The Adventures of Ook and Gluk: Kung-Fu Cavemen from the Future

The Adventures of Ook and Gluk: Kung-Fu Cavemen from the Future
Author(s)	Dav Pilkey (credited as George Beard)
Illustrator	Dav Pilkey (credited as Harold Hutchins)
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Captain Underpants series
Genre(s)	Children's novel
Publisher	Blue Sky (US), Scholastic (US)
Publication date	August 10, 2011
Media type	Print (Hardcover, Paperback)
Preceded by	n/a
Followed by	The Adventures of Ook and Gluk Jr.: Kung-Fu Cavekids in Outer Space

The Adventures of Ook and Gluk: Kung-Fu Cavemen from the Future is a graphic novel by Dav Pilkey^[1] and a spin-off of Captain Underpants.

The plot of the book is George and Harold, the lead characters from Pilkey's Captain Underpants series, complain about that scientist know everything so they make a comic book about science facts.

Plot summary

Professor Gaylord M. Sneedly, Melvin Sneedly's father, calls this book scientific error and said that cavemen did not co-exist with dinosaurs and to prove that he's right, he claimed that he was a recipient of The Most Brilliantest Science Guy of the Whole Wide World Award. However, creators George and Harold denied that and said they time-traveled and witnessed that cavemen did co-exist with dinosaurs. They said scientists do not really know everything and make guesses based on evidence they already discovered so they called this book "First book based on science facts". Then their story begins about two cavekids named Ook Schadowski and Gluk Jones who live in Caveland, Ohio. The ruler of Caveland, Big Chief Goppernopper, hated those kids but forced Ook's sister Gak to marry him. Ook and Gluk became friends with a T-rex Mog-Mog and her baby and they all ruined Goppernopper's wedding, making Gak happy. Angered by this, Goppernopper quit as chief of Caveland and walked with his guards until Goppernopper met his descendent, J.P. Goppernopper, who is the CEO of Goppernopper Enterprises from the year 2222 A.D. Two Goppernoppers worked together to steal natural resources from cavemen days through time portal since all natural resources will be used up by 2222 A.D. Then Ex-Chief Goppernopper went back to the past and forced every cavemen living in Caveland to become slaves for the rest of their lives, making them official property of Goppernopper Enterprises. Becoming slaves, Ook, Gluk, and baby Mog-Mog were shoveling until the two Goppernoppers took the cavekids to 2222 A.D. to torture them, but baby Mog-Mog followed them to help them escape. Ook, Gluk, and baby Mog-Mog hid in Master Wong's School of Kung-Fu. There they trained and became good at kung-fu. Ook fell in love with Master Wong's daughter, Lan. Lan named baby Mog-Mog "Lily" after her favorite flower. Ook and Gluk grew up, training under Master Wong and no matter how good they were at kung-fu, Master Wong did not award them new belts as they constantly requested. In order to get new belts, the cavemen had to give the right answer to Master Wong's question: Who is the greatest man? When it was time for Ook and Gluk to save their village, they finally answered who the greatest man is: Nobody. It was a correct answer to Master Wong's question, so he finally awarded them black belts, telling them that titles and trophies have no value to the man who is at peace with himself and true greatness is anonymous, therefore the greatest man is nobody. Ook and Gluk realized that these belts have no value since they are at peace, but they took the belts anyway. Then Ook, Gluk, and Lily entered Goppernopper Enterprises, time-traveled back to cavemen days, and kung-fued the guards only to free the slaves. Then Ook's sister Gak fell in love with Gluk and called him hero. After that, Chief Goppernopper returned and ordered his Mechasaurs (dinosaur robots) to attack Ook, Gluk, and Lily. Then Lily and the cavemen spray-painted pictures of themselves on the buildings so the Mechasaurs will destroy anything that has the faces of Lily and the cavemen. They also spray-painted on Goppernopper Enterprises building so it will be destroyed, and spray-painted on the explosive tank, which also destroyed the Mechasaurs themselves. After Ook and Gluk's victory, J.P. Goppernopper sent them a letter, telling them that he captured Master Wong and Lan and that they will be killed if Ook and Gluk won't give up now. When Ook, Gluk, and Lily returned to 2222 A.D., they saw Master Wong and Lan tied up. The cavemen wondered how the Goppernoppers found them and the Goppernoppers said that since they realized that Ook and Gluk learned kung-fu, they searched for kung-fu schools in town and there was only one. As soon as the Goppernoppers were going to kill the Wongs, Ook and Gluk pleaded with the Goppernoppers to release the Wongs and said they will do anything. The Goppernoppers agreed and had Ook, Gluk, and Lily handcuffed and changed their minds about releasing the Wongs and vowed to kill them all. Ook and Gluk wondered how to get out of this and Master Wong told them to remember their training. Then Ook and Gluk remembered all of the teachings from Master Wong and finally they got an idea. When J.P. Goppernopper raised his ray gun to kill them, Ook and Gluk asked the Goppernoppers the question: Who is the greatest man? J.P. Goppernopper answered that he is the greatest man while Chief Goppernopper also answered the same thing. After that, the Goppernoppers disagreed with each other and argued about who the greatest man is and got into a fight. J.P. Goppernopper zapped Chief Goppernopper, killing him. Then J.P. Goppernopper started disappearing since he killed his ancient great-grandfather before he had children. The polluted world was being replaced with the world without Goppernoppers. Then Ook, Gluk, and Lily ran back to the disappearing time portal, but Ook soon returned because of his love for Lan. Lan said she will be his cavewife and they both entered the cavemen days. Lily was finally re-united with her mother Mog-Mog. Ook, Gluk, Lan, Mog-Mog, and Lily returned happily to Caveland.

