Western Animation / Widget the World Watcher

Following

Widget, the World Watcher is a 65-Episode Cartoon. The show originally ran in syndication from September 29, 1990 to December 12, 1991; reruns continued until 1997.

The show focused on Widget, a 4-foot-tall purple alien from the Horsehead Nebula who could shapeshift. He and three young human friends, Brian, Kevin and Kristine, would go through a number of adventures to protect Earth's natural environment. Widget is frequently accompanied by the Mega Brain, an extremely intelligent but somewhat clumsy being who appears as a floating head (with a transparent cranium) and floating hands.

The show was produced by Calico Creations to teach children about the dangers of pollution. In each episode, Widget contended with a villain wishing to exploit Earth's environment or natural resources, like Dr. Dante, Mega Slank and Widget's evil twin, Ratchet the World Trasher. In this respect, Widget, the World Watcher is very similar to Captain Planet and the Planeteers, both heroes attempting to save the Earth from ecological harm.

In some episodes, Widget would instead travel to another planet to deal with a problem. Depsite not being set on Earth, there was usually still a real-world moral that could be inferred from these adventures.

Now has a character sheet that is under construction.

This show has examples of the following:

• 6 Is 9: In "Time Trippers", Widget wants to travel forward the year 9901 to see what Earth would be like in the future. Thanks to Mega Brain's bumbling, they end up travelling back to 1066, due to the fact that Mega Brain had read the time travel disc upside-down.
• 10-Minute Retirement: In "The Brain Who Would Be King", Mega Brain gets idolized by a group of cavemen whom he impresses with his gadgets. Rather than stay with Widget, Mega Brain decides to ditch him, because he thinks he'd be better off staying. Mega Brain is quick to change his mind when the cavemen get fed up and sacrifice him to a cave cave bear, whom Widget has to save him from.
• Abhorrent Admirer: In "The Wishing Stone", Mega Brain crosses paths with a sphinx lady who's infaturated with him. Conversely, Mega Brain wants absolutely nothing to do with her.
• Accidental Discovery: In "You Talkin' to Me?" Mega Brain builds a device that's meant to purify air. Due to an error, it for some reason instead translates the speech of nearby animals into English, allowing humans to understand them.
• Added Alliterative Appeal:
  • Mega-Slank's Synthetic Space Slugs.
  • The explorer who finds an ancient Watcher shuttle in "Watcher from Wayback" is named Oscar O. Osbourne.
  • A number of alien creatures that get brought up from time to time qualify, including Martian Mud Monkeys, Solar Slime Snakes and Neptunian Nerdknockers.
• Adventurer Archaeologist: Both Cleo and Professor Alfonso Geekman from "The Wishing Stone" are both a good and evil version of one.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Zigzagged in "Robo-Zonk"; the titular Robot Buddy is a sincerely good-willed and helpful friend to Half-Pint, and while he does cause some problems, it's due to naivete and over-enthusiasm — just like Half-Pint himself. However, when Robo-Zonk builds a bunch of "Eco Cop" robots to assist him in cleaning up the city, they go on anti-human rampage, arguing that if their job is to prevent pollution, the most efficient way to do so is to remove humanity as the ultimate cause of all pollution.
• Alien Abduction: In "Scraboolee Jubilee" two Scrabooleean crocodiles travel to Earth to abduct Mega Brain, then take him back to their planet. A bit of a variation, as Mega Brain is technically an alien himself, but still.
• Aliens Among Us: In many episodes, epsecially earlier ones, Widget's identity as an alien is largely a secret to most humans, and he'll utilize a disguise to blend in. In other episodes, Widget will freely walk around Earth, approaching people without any sort of disguise and will even transform in front of them. Additionally, many aliens, such as Ratchet and Mega-Slank, are not afraid to interact with humans.
• An Alien Named "Bob":
  • In "BONKERZ" and "Rose Colored Glasses", some of the residents of Planet Narcissus are shown to bear names such as Mitzi, Garrett, Serena and yes, even Bob.
  • In "Scraboolee Jubilee", one of the Scrabooleean crocodiles is revealed to have the name "Percy".
• Aliens Speaking English: Everyone speaks English, regards of wherever in the universe they're from. Animals typically speak their own language, but certain characters such as Widget can understand them.
• Alliterative Title: Widget the World Watcher.
• Amusement Park of Doom: Ratchetland, from the eponymous "Ratchetland". Ratchet built the entire place out of trash to lure in foolish people in hopes of making them his mindless slaves.
• Ancient Tomb: The titular wishing stone from "The Wishing Stone" is hidden deep within an Egyptian tomb.
• Another Dimension:
  • The Trasher Dimension, AKA Pollutia, where Ratchet hails from.
  • Lollipopia, from "All Day Suckers", is said to exist in the ninth dimension. Despite this, Widget is shown to travel between Earth and Lollipopia by flying with the star shuttle.
• Anthropomorphic Food: The citizens of Lollipopia from "All Day Suckers" are human-sized, living lollipops.
• Anti-Role Model: Bonkula, a rebellious alien vampire who wants to turn Kevin and other kids into punks like himself. He eventually changes his tune to improve himself and other members of his species.
• Artifact of Hope: The wishing stone from "The Wishing Stone". Watchers from the time of Alexander the Great left it in his care. In the present day, Professor Geekman is looking for it to exploit his power, while Cleo intends to stop him.
• Artistic License – Biology:
  • In "Murtle and Zurtle", Murtle the Galapogos tortoise is at least 200 years old. In real life, the oldest known Galapogos turtle, named Harriet, was believed to have lived for up to 175 years. Note that Harriet was about 160 and still alive when the show was produced.
  • In "Half-Pint's Ransom", Widget transforms into an Andean condor and flies around with two kids on his back. Big as they are, a real Andean condor could never support that much weight. Of course, this could be hand waved by the fact that this is Widget, and not a normal bird.
    • Additionally, Mega Brain says that the Andean condor is the largest bird in the world. This is incorrect - the largest living bird is the ostrich. However, the Andean condor is the largest living bird of prey.
• Artistic License – Law: In "Ratchetland", Ratchet is able to build his own theme park out of garbage. Even if he somehow managed to pay for the land, he'd still need building permits to actually, you know, build anything on it without the authorities showing up.
• Artistic License – Space: In "Crashing Planets", all the planets from Mars to Pluto are perfectly alligned, allowing Widget and Mega Brain to fly past them in a straight line.
• Appeal to Tradition: In "Scraboolee Jubilee", the Scrabooleeans kept mistreating Mega Brain for various festivities. Their excuse?: "It's tradition". The exception is a bungee cord event, which they partake in simply because it's fun.
• Aside Glance: Widget does this briefly in response to Mega Brain near the end of "Ratchetland".
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: In "Fifty Foot Ants", a colony of enormous ants that live underground invade the human world.
• Bad Ass Pacifist: White Bear of the Hopi Tribe in "Culture Crooks". He convinces Widget and Ratchet to settle their fight in a game of tug-o-war, then tricks Ratchet into laughing to trick him into losing.
• The Bad Guy Wins:
  • In Watcher's Warning, Widget captures some shapeshifting slime he had brought to Earth from Planet Scraboolee to prove how polluted said planet is, but the Wise One comes to Earth to reclaim the slime, telling Widget it's "Better to leave the goo where it belongs.", leaving Widget to fail his mission. But all is made up for when Mega Brain accidentally fills the scientist room with smog, which turned out to be enough proof of Scraboolee's pollution.
  • In "Ratchet Hood", Ratchet and his mutants succeed in stealing money that would have gone to the Clean Earth Foundation, which they proceed to burn. Even though the heroes managed to send Ratchet and his henchmen back to Pollutia in the end, the money that was burned cannot be recovered, so in a sense, Ratchet still "won".
  • In Time Trippers, Widget and Mega Brain travel back to the year 1066 to stop Ratchet from polluting Pallinia into Pollutia, but it all ends with Ratchet morphing his mutants together to pollute Pallinia. Made up for when Mega Brain explains that we can learn from our mistakes and that the past is the past.
• Bad Guy Bar: In "Crazy 8", Widget and Half Pint visit one on Planet Omega. While there, Half Pint tries to resolve an argument between two tough pirates. The pirates don't take Half Pint's advice lightly and threaten to hurt him until Widget intervenes.
• Bad People Abuse Animals: Most of the villains easily qualify, with the most prominent offenders being Mega-Slank and Bob and Betty.
• Bait-and-Switch: In "Awesome African Adventure", Widget turns into an near-extinct creature known as a harambe to distract Sir Willy. After getting caught in Sir Willy's net, Widget turns into a hippopotamus. This foils Sir Willy's scheme and causes him to give up, as he figures that the actual harame that he was pursuing wasn't even real.
• Batman Can Breathe in Space: In both "Ghost of a Chance" and "Rock Around the Cosmos" Widget is able to breathe while in the vacuum of space.
• Bears Are Bad News:
  • In "Mega-Slank from Titanium", Mega-Slank's Synthetic Space Slug hypnotizes some polar bears into attacking Widget. When the hypnosis wears off, the bears leave the heroes alone and instead scare off Mega-Slank.
  • In "The Brain Who Would Be King", Mega Brain is threatened by a cave bear. Widget transforms into a cave bear himself to scare off the real one.
• Big Applesauce: While not explicity stated outright, "Beast Side Story" appears to be set in New York City, especially if the title reference is any indication.
• Big Bad - Widget faces many villains, but the ones that appear the most frequently are Ratchet, Mega Slank and Flim Flam McSham.
• Big Eater:
  • The Sqizzlebonk from "Widget and the Sqizzlebonk", which is really just a trait of its own species. It requires so much food that Flim and Flam, who've captured it, end up spending more money feeding it than they've earned from their circus.
  • Garbantua from "Intergalactic Grudge Match". Ratchet explains that he drained the Amazon River by sucking it up with a straw.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: The giant ants in "Fifty Foot Ants".
• Big Red Button: In "Crazy 8", Half Pint is given a remote control that can control the mirrors in the Hall of Mirrors at the amusement park on Planet Omega. The remote has a big red button on it, which Half Pint is warned to not pressed. Unsurprisingly, Half Pint forgets about this and presses the button anyways, which brings his reflection to life.
