In many respects, Jim Carey had a memorable year in 1994. He had three notable hits: The Mask, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, and Dumb and Dumber, each of which had its own animated series. The Mask animated series followed in the footsteps of the film, and the Mask is once again a distant image of the violent and psychotic antihero from the comics.
The animated series merely followed in the footsteps of the film in terms of establishing a distinct look for the character. Walter, who was absent from the film, was also introduced to the show. The animation was colorful, and the series was equally as entertaining as the film. It had a unique flavor to it, and there were several intriguing villains to keep things interesting for the audience.
The plot continues after the events of the film, with Stanley attempting to live a normal life for the first time. The mystical mask of Loki, on the other hand, has its own mind, and Stanley quickly finds himself driven into dangers and adventures he cannot resist. We have selected some of the best stories from this fantastic animated series, which is easily one of the best adaptations of the Mask we have ever seen!
The Mask Is Always Greener on the Other Side (Season1 Episode 1 & 2)
The series opener starts off with Stanley stuck in his apartment. He is dejected about his luck with women so far, and to make matters worse his landlady barges through the door and gives him an earful for thinking out loud. Stanley is left fuming at his fate, and he is tempted to use the Mask to teach the landlady a lesson.
However, he manages to control himself because the Mask should be used for the right cause. Suddenly, the alarm from the bank gives Stanley the perfect opportunity to try out the Mask. He storms off to deal with a robbery, and it takes him no time to deal with the one stationed outside the bank.
He has a thing for the security guard of the bank, Matilda, and he hopes that this would be a great opportunity to impress her with some bravado. Unfortunately, she has already reigned in the rest of the robbers. In fact, watching him in his green face scares her away. He tries to pursue her and the robbers escape using this opportunity.
The next morning Peggy informs him that he has finally made it to the front page of the newspaper for his antics. He is skeptical of her because she had sold him out to the mobsters the last time around.
She pleads with him to give her the new stories about the Mask, but Stanley is in no mind to trust her just yet. Meanwhile, a mysterious man reads about the incident in the newspaper. This is none other than Pretorious, the maniacal scientist, and he wants his henchmen to discover the real identity of the Mask. Back at the bank, Matilda has decided to quit following her horrible experience with the Mask, and many suspect Stanley to be the man behind the Mask because he was the only one not there.
Pretorious gets wind that Stanley is being suspected, and he sends in the giant Walter to bring in Stanley. Back in his apartment, there is an incident with a babywearing his Mask, and Stanley is finally fed up and decides to get rid of it. When he is brought in by Walter, Pretorious remarks that he wants the Mask to create one just like it. When Stanley refuses, he even gets his pet dog Milo to force him to concede.
Peggy comes to his rescue, but without the Mask, they are still powerless. Just as Walter is about to get him, Stanley finds and puts on the Mask to transform to his alter-ego. However, even the powers of the Mask are no match for the brutish strength of Walter. He somehow manages to get rid of the giant and heads back to save Peggy and Milo from Pretorius’ hideout. After much drama and action, the Mask finally saves the day, even as Milo gets to try it for one time. Pretorious is still at large, and he vows to get his revenge.
Sister Mask (Season 1 Episode 5)
Stanley is out on a date and his alter ego ruins it for him. He ends up in a fight with Walter, and all the fighting embarrasses him the next morning. He wakes up to a call from Peggy, who summons him to the museum to show him something important. He reluctantly obeys, but what he finds in the museum blows his mind! He discovers that there is an entity called the Sister Mask that can control the evil and unabashed side of the Brother Mask.
Individually the Sister Mask is no good, but when fused with the Brother Mask, it can dominate over the uncontrolled side. Stanley is overjoyed because this might offer him a chance to control the behavior of his alter ego. Back in his apartment, he fuses the two masks together, and the discovery is shocking! He finds out that it was all a plan hatched by Pretorious. The Sister Mask is his creation and he set up the whole thing so that Stanley would put it on somehow.
Now, Pretorious can control every activity of his, and there is no escape from his grasp! To prove his point, Pretorious makes him kiss his disgusting landlady, and he realizes that he is now a puppet in the hands of the evil scientist. Milo tries his best to help his master, but the poor dog is helpless and he simply tries to follow his master outside.
