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A great deal of care obviously went into the production of "Biker Mice." Aside from being well-written and animated, the series tended to be remarkably accurate about some things, especially the geography of Mars. However, its producers were, like the rest of us, only human. Sometimes, mistakes were made, in both the animation and details of the episodes. Natch, I thought it'd be fun (in a masochistic way) to put together a list of the little inconsistencies, logic holes, and bloopers that popped up in the series. To anybody reading this connected to the production of "Biker Mice," please don't take this maliciously. This is meant purely in fun. And think of it this way: that the list is so short is testament to how well-made the series was! Or possibly to my laziness. At any rate, I'm not going for completeness; merely a sampling. I'll add more as I re-watch the series while I work on the episode guide. If you think of any others that are worth mentioning, e-mail me and let me know.
| Logic Holes I Fun with Continuity I Visual Bloopers |
| Logic Holes |
Don't worry, dear hearts. I'm not going to go into obvious flaws in the show's science--for example, the creation of fully adult clones that are a totally different species than the donors ("Cycle Centaurs"), or Charley's being able to breathe Mars' nearly oxygen-free atmosphere ("Back to Mars" Parts Two and Three). This is a fictional series, after all, and for the sake of sci-fi fun, some leaps in technology and common sense can (and should) be made. What I'm talking about here is places where 2 + 2 doesn't equal 4, where something in the show directly contradicts something else. Read them, and you'll understand.
Once Upon a Time on Mars Part Three
So what was with those things Harley and Rimfire were putting on the cliff face? They go to all the bother of putting them up there, but then, when the Freedom Fighters and the Army arrive, they're abruptly forgotten. Some kind of explosives? Tracking devices? Nobody knows...
Cycle Centaurs
Limburger unleashes a powerful acid rain upon Chicago from his new waterpark. As the mice watch it fall over the city, Charley notices that while it corrodes metal, it doesn't seem to affect flesh. Obviously, the mice will be able to go out in the storm, but the mechanic tells them to put the fiberglass battle shells on their bikes, else they'll be "riding around on nothing but tires and those long heroic tails." Okay, a couple of problems here. First, those battle shells are made from the armor plating of the mice's spaceship, which I could've sworn was metal. Second, what about Modo's arm? It's metal (Modo says it's rusty in "Steelfinger"), but it's fully exposed the whole time, along with the mice's helmets and all the various metal objects they wear on their persons.
We're Going to Cheesyland
Just where is Cheesyland, anyway? As the Biker Mice and Charley approach the park, we see signs telling us that it's over 20 miles away from where they are at that point. Now, it's logical to assume they're coming from Chicago, particularly since it'd be almost impossible to build a lavish amusement park in the middle of a busy city. But when the lava starts to flow towards the end of the episode, Chicago is in dire danger, because the park is right next to it! So did the mice come to the park from Detroit or what? Which is it? Is the park in the city or outside it?
Motorcross Trap
I mentioned this in my write-up of this episode, but I'll say it again: why doesn't anybody bring up the fact that the motorcross race Limburger is holding at Quigley Field--with the intent to DESTROY it--THREATENS THE MICE'S HOME? It's like everyone is totally oblivious to the situation. On one hand, you could chalk it up to the mice's confidence that one of them will win the race, and in the process, they'll foil Limburger's scheme, but I mean, come on. At the very least, Charley should have brought it up.
We Don't Need No Stinkin' City and Back to Mars Part Three
This could probably also go under "Visual Bloopers." Both of these episodes incorrectly describe aspects of Charley's appearance. In the former, the mechanic tells Vinnie that her eyes aren't blue, they're green. Yet even as she says this, and the camera focuses on her face, we see eyes that are very clearly blue, as is the case in all her other appearances. In the latter episode, Napoleon Brie dispatches Number One to find "the red-haired lady." But Charley's hair isn't so much red as brown, or possibly auburn. Now, Angel, she was definitely a red-head, as is Jack McCyber, but Charley? Huh-uh. Thanks to Morning for pointing these out.
| Fun with Continuity |
Rock and Ride! and The Verminator
When the Biker Mice confront Karbunkle in Limburger's office for the first time, Modo remarks that Karbunkle is the one who "took [his right] arm," then brandishes his bionic limb at the mad scientist and growls, "But ah got me another one--see?" Karbunkle replies simply that it's a very impressive instrument. Overall, the viewer gets the impression that while Karbunkle is responsible for the loss of Modo's arm, someone else at some other time replaced the limb (maybe wherever the mice ended up between Mars and Earth, they had bionic limb vending machines. I dunno). But in "The Verminator," that assumption goes completely topsy-turvy. Here, we find out that a blast of unknown origin (later shown to have been a missile fired by Greasepit--see below) was the cause of the mice's major wartime injuries, not Karbunkle. Modo's arm is already gone when the mice enter Karbunkle's lab, and it's Karbunkle himself who crafts and attaches Modo's bionic arm. Since "Rock and Ride!" was the first episode out of the gate, it makes sense that there would be a few contradictions between it and the episodes that followed. But the issue of how Modo got that arm of his is surprisingly contentious, and events in "The Verminator" don't exactly jibe with another retelling...
The Verminator and Once Upon a Time On Mars One through Three
Both episodes illustrate, via flashback (a rather extended one in the case of the latter), how the Biker Mice were wounded in the Plutarkian War, and how Modo gained his bionic arm. In both cases, Throttle narrates the story, but we end up with a pair of sharply divergent tales! Events in "OUTOM," from the third season, contradict the flashback in "Verminator," of season two. Here's how they differ:
- "Verminator": The source of the missile that hit the Biker Mice is unknown.
