D.N. Ace is a Canadian animated series from Nelvana that was created by children's television producer Matthew Wexler. Taking heavy inspiration from the Mon genre, the series was produced with consultation from the Japanese animation studio OLM Incorporated, who are most famous for producing the Pokemon anime.
12-year-old Ace Ripley is an average boy from the town of Del Juevo, living in a world where robots are a way of life for many and having them clash in stadiums is common entertainment (something he dreams of becoming a champion in someday). However, Ace's life changes when he and his best friend Sloane Plunderman discover his family's big secret — a cave hidden in his basement containing a meteor emitting unusual radiation from it.
There, Ace encounters Mendel, a 500-year-old squirrel who was rendered immortal and given the ability to talk from exposure to the meteor. Mendel was a friend of Ace's grandfather (who studied the meteor and its power alongside him) and has been instructed to do as he has with all of Ace's family since the day the Ripley home was built over the meteor — introduce himself to Ace and reveal their family secret when he comes of age. While Ace has actually shown up 4 years ahead of schedule, Mendel nevertheless presents the boy with something that he and Grandpa Ripley created — a pocket watch-shaped device called the Descrambler (or D-Scram for short), which has the power to combine the D.N.A. of a living thing with the molecules of an inanimate object to create creatures that Ace decides to call "Scrammers".
Now, with his grandfather's Descrambler in hand, Ace is out to protect his grandpa's secret from any who dare to exploit it for evil (namely Sloane's Annoying Younger Sibling and world's youngest billionaire Huxley), and he's going to have the time of his life while he's at it.
The series was released on Teletoon on July 6th, 2019 with 40 22-minute episodes (consisting of 80 segments) and concluded its single-season run on April 11, 2020. With Teletoon's rebranding as Cartoon Network Canada in 2023, it stands as the final original series created for the English-language version of the channel.
D.N. Ace contains examples of:
- Ambiguously Brown: Sloane and Huxley are both darker in skin tone compared to Ace, but the series never confirms what their ethnicity is.
- And the Adventure Continues: The first season ends with the reveal that Ace's mom wasn't on vacation, but actually on a secret mission to retrieve a blue splinter to recharge the meteor in the event its energy gets depleted. She was also followed back by a monstrous creature she had to fend off to retrieve it, which Ace and the scrammers leap into battle with as the episode closes.
- Amusing Injuries: Ace gets his fair share (see: "Terminacer" and "Tropic Blunder") but Mendel is the main victim of this.
- Animesque: The show has a taste of it, given the anime eyes the cast has and the general Mon elements.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Huxley is this to Sloane. Ace himself is this to his stepbrother Stu.
- Auto-Tune: La Cucarocka speaks in an auto-tuned voice.
- Basement-Dweller: Played for Laughs, Ace and Sloane hanging out in the basement all the time, closer to the meteor, is why they can pass through the gate into the Dugout earlier than Mendel expected, and why Ace can get the D-Scram to work when his ancestors couldn't, he's been exposed to more of the meteor energy.
- Big Bad: Huxley and his Clashbots are the series' main antagonists. Though Juan soon goes down that route himself.
- Butt-Monkey: Mendel. Not only does Ace usually ignore his attempts to give him advice, but he frequently gets all kinds of pain and violence thrust upon him (of course, due to being immortal, this has no lasting effect).
- Creepy Good: Cobra Tot is a horrifying-looking hybrid of a snake and a Creepy Doll with acid powers, but like all the Scrammers, it's one of the good guys and actually not so bad once you get to know it.
- "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: If you're wondering why the show's intro sounds like it was performed by Grojband, that's because Lyon Smith (the voice of Ace Ripley in this show and Corey Riffin in Grojband) sings the series' theme song.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Juan goes from belittled scientist to the show's Big Bad.
- Full-Boar Action: Snout Hammer, a Scrammer who's half boar, half hammer, and all tough.
- Gasshole: Digby, since he's half whoopee cushion, half groundhog.
- Grade-School C.E.O.: Huxley, due to the fact he managed to seize ownership of Plunderman Enterprises from his parents.
- Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Mendel wears a shirt, vest, and a pair of goggles.
- Hollywood Chameleon: Hide-And-Sneak, the half chameleon, half sneaker tops Scrammer.
- Hybrids Are a Crapshoot: The episode "Tropic Blunder" has Ace deciding to create a Scrammer partially made from a sample of one of Huxley's genetically-engineered plants despite Mendel's warning that doing so would be a bad idea. Sure enough, the created Scrammer has an uncontrollable Ax-Crazy demeanor and causes chaos all over town with the protagonists trying to figure out a way to stop it.
- Hypocrisy Nod: In "Ace Is Wild," Ace gets mad at Huxley for using a spy drone to cheat in a clash and not even trying to hide it, before quietly acknowledging that using living creatures that he created by DNA splicing and is passing off as Clashbots is technically cheating, too.
- Idiot Hero: Ace Ripley, much to the frustration of Sloane and Mendel.
- Jerkass: Huxley in spades. In his Establishing Character Moment, Sloane mentions to Ace that he remorselessly drove out his and Sloane's parents from their own company and took over it.
- LEGO Genetics: How else could the D-Scram combine the D.N.A. of any two objects/creatures to create a Scrammer?
- Magic Meteor: The one buried underneath the Ripley house is the source of Mendel's intelligence and immortality. It's up to Ace, Sloane, and the Scrammers to defend it.
- Meaningful Name: Mendel is named after Gregor Mendel
, the founder of the modern science of genetics. - Mecha-Mooks: Huxley's Clashbots. They usually just battle for the entertainment of crowds at the Clash-a-torium, but because he owns the stadium, he often uses them to fight Ace's Scrammers.
- Merging Machine: The DNA Scrambler device, a pocket watch-shaped device with a UI like a cell phone. It locks onto one living (or once living) thing and one inanimate object to create a creature that combines traits of both.
- Mon: While the show and its Scrammers aren't true examples (since Ace creates Scrammers rather than collecting them), they are clearly inspired by the genre, as Ace uses them to fight Clashbots and the occasional rogue Scrammer while also bonding with them.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Jay-Z was an influence on La Cucarocka's voice, one of his lines was literally "It's Yah Boy!".
- Pain to the Ass: Ace falls victim to this in "Tropic Blunder."
- Really 700 Years Old: Mendel is 500 years old, thanks to being hit by the meteor that granted him immortality.
- Resurrective Immortality: Mendel possesses this. Which is lucky because he's a Butt-Monkey who's frequently injured.
- Robot Buddy: They're quite common in Ace's world.
- Rubber Man: Elasta-kitty, due to being part cat and part rubber band.
- Secret Legacy: Mendel has known Ace's family ever since Ace's grandfather Zeb originally built his house over where the meteor was buried. As Ace finds out in the first episode, even his own mother is in on the whole thing.
- Smelly Skunk: In "Sloane Plunderman, Junior Ghost Hunter", when Sloane shows footage of her old show, it shows her being attacked by a skunk.
- String Theory: Juan has one hidden behind a painting in his apartment about Ace and his Scrammers.
- Swiss-Army Weapon: This is the power of the half crab, half swiss army knife Scrammer known as Multi Crab.
- Talking Animal: Mendel is a squirrel who can talk, which was another result of the meteor that hit him 500 years ago. Scrammers are all capable of talking as well.
- Time Travel Episode: "Clash To The Future" Ace, Hidey, La Cucarocka, Beef Plungington, and Head Wig go back in time to when Zebediah Ripley was alive. They end up scaring Zeb away from science so he didn't invent the D-Scram, causing the Scrammers to fade out of existence.
- Two-Part Episode: "Juan For All And All For Juan". Part 1 involves Juan winning the "Clash for the Crown" championship and gaining a third meteor splinter, and part 2 deals with Ace, his Scrammers, and everyone from the show teaming up to defeat Juan.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Juan, already somewhat unstable, becomes even more so when he gets a second splinter.
