Pound Puppies

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Pound Puppies was a toyline sold by Hornby in the 1980s. It later inspired an animated TV special, an animated TV series, and a feature film. Shipments of the toys over five years generated sales of $300 million in 35 countries.^{[citation needed]}

The puppies have a variety of plush stuffed dog dolls with floppy ears and droopy eyes. They came in a variety of colors, some with spots. Each one comes in a carrying case with an adoption certificate. Smaller versions were also created (approximately 5 inches (13 cm) long), and a line of cats called Pound Purries was also released. Each authentic puppy had a heart shaped emblem near its tail that sported a "PP" logo with either a dog (Puppies) or cat (Purries) peeking around it. In 1987, Hardee's restaurants also offered a series of Pound Puppies with their Children's Meals. This has not yet been released on DVD as a series.

The "Pound Puppies" trademark is officially held by "Pound Puppies Inc".

Taglines

• Lovable. Huggable. (1980s)
• Loveable Puppies That Need a Home (current)

Contents 1 Characters 1.1 Pound Puppies 1.2 Other Dogs 1.3 Humans 1.4 Cats 2 TV special 3 TV series 3.1 Season 1 3.2 Season 2 4 Episodes 5 Feature film 5.1 Critical and box office reception 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Characters

[edit] Pound Puppies

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Cooler - Cooler is the leader of the Pound Puppies. As his name would imply, Cooler has an outgoing and mellow personality and always keeps his head up even in the most daring situations. He also has a witty and sharp sense of humor compared to the other characters in the series, which is also backed up by his goofy "Eddie Murphy"-styled laugh. His battle cry is "Pound Puppies, let's start pounding!". Voiced by Dan Gilvezan

Nose Marie - Nose Marie is the oldest female of the team. In the first series, she is flirtatious, etiquette, and a bit boastful at times and has shown to have a crush on Cooler and other male dogs. In the second series however, she is kind, mature, and has a motherly role over the younger pound puppies. When running scared, she often screams out "Eek! Eek! Eek I say! Eek!". Voiced by Ruth Buzzi

Howler - Howler is the inventor of the pound puppies squad. He's often inventing creations to solve the teams' problems. As his name implies, he often howls after the end of his sentences or at the end of an episode. Howler is generally not the spotlight puppy and has appeared less in season 2. Voiced by Robert Morse

Bright Eyes - Bright Eyes is the youngest female of the team. She is sweet, passionate, and extremely energetic. A hobby of hers is cheerleading, which is seen as one of her roles in the show. At times, she may come across as rather naive and ditsy (such as at one point, she suggested that Captain Slaughter comes to the pound to make friend with the pound puppies), but is always aware of what's going on in a situation. Voiced by Nancy Cartwright

Whopper - Whopper is the youngest of the Pound Puppies. He is often fantasizing and imagining nearly impossible situations, and telling tall tales. He wears a diaper even though he is officially a "kid". Whopper also has a brother-sister relationship with Bright Eyes, as they often share opinions, come to agreements, and experience things together. He also dresses up in many different outfits as alter-egos during a heroic or otherwise serious situation, which is used for comic-relief. Voiced by B.J. Ward

[edit] Other Dogs

Uncle J.R. - Whopper's uncle, who was seen once in the episode Whopper Cries Uncle. Whopper and the Pound Puppies once tried to trick him into thinking Whopper was rich to impress him, but in the end, it turned out J.R. wasn't rich either. He later got adopted by a Texas family. Even though he may look and sound like a cowdog, he is actually from Milwaukee.

Biff Barker - Whopper's hero. He works in a TV show that is about ghost-catching. He appeared in Ghost Hounders.

[edit] Humans

Holly - A girl with the gift of Puppy power. She owned the puppy pound in season 1. She often helps Cooler and the gang foil Katrina. During season 1, Katrina uses her as a slave for housework. In "Fairy Dogmother" she has a crush on Mervin. In season 2, her hair style and clothes changed. Voiced by Ami Foster

Katrina Stonehart - An evil woman who got most of Millicent Trueblood's fortune. She often makes Holly work for her and do the chores she and Brattina's should have done. Her main goal in Season 1 was to shut down the puppy pound. In season 2, her main goal shifted to capturing Cooler and the Pound Puppies and locking them up or killing them. In Season 1, Katrina was shown to be clever, manipulative and sneaky, but in Season 2, she seemed to be far less competent. Voiced by Pat Carroll

Millicent Trueblood - Katrina's wealthy and kind great-aunt and the founder of the Puppy Pound. She appeared in the second episode of the first season via flashback when Cooler told a pup about the Puppy Pound's foundation. When she died, Katrina believed she would inherit all her possessions (the Puppy Pound included) because she's Millicent's next of kin and her aunt had left no known will. However, after appearing to Cooler in a dream shortly after her passing, Holly and the dogs find Millicent's will, where she leaves her home to Katrina and the Puppy Pound to Holly. Millicent Trueblood is never mentioned in any other episode of the whole series.

