Slappy the Dummy

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Slappy the Dummy
Goosebumps character
Slappy on the cover of Revenge of the Living Dummy.
First appearanceNight of the Living Dummy
Created byR. L. Stine
In-universe information
NicknameThe Dummy that is No Dummy, Mr. Bad Boy, Old Crazy Eyes, Smiley
SpeciesVentriloquist's dummy
GenderMale
Family
  • Ephraim Darkwell (creator/father)
  • Mr. Wood (brother)
  • Wally (brother)
  • Snappy (twin brother)
  • Goldie (sister)
Children
  • Jackson Stander
  • Rachel Stander

Slappy the Dummy is a fictional character and the main antagonist in the Goosebumps children's series by R. L. Stine. He is one of the series' most popular villains, the main antagonist of the Night of the Living Dummy saga and the mascot of the franchise.[1] He is also the main antagonist of the Goosebumps film and its Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween sequel, where Stine describes him as a "ventriloquist's dummy with a serious Napoleonic complex". He comes alive by these words: "Karru Marri Odonna Loma Molanu Karrano" (which roughly translates to "You and I are one now"), and they can be found on a sheet of paper in Slappy's jacket pocket. After coming to life, Slappy will try to make the person who brought him to life serve him as a slave, to the point that he will frame that person for bad things that he does.

Inspiration

According to R. L. Stine, Slappy was inspired by the literary classic The Adventures of Pinocchio. He liked the book's idea of a wooden puppet coming to life, so he created Slappy.[2]

Magic, a 1978 horror film where a dummy is thought to commit evil acts, was another one of R. L. Stine's inspirations for Slappy. In the television adaptation of the books, Slappy has the same sounding voice as Fats, the dummy from Magic with the voice of Anthony Hopkins.

Notable appearances in novels

Slappy the Dummy
Title Year released Information
Night of the Living Dummy 1993 In the first Night of the Living Dummy book, twin sisters Lindy and Kris Powell are taking a walk when they come across a dummy, which Lindy names Slappy. Lindy decides to keep Slappy even though Kris does not like him. Lindy becomes a good ventriloquist, and Kris gets jealous, so Kris gets a dummy named Mr. Wood. From there on, bad things start happening. Mr. Wood is defeated by the end after getting crushed to death by a steamroller. However, Slappy comes to life and greets the girls when they arrive at their bedroom.

Unlike other books, Slappy never causes any trouble despite being alive until the end.

Night of the Living Dummy II 1995 Slappy becomes the main antagonist in Night of the Living Dummy II, when Amy Kramer, the main character, wants a new ventriloquist dummy for her family's weekly "talent show". Her dad finds Slappy at a local pawn shop and gives it to her as a gift. She takes out a slip of paper that has the magical words on it and reads it aloud, and Slappy slowly comes to life, causing mischief and havoc for Amy and her family. Amy and her sister help kill Slappy. In the end, he is destroyed by Dennis, Amy's old dummy.
Night of the Living Dummy III 1996 Trina and Daniel O'Dell's dad came home one night with the broken Slappy, which he got for free from a guy which he believes is Amy's father. Shortly after that day ends, the dummy soon gets fixed by healing itself all because the family read the infamous note that came with him, and soon was later named by their father as "Smiley" and became his new favourite dummy, a part of his amazing collection. But ever since their cousin Zane had decided to spend a few nights at their house once again, problems start to occur with the other dummies in the form of pranks, the main one being Rocky, who was first found in an event with him being seen by Zane in his bedroom. In all these cases, Trina and Daniel are blamed for the events, which makes them unhappy. Later it turns out the real trouble maker is Slappy, with help from the other dummies who he brought to life, which, in the end, becomes Hell to Slappy when he is betrayed by them to protect the O'Dells. However, despite seemingly being killed, the evil dummy is caught by Trina winking at her as Zane carries him to the car.
Bride of the Living Dummy 1998

A girl named Jillian takes her little sisters Katie and Amanda, accompanied by their doll Mary-Ellen, to a puppet show of a teenager named Jimmy O'James, with Slappy the Dummy as his partner. At the show, Slappy spies the twins and Jillian with Mary-Ellen. Slappy then pulls the twins up on stage with Mary-Ellen and makes fun of them. The twins, who are hurt by what he said, take off after the show to give him a piece of their minds and Jillian has to find them. While trying to find her twin sisters, Jillian finds Jimmy and Slappy's dressing room and walks in on Slappy giving Jimmy a punch in the nose. Jimmy tells her that he and Slappy are just working on a new act. She asks if they have seen her sisters. Jimmy responds with that he has not seen them since they were on stage. After she leaves, Jimmy puts Slappy to sleep and throws him out. Jillian's friend Harrison finds Slappy and brings him to Jillian's house, as he believes that Slappy is broken and wants Jillian's dad to fix him. After a series of troublesome events, Jillian and Harrison host a birthday party and try to put on a show, only to have it be revealed that Mary-Ellen is alive and that she re-awoke Slappy so she could marry him, but Slappy hates Mary-Ellen and desires to marry Jillian. Slappy and Mary Ellen end up getting cut to pieces by a saw blade, but Slappy's spirit ends up possessing Jillian.

