Western Animation / SpacePOP

Not your average princesses! Left to right: Juno, Rhea, Athena, Hera, Luna.

SpacePOP is a cartoon made by Genius Brands International and produced by Andy Heyward, formerly of DiC Entertainment. Every episode is about three minutes long, along with a music video and occasional extras. The series is comprised of 108 episodes.

The show follows five space princesses, Athena, Luna, Rhea, Hera, and Juno, as their home planets are taken over by the evil Empress Geela and their parents are imprisoned. Working underground, the girls form the band SpacePOP and join the resistance to undermine Geela's rule, rescue their parents, and defeat her.

Besides the show, dolls, lifestyle apps, and other merchandise were made with an emphasis on mobile devices and an almost entirely digital marketing campaign, though books and DVDs of the series also exist.

The episodes can be found here in English and here in Spanish.

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This show contains examples of:

• 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: Geela's starship, the Space Bus, and the planets are CGI while everything else is done in Flash.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: Geela is more attractive in official art and tie-in book art than she is in the show.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: While in the show the girls' hair colors are natural, in the books the girls have different hair colors before dyeing them to match their official art.
• Adaptation Expansion:
  • The tie-in books show how Geela took over, and mention that Tibbitt is a present from her late father. They also go into more detail about the princesses, Geela, Chamberlin, and their lives, as well as the episodes' content.
  • The cartoon expands on Juno's reality TV experiences, as well as adding a scene after an interview where Geela tries to arrest the princesses and the crowd helps them escape.
• Adaptation Explanation Extrication:
  • The books make it more clear in the Geela TV arc that SpacePOP was asked to endorse products and go on shows when Geela refused to endorse them herself, while in the cartoon it seems like they go for no real reason.
  • In the cartoon, Geela's pet kwub-kwub is never seen again after it bites her arm. This is averted in the books, where Hera and Roxie eventually rescue it and give it to Bradbury as a pet.
• All There in the Manual:
  • The website mentions Geela isn't really an empress but declared herself one out of jealousy that she couldn't be a princess, and she hails from the planet Geelatuu.
  • Juno is said to have a boyfriend who she hides her identity from, but he's never mentioned in the series.
• Alternative Foreign Theme Song: The Spanish, Italian, and Portugese theme songs are different than the English one, as are the music video songs.
• Amazing Technicolor Population: Four out of five SpacePOP members have fantastic skin colors, as do Geela and many aliens.
• Ambidextrous Sprite: Several character models are flipped in the music videos and regular episodes, resulting in Geela's scar, Luna's multicolored eyes, Chamberlin's beauty mark, and Athena's short sleeve swapping positions.
• Art Evolution: The animation improved over time, particularly with◊ Chamberlin◊ and the◊ princesses◊.
• Baldness Angst: Geela has a wig collection to hide the fact that she's bald.
• Big Bad: Empress Geela, who took over the Planetary Pentangle and imprisoned the girls' parents.
• Bounty Hunter: Geela hires one named Khang to capture the girls and get Grock's ring.
• Bowdlerise: The cover of "Titanium" toned down the more explicitly-about-shooting lyrics to be more kid-friendly.
• Brainwashed: Late in the first season, Geela brainwashes the girls' parents to cajole them into surrendering.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Several characters break the fourth wall at times.
• Broken Aesop: The series' girl power themes and general message is undermined by the fact that the princesses fail to rescue their parents and make little headway against Geela for a majority of the series. The middle-aged male Chamberlin also destroys the Fog-O-Nator machine by complete accident when the girls were forced to escape without getting a chance to attack it, and suggests a self-destruct button when the girls' ideas to stop Geela's communication center fail.
• By the Lights of Their Eyes: When the power goes out in The Show Must Go On, there are a few moments where only SpacePOP’s eyes can be seen.
• Captured on Purpose: Luna and Juno get themselves captured so they can locate Geela's headquarters, escaping offscreen.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Geela is proud of her evilness and hates anything good.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Athena's mother is only seen in one dungeon scene, and isn't seen with her husband or the rest of the girls' parents before or after it.
• Cliffhanger: Season 1 ends with Athena wearing the Ring of Grock in front of Geela, who's watching from a video screen, and the ring suddenly begins to glow.
