January 10, 2013 (2013-01-10) – November 23, 2016 (2016-11-23)
Rocket Monkeys is a Canadiananimated television series created by Dan Abdo and Jason Patterson forTeletoon. It premiered in Canada on January 10, 2013,[2] and aired its last new episode on November 23, 2016, before entering reruns.Breakthrough Entertainment produced the series in association with Hornet Films andAtomic Cartoons. 66 episodes were produced.[3]
Although the show received mixed-to-negative reviews from critics and audiences, it won severalCanadian Screen Awards,[4] including Best Animated Program in both 2015 and 2016.
Two anthropomorphic monkey astronauts, named Gus and Wally, work at the GASI Headquarters. They're not the brightest or coolest astronauts, but since they are the only ones around, they are called upon to go into space and carry out different kinds of important missions, including battling rogue black holes and vengeful aliens. Other members of the brothers' crew include bossy astrophysicist Dr. Chimpsky, who gives the monkeys their assignments; YAY-OK, a devoted robot that is slightly outdated and is the brothers' only hope to help keep them on course; and Inky, a space octopus and artist who communicates through his ink drawings.
Gus Monkey (voiced bySeán Cullen) is Wally's monkey partner and older brother, who has brown fur and a blue spacesuit, and is considered the smarter of the two. He wants nothing more than to be a hero, but he can't always put aside his monkey instincts. The closest thing the ship has to a captain, he takes being a GASI cadet very seriously — well, when he feels like it.[5]
Wally Monkey (voiced by Mark Edwards) is Gus' monkey partner and younger brother, who has yellow fur and a red spacesuit. Poorly-groomed yet somehow adorable, Wally would rather be playing Banana Blasters or organizing his expired pudding collection than jetting off on some crazy expedition. If there's one thing Wally's good at, it's being a monkey — he can howl and fling with the best of them.[5]
Yay-OK (voiced byDavid Berni) is Wally and Gus' obsolete robot companion that helps them on their adventures through space. There's nothing this robot wouldn't do for his beloved monkeys — after all, he's programmed that way. He's quite the charmer, too — from the fridge to the blender to the vending machine, there isn't a ladybot on board whose circuits he hasn't made beep a little faster.[5]
Dr. Chimpsky (voiced by Jamie Watson) is the leader of GASI Headquarters. He assigns the Monkeys their critical missions (which sometimes include getting him more ice when his drink gets too warm) and does his best to keep them on track when they get distracted.[5]
Inky is a space octopus and an artist who communicates through his incredible ink drawings. Whether he's a member of the crew or just unbearably cute is anybody's guess. But either way, his artistic talents make him super fun to have around.[6]
Lord Peel (voiced byMark McKinney) is the main antagonist of the series, whom the monkeys constantly mistake for a banana. Before the events of the series, he was a noble businessman. But then the Rocket Monkeys began to crave him, and he's been trying to get revenge on them for trying to eat him and especially for forcing him into the dark side.
Nefarious (voiced by Seán Cullen) is one of the antagonists of the series. He lives in a prison asteroid, which he tries to escape in most episodes in which he appears.
SLO-MO (voiced byTeresa Pavlinek) is Nefarious's robot minion. Some episodes show her having (requited or not) an infatuation with Yay-OK.
Deep Space Dave (also voiced bySeán Cullen) is a superhero who always relies on his fans - the monkeys, of course.
The development of the series began in 2006. The two protagonists, Gus and Wally, were inspired by the complicity of the two creators of the series, Dan Abdo and Jason Patterson,[7] friends since high school. Jason and Dan did some animation tests and sketches, which they showed to Michael Feder. Feder, a partner of Hornet Inc., then helped in the development ofRocket Monkeys under the label of Hornet Films. In 2007, the animation division of their studio closed.4Kids Entertainment then volunteered to take care of the pre-production of the series from spring 2008.[8][9][10]
At the beginning of 2012, pre-production was completed, andAtomic Cartoons inVancouver took over the animation.[11]
Rocket Monkeys was broadcast in Canada on the channelTeletoon from January 10, 2013, to November 23, 2016.[12] The series is available for digital per-episode purchase in Canada, but not in the U.S. As of 2021, the series (except some episodes) can be seen on the completely free streaming service,Tubi.
On February 21, 2013,Nickelodeon announced that it had acquired the broadcast rights to the series, including for the U.S., though its history on that network was marked with several shifts. It premiered on March 4, 2013, but then shifted over to sister networkNicktoons due to low ratings and waning promotion on Nickelodeon, before the network dropped it entirely in May 2014, leaving it off US airwaves for just over three years.[13] The second season finally premiered in the U.S. on July 3, 2017, as part of the over-the-airKidsClicksyndicated children's block and aired until the block shut down in 2019.[14] In the United Kingdom, it premiered onNicktoons in 2013 and ended sometime in 2017, but repeats aired from December 2017 to 28 January 2018, and it also aired onCITV. In Southeast Asia and Poland, it aired onDisney XD.
Rocket Monkeys received mixed-to-negative reviews from critics and audiences.
Emily Ashby ofCommon Sense Media rates a show two stars out of five, saying that the show was "tries to be edgy and clever with its humor, but gross-out laughs usually dominate the content." She describes the main characters, Gus and Wally, as "loud, rude, and chronically dim," who are "also persistent in the worst possible way, forever trying to one-up each other or get what they want by whining about it." Overall, she calls the show "hectic and tiresome."[15]
Despite the critical reception, the show won at theCanadian Screen Awards for the Best Animated Program or Series and Best Writing in an Animated Program or Series (Dan Abdo) in both 2015 and 2016,[4] plus, it was nominated for Best Performance in an Animated Program or Series (Mark Robert Edwards) in 2014, and, in the same year, it won at the 10th AnnualShaw Rocket Prize alongsideJustin Time andIf I Had Wings.[16]
^Crump, William D. (2019).Happy Holidays—Animated! A Worldwide Encyclopedia of Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Year's Cartoons on Television and Film. McFarland & Co. pp. 256–257.ISBN9781476672939.
