''Dennis the Menace and Gnasher'' (originally known as ''Dennis and Gnasher'' in its first series) is an animated television series which was aired on the
CBBC Channel
CBBC (initialised as Children's BBC and also known as the CBBC Channel) is a British free-to-air public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content for children aged 7– ...
. Based on the original comic strips from ''
The Beano
''The Beano'' (formerly ''The Beano Comic'', also known as ''Beano'') is a British anthology comic magazine created by Scottish publishing company DC Thomson. Its first issue was published on 30 July 1938, and it became the world's longest-runn ...
'', it features the adventures of the rebellious schoolboy
Dennis the Menace and his dog
Gnasher
Gnasher () is a fictional comic strip character that appears in the British comic magazine ''The Beano''. He is the pet dog of Dennis the Menace, who meets him in 1968's issue 1362, and is also the star of three spin-off comic strips. Gnasher i ...
. The programme is aimed for ages 6–12
and commenced on 7 September 2009 and ended on 2 March 2010 after 52 episodes.
A second series was started at 3.45 pm on 8 July 2013 on the CBBC Channel. It was preceded by
Dennis and Gnasher
''Dennis the Menace and Gnasher'' (originally titled ''Dennis the Menace'' and currently titled ''Dennis and Gnasher)'' is a long-running comic strip in the British children's comic book, comic ''The Beano'', published by DC Thomson, of Dundee ...
which aired in 1996 and a new series in 1998.
Production
The new series features the return of 10-year-old Dennis, Gnasher, Mum, Dad, Curly and Pie-Face and also features the introduction of Dennis' little sister Bea, as well as several original characters like Athena. The production shots also showed Dennis' treehouse with a more menacing design.
Screenshots and an episode can be found at the production company website,
Red Kite Animation
Red Kite Animation is a British animation production company based in Edinburgh, Scotland. The studio was founded in 1997 by Ken Anderson and Rachel Bevan Baker. The company developed the television cartoons ''Dennis the Menace and Gnasher'' and ...
.
Images of the characters and production were featured in
The Beano
''The Beano'' (formerly ''The Beano Comic'', also known as ''Beano'') is a British anthology comic magazine created by Scottish publishing company DC Thomson. Its first issue was published on 30 July 1938, and it became the world's longest-runn ...
's 70-year anniversary.
The show was a co-production between Red Kite Animation in Scotland and Sticky Pictures in
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
.
Consisting of 52 11-minute segments, the animation is directed by Glenn Kirkpatrick with Executive Producers Donna Andrews (Sticky Pictures) and Ken Anderson (Red Kite) and producers Jane Schneider (Sticky Pictures) and Sueann Smith (Red Kite).
Jane Ubrien,
Sarah Aubrey
Sarah Aubrey is a British-born Australian actress. She has had guest roles in episodes of ''Pieces of Her'', ''The Secret Life of Us'', '' All Saints'', '' Water Rats'' and '' Frayed'', along with numerous animation series and TV commercials. S ...
,
Jimmy Hibbert
James Christian Hibbert is an English actor and writer. He is best known for his voice work with the animation studio Cosgrove Hall Films.
Early life
James Christian Hibbert was born as the eldest of three children of author Christopher Hibbe ...
and
Keith Scott are confirmed to be voice actors for the series.
Changes
A number of changes have been made to the original format compared to the comics and previous television series. As well as being updated and modernised, Dennis lost his catapult and peashooter and no longer deliberately causes trouble.,
In addition, Walter, Dennis's main rival, was made more masculine, removing elements like his pink-coloured pyjamas, a small poodle, effeminate voice and his friends being mainly girls. There were fears that Dennis could be seen as homophobic or at the least bullying Walter about his effeminacy. A ''Telegraph'' article claimed that the show had been toned down for reasons of "
political correctness
''Political correctness'' (adjectivally: ''politically correct''; commonly abbreviated ''PC'') is a term used to describe language, policies, or measures that are intended to avoid offense or disadvantage to members of particular groups in socie ...
". However the producers have stated that "Dennis will not lose his sense of fun."
Cartoonist
Lew Stringer
Lew Stringer (born 22 March 1959 in England) is a freelance comic artist and scriptwriter.
