Bravest Warriors is an animated web series created by Pendleton Ward. Set in the year 3085 onwards, it follows four teenage heroes-for-hire as they warp through the universe to save adorable aliens and their worlds using the power of their emotions. The animated series began streaming on Frederator's Cartoon Hangover channel on YouTube on November 8, 2012. The series is based on a short produced for Frederator's Nicktoons animation incubator series Random! Cartoons that aired on January 10, 2009. A comic book adaptation published by Boom! Studios launched on October 24, 2012.
On October 20, 2016, a fourth season was announced. It was produced by Nelvana in Canada, in association with Frederator. It started airing on VRV in the United States on December 25, 2017, and Teletoon in Canada on September 3, 2018. A 21-minute documentary was released on December 11, 2017. As the voice acting for the television series was recorded between Los Angeles, California and Toronto, Ontario. While it is not the first show to be both a SAG-AFTRA and ACTRA production, it is the first North American animated production to credit both unions due to using more American voice actors over Canadian voice actors.
The show won the Shorty Award for Best Web Show in 2013 and was nominated in the Annecy International Animated Film Festival. It is also a 2015 Webby Award honoree. The fourth season was nominated for the 2019 Youth Media Alliance award for Best Digital First Content for all age groups. On December 3, 2019, it was announced that there would be a Catbug spin-off and Ward would be involved with it. However, as of September 2026, no updates have been announced.
Contents
Characters
Main
Christopher "Chris" Kirkman (voiced by Charlie Schlatter (pilot), Alex Walsh (web series), Graeme Jokic (TV series))
The 16-year-old leader of the Bravest Warriors. He has a crush on his best friend, Beth, which is a recurring theme in the series, and he has a fear of losing her. His sticker pet is a little bee which can form a sword with a honey-comb hilt and a swarm of bees.
Although Walsh did not reprise his role of Chris in season 4 of Bravest Warriors, he voices Zachary Ryan "Zack" Kirkson, Beth's boyfriend.
Bethany "Beth" Tezuka (voiced by Tara Strong (pilot), Liliana Mumy (web series, TV series))
The emerging leader of the Bravest Warriors. Her sticker pet is a cat which can form into a cat o' nine tails with cat heads. In the episode "Hamster Priest" it's discovered that the dimension hopping machine of Beth's father, "Ralph Waldo Pickle Chips", is directly linked with Beth's brainwaves. It was eventually revealed in "Season of the Mitch" that Beth is the only one that can bear the Aeon Worm's offspring and the worm began to impregnate her before Danny managed to stop it. At the end of "Season of the Mitch", she becomes the new leader of the team in the wake of Chris' disappearance. It has not been confirmed yet whether or not Beth is now pregnant with Aeon Worm offspring, or if Danny saved her in time.
Daniel "Danny" Vasquez (voiced by Rob Paulsen (pilot), John Omohundro (web series, TV Series))
The snarky member of the Bravest Warriors. His sticker pet is a dog which forms either a sword or gatling gun. He is also the team's inventor, his inventions include a time machine (which was destroyed by an alternate version of himself in "Dan Before Time") and Robo-Chris. Unlike the other members of the team who grew up in the Invisible Hideout, Danny was raised in the "martian badlands".
In season 4, as an in-joke, Rob Paulsen, the original voice of Danny voices New Danny in the episode Decide What You Want From Me.
Recurring
Emotion Lord (voiced by Breehn Burns): A seemingly immortal human who has reality warping powers tied to his emotions. In "Lavarinth", he reveals himself to be Chris a from 184 years in the future, and that he needs Chris to start taking vitamin B12 supplements otherwise they will go bald. He had been missing since the episode "Ultra Wankershim" when he was 'forced' to put on the temporal pair 'o socks which appeared after he accidentally gave Chris dangerous foreknowledge of the future. He returns in "Parasox Pub" by possessing Catbug in order to transport Chris to the Parasox Pub, which is locked in a timeless prism for the Emotion Lord. Various stages of the Emotion Lord's life is revealed, and that he will live to be at least 3000 years old.
