Bravest Warriors
Bravest Warriors is an American animated series set onwards from the year 3085, that follows four teenage heroes-for-hire as they warp through the universe to save adorable aliens and their worlds using the power of their emotions. It was created by animator Pendleton Ward, also the creator of Cartoon Network's Adventure Time, and written, show run, and directed by Breehn Burns. Fred Seibert's Frederator Studios produced the series for their Cartoon Hangover YouTube channel. Fred Seibert, Burns, and Will McRobb and Chris Viscardi are the show's execuive producers.
The animated series began streming on Cartoon Hangover on November 8, 2012. The series is based on a short produced for Frederator's Nicktoons Network animation incubator series Random! Cartoons that aired on January 10, 2009. A comic book adaptation published by Boom! Studios launched on October 24, 2012.
The show won the Shoty Award for Best Web Show in 2013 and was nominated in the Annecy International Animated Film Festival. It is also a 2015 Webby Honoree.
On October 20, 2016, a television series was announced that would also serve as a continuation of the web series. The TV series, which is officially considered the fourth season, is being produced by Nelvana Limited in Canada, in association with Frederator. It started airing on VRV in the United States on December 25, 2017, and Teletoon in Canada on September 3, 2018. A 21-minute documentary was released on December 11, 2017. The television series, unlike the web series, is animated using Toon Boom Harmony and is no longer animated frame-by-frame.
As the voice acting for the television series is recorded between Los Angeles, California and Toronto, Ontario, although far from being the first show from using both SAG-AFTRA and ACTRA, it is the first North American animated production to credit both unions due to using more American voice actors over Canadian voice actors.
The 4th season was nominated for the 2019 Youth Media Alliance award for Best Digital First Content – All age groups.
On December 3, 2019, it was announced that there will be a Catbug spinoff and Pendleton Ward will be involved with it.
Characters
Main
- Christopher "Chris" Kirkman, Alex Walsh, Graeme Jokic )
- Beth Tezuka, Liliana Mumy )
- Daniel "Danny" Vasquez, John Omohundro )
- : First appeared in the comic book and was introduced along with Impossibear and Catbug in Gas Powered Stick, is Beth's friend who is a Merewif, an amphibious alien who can merge her legs into a mermaid tail when in water, as revealed at the end of the episode. She can also assume a more monstrous form with fangs, glowing purple eyes and six tentacles. Plum is the unofficial 5th Bravest Warrior. She has an ancient and wise second personality that lives in her second brain. She seems to have a crush on Chris as seen in Gas Powered Stick when she flirts and kisses him, but that could've been a ruse in order to remove the peach pit that gave Chris X-ray vision. She is bisexual.
- Wallow, Ian Jones-Quartey )
Recurring
- ' : A seemingly immortal human who has reality warping powers tied to his emotions. In "Lavarinth", he reveals himself to be Chris from 184 years in the future, and that he needs Chris to start taking vitamin B12 supplements otherwise they will go bald. He had been missing since the episode "Ultra Wankershim" when he was 'forced' to put on the temporal pair 'o socks which appeared after he accidentally gave Chris dangerous foreknowledge of the future. He returns in "Parasox Pub" by possessing Catbug in order to transport Chris to the Parasox Pub, which is locked in a timeless prism for the Emotion Lord. Various stages of the Emotion Lord's life is revealed, and that he will live to be at least 3000 years old.
- ' : A small grey-skinned, purple-haired creature in a suit that follows the Emotion Lord in his travels and takes record of everything he says and does. He first appeared in the episode "Emotion Lord" and was most recently seen in "Merewif Tag". He is supposedly invisible to all but the Emotion Lord, but was visible to Danny and Wallow in "Lavarinth" and Plum in "Merewif Tag". The concierge shares many character design elements with the character Peppermint Butler in Ward's other series Adventure Time, both are always seen wear a suit with a red bowtie, and have pupiless white eyes. In season 4, it is revealed that Concierge is Chris and Plum's son from the future.
- Impossibear : An unusual bear that first appeared in the comic, but was introduced along with Catbug and Plum in "Gas Powered Stick".
- Jelly Kid : A toast goblin with the ability to create a slice of white bread by making a "pshew" sound. Though Jelly Kid can't speak, he has a kind and simple personality and is beloved by the Bravest Warriors, particularly Danny. In "Jelly Kid Forever," he is stalked and killed by Catbug, who decapitates him and cheerfully announces that he "caught" the toast goblin as a present for Danny, and is presumed to be dead. At his funeral, a ship burial held by the Warriors, he reanimates, as he has healing abilities, and he sails off into the sunset.
