Cuphead Wiki
Advertisement

The Moonshine Mob is a criminal gang fought during the level Bootlegger Boogie in The Delicious Last Course. They are the keepers of the Distillery Dough, and a group of underground rum runners acting as a stereotypical mafia, seemingly based in the Western Plains of D.L.C. Island and criminal gangs during the Prohibition era.

Description[]

Appearance[]

The entire mob is composed of Charlie Left Legs, a caterpillar, Madcap Maddie, Sidney the Snout, Hardtop Harold, and many flies (alongside living barrels of moonshine).

Charlie Left Legs is a spider with six long limbs, with a round red nose and his top row of teeth usually shows when he is speaking or smiling. He wears a teal fedora, tuxedo jacket, a very pale green bow tie, and a pair of yellow gloves.

Madcap Maddie is a light purple light bug with a round abdomen, green eyes, blonde hair, and two antennae that poke through her maroon hat. Unlike the rest of the bugs, she has a nose that more closely resembles that of a human. She wears a red dress, maroon panties, a hat, a pair of high heels, and a pair of white gloves and fur collar.

Sidney the Snout is an anteater and has brown fur and wears a teal bowler hats with an orange rim. This "Anteater" is actually a cartoonishly exaggerated cross between an actual anteater and an aardvark, with two mouths: one mouth located at the base of his striped trunk and the second mouth being at the tip. There is a circle of lighter brown fur around his head, resembling a fur collar.

Hardtop Harold, who serves as the Moonshine Mob's boss, is an anthropomorphic snail with a scar over his left eye wearing a yellow suit. On his back is a dark yellow shell, and he carries a megaphone to amplify his voice, launching crescent-shaped blade-like sound waves.

The Fly Goons, who serve as grunts and underlings of the mob, are stout flies wearing red shirts, teal pants, brown shoes, yellow gloves and bowler hats similar to that of the Anteater's. Some can be seen smoking cigars.

The Caterpillar Mobster is a timid fellow wearing a lime suit and top hat. He has maroon hair and his face is a light shade of orange akin to human skin and his nose is red and resembles that of a clown.

The Ant Cops are dressed as police bobbies. Their uniforms are blue and they have eyes with yellow sclerae and red snouts. Some wear large goggles to protect their eyes from their own bug sprays.

Battle[]

Intro[]

A bunch of Ant Cops on the top left corner and the Moonshine Mob on the bottom right corner are in the middle of a yelling match, before they both retreat. Prior to this, Charlie Left Legs fist-pounds his palm repeatedly in anticipation of the impending fight. Madcap Maddie holds her fan before leaving and pushes a small Moonshine barrel off the platform with her abdomen. The caterpillar holds on his top hat scared before running away. Hardtop Harold shouts out the lines of the announcer with a nasally voice, being carried away by a fly goon making him scream the second part.

In Simple Mode, while Hardtop Harold still announces the fight, he and the fly goon are not seen in the Mob during the intro and he does not scream the second part.

Phase 1[]

Death card mugshot rumrunners ph1

"One-two punch, you and da cops are eatin' dirt. Bingo bingo!"
Charlie Left Legs, Death Screen

Charlie Left Legs travels around the platforms. He may do three different attacks:

  • He kicks a fellow caterpillar mobster that bounces around the screen. The caterpillar can be defeated, causing his body to break into multiple segments that fall. In Simple Mode, this attack is not used.
  • He uses a vintage telephone to call for back-up fly mobsters. They fly from the background and charge forward on the platforms. They can be defeated or ducked under while standing on the bridges. In Simple Mode, there are less fly mobsters backups.
  • He presses a button to summon bombs that fall from the ceiling and hang between the platforms. They explode when the player is near and burn up the web that hangs them. They shake a bit when Charlie Left Legs moves pass them on his way across the stage. There cannot be more than nine bombs at once and some will explode to make way for the next time he uses this attack. The bombs all explode one by one when this phase is defeated. When they explode, they deal 20 damage to everything around them, including the minions and Charlie himself.

Some Ant Cops use a puff of pesticide and aim at Charlie Left Legs. They often miss as they come much later and he would have moved to another platform already. The puff can damage the player(s); however, they can deal 10 damage to him as well if they can strike him. The puffs also vary in their colour, with most being green; pink puffs can be parried.

Upon having his health depleted (either by getting struck by the cups' shots or the pesticide that the Ant Cops are launching from their guns), he holds onto his head dizzily and falls off the platform into the foreground. He then spins a web to hold himself up and lowers the gramophone which Madcap Maddie is riding on to the middle of the stage, before the web runs out and he falls again. Hitpoints = 439/427/495

Phase 2[]

Death card mugshot rumrunners ph2

"This dance is over, there's no excuse…you couldn't handle the giggle juice."
Madcap Maddie, Death Screen

During this phase, Madcap Maddie starts dancing around on the middle platform, moving left and right constantly as she does so and changing direction when she arrives at the ends of the bridge. The gramophone to whose music she dances to blasts out six musical sound waves which rotate around the stage, three of which rotates clockwise and the other three, counterclockwise. The sound waves can change their colour between green, yellow, and red. When they are green or yellow and slightly wavy, they allow the player to pass through them. However, the Sound Waves only turn yellow when they're about to turn red, and when they are red and twisted, they can damage the player. They rotate faster and faster as the phase goes on, the starting speed in Simple Mode is slower and Expert Mode is faster. A sound wave that is rotating clockwise cannot turn red if a counter-clockwise sound wave is red, and vice verse, so as to avoid trapping the player(s) in an inescapable situation, even in Expert Mode.

