The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin

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.

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.

Oh, wow, I can't believe how long ago it was that I watched this. I think I caught the series in bits and pieces during several repetitions on a Canadian station we got from over the border on an antenna. I barely remember the show, except for the name of the protagonist and the way the other semi-heros of the show looked, but I miss it so much now. I don't think I ever appreciated it enough when I was younger. Teddy Ruxpin was one of perhaps two cartoons I watched that had a coherent storyline -- something I'm constantly searching for in comics and TV shows now. The other one was the excellent but ill-marketed cartoon Droids, which was written for a Star Wars audience of perhaps 10 or 11, but shown along with an unfocused Ewoks cartoon best for 5 or 6 year olds.

Teddy Ruxpin was, essentially, a good show, perfectly suitable for very young kids early on and then better for somewhat older kids as the solid storyline emerged. It was rather well-drawn, neither as stiff and careful as the old Transformers cartoon or as "loose" with form as current cartoons tend to be. I don't remember it being especially "funny," like Inspector Gadget, but it wasn't as preachy about things as Captain Planet or Care Bears could be. What it was, was an engaging, well-written cartoon that could hold interest without touching the throw-away or beat-until-dead jokes of most cartoons.

I find myself wishing this cartoon had continued for several more years, as I look back and see the kind of influence this - one of my best-remembered and most-favored cartoons of my young childhood - had on my interests and hobbies up to this day.

...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?

Wonderful Show for Children, The tale of Teddy, Grubby and

Gimmick who go on Exciting adventures to far away places.

Grundo and the land Of Ying. With a Wide array of Characters. Sadly it was cancelled in 1988, after only a year of being broadcast, due to the stock market fall, that put Worlds Of Wonder Entertainment Out of business. Will always be affiliated with the 80's, and will live on in VHS tapes and re-runs for a long time.