Western Animation / Get Ace

Everybody wants to get him! Everybody's out to get him!^Characters Clockwise from center: Ace, Becky, Hilda, Tina, Mr. Walker, Ned, Hugo, Gordon and Lunchbox.

Get Ace is an Australian animated series that debuted in 2014 on Eleven (now known as 10 Peach) and ABC3 in Australia. The brainchild of D.J. McPherson and Jack Christian, the show is produced by Galaxy Pop, with international distribution being managed by Canada’s 9 Story Media Group.

The show centers around Ordinary High-School Student Ace McDougal, whose life takes a turn for the exciting when he receives high-tech spy braces by mistake. Coming with a holographic butler named H.U.G.O (Holographic User Guidance Operative) and tons of high-tech gadgets, there's a function for every occasion! From high-powered rocket thrusters to stringy dental floss, Ace will need all of them to escape the clutches of the villainous Master of Disguise Ned Krinkle, the intended recipient of the braces, and his conniving mother Hilda.

Meanwhile, Ace still has to juggle getting to class on time, avoiding the wrath of Gordon Rainer and impressing his crush Tina. Even at home, Ace isn't safe from his sister Becky, who's convinced that he's an alien from outer space and is determined to prove it to the entire world!

The show ran for a single season composed of fifty-two 11-minute episodes that ran from January to July of 2014. Outside of Australia, the show has also appeared on Teletoon in Canada, Hulu in the United States, Boing in France, and Biggs in Portugal.

The whole series is available for free on YouTube (480p) and Tubi (HD)^note The Tubi release omits the tags after each episode.

Get Ace contains examples of:

