Follow TV Tropes

Following

Literature / Bat Pat

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bat_pat_image.jpg
From left to right: Leo, Rebecca, Martin, Bat Pat.
Bat Pat is an Italian series of children’s horror books written by Roberto Pavanello, as well as an animated series based on these books that ran for 2 seasons with 104 Quarter Hour Short episodes.

The books and series both resolve around the talking, purple bat Bat Pat. Along with his 3 human friends, the siblings Martin, Leo and Rebecca Silver, he investigates supernatural events in his hometown of Smogville (bookseries)/Fogville (animated series), and writes books about his many misadventures.

The series is available on Netflix. Needs some Wiki Love!


Bat Pat provides examples of:

  • Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Fogville has these.
  • Adaptation Name Change: The hometown of Bat Pat and the Silver kids is named Smogville in the books, but Fogville in the animated series.
  • Adults Are Useless: played straight for most adults, who are either oblivious to the supernatural or too scared of it to take action. Averted for Capistrano Fog, who frequently provides Bat Pat and the kids with valuable information.
  • Agent Scully: For a kid who frequently encounters supernatural beings, Martin can be surprisingly skeptical when told about something supernatural.
  • All-Loving Hero: Rebecca always sees the best in the various monsters and other supernatural creatures, and is usually the first of the protagonists to realize they are Not Evil, Just Misunderstood.
  • Beach Episode: The episode “Something’s fishy” is set at the beach. The protagonists even trade their usual outfits for summer clothes.
  • Big Brother Instinct: Martin has this towards Rebecca, being determined to keep her from getting harmed. It's the main reason he ends up in most adventures to begin with, as is it usually Rebecca who sets out first to investigate a supernatural event and Martin only follows to keep an eye on her. He has this far less towards Leo.
  • Brilliant, but Lazy: Leo is a skilled inventor for a kid his age, but most of the time he would rather stay home and relax.
  • Butt-Monkey: Out of the protagonists, Martin most frequently ends up in humiliating situations, the most frequent example being that he has to disguise himself as a member of the Monster of the Week 's species.
  • Camping Episode: “Frozen to the bones”.
  • City of Adventure: Smogville/Fogville, the hometown of Bat Pat and the Silver family and thus were most of their adventures take place.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: Many of the monsters turn out to be not evil at all. They just have some kind of problem they need help with. This trope doesn't always apply though.
  • Defanged Horrors: Being a series aimed at kids, this was to be expected for pretty much all the monsters featured in the series.
  • A Dog Named "Dog": in the episode "Kitty Cat Caper", Leo adopts a hamster he found as his pet, and simply names him Hamster. Rebecca calls him out on using such an unoriginal name.
  • Doom It Yourself: Martin may be a genius, but he's terrible at building things. It's so bad that Bat Pat freaks out at the thought of Martin trying to build something.
  • Dream Weaver: The Duke of Dreams, a supernatural being that controls every ones dreams. One episode the protagonists had to help him with his job because the dreams of everybody in Fogville got mixed up.
  • Fantasy Kitchen Sink: Vampires, Werewolves, Mummies, Witches, Trolls, Ghosts, mermaids…name any sort of supernatural creature and it’s safe to assume Bat Pat has encountered it at least once.
  • Fiery Redhead: Downplayed, but Rebecca is quite impulsive and not afraid of anything.
  • Free-Range Children: The kids’ parents don’t seem too concerned about their kids going out in the night or traveling all over town.
  • Gadgeteer Genius: Leo frequently comes up with inventions.
  • Ghost Train: Season 2 of the animated series introduces Engine 13, a supernatural flying steam engine piloted by a zombie. However, like most monsters in this show, the zombie is friendly, and the protagonists frequently use the train to travel to locations away from their hometown.
  • Giant Flyer: The legendary Roc shows up in one episode.
  • Good Luck Charm: Leo has a pair of extremely smelly lucky socks. He ends up giving them to a Leprechaun who lost his luck, and it actually helps the guy get lucky again. He also has a double lucky underwear, which smells even worse.
  • Halloween Episode: “Headless House Guest”.
  • I Should Write a Book About This: All the books in the series are supposedly written by Bat Pat himself as recollections of his many adventures.
  • Lovable Coward: Of the 3 kids, Martin is freaked out the easiest.
  • Kid Hero: The silver kids; they are 10, 9 and 8 respectively, and frequently save their town from supernatural horrors.
  • Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Bat Pat claims to be an expert on the supernatural, but his huge number of glaring mistakes make it hard to believe.
  • Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: More often than not, Bat Pat and the kids discover this to be the case with the monster they fight.
  • Magic Librarian: Capistrano Fog, a ghost who owns a library full of books on the supernatural.
  • Old Master: The episode “The chosen Martin” centers around the ghost of an old karate master picking Martin as his successor.
  • Order Versus Chaos: Martin and Leo have this dynamic, with Martin being the orderly one and Leo the chaotic one.
  • Our Werebeasts Are Different: The Beach episode resolved around a marine scientist who turns into a sea monster whenever the tide comes in. He doesn’t mind though since it enables him to study the sea even better, but he hates it that his pants keep shredding during every transformation.
  • Parental Obliviousness: Mr. and Mrs. Silver are aware of Bat Pat, including the fact he can talk, but they are oblivious to the various adventures and encounters with supernatural creatures their kids get into.
  • Playing a Tree: In the episode "Romeo and Zombiet", when Martin tries to organize his own performance of Shakespeare's classic Romeo & Juliet for a school play, he casts Rebecca as a tree. She doesn't mind since the tree plays an essential part in one scene. Then the tehearsal are interrupted by a zombie girl who dreams of acting in a play once. The kids give her a chance, but need to hide the fact that she's a zombie from the audience. So eventually, Rebecca gives her role as tree to the zombie.
  • Scooby-Dooby Doors: Show up in the episode “Nothing to laugh at”.
  • Shapeshifter Mode Lock: One episode resolved around a bat named Vlad, who eventually revealed he was actually a vampire who somehow got stuck in his bat-from the last time he shapeshifted.
  • Sibling Team: The 3 Silver kids.
  • Smart People Wear Glasses: Martin has glasses and is the smartest of the 3 kids, always trying to find a reasonable explanation for the supernatural events they encounter.
  • Spooky Silent Library: Shows up as the setting for one episode.
  • Subbing for Santa: One episode, Martin had to sub for the tooth fairy.
  • Talking Animal: Bat Pat can freely talk with humans.
  • Things That Go "Bump" in the Night: One episode dealt with a monster under Martins bed. He was not really dangerous, but very annoying due to his heavy snoring.
  • This Is My Side: One episode saw Martin divide his and Leo’s bedroom so he can be Leo-Free. He only gives Leo a small corner and keeps the rest of the room for himself. According to Rebecca, this is not the first time Martin tries this.
  • Two Beings, One Body: One episode the kids encountered a two-headed robot. One head was male and one female, and both have very distinct personalities.
  • Valentine's Day Episodes: The tv-series has one.
  • You Don't Look Like You: Between the animated series (see page image), the books, and other images, the 3 Silver siblings have notably different looks.

Top