Invasion of the Neptune Men



""Oh, I know a song about Stock Footage. It goes like this: da-da-dadaDAda---EAT IT, MOVIE! TAKE THIS STUPID LITTLE COCKROACH OF A FILM, ROLL IT UP SOOOOO TIGHT, AND THEN RAM IT RIGHT UP YOUR (Breaks down in sobs)""

- Tom Servo

A 1961 sci-fi flick (Uchū Kaisokusen, or "The High-speed Spaceship", in the original Japanese) famous for its appearance by a young Sonny. What little plot there is concerns a gang of nameless Japanese children wandering around town and running into an invasion by the titular torpedo-headed Neptune men, some sort of "electro-barrier", and Space Chef Late Chief (Iron-Sharp in the original), a superhero and "ineffectual chicken-headed bachelor" dedicated to fighting the Neptunian menace. Aside from that, it's pretty much Prince of Space with added World War II stock footage (featuring a delightful cameo by Adolf Hitler) but without the charm of the Chicken Men of Krankor.

For the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode see here .

This film provides examples of:

 * Ace Pilot: We're apparently supposed to buy that Space Chief is one of these.
 * Adolf Hitler: Whose building gets blown up.
 * Alien Invasion: A particularly slow, lumbering invasion with endlessly looped stock footage. They try to spice things up by disguising the aliens as a brigade of transvestite soldiers, but it's still one of the least exciting struggles for mankind's future ever filmed.
 * Blind Idiot Translation: Whoever did the English dubbing was too lazy to try to get the dialog to sound like things actual English speakers would really say.
 * The Cameo: Robby the Robot in toy form.
 * Canned Orders Over Loudspeaker: "DON'T PANIC. DON'T PANIC."
 * Cool Car: We're clearly supposed to think Space Chief's flying rocket car is super wicked sick, but even if it weren't made of cardboard and styrofoam you probably wouldn't want to have it.
 * Dude Looks Like a Lady: The Neptune Men when disguised as humans feature men wearing heavy pancake makeup, lipstick and mascara.
 * Hey Its That Guy: This movie stars then 22 year old Sonny Chiba.
 * Hong Kong Dub: The voices for the kids are incredibly stupid. Disregarding that, fairly standard for its time, but... gah, those stupid kids.
 * Landmark of Lore: The Japanese Diet building and of course, The Hitler Building.
 * The Load: The omnipresent Japanese children when they have to be saved by Prince of Space Chief. However, this trope is subverted as follows:
 * The kids are the ones to discover and report the aliens, find the piece of the spaceship that is blown off, and deliver the device that the aliens use to communicate with the humans. They even notice the disguised soldier aliens before anyone else. They're actually more useful than Space Chief is.
 * Bear in mind that they were just the first ones on-site in both instances. Anyone with a pair of working eyes...or, failing that, one working eye, would have been able to see what they did. And be a lot less shrill when telling people about it. And probably cut down on all the running time by having a driver's license and car.
 * Non Indicative Name: Space Chief is never seen to go into space. He's more like Lower Atmosphere Chief, really.
 * Barely-Off-The-Stupid-Ground-Chief.
 * Of course, those idiot kids gave him the name, so it's hardly his fault.
 * No Swastikas: Um...rather bizarrely and unintentionally averted.
 * Overly Long Fighting Scene: The infamous final showdown between Space Chief and the Neptunians lasts longer than most Yes songs and is composed of the same five shots repeated ad nauseum.
 * Parental Abandonment: No-one seems to care that the kids are just wandering aimlessly around town.
 * Serial Numbers Filed Off: Alien invaders? Check. Mysterious superhero with the word "Space" in his name dedicated to fending off the invaders in his flying machine? Check. Roving gang of Japanese children? Check.
 * Space Clothes
 * Stock Footage: Lots...
 * Stock Footage Failure: You could say that.
 * Swiss Cheese Security
 * We Have Reserves: Done in the most boring way possible.