Dave the Barbarian

"Dave, Fang and Candy
Brave and Bold, they're not
They ain't the greatest heroes

But they're the only ones we've got"
—From the Theme Song

Dave the Barbarian (2004-2005) is a Disney animated series, an Affectionate Parody of the Heroic Fantasy genre.

The series takes place in The Middle Ages and centers on a powerful yet cowardly barbarian named Dave who lives in the fictitious land of Udrogoth along with his older sister Candy and younger sister Fang. His parents, Throktar and Glimia, are the King and Queen, but are away "fighting evil" across the world (though they sometimes communicate via a magic crystal ball), and have left Candy in charge of the kingdom. Together the three siblings, along with their wizard uncle Oswidge, their pet Faffy and Dave's talking sword Lula, are left to run and protect the kingdom.

There is a Narrator, referred to either as "the Narrator" or "the Storyteller," voiced by Jeff Bennett. He plays a big part in the show, as he controls what happens in the story. He is able to talk to the characters of the show, and vice versa. In fact, he was once captured by Arch Enemy THE DARK LORD CHUCKLES, THE SILLY PIGGY!, and was forced to read narration where Dave loses to him.

The show was created and written by Doug Langdale of Earthworm Jim and The Weekenders fame. It premiered on Disney Channel on January 23, 2004; a year later, it began broadcasting on Toon Disney as well. In Latin America, the show is broadcast on Jetix. Sadly however, the show only lasted one season due to Disney punting the show around their schedule. The reruns now mostly show on Early Morning shifts on the weekend.

Much like its predecessors The Flintstones and the short-lived The Roman Holidays, Dave the Barbarian juxtaposes the ancient and the modern. Candy, for example, shops in the local mall (the "Great Indoor Marketplace of Udragoth") and uses the crystal ball for online shopping sprees. Occasionally, the series even breaks the fourth wall with a character directly addressing the audience.

Critically acclaimed, but unfortunately Too Good to Last and cancelled after one season. Needs More Love.

Tropes used in Dave the Barbarian include:

Candy: Did you change your hair?

  • The Eeyore: Twinkle the Marvel Horse
  • Empathic Weapon: Subverted, Lula has very little empathy
  • Epic Fail: Chuckles' first use of the Pretzel Men. Not even Dave is scared by them.
  • Everything's Better with Princesses: Candy is a parody of this trope. Strangely this is never brought up with Fang.
    • Princess Irmaplotz.
  • Evil Knockoff: Mecha-Dave
  • Evil Laugh: Several.
    • Malsquando once mentions that Chuckles is widely considered to have the best in the business.
  • Evil Sorcerer: Malsquando, Princess Irmoplotz and Queen Zonthara
  • Expository Theme Tune: Quoted above
  • Extreme Omnivore: Faffy
  • Fake-Out Opening: In one episode, we see what appears to be the King returning home, but after we see How We Got Here we know it's really Chuckles in disguise, and now "the King" suddenly has green glowing eyes and sounds like Chuckles.
  • Fangs Are Evil: Princess Irmoplotz and Queen Zonthara. But not Fang. Except in that one episode where she was posessed by the forces of Pure Evil In The Form Of Leiderhosen.
  • Fiery Redhead: Fang and, sometimes, Candy.
  • F Minus Minus: Dave seems to think that a "Z" grade is worse than an "F"
  • Fluffy the Terrible: The Dark Lord Chuckles the Silly Piggy, sort of. He is a cute little piggy but is also a powerful dark lord of evil.
    • There was also one episode in which he turned into a giant kitty cat!
  • Gender Blender Name: The Pillage Master has a very intimidating, "dark and shadowed guardian" voice. And yet...

Pillage Master: You may call me...Gloria.
Dave: That's a pretty name.

