Western Animation / Miles from Tomorrowland

Miles from Tomorrowland is a Science Fiction preschool series that premiered on February 6, 2015 on Disney Junior.

It centers on the Callistos, a family who lives on a spaceship and works for the Tomorrowland Transit Authority, where they travel the galaxy to solve conflicts and mysteries on other planets. There's the enthusiastic and curious Miles, his brainier sister Loretta, his pet robot ostrich M.E.R.C., and his parents Leo and Phoebe.

Season 3 changes the focus of the show from connecting the universe to protecting the universe. On top of that, it has Miles, Loretta, Mirandos, Haruna, and Blodger forming a team called Mission Force One to protect the universe.

The series finale was on September 10, 2018, ending the show after three seasons.

---

Tropes from Tomorrowland:

• Absolute Xenophobe:
  • Queen Gemma of Dethalia. She doesn't answer any of the Tomorrowland Alliance's requests to join them, and arrests anyone who enters her planet's space uninvited. Thankfully, her son, Prince Rygan, feels differently, and helps the Callistos win their freedom. She becomes more open in later episodes.
  • Commander Rex in "Invaders from Tomorrowland" steadfastly believes that Miles, Blodger and M.E.R.C. are trying to invade when they arrive on his planet looking for a damaged mapping probe (which he also believes to be their Flying Saucer), and refuses to listen when they tell him they don't want to invade his world.
• Accidental Misnaming: The space pirate Gadfly Garnett seems to have trouble remembering names; He continually got Stella's name wrong in "Who Stole The Stellosphere?" and did the same with Miles in "Frozen Food" and "Unexpected Ally."
• Aerith and Bob: Character names go all over the place between Aerith and Bob types, with no rules about alien vs. human as human names range from Miles, Leo and Phoebe (Bobs), Loretta (a middle ground) and Horuna (Aerith) and aliens ranging from Melvin, Pip and Cree to Blodger, Rygan and Mirandos.
• Affably Evil: Dashiell Scamp.
  • Malison seems to genuinely enjoy sparring with Miles and crew but is most decidedly an antagonist.
• Affectionate Nickname: Leo and Phoebe often call Loretta "Starshine" (which appears to have been inherited from Phoebe herself as her mother refers to her by this nickname as well) and "Moonflower."
• Age Lift: Miles and Loretta started the series at ages 7 and 11, while Mission Force One ages them up to 10 and 14.
• AI Is A Crap Shoot: Mostly averted with most of the machines in this series, but in "Mighty M.E.R.C," Axel, M.E.R.C.'s intended replacement, refused to allow the Callistos to try and recover Loretta from a rapidly freezing planet (on the grounds that he couldn't let the entire crew endanger themselves for one member), even locking down the Starjetter to try and stop them. The IOTA is a lighter example, as it is very sensitive to improper coding, and when it is improperly coded, it does mischievous things.
• Air-Vent Passageway: Utilized on several occasions. This is mostly done by Miles, Loretta and their agemates so it's somewhat believable.
• All-CGI Cartoon
• Alliterative Name: The sand twins Melvin and Melinda Mendelson and Gadfly Garnett.
• All There in the Manual: Miles and Loretta's ages are not mentioned in the show, but the promotional shorts leading up to the premiere mention that they're 7 and 11 respectively. Sascha Paladino revealed on Twitter that they're 10 and 14 respectively in season 3.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Both the Stellosphere and the Zenith have been taken over by villains at some point.
  • In the series finale, Nemmex manages to take over the TTA.
• Ascended Extra: Haruna, Blodger, and Mirandos were supporting characters in seasons 1 and 2 before being upgraded to main characters starting with Mission Force One.
• Badass Adorable:
  • The protagonist is The Leader in training and can ride a Hoverboard. Oh, and he's only 7 years old.
  • Big sister Loretta counts as well. Child Prodigy at only 11 years old.
  • By the end of season 2, Miles and Loretta form Mission Force One with Mirandos, Blodger, and Haruna, qualifying all five of them for this trope.
• Badass Family: The Callistos - a starship captain, her Ace Pilot husband and their children: a Child Prodigy and The Leader in training.
• Bad Boss: Dashiell Scamp, from the episode "The Space Trader" seems to be one, considering his former crew abandoned him (and his statement that "people annoy me").
