Major Flake was an unsuccessful pilot featured on Cartoon Network's anthology series What A Cartoon! Show that originally aired on July 6, 2001. The premise concerned a French-accented breakfast cereal mascot named Major Flake who tries to improve sales of his cereal.
The pilot featured Rob Paulsen as the voice of Major Flake, Jeff Bennett as Major Flake's sardonic sidekick Sparkles and Jess Harnell as the voice of Major Flake's rival King Sweet.
Tropes featured:
- Accidental Misnaming: King Sweet calls Major Flake "Kid", and sign Autographs to his fans and Sparkles.
- Breakfast Cereal Mascot: Major Flake is about a Captain Crunch-like mascot who risks getting fired if he doesn't get more sales for his cereal. His biggest rival is King Sweet, who's an anthropomorphic lion clad in regal regalia.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Sparkles regularly breaks the fourth wall, hush to the viewer at the end of Cartoon.
- Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: When Major Flake keeps misunderstanding Sylvia telling them she's firing them, Sparkles manages to explain it to him by whispering it to him.
- Comical Overreacting: Little Girl's reaction to Major Flake dressing as a Giant Chicken is to scream loudly and runaway with her mother.
- Face Palm: Sparkles presses the palm of his hand against his face during Major Flake's "Imagination Thought Cloud".
- Firing Day: The episode deals with Major Flake being fired from the Soggy Cereal company to sale cereals; Sparkles does get fired due to get a Boot.
- French Jerk: Major Flake has a French accent and alludes to the stereotype when he bemoans that if he can't secure his job as a cereal mascot, he'll have to be a rude waiter like the rest of his family.
- Inelegant Blubbering: Major Flake cries excessively when he expresses he doesn't want to become a rude waiter and when he's dressed in a chicken costume.
- Ocular Gushers: When Major Flake cries, his tears come out in floods.
- Prone to Tears: Major Flake cries whenever he gets fired or feels bad about other things.
- Proscenium Reveal: The short begins with a Cereal TV Commercial called "Major Flake'," starring Major Flake and Sparkles. Just after the family eating the cereal spit it out in disgust and things get knocked over, the director shouts "Cut!" and chews out Major Flake because he's supposed to look at the camera. This establishes that Major Flake and Sparkles are actors and are working on a soundstage.