"The Mysteries of the Wax Museum"

Waxing lyrical about Ruby.

Season 2 Episode 16 (episode 42 overall)

Original broadcast date: 2 January 1990

Writer: Jimmy Hibbert
Additional voices: Dr. Matrix: Jimmy Hibbert

                              Android Nanny: Brian Trueman

Android Igor/Hawkeye Soames: Jack May

Android Duckula/Dr. Potson: David Jason

Joke credit: Make Up – Ruby Tallow

Travel location: London, England

Castle transport visual used.

While on a visit to London to see the sights, Duckula decides not to bother with Madame Tussauds (which he pronounces as ‘two swords’) waxwork museum and instead visit a similar museum right next to the souvenir shop he’s stopped outside.

So to get things moving along, we cut to the inside where we meet Matrix, a crazy doctor who talks to himself (Hibbert naturally) thus providing exposition. His plan is to make a living waxwork of someone and have them rob the Bank of England for him. Decent enough idea, since someone else will get the blame and the android clone will presumably be destroyed afterwards, leaving the doc’ in the clear. With all that money, maybe he could buy a ruby for his wax? Geddit?! OK, enough with the Ruby Wax jokes.

Matrix may be crazy, but he’s also cunning. He flatters Duckula into agreeing to be modelled for a waxwork (can you make a waxwork of a feathery fellow?) so he can use him and his servants for his plan. I like how Matrix makes out that he’s being presumptuous in asking while the Count is only too eager to be modelled. Once again, Duckula’s high opinions get him into trouble. Igor, to his credit doesn’t want it this to happen, accusing his master of debasing the family name in doing so. But even he is forced to admit that Matrix’s modelling machine is ‘fun’. Throughout this part Matrix refers to his models as his ‘children’ which Igor finds ‘appallingly sentimental.’ As a cartoonist myself, with my own creations – I’m afraid I’m with Igor on this one. As usual. Even Duckula thinks it's a bit odd! What follows is a weirdly trippy bit of effects animation as Duckula and co. get their anatomical make-up copied and stored in Matrix's machinery. It's quite different and really stands out. See the visuals at the foot of this review.

Some fast smear animation and multiples as Matrix adjusts the voiceboxes.

Later, once the androids are completed, things get a bit awkward. After a funny little ‘what if?’ bit where the voice boxes get muddled, the Duckula clone storms off in a huff while the real Duckula returns to see how the figures are coming along. Matrix at first assumes it is his android returning and so, is more brusque with him that he probably should be. Duckula doesn’t cotton on though and leaves, along with the android Igor and Nanny whom he assumes are the real things. The android Duckula also returns and then leaves with the real Igor and Nanny assuming them to be his fellow androids. It’s all choreographed pretty well without it coming across as clunky, unlike the androids' deliberately robotic speech (they use a vocal filter). The only other clues the viewer gets are that the androids have comedy antennae springing from the top of their heads and the ‘Nanny’ (or should that be 'Nandroid'?) one has its sling on the wrong arm. Out of all the possible animation errors this series could have committed, they never drew Nanny's sling on the wrong side!

While the two trios go about their business, the Igor and Nanny androids bemoan the fact that the other group managed to rob the bank before they could get there. Duckula hasn’t a clue what they mean so the androids grab him and haul him back to the laboratory. Meanwhile the Duckula android robs the bank (offscreen) with the help of the real Nanny with Igor standing outsight ‘as a lookout’ and returns to base ('Oh please milord, not the wax museum AGAIN!') While Nanny just assumes the robbery is all some funny tourist game, Igor is actually proud, assuming his master to have committed an evil act at last. This explains the lookout part, since Igor needs to be kept in the dark until the robo-duck offers the explanation allowing for Igor's pleased reaction.

‘How delightfully evil! There’s hope for you yet!’

Meanwhile in Baker Street, Dr. Potson bursts in with ‘appallin’ news!’ about the bank being robbed. Hawkeye Soames knows all about it of course – not through deductive methods, but by having had his radio news playing earlier. In what is probably one of the best bits of deduction he makes (he doesn’t make many) he figures out who is responsible and takes it upon himself to arrest them. Well, only partly responsible. The Duckula android is the real thief, with the real Nanny and Igor merely being stooges. Unlike his famous literary inspiration, Soames seems proactive and goes after villains out of choice, whether or not he has any authority to arrest them in the first place. Apparently the report made mention of one of the guards overhearing something about a wax museum  - so that explains why Soames heads off where he does.

Sadly when he arrives at the museum, he’s confronted with two (almost) identical sets of ‘crooks’. This doesn’t throw him for long and he boldly announces that ‘as a consequence you’re ALL under arrest.’ This prompts the mad doctor to set his androids after the detectives while soon afterwards, the real trio want to give Matrix a pasting themselves! A chase through London ensues with the detectives escaping in a rowboat while the androids try to swim after them only to malfunction and drown.

