Ikes
Dex Dogtective
Dex Dogtective
- Played by: Charlie Sheen
The film's protagonist, an anthropomorphic dog Ike who represents the fictional "Cinnamon Sleuth Cereal" and works as, well, a detective. Following the disappearance of his girlfriend Sunshine Goodness, he quits the detective business to run the Copabanana nightclub.
- Artistic Licence – Biology: Dex is a dog who loves raisins, even though raisins are toxic to dogs in real life. Probably Justified by him being an Ike and thus not an actual dog.
- Berserk Button: Don't ever insinuate, as Lady X did, that anyone could replace Sunshine Goodness, his one true love.
- Character Catchphrase: "The secret's inside", also the tagline of his cereal brand.
- Character Development: The movie starts with Dex in a deep depression and having long quit the detective business, unwilling to get involved due to seeing himself as a failure. As he uncovers Brand X's plot, and with encouragement from Daredevil Dan, Dex gets some much-needed perspective and casts his self-doubt aside to save Marketropolis.
- Detective Animal: A dog who works as a detective. He briefly quits after Sunshine's disappearance, but gets back into the game when Brand X comes to town.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Spends much of the early portion of the film drinking milk to dull the pain of his failure.
- Dull Surprise: Due to the limitations of the motion capture software, this is his default expression.
- Expy: His jacket and hat look exactly like the ones sported by Indiana Jones. He also wears a white tuxedo and fedora with black trousers in reference to the suit worn by Humphrey Bogarts' character in Casablanca.
- Heroic B So D: He spends a good chunk of the start of the film in a depressive funk after he failed to solve the case of Sunshine Goodness' disappearance. A combination of Dan going missing, Brand X's takeover and a What the Hell, Hero? from Maximillius Moose helps him to snap out of it and get back into the detective game.
- I Let Gwen Stacy Die: He goes into a Heroic B So D at the start of the film after failing to solve the mystery behind his girlfriend's disappearance.
- It's Personal: When he learns that Brand X ordered Sunshine's recall, the war against them becomes personal for Dex.
- Pungeon Master: Tends to make a lot of food or brand-related puns, i.e. "Let's Snap, Crackle and Pop outta here".
- Single-Target Sexuality: Only has eyes for Sunshine Goodness, despite Lady X's best efforts.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Raisins. It's quite convenient, then, that his girlfriend represents a raisin brand.
- Used to Be More Social: Following Sunshine's disappearance, Dex only ever leaves his office to run the Copa Banana.
- Waxing Lyrical: He almost always quotes the song "You Are My Sunshine" whenever he talks about his love, Sunshine Goodness.
Daredevil Dan
Daredevil Dan
- Played by: Wayne Brady
Dex Dogdective's best friend, a squirrel Ike who represents the fictional "Daredevil" milk chocolate brand.
- Captain Crash: He has a well-deserved and well-established reputation for being a reckless flier who crashes his plane all the time. Even in the midst of his Heroic BSoD, Dex isn't crazy enough to fly with him!
- Casanova Wannabe: Makes multiple passes at female Ikes, to little success. He seems to succeed with Lady X, only for it to be a ploy for her to get to Dex.
- Character Catchphrase: The Junior Novelization sets it as "Dare the day", which is presumably also the slogan for his brand.
- Distracted by the Sexy: His attempt to impress a female Ike on the street with aerial stunts is what earns him his second crash in the film.
- Distressed Dude: He briefly goes missing himself after an encounter with Lady X. She kept him alive to lure Dex out.
- Fantastic Racism: If his dialogue with Kaptain Krispy is any indication, he's not fond of Ikes from salt-based brands.
- Fisticuff-Provoking Comment: He derides Kaptain Krispy as "not exactly new and improved", making light of his bag being crushed. This is enough for the drunken pirate Ike to attack him.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Upon seeing the hundreds of expired Ikes in the expiration station, Dan regrets his earlier fight with Kaptain Krispy, although Dex tells him not to blame himself for what happened.
- Screwball Squirrel: A squirrel Ike with an energetic personality. His weird, hyperactive and jittery movements also give the impression.
- Shipper on Deck: For Dex and Sunshine.
- Tempting Fate: When Sunshine first goes missing, Dan tells Dex not to worry about it, and that, "It's not like you'll never see Sunshine again." Cue six months later... Though they do find her eventually
- Token Black Friend: Technically, he's a squirrel, but he fits the spirit of this trope.
