Chucklewood Critters Wiki

**Welcome to the Chucklewood Critters Wiki!**
***Chucklewood Critters*** (also known as ***Buttons & Rusty***) is an American line of television specials and an animated television series created by former Hanna-Barbera animators, Bill Hutten and Tony Love, which centered on two North American woodland animals: Buttons, a young bear cub, and Rusty, a young fox pup.

The series started as a Christmas special in 1983 called *The Christmas Tree Train*, followed by eight more holiday/seasonal specials. In 1997 it was developed into a series entitled *The New Chucklewood Critters*, which ran for two seasons. The line's creators had previously worked on *Santa and the Three Bears*, a film starring a pair of bear cubs and a park ranger.

## Characters

* **Buttons** is a brown bear cub who lives in a cave in Chucklewood Park, along with his parents, **Bridgette** and **Abner**.
* **Rusty**, a red/orange fox pup, and his parents, **Rosie** and **George**, live in the same cave as Buttons' family.
* **Ranger Jones**, a.k.a. **Jonesy**, is the park ranger in charge of Chucklewood, and the only regular human character in the series. Ranger Jones is a mentor to Buttons and Rusty.
* **Bearbette** and **Frisky** are a zaftig female grey and yellow bear cub and a slim orange-cream vixen cub, respectively; they were introduced in the Valentine's Day special, *Honeybunch*. They live in Chucklewood with Bearbette's parents **Darwin** and **Bearnadine**; Frisky is an adopted member of the family, and she and Bearbette are Rusty and Buttons’ girlfriends.
* **Skipper** and **Bluebell** are rabbits, introduced in *A Chucklewood Easter*. They live in an underground warren and bear a bit of a suspicious resemblance to Bugs Bunny.
* **Lester Eli Gator** is a Cajun alligator who lives in nearby Crystal Bayou, which is where Bearbette and her family lived before moving to Chucklewood; Lester is a close friend of the family.
* **Franklin** the Owl is the cubs' teacher, who sometimes turns into a rap singer to make the lessons more interesting.
* **Freddie** the Raccoon who wears a red T-shirt is a friend and classmate of the cubs, introduced in *School Daze*, who tends to be a troublemaker. He lives with his father, **Philbert**, who is a carpenter.
* **Turner** the Turtle is another friend and classmate of the cubs, who was introduced in *What's Up, Mom?* and sometimes appears to be wearing a bow tie.
* **Claude** the Coyote is a trader who'll stoop to underhanded means to make a deal; he was introduced in the episode *An Eye for a Tooth*. His voice is modeled after that of W. C. Fields (whose middle name was Claude).
* **Quacker** the Duck is a denizen of the forest, who often relays messages for the others. True to his name, he often makes quacking sounds.
* **Skeeter** the Mouse who wears a green sweater and a hat is the smallest member of the cast. Because of his size, he is often nervous and high-strung.

## Voice cast

* Barbara Goodson - Buttons, Christie (Which Witch is Which), Frisky
* Kathy Ritter - Rusty, Rosie (The Christmas Tree Train/Which Witch is Which/The Turkey Caper)
* Mona Marshall - Rusty, Bearbette, Bluebell
* Alvy Moore - Abner (The Christmas Tree Train/Which Witch is Which/The Turkey Caper/A Chucklewood Easter), Santa (The Christmas Tree Train)
* Morgan Lofting - Bridgette (The Christmas Tree Train/Which Witch is Which/The Turkey Caper)
* Oceana Marr - Bridgette (A Chucklewood Easter)
* Bill Ratner - George (The Christmas Tree Train/Which Witch is Which/The Turkey Caper)
* Robert Axelrod - George (A Chucklewood Easter/What's Up, Mom?), Easter Bunny (A Chucklewood Easter)
* Bill Boyett - Ranger Jones (The Christmas Tree Train/Which Witch is Which/The Turkey Caper/A Chucklewood Easter)
* Dan Roth - Skipper (A Chucklewood Easter), Marty (The Turkey Caper), Toy Dept. Manager (The Christmas Tree Train)
* Doug Stone - Lester, Skeeter
* Steve Bulen - Franklin

### Additional voices

* Bobby West
* Shane Margolis
* Shifra Margolis
* Jan Rabson (credited as Stanley Gurd, Jr.)
* Dan Smith
* Jan Carole
* Brock Richards
* Marsha Jones
* Joyce Roberts
* Hal Ventura
* Ann Green
* James Curtis
* R.T. West
* Susan Clark
* Bill Kerns

## Availability

Most of the holiday specials were released on VHS videocassette, but these are now out of print. More recently, the entire series and all the specials have been made available on a four-volume DVD set but as of now, the DVD set has been discontinued by its publisher (Platinum Disc) and practically, out of print. As of now, the series is being rerun on archive.org under the title *Buttons & Rusty.* These prints were remastered in 16:9 HDTV.

## References

1. **^** Crump, William D. (2019). *Happy Holidays--Animated!: A Worldwide Encyclopedia of Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Year's Cartoons on Television and Film*. McFarland & Co. p. 323. ISBN 9781476672939.
2. **^** *Chucklewood Critters* at the Big Cartoon DataBase
3. **^** *Chucklewood Critters* on IMDb

## External links

* *Chucklewood Critters* on IMDb
* Stephen's UnOfficial Chucklewood Critters Home Page

**Specials:**

* *A Chucklewood Easter* on IMDb
* *The Christmas Tree Train* on IMDb
* *The Turkey Caper* on IMDb
* *Which Witch Is Which?* on IMDb

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