One for the ‘Harriet the Spy’ crowd

Meet the kids from U.N.C.L.E. (Utterly Nutty Cartoon Lampooning Elders).

That’s how you might describe the latest original series on Cartoon Network, “Codename: Kids Next Door,” premiering tonight at 7. For in this animated cross between “Our Gang” and spy thrillers, the adults are the enemy. As the show’s tagline says, in a parody of “Ocean’s Eleven”: “Either you’re in or you’re old.”

Rather than knocking off casinos, these 10-year-olds put a hit on the local soft-serve ice-cream factory. Instead of facing Dr. No, they unite against such villains as Gramma Stuffum, who wants to fatten up the young’uns with liverwurst-headcheese casserole, and Count Spankula, a vampire-like creature that punishes them for overdue library books. And then there are those insidiously strait-laced Delightful Children From Down the Lane.

The “KND” brat pack is led by the British-accented Numbah One, a.k.a. Nigel Uno, who fearlessly faces such trials as going to an amusement park with his mum. The other members are Numbah Two, Hoagie P. Gilligan Jr., an American nerd with a knack for engineering; Numbah Three, Kuki Sanban, an Asian girl short on attention span but long on charm; Numbah Four, Wallabee Beatles, an Aussie suffering from short-man’s syndrome; and Numbah Five, Abigail “Abby” Lincoln, a cool, common-sense African American.

They wage war against adults with such elaborately assembled and acronymed devices as M.O.S.Q.U.I.T.T.O.H. (Massively Oversized Super Quick Undercover Icy Treat Transport on Helio-jets).

Interestingly enough, “KND” resulted from a Cartoon Network contest last year, in which 10 animated shorts vied to become a full-fledged series, based on viewers’ votes. The winner was the creation of a man listed simply as Mr. Warburton, whose credits include being a designer on the first season of “Beavis and Butt-head” and an animator-director on “Schoolhouse Rock.”

The show’s humor lies much closer to the latter’s wholesomeness than the former’s depravity, attempting to play on both child and adult levels. But judging from tonight’s adventures, it’s mainly kid-oriented, in a Saturday-morning style, and the cartoon violence is comparable.

As for the stereotypes presented here, and the kinds of messages they might send to kids, you can draw your own conclusions.