Wonderbeaver/Tropes

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> "If you hate Barney, who gives a crap?!"
>
> The show's tagline

One day, the author of *Redwall* and the creator of *Mole Miner* and *Storm Raiders* wrote a children's book together. Then Nelvana and Norman Lear got their hands on it.

*Wonderbeaver* (2003-2005) is a... rather humorous Deconstruction of the Magical Girl and Superhero genres, with 90% of the stock hero tropes Played For Laughs. Melissa Jawtooth is an anthropomorphic beaver adopted by a human family. She is a popular cheerleader yet the jocks stay away from her (for rather obvious reasons). On her way to school one day, Melissa finds an injured beaver-like being which turns out to not actually be injured, merely hungry, and he steals her fruit pie, with the standard real fruit filling and light, tender crust. One havoc-filled school day later, the alien introduces himself as "Nitpick" and gives her a Transformation Trinket. He tells her to hold the trinket and yell "KRAKOOM!", which turns her into Wonderbeaver for the first time. After gaining the "support" of her brothers Mark and Jonny, Mark's combination Black Best Friend-and-girlfriend Ashlee, and resident human woman Kelly, they try to fight the forces of evil, the keyword being "try".

For a Nelvana series, it bounces between being considered an Affectionate Parody of practically everything Nelvana has ever done and all the tropes they've used (as well as already being an Affectionate Parody of the Superhero and Magical Girl genres), while being a standard Nelvana series in and of itself.

Was originally intended as a one-season 65-episode cartoon, but proved to be so popular that it was Uncancelled for a second season. Midway through the second season, some of the cats from the then-fledgling *Warrior Cats* novels joined Wonderbeaver in her adventures. They *attempted* to make the series more serious now that Firestar & co. had joined the cast (even if the series had the more Bada\*\* *Warrior Cats* characters fighting the most goofy villains imaginable) but gave up halfway, this led to the series ending after the second season.

## Wondertropes

* **Acme Products**: Semmi the Clown Brand products.
* **Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking**:
	+ Dr. Marino Om's top 3 most dastardly schemes, as defined by Wonderbeaver, include: attempting to bring about the apocalypse, destroying an orphanage full of kids, and running a Vanity Publishing company.
* **Banana Republic**:
	+ San Jacques from "Mucho Mission", ruled by Generalissimo and Supreme Leader of the People, Rogerio Eberto Henriques-Sanchez. According to Alan Bomer of the Xavier Eggers team, the country was based on the sort of things he and his family saw when they vacationed in Nicaragua in the 1980s during the Sandinistas' original rule.

