Tutenstein is an Emmy Award-winning animated television series, produced by Porchlight Entertainment (best known for Adventures from the Book of Virtues) for Discovery Kids. The series is based on the comic book character of the same name by Jay Stephens (The Secret Saturdays), who would serve as a creative consultant. The series ran for 39 episodes from November 1, 2003 to October 11, 2008, concluding with the television movie Clash of the Pharaohs.
The show follows the adventures of the child pharaoh Tutankhensetamun, based loosely on the real-life Tutankhamun, who is awoken three thousand years after his untimely death by a 12-year-old aspiring Egyptologist named Cleo Carter after she fixed some mistakes made to his exhibit by the museum curator. Together with Cleo's pet cat Luxor, who has been given the gift of speech and a position as Tut's servant/advisor, the trio spends their nights after the museum closes helping Tut (affectionally called Tutenstein) adjust to the modern world, solving the myriad of problems caused by Tut's inexperience as a pharaoh and inflated ego, and fighting back the threat of various Ancient Egyptian figures; the most dangerous being the Egyptian god Set, who seeks Tut's all-powerful Staff of Was, which would give him the might to rule the world.
In October 2022, it was announced that a reboot is in development
.
This show contains examples of:
- Aesop Amnesia: Most episodes involve Tut learning that he should treat his friends well and/or not use magic for selfish reasons. It never sticks.
- A Mythology Is True: While Egyptian myths are portrayed as true, all other mythologies are treated as fictitious; a few of the Egyptian deities notably expressed no prior awareness of the Greco-Roman deities prior to stumbling onto their museum exhibit in "Spells and Sleepovers".
- Ambiguously Brown: Natasha, Cleo's best friend might be of Asian descent given her olive skin and dark hair. There's evidence that she might be of mixed race, as in "There's Something About Natasha," we see that her mother is light skin and her father is tanned skin.
- Ambiguously Gay: Luxor fits the bill, when you see the episode where he and Chloe have a Freaky Friday Moment."Perhaps I could wear that powder blue mini with a matching nehru jacket. I think Jake would find me quite fetching in it!"
- Black and Nerdy: Cleo, at least when it comes to Egyptology.
- Blessed with Suck: Arguably, Luxor. The scepter's magic made him intelligent and able to speak, but also forced him to become Tut's Extreme Doormat Beleaguered Assistant. Luxor also counts as a Butt-Monkey and a
Woobie. - Brain Food: Discussed early in the series, when Cleo and Luxor watch a mummy movie together. note Cleo: Luxor, this movie is so cheesy it's great! What are you so scared about?
Luxor: That mummy eats brains!
Cleo: Luxor, get real! Tutenstein's a mummy, he doesn't eat brains!
Luxor: So far. - Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Did you just trap Apep with a fishing net?
- Disappeared Dad: Cleo's father. It's never clear exactly what happened to him.
- Disproportionate Retribution: It's hard to blame the gods for being annoyed with Tutenstein, but threatening a ten-year-old child with eternal damnation for crimes like vandalizing a wall or cheating at a board game seems a little harsh. Cleo even points this out, mentioning that in spite of his position, he is just a kid.
- In "Walter The Brain" Tut makes Walter's forklift go out of control and nearly costs him his job all because he was making too much noise and Tut couldn't sleep.
- Downer Ending: "The Comeback Kid". Not only does Tut turn back into a mummy, he will never get the chance to become flesh and blood again. Fridge Logic makes the whole series kind of a downer from then on.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: "The King Of Memphis" is the only episode that does NOT involve the museum in any way. Instead the focus is on the characters visiting an Elvis-themed amusement park. Subsequent episodes have all taken place at the museum at least at some point in the episode.
- Eating Contest: Tut wins a peanut butter and banana sandwich eating contest in "The King Of Memphis." He can pack away a lot of food for an undead mummy.
- Elvis Impersonator: The characters visited a convention of them in "The King of Memphis".
- Eternal English: Tutenstein and the Egyptian gods all speak modern English, though Tut has Just a Stupid Accent.note Presumably the Scepter of Was did it.
- For Halloween, I Am Going as Myself: In "Day of the Undead", Tut walks among mortals on Halloween, impressing trick-or-treaters with how much his costume looks and smells like a long-dead Egyptian mummy.
- "Freaky Friday" Flip: "Cleo's Catastrophe" has Cleo and Luxor switch bodies thanks to Tut reading the wrong scroll.
- Generic Doomsday Villain: The show did not delve into Apep's mythology at all, and characterized him as just a simple brute whose existence revolved entirely around fighting Ra. While Ra being defeated would cause time on Earth to freeze, it was not even vaguely implied that Apep cared about this, his one and only goal in life was simply to beat Ra.
- Idiot Ball: Cleo falls under this in "Tut Jr." when she trusts Tut to be responsible for her little cousin Thomas, even after all the trouble he's caused in every episode. It goes as well as you'd expect, with Thomas taking the Sceptar of Was and ending up in the Underworld.
- I Resemble That Remark!: In "Keep Your Wandering Eye To Yourself" Tut uses the Eye Of Ra to spy on Cleo, and overhears her talking to a friend about how Tut throws tantrums. He denies that he does this, all while jumping up and down angrily and then throwing the Scepter of Was.
