Synopsis in 3 sentences or less:
Legend's European publisher is in town with his son from Germany, and Legend is asked to lead them on a buffalo hunt. During the expedition they are captured by Indians who are fed up with the white man hunting and killing buffaloes on their land. Bartok and Ramos make a mechanical, fire-breathing buffalo named Thunderhooves that is intended to scare the hunters off of Indian land, but the plan backfires when curious people travel from afar in the hope of seeing the mystical animal.
Memorable Quote:
There's a sight for every Hungarian's heart: German backsides in retreat! ~Bartok
There's a sight for every Hungarian's heart: German backsides in retreat! ~Bartok
Highlight:
The last 8 minutes of the episode where Thunderhooves attacks the hunters and then goes out of control into the town. It's the best scene of the series so far: great drama mixed with hilarity and phenomenal music. I love the moment where Bartok descends from the balloon and tells Legend that Thunderhooves is on the loose, and then they speed away in their motorized vehicle -- very funny and great performances by RDA and de Lancie. And I love RDA's reaction a bit later when he asks where the manual override on Thunderhooves is only to learn that it is inside the head -- "No-hoh-hoh-hoh!"
The last 8 minutes of the episode where Thunderhooves attacks the hunters and then goes out of control into the town. It's the best scene of the series so far: great drama mixed with hilarity and phenomenal music. I love the moment where Bartok descends from the balloon and tells Legend that Thunderhooves is on the loose, and then they speed away in their motorized vehicle -- very funny and great performances by RDA and de Lancie. And I love RDA's reaction a bit later when he asks where the manual override on Thunderhooves is only to learn that it is inside the head -- "No-hoh-hoh-hoh!"
Lowlight:
Hard to think of one. I guess the opening sequence where Legend is dreaming/visualizing his book didn't really add much.
Other thoughts, observations, and questions I didn’t ask when I was in fourth grade:
- I recognized the tall German right away as one of the villains from The Wall. Both he and the kid who plays his son do a great job in this episode as the entitled and haughty nobles.
- Funny moment early on when the kid shoots "Sylvester" the stuffed buffalo head through the saloon window. This episode is getting off to a good start.
- Another fun moment when Legend is talking about buffalo migrations and fails to notice the buffalo right behind him -- good acting from RDA here, and good harmonica music from Ken Harrison a bit later.
- I like how the Indians call Legend "the great White Eyes."
- Just when I thought that for the first time we were going to go a full episode without seeing the hot air balloon initiating the action sequence, there she is!
Final Analysis:
Great episode! I enjoyed it from beginning to end and would like to watch it again. It had a good plot with a good flow, and I like how Legend's original plan to use Thunderhooves to scare away the hunters ended up backfiring. The German and Native American actors are great, and the ending with Thunderhooves is spectacular. And I love the name "Thunderhooves." If it wasn't obvious already, this is my clear #1 so far.
I have a vague recollection of this one - with the 'Trojan bull' sort of set-up. And I remember that bit being funny, but I'd have to watch it again to remember much else.
ReplyDeleteI’m not sure I’m quite as enthusiastic as Nick but still, there were some very amusing moments in this episode.
ReplyDeleteI particularly enjoyed how it’s ‘the Vice-president of legal affairs’ as opposed to the ‘minions’ who is personally cheating Pratt out of his royalties. It was also entertaining when, much to Pratt’s chagrin, Hauptmann says ‘Legend is shorter than I expected. Amusing, as RDA is himself nearly 6’2’’’, although he does seem smaller in stature as Pratt than he did as MacGyver; he must be surrounded by particularly tall fellow actors. Well-spotted that Hauptmann was in ‘The Wall’. There were plenty of culturally-insensitive, anti-German jokes which, I must shamefully admit, I found quite funny. ‘Looks like you’re after Poland’ -‘All in good time’ and ‘You don’t understand, the Indians want to kill the Germans’ - What makes you think I don’t understand?’ and all the Hungarian/German banter.
