The next generation of mischief...
Son of the Mask is the 2005 sequel to the 1994 Jim Carrey superhero comedy The Mask, which was itself based on the Dark Horse Comics series of the same name about a magical green mask that gives strange, almost unlimited powers to anybody who wears it, but also causes them to lose all their inhibitions and self-control. The violent tone of the comics was toned down in the first film adaptation to suit Carrey's comedy stylings, so fans clamoring for a more loyal adaptation were displeased even more when Son of the Mask reduced the style further, to the point of making it (supposedly) family-oriented.
The plot concerns failed cartoonist Tim Avery (Jamie Kennedy), who is afraid of conceiving a child with his wife Tonya (Traylor Howard) because he believes his kid would be ashamed of him and his dead-end job. But then, he gets a hold of the Mask, which works its usual magic, transforming him into the green-faced cartoony maverick that not only becomes the toast of the company party, but also impregnates his wife without his consent. (Not rape, mind you!)
Nine months later, out pops young Alvey Avery, the titular son of the Mask, who's sometimes cute, but mostly an insufferable sadist. When Tonya leaves town for business, Tim is left taking care of him, and Alvey proceeds to drive his dad totally insane with his bizarre abilities - which he does not need the Mask to use. Joining the battle royale is the family dog, Otis, who wears the Mask and uses its powers to try to kill Alvey because he doesn't want to compete for Tim's attention.
But that's not the end of it! The Norse god of mischief and original creator of the Mask, Loki himself (Alan Cumming) is making the rounds, trying to find the Mask to take it back to Valhalla because it's caused too much trouble in the human world, under the instruction of his dad, Odin the All-Father (Bob Hoskins). The movie's climax features a Mask'd Tim and Loki duking it out over possession of both the Mask and the Son it has spawned.
"This is the trope where you boogie!":
- Abnormal Limb Rotation Range: Alvey does this when Tim mentions The Exorcist.
- Alliterative Name: Alvey Avery.
- Alternative Foreign Theme Song: The Japanese theme for the film is "Mask"
by Tackey & Tsubasa. - Amazing Technicolor Battlefield: Loki's boxing ring at the film's climax.
- Amusing Injuries: Most of the comedy is slapstick. The scenes with Alvey and Otis fighting get especially violent.
- Animals Lack Attributes: Otis the dog is partly played by a real dog and partly by animation. When the dog is real, it obviously has the equipment you would expect. As soon as it puts on the mask and becomes animated, however, the downstairs department is noticeably lacking. This could have been handwaved as being an effect of the mask itself, had it not been for the fact that the whole premise of the movie is that a human male impregnates his wife whilst wearing the mask. Not to mention the original movie had Milo, Stanley's dog, also wearing the mask and peeing on one of the thugs with a visible penis.
- Artistic License – Cars:
- Despite the story taking place in the United States, the Avery's neighbour Betty is shown driving a Holden Special, a car sold exclusively in Australia where the movie was shot.
- Two Australian Ford Falcons appear as well, from the 1984 and 2000 model years. While the Ford Falcon was also sold in the United States, the American version's production ended in 1970 when it was replaced by the Ford Maverick.
- Artistic License – Geography: OK, so, Fringe City is located 270 milesnote southwest of Edge City. Stanley Ipkiss tossed the Mask into the ocean ten years previously. At the start of the movie, it's floating upriver near Tim's home. So, to recap: not only did the Mask float the wrong way up the river, it also took ten years to travel 270 miles. And it's going at about five miles per hournote .
- Artistic License – Religion: One gets the distinct impression that all the research on Norse mythology was done via The Mighty Thor. For starters, Loki was Odin's friend and blood brother, not his son. Not to mention that they were from two different worlds: Odin from Asgard, Loki from Utgard/Jotunheim.
- Asian Cleaver Fever: In the end where Tim's new cartoon show has a baby giving his father a little Asian man chopping some sushi for him.
- Baby's First Words: The moment where Tim realizes Alvey is not normal: one day, Alvey suddenly says "mama". A delighted Tim then tries to encourage Alvey to say "dada", and after a few tries, Alvey suddenly responds by saying "Mother" in deep, perfectly articulate, adult man's voice.
