Atom Ant (character)

This article is about the character. For other uses, see Atom Ant.

Atom Ant
Alvin wants his shirt back.
Species	Ant
Gender	Male
Member of	Yogi's Gang Grape Apers Falcon Force
Father	Not mentioned
Mother	Not mentioned
Marital status	Single
First appearance	AA: "Up and Atom" (1965)
Played by	Howard Morris (1965-66) Don Messick (1967-91) Maurice LaMarche (2006-07)
Atom Ant
Scoob!
Jellystone!

Atom Ant is an anthropomorphic superhero insect and the main title character in the Atom Ant animated television shorts. His voice was first originated by Howard Morris, and then by Don Messick.

Known for his valiant personality, he works for the police to take on various missions, where he demonstrated his feats on super strength and agility. He is also known for his gallant catchphrase, "Up and at 'em, Atom Ant!"

In the theatrical animated film Scoob!, Atom Ant is a tiny human wearing a special suit and is a member of the Falcon Force.

Character description

Atom Ant resides in an anthill that acts as his main base of operations, possesing gym equipment and a mainframe computer. He often works in tasks given by the police, who send him out on an assignment.

He is commonly portrayed as a loyal hero with a sense of justice, with the sole intention of bringing justice of making the world a better place, and punish those who commit acts of villainy. Likewise, he is an empathetic insect who likes to aid people.

Physically-speaking, he is an anthropomorphic ant with a red body and a yellow mouth. He wears an orange shirt a purple "A", purple legwear, and a metal helmet.

Powers

His powers mainly consist of the common fair, ranging from superspeed, immense strength, and invulnerability. They are suggested to have derived from atomic energy (as his name implies, and referenced in the lyrics of The Atom Ant Show's theme song). When he is low at energy, he replenishes his powers with vigorous weightlifting.

The specificty as to how he gets his powers is highly unclear apart from their atomic nature, although in the Yo, Yogi! episode "Super Duper Snag", it is revealed that they come from his atomic helmet. In Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, Atom Ant is more expicitly depicted for having nuclear properties; this was demonstrated when he contaminated a box of donuts in the episode "Incredible Hippo".

• Super strength: Despite his small statute, Atom Ant posseses the ability to pick up things that are beyond his height. At one point, he demonstrated this by lifting the Statue of Liberty to avoid it from being hit by an oncoming meteor.
• Fast agility: He posesses speeds that excel higher than that of a normal ant.
• Flight: Atom Ant has the ability to float in the air.
• Invulnerability: Atom Ant cannot be harmed by many things that would kill a normal ant, including heavy objects or large animals.

Appearances

TV series

• Atom Ant
  • 1.1 "Crankenshaft's Monster"
  • 1.2 "Up and Atom"
  • 1.3 "Ferocious Flea"
  • 1.4 "Atom Ant Meets Karate Ant"
  • 1.5 "Nobody's Fool"
  • 1.6 "Rambling Robot"
  • 1.7 "Gem-A-Go-Go"
  • 1.8 "Fastest Ant in the West"
  • 1.9 "Mistaken Identity"
  • 1.10 "How Now Bow Wow"
  • 1.11 "Dragon Master"
  • 1.12 "The Big Gimmick"
  • 1.13 "Super Blooper"
  • 1.14 "Wild, Wild Ants"
  • 1.15 "Dina-Sore"
  • 1.16 "Amusement Park Amazement"
  • 1.17 "Bully for Atom Ant"
  • 1.18 "Termighty Mean"
  • 1.19 "Go West, Young Ant"
  • 1.20 "Nine Strikes You're Out"
  • 2.1 "Rock-a-Bye Boo-Boo"
  • 2.2 "Knight Fight"
  • 2.3 "Up in the Air Squares"
  • 2.4 "Pteraducktyl Soup"
  • 2.5 "Killer-Diller Gorilla"
  • 2.6 "Mouser-Rouser"
• Yogi's Gang
• Yo, Yogi!
  • 1.6 "Super Duper Snag"
• Super Secret Secret Squirrel
  • 1.8 "Agent Penny" (picture)
• Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law
  • 2.8 "Peanut Puberty"
  • 4.2 "Incredible Hippo"
  • 4.7 "The Death of Harvey"
• Jellystone!
  • 1.2 "Gorilla in Our Midst" (no lines)
  • 1.13 "DNA, A-OK!" (no lines)
  • 1.18 "Jelly Wrestle Rumble!" (no lines)
  • 1.19 "A Fish Sticky Situation" (no lines)
  • 1.31 "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad Rat Race" (poster)
  • 1.40 "Sweet Dreams" (no lines)

