Prime Mates/Transcript

[Opening shot: the city skyline under threatening storm clouds.]

Narrator: The city of Townsville! Where a dark and stormy night...[Lightning strikes; long shot of Mojo Jojo’s observatory.] ...is the perfect sinister weather for an evil monkey by the name of Mojo Jojo to...

[Cut to Mojo’s bedroom. He is sound asleep, tucked in under a purple blanket that is the same hue as his cape. The headboard of the bed is styled as an extra-large version of his braincap, and a Monkey doll lies on the pillow near him. Dexter’s Laboratory fans will recognize this last character as the superhero alter ego of Dexter’s lab monkey.]

Narrator: [tenderly] ...get a good night’s rest.

(He snores as lightning flashes outside and a long shadow begins to cast itself across his form from o.c. Close-up of him.)

Mojo: [mumbling in sleep] ...by which I mean...

[The shadow covers his head, and he grunts and starts to wake up.]

Mojo: Who would dare disturb the sleep of an evil monkey named Mojo Jojo?

[By the time he reaches the end of this line, he is fully awake and rather annoyed. He sits up in bed and suddenly gasps, his eyes going wide. Cut to his perspective of the darkened bedroom—only the outline of the walls and a pair of staring eyes can be seen. A voice similar to his, but more gravelly, is heard.]

Voice: Mojo... [Back to him; zoom in slowly by steps—the speaker advances.]

Mojo: [increasingly scared] I’m sorry, do we know each other?…What are you doing? No! Stay away from me! NOOOO!!

[A crash of thunder, and the view goes white from the lightning glare for a long moment. When it clears, Mojo is seen in the main area of the observatory. He sits tied up in the middle of the floor, and the shadow—its source still o.c.—paces back and forth. For a few seconds, there is no sound but that of the dying thunder and the pacer’s footsteps.]

Mojo: All right, all right, you’ve made your point. Now who are you?

[His perspective again. The eyes peer out from the unlighted expanse.]

Voice: I will tell you exactly who I am. But to do that, I must tell the tale of my tragic origin…

[The eyes widen. Wavering dissolve to the moment in The Powerpuff Girls Movie when Mojo is about to activate his Chemical X injector and transform the primates he has hijacked from the zoo. It may help to consult the Act Two transcript here. He flips a switch on the control panel before him; the circuitry built into the observatory roof is energized during the next line, the camera tilting up to the assembly of glass globes.]

Voice: ...and your greatest plan to rule the world!

[Zoom in on the top of the apparatus and the flask of Chemical X that has been placed there.]

Voice: Using Chemical X...(The globes start to spin and fill.) ...the source of your own evolutionary transformation...[Mojo throws a lever; the creatures are affected.]...you turned normal everyday monkeys into evil villains... [Extreme close-up: a monkey’s growing brain.]...endowing them with super-genius brainpower.

[Cut to the tank holding the large gorilla who later became Rocko Socko. He appears very angry at being cooped up like this.]

Voice: But there was one who was unique. [He breaks out and starts roaring during the next sentence.] One whose power and evil temperament was even greater than your expectations.

[Other primates are seen, still suspended in their tanks.]

Voice: His primitive rage...

Pre-Rocko: [knocking them over] SMASH!!

[He jumps up to a ledge and uproots a glass globe on a pole.]

Voice: ...was dangerous to everyone around him.

[He swings the piece of equipment back and forth, shattering the globe against the surface of the ledge. Tilt down quickly to one tank in which a small monkey is imprisoned. A sudden gush of Chemical X pours in from the overhead tubes due to the equipment damage, and the creature’s brain has a growth spurt. Pre-Rocko destroys another pole-mounted globe, triggering overdoses of the unstable material in other tanks. One of these sparks and springs a leak, and a jet of green vapor inside rushes out as if the tank were a boiling teakettle. The brain of the smallish monkey inside is pulled up into the hole by the pressure differential; finally it is torn free and shoots upward to hit the ceiling. It then slides down the wall and lands behind the tank. As Pre-Rocko looks on, Mojo—now fuly suited up except for his braincap—walks over to inspect the failed rig. He gives it a hard stare, then pulls on a knob at its base. This comes free, attached to the base by a long cord. The remaining contents—including the monkey—swirl down out of sight; that control was a drain plug.]

