Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context WesternAnimation / SaturdaySupercade

Go To

1[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Saturdaysupercade.png]]
2->''"Saturday Supercade! Gather 'round, we'll get your video friends together."''
3
4An hourlong AnimatedAnthology of shorts, produced by Creator/RubySpears for Creator/{{CBS}}, based on games from the MediaNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfVideoGames. As might be expected with the limited amount of plot in the games of that era, the stories diverged wildly from the games out of sheer necessity. The following games were featured:
5* ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong''
6* ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongJunior''
7* ''VideoGame/{{Frogger}}''
8* ''VideoGame/{{Kangaroo}}''
9* ''VideoGame/QBert''[[note]]the closest the show came to faithfully reproducing elements from the original game, with its trademark block hopping (complete with the original sound effects), "swear" bubbles and flying discs.[[/note]]
10* ''VideoGame/{{Pitfall}}''[[note]]featuring Pitfall Harry, his niece Rhonda, and their cowardly pet lion Quickclaw, all of whom [[CanonImmigrant later appeared in]] ''Pitfall II: The Lost Caverns'' for the Platform/{{Atari 2600}}.[[/note]]
11* ''VideoGame/SpaceAce''
12
13This series was unusual in that it collected characters from different video game companies. The character most obviously lacking, of course, was VideoGame/PacMan, who had premiered the previous year in [[WesternAnimation/PacMan his own competing show]] on [[Creator/AmericanBroadcastingCompany ABC]].
14
15Each game appeared to exist in its own universe, with the exception of the ''Donkey Kong'' and ''Donkey Kong Junior'' stories, which shared one (though they didn't overlap).
16
17Each episode consisted of four segments. The first season had five games, with one segment each of Frogger, Donkey Kong, and Donkey Kong Jr (in that order), and alternating episodes of Q*bert and Pitfall between the DK and DK Jr segments. The second season's lineup was Kangaroo, Donkey Kong, Q*bert, and Space Ace, with Frogger, DK Jr, and Pitfall being removed. No single episode of the show featured all seven games.
18----
19!!Tropes
20
21* AdaptationalHeroism:
22** In ''VideoGame/QBert'' (the video game) Sam and Slick are enemy characters, undoing Q*bert's work by changing the blocks back to their original colors. In the cartoon, they're good guys.
23** Also for ''Donkey Kong's'' title character, at least upgrading him to AntiVillain status: he had no animosity toward anyone, least of all his owners Mario and Pauline, and was actually quite friendly and playful. He just didn't want to be stuck in a circus.
24* AdaptationalJerkass: Mario in the ''Donkey Kong'' segments straddled the line between this and AdaptationalVillainy, since his personality hadn't been fully established yet in the games. He's not evil, but he's presented as a closed-minded short-tempered antagonist rather than the unambiguously heroic figure he is now. Because of that, he's also likely to be the episode's ButtMonkey.
25* AdaptationalUgliness: Downplayed with Kimberly in ''Space Ace''. She's not the overly-busty lady she was in the game, but she is still quite cute.
26* AdaptationExpansion:
27** ''Q*bert'' was set in a 1950s-themed HighSchoolAU, with Q*bert as the letterman hero and Coily as his greaser SitcomArchNemesis. Both Q*bert and Coily had girlfriends in this version as well. They also [[PragmaticAdaptation gave everyone arms, even the snakes]].
28** ''Frogger'' became an IntrepidReporter for the ''Swamp Gazette'' who investigates mysteries and fights crime, braving various dangers along the way.
29** Probably the most notable example was the ''Pitfall'' segment giving Harry a couple of sidekicks, who actually appeared in later games.
30%% * AdventureTowns: Frequently used in both ''Donkey Kong'' and ''Donkey Kong Junior''.
31%% * BananaPeel: With Donkey Kong, of course.
32%% * BoisterousBruiser: Donkey Kong.
33* BoundAndGagged: In the ''Donkey Kong Jr.'' episode titled "Double or Nothing", Bones' cousin Lucy Belle is kidnapped by being put inside a BagOfKidnapping. Junior and Bones later find her tied up and gagged on a chair inside a shed, before Junior frees her from her bindings.
