Doctor Snuggles Doctor Snuggles is a 70’s Children’s TV cartoon. Jeffrey O'Kelly created Doctor Snuggles after he starred in the movie 'The Thin Red Line'. One day he decided to write a small story about Doctor Snuggles, plus create some drawings of him. His wife Angela helped out by building a Doctor Snuggles doll, to illustrate what the series could look like. But Jeffrey still wanted to fine tune the look of Doctor Snuggles and had seen a poster that he liked. He contacted the illustrator, Nick Price, to see if he could come up with drawings for 2 of the characters. Nick based the look of Doctor Snuggles on his grandmother and also came up with the look of Miss Nettles. When Jeffrey received the drawings back, he knew that this was the look of Doctor Snuggles.   It was initially made into a cartoon for Dutch TV, by Jeffrey O'Kelly and Polyscope Productions, and was animated in Japan. It was shown in the Netherlands in 1979 and in 1980 the US received it, who loved its quaint English sound. Doctor Snuggles was voiced by the unmistakable Peter Ustinov, who was always a great storyteller and he brought the programme to life with his voice. He had been chosen especially for the US market, where they had kept refusing shows because they couldn't understand what they were saying. They had no problems with Peters voice.   Peter was joined by a number of other voice actors - John Challis and Olwen Griffiths. Olwen is better known for providing some of the voices in 'Ivor the Engine'. Even Douglas Adams (of 'HitchHikers Guide to the Galaxy' fame) was involved, as he wrote 2 episodes for the show. But it looks like Doctor Snuggles hasn't finished his adventures yet! There are 26 scripts that are being written and developed and Jeffrey now has his son, Sean, involved with this production. Each adventure was split up into 5 parts and the lyrics to the theme tune were:   “Doctor Snuggles, friend of the animal world. Doctor Snuggles, dreaming of better Tomorrows Doctor Snuggles, you'd better start working today Doctor Snuggles, flying away to the stars Doctor Snuggles, finding a path to the rainbow Doctor Snuggles, build us a clever machine” Story Doctor Snuggles is a little man who likes to invent things. He must be little, because some of his animal friends are the same height as him. He lives in a house in the country and is always considerate about others and their feelings. He will always help them out and will even go to the ends of the earth, or space, to help them.   Yes, Doctor Snuggles has even invented a Rocket Ship out of wood and pots and pans, which he has named 'Dreamy Boom Boom' (I think he must have been on magic mushrooms to come up with a name like this). He was most concerned when his Treacle Tree flew off into space and had got lost, so he went to find him, once he'd fuelled the ship up with tea!   If you think of unbelievable things, then Doctor Snuggles would have done them. He visits strange lands, such as The Land of the Terrible Horrendous Snarky Quark, where everything is made out of rock and it even rains rocks. Doctor Snuggles Characters Doctor Snuggles (voiced by Peter Ustinov) He is an inventor who likes to look after all his friends. He carries around an umbrella with him that has a handle shaped like a Duck's head. But as you can guess in this magical land, the umbrella can talk back to him and he can use it as a pogo stick to get around. He also carries around with him a talking watch called Ticker. Not content with hopping around using his umbrella, he created his own rocket ship, so he can fly round the Universe and drop in on some of his friends, like Woogie the freckled camel.   One of his hobbies is collecting precious stones and he loves nothing more than sorting them. He was shocked when Woogie told him that he would have to convert them into diamonds to fix the rainbow (whose colours were fading and it was breaking up). So the Diamond Making Machine was used to create a massive Diamond, which they used in a Rainbow Fixing Machine (are you keeping up with me?). This beamed each colour of the rainbow, onto the rainbow, which restored it to its former glory.   One of his inventions appears from a trap door in the bottom of Rickety Rick, called the Whereabouts Machine. This is useful when Doctor Snuggles wants to find someone or if he feeds it an object, then they can find out the history/location of it. Dennis Dennis the Badger is one of Doctor Snuggles' closest friends and assists him with his inventions, by using the Badger Graph to draw them out (with the help of the mice - Ringo and Kingo). He is a courageous Badger and flinches at the sight of danger :) He lives in a burrow, with a lovely front door and is an excellent climber. Once he caught the Cat sneezing illness and sneezed so much that he blew off Ricketty Rick's door, which landed on him. He stopped sneezing, but had suddenly become bad tempered. So Doctor Snuggles had to use the Sunny Smile Machine on him, the trouble was, he became too happy and had fallen in love with Miss Nettles and everything around him. It was when Miss Nettles accidentally