Cartoons

Cartoon characters are a major part of some Dorling Kindersley Vision programmes. They are especially important in Amazing Animals, and also appear frequently in Hullabaloo. For the purposes of this page, a cartoon character is a hand-drawn fictional character with exaggerated features – this will discount some characters (including some of the hero characters in Eyewitness) and some more true-to-life drawn segments (such as the closing animations for See How They Grow).

## Amazing Animals

Cartoons are an important feature of Amazing Animals, with a number of cartoon segments appearing in every episode of the series. At least 47 different cartoon characters have appeared in at least one segment throughout the series – most are in the form of animals, although examples of humanoid, mechanical and plant cartoons also exist. In the first season, all the cartoons were created by Varga Studio LTD, while all the subsequent series’ cartoons were animated by A For Animation, now called A Productions LTD.

All the episodes of Amazing Animals use the same cartoon characters in the opening sequence. After Henry has moved behind the Amazing Animals logo, Squirrel and Parrot move up over the logo, only to be chased off the right of the screen by Gorilla, who swipes at Squirrel and runs after the two characters while roaring at them. Rattlesnake pops up underneath the logo and he and Gorilla surprise each other. They both flee off the screen, with Rattlesnake leaving from the left and Gorilla from the right.

The number of cartoon segments changed over the course of the series. In season one, ten episodes had five cartoon segments with the other three (Animal Disguises, Animal Weapons and Armoured Animals) having six cartoons. By the second season, only two episodes (Animal Families and Monkeys and Apes) had five cartoons, with all the others having four cartoons. In season three, all thirteen episodes had four cartoons. Season four also primarily had four cartoons per episode, with the one exception being Scaly Animals which only had three.

Cartoon segments are often related in some way to the previous section in the episode – for example, the second cartoon in Animal Senses (in which Porcupine confuses Mole’s cleaning brush for a female porcupine) follows a segment about animal vision. Other cartoons follow a longer narrative that may last the entire episode, such as the efforts of Rooster to save Tyrannosaurus in Endangered Animals.

While the cartoons are often self-contained away from the rest of the episode, on a few occasions cartoon characters appear on-screen alongside Henry. These include Fish, who swim across the screen in both Rainforest Animals and Extinct Animals outside of cartoons, Parrot, who Henry has to dodge when globe-trotting at the beginning of Animal Journeys, and Caveman, who Henry enters the cave of in Prehistoric Animals.

For the most part, the cartoon creatures do not speak and instead produce gobbledegook noises as a form of speech. The only on-screen exception is when several of the cartoons join Henry in singing some of the lines of ‘Ask Henry’ in Scaly Animals. While not canonical to the television shows, cartoons also are shown to speak in The Really Amazing Animal Book.

### Season one

Tropical Birds (five cartoons, seven characters)

Animal Disguises (six cartoons, twelve characters)

Nighttime Animals (five cartoons, eight characters)

Animal Appetites (five cartoons, eight characters)

Animal Survivors (five cartoons, seven characters)

Animal Senses (five cartoons, eight characters)

Animal Weapons (six cartoons, nine characters)

Animal Builders (five cartoons, eight characters)

Armoured Animals (six cartoons, seven characters)

Mini-Beasts (five cartoons, twelve characters)

Animal Babies (five cartoons, eight characters)

Poisonous Animals (five cartoons, five characters)

Animal Journeys (five cartoons, ten characters)

#### Characters who first appeared in season one, in order of appearance:

* Tiger (also appears in seasons two, three and four – 43 appearances)
* Parrot (also appears in season three – 17 appearances)
* Vulture (also appears in season two – 6 appearances)
* Porcupine (also appears in season four – 6 appearances)
* Rhinoceros (also appears in seasons two, three and four – 16 appearances)
* Elephant (also appears in seasons two, three and four – 29 appearances)
* Squirrel (also appears in seasons two, three and four – 24 appearances)
* Chameleon (also appears in seasons two, three and four – 11 appearances)
* Fly (4 appearances)
* Woodpecker (2 appearances)
* Mole (also appears in seasons three and four – 15 appearances)
* Lizards (also appears in seasons two, three and four – 64 appearances)
* Gorilla (also appears in seasons two, three and four – 35 appearances)
* Bat (also appears in seasons two, three and four – 10 appearances)
* Fish (also appears in seasons two, three and four – 18 appearances)
* Rattlesnake (also appears in seasons two, three and four – 19 appearances)
* Frog (also appears in seasons two, three and four – 13 appearances)
* Skunk (also appears in season two – 4 appearances)
* Dung Beetle (also appears in seasons two and three – 13 appearances)
* Snail (1 appearance)
* Spider (also appears in seasons two and three – 6 appearances)
* Rabbit (also appears in seasons two, three and four – 9 appearances)

