Western Animation / The Dreamstone

"Once more we travel to the Land of Nightmares to discover, there beneath the black mountain of Viltheed, the loathsome ZORDRAK, Lord of Nightmares, hatching his monstrous plots to thwart the Dreammaker so that nightmares might rule!"

"Far from Viltheed to the Forest of the Wuts, where Pildit, leader of the Wuts, and his companions guard the Land of Dreams. The Noops live in the Land of Dreams; these are two of them, Rufus and Amberley, assisting the Dreammaker and his watchdogfish Albert in the sending of tonight's dreams through the most precious and powerful object in the land - The Dreamstone!"

— The Dreamstone intro

Cult CITV children's Animated Series from the early 1990s. Noted both for the quality of its animation and its Mike Batt soundtrack, including cameos from such unlikely people as Ozzy Osbourne and Billy Connolly.

Almost every episode has basically the same plot: Zordrak, the Evil Overlord, sends three of his sympathetic Mooks, the Urpneys, across the dangerous zone between the Land of Dreams and the Land of Nightmares with the assistance of Mad Scientist Urpgor and his inventions, which tend to be pedal-powered. The Urpneys' task is to steal the Dreamstone, the mystical object through which the mysterious Dreammaker sends his dreams every night to the people of the Land of Dreams, and protects them from Zordrak's nightmares. They are thwarted every week by Rufus and Amberley, the Dreammaker's Noop assistants, occasionally with Pildit and the Wuts.

Despite this, the series also played with story arcs and guest stars to shake up the basic plot. Four seasons were made (1990-1995) , after which the same team made a Spiritual Successor, the less-well known Bimble's Bucket.

Aside from sporadic DVD and online releases of odd episodes, the show remained in obscurity for a while after airing, though the whole series (except for "The Daydream Bubble") is now available officially on Youtube courtesy of Monster Entertainment. A successful Kickstarter campaign has resulted in a simple tabletop miniatures game, and also a tabletop RPG (featuring locations and lore not featured in the show) that puts players in the tattered shoes of the hapless Urpneys as they try to fulfil Zordrak's evil whims - or rather, not fail at doing so badly enough that he kills them. A planned second Kickstarter will feature more miniatures (including a not-so-miniature Zordrak himself) and expansions fo the RPG featuring extraterrestrial locations, the Nightmare Stone and the ability to play as good and unaligned characters.

Refer to the character sheet for more details.

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Tropes employed include:

A-C

• Achievements in Ignorance: The Urpneys were fairly incompetent villains, so much that they sometimes caused more harm for the heroes while failing to do a mission.
  • In "A Day Out" and "The Stowaways" a chain reaction from them botching a scheme gives them the upper hand, with the Noops having a much more difficult time reversing things than with most of the Urpneys' intentional attempts. In the latter they don't even notice the heroes are there.
  • In "The Monster" they throw a single rock into a large scrap pile of Urpgor's discarded inventions, which somehow causes them to activate and merge into a giant robotic monster too powerful for the heroes or even Zordrak. When it is destroyed, they attempt to recreate it by throwing more rocks in the scrap pile, despite Urpgor even lampshading what a bizarre fluke it was.
  • In "Mr Blossom's Present" and "Little Urpip" they actually ruin the Noops' side quest and cause them a Downer Ending, thus actually getting a small time victory over them, again without even meaning to or ever finding out they had.
• Acrofatic: Both Rufus and Sgt Blob are somewhat portly individuals, but get in on the action as much as the others in their respective teams.
• Action-Hogging Opening: The opening titles give the implication of a far more dramatic action series with Zordrak. Most episodes themselves, while still having some good animation, are a laid back Harmless Villain formula with the Urpneys.
• Actor Allusion: In one episode, Frizz briefly crossdresses as Amberley in order to deliver exploding candles to the Dreammaker. Melvyn Hayes previously played another crossdresser in It Ain't Half Hot, Mum (although Beaumont did it on a regular basis).
• Adults Are Useless: Inverted. Rufus and Amberley spent a large portion of the show getting bailed out or otherwise outshone by their older peers.
• Advertised Extra: Rufus and Zordrak are usually the most prominent characters in any promotional art or material far more often than the Urpneys.
• Affably Evil: Sgt Blob is far more scheming and willingly devoted to Zordrak than most of the other Urpneys, though that's still not saying very much.
• Ageless Birthday Episode: The Dreammaker, Spildit and Mr. Blossom all celebrate their birthdays during the show's run, but their ages are never stated.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Almost any gadget Urpgor invents with some form of sentience ultimately turns out to be disobidient. Zigzagged with Mech Beav in "Bottle Harvest", which is disloyal to Urpgor, but takes fondness to Blob.
• All-Powerful Bystander: The heroes and villains are led by the Dream Maker and Zordrak respectively, who are both near unmatchable in magical abilities and strength. They rarely take part in battle however, always sending their Muggle minions to do the job. The Wuts similarly rarely travel to Viltheed unless the Noops fail, though will battle enemies invading the Land of Dreams.
• All Webbed Up: Blob's men do this to almost the entire Land Of Dreams in "The Spidermobile".
• Amusing Injuries: In spades. Almost always directed towards the Urpneys.
• And There Was Much Rejoicing: Any time it seems Zordrak has finally bitten the dust. Even some of the Urpneys (especially Urpgor) don't seem that bummed about it.
• Animation Bump: As with many cartoons, the pilot has noticeably more fluid animation than most of the rest of the first season. Animator duties for later seasons were traded from Fil-Cartoons to Moving Images International, who used a refined animation style and altered the character designs slightly (see below).
• Anti-Climax: It's easier to list the episodes that didn't end on a incredibly handy victory for the heroes. Those that weren't from a Curbstomp Battle usually involved some random twist of fate bringing down the villains' plans entirely. While this was somewhat expected against Harmless Villains the Urpneys, not even Zordrak was allowed to put up much of a showy fight most of the time.
  • The pilot and "A Day Out" are among the very few cases the heroes subvert this and Earn Their Happy Ending.
• Anti-Villain: The Urpneys aren't really all that evil or spiteful towards the Noops, and openly hate their job, only following orders to avoid the wrath of their demonic Bad Boss.
• Apathy Killed the Cat: Zigzagged. No one in the universe knows or really cares if most of the Urpneys are Trapped in Villainy, so the species has spent a long frame of time getting slowly wiped out by Zordrak and the heroes, until both eventually got bored from even punishing them as the series went along.
• Arch-Enemy: Reconstructed. The plot is mainly pivoted by the war between the Dream Maker and Zordrak, however, par a handful of episodes, their rivalry is mostly indirect. Most of the time the show itself involves the latter's assistants, Sgt. Blob, Frizz and Nug, playing Arch Enemy to the former's, Rufus and Amberley.
• Armored Villains, Unarmored Heroes: The Urpneys wear metal armor and helmets. Rufus and Amberley do not wear armor, nor do the Wuts who are completely naked.
• Art Evolution: The animation and character designs are refined slightly between the first and second season due to a different animation studio taking over.
• Bad "Bad Acting": Rufus suffers a case of this in dupe against the Urpneys in "Planet Prunus". It still manages to fool the Urpneys.
  Amberley: That's acting?
• Bad Boss: Zordrak has three primary punishments for his minions. 1: Turning them into stone. 2: As before, then throwing them into the watery "Pit of No Return" filled with Extreme Omnivore crocodile/wasp/crab/things known as Frazznats. 3: Throwing them to the aforementioned carnivorous horrors while still alive. We actually see him do method three in the pilot, though of course there's a Gory Discretion Shot. Even when he doesn't kill them, Zordrak is not a kind master to labor under.
• Beat Them at Their Own Game: More or less any point the Urpneys manage to steal the stone, leading the heroes to have to steal it back from Viltheed. Also the premise of the Nightmare Stone, which reverses the roles around with the heroes having to steal a magical stone from the villains. Naturally they have far more success in doing so than the Urpneys.
• Becoming the Mask: In "Albert Is Fishnapped", Blob and his men pose as concert performers in a scheme to distract the Noops. Frizz and Nug get a little too caught in the rhythm.
  Frizz: We're stars, Sarge! We're stars!
• Better than a Bare Bulb: Frizz and Nug quite gladly and relentlessly lampshade all the flaws in the directions and schemes of their superiors. The heroes tend to avoid this, though Rufus and Amberley have some understated moments in the last season or so.
• Beware the Silly Ones: Though usually blundering idiots, the Urpneys on many occasions prove able to act out devices and mission plans in a plausible manner and frequently managed to steal the Dreamstone. Sometimes it's evident if the Noops weren't bailed out by a Deus ex Machina so often, they'd actually stand a chance of winning.
• Bittersweet Ending: Some later episodes have the Noops triumph, but face collateral damage or some minor humiliation in the process (eg. "The Dream Beam Invasion", "Little Urpip"). In contrast, Frizz and Nug got more outcomes that weren't so bleak (usually due to Urpgor, Blob or Zordrak taking the bigger brunt of things instead).
• Black Comedy Burst: The show is largely a very whimsical and idealistic fantasy slapstick ... which also frequently deconstructs What Measure Is a Mook? with morbid implications of torture, execution and other near-death situations befalling the Big Bad's minions. The first season was particularly rampant with this, to the point it was very easy to root against the heroes.
• The Blind Leading the Blind: Pretty much sums up Sgt Blob's leadership over his squad.
• Bound and Gagged: Happens to Amberley a couple of times. Also part of a gag in "Too Hot To Handle" when the Urpneys try to ambush and restrain a Noop inside their Mobile Shrubbery, they take turns bounding each other by mistake before finally getting the right guy.
• Brainwashing for the Greater Good: The heroes do this to the entire Urpney army and the Argorribles in the Season One finale. Blob and Urpgor snap them out of it in the first Season Two episode. As a lighter example, the heroes also sometimes made the Urpneys temporarily mellow so they could get the stone back from them.
