Jekyll and Hyde, Bollywood and animated!

Like Karuthra Rathrigal, I had to watch Bollywood’s CHEHRE PE CHEHRA (1981)without subtitles. However it’s closely based on the Fredric March/Spencer Tracy template (I’d guess more the March but can’t swear to it) so I can follow the plot, even if I’m missing the subtleties. Some points I did catch is that what destabilizes the transformations is the sight of a cockfight (in March it’s a cat eating a bird), a more violent final finish and, of course, the usual Bollywood musical numbers.“Thanks for the good food — I’ll come again.”

The animated Aussie DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (1986) follows the pop-culture concept of Jekyll as a good man somehow possessed by an Evil Side rather than Hyde springing from anything inside him. Like a possessing spirit, Hyde has enough control over Jekyll to force him to keep taking the potion so that Hyde can kill, and kill, and kill again! — which makes it much more morally questionable that Jekyll’s friends try to shield his association with Hyde. I’d have expected a cartoon to go big on the transformation but this works much like some live-action movies, cutting away at the crucial moment, then cutting back. Because it’s recounted by Jekyll’s former maid I wondered if it was a Mary Reilly reference but it’s four years too soon. It did get me thinking about how Jekyll has loyal, devoted servants in so many incarnations — I’m sure he’s a good employer but it does play into the stereotype of servants as kindly friends who take care of you rather than people doing it for money (as my friend Ross puts it, confusing status and contract). “If that was the master, why was he wearing a mask on his face?”

SCOOBY-DOO AND THE RELUCTANT WEREWOLF (1988) is another monster mash in which Dracula plans a big auto rally only to learn the Wolf Man’s retired to Florida and won’t show. Drac’s solution: turn auto-racer Shaggy into a werewolf and force him to compete. Can Scooby-Doo, Scrappy-Doo and Shaggy’s girlfriend (who never appears anywhere else I’m aware of) save the day?

This has “Jackal and Snide” among the racers (the only classic monster to get a name change) so it qualifies for the appendix, nothing more. Which is fine by me — this is definitely not one of the series’ high points. “Our road-race winner will receive an entire month, all-expenses-paid stay — in the Black Hole of Calcutta!”

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