''Mike, Lu & Og'' is an
animated television series
An animated series, or a cartoon series, is a set of Animation, animated films with a common title, usually related to one another. These episodes typically share the same main heroes, some different secondary characters and a basic theme. Series ...
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. He wrote, directed, and animated the 1974 unrated adult-themed ...
for
Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network (CN) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the Cartoon Network, Inc., a sub-division of the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks division of Warner Bros. Discovery. It launched on ...
, 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 from July 14, 1997, to June 14, 2004, and produced primarily by Hanna-Barbera and later Cartoon Network Studios. The first Cartoon Cartoon ...
. The series follows a
foreign exchange student
A student exchange program is a program in which students from a secondary school (high school) or higher education study abroad at one of their institution's partner institutions.
A student exchange program may involve international travel, bu ...
from
Manhattan
Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
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 actress and singer. She is known for her voices in various animated series, including Mike in '' Mike, Lu & Og'', Asajj Ventress in '' Star Wars: The Clone Wars'', Stretch and Squeeze in ' ...
as Mike,
Nancy Cartwright
Nancy Jean Cartwright (born October 25, 1957) is an American actress, best known as the long-time voice of Bart Simpson on ''The Simpsons'', for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance and an Annie Award f ...
as Lu, and
Dee Bradley Baker
Dee Bradley Baker (born August 31, 1962) is an American voice actor. Much of his work has consisted of vocalizations of animals and monsters. Baker's roles include animated series such as '' Adventure Time'', ''American Dad!'', '' Avatar: The Las ...
as Og. The distinctive animation style is similar to shows produced by
Klasky Csupo
Klasky-Csupo, Inc. ( ) is an American animation studio located in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1982 by producer Arlene Klasky and her then-husband, Hungarian animator Gábor Csupó (hence the company's name) in a spare room of th ...
for
Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...
, such as ''
Rugrats
''Rugrats'' is an American animated television series created by Arlene Klasky, Gábor Csupó, and Paul Germain for Nickelodeon. The series focuses on a group of toddlers, most prominently Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, and Lil, and their day-to-d ...
'', ''
Aaahh!!! Real Monsters
''Aaahh!!! Real Monsters'' is an American animated television series developed by Klasky Csupo for Nickelodeon. It is the fifth Nicktoons, Nicktoon after ''Doug (TV series), Doug'', ''Rugrats'', ''The Ren & Stimpy Show'' and ''Rocko's Modern Li ...
'', ''
The Wild Thornberrys
''The Wild Thornberrys'' is an American animated series, animated television series created by Arlene Klasky, Gábor Csupó, Steve Pepoon, David Silverman, and Stephen Sustarsic for Nickelodeon. The series portrays the zany hijinks of a family o ...
'', ''
Rocket Power
''Rocket Power'' is an American animated television series created by Arlene Klasky and Gábor Csupó and produced by Klasky Csupo and Nickelodeon Animation Studio for Nickelodeon. The show centers on the daily lives of Otto, Reggie, Twister ...
'', ''
As Told by Ginger
''As Told by Ginger'', also known as ''As Told by Ginger Foutley'',Beck, Jerry, ''Not Just Cartoons: Nicktoons!'' is an American animated preteen drama television series, produced by Klasky Csupo (which also produced ''Rugrats''), and aired on ...
'', and ''
Duckman
''Duckman: Private Dick/Family Man'', commonly known simply as ''Duckman'', is an American adult animated sitcom created and developed by Everett Peck, based on the characters he created in his 1990 one-shot comic book published by Dark Horse Com ...
'' (produced for the
USA Network
USA Network (or simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Media Group division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. It was launched in 1977 as Madison Square Garden Sports Network, one of the first national sports ...
), due to its crudely-drawn look (Swenson worked on ''Rugrats'' and ''Monsters '' prior to this show).
Reruns were broadcast on
Boomerang
A boomerang () is a thrown tool typically constructed with airfoil sections and designed to spin about an axis perpendicular to the direction of its flight, designed to return to the thrower. The origin of the word is from Australian Aborigin ...
from 2006 to 2011. On November 6, 2017, the series was added to Cartoon Network on Demand. as well as on
Max
Max or MAX may refer to:
Animals
* Max (American dog) (1983–2013), at one time purported to be the world's oldest living dog
* Max (British dog), the first pet dog to win the PDSA Order of Merit (animal equivalent of the OBE)
* Max (gorilla) ...
in some regions.
Characters
* (short for Michelanne)
(voiced by
Nika Futterman
Nika Futterman (born October 25, 1969) is an American actress and singer. She is known for her voices in various animated series, including Mike in '' Mike, Lu & Og'', Asajj Ventress in '' Star Wars: The Clone Wars'', Stretch and Squeeze in ' ...
) is an 11-year-old
Manhattan
Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
-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 Jean Cartwright (born October 25, 1957) is an American actress, best known as the long-time voice of Bart Simpson on ''The Simpsons'', for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance and an Annie Award f ...
) is a 10-year-old self-proclaimed princess of the island, Og's cousin and Alfred and Margery's niece, and 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 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 his work has consisted of vocalizations of animals and monsters. Baker's roles include animated series such as '' Adventure Time'', ''American Dad!'', '' Avatar: The Las ...
) is a 7-year-old
raspy-voiced 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 Soucie (, ). is an American voice actress, known for voicing Phil, Lil and their mother Betty DeVille in '' Rugrats'', Lola Bunny in the ''Looney Tunes'' franchise, Fifi La Fume and Li'l Sneezer in ''Tiny Toon Adventures'', Maddie Fent ...
