Follow TV Tropes

Following

YMMV / The Mask

Go To

    In General 
  • Adorkable: In the movie and the animated series, Stanley and the Mask are both this; with Stanley being too shy while the Mask comes on too strong, but both of them are sweet, kind and funny. The Mask is very well liked by Edge City partly because of it, while Stanley has a few friends and a couple of girls drawn to him also because of it as well. In the comics? Not so much.
  • Canon Defilement: A rather odd official example- Lionel was completely ignored for the film and cartoon. Instead, they gave the role of Lt. Kellaway's partner to Doyle, a character so completely different it's not even safe to say he's based on Lionel.
  • Fanfic Fuel: The very concept of the Mask invites one to speculate who could find it, what they would become if they put it on, and what they would do with the power. Imagine if the Mask washed onto the shore of another television show, or your favorite cartoon, or another comic character's hometown...
  • Spiritual Adaptation: The film and the animated series tells about a unlucky guy who becomes a wisecracking, genuinely insane madman who goes over the top and cartoonish only instead of becoming a supervillain becomes a superhero instead making them heroic, light-hearted adaptations of The Joker.

    Comic Book Series 
  • Awesome Ego: Various of the incarnations of the Big Head have this.
  • Complete Monster:
    • The Hunt for Green October: Axel is a Neo-Nazi gang leader who hunts for the Mask to have the world ruled by the "Master Race", slaughtering an Amazonian tribe in an attempt to retrieve it. Tipped off that the Mask is in America, Axel retrieves weapons from an Arms Dealer only to have the man brutally killed, and later tortures two men and threatens the 10-year-old daughter of one to force them to give him the Mask. When the daughter turns out to be the Mask holder, Axel has no compunction trying to kill her, and when beaten, blows himself up to take everyone with him, including his own men.
    • Southern Discomfort: Former Haitian general and war criminal, Papa Croc, and the Voodoo-practitioner hitman Ogoun, are the joint rulers of a brutal criminal empire, using their magic to violently keep their underlings in check. Kidnapping young women to steal their souls with Voodoo, the duo use the women as slaves before having them killed off in Snuff Films to finance their operation, and magically kill a detective hired to trail them painfully. When the woman's brother confronts them, Ogoun uses Voodoo to sadistically torture him with fatal injuries, enjoying it as the Mask keeps him alive through the torment.
  • Common Knowledge: Everybody knows that, unlike the movie, the mask in the comic turns you into a psychopathic lunatic who wreaks havoc. But while they’re all certainly violent, only the original Mayhem story is like that. The standalone series is a very oddball superhero comic with Mask wearers pretty much always being better than the people they’re fighting, with the exception of the Starter Villain in “The Mask Returns” (a mobster who still only targets rival gangs). The only story after Mayhem with a genuine Villain Protagonist is “Toys in the Attic” (the wearer becomes a Serial Killer who targets his old classmates), which was written well after the original team left.
  • Creepy Awesome: Walter, who even gained his own Spin-Off series and appeared as a character in the animated series.
  • Do Not Do This Cool Thing: If you find the Mask, DO NOT PUT IT ON.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse:
    • Lt. Kellaway and Walter.
    • Masked Ray Tuttle and his daughter Masked Emily due to both of them being heroic, having funny moments and in Masked Emily’s case being a Badass Adorable.
  • Evil Is Cool: Subverted when a group of teenagers get hold of the Mask and use it to become rockstars or superheroes. The Mask overrides their free will, leading to all the teens agreeing that it's more trouble than it's worth.
  • I Am Not Shazam: "The Mask" is the title of the book. Anyone who wears the mask itself is always referred to as "Big Head".
  • Moe: Emily and her masked self are this due to Emily being Cute Mute along with her tragic backstory and her masked self being a good-hearted troublemaker who only causes harmless fun most of the time which at one point when dealing with the people who have his dad hostage throws food at them which makes her even more adorable.
  • Nausea Fuel: A lot of Big Head's kills are this. The poor sod who had his skull replaced with a muffler is a particularly squeamish one.
