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Running for only four episodes in 1999, this is the most obscure piece of media connected to Ubisoft's Rayman video game series. This series starts out with Rayman as a captive in Rigatoni's circus, along with new characters Lac Mac, Cookie, Betina, and Flips. After escaping the circus, they have to find their way through the city of Aeropolis, with Inspector Grub hot on their trail.
Where exactly this all fits in the Rayman continuity is anyone's guess. Notably, Razorbeard, the antagonist of Rayman 2: The Great Escape, does show up in the first episode, although he is reduced to a minion of Rigatoni. The series was supposed to run for 26 episodes, so it might have tied in at some point.
Tropes include:
- Adaptational Wimp: Razorbeard, the Big Bad of Rayman 2, is an incompetent lackey.
- All-CGI Cartoon: A very early example.
- Alliterative Name: Inverted with Lac Mac.
- Ambiguously Human: Betina's species is not confirmed but she looks like a human girl. In this case, she would qualify as a Token Human.
- And I'm the Queen of Sheba: In "High Anxiety", when the asylum staff mistake Grub for one of the patients, Grub tells them he's a police officer, to which the staff member retorts "And I'm the fire chief!".
- Animated Adaptation: Of the Rayman series.
- Big Bad: Rigatoni.
- Bottle Episode: The last episode takes place almost entirely in Grub's house.
- Butt-Monkey: Both Cookie and Grub.
- Canon Foreigner: Lac Mac, Cookie, Betina, Flips, Rigatoni, Inspector Grub, and everyone else barring Razorbeard and Rayman himself have never appeared anywhere in the games.
- Cartoon Creature: Cookie is supposed to be a mole with a large snout, but looks like some sort of dog-like creature. Everyone in the woodland town counts as these.
- Captain Colorbeard: Razorbeard.
- The Complainer Is Always Wrong: Cookie is the prime example of this towards Rayman and his friends (Lac Mac being the only one who doesn't scorn or show resentment towards him).
- Cut Short: The show was canceled after four episodes and never gave a conclusion to the story.
- Demoted to Extra: Razorbeard, the Big Bad of Rayman 2: The Great Escape, is reduced to a lackey of Rigatoni and is only seen in a single episode.
- Dramatic Irony: The second episode ends with The Reveal that the escapees' new hideout is right above Grub's house.
- Drives Like Crazy: Played With in "No Parking", where Lac Mac started to drive from the backseat, where Rayman stops him so he could get everyone to safety.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Upon seeing Lac Mac's metal-bending trick, Rayman and Betina both realize that he could use his strength to help the group finally escape from their cages.
- Guile Hero: Rayman uses his wits and ideas for the majority of the series more often than he uses his powers like in the second episode.
- Great Escape: The first episode.
- Hero Antagonist: Inspector Grub, who's just doing his job as a police officer by trying to catch what he believes to be a group of criminals because of his semi-bumbling nature.
- Idiot Ball: Similar to a certain film, the prisoners fail to realize that Lac Mac, being able to bend steel bars, should be able to escape from his cage with relative ease until Rayman tells them.
- I Just Want to Be Free: What kicks off the plot; Rayman and friends are slaves in Rigatoni's circus, and escape in the first episode. Rigatoni hires Grub to recapture them.
- In Name Only: This series has very little ties to the original games. Aside from the appearance of Razorbeard (who was Demoted to Extra anyway, and has no connection to his video game counterpart) and Rayman himself, you would never guess this had anything to do with the games at all.
- Instrumental Theme Tune: The main theme for the series contains no lyrics.
- The Klutz: Also Inspector Grub, he's a bumbling detective whose clumsiness is played with in both episodes "High Anxiety" and most especially "Big Date".
- Kindhearted Simpleton: Lac Mac obviously has low intelligence, but he has not once shown any malicious mean bone in his body and cares a lot about his friends. And in spite of his ugly and stupid appearance, he's more of a good fellow than one would imply. Especially when the audience sympathizes with how he is treated at the circus and has shown to be a good friend towards Rayman and his friends.
- Mondegreen Gag: In "High Anxiety", when the doctor asks Cookie to read an eye chart, he reads off "G-U-R-A-Q-T-I-N-V-U". This ends up sounding like "Gee, you are a cutie, I envy you" to the doctor and he gets flattered by what Cookie said.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Rayman fools Inspector Grub by disguising himself as a tourist with a fold-out sign, a teacup to hide his hair and a poor British accent - despite doing nothing to cover his big nose and Floating Limbs, this disguise fools Grub so thoroughly that he only realizes he's talking to one of the criminals he's supposed to be catching when said criminal takes off the teacup.
- Prison Episode: The third episode, where the heroes venture into an asylum to break Cookie out.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Inspector Grub. In the final episode, Rayman and his friends even set up a date for him.
- Scooby-Dooby Doors: Happens in the asylum from "High Anxiety".
- Shipper with an Agenda: In "Big Date", the gang secretly help Grub with the titular date on the basis that if he has a girlfriend, he'll be too busy to pursue them anymore.
- Shout-Out: A few jack-in-the-boxes looking like Ed from Tonic Trouble are spotted in the second episode.
- Singing Telegram: In the last episode, after Grub's date goes wrong due to his clumsiness, Rayman tries to salvage it by posing as a singing telegram at his date's house, offering her flowers and another date with Grub at the movies.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: A strong yet dumb, friendly, primarily blue-and-white creature who happens to be a friend of Rayman? Are we talking about Globox or Lac Mac?
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: This appears rather occasionally (e.g "No Parking" and "Big Date" being prime examples), with Betina being the Girly Girl to Flips' Tomboyish Girl.
- Wrongfully Committed:
- In the third episode, Cookie gets taken to the hospital for a checkup, but when the doctor learns about Cookie's anxiety by scanning his brain, he gets sent to the asylum beneath the hospital. To make matters worse, Inspector Grub is also visiting the asylum to see his mother, so Rayman and friends try to bust Cookie out.
- Grub ends up on the receiving end when the orderlies mistake him for another patient.
