The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin - The 1987 animated series

March 7 2022

The adventures of Teddy Ruxpin (The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin) is an animated television series for children based on Teddy Ruxpin, an animatronic teddy bear from author Ken Forsse and released by toy manufacturer Worlds of Wonder. Produced in 1986-87 for the syndicated by DIC Enterprises with Atkinson Film-Arts, the series employed many of the same voice actors used in the series of books and tapes made for the animatronic toy of the same name. While some of the stories used in the TV series were adapted from the books, many were original and greatly expanded into the world established there. The series differed from traditional children's animation in that most of its 65 episodes were serialized rather than in traditional episodic form.

In the United States, the series was originally syndicated by LBS Communications. Today, all international distribution rights for the series were previously held by Don Taffner's DLT Entertainment. As of 2021, the show is currently being distributed by Henson Independent Properties.

History

The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin follows the story of 15-year-old Teddy Ruxpin, as he leaves his home on the island of Rillonia with his best friend Grubby, to follow an ancient map that leads him to find a collection of crystals on the mainland of Grundo. With the help of his new friend, Dr. Newton Gimmick, Teddy and Grubby discover the magical powers of what turns out to be an ancestral treasure, as well as an organization with an ambition to use it for evil, known as MAVO (abbreviation by Monsters and Villains Organization). Along the way, Teddy learns the long-lost history of his species and clues to the whereabouts of his missing father.

Characters

Main characters

The three main protagonists, often referred to collectively in the fandom as The Trio:

Teddy Ruxpin (voiced by Phil Baron) - The protagonist of the series. He is an Illiop teenager (about 15 years old) whose father passed away when he was a child. He comes to Grundo to follow a treasure map. Like other Illiops, he is kind and friendly. He loves adventure, meeting new faces and living new experiences.

Grubby (voiced by Will Ryan) - Teddy's best friend who is an Octopede of Teddy's age. Known for his big appetite, he loves cooking and eating root stew and other root-based foods (which don't usually taste good to non-octopuses). Although he's not the bravest or the smartest of Teddy's friends, he always stays close to Teddy.

Newton Gimmick (voiced by John Stocker) - A bald Perloon inventor with a severe stuttering problem and a broad and otherwise questionable definition of "science". Most of his "inventions" either don't work or serve no real purpose. He is also a bit distracted. He is usually called simply Gimmick.

Allies

Prince Arin (voiced by Robert Bockstael) - The brave Illiper son of the king and queen of Grundo. He lives in Grundo Castle and speaks with a British accent. He first met the heroic trio while searching for his kidnapped sister.

Princess Aruzia (voiced by Abby Hagyard) - Prince Arin's younger sister who has a sweet demeanor. Although she is a princess, she doesn't mind working. Apparently Wooly has a crush on her.

The Wooly Whatsit (voiced by Pier Kohl) - A large furry purple creature who is not very bright, but very helpful and kindhearted. He was later revealed to be a Snowzo, a legendary yeti-like species. He is usually simply referred to as Wooly.

Soak (voiced by Holly Larocque) - A Woodsprite and a stern but kind teacher. Most of his students are elves and wood spirits, but Wooly also joined the class.

Louie (voiced by Will Ryan) - A grunge filmographer.

Burl Ruxpin (voiced by Phil Baron) - Teddy's long lost father. An Illiop who lost his memory long ago and lived as a hermit, but regained his identity towards the end of the series.