• Cloud Cuckoolander:
  • Hera generally has... odd ideas when thinking of ways for plans to work.
  • Geela's robots are hilariously wrong about a ton of things, like suspecting SpacePOP sneaked into Space Port 9 by way of pouring invisible juice on themselves.
  • Rand the roadie is fond of non-sequiturs and random humor in general.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Each of the main cast is associated with a color. Athena is light indigo, Juno is purple, Luna is red, Rhea is blue, Hera is hot pink, and Geela is green.
• Compilation Movie: The DVDs and some web episodes are several shorter segments combined to make a longer episode.
• Contrived Coincidence: Lampshaded in episode 82, where the girls need to find the statue of Grock without directions, only to see a sign with a picture of said statue and a left arrow.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: Tibbitt tortures the girls' parents with audio of Geela's awful singing.
• Cowardly Lion: Chamberlin is terrified of everything the band does, but is willing to help if need be and even saves the day in SpacePOP's first mission.
• Cut Short: SpacePOP was written off at a loss in August 2018, leaving the series to end on a cliffhanger where the princesses revealed their identities to Geela and Athena put on the Ring of Grock to try to defeat her.
• Cyborg: Khang has a robotic left hand.
• The Ditz: Hera tends to take things literally and is usually the last person to pick up on things, having to have them explained.
• Do Not Adjust Your Set: Geela takes over the holonet feeds, saturating it with programs all about her.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: The first 24 episodes in their original form have alternate voices for the princesses and Geela, and lower-quality sound effects and voice acting, which were improved in rereleases.
• Easily Conquered World: Geela seems to take over the Pentangle very quickly, with only a handful of groups resisting her.
• Enhanced on DVD: The first SpacePOP DVD (and the first compilation episode) has alternate takes of the first episodes with better voice acting and sound effects.
• "Eureka!" Moment: Rand not disposing of his trash properly inspires Athena to dress the band up as garbage workers to bypass Geela's fleet.
• Everybody Do the Endless Loop: Looping animation is common, especially in the music videos.
• Expository Theme Tune: The Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese themes talk about who SpacePOP is and what their mission is, and do a roll call of the band members' names.
• Failure Is the Only Option: For most of the series the girls aren't even close to finding their parents, and when they do get opportunities to save them they don't succeed.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: Athena and Rhea's outfits are asymmetrical, with one long sleeve and one short sleeve.
• The Fashionista: Rhea and Luna are both this to varying degrees. Rhea focuses more on designs and the work behind fashion, while Luna cares about it as it relates to her.
• Faux Action Girl: Mainly due to being as strong as the plot demands and the series shying away from showing fights, the girls can come across as being weaker than presented.
• For the Evulz: Episode 23 has Geela commission a Fog-O-Nator machine, which would block out the sun around the Pentangle and coat the planets in gloomy fog, for no real reason except to be evil.
• Friend to All Living Things: Hera loves all animals, even giant space slugs.
• Fun with Acronyms: In the books, SpacePOP is short for Space Princesses Of the Pentangle.
• Geek Physiques: Bradbury wears stereotypical nerd glasses and pocket protectors, and is a SpacePOP fan to the point of annoyance.
• Generation Xerox: Most of the girls' parents share their hair and skin colors.
• Good Republic, Evil Empire: Geela overthrows the kings and queens of the Pentangle and declares herself Empress.
• Granola Girl: Hera believes in peace, love, and marshmallow dreams, and is fond of daydreaming and meditation.
• Gratuitous Princess: The five girls are all teenage space princesses for no real reason other than princesses being a recurring theme in girl-targeted media.
• Heel–Face Turn: Khang quits working for Geela to join the Resistance.
• Hollywood Tone-Deaf: Geela cannot carry a tune at all. Her singing's so bad Tibbitt uses it as a torture device.
• Honey Trap: Khang poses as a normal boy so Athena will trust him. She doesn't take it well when he reveals his true colors.
• Human Aliens: The SpacePOP girls are mostly human except for pointed ears and colorful skin, and Chamberlin and Captain Hansome look extremely human. While Geela has a more alien design, she also counts.
• I Lied: Geela lies to Khang about paying him, leading him to betray her.
  Geela: Sorry... I'm evil. I lied.
• Idiot Ball: After SpacePOP recovers the fifth jewel for the Ring of Grock, they celebrate with a song and get in a fight over whether to wear it instead of taking Chamberlin's advice to leave, letting Khang steal it.