Slappy's Nightmare 1999 Slappy starts out being the disobedient puppet of Jimmy O'James. Fed up with Slappy, Jimmy replaces Slappy with Wally, who tells Jimmy how to control Slappy's evil: cursing him to doing three good deeds in one week. Although it is, in the end, revealed to be a nightmare of Slappy's, the book ends with his nightmare slowly coming true.
Revenge of the Living Dummy 2008 Britney Crosbey and her friend, Molly Molloy, have to put up with Britney's obnoxious cousin, Ethan, and his new friend Slappy, whom Ethan calls "Mr. Bad Boy". Slappy, though, seems to be the one causing the trouble this time, and Britney decides to put Slappy to sleep, after seeing that she only had to say the magic words again—simple as that. But then when she finds out that Slappy was reawakened by the magic words, he vows revenge and comes up with a plan to use a special 'Mind-Stealer' doll to make Britney into his own personal, perfect slave. At the end, Britney decides to use the 'Mind-Stealer' doll against Slappy, whose mind gets stolen at the end of the book. Slappy later makes two more appearances in Dr. Maniac vs. Robby Shwartz where he hunts down Britney and Molly and cruelly has them send Robby back to Horrorland's arcade and in Say Cheese and Die Screaming where, after taking a picture of Madam Doom's booth, Julie sees Slappy in the picture leaning against the booth.
The Streets of Panic Park 2009 Slappy appears in this book, where he turns Britney into a dummy, but later teams up with Luke and Lizzy to escape The Menace in Horrorland and Panic Park to outsmart The Menace and escape from both parks. Slappy is eventually taken home by Lizzy.
Slappy New Year 2010 Ray Gordon brings an ordinary ventriloquist's dummy, Slappy, for his present and wants to scare his brother, Brandon with it.

Slappy New Year was a book in a planned-to-be-released series called Goosebumps Gold. The series was never released due to the expired contract that R. L. Stine had with Scholastic at the time. However, R. L. Stine did release the book, but changed the plotline.[citation needed] It was originally going to be the sequel to Slappy's Nightmare, but over the years since R. L. Stine changed the book's plot, he dropped the idea of it being a sequel. It was released on November 1, 2010.[3][4][5]

Son of Slappy 2013 Jackson Stander is every parent's dream. He does not get into trouble, he always does his homework, and he never, ever lies. His teachers all trust him completely. He even volunteers at the local Youth Center. But that was all before Jackson came across an evil ventriloquist's dummy. Now he must deal with Slappy and the son of Slappy as they wreak havoc on his family and friends. Jackson will soon see that two Slappys are not better than one![6]

He also appears in his own series Goosebumps SlappyWorld, where he serves as the narrator.

Appearances beyond the books

Slappy has also been made into an actual ventriloquist doll available from major retailers.[7] He was first manufactured by Goldberger Doll corporation after a nine-year-old boy from Long Island sent them a letter suggesting the idea in 1998. There is also a mask[8] and a full costume available for sale. Night of the Living Dummy III and Bride of the Living Dummy have also been adapted for VHS and DVD; the second on DVD includes Bride of the Living Dummy.[9]

Authors Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child posted an announcement via their Facebook status:

We have just written a short story with the amazing author, R. L. Stine. It will be published a year from now in a new, as yet unnamed, anthology. It features Pendergast and ... R.L. Stine's most terrifying creation, Slappy the ventriloquist's dummy. This is one strange, strange story ... The title is GASLIGHTED.

This was published on 30 September 2014 as Gaslighted: Slappy the Ventriloquist Dummy vs. Aloysius Pendergast in the anthology Face Off edited by David Baldacci.

