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Weekend Discussion Thread: Favorite Movie SidekicksAlert reader Chris writes:
Good idea! The one that immediately comes to mind for me is the insane Heathcliff from “Wild Wild World of Batwoman.” One long Charlie Callas impression, topped of with a big kiss! What’s yours? 141 Replies to “Weekend Discussion Thread: Favorite Movie Sidekicks”Commenting at Satellite News
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saherrin says:
February 7, 2010 at 2:33 pm
“5. Not the midget, but Cabot’s professor friend in Outlaw that takes the journey with him. A pygmy marmoset would seem daring and appealing with that guy as a sidekick.”
Whatley? Cabot’s complete loser/jerk, so called friend, who betrayed him? That guy? He’s not a sidekick. He’s more of a load.
(Sorry, but I hate Whatley.)
mikek: True, however, what better way to make a hero a mightier hero than a load/loser/jerk as a sidekick?
After more thought and another quick glance at the list I’ll throw in Atlas King from The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living And Became Mixed-Up Zombies. He’s a roommate. He works on their car. Goes with his buddy and girlfriend to bad carnivals. Is so concerned for his friend’s welfare he’ll even resort to having Madison help him find him. Add an odd Serbo-Croatian-Albanian-Middle Europey accent and a pompadour that puts Arch Hall Jr’s to shame and you get the sidekick of sidekicks.
For the shorts I nominate Buzz from Mr B Natural.
I’ll go ahead and nominate Linda, from THE HELLCATS, too. For only having been married to a cop, she does a pretty remarkable job of helping Ross during his undercover work.
Did anyone bring up Time Chasers yet? You actually get a GOOD VS EVIL 2-fer here. Pink Boy aka Michael MedDead vs Wayne Springsteen, complete with riding lawnmower and dixie cup!
How about the newspaper critic from MERLIN’S SHOP OF MYSTICAL WONDERS? (It was hard not to write “Merlin’s Chop”).
How about 50% of the cast in “The Thing That Would Not Die”. They all became a sidekick at some point in the movie.
Does Roxy from Eegah count as a sidekick? :?:
For that, I’d vote for the League of Psychotic Children from ‘Invasion of the Neptune Men’!
Godo or Pepe from Time of the Apes.
What about Gamera from Gamera vs. Barugon? In what is essentially a cameo role, he cleans up the mess caused by our intrepid opal-hunting hero’s back-stabbing partner!
And don’t forget the Space Children from the movie of the same name.
arch hall 3 #109 : Does Roxy from Eegah count as a sidekick?
Technically she’s the Love Interest.
Definitely Tim, The Shirtless Wonder from “Boggy Creek II”. When he wasn’t less than enthusiastically mumbling his lines, he was looking for an excuse to remove his shirt to reveal his skeleton like physique.
“What do you think, TIM?”
I haven’t been able to read every entry, so he may have been mentioned already, but my vote would go to Charlie, who was Tommy Kirk’s “friend” in Catalina Caper- inexplicable attractiveness to many young women, and ready to ditch his buddy at the mention of any kind of violence being done to him. Just a goofy, not too bright child of privilege from California.
All right! It’s finally time for another by-season list!
I’m also going to take a couple of liberties with “sidekick” and also use it to define a follower/apprentice.
1. Captain Kemp’s first officer from Moon Zero Two.
2. Big Jake from Sidehackers. Enough said.
3. Thong. Ator would have been dead several times over if not for him (same holds true for his sidekick in the first movie)
4. Winky!
5. Joshua from Gunslinger.
6. Good ol’ Joe from Racket Girls.
7. Amatron from Deathstalker. He’s the little kid who disappears early on, but I love the name.
8. Pierre a.k.a. Floyd the Pervert from Overdrawn at the Memory Bank.
9. Vadihno, the true hero of Pumaman.
10. Zurella, wife of Merlin. The only woman who uses sex as a threat! Honorable Mention: Leo’s “The Count” sidekick from Girl in Gold Boots.
Definitely Louise, from “The Home Economics Story.”
My top three would be:
Jet Jaguar from “Godzilla vs. Megalon” – Not that Godzilla needed a sidekick, but good old Jet was cheery enough about it, and actually did some damage agains Megalon and Gigan.
Torgo from “Manos: The Hands of Fate” – Torgo is the ultimate evil henchman for a MST3K movie. He’s inept. He’s confused. He confuses. He gropes and paws. He stumbles around. Even his death is inept.
Joe from “This Island Earth” – You need a scientific assistant then Joe is your man. He tries to sneak shots of the interociter. He puts Cal on intermitant. He can make atomic toaster waffles. And of course he’ll curl up in your sock drawer and sleep for days. Nerdy Joe is always included!
Buffalo Bill or Driscoll in Riding with Death
Watney Smith from “Outlaw”.
He isn’t in THAT much of the movie, but any guy who says his friend’s name as much as he does Cabot’s is just sick.
Plus he is SO weak at working the women…couldn’t he have been a touch likable?
@ 121 …couldn’t he (Watney) have been a touch likable?
