Grim Fandango: Difference between revisions

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[[File:grimfandango.jpg|frame|Manny Calavera: Grim Travel Agent]]

 

{{quote|''"Bound only by the paper-thin wrapper of mortality, a soul here lies, struggling to be free... and so it shall, thanks to a bowl of bad gazpacho and a man named Calavera."''}}

This 1998 [[Adventure Game]] for the PC from [[Tim Schafer]] is a heady blend of [[Film Noir|noir]], Mexican mythology and Schafer's own warped sensibilities. As with all adventure games by LucasArts, it contained no real action or danger, and no possibility of dying, focusing instead on solving the often tricky puzzles strewn throughout the game, as well as just wandering through the place talking to people. It differed from adventure games of the time in its simple interface; Manny could move in three dimensions in a stationary environment, and interacted with it through three keys -- an Examine key, a Use key and a Get key, which could be used when Manny turned his head to look at something or someone. Sometimes all three keys could be used on the same item to different effect; stand near the giant pit of kitty litter and hit Examine, then Use, then Get, and you will get an increasingly funny series of reactions from Manny. Also, except for one arm-in-a-coffee-grinder moment, the adventure game standard of combining items was absent.

 

 

 

{{tropelist}}

* [[Affably Evil]]: Domino Hurley comes across as this, at least at first.

* [[Afterlife Antechamber]]: The Land of the Dead. What lies beyond the entrance into the real afterlife is unknown and unknowable, and nobody who goes through ever comes back; the game ends when Manny goes through.

* [[Almost-Dead Guy]]: Played straight and subverted.

* [[Amazing Technicolor Population]]: Most of the human souls are white like regular skeletons. Some have strange colours, such as Lupe being purple, Raoul being blue and Chepito being blue-green (though he justifies it by walking in the ocean for so long).

** Manny decks Nick Virago, who wonders if it's for the camera girl he sprouted. Manny replies that it was just for Nick being Nick.

* [[Arc Words]]: "One year later.."

* [[The Big Guy]]: Glottis the demon mechanic.

* [[Bond Villain Stupidity]]: [[Subverted Trope|Nope:]]

* [[Break the Cutie]]: Meche is a ''lot'' harder and colder after a year working for Domino.

* [[Celestial Bureaucracy]]: The Department of Death.

* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: Certain information from earlier years--some of which is ''missable''--doesn't become relevant until you encounter certain puzzles in the final year.

** Related to that very puzzle, the mug you give Bruno in year 1 comes back in year 4 as he, raging with madness slams the mug at you, complaining that he could at least have been given a magazine. It becomes useful in the same puzzle as described above.

* [[Claustrophobia]]: Raoul the waiter suffers from it; a puzzle consists of locking him inside a closet so that he panics and accidentally knocks himself out.

{{quote|'''Glottis:''' ''(drunk)'' Wassssat, little kitty? Don't talk, just '''RUN, BABY RUN!!!'''}}

* [[Continuity Nod]]/[[Call Back]]: Many. Manny mentions he couldn't be on a ship without trying to be captain; at the end of the year, he gets a minor job on a ship. One year later...

* [[Cool Car]]: The Bone Wagon is the product of Glottis' mad compulsion to make all things with engines harder, better, faster, stronger...

{{quote|'''Manny:''' What a relief. I was getting concerned that our transportation wasn't ostentatious enough.}}

* [[Cool Shades]]: Domino Hurley wears these when at the island near the giant waterfall.

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Manny's pretty good at it.

** Looking at his office door:

** Looking at a boobytrapped Bonewagon:

{{quote|'''Manny''': Soon to be known as "the Blownwagon".

{{quote|'''Hector Le Mans:''' Oh Manny... so cynical... What happened to you, Manny, that caused you to lose your sense of hope, your love of life?

** Most of the characters in the game have their moments, given the nature of, well, being dead. They usually get a bit of snark in while Manny is playing [[Mr. Exposition]] by [[Breaking the Fourth Wall]] for the player.

