Movie: (1956) When the chickeney Phantom of Krankor attacks Japan, a slim-hipped hero arrives to save the day.
First shown: 8/16/97
Opening: Crow and Tom’s “Dog and Bear” game gets out of hand
Intro: Bobo, then the Widowmaker, then the SOL are dragged into a wormhole
Host segment 1: M&tB are unstuck in time
Host segment 2: Mike is transformed into a small robot
Host segment 3: The wormhole deposits M&tB in a rather lovely sylvan glen
End: All seems normal again on the SOL (except for the presense of Krankor), but Pearl and Observer have arrived on Earth in Roman times!
Stinger: The Phantom says: “Hah! Hah! Hah! Hah! Hah! Hah! Hah!”
(334 votes, average: 4.75 out of 5)
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• Bridget’s take on this episode is here.
• Of course, with this episode, into the wormhole we go. And while the “Roman times” story arc is, in my view, a mixed bag at best (more on that in the next installment), this episode, which takes place in the wormhole itself, is one of the best of season 8. The movie is profoundly stupid and feels very season-three-ish, the riffing is excellent and the host segments are clever and fun.
• This episode was included in Rhino’s The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection, Vol. 7.
• References.
• Is that “dog and bear” dialog from something? (A commenter suggested it was inspired by Jack London’s “Call of the Wild.”)
• “I like it very much!” became an immediate catchphrase and soon appeared on an MST3k bumper sticker.
• Some fans got a bit fed up with all the Japan bashing in this episode, and while I don’t agree that it was as bad as they made out, I WILL acknowledge that this show has FOUR “cram school” jokes.
• Did you enjoy the “Hardrock and Coco and Joe,” reference. Watch the whole thing here.
• Also: When there is a high-pitched, evil laugh, Crow intones “Rrrrraceway Park!” that’s a reference to radio commercials for this drag racing venue, (which is still in operation at this writing). I assume that riff came from Bill, who at this point replaced Frank as the source of East Coast references.
• Kudos to the Brains on getting the complicated time lag sketch right! That must have been tough to write! After the sketch, Mike and Tom are already in the theater and Crow, still lagging, joins them.
• Robot Mike does a theater segment. I like a nice detail on the Mike puppet in theater — he has a headset!
• Very typical of this show, when Mike returns as himself, he simply announces that he “got better.” Nuff said!
• Callback from the old days: a Gamera reference!
• Note that the door sequence leading to the “sylvan glen” segment ends with a real bone slamming over a wooden door. The segment is a little startling: It reminds you how studio-bound the show was. I don’t remember where I saw this, it may have been one of the Scifi.com IRC chats, but at some point one of the Brains said that the sylvan glen was only a short walk from the studio. I believe that. The area around the studio was definitely a mix of office park and what I presume was as-yet-undeveloped former farm land.
• That’s Bill as Krankor, or course.
• Cast and crew roundup: The producer of the American version, Walter H. Manley, did likewise for “The Green Slime.” Screen writer Shin Morita also wrote — dull surprise — “Invasion of the Neptune Men.”
• Creditwatch. That’s Kevin, of course, as Callipygeas (which roughly means “fat ass”) and Bridget as Favia. Kevin produced and directed. Andrea Ducane did hair and makeup for every season 8 episode except this one, when one Sharon Davis filled in. Mike Parker is back as grip (after two episodes off) and will be for the rest of the season. John Simms, who had an “SFX/foley” credit for six episodes earlier in the season, reappears as “boom operator,” which will continue for the rest of the season.
• Fave riff: “Oh, fer cryin’ out loud … EACH OF YOU…” Honorable mention: “Oh the inanity! Oh the Japanity!” “o/` Isn’t she lovely… o/`”
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“A rare Godzilla-free day” — one of my fave riffs ever. It’s just fun to say when you step outside on a beautiful day.
“I’m not scared; if you are, go on home.”
Strangely, the first few times I watched this one, I heard that line the way the Brains did (i.e. as nonsense). Now I hear it as the dubbers intended… I still like the follow-on riffs though.
This is another great one for me. I tend to watch it less frequently now because I watched the hell out of it and started to get bored because I memorized all the riffs…
-We like it very much!
-Crow and Tom really remind you of imaginative children when playing “Dog and Bear”. They’re much cuter than actual children though.
-I don’t mind these kids as much as the one’s in the Gamera films. Yikes.
-The “Space-Time Continuum” sketch is a stroke of genius. That must’ve taken some time!
-I love how even when weapons are useless against him, Prince still occasionally ducks out of their way.