• Improbable Weapon User: Luna weaponizes hairspray a few times, and she and Rhea use sunscreen against two guards. The girls also use communicators disguised as lipstick, bracelets, and compacts.
• Informed Ability: Luna is said to have an eight-octave singing voice (the limit for humans is five or six octaves), but the songs stay in one or two octaves.
• Internal Reveal: Episodes 106 and 108 reveal to Geela and the princesses' parents the truth about SpacePOP.
• It's All About Me: Luna is a total diva and thinks the other girls are her backup band.
• Jedi Mind Trick: Hera tries this to get past some guards, but to her dismay, it doesn't work.
• Just a Stupid Accent: Juno has a thick British accent for no real reason.
• Laughably Evil: Geela is a cruel dictator who took over the princesses' planets and kidnapped their parents, but she spends most of her time on vapid, self-promoting TV shows and reveling in her own evilness.
• The Leader: Athena, who's the most focused on stopping Geela and saving her parents.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Juno is always gung-ho about fighting Geela and often has to be talked down from unwinnable situations.
• Left Hanging: Season 2 was planned but never materialized, leaving the series to end on a cliffhanger with nothing resolved.
• Light 'em Up: Springle, Rhea's pet, can project light from her hands.
• Loony Fan:
  • Bradbury is SpacePOP's number-one fan. He follows the girls around and generally causes trouble, though he does manage a fan site and got them on the map.
  • Renaldo is a more malicious version, wanting them to stay at his roadhouse and play forever.
• Lost Orphaned Royalty: Rhea doesn't have parents and grew up in an orphanage before they learned she was a princess, moving into the palace shortly after.
• MacGuffin: The Ring of Grock, worn by the Pentangle's first emperor, has the power to save or destroy the galaxy if all five of its gems are in placement. The missing fifth jewel is also one of these.
• Make My Monster Grow: Skitter, Juno's pet, can grow 50 times her size. Springle, Rhea's pet, can also grow larger, though not to that extent.
• Malicious Misnaming: SpacePOP gets misnamed as SpacePOOP a couple times, once by Geela and once by unruly concertgoers.
• Mecha-Mooks: Geela employs an army of robots to do her bidding.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Geela refusing to pay Khang causes him to have a change of heart, and he joins the Resistance.
• Named After Somebody Famous: Athena, Juno, Luna, Rhea, and Hera are all named after Greek and Roman goddesses.
• Named After Their Planet: All the girls, and Geela, are named for their planets—Athena for Athenia, Rhea for Rhealo, Juno for Junoia, Luna for Lunaria, Hera for Heralda, and Geela for Geelatuu.
• Never Say "Die": Geela often orders her minions to vaporize the princesses rather than kill them.
• No Ending:
  • The Princess Power DVD ends with the girls chanting "SpacePOP" before they head out to jam Geela's comm centers.
  • The series itself ends just as abruptly, with Athena putting on the Ring of Grock, gasping as it starts to glow, and smash to the "To Be Continued" sign.
• No Flow in CGI: Since Flash animating wavy hair is difficult, Rhea's hair is thinner and shorter than in the illustrations and Athena's hair is always tied into a bun instead of loose. Luna's long hair is separately animated from the rest of her.
• Offscreen Villainy: Villainous things Geela does are usually offscreen, with most of her time being spent on self-promoting TV shows or reveling in her own evilness.
• Oh, My Gods!: "Oh my Grock" is a common phrase, referring to the first emperor of the Pentangle. Variants such as "In Grock's name" or "Grock-awful" are also used.
• Once an Episode: Every episode has a music video attached.
• Only in It for the Money: Khang the space pirate is only in it for Geela's money. He's not happy at all when she betrays him.
• Only Six Faces: The girls have different hairstyles, hair colors and skin tones, but their body and face types are the same; the dolls have an even worse case of this, with all but one having the same molds. Averted in the book illustrations, where they have different facial features.
• Palette Swap: Background aliens often have recycled models and different colors.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: The SpacePOP group wears different clothing and slightly different hairstyles to hide their true identities. Averted in the books, where they also dye and style their hair differently.
• Parents in Distress: SpacePOP's parents are held captive, and rescuing them is part of the girls' goal.
• Pokémon Speak: The Space Pets only speak in beatboxing and barks.
• Real Name as an Alias: The princesses' names are fairly long and they shorten them when they go on the run. Lunaria de Longoria becomes Luna, Junoia Atley-Wolford becomes Juno, Rhealetta Hemmings becomes Rhea, Herazanna Appleby becomes Hera, and Mettathena Mystos becomes Athena. Episode 108 has Geela lampshading how nobody figured this out.
