Biker Mice From Mars

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A cartoon about giant mice from Mars who ride motorbikes. Wandering out in space after fleeing from their near-dead planet, Throttle, Modo and Vinnie are shot up by Plutarkians and crash-land in a Chicago scoreboard in the middle of a game.

While attempting to find a mechanic to fix Throttle's bike, they find Charley's Last Chance Garage and stop in. They find that she's being bullied by a henchman of the show's Big Bad, an alien who calls himself Mr. Limburger, to sign over the property. Mice step in, ass gets kicked, and they all get embroiled to save the planet from the ravening maw of the Plutarkian Empire (which apparently has a practice of strip-mining and carting off everything of value on and in a planet).

Biker Mice from Mars first aired in 1993 and ran for three seasons. The show received a Revival in 2006; in this Sequel Series, the evil aliens are a felinoid race, the Catatonians. Both series were created by Rick Ungar.

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Tropes:

• Action Girl - Charley. Most of the time. On the other hand, Carbine is always an Action Girl.
  • Carbine has two Distressed Damsel moments. Granted only two.
• Aliens and Monsters - Limburger hires them only every other episode.
  • The native fauna of Mars can be pretty monstrous, as well.
• Aliens Steal Cable - Martian mice steal Earth radio (supposedly where they learned english), and Limburger tries to emulate old Earth gangsters.
• Alternative Foreign Theme Song: The Japanese version has "Gone With the Wind" for the opening and "Stay With You Tonight" for the ending.
• Always Chaotic Evil - Evidently, both the Plutarkians and the Catatonians.
• Arrow Catch - Vinnie does one, with his teeth.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking - Grease Pit tries to justify to a judge why the mice are to be locked up. Various heinous crimes are listed, such as kidnapping the mayor, blowing up a diamond store...and trespassing with malice and forethought on the steel foundry's property. Oh, and they held up a toy store. And resisted arrest. Yeah.
• Artificial Limbs - Modo's right arm.
• Ask a Stupid Question
• Attack Pattern Alpha
• Badass - Well, DUH.
• Badass Biker - Again, DUH.
• Bad Moon Rising - On Mars, though Phobos (Deimos?) is normally red.
• Band of Brothers - A trio of guys who survived a war and being marooned out in space for nobody-knows-how-long without killing each other? Sounds about right.
• Batman Cold Open
• Bee Bee Gun - In "Modo Hangs It Up".
• Berserk Button - All three of them react very, very badly if you threaten their bikes or Charley. But you really, really don't wanna piss off Modo, so please don't call him a rat.
• Beware the Nice Ones - Modo is a good example of this trope.
• BFG - MOAR GUNS. Vinnie loves his guns. Oh yes.
• Bland-Name Product - One of Limburger's schemes involves polluting Earth's water and then selling it to Plutark as "designer drinking water". He calls it "Limburger's Perilous Mineral Water--but we only see the "Perri" part of the label. It requires a spelling error, but that aside.
  • The same episode also gives us Dodge's grille guard in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it shot.
• Boisterous Bruiser - The three mice, though Vinnie's the biggest example.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall - "OH TURN THAT CAMERA OFF!"
• Bruiser With a Soft Center - all three of them, but Modo is the best example.
• The Cake Is a Lie - "Hard Rock".
• Camera Abuse - Various occasions where Grease Pit's, well, grease splatters the camera.
• The Cast Showoff: The Mice were particularly fond of breaking out into classic rock songs while they were kicking bad-guy butt in the first series, and none of them were really bad singers. Except for Vinnie.
• Catch and Return - With a mace.
• Cats Are Mean - The Catatonians. Most of them, anyway.
• Casual Danger Dialog - A lot of this.
• Children Are Innocent - Except for one. Limburger's nephew from episode 47.
• City of Weirdos - Happens on occasion. In one instance while the titular Mice are fighting a villain in the street, we see a civilian calmly check his watch and wander off as though nothing odd is happening.
