Genre: Biography/Adventure/Drama
Director: Seth MacFarlane
Writer: Lon Charles
Cast: Seth MacFarlane, Giovanni Ribisi, Mila Kunis, Ted Danson, Giorgia Whigham, Rinko Kikuchi, Patrick Warburton, Sara Paxton, Scott Grimes
Plot: Based on a true story... Believe It or Not!
1919. Robert Ripley (Seth MacFarlane) is working on a sports cartoon at his desk in the New York Globe offices. Unable to come up with any ideas based on recent sporting events, Ripley pulls out an old sports almanac and begins scouring it for obscure facts that he then draws out. He works all night on it, turning it over to his boss, Jason Rogers (Patrick Warburton), when he arrives in the morning. Ripley goes back to doing the usual sports cartoons each day until Rogers tells him that the paper has been getting numerous letters asking for more strange fact cartoons. Ripley likes the sound of the idea and negotiates a raise to $5 for each cartoon he submits.
When Ripley isn't working away at his cartoons, he is drinking nights away at one of New York's many hot spots. One night he meets a young aspiring actress and Ziegfeld Follies dancer, Beatrice Roberts (Giorgia Whigham). After several drinks, the two sit down for a steak dinner. While waiting for the food, Ripley begins writing out calculations on the table cloth, figuring out that there are enough steaks in Texas to feed the entire population of Canada's Gaspe Peninsula three times a day for 18 and a half years. Ripley and Beatrice hit it off and have a whirlwind romance, marrying just a week later.
Ripley soon becomes a minor celebrity after his "Believe It or Not" cartoons are starting to be syndicated across the country. Ripley meets with Rogers and tells him that in order for facts to be interesting, they must be very close or very far away. Rogers doesn't understand his point. Ripley explains that he has already covered all the very close facts, and now he feels he must cover those that are very far away. Ripley proposes that the newspaper finance an expedition across the globe for Ripley, and he will assuredly come back with many new facts, oddities and curiosities to publish in the paper. Rogers begrudgingly agrees, but only because of how much money Ripley's silly cartoons are making for the paper - single-handedly keeping the publication afloat. Ripley excitedly goes home and tells Beatrice about his upcoming expedition. She is not happy though as they just got married. She warns him that if he leaves the country, he will only find divorce papers when he returns. Ripley starts packing for the trip.
Ripley interviews Norbert Pearlroth (Giovanni Ribisi) to be his researcher. He asks Norbert to impress him with a fact - if Ripley is impressed, Norbert has the job. Norbert then tells Ripley that despite everyone believing that "The Star-Spangeled Banner" is America's national anthem, it has never been made official - making the USA a country without an official anthem. Ripley leaves the room and heads into his office where he begins scouring through books to verify Norbert's fact. Sure enough, Ripley finds that Congress had never made it the official national anthem. Ripley hires Norbert immediately, telling him that he wants the audience to feel how he just felt. He wants the readers to try to disprove their facts, but will be unable to do so.
For his first official fact finding expedition, Ripley heads toward South America with Norbert tagging along to handle all of the logistics. Norbert, despite speaking Spanish, finds himself overwhelmed while Ripley doesn't even try to assimilate. While Ripley is having fun, he is disappointed that he has yet to find something that he thinks is truly strange. In Peru, they find themselves caught in a massive storm. A small village lets them wait out the storm. Inside a village hut, Ripley and Norbert are shown a display of shrunken heads. Norbert thinks they are fake, but Ripley asks to see how they are made. The village elder takes Ripley to see a bunch of heads from an enemy tribe that are being prepared for the shrinking process. Norbert is disturbed by the process, but Ripley is fascinated and asks if he can have one as a souvenir. The elder agrees and gives Ripley a shrunken head to keep.
When Ripley returns to New York from his first foreign trip, he finds that Beatrice has lived up to her threat and moved out of the apartment. On the kitchen table are divorce papers. Rather than wallow in despair, Ripley goes out drinking with his friend and fellow cartoonist, Bugs Baer (Scott Grimes). The two have a wild night of drinking, culminating in a late night drunken handball match.
William Randolph Hearst (Ted Danson) lies in bed with his much younger starlet mistress Marion Davies (Sara Paxton). She is laughing while reading the newspaper. Hearst is initially offended that she isn't reading one of papers he owns. She then shows him the latest Believe It or Not! cartoon. She says that Hearst should hire Ripley for one of his papers. Hearst gets on the phone and tells his secretary to get him the contact information of Robert Ripley. The next day, Hearst meets with Ripley and tells him that he wants to put Ripley's cartoons in all of his newspapers across the globe and he doesn't care how much it will cost. Ripley mulls the offer over and agrees to $1,200 per week and a fully financed trip around the world for he and his researchers to uncover new facts. Hearst immediately agrees and they shake hands on it.
Ripley moves his office into the recently constructed Hearst Tower where he is introduced to his new secretary, Ruth Ross (Mila Kunis). She explains that she comes from a family of antiques dealers in her home country of Hungary. Ripley is immediately smitten with Ruth. Not just her good looks, but also her interest in antiques and oddities. He gives her a stack of cartoons that are ready to print before he goes on another trip - this time to the Far East.
