“Let’s get warty!”
Premiering in the U.S. during Thanksgiving weekend on FOX Kids (1992) the Battletoads pilot episode was a clear attempt by DIC to tap into the popularity of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Based on the NES beat’em-up of the same name, Battletoads boasted a massive fan base and was ripe for an animated adaptation, especially since it starred anthropomorphic talking animals (a big seller of the 90’s). Written by David Wise (who penned a lot of episodes of the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series) it never launched into a series, despite heavy advertising in gaming magazines and a prequel comic featured in Nintendo Power.
Why you ask? Well, mostly because the show proved to be a tedious and poorly animated half hour of non-entertainment. Opening with an attack by the game’s villainous Dark Queen, Professor T. Bird and Princess Angelica flee from her forces to find the mythical essence of “Battletoads.” They warp to Oxnard, California (Earth) where they stumble upon a trio of best friends, all of whom are considered losers in their community. Professor T. Bird considers them trustworthy enough to protect Princess Angelica, so he splashes them with the green ooze, turning them in to the titular, butt-kicking toad superheroes.
The heroes prove shockingly obnoxious as they put their hands together chanting “Let’s get Warty!” and scream “Toads rule!” when they’re in full form. They even have their own catchphrases: “Psychomatic! Incredible!” and “Cosmoriffic!” …not exactly “Cowabunga!” is it? But then, much of Battletoads is an uneven stab at emulating the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles while also straying from the formula… resulting in a half hour cartoon that sets up storylines which are never realized with a full series (thank goodness).
The trio of Battletoads accept their roles as the Princess’s protectors and easily defeat much of the Dark Queen’s stock minions and henchmen, all of whom have the ability to warp into any environment to cause trouble. The Princess is forced to take a job as a donut crème filler for a local shop, as the toads urge the pair of intergalactic stalwarts that they have to blend in better to hide out in Earth. Of course, things goes awry once more when the Dark Queen tries to wreck Oxnard by destroying the local mega mall.
At the end of the episode the trio of “losers” are still “losers,” just now they’re also underdog superheroes on their spare time. It would have been much more imaginative to set the pilot in space, and embrace the sci-fi aspects from the game, but apparently the minds behind the show really wanted that TMNT dough Battletoads is such a random and utterly irritating attempt at a series that never actually imagines anything new or interesting.
DIC later released the pilot on VHS in 1994 and the video game series continued on with three titles, including the popular SNES beat’em-up Double Dragon & Battletoads. DIC didn’t stop trying to capitalize on TMNT with their clones either, regardless how much of an embarrassment Battletoads was. Eventually they’d offer up the moderately successful Street Sharks and the even more repugnant Extreme Dinosaurs.
Microsoft renewed the copyright for Battletoads in late 2014, which is good news for the title’s ever devoted fan base hoping for a new game and a second chance at a Battletoads animated series. Fingers crossed.