- : An alien creature created in Johnny Tezuka's Dimension Garden, Catbug is friend and comrade to the Bravest Warriors. He is half-cat and half-ladybug and possesses the physical traits of both animals; he can often be seen stalking, like a cat, and he can fly, like a ladybug. In terms of his personality, Catbug is childlike and carefree, which sometimes interferes with his ability to complete a mission. He has the ability to teleport between the two dimensions, the real world and the See-Through Zone, though he cannot travel between the two at will, only at random.
- Johnny Tezuka / Ralph Waldo Pickle Chips : Johnny Tezuka was Beth's father and leader of the Courageous Battlers. He is short with black hair, and his brain is exposed through a clear dome on top of his head. Like the rest of his team, he was trapped in the see-through zone two years before the events of the series. At some point he was apparently eaten by the Aeon Worm and brainwashed to become one of its followers, thus transforming him into "The Reverend Ralph Waldo Pickle Chips." He soon begins rebuilding a following by brainwashing several hamsters. He finally summoned the Aeon Worm in "Season of the Mitch" by using his hamsters perfect faith to transform his sticker pet from a caribou into the Aeon Worm, but was stopped when the paralyzed horse appeared possessing Hamster Mitch and Danny cracked his brain dome.
- Paralyzed Horse : First appearing in the season 1 finale episode "Cat Bug," he is Beth's childhood pet. When Beth was 6 years old, he discovered the meaning of forever, granting him an unlimited knowledge of time and space. This infinite knowledge has left him in a constant state of shock, causing him to become permanently paralyzed. Being unable to move or speak he uses a dramatic internal monologue to chronicle his daily life. In "Aeon Worm," he journeys with Beth into the see-through zone, which gives him telekinetic powers which he can use to move and speak, as well as the ability to create psychic armor and shoot flames from his hooves. At the end of the episode, he chooses to remain in the see-through zone to fight the Aeon Worm and protect Beth as she escapes. His fate remained unknown until "Season of the Mitch," when he possesses the hamster Mitch during his crisis of faith to help fight the Aeon Worm in the real world. He is last seen at the end of the episode, continuing his fight against the Aeon Worm in the See-Through Zone.
- Wankershim : A holographic elf who exists as a program inside the Bravest Warriors "Holojohn". In "Ultra Wankershim" he becomes an fully organic life form after achieving self-awareness. However, soon after, he begins expanding uncontrollably, eventually growing so large that he becomes one with the universe. After this his body begins giving off "Wankergy", which in large abundances causes uncontrollable joy, and even has reality warping effects.
- Slippy Napkins, Fiona Reid ): First appeared in the Random! Cartoons pilot. A member of an alien race who the Bravest Warriors save from a rogue planet. She possesses two legs and a single arm coming out of her head that her people soon learn to use in high-fives. Slippy Napkins returns as one of Wallow's alien pets and a member of Catbug's away team on Santee Major.
- Zachary Ryan "Zack" Kirkson : Beth's boyfriend who first appeared in season 4.
- Aeon Worm : The main antagonist of season 2. Described by the Paralyzed Horse as a primordial goliath of the highest evolution. Using its mind control powers it demands that its followers worship it as a god with them often chanting "Never doubt the Worm". It was revealed in "Dimension Garden" that it was created in Ralph Waldo Pickles Chips' dimension garden. In "Season of the Mitch" Ralph Waldo Pickle Chips finally summons the worm but is defeated by Danny, the Paralyzed Horse, and Mitch.
- Karswell : the main antagonist of season 4. He is the Prince of Moop from the future, where he has killed all four Bravest warriors and used their vital organs to enhance himself: Beth's brain for remorseless logic, Chris's moop-infected heart as a power source, Wallow's lungs, and Danny's spleen. He reveals he infected Chris in the premiere to ensure his timeline. His fate is unknown as of the mid-season finale "Will things ever be the same again?" when the Invisible Hideout self-destructs with them trapped inside.
- Mitch : One of the hamsters bred by Ralph Waldo Pickle Chips to worship the Aeon Worm. However, in " Season of the Worm" He began to have a crisis of doubt and began to develop a sense of right and wrong. In "Season of the Mitch" he proudly professes his doubt of the worm and allows himself to be possessed by the paralyzed horse in order to defeat the worm. After the worm was defeated he was carried off in praise by the other hamsters for saving them from the worms mind control by choosing right from wrong.
- Jenna : An old friend of the Bravest Warriors who is revealed to be evil.
- The Courageous Battlers: The predecessor team to the Bravest Warriors. Composed of Johnny Tezuka, Brian and Josephine Kirkman, Janette and George, and Tony and Bonnie Vasquez. 2 years prior to the events of the series they ended up lost in the See-Through Zone. Johnny Tezuka was separated from the rest of the team when he was eaten by the Aeon Worm and became Ralph Waldo Pickle Chips. They are able to communicate with their children and vice versa through Catbug and his dimension jumping powers. While the full details of their current situation are unknown, Catbug confirmed that they are alive and well. All members of the Courageous Battlers have appeared in the show, as well as a picture of them seen in "Time Slime" and "Dimension Garden".
