Animat Planet Show is a Romanian adult cartoon that aired between 2005 and 2008. The show was produced by Marius Toader alongside the comedy group Divertis (who also provided the voices) and aired on Antena 1. The main characters of the show are the Meșter family, each member representing a segment of Romanian society:
- Manole: An idiotic, lazy, and fat man that would do anything to get more money. He is meant to represent the average Romanian man.
- Ana: Manole's wife, meant to represent the average Romanian woman.
- Vicky: Manole and Ana's teenage daughter, representing the Romanian youth.
- Matilda: Ana's mother, Manole's mother-in-law, and Vicky's grandmother. She is meant to represent the country's senior citizens.
- Gina: The family's talking pet chicken and the Only Sane Man among them.
The show also depicts real-world Romanian politicians, most commonly through movie parodies.
Political figures portrayed on the show
- Traian Băsescu: The then-president of Romania.
- Emil Boc: The then-Prime Minister of Romania and leader of the Democrat Liberal Party.
- Adrian Năstase: Former Prime Minister of Romania and former leader of the Social Democrat Party.
- Ion Iliescu: Former President of Romania and former leader of the Social Democrat Party.
- Mircea Geoană: The then leader of the Social Democrat Party.
- Călin Popescu Tăriceanu: The then-leader of the National Liberal Party and former Prime Minister of Romania.
- Bogdan Olteanu: Former Minister of Liaison and President of the Chamber of Deputies, and the then-Vice President of the Chamber of Deputies
- Ludovic Orban: The then-Minister of Transport.
- Adrian Cioroianu: The then-Minister of Foreign Affairs.
- Elena Udrea: The then-Minister of Tourism.
- Vasile Blaga: A then-member of the Democrat Liberal Party.
- Adriean Videanu: Former mayor of Bucharest.
- Marian Vanghelie: Then-mayor of Bucharest's Sector 5.
- Sorin Oprescu: Then-mayor of Bucharest.
- Theodor Stolojan: Former Prime Minister of Romania.
- Dan Voiculescu: The then-leader of the Conservative Party.
- Cristian Popescu Piedone: Then-mayor of Bucharest's Sector 4.
- Corneliu Vadim Tudor: The then-leader of the Greater Romania Party.
- Markó Béla: The then-leader of the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania.
- Verestóy Attila: Then-Romanian senator.
- Monica Macovei: The then-Minister of Justice.
- Nicolae Văcăroiu: Former Prime Minister of Romania.
- Miron Mitrea: Former member of the Chamber of Deputies.
- Viorel Hrebenciuc: Then-member of the Chamber of Deputies.
Animat Planet Show contains examples of:
- Addictive Foreign Soap Opera: Ana loves them, since she is supposed to parody Romanian women.
- Matilda is also shown to be fond of them.
- The Alcoholic:
- Both Manole and his mother-in-Law love to drink.
- Traian Băsescu and Nicolae Văcăroiu are also portrayed as alcoholics.
- Animorphism:
- One episode has Geoană as a shapeslifter who turned into a cat, a rat and a dog.
- In the Dracula parody Băsescu (who plays the role of Dracula) can shape shift into a bat
- Năstase and Mitrea can also turn into bats in the Batman parody
- Vlad the Impaler also showed this ability in another episode.
- Apple of Discord: In the Greek Mythology parody everyone is fighting over a bone. A reference to the struggle for power in politics.
- Santa Claus' sled becomes one in the Christmas special
- Bad Boss: Băsescu is one for the Democrat Liberals.
- Iliescu is no better for the Social Democrats.
- Balkanize Me: In one episode Manole (inspired by the fall of Yugoslavia) wants to make his apartment independent from Romania. However as soon as he tried to a civil war broke out because the family couldn't agree what to call the new state (Manole wanted to call it "United State of Manole", Matilda wanted to call it "Republic of Matilda" and Ana wanted to call it "Kingdom of St Ana").
- Beach Episode: One episode is about the Meșter family going at the beach and Tăriceanu, Stolojan and Geoană racing to become Lifeguards (a reference to the parliamentary elections at the time).
- Bitingthe Hand Humor: They had many moments were they made fun of Antena 1. They also mock Voiculescu which is the owner of Antena groups which Antena 1 is a part of.
- Bumbling Dad: Manole may not be as stupid as Homer Simpson or Peter Griffin, but he is still pretty dumb.
- Circus Episode: One episode is about The family going to a circus were Iliescu is the Ringmaster, UDMR are achrobats, Vadim is a Clown, Tăriceanu and Ponta are stuntmen, Băsescu and Udrea are Trapeze artists, Geoană is a Lion tamer (with Năstase, Mitrea and Hrebenciuc as the lions) and Vanghelie was a bear tamer.
- Christmas Special: One episode is a Christmas special with 2 segments. The first segment is about the politicians fighting over Santa Claus' sled and the 2nd is a parody of The Little Match Girl with Gina in the role of the girl who flees from hom and uses matches to look inside the HQ of PSD, PNL and PDL.
- Corrupt Politician: All of the politicians featured in the show are depicted this way.
- Cowboy Episode: 2 exampled. First one is a parody of old timey John Wayne cowboys and indians movies with PSD as the Natives and PD, PNL,UDMR and PC as the cowboys while the 2nd one is a parody of Films — Live-Action\The Man with No Name with Băsescu as the main character
- Curse Cut Short: In one episode when the family moves to the north pole and are visited by Ion Iliescu and Petre Roman. Ana starts chanting the famous APACA slogan "Nu vrem lei/kent nu vrem valută! Vrem ca Roman/Petre să ne fută" (We don't want lei/kent we don't want money we want Roman/Petre to fuck us) however Manole stops her before she finishes.