-Who was talking? Anybody?
-The worst evil laugh of all time is heard in this movie. Who on earth does an evil laugh like that? It’s too forced!
-I’d like to note that Boot-blacking, after Side-hacking, is the thing to do.
-Glad we’re getting to the Roman Times segments!
Eight years of my life (4 as a kid, 4 as an adult) were spent living in Japan, which is part of the reason that the badly dubbed Japanese Kaiju and sci-fi movies are my favorites when it come to MST3K. I love them all (even Mighty Jack).
This one in particular is absolutely one of the highlights because the entire show is pretty solid. The host segments are great, the riffing is great, this is definitely a top 5-10 episode for me. Ironically enough I lived in Japan when this episode originally aired (my dad taped eps and sent them to me) so the reference to Fritz Mondale made me laugh because he was indeed the US Ambassador to Japan at the time.
Some of the highlights (in no particular order):
– “A wormhole.” “A worm what?” “A wormhole.” “A what-hole?”
– The entire Space-Time Continuum segment is awesome.
– The world championship’s on tonight! Tom: “Of what?”
– Krank-whore?
– A rare Godzilla-free day.
– They’re going to kill the differin?
– I’ll throw my doll at you!
– I thought you said you were going to start with the children…
– the apparently deaf scientists….”what? Huh? What’s that?”
– the exchange of deadly negative scratches.
– Is his watch right? We may never know.
– The Phantom randomly giving everyone 4 hours off.
– YA SCUM!
That’s just what I can think of at 7:30 in the morning. There is so much to love in this episode.
where in Japan, lived on Yokota Air Base from 1983-1986 (as a kid). seeing the icon, you must have been in SAC?
I have admonished my children on more than one occasion to please go play “sea lion and squirrel”.
I often forget this one when listing my favorites for some reason. Nearly every host segment is a winner (love the time lag and robot Mike bits), and the movie…well, it’s better than Invasion of the Neptune Men, right?
NICE! I was at Yokota AB from ’95-’99, 374th CES (hence my Dad taping and mailing the “new” episodes when they moved to Sci-Fi).
I was in SAC at my first duty station, Fairchild AFB, WA, I always did love the SAC crest.
I also lived in Japan as a kid from 73-76, my Dad was in the Navy and we lived in the Yokohama-Yokosuka area.
Krankor prefaces some of his sentences with “Well, it may interest you to know –” Shouldn’t there have been a riff to the effect of “Hm, no, now that you mention it, that doesn’t interest me at all”? ;-)
Uh, you get that Mickey’s a CHILD, right? Expecting a child to possess the same level of courage as an adult is ludicrous. Moreover, children are by definition “parasites” because they have to get everything from adults because they are able to get nothing, or almost nothing, for themselves. And since Wally went to the trouble of adopting Mickey, Wally must find him endearing in some way. Plenty of kids benefit from loving authority figures without any sign that they “deserve” such benefit. That’s one of the many mysterious inherent in parenthood.
No, but to Mickey, Wally’s answer should ideally have been “No, I’m not afraid [I’m wearing a tie you go home] at all.” Mickey’s half-formed notion that he and Wally should fight the aliens themselves is exactly how a child might think because when you’re a child, you know with utter certainty that you and everyone you care about are utterly impervious to harm. Until you find out differently, and then you’re afraid.
As noted earlier — as, in fact, the film clearly depicts — he revealed during the press conference that he had received information to that effect, from secret resources.
Whatever Krankorian science designed them to do. Any sufficiently advanced technology and I’m sure you know the rest.
Have you no respect whatsoever for traditional Krankorian execution methods?
Maybe the fuel that they have is only able to power THAT SPECIFIC SHIP.
Seriously, folks, try thinking outside the box a LITTLE. Sheesh.
Oh no, it’s contagious.
Except there’s no particular reason to have such a list. Aside from Japanese tabloids, why would anyone CARE what Prince of Space’s secret identity is? For that matter, why would it even occur to anyone that he HAS a secret identity, that he isn’t Prince of Space 24/7?
People…
This Isn’t A Comic Book.
;-)
That said, maybe Makken *knows* that Wally is Prince of Space and THAT’S who told him about Krankor wanting the new fuel formula in the first place.
I’m sure EricJ smells a conspiracy of Watergate proportions there :P
Zen Buddhism was a Chinese import. The tentacle porn is less surprising when you look at some of the monsters from Japanese folklore. Consider the shirime, a humanoid with an eyeball where its anus should be.
