The main trio.note
Rolling with the Ronks! (French: Bienvenue chez les Ronks !) is a cartoon co-created by Olivier-Jean Marie and Charles Vaucelle, and produced by Xilam (of Space Goofs, Shuriken School and Oggy and the Cockroaches fame). It focuses on a sensitive alien named Flash, who is sent to the Ronk tribe on Earth to introduce them to various technology—but Darwin's ancestors don't seem ready to go to such a radical (re-)evolution. There, he befriends (and lives with) a cave girl named Mila and her uncle, Walter. Other notable characters include the chief of the Ronk tribe Mama, and the Big Bad Mormagnon, with his pet lizard Godzi.
Rolling with the Ronks! provides examples of:
- Accidental Truth:
- In "Humongorilla", the titular gigantic gorilla turns out to be real after Mormagnon claimed to have made the creature up to take advantage of the Ronks' superstitions.
- In "Little Ronks of Horror", Flash entertains the Ronks with a story about a creature called a Croakadragon that later turns out to exist after Mormagnon disguised himself as the creature to mess with the Ronks. At the end of the episode, Flash makes up another story about a zombie werewolf that also turns out to be real in the final shot.
- Anachronism Stew: The presence of modern technology in a stone-age setting is Justified, as Flash is trying to shock the Ronk tribe to the future.
- Aliens Speaking English: Flash and his rival Red are aliens, but already know and speak English. As a matter of fact, every alien who shows up in the show is introduced already fluent in English.
- All Cavemen Were Neanderthals
- Ambiguously Human: Mormagnon without his costume.
- Balloon Belly: In "Out to Lunch", Mormagnon gets a bloated belly from overeating.
- Ambiguously Brown: Some of the characters have brownish skin with no clear indication that it is to indicate their ethnicity.
- Banana in the Tailpipe: During the race in "The Ronk Race", Flash sabotages Rob's spaceship by putting a banana in one of the thrusters.
- Banana Peel: "The Flying Dodo" ends with Walter slipping on a banana peel.
- Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: Mila (beauty), Flash (brains) and Walter (brawn).
- Birthday Episode: "Birthday Bashed" has Flash introduce the concept of birthdays to the Ronks, with the main plot concerning Mila's birthday celebration.
- Broken Pedestal: In "Intergalactic Star", Flash becomes disillusioned after learning his idol Dazzle is a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who only puts on an amiable act to try and improve her show's ratings.
- Butt Biter: A cat bites Mormagnon on the rear in "Stuck on You".
- Cartoon Creature: Just what the crud is Mormagnon meant to be? (at least, in his costume.)
- Chained Heat: In "Stuck on You", Mormagnon and Flash get into a squabble that results in them getting stuck together because of some paste Mama accidentally created by overcooking her fish stew.
- Deranged Animation: Downplayed, though it makes sense as Xilam also produced Oggy and the Cockroaches, Space Goofs, Zig & Sharko and Ratz, notable for having their own crazy animation.
- Early Installment Character-Design Difference: The four-minute pilot "Welcome to the Ronks" depicts Mila with lighter skin, visible eyelashes, no necklace, blue eyes instead of green eyes, an orange dress instead of a yellow one and blonde hair worn in pigtails rather than black hair in a ponytail.
- Elephants Are Scared of Mice: "Hold Back the Night" has Flash power a generator by having a mammoth run frantically after being shown a mouse.
- Evil Luddite: Mormagnon is the main antagonist and his goal is to undermine Flash's efforts to help the Ronks make technological advancements for purely selfish reasons.
- Exposed Extraterrestrials: Flash and his rival Red are both aliens who don't wear clothes.
- Extreme Omnivore: Downplayed in one episode, as Mormagnon eats rotten food.
- Eye on a Stalk: Flash has his eyes on stalks.
- False Teeth Tomfoolery: "Stormy Weather" has a gag where Flash is shown to wear false teeth and his dentures come out trying to penetrate Mila's hair with his teeth after it's been hardened by rainwater.
- Fiery Salamander: Godzi is a lizard who can sometimes breathe fire.
