Atomic Betty
 |
"Call me up, I'm your girl! |
 |
Atomic Betty is a Canadian cartoon about a middle school girl named Betty Barrett who doubles as a Galactic Guardian, fighting evil on the other side of the universe while no one notices her lengthy absence when she finds out she's an alien. The series lasted from September, 2004 to January, 2008, for a total of 78 episodes in three seasons.
Season 3 (Subtitle Mission: Earth) mixes things up by having the Galactic Guardian headquarters relocated underneath Betty's hometown.
A sequel with the working title Atomic Betty Redux featuring a slightly older Betty is currently[when?] in development.
The show has also reappeared on American airwaves on The Hub (formerly Discovery Kids) before it was taken off of air as of 2011.
Tropes used in Atomic Betty include:
- Abusive Parents: This was implied at toward Max Sr. toward Maximus and later on, Max Sr. Sr. toward both of them.
- Action Girl
- Aliens Speaking English
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Sparky's mom, Zulia, has the tendency to date villains.
- All Part of the Show: In "When Worlds Collide"
- Alpha Bitch: Penelope Lang
- An Aesop
- An Ice Person: Iciclia
- Badass Adorable: Betty
- Bad Future: "The Future Is Now!"
- The Bad Guy Wins: Subverted in the season 2 finale. Galactic Guardian HQ is successfully destroyed, but Maximus is robbed of the satisfaction of being the one to push the button. And they just build a new HQ on Earth anyway.
- Berserk Button: Max Sr. apparently hates being called "worthless" by his own father and would have nearly beaten up his younger self if Maximus didn't interfere.
- Also, when Maximus can't sleep due to too much noise, he goes on a destructive rampage.
- Between My Legs: Odd for a children's show, but this is how we're introduced to Pontifidora, along with the image page for the episode.
- Big Bad: Maximus IQ
- Big Eater: Sparky and his mom.
- Penelope's fat friend Megan is often shown eating, though they rarely show her actually pigging out.
- Big Little Brother: Infantor's little brother is much bigger than him.
- Black Best Friend: Regeena
- Brainless Beauty: DeGill's two (or three since Mission: Earth) groupies.
- Bumbling Dad
- But Not Too Foreign: Penelope and Sarah are only partially Asian.
- Canada, Eh?: Betty's home town is called Moose Jaw Heights
- One of the first indicators that this isn't an American cartoon is that Betty's school has a Canadian flag flying from the flagpole.
- Captain Color Beard: Greenbeard
- Captivity Harmonica: This was partially seen during one part of "Like Father, Like Scum" with Max Sr. (hidden in the shadows at that point) playing it before the Berillum Boys bust Max Sr. out of his prison.
- Card-Carrying Villain: Maximus.
- In "The Pre-Teen Queen of Outer Space" when the Drones need a new queen they intentionally seek out the most evil female in the universe.
- Cats Are Mean: Played straight with Purrsy, Koreena, Maximus and his family, but the episode "Noah's Bark" shows that Maximus's race is not Exclusively Evil.
- Christmas Episode: "The No-L 9" which doubles as a Musical Episode.
- There's also the first season episodes "Jingle Brawls" and "Toy Historyia".
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Penelope's cat Poopsie appeared in the season 1 episode "Power Arrangers" and was never seen again. In the season 2 episode "The Market" Penelope was seen visiting his grave.
- Also Paloma (and Juanita) at the beginning of Season 3 (no one exactly knew why she was written out), save for a cameo in "Love Bites".
- Dylan disappeared near the end of season 2 and was replaced by Penelope's brother Chad in season 3. Since Penelope would no longer have a rival for Dylan's affections, there was no longer a need for him, so the second to last episode before the season 2 finale has Penelope falling out with Dylan after spending an entire episode getting humiliated in her efforts to get with him while in "No-Hit Wonders", he was last seen in the dance competition and gets disqualified when he loses in the dance.
- Color Coded for Your Convenience: The Betty Clones.
- Combat Stilettos
- Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like: The Empress from "Battle of the Bots" is captive by Maximus on the planet of Crushdon, though when she sees her rescuers along with robots, she begins complaining about them along with her allergies. Granted, she goes back with Maximus while the reward is simply a letter stating that her people don't want her because she's a Snobby Empress anyway.
