In A Bug’s Life, the circus ringmaster is a flea. It’s a flea circus.
Admittedly I had heard the term “flea circus” my entire life but only this morning looked up what it actually was. I mean it’s pretty straightforward, a bunch of fleas made to look like they’re in a circus, but I was missing the history and context.
I still remember reading the first issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in German when I was 9 or 10 years old. In one of the panels where they first encounter the Shredder, I think Raphael says something like “Who is this guy? Darth Vader?”. I had never seen Star Wars before and didn’t even know how to pronounce the name. Still, a few days later I tried to be cool and dropped that reference at the playground. One of the older boys from the neighborhood was like “Who? ‘Dart Fadder’? What are you talking about?” Naturally, they corrected my pronunciation, found it hilarious that I didn’t know Star Wars and I was the idiot of the day. I never forgave Kevin Eastman for that and it took a few more years until I actually watched Star Wars and got the reference.
These days of course I know that having read the very first issue of TMNT at the age of 10 or so is actually several orders of magnitudes cooler than having seen Star Wars. ;)
Are you aware of all the parallels between TMNT and Daredevil?
Set in NYC, chemicals causing mutations/superpowers. What else am I missing?
Never read the comic (TMNT or Daredevil) but like any kid in the late 80s and early 90s I watched the TMNT cartoon.
Daredevil’s sensei is Stick. TMNT is Splinter. The baddies in Daredevil are “The Hand,” in TMNT, they’re “The Foot.”
And the radioactive mutigen that mutated the turtles came from the same canister that blinded Murdock.