- Badass Longcoat: Loki has a long coat that makes him look cool.
- Bloodless Carnage: In the opening scene, Loki removes the entire front of a man's head but due to this film allegedly being a family picture, not a single drop of blood is seen.
- Bookends: Tim's performance of "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You" starts with "This is the part where you dance, this is the part where you boogie!" and ends with those phrases in reverse order.
- Braces of Orthodontic Overkill: Loki disguised as a girl scout sports prominent braces and headgear.
- Call-Back: The fetus of Alvey was singing Cuban Pete just like the Mask in the original film.
- The Cameo: Ben Stein reprises his role as Prof. Arthur Newman.
- Canon Discontinuity: This movie flat out ignores the cartoon series which was made as a direct follow-up and sequel to the first movie, as it insinuates that Stanley never got the Mask back after getting rid of it at the end of the original film.
- Children Raise You: Tim has this realization about his son Alvey at the end of the film. "You made me grow up."
- City of Adventure: Fringe City, 270 miles southwest of Edge City.
- Continuity Snarl: When Otis puts on the mask, he's able to stay masked-up even during daylight hours, when the first movie demonstrated that the mask's powers only activated at night. Now to be fair, this change was also present in the animated series based on the original film.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Well, stand-alone sequel to put it technically, but Loki serves as this to Dorian. Dorian was a regular human being while Loki is a God. Dorian's actions stemmed from greed and power and is proven to be more heartless while Loki's actions stemmed from father issues and is shown to be more redeemable.
- Cool Car: Loki's black and green '66 Ford Mustang Coupe was a pretty nice car. Tim's car is pretty cool as well.
- Deadpan Snarker: Loki is frequently bitter and sarcastic, especially toward his father, Odin.
- "I'm a god of friggin' mischief. What did you expect?"
- "You always set me up to fail. At least in that respect, I'm living up to your expectations."
- Denser and Wackier: The film takes this to such an unprecedented degree that it's almost fatal.
- Deranged Animation: While it is done in CGI, Alvey and the dog when donning the mask are animated in a psychotic way, qualifying them for this trope.
- Desperate Nail Dragging: Otis ends up Hoist by His Own Petard and caught in his own death trap. As a winch hooked onto his collar pulls him through the house, he claws the floor and later a doorway to keep from being pulled in, but to no avail.
- Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: Tim walks up to Odin, the king of Norse gods and says "Hold on a minute, Grizzly Adams!"
- Dolled-Up Installment: The film is based on the script "Baby Formula" by Lance Khazei.
- Dull Surprise: Played for Laughs when Loki throws a mask at Dr. Newman, who doesn't even flinch after it bounces off his head, he just says "Ow." Even when his face is taken off, he barely reacts at all.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Tim ultimately becomes a cartoonist, but he has to go through a lot of crap to make it happen. Odin also finally allows Loki to return to Valhalla after Tim gives the mask back.
- Enfante Terrible: Poked fun at throughout the entire film, as Alvey isn't an evil baby, but he's just feels that his own father doesn't care about him, so he attempts to drive him insane, literally.
- Everytown, America: Fringe City is a generic American city with locations that suit the film's plot.
- Evil Plan: Averted; there is no single villainous plan driving the plot. There are, however, a number of smaller ones.
- Exorcist Head: Done as a parody to The Exorcist by the magical cartoon physics baby, when his worn-out and nearly out of his mind father suggests he take him to a doctor, and then an exorcist.
- Family-Unfriendly Violence: Alvey and Otis' battle royale.
- Fanservice: One scene has Loki in a speedo.
- Fooled by the Sound: Otis the dog, who is wearing the Mask of Loki, attempts to blow up Alevy Avery with a stick of dynamite, but the baby managed to throw it away. Alevy imitated the sound of an explosion, tricking the dog that he exploded.
- Forcibly Formed Physique: Happens to Otis after falling victim to his own trap, he is pulled through an air conditioning vent causing him to take the shape of a cube.
