Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja is an American-British-Irish animated television series, created and executive produced by Jed Elinoff and Scott Thomas. It is produced by Titmouse, Inc., Boulder Media Limited, and Disney Television Animation. The first episode was given a preview on August 13th 2012, premiered on September 17th 2012, on Disney XD.
Disney renewed the series for a second season, which officially premiered on September 29, 2014. The season and series finale premiered on July 27, 2015.
Plot[]
A town called Norrisville has been protected by a ninja for 800 years. But what the citizens of Norrisville don't know is that a new ninja is selected every four years. Randy Cunningham, ninth grade teenager, is the next ninja. Now, with the help of his best friend Howard, Randy must protect Norrisville from the evil plans of the Sorcerer, his ally Hannibal McFist, and McFist's assistant Viceroy.
Production[]
The idea for the show first came in 2008, when Jed Elinoff and Scott Thomas were throwing around ideas and created the title. When they were presenting pitches to Disney XD in December of 2008, they revealed the title to the managers, who agreed to pick up a pilot for the show.
According to Titmouse producer Ben Kalina, the original pilot had a different art design, something that looked similar to Kim Possible, when it was pitched. However, the show was retooled, and Jhonen Vasquez was brought in to design the main cast, which would help set the current style of the show.
Cast and Characters[]
Main Characters[]
- Ben Schwartz as Randy Cunningham/The Ninja, a 9th grade kid and the series' main protagonist, who is chosen to be the next Ninja. He and his friend Howard love video games as seen in the series preview. Randy tries to find out new things about the Ninja Suit by reading a book that came with it called "The NinjaNomicon" and learns that being a hero is not about popularity.
- Andrew Caldwell as Howard Weinerman, Randy's best friend and the series' deuteragonist. He is a big fan of the Ninja in the first episode until he finds out that Randy is the Ninja and begins to have friendship issues with Randy.
Villains[]
- Tim Curry (Season 1) and Ben Cross (Season 2) as The Sorcerer, the series main antagonist, who is the evil one that wants to destroy the ninja. This onetime master of the dark arts ain’t lookin’ so good after being in a hole for 800 years. In order to escape, the Sorcerer needs to create chaos to build his power. He does this by turning the most vulnerable and weak willed people in school into rampaging monsters. If he creates enough chaos, he could break free from his prison… and rip the universe to shreds.
- John DiMaggio as Hannibal McFist, the series' secondary antagonist and the owner of McFist Industries, which makes or owns just about everything. But the world is not enough for McFist. The one thing he wants more than anything is a super power. So he made a deal: if Mcfist helps the Sorcerer break out of his hole of a prison, the Sorcerer will reward Mcfist with the super human ability of his choosing.
- Kevin Michael Richardson as Willem Viceroy III. He is the evil scientist but rather refined madman responsible for all of the bizarre robots attacking Randy. As McFist’s chief mad scientist, Viceroy doesn't really care about money or power; he just wants everyone to appreciate his genius.
- John DiMaggio also as Robo Apes, robotic gorillas created by Willem Viceroy that are often unleashed by Hannibal McFist to attack the Ninja.
- Andy Dick as Jerry Driscoll, Mrs. Driscoll's deceased husband whose skeleton she carries around with her at all times. He is a mad scientist and arguably the most dangerous villain in the show as he spent his time building doomsday devices that could destroy the world and the universe. He hates Viceroy who got him imprisoned and stole the spot of Valedictorian at Mad Scientist University. The only thing he loves more than destruction is his wife.
- David Koechner as Mac Antfee, He was the ninja of the 1980s but was "condemned for conduct unbecoming of a ninja" and stripped of the ninja suit. Since losing the suit, he opened up a ninja camp that teaches kids to win via cheating and dirty tricks. He also believes himself to be the one worthy of being the ninja and has dedicated his life to reclaiming the mask. He is shown to have some fighting skills, though nowhere near the level of the ninja, and has trained numerous red suited students to serve as grunts, with one heavyset student also serving as his personal gong (much to the student's discomfort).
