#wayside school cartoon

[fully-caulked-wagon]

Zosan Wayside School

Ah.

Content that literally only I want and no one will get the reference to unless explicitly told what it is.

My favourite.

[one-time-i-dreamt]

Wayside School got another cartoon, but this one was based on the Tim Heitz designs and it was a musical.

[macaronichewtoyz]

Icon commission for @tacomanarrows !! ⭐️

[tacoma-narrows]

Also u can see this Jenny Wayside bi pride icon I made as my pride pfp a few years ago :3 I'm working on this year's (different) pride pfp now but this one still makes me so so happy <333

[Originally Drawn 6/1/2021]

[highlifeboat]

Does anybody remember the show Wayside?

This show and Jacob Two Two just randomly popped into my mind and they feel like such a fever dream. But I remember really loving Wayside and nobody else I knew watched it.

Anyway they needed to free my boy Todd

EVERYBODY had it out for this kid. Even the girl who liked him was constantly punching him. He did NOT deserve that treatment.

[lauferisms]

I love Vewn's animation for Chloe Moriondo's "Manta Rays" along with the song itself, and always thought the girl in it looked like Maurecia from the Wayside cartoon (say what you want about it but Maurecia's design is just GOAT-ed), so I decided to make this tribute. Hoping Art College can improve my skills.

[tw0ism]

hey does wayside have a fandom & if so do we all agree that louis is boyfriend material

[isthi-isthi]

Also there's a TV show! I was surprised no one mentioned it, and then I thought, hey was this just another weird Canadian cartoon and no one in the reblogs is Canadian so no one knows about it? So I looked it up. And yes it sure is. I really liked it as a kid! No idea how closely it follows the books though, I haven't watched it in years.

every horror writer in history wanted what the 19th floor subplot in the Wayside School books had

[charlies-stims]

🐀🪰 Sammy ! 🐀🪰 - Wayside (Canadian cartoon)

Updating refs...

X . X . X

X . X . X

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[mollywog]

Prompt: Everlark…roleswap (you can pick and choose) OR Everlark sneaking around (and failing)

I hope it tickles something in your brain. Love your work <3

Thank you for the ask @atelierlili!!! This isn’t exactly what you asked for, but it was the thing that made the pieces fall together for this one-shot

Katniss opens her eyes to the sight of an unfamiliar ceiling. She quickly scans the room for signs of another inhabitant. Finding none, she still throws the sheet over her head for good measure.

The events of the prior night come flooding back to her. She had had a one night stand; and not just with anyone, but with Peeta Mellark. She had such a crush on him back in high school, though she doubts he even noticed her then. He had been busy with sports teams, clubs, and friends, while she was just trying to make it through.

But then last night she’d spied him across the bar and, encouraged by her roommate and a shot of tequila, she’d held his stare and smiled. He could have ignored her; the Hob was crowded with the Saturday rush, and as usual he was surrounded by a group of people, but he had made a point to seek her out. The alcohol may have helped in the beginning, but after two hours of steadily increasing flirtation, she was stone sober when she’d suggested they get-outta-here. Her body hums remembering the rest of the night. Regardless, now the thought of an awkward morning exchange is enough to have her almost regretting the whole thing… She sighs, tossing the sheets off her face. It isn’t going to get any easier the longer she waits, so she might as well get on with it.

But first she’ll need clothes.

She peers around the room but her shorts and tanktop are nowhere to be found. Cringing, she remembers how she’d pounced as soon as the door to his apartment had closed. Their clothes had been shed before they’d left the living room. She spots her bra and underwear at the end of the bed, but greeting Peeta like that feels obscene and draping herself in his bedsheets feels a bit dramatic, so she opts for a comfortable orange shirt she finds tossed over a chair.

She’ll just dash out and grab her clothes. Depending on where he is, he might not even realize she’s left the room before she’s safely back inside with yesterday’s outfit.

But all her plans fall to the wayside when she opens the door to the smell of coffee, warm cinnamon, and bacon. She moves towards the source like a cartoon mouse led by their nose at the scent of cheese. She'd be embarrassed if she weren’t so hungry.

“Hey,” Peeta smiles, turning from the counter to greet her then back to his bowl, but not before she catches his gaze lingering on her exposed legs below the hem of his shirt. She’s never thought herself particularly pretty, but Peeta’s hungry glance has her wondering if he sees something she doesn’t. She’d felt powerless to her crush back in the day; the feeling of longing that would creep up on her when she’d steal glances at him from across the lunch room, but maybe now the desire wasn’t so one sided.

Emboldened by the idea, she hops onto the counter next to him, “I wasn’t sure if you were a coffee person but I made enough for both of us. Or I can put on water for tea? Then there’s bacon and I have eggs - I can make them anyway you like, or I could do pancakes if you’d prefer that. And if none of that suits there are cinnamon rolls that will be ready any minute.”

“That’s not breakfast, that’s a buffet,” she says, selecting a strip of bacon from the plate and taking a bite. She watches him relax a degree as if he’d expected her to vanish if he hadn’t offered the right inducement. She supposes it’s not an unfair assumption, it was, after all, what she had planned to do not two minutes ago.

“I wanted to make you breakfast, but I realize I don’t know what you like. I might have gone overboard. I’ve never done this before.”

“What? Made a reasonable amount of breakfast?”

He laughs, “I meant slept with someone on a first date.” She looks away to hide her blush. “I think I could have gleaned enough information by our third or so date to have an idea of your breakfast preferences.”

“Date? Is that what we’re calling last night?”

“I’d prefer that to one night stand. First date makes it sound like the beginning. One night stand - like the end. I had a great time last night.” She rolls her eyes and he smirks as he continues, “that was great too, but I meant even before we left the bar… I like you Katniss. I always have, and I really don’t want this to be over.”

