Angela Anaconda

Angela Anaconda
Genre	Children, comedy
Created by	Joanna Ferrone Sue Rose
Starring	Sue Rose Richard Binsley Kevin Duhaney Edward Glen Jonathan Malen Bryn McAuley Ali Mukaddam Ruby Smith-Merovitz Robert Tinkler
Country of origin	Canada
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	65 (list of episodes)
Production
Running time	22 minutes (per episode) 11 minutes (per story)
Production company(s)	C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures (seasons 1-3) Decode Entertainment Angela Productions, Inc.
Release
Original network	Teletoon Fox / ABC Family Fox Kids (2000)
Original release	October 5, 1999 – February 24, 2002

Angela Anaconda is a Canadian cutout animation television series that aired on the channels Teletoon in Canada and Fox Family in the United States. It centered around the adventures of an eight-year-old girl named Angela who lived in the fictional town of Tapwater Springs, and her life with wacky brothers, weird friends, and a snobbish faux-French girl named Nanette Manoir.

Angela Anaconda began as a short skit on the Nickelodeon show Kablam!. It later became a series and aired on Fox Family from 1999 to 2002. Each episode consisted of two 11-minute stories. In 2001, when Disney bought Fox Family and changed the network's name to ABC Family, Angela was moved and canceled after two months. Reruns returned to Nickelodeon in 2004 only to be removed about a month later.

The show was created by Joanna Ferrone and Sue Rose, the latter of whom who also voices Angela. Sue Rose created the cartoon character Fido Dido as well as Disney's Pepper Ann and Nickelodeon's Unfabulous. The show was produced by DHX Media and C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures. It premiered on Cartoon Network in the UK, and also aired there on PopGirl; it also aired on POP TV in Slovenia and ABC1 and ABC2 in Australia.

The show featured a very distinct art style of Clip Art Animation, reminiscent of Terry Gilliam's animation from Monty Python's Flying Circus, in which all the characters were made out of cutouts of black-and-white photographs. The studio would have different models come in and take about 30 or more pictures for each mouth movement, then use Elastic Reality software to animate it.

The show now airs on Starz Kids & Family. There are currently no plans for a DVD release of the full series, although Channel 4 released the first 20 episodes across three separate DVDs in the UK. The first 20 episodes have also been released across four volumes in Australia.

Episodes

Main article: List of Angela Anaconda episodes

Characters

Angela Anaconda

Angela Anaconda is a tomboyish, imaginative, freckle-faced, 8-year-old girl who eschews the femininity commonly associated with other girls her age, particularly the feminine personality aspects shown by her stuck-up classmate and rival, Nanette Manoir. She greatly despises Nanette for her heartless, snobby behavior and her failed attempts at the stereotypical refinement, behavior, language, and fashion of the French, as she believes that she is French herself. Angela resides in the town of Tapwater Springs with her parents, two dimwitted elder brothers; Mark and Derek, her baby sister: Lulu, and closest friends; Johnny Abatti, Gordy Rhinehart, and Gina Lash. Throughout the series, Angela has a tendency to engage in dream sequences, like numerous other fictional characters depicted in media, most of which feature her Nanette Manoir seeking vengeance on her in unrealistic fashions. She often imagines unusual things happening to Nanette including getting tossed into the air during an ice routine and falling through the ice, then getting frozen into a block of ice. Angela is voiced by Sue Rose.

Johnny Abatti

Johnny is a sweet but dim child of Italian descent. His parents are never seen in the show (this is most likely due to them traveling often), and he appears to be under the care of his grandmother (nonna) Carmella and uncle Nicky, who often pressures Johnny into manhood (particularly in the episode "Johnny Learns to Swing"). Regarded as being good looking, Johnny takes pride in his pompadour hairstyle, and is the object of a few crushes. Nanette tries to flirt with him and refers to him as "John", even though nobody else does. Johnny is privileged enough to be invited to exclusive Manoir events, usually bringing Gina, Angela and Gordy along, often against their will. Despite this preferential treatment, Johnny remains totally clueless about Nanette's affections, even though he doesn't seem to dislike her like Angela, Gordy and Gina do (even in the episode "Puppy Love" he even cries at the fact that Nanette's poodle was missing, though in the episode "Touched By an Angel-a" he is seen scowling at Nanette after Nanette insulted Gina about her weight and in the episode "Snow Mercy" after it is revealed that Nanette was the one who ruined Gina's first ever hot dog he turns against her and showers her, January and Karlene with snowballs). Although he won't admit it, Johnny may have strong feelings for Angela, as he becomes resentful of any rival for her affections. In one episode, he sends Angela flowers but forgets to sign the card, and the credit for his gift goes to Angela's imaginary boyfriend Bob. Johnny likes to pick his nose and shoot spit balls (as he proudly reveals in the episode "Goodbye Mrs. Brinks"). Voiced by Ali Mukaddam

