mf.rox

When I posted the movie picture a couple days ago, I forgot to say where it was from! It’s a frame catch from AACHI AND SSIPAK, directed by Jo Beom-jin. In the picture, you can see some members of the Diaper Gang, who were my favorite thing about the movie. They’re a group of small blue mutants, created by their parents’ addiction to juicybars. Sadly for them, they lack the ability to crap, so they have no way to get juicybars except by resorting to theft.

They were adorable! I can’t say enough about how cute and charming I found them, even though they were often carrying large weapons. They were just so wacky and anarchic, running around like maniacs. They had cute little voices too, and would all get excited and then chirp things out again and again. Thinking about it a little more, they reminded me of the eight-year-olds I used to teach in Shenzhen.

Why is it that blue mutants are always so cool? I think back to mutants I have loved, or at least remembered for a long time, and a lot of them were blue — it seems like the coolest ones. There was the Diaper Gang; the Mutant King from CASSHERN, who was blue when he came out of the neocell culture (I was pretty disappointed when the mutants became normal-looking later on); and of course Deslock, from STAR BLAZERS. Deslok and the Mutant King even shared the blue skin/yellow hair combination.

And speaking of CASSHERN, which I probably do too much, it seems like the makers of AACHI AND SSIPAK really liked too. The Diaper King’s speech to the mutants was either a parody of or homage (I’d suspect the latter) to the Mutant King’s speech, right to the banner in the background and the red cape he was wearing. I should post a couple frame catches just to prove my point.

When I’ve mentioned my fondness for blue mutants, some people have said to me, “You must have really liked the Smurfs.” The answer, surprisingly, is no. I don’t actually have any feeling for them at all. Maybe the the series was on at the same time as CCD so I never got to watch it? I remember watching it only a few times. Or maybe it is that I find the Smurfs predictable. I can’t imagine being surprised or astonished by anything they’d do. They don’t seem anarchic — now that is a quality I like in cartoon heroes! But I’ll save that topic for another post.

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 3rd, 2007 at 1:51 am and is filed under General, Movies and TV. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.