''Mike, Lu & Og'' is an American-Russian
animated television series
An animated series is a set of Animation, animated works with a common series title, usually related to one another. These episodes should typically share the same main characters, some different secondary characters and a basic theme. Series can ...
created by Mikhail Shindel, Mikhail Aldashin, and
Charles Swenson
Charles Gregory Swenson (born March 28, 1941) is an American animator, writer, storyboard artist, sound designer, producer and director who worked with animated film for many years. In 1978 he joined Fred Wolf Films, working on ''Teenage Mutant ...
for
Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, Car ...
, and the 7th of the network's
Cartoon Cartoons
Cartoon Cartoons is a collective name used by Cartoon Network for their original animated television series originally aired between 1995 and 2003 and produced in majority by Hanna-Barbera and/or Cartoon Network Studios. Beginning with its incepti ...
. The series follows a
foreign exchange student
A student exchange program is a program in which students from a secondary school (high school) or university study abroad at one of their institution's partner institutions.
A student exchange program may involve international travel, but doe ...
from
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
named Mike, a self-appointed island princess named Lu, and a boy-genius named Og. The trio take part in various adventures as Mike and the island's natives share their customs with each other.
Before its cancellation, fifty-two eleven-minute episodes were produced by Mikhail Shindel's Kinofilm Animation in Los Angeles and animated by Mikhail Aldashin at
Studio Pilot in Russia, featuring two stories per episode. The series features voice actors
Nika Futterman
Nika Futterman (born October 25, 1969) is an American voice and television actress. She is known for her voices in various animated series, including Asajj Ventress in '' Star Wars: The Clone Wars'' and Adam Lyon in ''My Gym Partner's a Mo ...
as Mike,
Nancy Cartwright
Nancy Cartwright (born October 25, 1957) is an American actress. She is the long-time voice of Bart Simpson on the animated television series ''The Simpsons'', for which she has received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Perform ...
as Lu, and
Dee Bradley Baker
Dee Bradley Baker (born August 31, 1962) is an American voice actor. Much of Baker's work features vocalizations of animals and monsters. Baker's roles include animated series such as ''Avatar: The Last Airbender'', ''Codename: Kids Next Door'', ...
as Og. The distinctive animation style is similar to shows produced by
Klasky Csupo
Klasky-Csupo, Inc. (stylized as KLaSKY CSUPO INC., doing business as Klasky Csupo, ) is an American animation studio located in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1982 by producer Arlene Klasky and Hungarian animator Gábor Csupó (he ...
, such as ''
Rugrats
''Rugrats'' is an American animated television series created by Arlene Klasky, Gábor Csupó, and Paul Germain for Nickelodeon. The show focuses on a group of toddlers; most prominently— Tommy, Chuckie, Angelica, and twins Phil and Lil, ...
'', ''
Duckman
''Duckman: Private Dick/Family Man'' is an American adult animated sitcom that aired on the USA Network from March 5, 1994, through September 6, 1997. It was created and developed by Everett Peck, and is based on characters he created in his 19 ...
'', ''
Aaahh!!! Real Monsters
''Aaahh!!! Real Monsters'' is an American animated television series developed by Klasky Csupo for Nickelodeon. The show focuses on three young monsters—Ickis, Oblina, and Krumm—who attend a school for monsters under a city dump and learn to ...
'', ''
The Wild Thornberrys
''The Wild Thornberrys'' is an American animated series, animated television series created by Arlene Klasky, Gábor Csupó, Steve Pepoon, David Silverman (animator), David Silverman, and Stephen Sustarsic for Nickelodeon. The series portrays a ...
'', ''
Rocket Power'', and ''
As Told by Ginger'', due to its crudely drawn look.
Reruns were broadcast on
Boomerang
A boomerang () is a thrown tool, typically constructed with aerofoil sections and designed to spin about an axis perpendicular to the direction of its flight. A returning boomerang is designed to return to the thrower, while a non-returning b ...
from 2006 to 2011. On November 6, 2017, the series was added to
Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, Car ...
on Demand.
Premise
Mike applies as a
foreign exchange student
A student exchange program is a program in which students from a secondary school (high school) or university study abroad at one of their institution's partner institutions.
A student exchange program may involve international travel, but doe ...
and asks to be sent to a
tropical island
An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...
