"It's up to you, what'll you do, who are ya' gonna be like?" note
Danger Rangers is an animated Edutainment Show that aired on PBS. It features six animal heroes (and one Robot Buddy) who teach children about safety through example.
The series was originally released from 2005 to 2006. Following a change in ownership, it began re-airing on CBS on September 17, 2011, as part of the Cookie Jar TV block, and then on This TV after it was removed from that block. Select episodes were also released on DVD.
Tropes:
- Abandoned Mine: One episode has a couple of kids venture into one to look for rumored treasure and get into major trouble as a result, and the theme of the episode revolves around on why you should never explore caves if you don’t know what you’re doing.
- Actor Allusion:
- Two to Sully's VA, Jerry Houser.
- The music video on the importance of wearing helmets features Sully playing hockey at one point. Jerry Houser is an avid hockey fan, having previously starred in Slap Shot.
- Another music video about poison puts Sully in the center of a 3x3 grid, similar to the familiar opening to The Brady Bunch. Houser previously played Wally Logan, the husband of Marcia Brady in various sequel shows and specials.
- "Cave Save" shows Squeeky attempting to make a Dagwood Sandwich with Fallbot that Reuben would be insanely jealous of.
- Two to Sully's VA, Jerry Houser.
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: Sully is a blue seal, and Kitty is a pink cat.
- Art Shift: "Kitty's Surprise Party" is very obviously outsourced to a different studio, resulting in noticeably choppier animation.
- Ascended Extra: At first, Gabriella stayed behind at headquarters to act as mission control, but she then took Burt's place in the field when he started staying behind more often.
- Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad: A group of "tough" biker kids in "Wild Wheels."
- Barefoot Cartoon Animal: Most of the cast, although the heroes will wear boots when necessary for safety's sake.
- Beary Funny: Burble, a big ball of fun who loves to make jokes, especially puns.
- Berserk Button: Kids in danger is a Danger Ranger team-wide one. Squeeky in particular hates it when people ignore clear safety guideline signs.
- Bound and Gagged:
- Octodon's lackeys do this to Fallbot in "Water Works" after he mistakes them for children.
- Henri Ennui ties up Burble and Kitty in "Medicine Mix-Up."
- Quentin V Manderbill captures the entire team in "Where the Fun Never Stops", save for Gabriella and Fallbot.
- Busman's Holiday: "Wet and Wild" shows that the Danger Rangers don't stop trying to keep people safe just because they're on vacation.
- Butt-Monkey: They don't call him Fallbot for nothing.
- Casting Gag:
- This won't be the only feline character named Kitty that Grey DeLisle has voiced.
- It also isn't the first time Rob Paulsen voiced a rodent.
- Catchphrase: S.A.V.O has "Danger Alert!"
- Pretty much every time Fallbot gets hurt, he says "Ow! Who put that there?"
- Cats Are Mean: Averted with Kitty, who is a firm but fair instructor with the kids and incredibly sweet to them, especially when they're scared or upset.
- Clip Show: The final two episodes, "Kitty's Surprise Party" and "Fallbot Forget-Me-Not", are such.
- Deadpan Snarker: Squeeky, who never passes up a chance to snip at ill-chosen actions or his teammates acting less than intelligent.
- Kitty too, though her main target is Sully when he starts posturing.
- Demoted to Extra: In the latter half of the series, Burt began volunteering to stay at HQ more and more.
- Disembodied Eyebrows: Several of the characters have these, including Burble and Fallbot.
- A Dog Named "Dog": Kitty the cat.
- Early-Installment Weirdness
- S.A.V.O calling out a "Safety Alert" instead of a "Danger Alert" in "Wild Wheels."
- The pilot notably lacks Gabriella and Fallbot, indicating they were added later on for the PBS run.
- The pilot also has the Rangers speaking directly to the viewers in certain parts, something that didn't carry over to the series proper.
- Exact Words: A humorous version. In "Safety Rules", Squeeky is checking to make sure all the people passing through an intersection know all the proper safety guidelines, including hand signals. This exchange occurs.Squeeky: Show me the signal for left turn.(Driver does so.)Squeeky: Right.(Driver demonstrates the signal for right turns, sending Squeeky flying smack into a stop sign.)
- Fantasy Helmet Enforcement: And you can bet the "bad kids" don't wear helmets. (Though they might wear backwards ball caps.)
