Rocket Power

This article is about the animated television series. For spacecraft propulsion systems, see spacecraft propulsion.

Rocket Power
File:Rocketpower.jpg From left to right: Otto, Sam, Twister, and Reggie.
Created by	Arlene Klasky Gabor Csupo
Starring	Joseph Ashton Gary LeRoi Gray Sean Marquette Ulises Cuadra Gilbert Leal Shayna Fox John Kassir Ray Bumatai Lombardo Boyar
Country of origin	USA
No. of episodes	64 (list of episodes)
Production
Running time	30 minutes (two 11 minute episodes)
Original release
Network	Nickelodeon
Release	August 16 1999 – July 30 2004

Rocket Power is an American animated television series which debuted on Nickelodeon in August of 1999. It is about a bunch of kids who frequently use "hip lingo," such as "beef," "mega beef," "brindage," "tubular," "wicked," "sick," "awesome," "shred," "sweet," and "shoobies" and their many adventures to become the best "shredders" in existence.

Summary

Episode directors included Michael Daedalus Kenny, Dave Fontana, Ron Noble, and Steve Ressel. Rocket Power currently airs on the Nicktoons Network.

Characters

The principal characters in the show are:

• Otto Rocket (Joseph Ashton), An obsessive, compulsive, and all-too successful and courageous athlete whose cheeky attitude and short sighted judgment often get him into trouble. The character of Otto is based on Peter Tosh.
• Reggie Rocket (Shayna Fox), Otto's big sister by two years, an aspiring publisher who, while no less competitive and skillful as an athlete, happens to be of calmer disposition who is based on Stacy Peralta(e.g., withdrawing from the triathlon in "Rainy Days and Sundaes").
• Maurice "Twister" Rodriguez (Ulises Cuadra; Gilbert Leal), a daredevil on wheels and aspiring videographer. He hates to be called by his real name, and he is often seen being teased by his big brother, Lars. He is based on Jay "J Boy" Adams.
• Samuel "Squid" Dullard (Sam Saletta; Gary LeRoi Gray; Sean Marquette; Mike Lane), a Hutchinson, Kansas native, who while not as athletically gifted as the others has found a niche as the brains and conscience of the group--and also as a rock-solid goalie when they play hockey ("New Squid in Town", "Power Play"). He was the only character on the show who had an IQ above room temperature. Regardless, he was portrayed as inferior to the other characters, because in the world of Rocket Power, much like high school, the importance of athletic ability trumps that of academics. He is based on Sid from the Z-Boyz of Dogtown.

The secondary characters include:

• Raymond "Ray" (often "Raymundo") Rocket (John Kassir), the widowed fortysomething father of Otto and Reggie and the owner of the Shore Shack (a beach side diner where the gang often chow down). Raymundo has a vintage woodie. Ray is also a surfer of some renown. He is based on Skip from the Z-Boyz.
• Tito Makani Jr. (Ray Bumatai), a Hawaiian surfer and self-styled philosopher who helps his old friend Raymundo run the business. He has a young nephew who occasionally visits from the islands, named Keoni Makani (professional surfer Matty Liu), who has appeared in a few episodes. He is based on Oprah Winfrey
  Catchphrase: "Like the ancient Hawaiians say..."
• Lars Rodriguez (Lombardo Boyar), a teenage bully, has taken it upon himself to make life difficult for his little brother Twister and the other kids from time to time. He is often seen in the company of his friends Pi, Sputz, and (in later episodes) Animal.
• Eddie Valentine (Jordan Warkol), the self-styled "Prince of the Netherworld," is a sometime 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 hockey mask.
• Officer Shirley (CCH Pounder) does what she can to keep the peace. A minor character, a relationship between her and Raymundo was implied prior to Ray's wife's existence and death were revealed.
• Sherry and Trish (both voiced by Lauren Tom), Reggie's best friends, surfers, and members of the state volleyball team. Have appeared in a handful of stories.
• Mackenzie Benders (Rosslynn Taylor), The five-year-old ankle-biter. She continually beats up the members of the gang, and she has a crush on Twister.
• Conroy Blanc (Obba Babatunde), Owner of the skate park Madtown, later becomes Otto's and Twister's teacher.
• Otto and Reggies Mother Status not revealed until the end of the series

More about the show

File:Ytv hi rocketpower 02.jpg

Rocket Power PR shot

A made for TV movie, Race Across New Zealand, was shown on Nickelodeon 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 in New Zealand.

