Stan Lee's Superhero Kindergarten is a cartoon produced by Genius Brands International, China's Alibaba Group, POW Entertainment, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, who voices Arnold Armstrong.
Five years after the final battle between Captain Fantastic and Dr. Superior, which resulted in both combatants losing their powers, six kindergartners at Greenvale Elementary exhibit superpowers of their own. The former Captain Fantastic, Arnold Armstrong, is appointed their new kindergarten teacher and works to teach them how to use their powers, all while keeping them secret from the world at large. Complicating matters is that Dr. Superior also survived the battle, and as Headmaster Nigel Danforth, now teaches four supervillain kids of his own.
The show debuted on April 23, 2021 on Amazon and Kartoon Channel. The series bible and pilot script were released
ahead of time to build hype, as was a temporary preview of the first episode.
This show contains examples of:
- Actor Allusion: Arnold Armstrong routinely quotes lines from movies Arnold Schwarzenegger was in.
- Art Initiates Life: Cray Cray's power is to make her crayon drawings come to life, though they're not always under her control.
- Bad Boss: In episode 7, Dr. Superior threatens to take the Academy kids' powers away if he was desperate enough.
- Bad Powers, Bad People: In contrast to the heroic powers and heroes of Greendale, the Academy's super-children have powers over slime, insects, invisibility, and destructive beams.
- Barrier Warrior: Blocker's power is to create building blocks, which he can use to climb and wall himself or others in when upset.
- Black and Nerdy: Patty Putty is a black girl who's the smartest one of the bunch.
- Black Comedy: Cray Cray has an Imagine Spot of her art being put up in a museum. The painting of a lion comes alive and eats one of the viewers. His date is unconcerned, claiming it was their first date and she didn't like him anyways.
- Brought Down to Normal: Captain Fantastic and Dr. Superior both lost their powers after their final clash, becoming ordinary men.
- Captain Superhero: Captain Fantastic. This is also lampshaded when the kids mistake him for Captain America and Captain Marvel.
- Celebrity Paradox:
- Arnold Schwarzenegger played Captain Fantastic in films, and voices him in the show.
- Stan Lee, who openly tells a lawyer from Disney and Marvel Comics, when he begins a blatant Shout-Out to Spider-Man, that he can't sue him for it, purely since he is Stan Lee.
- Christmas Episode: “How the Super K’s Save Christmas.”
- Cliffhanger: Season One ends with the entire team plus newcomer Emerson captured and transported away by the alien Kremlon, while Dr. Superior plots a Villainous Rescue.
- Dirty Kid: Power Pedro is 5 years old but when he goes to the museum, he takes an interest in the nude statues.
- Evil Counterpart: The Academy for Superior Children teaches four supervillains, who have powers and personalities to counter the heroes.
- Fake Shemp: As with every other project he's been involved in, Stan Lee appears, in this case seemingly as most of the extras, but his voice is provided by a soundalike for obvious reasons.
- Flight: Jackson Jet combines this and Fartillery, as he uses farts to fly around.
- Fourth-Wall Observer:
- Dr. Superior is highly aware of the fourth wall and admonishes the audience for thinking it strange to talk to his pet rat, then rolls the credits so he can drink his tea alone.
- Stan Lee's character is effectively Stan Lee, to the point that, when he's sued by Marvel Comics, he brushes them off with a simple 'Do you know who I am?'note
- Heroic Second Wind: The Super Ks are defeated in their first encounter with the Fearsome Foursome, but thanks to Mr. Armstrong are able to rally and defeat their opponents.
- Obstructive Bureaucrat: Principal Harriet Shoutzalot, who is suspicious of Arnold and his class and is always trying to figure out their secrets.
- Pest Controller: Guillermo, AKA Creepster, can control ants, bees, and other insects to do his bidding.
- Power Incontinence: A major theme of the show is how young the kids are, meaning they're not in full control of their powers.
- Power Parasite: Episode 7 has Dr. Superior attempt to use a machine to transfer Billy and Jackson's powers into himself.
- The Precious, Precious Car: Robyn demonstrates her Breath Weapon power on Dr. Superior's $75,000 dollar car, completely wrecking it.
- Real After All: At the end of "Bessie, We Hardly Knew Ye," three genuine lake monsters appear in Lake Bess.
- Rubber Man: Patty Putty's power is based around silly putty, allowing her to stretch herself and turn into a ball.
- Super Hero Origin: Lampshaded in the first episode, when Captain Fantastic rattles off his backstory, Doctor Superior then brushes it off, effectively telling him that he already knows his backstory.
- The Sacred Darkness: In the episode "Weirdo World," where the team encounters an evil Captain Fantastic from an alternate reality, Mr. Armstrong cheers his counterpart up by saying he's the most important person in his world as the villain, as there's no story without one.
- Saving Christmas: Episodes 10 and 11 are a 2-part episode about the Super K's saving Christmas from Dr. Superior and the Fearsome Foursome.
- Shiny New Australia: Inverted when Dr. Superior plans to take over every continent except Australia, as he likes koalas.
- Shout-Out:
- When Arnold Armstrong says he is Captain Fantastic, the kids mistake him for other Captains ask if he had a shield and a friend named Bucky or if he had a lightning bolt on his chest and said "SHAZAM", or if he appeared on cereal boxes.
- Dr. Superior tries to used a Kryptonite gun on Captain Fantastic, only to be told that it was Superman's weakness.
- Plenty in Captain Fantastic's Superhero Origin to remind the viewer that it takes place in The '80s:
- A boy tries to impress a girl he likes by inviting her to his house to play Duck Hunt and watch MTV. Said girl wishes to see The Terminator instead.
- Arnold's mixtape includes Prince, Bruce Springsteen, Madonna and "a local band called An Assortment of Penguins" (presumably a parody of A Flock of Seagulls).
- Two students on the high school campus Arnold worked at converse about then-new show The Simpsons:
Boy: Did you see that new show last night called The Simpsons?Girl: Cartoon? Yeah, it'll never last. - Spider-Man Send-Up: "Sticky" is based off Spider-Man with them both having wall-crawling abilities and wearing a red costume. In episode 3 a newspaper chief, that looks very familiar demands photos of him from a reporter who has a very suspicious red top on underneath their clothes.
- Stock Ness Monster: Bessie, the Lake Bess Monster, featured in "Bessie, We Hardly Knew Ye." One turns out to just be a mechanical prop from a Captain Fantastic film, and three genuine lake monsters appear at the end of the episode.
- Super-Strength: Power Pedro's superpower is super-strength, though even he can't get out of Blocker's blocks.
- Superhero Speciation: Despite getting their powers from the same source, all the Super-K have different abilities.
- Superman Substitute: Captain Fantastic is a clear parody of Superman, which Dr. Superior often confuses him for. However he doesn't share Superman's aversion to killing people.Dr. Superior: Ah, right, I always mix you two up. Must be the capes and tights and bulging muscles.
- Team Pet: In episode 3 the class gets Hammy the hamster, who complicates pet care by having powers of his own.
- Trailers Always Spoil: A press release dated a month before the first episode aired spoiled the existence of Emerson, a character who appears in the first season finale.
- Wall Crawl: Sticky's power is super-adhesive skin, which he uses to climb on walls and ceilings.
- What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Everyone is initially excited about Jackson Jet's power of flight, but quickly change their minds once they learn how it's deployed by farting.