Brattina - Katrina's equally evil daughter. She often gloats with Catgut when they're winning, but is equally quick to whine and cry when they ultimately lose. Her catchphrase is Icky-Poo! When Katrina yells at her for one reason or another, she often replies with something like "Scream in my ears, why don'tcha!" She also constantly refers to Katrina as "Mommy Dearest". She also has a crush on Mervin, but then she fell in love with Captain Slaughter. In season 2, she started wearing a jacket. Voiced by Adrienne Alexander

Captain Slaughter - A sea captain that Katrina often hired to get rid of the Pound Puppies. He has a claw-like metallic right hand and his face was never shown. Slaughter was assumed to have lost his original hand years ago to a train accident while he was chasing Cooler. Since then, Slaughter has harbored an intense hatred for Cooler ever since. He disappeared in Season 2. Voiced by Peter Cullen

Mervin -a young blonde boy who Holly and Brattina have a crush on. He appeared in "Fairy Dogmother"

[edit] Cats

Catgut - Katrina Stonehart's evil cat who constantly tries to cause trouble for the pound puppies. Voiced by Frank Welker

[edit] TV special

In 1985, Hanna-Barbera made an animated television special, which aired in syndication that October, paired with Star Fairies. Characters in the television special included the Fonzie-styled leader Cooler (voiced by Dan Gilvezan), the cheerleader Bright Eyes (voiced by Adrienne Alexander), and a dog with a very nasal like New York accent known only as "The Nose" (voiced by Jo Anne Worley), and the goofy inventor aptly named Howler (voiced by Frank Welker), who can only howl.

A female dog from a wealthy aristocratic family named Violet Vanderbuck (voiced by Gail Matthius) is being pursued by dognappers when she is picked up and taken to the city pound. There, she meets the gang and discovers their mission to find homes for themselves. The film plot centers on Violet (whom Cooler insists on referring to as "Sam") attempting to reunite with her family, ultimately succeeding. Two other dogs appeared in the special. They were the upperclass snob Barkerville (voiced by Alan Oppenheimer) and the garbage can-digging Scrounger(voiced by Ron Paulino), who later appeared in the season 2 episode Garbage Night: The Musical. The three of them appeared briefly in a flashback in the episode Wagga Wagga.

This special is available on a DVD which comes with certain Pound Puppies toys.

The characters Bright Eyes (voiced by Adrienne Alexander), Howler (voiced by Frank Welker), and The Nose/Nose Marie (voiced by Jo Anne Worley) would be voiced by different actors in the regular series, although Adreinne Alexander and Frank Welker would return as Brattina and Catgut respectively.

[edit] TV series

After the success of the special, Hanna-Barbera gained the rights to create an animated TV series in 1986. Loosely based on the special, the series was broadcast on ABC between September 1986 and February 1989. In this series no mention is made of Violet's whereabouts. This series found itself under a lot of competition from competitors such as Fluppy Dogs (Disney), which was also adapted into a TV special, but was not made into a regular series.

[edit] Season 1

The first season introduced Cooler (who now has a characteristic "Eddie Murphy"-style laugh), "The Nose" (now called "Nose Marie", and now sporting a southern accent sounding like Vivien Leigh's Scarlett O'Hara character from MGM's "Gone From The Wind"), Bright Eyes, and Howler (voiced by Robert Morse whose character now speaks instead of just howling), who return from the TV special (with slightly different character designs), along with Whopper (voiced by B. J. Ward), a new character who is known for telling tall tales. Whopper is usually seen with Bright Eyes, and the two of them share a brother/sister relationship. The show also debuted the evil Katrina Stonehart (voiced by Pat Carroll) with her equally evil daughter Brattina (voiced by Adrienne Alexander, who originally voiced Bright Eyes), Catgut the cat (who appeared in the T.V. special as the pet cat of the City pound's supervisior Bigelow (voiced by Jonathan Winters and was redesigned and played by Frank Welker), and Holly, a friend of the Pound Puppies who originally ran the Puppy Pound. Other characters included the horrific Captain Slaughter (voiced by Peter Cullen), who only appeared in four episodes (not counting the Christmas episode entitled Happy Howlidays in Katrina's dream sequence) in season one, and who was responsible for the destruction of the puppies' hometown of Wagga-Wagga. Katrina and Brattina were constantly planning to tear down the pound where the animals lived while organizing themselves to be adopted out to loving families. At the end of the episode, the Pound Puppies Pet Care Corner takes place where it teaches kids how to take care of your pets by finding solutions to otherwise unsuitable situations.