Characters

• Ook Schadowski - a caveman and a friend of Gluk

• Gluk Jones - a caveman and a friend of Ook

• Gak - Ook's sister who later becomes Gluk's wife

• Master Wong - Ook and Gluk's kung-fu teacher

• Lan - Master Wong's daughter who later becomes Ook's wife

• Mog-Mog - a T-rex

• Lily - Mog-Mog's daughter. Lan named her Lily after her favorite flower

• Chief Goppernopper - A ruler of Caveland and an antagonist who is the ancestor of J.P. Goppernopper

• J.P. Goppernopper - Another antagonist who is the CEO of Goppernopper Enterprises whose ancestor is Chief Goppernopper

Sequel

The Adventures of Ook and Gluk Jr.: Kung-Fu Cavekids in Outer Space is about Ook and Lan's son, Ook Jr., and Gluk and Gak's son, Gluk Jr., as cavekids who will have adventures with Lily in outer space to encounter space aliens.

Reception

The book was at #1 on the New York Times hardcover graphic novel best-sellers list its first week of release,^[2] and remained at first place for six consecutive weeks. It served 33 weeks on the list^[3], its period on the list overlapping with the paperback edition's presence on the paperback best sellers list.^[4]

School Library Journal described the book's humor as "completely immature, and for the target audience, completely hilarious". Booklist suggested that the book would "appeal to those who like silly adventures, puke-based humor, and kung-fu fighting."

References

1. ^ "Good News for Fans of Bathroom Humor". The New York Times. 18 March 2010. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/19/books/19arts-GOODNEWSFORF_BRF.html. Retrieved June 13, 2011. 
2. ^ http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/dav-pilkey/
3. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/best-sellers-books/2011-09-18/hardcover-graphic-books/list.html?date=2011-09-18&category=hardcover-graphic-books&pagewanted=print
4. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/best-sellers-books/2011-10-02/paperback-graphic-books/list.html?date=2011-09-18&category=hardcover-graphic-books&pagewanted=print

External links

• Ook & Gluk: Kung-Fu Cavemen from the Future