• Bratty Half-Pint: Spildit and, to a lesser extent, Amberley both have light moments of this.
  • Urpip is essentially a pint sized version of her Uncle Urpgor.
• Breaking Old Trends: Done to a subtle degree with Season Four and parts of Season Three, which play around with the usual formula more often, having outside worlds and characters involved more often and sometimes giving more Sympathetic P.O.V. to the Noops over the Urpneys. The heroes are also seen dealing with other villains more regularly, even if the Urpneys are often still involved in some way.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: The Urpneys issue Aside Glances and snarky remarks to the screen more than a few times. Zordrak of all people gives us a cheesy wink in "Return Of The Nightmare Stone".
• Breakout Character: In the first season, Urpgor's role was somewhat minor and more as a Satellite Character for the Urpneys. Later on he gains a more active role and is often as much a Villain Protagonist as Blob, Frizz and Nug (naturally this also begins his ascension as The Chew Toy).
• British Brevity: Downplayed. It ran on the usual UK standard of 13 episodes per season though ran through five years still managed to produce a healthy 52 episodes.
• British Humour: The Urpneys, being downtrodden and extremely sarcastic workers for the show's evil or incompetent villains (and constantly getting flak for it), supply this in ample amount.
• Bystander Syndrome: Zigzagged. Usually everything is left to Rufus and Amberley. The Dream Maker and the Wuts sometimes step in, though given how easily they neutralise the villains, enough of the episode has to have played out first.
• Cartoon Creature: All of the races in the series look like strange "not-quite mashups" of different species. The Noops, for example, look like teddy bears with little goat horns and bunny ears, and the Urpneys look like squatty humans with lizard tails.
  • With thagomizers.
  • Even more prevalant in "The Dreamthief" pilot where the Noops have additional beaver like aspects along with a long shovel-like tail.
• Characterisation Click Moment: Much of the early show was just a Villain Protagonist formula for Blob, Frizz and Nug. As things went on however, other characters gained more Sympathetic P.O.V.:
  • While Urpgor was always the Mad Scientist and Sitcom Arch-Nemesis of Sgt Blob and his men, he was a fairly minor character in the first season, usually just serving as another bullying authority figure. The second season episode "Urpgor's Island" however, reveals that Urpgor does all the scheme processing in Viltheed and has to answer to Zordrak whenever Blob screws up a mission. This episode and many after give more Sympathetic P.O.V. to Urpgor and his neuroses trying to maintain stability in one of his schemes and stop Blob's squad ruining them, making him much more central to plots.
  • The heroes, Rufus and Amberley, struggled to find an agency against the Urpneys' sympathetic dynamic for most of the early series, often just playing Immune to Slapstick Hero Antagonists and interchanging between Unscrupulous Heroes or The Fools depending on the nature of the villains' schemes. The third season slowly evolves them into more crafty, passive dogbodies however and gives them a more palpable grasp of humour, with "A Day Out" establishing a solid enough provocation to let them stop the Urpneys and still look clear cut heroic. A similar more put-upon role as Urpgor is also established in "The Stowaways", where it's Played for Laughs that they have evolved into pretty much doing everything, though since the show had reached its final season by this point, it counts more as Later-Installment Weirdness.
  • Frizz and Nug's Cowardly Sidekick role was mostly defined from the start, though "The Invisible Blob" (an episode where they were invisible for the long run and thus had to converse a great deal) was where they really grasped them as the snarky Genre Savvy Drag Alongs to Sgt. Blob.
• Characterization Marches On:
  • In the pilot, the hero cast were almost as goofy and fallible as the Urpneys, with both sides taking an equal amount of slapstick abuse. Afterwards they were quickly established as far more down to earth and competent foils, with the villains providing nearly all of the comic relief. They were also often a lot more violent and contemptuous towards the Urpneys in earlier points, while by the end of the series they are more passive tricksters.
  • In addition the Noops were often incapable Fools in the early half of the series, always prevailing solely due to dumb luck or their more competent peers' help, and ultimately being hopeless towards a remotely real threat. By Season Four the dynamic was reversed around, with the Noops essentially being the heroes' errand runners that did all the hard work with Blob's army often worsening the situation. The result also made the Noops more comedic again, showing more self awareness and suffering slapstick back more often, making them more similar to Frizz and Nug.
• Cheerful Child: Rufus and Amberley, it would seem anyway.
• The Chew Toy: Would almost certainly be coined "The Urpney" in the Land Of Dreams. Mr Blossom is the nearest to a heroic example.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Urpgor to extremes, with Blob and Nug occasionally getting in on it as well. Wildit and Rufus are toned down variants Depending on the Writer.
• Circling Birdies: Used several times:
  • Played with in the pilot episode when Sgt Blob tells Frizz and Nug to sneak towards the Dream Maker's tower and whistle him when the coast is clear. Frizz and Nug dart forward and run into a wall, causing whistling birds to circle their heads. Blob overhears and, assuming it's the signal, charges into them.
  • Done again in "Hod" by Rufus and Amberley in one of their rare Amusing Injuries throughout the series.
• Co-Dragons: Sgt Blob and Urpgor, a consistant power one has over the other is never made and they both frequently rival each other for Zordrak's approval. Double as Co Dragons In Chief, since their work combined sets up every plan far more often than Zordrak, as much as they still fear him.
• Comedic Sociopathy: The Urpneys are regularly beaten, squashed, fried and otherwise comically decimated by everyone from their Bad Boss, their Mad Scientist rival, to the messianic Dream Maker, his Noop Kid Sidekicks and their pet dog fish, largely for being shanghaied into villainous missions they don't even want to be part of.
• Comically Lopsided Rivalry: Basing itself heavily on Golden Age era cartoon rivalries, the Urpneys were constantly at the brunt of heavy slapstick against the more powerful and heavily safeguarded heroes. Odd episodes ended on a less downbeat note for the Urpneys, or the Noops suffering some minor unpleasantness, but even then the Urpneys were the clear losers of the feud.
• The Comically Serious: Zordrak looks the part for a rather creepy and sinister villain, however his neurotics towards his minions and sheer hamminess prevents him from being a deathly serious character.
• Comic-Book Adaptation: London Edition published a very short lived one during the start of the show's run. It consisted mostly of adaptations of episodes from the first season.
• Compelling Voice: "The Voice of Zordrak", in the episode of the same name, is a little Zordrak pendant that hypnotizes whoever looks at it, apparently using nothing more than a recording of Zordrak's voice saying "deep sleep" over and over.
• Competence Zone: Rufus and Amberley started off as the "too young" variety, usually being saved by the older heroes (granted this was often as much because they were the only ones without magic powers). By the end of the series, the Noops are often more competent.
• Complexity Addiction: Much to the awareness of Frizz and Nug, Zordrak and Urpgor's schemes to deprive the heroes of the Dreamstone are often quite complicated and grandiose. In "Urpgor's Island", Urpgor throws a snit fit at Blob and his men for seemingly losing the stone in the ocean instead of using his elaborate fake island to hide it, despite them lampshading that it's got rid of either way.
• Conflict Ball: A perpetually clutched example. The normally peaceful and saccharine heroes are required to always be too incensed by the Urpneys' evil, diabolical attempts to ruin their dreams to notice or care if all but two of them are The Drag-Along to their murderous Bad Boss. In later episodes, they still rival the Urpneys, but more proportionately.
• Cosmic Plaything: Frizz and Nug bemoan being such endlessly. They aren't that far off.
• Cousin Oliver: Spildit to some extent. She avoids breaking the dynamic too much by making only the occasional appearance however.
• Cowardly Sidekick: Frizz and Nug to Sgt Blob.
• Cower Power: Frizz and Nug's default position behind Blob whenever the heroes corner them.
• Crystal Dragon Jesus: Series 1 is full of Christian symbolism, and Zordrak's expulsion from the Council of Dream Makers mirrors the fall of Lucifer in Paradise Lost, or Melkor's challenge to Illuvatar in The Silmarillion. As "Lord Highest", the Dream Maker represents God, and Zordrak represents "Satan Himself" (or "Nasta Shelfim" as he was known in the pilot episode). Planet Dreamstone resembles a cathedral, the marble interior of the Dream Maker's castle resembles a church, and the volcanic badlands of Viltheed resemble hell. The Land Of Dreams is conveyed as near utopian with the Dream Maker's followers treated in a near perpetually positive and harmonic light, while Viltheed's Urpneys are damned souls, abhorred and unforgiven for their Faustian partnership with Zordrak.
  • Pildit is Jesus. He is killed by a landslide caused by Zordrak, is buried under the rocks by Rufus, and resurrects in time to save the heroes. He also has the power to singlehandedly defeat hordes of Urpneys, bring light to the darkness, and drive away the Argorribles like Jesus expelling evil spirits.
• Curbstomp Battle: Pretty much any time the Urpneys go up against the Noops or Wuts. The heavily built up invasion on the Land Of Dreams in "Megattack" lasts less than a minute before the entire army is tranquilized with magic. In their defense though, the odd time the Urpneys win a fight, they win just as handily (eg. the Spidermobile vs the entire Wut army).
  • Curb-Stomp Cushion: In the later episodes, the heroes suffered a little more from return slapstick and more heated pursuits (even if the villains were usually still easily outsmarted), likely to ensure they still looked like the victims against the Urpneys.
• Cute Machines: The Mechanical Beaver (or Mech-Beav), and to a lesser degree, the Robo Bird.
• Cutting the Knot: Both "Albert Is Fishnapped" and "Megattack" involve a Hostage for MacGuffin plot. The heroes debate worriedly over whether to sacrifice the Dreamstone for the sake of their kidnapped friend. Then they remember the Urpneys are Harmless Villains and can just be beaten into handing them back.

