Web Animation / Bee and Puppycat

"Dear Puppycat,
Please report to Fishbowl Space for temp work. Sign below."

— Temp-Bot

Bee and Puppycat is a cartoon series on Frederator's Cartoon Hangover, and later Netflix, created by Adventure Time artist Natasha Allegri.

After being fired from another job, our heroine Bee finds herself taking another long walk home. This time, her walk is different. From the heavens descends a cat — or maybe a dog? — which she adopts into her home. After unsuccessfully looking for more temp work, Bee comes home with presents for the mysterious creature, only to find she has no more food money.

With that, she and her houseguest have whisked away to the latter's temp job. The now-teamed-up Bee and Puppycat take the available work, which involves saving various citizens of the universe. Can Bee stay focused enough to be effective in combat? Will Puppycat find his true self? Will the ladybug ever be loved? Only time will tell.

The pilot episode was released on Cartoon Hangover as Episode 4 of "Cartoon Hangover Shorts", but later became popular enough to warrant a whole series. The first and second parts were released separately on Cartoon Hangover's YouTube channel, and both were combined to create a more flowing narrative in honor of YouTube's Geek Week 2013.

Due to the overwhelming response and support for the short, Cartoon Hangover announced a Kickstarter campaign to fund a full-length series. The campaign started on October 15, 2013 and reached its goal of $600,000 with six days to spare; by the time it officially concluded on November 14 of that year, it had raised $872,133 from 18,209 supporters, granting the production of nine episodes. It even broke the record for the most funded web series project on Kickstarter.

Season 1 started on November 6, 2014. The second season was made available in 2016 and consists of the last four shorts condensed into one mega-episode. The series in its entirety can be found on Cartoon Hangover's VRV channel, while only Season 1 can be found on the YouTube channel. The remaining episodes were uploaded regularly from October 5 to November 9, 2018.

On June 11, 2018, a teaser for a sequel to the series, titled Bee and Puppycat: Lazy in Space, was uploaded on Cartoon Hangover's YouTube channel. It expands upon the world of its lead characters, with animation duties switching over from Dong Woo Animation to OLM Incorporated. The show also expands its running time to half-hour episodes instead of the shorter runtimes of the original series, which averaged 5-10 minutes.

Bee and Puppycat: Lazy in Space premiered on Netflix on September 6, 2022, consisting of 16 episodes, which also includes a three-episode remake of the original series in that number.

An 11-issue comic adaptation was published by KaBOOM! Comics between 2014 and 2016. The series now also has a website.

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This series features examples of:

• Accidental Kiss: Bee and Puppycat, interchange of gum and all.
• Actor Allusion:
  • In "Birthday", TempBot comments she has a "videogame job" and that maybe there will be cake. In that episode, she is voiced by Ellen McLain, GLaDOS's voice actress.
  • "Farmers" has TempBot claim she smells homecooked food. Hannah Hart, her voice actress at the time, runs a home cooking YouTube channel.
  • In "Cats", TempBot affectionately calls Bee and Puppycat "little flapjacks". Her voice actress in that episode, Roz Ryan, was also the voice of Bubbie in The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack.
  • In "Game," when Bee (playing as the character "I Gotta Fart," voiced by Doug Smith) finishes all of the side quests and returns to Puppycat fully leveled up, she proudly says, "How do you like my gear?" This is an extremely subtle reference to what is arguably the most well-known quote from one of Doug Smith's most famous roles, Kintaro Oe from Golden Boy. A clip of the scene in question can be seen here.
• Adorably Precocious Child: Cardamon, the landlady's son who seems to be around 4-5 years old, takes care of duties as if they were his own. This includes fixing Bee's overflowing toilet with a squeaky hammer and toy fishing rod. Later deconstructed when it's revealed that his mother is in a coma. Even later still he has a breakdown over all the responsibility he has on his shoulders with no help from adults that find his situation strange.