Mojo: [walking o.c. towards control panel] Reject!

[Wavering dissolve to him in the present. Now he smiles warmly at the memory.]

Mojo: Yes. That was very comical.

[He chuckles. Cut to a side view of him; now we can see the dark area he is looking into. The eyes peer out from a height of several feet.]

Mojo: We used to call that little runt…

[A figure leaps out of the inky recess to stand before Mojo, who gasps in complete shock. It is the selfsame smallish monkey, with a purple towel tied around its shoulders in imitation of the mad genius’ cape, and a bucket on its head after the fashion of the braincap. The skin has the same green tinge, and the face is rather glum. Obviously the pipsqueak was standing on something to gain elevation while in the shadows. Cut to Mojo’s perspective of this figure.]

Mojo: ...Mopey Popo?!? [Back to him.] Egad! I am in a state of shock!

[Cut to Mopey, who does a bit of throat-clearing before getting down to business. His was the voice heard from the shadows, but when he speaks next, he sounds like the typical whiny runt. Evidently he had had something caught in his throat.]

Mopey Popo: Since that dreadful day you rejected me, all I ever wanted was to help you with a new plan to take over the world. [angrily] But I knew you would reject me again. After all... [Close-up of a nonplussed Mojo; he continues o.c.] ...I’m not strong enough or smart enough.

[Mojo blinks once in a very bored way; back to Mopey. On the next line, the shrimp tips his bucket and fishes around inside.]

Mopey: So now, you will have to pay...

[Cut to just behind him; he is seen mostly in shadow. He pulls out an item that might be a knife; Mojo gasps in sheer terror.]

Mopey: ...for the wrong you have done to me!

Mojo: Wha…? You must have misunderstood. [Mopey advances on him.] I...you...uh...[smiling nervously]...were always my favorite. I flushed you down into the sewer to keep you safe… [rapid fire] …so that one day you would return and together we would build my Super Freeze-O-Ray and rule the world!

[Close-up of the two, now face to face. In this shot, we can clearly see for the first time that the object Mopey holds is not a knife; it might be a breadstick. His voice loses the whiny edge and begins to sound something like Droopy.]

Mopey: (smiling) Really? Your favorite? Golly, I’d love to build a Freeze-O-Ray with you. (He takes a bite of the food; Mojo glares disgustedly.) Mmm! Banana jerky! My own original recipe.

(Snap to black, then immediately fade in to his lab. A windowed wall separates the two areas: a control room in which Mojo operates a bank of switches and levers, and a clean room that houses a large ray cannon—the aforementioned Freeze-O-Ray under construction. A canister of glowing material, held in a clamp, is being lowered toward an opening in the weapon’s housing. Mopey stands near Mojo in a bored manner.)

Mojo: The insertion of this radioactive isotope is all that is necessary to finalize and complete— (Close-up of the lowering canister; he continues o.c.) —the finishing step to my plan for world domination! (Back to him; he is sweating.) Steady…

(He manipulates the levers with a surgeon’s care; the canister swings past the opening that will accept it.)

Mojo: Concentrate…

(Like all good scientists who are conscientious about safety, he has donned goggles for this work. Little windshield wipers extend from the upper edge and clear away the perspiration that continues to pour down over the lenses. Now the canister is brought much closer to the opening, as seen both directly and by reflection in Mojo’s eyes. Close-up; it is slowly swung in ever nearer.)

Mojo: (from o.c.) Yes…Yes…

(Back to the control room. Mopey has come up behind Mojo and is standing on the end of his cape. He tugs on the fabric to get attention.)

Mopey: Mojo?

(The chimp in charge loses his concentration; the canister falls out of the clamp and, as he watches in disbelief, shatters on the floor. The liquid contents form a puddle, which promptly turns red and eats a hole in the tiles. This weakened patch of material drops through the floor and is heard to crash down somewhere below. Close-up of a very annoyed Mojo.)

