Mr. Trance (often stylized as Mr.Trance) is a Colombian animated comedy by Valerio Veneras, airing on Señal Colombia and Cartoon Network Latin America. It first began airing in 2013, with its latest third season releasing in 2019. Episodes are gradually being reuploaded onto the show's official YouTube channel
for free.
The series follows the titular Mr. Trance, a mostly average civilian in the big city, facing the hurdles that everyday life and adulthood naturally bring - financial trouble, romantic blunders, getting fit, you name it. Even if life gets him down sometimes, Mr. Trance always manages to solve the problem within 5 or so minutes with the help of his imagination.
Mr. Trance first originated through stories on Valerio Vaneras' radio show "La Hora Trance" (Trance Hour), before starring in the book "Historias del Sr. Trance" (Tales of Mr. Trance), which contained illustrated adaptations of stories told on the radio program. Finally, Mr. Trance would make his animated debut in the short "Mr. Trance. Un Dia en el Ministerio" (A Day at the Ministry), with his full animated series coming out around 3 years after its release.
Mr. Trance contains examples of:
- Adaptation Name Change: A subtle one, but our titular protagonist goes from being a Sr. to a Mr., in both Spanish and English.
- Alien Abduction: Aliens teleport 3 people (and a dog) to their ship in "Los Visitantes", wanting to scan their brains and transport objects from thoughts and memories into reality.
- Amazing Technicolor Population: All humans are depicted with desaturated colors as skin tones; most commonly blue, green, red, purple, and grey.
- Ambiguously Human: Mr. Trance, Mrs. Trance, and Mama Trance. They don't appear human among the clearly human (albeit strangely colored) side and background characters, but they're never treated as abnormal in-universe. The closest thing we have to a descriptor of their kind is the official website saying Mr. Trance looks like a "stylish porcupine".
- Author Avatar: A caricature of creator Valerio Veneras appears in a few episodes as Mr. Trance's friend.
- Big "NO!": It's pretty common for Mr. Trance to react this way to things going wrong, though at times it's just a scream rather than a full "no".
- Big "YES!": Essentially Mr. Trance's Catchphrase, though it does sometimes come from other characters.
- Books vs. Screens: The plot of "Redes Sociales" involves Mr. Trance turning down reading for the sake of screen time, with him realizing at the end that reading can be much more magical.
- Burger Fool: Sharp Food's meals cause exhaustion and weight gain in its customers, leading to a boycott campaign run by Mr. and Mrs. Trance to get them shut down.
- Chick Magnet: Mr. Trance often seems to have attractive young women smirking and ogling at him. Becomes downplayed when he gets a girlfriend, though he still makes a bit of an effort to look good in front of other women from time to time.
- Cuddle Bug: Chuss will hug anybody, even if they're a complete stranger.
- Disgusting Vegetarian Food: Mr. Trance is barely able to stomach the mostly-vegetable meals Mrs. Trance gets him to eat. Eventually subverted by Mrs. Trance finding vegetarian recipes meant to still taste good for non-vegetarians, and Mr. Trance clearly loving the fake chicken burger she ends up making for him.
- Distaff Counterpart: Mrs. Trance could be regarded as this, with her basically being Mr. Trance but more feminine appearance-wise. Her name's even Mrs. Trance when they first meet!
- Embarrassing Old Photo: Mama Trance has a photo of a young Mr. Trance on the toilet, looking rather spooked. She shows it a handful of times throughout the series.
- The Everyman: Mr. Trance, with most episodes showing him dealing with relatable everyday problems (albeit with often unusual solutions).
- Fictional Social Network: Trancebook and Twit Trance.
- Freudian Couch: Used whenever Mr. Trance visits his therapist.
- Geek Physique: Juan is a fat, balding neckbeard with glasses and clothes that hardly even fit him. A rare mostly positive portrayal of this, with him being Mr. Trance's best friend and trusty tech guy. It's only really Played for Laughs when Trance first reunites with him after many years and is appalled by how much he's changed, plus a few fat visual gags here and there.
- Granny Classic: Mama Trance, though she's Mr. Trance's mother and not a grandmother.
- G-Rated Stoner: Chuss inevitably comes off as this thanks to his hippy aesthetic. He's often shown smoking something that is all but said to be drugs.