• Animesque: Played with; while the character designs are definitely western, the overall aesthetic of the show is strongly influenced by anime. Bee's dream in the second episode feels like something out of Studio Ghibli. In terms of style, there are also small things like sweatdrops and noses occasionally disappearing. The character designs later become more reminiscent of a typical anime style, particularly in Lazy in Space.
• …And That Little Girl Was Me:
  • Implied at the end of the pilot, with Puppycat hinted to be the Space Outlaw from his story. Finally confirmed in season 2.
  • Happens in the season finale too , with it being implied that Cardamon's mother is the princess from the jellyfish story she told Cardamon.
• April Fools' Day: Cartoon Hangover posted a Q&A session with Puppycat of dubious canonical status on April 1st. Of course, none of Puppycat's lines are translated.
• Art Evolution: In the series, both Bee and Puppycat are shorter and chubbier than they were in the pilot- in Bee's case, to the point that she almost looks like a child.
• Beach Episode: The third episode. Not surprising, given the show's heavy anime influence.
• Betty and Veronica: Deckard is Bee's shy and polite Betty, while his brother Crispin is her moody and slightly guarded Veronica.
• Bittersweet Ending: Season one ends with Deckard getting hurt in an inadvertent trip to space with Bee and then leaving for college, the kitchen planet from the above trip getting sucked into a black hole, Cardamon's mom maybe/maybe not coming out of her coma, and Bee and PuppyCat deciding to reacquaint themselves with each other after Bee's Robotic Reveal.
  • In Lazy in Space's S1 finale, Bee manages to stop the Space Warlocks' possession of Moully, but it's unclear whether he survived, and Bee is injured such that her emotional components have been ejected. However, Violet is inadvertently awoken by Puppycat, reunites with Cardamon, and launches her spaceship (that the island was built over) to leave Earth and seek out Bee's father for help.
• Bloodless Carnage: Despite the show generally being tame and easily watchable by all ages, this is averted. Notable in "Donut": Deckard falls to the ground and hits his head on some small jewels, and a visible gash of blood which he even touches with his hand and sees. Fortunately, it's not a serious injury, and he patches it up with a band-aid not long after.
• Body to Jewel: In episode 4, Bee's tears are either ice or some kind of jewel. Violet's tear blobs appear to have the small particles of wish crystals that she ate in Donut
• Breather Episode: "Beach" is just Bee and Puppycat strolling on the beach, just going to see Tempbot in order to watch some TV. No temp job, no monsters.
• Buffy Speak: After the accidental Groin Attack, Bee assures Deckard that she has "stuff" for his "stuff", which is a bag of ice for his crotch.
• Call-Back: In the episode "Birthday", both the eggplant pillow and rainboots presents that Bee "bought" for Puppycat in the pilot are shown in the apartment.
• Camera Obscurer: Bee sends a text to Deckard with a picture of the recipe she wants to make with him. The picture only shows Bee's thumb.
• Catapult Nightmare: "AHH BAD DREAM! AHH YOU WERE THERE! AHH LASAGNA'S GONE!"
• Cerebus Retcon: Originally, Bee getting fired at the start of the series was played as a Noodle Incident, with it being subtly implied that her immaturity probably played a part in it. However, the Lazy In Space remake shows that she worked at a restaurant with Deckard, who accidentally started a fire in the kitchen. She manages to put it out, but a slip of the tongue cause her to take the blame for it.
• Chekhov's Gun: In "Farmer". The gum of all things saves Bee's life from the cherry monster!
• The Comically Serious:
  • The temp agency boss, who berates Bee in his office full of turtle posters and has a tiny little pet that he feeds sushi off the top of his head.
  • Also Cardamon, a very serious boy who likely isn't more than 5, who handles his assumed duties with authority and squeaky toys. Once you realize he had no choice but to take on his mother's duties because she's in a coma, it becomes less funny.
• Crush Blush: As soon as Bee and Deckard see each other. Deckard's ears even turn red! It only stops when Bee shoves some crotch-ice under the door.
• Culture Clash: The residents of Cathead planet think a human in a catsuit is the cutest thing they've ever seen, but Puppycat's physique nauseates them to the point of vomiting.
• Cutaway Gag:
  Bee: Hey, dude... I got you presennnntsss! The pet store I used to work at is going out of business.
  [Cut to a dumpster behind the pet store]
  Bee: (popping out from the dumpster with Puppycat's presents) Ha ha ha!
• Dog Food Diet: Subverted with Bee when she tells Puppycat she won't eat his dog and cat food after her stomach growls and she has no money to buy food.
• Donut Mess with a Cop: See Police Are Useless below.
• Double Meaning: Wallace's words ("That's your ending? It's awful!") could mean both the ending of Puppycat's tale or Puppycat's own fate, after the reveal that he's the outlaw.
• Dream Intro: The episode "Food" opens with Bee dreaming she is floating in the middle of nowhere with a group of Puppycats. She touches her Puppycat, gets an electric shock, and wakes up.
• Dumpster Dive: How Bee really got Puppycat's presents for him when she claims the pet store she used to work at is going out of business.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: The pilot uses a more muted style with black outlines and less round character designs that couldn't decide on whether they should have Four-Fingered Hands or not. This wouldn't return for the actual web series and the Netflix reboot re-did the pilot episode to match the newer style.
• Eldritch Abomination: That... creature that emerges from Wallace's body.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: In the early part of the pilot, Bee accidentally hurts herself with the umbrella the same way she would later hurt Deckard with.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Bee's ominous statement prior to the end of her dream sequence in Part I may be Dreaming of Things to Come : "Why does this make me feel so sad?" The second to last shot before Bee wakes up mirrors a scene in the climax of Episode 10.
  • Bee's Robotic Reveal:
    • "Food"'s dream sequence has Bee when she touches the water bubble electrocutes it.
    • "Beach"'s reveal that she's afraid of water is quite unusual for humans.
    • "Birthday"'s opening song, which is a birthday song for Bee from her dad. Upon a second listen, it's full of hints.
    Dad Box: I sure hope that you're not broke and everything's been running good.