Mopey: (from o.c.) Did you mean it when you said I was your favorite? (Pull back to frame him on the end of this.)

Mojo: (yanking cape away) No…touching of Mojo’s clothes! (turning to controls) Now to align another…curses!

(Cut to a rack marked “Caution—Isotopes” within the clean room. The clamp moves into view to pick up another canister, but there are none to be had.)

Mojo: (from o.c.) My isotope rack! Empty! (Back to him.) Most inconvenient. (to Mopey) Do not move from that location that you should not be moving from!

(Cut to outside the closed door of the lab.)

Mojo: (from inside, through door) And do not touch anything!

(The door slides open and he stalks out. Crossing the main area of the observatory, he reaches a circular opening in the center of the floor and descends slowly into it. This is the top of the stairs we have often seen and/or heard leading up through the volcano. Cut to inside the rock; the flights are seen in a cutaway view, with broad landings between them. Tilt down to follow Mojo’s rapid progress, and stop at the bottom. Here a door has been set in the rock, with a large arrow pointing down painted on the wall beside this.)

(Close-up; the arrow reads “Caution! Use Oven Mitts When Handling Isotopes!” Pull back to show it pointing down at a pair of them hanging on the wall. The door bears the familiar radiation hazard symbol and has a red warning light mounted above it. Mojo walks into view, puts on the mitts, and pushes the door open. Inside, containment devices sit on shelves and a pneumatic tube hangs from the ceiling. He crosses the room with a new canister of isotope in hand and lets it go when it is under the tube; it is sucked up and o.c.)

(Cut to the empty rack in the clean room. The canister pops into view from beneath it and is held fast. Mopey, meanwhile, stands in the control room and eyes the equipment stupidly.)

Mopey: (thinking) Mojo did say he wanted me to help. (Long pause.) All right. Let’s do it, partner.

(He reaches slowly toward the levers that Mojo used to move the clamp. Cut to the latter monkey as he approaches the door to the lab; it opens at a wave of his hand.)

Mojo: Note to self—install more elevators.

(Inside, he finds his small counterpart nowhere in sight.)

Mojo: Where is that depressing little monkey? Mojo told him not to—

(He suddenly cuts himself off and stares pop-eyed. Inside the clean room, tilt down from the ceiling to the rack. Mopey is hanging by the end of his towel, which is caught in the clamp, and struggling not to drop the new canister now in his grasp. Whining and gibbering, he starts to lose his hold; the thing slips down until he is gripping it with only his two feet, then one foot. At this point, Mojo storms up to him.)

Mojo: Mojo said no touching of anything!

(The canister finally drops away and o.c. A crash of glass, a sizzle of floor being eaten through, and as both look down, he also falls o.c. Long overhead view of this area; there is a large new hole in the floor, and the unfortunate mad genius monkey can be seen lying prone some distance down from it. Cut to just inside the hole, the camera pointing out toward Mopey. As he peeks pathetically over the edge, Mojo stands up into view—dripping wet from the plumbing pipes that run through here and about to blow a gasket. He takes a moment to gather himself and then wheels on the runt.)

Mojo: DO NOT TOUCH!! (He storms o.c.)

Mopey: You bet, partner.

(The bottom portion of the staircase again. Mojo practically runs down to the isotope storage area, stuffs his hands into the oven mitts, and throws open the door. Inside the clean room, Mopey is now sitting on one of the slots in the isotope rack.)

Mopey: How can I help Mojo without touching anything?

(Mojo feeds another canister into the pneumatic tube. Mopey sits atop the rack and the container shoots up into place, launching him o.c.; when he falls down, he pushes it back the way it came. Mojo has left the storage room, but the cargo shoots out through the open door and knocks him o.c. He runs back in, forgoing the oven mitts. A clink of glass, a sizzle, and a pained yell tell the story: he has tried to move this radioactive stuff without protection. With a few wisps of smoke rising from his body, he ducks out, grabs the mitts, and ducks in again.)

(Now we see him running up the stairs, after which he emerges in the lab. He is out of breath and completely exhausted as he drags himself back to the control panel and takes hold of the levers. He seems to take no notice of Mopey, who is standing nearby.)