**Narrator**: Note to Hispanic civil rights groups - we apologize in advance for any stereotypes. Also, no real Latin American socialist governments were harmed in the making of this episode.
* **Beethoven Was an Alien Spy**: A frequent running gag in the series, especially when it comes to the The Gnatian Omniversal Guide:
	+ Johnny Appleseed is a *Highlander*-style immortal, still alive today thanks to a golden apple, and now owns a greenhouse complex in Maine under the pseudonym of "Crazy Johnny"
	+ Genghis Khan faked his death and created the Bubonic Plague to take over the world.
	+ According to "Treasure Hunt of Slight Doom", the United States and Soviet Union banded together to hunt for a enormous, trillion-dollar treasure in Cuba, and created the Cuban Revolution and Cuban Missile Crisis as two distinct cover-ups for their search.
	+ Wonderbeaver discovers in "Historye Daye" that Sir Locale Mann III, the founder of Localland, was actually Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt in disguise. He grew tired of being the Australian peoples' leader, faked his death, and traveled back in time to the 1700s and founded Localland. According to Word of God from Phelan Morkel, this was a cleverly disguised Take That! to *The Vision of Escaflowne* for hinting that it's villain was Isaac Newton.
	+ According to the Gnatian Omniversal Guide, the anarchism ideology was created by a rouge Gnatian named Righuoafjlk to take over the omniverse.
	+ "Mucho Mission" reveals that Madalyn Murray O'Hair got tired of atheism, faked her death and became the Director of Public Morality of the Republic of San Jacques.
	+ Elvis Presley is alive and well, and is now the leader of a rock 'n roll beach kingdom off the coast of Tonga, and is planning on taking over the world... after lunch.
* **Bilingual Bonus**:
	+ Semmi the Clown. Semmi is Hungarian for "Nothing"
* **Brought to You by the Letter "S"**:
	+ Nitpick has a "N" on his chest.
	+ Dr. Marino Om commonly uses a "MO" motif.
* **By the Power of Grayskull!**:
	+ Melissa Jawtooth shouts "KRAKOOM!" to transform into Wonderbeaver. Pretty simple, huh? She also shouts "I'm done!" to de-transform.
	+ Doctor Marino Om (forcibly) gathers his henchmen when they're not alongside him by saying "By the powers of evil, I summon my henchmen!"
* **The Complainer Is Always Wrong**: Occasionally parodied as a Spoof Aesop or Space Whale Aesop.
* **City of Adventure**:
	+ Localland is this trope Played For Laughs. It's a place where giant monster attacks, evil scientists' shenanigans, and any matter of Earth-shaking events are daily occurrences.
* **Crossover**:
	+ "Dragon Fall" is a crossover with *Blazing Dragons*. Since most of the voice recording for *Wonderbeaver* was done in Boston, only the voice actors for the Dragon Knights (John Stocker as Sir Burnevere, Richard Binsley as Sir Blaze, Dan Hennessey as Sir Hotbreath, and Juan Chioran as Sir Loungelot), Squire Flicker (Edward Glen) and Princess Flame (Stephanie Morgenstern) reprised their roles, with all the other *Blazing Dragons* characters appearing in the crossover voiced by members of the mostly Bostonian *Wonderbeaver* cast.
	+ The other half of Season 2 counts, being a crossover with the *Warriors* novels (mainly Nelvana could keep the TV rights).
* **Depraved Kids' Show Host**: Semmi the Clown.
* **Lipstick Lesbian**: Lisa Perniola, a Girly Girl with feelings for other girls. Compared to most characters of this type, Lisa is actually shown to be strong-willed and not that girl-crazy at times. Serah Kerry (Lisa's voice actress), along with series creators Phelan Morkel and Brian Jacques, came to accept the show's Special Recognition award at the 15th GLAAD Media Awards because of this.
* **Low Count Gag**: 90% of the show's pop culture references are jokes about obscure properties and bands' fanbases having very few fans.
	+ "K.A. Applegate Comes To Town" has special guest star K.A. Applegate thanking all of the *Animorphs* fans for supporting her work. She then says "I'd also like to thank the *Remnants* fans. All four of them."
	+ "Mucho Mission" begins with Principal Stuart saying "On this day in March of 2001, *What's So Funny About Truth, Justice & the American Way?* is released, featuring Superman taking on anti-heroes styled after *The Authority*. All seven fans of *The Authority* were angered by this display of revenge."
	+ In "I've Lost My Love!", Melissa says that Ronny is among the twelve readers of A.V. Club, The Onion's pop culture reviewing sister site.
* **More Dakka**: Dad Jawtooth believes that guns, especially "the ones made by the Soviets", are the answer to every problem *ever*.
* **Only Sane Man**: The Narrator and Raja both count.
* **Operator from India**: For some reason (and for Rule of Funny), almost every Thing-O-Matic, NameTron or Trope 2000 device in the *Wonderbeaver* universe has a customer support line usually staffed by Indian operators.
	+ "Dragon Fall" has a scene where the crossing-over Dragon Knights are forced to call customer support for President Nebraska Williams' secret time machine. It turns out that even Nazi mad scientists living in Argentina have outsourced their customer service to India, as Sir Burnevere's desperate attempt to contact the Herr Doktor who built it ends up leading to him trying to talk in his usual overly verbose way of speaking to a disinterested Indian operator.
	+ "Eh Wot?" has Doctor Marino Om trying to phone tech support for his British Culture-fication 2000 weapon. After a few minutes of speaking with the Indian-accented operator, he eventually gets it to work, finally speeding up the episode's plot.
	+ In "I've Lost My Love!", Lisa Perniola tries to call tech support for her "Love-O-Matic" dating advice machine. The Indian operator tells her to kick the machine, and she does, leading to the machine giving out the reply of "Domestic Abuse = No!"
	+ Keisha Singh ends her debut episode "Dumb-sel in Distress" by saying "I've forgotten something, we've haven't used any Indian stereotypes in this episode so far!", and then her cellphone rings and she ends up taking someone's tech support call, calling herself "Samantha".

