Plastic Man is a pilot and mini-series of shorts created by Andy Suriano (Samurai Jack, Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), based on the DC Comics character of the same name.
The 11-minute pilot was first pitched to Cartoon Network in 2006, starring Tom Kenny as the titular superhero trying to do good as a reformed criminal. His hopes are looking washed up when the Human Puddle (Dee Bradley Baker) escapes and causes havoc. With the help of his temperamental parole officer, Archie Bronson (Dave Coulier), Plastic Man is tasked with mopping up the fiend before he drowns the city.
While the pilot was never picked up for a full series, it eventually got a revival nearly half a decade later with the same crew. As part of Cartoon Network's DC Nation block, this new mini-series of six, one-minute shorts served as rotating interstitials running from March 3 to November 9, 2013.
The pilot and mini-series provides examples of:
- 2xFore: In the cold open for the pilot, Plastic Man disguises himself as a red plank of wood, he keeps the form up as a random thug grabs him and proceeds to mess with the poor guy while in said form.
- Accidental Truth: In "Superheroes Wear Pajamas", Plastic Man finds himself sleepwalking with his teddy bear Mr. Tinklebottoms and is laughed at by everyone for it. To save face, Plastic Man claims that the teddy bear is actually a captured demonic supervillain in disguise and proceeds to beat the teddy up and eat it for good measure. At the end of the short, after apologizing to his patched-up teddy bear, Plastic Man goes to sleep while the bear's face briefly becomes terrifying.
- Adaptational Name Change: In a mild example, "Lady Granite" is a reversal of her comic book alias "Granite Lady".
- Bittersweet Ending: The pilot ends with Plastic Man successfully stopping the Human Puddle, while patching up the damaged dam using his shapeshifting. He's even informed by Archie that his parole has been reduced by six months. Unfortunately, Plastic Man will have to serve as a makeshift dam until a new one can be built in a year.
- Deranged Animation: This series wears its Bob Clampett-inspired art style on its sleeves. Characters are drawn in exaggerated proportions and odd color choices, with Plastic Man himself being able to intentionally go Off-Model to sell his extreme reactions.
- Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: In "Puddle Trouble", Plastic Man quickly snaps out of his sulking when he accidentally blurts out his real name.
- Dropped After the Pilot: Archie Bronson doesn't appear in the mini-series, or any implication that Plastic Man's still on parole.
- Early Installment Character-Design Difference: The Tuxedo between the pilot and mini-series underwent a massive design. In the pilot, he was a fair-skinned man in a lavender tux and turban, sporting a sausage-looking nose with broken teeth. His mini-series counterpart is dark-skinned with a polygonal nose, wearing a sky blue and navy blue suit, but retains a similar turban with a feather.
- Evil Makes You Ugly: Implied. Whenever Plastic Man's past criminal identity Eel O'Brian is shown onscreen, he looks ugly and thuggish compared to his current heroic self.
- In-Series Nickname: In "Puddle Trouble", Plastic Man refers to himself as The Pliable Paladin, The Ductile Detective, and...The Stretchy-Crime-Prevention-Fella.
- Gag Series: The basic plots are simple enough for rapid-fire verbal and visual comedy in under a minute.
- Hollywood Tone-Deaf: In the comics, Lady Granite's singing ability was considered average, but her cameo in "Puddle Trouble" is so off-key she broke a glass off-screen. Plastic Man couldn't bear another note.
- Metaphoric Metamorphosis: In "Puddle Trouble", Plastic Man shifts his head into a donkey after realizing he stuck the Human Puddle in a cell with a toilet. His dumbass mistake allowed the crook to escape.
- Mistaken for Transformed: in the episode "Untouchable"
, a group of criminals meet to discuss Plastic Man and how he has thwarted their fellow criminals with his shapeshifting powers. The conference soon goes awry as the criminals get paranoid about any objects in the room that might match Plastic Man's distinctive red and yellow costume, especially once they realize that in several cases their own clothes match the color scheme; the entire thing degenerates into a massive brawl as the gangsters try to destroy the offending objects or beat the living daylights out of each other. Ironically, Plastic Man slept in and missed the entire meeting he was supposed to stake out. - Morphic Resonance: At the very least, anything Plastic Man shifts into will have his red, black and yellow color scheme. Occasionally, his gray goggles, black and blue eyes, and peach skin are visible.
- Paranoia Fuel: In-Universe and Parodied in the Plastic Man short "Untouchable", a mob realizes that Plastic Man could be anywhere, and then end up going stir-crazy when the room they're in has his color scheme everywhere, with everyone wearing the color scheme to some extent as well. Turns out they went crazy for nothing, as Plastic Man slept too long and completely forgot he was supposed to go to the stakeout with said mob.
- Properly Paranoid:
- In "Puddle Trouble", Plastic Man tries to defend people from sources of water, considering the Human Puddle can easily merge and manipulate. However, he temporarily goes insane trying to stop a playing child or a dehydrated runner from a drop.
- In "Untouchable", a crime boss points out that Plastic Man can disguise himself as anything, and has foiled their plots in the past this way. However, this awareness quickly backfires when his gang's meeting room attacks anything sporting Plastic Man's color scheme, including their boss's coat!
- Villain Has a Point: "The Many and the Fowl" has The Tuxedo pointing out that he's not a deadbeat in regards to paying his electricity bill, unlike Plastic Man. The normally lackadaisical Plastic Man was paying his bill at the last minute, so he's not wrong.
- You Fight Like a Cow: Lady Granite and Plastic Man's whole fight in "The Many and the Fowl" has the two dishing out rock and tool puns between them.