*** Or this one:

* [[Dem Bones]]: Every human soul takes this form in death. Contrasted with the briefly-seen ''living'' humans... well, you have to see it, but the dead are more relatable. They also gain "breast-bones" (the women) and "belly-bones" (the fat). That's because they're not ''skeletons'' per se, but ''calaca'' dolls.

* [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything]]

* [[Everybody Smokes]]: Of course, since they're already dead, it doesn't do anything to them. The [[All There in the Manual|manual]] has the following footnote on one page:

{{quote|"For those who are disturbed by the amount of smoking in ''Grim Fandango'', we offer two reasons: 1) we wanted to be true to the [[Film Noir]] atmosphere, and 2) everybody in the game who smokes is DEAD. Think about it."}}

* [[Fat Bastard]]: The [[Big Bad]]. Impressive, since he's also a skeleton.

* [[Fate Worse Than Death]]: There are a number of unpleasant things that can happen to a soul in the Underworld, from being turned into a bone dam by demonic beavers to being ground into powder to being "sprouted".

* [[Femme Fatale]]: Olivia Ofrenda.

* [[Film Noir]]: Tim Schafer said that the inspiration of the story was from 1944 film ''Double Indemnity''.

* [[Flower Motifs]]: One of the only ways to make someone [[Deader Than Dead]] is to shoot them with a Sproutella gun that make flowers grow on their bones. Membrillo the undertaker specifies to Manny that flowers are a negative symbol in the Land of the Dead, and Manny tells him that from now on, he'll use balloons as gifts.

** [[Genius Bonus]]: To the Aztecs, flowers were a metaphor for blood, as in the vital fluid of the living.

* [[For the Evulz]]: Manny loves to reveal himself oh-so-briefly to living people.

{{quote|'''Manny:''' Pssst. It's me, Death. I'll see you soon, okay?}}

* [[Genki Girl]]: Lupe.

* [[The Grim Reaper]]: It's one of many jobs the sinful are forced to take on to pay off moral debt.

* [[Guile Hero]]: Manny.

** Year 1 is an homage to ''[[Glengarry Glen Ross]]''.

* [[Horse of a Different Color]]: Giant multicolored demon cats are the racehorses of choice in the Land of the Dead.

{{quote|''[Manny looks at the domino booby trap trapped in a frozen gel]''

'''Manny''': A parade of bones, trapped in a suspended state... Kind of a metaphor for all of us if you really think--

* [[Informed Deformity]]: Celso's wife is ugly according to Manny. She looks like just any other female human soul except with a pair of lines on her face.

* [[Instant Messenger Pigeon]]: They can find anyone based on just a photograph! And the bad guys engineer big talking messenger birds with human skull-heads.

{{quote|'''Manny:''' Any messages for me?

'''Eva:''' One: join, or die!

* [[La Résistance]]: The L.S.A.

{{quote|'''The Gatekeeper:''' Your destiny... cannot be purchased.}}

* [[Let's Play]]:

* [[Magic A Is Magic A]]: So, when is a skeleton soul considered "dead"? They are technically all dead, yet they can be "killed" again (the text in the sequences' titles even describes them as "dying"!). This gets a slight [[Lampshade Hanging]]: in the Petrified Forest, Manny and Glottis have to cross a barrier of soul bones, and Glottis says that he feels guilty about rolling on them. Manny replies they won't feel anything because they are dead. Glottis reminds Manny is dead as well, and that is not a reason for him to roll on him. Manny then says that is because they "are friends".

** Manny cannot blow inside a deflated balloon because he doesn't "have the lungs for that", and yet, he is shown several times ''blowing'' smoke when smoking, and the Angelitos blow too on crystals when they are working.

* [[Meaningful Name]]:

** ''Calavera'' means skull, and refers to sugar treats made for the Day of the Dead as well as other associated art.

* [[Mega Neko]]: In Rubacava, there is a "cat track" that is just like a horse racing course, except the horses are replaced by ''giant cats''. Of multiple colors. And they have a large swimming pool filled with cat litter. And huge cans of gelatinous mystery meat to feed them.