Mopey: Is it my turn ye—

(Mojo silences him with one upraised hand. Cut to inside the clean room as he speaks; the clamp plucks yet another canister from the rack and carries it across the space to the Freeze-O-Ray. Pan to follow its path, showing the broken glass and floor damage from previous attempts.)

Mojo: (from o.c.) Last…isotope…must…concentrate… (Back to him.) Must block out annoyances.

Mopey: (from o.c., dejectedly) You said that I was your favorite. But…

(Cut to him on the end of this line; he kicks a rock away.)

Mopey: (suddenly sobbing) …you never let me help!

(Extreme close-up of Mojo, truly ready to blow his stack, on the end of this; then pull back.)

Mojo: There will be no moping in the lair of Mojo Jojo!

(He has his back to the control panel and does not notice that the end of his cape has settled over the levers. When he starts to walk away, the fabric becomes taut and pulls on them; in the clean room, the isotope canister breaks in the clamp, sending the radioactive liquid trickling over the housing of the Freeze-O-Ray. It forms a band that runs around the weapon’s entire circumference and eats through the metal. A moment later, the entire front half falls off. Mojo’s eyes fill with tears at the sight.)

Mojo: My…my…machine.

Mopey: Perhaps if you’d let me help, these types of things could be avoided.

Mojo: (suddenly very irritated) Okay, fine, you can help Mojo.

(This brings a smile to the little fellow’s face. Dissolve to him at a bank of controls; Mojo leans down into view and takes on the sort of tone a kindergarten teacher uses when addressing her students.)

Mojo: Now, Mopey, listen very, very closely. When Mojo says the word “now,” all you have to do is press that little button right over there. That is simple, no?

(On “that little button,” he points to a button set in a wall panel at the other end of the lab, near the door. After he finishes the line, he stitches an ingratiating smile onto his face.)

Mopey: I guess so.

Mojo: That’s a good boy. Now run along— (He does so; Mojo turns to the controls.) —and do not fumble my GREATEST PLAN to rule the world!

(The Freeze-O-Ray has been repaired with the world’s biggest Band-Aid. The protective windows have been removed so that the weapon can point back past Mojo, down the length of the lab. Zoom in on him in steps during the next line, stopping at an extreme close-up.)

Mojo: With my new D.U.D. 9000 Super Freeze-O-Ray! Finally, a near-flawless plan is nearly complete, and the accursed Powerpuff Girls will be annihilated! (He laughs madly; pull back.)

Mopey: (from o.c.) I have to poo.

(These words catch Mojo entirely off guard. Pan left slightly to show the hangdog assistant standing at a short distance to the rear—nowhere near the button.)

Mojo: Get back to your station! (Mopey trudges off.) Very well. Let us begin the commencement of a trial test.

(During this, cut briefly to a close-up of a pair of gauges, then pull back to put him in view next to them. The gauges are set in a console with a crank protruding from the side and a light bulb set in its top. He starts turning the crank; one gauge fills, the bulb glows, and the other gauge fills. Machinery kicks into gear as Mojo turns to call over his shoulder.)

Mojo: Now, Mopey! Now!

(On the second “now,” cut to Mopey at his post. He is paying no attention, though, as he has started in on another piece of banana jerky.)

Mopey: (thinking) Note to self—add more banana to our recipe.

(Mojo keeps cranking for all he is worth.)

Mojo: Now!

(Overhead view of Mopey. He lies on the floor, on his back and sweeping his arms and legs back and forth as if to make a snow angel.)

Mojo: (from o.c.) NOW!

(Back to him; he has the crank going so fast that it and his arms are only a blur.)

Mojo: NOW!!

(Now Mopey sits by the button. He has removed the bucket from his head, exposing his empty skull, and sits lost in thought atop it.)

Mopey: (thinking) Sometimes I wonder if this is my true destiny in life.

(Mojo has worn himself out at the crank; he turns it more and more slowly and finally stops. The glowing light bulb promptly shatters as the machinery winds down. This truly is the last straw, and it prompts him to let out a howl of undiluted frustration. He starts to push Mopey across the floor and out of the lab.)

