Unfinished Arthur

# Every day you walk down the street Everybody that you meet

# Has an original point of view

-# And I say, hey!

-Hey!

# What a wonderful kind of day We can learn to work and play

# And get along with each other

# You gotta listen to your heart Listen to the beat

# Listen to the rhythm of the street Open your eyes! Open your ears!

# Get together, make things better By working together

# It's a simple message And it comes from the heart

# Believe in yourself For that's the place to start

-# And I say, hey!

-Hey!

-What a wonderful kind of day

# We can learn to work and play And get along with each other

# What a wonderful kind of day, hey! What a wonderful kind of day, HEY! #

Hey, DW!

-Hey!

-Whoa!

Wh-h-h-h-hy?

Why what, Arthur?

Why do I have to go to a boring party with you

when it's sunny out and DW gets to go to the lake with Emily?

sometimes we have to do things we don't want to do.

There's no kids!

-You said there'd be kids!

-Mrs Fox said there would be.

-Why?

-She probably thought people would bring them.

Why would she think that?

Questions! Sometimes you can't know the answer to everything.

And sometimes you can't know the answer to anything!

OK, Arthur, we'll stay a little while. Just try to occupy yourself.

How long is "a while?"

Why can't grown-ups ever just answer a simple question?

Why can't they say, "Yes, we know the answer and this is what it is?"

Why? Why? Why?

Why, Why, Why, Why can't someone give me AN ANSWERRRRRR?????

Sorry! Just doing a little bit of packing here

before Mrs Fox and I move to the retirement home.

"93 Million Miles in a Balloon."

Got that from Granddaddy when I was your age.

Why aren't you at the party?

Boring old people.

Oh, sorry. Why aren't you?

Boring young people.

Keep it.

I have to get rid of most of this stuff, anyway.

Be careful with the loose pages.

Weird. Why is there a balloon in the library?

Don't remember.

"Lord Caleb Trimingham, bored, restless and, as always,

"aggravated by his house staff's lack of interest in his questions,

"looked to the ceiling as if for an answer

"and saw a balloon.

"A hot-air balloon, to be precise, descending from the rafters."

What kind of answer is that? And what questions was he asking?

"Yet before Lord Trimingham could express

"irritation at the inappropriateness of the balloon, he was greeted."

Dr Gustavius Boles. Don't bother to get up. Just passing through.

But what are you doing here?

How did you get that balloon in that suitcase?

-Ah, a questioner. Sorry, I've no time at the moment.

-No! Wait!

You didn't answer my questions. Who are you? How did...?

Dr Gustavius Boles, as I've informed you. I'm a balloon explorer.

-What's that?

-Here we are. Thank you for the ride.

What is this place? What does he do here?

I don't know, sir. I'm just a driver.

Dr Boles, what are you...?!

Oh, dear, it's the questioner.

DAD: OK, Arthur, time to go!

Already? Why do we have to go right now?

"As Lord Trimingham bravely tried to brace himself

"for the crushing waters ahead..."

WE'RE DOOMED!!!

That's the first thing you said that isn't a question. Here, take this.

Of course. The Falls of Glomach in Scotland

-leads to a garden of the Taj Mahal in East India.

-The what?

There are connections between all things in existence.

Your library ceiling is connected to the baboon cage in the Cairo Zoo.

I presume that answers all possible questions. Here.

You might want to wear that.

It provides oxygen and protects the body

against pressure and temperature.

I expected to make this exploration without stowaways,

so be careful, that's my spare suit.

Where are we going?

I've always wondered what the sun was connected to.

Mom! Dad!

Arthur?

-The end is missing.

-Why are you up past your bedtime?

-I'm reading.

That's good, isn't it?

OK, well, thanks for looking, Mr Fox. Arthur appreciates it.

He can't find pages that might have fallen out.

And can't remember the ending, except it's something to do with the sun.

-Sorry, Arthur.

-But how am I gonna find out what happens?

Yes!

One copy! "Fiction BOU."

Yes, apparently 93 Million Miles In A Balloon

was checked out ten years ago and never returned.

