"Rocket Power" Theme Song (HQ) Episode Opening Credits Nick Animation
Rocket Power is an animated series which debuted on Nickelodeon on August 16, 1999 and ran until July 30, 2004. Since the series' cancellation, the series continued airing reruns on Nick until 2007. It also aired on CBS as part of the Nick on CBS block from 2002 to 2005. The NickToons network aired the series from 2002 to 2010. Nick GAS also aired the series from 2003 to 2005. The series most recently reran on TeenNick's block NickSplat (formerly The '90s Are All That) from June 2014 to February 2017.
Premise
Produced at Klasky Csupo of Los Angeles (the creators of Rugrats), the show revolves around the day to day adventures of a gang of four (at present) middle-school age extreme sports enthusiasts who live in the fictitious Southern California beach resort town of Ocean Shores, where they enjoy surfing, roller skating, skateboarding, bicycling, street hockey, and other active pastimes. In fact, due to the activities in the subject matter, the producers retained a Surfer Magazine staff member as a language and technical consultant to make sure that things like ocean waves and skate park halfpipes worked with some degree of credibility.
Characters
- Otto Rocket (Joseph Ashton) The charismatic and self-appointed leader of the gang. Otto is a gifted, passionate, vain and highly successful 11-year old extreme sports perfectionist whose adventurous nature and hot-headed attitude often get him into trouble. While he can be selfish on occasion, Otto has proven himself to be a good, kind and fiercely loyal kid at heart.
- Regina "Reggie" Rocket (Shayna Fox) Otto's tomboyish and responsible 12-year old sister. Reggie is an aspiring author and publisher who writes a blog-like magazine called "The Zine" and is hoping to start her own publishing business someday. While she's no less competitive and skillful as an athlete like her talented brother, she possesses a calmer disposition as well as possessing greater maturity.
- Maurice "Twister" Rodriguez (Ulises Cuadra; Gilbert Leal) Otto's best friend and partner in crime. Twister is not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed as he's known for being somewhat of a dimwit and is often slow on the uptake. But despite his lack of intelligence, Twister has shown that he can be rather clever at times and is well known for being a skilled videographer. He hates being called by his real name and is constantly bullied around by his big brother, Lars.
- Sam "Squid" Dullard (Sam Saletta; Gary LeRoi Gray; Sean Marquette) A Hutchinson, Kansas native and relative newcomer. Sam is nowhere near as athletically gifted as the others and is often the most timid member of Team Rocket (though his skills and self-confidence evolve over time), but he makes up for his shortcomings with his incredible genius, his expert computer skills and by being a prodigious goalie whenever he plays hockey.
- Raymundo "Ray" Rocket (John Kassir) Otto and Reggie's strict-but-loving forty something widowed father and owner of the Shore Shack; A beachside diner where the kids usually hang out and chow down. Raymundo drives a 1962 Mercruiser Woodie Wagon and has developed a serious case of Cynophobia after watching a movie called "Attack of the 50 ft. Poodles" as a kid.
- Tito Makani (Ray Bumatai) A retired Hawaiian surfer and self-styled philosopher who helps his old friend Raymundo run his business and give the kids helpful advice. Tito usually starts his advice with "Like the ancient Hawaiians say..." He has a young nephew who occasionally visits from the Hawaiian Islands named Keoni (voiced by professional surfer Matty Liu).
- Lars Rodriguez (Lombardo Boyar) The local neighborhood bully and Otto's fiercest competitor. Lars has taken it upon himself to make life difficult for his little brother Twister and the other kids from time to time. However, despite him always picking on Twister, he has shown that he really does love his brother deep down and would never want anything truly bad to happen to him. He's often seen in the company of his three teenage henchmen Pi, Sputz, and Animal.
- Eddie Valentine (Jordan Warkol) The self-proclaimed "Prince of the Netherworld," is a recurring participant in the Rockets' activities and a frequent target of Lars' bullying. The son of a magician couple, he favors an outfit of a hooded cloak and a scary mask reminiscent of Darth Maul.