34* BoxingKangaroo: In Season 2, K.O. Katie, the title character from ''Kangaroo''. In her [[TrouserSpace Kangaroo Pouch Space]] she can hold lots of things, including her all-powerful boxing gloves. (In one lead-in bumper to ''Donkey Kong'', Katie pulled out Donkey Kong, who himself was wearing boxing gloves, while looking for the gloves.)
35* BrattyHalfPint: Donkey Kong Jr. is basically [[Franchise/ScoobyDoo Scrappy-Doo]] turned into a powerful monkey.
36-->'''DK Jr.:''' "Monkey Muscle!"
37%% * BusinessOfGenericImportance: The companies/businesses in the "Frogger" segment are always vague, i.e. "Big City College", "City Bus Co."
38* CanonImmigrant:
39** The new characters from the ''Pitfall!'' cartoon were then used in the game's first sequel, ''Pitfall II: The Lost Caverns'', and even showed up in some later games.
40** A borderline case: thirty-one years after the cartoon, a character ''named'' Q*tee was added to 2014's ''Q*bert Rebooted'' as an unlockable skin, but she looks entirely different from ''Supercade's'' version of Q*tee, and she's Q*bert's sister rather than his girlfriend.
41* CartoonPhysics: Frogger is flattened [[ObligatoryJoke in every episode]], and then reinflated, usually with a bicycle pump.
42* ADayInTheLimelight: Stanley the Bugman from ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong3'' appears in the "Greenhouse Gorilla" episode of the ''Donkey Kong'' segment.
43%% * DeepSouth: The ''Frogger'' segments are set in this kind of a swamp. Also, the ''Donkey Kong'' cartoon "Mississippi Madness".
44* EarlyAdaptationWeirdness: The ''Donkey Kong'' and ''Donkey Kong Junior'' segments barely resemble either the ''Mario'' or ''DK'' universe we know today. (To be fair, the games they were inspired from also barely resemble the modern Mario or DK universes)
45* FatSweatySouthernerInAWhiteSuit: Colonel Culpepper in the ''Donkey Kong'' cartoon "Mississippi Madness", who plots a jewel heist and tries to trick the big ape into helping him.
46%% * TheFifties: The ''Q*bert'' segments are set in this era.
47* HaHaHaNo: In the opening of "Gorilla My Dreams", there's this exchange between Pauline and Donkey Kong as she and Mario chase after the ape:
48-->'''Pauline:''' Don't you ever get tired of being chased?\
49'''Donkey Kong:''' ''(laughs goofily)'' Nope.
50* HypnoFool: Donkey Kong in "New Wave Ape" becomes this when Harry Tweed uses a banana to hypnotize him to do his bidding. Mario and Pauline un-hypnotize the ape the same way.
51* InterspeciesRomance:
52** Between Donkey Kong and Miss Persimmon in "Gorilla My Dreams", [[BlindWithoutEm after she loses her glasses.]] Averted in the end, however, when she ends up falling for the ship's captain.
53** DK also has a major crush on Pauline.
54%% * IntrepidReporter: Frogger's main profession is this.
55%% * MischiefMakingMonkey: The Monkey Biz Gang in the ''Kangaroo'' segments.
56* NamedByTheAdaptation: Several examples:
57** All the characters from the ''Kangaroo'' game are given names. The mother (who was just "Mother Kangaroo" in the games) is given the name K.O. Katie, her son is named [[PunnyName Joey]], and the monkeys are named Bingo, Bango, Bongo, and Fred.
58* NeverSmileAtACrocodile: The same three crocodiles harassed Pitfall Harry in every episode; [[SuperPersistentPredator He claimed they followed him everywhere.]]
59* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: In the ''Q*bert'' segments, Creator/JulieMcWhirter revived her Creator/MaeWest impression for Coily's girlfriend, Viper.
60* OddNameOut: The Monkey Biz Gang in "Kangaroo" consisted of four monkeys named Bingo, Bango, Bongo, and Fred.
61* OncePerEpisode: In the ''Donkey Kong'' segments, the titular character grabs Pauline, and it is up to Mario to save her. However, in some episodes, Pauline is captured by the VillainOfTheWeek, meaning that it's up to Donkey Kong to save Pauline.
62* RemovableShell: Shellshock from the ''Frogger'' segments sometimes falls out of his shell and [[ComedicUnderwearExposure lands in his underwear]].
63%% * RoadrunnerVsCoyote: The ''Donkey Kong'' segments, with Mario as the Coyote.
64* SoOnceAgainTheDayIsSaved:
65-->'''Mario:''' "It's not easy when you're dealing with..."\
66'''DK:''' "DONKEY KOOOOOONG!!"
67%% * SouthernBelle: Miss Persimmon, owner of a banana plantation, in the Donkey Kong cartoon "Gorilla My Dreams".
68* SquashedFlat: RunningGag with Frogger is him being squished, usually by a car, then inflated back to normal.
69* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Donkey Kong's appetite for bananas made its first appearance here.

Top