  • Sequelitis: The original writing team left after "The Mask Strikes Back" (or “Walter: Campaign of Terror” if you count that as a Mask comic). Some of what followed is still quite good ("The Hunt For Green October" especially), but the series quickly got hijacked by increasing preachiness and nonsensical crossovers.
  • Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: The series practically revels in its morally reprehensible characters and Big Head's rampages with no chance of things getting better or people learning from their mistakes. It is often a hard series to stomach, especially for those more familiar with the movie and show which were both far more optimistic with sincerely heroic characters to balance out the mayhem.
  • What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: Especially compared to the film and the cartoon. Averted with Itty Bitty Mask which was made for children on purpose.
  • The Woobie: Ray Tuttle and his daughter Emily from “The Hunt for Green October”. Ray's wife was killed and his hands were irreparably damaged in an industrialised accident. Emily was left mute from shock and is treated like a freak by the kids at school.

    Live-Action Film 
  • Adaptation Displacement: All adaptions since have at least used some inspiration from this film, despite the comics being very different.
  • Alternative Character Interpretation:
    • Lt. Kellaway while an officer of the law, was he really the tough and no-nonsense authority figure that deep down inside had a sort of warmth to him like he was meant to be, or just something of an overall Jerkass who used his position of authority rudely and condescendingly. Sure he may have been on the right track when hunting down the one who robbed the bank doing his job, but considering his overall antagonizing, slightly condescending, mildly and openly rudely insulting attitude (particularly the one he displayed toward Stanley), some (or few) may not have found him to be all that sympathetic. Although it's possible this was intentional to make Stanley more sympathetic.
    • Milo keeping the mask away from Charlie at the end. Most interpret it as Milo wanting the mask for himself, but some think he's simply trying to keep the mask away from Charlie because he knows how troublesome it actually is.
  • Awesome Music:
    • "Hey, Pachuco! HEY!" Also "Cuban Pete." Observe.
    • "Hey Pachuco" is so awesome, that it was reworked as the opening theme for the Animated Series. Rob Paulson, who plays Stanley/The Mask in the cartoon, also uses it as his intro music for his "Talkin' Toons" podcast.
    • A lot of songs are this for the entire soundtrack: Let the Good times Roll, Hi De Ho, and Bounce Around are just some of the best songs on the album. A lot of the songs go from old-school Jazz to R&B, and Hip-Hop. The mixing of genres in some songs makes it an easy ear listener.
  • Aluminum Christmas Trees:
  • Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: "Cuban Pete" is basically The Mask intentionally evoking this trope to escape the police by sweeping them all up in a giant, out-of-nowhere musical number. And while Stanley never mentions it again, Kellaway and Doyle are heard grousing about it later as they're leaving the station (and before Stanley gets dumped in front of them by Dorian's henchmen) — Doyle notes that "The SWAT team got an offer to open in Vegas."
  • Complete Monster: In the Official Movie Adaptation comic, Dorian Tyrell is a ruthless gangster who's planning to betray his boss "the Swede" and Take Over the City in his place. After the Mask foiled his bank heist, Dorian becomes determined to take revenge on him and steal his Mask for himself. When the reporter Peggy Brandt helps him obtain the Mask, Dorian repays her by brutally hurling her into a printing press, while cracking jokes about her death. With the powers of the Mask in his possession, Dorian attempts to blow up his boss's club with many hostages in it, including his kidnapped girlfriend Tina Carlyle. Lacking the few redeeming qualities of his movie counterpart, Dorian stands out as a surprisingly threatening villain in an otherwise comedic story.
  • Covered Up: Did you even know that "Cuban Pete" was originally a Desi Arnaz song? Don't worry, most people haven't either.
  • Crazy Is Cool: This is basically the entire point of The Mask's character. His reaction to being stared down by a massive amount of cops is to start singing and dancing.
  • Designated Villain: Lt. Kellaway is a jerkass cop that ends up being humiliated at every turn and is chewed out by the mayor at the end. We're supposed to laugh but in reality, the guy was trying to arrest a bank robber. He's a Hero Antagonist in the comics, where he tries to stop the users of the mask from causing destruction and death at any cost. Kellaway also only gets chewed out by the Mayor because he shoves the man aside with a rude remark on his weight, only to start grovelling as soon as he realises who he's talking to.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse: Milo has a major fan base for his cuteness, intelligence, and loyalty to Stanley.