    • This line by Deckard while he's trying to lift Bee up in "Wedding" is later revealed to be in a literal sense.
    Deckard: Like your bones are made of metal!
    • In the Netflix reboot, Bee is seemingly Made of Iron with no explanation. The first hint is that in Again for the First Time, her hands touch fire multiple times and she doesn't even react to the fact that they're darkened afterward. This is then followed up by the old man calling Bee a "scary young old woman", which turns out to be the case as Bee is a robot old enough to be considered a senior citizen.
• Funny Background Event: The turtle taking the sushi from the temp. agent's head.
• Glamour Failure: Puppycat's reflection, at one point, briefly changes into the space outlaw.
• Groin Attack: Bee accidentally does this to Deckard. With an umbrella.
• Growling Gut: Bee's stomach growls from hunger when she realizes that she has no money to buy food. Puppycat guards his food against Bee, but she assures him that she's not gonna eat his food.
  Bee: Crap! I ran out of food money!
  (Puppycat guards his food)
  Bee: Relax, man. I'm not gonna eat your food.
• Hates Baths: Bee. Having to do temp work in a bathhouse doesn't end well for her. We find out why later when it is revealed Bee is a robot.
• Heroes Love Dogs: Well, Puppycat is also a dog...
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Bee can summon a sword in times of need. Subverted in that she evidently favors her teeth.
• Human Pet: One of Bee and Puppycat's temp jobs involve being pet cats to giant alien cats. While they fawn over Bee, Puppycat is considered too ugly to be their pet and is shunned.
• Ironic Echo: After Wallace transforms, Bee reacts with "Awwww sick!" (in an "ew, gross" way). When she later bites Wallace's tongue to save Puppycat, Puppycat responds with "AW SIIICK!" and asks her to use her sword.
• Jabba Table Manners: In the picture above and twice in episode one, after Bee eats anything her mouth is covered in whatever she was eating. The police officer keeping her (and only her) from jaywalking is also an undignified eater, as he shoves an entire donut into his mouth (and also the hand holding it).
• Jerkass: The Earth temp agent takes a call where, apparently, his son's school calls to tell him that his son is going into allergic shock from peanuts. He denies responsibility for not telling them about his son's allergy; and then tells them to wait 30 minutes and either his son will get better or have to go to the hospital.
• "Just So" Story: Cardamon recites a story about an Octopus and a princess creating the first jellyfish—the former fell in love with the latter's free-floating hair in the water, but once he realized that it was attached to the princess, offered her a ride back to her kingdom. The Princess repaid the octopus with her hair since he liked it, and so spent a long time traveling with the octopus-shaped hair bundle. Unfortunately, it broke up in the ocean waves, and in the octopus' attempts to get it back, twisted himself into knots and broke himself apart. The resulting pieces merged with the princess' hair and made jellyfish.
• Large Ham: When Bee and Puppycat are teleported the ladybug says: "I've been left behind... I'm all alone... AM I NOT GOOD ENOUGH?!"
• Laser-Guided Karma: The Jelly Cube Planet's farmer in "Farmer". He "turned people into pet food" by using their souls as fertilizer in order to grow whipped cream for his livestock to eat. Oh, and even though Bee gives him a better alternative, he didn't have anything to pay them with. So in the end his own animals ate him alive.
• Late for School: Bee was late for her meeting with the temp agency.
• Love Bubbles: Appear to float in the town, much like in Sailor Moon.
• Luminescent Blush: Happens to Deckard when he sees Bee.
• Magical Girl: Bee apparently becomes one, sort of a Henshin Hero-esque cat.
• Makes Sense In Context: Many fans promoted the series by passing a gif of the popular "I GOT YOU SOME ICE FOR YOUR CROOOTCH!" moment around image boards and Tumblr.
• Man Bites Man: Well, woman bites monster.
• Manchild: Bee is this, and is labeled as unable to grow up by Cas, from her inability to hold a job, to her rather childish nature.
• Malicious Misnaming: According to Cartoon Hangover's production blog, Deckard's sister calls him "Dick-hard."
• Misplaced Retribution: The Netflix series shows that Bee getting fired was a result of this. Deckard accidentally started a fire in the kitchen they worked at, but because Bee told Howell "I did it (put the fire out)", he fired her under the assumption that she started the fire.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: Puppycat.
• Motor Mouth: Bee talks almost constantly.
• Name and Name: The show's title refers to its two title characters: Bee and Puppycat.
• Nice Guy: Deckard makes Bee a casserole/lasagna for her after hearing she lost her job. He also tries to work around all the mistakes in the recipe that Puppycat seems to ruin on purpose.
• Origins Episode: The Lazy in Space Episode "Funny Lying" has Puppycat having dreams about his previous life as The Space Outlaw and how he got his own space ship in the first place.
• Perpetual Frowner: Puppycat's mouth is always turned into a frown. Whether this is its natural shape or Puppycat is perpetually grumpy is unclear.
• Police Are Useless: While Bee is waiting to cross the street, two police in a cop car drive to the intersection and stop to glare at her, to make sure she doesn't jaywalk, while ignoring two kids running across the street to chase a duck.
• Possession Implies Mastery: Bee seems automatically aware of her ability to summon a sword from her costume's bell.
• Post-Kiss Catatonia: Puppycat was in shock after Bee deliberately kissed him to retrieve her gum.
• Precision F-Strike: Generally the show is appropriate for almost anyone to watch, but characters sometimes say mild swear words like "ass" once in a while. Nothing beyond that though.
  • Lazy in Space will occasionally have the characters use harsher swear-words... which will receive a Sound-Effect Bleep. This includes Puppycat, whose entire language is nonsensical melodic tones.
• Production Throwback: The monster from the pilot is a shout-out to some sketches Natasha put up on her Tumblr all the way back in 2012.
• Ray Gun: Puppycat is one, complete with gun language (and sound effects) like 'cocking' his tail so he can fire.
• Realistic Diction Is Unrealistic: Averted constantly. From Bee's "I've got some stuff for your stuff!" to Deckard's possible very slight speech impediment.
• The Reveal: In the season 2 finale, the island is revealed to be a giant spaceship.
• Repeating So the Audience Can Hear: Seen in the April Fool's Interview with Puppycat.

