Blasting off to new heights of adventure!
The Rocketeer is a Disney Junior show
which debuted on November 8, 2019. Based on the Dave Stevens comic of the same name, the show is as follows:
"A young girl named Kit Secord receives a surprise package on her birthday revealing that she’s next in line to become the Rocketeer, a legendary superhero who has the ability to fly with the help of a rocket-powered jet pack. Armed with her cool new gear and secret identity, Kit is ready to take flight and save the day with her gadget-minded best friend, Tesh, and airplane-mechanic grandfather, Ambrose, and her pet bulldog, Butch, who join her on epic adventures to help the people of her hometown and defend it against a variety of villains."
The show was not renewed past its first season and ended on July 25, 2020.
The show is executive produced by Nicole Dubuc.
This show provides examples of:
- Actor Allusion:
- Ted Allen of Chopped fame voices the Cast-Iron Chef, another chef.
- Frank Welker voicing Butch isn't the only time he's voiced a dog named Butch .
- The episode "Hypnotic Hughsville", where everyone is hypnotized into acting like their favorite animal, has Ambrose acting like a monkey. This wouldn't be the first he voiced a monkey.
- Affirmative-Action Legacy: Donning the Rocketeer jetpack and garb, Kit is the first young and female Rocketeer in the franchise's history to don the mantle.
- All-CGI Cartoon: Like most Disney Junior shows, it's animated in CGI.
- Art Evolution: The series logo was originally pitched with a straight, brown gunmetal look◊ similar to the aesthetic of the original Rocketeer. For its official debut, the logo better reflects Kit's iteration of the role, donning a pink color and curved look.
- Blatant Lies: Kit's constant excuses to protect her identity as the Rocketeer.
- Braids of Action: Kit sports her hair in braids.
- Brick Joke: In "The Hughesville Howler", five years after the first time the Howler was seen, Lucille says the blurred picture Goose took of the Howler is actually a bear. When Sylvester Slapdash is caught impersonating the Howler to distract everyone, Goose says he knew it wasn't the real Howler because Slapdash didn't look blurred enough. The epilogue features Kit and Tesh presenting a new picture which Goose recognizes as being the real Howler and Lucille still believes to be a bear.
- Broad Strokes: The series is somewhat a Distant Sequel to the 1991 film and has several references to the film, despite changing the setting from Los Angeles to the fictional town of Hughesville (a reference to Howard Hughes). Kit's father Dave is voiced by Billy Campbell, who portrayed Cliff in the film, and one episode features a photo of Jenny Blake, instead of Cliff's comic love interest Jenny Blake. Another episode references Cliff's fight with Lothar and recreated the climax of the 1991 film.
- Broken Pedestal: Tesh initially saw Xena Treme as his extreme sports idol. He could put up with her vain behavior, but lost respect for her when she stole his modified bike without a second thought. A later episode shows her losing Valerie's respect for endangering people during a stunt.
- Camera Abuse: In "Super Deany", Deany's transformation sequence ends with him crashing on the camera.
- Canine Companion: Kit's pet bulldog, Butch.
- Cat Up a Tree: "Skyway Robbery" starts with Richard climbing a tree to rescue his cat. Both the cat and the kid end up being rescued by Rocketeer.
- Christmas Episode: "The Christmas Star"
- Comically Missing the Point:
- In "Ground Control to Rocketeer", Tesh decides he needs a codename to avoid being exposed as Rocketeer's sidekick. Kit has to remind him that a codename with "Tesh" on it won't help.
- In "Big Top Problems", the Great Orsino easily sees through it when the Rocketeer and her friends disguise themselves as circus artists since her rocket pack is too unique. Deany, on the other hand, initially assumes her dog is the Rocketeer.
- The Comically Serious: Roland's watch Newton takes everything very literally, often to his annoyance.
- Connected All Along: Giving Kit's family name, she is possibly a descendant of the original Rocketeer, Cliff Secord. In the episode “The Critter Gang”, we learn Cliff is Kit’s great-grandpa, when she refers to him as such.
- Continuity Nod: In "Save the Statue", Kit says she rubs the foot of the original Rocketeer's statue for luck. A later episode ("First Class") shows her doing it before her first day in flight school.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: "Bank Job" shows Laura to be her usual spacey self, yet can also be a pretty effective thief when she's serious enough. Most notably, she got a bank job, and played everyone into her hands enough to steal the bank's money. If it wasn't for the lasers, they would've succeeded.
- Dark and Troubled Past: "Songbird Soars Again" shows this is the case for Ms. Hopper, better known as May Songbird. She was once a stunt pilot whose plane malfunctioned during a stunt. Though saved by The Rocketeer, she decided not to fly again. Thankfully, Kit manages to get to her.