Never returned?

Whoever borrowed it moved and left no forwarding address.

But don't worry, if he comes back, I will revoke his library card!

Oh, uh, thanks. I'd rather have the book.

-Can you order another copy?

-Oh, no, dear.

That book is long out of print.

Maybe you can buy a copy on the Internet.

"Rare copy. Fair condition."

Order it! Please?

"1,000 dollars!"

Oh, I'm sorry, honey. We tried.

And that's the only used copy available.

-What about posting on a message board?

-Good idea. Let's try it.

Hey, look! There's a movie, "93 Million Miles in a Balloon"

-We can rent it on 16 millimetre.

-What's 16 millimetre?

It's 25 years since I've used this 16 millimetre projector!

-Hope it makes it!

-It's such a cool book.

Wait'll you see, he rides this balloon into a waterfall

-and out into space and...

-What? I can't hear you!

Never mind! You'll see!

# Flying high, flying low!

# Broadway rhythms go, go, go!

# 93 million tapping feet

# Make a sound that can't be beat! #

Oh, Caleb, I've always wanted to star in a Gustavius Boles show!

I know, Sally, and 93 Million Miles in a Balloon is his biggest hit yet!

I thought they were gonna fly into the sun?

This isn't in the book!

Sing it, Sally! This show is gonna make you a star,

or my name ain't Gustavius Boles, the biggest producer on Broadway!

# It always seemed that old Broadway

# Was 93 million miles away

# But with the help of this balloon, I'll get to Broadway soon! #

"93 Million Miles in a Balloon.

"The exploration plot was dropped by producer Bugsby Brown

"and turned into a backstage musical to showcase his writing skills."

ARRRGHHH!!!

Well, I'd rather see a good musical any day

than some silly story about balloons in outer space!

It's not right to make movies about flying into the sun,

-what if some poor kid imitated it?

-What about the ending?

There couldn't be a logical ending to that book.

It is impossible to fly into the sun.

But there is still an ending.

Just because you didn't read it doesn't mean...

-Yeah, if a tree falls in the forest, does anybody hear it?

-Of course!

Buster means if it falls and no one hears it, does it make a sound?

What, there's not even insects there to hear it?

What forest has no mosquitoes?

I just wanna know the ending!

-MUM:

-Uh, Arthur. I found the pages.

-I just washed your jacket and looks like they were in your pocket.

-No!

No!

No-o-o!!

I'm sorry, Dr Boles.

I didn't think to look in my jacket and now...

-Foolishness is no excuse. Well, we'll just have to keep going.

-Wait!

How can we when we don't know what the ending is?

If an explorer only proceeded knowing what he was to discover,

no discoveries would be made at all.

But there's nothing to discover! There's NO ENDING!

We'll find another one.

There's only one ending to a story, Dr Boles.

Good news. Somebody responded to your post on the board.

A woman in Shelbytown found a copy when cleaning out her garage.

I can't believe it!

I'm actually going to find out the answer.

Sure was nice to drop off the book.

That clan of eight kids must really keep her busy!

Well, aren't you gonna read it?

NOOOOO!!!!

This is kind of what historians go through -

piecing together the past from clues. They reach dead ends too.

But this isn't history. This is a story!

With an ending! We KNOW there's an ending.

Well, we know there were endings in history, too,

we just don't know what they all were yet. It's exciting.

-I'm never gonna find the ending, am I?

-You don't know that.

It's hard to predict. There's nothing to stop you imagining what you want.

You know, maybe you're right.

I mean, maybe I could write myself an ending. Kind of a sequel...

-There you go. You've found yourself an answer.

-Goodnight.

Lights off? ARTHUR LAUGHS

-What's so amusing?

-The ending.

I finally found it and it was completely colored by babies!

You know, you're right, Dr Boles, let's keep going.

The future's out there. The unknown. Let's explore it.

Sometimes people can't tell you the answer to something

and you have to find it out for yourself. All right!

Yeah!

Subtitles by Laura Jones Red Bee Media Ltd 2006

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