Sat, Sep 11, 1993
A grasshopper called Hooper arrives in one of the outer districts of the metropolis, DOG CITY. There, he meets a gang of villains, the Hawks, who force him to leave. Luckily for him, not everyone will be enemies. A gang called the Dynamics, who get together in order to protect themselves from the Hawks, will help him. When a scrap seems unavoidable, Hooper suggests that the differences be settled playing basketball. If the Hawks win, Hooper will leave and the land which both gangs are fighting over will go into hands of the Hawks. If the Dynamics win, the land will be theirs and Hooper will be able to stay.
Seeing that the Dynamics on the court win, the Hawks decide to leave some of their players out of the next match, which they believe they will win without even getting off the bus. First they take care of Hooper: They leave him some apparently normal trainers, but which in reality are a dangerous invention which are activated when the traffic lights turn red. Hooper is run over and ends up in hospital. Not happy with this, the Hawks hold up a record shop and make sure that all the indications are that Freddy did it, who is then locked up by Inspector Dozy. This leaves the Dynamics with only three players for the match......
The Dynamics rescue an individual from a Hawks hold up, who later turns out to be a basketball talent-scout. After seeing them play, he decides to take control of the team and change their name: They will now be called 'The Howling Hoop Monsters'. Dog is set aside as director of the team, which doesn't worry any of the Dynamic's much except Hooper. In reality, the talent-scout is an actor hired by the Hawks to disarm the match play technique of the Dynamics. The talent-spotter makes them train by playing blind man's bluff and for the match against the Hawks, he has another unfeasible game plan up his sleeve. Halfway through the match and heavily loosing, Hooper and Dog make it their job to amend things.
A couple of 'gutter' television reporters - Sunny Day and FM - come to the district prepared to film 24 hours in the life of two rival gangs. They are disappointed to see that the Hawks and the Dynamics solve their difference on the basketball court and not on the street as they had expected. Sunny Day and FM are not prepared to leave without their news report, and therefore provoke a row between the Hawks and the Dynamics so that it finishes in a right free for all....
On the insistence of Charlie, Al fills out a hospital form in Hooper's name as a guinea pig for medical experiments. The next day, two unconvincingly dressed nurses - in reality Oli the Butcher and his helper Sal the cutter, ex-employees of a slaughter house - come to fetch him. Hooper cannot refuse to go, as it is an official document. The two impostors take him to a hospital room, where they will carry out a number of tests whose only results are to leave him out of the basketball match! Needless to say that Oli and Sal owed Charlie a favour and so to settle the score they offer to do this dirty deed...
In a new attempt to try and sink the oppositions morale Charlie asks Mike sarcastically how he can accept the fact that Linda studies at University, when this obviously will mean his girlfriend will be much more intelligent than him?? This makes Mike think, as he doesn't want everyone thinking of him as a soft touch and least of all he doesn't want Linda to think he is stupid. Therefore, Mike decides to study and goes to the University. Foreseeing possible problems, Hooper offers to go with him. Together they are in unknown territory, where a couple of students Insolent 1 and Insolent 2 will treat them as if they where weirdoes. However, at the end, Hooper and Mike will earn their respect on the court of the University's sport centre.
Hooper has been worried for the last few days. During the last week he has repeatedly dream about an accident which occurs during a basketball match. A fire ball - in human shape - a character called Ornirus Flamus, chases the Dynamics and one by one wraps each of the players in flames until he reaches Hooper, who then invariably wakes up. Hooper is a realist who only believes in things he can touch. Nevertheless, the re-occurrence of the dream worries him. He explains the goings-on to the Dynamics. Each of them gives a simple explanation to this phenomenon. However, slowly none of them succumbing to their own superstition and bad omens, wants to play in the match scheduled for the week-end. The fear increases when some of the things dream by Hooper begin to come true. It will have to be Hooper who will have to be strong and change the course of events...
