And here Snuka successfully penetrates the Crystal Palace, having made his way across the city of London remarkably quickly. So this Naruto-style running definitely gets you to places fast! On the other hand, on the way here Snuka ended up eating dirt so frequently, the whole city is noticeably cleaner – which is also the reason I had to keep his face out of view for this episode. It’ll take some time for the swelling to subside to a degree that makes it presentable again.
While ninja are more associated with cutting their way through paper walls rather than glass panes, they can deal with the later just as well, as demonstrated here. Don’t ask me what he’s actually groping for on the inside, since that’s not a door and I wouldn’t really expect those window panes to have handles or locks or anything…but I’m not an expert burglar, so I just copy the process I’ve seen in movies and TV, and hope it makes enough sense to knock nobody out of their willing suspension of disbelief.
Some of which Snuka is also called on to demonstrate, since he’ll simply have to swallow the obvious discrepancy between the facade of the Crystal Palace and its interior. Which is really inevitable, anyway. In this genre, something described as ‘Crystal Palace’ needs to have a shiny, reflective, crystalline appearance – in fact, the historic Crystal Palace just barely qualifies, most crystal palaces in magical-girl fiction are far more crystalline. At the same time, and in something of an open contradiction, the interiors can’t be well-lit if the crystal in question is of the evil variety. Evil crystals require dimly lit surrounding – often lit only by the crystal’s own, eerie glow. You just can’t reconcile these clearly opposed design demands, but neither one can be abandoned – so everyone will just have to live with it, period. =P
More on Monday.
Since eating all that dirt resulted in city beautification, can Snuka count that as community service for his parole (or juvi) officer?
I image there are a number of gruesome (but because it’s Snuka also hilarious) outtakes where the structural integrity of the glass just gives and the pane shatters after that circular cut, cutting Snuka’s hands to ribbons.
Snuka’s parole officer is the traditional kind – he doesn’t expect community service, he’s happy with a cut of Snuka’s takings. Although I doubt he’ll lay claim to a quarter of the London dirt. That would probably be one of the cases where Snuka gets to keep it all. Lucky him.
Don’t worry, there weren’t any accidents while shooting the glass-cutting scene. Nolan felt that using an actual pane of glass would have been too expensive, so they did it with a piece of cardboard painted light blue. XD