But when trouble's about, you'd best watch out
For the Watchmen!
For the Watchmen!
Bubastis: Oh no, Adrian! Looks like the Reds are polluting the city lake! What do we dooooooo?
Ozymandias: We call the Watchmen!
Ozymandias: We call the Watchmen!
Saturday Morning Watchmen is a 2009 animated short by Harry Partridge that parodies the Lighter and Softer Saturday Morning versions of existing franchises, interspersing it with Watchmen. The timing of the release was around the time the film adaptation was released, initially being released in HD quality
on Newgrounds on 4 March before being uploaded in VHS quality on YouTube the following day.
If you want to see the fan-created page about the show, see here.
WARNING: Spoilers below to the Watchmen comic!
This short contains examples of:
- Adaptational Curves: The originally somewhat paunchy Nite Owl has a buff and muscular Heroic Build here.
- Adaptational Heroism: Given the short's parodic nature, the Watchmen were more traditionally heroic than anti-heroes. Ozymandias in particular helped the Comedian up when the latter was being defenestrated.
- Adaptational Name Change: Much like the live-action film, The Minutemen are renamed "The Watchmen".
- Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
- The Comedian has a crush on Silk Spectre rather than secretly being her father. Possibly Unrelated in the Adaptation.
- Ozymandias saves the Comedian's life rather than ending it, and the two are seen eating pizza together, as opposed to the longtime hatred between the two.
- Adaptational Skill: Silk Spectre now plays the keyboard guitar and fronts a famous band.
- Adaptational Wimp: Ozymandias and Bubastis are much more cowardly than in the comic, as an Homage to Scooby-Doo.
- Adapted Out: Captain Metropolis, the leader of The Minutemen from the comic, is a no-show here. The Leader position is instead filled by Nite Owl II.
- Bat Signal: A parody of the bat signal shows up, with the searchlight projecting a winking version of the Comedian's smiley face button onto the clouds.
- Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: The descriptions the theme song gave to the Watchmen seem at first to be describing them in an uplifting manner, but when they got to Dr. Manhattan: "Jon can give you cancer".
- Cartoon Juggling: Rorschach is seen juggling pies in a circular motion.
- Composite Character: Silk Spectre is treated as a combination of Laurie and her mother Sally, hence the Comedian's romantic interest.
- Deadly Disc: Nite Owl is seen blocking bullets with a trashcan cover and then throwing it at a crook.
- Dirty Communists: "The Reds" are stereotypical communists who are seen polluting the city lake.
- Drugs Are Bad: One line in the theme song is "Say 'no' to drugs!"
- Ecocidal Antagonist: The intro has Dirty Communists polluting the city lake apparently just to be evil. While many communist countries have had less-than-stellar environmental records, they usually have or had at least somewhat understandable reasons for doing so.
- Every Pizza Is Pepperoni: The Watchmen all enjoy a pizza together that only has a pepperoni topping.
- Friend to All Living Things: Rorschach is described as a friend to the animals and is shown petting a pack of German shepherds.
- Genre Throwback: It was made as a playful tribute to Saturday-morning cartoons from the 1980s.
- Homage: To several '80s cartoons:
- Silk Spectre is made to be a pop star like Jem, with her group resembling the Holograms.
- Ozy and Bubastis resemble Shaggy and Scooby-Doo from Scooby-Doo, and they even run away from a monster in the same way.
- Doctor Manhattan can turn into a car like Turbo Teen.
- The heroes' silly toughness, partying, and pizza-eating are all reminiscent of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
- The Leader: Nite Owl is designated as such and comes off as more confident and outgoing than in the comic.
- Lighter and Softer: It's meant to show what a kid-friendly version of the Watchmen would look like.
- Lock-and-Load Montage: The beginning of the Theme Tune begins with shots of the Watchmen suiting up.
- Lyrical Dissonance: In the midst of the lighthearted Theme Tune, it's mentioned that Dr. Manhattan can give you cancer.
- Match Cut: A close-up of the squid monster's eyeball dissolves into the Comedian's smiley face button being projected onto the clouds like a Bat Signal.
- Mythology Gag: While being a parodic Lighter and Softer short, there are nods to the source material.
- Adrian and Bubastis watch the Reds pollute the city lake from multiple-TVs screen at Karnak, his Antarctic base.
- Nite Owl is first shown standing in front of a wall that is spray-painted, "Who Watches the Watchmen?"
- Rorschach is called "a friend to the animals" and pets a pack of German shepherds, rather than killing them with a cleaver, as he does in the comic. He also refers to himself as "nutty," a reference to how he mentally snapped after seeing a girl murdered.
- At "Be in bed by ten", three Dr. Manhattan clones were being read a bedtime story by Silk Spectre, when in the source material the two were having sex and Silk Spectre was being annoyed at the use of clones for that.
- Ozymandias's squid monster makes an appearance, though presumably he didn’t create this one.
- Dr. Manhattan "giving you cancer" was based on him being accused of giving his colleagues cancer.
- The defenestration scene that sets the plot in motion was this time averted by Ozymandias helping the Comedian back up.
- Non-Human Sidekick: Ozymandias' lynx Bubastis was made to be one in the mold of Scooby-Doo.
- Opening Credits Cast Party: The opening includes the Watchmen all having a pizza party together.
- Out-of-Character Moment: Used deliberately.
- Knowing the graphic novel's plot, you'd be aware that Ozymandias beat up the Comedian and threw him out of a high rise building to kill him, yet Adrian inexplicably catches him to save his life in the parody, their preceding altercation instantly forgotten.
- Rorschach appears to be the Plucky Comic Relief in this universe, juggling pies and petting dogs, as opposed to the brutal and psychologically disturbed '90s Anti-Hero whose Despair Event Horizon involved killing two dogs in the original.
- The Comedian is Silk Spectre II's fan, and dreams of kissing her. He's her father.
- Parental Incest: Presumably unintended in-universe— The Comedian in Saturday Morning Watchmen wants a kiss from Silk Spectre, who is his illegitimate daughter in canon. An example of (perhaps unintentional) conflation of the two Silk Spectres, as The Comedian attempted to rape the original Silk Spectre (the mother of the second one), whereas in Saturday Morning Watchmen he merely wants to kiss her.
- Spared by the Adaptation: To go with the short generally lampooning the changes that would be made to Watchmen if it were adapted into a lighthearted kids' cartoon, Saturday Morning Watchmen shows Adrian Veidt saving Edward Blake from falling to his death (in spite of being the one who threw him through the window in the first place) and Rorschach peacefully interacting with the dogs he killed and cut up in the original comic.
- Spoofy-Doo: When the theme song went over Ozymandias, it was made to be a Scooby-Doo spoof where he and Bubastis were a "couple of crime-solving superstars", being spooked by a mummy in a similar manner to the Scooby-Doo cartoons. Bubastis was even given a more Scooby-like appearance and a cowardly demeanor to fit the aesthetic.
- Stock Scream: A Wilhelm scream was heard as Ozy and Bubastis were spooked by a mummy during their part of the verse.
- Talking Animal: Unlike in the original comic, Bubastis can talk in order to fill the role of Ozymandias' cowardly comic relief sidekick.
- Theme Tune Roll Call: The intro song gives the name of each of the Watchmen and describes their character or role on the team.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Doctor Manhattan can turn into a car. This is of course not among his considerable powers in the original comic (or at least, not one that we ever saw him using) so it's another example of what ridiculousness may have came about if the comic had been made into a cartoon for kids.
- Wingding Eyes: The Comedian has hearts in his eyes when he looks at Silk Spectre, even after she slaps him.
