#a.t.o.m.

Movies:

Superman (1978)

Sonic the Hedgehog OVA

Sky Girls OVA

Complete Series:

The Adventures of Tintin

Batman Beyond

A.T.O.M. - Awesome Teens On Machines

Saikano

She-Zow

Aggressive Aggretsuko

So recently, I've been thinking about Disney Channel getting a major rebranding.

Largely for two reasons.

1#) Disney Mirrorverse. As I was working on it, I kept thinking about where it would air if it was a television series. And I thought of an interesting place for it to air was, believe or not, Disney Channel! You're probably wondering why though since Disney Mirrorverse would be like, TV-14, not exactly what DC usually puts out. But take a look at this.

This is a line-up promo from the Disney Channel of Japan. As you can see, it has a lot of shows and movies you wouldn't really see on the Disney Channel here in the states. It's clear that they're bringing much more diversity to their programming, specifically when it comes to age ranges. And I figured this new Disney Channel rebrand would do that. Having programming that can cater to all demographics.

2#) The new Disney animated series Dragon Strikers, which will be premiering next month.

You would expect this series to being airing on Disney Channel, right?

Since pretty much all of Disney's animated shows from the last 9 years have been exclusively running there.

Plus, the show is airing on Disney Channel internationally.

But here in the states, it's gonna be premiering and running on Disney XD!

I don't think this is controversial when I say that Disney XD just needs to fucking die already.

It has literally no purpose anymore.

Its literally why it no longer exists in most of the world, except for The United States and Poland!

Not helping is its history.

The channel's existence is pretty much a dark spot in Disney's television history.

Disney XD was purely created out of misogyny.

Since the higher ups at Disney believed that Disney Channel was more for girls, due to it having a considerably higher female viewership when compared to Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network.

So their answer to that "dilemma" was to create an all-new channel made exclusively for boys.

Plus having to slaughter a channel with an actual meaningful purpose (and was still doing largely fine as it was) in order to do so!

And looking back at its early marketing, it's so clear just how misguided and desperate Disney XD really was.

With how extreme everything needed to be.

While Disney XD started off strong, it would gradually start to wither by the time the 2010s rolled around.

The original shows they were offering just didn't really leave much of an impact on people nor interested them that much.

Hell, to this day, I still hear people talk more about the shows Disney Channel had than Disney XD!

People had their favorites of course like...

But they just never reached the same levels of popularity and memorability like Disney Channel.

Not helped by the fact that Disney XD was a pay television channel, meaning that it wasn't automatically available like most TV channels for kids with cable packages.

If you wanted Disney XD, you would have to pay for it.

And to a good chunk of people, that just wasn't all that enticing.

But Disney XD became especially detrimental to the animated shows of Disney.

Look at every animated show that had its entire run on Disney XD.

None of them lasted longer than two seasons.

Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil: 2 seasons.

Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja: 2 seasons.

The 7D: 2 seasons.

Pickle & Peanut: 2 seasons.

Penn Zero: Part Time Hero: 2 seasons.

And they were the lucky ones.

All the other original shows only lasted ONE season!

Tron Uprising, Motorcity, Billy Dilley's Super-Duper Subterranean Summer!

And things got even more baffling in the mid-2010s.

In 2014, Disney decided to move all the original animated shows that were currently airing on Disney Channel to Disney XD.

Gravity Falls, Wander Over Yonder, and Phineas and Ferb.

This was done in order to solidify Disney XD as an boys channel and help boost ratings.

Since there's unfortunately a mindset in the industry that animation is exclusively for boys.

This didn't work as well as they thought it would.

For example, Gravity Falls did get good ratings on the channel, it was significantly lesser when compared to its time on Disney Channel.

But things got even worse in the late 2010s and early 2020s.

Now things didn't start off bad at first.

Starting with Tangled: The Series, Disney would start running their animated shows exclusively on Disney Channel again.

Moving shows that originally premiered on Disney XD to Disney Channel.

DuckTales, Star vs. The Forces of Evil, Big Hero 6: The Series, and Milo's Murphy Law.

But in 2020, for some God-forsaken reason, Disney decided to move DuckTales and Big Hero 6 back to Disney XD for their final seasons.

'cause like, why?

What was the purpose of doing that?

A few days ago, I stumbled upon an interview from longtime animation veteran and the co-creator of Phineas and Ferb and Milo's Murphy Law Dan Povenmire from around May 2020.

There he briefly talked about MML's treatment by Disney.

And he made one thing very much clear.

Pretty much all the creatives (specifically on the animation side of things) HATED Disney XD!

And it's not hard to see why.

Their original animated shows were forced to be stuck on a channel that only a minority had.

And even then, the shows only got the bare minimum marketing and promotion.

