Pictured: Pete the Cat.
"Pete the cat
He's one groovy dude
He'll put you in
A happy mood!
He's got a funky style
And a cool attitude
Pete the cat
Yeah, he's all that
He knows where it's at
Pete the cat."
He's one groovy dude
He'll put you in
A happy mood!
He's got a funky style
And a cool attitude
Pete the cat
Yeah, he's all that
He knows where it's at
Pete the cat."
Theme song by Elvis Costello
Hey there, cats n' kittens. It's me, Neville, and today I'm gonna give you a groovy description of Pete The Cat.
A Prime Video preschool cartoon adapted by Jeff "Swampy" Marsh (Phineas and Ferb, Milo Murphy's Law) from the picture book series by Kimberly and James Dean. Johnny Bravo creator Van Partible serves as one of the series' directors. Jacob Tremblay voices the titular character.
The animated musical series shows Pete's daily adventures as he learns new things and helps out his friends and family. Rounding out the cast are his mother and father, his older brother Bob, and his many friends, including aspiring rock star Callie Cat, artistic French-Canadian pug Emma, Cloud Cuckoolander Sally Squirrel, the appropriately-named Grumpy Toad and the new kid, Gustavo the platypus.
The series premiered in 2017 with Pete The Cat: A Very Groovy New Year, followed by a full series and Christmas Special Pete The Cat: A Very Groovy Christmas, a year later. A Valentine's Day special, A Very Groovy Valentine's Day, premiered on February 7, 2020. Another special, School Starts Tomorrow (Operetta), was released on August 27, 2021. The final batch of episodes was released on March 11, 2022.
Pete The Cat: Some Very Groovy Tropes
- Actor Allusion: In one episode, Grumpy gives Pete a pair of Magic Sunglasses. Every time Grumpy mentions them, he whispers "Magic Sunglasses!", much like how his voice actor, Atticus Shaffer, does as his character Brick in The Middle note .
- Actually Pretty Funny: In "The Band's First Gig," after a passing storm drowns out their music and leaves their stage in shambles, Pete starts laughing at the insanity of the whole situation until everyone else joins him.
- Animated Musical: Usually one song per episode.
- Author Appeal: As with Jeff "Swampy" Marsh's other shows, rock music plays a big part here.
- Be Yourself: In "Gotta Be You," Pete and his friend's band lose a contest to sing with CatGo and the Nine Lives because CatGo was looking for something original. They learn the lesson of the title that "you gotta be you."
- Bilingual Bonus: Emma often makes interjections in French, most often "Magnifique!"note and "Zut alors!"note
- Blindness in Media: One episode features a blind character helping Sally win a sand-sculpting contest by teaching her to use her other senses.
- Cats Hate Water: Averted in "Pete At The Beach." Pete and his family go to the beach where Bob offers to teach Pete how to surf, but the conflict is Pete's fear of the ocean rather than of water itself.
- Camp Gay: Downplayed with Sally's fathers. They banter in wiry voices and share a love for kitsch, but they're depicted as normal traits rather than stereotypes.
- The Complainer Is Always Wrong: Averted with Grumpy. While his pessimism is Played for Laughs, he's never treated badly for it and it's implied to be a front. This becomes the moral in "Three Bite Rule" where, even after finally giving bananas a try, he still doesn't like them, but is thrilled to have tried them.
- Cool Big Bro: Pete's brother Bob. He is super affectionate with Pete and is always ready to help him, without ever teasing him.
- Cool Car: The Cat family's VW van.
- Department of Redundancy Department: "Sandcastles In The Sand."
- Faux Horrific: In "Pumpkin Pageant," Pete's dad decides to carve the scariest thing he can imagine on his pumpkin: the family's van with a flat tire.
- Female Feline, Male Mutt: Equalized with Callie (female cat), but played reversed with Emma (female dog) and Pete (male cat).
- Four Legs Good, Two Legs Better: Pete is the only character ever seen on all fours, and usually only while he's skateboarding.
- Furry Reminder:
- Pete licks the milk from the glass instead of sipping it.
- In "Pumpkin Pageant," Pete affectionately rubs up against his pumpkin while purring.
- Garage Band: Pete and his friends have one.
- Good Angel, Bad Angel: In "Finders Keepers," Grumpy has Good Grumpy who tries to convince him give back a "bumper marble" of Callie's that he found, and Bad Grumpy, who encourages him to follow follow the "Finder's Keepers" rule he so desperately wants to follow.Bad Grumpy: How you doing, good looking? Pay no attention to my do-gooder pal over there.
- "How I Wrote This Article" Article: In "Begin to Begin", Pete is supposed to be writing a new song for his band, but has writer's block and keeps procrastinating. He eventually ends up writing a song about how he should not procrastinate and just start writing.
- Imagine Spot: The plot of "Quest!" has the gang imagining their walk to school as a thrilling medieval adventure.
- Infant Sibling Jealousy: Grumpy Toad was jealous of his baby brother when he was first born since he took away all of the parents' attention. However, he slowly grew to love him.
- In the Style of: CatGo's "weird" song is a stylistic parody of Beck.
- I've Heard of That — What Is It?: In the opening of "Meteor Shower," Pete and his friends are all excited about the meteor shower, before realizing they don't know exactly what one is.
- I Was Just Joking: In "Pete Over-Extended," Pete wants to attend both a CatGo and the 9 Lives concert with Callie and a Spacecat convention with Gustavo. He explains his dilemma to Bob, wanting advice, but Bob doesn't really have any good advice and quips that Pete could ride back and forth between them on his skateboard. While he's only joking, Pete thinks it's a great idea and rushes off, leaving Bob to lament that he really didn't mean it.
