Bravestarr



""It was the toughest of planets. They needed a thousand lawmen. They got one. He was enough.""

Bravestarr was a Space Western action cartoon produced by Filmation that aired in 1987 after the success of He Man and The Masters of The Universe. It is now being rerun on Qubo late at night.

As the Expository Theme Tune explains, sometime in The Future, the planet New Texas is experiencing Days of Future Past with settlers coming to the planet to mine its deposits of "Kerium", an energy-bearing variety of Green Rocks. Unfortunately, the planet has to deal with the threat of Tex Hex, a mystically empowered outlaw who, with his gang, tries to steal as much Kerium as he can, and will overpower anyone in his way.

To keep law and order on the planet, The Federation sends Marshall Bravestarr. Bravestarr, thanks to his upbringing by the Magical Native American Shaman, is able to use the powers of spirit animals to gain super powers: "Eyes Of The Hawk", "Ears Of The Wolf", "Strength Of The Bear", and "Speed Of The Puma". With these powers, and the help of Thirty-Thirty (his Cool Horse who can become a humanoid BFG-toting Sidekick when he's not Bravestarr's mount), Bravestarr keeps the peace for both the settlers and the native "Prairie People".

More details are available at Wikipedia.


 * Action Girl: Judge J. B., at least some of the time.
 * And Knowing Is Half the Battle: As with nearly all of Filmation's 1980s series. Even villain Outlaw Scuzz gets to deliver one.
 * The Atoner: Handlebar
 * Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Used in "Balance of Power". Stampede steals Shaman's staff and uses its magic to make a robot and later Thunderstick and Scuzz giants to fight Bravestarr.
 * Automaton Horses: Thirty-Thirty.
 * Badass: A crapload, this being a Space Western, but Thirty-Thirty Most of all.
 * Badass Grandpa: The Shaman, when he needs to be.
 * Barefoot Funny Aliens: Evidently, the Prairie People Do Not Like Shoes.
 * Big Bad: Stampede.
 * Big Good: The Shaman.
 * Binary Suns: New Texas' "sky of three suns".
 * Boisterous Bruiser: Thirty-Thirty.
 * Broken Aesop: The episode "Bravestarr and the Law", in which the And Knowing Is Half the Battle segment has Bravestarr talking about how one should always obey the law even if you don't agree with it. The episode, however, had him going against the law (which was going to evict Shaman) up until the true facts were revealed and Shaman's home was no longer endangered.
 * Not quite. He was ready and willing to quit his job as a lawman, but stopped short of (and anguished over) actually breaking the law.
 * There's also one, on an episode where a blind girl manages to prove that there is something good even in Tex Hex, the main antagonist. The given aesop however, is that blind people don't need pity but can take care of themselves and even be useful to a community.
 * Broken Pedestal: "Fallen Idol"
 * Cats Are Mean: Klawto, an evil, felinoid alien wizard, and the felinoid Krang warriors.
 * Character Title
 * Cool Horse: Thirty-Thirty, an indefatigable talking mount who carries Bravestarr on his back in travel and in battle is a ferocious humanoid warrior who watches Bravestarr's back.
 * Dark Chick: Vipra, who is less action-oriented than male villains, her main ability being to hypnotize.
 * Days of Future Past: As with the other Space Western cartoons, clothing and architecture reminiscent of The Wild West and the Victorian era co-exists with futuristic technology. The spaceships look like sailing ships complete with rigging.
 * Disney Death: Deputy Fuzz in the movie pilot.
 * Does Not Like Shoes: Wild Child. Also, as noted, the Prairie People.
 * Downer Ending: "The Price".
 * The Dragon: Tex Hex. However, as with Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine, Hex gets a lot more screen time than his boss Stampede.
 * Drugs Are Bad: Again, "The Price".
 * Dueling Shows: Bravestarr debuted in 1987, the same year as Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs premiered (in America) and a year after Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers.
 * Easily Forgiven: Vipra in "Who Am I?". She bullies Scuzz to get information on a magic book, uses the magic book to completely overthrow Tex Hex, establishes herself as the new leader of Tex Hex's gang, and even tries to talk directly to Stampede, but by the time the next episode rolls around, she's still in Tex's gang, taking orders as if nothing's happened.
 * Eccentric Mentor: The Shaman.
 * Episode Title Card
 * Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Shaman, whose actual name is unrevealed.
 * Evil Counterpart: Skuzz, to Fuzz.
 * Executive Meddling: This article details the disagreements between Filmation and toy licensee Mattel.
 * Expository Theme Tune
 * Eye Beams: One of Tex Hex's powers. One episode even has him create a laser rope out of his eyes in order to strangle one of his henchmen for talking back to him.
 * Fantastic Racism/Fantastic Slurs: In one episode, the indigenous Prairie People are called "critters", which is explicitly shown as offensive and wrong.
