Western Animation / StarBeam

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StarBeam is the superhero identity of a second-grade girl named Zoey, who inherited her superpowers from her mother, WonderBeam. When danger calls, Zoey transforms into StarBeam by saying "It's time to shine!" She also has a regular Rogues Gallery of villains, among them a kleptomaniac pirate named Captain Fishbeard, a misery-spreading girl named Miserable Marla, and an arrogant dancer named Cosmic Crusher. StarBeam's identity is kept secret by Zoey's family and her best friend, Henry.

StarBeam provides examples of the following tropes:

• Aborted Arc: "Beaming in the New Year" ultimately ends up as this. While the heroes defeat their usual villains, the Mystery Villain says to herself how she'll be back to take down StarBeam. It sounds like this would've made for a great story, but the show was cancelled afterwards.
• Action Mom: Zoey's mom is the superhero WonderBeam.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The main antagonist of "Clean Machine" is a Robot Buddy who tries to clean the entire house.
• All-CGI Cartoon: The show is animated in CGI.
• Alliterative Title: "Puppy Panic" and "Critter Chaos" are a few episodes that fit the bill.
• Ambiguously Brown: Gunther, Greta, and Luna Diaz have brown skin, but it is unknown if their ethnicity is black or Hispanic. However, "Luna" is a Spanish name, implying that she is Hispanic.
• Animesque: The animation does have moments of channeling anime, particularly expressions in the eyes when characters like Zoey and Stella get excited.
• Badass in Distress: Marla and her cohorts manage to subdue the Beam Team in "Beaming in the New Year" when she creates a tornado that she traps the rest of the Beam Team in, and the Cosmic Crusher swoops in before Zara can blast her or the tornado. Too bad for the Mean Team that Zara awakens her powers and repairs her smashed guitar, allowing the Beam Team to escape and defeat the villains.
• Badass Adorable: Zoey is a cute second grade girl with a wide array of powers.
• Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad: In "Mother's Day Mayhem", StarBeam offers Miserable Marla some worn-out flowers to give to her mom for Mother's Day, which she sees as perfect.
• Bait-and-Switch: During "Super Playdate" when Gunther and Greta are playing Jenga with Henry, Zoey thinks she saw Goop, but it turns out to be just a frog.
• Balloonacy: Tricksy invokes this a few times. During the episode "Summersette Spectacular," she switches the top of the float that StarBeam was on for a balloon, causing that float to lift off. In the short "Tricking Like Tricksy," Greta ends up floating on a bunch of balloons while she is fleeing after nearly eating a snail after Tricksy switches Greta's scooter with them.
• Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: SnowFoot is a yeti-like creature that lives in the mountains. He's a Gentle Giant.
• Big "NO!":
  • There's always a moment where Henry screams this in slow-motion.
  • The Mystery Villain screams this when she finds that the Beam Team had won in "Beaming in the New Year."
• Blank White Eyes: Greta gets these when she realises that she was about to eat a snail in "Tricking Like Tricksy."
• Blue Is Heroic: StarBeam's outfit is primarily blue, and she's the show's main character.
• Cheery Pink: As a civilian, Zoey wears a pink T-shirt, and she's often quite enthusiastic.
• Counter-Attack: When she notices that the Cosmic Crusher is coming at her after she awakens her powers, Zara, as EchoBeam, counters with a laser blast.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Zoey's cousin Zara has a punk rock design, but she's very friendly.
• Doppelgänger Spin: Zoey's grandfather can duplicate himself to throw his enemies off in "Beaming in the New Year."
• Dumb Muscle: The Cosmic Crusher is quite strong, though he isn't the brightest. Even his attempts to do good end up causing trouble, something StarBeam calls him out on in "Cleanup Crush."
• Easter Episode: "Springing StarBeam" takes place during an Easter egg hunt. Zoey has to get away from the competition so that she can save her mother.
• Evolving Credits: Season 3 includes Henry, Kipper, WonderBeam, and Zoey's grandpa standing besides StarBeam at the end of the Title Sequence.
• Extra-Long Episode: While most episodes are 11 minutes long, "StarBeam: Halloween Hero" and "Springing StarBeam" are 31 minutes long while "Beaming in the New Year" is 45 minutes long.
• The Faceless: The Mystery Villain's face is never seen since she's always shown wearing a mask, and sitting in her chair.
• Fangirl: Stella is StarBeam's fan, which is best demonstrated in the episode "Superfan".
• Forced Transformation: During the episode "Puppy Panic," Tricksy turns a dog into a dinosaur. She pulls this again in "Beachy Blunder," this time turning Zoey's grandfather into a snail.