Always? Maybe she hadn’t been the only one carrying a torch all these years. He’s standing close enough for her to smell his body wash, something enticing but familiar, but they’re not touching and her skin is buzzing with the urge to connect them even in the most innocent way. Does she really want this to be over? “Okay,” she says after a beat.

“Okay?”

“First date it is”

He beams at her, sending warmth from her chest out to her limbs and she can’t contain her smile in return. A timer buzzes before she can consider leaning in to close the distance between them. Suddenly conscious of her morning breath, she hops off the counter excusing herself to the restroom.

She brushes her teeth with her finger and the paste on the counter before quickly rebraiding her hair and washing her face. She belatedly realizes she’s forgotten her clothes, but when she opens the door there are two sets of voices on the other side. She panics, freezing with the door ajar just a crack.

“I told you I wasn’t coming,” she hears Peeta say.

“And I told you that was unacceptable.” She’s never spoken to the woman, but she recognizes the voice right away: Peeta’s mother. The baker's wife has always been a notorious bitch, children still refer to her as ‘the Witch’ as they did when she was a kid.

She tries not to eavesdrop, she really does, but Mrs. Mellark’s voice carries, high and shrill. She doesn’t hear it all, but words like stupid, selfish, and inconsiderate can’t be ignored and enrage her. Who would think any such things of Peeta Mellark, let alone his own mother?

She watches his posture turn rigid as the woman berates him: You’d think he was missing his own father’s funeral rather than some weekly family engagement. His eyes flit towards the bathroom and catch her stare. She watches him sigh, deflating as if making a decision, “fine Mother. Just go to the car and give me a minute to get ready.”

It dawns on her what he’s doing; sacrificing himself so that she can sneak off and if his defeated appearance is any Indication, he doesn’t expect to see her ever again after this mortifying scene.

This will not do.

Katniss straightens her spine and flings the door open. With a confidence borne of righteous indignation, she marches over to Peeta, wraps her arms around his waist, and pops up to her toes to kiss him on the cheek, “I didn’t realize we were expecting guests. Did I hear something about brunch? I’m starving.”

“This is why you canceled?” Mrs. Mellark's contempt is obvious as she takes in her appearance.

“This is Katniss and no: I canceled because I don’t want to go, but if you do…” he turns towards her with a smirk.

Katniss muses that the olive toned legs beneath her son’s shirt is all the information Mrs. Mellark needs to make her judgment. “You cannot bring her. Not unless you want your grandmother to have a heart attack.”

“Good thing Katniss is a nurse.”

She hums, “though I did take an oath to do no harm. Seems a little reckless to attend with your grandmother in such a fragile state.”

Peeta shrugs, “fair point. Guess that settles it.”

“Maybe another day,” Katniss adds.

Mrs. Mellark looks between the pair before huffing and turning on her heels. The door slams and Katniss's feeling of satisfaction falters as she belatedly wonders if maybe Peeta might begrudge her the Ming vase his grandmother will certainly bequeath to his brother now. Suddenly ashamed at her performance, she can’t meet his eye as she asks, “is there anything I have to apologize for?”

She looks up at the sound of Peeta’s laughter. “Not a thing” he says before scooping her into an embrace. And as her lips seek his she’s glad she decided to brush her teeth

Read on Ao3

[tacoma-narrows]

Parallel Universes

Finally JennyPosting makes its grand return!! I've had this idea of Jenny from the Wayside books meeting the Jenny from the cartoon in mind for a long time but I was never rlly brave enough to try it out. But I'm glad I did bc it was a lot of fun! For the book design, I went off the one from the illustrations by Tim Heitz, from the most recent incarnation of the series. I chose those because they're the style I like the most, with his versions of the characters still looking cartoony and stylized but not overly so. And then ofc cartoon Jenny just has one design haha. Both designs as they appear in their respective source material will be below the cut as well :]

And I will forever and always be a Wayside cartoon defender, but I still wanted to poke some fun at it with the dialogue because it is by no means a perfect adaptation of the books lmao. I used a flat marker style brush for the book design because that's also something I've been thinking of trying out with my style lately, and I think it works well for a character in that style! I've also been replaying/rewatching a lot of 2D Boy and Tomorrow Corporation games (ie World of Goo and Little Inferno) lately, and those also probably influenced my style there too lol

Anyways Wayside enjoyers rise !! You will undoubtedly see more JennyPosting from me soon bc I've been thinking abt her a lot again lol. Cartoon Jenny is probably my fav media character so it was very nice to draw her again after so long <33

Here are their original designs! Tim Heitz's book design on the left and cartoon design on the right :]

[joslincox]

The Alpha Bitch Trope in Cartoon

Tricia Holmes from 6teen is well known by the gang as the most popular girl at their school and is the snooty archnemesis of Caitlin Cooke, who used to be a member of her Girl Posse.

Subverted on American Dad! where the "hottest girl in school" and head cheerleader Lisa Silver appears willing to go out with the nerdy Steve and is surprisingly understanding when the show's antics keep messing up the planned dates. In another episode, it looks like she and her Girl Posse did something terrible to Steve's unpopular girlfriend... but it turns out it is actually Steve's friends who are responsible, once again subverting what you'd expect from Alpha Bitch behavior.

Amphibia has Sasha Waybright, Anne's snobby and manipulative Toxic Friend who has a strong desire to rule over and control others; she even says herself that she ruled her school back on Earth. Anne starts the show off as her unwitting minion, being encouraged to engage in delinquent behavior and the like. As the series progresses, Sasha ultimately drives Anne away from her, especially after the latter realizes how bad of a friend she really is. By the third season, however, Sasha comes to realize how horrible she was and grows out of this behavior to become a better person.

Nanette Manoir from Angela Anaconda, also a Fauxreigner French Jerk and something of a teacher's pet. Angela has had many an Imagine Spot where she gets thoroughly humiliated and/or maimed.

Priscilla and Penelope Pinkpaws from Angelina Ballerina.