Pretorious makes his head to a secret US military facility and makes him break into a secret bunker. Meanwhile, Milo finds Peggy, but sadly the dog cannot inform her of what happened! They stumble across the military facility, only to discover that it is in ruins and the Mask has left after accomplishing its task.
The mission was to steal a fragment of a meteor that was safely stored away from there. Peggy and Milo follow the Mask into Pretorious’ lab, and they learn that the meteor fragment has some special powers, such as the power of invisibility. There are three other such fragments, and they all have different properties that Pretorious wants for himself.
He wants to use the Mask to steal all the fragments, but Pretorious discovers Milo and Peggy in his lab. Milo attacks him and makes him lose the remote that controls the Sister Mask. Stanley uses the opportunity to get rid of the mask, but Pretorious wears it for some time.
He turns into a maniacal version of himself and tries to eat Stanley and Peggy. It is Milo to the rescue once again and brings the Sister Mask to Pretorious. Stanley uses the remote to control Pretorious and turns him into a jumping ball that simply bounces around!
Shadow of a Skillit (Season 1 Episode 6)
Something strange has disturbed life in Edge City. Some peculiar entity is stealing the shadows of people, and after their shadows are stolen the people are losing their youth and rapidly aging. Charlie’s shadow has also been stolen and he is worried about his rapidly thinning hairline.
Finally, the shadow snatcher attacks Stanley, and his shadow is taken away before he can know it. Stanley feels cold and barely manages to get to his apartment. It is time to bring the Mask into play, and Stanley embraces his alter ego. The Mask is out looking for the shadow stealer, but the shadow snatcher continues to be on the prowl.
He is a shadowy entity himself, called Skillet and he has been around for over four thousand years. He steals the youth of people along with their shadow and it helps him stay young eternally. Skillet takes the Mask away to his hideout, and Stanley is surprised to learn that he knows the Mask from a long time back. He even gives back Stanley’s shadow and wants to hang out with him, much to the disgust of Stanley.
Skillet is not impressed with the behavior and now he wants to find out the man behind the Mask. He follows Stanley back to his apartment, and he reveals that Stanley is very different from the others who had possessed the Mask in the past. Most of the Mask’s previous owners were criminals and thugs and in Skillet’s words, Stanley is too cute to be wearing it.
He wants to take the Mask to his shadowland because his long life of over four thousand years has become boring, and he wants to have some fun. Skillet even steals Peggy’s shadow as Stanley watches helplessly and even Milo’s shadow has been stolen. He goes to check on Charlie, but he has turned into an old man who can barely move around. Stanley realizes that he would have to don the Mask and do something quickly before every citizen with stolen shadows withers away.
He storms off to deal with Skillet, and they engage in a hilarious duel. Skillet tries to manipulate the Mask and tempts him to accompany him to the shadowland. The Mask agrees, but the deal is that Skillet would have to hand back the shadows to the likes of Charlie, Peggy, and Milo. Once Skillet obliges, the Mask takes his shadow, and before he can return to his shadowland, Milo bites him away from the portal. He doesn’t have his powers any longer, and the Mask gives him a classic wedgy! It is tit for tat, and order is restored in the city.
Split Personality (Season 1 Episode 11)
Walter is after the Mask again, and they are engaged in an intense fight by the clock tower. During the scuffle, the Mask suddenly remembers that he is missing out on an early bird breakfast, but Walter proves to be quite a handful. During one of their fights, he rips apart a part of the Mask’s face, and now an interesting situation emerges.
Stanley and the Mask exist at the same time and this obviously calls for two opposing personalities at loggerheads. Walter watches Stanley getaway in his car, and after a sumptuous meal forced upon him by the Mask, Stanley struggles after entering the bank.
When Charlie shows up with the new employee of the bank, Chet Bozzack, a nasty surprise awaits Stanley. It turns out that Chet and Stanley know each other already, but their encounter was not a pleasant one. Chet was a big bully in school, and they happened to go to the same school.
