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Super 4 is a French computer-animated series based on Playmobil.

The setting is a world composed of several dissimilar lands, mainly Kingsland (a medieval setting), the Enchanted Island (inhabited by fairies), Gunpowder Island (inhabited by pirates), Technopolis (a futuristic setting) and The Lost World (an uncivilized island with dinosaurs).

The four main heroes are Prince Alex from Kingsland, Ruby from Gunpowder Island, Twinkle from the Enchanted Island, and Gene from Technopolis. They travel around the world in their ship, the Chameleon, and face several villains, mainly the pirates led by Captain Sharkbeard, the witch Baba Cara, the Black Baron or Dr X.

On July 1st, 2017, the show debuted on over-the-air television in the US as part of the KidsClick block of shows.


Super 4 provides examples of:

  • Action Girl: Ruby aggressively so, though Twinkle is no pushover, either.
  • All Your Powers Combined: The Sycronians built a machine that absorb the powers of denizens from the four realms and transfer them to one of them, who becomes better than all the heroes combined, easily besting Alex and Ruby at swordfighting, locking Gene out of the computer system and absorbing Twinkle's spells. Thankfully for the heroes, he also absorbed their weaknesses.
  • Arbitrary Skepticism: Gene adamantly insists that ghosts don't exist in a world already including fairies and dragons. Sure, their first two encounters were "Scooby-Doo" Hoaxes, but there are genuine ghosts too, including one prisoner of a vial in Alex's castle.
  • Beam-O-War: Witch Baba Cara and the Queen Fairy have a magical duel under this form in "Some Like It Magical".
  • Berserk Button:
    • Telling Ruby that she should Stay in the Kitchen, or any variation thereof, is a sure way to get into a sword fight. Even invoked by Alex in "The Final Countdown".
    • For Gene, doing anything to the Chameleon. The only time he ever loses his cool is when it gets stolen.
    • The mere sight of Twinkle on the Enchanted Island is this for the Fairy Queen. Even after Twinkle turns her back to normal in one story. Yes, her grudge against Twinkle is that bad....
  • Bewitched Amphibians:
    • The backstory of Twinkle the Fairy is that she got exiled from Enchanted Island for (accidentally) turning the Queen Fairy into a (talking) frog. Attempts to turn her back all fall short thanks to Status Quo Is God. The one time it works, the Queen then tries to punish Twinkle... only to have her spell bounce off a mirror, and back at her, turning her back into a frog.
    • Although Twinkle can't quite be called an Inept Mage, when attempting any other kind of transformations, a mishap most commonly defaults to "turned into frog". Sometimes it's a giant one, though.
  • Big Bad Ensemble: Black Baron and The Colossus, Baba Cara, Sharkbeard, Fourchesac, and Skyronior are the show's main antagonists but are in opposition of each other. Dr. X is usually Obliviously Evil as well. Pretty much all of the antagonists darken the tone of the series whenever they show up to cause trouble, and all of them besides Dr. X (due to causing trouble through incompetence) are played seriously.
  • Call-Forward: In Ruby's origin story, Captain Sharkbeard ponders that they ought to stock their gunpowder in a safer place than the tower at the port's entrance, preferably the volcano. This nearly causes the whole Pirate Island to blow up later.
  • Character Focus: The show is very focused on Ruby, as most of the episodes revolve around her or her reckless antics as a pirate.
  • Colossus Climb: Alex climbs upon the Black Colossus (actually the Black Baron in disguise) to fight him while reduced to tiny size. Not that he's doing any damage to the armored giant, but he takes him out by Deadly Dodging.
  • Cutting the Knot: The gang has once to retrieve a precious item from a room where the floor is trapped. Ruby and Gene starts to argue on the best way, Ruby being ready for some daredevil acrobatics while Gene insists on a technological solution. Meanwhile, Twinkle just flies inside the room and retrieve the item.
  • Damsel in Distress:
    • This is the whole job of Princess Léonore, Alex's sister. She has dozen of stories to tell her friends about former kidnappings.
    • On the other hand, don't try to put Ruby in this role: she really hates it, and will violently express her disapproval as soon as freed.
    • The pirates once attract the team into a trap by luring them with a "damsel" in distress... in fact a pirate Disguised in Drag.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Gene is always deadpan, and it doesn't take much for him to lay out the sarcasm.
