Elmer builds a crocodile bridge with lollipops

Elmer builds a crocodile bridge with lollipops when the Wild Island River blocks his way to Baby Dragon. Rather than risk the river or alert Gorilla by summoning the dragon, he persuades the Crocodiles to arrange themselves across the water. Their raised tails form the route he needs: a perilous stretch of river becomes a passage made possible by appetite, patience, and practical improvisation. The scene ends with the bridge assembled, before the crossing itself is shown.

The River and the Captive Dragon

Elmer first searches the bank for a way across. He finds a high flagpole with a rope running over the river, through a loop at the pole’s top, and down to a large crank. Its sign explains that the crank summons the dragon and instructs visitors to report disorderly conduct to Gorilla. The mechanism offers a route to Baby Dragon, but it is also part of the system holding him captive: Elmer knows from Old Alley Cat that the rope is tied around the dragon’s neck.

That knowledge changes the apparent solution into another threat. If Baby Dragon is on Elmer’s side, Gorilla can twist his wings until pain forces him to fly back across; if he is on the other side, Gorilla can crank the rope until he chokes or flies back again. The rope therefore does not provide a safe means of calling for help. It makes the dragon’s forced movement part of his torment, and Elmer’s pity for him deepens as he recognizes the trap’s consequences.

Calling across the water would risk being heard by Gorilla. Climbing the pole and crossing hand over hand would be exposed and arduous, while the muddy river might contain dangerous creatures. Elmer has no better plan when a splash sounds behind him. In the fading light he cannot identify what is in the water; only after the moon emerges does he see a Crocodile’s head above the surface. The encounter presents the danger he had feared, but also gives him a different possibility: the Crocodile speaks of the water’s pleasures and its craving for something sweet.

Persuasion with Pink Lollipops

Elmer declines the invitation to swim after sundown and offers a Pink lollipop instead. He also proposes that the Crocodile may have friends who would want some. The first Crocodile welcomes the treat and calls to the others; a chorus answers, and Elmer counts seventeen Crocodiles with their heads just above the water. The number turns a single encounter into a potential route across the river, while their shared enthusiasm gives him a way to organize them without force.

Elmer takes out two dozen Pink lollipops and rubber bands. He places one on the bank, explaining that sweets last longer out of the water, and lets a Crocodile taste one. Once it approves, he asks permission to move along its back and fasten another lollipop to the tip of its tail with a rubber band. The Crocodile agrees and lifts its tail when asked. Elmer runs along its back and secures the treat; a second Crocodile then swims up and begins sucking on that lollipop.

The sequence depends on keeping the Crocodiles willing at each step. Elmer offers a reward before asking to approach, checks that the first Crocodile will cooperate, and makes the next treat visible to another. His manner turns a potentially dangerous encounter into a series of small agreements. He does not overcome the animals by strength or try to drive them into position; he uses what they want to invite them into a useful arrangement.

A Bridge of Raised Tails

Elmer next asks the Crocodiles to save time by lining up across the river so he can give each one a lollipop. They do so, raising their tails while they wait. The tail of the seventeenth Crocodile reaches the opposite bank, completing a continuous line across the water. The arrangement is the bridge: not a constructed structure, but a chain of living bodies held in place by the promise of sweets.

The method answers the scene’s practical and moral problems at once. Elmer avoids the muddy water and does not use the dragon-summoning crank, which would expose Baby Dragon to Gorilla’s control. Instead, the obstacle becomes a crossing through cooperation with creatures who have their own immediate interest in the bargain. Yet the bridge remains precarious and conditional; the Crocodiles are waiting for their treats, and the narrative has not yet shown Elmer making the crossing. The episode closes at the moment his improvised route is ready, turning suspense toward the next stage of the rescue.

The scene’s reversal is carried by its materials. A river that looked impassable is crossed in possibility by lollipops and rubber bands; the Crocodiles’ tails, lifted for a sweet, become the means of reaching the far bank. Elmer’s ingenuity is not simply a clever trick: it avoids worsening Baby Dragon’s captivity while making a path toward him. The bridge gives a concrete form to the rescue’s central challenge—finding a way forward without making the captive suffer more.