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Pound Puppies was a toyline sold by Hornby in the 1980s. It later inspired an animated TV special, an animated TV series, and a feature film. Shipments of the toys over five years generated sales of $300 million in 35 countries.citation needed
The puppies have a variety of plush stuffed dog dolls with floppy ears and droopy eyes. They came in a variety of colors, some with spots. Each one comes in a carrying case with an adoption certificate. Smaller versions were also created (approximately 5 inches (13 cm) long), and a line of cats called Pound Purries was also released. Each authentic puppy had a heart shaped emblem near its tail that sported a "PP" logo with either a dog (Puppies) or cat (Purries) peeking around it. In 1987, Hardee's restaurants also offered a series of Pound Puppies with their Children's Meals. In a revival that occurred in the mid-late 90s, a third line of toys called "Pound Ponies" was sold.
The "Pound Puppies" trademark is officially held by "Pound Puppies Inc".
Taglines
- Lovable. Huggable. (1980s)
- Loveable Puppies That Need a Home (current)
Contents |
Characters
Pound Puppies
Cooler - Cooler is the leader of the Pound Puppies. As his name would imply, Cooler has an outgoing and mellow personality and always keeps his head up even in the most daring situations. He also has a witty and sharp sense of humor compared to the other characters in the series, which is also backed up by his goofy "Eddie Murphy"-styled laugh. His battle cry is "Pound Puppies, let's start pounding!".
Nose Marie - Nose Marie is oldest female of the team. She is kind, mature, and has a motherly role over the younger pound puppies. When running scared, she oftens screams out "Eek! Eek! Eek I say! Eek!".
Howler - Howler is the inventor of the pound puppies squad. He's often inventing creations to solve the teams' problems. As his name implies, he often howls after the end of his sentences or at the end of an episode. Howler is generally not the spotlight puppy and has appeared less in season 2.
Bright Eyes - Bright Eyes is the youngest female of the team. She is sweet, passionate, and extremely energetic. A hobby of hers is cheerleading which is seen as one of her roles in the show. At times, she may come across as rather naive and ditsy (such as at one point, she suggested that Captin Slaughter comes to the pound to make friend with the pound puppies), but is always aware of what's going on in a situation.
Whooper - Whooper is the youngest of the Pound Puppies. He is often fantasizing and imagining the nearly impossible situations and telling tall tales. Unknowningly, he wears a diaper even though he is officially a "kid". He also has a brother-sister relationship with Bright Eyes as they often share opinions, come to agreements, and experience things together.
Other Dogs
Uncle J.R. - Whopper's uncle who was seen once in the episode Whopper Cries Uncle. Whopper and the pound puppies once tried to trick him into Whopper was rich to impress him, but in the end he wasn't rich either. He later got adopted by a Texas family. Even though he may look and sound like a cowdog he is actually from Milwaukee.
Humans
Holly - A girl with the gift of Puppy power. She owned the puppy pound in season 1. She often helps Cooler and the gang foil Katrina. During season 1, Katrina used as a slave for housework. In season 2, her hair style changed.
Katrina Stonehart - An evil woman who got most of the rich woman's fortune. She often makes Holly work for her and do her and Brattina's chores. Her main goal in Season 1 was to shut down the puppy pound. In season 2, her main goal shifted to capturing Cooler and the Pound Puppies and locking them up/killing them.
Millicent Trueblood - Katrina's wealthy and kind aunt and the founder of the Puppy Pound. She only appeared in flashback when Cooler told a pup about the Puppy Pound's foundation. When she died, Katrina believed she would inherit all her possessions (the Puppy Pound included) because she's Millicent's next of kin and her aunt had left no known will. However, Holly and the dogs find Millicent's will, where she leaves her home to Katrina and the Puppy Pound to Holly. Millicent Trueblood is never mentioned in any other episode of the whole series.
Brattina - Katrina's equally as evil daughter. She often gloats with Catgut when they're winning. Her catchphrase is Icky-Poo!. When Katrina screams at her, she often replies with something like "Scream in my ears, why don't ya!".
Captain Sluaghter - A sea captain that Katrina often hired to get rid of the Pound Puppies. He has a hook for a hand and his face was never shown. He disappeared in season 2.
Cats
Catgut - Katrina Stonehart's evil cat who constantly tries to cause trouble for the pound puppies.
TV special
In 1985, Hanna-Barbera made an animated television special, which aired in syndication that October, paired with Star Fairies. Characters in the television special included the Fonzie-styled leader Cooler (voiced by Dan Gilvezan), the cheerleader Bright Eyes (voiced by Adrienne Alexander), and a dog with a very nasal like New York accent known only as "The Nose" (voiced by Jo Anne Worley), and the goofy inventor aptly named Howler (voiced by Frank Welker), who can only howl.
A female dog from a wealthy aristocratic family named Violet Vanderbuck (voiced by Gail Matthius) is being pursued by dognappers when she is picked up and taken to the city pound. There, she meets the gang and discovers their mission of uniting themselves up with homes. The film plot centers on Violet (whom Cooler insists on referring to as "Sam") attempting to reunite with her family, ultimately succeeding. Two other dogs appeared in the special. They were the upperclass snob Barkerville (voiced by Alan Oppenheimer) and the garbage can-digging Scrounger(voiced by Ron Paulino), who later appeared in the season 2 episode Garbage Night: The Musical. The three of them appeared briefly in a flashback in the episode Wagga Wagga.
This special is available on a DVD which comes with certain Pound Puppies toys.