), a goat named Mr. Goat (also voiced by Dee Bradley Baker), and a
porcupine
Porcupines are large rodents with coats of sharp Spine (zoology), spines, or quills, that protect them against predation. The term covers two Family (biology), families of animals: the Old World porcupines of the family Hystricidae, and the New ...
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 (15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher. He began his career as a classical philologist, turning to philosophy early in his academic career. In 1869, aged 24, Nietzsche became the youngest pro ...
, 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" ( ) is a literary folktale written by the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen, about a vain emperor who gets exposed before his subjects. The tale has been translated into over 100 languages.Andersen 2005a 4
"Th ...
"), and made
jujubombs in an episode of the same name.
* (voiced by
S. Scott Bullock) is Lu's father and Alfred's brother, and the Governor of the Island. Wendell is Og's uncle and Margery's brother-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 a British actor and comedian. 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 ''Carry ...
, although whether this was intentional or not remains uncertain. His wife is never seen or mentioned.
* (voiced by Martin Rayner) 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, impairments, or impediments, are a type of communication disorder in which normal speech is disrupted. This can mean fluency disorders like stuttering and cluttering. Someone who is unable to speak due to a speech disorder is co ...
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 of the family Vombatidae that are native to Australia. Living species are about in length with small, stubby tails and weigh between . They are adaptable and habitat tolerant, and are ...
named Woolly Wombat. It appears that the island's inhabitants are vegetarian (though clams and chicken soup 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 Soucie (, ). is an American voice actress, known for voicing Phil, Lil and their mother Betty DeVille in '' Rugrats'', Lola Bunny in the ''Looney Tunes'' franchise, Fifi La Fume and Li'l Sneezer in ''Tiny Toon Adventures'', Maddie Fent ...
) 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 has to do with the island's ancestors. For this, she often seen working on a sculpture of several ancestors on the side of a mountain, reminiscent of
Mount Rushmore
The Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a National Memorial (United States), national memorial centered on a colossal sculpture carved into the granite face of Mount Rushmore (, or Six Grandfathers) in the Black Hills near Keystone, South Dak ...
. Every once in a while she will also be found painting food, and often found cooking it. Margery is the island's chef, 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, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa.
Historically, crumpets are also regionally known as pik ...
.
* (voiced by
Corey Burton
Corey Burton is an American voice actor. He is the current voice of Captain Hook, Ludwig Von Drake and others for The Walt Disney Company, Shockwave on '' The Transformers'', Brainiac in the DC Animated Universe, Count Dooku and Cad Bane in ...
) is the island elder and
witch doctor
A witch doctor (also spelled witch-doctor), or witchcraft doctor, is a kind of magical healer who treats ailments believed to be caused by witchcraft. The term is often misunderstood, and they could more accurately be called "anti-witch doctors ...
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 powers rooted in parapsychology, such as extrasensory perception (ESP), to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance; or who performs acts that a ...
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. 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
guano
Guano (Spanish from ) is the accumulated excrement of seabirds or bats. Guano is a highly effective fertiliser due to the high content of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium, all key nutrients essential for plant growth. Guano was also, to a le ...
). This includes everything from toothpaste to snacks.
* Pirates are 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 27 July 1952) is a British actor. He is 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), th ...
) 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 Burton is an American voice actor. He is the current voice of Captain Hook, Ludwig Von Drake and others for The Walt Disney Company, Shockwave on '' The Transformers'', Brainiac in the DC Animated Universe, Count Dooku and Cad Bane in ...
). 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 October and November in the United States, Canada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Germany. It is also observed in the Australian territory ...
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 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 27 July 1952) is a British actor. He is 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), th ...
and
S. Scott Bullock), 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 (1855–1 ...
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, wher ...
s to be bucked teeth.
Production
''Mike, Lu & Og'' premiered on Cartoon Network's animation shorts showcase ''
World Premiere Toons'' 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. It was produced by Dilworth's animation studio, Stretch Films. The eponymous character is an anxious dog who li ...
'', ''
Ed, Edd n Eddy
'' Ed, Edd n Eddy'' is an animated television series created by Danny Antonucci for Cartoon Network. The series revolves around three friends named Ed, Edd (nicknamed "Double D" to avoid confusion with Ed), and Eddy—collectively known as "th ...
'', 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 filmmaking technique whereby still images are manipulated to create moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Animati ...
'', the series premiere date was set for November 12, 1999, and would be produced simultaneously at
Pilot Studio in
Moscow
Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
and Kinofilm in Los Angeles. Previews for ''Mike, Lu & Og'' were shown in most American movie theaters before ''
Pokémon: The First Movie''. 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 Games Corporation (formerly Majesco Sales Inc. and Majesco Entertainment Company) 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, an ...
featuring characters from the series was announced for the Nintendo
Game Boy Advance
The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console, manufactured by Nintendo, which was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, and to international markets that June. It was later released in mainland China in 2004, under the name iQue Game Boy Advanc ...
handheld console in May 2002 but ultimately never released.
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
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mike, Lu and Og
1990s American animated comedy television series
2000s American animated comedy television series
1990s American children's comedy television series
2000s American children's comedy television series
1999 American animated television series debuts
2001 American television series endings
1999 Russian television series debuts
2001 Russian television series endings
American children's animated adventure television series
American children's animated comedy television series
Fictional trios
Russian children's animated adventure television series
Russian children's animated comedy television series
Animated television series about children
Cartoon Network original programming
Animated television series set on fictional islands
American English-language television shows
Cartoon Cartoons
Animated television series about princesses