Welcome To Tonka Town is a 2003 Failed Pilot Episode produced by Hasbro, meant to promote the Tonka toyline (which they had acquired a little over a decade earlier).
Set in the titular Tonka Town- a place inhabited by Sentient Vehicles, Sapient Houses, and Animate Inanimate Objects galore- the show revolves around the adventures of Chuck, a young dump truck, as he tries to help the citizens of Tonka Town in various endeavors.
Only the pilot episode was ever made, however, that pilot episode consisted of Two Shorts: “Teamwork In Tonka Town”, where Chuck must rely on the help of many of Tonka Town’s inhabitants in order to put out a fire near Larry The Library, and “Race Day In Tonka Town”, where Chuck participates in a race between Tonka Town and V8ville, and has to contend with opponents who are… less than scrupulous in their racing techniques.
Tropes in “Welcome To Tonka Town” include:
- A Dog Named "Dog": A few characters have names like these, such as Bridge and Ladder.
- A Lizard Named "Liz": A minor character is a boat named Bobo.
- Alliterative Name: This is fairly common in Tonka Town- take Gary Garage, Tommy Toolbox, Prybar Pete, Larry the Library, etc. Also, the town itself has one.
- Alliterative Title: "Teamwork In Tonka Town" has one.
- An Aesop: “Teamwork In Tonka Town” naturally has one on the importance of teamwork, while “Race Day In Tonka Town” teaches that Cheaters Never Prosper… and that teamwork is important again.
- Animated Adaptation: Of some toys Tonka made in the late ‘90s and early 2000s.
- Animate Inanimate Object: Tonka Town is loaded with these- in just the first few minutes of “Teamwork In Tonka Town” alone, we see living road barriers, gas pumps, traffic cone, shovels and jackhammers, and of course Tommy Toolbox and Prybar Pete.
- Answer Cut: When Hook asks how they'll get across the river, the scene immediately cuts to Bobo the boat singing his "I Am" Song.
- Ask a Stupid Question...: Chuck does this to a washed-out bridge.Chuck: Bridge, are you okay?
Bridge: No, of course I’m not okay! I’m washed out! - Audible Gleam: Larry the library emits one after being cleaned and repaired.
- The Big Race: “Race Day In Tonka Town” naturally involves one, a relay race competition between the inhabitants of Tonka Town and the inhabitants of V8ville.
- Bucket Helmet: In “Teamwork In Tonka Town”, Ladder has acquired one and wants to show it off to everyone, much to Hook’s chagrin.
- The Cameo: Plenty of Tonka’s toy characters make background appearances- for instance, Dusty The Workbench, who can be seen in the background of the construction site at the beginning of “Teamwork In Tonka Town”.
- Character Narrator: Chuck himself narrates the opening to “Race Day In Tonka Town”.
- Cheaters Never Prosper: This happens to Grease, Pitstop, Twoey, and Turbo in “Race Day In Tonka Town”.
- Circling Birdies: In "Race Day In Tonka Town", stars circle Hook and Ladder’s heads (well, “heads”) after they collapse from exhaustion upon reaching the finish line. And that's just lap one out of three!
- Disembodied Eyebrows: It’s, quite frankly, easier to list the characters who don’t have this than those who do: “No one”.
- Evil Laugh: Grease does one after he pushes Chuck into a pit in the construction site.
- Everything Talks: In Tonka Town, the trucks talk. In Tonka Town, the stoplights and streetlights and bridges and traffic cones talk. In Tonka Town, the freaking houses talk.
- Failed Pilot Episode: It is one.
- Fake Interactivity: In “Race Day In Tonka Town”, Chuck asks the audience to “rev their engines” with him, which will somehow allow him to gain enough speed to Ramp Jump out of a pit he’d gotten stuck in.
- Fartillery: Turbo is able to stop Boomer in his tracks by creating a powerful cloud of exhaust, with exhaust previously having been implied to be the car equivalent of farting.
- Firefighting Episode: In “Teamwork In Tonka Town”, Chuck, Hook and Ladder have to race to stop a flaming dumpster before it sets the library on fire.
- Hold Your Hippogriffs: Gary Garage at one point says “Trucks’ll be trucks” in lieu of saying “boys will be boys”.
- Huddle Shot: Chuck, Boomer, Pete, Hook and Ladder do one near the beginning of “Race Day In Tonka Town”.
- Huge Rider, Tiny Mount: This happens when Chuck and Hook (a dump truck and a fire truck, respectively) have to enlist the help of Bobo (a tiny motorboat) in order to cross a river when the bridge is washed out.
- "I Am" Song: Bobo the boat has one he sings to himself (entirely diegetically, mind you) as he travels up and down the river. Within a few lines, it just degenerates into basically being a random list of things that rhyme with “boat”.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: While this might just be a coincidence due to only two episodes (well, Two Shorts) of the show existing, both episodes have their names following the format “X In Tonka Town”.
- Idiosyncratic Wipes: A spinning Tonka logo is used for scene transitions.
- Meaningful Name: Three of the trucks from “Race Day In Tonka Town” are named Grease, Pitstop, and Turbo.
- Merchandise-Driven: Based on a Tonka toyline.
- Motor Mouth: Boomer talks like this out of panic when telling Chuck about the fire by the library.
- Odd Name Out: The villainous trucks from V8ville are named Grease, Pitstop, Turbo, and… Twoey?
- Oil Slick: One of Turbo’s cheating schemes during “Race Day In Tonka Town” involves creating one to trip up Hook and Ladder.
- Premiseville: Tonka Town is inhabited by Sentient Vehicles based on Tonka toys. “Race Day In Tonka Town” also mentions V8ville, another Premiseville for Sentient Vehicles.
- The Quincy Punk: The villains of “Race Day In Tonka Town” all somehow manage to look like one despite being trucks.
- Ramp Jump: In “Race Day In Tonka Town”, Chuck uses a convenient ramp to jump out of the pit- and, thanks to some Fake Interactivity, he does it with enough speed that he ends up flying straight to the finish line.
- Rhyming Names: Chuck the dump truck.
- Sapient House: All of the buildings in Tonka Town are alive.
- Sentient Vehicle: The main character is a talking dump truck, and most of the supporting cast consists of various other vehicles.
- They Just Dont Get It: Prybar Pete fails to understand what’s so funny about Chuck saying he’s glad Pete could “pry [himself] out of bed this morning” even after Tommy Toolbox tries to explain the joke to him.
- Toilet Humour: Boomer farts exhaust at the beginning of “Race Day In Tonka Town”.
- Trash Talk: While racing against him, Grease calls Chuck “Chucky Yucky”.
- Two Shorts: Two 11-minute stories -“Teamwork In Tonka Town” and “Race Day In Tonka Town”- are packed into a 22-minute Failed Pilot Episode.