In fact, Chet got expelled from school because of Stanley and his mannerisms make it pretty clear that he still hasn’t let that slip past him. Stanley anticipates some unpleasant moments at his workplace. Stanley dreads the thought of what would happen if Chet chanced upon the Mask somehow! In this episode, we encounter some hilarious moments where half the Mask tries to boss around half of Stanley’s personality.
The meeting with Charlie in this state is way too funny, and the dual personalities continue. The mixed personalities even get into a brawl at a bar with a bunch of thugs. But things get nasty when Chet stumbles across the other half of the Mask. They have an uncanny faceoff, where both Chet and Stanley try to get the better of each other.
Eventually, Chet has Stanley pinned to a table, but Walter arrives and manages to get the Mask off his face just in time. Walter tries wearing the Mask, but it has no effect at all, probably because he is absolutely devoid of feelings. Chet is embarrassed about his behavior, and Charlie fires him for his previous misbehavior while donning the half-Mask. All’s well that ends well!
A Comedy of Eras (Season 2 Episode 1)
The episode begins with the Mask engaged in a fight with crazy scientist Dr. Cronos who has stolen some plutonium for her experiments. The fight doesn’t end well because she has mastered the technology to control time. The Mask is slowed down, paused, and finally sent ahead and backward in time.
Milo tries to help his master, but the poor dog is sent through time just like the Mask. She has stolen the plutonium to power her time machine, and she disappears through one of the portals. Stanley takes off his Mask, but his troubles are far from over. As he walks with Milo through a deserted place, he stumbles across a few guards dressed in strange clothes.
They arrest him for not having papers for his dog, and they drag him away to be tried in court. He is shocked to see Charlie as a judge, but by now it is clear that they are in another time, somewhere in the future. Milo manages to get away with the Mask, and Stanley is sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Milo drops the Mask for Stanley just in time and he breaks free from the guards. As he tries to walk away, he is ambushed by a bunch of guards, but the Mask gives them all wedgies and defeats an entire army of them to get away. However, he is soon disappointed with this time because his favorite party place Coco Bongo is in ruins.
He finds his way to the time machine and gets himself to another time by flipping one of the switches. Just as he disappears through the portals, the soldiers attack again, and his Mask falls off. Now, Stanley finds himself back in time, and to make matters worse his Mask is way ahead in the future.
Stanley is captured for his weird clothes, and they want to kill him, suspecting him to be a witch. Dr. Cronos is also present disguised amidst the crowd, and she fuels the speculations about him being a witch. Poor Milo runs away from the crowd, and while roaming around in the forest, he stumbles upon the Mask. He wears the Mask and now, Milo is transformed into a vicious green beastly dog.
He scares away the people preparing to execute Stanley and hands him over the Mask and he transforms. He then uses Dr. Cronos’s time machine to transform her into an old woman and then a kid. The people suspect her to be a witch now, and Stanley gets back to their own time with Milo. The intelligent dog certainly saved the day this time around!
Malled (Season 2 Episode 5)
Stanley is forced by the Mask to steal tons of donuts and pastries, and when the landlady comes probing, Stanley is left to handle the situation. Meanwhile, Edge City is gearing up for the opening of the new Mega Mall. Stanley watches the opening ceremony on television, and Charlie calls him up to head to the mall for the bank’s opening there. Charlie is too busy waxing his back, and Stanley reluctantly goes for the job.
All of a sudden, the mall is invaded by a notorious biker gang. They cause panic and chaos, but Stanley is too busy trying to open the vault of the Mall. The gang robs everyone, and when Stanley realizes what is going on, he tries to stall them till the police come. But, their boss, Lonnie the Shark, is way too smart for such tricks, and he arrives to make the men hurry.
One of the security personnel of the mall manages to switch on the alarm button, and the entire mall is sealed shut with steel barriers. The leader of the gang remarks that everyone inside would be their hostages until their demands are met. He makes Stanley read out the message that they are all hostages, and he also reads out their demands.
Milo happens to watch all this on television and the smart dog immediately springs into action realizing that his master needs the Mask. He wears the Mask to transform into a super-dog and rushes to Stanley’s aid. Unfortunately, he gets too busy chasing a bus and then gets caught up in other stuff, thus delaying the much-needed help.