Holly is a ward of Katrina Stonehart, but like the puppies' former protector Millicent Trueblood, she possesses the gift of 'puppy power' (A term first used as a "Battle cry" of sorts by the character Scrappy Doo in the "Scooby & Scrappy Doo Show" and the spinoffs) enabling her to talk to Cooler and the gang.^[1].

[edit] Season 2

The series later underwent a significant overhaul for the program's second season, where it was retitled All New Pound Puppies. Several of the characters were given very different backgrounds, appearances and personality traits. For example, Bright Eyes was significantly younger and had updated clothing. Nose Marie had changed as well. She dropped her strapless purple dress and flirtatious manner with Cooler in favor of a 50's sitcom style mom dress with apron, becoming a surrogate mother to Whopper, Bright Eyes and the rest of the puppies. However, Nose Marie did retain the roots of her southern belle style and her manners. Cooler, Whopper, Howler, Katrina, Brattina (who started wearing a jacket) and Catgut remained the same. Holly grew longer hair and wore sneakers and jeans. And Captain Slaughter no longer appeared in the series. The Pound Puppies Pet Care Corner that would appear at the end of the show was also removed from the series. Most significant of all however, was that the Puppy Pound was now owned by Katrina Stoneheart who treats the Puppy Pound like (and has the appearance of) a prison, and now seeks to lock up Cooler and the gang forever. No explanation is given as to how Katrina ended up taking over the Puppy Pound from Holly or why she doesn't shut it down like she intended to do in Season 1. In fact, neither Katrina's intentions of shutting down the Puppy Pound or Holly's previous ownership of it are ever mentioned in Season 2. It is possible that the two seasons are somehow not connected but this is unknown.

[edit] Episodes

Season 1

1. Bright Eyes, Come Home

2. How to Found a Pound

3. From Wags to Riches

4. Snowbound Pound

5. The Fairy Dogmother

6. Whopper Cries Uncle

7. In Pups We Trust

8. The Captain and the Cats

9. Secret Agent Pup

10. Wagga Wagga

11. The Star Pup

12. Happy Howlidays

13. Ghost Hounders

Season 2

14. Whopper Gets the Point/The Bird Dog

15. Tail of the Pup/King Whopper

16. Tuffy Gets Fluffy/Casey Come Home

17. Where Do Puppies Come From/Pups on the Loose

18. The Invisible Friend/Kid in the Doghouse

19. Little Big Dog/The Bright Eyes Mob

20. The Rescue Pups/Good Night Sweet Pups

21. Snow Puppies/Nose Marie Day

22. Where's the Fire/The Wonderful World of Whopper

23. Bright Lights, Bright Eyes/Dog and Caterpillar

24. Garbage Night: The Musical

25. Peter Pup

26. Cooler, Come Back

[edit] Feature film

In 1988, TriStar Pictures released a Pound Puppies movie titled Pound Puppies and the Legend of Big Paw. It was produced by Atlantic Releasing, Carolco, Family Home Entertainment and Kushner-Locke with The Maltese Companies.

[edit] Critical and box office reception

The film was panned by critics, and poorly received at the box office. Shoddy animation, character inconsistencies, and a color palette that differed from the show's were among the chief complaints. The movie was also not part of the show's continuity.

Fans were also confused by the apparent romantic pairing of Nose Marie and Cooler, which contradicted events that had taken place in the first season of the series. In addition, the movie is set in the 1950s with the story being narrated by Whopper, who in the present day is now an older dog who tells the story to his nephew and niece. Also, Katrina and Brattina Stonehart, along with Catgut, do not appear at all in the movie.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Pound Puppies

• Official Website
• Meg's Place
• Pound Puppies at the Internet Movie Database
• Pound Puppies at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• All-New Pound Puppies at the Big Cartoon DataBase