Year produced: 2005
Production code: 213
Original U.S. air date: 8/12/2005
The Big Damn Movie.
In this TV Movie, Jenny gets fed up with being unappreciated by humans and leaves Earth, finding herself in Cluster Prime, the capital of Vexus’ robot empire. Meanwhile, Vexus initiates a full-scale invasion of Earth, leaving Dr. Wakeman and Sheldon to try get Jenny back while Brad and Tuck fight back against the invaders.
"Escape From Cluster Prime" contains examples of:
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Lampshaded by Jenny while facing off against Vexus on Cluster Prime:Jenny: [to Vexus] All this time, you wanted me on Cluster Prime... and look what happens when I get here.
[Jenny smirks and points down to the crowd below]
Cluster Prime Robots: DOWN WITH VEXUS! DOWN WITH VEXUS! DOWN WITH VEXUS! - Big Damn Movie
- Call-Back: Minky Momo (not to be confused with the magical princess of the same name) is a song that Brad sung at the beginning of "I Was a Preschool Dropout", which he and Tuck later use to escape from being imprisoned by Vexus.
- Dark Reprise: The theme song's film reel disintegrates in Escape From Cluster Prime, which begins an orchestral arrangement of the song that... isn't so cheery.
- Darker and Edgier: While not without its lighthearted moments, it's much more serious than most other episodes of the show.
- Doppelgänger: The high school on Cluster Prime has robotic versions of Brad, Sheldon, and Tuck. "Drab" and "Shell" even share voice actors with their human counterparts, while "Tuff" is voiced by a deep-voiced man in contrast to Tuck's Audrey Wasilewski.
- Dramatic Irony: For the majority of the episode, Dr. Wakeman believed Jenny had been captured by Vexus, while said evil queen searched Tremerton for Jenny. It's not until Wakeman and Vexus encounter each other do they learn that Jenny isn't with either of them, leading Vexus to realize that the reason she'd been getting calls from Cluster Prime was because Jenny was there.
- Fantasy Gun Control: Vexus disarms the Cluster by removing microchips that would allow them to transform and keeping them in a vault.
- Four Lines, All Waiting: After Jenny unwittingly gets herself sent to Cluster Prime, she is left unaware that Vexus has launched a full-scale invasion on Earth while she explores the robotic planet. Meanwhile, Dr. Wakeman and Sheldon travel through space to Vexus' ship, believing Vexus had kidnapped Jenny. Back on Earth, Brad and Tuck lead a resistance against Smytus and his invasion force. The heroes reunite near the end of the movie after successfully banishing Vexus from Cluster Prime and Jenny deals with the last of the Earth invaders.
- Godzilla Threshold: Defied. Despite the threat of the Cluster invading Tremerton and Jenny being missing, Dr. Wakeman pointedly refuses Sheldon's suggestion to awaken XJ-1 to 8 to help out with the crisis.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: Jenny, especially in Cluster Prime, where she was framed for destroying special defense chips, although there was so much focus on an artist's interpretation, no one knew that Jenny was the enemy until a policeman recognized her. Thankfully, Vega reveals that Vexus was the real culprit depriving her own people of their powers and clears Jenny's name with relative ease.
- Hoist Hero over Head: In the climax, Vexus lifts up a beaten-up Jenny over her head and prepares to drop her from a tall building.
- Inspector Javert: Taken to ludicrous levels on Cluster Prime, where Jenny moonlights as a superhero for their world in saving the citizenry from dangers and disasters; only for the local police to start issuing warrants for her immediate arrest along with creating a False Flag Operation to do so.
- The Movie
- Oh, Crap!: Vexus at the end of the movie, when Vega and her friends give Cluster Prime back their golden chips.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Jenny's secret superhero identity costume is the Cluster Prime flag and a pickelhaube.
- Power Fist: Dr. Wakeman gets a pair of power gloves.
- The Quisling: Brit and Tiff. They make a Heel–Face Turn at just the right minute, and get away pretty easily. Unless you count them being riddled with filth as punishment, which was unintentionally caused by the ship Jenny and co. are riding in.
- Reverse Polarity / Techno Babble: Parodied in "Escape From Cluster Prime". Completely subverted later on:Sheldon: We don't have time for sci-fi brinkmanship! My Jenny needs me! (proceeds to hotwire a starship)
- Self-Destruct Mechanism: The main warship.
- Series Fauxnale: If you didn't know any better, you'd probably think this would be the Series Finale, given that it's an hour-long TV Movie with a most satisfying conclusion. But no, there was a whole season after this. Averted with the Paramount Plus order of the show in which puts this movie at the very end as a series finale (which makes sense considering its sense of finality).
- Villainous Breakdown: Vexus suffers one when Jenny exposes her of depriving her own people of their powers, leading to her giving Jenny a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown, until Nora intervenes. Vexus is then forced to flee Cluster Prime when her daughter, Vega, returns the golden chips to the robots, restoring their powers.
- What the Hell, Hero?: EVERYBODY in Tremerton, including Dr. Wakeman, calls Jenny out for accidentally ruining the parade whilst stopping Vexus. This incident is what sets off her leaving for Cluster Prime in the first place.
