MST3K 819 - Invasion of the Neptune Men

819 - Invasion of the Neptune Men
Air/Release Date	October 11, 1997
AKA	Uchu Kaisoku-sen Invasion from a Planet
Movie Director	Koji Ota
Year	1961
Cast	Sonny Chiba (as Shinichi Chiba)
Preceded by	818 - Devil Doll
Followed by	820 - Space Mutiny

“	I know a song about stock footage, it goes like this. Dundundundun EAT IT MOVIE! Take this stupid little cockroach of a film, roll it up SO tight, and ram it up your--"	”
	- Tom

The Movie

Synopsis

Slow-moving aliens from the planet Neptune, wearing nosecone-shaped space helmets, attempt to invade Earth in a winged rocketship. But they are thwarted by a mysterious superhero called "Space Chief," who flies around in a rocket-propelled car. [1] No relation to Prince of Space. We swear.

File:Neptunemen3.PNG

As with the Gamera movies and Time of the Apes, very young and apparently orphaned Japanese children have unfettered access to all sorts of things that would be completely off limits in America and which, hopefully, are off-limits in real world Japan.

Information

• Many of the invasion scenes in Tokyo featured stock footage of bombings and explosions from World War II Japan (as evidenced by the giant billboard of Adolf Hitler).
  
• One of the boys owns a toy Robbie the Robot from Forbidden Planet 1956). [2]

The Episode

Host Segments

Prologue: Tom and Crow are disgusted to learn about eyelash mites and decide to get rid of the ones Mike has.

Segment One: The Bots send the nanites to destroy the mites, scorning Mike like it was his idea when things go south. Meanwhile, The Mad Goth, AKA Bobo arrives, making Pearl and Brain Guy want to commit suicide, until Brain Guy convinces Pearl to save Bobo by telling her that Bobo ruining time and space would mean the end of Chicken in a Biskit.

Segment Two: Mike confuses the bots by telling them about Noh Theater.

Segment Three: Tom comes down with a bad case of Roji Panty complex. Meanwhile, Pearl and Brain Guy unsuccessfully make Bobo remember who he really is.

Segment Four: Mike and the Bots are going to lose their sanity when they get a visitor - Krankor!

Closing (Segment Five): Mike and the Bots read suggestions from the suggestion box, all insulting Japan. Meanwhile, Pearl and Brain Guy hit Bobo with a giant slate of rock, making him remember who he is, resulting in him, Pearl, and Brain Guy getting thrown into the dungeon.

Stinger: "Aaaah! What's that?"

Quotes & References

• "Starring Santa! Speed Racer! Shonen Knife! Sailor Moon!"

Speed Racer is a 60's anime series about a crime-fighting auto racer (which was a modest success in its native Japan and is actually a much bigger staple of American pop culture); Shonen Knife is an all-female Japanese rock band; Sailor Moon is an anime about a team of teenage heroines who wear sailor suit-esque costumes (which was a really big deal in both Japan and America, having received two revivals, one animated and one live action).

• "He was trained in karate by Bruce Lei...bowitz".

An implication that Space Chief's karate moves aren't quite as impressive as those of kung-fu movie legend Bruce Lee.

• "Paul is a dead man!  Miss him, miss him!"

A reference to the bizarre conspiracy theory that emerged in the late 1960s that musician and member of The Beatles, Paul McCartney, had in fact died and been replaced with a double.  The Beatles supposedly "told" their fans this using hidden messages and backwards masking on their later albums.  (Paul is Dead)  (This specific reference is to the message you can supposedly hear if you play the end of "I'm So Tired" from the White Album backwards.)

• "Thomas the Tank Engine was very cross with Japan and felt he must resort to carpet bombing."

Based on the children's TV series of Thomas the Tank Engine, and another trademark MST3K instance of basing a whole bit around something's vague resemblance to something else. In this case the Neptunians' ship.

• "Enjoy music from "Triumph of the Will."

Triumph of the Willwas an infamous Nazi propaganda film from 1935.

The infamous billboard dubbed "The Hitler Building"

• Servo:"They took out the Hitler Building! Where's everybody gonna go to see Hitler memorabilia?"
• Crow:"All the Hitler rides and games! The Hitler salt and pepper shakers..."
• Mike:"That great restaurant, The Bunker, it's gone, you sons of a...!"
• Crow:"What's next? The Mussolini Mall?"
• Servo:"Followed by the Pinochet Petting Zoo?"

• "Hey, guys, it's turning into The Magnificent Ambersons!"

The Magnificent Ambersons was a 1942 film by Orson Welles, starring Joseph Cotten.

• "It's been a hard day's night..."

Shots of the Japanese boys running down a flight of stairs inspire this reference to the Beatles' A Hard Day's Night. A similar scene appears in the group's film of the same name.

• Kid - "I want to show you something really big." Mike - "It's Crystal Gayle's curling iron."

Crystal Gayle is a singer known for her extremely long hair.

• "Space Chief is actually Racer X, Speed's brother!"

Another Speed Racer reference. The mysterious Racer X was indeed secretly Speed's older brother. Not so secret to the audience, as the narrator would point his true identity out in every single episode (as Mike does here).

Trivia

• The "Noh Theater" segment is referenced in The Grudge Rifftrax episode.

preceded by: Season 7		MST3K Season 8					followed by: Season 9
		1997
801	Revenge of the Creature	1997-02-01	809	I Was a Teenage Werewolf	1997-04-19	817	Horror of Party Beach	1997-09-06
802	The Leech Woman	1997-02-08	810	The Giant Spider Invasion	1997-05-31	818	Devil Doll	1997-10-04
803	The Mole People	1997-02-15	811	Parts: The Clonus Horror	1997-06-07	819	Invasion of the Neptune Men	1997-10-11
804	The Deadly Mantis	1997-02-22	812	Incredibly Strange Creatures...	1997-06-14	820	Space Mutiny	1997-11-08
805	The Thing That Couldn't Die	1997-03-01	813	Jack Frost	1997-07-12	821	Time Chasers	1997-11-22
806	The Undead	1997-03-08	814	Riding with Death	1997-07-19	822	Overdrawn/Memory Bank	1997-12-06
807	Terror from the Year 5000	1997-03-15	815	Agent for H.A.R.M.	1997-08-02
808	The She-Creature	1997-04-05	816	Prince of Space	1997-08-16