Rocket "Rocky" J. Squirrel, also known as Rocky the Flying Squirrel, is a

fictional character In fiction, a character (or speaker, in poetry) is a person or other being in a narrative (such as a novel, play, radio or television series, music, film, or video game). The character may be entirely fictional or based on a real-life person, ...

and one of the two male protagonists of the 1959–1964 animated series ''Rocky and His Friends'' and ''The Bullwinkle Show'' (both shows often referred to collectively as ''

The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show ''The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends'' (commonly referred to as simply ''Rocky and Bullwinkle'') is an American animated television series that originally aired from November 19, 1959, to June 27, 1964, on the American Broadca ...

''), produced by

Jay Ward Joseph Ward Cohen Jr. (September 20, 1920 – October 12, 1989), also known as Jay Ward, was an American creator and producer of animated TV cartoon shows. He produced animated series based on such characters as Crusader Rabbit, Rocky & Bul ...

. Rocky is the best friend and ally of the

western moose The Western moose (''Alces alces andersoni'') is a subspecies of moose that inhabits boreal forests and mixed deciduous forests in the Canadian Arctic, western Canadian provinces and a few western sections of the northern United States and it ...

, Bullwinkle. Both Rocky and Bullwinkle were given the middle initial "J" as a reference to Ward.

Creation

Jay Ward and partner Alex Anderson originally created Rocky as part of ''The Frostbite Falls Review'', a proposed pilot that wasn't developed. The character was later used as the star of the series ''Rocky and His Friends''. However, when the show changed networks from

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

, its name was changed to ''The Bullwinkle Show'', with Bullwinkle replacing Rocky as the lead role due to the moose having larger popularity than Rocky.

Biography

Rocky shared a house with Bullwinkle, in the fictional small town of Frostbite Falls, Minnesota, a parody of the real-life American town of

International Falls, Minnesota International Falls (sometimes referred to as I-Falls) is a city in and the county seat of Koochiching County, Minnesota. The population was 5,802 at the time of the 2020 census. International Falls is located on the Rainy River directly acro ...

. Rocky and Bullwinkle would often have various adventures that usually saw them thwart the various schemes of the series' villains,

Boris Badenov Boris Badenov is an antagonist of the 1959–1964 animated cartoons ''Rocky and His Friends'' and ''The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, The Bullwinkle Show'', collectively referred to as ''The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show'' for short. He was originall ...

and

Natasha Fatale Boris Badenov is an antagonist of the 1959–1964 animated cartoons ''Rocky and His Friends'' and ''The Bullwinkle Show'', collectively referred to as ''The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show'' for short. He was originally voiced by Paul Frees. Badenov ...

(and also occasionally Boris and Natasha's superior,

Fearless Leader Fearless Leader is the main antagonist in the 1959–1964 animated television series '' Rocky and His Friends'' and ''The Bullwinkle Show'', both shows often collectively referred to as ''The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show''. He is the employer of ...

). Rocky's most frequently used catchphrase was "Hokey smoke!"

Personality

Rocky's personality was meant to be that of an upstanding, if slightly naive, all-American youth. As the brains and

straight man The straight man is a stock character in a comedy performance, especially a double act, sketch comedy, or farce. When a comedy partner behaves eccentrically, the straight man is expected to maintain composure. The direct contribution to the ...

of the "moose and squirrel" duo, Rocky often was shown as coming up with creative solutions to the various situations the duo found themselves in on their adventures. However, he is no less gullible toward

's and

's disguises than Bullwinkle. The best he can do is to occasionally remark, "Those two look familiar!" or "That voice, where have I heard it before?"

Powers and Abilities

Rocky often made extensive use of his ability to fly, which was presented with, appropriate to his full name, a

jet engine A jet engine is a type of reaction engine discharging a fast-moving jet of heated gas (usually air) that generates thrust by jet propulsion. While this broad definition can include rocket, Pump-jet, water jet, and hybrid propulsion, the term ...

sound effect A sound effect (or audio effect) is an artificially created or enhanced sound, or sound process used to emphasize artistic or other content of films, television shows, live performance, animation, video games, music, or other media. Traditi ...

. The original opening title of ''Rocky and His Friends'' introduces Rocky as "that

Jet Age The Jet Age is a period in the history of aviation defined by the advent of aircraft powered by jet turbine engines, and by the social change this brought about. Jet airliners were able to fly much higher, faster, and farther than older pisto ...

aerial ace", complete with Rocky performing a solo

air show An air show (or airshow, air fair, air tattoo) is a public event where aircraft are exhibited. They often include aerobatics demonstrations, without they are called "static air shows" with aircraft parked on the ground. The largest air show m ...

for a crowd of spectators. His airborne abilities have been depicted inconsistently; some episodes, such as the first season's "Jet Fuel Formula" storyline, presented this ability as limited to gliding (similar to the abilities of a real flying squirrel). Other episodes presented Rocky's flight abilities as similar to those of

Superman Superman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, and debuted in the comic book ''Action Comics'' #1 (cover-dated June 1938 and publi ...