• Ridiculously Human Robots: Bee. She gets hungry, eats human food, and has grown from child-size to adult-size.
• Running Gag: There have been three episodes in a row that features some animal talking to Puppycat.

• Shipper on Deck: According to the semi-canon April Fool's Day interview, Puppycat ships Bee and Deckard.
• Shōjo Demographic: The cartoon is clearly inspired by shoujo anime, both aesthetically and thematically. Bee is older than most shoujo Magical Girl heroines, however.
• Shout-Out:
  • Sailor Moon gets a fair number of shoutouts:
    • The five Puppycats in Bee's dreams have the same color scheme as the Inner Senshi.
    • The beginning of "Beach" shows that Bee has an alarm clock doll of Luna on her shelf.
  • Studio Ghibli films also get a few shout outs too:
    • It's tough to spot unless you've seen these sketches by Allegri but the rug in Deckard's room has the same pattern as Howl's jacket! From Howl's Moving Castle of course.
    • "Cat" has the bathhouse Bee works at containing baths reminiscent of those in Yubaba's bathhouse. When rampaging, the cats tear through the building smushed together and writhing not unlike Noh Face.
  • One of the posters in the Earth Temp Agency has a turtle with sunglasses that has very similar coloring to Squirtle. In 'Beach', one of the cats is yellow and has red cheeks like Pikachu.
  • The art style of Puppycat's story is very similar to the silhouette art in Revolutionary Girl Utena.
  • Cardamon makes origami unicorn for Bee in episode 4. Much like in the movie, this can be taken as a clue that Bee is a robot.
• Show Within a Show: Bee and (surprisingly) Puppycat are fans of Pretty Patrick's Lunchtime. The entirety of "Beach" is about them trying to find a place where they could watch a marathon of it.
• Smart Animal, Average Human: Bee, an eccentric and unlucky girl, and her intelligent and grumpy cat/dog Puppycat.
• Social Services Does Not Exist: Cardamon's mother is in a coma (and he appears to be the only one caring for her) and the only other person in his apartment is his dog. Nobody does anything about this, even when he takes over his mother's role as landlord, despite him being only seven years old.