I always had the impression that he was supposed to be repulsive and annoying, but laughably so as a comic relief character. Of course, it’s so poorly done that he just ends up being repulsive with no success at intentional humor at all.
@ 111 Godo or Pepe from Time of the Apes.
Great suggestion. Pepe is definitely wacky or at least, unintentionally funny.
In Attack of the Eye Creatures, wasn’t there a ‘teen’ / buddy / side-kick that wore a three-quarter length nightgown with stripes? Kind of whimpering voice? The actor looked darn near forty. Trying to remember through my Bob Marley years.
I always liked Lawrence the Crayola Hat Guy from Catalina Caper as a sidekick to the scheming father, hey he steals the art so that they can pass a phony onto Lacropolis or whatever his name was.
Oh, would you Stopolis! :mrgreen:
The very heavy man in “Future War”?
Also, from “Phantom Planet”, Lt. Ray Makonnen: “You know, Captain, every year of my life I grow more and more convinced that the wisest and the best is to fix our attention on the good and the beautiful. If you just take the time to look at it.”
Coiley. Definitely Coiley. Who wouldn’t want a “Great Gazoo”-like sidekick that only you could see and could alter all of reality with a single, foolishly uttered passing phrase?
Hello again- I have been reading all the entries, and condisering what some MSTies have done as far as defining what a sidekick is as opposed to a henchman, or a love interest as opposed to a secondary character. I would like to submit a list that is based on the character being a second banana to a “hero” or protagonist character, and not a love interest (well, mostly; and please forgive me if I forget names, I just don’t have time to research character names).
1. Pod People: The pop singer’s buddy, who does things like convince the cheating singer’s girlfriend to ignore the fact the guy is cheating, it all a part of “his act”, right?
2. The Unearthly: John Carradine’s assistant, who yes, is really a henchwoman and (we very surprisingly discover) is in love with him, but she regards Carradine with such awe and respect, and helps him do evil things so willingly and without question, I have to include her.
3. Tormented: Bert I. Gordon’s daughter, who played the little sister Sandy I think, but loves to hang around her sister’s fiancee (the murdering jazz pianist), and acts as his conscience.
4.Bloodlust!: Father Brady’s bespectacled buddy (“Damn the torpedoes, thank you”). “Nuff said.
5. The Skydivers: Tony Cardoza’s (“rich Corinthian leather”) Korean War buddy Joe, whom Tony hires as his airplane mechanic; granted, he made a pass at Beth (Tony’s wife), but is willing to resign when his friend’s business gets in trouble, and he is basically such a nice and helpful guy.
6. The Projected Man: Professor Steiner’s asssitant Chris, who wants nothing more (besides Steiner’s ex) than to assist the professor to scientific greatness, and is willing to risk the wrath of Steiner (pissed about Chris being with his ex-lover, and now imbued with the touch of death) to help the professor return his physical features to normal.
7. Hobgoblins: The phone sex addicted, useless in any physical confrontation guy, who, even though incredibly inept and self-absorbed, still tries to help his buddy as best he can.
8. Quest of the Delta Knights: Leonardo! (da Vinci, da Oxnard, da Cancun, you know)- the perfect second banana.
Well, that’s it for now. Thanks for reading.
Wackiest/Funniest
how about Frank, from Beginning of the End—“watch this–HEY FRANK!!!!!”—“Look–he’s signing AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!—Maybe he’s just the most pathetic!
I gotta go with Professor Neon from TWWWoBW. who else could put on a goofy hitler mustach and try to conquer the world with psychodelic soup? where was he from by the way?
I think Torgo wins it by a mile in terms of wackiest. Funniest would have to be Troy from Final Sacrifice, every time he says Rosdower! it just cracks me up.
However I think an honorable mention is in order for the old guy from Hobgoblins, though I think he would fall under the previously mentioned “mentor” category. After all he really was Kevin’s mentor, he taught him how to truly love a woman… from across the street… through a telescope.
I’ll second Shep from The Painted Hills. Shep sort of takes over as the protagonist, though: a bold move for a sidekick. I’d like to think that the truest form of sidekick would be one who enacts complex, deadly revenge when his/her principal is murdered.
Torgo is tops for wacky sidekick/henchman; my vote goes to Sister Ann in Future War as the best sidekick/love interest who has the remarkable excuse of planning to take vows very soon.
Sidekicks? I would say either of those two student assistants who helped the Professor and his lame son In Boggy Creek. They were pretty hot. Other than those two, I’d go with Torgo or any of Tor Johnon’s brilliant protrayals.
WINKY. WINKY. WINKY.
Joe from RACKET GIRLS..Of course there’s Torgo,but that’s an easy one..
My old friend Hugo, of course.
Now I remember what’s been bugging me. Vadinho reminds me of how one of the members of Pink Floyd looked like in their earliest photos, circa Ummagumma (or whaterver it’s called). I think it was Roger Waters but I’m not sure.
Cornjob#138: Check out the episode guide for Puma Man, post #34. He had a photo and everything.
The pointy credit sequence from “Agent for HARM”. When Baby fiber optic hair girl is pointing the arrow in the triangle always gets me.
that and werewolf are my two personal faves.
TORGO!