Spin and shout, till you find yourself on Zula!
Let's take off!
We're all ready to roll!
It's fun to learn with the Zula Patrol!"
—- The theme tune
3D/CG animated television series aimed at preschoolers to 2nd Graders that started airing on PBS Kids in 2005 and now runs on Qubo. Created by Deb Manchester in 1999, Zula Patrol was originally a children's book. This series was designed to entertain while promoting an understanding of science and astronomy through engaging character-driven stories, which focus on specific educational science learning objectives. In every episode of The Zula Patrol, the characters demonstrate inquiry-based learning and critical thinking skills. They also model inquisitiveness, observation, self-reflection, and social experiences that encourage collaboration, teamwork, and an excitement for scientific exploration and problem solving.
Despite its target audience, the show has a small Periphery Demographic, but you won't hear a lot of people talking about it, since the show's somewhat obscure.
Of course, in every new episode, they do learn something new and science-y. However, the show breaks the laws of science about once per new idea they teach.
Tropes:
- And Knowing Is Half the Battle: Every episode ends in a recap of what they learned.
- As the Good Book Says...: The versions of the episodes that aired on Smile of a Child had Christian values blatantly shoehorned in.
- Catchphrase:
- Bula: "This is a job for the Zula Patrol!"
- Multo: "Oh my stars!"
- Did Not Think This Through: Dark Truder would succeed in his plans if he'd bother to do his research first.
- Everything Talks: Every single object in outer space can talk. Except for the main characters' homeworld.
- Episode Title Card: Every episode opens with a title card that is surrounded by the main characters.
- The Face of the Sun: The sun, just like several objects in the show, is portrayed with a face, complete with lipstick and eyelashes.
- Great Big Book of Everything: The Multopedia. Just...just the Multopedia. Every principle taught is in here, somewhere. And it IS a Door Stopper.
- Humanoid Aliens: If you were supposed to be a living creature, expect to be this here.
- Intelligent Gerbil: Wizzy and Wigg are based off of bees/lightning bugs.
- It's All About Me: Deliria, the galaxy's resident spoiled heiress. It's rare when she does anything for others.
- Lethal Chef: Multo. Several episodes depict him making food with all sorts of things, most of them bugs, which the other members of the Zula Patrol aren't exactly fond of eating. His status is known throughout the galaxy, as even planets, including the Sun herself in 'Sun Day', refused to eat his food. 'Chili Cook-Off' shows what happens when it's left to cool, in which it becomes a massive whirlwind that nearly demolishes their kitchen. 'Time Out' and 'Blue Moon' are also good examples of this trope.
- Male Sun, Female Moon: Gender-inverted. The sun is a female character while the moon is a male character.
- Our Werebeasts Are Different: "Going Through A Phase" has Bula turn into a weremouse after encountering a strange plant.
- Paper-Thin Disguise:
- Dark Truder's signature fallback plan. Also expect Traxie as part of it.
- Deliria herself has this problem. She can shape shift to avoid capture, but part of her disguise will always show some part of her face in it. Expect her hapless robot servant, Cloid, to be part of the disguise, mainly as a distraction to thrown the team off guard.
- Shout-Out:
- To Alien, of all things. Specifically, the tagline.
- Dark Truder: Dark (In-) Truder is a pun on Darth (Dark In-) Vader.
- Translator Collar: Buzzy is a ferret from Earth given this collar by the Zula Patrol so he could communicate with them.