**The Narrator**: Man, child labor, or in this case *teenage* labor, is weird...
* + In "Tiboot", Wonderbeaver is told by one of the Tibootian delegates that the Dairy Lima has "picked up many Indian customs & traditions." Pan over to the Dairy Lima, who is wearing a headset and in the middle of taking a tech support call.
	+ "Shelter-In-Place" begins with Wonderbeaver battling Bajneeshra the Offensive Indian Stereotype. Just as Wonderbeaver is about to defeat him, he stops his transformation into his Super Mode to take someone's tech support call on his cell phone, while claiming to be an American named "Dennis". Bajneeshra claims that this is a "oh-so-stereotypical Indian custom." The tech support call ends up taking so long that as soon as Bajneeshra puts the customer on hold, Wonderbeaver kills him before he can resume his transformation into his Super Mode. Later in the episode, when The Mayor calls Localland's sister city of Hyderabad for assistance, the Mayor of Hyderabad cuts him off midway through the call to take someone's tech support call.

**The Mayor**: Nagesh, I need your help! Our city's under attack!
**Mayor of Hyderabad**: Sorry, but I have another appointment to take care of. \*hangs up on The Mayor, then picks up another phone\* Thank you for calling Packard Bell tech support, I am Dean, how may I help you?
* + "Whisked Away" has a subplot about Doctor Marino Om outsourcing his ransom demand calls to India.

**Operator**: Hello, I am Thomas from Omaha, and Doctor Mary-eno Om-nom is holding your daughter hostage. Please pay $1,525,000 within 15 minutes or else your daughter will pie-reesh.
(beat)
**Random millionaire**: You messin' with me? \*hangs up\*
* **Relax-o-Vision**:
	+ In "Semmi Vs. Evil", when the show decides to imply Semmi likes kids a bit too much, it suddenly cuts to a waving American flag accompanied by "The Star-Spangled Banner". Cue sudden crossover with *Anatole* with Claude (watching *Wonderbeaver*) disappointed by the Relax-O-Vision.