Gina Lash

Angela's best friend, Gina Lash, is the smartest child in her grade and is Jewish. Possessing encyclopedic knowledge and an impressive vocabulary (and a voracious appetite), Gina routinely dispenses reason and insight to her friends—although she will participate in whatever crazy scheme her friends are cooking up. Gina shares many interests with her friends, but her thirst for knowledge has led her to pursue a variety of other hobbies; she owns a microscope and other scientific paraphernalia. Gina is best known for her appetite, which rivals that of any adult. She is always hungry and can even fall prey to Nanette Manoir if she is bribed with her gourmet chef's cooking. Gina's favorite foods include Abatti's Pizza, cinnamon swirls, jiggly fruit and Tastee Swirl ice cream. Gina worships the mascot for Tastee Swirl, a man with a whipped ice cream head who dispenses frozen treats from his truck to the local kids, and idolizes the maker of her favorite cupcake snack, Tiny Dottie, as a professional food entrepreneur she wants to aspire to be like. Gina, who is overweight, does not let jibes about her appearance affect her but remains happy and confident (though in the episode "Touched by an Angel-a" she angrily calls Nanette "Ninny-wart" after Nanette maliciously said, "I could eat and eat and eat and not gain an ounce, unlike some people around here," and then glaring at Gina). Gina lives with her mother, who is single (until she begins dating a rather buff co-worker, and later Gordy's father Coach Rhinehart). Her father is never seen or mentioned on the show, implying that her mother is divorced. Gina also owns a pet turtle called Sheldon who eats a lot of carrots. Voiced by Bryn McAuley

Gordy Rhinehart

Gordy is a sweet, sensitive and artistic boy with asthma who prefers pressing flowers, housework and writing poetry to "dangerous" activities like tag or hide and seek, and is best known for his many allergies. Gordy, who wears large, square spectacles and a blue vest with a white border, is skinny and physically weak, the complete opposite of his burly and macho ex-Army dad Coach Rhinehart. Gordy's mother, like Gina's father, is never mentioned or hinted at. Despite being so unalike, their father/son relationship is very strong and they show genuine love and concern for one another. The Coach enjoys the strawberry soufflés, hand-embroidered towels and pillow cases Gordy makes in his free time. Gordy loves animals and is the proud owner of an immaculately groomed dog called Fabio. He is an expert on pet care and worries about the welfare of any animal entrusted to Angela (as seen in the episode "Turtle Confessions" when Angela was looking after Gina's pet turtle Sheldon). Gordy spent almost an entire episode ("Gordy in a Plastic Bubble") wearing rubber gloves and a face mask, refusing to leave his house, after looking at an eyelash under a microscope. In spite of Gordy's outward appearance and mannerisms, he is deeply in love with Gina Lash, but his love is never returned (perhaps because Gina appears to be embarrassed at this). Voiced by Edward Glen

Nanette Manoir

The main antagonist of the series, Nanette is the teacher's pet. She speaks with a stereotypical American teenage girl's voice, but occasionally combines it with a French accent when she speaks. Her hair is golden blonde and styled into long Victorian-style ringlets in emulation of her mother's look (though it is strongly suggested in the episode "Gordy in a Plastic Bubble" that she dyes her hair blonde after Gina Lash looks at a strand of her hair under a microscope and sees that the roots of her hair are actually brown like her father's hair). She is manipulative and has wrapped Mrs. Brinks around her finger with constant praise and gifts, although Mrs. Brinks has had moments of anger with Nanette, such as the ending of the episode "Return to Sender" after learning the truth about being a pawn (and "being un-French and uncouth"), giving her detention when Angela read an insult she wrote about Mrs. Brinks, and in the episode "Earhart's Heirloom" where she accidentally called Mrs. Brinks' birthday "nothing". In another episode Angela finds one Mrs Brinks' Student of the Week gold stars and reveals she found it in Nanette's trash, much to Mrs Brinks' ire.

The perfect little angel to most adults (including her indulging parents Howell and Bunny), but Nanette is devious, cunning, arrogant, snobbish and mean, exercising the worst of her traits on Angela and her friends. This likely is the fault of her doting parents (who are snobs themselves), who fail to see how rotten their daughter really acts at school and never punish her for things she does wrong. She is very proud of her pampered looks, constantly bouncing her curled hair, and she considers herself to be the most beautiful. Her interests are a posh variety of activities such as baton twirling, ballet, painting, gymnastics and ice skating. Nanette uses her family's wealth and high status as a way of asserting her superiority over her classmates, especially and specifically Angela and her friends. Because of her French first and last name, Nanette arrogantly believes that she is full-blooded French - a belief shared only by her mother Bunny. She sprinkles her conversation with misapplied French phrases, explaining their meaning incorrectly; for example, she believes "liaison" is French for "lesson", "crème brûlée" is French for "prove it", and "Crêpe Suzette" is French for "overpriced pancake"; however, she uses correctly applied French words and phrases in other instances. For example, in "Angela Who", she orders a large pizza "maintenant" (which is French for "now" or "right now"), and in "Puppy Love", she uses the French word "perdu", which means "lost".

