Megas XLR
Megas XLR is an American animated television series that aired on the Toonami block on Cartoon Network and is produced by Cartoon Network Studios. It was created by Jody Schaeffer and George Krstic. Its opening song is "Megas XLR Theme (Chicks Dig Giant Robots)" by Ragtime Revolutionaries.
Originally entitled Lowbrow, the pilot episode was shown during Cartoon Network's 2002 Summer Contest to determine which cartoon would become a new Cartoon Cartoon; it was the most popular among viewers. After being delayed from its original debut in December 2003, Megas XLR finally debuted on Toonami on May 1, 2004, and was cancelled on January 15, 2005. Megas XLR is currently not airing on any station in the United States, but is airing on Teletoon in Canada. The entire series is available to download on Xbox Live Marketplace and iTunes.
Synopsis
In the distant future, Earth is fighting a losing war with an alien race known as the Glorft. In order to save the planet, the human resistance steals a prototype giant robot from the Glorft and modifies it, renaming it Megas (Mechanized Earth Guard Attack System). The idea is to use a time-traveling device called a timedrive to send Megas and its pilot, Kiva, back in time to the Battle of the Last Stand, which was the last major offensive fought by humanity against the Glorft. Humanity lost that battle, but the members of the resistance, particularly Kiva, believe that Megas can tip the scales and hand the Glorft a decisive defeat.
Before the plan can be executed, however, an attack by the Glorft forces the human resistance to send Megas back in time before proper preparations are made, but the timedrive is accidentally damaged in the attack and, as a result, sends the now-crippled Megas (its head was blown off in the attack) all the way back to the 1930s. Megas languishes in a New Jersey junkyard until it ends up in the hands of two slackers, Coop and Jamie, around the year 2000. Coop turns Megas into a hot rod project by repainting it with a new, flaming paint job, replacing its head with a classic muscle car and naming it XLR, for eXtra Large Robot.
Kiva goes back in time to retrieve Megas, and when she finds she is unable to pilot it because of Coop's modifications, she grudgingly decides to train Coop how to pilot Megas, who is now the only person who can pilot it. However, the Glorft have followed her through time and, much to Kiva's chagrin, it is now up to Coop to defend Earth from the Glorft and other various threats to the Earth; if he doesn't accidentally end up destroying it first that is.
Characters
Main Characters
- Harold "Coop" Cooplowski (David DeLuise): The pilot of Megas and the main protagonist, Coop is overweight and has an insatiable appetite. Due to years of playing video games, he is an excellent pilot. He's not exactly the brightest person around—his amazing heroics are just accidents, and he usually ends up destroying more than he protects. Coop also is quite strong as depicted by his demonstrations of raw power, such as being able to punch a car window and breaking it without flinching or using a wrench to wreck a null distortion missile on Megas. The number on his jacket is 12.
- Kiva Andru (Wendee Lee): Kiva is a military pilot and engineer who traveled back in time from over a thousand years in the future. Also the deuteragonist, She has a no-nonsense personality, but adopts a small sense of humor as the series progresses, and is highly skilled in both robotic and hand-to-hand combat. Kiva is knowledgeable, tough, and fearless. Originally meant to be the pilot of Megas, she can no longer pilot it due to Coop's modifications, and finds herself stuck in the present time. Instead of driving MEGAS herself, she tries to train Coop. Kiva usually operates a holographic panel in Megas's back seat.
- Jamie (Steven Blum): Coop's best friend since childhood, and a smart-aleck slacker. He is the tritagonist of the series, although his contributions are minimal, and are usually limited to comic relief. He frequently makes passes at Kiva and other women, often to little success. He is very cowardly and often runs at the first sign of danger.
Supporting characters
- Goat (Scot Rienecker): The owner of the junkyard in which Coop found Megas, Goat dreams of finding a robot of his own. Like Jamie, he tries to hit on girls (usually Kiva) and falls just a bit short.
- Tiny (Kevin Michael Richardson): Another friend of Coop's. Like Coop, he is also fond of working with cars. He competed against Coop in an auto show and also assisted him on a number of occasions.