- Gave Up Too Soon: Taken to absurd degrees when Odin, fed up with Loki's failure to find the Mask or the baby possessing its powers, possesses the man before Loki to confront him and strip him of his powers, not only unaware that his host was Tim, the one who found the mask, but also failed to realize Tim was holding Alvey, the baby in question. Loki tried to point this out to Odin while he was ranting at him, but Odin wouldn't listen.
- Genre Roulette: "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" manages to switch between rap, two styles of country, pop, and disco. The extended version also has a heavy metal section.
- God Turned Mortal: Odin turns Loki into a mortal after he fails to retrieve the mask in time. After Loki contacts Odin via a ritual and reveals his plan to retrieve it, Odin restores Loki's powers, but warns him he will lose them forever if he doesn't retrieve the mask in time. During his fight with Tim, Loki loses his powers due to time running out, though he presumably gets them back after Odin reconciles with him and Tim returns the mask back.
- Goth: Loki, Norse Night God of Mischief, His gothic attire is mostly black. He also sports a Black Longcoat. His clothing is as black as the clear night sky itself.
- Groin Attack:
- Loki gets bitten in the junk by Otis.
- Tim gets headbutted in the nuts by his neighbor's rowdy kid while visiting them with his wife.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Happens to Otis several times any time he tries to murder Alvey.
- Humanoid Abomination: Alvey. He doesn't need to wear any sort of Mask to have all the powers that normally go with it.
- Inelegant Blubbering: Loki does this briefly, after Alvey chooses to go with Tim and Tonya instead of staying with him. When the camera pulls away a moment later, he's standing in a puddle of tears.
- In Name Only: This movie shares virtually nothing in common with either the previous film or the comics it is based on, aside from having the Mask, along with Dr. Neuman from the first movie making a cameo appearance, as well as just one scene from the comic being referenced.
- I Wrote Our Story: The movie ends with the main character, who's been trying to get his break into the animation industry, pitching a series about a dog and baby competing for a father's attention, which sums up the plot.
- Jealous Pet: Otis didn't like Alvey Avery at first, since his original "dog house" became Alvey's room.
- Jerkass: Alvey and Loki (and Odin, to a degree).
- Kinder and Cleaner: The movie uses mild profanity compared to The Mask (1994), which had moderate profanity.
- Lamarck Was Right: The premise of the movie is that because Tim was wearing the mask when he had sex with Tonya, Alvey inherited all the powers of a mask wearer without needing to wear one himself.
- Large Ham: Alan Cumming's performance as Loki was one of the very few good things people had to say about the film.
- Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: The baby transforms into Woody Woodpecker for a couple of seconds at one point, for some reason.
- Let Him Choose: When the little boy has to choose between Loki and the mask, or his now normal dad.
- Lighter and Softer: Even more so than the first movie, which was this compared to the comic it was based on.
- Living Apart: Dr. Arthur Neuman has his face removed from his head by Loki.
- Look Behind You: Loki manages to distract Odin, who possessed a police officer and trying to stop him from killing Tim at the time, by exclaiming that there's Balder.Loki: Look, Dad, there's Balder!
- Made in Country X: Loki constantly searches both in the Mask Museum in Edge City and in every store and house in Fringe City for the green god-mask. Every mask he finds is just a replica with the engraved words "Made in Pakistan."
- Manchild: Tim's opening scene has him playing Mario Kart: Super Circuit on a Game Boy Advance SP while his wife tries to talk to him... which wouldn't be so bad if he wasn't making ridiculous faces, gyrating around and clutching it with all the grace of a monkey trying to figure out how to open a tin of beans.
- Mandatory Motherhood: Tim didn't want a child, but the Mask took over his body and impregnated his wife.
- Metronomic Man Mashing: Among the many, many indignities Alvey inflicts to Tim, the Mask-empowered baby grabs his father by the ankle and slams him effortlessly left and right (into an armchair and sofa rather than the floor, though, thankfully).
