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Western Animation: Atomic Betty

"Call me up, I'm your girl!
Toughest chick in the alien world!
Ain't got time for pink and lace!
This girl's built for outer space!"
— Theme Tune

A Canadian cartoon about a middle school girl named Betty Barrett who doubles as a Galactic Guardian, fighting evil on the other side of the universe while no one notices her lengthy absence. The series lasted from September 6, 2004 to January 29, 2008. A total of 78 episodes in three seasons.

Season 3 (Subtitle Mission: Earth) mixes things up by having the Galactic Guardian headquarters relocated underneath Betty's hometown.

A sequel with the working title Atomic Betty Redux featuring a slightly older Betty was planned for 2013, but was ultimately rejected in favor of a revival of the existing pre-teen format. It will return with new episodes airing in 2014.

The show has also reappeared on American airwaves on The Hub (formerly Discovery Kids) before it was taken off of air, as of 2011.

This series provides examples of:

Abusive Parents: This was implied at toward Max Sr. toward Maximus and later on, Max Sr. Sr. toward both of them.
Action Girl
Achilles Heel: Maximus can't swim, and really hates water. (He is a cat.)
Aliens Speaking English: Averted in some episodes of Season 3. The trope is otherwise played straight.
All Girls Want Bad Boys: Sparky's mom, Zulia, has the tendency to date villains.
All Part of the Show: In "When Worlds Collide"
Alpha Bitch: Penelope Lang
An Aesop
An Ice Person: Iciclia.
Badass Adorable: Betty.
Badass Family: Betty and her maternal grandparents are galactic guardians; her uncle from "Rodeo Robots" is a cowboy; and her parents, while almost never seen fighting, have shown Greenbeard's gang what they're made of. And they thought they were fighting against actors.
Bad Future: "The Future Is Now!"
The Bad Guy Wins: Subverted in the Season 2 finale. Galactic Guardian HQ is successfully destroyed, but Maximus is robbed of the satisfaction of being the one to push the button. And they just build a new HQ on Earth anyway.
Berserk Button: Max Sr. apparently hates being called "worthless" by his own father and would have nearly beaten up his younger self if Maximus didn't interfere.
- Also, when Maximus can't sleep due to too much noise, he goes on a destructive rampage.
Between My Legs: Odd for a children's show, but this is how we're introduced to Pontifidora, along with the image page for the episode.
Big Bad: Maximus I.Q.
Big Eater: Sparky and his mom. (His species has four stomachs, apparently.)
- Penelope's fat friend Megan is often shown eating, though they rarely show her actually pigging out.
Big Little Brother: Infantor's little brother is much bigger than him.
Black Best Friend: Regeena
Brainless Beauty: DeGill's two (or three since Mission: Earth) groupies.
Brilliant, but Lazy: Koreena prefers to build robots to do her work for her and when she was training in the the Galactic Guardian academy she cheated off Betty's notes.
Brought to You by the Letter "S": Megan has a big M on her sweater, possibly so viewers don't get her and Sarah's names mixed up.
Bumbling Dad
But Not Too Foreign: Penelope and Sarah are only partially Asian.
Butt Monkey: Poor, poor Noah.
Canada, Eh?: Betty's home town is called Moose Jaw Heights
- One of the first indicators that this isn't an American cartoon is that Betty's school has a Canadian flag flying from the flagpole.
Captain Colorbeard: Greenbeard
Captivity Harmonica: This was partially seen during one part of "Like Father, Like Scum" with Max Sr. (hidden in the shadows at that point) playing it before the Berillum Boys bust Max Sr. out of his prison.
Card-Carrying Villain: Maximus.
- In "The Pre-Teen Queen of Outer Space" when the Drones need a new queen they intentionally seek out the most evil female in the universe.
Cats Are Mean: Played straight with Purrsy, Koreena, Maximus and his family, but the episode "Noah's Bark" shows that Maximus's race is not Always Chaotic Evil.
Christmas Episode: "The No-L 9" which doubles as a Musical Episode.
- There's also the first season episodes "Jingle Brawls" and "Toy Historyia".
Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Penelope's cat Poopsie appeared in the Season 1 episode "Power Arrangers" and was never seen again. In the Season 2 episode "The Market" Penelope was seen visiting his grave.
- Also Paloma (and Juanita) at the beginning of Season 3 (no one exactly knew why she was written out), save for a cameo in "Love Bites".
