Iggy Arbuckle

Iggy Arbuckle is a Canadian animated series that premiered in Canada on Teletoon in June 2007.[4] Based on a comic strip from National Geographic Kids, the show is created by Guy Vasilovich, and focuses about a pig (Iggy Arbuckle) who happens to be a forest ranger, known in the series as a "Pig Ranger". The plot involves Iggy's attempts to protect the environmental structure of the fictional Kookamunga National Park. It is produced by Blueprint Entertainment, in association with CORE Toons, National Geographic Kids, and Teletoon and distributed by Oasis International. The series was cancelled on October 10, 2007.

Iggy Arbuckle
The main cast of the show: (Clockwise from top) The Great Bamzeani, Robear,[1] Catfish Stu, Robert, Jiggers, Iggy Arbuckle, Spiff, Zoop and Kira. (Background) Mooseknuckle.
Genre	Animation Sitcom
Created by	Guy Vasilovich
Developed by	Myra Fried Steve Wright Shelley Hoffman Robert Pincombe
Written by	(5 or more episodes) Myra Fried Steve Wright Karen Moonah Terry Saltsman Kenn Scott
Voices of	Jonathan Wilson David Berni James Rankin Derek McGrath Stephanie Milo Stephanie Anne Mills Novie Edwards Neil Crone Patrick McKenna
Country of origin	Canada
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	26
Production
Executive producer(s)	Donna Friedman Meir Noreen Halpern John Morayniss Audrey Velichka
Producer(s)	Suzanne Berger
Running time	22 min approx.
Production company(s)	C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures National Geographic Kids NGC Studios Blueprint Entertainment
Distributor	Disney-ABC Domestic Television (United States) Entertainment One (Hasbro) (All other territories)
Release
Original network	Teletoon
Picture format	1080i (16:9 HDTV); (SDTV), reruns only
Original release	June 29 (2007-06-29)[2] – October 10, 2007 (2007-10-10)[3]

The series also aired in Australia on ABC Kids and in the United Kingdom on Jetix from August 25, 2007, Pop from June 27, 2011. Oasis International, the Canadian distributor, also licensed the series to channels such as Cartoon Network (in Korea, Southeast Asia, India, and the Philippines) and Canal + SA and TPS in France. It was also broadcast on Saturday mornings on Toonattik on ITV and CITV, and weekday mornings on Action Stations! on ITV4 and CITV.

Plot

The show takes place in a fictional national park known as the "Kookamunga" (The "Kook" for short, although there is the Cucamonga Valley in California). The park is looked after by a white pig named Iggy Arbuckle, who is the creator of the "Pig Rangers", a fictional type of forest ranger. He is accompanied by a beaver named Jiggers, who is the only other canonical Pig Ranger in the show.

Iggy's nemesis is a catfish named Stu, who is always trying to use the Kookamunga to obtain wealth. Most of the stories revolve around Iggy and Jiggers' efforts to save the park's ecosystem from Catfish Stu.

Recurring Locations

The most prominent locations in the park include a volcano called Mount Kaboom, which Jiggers is constantly afraid will erupt, despite Iggy saying it has been dormant for centuries. The first story in the debut episode focused on this matter. Three other recurring places are a lake called Gottalottawatta, in which character Catfish Stu frequently dwells, an Iceland called Brainfreeze and a town called Mooseknuckle.

Production

Iggy Arbuckle began as a comic strip entitled Iggy Arbuckle: Nature Freak! that premiered in National Geographic Kids in the June 2004 issue.[5] It was, to date, the only issue of the comic strip; in which the characters Iggy Arbuckle, Jiggers and Zoop made their first appearances. The plot involved Iggy and Jiggers trying to find an acorn so Iggy could make an acorn squash pie for Zoop as a birthday present. Created by Guy Vasilovich, director of Kangaroo Jack: G'Day U.S.A.!, writer for Moville Mysteries, and production designer for Hey Arnold!: The Movie, the series is loosely based on his childhood experiences while living in Tomahawk, Wisconsin.[6][7]

On April 11, 2005, Oasis International, Blueprint Entertainment and Teletoon announced that they were coproducing an animated series based on the comic. The series would be targeted at children ages six to eleven and feature twenty-six episodes each comprising two eleven-minute sub-episodes. The animation was done entirely in Flash, with over 100 workers involved in the series' creation.[8] National Geographic holds the US distribution rights for the series, while Blueprint holds the international rights.[5] Jetix Europe acquired the European broadcast and DVD distribution rights to the series in February 2007.[7]

