Pac-Man (animation)

In 1982, Hanna-Barbera acquired the rights to produce a cartoon based on the eponymous game in America, as part of a 90-minute omnibus with The Little Rascals and Richie Rich. Its characters are basically The Flintstones and the plot is basically The Smurfs.

In 2010, filmmaker Avi Arad announced plans for a new 3D cartoon show featuring a reimagining of Pac-Man: Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures. In this reality, Pac-Man is a high school student, but his world is definitely not going through Mundanization. Indeed, he will have to face ghosts who plan to Take Over the World. In fact, the only ghosts who are his allies are none other than Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde. Aside from the conflict, Pac-Man's stories are told through slices of life, and he is ultimately a reluctant hero in a world of Magic Realism. A trailer was shown at the Pac-Man 30th Birthday Party at E3 2010, and is viewable here. The series ran from June 15, 2013 to May 29, 2015. It should be described on its own page.


 * Big Bad: Mezmaron is the only human in Pac-Man's world. He wants to take over the Power Forest, and the ghosts work for him. It's never explained what he plans to do with all those power pellets. As the lone recurring human character, he's our lone reference point for scale. Several episodes have Mezmaron mention that by taking over the Power Forest, he'll control all the "pac-power" in Pac-Land, and thus easily conquer the populace.
 * Canon Foreigner: Mezmaron appears in the cartoon, but not in any of the games. Some have theorized that the Ghost Witch of Netor from Pac-Man 2 was an homage to Mezmaron.
 * Cats Are Mean: The family cat, Sourpuss (seriously), would constantly try to play Garfield-esque pranks on the dog, Chomp-Chomp. Of course, the cat would always fall victim to his own schemes.
 * Christmas Special
 * Criminal Doppelganger: Pac-Man was once mistaken for a bank robber who escaped from prison. The fugitive managed to fool Ms. Pac-Man… until she
 * The Danza: Susan Silo played Sue.
 * Deus Ex Machina: The power pellets.
 * Did Not Do the Bloody Research: Ms. Pac-Man's affectionate nickname for Pac-Man, "Packy", is very unfortunately and hilariously pronounced the same way as a racist slur against people from Pakistan in the UK.
 * Distaff Counterpart: Sue and Ms. Pac-Man.
 * The Ditz: Inky.
 * Fan Vid: The Adventures of Duane and BrandO gives a damned good rendition of a longstanding Ear Worm.
 * Five-Bad Band
 * ~Hey, It's That Voice!~: The hero is Beegle Beagle (from The Great Grape Ape) and Autocat; the villain is Uglor from Space Stars; the blue ghost is Clamhead from Jabberjaw, and the red, pink and purple ghosts are characters from CB Bears.
 * Pac-Man's cat is Optimus Prime and his dog is Megatron. And once again (or rather, once before), they're in conflict. Only this time, Peter Cullen voices the mean one.
 * Limited Wardrobe: The ghost monsters were shown with a whole closet full of identical ghost suits to change into, after being chomped into floating eyes.
 * Dinky, the ghosts' nephew, needed Sue to help him get his spare suit when Pac Baby chomped him.
 * Mass "Oh Crap": The ghost monsters when Pac-Man eats a power pellet. "P-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-Pac Power!"
 * Motor Mouth: Not in the H-B series, but in the Pac-Man record albums by Kid Stuff Records, Speedy (AKA: Pinky) talks this way.
 * Never Say "Die": Chomping isn't eating. Chomping the ghosts turns them into floating eyes, just as in the game. Chomping Pac-Man turns him into something resembling a sad bean bag chair, though he gets better when fed power pellets.
 * Power-Up Food: The power pellets, of course.
 * Punny Name: Most of the landmarks, characters, etc. in the show had the word "Pac" or "chomp" in their names; for example, Pac-land's movie capital was "Pac-Hollywood", and Pac-Man's dog was named "Chomp-Chomp".
 * Recursive Adaptation: An arcade video game called Pac-Land was released in 1984, which was a side-scrolling platformer that was clearly based on the cartoon. Inky's lazy eye and Sue's purple cloak and eyes survived into the design of the monsters in Pac-Mania. But Blinky retains his speed and aggressiveness, whereas in the cartoon he was an asthmatic coward. In the Pac-Man World games, however, the cartoon is completely forgotten. There are only four ghosts, and Pinky is now female.
 * Sigil Spam: Expect the iconic "missing pizza slice" pac-shape to work its way into the design of the world. The sun, for example.
 * Spiritual Successor: The game Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures seems at least partly based on this cartoon.
 * Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Ms. Pac-Man. One episode, "The Bionic Pac-Woman", even features Pac-Man disguising himself as Ms. Pac-Man to fool Mezmaron. Sue might fit this as well, being depicted with earrings and eyelashes, unlike the other ghost monsters (who wear hats).
 * Trouser Space: Inky and Dinky (the ghosts' nephew) had this trait.
 * Voluntary Shapeshifting: Pinky all the time, but could merge with Clyde, Blinky, and Inky to form items at times too (once to a frisbee, then to a kite).