History WesternAnimation / Fantomcat

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[[caption-width-right:350:[[{{Tagline}} This cat can save the world!]]]]

* IncrediblyObviousBug: In Episode 3, "The Swords of the Scorpion", Tabs sticks a bug on The Scorpion's shoulder. [[RealityEnsues It's spotted effortlessly]] by Marmagora's second-in-command, Vile the Blutebottle... through a videophone.

* [[AnimalSuperheroes Animal Superhero]]: Fantomcat definitely counts as this.

''Fantomcat'' is a 1995 animated series made by Creator/CosgroveHall and [[Creator/{{ITV}} Anglia Television]] for Creator/{{CITV}}, lasting for two seasons and made as an AffectionateParody of cartoons like WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries and WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}.

''Fantomcat'' is a 1995 animated series made by Creator/CosgroveHall and [[Creator/{{ITV}} Anglia Television]] for Creator/{{CBBC}}, lasting for two seasons and made as an AffectionateParody of cartoons like WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries and WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}.

* WhenTreesAttack: Aside from Marmagora's pet fly trap Gloria, also invoked by the Monk, a preying mantis assassin from the second episode who disguises himself as a plant in order to ambush his victims.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: The words "Hell" and "damn" show up often in this show.

* VoluntaryShapeshifting: In Episode 22, "The Mirror Monster", Marmagora recruits the Mirror Monster, who can change himself into anything and everything.

* {{Alchemy}}: Baron Von Skelter experimented this on himself, turning him into the monster he is today.

* {{Alchemy}}: Baron Von Skelter is skilled at this, which drove him towards the path of evil in the first place.

''Fantomcat'' is a 1995 animated series by Creator/CosgroveHall and [[Creator/{{ITV}} Anglia Television]], lasting for two seasons and made as an AffectionateParody of cartoons like WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries and WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}.

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* CatchPhrase: Fantomcat has "To me, Touché!", while Marmagora has several.

* CoolSword: Fantomcat has an enchanted rapier called "Touché" which can respond to his beck and call.

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The series centres on the character [[AwesomeMcCoolName Phillipe L'Entrique Elan de Chanel]], Count Givenchy and the Duke de Fantom, a masked swashbuckling hero who thrived in 1699, in mortal combat with his nemesis [[AristocratsAreEvil Baron Von Skelter]]. Fantom was treacherously cast into a painting within the halls of his house, Castle Fantom, and became trapped for 3 centuries. As the years passed, the area around Castle De Fantom became a bustling metropolis called Metro City, a city submerged in crime rings led by the fiendish arachnid Marmagora. It's then Fantomcat is freed from his prison and joins up with Tabitha "Tabs" Wildcat, a stern detective, [=MacDuff=], a timid mouse who hates holes, and Lindberg, an indecipherable, acrophobic pigeon, to fight the evil that has grown in modern times.

* OhWaitThisIsMyGroceryList: In Episode 6, "The Mind Leech", Vile the Bluebottle attempts to get the secret of time travel from Professor Oliphant with the titular object, but he ends up getting his shopping list instead. Needless to say, Marmagora is not happy.

** [=MacDuff=]'s name is a reference to a character in William Shakespeare's Theatre/Macbeth.
** Episode 14, "Once Upon a Time Machine", has an entire sequence based on [[Film/JurassicPark]], complete with [=MacDuff=]'s soda.

* [[AnimalSuperheroes/Animal Superhero]]: Fantomcat definitely counts as this.

* MundaneSolution: After Fantomcat manages to narrowly defeat the Mina Tiger, and the rest of the Detective Team heads inside, Tabs decides to try something no Duke of Fantom has tried before: she throws a hammer in the air, which smashes the now-petrified Mina Tiger to pieces, speculating whether that will end the curse. It does.

* NeverRecycleYourSchemes: Marmagora learns this the hard way in Episode 11, "The Eye of Harakti", when she tries to rob the Metrocity Bank of its gold like she did in Episode 4, "The Aeroship".