We get another dose of wacky animation as the robots get destroyed along with drawn in smoke.

The real Duckula orders the real Nanny to hold the Doctor and soon enough Soames and Potson come to claim him – and also all of the credit. To be fair, this is probably Soames' most successful deduction, but he really should have shared the glory with Duckula as well. It might also have been an idea to take him in for questioning, but as is obvious by this stage, he’s no Sherlock.

Just to make things worse, Igor now points out that if they don’t hurry, the castle will return without them. Sure enough it does – so Duckula screams in frustration to close the story off.

A good, if routine episode. Nothing especially stand-out, but nothing dull either and a welcome return of Soames and Potson, who are pretty well-observed parodies. All very nice and farcical. I recall seeing this being played on a TV store’s window back when Sky One re-ran the series.

Music: 'Suicidal Failure' (Cage) - title card. 'This England' by John Leach plays plays under the opening narration.

'The DIY Machine' (Dave Vorhaus) plays when robotic Igor and Nanny chat.

'Horse Feathers' (Philip Green) (5m40s) plays when the Count tries to convince his staff to re-enter the museum.
'Lonely Violin' (track 131 - Dick Walter) for Soames violin playing. The trumpet-y theme last heard for Commodore and The Major from ‘Jungle Duck’ is heard when Duckula learns Matrix wants to make a model of him. It is "Working Party" by Paul Lewis. 'Pecking Orders' by Joe Griffiths plays when the robotic Nanny and Igor take the real Count back to the museum. Other than that, I don’t recognise many of the cues used in this one, other than 'Dark Doings' (track 61) by Simon Richard Benson which gets used again in the final Soames and Potson episode in this series. It’s used as S&P moor the boat and arrest Matrix. A variation on this plays when Duckula pinches himself. A lot of weird syntho' style music accompanies the androids' scenes. The chase scene is underscored with 'Charlie Chaplin's Chase' by Keith Papworth and the ending uses 'Sinister Link' by John Leach (track 10).

Some pans and BGs: You can tell the same team worked on this one as in episodes like 'Astro Duck'. Both have the large areas of flat orange/salmon colours in the layouts in parts. Some nicely detailed overhead shots of London streets too.

A few London landmarks here. This pans right to open and left to close.

Spot the punny names. I'm hearing Brian Trueman's BOOMING ACTOR voice for Henry VIII.

Sherlock Holmes, Danger Mouse and Hawkeye Soames. Well, 2 great detectives out of 3 ain't bad.

The plain wall has some detail on the edges and none in the centre - it makes the characters stand out well, even though it's a brief shot.

A couple of diagonal pans are used too, so we can't see the whole background.

Trivia

*The title of this episode may be a reference to ‘Mystery of the Wax Museum’ – a horror film from 1933 directed by Michael Curtiz. The sculptor in that film is called Ivan Igor.
*First episode to be broadcast in 1990

*The castle interior is not seen in this episode. The exterior, only briefly.

*Episode does not start with a scream but ends with Duckula’s.

*The entire episode takes place in London. One of a handful of episodes where Transylvania is not seen at all, the first being ‘The Ghost of McCastle McDuckula’. 

* Dr Matrix sounds and looks a lot like the mad doctor in the "Alias the Jester" episode "The Walking Island."
*One of three episodes that start off in London. The others being 'The Great Ducktective' and 'Around the World in a Total Daze.'

* The narrator announces that London is a ‘city safe so far from the attentions of the vampire.’ If we take all these episodes in chronological order, this is incorrect as Duckula and co first visited London in ‘All In A Fog’, where they first met Soames and Potson.

*2^nd appearance of Soames and Potson. They seem contracted to appear once a season, like the Mutinous Penguins.

*When Duckula looks through picture postcards we see photos of the places (all very Danger Mouse!) and he not only gets the places the wrong way about, but pronounces them wrong too. This is certainly not a goof given the Count's oft-demonstrated ignorance.

*We can see what appear to be some regular humans on some of the souvenirs in the shop window.

*Matrix’s name is not a reference to the film ‘The Matrix’ since this episode predates the film by a decade. The name is most likely used to refer to the fact that the Doc’ is the centre of the whole operation and creation, from which all his waxworks extend. A hub if you will. Duckula always mispronounces his name as ‘Ma-tah-rix’ whereas the Duckula android always calls him ‘Prof’ which he doesn’t like.
*A rare episode where Jimmy Hibbert voices only one character.
*An equally rare episode where Nanny destroys nothing!

*In Matrix’s museum we see Duckula-ised models of Napoleon Bonaparte (Kakapart), Dick (Duck) Turpin, Robin Hood(?) - no pun needed, Cleopatra, Achilles (Larkilles), Henry (Heron) the 8^th, Florence Nightingale (no pun needed), Charlie Chaplin (Chaffinch), The Beatles (Beakles), Mick (Duck) Jagger and Laurel and Hardy. A Viking also appears, reminiscent of the ones from ‘The Mutinous Penguins’. The altered names could also double up as a reference to the fact that this is clearly an off-brand Madame Tussauds.