- Ana: I don't want kent i don't want money, i want Petre to...Manole: Shut up!
- Drivento Suicide: In an episode Năstase, Iliescu and Geoană were singing a parody of Pușca și cureaua lată. When Geoană starts singing he sings so bad that the other 2 try to kill themselves.
- Equal-Opportunity Offender: The show mocks all political parties and doesn't take sides.
- Everybody Hates Hades: The Greek Mythology parody Iliescu is cast as Hades and as usual he is portrayed as an evil devil style characters.
- Evolving Credits: The theme song evolved as time went on. Here's the theme song in it's early days
. As time went on the orchestra moved on the roof and this became the new intro. Finally the version that stuck and remained until the last episode was this one - Extreme Omnivore: In the "Stonesmanson Manole" parody, Vanghelie is shown eating mortar.
- Fartillery: The main weapon of the Spartans in the 300 parody.
- God for a Day: A parody of Bruce Almighty called "Bush Almighty", in which George W. Bush meets God (disguised as Ophra), who offers to give him all of his powers for a day. Bush later uses his powers to fix his image by granting wishes to people who come to him with a problem.
- Killer Rabbit: Băsescu plays one in an episode were he was hunted by the PSD and PNL as hunters.
- King of Beasts: In an episode which portrayed politicians as animals, Băsescu was portrayed as a lion.
- Leitmotif: Every politician has one.
- Băsescu has Marș de Întâmpinare.
- Geoană has Alouette.
- Iliescu has The Intrnationale.
- Năstase has Corul Vânătorilor.
- UDMR have what appears to be Csárdás.
- Vadim has the Romanian Anthem.
- Băsescu has Marș de Întâmpinare
- May–December Romance: In the Greek Mythology parody Voiculescu (as Cupid) makes the politicians that fight over the bone fall in love with each other. Tăriceanu falls in love with Iliescu and they even Lampshade the age difference between the two.
- Narrow Parody: The show tackled a lot of subjects that were on the news at the time. Nowadays unless you are familiar with the 2000s pop culture, many of the jokes will fly over your head.
- Nested Story: One episode has a parody of ArabianNights were Băsescu plays the role of the sultan and Udrea plays the role of Sheherezada who tells him parodies of Sindbad the Sailor and Alibaba and the 40 Thieves.
- Not So Above It All: Despite Gina being the Voice of Reason among the family and often expresses her disgust towards human stupidity and corruption, she is still loyal to he former master Adrian Năstase and even feels sorry for him when she thinks he got arrested despite the fact that he was a Corrupt Politician.
- Oh, My Gods!: In the 300 parody Matilda's "Ptu-lai Doamne!" becomes "Ptu-lai Zeus!"
- Orphaned Etymology: Lampshaded by Băsescu in the parody of Greek Mythology.Bocules: I'll rip their Adam's apples out!Băzeus: Who's Adam? Are you confusing the religious doctrines again?
- Punny Name: Manole and Ana's surname means "stonemason", a reference to the legend of stonemason Manole who walled his wife into a monastery in order to finish it. This was even lampshaded in an episode when Manole was working as a stonemason and dreaming up the story with politicians.
- Sadly Mythtaken: In the Greek Mythology parody Năstase and Hrebenciuc play Cerberus. However they are only 2 heads making them an Orhtros.
- Sir Swearsa Lot: Oprescu is the most fowl mouthed out of all the characters.
- Spin-Off Babies: One episode called "Băsenel and Bocănel" is about the politicians as kids playing in a park. This of course is a reference to the politics at the time. Such as Monica is kicked out of the park by Tăricel (Tăriceanu kicking Macovei out of the government), Tăricel getting tripped of his bike by Teo (Stolojan betraying Tăriceanu) etc. The episode also got a sequel where this time the politician kids are at an amusement park and go into the Horror Tunnel to see if they get scared.
- Superpowered Alter Ego: Băsescu has one called "Superbăse". A parody of Superman.
- Năstase also has one called "Supernasti" which also parodies superman.
- Almost every politician had a Batman alter ego in the Batman parody.
- Take That!: The show parodied every politicians and celebrities in Romania at the time.
- Talking Animal: Gina the chicken.
- All of Năstase's chickens can talk
- The dogs at the beggining of "Băsene and Bocănel"
- One episode also had a talking seagull.
- The "Miorița" parody had talking sheep and a talking donkey.
- Trademark Favorite Food:
- Manole and Matilda both love beer.
- Băsescu loves whiskey and Spritz.
- Trapped in TV Land: Some episodes will start with the Meșter Family watching a movie on tv and then something happen which causes them to get trapped inside the movie for the rest of the episode. The Movie in question will be spoofed with Politicians.
- Another episode was about the young directors getting annoyed at the fact that Sergiu Nicolaescu always wins all the movie festivals, so they designed a device that can transport them in whatever movie they want. Throughout the episode, they traveled trough Nicolaescu's movies were he will assume the role of the protagonist while they assumed the roles of the bad guys.
- Vodka Drunkenski: In one episode, Năstase looks for an aunt in order to justify his wealth. One of the candidates was a Russian babushka who only wants to drink.
- Why We Are Bummed Communism Fell: Matilda, a parody of Romanian's senior citizens, is a nostalgic communist who rambles a few times about how bad things are now and how much better things were during communism.
