1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,960 This is MJ. I'm an author. I'm an artist. I'm an analyzer. Find all my work at MJmunoz.com. 2 00:00:05,400 --> 00:00:11,960 This is Red Panda Report episode 001. Too many narrow-oiders spoil the grump. 3 00:00:14,080 --> 00:00:19,120 So I'm talking about Red Panda Adventures episode 1 which originally aired 4 00:00:20,040 --> 00:00:26,640 October 15 2005 the title of it is The Riddle of the Sphinx. It is written and directed by Greg Taylor. 5 00:00:26,640 --> 00:00:33,020 This is episode season 1 of season 1 of Red Panda Adventures, which you can find at Dakota Ring Theatre dot com. 6 00:00:33,240 --> 00:00:35,240 Your source for adventure. 7 00:00:36,280 --> 00:00:40,920 Alright, I'm gonna read you this little blurb thing that I'm pretty sure Taylor wrote because it's just that good. Here we go. 8 00:00:40,920 --> 00:00:44,520 This is your intro to the episode and then I won't summarize it. I will only talk about it. 9 00:00:46,200 --> 00:00:48,200 Assuming that you have listened to it. So here we go. 10 00:00:48,200 --> 00:00:56,560 A stolen sapphire, a mysterious murder, and purloined plans add up to amazing adventure as the Red Panda and his trusty sidekick 11 00:00:56,560 --> 00:01:02,200 Kit Baxter the Flying Squirrel race against time to decipher The Riddle of the Sphinx. 12 00:01:02,200 --> 00:01:06,720 I don't know if Stephen Burley does those or not, but he should. He's the narrator for the show. 13 00:01:06,720 --> 00:01:11,880 I absolutely love his narration. It's so good and he gets to be a character or two later on. 14 00:01:11,960 --> 00:01:16,760 Well, he gets to be a main character later on in the series. I absolutely love that guy. 15 00:01:16,760 --> 00:01:23,080 Anyway, so I'm just gonna go ahead and let you know, again assuming that you've listened to this episode of Red Panda Adventures, 16 00:01:23,560 --> 00:01:24,960 what I thought of it. 17 00:01:24,960 --> 00:01:32,160 So first of all, some of the characters narrating their own actions to themselves while by themselves was a little weird and 18 00:01:33,160 --> 00:01:39,880 that's what I'm referring to when I say too many narrators spoil the grump because honestly if you're gonna be 19 00:01:40,320 --> 00:01:43,540 grumpy and uptight, I don't know that this is the show for you. 20 00:01:43,540 --> 00:01:49,740 You might want to go check out Black Jack Justice from Dakota Ring Theatre, and I gotta say it's a different style. 21 00:01:49,740 --> 00:01:54,180 It's a different presentation. It's a detective show specifically. You have the one-on-one narration of 22 00:01:55,060 --> 00:01:57,060 the two characters there, 23 00:01:57,100 --> 00:01:59,100 Jack and Trixie, and I 24 00:01:59,780 --> 00:02:06,380 was listening to an episode of Black Jack Justice earlier before I wrote up my notes for this and I thought 25 00:02:06,700 --> 00:02:12,280 or and as I was thinking about the fact that there is a little too much narration in Red Panda Adventures, 26 00:02:12,280 --> 00:02:15,600 it struck me that I don't think it's the same in 27 00:02:16,240 --> 00:02:20,400 Black Jack Justice, but I don't know if that's because the detective stories that were going on, 28 00:02:20,840 --> 00:02:25,800 if they were developed later, which I don't think is true, then like The Shadow for example, or if 29 00:02:26,760 --> 00:02:28,600 they 30 00:02:28,600 --> 00:02:31,840 just don't have any of that dialogue at all like, all right Trixie, 31 00:02:32,200 --> 00:02:36,280 I'm opening up the drawer to get the scotch. You can see me plainly, 32 00:02:36,280 --> 00:02:40,720 I have a stain on my t-shirt, because Trixie would just say, Jack, you spilled mustard on yourself again. 33 00:02:40,720 --> 00:02:43,360 You're such a slob. Clean up before we have a client coming here. 34 00:02:43,360 --> 00:02:48,720 And he would say something to the effect of like, oh, you know, funny that you would think that we have 35 00:02:49,080 --> 00:02:54,840 clients that are attracted to us, you know. They've all been scared away by your, you know, dragon scent or whatever. 