Moonshine barrel minions and Ant Cops run across the top and bottom platforms. They can be defeated. The moonshine barrels vary in their colour (either pink or brown); pink moonshine barrels can be parried.

When Madcap Maddie is defeated, she will yell and stumble back as if having a heart attack. Madcap Maddie will swoon over onto her knees and the gramophone runs out of breath and droops over. Madcap Maddie then climbs onto the flopped gramophone and is tugged up towards the ceiling. She can trample the Cups while running over to the gramophone, damaging them. In Simple Mode, the battle will simply end here as she stays passed out and the gramophone flops. Hitpoints = 536/427/495

Phase 3[]

Death card mugshot rumrunners ph3

"One thing dis nose knows is, youse cups gonna be pushin' up roses!"
Sidney the Snout, Death Screen

As Madcap Maddie escapes following her defeat, a giant hand holds onto the bottom left of the stage. This hand can damage the player(s). Another hand holds the middle right and Sidney the Snout breaks the bridge of the top and middle platform. He greets the player(s) as he lifts his bowler hat with his prehensile snout and Hardtop Harold resides in it and laughs mockingly at the player(s), before Sidney the Snout puts his hat back on.

Hardtop Harold can be shot at when he's being revealed, and any damage dealt to him will damage Sidney the Snout's total health.

He stays in the background and uses his long snout to poke around the three platforms from either side of the screen. He can extend his tongue out fully across what used to be a platform, eat a bunch of Ant Cops and fly mobsters, and spit them out. The group starts fighting and forms a ball of scuffle that bounces around the screen; just like the Caterpillar Mobster in Charlie Left Legs' phase. The whole fight can be dispersed off by dealing enough damage to it.

When extending his tongue, he usually squints his eyes first before performing the attack. Sidney the Snout may also fake out to extend his tongue as well. His tongue can be parried.

In this phase, attacks must be shot to either Sidney's snout or tongue to damage the boss.

When he is defeated, sticky flytrap paper with some flies stuck on it and the word "Knockout" appears and Sidney the Snout slumps to the platform defeated, losing his hat in the process, to reveal the still-conscious Hardtop Harold. Do not stop here; this is a fake out too and there is one final segment to finish. You can still act while the false knockout is shown, and this can be a clue to the fake-out. Hitpoints = 339/393

Phase 4[]

Death card mugshot rumrunners ph4

"Surprise! Forgetting about da boss ain't wise."
Hardtop Harold, Death Screen

After the fake knock-out, Hardtop Harold shows himself from beneath the lost bowler hat and starts attacking the player(s) by yelling into his megaphone. This attack creates soundwaves that head for the Cups at an increasing rate. The soundwaves also vary in their colour between green and pink; pink soundwaves can be neutralized by parrying.

After Hardtop Harold is defeated, the whole cave starts to cave in with debris falling from the ceiling, the real announcer clears his throat before saying "Knockout" for real and Hardtop Harold holds on for dear life as Sidney the Snout steed swings his head back and forth as his eyes spin around. Hitpoints = 62/72

Sound Effects[]

Gallery[]

Unused Content[]

Walkthrough[]

Regular Mode Expert Mode
How_To_Beat_Moonshine_Mob_NO_DAMAGE_(A+_Rank)_-_Cuphead_DLC How_To_Beat_Moonshine_Mob_on_EXPERT_MODE_(S-Rank)_-_Cuphead_DLC

Trivia[]