• Bigger on the Inside: Widget's wristband, which serves as Mega Brain's "home". Although Mega Brain appears to shrink down in order to fit inside, the interior still seems to be massive.
• Birthday Episode: "Fifty Foot Ants" takes place on Kevin's 12th birthday. However, most of the episode is a story told by Widget, which has nothing to do with anybody's birthday.
• Blind Without 'Em: Zodi experiences trouble seeing when he loses his glasses.
• Blob Monster: Planet Scraboolee appears to be a good source of these, no doubt thanks to all of its pollution.
  • In "Watcher's Warning", Widget takes home a small sample of green slime from Scraboolee, which grows into a large blob monster that Widget needs to contain.
  • In "Scraboolee Jubilee", a Scrabooleean crocodile plants some white goo into the engine of the star shuttle, which eventually turns into a monster, although it does not grow in size.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: In "Bungle of the Jungle", Bob and Betty tie up Widget and Mega Brain and leave them hanging from a rope bridge over a pond with crocodiles. Rather than wait around for five minutes to make sure that their plan works, Bob and Betty, who were never in a hurry before, decide to leave immediately, assuming that nothing could possibly go wrong.
• Boxing Kangaroo: At one point in "Machine Planet", Widget turns into a kangaroo, complete with boxing gloves.
• Brainwashed: In "The Great Brain Robbery", Ratchet captures Mega Brain and forces him to undergo a procedure that allows Ratchet to control his mind. Widget rescues Mega Brain, but later has to go back to Pollutia to find a cure for him.
• Busman's Holiday: In "Mother Slank's Intergalactic Vacation Paradise", Mega-Slank takes his mother to Lake Titicaca for a vacation. However, she puts him to work upon demanding that he warm up the lake for her.
• Camping Episode: In "The Uncontrollable Urg", Widget takes Brian, Half Pint and several other Ecology Scouts on a campout on the Purple Planet.
• Cardboard Pal: In "Machine Planet", Half Pint utilizes a cardboard cut-out of himself to fool Widget and Mega Brain into thinking he's staying behind, when in actuality he stowed away on the star shuttle.
• Catch Your Death of Cold: In "Scraboolee Jubilee", two Scrabooleeans attempt to freeze Mega Brain in an ice cave. After Widget rescues him, Mega Brain is revealed to have the sniffles.
• Circus Episode: Flim and Flam's circus, which is featured in "The Greatest Show in the Galaxy" and "Widget and the Sqizzlebonk".
• Circus of Fear: Flim Flam McSham runs one in "The Greatest Show in the Galaxy", wherein they have captured creatures from around the universe that are forced to perform for the brothers' show.
• City with No Name: The name of the local city is never mentioned; characters will go out of their way to avoid saying it, instead using terms such as "our city". Despite this, it appears to be a coastal city in Southern California, as Widget is shown flying towards that general area when he travels to Earth in the first episode.
• Community-Threatening Construction:
  • In "Amazon Adventure", a construction crew intends to tear down part of the rainforest, including a native village, so that they can build a new highway.
  • In "Half Pint's Ransom", Bob and Betty try to buy that same village, so that they can drill for the oil that had been discovered beneath it.
  • In "Chaos in Kali Ko", Dr. Dante takes over Kali Ko, which he attempts to tear down and replace with an airport and his own theme park, Danteland.
• Company Cameo: "Zodi" the World Watcher resided in "Kali Ko" while stranded on Earth. Zodiac Entertainment and Calico Creations produced the show.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: The entirety of "Crashing Planets" could have been avoided if Zippy hadn't relied on outdated information regarding Earth from one billion years ago.
• Counting to Three: In "Intergalactic Grudge Match", the first time Garbantua falls over, Ratchet (who's the referee) starts to count very slowly, giving Garbantua an unfair chance to get back up.
• Covered in Gunge: In "Head Game", Ratchet hosts a trivia contest between Mega Brain and Fathead. The first time Mega Brain gets a wrong answer, Ratchet dumps garbage on top of him. For the second wrong answer, Mega Brain gets covered in sticky slime.
• Covers Always Lie: The VHS release of "Widget's Great Whale Adventure" depicts Widget riding atop a killer whale. However, the whales that appear in "Widget's Great Whale Adventure" are all baleen whales. Killer whales are featured in "Kona, the Captive Whale", but that episode is not on the tape ^note The other episode included on the tape is "The Great Brain Robbery".
• Crappy Carnival: "Ratchetland" features the titular Ratchetland. Considering that Ratchet built the whole place out of garbage and runs it with his half-and-half mutants, what'd you expect?
• Crush Blush:
  • When Fiona kisses Half Pint in "MacBluff", his face blushes in a plaid pattern ^note The episode is set on the Plaid Planet.
  • Widget blushes when Princess Alien kisses him at the end of "Rock Around the Cosmos".
• Curb-Stomp Battle: In "Intergalactic Grudge Match", Widget winds up in a fight against pro wrestler Garbantua. The catch? Widget is not allowed to transform.
• Cute Kitten: Curly from "Gorilla My Dreams".
• Dark Is Not Evil:
  • Bonkula the teenage delinquent alien vampire from Bonklavania may be an Anti-Role Model, but he's not out to actually hurt anyone, he just wants to have fun with other teenagers. He even admits while saving Kevin's life at the end of the episode.
  • Downplayed with the Urg from "The Uncontrollable Urg"; it's an imposing giant alien monster with shapeshifting powers, and it spends the last third of the episode chasing Half-Pint and Brian through a cave network on the Purple Planet, scaring the wits out of them. Then the Squawker intervenes and reveals that Urgs are neither evil nor predatory — they're just jerks who think scaring other people is funny. The Urg is so cowed by the Squawker's threats to tell its mother that it quickly beats a hasty retreat.
• Dartboard of Hate: Ratchet has a dartboard with Widget's face on it in "Intergalactic Grudge Match".
• David Versus Goliath: In "Intergalactic Grudge Match", Widget has to fight a large wrestler by the name of Garbantua. However, since Widget is not allowed to transform during the match, he needs to use his wits and small size to his advantage.
• Denser and Wackier: While the first season was largely confined to Earth, the second season has the characters regularly visiting various planets, dealing with other aliens more frequently, utilizing Time Travel, and otherwise leans far more heavily into the science fiction angle.
• Department of Redundancy Department: In "Mediterranean Adventure", Kevin refers to Widget's cyclops tranformation as a "one-eyed cyclops" ^note A "cyclops" is a mythological one-eye giant, so Kevin essentially referred to him as a "one-eyed one-eyed giant".
• Depending on the Writer:
  • Is Pollutia simply another planet? Another dimension entirely? A planet within another dimension? Dimension seems more likely, but "Time Trippers" suggests that it's a planet.
  • A very extreme case with Mega Varmint, a Brain Unit who shows up in a few episodes. In "The Greatest Show in the Galaxy", "Widget and the Sqizzlebonk" and "Rock Around the Cosmos", he's a Jerkass who works for Flim and Flam. However, in "Ratchet Hood" and "Bonkula", he's one of Mega Brain's old friends and shows zero hostility towards him and Widget.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • In "Whatsit to You", Widget is able to figure out that the Whatsit robots who are causing trouble for him belong to Mega-Slank, because Mega-Slank put a "Property of Mr. M-Slank" label on each of them.
  • In "Widget and the Sqizzlebonk", Flim and Flam lock Widget, (whom they know is capable of shapeshifting) in a cage and leave him there unsupervised. Cue Widget turning into a flea and passing through the bars with ease.
• Disguised in Drag:
  • Mega Brain portrays Pandora during the Pandora's Box segment of "The Library Card". Pandora's husband Epimetheus is mentioned, but never makes an appearance.
  • In "Bungle of the Jungle" Mega Brain dresses up as "Queen Megalawegala" in an attempt to fool Bob and Betty. It works.
• The Ditz: Mini Brain, Half Pint's personal brain unit, is about as dumb as they come.
• A Dog Named "Dog": Bonkula is both the name of an individual character, as well as the race of alien vampires that he belongs to.
• Domed Hometown:
  • The main city on Narcissus from "BONKERZ" is this. Due to the city causing so much pollution, the rest of the planet is suffering until Widget can convince them to stop.
  • Domeworld, an artificial city developed by Mr. Beetlebug in "Air for Sale". His intent is to pollute the outisde world so badly that people will come inside Domeworld, where Mr. Beetlebug can charge them for fresh air. Additionally, the animals in the city are all robots and the plants are fake.
  • The City of Domes on Planet Chronos, as seen in "Crashing Planets", is like this. The reasoning is that the city was founded by a brain unit.
  • Doomsday Device: Or rather, Doomsday Planet in "Crashing Planets". The planet's ruler Zippy configured Planet Chronos so that it could be propelled through space via errupting volcanoes, with the intent of crashing it into Earth.
• The Dreaded: The titular Sqizzlebonk from "Widget and the Sqizzlebonk". While it's scary at first glance, the Sqizzlebonk really isn't that mean of a creature.
• Drill Tank: Flim and Flam have their McShammobile, which has a large drill on its front that's capable of tunneling underground.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: In the first episode, "Widget's Great Whale Adventure", the whalers are dealt with both fairly quickly and aggressively by Widget. Given that the first half of the episode is more about Widget travelling to Earth and getting assimilated with his new environment, it doesn't leave much time for him to actually deal with the problem that led him there in the first place. Also, unlike later villains who at least get some characterization, the whalers are given none, and just appear to be a bunch of guys who go around trapping whales all day. Additionally, rather than try to reason with the whalers or scare them off, Widget sinks their ship with their own net-launcher, which seems very hostile by his standards - people on the ship could've died and there's now one more sunken ship sitting on the ocean floor.
• Elderly Immortal: Watcher Zodi is at least 11,000 years old.
• Embarrassing Nickname - Hubert Ratman always gets called "Ratty" by Doctor Dante.
• Endangered Species:
  • The killer whale family from "Kona, the Captive Whale".
  • The red kangaroos from "Widget's Walkabout".
  • The samsimians, an alien species from "BONKERZ". The people of Narcissus find one, whom they think is the last of his kind, and keep him in captivity.