* PoliceAreUseless: The Metrocity Police Force are absolutely dreadful at their job. Justified, since they are owned by Marmagora, the main antagonist.

* ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated: Said word for word by Baron Von Skelter in Episode 12, "Where the Heart Is".

** [=MacDuff
** Episode 14, "Once Upon a Time Machine", has an entire sequence based on [[Film/JurassicPark]].
* ShrinkRay: Bunty unknowingly invents one of these in Episode 25, "The Incredible Shrinking Fantomcat", and shrinks Fantomcat to the size of an ant.

* SwarmOfRats: Fantomcat faces one of these in Episode 16, "Cinema Purradiso", led by Don Ratso.

* [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/discussion.php?id=m63pxhgw2rm68hqejnrfvk38 Taped Over Something Important]]: Vile the Bluebottle accidentally does this in Episode 8, "Great Balls of Fire", taping over the footage of the Mina Tiger that his cousin Vomit in Castle Fantom caught with a diaper commercial.
* TotalEclipseOfThePlot: This happens in Episode 9, "The Chameleons of Death", when Marmagora invents a machine called the [=SpectroVac=] to suck all the light out of Metrocity so that she can commit crimes unnoticed.

''Fantomcat'' is a 1995 animated series by Creator/CosgroveHall and [[Creator/{{ITV}} Anglia Television]], lasting for two seasons and made as an AffectionateParody of .

''Fantomcat'' is a 1995 animated series by Creator/CosgroveHall and [[Creator/{{ITV}} Anglia Television]].

The series centres on the character [[AwesomeMcCoolName Phillipe L'Entrique Elan de Chanel]], Count Givenchy and the Duke de Fantom, a masked swashbuckling hero who thrived in 1699, in mortal combat with his nemesis [[AristocratsAreEvil Baron Von Skelter]]. Fantom was treacherously cast into a painting within the halls of his house, Castle Fantom, and became trapped for 3 centuries. As the years passed, the area around Castle De Fantom became a bustling metropolis called Metro City, a city submerged in crime rings led by the fiendish arachnid Marmagora. It's then Fantomcat is freed from his prison and joins up with Tabitha "Tabs" Wildcat, a stern detective, [=MacDuff=], a timid mouse who hates holes, and Lindberg, a bumbling, acrophobic pigeon, to fight the evil that has grown in modern times.

''Fantomcat'' ran for two seasons with the last episode broadcast on CITV in 1996. In recent years, it has been repeated on POP, a children's channel in the UK, and on CITV itself. Overseas, it has been broadcast on Creator/TV3 in New Zealand, Creator/NetworkTen in Australia and Happy TV in Serbia.

This series has a distinction as being the last Cosgrove Hall production to be animated with traditional ink-and-paint methods. From ''[[Series/TheSootyShow Sooty's Amazing Adventures]]'' onwards, the studio would use computers for the ink-and-paint process, with the animation drawings scanned in beforehand and then digitally coloured on a Silicon Graphics Indigo Workstation.

* [[UsefulNotes/{{AmericanAccents}} American Accent]]: Tabs speaks with one of these.
** Bonus points in that her voice actress, Lorelei King, is American.

* BadBoss: Marmagora to Vile. See CoolAndUnusualPunishment below.
* BankRobbery: Marmagora commits this twice, once in Episode 4, "The Aeroship", and the other time in Episode 11, "The Eye of Harakti".

* [[MillionairePlayboy Billionaire Playboy]]: Hiram Big Bucks, the Metrocity billionaire who is always trying to steal Tabs for himself.
** Which could count as a case of GettingCrapPastTheRadar.
* BlowingARaspberry: Tabs does this to the Monitor in Episode 5, "The Asteroid Adventure".
* CatchPhrase: Most of the characters have these:
** Fantomcat:
*** "M'lady Tabs..."
*** "To me, Touché!"
*** "Have no fear, Fantomcat is here!"
** Tabs:
*** "Yipes!"
** [=MacDuff=]:
*** "I'm not going down that hole, Fantomcat/Tabs! I mean it!"
** Lindberg:
*** "I can't fly!"
** Marmagora:
*** "Shut up, Vile!"
*** "You fool, Vinnie!"
** Vile:
*** "Um, my lady..."

