3000 Whys of Blue Catnote is a long-running Chinese animated science Edutainment Show created by Beijing Sunchime Happy Culture Company in 1999.
The show is about a curious and optimistic cat named Blue Cat. His friends include Feifei the smart and awkward fox, Naughty the naughty and adventurous mouse, Gali the lovely and somewhat-troublesome mouse, Fatty the honest and gentlemanly mouse, Aunt Hen the formal and old-fashioned mother hen, Sweet the straight and simple pig, Badou the strong bear, Dr. Yang the smart environmentalist, and Lala the alien girl.
Blue Cat explores several different locations, from the ocean, to the age of dinosaurs, to the Olympic Games, and even to outer space. In each episode, Blue Cat and his friends encounter various problems and ask science-related questions like "How was Earth formed?" or "What are smartphones?" Blue Cat's questions are answered by short informational videos during the story.
The entire series can be found for free on Youku, even for those who live outside of China.
3000 Whys of Blue Cat provides examples of:
- All-CGI Cartoon: The season Dragon Ride uses only CGI animation.
- Angry Fist-Shake: In "Will Earth Be Destroyed?", after Blue Cat and Feifei have a bomb war and propel themselves into space, they shake their fists at each other and pretend to attack each other.
- Audience Participation: The viewers have sent questions to the studio that have been used for later episodes of the show.
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: Several of the Funny Animal characters, including Blue Cat himself, come in colors that aren't expected of such animals in real life.
- Arrows on Fire: In "Will Earth Be Destroyed?", Feifei shoots a fire arrow at Blue Cat and it lights him on fire.
- Art Shift: The art style changes to appear more simplistic in Dinosaur Times Series episode 118 when Blue Cat and Feifei have a rock-paper-scissors fight. Blue Cat and Feifei have rougher outlines, are shorter, and have Black Bead Eyes.
- Asteroid Thicket: One scene in "Will Earth Be Destroyed?" has an extremely thick asteroid belt with asteroids flying everywhere.
- Batman Can Breathe in Space: When Blue Cat and Feifei get sent into outer space in "Will Earth Be Destroyed?", they're able to talk to each other just fine without wearing helmets or space clothes.
- Big Ball of Violence: This trope is often used in episodes where Blue Cat and Feifei fight, such as the episode "Will Earth Be Destroyed?"
- Big, Bulky Bomb: Blue Cat carries one in "Will Earth Be Destroyed?", and the bomb creates a huge, lengthy explosion.
- Blindfolded Vision: In the opening of the season Living Olympics, Naughty wears a blindfold over his eyes while playing a soccer match. The blindfold doesn't prevent him from scoring an awesome soccer goal.
- Bottle Episode: Some episodes just feature Blue Cat and Feifei and not any of the other characters.
- Bows Versus Crossbows: In "Will Earth Be Destroyed?", Blue Cat shoots Feifei with a bow and Feifei shoots him back with a crossbow.
- Character in the Logo: One version of the logo has Blue Cat giving two thumbs up.
- Chase Scene: "Will Earth Be Destroyed?" has a scene where Blue Cat is chased by a rocket that Feifei fires.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Dr. Yang isn't really seen in later seasons because Lala takes her role as Blue Cat's partner.
- A Dog Named "Dog": A blue cat named Blue Cat.
- Dramatic Thunder: There's some thunder in "Will Earth Be Destroyed?" after the bomb goes off and Blue Cat and Feifei sit on the explosion.
- Edutainment Show: It's designed to teach science.
- Escalating War: "Will Earth Be Destroyed?" begins as a simple Bows Versus Crossbows war before Feifei shoots a Homing Projectile. It eventually escalates into a war of Big Bulky Bombs.
- Establishing Shot: The episode "Will Earth Be Destroyed?" begins with some establishing shots showing the peaceful area where Blue Cat and Feifei live.
- Explosion Propulsion: In "Will Earth Be Destroyed?", a huge explosion sends a piece of Earth's land flying into outer space. Blue Cat and Feifei are on the piece of land, and they get stuck out in space.
- Expository Theme Tune: The theme song is about how Blue Cat explores the amazing world and asks questions.
- Extreme Close-Up: The episode "Will Earth Be Destroyed?" zooms in on Blue Cat's binoculars.
- Eye Pop: In "Will Earth Be Destroyed?", Blue Cat is surprised to see a rocket coming at him and his eyes pop.
- Face on the Cover: Blue Cat is usually front and center on all of the covers of the show.