- Jim Cummings as Catfish Booray. A Cajun swamp man stereotype, Booray lives in the swamp behind the school. With knowledge of both science and sorcery upon gaining special powder from the "Spirit of the Swamp", he can control animals and turn himself into a giant amalgamation of swamp animals called the Pythanthigator (a python/black panther/alligator hybrid). He views himself as the best animal trapper of the swamp and believes anything in it is his property, including students who sneak in.
- Jennifer Tilly as The Sorceress, the Sorcerer's love interest. She's a being of similar powers and appearance. They met eight hundred years ago while each causing chaos and misery and it was love at first fight. Together they were nearly invincible, but the original ninja managed to use their own powers to banish her to the Land of Shadows before imprisoning the Sorcerer. Knowing she might eventually return, the ninja used the Eye of Eternity as the lock for his prison, believing her inability to see true beauty would make her unable to locate it. Although she can take a form that humans find beautiful, her stank based powers cause her to be unable to hide her awful smell.
- Dee Bradley Baker as Evil Julian, an evil version of Julian who was created when Julian came in contact with one of the Sorcerer's Power Balls. He possesses an arcade of abilities even with out a power ball and becomes the most formidable opponent Randy faces as an antagonist.
Other Characters[]
- Cassie Scerbo as Heidi Weinerman, Howard’s older sister and the host of Norrisville High’s #1 Me-Cast: Heidi@School! She’s tall, beautiful, popular and on the cutting edge of pretty much everything.
- Dave Wittenberg as Bash Johnson, a school bully and McFist’s stepson, Norrisville High Crushin’ Carp quarterback and a grade-A jerk who thinks he’s the king of the school. What Bash lacks in intelligence he makes up for in fists.
- Jeff Bennett as Mick, a football player on Norrisville High School's football team, who is Bash Johnson's friend and a bully.
- Jim Rash as Principal Slimovitz, the principal of Norrisville High.
- Megan Mullally as Mrs. Driscoll, Randy and Howard's 9th grade science teacher who is smart, but is often seen talking with her husband Jerry Driscoll's skeleton with bad ventriloquism.
- John Oliver as Coach Green, Randy and Howard's insane P.E. teacher.
- Scott Menville as Bucky, a student who always get bullied by Bash and plays the triangle.
- Neil Flynn as Mr. Bannister, Randy and Howard's English teacher.
- Sarah Hyland as Theresa Fowler, a student who is part of the School's Baton Twirling Team and who also have a crush on Randy.
- Piper Curda as Debbie Kang, a Straight A student who has an obsession for Mexican death bears thinking them as "very cute" and can get over-excited when hearing about them. She is also the editor and investigative reporter of Norrisville High Gazette Times Tribune Weekly Daily Press Chronicle (NHGTTWDPC) online edition.
- Dee Bradley Baker as Julian, a Gothic Student who is seen wearing a purple top hat, a purple suit and sports vampire-like features such as teeth. He sometimes speaks in Old English or in third person, even monologues of gothic rituals. He seems to admire death and torture, even his hat, and like a stereotypical goth, he can be seen popping out in any site mostly in dark areas to spook the people. He also does a flamboyant creepy giggle at times when excited.
- Carlos Alazraqui as Accordian Dave, an accordion player at Norrisville High School.
- Dee Bradley Baker as Juggo, a student at Norrisville High School who dresses like a clown every day, his known talent is juggling while on a unicycle.
- Kari Wahlgren as Morgan, the leader of the Dancing Fish, she is a dancer with a sassy attitude.
- Judy Reyes as Senora Jorge, Randy's and Howard's Spanish teacher.
- Jason Earles as Brent, a student at Norrisville High School who is the protégé of S. Ward Smith.
- Bobcat Goldthwait as Dickie, a student from 1985 who reunited with Miss Zingwald, his love interest, through Randy's efforts in 'destanking' the monster he used to be back in 1985, when Mac Antfee was still the Ninja.
- April Stewart as Marci Mcfist, the wife of Hannibal McFist and mother of Bashford Johnson. Though she is aware that her husband does supervillain-based activities, she is blissfully unaware that her son is the biggest bully in school.
- Annie Potts as Tawny Zingwald, the poetry teacher at Norrisville High School with long ankle-length hair.
- John Witherspoon (Season 1) and Gary Anthony Williams (Season 2) as S. Ward Smith, the blind metal shop teacher at Norrisville High School. He is actually the swordsmith for the ninja, making the ninja's weapons throughout his lifetime.
