Recap / Pinky And The Brain S 1 E 1

Episode: Season 1, Episode 1
Title:"Das Mouse"
Directed by: Liz Holman
Written by: Peter Hastings
Air Date: September 9, 1995
Previous: none
Next: Of Mouse and Men
Guest Starring: James Belushi, John Vernon

"Das Mouse" was the first episode of animated series Pinky and the Brain.

Brain has managed to get himself and Pinky out of the mouse cage. His latest scheme involves taking a mind-control drug found in the slimy coating of a rare frog (which happens to also be in the lab) and mind-controlling a bunch of people by serving them the drug as part of a pancake jamboree; Brain will then use his newly acquired slaves to enslave others, thereby taking over the world.

Two problems present themselves, however. The first is that the mind-control drug has an extremely bitter taste, which makes the pancakes very unappetizing. The second is that Brain needs one more ingredient for his mind-control drug, namely, the meat of a rare white crab that lives in only one place: the wreck of the RMS Titanic. Pinky and the Brain proceed to steal a submarine from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and go off to the wreck in order to raise it so they can retrieve the crabs.

Unfortunately, their actions attracted the attention of the CIA.

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Tropes:

• All for Nothing: After all the trouble they go through, Brain's plan fails because Pinky removed the drug from the pancake mix to make it taste better.
• Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering?: "I think so, Brain, but there's still a bug stuck in [my teeth] from last time."
• Artistic License – History: In 1985 the wreck of the Titanic was discovered, establishing that the ship had broken in half as it sank. Of course, this is a wacky cartoon, not a documentary.
• Brick Joke: Pinky says that they'll reach the hull of the Titanic before Brain can say "POIT!", Brain replies drily that they'll reach Mars before he says "poit". Much, much later in the episode Brain is found, after a depth charge attack, bobbing up and down in the water upside down by his oversized head. Pinky asks him if he's all right and he yells, "POOOIIIIIT!!".
• Chew-Out Fake-Out: Happens when Jack Maguire appears to reprimand a man for cheering the destruction of Pinky and the Brain's submarine.
  Jack Maguire: I never take pleasure in the demise of another man.... [smiles] Usually! (cue delighted dancing and hooting)
• Contrived Coincidence: The Brain's improvised plan to navigate the Alvin in a spiral pattern to get to the Titanic just happens to resemble an old Cold War attack pattern for Soviet missile subs. Which only gives Jack Maguire and his CIA contact more reason to hunt Brain down.
• Cool Boat:
  • For the plan, Pinky and the Brain steal the Alvin mini-submarine from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and, after the Admiral and Maguire destroy the Alvin with depth charges, the Alvin's exploratory robot.
  • Jack Maguire's boat looks like a regular fish trawler but has a wide variety of anti-submarine warfare devices, a powerful engine, and a depth charge launcher.
• Credits Gag: "Spizzerinctum: The Will To Succeed"
• Exact Words: The Admiral (John Vernon) says that "the old man" isn't going to be happy about a submarine loose in the North Atlantic. When the junior officer who reported on the sub gasps and says "the President?" the Admiral says "No, some old man." Later, when the Admiral says "the boys" want the submarine sunk the officer says "the Pentagon?" and the Admiral says "No, my two boys, Josh and Aaron."
• Fun with Acronyms: Pinky's innocent "Narf!" gets interpreted as "Nuclear Attack Readiness Formation" by a paranoid military.
• Idiot Ball: Pinky resolves the problem of the mind-control drug making the pancakes taste bad by...removing the mind-control drug from the pancakes. A despairing Brain goes back to the cage to cook up his next scheme, and the episode ends.
• Literal-Minded: Whenever Pinky asks Brain what to do about the pancakes tasting bad, Brain told him to "Cut it out", as in "Stop bothering me, I'm busy." Pinky interprets it as cutting out the mind-control drug from the pancake recipe, which Brain only finds out after the pancake jamboree is over.
• MacGuffin: The meat of a rare crab that Brain needs to obtain to complete his mind-control formula.
• Mind-Control Device: A psychoactive drug obtained from a rare frog, combined with meat from a rare crab, which together make a potent mind-control drug.
• Ridiculously Difficult Route: Because there's an anti-theft device on the sub's steering wheel, Brain can only turn the sub slightly to the right. Therefore, instead of the quick, straight-ahead route he was planning, he has to go on a wide spiral path that will take him much longer.
• Shipshape Shipwreck: The Titanic looks surprisingly intact and they have little problem getting it up and sailing once they displace the water with air bags.
• Shout-Out: The episode title is a goof on Das Boot.
  • Pinky asks Brain if he can be Queequeg.
  • Brain quotes Lord Byron's 1814 poem “The Dark, Blue Sea”.
  • Brain claims to be Jacques Cousteau.
  • Pinky mistakenly thinks that Davy Jones' Locker refers to the singer from The Monkees.
  • The shot of the Jason Jr. passing the bow of the Titanic bears a resemblance to the same scene painted for the cover of The Discovery of the Titanic.
• Sub Story: Pinky and the Brain steal a submarine, which leads to the US Navy hunting them and dropping depth charges. They do destroy their sub, but the two mice are able to use the smaller auxiliary submarine and make it to the Titanic.