User Reviews

So I really love the villain of this adventure, the awesomely evil and threatening Lao-Chu, ancient and vengeful Emperor of the Rats, he's is one of my favourites, his voice is so scary! I love the low and rumbling effect they did with it, I just devour every last disturbingly distorted and demonic word he grumbles out at our heroes! He was like the anti-Pied Piper, drawing the hordes of ravenous rats back into the cities! Now a tiny 'lil detail about Lao-Chu's character design that just begs to be pointed out is that..he uh, he looks a lot like a demonically possessed version of Splinter from Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles! And who knows, maybe the fact that Rob Paulson had previously done the voice of Raphael on that classic 1987 show it could possibly have been a little homage. I just mainly love this excellent episode for the villain and the whole Asian thing they used for the story. It's cool how he can't be physically harmed or ever permanently destroyed but only banished by navigating a treacherous maze that's full of dangerous illusions and ghosts and eventually reaching the centre where, with the help of the soul of the unfortunate man who accidentally freed the spirit of Lao-Chu in the first place and who now possesses his physical body, solve a puzzle of seven iron bells... There's not that much to it, but I like the whole puzzle angle, it's different and interesting, and the puzzle box that Lao-Chu tosses to Max and orders to solve quickly or be eaten alive by his "children" is an obvious take on the Hellraiser box. And the closing epilogue is so creepy, with Lao-Chu's rat servants scampering off into the darkness with the pieces of his jade heart, and then the final image of the evil red rodent eyes shining in the dark, strongly indicating that his menace may be reborn someday... Damn I love this show! This highly distinctive episode is based on "Mighty Max Traps Rattus", which was a Doom Zone that had the gross appearance of a giant rat's head. I love the seldom used 'rat horror' genre, it's a really scary and macabre theme. I like rats, they're so sleek and super-fast and agile, like fuzzy little ninjas, and they're really great survivors. Just don't try to feed them through the cage at the pet shop - they will bite hard! Just absolutely love this one, to me it's one of the greatest! 🐀