Sparky

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Sparky is a laboratory rat who befriends Gadget Hackwrench. He is a lab animal of Norton Nimnul, whom he admires and believes to be a genius. After leaving Nimnul's charge, he leaves for MIT with his cohort Buzz.

Canonical Information

Appearance

Sparky is a tall rat in a labcoat, thin except in the haunches and almost gangly. His light, short hair is tousled and spiked in all directions due to an excess electrostatic charge he always carries. His light-colored eyes and constricted pupils give him a look of intelligent mania.

Personality

Sparky is scatterbrained and easily distracted, even moreso than Gadget, and suffers occasional memory lapses that cause him to essentially repeat himself. His exposure to electroshock may aggravate his problems. Like Gadget, he does not perceive social nuances very well and is unaware of the destructive tendencies of Gadget's inventions, seeing them as experiments to be played with and tweaked.

Despite his shortsightedness, Sparky has a strong ethical code and believes firmly that science is to be put to good use. He is enraged when he learns that Nimnul is abusing it and instantly turns against Nimnul.

Role

Sparky has been conditioned by Nimnul to operate as an automaton when he hears the sound of a whistle. His standard action in this condition is to find and hotwire an alarm bell to activate Buzz.

Sparky shares a common interest with Gadget in science and physics, and Gadget is happy to be understood by someone and enjoys his company. This inspires the jealousies of Chip and Dale.

Episodes

Sparky appears only in Does Pavlov Ring a Bell? He is inside a pile of junked electronics when Gadget, looking for parts, mistakenly pulls his tail.

Accepted Fan Fiction Conventions

Together with Foxglove and Tammy, Sparky is one of the one-shot characters reappearing in fan fiction the most frequently, far more often than Buzz. Since the events described in fan fiction mostly take place after the series, he is sometimes even made a Rescue Ranger himself; probably one of the best examples is the fan comic Of Mice and Mayhem.