| Voices: | Richard Bell Michael McConnohie (season 1) Lee Tockar (season 2) Francine Elcar Jeremiah Nagle (season 1) Samuel Vincent (season 2) |
| Num Seasons: | 2 |
| Num Episodes: | 52 (104 segments) |
| Executive Producer: | Jacqueline Tordjman Vincent Chalvon-Demersay Sandy Ross |
| Producer: | Bruno Bianchi |
| Director: | Bruno Bianchi |
| Runtime: | 22 minutes |
| Country: | France United States |
| Language: | French English |
| Company: | Saban Entertainment Saban International Paris ARD/Degeto Scottish Television Enterprises |
| Network: | Fox Kids (international) France 2 and Canal+ (France) ITV (CITV) (UK) Das Erste (Germany) |
Walter Melon (French: '''Achille Talon''') is a 1997 animated TV show, very loosely adapted from the Franco-Belgian comic Achille Talon.[1]
A co-production between Saban International Paris, ARD/Degeto, France 2 and Scottish Television Enterprises with the participation of Canal+, Walter Melon and aired in the United States on Fox Family from 1998 to 1999. In the UK the series was broadcast on CITV (via Scottish Television), and later reran on Fox Kids. Each episode consists of two shorter adventures, and a total of 52 episodes were produced. Ownership of the series passed to Disney in 2001 when Disney acquired Fox Kids Worldwide, which also includes Saban Entertainment.[2] [3] [4]
Walter Melon and his assistant Bitterbug run a company as "heroes for hire". Whenever people get in trouble, go missing, or fall victim to a villains' latest scheme, Melon and Bitterbug (Lefuneste) take their places temporarily. In the show, Walter and Bitterbug replaced spoofs of characters from pop culture such as Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Hulk, James Bond, Indiana Jones, Kirk and Spock, Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, Tarzan, Mad Max, two of the Power Rangers, Jason Lee Scott and Billy Cranston, the Terminator, Fox Mulder, John Rambo, Little Red Riding Hood, Aladdin, Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket, Dr. Alan Grant, Marty McFly, Hercules and Casper the Friendly Ghost. Unlike most heroes, Walter is a dim-witted, overweight jolly French American time traveler with a large melon-shaped nose and a lot of luck, but nobody ever notices the apparent change in appearance, with his character's apparent weight gain merely being commented on immediately after his arrival and subsequently ignored (such as asking if Robocop had too much oil or D'artagnan accidentally swallowed a bell at Notre-Dame). When he impersonates the heroes, he fights Sneero (le méchant), the main antagonist of the series who represents the main villain of the parody universe. Additionally, Walter is sometimes partnered with Amelia, a woman who represents the heroines, token female characters, female sidekicks, and love interests of the story.
In the second season in order to make the show educational, Walter and Bitterbug would receive cross-time distress messages from historical figures such as George Washington, Christopher Columbus, Marco Polo, Thomas Edison, Lewis and Clark, Georges Méliès, and the Apollo 11 astronauts, rather than fictional characters, unlike the first season.