The Raccoons

"This is the Evergreen Forest. Quiet, peaceful, serene... that is, until Bert Raccoon wakes up! Luckily, he's got some friends to help him along. Life would be simple in the forest, except for... Cyril Sneer! And his life would be simple except for... The Raccoons!

The Raccoons was a Canadian animated series about a trio of, well, raccoons, living in a "Raccoondominium" in the Evergreen Forest: young married couple Ralph and Melissa, and flighty, irresponsible, but lovable Bert. The Raccoons were always getting entangled in the schemes of conniving industrialist aardvark Cyril Sneer, which usually involved trying to take over or destroy the Evergreen Forest for one reason or another. Their escapades were aided by two friendly sheepdogs, Schaeffer and Broo, as well as Cyril's nebbishy son Cedric, and Cedric's girlfriend Sophia. First season episodes would frequently feature a side story involving human forest ranger Dan and his kids Julie and Tommy, but they were eventually phased out. They were replaced by Ralph and Melissa's nephew, Bentley and his teenage sister, Lisa, who may be a love interest for Bert (if you ask the fans).

Before the series proper there were four TV Movies: The Christmas Raccoons (which introduced the Raccoons, Dan and his family, and the Sneers), The Raccoons On Ice (which added Sophia), The Raccoons and The Lost Star (a weird Recycled in Space concept, which introduced Broo), and The Raccoons: Let's Dance.

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Tropes used in The Raccoons include:

