VIP: My Brother Superman (also known as The Supervips) is a 1968 Italian animated movie by Bruno Bozzetto.
Supervip, the strongest man on Earth, and his brother Minivip, the weakest superman on Earth, are the descendants of a family of superheroes. They need to save the world from the evil Happy Betty, who is planning to put brain-missiles on everyone’s heads so that they’ll only buy from her supermarkets.
This animated film provides examples of:
- Abhorrent Admirer: On the cruise ship, Minivip lands on one.
- Accidental Pervert: On the cruise ship, after Minivip's glasses are fogged, he accidentally touches a woman working, who hits him.
- Adaptational Jerkass: In the short comics made in 1968, Minivip is more of a dick than ever before or since.
- Adaptation Personality Change: See the above.
- Affectionate Parody: Minivip takes inspiration from The Phantom and James Bond , and is considered by some to be a comedic parody of the two.
- A Lady on Each Arm: Supervip during the title sequence.
- Alleged Lookalikes: Minivip and Supervip are confused for each other occasionally by the colonel despite the narrator pointing out how they look nothing alike.
- All Flyers Are Birds: Minivip is often mistaken for a bird, likely due to his wings. And maybe his beak-ish nose.
- All Germans Are Nazis: Schultz is very obviously a nazi, and the scientist is referred to as "Nazi Scientist'" on IMDB.
- Aloof Big Brother: Supervip to Minivip. While good-intentioned, Supervip is constantly belittling Minivip and telling him that he cannot be a superhero.
- Ambiguous Time Period: The movie and 68' comics clearly take place in the 60s, but it is never stated.
- Americans Are Cowboys: During the intro, the cowboy Vip, and the damsel, are the only american looking characters.
- Ancient Rome: The intro shows an ancient roman Vip, and the 2018 comic.
- The Ace: Everyone in the VIP family except for Minivip.
- Capitalism Is Bad: This is a major theme of the movie. The main villain is a Corrupt Corporate Executive. Mind Control is stated to be the logical extensions of advertisements. When the German scientist is explaining how the brain-missiles work, he explains that capitalism has shrunk people's brains.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Happy Betty.
- Damsel in Distress: Lisa and later Nervustrella
- Distracted by the Sexy: A pretty extreme case happens to Supervip. While distracted by Lisa in her swimsuit, he doesn't notice the Colonel shoving him, Lisa and Nervustrella into a safe.
- Evil Minions: Happy Betty’s factory workers.
- The Evils of Free Will: This was the motive of the German scientist to develop the brain-missile. Unfortunately, Happy Betty forced him to redesign the brain-missile for her own ends.
- For Halloween, I Am Going as Myself: Minivip is able to get into the costume party on the cruise ship in his normal outfit.
- Herr Doktor: The inventor of the brain-missile is a mad scientist with a German accent. In fact, he has "Made In Germany" stamped on his head.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Happy Betty, the evil businessmen and the henchmen get the brain-missiles stuck in their own head putting them at the mercy of Betty's abused pet parrot.
- No Name Given: The German scientist is never given a name. As mentioned before, IMDB dubs him "Nazi Scientist".
- Power Glows: For unexplained reasons, MiniVip glows when he flies.
- True Blue Femininity: Both Lisa and Nervustrella/Nervustrata wear blue.
- Vague Age: It's never specified if Nervustrella/Nervustrata is a little girl or a womanchild.
- We Sell Everything: “Everything you’ll find from Happy Betty!”
- Wicked Heart Symbol: Part of the H❤️B logo.
