Poochini (or alternatively, Poochini's Yard) is a very obscure animated series created by Dave Thomas (nope, not that guy who founded the American fast food chain, Wendy’s) that aired on The WB 100+ Station Groupnote , running for a single season of 26 episodes. It is an American-German-Netherlands co-production, largely the work of W!ldBrain Entertainment (better known for helping to produce Yo Gabba Gabba! and Bubble Guppies). The series follows the life of a high-class dog named Poochini (voiced by Billy West) who is adopted by an average family after his original owner passes away. It originally aired globally in 2000, but did not debut in the United States until 2002, where it ran until 2003.
Definitely not to be confused with Poochinski.
The show has the following tropes:
- Alliterative Name: Walter White and Wendy White.
- Animal Talk: No human but the viewer can hear what the animals (Poochini included) are saying.
- Ax-Crazy: Bunk and Dirt, as well as the ringmaster from "Freak Week". Considering that Poochini's their punching bag, yeah.
- Butt-Monkey: Poochini never gets any respect from anyone.
- Comedic Underwear Exposure: In the episode "Hosed" Dirt loses pants as a result of water splash, leaving him in heart-printed underwear.
- Depending on the Writer: The characters on this show are very inconsistent. One episode, Billy will be a mischievous kid who hurts Poochini either by accident or on purpose for his own amusement; in others, he acts like a wimpy kid. In some episodes, Poochini is the one who goes through all the abuse; in others, he's the one who accidentally causes it to the Whites. Dirt and Bunk's dogs are either enemies of Poochini who attack him on sight or his best friends.
- The Ditz: There's not a single intelligent character in this show; everyone would come out as a Too Dumb to Live Manchild.
- Gross-Out Show: Expect plenty of jokes about farts, snot, and Billy putting his mouth where it doesn't belong.
- Horrible Camping Trip: In one episode, Walter has the idea of having Billy and Poochini camp in the backyard. Poochini later gets abducted by Bunk, who has him be his partner in crime.
- Jerkass: Walter and Billy usually make Poochini's life miserable .
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: The third game buddy from "The Tail" sounds like Brad Garrett.
- Overly Long Gag: The show has a lot of these. It's ambiguous whether they're actually meant as jokes, whether they just exist as
Padding, or if the pacing is just unintentionally slow. For example, the final episode (which runs only 7 minutes) devotes an entire minute of runtime to overly long gags: a scene of Billy spinning in a circle for a full 30 seconds, a scene where Walter just stands still wearing a buzzing helmet, and a shot of Walter blandly using a series of tools off-camera. - Precision F-Strike: In the episode "Dognapped", in one scene where a stray cat confronts Poochini after he almost eats his garbage, when Poochini says he's sorry, the cat says, "Damn straight." And at the end of episode, Poochini says, "What the Hell?".
- Recycled Animation: The scene in "Leash Law" where Poochini is practically molested by a group of sailors is recycled almost frame for frame in "Remote Control", with the only differences being the time of day and what clothes Poochini is wearing.
- Simpleton Voice: The third member of Walter's game buddies from "The Tail" sounds... err... what's the word?
- Too Dumb to Live: There's no intelligent person in this show, but Wendy stands at the top with her radical vegetarianism and forcing a vegetarian diet on everyone in the house, including the carnivorous Poochini.
- What the Hell Is That Accent?: Poochini's accent sounds sort of a mix between European Spanish, Irish and Russian.
