- Mutant League
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Mutant League was an animated series based on the videogames Mutant League Football and Mutant League Hockey which aired from 2 July 1994 to 24 February 1996. The show ran for two seasons, with the second typically incorporating more poignant stories and issues (such as Magic Johnson contracting HIV), while the first seemed somewhat hodgepodge with little regard for continuity (the Monsters have one win streak that ends twice, for instance). There are forty episodes in all, thirteen in Season 1 and twenty-seven in Season 2.[1]
Contents
Plot
During a football game, an earthquake reveals buried toxic waste, and the fumes cause all of the attendees and players to mutate, including young Bones Justice (cf. Bones Jackson in the games). A sports federation based around the superhuman beings, the Mutant League, springs up, and Bones grows up to play for the Midway Monsters. Corrupt league commissioner Zalgor Prigg constantly schemes to get the popular athlete to play for any one of the four teams he owns (Slayers, Evils, Derangers or Ooze), or if nothing else discredit him for refusing to join. Bones' search for his father, missing since the day of the quake, and his personal quest to bring order and fair play to the league, are subplots throughout the series. Several other characters from the games such as Razor Kidd, Mo and Spew, K.T. Slayer, Grim McSlam and Coach McWimple regularly appear in the show.
Unlike the games, players didn't die from their unique approach to contact sports; though frequently maimed to the point of losing body parts, through treatments in a machine called the Rejuvenator which bathed them in toxic chemicals, they would soon be as good as new. The show also has no robot players (except in one episode where K.T. Slayer was benched by robotic clones of himself.), and only five teams: the Monsters, the Slayers, the Ooze, the Derangers and the Screaming Evils. It also has the teams competing in all manner of sports, not just the ones seen in the games. Most commonly Football, but also hockey, basketball, soccer, baseball, volleyball and even monster truck races and sumo wrestling. As with the videogames, all of these sports were modified with deathtraps and loose rules on violence to accommodate the near-indestructible nature of the players. Some episodes end with a "grudge match" between two particular players.
A line of action figures was released based on the show, but went virtually unknown.
Rumours of a Mutant League wrestling league surfaced featuring such characters as The Polluter, The Toxic Teacher, and "Dad" (or possibly Butch Justice) but apparently never entered production.
Characters
Midway Monsters
- Bones Justice: The main protagonist of the series. Bones joined the Monsters because it was the only team in the Mutant League that Prigg doesn't own. Bones seeks out Prigg to learn the truth about his father Butch Justice. He never takes off his shade and his eyes glow red when angered.
- Razor Kidd: A lizard-like mutant who was dumped by the Slayers and joined the Monsters. He and Bones begin as rivals but become close friends.
- Mo & Spewster: Twin troll brothers with superior brawn, but miminal intelligence.
- Darkstar: A tough mutant who loves to fight anyone, because of his brutality and inadvertently knocking down Prigg, as punishment, he was sent to the Monsters where he butts heads with Bones until he learned to play fair. Though he plays fair, he's still brutal to those who threaten his teammates.
- Thrasher: Daughter of Malone. She and Darkstar usually have arguments.
- Elanore McWhimple: Supporting staff of the Monsters.
- Malone: Mysterious owner of the Midway Monsters.
- George Mcwhimple: Husband of Elanore McWhimple and coach of the Monsters.
- Slick Toxin: A mutant high-school star athlete recruited by Bones Justice.
Slay City Slayers
- K.T. Slayer: A troll with brute force and a vicious take-no-prisoners attitude. Slayer is also Prigg's right-hand mutant and team captain of the Slayers. He the primary rival of Bones and will do almost anything to put Bones out of commission.
- Jackie LaGrunge: A dangerous 9 year veteran, LaGrunge has become even more deadly as this former hybrid evoles into a whiptoid.
Derangers
- Joe Magician: A mutant obviously punned after Joe Montana, team captain of the Derangers.
- Grim McSlam: A mutant with 4 arms and punned after Jim McMahon.
Screaming Evils
- Madman: A demented hyena man, team captain of the Evils.
- Madboy: Son of the demented hyena man Madman.
Other Characters
- Bob Babble: Main announcer for MLSN (Mutant League Sports Network), never seen, and frequently heard.
- Sherry Steele: MLSN's human female reporter and a secret ally of the Monsters.
- Zalgor Prigg: Corrupt commissioner of the Mutant League, once a power-hungry businessman when he was human. The main antagonist of the series.
- Kang: A werewolf with a Don King hairdo, Prigg's personal assistant.
Home video
A 69 minute VHS tape of the show was released in 1996, featuring episodes edited together into what was called Mutant League: The Movie.
References
External links
Categories:- 1990s American animated television series
- Animated series based on video games
- Fictional mutants
- 1994 American television series debuts
- 1996 American television series endings
- First-run syndicated television programs in the United States
- Animated television series stubs
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