The “World trolling”–once they knew they had spinoff Sci-Fi viewers in UK, Canada, and “Europe”, meaning Italy where Sci-Fi didn’t have one–started to get a bit out of hand in S9, but trolling more race-based countries than Canada, audiences might see as crossing a few lines.
Some non-fans may have, in fact: S8-9’s obsession with baiting their non-US audiences, and M&tB’s own “fed-up” bashing delivery on every gag blaming the country for the movie, started to sound more Trump-ish than mischievous, and it’s not hard to see public reaction playing a part in SciFi deciding to start pulling the plug after S9. Neptune Men certainly didn’t help.
The Mike-era Brains already seemed to be aware of the issue, given the comics’-bravado “Oops, is THIS too internationally offensive?” Italian-filter host-seg in “Devil Fish” later on in S9.
Eh, I’d be more with the social head-shaking about just how squicky and racist (borderline or over) culturally-uninformed Japan-hating jokes from twenty-five years ago sound today coming from after Toyota’s corporate-invasion late 80’s, but before we knew what the heck anime was in the mid-90’s–Ie., after Michael Keaton in “Gung Ho”, but before the “gun-toting” Sailor Moon became a national heroine.
Angry-Kevin’s Mike-era episodes just HAPPENED to fall into that sad historical era. If they only ever did one Prince of Space movie, this was it, but Invasion of the Neptune Men was just too early-90’s “shock” tempting.
(And if you’re asking “what’s with” the tentacle-porn, keep in mind that Japanese high schools keep the boys “responsibly” separated from the girls, which later leads to entire generations of male Japanese adults with the same high-school terrors of the opposite sex…It explains a LOT, including the country’s current birthrate problems.)
No one can resist my… things!
This was one of the earliest episodes I can remember seeing on the Sci-Fi channel during its initial run. I think I only saw the second half of it or so at the time, but it was enough to keep me coming back for more. All the host segments are hilarious, and the sylvan glen one gets just a bit poignant as Mike gingerly reaches out and pokes a tree as he saunters down the path. Poor guy.
As for the movie, this must have been a big budget production for its time since it must have been shot in widescreen given how characters disappear offscreen yet still keep talking. Not quite ‘Forbidden Planet’ though, is it?
Fave riffs
“This may be our last day on Earth!”
Let’s hit the karaoke bar!
Man, what a bunch of ugly looking kids! They yours?
Although I could easily defeat them I must get away. MOOOMMMMM!
“I’ve been observing you for some time.”
He knows about the porn!
[scientists hop over melted door]
My arthritis!
My spastic colon!
Oh, my gout!
Oh, my bad knee!
Oh, my baldness!
This movie makes me want to renounce my Toyota…
My only real complaint about this episode is that it introduces us to the gawdawful Roman Times plot. It might have SEEMED like a good idea at the time, but, whoo boy…
Some good host segments in there. But it does lead us to the Roman times, which can be amusing, but become less so after multiple viewings. The movie is a double edged sword; sometimes it’s funny, most times it’s soul crushing. But infinitely more watchable than Neptune Men (which also has a few really good host segs, go figure).
I have to agree, the bashing of other countries really gets out of hand in the Sci-Fi era. What was the point of letting all that anger take over the comedy? My theory for this anger is, and has been, Sci-Fi gave the Brains poor choices for the show, combined with bitterness from doing the show so long and the constant threat of cancellation.
This is one of the best episodes, mainly because the movie is so perfect for MST3K. It has everything: A goofy, incomprehensible Japanese kiddie show storyline, cheesy effects, a completely ridiculous giant/monster, ineffectual villains who look like chickens, major “batch” issues, annoying kids (one of whom is dubbed to sound like junior mob guy), and the hilarious head villain — Krankor, who not only looks like a chicken but has the worst “evil laugh” of all time. Then there’s his costume, which is mostly satin and tulle, and looks like it was made by his mom, and his mom still hasn’t gotten over the fact that she didn’t get the daughter she wanted.
Plus it has some great host segments, chiefly the “time warp” and Mike-bot bits. Also, Bill does a great Krankor. His return in the “Neptune Men” episode was hoot.
The thing I don’t get here – and if anyone has an answer, I’d be very grateful! – is why doesn’t the Phantom of Krankor simply use one of his many powerful weapons against the so-called “Prince of Space”?
This one has been a long time favorite, and, I just watched again recently. As far as badly dubbed movies from Japan (repackaged TV series too) this one comes in second to the Fugitive Alien series. Lovable dreary black and white and disturbing chicken men captured me again along with great riffing. I loved the time/space and Sylvan Glen skits too- and, I don’t mind the Roman Times host segments as my Wife laughs at them every time we watch this one and subsequent episodes. I’ll close with- “we like it very much!
