"You know how some high school kids put up with bullying, humiliation, and occasional internal injury? Well, I’m what you might call… not them."
— Carmen
Carmen Got Expelled! is a pilot by Jorge R. Gutierrez and Sandra Equihua of El Tigre fame. It was pitched to Disney but they declined the show.
The pilot stars Carmen, a teenage girl who has gotten expelled several times in her life. After being expelled from another school Carmen gets transferred to a private academy owned by The Baron. This is Carmen's one last chance at schooling. She just has to stay out of trouble until she finishes school.
Seriously, what could go wrong?
This show provides examples of:
- Academic Alpha Bitch: Evone is implied to be this on account of being class president. The fact that she’s also Headmistress Gnarly’s niece adds to it.
- Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Carmen is on the receiving end of these from the Baron.
- After-School Cleaning Duty: Carmen gets this as punishment for her unflattering mural of Headmistress Gnarly.
- All Animals Are Dogs: Hamlet, the schools warthog mascot, acts like a dog by licking Carmen’s face and going after Evone and Headmistress Gnarly like a guard dog would.
- Amusing Injuries: Ozzie. Also Carmen by the end of the pilot.
- Artistic Age: The characters are high schoolers but they're drawn like middle schoolers, or even elementary schoolers.
- Big Man on Campus: Johnny thinks he has to compete with Carmen for this, but it's implied she's more of a Blithe Spirit
- Black Bead Eyes: Most of the characters have black eyes except for Evone, who has visible green eyes.
- Bully Hunter: Implied with Carmen in the intro as she stands up to a Gang of Bullies.
- The Cameo: Manny from El Tigre appears at the start of the pilot during a blink-and-you-miss-it shot.
- Color Motif: The pilot makes good use of the color red.
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: Not so much the punishment itself, but the way Carmen repaints the lockers and cleans the bathroom in record time counts as this.
- Cloudcuckoolander: The Baron flies a jet pack and gets fashion advice from a warthog.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The pilot is about a teenaged girl named Carmen who gets expelled a lot.
- Expelled from Every Other School: Carmen is given one last chance at finishing school after being accepted into a private academy. But for that to happen, Carmen has to make sure she doesn't get expelled again.
- Expressive Hair: Carmen has this when she’s startled. It also has Hammerspace.
- Friend to All Living Things: Carmen is this for Hamlet the Warthog.
- Full-Name Ultimatum: Carmen is on the receiving end of one of these from Headmistress Gnarly. Her full name is revealed to be Carmen Delacruz.
- Gratuitous Spanish: This being a Jorge R. Gutierrez production, there’s some Spanish here and there.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Part of the reason Evone wants to see Carmen get the boot is because she wants to have Johnny all to herself. Bonus in that Evone has green eyes in contrast to the cast's Black Bead Eyes.
- Hartman Hips: Headmistress Gnarly has these accentuated with a pencil skirt.
- Hospital Epilogue: While Carmen succeeds in rescuing Hamlet and evading expulsion, she winds up in the hospital wing thanks to the injuries she receives along the way.
- Intellectual Animal: The Baron's family has relied on their domesticated warthogs for generations. Hamlet even chose the Baron's tie.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Johnny is shown to be abrasive but seems to be kinder than he lets on.
- Limited Animation: Likely because it's a test pilot, the animation is more "moving pictures" than actually animation. The characters mouths don't even move.
- A Lizard Named "Liz": The school mascot is a warthog named "Hamlet".
- Malicious Misnaming: Evone always refers to Carmen as “New Girl.”
- The Mentor: The Baron seems to be this for Carmen.
- The Napoleon: Evone is the shortest and meanest character on screen.
- Never Bareheaded: Bing always wears a green army hat with her uniform.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: The opening of the pilot shows that at her prior school Carmen would beat up students who would harass, threaten, and beat up others. However, she is the one expelled while the bullies are given the slip.
- No Name Given:
- It’s unclear if Bing is a given name, surname, or nickname.
- Headmistress Gnarly isn’t given a first name. Evone even calls her “Aunt Gnarly”
- The Baron is only ever called “The Baron”
- Oh, Crap!: Everyone’s reaction at the jump of doom.
- Only Sane Man: Bing is the only one to suggest that Carmen do her punishment for a change and begrudgingly goes along with her shenanigans.
- Plucky Girl: Carmen to a tee.
- Professional Butt-Kisser: Evone is this to Headmistress Gnarly.
- Quirky Curls: Carmen has huge, curly hair to go with her quirky personality.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: The Baron acts as this at school.
- Repetitive Name: Carmen’s school: St. Mary Maria High School counts-despite being a place and not a person.
- Running Gag:
- Carmen trying not to get expelled.
- Headmistress Gnarly trying to get Carmen expelled.
- Ozzy getting injured.
- Johnny’s motorcycle exploding offscreen save for a bouncing, flaming tire.
- Sadist Teacher: Headmistress Gnarly is this for everyone, but mostly Carmen.
- Scholarship Student: Carmen is implied to be this.
- School Uniforms are the New Black: Carmen and her friends are dressed in their school uniforms for the whole pilot.
- Shared Universe: Going by the uniforms, it’s implied that Carmen goes to the same school as the detention kids from The Book of Life.
- Ditto for El Tigre as not only are they confirmed to be in the same world Manny also makes an appearance in the intro.
- Shouldn't We Be in School Right Now?: Played with. We get to see inside the school and campus, but we never see Carmen and her friends in class.
- Shipper on Deck: Evone’s henchmen are this for Johnny and Carmen.
- Ship Tease: Johnny and Carmen have ‘’something’’ going on, to the point where Carmen is a Type A Tsundere towards him.
- Spicy Latina: Carmen, but she’s more passionate than hot tempered.
- Stuffed into a Trashcan: Carmen accidentally does this to Ozzy when she goes on a tangent on getting expelled.
- Two-Teacher School: There are no teachers shown at all.
- Use Your Head: Bing and Ozzy use Carmen as a battering ram to break down a locked door.
- Villainous Crush: Evone for Johnny. She's driven to insure that Carmen gets expelled so she can have him all to herself.
