∇
troperville

∇
tools

∇
toys

SubpagesMain
VideoGame
WMG
YMMV

main index

Narrative

Genre

Media

Topical Tropes

Other Categories

new edits	workshops	reviews	YKTTW	tweets	random
to do	pm	add watch	drop watch	watchlist	profile

Subpages:

Video Game: Toonstruck
aka: Toon Struck

Thank you, Roger Rabbit Effect.

"Ready for some speedy, convenient and only relatively disturbing hole travel?"

—Drew Blanc

Toonstruck...

Basically, Toonstruck is an Adventure point-and-click game developed by Burst Studios and published by Virgin Interactive in November 31st 1996, for MS-DOS. It uses FMV of Christopher Lloyd as Drew Blanc, as well as animated cartoons, making most of the game have a Roger Rabbit Effect.

The basic plot goes that character designer Drew Blanc has a meeting with his boss, who demands him to create more bunny characters for the 10th anniversary of the "Fluffy Fluffy Bun Bun Show", since it needs something new and fresh to retain its audience, for the very next day.

Thus Blanc has to pull an all-nighter to figure out what kind of bunny would go well with the titular character of FFBB show. While he's at it, he gazes up at one of his own designed characters, Flux Wildly, in a sketch he has on the wall, longing to actually use him instead of the rabbit he's gotten fed up with.

He nods off, suffering from author's block. He wakes to the sound of his TV turning on and displaying said show, only for it to turn into a void that sucks Blanc into the cartoon world! In it, he meets his very own character, Flux, and asks him for help to return to the human world. Flux takes Blanc to the king of Cutopia, who promises to help him go back, in exchange for gathering the materials for the Cutifier - a machine to counter the Malevolator that Count Nefarious has developed; a flying machine equipped with a raygun which has been used to transform the people and places of Cutopia into dark, twisted malevolence.

Thus begins the journey of Drew Blanc and Flux Wildly to find the pieces to make the Cutifier work and reverse what the evil Count Nefarious has done.

Then things go crazier...

It's Better Than It Sounds, like most games when described like this...

There's a petition to make a sequel here: http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/toonstrucktwo/sign/

And Word Of God says the game may even see rerelease on current day consoles with the sequel materials bundled in it. Some of the unused materials from the game can be seen here

, and there's even a Toonstruck 2 fanproject

This game provides examples of:

Actor Allusion: Drew Blanc's sidekick is named "Flux".
- It goes further in the french version of the game, where Flux's voice is perfomed by Luq Hamet... Who is the official french dubber for Michael J. Fox.
The Ahnold: Jim the Pitbull
Already Undone For You: Count Nefarious's castle
Artificial Limbs: Count Nefarious' henchmen, Feedback, Goggles, and Lugnut, with the the loss of speech, sight and hearing respectively, have to use special gadgets to enable them to speak, see and hear.
Badass Normal: Drew Blanc, by the end of the game.
Beware the Nice Ones: Fluffy Fluffy/King Hugh
Bury Your Gays: Possibly for the Care-crow
Cliffhanger: Drew manages to defeat Nefarious and Fluffy Bun Bun and destroy the Cutifier and Malevolator before returning to the real world. But Flux contacts him (through a communicator he gave him at the last second) and informs him the two are still alive and they need Drew's help. The mutagen Nefarious shot into Drew finally kicks in turning him into a toon before he warps back to the toon world. End game.
Cute Is Evil: Fluffy-Fluffy Bun Bun. An ickle-wickle cutesy-wutesy megalomaniacal despot.
Cut Short: The second half of the game has never seen the light of day because they were banking on sales to justify its release.
Deadpan Snarker: Drew Blanc tends to be this.
Everything's Deader with Zombies: Sort of. Feedback, Goggles, and Lugnut were all brought back from the dead, but otherwise avert most of the actual tropes of zombiehood (shambling, brains, etc.). The only real evidence that something is off about them is that, aside from the gadgets which grant each one his respective missing sense, they're not proper toons, but just ambulatory construction guides that cartoonists and animators usually draw before they fill in the finished character. The implication, to an artist, is that a half-job is the best Nefarious could (or would) do on their resurrection - that, or they're just artist's concept sketches who were binned (read: killed off) before being fully realized into full-fledged characters.
Evil Plan: Take over the world and Go to the human world and take it over as well!
Evil Versus Evil: Nefarious' initial plan to turn things evil with his machine, and Fluffy Fluffy Bun Bun planning to turn everything cute (including those that weren't cute before, such as the inhabitants of Zanydu and the Malevolands) with her machine.
Expressive Mask: Flux's "eyes" are actually a pair of heavily stylized glasses; he doesn't appear to have proper eyes at all, but that doesn't seem to slow him down.
Eye Scream: Even if it's just a balloon animal...
Fate Worse than Death: Depends on how you look at it, the serum that Count Nefarious had Drew injected with, which slowly turns him into a toon.
Foil: During his pitch to his boss at the end of the game, Drew proposes that Flux be added to the cartoon as a co-star to Fluffy because they would act as foils to each other.
Foreshadowing: An example that was cut. Just before Drew is transported to Cutopia, Vincent van Gogh's self-portrait can be seen hanging on Drew's room's wall. One of the things that was cut from the game was getting to meet Vincent van Gogh.
Fun with Acronyms:
Robot Master: I am a Super Mega Ultra Genius!
Flux: That's SMUG for short, right?
Getting Crap Past the Radar: Lots.
Hey, It's That Guy!: Drew's boss is played by Ben Stein.
Hey, It's That Voice!: A large number of recognized voices appear in the game.
- Flux is played by Homer Simpson
- Count Nefarious is the always delightful Tim Curry
- Fluffy Fluffy Bun Bun is recognized by her Babs Bunny voice, courtesy of Tress MacNeille
- Fingers, the cashier of the Cutopian Arcade, is voiced by Dom Deluise.
- Jeff Bennett
- Frank Welker
- Jim Cummings
Hypno Fool: Drew uses some reflective sunglasses to trick Ms. Fortune into hypnotizing herself as part of his escape from the Count's castle.
Hypnotic Eyes: Ms. Fortune.
Kleptomaniac Hero: Considering that some things are actually stolen from others...
Lampshade Hanging: Oh so much!
Logic Bomb: The only way to get rid of the Robot Maker is by using his own intelligence against him.
Malaproper: B. B. Wolf.
Monster Clown: Considering it's hidden in a padded cell...
- The door to which also qualifies, for added fun. If by "fun" you mean horrifying abominations.
Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Count Nefarious
Nobody Poops: As You Know this toilet is used for our Zanydu sport of fishing. What else did you have in mind?
- Fluffy Fluffy Bun Bun claims to make cute poops that smell better than flowers.
Portal Network: The black hole used for fast traveling, which also doubles as Another Dimension
Quirky Miniboss Squad: The Three Horrible Henchmen
Ridiculously Human Robots: Averted, since S.M.U.G. is quite robotic. Also, his appearance and personality appears to be inspired by the Daleks.
Roger Rabbit Effect
Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: "Groan!" "Heavy sigh."
Sequel Hook: The final cut scene hints at this. Sadly the sales of the game were too disappointing to justify the sequel's development, even though the developers have stated they wish to make one.
Shout Out: The game is very reminiscent of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, made even funnier when you recall who Christopher Lloyd played in that classic film.
- Cutopia's arcade has arcade cabinets called Mortal Wombat, Sweetfighter and Wacman.
Solve the Soup Cans: The phone dialing sequence, for one.
Take Over the World: The goal of Count Nefarious, SMUG the Robot Maker, and Fluffy Fluffy Bun Bun.
The Reveal: In the middle of the game, its revealed Fluffy Fluffy Bun Bun took over King Hugh's throne and disguised herself as the king so she can use the Cutifier to turn everything cute and cuddly as she sees fit.
Trapped in TV Land
What Happened to the Mouse?: The horse that used to be in the stable, after it is malevolized, disappears.
- The game actually lets you ask about its disappearance. While the response is merely a malicious cackle, the answer becomes apparent once you ask yourself where the glue comes from.
  - As a matter of fact, the presence of the machine ought to be a dead giveaway before you even need to bother asking. Not to mention the fact that the poor bugger was named "Elmer".
- Before the stable gets malevolized, right-clicking on the horse will lead Flux to describe him as "a pot of glue waiting to happen".
- While we don't actually meet King Hugh (or we probably did, hard to tell), Fluffy Bun Bun mentions that he was locked away. You never get around to rescuing him however.
Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Drew Blanc literally exclaims "Spiders! Why did it have to be spiders?" upon seeing a couple of them crawling on the wall.