- Little Tommy (Sean Marquette): A kid who lives in Jersey City, he often goes "Coooooool!!!!" when he sees something unusual, such as an alien appearing in the middle of a baseball game.
- Georgie (Kevin Michael Richardson): He is a video game expert much like Coop, only he isn't as good as him. He also seems to be fond of the lurps (tiny orange creatures who resemble smurfs) and plays their game series, which is apparently the only game Coop never played (Coop refers to the lurps as "Those cheesy, orange elves from that preschool show"). He has a lurp doll which he calls "his precious" He was later seen in Las Vegas with Goat at the game convention.
- Gina (Rachael MacFarlane): A girl Jamie tried to date, she thought he had a really cool car which was actually Coop's. So Jamie lied to get her to go for a ride which ended up turning into a cat and mouse chase with the Glorft.
- Cal (Greg Eagles): One of Coop's friends who is the owner of the impound lot. He seems to know Coop rather well.
- Ally (Julie Nathanson): Kiva's ancestor from the past, Gorrath tried to kill her which would directly destroy Kiva and this would cause Coop to not have Megas at all. Fortunately for her, Coop was there to rescue her from the Glorft. Jamie and her seem to be attracted to each other, much to Kiva's horror.
- Skippy (Frankie Ryan Manriquez): Coop's bratty cousin. Coop was forced to babysit him in an episode. Coop decides to take Skippy into space where they encounter the Glorft who were using the Moon to attack Earth, when Coop accidentally released Skippy, he ended up finding the device needed to activated the thrusters which would push the moon to Earth.
- Florxin and Tolbit (Wally Wingert): Crab like aliens who perform tasks. Their first job was to dump the REGIS mark V into a black hole but thanks to Coop their mission was sabotaged. Florxin is the tall cynical one and Tolbit is the short clueless one. They appear again in "Junk in the Trunk" to apparently pick up litter thrown in space.
- S-Force: A group of superheroes from another galaxy (a spoof of Gatchaman, Super Sentai, Voltron and Power Rangers) , they first suspected Coop to be a bad guy most likely due to Coop's senseless destruction, they later learned that he wasn't evil, just very stupid. Despite this they became great allies and later helped each other in a later episode. They pilot Zorps (Red Hawk, Silver Rhinoceros, Green Ape, Purple Kangaroo and Pink Panther), which resemble animals. The pilots are Mac (Frank Welker), Argo (Scott Innes), Jax (Alan Young), Sloen (Ronnie Schell), and Duchess (Jennifer Hale). Their advisor is Targon. Due to their interaction with Coop, the S-Force have picked up his habits, becoming fast-food loving, less serious, video game junkies. Although in S-Force S.O.S they appeared to have reverted back to normal. The S-Force's mech appeared again in a flashback in "Rearview Mirror Mirror, Part 2".
- Ultra-Cadets: Space chicks who came to Earth looking for Coop, instead they found Jamie. They needed Coop's assistance in fighting the Kurdock so Jamie went instead not knowing what he was getting himself into. Later, Coop & Kiva showed up on their planet, and it was revealed that Jamie was an impostor. In the end, the Ultra Cadets were attacked by the Kurdock and it is unknown if they survived but apparently they did as Goat was able to go to a movie with one of them. They are Galaxia, Comet, Pulsar, and Nova. Overall they are an homage to Sailor Moon. Their voice actors are (Tara Strong), (Apollo Smile), and (Janice Kawaye)
- Cryhocks: Otherwise known as the "Space Bigfoots" Their planet was being invaded by the Ceruleans, robots with the ability to transform into tanks much like the (Transformers). Coop helped them defeat the Ceruleans but at the same time also destroyed the planet Surell which kept the planet cool. All the ice melted and now the Cryohocks now live on a warm planet thanks to Coop.
- Chieftain Ator (Keith Szarabajka): The chieftain of the Space Bigfoots. He is the leader of his tribe of Cryhocks who lived in an ice village. His village was protected by a defector of the Cerulean army but Coop mistook him for the enemy. Ator then explained this to Coop and Coop in return became their guardian.... for a short while.