  • First Installment Wins: The movie is near-universally seen as a comedy classic, in stark contrast with its sanitized stand-alone sequel.
  • Germans Love David Hasselhoff:
  • Harsher in Hindsight:
    • When Stanley/The Mask is getting arrested in the park, he remarks "Where's a camcorder when you need one?" in a joking matter when some police officers grab him rather roughly. In 1994 this was a topical reference to the Rodney King Police Brutality incident, but in The New '20s Police Brutality and corruption are bigger issues than ever, and everyone is being advised to record their encounters with cops.
    • During the climax, Ipkiss hands a gun to Charlie to help the hostages escape. Richard Jeni, who played Charlie, shot himself 13 years later.
    • When Freeze is dying from being shot by the cops, Tyrell offers him a smoke. 24 years after the movie's release, Freeze's actor Reg E. Cathey died from lung cancer, which is often caused by smoking.
    • As The '90s progressed Jim Carrey began to feel trapped by both the goofy reputation of his star-making vehicles and the people-pleasing public/stage persona he'd crafted as "himself". In a sense, he needed an id-releasing mask of his own...and he found it when he was tapped to play Andy Kaufman — a performer who was famous for not caring about being liked — in Man on the Moon. He decided to spend his entire time on set, whether cameras were rolling or not, in character as Kaufman or his various personas, which led to a truly eccentric shoot for everyone concerned. When it was over, it took Carrey three weeks or so to reconstruct his own sense of self, but (much like Stanley) he came out stronger for the experience, as discussed in the documentary Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond.
  • He Really Can Act: The dog's comic takes are uncannily human, especially the way he pauses when the prison guard stirs as Milo is stealing his keys.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Hollywood Homely:
    • We are supposed to believe that unlike Tina, who is clearly out of Stanley's league, Peggy is someone he and Charlie have a shot with, the implication being she is not as attractive as Tina. Except Peggy is Amy Yasbeck in a pantsuit who is as much of a Head-Turning Beauty.
    • Same with Stanley, other than his Extreme Doormat personality, there is nothing unattractive about him, as this is a guy who looks like Jim Carrey, in The '90s. Yes, this guy is supposed to be an ugly loser. CinemaSins takes their time to lampshade this.
  • Iron Woobie: The Mask, like Stanley, is a lonely being who knows that he will remain lifeless forever if something happens to Stanley, but he takes it all with a smile and calmness showing that unlike Stanley he is willing to go back to being lifeless if it means to bring happiness to Tina the woman who showed him and Stanley kindness.
  • Karmic Overkill: Peggy's fate in a deleted scene. After selling Stanley out to Dorian, he betrays her by tossing her into a printing press machine, and it prints out newspapers inked in her blood reporting her death, with a photo of her face twisted in terror. As awful as it was for her to betray Stanley, she didn't want him to get hurt, and she, admittingly naively, believed Dorian would uphold his end of the bargain to spare him.
  • Magnificent Bastard: The Mask himself is the jolly and zany alter-ego of Stanley Ipkiss whom he turns into whenever he puts on the Mask of Loki. Throughout the film, the Mask performs whatever act he wants to, said acts usually being one’s that end up benefiting Stanley due to them usually being things that wind up proving as solutions to his circumstances that he winded up in. Along the way, he outwits whatever foes he comes across using his charm as a form of manipulation and trickery while also committing a few crimes here and there and at the same time having moments of heroism like saving a casino and the people within from being blown up, all while managing to be a ladies’ man through charming Tina Carlyle, getting a kiss from her after finishing his dance and helping Stanley get another from her at the end of the film and maintaining tons of funny moments throughout.
  • Memetic Mutation:
    • SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSMOKIN'!
    • Ooh, somebody stop me!
    • Look, ma! I'm roadkill! HA HA HA!
  • Moral Event Horizon: Dorian crosses it by trying to blow up the Coco Bongo Club along with Tina and rest of the guests.