- Dylan disappeared near the end of Season 2 and was replaced by Penelope's brother Chad in Season 3. Since Penelope would no longer have a rival for Dylan's affections, there was no longer a need for him, so the second to last episode before the Season 2 finale has Penelope falling out with Dylan after spending an entire episode getting humiliated in her efforts to get with him while in "No-Hit Wonders", he was last seen in the dance competition and gets disqualified when he loses in the dance.
Clark Kenting: Sparky wouldn't recognize The Scribe as "Milton Scrivener" until the scribe took off his mask and put on "Milton"'s glasses.
Color-Coded for Your Convenience: The Betty Clones.
Combat Stilettos
Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like: The Empress from "Battle of the Bots" is captive by Maximus on the planet of Crushdon, though when she sees her rescuers along with robots, she begins complaining about them along with her allergies. Granted, she goes back with Maximus while the reward is simply a letter stating that her people don't want her because she's a Snobby Empress anyway.
Cool Cat: Some people considered the cats (alien or not) to be this.
Cool Old Lady: Beatrixo
Costume Copycat: In "Cosmic Comicon" a bunch of people are dressed like Betty and there's a Running Gag where Sparky keeps mistaking them for her. He even mistakes a coat rack with a costume hanging on it for her.
- Up to Eleven: When Betty tries to talk to him, he asks her who she is.
Depending on the Writer: How mean Penelope and her friends are varies from episode to episode.
Denser And Wackier: Mission Earth has a number of gags that are cartoonier than anything the previous seasons ever did.
Disappeared Dad: Betty's mother's father. For 30 years.
- Also, Sparky's Dad was never mentioned even in episodes where Sparky's Mom appears.
Disney Death: Paloma nearly dies from having her energy drained to open the forbidden box her father is contained in.
Disproportionate Retribution: The Chameleon stole the Scythian President's brain because the President called Maximus a villain "when everyone knows he's a SUPER-villain".
Distaff Counterpart: To Buzz Lightyear.
Ditzy Genius: Dr. Cerebral can invent hi-tech gadgets, but he's lacking in common sense.
Do-Anything Robot: X-5
Double Entendre: "You're about as brilliant as the dark side of Uranus!"
Dumb Muscle: Betty's orange clone.
Early-Bird Cameo: Paloma, whom was first actually seen in the TV series in Season 2's The New Neighbor was actually first seen in the Gameboy Advanced Game that was released before Season 2 was made.
Earth Is the Center of the Universe: Much to Betty's dismay.
Easy Impersonation: In "The Way of the Weiner" the Betty Clones went around town causing mayhem and framing Betty for it. Everyone fell for it, even though they stayed in their superpowered forms and in those forms only one of them looks even close to her.
Embarrassing Slide: In "Lulu on the Loose" when DeGill shows he's already aware of the situation via hidden camera, when he first turns the screen on it briefly shows his groupies dancing in their underwear.
DeGill: Oops! Wrong channel.
Enemy Mine: Betty teamed up with Maximus against a common foe in "Takes One to Know One".
Enfante Terrible: The Infantor
Epic Fail: In "Self Sabotage" Noah is so unathletic he's dead last through most of the race, right behind Megan.
Evil Duo: Maximus and Minimus
Evil Twin: Atomic Dodger
Even Evil Has Standards: This is mostly seen when Maximus is around either his father or grandfather, the latter which Max Sr. only helps his son due to his own father mocking them both.
Eyedscreen: Common during action scenes.
Fat and Skinny: Megan and Sarah respectively
Fat Bastards: Max Sr., M'lord Orus, and Max Sr. Sr. (when he's elderly)
Fat Cat: This is what Max Sr. is. Same to elderly Max Sr. Sr., though it could be due to himself being too old.
The Federation: The Galactic Guardians.
Flexing Those Non-Biceps: In "Beach Blanket Betty" Noah does the forearms-turn-into-limp-noodles variant.
Forgotten Birthday: In "Cat Fight" Betty's mom thinks her husband forgot Purrsy's birthday, though it's played more like a Forgotten Anniversary scenario.
Fountainof Youth: The Youthinator in "Bold Age" where Maximus' grandfather, Max Sr. Sr., used it to make people old while elderly like himself (and Penelope's grandmother) are made young.
Friendly Enemy: Megan and Sarah get along fairly well with Betty when they're not following Penelope's orders.
Future Badass: Betty, Noah, and their human friends during the Bad Future episode. Even Penelope, given the right impetus.