- Distant Sequel: The series is set around 80 years after the setting of the comic, with Kit being the great-granddaughter of Cliff Secord. It's even implied to be a Broad Strokes sequel to the 1991 film.
- Enemy Mine:
- In "Dr. Doodlebug's Fair Game", when Dr. Doodlebug loses his watch Newton during his attempt to steal a pillbug plushie, he agrees to help the Rocketeer to stop his out-of-control invention.
- In "Big Top Problems", once the Rocketeer finds out that Orsino and Deany, instead of being the thieves she's looking for, had some of their items stolen, she asks for their help and they agree.
- In "Heart of a Hero", Sylvester Slapdash, Dr. Doodlebug and the Valkyrie help the Rocketeer to recover her rocket pack from Norman Sinclair.
- Enfant Terrible: Roland is shown to be this, where he uses his snow cone machine to stop everyone from winning the race. He enjoys being bad.
- Engineered Heroics: As "Valerie the Valkyrie", Valerie causes problems so she can look good by solving them before the Rocketeer has a chance to.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Valerie is this in a way. While she's not fond of The Rocketeer and is all about craving attention, she nonetheless doesn't like it when innocent people are put in danger.
- Face–Heel Turn: Valerie undergoes this in "Valerie The Valkyrie", where she gets shown up by The Rocketeer too many times, and becomes a villain (without her knowing) to beat her at her own game.
- Fat and Skinny: Laura and Harley, a pair of thieves who are sisters, embody this, with Harley being heavyweight and Laura being skinny.
- Faux Affably Evil: Xena Treme gives off the vibe of a cool, laid-back extreme sports star when she's actually a petty, vindictive egotist who will become famous even if other people get hurt.
- Foil:
- Kit and Valerie embody this. Kit took a past hero's mantle, is a genuine hero who became the Rocketeer to help people, is willing to team up with other heroes, and her worst reaction to being outdone is to resume being a full-time civilian; while Valerie created a new name, engineered heroic deeds to outdo the Rocketeer, works alone to keep credit for herself, and failure leads her to entertain the possibility of becoming a villain instead of a hero.
- Interestingly enough, Valerie is also a foil to Xena Treme, as highlighted in "One Trick Phony". While Valerie craves attention and is very prideful, she values Kit as a true friend and doesn't like it when innocent people are hurt. In contrast, Xena only looks out for herself and will do anything to be famous, and doesn't care if she has to hurt others.
- "Heart Of A Hero" establishes Norman Sinclair as another foil to Kit. They're both shown wanting to go off on their in being heroes. However, with Kit, it's shown that she cares about her friends and family and going off on her own is for their own protection or so they're not bothered. In contrast, Norman wants credit for being a hero in order to be better than everyone else and show up his father. The way they treat villains is also different. As Sylvester Slapdash notes, she's tough but fair, and can at least be lenient with them from time to time when they have a common goal. She also never acts high and mighty when taking them in. In contrast, Norman rounds them regardless of how severe their actions are, and thinks he's above them by constantly rubbing his ego in their faces.
- Friend-or-Idol Decision: In "Dr. Doodlebug's Fair Game", when the device he created to steal a pillbug plushie goes out of control, he must choose between saving the plushie or saving his friend Newton. He chooses Newton.
- Gilligan Cut: In "Songbird Soars Again", Kit says Tesh will be happy to learn she found May Songbird's plane. The next scene shows Tesh asking who May Songbird is.
- Goo Goo Getup: In "Save the Statue", Harley has Laura dress up like a baby as part of a plan to steal the money meant to repair the original Rocketeer's statue.
- Halloween Episode: "The Haunted House"/"The Halloween Heist". The former features the Great Orsino running a haunted house and the latter features Sylvester Slapdash trying to steal new costumes during Halloween since the Rocketter knows the ones he already has.
- How Do I Shot Web?: As shown in the preview clip, Kit hasn't quite mastered her flying abilities and is learning.
- Immune to Mind Control: Kit cannot be hypnotized by Orsino because Butch was the only dog present, and when he tried to do this to her, she pretended to be so she can lure him into jail.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While she became a villain out of jealousy towards The Rocketeer and is rather prideful and entitled, Valerie nonetheless views Kit as a valuable friend and doesn't like it when innocent people are in danger.
- Kid Hero: Despite being prepubescent, Kit actively protects her town of Hughesville and its residents from danger.
- Norman Sinclair tries to be this in the last episode but turns out to be too destructive.
- Last Episode, New Character: Norman Sinclair only appears in the last episode of the series.
- Lighter and Softer: While this would definitely be the case when adapting the source material into a kids show, the fact this series is on Disney Junior adds to this.
