Spark

In space no one can hear you scream. Clink the cliches, man. We know that.

In space you can do whatever you like. Aliens? No prob. Power struggles? Natch! Funny creatures taking it to the man? Who is the man? Does it matter?

Spark is a teenage monkey living on a garbage star (ref: WALL-E) with weird bugs, many of whom are friends. His immediate family (no relation) is a vixen named Vix and a big hunky pig called Chunk who is techno savvy and intellectually void.

Spark is a bumptious bundle of energy, rebellious and frustrated as hell, He wants to explore the universe - Vix tells him he's too young and wouldn't stand a chance in the outer reaches of nowhere - to find the evil meglomanic psycho dicfaker General Zhong, a mixture of Sadam Hussein and Lord Farquaad, who turned their planet into landfill and plans on harnessing the strength of The Kraken, whatever that may be, to destroy the rest.

Being a can-do kinda kid Spark ignores Vix's warning and takes off on a spacemobile with his bug buddy to Zhong's zingdom where he discovers a friend in the queen as well as the truth of his heritage.

Offered the galaxy screenwriters and animators can't help themselves. They indulge and then overindulge until nothing makes sense anymore and the world outside their world is shattered like glass, too fragmented to sustain a comprehensible plot.

You are left with the characters, some of whom have charm, others lumpen one-liners. Spark should be cute in a come-here-you-naughty-thing way. Instead he's like soda pop, all fizz and no substance.

Even in Cartoon Central there are rules. Without them lies chaos and the release of copy and the cat. Invention and imagination clash, causing a rust storm, emanating from older and better movies.