Line #55 WesternAnimation/MinaAndTheCount


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6	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/th_79.jpg]]
7	[[caption-width-right:350: The series' title card.]]
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9	Created in 1995 by Creator/RobRenzetti as one of many shorts for Creator/CartoonNetwork's WesternAnimation/WhatACartoonShow, ''Mina and the Count'' tells the story of, well, [[AGirlAndHerX Mina and the Count]].
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11	The original short, ''Interlude With a Vampire'', features [[OurVampiresAreDifferent the titular Count]] accidentally stumbling into the bedroom of one Mina Harper, age 7, when looking for his next vampiric meal (he was looking for ''Nina Parker'', age 17). Mina quickly proves to be a formidable opponent when she decides he'll make the perfect playmate, gleefully turning herself into his brand-new leg accessory. And despite being dragged into every manner of childish game by Mina, the Count quickly finds himself enjoying the experience and becomes her friend. The following shorts detailed their various goofy and spooky adventures.
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13	Among the other shorts on the various Creator/FrederatorStudios anthology shows, ''Mina and The Count'' is an interesting case. For one, it aired on two of them; while the original 'toon was made for ''What a Cartoon!'', it ended up airing on Creator/{{Nickelodeon}}'s ''WesternAnimation/OhYeahCartoons'' as well, where it proceed to become a {{mini series}} (airing five additional shorts from 1998 to 1999). Secondly, much like every ''Oh Yeah! Cartoons'' entry that got multiple shorts aside from ''WesternAnimation/ChalkZone'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'', ''Mina and the Count'' was never greenlit as a full series. Despite this, ''Mina'' managed to built up a small fanbase throughout the years that persists to this day. Don't expect a full-length series to ever happen, however, and [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes good luck finding the shorts on DVD]].
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15	In 2016, Renzetti released [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeV6YBRc7WQ "My Best Friend"]], the 1992 [=CalArts=] student film which served as the basis for the series.
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17	Compare and contrast with ''WesternAnimation/{{Beetlejuice}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'', [[KidWithTheLeash which both have similar premises]], but one leaned more towards being a GrossoutShow, and the other turns it into a cynical, over-the-top SadistShow.
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19	!!This miniseries features examples of:
20	* ActorAllusion: In the episode [="FrankenFrog"=], we see that Mina has a doll that looks a lot like [[WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls Bubbles]], another character voiced by Creator/TaraStrong.
21	* AllMenArePerverts: Everyone (except The Count) seems to want to hit on Mrs. Frankenstein.
22	* BadIsGoodAndGoodIsBad: Seems to be the usual monster mindset. "It's monsters like you who give us all a GOOD NAME!"
23	* BloodLust: Well, the count is a ''vampire,'' after all. However, in one short, he's also shown eating other, "weirder" things. Just so long as it's not "mortal" food.
24	* BrattyTeenageDaughter: Mina's older sister Lucy is definitely not as nice as she is.
25	* BreakingAndBloodsucking: How the Count meets Mina. He entered her house to try and suck her blood.
26	* TheBully: Nick, complete with his two nearly-identical henchmen, picks on Mina.
27	* TheCameo: One of the shorts that aired on ''WesternAnimation/OhYeahCartoons'' has the Count read a comic book featuring Thatta Boy, the titular protagonist of another ''Oh Yeah! Cartoons'' short.
28	* CharacterizationMarchesOn: In the first short, Mina barely said anything and Igor was fairly dumb. Mina started speaking more consistently in the second short, while Igor is shown to be somewhat more intelligent in the third.
29	* DarkIsNotEvil: The titular Count (one of two people of the title) has blue skin, wears black and is a vampire. He's also a very good individual.
30	* DeadpanSnarker: Igor isn't afraid to make remarks near his master. The Count has his moments, too.
31	* DelayedOhCrap: The Count does this in “The Vampire Who Came to Dinner” upon meeting Mina’s family.
32	-->'''Vlad:''' It is a pleasure to be invited to dine with Mina, her older sister, and her father. …''[[DoubleTake OLDER SISTER?!]]''
33	* DinnerAndAShow: The aptly named episode "The Vampire Who Came to Dinner", where the Count comes to dinner at Mina's house. And her sister Lucy becomes his InstantFanClub.
34	* TheDividual: Nick's twin cronies, who look identically, dress identically, and even ''move'' directly in-step at all times.
35	* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The Count's first attempt to... ahem... "seduce" Mina. To be fair, [[CrossingTheLineTwice he thought she was 17 years old at first]].
36	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: In the student film, the Count was explicitly {{Dracula}}, whereas in the series proper only the first name "Vlad" is given, leaving one to assume he is merely an {{Expy}}.
37	* EveryoneHasStandards: The Count may be a vampire who feeds off of young women, but he draws the line at children.
38	* FreeTheFrogs: Done in quite possibly the ''weirdest fashion ever'' in "[=FrankenFrog=]". The frog's already dead; Mina just brings it back with MadScience!
39	* FrankensteinsMonster: A Frankenstein monster and his bride are among Vlad's circle of monster friends. Frank's most prominent role is in "Frankenfrog", where he ends up adopting the frog Mina brought back to life as his pet.
40	* FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire: The Count appears to take on the role of being a benign vampire after becoming friends with Mina the first episode.
41	* GenkiGirl: Mina is shown to be very cheerful and excitable.
42	* HartmanHips: Lucy, who is meant to be an older teen, sports a pair of large hips.
