Biker Mice from Mars

Biker Mice from Mars
Genre
Created by Rick Ungar[1]
Developed by
  • Frank Ward
  • Dennis McCoy
  • Pamela Hickey
  • Mike Young
Directed by Tom Tataranowicz
Voices of
Composer(s) William Kevin Anderson
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 3
No. of episodes 65 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)
Producer(s) Tom Tataranowicz
Running time 30 minutes
Production company(s)

Brentwood Television Funnies

Distributor

[3]

Release
Original network Syndication
Original release September 18, 1993 – February 24, 1996
Chronology
Followed by Biker Mice from Mars (2006 TV series)
External links
Website [<span%20class="url">.bikermice.tv www.bikermice.tv%20www<wbr/>.bikermice<wbr/>.tv]</span>]

Biker Mice from Mars is a science fiction action animated series created by Rick Ungar that began airing in 1993, in the United States and lasted for three seasons. It follows three anthropomorphic mice motorcyclists named Throttle, Modo, and Vinnie who escape a war on their home planet Mars before arriving to defend the Earth from the evil that destroyed their homeland (the Plutarkians) and to one day return to Mars. The mice's signature weapons consist of a cestus and a laser (Throttle), a bionic arm (Modo), and flares (Vinnie). Despite the frequent battles, no blood is shown, no firearms are used and many villains are monsters, aliens, and robots.[4][5][1]

Plot

On the planet Mars, there existed a race of anthropomorphic mice who enjoyed motorsports and had a very similar culture and society to that of human beings. At some point in time they were all but wiped out by the Plutarkians, an alien race of obese, foul-smelling, worms-eating, fish-like humanoids who plunder other planets' natural resources because they have wasted all of their own. Three survivors, Throttle, Modo and Vinnie, manage to find a spaceship and escape the Plutarkian takeover but they are soon shot down by a Plutarkian warship and end up crash-landing on Earth in the city of Chicago, specifically in the scoreboard of Quigley Field. There they meet a charming female mechanic named Charlene "Charley" Davidson and discover that the Plutarkians have come to Earth to steal its natural resources.

The Biker Mice investigate the crumbling ghetto of the windy city and soon discover that Chicago's leading industrialist, Lawrence Limburger, is actually a Plutarkian who disguises himself as a human, plotting to ransack Earth's resources to send to his own dying planet. Limburger enlists two henchmen, mad scientist Dr. Karbunkle and the idiotic Greasepit to help him steal Earth's natural resources and send them to Plutark. But the Biker Mice from Mars themselves as heroic vigilantes come to save the day, and stop Limburger from destroying Chicago, doing it to bring Plutark to justice as payback for the loss and powerful destruction of their home, and in the process defend the Earth from the same fate. The most frequent sign of victory is destroying Limburger's big tower, forcing him to constantly spend money and time to rebuild it.

Characters

Protagonists

"The Bros.", Throttle, Vinnie, Modo

Antagonists

Super villains

In most episodes, Limburger orders Karbunkle to use the transporter to bring into Chicago one of the very powerful super villains. Generally each of them have one special ability which is useful for Limburger's plan in hand. Most of them seem to use an asteroid station called Black Rock as their main hideout when they're not summoned by those willing to pay for their services. On one notable occasion in the episode "A Scent, a Memory, a Far Distant Cheese", Limburger and Karbunkle accidentally got sucked into the transporter and appear in a nightclub where all the villains confront him for not paying them as they asked for.

Episodes

2006 revival

The Biker Mice from Mars returned to TV screens in 2006. The 2006 Biker Mice From Mars series is a continuation of the story, and gives more airtime to another character, General Stoker.[7]

The new 28 episode series began airing in the UK on Toonattik on GMTV (now known at weekends as CITV) on August 26, 2006.[8] However, due to production problems at the studio in the Philippines the series was not finalized until late 2007, resulting in the launch in the USA and many other countries being delayed until 2008 as it still needed to be dubbed.