 * G-Rated Drug: Subverted in "The Price".
 * Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Scuzz. He's seen smoking a really dirty-looking cigar at all times, can't speak more than a sentence without coughing, and at one point in The Movie, he actually lights his cigar with a stick of dynamite. None of the other villains look too favorably on his habit, though.
 * Heroes Want Redheads: Bravestarr and Judge J. B., openly acknowledged in The Movie.
 * I Call It Vera: Sarah Jane, Thirty-Thirty's BFG.
 * Just a Machine: The status of Mecha-Mooks varies from one episode to another, but series regulars Cactushead and Thunderstick are clearly considered people (albeit rotten ones).
 * Last of His Kind: Thirty-Thirty
 * Magical Native American: Bravestarr and his Shaman both qualify.
 * Meaningful Name:
 * Bravestarr is brave...and a Native American...and wears a star.
 * Thirty-thirty wields the Ray Gun version of a Winchester 30-30 rifle.
 * The Magical Native American isn't just a shaman, he's named Shaman.
 * Mechanical Monster: Stampede's Bronco-Tank.
 * Mineral MacGuffin: Kerium, a highly energized red crystal that's used as a power source for pretty much everything and is described as "ten times more valuable than gold." It's a plot point in a lot of different ways, and a lot of parallels are drawn between it and gold.
 * Morality Pet: Tex-Hex's ex-girlfriend Ursula is this for him; he sabotages his own mission once when it would endanger her.
 * Never Say "Die": Averted; the words die, death, and murder are used when appropriate, and the situations do come up, with "Fallen Hero" being one of the most prominent examples.
 * The Obi-Wan: The Shaman.
 * One Riot, One Ranger: This trope was the basic concept behind the show.
 * Our Dragons Are Different: Stampede is a giant, magic-using cyborg dragon with a head shaped like a cow-skull--and, at least for the era when this show was produced, he is frigging terrifying.
 * Our Indians Are Different
 * Our Robots Are Weird: Cactushead has to be one of the weirdest-looking robots ever designed. He looks like a Joke Character, but he's actually one of Tex's more competent underlings. Then there's Thunderstick, who not only looks odd but speaks a sort of Robo Speak patois that causes him to repeat phrases in a herky-jerky manner.
 * Pet the Dog: A few times, for Tex-Hex, usually regarding his ex-girlfriend Ursula or someone who reminds him of her.
 * Pilot Movie: It was meant to be a theatrically released introduction to the series, but due to a botched distribution deal, it only had a few limited screenings and was rarely seen until its DVD release.
 * Planetville: New Texas.
 * Poorly-Disguised Pilot: The two-part "Sherlock Holmes in the 23rd Century", which was never produced by Filmation. The similar Sherlock Holmes in The Twenty Second Century was made by another studio several years later.
 * Proud Warrior Race Guys: The Krang, a race of cat guys.
 * The Power of Rock: Used in "New Texas Blues".
 * Quirky Miniboss Squad: Tex Hex's henchbeings.
 * Sapient Steed
 * Scaled Up: Tex Hex tries this in "The Vigilantes" by turning into a giant dragon in Handlebar's saloon. It doesn't go well for him.
 * Scare'Em Straight: "The Price", which shows just what happens to people who use drugs.
 * Sixty-Five-Episode Cartoon
 * Space Western
 * Spell My Name with an "S": The makers of the show couldn't decide whether Tex Hex's prairie person henchman is called Outlaw Skuzz or Outlaw Scuzz. An episode title uses the "Skuzz" spelling, but "Scuzz" appears on the merchandise.
 * The humanoid pig that's sometimes seen riding with Tex's gang is named Hawgtie, not Hogtie.
 * Start of Darkness: For Tex Hex.
 * Stock Footage: Several extended sequences from the feature film were used routinely as stock footage (and padding) in the series: the space montage opening almost every episode; Bravestarr riding Thirty-Thirty through the desert; the town going into Fortress Mode. Conversely, some shots from the series' opening title were integrated into the film's action sequences (the two were produced simultaneously). The four stock sequences of Bravestarr summoning his animal powers were used regularly. Filmation's heavy use of stock and rotoscoped character motions may also qualify.
 * Super Senses: "Eyes of the hawk!" and "Ears of the wolf!"
 * Super Speed: "Speed of the puma!"
 * Super Strength: "Strength of the bear!"
 * Transformation Sequence: Seen when Thirty-Thirty converts from humanoid to robot horse form (and vice versa). The Stock Footage seen when Bravestarr uses his animal powers may also qualify.
 * Verbal Tic: Half of the non-human cast seems to have one of these. Stampede punctuates his speech with bull-like snorts, Vipra hisses like a snake when she talks, Thunderstick repeats random words, Thirty-Thirty whinnies like a horse...
 * Voluntary Shapeshifting: Dingo Dan, another of Tex Hex's outlaws, is an anthropomorphic dingo who can magically disguise himself as a human.
 * Yet Another Christmas Carol: The episode "Tex's Terrible Night."
 * You No Take Candle: The Prairie People, as well as half of Tex's gang, speak in broken English.