Biker Mice from Mars is a science fiction action animated series created by Rick Ungar that began airing in 1993 in the United States and lasted for three seasons before it was cancelled. It was also composed by William Anderson. It follows three anthropomorphic mice motorcyclists named Throttle, Modo, and Vinnie who escape a war on their home planet Mars before arriving to defend the Earth from the evil that destroyed their homeland (the Plutarkians) and to one day return to Mars. The mice's signature weapons consist of a cestus and a laser (Throttle), a bionic arm (Modo), and flares (Vinnie). Despite the frequent battles, no blood is shown, no firearms are used and many villains are monsters, aliens, and robots. These elements allowed the show to still be considered suitable for children.
Plot
On the planet Mars, there existed a race of anthropomorphic mice who enjoyed motorsports and had a very similar culture and society to that of human beings. At some point in time they were all but wiped out by the Plutarkians, an alien race of obese, foul-smelling, fish-like humanoids who plunder other planets' natural resources because they have wasted all of their own. Three survivors, Throttle, Modo and Vinnie, manage to find a spaceship and escape the Plutarkian takeover but they are soon shot down by a Plutarkian warship and end up crash-landing on Earth in the city of Chicago. There they meet a charming female mechanic named Charlene "Charley" Davidson and discover that the Plutarkians have come to Earth to steal its natural resources. The Biker Mice investigate the crumbling ghetto of the windy city and soon discover that Chicago's leading industrialist, Lawrence Limburger, is actually a Plutarkian who disguises himself as a human, plotting to ransack Earth's resources to send to his own dying planet. Limburger enlists two henchmen, mad scientist Dr. Karbunkle and the idiotic Greasepit to help him steal Earth's natural resources and send them to Plutark. But the Biker mice from Mars themselves as heroic vigilantes come to save the day and stop Limburger from destroying Chicago, doing it to bring Plutark to justice as payback for the loss and powerful destruction of their home in process. And to defend the Earth from the similar fate. Thus, the Biker Mice become Limburger's chief foils, destroying his business tower at the end of nearly every episode. The core the show's themes is heavily and coincidentally similar to Avenger Penguins, although with the two shows being aired at exactly the same time, and from two different parts of the world that had no connections whatsoever with each other.
Characters
The Mice and protagonists
- Throttle (voiced by Rob Paulsen) - The leader-figure of the trio with tan fur. He's the most logical, level-headed, rational and calculating of the three. Throttle's vision was damaged in the same incident that caused the losses of Modo's arm and the right side of Vinnie's face. As a result he wears green sunglasses with field spec capabilities. On his right hand he wears a battle glove (coined "Nuke Knucks") which increases the strength of his blows with that fist. He also has a laser pistol as another weapon of choice. His first symbolic quote in the series was, "In this wild and woolly universe, there are three things you can count on: your brains, your bros and your bike!"
- Modo (voiced by Dorian Harewood) - The gentle giant of the three with gray fur and an eye-patch, suggesting that his eye may have been damaged during Karbunkle's experiments. He lost his right arm in the same incident that burned off the right side of Vinnie's face and damaged Throttle's vision. His robotic arm replacement has a built-in laser cannon and has great strength. When angry, his right eye flashes red. He is prone to fits of rage when he or his bros are referred to as 'rats'. He is by far the strongest of the three mice. Despite outwardly looking the most threatening and aggressive, Modo is the most empathetic and sensitive of the group. The big guy doesn't want any harm to befall Charley, and as such, she 'mothers' him in return. His bike is the only one out of the three with a definite name ("Lil' Hoss"), and the one with the most demonstrated AI capability. He always references what his greyfurred mama used to say. His first signature quote was "RAT?!!" "My mama didn't raise no stinkin' rat! UNDERSTAND?!!"
- Vinnie (voiced by Ian Ziering) - Self-proclaimed lady-killer with white fur. The right side of his face was burned off in the same incident where Throttle's vision was damaged and where Modo lost his right arm; thus, Vinnie wears a flexible faceplate. He rides a red racing Sport bike, and is a thrill-seeker, often volunteering for the most dangerous tasks, enjoying the rush and subsequent glory. He wears a green X-cross bandolier on his chest, and wields expanding flares as well. His bike seems to have the greatest arsenal of weaponry between the three, and he is the best overall biker of the trio. He has a recurring catchphrase, "What a rush!", and has a signature laugh of triumph. Vinnie is most definitely the wildest, fun-loving and egotistical of the group. All three are adrenaline junkies to the extreme, but even Throttle and Modo can't understand how he's still alive, considering the risks he takes. When you look past his "hypermasculinity", Vinnie is actually a very loving and caring individual. He flirts endlessly with Charley, even accidentally calling her 'Harley' after his old flame on Mars.