Movies

• Yogi's Ark Lark
• Scooby-Doo! Mask of the Blue Falcon (poster)
• Scoob! (comic)

Specials

• The World of Secret Squirrel and Atom Ant

Shorts

• "Everyone" (no lines)

Comics

• Atom Ant (Gold Key Comics)
• The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera
  • Issue #3: "The Man Who Stole Thursday" (mentioned)
• Cartoon Network Presents Yogi Bear
  • Issue 1C: "A Nose for News" (mentioned)
• Hanna-Barbera Presents
  • Issue #1A: "I Spied a Spider"
  • Issue #1C: "Blow Little Blowfish, Blow"
• Scooby-Doo! Team-Up
  • Issue #32: "Don't Bug Me!"
• Scooby Apocalypse (DC Comics)
  • Issue #30B: "A League of His Own!"
  • Issue #31B: "Bugs, Bracelets and Behemoths!"
  • Issue #32B: "G'Nortwest Passage!"
  • Issue #33B: "When Atoms Collide"
  • Issue #34B: "Supermant!"
  • Issue #35B: "In the Belfry"
  • Issue #36B: "Awards Season"

Books

• Here Comes Scooby-Doo

Video games

• Hanna-Barbera's Turbo Toons

Biography

Debut Series

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Crossover Era

It's Yogi's Gang

Atom Ant is the focus of the episode "Mr. Waste," in which he is irritated at everyone for being wasteful, since he, as an ant, does not believe in wasting things. He is the first one to notice that "Mr. Plenty" is not who he seems.

Yo, Yogi!

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Harvey Will Take the Case

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Everyone's Back in Jellystone!

In a cut scene from "DNA, A-OK!," Atom Ant was supposed to be murdered by Yogi via magnifying glass. In the scene that replaces it, Yogi uses Atom Ant to get free food by putting him in his food.

Atom in the Funny Books

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JL Feats of Strength

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Development

Atom Ant was the first superhero character created by Hanna-Barbera, which followed the growing popularity of superheroes in mid-1960s pop culture. The character drew some inspiration from Batman in concept, whose fame exploded with the 1966 television series starring Adam West, but succeeded The Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel Show by a few months. Atom Ant's debut series also marked a transitional point for Hanna-Barbera at the time, as they gradually shifted their focus from making cartoons with funny animals to more action-oriented fare that started with Jonny Quest, leading to television series such as Space Ghost and The Herculoids.

In the first season of the Atom Ant segments, the character was voiced by Howard Morris, who had previously done some voice work for Hanna-Barbera with characters such as Jet Screamer and Mr. Peebles. Don Messick took on the former's role in the second season of the shorts, after Morris had a profane dispute with Joseph Barbera and quit working for the studio; which occurred when he found out that Barbera replaced him with Messick for doing an LP record of the TV movie Alice in Wonderland or What's a Nice Kid like You Doing in a Place like This?, in which Morris was the voice of the White Rabbit. Morris was later rehired by the studio more than a decade later, where he reconciled with Barbera.

Gallery

Main article: Atom Ant (character)/Gallery

Toys and merchandise

Main article: Atom Ant (character)/Toys

In popular culture

• Atom Ant's catchphrase, "Up and at 'em!", is used by comic book superhero Radioactive Man in The Simpsons TV series.
• Near the end of the Veronica Mars pilot, Veronica's dad wants her to leave his office for family fun night by saying "Let's up and at them, Atom Ant."