She believes that Marie Antoinette was a natural born French queen (she did rule France but she was actually from Austria). Nanette has a huge wardrobe full of designer originals but nearly always wears a French girls' state school school uniform to school, complete with a beret (In the episode "You're So Vain" she wears a rather flamboyant pink frock with a deep pink beret (also seen in "Puppy Love"); in the episode "Goodbye Mrs Brinks" she dresses as a stereotypical punk and even nicknames herself as "Bruiser", and she wears pink lacy pajamas when she goes to sleep at night in her king size pink bed, fit for Marie Antoinette, (the best queen in France's history). She owns a poodle named Ooh La La, who is male, and her dog had a relationship with Angela's dog King in the episode "Puppy Love". She has a personal butler named Alfredo, who provides for her (and has been her caregiver and guardian ever since she was a baby (as seen in "Touched by an Angel-a") but doesn't care much about her family. She has exhibited bouts of jealousy/envy and anger such as when, in the episode "Hot Bob and Chocolate", "Bob" (it was really Johnny but he didn't sign the card) sent Angela a large bouquet of roses as she believed, despite it being just a rumor that she started in the first place, someone really was in love with Angela. Nanette also exhibited extreme shock when the substitute teacher dismissed Nanette's ambition to preserve the shortage of crocodile skin handbags, shoes and other fashion accoutrements as "poppycock".

She also won the heart of a young Arabian prince in the episode "Who's Sari Now", the force of the wind blowing her hair (making her look a lot like Medusa) ruins it to the point that the prince is disgusted by her. Despite being nasty, Nanette does hold many talents, such as spending the entire episode "Don't Overdue It" balancing a book on her head (and staining it with hair gel) and writing a "three act Greek tragedy" in the episode "Ancient Greeks" and casting all of her classmates in "the lesser roles" such as Jimmy Jamal as Zeus, Johnny Abatti as an eagle, Gina Lash as Dionysus, Gordy Rhinehart as Hercules, and Angela with a multitude of roles because she was disgusted by Angela's acting performance. In the episode "I Wanna Mould Your Band" she, January and Karlene appear to be singing the song "Everybody Wants to be a French Girl" very well, though it was later revealed that they were "lip syncing" using a speaker concealed inside Nanette's beehive wig (which was extremely heavy because of it), which causes Nanette and her posse to be disqualified from Mr. Tastee Twirl's talent contest. Voiced by Ruby Smith-Merovitz.

January and Karlene

Nicknamed the "Copycat Clone Club" by Angela, January Cole and Karlene Trainor are Nanette's best friends—treated more like her servants—who follow Nanette around wherever she goes; basically her girl posse. Karlene is Caucasian while January is African-American. Sporting bouffant hairdos, preppy clothing and beauty moles, they are very concerned with their appearance and look to Nanette for fashion guidance (mainly about facials and makeup). When Nanette makes a statement, January instantly agrees and then Karlene agrees "even more" (though in "Return to Sender" the agreements are switched around so that January agrees "even more", and in "Slice of Life", Nanette irritably asks the two if they could be quiet for at least five seconds). Despite their unyielding devotion to Nanette they are fickle; such as in the episode "Fairweather Friends" when Nanette was bedridden with a head cold, they found themselves without a leader and instantly latched onto Angela, who had the high-status job of organizing the school's spring fling decorations. However, once Nanette got over her cold, they came back to their leader at the drop of a dime, instantly abandoning Angela, but with a little regret as they were drenched with water from the Manoirs' swimming pool. Nanette and January actually had a falling-out with Karlene in the episode "Kar-Lean on Me" just because Karlene's rich father never brought her a hat made of real fur after cutting her allowance, resulting in Karlene hanging out with Angela and co. However, it is revealed later in the episode that Karlene was only hanging with them so she could save enough money to buy a real fur hat (since she believed in having fun by spending money, and claiming that she had saved $120 in the time she spent with Angela). Angela later gets even by making Karlene the gang's personal servant in the treehouse by making her serve them peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Karlene is voiced by Annick Obonsawin.

