''A.T.O.M. – Alpha Teens on Machines'' (known as '' Action Man: A.T.O.M.'' in some countries) is an English-language French superhero animated television series produced by SIP Animation in association with

Jetix Europe Jetix Europe N.V. (formerly known as Fox Kids Europe N.V.) was a European television broadcasting company that owned children's television channels and programming blocks across the Europe and Middle East, such as Jetix and Jetix Play. History ...

. The series focuses on the adventures of five teenagers in the fictional Landmark City. The eponymous Alpha Teens, which consist of Axel Manning (the team leader), Catalina Leone, Crey Kingston, Zack Hawkes, and Ollie Sharker, test prototype vehicles and weapons for Lee Industries, and use these prototypes to combat criminals, particularly the nefarious and sadistic crime boss Alexander Paine. In countries such as Australia, France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom, and in Latin America, the series was branded as '' Action Man: A.T.O.M.'', with

Panini Comics Panini Comics is an Italian comic book publisher. A division of Panini Group, which also produces collectable stickers, it is headquartered in Modena, Italy. The company publishes comic books in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, France, Germany, Hung ...

publishing a tie-in comic book series by that title.

Synopsis

Set in the fictional Landmark City, Janus Lee is the head of Lee Industries who holds a television contest as a front to recruit a group of talented teenagers. The winners of the contest, Axel, King, Lioness, Hawk and Shark are given prototype weapons, gadgets and vehicles and join forces to battle against the crime boss Alexander Paine, who's also responsible for the death of Axel's father. Paine is assisted by his minions Spydah and Flesh, his daughter Magness, and the mysterious ninja Dragon. At the end of the first season, they manage to defeat Paine's group. However, it is revealed that Lee's true purpose was to use the teens' DNA to create clones powered with their respectful animal genes. During the second season, the Alpha Teens once again have to team up to stop Lee and his Mu-Team.

Episodes

Cast

James Arnold Taylor James Arnold Taylor (born July 22, 1969), also known by his initials JAT, is an American voice actor, writer, producer and podcaster. He is known for portraying Ratchet in the '' Ratchet & Clank'' franchise, the main character Tidus in '' Final ...

as Axel Manning, Sebastian Manning, Tilian * Alli Mauzey as Catalina "Lioness" Leone, Firekat *

Aldis Hodge Aldis Alexander Basil Hodge (born September 20, 1986) is an American actor. Among his significant roles, he played Alec Hardison in the TNT series '' Leverage'', MC Ren in the 2015 biopic '' Straight Outta Compton'', Levi Jackson in the 2016 f ...

as Crey "King" Kingston, Wrecka *

Charlie Schlatter Charles Thomas "Charlie" Schlatter (born May 1, 1966) is an American actor who has appeared in several films and television series. He is perhaps best known for playing Dr. Jesse Travis, the resident student of Dr. Mark Sloan (played by Dick Van ...

as Zack "Hawk" Hawkes, Stingfly * Brian Donovan as Ollie "Shark" Sharker, Rayza *

Tom Kenny Thomas James Kenny (born July 13, 1962) is an American actor and comedian. He is known for voicing the titular character in ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' and associated media. Kenny has voiced many other characters, including Heffer Wolfe in '' ...

as Janus Lee, Spydah *

Clancy Brown Clarence John "Clancy" Brown III (born January 5, 1959) is an American actor. Prolific in film and television since the 1980s, Brown is often cast in villainous and authoritative roles. Brown's film roles include Viking Lofgren in ''Bad Boys'' ...

as Alexander Paine *

Kari Wahlgren Kari Wahlgren (born July 13, 1977) is an American actress who has provided English-language voices for animated movies, TV series, and video games. She got her start in anime voice-overs as Haruko Haruhara in '' FLCL'', and would later land ma ...