• Air Vent Passageway: "The Intruders!" features the infiltration variety. Somewhat justified in that it's Broo who traverses the ducts.
• All Just a Dream: The Season 2 episode "Time Trap!".
• Always Someone Better: Cyril Sneer is obsessed with trying to catch up to Mr. Mammoth, a rhinoceros tycoon who's even wealthier than he is.
• Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: when's the last time you saw a pink aardvark? Never ago.
• Anthropomorphic Shift: Watch "The Christmas Raccoons" and then immediately afterward watch "The Raccoons and the Lost Star".
• Big Ball of Violence: Shows up toward the end of "The Chips Are Down!".
• Black Sheep: Cyril is trying to keep one of these covered up in Season 1's "Going It Alone!".
• Boxing Lesson: "Black Belt Bentley!"
• Break the Cutie: Sophia in "The Raccoons and the Lost Star" when she's imprisoned in Cyril Sneer's dungeon.
• Brought to You by The Letter "S": Bert's trademark red-and-yellow sweater bears his initial.
• Cartoon Creature: You basically have to take Cyril, Cedric, and Sophia's species on good faith. And even then...
• Cerebus Syndrome: It started out very uninspired and cartoonish, but shifted gradually to more serious, realistic and story-driven.
• Character Development: Cyril Sneer gradually softens in a fairly believable fashion until he becomes a friend and ally of the Raccoons. To a lesser extent, all the characters change somewhat, such as Cedric becoming more assertive and confident.
• Character Name and the Noun Phrase: The Raccoons and the Lost Star, technically.
• Character Title
• Chaste Toons: Subverted. Bentley Raccoon is Ralph's nephew, and makes occasional appearances on the show; but Ralph and Melissa are married, Bentley has clearly defined parents: George and Nicole, and his whole family eventually moves to the Evergreen Forest making Bentley a permanent character.
• Chekhov's Boomerang: In "Going It Alone!", the bubblegum Bert packs for his trek up Evergreen Mountain saves him from not one but two nasty falls in the same place. (Would that make it "Chekhov's Gum"?.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: The human characters, and Sophia Tutu, although she stayed in the intro until the bitter end.
  • Sophia makes a cameo in "The Headline Hunter."
• Chickification: Lisa goes from sporty girl to an emotional wreck in her second episode. However, it's done very believably.
• Clip Show: There's one in every season after the first, and The Raccoons: Let's Dance! is basically a clip show compiled from the other three specials.
• Competition Coupon Madness: An episode had Bert attempting to win a bike by putting together a jigsaw puzzle from pieces that come in a brand of crisps (not knowing that Cyril Sneer deliberately left out one piece of the puzzle so no one can win). Hilarity Ensues.
• Cool Old Lady: Appears in the Season 2 episode "Power Trip!".
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Cyril Sneer, eventually subverted by the above character development and conscientious Cedric partially taking over the business.
  • Knox and Mammoth are hardly saints, either.
  • Milton Midas, who was introduced later on, however, played this trope straight and was eventually jailed for his outright criminal activities.
• The Cover Changes the Gender: Bert's performance of "Hang On, Hold On" in "The Sweet Smell of Success!" is gender-flipped from Luba's original performance in "The Intruders!".
• The Danza: Lisa was voiced by musical contributor Lisa Lougheed. Also see Barbara (La)Frum in "The Headline Hunter!"
• Downer Ending: In "The One that Got Away," a beloved fishing pond is contaminated with toxic waste because of the Pigs' greed and stupidity in a moonlighting job. The heroes bring the true culprit to justice and the pigs are put to work to clean it up as much as they can, but the pond is still permanently ruined and lifeless.
  • Subverted in "The Evergreen Grad Prix", thanks to foul play Cedric's solar car loses the race to Cyril's gas-guzzler, and everyone is crestfallen...but then Mammoth waves away the outcome and decides to produce Cedric's model anyway. Cyril storms off in a fury...and two minutes later remembers that his company owns both of the cars, and building Cedric's car was what he'd wanted to do in the first place.
• Early-Bird Cameo: George and Nicole appear briefly in "Trouble Shooter!"; their next appearance is in "Moving In!" two seasons later.
• Enemy Mine: "The Intruders".
• Eviler Than Thou: Milton Midas to Cyril Sneer.
• Excited Episode Title: Every episode title ended with an exclamation point!
  • ...except for "Surprise Attack" and "The Evergreen Grand Prix". Official episode listings, such as those on the iTunes release, omit the exclamation points.
• Fetish Fuel Station Attendant: Lisa Raccoon.
• Fishing for Sole: Shows up in "Buried Treasure!". Ralph even makes the pun. Subverted, though, as Broo then finds a treasure map in the boot.
• Flashback with the Other Darrin: In "Time Trap!", Melissa's lines from the first season - originally performed by Linda Feige - were re-dubbed by Susan Roman, presumably in order to match her newly recorded lines for the time travel-based clip show.
• "Friend or Idol?" Decision: In "Buried Treasure!", Cyril is forced to make the choice between his son Cedric and the title treasure chest, both of which are caught in rapids and heading towards a raging waterfall. He chooses his son, but in a clever subversion, it turns out Cedric can swim and Cyril can't. Cedric ends up saving his father, and the treasure goes over the falls and forever out of reach.
• Funny Animal: Everyone except Broo, who was more like an ordinary dog. By comparison, Lisa Raccoons is a Petting Zoo Person.
• Furry Confusion: While Schaeffer walked and talked, Broo acted like an ordinary dog. To make matters worse, Broo seemed to be sapient, though he couldn't talk. Some fans posit that it's because he's a puppy, so he can't talk (yet).
  • "The Intruders" also featured alligators that behaved like non-anthropomorphic alligators, later episodes introduced Mr. Knox, who walked, talked and wore a ten-gallon hat and bolo tie.
• The Great Whodini: Tromboni (and "Bertoni") in "The Great Escape!".
• Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Almost everyone except Lisa. Strangely, Meslissa and Nicole who clearly have breasts are among the pantsless.
• Happy Birthday to You: According to this wiki, the song hit the public domain in Canada in 1985, presumably just in time for the characters to sing it in "Surprise Attack".
• Humanoid Female Animal: Sophia like woah. The only real thing assuring us that she is meant to be the same species as her boyfriend is her nose.
  • Lisa too.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming!
• Incredibly Lame Pun

Bert: Daredeviled eggs!
Ralph: That sounds about right, coming from a canned ham.