Cora, the daughter of the CEO Nora Rita Norita, in the Animaniacs (2020) short "My Super Sour 16" is an arrogant, spoiled Rich Bitch who wants her Sweet 16 to be absolutely perfect.

Muffy from Arthur used to be this and occasionally still has shades of it, particularly in the episode where Arthur starts acting like her. However, she has a Hidden Heart of Gold.

As Told by Ginger:

Miranda Kilgallen is the second-in-command and the Girl Posse leader to Courtney Gripling. She also defrosts a little. She never exactly becomes friendly, but she's a lot worse at the start than she is at the end.

Courtney Gripling is an inversion — Lovable Alpha Bitch. She's the queen bee; pretty, rich, popular, and more than a little narcissistic, a (self-proclaimed) snob, but she's a genuinely sweet person who doesn't seem to harbor any malice towards anyone — unlike her friend Miranda. While her sidekick Miranda is quick to insult the unpopular girls, Courtney is friendly with them.

Penelope Lang in Atomic Betty. Her two lackeys are a pair of sycophantic nerds, and she is infamous for referring to people as "losers" often.

Barbie:

Raquelle from Barbie: A Fairy Secret, although once the plot gets into motion, it's mostly pushed by the wayside.

Violet Nylund and Ashlynn Torescu from Barbie Presents Thumbelina.

Formerly Sloane, Hallie, and Dua for Camp Pop and Olivia and her friends for Camp Royalty from Barbie In Rock N Royals.

Tammy Bounceaway from Barbie Dreamhouse Adventures.

Tanya Butaire from LEGO Friends.

Batman Beyond has Blade and Chelsea. Blade is actually fairly apathetic, but has the look down pat, and is more than content to do things such as throw most of a school assignment on Terry, or manipulate a classmate to make another guy jealous. Chelsea, is usually a lot more sympathetic; she's actually a rather nice person, as seen in "The Last Resort," and except for being dismissive of Howard Groote, doesn't really do anything bad. Though she sometimes tries to get Dana to see other guys, it's because she thinks Terry isn't good for Dana, due to him always brushing her off.

Claire Brewster in Beetlejuice who is still the "stuck-up, shallow yet very pretty girl" type.

The Benedict Express

Madison, while technically a protagonist, is essentially the Beta Bitch to Alpha Bitch Erica Green and has often participated in her schemes against less attractive girls. Her status as the daughter of a professor allows her to get away with anything. Of course, their rival Sarah who is rarely shown is an even bigger Alpha Bitch.

Ciara Toler, when she was in high school and before she was brutally raped as a consequence of her bitchiness. While she showed strong Alpha Bitchy traits partly because of her status as "Barbee Creek Barbie" and "the princess of the projects" - the most attractive girl in her 'hood - her snobbishness is portrayed somewhat sympathetically as arising from her impatience with living in a community filled with people who preferred to wallow in poverty and being the only person (even in her own family) with a drive to improve herself. In fact, she often tried to act more like a Cute Sports Club Manager and uplift the spirit of her friends and neighbors before becoming exhausted with the fact they were only interested in drug dealing and violence.

Tammy Larson from Bob's Burgers is something of a subversion in that she thinks she's an Alpha Bitch and assumes she's super popular. The thing is, she doesn't have anywhere near as many friends or followers as you think she would if she were that popular. The only person who hangs around her on a regular basis and actually seems to like her is her Beta Bitch Jocelyn, and even she doesn't seem to like Tammy that much. The only other people who could possibly be considered her friends are Jimmy Jr., Zeke, and the Belcher siblings, and that should tell you something about her popularity level since they don't seem to actually even like her.

Boy Girl Dog Cat Mouse Cheese: Girl has a nemesis called Lila, who mockingly calls her "the queen of nerds" and threatens to shut down Girl's after-school cosplay club if elected school president, just to be mean.

Nina Harper from Braceface. Interesting, though, in that she and the protagonist, Sharon Spitz, were actually best friends when they were little. But a mishap with one of Nina's dolls that got its head popped off ended their friendship when she accused Sharon of being the culprit (even though she had no proof that Sharon did it). So her bullying Sharon is more or less out of spite. They do somewhat reconcile as the series goes on. Especially by season 3 when it's revealed that Sharon was indeed innocent of the doll incident; Nina's cousin was the cause of that.

Suzi from Camp Lakebottom is McGee's vain and bossy sister, a former pageant queen, and a huge Attention Whore.

Cleo from Clone High. She is a very selfish, snobby, cynical, vain, manipulative, pretentious, and materialistic stereotypical school diva who cares only about her social image, beauty, and popularity. Like in many a high school story, protagonist Abe has a hopeless crush on her despite the fact she's clearly more interested in Jerk Jock JFK.

Come the revival series set in 2023, Cleo expects she'll still be the most popular girl in school and is utterly horrified to learn she's been replaced by Frida Kahlo, an artsy skateboarder with a slight mustache and a giant unibrow. In fact, Frida and Harriet Tubman think Joan of Arc is cooler than Cleo.

Elisabeth "Sissi" Delmas in Code Lyoko is a strange version of this. In the first season, this is played straight, with the exception of a few scenes in only a few episodes. However, her assistance to the heroes in later seasons, particularly the second and fourth, is often offered without a second thought or a specific request for a reward, though this can happen quite a bit in a life-or-death situation. It seems that her personality alternates between seasons, from a straight Alpha Bitch with several Pet the Dog moments in Seasons 1 and 3 to a more Jerk with a Heart of Gold Lovable Alpha Bitch in Seasons 2 and 4.

Paulina from Danny Phantom. The most popular girl in school and loves to rub it in people's faces.

The show also had Valerie Grey, who early in the show ends up losing her wealth and becoming a Fallen Princess. She still retained some bitchiness before completely mellowing out and becomes a villain towards Danny’s ghost half.

