Freakazoid!

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Template:Infobox television 

 | format = Animated television series
 | runtime = approx. 0:30 (per episode)
 | creator = Steven Spielberg
Bruce Timm
Paul Dini
 | starring = Paul Rugg
Edward Asner
Tress MacNeille
 | country = USA
 | network = Kids' WB!
 | first_aired = September 9, 1995
 | last_aired = June 1, 1997
 | num_episodes = 24 (to the end of Season 2)
 | imdb_id = 0111970

}}

Freakazoid! is an American animated television series, created by Steven Spielberg and Warner Bros. Animation that aired for two seasons from 1995 to 1997. Bruce Timm, best known as a major principal of the DC animated universe, originally intended it to be a straightforward superhero action-adventure cartoon with comic overtones, but executive producer Steven Spielberg made it into a wacky cartoon comedy.

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Plot

The show's title character is the superhero alter ego of geeky teenager Dexter Douglas. Gaining his abilities from a rather spectacular computer bug, Freakazoid has enhanced strength and endurance, extraordinary speed, agility, and, unfortunately, negligible amounts of sanity. He also has the ability to assume the form of electricity and cover long distances instantaneously (but he doesn't use this power nearly as often as he should; more often, when he needs to fly, he sticks his arms forward and runs, while making swooshing sounds with his mouth. Other times, he just takes a vehicle). These changes make him a powerful and fearsome force for upholding freedom and righteousness in his home town of Washington, D.C., unless he gets distracted.

Dexter can change into and out of Freakazoid at will with the words "Freak out!" and "Freak in!" (respectively). When not in Freakazoid mode, Dexter looks and acts completely normal, and his Sunnydale Syndrome-suffering family is unaware that anything has happened to him.

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Characters

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
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Enemies

Freakazoid! features a number of campy villains and enemies, including:

  • The Lobe, a supergenius whose entire head appears to be a giant brain (voiced by David Warner). No background information of any kind is given for The Lobe; not even his real name is revealed.
  • Cave Guy, a thuggish blue caveman with upper-class diction, education, and taste.His real name is Royce Mumphries and he subscribes to the New Yorker. Cave Guy is essential a parody of the "Bizarro" comic concept.
  • Cobra Queen, a former shoplifter whose encounter with an experimental cosmetic left in the sun too long transformed her into a cobra woman, with command over snakes and reptiles. In later episodes, Cave Guy and Cobra Queen are a couple. Frequently complains about the lack of light in her lair until Freakazoid suggests getting Japanese lanterns.
  • Longhorn, a frustrated country-western singer who has undergone plastic surgery to resemble a minotaur (and whose voice resembles that of Johnny Cash).
  • Armando Guitierrez, the man whose company, Apex Microchips (not to be confused with Apex Digital), designed the faulty Pinnacle chip responsible for Freakazoid's creation. Physically, Guitierrez resembles Ricardo Montalban, (with the addition of an eyepatch) who provides the character's voice, and also at times shows similarities to Khan Noonien Singh from Star Trek -- also played by Montalban.
  • Candle Jack, a supernatural villain who abducts anyone who says his name aloud, which people invariably do.
  • Waylon Jeepers, a creepy little man who created the Medusa Watch, which has the power to turn people (and pigeons) into stone. He has also created a similar device that turned beavers into gold, and once summoned "Vorn the Unspeakable," a demon apparently based on Cthulhu, with the help of a book entitled How to Summon Monsters the E-Z Way. His name is a play off of the famous country guitarist Waylon Jennings.
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Allies

Aiding Freakazoid in his surrealistic battles are:

  • Sgt. Mike Cosgrove, a heavyset, gruff cop with a heart of gold, who is friends with Freakazoid and several other characters. He has the almost supernatural ability to get people to "cut it out" on command, no matter what they may be doing at the time. Often has nothing better to do than visit tourist traps with Freakazoid (such as building a Go-kart or getting a mint). Strangely, he always manages to find Freakazoid with his police car, no matter where he is at the time (he will even catch up with him in different countries, car and all). He is voiced by Ed Asner, (who also resembles the character).
  • Roddy MacStew, Freakazoid's mentor, expositionist, and driving instructor; an ill-tempered Scotsman (voiced by Craig Ferguson) who once worked for Guitierrez. He first found that the Pinnacle chip was flawed. In the continuation of the first episode he was trapped in the Internet. Favorite quote: "Crud!"
  • Steff, Freakazoid's perky blonde girlfriend; her real name is Stephanie. She discovers Freakazoid's secret identity when Cosgrove accidentally points it out aloud in "Mission: Freakazoid".
  • Ingmar, Freakazoid's mute manservant, in charge of the maintenance of the Freakalair (according to Freakazoid, he constructed it himself from scratch). He quit in "Mission: Freakazoid" to become a rodeo clown and was replaced by Professor Jones. An obvious take-off on Alfred of Batman fame.
  • Professor Jones, a snooty, cowardly manservant (voiced by Jonathan Harris, essentially recreating his role as Doctor Zachary Smith from Lost In Space; every time Jones appears in a scene, someone asks him if he was "on a show with a robot"). Does not get along with Cosgrove well.
  • Joe Leahy the announcer (playing himself), who sometimes gets a little more involved than the typical narrator.
  • Freakazette, only mentioned in the first episode, assumed to be Steff turned into a Freakazoid with blonde hair and blue outfit.
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Other characters

A few characters fall somewhere in the space between "enemies" and "allies" to land squarely in the category of "nuisances."

  • Mo-Ron, a dimwitted alien voiced by Stan Freberg. His name was later changed to Bo-Ron, apparently to appease network censors' concerns that use of the word moron might be offensive. Though some believe Bo-Ron to be a different charecter all together. In one episode Lord Bravery refers to him as "Mo-Ron or Bo-Ron or whatever his name is".
  • Fanboy, an obese, acne-stricken, socially awkward fanboy (hence his name) and would-be sidekick to Freakazoid who obsesses about numerous TV shows and movies, from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers to Star Wars. Fanboy's age is never specified; he could be anywhere between his late teens to early thirties. Voiced by Stephen Furst.
  • Deadpan, a plain-looking (almost blank-faced) woman with an appropriately monotonous voice. She is a shapeshifter who once tried to conquer Washington by transforming into Freakazoid, but this plan was quickly foiled when the real Freakazoid appeared immediately after and nonchalantly pointed her out. She had only one appearance in a short segment before the opening credits for episode 1x13, The Wrath of Guiterrez.
  • Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton and Princess Diana make frequent cameos in the show, partly because Dexter Douglas lives in Washington.
  • Hero Boy, the title character from Freakazoid's favorite TV show that is first shown in the episode of the same name. Hero Boy has no powers (save for flying) and his black and white show is a parody of the anime Astro Boy. Hero Boy has the catchphrase "I must succeed!", though he is invariably shrugged off by the monsters he fights.
  • Steven Spielberg, the show's executive producer.
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Mini-segments

Freakazoid! also features several mini-segments, primarily during the first season. Each of these have their own theme songs, title cards and cast, and only rarely "cross over" into the continuity of the main show. These segments include:

  • Lord Bravery, a John Cleese-esque superhero in an outfit slightly resembling that of a Roman soldier. He doesn't do much in the way of superheroism, in fact, he's very snooty and cynical. Likewise, he gets as little respect and recognition as a superhero from the general public and even his wife and mother-in-law, who he lives with. At one point he loses his name due to a copyright dispute with a bakery of the same name.

His theme song, delivered in the style of Gilbert and Sullivan, is as follows:

He feels no pain / He can fly quite fast
In feats of strength / He is unsurpassed
His grip is firm / Never quavery
Britannia's superhero / He's Lord Bravery.
Lord Bravery!/Lord Bravery! / Lord Bra - ver - y!!!
  • Image:Emmitt-Nervend.jpgThe Huntsman, a good guess at what Robin Hood would be like if portrayed by Charlton Heston; he can never find enough crime to fight and secretly suspects that maybe there are crimes which the police are hiding from him because they don't trust him. Probably a parody of Green Arrow.
  • The Lawn Gnomes, a group of lawn statuary that come to life at night in a parody of the Gargoyles animated series. Infamous for their mischief, they were cursed to become stone by day by a powerful wizard after they pranked him. They would revert at night, during which time they were given the opportunity to mend their ways to fight evil alongside mankind, after which the curse would be lifted. They have yet to do so to this day.
  • Toby Danger, a (somewhat) loving parody of Jonny Quest, featuring the voices of Scott Menville, Don Messick and Granville Van Dusen (all of whom provided voices for JQ)
  • Fatman and Boy Blubber, the misadventures of two morbidly obese superheroes, in a parody of the Batman TV series.
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Other notes