* CoolAndUnusualPunishment: When Vile screws up in Episode 6, "The Mind Leech", Marmagora feeds him to her giant [[ManEatingPlant Fly Trap]], Gloria.

* CrystalBall: The titular object in Episode 11, "The Eye of Harakti", is one of these.

* FrickinLaserBeams: The Monitor, an intergalactic space villain, uses one of these to destroy planets. See PlanetDestroyer below.

* GratuitousItalian: Don Ratso speaks like this, with [[TheForeignSubtitle subtitles translating what he's saying]].
* HomeVersionSoundtrackReplacement: When the series was released on VHS, some licensed music was changed.
** For example, in Episode 8, "Great Balls of Fire", parts of ''Carnival of the Animals: Aquarium'' by Camille Saint-Saëns can be heard in the scenes set in space. This was changed in the VHS release to Franchise/StarTrek-esque music.
** Another example is that in Episode 2, "The Preying Mantis", ''The Entertainer'' by Scott Joplin can be heard in the scene where Marmagora is playing craps in her lair. On the VHS release, this was changed to generic saloon music.

* HeelFaceTurn: Vile the Bluebottle does this in the final episode, "One Good Deed", where he decides that he's had enough of Marmagora pushing him around and tries to prove to the Detective Team that he can be a good guy.

* IncrediblyObviousBug: In Episode 3, "The Swords of the Scorpion", Tabs sticks [[VisualPun a literal bug]] on The Scorpion's shoulder. [[RealityEnsues It's spotted effortlessly]] by Marmagora's second-in-command, Vile the Blutebottle... through a videophone.
** Marmagora does the same in Episode 8, "Great Balls of Fire".

* MouseTrap: This is [=MacDuff=]'s main weapon.

* PublicServiceAnnouncement: [=MacDuff=] gives one of these to the audience near the end of Episode 8, "Great Balls of Fire".
--> '''[=MacDuff=]''': High places are dangerous and scary. You all remember that at home!
** Bonus points in that this was [[ThrowItIn thrown in]] by Rob Rackstraw, who is well known for improvising.

* PowerFloats: Fantomcat's cape can make him levitate to high places.

* [[UsefulNotes/{{Liverpool}} Scouse Accent]]: [=MacDuff=], his girlfriend Leandra and his brother Bunty speak with one of these.
** Hedouni the Hypnotist speaks with one as well.
* ShoutOut: Being a Cosgrove Hall cartoon, there are plenty of these.
** In Episode 1, "The Hero Returns", [=MacDuff=] comments that he was frozen in the painting "like Han Solo in ''Franchise/StarWars''!"
** In Episode 2, "The Preying Mantis", two of the henchmen that [=MacDuff=] looks up are [[Series/{{Newsnight}} Jeremy "The Axeman" Paxman]] and [[UsefulNotes/BritishPoliticalSystem "Jolly" Jack Prescott]].
*** Fantomcat also swings on a vine and rescues Tabs, who then remarks that they are like [[Franchise/{{Tarzan}} Tarzan and Jane]].
** In Episode 3, "The Swords of the Scorpion", [=MacDuff=] is impressed by Scorpio's four swords, and wonders if he's got ''Film/{{Highlander}}'' on video.
** In Episode 4, "The Aeroship", the [[Creator/{{ITV}} ITN]] ''Series/NewsAtTen'' theme can be heard on a television that a couple are watching before the German dog in the bathtub crashes through their flat.
*** Hiram Big Bucks also reads a newspaper called the News of the Metro, which has the headline "[[Creator/FreddieStarr Eddie Starr Ate My Gerbil]]"
** In Episode 5, "Asteroid Adventure", there are many references to famous sci-fi movies, like ''Franchise/StarWars'', ''Franchise/StarTrek'', ''Film/{{Alien}}'' and ''Franchise/PlanetOfTheApes''.
** In Episode 6, "The Mind Leech", Fantomcat does an IndyHatRoll when he's escaping from Marmagora's lair, but Touché is used in place of the hat.
*** When Tabs is being captured by the giant beetles, she says "[[Franchise/PlanetOfTheApes Get your stinking mandibles off me, you darn, dirty beetle!]]"
** In Episode 8, "Great Balls of Fire", one method that Fantomcat tries to defeat the Mina Tiger is by [[Franchise/DonkeyKong throwing barrels at it]].
** In Episode 9, "The Chameleons of Death", there is a road named [[Music/AbbeyRoad Gabby Road]].
** In Episode 10, "The Crystal of Nemesis", a truck driver comments "What the heck's happening? This is like something from Franchise/TheTwilightZone!"
** In Episode 11, "The Eye of Harakti", the logo on the truck that Marmagora tries to blow up with the titular object is that of [[Main/ToyTropes Toys "R" Us]].
** In Episode 14, "Once Upon a Time Machine", [=MacDuff=]'s cola does some BadVibrations when a [[Film/JurassicPark T-Rex approaches him in the virtual computer programme]].
* ShrinkRay: Marmagora uses one of these in Episode 25, "The Incredible Shrinking Fantomcat", to shrink Fantomcat to the size of an ant.

