Growing Up Creepie
Growing Up Creepie is a Canadian-American animated television series created by Mike Young and produced by Mike Young Productions. In other countries, the series was simply titled Creepie. The series premiered on September 9, 2006 to June 21, 2008 and aired one season of 26 episodes.
Premise
As told in the opening introduction and in the episode "Creepie Crawling", Creepie was an infant left on the doorstep of the Dweezwold Mansion, which is home to a family of various anthropomorphic insects. The family took her in and raised her as one of their own. She must now adjust to a life surrounded by a society of entomophobic humans as she attends Middlington Middle School and keeps her home life secret in order to protect both herself and her family.Characters
- Creepella "Creepie" Creecher : The Gothic protagonist, a pre-teenage girl raised by bugs. She initially comes off as being cynical and sarcastic but in reality, she is friendly and warm-hearted. Her catchphrase is "Wicked". She was abandoned on Caroleena and Vinnie's doorstep as a baby, and it is unknown what happened to Creepie's real parents. Her real name is Creepella, but everyone except Dr. Pappas and Vinnie calls her Creepie. If anyone ever finds out that Creepie is being raised by bugs she will have no choice but to live somewhere else, and Dweezwold Mansion will be fumigated by Mr. Hollyruller. Her favorite color is black and she is fiercely protective of her family and other insects.
- Caroleena : A praying mantis who is Creepie's adoptive mother and Marge's best friend. She is very strict and constantly threatens to eat her children if they don't listen to her. It was her maternal instinct that persuaded her husband to adopt Creepie. She loves cooking.
- Vinnie : A mosquito who is Creepie's adoptive father. He is a New Age vegan that has a sinister vampiric appearance. Like his wife, he is loving to his adopted daughter. He loves to paint and meditate. In the first episode, his voice was originally a stereotypical Dracula voice, but it was changed to an impression of Vincent Price in later episodes. His name is also a reference to the actor.
- Gnat : Creepie's younger brother, a gnat. He constantly sneaks in Creepie's backpack and causes havoc at school. Gnat is actually older than Creepie since he and Pauly were ones that persuaded their family to adopt her.
- Pauly : Creepie's older brother, a pillbug. He loves to eat and is a wise-cracking jokester.
- Budge Bentley : Creepie's best friend. He is the only one who knows Creepie's secret. While Budge might look like a bully because of his height and size, in reality, he's a sweet guy who wouldn't hurt a fly. He is friends with Creepie and Chris-Alice. Budge is very smart like his dad and loves yoga. He also loves etymology.
- Chris-Alice Hollyruller : Creepie's relentlessly happy friend and neighbor. Her catch phrases are, "Soggy Muffins" and "Super Mega Duper". Chris-Alice is on the cheerleading squad, takes karate, and is always signing Creepie up for stuff at school without asking her first. Her favorite color is pink. Her name is a pun on the word chrysalis, a form of immature insect. She has fair skin, has auburn hair, yellow T-shirt, checkered skirt, and yellow shoes.
- George Hollyruller : Chris-Alice's father, the local exterminator. He is also the football coach at Middlington Middle School.
- Bunny Hollyruller : Chris-Alice's mother, a hard-selling real estate agent. Like Chris-Alice, she is bossy and perky.
- Melanie and Carla : Popular girls who maintain an on/off again friendship with Creepie. They are obsessed with Harry Helby, shopping, fashion, make up, and their cell phones. Carla is the leader constantly seen with her cheerleading outfit. Melanie is a stereotypical dumb blonde and has problems with pronunciations. Also it is shown that Melanie really enjoys shiny things and watches horror movies, almost as much as Budge. Melanie's favorite color is blue and Carla's favorite color is purple. Carla and Melanie just want Creepie to be normal.
- Harry Helby : the resident heartthrob, obsessed with his hair. Melanie and Carla have a massive crush on him though he usually ignores them and is somewhat more interested in Creepie.
- Ms. Monserrate : a firm but fair disciplinarian and principal of Middlington Middle School. Like Dr. Pappas she's always spying on Creepie and the other students at Middlington Middle School and is a stickler for rules. She's obsessed with cleanliness. Her catchphrase is "Detention!". She will usually hand out a detention slip.
- Dr. Pappas : Creepie's homeroom and science teacher who is a stickler for rules. Dr. Pappas is always spying on Creepie and the other students at Middlington Middle School. He never cuts anybody a break if they're late turning in a class assignment or homework. His catch phrase is "Miss Creecher!" He refers to the students by their last names. He is probably insecure due to being practically bald and having a big nose. He is afraid of Budge.
- Tarantula Boy : Creepie's love interest – seemingly half-human, half Goliath tarantula – a headliner at the carnival "freaky" show. In episode "Creepie meets Tarantula Boy", Creepie later found out he was a normal kid and Tarantula Boy was just a costume and lost interest in him. However, in the episode "Return of Tarantula Boy", he appears in a movie and meets back up with Creepie. He introduces her to his mother, who is a real tarantula. In turn, she introduced him to her family, and it turns out that Creepie's mother knew his mom when they were kids, later on, it is hinted that they would start a romantic relationship from then on, but it was never developed.
- Marge : A giant tarantula who is Skipper's mother and Caroleena's best friend. In the episode "Creepie Meets Tarantula Boy" she was revealed to be a giant tarantula who wears hair curlers. She made caramel apples for the carnival and that's how Skipper came to be in the freak show.
- Dr. Lance Pierce : a prominent pin-happy entomologist at the Middlington Museum of Natural History and a minor antagonist in the show who only appears in three episodes. Dr. Pierce is evil and needs braces. His catch phrase is "Oh no!".
Episodes
Music
The theme song "Creepie Kids" and other songs featured throughout the first series are performed by Samantha Lombardi. They were written by Michael Puskas / Samantha Lombardi, Clarence Jey / and produced by Michael Puskas / Clarence Jey. "Creepie Kids" and the song "Life Lessons", heard in the episode "Goth to Have Better Friends", was released on Lombardi's 2007 album, Full Stop. The music was featured on a DVD released by Mike Young Productions for a collection of episodes from the second series.The instrumental score heard throughout the show was composed by Guy Michelmore, who was nominated for an Annie for his music for the series.
Broadcast
Growing Up Creepie was shown on Discovery Kids/The Hub in United States and Canada, YTV in Canada and Nickelodeon in Canada,Nickelodeon and on Nicktoons. The show aired on ABC Kids from 2007 to 2010.
Reception
Pam Gelman of Common Sense Media gave the series 3 out of 5 stars; saying that, “Growing Up Creepie has lots of dark, Tim Burton-esque visuals and scary organ tunes, but older grade-schoolers and tweens will recognize that both are used for dramatic effect and will be able to focus on Creepie's day-to-day challenges.”Home media
A DVD of Growing Up Creepie was released for Region 1 from Genius Products on August 28, 2007. The single disc volume is titled Creepie's Creatures Volume 1 and features seven episodes. Bonus features includes Creepie's Buggin' Trivia Game and an episode of Jeff Corwin Unleashed entitled "Creepy Creatures". It also had a DVD release in Australia from Madman Entertainment. There were plans for other volumes in Australia but they were never released.The episode "Creep of the Deep" appears as a bonus feature on Kenny the Shark Volume 3: Catch a Wave.