''Amazing Animals'' (sometimes marketed as ''Henry's Amazing Animals'' for home video) is an educational children's animated TV show series nature program produced by Dorling Kindersley Vision and

Partridge Films Partridge Films (also known as Partridge Productions) is a British TV/film production company based in Bristol, England. It specializes in wildlife programs and is a part of United Wildlife, a United News and Media Company. The company is known fo ...

in association with

The Disney Channel Disney Channel, sometimes known as simply Disney, is an American pay television channel that serves as the flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of The Walt Disney Company. ...

. It was originally broadcast on the service in 1996. It also aired on Family Channel in Canada. It is also available on VHS. The show centers on the interactions of Henry the Lizard, a green CGI

anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics t ...

lizard Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most oceanic island chains. The group is paraphyletic since it excludes the snakes and Amphisbaenia alt ...

with purple spots, and an unseen

narrator Narration is the use of a written or spoken commentary to convey a story to an audience. Narration is conveyed by a narrator: a specific person, or unspecified literary voice, developed by the creator of the story to deliver information to the a ...

. Each episode centers on a theme relating to the episode's subject matter, such as Henry traveling through prehistory in a time machine in an episode about prehistoric animals. Henry is usually faced with some kind of predicament or work, always relating to the episode's theme, which he resolves by the end of the episode, often learning a lesson of some sort in the process.

Plot

Each episode is made up of sections in which Henry is featured, video sequences of animals narrated by the off-screen narrator with replies by Henry, and cartoons featuring recurring unnamed cartoon animals. There are also two recurring segments: "Henry's Report" and "The Golden Gecko Awards". Early episodes depicted Henry's Report as a school report, though later episodes changed it to a news report. In either case, the report is comical and almost always wildly inaccurate. The correct information is given by The Narrator after the report. In Henry's Amazing Golden Gecko Awards, Henry picks three animals relating to the subject of the episode and presents them with awards. Unlike the report, the Golden Gecko Awards are typically more genuine. Henry does most of the narration and often gets annoyed at the Narrator for interrupting him. Henry's Report occurred in every episode; the only episode that did not have the Golden Gecko Awards was "Underground Animals", probably because of timing issues.

Cast and major characters

*Henry the Lizard: The show's main protagonist. He is a small

green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 Nanometre, nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by ...

with

purple Purple is any of a variety of colors with hue between red and blue. In the RGB color model used in computer and television screens, purples are produced by mixing red and blue light. In the RYB color model historically used by painters, pu ...

spot Spot or SPOT may refer to: Places * Spot, North Carolina, a community in the United States * The Spot, New South Wales, a locality in Sydney, Australia * South Pole Traverse, sometimes called the South Pole Overland Traverse People * Spot (prod ...

s and

yellow Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In the R ...

eyes. Henry is portrayed as being enthusiastic, albeit foolish and immature. He is generally depicted as ignorant of the episode's subject matter and typically fails in the endeavours he attempts to undertake. Sometimes, he can prove himself to be quite smart, he is also an inventor. He often identifies lizards seen in the video sequences as his cousins. His favorite food is

pizza Pizza (, ) is a dish of Italian origin consisting of a usually round, flat base of leavened wheat-based dough topped with tomatoes, cheese, and often various other ingredients (such as various types of sausage, anchovies, mushrooms, onions ...

. Henry the Lizard is voiced by Eric Meyers. *The Narrator: The Narrator is Henry's co-star, but he is never seen and almost never named. He is depicted as being wise and knowledgeable. In addition to teaching Henry about animals and correcting his special reports, the Narrator acts as a comedic foil to Henry: the show's "straight man", who cuts Henry down for his immaturity and lack of knowledge with some combination of a mature seriousness and a dry sarcasm. The Narrator is voiced by Tom Clarke-Hill (and

Nigel Greaves Nigel Greaves (born c. 1960) is an English actor. He has had several roles in television over the years, including a rude waiter in Tales of the Unexpected (A Man With A Fortune),his longest-running role was in ''The Kids from 47A''. He also app ...

in the UK version). *Crab Tuesday: Henry met Crab Tuesday during a visit to the seashore, and the crab has been Henry's best friend and assistant ever since. Henry names him Tuesday after

Robinson Crusoe ''Robinson Crusoe'' () is a novel by Daniel Defoe, first published on 25 April 1719. The first edition credited the work's protagonist Robinson Crusoe as its author, leading many readers to believe he was a real person and the book a tra ...

's "

man Friday Friday is one of the main characters of Daniel Defoe's 1719 novel ''Robinson Crusoe'' and its sequel ''The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe''. Robinson Crusoe names the man Friday, with whom he cannot at first communicate, because they fir ...

". Henry can often tell what Tuesday is saying, although he has no voice at all and communicates by snapping his claws. However, in ''Amazing Animal Hunters'', he is heard mumbling "I don't know" to Henry. Crab Tuesday vocal effects was provided by Fred Newman.

Episodes

Season 1 (1996)

Season 2 (1997)

Season 3 (1998)

Season 4 (1999)

Merchandise

Some merchandise was also released during the activity of the series. An educational computer game was also released with the television show. A

board game Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well. Many board games feature a comp ...

known as ''The Really Amazing Animal Game'' was also sold but was shortly discontinued.

External links

List of episodes as digiguide.tv
* {{Disney co-productions 1996 American television series debuts 1999 American television series endings 1990s American animated television series 1996 British television series debuts 1999 British television series endings 1990s British children's television series Fictional chameleons and geckos American children's animated adventure television series American children's animated education television series British children's animated adventure television series British children's animated education television series Animated television series about reptiles and amphibians Disney Channel original programming Disney animated television series English-language television shows American television series with live action and animation 1990s British animated television series