Ratz is a Franco-Canadian animated series produced by the Montreal-based ToonCan Productions and France's Xilam. Created by Richard Zielenkiewicz, the show aired on Teletoon in Canada and France 3 in France, running for a single season of 26 episodes.
Two rats, Rapido and Razmo (voiced by French comedy duo Ramzy Bedia and Éric Judor), are stowaways on the S.S. Wanderer, a cargo ship transporting a huge amount of Gouda cheese. When they're not dealing with the current crisis of the episode (often due to themselves, the crew or temporary passengers/cargo), they race throughout the ship using "ratboards", makeshift flying racecars.
The show debuted March 7, 2003 in Canada, arriving to France a few months later on September 21 of the same year. The final episode debuted on November 11, 2003. Outside of France and Canada, the show has appeared on Boomerang in the United States, Cartoon Network in Latin America, Animax in India, MBC3 in the Middle East, K2 in Italy, and Toon Disney in Britain. It is currently available on the French version of Netflix.
Not to be confused with Bratz.
Ratz provides examples of the following tropes:
- 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: The smoke from the ratboards, among other things, are CGI.
- A Lizard Named "Liz": Of the wordplay variety with Rapido and Razmo, the title rats.
- All Asians Know Martial Arts: Benny is of Chinese origin, so he knows how to fight off the rats, unsurprisingly.
- Balloon Belly: Rapido sports one in an episode, after drowning his sorrow in cheese.
- Bottle Episode: The entirety of the show takes place on the S.S. Wanderer, and whichever harbors she arrives at. However, there are enough settings in and on the ship to make up for it.
- Captain Oblivious: The Captain of the ship, appropriately.
- Carnivore Confusion: Razmo once raised a stray kitten to adulthood, which showed affection in return. This paid off.
- Cartoon Cheese: It's more holey than Gouda usually is.
- Deranged Animation: Small wonder, considering it was made by the same studio behind Space Goofs and Oggy and the Cockroaches, two other French series well-known for their own crazy animation.
- Double Entendre: In the French dub of "Eat As You Can" note . In reply to Rapido's comment about how the engine which Razmo tried to lift weighed six tons, Razmo's last line of this episode could be translated as "what 'six tons'? I once lifted your mom" note . While this could be understood as a mockery about the weight of Rapido's mother, this becomes a crude joke when you realize that the French verb for "lift" is also slang for "having sex".
- Explosive Breeder: A female rabbit in one episode soon swarms the whole ship in white rabbits.
- Fantastic Racism: When Razmo asks a genie if he can do a wish for both himself and Rapido* , the genie considers the option, but forbids it when he remembers that Razmo is a rat. Razmo immediately calls him out on this after he leaves.
- Fat and Skinny: Razmo and Rapido.
- Flying Car/Hover Board: The ratboards.
- Homemade Inventions
- The ratboards seem to be made by strapping jet engines to mousetraps, but an episode shows that the rats don't know what an actual mousetrap is.
- Razmo is a mechanic and creates various gadgets over the course of the series.
- Huge Girl, Tiny Guy: Svetlana (the Huge Girl), Benny and the Captain (the Tiny Guys).
- Hulk Speak: Svetlana talks like this.
- Husky Russkie: Svetlana, a rare female case. She is the biggest threat to the rats by herself, thanks to her strength.
- Mouse World: Downplayed; the show takes place on the ship, where the rats have their own living quarters.
- No Name Given: The Captain is simply named for what he is.
- Oddly Small Crew: With the captain, a chef and one engineer, the S.S Wanderer has the bare minimum.
- Our Mermaids Are Different: One episode centers around a duo of man-eating mermaids that try to devour the crew of the ship. One is your typical woman with a fish tail, but the other rather has human legs and a fish head. Both have unusual skin color (green and blue), and both are shapeshifters (they can turn into human women, but only for a limited time, and at the end of the episode one turns into a clown). When they can't eat humans, they usually eat snails - and they are apparently terribly afraid of rats.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Rapido wears red and Razmo wears blue. Razmo does lose his temper on occasion, however.
- Terrible Trio: The Captain, Svetlana and Benny. Mostly because they try to kill the rats, for being near the Gouda.
- Wild Take: These are frequently used.
- With Friends Like These...: Given how self-centered Rapido tends to be as a roommate, can you blame Razmo for barely standing him?
- Xtreme Kool Letterz: Uzed in the zhow'z tytle.
- You Dirty Rat!: Our main duo is a benign case. The crew wants to get rid of them all the same.