The series was largely influenced by the major toy line that was manufactured by Italian giant, Giochi Preziosi in 2005. GP retained Pangea as developers of the toy line, working in tandem with creator and executive producer, Rick Ungar. Characters, vehicles, and weapons used in the series were first developed by Pangea and turned over to G7 Animation for integration into the series. The team of Ungar, G7, and Pangea collaborated in order to maintain consistency between the intellectual property and the execution of the primary toy range, as the GP licensing monies were utilized to set in motion the series development.[9]

The new series launched in autumn of 2008 in Italy on Italia 1, and on August 9 of the same year on 4Kids TV on FOX. The series is on hiatus in the US, but according to the official website would return later in 2009, on CW4Kids. However, as of 2016, it has yet to return to US airwaves.

The series also launched successfully in Finland on MTV3 and in Australia on Channel Ten in October 2006.

Broadcast history

The series has been aired from 1993 to 1996 in the United States on many first-run syndicated affiliates.

The series has been aired on the YTV (English) and Le Canal Famille (French) channels in Canada.

In the United Kingdom from 1994 to 1997, the series was aired on Channel 4 and from 1998-99 on its youth strand T4. CITV on ITV2 re-ran the series at 07.55 Monday to Friday for a 10-week strip from early September 2006. It was repeated on ITV2 at 08.25 Monday to Friday for 10 weeks from March 27, 2007.

The cartoon was broadcast in the Republic of Ireland on RTÉ Two on weekday afternoons from 1995 to 1996.[10]

Video games

An LCD game of same name was released for Tiger Electronic Game on 1993.

A Biker Mice from Mars video game was released by Konami for the Super NES in 1994. The PAL version features extensive advertisements for Snickers candy bars.

In 2006, another Biker Mice from Mars video game was released based on the 2006 revival in Finland, Australia and the United Kingdom for the Nintendo DS and PlayStation 2 platforms. The game did not receive any major positive ratings although it was a major sales success throughout Scandinavia.

In 2015, a Biker Mice from Mars mobile game was released by 9thImpact for iOS and Android devices through the App Store and Google Play Store. The game is divided into episodes, each with a different storyline which unfolds as the player completes the levels.[11] Commenting on the new game, series creator Rick Ungar said that Biker Mice fans would enjoy the snappy banter, classic catchphrases and irreverent satire that they would expect from the series, in addition to the non-stop action.[12]

Comic books

Marvel Comics published a three issue series in the early 1990s. A fourth issue was solicited on the reader's page. Marvel UK published its own series. The whole American series and portions of the British series were published in Germany (also by Marvel UK) in 7 magazine-sized issues from 1994 to 1995.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Fowler, James E. (1994-08-19). "The locally conceived 'Biker Mice From Mars' series is seen in more than 50 countries. The stars make a live appearance Saturday.". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2010-08-24.
  2. "A Bedrock of U.S. Cartoon Production". Los Angeles Times. MANILA. AP. August 28, 1995. Retrieved May 28, 2014.
  3. "New World forms two new kidvid banners". Variety. December 8, 1992. Retrieved May 27, 2014.
  4. "Roll Over, Michelangelo, It's The Mice". Newsweek. Retrieved 2010-03-03.
  5. Schmeltzer, John (1993-09-19). "3 Mice From Mars A Cause For Hype, Hope". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2010-08-28.
  6. Forman, Ross (1994-11-08). "Cartoon-voice Actor Is All Talk". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2010-08-28.
  7. "Bikermice.tv". Bikermice.tv. Archived from the original on 2016-08-18. Retrieved 2016-07-22.
  8. "Children's TV". CITV.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-07-22.
  9. "Biker Mice return to GMTV | News". C21Media.net. 2005-05-22. Retrieved 2016-07-22.
  10. "Biker Mice form Mars". RTÉ Guide: 10–16. December 1995.
  11. "Biker Mice from Mars". 9th Impact. 2015-07-10. Retrieved 2016-07-22.
  12. "Biker Mice from Mars Land on iPhone, iPad and Android". Prnewswire.com. 2015-12-14. Retrieved 2016-07-22.
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