### Season two

Birds of Prey (four cartoons, three characters)

Desert Animals (four cartoons, three characters)

Scary Animals (four cartoons, five characters)

Animal Records (four cartoons, eleven characters)

Animal Colors (four cartoons, ten characters)

Animal Mothers (four cartoons, eight characters)

Animal Pets (four cartoons, eleven characters)

Seashore Animals (four cartoons, five characters)

Animal Families (five cartoons, ten characters)

Endangered Animals (four cartoons, four characters)

An Animal Year (four cartoons, seven characters)

Prehistoric Animals (four cartoons, five characters)

Monkeys and Apes (five cartoons, seven characters)

#### Characters who first appeared in season two, in order of appearance:

* Eagles (also appears in season three – 8 appearances)
* Pigeon (also appears in seasons three and four – 6 appearances)
* Camel (4 appearances)
* Rooster (also appears in seasons three and four – 39 appearances)
* Gibbon (also appears in seasons three and four – 16 appearances)
* Mouse (also appears in season three – 8 appearances)
* Toad (also appears in season three – 3 appearances)
* Tortoise (also appears in seasons three and four – 6 appearances)
* Tyrannosaurus (also appears in seasons three and four – 26 appearances)
* Hen (also appears in seasons three and four – 12 appearances)
* Crocodile (also appears in seasons three and four – 8 appearances)
* Chicks (also appears in seasons three and four – 20 appearances)
* Dog (1 appearance)
* Crab (also appears in season three – 5 appearances)
* Octopus (also appears in season three – 6 appearances)
* Caveman (also appears in season three – 3 appearances)

### Season three

Animal Hunters (four cartoons, four characters)

Animal Talk (four cartoons, six characters)

Slimy Animals (four cartoons, ten characters)

Rainforest Animals (four cartoons, fifteen characters)

Animal Acrobats (four cartoons, five characters)

Underwater Animals (four cartoons, two characters)

Animal Neighbors (four cartoons, nine characters)

Giant Animals (four cartoons, eight characters)

Creepy Crawly Animals (four cartoons, ten characters)

Farm Animals (four cartoons, ten characters)

Animal Changes (four cartoons, nine characters)

Extinct Animals (four cartoons, two characters)

Animal Eggs (four cartoons, nine characters)

#### Characters who first appeared in season three, in order of appearance:

* Stickman (1 appearance)
* Bear (also appears in season four – 19 appearances)
* Bee (2 appearances)
* Mosquito (3 appearances)
* Lamb (1 appearance)
* Carnivorous Plant (1 appearance)

### Season four

Around the World (four cartoons, three characters)

Polar Animals (four cartoons, three characters)

Clever Animals (four cartoons, eight characters)

Underground Animals (four cartoons, seven characters)

Animal Helpers (four cartoons, three characters)

Woodland Animals (four cartoons, six characters)

Mountain Animals (four cartoons, two characters)

Backyard Animals (four cartoons, nine characters)

Tiny Animals (four cartoons, two characters)

Animal Partners (four cartoons, ten characters)

Scaly Animals (three cartoons, eight characters, plus an additional three characters in ‘Ask Henry’)

River Animals (four cartoons, three characters)

Animal Flight (four cartoons, three characters)

#### Characters who first appeared in season four, in order of appearance:

* Whale (1 appearance)
* Butterfly (1 appearance)
* Beetles (4 appearances)
* Owl (1 appearance)
* Flea (1 appearance)
* Beavers (4 appearances)

## Hullabaloo

The Hullabaloo episodes have two major hand-drawn animated characters, an elephant named Buddy and a mouse called Pip. The two are shown to be friendly towards each other, and often try to help one another with their problems.

### Buddy

Buddy is depicted as having an almost completely round body, with four short legs, a fairly short trunk that comes out the lower part of his body that ends with two fingers, small eyes, large ears and a short tail. In colouration, Buddy is bright blue all over. Despite his unlikely shape, Buddy is able to stand up on his back legs and sit upright. As well as appearing in the cartoons alongside Pip, Buddy has a role in transitioning the episode between different parts, by either pushing a segment off the screen with his head or by pulling a segment onto the screen by dragging it with a string tied to his tail.

### Pip

Pip has a large head with a pointed nose, two large ears, small eyes and a smiling mouth, three small whisker dots near the end of his nose, a fairly thin body, long arms, relatively short legs with long feet and a fairly long tail held up off the ground. Pip is a rich brown colour. Pip moves around bipedally throughout the cartoon. In one episode, Pip is shown to have a large family that all look identical to him.