Episode 903- Puma
Man
Movie
Summary: Within the context of
our world, this is actually a cheerful little film, what
with guys being hurled mysteriously off tall buildings and
Donald Pleasence strolling around in a silvery muumuu. The
villains, of whom Donald is the leader of course, want to
find the real Puma Man, an Aztec god sort of personage who
they figure has moved to swingin' London. He can be
identified by throwing him off a building and observing how
he survives: Puma Men fly, see, so they definitely have a
leg up on real pumas.
Puma Man turns out to be the wispy Tony Farms, and he is
identified by a hulking yet gentle Aztec named Vadinho. They
become fast friends, once Tony manages to get past Vadinho
throwing him out a window and learns to ignore the palpable
condescension that characterizes Vadinho's attitude towards
him. Together, they uncover Donald's plan to dominate the
world through controlling the minds of all the world's
(male) leaders. This he does by slapping together papier
mache models of their heads and staring at them (the models
or the real heads; either seems to work) intently from
behind plexiglas.
Vadinho teaches Tony how to hang awkwardly from strings and
how to play dead when threatened, and with these two skills
firmly in hand Tony defeats Donald, albeit with Vadinho
stepping in when something especially difficult or physical
needs doing.
Prologue: Servo has "short man's disease." Fortunately,
it's treatable with baby aspirin.
Segment One: Pearl plans an elaborate ball, inviting
everyone in the vicinity to her new castle; Brain Guy plans
a little get-together at the same time, with Ortega and his
cousin Staci the first guests. Pearl forces the Mike and the
'bots to mingle among themselves; Servo is the only one who
gets into it.
Segment Two: With the help of hairdresser Shellie the
nanite, Mike opts for "the dry look." His head becomes
extremely dry.
Segment Three: Crow and Servo force Mike to don a silly
costume and declare him to be "Coatimundi Man." He has all
the attendant powers of the mighty coatimundi.
Segment Four: Crow and Servo create a replica of the head of
Roger Whitaker, but Mike can't think of anything to do with
him even though they control him now. Crow and Servo,
peeved, threaten to sic Roger Whitaker on Mike.
Segment
Five: In the wake of the
movie, Crow resigns, and then immediately returns and is
granted a free-lance position at lower pay with no benefits.
In the castle, Pearl's party is a bust, while Brain Guy's is
a huge success; then Roger Whitaker shows up and charms the
heck out of Pearl.
Reflections: I'm
the only one amongst the writers who believes the people
behind Puma Man intended humor in the very geeky way Tony
flies, what with his unremarkable limbs waggling all over
and his sad cape coupled incongruously with his J.C. Penney
slacks. Everyone else believes the filmmakers were deadly
serious from the get-go.
On the other hand I do agree with the other writers that it
would have been unpleasant to spend much time kissing Tony
Farms, an activity portrayed rather a great deal in the
movie. Bridget and Mary Jo were especially vehement on this
point, I recall.
I was in Mexico once and saw a coatimundi. Yep. -- Paul
Chaplin.
|