Originally designed in 1995 by Javier Mariscal to be the mascot for Hanover 2000 Expo, Twipsy starred his own cartoon in 1999 which included 26 episodes in total.
The basic premise tells about a boy named Nick who accidentally gets transported to the cyberspace through his friend's computer game and where he meets the titular Twipsy, an e-mail courier who's job is to literally speed along the information superhighway with tiny e-mail envelopes and make sure that the mails don't get lost or in the hands of viruses or other malicious programs. Eventually Nick's sister Lissie and his friend Albert manage to get Nick back with the aid of Twipsy, and by combining a printer and a scanner they create a device that works both as a portal to cyberspace and can bring Twipsy to the real world.
Not much info can be found of this series, but YouTube still has one of the intros
. It was also formerly available on Amazon Prime Video in the U.S., and likewise, was Rereleased for Free on YouTube by Studio 100. Sadly, those are gone now.
This series provides examples of:
- 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: In spades. While the characters are animated using digital ink-and-paint, the backgrounds are obviously done with CGI.
- A Boy and His X: Subverted. It's not only a boy (Nick) and his cybermessenger friend (Twipsy), but a girl (Lissie) and a computer genius (Albert) alongside them.
- Alliterative Title: "How it Happened", "Mall Madness", "Charming Champ", "Wither Weather", and "Truly Two-ly Twipsy".
- Amusing Alien: Although Twipsy is technically an alien of a different world, he has his moments.
- Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering?: Lissie says the "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" variant to Nick in "Anything for a Papaya Smoothie".
- Big "NO!": Twipsy does this in the German dub of "How it Happened" when he drops his data package into the black hole.
- Subverted in most other versions, where he says "HELP!" instead.
- The Big Race: "Messengers Mess Up" features a race for the fastest cybermessenger of the month.
- "Blind Idiot" Translation: The Italian title for "Twipsy the Pest" is "Twipsy, l'insetto". "Insetto" means "insect", which is NOT the kind of pest the title is trying to refer to. Considering Twipsy's intrusive behavior in that episode, the proper term would be "peste".
- The Bully: Ga-Zonk.
- Cartoon Bomb: One appears in one of the Eye Catches. Twipsy tries to blow it out, but it explodes anyways.
- Another one appears in The Stinger used in every episode.
- Child Prodigy: One of the supporting characters, Albert Barkhorn. He has managed to rewire a printer to rescue Nick from cyberspace safely, as well as piggy back a scanner to create a portal to cyberspace.
- Creative Closing Credits: The credits take place on a computer screen, with windows showing the names of the cast members.
- Credits Pushback: Most episodes of the Basque dub reduce the credits down to the part saying "Produced by HaffaDiebold in association with Estudio Mariscal for EM.TV and EXPO 2000 Hannover", fading to black afterwards.
- Cultural Translation: Twipsy's line "Where do you think you are, Kansas?" is changed to mention other places in some dubs. For example:
- Alentejo (a region in Portugal) in the 2nd European Portuguese dub.
- Tokyo (the capital of Japan) in the German dub.
- Averted in the Italian dub, which keeps the Kansas reference.
- Cyberspace
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: General Blitzo, the sergeant in "Bad Advice".
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Twipsy not only looked a bit different in his original design, but he could change his skin color to fit with the country he is in to promote the Expo 2000, or whenever he gets angry. In the Animated Adaptation, however, he is never shown doing this.
- Episode Title Card: The title cards are depicted as an email Twipsy sends to Lissie in the theme song.
- Excited Title! Two-Part Episode Name!: "Ouch! Information Hurts!"
- Eye Catch: In the half hour version. They replace the headliners from the episode succeeding it (except in the YouTube release as well as the SwitchTV version of the Italian dub), thus creating Plot Holes in some of them.
- For The Cel Of It: The surroundings in the intro - producers behind the series used a plug-in rendering the 3D animated backgrounds in an almost 2D-illustrated look.
- Grand Finale: The final episode is about Mrs. Barkhorn deciding to sell her house and move out.
- I Am Not Weasel: The Expo 2000 design manual debates if Twipsy is made of pixels, flesh and blood, or if he's even a mass of talking spinach. In the Animated Adaptation, he makes it clear that he is a being of pure energy.
- "I Am" Song: The song Twipsy sings in "Let Us Entertain You".
- Karma Houdini: Ga-Zonk and Mosey Dosey Dough.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: Mosey did once get arrested in an episode.
- Keep It Foreign: In the 2nd European Portuguese dub of "How it Happened", Nick thinks Draywell and Mort-Ray are talking in French instead of Spanish.
- Keet: Twipsy tends to be this at times.
- Lazy Bum: Mosey Dosey Dough. Exaggerated by the fact he wants to be fired from his job because of this trope.
- Medium Blending: The Internet is done in 3D.
- Mourning an Object: Twipsy does this in "Twipsy Sees the Light" when the lightbulb he was attracted to breaks.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Data Eater, at least to the cybermessengers.
- Nonstandard Character Design: Twipsy and the other couriers look more like cubist portraits.
- (Considering that the series, and the character was created by Spanish graphic designer, Javier Mariscal, whose signature style leans towards the art style.)
- The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Mosey Dosey Dough has a job as a cybermessenger, yet he prefers to slack off all the time.
- Protagonist Title
- Series Continuity Error: In "The Case of the Missing Pastry", Twipsy suffers mental side effects upon eating too much real world food. In other episodes that show him doing this, he is not affected.
- She's a Man in Japan: Zeeto is female in the Hungarian dub, most likely due to his voice and his feminine-like legs.
- Smelly Skunk: One appears in "Peeuuuugh!", coming up to Champ.
- Snap Back: After "The Case of the Missing Pastry", Twipsy reverts back to normal without any explanation.
- The Song Remains the Same: While the Basque dub usually has the theme song dubbed, episode 2 used the English version for unknown reasons.
- Speaking Simlish: The Goobish language that the cybermessengers speak is just gibberish.
- Spectacular Spinning: Twipsy does this at one point when he performs his "I Am" Song in the talent show in "Let Us Entertain You".
- Spoiler Opening: Instead of opting for the special opening used in the first episode, the German dub uses the regular version instead. This ends up giving away important details such as how Nick ended up in cyberspace, how Twipsy and the other cybermessengers first felt about him, and how Twipsy feels about living in the real world.
- The Stinger: After the credits, the cursor opens a window showing a Cartoon Bomb and "Sorry, a system error has..." before clicking the "Restart" button, causing the computer to turn off.
- Averted in the 2nd European Portuguese dub, which has it replaced with the Luk Internacional logo.
- Story Arc: The first 3 episodes follow a specific plot: Nick somehow gets transported to cyberspace through his computer, meets Twipsy and learns what cyberspace is like, shows him what the real world is like, and sends him back to cyberspace.
- Unique Pilot Title Sequence: The intro in "How it Happened" not only shows the title card after the show's logo, but it also shows us what cyberspace is like. The remainder of the series changes it to a recap of said episode and shows the title card at the end of it.
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: In one of the episodes, the Data Eater is seen vomiting green vomit and bits of data at the same time.
- Welcome Titles: The intro takes place first in cyberspace, where some viruses are doing a mess. After Twipsy gets rid of them and speeds along the superhighway, the scenery changes to the real world. There, we meet Nick's parents outside his house and then we see Nick fighting over a keyboard with his sister Lissy and his friend Albert. Finally, Lissy's drink spills over the dog.
- Where the Hell Is Springfield?: It is never explained what town Nick lives in, but according to "Hello, Real World, Why'd You Have To Be So Wet?", it seems to be located in what resembles the Western Hemisphere.