D-G

• Deadly Dodging: Pildit and Wildit use this on Zordrak in "Argorrible Attack".
• Deadpan Snarker: Many of varying qualities.
  • Little Miss Snarker: Amberley at times.
  • Servile Snarker: Frizz and Nug.
  • Silent Snarker: Albert
• Deconstruction: Can be considered something of one to the Sisyphean formula of most slapstick cartoons such as Looney Tunes where the villain's stubborn zeal leads to endless defeats by the hero. In The Dreamstone, the Urpneys are cowards used to being outmatched, and spend each episode trying to avoid getting forced by their Bad Boss into another scrape with the heroes (who doll as much punishment as in the standard formula).
• Defanged Horrors: The Argorribles are spooky but ineffectual ghoul like creatures who create nightmares (which we only see in one episode and similarly produce variations of this trope). Though their wrath doesn't ever exceed that, they are feared by the heroes, their presence always occupied by a sinister Leitmotif and their unsettling slithering around their sleeping victims.
  • Zordrak, who is intimidating but thoroughly ineffective outside comedic abuse towards his Urpney mooks, arguably also qualifies. Similarly he applies as The Dreaded to the hero ensemble.
• Degraded Boss: The Whirlyped was a formidable match for Rufus and Pildit in the pilot episode, only losing them due to a piloting blunder by the Urpneys. In most later episodes it is disposed of rather easily, even when used in droves (in "The Statue Collection" the Noops handily deactivate it with a conveniently placed power switch on it's base).
• Delusions of Eloquence: Blob's Malaproper tendencies are most obvious when he's trying to sound intellectual and/or authoritative.
• Depending on the Writer: Rufus and Amberley got hit with this bad. Are they rambunctious Kid Heroes who get in near equally on the story (and it's slapstick) as the Urpneys, or are they heavily whitewashed Hero Antagonists? Can they also either curbstomp the Urpneys with ease or are they actually even more incompetent than them and win everything by sheer luck? And are they pragmatic and incredibly lenient about it or mean tempered little sadists? Even their own personalities ranged from being complete contrasts to practically The Dividual.
  • The Urpneys were usually in a static level of ineffectiveness, though it could stem from them being brainless laughing stocks or Cosmic Playthings who, if not for contrived bad luck, could actually act out plans rather efficiently.
• Deranged Animation: Invoked with Urpgor, to accentuate his insanity. In terms of animation, he's by far the most dynamic character in the show.
• Despite the Plan: Rufus and Amberley's attempts to stop the Urpneys often failed or led to their capture, they always ended up with the Dreamstone back however, usually due to the Urpneys screwing things up without them anyway.
• Determinator: The Noops at times, especially in the pilot. Zordrak also really wants the Dreamstone.
  • Determined Defeatist: For less-than-willing villains, the Urpneys sure are persistent little buggers at times.
• Deus ex Machina: The Noops are frequently rely on some twist of fate or a random magic power to practically leave the stone in their hands.
• Deuteragonist: Rufus and Amberley flip flop between being this or Hero Antagonists to the Urpneys from episode to episode.
• Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: Amberley can be heard humming "Better Than A Dream" in "Too Hot To Handle", as can Rufus at the start of "Spildit". A polka version is also heard in Zordrak's party in "Zarak".
• Diminishing Villain Threat: While Zordrak was nearly always dormant in his lair, he started off a calculating villain who was invested in the army's schemes and occasionally took matters into his own hands. Shortly into Season Two, Zordrak becomes exclusively an Orcus on His Throne, having no other role than ranting at Urpgor to think up another plan. The pilot is a stark contrast to the Harmless Villain dynamic of most later episodes, where Rufus is clearly the underdog and put in genuine mortal peril.
  • Zordrak at least regained some cred by Season Three, in which he upgrades his motives from merely giving Noops bad dreams to using the Dreamstone to enhance his evil powers and become "LORD OF THE UNIVERRRSE!!!", making the heroes more genuinely on the hot seat should they ever lose the stone. Odd Season Four episodes also gave him some degree of involvement, even if he was still largely an Orcus on His Throne.
• Disaster Dominoes: Frequently the undoing of the villains.
• Disney Acid Sequence: The odd times a dream was shown usually applied as such. Along with the iconic pilot sequence used as the end credits, "The Moon Of Doom" and "Hod" have some particularly trippy dream sequences (all of them are accompanied solely by music to fit the trope even more).
  • Urpgor can be considered a walking Disney Acid Sequence, especially in the Fil Cartoon animated episodes.
• Disney Death: Pildit and Amberley (sort of) in the pilot episode.
• Disproportionate Retribution: The nearest to an abrasive aspect of the Land Of Dreams is that they sometimes take a bit too much pleasure in punishing the Urpneys (who are usually harmless, and vigorously unwilling Mooks), and on at least a couple of occasions have nothing against seeing them to their grave for trying to give them nightmares.
  • Ironically subverted in "Urpgor's Great Adventure", the one time an Urpney is happily trying to do away with them, they decide to let him escape once they get back the Dreamstone.
• Damsel in Distress: Though often an Action Girl, Amberley was the most frequent hostage bait for the Urpneys.
• Divergent Character Evolution: Frizz and Nug started off as two interchangable Cowardly Sidekicks for Sgt Blob. Further on in the first season, Frizz became increasingly cynical and neurotic, while Nug became more dopey and upbeat.
• The Dog Bites Back: Urpgor usually cowers before Zordrak's abuse as much as the other Urpneys, however, whenever his master begins to view him as expendable, he has no problem making an enemy of himself. Not to mention his own occasional ambitious streak.
  Urpgor: You'll be begging for my help, Zordrak! Begging!!!
  • Frizz and Nug also occasionally got their own back on Blob or Urpgor.
• Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: In "Albert Is Fishnapped", Zordrak attempts to fry Frizz with a lightning bolt for whining too much. A magical eclipse has weakened his powers so that he misses by inches. Frizz walks up to him and gloats that he's powerless. Just close enough for Zordrak to reach...
  Zordrak: Never assume anything.
• Dork Knight: Rufus at times. He imagines himself as a literal Dork Knight a couple of times as well.
• Downer Beginning: "The Dark Side" starts by revealing the Argorribles have succeeded in spreading nightmares to the Land of Dreams due to the weakened Dreamstone. More comically, Frizz and Nug are also Pulled from Your Day Off on the villain's side.
• Downer Ending: "Mr Blossom's Present" is a comedic variant for both sides. The heroes' are disappointed when Mr Blossom's surprise gift is stolen by the Urpneys, which, being an uncontrollable growing plant, has deadly repercussions in Viltheed.
• Dream Land: A handful of occasions the cast travel into the dreams they create. Daydream bubbles are created for such purposes.
• Dream Sequence: While used surprisingly sparingly considering the show's premise, these naturally occur a few times. Most notably Rufus' in the pilot episode that is also used as the show's credit sequence.
• Dream Weaver: The Dreammaker is a positive example; a flashback reveals that Zordrak was formerly one as well before his Start of Darkness, and even during the show he can arguably be considered a negative example, given he explicitly creates and sends forth nightmares to the world.
• Dreams vs. Nightmares: The heroic residents of the Land of Dreams create good dreams, while the Evil Overlord Zordrak wants to spread nightmares. Notably, the heroes treat dreams as Serious Business.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: Sgt Blob plays with this, for the large part he has all the key traits of one and frequently drives the other Urpneys mad as a result, but it is presented in a harmless slapstick manner and he does frequently convey a genuine camaraderie towards his cadets.
• Dub Name Change: The French dub renamed pretty much everything and everyone (Zordrak being the main exception) but where it gets interesting is, the good and bad guys had different French names for the Dreamstone: Heroes called it cristal magique (magic crystal) whereas Urpneys called it cristal maléfique (evil crystal).
• Dumbass No More: Rufus and Amberley regularly saved the day, but originally more the result of the Urpneys' uselessness and their super powered allies. When these two points weren't evident, they usually came across as even more incompetent than their foes. By the third and fourth seasons however, they became more tactical and independent, able to outsmart even some Not So Harmless plans on their own. Rufus also causes the Dreamstone's capture far less often.
• Early-Bird Cameo:
  • The Planet Dreamstone is cryptically shown in the pilot's dream sequence (and thus every episode's credit sequence), before being properly introduced in "The Daydream Bubble".
  • The bird that antagonises the Urpneys in "The Shrinking Stone" looks almost identical to the title character of "The Jolly Bird", aired four seasons later.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • The first season has a noticeably different feel from the others, the animation is much looser, and several characters are slightly different both in terms of design and personality and role (see Art Evolution and Flanderization). Rather easy to compare since the opening titles (which use Season One's animation style and designs) are used unaltered throughout the entire series.
  • The pilot used a noticeably darker, more climatic storyline. There are more references to death (an Urpney soldier is in fact executed in the very first scene), Zordrak is more proactive, and the Urpneys (while still buffoonish and sympathetic) pose much more of a threat to the heroes. Rufus is also the more focused character instead of the Urpneys with he and Amberley being susceptible to the same Toon Physics as they are. In the following episode, the Villainous Underdog formula is established and the plots become increasingly Lighter and Softer.
  • In addition the existence of the Dreamstone and the Wut army are hidden from the Noop civilians in the pilot episode, while in all later episodes they are discussed nonchalantly, while the Wuts regularly interact with the village as if they have done so all along. Interestingly the plot point of a species' existence being kept secret for safety purposes is recycled with the Wottles.
• The Eeyore: Mr Blossom is about the one resident of the Land Of Dreams with a noticeable hint of cynicism, so much he seems to hold the entire village's worth.
• Elephant in the Living Room: Most of the Urpneys are The Drag-Along to Zordrak's regime (and were explicitly shown to get executed if they didn't meet his demands in early episodes). Frizz and Nug in particular tend to plead their case rather openly as well and spend more of the plot trying to get out of a scheme than help set it off. The heroes and everyone else regardless think they're pure evil and pay no attention.
• End-of-Episode Silliness: Nearly every episode closes with some comedy from the Urpneys over their loss, along with a dry one liner provided by Frizz.
• Enemy Mine: Defied in "The Statue Collection". When a sea monster goes after Blob and Albert, Frizz and Nug construct a mechanism to attack it with garbage projectiles. Rufus and Amberley, deciding the method is doing more harm than good, knock the two out, leaving Albert to deal with the monster himself.
  • Played more straight in "The Dark Side", after the Urpneys capture the heroes, they are attacked by another monster. The Dream Maker negotiates with it in return for the Urpneys releasing them.^note It's possibly subverted again however since both the episode and a later appearance imply the monster is docile and the Dream Maker tricked them into freeing him.
  • "Return Of The Nightmare Stone" also has a light example, with Urpgor directing the Noops to destroy the title stone in the Bottomless Pit after they are both imprisoned by Zordrak.
  • "Horrible Argorrible" is an indirect case, since while the heroes and the Urpneys don't interact, they both want the Argorrible disposed of.
• "Everybody Laughs" Ending: Done frequently, from the heroes' point of view anyway. Episodes more frequently end on a Cool and Unusual Punishment for the Urpneys (and a snarky one liner from Frizz).
• Every Episode Ending: With a handful of exceptions, Frizz provides the final one liner of every episode.
• The Everyman: Rufus and Amberley, for the line of work they had, were portrayed as rather normal acting kids who usually handle their jobs in a rather uneventful and conflictless manner until the Urpneys break the normality of things. Depending on the Writer however they had some individual quirks.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The Dream Maker.
• Evil Counterpart: the Nightmare Stone, which can overpower the Dreamstone's ability to ward off nightmares. In a role reversal of show's usual formula, Rufus and Amberley try to steal it a few times over. Likely also counts as Evil Knockoff, though when and why it was created isn't specified.
• Evil Gloating: Zordrak loves monologuing, which has expectedly backfired on him. After he possessed Amberley and framed her for taking the Dreamstone, he couldn't resist revealing himself to mock the heroes. Similarly he was too busy gloating in "Megattack" to notice Planet Dreamstone coming behind him.
  • Reversed in one case. In "Frozen Assets" the heroes keep losing the upper hand whenever they stop to mock the Urpneys.
  • Downplayed with in "Megattack" when Frizz and Nug's more matter-of-fact gloating to Amberley about Zordrak's plan ends up his undoing.