The characters Bright Eyes (voiced by Adrienne Alexander), Howler (voiced by Frank Welker), and The Nose/Nose Marie (voiced by Jo Anne Worley) would be voiced by different actors in the regular series, although Adreinne Alexander and Frank Welker would return as Brattina and Catgut respectively.
TV series
After the success of the special, an animated TV series was created. Loosely based on the special, the series was broadcast on ABC between September 1986 and February 1989. In this series no mention is made of Violet's whereabouts. This series found itself under a lot of competition from competitors such as Fluppy Dogs (Disney), which was also adapted into a TV special, but was not made into a regular series.
Season 1
The first season introduced Cooler (who now has a characteristic "Eddie Murphy"-style laugh), "The Nose" (now called "Nose Marie", and now sporting a southern accent sounding like Vivian Leigh's Scarlett O'Hara character from MGM's "Gone From The Wind"), Bright Eyes, and Howler (voiced by Robert Morse whose character now speaks instead of just howling), who return from the TV special (with slightly different character designs), along with Whopper (voiced by B. J. Ward), a new character who is known for telling tall tales. Whopper is usually seen with Bright Eyes, and the two of them share a brother/sister relationship. The show also debuted the evil Katrina Stonehart (voiced by Pat Carroll) with her equally evil daughter Brattina (voiced by Adrienne Alexander, who originally voiced Bright Eyes), Catgut the cat (who appeared in the T.V. special as the pet cat of the City pound's supervisior Bigelow (voiced by Jonathan Winters and was redesigned and played by Frank Welker), and Holly, a friend of the Pound Puppies who originally ran the Puppy Pound. Other characters included the horrific Captain Slaughter (voiced by Peter Cullen), who only appeared in four episodes (not counting the Christmas episode entitled Happy Howlidays in Katrina's dream sequence) in season one, and who was responsible for the destruction of the puppies' hometown of Wagga-Wagga. Katrina and Brattina were constantly planning to tear down the pound where the animals lived while organizing themselves to be adopted out to loving families.
Holly is a ward of Katrina Stonehart, but like the puppies' former protector Millicent Trueblood, she possesses the gift of 'puppy power' (A term first used as a "Battle cry" of sorts by the character Scrappy Doo in the "Scooby & Scrappy Doo Show" and the spinoffs) enabling her to talk to Cooler and the gang.1.
Season 2
The series later underwent a significant overhaul for the program's second season, where it was retitled All New Pound Puppies. Several of the characters were given very different backgrounds, appearances and personality traits. For example, Bright Eyes was no longer an adult dog but a young puppy. Nose Marie had changed as well. She dropped her strapless purple dress and flirtatious manner with Cooler in favor of a 50's sitcom style mom dress with apron, becoming a surrogate mother to Whopper, Bright Eyes and the rest of the puppies. However, Nose Marie did retain the roots of her southern belle style and her manners. Cooler, Whopper, Howler, Katrina, Brattina (who started wearing a jacket) and Catgut remained the same. Holly grew longer hair and wore sneakers and jeans. And Captain Slaughter no longer appeared in the series. Most significant of all however, was that the Puppy Pound was now owned by Katrina Stoneheart who treats the Puppy Pound like (and has the appearance of) a prison, and now seeks to lock up Cooler and the gang forever. No explanation is given as to how Katrina ended up taking over the Puppy Pound or why she doesn't shut it down like she intended to do in Season 1. In fact, neither Katrina's intentions of shutting down the Puppy Pound or Holly's previous ownership of it are ever mentioned in Season 2.
Episodes
Season 1
1. Bright Eyes, Come Home
2. How to Found a Pound
3. From Wags to Riches
4. Snowbound Pound
5. The Fairy Dogmother
6. Whopper Cries Uncle
7. In Pups We Trust
8. The Captain and the Cats
9. Secret Agent Pup
10. Wagga Wagga
11. The Star Pup
12. Happy Howlidays
13. Ghost Hounders
Season 2
14. Whopper Gets the Point/The Bird Dog
15. Tail of the Pup/King Whopper
16. Tuffy Gets Fluffy/Casey Come Home
17. Where Do Puppies Come From/Pups on the Loose
18. The Invisible Friend/Kid in the Doghouse
19. Little Big Dog/The Bright Eyes Mob
20. The Rescue Pups/Good Night Sweet Pups
21. Snow Puppies/Nose Marie Day
22. Where's the Fire/The Wonderful World of Whopper
23. Bright Lights, Bright Eyes/Dog and Caterpillar
24. Garbage Night: The Musical
25. Peter Pup
26. Cooler, Come Back
Syndication
Reruns of the show can as of 2008 be seen on the Boomerang TV channel.
Feature film
In 1988, TriStar Pictures released a Pound Puppies movie entitled Pound Puppies and the Legend of Big Paw. It was produced by Atlantic Releasing, Carolco, Family Home Entertainment and Kushner-Locke with The Maltese Companies.
Critical and box office reception
The film was panned by critics, and poorly received at the box office. Shoddy animation, character inconsistencies, and a color palette that differed from the show's were among the chief complaints. The movie was also not part of the show's continuity.
Fans were also confused by the apparent romantic pairing of Nose Marie and Cooler, which contradicted events that had taken place in the first season of the series. In addition, the movie is set in the 1950s with the story being narrated by Whopper, who in the present day is now an older dog who tells the story to his nephew and niece. Also, Katrina and Brattina Stonehart, along with Catgut, do not appear at all in the movie.
References
External links