• Speaking Simlish: Puppycat speaks in a series of synthesized beep sounds.
• Speech Impediment: Deckard possibly has a very slight one.
• Stupid Evil: The warlocks who are hunting down Puppycat turn out to be pretty terrible at their jobs. They only inherited their jobs from their fathers, don't seem to really do anything other than sit around and argue with each other, and even when they are doing their jobs, they just stick their hands out and can't see where they're going, meaning that they never capture Puppycat and only succeed in destroying and damaging planets and making themselves look like idiots.
• Straight Man: Cardamon, the de facto landlord, is a very serious small child.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Puppycat looks perpetually grumpy, and is fairly curt with Bee. However, when babysitting Wallace, the first thing he does is hop on top of Wallace and kiss his forehead because Wallace misses his mom. This seems to be a regular occurrence.
• Synthetic Voice Actor: Puppycat is voiced by Oliver.
• Talking Animal: Puppycat is an Intelligible Unintelligible, while the ladybug speaks with a deep voice.
• Transformation Sequence: Downplayed. Bee transforms but it's not as exaggerated as most Magical Girl shows.
• Translation: "Yes": It takes a lot longer for Puppycat to say "Why not?" compared to "Hello Peon. Bow to me."
• Unfazed Everyman: Bee has a tendency to under-react to events that would freak out lots of people.
  • Being (briefly) sentenced to incineration elicits little more than a slightly surprised "whoah".
  • After inexplicably finding a dog (or maybe a cat) and seeing a letter transported through its bell collar, all she can manage is a brief groan.
  • Immediately after the above-mentioned scene, when she reads the letter telling Puppycat to report to Fishbowl Space for temp work, her only reaction is "Oh, let me get you a pen..."
    • In "Donut," Deckard appears startled for only a second when he sees Bee's mangled, robotic arm.
• The Unintelligible: Puppycat. He has to be given subtitles for the audience to understand him. Though somehow everyone in the show understands him. Bee lampshades it:
  Bee: Hey, you talk! Kinda...
• Vocal Dissonance: The ladybug has a jarringly deep voice.
• Voice of the Legion: Zig-zagged. The monster that emerges from Wallace has two mouths, but only one is speaking; the other is whispering vague creepiness.
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: In "Cats", one of the cats of the Cat-head planet's bath house pukes at the mere sight of Puppycat.
• Was Once a Man: It is heavily implied that the Space Outlaw from Puppycat's fairytale became Puppycat himself.
• Wham Episode: Boy-howdy, is "Donut" ever one... After the events of the previous episode "Wedding", Puppycat is stuck in a window. In an attempt to free him, Bee uses a temp-job request to teleport him out... only she takes Deckard with her instead. After a minor freakout (and nearly being incinerated as well), they arrive at Donut Planet and settle in their assigned task. Deckard takes to the baking assignment with delight and seems to be taking everything in stride; but when he tries to deliver his handmade donut, the magic delivery blackhole suddenly attacks everything. Bee tries to rescue the baker cat from being sucked in and fails, but manages to hold him for several seconds before becoming critically injured. When it appears Deckard is going to be crushed by planetary debris, he's saved by Bee who then throws him into Temp-Bot's portal, and then shuts down the black hole. Much later on, Puppycat returns home to find Bee sitting next to her Dad-Bot... repairing the machinery in her arm with it.
• Your Size May Vary: In the second episode, Bee's size is all over the place. Her proportions relative to herself don't even remain consistent. She can't even stay the same for a single scene, at one point visibly changing size when she enters the foreground.

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