recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
Rabbit (cartoon)

Rabbit is a cartoon character who appears in Amazing Animals. They (multiple Rabbits appear) are a rare recurring character in the series, with only single appearances in seasons one, three and four and six appearances in season two.

## Appearance

The Rabbits have had subtle changes in overall appearance across the series. In earlier seasons, the Rabbits have long legs and feet, shorter arms that end in four-fingered hands and very large round tails. They have long noses that extend down the face and past the chin, a wider mouth area, large eyes and ears that droop towards the top. In the first season, they have two sets of whiskers on each cheek. In later seasons, the mouth area gets smaller while the cheeks get larger. They also gain an extra whisker on each cheek.

The main changes in appearance come with colour. In Animal Babies, the male rabbit is shown as being pale blue with a dark blue nose and yellow around the mouth, while the female is bright green with a dark green nose and yellow around the mouth. In later seasons, plus in Animal Records, the male rabbit has the yellow around the mouth replaced with the same pale blue as the rest of his body. Young Rabbits are shown on a few occasions – in Animal Babies, they come in all sorts of colours including purple, red and pale green, but in subsequent appearances they take on the colour of their parents.

While a white rabbit does appear in a cartoon segment in Giant Animals, it is not included within this character because of its extremely brief appearance and radically different looks.

## Personality

Rabbits are often shown in the role of athletes. They are shown to be adept at sports, and often quite boastful – in Animal Records, a Rabbit mocks the Tortoise that he is racing against. Part of this strength at athletics includes being intolerant of cheating – when Tortoise is found to be being carried by Dung Beetles, Rabbit picks him up and drops him on the floor. By contrast, in Underground Animals, it is Rabbit himself who cheats against Mole in a digging contest.

The other main role that Rabbits play in the cartoons is as prolific and often long-suffering parents. In Animal Babies, they are shown to produce enormous quantities of young in just a few minutes. In later appearances, they have fewer babies but often struggle with their unruly or picky behaviour. In Animal Mothers, the mother Rabbit struggles to find the food her hungry babies want to the point where she tries to serve them Rattlesnake. While Rattlesnake briefly swallows the babies, the mother Rabbit does manage to rescue them. In Animal Families, the mother Rabbit has to knit a shared jumper to restrain her babies, after one kicks her in the face as they fight over a flower.

## Episodes

Animal Babies (1 appearance)

Animal Records (2 appearances)

Animal Mothers (2 appearances)

Animal Families (1 appearance)

An Animal Year (1 appearance)

Creepy Crawly Animals (1 appearance)

Underground Animals (1 appearance)
Eric Meyers

Eric Meyers is an American actor and voice actor, currently based in the United Kingdom. He has an extensive library of works, appearing in over 120 films, television programmes and video games, as well as voicing commercials and supplying his sampled voice for the Fatboy Slim song ‘Slash Dot Dash’.

He was the voice actor for Henry the Lizard in Amazing Animals, a role he served in both the American and British versions. This was a fairly early role in his career, and a long-lasting one as he voice-acted in every episode. As part of the production of Amazing Animals, he composed and performed the songs ‘Let’s Go Around the World’ and ‘A Lizard Needs Scales’, as well as jointly performing ‘Ask Henry’.

**Cartoon Characters**: \* Eagles • Tyrannosaurus • Rattlesnake • Tiger • Squirrel • Lizards • Elephant • Bat • Fish • Camel • Gorilla • Caveman • Mole • Bear • Stickman • Chicks • Hen • Rooster • Owl • Chameleon • Tortoise • Crocodile • Frog and Toad •
• Parrot • Porcupine • Mouse • Whale • Rhinoceros • Beavers • Snail • Rabbit • Dog • Skunk • Spider • Octopus • Vulture • Woodpecker • Flea • Dung Beetle • Butterfly • Gibbon • Fly • Mosquito • Bee • Beetles • Crab • Pigeon • Carnivorous Plant • Lamb

**Voice Actors**: **Eric Meyers** • Tom Clarke-Hill
**Season One**: Tropical Birds • Animal Disguises • Nighttime Animals • Animal Appetites • Animal Survivors • Animal Senses • Animal Weapons • Animal Builders • Armoured Animals • Mini-Beasts • Animal Babies • Poisonous Animals • Animal Journeys
**Season Two**: Birds of Prey • Desert Animals (Amazing Animals) • Scary Animals • Animal Records • Animal Colors • Animal Mothers • Animal Pets • Seashore Animals • Animal Families • Endangered Animals • An Animal Year • Prehistoric Animals • Monkeys and Apes
**Season Three**: Animal Hunters • Animal Talk • Slimy Animals • Rainforest Animals • Animal Acrobats • Underwater Animals • Animal Neighbors • Giant Animals - Creepy Crawly Animals • Farm Animals (Amazing Animals) • Animal Changes • Extinct Animals • Animal Eggs
**Season Four**: Around the World • Polar Animals • Clever Animals • Underground Animals • Animal Helpers • Woodland Animals (Amazing Animals) • Mountain Animals • Backyard Animals • Tiny Animals • Animal Partners • Scaly Animals • River Animals • Animal Flight
Caveman (cartoon)

Caveman is a cartoon character who appears in Amazing Animals. He appears in only two episodes, but they are spread out across seasons two and three. He also appears on the back covers of all season two VHS boxes.

