''Marsupilami'' is a half-hour American animated television series that first appeared on television as a segment of the 1992 show ''

Raw Toonage ''Disney's Raw Toonage'' is a half-hour American Disney animated series that aired on CBS on September 19, 1992. The show was cancelled on December 5 after 12 episodes had been broadcast. '' Bonkers'' and ''Marsupilami'' were spun off from this ...

'', and was then spun off into his own eponymous show on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

for the 1993–94 season. The show was based on the character from the popular comic book by Belgian artist

André Franquin André Franquin (; 3 January 1924 – 5 January 1997) was an influential Belgian comics artist, whose best-known creations are '' Gaston'' and ''Marsupilami''. He also produced the ''Spirou et Fantasio'' comic strip from 1946 to 1968, a period s ...

et al. There were three segments in the half-hour show — ''Marsupilami'', ''Sebastian the Crab'' and ''Shnookums and Meat''.

Segments

Marsupilami

This segment deals with the adventures of

Marsupilami ''Marsupilami'' is a comic book character and fictional animal species created by André Franquin. Its first appearance was in the 31 January 1952 issue of the Franco-Belgian comics magazine '' Spirou''. Since then it appeared regularly in th ...

(voiced by

Steve Mackall Stephen James "Steve" Mackall (born December 9, 1959) is a Canadian-American voice actor, voice-over announcer, comedian, director, screenwriter and songwriter. He was known as the voice of NBC's Must See TV, and performed voice of the lead cha ...

) and his friends Maurice the

Gorilla Gorillas are herbivorous, predominantly ground-dwelling great apes that inhabit the tropical forests of equatorial Africa. The genus ''Gorilla'' is divided into two species: the eastern gorilla and the western gorilla, and either four ...

(voiced by

Jim Cummings James Jonah Cummings (born November 3, 1952) is an American voice actor. Since beginning his career in the 1980s, he has appeared in almost 400 roles. Cummings has frequently worked with The Walt Disney Company and Warner Bros., including as t ...

) and Stewart the

Elephant Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantida ...

(voiced by

Dan Castellaneta Daniel Louis Castellaneta (; born October 29, 1957) is an American actor, comedian, and writer. He is best known for voicing Homer Simpson on the animated series ''The Simpsons'' (as well as other characters on the show such as Abraham "Grampa" ...

). Some episodes of Marsupilami would have him either evading Eduardo the

Jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus ''Panthera'' native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the th ...

(voiced by

Steve Landesberg Stephen Landesberg (November 23, 1936December 20, 2010) was an American actor and comedian known for his role as the erudite, unflappable police detective Arthur P. Dietrich on the ABC sitcom ''Barney Miller'', for which he was nominated for th ...

) or outwitting a human named Norman (voiced by

). Many one off characters also appears in the series like the three baby monkeys (Featured in ''Hey, Hey, They're the Monkeys!'', all voiced by

Jim Thurman James Frederick Thurman (March 13, 1935 – April 14, 2007) was an American actor, writer, director, cartoonist, and producer. He is best known for the writings of TV gags for the likes of Bob Hope, Bob Newhart, Carol Burnett, Bill Cosby, and Dea ...

) and their clown owner, Norman's Aunt Bethie (Featured in ''Romancing the Clone'' and ''Safari So Good'', voiced by

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' ...

), Leonardo the Lion (Featured in ''Jungle Fever'', voiced by

) and Cropsy (Featured in ''Cropsy Turvy''), a myth that proved to be real.

Sebastian the Crab

Sebastian the Crab (voiced by Samuel E. Wright) from ''

The Little Mermaid "The Little Mermaid" ( da, Den lille havfrue) is a literary fairy tale written by the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. The story follows the journey of a young mermaid who is willing to give up her life in the sea as a mermaid to gain a ...

'' is a segment which takes place in various locations out of the sea after the end of the events of ''The Little Mermaid''. Ariel has become human, married Prince Eric, moved onto land, and almost never has any time to drop by and visit her old friends in the ocean. Flounder and Scuttle have also moved on with their lives now that their best friend Ariel is living away on land. Sebastian has some new adventures, with some of them having him outwit Chef Louie (voiced by René Auberjonois). The events in this segment seem to show that both Sebastian and Louie moved away from the coastal area where ''The Little Mermaid'' took place, even though they both returned in the second movie.

Shnookums and Meat

Shnookums and Meat was a secondary segment on this show which would later spin-off into its own show. This segment involves a

cat The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of ...

named Shnookums (voiced by

Jason Marsden Jason Christopher Marsden (born January 3, 1975) is an American actor, director, producer and YouTuber, who has done numerous voice roles in animated films, as well as various television series and video games. He has been the official voice of ...