Played with on Daria. You'd think the title character would have one as an arch-nemesis, but no, girls like Brittany are generally nice (if condescending) to her. Daria's sister Quinn, however, is part of the Fashion Club, the popular Girl Posse of their grade...and is in constant competition with its leader Sandi for dominance. Essentially, the two never have time to torture less popular girls because they're torturing each other instead. Quinn is generally the more sympathetic of the two, if only because she doesn't abuse poor Stacy, the group's least popular member.

The longer the show went on, the more it seemed like Sandi was a Deconstruction of the Alpha Bitch. While the boys of Lawndale all see Sandi as hot, there was nothing to indicate Sandi truly was as popular as she believes she is. Since she spends far more time battling Quinn for supremacy in the Fashion Club, Sandi's supposed popularity only ever was apparent within the confines of the club. Furthermore, when she decides to quit in "Fat Like Me" only Quinn appears sorry that Sandi's leaving while Tiffany and Stacy seemed overjoyed at the thought of Sandi no longer breathing down their necks. Considering Sandi is repeatedly shown to be an egotistical and manipulative Attention Whore, it's no wonder she's desperate to maintain what little foothold of popularity she has in a space she has total control over.

Andrea Davenport from The Ghost and Molly McGee is a snooty tween "influencer" who tries to make Molly a pariah on her first day at school just because she kept mispronouncing Andrea's name (which she insists is pronounced "AHN-dree-ah" and not "ANN-dree-ah").

Pacifica Northwest from Gravity Falls, which is later deconstructed in season 2 when it's suggested she's only this way because her rich parents are even worse and raised her to be stuck up. She begins to defrost as of "The Golf War", then "Northwest Mansion Mystery" reveals that she wasn't raised to be a bitch, she was mentally abused into being one. To put things in perspective, Pacifica was nothing more than a bully and a brat, but she isn't a sociopath. Dipper convinced her that there is still redemption for her.

"The Golf War" had Mabel lampshade this by calling her a "walking one-dimensional bleach blonde Valley Girl stereotype".

Mindy from The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy is a much younger Alpha Bitch, as well as an incredibly obsessive one. For example, she loses her head cheerleader position to Mandy (who just shouts the game plans to the team) and, after consulting the "patron saint of cheerleading" (a trophy she thinks is talking), decides the best solution is to incapacitate her in some way in the middle of a match, or, failing that, blow her up. If she sees Mandy with anyone aside from Billy or Irwin or the like, she walks up to them, puts on an obscenely perky face, and says "You're my best friend!"

Trina Riffin from Grojband acts this way, even though she only has one dedicated underling, her much put-upon childhood friend Mina. Nonetheless, her official bio states her to be the most popular girl at her school (although since we rarely ever see the characters at school, this never pops up in the series).

Paige Logan from Grossology. She is a popular but very snobbish girl.

Harvey Street Kids:

Frufru, the local rich girl. She's depicted as being haughty, self-absorbed, and into fashion, but lacks a Girl Posse, indicated to be simply because she's so distant from the other kids.

Zoe, Audrey's abusive older sister, is a more obvious example, being a head cheerleader and the leader of a trio composed of her and her two friends.

Rhonda Wellington Lloyd comes between this and Rich Bitch in some episodes of Hey Arnold! However, she actually is shown to have a friendly side, since her best friend Nadine actually is implied to be a middle-class girl (and with almost completely different interests than Rhonda—Nadine loves arthropods, Rhonda loves fashion). Her romantic interest in Harold, who actually is fat and less popular, is another redeeming feature.

Miraculous Ladybug:

Chloé Bourgeois. Her father is the Mayor of Paris and spoils his 'little angel' rotten. She hits all the marks for personality, but she is not very popular at all, with only one friend, Sabrina, who she treats more like a servant and also doesn't understand what friendship might actually be. She thinks everyone adores her (they don't), and can rarely accept she made a mistake. Among her most heinous acts is locking an emotionally insecure girl in the bathroom so she could be next to Adrien, who Chloé has a crush on (and said insecure girl does not) in a class photo. She is responsible for most cases of people becoming sad or angry and getting brainwashed into supervillains, to the point that Hawk Moth once created an akuma with no specific victim in mind and had it follow her around since he figured she was bound to piss someone off eventually. Unfortunately, he caught her on the day she was specifically trying to be nicer to people, so it took a little while, but she eventually delivered.

Lila Rossi. She convinces the rest of the class, who adores her, to do whatever she wants and manipulates people to try and turn them against Marinette (the only person who doesn't like her). She also torments people for petty reasons, such as sending a picture of herself kissing Adrien to Kagami, or the aforementioned turning people against Marinette because Marinette refuses to believe her Blatant Lies. She also acts spiteful and horribly rude, insulting people behind their backs.

Audrey Bougeois is one of these all grown up — she's a snobby, rude, and narcissistic fashion critic who belittles and threatens to fire anyone that doesn't meet her impossibly high standards. Her own family isn't exempt from this; her treatment of her husband is flat-out Domestic Abuse, she alternates between belittling her daughter while misremembering her name and encouraging her to follow her example (said daughter being Chloé), and while she treats Zoé slightly better, she doesn't really pay attention to her unless she puts up a Jerkass Façade.

Monster Buster Club gives us a subversion of the Always Female rule. Resident Alpha Brat Mark is a male Spoiled Blond Rich Kid who delights in insulting and generally being less than pleasant with the four kid heroes, apparently for no reason.

Cleo from Monster High is popular, vain, and frequently tries to manipulate situations to be about her. However, she does love her boyfriend and her friends, and occasionally displays redeeming qualities, becoming more of a Lovable Alpha Bitch as time goes on. Deconstructed in that her popularity is the result of her need for positive attention, which comes from her father and older sister treating her coldly and telling her about the importance of power, both of which went to Cleo's head.

Cleo: "I'm Cleo De Nile, and I've got to give the people what they want."