- The Guards Must Be Crazy: In "Crisis", Mr. Trance easily sneaks into the conference's tech room, because one of the guards was distracted showing the other guard his scars. The tech guy inside was also conveniently asleep.
- Heroic Mime: Our titular protagonist. He can only really say the occasional brief word (most often yes and no), and even if all of his peers speak Simlish, he never even does this. He definitely is able to speak to some degree though, being able to call people no problem. But whenever he does try to speak on-screen, he's either interrupted immediately, or his mouth moves yet nothing comes out.
- Innocent Aliens: In "Los Visitantes", the aliens that abduct Mr. Sharp, Mama Trance, and Mr. Trance seem more interested in scanning their brains than harming them.
- Love at First Note: Mr. Trance might've fallen in love at first sight, but it seems Mrs. Trance only truly began to feel lovestruck too when he sang a song (and played the guitar) for her at her school party.
- Love at First Sight: Mr. Trance upon first seeing his soon-to-be-girlfriend Mrs. Trance.
- Marijuana Is LSD: In "Homeopatia Trance", Mr. Trance has smoke blown at him by Chuss that seems to make him trip out in psychedelic segments. It's not explicitly marijuana, but knowing Chuss...
- Mind-Control Eyes: A recurring theme, the show's called Mr. Trance after all, though it can get conflicting. Sometimes it's shown to represent genuine mind control (such as in "Cool Radio"), and other times it seems to simply represent an extreme fascination for something. It's especially common when a character listens to music they enjoy.
- Mind-Control Music: The episode "Cool Radio" has Chuss' radio station be acquired by Mr. Sharp, who makes it play dubstep music that hypnotizes listeners into wanting to spend money.
- Momma's Boy: Subverted with Mr. Trance and Mama Trance. The episode "Tupper Trance" follows Mr. Trance becoming sick of his mom constantly visiting and mothering him, but when he finally gets it to stop, he realizes how much he actually enjoyed being loved so much by her.
- Motor Mouth: Mama Trance never seems to know when to stop talking, much to the exhaustion of her son.
- Needlework Is for Old People: Mama Trance is often shown knitting while watching soap operas.
- New-Age Retro Hippie: Essentially everything about Chaman Chuss.
- Not What It Looks Like: When Mr. Trance finally finds Mrs. Trance at her art school, he starts to approach her... only to be stopped by one of his past dates, who kisses him on the cheek. This gives Mrs. T the wrong idea that Mr. T and the girl are still an item, and she walks away with an upturned nose, Mr. T unable to stop her.
- Pets as a Present: Byron was initially bought as a gift for Mama Trance so she would be less lonely. She doesn't appreciate the gift, however, as she scolds her son and his girlfriend about how much harder owning a dog would supposedly make her life.
- Potty Emergency: It's not hard to guess what Mr. Trance is doing when running off after his stomach rumbles upon eating Mrs. Trance's vegetarian food.
- Protagonist Title
- Pubescent Braces: Mr. Trance sports these as a kid, along with a nerdy pair of glasses.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: Mr. Trance is almost always this, wearing his spiffy purple suit no matter the occasion. He seldom sports casual clothing, besides his pyjamas, and him sometimes removing his jacket and tie.
- Mrs. Trance could also be considered a female variation of this. Her usual outfit; a fancy dress, jacket, pearls, and heels; make her appear constantly ready for a night on the town.
- Social Media Is Bad: In "Redes Sociales", Mr. Trance wastes away a day on his computer, and is horrified when he realizes how dependent he and others in society have become on social media. The solution to this? Turning off the wi-fi, and reading a book.
- Speaking Simlish: The characters in the show mostly don't speak, and when they do, it comes out as gibberish (with maybe a comprehensive word every now and again, but only if you listen for it).
- Mr. Trance is notably the only recurring character to have never technically spoken, beyond his semi-catchphrase "yes" and every so often screaming "no".
- Episodes featuring Mama Trance are guaranteed to have this, with her being the resident Motor Mouth of the main cast.
- Urban Fantasy: The series takes place in a generic big city, but things like vampires and aliens are shown to be real, and magic such as mind control is possible.
- Urine Trouble: A recurring joke when Byron's a puppy. When he becomes fully grown, he's still shown to use the bathroom a lot, but he now knows where to properly do it.
