{"id":22028,"date":"2012-09-21T06:34:54","date_gmt":"2012-09-21T10:34:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/?p=22028"},"modified":"2012-09-11T21:02:07","modified_gmt":"2012-09-12T01:02:07","slug":"history-of-the-comic-book-film-sssssmmmmoooookin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/2012\/09\/21\/history-of-the-comic-book-film-sssssmmmmoooookin\/","title":{"rendered":"HISTORY OF THE COMIC BOOK FILM: Sssssmmmmoooookin&#8217;!!!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-22033\" title=\"The_Mask\" src=\"http:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/The_Mask-198x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"198\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/The_Mask-198x300.jpg 198w, https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/The_Mask.jpg 259w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 198px) 100vw, 198px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>In a multi-part series, Comic Book Film Editor William Gatevackes will be tracing the history of comic book movies from the earliest days of the film serials to today\u2019s big blockbusters and beyond. Along with the history lesson,\u00a0<\/em><em>Bill will be covering some of the most prominent comic book films over the years and why they were so special. This time, we\u2019ll look at the comic book film that played a part in Jim Carrey\u2019s three-pronged 1994 rise to power and unleashed Cameron Diaz onto the unsuspecting public\u2014<strong>The Mask.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>1994 was the year of Jim Carrey. The one-time struggling comedian, known primarily for such less-than-stellar resume items such as the film <strong>Once Bitten <\/strong>and the TV show <strong>The Duck Factory<\/strong>, hit the stratosphere that year. He was one of the stars of the successful sketch comedy show, <strong>In Living Color<\/strong>, and had just made the jump to the big screen in three humongous films. In February, he starred in the surprise hit, <strong>Ace Ventura: Pet Detective<\/strong>. In December, he closed the year with another hit, <strong>Dumb and Dumber<\/strong>. In between the two, he had another hit, one that played to his talents, in my opinion, better than the other two. That film, <strong>The Mask<\/strong>, hit theaters in July.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9mKFH0Om1ts\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"550\" height=\"309\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Ace Ventura: Pet Detective<\/strong> and <strong>Dumb and Dumber<\/strong> were two shades of the same performance\u2014the obnoxious man child, a rebel that was equal parts crazy and stupid. They were performances that were acquired tastes. Your enjoyment of the films would vary depending on how well you could tolerate Carrey\u2019s antics.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Mask <\/strong>was different. It showed that Carrey wasn\u2019t just a one trick pony. He was forced to curtail his Id for half the film and play a nebbishy Stanley Ipkiss. The other half, he was allowed to let it loose as The Mask, a character almost custom made for Carrey\u2019s acting star. But even playing a character that was a living cartoon character, he still showed a great deal of restraint. He kept The Mask within the framework of the Warner Brothers cartoon style (especially that of the Tex Avery directed features) instead of just allowing him to become an unfettered force of nature.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/250px-Msktpb.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-22034\" title=\"250px-Msktpb\" src=\"http:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/250px-Msktpb-193x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"193\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a>Of course, Carrey almost didn\u2019t get the chance to prove his acting chops in such a way. Hollywood had a little bit of trouble figuring out how to adapt Mike Richardson, John Arcudi and Doug Mahnke\u2019s comic book creation to the big screen. Their first instinct was to make it a darker horror film, similar in tone to the <strong>Nightmare on Elm Street <\/strong>films. If you have already seen <strong>The Mask<\/strong>, and are not familiar with the comic book, the idea that the producers could move from a horror flick to a living cartoon might blow your mind. However, if you were familiar with the comic book, then you\u2019d realize that the source material lay right between the two concepts.<\/p>\n<p>The film\u2019s hero, Stanley Ipkiss, only lasts through half of the first Mask comic book storyline. He is actually killed by his girlfriend. Why? Because she realized that the mask turned Stanley into a crazed killer. The mask would turn off the wearer\u2019s morals to such a point that the wearer would kill whoever got in their way. The Mask would kill them in a \u201cLooney Tunes\u201d fashion, but they\u2019d die nonetheless. It might be the type of world where The Mask would break into a rendition of \u201cCuban Pete\u201d\u2026<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UfFLHexJnUA\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"550\" height=\"442\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u2026but he\u2019d probably be up to his ankles in the blood of those police officers by the time the number was over.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Mask <\/strong>picked the better way of doing things, making the character violent but not homicidal, making The Mask immoral but not cold-blooded. This makes the audience more willing to accept the cartoon aspects of The Mask. It\u2019s pretty hard to do a pastiche of the world of classic cartoons that is drenched in blood, other than Itchy and Scratchy.<\/p>\n<p>Since the film changed its plot from the comic, that meant Carrey could stick around longer and, therefore, build up more of an impression. And since there was no need for Stanley\u2019s girlfriend to kill him, there was no need for a girlfriend. This allows the film to make another improvement over the comic\u2014the addition of the pseudo-love triangle.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/cameron_diaz_mask.