Motorcity

Live fast. Live free.

From Disney Television Animation, Titmouse and the creators of Megas XLR, Motorcity is a Disney XD series.

The series is set in a fictional, futuristic Detroit owned by Corrupt Corporate Executive Abraham Kane (Mark Hamill). Having banned personal freedoms including automobile transportation, Kane now faces one last obstacle: a group of hot-rod wielding rebels who call themselves The Burners. Led by Mike Chilton (Reid Scott), The Burners rise to stop Kane from conquering Detroit’s last oasis of freedom—an underground refuge dubbed Motorcity.

Tropes used in Motorcity include:

• Automatic Crossbows: Terras have ones grown from plants...
  • Abnormal Ammo: ...which shoot seeds that quickly grow into entangling plants.
• Affably Evil: Abraham Kane to everyone but the Burners.
• All Bikers Are Hells Angels: Abraham Kane has shades of this-the leathers and bike are missing but the hair, beard, and mannerisms fit to a T.
• Ambiguously Brown: Kaia and most of the Terras.
• Animal Motifs: The four main cars are named and designed after animals. For example, Mike's car Mutt not only has dog designs but the engine often literally snarls and growls. Subverted with Jacob's car, if you don't count cryptids.
• Animal Theme Naming: As per above:
  • Mike: Mutt (dog)
  • Julie: 9 Lives (cat)
  • Dutch: Whiptail (scorpion)
  • Texas: Stronghorn (rhino)
  • Jacob: Sasquatch (Sasquatch)
• Archnemesis Dad: Sort of. Julie isn't the main character, but she's one of the main heroes, and her father Abraham is the main antagonist.
• Artistic License Physics: Anything the Burners' cars do.
  • Prime example in "Power Trip": Mike stopping his car, going up, at pretty much a 90 degree angle.
• Ascetic Aesthetic: Detroit Deluxe, in this case the "clean pretty environment hides the oppressive regime" use of this trope.
• Badass: Mike, most definitely. Even outside his ride, he can display Spike Spiegel-level martial arts.
• Badass Beard: Kane.
• Badass Driver: Everyone except Chuck, who rides with Mike.
• Battering Ram: Stronghorn has one.
• Berserk Button: Tooley gets surprisingly violent at people speaking ill of Kane--sadly, he doesn't get any smarter.
• Big Bad: Abraham Kane.
• Blinding Bangs: Chuck.
• Boisterous Bruiser: Texas, whose reaction to basically any situation is to punch it in the face. Even if it doesn't have a face. Especially if it doesn't have a face.
  • Mike dips into the trope a bit as well--no one should look that happy being constantly thrown into near-death situations.
• Brats with Slingshots: Chuck uses one early in "Texas-ify It".
• Broken Pedestal: Mike was Kane's protege before he realized Kane was evil. After that he split.
• Butter Face: Kaia.
• Catgirl: Sort of; Julie's avatar has cat ears, adding to the Animal Motifs.
• Crap Saccharine World: Detroit Deluxe is a spotless, clean, utopian city with the latest technology used for everyday needs, but beneath that veneer is an oppressive regime that bans individual freedoms as simple as car ownership.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Texas.
• Combination Attack: Mike holding onto Texas's legs as the latter performs the Texas Twister to fight the Terras in "Texas-ify It".
• Cool Car: OH yeah.
• Cool Old Guy: Jacob.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Abraham Kane, again.
• Crazy Prepared: Texas has apparently put much thought into the need to fight with vomit.

Texas: Check out my muscular neck and throat. *flexes*

• Dance Battler: Texas, as evident in "Texas-ify It".
• A Day in the Limelight: "Texas-ify It" for Texas, of course.
• Defector From Decadence: Mike, Jacob, Dutch and Julie (to an extent). It's probable that a sizable chunk of the population of Motorcity used to live in Deluxe.
• Devil in Plain Sight: Guess who.
• The Ditz: Tooley. See also Too Dumb to Live.

Kane: You are a thick-skulled dimwit of a manchild, Tooley... but loyal!