- Jerkass Gods: Most of the Egyptian Gods are shown to be as temperamental, arrogant, and dangerously and randomly vindictive as Tut and often are the cause of many problems in different episodes (e.g. the Goddess of Love Hathor becoming offended that an obnoxious Tut wasn't getting respect and having a pyramid built for him so she turns into Sekhmet to kill some construction workers, the God Ra being furious at those who deny his authority, the Goddess Isis trying to eternally damn Tut for vandalizing a wall and cheating at a board game, etc.) Set happens to be the worst of the bunch.
- Though they aren't shown to be unreasonable. Isis primarily just wanted to scare Tut into learning a lesson, and Anubis and Thoth were willing to change their stance on his punishment when reminded that he's still just a child.
- Jerkass Has a Point: While the gods may seem overly harsh at lashing out at Tut for his shenanigans, it's not difficult to understand why they would be so upset with him. While Tut is ultimately well-meaning, he's still selfish, bratty, and a rather inept ruler who frequently abuses magic for his own ends. You can't blame Ra for being angry at him for obstructing his job over a really petty reason in "The Boat of Millions of Years" or Isis for wanting to punish him for being a cheater/bully in "Ghostbusted".
- Kids Love Dinosaurs: Cleo's little cousin Thomas in "Tut Jr." His reaction to seeing Egyptian gods in the underworld is to ask if they're dinosaurs.
- Magic Skirt: In this case it's Tut's shendyt.
- Mean Boss: You probably wouldn't want to work for Horace Bedhety, but he's mostly just vain and petty.
- Meaningful Name: Cleo's full name is Cleopatra Carter. The first part is obvious, while "Carter" alludes to Howard Carter, the archaeologist who found the original Tutankhamun's tomb.
- Nepharious Pharaoh: Tut is not and never has been a merciful person.
- Not Growing Up Sucks: An occasional source of angst for Tut. It comes to a head in "Old Man Tut", when he uses magic to grow into a teenager so he can cut off his sidelock of youth, but then has to deal with Rapid Aging.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Cleo's pink hoodie and a pair of sunglasses are the only precautions Tut ever takes.
- Reused Character Design: The mall security guard in "Friends" looks exactly like Walter but with brown hair and a goatee.
- Ridiculously Alive Undead: In "The Awakening", Tut (the titular mummy) makes a mad dash for the bathroom after he's brought back from the dead.
- Rip Van Tinkle: Tut's first act after being brought back from the dead is to run to the bathroom.
- Royal Brat: Tut acts like a spoiled little Jerkass most of the time.
- Scales of Justice: The episode Curse Of The Pharaoh has Tutenstein go through the weighing of his heartnote again in order to get rid of Ammut.
- Signature Headgear: Tut's gigantic nemes headdress, traditionally worn by pharaohs. He only takes it off a few times in the entire series.
- Skewed Priorities: In "Tut Jr." Cleo's little cousin Thomas is left unsupervised with the Scepter of Was and ends up in the Underworld. Tut is just happy he didn't break it.
- Sliding Scale of Undead Regeneration: Strangely, Tut has been referred to as "rotting" many, many times during the series, and it's a running gag. But the definition of mummy is a dead body that in fact does not rot. It's never revealed whether or not Tut can heal (though the evidence points to: no).
- Sophisticated as Hell: Tut has quite an extensive vocabulary, excellent manners, and an affinity for modern youth slang.
- Spotting the Thread: In the episode "Keep You’re Wandering Eye To Yourself", Kara says Cleo is doing the right thing to keep Tut away. Cleo concurs until she realizes she never told her his name.
- Soup Is Medicine: Twice in the episode "Near Dead Experience" with a sick Cleo, one being homemade soup from her mother and later she's given it when she's transported to the underworld
- Stages of Monster Grief: Initially averted. Tut accepts his undead-ness as part of his identity almost immediately. Later, when he begins to realize he'll be this way forever, it's played with. He mourns his flesh-and-blood body, and the fact that he'll never "grow up".
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: In "Green-Eyed Mummy" Tut wants to get rid of the wooly mammoth exhibit by moving it to the underworld, because it's taking Cleo's attention away from him. He and Luxor try to move it, but they're unsuccessful because it's a 6-ton mammoth and they're an undead 10 year old and a cat. He settles on using the Scepter of Was to move it.
- Tantrum Throwing: Tut does this with the Scepter of Was in "Keep Your Wandering Eye To Yourself".
- They Would Cut You Up: Presumably the reason Tut keeps himself hidden. It's never stated directly, but it's frequently said that for Tut being out in the open is not "safe", and it's hard to imagine anything else that would convince him to stay quiet.
- Time-Freeze Trolling Spree: "The Boat of Millions of Years" has Tut wishing a movie night would last longer. This causes Ra the Sun God to get captured on his journey through the underworld and time stops altogether. Later when Cleo and Luxor wake up they first get everyone frozen on the street out of harm's way. However when they find Walter in the museum they decide to prank him. They replace the burgers he is about to eat with skulls and a sword, puts a wig on his head and a skirt on him. When time unfreezes, Walter bites the skull and thinks he's being messed with by aliens.
- Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Tut and Cleo, due to the latter being physically two years older than Tut, who hadn't even hit puberty before dying.
- Undeathly Pallor: Afroasiatic Tut, in death, is somehow a pale green color (the dark color of his exposed hands and feet make this kind of confusing.)
- Undeath Always Ends: Averted — by the end of the series, Tutenstein is still a living mummy.
- Zombie Gait: Tut pulls this in the show's opening, and every once in a while in the show as well.
