 |
|
| Dr. Arthur Neuman | |
|---|---|
| Biography | |
| Gender |
Male |
| Place of birth |
Edge City (possibly) |
| Occupation |
|
| Portrayer(s) | |
| First appearance | |
Dr. Arthur Neuman is a supporting character from The Mask in 1994, The Mask: The Animated Series and Son of the Mask in 2005.
History[]
The Mask (film)[]
He is a psychiatrist who published a book on masks called "The Masks We Wear: The Mysterious Power of the Identities Within Us." As he claims, his book is a metaphor for people who mask their true selves with his phrase, "We all wear masks, metaphorically speaking".
Stanley Ipkiss visits him to study the mask and Neuman deduces it may be a creation of Loki, the Norse god of darkness and mischief. However, he doesn't believe the Mask that Stanley had is real, as Stanley's attempt to use it in front of him fails from using it during the day when it only works at night.
The Mask: The Animated Series[]
Dr. Neuman continues to see Stanley, but still doesn't believe him that his alter-ego The Mask is real.
In Double Reverse, after Stanley tells him about his encounter with Walter as his alter-ego The Mask, Dr. Neuman gives him advice on how to become more like his alter-ego, which it works with success, but it works too well as Stanley becomes more like The Mask, his-alter ego can't come out anymore as a result. Dr. Neuman after being told by him that he is The Mask, Dr. Neuman decides to call someone to have him taken away somewhere, but Kablamus then comes along and eventually Stanley becomes more like himself and is able to bring out his alter-ego The Mask to confront and defeat him.
In the next episode "Shrink Rap", after failing so many times to prove The Mask's existence to him (either due to coincidences or The Mask's short-attention span), Stanley begs Dr. Neuman to take the mask, which he only accepts when he reacts in fear when Milo growls at him, revealing his fear of dogs. Once he enters his house, he sees the mask give off its hypnotic glowing effect, so out of curiosity and temptation, he puts it close to him, which is when it wraps around him and turns him into a deranged, polite, somewhat childish psychotherapist with yellow clothes, a red and black bow tie, sneakers and blue trousers. Masked Dr. Neuman then confronts Stanley outside of his house by bursting through his fence while wildly riding on a tricycle, eyes madly popping out of his sockets on springs, and puts him in a mock therapy session, which he asks Stanley why does he insist on annoying him and he then pops his eyes on springs out again. When a horrified Stanley points out that he is wearing the mask, he denies it, but he pops his eyes out and makes his voice increasingly high-pitched, while telling Stanley he is suffering from persecution, transference and denial, and then diagnoses him with a disorder he calls Ipkissia Maskosis (which is punctuated by a deep echo every time he says it), then tells him that for his own safety he must be straightjacketed, pulling off a variation of The Mask's wedgie attack by wrapping Stanley's underwear around his body to imitate a straightjacket, and then putting him in a birdcage. Realizing Stanley isn't the only one with "delusions" of The Mask, he decides to turn his attention to the whole world, and then runs off by bouncing his head on the pavement as a way of transportation.
He goes on a rampage through his mission of curing anyone he thinks has Ipkissia Maskosis, starting with putting a boy in a wedgie straitjacket and in a birdcage after seeing him in a cowboy costume (diagnosing the boy with "repressive and infantile childhood fantasies"). The boy's mother starts hitting the Masked Dr. Neuman's head with her handbag, calling him a maniac and then screaming for the police to help her, which he then thinks after assaulting him, a psychologist (which he addresses as "manifesting anti-social impulses towards authority") that she must have the sickness as well, but due to being a gentleman decides to put a cage on her instead of giving her a wedgie straitjacket. He then rides a giant flying book to a zoo and meets a gorilla, then after seeing it in captivity ("isolated from normal society"), thinks that the animal has the disorder as well, going inside the cage, wrestling the gorilla to the ground, and then pulling a diaper out to make a wedgie straitjacket on the animal before leaving. He runs into Charlie Schumaker at the bank and puts him through some rorschach tests, which he initially passes by replying "babe" to all of them (owing to his womanizing nature), but when Charlie turns around and sees him, he then mentions The Mask by name in surprise, and the disappointed Masked Neuman diagnoses him with Ipkissia Maskosis as well. When Charlie hears the name of the disorder and asks him if it's connected to his friend Stanley Ipkisss, which Masked Dr. Neuman asks him does he know him, and he confirms that yes he does as he is his friend. Masked Dr. Neuman gets angry for the first time, furious at Charlie for not reporting him to the proper authorities after all the times he has to deal with him which he stretches his neck up high and blows steam out of his ears, and decides to perform a lobotomy on him with a buzzsaw, only for the alarm on his watch to go off, and he remembers that he has an appointment at the jailhouse, so he decides to put Charlie in a wedgie straitjacket and in a cage, then he takes off on a pogo stick to get to his appointment.
