- Shrimp: [blips]
- [other shrimps blipping]
- Polvina: This is the place, Camarina?
- Ester: This is where your friends saw the monster?
- [shrimps blipping]
- Camarina: They say it was shiny with a huge bright eye.
- Ester: How huge?
- Tubarina: [points] Anything bigger than my nose is huge to a shrimp. Since when did we start listening to shrimp?
- Polvina: Where are you going, Tubarina?
- Tubarina: Back where I should have stayed – home. [to herself] Shiny with a huge bright eye, tell me another one!
- [submarine noises]
- Tubarina: Oh!
- [submarine noises]
- Tubarina: [gasp] It is a monster. And it does have a big bright eye.
- Polvina: That’s no monster, Tubarina.
- Ester: It’s Drylanders!
- [shrimps blipping]
- Camarina: You’re right, we should tell the kings and queens about this.
- Tubarina: What’s the point? The Drylanders are moving away from here. It’s not like they’ll find our homes or anything.
- Polvina: You want to bet?
- Ester: [gasp] They’re heading towards the school!
- Tubarina: What’s to worry? The school is invisible to outsiders, remember?
- Ester: Hey, right! The new paint my father invented means the Drylanders can’t see any of our buildings.
- Polvina: But he’s still experimenting with it. We don’t know if it works yet.
- Ester: Of course it works. [uneasy] I think.
- Polvina: And don’t you remember what Miss Marla said last week?
- Tubarina: I remember. But the shrimp probably don’t know so you should tell them.
- Ester: We’ll show them and you too.
- Ester: You see this?
- Polvina: The first lot of paint on the school wasn’t put on properly. We have to do it again.
- Tubarina: I knew that! Miss Marla wants us all to help do it next term.
- Ester: But it can’t wait till next term, not with the Drylanders around.
- Polvina: We’ve got to repaint it now.
- [shrimps blipping]
- Ester: What do they want?
- Camarina: They want to help paint the school too.
- Tubarina: Them? They’re way too little.
- [shrimps blipping]
- Camarina: But they want to do something.
- Tubarina: The best help they can give us is to stay out of our way.
- Polvina: I’m sure there’ll be lots for them to do.
- Tubarina: Like what?
- [shrimps blipping]
- Polvina: Like, uh...
- [shrimps blipping]
- Camarina: No, it’s nothing to do with you being small.
- Tubarina: [hushed] It’s everything to do with that.
- Camarina: It’s because, um…
- [shrimps blipping]
- Camarina: I’m not a very good liar.
- Ester: You didn’t lie. We’ll find something for them.
- Polvina: Yeah, and being small is OK. Size doesn’t matter at all.
- Tubarina: Unless you’re very small. Like a shrimp.
- [whale call]
- Ester: Here comes Leia and her whale friends!
- Polvina: And everyone else! With paint too.
- Tubarina: Look at how much those whales can carry. See what I mean about being big? You just can’t beat it.
- Camarina: Big? [sighs]
- Polvina: [hushed] Tubarina!
- Tubarina: What? What did I say?
- Ester: We’ll have this paint job done in no time.
- Polvina: We will if we don’t run out of paint.
- Ester: We can’t have run out of paint. Isn’t Tubarina handing out more?
- Polvina: Tubarina? Our paint’s run out.
- Tubarina: I know it’s run out.
- Ester: So, can we please have some more?
- Tubarina: We’ve run out. There is no more.
- Ester: But we haven’t even painted half the school.
- Tubarina: Miss Marla says that we have to go ask the Starfish King.
- Ester: Then let’s go ask him.
- Starfish King: You need more paint?
- Ester: Yes, Father. We’ve run out. Everyone’s run out.
- Starfish King: Oh, I knew I should have made more.
- Polvina: We have to get the school finished today, sir.
- Tubarina: There are Drylanders nosing around right this minute.
- Ester: We have to get more paint, Father.
- Starfish King: We have plenty of paint. We just don’t have the special sand.
- Polvina: What sand?
- Starfish King: The paint only works if it’s mixed with a special sand. But we’ve used all our supply.
- Polvina: Can’t we find some more, sir?
- Starfish King: We’re looking for more but it’s proving impossible to find. I shouldn’t mope about, I must help with the search.
- Ester: We’ll help too.
- Tubarina: And the Drylanders, what about them?
- Polvina: We should check them out. Whatever happens, they mustn’t go anywhere near the school.
- [submarine noises]
- Crab: [yelping]
- Ester: They’re still here.
- Tubarina: And they’re getting very close to our school.
- Polvina: We should go and warn everyone.
- Camarina: There’s nobody there.
- Ester: How come?
- Camarina: Everyone is out looking for the special sand.
- Tubarina: Then we should look too.
- Ester: But shouldn’t we try and keep the Drylanders away?
- Polvina: We could do both.
- Tubarina: How?
- Polvina: The more eyes looking for the sand, the better, right?
- Camarina: And I can get those eyes! [shrill call]
- Ester: That’s how you call them?
- [shrimps blipping]
- Camarina: We need to find more special sand. So split up and look everywhere you can.
- [shrimps blipping]
- Ester: Now to keep those Drylanders away from the school.
