Captain Flamingo
Captain Flamingo is a Canadian-Filipino animated television series, which chronicles the adventures of Milo Powell, whose alter-ego is Captain Flamingo. The television series was produced by Atomic Cartoons, Breakthrough Films & Television, The Heroic Film Company and PASI Animation, and premiered on YTV on February 7, 2006 and ended on April 17, 2008.
The titular character is of an unspecified young age. He has no real super-powers of note, just a desire to help "li'l kids" in trouble. His "super powers" take the form of novelty items, such as a whoopee cushion, among other things.
Plot
Milo Powell is an ordinary young Japanese Canadian boy, living in Halverston-in-Area, until a kid is in trouble. Any time a kid yells "Uh-oh! Flamingo!", Milo transforms into Captain Flamingo, whose mission is to help little kids who need assistance. Captain Flamingo is aided in his missions by his best friend Lizbeth Amanda Zaragoza, who apparently has a not so secret crush on him. CF also has a little brother named Thor.Quite often, when called upon to carry out a mission, Captain Flamingo is busily engaged with something else, a personal goal or problem ; like a true hero, he must, and usually does, put aside his own needs to help others. Captain Flamingo seldom successfully solves a problem on his first try; in fact, it is not uncommon for his initial attempts to make things worse. In trying to solve the simple problems of various little kids he encounters, Captain Flamingo often gets into tight spots. He has, in various episodes, gotten trapped in a bubble with a full bladder, gone underwater to battle an eel, and has gotten trapped in a deadly matrix of bouncing superballs. Despite this, he never gives up and meets every failure or setback with a new attempt. He eventually gets out of these situations by using his "Bird Brain"; this can be his own instincts, but it usually is Lizbeth. A random thought he speaks aloud might be picked up on by Lizbeth and elaborated into an actual, detailed plan, or he can assume that a suggestion spoken aloud by Lizbeth is his "Bird Brain" speaking to him. In the end, Captain Flamingo always seems to stumble upon a solution either through Lizbeth's cleverness, persistent refusal to give up and constantly trying new novelty items and plans until he succeeds, or sheer luck.
Running Gags
- Milo is unaware that Lizbeth has a crush on him, which is shown to the viewer during the opening title and during the show by her eyes turning into hearts.
- The fourth wall is broken several times, usually through the use of characters talking to the narrator.
- Also Milo seems to be completely clueless at times, as in one episode he was completely unaware that he wasn't wearing any trousers. A similar joke happened while he was packing up for "YTV's Big BBQ Blowout" ; Milo finished packing his bags, but Ian pointed out that he wasn't wearing pants.
Characters
Main
- Milo Powell/Captain Flamingo: Motivated, driven Milo Powell is equipped with the imagination and faith to become a superhero. He stands proudly in his homemade super-tights, his unwieldy flamingo-beak helmet and terry cloth cape, ready to take on an outsized world! With Milo, things rarely turn out as planned, but somehow they do always manage to turn out all right. He carries a heavy heroic burden because kids everywhere rely on him, so he approaches their problems with utmost seriousness—as if the fate of their world depended on it. In the episode "Switch Hitch", where Wendell and Milo switched lives, Milo seemed quite jealous of Wendell's feelings towards Lizbeth. It is later revealed that he may love her. When Lizbeth and the rest of his friends were walking away with an imposter, he had shouted "Lizbeth, I love you-I mean how you..."
- Lizbeth Amanda Zaragoza: The Captain's best friend, sidekick, and not-so-secret Chinese-Filipino Canadian admirer, Lizbeth is focused and organized, however, she's just a puddle of emotions when it comes to Milo Powell, her favourite square shaped boy. She's a devoted follower and chronicler of his heroics, and, unbeknownst to him, is the voice of the "birdbrain" that often inspires the Captain to save the day. Lizbeth is strong and smart but a bit of a loner because of it. Her best friend, besides Milo, is her monocled stuffed elephant confidante, Chester. Lizbeth is secure in the knowledge that girls mature faster than boys, so she knows one day Milo will catch up and appreciate her. So, for now, she's willing to guide him along and wait patiently for that special day. She acts so because Milo saved her life when they were babies, when Lizbeth nearly fell out of the sandbox onto the concrete sidewalk and Milo threw himself in front of her to save her, and never forgets about it.
