In 1990sLos Angeles, Bonkers D. Bobcat is Wackytoons Studios' biggest cartoon star — until a rival show beats his in the ratings race, at which point the studio decides to take a new direction and cancels Bonkers' show. Through sheer dumb luck, Bonkers unwittingly comes to the rescue of Classic Disney Shorts star Donald Duck and, at the same time, helps veteran human cop Lucky Piquel arrest a mugger. This heroic act lands Bonkers a new job on Hollywood's Police Department, where he works with the reluctant Piquel in the newly-formed Toon Division. About 40 episodes later, Piquel is offered a new job working for the FBI, and Bonkers gets a new human partner — Sergeant MirandaWright.Backstory aside, the TV series chronicling Bonkers' exploits as a cop was created by Disney as a result of them wanting to make a TV series spun off from the successful film Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The character of Bonkers is an Expy of Roger Rabbit that was created to avoid the licensing restrictions that would have come with the use of Roger. Although the episodes with Miranda Wright as his partner (produced by Duane Capizzi and Robert Hathcock) come later chronologically, they were actually produced first; however, Disney was reportedly not pleased with how they came out and put a new production team (headed by Robert Taylor) in charge. The Taylor-directed episodes introduce Lucky Piquel as Bonkers' partner, further drawing attention to the series' roots in Roger Rabbit in that Lucky is an Expy of Eddie Valiant. The last of the Taylor episodes, "New Partners on the Block", bridges the gap between those episodes and the 19 Capizzi-directed episodes that made it into the show's run. (Unfortunately, that particular episode has been removed from Toon Disney's rerun rotationpost-9/11 due to the episode's villain being a terrorist.)To complement the series, twelve short cartoons starring Bonkers were made to show what his cartoons were supposedly like before he was fired. These shorts were shown on the Saturday Morning Cartoon series Raw Toonage (with one exception, "Petal to the Metal", which was shown before the film 3 Ninjas in theaters), and they were also rerun in four special compilation episodes during the series' run.Bonkers gets a healthy dose of vitriolic hatred from the Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers fandom — Bonkers was the show that bumped Rescue Rangers off the Disney Afternoon lineup, and the fandom has never forgiven the show (or Disney) for it. Rival studio Warner Bros. wasn't too thrilled with the show either; they wanted to use the title "Bonkers" for their own cartoon comedy series, which they eventually named Animaniacs. (The Animaniacs writers rarely passed up a chance to take potshots at Bonkers.)
Amusing Injuries: Oddly enough, Lucky tends to suffer these. Being human and not a "toon", he's sometimes shown as a Bandage Mummy, with crutches, etc. after suffering slapstick violence.
Fallappart, a zombie rabbit, who's Running Gag was to have bits of him fall off.
Art Shift: The Capizzi episodes (with Miranda) and Taylor episodes (with Lucky) can be easily distinguished by the different drawing styles of... just about everything.
Combined (slightly) with Animesque in the Japan episode.
Also happens in a sense during the Lucky Piquel episodes; while humans and the human world get more realistic shading/depth, toons always look overly bright and cartoon-y in comparison, if just to make the distinction between humans and toons more discernible (since the whole show is animated, unlike Roger Rabbit).
Canon Discontinuity: The Disney Adventure Comics ignored Lucky leaving for the FBI. He and Bonkers would team up against villains who weren't introduced until the Miranda episodes.
The Cameo: Darkwing Duck appears in one of Bonkers's dreams in "Do Toons Dream of Animated Sheep."
Censor Steam: In the episode "Once In A Blue Toon", when Lucky is in the bath, and the floor below him comes crashing down, he stays in mid air for a few seconds, with bubbles covering his lower half.
Clap Your Hands If You Believe: How most Toon physics work. Bonkers saves Lucky from being crushed by a bulldozer onto a wall by having him believe he could enter the train tunnel painted on it.
Clip Show: Sort of. There were four episodes that were merely previously-aired Raw Toonage shorts cobbled together into a half hour of material. There weren't even any new wraparounds.