- French Jerk: Henri Ennui is the villain in "Medicine Mix-Up" and has an exaggerated French accent. For some strange reason, he’s the only character in Paris who sounds French.
- Furry Confusion: There's an episode about responsible dog ownership and how to interact with dogs...despite the fact that several canine characters have appeared beforehand.
- Mt. Rushmore and the Statue of Liberty are still human in a World of Funny Animals.
- Furry Reminder
- Burt rarely, if ever, runs due to being a turtle. He's also seen sleeping inside his shell.
- In the music video "Everybody Be Water Safe", Sully balances a ball on his nose.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Burt, who not only built Fallbot, is implied to have built all of the team's equipment.
- Informed Species: It's implied that Sully is a seal, but given that he actually has legs instead of tail-fins, he looks more like a tailless otter instead.
- Though there was one blink-and-you-miss-it moment in one episode where he's swimming and inexplicably has them; they're legs as soon as he got out of the water.
- Jabba Table Manners: Commander Octodon, the Villain of the Week in "Water Works", is shown noisily stuffing his face with a table full of food at one point.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Squeeky may not be the nicest Danger Ranger on the team, but he still values the children's safety.
- Landmarking the Hidden Base: The rangers base themselves inside Mt. Rushmore.
- Loophole Abuse: In "The Great Race", when Worley's cheating is uncovered, Gabriella pays the entry fee so she can beat him. One of Worley's cronies claims that no one can run fast enough to do that; she smirks and says "Who said anything about running?" and proceeds to whip him by flying at her top speed. When the crony tries to claim she's cheating, Sully points out that the rules only say "no wheels" and not "no wings".
- Mama Bear/ Papa Wolf: The Danger Rangers. The surest way to get them on your case is to threaten a child or cause a situation where kids could get hurt.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Generally when characters realize the danger they've put themselves or others in, this trope is their reaction.
- Squeeky has this reaction in "Wet and Wild" when he accidentally upsets a little girl who's just learning to swim and is feeling self-conscious about it.
- In "Go Games", Burt has this reaction when he realizes that he had taken over the film Junior Ranger Talia was making of the titular event for her school project.
- My Greatest Failure: For Burble, Rusty Ringtail in "Wild Wheels" proves to be this, namely that Burble was unable to get Rusty to stop foolishly risking his life for thrills and ignoring safety guidelines.
- No Antagonist: Several episodes don't feature an antagonist trying to endanger the children, and instead, the children get themselves in danger from their own mistakes.
- Non-Action Guy: Burt, who tends to use gadgets in the field that project a video or hologram for communication purposes instead of acting in person.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted. "Sparky" is used both for a puppy who is a major participant in the events of "The Great Race" and the Robot Dog Burt invents in "Dog Days".
- Parental Bonus
- The song "Don't Touch That!" mentions the deaths of Socrates and Romeo from Romeo and Juliet (although it gets details about both deaths wrong).
- The Brayski Brothers from "Wet and Wild" are essentially Yortuk and Georg Festrunk from Saturday Night Live as donkeys.
- Parrot Pet Position: Squeeky often takes this position on Burble's shoulders.
- Pink Girl, Blue Boy: Kitty and Sully.
- Rascally Raccoon: Rusty Ringtail, the Big Bad of "Wild Wheels".
- Rhyming Title: The title of the show itself, as well as the episodes "Fires and Liars", "Cave Save", and "Chem Gems".
- Road-Sign Reversal: This was used by a kid in a failed attempt at cheating on a race in "The Great Race."
- Robot Dog: Burt invents one, Sparky, in "Dog Days."
- Short-Runners: Only lasted for one season with sixteen episodes.
- Sweet Seal: Sully
- They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!: Type B, with Quentin P. Manderbill, in "Where the Fun Never Stops." "Please, Mister Manderbill is my father. Call me Quentin."
- Title Theme Tune
- Two Girls to a Team: Kitty and Gabriella.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: At the end of "Wild Wheels", Rusty Ringtail swears that the Danger Rangers haven't seen the last of him. His only other appearance is the false alarm music video in "Fires and Liars".
- Wicked Weasel: Worley, though he's more of a Teens Are Monsters case rather than an outright villain.
- World of Funny Animals: Except Mount Rushmore and the Statue of Liberty are still humans for some reason.
