Magma Eye

Magma Eye is a Kuboian animated television series, and the fourth television series produced by Kubokartoonz. The show focuses on Magma Eye, an alien creature, as he assists his friends in their daily lives.

Unlike other programmes produced by Kubokartoonz, Magma Eye was targeted at an older audience, and dealt with more mature topics, particularly multiple different forms of discrimination. It was broadcast on Vision 1 during its initial run, but never aired on its KT children's strand. The show has since gained a cult following, with fans finding appeal towards the show's political and cynical nature.

The success of the show led to it being revived in the mid-2010s through a series of spin-off films, which included Rocket Reloaded (2014), Beijing (2019) and Munch and Mr. Teddy (scheduled for 2022).

Premise and characters
Magma Eye is an alien creature whose entire body consists of a floating white eye. He chose to live on Earth with hopes to improve the behaviour of humans, who his alien brethren (who are never seen onscreen) considered a flawed race. A majority of the episodes focus on Magma assisting his friends with their problems.

Magma has a large cast of friends, acquaintances and enemies - a majority of the show's characters are rarely referred to by their real names, and are instead typically known by some nickname. Magma's friends include: Munch, an overweight man with an eating disorder; Ramp, an unemployed young man who is frequently belittled by those of higher social classes; Beijing, a preteen girl who suffers emotional abuse from her family, classmates and teachers; and Rocket, a robot who dislikes being called "it" and wishes to be seen on equal grounds with the human race.

Due to its large cast of characters, Magma Eye features a lot of villains. These include, but are not limited to: Gunner, a corrupt, xenophobic policeman; Novice, Gunner's dimwitted and extremely egotistical assistant; Hatter, a corrupt businessman who is best friends with Ramp's brother; and Webbie, a girl who bullies Beijing and steals to support herself and her sisters.

Many episodes of Magma Eye focused on anti-social behaviour, particularly discrimination. The show, throughout its run, showed signs of racism, sexism, ageism and also disapproval of those of lower social classes. Notably, episodes which focus on Rocket often showed him being dehumanised due to being a robot.

Cast

 * Darren Berlin - Magma Eye
 * Bruno Leon Vidal - Munch, Feng, Hatter, Novice
 * Charlie Karma - Beijing
 * Gerald Crowdus - Gunner
 * Felix Olajide - Ramp, Rocket, Xin, Miles
 * Frank Welker - Mr. Teddy, Bull
 * Ashley Maverick - Webbie
 * Emily Merletta - Lori, Katrina
 * Jack Carole - Tyo, Nitasha

Production
As Kubokartoonz' three previous television series had all been made for younger children, Ashley Maverick wanted to make a series for older children.

Development on the series began in mid 1994. Maverick was unsure what to make for the premise, and had ultimately came up with roughly twenty different premises for the new show, initially going under the title Shady Street. Maverick took inspiration from the American animated sitcom The Simpsons, noticing that there were 'a lot of unique characters with their own quirks". She decided that it would be fun to do that with a more darker setting, thus she decided to merge most of the premises she came up with. Maverick ultimately chose Magma as the titular and main character due to his "appealingly simplistic" design. Together with the rest of the Kubokartoonz staff, she came up with the name Magma Eye in November 1994.

When creating ideas for the show, the production team ultimately decided that the show would be dark and cynical but that they would "not go too far". Some of Maverick's original ideas, such as Ramp being a reluctant drug dealer and Gunner being overly obsessed with guns, were ultimately removed from the show. Beijing's voice actor, Charlie Karma, originally voice her character by speaking in a fake Asian accent. However, on request by the voice casting team, she ended up using her normal voice for the character, over concerns that her accent may be deemed offensive.

Music
The show's soundtrack incorporates elements from a variety of different genres, including, , , and.

Home video releases
In the United Kingdom, eight VHS tapes, each consisting of three episodes from the first three series, were released in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The first seven were listed as a numerical "Volume" series, whilst the eighth was a "Best of", which featured two episodes from series two and one episode from series three.

In 2003, five DVDs, each consisting of every episode from each of the five series, were released in Region 2. The Complete Collection, contains all 35 episodes, was released in 2009.

Kuboia

 * Vision 1 (1997-2001)
 * Nickelodeon Kuboia (1997-2005)
 * Nicktoons Network (2004-2010)

Arabia

 * Nickelodeon Arabia (1998-2011)
 * MBC 3 (2010-2013)

Australia

 * ABC (1997-2005)
 * Nickelodeon (1998-2010)

Canada

 * YTV (1998-2009)
 * Teletoon Retro (2010-2011)

Gau

 * GBC Kids (?-present)

Germany

 * Super RTL (1997-2008)
 * Nick (2005-2010)

Netherlands

 * Nederland 3 (1997-2003)
 * Nickelodeon (2003-2010)

Stevia

 * YTV (1997-2018)
 * Biggs (2010-2014)
 * Teletoon (2014-present)

Tasanala

 * Boomerang (?-2020)

United Kingdom

 * CBBC (1997-2007)
 * Nickelodeon (1998-2010)
 * Trouble (2006-2009)

United States

 * Nickelodeon (1997-2009)
 * TEENick (2001-2009)

Video games
During early production of the show, a tie-in video game was in development for the SNES titled Magma Eye: Metropolis Missions, and was scheduled for a late 1997 release. The game was cancelled for multiple reasons, such as the SNES being at the end of its lifespan and the game being drastically behind schedule.

An action-adventure video game starring Beijing titled [TBA] was released in 2003 for the Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2 and GameBoy Advance. The game is divided into chapters, and also allows the player to freely explore the show's settings and locations.

A video game starring Rocket titled [TBA] was released in 2008 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The game is a party game with a more mature feel and elements of sandbox.

Film series
In the mid-2010s, the Magma Eye setting and characters were revived for a series of theatrical films starring the show's most popular recurring characters. According to Lake Caters, a film series based on the show was decided since, due to its large cast of characters, there was lots of potential into letting some of them have a starring role. Nearly all the cast from the original television series reprise their roles as their respective characters.

Possible fourth film
Lake Caters has stated a fourth film in the series is possible based on several circumstances, including how well Munch and Mr. Teddy does in the box office, and if there is a good story to tell with another recurring character.

Tropes

 * Magma Eye/Tropes
 * Magma Eye/YMMV
 * Magma Eye/Trivia