Episodes
Bravest Warriors was launched on Frederator Studios' Cartoon Hangover YouTube channel on November 8, 2012. The first season was released between November 8, 2012 and March 7, 2013. The series features new character designs and casting from the original pilot. Breehn Burns, Will McRobb and Chris Viscardi, and Fred Seibert developed and executive produced the Bravest Warriors series for Frederator Studios. Burns, writer and director of Bravest Warriors, is the co-head of Lone Sausage Productions and the co-creator of the award-winning animated short, Dr. Tran. A second season began on October 17, 2013. The series began streaming on the Nintendo Video service for the Nintendo 3DS in North America from November 2013.
On July 20, 2016, Cartoon Hangover announced that all Season 3 episodes of Bravest Warriors would be aired exclusively on VRV, a streaming platform programmed by Ellation. Season 3, along with the previous two seasons, was launched on the Cartoon Hangover Select channel starting on January 10, 2017. On September 14, 2018, the third season's episodes were uploaded internationally on the series's YouTube channel.
Comics
A comic book adaptation of Bravest Warriors by Boom! Comics at San Diego Comic-Con began publication on Boom!'s kaboom! label from October 24, 2012, and ran for 36 issues. The final four issues have not been released as part of a trade collection. At San Diego Comic-Con International in 2013, it was announced that Cartoon Hangover had teamed up with Viz Media to make comics and graphic novels of their properties, with Bravest Warriors being one of the titles announced under their Perfect Square imprint. They were announced to be released in 2014.# | Date | Writer/s | Artist/s | Collection |
1 | October 2012 | Joey Comeau | Mike Holmes | Volume One |
2 | November 2012 | Joey Comeau | Mike Holmes | Volume One |
3 | December 2012 | Joey Comeau | Mike Holmes | Volume One |
4 | January 2013 | Joey Comeau | Mike Holmes | Volume One |
5 | February 2013 | Joey Comeau | Mike Holmes | Volume Two |
6 | March 2013 | Joey Comeau | Mike Holmes | Volume Two |
7 | April 2013 | Joey Comeau | Mike Holmes | Volume Two |
8 | May 2013 | Joey Comeau | Mike Holmes | Volume Two |
9 | June 12, 2013 | Joey Comeau | Mike Holmes | Volume Three |
10 | July 2013 | Joey Comeau | Mike Holmes | Volume Three |
11 | August 2013 | Joey Comeau | Mike Holmes | Volume Three |
12 | September 2013 | Joey Comeau | Mike Holmes | Volume Three |
13 | October 2013 | Eric M. Esquivel | Mike Holmes | Volume Four |
14 | November 2013 | Breehn Burns & Jason Johnson | Mike Holmes | Volume Four |
15 | December 2013 | Ryan Pequin, Coleman Engle & Tessa Stone | Mike Holmes | Volume Four |
16 | January 2014 | Tessa Stone | Mike Holmes | Volume Four |
17 | February 2014 | Breehn Burns & Jason Johnson | Mike Holmes | Volume Five |
18 | March 2014 | Breehn Burns & Jason Johnson | Mike Holmes | Volume Five |
19 | April 2014 | Breehn Burns & Jason Johnson | Mike Holmes | Volume Five |
20 | May 2014 | Breehn Burns & Jason Johnson | Mike Holmes | Volume Five |
21 | June 2014 | Kate Leth | Ian McGinty | Volume Six |
22 | July 2014 | Kate Leth | Ian McGinty | Volume Six |
23 | August 2014 | Kate Leth | Ian McGinty | Volume Six |
24 | September 2014 | Kate Leth | Ian McGinty | Volume Six |
25 | October 2014 | Kate Leth | Ian McGinty | Volume Seven |
26 | November 2014 | Kate Leth | Ian McGinty | Volume Seven |
27 | December 2014 | Kate Leth | Ian McGinty | Volume Seven |
28 | January 2015 | Kate Leth | Ian McGinty | Volume Seven |
29 | February 2015 | Kate Leth | Ian McGinty | Volume Eight |
30 | March 2015 | Kate Leth | Ian McGinty | Volume Eight |
31 | April 2015 | Kate Leth | Ian McGinty | Volume Eight |
32 | May 2015 | Kate Leth | Ian McGinty | Volume Eight |
33 | June 2015 | Kate Leth | Ian McGinty | - |
34 | July 2015 | Kate Leth | Ian McGinty | - |
35 | August 2015 | Kate Leth | Ian McGinty | - |
36 | September 2015 | Kate Leth | Ian McGinty | - |