as Samantha "Magness" Paine *

Bill Fagerbakke William Fagerbakke ( ; born October 4, 1957) is an American actor. He voices Patrick Star in the animated series ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' and played Michael "Dauber" Dybinski on the sitcom ''Coach (TV series), Coach''. He also appeared in 12 ep ...

as Albert "Flesh" * Keith Szarabajka as Dragon

Production

The series was first announced by Jetix on 6 September 2004 with the working title of ''The Insiders''. It was specifically designed to appeal to young boys ages 6 to 9 with an Autumn 2005 release. Originally, while the series was going to feature a team of rebellious teenagers, it was only going to focus on the main character who "has the task of tracking down and catching 100 of the worst villains and the mastermind who set them free from prison, the notorious Mr. Pain." Jetix Europe were confirmed to handle all worldwide TV rights for the series, while in France and other French-speaking territories, SIP Animation would handle the TV rights, with servicing through

Buena Vista International Television Disney Platform Distribution, Inc. is a business unit within Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution (DMED) that manages all third-party media sales efforts for distribution, affiliate marketing and affiliate-related business operations for a ...

Hasbro Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational conglomerate holding company incorporated and headquartered in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Hasbro owns the trademarks and products of K ...

was announced as the master toy licensee for ''The Insiders'' later the same month. Interim CEO of Jetix Europe, Paul Taylor said that "''The Insiders'' is a strong urban action-adventure series." On 15 November 2007, Jetix Europe announced their Year End results and stated in their report that they were not planning a third series of ''A.T.O.M.'', effectively cancelling the series.

Release

Broadcast

France

In France, ''A.T.O.M.'' first aired on Jetix in 2005.

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, the show premiered on Jetix on August 27, 2005. Jetix Europe promoted the series' UK premiere with a celebrity launch party at the

London Trocadero The London Trocadero was an entertainment complex on Coventry Street, with a rear entrance in Shaftesbury Avenue, London. It was originally built in 1896 as a restaurant, which closed in 1965. In 1984, the complex reopened as an exhibition and en ...

. The show was also promoted with a "Mr. Lee Needs You" school tour that showcased inventing, and a roadshow held at various shopping centres in the country The series later made its terrestrial premiere on GMTV's Toonattik children's block in September 2005, after being pre-sold by the broadcaster in April. In October 2005, the series became part of the Jetix Max strand alongside ''

Power Rangers ''Power Rangers'' is an entertainment and merchandising franchise built around a live-action superhero television series, based on the Japanese tokusatsu franchise '' Super Sentai''. Produced first by Saban Entertainment, second by BVS E ...

'' and ''

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' is an American media franchise created by the comic book artists Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. It follows Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael, four anthropomorphic turtle brothers (named after It ...

''.

United States

In the United States, the series debuted on the Jetix block on Toon Disney on January 30, 2006.

Home media

In the United Kingdom, Volume 1: ''Feel the Paine'' was released on DVD on January 23, 2006 (and UMD Video on January 30) by Sanctuary Visual Entertainment, with a second volume titled ''The Terror Continues'' planned. However, volume 2 was cancelled for unknown reasons. In Australia, 7 DVD volumes were released on September 13, 2006 (volumes 1 to 5) and February 5, 2007 (volumes 6 and 7) by MRA Entertainment Group. In the United States, DVDs of the series have been distributed through Liberation Entertainment. The first two DVD volumes were both released on August 28, 2007, respectively titled "Vol. 1: Touch of Paine" and "Vol. 2: Enter the Dragon".

Streaming

The first season was previously available to stream on

Tubi TV Tubi is an American over-the-top content platform and ad-supported streaming service owned by Fox Corporation. The service was launched on April 1, 2014, and is based in Los Angeles, California. In January 2021, Tubi reached 33 million monthly ...

, as well as Amazon Prime via Multicom Entertainment Group. Multicom formerly had the full series listed in its distribution catalogue, which was later changed to only one season before being removed entirely. According to US Copyright Database these series are still underlying property of

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

's defunct subsidiaries

and SIP Animation but doesn't streaming on

Disney+ Disney+ is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned and operated by the Media and Entertainment Distribution division of The Walt Disney Company. The service primarily distributes films and television se ...

