Arthur (animation): Difference between revisions

{{tropelist}}

* [[Action Girl]]: S14's "The Agent of Change" involves Francine, Muffy, and Molly creating a cartoon out of frustration with no good movies about female heroes. To top it off, they call her [[Genius Bonus|"Agent XX".]]

* [[Adaptation Decay]]: In-universe example -- S10's "Unfinished" has Arthur finding and enjoying an old out-of-print book ''93,000,000 Miles in a Balloon''. However the last few pages are missing and he desperately tries a number of ways to find out the ending including renting an old 16mm film adaptation. But whereas Arthur's book is a fantasy exploration, the film is a backstage musical about a producer and a starlet who wants to make a movie of the book, and the starlet wanting make the film to use as a springboard into starring in Broadway musicals.

* [[Alliterative Name]]: Non-PBS news tend to refer to the show ''Arthur'' and Arthur Read as "Arthur the Aardvark."

** Buster Baxter, Binky Barnes, Francine Frensky...

* [[Amicably Divorced]]: Buster's parents.

* [[And That's Terrible]]: S6's "For Whom the Bell Tolls", D.W. loses her voice to a case of {{spoiler|[[Playing Sick|faked]]}} laryngitis. Arthur celebrates the fact of not having to deal with a noisy sister for a few days, but Francine annoyingly scolds him several times throughout the episode: "You're mean, Arthur Read! M-E-A-N, mean!" "That's what you get for being mean, Arthur!"

* [[Animal Talk]]: Starting with S6's "The Secret Life of Dogs and Babies", there would be episodes involving Kate, Pal, and the non-furry animals with their own stories. Later would expand to stuffed toys and imaginary friends.

* [[Antidisestablishmentarianism]]: Showed up in S1's "Arthur's Spelling Trubble".

* [[Apple of Discord]]:

* [[Artistic License History]]: [[Played for Laughs]]. When Buster finds a message in a bottle, he says it could be a million years old.

* [[Art Shift]]: Used frequently when they are parodying another work.

** The beginning of the episode "Binky Rules" is mostly drawn in the artistic style of Edward Gorey, in a parody of the introduction to the PBS series, ''Mystery!''

** In an [[Imagine Spot]] where Brain goes over plans in his mind, the animation switches to mimic his [[Stylistic Suck|crude drawings]].

** In S2's "Arthur VS the Piano", Arthur had given up playing the piano, and was subjected to a televised concert performance, the organ-playing [[Phantom of the Opera]], and a spoof of a piano-playing scene in [[Casablanca]].

** In S7's "Jenna's Bedtime Blues", Jenna, trying to get through a night without wetting the bed, tries watching TV and sees a diaper commercial, an actor with a mock Scottish talking about his broken bagpipes ("It's got a wee-leak!"), and a [[Sesame Street]]-esque skit involving the letter P done with Wimzie's House [[Expy|Expys]].

* [[Comic Book Time]]: Most of the main cast has been eight years old and in the third grade for 14 years.

** {{spoiler|This evolves into an [[Exaggerated Trope]]. According to S14's "D.W. Unties the Knot", the events of S1's "D.W. Thinks Big" are said to have happened "a few months ago."}}

* [[Fantasy Helmet Enforcement]]

* [[Fiction Isn't Fair]]: The Persimmony Glitchett books are an in-universe example.

* [[Five-Man Band]]

* [[Flanderization]]: Arthur's interest in Bionic Bunny, Buster's interest in aliens, and Muffy's (claimed) marketing knowledge.

* [[Free-Range Children]]: Arthur and co. are only about eight years old, and are in third grade, yet they run around Elwood City much like teens several years older. None of their parents seem concerned with the exception of what happens in S2's "Lost", where Arthur accidentally rides the bus line to the city limits.

* [[Incessant Music Madness]]: DW likes the song "Crazy Bus", which drives Arthur crazy. Everyone else his age enjoys it too, but not as incessantly as DW.

* [[Inexplicably Identical Individuals]]: In S9's ''Lights, Camera, Opera!'', Rodney Gilfry's ink suit is very, very similar to Oliver Frensky, Francine's dad. You may get confused if you tuned in halfway through the episode, and this is the first time around you're seeing it, and wasn't informed of it in advance.