The weathermen forecast a few days of torrential storms over the city. Due to the bad weather, no one can play basketball and the Dynamics try to entertain themselves in other ways. Hooper uses the time to restore an old rusty motorbike which he has found near the plot of land. With his usual talent, he in no time builds a one off - half Harley Davidson and half Chopper - and has it working again. The Hawks, who don't know what to do in this bad weather, soon turn their attention to Hooper's bike and hatch a plan: During the night they commit a robbery, using Hooper's bike, so that the police accuse him and lock him away once and for all. This is exactly what will happen. Inspector Dozy and Agent Mac arrest Hooper whilst he is cleaning his bike. Intelligence is not one of Archie's strongest qualities, who one night , with Hooper already locked up goes out to steal some more.
Hooper has to share his home for a few days with Smally. This basset snores wildly and stops Hooper from sleeping. He spends one night awake, he spends another night without a wink of sleep...Hooper is wasted due to lack of sleep. He even begins to fall asleep when training and the week-end match is getting closer. A solution has to be found: A place where he can sleep peacefully.... The Hawks, aware of Hooper's problem will do everything possible to prevent from catching up on his sleep for even one minute...
Dog has been acting strange recently: He's not at all demanding on the Dynamics and is totally indifferent. The Dynamics soon find out the reason for his lack of motivation. he's having very serious financial problems. The bakery is not doing very well and he owes a good few months rent. If he doesn't pay his debts he will loose his business and his home. Hooper decides to organize a 'shots' competition with some of the best shooters in town! Hooper recruits a couple of these players: Milton 'target' Fresno and Adam 'okay' Colorado. Charlie and Hooper will also participate. Charlie's intentions are not to join Dog's cause or to even be included in 'target' and 'okay's' advertising poster. What he wants is to steal the money collected to ensure that Dog has to leave and, the Dynamics have to fold...
A luxurious car picks Hooper up after a training session. Inside are Charlie and a very rich relative of his, Ronnie Moneybags. They want to bribe the grasshopper into playing badly, so that the Hawks can win. In exchange they offer him increasingly tempting things. Finally, it appears that Hooper accepts the bribe; but he is pretending. Hooper needs money to build a sports center in the area and he sees Moneybag's offer as the best possibility for his plans. Ronnie and Charlie agree to pay him the agreed sum, halfway through the match. This way the grasshopper will be able to leave quickly when the match ends and will not have to put up the row that he will undoubtedly get from the Dynamics. The day of the match finally arrives and Hooper starts off playing badly. However, as soon as he has been paid, he turns the match around in his usual way.
Freddy is traumatized. He has not yet been able to get a date. Hooper gives him advice in how to get one - but even that fails! Freddy does not know how to declare his love to the girl he likes, who is no other than Barbara. Hooper gives him a real demonstration using Barbara. However she thinks it is real and is well happy. It also brings other consequences: Charlie will get really miffed at Hooper.
After a mega thrashing by the Hawks in a game, Mike in rather low spirits, decides to abandon basketball and look for a job. He goes to the job-center with Hooper. He tries a couple of jobs ( a road sweeper, a maintenance man) but someone doesn't want him to get a job and settle down and they do everything in their power to get him fired each time. The 'someone's' are the Hawks....
The Dynamics receive notification from the Basketball Federation telling them that they have been preselected to play in the University Basketball league. For this reason they are invited to the annual party organized by the Federation. The Hawks volunteer to be the Dynamics's opponents in the exhibition match will take place after the party. Charlie's plan is to get them drunk and make Hooper and his team play whilst they're drunk in order to discredit them in front of the Association of Basketball Players, but in a strange twist, the Champagne is swapped for Dog's latest medication: Laxatives!!
The dynamics are playing their second match of the competition, this time their opponents are the Indefatigables. To the Dynamics's surprise, the Hawks come to cheer them on in full force. The reason for this?? If the Indefatigables loose they will have lost two consecutive games, which means they will drop a division and give the substitute team a chance to play. In this case the substitute team in the Hawks. In the Dynamics's, opinions are divided. There are those who want to fix the game to draw the match and others who want to play according to the rules.
The Dynamics have to face their next match against the Nose Hands. The team is doing very well and everyone speaks highly of their great season. Everyone except for Smally, who is convinced that they are only going through a lucky phase and will soon begin to slip up. Consequently, Dog wants to take him out of the team, convinced that his permission is harmful to the morale of the other members of the team. Hooper manages to get 24 hours from the coach, to try a dose of optimism on him before giving him the boot.