He arrives at the jailhouse and creepily, but politely tells the female police officer that he is here to examine a prisoner, which she is then taken aback by his green-head and deep voice, recognizing him as Dr. Neuman, but she tells him that she is going to double check on his clearance, but he stops her from picking the phone up and gives her a warning to not mess with him as he is a licensed psychotherapist, so she nervously tells him where his appointment is and he lets her go. He meets Pretorius in his cell, who had been locked up earlier in the episode for stealing a hunk of plutonium. When Pretorius sees and points out that he is wearing the mask, Neuman decides that the mad scientist has the disorder as well, but after Pretorius explains the real reason he is put in jail (trying to prove the existence of ancient aliens who visited Earth centuries ago by destroying Edge City with the plutonium so they can return faster), Masked Neuman decides to aid him to further his own goal of containing the outbreak of Ipkissia Maskosis. (Though he does agree that Pretorius is insane like everyone else) After going through the protocols and everything to have Pretorius in his custody, along with retrieving the plutonium from the evidence locker, Masked Neuman wants to learn more about Pretorius' plan, who tells him that he had served his purpose which Masked Neuman reminds him that he is under his care and Pretorius distracts the Masked Neuman by telling him to look at the stars while taking out a mallet from his pocket and then hitting him on the head with it before running off, which Masked Neuman notices him doing that and decides to go after him as he wants to learn more from him.
After chasing Pretorius to a junkyard, he begs him to tell him how he's going to make his plan work, and the mad scientist finally tells him that he plans to use a nuclear missile to destroy Edge City, which will also get a photograph of their ancestors, which excites him. The two notice Stanley climbing up the missile, and Pretorius orders Masked Neuman to deal with Stanley while he prepares to launch the missile. Masked Neuman climbs up the missile after Stanley with a mallet, then he sees him jumping off it and onto an constructed building, where he takes out a shower and a bath to catch Stanley off guard for a few seconds while he takes out a chainsaw and he tries to kill Stanley with it. Stanley narrowly avoids the attack and begins climbing up the support beams, but Neuman takes out a long stick from his pocket and tries hitting the beams to make Stanley lose his balance, and Stanley ends up holding electric wires and falls down, only to hold on to the ledge with all his might. Masked Neuman sees him hanging on to the ledge and maliciously declares that he will finally get rid of Stanley by use of "shock therapy" by grabbing the two electrified wires. Stanley tries to get him to snap out of it by saying that he is not himself and even diagnosing him with Ipkissia Maskosis, but he only laughs at him telling him that it won't work since he is a psychotherapist, . In a last ditch effort, Stanley tells him that his zipper is open which distracts him long enough, for Milo to bite him in his rear end, causing him to accidentally electrocute himself and send him flying into the air and exploding into fireworks. The resulting explosion causes the mask to fall off the unconscious Dr. Neuman, which is then retrieved by Stanley, who puts on the mask and transforms into The Mask, who is able to stop the missile by swallowing it whole. Dr. Neuman wakes up, but gets distracted by his fear of dogs as Milo barks at him.
In Convention of Evil, Dr. Neuman is giving out therapy sessions to the villains while they are in a meeting at Pretorius's request, as he decides getting therapy help might help most of them to face against The Mask, which throughout it all, Dr. Neuman does it succeeds with mixed result, and is actually supportive and cheerful, with him bringing out a book that has The Mask's face on, but however Pretorius gets a call and answers it, which it turns out that it is Dr. Arthur Neuman telling him that he is stuck in traffic and will be late. It turns out that the Dr. Neuman with them is actually The Mask in disguise, showing how clever that he has been by disguising himself as someone he knows to trick his enemies, and he defeats them in a matter of seconds.
Son of the Mask []
He is giving a museum tour on Norse Mythology, where the Mask of Loki is presumably displayed. Loki ambushes the tour to steal back the mask. Angered to find the mask is a fake, removes Neuman's face and places it in the display case.