• Futile Control Fiddling: In "Spaced Out", astronaut Luna Diaz is broadcasting from her space shuttle to Zoey's classroom when a meteor shower hits the shuttle, dislodging its external fuel tank and sending it spinning out of control, with Luna last seen trying to work the controls to no avail. This prompts Zoey to become StarBeam and head out into space to fix the problem.
• Gadgeteer Genius: Henry is great at making inventions.
• Genki Girl: Stella often acts excitable and energetic, especially when she's around StarBeam.
• Girlish Pigtails: Zoey and Stella both have pigtails as their default hairstyle.
• Half-Identical Twins: Greta and Gunther are twins that look basically the same.
• Halloween Episode: "Halloween Hero" is about Captain Fishbeard stealing the candy and prize from a Halloween contest.
• Here We Go Again!: "Beam BubbyLicious" ends with Kipper getting hiccups after Zoey gets rid of hers.
• Hiccup Hijinks: "Beam BubbyLicious" has Zoey get a case of the Beam Team Megabeam hiccups when she drinks a fizzy soda, making it hard for her to control her powers as StarBeam. She's then cured at the end, but then Kipper gets them.
• I Ate WHAT?!: During the short "Tricking Like Tricksy", Greta is about to eat a sandwich when Tricksy switches it with some snails. Greta is understandably disgusted.
• Insomnia Episode: The podcast Bedtime Stories has an episode called "Sleep or Storm" that follows this trope. Zoey is trying to get a good night's sleep so she can be well rested for the carnival the next day. However, when Miserable Marla makes a great big storm that keeps her awake, she becomes StarBeam so that she can help her calm down and get to sleep.
• Instrument of Murder: Upon becoming EchoBeam, Zara gains the ability to launch sonic attacks by playing her guitar. She even uses this to dissipate Marla's storm and stun the Cosmic Crusher.
• Mission Control: Gramps works in Beam Control at the lighthouse to watch for villains and other emergencies.
• Nice Guy: Both Zoey and Henry are good natured kids that try helping others, even when they're not superheroes.
• No Antagonist: While most episodes generally avert this, some play it straight. Some examples include "Spaced Out" (which has Zoey as StarBeam trying to help Luna Diaz get back to Earth when she runs into a meteor shower) and "Beam BubbyLicious" (where the problems stem from Zoey not being able to control her hiccups during her heroics).
• No Name Given:
  • The Mystery Villain from "Beaming in the New Year" is not given a name, both onscreen and in the credits.
  • Zoey's mom is known as the superhero WonderBeam, but her real name is unknown.
  • Zoey's grandfather is just called Gramps, with his real name also being unknown.
• Out of Focus: Zoey's mom appears less often in later episodes.
• Physical, Mystical, Technological: Among the villains, Marla and Tricksy fill this trope's Mystical slot since the former requires no means for her weather manipulation powers other than her own mind and the appropriate body movements, and the latter uses a magic wand. The Cosmic Crusher is the Physical, fighting with his physical might. Captain Fishbeard tends to use various gadgets for his crimes, such as a freezing spray, therefore being the Technological.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Zoey, Boost, and Marla are on the smaller side, but are still quite powerful.
• Proper Tights with a Skirt: Zoey and Miserable Marla wear shorts mixed with skirts.
• Quarter Hour Short: Each episode is about 11 minutes in length.
• Robot Buddy: Henry's cleaning robot is quite friendly.
• Scout-Out: "Tricky Trails" reveals that Greta and Gunter are part of the Explorer Scouts.
• Secret-Keeper: The only ones who know that Zoey is StarBeam are her mother, grandfather, and best friend Henry.
• Shout-Out: The Mystery Villain's design looks like a much shorter, slightly more colorful version of Darth Vader's outfit.
• Sick Episode: "Super Sniffles" has Zoey's mom, WonderBeam, becoming sick, which makes it hard for her to fight Miserable Marla.
• Superhero Episode: This is already a superhero show, but "Super Fan" puts more emphasis on this as Stella pretends to be a hero like StarBeam.
• Those Two Guys: Gunther and Greta, being twins, tend not to separate. Averted during a StarBeam Short called "Tricking Like Tricksy," where Gunther fails to appear, but his twin sister is present.
• The Trickster: Tricksy the Pixie often plays tricks on everyone just because she wants a good laugh.
• Watch Out for That Tree!: Kipper smashes face-first into a tree during his and StarBeam's pursuit of Tricksy in "Tricky Trails."
• Wingding Eyes:
  • During the episode "Gotcha Goop," Goop disguises himself as a skateboard during his raid, and Henry steps on him and gets sent flying onto a couch, his eyes turning into spirals when he lands.
  • "Tricky Trails" has Greta's eyes turn into hearts when she shows admiration for Tricksy's wings, and asks if she has extra.
• Wrecked Weapon: The Cosmic Crusher crushes Zara's guitar during "Beaming in the New Year". She later repairs her guitar and blasts him with a laser.