- “Angelina, Priscilla is playing Cinderella. Nothing will change that. The show must go on!”
- ―Miss Lilly confronting Angelina before she decides to quit the show.
The Show Must Go On is the first Angelina Ballerina feature-length special.
Summary[]
It's Christmas time in Mouseland, and Angelina really wants to play the lead in Cinderella Mouse and the Ugly Whiskers. But there's only one problem. She has to sing to get to play Cinderella and is very afraid of singing in public. Priscilla Pinkpaws is chosen to play Cinderella Mouse because of her beautiful singing voice, and Angelina is cast as the Wicked Stepmouse much to her dismay.
Angelina is angered about losing the lead to Priscilla in the musical. Miss Lilly drops into Angelina's cottage and tells her that she has to think horrid to be the Wicked Stepmouse and she'll be a star. Angelina thinks Miss Lilly is right, but instead of sticking to her role, she's going to try to get the very strict Mr. Operatski to recast her as Cinderella and Priscilla as the Wicked Stepmouse.
During rehearsal, she does her best to steal the role of Cinderella from Priscilla. First, she sings in her sweetest voice. Then she dances with Priscilla during the ballroom scene. Last she dances gracefully. Miss Lilly scolds her for doing all this just to play Cinderella, and Angelina then loses her temper and quits the show. This leads to Miss Lilly being re-cast as the Wicked Stepmouse.
Then a toboggan race between Angelina and Priscilla goes bad when Miss Lilly gets hurt. Because Angelina had quit the show to avoid playing the Wicked Stepmouse and Miss Lilly can't dance, Mr. Operatski decides to catch the first train out of Chipping Cheddar! Angelina is terrified and realizes how selfish she'd been. If she'd stuck to playing the Wicked Stepmouse, this wouldn't have happened. What is she to do?
Synposis[]
It is Christmastime in Mouseland once again since last time, and Angelina, Henry, and their friends are going caroling to raise money for Miss Lilly's Christmas show. Everyone sings "Deck the Halls" nicely, except for Angelina, whose voice was too annoying. At home, Angelina started to get excited over being the title character in Cinderella Mouse and the Ugly Whiskers, but Maurice reminds her that she had to audition for the part first and not count her chickens before they hatch, in which he did anyway.
The mouselings were getting excited about starring in Cinderella Mouse and the Ugly Whiskers and spotted a toy theatre with the wrong shape and miscoloured curtain that flatters Angelina so much. At school, when Miss Lilly announces to her classmates that they were going to perform for Queen Seraphina, she brings in the world's famous composer and musical director, Ivor Operatski who comes in very quickly. To make a coach for Cinderella, Alice, and Sammy make perfect trade legs, then Penelope does gymnastics with a pair of ugly whiskers, and Henry plays a beetle who turns into a proud coachmouse, in which Mr. Operatski criticizes him for this. Finally, Angelina and Priscilla auditioned to play Cinderella Mouse and the ugly step-mouse. Angelina was starting to get nervous over singing in front of everyone because of her nerves, so she gets cast as the ugly step-mouse, and Priscilla gets cast as Cinderella Mouse because of her beautiful singing voice, much to Angelina's depression. Back at home, Angelina started to get mad over things not going her way until Miss Lilly arrives to confront her about playing the ugly step-mouse. She tells her that she would be marvelous while playing that role if she thinks horrid and finds out that she is right all along.
The next day, at the theatre, Mr. Operatski starts to get annoyed over Henry's performance and Angelina's singing, criticizing her for singing like an angel instead of thinking horrid and ordering her to find some oomph. She was still surprised to hear that Mr. Operatski said that she sang like an angel, even though she was supposed to be the ugly step-mouse. Henry keeps talking about Father Christmas too much that Angelina became very horrid with him causing him to cry. Back on the stage, she tries hard to be a perfect dancer for Miss Lilly and Mr. Operatski, but she decides to quit by yelling out, "Then it will have to go on without me!" and runs off crying. Since she left the show, Miss Lilly was cast as the ugly step-mouse. While Angelina walks home from the theatre feeling heartbroken and cries in her room for the rest of the night, Priscilla sings Cinderella's song beautifully.