## Appearance

Caveman looks very similar to Gorilla, and has much of the same proportions. The main difference is that rather than having Gorilla’s purple nose, which is separated from the rest of his face, Caveman has a larger nose that is the same colour as the majority of his body. Caveman is always depicted wearing animal skin as clothing, and carrying a large wooden club. In Creepy Crawly Animals, it can briefly be seen that he has a single prominent tooth in his lower jaw when he yawns.

## Personality

With so few appearances, little can be gauged of Caveman’s personality. In all of his appearances, he is depicted as being unintelligent. He communicates solely by grunting, and looks puzzledly at the camera when trying to determine what Rooster is doing. He also runs off a cliff trying to crush Mosquito in Creepy Crawly Animals.

Caveman is quick to use his club for different purposes. In Prehistoric Animals, he uses it to knock down Rooster and drag him away. He then locks him in a wooden enclosure, presumably planning to cook him later. However, he leaves his club in a place where Rooster is able to take it and bring it back to the present in his time machine – Rooster uses it in the last cartoon segment to hit Tiger over the head. Caveman also uses his club in his other appearance, to try and squash Mosquito.

## Episodes

Prehistoric Animals (2 appearances, plus in the background of the episode itself)

Creepy Crawly Animals (1 appearance)
A Lizard Needs Scales

A Lizard Needs Scales is a song that is performed in Scaly Animals, the eleventh episode of the fourth season of Amazing Animals. Of the three songs included in Amazing Animals, this one is unique in being the only one performed solely by Henry, with no input from any other character.

The song was composed entirely by Eric Meyers, the voice actor for Henry.

## Background

Near the opening of Scaly Animals, Henry wakes up from a dream in which he is mocked for being scaly, and sees anti-scale rhetoric in both the newspaper and on television. Henry is both upset and angry at this, but accepts the offer of the narrator to sing a song about what he likes about his scales.

## Full lyrics

If you want to be safe and sound, some protection must be found to help you stay alive. Some animals take flight or only come out at night and that works fine for them.

Cats and dogs have tails, all sailboats have sails but a lizard like me, Henry, needs scales.

Chameleons are my friends, they change colour now and then for warmth or camouflage. Lizards, turtles and snakes, all reptiles for goodness sakes, have scales to cover ourselves.

Cats and dogs have tails, escargot are snails but a lizard like me, Henry, needs scales.

Maybe scales aren’t for you but how can I do the things that I do? Scales are right for me. Scaly creatures aren’t a sham, I like myself the way that I am – so I’m gonna tell the world!

Cats and dogs have tails, all sailboats have sails but a lizard like me, Henry, needs scales.
The 2022 NATO Invasion of Ukraine

## NATO Invasion of Ukraine

Ukrainian soldiers outside Chernivtsi

The NATO Invasion of Ukraine was a special military operation conducted on Ukraine by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. On November 19, 2022, Poland would declare war on Ukraine, followed shortly by NATO. This was due to the Ukranian bombing of Poland on November 15.

## Background

On November 15, 2022, in the Polish village of Przewodów, a missile landed, killing two people. The missile's origin is disputed. Both NATO and Russia claim that the missile came from Ukraine, and this is the most widely accepted origin. However, some people, including the Ukranian government, blamed the missile on Russia. Ukrainian government officials said:

> "Today, Russian missiles hit Poland. This is an infringement of Europe's collective security and it is a significant escalation against NATO. We are confident that the missile is not ours, and the suggestion that it is ours is clearly a conspiracy theory being spread by Russia."
>
>

The Polish government began an investigation into the missile the same day, and initially, most Western media blamed the missile on Russia, with a severe lack of evidence. On November 17, the Polish government revealed that they suspected the missile was of Ukranian origin, and requested NATO's permission to invade Ukraine. In response to this, the Ukranian Government would call the Polish government's report as "a blatant piece of propaganda from a nation that has been bought out by the Russians". Ukraine would then do all they could to convince people that the missile wasn't theirs, including spreading propaganda on Western social media sites.

However, on November 19, 2022, NATO would authorize Poland's declaration of war on Ukraine, and would declare war on Ukraine themselves.
Birds and Things with Wings

VHS cover

Birds and Things with Wings is the eleventh episode of Creatures Fantastic, which aired in 1997 on the Discovery Channel and Arts Channel. The topic of this episode is about the role of birds in mythology, including depictions of mythical bird creatures.

## Episode information

Currently Birds and Things with Wings has not been uploaded online, so only basic information is available. Features of the episode that have been gleaned from online reviews include:

* Phoenix, from Egyptian myth
* Thunderbird, from Native American myth
* Rokh, from Islamic myth, including Sinbad riding away on the bird
* Garuda, from Hindu stories
* Thoth, the ibis-headed god from ancient Egypt
* Icarus trying out his feather-and-wax wings

The only narration from the episode currently online is from the video trailer, played on all VHS releases before the beginning of the feature episode:

"*Why have birds come to symbolise the wisdom of the ancient world? Do they find that they hold the key to life itself, the secret of immortality*?"

## Animal species filmed for the programme (incomplete)

### Stock footage

* Common buzzard, *Buteo buteo*
* Barn owl, *Tyto alba*
* Indian peafowl, *Pavo cristata*
* Darter, *Anhinga sp.*

## Credits

* Director - Ovidio Salazar
* Script Consultant - David Helton
* Production Designer - Graeme Thomson
* Graphic Designer - Rachel Tsang
* Graphics Director - Richard Higgs
* Narrator - Zoë Wanamaker
* Storyteller - John Shrapnel

## Home media releases

As with all Creatures Fantastic episodes, Birds and Things with Wings has only been released on VHS. The cover of the box shows a sunset image of migrating geese overlaid with a faded picture of a bird's wing, with the main picture being a photograph of a gold statue of Garuda. Also on the cover is an artwork depicting Sinbad being carried by the Roc.