(which briefly sinks and pops back up like a cork every few hundred years or so). She finds herself dumped on a forgotten, scantily mapped island populated by descendants of a British shipwreck. This island is called Albonquetine Island, named after one of their founders, Joshua Wendell Albonquetine. It may be based on the real-life
Pitcairn Islands
The Pitcairn Islands (; Pitkern: '), officially the Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands, is a group of four volcanic islands in the southern Pacific Ocean that form the sole British Overseas Territory in the Pacific Ocean. The four isl ...
. The castaways have "gone
native
Native may refer to:
People
* Jus soli, citizenship by right of birth
* Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory
** Native Americans (disambiguation)
In arts and entert ...
" and try to behave like
Polynesians
Polynesians form an ethnolinguistic group of closely related people who are native to Polynesia (islands in the Polynesian Triangle), an expansive region of Oceania in the Pacific Ocean. They trace their early prehistoric origins to Island Sou ...
, with varying degrees of success.
Characters
* (short for Michelanne)
(voiced by
Nika Futterman
Nika Futterman (born October 25, 1969) is an American voice and television actress. She is known for her voices in various animated series, including Asajj Ventress in '' Star Wars: The Clone Wars'' and Adam Lyon in ''My Gym Partner's a Mo ...
) - Mike is an 11-year-old
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
-born girl who enjoys the features of the tropical island, but misses the life she had in New York and, as revealed in a particular instance, her school. Fortunately, Og is able to recreate many of the things that Mike misses most about the United States, at one instance creating a television.
* (voiced by
Nancy Cartwright
Nancy Cartwright (born October 25, 1957) is an American actress. She is the long-time voice of Bart Simpson on the animated television series ''The Simpsons'', for which she has received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Perform ...
) - Lu is a 10-year-old self-proclaimed princess of the island, Og's cousin and Alfred and Margery's niece is characterized by her loud and arrogant nature. She continually exploits Mike, Og, and her pet turtle, Lancelot. Og, being sagacious to a fault, frequently obliges to her will, even at the cost of her own well-being. Though she has a habit of tormenting everyone, she usually learns a lesson in humility by the end of each episode. Lu's unruly behavior is most likely a result of poor parenting on the part of her father, Wendell.
** Lancelot Turtle - Lancelot is Lu's long-suffering pet
land turtle. She dresses him up in gaudy outfits, forces him to perform weird and dangerous stunts, and often makes him carry Lu on her back. For this reason, Lancelot is always running away from Lu, which is why she keeps him on a leash. Despite this abuse, Lancelot tends to be the savior of Mike and the Islanders (especially Lu) when they're in trouble. Like the other animals on the island, Lancelot tends to exercise more common sense than the humans. Unlike the members of the Philosophical Society, he does not speak (except for a "squeaky" type scream when Lancelot's in danger or a snickering laugh and in "Night of the Living Relatives" where he shouted "BOO" to scare the daylights out of Lu).
* (voiced by
Dee Bradley Baker
Dee Bradley Baker (born August 31, 1962) is an American voice actor. Much of Baker's work features vocalizations of animals and monsters. Baker's roles include animated series such as ''Avatar: The Last Airbender'', ''Codename: Kids Next Door'', ...
) - Og is a 7-year-old
member of the Albonquetines, Lu's cousin and Wendell's nephew, has a predisposition to scientific theory and discovery. His inventions gone awry help develop the plots of many episodes. He is close friends with his three pets, which are a pig named Mrs. Pig (voiced by
Kath Soucie Kath or KATH may refer to:
* Kath (city), the historical capital of Khwarezm
* Kath (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname
* KATH-TV, the NBC TV station in Juneau, Alaska
* KATH (AM)
KATH (910 kHz) is an ...
), a goat named Mr. Goat (also voiced by Dee Bradley Baker), and a
porcupine
Porcupines are large rodents with coats of sharp spines, or quills, that protect them against predation. The term covers two families of animals: the Old World porcupines of family Hystricidae, and the New World porcupines of family, Erethizont ...
named Spiney Porcupine (voiced by Martin Rayner) who are capable of speech and well learned in philosophy. Together, they form the Philosophical Society, discussing such "great thinkers" as
Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, Prose poetry, prose poet, cultural critic, Philology, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philo ...
, matters of existentialism, and the relevance of time. Og enjoys experiencing new things. To name a few adventures, Og made a video game for himself in "A Boy's Game" which he got hooked on during a flood, performed nude in a fashion show in "Hot Couture" (possibly a homage to "
The Emperor's New Clothes
"The Emperor's New Clothes" ( da, Kejserens nye klæder ) is a literary folktale written by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen, about a vain emperor who gets exposed before his subjects. The tale has been translated into over 100 languages.A ...
"), and made
jujubombs in an episode of the same name.