- Sterling Knight as Buttermaker, a jock at Norrisville High School who is the captain of the "Wave Slayers" water ski team.
- Keith Ferguson as Greg, an employee at the video arcade called "Greg's Game Hole".
- Fred Tatasciore as Sundown, the janitor at Norrisville High School.
- Rob Paulsen as Jacques, a foreign exchange student from France, and has a talent for parkour.
- David Alan Grier as Rudd Rhymez, a high school rapper and leader of his posse at Norrisville High.
- Biz Markie as Tiny-Timmy Scratch-It, a fellow crew member of Rudd's posse.
- Grey DeLisle as Flute Girl, the nerdy girl who plays the flute in the school's marching band.
- Stevens, the trombone player in the school's marching band, he always wears sunglasses and hardly talks except when he plays the sour tone on his trombone which he has on him even when out of band uniform.
- Andy Richter as The Disciplinarian
- Parvesh Cheena as Pradeep, a student who plays the French horn in the marching band.
- Billy Idol (Season 1) and Robin Atkin Downes (Season 2) as Punk-Bot Leader.
- Steve Zahn as Terry McFist, Hannibal McFist's hippie big brother and the true heir to McFist Industries. Because he doesn't feel like being a businessman and his father used to tell him he wasn't a businessman, Terry signed a document every year allowing Hannibal to run business on his behalf.
- Simon Pegg as Pitch Kickham, a superstar soccer player.
- Gilbert Gottfried as Ranginald Bagel, a student at Norrisville High who considers himself to be a stand-up comedian, constantly telling jokes that the other characters do not laugh at. Like a real comedian, he signs off by saying "Good night everybody!" even if it's the middle of the day.
- Joel McHale as First Ninja, the last ninja from the Norisu Nine who became the first Norrisville Ninja and trapped the Sorcerer underground. His voice is often heard in the Ninja-Nomicon when it came to specific ninja lessons and/or historic events.
- Adam Pally as Plop Plop, the friend and squire of First Ninja, as well as the former Guardian of one of the Sorcerer's power balls.
- John DiMaggio as Gene Levine, an exterminator that helps Viceroy dispose of a few unwanted monster blob creations.
- Richard Kind as Mort Weinerman, the father of the Weinerman siblings and is an employee under Mcfist Industries.
- Nat Faxon as Sinjin Knightfire, a magician and the owner of the Magic Funporium.
- Laura Marano as Rachel, the clarinet player in Norrisville high's marching band and has a passion for all things cute and adorable.
- Robert Englund as Jason Myers
- Danny Pudi as Levander Hart
- Bill Hader as Whoopee 2 and Dr. Sam
- Elaine Stritch as Ruth
- Matt Berry as Brawn Brickwall
- Rob Riggle as Rorg and Dale
- Kenan Thompson as Socko
- Patrick Warburton as Ninja of '05
- Scott Thomas as Doug
- Ice T as The Superintendent
- Paul Reubens as Todd Principal/P.A.L
- Chris Parnell as Charlie Clucker
- John O'Hurley as PJ McFlubbuster
- Pauly Shore as The Kev
- Jon Lovitz as Queen Gabnidine
- James Hong as The Shopkeeper
- Bruce Campbell as The Creep
Seasons[]
The show's first season is 26 episodes made up of 52 11-minute episodes. Many episodes have been aired out of chronological order. The series started with the pilot "Last Stall on the Left", and finished with the two-part finale "Randy Cunningham: 13th Century Ninja".
The second season was confirmed by people who work on the show. It has 48 11-minute episodes, and it officially began on September 29, 2014 with "Welcome Back Catfish", although the episodes "Flume-Igation" and "On the Poolfront" premiered ahead of the season's official run on July 19 as part of the "Show Me the Shark!" event by Disney XD.
Broadcast[]
A preview of Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja aired on Disney XD in the United States on August 13, 2012. The official US premiere was on September 17, 2012. Disney XD Canada premiered the series on September 29, 2012. The series premiered on October 4, 2012 on Disney XD (UK & Ireland). It premiered in Australia on December 10, 2012 on Disney Channel and on April 10, 2014 on Disney XD.