Stinking Lizard believes Santa Maria's claims that Abahachi and Ranger killed the chief's son, and upon their return to the Shoshone tribe, the two find themselves unjustly charged with murder.
While bound to a stake right next to Ranger, awaiting their execution and nonetheless having one of their frequent squabbles, Abahachi remembers a secret treasure kept inside a large, shoe-shaped rock called Manitou's Shoe (a reference to Treasure of the Silver Lake), which Abahachi intends to recover in order to reimburse Stinking Lizard.
They enable the two captives' escape, in which they inadvertently kill Stinking Lizard's pet rabbit, prompting the Shoshone chief to declare war on them and unbury a folding chair in lieu of a hatchet.
To gather the other parts of the map, Abahachi and Ranger travel across the land to meet with Winnetouch on his all-pink ranch-turned-beauty-plaza, the Powder Rouge Ranch ("Puder Rosa", a pun on Bonanza's "Ponderosa") .
In the end, each character realizes their dream and Uschi, while pregnant with her and Ranger's child, urges him to set off with Abahachi, and both heroes ride into the sunset for new adventures.
The film borrows from the parodies of Mel Brooks like Robin Hood: Men in Tights, Blazing Saddles, and Dracula: Dead and Loving It.
Greek character Dimitri owns a mule named Apollo 13 (his twelve brothers — and subsequently, he as well — were killed by speeding trains), and for lack of a hatchet the Shoshones, a Native American tribe, dig out a seemingly dispensable folding-chair as a replacement.
Michael Herbig's following movie, the science fiction parody Traumschiff Surprise – Periode 1, features a prequel scene to Der Schuh des Manitou due to time travel.
“Der Schuh des Manitu” parodies a series of wild west adventure novels of the 19th century German author Karl May.
The main topic of these novels is the deep friendship of a fictional Mescalero Apache chief (Winnetou) and his German companion and blood-brother, (Old Shatterhand), who are both exemplary virtuous and stand together to keep the peace between Indians and immigrating White settlers.
Der Schuh des Manitu spoofs the friendship motif in the Winnetou novels and in their 1960s film adaptations which has largely led to high, but sometimes idealised and cliché ridden admiration of Native Americans in Germany.
The plot of the movie is closely related to productions based on the works of Karl May such as the film Treasure of Silver Lake.
This is similar to how Ernst Stavro Blofeld once held a cat in the James Bond movies or how the artist Joseph Beuys "explains pictures to a dead hare” in order to teach philosophical concepts.
One of the film's running gags is Winnetouch, riding ladie's style and holding a parasol, constantly admonishing his horse Shá:ckèlinè (= Jaqueline) not to move too fast for "otherwise she would be having to puke again".
On the zither, Winnetouch plays the Harry Lime Theme from the movie The Third Man, when he, Abahachi and Ranger are on the Powder Rose Ranch.
This way, Der Schuh des Manitu uses components from different genres, as the Rhein-Zeitung noted as well on July 16, 2001: The comedy film appeals to people who have experienced the simple TV age with three programs and have been socialized with Karl May's stories (he makes a short appearance) and shows like The Virginian and Gunsmoke.
Like spaghetti westerns it was filmed in Almería in Spain and there are lots of men with stubbly faces and a cigarette butt or a harmonica in their mouth, posing like Clint Eastwood and Charles Bronson.
Especially the many funny details, quotes and jokes are reminiscent of Asterix comics.In Karl May's short appearance he presents his book “Treasure of Silver Lake”, that also features a ride on a draisine.
When Santa Maria dies in a mud trap, Winnetouch quotes Wilhelm Busch's children's classic Max and Moritz.
Pierre Brice, lead of the Karl May films, and his eastern German counterpart Gojko Mitić reject the comedy due to it ridiculing and disparaging the culture of the Native Americans.
The TV magazine Prisma called the movie “irrelevant” and says: “The main characters speak Bavarian, are completely brainless and make abysmal jokes, that almost could not be worse.” The Stern in January 2009 called the movie a “Blockbuster whose only funny point is an extremely gay Native American.” In January 2024, the filming of a sequel, titled Das Kanu des Manitu (Manitou's Canoe) was announced.