Man 1994 was a bomb-ass year for films!! The Mask, Lion King, Pulp Fiction, Dumb & Dumber, The Santa Clause, Forrest Gump, Ace Ventura, True Lies, Speed and The Shawshank Redemption all came out that year.
I like the idea that the Mask is sentient in some way; you don’t find it by chance, it finds you because it see something that just ticks some kind of box. It’s like Venom but made of wood
its likely his love for cartoons that has him turn into the Mask via twister a la Taz as opposed to an evil character like Tyrel transforming into the Mask via thunder and lightning
If you look at the part where the mask forces Stanley to start spinning for transforming, you can see that for one or 2 seconds he still has his normal clothes, then he immediately has the mask persona clothes.
When I first saw this scene back in 95' or so as a kid, I don't think I've laughed so hard before or since...when he pulls out the hammer and starts trying to smash the clock next to the manager's apartment, and then when he blows the "squeeze me gently" horn is just classic. The only other movie scene I can think of that was almost as hilarious on first time viewing was the car scene in Up in Smoke where the the cops pull up and Cheech had just taken the acid.
Whether or not it's your particular cup of tea, I don't know if most people comprehend (let alone appreciate) how much time, talent and innovation it took to produce a special effects heavy movie, in 1994, with visuals that (for the most part) still hold up today. The battalions of ADs, APs, stunt directors, coordinators and personnel, the arms length of ADs and department leads and respective crews, concept artists, storyboard artists, CGI artists, programmers and computer engineers (many times literally inventing hardware and software solutions to achieve an effect that have gone on to revolutionize medical, computer science and engineering fields)... the practical effects directors, leads, artists and techs, makeup artists and techs, sound designers, digital and process film compositors, digital and process film editors, digital and process audio editors --- that it took to make a movie --- more than 30 years ago --- when high-end production computer workstations (which could cost $10K-$30K per machine) were staggeringly less powerful than a modern $150 smartphone --- it's mind blowing.
for me as an adult today some of the most interesting scenes are these ones. Those where Ipkiss thinks about his night plan: "I'm going to bed" because he isn't planing to use the mask until the last second in this scene and when going to the club. But in reality he doesn't like his original night plan in both scenes of the movie. Then he puts the mask on and he forgets about that original plan, and he just goes outside to live an adventure, change the mood. Like, in mask-mode he actively searches instead of resign. Or at least that is one of the concepts I can get from this nowadays.
I like how he goes crazy when he puts it on the second time. This scene was like oh shit the mask just took over his body. The way they did this part with the mask was kinda cool with the CGI
I saw this in the theater in 1994. My brother got so scared my Dad had to take him out of the theater cuz he was crying. If he just stuck around another 5 seconds he would have been OK 😂
Not gonna lie, when I first saw this, it scared the heck out of me when he first put the mask on. The way it wrapped around his head like a parasite was just kinda freaky. But all the fear left me as soon as he stopped spinning. 😂😂😂
My brother was watching this movie when it was new, with me on the couch next to him. I was 2 years old, and once this scene came on and his face started changing, I just started screaming like crazy, and I didn't stop until they turned the TV off.