  • No Problem with Licensed Games: The SNES The Mask game is a fun platformer that successfully translates the movie's feel and look, even with many liberties to work as a video game (along with much Adaptation Expansion, the final boss is Masked Dorian, meaning it has two Masks simultaneously).
  • One-Scene Wonder: The stone-faced Fair Cop during the "Cuban Pete" number makes quite an impression when she's under the Mask's influence.
  • Sequelitis: The Mask is fondly remembered as a great piece of 1990s pop culture. The sequel, Son of the Mask, was universally panned by critics and audiences alike, and won a Golden Raspberry Award.
  • Ship-to-Ship Combat: Stanley/Tina shippers and Stanley/Peggy shippers are both out there in significant numbers.
  • Signature Scene: The Cuban Pete sequence, where a squadron of cops begin to dance under the Mask's spell. Oddly enough, this scene just barely avoided being cut.
  • Spiritual Adaptation: Until Warner Brothers finally get around to it, this is probably the best Plastic Man movie ever made.
  • Spiritual Successor: Before the Eddie Murphy remake, this was the closest to a remake of The Nutty Professor (1963).
  • Suspiciously Similar Song: The original trailer music for the first film uses a melody that is strikingly similar to "Breakfast Machine" by Danny Elfman from Pee-wee's Big Adventure.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Not including deleted scenes, Dorian only gets one real opportunity to use his Mask powers. Fortunately the character is so intimidating, you might not notice.
  • Trailer Joke Decay: The trailer featured a lot of the crowning moments of funny of the first half-hour in particular. Averted with Milo getting a chance to don the mask, which didn't turn up in the pre-release trailers.
  • Visual Effects of Awesome: The practical and computer-generated effects still hold up to this day. It helps that they aren't spectacle so much as necessity, as a live-action movie about a man turning into a living cartoon character can't really be done without these kind of computer graphics.
  • What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: The film certainly has as Saturday-morning cartoon feel, but given its inclusion of not-so-subtle adult humor and a rather crass toilet gag, it's not hard to see why it was given a PG-13 rating. It also aired on Cartoon Network, though the version that aired on Cartoon Network was a PG-edited version made for network TV viewing (and was even released on VHS as an alternate cut).
  • The Woobie: Stanley. There are several times in this movie where you just wanna give the poor guy a hug. Especially in the beginning of the film, he lets a girl he wanted to date go to the concert with her best friend instead of him and his interactions with Tina are adorable.

    Animated Series 
  • Adorkable:
    • Stanley is this all over. It actually does get him a few girls over the course of the series.
    • Evelyn is like Stanley; shy, meek but sweet and kind, while Eve is also this as she can be much more stronger than The Mask but she does have a good heart and is very sweet towards Stanley and is even in love with him as well which makes her this even more.
  • Awesome Music: The intro. Rob Paulsen has gone on to admit that it was one of the greatest theme songs he ever had the pleasure of singing.
  • Awesome Ego: The Mask, a Comically Invincible Hero who saves the day in the most outlandish and bizarre ways, always brags about how cool he is, and is specially vicious with his foes, who he will taunt and also use his trolling ways to trick them into thinking he is dead or defeated only to show up at the last second to defeat them and coming out on top - in short, he breaks the egos of his enemies in the most magnificent way possible and will not let anyone forget that.
  • Best Known for the Fanservice: "Flight as a Feather" and its sequence with Mayor Tilton's ex-girlfriend, a stripper who crashes his Bavariaville deal signing with dynamite strapped to her body, threatening to assassinate him.
  • Bizarro Episode:
    • "Flight as a Feather" was a weird, envelope-pushing episode (and that's saying something, given the rest of the lot). It didn't have Stanley in it at all, The Mask actually has an excuse to cause trouble (Mrs. Peenman barking at him to keep quiet and everything he did to try and retrieve his feather), there was no villain out to destroy the city (like Pretorious) — unless you count Cookie trying to assassinate the Mayor, and the Cookie BaBoom sequence felt more at home on a show that carried a TV-PG rating (which is why the episode was skipped over when it aired on the major networks (mostly CBS, FOX Family, and the American feeds of Cartoon Network and Boomerang)).
