Space Goofs

''Space Goofs'' (french: Les Zinzins de l'Espace) is a French animated series that was produced by Gaumont Multimedia for its first season and Xilam for its second season, produced for France 3, and broadcast on that network from September 6, 1997 to May 12, 2006. It also debuted in the same year in Germany on ProSieben, and aired in Quebec on Télétoon. In the UK, the first season premiered on Channel 4 in 1998 under the show's original title of ''Home to Rent'' and the second season premiered under the series' final name on Nicktoons UK on November 5, 2005 at 9:30am. Furthermore, it aired as part of the Fox Kids lineup on Fox in the United States.

The series also served as the basis of an adventure game, developed by Xilam themselves and published by Ubisoft for Microsoft Windows and Sega Dreamcast called '' Stupid Invaders'' in 2000 – which was dedicated to its co-creator, Jean-Yves Raimbaud. It featured the voice actors of its English dub as the five aliens, having to go back home due to an infiltration by a bounty hunter (voiced by Billy West). In contrast to the original show, it featured plenty of toilet humor and slightly more adult content. It also was the first work produced by Xilam to be made for an older audience, the other being the adult animated movie, '' I Lost My Body''.

Plot

Five extraterrestrials from the fictitious planet Zigma B, Candy H. Caramella, Etno Polino, Bud Budiovitch, Gorgious Klatoo and Stereo Monovici go on a picnic together in space. However, their spaceship crashes into an asteroid, and they fall to planet Earth. They realize that if any human finds out that they are aliens, they could be captured and experimented on by scientists, so they take shelter in the attic of a house that is up for rent.

The aliens have two goals: return to their home planet, and chase away anybody who tries to establish themselves in the house. To remain unknown from humans, the aliens use a device called the SMTV that lets them transform into almost any entity of their choosing, but always cycles through three other unrelated transformations (as a running gag) when used.

In the second season, Stereo is now no longer part of the main cast, with said character only being bought back for one episode. An explanation in the show itself was provided, where Stereo has somehow managed to get back to Zigma B, so Candy, Etno, Bud and Gorgious continue to find a way back home.

Characters

Candy H. Caramella
: Voiced by (French): Eric Le Roch (season 1), Éric Métayer (season 2)
: Voiced by (English): Charlie Adler
: Small and green with a wrinkled forehead and wearing a polka-dotted apron, Candy is the uptight neat freak of the group. He is homosexual (often disguising himself as a woman), and it is not uncommon to see him flirt with men. He was changed to a female in the Latin American Spanish dub, but considers a sex change entirely in ''Stupid Invaders''. In both the original French version and the English dub, Candy's voice parodies a fancy English accent.

Etno Polino
: Voiced by (French): Peter Hudson (season 1), Bernard Alane (season 2)
: Voiced by (English): Maurice LaMarche
: Being short and purple with red lips and a big nose, Etno is the leader and brains of the group. A scientific genius, he creates all sorts of machines with the intention of aiding the group's return to their own planet, including rockets. The aliens often fail to blast off into space, either due to Etno's rockets malfunctioning or someone else boarding the ships. In the original French dub, he speaks with an English accent, but in the English dub, he has a rather fast-paced manner of speech, vaguely reminiscent of those found in educational films about space exploration from the 1950s.

Bud Budiovitch
: Voiced by (French): Marc Brettonière (season 1), Éric Métayer (season 2)

: Voiced by (English): Jeff Bennett (season 1), James Louis Gomez-Garneau (season 2)
: Tall and orange with three strands of hair, a long neck, and big pink bloodshot eyes, Bud is lazy and naive. He is a television addict and spends most of the time sitting in front of it and drinking soft drinks. Like Etno, Bud is always the last one to panic in a situation. He always comes up with the best solution, but most of the time no one will listen to him.

Gorgious Klatoo
: Voiced by (French): Patrick Préjean
: Voiced by (English): Michael Sicoly (earlier episodes), Danny Mann (onward)
: Fat and blue with a heavy chin and a protruding bottom tooth, is the grumpy and brutal one of the group. He is very greedy and his hobbies consist of bullying the other aliens and eating.

Stereo Monovici
: Voiced by (French): Antoine Tomé (season 1), Patrick Guillemin (season 2)
: Voiced by (English): Jeff Bennett (season 1), Danny Mann (season 2)
: Two-headed and red in which each head has a slightly long nose, Stereo acts as two people since each head has its own mind. They are the "bookworm" of the group yet often waste their intelligence on the most useless information. Both heads often argue with each other. Stereo was removed from the series for Season 2, but reappeared in two segments of that season ("Other World Champs" and "UFO"). One of the heads also speaks with a distinct, high-pitched voice, while the other head speaks with a rather low-pitched one.

Every episode will feature a new visitor, a la a " villain of the week" formula, who will come to the presumed "vacant" home. These visitors come in a weird variety of characters (mostly humans but sometimes can be Pigs, Birds, & other animals & aliens.) While the credits do not specify who, additional voices include:
*Jim Cummings - Slick Stagger and Ernie
* Billy West
* Carlos Alazraqui
*Rob Paulsen
*Kevin Michael Richardson
* Tom Kenny
*Laraine Newman
*Frank Welker

Episodes

Series overview

Season 1 (1997–1998)

All episodes in this season were directed by Thomas Szabó.

Season 2 (2005–2006)

All episodes in this season were directed by Olivier Jean-Marie.

Reception

The series was a hit in its home country of France, in particular due to its absurd, slapstick, and tongue-in-cheek slightly politically incorrect humor. It also enjoyed reasonable success in both the US and UK at the time.

''Stupid Invaders''

An adventure game based on ''Space Goofs'' named '' Stupid Invaders'' was released in 2000–2001 by Ubisoft.

In other media

A film adaptation for the show, titled ''Stupid Invaders'' was planned, but was never released beyond a short video. The only thing that was produced for the film was a preview, and reasons why it couldn't be made remain unknown. It was a CGI animated adaptation of the show, featuring Candy, Gorgious, Etno and Bud in someone else's house, as a result of an accidental landing. Said house is revealed to be inhabited by an unnamed girl, who gets curious upon her sight of the aliens.

References in other Xilam properties

While a revival had never been considered, the main characters make several cameos in some of Xilam's other TV shows. It should be noted most of these references took place in the 2000's, when season 2 was still airing.
*In '' Oggy and the Cockroaches'':
** In earlier seasons, Oggy's house has a framed picture of the first season's main cast of aliens. These were removed in the remade episodes.
** The characters also made a cameo in the episode "Night Watchmen" (from its third season), where the titular characters end up transforming into the four aliens, as a gag, in one scene.
**
*In '' Shuriken School: The Ninja's Secret'', a picture of Candy is on the cover of Jimmy B.'s manga, ''Star Attacks'', a parody of the ''Star Wars'' franchise.
*In the film, ''Go West! A Lucky Luke Adventure'', a scene featuring Roger and the cockroaches (Joey, Dee Dee and Marky, from ''Oggy'') has him mention "monster men", which may be a reference to the show's theme.
*In '' The Daltons'' episode "Le Secret Passage", Candy was one of Joe's transformations in Fort Dalton.

References

External links

Official websiteStupid Invaders official website
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{{Fox Kids

1997 French television series debuts
1990s French animated television series
2006 French television series endings
2000s French animated television series
Animated television series about extraterrestrial life
Fox Kids
French-language television shows
French children's animated comic science fiction television series
ProSieben original programming
Television series about shapeshifting
Television shows adapted into video games
Xilam
YTV (Canadian TV channel) original programming