Monkey Challenge: The Minx and the Slug

A very silly episode, even by Monkey standards, and not one I'm very fond of.

Pigsy goes to rescue a girl from a Slug monster, but it turns out she doesn't need or want rescued, and in fact the monster is glad to be rid of her since he already has a wife and three children (also Slug monsters).

Tripitaka eventually saves the day by accident when he attracts the girl's interest away from the Slug and to himself, and he has to flee from her attentions upon the horse.

There's not much more to the plot than that, and most of the interest comes from shapechanging shenanigans - Pigsy disguises himself as the Slug to woo the girl, and this leads to further mistaken identities regarding who is really whom.

There's also the question of why the girl has so much salt to hand with which she can threaten her Slug-husband into obeying her - why so much? Where does it all come from?

The answer, of course, is that it's just a silly story and not to be taken seriously. Fair enough if you like that sort of thing, but for me it was just too silly for my tastes.

An Inspiration

The Space Adventures of Little Gay Longcat

Part 11: Those Stripes

Monkey Challenge: Pearls Before Swine

Monkey and the others come up against the three Animal Strength Immortals, who have taken over a country so they can drink all their wine and eat all their paper and jewels (as you do if you're an evil Immortal).

Pigsy fights them first, trying to impress a girl he met, but they demonstrate their magic power of being able to shoot laser beams at him, and Pigsy runs away - though not quickly enough to avoid being shot in the backside as he goes.

Big Gay Longcat says: I saw Pigsy's bum! Rude Pigsy is rude!

Monkey and Sandy take them on while equipped with a table polished so it will reflect their laser beam, but at full strength, with the energy they have drawn from the wine, paper and jewels of an entire country, they are powerful enough to melt the table away.

With the help of some locals, Monkey hatches a plan to defeat the Immortals, a two-pronged plan where he will distract them and the locals will guide Pigsy and Sandy to the place where the Immortals keep their wine, paper and jewels - by denying the Immortals their sustenance, they will be unable to recharge their magical energy.

The plan almost goes awry when Tripitaka is (of course) captured by the Immortals, but in the end they are defeated and chased away from the country for a happy ending.

I think this is based on one of the stories in the book of Monkey, the tale of the three Taoist Immortals who take over a country, but very heavily adapted to the point of being almost unrecognisable. I think I'm right in saying that a later episode is also based on the same story - but we shall see when I get to it.

This is another enjoyable and very silly episode, with most of the silliness, as usual, coming from Pigsy. The physical actor Toshiyuki Nishida, and the voice actor Peter Woodthorpe, compliment each other very well to make Pigsy a great comedic character.

Sorry about the picture showing Pigsy's bum, but Big Gay Longcat insisted on it.

The Space Adventures of Little Gay Longcat

Part 10: A Tunnel

Monkey Challenge: The Difference Between Night and Day

Despite using up its best special effect within the first two minutes of the episode, The Difference Between Night and Day is worth watching to the end (though does anyone watch Monkey for the effects?) as it is a memorable story for several reasons.

The pilgrims find an invisible barrier blocking their path, which Monkey breaks through using his Magic Wishing Staff to reveal that, while it is daytime on their side of the barrier, it is night on the far side. The effects to show this are quite well done, and certainly get the scenario across.

It turns out that the Queen of Night has separated from the King of Day, and so now instead of endlessly cycling between the two, she rules a domain of endless night while he rules a kingdom of perpetual day. And the magic barrier between them ensures that never the twain shall meet.

On top of that we see that she is a vampire while he is a vulture spirit. The queen spends the neverending night-time sucking the blood of her subjects without having to fear the dawn, while the king works his subjects to death as there is no dusk to bring an end to the working day.

This sounds like a problem that Monkey could easily solve. But unfortunately he meets a girl in the land of night and, for reasons that aren't entirely clear but seem to be because she looks a bit like Tripitaka (I shall refrain from commenting on the psychological significance of this since it's obviously played for laughs), he falls in love with her and this infatuation causes him to lose all his magic powers.

Pigsy, meanwhile, falls in with the Queen of Night and looks to become her new consort. He's not at all put off by the fact that she's a bloodsucking vampire - in fact, when she bites his neck he says "You're a vampire? How do you do? That's just incredibly sexy."

It is actually her that is put off by him, and she only allows him to stay with her when he promises to fight Monkey for her. Pigsy doesn't look forward to this at all, until he finds out from Sandy that Monkey has lost his magic, after which he takes some joy in beating up the helpless ape.

With Tripitaka's help, a pair of star-crossed lovers defy the ban on men and women crossing between the two kingdoms, and this drives events toward the climax of the episode at the King of Day's palace.

Tripitaka uses the headache sutra on Monkey until he regains his powers, and he battles the Queen of Night, defeats her, and then, before Monkey can kill her, the king offers to die in her place and so the two are reconciled and everything ends well.

This is a well-plotted story which balances silly moments with a serious - and, at the end, rather heavy-handed - message about relationships. On the silly side, of particular note is Monkey losing his powers and causing dozens of pictures of the girl to be materialised whenever he tries to do his magic tricks, much to his embarrassment.

The Space Adventures of Little Gay Longcat

Part 9: More Equal