- Officer Shirley (CCH Pounder) A seldom-seen police officer who does what she can in order to try to keep the peace in Ocean Shores.
- Trish and Sherry (both voiced by Lauren Tom) Reggie's best friends, fellow surfers and fellow members of the California All-State Girls' volleyball team.
Episodes
- Main article: Rocket Power episode list
| Season | Episodes | Originally aired | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Season premiere | Season finale | ||
| 1 | 20 | August 7, 1999 | March 20, 2000 |
| 2 | 20 | October 23, 2000 | March 22, 2004 |
| 3 | 20 | September 10, 2001 | March 25, 2004 |
| 4 | 11 | July 19, 2003 | July 30, 2004 |
Specials and guest stars
A made-for-TV movie, Race Across New Zealand, produced as the last three episodes of the third season, aired in February 2002 (opposite the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City) and featured activities such as Zorb riding and floating down underground streams, as part of a junior sports competition.
Another telefilm based on the series, "Reggie's Big (Beach) Break", centering on a spring-break type sports and music beach festival, aired in July of 2003.
Klasky-Csupo announced shortly thereafter in their online newsletter that a third telefilm, "Island of the Menehune", about a trip to Hawaii and telling a bit about Raymundo's late wife Danni or Danielle (who got a brief mention, but not by name, in the show's Christmas special in December 2003), would be shown on Nick at some time in the future, and it aired in July 2004. That telefilm subsequently led to a wedding between Ray and Tito's cousin Noelani (voice of Kim Mai Guest) in "The Big Day" (the last new episode to be aired) later the same month.
The show has also had cameos from sports figures, for example skaters Tony Hawk ("Enter the Hawk-trix") and Andy MacDonald ("Beach Break"), and hockey players Luc Robitaille and Martin Brodeur ("Power Play"). There have also been episodes on rather unusual topics: Radical New Equipment featured a (rather competitive) handicapped girl snowboarder and won an award from The Association for the Severely Handicapped [1], while Major Scrummage revolved around Reggie's desire to play rugby, a sport relatively unknown in the US.
Video releases
- Main article: Rocket Power videography
Rocket Power's first home video release was a VHS tape titled Maxing Out in August 2001, which included five regular episodes from the first two seasons. A second Rocket Power video, featuring the hour-length "Island of the Menehune" special, came out on VHS and DVD in 2004, with the latter format's release also including three extra episodes. Between the two videos, Rocket Power also had at least one episode included on the compilation tapes Nickelodeon Super Toons, Nickstravaganza!, and Nickstravaganza! 2, and the compilation DVDs Nickelodeon DVD Sampler (included with Best Buy's early copies of the Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius DVD), NickToons Halloween, and NickToons Christmas (notably, the episode "A Rocket X-Mas" appeared on the NickToons Christmas DVD months before its televised premiere).
In 2014, the entirety of the series was released across four manufacture-on-demand DVD sets.
In other media
Other projects related to Rocket Power and developed under the aegis of Klasky-Csupo and/or Nickelodeon have included video games like Rocket Power: Beach Bandits, and Maximum Rocket Power Live: The Battle For Madtown Park [2], a live-action extreme-sports dramatic arena play that briefly toured the U.S. Midwest in spring 2002, before being cancelled over low ticket sales (it had originally been scheduled to tour about 40 cities all over the US).
The series made its comic book debut in a crossover story featured in the last issue of Rugrats Comic Adventures, in which Reggie, Otto, and Twister babysit Tommy and Angelica. Subsequent Rocket Power comics would appear in various Nickelodeon Magazine Presents specials.
External links
- Rocket Power Wiki
- Klasky-Csupo's Rocket Power area on cooltoons.com (Studio site)
- Rocket Power at the Big Cartoon DataBase
This show has a wiki of its own: Rocket Power Wiki.