** Frank Gehry, Michelle Kwan, Larry King, [[Jeopardy!|Alex Trebek]], & Lance Armstrong have the distinction of guest-starring on both Arthur and The Simpsons.

*** Neil Gaiman too, now.

* [[Living Prop]]: There are a number of such characters in Arthur, mostly recurring townspeople and students in D.W.'s class. Of important note are a pair of rabbit kids who've been in Arthur's class since the S1, but are not as developed as their classmates. S13's "MacFrensky" had a class list with the names Alex and Maria on it, but some fans refuse to believe those are their names, since Arthur has had several other one-shot classmates over the years (Never mind that the two rabbits were the only other two kids besides the already named regulars shown in class that episode).

* [[Local Hangout]]: The Sugar Bowl, an ice cream shop. Later seasons would introduce another ice cream shop, this one run by Brain's family.

* [[Long Runner Tech Marches On]]: Seeing that this is a [[Long Runner]], you see this when comparing the show's tech in early episodes to newer ones.

* [[Meaningful Name]]: A main point of the show is to get kids interested in reading; thus, the Read family.

* [[Message in a Bottle]]: Buster finds one on a beach vacation.

* [[Pac-Man Fever]]: Despite having a ton of [[Shout-Out|Shout Outs]] to famous book series, TV shows, movies and most other pop culture icons (Even Webkinz of all things), video games are still portrayed as primitive and Atari-like. Also, video game and computer game music tend to sound like chip tunes despite having graphics that look at least 16-bit.

** Technology seemed to be marching forward in the first few season, as by S6, they have had full computer voice acting, cutscenes, (relatively) realistic computer graphics, and actually pretty decent computer music as shown in S6's "Best of the Nest". Also, in the S10 episode, "The Squirrels" and the S11 episode, "Arthur Sells Out", video games were played on a console that looks a lot like a Sega Dreamcast which is a 64-bit console, but the games played have 8-bit graphics and sounds. By S12's "D.W.'s Stray Netkitten, the technology seemed to have marched slightly backwards -- graphics are less realistic and the music sounds a little more primitive, and not many games seem to have voice acting as long or elaborate.

** They referenced ''Bevis And Butthead'' ''twice'' - in the above instance, and in a [[Show Within a Show]] called ''Peabrain And Nuthead''.

** S12's "Bats in the Belfry" , which dares to reference the movie ''Child's Play''.

** S14's "Falafelosophy" has guest-star Neil Gaiman appearing in Sue Ellen's falafel as her personal muse. Not unlike what the [[The Sandman|The Lord of Dreams]] might get up to.

** S10's "The Curse of the Grebes" is a play on the real life rivalry between the fans of the New York Yankees and the fans of the Boston Red Sox.

** S13's "The Secret Origin of Supernova" was basically one big [[Shout-Out]] to comicdom, including a reference to [[Jack Kirby]].

** The [[Cold Open]] of S8's "Bleep" features a clip from an episode of [[The Sopranos|The Altos]]. Apparently, Marc Brown is a fan of the show.

* [[Stylistic Suck]]: The kids' drawings.

* [[Take That]]: Most Arthur fans know the S8 episode "Bleep" as a stab at censorship.

*** This troper always thought that episode was more of a generic fantasy parody. After all, there were references the The Neverending Story and Narnia in there.

** S13's "Brain Gets Hooked" has Brain becoming obsessed with a ''[[Lost]]''-style show. He berates the characters for forgetting facts between episodes.

* [[We'll See About That]]: In S15's "Buster's Secret Admirer," Buster suggests that his secret admirer could be Fern-- that this shy girl doesn't want anyone to know that she's fallen for the most popular guy in the school. Arthur tells him that he thinks all of those chocolates (that his secret admirer sent him) have gotten to his brain. Buster's response? "We'll see about that."

* [[We Sell Everything]]: The All-in-One Mart in S1's "D.W. Gets Lost".

* [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?]]: Arthur's friends are very impressed that he has relatives from... Ohio. (Marc Brown grew up in Ohio himself.)

* [[What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?]]: S4's "Arthur's Big Hit." Type 1. Also, S5's "Arthur's Family Feud." Type 2.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:The Kiddie Ride]]

[[Category:The Nineties]]

[[Category:All CGI Cartoon]]

[[Category:Western Animation]]

[[Category:Memetic Works]]