Mantis in the House

"Mantis in the House" is the first episode of the American animated television series Manticoon Mayhem. It first aired on September 26, 1998 on USA Network as part of Gingo on USA.

Summary
Snappy Mantis, after his old hideout gets burned in a forest fire, takes in a group of raccoons to look after them. However, after they encounter a villain that Snappy may not be able to defeat by himself, he decides to enlist them as his allies in order to fight their very first villain, Mr. Bucks and stop him before he can take control of the city and build his own theme park.

Plot
The episode begins with a group of baddies attempting a robbery, when Snappy Mantis arrives to fight them off and he gets the upper hand, thanks to his amazing abilities. After another crime successfully busted, he heads back to his hideout, rests up and enjoys himself, as he then explains how he became a crime-fighter. Thanks to an experiment gone wrong, the mantis became the size of a human, and as his mass increased, so did the strength of his legs. After the mantis fights off the scientists with ease, he escapes from captivity, makes a hideout for himself, and, after realizing that he could take on animals with his claws, decides to dedicate his life to crime-fighting, and eventually becomes recognized by the civilians who hail Snappy as a hero. However, after fighting bad guys for as long as he can remember, he begins to think if there's more to life than just fighting crime.

As he begins to think about his new life and powers, however, lightning strikes a nearby tree, which results in a forest fire. Snappy, realizing that there he could be in danger decides to escape the forest, but he then hears some cries for help, and he noticed a gang of raccoons stuck in a tree. He barely manages to rescue them in time and get to safety somewhere in the city, just as his old hideout gets burned in the forest fire. Snappy, saddened to see his old home get burned down, decides to try and find a new home. The raccoons offer to help him, but he is hesitant to accept until he realizes that their homes have been burned down, too, so he decides to keep them, and find a new home for them, effectively letting them find a new home/hideout for themselves.

Using his newly-enhanced powers, Snappy searches for a possible new hideout until they find an abandoned building near the entrance to the city, and decide to take refuge in there. Eventually, they have their new hideout all set up, and the raccoons finally introduced themselves to the mantis as Slippy, Snippy, Whippy and Drippy. They hang around in their new hideout until they hear reports on a new villain invading the city, which shocks them, and Snappy, being the hero that he is, decides to go and face him. The raccoons try to pressure Snappy into letting them fight evil with him, but he refuses, believing that he works alone. The raccoons then decide to fight evil on their own without him.

Snappy eventually meets up with the villain, Mr. Bucks, who wants to tear down the city to make way for his own theme park. Of course the mantis doesn't want his newfound home to be teared down, tries to defeat him with his powers, but is outmatched by his far superior powers, and he is taken down by the villain as the raccoons then find him and nurse him back to full health. Despite his gratitude, he still believes he can take him down "single-handedly", and leaves the raccoons to continue fighting evil, but they still kept thinking about Snappy when they start to notice people panicking, and realize that he might need help from them, even though he doesn't need it.

In the villain's robot that he is controlling, Snappy tries to defeat Mr. Bucks, but to no avail. As Snappy gets stunned from one of his attacks, Mr. Bucks prepares to dispose of him until the raccoons arrive and attack the villain himself. Snappy recovers, and is both shocked and cross about the raccoons actually fighting the villain, but as the villain is weakened by them, he decides to finish him off once and for all. Eventually, with the raccoons' help, the villain is stopped and his plans are foiled by Snappy. The robot then starts breaking down, and Snappy tries to escape via jumping out of an escape hatch, only to discover that because of the villain's powers, his abilities have weakened to the point where they now just like a regular mantis, so he can't jump far, but he thankfully escapes with the raccoons via a different escape hatch just as the robot explodes.

With the villain apprehended and put in jail, Snappy finally realizes that although he may not have powers anymore, at least he still has his friends. He even thanks the raccoons for saving his life and helping him to stop the villain, then offers them the opportunity to help him fight crime, and they accept. The next day, Snappy arrives to stop some new baddies, this time with the help of his new raccoon allies, and they successfully stop them. In their hideout, they comment on how it feels like to be working as a team, and laugh the night away as they celebrate their victory.

Production
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Reception
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