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The Angry Beavers

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The Angry Beavers
File:The Angry Beavers title card.jpg
GenreComedy
Created byMitch Schauer
Voices ofRichard Steven Horvitz
Nick Bakay
John Garry
Cynthia Mann
Victor Wilson
Gregg Berger
Tom Kane
Mitch Schauer
Stacy Schauer
Chelsea Schauer
Country of originUnited States
No. of seasons4
No. of episodes62 (list of episodes)
Production
Running time22 minutes
Production companiesGunther-Wahl Productions
Nickelodeon Animation Studios
Original release
NetworkNickelodeon
ReleaseApril 19, 1997 (1997-04-19) –
November 11, 2001 (2001-11-11)

The Angry Beavers is an American animated television series created by Mitch Schauer for the Nickelodeon channel. The series revolves around Daggett and Norbert Beaver, two young beaver brothers who have left their home to become bachelors in the forest near the fictional Wayouttatown, Oregon. The show premiered in the United States on April 19, 1997.[1] The show started airing on the Nickelodeon Canada channel when it launched on November 2, 2009. The series is also currently being released on DVD.

Characters

  • Daggett Doofus Beaver: Daggett (usually nicknamed as "Dag" and "Daggy") is the younger brother of Norbert (by four minutes). Hyperactive and immature, Daggett has a habit of over-emphasized and manic motions as well as a potent penchant for name-calling. He shares with his brother a typical brotherly love-hate relationship, supporting and antagonizing his elder sibling as his mood requires. While he is occasionally capable of intellectual competence, he is generally overshadowed by his brother when faced with challenges that require mental capacity. He is, however, a very hard worker and is quite skilled at construction. He is voiced by Richard Steven Horvitz.
  • Norbert Foster Beaver: Norbert (usually nicknamed as "Norb" and "Norby") is Daggett's laid-back older brother. Generally well-spoken and intelligent, Norbert is a highly sarcastic beaver with a habit of performing great feats of impeccable engineering with aplomb and without explanation. While he is frequently manipulative of his younger brother and just as often condescending he shows great concern and love for Daggett, constantly soliciting and imposing hugs on the less receptive sibling. He is voiced by Nick Bakay.
  • Stump: Stump is a giant sequoia stump friend of the beaver brothers. Despite his kind's tendency toward lifelessness, Stump is apparently self-aware and animate. He frequents many of the beavers' social events, forming an integral part of their inner circle. He is known around the forest as someone who goes out of his way to help others, and thusly is well liked throughout the forest.
  • Barry Bear: Barry Bear, a character based on Barry White, is a hulking yet kind-hearted friend to the beaver brothers. Possessed of a sultry, deep voice, Barry is a prodigious singer and die-hard vegetarian, contrary to his species' generally carnivorous nature. While he is occasionally manipulated by and tormented by Norbert and Daggett, he maintains a close and easy-going friendship with the pair. Barry is voiced by John Garry.
  • Treeflower: Treeflower is the love of Norbert's life, whom he met at a concert (a parody of Woodstock) in Bummer of Love. Once a hippie beaver, she successfully works in versatile jobs, e.g. as an elevator-music composer (as noted in the episode Tree of Hearts) and firefighter (as noted in A Little Dad'll Do You). She was voiced by Cynthia Mann.
  • Bing: Bing is an annoying chameleon-gecko who hangs around Norbert and Daggett, introduced in episode The Bing That Wouldn't Leave. Bing talks extremely fast and often employs circular logic. Victor Wilson provided Bing's hyperactive voice. It is not confirmed whether Bing is a hybrid or what kind of lizard he really is; however, Bing is seen changing colors like a chameleon and losing his tail like a gecko or skink.
  • Truckee: Truckee is a western trucker shrew who thinks only about trucks and shrews, introduced in the episode Tree of Hearts. Truckee hates Daggett and the feeling is mutual. In addition, he briefly dated Treeflower, causing animosity between him and Norbert.
  • Wolffe D. Wolf: Is a grey wolf who tends to be calm and laid back. He does show some interest in unusual things.
  • Big Rabbit Or Big Bunny: Is a huge rabbit. It is revealed that he has two younger brothers and lives with his parents. He has a tattoo on his right arm. His dad had his left foot taken off by charm hunters, and his mom is a pro at wrestling. He was one time hired as Norb and Dag's bodyguard.
  • Wascabar: Is a raccoon that recurs throughout the series. He is a fan of dancing and likes comedy.
  • The Knothead Racoons : Are a crazy tribe of racoons that believe in godly power.
  • Laverta Lutz: Is a magical lady who showed up at the bowling alley. She has the power to grant a wish to anyone. The only one who knows this is Dag. She normally talks with a little phlegm.
  • Oxnard Montalvo: Oxnard is Norbert and Daggett's favorite B-movie actor, introduced in the episode Up All Night. Norbert and Daggett often watch black and white horror movies (these are very seriously drawn, contrary to the regular style of the show), which are an obvious homage to 1950's horror movies. Named after two cities north of Los Angeles, Montalvo resembles B-movie stars like John Agar and Peter Graves (who guest stars in the Halloween special, The Day the World Got Really Screwed Up!). Oxnard Montalvo is voiced by Tom Kane.
  • Toluca Lake: Toluca is another B-movie actor, introduced in Up All Night, who often accompanies Oxnard Montalvo as the damsel in distress. The name plays on the eponymous California city Toluca Lake, and is also a reference to 1940s actress Veronica Lake [citation needed].
  • El Grapadura (The Stapler): The beavers' (especially Daggett's) favorite vale tudo/lucha libre wrestler, introduced in Kandid Kreatures. Daggett has an autographed copy of his board game, "El Grapadura and Ladders" (a reference to Snakes and Ladders).[original research?]
  • Scientist #1 and Pete: A pair of scientists introduced in the episode Stinky Toe. They call the beavers "pointy weasels" and try to use them for very strange experiments. Scientist No. 1 (voiced by Edward Winter) has a distinctive cleft chin and always wears sunglasses; he is just as arrogant as he is incapable. Since the third season, he has a name plate with a "1" on his coat, although his real name may likely be Todd based on his dialogue in a later episode where he mentions about wanting to name the world Todd. It is revealed in one episode that he never even went to college. Pete speaks in an unintelligible mutter that only Scientist No. 1 seems to understand. At one point, they wore green coats, making them environmentalists.
  • Bill Licking: Bill Licking was a presenter of TV shows and prototype of a touting salesman. He wears an "impressive" black wig. He was introduced in the episode Born to Be Beavers. Licking has often been known to manipulate Daggett and Norbert into being filmed for fraudulent documentaries. Voiced by Gregg Berger.
  • Stacy and Chelsea: The twin younger sisters of Norbert and Daggett, their birth led to their eviction from their family's home. They were first identified in the episode If You In-Sisters, though before their official introduction they are shortly shown in Born to Be Beavers as newborns without their names or even their genders identified. Chelsea bears a resemblance to and acts much like Daggett in her hyperactivity and speech patterns, while Stacy apparently takes after Norbert in appearance and personality. They are much more familiar and united than their brothers. They both adore their older brothers and hate it when they fight. They are named after and voiced by creator Mitch Schauer's daughters.
  • "Mom" and Leonard ("Dad"): Norbert and Daggett's parents. Following the birth of their youngest children, they kicked the elder beaver brothers out of their dam to make room for the new offspring. In spite of this stern approach to their sons, they love the two of them greatly. Daggett shares a great many physical features in common with his mother, but relates to and gets along with his father the best; the opposite is true for Norbert, visibly taking after his father but behaving remarkably like his mother.