Tiff and Brit, the Crust cousins from My Life as a Teenage Robot, who continually plot to keep Jenny/XJ-9 unpopular.

Diamond Tiara from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, with Silver Spoon as the Beta Bitch, are a pair of spoiled brats who tease Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle about not developing cutie marks yet, and taunt Scootaloo about the fact that she can't fly. The episode "Crusaders of the Lost Mark" reveals Diamond was raised to be mean by her mother Spoiled Rich, who's far worse than she is, prompting her to stand up to her near the end and become nice.

Neo Yokio: Arcangelo is a male example. He leads the "east side gentlemen" who look down on Kaz for being Nouveau Riche.

Mayor Paul Spryman from Ozzy and Drix. He is a 14-year-old brain cell who has absolutely no business being in charge of the city and bullies Ozzy for being an Emo Teen and Drix for being a Nerd.

In Pixel Pinkie, Suzi is the school's alpha bitch who immediately marks Nina as a target for her strange clothes and Amazingly Embarrassing Parents.

Amity Blight in The Owl House, although she is technically more of the academic variety and grows into a lovable one fairly quickly. Her friend Boscha, while a Beta Bitch in status, is a more straight example in regard to attitude. Following Amity taking a level in kindness midway through Season 1, Boscha becomes the new Alpha Bitch in her place.

Princess Morbucks on The Powerpuff Girls (1998). She's a rich, spoiled Prima Donna that thinks she's better than the girls. Nobody at her school likes her. She even wants to become a member of the girls, which they turn down because she lacks any qualities of the team. Taken up notches in the 2016 reboot; she no longer wants to be the fourth Powerpuff Girl, she wants to be the only Powerpuff Girl.

Princess Natasha: Greg's girlfriend Kelly is this, at least as far as Natasha is concerned. She is totally self=absorbed and her 'crimes' include wearing too much makeup and cheating off her fellow students.

The Ashleys in Recess. Despite having some moments where they aren't a bunch of Rich Bitches, they spend the majority of the series wanting to screw with everyone for the sake of being mean.

Vana Glama from Sidekick is a classic case, a popular and self-centered primadonna who gets the best grades at the Sidekick Academy, has all the boys (especially Eric) drooling over her, and is served by the beleaguered nerd Kitty Ko.

In The Simpsons episode "Eight Misbehavin'", the family describe what happened to them during a nine-month mid-episode Time Skip. Lisa reveals that she became the most popular girl in school, "but then blew it by being conceited". Whilst the details of this are never revealed, it is probable that she became an Alpha Bitch during that period.

Gemini Stone from Sabrina: The Animated Series, a stand-in for the original Libby on the live-action series.

Also Portia from the friends forever movie.

The Spectacular Spider-Man

Liz was introduced as one, mocking Peter as much as everyone else, until a boost of Character Development after seeing him in different light turned her into his love interest.

Sally Avril is the most abusive girl of the group, even mercilessly mocking fellow clique-member Flash Thompson when his hero, Spider-Man, appears to be committing robberies. Slightly subverted when Peter's aunt has a heart attack as Flash mentions that even Sally feels sorry for him, although she is not as forthcoming with her sympathies as his friends are. Both she and Flash have gone through a bit of Character Development. When she thinks that Peter's been killed, Sally is horrified. She does say it's because she'll have to tell Liz and Liz "looks awful in black", but when she sees that Peter's okay, she performs a textbook Anger Born of Worry. A bit later, she tells him that no, she doesn't care, but she doesn't want him to be blown to bits, she's not a monster. In the last episode, she's glad Liz broke up with Peternote .

Gretel from Staines Down Drains is the arch-enemy of Mary-Jane. She is a spoilt girl who usually bullies the Staines with her friends, the Lupe brothers.

Brittney Wong from Star vs. the Forces of Evil hits all the typical beats: she's a bratty, selfish Rich Bitch who became captain of the cheer-leading squad at Echo Creek Academy "on her own, and not because her dad made a generous donation to the school." Naturally, Brittney hates Star for being one of the few kids she can't intimidate and for stealing attention away from herself

Strawberry Shortcake: Angel Cake has moments of such in the 2003 series, especially in the final season, to the point of playing the villain in "Sleeping Beauty".

Peppermint Fizz was this in her early appearances but outgrows such behavior following her redesign.

Raspberry Tart/Torte becomes one in the 2021 series, with the addition of Adaptational Villainy. She drops this after Season 1, when she warms up to Strawberry and becomes one of her closest friends.

Melody from Teenage Fairytale Dropouts is a mean girl in that she's constantly looking down on Fury for the latter being a fairy who still hasn't grown her wings yet.

Total Drama: From the first generation, Heather and Courtney. Heather is a classic queen bee whereas Courtney revealed herself to be a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing with her bossy and overly competitive personality as the series progressed. Both were the Alpha Bitch on their respective teams in the first two seasons with Heather serving as the show's main Alpha Bitch in Island and Courtney in Action. However, in World Tour, both girls clash for the position.

From the third generation, Amy and Sugar. Amy treats her twin sister Samey with absolutely no respect, and pretty much acts like a Jerkass towards her other teammates as well, particularly Jasmine. Sugar is a pageant brat who asserts herself as the dominant female, especially over Ella and Sky.

From the fourth generation, Julia. She starts as a fake Granola Girl social media influencer, but Beneath the Mask, she's as self-absorbed as one can get. MK eventually exposes Julia's real personality to the world, but Julia's popularity doesn't suffer for long— she gets thousands of new followers who enjoy her real personality, and she's relieved that she no longer has to act nice to be popular.

Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race:

Taylor treats her mom Kelly like shit, and she is often rude to the other contestants.

Josee is a rare adult version, given how she regularly bullies her partner Jacques and belittles other teams, primarily the Cadets and the Sisters.