36 00:02:54,840 --> 00:02:56,840 You know, like they would dig at each other and 37 00:02:57,360 --> 00:03:03,040 you know, instead you'd you would hear the narration of, you know, it's another early day. 38 00:03:03,040 --> 00:03:08,040 So I'm, you know, pulling out the whiskey early and I'm hoping I can get a few licks in before 39 00:03:08,040 --> 00:03:12,000 Trixie walks through the door and makes my life that much more of a living hell. 40 00:03:12,360 --> 00:03:17,760 And then, you know, it was just, you would know what's happening because the character is telling you what they did or what they're doing. 41 00:03:18,040 --> 00:03:25,720 But it's in a different way because it's narration, which is why I specifically used the term narrator in my title for this, as opposed to, 42 00:03:26,440 --> 00:03:28,120 you know, 43 00:03:28,120 --> 00:03:30,120 somebody in the Shadow 44 00:03:30,480 --> 00:03:31,960 documentary that I 45 00:03:31,960 --> 00:03:34,480 listened to, but I have yet to. I'll make sure to 46 00:03:35,080 --> 00:03:36,600 publish it on 47 00:03:36,600 --> 00:03:40,000 MJwinters.com before I release this episode of Red Panda Report. 48 00:03:41,120 --> 00:03:43,120 It mentions 49 00:03:43,640 --> 00:03:46,680 sometimes they would have to do silly things like, see I've got this gun here, 50 00:03:46,680 --> 00:03:49,880 I've got you all covered. If any one of you moves, I'm gonna shoot ya. 51 00:03:50,400 --> 00:03:56,160 And that might feel natural, but it might not, depending on how it's delivered and exactly how it's phrased. 52 00:03:56,160 --> 00:04:01,000 So I can understand it being a little weird. Yeah, there were some things, you know, where the the guard is 53 00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:07,000 talking, you know, do this, do that, some of that was good and solid, 54 00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:10,400 but some of it just sounded a little weird. And again, 55 00:04:11,080 --> 00:04:14,520 because it's radio theater, you have to be willing to let go and 56 00:04:15,600 --> 00:04:17,600 accept some level of 57 00:04:18,400 --> 00:04:19,840 contrivance, let's just say, 58 00:04:19,840 --> 00:04:27,320 for it to work and for you to fully understand what's going on without the direct narration of, and now the guard approached the door. 59 00:04:27,320 --> 00:04:33,320 He is puzzled. He pauses, puzzled at the light streaming from under it in the sound coming from the other side. 60 00:04:33,640 --> 00:04:35,960 He approaches it carefully and knocks. 61 00:04:38,400 --> 00:04:40,400 No answer. He knocks again. 62 00:04:40,840 --> 00:04:43,080 Hey, mister! You know, whatever. 63 00:04:43,960 --> 00:04:45,240 Which, 64 00:04:45,240 --> 00:04:47,760 you can do that, and they've done it in episodes of The Shadow, 65 00:04:48,360 --> 00:04:54,520 and I think they'll do it in episodes of Red Panda as well, where they'll say, such and such happens now. 66 00:04:54,520 --> 00:04:57,600 Let's watch, and you know, Stephen Barrelly will do those 67 00:04:58,080 --> 00:05:01,960 introductions, but those are mostly for the start of an episode, but anyway, it'll come up later, 68 00:05:01,960 --> 00:05:04,760 but I just wanted to point out, you know, if you don't want to have fun, 69 00:05:04,760 --> 00:05:08,680 and you want to let it be ruined for yourself, you can go ahead and do that and just stop listening right now, 70 00:05:08,760 --> 00:05:12,280 but if you'd like to have fun and enjoy a really well-told story, 71 00:05:13,040 --> 00:05:15,880 then stick around because it just gets better from here. 72 00:05:16,720 --> 00:05:18,920 All right, moving on to the things that I did enjoy. 73 00:05:18,920 --> 00:05:26,280 The dynamic between Red Panda and Kit is fun. The premise of the locked-room mystery is neat, and the Red Panda's hypnotic power 74 00:05:26,960 --> 00:05:28,960 tricking the Sphinx was really cool. 75 00:05:30,080 --> 00:05:36,280 Something I thought was kind of odd is Red Panda getting himself pumped to take down the Sphinx. It was really fun. It's like a... 76 00:05:38,080 --> 00:05:40,080 It's a monologue, basically. 