- Cool Old Lady: Beatrixo
- Costume Copycat: In "Cosmic Comicon" a bunch of people are dressed like Betty and there's a Running Gag where Sparky keeps mistaking them for her. He even mistakes a coat rack with a costume hanging on it for her.
- Up to Eleven: When Betty tries to talk to him, he asks her who she is.
- Cute Alien Girl: Betty, who claims however that she came from space.
- Depending on the Writer: How mean Penelope and her friends are varies from episode to episode.
- Denser and Wackier: Mission Earth has a number of gags that are cartoonier than anything the previous seasons ever did.
- Disney Death: Paloma nearly dies from having her energy drained to open the forbidden box her father is contained in.
- Distaff Counterpart: To Buzz Lightyear.
- Ditzy Genius: Dr. Cerebral can invent hi-tech gadgets, but he's lacking in common sense.
- Do-Anything Robot: X5
- Double Entendre: "You're about as brilliant as the dark side of Uranus!"
- Dumb Muscle: Betty's orange clone.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Paloma, whom was first actually seen in the TV series in Season 2's The New Neighbor was actually first seen in the Gameboy Advanced Game that was released before Season 2 was made.
- Earth Is the Center of the Universe: Much to Betty's dismay.
- Easy Impersonation: In "The Way of the Weiner" the Betty Clones went around town causing mayhem and framing Betty for it. Everyone fell for it, even though they stayed in their superpowered forms and in those forms only one of them looks even close to her.
- Enfante Terrible: The Infantor
- Evil Duo: Maximus and Minimus
- Evil Twin: Atomic Dodger
- Even Evil Has Standards: This is mostly seen when Maximus is around either his father or grandfather, the latter which Max Sr. only helps his son due to his own father mocking them both.
- Eyedscreen: Common during action scenes.
- Fat and Skinny: Megan and Sarah respectively
- Fat Bastards: Max Sr., M'lord Orus, and Max Sr. Sr. (when he's elderly)
- Fat Cat: This is what Max Sr. is. Same to elderly Max Sr. Sr., though it could be due to himself being too old.
- The Federation: The Galactic Guardians
- Flexing Those Non-Biceps: In "Beach Blanket Betty" Noah does the forearms-turn-into-limp-noodles variant.
- Forgotten Birthday: In "Cat Fight" Betty's mom thinks her husband forgot Purrsy's birthday, though it's played more like a Forgotten Anniversary scenario.
- Fountain of Youth: The Youthinator in "Bold Age" where Maximus' grandfather, Max Sr. Sr., used it to make people old while elderly like himself (and Penelope's grandmother) are made young.
- Future Badass: Betty, Noah, and their human friends during the Bad Future episode. Even Penelope, given the right impetus.
- Genetic Memory: The first time Queen Penelobee meets Atomic Betty she notices see seems oddly familiar.
- Girl Posse: Penelope's friends Megan and Sarah.
- Green Eyes: The usual match for a Red Headed Heroine - Green Eyed Red Head.
- Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Admiral DeGill and possibly Minimus PU.
- Parodied when DeGill is in the shower and they blur out his crotch.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Beatrixo and Auntie Matter's father was an alien. This also makes Betty's mom a quarter alien and Betty an eighth alien.
- Human Aliens: Betty, Beatrixo, Auntie Matter, Atomic Roger, Paloma, Juanita and Pandora.
- Halloween Episode: The episodes "When Worlds Collide", "The Ghost Ship of Aberdeffia", "Night of the Living Mummies", and "Trick or Creep".
- Hartman Hips: Betty's mom
- Heel Face Turn: At the end of "The Way of the Weiner" X-5 reprograms the Betty Clones to make them good.
- He Is Not My Boyfriend: Betty about Noah in "No Space Like Home"
- Hidden Depths: In "The Market" Penelope is shown crying at her cat's grave.
- Hollywood Tone Deaf: Penelope in "Circus Sparkimus".
- Horrible Judge of Character: Sparky's mother has a terrible habit of dating villains.
- Improbable Species Compatibility: Paloma and Pandora's parents are a human size Catgirl and a demon about 10 times that size.
- Identical Granddaughter: In "Bold Age" when Penelope was aged up and her grandmother was aged down they each ended up looking like the other, except the aged down grandmother has thicker thighs than Penelope.
- Informed Ability / Informed Flaw: According to the episode "The Pre-Teen Queen of Outer Space" Penelope is the most evil female in the universe.