- Ms. Fanservice: A bespectacled woman wears a slinky black kitty-cat costume to the office Halloween party, to which the professional and monogamous Tim as the mask does a wild take on her. In order to bring her out of her shell, Tim wraps the woman up like a mummy, spins her into a tornado, thereby unraveling her, ultimately changing her costume into a red swimsuit. Tim's best friend, Jorge (Kal Penn) catches the woman as she falls, following up on a romance that was only barely briefed on before.
- Mythology Gag:
- When Tim's boss, Daniel Moss (Steven Wright), approaches him with concepts for different cartoons, he first comes up with the idea to base it on the Mask "character" he's been hearing so much about lately, since he sees so much potential in it, even eventually making it into a movie and turning it into a franchise. Instead, that concept gets tossed aside at the end of the movie for a cartoon about a baby and a dog competing for their father's affection, based on Alvey and Otis' lethal cat-and-mouse experiences.
- Mask-Tim performs Frankie Valli's "Can't Take my Eyes off You", which happened in the comics when an aspiring rock musician tried to use the mask as a quick-and-easy way to become a rock star.
- Oh, Crap!: When Tim tries to get Alvey to say mama, it works and it's cute like when most babies do it, but when he tries to get him to say dada...Tim: Say dada.Alvey: [Overly masculine voice.] Mother.
- Pac-Man Fever: Tim is seen playing Mario Kart: Super Circuit on his Game Boy Advance SP... but random stock beeping sounds come out of his GBA, and he's holding it right to his face with his fingers pressing down on top of the buttons like an old arcade tabletop, and the world's most gormless facial expression.
- Pin-Pulling Teeth: Loki does this... with a little tongue too.
- Plot Hole: During the alley scene, Odin punishes Loki by removing all of his powers and leaving, in his own words, "forever banished to the land of mortals" before Alvey picks up two dumpsters and slams them together with Loki between them. Despite having his powers and immortality removed seconds ago, he's merely left cartoonishy dazed instead of reduced to a red splatter.
- Preemptive Declaration: During the climactic fight between Tim and Loki:Tim: You can't fight me if you're locked in a trunk.
Loki: Huh?
(Tim punches Loki into a trunk and throws him into the sea, though being a Reality Warper god Loki quickly recovers) - Questionable Consent: Depending on how much you believe the Mask influences the wearer. Tim has sex with Tanya while under the Mask's influence, which she didn't realize as he crawled into bed in the dark. It's quite likely she wouldn't have if his appearance was clear to her, though technically this was still her husband. However this leads to the conception of her son, with Loki pointing out that kind of makes him a dad so there's the implication that he may be a Child by Rape.
- Roger Rabbit Effect:
- Mask'd Otis is all CGI.
- A more traditional example would be Alvey's vision of seeing his father landed in a psychiatric hospital due to nobody believing the fact that he was being tormented by his mask power-endowed one-year-old son, which has the surrounding environment (albeit crudely) traditionally animated, with a live-action Tim interacting with the storybook-esque environment.
- Sadly Mythtaken:
- Among its many other faults, the movie also gets Norse mythology wrong. Odin and Loki are not father and son in Norse Mythology, they are bond brothers. It's such a huge mistake that either the writers just didn't care or their only familiarity with Norse mythology was from Marvel's version. They're second cousins at most. And Loki would not have fooled Odin by telling him Balder was coming back because Balder is dead... because Loki killed him (indirectly, but still).
- Threatening people with lightning was more Thor's schtick; Odin was a God of Magic. True, that's all-encompassing, but you could try.
- Say My Name: The first couple of times Odin appears are precipitated with him calling out to his son:Odin: LOOOOOKIIIII!
- Shapeshifter's Offspring: Tim Avery puts on the Mask and, after a wild evening in his green-faced Reality Warper party animal form, has sex with his wife Tonya while still in that form. Their son Alvey has the same abilities and personality as someone wearing the Mask without actually needing to wear it himself.
- Shout-Out: Tons and tons of 'em.
- Tim Avery's name is an homage to cartoonist Tex Avery.