Josephine Praline

A devout Catholic, Josephine acts as a moral rudder for her classmates. She is sweet, loving and forgiving, but stern when she sees injustice. Josephine often refers to others as "my child". She set up a confessional in the girl's washroom, where her friends come to talk to her about their stresses and worries. She is well liked by her classmates, but like with Angela, Mrs. Brinks cares very little about her and at one point she snatches a $200 check from Josephine's hands when she revealed that she "cheated" during a charity bike race. (She claimed to have been aided by St. Christopher). Josephine urges Angela to learn to love her enemies and see the good in Nanette instead of hating her (as seen in the episode "Touched By an Angel-a"), but is surprised when she [Josephine] can't find any good qualities herself. This saddens Angela but Josephine cheers her up, saying that although Angela has her flaws it could be worse as she could be just like Nanette. Josephine frequently delivers praise and sometimes glows with a heavenly, serene light. She'd rather be in a Catholic school, but makes the best of her public school experience. Josephine comes from a large family (at least 19 brothers and sisters). In the episode "Cabin Fever" it is revealed that her Bronx-sounding mother has agoraphobia. Angela pretended that she had agoraphobia in order to skip school and then avoid clapping the blackboard erasers, though Mark and Derek brought a "get well package" home with them which was the erasers. She usually dresses in a Catholic school's school uniform. As revealed in "The Haunting of Angela Anaconda", she's against the observance of Halloween because she thinks it will make her a sinner. In "Cheese Under Pressure", it is revealed that she is lactose intolerant because of Jimmy Jamal's cheese on a stick.

Jimmy Jamal

A boy in Angela's class, he is African Canadian and can run very fast, he is frequently seen playing a hand-held video game (called a Slamboy, a direct allusion to Game Boy, which gets confiscated by Mrs. Brinks in the episode "Curse of the Mummy") and talking about his Turbo Trainers, which make him run very fast. He is the son of the mayor of Tapwater Springs. In the episode "The Bird Lady of Tapwater Springs" Angela "heals" his pet iguana Albert (who is female) who seemed to be depressed. It is revealed in the episode "In a Pepper Pickle" that he keeps a diary. Voiced by Kevin Duhaney

Candy May

Candy May is an incredibly dim child, who appears to cut her own hair, and wears a shirt with a unicorn decal. She has long red hair in a ribbon. She hesitates a lot, draws her words out and often confuses herself. She is not allowed near sharp objects and loves playing with glitter and paste. She may be older than the other kids and is unsurprisingly the tallest child in the classroom, since she could have been held back a year due to her unintelligence. She refuses to believe two plus two equals four because she thinks that since two times two equals four, two plus two must equal a smaller number (her examples of numbers smaller than four are three and five).

Mrs. Ephegenia Brinks

The secondary antagonist of the series, Mrs. Brinks is an eccentric middle-aged woman who is a dedicated third grade teacher with a rather masculine voice (rather, sounding more like a man imitating a woman) and large manly hands. She wears a huge grey beehive wig which hides her short ginger hair, and she dresses in a long-skirted schoolmarm dress, hiding her old figure. Although she is not a bad teacher, she is easily manipulated and plays favorites, her decisions always favoring Nanette, whom she sees as the perfect little girl, although there have been moments when Nanette has gotten in trouble with her. Unfortunately, Mrs. Brinks is biased against Angela and is very strict and callous with her (making her the second least favorite character on the show), though in the episode "Jiggly Fruit Classic" she and Angela overcome their differences in order to get old Jiggly Fruit back. Mrs. Brinks likes to believe she's sophisticated and succumbs easily to flattery. She thinks Angela is a bizarre, troublemaking and wayward girl, and constantly punishes her, even for things she didn't do by making her clap the chalkboard erasers (something Angela has since become very good at) among other punishments. She is also not above punishing Angela for a misendeavor that Angela has already been punished for, for no other reason other than she can simply because she's the teacher. Another instance of this bias occurs in an episode where Mrs. Brinks gives Angela detention simply for smiling as she believed Angela was up to no good for doing so. Mrs. Brinks made Angela the top of her class when she believes Angela's poem about her dog is about her [Brinks] in the episode "You're So Vain". She and her frail, generous, and long-suffering husband, Connie (short for Conrad) Brinks are rumored to be weekend nudists. Angela and her gang often peer into the Brinks' backyard from Angela's tree house to find out if this rumor is true, though the show only shows Angela and her friend's reactions to what they see (later, the rumor is confirmed when Angela tricks Nanette into going in to the backyard). In "Brinks of No Return", Mr. Brinks reveals that he and Mrs. Brinks used to have a very loving relationship before Nanette came into her life. In the episode "Earhart's Heirloom" she claims to have the compass of Amelia Earhart and promises to show it to the class but only if they behave for 30 days running (it is later revealed that the compass was made in Taiwan in 1995 and it was all a scam to get the class to behave). It is revealed in the episode "The Bird Lady of Tapwater Springs" that she has an artificial hip which prevented her from dancing. In the episode "The Great Granny Grudge", it is revealed that her husband Connie used to go out with Johnny and Angela's grandmothers. Voiced by Richard Binsley.

See also

• KaBlam!

External links

• Angela Anaconda at IMDb
• Angela Anaconda at TV.com