43	* HereWeGoAgain: The ''Oh Yeah'' episode "My Best Friend" starts with Mina being made fun of by the other kids in school for admitting her friendship with Vlad. The short ends with the situation reversed where Vlad talks about his friendship with Mina to the other monsters and they laugh at Vlad.
44	* HeroicMime: Mina very nearly was one in the first short; her only line was "He's my best friend!" She got more talkative in the later shorts, though.
45	* HulkingOut: The judge Doc Freckle in "The Ghoul's Tribunal", who turns into a yellow-skinned brute named Mr. Snyde when he gets enraged.
46	* HypnoFool: One of the Count's vampire powers is to hypnotize people into obeying him.
47	* TheIgor: The Count's assistant matches this trope in terms of role and outward appearance. Surprise! His name's Igor.
48	* IntergenerationalFriendship: Mina is 7, while the Count is [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld about 700]].
49	* {{Irony}}: Igor is the one most against the Count’s friendship with Mina, but it was because of ''him'' messing up the Count’s feeding schedule that they two of them even met in the first place!
50	* LethalChef: Mina's culinary prowess in "The Vampire Who Came to Dinner" is surprising for a little girl, but still, [[spoiler: garlic souffle]] is probably not one of her better ideas.
51	* LightningCanDoAnything: It can bring a dead frog to life [[spoiler:as well as Mina's doll]].
52	* TheMasquerade: The Count does his best to stay out of the limelight. When he has to, he parades as Mina's violin teacher.
53	* MeaningfulName: The Count is obviously an {{Expy}} of Count Dracula. But Mina Harper is named after Mina Harker of the original Dracula novel and her bratty older sister, Lucy, is no doubt named after Lucy Westenra who ironically was Mina's best friend in the novel and in most adaptions of the tale.
54	* MiniSeries: A cartoon one, but it still kind of fits as an intentionally short-lived series.
55	* MissingMom: Mina's mom is apparently absent. In the first episode, a picture on her wall seems to suggest she ''does'' have a mom, but in a later short, it's revealed that that might just be her older sister.
56	* MonsterMash: In "The Ghoul's Tribunal", The Count's monster buddies -- which more or less include [[Film/TheMummysHand Kharis]], [[Film/CreatureFromtheBlackLagoon the Gill-man]], and [[Film/{{Frankenstein 1931}} the Creature]] and [[Film/BrideOfFrankenstein the Missus]] -- come over for their monthly card night.
57	* MoralityPet: Mina for the Count. She clearly brings out the Count's soft side and he's very nice to her.
58	* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: In "The Ghoul's Tribunal", Igor is shown to feel guilty when his exposure of the Count being chummy with Mina is taken to court.
59	-->'''Mina:''' Did I do something wrong?\
60	'''Igor:''' No, Mina. ''I think '''I''' did''...
61	* OhCrap: The Count has a pretty fantastic moment of realizing he's in trouble in "The Vampire Who Came to Dinner."
62	--> '''Count:''' (thinking) "Well, Vlad, it looks as if you'll actually have to eat some mortal food. Ah well, it ''is'' disgusting, [[TemptingFate but as long as it's not-]]"
63	--> (Mina reveals her dish)
64	--> '''Mina:''' "[[spoiler:[[WhamLine Garlic Souffle]]]]!"
65	--> '''Count:''' "[[ThisIsGonnaSuck ... My favorite...]]"
66	** Earlier in the same episode, he had a DelayedOhCrap upon discovering that Mina has an older sister.
67	* OffscreenTeleportation: Mina's game of peekaboo in "The Ghoul's Tribunal" has her disappear and reappear in improbable ways.
68	* OnlyOneName: In later episodes, the Count's name is revealed to be Vlad.
69	* OurVampiresAreDifferent: The Count more-or-less hits most of the ClassicalMovieVampire traits spot-on.
70	* PapaWolf: The Count is very protective towards Mina.
71	* RecycledTitle: One of the ''WesternAnimation/OhYeahCartoons''-era shorts, "My Best Friend", shares its title with Rob Renzetti's original [=CalArts=] student film that serves as the precursor to this series.
72	* ServileSnarker: Igor comes off as kind of a dunce in the first episode, but in the later shorts, it becomes more questionable as to just who's in charge in that castle...
73	* ShoutOut: Mina and Lucy's names are shout-outs to Mina Harker and Lucy Westenra from the original {{Dracula}} novel.
74	** From "The Vampire Who Came to Dinner"; "[[Film/GhostbustersII There's always room for gelatin]]".
75	* SiblingRivalry: Mina and Lucy are sisters who don't get along well.
76	* SoProudOfYou: The Count says this verbatim to Mina in “[=FrankenFrog=]”, after learning she was able to put back together and resurrect a dissected frog from her science class.
77	* SpiritualSuccessor: According to Website/TheOtherWiki, these shorts inspired ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy''. It shows.
78	* VampiresHateGarlic: Played for humor in "The Vampire Who Came to Dinner", where the Count decides to eat normal food in spite of finding it disgusting and learns to his horror that Mina has prepared garlic souffle.
79	* VampireVords: The trope of vampires pronouncing W's like V's is played straight with the way the Count speaks.
80	* VeinOVision: The Count sees Lucy's circulatory system in "The Vampire Who Came to Dinner".
81	* WouldNotHurtAChild: The Count's got no issue with feeding on young women, but refuses to feed on an actual child. In that first short, no matter how exasperated or hungry the Count was he never once considered the idea of draining Mina (even before they became friends).

Context WesternAnimation / MinaAndTheCount