In January 2008, Oasis International sold distribution rights of Iggy Arbuckle to Canal + SA and TPS in France, to ABC in Australia, and to the variants of Cartoon Network in Southeast Asia, Korea, the Philippines, Australia, and India.[9] The series was licensed for US broadcast by Animania HD, and is currently licensed for distribution in a total of seventy territories.[10]

Characters

Main article: List of Iggy Arbuckle characters

Iggy Arbuckle and his sidekick Jiggers

The characters in the show are drawn as animal species, including many types of mammals, reptiles, birds, fish, and even insects. Rather than referring to the male characters as "men" and the females as "women" in the appropriate contexts, the characters refer to each other by their species (though the words "lady/ladies,"[11] "gentleman/men," "girls,"[12] and "boys"[13] exist in their vocabulary). The wild animals and the anthropomorphized characters understand each other quite well, and the wild ones seem quite intelligent.

A gag in the series is that whenever a character gets conked on the head, bluebirds start flying around their heads. When the character comes to, they fly away.

Episodes

No.	Title	Original air date
1	"Iggy Vs. the Volcano" "A Dip in the Pole"	June 29, 2007 (2007-06-29)
Iggy and Jiggers must stop Mount Kaboom from erupting. later, they try to prove that Admiral "Brrrrrd" really did sail to the Norse Pole.
2	"The Things We Do for Mud" "How Much Wood Can a Wood Pecker Peck?"	July 1, 2007 (2007-07-01)
Catfish Stu tries to become a Pig Ranger in order to find out where "Miracle Mud" comes from. Iggy and the gang try to save the Great Bamzeani from being pecked to dust by woodpeckers.
3	"The Beaver Who Would be King" "I am Iggy, Hear Me Snore"	July 3, 2007 (2007-07-03)
Jiggers becomes the King of the Lost Warthog tribe. Iggy must cease his snoring or else cease his residence in the Kookamunga.
4	"Idle Worship" "There's Something about Berries"	July 10, 2007 (2007-07-10)
Iggy gives a famous nature explorer a tour of the Kookamunga. later, he tries to find out how Stu is behind the disappearance of the Juniper berry bushes.
5	"Yawny Come Lately" "Petition Impossible"	July 12, 2007 (2007-07-12)
It's Yawny Yump-A-Lot Day, and Yawny's angry spirit is forcing the town to do something for him, or else become the world's largest totem pole. Iggy and Jiggers must get 200 signatures in a petition before a construction crew builds a highway all along the Kookamunga.
6	"Paradise Found" "Luck Before You Leap"	July 19, 2007 (2007-07-19)
Iggy and Jiggers seek after the Legendary Lost City of the Kookamunga. Iggy frantically tries to figure out what happened to his good luck toothpick.
7	"The Fish Who Came for Dinner" "Courage Under Fur"	July 21, 2007 (2007-07-21)
Temporarily banned from his house for the sake of a crane family, Catfish Stu and the ferrets stay at Iggy's house for a month. Zoop hypnotizes Jiggers so he can overcome his fear of spiders.
8	"Lights, Camera, Distraction!" "Fish and Chip off the Old Block"	July 29, 2007 (2007-07-29)
A movie director" "producer" "actor is trying to produce a film in the Kookamunga. A bump on the noggin leads Iggy to believe Catfish Stu is his father.
9	"Any Friend of Yours" "Miner Misfortunes"	August 1, 2007 (2007-08-01)
Jiggers and Kira develop an attraction, and Jiggers begins to ignore Iggy. In order to stop Catfish Stu from tearing the Kook apart, the gang must bring a legendary curse to life.
10	"The Way of the Skunk" "I Fought the Laundromat"	August 5, 2007 (2007-08-05)