The bads

MAVO - Short for Monsters and Villains Organization, it is an organization that terrorizes the land of Grundo.
That's it (voiced by Les Lye) - MAVO's supreme oppressor and the main antagonist of the series. Quellor is an unspecified creature dressed in heavy dark robes who sees the Illiops as an enemy of his master plan of regaining all six crystals to the one he has in The Black Box. With them, his darkness will reign over the land of Grundo.
Mud - An unspecified blue creature with red hair who is one of Quellor's henchmen and a monster in MAVO
Trudge - An unspecified gray-green creature with black spots that is one of Quellor's henchmen and a monster in MAVO
Drudge - An unspecified yellow, orange and blue creature that is one of Quellor's henchmen and a monster in MAVO
Dweezil - Quellor's pet rat / bat creature that is often used by Quellor to send secret messages.
Ickley Bognostroclum (voiced by Pier Kohl) - An unspecified creature who is the guardian of MAVO Ickley has the encyclopedic knowledge of all the rules and laws of MAVO. He is also a good friend of Eleanor Tweeg.
Mrs. Maggotheart - An unspecified creature who is MAVO's dues collector
Understander of Legends (voiced by John Stocker) - A member of MAVO who acts as an interpreter of the ancient runes.
Jack W. Tweeg (voiced by John Koensgen) - A Troll / Grunge hybrid and wannabe evil wizard who thinks he has a recipe for turning buttermilk into gold, he is very suspicious and often spies on Gimmick from his tower. Usually referred to simply as Tweeg, he desperately wanted to join MAVO where his plans for him were often ridiculed by Quellor.
LB. (voiced by Robert Bockstael) - Short for Lead Bunder, LB is a sarcastic Bounder who usually acts as Tweeg's henchman. LB. he doesn't show a particularly high degree of loyalty or intelligence, but he has enough common sense to know that Tweeg's schemes never work. LB. he constantly calls Tweeg with variations of his name, such as "Twix" or "Twizzle", much to Tweeg's annoyance.
Eleanor Tweeg (voiced by Abby Hagyard) - A Troll who is the mother of Jack W. Tweeg. She supports her campaign and is a good friend of Ickley Bognostroclum

Species

The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin features a large menagerie of sentient species for its character base:

Illiops: humanoid bear-like creatures, with gentle dispositions. They reside in modern Rillonia after a forced mass exodus from ancient Grundo, where they had an advanced civilization.
Octoped: yellow, caterpillar-like creatures with eight legs and orange spots, each with fully formed hands. The first pair are used as hands, while the rest are used for walking. They are often culturally nocturnal, but have no problems with a diurnal lifestyle.
perloon: Humans who are usually professional in nature (eg scientist, doctor, magician).
Illippers: Almost relatives of humans but broad-faced with flat noses, living in a medieval-type society with a royal monarchy. In ancient times they shared a close association with the Illiops civilization.
Grungy: relatives of the Illipers but jungle dwellers with antennae instead of ears, who tend to be fond of their hobbies. There are two distinct cultures: jungle grungers, tough and tough, and hippie grunge surfers, laid back and fun-loving.
Fobs: small, hairy, limbless, multicolored, and penguin-like creatures, sometimes kept as intelligent pets.
Elves: tiny humanoids with ears and pointy shoes. Share a common culture with the Woodsprites.
Woodsprites: small humanoids with butterfly-like wings. Share a common culture with the Elves.
Snowzos: a race of large white, yeteti-like creatures that seem more dangerous than they are. Prefer very cold temperatures.
Bounders: a race of red, round, two-legged creatures with a rhino-like horn on top of their heads, usually sarcastic. Some viewers say they look like Ripto from the Spyro the Dragon series.
Mudblups: a race of large, lumpy patches of mud that are animated, dull and slow but very strong. Sensitive to bright light, as all their lives are spent underground.
Troll: green, skinny creatures with pointed noses. For them, being good means being bad.
Gutang: Green, monkey-like creatures wearing brown owl-like tribal armor, usually belligerent. Known for attacking with their fixed-wing flying machines.
Everything: small shy creatures able to transform into other objects, for example carrots, potatoes, other products. They use their ability to hide. They were formerly called Nothings.