Expy: As mentioned in the above description, Bonkers and Lucky are Expys of Roger Rabbit and Eddie Valient, respectively.
Fall-Apart Rabbit also seems to be an Expy of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, in that both characters are rabbits with removable body parts. This becomes Hilarious in Hindsight when you take into account that Frank Welker, Fall-Apart's voice actor, would later voice Oswald himself in Epic Mickey.
Family Friendly Firearms: Like Gargoyles before it this show usually averts it, all the police officers (including Lucky and Miranda) carry fairly realistic guns. They are rarely (if ever) drawn or fired though.
A critic pitches Bonkers an idea where he's the star of a cop show, only he has a woman partner instead of Lucky. Bonkers likes this idea, but requests that the woman be a blonde.
This is more of a joke because the Miranda episodes came BEFORE the Lucky episodes.
Miranda makes at least one non-speaking appearance during the Lucky episodes.
Again, this is more because Miranda's episodes were before Lucky's. The timeline for the two seasons was backwards.
Four-Fingered Hands: Used as a way to reveal that The Collector was actually a human.
Getting Crap Past the Radar: Check out this clip from "In the Bag". Listen carefully to the siren, and around 0:38, you'll hear a joke about dinner guests committing suicide over his wife's cooking.
The guests in question sound like he's referring to flies.
Later on in the same episode, Bonkers and Lucky attempt to stop the Criminal of the Day from jumping off a building. "Don't jump! Think of the poor, poor impressionable young wallets and purses..."
Listen at 1: 56 and you can hear what might be the word Crapshoot.
Groin Attack: Happens on occasion (about four times) to Lucky.
Bonkers also got his crotch stepped on by a sheep who stole dreams, and Grumbles Grizzly had scalding hot tea poured straight onto his unprotected lap, before Bonkers and Jitters slammed into his groin, knocking him through the wall of a cabin.
Jossed: According to Greg Weisman, Bonkers was INSPIRED by, but not intended to be a direct replacement for, Roger Rabbit.
Knowledge Broker: A bunch of cartoon grapes, who occasionally give Bonkers and Lucky important clues on their latest case. And in addition to BEING an Incredibly LameVisual Pun, they love to tell bad puns.
In the same vein, the stool pigeon who is an actual pigeon.
Let's Get Dangerous: In the Lucky episodes Bonkers actually was a fairly competent policeman and thorough investigator when things got tight.
Kanifky: Ladies and gentlemen... (in disgusted tone) and yes, members of the press...
My Name Is Not Durwood: The chief always addressed Lucky by the incorrect surname of "Pickle".
This happens a lot, sometimes by mistake, such as in the case of the absentminded Chief Kanifky, and sometimes to push his buttons, as in the Mickey impostor ("Got any Piquels, Pickle?").
Kanifky also appeared in one Miranda Wright-era episode where he kept getting Bonkers' name wrong.
Off Model: Couple of times. In one episode, when Bonkers took Lucky's shoe off, his foot was way too small, and his ankle unrealistically thin.
Odd Friendship: Lucky and Fall Apart, but only in one episode: Fall-Apart Land.
Paper-Thin Disguise: Played with; the Mickey Mouse imposter doesn't fool Bonkers, but Lucky thinks it is Mickey. Whenever Lucky dresses up as a toon in order to protect them or go under cover. Works every time.
Nobody except Lucky believes that the Mickey imposter is real. Chief Kanifky even harshly reprimands Lucky for it.
Subverted, when an old lady instantly sees through Lucky's lederhosen disguise, because only an undercover cop would wear such a riciculous outfit.
Parental Bonus: Some of Lucky's sarcastic lines will make sense to only older, world-weary viewers.
Lucky: Me, work at the FBI? I always knew J. Edgar had his eye on me!
FBI Agent: We at the FBI do not joke about Mister Hoover.
Pretty in Mink: Lucky's wife has a fur wrap she wore to see her favorite singer.
Put on a Bus: Kind of. As the Lucky episodes drew to a close, Lucky, Dyl, Marilyn, Fall Apart Rabbit and Toots left town to make way for Miranda, plus Kanifky "reassigned" Bonkers to Sergeant Grating with Miranda.
