Rupert (TV series)
Rupert is a Canadian/French/British animated television series based on the Mary Tourtel character Rupert Bear, which aired from 1991 to 1997 with 65 half-hour episodes produced.
Synopsis
Rupert is a very intelligent and witty polar bear, and he has many friends from every corner of the world. Although he lives in a small medieval origins village called Nutwood, he enjoys traveling around the world, discovering new cultures, living great adventures, unraveling mysteries and unmasking villains. The Nordic culture of the European countries influences the visual of the cartoon, with many castles, citadels and clothes, besides personages, like elves and the monster of Loch Ness, that they refer to the European culture. The landscapes of Rupert's books, which inspired the series, were based in the region of Snowdonia and Vale of Clwyd, in the northern part of Wales.Characters
- Rupert Bear – A considerate, smart, resourceful, brave, trusty, good-spirited polar bear who is extremely popular with all the residents in Nutwood. On occasion, he breaks the fourth wall in addressing his observations and making comments to the viewer.
- Mr. Bear – Rupert's father. He is much more clumsy and forgetful compared to Rupert. He often smokes a pipe. It as revealed in the episode "Firebird" that both Mr. Bear and Podgy's father are part of the Nutwood Fire Brigade.
- Mrs. Bear – Rupert's mother. Like her son, she is wise and often offers advice to Rupert who later uses it during his adventures.
- Bill Badger – Rupert's best friend, who, unlike Rupert, often presents a lot of flaws, such as cowardice, impatience, clumsiness, a quick temper, and a horrible singing voice. He has a baby brother named Toby, who is fond of Bill's singing voice.
- Podgy Pig – A jolly, yet greedy and not very bright pig with a large appetite. He is very friendly to others and appears not to see that his friends sometimes find him annoying. His appetite at times can lead him and his friends into trouble, but Rupert can look past this to go out of his way to help Podgy.
- Pong Ping – A Pekingese from China who owns an elevator that can travel underground all the way to China. He has a wealth of knowledge of his culture including dragons and various magical objects. He's also good at math.
- Professor – A very friendly and eccentric human scientist who resides in an old castle tower in Nutwood, who invents many incredible devices during the series. Rupert often helps out with his experiments. Once the Professor starts an experiment, he never rests. He has the catchphrase, "Think of the possibilities, my boy!" whenever he is explaining his experiments and all the benefits that can come from it to Rupert and his friends.
- Tiger Lily – Rupert's female and Chinese friend. The only human student in school and the member of one of few human families in Nutwood. She and her family have a lot of knowledge on magical and mystical objects.
- Algy Pug – Rupert's friend, a pug who often overestimates his abilities and takes a lot of pride in himself. Despite his flaws, he is shown to be a good and helpful friend for Rupert and others.
- Edward Trunk – Another friend of Rupert. An elephant, very kind, sensitive and strong. He is often seen helping his father who works in plumbing.
- Gregory Guinea Pig – A very kind guinea pig and another friend of Rupert. Sometimes he can be nervous and scared, but he meets the challenges head on when his friends need help.
- Ottoline Otter – Rupert's friend who is an otter of a Scottish descent who loves Shakespeare and lives in an old castle that belonged to her ancestors. The castle has many secret entrances hidden all over. Ottoline has vast knowledge of each entrances' location and will prefer to use them instead of the stairs.
- Freddy and Ferdie Fox – Two mischievous twin foxes who spread mischief around the village of Nutwood.
- Constable Growler – A dog and local policeman who rides a bicycle. He constantly says he needs to do "everything by the book, you know" and is always turned to by Rupert and his friends whenever they need help catching a criminal.
- Sage of Um – A jolly wizard who comes from the island of Um and flies in an upside-down umbrella. He is a friend of Tiger Lily's father; The Conjurer.
- Billy Blizzard – An ambitious villain, who with the help of a magic whistle, plans to freeze the villagers of the North Pole and become the leader of the place.
- Sir Humphrey Pumphrey – A greedy, ruthless explorer who tries to find or plunder riches for his own selfish desires.
Voice cast
- Ben Sandford as Rupert Bear
- Julie Lemieux as Rupert Bear
- Guy Bannerman as Mr. Bear
- Lally Cadeau as Mrs. Bear
- Valerie Boyle as Mrs. Bear
- Torquil Campbell as Bill Badger
- Hadley Kay as Podgy Pig
- Keith White as Algy Pug
- Oscar Hsu as Pong Ping
- Stephanie Morgenstern as Tiger Lily
- Wayne Robson as Sage of Um
- Colin Fox as Professor
- Chris Wiggins as Chinese Emperor; Chinese Conjuror; Captain Bill; additional voices
- Ho Chow as Tung Lai
- Jeremy Ratchford as Botkin
- Peter Wildman as Mr. Ribbons; Captain Sir
- Dan Hennessey as Tom
- Kristin LeMunyon as Clarice
- Tara Strong as Frances
- Allen Stewart-Coates as Cedric Pig; Constable Growler; additional voices
- Keith Knight as Timid Snowman; Mr. Chimp; The Sandman; additional voices
- Rick Jones as Yum
- Harvey Atkin as Evil Genie
- Neil Crone as Mr. Mayor
Episodes
Production and broadcast
The series was produced by Nelvana, Ellipse Programmé and TVS for the first season, with Scottish Television taking control in Season 2, when TVS lost its franchise.It was broadcast in syndication on YTV in Canada. In the United States, the series first aired on Nickelodeon before moving to CBS during Saturday mornings; repeats of the series came to Disney Channel on the Playhouse Disney block, Toon Disney, and on Qubo's digital service in January 2007. That series is aired on Nick Jr. The series was broadcast in the U.K. on CITV, Tiny Pop, and KidsCo. In Australia, the series was broadcast on the ABC It aired broadcasting network and later on the Australian Nickelodeon network and on TV2 in New Zealand as part of the It aired on RTÉ in Ireland as part of their children's block The Den. In South America, the series was broadcast in Brazil by TV Cultura from February 2, 1998 to 2006, with audience peaks, according to the Folha de São Paulo portal, between 2002 and 2004. In South Africa, the series was broadcast on both Bop TV and M-Net as part of their wrapper programme for children K-T.V.. The series was also played in Namibia on NBC. It also aired in the United Arab Emirates; it was broadcast on the English free for air channel Dubai 33. In Portugal, the series was broadcast during the 1990s on the RTP channel. In Zimbabwe, the series aired on both ZBC and ZTV. The series was also broadcast on RTB in Brunei. In the American overseas territory Guam, the series was screened on KUAM-LP. In Kenya, it aired on KBC. In Saudi Arabia, the series was played on the country's English speaking channel Saudi 2.
Theme and closing song
Both the theme and closing song was composed by Milan Kymlicka, it is based on Robert Schumann's The Happy Farmer, Returning from Work in F major, Op. 68, No. 10.When the series aired on Nickelodeon in the U.S., a different theme song was used. This song was performed in a peppy, rollicking, ragtime style, with lyrics and vocals in the intro, and an instrumental of this same tune in the outro. This composition, Rupert's Number One, was co-penned by Sheree Jeacocke and Gerry Mosby.
Scenes in the intro used in this version were different from the original as well. Here, scenes used for it were taken from various episodes and the end credits differed from the initial; it used the Nick Jr. version. After getting a close up of the kite it switches to various scenes of Rupert with other characters.