At the town library, the kids run into Ezra Knutsen, who was the reference librarian before Ellen. The only problem is that Ezra Knutsen is supposed to be dead. This prompts Wishbone to imagine himself as Viscount Raoul de Chagny in The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux.
Originally serialized in 1909 and 1910, The Phantom of the Opera holds the record for being the newest work to receive a Wishbone adaptation. Anything much newer than that would have still been under copyright in the 1990s.
Tropes
- Adaptational Heroism: Erik doesn't actually kill anyone in this version, his activities as phantom instead amounting to some largely harmless "Scooby-Doo" Hoax antics. He does declare his intentions to kill Raoul during the climax, but since he doesn't actually go through with that, he ends the story without blood on his hands as far as we know.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Carlotta shows none of her spoiled diva attitude. She merely happens to have irked the Phantom. Tellingly, Christine saves her from being crushed when the Phantom cuts a sandbag to fall on Carlotta.
- Adapted Out: Like most Phantom of the Opera adaptations, this one omits the Persian. It does, however, include Philippe, who usually gets this treatment as well.
- Black Vikings: Raoul's brother Philippe is played by a black actor, Billy E. Jones. More than a few people have suggested that it would have made more sense to just call his character the Persian.
- Captain Obvious:Ellen: What was that?
Officer: That is what we call a noise. - Does This Remind You of Anything?: Christine and the Phantom's relationship is played out with him as a terrible boyfriend practicing Domestic Abuse; she warns Raoul that the Phantom has a bad temper and not to anger him. Later on, when she and Raoul plan to elope, the Phantom kidnaps her and threatens to kill Raoul as Christine is begging for her love to run.
- Faking the Dead: It turns out Ezra Knutsen faked his death so that no one would suspect him when he started stealing back his old books.
- First-Name Ultimatum: Sam does this whenever David jokingly suggests that they might be dealing with a real ghost.
- Happily Ever Before: The Phantom adaptation ends with Christine promising to visit Erik again someday, cutting out his death.
- Heroic Bystander: Christine saves Carlotta from a falling sandbag when the Phantom targets her. She says later that she knows Erik too well.
- No Animals Allowed: As always, dogs are not allowed in the library.Wishbone: And they wonder why so few of us read.
- Serious Business: It turns out creating a library index is a huge, huge deal, especially the part about who gets credited for it in a random magazine article.
- The Stakeout: Ellen and the others stake out the library all night to catch whoever is stealing the index books.
- Tempting Fate: Wishbone's Raoul never seems to learn:Wishbone as Raoul: Nothing could possibly go wrong. [Christine disappears in a flash of light] Did I say "nothing"?
- Later on, in the Phantom's lair.
Erik: I warn you, come no closer.
Wishbone as Raoul: No closer, huh? And just what do you aim to do about it, Phantom? [Erik pushes a button, trapping Wishbone in a cage] Okay, okay, that's good. Not bad. Now, can we try that over again from the part where you say "come no closer," heh, heh? - Truer to the Text: As compressed and kid-friendly as it is, this is nevertheless one of the most faithful adaptations of The Phantom of the Opera. The Phantom Reviewer's evaluation of
this episode is rather snarky and negative, but he still can't help but be amazed by its unusually high fidelity to the source material.