Not helped by the heavy merchandising pressure Disney constantly pushed on them.

Hell, Dan said himself that Disney XD was basically "a bastard stepchild".

So yeah, with all that said, you're also probably wondering why the hell Disney is putting their newest animated series on a channel that has long stayed past its prime and relevance.

Once again, it only exists in two countries now.

But for this rebrand, Disney XD would FINALLY be put down.

As for Disney Channel itself, this rebrand would see a wide variety of programming.

From animated to live-action.

I believe one of the biggest draws of this rebrand, besides just the variety of shows it would possess, would be the fact that it would feature of shows that famously still aren't on Disney Plus or have any real legal means to watch them.

Marsupilami, Aladdin: The Series, The Weekenders, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, House of Mouse, Lloyd in Space, The Legend of Tarzan, W.I.T.C.H., A.T.O.M., Get Ed, The Buzz on Maggie, Yin Yang Yo!, and much more.

As for some of the programming blocks this rebrand would see.

Disney Junior (everyday except for Saturdays and Sundays from 6-11): The standard little kids block, featuring broadcasts of their old and new preschool shows.

Marvelous Mondays (every Monday from 11-2): A programming block featuring Marvel animated shows from all across the decades.

The Disney Afternoon (everyday except for Saturdays and Sundays from 3-6): A reboot of the classic programming block, featuring a rotating roster of animated shows from the original Disney Afternoon run (alongside other 90s animated shows like The Little Mermaid and Marsupilami) and the late 2010s-2020s.

On a Sunday Far, Far Away (every Sunday from 2-5): A programming block featuring Star Wars animated series.

One Saturday Morning (every Saturday from 9-1): A reboot of the classic programming block, featuring new episodes of their current animated shows and reruns of their shows from the the late-1990s and early-2000s.

Worldwide Wednesdays (every Wednesday from 11-2): A programming block showcasing the animated foreign co-productions of Disney like Stitch!, the four European-made Marsupilami shows, Spirou and Fantasio, Dude, That's My Ghost!, Doraemon, Rolling with the Ronks, and Harry and Bunnie.

Action Quest (every Saturday from 7-12): A programming block featuring the action-oriented programming of the channel, along with new episodes of Dragon Strikers, Miraculous Ladybug, and Disney Mirrorverse.

Disney/ABC/Fox Rewind (every night from 6-6): A programming block showcasing the classic sitcoms and animated shows of Disney Channel, ABC and Fox.

The Wonderful World of Disney (every Friday from 8-12): A reboot of the classic movie programming block, where two movies are played back-to-back.

And to wrap this up, another big draw of the network would be it's promo and bumpers.

Largely because it would see the characters from the animated shows actually crossing over with each other.

Similar to what Kids WB! and Cartoon Network did with their own bumpers.

The setting would be the real-life Walt Disney Animation Studios in Burbank, California.

Yeah, like the old Cartoon Network bumpers of the late 1990s and early 2000s, these bumpers/shorts would be live-action animation hybrids.

In terms of how the characters would be depicted.

-Mickey Mouse adjacent characters would all be in the same classic style, though they would have their own unique quirks. Like Huey, Dewey and Louie wearing their outfits from DuckTales reboot, and Max and P.J. being teenagers like in A Goofy Movie.

-All the characters from the five Marsupilami shows would be associated to each other (sometimes in fun ways like Norman and Bring M. Backalive being brothers) and Marsupilami himself having both the personality of his Disney counterpart, and the family of most of his other iterations.

-The Lion Guard characters would be in the classic Lion King style.

-The Marvel characters would be in a generalized style.

-The 101 Dalmatian Street characters would be in the style as 101 Dalmatians: The Series.

-The American Dragon: Jake Long characters would be back in their Season 1 designs (though most of them would have their outfits of Season 2), and the characters introduced in season 2 would be redesigned to fit the same style.

Well that's all for now!

So latest nostalgia show I got into is A.T.O.M. acronym for Alpha Teens on Machines. Helpful because it rhymes, infuriating because whenever I try to look it up, I get so many different, unrelated shows. Then again, you can't find it anywhere on streaming. Only youtube and I spent the past month binge-watching it.

The first season aired way back in the early 2000s and its the only one I remember because apparently they decided not to air the second season in the US. But I remembered very, very little of it. I didn't know of there was an overarching plot or villain or anything. Just four episodes-Trapped, The Experiment, Natural Magnetism and Stormy Weather.

So rewatching it now, I have to give it props for how epic it was!

Basic plot is "Five heroes forge friendships, break rules and push the limits of their high-tech gear."