In other media

Television

  • Cal Dodd (Cathal J. Dodd) was the voice of Slappy for the 4 seasons of the original television series. Cal voiced the theme song for the series as well as on several DVDs. Slappy was performed on set and voiced by puppeteer Ron Stefaniuk, who appeared in four episodes ("Night of the Living Dummy II", "Night of the Living Dummy III Part I", "Night of the Living Dummy III Part II", and "Bride of the Living Dummy"). The original Night of the Living Dummy story was never adapted to television, nor were the six post-Bride stories.
  • Kanduu, better known as Slappy, appears as one of the two main antagonists (alongside Harold Biddle) in the 2023 Goosebumps series on Disney+, voiced by Chris Geere. In "Night of the Living Dummy", Slappy was bought in a magic shop by Ephraim, in an effort to revitalize his failed career as a magician. Ephraim found a spell in Slappy's pocket that gave him life, and with its help, he became a successful ventriloquist, but at the cost being left by his family for only focusing on the puppet. Eventually, Slappy had Ephraim retrieve the coffin of someone named Kanduu and urged him to read the spell hidden inside. However Ephraim had a vision of people dying in a large burning tower and rejected the doll's influence and locked him in a briefcase, Ephraim buys a house in Port Lawrence and hid Slappy behind a wall in the basement. In 1993, ten years after Ephraim's death, his estranged descendants, the Biddles, inherited the house. Slappy was found by Ephraim's great-grandson Harold, who was bullied at his previous school, having a hard time adjusting to the new town. He had complete influence over Harold, further isolating him and causing him to get rid of his parents by turning them into wooden puppets. After Slappy and Harold humiliate Sarah and her friends Ben, Victoria, Eliza and Nora, at a school show, Nora finds out about Slappy acting alone, and she convinced the others to take him away from Harold, in going to his house that night and stole Slappy. After Harold's death in his basement fire, Slappy is broken into pieces by Ben, who along with his friends hide his remains and keep the events of that night a secret. In present day, Harold Biddle returns from the afterlife and possessed the school teacher Nathan Bratt in order to search for Slappy and get revenge on his supposed murderers' children through the use of his personal possessions. In "You Can't Scare Me", Slappy's remains are taken by Nora to a snowy mountain until recovered by Bratt/Biddle. Slappy and Harold trying to get rid of Isaiah, the friends and parents tell Harold the whole truth, he saves Isaiah and throws Slappy off the cliff, and by forgiving them, he reunites with his parents in the afterlife. Down the cliff, Slappy, though broken again, opens his eyes. In "Night of the Living Dummy Part 2", Slappy is found again now by Mr. Bratt, who has writer's block and under pressure from his financial problems, he is resurrected, as is Bratt's deceased pet, Fifi, now as a vampire poodle. After Bratt finds Kanduu's coffin and reads the spell hidden inside, Slappy's spirit is released and restores his human body, and turns Ben into a puppet. In "Welcome to Horrorland", Kanduu's story sees how his soul was transferred to the Slappy doll by Mahar, a puppet maker.

Film

  • He is the main antagonist in the 2015 Goosebumps film, in which he is voiced by Jack Black, who also plays R.L. Stine and the Invisible Boy, from My Best Friend Is Invisible, with Avery Lee Jones doing the puppetry of the character (Jones also did the voice of Slappy for promotional material for the film), assisted by Ironhead Studio's Jake McKinnon.[10]
  • Slappy is voiced by actor Mick Wingert as the main antagonist in the 2018 Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween sequel, with Jones once again puppeteering him (this time assisted by technicians from Legacy Effects) and voicing him for promotional material, as well as for a few lines of dialogue and all of his laughs in the final film.

Video games

Print media

  • Slappy appears in the comic book series made by IDW and the Goosebumps graphix.
  • The characters the Bensons, a group of nonspeaking ventriloquist dummies, and secondary antagonists in Pixar's Toy Story 4, are inspired by Slappy.

See also

References

  1. ^ "The Halloween season is the perfect time for some Goosebumps!". Christian Science Monitor. 23 October 2015.
  2. ^ Stine, R. L. "Where Do You Get Your Ideas?". Scholastic. Archived from the original on September 27, 2011. Retrieved December 30, 2010.
  3. ^ Stine, R. L. (2010). Slappy New Year! (Goosebumps HorrorLand No. 18): R.L. Stine: 9780545161992: Amazon.com: Books. Scholastic. ISBN 978-0545161992.
  4. ^ "Slappy New Year! (Goosebumps Horrorland Series #18) by R. L. Stine | 9780545161992 | Paperback | Barnes & Noble". Borders.com. 2013-09-30. Archived from the original on 2011-09-27. Retrieved 2013-10-18.
  5. ^ "Slappy New Year! (Goosebumps Horrorland Series #18) by R. L. Stine | 9780545161992 | Paperback | Barnes & Noble". Search.barnesandnoble.com. 2013-09-30. Retrieved 2013-10-18.
  6. ^ "Goosebumps Most Wanted #2: Son of Slappy by R. L. Stine | 9780545417990 | Paperback | Barnes & Noble". Barnesandnoble.com. 2013-09-30. Retrieved 2013-10-18.
  7. ^ "Slappy Ventriloquist Doll: Everything Else". Amazon. Retrieved 2013-10-18.
  8. ^ "CAPTAIN AMERICA CASUAL ADULT/TEEN at Halloween Costume Shop". Halloweencostumeshop.com. Retrieved 2013-10-18.
  9. ^ David Lambert, "Goosebumps DVD news Archived 2008-07-20 at the Wayback Machine," TVShowsOnDVD.com(6/17/2007).
  10. ^ Comic-Con: Director Rob Letterman Talks GOOSEBUMPS

External links