• Really 700 Years Old: Chamberlin is 127 years old but looks middle-aged.
• Red Baron: On dolls and in promotional material, the girls have a title describing their character archetype. Athena is "The Leader," Luna is "The Beauty," Rhea is "The Witty One," Hera is "The Sweetheart," and Juno is "The Fighter."
• Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale: The Pentangle Galaxy is apparently only a few solar systems wide.
• Self-Destruct Button: Parodied when all of the girls' ideas to stop Geela's comm center fail, so Chamberlin suggests the self-destruct button. The concept is later lampshaded.
  Computer: Self-destruct sequence has begun. Please panic and run around pointlessly.
  Athena: Why would a place even have a self-destruct button?
  Chamberlin: Probably a required safety feature in case of runaway robots or monsters.
• Series Continuity Error:
  • In the final season 1 episode, Rhea's planet Rhealo is misnamed Rheania, and Hera's planet Heralda is misnamed Heria.
  • Some episodes have Luna playing bass while Hera sings instead of it being the other way around.
• Series Goal: Finding the royal families and overthrowing Geela is the main goal for most of the series.
• Shout-Out:
  • Luna's space-buns hairdo is a reference to Princess Leia.
  • When Geela enters herself in a fashion contest and wins, she misquotes Sally Field's Oscar acceptance speech. "You like me, you really like me!"
  • Hera attempts a Jedi mind trick to get past two of Geela's androids. "We aren't the five teenage girl musicians you're looking for."
• The Snark Knight: Being a sassy wise-cracker is Rhea's main character trait.
• Space "X": Several things have 'space' thrown in front of them, like SpacePOP itself, the Space Bus, space princesses, the Space Pets, etc.
• Speaks Fluent Animal: Despite the Space Pets speaking only in beatboxing, everyone can fluently communicate with them.
• Spiritual Successor: To DiC Entertainment's Trollz and Sonic Underground. The girls have similar personalities and character designs to the Trollz characters, as do the villains and the characters' pets, and royalty going underground as a rock band to search for their missing parents against a dictator with Mecha-Mooks and a hired Bounty Hunter is like Sonic Underground.
• Spoiled Brat: Luna was rich before going on the run, and is haughty and used to the finer things in life.
• Spy Catsuit: Once they officially join the Resistance the girls get form-fitting spy outfits that Rhea says makes them look like cat burglars.
• Standardized Leader: Athena is smart, focused, and that's about it.
• Stay in the Kitchen: Captain Hansome's first few missions have him asking the girls to spy on things and report back, which they disobey and end up destroying Geela's weapons. He also attempts to break in and rescue them during another mission, only for them to rescue him and demand he treat them with respect from then on.
• Strong as They Need to Be: SpacePOP can fight off Geela's androids unless the plot suddenly requires that they can't, at which point they either need to escape or get aid.
• Sweet Tooth: All the characters except Chamberlin love sweets, especially donuts.
• Tag Line: "Not your average princesses!"
• Take That!: Geela's TV shows and the experiences the girls have on them are critical of reality TV in general, with a major point being that such shows' outcomes are planned in advance by the producers.
• Team Pet: All the girls have a Space Pet, while Geela has a dragon named Tibbitt.
• Throwing the Fight: Juno forces herself to lose a reality show since it wasn't in her contract that she'd win, and if she did win Geela would take notice.
• Top-Heavy Guy: Khang's upper half is about twice as wide as his lower half.
• Totally Radical: The two guards in Episodes 93-95 talk like surfer dudes, and the series' social media pages are full of memes, abbreviations, emojis, and contemporary slang and trends.
• Uncatty Resemblance: All the Space Pets resemble their owner.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: In the cartoon, Geela's pet kwub-kwub is never seen again after it bites her arm. Averted in the books, where Hera and Roxie eventually rescue it and give it to Bradbury as a pet.
• Womb Level: Episodes 99-101 have the space bus eaten by a giant space slug and the girls working to escape.
• Wretched Hive: The Vega asteroid is home to Renaldo's Roadhouse, a club full of lowlifes who dip bands they don't like in a boiling slime pit and trap bands they do like at the club to play forever.
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: Episodes 77 and 78 lead the viewers to believe the princesses are finally going to rescue their parents after having spent a third of the series getting closer and closer, only for the parents to be taken away to another dungeon and forcing the quest to continue.

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