• Evil Is Petty: Zordrak devotes most of his attention to spreading nightmares onto Noops just to spite the Dream Maker that exiled him. Subverted for the Urpneys however, most of the time they have to be forced to do evil. Some battles are only kept going when "Good Is Petty".
• Evil Only Has to Win Once: Initially subverted. Odd early occasions had Zordrak temporarily get his hands on the stone and successfully send nightmares to the Sleeping World which, while a horrific experience, had no long term consequences and served merely as a rare petty victory for the bad guys. Later episodes had Zordrak concoct new, more devastating apparitions for the stone; to corrupt its powers and use it to make him unassailable "Lord of the Universe", making each time his minions stole it a Race Against the Clock.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Zordrak. His voice actor once appeared on the British version of Win, Lose or Draw and terrified everyone.
  • One CITV linking segment had the presenter trying to do the voice by speaking into an empty glass.
• Evil vs. Evil: Zarag and Urpgor's Auntie at different points tried to challenge the Urpneys for the Dreamstone. Zarag performs a Villain Team-Up at one point...and then betrays them after they seemingly get the stone, starting this trope again.
• Exact Eavesdropping: Done a few times concerning the heroes discovering the Urpneys' plans. Perhaps most intricately in "Albert's Ailment" after heading to Viltheed in search of a rare medicinal mushroom, just in time to see Blob and his men arrive, gloating to Urpgor about snagging the Dreamstone while they were gone.
  • In "Zarag Rules", the Noops overhear a very loud argument between Urpgor and Zarag, in which Urpgor mocks the latter's obedience drops scheme for it's easy antidote (with exact detail how it works).
• Expy:
  • Bimble's Bucket, another project made by Jupp and Martin Gates Productions (only shortly after The Dreamstone ended it's run) has heavy similarities, in characters and their dynamics and roles, and even their designs, to the point the trope almost qualifies for the entire show.
  • Similarly, Gates' adaptation of The Snow Queen (1995) makes the odd alteration and new characters adhering to the show's formula (in particular, the Snow Queen's three abused troll minions heavily resemble the Urpneys).
• Extraordinary World, Ordinary Problems: A lot of the humour concerning the Urpneys invokes this trope since in spite of working for an Evil Overlord of a fantasy world, Frizz and Nug tend to treat their work as a standard dead end job, being Press-Ganged into most of the manual labour or scapegoated by Middle Management Mooks, Urpgor and Sgt Blob (mostly to avoid the pressure of their own boss, Zordrak), and being treated as heartless scum for an occupation they don't even want to have. Some of the hero grunts, such as the completely apathetic Mr Blossom and even the Noops, Rufus and Amberley, start to show glimpses of this later on, since it is implied their frustrations with the Urpneys lie more in their constant bumbling schemes causing more collateral damage which they are made to fix and making their own occupations more difficult.
• Face Palm: Any frustration Zordrak can't convey in terrifying rage, he demonstrates with this.
• Failure Is the Only Option: Zordrak getting the Dreamstone, or at the very least holding onto it long enough to do anything very constructive with it.
• Fall of the House of Cards: Albert ruins a particularly large scale one by Amberley in "The Substitute".
• Faux Adventure Story: The feature length pilot was a fairly dark cartoon adventure revolved around the quest of the main hero, Rufus. Following this, the rest of the series steered the Sympathetic P.O.V. onto the Big Bad's minions, the Urpneys and their totally ineffectual attempts on the heroes, making it more a slapstick Villain Protagonist story with Rufus a fairly underplayed Hero Antagonist. Odd episodes tried to return to the original format, though it remained more mundane and villain-centric than the pilot.
• Fed to the Beast: Zordrak has a pit filled with yellow, red-eyed monsters called Frazznats that the Urpneys call "The Pit of No Return". In the opening scene of the series, he throws an Urpney named Captain Crigg in there for questioning his plan to steal the Dreamstone and promotes Sergeant Blob in his place, and he does throw Blob and Urpgor in there on at least one occasion, but they somehow came back just fine.
• Felony Misdemeanor: Tampering with dreams is a tremendous sin in this universe.
• Fiery Redhead: Amberley, though usually rather level headed and cheerful, has intense moments of this at times, especially in Season One.
  • Similarly Blob has an even shorter temper.
• Flanderization: The heroes became more obnoxiously sanctimonious and cutesy after the pilot. Also as the Comically Lop Sided Rivalry formula took over, they became (akin to most examples) more over the top fortunate and smug in dealing with the villains, with what was originally a more justifiable case of Revenge Myopia towards the Urpneys became more sadistic and petty. The later parts of the series partially reversed this.
  • In a reversal case, the heroes also lost nearly all their goofy, comical qualities after the first few episodes, becoming immune to the show's Toon Physics and playing the cartoon formula bizarrely seriously. For Rufus and Amberley at least, this was reversed back in the final season.
  • Rufus and Amberley went from slightly blundering Kid Heroes in the first season to luck-prone incompetents in the second. Resultantly, the adult heroes changed from wise mentors if still flawed themselves, to all knowing, all powerful babysitters. This dynamic was gradually reversed back in Seasons Three and Four.
  • From Season Two onwards, Zordrak went from a calculating Knight of Cerebus to a full time Orcus on His Throne who contributed little but mandatory Bad Boss abuse and temper tantrums once every episode.
  • Frizz and Nug, originally interchangeable dimwitted Cowardly Sidekicks in the pilot, got Flanderized to one different facet as part of their Divergent Character Evolution. Frizz became more cowardly and neurotic, while Nug became more dopey and vacuous. Hidden Depths prevented the trope oversimplifying their personalities however.
• Flaw Exploitation:
  • The heroes know the Urpneys are cowardly, so can easily sway or intimidate them into backing off.
  • One of Blob's more competent acts was exploiting this and sending Frizz and Nug onto Amberley and Albert in "Frozen Assets", knowing they'd get cocky against them as he made a sneak attack from behind.
  • Blob also manipulates Spildit's naive friendliness towards them on occasion, leading to her inadvertently helping in their schemes.
• Flying Seafood Special: Albert, who is a goldfish with a dog-like head, floats around in the air instead of swimming in water. Bubbles somehow tend to appear around him regardless, however.
• The Fool:
  • While a lot of times Rufus and Amberley manage to retrieve the Dreamstone in skillful bouts of heroism, other times they seem to be assisted by accidental blundering (on theirs or the Urpney's part) or sheer dumb luck. Granted it's arguable whether this is a result of them being lucky, or the Urpney being...not so.
  • Usually any point it's someone else's turn to be the Butt-Monkey, Blob, Frizz and Nug will convert into this. This was especially more common in later episodes, where they more often came out of schemes more nonplussed instead of exceptionally miserable or tormented, with a lot of their oblivious bungling backfiring onto Urpgor, Zordrak or even the Noops as often as themselves.
• Forbidden Fruit: Rufus for the large part is well behaved and loyal to the Dream Maker, however almost any time he is given a strict order against a certain action, he can't resist disobeying it. Almost always leads to the Dreamstone getting stolen somehow.
• Forbidden Zone: A couple of episodes have the cast enter "the Dark Side", an area of the Sleeping World that is unexplored and rampant with deadly creatures. Curiously concept art for the show also lists a similar area of identical name to this trope (likely what the Dark Side evolved into for the finalized show).
• Forgot Flanders Could Do That: After the pilot, the dynamic becomes far more laid back and buffoonish, with Zordrak and the Urpneys becoming completely ineffectual and Rufus and Amberley coming off more as Invincible Incompetents in their efforts to defeat them. Odd episodes such as "Megattack" and "A Day Out" however revert to the more tense format of the first episode, with the villains being more devious and threatening and the Noops requiring genuine persistence and cunning to stop them.
• Forgotten Phlebotinum:
  • The Dream Maker and the Wuts often show enough unrestrained magical powers to dispose of the Urpneys (and even Zordrak) without even trying, but still almost always send Rufus and Amberley to do everything as their first strategy.
  • Even more so, the Dream Maker has close contact with Planet Dreamstone, who disposed of Zordrak much more thoroughly in two instances. Despite this he only calls on it once during one of Zordrak's most ambitious plans, with Planet Dreamstone otherwise remaining a Greater-Scope Paragon.
  • Similarly Zordrak always sends his incompetent Urpneys to steal the stone despite being a gargantuan terror and a powerful sorcerer in his own right. He even has a spell book that he Lampshades he never reads.
  • Some of Urpgor's inventions come dead close to capturing the Dreamstone (and sometimes even temporary do). Some are reused, but not all of them. The Spidermobile in particular could overpower and restrain practically the entire hero cast even when they subverted this trope and used full force on it (granted this case was more justified, it's one appearance was the penultimate episode).
• For Great Justice: The intro as well as the heroes themselves took a very hammy approach with this. Keep in mind that the context mostly equates to punishing The Drag Alongs, the Urpneys for sabotaging dreams.
• Funetik Aksent: In the second part of the first episode, Blob and the other two stranded Urpneys get the bright idea to write the word "HELP" on the ground using the nearby rubble. Blob's accent causes them to render it as "ELP".
  Blob: Something's missin'.
  Frizz: I know, punctuation.
• Gadgeteer Genius: Urpgor. Though no less blundering than the rest of the Urpneys most of the time, the large majority of his devices do seem to work exactly as they should, their downfall owed more to their mishandling by either him or Blob's team.
• Genius Loci: The Dreamstone Planet
• Genre Shift: The show started off an adventure series with some genuinely dark scenes, but still a reasonable amount of self aware comic relief provided by the Urpneys. As they became more central characters than Zordrak and the heroes, the episodes became increasingly light hearted and tongue-in-cheek, with most of the later episodes leaning more as a fantasy comedy than anything else.
• Getting Smilies Painted on Your Soul:
  • Seems to be a temporary effect whenever the Urpneys are given a good dream.
  • The heroes also use magic rings of sorts to win the war against them in "Megattack" this way (and, unlike the dreams, keep them like this until "The Nightmare Stone").
  • The Robobird was created by Urpgor so it's singing would cause this effect on the heroes, leading them to willingly hand the Dreamstone to it. It's music ironically only works on Urpneys (though Rufus dimly leads it to the stone anyway).
• Giving The Sword To A Noop: Rufus and Amberley are almost always given the means to stopping the villains plans. Half the time it works. The other half they screw up, winning only through dumb luck or when their more competent allies give it a go instead.
• Go-Karting with Bowser: Spildit befriends the Urpneys a couple of times, which is usually mistaken for a kidnapping on the latter's part by the heroes.
• Golem: One season three episode revolves around Frizz, Nug and Blob accidentally releasing the titular Neemod, a massive stone golem that Zordrak created and then sealed up because even he couldn't control it, which wreaked havoc on both sides of the Mists of Limbo before being stopped.
• Good Is Not Soft: The Land of Dreams, despite being a Sugar Bowl in every other regard, is actually far more prone to violence than the Urpneys, and can get darkly creative in punishing those that try to steal their stone. And no, Frizz and Nug, being The Drag-Along isn't a clause out of it either.
• Got Volunteered: Can any Urpney who does not want to take part in a deadly dangerous mission please take a step forward... Not you Frizz! Or you Nug!
• Graying Morality: The pilot mostly revolves around Rufus' heroic efforts against Zordrak, and while the Urpneys are sympathetic, they were threatening enough to hand wave. Episodes after place more Sympathetic P.O.V. on the Urpneys being Trapped in Villainy, with their acts against the heroes becoming increasingly ineffectual and unwilling compared to the abuse they suffer. Whether this was intentional or not, the last two seasons seem to try to re-balance the stakes after it Flanderized the heroes' Revenge Myopia against them.
• Guile Hero: Rufus and Amberley gradually get the hang of this as the series goes on, by Season Four, they regularly divert the Urpneys' plans through trickery.
• Guilt by Association Gag: Frizz and Nug are always dragged into missions against their will, and even then, most cases involve Blob providing almost all of the scheming, threatening and harassment of the heroes as the two moan or whimper in the background. All three are punished equally regardless.
  • Also committed by Zordrak. A more justified reason Urpgor loathes Blob and his troops is that his Bad Boss tends to turn on him whenever they screw up a plan.
• Guilt-Free Extermination War: Zordrak put very high stakes onto both sides of a war on dream sending. As far as either were concerned, it was the usual affair.

