 In the scene where Nicky Flippers, played by  David Ogden Stiers (qv), needs to understand what Twitchy the  squirrel is saying, he uses a tape recorder to slow down Twitchys  speech so that he can find out what Twitchy is saying and save the  day. This is a reference to  _Circle of Children, A (1977) (TV)_ (qv). In that movie, a teacher  named, Dan Franklin, also played by Stiers, needs to understand what  a young boy is saying and uses a tape recorder to slow down the boys  speech so that he can find out what the boy is saying and save the  day. This method (recording and playing back in slow motion) was  also used in _Dick Tracy (1990)_ (qv) to understand what "Mumbles"  (played by _Dustin Hoffman_ (qv)) is saying.