ChalkZone (2002-2004) is a Nickelodeon cartoon that, like fellow Nicktoon The Fairly Oddparents, began as a series of shorts on Oh Yeah! Cartoons. It apparently finds its roots in an older cartoon with the same premise, Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings, which coincidentally had also come on Nickelodeon at one time (as part of the network's earliest program, Pinwheel). Whether or not ChalkZone is plagiarized from an intentionally modernized version of Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings, however, is unknown.The show centers on a shy, daydreaming kid by the name of Rudy Tabootie, who one day discovers a world hidden beyond his teacher's chalkboard. In this world, ChalkZone, chalk drawings that have been erased from all chalkboards are now sentient beings; among them is a creation of Rudy's, a Kid Hero named Snap. Most episodes revolve around Rudy and Snap adventuring around ChalkZone, often accompanied by Rudy's best friend / love interest, Penny Sanchez; in some cases, Rudy, being the only person to know about ChalkZone and wield the Magic Chalk (with Penny being the only person he trusts with this information), has to keep the place safe from being found out by anyone else.It's stated to be the sweetest and cutest non-Jr. Nick show ever made, however it receives a lot of criticism due to its sugary nature and over-the-top cuteness. Despite this, it has somewhat of a cult following (though notas muchas otherclassicNickshows), and finds the cuteness a charm.
This show contains examples of:
A God Am I: Subverted with Rudy. He doesn't go nuts with his magic chalk, he just uses it like how the Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver. In fact, he even went so far as to swear to NOT make a living thing with the chalk (as mentioned in "Howdy Rudy").
Ambiguously Brown: Penny appears to be Latina as shown by her name, skin tone, and the fact she apparently knows Spanish. But it's never really stated or explicitly shown.
American Accents: Snap has a Bronx accent, howeva in some episodes it'z Brooklyn, or Joisey, and fuh no reazon, bucko, az no one elz in da show gots one.
Art Attacker: While in Chalk Zone Rudy can create anything he needs by drawing it with his magic chalk. Outside of Chalk Zone anything anyone draws with any chalk and erases becomes real inside Chalk Zone.
Art Evolution: Everything's cleaned up from the Oh Yeah! Cartoons shorts to the actual show. Rudy's appearance changed, too, however this was because the original shorts take place two years before the show.
And the fourth season makes everything seemed as if was from a crayon book.
Body Horror: In "Skrawl's Brain", Rudy's plan of saving the day involves giving said brain a body of it's own. However, to make it work, he has it's eyes, nose, ears, and mouth disconnected and, once the brain was inside, reconnected in the wrong spots. The end result is just as horrifying as you'd think.
Also: "RUDY! YOU GOTTA DRAW SOMETHING!" Usually Snap, sometimes Penny.
Chekhov's Gun: In "The Quicksand Man", the knowledge that scraping a chalkboard in the real world sounds LOUDER AND WORSE in Chalkzone is used to defeat the title character.
In "Gift Adrift", the safety pin bow tie for Rudy's birthday present for his dad (a vacuum) ended up preventing Chalkzone's destruction from said vacuum.
Create Your Own Villain: Literally with Skrawl, who is a drawing that Rudy tried drawing for someone's birthday party only for it to be hijacked by a room full of kids and made into the mismatched creature he ultimately became.
Cyclops: Biclops was one before Rudy drew him another eye.
Darkest Hour: In "Gift Adrift", Penny and Rudy were forced to attempt to leave the remains of Chalkzone as a vacuum was sucking up the last remaining strip they were on. Luckily, Rudy got the idea to puncture the bag.
Deadpan Snarker: Penny and Snap, a lot of the time. Rudy has his moments as well.
It has been noted that some people think Rudolph is significantly less embarrassing than Rudy, to say nothing of rhyming with your last name.. or the last name itself.
BEANIE BOYS, BEANIE BOYS, WE'RE THE BOYS THAT SKRAWL EMPLOYS. HA HA HA HA HEE HEE HEE HEE HO HO HO HO HA.
Embarrassing Middle Name: Reggie Bullnerd's full name is long and embarrassing. Rudy had to find a chalk creation of Reggie's in one episode that Reggie had created to frame Rudy, finding out Bullnerd's full name from it and using it to blackmail Reggie into admitting his guilt.
In one episode, Rudy had to prevent his dad from getting seen nude in public.
There's also the episode "The Smooch". In the episode, Snap gets kissed by a bird. As the bird kisses him, its head goes out of camera and we see its tail feathers straighten suddenly. It then gets up with a smile on its face and takes off.
Green Aesop: The theme of Penny's speech in "Mother Tongue".
Guilty Pleasure: The show is sugary-sweet and pretty cheesy. It still attracts fans.
Happily Married: Rudy's parents. In one episodes, he finds a drawing of them they did when they were young and just about to be engaged, and helps them get to a party together.
Keep Circulating the Tapes: For a long time this show basically did not exist on the internet at all, with no torrents or episode downloads. Now as of June 2010 the whole series is downloadable, but does take some digging to find.
Kid Hero: Snap, who's supposed to look like a tough superhero... and ended up looking like Hello Kitty. Rudy also counts seeing as he's in 5th grade.
Let's Meet the Meat: In one episode Snap comes across a talking burger than begs to be eaten. Snap is understandably freaked out about it. Especially when it has lines like this:
Line-of-Sight Name: How Snap receives his "last name": after Penny quickly notices a box of "White Lightning Chalk" in the school, she gives Snap's full name as "Snap White".
Long Runner: The show actually lasted seven years, though a lot of people think it was a Short Runner.
Man Child: All the adults in Water Water, Everywhere. Justified in that Rudy accidentally drew a portal into the Wait N' See and the water somehow made the adults child-like.