The seven Grundo crystals

The first crystal (imagination) - Shrink and grow
The second crystal (honesty) - Duplication
The Third Crystal (Courage) - Invisibility
The fourth crystal (trust) - Oxygen generator
The Fifth Crystal (Friendship) - Alteration of speed
The sixth crystal (freedom) - Skill of flight
The seventh crystal (The Black Box) - Restore and clear memory

Episodes

1 Season

1 "Grundo's treasure", December 24, 1986
Teddy and Grubby meet Newton Gimmick and the three search for the treasure, while Tweeg and LB plan to take them off course so they can find it first.

2 "Beware of Mudblups", December 25, 1986
Teddy, Grubby, Gimmick were captured by Mudblups and put in jail, they met Prince Arin and flee when the light scared the Mudblups.

3 "Grunge guests"December 26, 1986
Teddy, Grubby, Gimmick, Prince Arin were in the jungle until they met the Grubs just then, Prince Arin fell into the soup and he's too strong and came to his senses.

4 "In the Fortress of the Magician"December 27, 1986
Teddy, Grubby, Gimmick, Prince Arin and the Wooly Whatsit met a wizard and he told them that the princess was taken to a hard-to-find city and that they intend to save her.

5 "Escape from the treacherous mountain", December 28, 1986
Teddy, Grubby, Gimmick, Prince Arin and the Princess plot to escape the hard-to-find city and Gatang warriors as they find Grundo's treasure.

6 "Look carefully"December 31, 1986
Teddy, Grubby, Gimmick have zoomed out and explore Gimmick's house while Fuzz chases them.

7 "Grubby's Romance"January 1, 1987
Teddy, Grubby, Gimmick are accidentally shrunk and Grubby has a new girlfriend who has flown away.

8 "Tweeg's mom", January 2, 1987
Tweeg went with the five crystals that LB stole from Gimmick's house and Tweeg will see his mother Eleanor.

9 "The Surf Grunges"January 3, 1987
Tweeg is following Gimmick's team to get the last few crystals while Gimmick is fixing his compass and Teddy is also making fake crystals for Tweeg.

10 "The new MAVO member"January 4, 1987
Tweeg is at the MAVO and there is a party as Gimmick and his friends are replacing the crystals with fake ones.

11 "The Faded Fobs", January 7, 1987
Teddy and Grubby ask for help from Wooly Whatsit to get the Fobs colors back.

12 "The medicine wagon", January 8, 1987
Tweeg plots to scam the trio by selling them dubious "magic" potions.

13 "Tweeg gets the Tweezles"January 9, 1987
Tweeg got the Tweezles and Gimmick and his friends helped him, which was just for drinking Rainbow Water

14 "The Lemonade Stand"January 10, 1987
Tweeg got better and planned to give other people Tweezles and sell fake medicines.

15 "The Rainbow Mine"January 11, 1987
Teddy solved what was really happening in those two stands and closing the falls.

16 "The Wooly What's-It"January 14, 1987
Wooly saved the Elves and Woodsprites from a tree and was invited to her class, Wooly does not understand the class

17 "A friend's sign"January 15, 1987
Grubby lost his voice while the teacher taught everyone sign language.

18 "An other place"January 16, 1987
Gimmick and his friends will go on a picnic while Bugs takes their food away, Gimmick and his friends joined the Bugs when they were caught as Bugs.

19 "Elves and Goblins of the Woods"January 17, 1987
Elves and Woodsprites were good friends until Tweeg started a fight and a fire broke out at the Theater Tree.

20 "Grundo degree"January 18, 1987
The fire continues, Wooly is back in a big way and saved the show.

21 "Double Grubby"January 21, 1987
Gimmick builds a multiplier machine that accidentally creates a duplicate of Grubby, who eventually quarrel with each other.

22 "King Nogburt's castle", January 22, 1987
Teddy and co. receive an invitation to King Nogburt's castle, who is throwing a party in their honor.

23 "The day Teddy met Grubby"January 23, 1987
After the heroes stop a group of Gutangs from causing trouble, Teddy and Grubby tell the story of how they met.

