My Knight and Me is a French-Belgian CGI-animated medieval comedy led by Jimmy the Squire, his father Henri the Knight, and Cat, the rebel princess. With Henri's unique enthusiasm, Cat's gumption, and Jimmy's faultless reasoning, our heroes are setting out to make the Dark Ages a little less dark and a whole lot more fun!
The series made its English premiere on Boomerang in the U.K in 2016 and began airing in the U.S on Cartoon Network and Boomerang in 2017. It no longer airs in the United States.
The series is based on the animated short 850 Meters.
Tropes:
- The Ace: Despite his goofiness, Henri is an extremely courageous and competent knight.
- Affectionate Nickname: Cat has a lot for Jimmy. Jimster, Jimbo, Jim...
- Alpha Bitch: Cynthia (the princess often paired up with Lance) seems to be this, but it's ultimately averted. She's perfectly pleasant towards Jimmy and Cat.
- All-CGI Cartoon: As if the picture couldn't tell you that.
- Art Shift: All mental images and, sometimes, flashbacks or narrations are done in a sort of wooden cut-out art form, complete with clouds suspended on wires.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Forcibly inflicted on the entire kingdom by the Witch of the Cursed Wood with the aid of Wilfried the White. By giving out items enchanted by the BWK spell, the people (even Jimmy and Henri) become obsessed with their shiny new playthings. Luckily, they didn't know what Cat was really like, so it didn't work on her.
- Blackmail: Lance does this to Cat with a video of her fighting a giant in "Caught on Tape", knowing it would disgrace the Queen. Cat does one back at him with an embarrassing video of Lance.
- Bottomless Pit: Appears in two episodes in two different locations. In the 2nd episode The Cat and the Swan, Jimmy asked Bad Jack if it's really bottomless. At the end of the episode, it's revealed to just be really deep.
- Cargo Ship: In-Universe, Henri really likes his mandolin.
- Color-Coded Characters: Several of the knights of Epic are associated with different colors, like orange for Henri, white for Wilfried, etc.
- Decomposite Character: The knight from the original 850 Meters short is divided in two characters in this series. Henri of Orange got the looks and the mandolin while Wilfried of White got the glory hound tendencies.
- Disappeared Dad: No sign of Cat's dad, the King, though the King's armor is mentioned in "Attack of the 50 ft. Squire".
- Establishing Character Moment: The first episode quickly shows how Jimmy is a thinker always trying to come up with new ways to do things, Cat is a proactive princess who prefers to take action than wait for rescue, and Henri is clumsy but brave and a supportive parent. It also quickly establishes the relationships between the main characters, with Jimmy and Cat being best friends, Jimmy looking up to his dad and Henri being understanding and supportive of his son.
- "Eureka!" Moment: In almost every episode, when Jimmy thinks of a plan to save the day. His eureka moments are usually punctuated by flashbacks to events earlier in the episode.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The Queen is only ever called, the queen. Her real name is @Unknown.
- Expository Theme Tune: The theme song explains that Henri, Jimmy, and Cat face the bad guys of Epic.
- Faceless Mooks: Many of the knights of Epic wear helmets that hide their faces. The exceptions are the Knight of Red, the Knight of White (Wilfried of White) and the Knight of Orange (Henri of Orange).
- Failed a Spot Check: While it can be chalked up to Rule of Funny, on occasion both heroes and villains miss things. For example, in "Witch Hunters" the Witch completely forgets about Jimmy after turning Cat into a frog, and in "The Helmet Of Epic" the Witch sneaks up on the team, and after chasing her off the heroes turn to find the Cyclops had somehow gotten behind them without anyone noticing.
- Fake Ultimate Hero: Wilfried of White. He plays himself up as a great and courageous hero, but he's a Dirty Coward.
- Jimmy himself becomes one in "Queen's Guard", taking all the credit from rescuing the Queen from the Black Rats. Cat, who helped him but wasn't supposed to be there, is extremely upset and betrayed by this.
- Forced Transformation: In "Witch Hunters", all the knights except for Henri have been turned into frogs by the Witch of the Cursed Woods. She gets a taste of her own medicine at the end of the episode. She gets turned into a frog again in "The Helmet of Epic".
- Full-Name Ultimatum: The "full first name" variant, as Henri addresses Jimmy and Cat as "James" and "Catherine" when he's unhappy about something.
- Handshake Substitute: Cat and Jimmy fistbump often. They also have a variation in "Bad, Bad Mandolin" where they fist bump, then put their fist to each other's chest while going, "Let's get Epic!"
- Quarter Hour Short
- Lampshade Hanging: There's a good deal of lampshading on some cliches, like Damsel in Distress conventions.
