The premiere of the new Disney Channel series Hamster and Gretel gets right into the story and adventures of the new crime fighting duo and their older brother, Kevin.
Empower Failure
The pilot episode of Hamster & Gretel gets right to it. Introducing Kevin, older brother of Gretel, and his cool life while driving the family minivan. While picking up his younger sister and her pet hamster, named Hamster, the van suddenly grinds to a halt. Problem with the car? No. There is an alien ship hovering above them that is granting them with predictably unpredictable superhuman powers. The voice booming from the ship ensures that “the two of you” will be granted powers, so naturally Kevin thinks that he and Gretel will be gaining new abilities. Spoiler alert: Gretel and the Hamster get the powers, leaving Kevin his normal teenage self.
The show then rolls its catchy theme song, showing how special Gretel and Hamster are now with Kevin just driving along in the family minivan. After, we see more of the team dynamic the pair has taken on during a news report with a cat trapped in a well. Gretel and Hamster are on scene with Kevin nearby in the van taking control of the communications behind the situation. After saving the kitten, Gretel does a brief meet and greet in her hero form, where her friend Bailey says that she also has a friend named Gretel who has a pet hamster, but Kevin also has told Gretel not to tell Bailey. In fact, the only person who does know who their identity is is their cousin, Fred.
At the nearby comic shop, Fred reveals Kevin’s crush, Hiromi, and sets him up on a date at a headlining concert in town. While at the concert, Kevin’s phone blows up with an app Fred has installed with an actual supervillain challenging Hamster and Gretel. This might be too much for the pair (in Kevin’s eyes) and intervenes. After a sentimental sibling moment, the battle between the villain and his army of robots takes place. However, the cocnert is starting soon and Kevin heads that way only to discover the villain has now trapped the heroic duo in an electrical force field that will never turn off as long as there is power supplied to the city.
Kevin, with the help of Fred’s friends in the concert, whip out a new jam that will get the whole city to turn on every appliance and electrical device to overload the grid. The series is going to be musical, and this is this episode’s big musical number. The plan works and after some monologuing, the pair are released. Kevin arrives back at the concert to find out that the show has ended early due to the blackout, but still gets a chance to hang out with Hiromi and talk about the group’s new single about appliances.
Oakey Dokey
Hamster and Gretel are on scene to help the fire department put out a fire. The town’s water pressure is turned off so it’s up to them to help put out the fire using Kevin’s complicated formulas. Gretel has a more aggressive approach to everything, and just wants to punch a water tower with the hole spilling into the fire to put it out. She does so, and blasts the top of the water tower into space with her water tower punch. Hamster lifts up a pickup truck to aim the water just right and the fire is extinguished.
The kids join the rest of their family and friends at a nearby park where Gretel and Bailey convene to hang out in their favorite tree, which they have lovingly named Oakey. Elsewhere in the city, an agency is tracking an asteroid that is set to miss Earth by only two degrees… until that Water Tower lid makes it into space and hits the asteroid just right sending it right into a collision course with Earth.
Fred has also been tracking and realizes the city is doomed. Kevin brings Hamster and Gretel to a nearby amphitheater to use the domed stage to catch the asteroid and save the city, again with a complicated formula that causes Gretel to give up and just go punch the meteor like she did with the water tower.
The Meteor Punch(!) takes place, sending the space rock back into, well, space and a chunk of the asteroid breaks off and heads away from downtown saving the city. Too bad that small chunk is now heading right for her favorite tree, Oakey, obliterating it to bits. While Kevin is there to comfort her in the debris, he starts explaining consequences to her actions of just punching things, but Hamster has realized that they can reassemble the debris and with some glue, the rodent and Gretel put the tree back together again.
As happy as that is, Kevin is still upset and explains to their cousin, Fred, that its frustrating that Gretel never listens to him. Despite the advice to roll with the punches, this will probably be a recurring theme throughout the series.
Hey remember when Hamster and Gretel were granted their powers to be used only for good? What if that were to happen and two others were granted powers to use, only for evil? Oh wait, that's totally what happens.
This episode of Hamster and Gretel is now available on Disney Channel and the DisneyNOW app.