn't want to admit it that he's Mitch. Also, the room he was in seems to be the living room's redesign, which it first appeared.
 * There are several hidden storyboards in almost the entire flash file. In fact, the only scenes that lacked them in the background was the play button scene and where Fred said "That's totally different! He brought a girl to live here. I'm gonna have to start wearing pants.". However, in the Director's Cut, there was no sight of storyboards anywhere.
 * Phibbs in 3-2-1 Relaunch Part 5 said that they could introduce new characters, and SC said that was more like a one-episode thing rather than a feature. This is a feature toon though, and in Lazy is as Lazy Does, Clydex made his grand debut there.
 * Outside the flash file, when the eagle arrives, he has no eyes. Also, it has a light brown skin color rather than a very dark brown or very dark black color skin.
 * In the Director's Cut, there is two frames of the last available frame. However, the easter egg doesn't work in those last two frames.
 * In the Director's Cut, if you found the storyboards, you can see that several scenes had followed the storyboards.
 * One is Fred holding the door when he is looking at Claire and Space Chicken in the room.
 * Another is Fred making a slight frown when he see's Claire for the first time (where SC says "Hey guys! Look who's here!")
 * The part where Fred says "I'm glad you see where I'm coming from on this." also follows the storyboards.
 * A extremely noticeable one is where SC is walking to Claire with the Quarter Jar.
 * Melvin holding his body with his hands is a scene that was part of the storyboards, only that he didn't completely wrapped it like in the storyboards.
 * Finally, again, Fred pointing at Melvin while speaking to Mr. D was part of the storyboards, but in a different way.

Goofs

 * When Space Chicken is making Claire meet Fred, the purple background doesn't completely cover up the background.
 * The Wii seems to have disappeared in the Living Room.