Mandy from Totally Spies! is a textbook case of this trope. Extra points for being shallow. Her cousin Mindy is also shown to be this, but it takes five seasons for her to show up.

It's spin-off show The Amazing Spiez! also has this with Tami.

Coral from Trollz is the head cheerleader, perpetually stuck-up, and is mean to the BFFL. She gets a case of Break the Haughty when Simon temporarily takes over and makes her his servant, and when Amethyst helps her she thanks the cast before returning to her usual ways.

Winx Club

A girl from Bloom's old hometown named Mitzi definitely fit the bill, despite appearing only a few times. In the Halloween episode, she invited Bloom and her friends to a party—which turned out to be an elaborate scheme to humiliate the girls. She bought and rigged a house, made up an elaborate legend, hired actors to pose as party guests (complete with scripts), and set up elaborate special effects around the house, just to pull a prank on someone she had barely seen in two years, along with four girls she had never met. Mitzi gets a more prominent role in some episodes of the fourth season: she lays her eyes on Brandon and wants to take him from Stella. Later, the Wizards of the Black Circle temporarily turn her and two friends into evil fairies. After that, she's practically Put on a Bus. She appears again in Season 5, and whatever time she's not playing fangirl to the Trix involves her being a bitch to her little sister.

The Trix themselves qualify. They bully others in school and generally boss others around before getting expelled. After episode nine, they get much, much worse, what with the multiple attempted homicides, turning The Cutie into a pumpkin for ruining one of their plans, removing the heroine's powers in a needlessly sadistic way after threatening her parents and revealing her backstory, and attempting to take over the universe. They're like Regina George, only with magical powers.

Christie Wilson from The Weekenders. She's a snooty jerk.

[forest-of-stories]

Throwback Thursday, Fandom Edition: Holy Creative Nostalgia, Batman!

Last January marked twenty-five years since the premiere of Batman Beyond, which ran for three seasons on (what was then) the family programming block of (what was then) the WB.  Younger Sister and I caught as many episodes as we could at the time that they were airing, but I didn’t watch the entire show until my local cartoon-watching group screened it in 2014.  It mostly held up then, and I think it would mostly hold up now: the characters were compelling, the visual style was distinctive, and the storylines balanced the established Batman mythology with teenage angst in (what was then) a science-fiction future.  In one of my favorite episodes, a school counselor uses mind-control technology to manipulate students into Doing Crimes; in another, animal DNA splicing becomes the hottest new fashion trend.  And so on.  Batman Beyond introduced me to a lot of the tropes surrounding the teen superhero who has to balance school and romance and family with a secret crime-fighting life, and gave me some of my earliest opportunities to unpack and re-examine and reshape the associated archetypes of "hero" and "damsel in distress" and "mentor" and "villain," which I am still interested in doing to this day.

This post is less about the show itself, however, than about the way thirteen-year-old Nevanna folded it into the stories that she was already scribbling on every available scrap of paper, at every opportunity, often alongside one or two friends.  I had never heard the words “fanfiction” or “fandom” or “crossover,” but I delighted in pulling characters from every piece of media that I enjoyed and writing them into nonsensical scenarios.  And in the first half of 1999, most of those scenarios involved characters from Batman Beyond.

There are two primary reasons why these crossovers took the direction that they did, and the first is a lot less embarrassing than the second:

I almost certainly had a crush on the hero of the show, Terry McGinnis, and wouldn’t even admit it to myself.

I liked when stories had “cool girls” in them, but had a very narrow, 1990s-influenced idea of what made a female character “cool,” and it definitely didn’t involve waiting around for a boy or needing to be rescued.  Maybe I didn't think that Dana, Terry’s civilian girlfriend, met my standards for what he “deserved.”*  There were one or two ladies in the supporting cast who probably would have, but instead of pairing him with one of them, or creating what we’d now call a self-insert, or even exploring Dana’s character to give her more agency and interiority, I grabbed a “girl warrior” character from a book series that I was reading at the time, literally dropped her into Futuristic Gotham City, and went about establishing that she was absolutely, definitely Not Like Other Girls.

From there, I continued to run with any idea that floated into my head, unconstrained by the laws of time, space, pre-existing characterization, or narrative plausibility.  Should I also introduce characters from Discworld and The Adventures of Pete & Pete to Futuristic Gotham City? Sure, why not? Should I establish a connection with the Wayside School books, which already featured students named Terrence and Dana? Sure, why not? Should I send my central characters on a time- and dimension-hopping quest to “correct” some of the fictional events that annoyed me personally, with a detour to the Land of Oz, whose princess almost brainwashed Terry into marrying her? Sure, why not? Twenty-five years later, although I like to think that I have a better grasp of storytelling logic and have worked through some of my issues around gender roles and victimhood, I respect, and sometimes even envy, younger Nevanna’s “sure, why not?” approach to her writing, and am happy when I can approach a project with even a fraction of that attitude.

The X-Men introduced me to superhero comics, and I still probably have the strongest connection with that universe even if I haven’t followed recent continuity in years.  Still, Batman – in a variety of forms – gave me the first superhero media that I really loved.  To date, that love hasn’t carried over into online fandom, no matter how many “Batfamily” posts about Crime-Fighting Found Family Shenanigans cross my Tumblr dashboard.**  Even though I’ve rewatched it in the years since it aired, I still associate Batman Beyond with my pre-Internet fannish life.  But if nothing else, through my drive to imagine new and improbable adventures for the characters and comment (in a very limited way) on its genre tropes, it was one of my childhood favorite shows that pointed me toward the world of transformative fandom that I didn’t even know existed.

*I don’t have any legitimate complaints about Dana as a character.  ”Superhero’s civilian girlfriend” is a pretty thankless narrative role, and one that invites deconstruction.  Catherynne M. Valente’s The Refrigerator Monologues is a personal favorite example, and I recommend seeking it out; even if you’re crying and raging along with the narrators, you’ll probably giggle at least once at the rant about her Batman stand-in. **The closest I’ve gotten is Young Justice, which I adore and you should all watch if you haven’t.  I truly love Crime-Fighting Found Family Shenanigans, even if some individual stories have pushed my buttons harder than others.