hit him on the head with her broom, when chasing Nobby Mouse, that Dennis returned to his normal self. Miss Nettles She is Doctor Snuggles' grumpy housekeeper, who was always trying to give notice and pack her job in. This was usually because she would catch Nobby in her kitchen and try to squash him with a rolling pin, as she really hates mice. She uses one of Doctor Snuggles' strange inventions to get around, which is some sort of motorised bike. Doctor Snuggles even built Matilda Junkbottom to help her out with the housework, but they didn't get off to a good start as Matilda got carried away and danced with Miss Nettles, into the nearest pond. After a few adjustments to Matilda and a small amount of time, Miss Nettles became good friends with Matilda.   Housekeepers are so hard to find, that she was kidnapped by Professor Erasmus Emerald, the most wickedest magician in the world. But he couldn't bear to be bossed around by her and was begging Doctor Snuggles to take her away again. Not only that, but she was frozen stiff when she tasted the contents of a tin of food that  Benjy, Freddy and Nobby found. Matilda Junkbottom Matilda Junkbottom - She is one of Doctor Snuggles' inventions and as her name suggest, she was made with a load of junk. She was created to help Miss Nettles out with the housework, but she couldn't function without a heart, so they used Doctor Snuggles' lazy alarm clock as the heart (who thinks she looks beautiful). She couldn't speak, but she printed off pictures that came out through her mouth, and her eyes would flash. I think that this was a large oversight when Doctor Snuggles created her, as they were always trying to puzzle over what she had meant. For such a small robot, she has got super strength and can even lift up Rickety Rick. Ricketty Rik He is a shed where Doctor Snuggles makes all his inventions. But as you can tell he isn't an ordinary shed, as he can talk and walk (he's really tall when he stands up) and a talking Bat lives in his roof. When needed, he can even turn himself into a boat, with some help. Nobby He's a mouse, who likes mountaineering around Doctor Snuggles' house (he uses a small anchor that is attached to a rope ladder). He likes Doctor Snuggles' special cheese, if he can get his hands on it. He even stowed away on the Rocket Ship, so he could stay near his beloved cheese. Not only that, he's very mischievous and loves to break things and upset Miss Nettles. He also hates for things to be clean and tidy. The Treacle Tree He is a Talking Treacle tree, who decided he was bored and wanted to fly. The Squirrel who lived inside of the tree wasn't too happy about this idea. So Matilda Junkbottom suggested that to fly like a bird that he needed feathers from the birds and lessons from them. And do you know what? It worked and he soared into the sky. Doctor Snuggles went searching for his 'lost' tree and found him on Plant Planet, where he had become the Plant Emperor of all plants. He was now very conceited and he ordered his plants to lock them up, after they dared to speak to him! Luckily with the help of Dennis and the two rabbits, they tunnelled their way out. In the meantime, Nobby had not been captured and he crept up to the Treacle tree. while he was sleeping, and gnawed away at the rope keeping his wings on. The next time he flew, his wings fell off and the plants banished him for tricking them. Coot Boot He is a messenger bird that lives in a little wooden house that is attached to the top of the chimney of Doctor Snuggles house. He's nearly always sleeping and has some string attached to his leg when he is. This is so that when Doctor Snuggles uses a contraption downstairs, it hoists Coot Boot up into the air in his house, as he's such a heavy sleeper this seems to be the best way to wake him up! He then exits his house through a trapdoor on his ceiling and zooms down the chimney to see what Snuggles wants. Granny Toots She is one of Doctor Snuggles oldest and dearest friends. She lives in a house that is built into the side of the Great Beech Tree. She shares this strange, large house with hundreds of cats by making it into a cat hospital. As you can tell, she loves cats dearly. But there were so many sick cats, that her house was getting over crowded and so Doctor Snuggles thought he'd help by winning the Great Balloon race and winning £1000. He gave Granny Toots this money, to build a proper Cat Hospital (isn't he thoughtful). The Cosmic Cat He is cat from outer space and arrived in his own cat spaceship. He lives with Granny Toots and can visualise the present and the future for people. He is a strange cat, as his ears are metal and you can see a never ending spark of electricity going between them and has magnetic powers. Not only that he speaks in a very strange voice. If you gaze into his eyes, you can see what the Cosmic Cat is visualising. He talks in riddles, but luckily Doctor Snuggles can work them out. When he sleeps, he has a habit of levitating up and down. Woogie Woogie lives at Lavender Lullaby (the first colour of the rainbow) in Rainbow Land. He is a wise