Ripley and Norbert make their way across treacherous mountain roads in Mongolia, barely able to stay on the road as they are in blizzard conditions. Ripley gets excited when they finally see buildings up ahead. He looks at the map while Norbert continues to nervously drive. Ripley then excitedly announces that they have made it to Manchuria. Norbert asks Ripley what he hopes to find in Manchuria. Ripley tells Norbert that they have come to find a unicorn. When they reach the next village, they get out of the car to stretch their legs. Ripley begins knocking on every door in the village. When nobody answers, he begins loudly honking the horn of the car. Finally, doors start opening and people come outside to see what the commotion is. Norbert is shocked and Ripley is excited to see that almost everyone in the village has large foot-long horns growing out of their heads. Norbert admits that he thought Ripley was kidding about trying to find a unicorn, but managed to find an entire town of them. After taking several pictures with the villagers in Manchuria, Ripley and Norbert head to their next destination: Japan.
When Ripley and Norbert arrive in Japan, Ripley announces that they are there to find Masakichi, the greatest wood sculptor in the world. Norbert says that doesn't sound like Ripley's normal type of strange, but Ripley assures Norbert that it will be. When they arrive at Masakichi's home, they learn for Masakichi's daughter, Hanu Oanki (Rinko Kikuchi), that the great sculptor has recently died of tuberculosis. She offers to show them her father's magnum opus - a self sculptor that had taken him 20 years to build. In Masakichi's studio, they find a man standing deathly still in the middle of the room. Norbert asks who that is, but Hanu explains that it is the sculpture her father made of himself. The group takes a closer look as Hanu explains that her father built it to perfectly match his own body. Norbert says that the sculpture is impressive, but not very strange. Hanu then points out that every single hair on the sculpture, her father pulled from his own body. Even the finger and toe nails are the originals. She says that in a way her father is still alive through his sculpture. While Norbert begins writing out all the technical research on the sculpture, Hanu and Robert, who have clearly hit it off have a romantic sushi dinner by the sea. Before Ripley leaves to return to America, he encourages Hanu to come and visit him in New York some time if she ever gets the chance.
Ripley has brought so many strange artifacts back from his trip that Ruth jokingly suggests he open up his own museum. Ripley takes the joke literally and opens the first Ripley's Odditorium which debuts at the Chicago World's Fair. It's a big hit, which makes Ripley start thinking about setting up a permanent location.
With how much money Ripley is making with his Believe It or Not! cartoons, Ripley buys his own island off of New York featuring a large run-down mansion. Ruth ends up doing her job out of the house there as Ripley's items begin to pile up more and more as people begin sending him oddities and artifacts to try to make it into his cartoon. As she works more and more around the island mansion, Ruth and Ripley begin to develop a romance.
In the paper, Ripley encourages his readers to try to prove him wrong. For his next trip Ripley goes to Africa. Norbert has a suitcase just of mail from readers trying to prove Ripley's facts wrong. As they travel, Norbert reads each letter to him. Ripley cooly pokes holes in each letter's claim as they take a boat down the Nile River. Realizing that he can easily prove all the letters wrong, Ripley tosses the suitcase into the water, and it is promptly eaten by a giant hippopotamus.
When Ripley returns from Africa he finds that Ruth has fallen deathly ill. He takes care of her at his mansion as she slowly dies of cancer. Norbert tries to find a way to comfort Ripley and encourages him to work on a book about his expeditions to take his mind off of things. While Ripley works on the book, Hanu visits Ripley in New York and they resume their romance as Ripley recovers from the loss of Ruth. Once WWII begins though, Hanu says she must leave.
Depressed and heartbroken, Ripley decides to put all of his energy into his next expedition. He even buys his own junk ship, the Mon Lei, which he plans to take across all the oceans of the planet to find new oddities in lands never seen before. With World War II in full effect though, Ripley is informed that he will not be allowed to set sea on the Mon Lei. Ripley meets with Hearst to try to get him to use his political power to help him bypass the wartime shipping laws. Hearst informs Ripley that he isn't quite as politically powerful as he once was, so there's nothing he can do to help Ripley with that. Ripley is distraught at not being able to set out to sea to uncover new strange sights.
To cheer him up, Norbert convinces Ripley to make a television series for the time being until transcontinental travel is viable again - that way the entire country can still enjoy Ripley's facts and findings in a brand new audio visual format. Ripley begrudgingly agrees, but is clearly still upset about not being allowed to travel. The show is an immediate hit with audiences, but Ripley feels his passion waning and begins drinking more heavily than ever.
Tired of waiting for permission to do what he wants, Ripley recruits a crew of sailors and immediately readies the Mon Lei to set out on the open sea. Once he leaves the New York Harbor however, he is stopped by a Naval fleet, who escort him back to New York. Ripley returns to the television studio to film another episode. He sorts through the facts Norbert presents him, picking a few for the episode. Ripley stands in front of the camera. He says "Believe It or Not..." before clutching his chest and collapsing to the floor.
Robert Ripley's funeral is held in California. Friends and family are all shocked to see that the unicorn people of Manchuria, the shrunken head tribe of Peru and many other odd individuals are in attendance to pay their respects.
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