- In-Joke / Genius Bonus for anyone not familiar with Canada: There is a real Moose Jaw located in Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan is Canada's prairieland, very open and very flat. The idea of there being a Moose Jaw Heights is just silly.
- Interspecies Romance: A one-sided example in "Love Bites" when Betty's dad falls in love with Purrsy after getting bitten by an alien bug.
- I Was Quite a Looker: Beatrixo in flashbacks to her days as a Galactic Guardian.
- I Will Wait for You: In "The No-L 9" we learn Beatrixo has been waiting 30 years for her husband Jimmy to return after he went missing in action.
- Jumped At the Call: Noah, at the end of "No Space Like Home"
- Lean and Mean: Whenever Maximus is shown without clothes he appears to be very skinny.
- Lego Genetics: How Queen Penelobee was created.
- Maximus created the Betty clones by combining Betty's DNA with the DNA of three different alien women.
- Leitmotif: Penelope has a classy orchestral theme that plays every time she appears.
- Let's Get Dangerous: In "Aarrgh...It Be 'Olidays!" Betty's parents help defeat Greenbeard and his crew, though they think they're just actors.
- Likable Villain: Incidentally, there are some villains that are portrayed as likable to the fans.
- Magic Skirt: Betty, in an episode where she swings by her knees on a trapeze.
- Magical Girl Warrior
- Masquerade
- Mooks: The Bloodmonks
- Mecha-Mooks: Maximus's robot army.
- Miniature Senior Citizens: While Beatrixo isn't really that short, flashbacks to her Galactic Guardian days show her to be taller.
- Mister Muffykins: Purrsy
- Mr. Exposition: Admiral DeGill
- Multiple Head Case: In "Spliced" Penelope and her posse get spliced together, becoming a three-headed mutant.
- My Beloved Smother: Betty's mom treats Purrsy like a second child. Whether he loves it or hates it depends on the episode.
- My Hovercraft Is Full of Eels: This appears to happen with Sparky in "If the Shoe Fits" when he attempts to compliment the leader of an alien race after they lose their Universal Translator, but once they get it back they find Sparky's translation was correct. It's just that these aliens take compliments as insults and vice versa.
- My Name Is Not Durwood: Boltar
- Naive Newcomer: Noah after he joins the Galactic Guardians in the third season.
- Never Mess with Granny: Betty's grandma is a former Galactic Guardian.
- Never Trust a Title Card: The title card for "Trading Spaces" shows Penelope in a Galactic Guardian uniform. The episode has nothing to do with Penelope joining the Galactic Guadians.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: The voice of Betty's dad is based on Jimmy Stewart.
- No Name Given: Betty and her family's last name is never mentioned. Even in a school assembly, the principal calls her just 'Betty'. The closest we get to learning her last name is when Sparky refers to Betty's mother as 'Mrs. B'
- Actually in a series of Atomic Betty books, her last name was revealed to be Barret.
- Non-Action Guy: Noah. Starts to move away from this during season 3.
- The Obi-Wan: Spindly Tam
- One-Winged Angel: Maximus gets this in "The Amulet of Shangra-La-Di-Dah" temporarily.
- Petting Zoo People
- Playing with Fire: Betty's red clone.
- Poorly-Disguised Pilot: The last episode of Season Three introduced the older Betty from the sequel.
- Positive Discrimination: Paloma
- Pretty Fly for a White Guy: Betty is voiced by a black woman and her black friend Regeena is voiced by a white woman.
- Raygun Gothic: The Galactic Guardians technology looks like it was borrowed from The Jetsons
- Read the Freaking Manual: In "Night of the DeGilla Monster" DeGill clones himself, but the clone turns out evil because he didn't read the manual.
- Redheaded Hero
- Rich Bitch: Penelope and her family (except Chaz)
- Rise of Zitboy: In "Pimplepalooza" tiny pimple-like aliens that need host bodies to survive infect the faces of everyone in Moose Jaw.
- Robo Speak
- Robot Buddy: X5
- Rubber Girl: Betty's blue clone.
- Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale
- Screens Are Cameras: The Comm Links work this way.
- Screwed by the Network: Started off on a primetime spot on CN. But was soon punted around the schedule before ending up on a early morning shift where barely anyone was awake to watch it.
- Shallow Love Interest: Dylan and Chaz
- Shapeshifter Mode Lock: In "The Way of the Wiener" the Betty Clones stay in her superpowered forms for unexplained reasons.