• Endless Day Time: In "Teeny, Weeny, Widget", Widget and his friends visit a planet where it's always daytime on account of having two suns. The non-stop sunlight allows its farms to thrive.
• Evil Genius: Several villains would likely qualify, the most noteworthy examples being Dr. Dante and Bizarro Brain.
• Evil Knockoff: Mega-Slank's Whatsit robots, which were modelled after Widget. They have visible joints and rivets, while their Bogus Brain units are either inanimate balloons or puppets meant to resemble Mega Brain. They are also incapable of transforming.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Bonkula is all for brainwashing people into becoming Bonkulas, he draws the line at seeing people get hurt.
• "Everybody Laughs" Ending: Many episodes end this way.
• Evil Poacher: Bob and Betty, who are usually in pursuit of trapping wildlife. Mega-Slank also qualifies in "Mega-Slank from Titanium". There's also several minor villains who qualify.
• Exploitative Big Oil: In "Half-Pint's Ransom", Bob and Betty try to coerce a South American tribe to sell their village so that they can drill for oil on their land.
• Failed a Spot Check:
  • In "Two Times Widget Equals Trouble", Kevin and Brian initially believe that Ratchet is Widget, and are startled by his negative behavior. This is despite the fact that Ratchet is pink, sports a mohawk and has a much different voice.
  • In "The Great Brain Robbery", Ratchet takes control over Mega Brain's mind. This alteration leads to an antenna sticking out of Mega's Brain's head, along with yellowed eyes and a robotic voice that Widget, Kevin and Brian fail to notice.
  • In "Great Barrier Thief", Bob and Betty's fish-shaped submarine appears on the news, and is believed to be a real creature. Nobody seems to have noticed the parascope or satellite dish that are affixed to the top of the sub.
  • In "The Uncontrollable Urge", Half-Pint and Brian fail to realize that they've encountered an Urg shapechanged into Widget twice, despite the fact that the Urg always has very angular, almost rocky features compared to the real Widget's smooth, rounded, curvy features. Only the fact that it can only say "Urg!" gives it away both times, but that does happen fairly quickly.
• Fake Defector: In "Glacier Grabber", Dr. Dante and Hubert Ratman claim to no longer be up to any unethical activity after they got arrested in "Slime Sleuths". They're lying.
• Fake-Out Opening: "The Uncontrollable Urg" opens to Half Pint in a mobile turret, shooting at enemy aliens on a war-torn planet. It's soon revealed to just be an augmented reality video game, which itself is based on a historical war on the Purple Planet.
• Fantastic Aesop: In "Micronauts", hazardous rain from another planet is causing things to mutate on Earth. Widget solves this problem by shrinking down to microscopic size, where he discovers that two factions of microbes within the rain are fighting, which is causing said mutations. Widget then fixes the problem by convincing the microbes to make peace with one another. Good luck trying to to stop hazardous compounds this way in real life.
• Fantastic Racism:
  • In "Micronauts" the triangular and circular microbes are at war with one another.
  • "Beast Side Story" is about a group of foxes who are at odds with a group of weasels.
• Fantastic Underworld: The ant kingdom in "Fifty Foot Ants", which is situated at the center of the Earth.
• Fictional Video Game: In some episodes, the main characters play a video game called "Bouncing Bob", which appears to be a platformer. The game is animated by use of CGI.
  • In "The Uncontrollable Urg", Half Pint plays a holographic video game in a museum on the Purple Planet.
• Field Trip to the Past: In "The Brain Who Would Be King", the Elders advise Widget to travel to the past so that he can find evidence of air pollution, in hope that he can use it as evidence to convince people in the present day to change their ways.
• Floating in a Bubble: In "Crashing Planets", Widget gets trapped in a bubble. It proves to be unbreakable, until Mega Brain realizes that the bubble responds to anger, and that it can be destroyed if Widget simply calms down, which works.
• Forced Transformation:
  • In "Never Cry Woof", Mega Brain uses his Megaformatron device to turn Brian into a wolf pup. When the machine breaks down, Brian is stuck as a wolf until Mega Brain can get the Megaformatron working again.
  • In "Ratchetland", humans who partake in the revelry at Ratchetland eventually make pigs of themselves. Literally. This is due in part to their behavior and a hypnotic melody playing in the park.
• Formula-Breaking Episode: "The Library Card", wherein Widget, Mega Brain, Kevin and Brian spend the episode at the library. They read several books regarding history and myths, envisioning themselves as the books' characters as they do. There is no real life confict for them to deal with, and no environmental lesson to be learned.
• Four-Fingered Hands: Many aliens possess four-fingered hands, which is justified. Humans are depicted with five-fingered hands. Of course, when Widget disguises himself as a human, he never bothers to give himself an additional finger on each hand. Additionally, Widget also has three-toed feet.
• Frame-Up: The premise of "Whatsit to You" is that Mega-Slank has built a bunch of robotic Widgets that he refers to as Whatsits, and gets them to cause trouble all over Earth, framing the real Widget in the process.
• Framing Device:
  • "Fifty Foot Ants", which is a story that Widget tells to Mega Brain, Kevin and Brian.
  • "The Library Card" is about Widget, Mega Brain, Kevin and Brian reading books at the library and envisioning themselves as the characters.
• Funny Animal:
  • At one point in "You Talkin' to Me?", some ants can be seen walking on their hind legs and carrying ant-sized shovels.
  • The ice weasels from "Glacier Grabber", who are fairly anthropomorphic. Are they evolved weasels, or mutants, or are they aliens?
  • The ants from "Fifty Foot Ants". Granted, that episode was largely a story that Widget seemingly made up.
  • The boobies from "Murtle and Zurtle", which go so far as to dress up as pirates and help Widget.
  • In "Great Barrier Thief", there are sea anenomes with faces that appear in a few shots.
  • Most of the animals that appear in "Beast Side Story" seem to qualify for whatever reason, be they fox, weasel or even pigeon. They all wear some article of clothing or accessory.
• Fun with Acronyms: The Benevolent Organization of Nature Karma Resources and Zoology, or BONKERZ for short, is an organization on planet Narcissus. ^note The "E" doesn't stand for anything, and is likely just there to so that the acronym is easier to say.
• Genius Serum: When Widget loses his intelligence in "Time Trippers", Mega Brain needs to use a special helmet on him to restore his intelligence to normal.
• Gentle Gorilla: Johnny Africa from "Gorilla My Dreams". He just gets sad when his kitten goes missing.
• Gentleman Adventurer: None of them are entirely nice.
  • Sir Oliver "Ollie" Allenby Smyth Jones Rhodes, and his great grandson Sir Willoughy "Willy" Smythe Jones II. Both of them are greedy, but ultimately end up making Heel-Face Turns.
  • Oscar O. Osbourne from "Watcher from Wayback".
• Ghost Invasion: In "Ghost of a Chance", pollution from Earth has torn through the interdimensional fabric, causing ghosts from different eras of time to pass through to present-day Earth. Widget needs to round up the ghosts and set things right.
• The Giant: Garbantua, a big wrestler whom Ratchet hires to fight against Widget in "Intergalactic Grudge Match".
• Giving Radio to the Romans: In "The Brain Who Would Be King", Mega Brain gives some of his gadgets to a group of cavemen, such as a stove and a video game, hoping to better their lives. The cavemen end up getting frustrated with the gadgets.
• Glass-Shattering Sound: In "Rock Around the Cosmos" Widget turns into an alien bird called the wild-billed warbling wood-warper. Its screech is so dreadful, it cracks not only Bizarro Brain's dome, but much of the machinery on his ship, forcing him to retreat.
• Goggles Do Something Unusual: The titular glasses from "Rose Colored Glasses" cause the wearers to see the world in a strange way. Garbage doesn't appear as such, and most other people look monstrous. It turns out that they were actually sold to the people of Planet Narcissus by Mega-Slank.
• Gravity Screw: The planet of Lollipopia has gravity that works differently than on Earth. Widget needs to wear special equipment to keep from floating away on the surface.
• Green Aesop: There are enough other things going on in the show for this not to be totally Anvilicious.
• Guardian Entity: In "Bungle of the Jungle", there's said to be an ancient warrior elephant, the ghost of whom protects both a temple and the surrounding jungle. When said elephant fails to show up, Widget assumes the role to scare off Bob and Betty.
• Halfway Plot Switch: "Time Trippers" starts off with Widget intending to travel into the future, with the intent of being able to warn the humans of the present of what could potentially happen if they don't take care of Earth. However, when Mega Brain accidentally sends them back in time to Pallinia, the premise changes to trying to stop Ratchet from turning the planet into Pollutia, and the idea of visiting the future is never brought up again.
• Hamster-Wheel Power: In "Dr. M-Slank's Pet Palace", Mega-Slank has captured dogs and cats from Earth and is forcing them to run around on machines in order to power Slank Fun City.
• Handy Remote Control: Some characters carry these around.
• Harmless Villain:
  • In "Two Times Widget Equals Trouble", most of Ratchet's mayhem boils down to making a few small messes around town, as well as disturbing a couple of humans and animals. This is averted in Ratchet's later appearances, where he goes on to cause more serious problems for Widget.
  • Oscar O. Osbourne in "Watcher from Wayback", who's more selfish than he is evil, as he stole Zodi's shuttle, not knowing what it was. Widget and Zodi find Oscar and get the shuttle back just by scaring him and his workers.
• Heel–Face Turn: Sometimes, Widget will succeed in convincing wrongdoers into doing the right thing. Other times, the antagonists (especially the recurring ones) don't learn anything or change their ways.
• Heinous Hyena: In "Gorilla My Dreams", there's pair of hyenas at the zoo who antagonize Widget and later Curly the kitten.
• Henchmen Race: Mega-Slank's Synthetic Space Slugs.
• Heroic Sacrifice: In "Robo-Zonk", Robo-Zonk fights the last-standing leader of the Eco Cops, with the two of them demolishing one another in the process. Subverted in that Mega Brain was able to salvage Robo-Zonk's personality chip and upload it onto Widget's computer.
• Hold Your Hippogriffs: Widget and Half Pint like these with space-based alterations.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • In "Chaos in Kali Ko", Dr. Dante uses his Corundum Crystal of Catatonia to enslave Widget. Mega Brain eventually finds Widget and gives him a pair of Reflection Refraction Action Glasses, which negates the crystal's affect. When Dr. Dante tries to use the crystal on Widget again, the glasses reflect its power back onto Dr. Dante, causing him to to act all subserviant.