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• Accidental Misnaming: Athol mishears Ace's name as "Face" when they first meet and never stops calling him that from then on.
• Affably Evil: Ned isn't that bad a guy when not trying to steal Ace's braces.
• All Elections Are Serious Business: The high school election for captain is treated with extreme importance, with the candidates being interviewed beforehand and the whole event being televised. Evidently not a lot going on in Funpark city.
• All Love Is Unrequited: Ace has a hopeless crush on Tina, who rarely ever gives him the time of day. In turn, Ace himself is totally unaware and unreceptive of his geeky best friend Claudia's affection for him. Whenever Tina is seen interested in a boy, it's usually the goth kid Tyson, who despite being a total Chick Magnet, never seems interested in anyone. He usually acknowledges Tina's existence even less than she does Ace.
• All Part of the Show:
  • In "Control Freak", Ace's braces malfunction in the middle of the show, creating a laser light show that looks like special effects.
  • In "Barry Plotter", Ace passes off the braces' powers as magic spells by reciting nonsense "magic" words. Cue the director praising the special effects team, who have no idea what he's talking about.
• Alpha Bitch: Tina, who in the first episode shown to be a cheerleader and described as "Queen Bee of the school" by Becky. Most episodes don't focus on how "alpha" she is, but she treats Ace like dirt most of the time, if she even acknowledges him.
• Animated Outtakes: The Tag for "Greener Tina" has the characters mess up various scenes from the episode, such as Tina forgetting her line and Claudia accidentally ripping one while inside her bubble.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: In the episode "Monkey Madness", Ace accidentally turns a monkey into a giant rampaging beast with the Enlargerator Ray.
• Blow You Away: The Wind Machine, the first function Ace ever activates, which creates a gust of wind from Ace's mouth that usually sends him hurtling backwards.
• British Teeth: Ned's distinct crooked teeth, which are probably why he needs braces in the first place.
• Broken Treasure: The plot of the episode "Save the Crystal Cat" is kicked off when Ace accidentally breaks his mother's beloved crystal cat statue.
• Bubble Boy: Bubble girl, actually. Claudia, Ace's next door neighbour, lives in a bubble due to being allergic to almost everything.
• The Bully: Gordon Rainer. To Ace's misfortune, this guy is his next-door neighbor.
• Chased Off into the Sunset: Nearly every episode ends with Ace chased by someone or something, usually as a consequence of his own actions.
• Clear My Name: Ace is forced to do this in the episode "Gnomeland", when he is falsely accused of destroying Mr. Rainer's favourite garden gnome.
• Continuity Nod: In "Ace the Superspy", the wig of one of the salon patrons falls off. She lost her hair in an accident involving Ace's dog Lunchbox two episodes before in "Feathered Fiend".
• Cucumber Facial: Hilda treats herself to one in "Athol and Ace".
• Dating Catwoman:
  • Jack Union and Hilda Krinkle seem to have had this relationship in the past, with the former being a heroic Bond-esque superspy and the latter being an evil villain.
  • In "Jack's Back", Ace has no problem accepting a date with Tatyana Von Evil even after she tricked him and tried to steal his braces in her debut episode. As it turns out, the date is yet another trap. However, Tatyana seems to have genuine feelings for Ace after he saves her life.
• Disguised in Drag: In "Computer Games", Ace dresses like Tara Tuft, complete with an ill-fitting blonde wig, as Tina's stunt double.
  Ace: Stunt double?
  Frederick: Coffee boy, with your lanky limbs, you'll be magic!
• DIY Dentistry: In "Lunchbox Gets Braced", Ace needs to pull out his last baby tooth, since it's causing the braces to short out. He tries the classic doorknob-string-method but ends up pulling the doorknob out. A different attempt has the tooth support the weight of an entire desk without falling out. Ace attaches a string to Lunchbox for his final attempt, which backfires, resulting in the braces landing in the dog's mouth.
• Enemy Mine: In "Ace and The Meanstalk" Ace and Ned team up to get the braces from a gigantic Edwin.
• Expy:
  • Billy Bonkers is one for Willy Wonka.
  • Barry Plotter and his arch nemesis Mouldy Warts are parodies of Harry Potter and Voldemort.
  • Tara Tuff is one to Lara Croft.
• Extendable Arms: Ned's extendo-arm gadgets. Unfortunately for him, their length means he gets easily tangled in them.
• Fastball Special: The Electrostatic Hand allows Ace to employ this on himself, as it can slap him into the air for quick mobility.
• Fiery Redhead: Principal Duffy's temper is as fiery as his hair.
• Fun with Acronyms: Hugo's name is short for Holographic User Guidance Operative.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: There is very little that doesn't set Principal Duffy off.
• Hard Light: Appears to be the nature of many of the braces' gadgets, since they have a glowing effect.
• Heart Beats out of Chest: Happens to Ace when he unexpectedly sees Tina at air guitar camp in "Bandemonium".
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: Ace often derides the dental floss function as the worst of the braces' gadgets, especially when compared to cooler ones like the Rocket Thrusters and the Freeze Ray. However, he can use them to Building Swing in one episode (that's some pretty strong floss) and creates enough floss to tangle up the rotors of the bad guys' helicopter in another.
• Hereditary Hairstyle: Downplayed. Ace and Becky have similar (though not identical) hairstyles to their father and mother respectively, but in different colors.
• How Do I Shot Web?: Ace's braces actually have a manual, which isn't lost or anything, but he never gets around to actually reading through the whole thing. As a result, he often calls out the wrong function number, resulting in mishaps like him getting laughing gas instead of a smokescreen,
• Humanity Ensues: In "Hugo Gets Real", a science lab accident turns Hugo into a real boy.
• The Jeeves: Hugo is a holographic assistant version, a British Servile Snarker who helps Ace and allows him to access the various functions of his high-tech braces.
• The Joy of First Flight: Ace has a good time when first flying with the Rocket Thrusters... until the batteries run out.
• Last-Name Basis: Gordon never refers to Ace by his first name, only McDougal or more often, "McDorkle".
• Literal Split Personality: In "Creepville Dare", Becky's alien probe splits Hugo into two, Nerdy Hugo and Cool Hugo.
• The Mentor: Jack Union, an old secret agent with spy braces of his own. He gives Ace useful advice and helps mold him into a secret agent worthy of the high-tech braces. The final episode has him attempt to officially get Ace recruited as a junior superspy.
• Morphic Resonance: Ned is a Master of Disguise, but the one thing he cannot change is his jagged teeth.

