Atomic Betty

Atomic Betty (retitled Atomic Betty: Mission Earth[2] for its third and final season) is a Canadian-French Flash-animated science fantasy-comedy television series[3] produced by Atomic Cartoons, Breakthrough Entertainment, Tele Images Kids and Marathon Media. Additional funding for production is provided by Teletoon in Canada, Phil Roman Entertainment (uncredited) in America and M6 (season 1–2) and Télétoon+ (season 3) in France.

In Canada, the series originally aired from 2004[4][5] to 2008[6] on Teletoon. In France, the series aired on M6 from 2004 to 2006, and then on Télétoon+ from 2007 to 2008 and on BBC Kids until 2018 when BBC Kids ceased. In the United States, the series aired on Cartoon Network from 2004 to 2005, as part of their Miguzi programming block, and then on the Hub Network (now Discovery Family) from 2010 to 2011, alongside its third and final season.

Productio
Atomic Cartoons, based in Vancouver, British Columbia, writes and produces the animation for the series using Adobe Flash. Tele Images Kids produces animation and voice direction for the French-language version of the series. Breakthrough Films & Television, through its distribution subsidiary, handles worldwide distribution outside of Canada, except Spain, Portugal and Andorra.[7]

Three seasons of the series have been produced to date, totaling 78 half-hour or 156 quarter-hour episodes, depending on the format shown in each market. There is also a one-hour Christmas special titled Atomic Betty: The No-L 9.

Story
Betty Barrett is a typical 12-year-old girl who enjoys school, daydreaming about living in outer space, science-fiction films and singing in her band, living in Moose Jaw Heights (a fictional suburb of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan).[8][9] Unknown to most of her friends and family, however, she is also a member of the Galactic Guardians, an elite team dedicated to interstellar crime fighting and law enforcement. As "Atomic Betty", assisted by her two allies; the extraterrestrial pilot Sparky and a robot named X-5, she confronts the evil overlord Maximus I.Q. and his lackey Minimus, as well as other intergalactic supervillains, criminals, terrorists, and gangsters. Despite being rather unassuming on Earth, Atomic Betty is a superstar throughout the galaxy and even has her group of people who consider her their role model.

In each episode, a crisis occurs somewhere in the galaxy, usually while Betty enjoys some activity with her friends. Invariably, her bracelet begins beeping, and she runs off alone to save the galaxy in her pretty light pink-and-white superpowered Galactic Guardian battle suit, which grants her a wide variety of weapons, gadgets and magical abilities, such as flying. Accompanied by her crew, Betty manages to defeat the villains before returning home and explaining her absence.

The show includes frequent references to other famous works of popular culture, especially science fiction, such as Star Wars, The Matrix, and Transformers.

Characters
Main article: Atomic Betty/Characters

Episodes
Main article: Atomic Betty/Episodes

Home releases
Warner Home Video released two DVD volumes of the series on October 18, 2005 in Region 1[10][11][12] and February 6, 2006 in Japan. Each release contained eight segment-episodes from the first season. The latest two volumes, entitled Betty Powers Up! and Betty Blasts Off![13] were planned but scrapped.

Broadcast
Atomic Betty premiered on Teletoon in Canada on August 29, 2004. It also aired on Cartoon Network in the United States from September 17, 2004 to May 22, 2005. The series was previously aired on The Hub (now Discovery Family) from October 10, 2010 to October 12, 2011.[14] It aired on CITV and Going Live on Friday, March 11th 2007. The series is currently airing on Starz Kids and Family (first season only).[15]

As of April 2020, Distribution 360 will bring the show to a digitally remastered experience in both stunning 1080p High Definition, but also re-framed for 16:9 Widescreen, and can soon be aired on Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu. Also, the audio will also be mixed in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, depending on the soundtrack.

There are plans for when Atomic Betty will be available soon in 1080p High Definition, but also re-framed in approximately 1.78:1 widescreen for a newly remastered experience.

Soundtrack
Atomic Betty is the official soundtrack to the television series of the same name. It was released by Koch Records (now Entertainment One Music) on November 8, 2005, and contains some tracks performed by the titular character of the series, Betty Barrett, voiced by Canadian actress-singer Tajja Isen. She wrote and recorded that album in 2004. As of 2017, the album is still available on iTunes[16] and Amazon.[17]

Cancelled sequel
In 2010, Atomic Cartoons announced a sequel series was planned for production titled Atomic Betty Redux. The series would have feature Atomic Betty as a much taller, seventeen-year-old teenager resembling her future self that appear during the series finale of the original series. It was slated to be release during either late 2013 or the middle of 2014 but entered development hell shortly after. In early 2019, a Reddit user emailed Atomic Cartoons regarding the series and was responded that the series was cancelled due to the studio wanting to focus on new projects. https://www.reddit.com/r/CartoonNetwork/comments/ap0rxp/psa_there_will_be_no_atomic_betty_redux/