  • In "Bungle of the Jungle", Mega Brain takes the remote control for Bob and Betty's robotic elephant and uses it to carry the two hunters out of the jungle.
• Hollywood Law: In "All Day Suckers", the mayor somehow sells all of Earth's water to the Lollipopians in exchange for a lot of gold. Mega Brain later discovers that said gold is actually fool's gold, and Widget uses this knowledge to coerce the Lollipopians into sending the water back to Earth.
• House Squatting: The foxes in "Beast Side Story" have taken up residence in a dilapidated low-rise apartment building. The weasels want to kick the foxes out and take their place, even though the building is technically owned by Mr. Beetlebug, who wants to tear it down.
• Humanity Is Insane: Earth has been a huge problem to the Watchers, and they can't ever seem to make things right there. Widget is the latest in the line of aliens assigned (accidentally) to try to keep humans from destroying themselves and their planet with them.
• Human Aliens:
  • If not for their Pointy Ears, a lot of the aliens in "Maller Crawlers" could probably pass as humans, as well as the natives of Narcissus in "BONKERZ" and "Rose Colored Glasses". The same could also be said for the natives of the Plaid Planet in "MacBluff".
• Humans Are Morons: In "Ratchetland", most of the humans seem to qualify. Why anyone would have fun at an amusement park made out of garbage, let alone want to go there in the first place, is unclear. The smell alone would drive away most normal people.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: When the other kids at school won't let Kevin play basketball with them in "Bonkula", Kevin decides to befriend the titular Bonkula, despite him being a complete stanger.
• Ice Palace: Dr. Dante has one as his base of operations in Antarctica in "Glacier Grabber".
• Identical Grandson: Sir Willoughby Smythe Jones II looks very similar to his great-grandfather, Sir Oliver Allenby Smyth Jones Rhodes. The biggest difference is that Sir Ollie has a mustache and wears a monocle over his left eye. Conversely, Sir Willy lacks a mustache and wears a monocle over his right eye.
• Idiot Ball:
  • In "The Greatest Show in the Galaxy", two of Flim and Flam's poachers capture Widget in a net. Widget acts like he's completely helpless and doesn't think to use his powers to try and escape at all.
  • In "Intergalactic Grudge Match", it takes Widget a considerable amount of time to piece together that an unseen figure by the name of R. Atchet is obviously Ratchet. The Elders and Mega Brain are unable to figure this out.
  • In "Teeny, Weeny, Widget", Flim and Flam manage to catch a shrunken Widget. They soon leave Widget unsupervised, allowing him to easily escape.
  • In "Bonkula", Kevin doesn't think that a strange alien with bizarre powers whom he just met is the least bit suspicious, and is all too eager to hang out with him.
  • In "Bungle of the Jungle", Bob and Betty are more than willing to sell the treasure they're searching for to a disguised Mega Brain for "one-zillion wazbooies", a currency that they've clearly never heard of, but assume that it's still a lot. Mega Brain then succeeds in convincing Bob and Betty into closing their eyes while he counts their money, but instead takes the opportunity to steal the battery from their destructive robotic elephant.
• Incredible Shrinking Man: In "Teeny, Weeny, Widget", Widget gets shrunk by a carnival attraction being run by Flim and Flam. Gyp notices Widget and removes him from the ride, thus requiring Widget to find a way back through the ride so that he can be returned to normal size.
• Industrial World: Titanium, Mega-Slank's homeworld, is like this due to its inhabitants letting the planet's animals and plant life die off. It's similar in appearance to Cybertron.
• Inflating Body Gag: In "Scraboolee Jubilee", Mega Brain gets forcibly inflated with helium and used as a large parade balloon. Widget manages to pop Mega Brain, only for him to deflate and go flying into the hands of a Scrabooleean cop.
• Instant Ice: Just Add Cold!: In "Scraboolee Jubilee", the two crocodiles that kidnapped Mega Brain for their annual Scraboolee Jubilee Festival decide to freeze him, fearing that he otherwise won't survive until next year. Fortunately, Widget rescues Mega Brain before he completely freezes up.
• Insufferable Genius: Both Widget and Mega Brain do have their smug moments from time to time, lecturing humans on their own mistakes while failing to appreciate the local customs involved. Cue Mega Brain hiding and Widget being forced to correct the mistake he created.
• Intelligent Gerbil:
  • Planet Scraboolee is home to a society of evolved crocodiles and sharks. Humans used to live there as well, but they ultimately died off.
  • The half-and-half mutants were originally normal alien animals that Ratchet merged together.
  • A number of alien species that Widget sometimes mentions are based on Earth creatures (Maritan mud monkeys, solar slime snakes, etc.).
• Interrupted Bath: Happens to Mega Brain twice in "Ratchetland" when Widget calls upon him.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
  • The Bonkula who shows up in one episode acts a lot like a nasty punk, but does save Kevin when he's seriously in danger, admitting he's just a joker and doesn't really want anyone to get hurt.
  • The Squawker is an abrasive loud mouth with what the Female Elder describes as the screechiest voice of any creature in the galaxy, and constantly complains about anything and everything, but also is, in his own way, a peacemaker. The denizens of the Purple Planet regard the Squawker as a near-mythical hero for preventing them from engaging in a devastating world war 900 years ago by chewing out both sides so vociferously that they fell about laughing and decided that fighting each other was stupid. In the episode proper, the Squawker puts a stop to the Urg chasing Half-Pint, Brian and Widget by chewing it out for being such a Jerkass, as well as revealing that the Urgs aren't really monsters, they just think it's fun to scare other people. Finally, when he learns how grateful Widget's people are to him for making peace 900 years ago, despite half-heartedly complaining about the awards they gave him, the Squawker is clearly quite touched.
• Jerkass Has a Point: In "Half Pint", Half Pint goes around town, calling out all the ways Earthers are mistreating the planet. He's technically not wrong, but Widget has to tell him not to be so headstrong and intrusive.
• Just Like Robin Hood: Subverted in "Ratchet Hood". Ratchet and his mutants all dress up like Robin Hood, but only to steal money that was meant for a charity. Mega Brain and his fellow brain units also dress up like Robin Hood to counter them as the Merry Brains.
• Kangaroo Pouch Ride: In "Widget's Walkabout", Widget turns into a kangaroo and gives Brian a ride in his pouch. Normally, a human would be too big and heavy for a kangaroo to handle, on top of male kangaroos not having pouches, but this is Widget, so he gets a pass.
• Kiddie Vehicle Supercharge: In "Crazy 8", Crazy 8 conivnces Half Pint into riding an old amusement park ride that resembles a dragon. After Half Pint starts to ride it, the dragon eventually comes to life.
• Kill All Humans: In "Robo-Zonk", the robotic Eco Cops point out that Earth's pollution is caused by humans. Therefore, they conclude that by eliminating all humans, they'll eliminate all pollution.
• Kill It with Water: Mega-Slank's Synthetic Space Slugs are easily vanquished when exposed to water.
  • Averted in "Mother Slank's Intergalactic Vacation Paradise". In that episode, numerous slugs are utilized to swim around Lake Tititcaca. How they're able to do so is never explained.
• Killer Robot: The Eco Cops from "Robo-Zonk" were not created as such, but immediately decided that they could end pollution by eliminating the humans who produce it, and began rounding up the city's human population with the intent of imprisoning them all on an oxygen atmosphere-bearing asteroid.
• Last of His Kind:
  • The Sqizzlebonk from "Widget and the Sqizzlebonk". Due to their tremendous appetites, the rest of the Sqizzlebonk's kind ate all of the food on their home world and died off, leaving only one Sqizzlebonk left in existence. Flim and Flam capture the Sqizzlebonk to use as an attraction in their circus.
  • Averted with the Squawker from "The Uncontrollable Urg". Initially believed to be the only one in existence, and to have disappeared a long time ago. It turns out that not only is he still alive, but that he has a female partner, with whom they have thousands of eggs that will be ready to hatch soon.
  • The male harambe, a dinosaur descendent from "Awesome African Adventure", is believed to be this until he is introduced to a female of his species.
• Later-Installment Weirdness: In the show's earlier episodes, Widget would regularly help deal with a problem on Earth, usually pertaining to animals in trouble or people mistreating the environment. Later episodes had a tendency to forgo these issues and instead lean more into Widget visiting other worlds and dealing with alien technology and problems. In some instances, any enviromental message there may have been was largely irrelevant to the plot, which was usually a straightforward mission to stop the villain.
• Letter Motif: Two of the weasels in "Beast Side Story" are named Willy and Wozzle, which both start with W.
• Literal Genie: The titular wishing stone from "The Wishing Stone". Upon finding it, Cleo wishes for some water, but rather than having water appear, she gets teleported to a nearby oasis along with Widget and Mega Brain.
• Living Mannequin: In "Maller Crawlers", the mannequins at the Maxi Mall are actually robots that the mall's mainframe is able to activate.
• Living Photo: In "Culture Crooks" a painting of the ancient Hopi White Bear speaks, but only to Half Pint.
• A Lizard Named "Liz":
  • In "Widget's Walkabout", Widget tries to locate a missing kangaroo joey named Jo-Jo.
  • In "Fifty Foot Ants", two of the ant queen's subordiantes are named Sir Anthony Antwerp and General Anton.
• Level Ate: Lollipopia, a planet depitcted in "All Day Suckers", is made entirely out of candy. Its atmosphere is unbreathable to humans, so Kevin and Brian are unable to join Widget when he travels there.
• Logic Bomb: In "Machine Planet", the Goon Bots are on a mission to get rid of flawed machinery. Having defeated two of them, Widget convinces the rest of the Goon Bots that they'll need to destroy the broken ones as well. Since they don't want to go through with that, the Goon Bots decide to not carry out their mission.
• Long-Lived:
  • Watchers apparently have very long lifespans. Zodi has been alive since Earth's Ice Age, although he does look and behave fairly eldery.
  • The Squawkers who appear in "The Uncontrollable Urg" also live for a very long time; their eggs take 900 years to hatch.
