Mystery Science Theater has introduced alot of people to alot of really bad movies alot of which would have been lost to the sands of time and forgotten about forever. The film that's covered in the episode that i'm about to review for you all today is no except as when this episode was first coming out the film that features in it was largely forgotten about with alot of people not really even knowing that this film was even thing in the first place and while this episode didn't really fix that it has somewhat slowed it down and so then join me as I review the episode that is the shows first ever halloween special with the episode in question being called simply just "The Mask" enjoy.
The plot of this episode is Jonah and the bots celebrate halloween and have to try and survive the latest bad movie to be thrown at them from Kinga and max. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot thats actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty good but at the same time this episodes plot was also on the thin side of things which s a common thing for this show as more often then not unless it's a really important episode then the shows host segments don't really ave much in the ways of a plot and even in this most recent season there was very little there interms of plot in it's episode with this episode being a prime example of that as it's basically a special holiday themed episode and nothing really all the more then that with the plot of this episode also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this episode is this episodes director and co-writer Jonah Ray as Jonah Heston and Hampton Yount as The Voice Of Crow T. Robot. Also starring in this episode is Baron Vaughn as The Voice Of Tom Servo , Felicia Day as Kinga Forrester , this episodes co-writer Patton Oswalt as Max , this episodes co-writer Rebecca Hanson as The Voice Of GPC and Mrs. Kelly , Yvonne Freese as The Skull , the shows creator Joel Hodgson as Ardy , Ivan Askwith as Bonesy and Sharyl Volpe as The Voice Of Magic Voice.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acing that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. With all of the episodes doing the est that they can do with what little that they've been given to work with as there's not really much there interms of plot for the cast to sink there teeth into and turn in that good of a performance and while the voice actors in this episode are indeed the true standouts of this episode it's the acting of the live action cast that do somewhat let the quality of the acting down a little bit just due to the fact that not alot of them have that much to do and those that do have alot just turn in average performances with the acting in this episode not really being helped by the fact that the script for this episode isn't really all that good as the script for this episode doesn't really give the cast a whole lot of two work with interms of what it is that there respective characters personalities are even meant to be in the first place which is something that really does bring down the overall quality of the acting that's in this episode.
As was stated at the start of this review this is the shows first ever Halloween special in the shows history. With the episode really embracing the halloween holiday with Jonah and the bots even going trick or treating complete with costumes which was a nice little touch as was the fact that the villains headquarters is filled to the brim with spider webs which they do explain away in the show in a way that does make sense but at the same time it does go along way to showing us that the makers of this episode are quite clearly having fun with this episode and celebrating the fact that it's halloween and given the amount of bad horror movies out there it makes you wonder why this show hasn't tackled any of them before now as the show really could have fun with alot of the cheesy movies from the seventies and alot of the Full Moon Features films and heck they even could have taken on some of the films from Troma Entertainment as well as all of the films from both of those studios are perfect films for this show to take on.
The film that's the main focus of this episode is of course the 1961 Canadian surrealist horror film The Mask. With the film pretty much being shown in it's entirety with there not being edited down and as a result of that we the audience get to see just how strange and weird that this film is and while the team behind this episode do make the obvious jokes of making references to the Jim Carrey film of the same name they don't really mention just how stranger and weird that this film is which is something that they really could have done as they could have gotten alot of jokes just from how strange and weird that this film was and while they do point out the fact that they don't need anyone to tell us when the film is in 3D as yes this film was a 3D film it's not something that was needed as scenes like that would most likely appear in alot of films as alot of people wouldn't know what 3D is when it comes to feature length films but what they could have done is called out just how weird and strange that this film gets as the films gets weird quickly and it only gets weirder.
In a rather odd move is that there are technically two different versions of this episode available with one being in 3D for the scenes in the film are in 3D and one that's just in standard 2D. This was a rather odd move as it basically means having to film to different versions of the scenes in the theater and editing two different versions of the episodes which would take alot of work to do and it's rather odd that the makers of this episode would do that as there's nothing really new that they could joke about in the 3D version that's in the 2D version but at the same time given that the makers of this episode now aren't bound to whatever it is that whatever network or streamer that there airing on wants them to do and as a result of that is the fact that they can now do alot of the things that they couldn't do in both seasons eleven and twelve of the show and in this case that means producing essentially two different cuts of the same episode and releasing them both at the exact same time on there very own streaming service The Gizmoplex.
To get back to all of the good things in this episode all of this episodes host segments are some really fun parts of the episode. With the cast quite clearly having a blast in all f those segments and just going with and embracing the pure madness of this film with them even showing what trick or treating might be like for Jonah and the bots in this episode which does lead to the most fun and possibly even funniest part of the non theater segments of this episode with even Max getting in on the costume fun which does go to show you that even tho he's a villain on the show he's still like all of us a big kid at heart but on the flip side of the of is the fact that alot of the host segments in this episode don't really go into that much detail on the Halloween holiday with alot of them just basically covering the same stuff that you'd expect a kid to know about Halloween which does in someways make sense as Jonah most likely doesn't know all that much about Halloween but it still would have been nice to see them explain some of the other halloween traditions and not just the most popular one.
Now then this episode has / had an exact grand total running time of one hour and thirty four minuets and fifty four seconds. Which is the bogstandard running time for this show to have and to this episodes while it doesn't alot of plot there to really cover that large amount of running time it does make the best use of that running time by giving us alot of the shows signature host segments alot of which are all really fairly entertaining and by giving us alot of host segments alot of the characters alot of really funny scenes alot of which would have most likely have been pushed to the side to make room for the plot which in away does make sense as well but this is a comedy and there for the focus should be more fifty fifty and thankfully that's not really an issue for this episode tho this is despite the fact that the episode had more then enough running time there to justify pushing the seasons plot of the now three hosts planning to make an escape but I will admit that this episode really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is a comedy that means that I have to actually talk about the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good. With the episode having alot of really funny moments alot of which do come from the episodes host segments as we get to see the characters just having fun like at the start of the episode we see Jonah , Crow , Tom and GPC telling each other scary stories but because they could have to end the story at any second there only telling each other the end of the story which is really a funny joke as is the fact that nobody really gets that Jonah's costume is that of actor Tom Atkins which is funny but it's also something that gets old really quickly but alot of the shows best jokes do really come from the jokes that Jonah and the bots make about the movie in the theater in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall this was a really decent episode of the show as it does give what is basically a forgotten horror film the chance to become a cult classic and it is fun seeing the Mystery Science Theater 3000 characters celebrate halloween in the only way that they know how and that is something that really does make this episode really fun to watch in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all f the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very episode in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very episode really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 7 out of 10 from me.
Now the as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from the official Mystery Science Theater 3000 fandom wiki page , IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personally preferred website that I personally preferred to use to get the images that I personally used in this very review being the wonderful Google Images since all of the images that are currently up and and featured / presented to us on Google Images are all fairly high in quality and as well as being fairly freaking high in definition.