The picture on the spine and back cover is a silhouette of an Indian peafowl.

The blurb on the back cover of the VHS reads:

In many cultures birds are believed to have special powers. **Birds and Things with Wings** brings to life classic tales about the Phoenix, the Thunderbird, the Garuda and the Rokh. It examines how birds continue to play a part in the myths and rites of traditional cultures around the world, revealing man's remarkable relationship with birds that harks back to ancient times.

Back cover of Birds and Things with Wings VHS

**Narrators** Zoë Wanamaker (primary narrator) • John Shrapnel (storyteller narrator)
**Episodes**: Creatures of the Night • Dragons • Creatures of the Deep • Mythical Cats • The Apocalypse • Werewolves • The Underworld • Man Beasts • Spirits of the Forest • Mythical Horses • **Birds and Things with Wings** • Tricky Tricksters • Aliens
Lamb (cartoon)

Lamb is a cartoon character who appears in Amazing Animals. It is one of the most infrequently-appearing characters in the show, with only a single appearance in season three.

## Appearance

At first, Lamb is shown having fluffy white wool. Its head is black in colour, but the rest of its body is flesh-pink including the legs, feet and the short teardrop-shaped tail. The head is large, with big eyes and ears, small nostrils and a mouth that is mostly invisible – only when Lamb smiles is the mouth able to be seen.

## Personality

Lamb appears only once, and is shown to be living in the house with the chicken family. The sole purpose of Lamb is to be a source of wool that Hen uses to knit three woollen sweaters for the Chicks. Lamb is shown to be quite patient, sitting still on a cushion and watching as its wool is quickly unravelled from its body. Only after all the wool has been removed does it start to shiver and bleat with discomfort.

Hen clearly feels sorry for Lamb, as she knits him a new fleece out of the feathers on the lower half of Rooster’s body. When the new fleece is put onto Lamb, Lamb smiles up at Hen with gratitude.
Mosquito (cartoon)

Mosquito is a cartoon character that appears in Amazing Animals. They are one of the least commonly recurring characters in the series, appearing in three cartoons from one episode of season three.

## Appearance

Mosquito has a slender crescent-moon-shaped body, with a large head. The head has a long beak-like nose with a small mouth underneath, plus large eyes and short antennae with pink clubbed tips. Mosquito has large wings, six legs (the front two of which also serve as arms) and a tiny stinger on the tip of the tail.

Mosquito’s head, neck and the midsection of the tail are all a bright purple colour, while the thorax, legs and very tip of the tail are a paler pink colour.

## Personality

While Mosquito is never shown to drink blood it can be assumed to be the case, as Caveman spends considerable time trying to squash Mosquito. In response to nearly being squashed, Mosquito turns out the lights and tempts Caveman into running over a cliff. Afterwards, Mosquito is seen to laugh.

In the other appearances, Mosquito has little additional personality – it does play the trumpet in the invertebrate band and is the one to start the music session.
Butterfly (cartoon)

Butterfly is a cartoon character who appears in Amazing Animals. It is one of the most infrequently-appearing characters in the show, with only a single appearance in season four.

## Appearance

Butterfly has a simple appearance – it has a yellow sausage-shaped body, with large eyes, a small smiling mouth and a long trumpet-like nose. It also has a pair of pale blue wings, each with a pair of red spots on them.

## Personality

Very little can be determined about Butterfly’s personality from the single appearance. It is shown to avoid Gorilla when he tries to catch it in a butterfly net, but Butterfly seems to show no hard feelings against Gorilla. At no point in the cartoon does Butterfly stop smiling, and at the end of the cartoon, after Gorilla has accidentally scooped up a bush, Butterfly comes in and lands on Gorilla’s head.
Rhinoceros (cartoon)

Rhinoceros is a cartoon character who appears in Amazing Animals. They (at least two have appeared) are a fairly frequent recurring character in the series, appearing in multiple episodes of season one, plus one or two episodes of each subsequent season. Rhinoceros also appears on the back of the Season One, Three and Four VHS boxes.

## Appearance

Rhinoceros is depicted as being completely blue in colour, with short stubby legs (with folds of skin where they meet his body), a head almost as large as his body and a single horn. He has small eyes and ears. In the second season, his horn is changed to a very pale green and the skin folds above his legs and around his neck are changed to darker green.

A female Rhinoceros appears in Backyard Animals. She is almost identical in appearance to the standard version of the character, but has long curved eyelashes and giggles to herself in a simpering voice.

## Personality

Rhinoceros is often depicted as being rather oblivious, or self-assured about their own security. In Animal Weapons for example, he stands and continues to eat while Tiger tries to attack him with his teeth and claws, and later with a sword and spear. Rhinoceros only flees when Tiger drives a tank at him.

Tiger is the character that Rhinoceros has the closest association with – over half of the cartoon segments Rhinoceros appears in are shared with Tiger. Tiger is often shown trying to attack Rhinoceros but, despite being more intelligent and physically capable, Rhinoceros comes out the victor in almost every encounter. Rhinoceros and Tiger also share more friendly competition, such as playing snooker and having running races, although one or other of them will try to cheat in these contests.

In later appearances, Rhinoceros often appears as an aspiring athlete. In Animal Acrobats, he tries to join in with the Lizards in their acrobatics routine (while wearing a tutu) but accidentally crushes them. In Clever Animals, he is self-conscious about his size, but is tricked into performing aerobics by Squirrel as a means of knocking pine cones out of a tree.