  • Gentle Giant: Who do you think?
  • Getting Crap Past the Radar: A Roman salute is made by one of the characters while proclaiming himself to be a dictator.
    • It's time to cut a muffin!
      • "That sounds nasty for some reason."
    • "First you shall lay waste here...then you shall lay waste there. Then, when you can lay NO MORE WASTE--"
  • Giving Radio to the Romans: Ned Frischman does this when he brings GameGuys to Udrogoth.
  • Golden Snitch: The penmanship portion of the Rite of Pillage counts for 75% of the total mark - a result of a pen company being the major sponsor.
  • Green Eyed Red Head: Fang.
  • God of Evil: Parodied with Quosmir, the god of freshly laundered trousers and overused punctuation.
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: Lula.

"You just sitting there is kinda ticking me off."

"Laying waste--I get it! Ha ha ha ha!"

Fang:"Which point me you to water in pants?"

Narrator: Thinking quickly, Dave constructs a homemade megaphone using only a squirrel, some string and a megaphone.

  • Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Parodied in "The Maddening Sprite of the Stump". A giant muffin that had been attacking the castle is defeated offscreen, while the narrator explains that the show's budget is too cheap to actually show the battle, but assures the audience that it was exciting.
  • Opening Shout-Out: When Chuckles takes over
  • Our Dragons Are Different
    • There are plenty of standard issue dragons roaming around as well; Faffy (who is routinely mistaken for a flying potato) seems to have simply lost the genetic lottery, hard.
  • Our Werebeasts Are Different: Irmaplotz uses a werecow "to make Dave look like a dork." Afterwards, anytime Dave gets bitten by something else, he turns into that. This leads to Dave turning into a cat, Oswidge, a hamster, an egg beater, Lula and a gym teacher.
    • Resolved when he is made to bite his own tongue, turning Dave into a Weredave, and everyone he bites into a weredave.
  • Overly Long Gag: NOT. A.MONKEY!!!
  • Paper-Thin Disguise: The Dark Lord Chuckles the Silly Music Producer.

Candy: He does look vaguely familiar.

  • Paper Tiger: Dave. As the Theme Song states, he's "huge but a wimp."
  • Parental Abandonment: King Throktar and Queen Glimia, as noted in the summary
  • Pink Girl, Blue Boy: Played straight with Candy, but averted with Dave in Civilization when Dave asks if Fang realises he's not a girl--while wearing blue.
  • Poke the Poodle: Dave's attempts to be just a little evil in one episode (an attempt to make his relationship with Princess Irmoplotz work) really, really emphasize little. We're talking taking two free nut log samples instead of just one...then feeling so guilty he bought ten crates.
  • "Previously On...": Parodied in one episode that opens with a montage of Dave screaming and enduring misfortune.
  • Princesses Rule: Princess Candy is ruling Udrogoth until her parents come back from destroying all the evil in the world.
  • Psycho Ex-Girlfriend: Evil Princess Irmaplotz to Dave.
  • Purely Aesthetic Era
  • Pygmalion Plot: Non-romantic version, in the episode where the family tried to make Fang act more ladylike.

Dave: (completely sincere) Because what could be more wholesome than the entire family working together as one ... to crush Fang's spirit and force her to stifle her true self?

The space lord pursues our heroically fleeing space heroes, and thus begins a pitched space battle, in space! Just look at that exciting space action!
But just as it seems noone can hit the side of a space barn, the space lord scores a direct space hit on our space heroes' space generator!
Space Captain Dave: Can our space engines power the space lasers?
And with a tremendous space burst of space energy, the spaceship is space destroyed! Space!

  • Spikes of Villainy: Subverted and spoofed.
  • Spoiled Brat: Princess Candy.
  • Super-Hero Origin: Spoofed in the creation of the Time Zipper, with everything from a strike from the Nordic Gods to a radioactive grasshopper bit in about 10 seconds

Ned Frischman: Wow, that hardly ever happens!

Candy: Happy? They're going to destroy half a continent!
Fang: Yeah, but not the part we live on.

Dave: If you can make them visible, why didn't you do that before?!
Oswidge: Pick, pick, pick. Get off my back.

  • You Mean "Xmas": Harvest Day, complete with its own version of Santa Claus, the Harvest Hog.
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