Lizards (cartoon)

Lizards are cartoon characters that appear in Amazing Animals. They (multiple Lizards have appeared) are the most commonly-recurring characters in the series, appearing in multiple episodes of all four seasons. Lizards appear on the back of the seasons one, three and four VHS boxes.

## Appearance

In all appearances, the Lizards are a uniform green colour. They move around on their back legs and drag their long tails on the ground behind them. They have large eyes, four-fingered hands and fairly large heads for their body size.

The difference between the Lizards in different seasons comes from their clothing – indeed, the Lizards are among the few cartoon characters in Amazing Animals that consistently wear clothes. In season one, they primarily wear yellow leotards with orange spots, which partly cover their tails. In all the subsequent seasons, their clothing changes to white t-shirts and blue shorts, although they will sometimes wear different clothing depending on the circumstances they appear in.

The Lizards communicate with high-pitched babbling noises in the first season, with their voices deepening across the other seasons. In the song ‘*Ask Henry*’, they sing with high-pitched voices as the backing singers.

## Personality

The Lizards, being such a commonly recurring set of characters, have varied personalities that change to suit the episode. In a number of episodes, they appear as fearful (such as in Nighttime Animals and Poisonous Animals, where they are scared by elephant snoring and the mutated Squirrel scientist respectively), but they are more commonly depicted as trickster characters, who may use tricks to outsmart larger animals. For example, in Animal Colors a Lizard dresses up Elephant’s trunk in its clothes to outwit Crocodile. However, many of their tricks will backfire on them – in Desert Animals they repeatedly try and fail to steal a robotic Camel from Rooster, while in Slimy Animals they use slippery suntan lotion to steal ice creams from Octopus but are then unable to hold onto their prizes.

The ubiquity of the Lizards also partly comes from them being commonly used as background or minor characters – in many cartoon sequences that involve crowds, it is shown to be made up of Lizards, while sporting events depicted in cartoons often have Lizards as the starters or judges.

## Episodes

Animal Disguises (2 appearances)

Nighttime Animals (1 appearance)

Animal Survivors (2 appearances)

Animal Builders (1 appearance)

Mini-Beasts (1 appearance)

Animal Babies (1 appearance)

Poisonous Animals (2 appearances)

Animal Journeys (1 appearance)

Desert Animals (4 appearances)

Animal Records (2 appearances)

Animal Colors (1 appearance)

Animal Mothers (2 appearances)

Monkeys and Apes (5 appearances)

Slimy Animals (1 appearance)

Rainforest Animals (2 appearances)

Animal Acrobats (4 appearances)

Giant Animals (2 appearances)

Creepy Crawly Animals (2 appearances)

Farm Animals (1 appearance)

Animals Changes (2 appearances)

Extinct Animals (4 appearances)

Animal Eggs (2 appearances)

Around the World (1 appearance)

Polar Animals (2 appearances)

Underground Animals (2 appearances)

Animal Helpers (4 appearances)

Woodland Animals (4 appearances)

Mountain Animals (4 appearances)

Backyard Animals (1 appearance)

Scaly Animals (as backing singers in ‘Ask Henry’)