Taking the worlds of Roger Rabbit and expounding on the concept. Our universe is being taken over by the cartoon universe (Cartonus Universum; usually named "ToonWorld" in CamelCase for short) through a freak dimensional accident in a secret lab back in the first decade of the 20th century. (Yeah, it's one of those shows). Today, Toons and humans work together to solve crimes in both worlds, whilst others, including certain Toons, figure out how ToonWorld ticks and how to solve/use/exploit/destroy/separate it. The main focus is a police station in Seattle, where many of the idiot Toon cops of The Dick Tracy Show (Hemlock Holmes, Joe Jitsu... everyone except Go-Go Gomez, who works South of the Border) and even Dick Tracy himself reside and assist.
Possible rating: TV-14... Yeah, you heard me... TV-14 The rating of many a modern cop show. This isn't just for kicks, here... this is to show that cartoons aren't just for kids. The crimes are fairly nasty, the language is PG, but the imagery is the main reason for its rating.
Toons in ToonWorld are made using traditional methods only, any CGI whatsoever will send a Toon-to-be to a technologic nightmare land of no return. Also...
- Toons cannot swear unless they do so in their Canon.
- Toons are asexual; nothing dirty in their head, nothing dirty under their clothes (if any).
- Toons are usually goofy in nature, with exceptions such as Dick Tracy, who squirms at the thought of a serious character like him being used for wacky purposes, such as in The Dick Tracy Show.
- You'd feel the same way if you saw what they did to him!
Dear God... - Truth be told, he's not that serious.
- You'd feel the same way if you saw what they did to him!
- Toons are to all intents and purposes immortal (usually Complete Immortality, via a Healing Factor, The Ageless, Legacy Immortality (literally), and sometimes a Projected Avatar, with only a few exceptions.
Tropes it uses include...
- Many Animation Tropes to a T, although some are subverted and/or lampshaded like hell...
- Changes in style only take effect if the new style is done using traditional methods... unless the Toon itself dislikes and discards said change in its style.
- All Toon animals, even those more realistically drawn, have the capacity to show human-like traits.
- Toons often have simplified hands or other simplified parts.
- Glowy eyes in the dark, even glowy glasses, are seen as weird by the humans, but especially Markus, who has this effect.
- Magic Pants works with Toonier Toons, but not (quite) with more "real" Toons. Bizarrely enough, this works with the half-Toon Markus, who not only stretches like rubber, but with enough concentration can grow to gigantic height, although it tears his human skin in the process (no blood, just Toon skin underneath), since his skin, among other organs, is only interweaved with Toon cells. His Magic Pants are due to his Toon cells reconstructing his clothing as he's expanding.
- Toon cops are fans of donuts, except for Heap O' Calorie, who likes apples... a lot. How do you like— Oh, bloody heck!
- "Strong" Toons are usually ridiculously buff, save for the Pintsized Powerhouses like Joe Jitsu (who has the added benefit of being an Asian stereotype character. They know kung-fu!).
- Animation Bump: Crappily-animated Toons will be as jerky and as limited in animation in ToonWorld as they are in their origin cartoon, but when that Toon enters another dimension (such as the "Noble" dimension, housing fantastically-drawn characters, landscapes, and vehiclesnote ) or even the real world, the Toon gains surprisingly smooth animation, although wackiness in proportion may still apply.
- Art Shift: There's a device that allows for a Toon to change into a realistic version of itself; Toon humans can become real humans, Toon animals can become real animals (they can still talk, too), and Toon weirdoes can become... oh dear...
- Back from the Dead: should any Toon have the displeasure of actually dying (see below), they can come back, but only through being reanimated. The process involves simply recreating them as a comic book or a short animated film, and then distributing it for others to see. Ta-dah! Instant reincarnation!
- While many of the Dick Tracy villains have been Killed Off for Real in their comic strips, they're around today due to their appearances in The Dick Tracy Show and other animated media, and you can't kill them off in the animated media, now, can you?
- Not only that, but any abilities gained through the adaptations are retained by the Toon, even while alive. I.E. The Mole retains his mad digging skills from his UPA-animated counterpart.
- While many of the Dick Tracy villains have been Killed Off for Real in their comic strips, they're around today due to their appearances in The Dick Tracy Show and other animated media, and you can't kill them off in the animated media, now, can you?
- Buddy Cop Show: The buddies being biracial, half-Toon Markus Techart, and Eddie-Valiant-esque Harold Bromberg.
- Cartoon Creature: There are three main types of Toons; human, animal, and Whatsit. Whatsits are not like anything on our Earth (unless you put all the animals into a blender). However, unlike the trope, they're not all cute and cuddly.
-
Development Hell: A place on (Toon) earth... - Disembodied Eyebrows: Many of the Toon characters have floating eyebrows. To remove them is the same as pulling the eyebrow hairs out, even if the eyebrow is floating several inches above the Toon's head to begin with.
