Atomic Betty

Atomic Betty (retitled Atomic Betty: Mission Earth for its third and final season) is a Canadian-French animated television series produced by Atomic Cartoons, Breakthrough Entertainment and Tele Images Kids, along with the Marathon Group joining for the third season. Additional funding for production is provided by Teletoon in Canada, Phil Roman Entertainment (uncredited) in the U.S. and M6 (seasons 1-2) and Télétoon (season 3) in France.

In Canada, the show originally aired on Teletoon from August 29, 2004, to January 29, 2008, lasting for three years. In France, this series aired on M6 from 2004 until 2005 and then on Télétoon+ from 2006 until 2008. In the U.S., this series premiered on Cartoon Network on September 17, 2004, until January 1, 2006, and The Hub (now known as "Discovery Family") from 2010 until October 14, 2011, along with its third and final season.

Synopsis
Betty Barrett is a typical girl living in Moose Jaw Heights (a fictional suburb of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan) who enjoys school, daydreaming about living in outer space, sci-fi movies, and singing in her band. Unknown to all 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 alien pilot Sparky and a robot named X-5, she confronts the evil overlord Maximus I.Q. and his servant 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 a crowd of people who consider her their role model.

In each episode, a crisis occurs somewhere in the galaxy, usually while Betty is spending time with her friends and family. Invariably, her bracelet starts beeping, and she runs off alone to save the galaxy in her superpowered Galactic Guardian battle suit, which allows her to use a wide variety of weapons and gadgets. Accompanied by her crew, Betty takes initiative to fight the villains before returning home and explaining her absence.

The show includes frequent references to other well-known works of pop culture, especially sci-fi, such as Star Wars, The Matrix and Transformers.

Production
Atomic Cartoons, based in Vancouver, British Columbia, wrote the scripts and produced the animation for the show using Adobe Flash. Tele Images Kids produced animation and voice direction for the French-language version of the show. Breakthrough Films & Television, through its distribution subsidiary, handled worldwide distribution outside of Canada, except Spain and Portugal.

Three seasons of the show were produced, 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.

Cancelled sequel
In 2010, Atomic Cartoons announced a sequel series was planned for a production titled Atomic Betty Redux. The show would have featured the 17-year-old Atomic Betty, her teenage future self that was first introduced in the two-part finale "The Future Is Now!".

It was slated to be released either in late 2013 or mid-2014 but entered development hell shortly after. In early 2019, a Reddit user emailed Atomic Cartoons regarding the show and the response was that the planned series had been cancelled due to the animation studio's desire to focus on their new projects.

Telecast and home media
Atomic Betty premiered on Teletoon in Canada on August 29, 2004. The series was formerly aired on Cartoon Network from September 17, 2004 until January 1, 2006, in the U.S. and The Hub (now known as "Discovery Family") from October 10, 2010 until October 12, 2011. It first aired on CITV in the United Kingdom on November 1, 2004, the show continued to broadcast and then re-broadcast on CITV until it was effectively taken off schedule after 6–7 years sometime in 2011. Starz Kids and Family formerly picked up the series, but only for its first season because the last two were too expensive for the Starz brand to afford until it was later removed from its weekday morning lineup. Recently, Kartoon Channel, a web-based cartoon streaming channel, is now airing all three seasons of the show. It also aired repeats in Canada on Cartoon Network until 2015 and BBC Kids until the channel was closed in 2018.

Warner Home Video (sister company to the show's American broadcaster Cartoon Network) released two DVD volumes of the show on October 18, 2005, in Region 1  and February 6, 2006, in Japan. Each release contained eight segment-episodes from the first season. The other two volumes Betty Powers Up! and Betty Blasts Off! were planned but cancelled.

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

Video games
A video game based on the show developed by Big Blue Bubble was released for the Game Boy Advance in Europe on August 25, 2005, and in North America on October 25, 2005. A Java game for mobile phones, titled Atomic Betty - Part 1, was developed by GlobalFun and Breakthrough New Media and published in 2010.

Dolls and action figures
Hong Kong-based toy company Playmates Toys was chosen during the initial run of the Atomic Betty TV show in Canada to produce a coinciding toy line. The toy line included a variety of Betty Barrett character dolls (made of rubber, cloth, nylon and silicone), which featured both her iconic pink-and-white dress, and her normal outfit, along with a yellow sweater and green skirt. The dolls featured nylon hair that could be brushed and styled, similar to popular fashion dolls at the time such as Mattel's Barbie and Bratz. A "Talking Betty Doll" was released in 2004, which would say the character's catchphrase "Atomic Betty, reporting for duty!" when a button on its belly was pressed. The doll was powered by AAA batteries and featured the same nylon hair as the smaller versions of the doll had. Other toys by Playmates included small plastic figurines of major supporting characters, and a large plastic "Transforming Star Cruiser" that certain Betty dolls could fit into and ride in. Outside of Canada, UK-based toy company Character produced a line of Betty Barrett dolls for British audiences, releasing a television commercial on CITV to advertise the dolls in 2005. Character's doll line was very similar to the Playmates doll line, but Character only made dolls of Betty, not any supporting characters. Accessories included a plastic playhouse, which was styled in a similar fashion to the house that Betty lived in on the series.