But in fairness it is a well known fact that children have level 5 security clearance in Japan.
Yeah, good question. It was a little subtle, but at some point I seem to recall P.O.S. making a statement at least alluding to the lack of efficaciousness of said weapons. Or am I just making that up?
;)
I and my boys seriously love this episode… it would have to be in my top dozen. “I like it very much” is one of the most commonly-used MST3K callbacks in our household.
Hmm…really? Wow, I must have missed that plot point…;)
No, I’m pretty sure Krankor’s weapons would work against Prince of Space. It’s worth a try, at least.
Definitely. I mean, it’s not like all the Phantom’s weapons were gonna be totally incapable of having any significant negative impact on the Prince, right?
By the time the SciFi style fell into a rut with RiffTrax, it tended to emphasize that MK&B have ONE note to their humor: Shock the masses, and spoil the inane “happy” tone of the movie by finding the cold-water negative in everything.
During the Joel era, it was Kevin’s Servo, the hipster “Cool Guy”, who was the one hip discordant note that could bring the contemporary refs, shock-jokes, and inappropriate-dark gags into the silliness for a change of pace, but during the Mike era, it WAS the pace–They didn’t exactly KNOW any other kind of humor, least of all embarrassing/obscure pop refs.
We have three comics with almost the exact same dark, angry, superior sense of humor, and we get one style of joke for 90 minutes, breakfast, lunch and dinner.
And what’s the most “shocking”, “inappropriate”, “negative” or “dark” thing you can say about a foreign-import movie? Wild guess…
(Just off the subject: Listening to some of the RT that’s popped up on Pluto and Amazon, while “Comics hate other comics”, have we ever heard what classic comedians MK&B DO like? We’ve heard them utterly baffled by the “violent sociopathic” Stooges, and making Brit-bashing snipes at Benny Hill…What next, Charlie Chaplin was a communist?
They seem to believe they’ve discovered their own hipster secret to comedy for the next generation, by being as cathartically arrogant and negative towards anything society holds dear, and that anyone else who’s gotten it wrong over the last hundred years is just adding to cultural annoyance for the sole purpose of wasting THEIR valuable time.
And that apparently goes for other countries we’re supposed to be “nice” to, as well.)
Why would anyone shell an Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe? Those are great.
Also, following the golden age, Superman’s comic book titles tried to de-emphasize his near-omnipotence with stories that required him to THINK his way out of problems. Hence, at least in part, Lois Lane’s near-perpetual quest to prove that Clark Kent was really Superman (or vice versa), requiring Superman to OUTWIT Lois again and again. Whether this was all that much of a challenge at the time is a matter of opinion, of course, but…
How precious. As someone who finds Mike and Kevin (Bill, too) to be absolutely hilarious, I’ve never understood why they LOVED the Three Stooges so much. They’ve repeatedly stated their admiration on the show and in writing. I’ve never seen the humor in anything the Three Stooges did, but I just accept that Mike and Kevin seem to like them. I definitely don’t hold it against them. Somehow EricJ, in his pathological hatred of Mike, et al. seems to believe that they hate the Stooges. Perhaps if I lived in his bizarro-universe, I’d share his dislike of Mike and company. I’m happy I don’t.
My theory is that EricJ views Mike, Kevin and Bill as one-note and intolerant because he projects himself onto others.
PROJECTED MAN!!!
…You should try going on a SWING PARADE! (As RT reminds us is the title of that early-Stooges-cameo musical at generous intervals.)
https://www.rifftrax.com/swing-parade-three-riffer-edition
And yes, there are some who can watch “You Nazty Spy” and still not “get what’s the appeal”, but education and outreach has a long way to go.
It’s generally women, though, who are the ones who say “What, they’re hitting people, that’s mean!”, unless it’s MK&B in most of the RT riffs.
Eric clearly doesn’t understand that when they riff a movie like Swing Parade, they are JOKING. He seems to think that every riff is meant to be taken seriously.
Either that or He Just Doesn’t Care.
Please tell me this site is working on a permanent ignore button?
As for the episode, it’s always a surprise to me how much I enjoy it while I watch. I never seem to remember it as a favorite, but it really should be
This site is working on a permanent ignore button.
Wait, you didn’t mean “accurately,” did you?
Well, back at it.
Sampo, if you need a GoFundMe page for a permanent Ignore button for this site, I would contribute. It’s not the fun site it used to be even a year ago, and the current Ignore button does not work.