(hovering in mid-air, ascending in altitude, carrying objects, etc.); one example is Rocky flying from Minnesota to

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

under his own power in the second season's "

Greenpernt Oogle The following is a list of Rocky and Bullwinkle segments of the American animated television feature ''The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends'' (1959–1964). In the original broadcasts and later subsequent DVD releases, two Rocky an ...

" storyline. Occasionally, Rocky would rely on Bullwinkle's strength (via an acrobatic maneuver) to provide him with an extra boost in flight speed, as shown in his attempt to reach the hovering Mount Flatten in the second season's "

Upsidaisium "Upsidaisium" is the first story arc from the second season of ''Rocky and His Friends''. With 36 segments it was the second-longest of all Rocky and Bullwinkle story arcs, and concerns Rocky and Bullwinkle's efforts to reclaim Bullwinkle's Uncle' ...

" storyline. According to the series, Rocky learned his aerial skills at the Cedar Yorpantz Flying School (a play on the idiomatic expression "seat of your pants").

Voice

Voice actress

June Foray June Foray (born June Lucille Forer; September 18, 1917 – July 26, 2017) was an American voice actress. She was best known as the voice of such animated characters as Rocky the Flying Squirrel, Natasha Fatale, Nell Fenwick, Lucifer from Disney' ...

was the voice of Rocky, as well as the voice of Natasha Fatale, Nell Fenwick and other female characters. Foray continued to voice the character in modern media depictions of ''Rocky and Bullwinkle'' including the 2000 film until her retirement in 2014. As Rocky returns in the 2018

Amazon Video Amazon Prime Video, also known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming and rental service of Amazon offered as a standalone service or as part of Amazon's Prime subscription. The service pri ...

series '' The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle'', where

Tara Strong Tara Lyn Strong (née Charendoff; born February 12, 1973) is a Canadian-American actress. She is known for her voice work in animation, websites, and video games. Strong's voice roles include animated series such as ''The New Batman Adventures ...

took over as the voice of Rocky.

Other Appearances

The Rocky character made an appearance in

Gary Larson Gary Larson (born August 14, 1950) is an American cartoonist, environmentalist, and former musician. He is the creator of ''The Far Side'', a single-panel cartoon series that was syndicated internationally to more than 1,900 newspapers for fif ...

's ''

The Far Side ''The Far Side'' is a single-panel comic created by Gary Larson and syndicated by Chronicle Features and then Universal Press Syndicate, which ran from December 31, 1979, to January 1, 1995 (when Larson retired as a cartoonist). Its surrealist ...

'' comic strip, causing Larson to comment, "I've discovered an interesting phenomenon. Once you've drawn Rocky the Flying Squirrel, you can never draw him again. In the final version, I must have drawn and erased that miserable little rodent fifty times, and he ultimately ended up looking like Rocky the Flying Hamster." In 2014, Rocky and Bullwinkle appeared in a

GEICO The Government Employees Insurance Company (GEICO ) is a private American auto insurance company with headquarters in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It is the second largest auto insurer in the United States, after State Farm. GEICO is a wholly owne ...

television commercial where the

GEICO Gecko The Government Employees Insurance Company (GEICO ) is a private American auto insurance company with headquarters in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It is the second largest auto insurer in the United States, after State Farm. GEICO is a wholly owne ...

is looking at the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico in ...

with them, and trying to explain what they were named after. During a broadcast of an Atlanta Braves baseball game in the late 1990s, a real squirrel scampered onto the field and caused a delay in play. During the delay, the squirrel was featured on camera with a superimposed graphic identifying him as "Rocket J. Squirrel". His position was listed (tongue firmly in cheek) as "Shortstop".

Comics

* ''Rocky and his Friends'' (1960) (Dell) * ''Bullwinkle'' (1962) (Gold Key) * ''Rocky and His Fiendish Friends'' (1962) (Gold Key) * ''Bullwinkle Mother Moose Nursery Pomes'' (1962) (Dell) * ''Bullwinkle and Rocky'' (1970) (Charlton) * ''Bullwinkle and Rocky'' (1987) (Star Comics) * ''Bullwinkle and Rocky Marvel Moosterworks'' (1992) (Marvel) * ''Rocky and Bullwinkle'' (2014) (IDW)

Video Games

* ''The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends'' (1992) * ''Rocky and Bullwinkle'' (2008)

References

External Links

Hokey Smoke! Rocky and Bullwinkle

{{Authority control Anthropomorphic squirrels Animal superheroes Fictional aviators Fictional characters from Minnesota Comedy film characters Fictional squirrels Rocky the Flying Squirrel Television sidekicks Television characters introduced in 1959 Animated characters introduced in 1959 Advertising characters Child characters in animated television series Child characters in animated films Child characters in television Child characters in film Child superheroes Fictional secret agents and spies Fictional police detectives Male characters in animation Male characters in advertising