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Mirandos' friendship with Loretta and Miles starts because they help her after one of her people's traps springs on her and buries her in snow, something that would have been dangerous even for a native to her planet long-term.
  • During the Mission Force One season, a Nemsystems robot joins the TTA because Mission Force One rescues him after he's abandoned by Commander Nemmex.
• Bittersweet Ending:
  • In "How To Build A Better Villain", the main characters do escape from the game, but Grendle, the villain they built for the game, who already gained a life of her own through the glitch, escapes from said game and vows to take over the universe as programmed . Wow!
  • In "The Lost Empire", Commander Nemmex conquers Queen Gemma's planet, Dethalia, but she at least learned to be more proactive in leading her people, and they do find a new planet.
• Blob Monster: One episode features a friendly blob alien named Blodger Blopp, who visits the Callistos as part of a Cosmic Explorers exchange program. Predictably, the family is bewildered by Blodger's unusual customs such as consuming space dust. Later, the family visits Blodger's planet, which is inhabited by many types of blob aliens.
• Brainy Brunette: Loretta.
• Break Out the Museum Piece: When an antique rocket that Miles and Loretta's paternal grandfather and maternal grandparents were the crew for is found crashed on a distant planet, the grandparents are invited to come along on the retrieval. While there, the Star Jetter falls into a frozen ocean and the antique ship is powered up and used to recover the Star Jetter.
• Brother–Sister Team: Miles and Loretta are often called on to solve an episode's problems. Unusually, neither wholly embodies any specific character archetype when they work together - Miles is a little more intuitive, Loretta is more learned, but both are smart and athletic.
• Bumbling Dad: Averted with Leo Callisto; he may be a bit more laid-back and goofy than his wife Phoebe, being a former Surfer Dude and all, but he's certainly no idiot, as shown by his ingenious inventions. However, he is the least coordinated of the family, being the only one who doesn't take the coordination-centric alien martial art Naxos, and who can't ride alien dinosaurs. He also does not like the thrill ride of the Game Master's portal.
• Casual Interplanetary Travel
• Cardboard Prison: Gadfly Garnett gets captured at the end of his appearances, yet he's back committing more crimes before long. The Tethoscape is revealed to have such a prison in "Galactech: The S'Leet Fleet."
• Catchphrase:
  • Miles has several, including "Blast-tastic!", "Galactic!", "Aw, moonburn!" and "Aw, craters!" (the latter two uttered whenever making a mistake).
  • Loretta also says "Aw, craters" when she screws up as does the rest of Mission Force One.
  • Leo has "Hot Jupiter!"
  • Phoebe has "Callistos, let's rocket!", which sometimes has "rocket" altered for current context
  • Watson and Crick have "Tomorrowland, over the moon, and out". This can be and frequently is altered based on the situation causing the call.
  • Haruna has "Boom goes/go the [blank]" after a successful attempt at something; the blank is usually "nova" but is sometimes altered as needed.
  • Mission Force One has "Mission Force One, let's get the job done!", the first part being said by Miles and the latter by the rest of the team.
• Cerebus Rollercoaster: The show switches back and forth between light hearted stories and high stakes adventures
• Chekhov's Gun: Any new tech or game Miles is playing in the opening is usually going to be important later.
• Christmas Episode: "Snow Globe" is in this theme.
• Color-Coded Emotions: Blodger turns blue whenever he feels sad.
• Computer Voice: Stella's is heard within the Callistos' ship's computer system.
  • Mirandos and her race's voices are known for sounding computerized.
• Cool Uncle: Leo's brother, Joe, serves as this to Miles and Loretta. Phoebe's sister Frida also counts as an aunt version.
• Damsel in Distress: Loretta is often this in the first season. She gets better in the second season as part of the show's Growing the Beard, thanks to discovering lost alien races. By the end of Season 2, she is protecting the TTA along with Miles.
• Department of Redundancy Department: Invoked in "Downsized," when Leo revealed that "Redundancy is the best policy" is both Cosmic Explorer rule #28 and #29.
  • In the same episode:
  Loretta: I've just completed my redundancy training!
  Miles: Redundancy training?
  Joe: Redundancy training.
  Phoebe: Redundancy training.
• Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: Blodger hums the theme song on a few occasions.
• Dinner with the Boss: In the episode "Catch That IOTA!", the Callistos try to get Ambassador Titus of the Fastidian Empire — who is notoriously hard to please — to join the Tomorrowland Alliance as part of their 100th mission. Unfortunately, it becomes a disaster thanks to Leo's latest invention, the IOTA, malfunctioning and making a mess on the ship, though they ultimately succeed in making him into an ally by saving his ship from a black hole.
