Space?!

[Rhianna P]

Strong Sad: But why are they in space?! There’s no reason for them to be in space!
Strong Bad: On the contrary, my dear Fatson! There’s every reason for them to be in space!​

Space may be the final frontier, but when it comes to animation, it’s frequently and often unnecessarily traveled. I wanted to create this thread in order to pose a very simple question: which animated program had the most unnecessary episode that took place in space? It can be unnecessary for numerous reasons, whether it’s for the absurd nature of the plot or for something else entirely.

I would have to cast my vote for the “101 Dalmatians: The Series” episode entitled “Out To Launch”. The characters in that series are non-anthropomorphic puppies who can’t talk to humans, yet a series of events caused them to get into a soviet rocket whose computer tricked them into blasting off into space. The puppies then took over the rocket and prevented the computer from completing its objectives and destroying the United States. As much as I love this series, this episode made absolutely no sense; three puppies and a chicken should not be able to get into space, and besides, the computer should not have been able to communicate with them. I understand that “it’s just a cartoon”, but I still believe that this episode was bizarre and unnecessary; they would have been better off not using this plot.

Does anybody have any other votes? Again, the question is…

Which animated program had the most unnecessary episode that took place in space?

 

[Rage of the Jew]

Does Spider-Man Unlimited count?

 

[megababy]

Seems like going into space at least once by the cast is considered all but mandatory for cartoons---even the Simpsons did it ("Deep Space Homer")...

My choices for unnecessarily pointless trips into space:

- "Chip and Dale's Rescue Rangers" had an episode about Chip and Dale and the others going to NASA to see the astronauts in training, and *somehow* wind up stowing away on board a space shuttle flight. Gadget is forced to build a makeshift rocket that *somehow* manages to blast off into space (and not into smithereens) via being powered by... a dozen or so ordinary sticks of dynamite all lit at once. The plot then involves Gadget's rocket (steered in space by fire extinguishers strapped to it) somehow rescuing Chip and Dale (trapped in a spacesuit lost in space by the astronauts), then entering the real space shuttle and somehow saving the flight on its return to Earth.

While I was impressed by Gadget's rocketry skills, this episode still seems pretty pointless and kind of dumb (if all it took was a few sticks of dynamite to go into space, would think miners or construction workers dynamiting stuff would be seeing their rocks and such flying off into orbit all the time... yeah, "it's a cartoon", still... ;-p ). Would've rather seen a better motive for getting the gang into space...

- If entire series count, "Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space", while entertaining, was still somewhat pointless---sending them on a trip into space from which they were contrived at the end of each episode to not make it back to Earth (a la "Gilligan's Island")?

- In the same vein as above and *truly* pointless, the early 80s Filmation series "Gilligan's Planet"---same premise as "Gilligan's Island", only they're marooned on another planet (with a cute alien sidekick in tow). As bad as the live-action series was...

-B.

 

[Kunmui]

Heh, back in the 70's and early 80's, whenever new life needed to be breathed into a show, they'd just send the protagonists off into space.

Case in point: Josie & the Pussycats in Outer Space and Gilligan's Planet.

 

[crashfan3]

There was that early Spongebob episode where the sponge and starfish think they go to space but actually they land back on earth and think that the "aliens" are projecting their memories into the environment to confuse them and they retaliate by capturing the supposed "aliens" who are "masquerading" as their friends;when in reality they're not.But the sponge and starfish do geniunely think that they're aliens until the very end.

 

[Blonde Limbo]

I haven't seen it since it first aired, but I remember, even as a kid, not liking that TMNT episode "Planet of the Turtleoids" at all.

 

[Jaadeen]

For some reason, Gundam seems to feel the need to give us alot of stupid episodes wasted in space. Doesn't relate to the plot at all.