Ozzie Mandrill

Ozzie Mandrill is a fictional villain in the 2000 adventure game "Escape from Monkey Island" by LucasArts. Ozzie is short, sports long sideburns, and uses a walking stick. He speaks in an exaggerated Australian accent, frequently hurling supposed insults composed of Australian slang that no one can understand. He is very rich and has become used to getting his way; he displays enormous fits of bad temper when confronted with any obstacles. Australian actor Nick Tate provides the voice of Ozzie Mandrill.

He is probably around fifty to sixty years of age, as his grey hair is beginning to recede, leaving him with a prominent forehead that matches his jutting chin. The glowering face, Australian accent and ruthless business tactics of Ozzie Mandrill may be a reference to media tycoon Rupert Murdoch. The name "Ozzie Mandrill" is a play on both "Ozzie", a slang term for an Australian, and Percy Bysshe Shelley's famous sonnet "Ozymandias". The somewhat subtle connection to the poem is made clear in one of the game's final scenes, where Ozzie proclaims "I am Ozzie Mandrill, King of the Caribbean! Look on my works, ye mighty pirates, and despair!".

Game appearance

Mandrill is the first major antagonist to be introduced in the series since its original villain, LeChuck. (Largo LaGrande, LeChuck's henchman from "Monkey Island 2", could be argued to hold this distinction; however, Largo appeared prominently only in the game's first portion and as an undeniably minor character in its remainder).

Ozzie is a land developer (from Sydney, according to the Voodoo Lady) who plans to buy out the entire Caribbean. Due to his deeply-rooted hatred of pirates, he wants to eradicate them entirely and make the area tourist-friendly. By using cryptic insults composed almost entirely of Australian slang, Ozzie has intimidated many business-owners on Jambalaya Island and Mêlée Island into signing their deeds over to him. Indeed, the player can go to Ozzie's mansion and engage in insult swordfighting with him, which Ozzie always wins. Ozzie's ultimate goal is to find "The Ultimate Insult", a voodoo artifact of great power that will help him "transform" the pirate population into "productive members of society".

Partnering himself with LeChuck is also part of Ozzie's big plan, for LeChuck, under the guise of Charles L. Charles, looks to make himself the new governor of the Tri-Island area so that through him, Ozzie can own the Tri-Island area legally (LeChuck was promised Elaine Marley's hand in marriage in exchange for his services). LeChuck, however, later double-crosses Ozzie and possesses a giant statue of himself to crush the greedy real estate tycoon. But even LeChuck isn't immune to the Ultimate Insult, which Ozzie uses to control LeChuck in a final battle of "Monkey Kombat" against Guybrush (armed with a giant monkey robot to counter the statue).

Ozzie gets himself killed at the end of the game, when the Monkey Kombat between the statue and the robot ends in a third draw, prompting the statue to beat itself over the head where Ozzie is sitting.

Trivia

*Mandrill's name is similar to Ody Mandrell, a podracer who appears in .
*Mandrill's evil nature is apparently foreshadowed in the trail of empty residences on Melee Island of former pirates evicted by his tactics and Guybrush's early visit to his mansion on Lucre Island; it is filled with stuffed and mounted animals, many of them Australian, endangered, or both.
*During the hermit Herman Toothrot's explanation of his past he explains that Ozzie pushed him in to a whirlpool. This is a contradiction with a previously given explanation at the end of Curse where LeChuck said that he was the one who killed (or tried to kill) Marley. This is one of several retcons present in Escape.
*When Guybrush meets Ozzie in the latter's mansion, he reacts as if he has heard Ozzie's name before. When attempting to recall, the options before the player include "the forgotten member of a country-western singing group" and the member of a Heavy metal band. These, especially the latter response are a reference to Ozzy Osbourne.