- Tim's dog is named Otis, an homage to The Adventures of Milo and Otis due to Stanley's dog being named Milo.
- Alvey transforms into Woody Woodpecker at one point in the movie, and is seen watching several famous cartoons, including the Chuck Jones short One Froggy Evening, The Flintstones, and Transformers: Armada.
- Alvey's head spins all the way around, like in The Exorcist when he says that he'll take Alvey to an exorcist.
- While still in the womb, Alvey performs the Cuban Pete song.
- The fights between Alvey and Otis are very reminiscent of the old Wile E. Coyote / Road Runner cartoons, down to Otis sketching his plans on a blueprint exactly like the ones Wile E. used.
- While wearing the Mask, Tim does impressions of Mel Gibson ("Gimme back my son!"), Ozzy Osbourne (in a deleted scene), some kind of Neil Diamond / Tom Jones lounge singer hybrid, Al Pacino in Scarface ("Say hello to my little friend!"), not to mention of Jim Carrey himself ("Ssssmokin! ...causes cancer!")
- "And then Loki said, let there be a brick wall..."
- Believe it or not, the "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You" sequence was taken right from one of the Mask miniseries, one of the few things they did take.
- Sibling Rivalry: Loki's jealousy over his brother Thor.
- Slapstick: Probably the purest example of this trope at its very worst.
- Sperm as People: There's a scene cut from the American version. After Tim has sex with Tonya while wearing the Mask, it cuts to three green Mask-like sperm swimming towards an egg and using cartoon tricks to outlast the others until one successfully fertilizes Tonya. This scene was cut in the American version to make it more PG.
- Squashed Flat: Otis is wrung flat (while wearing the mask, of course) after one of his plans to kill Alvey goes wrong.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Like Stanley from the first movie, Tim is a Manchild who feels underappreciated in his job with an attractive blonde woman as his significant other and a brown and white Jack Russel Terrier. Otis, Tim's dog, even ends up wearing the Mask just like Milo did in the first movie.
- Tear Off Your Face: Loki removes Dr. Neumann's face from his head and places it in a glass case. As it's a G-rated movie, no blood or gore is shown, and the victim is alive and rather disappointed about the whole situation rather that being in pain.
- Tinkle in the Eye: Tim's infant son Alvey has so much urine it seems like he's peeing everywhere during his diaper change on purpose. And since he has special powers, being conceived while Tim was wearing the mask, he probably is.
- Toilet Humor: If vomit and pee jokes float your boat, SotM is for you.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Mixed with Dull Surprise; Dr. Newman is completely unfazed by Loki roaring his disagreement before being consumed by black smoke which turns him into his true form. Even when he faces is removed, his tone of voice never changes.
- Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Alvey, though Tim and Otis also count.
- Victimized Bystander: Everyone that happens to be in Loki's way as he tries to find the mask. During the film, he rips the face off a man in the museum, traumatizes a nurse by transforming into a copy of her, transforms a neighbor's head into a giant nose, sucks up a woman in a giant vacuum cleaner and attaches a plunger to a man's face so tightly that the skin stretches out when he tries to pull it off. None of these characters are ever shown again.
- Villainous Breakdown: After Alvey chose Tim over him, Loki loses his cool and then summon a giant hammer to kill the Avery family in a fit of rage.
- Wacky Cravings: Tonya eats crackers topped with silly string while pregnant with Alvey.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Loki, although he hates his dad.
- Wham Line: When Loki picks up what he thinks is the Mask at the beginning of the film. "THIS IS A FAKE"
- Wild Take: Tim, Otis, and Loki all do cartoonish reactions with their eyes enlarging at different points.
- Would Hurt a Child: After putting on the mask, Otis has a fantasy of himself blasting Alvey away from a cannon and blowing him up, and later makes two failed attempts to kill him off.
- X-Ray Sparks: This is the fate of Loki when Odin struck him with lightning to remove his godly powers. This also happens when the father of the baby mask gets possessed by Odin, and electrocutes Loki to stop him from chasing him.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: When Tim first sees Otis wearing the mask, his only reaction is this...right before he faints.