- Charlene "Charley" Davidson (voiced by Leeza Miller McGee) - The Mice are always backed up by Charley, a human mechanic who owns the Last Chance Garage in Chicago. She is a headstrong woman, and is always ready to go into battle, though the Biker Mice try to keep her out of dangerous situations, never because they think she's incapable or weak, but because they couldn't bear anything bad to happen to her. Aside from being the target of Vinnie's affection (which she playfully blows off), she is also responsible for upgrades on the bros' bikes, is a high-tech genius in her own right, and is a biker every bit as skilled as the Biker Mice. Her name is quite obviously a pun on the famous Harley Davidson brand of motorcycles.
Antagonists
- Lawrence Limburger (voiced by W. Morgan Sheppard) - The main antagonist of the series, Lawrence Limburger is an alien from Plutark and has an odd fascination for Earth's criminal society of the 1930s. He is the head of Limburger Industries, the biggest industrial company in Chicago. Wearing a mask in order to look human and a purple suit at most times, he attempts to mine it and other parts of Earth of various resources including random earth, dirt, rock, snow, metal and oil. He is highly resourceful and cunning, but always failing due to the biker mice's interventions. His headquarters is a very tall tower called Limburger Plaza. Unfortunately for him, his plans are foiled and his tower is either destroyed, torn down, launched into space or even disappears completely by the Biker Mice at the climax of almost every single episode. Limburger reappears in the 2006 sequel series, but as a bootlicker for the Pit Boss.
- Dr. Benjamin Boris Zachary Karbunkle (voiced by Susan Silo) - A thin, sly scientist, of species unknown. Karbunkle used to work for Limburger's superior, Dominic T. Stilton, until Limburger bribed him to cross over. Karbunkle's main task is to think of machines and robots to either battle the Biker Mice, gather resources from Earth, or look up the villain of the week with his dimensional transporter. What is common knowledge is that during the War of Liberation on Mars he gave Modo his bionic arm (though in the pilot he appeared to be unfamiliar with it, calling it an interesting invention), Stoker his bionic tail and Throttle his malfunctioning bionic eyes. Karbunkle was also the one who built the Mind Bender Beam, successfully used on Stoker to brainwash the Freedom Fighter leader into obeying the Plutarkians. Karbunkle is a sycophant, often seen admiring Limburger and praising him; however, Karbunkle's top priority is Karbunkle. He is often seen torturing Fred the Mutant, cares little about his co-worker Grease Pit and has traded Plutarkian employers many times. Karbunkle is very sadistic and is known to enjoy torturing people, wears a white lab coat, high heeled boots, has a green pair of goggles which he never takes off and once in a while, his red underwear is revealed. Also reappears in the 2006 series as well, and suffers the same fate as Limburger.
- Grease Pit (voiced by Brad Garrett) - The stereotypical cartoonish bungling bad guy sidekick usually in charge of whatever project Lawrence Limburger is running at the time. He fails in his endeavours most of the time, which Limburger soon learns to factor into his planning. Grease Pit rides a tri-cycle into battle against the Biker Mice at the head of his Goons and wears a pair of gardening trousers like a mechanic's. As his name suggests, Grease Pit constantly oozes oil, and he is consistently clumsy, often falling over or dropping critical pieces of Limburger's schemes. Grease Pit is the first villain Limburger ever hired though, his advert was "spiced up" to make him seem more capable than the bungling goof he is by his agent, (who is possible also his mother).
- Fred the Mutant (voiced by Rob Paulsen) - Fred has a happy lot in life; he thrills at the thought of receiving pain and that is his one purpose as well, being the subject of many of Karbunkle's testings as well as physical abuse by Limburger. He is a midget with clothing similar to portrayals of Quasimodo, is bald and has three pink eyes with black irises, a bushy tail, and a tentacle instead of a right arm.
- Lord Camembert (voiced by Jeff Bennett) - Limburger's higher-up, whom Limburger finds disgusting especially when he makes him do the embarrassing Plutarkian greeting. In some other cases, he will appear with the entire Plutarkian council with Limburger in a panic over what task is current. He often appears on the vidcom or in person to Limburger and berates him for his failure, often at a loud voice. As High Chairman of Plutark Camembert holds highest power of the planet for four year term at once.
- Pit Boss (voiced by Stu Rosen) - The Pit Boss is the burly ruler of the Pits outside of town. His men, referred to as his "Pit Crew" will come up and rob various places, often taken hostages as well. The Pit Boss has an electric whip that he uses to keep his slaves in line.
Recurring characters
- Napoleon Brie (voiced by Luke Perry) - Limburger's chief Plutarkian rival from Detroit, except that Brie usually seems to be rather successful. He and his "Number one", a gun for hire with a big red beard and sunglasses, dominate Detroit. Despite this, Brie's attempts at taking out the Biker Mice turn out just as futile as Limburger's. Brie's efforts are not helped by his undermining Limburger at the same time. Small of stature and the owner of a large variety of facial masks although he only ever wears the one with a crazy eye and speaks with an accent very similar to Elmer Fudd. (Instead of "revenge" or "rolaids", he says "wevenge" and "wolaids".)