  • Bonkula from "Bonkula". He claims to be thousands of years old, although his appearance and behavior is befitting of a human teenager.
• Losing Your Head: Whenever Widget, Kevin and Brian travel through Mega Brain's wristband to access Pollutia, their heads briefly separate from the rest of their bodies.
  • In "Head Game", their heads even reattach to the wrong bodies for a moment. Somehow, they're able to disconnect their heads again and set things right.
• Lying Finger Cross: In "Widget and the Sqizzlebonk", Widget agrees to not let the Sqizzlebonk harm Flim and Flam, provided they promise to never steal another creature ever again. They "promise", only to hold their hands behind their back and cross their fingers as they do so.
• Made a Slave:
  • In "Chaos in Kali Ko", Dr. Dante manages to hypnotize Widget and forces him to help tear down Kali Ko.
  • In "Scraboolee Jubilee", Mega Brain gets abducted and taken to Scraboolee, where he is forced to serve as a plaything for the natives during the Scraboolee Jubilee Festival.
• Malicious Mirror: In "Crazy 8", Half Pint unwittingly brings his mirror reflection to life using a special device. His reflection is essentially an evil version of himself, but Widget is quick to expose him and orders the reflection back into the mirror.
• The Man Behind the Curtain: In "Crashing Planets", Zippy appears to be a large, stoic brain unit that instills fear upon his subjects. In actuallity, the brain unit "referred to as an orb", is actually a holograph that the real Zippy, who's small and meek, is controlling. Mega Brain temporarily takes control of the orb to tease Widget, who doesn't find it very funny.
• Manchild: MacBluff, from the eponymous episode quickly becomes one when Widget confronts him as the ghost of King Cutlet and grounds him for two weeks. MacBluff proceeds to whine like a little kid, so Widget reduces the sentence to one week, then sends MacBluff to his room.
• Master Computer:
  • The unseen computer system that controls the Maxi Mall in "Maller Crawlers".
  • Macro Brain, Mr. Beetlebug's computer in "Air for Sale". It gradually turns on Mr. Beetlebug and tries to enslave him.
• Meaningful Name: Several characters, such as Mega Brain, Flim Flam McSham and Gyp.
  • One of the animals in "Beast Side Story" is a fox named Redfur. Surely enough, he has red fur.
• Mechanical Animals: In "Bungle of the Jungle", Bob and Betty use a robotic elephant to tear down trees in their effort to find an ancient temple in a Burmese jungle.
• Mega-Microbes: In "Micronauts", contaminated rain from the planet Thermoglobulus contains two factions of microbes, triangular and circular, that are at war with one another. Their fighting in turn causes the rain to mutate anything it touches into a monstrous version of itself.
• Menagerie of Misery: Mega-Slank will often abduct animals and keep them in poor living conditions, typically to profit off of them in some way.
• Mind Control:
  • Mega-Slank's Synthetic Space Slugs have hypnotic eye beams that they use to enslave animals in a few episodes.
  • In "Chaos in Kali Ko", Dr. Dante has gotten his hands on the Corundum Crystal of Catatonia, which gives him hypnotic control over others, including Widget. Widget ends up with the crystal after Dr. Dante is defeated.
  • In "The Brain Who Would Be King", Widget uses the crystal from "Chaos in Kali Ko" to hypnotize the cavemen that they met into forgetting their encounter, so as to maintain the past.
• Mind-Control Music:
  • The theme music for Ratchet's theme park in "Ratchetland" is this. People who listen to it and make pigs of themselves eventually turn into pig people who are mindlessly faithful to Ratchet.
  • In "Rock Around the Cosmos", Bizarro Brain's band plays a special tune to take control of an audience that happens to be wearing mind-cotrolling helmets, unbeknownst to them.
• Mind Over Matter: Zodi shows Widget that Watchers have the power to levitate both themselves and other objects, but it takes a tremendous amount of practice to perfect.
• Mirrors of Vanity: The people of the planet Narcissus utilize special energy-powered "Marvy Mirrors" that produce glamorous reflections, rather than one's true self. The problem with these mirrors is that their usage causes a ton of pollution that's destroying their planet.
• Mirrors Reflect Everything: In "Dr. M-Slank's Pet Palace", Widget manages to defeat Mega-Slank by turning into a mirror and reflecting his hypnosis beam back at him.
• Mischief-Making Monkey: In "The Wishing Stone", Professor Geekman has a fez-wearing monkey that he utilizes to steal the wishing stone from Cleo. However, the stone is very heavy, and the monkey is forced to carry it back to Geekman. Widget later turns into a monkey himself and convinces the monkey to perform a Heel–Face Turn to stop Geekman.
• Mistaken for Aliens: Zigzagged. In "Betty and the Beasts", Bob and Betty dress up a bear, an elephant and a rhinoceros to serve as aliens in a movie they're filming. The animals escape, so Widget goes off to find them. The townsfolk believe that the animals are real aliens, so Bob decides to alert the authorities over these "aliens". This would be a hoax, except that Widget himself is (obviously) a real alien.
• Mistaken for Related: In "Crashing Planets", a robot guard sees that Mega Brain is a brain unit, and assumes that he is the son of Zippy, Zippy Jr. Mega Brain goes along with it to get the VIP treatment.
• Money to Burn: In "Ratchet Hood", Ratchet and his mutants steal money intended for a charity. Since Ratchet doesn't value money, they burn it instead so that nobody can spend it.
• Monumental Theft: In "Intergalactic Garage Sale", Mega-Slank travels around Earth, selling off the planet's various monuments to a wealthy alien couple.
• Morphic Resonance - Widget is always purple, and sometimes retains other features, no matter what he otherwise looks like. Except when he isn't... (See below.)
  • When Brian is transformed into a wolf pup in "Never Cry Woof", he still retains his hair and cap.
• Movie-Making Mess: The plot of "Betty and the Beasts" involves Bob and Betty trying to make a movie with dressed-up, displaced wildlife.
• Multiple Head Case:
  • Flim Flam McSham.
  • In "Maller Crawlers", there's an alien dog with two heads.
  • In "Teeny, Weeny, Widget", one of the animals that got abducted by Flim and Flam is a hydra-headed horse, which has six heads.
• My Beloved Smother: Mother Slank, Mega-Slank's overbearing and demanding mother who shows up in "Mother Slank's Intergalactic Vacation Paradise".
• Mysterious Past: The Maxi Mall from "Maller Crawlers". Who built it, and why it wants to trap everyone who steps inside is never explained.
• Named After Somebody Famous: Cleo from "The Wishing Stone" is stated to be named after Queen Cleopatra.
• Never Smile at a Crocodile:
  • In "Widget of the Jungle", two crocodiles were used to trap Bob and Betty. When the two poachers get thrown into the river, the crocodiles try to eat them, but they instead throw them into the air.
  • "Bungle of the Jungle", Bob and Betty try to get their revenge (so to speak) on Widget and Mega Brain by tying them upside-down and trying to get two crocodiles to eat them. However, the crocodiles have a change of heart and don't end up eating them.
• Never Trust a Trailer:
  • In the Precap for "Two Times Widget Equals Trouble", Widget mentions that Ratchet has "awesomely evil powers", while footage of him being duplicated is being played. In actuality, Ratchet has no such powers - Mega Brain was accidentally cloning him with one of his devices.
  • In the Precap for "Bonkula", Widget states that Kevin "quits" school, which would imply that he dropped out. In the episode itself, Kevin just ditches school in the middle of the day, and while he'd presumably be punished for it, it's unlikely he'd get expelled.
• New Rules as the Plot Demands: In "Time Trippers", Widget regresses into a primitive, neanderthal-esque form after travelling back to 1066. This is in spite of the fact that no such thing ever happened to Widget in previous and sometimes even further visits to the past. This regression was likely done to make Widget unable to stop Ratchet.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!:
  • In "Two Times Widget Equals Trouble", Mega Brain decides to help an overworked Widget by extracting a second Widget from another dimension. He accidentally brings in Ratchet, who would go on to be a recurring antagonist throughout the rest of the series.
  • This nearly happens in "Watcher's Warning". Widget learns that slime from Planet Scraboolee is highly toxic and unstable. Despite being advised not to do so, he takes a small sample to Earth to demonstrate what could happen if Earthers don't take care of their planet. However, the slime escapes and grows into a monster, but Widget is able to locate and capture it very quickly.
  • In "The Great Brain Robbery", Mega Brain accidentally activates his Personality Plucker again. When he goes to check it out, Ratchet is able to capture him.
  • In "The Greatest Show in the Galaxy", Mega Brain accidentally transmits a video intended for Widget's to the wrong coordinates. Instead, Flim Flam McSham sees it and decides to capture Widget for his circus.
  • In "Robo-Zonk" Robo-Zonk decides to build Eco Cop robots to further help deal with pollution on Earth. These Eco Cops realize that they can get rid of the pollution by getting rid of the humans who cause it, and thus need to be stopped before they can carry out their plan.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain!:
  • An interesting version happens that takes place over the course of two episodes. In "Chaos in Kali Ko", Widget confiscates Dr. Dante's mind-controlling Corundum Crystal of Catatonia. In "The Brain Who Would Be King", Widget goes back in time and uses the crystal to make a bunch of cavemen forget that they met him and Mega Brain, thus preventing a potential paradox. Essentially, Dr. Dante gave Widget the solution to a problem that he had nothing to do with.
  • In "Intergalactic Grudge Match", two of Ratchet's half-and-half mutants work to sabotage Widget. At one point, Garbantua accidentally launches the mutants up into the rafters. They later fall down onto Garbantua and knock him out, thus awarding Widget the win.
  • Also in "Intergalactic Grudge Match", Widget signs a contract to fight Garbantua. Since Widget didn't read the fine print, Ratchet is quick to point out that Widget can't transform during the fight. If Ratchet had kept his mouth shut until the fight started, Widget would've transformed, giving Ratchet the opportunity to disqualify Widget for breaking a rule that he "forgot" to mention earlier.
• No Antagonist: Many episodes do not feature a proper antagonist. While Widget may have to deal with a Jerkass or two along the way, or possibly some predatory animal, any actual conflict likely stems from ignorance or regular people who are just doing their (controversial) job.