*Third time in the series Jimmy Hibbert plays a mad doctor. He'd also play one in 'Danger Mouse.'
*Brace yourself for a barrage of the technical-seeming words that show up on the Doctor's viewscreen: Alpha, delta, size, index, mentaco, extrapol, transet, base mass, infro, elex-posi, expul-o, query, cetix, check, scan, plexi, track, dalto, bonix, chaco, ontio, coordinat, density, track-out, x-contour, particle, upscanner, alponett, norisspox, henfluxor, copax data, plexi axis, expos axis, vecta cort, codex cort, infra mass, baser mass, alpha size, mazem size, diode quad, index quad, multa data, betaiod, exput-o, in-data, set-up, bypass, code 9, quarter, en-turn, try b+O, betelox, E=mc² (thanks Einstein!), gets, elex, obet, lada (a type of car we used to have incidentally), quadl, obet, vecta, hasu, tilt, yps9, I❤NY (haha guys!), beak, zoap, robot, chig, jump, murtiz, metgoh, edetiz, mentat, neoraa, yzfant, neuron, adelix, and aetgok. And a whole bunch of  numbers too. Phew! Any of that mean anything to all you boffins out there?
*The android Nanny has its sling on the wrong arm. Something the people in charge of all the current merchandise should take note of! They invariably get it wrong too.
*The android Duckula s-s-sst-stah-stutters, much like the Count's early appearances in 'Danger Mouse.' Something which David Jason says he learned from Ronnie Barker when he worked with him on 'Open All Hours.' (Source: 'David Jason: My Life On Screen.')

*Igor refers to the general public as ‘the madding crowd’. This is possibly a reference to Thomas Gray’s poem 'Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard', 1751.
* The Bank of England also gets referenced in 'Cat-Astrophe' (Danger Mouse) and appears in 'Hyp-Not-Isn't' (Victor and Hugo)

*Soames and Potson appear to live at 622b Baker Street - so Holmes and Watsons' neighbours then? Their address was 221B. We can even see a glimpse of what may be Danger Mouse’s pillar-box.

*Soames says ‘Elementary my dear Potson’ which of course, Sherlock Holmes never said – well not to Watson anyway since his name isn't Potson. He also says 'discretion is the better part of valour' which is a quote from 'Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1' (1596). It means that it is better to avoid a dangerous situation than confront one. Which is what they do in running away from the androids.
*The same layout of the flat's interior would get reused in 'The Great Ducktective' except there, it's repainted in evening colours and has a different chair and some chemical apparatus on an overlay. The curtains and carpet/rug also look redrawn.

*Only time in the series Igor is explicitly referred to as being a vulture. Hawkeye Soames says it.
*Matrix echoes Nanny's 'Duckyboos' in puzzlement. Other characters in the series will do/have done this.

*Igor and Duckula do a Soames and Potson exchange near the end, Igor taking the Soames part and Duckula the Poston part. This could be a play on the fact that they are both voiced by the same two actors respectively.

*This episode was released on VHS along with ‘The Lost Valley’ and ‘The Return etc.’ in 1990. Some artwork from the cover was repurposed for the 3^rd DVD set. This doesn’t make a lot of sense as, while Soames and Potson did appear in season 3, Matrix did not, making his inclusion on the cover and discs misleading. My guess is the DVD makers ignorantly assumed he was Von Goosewing. Or they simply didn't care.

*Couple of brief uses of stock Igor and Nanny animation. Some animation of the trio near the end gets reused in 'Around the World in a Total Daze', also near the end. Some of Soames playing his violin gets reused in the open to 'The Great Ducktective' though the background is different.
*Igor refers to 'Dawn, Eastern Transylvanian standard time.'

*The joke credit is a reference to Ruby Wax, although she does not appear in this episode.
*Storyboard artists: Alan Case and Vin James. Both prolific artists for the tie-in books and comics.

Goofs and Nitpicks

*Some zooming issues on prints of this episode mean we see a few cel numbers in the corner when Duckula returns to the irritated Doctor Matrix and there are some cropping issues on the two trios as they chase him out of the museum. Cropping issue too as Matrix looks at his machine while Duckula is inside. I'll have to check my VHS some day to see if these issues were present there as I don't think they were been intended to be seen. It's unfortunate and not really a common issue, but the sound and picture quality of the zoomed out prints is exceptional. A partial trade-off.

Lets close off with some of those crazy digital effects on Matrix's machine. I don't know if these were done on cel or computer.

Igor and Nanny's bit isn't as extensive - they don't want to eat up too much screentime!

Some more effects animation on the electritcity. I half-expect Colonel K to appear, especially given the sound effect they use!