The police agree to the demands of the thugs, and Milo arrives just in time. He single-handedly deals with some members of the biker-gang, and finally is able to deliver the Mask to Stanley. Once he transforms into his green alter-ego, it is only a matter of minutes as he rounds up the gang members.
According to the demands of the thugs, a chopper has landed on the roof, and Lonnie the Shark tries to getaway. But the Mask is on the task and freezes them all in a bathtub for the police to get. The Lieutenant suspects that the Mask is the real mastermind, but it is a satisfying end to an attempted heist!
To Bee or Not to Bee (Season 2 Episode 19)
A beekeeper is trying to develop a special brand of bees that can be hypnotized to create more honey. However, the experiment goes wrong and he is transformed into a giant human bee mutant. He seems to have uncanny control over the bees, and they obey every order of his. He calls him Stinger and soon finds out that he has an insatiable thirst for honey.
After finishing off a few of the beehives he realizes that he requires a constant supply of honey, and heads off with his army of bees. Meanwhile, the Mask is at a departmental store to get his favorite candy, the honey-chew. And guess who he runs into! It is none other than Stinger, and he has finished off the entire supply of honey-chew candies in the store.
When the Mask confronts him for the last piece, he gets a painful sting, and Stinger gets away. He then heads to the factory that makes these candies and devours every drop of honey and candy available there. The Mask follows him to the factory, but once again the maniac mutant overpowers him. But he also discovers that he must constantly be on the lookout for more food sources because nothing is enough for him!
Things get worse, and Stanley soon realizes that citizens are hypnotized. Everyone seems to be in a trance and they all roam around like zombies repeating the word honey. Even the cops are not spared, and the entire town seems to be filled with all these hypnotized people.
When Stanley is chased by a bunch of these hypnotizing bees, he quickly gets to his apartment and dons the Mask. Stinger is actually making all these people work for him to create a giant bee-hive. When the Mask arrives at his secret hive, Stinger drops him into one of the giant drums of honey.
The Mask sinks into the honey but quickly drinks it all to getaway. After a long-drawn duel with the Stinger, he finally manages to capture all the hypnotizing bees. As for Stinger, he manages to get him back to his human state, and immediately all the hypnotized humans are also normalized immediately. It would have been a happy ending, if not for the toothache that bothered the Mask because of all his candy eating!
The Angels Wanna Wear My’ Green Mask (Season 2 Episode 26)
Lieutenant Kellaway, who is not too fond of the Mask, is captured by a gang of thugs. The Mask arrives at his rescue, but he soon finds out that there is a bomb planted in that place, set to go off in a minute.
As the two are bickering there is a massive explosion, and they both seem to have arrived in a world beyond the living. It is the afterlife, and they both seem to have died from the blast. They are both about to be walked into heaven by an angel, but the Lieutenant protests and he demands a hearing for the admission of the Mask into heaven.
The angels decide the rights and wrongs committed by the Mask, and we go into a brief flashback. After heated debates, the angels decide that Lieutenant Kellaway wouldn’t get admission into heaven because he nurtured the urge to do wrong in the Mask.
The owner of the Mask is innocent, and thus, he would get admission into heaven, but the Mask would also be denied a place there. The Lieutenant springs on the Mask, and after a scuffle, he manages to get it off. Finally, it is Stanley out there, and the Mask ends up in the judging angel’s hands.
However, there is a twist in the tale. It turns out that all this was simply a plan hatched by the time sorceress, Dr. Cronos. She was bitter ever since the Mask got the better of her in the episode, A Comedy of Eras.
The bomb never went off because she stopped time to get them both out of there, and now, she has the Mask like she always wanted to. The Lieutenant and Stanley both try to stop her, but she simply has them both cuffed and helpless. She then uses her time machine to push the Lieutenant back in evolution and turns him into an ape.
But the move backfires because the ape has way too much power and breaks free from the cuffs. In the commotion, the Mask lands back on Stanley’s face and justice begins! Dr. Cronos is at her wit’s end once again, and after all these years her plan fails once more.
The Mask uses her gadget to get the Lieutenant back to his human form, but his short-term memory is gone and he no longer remembers the man behind the Mask. Dr. Cronos ends up in the time, where the explosion is about to go off, and in a massive boom, she is finally defeated! The Mask gives the Lieutenant one of his wedgies, and it is all back to normal again!