Genetic Memory: The first time Queen Penelobee meets Atomic Betty she notices see seems oddly familiar.
Girl Posse: Penelope's friends Megan and Sarah.
Green Eyes: The usual match for a Red-Headed Heroine - Significant Green Eyed Redhead.
Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Admiral DeGill and possibly Minimus PU.
- Parodied when DeGill is in the shower and they blur out his crotch.
Half-Human Hybrid: Beatrixo and Auntie Matter's father was an alien. This also makes Betty and her mom part alien.
Halloween Episode: The episodes "When Worlds Collide", "The Ghost Ship of Aberdeffia", "Night of the Living Mummies", and "Trick or Creep".
Hartman Hips: Betty's mom
Heel Face Turn: At the end of "The Way of the Weiner" X-5 reprograms the Betty Clones to make them good.
He Is Not My Boyfriend: Betty about Noah in "No Space Like Home"
Hidden Depths: In "The Market" Penelope is shown crying at her cat's grave.
- In "The No-L 9" Penelope spends the entire episode decorating her house in a ridiculous amount of decorations so she can win a contest, but when Beatrixo wins instead due to light display created by the titular constellation, instead of being mad that she lost she's filled with the Christmas spirit just like everyone else watching, and the first thing she does is hug her father.
Hollywood Tone Deaf: Penelope in "Circus Sparkimus".
Horrible Judge of Character: Sparky's mother has a terrible habit of dating villains.
Hot Skitty-on-Wailord Action: Paloma and Pandora's parents are a human size Cat Girl and a demon about 10 times that size.
Identical Granddaughter: In "Bold Age" when Penelope was aged up and her grandmother was aged down they each ended up looking like the other, except the aged down grandmother has thicker thighs than Penelope.
Informed Ability / Informed Flaw: According to the episode "The Pre-Teen Queen of Outer Space" Penelope is the most evil female in the universe.
In Joke / Genius Bonus for anyone not familiar with Canada: There is a real Moose Jaw located in Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan is Canada's prairieland, very open and very flat. The idea of there being a Moose Jaw Heights is just silly.
Interspecies Romance: A one-sided example in "Love Bites" when Betty's dad falls in love with Purrsy after getting bitten by an alien bug.
I Was Quite The Looker: Beatrixo in flashbacks to her days as a Galactic Guardian.
I Will Wait For You: In "The No-L 9" we learn Beatrixo has been waiting 30 years for her husband Jimmy to return after he went missing in action.
Jekyll and Hyde: Minimus' two personalities. The book was even mentioned in the episode where he got stuck on "Hyde" mode.
Jumped at the Call: Noah, at the end of "No Space Like Home"
Kavorka Woman: Sparky's mother Zulia has managed to score at least three different guys who are genuinely attracted to her... for some reason.
Lean and Mean: Whenever Maximus is shown without clothes he appears to be very skinny.
Lethal Chef: In "The No-L Nine" Beatrixo's Christmas cake is shown to be so hard it has to be cut with a blow torch, and when Betty's mom asked her if she wanted to stay at her grandmother's place longer she only agreed as long as she didn't have to eat any more of it.
LEGO Genetics: How Queen Penelobee was created.
- Maximus created the Betty clones by combining Betty's DNA with the DNA of three different alien women.
Leitmotif: Penelope has a classy orchestral theme that plays every time she appears.
Let's Get Dangerous: In "Aarrgh...It Be 'Olidays!" Betty's parents help defeat Greenbeard and his crew, though they think they're just actors.
Likable Villain: Incidentally, there are some villains that are portrayed as likable to the fans.
Magic Skirt: Betty, in an episode where she swings by her knees on a trapeze.
Masquerade
Mooks: The Bloodmonks
Mecha-Mooks: Maximus's robot army.
Miniature Senior Citizens: While Beatrixo isn't really that short, flashbacks to her Galactic Guardian days show her to be taller.
Mister Muffykins: Purrsy
Motive Decay: In her first appearance, Iciclia's main goal was to steal enough montegoberries to keep looking Young and she was foiled. In her next appearances, she's only seen Young-looking and there's no mention of her dependancy anymore.
Mr. Exposition: Admiral DeGill
Multiple Head Case: In "Spliced" Penelope and her posse get spliced together, becoming a three-headed mutant.
My Beloved Smother: Betty's mom treats Purrsy like a second child. Whether he loves it or hates it depends on the episode.