Since she quit the show, she discovers that Miss Lilly would take her role. Later, at the theatre, as Alice and Sammy make more trade legs, Mr. Operatski yells at them to stand straight and tuck their tummies and tells Henry to get into position by standing up and turning. Unfortunately, he didn't know how, so he had to stay at the theatre to get it right. At home, as Maurice works on Mrs. Hodgepodge's trolley, Angelina decides to go for a walk until she bumps into Sammy who asks her to race with the Pinkpaws down Cheddar Hill and accepts. Meanwhile, Miss Lilly tries to catch up to Ivor Operatski who was taking a train back to his lodgings, and confronts him about her students until Sammy and Angelina bump into her and break her ankle during a race with the Pinkpaws. Later, Dr. Tuttle arrives to check on Miss Lilly's ankle and finds out that it has been sprained, which means that she cannot dance and carry on so she had to ask Miss Quaver to look after her for a while, making the Pinkpaws madder at Angelina for this.
Angelina discovers that she was the most horrible mouseling that had ever lived because of this, but Alice gets the idea to get Mr. Operatski to stay. Back at home, Angelina runs into Mrs. Hodgepodge and tells her father to write about the show going on. At the theatre, she tries to confront Mr. Operatski to stay by telling him that the show would not be a disaster if her father writes about him with a huge photograph on the front page of him with the queen. While getting Alice to run and find everyone, she discovers that Mrs. Pinkpaws bought the toy theatre for Priscilla and Penelope, replying that she did not want it at all since they had more things to worry about. At Miss Lilly's house, Angelina apologizes to a hurt Miss Lilly for being horrid and tells her that she has ordered Mr. Operatski to stay so the show can go on after all.
Back at the theatre, Angelina decides to agree with Mr. Operatski that the rolie polies should wiggle their feet, which will make the queen laugh about this. As Priscilla walks in, Angelina tells her that she'll be a wonderful Cinderella Mouse with more feelings. Then, Henry tries to be a perfect beetle, but he could not stop thinking about Father Christmas. He starts to cry again until Mr. Operatski tells him that he will speak to Father Christmas so he could ask him to talk to him when he comes to his bedroom if he dances well. He does, and it was a complete success. The show was going to go on after all. In bed, Angelina starts to be afraid of sleeping since her father was hammering until her mother comes in with her orange juice to tuck her in. The next day, Angelina learns to be mad and horrid by watching Mrs. Hodgepodge yell at Sammy threatening to tell his mother about him and that gave her an idea.
On the night of the show, Miss Quaver helps Miss Lilly to get to the theatre as the show starts to go on as Seraphina becomes impressed with it. Angelina starts to get nervous over being mad, bad, and dangerous, but Alice helps her by putting the crown on. She acts mad, bad, and dangerous and sings beautifully making the show a success. Miss Lilly saw everything and was so proud of Angelina just for that. William was so glad she wasn't horrid in real life and Mr. Operatski states that she was the sweetest mouseling in Mouseland. Just then, Maurice arrives with Queen Seraphina to get Mr. Operatski's picture.
That night, in Henry's room, Father Christmas arrives at Henry's house as a treat to tell him that he was a wonderful beetle that Mr. Operatski was telling him about. Henry tries to talk to him, but Father Christmas warns him that he will break the rule as he gets him to fall asleep and have beautiful dreams. Outside, Mr. Operatski discovers that he was the one surprising Henry as Father Christmas. On Christmas Day, at the Mouselings, Angelina opens the theatre with the right coloured curtain and the right shaped stage just like she wanted and hugs her father and Miss Lilly, wishing her a merry Christmas.
Trivia[]
- This is the only special where Alice and Angelina wear their vests for the remainder of the show.
- The special aired on PBS Kids and Sprout.
- This is the only special to use a special intro during the credits.
- This is the second time where Angelina and Henry cry in the same episode since "Angelina at the Fair", and this will happen one more time in "Angelina's Princess Dance".
- This is the only special that has to do with an injury after Sammy broke his leg in "The Cheese Ball Cup Final" and Mrs. Hodgepodge broke her leg in "Angelina's Surprise". Miss Lilly hurts her ankle after being pushed aside from Angelina and Sammy during a tobogganing race with the Pinkpaws. Priscilla would later hurt her arm in "The Old Oak Tree" after falling down a tree.
- This is the only special where Miss Lilly is seen half-barefooted.
- The special is loosely based on the book, "Angelina and the Princess," but in a Christmassy way.
- The title of the special has the same name of an episode of Inanimate Insanity, which is an object show created by Adam Katz and first uploaded onto YouTube in April 2011.