  • Charlie Left Legs and Madcap Maddie have the same health values in the Regular and Expert (hard) difficulty levels, but not at the Simple (easy) difficulty level).
  • There are a few notes for translators[1] giving more insight to the group:
    • Charlie Left Legs and Madcap Maddie are married, and Madcap Maddie is referred as such.
    • They are based on a group of stereotypical mafia running an underground rum running operation.
    • Madcap Maddie is a lounge singer, seemingly hinting that her role in the mob is to boost their morale by performing for them.
  • When getting hit by one of the music waves in Phase 2, a hurt stinger can be heard.
  • The second phase is a rework of the scrapped The Light boss. Funnily enough, this phase also uses a light bug.
    • It may also be inspired by Grim Matchstick's originally having a music theme and shoot out music notes instead of flame.
  • Charlie Left Legs seems to be a redesigned version of the scrapped Giant Spider boss.
  • The Ant Cops shooting pesticide that damages Charlie Left Legs may be inspired by the unused blue Flying Toothy Terror from Cagney Carnation where it shoots a bullet at Cagney that can damage him.
  • The Ant Cops can somewhat be seen as allies to the players, as they are both trying take down the same enemy, but direct contact with their bodies or their pesticide puffs will cause damage to the players. The cops can also be defeated upon being shot by the players.
  • This is the only boss where the announcer is different from the normal one, and the only boss to fake out their defeat.
    • Considering that the actual announcer clears his throat, it can be assumed that the announcer was not amused when he was temporarily replaced.
  • They were first revealed in an issue of Edge magazine. Sidney the Snout is shown to be buried into the ground in the cover while Charlie Left Legs and Madcap Maddie appear in screenshots and promotional art within the issue.
  • Sidney the Snout apparently acts as a bodyguard to the Moonshine Mob, most likely to scare away or get rid of the Ant Cops that are trying to arrest them.
  • Sidney the Snout appears to have two separate tongues, judging by his knockout animation- one tongue in his mouth and one tongue in his nose.
  • Sidney the Snout's battle style is very similar to Katzenwagen, as they both appear gigantic to the players, occupying the majority of the screen in the backdrop while preferring to attack the players from opposite sides of the screen with one of their body parts (Katzenwagen's paw attack and Sidney the Snout's tongue attack). Additionally, both bosses house a smaller enemy (Werner Werman with Katzenwagen and Hardtop Harold with Sidney the Snout).
  • The Ant Cops and the Moonshine Mob may have ended their feud in the epilogue, as one of the Ant Cops is shown shaking hands with Hardtop Harold.
    • In the same scene, the barrels of moonshine have "Baking Soda" written on them, indicating that the mob have reformed themselves by not selling alcohol anymore.
  • The Ant Cops are the ones to arrest Chef Saltbaker in the epilogue.

Inspirations and Similarities[]

  • The fight is similar to those of Lololo & Lalala, Nruff & Nelly, and Pon & Con from the Kirby's Dream Land trilogy, where the stage also has several layers of platforms with the bosses and their minions running about. The bombs hung by webs is also similar to the bombs with skulls on the front that drops from the ceiling in the Pon & Con fight.
  • The Ant Cop's pesticide guns are similar to the spray gun that Stanley used in Donkey Kong 3.
  • Sidney the Snout appears to be inspired by the anteater antagonist that stars in the 1940 Fleischer Studios short, Ants In The Plants, with the most notable similarity being his trunk.
  • Madcap Maddie's design is modeled after the moth from the 1938 Silly Symphony short The Moth and the Flame.
  • The Fly Goons resemble a mix of the Beagle Boys from the Donald Duck comics and Zipper the Fly from Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers.
  • The way Hardtop Harold appears to control Sidney the Snout under his hat by pulling on his hair may be a reference to the 2007 Pixar film Ratatouille.
  • The entire mob boss are based on criminal mafias during the Prohibition era, since they are illegally selling alcohol and some living Moonshine barrels. Also Ant Cops are present that are fighting the boss, not the player.
  • One of the sound effects from 1st phase during the goon summoning sounds eerily similar to the noise Aku Aku makes in the "Crash Bandicoot" game series, which could be a reference.[2]
  • The Catepillers present in this boss fight may be a combined reference to Wiggler and Green Wiggler (Both from the Super Mario Brothers Series), Bearing many similarities to one another, as the large, chubby faces with large noses.

References[]

External links[]

Bosses
Inkwell Isle One
The Root Pack (Sal SpudderOllie BulbHorace RadicheChauncey Chantenay) • Goopy Le GrandeHilda BergCagney CarnationRibby and Croaks
Inkwell Isle Two
Baroness Von Bon Bon (Lord Gob PackerKernel Von PopMuffsky ChernikovSargent Gumbo GumbullSir Waffington III) • Beppi The ClownDjimmi The Great (Cuppet) • Grim MatchstickWally Warbles (Willy Warbles)
Inkwell Isle Three
Rumor Honeybottoms (Security Bee) • Captain Brineybeard (The Ship) • Sally Stageplay (Sally's Husband) • Werner Werman (Katzenwagen) • Dr. Kahl's RobotCala MariaPhantom Express (Blind SpecterConductorLollipop GhoulsHead of the Train)
Inkwell Hell
King Dice (Tipsy TroopChips BettiganMr. WheezyPip and DotHopus PocusPhear LapPiroulettaMangosteenMr. Chimes) The Devil
Inkwell Isle Four
Glumstone The GiantMoonshine Mob (Charlie Left LegsMadcap MaddieSidney the SnoutHardtop Harold) • The Howling Aces (Brigadier BonegardeYankee YippersSergeant O'Fera) • Mortimer FreezeEsther WinchesterChef SaltbakerAngel and Devil
The King's Leap
The PawnsThe KnightThe BishopThe RookThe Queen
Advertisement