Western Animation / Big Nate

Don't wanna go to school today!
The sun is red-hot, and I wanna play!
But if I get caught,
they'll make me pay detentioooooon again! (Big Nate!)
Math and social studies just ain't my thing!
Rockin' with my band is where I'm king!
Stealin' the teacher's teeth,
or bailin' on a teeeeest!
Big Nate!

Big Nate is a 2022 Slice of Life animated comedy series created by Nickelodeon, based on the comics strip and book series of the same name by Lincoln Peirce.

While originally intended to debut on Nickelodeon's linear channel in 2021, the series debuted as a Paramount+ original on February 17, 2022. The show was renewed for a second season, which premiered on July 7, 2023.

Previews: 5-minute Teaser; Trailer; How To Pull A Proper Prank; Theater Antics; Spitsy's Barking Lessons; The Butt Cheeks Song; Locker Makeover Day; How To Get Ripped Or Die Tryin'; Picture Day; Sibling Pranks; Valentine's Day Card

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This show provides examples of:

• Absurd Phobia: In "Cat-astrophe", Nate's fear of cats is discussed as falling into this, especially after hearing the reason: According to his dad, cats having the ability to suck the souls of little boys. Later on, it is revealed that Martin has his own fear of public restrooms that was also instilled by his own father. Ellen has a more realistic fear, claustrophobia.
• Accidental Hero: In "Valentine’s Day of Horror: Chapter II", Nate and his friends unknowingly foils an evil scheme for Eew Corp.
• Adaptational Backstory Change: According to "Cat-astrophe", the reason why Nate is fearful of cats has changed between mediums. In the original works, four-year-old Nate's traumatic experience with a scratchy kitten named Cinnamon caused him to develop the fear. In this series' flashback, Nate's father Martin told him a ridiculous fact about cats "sucking the souls of little boys" to scare a younger Nate out of asking for one.
• Adaptational Dumbass:
  • Nate has a bit of this. While Nate in both the books and comics had moments of childlike ignorance, but still had some self-awareness. Here, he's a lot more childlike and believes he can grow a tree of money and Cheese Doodles, that cats suck your soul out through your body, that people can drain your brain, etc.
  • Randy is also dumber in this show than in the comics and books, as he lacks the subtlety and cleverness when it comes to bullying and is much more brutish.
• Adaptational Nationality: Artur, instead of being from Belarus, is now from a fictional country called Stylgrav or Stylgravia, according to a line from Jenny in "Cat-astrophe".
• Adaptational Nice Guy:
  • Like his transition from comic to book, Nate's more jerkish personality traits are toned down or even gone entirely, aside from a new penchant in pranking teachers harder than before. An example from the five-minute trailer has Nate attempting to get over his fear of cats, when his comic strip self would likely opt to get rid of the cat in question instead.
  • Although he's still a bully, Randy is less of a jerk in this adaptation. He has more Pet the Dog moments, like congratulating Nate for bringing pizza to the school for everyone to eat and even picks on people less often.
• Adaptational Sexuality: Dee Dee had a boyfriend in the comics named Jim, but in the animated series, she is a lesbian who is one half of an Official Couple with a tomboyish, wheelchair-using girl named Amy.
• Adaptation Name Change: Nate's band from the comic strip, "Enslave the Mollusk", is now called "Fear the Mollusk", though the logo of a chained-up sea snail is still used.
• Adaptation Personality Change:
  • Teddy's less mature and more mischievous compared to his book/comic self, making him more distinct from Francis. An example would be from "Go Nate, It's Your Birthday" where he gives Francis a purple nurple, in the middle of Nate freaking out about accidentally maxing out his dad's credit card. Francis even calls him out for it.
  • Jenny is more apathetic and snobbish, as opposed to her book/comic self where she's a normal girl who's just really annoyed by Nate. An example would be from "The Valentine's Day of Horror" where she is shown completely unconcerned with her fellow classmates getting sick, only wanting to get home.
• Adapted Out:
  • While several teachers such as Mrs. Godfrey, Mr. Galvin, and Mr. Rosa have appeared, others such as Mr. Staples and Ms. Clarke are absent in the show.
  • Surprisingly, Mrs. Czerwicki doesn't appear in the cartoon despite Nate receiving several detentions here just like in the comics.
• All-CGI Cartoon: As seen in the trailers, the series' visuals are done in 3DCG animation. The characters are still relatively cartoony like their 2D counterparts, but given realistic lighting and animated with timing similar to Stop Motion works. Closeups even show that the characters have a clay like texture on them.
• Always Identical Twins: Kim Cressley is revealed to have a twin sister who looks just like her.
• Bilingual Bonus: In the 'Locker Makeover Day' short, Nate shows us his forged notes that he uses to lie his way out of not having done his homework. In one, he claims that 'A Samurai chopped it up into a million pieces'. The note he's holding, written in Japanese, says 'My neighbor's dog ate my homework'.
• Broad Strokes: Most of the main cast of "modern" Big Nate is present such as Dee Dee and Randy (who made their first appearances in 2016 and 2011 respectively), yet Nate's relationship with Ellen is a combination of antagonistic and amicable, resembling both the very early strips (circa 1991 to 1994) and the later comics and books.
• Character in the Logo: A humorous example has Nate being sandwiched between the "Big Nate" title. The Nickelodeon logo follows up by knocking him down on the head, squeezing Nate out to the ground hard.