- Fantastic Racism: Toons and humans often have this type of conflict, and of course, it gets stupid, even having a Toon animal mercilessly beating up a human for being called a "Funny Animal".
- The
Animation Age Ghetto is also seen by Toons as blatant racism, as it's the reason why many Toons are utterly unable speak "offensive" things, although some Toons affected have found certain tricks to get around it, like "(Hoover) dam".- Most antiquated Toons will use the former meanings of (nowadays "dirty") slang, leading to more or less of a language barrier, or even public mockery, although at the same time, they find humor and horror in our modern vocabulary.
- The
- Five-Token Band: The "Junior Detectives" of Dick Tracy, all Rescued from the Scrappy Heap and re-imagined:
- Joe Jitsu: The Short Guy with Glasses and a mishmash of Asian stereotypes. He tends to be the smarter and the saner of the team.
- Hemlock Holmes: the Bulldog Bobby with a poorly-done Cary Grant type voice. He tries to prove himself as a capable person in either world even though he's a dog.
- The Retouchables: a group of idiot cops, not much else than that, although they did save the chief's life once.
- The most notable of whom is Freddy, whose eyes will not stop moving, often in different directions.
- Go-Go Gomez: the lazy yet speedy Mexican. He likes to pretend he has an honorable fighting heritage, and gives Rousing Speeches with a large side of hammy acting about his "ancestry".
- His "pride" sometimes extends to him going Toros y Flamenco on his enemies, despite the fact that his "home country" doesn't actually do that sort of thing.
- Heap O' Calorie: the
IrishAndy-Devine-esque fat cop. He believes himself to be the "experienced" one of the bunch, and would gladly lay his life on the line for his team.
- Food Chains: If you're a human, don't eat Toon food, no matter how scrumptious it looks. Eating it gives you sporadic cartoonish powers. The effects are temporary, depending on what you ate and how much.
- Furry Confusion: So many variations on many animals exist, so it isn't rare to see a realistic Toon dog owned by a humanoid Toon dog. The relation is somewhat like adopted parenthood meets free servitude.
- Japanese Ranguage: Joe Jitsu. It's hard for him to stop it because it's his character, although he is able to stop it temporarily for the sake of a joke, or when in disguise.
- Killed Off for Real: Despite normal Toon immunity and Immortality, there are a few ways to kill them permanently:
-
The dipAcids that normally would burn human flesh will eat through Toons almost instantly. - Being Killed Off for Real in their comic or cartoon will instantly destroy them, with only a few exceptions.
- Erasure: A fancy name for the acid bath above, as well as being erased by a giant Toon eraser. Understandably, the latter is the most humiliating way to die if you're a serious Toon.
- Just plain unpopularity.
-
- Living Forever Is Awesome: The half-Toon Markus Techart. Due to his undying enthusiasm, as well as his Toon state
of mind, he fails to see what's wrong with Immortality; even the inevitable death of his human friends around him is no big whoop, it's natural, isn't it? - Monster Compendium: The Toon Encyclopedia, Dictionary, and Database. (T.E.D.D.)
- Mood Whiplash: It's very common for things in ToonWorld to be the usual wacky chaos and good times one minute, and gritty realistic drama the next. Vice-versa goes for the real world.
- Nonstandard Character Design: Toons come in a variety of different styles, as do the many Comics and cartoons in real life; some Toons even look near real, despite being made out of ink and paint.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: The ghosts of ToonWorld (usually) are "born" ghosts... dead Toons do not come back as ghosts... unless they're reanimated that way.
- Stop Being Stereotypical: With many Toons out there representing National Stereotypes, it isn't surprising to find some people who would want a Toon to stop being so "offensive" to their nationality. The Toons try to Hand Wave it as being their character, and not representations of an entire race (or races). Needless to say, they won't listen, especially to a Toon with a stupid accent and stupid clothes.
- Up the Real Rabbit Hole: The Toons acknowledge the human world as the "real" world because they are products of the human mind.
- We Are as Mayflies: Toons live on due to their legacy in the comics, TV and film, and humans are often intimidated by their longevity; Dick Tracy has been a little glum about living forever; he constantly outlives everyone he knows. Every other Toon either ignores the implications of immortality or accepts it as a fact of life, even going so far as to put The "Fun" in "Funeral".
- World of Chaos: The bowels of ToonWorld act as such, so don't go there.
- One little sneeze, thought, or other simplistic action in there is enough to send the fabric of reality out to lunch; I.E. Your mother might be swapped with Ajax Duckman, construction sites will have their projects completed way ahead of schedule (albeit not quite to their plans), things will begin to look weird(er), and the worst part is... the effects are irreversible.
- Younger Than They Look: Many newer Toons, due to the unaging aspect of cartoons in general, are "born" the age they appeared in their work, and may look like an 80-year-old grandpa even though they may only be a few months old.