- Alternate Jamie (Steven Blum): The leader of the resistance force in an alternate dimension. He is the hero of that Earth who fights against the evil forces of Coop and his army of robots. He apparently had a relationship with Kiva but Kiva left with Coop and became evil. Alternate Jamie is a battle-hardened man with a knee brace and is very brave and muscular. He modified the Glorft mechs into battle bots they can control.
- Coop's Mom (Miriam Flynn): She never appears on screen, but in several episodes she can be heard yelling at Coop.
Villains
The Glorft
- Gorrath (Clancy Brown): The primary antagonist of the series. Warmaster Gorrath is the head of the warlike Glorft cyborg-slugs. Gorrath followed Kiva and led his army back in time to the past to try and retrieve MEGAS. Because of his rash actions, he is trapped in the past just like Kiva, unless he captures the time drive inside MEGAS. He hates Coop and often launches attacks to try to kill him and reclaim MEGAS (or as he calls it, the Avatar prototype), and also conquer the Earth, but always fails in some way or other, usually because of sheer luck on Coop's part.
- Glorft Commander (Kevin Michael Richardson): Gorrath's second in command. He seems to have an inferiority complex and is often scared of his commanding officer. His most common reaction when approached by Gorrath: cower and say "Not the face!"
Other Villains
- Magnanimous (Bruce Campbell): He could be a reference to M.O.D.O.K. (acronym for Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing) Head of the Intergalactic Robot Fighting Tournament. He uses Coop to make money in his battle arena, but when Coop refuses to lose for him, they have a big fight resulting in Magnanimous being thrown into a quantum singularity. In a later episode, Magnanimous comes to Earth to challenge Coop for his title and to get revenge, but the fat mech ace defeated everything he's thrown at him. Magnanimous' second mech was seen in a flashback in "Rearview Mirror Mirror, Part 2". The mechs resemble Bruce Campbell as he appears in the movies Army of Darkness and Bubba Ho Tep.
- T-Bot (Phil Lamarr): A robot who resembles, and speaks like Mr. T. He was one of Coop's challengers in "The Return" He often spoke in a mean rhyming tone saying stuff as "T-Bot will pounce you! Trounce you! And utterly denounce you!" He later tried to attack Magnanimous when he learned he lied about the case prize. T-Bot appeared in a flashback in "Rearview Mirror Mirror, Part 2".
- R.E.G.I.S. Mark 5 (Michael Dorn): Short for Replicant Engineered for Galactic Infiltration and Sabotage. An advanced and powerful alien robot gone horribly awry, it was supposed to be dumped into a black hole by a cloaked ship. Unfortunately, Coop damaged the ship and the robot landed on Earth. R.E.G.I.S. is capable of absorbing metal to make it grow, regenerating after being damaged, replicating itself, and is equipped with multiple laser weapons. It was defeated when Coop made a smoke screen that cut off its supply of solar energy, similar to the clouds surrounding Earth in The Matrix.
- Ender (Dorian Harewood): One of the S-Force's enemies. He showed up while Coop was fighting the S-Force the first time and wanted to team up with Coop, but when Coop insisted he was good, he instead fought with Coop, he lost when Coop integrated the Zorps into Megas and used their power to defeat Ender, much to the dismay of the S-Force. Ender was sucked into an anti-matter rift. His name is most likely a reference to the video game Zone of the Enders
- Grrkek (Beau Billingslea): A giant space alien that can kill planets who cares for nothing but destruction and misery. He was sealed away long ago, but was released by Coop when he was testing a new game, not knowing it was a containment cartridge. Coop fought Grrkek and then blasted him, but this only turned him into a cocoon and transformed him into a bigger and meaner Grrkek. Grrkek was defeated when he got caught in a tidal wave which Coop caused and it shrunk him back down to size. He is now trapped in a "Love Those Lurps" game console cartridge, which greatly annoys him to no end.
- Darklos (Tia Carrere): A space alien bounty hunter who controlled giant beasts. She was ordered to find and capture Kiva Andru so her clients could study her. Apparently, she comes from the future, but her time is further than Kiva's. She lost when the beasts she controlled broke free of her control and took her to prison on their homeworld.