- Leia: [comes in] And small won’t help with that, it’s for someone big. Go!
- [whales calling]
- [submarine noises]
- Leia: The whales will get their attention and lead them away.
- [submarine noises]
- [whales calling]
- Leia: They should go now.
- Ester: They should but they’re not.
- Polvina: They’re still heading for the school.
- Leia: How can they ignore whales?
- Camarina: Maybe they don’t like whales.
- Leia: Everyone likes whales. Even Drylanders! [leaves]
- Polvina: The Drylanders must be looking for something else.
- Camarina: Like what?
- Ester: Who cares, as long as they don’t find our school.
- Polvina: Big didn’t work, is it time for small?
- Camarina: We can try! [shrill call]
- Tubarina: [angrily] Isn’t there some other way you can call them?
- [shrimps blipping]
- Camarina: We need to stop those Drylanders seeing the school. Can you help?
- [shrimps blipping]
- Tubarina: There’s no way a bunch of shrimp can stop Drylanders.
- Camarina: Just watch!
- [submarine noises]
- [shrimps blipping]
- Polvina: They’ve blocked their view! The Drylanders can’t see.
- Ester: Brilliant!
- Camarina: Wherever the Drylanders go, my friends will go.
- Polvina: All the Drylanders can see is shrimp.
- Tubarina: OK, but they can’t do it forever.
- Polvina: So we’d better get moving, then.
- Ester: And find that special sand.
- Shrimp: [blips]
- Camarina: Already done!
- Tubarina: You’re kidding me.
- Camarina: Come and look for yourselves.
- Tubarina: This isn’t some sort of shrimp joke, is it?
- Camarina: You’ll see.
- [shrimps blipping]
- Tubarina: Where did they go?
- Polvina: In there!
- [shrimps blipping]
- Tubarina: Is that the sand we need?
- Ester: [gasp] That’s the stuff!
- Tubarina: But how do we get it? We can’t fit through those holes.
- Polvina: Why’s that?
- Tubarina: Why? Well, because we’re too big, of course.
- Polvina: [giggles] So?
- Tubarina: [sarcastically] Oh, OK. We need someone small, and I wonder who that can be.
- Camarina: Coming right up! [shrill call]
- [shrimps blipping]
- Tubarina: So they’re small enough to get into the cave, but how do they take the sand to the school? A grain at a time?
- Polvina: Good idea, Tubarina.
- Tubarina: It is?
- Camarina: You know what to do?
- [shrimps blipping]
- Ester: Let’s get back to the school.
- [shrimps blipping]
- Tubarina: [amazed] They are doing it a grain at a time.
- Ester: While they’re doing that, we should mix the sand with the paint.
- Tubarina: Oh, we need to get everyone back to start painting.
- Ester: That’s going to take forever.
- Camarina: No, it won’t. I asked my friends to get everyone back here.
- Tubarina: So where are they?
- [whale call]
- Polvina: That could be them.
- Leia: We’re ready to paint again!
- Ester: Thank goodness for the whales.
- Tubarina: Right, there are some things that small shrimp just can’t do.
- Polvina: Look again, Tubarina.
- [shrimps blipping]
- Ester: Wow! That’s what I call shrimp power.
- Tubarina: OK, I give up. I promise never to say another bad word about shrimp again.
- Camarina: Thank you, Tubarina.
- Ester: Nice to hear you’re friends again but it’s not getting the school painted.
- Polvina: Get your brushes, everyone!
- Tubarina: I’m finished.
- Ester: I’m almost there. Uh, just this one spot to do. Oh, and this one. And this one too.
- Tubarina: Ester, it’s not a work of art. It’s a wall.
- Polvina: Trust us, Ester, it’s done.
- Ester: [uneasy] If you think so.
- Camarina: Ester! Tubarina! Polvina! The Drylanders, they’re coming!
- Ester: Everyone inside! Quickly!
- [students rushing]
- Tubarina: Let’s hope the paint has worked.
- Polvina: There’s only one way to find out.
- Camarina: Should I call my friends off?
- Ester: Do it, Camarina.
- Camarina: [shrill call]
- [shrimps blipping]
- [submarine noises]
- Tubarina: Here it comes.
- Polvina: Please don’t see the school.
- [submarine noises]
- [students cheering]
- Tubarina: The paint did it!
- Polvina: The Drylanders didn’t see the school!
- Tubarina: [to Ester] So your father’s invention has worked!
- Ester: It’s worked this time but who knows if it’ll keep on working.
- Polvina: We don’t know how long the paint lasts.
- Tubarina: But at least it saved us this time.
- Ester: You bet!
- [students cheering]
- [shrimps blipping]
- Polvina: Thank you, Camarina.
- Tubarina: And thank you too, shrimp. I take back everything I said about you.
- [shrimps blipping]
- Ester: You were right, Polvina. Size doesn’t matter.
- Tubarina: It means nothing at all.
- Polvina: Hmm, maybe.
- Ester: What do you mean, maybe?
- Polvina: After everything that’s happened, I now think that size actually does matter.
- Tubarina: What?
- Polvina: Not the size of your body, but the size of your determination. And these shrimp have the biggest amount of determination I’ve ever seen.
- [shrimps blipping]
- Girls: [laughing]