H-M

• Hair-Trigger Temper: Zordrak can switch between reserved and stoic to earth shattering rage at the blink of an eye. Granted neither are particularly welcoming to his minions.
• Happy Ending Override: The finales for the first two seasons ended with Zordrak and the Urpneys seemingly defeated once and for all and peace finally granted to the Sleeping World, only for them to naturally return at the beginning the following season's first episode. If you count the Urpneys as Villain Protagonists, it may act as a reversal, with them escaping their Bolivian Army Ending from each finale.
• Harmless Villain: The Urpneys, while making a rare bout of savviness every now and then, usually played this incredibly straight.
• Heel–Face Brainwashing: Done accidentally with Blob's squad and even Zordrak on separate occasions. Done more directly by the heroes in the first season finale when the heroes use magic to make invading Urpneys docile. They are shown assisting the Noops with their victory celebrations until Blob and Urpgor evacuate them back to Viltheed the following episode.
• Hero Antagonist: There isn't very much antagonistic about the Land Of Dreams, at all. It is perhaps for that reason however, that the heroes are kept somewhat flat compared to the villains and tend to get the shorter straw in Sympathetic P.O.V. in most episodes. The odd episode attempts to make them the more sympathable side however, leading to a...
• Villain Episode: Most episodes focused dominantly around the Urpneys setting up some scheme to take the stone, odd episodes would focus the point of view more on the Noops and some side plot they underwent.
• Heroes Act, Villains Hinder: Zordrak's entire motive most of the time is to ruin dreams the heroes are so devoted to creating for their world. Comically reconstructed in later episodes, often his Urpney minions' bungled schemes to do so would indirectly hinder any errand Rufus and Amberley were charged with.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Played with. Both Rufus and the Urpneys wear a sword on their belts, which are rarely, if ever, used in actual conflicts.
• High Turnover Rate: Straight from the pilot episode, the Urpneys are quickly revealed to have been dealt with in rapid pace by both the heroes and their own boss, with Sgt Blob, Frizz and Nug rightfully terrified when they take over as the Elite Squad. It is implied the only reason they didn't suffer the same fate is because both Zordrak and the Noops had conveniently decided to use more pragmatic approaches shortly in.
• Horrible Judge of Character: The heroes seem to be perfectly convinced that all Urpneys, especially Frizz and Nug, are diabolical and loyal enforcers of evil.
• Hostage for MacGuffin: The Urpneys capture Amberley and Albert on separate occasions to get the Dreamstone. It never works since the heroes know they are harmless and can just as easily beat them into handing them back.
• Hot-Blooded: Sgt Blob and Wildit, a trait that doesn't seem inherent at all for either of their respective species. Amberley has shades of this Depending on the Writer.
• Humiliation Conga: Blob's men fall victim to a slapstick heavy one pretty much Once per Episode, either courtesy of the heroes, their own stupidity or fate alone. Urpgor is also prone to these, with even Zordrak getting the odd one as well. (In general, if you take part in a villainous plan, you're a tall order Butt-Monkey).
• Humongous Mecha: "The Monster" is all about the hijinks that ensue when Blob, Frizz and Nug inadvertently resurrect a pile of scrap into a giant robot.
• The Hunter Becomes the Hunted: Pretty much the premise of the Nightmare Stone episodes, where the heroes must snoop around Viltheed to steal the villain's MacGuffin instead.
  • Most episodes that did not involve the Dreamstone introduced another mystical entity that could overpower it, and the heroes having to find and dispose of it, usually with much greater ease than the villains try to with the Dreamstone.
• I Cannot Self-Terminate: Averted in "The Monster", where Amberley's polite request that the giant robot stop scaring everyone is interpreted as a command to shut itself down.
• Imagine Spot: Rufus has a few of these, usually conveying himself as some fictional protagonist.
• Immune to Slapstick: Scenes taking place in the Land Of Dreams give something of a slight Mood Whiplash against those in Viltheed, due to the heroes' usual avoidance of slapstick violence or cartoony Wild Takes. The Noops at least may suffer the odd non deformed pratfall every now and then, albeit for every dozen or so times the Urpneys get comically squashed, fried and beaten to a pulp.
• Incendiary Exponent: The Viper Van from episode 5 sets fire to the landscape when it first sets off from Viltheed.
• Incredible Shrinking Man: The Urpneys shrink themselves to get past the Noops in both "The Shrinking Stone" and "The Dream Beam Invasion". In both cases, the Noops catch on and use the same tactic to stop them (though this backfires in the latter when the Urpneys then start growing back, causing an Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever from their perspective).
• Ineffectual Death Threats: Zordrak lost interest in executing minions halfway into the first season. There's no reason any of them have to know that however. The Noops also sometimes make bluffs to get the Urpneys to retreat or hand back the stone.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: The Urpneys take this trope to a new level. Sometimes even Zordrak gets on it too.
• Inevitably Broken Rule: In the first episode, Rufus is shown the title stone during his first day of employment under the Dream Maker, with explicit warning not to reveal it to anyone. As the Dream Maker sleeps later that day, Rufus quickly shows Amberley the stone in order to impress her, at which point Zordrak's minions immediately invade the place and take it from him. After collecting it back from the villains, Rufus promises to the Dream Maker that he will not make the same mistake again, at least until the next episode where the Dream Maker sets a rule.
• Innocent Blue Eyes: Amberley, one of the few characters to have visible irises, has blue eyes and a (usually) sweet natured personality. She temporarily lost these as the cast underwent slight redesigns in the second season.
• Interspecies Romance: Hinted at between the Dream Maker and Wildit. Zarag is also in love with the Dream Maker, but it is unknown whether he returned her affections.
• Invincible Hero: The overwhelming majority of times, the heroes secured the stone with barely any effort. While there were at least varying reasons for Rufus and Amberley (they sometimes struggled until a Deus ex Machina set in), the Dream Maker and the Wuts were so unmatched in power and intellect that not even Zordrak could so much as scratch them.
• Jaw Drop: Done epically by all the Urpneys after a temporarily reformed Zordrak politely asks Urpgor to return the Dreamstone with "an apology and flowers" in "Spildit".
• Just Eat Gilligan:
  • Much as Zordrak always puts the incompetent Sgt. Blob and his "elite squad" in charge of stealing the Dreamstone or inflicting some other evil plan (which Urpgor ceaselessly lampshades), the near omnipotent Dream Maker always sends in the powerless children, Rufus and Amberley to stop them, himself or the powerful guardian Wuts often very easily saving the day only after the Noops usually fail. On countless occasions a lot of time could be saved if they just took action first.
  • The large part of the conflict in the show is completely reliant on Zordrak's army being forcibly drafted, with none of them attempting to escape and the heroes themselves maintaining a blind eye to their unwillingness, assured all Urpneys are evil. Frizz and Nug do muse over a Heel–Face Turn on several occasions, though lack the backbone to go about it. The one exception when an attempt at liberating the army was made involved a Heel–Face Brainwashing.
• Just in Time: A lot of occasions the heroes got the stone back seconds before the Argorribles could attack or Zordrak could do some other form of evil with it.
• Just Following Orders: The Urpneys for the large part. Urpgor and Sgt Blob may occasionally go out of their way to impress Zordrak, but Frizz and Nug are strictly this (as often as they try not to).
• Kafka Komedy: None of their attempts to shirk from duties or plead their innocence ever stop Frizz and Nug from being Press-Ganged into schemes and punished for being evil villains by the heroes.
• Karma Houdini: Zordrak usually sat dormant in his lair each episode, usually having his far more sympathetic patsies, the Urpneys end up taking the full brunt of karma, and then some. Urpgor also usually stayed cosy in Viltheed gleefully mocking Blob and his goons in early episodes.
  • Karma Houdini Warranty: Zordrak always gets his comeuppance in the season finale (he's the Butt-Monkey in the final three episodes of the last season). Urpgor became more and more The Chew Toy with each season. "The Dream Beam Invasion" was arguably also this to the Noops' Disproportionate Retribution tendencies.
    • Reversed for Blob, Frizz and Nug, who Can't Get Away with Nuthin', until the final two episodes, where they successfully menace the Noops and suffer little to no repercussions.
• Karmic Butt-Monkey: Urpgor is arguably the one genuinely evil Urpney Zordrak has, being treacherous, bullying and sometimes just outright psychotic towards other Mooks below him. He also seems to get the most abuse from his master and tends to suffer just as much as the others in failed schemes.
• Karmic Protection: Subverted. Low-tier (and utterly unwilling) underlings Frizz and Nug generally get the lion's share of violent retributions over genuinely belligerent villains such as Zordrak and Urpgor in early episodes. Later plots tried to instate this trope better, making the Urpneys more Not So Harmless, the heroes more mischievous or lucky than violent, or pitting them against meaner opponents that could better provoke them. At least one later occasion the heroes reverted back to overkill punishments also backfired on them.
• Kick the Dog: While usually Pragmatic Villains (or to pitiful to be any worse), their were very rare occasions the Urpneys committed callous acts on their own free will. In "Electric Eggs" for example, they trip Rufus and Amberley into the Sea Of Destruction for laughs, almost drowning them.
  • Blob literally Kicks The Dogfish in "The Statue Collection".
• Kick Them While They Are Down: Alongside the Urpneys' example above, the show was also a rare case where the heroes, if in an angry or mischievous enough mood, would often continue pranking or beating down the Urpneys long after already ruining their plan to take the stone, often while Frizz and Nug begged for mercy. Their one loss in "The Dream Beam Invasion" was in fact owed to doing this in enough excess to a shrunken Frizz and Nug that the spell worn off. Curiously in most episodes after they tend to keep into Cornered Rattlesnake territory (even actively avoiding this trope in a couple of episodes), almost as if they learned from this backfire.
• Kindhearted Simpleton: Rufus leans into this on occasion.
• The Klutz: Seems to be a common trait for Urpneys. Rufus is also a softer example.
• Knight of Cerebus: Zordrak, though not without his own comical moments, is a far more sinister and intimidating villain than his minions by miles, usually the odd occasion he has active involvement in a plan is indication things are going to get a bit more serious.
• Large Ham: Zordrak to an extreme, with Sgt Blob and Urpgor not far behind. Wildit has a habit of it as well.
• Later-Installment Weirdness: The show drifts from the formula more as seasons pass. In something of a Reconstruction, the closing points of the series also play closer to the Early-Installment Weirdness of the pilot episode, downplaying the slapstick Villain Protagonist formula in favour of developing mythos and new worlds and giving the heroes more focus. Some characters, particularly Rufus and Amberley, also gained back shades of their initial personalities and the more madcap humour began to seep onto the non-Urpney characters more.
• Lesser Star: Rufus and Zordrak tend to be billed as the main hero and villain respectively and front a lot of artwork and merchandise for the show. However, while this was certainly supported in the pilot episode, in most episodes after, the Urpneys play the show's Villain Protagonists, with the former characters reduced to bit roles.
• Let's See YOU Do Better!: Both Sgt Blob and Urpgor, after getting sick of the other's stupidity, try tactizing plans to steal the Dreamstone on their own on separate occasions. They both fail miserably.
• Lighter and Softer/Denser and Wackier: The pilot (and a handful of Season One episodes) are noticably darker, with a more noticable sense of dread concerning Zordrak. Shortly afterwards the show converts to a more cutesier, slapstick Harmless Villain dynamic with the Urpneys. The change is even more noticeable compared to Mike Jupp's original story concepts and "The Dreamthief" promo.
  • Season Four in particular has a wackier feel than previous seasons. While earlier episodes tended to restrict most of the comedy to the Urpneys, the closing points have a larger focus on goofy one shot characters and situations, with even the formerly Immune to Slapstick Rufus and Amberley contributing to the humour more often.
• Like Brother and Sister: Rufus and Amberley, albeit with the odd Ship Tease. Allegedly, the wasted song "Into The Sunset" was a romantic song revolved around the two.
• Lovable Coward: Frizz, and to a lesser extent Nug (the fact they are villains doesn't alter this much).
• MacGuffin: The Dreamstone of course, leading to a Macguffin Melee in nearly every episode. Though occasionally another object or device that could assist Zordrak's plans was used in it's place (eg. The Nightmare Stone, the Moon of Doom).
• MacGuffin Delivery Service: A rare heroic (and more spontaneous) case. In both cases the heroes had their own plan to collect the MacGuffin, but when the Urpneys get it first, they manage to snatch it off them:
  • "The Moon Of Doom". After the Urpneys gather the elaborate scheme and technology to get the episode's MacGuffin, the heroes quickly neutralize them and use their ship to dispose of it.
  • "The Nightmare Stone". After Urpgor steals the MacGuffin and accidentally frees the Noops, they use his gadget to make off with it while he is knocked out (not that this was really a problem for Urpgor, since he wanted rid of it to begin with).
• Made of Iron: From what is shown, only being fed to the Frazznats or turned to stone can truly kill an Urpney.
• Magic Versus Science: The Noops, Wuts and the Dream Maker himself have magic on their side; while the Urpneys rely frequently on ill-explained Applied Phlebotinum, in the end it's a Mad Scientist making it all, so it counts enough as technology.
  • It's interesting to note, though, that half the time the Dream Maker discusses the making of dreams with anyone else in the know, it sounds very much like Star Trek-style technobabble.
  • It should also be noted that the Dream Maker's side is also shown to use technology where they consider it appropriate, most notably the mining and ore-processing equipment in "Wottles", whereas Zordrak's side sometimes uses Magic, especially Zordrak himself.
• The Main Characters Do Everything: Zordrak's Army of Urpneys measures thousands if not Tens of Thousands. He uses them en-masse in only a handful of episodes. For the rest of the entire run he just uses Blob, Frizz and Nug (and at a stretch, Urpgor). Never deviating to use more or try different ones despite their consistent failure.
  • The Dream Maker almost always sends Rufus and Amberley to stop the Urpneys as plan A, only ever sending the more capable Wut army or himself should they get captured or defeated. Zigzagged since that does actually happen a fair few times throughout the series.
  • It should be noted that Frizz and Nug have Lampshaded this on several occasions throughout the show. (The heroes less so, though it is Played for Laughs in "The Stowaways").
• Make an Example of Them: Zordrak has a collection of petrified Urpney statues to remind them of the price of defiance.
• Malaproper: In addition to his 'eavily haccented speech, Blob's dialogue is rife with malapropisms.
• Meaningless Villain Victory: Very rare occasions the villains actually succeed in sending nightmares to the Land of Dreams. As much as Zordrak savors these victories, the Urpneys couldn't care less that they had and usually suffer ten times the abuse the Noops ever do from a bad dream in the process (and usually a revenge beating to go with it afterwards), but they do it.
• The Meddling Kids Are Useless: Rufus and Amberley Depending on the Writer. Especially apparent in Season Two.
• Middle-Management Mook: Urpgor, who seems to have a higher position than most of the other Urpneys and is constantly shown bullying or ranting at fellow mooks for screwing things up, being "the only Urpney with any intelligence" and all. For the large part however he is just as incompetent and the most frequent punching bag for Zordrak's temper.
• Mid-Season Twist: A couple examples, though they both apply during the tenth episode:
  • "The Daydream Bubble" of Season One reveals Zordrak's origin, and also that the planet Rufus travelled to in his dream in the pilot is in fact a real life Genius Loci, Planet Dreamstone.
  • "A Day Out" of Season Three has Zordrak plot a more Not So Harmless motive for taking the Dreamstone, making future instances the villains take it a more frantic Race Against the Clock.
• Miles Gloriosus: Sgt Blob has a very gung ho attitude, though often ends up panicing with his minions in the face of danger. The Noops are also sometimes shown to be less confident the odd moment the Urpneys stop being completely harmless (eg. they are more than willing to dish out punishment to two cowardly recruits, though run off screaming like banshees when they start growing from the side effect of a spell).
• Minion with an F in Evil: The Urpneys are portrayed as meek bumblers, usually only victimizing the Land Of Dreams out of fear of Zordrak's wrath. Blob is the only Urpney highly vehement on stealing the Dreamstone and even he is more a loyal and gung-ho soldier than outright malicious for the large part. Indeed, it's arguable that his gung-ho attitude is mainly motivated by his desire to avoid ending up in the Frazznat pit, as happened to his predecessor in the first episode.
• Mirror Character: Season Four makes occasional cracks at Rufus and Amberley being as much errand runners for the heroes as Frizz and Nug are for the villains, with them becoming similarly jaded and snarky about what they go through at times.
• Mirroring Factions: Both the Noops and Urpneys have just as black and white a viewpoint as the other, prone to self righteous whining and spouting the other as a Gang of Bullies who try to ruin their lives For the Evulz. Sympathetic P.O.V. makes clear neither is quite right. Especially apparent in the last season, where the Noops are often in the same dogsbody role as the Urpneys.
• Missed Him by That Much: The Urpneys and the Noops commonly do this with each other when snooping around each other's territory.
• Misplaced Retribution:
  • Kicks off "The Statue Collection." In the midst of bullying Blob again, Urpgor ends up shoving him into a ladder, setting off a chain reaction that destroys all of Zordrak's statues. Blob, Frizz, and Nug take the blame and are tasked with capturing Pildit to replace the destroyed Pildit the First statue. Karma (literally) falls on Urpgor in the end however.
  • Several episodes can apply for this, given Frizz and Nug are very often sent to harass the heroes under protest or because Zordrak will kill them if they don't. In many episodes they do far more whining than actually contributing to schemes. The heroes couldn't really care less, viewing all Urpneys as evil, and usually beat them mercilessly and send them to their fate with Zordrak for trying to spoil their dreams. Later episodes tended to try to downplay this trope so the heroes looked less mean spirited, though the dynamic is still the same.
• Mobile Shrubbery: Used by the Urpneys multiple times.
• Monument of Humiliation and Defeat: Zordrak actually makes them out of his enemies. One episode revolved around him trying to do such to Pildit. He settles for monster that unluckily lands in his lap in the resulting scuffle.
• Mood Whiplash: Many episodes were rather erratic in tone, mostly due to the contrast of the incredibly cutesy and laid back goings on in the Land of Dreams against Viltheed with it's Black Comedy Urpney humour or Zordrak's brooding. The show also often switched tones between strictly a Harmless Villain formula or a tense action series (or both at the exact same time...somehow). Mike Batt's atmospheric music score didn't help this.
• Mook Horror Show: Given the Urpneys immense Sympathetic P.O.V. (and how cowardly they were on top of it), slapstick variations were fairly common. They even tried to make the cutesy heroes look as menacing as possible in many cases. Zigzagged with "The Dream Beam Invasion", which plays it straight and then reverses it after the heroes take it too far.
• Mook Lieutenant: Sgt Blob.
• Mordor: Viltheed and the Land of Nightmares; one episode features, as a side effect of an eclipse, sunlight shining on the mountain and causing the land to bloom with greenery, to which its inhabitants react with horror - well, we're told they do but we only really see it having any (hilarious) effect on Zordrak.
• Mr. Imagination: Rufus is a notorious daydreamer.
• Muggle in Mage Custody: Rufus and Amberley are apprentices to the Dream Maker, often helping him in his occupation of making dreams and protecting the title stone, as well as assisting his allies the Wuts, an army of equally powerful mages. This relationship is generally closer to a paid occupation and more benevolent than many other examples, though odd jokes slip in later in the show that the two are often errand runners volunteered for grunt work their far more powerful authority figures would be far better suited for.

