''Van-Pires'' is a 1997 animated children's television series with live-action segments. It was produced by Abrams/Gentile (New York), with

CGI animation Computer animation is the process used for digitally generating moving images. The more general term computer-generated imagery (CGI) encompasses both still images and moving images, while computer animation refers to moving images. Modern c ...

being produced under MSH (San Francisco). The show was syndicated by The Summit Media Group. ''Van-Pires'' also had portions of its soundtrack written and performed by

John Entwistle John Alec Entwistle (9 October 194427 June 2002) was an English musician, best known as the bass guitarist for the rock band the Who. Entwistle's music career spanned over four decades. Nicknamed "The Ox" and "Thunderfingers", he was the band ...

of the rock band

The Who The Who are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1964. Their classic lineup (1964–1978) consisted of lead vocalist Roger Daltrey, guitarist Pete Townshend, bassist John Entwistle and drummer Keith Moon. Considered one of th ...

and Steve Luongo, Entwistle's long-time friend, producer, and drummer in The John Entwistle Band with

Noam Kaniel Noam Kaniel, also known as Noam, (; born August 18, 1962) is an Israeli musician, singer and composer, who has sold over 8 million records, and is known for composing or performing the theme songs of many television series including ''X-Men'', ' ...

. ''Van-Pires'' centers on a group of human teenagers who protect and defend the world from evil

anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics to ...

junkyard vans and vehicles known as the "Van-Pires" by transforming into robotic anthropomorphic cars, calling themselves the "Motor-Vaters".

Characters

Motor-Vaters

Four ordinary teens were accidentally caught in the path of a falling

meteor A meteor, known colloquially as a shooting star, is a glowing streak of a small body (usually meteoroid) going through Earth's atmosphere, after being heated to incandescence by collisions with air molecules in the upper atmosphere, creating a ...

. The meteor transformed them into heroic robotic guardians to protect the night from the evil forces of Tracula (a reference to "

Dracula ''Dracula'' is an 1897 Gothic fiction, Gothic horror fiction, horror novel by Irish author Bram Stoker. The narrative is Epistolary novel, related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist and opens ...

") and the rest of the Van-Pires. Each Motor-Vater has the ability to fly and they also share the same weaknesses as their enemies; like the Van-Pires, the Motor-Vaters require gas to sustain themselves and must avoid the sun at all costs. To transform, each hero gets into the driver's seat of his or her Carfin (a

portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

of "

car A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people rather than cargo. There are around one billio ...

" and "

coffin A coffin or casket is a funerary box used for viewing or keeping a corpse, for burial, entombment or cremation. Coffins are sometimes referred to as caskets, particularly in American English. A distinction is commonly drawn between "coffins" a ...

") and shouts, "Mission Ignition!" * Axle (Jason Hayes) – The leader of the Motor-Vaters. He takes his role seriously and does what it takes to keep the team together. However, Axle can be too serious with his responsibilities either causing self-doubt when something goes awry or alienating one of the other Motor-Vaters. In his Motor-Vater form, Axle's color scheme is yellow with red fire designs. These colors are the same as his Carfin, which resembles a Lincoln convertible. * Snap (Garikayi Mutambirwa) – Snap is a very laid back person but is ready to jump into action when trouble rises. Unlike the other Motor-Vaters (who speak exclusively in car

pun A pun, also known as a paronomasia in the context of linguistics, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from t ...

s), he speaks exclusively in a mangled form of

African American Vernacular English African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) is the variety of English natively spoken, particularly in urban communities, by most working- and middle-class African Americans and some Black Canadians. Having its own unique grammatical, voca ...

. His Motor-Vater form is blue with a purple trim. Snap's Carfin is a blue hippie van. * Nuke (Marc Schwarz) – Nuke is the team's strongman and thrill seeker. He has mastered the art of weaponized

flatulence Flatulence is the expulsion of gas from the Gastrointestinal tract, intestines via the anus, commonly referred to as farting. "Flatus" is the medical word for gas generated in the stomach or bowels. A proportion of intestinal gas may be swal ...

. His Motor-Vater form is green and modeled after a

tow truck A tow truck (also called a wrecker, a breakdown truck, recovery vehicle or a breakdown lorry) is a truck used to move disabled, improperly parked, Vehicle impoundment, impounded, or otherwise indisposed motor vehicles. This may involve recoverin ...

, complete with hook and crane. Nuke's Carfin is also a green tow truck. * Rev (Melissa Marsala) – Rev is a tomboy, but she gets down and dirty just like the rest of the guys. Sometimes, Rev is not afraid to show off her feminine side. She is the target of both Nuke and Tracula's romantic affections, but she ignores them both because of her special relationship with her mentor Van He'llsing. In her Motor-Vater form, she is a red and armed with a fire hose and axe. Her Carfin is a

fire truck A fire engine or fire truck (also spelled firetruck) is a vehicle, usually a specially designed or modified truck, that functions as a firefighting apparatus. The primary purposes of a fire engine include transporting firefighters and water t ...

Allies

* Van He'll Sing (Unknown as the character is credited as playing himself) – The Motor-Vaters' friend and advisor. Van is an old

hippie A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, counterculture of the mid-1960s to early 1970s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States and spread to dif ...

that runs Sunrise Salvage, a junkyard in which the gang works and hangs out. His name is derived from the famous Bram Stoker character

Van Helsing Professor Abraham Van Helsing () is a fictional character from the 1897 gothic horror novel ''Dracula'' written by Bram Stoker. Van Helsing is a Dutch polymath doctor with a wide range of interests and accomplishments, partly attested by the P ...