• Conjunction Interruption
• Conveyor Belt of Doom - With bonus Fan Service thanks to a glorious camera angle.
• Combat Pragmatist - Brie's Number One seems to be this--he went from dispatching goons to almost killing Grease Pit in a matter of moments in his introduction--but because it's a kids' show, he doesn't get to, ahem, demonstrate it.
• Conspicuous CG - In the 2006 series.
• Conspicuously Light Patch
• Cool Bike - As we've already said, DUH.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive - Limburger in the original series. The sequel series includes a recurring villain named Ronaldo Rump and a parody of Sir Richard Branson.
• Cross Cultural Handshake - The traditional Plutarkian greeting, which has to be seen to be believed. (Clip in Finnish)
• Dead or Alive
• Desert Punk: Mars at present, though it wasn't always that way--and getting it restored serves as a small subplot.
• Doomy Dooms of Doom - The Pit of Everlasting Doom. Not a Bottomless Pit as you would expect, but just a spike-filled pit, which makes the "everlasting" part a bit out of place.
• Elmuh Fudd Syndwome - Napoleon Brie.
• Enemy Mine - In the last part of "Back to Mars", Limburger allies with the mice to defeat Brie; on the other end of the spectrum, Karbunkle (somewhat against his will) betrays Limburger to work for Brie. Limburger also makes use of this trope in the same episode in convincing Number One, Brie's dragon, that he's taking over his position.
  • And again in Karbunkle's case, who originally worked for Limburger's old boss, Dominic T. Stilton (as shown in "Once Upon a Time, on Mars"), and harboured a blatant dislike for Limburger.
• Everything's Better With Motorcycles
• Exactly What It Says On the Tin - The protagonists are Mice that came from the planet Mars who ride motorcycles.
• Expressive Mask - The Plutarkians' disguises.
  • And Vinnie's metal face plate.
• Faking the Dead: Lawrence Limburger did it once.
• Family-Friendly Firearms - Lasers, kapew kapew. No bullets whatsoever.
• Fingerless Gloves - The Biker Mice wear them.
• Fish People - The Plutarkians.
• Flash Back - Throttle is the king of these.
• Flaw Exploitation - Limburger tries this several times. It almost suceeds, too..
• Friend to All Children - Modo.
• Gentle Giant - Modo, again.
• Getting Crap Past the Radar - Modo: "That makes me more than just mad. Now, I'm mad as--" [cut] Limburger: "Hello, fellow citizens of Chicago."
• Go-Go Enslavement: Attempted with Charley, in "Back to Mars", but it doesn't go so well.
• Government Conspiracy - While initially presented as a straight-up invasion, the Plutarkians' arrival on Mars is later on alleged to be allowed by the Martian government.
• Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress
• Happy Rain - In "Back to Mars".
• Hero With Bad Publicity - The mice initially get this treatment on Mars, due to Malicious Slander.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation - The better half of "Modo Hangs It Up".
• Hope Sprouts Eternal - In "Back to Mars".
• Humanoid Animals - The mice, the rats, the dog-hyena-people Sand Raiders, the Catatonians and the Plutarkians all fit this.
• Hunting the Most Dangerous Game - In "Stalkers".
• Hurricane of Puns - YES.

Modo: The scissor warehouse? Vinnie: Time to 'cut' to the chase!

• I Always Wanted to Say That
• The Igor - Fred the Mutant, assistant to Dr. Karbunkle. He means good, but god is he one creepy pain-loving ... something.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight - Harley to Stoker in "Once Upon a Time, on Mars".
• I Lied - When Hard Rock agrees to work for Limburger again if he spares Darla and the Biker Mice. As soon as he leaves, Limburger gives the order to "dispose of them- slowly, and painfully."

Throttle: What? You gave your word! Limburger: If my word was worth anything, I wouldn't be much of a villain, now would I?

• Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy - Frequently.
• Indy Ploy

Throttle: Blitz Rescue Seven! Modo: What? I don't remember that one. Throttle: No surprise there, buddy--I'm makin' this one up as I go.

