Cannonbolt(a play on cannonball) is an Arburian Pelarota(a play on the Spanish word pelota, which means 'ball', and rota a play on the word 'rotation'). It is the first new alien to appear on the Omnitrix. Cannonbolt's first appearance was in the episode The Big Tick . Despite Ben's initial dislike of the form, it has since become one of the most commonly used forms in the series and replaced Ghostfreak in the opening theme as Ghostfreak had escaped from the Omnitrix at the time. However, it was said that Cannonbolt was supposed to be one of the 10 aliens Ben started with, but somehow it got changed to Diamondhead by popular demand. Cannonbolt was a runner up in the Cartoon Network Ben 10 alien poll. Cannonbolt was first voiced by Fred Tatasciore and on Gwen she was voiced by Vanessa Marshall.
Abilities
Cannonbolt rolling
Cannonbolt is a hulking, broad-shouldered alien covered in natural armor plating on its back, shoulders, and the backs of its arms. This armor can resist almost any attack, ranging from acids to lasers. Cannonbolt can roll into a ball like an armadillo or pill bug to encase itself in this plating. There is enough space within the shell while rolled up to protect and transport people or objects. When in the form of a rolled-up ball, Cannonbolt can increase its rotational momentum and roll into enemies as an attack, as well as ricocheting himself off surfaces. Cannonbolt demonstrated his extremely tough plates in Ben 10: Secret of The Omnitrix when he broke through three electric, metal doors in order to get to Azmuth, the creator of the Omnitrix, and make him stop the count-down. It's plates are tough enough to be like car wheels when in a ball. However, it is subjected to the physical laws of reflection and conservation of momentum, meaning that it has difficulty stopping or controlling its direction if it picks up speed. By spinning in the same spot rapidly it can create a tornado like XLR8.
Cannonbolt in the original series
Cannonbolt's armored shell is used for a defensive mechanism which means that it is extremely resilien(but because of Ben's creativeness he has adapted this to attacks). The shell is durable enough to survive a free fall from the upper limits of the Earth's atmosphere, including the heat of atmospheric re-entry, and still leave Cannonbolt and anything held inside the ball intact. Though the landing still creates some pain due to the large crater left there.
Alien Force
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Cannonbolt(now voiced by Dee Bradley Baker) reappears in the Ben 10: Alien Force episode, War of the Worlds. Ben regained Cannonbolt when the Master Control was unlocked from the Omnitrix. He now has green eyes instead of yellow, the Omnitrix is now placed on his chest, and his lower black stripe on his torso is gone. There is also a minor amount of orange on his plates and his pointy, sharkish teeth are replaced with normal canine teeth without any red on the gums of the inside of his mouth. This is Cannonbolt's teenage form. He is Ben's first additional alien of Alien Force, mirroring him being the first additional alien in the original series. He is confirmed to be 1 of the 6 ultimate and 12 aliens to appear in Ben 10: Ultimate Alien.
Possible future
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Cannonbolt look in Ben 10,000 future
In the future taking place in Ben 10,000, Cannonbolt is nearly the same as the 10 year old version, but with a different color scheme for the legs, which sport a black pants-like design similar to the one for Fourarms. You can also notice, that he has slightly longer nails. His eyes are closer to his shoulder armor, and the Omnitrix symbol is higher up, being on the top of his head, rather than his forehead.
Naming and Translations
- Brazilian: Bala de Canhão (Cannonball)
- Croatian: Kugla / the Ball or the Orb
- Italian: Rotolone / from verb rotolare, (roll)
- Polish: Kulopłot
- Spanish: Cannonbolt
- Norwegian: Cannonbolt
Trivia
- Cannonbolt is one of the five aliens to appear in all three series. The other four are Upchuck, Way Big, Ghostfreak, and Diamondhead. He also gets an Ultimate Form (evolves into Ultimate Cannonbolt), logically making him the most popular alien of the three series.
- Since Cannonbolt still keeps his white and black color in Alien Force, it probably means those were really part of their skin and not taken from Ben's clothing.
- Cannonbolt was supposed to be one of the original ten aliens in the Ben 10 series, but was later replaced by Diamondhead for reasons unknown or forgotten.
- Cannonbolt's weaknesses is that he can roll much faster than he can walk and is so heavy that he tends to fall down a lot and a particularly sticky adhesive can render Cannonbolt defenseless.
- In the orignal series, Cannonbolt could not walk that far. But in Ultimate Alien, he is shown to walk fast but relies on his ball form. This means Ben has practice with Cannonbolt
- He is the first additional alien in Alien Force, reflecting on how he was the first additional alien in the original series.