24 "Secret of the Illiops"January 24, 1987
The Gutangs launch an attack on the kingdom of Nogburt. After a fierce battle, the heroes find a mysterious book.

25 "Through Tweeg's fingers", January 25, 1987
Wooly arrives just in time to repel a third attack from Gutang and unwittingly brings the antidote in order to save King Nogburt.

26 "Uncle Grubby"January 28, 1987
Teddy, Grubby and Gimmick research remote controls. Meanwhile, MAVO holds a trial against Tweeg for his previous offenses.

27 "The Crystal Book"January 29, 1987

28 "Teddy and the Mudblups", January 30, 1987

29 "Win one for the Twipper"January 31, 1987

30 "Tweeg joins MAVO"February 1, 1987

31 "The mushroom forest", February 4, 1987
After crossing a hot desert, Teddy, Grubby and Gimmick stumble upon the mushroom forest, where they encounter shy creatures known as Anythings. Meanwhile, the Gutangs break into Gimmick's house and steal the blueprints for the airship.

32 "Something in the soup"February 5, 1987

33 "Caught"February 6, 1987
MAVO members built their own version of the airship. Meanwhile, Teddy, Grubby, Gimmick and the Anythings come face to face with the baddies and are captured. They order Teddy to walk on the plank and Teddy falls to his fate!

34 "To the rescue"February 7, 1987
After surviving the fall from the airship, Teddy lands in the water and is saved by a mysterious figure. Meanwhile, the Anythings meet Prince Arin and Princess Aruzia and ask for their help. Meanwhile, Wooly and Leota find Teddy resting.

35 "Escape from the MAVO. " February 8, 1987
Teddy wakes up and sees Wooly and Leota next to him, and sets off to save Grubby and Gimmick.

2 Season

36 "Leekee Lake"September 14, 1987

37 “The third crystal", September 15, 1987

38 "Up for Air"September 16, 1987

39 "The black box"September 17, 1987

40 "The city difficult to find", September 18, 1987

41 "Octopede sailors"September 21, 1987

42 "Tweeg the vegetable"September 22, 1987

43 "Wizardland"September 23, 1987

44 "The Ying Zoo", September 24, 1987

45 "La grande fuga"September 25, 1987

46 "Teddy Ruxpin's birthday", September 28, 1987

47 "Wizards week"September 29, 1987

48 "Runs of air and water"September 30, 1987

49 "The Great Grundo Ground Race"October 1, 1987

50 "A race to the finish"October 2, 1987

51 "Autumn adventure"October 5, 1987
For a Rilonian Make Believe festival, Teddy, Grubby and Gimmick dressed up as Mudblubs, and although their costumes didn't seem to scare anyone, they managed to scare one who was afraid of nothing, the Wooly Whatsit. With the Wooly Whatsit dressed as a flower, they attended the Make Believe festival held by the Jungle Grunges. Meanwhile, Tweeg misread the newspaper headline and thought Quellor had changed his mind to hunt him down and throw him underground. Thinking that he would want it back, he decided to personally go to Quellor to get him a gift of chocolate snails and thorns. He did not know that Quellor thought Tweeg had been crushed by the three henchmen, that when they made a toast to Tweeg's Phantom, Quellor became extremely furious with the henchmen when Tweeg came in with the presents. Quellor chased the henchmen out and had Tweeg thrown into the dungeons. Hearing Tweeg attempt to capture Teddy Ruxpin, the Understand tells Quellor that he used him to do just that. But when he chose the henchmen as a way to redeem himself, he released Tweeg and with LB they set out to capture Teddy Ruxpin on their own. Teddy, Grubby and Gimmick managed to hide next to a cliff, causing them to think they got off it. Then, when they came down, they ended up being captured by the real Mudblubs below.