• The Dragon: Commander Nemmex often sends out others to do his work for him, whether it involves stealing technology (using his Nemesytem bots) or more hard to acquire items (using Malison, his master thief).
• Eating Machine: Despite being a robot, M.E.R.C. is often seen eating organic food, in addition to "Booster Bites," which are intended as robot pet food. He also shares the family taste for Marsberry smoothies.
• Eating Pet Food: Oddly Malison does this on purpose in "Battle for the Zenith", sampling Booster Bites, which she states taste like pet food, and continuing to eat them throughout the episode, even wondering where she can buy more when her can is empty at the end.
• Enemy Mine: Gadfly works with Mission Force One when Nemesytem comes after him for stealing a star map from them.
  • All the major villains end up doing this in "Villain Force One/Two" after Miles points out that Nemmex would eliminate all of them if he took over the TTA as he plans.
• Even Evil Has Standards: "Galactech Grab" reveals that Gadfly's species are all thieves, yet they draw the line at stealing from each other. Gadfly was banished from their home for trying to steal from the King's vault.
• Everyone Went to School Together: "Galactech: Still Rocketing" reveals that Phoebe's parents and Leo's father once served on the same ship together.
• Exactly What I Aimed At: In "The Space Trader", Miles throws his laserang at Dashiell Scamp, who ducks and comments he needs to work on his aim. Miles smugly says "Wasn't aiming at you." and his real target is quickly revealed to be the mind control device on Merc, who proceeds to dismantle Dashiell's hold on the other stolen robots. He uses this trope again the next time he meets up with Dashiell and also against Malison whenever they clash.
• Expository Theme Tune
• Extra-Long Episode: Most episodes of this series are split into two segments, with the exceptions of the season 1 finale ("Galactech: Secrets of the Black Hole"), a couple season 2 episodes (Galachtech: "The Mystery of the Dinosaurs" and "Connect & Protect & Shorts"), and a couple of season 3 episodes ("The Magsteeds of Infuria" and "The Nemesystems Takeover").
• Fantastic Fighting Style: In "The Search For Skellig Ro," Miles and Loretta practice Naxos, a martial art used in zero gravity.
• Fantasy Helmet Enforcement: Miles' spacesuit deploys a sort of holographic helmet every time he does a somewhat reckless activity like riding his Blaster Board around the ship. The other Callistos have such a function for space helmets every time they venture out into space.
• Fictional Holiday: Averted in "Yuri's Night" - the titular holiday (which celebrates Yuri Gagarin's pioneering voyage into space) is celebrated internationally every April 12th.
• Fun with Acronyms:
  • The aforementioned Intelligent Outerspace Technical Assistant (IOTA), which can be used to clean up and repair things.
  • M.E.R.C. is short for Mechanical Emotionally Responsive Creature.
• The Future: The world of Tomorrowland is set in the year 2501.
• Guilt by Association: Taken to an absurd degree in "Game On"; Queen Gemma believes that, since the Callistos know Gadfly Garnett (who had recently stolen from Dethalia), they are no friends to her people. She learns to like them later, though.
• Halloween Episode: "Ghost Moon" and "Stormy Night in a Dark Nebula" fit this theme.
• Hard Light: Airlocks, ramps, landing gear and space helmets are holograms.
• Heel–Face Turn: In "Stranded In Space", Zeeb joins the TTA after Commander Nemmex left him stranded in an abandoned spaceship when he couldn't escape on his own.
• Hero Worship: Loretta idolizes the renowned scientist, Professor Rubicon. Miles' hero is his uncle Joe, a Captain in the Space Guard.
• Holiday Episode: This includes episode segments for both holidays of Halloween and Christmas.
• Hover Board: Miles' "blastboard."
• Human Popsicle: Phoebe, Loretta, Leo and the parents of Miles's alien friend Pipp are frozen solid by Gadfly Garnett in the episode "Frozen Food". Miles and Merc are fortunately spared however, and help to reverse the freezing process.
• Incredible Shrinking Man: Happens in one episode when M.E.R.C. accidentally shrinks the Callistos with a device used by a delivery alien to deliver goods easily by shrinking and enlarging them.