77 00:05:42,240 --> 00:05:46,520 And where he like, and this is like a trademark thing, where he whips himself up, 78 00:05:46,520 --> 00:05:50,760 and he says, you know, so-and-so is gonna have a date with the Red Panda, and, well, you know, 79 00:05:50,760 --> 00:05:56,280 the Red Panda swears it, which isn't in this episode yet, or is in episode one, but it'll be, I don't know, episode two or three, 80 00:05:56,280 --> 00:05:58,480 I think it makes an appearance, and he's got those, 81 00:05:58,960 --> 00:06:01,800 these things where he just gets all worked up, and it's really exciting, and I, 82 00:06:02,120 --> 00:06:07,520 the joke for me to say is that it feels hypnotic. Obviously, it's not hypnotic. 83 00:06:07,520 --> 00:06:13,360 I'm not being hypnotized by it, but it is interesting how, like, compelling it is for 84 00:06:13,360 --> 00:06:21,480 just a guy over the radio, over the podcast, whatever, to say this stuff, and I'm like, oh yeah, okay, I'm all jazzed up. 85 00:06:21,480 --> 00:06:23,720 He's gonna go fight this guy. It's gonna be really cool, and, 86 00:06:24,520 --> 00:06:27,280 again, it's the theater of the mind, I guess, that's at play there, and, 87 00:06:27,960 --> 00:06:32,040 yeah, I guess Taylor understood that well and did a good job with it, so it's just, it's odd how cool it is. 88 00:06:32,640 --> 00:06:37,840 Another odd thing is the mystique of not knowing the true identity of Red Panda adds something to the show. 89 00:06:37,840 --> 00:06:42,000 I found myself listening for clues or tells about his identity, like, 90 00:06:42,000 --> 00:06:45,400 when Bellamy, I think, talked to him in the, 91 00:06:46,080 --> 00:06:50,000 was it in the club of car talking or not? I can't remember. Anyway, they're talking somewhere, and 92 00:06:50,640 --> 00:06:54,280 the guy calls him old friend. He calls him friend and old friend and 93 00:06:55,000 --> 00:07:00,800 pal and, you know, a couple different things a few times, but then again, Red Panda also calls the guy, 94 00:07:01,920 --> 00:07:03,920 you know, old man, and, you know, 95 00:07:04,320 --> 00:07:09,480 boy, and old bean, or whatever, so he calls him a few things too, which, naturally, you would do in 96 00:07:09,480 --> 00:07:16,960 conversation with somebody who you know well. You're not always saying, hello, so-and-so, full name, you know, first, middle, and last name, 97 00:07:17,560 --> 00:07:19,640 my friend who I have known for many years, 98 00:07:19,640 --> 00:07:23,600 how are you doing today at this place that we visit all the time? And then they say, oh, 99 00:07:24,040 --> 00:07:26,280 my friend who I've known for this many years, 100 00:07:26,800 --> 00:07:31,400 first name, middle, initial, last name, I am doing well in this place that we visit all the time. 101 00:07:31,680 --> 00:07:36,960 Today, I was talking to my wife, to whom I am married for so many years, you know, her name is, whatever. 102 00:07:36,960 --> 00:07:40,000 You don't do that, right? That's not natural conversation. So, 103 00:07:40,480 --> 00:07:47,240 while there is some unnatural dialogue, or monologuing, or self-narration going on, there's also some interesting 104 00:07:48,480 --> 00:07:50,480 clever 105 00:07:50,480 --> 00:07:56,320 natural dialogue happening, and it's just kind of interesting to mix the both of them together, and again, 106 00:07:57,320 --> 00:07:59,200 you know, more than that, 107 00:07:59,200 --> 00:08:04,520 you know, getting into that detail, it is interesting to me that I found it so interesting and exciting, and, you know, 108 00:08:04,520 --> 00:08:08,860 this is not my first time listening to Red Panda Adventures, as I've mentioned previously in the introduction episodes, 109 00:08:08,860 --> 00:08:10,040 so I 110 00:08:10,040 --> 00:08:16,080 remember though, as I was listening in carefully for clues that, hey, I did this the first time I listened, and maybe that's just me, 111 00:08:16,080 --> 00:08:21,880 and every time I re-listen to it, I'm gonna think about, oh, are they gonna drop any clues to his identity, or not, and 112 00:08:22,320 --> 00:08:24,560 yeah, they sure didn't hear, so that's kind of fun. 113 00:08:25,800 --> 00:08:31,720 Kind of fun. So, some gadgets were introduced here. Red Panda has lots of gadgets, and I, I think I'll, I 114 00:08:31,720 --> 00:08:35,520 don't know, well, whatever, I'm just gonna list them off in each episode, just for fun, 115 00:08:35,840 --> 00:08:39,320 so