[yoshimickster]

The cancellation of SatAM is fascinating to me, as there were three distinct factors.

One, they didn't sync AoStH and SatAM enough. Both shows were made and released around the same time, you'd have five new silly episodes of Sonic, and one new serious action episode of Sonic on Saturday, it was BRILLIANT.

After the first season of SatAM though, they took a break on the show. AoSTH though, did not take a break, they kept airing all the episodes, and by the time of season 2, there were NO new AoStH episodes to predate SatAM! You can't remind Sonic exists with nothing but reruns, to them its just a week of NOTHING and then "Oh yeah, there was another Sonic cartoon!" However, there was a MUCH more pressing danger to SatAM, the worst enemy Sonic ever FACED!

Yes really. By the second season of Mighty Morphin, the show proved so popular that they moved UP the timeslot from 11:30 AM, to 9:00 AM, JUST a half hour after Sonic SatAM! And your probably thinking "Oh, 90s kids could manage watching two shows back to back!" YES-on the SAME channel at least, but remembering to CHANGE channels? Its freaking SATURDAY, remembering shit is for SCHOOL!

The other more likely reality, is that rather than waking up at 8 to watch Sonic at 8:30, you could wake up at 8:30 to watch Mighty Morphin at 9. Sonic was a fun cartoon for sure, but even the fastest thing alive couldn't stop the American need to sleep in. Morphin ended up killing it in the ratings, and Sonic ended up falling to the wayside, and this was the NINETIES when ratings actually MEANT something to!

The final factor was the president of ABC's children's programming was fired, and the new regime "Didn't get" the Sonic cartoon, an excuse I wish executives didn't use over and over to kill my favorite cartoons(OK KO deserved MUCH better). Ben Hurst would try to get the third season back up off the ground, even tried to compromise and make a finale movie of sorts, but due to Sega's unwillingness(and a bad pitch meeting from Ken Penders) the project stayed dormant. Sadly, Ben Hurst died in 2010 at the age of 59, never being able to either continue Satam, or see the multiple fan projects such as S3ason that try to continue it.

In the end, it was a fun cartoon that I wish SEGA would reconsider bringing back themselves in some way, but I'm holding my breath. I've been Mick the Man, a.k.a. Mick the nerd, have a nice day.

[dweemeister]

Robot Dreams (2023, Spain/France)

There exists an assumption that one has to be an animator in order to direct an animated film. While most cinephiles might reflexively point to Wes Anderson (2009’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, 2018’s Isle of Dogs), I think Isao Takahata (1988’s Grave of the Fireflies, 1991’s Only Yesterday) the exemplar here. Even so, a non-animator taking the reins of an animated movie is rare. Into that fold steps Pablo Berger, in this adaptation of Sara Varon’s graphic novel Robot Dreams. Moved after reading Varon’s work in 2010, Berger acquired Varon’s “carte blanche” permission to make a 2D animated adaptation however he saw fit. Like the graphic novel, Berger’s Robot Dreams is also dialogue-free.

Beginning production on Robot Dreams proved difficult. Berger originally teamed with Ireland’s Cartoon Saloon (2009’s The Secret of Kells, 2020’s Wolfwalkers) to make Robot Dreams, but these plans fell wayside when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. His schooling in how to make an animated film would come quickly. Despite an increased appetite for Spanish animation worldwide (2019’s Klaus, 2022’s Unicorn Wars), poor distribution and marketing of domestically-made animated movies has often meant Spanish animators have roved around Europe looking for work. With a pandemic sending those Spanish animators home, Berger and his Spanish and French producers set up “pop-up studios” in Madrid and Pamplona, purchased the infrastructure and space needed to make an animated feature, and recruited and hired animators. Berger’s admiration of animated film fuses the lessons of silent film acting (Berger made a gorgeous silent film in 2012’s Blancanieves; in interviews, Berger cites Charlie Chaplin’s movies as having the largest influence on Robot Dreams, alongside Takahata’s films) to result in one of the most emotionally honest films of the decade thus far – animated or otherwise.

Somewhere in Manhattan in the late 1980s in a world populated entirely of anthropomorphized animals, we find ourselves in Dog’s apartment. Dog, alone in this world, consuming yet another TV dinner, is channel surfing late one evening. He stumbles upon a commercial advertising a robot companion. Intrigued, he orders the robot companion and, with some difficulty, assembles Robot. The two become fast friends as they romp about New York City over a balmy summer, complete with walks around their neighborhood and Central Park, street food, trips to Coney Island, and roller blading along to the groovy tunes of Earth, Wind & Fire. At summer’s end, an accident sees the involuntary separation of Dog and Robot, endangering, for all that the viewer can assume, the most meaningful friendship in Dog’s life and Robot’s brief time of existence.

If you have not seen the film yet, let me address a popular perception early on in this piece. Set in a mostly-analog 1980s, Robot Dreams contains none of the agonizing over artificial intelligence or automatons in fashion in modern cinema. There is no commentary about how technology frays an individual’s connections to others. Robot is a rudimentary creation, closer to a sentient grade school science project than a Data or T-1000.

So what is Robot Dreams saying instead? Principally, it is about the loving bonds of friendship – how a friend can provide comfort and company, how they uplift the best parts of your very being. For Robot, the entirety of their life prior to the aforementioned accident (something that I, for non-viewers, am trying not to spoil as Robot Dreams’ emotional power is fully experienced if you know as little as possible) has been one of complete estival bliss. Robot, in due time, discovers that one of the most meaningful aspects of friendship is that such relationships will eventually conclude – a fundamental part of life. And for Dog, Robot’s entrance into his life allows him to realize that, yes, he can summon the courage to connect with his fellow animals, realizing his self-worth. Perhaps Dog gives up addressing the accident a little too easily, but the separation of friends has a way of complicating emotions and provoking peculiar reactions.

