Let's Get Ugly!
Butt-Ugly Martians was a short-lived CGI cartoon produced by the UK's Just Entertainment (in association with the US-based Mike Young Productions) for CITV. It focused on three butt-ugly Martians named B-Bop a Luna, 2T Fru-T and Do Wah Diddy who were reluctantly sent as scouts to the planet Earth under the commander of their ruler, the Emperor Bog, to make it suitable for conquest. However, they take a liking to Earth and its culture and instead pretend they enslaved it by sending fake progress reports to their boss. Bog starts to get suspicious of the reports, sending in forces to check out on how the trip is progressing, forcing the aliens to defend themselves and their newfound home when the time comes.
Tropes:
- Aliens Speaking English:
- Nearly all aliens in the series are able to speak English. Emperor Bog noted in "Mike in Space" to a captured Mike that "We Martians speak many languages."
- Subverted in "Meet Koo Foo", where Angela expresses her astonishment at the Koo Foo speaking English and the alien clarifies that he's actually communicating through telepathy.
- All-CGI Cartoon: The series is animated entirely in CGI.
- Alternative Foreign Theme Song: The Italian dub has a unique theme song by Cristina D'Avena.
- Back for the Finale: Most recurring villains show up to form a mini Legion of Doom in the series finale, and the Butt-Uglies get help from the Koofoo alien they befriended in an earlier episode.
- Badass Boast: Humunga gets a good one in his very first appearance, after landing on Earth with a crash.2T: How bright can this guy be? He crashed his space ship.2T: Eep.
- Casting Gag: Rob Paulsen voicing 2T Fru-T counts, since he played Throttle in Biker Mice from Mars and both characters are members of a heroic Martian trio.
- Cut Short: The show only ran for one season and ended on a cliffhanger where Emperor Bog vowed to destroy the Butt-Uglies for their continued refusal to invade Earth while the Butt-Uglies and Stoat Muldoon made it clear that they'd give it their all in the ensuing battle.
- Cyclops: The Karsh are a race of overweight and one-eyed aliens.
- Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: Ronald hums the show's theme song in the episode "Meet Gorgon".
- "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: The show's theme song is sung by B-Bop A-Luna, 2T Fru-T, and Do-Wah Diddy's voice actors Charlie Schlatter, Rob Paulsen, and Jess Harnell.
- The Dragon: The more competent Dr. Damage is second-in-command to the lazy and whiny Emperor Bog.
- 11th-Hour Superpower: The Butt-Uglies get an upgraded version of their Butt-Kicking Mode, but only for the last action sequence in the whole show.
- Evil Overlooker: Emperor Bog (and Dr. Damage until he's shoved aside) appears looming over the Butt-Uglies at the end of the show's title sequence.
- Fantastic Racism: Dr. Brady Hacksaw (who takes delight in dissecting anything that isn't human), as opposed to the more-tolerant Muldoon (who just wants to prove that aliens exist—and get them to appear on his TV show—and readily accepts that the Martians are friendly when presented with proof).
- Forgotten Superweapon: The Butt-Uglies only ever changed into their Butt-Kicking Mode suits when there were only a few minutes to go in the episode.
- And on top of that, all three of them have to be together for it to activate. Luckily this only came up once.
- Glad I Thought of It: In "Playback/Payback", when 2T Fru-T proposes that they replace the robot's recording with a phony tape of the Martians invading Earth to prevent Bog from discovering their lack of progress, B-Bop A-Luna takes credit for Fru-T's idea, remarking "Am I a genius or what?"
- Goggles Do Nothing: Mike wears goggles over his forehead for some reason.
- Gonk: They're called the Butt-Ugly Martians for a reason.
- Henshin Hero: The "Butt-Kicking Mode" give the Butt-uglies elements of this. Zig-zagged in that they are capable of fighting without it - it just makes that much of a difference.
- Hidden in Plain Sight: In a couple episodes the Martians perform as a music group called "Boys 2 Martians," claiming that wearing alien costumes is just their group's gimmick. It isn't brought up much though.
- Informed Deformity: Though the titular characters are described as "butt-ugly", they're probably actually the most attractive characters in the series, as the human characters look creepy, and other Martians look like the butt-uglies but with added deformities.
- Interspecies Romance: Do-Wah has something of a bashful crush on Angela.
- Chitsok is a more disturbing example. He resists Bog's offers to help the Butt-Uglies conquer the Earth until he sees Angela, then he proceeds to kidnap her and ditch the Martians because she's really all he wanted out of the offer. At one point he says he's wanted a pet like her, but the rest of the time he says "companion," implying something else they couldn't specify or they never would've been allowed to release the episode. Might have been part of the reason he was about the only villain who only showed up once.
- Lame Pun Reaction: In "That's No Puddle, That's Angela", Do-Wah Diddy makes a joke about how being turned into a puddle has wet his appetite. This causes the other characters to groan.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Whenever Muldoon saw a little too much, the Butt-Uglies would let him have it with a purple gas that would knock him out and make him forget most of the episode.
- Last of His Kind: The Koo Foo the Butt-Uglies encounter in "Meet Koo Foo" is stated to be the last surviving member of his race.
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Licensed Game: There are three video games based on the show.- Butt-Ugly Martians: Martian Boot Camp for the PC.
- Butt-Ugly Martians: Zoom or Doom, a racing game for PlayStation 2 and Nintendo GameCube.
- Butt-Ugly Martians: BKM Battles for Game Boy Advance.
- Martians: The title says it all.
- Merchandise-Driven: There was a line of action figures by Hasbro.
- Midseason Upgrade: In the two-part episode "Bog's Not So Dumb After Al"/"Bog in Charge", the Martians manage to upgrade their BKM to BKM Ultra. Although it's kind of hard to tell how much of an improvement it was, since BKM tended be as powerful as any particular fight scene with it required.
- Minimalist Cast: The three kids, Muldoon, and Ronald are the only humans seen on Earth.
- Minion with an F in Evil: The main trio is this. They were sent by their leader to conquer Earth, but being too nice and learning to care for their human friends, they decide to protect Earth while faking being evil in front of their boss.
- Monster of the Week: Assorted one-shot antagonists tended to come in two varieties: non-Martian-affiliated aliens who wanted to take over or destroy the Earth for their own reasons (and who the Butt-Uglies would defeat supposedly for the glory of the Martian invasion), and alien mercenaries Bog would send to help the Butt-Uglies conquer Earth. With how un-conquered Earth is, the Butt-Uglies both have to defeat the other alien and hide their lack of conquest from Bog.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In the 2-parter "Bog's Not So Dumb"/Bog In Charge", 2T attempts to upgrade the BKM, but not only does it fail, but it renders the Butt-Uglies unable to use regular BKM either. B-Bop doesn't hesitate to berate 2T for this bludner.
- Shout-Out: Voltron of all shows appears playing in the background at some points throughout the series.
- The Starscream: Dr. Damage to Emperor Bog, he even takes over in the episode "Emperor Damage" by attempting to kill him.
- Super Mode: Or rather, Butt-Kicking Mode. The three Martians are able to become huge and powerful.
- Theme Naming: All friendly-to-Earth Martians were named after 1950s songs, including occasional love interest Shaboom-Shaboom.
- Travelling at the Speed of Plot: The martians can go to other solar systems and back in the space of an episode while Bog's fleet spends the entire series travelling from Mars to Earth.