they use, they use, and they talk about static shoes, which allow them to 116 00:08:40,120 --> 00:08:45,180 walk up, or climb up walls, as if they're walking, you know, across the floor, 117 00:08:45,800 --> 00:08:47,080 and 118 00:08:47,080 --> 00:08:53,320 as if they're walking over to the, to grab the blue coal, and shovel it into their fireplaces, or furnaces, 119 00:08:53,560 --> 00:09:00,520 by which they've been specially formulated, and then the flying squirrel has gliding membranes in her suit that allow her to fly and give 120 00:09:00,520 --> 00:09:06,360 her the name, the flying squirrel, and we get to hear her fly and swoop in at one point during the episode, and 121 00:09:07,160 --> 00:09:10,600 that's, you know, towards the climax of the fight, I think, is when it is, and that's fun. 122 00:09:11,400 --> 00:09:16,120 She'll be doing that a lot in the future. As far as the villains are concerned, so this 123 00:09:16,800 --> 00:09:20,640 Sphinx, that, this, yeah, Sphinx character that Red Panda fights, 124 00:09:20,680 --> 00:09:25,420 he's somebody who Red Panda put away for, I believe, for acting saves, or, you know, breaking into burglaring stuff, 125 00:09:25,420 --> 00:09:29,520 his name is Matt Murdock, which I thought was funny, because it's almost like Matt Murdock, the 126 00:09:29,520 --> 00:09:37,040 the blind guy, Daredevil, from Marvel Comics, and I don't know how much that was a play on him, or not, 127 00:09:37,040 --> 00:09:39,040 but here he is, and 128 00:09:39,120 --> 00:09:41,440 what else was I gonna say, special, interesting about this guy? 129 00:09:41,440 --> 00:09:47,200 Oh, just, I like that he calls himself, or that he wants to be the, what do you say, the Pharaoh of, 130 00:09:47,200 --> 00:09:51,840 the, the Philonius Pharaoh, or the Pharaoh of Felonies, or something like that. It's a very funny 131 00:09:52,360 --> 00:09:57,200 appellation he wants to give himself, as he's trying to, aspiring to be this, you know, crime kingpin, or whatever, and 132 00:09:57,200 --> 00:10:05,680 yeah, that was fun, and his scheme, well, his scheme's a little convoluted, but it ultimately makes sense for him to pull off these, like, perfect crimes, and 133 00:10:05,680 --> 00:10:07,680 had he not been 134 00:10:07,680 --> 00:10:12,640 sloppy, like, like Lefty, in the very first episode of The Shadow, he wouldn't have been caught. 135 00:10:12,640 --> 00:10:19,440 And what I mean by that, which I want to point out, because it's just kind of fun, is that in the first episode of The Shadow, the Death House rescue, 136 00:10:19,440 --> 00:10:25,200 there is a guy, there's two guys, Red and Lefty, and they get, they basically make this guy a patsy for them, 137 00:10:25,200 --> 00:10:29,920 to go down for the bank robbery that they commit, and Lefty, who's left-handed, I guess, 138 00:10:29,920 --> 00:10:36,720 at one point, he takes off his gloves, and to be sure, he was wearing them the whole time he was committing his crime, but he takes off his gloves one time 139 00:10:36,720 --> 00:10:46,560 to adjust a mirror, so that he can keep holding, I think so he can keep holding the patsy at gunpoint, to force him to do, you know, what they want to do, and his 140 00:10:46,560 --> 00:10:53,120 thumb and index finger print are left on the mirror there, I believe that's exactly what it is, and The Shadow gets the 141 00:10:53,120 --> 00:11:04,160 patsy to reveal that, and then ultimately, the bad guys are taken care of, but the point is here, the left thumb and forefinger are the prints that the Sphinx, or Matt Murdock, 142 00:11:04,160 --> 00:11:15,680 leaves behind, as he arrogantly and foolishly thinks that he's unable to be caught by anybody, because they won't be able to, even if they, well, he doesn't think they'll be able to crack the code at all, 143 00:11:15,680 --> 00:11:28,000 or crack his crime at all, so he arrogantly leaves his fingerprints at the scene of the crime by taking off his glove and feeling around, and dropping the same exact fingerprints that Lefty did, 144 00:11:28,000 --> 00:11:43,440 in the back of the safe deposit box, or vault, or whatever it was, and that's really cool, and I'm like 99.9% sure that that is an homage to the first episode of The