"Some say I'm just a kid
But I stand tall like a pyramid
One day, I'll be mythic
Read about it in hieroglyphics..."
But I stand tall like a pyramid
One day, I'll be mythic
Read about it in hieroglyphics..."
— "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune, sung by Lilimar
Cleopatra in Space is an American animated television series produced by DreamWorks Animation, based on the graphic novel series of the same name by Mike Maihack.
The series focuses on 15-year-old Cleopatra VII (Lilimar Hernandez) as she gets transported 30,000 years into the future, to an Egyptian-themed planet that is ruled by talking cats. She discovers that she is the prophesied savior of the future world. In order to prepare for her role and mission, Cleo is sent to an elite academy where she has to train to take on the bad guys, figure out how to eventually get herself back home to Egypt, and tackle the highs and lows of being a teenager in high school with her best friends Akila (Katie Crown) and Brian (Jorge Diaz), and her teacher Khensu (Sendhil Ramamurthy).
Originally slated to premiere on Universal Kids in the United States, instead the first five episodes of the series were released early onto NBCUniversal's Peacock streaming service on April 15, 2020, for Xfinity users. For those who don't have that provider, the series premiered nationwide on July 15. It would make its debut on Hulu almost a year later on July 14, 2021. Worldwide however, the series first premiered on the DreamWorks Channel in Southeast Asia on November 25, 2019. The series also premiered on Teletoon+ in Poland on February 17, 2020, dubbed into Polish. In Australia, the series premiered on ABC Me on August 3, 2020.
It's written in these tropes; all, all, this show can be...
- Aborted Arc: Early in the series Cleo is told of the Blight, an event in which nearly all the galaxy's written and recorded information was lost, severely damaging their ability to fight Octavian. After episode two this problem is only mentioned in a couple of throwaway lines before being completely forgotten; in later episodes the characters seem to have no trouble looking up information when they need it.
- Adaptational Species Change:
- Akila goes from a human girl in the comics to a fish-like alien girl in the show.
- Brian was a regular human in the comic but in the show is turned into a cyborg that is robotic save for the brain.
- Octavian's Xerx troops were four eyed orc-like aliens in the comic, but in this show they are changed to robots.
- Adapted Out:
- Bakari, Cleo’s teacher from Ancient Egypt in the comic, who wrote the prophecy about her, is absent from the series.
- An ambiguous case with Anubis. In the comics he is Octavian’s master and true enemy. However, when we learn Octavian’s backstory here, Anubis is absent and there are no hints that Octavian serves anybody. That being said, a statue of Anubis is given particular focus in the show’s opening, and when Cleo and Zaid venture into the star to find the ATA tablet, a vision of what appears to be him and Ra facing off is briefly seen, implying he may have appeared if the show hadn’t been Cut Short.
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: Mihos is a weird ferret-type creature with light green skin and darker green stripes.
- And Knowing Is Half the Battle: "Do-Over" ends with a parody PSA featuring the cast warning the audience about the dangers of time travel.
- Badass Adorable: Cleopatra is cute, spunky, and not someone to be messed with.
- Big Bad: Octavian fills this role.
- Birthday Episode: Cleo turns 15 in episode 2.
- Cast as a Mask: Gohzi, Cleo's friend from Egypt, is voiced by Karan Barr. His true identity is the main villain of the series, Octavian, voiced by Jonathan Kite.
- Collapsible Helmet: The protagonists all have clear space/crash helmets integrated in their costumes, which collapse by pressing a button in the back. They also have the very useful function of deploying automatically if they're exposed to outer space.
- "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: The Theme Tune is sung per Cleopatra's perspective, and is also sung by her voice actress, Lilimar.
- Foreshadowing:
- There are multiple hints that point to Octavian and Gozi being the same person.
- When he and Cleo are hanging out in the first episode, Gozi mentions that he wants to be a great and feared warrior. Octavian is introduced as a ruthless and powerful conqueror feared across the galaxy.
- In the episode "Clubbing", Cleo has a dream that shows Gozi with glowing Eye of Ra and Eye of Horus symbols around his eyes, and states "I've had 30,000 years to practice," after she says he's gotten better with a slingshot.
- When Octavian has Cleo captured on his ship and reveals he is 30,000 years old, he makes a point of mentioning he is only a little older that Cleo is chronologically.
- While the group goes insane after searching for the UTA tablet non-stop in “Paradise Found”, Brian at one point gushes about the fact that the Arch-Enemy of his favorite comic book hero is secretly her childhood friend.