My Hovercraft Is Full Of Eels: This appears to happen with Sparky in "If the Shoe Fits" when he attempts to compliment the leader of an alien race after they lose their Universal Translator, but once they get it back they find Sparky's translation was correct. It's just that these aliens take compliments as insults and vice versa.
My Name Is Not Durwood: Boltar
Na�ve Newcomer: Noah after he joins the Galactic Guardians in the third season.
Never Mess with Granny: Betty's grandma is a former Galactic Guardian.
Never My Fault: Koreena blames Betty for her being kicked out of the academy when it was her cheating off Betty's notes.
Never Trust a Title Card: The title card for "Trading Spaces" shows Penelope in a Galactic Guardian uniform. The episode has nothing to do with Penelope joining the Galactic Guardians nor does it have anything to do with Penelope wanting to try on a similar outfit to Betty's.
No Celebrities Were Harmed: The voice of Betty's dad is based on Jimmy Stewart.
No Name Given: Betty and her family's last name is never mentioned. Even in a school assembly, the principal calls her just 'Betty'. The closest we get to learning her last name is when Sparky refers to Betty's mother as 'Mrs. B'
- Actually in a series of Atomic Betty books, her last name was revealed to be Barret.
Non-Action Guy: Noah. Starts to move away from this during Season 3.
Note to Self: Future!Penelope tries to do this so she can learn Betty's secret earlier. It doesn't work, as her past self just mistakes it for a prank.
Not So Different: She can get pretty mean when she's getting revenge on Penelope. Not to mention thanks to season three, the writers reduced Betty into a Wangst character and made her a bit of a jerk to her friends (excluding the ones from outer space), including to Noah.
The Obi-Wan: Spindly Tam
One-Winged Angel: Maximus gets this in "The Amulet of Shangra-La-Di-Dah" temporarily.
Petting Zoo People
Playing with Fire: Betty's red clone.
Poorly Disguised Pilot: The last episode of Season 3 introduced the older Betty from the sequel.
Positive Discrimination: Paloma
Pretty Fly For A White Guy: Betty is voiced by a black woman and her black friend Regeena is voiced by a white woman.
Protagonist Title
Raygun Gothic: The Galactic Guardians technology looks like it was borrowed from The Jetsons.
Read the Freaking Manual: In "Night of the DeGilla Monster" DeGill clones himself, but the clone turns out evil because he didn't read the manual.
Red-Headed Hero
Rich Bitch: Penelope and her family (except Chaz)
Rise of Zitboy: In "Pimplepalooza" tiny pimple-like aliens that need host bodies to survive infect the faces of everyone in Moose Jaw.
Robo Speak: Noah while wearing a robot costume for Halloween. X5 felt offended by the idea of robots speaking like that.
Robot Buddy: X5
Rubber Girl: Betty's blue clone.
Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale
Screens Are Cameras: The Comm Links work this way.
Screwed by the Network: Started off on a primetime spot on CN. But was soon punted around the schedule before ending up on a early morning shift where barely anyone was awake to watch it.
Shapeshifter Mode Lock: In "The Way of the Wiener" the Betty Clones stay in her superpowered forms for unexplained reasons.
Shout Out: In the segment, Galactic Idol, Maximus tries singing three times and out of two of those times, he is dressed like Slash and Prince.
- In "Case of the Missing Kanushu", The Lordof The Rings is referenced when De Gill tries to stop the red wasp from passing by, he almost succeeds in breaking the bridge, though due to him small and using a weaker wasp part, it does not go well. However, he is still grabbed by the wasp crashing through the bridge and dragged to the bottom with Sparky shouting for him. Granted he does survive though.
- Both "Evil Idol" and "Galactic Idol" are also a shout out to another idol show
- The empress in "Battle of the Bots" has the hairstyle of Leia.
- The title, "Power Arrangers", is an allusion to the series, Power Rangers
Small Name, Big Ego: Atomic Roger
Something Completely Different: The Mission: Earth episodes include non-canon one-minute shorts.
Space Does Not Work That Way: In "Queen for a Day" we have this exchange.
General Bee: Is this a suitable world your highness.
* Shows Queen Penelobee a picture of Earth.*
Queen Penelobee: No you fool none of these world are
WHIRRRP!!
Queen Penelobee: Wait that smell *beat* Honey!
General Bee: But we're in deep space.
Queen Penelobee: I smell honey nonetheless. and it's coming from there.