- Mickey Mousing: Pete's silent facial expressions are usually accompanied by a guitar lick or slide to "speak" for him.
- Mundane Ghost Story: In "Meteor Shower," everyone is having trouble staying awake. Callie says that she has trouble sleeping when she's scared. She thinks a scary story will keep them awake, so she tells a "scary story."Callie: Once there was a cat who kept her room organized. One day, she came home and her room was messy. She spent all afternoon cleaning it, but when she finished, she turned around and... (gasps) the room was messy again! (shining her flashlight on her face) Dun dun dun! (turns around, sees everyone but Pete is asleep)
- New Baby Episode: Grumpy Toad finds out that his parents are having another baby in "Big Brother Lessons". The baby is born approximately a few weeks before the events of "The Home Front".
- Record Needle Scratch: In the opening of "Meteor Shower," Neville narrates about how Pete and his friends are camping deep in the woods and gets record needle scratched as we're shown that they're actually just camping in Pete's backyard.
- Ridiculous Procrastinator: Overlaps with Writer's Block in "Begin To Begin". Pete has to write a new song for his band, but spends the whole day cleaning his room instead. In the end, he writes a song about how he shouldn't procrastinate and just start writing.
- Rousing Lullaby: This Is Not a Lullaby starts out mellow and soothing, switching to rock 'n roll midway through.
- Rule of Three: Invoked in "Three Bite Rule". The Cat family has a house rule that you're not allowed to say you completely like or dislike something unless you've taken at least three bites of it.
- Safety Worst: In "Cat City Safety Patrol," Dennis becomes this after a fall on a sidewalk pothole. He's fine because of his turtle shell, but starts to worry that others could get hurt because they don't have shells. The others help him to see that his fears are really more due to what happen to him and that sometimes you just have to be brave.
- Scary Flashlight Face: Callie does this when telling her Mundane Ghost Story in "Meteor Shower."
- Screams Like a Little Girl: In "Take Your Cat to Work Day," reporter Bonnie B. tells Pete and the gang that they have to do the news because she and the other reporters are locked in another room. There's a gasp from Emma and Sally, a gasp from Bonnie's niece Bonnie Boo and Gustavo, and a hilarious sustained girly scream from Grumpy Toad.
- The Silent Bob: Pete himself. Much like the trope namer, he only ever speaks when he has something important to say. This is generally Once per Episode, right at the end to summarize the lesson of the story.
- Show Within a Show: Two. One is Space Cat 3611, a sci-fi series which Gustavo and Grumpy bond over, and a Scooby-Doo-esque series staring Callie's favorite band, CatGo and The Nine Lives.
- Sleep Mask:
- Pete's father wears one at night when sleeping.
- Mrs. Burrow, the kids' former teacher, is depicted in Grumpy's fantasy wearing one when going to bed at school (see Teachers Out of School.)
- Slow "NO!": Gustavo gives one in "Callie vs. the Volcano" when Callie puts the mix for the lava into the volcano before they were ready for the volcano to go off.
- Something Blues: "Bedtime Blues" and "Blueberry Cupcake Blues."
- Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Far on the idealistic end.
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Over time, Grumpy Toad went on to become one of the most prominent characters in the show, having many episodes devoted to him and almost having more main appearances than Pete himself.
- Sudden Anatomy:
- Similar to the animated version of Dilbert, Pete is usually mouthless, but gains one when he speaks, or when he eats.
- Similarly, the characters normally have no visible eyebrows, but have Disembodied Eyebrows when they're needed to show expression.
- Teachers Out of School: In "School Starts Tomorrow (Operetta)," Grumpy believes his eyes are playing tricks on him when the kids all go to the Mega Mart to shop for back to school and he spots their old teacher, Ms. Burrow, out shopping.Grumpy: My eyes must be playing tricks on me, or that's a teacher out of school!Ms. Burrow: Yep, it's me! Out in the world! Cause I shop like you / Get my hair cut too / I'm buying food 'cause I eat just like you / I'm just a teacher out of school!
- Title Theme Tune: "Pete the Cat, he's one groovy dude..."
- Two-Timer Date: In "Pete Over-Extended," Pete tries this at the joking advice of his brother Bob when he wants to attend both a CatGo concert with Callie and a Spacecat convention with Gustav. He doesn't really get to enjoy either until Bob finally intercepts him and gets him to make a choice.
- Unnamed Parent: For just one example, Pete's father is often referred to as "Mr. Pete the Cat's Dad."
- Word Salad Lyrics: Both Emma's titular song and CatGo's similarly weird song in "Emma's Weird Song."
- World of Funny Animals: The series has a wide range of anthropomorphic animal characters, but there are no humans to be seen. The main characters are two cats, a dog, a squirrel, a toad and a platypus.
- You Must Be This Tall to Ride: In "Sally's Not Amused," Sally experiences this with every ride at the amusement park save the ones in the "baby" section, to the point where she starts experiencing serious Height Angst. Callie and the other kids snap her out of it by singing a song to her about all the great things about being small, and she is also cheered up during a show later on when she turns out someone small is needed to top a pyramid. Finally, at the end of the story, Sally tells the others that she wants them to go on on all the rides they withheld going on because of her, saying that they made her happy and she wants them to be happy.
- "Well, that's all for now, cats and kittens."