Mask Persona[]
While wearing the Mask, Dr. Neuman becomes a hyper exaggerated version of a therapist. Analyzing everyone he sees with aggressive fervor and is brutally honest with those who annoy him like Stanley . He does have traits of Stanley's mask persona such as popping his eyes out which are attached by springs. He is also psychotic as he takes pleasure in trying to kill Stanley with electric wires but he does still retain some morals such as sparing the police officer even though she tries to get double clearance on him and decides to leave Charlie in a straitjacket after his appointment alarm went off on his watch and also agreeing with everyone else that Pretorius is insane even though he decides to team up with him anyway to accomplish his own plan of curing Edge City of the sickness he calls Ipkissia Maskosis. He wears a bow tie which has the same colour scheme as Stanley mask persona, yellow jacket, blue trousers and sneakers. He also still retains his politeness as after seeing Stanley outside of his house he puts him on a therapy session and though he is still clearly annoyed by him, he decides to tell him that his fantasies about the mask are just delusions and after putting a boy in straitjacket, he decides to leave the boys mom in a cage instead of putting her in another straitjacket and after seeing Charlie, he puts him to Rorschach tests and though he mentions the mask he doesn’t do anything to him until he mentions Stanley which causes him to lose his politeness and decides to do lobotomy on him until his alarm went off and he regains it once more. He believes that everyone is suffering from what he calls ipkissia maskosis which is a condition that he believes that causes everyone to believe the mask is real and which lets him to help Pretorius to destroy Edge City. He is also somewhat childish as he rides on a child bicycle, a book and a pogo stick, and gets all excited while he was teaming up with Pretorius as he wants to know about his plan and pleas to him to tell him what it is which Pretorius finally agrees to tell him what it is, and after he hears it jumps his legs up and down like a fanboy. Despite being serious, he does have a sense of humor, as he puts out a shower and a bath which partly to put Stanley off guard for a few minutes, but mostly because it is funny doing that. He is also delusional as he believes the mask does not work even though he is wearing it which it is making him crazy and he denies wearing it even though it’s pretty obvious to everyone that he is wearing it which makes him even more crazier. Though psychotic, aggressive, and crazy, he does compose himself most of the time and does still retain the attitude of an professional therapist as the first thing he did is putting Stanley in a therapist chair and just asks him why does he insist on annoying him instead of killing him, and puts him in a wedgie straitjacket and in a bird cage after he decides that he has Ipkissa Maskosis. He puts anyone in wedgie straitjackets after deciding that they have Ipkissa Maskosis, though he does have his limits as shown when the boy's mother keeps hitting him on the head several times, he decides to just put her in a cage instead of doing another wedgie straitjacket on her, showing that like Stanley's mask persona, he is a gentleman like him. Also despite going on a rampage, he doesn't cause any property damage during his rampage showing like Stanley's mask persona, he is more of a fan of order than chaos. He can take things surprisingly well as when he sees Charlie at the bank, he puts him to Rorschach tests which after he passes them smiles at him not mentioning anything related to Stanley and even though he mentions The Mask to him, he only makes clock ticking sounds in disappointment. Though he can lose his comprise as when Charlie mentions Stanley to him, he loses it, but regains it back after his appointment alarm goes off. He does his job still as he goes to the jailhouse after that appointment alarm went off, and though he decides to help Pretorius with his plan, he does it through protocols to get him into his care instead of using his powers and abilities to break him out, showing crazy or not, he will do his job no matter what. He also reminds Pretorius that he is in his care, also showing that he is not going to let his patient off wandering showing a sense of responsibility and is not stupid despite being genuinely insane and psychotic, as Stanley tries to trick him by telling him that he has Ipkissia Maskosis, only for him to laugh, and reminding Stanley that he is a psychotherapist, not an idiot. He also does not like anyone seeing his fly (zipper) open, as Stanley tricks him by saying it is and instead of ignoring him, decides to check on it, showing how polite and well-mannered he is.
Appearances[]
Trivia[]
- He is one of the two wearers which one of them is Fish Guy, to still keep wearing his glasses though while Fish Guy's glasses remain the same, Arthur Neuman's glasses changed from bronze small glasses to large black glasses.
- Masked Arthur Neuman in the animated series is the closest thing to a animated Big-Head along with Masked Chet Bozzack as he uses violent methods more than most mask personas in the animated series.
Dr. Neuman wearing The Mask.