freckled camel and is always happy to see Doctor Snuggles and sit down and drink tea. Doctor Snuggles goes to him when he has a problem and Woogie offers him any advice he can. But poor Doctor Snuggles finds it hard to stay awake there as the flying Lavender Sheep keep singing lullabies. Willy Fox and Charlie Rat These two are not a nice duo to bump into. Willy is the brains of the two and he gets Charlie to do all the work for him. They are always doing underhand things for money (at any cost), such as the time they tried to cheat in the Balloon Race. They really wanted the £1000 prize money and used an engine to propel them along quicker than everyone else. But eventually Doctor Snuggles won. Not surprisingly they tried to steal the massive Diamond that Doctor Snuggles was using to try and fix the rainbow. Winnie Vinegar Bottle She is a witch who lives in a very large green bottle in the Salt and Pepper Mountains. Inside the bottle is a house that takes up all of the room, its a perfect fit. But being a magic house, it's much bigger on the inside. The trouble with Winnie, is that she is a Wicked Witch and is mostly in a foul mood. She especially likes to turn her Postman into a toad! Which is why Doctor Snuggles and friends are scared of her. Apart from being wicked, she loves to fly around on her jet propelled broomstick, but she was so upset when it broke, that Doctor Snuggles felt compelled to fix it for her. Uncle Bill He is the Uncle of Doctor Snuggles (I think?). He is a very important explorer who likes nothing else than discovering lost cities and is always on the lookout for strange things. He needed the help of Doctor Snuggles when he found out all the animals in the jungle were being turned into butterflies! (something to do with a Magic Mushroom!!) Even Uncle Bill was turned into one. So Doctor Snuggles and friends had to seek the help of the Great White Lama, to turn them all back again.   He even lived underwater for a while in his Lobsterscape (a mechanical lobster) and used the sea creatures to help to keep it tidy, as it was flooded inside you see (apart from when guests turned up). As you can see, he's a rather eccentric type of man (that's supposed to be his thinking cap). Doctor Panicky Pill His is a very nervous Doctor that looks like a large pill. I'm not sure he is the right person to look after sick people, because he doesn't like to treat ill people as he's scared of catching their illness. He is a friend of Granny Toots and is always in a rush. Because of this he gets clumsy and he accidentally breaks a number of things. It was by accident that the Sunny Smile Machine was used on him and he became more confident and a better person (hooray!). Professor Erasmus Emerald & Horner Professor Erasmus Emerald is the most wickedest magician in the world, who has a Spanish Bush Baby living in his hat. Both can turn into birds, so that they can spy on people. He loves to get his own way and if he sees something he likes, then he steals it. He even stole Miss Nettles because he wanted a house keeper to look after 'Seaweed Castle' (which sits in the middle of the ocean). But he got more than he bargained for when he found out how bossy Miss Nettles was and he was so relived when Doctor Snuggles came to rescue her (or was it the Professor?).   You would have thought he would have learnt his lesson, but no, this time he stole a casket that contained Pandorium, one of the rarest elements in the universe (which has extraordinary powers). But he wasn't the only one that was after the casket, The Space wanderer, was a knight on a quest to return the casket to the planet Pandor. Professor Erasmus Emerald was affected in a strange way, when exposed to the Pandorium. Instead of being nasty to everyone, he became quite nice, which was plain weird and every time the box was shut, then he became angry and abusive again. Eventually Doctor Snuggles and the Space Wanderer recovered the box from the Professor and returned it to its home planet. Benjy and Freddy Rabbit They are two brothers that help Doctor Snuggles. Hugo the Frog Hugo doesn't do much, apart from sitting on his lily pad and smoking cigars. Quiffy and Quoffy Quiffy is a Naval duck married to Quoffy and they have 3 cute ducklings. Doctor Snuggles Images (click to enlarge) Doctor Snuggles T-Shirts - NONE Doctor Snuggles DVDs Region 2 (Europe) - Doctor Snuggles DVDs Region 1 (USA) - NONE Doctor Snuggles Video Intro Doctor Snuggles Episodes Series 1 (1979)  1. The Fabulous Mechanical Mathilda         Junkbottom  2. The Astounding Treacle Tree  3. The Spectacular Rescue of Miss Nettles  4. The Unbelievable Wormmobile  5. The Sensational Balloon Race  6. The Magical Multicoloured Diamond  7. The Remarkable Fidgety River  8. The Fearful Miscast Spell of Winnie the         Witch  9. The Extraordinary Odd Dilemma Of         Dennis the Badger  10. The Wondrous Powers of the Magic           Casket  11. The Turn of Events with the Unwelcome           Invaders  12. The Great Disappearing Mystery  13. The Amazing Reflective Myth   © JedisParadise.com Toys & Gifts T-Shirts Bargain DVDs