The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin

It's like having a "my first Sony" at the age of 7 or 8. That is the feeling Teddy Ruxpin brings back to me. This was the first cartoon series that slipped into my young mind and brought me the introduction to a lovely human-created fantasy world containing rare species of animals living in a world a young kid only can dream about. Whether you were looking for love, adventure or humor; Teddy Ruxpin and his friends/enemies brought it all. Quellor, the big boss of the MAVO (MESO in Dutch) was frightening, Grubby was funny, and I have to admit...I had quite a crush on Princess Aruzia :) Now that the first series have been released on DVD in the US and Canada, I hope Europe will be next. Here in the Netherlands, the series were broadcasted on VARA public TV at the end of the 80's, and later in the 90's on the Dutch children's network Kindernet and the Dutch edition of Nickelodeon.

Nowadays, when I see the crap channels like Jetix and Nickelodeon are broadcasting, I look back at the good ol' days of children's television, a time when cartoons were not only funny and thrilling, but also highly educative and gave children the opportunity to create their own personal fantasy world, a good bunch of cartoons and other children's TV series as a result. The release of the complete Teddy Ruxpin series on DVD in North America (and hopefully soon in Europe) is in that way not only suitable for all young adults grown up with this great adventure, but also for the current young MTV/Nickelodeon generation. Let them experience the adventures we encountered when we were young, made in a time when cartoons were nothing but cartoons, but in a way no other cartoon of today can compete with!

A syndicated animated television series created in the good old USA by Ken Forsse, but actually posed in Canada, then animated, in-betweened and colored in Korea. The 65 episode series was produced in conjunction with the wildly popular Teddy Ruxpin franchise of toys, books and audiotapes marketed by Alchemy II and Worlds Of Wonder.

Along the way, the "big three" (Teddy Ruxpin, Grubby the octopede and inventor Newton Gimmick) encounter Leota the woodsprite, Wooly Whatsit, Fobs, the Grunges, Illipers, Anythings, as well as bad dudes Jack W. Tweeg, Eleanor Tweeg (Tweeg's mom), L.B. Bounder, the gutangs, the mudblups, Quellor: the leader of the Monsters And Villains Organization (M.A.V.O.) and a host of others. Eclectic and very politically correct for its time. I believe this was one of the first cartoons that ever depicted a paraplegic character. One episode even depicted key characters "signing" to communicate to a hearing-impaired character.

Teddy Ruxpin was the nicest, most wholesome character in 1980's television cartoons. The only harm he ever did was rough up a couple of gutangs. And then only so he could steal their costumes to infiltrate their braintrust.

At times Teddy's adventures parallel that of Joseph Smith, the father of Mormonism. Particularly when his mother holds two cooking trays, one over another, to reveal a message meant just for him. Other than that, the show really doesn't preach any message, except for good old fashioned, sugar-coated American conformity.

One of my favorite websites is "Jump The Shark" and Teddy Ruxpin REALLY jumps the shark as soon as Teddy and his archrival, Tweeg, start finding their long lost dads and trying to re-establishing ties with them again. This either indicated a subliminal lack of paternal presence in the lives of the scriptwriting team, or a dearth of good ideas for plot lines in the show's late going...

While I never thought much of the show at the time, this cartoon seemed to develop a keen and loyal following in the late eighties and early nineties. Most of the kids who loved watching Teddy as four and five year-olds are the young adults forming our world of today.

First National Pictures began marketing 2 volumes of the series onto DVD by February 2006. Exactly 3 years later, in February 2009, Mill Creek Entertainment released all 65 episodes onto DVD.

I can't believe that it is almost 20 years, since the Teddy Ruxpin idea first surfaced. The 1986-1987 TV cartoon series was what got me hooked on the phenomenon. It is sad that it lasted only one year and new episodes never came to be to continue the adventures of the Illiop and his friends. It is very sure that Quellor and MAVO would have continued their quest to stop Teddy from achieving the goal of getting the seven crystals back to the Hard-To-Find City. Also, I have to assume that Teddy's new quest was to find all the other Illiops in the world to unify against what could be "the world's ultimate evil." The ancient writings are the clue to my assumption.

Anyway, in a remote sense, the show may return to the TV and, maybe, be made into DVD.

It must have been 13-14 years ago when I last saw Teddy Ruxspin as a little kid. After such a long time you tend to forget about most of your favorite childhood cartoons, but the one that always stuck by me was 'The adventures of Teddy Ruxpin'. I vividly remember the great story it had, the many interesting places Teddy used to visit and the strange creatures he met along the way. This cartoon had a real story to tell and an interesting one at that, something you can't say about most modern day cartoons. Perhaps they should air 'The adventures of Teddy Ruxpin' again sometime, not for sentimental reasons, but to see how it would hold up against today's cartoons. I'm sure it would still appeal to the younger generation.

...Apart from the cartoon itself I certainly remember the talking doll of Teddy Ruxpin that probably said all those usual one liners "Good Work", "You're my friend!" etc but anyway

Teddy Ruxpin, Newton Gimmick and Grubby the Octopede find these ancient crystals thingys and try and learn what they are!

They fly around in an airship (who doesn't?), going around the land of Grundo.

The bad guys in this toon was the MAVO (Monsters and Villains Organization)

REMEMBER NOW?