• Jerk With a Heart of Gold - Hard Rock, who was one once but doesn't really want to be a minion of the Plutarkians now. He even has a cute and sweet Love Interest to come home to.
  • Vinnie, frequently. He shoves his foot into his mouth several times, but he really means well.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: Only the first season was released on DVD. It's now out of print. Fans are seeking to correct this.
• Lampshading - "You were, maybe, expecting turtles?" and "This is stupid macho man stuff, remember?" - many others
• Large Ham: Many, but Limburger gets the foul-smelling cheese cake.
• La Résistance - The mice are from this, and Carbine now leads it. While the mice still had an army, the two often clashed. It's a wonder they're still together.
• Last of His Kind - The bat-mouse-thing that only lives on Mars and only eats one flower, of which there is only one remaining sample, preserved in Limburger's museum. The mice then proceed to feed the last bit of the plant to the bat, destroying any hope of either species living again. Somebody didn't think that through.
• Latex Perfection - Limburger's mask. Taken to an extreme when Grease Pit wears Limburger's mask with no appreciable difference between them--aside from the neck down.
  • Also, Mace's disguise in "Once Upon a Time, on Mars".
• Leeroy Jenkins - All. Three. Mice. Vinnie's the worst.
• Life or Limb Decision - In Verminator Modo has to remove his bionic arm to avoid getting run over by a truck. He gets a new arm in the end of the episode.
• Love Triangle - Stoker, Harley and Vinnie from Once Upon A Time On Mars.
• Merchandise-Driven - The SNES game. Snickers, anyone?
  • Only in the European version. Speaking of snickers, you can keep yours for another game because this one's surprisingly decent.
    • Don't forget the action figures, the Comic Book Adaptation, etc.
• The Mole - Mace.
• Monster of the Week - Not always, but reused a few times. Evil Eye Weevil, for example.
• Mooks - Endless hordes of bald-and-ponytailed biker gang mooks.
• Momma's Boy - Modo, so very much.
• Mr. Fanservice - In one episode, Modo attends a costume party at Limburger's, dressed in a tuxedo, where he proves to be a huge hit with the women present, who cannot stop swooning over him and even fainting in his presence, especially after he easily takes out an attacking Greasepit and looking suave and smooth while doing so.
• Names to Run Away From Really Fast - Evil Eye Weevil from the 1993's series.
  • And the Crusher from the 2006 series
• The Napoleon - Napoleon Brie in the original series, Hairball in the Revival.
• Never Say Die - Typical of 90s cartoons. "Destroy", "demolish", "tear them apart", etc. are substituted, as per standard.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Well, duh.
• Non Lethal Warfare - Everything. Lasers pew pew pew. Even the missiles are harmless.
• Oh Crap - Has happened quite a few times.
  • Happens to Limburger almost every time when his tower is about to get destroyed.
  • The Pulverizer gets this when he hits Throttle's Berserk Button.
• Previously On - Done with Fred in "Back to Mars", and in the Revival.
• Planet of Hats - All Plutarkians are evil, greedy bastard coated bastards with bastard filling.
• Psycho for Hire - Limburger employs several of them to eliminate the Biker Mice. It never goes well.
• Punny Name - Charley Davidson.
• Rebel Without a Cause - Defied in "Once Upon a Time, on Mars".
• Revival - In 2006, with new character designs and stuff. Reactions were mixed.
• Rule of Cool - Definitely runs on this, if the innumerable one-liners and explosions weren't a give-away.
• Running Gag - LOADS.
  • Almost every one of the named Plutarkians has a cheesy name. Ohohoho. Glorious.
  • Dr. Karbunkle has a new title of respect for Limburger every time they speak (Your Supreme Cheesiness, Your Thick-Sliciness, etc)
  • Limburger's evil headquarters is demolished once an episode by the Biker Mice. One episode had the protagonists destroy the building at the BEGINNING of the episode, forcing Limburger to rebuild it over the course of the show, only to have it destroyed AGAIN at the end.
  • Grease Pit's pay--specifically the lack thereof.
