Ah yes, overlooking the obvious. The Professor’s old problem rears its ugly head again, while ‘Snuka’ does the exact opposite. Unfortunately, the Professor is overlooking that subtle sign of growing anxiety from his alleged companion as well.
Even Gregory seems less oblivious, for once, and that’s saying something…although it might just as well be just as coincidence. He does say “brains” quite a bit, regardless of context.
On the other hand, you’ve got to admire the Professor’s combined origami and engineering skills in whipping up that impromptu unmanned aerial vehicle. It does help that it’s the production’s regular camera drone, though – the folder paper fuselage is one of several improvisations George had to make to stay within budget. And now you know where all those spectacular overhead shots come from which you hardly ever see in this movie, and also why you hardly ever see any.
The Professor is right, though, with what he says in panel five – the treshhold for getting a wish granted is folding a full 1000 paper cranes, according to Japanese folklore. With only a single one he isn’t really entitled to a whole lot of good luck, at that scale, and certainly not enough good luck to spot the assassin as long as he isn’t even looking in the right place.
More on Monday.