• NO INDOOR VOICE: The Squawker from "The Uncontrollable Urg" is a loud, whiny creature that seemingly cannot speak in a low voice. His female companion isn't much better.
• No OSHA Compliance: Ratchet's theme park in "Ratchetland". Suffice to say, building a theme park out of trash, where garbage and slime oozes thoughout, as well as a volcano that errupts garbage onto people's heads would get the place closed down very quickly.
• Nobody Here but Us Statues: In "Bungle of the Jungle", the two leopards pose as statues in the ancient temple that Bob and Betty are looting. They catch Bob and Betty off guard when they reveal themselves, scaring them out of the temple.
• Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: The Urg from "The Uncontrollable Urg". It's not really a mean creature - it only acts intimidating to ward off strangers. Also, it's a vegetarian.
• Obliviously Evil: Zippy, from "Crashing Planets". His planet of Chronos has no orbit, and so he wants to crash Chronos into Earth and take its orbit, his reasoning being that Earth has no intelligent life. Widget eventually explains to him that Zippy's information is over one billion years out of date, and gets him to stop.
• One-Steve Limit:
  • There's Bob, the Earth poacher who works with Betty. There's also another Bob, who's a native of the planet Narcissus. Also, in some episodes, Widget can be seen playing a video game known as "Bouncing Bob".
  • There's Sir Willoughy Smythe Jones II, better known as Sir Willy from "Bungle of the Jungle". "Beast Side Story" also has a weasel named Willy.
• Opening Narration: The first episode, "Widget's Great Whale Adventure", begins with a narrator introducing the audience to the Watchers and their purpose.
  "Far away, in the majestic Orion constellation, there's a hypnotically beautiful cloud called the Horsehead Nebula, formed by the dust of dying stars. At the center of this cloud lies a small purple planet, which is the home of the Watchers. Just as the Greek warrior Orion once protected the weak and innocent, the Watchers oversee the safe and peaceful coexistence of all living things in the universe."
  • "The Uncontrollable Urg" also uses a near copy of this narration.
• Origins Episode: "Time Trippers" shows how Ratchet came to Pallinia and turned it into Pollutia, as well as how he created the half-and-half mutants.
• Our Vampires Are Different: They're aliens from the planet Bonklavania, they have Psychic Powers of Mind Control and Mind Over Matter, and their teenagers, known as "Bonkulas", are notorious as good-for-nothing intergalactic goofoffs.
• Panthera Awesome: In "Bungle of the Jungle" a pair of leopards befriend Widget and help him stop Bob and Betty.
• Papa Wolf: A literal example appears in "Never Cry Woof", where a pair of wolf parents are shown to be very protective of their pups. They also "adopt" Brian, who had been transformed into a wolf pup himself by one of Mega Brain's inventions.
• Paradise Planet:
  • The Purple Planet, AKA the Watcher homeworld, is shown to be a lush, peaceful planet with no real pollution.
  • Pallinia was a paradise. At least until Ratchet got there in 1066 and convinced its inhabitants to trash the place before renaming it Pollutia. By 1991, the planet became a polluted wasteland.
• Parody Episode:
  • "MacBluff" is a mild parody of Macbeth, albeit without anyone getting killed. It doesn't quite qualify as Recycled IN SPACE!, as the planet that it's set on resembles medieval Scotland.
  • "The Library Card" has Widget, Mega Brain, Kevin and Brian reading several books on myths and history, with themselves as the main characters. The stories they read about are Icarus, Pandora's Box, the Trojan Horse, the Boston Tea Party, King Tut and Robin Hood.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: In "Dr. M-Slank's Pet Palace", one of Mega-Slank's Synthetic Space Slugs dresses up as a female receptionist, which fools Widget and his pals. Mega-Slank also disguises himself with a face mask and hair net, which he immediately removes once Widget encounters him.
• Phlebotinum Breakdown: In "Never Cry Woof", Mega Brain uses his Megaformatron to turn Brian into a wolf pup. Just before he's about to change Brian back into a human, the Megaformatron gets struck by lightning. As such, Brian is stuck as a wolf pup until Mega Brain can get the Megaformatron working again.
• Phlebotinum-Induced Stupidity: When Widget travels back in time to 1066, he somehow regresses into a very simple-minded primitive watcher who has no understanding as to what's going on around him.
• Pigman: Careless people who visit Ratchet's amusement park eventually turn into pig/human hybrids thanks to the park's hypnotic theme song. Mega Brain reverses the music, causing everyone to turn back to normal.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: The Grouchlin from "Widget and the Sqizzlebonk", who's very short while also being very strong.
• Pirate Episode: In "Murtle and Zurtle", a group of pirates in 1792 were responsible for the poaching of some Galapogos turtles. To deal with this, Widget travels back in time, turns himself into a pirate and converts the shuttle into a galleon to go after the actual pirates.
• Pity the Kidnapper: In "Half-Pint's Ransom", Bob and Betty kidnap Half-Pint, believing him to be the son of a tribal village's chief, so they can ransom him off for the natives' land. His bratty tendencies start to annoy Bob and Betty and progressively get worse towards them. In the end, they're basically willing to give Half-Pint back to the chief for free.
• Planet of Hats:
  • Lollipopia from "All Day Suckers" is made entirely of candy, while its people appear to be anthropomorphic lollipops.
  • The Plaid Planet from "MacBluff". What is shown of it appears to resemble medieval Scotland. Strangely, it resembles plaid when seen from space, but the surface doesn't seem to reflect this.
  • From what little of it is shown, Bonklavania from "Bonkula" appears to be inhabited by Bonkula vampires and remembles Victorian era Transylvannia.
• Planet Spaceship: Slank Fun City, a planet-sized structure built to resemble Mega-Slank's head from "Dr. M-Slank's Pet Palace". It later gets referred to as Slanky World in "Whatsit to You".
• Pleasure Island: Ratchetland. Messy humans who visit and hear Ratchet's mesmerizing melody playing in the park eventually wind up mutating into pig people.
• Pokémon Speak: Urg, way before Pokémon to boot.
• Polluted Wasteland: Several, actually.
  • Pollutia, the alternate dimension/planet that Ratchet comes from is this. It was formerly known as Pallinia and was perfectly fine and pleasant, but Ratchet and his mutants ravaged the world with excessive pollution.
  • Planet Scraboolee, an Earth-like planet which has been polluted so heavily that the humans who once lived there died off. Creatures such as sharks and crocodiles eventually evolved and have no choice but to live in the mess that the humans left them.
  • Earth has been shown to end up this way in simulations depicting a Bad Future.
• Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title:
  • "Betty and the Beasts" = Beauty and the Beast
  • "Never Cry Woof" = Never Cry Wolf
  • "Ratchet Hood" = Robin Hood
  • "MacBluff" = Macbeth
  • "The Brain Who Would be King" = The Man Who Would be King
  • "The Uncontrollable Urg" = The Uncontrollable Urge
  • "Bonkula" = Dracula
  • "Rock Around the Cosmos" = Rock Around the Clock
  • "Beast Side Story" = West Side Story
• Power Nullifier: In "Bungle of the Jungle", Bob manages to catch Widget in a net. For whatever reason, this causes Widget (who was currently a tiger) to change back into his normal form and leaves him completely helpless.
• Precap: During the opening credits, the singing would momentarily stop so that Widget could explain what was going to happen in the upcoming episode.
• Pro Wrestling Episode: "Intergalactic Grudge Match". Ratchet agrees to stop his latest scheme if Widget can defeat pro wrestler Garbantua in a wrestling match. The catch is that Widget is not allowed to transform during the match.
• Punny Name: Garbantua, from "Intergalactic Grudge Match". His name is a combination of "garbage" and "gargantua".
• The Purge: "Machine Planet" is basically a toned-down stance on eugenics, with unwanted, yet sentient machines being subjected to destruction.
• Put on a Prison Bus: Professor Alfonso Geekman gets arrested at the end of "The Wishing Stone".
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Mega Brain's brain unit friends. In "Ratchet Hood", they're considered to be rejects, so Mega Brain unites them to help fight against Ratchet.
• Read the Fine Print: In "Intergalactic Grudge Match", Widget signs a contract to fight against Garbantua in a wrestling match. Widget neglected to actually read the contact before signing it, and Ratchet is quick to point out that the contract states that Widget is forbidden from transforming during the match.
• Read the Map Upside Down: Mega Brain is guilty of this at the end of "Intergalactic Garage Sale", when he and Widget are returning Earth's monuments back to where they belong.
• "Reading Is Cool" Aesop: The premise of "The Library Card" is to show viewers (and Brian) that books, even those without pictures, can be interesting if you're willing to read them.
• Real After All: On the Purple Planet, the last time the Squawker was seen was 900 years ago, but it turns out that he's still alive, along with a female counterpart. The same can be said about the Urgs, who were believed to be a myth as well.
• Resized Vocals: When Flim and Flam get shrunk in "Teeny, Weeny, Widget", their voices become much higher. Strangely, this didn't happen to Widget when he got shrunk earlier.
• Rhymes on a Dime: Zap and Hap, two robots who appear in "Crashing Planets", almost always rhyme with each onther.
• Rigged Contest: In "Head Game", Ratchet hosts a contest between Mega Brain and Fathead. Naturally, Ratchet doesn't make it easy for Mega Brain to get any correct answers.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: In "Head Game", one of the trivia questions that Ratchet asks is to state his middle name. Mega Brain has no idea, and he nervously mutters "I-uh-what-uh-oh-uh-oh-woo". Bewildered at Mega Brain's answer, Ratchet admits that his middle name is in fact "I-uh-what-uh-oh-uh-oh-woo" and actually gives Mega Brain the point.
• Robot Buddy: In "Robo-Zonk", Mega Brain builds Robo-Zonk as a friend for Half Pint to help him deal with Earth's pollution.
• Robot Me: In "Whatsit to You", Mega-Slank has built a bunch of robotic Widgets to pollute the Earh in order to frame the real Widget and get him `in trouble.
• Robot Republic:
  • In "Crashing Planets", what we see of Planet Chronos suggests that it's populated entirely by robots.
  • The planet of Lowtech in "Machine Planet" is populated entirely by various robots.
