A syndicated animated television series created in the good old USA by Ken Forsse, but actually posed in Canada, then animated, in-betweened and colored in Korea. The 65 episode series was produced in conjunction with the wildly popular Teddy Ruxpin franchise of toys, books and audiotapes marketed by Alchemy II and Worlds Of Wonder.
Along the way, the "big three" (Teddy Ruxpin, Grubby the octopede and inventor Newton Gimmick) encounter Leota the woodsprite, Wooly Whatsit, Fobs, the Grunges, Illipers, Anythings, as well as bad dudes Jack W. Tweeg, Eleanor Tweeg (Tweeg's mom), L.B. Bounder, the gutangs, the mudblups, Quellor: the leader of the Monsters And Villains Organization (M.A.V.O.) and a host of others. Eclectic and very politically correct for its time. I believe this was one of the first cartoons that ever depicted a paraplegic character. One episode even depicted key characters "signing" to communicate to a hearing-impaired character.
Teddy Ruxpin was the nicest, most wholesome character in 1980's television cartoons. The only harm he ever did was rough up a couple of gutangs. And then only so he could steal their costumes to infiltrate their braintrust.
At times Teddy's adventures parallel that of Joseph Smith, the father of Mormonism. Particularly when his mother holds two cooking trays, one over another, to reveal a message meant just for him. Other than that, the show really doesn't preach any message, except for good old fashioned, sugar-coated American conformity.
One of my favorite websites is "Jump The Shark" and Teddy Ruxpin REALLY jumps the shark as soon as Teddy and his archrival, Tweeg, start finding their long lost dads and trying to re-establishing ties with them again. This either indicated a subliminal lack of paternal presence in the lives of the scriptwriting team, or a dearth of good ideas for plot lines in the show's late going...
While I never thought much of the show at the time, this cartoon seemed to develop a keen and loyal following in the late eighties and early nineties. Most of the kids who loved watching Teddy as four and five year-olds are the young adults forming our world of today.
First National Pictures began marketing 2 volumes of the series onto DVD by February 2006. Exactly 3 years later, in February 2009, Mill Creek Entertainment released all 65 episodes onto DVD.