) and a dog named Meat (voiced by

Frank Welker Franklin Wendell Welker (born March 12, 1946) is an American voice actor. He began his career in the 1960s, and holds over 860 film, television, and video game credits as of 2022, making him one of the most prolific voice actors of all time. With ...

) who did not get along very well. Their owners are unseen

stock characters A stock character, also known as a character archetype, is a fictional character in a work of art such as a novel, play, or a film whom audiences recognize from frequent recurrences in a particular literary tradition. There is a wide range of st ...

only viewed from the neck down and named (appropriately enough) Husband & Wife (voiced by

and

Tress MacNeille Teressa Claire MacNeille (née Payne; born June 20, 1951) is an American voice actress, whose credits include voicing Dot Warner on the animated television series '' Animaniacs'', Babs Bunny on ''Tiny Toon Adventures'', Chip and Gadget Hackwrenc ...

). Husband is always referring to their home as their " domicile" before the two leave their pets in charge while they are away.

Cast

* René Auberjonois as Chef Louie *

as Stewart the Elephant *

as Maurice the Gorilla, Norman, Leonardo the Lion *

as Eduardo the Jaguar *

as Marsupilami, Husband *

as Wife *

as Shnookums *

as Meat * Samuel E. Wright as Sebastian the Crab

Crew

* Bob Hathcock - Director * Ed Wexler - Director *

Ginny McSwain Ginny McSwain is an American voice actress, voice casting director, and animation production professional from Los Angeles, CA. Life and career McSwain graduated from Stephens College in 1974, before moving to Los Angeles. She has worked as cas ...

– Dialogue Director

Production

There were 13 episodes in the series, which lasted one season and ended on December 11, 1993. Reruns of the show were aired on

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 Com ...

(from October 1994 to June 1995''The Disney Channel Magazine'', Vol. 13, no. 4, June/July 1995: p. 48.), and later on

Toon Disney Toon Disney was an American multinational pay television channel owned by Disney Channels Worldwide, a subsidiary of Disney-ABC Television Group. The channel's target audience was children ages 2–11, and children ages 6–13 during the Jetix ...

. Each of the 13 episodes would feature one new "Marsupilami" short, then one short either featuring Sebastian the Crab or Shnookums and Meat, and then an old "Marsupilami" short, from "Raw Toonage". Three of the 16 "Marsupilami" shorts made for "Raw Toonage" – "Wanna Be Ruler", "The Young and the Nestless", and "Hot Spots" – were not included in the 1993 "Marsupilami" series, but do appear on the PAL video releases. The original Marsupilami comic stories by Franquin never had a speaking Marsupilami and never featured a

gorilla Gorillas are herbivorous, predominantly ground-dwelling great apes that inhabit the tropical forests of equatorial Africa. The genus ''Gorilla'' is divided into two species: the eastern gorilla and the western gorilla, and either four ...

elephant Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantida ...

in the Marsupilami's wild habitat, since these species are native to

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

, while the Marsupilami species in the comic version was said to come from

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sou ...

. Another change is that Disney's animated Marsupilami can speak, whereas his comic counterpart can only mimic sound like a

parrot Parrots, also known as psittacines (), are birds of the roughly 398 species in 92 genera comprising the order Psittaciformes (), found mostly in tropical and subtropical regions. The order is subdivided into three superfamilies: the Psittacoide ...

Episodes

Home media

North American (NTSC) releases

Three VHS and

Betamax Betamax (also known as Beta, as in its logo) is a consumer-level analog recording and cassette format of magnetic tape for video, commonly known as a video cassette recorder. It was developed by Sony and was released in Japan on May 10, 1975, ...

compilations, each containing five Marsupilami shorts, were released in North America by

Walt Disney Home Video Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Inc., doing business as Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, is the home entertainment distribution arm of The Walt Disney Company. The division handles the distribution of Disney's films, television series, an ...

European and Oceania (PAL) releases

Five VHS cassettes, and Betamax cassettes collecting the entire production of Marsupilami shorts produced by Disney, were released in Europe and Oceania by

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Marsupiliami (1993 TV Series) 1990s American animated television series 1993 American television series debuts 1993 American television series endings American children's animated comedy television series American animated television spin-offs CBS original programming Disney Channel original programming English-language television shows Television series based on Belgian comics Television series by Disney Television Animation Comedy franchises Marsupilami Internet memes