- Thor Powell: Thor is Milo's diaper-clad baby brother. Thor likes to crawl after Milo and ride his cape. And he likes to slobber on Milo's tights. As Thor's primary babysitter, Milo often has to juggle his little brother and his work—sometimes literally.
- Margerie Powell : Milo's Japanese mom has her own life as an ornithologist. She loves her boys, but adult schedules and family events come first before little kid desires. She's very huggy and supportive, but also extremely practical and firm. If she's said 'no' twice, Milo knows asking a third time would be foolhardy. Her first name was revealed to be Margerie by a young Mr. Powell in the episode "Future Imperfect".
- David Ignacius Powell : Deadpan, monotone and humourless, Milo's dad ironically runs a humour and novelty store where Milo gets his joke products from. With a voice that borders on deep-funereal, Dad is still somehow a warm guy, despite his overall stiffness. His full name was revealed in the episode "Fault Line" by Milo's mom.
- Owen-Only: Owen-Only is an Cuban Canadian over-protected only child. He's been padded, helmeted and parentally locked out of most of the thrills of being a kid. And pop-culturally, he's way behind. This character has never tasted junk food, or felt the wind in his hair while riding his scooter, or told a joke where the punch line was "poo." So you have to forgive him for not getting stuff, or always stating the obvious, to the point of being really annoying sometimes. Given what he's up against, you gotta love the guy. Sugar makes Owen extremely hyperactive, his personality goes from sensible to lunatic if he gets even a taste of sugar.
- Rutger: Rutger always bites off more than he can chew. He's excitable, somewhat like a puppy, and has no lack of confidence. But with his maverick attitude, he's always getting himself into trouble by taking stuff on before he's ready or big enough to do it. For instance, rather than ride a dumb little dinghy in the wading pool, he'll construct a massive Titanic-like behemoth out of random floatie toys—only to have it sink dramatically, with him on board. The only Brazilian Canadian kid who thinks as big as he does is the Captain; good thing, as Rutger frequently requires his services.
- Max Roderick: Max is one of the smartest, most sophisticated kids on the block. It's not his fault he's two feet tall and has a ridicuwous Elmer Fudd-like speech problem where his r's turn into w's, and he often adds w's to his l's. Therefore, 'really' becomes 'reawwy' and 'small' becomes 'smawl.' Luckily, Captain Flamingo gets him out of trouble. A lot. Max reveals his last name is Roderick in the episode "Max Invader, Scourge Of The Universe".
- Avi: Avi, aka 'The Avalanche Kid' is an American Canadian kid that has a real knack for disaster. Is it a bad moon that hangs over his head or just the overlong bangs that hang in his eyes? Whatever the cause, Avi is seriously dexterity-challenged. All it takes from him is one "uh-oh" move to start off an inevitable chain of mounting disasters. Captain Flamingo doesn't mind cleaning up Avi's messes, usually, but sometimes he wishes Avi would plan and call ahead, because, let's face it: if he's going with his mom to the china shop on Monday, Milo really should book the week off. Avi has three identical looking younger sisters, who seem to have inherited Avi's ability to be a walking disaster, which also seems to run in his family.
- Wendell Howell: Wendell is Milo's cousin and nemesis. He and Milo are always competing against each other. Wendell loves to point out how much better he is than Milo at everything. A bit of a geek, Wendell always looks for a mathematical and/or scientific way to gain the upper hand over Milo. He later invents his own superheroic alter ego, Commander Whooping Crane who almost replaced Milo as the neighborhood hero until he got into trouble and had to be saved by CF. In the episode "Switch Hitch", where Milo and Wendell switched lives, Wendell seemed to have feelings for Lizbeth. However, these feelings were unreturned. Wendell's last name is revealed to be Howell in "Scrambled Legs".
