The Secret Files of the Spy Dogs (1998-1999) was an animated television series which lasted for 22 episodes spread over 2 seasons, and aired on Fox Kids.
According to the show,
dogs are just as effective with their hands and are much smarter than humans are.
All dogs are members of a spy agency that does good.
The Secret Files of the Spy Dogs provides examples of:
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: Agent Mitzy is pink.
- Animal Superheroes: See directly below.
- Badass Adorable: The protagonists are cute little dogs, but they are also highly-trained spies.
- But Not Too Evil: The worst thing that Catastrophe does is reversibly turn dogs into cats.
- Cats Are Mean: A cyborg cat named Catastrophe is the Big Bad.
- Cone of Shame: It is revealed that the device was designed by dogs themselves - it is used by the communication teams for voice amplification.
- Cyborg: Recurring antagonist feline Catastrophe lost his tail when he ran into a rocking chair factory. He had it replaced with a mechanical prosthesis.
- Evil Is Hammy: Jim Cummings really goes all out in his portrayal of Catastrophe.
- G-Rated Drug: Catnip is (obviously) this for cats.
- Heroic Canines, Villainous Felines: The Spy Dogs area secret organization dedicated to saving the world. Their most recurring antagonist is Catastrophe, a villainous cyborg cat.
- He Who Must Not Be Seen: Dog Zero, the leader of the Spy Dogs, always has his face either obscured or pixelated.
- Hidden Supplies: Everything in most homes with a dog is actually a hugely expensive piece of spy equipment.
- Humans Are Bastards: Because they use water bowl communicators as toilets.
- Hypocritical Humor: In the episode "DNA", Cat-Ralph tells Cat-Mitzy that she really needs to control the cat impulse to take a bath in public, ignoring that dogs are also prone to licking themselves outdoors.
- Married to the Job: The leader of the Spy Dogs, Dog Zero, was once part of a Love Triangle, where he and a friend were both interested in a female dog. In the end, Dog Zero chose to step aside and dedicate his life to his work, so the other two could be happy together.
- The Masquerade: Humans are the masters of being oblivious.
- Infinite Supplies: The Spy Dogs use and lose lots of weapons and vehicles, but never have to collect taxes, bribe politicians, or rob banks to get money. Even Scribble uses a howitzer to plow a backyard. The funding source and industrial base that such a level of destruction and technology needs is never explained. There was, however, an episode focused on the dogs' efforts to gather enough money to fund the building of (yet) another moon to replace the previous one after it was unknowingly punctured by an astronaut sticking a flag pole on it.
- Mobile-Suit Human: The dogs can impersonate people through the use of robots called "Humanesks."
- Monster Is a Mommy with Puppy-Dog Eyes: A giant spider does this to Agent Mitzy. A bunny does this to Scribble.
- More Teeth than the Osmond Family: Maws, Catastrophe's Giant Mook, has a mouthful of giant metal teeth.
- My Hero, Zero: The head Spy Dog is simply known as Dog Zero.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: All of the antagonists, especially Catastrophe, because the name has "cat", his species, and is a correctly spelled, multi-syllable, non-punctuated word meaning "large and disastrous event of great significance".
- Never Say "Die": While the villain do endanger people, no one ever dies, and the Spy Dogs almost always find a non-violent solution to problems.
- Non-Humans Lack Attributes: The Spy Dogs laugh at Catastrophe for having a naked behind... only when he's more dressed than usual. We see Mitzy's naked butt in her shower scene ... nothing naughty. All that Agent Ralph must do to get dressed is to put on a collar.(Ralph has just gotten out of the shower and is completely naked)
Dog Zero: Ralph... put some clothes on.
(Ralph blushes and puts his collar on)
Dog Zero: That's better. - The Slow Walk: A giant spider tries to do this to Agent Mitzy. It doesn't work.
- Speech-Impaired Animal: Scribble, despite his companions being talking dogs.
- Stuff Blowing Up:
- Almost every episode. If there's a Spy Dog vehicle present, it will usually be destroyed, captured, or out of control by the end of the story.
- In "B.A.R.K", a military unit of Spy Dogs uses plastic explosive to demolish a flimsy staircase, and replace it just in time. They use a Kill Sat to topple a human skateboarder. They self-defeatingly send him flying past the person that they were trying to protect; the principal deflects him with her character shields. They use a folding bridge to help the principal over a crack in a sidewalk, uselessly making it larger with a mortar first. They also use a Sniper Rifle and a rocket propelled grenade to clear garbage and a ketchup truck from the principal's path. They lay waste to the city, and the human driver of the truck barely escapes.
- Swiss-Army Weapon: Mitzy's bow is her Tertiary Sexual Characteristic, a double bladed boomerang, binoculars, and a circular saw. It must have Hammerspace and an advanced battery in it or something.
- Take That!: In "Being", Mitzy warehouses an incredibly lucky, silent, and charismatic runaway Super Prototype Mobile-Suit Human "mindless automaton" named "Chauncy" by making him the President of the United States.
- Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Mitzy and Erin have bows, while Ayanna has earrings.
- Travel Cool, including with lots and lots of Cool Planes, like the one that transforms from a bunch of garbage into a rocket-powered aircraft. Catastrophe's also tail transforms into a pogo stick or a segway, depending on the situation.
- Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Catastrophe does this in every episode in which he is prominent.
- We Can Rule Together: Catastrophe tries this in "DNA"; because Mitzy and Ralph are now biologically cats, Catastrophe welcomes them into his cat-based world government.
- We Need a Distraction: Agent Mitzy does this to a Giant Spider. She uses an eggplant.
- You Will Be Assimilated: Catastrophe tries this with sabotaged flea dip in the episode "DNA", but it gets reversed, and Catastophe is temporarily turned into a dog.