Spiff quits his job as a street cleaner after a robot takes over. Iggy and Jiggers suspect Catfish Stu is behind Old Reliable's sudden inability to erupt.
11	"A Whale of a Tale" "Big Toe's Faux Paw"	August 10, 2007 (2007-08-10)
Iggy spies a narwhal, and must stop an evil British scientist from capturing it. Iggy and Jiggers argue over whether Big Toe is real... or just another of Catfish Stu's scams.
12	"Prince of the Kookamunga" "Voyage to the Bottom of the Lake"	August 12, 2007 (2007-08-12)
A friend of Kira's, from the city, visits the Kookamunga. Catfish Stu tries to retrieve a ship he believes contains treasure, from the bottom of the lake.
13	"Tower of Beaver" "A Bird in the Hoof"	August 19, 2007 (2007-08-19)
Spiff and Zoop can't stop arguing, and it gets in the way of their volunteer work. A back-talking parrot drives all of Mooseknuckle crazy.
14	"Fair is Ferret" "The Case of the Messy Marauder"	August 20, 2007 (2007-08-20)
After Iggy saves them repeatedly, the ferrets become his henchmen. A mysterious (and messy) thief keeps taking Zoop's peanuts.
15	"If Pigs could Fly" "Xtreme Iggy"	August 22, 2007 (2007-08-22)
Iggy and Jiggers find an abandoned condor egg and try to raise it. Iggy's attempts to protect skiers from avalanches turn him into an extreme sports star.
16	"Resident Weevil" "Kook Kook Achoo"	August 24, 2007 (2007-08-24)
A water hyacinth Robear places in Lake Gottalottowatta, for Stu, grows out of control. Jiggers inexplicably gains an allergy to sawdust.
17	"Pig-Coloured Glasses" "Art for Iggy's Sake"	August 27, 2007 (2007-08-27)
Jiggers' nephew, Chip, idolizes Iggy. Iggy is depressed because he can't find an art category he fits in with.
18	"Good Scavenger Hunting" "Mooseknuckle Unplugged"	August 29, 2007 (2007-08-29)
Iggy and Stu face off in a scavenger hunt. After a power failure, the residents of Mooseknuckle.
19	"Pandamonium" "Ghost of a Chance"	August 31, 2007 (2007-08-31)
The gang try to attract more tourists to the Kook. Iggy and Jiggers are driven out of their home by a "ghost".
20	"O Brother, Where art Thou?" "Ol' Trusty"	September 5, 2007 (2007-09-05)
Robear "saves" Zoop's life, and she does everything she can to repay him. Stu makes cheap knock-offs of Iggy's pig scout knife to sell to tourists.
21	"Nature's Calling" "Honey, I Ate the Bug"	September 10, 2007 (2007-09-10)
The film director returns, this time in hopes of getting indulged in nature. Jiggers believes that he ate Iggy's pet caterpillar.
22	"Sticking Together" "Slow Gnus Day"	September 12, 2007 (2007-09-12)
Iggy and Spiff become chained together when one of Jiggers' magic tricks goes wrong. later, they try to return a herd of wild buffalo (gnus) to the savannah.
23	"Scents and Sensibility" "The Great Kookamunga Standoff"	September 20, 2007 (2007-09-20)
Iggy and Jiggers try to make a perfume for Zoop's birthday. later, they argue over what the theme of the party celebrating the good harvests in the park will be.
24	"The Big Flap" "The Unsung Hero"	September 24, 2007 (2007-09-24)
Iggy and Jiggers must save the butterflies from the wind. Iggy and Jiggers enlist Spiff's help in singing for cactuses, because Zoop is sick.
25	"The Kindness of Rangers" "Iggy's Family Tree"	September 30, 2007 (2007-09-30)
Catfish Stu's mother, Catfish Stella, visits her son. Iggy tries to save a dying old oak, which has been a part of his family for several generations.
26	"When Iggy Met Jiggers" "One Fine Day"	October 10, 2007 (2007-10-10)
Iggy and Jiggers tell Kira about Jiggers' arrival at Mooseknuckle. After discovering the one day off, Iggy wants to do in that day.