The evening before a very important match against the Barbarians, Freddy, who has let the success go to his head drools every time he goes past a car showroom window. He is in love with a red convertible. One day he finds it parked in front of his house (the Hawks have left it there in order to implicate Freddy in a robbery). Freddy falls into their trap and borrows it. From then on, the police hunt is on to find the car and capture the thief. At the same time, Hooper goes in search of Freddy to stop him from being arrested, but to do this he will have to leave the match for a few minutes. The team will play with only three players and will endanger their position amongst the league leaders.....
Hooper falls in love at first sight with an attractive grasshopper, from then on, he looks in vain for his beloved. However, one day he hears news of her in the form of one of her fingers which has been cut off!! The Hawks have kidnapped her and try to get Hooper to give them secret codes that the Dynamics will use during the next game. Hooper finds himself in a dilemma: To give in to extortion and make the Dynamics loose the match or refuse to co-operate and witness how the Hawks continue to cut up his beloved.....
Having heard the advantages of psychology when applied to sport, Dog decides to take on a psychologist who is an odd foreigner who applies individual therapy to each of the members of the team to improve their performance on the court. Instead of helping them, the doctors' therapy creates several problems which wipe out the team members once on the court. The next game is against non other but the Hawks who are completely aware of the psychologist's fatal influence....
The Dynamics have lost the match against the Hawks. According to their agreement signed by both parties, this implies that Hooper will have to move out and that the plot of land will belong to the Hawks. The Dynamics have no other choice but to accept this destiny whilst the Hawks revel in their misfortune. When it looks like all is over and Hooper is getting ready to leave, he finds Charlie in an awful mess. He asks Hooper for his help and believing that Hooper will ignore his pleas, rips up the agreement signed that he can stay on.
In the midst of a break of the professional league, the district is immersed in local elections. With the intention of diverting public money for his own benefit, Charlie presents his candidature. He wants several million to sign international basketball stars and to promote the Hawks. Aware of his plans, Hooper decides to back the other candidate: Joe Muermo, a guy who bores the pants of the electorate. There will be two totally different campaigns in which basketball will be a top issue.
Linda and Barbara feel discriminated against because of the way they are treated by their respective teams. they are fed up that for being girls that they have to end up doing all the dirty work and that their opinions count for nothing! They decide to make a new team consisting only of girls. In order to practice on the court, they challenge a team of members from both the Dynamics and the Hawks to play against them.
The owner of a supermarket chain, the multimillionaire McNamara, wants to purchase Dog's bakery. He refuses to sell it to him and so McNamara start a price war to sink his business. The Dynamics support for their coach vanishes when McNamara offers them a mouth watering amount in exchange for sponsoring them.
After spending a length of time behind bars, Lou Piscolabis, Charlie's father, finally gets out on remand and returns to the district. His great charisma as a veteran delinquent soon seduces the Hawks, which accept him as their new leader. Nobody respects Charlie anymore and he becomes deeply depressed. Meanwhile, his father and his ex-gang have fun causing havoc in the neighborhood, Hooper decides to intervene so that Charlie is once again the leader of the Hawks, but Charlie has no idea of how to beat his father as he is such a reputed criminal. Hooper suggests that if he can't compete with him as a criminal, he does it playing basketball....
Recently, Sunny Morse does not miss any opportunity to pick on the Dynamics, making jokes about them or ridiculing them on his television sports criticism programmer. Thanks to the reporter and his TV slot, the Dynamics have become for the public mere soap opera actors who everyone makes fun off. Hooper has the idea of creating a pirate television station to interfere with Sunny's weekly program and to fight with the same weapons that he uses on others.
The rock star, Gus Pantera decides to organize a charity basketball match. Although he's not very sure who will benefit he fancies doing it. However, he is sure that the Dynamics will confront the Hawks. Given the massive public interest aroused for such a great event, Gus decides to organize a three day non-stop marathon match. Both teams accept, more than anything not to disappoint the public...