Watchmen (Sugar Wiki)

Watchmen was created by Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, and John Higgins in the mid-1980s. Both commercially and critically successful, it is considered to have been a critical factor in The Dark Age of Comic Books.

Then, in 1989, an animated series was released by Happy Harry Cartoons. Running one season of 13 episodes, it was considerably Lighter and Softer so as to appeal to the target demographic. It was mostly forgotten until the Theme Tune Roll Call was uploaded to Youtube and Newgrounds in 2009; the song became a viral video, and the series became a Cult Classic, primarily due to the series being by and large So Bad Its Good with the occasional surprisingly well-written moment.

This series provides examples of:

 * Adaptation Decay: Severely. Almost all the characters are nothing like their original selves.
 * Breaking the Fourth Wall: Rorschach began doing this occasionally starting around episode 8.
 * Cool Airship: The Owlship, never called Archie in the series.
 * Cowardly Lion: Bubastis is shown to have some hidden superpowers, but is nevertheless a coward.
 * Dirty Communists: "The Reds", dastardly so.
 * Disneyfication: Of many family-unfriendly aspects of the original story. How does one adapt Laurie's sex scene with Doc Manhattan into a Saturday Morning cartoon? Make a scene of Laurie reading a bedtime story to Manhattan clones!
 * Five Man Band
 * The Hero: Nite Owl
 * The Lancer: Doctor Manhattan
 * The Smart Guy: Ozymandias
 * The Big Guy: The Comedian
 * The Chick: Silk Spectre
 * Tagalong Kid: While Rorschach isn't much younger than any of the others, he certainly fits the personality.
 * Team Pet: Bubastis
 * Plucky Comic Relief: Rorschach.
 * Lighter and Softer
 * Never Say Die: Surprisingly averted.
 * Non Human Sidekick: Bubastis to Ozy. The writers have stated that Nite Owl was originally planned to have a talking owl, as well, but this was scrapped.
 * Thememobile: Jonmobile - the car form of Doctor Manhattan.
 * Those Two Guys: Nite Owl and Rorschach.
 * Trademark Favorite Food: Pizza for the Crimebusters, Buby Snack for Bubastis.
 * Viewer Gender Confusion: Just what the hell Bubastis is anyway?