- Undying Loyalty: He never loses faith in Dex, not even when the latter is in the midst of a Heroic B So D for failing to find Sunshine Goodness.
Sunshine Goodness
Sunshine Goodness
- Played by: Hilary Duff
Dex' love interest who goes missing at the start of the film, a catgirl Ike who represents the fictional raisin brand of the same name.
- Bootstrapped Leitmotif: "You Are My Sunshine" is heavily associated with her due to her name.
- Beauty Equals Goodness: Is the most conventionally attractive character on the roster, Uncanny Valley model aside, and is also the sweetest and most kind Ike you could hope to meet.
- Cat Girl: Has feline ears and a tail, as well as the suggestion of whiskers.
- Damsel in Distress: Gets kidnapped at the start of the movie
- Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Goes missing after she leaves to help Dan, who isn't too concerned when she doesn't show up because he figures that she got caught up helping someone else.
- Modesty Shorts: A couple upskirt shots reveal she has white shorts on.
- Perpetual Smiler: Though it's more thanks to her uncanny model than anything else.
- Satellite Love Interest: She exists as a motivation for Dex, and that's pretty much it.
Cheasel T. Weasel
Cheasel T. Weasel
- Played by: Lawrence Kasanoff
A slimy, shady weasel Ike representing an unspecified fictional cheese brand. He lurks in the seedy Discount Aisle District of Marketropolis, selling information and goods for coupons.
- Art Shift: Unlike the other characters, Cheasel is animated in a much looser and cartoonish fashion, similar to how the film was supposed to be animated originally. His textures are also a lot shinier for some reason.
- Bullying a Dragon: Done twice, to his own misfortune:
- When Lieutenant X confronts him on a rooftop and demands Dex's whereabouts, Cheasel tries to angle for payment. This earns him a death threat from the Brand X Ike, followed by Cheasel getting shoved off the roof.
- In the very next scene, he spitefully withholds his information about Dan's disappearance from Dex, claiming "train-induced amnesia", unless he gets a reward from it. Dex is in no mood for games, however, and throttles the weasel until he talks.
- Coat Full of Contraband: Throws open his green jacket on multiple occasions to display the various items he has on sale.
- Creator Cameo: He's voiced by Lawrence Kasanoff, the director and producer of the film.
- Fatal Flaw: Greed. He's constantly trying to weasel coupons out of others in exchange for rare items or information, and this often gets him into trouble, both with Dex Dogtective and the Brand X Ikes.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Nobody in the store likes Cheasel, even when he does finally choose to align with the other Ikes against Brand X.
- Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Only wears a green jacket or coat and nothing else.
- Honest John: Cheasel works as both a crooked salesman and information broker, providing rare goods and gossip in exchange for coupons. Considering he lurks in the discount isles of the supermarket, which is depicted as the rough side of Marketropolis, the quality of his services is highly dubious.
- Heel–Face Turn: He assists in the final battle against Brand X and proves instrumental in the plan to take down their headquarters.
- Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: As slimy and devious as he can be, Cheasel rarely succeeds at anything thanks to Dex’s intervention.
- Iron Butt Monkey: He suffers all manner of slapstick violence, including being hit by a train, plummeting from a building and being crushed by a wrecking ball, but shrugs it off with the resilience of a Looney Tunes character.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Much of Cheasel's misfortunes come about as a consequence of him pushing his luck, i.e. Lieutenant X throwing him off a building because he insisted on being paid.
- Punny Name: His name is a pun on both his species and the food product he represents.
- Species Surname: Cheasel T. Weasel.
- This Is Gonna Suck: His usual reaction to incoming misfortune."The pain... she is like an old friend."
- Toon Physics: Cheasel is the only character who operates under these; his body is subject to a lot of exaggerated squash-and-stretch and he reacts to pain with cartoonish aplomb. It makes him stand out amongst all the other characters and their stiff, semi-realistic motion capture movements.
- Wicked Weasel: While hardly a villain, Cheasel is far from pleasant, being perfectly willing to shake down smaller Ikes for coupons or do dealings with Brand X.
Maximilius Moose
Maximilius Moose
- Played by: Robert Constanzo
An anthropomorphic moose Ike who works security at the Copabanana.
- Ambiguous Situation: What exactly he's meant to be the Ike of is never explained.