- Line-of-Sight Alias: In "Rocketeer Day", Sylvester Slapdash disguises himself as the original Rocketeer and has to come up with a name. Upon looking at a chicken and the picture of a barn, he comes up with "Chick Barnes".
- Minion with an F in Evil:
- Laura may be Harley's sister, but she's shown being rather ditzy yet also polite and affable, mainly just going along with what Harley says.
- Deany is anything but evil compared to Orsino.
- Nice Girl: Naturally, Kit is a kind and caring person who will do anything to protect others.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Laura (skinny) and Hartley (fat) are loosely based on Laurel and Hardy, with Punny Names.
- Not Me This Time: In "Big Top Problems", Kit assumes Orsino and Deany are behind the thefts of everyone's belongings at the circus. In actuality, they joined for innocuous reasons, and even had some of their items stolen.
- Oh Wait, This Is My Grocery List: In "Sitti's Visit", Cast-Iron Chef steals a list of ingredients Kit's Mom bought for the Bulldog Cafe and mistakes it for a recipe. He's called out for believing a recipe would use such a big amount of yeast.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Kit's full name is Katherine Secord, though everyone except her Grandpa calls her Kit.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: In "Big Top Problems", the Rocketeer, Ground Control and Butch disguise themselves as circus artists to spy on the Great Orsino. Because the Rocketeer's rocket pack is unique, Orsino easily recognizes her.
- Pretend to Be Brainwashed: Kit does this to lure Orsino into jail in "Hypnotic Hughesville".
- Poor Communication Kills: In "Pilot Error", Kit and Tesh not listening to each other causes Laura and Harley to get away every time Kit tries to catch them. Ambrose teaches them how to listen to each other. This is also the case for Laura and Harley, as Harley makes a lot of things vague, causing Laura to misinterpret them.
- Real After All: In "The Hughesville Howler", Sylvester Slapdash disguises himself as the titular Howler to distract the citizens while Lilith robs the town. After Slapdash is caught, Kit and Tesh find the real Howler.
- Rogues Gallery: The show's villains consist of Laura and Harley, Sylvester Slapdash, The Great Orsino, Deany, Cast-Iron Chef, Dr. Doodlebug, and Newton.
- Rule of Three: In "The Halloween Heist", The Rocketeer sees through Sylvester Slapdash's disguise because he already used it during three other robberies that same week.
- Saw It in a Movie Once: In "Save the Statue", Harley believes she can fly a plane because she saw somebody doing it in a movie.
- Secret Identity: Kit has to keep her identity as The Rocketeer a secret from everyone, especially her family.
- Secret-Keeper: The only ones who know that Kit is The Rocketeer are her Grandpa Ambrose, her best friend Tesh, and her pet bulldog Butch. Aunt Scarlett finds out in "Scarlett's Search"" , but she keeps it a secret anyway.
- Series Goal:
- Kit's goal is to protect Hughesville.
- Orsino's goal is to steal Kit's jetpack.
- Setting Update: The original film was set in 1938; the series is set in the present day which includes modern and digital technology.
- Shout-Out: According to Brian Hohlfeld , the scene in "Carnival Caper" where Kit has to find The Great Orsino inside the house of mirrors is essentially a lighter version of the mirror scene from The Lady from Shanghai.
- Sidekick: Tesh as Ground Control.
- Two Shorts: Each episode has 2 segments of 11 minute runtime.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: Sylvester Slapdash understands what his pet ferret Lilith says.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: In "Hot on the Trail", Tesh made a device that can, among other things, call flamingoes in spite of Kit saying it's unlikely there'll be any in the area they and their fellow Trailblazers will visit. When Laura and Harley go there to steal a gem, Laura hopes she'll see a flamingo.
- This Explains So Much: In "Hypnotic Hughesville", The Great Orsino has this reaction upon learning chickens are his assistant Deany's favorite animal.
- Title, Please!: The episode titles do not appear on screen, yet the characters still announce the episode title, which has become increasingly common on Disney Junior shows since 2018.
- Transformation Sequence: A 15 second transformation sequence plays whenever Kit puts on The Rocketeer outfit. Deany has a similar sequence in "Super Deany".
- Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Usually whenever Orsino is captured in jail, he immediately manages to escape once Kit is out of sight, and she never realizes it.
- Villain Song: "The Doodlebug Manifesto", sung by Dr. Doodlebug in "Downhill Derby."
- Wham Episode: "Rocketeer Day" reveals that Cliff Secord, who's Ambrose's father and Kit's great grandfather, is the original Rocketeer.
- Where the Hell Is Springfield?: It is never mentioned what state Hughesville is located in.