* [[Metal Detector Puzzle]]:

** An earlier one in Rubacava, where you have to find a metal detector in a giant pool of kitty litter.

** An even earlier one in the Petrified Forest, where you have to use a road sign that magically points the way to Rubacava to find a hidden trap door.

{{quote|'''Eva''': "What I did back in the fat days is none of your business. You know the rules."}}

* [[Nice Hat]]: All the female souls wear hats (considering they don't have hair). Lola has an especially nice hat: a top hat in the shape of a stack of buildings.

* [[Once Per Episode]]: Manny has a habit of falling into the Sea of Lament at least once per year, [[Lampshade Hanging|which Captain Velasco notices the second time it happens]].

* [[Rebel Leader]]: Sal Limones.

* [[Road Apples]]: In Rubaca, Manny finds a pool filled with dirty cat litter. ''Giant cat'' litter. Manny says that it is "tempting" to jump in this dirty litter, and he will explode in a long burst of laughter if you try to have him pick up some of it.

* [[Running Gag]]: It's never explained how Manny manages to do so well between chapters:

** At the end of Chapter 2, he's mopping the deck on a ship; at the beginning of Chapter 3 (one year later), he's captain.

*** Given a [[Foreshadowing]], and possibly an explaination, in Chapter 1. When looking at a picture of a ship, Manny mentions how he's so competitive, he wouldn't be able to rest until he was Captain.

** The lengthy trek between Chapters 3 and 4 goes unexplained as well.

** The tool that sees the most use in the game, Manny's scythe, is used in an ingenious number of ways, but not to reap, ever. It sees more use as a circuit component than as a scythe, and the closest thing to reaping Manny does with it is use it as a boxcutter; the one time he looks like he ''might'' reap, he uses it like a mining pick.

* [[Sassy Secretary]]: Eva.

{{quote|'''Manny:''' Any messages for me?

* [[Scooby-Dooby Doors]]: The tunnels in the Petrified Forest clearing. Glottis takes notice the first time you try driving into one.

* [[Self-Inflicted Hell]]: Membrillo, the tall, dour coroner in Rubacava, believes that the Land of Eternal Rest does not exist, and that all the denizens of the Land of the Dead are actually in Hell, condemned to this half-life for all eternity. For this reason, he won't complete his journey and leave the Land of the Dead, trapping himself forever.

* [[Shout-Out]]: In contrast with other Lucas Arts adventure games, Grim Fandango has a remarkably very low amount of shout outs, but there are still some:

*** The logo for Corley Motors, as well as Sam and Max, are on a poster in Toto's Tattoo Parlor.

** There is a certain similarity to the poison tooth scene in ''[[Dune]]''.

* [[Shut Up, Kirk]]: In a moment that subverts [[Just Between You and Me]], [[Bond Villain Stupidity]] and [[Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?]]:

'''Hector:''' No.

'''''(BLAM!)'''''

* [[Super Not-Drowning Skills]]: This is justified for Manny and the other human souls, as they are dead and don't need to breathe, so they can stay underwater forever. Glottis does have lungs though, and he even points this out when he and Manny are stuck underwater. Manny [[Hand Wave|handwaves]] this by saying: "You survived without a heart, you can live without air for a while."

** Subsequent observations of Glottis let us know how he's holding up: "Still not blue", "A little blue around the eyes"... Eventually, Glottis emerges of his own accord... because his skin was getting ''pruney''.

* [[The Three Trials]]: Year 2 revolves around this, being the only chapter set in a single expansive location. Manny needs a Maritime union membership, tools for Glottis, and to prevent a sailor from showing up so he can take over his job.

* [[Trailers Always Spoil]]: The trailer shows part of the death scenes of {{spoiler|Don and Lola}}.

* [[Who Would Be Stupid Enough...?]]: Manny gives to Membrillo the undertaker a metal detector so he can find out the identity of the corpses better. Membrillo says that he could find initials of the person on a belt buckle. Manny laughs, asking who the heck would keep his initials on his belt buckle... until Membrillo points the detector to Manny's own belt buckle, which obviously has ''his'' initials on it.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Adventure Game]]

[[Category:Fantasy Video Games]]

[[Category:Grim Fandango]]