    • "Sister Mask" also was a fairly bizarro episode featuring Pretorius wearing the Mask, but it went from bizarro to full-blown Psychological Horror in the same episode.
  • Crazy Is Cool: The Mask is a Cloudcuckoolander lazy troll who spends half of the time having fun instead of fighting crime, while also being hilarious and always creating outlandish and bizarre ways to defeat any supervillains that come his way.
  • Creepy Cute: Masked Dr Neuman is scary and terrifying but his somewhat childish and excitable behavior, polite nature, and high-pitched voice make him oddly cute at times.
  • Cult Classic: Though the series is not as well-known as the movie, it does have its fans along with having memorable episodes and memorable characters as well.
  • Evil Is Cool:
    • Pretorius, who has a reason to be the most recurring villain. Helps he looks and sounds intimidating, no matter how much Villain Decay he suffers.
    • Masked Dr Neuman, thanks to being an excellent Foil to The Mask, while also being a joy to watch thanks to being an odd blend of violently insane and Affably Evil. His voice actor's stellar performance helps too.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse:
    • Eve is very well liked by fans due to being a female version of The Mask and having the accent and personality of a Southern American woman and showing herself to have a good heart like The Mask as well with her love and care for Stanley.
    • Masked Peggy Brandt is this due to being very hilariously egotistical and also the fact that she does a good job of putting new clothes on instead of spinning around in a whirlwind to make them herself which shows her to be a fan of getting mundane stuff unlike The Mask and Stiff Upper Lip.
  • Fanon Discontinuity: Inverted; fans of the show consider this the true sequel to the 1994 movie (even with its Broad Strokes approach) rather than even trying to consider the existence of Son of the Mask.
  • Fanfic Fuel: The possibility of the other mask personas that appear like Eve are endless especially if The Mask decide to make another one so that there will be another green-faced person like him around.
  • Foe Yay Shipping: In "Bride of Pretorius," Pretorius shows a disturbing admiration for the Mask's abilities, even telling him "If you were a woman, I'd marry you." This Squicks The Mask out about as much as it does the audience. Later on in the same episode after Eve survives all attempts to kill her, Pretorius decides to offer her to marry him as a last resort but Eve has a similar reaction, preferring Stanley, the man she loves and who she genuinely cares about rather than be with someone like Pretorius.
  • Harsher in Hindsight:
    • Everything about Cookie BaBoom's assassination plot in "Flight as a Feather" stops being funny due to 9/11, the Janet Jackson Wardrobe Malfunction fiasco in 2004 (well Cookie's Shameful Strip is still a little funny even after that), the Bill Clinton - Monica Lewinsky scandal (though the idea of a corrupt city politician having an affair with a woman who has a job in the sex entertainment biz is more reminiscent of Eliot Spitzer, which wouldn't happen until the late 2000s). and an incident in which a man named Brian Wells robbed a bank with a bomb strapped to his neck (not as outrageous as a suicide belt bikini, but the principle's the same) and died when it detonated. To put it in simple terms: There's no way in Hell a sequence like that would even be considered suitable to air on anything that's not PG-rated (at least in America), as America has gotten more squeamish over content on TV between the 1990s and the 21st century (especially if it's sexual and/or is considered "in bad taste" due to a recent tragedy).
    • The beginning of "Counterfeit Mask" where the Banana Republic Liberation Army freedom fighters hijack a plane. The whole thing turns out to be a dream, thankfully, which is more than what anyone can say about 9/11. And after that dream sequence we get a scene where a Jerkass security guard doesn't bother to look at Stanley's luggage (which was switched with one containing counterfeit money. Imagine if it was a bomb...) because "a wimp like you couldn't sneak a peanut past a sleeping baby". And when Stanley insists he gets his bags checked he gets thrown out. These days, with airport security tight as ever, this would be hideously illegal and would cost a TSA agent his job.
