Teen Wolf, also known as The Cartoon Adventures of Teen Wolf, is the 1986 Animated Adaptation of Teen Wolf. It contains several changes from the film, such as Scott's werewolf nature being a secret. It ran for one season of 21 episodes on CBS. It was a co-production by Southern Star Productions and Hanna-Barbera's Australian-based animation house.
Contains examples of:
- All Bikers are Hells Angels: "Leader of the Pack" gives us the Wolf Pack, a gang of chopper-riders who Styles inadvertently brings into Wolverton under the assumption that they're stunt-riders. They proceed to cause havoc in the town's annual werewolf fair, and then in the town proper afterward, when the mayor refuses to pay them for showing up as they'd been expecting.
- The Alleged Car: Styles's werewolf-themed car the Howlmobile. Styles often denies the rough shape it's in, though.
- Alternate Continuity: From the movies. The cartoon features Scott's sister, and their grandparents living with them. Scott keeps his werewolf form a secret. Also Mick is the popular jock in Scott's school instead of a rival school.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Grandparents, actually, who are from the "old country" (Transylvania). They always stay wolfed-out, and Grandpa in particular likes to run around on all fours and chase cats.
- Amnesia Episode: This is the plot of "Teen Wolf Come Home," after Scott loses his memory following an accident with a giant flamingo.
- Animated Adaptation: Of the original Teen Wolf film. The eponymous character's family was made larger, giving him wolfish grandparents and a little sister who was permanently in half-werewolf status.
- Animation Bump: Happens quite a bit, most likely due to Jon McClenahan (whom would go on to found StarToons) and Darrell Van Citters (whom would go on to found Renegade Animation) being animation directors. It's often done with very expressive-looking character animation.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Scott, a werewolf, makes it clear in one episode that he doesn't believe in ghosts. Lampshaded by Lupe when she retorts, "I bet that's what the ghosts say about werewolves!"
- Big Eater: Chubs, a recurring classmate of Scott's, is shown in one episode eating an entire giant jar of jelly-beans (the jar is roughly the size of a man's torso) in only a few seconds, and in another episode he orders two giant pizzas at Wolf Burgers (this after having ordered just one and being told by the waitress that that's not a balanced diet, to which he agrees while Comically Missing the Point).
- Canon Discontinuity: Was completely ignored by the sequel Teen Wolf Too.
- Canon Foreigner: Lupe Howard and Scott's grandparents were created for the series.
- Cassandra Truth: Anytime a character sees a werewolf (not just Scott) up close and tries to tell others about it, they're dismissed as being crazy. Styles actually invokes and lampshades this on one occasion in dealing with the episode's villain by directing him to the Howard household on a full moon night, pointing out that even if the villain and his thugs tell others about the Howards' secret, "who'd believe 'em?"
- Company Cross References: In "Teen Wolf Punks Out," when Scott and his friends have fun at a downtown toy store, a stuffed animal of Brother Bear can be seen in the background. The Berenstain Bears Saturday-Morning Cartoon at the time was produced at Southern Star Productions/Hanna-Barbera Australia and aired on CBS, just as the Teen Wolf cartoon was.
- Costume-Test Montage: Scott and Boof go through one in "Teen Wolf Punks Out," when meeting some friendly 80s punks downtown that take them to a used clothes store to try and update their look (and despite being a full moon, Scott in his werewolf form blends right in with all the crazy hairstyles and trends seen around town, without anyone suspecting the truth.) The punk friends reject a fancy-dress suit and army outfit Scott tries on, and an elegant dress and a fringe outfit Boof tries on, telling them "Try again."
- Everyone Has Standards: Pam may be a flake who'll only give Scott the time of day if there's even the slightest hint that he's suddenly going to be popular, and she might be pretty full of herself otherwise, but across more than one episode she's been shown to be utterly disgusted by Mick's Dirty Coward behavior. This includes one particular episode when Grandpa volunteers to go face a supposed monster whose snarls are plainly audible from where they are (it's actually a wolfed-out Scott hiding from the rest of the crew); Pam, obviously not aware Grandpa's capable of taking care of himself, proceeds to chew Mick out for letting the "sweet old man" go off into the woods to face danger by himself.
- Garage Band: Scott is the lead singer of one, and they're the focus of the episode "Scott and the Howlers" (that's also their group name in-universe).