The female Rhinoceros only has a single appearance, but she seems to take great pride in her shop. When Gibbon smashes one of her mirrors, she rushes over and appears more visibly angry than the standard Rhinoceros has ever appeared – she scowls and snorts at Gibbon until he flees.

## Episodes

Tropical Birds (1 appearance)

Animal Disguises (1 appearance)

Animal Survivors (1 appearance)

Animal Weapons (1 appearance)

Armoured Animals (3 appearances)

Mini-Beasts (1 appearance)

Animal Babies (1 appearance)

Animal Journeys (2 appearances)

Animal Pets (1 appearance)

Rainforest Animals (1 appearance)

Animal Acrobats (1 appearance)

Clever Animals (1 appearance)

Backyard Animals (1 appearance)
Simon Jollands

Simon Jollands was the director of Dorling Kindersley Vision between February 1992 and September 2001. He also served as executive producer on a number of programmes. Since leaving Dorling Kindersley Vision, he has become the co-founder of The Other Hat, a company that produces and distributes apps on maritime safety. He also published several books with Dorling Kindersley on the same subject.

Programmes that Simon Jollands was involved in the production of included:

* Some episodes of My First (1992-1993)
* Dig and Dug with Daisy (1993)
* See How They Grow (1993-1995)
* Hullabaloo (1994-1995)
* Eyewitness (1994-1997)
* Creatures Fantastic (1997)
* Bill Whyman’s Blues Odyssey (2001)

By contrast, Simon Jollands is not credited as being involved in the production of Amazing Animals (1996-2000), Baby Animals (1998) or PB Bear and Friends (1998).
Mouse (cartoon)

Mouse is a cartoon character who appears in Amazing Animals. They (multiple Mice appear) are an occasional character that appears in seasons two and three. A Mouse also appears on the back covers of all seasons three and four VHS releases.

## Appearance

Mouse is depicted as being grey all over, with a fairly large head, a long tail, short legs with large feet and relatively long arms. His arms end in four-fingered hands. Mouse has large protruding ears, a pink nose connected to his mouth by a philtrum, protruding incisor teeth at the front of his mouth, two whiskers emerging from each side of the nose and tufts of hair on the cheeks.

In Animal Talk, Mouse wears a yellow patterned shirt and a flower necklace, an appearance that he also has on the VHS back covers.

## Personality

In almost all appearances, Mouse is shown to be antagonistic towards Elephant. Mouse takes full advantage of Elephant being terrified of him – sometimes he frightens Elephant simply for fun, while on other occasions he will do so in response to being mocked, such as in Animal Records when Elephant and Gorilla laugh at his weight lifting attempts. Other characters known of Elephant’s fear of Mouse and will use it to their advantage – the Lizards bring mouse to frighten Elephant and cause him to stamp out a bushfire. The only time Mouse is ever frightened by Elephant is when he is nearly crushed accidentally by the falling Elephant.

Mouse can sometimes be more helpful to other characters – in Animal Talk, he tries to shout a warning to Rooster but is not understood and his warning brushed off.

## Episodes

Scary Animals (4 appearances)

Animal Records (1 appearance)

Endangered Animals (1 appearance)

Animal Talk (1 appearance)

Rainforest Animals (1 appearance)
Nick Stuart

Nick Stuart is a British television director. In Dorling Kindersley Vision, he is known to be the director for one episode of Creatures Fantastic:

* Aliens (thirteenth episode)

As well as Creatures Fantastic, Nick Stuart’s filmography includes 2 other shows, both based on current affairs. However, it seems that he has been involved in considerably more programmes than this.
Sony Wonder

**Sony Wonder** (formerly Sony Kids' Video; currently called Sony Pictures Kids Zone as of 2020) is a label of Sony Pictures, specifically its Home Entertainment division. In the US it distributed the My First video collection and See How They Grow series. Both editions replaced the original British english track with American english.
Anne MacLeod

Anne MacLeod (born 1951) is a Scottish writer and poet. She was involved with the writing of a number of episodes of Eyewitness, writing three episodes for season two and five episodes for season three.

## Writing credits

### For Dorling Kindersley Vision

* *Tree*
* *Volcano*
* *Prehistoric Life*
* *Flight*
* *Sight*
* *Island*
* *Monster*
* *Natural Disasters*
David Hanson

**Writing staff**: Anne MacLeod • Ben Southwell • Ben Steiner • Brian Meehl • **David Hanson** • David Stafford • David Helton • George Bloom • Lynette Singer • Mike Tomlinson • Paul Thomas • Stan Cullimore
**Directors**: Gavin Maxwell • Justine Kershaw • David Hutt • Andrew Jackson • Justin Hardy • Ludo Graham • Jerry Foulkes • Derek Hall • Sanjida O'Connell • Caius Julyan • Bonni Cohen • Leanne Pooley • Edwina Vardey • Alexandra Beazley • Sam Hodgkin • Karen Walsh • Jack Weber • Richard Simkin • Alex Hearle • Brian Cummins • Ben Southwell
**Composers**: Guy Michelmore (season one) • Guy Dagul (seasons two and three)

**Season One**: Cat • Fish • Horse • Dog • Jungle • Bird • Amphibian • Insect • Shark • Elephant • Reptile • Dinosaur • Skeleton
**Season Two**: Desert • Tree • Ape • Mammal • Butterfly and Moth • Volcano • Rock and Mineral • Seashore • Pond and River • Weather • Arctic and Antarctic • Prehistoric Life • Shell
**Season Three**: Flight • Bear • Sight • Island • Survival • Mountain • Monster • Human Machine - Plant • Ocean • Planets • Life • Natural Disasters
Guy Dagul

**Guy Dagul** is a film and TV composer. He composed the score for *Eyewitness* in seasons two and three, replacing Guy Michelmore.

