''Megas XLR'' is an American

animated television series An animated series is a set of Animation, animated works with a common series title, usually related to one another. These episodes should typically share the same main characters, some different secondary characters and a basic theme. Series can ...

created by Jody Schaeffer and George Krstic for

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, Car ...

. The series revolves around two teenage slackers: mechanic Coop and his best friend Jamie, who find a mecha robot from the future called Megas (''Mechanized Earth Guard Attack System'') in a

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

junkyard. Coop modifies Megas and replaces his head, the control center, with a classic muscle car, and names him XLR (''eXtra Large Robot''). Together with Megas's original pilot Kiva, they must defend Earth from the evil alien race called "the Glorft". The series is an homage and parody of

mecha anime Mecha anime and manga, known in Japan as and , are anime and manga that feature robots (mecha) in battle. The genre is broken down into two subcategories; "super robot", featuring super-sized, implausible robots, and "real robot", where robots are ...

. Krstic was originally one of the co-creators of

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

's ''

Downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...

''. Schaeffer and Krstic conceived the idea of an animated series where the main character would pilot a giant robot utilizing his video gaming skills. The

pilot episode A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie), in United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television network or other distri ...

, ''LowBrow'', was shown in 2002 during Cartoon Network's ''Cartoon Cartoon Weekend Summerfest'', to determine which pilot would become a new Cartoon Cartoon; it was the most popular among viewers. It aired on the

Toonami Toonami ( ) is an American late night television programming block that primarily broadcasts Japanese animation and occasionally American action animation. It was created by Sean Akins and Jason DeMarco and produced by Williams Street, a divis ...

block from May 1, 2004, to January 15, 2005, for two seasons (totaling 26 episodes), before being cancelled due to low ratings. Despite low ratings, the series was met with positive reception, and was ranked at No. 4 on ToonZone's "Toons of the 2000s: Top 5 Cartoon Network Originals". There have been various fan efforts and petitions to revive the show since its cancellation. ''Megas XLR'' was produced by

Cartoon Network Studios Cartoon Network Studios is an American animation studio owned by the Warner Bros. Television Studios division of Warner Bros., a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. The studio is the production arm of Cartoon Network, and started operating on ...

; Titmouse, Inc. animated the main title and did animation work on Season 1.

Overview

In the year 3037,

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

is fighting a losing war against the Glorft, a hostile alien race led by Gorrath (

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'' ...

). In a last, desperate attempt to save the planet, the human resistance steals a prototype mecha robot from the Glorft and modifies it into a powerful war machine, renaming it Megas (''Mechanized Earth Guard Attack System''). Their plan is to use a time-traveling device called a time drive to send Megas and its assigned pilot, Kiva Andru (

Wendee Lee Wendee Lee is an American voice actress, writer, and director. Biography Lee studied dance and theater and later became a full-time dancer in her teens. According to her interview on the ''Magic Knight Rayearth'' DVDs, she started doing voices ...

), two years into the past to the Battle of the Last Stand, which was the last major offensive fought by humanity against the Glorft. Humanity lost that battle, but the members of the resistance, particularly Kiva, believe that Megas can tip the scales and hand the Glorft a decisive defeat. Before the plan can be executed, however, an attack by the Glorft forces the human resistance to send Megas back in time before proper preparations are made. Megas' head is blown off in the attack and its time drive is damaged, and the crippled robot is inadvertently sent to a junkyard in 1930s

. It remains there until a slacker mechanic named "Coop" Cooplowski (

David DeLuise David Dominick DeLuise (born November 11, 1971) is an American actor and television director. He has appeared on numerous television shows as well as films. He is known for Coop in the animated show ''Megas XLR'' and Jerry Russo in ''Wizards of W ...

) discovers it in approximately the year 2004. Coop turns Megas into a

hot rod Hot rods are typically American cars that might be old, classic, or modern and that have been rebuilt or modified with large engines optimised for speed and acceleration. One definition is: "a car that's been stripped down, souped up and made ...

project by giving it a flaming paint job, replacing its head with a classic muscle car (resembling a car from the '70s

MOPAR Mopar is the parts, service, and customer care division of the former Chrysler Corporation, now owned by Netherlands-based automobile manufacturer Stellantis. It serves as a primary OEM accessory seller for Stellantis brands under the Mopar bran ...

family; most likely a

Plymouth Barracuda The Plymouth Barracuda is a two-door pony car that was manufactured by Plymouth (automobile), Plymouth from 1964 to 1974. The first-generation Barracuda was based on the Chrysler A platform, Chrysler A-body and was offered from 1964 to 1966. A ...