  • Grease Pit slipping on his own grease--which happens almost every time we see him.
  • Evil Eye Weevil breaking his fragile bones and his henchmen having to fix them.
• Setting As a Character - A variation on this trope, though never expanded upon: the bikes are alive, and have feelings. When neglected, they buck their riders and sulk. Lil' Hoss (Modo's bike, the only named bike on the show) has the most AI.
• Shout Out - Lots of nods to popular culture of The Seventies and The Eighties. Lots and lots of nods.
  • In one episode, the mice had to prevent a nuclear explosion. Their manual had a picture of Homer Simpson running away with lots of donuts.
• Species Coded for Your Convenience - The mice are always good (except for their government and one rat traitor), while the Plutarkians and most of the Catatonians are always evil.
• Stay in The Kitchen -- on occasion, the Mice have this attitude towards Charlie. She's never seen as pleased with this, and she's at least as competent as the mice are--partially because they've got egos the size of mars, and hers is much more realistic. In their defense, it's mainly because they don't want her to get hurt.
• Super Window Jump - Epitomized in Grease Pit's lament "Don't these guys ever use doors?"
• Surrounded By Idiots - Limburger's lamenting that "it's so hard to find good help these days". It also serves as a Catch Phrase for him.
• Teleporters and Transporters - How Limburger brings each Psycho for Hire to Earth.
• Telescoping Robot - Each of the three bikes do this. Vinnie's flare-things also expand before being used.
• Temporary Blindness - Two mice get eye injuries. With Modo, it's only one, but Throttle gets both taken out. They are kindly "replaced" (necessary or not) by Dr. Karbunkle, but a malfunction in Throttle's eyes renders him blind. The sunglasses fix that.
  • It could be speculated that Modo also had both eyes taken out and had only one replaced, which could explain why it glows when he gets angry.
  • That or Karbunkle implanted something into his eye.
• Ten Minute Retirement ("Modo Hangs It Up")
• Theme Naming - Most Plutarkians have cheese-based names (Limburger, Brie); the Catatonians have cat-based names and the Mice are named after either weapons or motorcycle parts/terms.
• The Ahnold - The Exterminator (more than a passing reference) and one of the Loogey Brothers.
• Time Travel ("Biker Knights of the Round Table")
  • Don't forget the one with the dinosaurs!
• Too Kinky to Torture - One suspects Fred the Mutant falls into this.
• Totally Radical - All three Biker Mice (plus the radio station) do this, but Vinnie takes the cake.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight - The "ice asteroids" from "Back To Mars" are patently weird, but nobody pays it any mind. They are a minor plot point later on. They bring water back to Mars. Which isn't exactly the problem with the planet, but anyway...
• Upgrade Artifact - The bikes get equipment upgrades quite often, courtesy of Charley's Wrench Wench-ery, in order to handle episode-specific theme problems.
• Villain Team-Up - Brie and Limburger, to name one of many.
• Weirdness Magnet - Chicago is the target of alien and monstrous beings sent to rid Limburger of the mice, who are the only thing between him and gobbling everything up. Which makes one wonder how he was stopped before the mice got there.
• Walking Shirtless Scene - Um, the 8th episode. And Vinnie's outfit 90% of the time. Two green belts across your chest in a X shape don't count as a shirt.
  • All of them, really. Throttle's vest and Modo's chestplate are constructed seemingly to show off how outrageously muscular they are.
• Wall Crawl - With bikes.
• Weaksauce Weakness - For Lil' Hoss: Polka Music.
• Weird Trade Union - Grease Pit mentions a henchmen's union in an offhand remark. Rat Trap also mentions getting a medical plan--presumably for monsters of the week.
• The Windy City - Chicago is the series' main setting.
• With My Hands Tied

Throttle: Sand raiders? I can take sand raiders with both eyes tied behind my back.

• Wrench Wench - Charley, and the short-lived Harley from "Once Upon a Time on Mars".
• You Can Run but You Can't Hide
• You Dirty Rat - Smacked with this several times.