I like the pragmatic Arapaho, fed up with the Cheyenne getting all the exposure in Pratt’s books and cutting deals with him. The ‘like a brother’’ from Pratt followed by the meaningful, ‘I wouldn’t go that far’ from the Chief made for a good exchange.
I enjoyed many of the same moments as Nick including the Thunderhooves plan backfiring and actually attracting more hunters to the town. And the gruesome notion of pinching the glass eye from the dead one-eyed resident to patch up Sylvester. ‘Open coffin, closed eyes!’
I am, by now, finding myself constantly humming the theme-tune.
I was occasionally confused about what was going on and where the hunters were and there wasn’t much to find out more about apart from looking up about Wapiti the elk, but generally, it was quite an enjoyable episode. At number 2 for me.
I noticed that De Lancie is as tall as RDA. Conversely I've heard a lot of stars like Cruise, Stallone, and Kiefer Sutherland are much shorter than they appear.
DeleteDe Lancie 'feels' really tall - I think it's the way he carries himself. (I'm 5'6", so he seemed pretty tall in comparison.)
DeleteTom Cruise is like 5'4" and Kiefer is, 5'8", iirc. Robert Downey, Jr is shorter too - like 5'8" maybe? I know he had to wear special shoes w/ lifts for Sherlock Holmes b/c he's shorter than Jude Law. (Random actor trivia ahoy!)
I agree with Al, this wasn't a new favorite, but definitely enjoyable and well played. "Open coffin, closed eyes!" with the reassuring pat on the undertaker/mayor's shoulder was funny to me. After all, one-eyed Joe wasn't likely to care either way. We liked the German jokes too, even being of German background ourselves (we are Americans first, after all). We also noticed, like Legend looking shorter than Macgyver did because of the other taller actors, that the more greedy/dirty characters are introduced into the show, the cleaner Pratt looks, even with his vices.
ReplyDeleteFunny, my sister and I are humming the Legend theme too at times. Also, I gave her The Nightingale Moon for her birthday recently, and she is loving it, especially all the parts she recognizes having a Macgyver flare. We'll have to put together a review when she finishes.
Thanks for giving her my book! And glad she is enjoying it!
DeleteI'm more like Al and Rebekah here in that I thought this one was interesting and creative, but for me that didn't necessarily translate to full-throttle enjoyment. The opening third was intriguing and I was hoping I'd be the only one to recognize the Hauptmann character as Weiser from "The Wall" so I'm kind of ticked that you ruined my fun by being as observant as I was!!!! I also raised an eyebrow at the "Legend is shorter in person than I expected" comment given that RDA is well above average in height.
ReplyDeleteThe animal rights conscience we frequently saw on "MacGyver" reared its head here with the buffalo shooting issue. I felt like I was missing something regarding Legend's personal interactions with the members of the Native American tribe. I know that's been touched upon in prior episodes but it still feels like there was some character development that needed to occur to understand why Legend was in so tight with the Indians. The Thunderhooves gambit was fun and I can see why they went the direction they did by turning him into Godzilla but something about that ending tear through the town just felt too off-kilter for me to fully embrace and I can't really put a finger on why. It definitely served up the most memorable visual we've seen yet on the show but it also didn't jive with the vibe of the show for me.
It was entertaining but I liked the last couple of episodes better I guess. I'll rank this one 5th place so far. Like Al and Rebekah, I've been humming the theme song now and again too. Glad your sister is enjoying "The Nightingale Moon", Rebekah. I'm old enough to your father and I enjoyed it as well as a throwback, Disney-style adventure story.
I must be the only one not humming the Legend theme song -- maybe because all my son wants to do is listen to Disney music so that is currently what is emblazoned in my consciousness.
DeleteI'm not humming it either... but I might? I get a new 'earworm' about once/week. /o\
DeleteOne more thing that I liked was how so many times in film, Indian characters are shocked and terrified by tricks people do to intimidate them, but in this episode Legend and the Chief are snickering together as the two Germans scream and flee the scene.
ReplyDelete