## DK Vision media scored

Also includes general description of the score in instrumentation and feel.

* Desert - Arabian/Middle eastern.
* Tree - ?
* Ape - ?
* Mammal - ?
* Butterfly and Moth - ?
* Volcano - ?
* Rock and Mineral - ?
* Seashore - ?
* Pond and River - ?
* Weather - ?
* Arctic and Antarctic - ?
* Prehistoric Life - ?
* Shell - ?
* Flight - ?
* Bear - Takes inspiration from 'The Bear Went Over the Mountain' and 'Bear Necessities' in areas.
* Sight - ?
* Island - ?
* Survival - ?
* Mountain - ?
* Monster - ?
* Human Machine - ?
* Plant - ?
* Ocean - ?
* Planets - ?
* Life - ?
* Natural Disasters - ?
Eyewitness Season Three

The third season of *Eyewitness* aired between 15th September and 8th December 1997. This season had episodes written by seven writers and, as with all three Eyewitness seasons, it was produced by Bill Butt.

This season is where the show deviated more strongly from the books – while Seasons One and Two had episodes either based upon books at the time of airing or had books based on the subject released after airing, Season Three is unique in having episodes about subjects that were and remain unrepresented in the book series (*Bear*, *Sight*, *Island*, *Survival* and *Monster*). The episode subjects are more diverse, with only a single one about an animal group (*Bear*) and three about habitats (*Island*, *Mountain* and *Ocean*).

## Introduction sequence

The season two introductory sequence starts facing a blank white wall of the Eyewitness Museum. The camera pans out from the wall and twists to show an animated dolphin leaps from a large pool with an island (*Island*) and disappears into a picture frame. The camera rotates into a corridor with a Hermann’s tortoise (*Life*) and a diving helmet on a plinth (*Ocean*). The camera then enters a large room with an oak tree (*Plant*), a Bengal tiger, an American alligator, a scarlet macaw (*Flight*), a grizzly bear (*Bear*), a red fox (*Survival*) and a large planet (*Planets*) overhead. The camera cuts through a corridor with a shore crab and animated butterflies before entering a room with a prism of light and a crystal (*Sight*); a window with a blinking eye on it opens and shows a spaceship (*Planet*) that flies down a corridor filled with rushing water (*Ocean*). The camera plunges into an ‘underwater’ room with three clown triggerfish and portholes looking at a coral reef (*Ocean*) before it breaks the surface into the main atrium. Here there is an Earth and Moon (*Planets*) floating above a large pool of water (*Ocean*). The camera zooms out further and looks down on the Eyewitness museum. The Moon briefly flies outside the museum roof but sweeps around and becomes the reflection in the logo eye in a flash of light. The title then appears and the episode begins.

Uniquely among the Eyewitness seasons, the pictures on the wall of the Eyewitness Museum in the introduction of season three make no attempt to include episodes not represented by physical items within the museum – this means that *Mountain*, *Monster*, *Human Machine*, and *Natural Disasters* do not appear in any form during the introduction.

## Writers and episode list

* Anne MacLeod (*Flight*, *Sight*, *Island*, *Monster*, and *Natural Disasters*)
* Stan Cullimore (*Bear*)
* Paul Thomas (*Survival*)
* Mike Tomlinson (*Mountain*)
* David Hanson (*Human Machine*)
* David Stafford (*Plant*, *Planets*, and *Life*)
* Ben Southwell (*Ocean*)
Andrew Graham-Brown

Andrew Graham-Brown is a British television director. In Dorling Kindersley Vision, he is known to be the director for two episodes of Creatures Fantastic:

* Werewolves (sixth episode)
* Spirits of the Forest (ninth episode)

As well as Creatures Fantastic, Andrew Graham-Brown has been involved in no fewer than 25 other shows; many of these are wildlife documentaries, some for the BBC Natural History Unit, including titles such as Monsters We Met (2003), British Isles: A Natural History (2004) and several episodes of Natural World (albeit none with stock footage used in Dorling Kindersley Shows).
Frog and Toad (cartoon)

Frogs and Toad are cartoon characters that appear in Amazing Animals. Frogs are occasional recurring characters that appear in all four seasons, while the singular Toad is much rarer, only appearing in three episodes across seasons two and three. Frog appears on the back cover of the season one VHS boxes, while Toad appears on the back cover of the seasons three and four boxes.

## Appearance

Frogs are always depicted as a pale purplish-grey colour, with a pointed face and large eyes on the top of the head. They have long feet with three toes, with three fingers on each hand. Frogs are depicted as having very long tongues that are able to be used as a weapon or even used against the Frog, with Fly able to tie the tongue of an attacking Frog completely around the Frog’s own body. The Frogs move either by hopping on all fours, as real frogs do, or by walking around on their back legs. A female Frog briefly appears in Animal Babies, only recognisable by a single eyelash above each eye.

A Frog tadpole briefly appears in Animal Changes – it is the same colour as the adult Frog and has a simple appearance, with a round body, two large eyes and a long tail. Once metamorphosed, the young Frog looks like a smaller version of the adult.