    • Kablamus, if you ignore the fact he survives each "pop", his superpower is that he's a suicide bomber. It's unlikely this character would be approved of for a modern series, either.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • The episode "Broadway Malady" centers on a disastrous musical made from the "Mad Monkey" movie series, much like the Spider-Man musical would years later. This is even funnier with the knowledge that in 1999, there was a musical based on The Mask performed at Butlin's holiday resorts in the United Kingdom. Very little is known about it, but the soundtrack is available on YouTube.
    • The beginning of the episode, "Future Mask," has The Mask playing on a mini-golf course. The prop on the seventh hole can easily be mistaken these days as a character on the [adult swim] cartoon, Squidbillies.
    • The episode "Santa Mask" centers around The Mask dressing up as Santa Claus in order to save Christmas. 5 years after that episode aired, there would be another green-faced Jim Carrey character dressing up like Santa to do the exact opposite.
    • In "Bride Of Pretorius" when Stanley's timid date Evelyn accidentally dons the mask, it turns her into Eve, a wild woman who's absolutely crazy about him. He briefly considers letting her stay that way, until he talks himself out of it, questioning what their kids would look like. Funny he should ask.
    • "Baby's Wild Ride" dealt with a baby putting on the Mask and the expected chaos that ensues. "Son of the Mask" has a similar premise but with the baby's Mask powers being internalized rather than the result of putting the Mask on. Since that film fails on so many levels, "Baby's Wild Ride" could probably be more or less Son of the Mask done right.
    • "Sister Mask" wasn’t the first time we saw a character played by Tim Curry turn into a giant spider.
    • The episode “All Hail The Mask” consisted of The Mask being confused for a god by islanders, only to have the island’s power-hungry Witch Doctor try to expose him as a fake. Sounds kinda familiar, doesn’t it?
  • Jerkass Woobie: Even though he’s a Bad Boss and sometimes an even worse friend to Stanley in the series, Charlie has this moment in the Adventures of The Mask comic, “How The Mask Stole Christmas”. Especially when you find out the reason why he hates the holiday; his mom died on Christmas Day when he was only 9 years old, and the Christmas after that, his dad left home, and Charlie hadn’t seen him since.
  • Moe: The Mask and Eve are this with them showing how much they love and care for the people who are their friends in the most adorable way possible.
  • Nausea Fuel: A few times it goes beyond regular Toilet Humor, like the Mask trimming his nostril hair, an exploited case where to disgust a guy he opens his suit to instead reveal his pulsating insides, and everything in "To Have and Have Snot", which is about the Mask getting the flu and has plenty of disgusting bodily fluids being thrown around.
  • Suspiciously Similar Song: The first season opening theme owes its melody and style to "Hey Pachuco" from the movie adaptation. Two other openings (one used in American syndication and the other used for season three and international airings of season two) don't sound like "Hey Pachuco" at all.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character
    • Evelyn and her alter ego Eve show themselves to be the female versions of Stanley and The Mask with Evelyn being sweet, kind and nice like Stanley while Eve being crazy, wacky, kind, polite, nice, heroic, and brave like The Mask, but they don't appear other than just one episode which could have been interesting to see them in other episodes and what will happen if The Mask meets Evelyn or Eve.
    • Peggy only wore the Mask once, where she was an egotistical woman only focused in getting a makeover. Given the character's recurring nature and how masked Peggy turned out to still be well-meaning as opposed to other characters becoming unhinged (Eve) if not outright dangerous (Dr. Neuman), it certainly had room to make her appear again.
  • The Woobie:
    • Stanley yet again, due to him becoming an even bigger Butt-Monkey than he was in the movie. The poor guy just can't catch a break... to make matters worse, the one time he did start to act confident and began to see a better personal life for it, it completely eradicated his repressed side and the mask no longer worked when he tried to use it- meaning Edge City lost its only means of defense against a new supervillain that was attacking the city. Stanley has to remain a meek, repressed man for the city to have a superhero.
    • Evelyn, a shy, sweet, kind and nice girl whose awkwardness is making her date with Stanley not work out well before she accidentally puts on the mask - with her green self highlighting how repressed she is by a wild, unpredictable and lustful nature that makes Stanley uncomfortable. And to make matters worse, she and Stanley end up breaking up because their dogs don't get along.

    Video Game 

Top