N-S

• Near-Villain Victory: Though usually doomed before they even start, Zordrak and the Urpneys actually did have the occasional upper hand in their war, only for it to fall apart from cruel fate. In "Albert's Ailment" they are literally a second from destroying the Dreamstone before Albert snatches it, while in "The Spidermobile" Zordrak almost succeeds in taking it to the Nightmare Planet before Urpgor arrives at exactly the wrong moment.
• The Neidermeyer: Sgt Blob has blatant shades of this, being a clueless Drill Sergeant Nasty. Even Blob however has at least a morsel of restraint and Pet the Dog moments compared to Urpgor, who sees all other Urpneys as little more than expendable guinea pigs for his bungling schemes. After an especially bad attempt at leading Zordrak's army into an invasion on the Land of Dreams (with Zordrak himself as collateral damage), the Lord of Nightmares makes seethingly clear that the only reason he doesn't fire him on the spot is because he has no better resources.
• Nerves of Steel: Pildit comes off a light example at times, usually being rather passive and mellow, even in the face of danger. His grandmother seems to be the only one capable of exasperating him.
• Nervous Wreck: While all the Urpneys are somewhat cowardly, Frizz takes it to neurotic extremes.
• Never Mess with Granny: Wildit.
• Never Recycle Your Schemes: Partially averted. While the villains' overall plans are usually different each episode, strategies are sometimes reused and many of Urpgor's inventions are used recurringly throughout the series (some of which are even modified). "The Return Of The Nightmare Stone", as expected, revolves around the villains trying to reacquire the Nightmare Stone from a previous episode.
  • In "Megattack" when thinking how to deal with the Urpneys, Rufus suggests using his fake Dreamstone from a previous episode. The other heroes give him a Death Glare as if to insinuate this trope (though the Dream Maker does use the idea again in the series finale).
• Never Say "Die": Averted. Somewhat unusually for a children's series, Zordrak often explicitly threatens his minions and captives with death.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: A few times the Dreamstone was stolen or endangered was due to the mishandling or blundering of one of the heroes (usually Rufus).
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: And an even larger amount of times it is saved because the villains do the same.
• Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: Nug is an in-universe supplier of Fridge Horror, often inadvertantly scaring Frizz stiff with his unsettling predictions of the terrible situations they end up in.
  Frizz: I'm gonna fall!!!
  Nug: If you did, you'd probably break every bone in your body...probably.
• Nightmare Sequence: Surprisingly occurs only once in the series, to a random Noop in "The Substitute". All other nightmares provided by the Argorribles happen offscreen.
• No Ending: The series doesn’t get a grand finale, so we never get to see Zordrak truly defeated or an ending where he decides to just give up. Both of the first two seasons ended with a seeming defeat, though continuation led to a follow on where the status quo returned. Amusingly the very final episode closes with him yet awaiting another scheme, growling that he "can't wait forever".
• No Endor Holocaust: Excused example. Some episodes do have the heroes suffer collateral damage from the villains' attacks, though the elder heroes can usually fix all of it with their magic. Strangely subverted in "The Monster" however.
• No Indoor Voice: Zordrak, especially in later episodes. Urpgor isn't particularly known for being soft spoken either.
• Nominal Importance: For most of the early series, only the four main Urpneys were named. In later episodes however, some of the background Urpneys start having larger roles and are referred to by name.
• Non-Lethal Warfare: Any actual warfare between the two sides was used with fairly harmless projectiles such as mud pies, silk nets or magic trinkets that make it's victim docile. The only known deaths are those Zordrak executes afterwards (all but one consist entirely of his own army for failing him).
• No Sympathy: Frizz and Nug get this from everyone. The heroes don't care if they are Press-Ganged into taking their stone. Zordrak (conventionally) doesn't care what excuses they have for screwing up, and Blob and Urpgor certainly don't care if they're not up to being guinea pigs at this point in time.
• Not Now, Kiddo: The Dreammaker's usual response to Albert's insistent tugging at his robe.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: For all their blundering, the Urpneys did succeed in capturing the stone, and even bringing it back to Viltheed a frequent amount of times. It was merely preventing the heroes from stealing it back they had problems with. In many cases they aren't much more incompetent than the heroes, just much much more unlucky.
  • While hardly a Harmless Villain, Zordrak's ambitions rarely expanded past giving the Noops bad dreams in early seasons. In "A Day Off" he expands his plans for the Dreamstone; to take it to the Nightmare Planet and corrupt it's powers into his own so he can be "Lord of the Universe". Suddenly, there's much higher stakes whenever he and the Urpneys near stealing the stone.
  • "The Spidermobile" is a prime example for the Urpneys. Not only does Urpgor create a vehicle that is completely invulnerable to the heroes' magic, but Blob and his men handle it with competent precision and make off with the Dreamstone with little effort. The heroes actually rely on a well timed blunder by Zordrak to get it back this time.
• Offstage Villainy:
  • The Argorribles' nightmares were described as an absolutely horrific experience, but never actually seen in early episodes. Later episodes submitted to showing a couple of ruined dreams onscreen, as well as more emphasis on the elaboration put into making them, with even a couple odd Downer Endings from the Urpneys sabotaging it all, likely so the heroes looked far less petty at face value.
  • Zordrak was heavily implied to have a monstrous track record (the Flashback to his exile from the Dream Makers Council states he earned it from several power plays offscreen, while another episode reveals he successfully killed Pildit's ancestor). Onscreen however he is an Orcus on His Throne who seldom manages any effective villainy besides instigating the odd nightmare. It is also implied him getting his hands on the Dreamstone would have much graver consequences than bad dreams, though it is not delved into until the third season episode "A Day Out".
• Once a Season: At least one episode per season the Urpneys succeeded in stealing the stone and handing it to Zordrak (they did it twice in the second season however).
  • Zarag also made an appearance every second episode of each season after her first appearance in Season Two.
• Once per Episode: All but a handful of episodes end with an irritated comment from Frizz.
• One-Gender Race: The Urpneys appeared to qualify, until one episode introduced Urpgor's aunt and later his niece.
  • The Smurfette Principle: Still, you hardly ever see their women.
• Orcus on His Throne: Zordrak is a gargantuan Eldritch Abomination who could probably trample the Land Of Dreams under his foot, let alone with any of his dark spells (such as the power to place his spirit into another being). For some reason however his duties rarely exceed sitting on his throne and chewing out his far less fearsome mooks, the Urpneys, who he instead charges with the duty of stealing the title MacGuffin the large majority of the time. Toyed with one instance he actually equips his throne with a jet engine so he can invade the Land of Dreams. Still sitting down the whole time.
• Ornamental Weapon: Both Rufus and the Urpneys wear swords on their belts that are never used (Rufus uses his lightly in the first two episodes). When they are redesigned for the second season, they cut the formalities and just get rid of them.
• Out of Focus: As the show progressed, the episodes revolved more consistently around "Rufus and Amberley vs Blob, Frizz and Nug". As such most of the other hero characters (especially Pildit) appeared less frequently, while Zordrak, the Big Bad himself, had rarely any involvement outside odd Bad Boss banter.
  • Rufus himself fell victim to this to an extent. In the pilot, he was the central protagonist. In all later episodes, he is either a Hero Antagonist to the Urpneys or a Deuteragonist of equal or lower prominence than Amberley.
• Outscare the Enemy: The Urpneys are notorious cowards, so both their boss, Zordrak, and their enemies, the Noops, often compete for scarier, more violent threats unless the Urpneys comply to their orders. Obviously, it's more bluffing on the heroes' part than Zordrak, (though not always).
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Rufus and Amberley had some Badass Normal qualities, but all in all paled compared to the magic powered Dream Maker and the Wuts, usually acting as a failed first defense in most episodes. The final episodes tried to avert this a little, usually by placing the other heroes Out of Focus.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: See Kick Them While They Are Down above.
• Peek-a-Bogeyman: The Argorribles seem to have no other purpose besides giving people nightmares.
• Percussive Maintenance: In "The Spidermobile" Sgt Blob manages to get the Urpneys' current mech working again after it broke down underwater.
  Blob: *proudly* You lads is most probably not aware of my felicitations with engines. Of course I don't talk about it much, but it's there...it's there.
  Frizz: All he did was hit it with a hammer.
• Personal Hate Before Common Goals: Has a rare heroic case, with the Noops usually spurning any moments of truce from the Urpneys. Especially apparent in "The Statue Collection" where, after the Urpneys tried to turn Pildit to stone, the Noops and Albert are perfectly willing to watch an invading monster attack them. Even when it turns its attention to them as well, and the Urpneys attempt an Enemy Mine, the heroes sabotage it, preferring to stop it themselves (granted this might be just as much due to the haphazardous approach of said Enemy Mine).
• Perspective Flip: The pilot episode gave the Urpneys a lot of Sympathetic P.O.V., but the lead and the underdog was clearly Rufus. Most episodes after follow the Urpneys dominantly, with Mook Horror Shows and Villainous Underdog moments common and the heroes usually presented as untouchable Hero Antagonists. The final season found a more even balance, due to focusing as often on the Noops' agendas and portraying the Urpneys as more obstructively incompetent.
• Pilot Movie: The first two episodes are edited from a feature length opening special.
• Pity the Kidnapper: Almost whenever the Urpneys manage to kidnap Amberley.
• Plant Aliens: The Wuts, while not technically alien: in one episode, Pildit is unrecognizable as an aged-looking yellowish Wut until he gets a drink by stepping into a pool of water.
  • Well, they certainly don't live on Earth.
• Plot Armor: The Urpneys are depicted as having a High Turnover Rate from the opening moments of the show, with Blob, Frizz and Nug promoted to the "Elite Squad" after Zordrak executed their predecessor. Much Black Comedy is made throughout the series about the same fate awaiting them, though no dire situation causes anything more than Amusing Injuries for them. Handwaved in later episodes, which imply the main reason they've outlasted any other Urpney is because both Zordrak and the heroes have started to find offing them counter productive.
• Plucky Girl: While Amberley is usually one of the more level headed heroes, she is often the most gung ho when Urpneys cause trouble, sometimes even trying to take them single handed.
  Amberley: Three Urpneys to one Noop, too frightening for you is it?
• Poke the Poodle: Though he looks and acts the part for a truly menacing and terrifying villain, almost all of Zordrak and his minions' schemes are for the purpose of giving the Noops scary dreams. The later episodes add a somewhat more ambitious "Lord of the Universe" plot onto the agenda however.
• Polite Villains, Rude Heroes: The Urpneys are thoroughly docile, meek and impersonal, with the heroes often a lot more violent and contemptuous towards them than vice versa (though good natured in general, the Urpneys are just that low a level in evil). Subverted in odd cases (Urpgor is a smug obnoxious sociopath, while Spildit is a Friendly Enemy Blob's troops sometimes exploit).
• Poor Communication Kills: Literally. The ongoing battles against Blob's team seem to commence solely because either Frizz and Nug never try to just explain they are The Drag-Along or because the heroes are too incensed by their unwilling shenanigans to notice. Given how much the former hate their job, it's liable this is the only thing preventing them making a Heel–Face Turn.
• Pragmatic Hero: Few of the heroes seem to really give a flying fish if the Urpneys are Trapped in Villainy, and will take any measure to stop them. This bordered Blood Knight or outright Unscrupulous Hero territory in early episodes, though later seasons made their retaliations more defensive, only attacking the Urpneys as far as to protect the stone. They sometimes relapsed however, see Depending on the Writer.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Surprisingly, Zordrak invokes this in "Too Hot To Handle" when Urpgor asks why he doesn't just kill Blob, Frizz and Nug, as he did their predecessor, having come to view the method as ineffective and "a waste of a perfectly servicable Urpney".
  Zordrak: ...and...it has absolutely nothing to do with you.
  • His complete indifference to Spildit playing in Viltheed territory in "The Return" may also count.
    • The Urpneys themselves are often this. While they are willing to torment the Land Of Dreams if it means preserving their own skin, most of their efforts to steal the stone are non violent and rarely do they go out of their way to cause collateral damage or other unnessessary harm. In the final episode they kidnap a bunch of civilians, though dump them all (mostly) safely after supposedly collecting the stone.
• The Pratfall: Used in spades. Even the Noops, who were usually immune to Amusing Injuries, did a fair amount of these.
• Press-Ganged: Frizz and Nug, endlessly.
• Professional Butt-Kisser: Sgt. Blob, unlike most other Urpneys, seems willingly loyal and enthusiastic about serving Zordrak, and spouts his Lordship's good name constantly. Urpgor is usually this even more so, every now and then however, he gets that bit more ambitious.