**Anatole**: What's wrong, *mon enfant*?
**Claude**: Ugh, the network thought the joke about Semmi being a stranger was too much for this show and replaced it with the American flag! And we live in France!
**Anatole**: I understand. Americans really are wusses.
* **Shout-Out**:
	+ In the second episode, Wonderbeaver addresses the U.S. Congress with "Mr. Speaker, Members of the House, I shall be brief, as I have rather unfortunately become a superhero right in the middle of my exams."
* **Strike Episode**:
	+ "Villains Out Striking" is about Evil Villains Local 340 going on strike demanding better working conditions for plotting their evil schemes and less offers of delicious fruit pies from the heroes so their evil schemes can be stopped, causing 90% of Wonderbeaver's rogues gallery (save Doctor Marino Om, who's affiliated with a Christian labor organization) to be out of commission. Doctor Marino's henchmen are unfortunately unionized as well (being apart of the United Evil Henchmens' Organization, who's supporting the strike) - so he's forced to recruit pupils from a Captain Ersatz version of Hogwarts, escaped convicts, and powerless ordinary people as scab henchmen.
* **Take Our Word for It**: Semmi Brand Protestor-Burning Off-Screen Fire Product. "Riot police-tested, civil rights activist-condemned, censor-approved!"
* **Throw-Away Country**: Frequently mocked in the series:
	+ In "Monkey See, Monkey Destroy": "The martians then targeted Australia. Ten bucks says that it gets destroyed, as standard with these types of plots."
		- A few minutes later: "Yes! Australia has been annihilated! You owe me ten bucks, Wonderbeaver!"
	+ "Mobile Leisure Suit" parodies the *Gundam* franchise's tendency for this by having Hoboken, New Jersey destroyed because a Gundangit pilot had a father from there.
* **Too Smart for Strangers**: Parodied (almost) in "Too Stupid for Strangers". Wonderbeaver even says that "Strangers are the most unoriginal criminals in the world!". Plus, when she attempts to call a stranger a child molester, Nitpick cuts her off and says "only *M.A.S.K.* can use that word!" (And they did, as the *M.A.S.K.* episode "The Ultimate Weapon" has it's PSA revolve around the trope played straight, with Matt Trakker downright calling the possible stranger a child molester).
* **What Are Records?**:
	+ Enron/Edward Raindrop always gets into this trope no matter what. For example, in "Villains Out Striking", he asks Raja what picketing is.
	+ Inverted in "Whisked Away", when Lisa Perniola's aunt wakes up from a persistent vegetative state after 17 years and asks what a boy band is.
	+ "Shelter-In-Place" has the Mayor informing his citizens about the nuclear missile situation:

**The Mayor**: Don't worry citizens, an alert will be broadcast over all AM radio stations in the area by way of the CONELRAD system!
**Kelly**: What's CONELRAD?
**Ronny**: What's an AM radio station?
**The Mayor**: \*laughs worryingly\*
* + In "Eh Wot?", Doctor Marino Om first tries out the British Culture-fication 2000 on all of his henchmen except Raja (who was off somewhere playing in a Cranberries cover band). This results in Critico being a *Amiga Power* reviewer and Enron Raindrop being a 1930s Brooklyn-accented boxer. In one line, Critico voices his dislike for "Worldwide Futsal Challange '94" and calls it "The worst Amiga game of all time!", adding that "It shall receive 1%, based on the whole range of the percentage scale!" Raja then asks what an Amiga is.

### Trivia

* **Banned in China**:
	+ "Tiboot" was never aired in Mainland China for obvious reasons, as the episode garnered controversy over it's lampooning of the Tibetan freedom movement. Tibetan activists thought it was making fun of Tibet and portrayed Tibet, it's people, and the Tibetan freedom movement in a negative light. The People's Republic of China thought the episode portrayed the Tibetan freedom movement *accurately*. Writer Robert Tinkler did say that he received fan mail from some pro-P.R.C. China activists over the episode, though.
* **Talking to Himself**:
	+ Jaime Reilly voices Doctor Marino Om, President Nebraska Williams, The Evil Spy, Ronfalzo, Cra'bazhak, and Big Hand Andrews, and that's just the main members of the cast.
	+ Ali Darzi voices both of the Operator from India characters, as well as Bajneeshra, Lisa Perniola's dad, and three out of the five Toilet Men.
	+ Jackie Stephens voices Kelly, Bluestar, Raja, and Lizzy.

### YMMV

* **Hilarious in Hindsight**:
	+ In "Special De-struction-livery", Doctor Marino Om tries to explain Enron Raindrop's lack of ability to recognize modern pop culture as him coming from an alternate universe where half of pop culture was mysteriously wiped away. Raja then tells Wonderbeaver that Marino got the idea from a cheesy movie plot. 15 years later, a film with that exact plot was released to theaters.