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This episode bears a strong resemblance to ITS A MAD, MAD, MAD, WORLD; as those familiar with that film will soon see:


A rocket enters Earth's atmosphere, & ejects these two items:











The first of 5 non-Tezuka guest stars. I have difficulty distinguishing between similar faces, so AprilSeven must tell us which is which.






I do not know if the '007' has any reference to J. Bond.

In Professor Ochanomizu's lab, further efforts to open the can:





"Ive just discovered that 1+1=2 & 1-1=0!"

I really have no idea what is with this paper, other than the obvious!


Now that they have both can & opener, it should be simple to ascertain what is in the can, but--



Here is the 5th non-Tezuka guest star: Sweet Polly Purebred

The mad scramble for both objects has already begun.




















I must skip some, but the Beatles have just chased the kids into the museum:



"O.k., you win; take it."







Again, I skip some; the cahse has moved outside, & the can has crashed into a truck full of similar cans.





Wouldn't you just know it; the one that remains isthe one sought.










Sweet Polly is all over this episode.


Atom enters the apartment unbidden, & is confronted by Polly's owner, who just throws the can out again. Strangely, Polly is more significant than her owner, whose face we see only once, & in the background.

"Ouch!"













I thought the dogs were worthy of more than a few image:





"I swallowed it."




I wonder when was the last occurrence of this gag.




Here it is: the only shot of Polly's owner's face.




"How annoying. I'll fix them!"



In the local TV station, Hamegg is directing Lamp:









"This isn't in the script!"




Miss Polly goes between slapping sense into this poor dog, & kissing him into senselessness.


The can will bounce off Polly's noggin, but for brevity's sake, I omit that frame.









Awww, so very cute!

Once again, I must cut to the chase, or in this case, from the chase, to the ending:

Can & opener are finally together,




Ochanomizu yells, "It might be dangerous!"



So, Atom flies it up into the air, & opening it:









After all that, it is just a greeting from Pork, the pig alien who brought Beibe to Earth along with the Giant Space Crab (see episode ###).












I think I had stitched together a wide screen version of these last few, if so, it is in the TEZUKA'S TONGUES thread.

Astro looks [I]really[/I] tall in this episode.

Suddenly... The Beatles. Sure, why not?

I think I saw a little pig in there

i JUST REALIZED THAT WAS A SCENE CHANGING SHOT, & I should have made a new one that was not!

Jeffbert thank you SOOOO MUCH!! I hadn't spotted this until today (Astro's birthday!! Very fitting!)

I'm going to say that Tezuka took some liberties with the Beatles distinctive looks. The extra shaggy hair guy is definitely John Lennon.

But then it get's fuzzy! Ringo Starr is known for his large nose and mouth - and he is significantly shorter than the other Beatles - so I'll guess the little roly-poly guy with the Dr. Elefun-shaped nose is Ringo.

That leaves George and Paul. Paul McCartney has eyes like Astro Boy - large, "sad" and long eye lashes - well neither of these other two show that consistently.

George Harrison is slightly taller than Paul (can you tell I'm a Beatles fan-girl?) - he wore the more noticeable sideburns that the shorter character displays.

But the Mick Jagger style lips on the taller fellow look more like George than Paul (whose lips are thin)

Therefore, I suggest Tezuka deliberately combined the attributes of Paul and George - perhaps to avoid a lawsuit. After all, the Beatles had their OWN cartoon show. Remember?



I love Uran in her kimono!! And yes, Paul was/is my favorite Beatle (he's got those Astro eyes!!!!)

"AprilSeven" wrote:[attachment=]1493[/attachment]

Jeffbert thank you SOOOO MUCH!! I hadn't spotted this until today (Astro's birthday!! Very fitting!)

I'm going to say that Tezuka took some liberties with the Beatles distinctive looks. The extra shaggy hair guy is definitely John Lennon.

But then it get's fuzzy! Ringo Starr is known for his large nose and mouth - and he is significantly shorter than the other Beatles - so I'll guess the little roly-poly guy with the Dr. Elefun-shaped nose is Ringo.

That leaves George and Paul. Paul McCartney has eyes like Astro Boy - large, "sad" and long eye lashes - well neither of these other two show that consistently.

George Harrison is slightly taller than Paul (can you tell I'm a Beatles fan-girl?) - he wore the more noticeable sideburns that the shorter character displays.

But the Mick Jagger style lips on the taller fellow look more like George than Paul (whose lips are thin)

Therefore, I suggest Tezuka deliberately combined the attributes of Paul and George - perhaps to avoid a lawsuit. After all, the Beatles had their OWN cartoon show. Remember?

[attachment=]1494[/attachment]

I love Uran in her kimono!! And yes, Paul was/is my favorite Beatle (he's got those Astro eyes!!!!)

Okay, sorry but I disagree with some of your choices. The one you describe as Ringo is actually John. I agree with your choice for Paul, but the one with the shaggy hair is most definitely George leaving the one in the middle you describe as Paul or George to be Ringo. If you compare the other shots of them, especially the shot that introduces them, you might agree with me. At least that's how I see them. So I disagree with your theory about the combination of attributes. To me it looks like Tezuka's animators were trying to add attributes from familiar Tezuka characters to try to make them look like the Beatles in an attempt to make caricatures of them. At least that's how I see them.
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George was my second choice for the shaggy-haired one, but I remember how John used to part his hair in the middle like that during the Beatles' "hippie phase" - that's why I made that choice, but you could be right, Astrobuddy.

I also wonder if the character with the "big lips" is actually a spoof on Mick Jagger (I mean, obviously if they were the Beatles in, say 2015 or whenever Tezuka imagined this to be, they wouldn't look like THAT. Sad too, because George and John are no longer with us.

Mick, on the other hand, is pretty well preserved (Human Growth Hormones, maybe?!)

@ Jeffbert - did you see Ed Sullivan? And I LOVE Lamp in the JS Bach outfit!! Or is that Mozart? Could be either! Do you happen to know when this episode was broadcast? I'm guessing 1966. It seems like Tezuka was also influenced by the Beatles movies, too.

Another question I'd love to know the answer to - how did the Japanese public respond to these "later" episodes? Astro and Uran definite appear to have matured a little (Uran has a "bust line" and Astro is considerably taller, plus Cobalt seems to be a teen). I do remember reading the public preferred their Atom as a "widdle boy" and that's why he's drawn so much younger in the 80's anime.

But the story-lines in the last two years of the program seem very imaginative and funny, with many allusions to era in which they were created.

THE DATE AS GIVEN:

January 1, 1966
Saturday 19:00 - 19:30

What if the "big lips guy" is:


Kentaro (as seem in #129)?

Ed Sullivan was a bit before my time, as I was very young. I think I have seen clips from the Beatles' appearances on his show, though.