Reception

The Angry Beavers was a generally popular show during its various airtimes. This was the show that kept adolescents and adults interested in Nickelodeon in the late 90s. It had a more adult, sophisticated sense of word play jokes and culture references that made up its humor, but was silly and unrealistic enough to attract the attention of young children too. Unfortunately, it was aired in the midst of the success of Rugrats, and many fans believe it did not earn the popularity it deserved. Many people compare it to Rocko's Modern Life and Ren & Stimpy as one of the most influential Nicktoons of the 90s. Character quirks, like Daggett's compulsive adoption of a superhero alter-ego named "Muscular Beaver", whose costume consisted of an ill-fitting ski mask, a stuffed sweater, vent-front white briefs, stockings, socks and a cape, kept older and younger audiences' interest, but entertained them on different levels. For example: children and adults would be amused by the costume, but adults might get some additional mileage from finding the name "Muscular Beaver" to be vaguely risqué.

The show's popularity with the more "adult" audience managed to get it some recognition. The show even had a small merchandise line that included T-shirts and plush toys.

Episodes

Main article: List of The Angry Beavers episodes

The original series ran from 1997 to 2001, ending a few episodes early in the United States on Nickelodeon. According to Script Supervisor Micah Wright, the last episodes have been seen in England, France and Australia, and have been shown on Nicktoons in the United States. At the end of the fifth season, three episodes were in development but never finished. The first was "Tree Flockers". Also titled "Tree Trouble", it involved the beavers selling flocked Christmas trees in July. The script for this episode can be downloaded from Wright's website.