Shadow, but I'd have to ask Taylor to be sure, because I don't think I've ever heard him talk about that in a, 145 00:11:43,440 --> 00:11:56,640 in an interview or anything like that, but that's pretty cool. For you eagle-eared listeners out there, you too would have caught that if you checked out The Death House Rescue, and The Sphinx, Riddle of the Sphinx rather, within a short amount of time. 146 00:11:56,640 --> 00:12:04,880 It's been like a couple weeks since I've listened to that first episode, so anyway, but I only pick up that detail now after having listened to it recently, so that was kind of fun. 147 00:12:04,880 --> 00:12:21,200 Getting into the lore, so I don't know if this really counts as lore or not, but Kit became the flying squirrel, so a red panda could keep her quiet about his secret identity, because she figured out what his secret identity was, and I think this says a lot about them, but I'm not going to delve into that so much right now. 148 00:12:21,200 --> 00:12:29,680 I'll just, I'll just leave it at that basically, and there's a little clue about what that might mean for Kit, and her character, and her motivation, other than like she's clever and resourceful. 149 00:12:29,680 --> 00:12:41,200 But anyway, there's a little bonus thing in there that you'll pick up on later as you continue listening to Red Panda Adventures, so that's pretty much all I have to say about this episode. 150 00:12:41,200 --> 00:12:49,280 I thoroughly enjoy Red Panda, like I said, this is like my third time going through it again, and I'm going to have a lot of fun listening to it all again. 151 00:12:49,280 --> 00:13:02,480 I believe the show took, I don't know what, 10 to 12 years to produce all the 120 episodes that tell the full saga of the Red Panda, at least that Taylor has made so far, plus the four novels, pulp novels, that I'll be covering here as well. 152 00:13:02,480 --> 00:13:15,120 But yeah, I basically like every episode of Red Panda Adventures. There might be some that I like less than others, and I'll point that out as we go, but I really enjoy this Riddle of the Sinks as a starter episode. 153 00:13:15,120 --> 00:13:23,200 You get introduced well to the characters and their dynamic, and you meet Dr. Chronopolis, who's going to be a big, big, big deal as things go down the line. 154 00:13:23,200 --> 00:13:30,480 He's a regular member of the cast, which is fun, and I like that performance as well. I like all the performances. 155 00:13:30,480 --> 00:13:44,880 Yeah, I don't really have any other issues to point out. It was a fun adventure, a little mystery, a little crime, and it hints to a larger, already running, already established world where Red Panda is facing people who have 156 00:13:44,880 --> 00:13:56,160 superpowers or semi-superpowers, because he says a line to the effect of every two-bit criminal who gets their hands on a cape and a wand thinks that they're a sorcerer or something like that. 157 00:13:56,160 --> 00:14:09,120 And that's kind of fun. So it's obvious that he's faced all sorts of weird criminals and crimes before, even leading into the supervillains, and we'll get to hear more about those later. 158 00:14:09,120 --> 00:14:22,000 Definitely, in season one, I think there's three supervillains that he fights, which it's 12 episodes, so that's not bad. But he fights all levels of crime, the regular criminals to super criminals, and that's fun and exciting. 159 00:14:22,000 --> 00:14:31,120 And like I said, I think this is a great introduction to Red Panda and Kit, or Flying Squirrel, and their dynamic with each other and their adventures together. 160 00:14:31,120 --> 00:14:41,360 In this crazy world where we're following the adventures of, or the career of, Canada's greatest superhero. That in itself is kind of funny. But anyway, yeah, so that's it. 161 00:14:41,360 --> 00:14:53,520 I hope you enjoyed that. Go to MJmunoz.com to leave any questions, comments, or other feedback you might have. There you can find all of my analysis, art, and fiction. 162 00:14:53,520 --> 00:15:05,040 I cover books, tokusatsu, comic books, anime, and more. Look around, you're sure to find something else that you'll enjoy as well. This has been a Story Over Everything production.