Superman on Television

Superman: The Animated Series - Episode Reviews

Season 2 - Episode 13: "Monkey Fun"

Original Air Date: September 27, 1997

Reviewed by: Jeffrey Taylor

"Taller than a building, mightier than a thousand gorillas, is the greatest, strongest ape on Earth ... Titano!" - Superman #147

Titano was a giant ape villain specifically designed to capitalize on the popularity of the King Kong franchise. Even the cover of Superman #127 (1959) featuring his first appearance, claimed, "More fantastic than KING KONG!"

The word "villain" is a misnomer since, much like Bizarro, Titano hardly ever specifically expressed ill-intent. His motivations were mostly innocent rather than malicious. For instance, his desire for equally sized fruit often drew him to over-sized billboards with banana advertisements. The upside of a giant animalian villain is that it made for some classic stories including a fight with Krypto the Super-Dog in Superman #147.

Superman #127 His origin explained that Titano began his life as a performing chimpanzee named Toto. He was exposed to two colliding meteors made of uranium and Kryptonite, and thus grew into a super-ape who made an art of destroying his surroundings. As the cover of Superman #127 suggests, the meteors also originally granted him the power of Kryptonite-vision, which he could use to hurt the Man of Steel. That ability disappeared in later stories.

Instead of Ann Darrow from King Kong, Titano would occasional capture Lois Lane to climb skyscrapers with. He trusted Lois in the same way Kong trusted and admired Fay Wray's famous character.

After the John Byrne reboot of Superman's origin in 1986, Titano only made one appearance in Superman Annual (2nd series) #1, where he was mistreated by experimenting scientists who transformed him into a super-ape, which allowed him to escape by force. Lois Lane tried to intercede on Titano's behalf and the chimp took a liking to her. Titano grew bigger and stronger as Superman tried to stop him, but as Lois was stepping in to calm him, the scientists fired an electrical charge at his chest that killed him.

4Rating - 4 (out of 5): I'm not a fan of Titano at all, but then again, I was never much for King Kong either. However, this episode progressed beautifully and made excellent use of the supporting cast within the story.

This episodes also introduced Lois Lane's family, including Lucy, her sister, and Sam Lane, her father. In the opening scene which took place in the past, young Lois and Lucy were playing with a funny little chimpanzee named Titano and a stuffed monkey doll named Beppo, which was a throwback to Superman's silver age Super-Pet, Beppo the Super-Monkey, who also survived the explosion of Krypton. The stuffed Beppo doll could be wound up by a knob on its back and played a song that Titano enjoyed.

It's odd to consider that in this episode, Titano was always intended to be shot into space in an experimental rocket, yet Sam Lane allowed his daughters to play with and become attached to him. The rocket itself was called "Titan 0 (the number zero)," as in the now-defunct ICBM rocket experiments starting in the 1960s. In real life, the Soviet Union experimented with monkeys in space missions as early as 1948, and the in United States in the early 1960s.

Back in the episode, 20 years later, Superman was stopping an asteroid collision with a space station and discovered the Titan 0 rocket with Titano still alive inside, apparently in some sort of naturally suspended animation.

Once the now adult Lois Lane was reintroduced to Titano, she became excited and said, "It's me. Lolo," which made for a cute scene. She brushed off any criticism as only Dana Delaney could deliver. "I was eight, ok?"

Titano's destruction of Lois's apartment was very funny. When she had to leave, she asked Jimmy to watch Titano and said, "It's just like babysitting, with fleas."

Emil Hamilton was experimenting on bacteria from the rocket, when it rapidly grew to an enormous size and Superman had to fight it. The scene was completely ridiculous, but the point was to foreshadow Titano's imminent growth spurts.

Back at Lois's apartment, Titano was also rapidly growing larger while Jimmy failed to keep him in check. Then Jimmy fell over the side of Lois's balcony by slipping on a banana peel. It was a mildly amusing take on a slapstick classic.

Adding even more comedy, Titano attacked the Metropolis docks and was met with the fighting force that is Bibbo Bibbowski. Bibbo was of course Superman's most ape-like fan and their meeting, however brief, was bound to happen.

Once Superman showed up to stop Titano, he made a point of not trying to physically harm him. After all, he was a scared animal who had simply grown too big for his britches. He didn't deserve to be hurt, but he had to be stopped. The destruction was minimal compared to what other supervillains have done. At the Coney Island-like amusement park by the docks, the destruction of the house of mirrors and Ferris wheel were well done.

Lois's father, Sam Lane arrived with the stuffed Beppo monkey which, when wound, would play the song that calmed Titano. However, there was a game at the amusement park with hundreds of similar looking stuffed monkeys as prizes. Of course when Titano inadvertently destroyed the game, the stuffed Beppo doll was lost among the sea of prize monkey dolls.

At the end, Titano's condition was not cured, but Superman managed to get him to an island that looked much like the one in King Kong, where Titano could live out the rest of his days protecting other primates from ferocious beasts. It was a fitting ending if there ever was one.

I mentioned that I'm not a fan of King Kong or Titano and to be honest, this episode landed on the lower end of my list of favorites. However, the story supported itself well and was full of action, successful comedy and even a few surprises. It also used Superman's supporting cast well.

My only complaint was the scene where Superman fought the giant bacteria. The purpose was to show some action and foreshadow Titano's growth. However the scene itself came off silly and wasn't even animated as well as most of the rest of the episode. It looked as though it was a last minute addition to what was otherwise a tightly knit story.

Dean Jones guest starred as Sam Lane. He is best known for his 1960's and 70's Disney films including The Love Bug, which was the first Herbie movie about a living Volkswagen Beetle. He was also in a movie in 1967 called Monkeys, Go Home. Yes, I had to go there.

Mae Whitman (Independence Day, TV's Arrested Development and Chicago Hope) voiced the young Lois Lane. Her sister Lucy was played by Aria Curzon (who played "Ducky" in the later The Land Before Time movies and the short-lived TV series). Voice acting sensation Frank Welker also returned for his fourth of five appearances on Superman: The Animated Series. This time he played a scientist, which was his first speaking role in the series. He previously played several growling creatures, including the Prometheon and the worm creature from The Main Man - Part 2.



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