The Mask

Hey, Do You Remember...?

Christopher Schrader

Tv & Film, Comedy

4.8 • 676 Ratings

🗓️ 1 February 2019

⏱️ 95 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

1994 was a very good year for Jim Carrey. Ace Ventura,The Mask, and Dumb & Dumber were all released within the span of eleven months and established him as a comedic force to be reckoned with. Although it might be argued that the other two films have had more resonance, The Mask was the most critically and commercially successful at the time.

Which is why it's pretty crazy to consider that it was almost a completely different movie altogether. Based on a hyper-violent splatterpunk comic of the same name, New Line Cinema initially saw The Mask as a successor to their A Nightmare on Elm Street series. They even tapped Nightmare 3 director Chuck Russell to helm it.

Like the title character, however, it eventually transformed into something else entirely. So join us as we investigate the property's comic book origins, its journey to the big screen, and why this is maybe one occasion where diverging this dramatically from the source material was a good decision.

Topics include: some of the more unusual approaches to the film before they settled on an overtly comedic tone, why Carrey was still a risky proposition at this point, who else they considered for the role of Stanley, the one scene the studio really wanted them to cut, key differences between the film and the original comic mini-series, some of the surprising elements that carry over, the planned sequel that Carrey bailed on, and much more!

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About The Show

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, do you remember The Mask?
0:06.6	Hello and welcome to Hey, You Remember, a show where we reminisce about a movie or TV series we grew up with, then take off the rose-tinted glasses to see how it holds up.
0:32.0	I'm Chris.
0:32.8	I'm Donna.
0:33.5	And I'm Carlos.
0:34.4	And today we're revisiting The Mask.
0:53.1	Yeah. And I'm Carlos. And today we're revisiting The Mask. In 1993, Jim Carrey was best known for being part of the ensemble on In Living Color,
0:58.8	a sketch comedy series that aired on Fox.
1:01.4	Just one year later, he was one of the most recognizable movie stars on the planet,
1:06.1	thanks to the trio of hits, Ace Ventura, The Mask, and Dumb and Dumber.
1:10.6	To this day, they remain three of his
1:12.3	most iconic and quotable performances, and those films were all released within the span of
1:17.7	11 months. Of the three, The Mask was the most successful, commercially and critically, a four-quadent
1:24.2	crowd-pleaser with cutting-edge special effects and family-friendly laughs, which is why it might surprise you to learn that it was based on a hyper-quadrant crowd-pleaser with cutting-edge special effects and family-friendly laughs,
1:28.3	which is why it might surprise you to learn that it was based on a hyper-violent, splatter-punk comic book
1:33.0	with pitch-black humor and a triple-digit body count.
1:36.5	The mask was pitched to Dark Horse Comics as The Joker meets Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,
1:41.4	an object that transformed the person who wore it into pure, unrepressed id,
1:45.7	so at best you'd wind up with a dangerous anti-hero. At worst, a murderous psychopath. It was dark,
1:52.2	it was vulgar, and it was kind of gross. Which is why New Line Cinema originally saw a feature
1:58.3	film version as the perfect successor to their Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. Freddie Kruger's box office might was dwindling, and this
2:05.4	grinning, green-skinned, blood-stained lunatic looked poised to take his place. But at this
	...

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