Biography
Stringer began his career from the late 1970s with a series of fanzines, many featuring his popular '' Brickman'' character; these were read by ...
has refuted on his blog the political correctness claims made by some areas of the media, especially the reports that Dennis will no longer use catapults and Gnasher will no longer bite people. Describing these claims as "another 'political correctness gone mad' myth embellished by the media", he has posted videos showing that the show has not been softened up to the extent that the media has reported.
Despite, or possibly because, of these changes, the show was received positively by the mainstream audience and a small number of professional critics, and the show was a ratings winner on the CBBC Channel at launch.
For the production of Series 2, it was decided that the series would change yet again. 'The Menace' returned to the title 'Dennis the Menace and Gnasher' and his personality changed slightly in tribute to the classic comics.
The designs of Dennis' parents also changed to match up to the weekly Beano comic. The style of animation was also adjusted. Pie Face and Walter's voice actors have also been changed. He also got his catapult and peashooter back and uses them directly at them.
Characters
* Dennis: A mischievous 10-year-old child, who loves pranking people.
* Bea: Dennis’ youngest sister.
* Sandra: Dennis and Bea’s mother. She often scolds Dennis when he's doing something wrong.
* Dennis Sr.: Dennis and Bea's father. He is very strict.
* Walter: Dennis’ next-door neighbor and butt of many of Dennis' pranks or jokes.
Episodes
Telecast and home media
The show began airing on
The Hub The Hub may refer to:
Places
* The Hub, Bronx, an area of the South Bronx, New York, known for its convergence of subway and bus lines
* The Hub (Edinburgh), former church in Edinburgh that is now home to the Edinburgh International Festival
* T ...
in the U.S. on the same day the network launched on 10 October 2010 (marking the first US exposure to the British Dennis). It stopped airing on 10 December 2013. The programme also airs in Australia on
Channel Nine and later on
ABC3
ABC Me (stylised as ABC ME) is an Australian English language children's free-to-air television channel owned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It was officially launched by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on 4 December 2009 as ABC3.
Hist ...
. The programme also began airing on
Disney XD
Disney XD is an American pay television channel owned by the Disney Branded Television and Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution units of The Walt Disney Company. The channel is aimed primarily at older children ages six to eleven years ...
and
Nickelodeon Sonic
Nickelodeon Sonic (formerly Sonic-Nickelodeon) is an Indian children's pay television channel operated by Viacom18 as part of the Nickelodeon India network.
After on the air, Sonic became the fourth most watched channel across all genres with ...
in India. It started airing on
Disney Channel Asia
Disney Channel was a pan-Asian pay television kids channel owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company Southeast Asia; part of The Walt Disney Company Asia-Pacific.
It began broadcasting in Taiwan on 29 March 1995, until its main launch on Jan ...
on 14 May 2011 until today's years.
Five DVDs have been released and all of series 2 was available to stream on
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
until 2017.
DVD releases
Accolades
Book
On 6 February 2014, a book called ''The Diary of Dennis the Menace'' was released to celebrate
The Beano's 75-year anniversary. The second book ''Beanotown Battle'' was released on 1 May 2014. The third book ''Rollercoaster Riot'' was released on 7 August 2014.
Steven Butler
Steven Butler is an American comic book artist. He is known both for penciling the Archie Comics series ''Sonic the Hedgehog (comics), Sonic the Hedgehog'' as well as creating new designs for Archie characters in 2007.
Career
Butler's work range ...
wrote the books. Butler also released audiobooks for the first three titles. The fourth book ''Bash Street Bandit'' was released on 5 February 2015. The fifth book ''Canine Carnage'' was released on 2 July 2015. The sixth book ''The Great Escape'' was released on 4 February 2016.
References
External links
Dennis and Gnasher*
*
{{Beano
2009 Australian television series debuts
2013 Australian television series endings
2000s Australian animated television series
2010s Australian animated television series
2009 British television series debuts
2000s British children's television series
2010s British children's television series
2013 British television series endings
2000s British animated television series
2010s British animated television series
Australian children's animated comedy television series
British children's animated comedy television series
English-language television shows
The Beano
BBC children's television shows
Nine Network original programming
Television shows based on comics
Animated television series about children
Animated television series about dogs
Dennis the Menace and Gnasher