• Double Weapon: Mike uses a double chainsaw staff.
• The Dragon: Tooley.
• Drives Like Crazy: Mike, according to Chuck.
• Dumb Muscle: Tooley, although he doesn't necessarily look the part. Also Texas, but he's less of a bully about it.
• Everything Is an iPod In The Future: Detroit Deluxe.
• Evil Counterpart: Kaia to Mike. Just as eager to bring down Kane, but she has no qualms about innocent citizens going down in the process.
• Evil Gloating: Abraham Kane LOVES this.
• Extra Eyes: Kaia has a third one on her forehead, which she covers with a headband.
• Fighting with Chucks: Texas' weapon of choice, other than Good Old Fisticuffs.
  • They also shoot lasers. Yes, Gunchucks.
• Five-Man Band:
  • The Hero: Mike.
  • The Lancer: Julie. She might be the girl, but with her mad skills, assertive attitide, and willingness to oppose Mike, she is the true lancer.
  • The Big Guy: Texas, who thinks he's The Lancer and wants to be The Hero.
  • The Smart Guy: Dutch, who's also the Token Minority of the group.
  • The Chick: Chuck. Screams like a girl, does whatever Mike says, and occasionally serves as his moral compass. Also fulfills the typical "non-action" part of the trope as he doesn't even have his own car.
• First Episode Spoiler: Julie is the daughter of the Big Bad.
• Flipping the Table: ...is not enough for Texas in "Ride The Lightning." He instead opts to swing it and smash it to bits. And then tear up.
• Green Thumb: the Terras
• Hero with Bad Publicity: The Burners.
• Improbable Hairstyle: Claire's square hair bun. Seriously, square!
  • With the right doodads to provide structure, it's not an impossible style to pull off. It would, however, be ridiculously high-maintenance.
• La Résistance: The Burners again.
• Large Ham: Kane.
  • The Duke of Detroit, hands down.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Texas.
• Master of Illusion: One of 9 Lives' features.
• Make Me Wanna Shout: One of Whiptail's features.
• Motor City
• Name of Cain: Take a wild guess as to who.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In "Ride the Lightning", the Burners, sans Mike, tamper with Kane's weather control machine and only make it do worse to Detroit.
• Nitro Boost
• Painting the Medium: The theme song is metal, as is most of the soundtrack. Which would make sense given that this is a show about cars, but the term "Detroit metal" specifically refers to its auto industry.
• Pimped-Out Car
• Rated "M" for Manly
• Rule of Cool: Seems to be what the show runs on. Look at the climax of the second episode: see the boys use a bomb that could blow up the state to power a car into a jump across the canyon, ending with them ejecting the engine midair!
• Rule of Perception: During "Power Trip" (1x02) "ERROR" comes up on a screen Chuck is viewing, but given the angle the camera is at, it would be backward to him.
• Scary Teeth: What the Terra's hide behind their gas masks.
• Scenery Porn/Scenery Gorn: Motor City may be an absolute dirge compared to the spotless but plain Detroit Deluxe, but its varied locales are breathtaking to look at.
• Screams Like a Little Girl: Get used to hearing Chuck screaming.

Kaia: Is everyone okay? I thought I heard a lady screaming.

• Secret Keeper: Julie's friend Claire.
• Shout-Out: EVERYWHERE.
  • Dutch's repair drone is called Roth.
  • The Mutt's logo is a Rat Fink.
  • Mike's last name is Chilton.
  • Jacob is a lightly modified Goat from Megas XLR and Western Animation/Downtown}}.
  • The Burners' logo is EXTREMELY similar to the flaming 8 ball on Megas' right arm.
  • Episode 1 has Dutch suggest modifications to Mike's car, one such modification being the addition of "Magmortars".
  • One scene in the first episode has a bit of animation that the animator openly admitted was a reference to FLCL.
• Sliding Scale of Shiny Versus Gritty: Detroit Deluxe being on the far side of "shiny," Motor City on the low end of gritty.
• The Smurfette Principle: Julie of the Burners.
• Spin Attack: Texas' Texas Twister.
• Spoiler Opening: Kaia and the people of Terra are introduced as allies in the show proper, but the fact that they appear alongside Kane in the opening sequence makes it easy to deduce that they end up being foes of the Burners.
• Third Person Person: Texas.
• Too Dumb to Live: Hey, Tooley? The hunter-killer robot only looks like a dog, and it doesn't need petting.
• Twitchy Eye: Kane, about once an episode. Either by the Burners or Tooley's own stupidity.
• Valley Girl: Claire, although as it turns out she's still one of the most level-headed of the cast, and also capable of producing advice in a tough spot.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Easy when you run all the news outlets.
• Weather Control Machine: used in "Ride the Lightning" by Kane on Detroit.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: The Terras.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Mike went down to Motor City in the first place to take down Kane's regime.
• With My Hands Tied: Mike manages to wipe the floor with a cadre of Kane goons, while his hands are tied behind his back. With a little unwitting help from Tooley.
• World Half Empty: Entire sections of old Detroit appear to be completely abandoned, and even the inhabited areas aren't that crowded.