Toad always appears alongside Frog, so can be easily compared. Toad is shorter and fatter than Frog, has a thinner mouth, wrinkles around the eyes, several warts on his head and body and shorter legs and feet. He is also a dark green colour.

## Personality

In the first season, Frog makes several attempts to eat Fly. He succeeds in Animal Weapons, eating one that has passed out from heatstroke but in Mini-Beasts, Fly fights back and leaves Frog tied up with his own tongue. Otherwise, Frog mostly appears as a simple character, without much interaction with other characters to determine personality.

Whenever a restaurant or bar is depicted in the cartoons, Frog serves as the waiter or bartender.

Toad is always depicted as being fairly friendly to frog, with the addition of friendly competitiveness. He joins Frog in a spitting contest in Slimy Animals, while in Animal Records he wins a jumping contest with Frog’s help, albeit done by poking him in the bottom with a pin. In some ways, Toad is more responsible than Frog – when they are egg-sitting for Tyrannosaurus in Animal Eggs, it is Frog who decides to use it as a toy.

## Episodes

### Frog

Animal Appetites (1 appearance)

Animal Senses (1 appearance)

Animal Weapons (2 appearances)

Mini-Beasts (1 appearance)

Animal Babies (1 appearance)

Animal Records (1 appearance)

Monkeys and Apes (1 appearance)

Slimy Animals (1 appearance)

Farm Animals (1 appearance)

Animal Changes (1 appearance)

Animal Eggs (1 appearance)

Scaly Animals (1 appearance, plus being a backing singer in ‘Ask Henry’)

### Toad

Animal Records (1 appearance)

Slimy Animals (1 appearance)

Animal Eggs (1 appearance)
Flea (cartoon)

Flea is a cartoon character who appears in Amazing Animals. He is one of the most infrequently-appearing characters in the show, with only a single appearance in season four.

## Appearance

Flea has a teal-coloured rotund body, with a large head. He has only four legs, with the back legs long and powerful with two toes on each foot and shorter front legs that end with four-fingered hands. Flea has large eyes, two hairs on the top of his head and a long nose above his mouth, which is sufficiently sharp enough to pierce skin. Unlike real fleas, which bite and feed with the same mouthparts, Flea has to use his nose to access blood which he then drinks with a straw.

## Personality

Being such a rare character, little can be said about Flea. However, his parasitic behaviour is shown to cause great discomfort to Bear. Flea is shown to be annoyed when Bear is able to reach him, and has a small briefcase that presumably contains his drinking straw. While attempting to leave, he is caught and eaten by Chameleon – this is one of the few characters to be killed in the series and not reappear later.
Golden Gecko Awards

The Golden Gecko Awards are one of two major segments in most episodes of Amazing Animals. It is narrated entirely by Henry and is taken more seriously than Henry's Report, with Henry getting annoyed with the Narrator if he interrupts. In the awards ceremony, Henry picks his three all-time best animals related to the episode's theme. Often, the bronze and silver awards are won by animals already encountered in the episode, while the Golden Gecko Award itself is won by an animal that doesn't appear anywhere else in the episode.

The only episode in which the Golden Gecko Awards do not appear is Underground Animals, possibly because of timing issues.

## Season 1

In the first season, the introductions to the Golden Gecko Awards involve red curtains closing over the preceding scene. Henry pops up in the bottom-left corner of the screen, with his hands folded over his chest. A spotlight focuses on Henry as he introduces it by saying “*And now it’s time for the Amazing Golden Gecko Award for the all-time best >title<*.” Henry opens his arms, pans off the bottom of the screen and the curtains open again. The Golden Gecko Awards play in order from bronze to golden, with the animals receiving bronze and silver represented by either stock or studio footage. The Golden Gecko winner is almost always represented by stock footage throughout the entire Amazing Animals series.

## Season 2

In season two, the introductions to the Golden Gecko Awards changed. Now, the narrator introduces each award by saying “*And now, ladies and gentle-lizards, it’s time for Henry’s Amazing Golden Gecko Awards*.” This is accompanied by the red curtains closing over the preceding scene. Henry enters the awards in three different ways:

* Henry’s head, upside-down, comes down the middle of the curtains. Henry rights himself, looks down before looking back up and opening his mouth with shock before he quickly falls off the bottom of the screen.
* Henry sticks him head out from behind the curtains, facing to the right. He peers around several times before retreating back behind the curtain.
* Henry slides down the right-side curtain. He starts trying to crawl back up it, making the curtain ripple and Henry briefly pause, before he continues sliding down and off the bottom of the screen.

After this, Henry pops up at the front wearing a bowtie, and the spotlight focuses on him. He turns to look behind him as the curtain opens to show the Golden Gecko Award – a tall pillar similar to a Golden Globe, but with a golden model of Henry inside a ring on the top of it. This is accompanied by Henry saying “*The prize winners for the all-time best >title< are*…” Henry then disappears off the bottom of the screen and the standard Golden Gecko Awards play.

## Season 3

The introductions to the Golden Gecko Awards for season three are the same as in season two.

## Season 4

The introductions to the Golden Gecko Awards for season four are the same as in season two.
Dorling Kindersley Vision Wiki

**Welcome to the Dorling Kindersley Vision Wiki!**
This wiki is based on the works of Dorling Kindersley Vision, including shows such as Eyewitness, Amazing Animals and See How They Grow

We're a collaborative community website about Dorling Kindersley Vision that anyone, including you, can build and expand. Wikis like this one depend on readers getting involved and adding content. Click the "ADD NEW PAGE" or "EDIT" button at the top of any page to get started!