- Varsin (Rob Paulsen): A redneck-type alien who owned a junk planet. He allowed Coop and his friends to look for a photonic stabilizer only so he could take Megas and take the time drive so he could go back in time and steal the universe's junk. He pilots a monstrous robot known as the Franken. He was defeated when Coop yanked a photonic stabilizer out of the Franken's body.
- Fred: Varsin's pet space worm.
- R.E.C.R. (Phil Lamarr): Short for Reverse-Engineered Collective Robot, it is a robot created by Area 50. Its prime programming was to defeat "the enemy", but due to a programming flaw, it considered everything to be that enemy. It was awakened by MEGAS. It feeds off of energy and becomes stronger as it feeds. It also needs energy to operate properly. Coop later buried the robot in the Grand Canyon to prevent it from draining any more power, but that act also destroyed the popular tourist site in the process. R.E.C.R. appeared again in a flashback in "Rearview Mirror Mirror, Part 2".
- Zarrik (Jeff Bennett): Another of the S-Force's enemies. He took over their planet and tried to throw the S-Force into the Infinity Zone but Coop came to their rescue and defeated him and his army. He pilots a giant snake mech, looks sort of like a vampire and greatly resembles Berg Katse from Gatchaman.
- Warlock (Neil Dickson): A space pirate, captain of the pirate battleship Saving Grace. Warlock has a fetish for red hair (regardless of gender), and he unsurprisingly fell in love with Kiva. He tricked her by promising that he would give her a time drive, but he really wanted to make her his queen. Despite this, he was defeated when Coop threw the car horn into the Saving Grace, which attracted the Florgnots into it and made them attack the battleship from within. He is a parody of Captain Harlock.
- Gynok (Daran Norris): An alien plant spore from Saturn, it requires heat to grow and germinate. Taking the disguise of Auggie the Adorable Aardvark, it fought Megas because it considered it to be a threat to its germination process, it later multiplied and took the guises of the other parade balloons. Coop defeated it by feeding it extra heat it didn't need and it exploded.
- Drarlig (Jeff Bennett): Leader of the selfish and greedy Ceruleans. He resembles Megatron in his appearance. Because the Ceruleans require water for their coolant systems, they drained their planet's supply of water and became focused on the ice moon nearby. He was tricked by Coop into accidentally destroying his home planet while attempting to destroy him with his flagship's cutter laser. His ship was subsequently destroyed when an asteroid remain of the Cerulean homeworld hit his ship, all hands lost.
- Quarrel (Peter Cullen): The head of Prisoner Planet. Quarrel reprograms the AIs of dangerous criminal robots for the greater good. He mistook MEGAS for one of these, but the misunderstanding was soon cleared up. Quarrel decided to destroy Megas anyway due to Coop's interference. Ultimately, the criminals were all released thanks to Coop, who thought the robots were being held as slaves by Quarrel.
- Skalgar (Jeff Bennett): A intergalactic robotic crimial who speaks in a Spanish accent, and resembles Unicron. Skalgar strives to be the most feared criminal in the universe, but because of his size he is often made fun of. In spite of this, he is incredibly powerful. When he gets word of a universal controller made by Coop, he goes to claim it for his own thinking it will let him control the universe. He is defeated by MEGAS when Skalgar's own attack was turned against him.
- Evil Coop (David DeLuise): The villain of the alternate dimension. After defeating the Glorft, this version of Coop snapped - he then wanted to defeat everyone in the known universe and kept fighting until he eventually abandoned MEGAS in favor of his more warlike 'mech and became evil. He now rules the alternate Earth with an iron fist... until the regular Coop showed up along with Gorrath and allowed Evil Coop to go to his dimension and take over that Earth. He was defeated by Coop, Gorrath, and Alternate Jamie and is now trapped in the Lurp Dimension. His number is 13.
- Evil Kiva (Wendee Lee): Evil Coop's second in command. She followed Coop in the alternate dimension hoping to return home but she lost sight of her goal as well as her humanity. She became evil like Coop and follows his orders to the letter. Evil Kiva pilots a mech similar to her EC mech from her own time. She, like Coop was trapped in the Lurp Dimension.
Episode list
External links
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