* (voiced by
S. Scott Bullock
Stuart Scott Bullock is an American voice actor. Best known for voicing various characters on ‘’Danny Phantom’’ (2004-2007).
Career
Bullock is known for providing voices for characters, such as Eddy in the ''Barnyard'' franchise, Glow ...
) - Wendell is Lu's father and Alfred's brother, and the Governor of the Island. Wendell is Og's uncle and Margery's brohter-in-law. He is wiry, weak-willed (as seen when he ate so many sweets that he returned into his former, "pre-workout" shape in the course of a few hours), and is seemingly unable to control his daughter or of delivering any sort of punishment to her. He is then apt to start crying. He has been the island's Governor for many years. This was misinterpreted by Mike, who thought he was an American-esque governor, which led to an "election" on the island, not realising that the Islanders came to the island from England (and, as seen in the episode with "King Bob", they hold the "King of England" in great respect). He has a large collection of
tea cosies, and speaks in a squeaky falsetto similar in style to
Kenneth Williams
Kenneth Charles Williams (22 February 1926 – 15 April 1988) was an English actor of Welsh heritage. He was best known for his comedy roles and in later life as a raconteur and diarist. He was one of the main ensemble in 26 of the 31 Car ...
, although whether this was intentional or not remains uncertain. His wife is never seen or mentioned.
* (voiced by Martin Rayner) - Alfred is Og's father and Wendell's brother, and Margery's husband. Alfred is Lu's uncle. He is eccentric and charismatic, and also has a noticeable
speech impediment
Speech disorders or speech impairments are a type of communication disorder in which normal speech is disrupted. This can mean stuttering, lisps, etc. Someone who is unable to speak due to a speech disorder is considered mute. Speech skills are ...
preventing him from pronouncing his Rs. He fancies himself to be the island's hunter, using suction-cup arrows to persistently hunt a
wombat
Wombats are short-legged, muscular quadrupedal marsupials that are native to Australia. They are about in length with small, stubby tails and weigh between . All three of the extant species are members of the family Vombatidae. They are adap ...
named Woolly Wombat. It appears that the island's inhabitants are vegetarian (though
clam
Clam is a common name for several kinds of bivalve molluscs. The word is often applied only to those that are edible and live as infauna, spending most of their lives halfway buried in the sand of the seafloor or riverbeds. Clams have two she ...
s and
chicken soup
Chicken soup is a soup made from Chicken (food), chicken, simmered in water, usually with various other ingredients. The classic chicken soup consists of a clear broth, chicken broth, often with pieces of chicken or vegetables; common addition ...
appear to be fair game), so one may wonder what happens if Alfred ever catches Woolly (including Alfred himself). It was also revealed in "The Great Snipe Hunt" that Alfred is oblivious for the fact that Og does not want to go hunting with him.
* (voiced by
Kath Soucie Kath or KATH may refer to:
* Kath (city), the historical capital of Khwarezm
* Kath (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname
* KATH-TV, the NBC TV station in Juneau, Alaska
* KATH (AM)
KATH (910 kHz) is an ...
) - Margery is Og's mother and Alfred's wife, who fancies herself to be an artist and writer. Margery's is Wendell's sister-in-law and Lu's aunt. Her arts including painting, sculpting, and cooking. The majority of Margery's
artwork
A work of art, artwork, art piece, piece of art or art object is an artistic creation of aesthetic value. Except for "work of art", which may be used of any work regarded as art in its widest sense, including works from literature ...
has to do with the island's
ancestors
An ancestor, also known as a forefather, fore-elder or a forebear, is a parent or (recursively) the parent of an antecedent (i.e., a grandparent, great-grandparent, great-great-grandparent and so forth). ''Ancestor'' is "any person from whom ...
. For this, she often seen working on a sculpture of several ancestors on the side of a mountain, reminiscent of
Mount Rushmore
Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a national memorial centered on a colossal sculpture carved into the granite face of Mount Rushmore (Lakota: ''Tȟuŋkášila Šákpe'', or Six Grandfathers) in the Black Hills near Keystone, South Dakota ...
. Every once in a while she will also be found painting food, and often found cooking it. Margery is the island's
chef
A chef is a trained professional cook and tradesman who is proficient in all aspects of food preparation, often focusing on a particular cuisine. The word "chef" is derived from the term ''chef de cuisine'' (), the director or head of a kitche ...