• Protagonist-Centered Morality: Given how much focus there was on the Urpneys' ineffectual qualities and lack of willingness over them actually doing anything truly horrible, you sometimes had to take the heroes' word for it on how evil and wicked they were.
• Psycho Supporter: Urpgor, whenever he's not trying to usurp the throne of Viltheed.
• Purely Aesthetic Era: The Land Of Dreams resembles something of a Medieval Stasis, with minimal technology (magic aside) and clothing and architechture to match for the most part. However the residents usually don't flicker an eyelid to Urpgor's Clock Punk devices or even the odd rock concert for that matter. Possibly justified since the show takes place in a different world.
• Race Against the Clock: Most cases the Urpneys succeed in getting the Dreamstone become this for the heroes, having to get it back to the Dream Maker before night strikes and the Argorribles can invade. It becomes even more frantic in later episodes, where Zordrak intends to corrupt the stone into an evil device as soon as he gets hold of it.
• Rationalizing the Overkill: After the Noops have thwarted the Urpneys' plan, they will continue a more elaborate slapstick revenge, insisting they are jerks who need to be "taught a lesson". At least once however, the writers caught wise to the overkill and had it backfire on them.
• Recycled In Space: Imagine Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog (with a touch of It Ain't Half Hot, Mum) in a Care Bears style fantasy world and you get the basic formula.
• Reimagining the Artifact: The heroes' Serious Business approach looked proportionate in the pilot where they were dealing with Zordrak directly and the level of menace was treated seriously. After the show turned into a Harmless Villain formula with the Urpneys however, their war-like methods looked more melodramatic and even mean-spirited. The last third of the series added a far more dangerous reason for Zordrak wanting the stone to justify their aggressive vigilance with it, and also revised the Noops into more comedic Mirroring Factions for the Urpneys to even back the sympathy value a little. At least one instance they reverted back to their original malice was treated as petty in-universe and ended with Frizz and Nug pranking them back as karma.
• Restrained Revenge: Frizz and Nug were such unmotivated villains that they were actually less prone to petty or disproportionate attacks on the heroes than vice versa. In "The Dream Beam Invasion" for example, after the Urpneys are shrunk into dreams to ruin them, the Noops follow suit to give them a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown. When they spend so long at it that Frizz and Nug grow to normal (and giant to the Noops) their retaliation is to....pull nasty faces at them until they run away.
• Revenge Myopia: The heroes couldn't really care less if most of the Urpneys are Press-Ganged into taking their stone, let alone if most early failures or revolts led to execution by Zordrak. It's no excuse to be going around ruining good dreams. Obviously the show tried to downplay this aspect at it progressed,
• Reverse Cerebus Syndrome: The pilot, while cartoony, was a somewhat dark adventure with genuine mortal peril (on both sides). The rest of the series is a slapstick Comically Lop Sided Rivalry, with elements made even Denser and Wackier as it progresses.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: The Noops and Wuts to a rather saccharine degree. And then there's the "vicious" Wottles.
• Right Hand Versus Left Hand: Often done with the Urpneys, either because of their incompetence or Blob and Urpgor's rivalry. Most evidently in "Urpgor's Great Adventure" where Blob's troops attack Urpgor, mistaking his commotion for the enemy. By the time they find out the truth, Albert has snagged the Dreamstone back from them.
• Right Way/Wrong Way Pair: Rufus and Amberley in some episodes, usually with Rufus being irresponsible and careless, while Amberley was more sensible and cautious. Amberley could sometimes be sucked into Rufus' bad decisions however.
• Road Runner vs. Coyote: Sort of. Zordrak and the Urpneys are more often solely after the Dreamstone than chasing the heroes directly, but the setup is very similar in tone.
  • The episode "The Dark Side" in particular follows the trope very closely and even seems to recycle a few of it's traditional gags with backfiring booby traps.
• Sadist Show: Beneath it's cutesy tone, the overwhelming majority of the show revolved around Comedic Sociopathy directed at the Urpneys, deserved or not.
• Satellite Character: Zordrak and Urpgor rarely squared off against the heroes themselves, their role usually limited to interacting with Blob and his men. Urpgor branched out a little in later episodes however.
• The Scapegoat: Frizz and Nug are this perpetually, and are openly aware of it. Be it Zordrak or Blob wanting to shanghai a couple of troops, Urpgor requiring some guinea pigs or even the heroes wanting an Asshole Victim to torment, they are first choice out of an endless army of Urpneys. The later episodes gave them the occasional moment of revenge.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Frizz invokes this frequently, with varying degrees of failure.
  • Often played more straight with the rest of the Urpneys. The key reason Frizz and Nug are usually the only members of Blob's squad is due to being the only Urpneys too slow to bail out.
• Second Place Is for Winners: In one episode, there is a contest among the villain army with free sandwiches to win... which turn out to be Second Prize. The first prize is being Press-Ganged into the new mission.
• Sensing You Are Outmatched: Frizz and Nug are perpetually aware they don't stand a chance and spend almost every mission begging and moaning to retreat. Rarely does it do them any good however.
• Series Fauxnale: Both "Megattack" and "Return of The Nightmare Stone" of the first two seasons were prepared to close out the show (albeit with conveniently enough left unconcluded to chain off a new story), only for it to be renewed for two more seasons.
• Serious Business: Over dreams, as pretty much expected from a world aptly named the Sleeping World. To clarify, early episodes outright implied mass genocide in the past war over dreams and nightmares. It does become a second priority to Zordrak using the stone for much worse later on however.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: The Dream Maker has a rather advanced dictionary at times, and unlike Blob, seems to get it right (...we think...).
• Shark Pool: the Pit of No Return.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: Urpgor and Blob's team often disappear in the odd few instances Zordrak takes part in a (usually more threatening) scheme, somewhat in contrast to their Villain Protagonist role throughout the rest of the series.
• Shrinking Violet: Hod in the episode of the same name, a diminutive space traveller who Apologizes a Lot. He attempts a Beware the Nice Ones against the Urpneys, but it doesn't work out.
• Shrink Ray:
  • Urpgor invents one in "The Shrinking Stone" so the Urpneys can sneak by the heroes and steal the stone (it doubles as a growth ray so the Urpneys could grow themselves back). It backfires when Albert accidentally swallows it, causing it to malfunction and for Albert to belch shrink/growth beams at the Urpneys and Rufus. It eventually ends on Rufus normal sized and the Urpneys still tiny and forced to retreat, requiring Urpgor to make a second ray to grow them back (with interest).
  • A variation occurs in "The Dream Beam Invasion" where Urpgor invents a shrink funnel which the Urpneys drop out of small sized so as to enter dreams and sabotage them. However the effects of this one are only temporary, which backfires on Rufus, Amberley and Albert this time when they shrink themselves to chase after them, only for Frizz and Nug to grow back to normal, and thus gigantic to them.
• Sick Episode: "Albert's Ailment" for the title character.
• Simple-Minded Wisdom: Nug often shows himself to be more perceptive than his Urpney comrades. Also Rufus, to a rarer extent, is sometimes shown to be more resourceful than Amberley.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Blob and his minions frequently butt heads with Urpgor, either for Zordrak's approval or taking turns playing horrible pranks on each other.
• Slapstick: Openly touted by the creators as the show's strong point. Almost all of it is provided by the Urpneys.
  • While Amberley for the large part bumbled her way through missions as much as Rufus, her abuse was generally Lighter and Softer compared to the heavy cartoon violence the Urpneys suffered every episode.
  • Similarly the female villains could suffer, just not nearly as frequently as the Urpneys.
• Slave Mooks: The Urpneys seem to be this, fear of Zordrak usually being the only thing that drives them into villainous acts.
• Sliding Scale of Villain Effectiveness: Zordrak and the Urpneys go from "Creditable" in the pilot to usually "None" due to Villain Decay afterwards. They upgrade slightly into "Low" or "Inadvertent" by the end of the series, due to Zordrak heavily upgrading his Poke the Poodle ambitions, Urpgor's machines becoming more resilient, and at fail, the Urpney trio becoming more Lethally Stupid. Sympathetic P.O.V. from the Noops shows they're still not really a threat, though they do manage to make everyone's lives somewhat difficult.
• Small Name, Big Ego: No one appreciates the level of Urpgor's genius!
• Smug Snake:
  • Most of the villains except Frizz and Nug are arrogant but totally ineffectual, even Zordrak, the self proclaimed "LOOOORD OF NIGHTMARES" usually fails to be that effective a nemesis towards the Dream Maker.
  • The Noops in their nastier moods can apply as heroic variants. Their lowest point was deciding to give Frizz and Nug a post-victory beatdown...then running away crying when they started to act like real villains for a change.
• Snooping Little Kid: Rufus and Amberley, usually when trying to steal back the Dreamstone from the Urpneys. Often The Meddling Kids Are Useless in early episodes, though they become much more effective at it later in series.
• Songs in the Key of Panic: "The Invisible Blob" opens with a few shots of Blob, Friz, and Nugg running to Zordrak's throne room as fast as they can. The scene is accompanied by a sped-up version of "War Song of the Urpneys."
• Soundtrack Dissonance: Mike Batt's dramatic orchestral score is amazing, but sometimes sounds unfitting accompanying the goofy antics of the show. Batt added a few extra riffs in later episodes, most of which were quirkier in tone.
  • Done quite intentionally for War Song Of The Urpneys, with added Lyrical Dissonance for the sung variation.
• So Unfunny, It's Funny: The heroes had occasional shades of this. Pildit's cringe inducing anecdotes in "The Dark Side" for example, along with Rufus and Amberley's failed attempts to be clownish to cheer up Spildit in "The Jolly Bird".
• Spanner in the Works: Frequently Zordrak's plans are rather plausible and would likely actually work if not for the Urpney's bumbling. Even when they manage to prove competent they usually fall victim to some Diabolus ex Machina a large number of times.
• Spiritual Successor: Bimble's Bucket.
• Square-Cube Law: heavily hinted with Zordrak, who prefer not to move more than he find absolutely neccesary, and if forced, moves slowly and carefully.
  • Even lampshaded in "Megattack", when Zordrak, after testing his flying throne, exclaimed "such freedom!"
• The Starscream: Urpgor
  • All of the Urpneys were willing to get rid of Zordrak's new monster recruit in "Horrible Argorrible" so as not to be thrown out of Viltheed jobless.
• Start of Darkness: Zordrak. Seen in a Dream Sequence Flash Back
• Story-Breaker Power: Likely the key reason the Dream Maker sent Rufus and Amberley into missions every episode. Whenever he and the Wuts took over, the battle was over very quick.
• Strictly Formula: As mentioned above. A handful of exceptions exist, usually when Zordrak finds a more powerful MacGuffin or some alternative method of sending nightmares without the Dreamstone's hinderance. Next to every episode however involved either the heroes or villains trying to steal something from behind the other's back.
• Strong as They Need to Be: The heroes, in terms of power and competence, could range anywhere from completely outclassing the Urpneys to surviving on fate alone. Which extreme was used however, usually abided by whatever makes the Urpneys' downfall most comically painful.
• Suddenly Shouting: Zordrak can barely last a sentence without doing so.
• Sugar Bowl: The Land Of Dreams is pretty much this in spades. Few of the heroes are ever particularly antagonistic or jerkish and everything is generally portrayed as cheery and perfectly harmonious until the villains attack.
  • Sugary Malice: At which point they often inflict this.
• Superman Stays Out of Gotham: The trope is Zigzagged regularly. The Wuts and the Dream Maker can often very easily neutralise anything the Urpneys and even Zordrak can throw at them, though while they do often take that role, they naturally have to do such close to the end of the twenty two minute long episode, often sending in the far more fallible Rufus and Amberley as their first approach. The Planet Dreamstone, the greater scope Big Good, commits to this trope much more, only confronting Zordrak in two of his more imposing moments.
• Surrounded by Idiots: Zordrak. Urpgor at least sees himself as this.
• Swiper, No Swiping!: Played with. Being unmotivated villains, Frizz and Nug can be very easily dissuaded from causing trouble. Unfortunately, their leader Sgt. Blob less so.
• Swiss-Army Tears: Rufus's brings Amberley back to life after she is turned to stone in the pilot.
• Sympathetic P.O.V.: After the pilot episode, most episodes of The Dreamstone focused on Zordrak's mooks, the Urpneys and conveyed them as Villainous Underdogs to the Land of Dreams. The later episodes however give Rufus and Amberley more equal POV, and convey the Urpneys as more obstructively incompetent, causing more collateral damage for the Noops and Deconstructing their Invincible Hero streak by always complicating their job, making for a rare case the story POV switches from the heroes, to the villains, and then back to the heroes through the revised format.
• Sympathy for the Devil: The Urpneys generally receive No Sympathy from the hero cast, except Spildit. In "The Return" for example, she helps them get back to Viltheed after they get stranded in the Wut forest and even relates to the abuse they receive from Urpgor after he steals her leaf.