• Informed Ability: Gadfly Garnett is introduced as one of the most notorious and slippery thieves in the galaxy, but every time he shows up Miles and the Callistos foil his plans and he usually ends up in jail - until the next time he shows up... Of course, he could hardly be allowed to get away with robbery on a kids' show.
• Innocently Insensitive: In "First Day of Galactic School", Blodger's classmate Dara hurts his feelings by calling him "weird". Dara had meant it as a good thing, not an insult, and is genuinely remorseful when he learns how much Blodger was hurt by it.
• Insistent Terminology:
  • Used by Gadfly in "Who Stole the Stellosphere?"
  Gadfly: Listen kid, just stay calm. I'm only borrowing your ship, got it?
  Miles: You're stealing the Stellosphere?!
  Gadfly: Borrowing, I said borrowing! Do we have a listening problem?
  • Dashiell Scamp, the Space Trader, insists that he "trades" rather than steals, because he leaves a glorified Newton's Cradle behind every time he steals something.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Queen Gemma is rather snobbish and full of pride, but she still looks out for others and wants what's best for them. As the show goes on, the heart of gold is more noticeable.
• Knight of Cerebus: When Commander S'leet and Commander Nemmex are onscreen or are just mentioned, things always become more serious.
• Market-Based Title: Screened on Disney Junior UK as Miles From Tomorrow ^note  its original production title, with the lyrics of the theme tune tweaked accordingly. They love adjusting the name Tomorrowland in Britain, apparently.
• Meaningful Name: Dashiell Scamp is a space thief on the lines of a con artist.
• Mundane Utility: Aunt Frida's robo-porcupine, Pollock, can detach his quills and let Frida use them as paint brushes.
• Multiple Head Case: Admirals Watson and Crick, two of the higher-ups of the Tomorrowland Transit Authority, and where the Callistos get their missions from.
• Named After Somebody Famous: Watson and Crick take their names from scientists James Watson and Francis Crick.
• New Season, New Name: Season 3 changes the show's name to Mission Force One due to Miles, Loretta, Mirandos, Blodger, and Haruna joining the Tomorrowland Mission Center, and forming their own mission team called Mission Force One.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Miles' programming of Grendle backfires completely as all the skills he gave her nearly trap him, his team and the Gamemaster inside her game forever.
• No Flow in CGI: Less obvious in this show; despite the space setting that makes shorter, stiffer fabric and hair feel more natural, materials on these characters do move lightly from time to time.
• Non-Human Sidekick: M.E.R.C. to Miles, who are almost never apart. The rest of Mission Force One and their robot pets are downplayed examples.
• No-Paper Future: Averted on some occasions; in one episode, Loretta pulls out a backup instruction manual on her suit, remarking on how "analogue" it is. In the opening of another, Miles is seen reading a comic book that appears to be printed on paper.
• Out of Focus: Leo and Phoebe will have less focus in season 3 due to their kids forming Mission Force One.
• Perma-Stubble: Captain Joe Callisto (lampshaded in "On Spaceguard," where Gadfly called him "Captain Needs-a-shave"). This is a reference to his voice actor.
• Running Gag:
  • One of the characters reciting the Cosmic Explorer Rule one number off from the number that another character mentions.
  • Gadfly's boast of being "the greatest galactic outlaw ever to-" being cut off before he can finish.
  • In "The Space Trader", Dashiell Scamp repeatedly states that the pieces of tech he shows off is "the best trade I ever made, really."
  • Commander S'Leet's goons having no clue about who should follow his orders.
• Shout-Out:
  • Miles Family Works for the Tomorrowland Transit Authority, referencing the TTA PeopleMover in Magic Kingdom.
    • The name of the show itself is shout out to Tomorrowland in most Magic Kingdom Style Parks.
  • "Adventures in Robo-Pet Sitting" is one to Adventures in Babysitting.
  • "The Neptune Adventure" is a wholesale one to The Poseidon Adventure.
  • "I, Stella" is a nod to I, Robot.
  • "The Hoverbike Diaries" is one to The Motorcycle Diaries.
  • In "Blasteroid," Miles wants to name the Adorbix "Maurice" after his "favorite space cowboy." This is a nod to the song "The Joker" by Jamiroquai; Among the lyrics of the song were "Some people call me the space cowboy" and "Some people call me Maurice."
  • "Miles Vs the Volcano" references Joe Versus the Volcano.