## Important articles

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Bat (cartoon)

Bat is a cartoon character that appears in Amazing Animals. Bats (multiple individuals appear) are occasional recurring characters that appear in all four seasons, although they are most prominent in season one, with only a handful of appearances in all three subsequent seasons.

## Appearance

Bat is a fairly simple character in design. He has a pair of large wings indistinguishable from the rest of his body, with four fingers on each wing. His head has a pair of short pointed ears, two large eyes with a frowning unibrow, a mouth and no nose. In Scary Animals, he has a pair of protruding fangs but in most appearances, his fangs are actually dentures. A female Bat appears in Underground Animals, identifiable by three long eyelashes above each eye.

The one very different Bat appears in Animal Survivors. While the body shape is largely similar, the body is black in colour and the head is white. Each of his four wing-tip fingers ends with a sharp claw.

## Personality

Bat mainly appears as a crotchety elder character, loudly grumbling at things that annoy him. He is shown to dislike bright sunlight in Nighttime Animals, and seemingly loses the ability to see when wearing sunglasses.  The interactions of Bat with other characters are varied – in one of his appearances in Nighttime Animals, he distracts Elephant when he is also hanging upside-down and causes him to fall to the ground, but in Scary Animals he encourages Elephant to do the same thing to frighten Mouse. Sometimes he attacks other characters that annoy him; he swats and kills several flies that approach him in Mini-Beasts and bites Mole after he digs up into his roost – he first just tickles Mole when he bites without his dentures in, before breaking them on Mole’s helmet when he returns.

The black-and-white bat from Animal Survivors is a much more menacing character, who attacks one of the Lizards for seemingly no reason. When it is revealed that the Lizard was acting, the bat gets miserable and removes his dentures.

## Episodes

Nighttime Animals (2 appearances)

Animal Survivors (1 appearance)

Animal Weapons (1 appearance)

Mini-Beasts (1 appearance)

Animal Journeys (1 appearance)

Scary Animals (1 appearance)

Animal Neighbors (1 appearance)

Underground Animals (1 appearance)

Scaly Animals (as a backing singer in ‘Ask Henry’)
Petting Requiem: A Littlest Pet Shop Humanoidverse Anime

***Petting Requiem: A Littlest Pet Shop Humanoidverse Anime*** is a Japanese-American anime fantasy ONA series produced by Aniplex, MontalVerse Productions (under the HV Partners joint label), AkaKen, Dentsu, Entertainment One and Amazon Studios and animated by Wit Studio, set as a crossover spin-off of *Littlest Pet Shop: Blythe X* and *Littlest Pet Shop: Strikers of Paw-Tucket*, both part of the Humanoidverse, and taking place before the events of A Merged Future - A Littlest Pet Shop: Blythe X Movie.

The series is directed by Ryotaro Makihara (Hal, Vampire in the Garden) and written by Jukki Hanada (Love, Chunibyo and Other Delusions, LoveLive!!) featuring character designs by Atsuya Uki (Cencoroll, Digimon Adventure tri.), adapted by Hiromi Kato (Guilty Crown) and music by Tatsuya Kato (LoveLive!! Sunshine, Shokugeki no Soma). Uki will also direct the series as a chief director alongside Makihara.

The series will stream worldwide on Prime Video on Spring 2023 with home video releases from eOne and Aniplex of America under Sony Pictures Home Entertainment in Q3 2023.

## Premise

A trip for the Big City's pets from the Littlest Pet Shop to Paw-Tucket goes wild when an unknown creature becomes a pawn for a plot by another creature who will bring ruin to both Paw-Tucket and the city the pets lived in.
Eyewitness Season One

The first season of *Eyewitness* aired between 8th August and 31st October 1994. This season had episodes written by seven writers and, as with all three Eyewitness seasons, it was produced by Bill Butt.

This season predominantly focused on animal groups for the episode topics, with ten about groups of living animals and one about extinct animals (*Dinosaur*). The remaining two episodes were about a habitat (*Jungle*) and a common body part (*Skeleton*).

## Introduction sequence

The season one introductory sequence starts facing a blank white wall of the Eyewitness Museum. The camera pans out from the wall and twists around through a side door. In the apex of the corridor a Hermann’s tortoise (Reptile), African bush elephant (Elephant) and domestic dog (Dog) can all be seen. The camera then turns left down the corridor and passes a Bengal tiger (Cat) with a scarlet macaw (Bird) also flying down the corridor and flying down a left-side corridor – the camera turns right at this point and passes a biplane. The camera now enters an ‘underwater’ area with three clown triggerfish and portholes looking out into a coral reef (Fish). The camera then spins right around and comes up in another corridor with a pheasant (Bird) and a freestanding film camera (Making Of). The camera turns right into a circular atrium with an American alligator (Reptile) walking out through the doorway – inside the atrium is a sports car with a large video of a cheetah on the wall behind (Cat) with a Harris’s hawk also flying through (Bird). The camera passes through a hole in the atrium’s roof and goes through the mouth of a Tyrannosaurus skeleton (Dinosaur) before moving into a small room where the walls are decorated with desert, polar and rainforest scenes; five scarlet macaws are also flying in this room (Bird). The camera then quickly reverses out of the room and flies above the museum before cutting to the Eyewitness logo. The episode then begins.

While *Horse*, *Jungle*, *Insect*, *Amphibian*, *Shark* and *Skeleton* have no animals or items roaming the museum during the introduction, they are all depicted in at least one photograph on the museum walls during the opening.