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Mike Allred's Madman

  • Image:Madman-adventures.jpgThis show and its lead character have been criticised as being plagiarism of the comic book Madman by Mike Allred. Both titular characters do seem to share several personality traits. Furthermore, they wear similar costumes of opposite colours, both featuring a chest emblem of an exclamation mark. During the short run of the show, Allred remained relatively silent on the subject. However, in 2003, he responded [1] to a question about the show on the messageboard of his official website: "[Show creator] Bruce Timm was kind enough to tell me that Madman was a direct inspiration for the show--with comics open and referred to when developing the show.

"Stupidly, I was flattered--happy to inspire anything. But when the show came out--with no acknowledgement or credit or any kind of compensation--I slowly became annoyed as everyone and their uncle confronted me with 'there's this cartoon that's ripping off Madman' and 'you oughtta sue'.

"I simply wrote a friendly letter to [show producer] Steven Spielberg telling him his production was a direct lift of my creation, I had no intention of creating ripples--I just wanted him to know that I knew. No one replied--which is fine. And to be honest, Madman is an amalgam of a half a dozen other influences. So who am I to complain (the exclamation mark on the chest still kindah irks me a little though. A little too close for comfort)."





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Show Notes

  • The humor of the show relies heavily on slapstick, parody, and obscure cultural references. Due to the lack of a proper fourth wall, much of it is self-aware humor -- for instance, after the first appearance of the "Freakmobile," the show goes immediately into an impromptu commercial for a toy version; later in the episode, Freakazoid addresses an audience, congratulating the staff on how hard they've worked to make the show toyetic. A typically strange running gag involves a repeated credit for "Weena Mercator as the Hopping Woman", though no such character appears in any episode. Her credit is usually preceded by a number of other fictional names and followed by a fictional director.
  • The computer bug that gives Freakazoid his powers is a reference to the Pentium FDIV bug.
  • Dexter's delivery of his transformation phrase, "Ohhhh, freak out!", is a direct reference to the main lyrics of the song Le Freak on CHIC's 1978 album, C'est CHIC.
  • The "secret key sequence" that must be typed for the computer bug to become active begins with: @[=g3,8d]\&fbb=-q]/hk%fg" as seen when Roddy MacStew types the combination in episode 1x07, The Chip (Act IV). The bug manifests when the user presses Delete after entering the string. Interestingly, the Delete key is placed where Backspace is normally located on OS/2 keyboards. It ocassionally appears in various places, such as the bottom left corner and where the Num Lock key is placed.
  • Dexter, Roddy and Guitierrez were all forced into the Internet as a result of the bug, but Roddy was never transformed or granted any superpowers as a result. He did, however, have lightning in his hair in "Wrath of Guitierrez." In "House of Freakazoid", a werewolf who somehow knows about Dexter's secret identity visits his home to ask his assistance for a cure. Freakazoid sends him into the internet by exploiting the flaw. The werewolf is cured, but he did not change in any other way.
  • In "Next Time, Phone Ahead!", the opening shows an alien spacecraft landing and five aliens walking out. When they were forced to escape, one of them was left behind. The one left behind took refuge at Dexter's home and was called Bo-Ron. While it looks identical to Mo-Ron (see the note about Mo-Ron above), it's possible that Bo-Ron is a completely different character, rather than a simple name change.
  • Cameo appearances are a noteworthy feature of the show. At various times, Freakazoid! hosted appearances by characters from other Warner Bros. cartoons such as Pinky and the Brain, Animaniacs and even an insinuation appearance of the Batman from Bruce Timm's animated version (which has a similar drawing style), as well as portrayals of many celebrities (including producer Steven Spielberg) and guest appearances by such figures as Jack Valenti, Leonard Maltin, Norm Abram, and Mark Hamill as themselves. One original character, Emmitt Nervend, a disfigured midget, plays no role whatsoever other than enabling a Where's Waldo-esque hunt for his constant cameos (complete with the number of his appearances announced in the closing credits).
  • Freakazoid is currently being shown on Warner Bros. and AOL's new broadband internet channel, In2TV.
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External links

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