The second was "Magnum Opus, aka The Beavers Rock Opera". It would have been posted as a half hour special. "Tree Flockers" was bumped in favor of "Magnum", but after "Magnum" was cancelled, "Tree Flockers" was not reinstated.

The final unfinished episode was "Bye-Bye Beavers". In it, Norbert learns that their show has been cancelled and he breaks the news to Daggett: they are both cartoon characters and the show will soon enter reruns. Wright stated, "Nickelodeon hated this episode because it actually told the kids the truth: that the show was ending! Nick likes to just rerun their shows forever and pretend that they're still making new episodes and this show idea drove them up a wall!"

The recording session for this episode starts off as with Norb and Daggett discussing the situation. As it progresses, actors Nick Bakay and Richard Steven Horvitz begin switching in and out of character and later address each other by both their real name and the characters' name. There is also a few instances where Richard addresses Nick as "Salem", referring to his character on Sabrina, the Teenage Witch and laughter from the recording engineers can occasionally be heard.

The final line in the session is Norb and Daggett saying "April Fools!". Whether this indicates the episode is an April Fools prank on the audience or whether the recording session itself is an April Fools joke is not clear. If the latter, then Wright's claim that Nickelodeon hated the episode would be a continuation of that joke. Only 62 episodes have been produced.

Media Releases

In-jokes

There were several in-jokes throughout The Angry Beavers run. One involves Richard Steven Horvitz, the voice of Daggett, being mentioned in the episode "Tree of Hearts", as well as the birth of his oldest son, Jake Elliot Horvitz, who was born on April 11, 1998:

Norbert: [reading mail] Hey, Daggett! Look at this! [reading letter] Richard Horvitz had a little baby boy, April 11th!
Daggett: Ooh!
Norbert: Jake Elliot Horvitz.
Daggett: Wow! That's great!
Norbert: I think so.
Daggett: Who's Richard Horvitz?
Norbert: Nobody.

The use of "spoot" in place of swear words, such as an in exclamation ("Oh spoot!") or a descriptor ("What a pile of spoot" or "You're a spoot-head"), was another form of in-jokes in the series. Although these were said primarily by Daggett, they were used by Norbert from time to time.

Both beavers would often mispronounce common words in pseudo-French or otherwise foreign pronunciation. For example, pronouncing refrigerator as "re-frige-er-A-twoah/re-frige-er-ize-or", mine as "my-yun", natural which Norbert pronounces as "nature-ral", and "Canada" as "Ca-naa-da". Characters would also elongate words, particularly each other's names, with superfluous syllables, such as "Norbie-orbie" and "Dag-a-lag-a-ding-dong." On occasion, they would use foreign words but mispronounce them: for example, pronouncing the French word "moi" phonetically as "moy".

DVD Releases

Nickelodeon and Amazon.com teamed up to release Angry Beavers, and other Nick shows on manufacture-on-demand DVD-R discs available exclusively through Amazon.com's CreateSpace arm. The Angry Beavers sets, among others, were discontinued when Nick began releasing traditional DVDs of many of their series in association with Shout! Factory, in which they released Seasons 1 & 2 in a 4 disc set on August 23, 2011, Season 3: Part 1 was released in a 2 disc set on February 28, 2012.[2] Season 3: Part 2 will be released on August 14, 2012.[3]

Shout Factory Releases Release Date Discs Episodes
Season 1 & 2 August 23, 2011 4 26
Season 3: Part 1 February 28, 2012 2 11
Season 3: Part 2 August 14, 2012 2 11
Season 4 TBA 2013 2 14
CreateSpace Releases Release Date Discs Episodes
Best of Angry Beavers Season 1 June 28, 2010 3 11
Best of Angry Beavers Season 2 December 8, 2010 3 19
Best of Angry Beavers Season 3 December 8, 2010 3 19

iTunes Releases

iTunes released several episodes of angry beavers in 'Best of' Volumes 1-3. It has also been made available on Netflix via their Instant View service, however Netflix has full seasons (Note: Seasons 2 & 3 have wrong order and missing episodes).