- Flaming Meteor: "Will Earth Be Destroyed?" depicts comets as fiery boulders heading towards Earth.
- Flight: Blue Cat and Feifei generally don't fly, but "Will Earth Be Destroyed?" ends with them flying off into space.
- Funny Animal: Most of the main characters.
- Giant Medical Syringe: In Dinosaur Times Series episode 118, a rock-paper-scissors fight between Blue Cat and Feifei ends with Feifei grabbing a big syringe labeled "Anesthetic" and using it to stun Blue Cat.
- Gratuitous English: There are quite a few episodes where Blue Cat's name can be seen written in English letters.
- Homing Projectile: In "Will Earth Be Destroyed?", Blue Cat is followed by a homing rocket that Feifei fires.
- Hong Kong Dub: The lip movements don't always match the dialogue.
- Human Aliens: Lala, the princess of Planet Otzima, doesn't look any different from a human.
- Iris Out: At the end of the episode "Will Earth Be Destroyed?", Blue Cat and Feifei fly off into space and there's a camera iris shaped like a star.
- Lions and Tigers and Humans... Oh, My!: In some later seasons, the Funny Animal characters interact with humans. They get along pretty well.
- Made of Incendium: In "Will Earth Be Destroyed?", Feifei shoots a fire arrow at Blue Cat and it quickly lights Blue Cat and everything surrounding him on fire, possibly quicker than it would in real life.
- Man on Fire: In "Will Earth Be Destroyed?", Feifei lights Blue Cat on fire by shooting a fire arrow at him and his surroundings.
- Meaningful Name: Naughty the mouse is... naughty.
- Medium Blending: The show uses a mixture of 3D animation and 2D animation. The characters are all animated in 2D, while some of the objects and environments are rendered in 3D.
- Mood Whiplash: The episode "Will Earth Be Destroyed?" begins with a slow Establishing Shot and peaceful music before it suddenly turns into a fast-paced, silly battle between Blue Cat and Feifei.
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: When Blue Cat and Feifei are trapped in space in "Will Earth Be Destroyed?", they conveniently gain the ability to fly and escape.
- New Season, New Title: The titles often change with each season.
- Non-Fatal Explosions: Despite the huge size of the explosion in "Will Earth Be Destroyed?", Blue Cat and Feifei are pretty much okay.
- "Number of Objects" Title: Perhaps the concept is a bit more abstract than an actual object here, but 3000 Whys of Blue Cat is referring to the many, many questions Blue Cat has to answer.
- Officially Shortened Title: The title is shortened to Blue Cat on some seasons.
- Off-into-the-Distance Ending: The episode "Will Earth Be Destroyed?" ends with Blue Cat and Feifei flying out into space.
- Questioning Title?: For most episodes, the title of the episode is the "why" that Blue Cat is trying to find the answer to.
- Screen Shake: In "Will Earth Be Destroyed?", the screen shakes quite a bit once the second huge bomb goes off and sends Blue Cat upward.
- Shattered World: In "Will Earth Be Destroyed?", a huge explosion causes a piece of Earth to shatter off and fly into outer space. Blue Cat and Feifei happen to be on this piece of land.
- Shot in the Ass: In "Will Earth Be Destroyed?", Blue Cat shoots an arrow at Feifei in this spot.
- Shout-Out: In Dinosaur Times Series episode 4, Naughty's plan to scare a dinosaur hits a hitch when a malfunction causes Blue Cat's dinosaur suit to sound like Daffy Duck singing "Jingle Bells".
- Soundtrack Dissonance: In "Will Earth Be Destroyed?", right after we hear a lecture on how Earth could be destroyed, we hear a short, happy jingle play in the background. While we still see images of comets heading for Earth.
- Space Is Noisy: In "Will Earth Be Destroyed?", Blue Cat and Feifei can talk to each other perfectly fine while they're in space.
- Stuff Blowing Up: There's a huge, lengthy explosion when the bomb goes off in "Will Earth Be Destroyed?"
- Vocal Dissonance: Going solely off of images and promotional art, it'd make sense to think Blue Cat and Feifei were young. However, they actually have deep adult voices. Later in the show's run, they're given younger voices.
- Vocal Evolution: Blue Cat has an adult voice in early episodes, but he has a childlike voice in later seasons.
- Wheel o' Feet: Often used when characters run.
- With Friends Like These...: Blue Cat and Feifei are friends, but there are several episodes where they fight or don't get along. This is because Feifei wants to beat Blue Cat and become the main protagonist.
- World of Funny Animals: The characters are all anthropomorphic animals.