Meaningful Name: Skrawl's name comes from the fact that he was "scrawled" onto a chalkboard.
Mind Screw: Ms. Tweezer, when Rudy releases the inhabitants of Chalkzone against her, experiences one.
"The White Board", which can be considered to be Chalkzone's answer to "One Plus One Equals Ed".
In fact, a plot point in "Double Trouble" had Skrawl and Craniac 4 attempt to destroy it.
Mythology Gag: It may be unintentional, but Snap's color scheme in darker environments (as seen in "The Quicksand Man") is identical to his color scheme in the original "Oh Yeah!" shorts.
Not to mention "Draw and Let Draw", where Rudy upsets a LOT of chalk drawings by "fixing" them before they were erased. Too be fair, he states that he had lots of experience where chalk drawings were erased that caused problems—unfortunately his claim of a 'sixth sense' wasn't that accurate in this case.
Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Rudy submits the idea of vampire cannibals to a comic, and doesn't understand why it got rejected because it's edgy. Penny says that vampire cannibals might be a little too edgy.
The "Haha" Men. (Their appearance is crowned by them actually singing one of their models' songs).
Only Sane Man: Biclops & The Indi...or rather "Native American" guy from "Water, Water Everywhere"
Phlebotinum Induced Stupidity: The Smart Bomb that Craniac 3 attempts to send after Rudy in "Future Zone" refuses to let itself be blown up, so the robot opts for a Dumb Dart instead.
Parental Bonus: It's safe to say that this show can use this trope to a T. Such examples include:
During the battle between Rudy and the chalk robot in "Double Trouble", Rudy spawns a mirror to redirect a laser beam, while declaring "Here's looking at you, kid."
Punny Name: Most are combined with Visual Pun, but one other example is Queen Rapsheeba, whose name is a pun on the Biblical figure the Queen of Sheba.
Puppy Love: Rudy and Penny, though this is actually a Justified Trope because Rudy has a rather obvious crush on Penny.
Real Is Brown: Rudy and Penny's world consists mostly of brown and olive colors.
Running Gag: Every time someone asked where a citizen of Chalkzone came from? The answer was from Greenland.
A season two episode shows that he apparently got it from his father.
And Ms. Tweezer, who hates anything "unreal".
Save the Villain: Rudy has had to bail out Reggie Bullnerd several times when he got the blame for something Rudy did.
Screwed by the Network: First off, the first episode of season one aired in late 1999. Then the show made it's true debut in 2002. New episodes didn't come until mid 2003, and the rest of the show aired on Nick Toons (exept for the Series Finale).
Series Continuity Error: A major factor of the plot for "Disarmed Rudy" (a season 4 episode) was that the arm Rudy draws with is broken, so he has to use his non-dominant arm (which draws poorly). However, a brief scene in "Skrawl's Brain" (a season 3 episode) showed that Rudy was ambidextrous (see Dual Wielding).
The rate chalk creations dissolve in water varies WILDLY, ranging from instantaneous (Snap's hand in "Snap Out Of Water") to moderate (the bobble head machine in "Power Play") to very slow (the chalk version of Odin's helmet in "the Heist").
To drive the point home, both Snap's hand and the helmet were erased under the same conditions: rain.
Somewhere an Ornithologist Is Crying: In "Chalk Queen", Penny points to a drawing of a short, fuzzy brown owl with white eyes and claims that it is a Barn Owl. Though it obviously wasn't any real type of owl, it would have been acceptable if she claimed it to be a species that is vaguely similar to the drawing.
Sugar Apocalypse: Invoked in "Gift Adrift": Chalkzone plus a chalk dust targeting vacuum from the real world.
It got so bad that by the time Rudy got the idea to puncture the bag open (releasing Chalkzone), all that remained was a green strip and a blank, endless void.
Also kinda invoked in "Waste Mountain": Magic Chalk Mine plus 3 (ripped) real world garbage bags filled with cheezeburger smoothies.
This is always averted when concerning the secret of Chalkzone being threatened. The best example concerns "Hole In The Wall", where Rudy must get a construction manager, Vinnie Ritone out of Chalkzone before he turns it into a amusement park.
This turns into a 3 season arc of sorts because even though he got sent out, Ritone wants back in.
A rare non-Rudy involved example: In "Let's Twister Again", a little kid called Sonny keeps drawing and erasing tornados into Chalkzone (and then later thunder storms) due to being inspired by his mom's job as a weather reporter. However, by the end, he switches to rainbows after seeing Penny's prism. Guess how much better things got.
Summon Bigger Fish: When being kidnapped and harassed by Craniac 3, Rudy draws Craniac 4, making #3 obsolete and put into frozen suspension along with Craniacs 1 and 2. It seems to work well... until Craniac 4 starts chasing Rudy intending to get Rudy's "instant matter materializer"
Talking to Himself: Candi Milo voiced both Snap and Reggie Bullnerd. The two argue in "Snap Out Of Water", amongst other episodes.
Took a Level in Badass: Drawing wise, Rudy's first ever drawing was Blocky in 1st grade. 2nd grade? He made an old woman in a bathtub and by fifth grade, his mom stated that it took him only four weeks for the newspaper to get his comics published whereas the mom took four years for a single article.
Villain Song: "Skrawl's Song", which gets a few updates/reprises among various episode.
HEY! HEY! HEY!
Visual Pun: Considering this was Scribblenauts: The TV Show, it was rife with this. For example, to contact Biclops in one episode, Rudy draws up some "homing bacon". As in a piece of flying bacon with a robot voice.
Vocal Evolution: The Oh Yeah! Cartoons shorts gave Rudy a higher pitched voice (justified, he was younger than he was in the actual show), and Snap's accent got heavier (he also had a higher voice in early episodes).
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