The Wuzzles
The Wuzzles was an American animated television series created for Saturday morning television, and first aired on September 14, 1985 on CBS. An idea of Michael Eisner for his new Disney television animation studio, the Wuzzles were animal creatures composed of half of one animal and half of another. Only 13 episodes of The Wuzzles were produced, making it the shortest running animated series produced by Disney.
The Wuzzles starred a variety of short, rounded animal characters (each called a Wuzzle). Each is a roughly even, and colorful, mix of two different animal species (as the theme song mentions, "...livin' with a split personality"). All of the Wuzzles live on the Isle of Wuz. Double species are not limited to the Wuzzles themselves. From the appleberries they eat to the telephonograph in the home, nearly everything on Wuz is mixed together in the same way the Wuzzles are.
The characters in the show were marketed extensively. The characters were featured in children's books, as plush toys, and in a board game.
Disney premiered two animated series on the same day, The Wuzzles and Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears, but on different networks. The Wuzzles was on CBS, and Gummi Bears was on NBC. Although Gummi Bears was a successful series, The Wuzzles was not. The Wuzzles did not build ratings momentum. However, it does have a fan base today.
Characters
- Bumblelion: Half bumblebee and half lion, Bumblelion is a short, squat orange furred creature with a pink mane, fuzzy antennae, a lion's tail, small insect wings, and horizontal brown stripes up his tummy. He lives in a beehive, is courageous, and has interest in Butterbear, below.
- Butterbear: Half bear and half butterfly, Butterbear is mostly bear in appearance. She has yellow fur with a white tummy, small wings, and short antennae with flowers on their ends.
- Eleroo: One of the larger Wuzzles, Eleroo is purple, with the body shape and tail of a kangaroo and an elephant's trunk and ears. He has a horizontally striped pouch (despite the fact that pouches are found only on female kangaroos).
- Koalakeet: Half koala, half parakeet.
- Moosel: Half moose, half seal.
- Hoppopotamus: Half rabbit, half hippopotamus.
- Pandeaver: Half panda, half beaver.
- Rhinokey: Half rhinoceros and half monkey.
- Woolrus: Half walrus and half sheep.
- Piggipine: Half pig and half porcupine.
- Ticoon: Half tiger, half raccoon.
- Skowl: Half skunk, half owl.
- Crock: Half crocodile, half dragon; the main villan of the show.
- Flizzard: Half frog, half lizard; crock's right hand wuzzle.
Episodes
- Bulls of a Feather
- Hooray for Hollywuz
- In the Money
- Crock Around the Clock
- Moosel's Monster
- Klutz on the Clutch
- Bumblelion and the Terrified Forest
- Eleroo's Wishday
- Ghostrustlers
- A Pest of a Pet
- The Main Course
- Class Dismissed
- What's Up, Stox?
References
- The CATS standardized test for elementary school students included an invented vocabulary section of which the example always incuded "Wuzzle means 'to mix.'"