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-22030\" title=\"The Mask1994real : Chuck RussellCameron DiazCOLLECTION CHRISTOPHEL\" src=\"http:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/cameron_diaz_mask-198x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"198\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/cameron_diaz_mask-198x300.jpg 198w, https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/cameron_diaz_mask.jpg 433w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 198px) 100vw, 198px\" \/><\/a>Stanley is presented with two potential love interests in the film: Tina, a voluptuous gangster\u2019s moll played by Cameron Diaz in her first film (And, yes, I said voluptuous. While the present day Diaz could be best described as \u201csinewy,\u201d back then, she was voluptuous. And she oozed as much sex as she possibly could in a PG film), and Peggy, a put-upon reporter who seems to have more in common with Stanley than might first appear. What makes this \u201ctriangle\u201d great is that in traditional film convention, Tina would end up breaking Stanley\u2019s heart and he\u2019d end up with Peggy.\u00a0 In this film, the opposite occurs\u2014Tina stays true and helps him out while Peggy turns him in to the mobsters that are looking for Stanley so she can collect on the reward. I remember being quite impressed with that plot point when I first saw the movie.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Mask <\/strong>was a success and there was originally going to be a sequel starring Carrey, but after a horrible experience on <strong>Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls<\/strong>, Carrey shied away from any future sequels. Even though the comic had a number of different people wear the mask, producers decided not to recast the role for the sequel at that time. I wish they held true to that belief, because then we would have been spared the debacle that is<strong> Son of the Mask.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9Ef4UtxBrUY\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"550\" height=\"343\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/movieposter.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-22029\" title=\"movieposter\" src=\"http:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/movieposter-202x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"202\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a>You have to wonder what was going through the minds of the makers of the 2005 bomb?\u00a0I mean, it had been 11 years since the last one, the only cast member to return was Ben Stein, who reprises his cameo role as an expert on masks, and the best replacement for Jim Carrey they could find is Jamie Kennedy. I know that comic book films were starting to get really popular with the audiences, but they should have tried harder to make a better movie.<\/p>\n<p>But they didn\u2019t seem all that concerned with that. This film was even lighter that the first film. Whereas the makers of the first film seemed to have a love and respect for the classic cartoon style they were emulating, the makers of <strong>Son of Mask <\/strong>might have seen a cartoon once in their lives and thought they could emulate it properly from their limited memory. Instead of trying to get the cartoony tone right, they included more scenes where the family dog ended up wearing the mask, because those scenes were so awesome in the original.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/son-of-the-mask-19.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-22031\" title=\"son-of-the-mask-19\" src=\"http:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/son-of-the-mask-19-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/son-of-the-mask-19-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/son-of-the-mask-19.jpg 432w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>The \u201cson\u201d in the title refers to Kennedy\u2019s and Traylor Howard\u2019s son, who is born with the powers of the mask after Kennedy\u2019s character impregnates Howard\u2019s character while wearing the mask. That adds a little bit of kink to a family-friendly film. The main plot involves Loki (Alan Cumming) trying to get the mask back while Kennedy\u2019s character has to deal with jealousy between his dog and baby, both at various times super powered.<\/p>\n<p>The film opened the same weekend as another comic book film, <strong>Constantine<\/strong>, and debuted in fourth place. It didn\u2019t get much better from there.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Mask <\/strong>was the first Dark Horse character to make it to the big screen, but it wasn\u2019t the last. The 1990s featured three more Dark Horse films, and we will cover them next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\">The Mask is a rare case where straying from the comic book source material was a smart move. <\/div>\n<p> <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/2012\/09\/21\/history-of-the-comic-book-film-sssssmmmmoooookin\/\" title=\"HISTORY OF THE COMIC BOOK FILM: Sssssmmmmoooookin&#8217;!!!\">[click for more]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":22029,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3185,5636,84],"tags":[5640,3293,5644,1996,1848,5643,3837,3914,5639,5645,1828,5642,5641,4644,5637,2893,5638,1827,2892],"series":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-22028","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-featured-stories","8":"category-history-comic-book-film","9":"category-news","10":"tag-ace-ventura-pet-detective","11":"tag-alan-cumming","12":"tag-ben-stein","13":"tag-cameron-diaz","14":"tag-constantine","15":"tag-doug-mahnke","16":"tag-dumb-and-dumber","17":"tag-history-of-the-comic-book-film","18":"tag-in-living-color","19":"tag-jamie-kennedy","20":"tag-jim-carrey","21":"tag-john-arcudi","22":"tag-mike-richardson","23":"tag-nightmare-on-elm-street","24":"tag-once-bitten","25":"tag-son-of-the-mask","26":"tag-the-duck-factory","27":"tag-the-mask","28":"tag-traylor-howard"},"aioseo_notices":[],"nelio_content":{"autoShareEndMode":"never","automationSources":{"useCustomSentences":false,"customSentences":[]},"efiAlt":"","efiUrl":"","followers":[],"highlights":[],"isAutoShareEnabled":false,"networkImageIds":[],"permalinkQueryArgs":[],"series":[],"suggestedReferences":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22028"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=22028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}