- Rimfire (voiced by Brian Austin Green) - Modo's nephew who is overprotected by his peers on Mars because of his age, despite the fact that he, too, is clearly capable of what it takes to be a worthy Freedom Fighter. He first appeared in the episode "Back to Mars, Part 2" when the three Mice were escaping prison. He appears again in the episode Stalkers, where he also crashed into the scoreboard at Quigley Field while escaping from intergalactic rogue bounty hunters (who view the Biker Mice as the big championship stock) that eventually request Limburger's permission, and he played a crucial role in their defeat. He also appears in the 3-part episode Once Upon a Time on Mars, where the viewers see for the first time how his age led to distrust from some of his peers.
- Carbine (voiced by Leah Remini) - General Carbine is the de facto leader of the Freedom Fighters, a former Army officer who defected during the Plutarkian-Mars war. Has a heart for Throttle.
- Stoker (voiced by Peter Strauss) - Stoker is the founding father of the Freedom Fighter movement on Mars, and as seen in Once Upon a Time on Mars, revealed that Mars was sold, beginning to have doubts over the fight. Eventually he continues fighting as part of the rebellion. He plays a more crucial role in the 2006 revival, where he fights to protect his invention from the invading Catatonian Empire.
Super villains
In most episodes, Limburger orders Karbunkle to use transporter to bring into Chicago one of the very powerful super villains. Generally each of them have one special ability which is useful for Limburger's plan in hand. Most of them seem to use asteroid station called Black Rock as their main hideout when they're not summoned by those willing to pay for their services. On one notable occasion in the episode A Scent, a Memory, a Far Distant Cheese, Limburger and Karbunkle accidentally got sucked into the transporter and appear in a nightclub, where all the villains confront him for not paying them as they asked for.
Episodes
2006 revival
The Biker Mice from Mars returned to TV screens in 2006. The 2006 Biker Mice From Mars series is a continuation of the story, and gives more airtime to another character, General Stoker.
The new 28 episode series began airing in the UK on Toonattik on GMTV (now known at weekends as CITV) on August 26, 2006. [1] However, due to production problems at the studio in the Philippines the series was not finalized until late 2007, resulting in the launch in the USA and many other countries being delayed until 2008 as it still needed to be dubbed.
The series was largely influenced by the major toy line that was manufactured by Italian giant, Giochi Preziosi in 2005. GP retained Pangea as developers of the toy line, working in tandem with creator and executive producer, Rick Ungar. Characters, vehicles, and weapons used in the series were first developed by Pangea and turned over to G7 Animation for integration into the series. The team of Ungar, G7, and Pangea collaborated in order to maintain consistency between the intellectual property and the execution of the primary toy range, as the GP licensing monies were utilized to set in motion the series development.
The new series launched in autumn of 2008 in Italy on Italia 1, and on August 1 of the same year on 4Kids TV on FOX. The series is on hiatus in the US, but according to the official website (www.bikermice.tv) would return later in 2009, on CW4Kids. However, as of 2012, it has yet to return to US airwaves.
The series also launched successfully in Finland on MTV3 and in Australia on Channel Ten in October 2006.
Broadcast history
In the 1990s, the series was repeated on Channel 4 and from 1998-99 on its youth strand T4.
CITV on ITV2 re-ran the series at 07.55 Monday to Friday for a 10 week strip from early September 2006. It was repeated on ITV2 at 08.25 Monday to Friday for 10 weeks from March 27, 2007.
The cartoon was broadcast in the Republic of Ireland on RTE Two on weekday afternoons from 1995 to 1996.
Video games
A Biker Mice from Mars video game was released by Konami for the Super Nintendo in 1994. The European version features extensive advertisements for Snickers candy bars.
In 2006, Biker Mice from Mars was released based on the 2006 revival in Finland, Australia & The United Kingdom for the Nintendo DS & Sony PS2 consoles. None of these games received any major positive ratings although the PS2 game was a major sales success throughout Scandinavia.
Comic books
Marvel Comics published a three issue series in the early 1990s. A fourth issue was solicited on the reader's page. Marvel UK published its own series. The whole American series and portions of the British series were published in Germany (also by Marvel UK) in 7 magazine-sized issues from 1994 to 1995.
Home media
VHS releases
United Kingdom
DVD releases
The first 13 episodes of Season One was released on DVD in the UK by Maximum Entertainment.
In the USA in 2008, Exposure Entertainment released the 1st season on DVD as a two disc set.
Both the UK and US sets are now currently out of print.
An online petition demanding the release of the full original series in DVD has so far collected the signatures of several hundred fans from around the world, representing a growing community of fans numbering thousands of people on Facebook.