- Shout-Out: In the segment, Galactic Idol, Maximus tries singing three times and out of two of those times, he is dressed like Slash and Prince.
- In "Case of the Missing Kanushu", The Lord of the Rings is referenced when De Gill tries to stop the red wasp from passing by, he almost succeeds in breaking the bridge, though due to him small and using a weaker wasp part, it does not go well. However, he is still grabbed by the wasp crashing through the bridge and dragged to the bottom with Sparky shouting for him. Granted he does survive though.
- Both "Evil Idol" and "Galactic Idol" are also a shout out to another idol show
- The empress in "Battle of the Bots" has the hairstyle of Leia.
- The title, "Power Arrangers", is an allusion to the series, Power Rangers
- Small Name, Big Ego: Atomic Roger
- Space Does Not Work That Way: In "Queen for a Day" we have this exchange.
|
General Bee:Is this a suitable world your highness.
Queen Penelobee No you fool none of these world are |
|
- Split Personality: Minimus' head rotates to reflect his change in personality
- Stout Strength: Though briefly seen in "The Big Dig", Max Sr. proves to be a bit dangerous around Hopper the Chopper and his gang (before he's wedgied by Hopper).
- Stuffed Into a Trashcan: In "The Way of the Wiener" Betty's orange clone does this to Penelope while cleaning up the mess she made, supposedly mistaking her for trash.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Not quite a speech, but Maximus and Max Sr. both give out their reasons on why they don't want Max Sr. Sr., after he is snatched by them, to continue running things and why they don't want him around for too long.
- Thick Line Animation
- This Is No Time for Knitting: In "Galactic Guardians No More", Betty announces that it is time to start baking while they're under fire from numerous enemy ships in their own ship — which had been previously decommissioned as a military vessel and turned into a traveling pie shop. Of course, Sparky and X-5 question her timing, but this is part of her plan to save the day: she uses the dough as improvised ammunition for the ship's torpedo launcher, then lures the enemies close to the sun to bake the dough into a debilitating mass.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Betty and Penelope.
- Tomboyish Ponytail: Betty
- Transformation Sequence: Betty gets a very brief one each time she switches to her Galactic Guardian outfit.
- Tricking the Shapeshifter: The Chameleon in his first appearance.
- Twitchy Eye
- Uncanny Valley Makeup: Penelope
- Unlucky Childhood Friend: Noah
- Villain Song: "Virtuoso of Insanity"
- "The Villain Sucks" Song "This Cat Is Coming After You" on the album, mainly for the Betty vocals dialogue
- The Voiceless: Penelope's Asian friend Sarah never talks.
- Or at least she use to in the first two seasons before Mission: Earth decided to make her mute.
- In the Mission: Earth episode "Girl Power" she had two lines.
- DeGill's groupies. Most of the time they just giggle like bimbos, though the green-skinned redhead gets a line in "A Hard Day's Fight".
- Voluntary Shapeshifter: The Chameleon
- Wake Up, Go to School, Save the World
- Weirdness Censor: In "Wedding Crashers" Auntie Matter kidnaps Grampa Jim right in front of Betty's parents' eyes. But while they are shocked by the kidnapping and start to worry, the fact that an alien did it is completely ignored.
- "Takes One to Know One" averts this. When Paloma gets beamed into a spaceship, Duncan freaks out.
- In "The Pre-Teen Queen of Outer Space" Penelope doesn't find it frightening that she was kidnapped by giant alien bees, justified given she thought is was a dream.
- In "Queen For a Day" Penelope doesn't find it odd someone looks and acts just like her. Somewhat justified given she though it was a video game.
- In "Spliced" when Penelope and her friends are spliced together into a three-headed mutant they don't seem to notice. Averted with Regeena, who reacts with either confusion or horror at the spliced mutants she sees.
- With Friends Like These...: In the episode where everyone thinks the end of the world is coming, Megan and Sarah turn on Penelope, stealing her jewerly and knocking her to the ground. At the end of the episode they're back to being practically her servants.
- Younger Than They Look: Sparky is younger than his voice makes out. He's actually a kid.
- Zettai Ryouiki
- Zonk: Parodied, as the secret "Project Zonk" that the crew has to protect in an episode ends up only being taco sauce. Yes. Taco sauce.