 "Instant Muscles", a film by Mark Shogren, is a cinematic exploration of a young boys imaginative solution to the age old problem of the bully. It is the early 1900 s in a poor American town as the film follows the life of James,( C.C. Wilson) who is plagued by the local roughians . James father(Dane McCarthy) brings the matter to a head and demands that he face his problems like a man. Seeking to please his father and solve the problem James finds a possible solution in the pages of a penny dreadful(a 1900 s version of the comic book) given to him by a strange traveling puppeteer(Mark Rice). The film culminates in a western style showdown between the bullies and James while the father looks on. But will it work?