- Jerk Jock: Mick McAllister, a mean jock at Wolverton High, and based on the character of the same name from the 1985 film.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: In "The Curse of the Red Paw," when Grandpa expresses uncharacteristic alarm at the titular curse, we hear scary background music. Cue Scott glancing toward the top of the screen and wondering where the music came from.
- Leitmotif: Styles and Pam each have their own background music cues, often heard when they enter a scene. Styles's theme is a cool, scheming bass tune, and Pam's theme is a "dreamy" pop-rock tune.
- Mugging the Monster: Since Scott's werewolf status is a secret in this adaptation, we get several examples of this trope whenever Mick manhandles Scott for trying to impress Pam; imagine how quickly Mick's tune would change if he knew Scott could easily rip him to shreds. And not just Mick—a few one-shot villains try to physically threaten Scott without realizing how much potential trouble they're getting themselves into, only to figuratively and maybe literally soil themselves when he loses his composure and transforms right in front of them.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: In "Wolf Pride", a movie crew comes to Wolverton to film a stereotypical werewolf horror film that offends Scott. The director, Del Davies, is an obvious Expy of Steven Spielberg, complete with Frank Welker giving him a similar voice (just as he later would on Animaniacs and Freakazoid!.)
- Noodle Incident: In "Grandpa's In the Doghouse," the Howards attempt to get Grandpa out of the pound after he's been caught and placed there by the dogcatcher (he was in wolf form and chasing a cat at the time). First Grandma, then Harold, take the pragmatic route by pretending they want to adopt a dog, and Grandma even gives a description of a "dog" that fits Grandpa's description. The dogcatcher is wearing Grandpa's glasses instead of his own, so his vision isn't all that good...but how those two, whose vision isn't impaired, managed to get convinced to adopt two very different dogs instead of Grandpa is anyone's guess.Harold: ...don't ask.
- Nosy Neighbor: Mrs. Seslick lives next door to the Howard family, and is always a step away from figuring out the family's secret and outing them to the community.
- Oblivious to Love: Pam to Scott, and more pointedly Scott to Boof.
- Offscreen Teleportation: In "Under My Spell," Scott and Boof are hurrying to see Boof's father, the mayor, to warn him about the danger posed by the episode's villain. Scott, having wolfed out, jumps out of Boof's car and runs into an alleyway to take a shortcut to the mayor's office, with Boof running right behind him. Scott leaps onto an overhead railing and jumps through a window...only to find Boof already there and waiting for him. How the heck she managed to get there ahead of him isn't explained.
- Ordinary High-School Student: Scott wishes he could be one, but it's hard when you have a werewolf's curse.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: As with the film, werewolves retain their minds when they're transformed and are capable of speech (albeit with a raspier voice in Scott's case), and they can change back voluntarily—except during a full moon, when transformations are automatic. Transformations also happen involuntarily if the werewolf is stressed or highly emotional (this being heralded by their eyes glowing red); this happens frequently with Scott, though one episode also shows Harold, trying hard to keep a hold of his temper, wolfing out once he's hit his Rage Breaking Point. Among the abilities they gain, werewolves have increased speed, agility and acrobatic skill, and Scott is shown to be able to pick up two of his classmates, one under each arm, and jump from here to there with them without straining himself.
- Recycled Animation: Done in most cases whenever Scott "wolfs out", showing the same transformation close-ups (ala the original movie) against a black background. Sometimes when going back to normal, the animation is played in reverse.
- Secret-Keeper: As Scott himself states in the opening credits, "Only my friends Boof and Styles know my hairy secret."
- Title Drop: Across different episodes, Boof and Styles occasionally refer to Scott as "Teen Wolf," as if it's an alias or a nickname. Well, he is a teenage werewolf, so...
- With Friends Like These...: With the number of times Styles has put Scott into embarrassing situations, or tried to take advantage of Scott's family curse, for the sake of making a quick buck for himself, one has to wonder why Scott keeps him as a friend, or hasn't at least mauled him at some point.Scott: You'd sell my family secret for a buck a picture?!
Styles: ...a buck-fifty. - Your Costume Needs Work: One episode has a movie director filming a werewolf movie in Scott's town. Scott, in wolf-form, accidentally botches one of the scene takes, but the director's impressed with his appearance and offers him a part as a stuntman... only he says Scott's "costume" isn't realistic enough, and offers him a "more authentic" suit.