* SubmarinePirates: The Lobster Brothers are these.

* [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/discussion.php?id=m63pxhgw2rm68hqejnrfvk38 Taped Over Something Important]]: Vile the Bluebottle accidentally does this in Episode 8, "Great Balls of Fire", taping over the footage of the Mina Tiger that the bug in Castle Fantom caught with a diaper commercial.
* TimeMachine: Fantomcat and [=MacDuff=] encounter one of these in Episode 14, "Once Upon a Time Machine". They accidentally get transported back to prehistoric times in it, and must complete a quest in order to get back to the 21st century.

** In Episode 14, "Once Upon a Time Machine", MacDuff's cola does some BadVibrations when a [[Film/JurassicPark T-Rex approaches him in the virtual computer programme]].

** In Episode 2, "The Preying Mantis", two of the henchmen that [=MacDuff=] looks up are [[Series/{{Newsnight}} Jeremy "The Axeman" Paxman]] and [[UsefulNotes/{{BritishPoliticalSystem}} "Jolly" Jack Prescott]].
*** Fantomcat also swings on a vine and rescues Tabs, who then remarks that they are like [[Main/{{Tarzan}} Tarzan and Jane]].
** In Episode 3, "The Swords of the Scorpion", [=MacDuff=] is impressed by Scorpio's four swords, and wonders if he's got Film/{{Highlander}} on video.
** In Episode 4, "The Aeroship", the [[Creator/{{ITV}} ITN]] Series/NewsAtTen theme can be heard on a television that a couple are watching before the German dog in the bathtub crashes through their flat.

* FakeRussian: Marmagora speaks with a Russian accent, and was voiced by Lorelei King, an American voice actress.

** In Episode 1, "The Hero Returns", [=MacDuff=] comments that he was frozen in the painting "like Han Solo in Franchise/StarWars!"

** In Episode 5, "Asteroid Adventure", there are many references to famous sci-fi movies, like Franchine/StarWars, Franchise/StarTrek, Film/{{Alien}} and Franchise/PlanetOfTheApes.

** In Episode 3, "The Swords of the Scorpion", [=MacDuff=] is impressed by Scorpio's four swords, and wonders if he's got Film/Highlander on video.

This series has a distinction as being the last Cosgrove Hall production to be animated with traditional ink-and-paint methods. From [[Series/TheSootyShow Sooty's Amazing Adventures]] onwards, the studio would use computers for the ink-and-paint process, with the animation drawings scanned in beforehand and then digitally coloured on a Silicon Graphics Indigo Workstation.