Axel Manning (the leader on a search for answers about his dead father), Crey "King"ston (the brawn with a head for computers and heart for animals), Cataline Leon "Lioness" (the girl who is one of the guys), Olly "Shark"er (chill, surfer dude), and Zack "Hawk"es (the egomaniac actor/buttmonkey) are all basically stunt performers/adrenaline junkies who get their dream job testing out new machines for eccentric millionaire Mr. Lee.

The first season is them learning to live with each other, bonding as a team, and such. Nothing groundbreaking, but the dynamics are solid and they each have their moments of depth. Hawk, for the most part, is an egomaniac but when he is in his element (planes, and other flying stunts), you get to see a side of him that's serious and confident.

There's an episode where Axel is poisoned and Shark is forced to step up to plate as leader which is nice because it's the only limelight episode on him.

Lioness is typical tomboy, but there is never a "not like other girls" attitude as she's close friends with her cousin and implied to have others in her capoeira classes.

Also like I said, their dynamics are solid with Hawk and Shark being the odd couple best friends who rag on each other all the time. Axel, Lioness, and Shark forming a trio. Shark, King, and Hawk forming quite a few B-plots. Lioness helping out Hawk in his vulnerable moments, and the clear bond between Axel and Lioness who almost always choose to confide in each other's most vulnerable moments. It's my one sadness that they never got upgraded to couple especially when Lioness clearly has unspoken feelings for him! In my imagination, they get together in season three and no one can change my mind.

They also have a big nemesis, Paine with his two flunkies, Flesh and Spydah. Paine is the basic criminal mastermind who wants to take over the world/destroy it because he's insane yet at times he has his sophisticated side like playing piano on his downtime. If they had leaned into it more, he could have been like Hannibal I think. But he's the main antagonist and is Axel's enemy for his mysterious part in Sebastian Manning's death.

The funny part is Paine is voiced by the same guy as Mr. Krabs, Spydah is Spongebob's voice actor and Flesh's is Patrick's. Yes, it's basically evil Spongebob trio and while Paine and Spydah's voices are disguised pretty well, you can hear it at points. And yes, it's hilarious if you keep that in your mind while listening.

While Paine, Spydah and Flesh are the main antagonists, there are episodes with different, unrelated villains which keeps it from getting too formulaic which is good.

The action is top-notched and there is a good balance of regular episodes and plot episodes where we learn more about the mysterious death of Axel's father and how he is tied with Mr. Lee and Paine.

Some episodes I particularly enjoyed were the two part pilot and the third episode that gives Paine a villain upgrade which is essential to getting into the show, A Paine by Any Other Name P1-2, and A Touch of Paine.

Enter the Dragon-kicks off the overarching plot by introducing Dragon, a super cool ninja and well, you have to see it for yourself.

Final Frontier-Episode I mentioned above where Hawk shows some maturity and depth. Unfortunately, it's like the only one as the show seems happier with using him for comedic relief.

Natural Magnetism-This is only partial because I'm a Lioness-Axel shipper. Has a cool villain who pops up again.

Double Image-Cool invasion of clone people/prove your innocence episode. Also begins the pattern of having all military people be Texan or some other Southern twang. I know this was a partnership between a French-US studio so I just wonder if they think all military is Southern?

In Too Deep-While Shark doesn't get much character depth, this was a good episode spotlighting his smarts and action potential when he is faced against Dr. Eel alone.

Omega Team- Paine fires Flesh and Spydah to create a new team to destroy A.T.O.M. I loved the parody of Paine, Spydah and Flesh judging candidates like American Idol and I wish the Omega Team appeared again. They were such good evil counterparts.

Breakout-Funny episode where King and Hawk are sent to jail and have to face off with all the villains they've fought.

The Sword of Jo-Lan-Another plot episode which was epic, but I think if it were rebooted today Axel would have to be Asian because it does feel a bit too white guy pretending to be Asian, you know.

Showdown-Big finale!

Which brings me to season 2. Spoilers ahead.

Hey–At0m

Hey–At0m–can–I–like–take–a–few–feet–0f–y0ur–height

—Pepzi

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Action Man: A.T.O.M.: Action Teens On Machines #24: "Out of Control"

Writer: Simon Furman

Art: Jack Lawrence

Part 1

Max Rockatansky/Imperator Furiosa (Mad Max: Fury Road)

Cal Kestis/Merrin (Star Wars. Jedi: Fallen Order/Survivor)

Axel Manning/Catalina Leone (A.T.O.M.)

Sherlock Holmes/Irene Adler (books, all movies and series - I don't care, I love them everywhere)

Nick Miller/Jessica Day (New Girl)

Shikamaru Nara/Temari (Naruto)

Doctor/Rose Tyler (Doctor Who)

Arthur/Ariadne (Inception)

Malcolm Reynolds/Inara Serra (Firefly)

Roy Mustang/Liza Howkeye (Fullmetal Alchemist)