"OUTOM"(1): Greasepit fired the near-lethal blast (dumb luck: he didn't even know how to fire the thing!). - "Verminator": All the captured Freedom Fighters are awake and struggling against their bonds when Karbunkle enters, carrying Modo's arm.
"OUTOM"(2): All captured Freedom Fighters are brought in are unconcious, and many are heavily bandaged. - "Verminator": Modo's arm is completely gone (though his shirt sleeve is miraculously intact)
"OUTOM"(2): Modo's arm has been wrapped heavily and placed in a sling. - "Verminator": Stoker, having not yet been introduced as a character, is absent.
"OUTOM"(2): Stoker is present, and is the first mouse to regain consciousness (yay, Stoker-kun!) - "Verminator": Karbunkle installs Modo's arm first thing. No sign of the Mind Bender Beam.
"OUTOM"(2): Karbunkle uses the Mind Bender Beam on Stoker before Modo's arm is installed. - "Verminator": Modo's arm is installed while he's fully conscious.
"OUTOM"(2): Modo was apparently out cold while Karbunkle put his arm in place. - "Verminator": There are apparently no other bionic enhancements to Modo.
"OUTOM"(2): Modo's right eye has been replaced by a bionic one. - "Verminator": Vinnie and Throttle are totally lucid when the time comes to escape the lab.
"OUTOM"(2): Vinnie and Throttle are still heavily sedated when Modo frees them, and act as if they're severely drunk (I mean, SKUNKED) until they're woken up by the heat of battle. - "Verminator": Modo quickly realizes how to operate his arm, blasts his bros free, and blasts the Hell out of Karbunkle's lab while the other Freedom Fighters escape. Time elapsed: a little under a minute--hey, it's just a quickie flashback, all right?
"OUTOM"(2): Modo figures out how his arm works, scares Karbunkle off with a few well-placed shots, then frees his bros and the other Freedom Fighters. Modo tells the other FF's to go ahead while he gets Vinnie and Throttle around. It takes Modo a while to get his severely injured bros on their bikes (due largely to their comical sedation), and just when they're about to leave, a brain-washed Stoker shows up and nearly leads them into a trap. Showing her excellent sense of timing, Carbine arrives and tells Modo that Stoker is now working for the Plutarkians. Stoker grabs and uses Carbine for a hostage, but is foiled by Rimfire's sudden arrival. Only after all this happens do the mice finally leave the lab. Time elapsed: ten or fifteen minutes.
| Visual Bloopers |
"Vicious Cycles" was the first episode of "Biker Mice" animated by Mook Studios, so it's not surprising that there were a few glitches here and there:
- After he's thrown off Lil' Hoss, Modo whistles for his bike--and one of his buck teeth is missing!
- Double take? As the mice battle the possessed machines at the junkyard, Throttle leaps from the top of a crane to the ground. But when he's halfway to the ground, the footage repeats from the beginning of his jump.
- When Throttle and Vinnie jump up and high-give one another towards the end, Throttle's tail is rather conspicuously missing.
Modo's nose disappears as he tries to pull the chains off his gun, then reappears.
We're Going to Cheesyland
In the latter half of the episode, as Vinnie races away from the lava flow he's just blocked, his mask is on the wrong side of his face!
Once Upon a Time on Mars Parts One through Three
Couple of things here:
- As dubbed by Morning, who first brought this to my attention last August and I'm just now getting around to posting it, we have the Mystery of the Moving Tattoo in part one. During the whole Tug Transformer incident, Throttle didn't yet have his distinctive Biker Mice logo tattoo on his right arm. But watch when he's fighting the saber squid in the desert. When the creature coils around him and lifts him into the air--there it is! His tattoo puts in a brief anachronistic appearance!
- In part three, Throttle, Modo, and Vinnie burst out of Alternate Post #14 after the avalanche Mace caused--and instead of being in their Freedom Fighter uniforms, they're in their present-time clothes (i.e. Throttle in his leather vest, Vinnie with his bandoleers, Modo with that chest-plate thing, etc.). In all fairness, though, the animators were very consistent as far as costumes went in these episodes.
- Speaking of Rimfire, there's a lack of consistency concerning his appearance in these episodes. First, all the animators seem to be working with a different idea of just how old the skunk-striped mouse is supposed to be. Notice that when he meets up with Carbine in Part Two, he looks really short and skinny, as if he's twelve or fourteen. He looks about sixteen through most of the rest of the arc, but man! Standing next to Modo and Stoker (who isn't very tall himself), the kid looks like a freakin' shrimp! Second, there is, as there always is, a visual debate as to just how long Rimfire's hair is. Sometimes, it goes all the way down the back of his neck; sometimes, it just barely goes to the very back of his skull! The length of the stripe itself is often variable as well. Finally, his clothes change on a few occasions, vacillating between the vest and sleeveless shirt combo designed for this episode and his present-time Freedom Fighter wear (different vest, t-shirt). Hell, nothing about Rimfire was consistent with his earlier appearances! I mean, he didn't get kidnapped, he didn't crash a spaceship...^^
Talk about your shake-ups! When the mice are standing in the entrance to the Last Chance, Vinnie's mask is on the wrong side of his face.
Motorcross Trap
In one shot while the mice are tied up and hanging upside-down in the prison, Throttle's buck teeth are missing.
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