• Karmic Jackpot: The nicer Cyril got in the series, the more his luck improved because his proper moral choices.
• Kick the Dog: Cyril Sneer literally kicks his dog Snag in the early episodes, among other things.
• Larynx Dissonance: Bob Dermer as Lady Baden-Baden.
• Limited Wardrobe: Most of the characters, although a few have separate winter outfits. Bert in particular is shown to have multiple copies of the same sweater (in "Stealing the Show!" he claims that they're lucky).
• MacGuffin: The star on Broo's collar in "The Raccoons and the Lost Star".
• Miles Gloriosus: Appears in the Season 3 episode "Paperback Hero!".
• Misplaced Wildlife: What are aardvarks and alligators doing in Canada?
• Mistaken for Dying: Cyril in "Last Legs!".
• The Movie: Almost happened in the mid-2000s; a script was even completed. Fell through/was put on hold for lack of financing.
• My Greatest Failure: Schaeffer in "Black Belt Bentley!".
• No Name Given: Mr. Knox. Even his wife calls him "Knoxie".
• Non-Mammal Mammaries: Lady Baden-Baden, who is a hen.
• One Teacher School: Justified in that it's a rural one room school, run by Ms. Primrose, who had taught most of the cast, even Cyril Sneer.
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Mr. Knox was supposed to have a Louisiana accent, but traces of the voice actor's Canadian accent occasionally slipped in.
• Oops I Did It Again: Several episodes, including the first one, "Surprise Attack".
• Or Was It a Dream?: The specials "The Christmas Raccoons" and "The Raccoons and the Lost Star". May also be examples of Mind Screw.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: In "Cry Wolf!", Bert resorts to dressing as "Auntie Bertha" to gather evidence of Cyril's plot to pave the forest. Somewhat justified, as Cyril is sleep-deprived and the Pigs are, well, the Pigs.
• Parental Abandonment: Cedric's mother is never seen; it's hinted in "Courting Disaster" that she died shortly after he was born.
  • Cyril only mentions that he "loved her" and that she could "make money"
  • Likewise, it was never revealed what happened to Julie and Tommy's mother. Divorce, separated, or died?
• Pet the Dog: Cyril Sneer gets to do this every couple episodes or so in the later seasons.
• Power Trio: Ralph, Melissa and Bert.
• Precap: Every episode.
• Recycled in Space: Technically, the characters in The Raccoons And The Lost Star (except Schaeffer) are all aliens on a jungle planet who happen to be identical in appearance, name and personality to Schaeffer's Evergreen Forest friends. (Assuming it's not just a dream, anyway).
• Rewritten Pop Version: The original version of "Run With Us" was a Chorus-Only Song, but Lisa Lougheed's version had a full set of lyrics. It even had its own music video. (Warning: Intensely 80s.)
• The Runaway: Seen in "The Runaways!" and "Trouble Shooter!".
• Secret Keeper: In the specials and first season, Schaeffer and Broo's adventures with the animals of Evergreen Forest were secret from the humans. Though in the first special, the kids briefly see the Raccoons.
• Seldom-Seen Species: The aardvarks.
• Self-Destruct Mechanism: Cyril's mountain compound in The Raccoons and the Lost Star and his TV satellite in "The Wrong Stuff!" are each equipped with one of these. Both are ultimately activated.
• Senseless Violins: In "Cry Wolf!", Bert suspects Cyril's employees of carrying submachine guns in violin cases. He's wrong.
• Something Else Also Rises: The only time Bert's bent nose is ever seen straightened out is immediately after Lisa "asks him out" in "Spring Fever!".
• Species Surname: The Raccoons, the Pigs and (in the form of a Bilingual Bonus) Dr. Canard.
• Stock Ness Monster: The elusive, fire-breathing "Evie" in "Monster Mania!" (which turns out to be a Mechanical Monster)
• Terrible Trio: Cyril's pig henchmen.
• Theme Naming: Many locations in the Evergreen Forest are named after tree species.
• Theme Twin Naming: The Pigs' rarely-used and often-confused names (although there are three of them).
• Three Amigos: Ralph, Melissa, and Bert.
• Titled After the Song: A few episodes, including "Life in the Fast Lane!" and "Games People Play!". A couple even share titles with songs from the series.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Bert has his peanut butter, and in the early episodes and specials Cedric had his chocolate pudding.
• Tuckerization: Occasionally slipped into the animation and scripts.
• The Unintelligible: Mr. Mammoth never gets more than one intelligible line in any episode that features him; the rest are "translated" by his Sidekick.
• Unwinnable by Design: To boost sales of his flagging potato chips, Cyrill Sneer introduces a collect-the-pieces-style contest. To keep the contest running for as long as possible, and to avoid paying the prize, the only copy of the last piece was locked up. The contest is only won by Bert when the pigs lose the winning piece.
• Vague Age: Pretty much the entire cast, although there are some hints as to the characters' ages.
• Very Special Episode: In one episode Lisa starts smoking to fit in with cool kids. In the end it takes a speech from Cyril about how smoking ruined his life to get her to quit.
• We Need a Distraction: The Pigs need a distraction in "Promises Promises!". Their choice - setting off a fireworks display prematurely - ends up nearly killing Bert and Bentley.
• You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Sophia.