- "Freaky Friday" Flip: "Body Swap" has Flash switch brains with Mormagnon, with things eventually escalating to everyone in the Ronk tribe exchanging minds.
- Genki Girl: Mila is frequently shown to be energetic, confident and hesitant to give up on anything.
- Gross-Up Close-Up: "Flash a Smile" features sickening close-ups of Walter, Lulu and the other Ronks' decaying teeth.
- Hand-or-Object Underwear:
- "I Smell a Hat" has Mormagnon cover his pelvic region with a huge leaf after his ceremonial costume has disappeared.
- "Fashion Victims" shows some naked Ronks who have been stripped by Walter so their clothes could be used to tie up a saber-toothed tiger, who are conveniently obscured by a bush, a rock and some huge leaves before they look down and cover themselves with their arms while smiling sheepishly before ducking out of view.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Walter is the Huge Guy to Mila's Tiny Girl. This also applies to few other characters.
- I Ate WHAT?!: In "Body Swap", Flash in Mormagnon's body is disgusted when Mila tells him the medicine she gave him is snail juice.
- Jerkass: Mormagnon is a jerk who does everything he can to convince the Ronks to turn against Flash and reject his efforts to adapt technological advances.
- Large Ham: Mormagnon, when he tells his made-up, believable stories to the Ronks.
- Mistook the Dominant Lifeform: The four-minute pilot has Flash mistake a gnu for a human and try to shake hands with it before provoking the animal by grabbing its udders.
- Naked People Are Funny: "Fashion Victims" shows some Ronks winding up naked after Walter takes their clothes to tie them together and stop a saber-toothed tiger, with their humiliation at being left naked in public played for humor.
- Nap-Inducing Speak: In "Go Your Own Way", Flash manages to save Walter, Mila, Mormagnon and Godzi when his rambling on the importance of his scientific lectures causes the monster endangering them to fall asleep.
- Negative Continuity: There are occasional continuity discrepancies, such as the numbering of Flash's personal logs being inconsistent or "The Flying Dodo" showing the Ronks to have a game called dodo ball when the previous episode "Game On" established that sports were a concept unknown to the Ronks and ended with Mama prohibiting sports.
- NOT!: In "The Ronk Race", Rob exclaims "Not!" after insincerely stating that it's a shame he'll make Flash look like a fool in front of the Ronks.
- The Not-So-Harmless Punishment: In "I Smell a Hat", Flash is sentenced to the punishment of "the double tickle" for allegedly stealing Mormagnon's ceremonial costume. Flash laughs this up before he sees that the punishment is that he'll go down a conveyor belt to be crushed between two spinning cylinders.
- Porky Pig Pronunciation: In "Turn Up The Heat", Flash stutters while trying to say "freezing" before settling on instead saying "chilly".
- Right-Hand Attack Dog: Godzi is Mormagnon's pet and assistant in his underhanded plots to discredit Flash's ideas.
- Sand In My Eyes: At the end of "Humongorilla", Walter claims he had a hair in his eyes after Flash and Mila catch him shedding tears at seeing the Humongorilla leave.
- Scenery Censor: After Walter takes the other Ronks' clothes to tie them together and use them to stop a saber-toothed tiger in "Fashion Victims", we see three naked Ronks consisting of two men obscured by a bush and a rock and one woman obscured by huge leaves.
- Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Flash and Mormagnon are blue. Subverted with Mila and Mama, who are still identifiable as females with the lack of visible eyelashes.
- Thin-Line Animation: Uses the colored outlines variant.
- Villainous Glutton: Mormagnon is a manipulative jerk who likes to get the Ronks to provide food offerings to the gods just so he can devour all of it himself.
- Voices Are Mental: "Body Swap" plays the trope of characters switching minds having each other's voices straight.
- We Want Our Jerk Back!: "No More Magnon" has Mormagnon banished by Mama after she finds that he only created the illusion of being allowed power over fire by the "flim-flamers" by having Godzi breathe fire while invisible. Flash ends up taking Mormagnon's place, but finds that the Ronk village is harder to manage without Mormagnon around to placate the masses with his fabricated tales.