Reception

Iggy Arbuckle has been received well in Europe, with Jetix Europe receiving strong sales on the show.[14] In the United Kingdom, its biggest timeslot is among young male viewers.[14] As of Autumn 2008, it ranks among the top shows viewed by European children, in the markets in which Jetix has aired the show.[15]

Awards and nominations

As of March 2008, the sub-episode "Petition Impossible", of the episode "Yawny Come Lately/Petition Impossible" was among the finalists of the children's programs nominated for the 2008 Canadian Screenwriting Awards.[16][17] On April 14, the day the award winners were declared, the episode won the Children/Preschool category award.[18][19] The episode "Idle Worship/There's Something about Berries" won a Gemini award for Best Writing in a Children's Series, during the 23rd anniversary of the Gemini awards.[20][21] Jonathan Wilson and David Berni, the voices of Iggy and Jiggers, respectively, received a Gemini nomination for Best Individual or Ensemble Performance in an Animated Program or Series, for the same episode, although it lost to Gordon Tootoosis, Raven Brass, Trevor Cameron, Lorne Cardinal, Taylor Cook, Eric Jackson, Andrea Menard, and DerRic Starlight, for The Guardians.[22]

Merchandise

Promotional online poster for the game.

On November 1, 2007, an online game based on the series, The Great Kookamunga Challenge, was launched. Hosted on the Teletoon web site and created by Zinc Roe Design, the game was an online race in which players explored the Kookamunga National Park in search of 115 "checkpoints." At each checkpoint, they could earn points by playing games, answering trivia questions about the series, or completing group activities. The first players who completed the entire challenge won real-world prizes, including a digital camera and items from National Geographic Kids. The game ran for six weeks.[23][24]

The entire series of Iggy Arbuckle was released on DVD in 2007 in Australia.[25]

References

1. This is how the character's name is spelt in the end credits of the show, and in closed captioning (although in CC, a hyphen is placed between both syllables). All official material on the show spells his name as "Robear"; see Teletoon.com.
2. "Wednesday, June 6th, 2007 – Cynopsis Media". June 6, 2007.
3. "Television Program Logs". Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. March 2, 2016. Archived from the original on May 16, 2016.
4. Sofley, Kris (March 21, 2006). "Blueprint, Nat Geo's Iggy pops up on Teletoon". C21Media. Retrieved February 16, 2008.
5. "National Geographic Kids' Programming and Production and Blueprint Entertainment Conclude Production Deal on New Animated Series 'Iggy Arbuckle'" (Press release). NoticiasB2B. April 11, 2005. Archived from the original on December 5, 2007. Retrieved November 8, 2007.
6. "Nat Geo teams with Blueprint for new toon" (Press release). C21Media. April 13, 2005. Retrieved February 16, 2008.
7. "Jetix Europe Strengthens Comedy Line-Up With Iggy Arbuckle" (PDF) (Press release). Jetix Europe. February 19, 2007. Retrieved February 16, 2008.
8. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on November 22, 2008. Retrieved November 21, 2007.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
9. Vlessing, Etan (January 30, 2008). "9 Story takes a 'Village' global". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved February 16, 2008.
10. Brzoznowski, Kristin (January 31, 2008). "Oasis Shores Up Deals for Iggy Arbuckle". World Screen. Archived from the original on January 4, 2009. Retrieved February 16, 2008.
11. "Prince of the Kookamunga/Voyage to the Bottom of the Lake"; In "Prince of the Kookamunga," when Iggy, Jiggers and guest character Prince arrive in Mooseknuckle, the town has gathered to meet their newest visitor. When Prince is saying hello, he greets three females as "ladies."
12. "Any Friend of Yours/Miner Misfortunes"; In "Any Friend of Yours", Jiggers and Kira are discussing wood carving. Jiggers tells Kira that his favourite wood for carving is maple, and she replies that she's an "elm girl."
13. Character Catfish Stu frequently calls his henchmen "Boys".
14. "Jetix Europe N.V. announces results for the six months ended March 31, 2008". Euronext.com. May 15, 2008. Archived from the original on May 17, 2011. Retrieved May 19, 2008.
15. "Jetix Europe N.V. Announces Results for the Year ended September 30, 2008". euronext.com. November 13, 2008. Archived from the original on June 16, 2011. Retrieved November 13, 2008.
16. "CBCNews.ca's report on the finalists in the 2008 Canadian Screenwriting Awards". CBCNews.ca. March 17, 2008. Retrieved April 3, 2008.
17. Salem, Rob (March 18, 2008). "Hot Box: Television worth talking about". The Star. Toronto. Retrieved April 14, 2008.
18. "CBCNews.ca's report on the winners of the 2008 Canadian Screenwriting Awards". CBCNews.ca. April 14, 2008. Retrieved April 16, 2008.
19. "Official Writers Guild of Canada website's review on the 2008 winners". wgc.ca. Archived from the original on December 28, 2008. Retrieved April 16, 2008.
20. "Official Gemini awards website page for winning writers of children and youth's television" (PDF). geminiawards.com. October 21, 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 19, 2009. Retrieved October 24, 2008.
21. "'Degrassi' tops Canada's Geminis". Jennie Punter; www.variety.com. October 21, 2008. Retrieved October 24, 2008.
22. "Best Individual or Ensemble Performance in an Animated Program or Series". Official 2008 Gemini Awards website. Retrieved February 11, 2009.
23. "Great Kookamunga Challenge". Zinc Roe Design. November 1, 2007. Retrieved February 16, 2008.
24. Rusak, Gary (November 7, 2007). "Blueprint, Nat Geo put real-time twist on Iggy Arbuckle game". KidScreen Magazine. Archived from the original on August 14, 2011. Retrieved February 16, 2008.
25. "Iggy Arbuckle series on DVD". ABC Shop. Archived from the original on August 19, 2008. Retrieved May 11, 2008.

External links

• Iggy Arbuckle on IMDb
• Iggy Arbuckle at TV.com