, preparing meals and tea for everyone on her side of the island, as well as preparing buffets and elaborate meals for special occasions. In writing, she is something of a historian. Throughout the series she is working on a book about the island's history titled "Cuzzlewits End". Margery is very level-headed compared to Alfred's eccentric behavior. An example of this is shown in "Scuba Dooby Doo" when Alfred valiantly offers to protect everyone from the mailman whereas Margery plans on serving tea and
crumpets
A crumpet () is a small griddle bread made from an unsweetened batter of water or milk, flour, and yeast, popular in the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and Australia.
Crumpets are regionally known as pikelets, a name also ap ...
.
* (voiced by
Corey Burton
Corey Gregg Weinberg (born August 3, 1955), known professionally as Corey Burton, is an American voice actor. He is the current voice of Captain Hook, Ludwig Von Drake, Dale and others for The Walt Disney Company, Shockwave on '' The Transforme ...
) - Old Queeks is the island elder and
witch doctor
A witch doctor (also spelled witch-doctor) was originally a type of Folk healer, healer who treated ailments believed to be caused by witchcraft. The term is now more commonly used to refer to Alternative medicine, healers, particularly in region ...
whom the Islanders seek advice from. He is also seen to be able to perform a kind of magic, summoning dead spirits. He is often opposed to Mike's innovative ways, but sometimes gets caught up in the modern crazes to hit the island. Old Queeks claims to be
psychic
A psychic is a person who claims to use extrasensory perception (ESP) to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance, or who performs acts that are apparently inexplicable by natural laws, ...
and he claims to "know all and see all". In one episode, Mike becomes suspicious of Queeks and decides to investigate him. She climbed up the opposite side of the mountain and found that Old Queeks was not psychic but that he spied on the Islanders through a
telescope
A telescope is a device used to observe distant objects by their emission, absorption, or reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally meaning only an optical instrument using lenses, curved mirrors, or a combination of both to observe ...
. Even after Mike informed the Islanders about Old Queeks' telescope, they still held onto their beliefs that he was psychic and communicated with a higher power(s). In some respects, this is truth enough. He can see all with a telescope, and he did bring ghosts to the island to plague Mike for annoying him. He lives alone on the top of a mountain in a cave, and enjoys using "bat products" (i.e.: products made with
bat
Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera.''cheir'', "hand" and πτερόν''pteron'', "wing". With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most ...
guano
Guano (Spanish from qu, wanu) is the accumulated excrement of seabirds or bats. As a manure, guano is a highly effective fertilizer due to the high content of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium, all key nutrients essential for plant growth. G ...
). This includes everything from
toothpaste
Toothpaste is a paste or gel dentifrice used with a toothbrush to clean and maintain the aesthetics and health of teeth. Toothpaste is used to promote oral hygiene: it is an abrasive that aids in removing dental plaque and food from the teeth, a ...
to
snack
A snack is a small portion of food generally eaten between meals. Snacks come in a variety of forms including packaged snack foods and other processed foods, as well as items made from fresh ingredients at home.
Traditionally, snacks are p ...
s.
* Pirates - Three pirates living nearby are descended from the pirates who caused the Brits to be shipwrecked in the first place, but were then shipwrecked themselves. Their leader is named Captain (voiced by
Brian George
Brian George (born 1 July 1952) is a British actor. He is best known for his roles as Pakistani restaurateur Babu Bhatt in ''Seinfeld'' (1989–1998), the Indian gynecologist father of Raj Koothrappali in ''The Big Bang Theory'' (2007–2019 ...
) with two wooden legs and ''two'' eye patches. Despite these handicaps, he seems to get around without any problems. The other two pirates are called First Mate (voiced by Martin Rayner) and Bos'n (voiced by
Corey Burton
Corey Gregg Weinberg (born August 3, 1955), known professionally as Corey Burton, is an American voice actor. He is the current voice of Captain Hook, Ludwig Von Drake, Dale and others for The Walt Disney Company, Shockwave on '' The Transforme ...
). The pirates sometimes attempt to catch and eat Lancelot, but are always foiled by the three children. In one episode, Mike invited the pirates to a
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden and ...
type feast but with only one catch, that the three Pirates had to dress up as Mike's (girl)friends visiting from Manhattan without causing concern with the others (with the exception of Lancelot who saw through their disguises). The pirate captain is known to force his men to put on blindfolds, so he can sneak into his treasury and put a rabbit puppet named Bunny on his hand, engaging in conversations with it, speaking for it in a squeaky voice. In its first appearance, the rabbit puppet's mouth moved as the captain spoke. In its following appearance, the mouth stayed still.