Reception

In Europe, ''A.T.O.M.'' was the second-most popular Jetix original series for third-party sales as of

fiscal year A fiscal year (or financial year, or sometimes budget year) is used in government accounting, which varies between countries, and for budget purposes. It is also used for financial reporting by businesses and other organizations. Laws in many ...

2007, when the second season was delivered. All of the major

originals, including ''A.T.O.M.'', ranked "as one of the top two shows in their timeslots in all of the markets in which they aired."

Common Sense Media Common Sense Media (CSM) is an organization that reviews and provides ratings for media and technology with the goal of providing information on their suitability for children.

, in their review of the show said: "The animation here — a blend of classic comic book and anime — is pretty good." and that "because of its relatively high level of cartoon violence ..''A.T.O.M.'' is best for older grade schoolers." and awarded the series 2 out of 5 stars. The Brazilian comic book website Universe HQ took notice of the show, owning to its depiction of Lioness, who is of Brazilian ancestry.

Other media

Toyline

launched a line of action figures to tie-in with the show, marketed as a reboot of Hasbro's discontinued '' Action Man'' toy line. Distinctly different from other ''Action Man'' lines, A.T.O.M. figures were the standard size of normal action figures and not of a doll format. Much like ''Action Man'' however, these figures are sold individually, usually with figure accessories, from the vehicles distributed to accompany them. The franchise has vastly similar concepts to the 1980s' '' M.A.S.K.'' story line from

Kenner Kenner Products, known simply as Kenner, was an American toy company founded in 1946. Throughout its history, the Kenner brand produced several highly recognizable toys and merchandise lines including action figures like the original series of ' ...

(which Hasbro bought in 1991), even down to the code name lettering, as each vehicle for the A.T.O.M. members changes from one ordinary looking terrain vehicle to anything that ranges from a jet car with unfolding door wings, to a bike that soon propels its driver into the air as a helicopter. In 2007,

released 12-inch versions of A.T.O.M. action figures, similar to the original ''Action Man'' action figures. The toy series was composed mostly of several versions of Axel Manning, the main character, and Paine, Flesh and Tilian as the villains. A plane, a sport car and several minor vehicles were included for this line of A.T.O.M. toys. The line was discontinued shortly thereafter.

Comic book

published a tie-in comic book series in the United Kingdom from 2006 to 2007. This title replaced their long-running Action Man series, and featured stories by

Simon Furman Simon Christopher Francis Furman (born 22 March 1961) is a British comic book writer who is best known for his work on Hasbro's ''Transformers'' franchise, starting with writing Marvel's initial comic book to promote the toyline worldwide, a ...

and art by Jack Lawrence.

Video game

A video game based on the show was released for the PlayStation 2 in 2007, developed by Brain in a Jar and published by

Mastertronic Group Mastertronic Group Limited was a software publisher formed as a result of a merger between The Producers and Sold Out Sales & Marketing in 2004. Frank Herman, one of the founders of the original Mastertronic and former chairman of Sega Europe ...

under their budget game label Blast! Entertainment. It is a

racing In sport, racing is a competition of speed, in which competitors try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific go ...

and

action Action may refer to: * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video game Film * Action film, a genre of film * ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford * ''Action'' (1980 fil ...

game. Much like the Hasbro toy line and Panini comic book series, the video game was released as ''Action Man: A.T.O.M.'', and would be the final video game to be associated with the Action Man franchise.

Notes

References

External links

* {{Jetix 2005 French television series debuts 2007 French television series endings 2000s French animated television series Action figures Anime-influenced Western animated television series English-language television shows French children's animated action television series French children's animated superhero television series French-language television shows Hasbro products Jetix original programming Teen animated television series Teen superhero television series Television series by Disney–ABC Domestic Television Television shows based on Hasbro toys