English Dub Review: The Bizarre Stories of Professor Zarbi “Franky”; “Incredible Mutant”

 

 

Overview:

“Franky”

A severed hand has come knocking at the door of Professor Zarbi’s home asking for help in finding its body. With Benjamin doing the heavy lifting, they manage to put Franky back together. 

Unfortunately, finding his head will be much more difficult since it is locked up in his mad scientist creator’s laboratory. Hopefully, Prof. Zarbi and his sidekick Benjamin can help their new friend without losing their own heads.

 

“Incredible Mutant”

Professor Zarbi and Benjamin have been invited to be guest judges on a new talent show looking for people with supernatural powers. The contestants fail to impress Prof. Zarbi to the point that he mocks them. 

Unfortunately, he takes a jab at the wrong contestant causing him to lose his temper. Thankfully, there happens to be a few incredible people around to help save the day.

 

Our Take:

Bizarre Stories releases on a back-to-back fifteen-minute episode format. Meaning, while this is the third episode in count, it is the fifth and sixth in content. The series centres around Professor Zarbi and his young assistant Benjamin solving mysteries of the occult. The Scooby-Doo theme is challenged with adult humour and unexpected turns.

The first segment of this episode followed a similar formula as we have seen from the show thus far. However, instead of some innocent person looking for help combating some monster, it is the monster that needs the assistance. The villain of the plot being a mad scientist that would make an ideal arch-nemesis to our heroes.

Of course, this story is a play on the classic Frankenstein’s monster, but the show is able to add its own twists. There are no townspeople with pitchforks, but much more horror. Specifically, when the bad guy is introduced and his own fitting conclusion.

The second installment of the episode offered something completely off-the-rails from what we have seen in the series. It offers up a super-powered talent show to the same note as America’s Got Talent. 

There are some strange takes on supernatural abilities including a shape-shifter that only turns into chairs, a boy who can fart bubbles, and a talking pimple. But the best part is the conclusion when they all come together like a c-class take on  The Avengers.  

Honestly, this second segment was the best that we have seen out of the show. Perhaps it is the refreshing nature of stepping out of the formulaic base that the sitcom has developed. But it also helped to expand the world. Now we are aware that supernatural things are occurring all-over this world, enough to necessitate a prime-time television show. Additionally, these phenoms are more based in a reality where people who can shape-shift wouldn’t act as they would in a comic book world.

Separate from everything, including whatever notes that we’ve added, it is worth checking this show out. The artwork has a magical appeal dancing between the lines of grotesque and realistic. The design draws you in. Meanwhile, the familiar, but unique-enough, stories make this a fun little show to watch. And I would argue the adult rating and say this is some family-friendly viewing. It is not any worse than what we watched in the nineties.