Chui, Kifaru n Lester/Characters

Chui
Chui (Jeannie Elias) is the strong, airheaded, dim-witted, and usually quite random lackey of the group who has very short hair. He has orange fur, and burnt orange with brown outlines. He is known to laugh a lot and is happy most of the time. Ed has amazing physical strength, which is humorously worked into many of the show's plots. His mind is a subculture grab-bag full of comics and scary dinosaur movies, which he often confuses with reality, and which leads him to speak in non sequiturs almost all the time. Ed (to the misfortune of many animals) is utterly at the mercy of his tyrannical older cousin Namiri and is an easy target of her manipulations, with Namiri threatening to tell his mother if he does not get his way.

Chui is kindhearted, good-natured, and has a positive attitude towards almost everything and everyone, even to those who are not accommodating to him. He cares about the welfare of the other two. He often sacrifices himself for his two best friends, the other young Serengeti animals, and even Namiri, for whom he cares deeply, though he treats him badly. He is absentminded and naive, making him the perfect candidate to help Lester with his scams, as Chui hardly ever questions them. Even so, Chui never feels abused by Lester.

Chui enjoys slugs, crickets, grubs, maggots, snails, comics and scary dinosaur movies. Much to the dismay of mysophobic Kifaru, he has poor personal hygiene, even to the point of being terrified of soap and liking the smell of stink bombs and sweaty boots. Though the trio were outcasts throughout the series, in the series' TV movie finale Chui, Kifaru n Lester's Big Picture Show, the three become friends with all the young Serengeti animals; even Namiri starts treating Chui nicely.

Creator Jeff DeGrandis explained Chui's inspiration saying, "Chui is...me, following his own path and slightly dysfunctional, a daydreamer who while animals are doing one thing, will be busy thinking of another." He also described Chui as "slow, living in his own world and he really doesn't fit in with the rest of the crowd," and explained that it was hard to decide who would voice him. Chui ended up being voiced by Jeannie Elias.

Kifaru
Kifaru (Sara Gilbert) is the smartest of the trio and the most polite, mature, curious, and considerate of the three. As a result, she is more socially accepted by the rest of the young animals than Chui and Lester, usually acting as a peacemaker or offering the rest of the young animals advice. Kifaru has a high IQ and is top of the class in most subjects at school, though she is the physically weakest of the trio and despises P.E. and other sporting activities. As the most creative of the trio, she is able to construct things like planes, rocket cars, and roller coasters with junk she comes across and enjoys doing so. She also is able to play pedal steel guitar, but does not like to do so often. She often speaks using complex words and struggles to speak normally in high anxiety situations. In the first, second, third, and fourth seasons of the series, she was strangely given a mauvish hue. However, she was obverted to grey in the fifth and sixth seasons and a TV movie and her horns and toenails are white. She is the only one of the trio to be an only calf, and her parents leave sticky notes around her house as a means of communicating with him.

Like the other two, Kifaru's personality is largely based upon series creator Jeff DeGrandis, who has said "there's my Kifaru side, neurotic, analytical, must be organized. Also if Lester and Chui were not around, Kifaru would be happy with her own company, something that works for me too." DeGrandis has also explained that the habit of Kifaru's parents to communicate with her through sticky notes was based on a habit of his own parents.

Lester
Lester (Tara Strong) is the self-appointed leader of the trio. He is arrogant, self-centred, ignorant, loud-mouthed, immature, greedy, and hot-tempered. He loves money, bug balls (which he likes to spend his ill-earned money on), dirty magazines, his room, and Rocky Puffs. Lester ordinarily comes up with the plans for scamming animals, but they usually backfire, much to his frustration. Lester will often, especially in the early seasons, slack off by suntanning or drinking water while his friends do all the work. His prized possessions include his magazines, king-sized bed, and disco ball. He also has a Barry White album and is a fan of Tom Jones. Lester sometimes boasts about his older brother and uses this to his advantage to gain respect. Like Tembo, Lester can be cruel and acerbic, with a tendency to tease his peers, but deep down, Lester only wants to be liked by everyone.

Twiga
Twiga (Cathy Cavadini), is a lonely giraffe calf and considered by her peers to be a nuisance. Twiga is often made fun of for her spots (Lester usually refers to her as "Dot" or as a "long-necked spotty horse") and has a tendency of getting her body caught in bushes when playing. She talks a lot, and frequently gets on the other young animals' nerves. She is rarely seen without her imaginary friend, a little rock named Mwamba. Twiga seems innocent and gullible, and often forgives animals no matter what they do. She does not seem to mind the antics of the trio, and is often the most friendly out of all the young Serengeti animals towards them. She is very protective of Mwamba, and will burst into acts of bravery or extreme aggression if Mwamba is stolen or harmed in some way. She does not seem to acknowledge that Mwamba is just an inanimate, silent, rock, and when asked for help with an imaginary friend, she claimed to have no clue what the trio are talking about. She and Mwamba both have superhero alter egos (Brave Giraffatitan and Pebble the Stone Wonder, respectively), which they assumed twice throughout the series; first in "Robin Good" to thwart Lester's "Doohickey" scam and to fight Lester's own one-time only alter ego, Captain Scam, and then in Chui, Kifaru n Lester's Big Picture Show to hunt down and get revenge on the trio. After Big Picture Show, she and Mwamba become Dangiraffe and Stone the Dark Cement in order to take revenge on the entire Serengeti (although Mwamba reveals that there is no more time left in the movie at this point).