- Tabitha: Tabitha is a Luxembourgian Canadian girl who has two settings: freaked out, and really freaked out. She's on life's fast track; every moment of every day is scheduled, and she plans to finish university and have an established medical career by the time most of us are just finishing breakfast. Tabitha's many playdates, lessons and various 'opportunities for growth' keep her busy, frazzled and close to implosion. But when someone's life moves as fast as hers does, things eventually slip—and the Captain is always there to pick up the pieces. Her bright yellow frizzy hair is a simple indicator of her stress-level. The more stressed she is, the wilder it gets - much to her dismay. She has a brother who loves drums, and a toddler brother who's into streaking!
- Sanjay: Easily distracted, Sanjay is an Indian Canadian kid voted "Most likely to walk into a tree while following a bird call," or "Most likely to trip into a manhole while reading and jogging at the same time." In fact, he may not even notice that he's in the middle of being saved by the fearless yet focused Captain.
- Otto: Otto could well be a Hungarian Canadian genius....or he could be a complete wacko. We'll only know for sure after he's grown up. But for now, he builds robots that go bad, constructs alternate universes that spin out of his control, and collects rocks that include most of the planet's ore supply. But the Captain saves Otto frequently and unquestioningly—and might even consider him his favourite customer. Otto has a crush on Tabitha, but unfortunately, she finds him disgusting.
- Kirsten McBradden: Kirsten is a red-headed sweet Irish Canadian girl who really believes in Captain Flamingo, and is even doing a project on him for school and once became the subject of a play where only he had speaking lines. She asks him all sorts of fangirl questions, always proceeded by, "I was just wondering...", and like Lizbeth she has a huge crush on Milo and often concocts fake troubles to get Milo to "rescue" her and to possibly spend time with him. Her crush on Milo seems to border a bit on the psychotic and Milo seems more aware of her crush then he is of Lizbeth's. Her last name was revealed to be McBradden in the episode "Bug Out".
- Ruth-Ann: Ruth Ann is Lizbeth's Italian-Maltese-Kyrgyz-Tajik Canadian doppelganger-like rival; her blonde hair is even parted on the opposite side to Lizbeth. Where Lizbeth is spunky, Ruth Ann is a shrinking violet. Where Lizbeth is straightforward, Ruth Ann is the queen of the backhanded compliment. Worse yet, Ruth Ann has Milo wrapped around her finger, and she strings him along like she does all the other boys in town. Ruth Ann makes Lizbeth seethe, and more than once Lizbeth has voted not to rescue her nemesis because Lizbeth knows if Ruth Ann runs off with Milo's heart, she'll just break it. So she fights Ruth Ann for her square-shaped boy every time. She is the most popular girl at school and tells people what's hot and what's not.
Minor
- Mth: Mth is a kid from an unknown country that calls Captain Flamingo over so he can help find the Globnick which means a friend. Captain Flamingo befriends Mth in The Globnick.
- Thrasher: Thrasher is a First Nation kid that calls Captain Flamingo for help so he find Thrasher's missing guitar in Flamingopalooza.
Episodes
Series overview
Season 1 (2006–07)
Season 2 (2007)
Season 3 (2007-2008)
Broadcast
Recent news said it will debut on JETIX in the United States. In 2007, however, Toon Disney's new schedule had premiered this show on January 28, 2008 at 8:30AM. As of August 12, 2008, Captain Flamingo was removed from the Toon Disney schedule but returned September 2 at 5:30 a.m. When Toon Disney got rebranded into Disney XD on February 13, 2009, Captain Flamingo was once again removed, and it hasn't aired in the United States since.In May 2006, Jetix Europe acquired the European and Middle East pay television rights, in addition to television distribution, home video and consumer product rights to the series in the said territories, with the exception of Spain and Portugal. Therefore, it started airing on European channels of the network, excluding France, in Autumn 2006.