On occasion, Robot Dreams’ spirit reminds me of Charlie Chaplin’s silent feature film period (1921-1936) – in which Chaplin, at the height of his filmmaking prowess, most successfully wove together slapstick comedy and pathos. On paper, pathos and slapstick should not mix, but Chaplin was the master of combining the two. No wonder Berger fully acknowledges the influence of his favorite Chaplin work, City Lights (1931), here.

Across Robot Dreams, Berger inserts an absurd visual humor that works both because almost all of the characters are animals and despite the fact almost everyone is an animal. A busking octopus in the New York City subway? Check. The image of pigs playing on the beach while sunburnt to a blazing red? You bet. A dancing dream sequence where one of our lead characters finds himself in The Wizard of Oz performing Busby Berkeley-esque choreography on the Yellow Brick Road? Why not? Much of Chaplin’s silent film humor didn’t come from his Little Tramp character, but the silliness, ego, and/or absentmindedness of all those surrounding the Tramp. In City Lights, humor also came from the rough-and-tumble edges of urban America. Such is the case, too, in Robot Dreams, with its blemished, trash-strewn depiction of late ‘80s New York (credit must also go to the sound mix, as they perfectly capture how ambiently noisy a big city can be).

Amid all that comedy, Berger nails the balance between the pathos and the hilarity – pushing too far in either direction would easily undermine the other. The film’s melancholy shows up in ostensibly happy moments and places of recreation: a realization during a rooftop barbeque lunch, the emptiness of a shuttered Coney Island beach in the winter, and an afternoon of kiting in Central Park. It captures how our thoughts of erstwhile or involuntarily separated friends come to us innocuously, in places that stir memories that we might, in our present company, might not speak of aloud.

As the film’s third character, New York City (where Berger lived for a decade) is a global cultural capital, a citywide theater of dreams, a skyscraper-filled signature to the American Dream. To paraphrase Sinatra, if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere. But it tends to grind those dreams into dust. The city’s bureaucratic quagmire is lampooned here, as is its reputation for mean-spirited or jaded locals. Robot Dreams also depicts the visual and socioeconomic differences between the city’s boroughs. With such a jumble of folks of different life stations mashed together, Dog’s people-watching, er, animal-watching during his loneliest moments makes him feel the full intensity of his social isolation. With Robot, however, Dog has a naïve companion that he can show the best of the city to. Robot has no understanding of passive-aggressive or outright hostile behavior (see: Robot hilariously not understanding what a middle finger salute is – the only objectionable scene if you are considering showing this to younger viewers). Within this city of contradictions, Dog and Robot’s love is here to stay.

Though he is no animator, his experience in guiding Spanish actresses Ángela Molina, Maribel Verdú, and Macarena García in Blancanieves through a silent film was valuable. In animated film, there is a tendency towards overexaggerating emotions. But with Robot Dreams’ close adaptation of the graphic novel’s ligne claire style and the nature of Robot’s face, the typical level of exaggeration in animation could not fly in Robot Dreams. Berger and storyboard artist Maca Gil (2022’s My Father’s Dragon, the 2023 Peanuts special One-of-a-Kind Marcie) made few alterations to the storyboards, fully knowing how they wished to frame the film, and hoping to convey the film’s emotions with the facial subtlety seen in the graphic novel. Character designer Daniel Fernandez Casas (Klaus, 2024’s IF) accomplishes this with a minimum of lines to outline characters’ bodies and faces. Meanwhile, art director José Luis Ágreda (2018’s Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles) and animation director Benoît Féroumont (primarily a graphic novelist) visually translated Sara Varon’s graphic novel using flat colors and a lack of shading to convey background and character depth (one still needs shading, of course, to convey lights and darks of an interior or exterior).

Robot Dreams’ nomination for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature this year was one of the most pleasant surprises of the 96th Academy Awards. In North America, Robot Dreams’ distributor, Neon, has pursued an inexplicable distribution and marketing strategy of not allowing the film a true theatrical release until months after the end of the last Oscars. The film was available for a one-night special screening in select theaters in and near major North American cities the Wednesday before the Academy Awards. And only now (as of the weekend of May 31, 2024), Neon will release Robot Dreams this weekend in two New York City theaters, the following weekend in and around Los Angeles, with few other locations confirmed – well after interest to watch the film theatrically piqued in North America.

Alongside Neon’s near-nonexistent distribution and marketing of Jonas Poher Rasmussen's animated documentary Flee (2021, Denmark), one has to question Neon’s commitment to animated features and whether the company has a genuine interest in showing their animated acquisitions to people outside major North American cities. This is distributional malpractice and maddeningly disrespectful from one of the most acclaimed independent distributors of the last decade.

In Robot Dreams, Pablo Berger and his crew made perhaps the best animated feature of the previous calendar year. Robot Dreams might not have the artistic sumptuousness of the best anime films today, nor the digital polish one expects from the work of a major American animation studio. By film’s end, its simple, accessible style cannot hide its irrepressible emotional power. Its conclusion speaks to all of us who silently wonder about close friends long left to the past, their absence filled only by memory.

My rating: 8.5/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found in the “Ratings system” page on my blog. Half-points are always rounded down.

For more of my reviews tagged “My Movie Odyssey”, check out the tag of the same name on my blog.

[nochetimee]

I just remembered that in elementary, I was very obsessed with the Wayside School book series and was thrilled when I was told that there was a cartoon for it AND A MOVIE!!! But then I was so disappointed how out of character everyone was to the point I wanted to make a book accurate cartoon show for Wayside School. I tried getting my classmates on board but they were uninterested and thought it was lame 😭😭

The cartoon was pretty lit tho 👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