  • Department of Redundancy Department: Dr. X calls Rock Brock an idiotic idiot.
  • The Ditz: Twinkle's naïveté can reach extreme levels sometimes.
  • Enemy Mine: It has happened very rarely, but the Super 4 have occasionally had to team up with one of the main antagonists as part of a scheme of some sort, or at least had to tolerate each other. The end result is usually that it Goes Horribly Wrong.
  • Evil Twin: Thanks to Dr. X cloning machine, the four human heroes have evil clones, who are just as evil as they are heroic (and coloured as a negative version of the originals). They are also just as hostile toward each other as the heroes are friendly toward another, which severely reduces their efficiency.
  • Expy: Alex is very similar to Prince Valiant.
  • Fantastic Racism: A kid-friendly version. Due to each of the four worlds being in separate cultures, they're prone to making stereotypes about each other. This is invoked as part of the conflict in some episodes.
  • Fantasy Kitchen Sink: There are fairies, knights, pirates, robots, dinosaurs, etc.
  • Fashionable Asymmetry:
    • Alex wears chainmail on the left arm, but bracer and shoulderpad on the right. Also, his pants are yellow on one leg and white on the other.
    • Ruby wears a gold earring, er, hair-ring only on the left.
  • Flight: Twinkle, like all fairies, has translucent wings and can fly. In fact, she moves around this way more often than by ever walking.
  • Gratuitous English: The title is Super Four even in the French version. Although the way it's pronounced, it sounds like "Super Forts" (i.e. "Super Strong/Awesome"). In fact, when Twinkle tries to form her own team among her fellow fairies, she calls themselves "Super Fortes" (super [female] strong) in the French dub.
  • Hand Cannon: Literally, in the case of one of the pirates, who has a small military cannon in place of a hand.
  • Happily Adopted: Ruby was found by a pirate, Rubens, who quit piracy to rear her. While she didn't like the peaceful life and wanted to be a pirate herself, she still loves her father.
  • Harmless Villain: Fourchesac the Wizard shows elements of this trope, especially in the now-notorious episode "Song of the Stork" which involves a Love Potion (albeit at G-Rated Drug levels). He's not quite a Knight of Cerebus, but often gets Hoist by His Own Petard.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard:
    • Happens a fair bit to Fourchesac; first of all gaining red eyes due to a Love Potion in "Song of the Stork", and then Shapeshifting into King Kenric (when Alex said "We may as well have two kings then").
    • This happens to the Fairy Queen after Twinkle turns her back into a fairy. When the Queen tries to turn Twinkle into a frog like she once was, it bounces off a mirror and turns the Queen back into a frog.
  • Insufferable Genius: Dr. X likes to boast about his superior intelligence. He takes it badly when anybody outsmarts him.
  • Instrumental Theme Tune: The French version opted for an instrumental theme, while the distinctively unique version with lyrics airs worldwide.
  • Knight in Shining Armor: While Alex may not be as armored as other Kingsland knights, he fits the personality to a T.
  • Limited Wardrobe: A stricter example than most: the character models are always identical, keeping the same clothes even when sleeping, bar a few instances of disguises.
  • Logic Bomb: Gene defeats one of Dr X's robots by asking it to compute 1 divided by 3. The robot answers "zero point three... three... three..." and remains stuck there. The end of the episode show it still repeating "three" over and over again.
  • Magical Incantation: Fairies need to say some rhyming sentences to cast their spells, although sometimes just waving their wand works.
  • The Magic Touch: Ruby in "The Goose with the Golden Eggs". However, Twinkle lampshades the Blessed with Suck aspect; soon enough, Sharkbeard and the other pirates use her as their titular "golden goose".
  • McGuffin: The Golden Teapot of Kingsland is a frequent target of theft.
  • Merchandise-Driven: In the sense that the series is based on the Playmobil toyline. There are even sets made based off the show.
  • Motivation on a Stick: The episode "Chasing the Chameleon" has the team pursuing their vehicle seized by pirates, by riding a pterosaur they're directing with a fish dangling from a stick. The ride ain't exactly smooth, though.
  • My Greatest Failure: Twinkle is no longer welcome in her homeworld after accidentally turning the Queen of Fairies into a frog.