- Brooklyn Rage: Has a strong Brooklyn/Italian-American accent.
- Undying Loyalty: He refuses to give up on Dex Dogtective even when the odds are stacked against the USDA and Marketropolis.
- What the Hell, Hero?: He gives Dex a mild one of these, reminding him that Dan was there for the Dogtective after he lost Sunshine and fell into depression.
Hairy Hold
Hairy Hold
- Played by: Greg Ellis
An anthropomorphic fox Ike for an unspecified hair product brand and current head of the United Supermarket Defense Association.
- The Dandy: Is immensely proud of his hair, and becomes distraught as he loses more and more of it.
- Defector from Decadence: Hairy goes along with Brand X through their takeover and war with the other Ikes, but Lady X threatening to cut out Lord Flushington's tongue is the last straw that causes him to defect.
- Fatal Flaw: Cowardice. Hairy has no faith in his own leadership skills, believing himself inferior to Dex, and thus he has no real control over the USDA. This allows Brand X to essentially take over without a fight, resulting in the expiration of hundreds of other Ikes.
- Grew a Spine: Hairy is initially an ineffectual wimp with no self-confidence and Brand X gets to take over because he's too terrified to say 'no' to them. At the film's climax, horrified by what he's allowed to happen, he stops Lady X from harming Lord Flushington, then turns away from Brand X to rejoin the other Ikes.
- Head-in-the-Sand Management: He's absolutely hopeless in running the USDA, making no headway in finding out the true killer or where Dan vaished to and basically standing by while Brand X takes over. The Junior Novelization shows him running to Dex for help with Krispy's bag being crushed, establishing how ill-suited he is for leading long before Brand X comes along.
- Innocently Insensitive: He begs Dex to help him before he goes bald, which offends Mr. Clean.
- My God, What Have I Done?: As the war between Brand X and the USDA gets into full swing, Hairy is horrified and disgusted with himself for allowing Brand X to take over Marketropolis. Summed up in his Shut Up, Hannibal! speech to Lady X."What's the point of lucious locks if you can't look yourself in the mirror?!"
- Nervous Wreck: Is almost constantly at his wits' end at having to solve the crimes for himself.
- Prematurely Bald: The stress of everything going on causes Hairy to start losing his hair - not a good thing for a hair product Ike. By the end, he only has the one strand of hair left.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: He gives a short, sharp one to Lady X when she breates him from stopping her cutting out Lord Flushington's tongue.
Kaptain Krispy
Kaptain Krispy
- Played by: George Johnsen
A surly pirate-themed Ike representing the fictional Krispy Chips brand and a member of the Salts, who have a long-standing feud with the Sugars.
- The Alcoholic: Is first seen getting four sheets to the wind on potato juice. Or, as Dex puts it, "chip-faced".
- Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: He confronts Lady X while drunk and angry, which then leads to him starting a massive brawl in the Copabanana.
- Composite Character: An unflattering one of Captain Horatio, mascot of Cap'n Crunch cereal, and Captain Bob, pirate mascot of Pirate's Bounty puffed cheese snacks. He takes the role of a snack mascot from the latter and the blue captain's outfit of the former.
- Drunk on Milk: Or potato juice, to be exact - fitting for a potato chip mascot.
- Fantastic Racism: He hates Ikes from sugar-based brands, if his dialogue with Daredevil Dan is any indication.
- Gonk: With his wide mouth, huge chin and oddly-mottled skin, he's hardly the most handsome Ike out there.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Krispy chews out Lady X over her representative, Mr. Clipboard, stomping one of his bags. He's initially brushed off due to being drunk, but it soon turns out he was right to be suspicious of Brand X.
- Killed Off for Real: He was among the first of the Ikes rubbed out by Lady X, and his body is plainly seen amongst the victims. Presumably, he was revived along with all the others when the antidote to the deservative was found.
- Precision F-Strike: Is the only character in the film to use actual profanity - he calls Daredevil Dan "candy arse" in reference to him being a Sugar.
- Small Role, Big Impact: His bag getting crushed by Mr. Clipboard is the first news Marketropolis has of Brand X's arrival, as well as a sign that Brand X aren't here to play nice.
Brand X
Brand X as a whole:
- Brand X: About as literal as you can get, intending to kill off all the other brands and replace it with Brand X generic product lines. Considering opposing ikes include real brands among them, even the spirit of the trope persists.
