REPTILE CARTOON CHARACTERS

    Dig 'Em - A green animated spokesfrog for Kellogg's Sugar Smack's cereal. Dig 'Em wore a baseball cap and turtleneck sweater with the words "Dig 'Um" on it.   

    Dino the dinosaur - Purple, pint-sized (only six feet tall)  Snarkasaurus dinosaur with spots on the animated sitcom THE FLINTSTONES/ABC/1960-66. Living in the year 1,000,040 B.C., Dino was a miniature Brontosaurus who resided with Fred and Wilma Flintstone at 345 Stone Cave Road in the town of Bedrock. Each night when Fred returned home from work, Dino enthusiastically rushed toward Fred, knocked him flat on his back and slurped Fred's face with his tongue. Dino's yapping voice was supplied by Mel Blanc/Chips Spam/Don Messick. In addition to Dino the Dinosaur, the Flintstones also owned a Saber-Tooth Cat. At the closing credits of each episode, Fred placed their cat outside for the night. The saber-tooth cat quickly climbed back through a window and proceeded to place Fred outside for the night. Next door to the Flintstones, lived the Barney and Betty Rubble. They owned a prehistoric pet Kangaroo named Hoppy.   

    Franklin the Turtle - Tiny tedious turtle who wears a short-brimmed cap and red bandanna knotted around his neck on the Saturday morning preschooler cartoon FRANKLIN/CBS/1998+. Based on the picture books by Paulette Bourgeois and Brenda Clark, this enchanting little series follows the day-to day exploits of Franklin the Turtle as he makes mistakes and learns life lessons while he plays sports, gets a library card, flies a kite or meets new people. His friends include a bear, fox, and rabbit, among others.         

    Hoppity Hooper - Sweet and loveable TV cartoon frog from the animated series HOPPITY HOOPER/ABC/1964-67. Hoppity (voice of Chris Allen) traveled the countryside in a medicine show wagon looking for adventure with his animal friends Waldo the Fox (Hans Conried) and Fillmore the Bear (voice of Bill Scott).               

    Michigan J. Frog - Warbling cartoon frog and mascot for the WB (Warner Brothers) cable network launched January 11, 1995. Michigan J. Frog first appeared in the 1955 animated cartoon One Froggy Evening about a disheveled construction worker who found a box in a cornerstone of a 1892 building that is being demolished. When he opened the box out popped a green frog who produced a top hat and cane and began to dance and sing "Hello My Baby" at the top of his lungs. Seeing the potential for an instant fortune, the construction worker took the frog to the Acme Theatrical Agency but the frog refused to perform for anyone except the construction worker. Frustrated and driven nearly mad at his inability to get the frog to sing for anyone else, the construction worker redeposited the frog back into the cornerstone of a new building (which was found by another construction worker years later who also saw dollar signs when the frog began to sing). Other songs in the frogs repertoire included "I'm Just Wild About Harry," "Come Back to Erin," "Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone," and an original tune written by Chuck Jones and Michael Maltese called "The Michigan Rag" which began "Everybody's doing the Michigan Rag." Baritone Terrence Monck provided the frog's voice. Artist Chuck Jones later named the frog Michigan J. Frog. In 1973 film critic Jay Cocks proclaimed that this animated short "comes as close as any cartoon ever has to perfection.     

    Mister Wizard - See  "Tooter the Turtle" 

    Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - A group of humanoid sewer dwelling teenage turtles on the animated cartoon TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES/SYN/CBS/1987-95. The idea for the Ninja Turtles was created in 1983 in the kitchen of a New England farmhouse by the cartoonist team of Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird from Northhampton, Massachusetts. After unsuccessfully trying to sell their concept to Marvel Comics, the two borrowed $500 from Kevin's uncle and printed 3000 black and white Mirage Studios comics in April 1984 which sold out immediately. The next issue sold 15,000 copies and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles soon became one of the most profitable merchandising schemes in history (with the assistance of entrepreneur Mark Freedman). This crimefighting turtle team consisted of Michaelangelo, Donatello, Raphael and Leonardo. They imitate Humphrey Bogart, wear basketball star Michael Jordon's number 23 jersey; and employ the surfer's cry of "Cowabunga" Michelangelo (orange face mask), was the prankster of the group and an expert with the whirling Nunchukus (Japanese weapon of two wooden stick attached by a chain). The ultimate party animal, he loved rock n' roll, doing corny imitation of movie stars like Sylvester Stallone and James Cagney and really went bonkers over a good pizza (a food enjoyed by all of the turtles). Mike jokingly called himself the "Master of the Whirling Pizza." Next came Donatello (purple face mask), the smartest of the Ninja turtles. Donatello was a mechanical whiz, who always read technical manuals and invented things like the Turtle Communicator and the Turtle Blimp. His weapon of choice was the Bo, a long wooden staff. Then there was Raphael (red face mask) a loner and a rebel who was the hot-headed member of the group. His favorite weapon was the Sai, a three pronged dagger. And finally came Leonardo, (blue face mask) the oldest, (16 years old) most responsible and disciplined of the group. His taste in weapons leaned toward the Katana, a long sword (but he was proficient with all fighting tools). This band of rowdy but likable teenage turtles was lead by a large rat called Splinter. Whereas the turtles loved pizza, Splinter enjoyed Sushi. Splinter was a master of the martial arts. He used to be a Japanese Ninja master named Hamato Yoshi "the greatest shadow warrior" who was betrayed by an evil disciple, Oroku Saki who took over his fighting clan (The Foot) and turned them towards evil ways. Hamato Yoshi then escaped to New York City and took shelter in the sewer system. While living beneath the city streets, a small boy carrying a bowl of pet turtles tripped and spilled its contents into the sewers below, where Hamato Yoshi found and adopted them as pets. He named the turtles for his favorite Italian Renaissance artisans. All went well until Oroku Saki (now called Shredder) discovered Hamato and poured a green ooze over him and the four turtles. This toxic waste instead mutated Hamato into a huge hairy rat and the turtles into humanoid-sized turtles. Realizing the green ooze bestowed intelligence onto the turtles, Hamato trained the mutant turtles in the ways of the Ninja. (According to the comic book origins, Splinter was the name of Hamato Yoshi's pet rat who was transformed by the Retromutagen Ooze). Shredder who employed other mutant animals like Rocksteady (a grey rhino cross-mutated with a street thug) and Bebop (a warthog crossed with a dim-witted mobster) continued to be the Turtles main nemesis. In future episodes additional evil doers crossed path with the Turtles including Krang, an evil bodiless brain-shaped entity from Dimension X; General Traag, the leader of Krang's Rock Soldier Army; Baxter Stockman, an absent-minded professor mutated into a fly creature; Rat King, a sewer based criminal dressed in rags who controlled the rats beneath the streets of New York City (a la the Pied Piper); and the Foot Clan soldiers (purple-hooded robots/teenagers who did the evil bidding of Shredder and his accomplices). The good-guys who assisted the turtles in their fight against Shredder were April O'Neil, a human female TV news reporter; Casey Jones, a human who wore a hockey mask and fought criminals vigilante style with a hockey stick; Ace Duck, a famous test pilot who mutated into a duck creature; Genghis Frog, a tadpole mutated into a five-foot tall intelligent frog; Metalhead, a robotic turtle built by Krang but reprogrammed by Donatello to be their butler; Danny Pennington, the lonely son of April's Boss who joined forces with the turtles; Usagi Yojimbo, a white rabbit who cross-mutated with an ancient Samurai warrior; Wingnut, a vampire bat from the planet Huanu; and Screwloose, a mutated mosquito buddy of Wingnut. The popularity of the Ninja turtles inspired video games, toy figurines, and the successful live-action Golden Harvest  film adaptations Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) and its sequels Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (1991) and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (1993). The Turtles who spoke in a surfer-dude language used such phrases as "Radical," "Awesome," "Mondo," "Tubular, "No Problemo" and "Bummer." Their favorite catchphrase and battle cry was "Cowabunga." NINJA TURTLES: THE NEXT MUTATION/FOX/1997 continued the adventures of the Turtles in a live-action TV-movie with full-bodied characters similar to the theatrical film versions.     

    Tooter Turtle - Naive turtle featured as a part of the Saturday morning cartoon KING LEONARDO AND HIS SHORT SUBJECTS/ABC/1960-63. To satisfy his curiosity on a number of subjects, Tooter (who wore a straw hat, collar and necktie) visited Mr. Wizard, a lizard magician (dressed in sorcerer's hat and robes) who lived in the woods at the base of a tree. With a wave of his arms, Mr. Wizard sent Tooter Turtle through time or space to experience what it was like to be a gunfighter, knight, police officer or sailor. By the end of his adventure Tooter realizes (like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz) that there's no place like home and being a simple turtle. When Tooter cried "Help, Mr. Wizard!", the lizard sorceror proclaimed his magical chant: "Drizzle, Drazzle, Druzzle, Drome, time for this one to come home!" When Tooter arrived safely back, Mr. Wizard advised him: "Be what you is, not what you is not. Folks that what is, is the happiest lot." TRIVIA NOTE: In the sci-fi flick The Matrix (1999), when Neo (Neanu Reeves) is calling to get extracted from the Matrix, he says, "Mr. Wizard get me the hell out of here!"   

    Touche Turtle - Swashbuckling turtle hero on the Hanna-Barbera cartoon TOUCHE TURTLE/SYN/1962. Sporting a white hat with a red plume, Touche took up the cause of right and battled evil-doers with his crooked rapier. His sidekick is a sheepdog named Dum Dum (voice of Alan Reed). Touche's catchphrase is "Touche and away!" The voice of Touche (provided by Bill Thompson) was inspired by a shy, timid character named Wallace Wimble who appeared on radio series FIBBER MCGEE AND MOLLY.   

    Wally the Gator - The name of the Everglades green alligator with pink hat, white collar and French cuffs who lived at the zoo on the Hanna-Barbara cartoon series WALLY GATOR/SYN/1963. This Wally spoke in a silly Ed Wynn-like voice (Daws Butler). His catchphrase is "Fiddle-dee-doo." When Wally wasn't trying to leave the zoo (cannon shot himself over the walls), he performed daily chores for Mr. Twiddle (Don Messick), a mustachioed zoo keeper. Wally first appeared in 52 five-minute cartoons that were part of component series (like Touche Turtle, and Lippy the Lion) of the THE HANNA-BARBERA NEW CARTOON SERIES/SYN/1962-63.     

                     

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