He's back! And is a joke once again!
Aquaman: King of Atlantis is a Zany Cartoon series based on the eponymous DC Comics superhero and his 2018 live-action film. Aquaman (Cooper Andrews), now king of Atlantis, goes on adventures with Mera (Gillian Jacobs) to protect the seas from two emeralds that carry massive gravity and time-altering powers. Occasionally, he'll have to stop Ocean Master (Dana Snyder) from taking his throne and/or trident. They'll also have to stop Mortikov (Andrew Morgado) from combining the emeralds together and causing world destruction For the Evulz. Oh yeah, Vulko (Thomas Lennon) is here too, and he helps Aquaman and Mera with tidying up the kingdom and using science to solve the mysteries of the two emeralds.
The series was created by Victor Courtright and executively produced by James Wan, who also directed the 2018 film. It has wacky humor and tons of Deranged Animation and hilarity that will surely make you wonder how much acid did the animators and storyboard artists take. Then again...
The miniseries began on October 14, 2021 on HBO Max and also aired as a feature-length film on Cartoon Network (that version was later released on DVD). Speaking of which, it was originally set to air as part of the ACME Night block. The series was removed from HBO Max in August 2022 as part of the Warner Bros. Discovery reshuffles and cost-cutting measures.
Examples:
- Action Girl: Mera. Her solution to pretty much everything is to punch and kick.
- Adaptational Badass:
- Aquaman may seem like he can't do much damage, and is sometimes treated as a joke, but he's actually super strong, fast, and smart. He's able to tear through billions of robots, instantly dig a hole out of his water prison, and even HOLD THE ENTIRE EARTH TOGETHER WITH NOTHING BUT HIS BARE STRENGTH. (The fish help him out later, but he still manages to hold well by himself)
- Mera is pretty damn awesome in this adaptation. She's able to take down a lot of enemies with her water-manipulating abilities and can go as far as using the ENTIRE ocean to shoot Mortikov into space!
- Adaptational Personality Change:
- Mera is a lot more rash and reckless in comparison to her more composed personality from the movie. She's also more of an Action Girl.
- Vulko is a lot more quiet and relaxed in this series.
- Ocean Master goes from a Big Bad and leader of a genocidal war to a goofball who can get defeated rather easily.
- Alternate Continuity: King of Atlantis is a sequel to the 2018 film and has a few references to its events, but it is not canon to DCEU and takes place in a DenserAndWackier alternate continuity.
- Animation Bump: During fight and chase sequences, the animation is a lot fluider and more exaggerated than it usually is.
- Animation Evolution: Compared to Thundercats Roar, the animation seems a lot more dynamic and smooth, albeit in a hardly noticeable way. It also seems to be more on-model in comparison to the heavily Off-Model Thundercats Roar animation.
- Art Evolution: The colors are broader, the character have a more detailed design, and the shading seems a lot better than Courtright's previous series.
- Bait-and-Switch: The series may fool you into thinking that Ocean Master will take over as king of Atlantis on occasion. You'd be wrong...
- Big Bad: Mortikov is this in Dead Sea and Tidal Shift, while Ocean Master is temporarily this in Primordeus with the Fisherman stealing the role from Ocean Master.
- Butt-Monkey: Compared to the other characters, Aquaman is always bashed on for being the king and doing his job. The only two people who prefer him over Ocean Master is Mera and Vulko. This is Averted in Tidal Shift when people finally respect him as king.
- Covers Always Lie: The main poster of the series shows Aquaman taking down some sort of sea beast, one that never appears in the show whatsoever.
- The cover for Primordeus makes it look like Ocean Master is going to be a big threat with Aquaman's trident. When you see the actual special, he only has it for a brief chase sequence and has his Big Bad status usurped by the Fisherman.
- Demoted to Extra:
- Vulko goes from Aquaman's mentor and having a good amount of screentime to having barely any screentime until Tidal Shift.
- Ocean Master was originally the Big Bad in the film, now he's merely a joke. He also barely has screentime until Primordeus as opposed to being the main villain of the movie. And then he goes back to being hardly shown in Tidal Shift!
- Denser and Wackier: This series returns to the old roots of Aquaman with this one being a lot more comedic and surreal than the previous incarnations and the movie.
- Ocean Master is barely a threat anymore. And when he is, he's defeated in an instant.
- Deranged Animation: As per-usual from Victor Courtright and his crew, the animation is still full of Off-Model and wacky animation. However, even less than Victor's predecessor series.
- Emerald Power: The plot of all 3 specials is about Aquaman and Mera retrieving the emeralds and making sure they don't fall in the wrong hands. The blue one alters gravity and space, and the red one alters the age of a person and messes with time. When both are combined together, it's capable of giving the user enough power to destroy the world. And if they touch against each other, the world will explode.
- For the Evulz: The reason Mortikov wants to destroy the world is mostly for this. However, he does want to evolve his mechanical palace as well.
- Half-Hour Comedy: The series consists of three 45-48 minute specials and is a comedic spinoff of the film.
- Heel–Face Turn: Once the entity controlling him is destroyed, the Fisherman makes peace with Aquaman and reunites with his family.
- Lighter and Softer: Than the movie it's based on and the more serious takes of Aquaman.
- Make Way for the New Villains:
- Mortikov/Scavenger is a villain that was never shown much in any incarnation of Aquaman besides the comics. He takes over as Big Bad from Ocean Master for the majority of the 3 specials.
- The Fisherman from Primordeus also counts. Subverted however, since he was being controlled by an evil, living island.
- Running Gag:
- Ocean Master taking over as king of Atlantis while Aquaman is gone or challenging Aquaman for the throne, only to be defeated immediately.
- The painter drawing art of Aquaman and Ocean Master every time one of them wins.
- Everyone preferring Ocean Master over Aquaman as king. Averted near the end of Tidal Shift when they finally accept Aquaman for who he is.
- Title-Only Opening: Subverted. The intro consists of Aquaman's trident being used as a transition into the intro before the camera does a dramatic spin on Aquaman - who is standing on top of a rock. Waves then come from behind him and splash onto Aquaman from above, covering both the intro and Aquaman in water. A choir then sings the title of the show and the name of the chapter in a different tune for each special.
- Truncated Theme Tune: For Tidal Shift, the intro cuts straight to the waves covering Aquaman and the area he's standing in.