Mojo: I lied! My desire was never for you to help me in such an annoying manner! (He pushes Mopey out the front door and pokes his head out.) And I never liked you!

(He pulls his head back in and slams the door. Through all of this, the little monkey’s expression has not changed one bit.)

Mopey: Oh, dear. How typically depressing.

(Long shot of the observatory. Another storm is brewing. Inside, Mojo stomps across his domain.)

Mojo: I am finally rid of that nuisance named Mopey Popo! (He stops.) I should have kicked him out back in Scene Sixty-One. (Doorbell; he walks o.c. toward it.) Curses! Will I never be rid of that annoying little—

(Cut to just outside the front door. The camera is angled such that Mopey’s head and bucket are the only parts of him in view. Mojo throws the door open.)

Mojo: How many times does Mojo have to say—

(His eyes go so wide that they might pop out of his head at any moment, and he sucks in a gasp that goes all the way to his boots. Camera shift: Mopey stands on the stoop, with a little red wagon in tow. And in that little red wagon are the girls, tied together and unconscious. It is the first time they have appeared on camera in this episode.)

(Zoom in on them, then cut to Mojo just inside. He stares for a moment and then slams the door.)

Mojo: But…but…how? How was he able to do, without a brain, what I was not able to do with such an enormous brain?

(He mulls it over silently, not seeming to get an answer he likes for a few seconds.)

Mojo: Aha! My enormous brain! I shall use it to trick him once again! (He laughs and opens the door.) Congratulations! You passed the test. Come in, come in. (Mopey pulls the wagon inside.) And bring your little friends.

(Cut to inside. The two monkeys cross the screen with their spoils on the next line.)

Mojo: I knew that my favorite little villain would return to me, again, another time. (Cut to them; pan to follow.)

Mopey: Then why did you throw me out?

Mojo: (laughing a bit) Uh…that was all part of my master plan. You see, I knew that throwing you out would motivate you to do that which I created you to do—the bringing to me of the Powerpuff Girls, just as I have always dreamed.

(The gauges refill, the machinery winds up, Mopey presses his button, and the Freeze-O-Ray finally comes to life. A beam shoots forth, striking the girls and encasing them in a large chunk of ice.)

Mojo: (from o.c.) I HAVE DONE IT!! (Cut to him at the controls.) Me,me, ME!! I, I, I!! (Cut to Mopey.)

Mopey: I’m bored.

Mojo: Huh?

Mopey: (walking past him to gauge console) Taking over the world isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be.

Mojo: You speak nonsense from the words that are coming out of your mouth!

Mopey: (pressing a button) Have fun with your new friends.

(That button causes the rig to power down. Cut to the girls, who are free of the ice and lying dazed on the floor of the lab.)

Bubbles: Where are we?

Blossom: Looks like we’re in Mojo’s lair.

Buttercup: But how did we get here?

Blossom: I don’t know— (pointing o.c. toward Freeze-O-Ray) —but that raygun could have something to do with it. Girls! Eye beams!

(They fire their eye lasers in the direction she has indicated and hit the device square on. It begins to glow red under their attack; after they stop firing, it stays red and then crumbles into dust. Mopey walks away from the console at which he disabled the Freeze-O-Ray and heads for the door, with Mojo trailing. Pull back slowly to put the girls in view.)

Mojo: But what about me? What will I do?

(They watch with some puzzlement as Mopey trudges out.)

Mojo: At least tell me your secret in capturing the Powerpuff Girls!

(He gets no answer except for a door slammed in his face that knocks him to the floor. The girls take to the air and move in on him as he stands up and groans, rubbing his head. Cut to their perspective, still approaching; he has his back to them initially, but soon turns around.)

Mojo: Now I’ll never get those accursed Powerpuff… (noticing them) …Girls? What are you doing? No! Stay away from me! NOOOO!!

(A flash of light, the sound of a colossal blow landing, and the end shot comes up. This consists of Mopey standing by himself against the usual background and looking as far down in the dumps as usual.)

Narrator: And so for the only time, the day is saved—thanks to the mopey Mopey Popo.

Mopey: Eat my jerky.

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