## Writers and episode list

* George Bloom (*Cat*)
* Brian Meehl (*Cat*, *Jungle*, *Bird*, *Amphibian*, *Elephant* and *Dinosaur*)
* David Hanson (*Fish* and *Skeleton*)
* Paul Thomas (*Horse*, *Dog* and *Shark*)
* Bill Fitzhugh (*Insect*)
* Ben Southwell (*Reptile*)
* David Helton (*Reptile*)
PB Bear and Friends

*PB Bear and Friends* is a series that aired in Channel 5 and Nick Jr.

It is one of the few Dorling Kindersley Vision-produced series that is fiction.

## Videos

P.B. Bear and Friends - Double TroubleDouble TroubleP.B. Bear and Friends - Pirate Island-2Pirate IslandP.B. Bear and Friends - The Birthday Bear-2The Birthday BearP.B. Bear and Friends - The Queen's Bananas-2The Queen's Banannas
Crab (cartoon)

Crab is a cartoon character who appears in Amazing Animals. They (multiple Crabs appear) are a rare recurring character that only appears in two episodes, one in season two and one in season three.

## Appearance

The adult Crab in Seashore Animals has a round body, with a deep red shell, pale reddish-pink head and underside and eight short straight legs. He has a wide mouth and small eyes. He has two large red claws, with the right claw having a tattoo of an anchor on the lower segment.

The young Crab in Seashore Animals is shown to stand much more upright, and also has larger eyes than its father, but otherwise looks similar.

The Crab in Creepy Crawly Animals is similar to the adult Crab from Seashore Animals, but has a protruding lower lip and lacks the tattoo on its claw.

## Personality

In Seashore Animals, the adult Crab is shown to be vindicative and mean-spirited. He attacks Rooster on several occasions, knocking him down into the sand until only his head and neck are exposed. He also uses the sleeping Octopus to squash Rooster and deliberately jumps up and down on sandcastles made by the Chicks. The young Crab only appears briefly, but is shown stealing a ball from the Chicks and not letting them have it back.

In contrast, the Crab in Creepy Crawly Animals seems much more pleasant and joins his fellow invertebrates in playing music together.

## Episodes

Seashore Animals (4 appearances)

Creepy Crawly Animals (1 appearance)
Dorling Kindersley Vision

Dorling Kindersley Vision is the multimedia branch of Dorling Kindersley. It was first named in 1991, having previously been Dorling Kindersley Television Limited from October 1982 - July 1991 and Shortbrook Limited from June to October 1982. Although it has not produced a programme since 2007, the company does still exist and submits records as a dormant company.

The initial Dorling Kindersley Vision shows were based upon book series of the same name, but later ones (Amazing Animals, Creatures Fantastic and Baby Animals) were wholly original. Amazing Animals is unique in being the only show to have inspired a book title, rather than the other way around.

While best-known for creating several television series in association with other broadcasters (BBC Wildvision in the case of Eyewitness and Creatures Fantastic and Partridge Films in the case of Amazing Animals), they did create several in-house shows, standalone single films and free programmes that were only ever released as free DVDs.

## List of productions

* My First (1992-1993)
* Dig and Dug with Daisy (1993)
* See How They Grow (1993-1995)
* Hullaballoo (1994-1995)
* Eyewitness (1994-1997)
* Amazing Animals (1996-2000)
* Creatures Fantastic (1997)
* Baby Animals (1998)
* PB Bear and Friends (1998)
* Bill Wyman's Blues Odyssey (2001)
* You Can Draw 'Star Wars' (2007)
John Shrapnel

John Morley Shrapnel (1942-2020), was an English actor. He appeared or voice-acted in over 120 productions, including the Dorling Kindersley Vision series Creatures Fantastic. In Creatures Fantastic, John Shrapnel had the role of the storyteller. Rather than providing the more basic facts or philosophical meanings behind the myths, the storyteller would either narrate stories about the myths or relay descriptions made about creatures by older minds such as naturalists or monks. Across the eight fully-analysed episodes of Creatures Fantastic, the storyteller tells an average of five stories (ranging from as few as three in Creatures of the Night and The Apocalypse to seven in Dragons, The Underworld and Aliens). On average, the storyteller has less than half the episode’s word count as the narrator, although in one episode (Spirits of the Forest) the storyteller actually speaks more than the narrator does.

As well as being the storyteller in Creatures Fantastic, John Shrapnel has also narrated other documentaries. One, the 1996 BBC series Alien Empire, provided stock footage that was used in Creatures of the Night, The Apocalypse and Aliens.
Carnivorous Plant (cartoon)

Carnivorous Plant is a cartoon character that appears in Amazing Animals. It is among the most rarely-seen characters in the series, appearing in a single cartoon from one episode of season three.

## Appearance

Carnivorous Plant is possibly among the biggest characters in the series – it is shown to tower above Gorilla. It has a dark green and winding stem, with three sets of progressively larger pale green leaves. The leaves have a series of sharp-looking points, similar to holly leaves. Plant has a large head, with big eyes and a wide mouth filled with sharp teeth. Around its head are six purple petals.

## Personality

Carnivorous Plant seems to mainly serve as a way of frightening away the Pigeons – when it pops out from its flowerpot, it scowls and roars as the Pigeons flee. However, once the Pigeons have gone the Plant seems to become a more mellow character. It makes no attempt to attack Gorilla who is standing right next to it, instead plucking the straw hat off Gorilla’s head before eating it and loudly belching.