Split Personality: Minimus' head rotates to reflect his change in personality
Stout Strength: Though briefly seen in "The Big Dig", Max Sr. proves to be a bit dangerous around Hopper the Chopper and his gang (before he's wedgied by Hopper).
Stuffed Into A Trashcan: In "The Way of the Wiener" Betty's orange clone does this to Penelope while cleaning up the mess she made, supposedly mistaking her for trash.
Sure, Let's Go with That: Betty lost her diary with notes of her missions as a Galactic Guardian. When Penelope found and read the diary, she assumed the entries were all made up and Betty allowed her to believe that.
- Betty thought Noah's poem to her was written by Duncan to Penelope. Noah let her think she was right.
"The Reason You Suck" Speech: Not quite a speech, but Maximus and Max Sr. both give out their reasons on why they don't want Max Sr. Sr., after he is snatched by them, to continue running things and why they don't want him around for too long.
Thick-Line Animation
This Is No Time For Knitting: In "Galactic Guardians No More", Betty announces that it is time to start baking while they're under fire from numerous enemy ships in their own ship � which had been previously decommissioned as a military vessel and turned into a traveling pie shop. Of course, Sparky and X-5 question her timing, but this is part of her plan to save the day: she uses the dough as improvised ammunition for the ship's torpedo launcher, then lures the enemies close to the sun to bake the dough into a debilitating mass.
Token Evil Teammate: Future!Penelope. Though she's mostly just lazy and bratty, and the only evil thing she does is try to expose Betty's secret to her past self.
Tomboy and Girly Girl: Betty and Penelope.
Tomboyish Ponytail: Betty.
Transformation Sequence: Betty gets a very brief one each time she switches to her Galactic Guardian outfit.
Tricking The Shapeshifter: The Chameleon in his first appearance.
Twitchy Eye
Uncanny Valley Makeup: Penelope.
The Unfavorite: Betty sometimes feels like this, with her mother often treating Purrsy like a second child.
Unlucky Childhood Friend: Noah.
Villain Song: "Virtuoso of Insanity"
The Villain Sucks Song "This Cat Is Coming After You" on the album, mainly for the Betty vocals dialogue
Vocal Evolution: Compare Penelope's voice in the first season to the later seasons.
The Voiceless: Penelope's Asian friend Sarah never talks.
- Or at least she use to in the first two seasons before Mission: Earth decided to make her mute.
- In the Mission: Earth episode "Girl Power" she had two lines.
- DeGill's groupies. Most of the time they just giggle like bimbos, though the green-skinned redhead gets a line in "A Hard Day's Fight".
Voluntary Shapeshifter: The Chameleon.
Wake Up, Go to School, Save the World
Watch Out for That Tree!: Betty to Noah in "Beach Blanket Betty" while they were surfing.
Weirdness Censor: In "Wedding Crashers" Auntie Matter kidnaps Grampa Jim right in front of Betty's parents' eyes. But while they are shocked by the kidnapping and start to worry, the fact that an alien did it is completely ignored.
- "Takes One to Know One" averts this. When Paloma gets beamed into a spaceship, Duncan freaks out.
- In "The Pre-Teen Queen of Outer Space" Penelope doesn't find it frightening that she was kidnapped by giant alien bees, justified given she thought is was a dream.
  - In "Queen For a Day" Penelope doesn't find it odd someone looks and acts just like her. Somewhat justified given she though it was a video game.
- In "Spliced" when Penelope and her friends are spliced together into a three-headed mutant they don't seem to notice. Averted with Regeena, who reacts with either confusion or horror at the spliced mutants she sees.
Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?/Stating the Simple Solution: Maximus IQ once disguised a robot to pose as a long lost galactic guardian and lure Betty to a trap. Since the robot had an explosive device, Minimus suggested they could simply detonate it and finish off Betty but Maximus wanted to make sure Betty knew he's the reason of her demise. Then, as he had her dangling over a pool with deadly fish, Minimus suggested they'd just cut the rope but Maximus wanted to taunt her.
With Friends Like These: In the episode where everyone thinks the end of the world is coming, Megan and Sarah turn on Penelope, stealing her jewerly and knocking her to the ground. At the end of the episode they're back to being practically her servants.
Younger Than They Look: Sparky is younger than his voice makes out. He's actually a kid.
Zettai Ryouiki
Zonk: Parodied, as the secret "Project Zonk" that the crew has to protect in an episode ends up only being taco sauce. Yes. Taco sauce.