Magic (Season 3 Episode 1)
The Mask is fascinated with magic, and he is all the more excited for the upcoming magic show in Coco Bongo. The Lieutenant and his accomplice are keeping an eye out for him, but he is quick to amuse them with some magic tricks himself. Meanwhile, Stanley is pretty excited about the magic show as well because the performer, Davida Steelmine is one of his old classmates.
He had the biggest crush on her, but he never had the heart to go up to her and reveal his feelings. However, his dreams are squashed by his bank manager Charlie and he hands over large volumes of audit work for Stanley to complete.
Instead, Charlie decides to go for the show himself and woo the elegant Davida Steelmine. Back in her school days, she went by the name Vicky Pratt, and what Stanley has no clue about is that she too had a huge crush on him back in the day!
While Stanley works grumpily at the bank, he is shocked to see some alien robbers. Without the Mask, he can do little to stop them, and he rushes home to get his hands on it. But, the Lieutenant watches him hurrying into the apartment, and it gets worse for Stanley when it is later discovered that the bank has been robbed under his watch! The police believe that he might have a hand in the robbery because he has no proof to support his ridiculous story about alien robbers and is without CCTV footage to prove the same.
In fact, it shows Stanley opening the vaults himself! Charlie is disappointed with him and assigns him a temporary leave to deal with his mental health. The Mask tries to get to the bottom of this mysterious robbery, and Stanley meets his childhood crush at the museum.
She tells him about her feelings, but it doesn’t take long for him to figure out that she is the one behind the crimes. She uses her tricks of illusion to fool everyone, and her next plan is to rob the museum.
The Mask, who also has developed the hots for her, interrupts her charade, but her magic is simply too strong for him to handle. Finally, she is apprehended before fleeing and handed over to the police. But the episode ends with a massive twist, where we learn that the one under arrest is simply an illusion and the real Davida Steelmine, a.k.a. Vicky Pratt, is still on the loose!
To Have and Have Snot (Season 3 Episode 5)
Something as simple as a common cold might have some serious consequences! Peggy is down with a bad cold and the evil scientist Pretorious claims that he can cure her permanently. She is excited about the meeting and calls up Stanley who warns her about the demented scientist. Back in his lab, he seems to want something to do with her phlegm, and he is up to no good!
The Mask arrives to help her just in time, but he gets molten lava dropped on him. To make matters worse, Stanley catches a cold from her, and he is bedridden. However, he has to put on the Mask even in his diseased state, when Peggy gets kidnapped by Walter!
The Mask gets the shock of his life, when he does some research on the effects of the common cold on him. He finds out that, while the Mask is supreme and indestructible, both the Mask and the person beneath the Mask would meet their demise if they are affected with a common cold. The simplest of diseases might have the hardest of consequences for them!
Meanwhile, Pretorious creates a phlegm monster, and it starts to contaminate the entire city. Pretorious declares that the citizens of Edge City are now at his mercy, and they would be in a state of permanent infection.
Stanley watches the destruction caused by the monster on TV, and he finds out that even Peggy has been taken by the monstrous phlegm. There is no other way for him but to wear the Mask once again, even with all the risks. By the time the Mask reaches Pretorious and the monstrous blob of phlegm, he has already started to develop some serious signs of weakness.
He is no match for the monster in his weakened state, but he does try his best with Vitamin C grenades and chicken soup to defeat the phlegm monster. It works for a while, but the cold is simply too strong. The Mask looks up on the computer, that wood-mites might be the last thing to stop the unstoppable.
He sends Peggy on a hunt, and she arrives with the cure just in time as the Mask is about to collapse. After being back from the brink of death, he rips off the bio-helmet that was keeping Pretorious safe and the crazy scientist also has a terrible case of cold now. Finally, using the cure the monster is defeated, and Edge City can breathe easy again!
They don’t make shows like these anymore – the fun, carefree stories, the colorful and detailed animation, and the overall playfulness of the narrative were way too entertaining. It ensured that the animated series had a long and successful run, and it might be a great throwback for you all to go back and check out the series one more time!