• Rock Monster:
  • The titular Urg from "The Uncontrollable Urg". Like the Watchers, he's capable of shapeshifting.
  • In "Rock Around the Cosmos" Widget turns into the metal-munching boulder beastie of Bugglebork to chew his way out of a cage.
• Rogues Gallery: Recurring villains included the alien bandit Mega Slank, the human poachers Bob and Betty, human Mad Scientist Dr. Dante, the alien circus maestros Flim Flam McSham and Widget's Evil Counterpart Ratchet the World Trasher.
• Rotten Robotic Replacement: In "Widget and the Sqizzlebonk", the real Sqizzlebonk eats so much, that Flim and Flam can't afford to keep him. They hire a Brain Unit named Mega Varmint to build robotic Sqizzlebonks for them, which they intend to sell to other circuses. Mega Varmint warns them that the Sqizzlebots he built don't behave properly and suggests scrapping them. Flim doesn't care and demands that the Sqizzlebots be shipped to them immediately, so that they can sell them right away. Naturally, the defective Sqizzlebots go on a rampage.
• Savage Wolves: Deconstructed. In "Never Cry Woof", Widget shows Brian and Kevin that wolves aren't as mean and aggressive as most people think they are. Widget also convinces a sheep farmer to refrain from poaching a wolf family that never meant to cause problems for him.
• Save the Villain: In "Beast Side Story", Widget convinces the foxes and weasels to work together to save Mr. Beetlebug from a collapsing building. This in turn causes Mr. Beetlebug to see the good in the animals, and he vows to build them a special habitat in the spot where the old building stood, instead of putting up a high-rise.
• Saving the World: While Widget routinely works to protect Earth and its inhabitants/resources from evil, he literally needs to save Earth from the collision course of another planet in "Crashing Planets".
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: At the end of "The Uncontrollable Urg", the female Squawker "volunteers" Widget into looking after her thousands of kids that are nearly ready to hatch. Widget obviously wants nothing to do with this, but thankfully Mega Brain saves him by interjecting that they have another mission to attend to.
• Series Continuity Error:
  • In "The Great Brain Robbery", it's implied that none of Mega Brain's inventions actually work properly. Despite this, some of his inventions have indeed worked in previous episodes, such as his garbage recycling machine in "Sort It Out".
  • In "Watcher's Warning", it's revealed that the humans that lived on Scraboolee in the past polluted their planet and died off, allowing sharks and crocodiles to evolve into Scraboolee's dominant species. In "Scraboolee Jubilee", Widget turns into the revered (but long gone) Wise One, and calls out the two crocodiles that abducted Mega Brain, blaming them (and not the humans) for not taking care of Scraboolee and allowing it to get highly polluted.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Subverted in one episode - Mega Brain accidentally sends them back in time to Ratchet's home planet before it was turned into a disaster area. They hope to prevent that from happening, but going back in time also causes Widget to devolve into an alien caveman who's no help. By the time Mega Brain cures him they're too late, serving up an aesop about how there's no shortcuts to saving the environment, and we need to protect the here and now if our world is going to be a good one in the future.
• Stewed Alive: In "Mother Slank's Intergalactic Vacation Paradise", after Mega-Slank heats up Lake Titicaca so that it's warm enough for Mother Slank to bathe in, Mother Slank demands that he increase the heat even further, so as to boil the lake creatures so that she can use them for her famous soup.
• The Shangri-La: Kali Ko, which is located in the Himalayas.
• Shoo Out the New Guy: Mini Brain, Half Pint's own mega brain unit, is introduced in "The Uncontrollable Urg". He never appears again, likely due to how stupidly useless he actually is.
• Shown Their Work: In "Beast Side Story", Mr. Beetlebug states that he makes one million dollars in a day, then asks Widget how much a minute of his time is worth. Mega Brain does some calculation and comes up with $694.44, which is correct ^note There's 1440 minutes in a twenty-four hour day. Therefore, 1,000,000 ÷ 1440 = 694.44.
• Shout-Out:
  • Widget's "Interstellar Cop" transformation bears some resemblance to RoboCop.
  • In "Half Pint", a surfer refers to Widget and Half Pint as purple and blue Munchkins.
  • At the end of "The Great Brain Drain", Widget says that he's going to send Bizarro Brain back to the future.
  • At the beginning of "Widget and the Sqizzlebonk", Widget watches a movie about a Godzilla parody named Badzilla.
  • Also in "Widget and the Sqizzlebonk", one of the creatures that Flam mentions whilst looking for the Sqizzlebonk is a Slobber Tooth Tribble.
  • Towards the end of "Chaos in Kali Ko", Hubert Ratman dances along to Widget's moves. As he does so, he references Michael Jackson by saying "I'm bad" and MC Hammer with "Can't touch this".
  • In "Head Game", Ratchet hosts a game show that he calls Trash or Consequences.
  • Intentional or not, towards the end of "Ratchetland", Widget affectionately refers to Mega Brain as Mega Man.
  • In "Crashing Planets", Zippy uses a holograph to make himself appear more intimidating, and even refers to himself as being "great and powerful", much like the Wizard in The Wizard of Oz.
  • In "Robo-Zonk", Mega Brain builds Robo-Zonk in a similar fashion to Frankenstein, and even refers to Half Pint as his "little intergalactic Igor".
  • "Rock Around The Cosmos" has several allusions to the original trilogy of Star Wars, the most prominent being Captain Ersatzes of Luke Skywalker (Fluke Beezlebonker), Princess Leia (Princess Alien) and Darth Vader (Borf Beta). Princess Alien's actress plays a significant role in the episode as well.
• Shrink Ray:
  • In "Micronauts", Mega Brain uses one of these to shrink Widget, Kevin, Brian and himself so that they can explore a hostile microscopic world. Its effects have a consequence of wearing off after one hour.
  • In "Teeny, Weeny, Widget", Flim and Flam run a carnival attraction that momentarily shrinks its visitors so that they can see animals up close. If not reversed properly, Mega Brain theorizes that the shrinking effect will wear off in no more than a year.
• Show Within a Show: In "Rock Around the Cosmos", Widget watches a Watcher-produced Star Wars parody.
• Silence in the Library:
  • The librarian in "The Library Card" shushes Brian when he enters the library, on account of Brian griping about not getting to go somewhere "fun" instead.
  • The (different) librarian in "Ghost of Chance" is your stereotypical older lady librarian, who complains that Widget, Mega Brain, Buckeye Bill, Sir Oliver and Torvald are making too much noise in the library.
• Silly Reason for War: In "Rose Colored Glasses" the citizens of the Domed City are mad at the wilderness-dwelling Zoids for stealing their princess. Likewise, the Zoids are against the Domed City people for stealing their prince. In actuality, the prince and princess ran off together to play rock 'n roll music in peace.
• Sinister Surveillance:
  • Non-Villain Example: The Watchers seem to have access to this sort of technology.
  • Played straight when Ratchet takes control over Mega Brain's mind in "The Great Brain Robbery", he is somehow able to monitor him wherever he goes.
• Skipping School: In "Bonkula", Bonkula pressures Kevin into ditching school to do things that are more fun and exciting.
• Smelly Skunk: In "Beast Side Story", the weasels employ a skunk to scare the foxes out of the building that they've taken up residence in.
• Song Parody: In "Great Barrier Thief", the sea creatures sing a song that's fairly reminiscent of "Under the Sea" from The Little Mermaid.
• Song Style Shift: The theme song starts off as a synth rock with a male singer who sings about Earth's environment being in distress. It then shifts to a more soothing melody accompanied by female singers when the focus changes to Widget.
• Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Not that things were ever especially grim, but Widget and his human friends battle rather mundane antagonists for the first few episodes while he's acclimating to Earth and seems to still be figuring out his powers. The first episode has them taking on a whaling fleet, then a pair of hyenas, a caretaker at a marine zoo who's just doing his job trying to keep the animals from escaping, etc. It's only after a while that "true" supervillains start becoming Widget's opponents.
• Space Is Noisy: In "Ghost of a Chance" Mega Brain and several ghosts are able to converse while in the vacuum of space, while Widget can be heard from within the star shuttle.
• Speaks Fluent Animal: Despite not being from Earth, Widget, Mega Brain and Half Pint are able to converse with any animal.
• Stay in the Kitchen: In "Rock Around the Cosmos", Widget tells Princess Alien to stay out of the mine where Bizarro Brain is, because he thinks that the job is too dangerous for a pretty face like hers.
• Stereotypical South Asian English:
  • Widget speaks in a fake accent as part of a disguise in "Micronauts".
  • One of the fish in "Great Barrier Thief" speaks in such an accent.
• Stock Footage: There are a few opening few shots that pan towards Widget's cave which get reused in numerous episodes.
  • "The Uncontrollable Urg" reuses the same opening from "Widget's Great Whale Adventure", along with a very similar voice-over.
• Stock Ness Monster: In "Great Barrier Thief", Bob and Betty pilot a fish-shaped submarine in their plot to poach coral. Other people believe it to be some sort of sea monster.
• Talking Animal: Widget and Half Pint, after changing their shape.
  • Kevin is able to understand Brian after the latter is transformed into a wolf pup in "Never Cry Woof".
  • In "Great Barrier Thief", several ordinary sea creatures speak to Bob and Betty, who are able to understand them for seemingly no reason.
• Tank-Tread Mecha: In "The Wishing Stone", Widget transforms himself in a Saturnian sand-crawler, which can best be described as a cross between an armadillo and a tank.
• Teleportation: Some characters, including Half Pint and Mega-Slank, have handheld devices that allow them to freely teleport wherever they need to be.
• Terrifying Tyrannosaur: Widget encounters a menacing tyrannosaurus rex when he travels to the past in "The Great Brain Drain".
• Tertiary Sexual Characteristics:
  • In "Kona, the Captive Whale", there is a female octopus with lipstick and eyeshadow who's attracted to Widget while he's transformed into an octopus himself. Note that most female Earth creatures that appear throughout the series tend to avert this sort of thing.
  • In "Rose Colored Glasses", there is a female Muscle Head who wears a pink dress and lipstick, and has long hair and long eyelashes.
• Test of Trivia: In "Head Game", Ratchet challenges Mega Brain to compete against Fathead in a game show called "Trash or Consequences". Most of the challenges are knowledge questions, although there is an obstacle course that the two brains have to compete in.