- During part of the opening where Cleo is transported into the future, we see a dark shot of shadowy figure with menacing red eyes similar to Octavian’s coming into a frame, only for the lights to turn on and the figure to be revealed as seemingly friendly minister Khepra. It is eventually revealed that Khepra is actually allied with Octavian.
- Khensu is pretty defensive about his private life, going into tangents and throwing smoke bombs to escape when asked. “Ladies’s Night” also reveals he has some pretty in-depth knowledge about Khepra’s likes and dislikes, only for him to once again do his routine and disappear when questioned. The same episode reveals Khepra is his mother and that it’s kept secret to avoid accusations of nepotism.
- There are multiple hints that point to Octavian and Gozi being the same person.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: Being from 30,000 years in the past, Cleo has a lot of trouble adjusting to all the differences from future technology to future food.
- Girl's Night Out Episode: The episode "Ladies Night" follows an adventure featuring Cleo, Akila, Callie, and Administrator Khepra, while Brian, Khensu, and Dennis stay back and relax.
- Gone Horribly Right: In "Akila Says No", Cleo and Brian try to get Akila to refuse to do every request asked of her, which includes several unpleasant ones and results in a high workload for her. By the end of the episode, she's refusing every request, even small, simple tasks.
- "Groundhog Day" Loop: In the episode "Do-Over", Brian builds a time machine that Cleopatra uses to make her bad day better. Hilarity Ensues.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Cleo thought Callie was the spy because she was the Alpha Bitch and that Zaid wasn't the spy because of her crush on him.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While Cleopatra is self-centered, hot-headed, and impulsive, she's also a brave and loyal person who will do anything to protect those she loves.
- Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Callie when it comes to Ancient Egypt, though its not really her fault as almost all information about that time has been destroyed.
- A Lesson Learned Too Well: When Cleo and Brian finally teach Akila how to say no, she literally can't stop saying it, even if she doesn't mean it.
- Lighter and Softer: The "fate of the galaxy" stakes remain, but they are given way to Friendship Moments and humorous hijinks more often compared to the comics. Certain events are also toned down, such as Octavian's origin story.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: In the episode "Paradise Found" the characters land on a sentient planet that shows them illusions of things they want. Cleopatra sees her father and Gozi, Kenshu saw an ex-girlfriend of his, Brian got to see an inventor he admired, and Akila got to see unicorns.
- Mecha-Mooks: Octavian's Xerx soldiers are all unintelligent robots.
- Parental Betrayal: Khepra betrays Khensu and the rest of the academy by allying herself with Octavian and allowing him and his fleet to invade P.Y.R.A.M.I.D.
- Scale Model Destruction: At the beginning of "Do-Over", Akila shows Cleo a miniature model of PYRAMID that she'd built... and naturally, Cleo accidentally destroys it in an act of clumsiness. Akila is not happy, as she'd pulled an all-nighter to complete the model, and on top of that, she was already cross with Cleo for making a mess out of their room (which contributed to the aforementioned act of clumsiness). Because of the episode's plotline, however, this is far from the only time Cleo destroys the model, no matter how hard she tries to avoid doing so.
- Secret-Keeper: Akila and Brian when it comes to Cleopatra coming from ancient Egypt.
- Spoof Aesop: "Do-Over" has a segment at the end advising the audience not to go back in time to fix a mistake, and accidentally wreaking all kinds of temporal havoc.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: In the first episode, Cleo grabs a laser gun displayed on the wall to try and defend herself against an assassin robot. Since she's from a time period where guns are nonexistent, she has no idea how to operate it and quickly discards it in favor of a bo-staff (a weapon she does know how to use).
- Time Travel: The whole premise of the series is Cleopatra VII being transported 30,000 years in the future.
- Title, Please!: Exaggerated as the only way to find out what the episode titles were, before the show was released on Peacock, was to translate the official Korean titles.
- Wake Up, Go to School & Save the World: One minute Cleopatra lives life as an average teenage girl in high school (well, as "average" as the future can be), and the next she's going on missions and battling face-to-face with Octavian.
- Writers Cannot Do Math: In the episode "Wednesday", Khensu claims billions of people are depending on Cleo. If this is meant to the be population of the Nile Galaxy, the Nile Galaxy would be severely underpopulated since it contains multiple planets, whereas Earth's population, as of 2023, is around 8.1 billion people.