The Concierge (voiced by Eric Bauza): A small grey-skinned, purple-haired creature in a suit that follows the Emotion Lord in his travels and takes record of everything he says and does. He first appeared in the episode "Emotion Lord" and was most recently seen in "Merewif Tag". He is supposedly invisible to all but the Emotion Lord, but was visible to Danny and Wallow in "Lavarinth" and Plum in "Merewif Tag". The concierge shares many character design elements with the character Peppermint Butler in Ward's other series Adventure Time, as both are always seen wearing a suit with a red bowtie and have pupiless white eyes. In season 4, it is revealed that Concierge is Chris and Plum's son from the future.
Impossibear (voiced by Michael Leon Wooley): An unusual bear that first appeared in the comic, but was introduced along with Catbug and Plum in "Gas Powered Stick". Impossibear is the unofficial 7th Warrior, and the 3rd unofficial Warrior besides Catbug and Plum.
Jelly Kid (voiced by Breehn Burns): A toast goblin with the ability to create a slice of white bread by making a "pshew" sound. Though Jelly Kid can't speak, he has a kind and simple personality and is beloved by the Bravest Warriors, particularly Danny. In "Jelly Kid Forever," he is stalked and killed by Catbug, who decapitates him and cheerfully announces that he "caught" the toast goblin as a present for Danny, and is presumed to be dead. At his funeral, a ship burial held by the Warriors, he reanimates, as he has healing abilities, and he sails off into the sunset.
Catbug (voiced by Sam Lavagnino): An alien creature created in Johnny Tezuka's Dimension Garden, Catbug is friend and comrade to the Bravest Warriors. He is half-cat and half-ladybug and possesses the physical traits of both animals; he can often be seen stalking, like a cat, and he can fly, like a ladybug. In terms of his personality, Catbug is childlike and carefree, which sometimes interferes with his ability to complete a mission. He has the ability to teleport between the two dimensions, the real world and the See-Through Zone, though he cannot travel between the two at will, only at random. Catbug is the unofficial 6th Bravest Warrior, and the 2nd unofficial Warrior besides Plum.
Episodes
The series pilot, written by Pendleton Ward and directed by Ward and Randy Myers, first aired on Frederator's Random! Cartoons on the Nicktoons Network on January 10, 2009. The short features different designs and voice actors from the web series.
Bravest Warriors was launched on Frederator Studios' Cartoon Hangover YouTube channel on November 8, 2012. The first season was released between November 8, 2012 and March 7, 2013. The series features new character designs and casting from the original pilot. Breehn Burns, Will McRobb and Chris Viscardi, and Fred Seibert developed and executive produced the Bravest Warriors series for Frederator Studios. Burns, writer and director of Bravest Warriors, is the co-head of Lone Sausage Productions and the co-creator of the award-winning animated short, Dr. Tran. A second season began on October 17, 2013. The series began streaming on the Nintendo Video service for the Nintendo 3DS in North America from November 2013.
On July 20, 2016, Cartoon Hangover announced that all Season 3 episodes of Bravest Warriors would be aired exclusively on VRV, a streaming platform programmed by Ellation. Season 3, along with the previous two seasons, was launched on the Cartoon Hangover Select channel starting on January 10, 2017. On September 14, 2018, the third season's episodes were uploaded internationally on the series's YouTube channel.
Seasons 3 and 4 of Bravest Warriors were removed from VRV after Cartoon Hangover was removed from the service in December 2021. Season 4 was rereleased on the Cartoon Hangover YouTube channel on January 26, 2024.
Comics
A comic book adaptation of Bravest Warriors announced by Boom! Comics at San Diego Comic-Con began publication on Boom!'s kaboom! label from October 24, 2012, and ran for 36 issues. The final four issues have not been released as part of a trade collection. At San Diego Comic-Con in 2013, it was announced that Cartoon Hangover had teamed up with Viz Media to make comics and graphic novels of their properties, with Bravest Warriors being one of the titles announced under their Perfect Square imprint. They were announced to be released in 2014.
Reception
The series was positively received. Emily Ashby of Common Sense Media argued that in the series, "goofy heroes time-travel [and] hilarity ensues." She also said that the series has "some slightly mature references" including allusions to sexual intercourse, but called the series notable for its combination of absurdist humor, sense of duty, and self-reliance as themes. She also praised the animation and writing which make it appealing to parents and kids alike, and argued that the show's strength "lies in its humor."
