Welcome ghost & ghouls to Horrors In A Halfshell! In this 13-part Halloween series, I'll be opening the cartoon crypt, revisiting the best and most bodacious blood-curdling episodes from the original TMNT show. Each spooky story will be dissected with the following categories:
SCARY SYNOPSIS: What is the plot of this eerie episode?
HALLOWEEN HORRORS: Any iconic Halloween imagery?
MONSTERS & MUTANTS: Crazy creatures?
SPOOKIEST SCENE: A moment that gives me the heebie jeebies.
BOO! CHEESIEST MOMENT: An eye-rolling moment that makes me giggle.13 days. 13 episodes. 13 more reasons to love Halloween.
Things are getting bigger and bigger on Day 8 with Attack of the 50 Foot Irma from Season 6!
Krang invents a device that causes objects to massively increase in size. But his plans for world-takeover go awry when Irma accidentally becomes gigantic. The bumbling klutz parades through the city, unintentionally destroying everything in her path. Things take an even scarier turn when the unthinkable happens - Irma goes off her diet! The ravenous behemoth tears apart the city in search for food.
Borrowing its title from campy flicks like Attack of the 50 foot Woman & Attack of the 50 foot Cheerleader, this TMNT cartoon follows a similar B-movie premise - a huge woman on a warpath. The wacky plot gives Irma endless opportunities to scare the cartoon crowds of NYC.
Irma invades the city like goofy Godzilla. However, she is no King of Monsters. Her wrath of destruction occurs purely by accident. Dopey moves like swinging of her ponytail too fast and butting her head into a building are the causes for her carnage. Every senseless action has an unintentional, mayhem-inducing reaction. She is clumsy Godzilla, Queen of the Klutzes.
Monsters get tired too. Where do they retreat to get a few winks of sleep? Well, Irma sprawls out with the Sandman in the only place she'll fit, an airplane hanger. The result is incredibly creepy. Irma doesn't look dead tired, she just looks dead. The shot conjures up images of bodies being wheeled off on gurneys or corpses lying in giant coffins.
When Irma goes off her diet, all hell breaks loose. She demands food and gets nasty. Luckily, Donatello creates a medicinal cure for her giant-sized body just in the nick of time. But, hungry Irma refuses to ingest the antidote unless it is mixed with ice cream. To appease her half-witted request, the Turtles fill a cement truck with both desserts and the antidote. Irma gobbles it down with embarrassing speed. Ice cream drips down her face, a clear symbol that she needs to get her act together.
Attack of the 50 Foot Irma isn't the best episode in the TMNT arsenal. But, at least it's kitschy plot makes for a fun Halloween viewing. It also helps that Irma is such a likable and silly character. You can't help but root for her when she goes into Godzilla-mode...even if she is a food-craving loon.
Check back tomorrow for Day 9 of Horrors In A Halfshell!
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