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Domo-kun... at the movies
We all know
Domo-kun very well: our beloved NHK Japanese mascot has and will always have a warm and cozy spot in our heart.
But now it's time to look at our friend under a new light: we just discovered a few pictures of him in some of the most popular movies in history - how many times he's been that close to becoming a Hollywood superstar!
For example, back in the '30s Domo was a famous dancer and appeared in a series of very popular musicals:
His career suddenly finished when a flatulence attack (we all know what happens to Domo when he gets a little nervous...) nearly killed his partner, Ginger Rogers - who started dancing with the less famous and mainly less talented Fred Astaire, promising to herself not to have any more relationships (the rumors were the two, Domo and Ginger, had fallen in love) with other big and gas-passing gruesome monsters.
Because of these problems he was not able to work for many decades: actors and directors kept talking about the bad smell around the studios where Domo was shooting, and nobody wanted to work with him - they even stopped inviting him at the Hollywood Parties where he had always been one of the biggest attractions. How sad and smelly was Domo in those days...
So, almost 40 long long years passed before a young director remembered our brownish mascot and offered him a leading role for one of the most successful movies in history, Star Wars.
We were lucky enough to find one of the few pictures of Darth-Domo:
As you can see here, thou, Domo had vision problems with Darth Vader's mask on, and he kept asking that they left two holes for the eyes. It's quite evident, at this point, that the whole chilling effect that this great villain should have created in the audience would have been lost:
hence, again, Domo lost the part - and we all ended up with the Darth Vader everybody knows - a lot meaner and with the shades always on.
After this sad experience, Domo was offered another important role as a very popular villain - Jason, from "Friday the 13th". As you can see from this very rare and highly impressive picture,
he was just perfect for this role. And that was the problem: he was too perfect, and Cunningham (the director of the movie) almost had a stroke when he saw him the first time. The terrorizing effect was heightened by the fact that, as we all know, Domo cannot close his mouth: therefore the audience would be presented with his jaws wide open sticking out of the mask... Uh! I almost peed my pants thinking about this! Therefore, again, another refusal...
Anyway, Domo's career and popularity, back in the early '80s,
was in any case skyrocketing - even if he hadn't appeared in any movie yet: thanks to his powerful body - under all that fur there's a load of steel muscles! - our friend was asked to become one of the icons of the decade, John Rambo. But again, luck was not on the side of Domo: the producer (Buzz Feitshans - yeah, his name is the same of a popular cartoon character - and he produce Rambo! Unbelievable...) started questioning the inner symmetry of Domo's body and face "We need an asymmetric actor for this movie - he kept repeating - and especially somebody with a diagonal mouth". Hence, Sylvester Stallone was selected.
The latest delusion for our great friend came just a few years ago, when he was offered the lead role in the Great Trilogy of our times: The Matrix.
This time he was really committed and dedicated to his character, Neo, and he even accepted to wear sunglasses - even if he kept crashing into cameras and lights as he couldn't see anything with shades on. The problem this time? Well, it's a bit embarrassing to say but... ahem... Trinity didn't have a very good "body feeling" with Domo (which is a quite handsome monster, if you think about it!) - anyway, she felt "disgusted" (that's the exact word she used) by all that fur, those big teeth, that huge mouth (maybe she was also scared by that other huge thing...), and so she refused to kiss or even hug Domo/Neo. Obviously capricious actresses in leather have a lot more power than professional monsters in brown hair, in the movie biz: so Keanu was called, Trinity won her battle and we lost ours - as, again, we were deprived of the joy of seeing our beloved grue on the Big Screen.
And this is the end (for the moment!) of the sad sad story of Domo at the movies... If you know of any other movie (semi)appearance of our hero,
let us know and we'll write about it!
Enjoy! :)