T-Z

• Taken for Granite: One of Zordrak's favorite forms of Cool and Unusual Punishment. He even has a statue collection of all the victims he has turned into stone.
  • In one episode Zordrak's spirit has to go to a distant world to replenish his power, and when it leaves his body, he turns to stone (and will crumble if his spirit doesn't get back in time, much to Urpgor's delight). Interestingly, Zordrak's spirit looks the same as the Nightmares he sends out in other episodes.
• Take Our Word for It: The cast speak excessively about the joy caused by the Dreammaker's good dreams and the distress caused by Zordrak's nightmares. We see said dreams onscreen only a handful of such occasions, and a nightmare only once. Otherwise what they present is left to the viewers' imagination.
• A Taste of Defeat:
  • "The Dream Beam Invasion" is the only episode to end with the Noops being outsmarted by the Urpneys (see below). They also were successfully granted nightmares a handful of times (even if they usually got some form of revenge by the end of the episode).
  • Though the Urpneys still fail at their mission, the Noops suffer a Downer Ending from their collateral damage in "Mr Blossom's Present" and "Little Urpip". Half the village is also left in ruins in "The Monster", though the heroes take it incredibly nonchalantly.
• Team Rocket Wins: In the episode "Argorrible Attack", the Urpneys actually succeed in giving the majority of the Land of Dreams nightmares (a small time victory, but exactly what Zordrak wanted). The heroes try to give Viltheed good dreams in revenge, and it actually proves somewhat ineffective. Though granted after that they decide to just beat the crap out of all of them instead.
  • They do this again in "The Dream Beam Invasion", shrinking into the Noop's dreams and sabotaging them for one night. They are foiled the following attempt, and Rufus and Amberley capture them, however Frizz and Nug start growing back inside the dream and scare them off, allowing them to retreat (albeit just above a lake...).
  • Zordrak also succeeds in sending Argorribles into the Land of Dreams in the pilot, "The Nightmare Stone" and "The Dark Side". It is implied that Argorribles actually get past the Dreamstone's barrier on a frequent basis, but in very few numbers.
  • Also in "The Spidermobile" Blob and his gang effortlessly overpower the entire Wut army and capture the Dreamstone (along with Rufus, Amberley and Pildit) using the aforementioned machine. For once they do not screw things up, it is Zordrak and Urpgor instead that lose the stone and suffer a Humiliation Conga in their place, something Frizz and Nug find to be Actually Pretty Funny.
  • In "The Statue Collection," the trio do fail to capture Pildit... but, with the unwitting help of Albert, actually deliver Zordrak a prize for his statue collection he likes better.
• Technical Pacifist: The Land Of Dreams is usually peaceful to the point of being sickly sweet, however the Urpneys often learn the hard way the punishment the heroes can deal for trying to take their stone. This is still true in later episodes, though they are far more laid back and rather apt at Badass Pacifist tactics.
• Terrible Trio: The Urpneys (more specifically Sgt Blob, Frizz and Nug).
• Theme Music Power-Up: Inverted in "Albert's Ailment", where Frizz and Nug are subjected to a brutal Humiliation Conga at the hands of three very angry magic flying leaves...while the full vocal version of the Urpney theme plays in the background.
  • Played more straight in "The Dream Beam Invasion" when they start growing inside a dream and get to chase off Rufus, Amberley and Albert for once, as the instrumental theme plays in the background.
  • "Better Than A Dream" (and variations of) is occasionally used whenever the heroes get to business.
• There's No Kill like Overkill: When Zordrak tires of you, he'll turn you into stone. And then he'll throw you into a pit of carnivorous monsters to have your stone body devoured. According to Zordrak there's more even after that.
• This Is Gonna Suck: Frizz delivers a variation of this nearly every time he is forced into one of Zordrak's schemes.
• Those Two Guys: Frizz and Nug or Rufus and Amberley, depending which side is getting the Sympathetic P.O.V..
• Took a Level in Badass: Zigzagged. Rufus and Amberley started off Badass Normals in the pilot episode, but degenerated into incapable Fools by the time of Season Two. They recovered into fairly competent tricksters by Season Four.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: The heroes of the standard "Disproportionate Retribution-loving Unscrupulous Hero" variety following the pilot after the Urpneys devolved into Harmless Villains. By "The Dream Beam Invasion" they verge as outright unheroic Miles Gloriosus. The show gradually made them more sympathetic again afterwards.
• Toon Physics: Oddly character specific to only the Urpneys (especially Urpgor), with the heroes and most other characters sparsely victim to slapstick or Wild Takes. Albert also did it a little however.
• Trapped in Villainy: Most of the Urpneys are impersonal dim wits who only follow Zordrak's orders because of his tendency to turn Mooks into stone or feed them to his carnivorous pets should they annoy him. Granted it's not so much they have a conscience as much as they'd just prefer not to be sent out on dangerous missions with ridiculous gadgets in tow to steal from angry Noops and Wuts.
  • It inverts Forced into Evil however, as one episode makes clear they'd rather stay with Zordrak than get thrown out and fend for themselves, even sabotaging one of Zordrak's schemes so he won't relieve them off their duties.
• Underestimating Badassery: Zigzagged. Most of the villains mock the heroes despite their competence over them, except for Frizz and Nug, who know damn well they're outmatched and spend almost every episode trying to avoid direct confrontation.
• Vague Age: Rufus and Amberley are apparently old enough to hold down jobs, but often talk like small children.
• Vile Villain, Laughable Lackey: The Urpneys are comical. Their boss, Zordrak, is played deadly seriously.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: Zordrak is a pretty creepy villain, even when not compared to a highly cutesy Noops.
• Villain Ball Magnet: Frizz and Nug abhor their role as Zordrak's minions, having to be Press-Ganged into every mission (or worse, threatened with death), and usually pleading to escape their horrible position throughout the entire episode. The heroes are perfectly convinced they're pure evil.
• Villain Exclusivity Clause: The Urpneys are always sent by Zordrak to steal the Dreamstone every episode. Later episodes establish more of a Rogues Gallery, though the Urpneys are still always involved in some way.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: The Urpneys always try to run off with the Dreamstone. Should it fail, they just try to run off. The heroes usually let them, but not always...
• The Villain Must Be Punished: A key reason the Urpneys constantly tried to back out of Zordrak and Urpgor's schemes is because they knew the heroes had a Good Is Not Soft disposition towards stealing the stone, often beating them up, pranking them or sending Albert onto them no matter if they are defeated, retreating or surrendering. Perhaps because the Urpneys often proved more eager about quitting than doing any actual villainy, later episodes tended to subvert this treatment, along with at least one instance it backfired on the heroes and let the Urpneys get some payback on them.
• Villain Protagonist: While the heroes get the occasional Sympathetic P.O.V., the Urpneys often get the most screentime in each story, even providing the opening and closing lines of most episodes. Hell, they are even mentioned before the heroes on this Trope page.
• Villain Song: "War Song of the Urpneys" is usually only used as background music for scenes involving the villains, but it is actually performed by the Urpneys in the episode "Megattack" as they are preparing their attack on the Land of Dreams. The lyrics are basically a Badass Boast in song form, like any good military march, that not only brag about how powerful the Urpneys are (which is a lie), but also how they enjoy being evil (which is also a lie, that's the opposite of how the Urpneys actually feel.)
• Villainous Underdog: The Land of Dreams consists of the almost omni powerful Dream Maker and an army of magic crafting Wuts. Viltheed consists of the powerful but inactive Zordrak and his incompetent and powerless (and thoroughly unlucky) Urpney army, who were usually reliant on some eccentric gadget of Urpgor's to invade the Land of Dreams, which was usually disposed of easily. As such many episodes' tension was reliant on the heroes making the questionable tactic of sending Muggles, Rufus and Amberley to handle everything, and even they usually had fate on their side and trounced the Urpneys to the point of Unnecessary Roughness.
• Villainous Valour: Though pitiful cowards, the Urpneys still generally put a lot more impressive labour and elaboration into failure than the heroes do succeeding, and have enough camaraderie and restraint (and a hell of an excuse) to make them sympathetic.
• Villains Want Mercy: The Urpneys want it from nearly everything, even stuff that isn't out to get them. And they still rarely get it.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Frizz and Nug. Rufus and Amberley to a lesser extent as well.
• Vocal Evolution: Several characters evolve slightly:
  • Urpgor sounds more gravelly and low pitched early on, becoming more helium pitched and hammy throughout the first season.
  • The Dream Maker sounds more gruff and relaxed originally.
  • Amberley also sounds slightly deeper as the show progresses due to her actress ageing. In contrast Rufus got a bit more squeaker pitched.
• Voice Clip Song: "The Dreamdance" is a bizarre disco track using voices clips from several episodes of the first two seasons that is found exclusively in the show's OST album.
• Walking Disaster Area: While in earlier episodes, the Urpneys generally only caused harm to themselves, in later parts of the show, their bungling becomes more chaotic and prone to Disaster Dominoes. Urpgor was the most common victim of this, though by the end of the series, they often seem far more effective menacing the heroes when acting by accident.
• War Is Hell: Played for Laughs with the Urpneys, who are nearly always the grunts and suffer nearly all the collateral damage in every battle between Viltheed and the Land of Dreams, thus incredibly bitter and uneager minions who are have to be forcibly dragged or threatened into everything. The heroes by comparison have a far more gung-ho approach to their battles, but even then usually only because they win most of them so easily, and there are some Armchair Military gags on even their side by the end of the series.
• Wasn't That Fun?: Pildit in "Into Viltheed" after being attacked by the Urpney's Whirleyped, and Spildit in "The Return" after being caught in one of Zordrak's electric bolts.
• The Watson: The Noops often act as this, mixed occasionally with Constantly Curious.
• We Are "Team Cannon Fodder": Rufus and Amberley of were strangely enforced versions of this, given they were inexperienced Muggles in a group of heroes that otherwise won the Superpower Lottery. Still the two were always sent to stop the villains plans first and usually fail or get kidnapped, likely to kill some episode time before the elder heroes solved the problem rather quickly. During the later points of the series this started getting Played for Laughs, and Rufus and Amberley could at least often stop some schemes on their own.
• We Have Become Complacent: The heroes fall victim to this in "The Nightmare Stone" after having defeated Zordrak in the previous episode, unaware he has survived and is planning a new attack. The Argorribles get a successful run of spreading nightmares because of it.
• We Need a Diversion: Zordrak orders Blob's men to do so (pretty much by just doing their usual doomed attempt at taking the stone) as he prepares to invade in "Megattack".
• Wham Episode: "A Day Out" upgrades Zordrak's ambitions for the Dreamstone and has the Noops labour to get it back for once. While episodes after revert back to the Urpney comedy, the Noops' boosted Sympathetic P.O.V. and slightly more challenging situations are often maintained.
• Wham Line: From this line onwards in a "A Day Out", the villains' intents become far more Not So Harmless:
  Zordrak: I shall take the Dreamstone to the Nightmare Planet and there I shall convert it's powers to evil. I shall be unassailable. I shall be LORD OF THE UNIVERRRRSE!!!
• What Measure Is a Mook?: Light example. While they never directly kill Urpneys, the protagonists are generally apathetic to them being shanghied into missions by Zordrak and have nothing against using Heel–Face Brainwashing or leaving them in certain death situations to be done with them. The pilot also sees Rufus and Amberley distracting Frazznats by feeding them stone Urpneys. As later seasons became Lighter and Softer, the heroes often used more harmless punishments for Blob and his men.
• What Measure Is a Non-Cute?: Deconstructed. While the allegiances are kept the same, the slovenly human-like Urpneys are Punch Clock Villain Protagonists while the cutesy bunny-like Noops are Hero Antagonists. Zordrak on the other hand, is as hideous and as evil as they come.
• Wild Take: The Urpneys did these frequently (Urpgor often did multiple elaborate ones in a single casual sentence). The heroes were animated far more tamely, though weren't void of them completely (eg. their Mass "Oh, Crap!" in "The Dream Beam Invasion" or Amberley in "Wildit's Whistle").
• Wins by Doing Absolutely Nothing: Many episodes culminated in the Urpneys failing due to some blunder or contrived bad luck, with barely any effort required on the heroes' part. In episodes such as "Mr Blossom's Present" they don't even notice the Urpneys had attacked.
• Wizards Live Longer: Most of the magic welding characters are implied to have lived for hundreds of years. The Dream Maker in particular is said to have been "old when the moon and stars were young".
• Women Are Wiser: Played with. Amberley plays this role totally straight with Rufus, but otherwise is still one of the least competent heroes. The rest of the female heroes come in different leagues. Similarly villainesses Zarag and Auntie are buffoonish and arrogant, but naturally look pretty competent compared to the Urpneys.
• The Worf Effect: Rufus and Amberley were regularly overpowered by the villains in earlier episodes, though managed to better avoid this trope later on. The Wut army surprisingly tended to avoid this trope, though the penultimate episode finally had them fall victim to this against Urpgor's Spidermobile.
• Worldbuilding: Done more gradually early on, though by the third and especially the fourth season it is done in more rapid pace, due to the drift in formula and the Noops' increased Sympathetic P.O.V., with more development into the dream making process (and the actual dreams being shown slightly more often), and a far more frequent amount of travelling to other areas of the Sleeping World or even other planets, which commonly led to the revelation of other beings significant in the main cast's livelihood such as Urpgor's relatives or the Wottles preserving the dream-bottle forest.
• The World Is Just Awesome: In Rufus' dream from the first episode (also used as the outro), but mainly about the Dreamstone Planet rather than the unnamed planet on which the action takes place.
• You Have Failed Me: Used in the first episode, but later subverted when Urpgor asks Zordrak why he hasn't done the same to Blob. Zordrak basically says that all the Urpneys are dumb as bricks anyway, so there's no point in wasting them.
  • With All Due Respect: It is implied Blob's predescessor was disposed of due to contradicting Zordrak one too many times, in comparison to the former, who is usually at least smart enough to follow orders without too many questions.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Ironically used on Urpgor in "The Nightmare Stone" after the titular MacGuffin renders his machines obsolete. A rare non lethal example by Zordrak however in that he merely tells him to hit the road. He is rehired after the Nightmare Stone is stolen by the Noops (largely due to a botched revenge plan by Urpgor).
• You Mean "Xmas": Heavily implied with the "Mid Winter Celebrations" in "Frozen Assets".
• You Savage Noops
• Zany Cartoon: The Urpney side of things at least is very offbeat and slapstick. Especially so by the fourth season where even the other characters start to get in on it.

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Higher than the moon,
Hazy like a beautiful illusion,
Crazy and in confusion,
And better than a dream...

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