* The Cuzzlewits - The Cuzzlewits are the other inhabitants of the island (whose very existence Lu eagerly denies), live on the other side of the island. Although they are shown to live in caves, one of their number, Hermione (voiced by
Alison Larkin), a Cuzzlewit girl, is seen to be an extremely experienced thinker. She is accompanied by two Cuzzlewit boys, twin brothers Haggis and Baggis (voiced by
Brian George
Brian George (born 1 July 1952) is a British actor. He is best known for his roles as Pakistani restaurateur Babu Bhatt in ''Seinfeld'' (1989–1998), the Indian gynecologist father of Raj Koothrappali in ''The Big Bang Theory'' (2007–2019 ...
and
S. Scott Bullock
Stuart Scott Bullock is an American voice actor. Best known for voicing various characters on ‘’Danny Phantom’’ (2004-2007).
Career
Bullock is known for providing voices for characters, such as Eddy in the ''Barnyard'' franchise, Glow ...
), who constantly batter each other with clubs and appear to be dimwitted and rowdy. In the only episode taking place on the Cuzzlewits' side of the island, "Queeks, Queeks Who Got the Queeks?", they are revealed to have a much larger population than the Albonquetanians. The elders of the Cuzzlewits and the Albonquetanians do not get along, hence their separation. This leads to a practical question: what do the Cuzzlewits call the island? Despite the adults' squabbles, Mike and Hermione become friends in "The Three Amigas". The Cuzzlewits are shown to all have the same
genetic characteristics – an
underbite
In orthodontics, a malocclusion is a misalignment or incorrect relation between the teeth of the upper and lower dental arches when they approach each other as the jaws close. The English-language term dates from 1864; Edward Angle (1855-1930), ...
which causes their lower central
incisor
Incisors (from Latin ''incidere'', "to cut") are the front teeth present in most mammals. They are located in the premaxilla above and on the mandible below. Humans have a total of eight (two on each side, top and bottom). Opossums have 18, whe ...
s to be bucked teeth.
Production
''Mike, Lu & Og'' premiered on Cartoon Network's animation shorts showcase ''
World Premiere Toons
''What a Cartoon!'' (later known as ''The What a Cartoon! Show'' and ''The Cartoon Cartoon Show'') is an American animated anthology series created by Fred Seibert for Cartoon Network. The shorts were produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions; by th ...
'' as a seven-minute short on November 6, 1998. In January 1999, Cartoon Network announced that three new original series would premiere on the network: ''
Courage the Cowardly Dog
''Courage the Cowardly Dog'' is an American animated comedy horror television series created by John R. Dilworth for Cartoon Network and distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television. It was produced by Dilworth's animation studio, Stretch Fil ...
'', ''
I Am Weasel
''I Am Weasel'' is an American animated television series created by David Feiss for Cartoon Network and produced at Hanna-Barbera. It is the fourth of the network's Cartoon Cartoons. The series centers on I. M. Weasel (voiced by Michael Dorn), a ...
'', and ''Mike, Lu & Og''. ''Mike, Lu & Og'' was set to premiere in November of that year with 13 episodes. According to ''
Animation World Magazine
Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anim ...
'', the series premiere date was set for November 12, 1999, and would be produced simultaneously at
Pilot Studio in
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
and
Kinofilm in Los Angeles. The series ran on Cartoon Network from November 12, 1999, to May 27, 2001, airing 26 half-hour episodes in total. A video game deal between Cartoon Network and
Majesco Entertainment
Majesco Entertainment Company (formerly Majesco Sales Inc.) is an American video game publisher and distributor based in Hazlet, New Jersey. The company was founded as Majesco Sales in Edison, New Jersey in 1986, and was a privately held company ...
featuring characters from the series was announced for the Nintendo
Game Boy Advance
The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, 2 ...
handheld console in May 2002.
Series overview
Episode list
This is a list of episodes from the animated series ''Mike, Lu & Og''. The show ran for two seasons consisting of 13 episodes, each with two 11-minute segments.
Pilot
Season 1 (1999–2000)
Season 2 (2001)
References
External links
* (archive)
Kinofilm Studios*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mike, Lu and Og
1990s American animated television series
2000s American animated television series
1999 American television series debuts
2001 American television series endings
American children's animated adventure television series
American children's animated comedy television series
1999 Russian television series debuts
2001 Russian television series endings
Russian children's animated adventure television series
Russian children's animated comedy television series
Animated television series about children
Cartoon Network original programming
Television shows set on islands
English-language television shows
Cartoon Cartoons
Fictional trios