Rhetorical Request Blunder: In the pilot, after saving Donald from the mugger, Lucky (sarcastically) mentions how he and Bonkers "ought to be PARTNERS". Chief Kanifky then hires Bonkers onto the force, and Bonkers actually requests to be Lucky's partner.
The Collector's aesthetic seemed to be both this and a Take That towards Don Bluth.
The Ninja Kitties from "Tokyo Bonkers" seem to be this to the Samurai Pizza Cats.
Sibling Yin-Yang: Miranda actually believes in Bonkers' abilities to be a good cop, unlike her sister Shirley who thinks he's a menace and should retire.
Status Quo Is God: Lucky getting demoted or fired from the Toon Division will always be reversed by the end of the episode, mostly because his superior has swiss cheese memory and forgets Piquel was fired in the first place.
Take That, Critics!: "The Final Review" features an animation critic who is portrayed as a snob who doesn't like much of anything. Some have theorized that the character, Charles Quibble, could be a parody of animation critic/historian Charles Solomon.
This Is My Side: Lucky draws a line through his and Bonkers' office in the first episode.
Through a Face Full of Fur: In "Cartoon Cornered", Bonkers turns fully pale and freezes in his tracks while he and Miranda are pursuing Sgt. Grating, who enters Stage 13. Bonkers, knowing that there's something bad behind those doors to that stage, is too petrified to go on any farther.
During it's original preview airing on the Disney Channel, the show had a different opening.
features clips from the series. Strangely, it features clips from both the Miranda Wright and Lucky Piquel episodes. One would think there would be a different montage for both sets of episodes.
Toon Physics: Entire episodes revolve around this.
Case in point - toon bridges. The whole "running through thin air" is a toon bridge, and they stop working the moment the toon acknowledges there's nothing there. Leading to something of a Crowning Moment of Awesome for Lucky (who is notoriously, for a Disney cartoon, bigoted against toons), who chases a suspect across a toon bridge muttering to himself all the way that it's real. It works for him. The moment the villain of the week says "that's impossible" both he and Bonkers (if I remember correctly) fall to the ground (Lucky is standing on a real building).
I wouldn't say it's fair to call him "bigoted" (he seems to like them in a general sense) so much as he routinely finds them grating. There was one occasion when they were chasing a suspect through Toon Town when they come to the intersection of Squash and Stretch Streets; he's actually sort of amused by the contortions Bonkers pulls off under their influence. Slightly less so when it turns out to have a similar (but fortunately less extreme) effect on humans.
Toon Transformation: When Lucky contracts the "toon flu" from Bonkers he keeps transforming between toon and human, as he's already animated this results in him turning tiny, with a clown nose wearing a lime green outfit, classic toon white gloves, and the lighter colors that the show uses for toons. Given Lucky's usual exasperation with toons he's less than pleased, especially when he's led to believe it could become permanent.
Turn In Your Badge: Happened to both Bonkers and Lucky at least once each.
Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Lucky Piquel is overweight (said in the Christmas episode to be fatter than Santa) and balding (but wears a toupée). His wife however is pretty attractive.
Vapor Wear: In "Out Of Sight, Out Of Toon", Lucky gets the toon flu. When he visits Ludwig Von Drake, He is seen wearing what looks like a large t-shirt, that goes down to his knees. During the scene, he shrinks into a tiny toon. During his transformation, for one frame, it is apparent that he isn't wearing any underwear.
Wicked Weasel: One-shot villain Wacky Weasel, who has a pretty sweet mullet and was voiced by Rip Taylor.
Wild Take: Bonkers springing in mid-air in a horizontal position, his limbs and tail separating from his body, as well as his eyes from his face, when he realizes he's holding a lit bomb in one episode. This scene is featured and included among others from various episodes during the theme song and in the intro.
With My Hands Tied: When Lucky is captured and tied, he is able to write a message for help on a can and kick it out of an open window. He was also able to move around a lot when his legs were tied together.
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