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• New Powers as the Plot Demands: The braces supposedly have a set number of functions, but neither Ace nor the audience knows all of them at the beginning, so new powers pop up whenever needed. Sometimes functions are used once and forgotten, like the Universal Translator that's used only in an early episode and nowhere to be seen when Ace needs to converse with some angry penguins.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed:
  • The episode "Lord of the Board" features pro-skater Toby Squawk, a parody of Tony Hawk.
  • Daniel Radrock, the actor who normally plays Barry Plotter. Unlike the real-life star, he's a redhead, which makes him resemble Ace enough for the latter to replace him as Barry Plotter.
  • David Nickelfield from "Chicken Magic" to David Copperfield.
• Not Helping Your Case: Ace's attempts to prove himself innocent in "Gnomeland" are hampered by his inability to go five minutes without accidentally breaking a gnome.
• On Ice: The "Humongous Man on Ice" show. Ace, as a lifelong "Humongous Man" fan, sees it as totally lame.
• Pretty Fly for a White Guy: Ace talks to Tina like this in "Ace the Superspy", for no particular reason.
  Ace: Yo, my ladies, s'up?
• Primary-Color Champion: Ace is a redhead who wears a blue t-shirt with a yellow collar.
• Psychotic Manchild: Played for Laughs with Ned Krinkle, a wannabe supervillain who still lives with his "Mumsy". He's rightfully angry at the protagonist for having the braces that were meant for him but treats it like Ace stole his toy and throws temper tantrums whenever can't get what he wants. His immaturity is one of several humorous traits that offsets the fact that he's an evil villain who desires world domination. He is also shown to share many of the same hobbies and interests as his 14-year-old adversary, and even befriends Ace in an online game with neither realizing the identity of the other.
• Repetitive Name: The full name of Ace and Becky's father is Dougal McDougal.
• Rise of Zitboy: In "Date With Disaster", Ace finally gets a date with Tina- only to get a pimple on his nose the morning of, which he totally overreacts to. The extreme measures Ace takes to get rid of it only spread the infection- resulting in a horrible case of pizza face right before the date. Luckily Hugo manages to fix it with a Holographic Disguise...until it wears off in front of Tina.
• Running Gag: In several episodes, there's a bride and groom whose wedding is always interrupted by whatever mayhem is going at the moment, complete with the same officiate trying to marry them each time.
• Secret-Keeper: Ace's Grandpa is the only family member to know about the braces. He mantains Plausible Deniability by pretending to be more senile and forgetful than he really is.
• Serious Business:
  • In "Ace the Hero", it's shown that Funpark City has very strict laws about standing in line.
  • In "Gnomeland", everyone except the McDougal family is shown to own a gnome and it's a very big deal when they're destroyed. Ace is initially sent to jail when he's believed to have smashed Mr. Rainer's gnome, a city-wide manhunt is sent after him when he escapes and there's an entire "Gnomeland Security" organization dedicated to protecting them.
• Shoe Phone:
  • What the braces ultimately are; a high-tech gadget disguised as a mundane accessory. They do actually correct crooked teeth, though.
  • The Krinkles have a briefcase that transforms into a helicopter.
• Shout-Out:
  • To evade Gordon at the beginning of "Greener Tina", Ace uses the glue function on the rope wall to climb it "Spidey-style".
  • Another Spider-Man shout-out is in the title card of "Metal Mouth Man", which parodies the "upside-down kiss in the rain scene" from the original movie. Except Tina is too busy squeezing rainwater out of her beret to reciprocate Ace's kiss.
• Sliding Scale Of Silliness Vs Seriousness: The show is on the very silly end of the scale. The series' main premise is about a boy with superpowered braces (that come with their own holographic butler) and is mostly an excuse for wacky hijinks to happen. No villain, especially not Ned and Hilda is ever really taken seriously.
• Spanner in the Works: As a result of going to the wrong dentist by mistake, Ace manages to prevent powerful high-tech braces from going in the hands of Ned Krinkle, a supervillain who had planned to use them for world domination.
• Skyward Scream: In "Bandemonium", Ace screams out Tina's name, complete with echoes and sudden flashes of lightning.
• The Tag: The 11-minute single episode format has these between the end of the episode and the credits. Some relate to the main episode's plot and take place afterwards; others are unrelated.
• Title Drop: Happens all the time, usually said by Ned or Hilda when they set out to capture the protagonist. Subverted at the beginning of the first episode when the villains haven't learned who Ace is yet.
  Hilda: Now let's get out there and get... whatever his name is.
• "Too Young to Die" Lamentation: Parodied. When a young reporter exclaims this, so does the 102 year-old woman she was interviewing.
• Two Shorts: The show is sometimes distributed in the standard two 11-minute shorts format favored by comedy cartoons. Only the Halloween Episode has one plotline run through the whole thing.
• Villainous Mother-Son Duo: Ned and Hilda.
• What Does He See in Her?: Hugo's attitude towards Ace's crush on Tina, as she's rather vain, mean and narcisistic. As Ace's holographic assistant, Hugo still supports him in his attempts to win her over but makes snide remarks about Tina while doing so.
  Hugo: Really Ace, I don't know what you see in that self-absorbed specimen anyway.
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: Parodied in The Tag for "School Election". Athol ends up a successful school captain for three years and later becomes the youngest mayor of Funpark City. Anoop becomes a TV consultant. Tina becomes an environmentalist saving endangered species. Meanwhile, nothing changes at all for Ace.
• Wingding Eyes:
  • Ace's eyes become hearts whenever he becomes lovestruck, usually with Tina.
  • Tina, on the other hand, gains star eyes when she sees an opportunity for stardom in "Chicken Magic".
• Yank the Dog's Chain: Any time Tina becomes attracted to Ace, it will be over by the episode's end (or worse, she'll turn out to actually be Ned), going as far as a couple almost kisses and her briefly becoming Ace's girlfriend on separate occasions.