Punda
Punda (Candace Hutson) is an insecure and innocent zebra foal, with a propensity to cry, and Namiri's best friend whom she is most often seen spending her time with. Punda is highly accident-prone, often seen sporting stripes, and is considered the weakest foal in the Serengeti. Though Punda has a gentle personality, she truly wishes to be strong and muscular, and many episodes demonstrate her desire for fame and stardom. She can be crafty when motivated, and had twice made scams that were very successful. Punda has shown how deeply attached she is to Namiri when someone tries to take her away from her.

Namiri
Namiri (Pamela Adlon) is Chui's grouchy, abusive, spoiled, commanding, annoying, short-tempered, whiny, rude, and extremely selfish older cousin who acts cute and kind to the trio only when it suits her. She is commonly depicted with a disgruntled facial expression and treats her intimidated, trembling older cousin, frightened by his cousin's constant threats of tattling on him, with complete disdain. Imposing, Namiri frequently orders animals (sometimes even those of higher rightful authority than her) around, and her desires often have to be met or else she will fling herself into a violent temper tantrum or threaten the animal in question. Throughout the course of the series, Namiri has been shown to possess a friendship with Kifaru, but still occasionally subjects her to abuse due to guilt by association with the other trio.

Tembo
Tembo (Grey DeLisle) is a stereotypical elephant calf. He is cynical, sarcastic and can be cruel at times. Tembo has a den full of bug balls, due to the fact that his father works at a bug ball factory. He loves customizing his giant tree bark. When not riding his trusty tree bark, he usually hangs out with Kiboko and Duma in the grasslands. He hates the trio to the point of paranoia, but his animosity towards them is mostly geared towards Lester; the two are mortal enemies and often go entirely out of their way to humiliate or physically harm each other at the first opportunity (with Lester referring to Tembo as "Dumbo"). He tends to call the trio "Poindexters" and has a habit of coming up with words merged with "Poindexter" to suit the situation. Like Kifaru, Tembo was strangely a brownish hue in the first, second, third, and fourth seasons of the series. However, he was obverted to grey in the fifth and sixth seasons and a TV movie. In some episodes, he is shown to have a great fear of Lester's brother; Lester knows this and frequently uses his brother as leverage against Tembo.

Kiboko
Kiboko (Cree Summer) is a quirky, odd, and usually happy hippo calf of an undetermined origin and culture with odd customs (which she displays frequently, and it often involves a wide variety of plants and insects). Kiboko is the daughter of a bull, a fact in which she takes great pride. She works on her parents' river within the Serengeti, and leads a scouting group called the "Jungle Rangers," which includes Punda, Mwamba, and Twiga. Kiboko usually refers to herself in third animal. Her faithful companions are three oxpeckers (one of which is named Ozzie), a katydid named Kyle, at least six grasshoppers (two named Samson and Delilah), a praying mantis named Elsa, and five rhinoceros beetles. She generally appears to be friendly with the trio (whom she calls the "threesome") unless they make a fool out of her or offend her in some way, in which case she is not afraid to use brute force. She seems to be very muscular, but this is usually only shown when she is angry. With his unusual customs and strange food, Kiboko confuses the rest of the young animals to no end, and her inability to comprehend the culture and customs of her new home is a running gag in the series.

Duma
Duma (Grey DeLisle) is a good-natured, sweet, mature yet somewhat ditzy, fashionable cheetah cub who normally treats her peers (including the trio) respectfully; however, when antagonized she will react violently to the cause of her agitation or partake in harming the trio as discipline for an alleged misdeed that they have committed. A majority of the male characters featured in the series are smitten with her, and an entire episode once chronicled their many failed attempts at wooing her. She also possesses a number of humorous eccentricities, such as the ability to yodel, substandard skills at playing a rather large hollow log and is often depicted with poor table etiquette. Kifaru seems to be the rhino that Duma is closest to, as she was the first character she'd nuzzled in the series in "The Day the Earth Stood Still", took her trick-or-treating in the Halloween special, and got him to dance with her at the school dance in "May I Have this Dance?". She appears to have a crush on Tembo, though he is mostly oblivious to this; he favors his tree bark more. Although one of the most mature of the young savanna animals, she occasionally displays traits of the stereotypical cheetah.

Male and Female Trios
Uma (Lacey Chabert), Pembe (Shaun Fleming), and Doa (Hynden Walch) are three friends who serve as the main antagonists towards the Serengeti and its inhabitants. Uma is a lioness cub, and the leader of the male and female trio, Pembe is a male rhinoceros calf, and Doa is a leopardess cub. They live in the nearby woodlands. The mere presence of the male and female trio is enough to terrify the Serengeti residents, and they have been shown to have volatile and destructive tempers. While all the male and female trio supposedly like the trio, it has been shown that Doa prefers Chui, Pembe prefers Kifaru, and Uma prefers Lester. Throughout the series, each of the male and female trio repeatedly get the trio and privately force themselves onto them with romantic intention, much to their horror.

Lester's Brother
Lester's Brother (Christopher McDonald) is mentioned frequently throughout the series, mostly by Lester, though his name is never revealed. Lester mentions how his brother taught him much about how to scam, and to be a con artist, and throughout the series many of the children are shown to have a great fear and respect for him. He was previously an unseen character, but he finally makes an appearance in the movie Chui, Kifaru n Lester's Big Picture Show. Lester's brother at first seems to be everything the other young animals imagined, but it turns out that all of the folklore surrounding him was made up by Lester to impress the other young animals, and in reality he is a sadistic individual who refers to Lester as an "upstart" and bullies him mercilessly, which ultimately caused Lester to become who he is. He works at the "Wild-n-Crazy" amusement park, but his specific job is unknown.