• Creator Cameo: In "Belles A Ringin'", Nate searches online for photos to use for his author alter ego. All of the photos he finds, including the one he uses, are that of executive producer Mitch Watson.
• "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: Nate leads as the singer of his own show's opening theme. He uses this opportunity to bemoan his school troubles while talking about how crafty he is.
• Drama Queen: Dr. LaGaze has this in spades. A notable example is when he put himself into a self-induced coma for dramatic effect.
• The Food Poisoning Incident: In "Valentine's Day of Horror", Nate tries to woo Jenny by throwing the school a Pizza Party. Too bad the pizza was ordered from a Greasy Spoon who let the pies sit in the hot sun until rats exploded from tasting them, which predictably triggers an apocalyptic Vomit Chain Reaction, not helped by the principal also handing out expired cookies.
• Fourth-Wall Observer: Not unlike the cunning teen Ferris Bueller, Nate talks to the camera in the series to explain his thought process and plans. He even asks if he has anything in his teeth in the five-minute preview.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: The series demonstrates the show's fast-paced nature leading to these moments. Some of them include:
  • The intro's "Nate Files" page having the subject being "Nate Wright Gets A Show! His friends cheer him on!!"
  • The appearance of Spitsy on the right-hand corner of the intro.
  • Brad Gunter's background cameos in "Time Disruptors" and "The Big Snow".
• Medium Blending: The show utilizes a chaotic clip art collage of realistic objects or 2D doodle animation against the 3DCG animation. For example, the intro featuring Mrs. Godfrey's upper body transformed into a Notzilla with a real lizard head and doodly flames and eyes.
• Mythology Gag:
  • As seen in the intro, the "Nate Files" notebook doodles have Nate and his friends in the same art style as their 2D strip counterparts.
  • Ultra Nate, the in-universe comic book character of Nate, is shown prominently in the intro's final moments. His design also serves as the "default" look for Nate in the doodles, rather than Nate's actual strip design.
• Nepotism: Dr. LaGaze took away Dee Dee's role as Juliet, recasting her as the balcony, and gives it to his daughter, even though she is still in elementary school and can't memorize her lines. He prizes everything she does, even when she is taking the blame for something Dee Dee did.
• Pathetically Weak: The "How To Get Ripped Or Die Tryin'" short shows Nate is so weak that he struggles to hold up his lunch tray and can't crush a small milk carton.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: In "Valentine’s Day of Horror: Chapter II", a mysterious man intends to go after Nate after realizing he is a big problem.
• Repurposed Pop Song: The official trailer uses "Trouble" by P!nk played straight, pairing with a montage of Nate's wild adventures in the series.
• Rewatch Bonus: Following the reveal in "The April Fool" that "Brad Gunter" has been keeping an eye on Nate all along, eagle-eyed viewers can spot him out of focus, hiding in the background in a couple of previous episodes, just as indicated in The Reveal.
• Screams Like a Little Girl: Teddy when Nate dramatically yells that "[Jenny] has a cat".
• Stuffy Old Songs About the Buttocks: In the "Butt Cheeks Song" short, the lullaby that Martin sings to Nate to help him sleep is all about butts.
• Super-Scream: Dee Dee is able to let out a super-sonic scream when she's upset about something or in times of a crisis, as shown in "The Pimple" and "Wilderness Warriors".
• Sudden Eye Colour: The comic strip had the characters drawn mostly with their eyes as either straight lines or dots. The cartoon depicts them with round eyes almost the entire time, including their eye colours.
• Title Drop: In "The April Fool", after Brad Gunter tells Nate to "think big", Nate remarks that he likes the sound of "Big Nate". Cue the show's logo and the classic Nickelodeon splat.
• The Watson: Teddy serves as this in "Cat-astrophe", questioning Nate's wanting work on Mr. Galvin's science project and why Jenny having a cat is an issue to establish Nate's carefree attitude, crush on Jenny and ailurophobia to newcomers unfamiliar with Big Nate.
• Vomit Chain Reaction: "Valentine's Day of Horror" is based around the school being hit with a wave of food poisoning, turning the episode into one, long one of these, to the point of it being framed as a Zombie Apocalypse.
• Vomit Discretion Shot:
  • In the "Theater Antics" short, Dee Dee makes Nate go through Enforced Method Acting for his role as a seagull in the school play, one of the tasks being eating a raw fish. Nate barely takes a nibble before barfing.
  Nate: Agh, I don't remember eating corn!
  • In the "How To Get Ripped Or Die Tryin'" short, Dee Dee's bizarre "exercise" regimen for Nate includes rubbing a bunch of stinky food on him to make him smell sweaty. When Nate shows up to Gym the next day, the resulting concoction makes the coach crawl out of the class to vomit.
  • In "The Thing That Wouldn't Leave", Martin and Ellen have to dog-sit Spitsy, and the first thing they mess up is feeding him when they spray his dog food everywhere, including Ellen's mouth, causing her to turn green and get ready to throw up in the sink when the scene Smash Cuts to a mop hitting the floor them as they clean up afterward.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Nate's fear of cats has transferred over from the books and strips. This is guaranteed to send the normally smug Nate screaming and running away from Jenny's house, after noticing she owns a black and white cat through her window.
• You Don't Look Like You: A downplayed case, where characters who originally had Black Bead Eyes like Nate ditch the look in favor of traditional eyeballs (which were usually reserved to Eye Takes). Characters who wear eyewear, for example, are exempted from this change.

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