• Threatening Shark: Several aggresive hammerhead sharks appear at one point in "Great Barrier Thief".
• Thin Dimensional Barrier: "Ghost of a Chance" reveals that the fabric of space and time is literally a cloth "wall" in outer space that keeps the ghost world sealed off from Earth's dimension. When Earth's pollution damaged the cloth, ghosts are able to pass through until Mega Brain fixes it.
• This Means War!: When Flim and Flam kidnap the enormous ant queen in "Fifty Foot Ants", General Anton declares war on the surface world.
• Tickle Torture:
  • In "Intergalactic Garage Sale", Mega-Slank uses his Silly Slank Ray to make Widget and Mega Brain laugh uncontrollably. Mega Brain later finds a way to reverse its effect onto Mega-Slank.
  • In "Scraboolee Jubilee", Widget fights with two Scrabooleean crocodiles over Mega Brain in a tug-o-war fashion. The crocodiles proceed to use the tips of their tails to tickle Widget, forcing him to release Mega Brain.
• Time and Relative Dimensions in Space: In "Time Trippers", Widget and Mega Brain intend to travel to the year 9901 to see Earth in the future. Mega Brain accidentally sends them to 1066 on account of reading the year upside-down. For whatever reason, they also end up on Pallinia, despite not intending to go there.
• Time Machine: Some characters have access to time travel technology, including the Watchers.
• Time Traveler's Dinosaur: At the end of "The Great Brain Drain", Bizarro Brain's two dinosaur henchman are revealed to have stowed away on Widget's shuttle and travelled to the present with him.
• Time Travel Episode: Several, such as "The Great Brain Drain", "Murtle and Zurtle", "The Brain Who Would Be King", "Culture Crooks" and "Time Trippers".
• Time Travel Escape: In "Murtle and Zurtle", Widget travels back in time 200 years to save several Galapogos tortoises from extinction.
• Transformation Ray: In "Never Cry Woof", Mega Brain reveals his Megaformatron, which can turn people into different species.
• Transhuman Treachery:
  • When humans get turned into rebellious Bonkulas in "Bonkula", they totally embrace the transformation.
  • The humans who get transformed into pig people in "Ratchetland" start to act and oink like pigs, while also embracing messiness and not caring about what Widget has to say.
• Translator Microbes:
  • Mega Brain sometimes provides the human characters with special translators that can interpret Animal Speak, such as antennae hats that allow them to understand ants in "Fifty Foot Ants" as well as a device that alllows them to understand cats and dogs in "Dr. M-Slank's Pet Palace".
• Trapped in the Past: In "The Brain Who Would Be King", Widget travels back in time to the Cretaceous period. Before he can leave, a meteorite hits the star shuttle and damages the Temporal Power Decelerator. Widget can still travel forward in time, but only to roughly 100,000 years prior to present day. He then has to repair the decelerator in order to ultimately get back to the present.
  • This nearly happens in "Time Trippers" when a primitive Widget nearly destroys the Decelerator, although Mega Brain manages to stop him.
• Turning Back Human: In "Bonkula", Kevin reverts from being a Bonkula back into a normal human when he sees that Widget is in trouble.
• Undead Tax Exemption:
  • Despite being a creature from another dimension, Ratchet is able to purchase properties on Earth in "Intergalactic Grudge Match". In "Ratchetland" he's also able to build his own theme park and air a commercial for it on TV.
  • In "The Library Card", Widget (or anyone, for that matter) is able to apply for a library card just by writing his first and last name on a form. No need for any form of ID or proof of address. Widget simply jots down "Widget Watcher" as his name and he's good to go.
• Unfinished Business: In "That's The Spirit", the first season's finale, the ghosts of three reckless men (a Viking named Torvald, a cowboy called Buckeye Bill, and an English big game hunter named Sir Oliver) are doomed to roam the Earth on account of the excessive deforestation and overhunting they caused while still alive. They are unable to pass on to another plane of existence until they can perform a good deed. These same ghosts later return in the second season episode "Ghost of a Chance" as allies, helping Widget round up invading specters until they can repair the interdimensional fabric.
• Universal-Adaptor Cast: "The Library Card" has Widget, Mega Brain, Kevin and Brian reading books at the library, imagining themselves as the main characters in the historical and mythical stories that they read. The Elders and even the librarian get utilized as a few characters.
• Vehicular Sabotage: In "Scraboolee Jubilee", when the two Scrabooleean crocodiles come to Earth to abduct Mega Brain, one of them (Percy) pours Scraboolee Goo into the engine of the star shuttle, so that Widget will be unable to use it. By the time Widget finds the goo, it has mutated into a small monster, although he's still able to get rid of it and pilot the shuttle.
• The Very Edge of Everything: In "Crazy 8", Widget tries to show Half Pint the edge of the universe, but ultimately fails to make it there.
• Villain Has a Point: In "Mega-Slank from Titanium", Mega-Slank goes around abducting Earth animals so that he can put them in a zoo on Titanium. When Widget calls him out for this, Mega-Slank states that the animals wouldn't thrive on Earth due to the pollution that people regularly cause. While it hardly justifies Mega-Slank's actions, he's not entirely wrong about the pollution aspect.
• Villain Team-Up: While the different factions of Widget's rogue gallery usually didn't cross paths, "Rock Around the Cosmos" has Flim and Flam teaming up with Bizarro Brain.
• Villain World:
  • Pollutia. It used to be the pristine planet of Pallinia, until Ratchet came along, took over the planet and trashed it with his half-and-half mutants.
  • Mega-Slank's home, Slankyworld.
• Villainous Underdog: Despite being Widget's Evil Twin and designated archenemy, Ratchet doesn't seem to have any of Widget's powers, and if anything his minions are even less competent than most other villains in the show.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting - Widget's special ability, which was also...
  • Misapplied Phlebotinum - You know all those Shapeshifting aliens who hang out in human form for no reason (outside of saving a bunch of money on special effects)? Yeah. Well, instead of hanging out in human form, Widget would disguise himself as a human by wearing a goofy disguise. The fact that Widget doesn't change color when he changes shape was probably for the very young viewer's benefit. Nobody on Widget's side of the screen seems to notice his coloration, no matter what form he takes. Even when he uses it to impersonate a bad guy's henchman now and then.
    • They do notice his hair ("topnotch") and tail don't transform, though, and it was even a Plot Point in a few episodes.
    • When Widget transformed into a Tarzan Expy in "Widget of the Jungle", a few characters did point out that he was purple.
    • To be fair, Widget can change color when really wants to, but his transformations usually tend to remain purple.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: In "Robo-Zonk", Robo-Zonk is built, only for his body to later get destroyed. In the end, Mega Brain manages to upload Robo-Zonk's memory chip to Widget's computer, saving him. However, Mega Brain then decides to send Robo-Zonk to the Elders, so that they'll have to deal with him instead.
• We Interrupt This Program: In "Great Barrier Thief", Widget and Mega Brain are watching the Chef Louie Show, which gets interrupted by a news report that leads them to their next assignment.
• We Were Rehearsing a Play: In "MacBluff", one of King Cutlet's men thinks that Widget and Half Pint are actors that were sent to perform for Prince Cutlet. When MacBluff shows up a bit later, he gets mad when Widget calls him out for his misdeeds. The same man from earlier then tells MacBluff that Widget wasn't arguing, but rehearsing for a play, which leads to them having to put on a show for MacBluff that evening.
• Weather-Control Machine: Half-Pint has a handheld one that he claims to have built in "Half-Pint's Ransom". It works on a very small scale, but its power is enough to overwhelm Bob and Betty, who've kidnapped him.
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • At the end of "Culture Crooks", Ratchet gets sent back to Pollutia through Mega Brain's vortex, along with Alligorilla and Hyenaphant. However, there were two other half-and-half mutants who appeared earlier on, but were absent from the vortex scene. The whereabouts of these other mutants are never brought up for the rest of the episode.
  • At the end of "The Great Brain Drain", Bizarro Brain's two dinosaur mooks end up in the present day and ask Mega Brain to educate them, to which he agrees. Despite this, these two dinosaurs never show up again.
• Whateversaurus: In "The Great Brain Drain", Bizarro Brain wants to absorb the knowledge of the extict "Whaleasaurus". That said, there were prehistoric whales in the past, such as the Basilosaurus.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?:
  • In "MacBluff", Half Pint turns himself into a solar slime snake to deal with the Muscle Head that grabbed him. Conveniently for Half Pint, the Muscle Head admits that he's terrified of snakes and promptly lets him go.
  • Also in that same episode, MacBluff himself reveals that he's scared of ghosts when Widget disguises himself as the ghost of King Cutlet.
• Wicked Weasel: In "Glacier Grabber", Dr. Dante has a gang of ice weasels working for him.
• Women Drivers: In "Mediterranean Adventure", Widget selects Kristine to drive the shuttle, claiming that females are better drivers than males. Kevin points out that this isn't the case on Earth. Kristine does initially struggle with driving the shuttle, but to be fair, it's an alien spacecraft that she's unfamiliar with.
• Worthless Treasure Twist: Happens to Ratchet in "Culture Crooks". Ratchet goes back in time and steals a bunch of artifacts belonging to Hopi Indians, believing that without said artifacts, future generations will fail to remember their values, including looking after the environment. White Bear says that the treasures are mostly sentimental, and that his people will always have their values.
• Writers Cannot Do Math: In "Crashing Planets", Widget claims that Earth has a population of 6.5 billion humans (circa 1991). In actuality, the poputation was closer to around 5.5 billion people at that point in time.
• Yet Another Christmas Carol: Non-Christmas example. "That's the Spirit" loosely parodies A Christmas Carol, as it involves three ghosts trying to scare the mayor into not demolishing a park to make way for an office complex.
• You Can't Fight Fate: In "Time Trippers", Widget tries to stop Ratchet from destroying Pallinia after travelling back in time. However, Widget regresses into a primitive form while he is there, and is unable to deal with Ratchet on account of becoming too stupid.
• You No Take Candle: Cleo's assistant in "The Wishing Stone" is a musclular, middle eastern man who speaks this way, but doesn't really say much.