- Expy: Of the Nazis and their role in Casablanca.
- A Nazi by Any Other Name: Their outfits are reminiscient of actual Nazi uniforms, and they want to enforce a fascist rule over Marketropolis by eliminating "undersirable" Ikes and replacing them with more Brand X Products. Curiously, their footsoldiers wear WWI-era pickelhaube helmets.
- Take Over the World: Brand X's ultimate goal is to eliminate and replace all other brands, starting with Marketropolis and eventually branching out to stores worldwide.
- We Sell Everything: Brand X sells everything from cleaning products to condiments.
Lady X
Lady X/Priscilla Pusley
- Played by: Eva Longoria
The "sexy" Ike who represents the new Brand X, specifically, their detergent. She also serves as the film's primary antagonist.
- Always Someone Better: She's motivated by jealousy towards Sunshine Goodness, as her original product couldn't compete with Sunshine's raisins.
- Ax-Crazy: The Reveal of Brand X's plans is a surprisingly dark turn, in that their goal is to eliminate rival brands and effectively take over Marketopolis as the only brand or ike left standing. Once confronted on it, Lady X's response is indeed to outright attempt to murder the ikes at every possibility she gets.
- Big Bad: The main antagonist of the film and the leader of Brand X.
- Double Entendre: Makes multiple cleaning-based versions of these in her attempts to seduce Dex.
- Femme Fatale: Makes multiple attempts to seduce Dex, but drops the act once he rejects her We Can Rule Together offer.
- Manipulative Bitch: She plays on Dan's attraction to her to use him as bait for Dex.
- Ms. Fanservice: Is clearly intended to be this, as she wears any number of alluring outfits from a slinky red dress to a plaid schoolgirl outfit.
- A Nazi by Any Other Name: Along with the rest of her Brand X minions.
- Punished with Ugly: Sunshine punches her so hard that she reverts back to her old form as Priscilla.
- We Can Rule Together: She tries to convince Dex to back Brand X, but makes the mistake of pressing his Berserk Button when she says "I could be your Sunshine". He takes offense to this, as in his mind nobody can replace Sunshine Goodness.
- Villainesses Want Heroes: She wants Dex. And world domination.
Lieutenant
Lieutenant X
- Played by: Jeff Bennett
Second-in-command to Lady X, Lieutenant X enforces Brand X's new laws for Marketropolis
- Ambiguously Human: He appears human, yet has green reptilian skin and crooked yellow teeth.
- Eviler than Thou: His confrontation with Cheasel T. Weasel, the most antagonistic character shown up until that point, demonstrates that Brand X is far worse than a mere conman and grifter. He casually drops a death threat on Cheasel when the latter demands payment, then shoves him off the roof just for the fun of it.
- Depraved Bisexual: His campy mannerisms and fascination with pain inflicted on any Ike, male or female, paints him as this.
- Mildly Military: Lieutenant X is seemingly higher in the ranks than General X, but he isn't shown to be commanding any troops or the like.
X-O-Bytes
X-O-Bytes
Giant mechanical mosquitoes used to eliminate other Ikes so that Brand X can take over.
- Ambiguous Situation: It's not clear if the X-O-Bytes are supposed to be Ikes themselves or not.
- Fatal Flaw: They can only carry a limited supply of "deservative" and must return to the Brand X tower for more. Dex is able to wipe them out while they're refuling by destroying one of their supply tanks, flooding the factory and drowning them.
- Hero Killer: They take down numerous Ikes even before the war between Brand X and the USDA truly kicks off, but the highlight of their career is when one of them stings and expires Polar Penguin right in front of Dex.
- Mecha-Mooks: They're manufactured in the thousands by Brand X as part of their takeover of Marketropolis. Somewhat Downplayed in that they pose a genuine threat to our heroes because of their large numbers.
- Mechanical Insects: Robots themed on giant mosquitoes, and quite disturbing to look at, being almost biomechanical in appearance.
- Mosquito Miscreants: They're themed after mosquitoes and are deadly weapons in service to Brand X.
- Universal Poison: Their bite delivers a powerful "deservative", the chemical opposite of a preservative that causes any and all Ikes to instantly expire in their own unique ways.
- Visual Pun: When they stand upright, their wings form an X-shape in reference to Brand X. They also "byte" their victims to inject their lethal deservative venom.