) and adding XLR (''eXtra Large Robot'') to its name. While Coop is showing off the robot to his best friend Jamie (

Steve Blum Steven Jay Blum (; born April 29, 1960) is an American voice actor. Known for his distinctively deep voice, his most well-known roles include Spike Spiegel from the anime series '' Cowboy Bebop'', Garazeb Orrelios from the animated series ''St ...

), Kiva travels to the 21st century to retrieve Megas and, upon discovering that only Coop can now pilot the robot due to his modifications to it, grudgingly agrees to train him in its use. However, Gorrath has followed her through time, forcing Kiva, Coop, and Jamie to team up and defend Earth against both Gorrath's forces and various other threats.

Episodes

Series overview

Pilot (2002)

Season 1 (2004)

Season 2 (2004–2005)

Production

While playing video games, Schaeffer and Krstic came up with an idea of making an animated series in which the main character would use his video gaming skills to pilot a giant robot. The pilot short (''LowBrow'') was shown in 2002 as part of

's ''Cartoon Cartoon Weekend Summerfest'', a contest to determine which pilot would be selected as the next Cartoon Cartoon. It was the most popular among viewers, and was greenlit as a series. Much of the series is inspired by Japanese

which the two grew up watching, with the animation being inspired by both

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

and Western animation. The humour often pays homage or mocks anime conventions. After being delayed from its original debut in December 2003, ''Megas XLR'' finally debuted on the

block on May 1, 2004. However, due to low ratings, the series was cancelled after two seasons, with the final episode airing on January 15, 2005. Reruns continued to air sporadically from January 16, 2005, to June 24, 2006. During this time, the series was later moved to the

graveyard slot A graveyard slot (or death slot) is a time period in which a television audience is very small compared to other times of the day, and therefore broadcast programming is considered far less important. Graveyard slots are usually in the early mor ...

of 3:30am on Friday nights/Saturday mornings, before being removed from the network altogether.

Media

The entire series is available at the

iTunes Store The iTunes Store is a digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28, 2003, as a result of Steve Jobs' push to open a digital marketplace for music. As of April 2020, iTunes offered 60 million songs, 2.2 million apps, 25,00 ...

and on

Xbox Video Microsoft Movies & TV (US only), or Microsoft Films & TV (Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand), previously Xbox Video and Zune Video, is a digital video service developed by Microsoft that offers full HD movies and TV shows available f ...

Future

Possible revival

In late 2012, fans of the show on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

started using the hashtag #BringBackMegasXLR. The co-creator George Krstic and director

Chris Prynoski Chris Prynoski (born November 1, 1971) is an American film and television producer, animator, and director, known for his work on TV programs such as '' Downtown'', ''Metalocalypse'', '' Freaknik: The Musical'', ''Motorcity'' and ''Megas XLR'' an ...

announced they would bring back the show; seeing as ''Megas XLR'' had been

written off A write-off is a reduction of the recognized value of something. In accounting, this is a recognition of the reduced or zero value of an asset. In income tax statements, this is a reduction of taxable income, as a recognition of certain expenses ...

, the studio Titmouse, Inc. would have to get the rights to the show. On April 29, 2013, George Krstic posted a tweet saying that he and Chris Prynoski were having a meeting at Titmouse to discuss bringing back the show along with ''

Motorcity ''Motorcity'' is an American animated television series created by Chris Prynoski. It is produced by Titmouse, Inc. and Disney Television Animation. The series ran from April 30, 2012 to January 7, 2013 on Disney XD. On November 5, 2012, the se ...

''. However, in a 2014 interview George Krstic was quoted as saying: "''Megas'' was written off as a tax loss and as such can not be exploited, at least domestically, in any way, or the network will get into some sort of tax/legal trouble."

Potential video game

In December 2012, a series of messages were posted on

by series director

, hinting at production of a video game based on the series with

Valve A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically fittings ...

. No official comment on the project has yet been made by Valve or

. However, in 2015 Chris Prynoski mentioned on Twitter that he had been unable to sort out the licensing needed.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Megas Xlr 2000s American animated television series 2000s American comic science fiction television series 2004 American television series debuts 2005 American television series endings American children's animated action television series American children's animated adventure television series American children's animated comic science fiction television series American children's animated science fantasy television series Anime-influenced Western animated television series Animated television series about extraterrestrial life Animated television series about robots Cartoon Network original programming Television series by Cartoon Network Studios English-language television shows Television series created by George Krstic Television shows set in New Jersey Toonami American parody television series American time travel television series Teen animated television series