  • Aunt Frida's robo-porcupine, Pollock, is named after the famous painter Jackson Pollock.
  • "The Taking of the Solar Express" is a nod to The Taking of Pelham One Two Three.
  • "The Hitchhiker's Ride Through the Galaxy" references The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
• Shown Their Work:
  • All the space jargon and phenomena featured in the show is quite accurate. One such example is the term "spaghettification", which occurs near strong tidal forces or black holes.
  • In "Dino World", Professor Radicon correctly points out that Pteranodon is a flying reptile and not a dinosaur.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: For both the fun-loving Miles and brainiac Loretta, along with the serious Watson and goofy Crick.
• Significant Double Casting: Silas and Commander Nemmex are voiced by Elan Garfias. They're one and the same.
• Surfer Dude: Leo has this air. In "Surfin' The Whirlpool," it was revealed that he and his friends used to surf their blastboards on the Zuma Whirlpool, a pool of swirling energies. For added effect, his blastboard is much larger than Miles', being the size of an actual surfboard.
• Techno Wizard: Loretta is skilled at computer coding.
  • Mirandos and her race are naturals, having a knack and penchant for computers as well.
• That's No Moon: Invoked in "Hiccup in the Plan," when the Callistos encounter a Sporjot, a giant space creature that resembles a moon when at rest.
• The Leader: Miles is shaping up to be one, of the Charismatic flavor. He's respected by adults and kids alike, will leap had-first into danger, and has no problem inspiring others to follow his lead - or in recognizing when others' talents are better suited to a particular role. Phoebe, the captain of their ship, is of the Levelheaded variant.
• The Swarm: One episode featured the Flickorax, which seek out and devour anything that's brightly lit.
• Thieving Magpie: "Unexpected Ally" introduces Dublex, a vaguely bird-styled alien who steals any shiny objects from those unfortunate enough to cross her path.
• Those Two Guys: Commander S'Leet's minions, Blizzbert and Flurrbo.
• TwoShorts: The usual format of almost each episode being split into two segments.
• Took a Level in Badass: Miles and Loretta become much more capable of defending themselves in precarious situations, Loretta especially.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Queen Gemma becomes gradually nicer as the series progresses, even being willing to give Miles and Loretta a lift in "The Hitchhiker's Ride Through the Galaxy" and helping Loretta figure out an ancient puzzle.
• Totally Radical: Leo uses the term "gnarly" in "Surfin' The Whirlpool." Miles, of course, has no idea what it means (May also count as Antiquated Linguistics).
• Tron Lines: In some of the aesthetics.
• Undying Loyalty: In the end, Nemex/Silas refuses to leave his ship even though he will be stranded at the far edge of the galaxy. Silas gives Aggro the option of leaving him and the ship, but Aggro instead chooses to stay.
• Vacuum Mouth: Blodger. In his first appearance, he uses it to suck an entire field of space junk into the Stellosphere.
  • M.E.R.C. also has this when he slurps up sprayed smoothie.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show:
  • Commander S'leet is the most serious villain the show has to offer. Unlike Gadfly and Scamp, he has no redeeming qualities, and rarely has any comedic moments.
  • Commander Nemmex, the antagonist for season 3 is very much this trope , especially after The Reveal that he's actually TTA cadet Silas.
• Villainous Rescue: Gadfly saves Miles from falling off a cliff in "Unexpected Ally."
• We Win, Because You Didn't: In "Double Trouble", Commander Nemmex tries to steal a cloaking device and the heroes decide to destroy it to stop him.
• Weaksauce Weakness: Gadfly's Mooks, the Goons, can be completely destroyed by throwing something through the rings in the center of their bodies.
• Weapon Specialization: Miles has his lazerang/lazerstaff and blastshield, Loretta has the holo-hexes, Haruna has his power gloves and Mirandos has her solidizer gloves (interestingly, she also seems to have an affinity for bludgeoning weapons as they're the primary weapon type she creates with her gloves when she needs an actual weapon).
• Wham Episode:
  • "Galactech: Mystery Of The Black Hole" has the entire family's ship being upgraded to the Galactech system.
  • "Connect And Protect" has Miles, Loretta, Mirandos, Haruna, and Blodger earn their last Cosmic Explorer Badge, joining the Tomorrowland Mission Center, and forming their own mission team called Mission Force One.
• Worthy Opponent: Dashiell, Gadfly and Malison all see Miles as one.

---