Volume Episode Number Episode Name
Best of Angry Beavers Vol. 1 1 Born To Be Beavers / Up All Night
Best of Angry Beavers Vol. 1 2 A Dam Too Far / Long In The Teeth
Best of Angry Beavers Vol. 1 3 Gift Hoarse / Go Beavers!
Best of Angry Beavers Vol. 1 4 Beach Beavers A Go-Go / Deranged Ranger
Best of Angry Beavers Vol. 1 5 Muscular Beaver / Fish And Dips
Best of Angry Beavers Vol. 1 6 Enter The Daggett / Bug-A-Boo
Best of Angry Beavers Vol. 1 7 Mission To The Big, Hot, Thingy / I Dare You
Best of Angry Beavers Vol. 2 1 Stinky Toe / House Broken
Best of Angry Beavers Vol. 2 2 Trees Company / Guess Who's Stumping To Dinner
Best of Angry Beavers Vol. 2 3 Fancy Prance / H-2 Whoa
Best of Angry Beavers Vol. 2 4 The Bing Wouldn't Leave / You Promised
Best of Angry Beavers Vol. 2 5 Kandid Kreatures / Fakin' It
Best of Angry Beavers Vol. 2 6 Same Time Last Week / Beaver Fever
Best of Angry Beavers Vol. 2 7 Muscular Beaver II / Stump Looks For His Roots
Best of Angry Beavers Vol. 3 1 Tree Of Hearts / Dag For Nite
Best of Angry Beavers Vol. 3 2 Mighty Knot Head / Pond Scum
Best of Angry Beavers Vol. 3 3 Lumberjack's Delight / Zooing Time
Best of Angry Beavers Vol. 3 4 Friends, Romans, Beavers / Big Round Sticky Fish Thingy
Best of Angry Beavers Vol. 3 5 If You Insisters / Alley Oops!
Best of Angry Beavers Vol. 3 6 Open Wide For Zombies / Dumbwaiters
Best of Angry Beavers Vol. 3 7 Gonna Getcha / Sans - A - Pelt
Best of Angry Beavers Vol. 4 1 The Day the Earth Really Got Screwed Up
Best of Angry Beavers Vol. 4 2 My BunnyGuard / What's Eating You?
Best of Angry Beavers Vol. 4 3 Omega Beaver / Bite This
Best of Angry Beavers Vol. 4 4 Spooky Spoots / Up All Day
Best of Angry Beavers Vol. 4 5 Muscular Beaver III / Sang 'em High
Best of Angry Beavers Vol. 4 6 In Search of Big Byoo-Tox / Moronathon Man
Best of Angry Beavers Vol. 4 7 Pass it On / Stump's Family Reunion
Nick Rewinds Vol. 1 1 Born To Be Beavers / Up All Night
Nick Rewinds Vol. 2 1 A Dam Too Far / Long In The Teeth
Nick Rewinds HALLOWEEN! 1 The Day The World Got Really Screwed Up

In other media

The Angry Beavers appeared in Nicktoons Racing for the PlayStation, Game Boy Advance, PC, Game Boy Color, and Arcade, as playable characters. Norbert and Daggett had a cameo as a Trophy in Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots.

Awards and nominations

Award Category Nominee Result
World Animation Celebration Best Animation Produced for Daytime Mitch Schauer Won
World Animation Celebration Best Director for Daytime Series Robert Hughes Won
Motion Picture Sound Editors, USA Best Sound Editing — Television Animated Series Unknown Nominated
Motion Picture Sound Editors, USA Best Sound Editing — Television Animated Series Tim Borquez, Thom Syslo Nominated
Daytime Emmy Award Outstanding Sound Mixing — Special Class Timothy Borquez and Timothy J. Garrity Nominated
Daytime Emmy Award Outstanding Sound Editing - Special Class Thomas Syslo, Timothy Borquez, Eric Freeman, Rick Hammel, Les Wolf and Marc Mailand Won
Daytime Emmy Award Outstanding Sound Mixing — Special Class Krandal Crews, Eric Freeman, Timothy Borquez and Timothy J. Garrity Nominated
Annie Awards Outstanding Achievement in a Daytime Animated Television Program Mitch Schauer Nominated
Annie Awards Outstanding Individual Achievement for Effects Animation Joel Krasnove Nominated
Annie Awards Outstanding Individual Achievement for Production Design in an Animated Television Production Dan Chessher Nominated
Annie Awards Best Individual Achievement: Production Design in a TV Production Mitch Schauer Won
Annie Awards Best Promotional Production (for main title) Unknown Nominated

See also

References

  1. ^ "Angry Beavers Episodes - Angry Beavers Full Episode Guides on Nicktoons". TV Guide. Retrieved 15 April 2012.
  2. ^ [1]
  3. ^ http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Angry-Beavers-Season-3-Part-2/16899
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