52 "Gizmos and Gimmick gadgets"October 6, 1987

53 "Harvest Festival"October 7, 1987

54 "Wooly and the giant Snowzos", October 8, 1987

55 "Winter adventure"October 9, 1987

56 "Teddy's Quest"October 12, 1987

57 "Thin ice"October 13, 1987

58 "Fugitives"October 14, 1987

59 "Musical oppressors"October 15, 1987

60 "MAVO costume ball"October 16, 1987
The MAVO members are throwing a costume party and LB falls in love with Buffy. Meanwhile, everyone in Grundo is affected by evil due to the effect of the seven crystals, and Teddy decides to sneak into MAVO headquarters to retrieve the seven crystals in order to free everyone from evil in Grundo.

61 "Father's Day"October 19, 1987
After LB explains to Teddy about the Seventh Crystal and learning his secrets to erasing and restoring memory, he told Gimmick to build his own Black Box, in which they then used Teddy's father - who with his restored memory, gave him told what happened during his absence. Meanwhile, Tweeg's father has come to visit his son, and while he and LB are now MAVO's most wanted, they have decided to go with him and spend some time.

62 "The journey home"October 20, 1987
Teddy, Burl, Grubby and Gimmick return to Rilonia, where Teddy is reunited with his mother and the other Illiops. Grubby is also reunited with his Octopede family.

63 "On the beaches"October 21, 1987
64 “The marriage of LB” 22 October 1987
Teddy, Grubby and Gimmick got an invitation for LB's wedding and everyone at Grundo reunites.

65 “The mystery revealed", October 23, 1987
LB. and Buffy honeymooned in the Land of Ying, but decided to return to Tweeg just in time to use the money that Tweeg had unwittingly given as a wedding gift to pay off all his debts to the MAVO Tax Collector, who brings Tweeg to thank them for saving his skin. Teddy, Grubby and Gimmick uncover the mystery of the Illiop book when Teddy's mother gave him a special looking lens to decode the ancient language. Inside it is revealed that the hard-to-find city and all the advanced ancient technologies found throughout the entire series were once of a great Illiop civilization, which flourished throughout Grundo, helping people in need before the Gutangs arrived and conquered. their city where he leads the Sages and Illiops to flee to Rilonia in the south and the Land of Ying in the north. Teddy decided to embark on another adventure in the north to find the Illiops with the help of Grubby and Gimmick on their airships. As soon as Teddy was done explaining to everyone what the seven crystals do, without them realizing it, a mouse / bat took the seventh crystal and returned it to Quellor at MAVO headquarters as ordered, putting it back in its black box but using the memory to hear everything Teddy said about crystals and what they can do. Teddy at the start of the recorded memory said "That's why I'll try everything I can to keep you safe." With Quellor saying "That won't last long, Illiop." He laughed mischievously as the airship flew over MAVO towards Ying Land.

Production

In mid-1986, Atkinson Film-Arts of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada was commissioned to co-produce (with Worlds of Wonder, AlchemyII and DiC) a 65-episode animated television series based on characters from the world of Teddy Ruxpin. The series followed an earlier attempt to produce a live-action series that had proved too difficult and expensive. Atkinson was in charge of main animation and casting. Of the previous voice actors associated with the Teddy Ruxpin estate, only Phil Baron (Teddy) and Will Ryan (Grubby) have traveled to Canada to remain part of the cast; most of the other characters have been relaunched with local Canadian vocal talent. The series was originally supposed to continue after the first series of episodes, but due to economic problems at Worlds of Wonder (the series' main financial partner), a second series of episodes was not produced while Worlds of Wonder still had the ownership rights. . Interest remains between the owners of the Teddy Ruxpin property and the fan base to continue the story that originated in the animated series, which ended its 65-episode run on something of a cliffhanger.

Technical data

Original title The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin
Original language English
Country United States
Studio DiC Entertainment
1st TV September 1987 - May 1988
Episodes 65 (complete)
Duration 30 min
Italian network Italia 1
1st Italian TV May 22 - September 28, 1990