"It's our job to save the day, siren's say help on the way!"
Firehouse Tales is an American animated children's television series created by Sidney J. Bailey and produced by Warner Bros. Animation as the only original series for Cartoon Network's now-defunct Tickle-U preschool block. It ran from August 22, 2005, to January 6, 2006. It was originally pitched in 2000 but wasn't picked up until 2004 by Warner Bros.
The series is about a group of anthropomorphic fire engines who attend Green Meadows Fire School so they can learn to be firefighters.
Firehouse Tales provides examples of the following tropes:
- Color-Coded Characters: Each of the characters are colored differently, which is most notable with the fire trucks; Red is Exactly What It Says on the Tin, Petrol is orange with a green checker pattern, Crabby is yellow, Da Chief is blue, and Wiser is dark red.
- Firehouse Dalmatian: The Fire School has a Dalmatian who is named Squirt.
- Magnetic Plot Device: The team has sirens that go off when they receive a distress signal.
- Meaningful Name:
- Red is well, red.
- Crabby is very grumpy - or crabby, if you will - and complains a lot about going outside.
- Petrol is named after a type of gasoline that fire trucks take.
- Chief is the chief, or head teacher of the junior firetrucks,
- Medium Blending and 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: The humans are animated in regular 2D animation, while the firetrucks and other vehicles are animated using CGI.
- Nice Mean And In Between: Petrol is sweet but shy, Crabby is moody and sullen, and Red stays in-between because he's well-behaved but more assertive than Petrol.
- Power Trio: Red, Petrol, and Crabby respectively.
- Sentient Vehicle: A majority of the cast are talking vehicles.