  • Only Six Faces: Naturally, since they are Playmobil figures, there is basically Only One Face. The characters are differentiated by clothes, hair, facial hair, eyes and skin color — and nothing else. They have a variety of body types to make up for this, though.
  • Pirate Girl: Ruby the Red. Reared on Pirate Island as a tavern wench, her dream was to join a pirate crew for a long time, but she had trouble imposing herself among the macho pirates. She's as rough and rowdy as any of them, however; don't try to have her play Damsel in Distress or tell her to Stay in the Kitchen if you're not ready for a swordfight.
  • Ragtag Band of Misfits: All of the heroes are outcasts in their homelands (especially Twinkle) and come from a variety of backgrounds.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure:
    • King Kenric, the ruler of Kingsland, is almost always on the side of the heroes even when appearances are against them. It helps that their de facto leader is his son.
    • Inverted by the Fairy Queen, who continues to hold a grudge against Twinkle, even after Twinkle turns the Queen back into a true self. She's shown to be also a pretty terrible boss on the rare occasions when she is not a frog, such as for instance organising a contest to elect the best fairy, only to give the award to herself in the end because "she's the most beautiful".
    • Conversely, the Grand Fairy, who is the wisest and oldest fairy, is almost always on the heroes' side and occasionally comes to Twinkle's defence against the Queen.
  • Retractable Weapon: Alex's sword blade is retractable, being half as long when in its sheath. He once elongates it much further to use as an impromptu perch, although that's in an Imagine Spot.
  • Ridiculously Cute Critter: Alien.
  • Security Cling: Sir Archibald jumps into Sir Garrett's arms upon seeing a ghost.
  • Status Quo Is God: Invoked for (dark) humor. Twinkle manages to cure the curse she had placed on the Fairy Queen. However, the less-than-grateful queen then tries to inflict the same curse on Twinkle, only for it to bounce off of a mirror and hit her. And all because of (in the Queen's eyes) the mistake Twinkle made in the first place.
  • The Stoic: Gene is very serious. However, he seems a happy guy when compared to other inhabitants of Technopolis.
  • Set Swords to "Stun": Swords are only ever used to knock opponents down or disarm them.
  • Super Wrist-Gadget: Gene's wristband is a portable computer with a holographic display. He uses it about all the time for many diverse functions, including an Everything Sensor.
  • Theme Tune Roll Call: "Ruby, Twinkle, Alex, and Geeeeene!"
  • Throwing Down the Gauntlet: Literal example, several times, in "A Colossal Challenge", to defy the Baron by throwing a gauntlet at his head. After the third or fourth times, he just shakes his head in annoyance.
  • Token Evil Teammate: Ruby is a family-friendly version of the trope, as she tends to be focused on stealing treasure, but is still loyal to her friends.
  • Tomboy and Girly Girl: Ruby (pirate girl with a G-rated potty mouth) and Twinkle (Friend to All Living Things Nice Girl).
  • Transforming Vehicle: The Chameleon can change form to fit into whatever world they visit. It looks like a high-tech car in its origin city of Technopolis, but turns into a wooden ship around Gunpowder Island, a siege engine in the medieval Kingsland, and an ethereal floating ship on the Enchanted Island.
  • Translation Train Wreck: The show's second theme tune (with lyrics) is impossible to transcribe due to the female singer's lack of enunciation for certain lyrics, to the point that the subtitles for any broadcasting network get confused as to what is being sung.
  • Two Girls to a Team: Ruby and Twinkle.
  • Wild Card: Dr X, the ruler of Technopolis, can be either an ally or an enemy depending on the episode.
  • X-Ray Sparks:
    • The Tyrannosaurus rex in the "Origins" episode, while trying to attack the Chameleon, gets quite the shock when Gene activates the defense system, highlighting its whole skeleton.
    • Dr X, while holding a robot that gets hit by lightning, turns into a luminous skeleton.
  • You Can't Go Home Again: Twinkle finally succeeds in turning the Fairy Queen back into her true self... only for the Queen to be ungrateful, and continue to hold a grudge due to the mistake Twinkle made in the first place. This leads her to try turning Twinkle into the frog she once was. In other words, despite making it right, it didn't make any difference, and as a result, Twinkle is still exiled from her home...
  • Zombie Apocalypse: A G-Rated version in "Song of the Stork".

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