. * Gypsy – An old female gypsy cab with mufflers for arms. She shows up at random times and gives the Motor-Vaters advice in the form of riddles. * Greaspot – The Motor-Vaters' pet. He is a neon-colored plastic tricycle with the behavioral instincts of a puppy dog. It is never explained why Greaspot does not thirst for fuel (though it is possible that, because he's a tricycle, he simply has no need for fuel) or why he does not turn to dust in the sun.

Van-Pires

The titular villains of the series are the Van-Pires. Unlike the Motor-Vaters, they lack human forms. Led by Tracula, they terrorize the night with an insatiable thirst for gasoline. Similar to vampires, Van-Pires feed off vehicles and can sire other Van-Pires to further their nefarious plans. * Tracula (Jonathan Davis) – The leader of the Van-Pires, and the main villain of the series. Tracula is a purple

monster truck A monster truck is a specialized off-road vehicle with a heavy duty suspension, four-wheel steering, large-displacement V8 engines and oversized tires constructed for competition and entertainment uses. Originally created by modifying stock p ...

that demands obedience from his minions. * Cardaver – A rusty and decrepit hunchbacked Van-Pire modeled after a

hearse A hearse () is a large vehicle, originally a horse carriage but later with the introduction of motor vehicles, a car, used to carry the body of a deceased person in a coffin to a funeral, wake, or graveside service. They range from deliberately ...

. * Ambula (Donna Daley) – A female ambulance with six arms modeled after the

Bride of Frankenstein ''Bride of Frankenstein'' is a 1935 American Gothic science fiction horror film, and the first sequel to Universal Pictures' 1931 film ''Frankenstein''. As with the first film, ''Bride of Frankenstein'' was directed by James Whale starring ...

. She is armed with an assortment of surgical tools and anaesthesia. She has an

Electra complex In neo-Freudian psychology, the Electra complex, as proposed by Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Carl Jung in his ''Theory of Psychoanalysis'', is a girl's psychosexual development, psychosexual competition with her mother for possession of he ...

(with Tracula playing the role of

Agamemnon In Greek mythology, Agamemnon (; ''Agamémnōn'') was a king of Mycenae who commanded the Achaeans (Homer), Achaeans during the Trojan War. He was the son (or grandson) of King Atreus and Queen Aerope, the brother of Menelaus, the husband of C ...

and Rev playing the role of

Clytemnestra Clytemnestra (, ; , ), in Greek mythology, was the wife of Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, and the half-sister of Helen of Sparta. In Aeschylus' ''Oresteia'', she murders Agamemnon – said by Euripides to be her second husband – and the Trojan p ...

). * Automaniac – An

ice cream truck An ice cream van (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) or ice cream truck (North American English) is a commercial vehicle that ice cream products are sold from, usually during the spring and summer. Ice cream vans ...

with a clown motif. Automaniac appears goofy and harmless, but his arsenal of ice cream and balloon animals shows otherwise. * Alucart – Tracula's son, constructed out of leftover auto parts and meant to be Tracula's heir. He befriends the Motor-Vaters, who dub him Alucart because it is his father's name backwards (in the same way that " Alucard" is Dracula spelled backwards). He only appeared in one episode and is based on Frankenstein’s Monster.

Production

All 13 episodes of the show had total budget of $5.2 million.

Episodes

# "Those Who Have the Fuel Shall Rule" (written by Anthony Gentile and John Gentile) # "Unleaded Zeppelin" (written by Anthony Gentile, John Gentile, and

Lisa Morton Lisa Morton (born December 11, 1958) is an American Horror fiction, horror author and screenwriter. Biography Morton was born in Pasadena, California, and entered the film industry in 1979 as a modelmaker on ''Star Trek: The Motion Picture''. ...

) # "A Few Good Cars" (written by Anthony Gentile, John Gentile, Peter Stone, and Ron Kaehler) # "Mission Demolition" (AKA "Night of Destruction") (written by Anthony Gentile, John Gentile, Peter Stone, and Ron Kaehler) # "Bride of Tracula" (written by Anthony Gentile, John Gentile, and Ron Kaehler) # "Tailpipes from the Crypt" (written by Anthony Gentile, John Gentile, Peter Stone, and Ron Kaehler) # "Bad to the Cone" (written by Anthony Gentile, John Gentile, Peter Stone, and Ron Kaehler) # "Nukenstein" (written by Anthony Gentile, John Gentile, and Ron Kaehler) # "A Car is Born" (written by Anthony Gentile, John Gentile, and Lisa Morton) # "The Swarm Storm" (written by Anthony Gentile, John Gentile, Peter Stone, and Ron Kaehler) # "Rebel Without a Car" (written by Anthony Gentile, John Gentile, and Ron Kaehler) # "One Million Miles B.C." (written by Anthony Gentile, John Gentile, Peter Stone, and Ron Kaehler) # "Uncool Fuel" (written by Anthony Gentile and John Gentile)

Soundtrack

In 2000, the

Band released ''

Music from Van-Pires ''Music from Van-Pires'' is the only studio album recorded by the John Entwistle Band and was Entwistle's final studio work before his death in 2002. It was a soundtrack for the Sci-Fi Award-winning UPN animated children's computer-generated tele ...

'' as an official album and soundtrack to the series. It was

's last solo album before his death two years later.

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 0138982, Van-Pires 1990s American animated television series 1990s American children's television series 1990s American horror television series 1990s American superhero television series 1997 American animated television series debuts 1997 American television series endings American children's animated action television series American children's animated horror television series American children's animated superhero television series American computer-animated television series American television series with live action and animation First-run syndicated animated television series Animated television series about vampires Vampires in television American teen animated television series Teen superhero television series Animated television series about robots Fiction about meteoroids