- Leeroy Jenkins: Cat occasionally has shades of this, preferring to quickly and decisively engage in violence against the bad guys. Unlike many examples of this trope, she's generally quite good at restraining herself (provided Jimmy is around to act as the voice of reason).
- Light Is Not Good: Wilfried of White is a lazy, glory seeking jerk, and his nephew and squire Lance is much the same, only more open with his unpleasantness.
- Like Brother and Sister: Jimmy's and Princess Cat's friendship.
- Magic Mirror: They effectively replace all media devices in this setting. Angular compacts are basically smart flip phones and there is a full on video broadcast show that uses mirrors in place of cameras and monitors.
- Magitek: Enchantments replace technological innovations, especially with witches, that use remote controlled Flying Broomstick with a miniature Magic Mirror as a semi-sentient robot sounding Attack Drone.
- Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: This is a good description of Jimmy and Cat's relationship as well as their approaches to dealing with a problem. While both are interested in the knightly arts, Cat is far happier with engaging enemies in straight-up brawls and fights, while Jimmy prefers to use his brains. While Jimmy is also reasonably physically fit, he seems to favor agility over strength whereas Cat is more likely to use physical violence to handle a problem.
- Their differing approaches can be seen in how they handle the other being brainwashed. In "Bad, Bad Mandolin", when he realizes Cat is hypnotized Jimmy looks around for a way to break her free. When Jimmy is hypnotized in "Fashion Victims", Cat tries to shake him out of it (to be fair, it nearly works), and when that fails beats a confession out of Lance.
- Missing Mom: No sign of Jimmy's mother to be found.
- Mythology Gag: There's a poster of 850 Meters at Henri's house.
- Noodle Incident: Lampshaded when Lady Fontaine confiscates candy from the children in "Epically Small":Lady Fontaine: No, no, no! There is no protocol on the proper way to eat a lollipop, and I will not have princesses eating willy-nilly!Cat: But—Lady Fontaine: No buts; we do not want another spaghetti incident.
- No Name Given: The Queen is simply called "The Queen". Her actual name is never mentioned.
- No-Sell: In "Fashion Victims", the Witch's BWK stuff is tailor-made for its intended recipient that hypnotizes the victim into wanting it (e.g. Henri gets a new saddle, Jimmy a new smart mirror). The plan falls apart when Lance tries to hypnotize Cat with a hairbrush, which fails due to the real Cat (as opposed to the personality she puts on to hide her interest in adventuring) not being interested in that kind of stuff, and she proceeds to beat a confession out of him.
- Parenthetical Swearing: By the Drill Sergeant Nasty Knight of Red in "Back to School":Knight of Red: Welcome to squire school, maggots! It seems you sorry sons of witches need me to remind you what being a knight's all about.
- Real Women Don't Wear Dresses: A variation with Cat. When she's about to get physical, she hikes up her skirt, buttons up her vest and ties up her hair. She's no less capable when formally dressed, she simply has to rely on her wits rather than her physical skills.
- Cat's mother appears to be the stereotypical Queen who is helpless against direct threats to her person, but she's proven more than capable enough to defend herself when necessary.
- Reasonable Authority Figure:
- The Queen, Cat's mother.
- Henri.
- The teachers of the princesses and squires, Lady Fontaine and Mr. Colbert.
- Rebellious Princess: Cat is against the Damsel in Distress conventions that are usually associated with princesses.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: Cat in spades, despite her mother trying to stop her because society expects her to be a prim and proper princess.
- Her mother, the Queen, is also this when she needs to be.
- Schizo Tech: The world has Smart Mirrors, horse-drawn limos, and elevators.
- Silk Hiding Steel: A variation in that Cat has to pretend to be a dainty princess, despite everyone she's close to knowing full well she is perfectly capable of fighting. Throwaway lines in "Witch Hunters" suggest this is enforced by rules, as Henri mentions that while Cat is free to join him and Jimmy on adventures, as a princess she's forbidden to join them on official knightly missions. Earlier in the episode, Lady Fontaine reminds Jimmy that princesses like Cat aren't allowed to go out into the field.
- Cat's mother the Queen is like this at times, as she takes up arms to defend herself and others in "The Cat and The Swan" and "Queen's Guard".
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Between Lance and Jimmy when they're forced to attend dance class together.
- Theme Tune Roll Call: The theme tune names most of the main characters in the show.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Princess Cat (the tomboy) and her mother, the Queen (the girly girl), respectively.
- Tomboy Princess: Cat tries to be one of the boys, despite regularly being relegated to girly, passive roles because it's what society expects of her.
- Two Guys and a Girl: The main characters are Jimmy the Squire, his dad Henri of Orange, and his best friend, Princess Cat.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: In "Witch Hunters," after hearing his son's plan, Henri allows himself to be turned into a frog over and over again, in an attempt to wear out the batteries in the Witch's wand.