Another telefilm based on the series, Reggie's Big (Beach) Break, centering on a spring-break type sports and music beach festival, aired on that channel 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 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 Jeremy Roenick, Luc Robitaille, and Martin Brodeur (Power Play). There have also been episodes on rather unusual topics: Radical New Equipment featured a disabled girl snowboarder and won an award from The Association for the Severely Handicapped, while Major Scrummage revolved around Reggie's desire to play rugby, a sport relatively unknown in the US.

Controversy

Rocket Power has brought about much controversy. Some parents were angered over the fact that the characters were almost never at school, implying that they skipped school to "shred" all day. Other parents were outraged at the fact that the show showed signs of white inferiority: Sam was the only white person on the show, and he wasn't talented in the area of sports. Another point that brought about controversy was that the main characters were never under adult supervision when they performed outrageous stunts during their extreme sports. These complaints were ignored, however.

Off the screen

Other projects related to Rocket Power and developed under the aegis of Klasky-Csupo and/or Nickelodeon have included video games like Beach Bandits, and Maximum Rocket Power Live: The Battle For Madtown Park , 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 U.S., all the way into the fall). A live-action Rocket Power movie was proposed, and was to star Jonathan Taylor Thomas, but the film was scrapped during post-production. Yea andrea cortese is the one girl who hooks up with twister

Episodes

Please see: List of Rocket Power episodes.

Brief Timeline

December 1998: New show "Rocket Beach" mentioned in Nickelodeon press release
June 1999: One of the characters, Reggie, featured in KC ad celebrating Nick's 20th birthday
August 16, 1999: Series premiere with New Squid on the Block and Down the Drain
November 10, 2000: Radical New Equipment aired, featuring a handicapped snowboarder (voiced by Olivia Hack, Rhonda on Hey Arnold!)
September 10, 2001: Enter the Hawk-trix aired, the first of many episodes featuring professional athletes (here, Tony Hawk)
November 2001: 2001 TASH Image Awards announced, with Rocket Power winning one in the "Young People’s Program: Animation" category for the aforementioned Radical New Equipment
Feberuary 16, 2002: Rocket Power's first telefilm Race Across New Zealand aired
March 26 to April 8, 2002: Maximum Rocket Power Live: The Battle For Madtown Park played in Columbus, Ohio, Chicago, Illinois, Cleveland, Ohio, and Detroit, Michigan, before being cancelled (about 33,000 tickets were sold in all)
April 9 and 11, 2002: Reggie/Regina and There's Something About Breezy aired, featuring the debuts of two new characters: respectively, Trent and Breezy (see above)
July 19, 2003: Rocket Power's 2nd telefilm Reggie's Big (Beach) Break aired
December 15, 2003: Rocket Power's first 30-minute story, and its Christmas special, A Rocket X-Mas aired, with mention of Otto and Reggie's mother (Reggie holding a surfing trophy her mom won)
March 22 to 26, 2004: Five "leftover" episodes aired, among them, the show's only non-holiday 30-minute story Twist of Fate and an episode that was produced in 2001 but wasn't aired until now, Losers Weepers and Reggie: The Movie
April 25, 2004: The 3rd telefilm (previously thought to be the last episode produced), Island of the Menehune, shown at 2004 International Family Film Festival in Valencia, California
May 15, 2004: Nickelodeon announced a contest in which 4 winners will receive a 1-week trip for four to Hawaii for surfing lessons.(Contest Site)
June 16, 2004: Previously unknown episode After Shocked aired, featuring Noelani as Ray's new wife (the episode that features their marriage, The Big Day, would not air until July 30)
July 16 and 27, 2004: Island aired on Nick US and was released on DVD, respectively
October 6, 2005: Ray Bumatai, the voice actor who played Tito, dies of brain cancer.

Trivia

• Ocean Shores, the city the show takes place in, is loosely based on the real Californian City of Santa Monica. Some hints include the City's skyline and pier, similar to the Santa Monica Pier.
• The animators sometimes showed odd goings-on in the distant background. In one such scene, a UFO picking up a whale from the sea.
• There is a city called Ocean Shores and Ocean Shores, New South Wales, Australia, but it is in the state of Washington, not California or Australia.
• Devo performed the opening theme under the name "The Wipeouters".
• Otto is shown in the opening theme wearing an earring, though he never wears one in the main show.
• Twister makes several references to Admiral Piett over the course of season 1.
• James Taylor makes an uncredited voice cameo as a Shore Shack customer sometime in the second season.
• Rocket Power was voted the 23rd best show of all time by readers of Popular Science magazine.

External links

• Nickelodeon's Rocket Power site
• Klasky-Csupo's Rocket Power area on cooltoons.com (Studio site)
• Rocket Power at the Big Cartoon DataBase]
• Rocket Power Heat[1]A site about Rocket Power done by webmaster Aaron Harris for 5 years, 2002-current.