The Woodland Creatures (1997 sitcom)

The Woodland Creatures is an American adult animated TV sitcom created by animator. The show is produced by Gracie Films and Universal Cartoon Studios, airing on between 1997 and 1998, being later moved to Adult Swim in September 2001 for the rest of the series after a two-year hiatus since the last two seasons were produced from 1997 throughout 2000. It was also Robert Taylor's first collaboration with Gracie Films' James L. Brooks and Sam Simon, along with Universal Cartoon Studios.

According to Adult Swim executives Mike Lazzo and Keith Crofford, this show got high ratings on their programming block, compared to the low ratings it got on Fox. Even though some episodes caused controversies being falsely billed as "rip-offs", they were produced earlier before the episodes produced by other shows such as Family Guy.

At Comic Con 2006, the original voice actors and actresses reprise their roles from the original show for their fans who watched them on Adult Swim.

Premise
The show focuses on two best friends and roomates: Mike Fox and Rocky Raccoon. Its location took place in the forest of New York City.

Mike is the "straight man" of the duo. He is more conscientious, mature, and moral about his actions than Rocky is, which sometimes leads to his opposing Rocky when he is the cause of some kind of chaotic problem. However, Mike usually sides with his friend and the two generally stick together through their adventures. Mike is even the foil to Rocky's money-grubbing, con-man ways and his schemes.

Rocky is the "comic relief" of the duo. He is self-centered, aggressive, and extremely mischievous, which sometimes puts him at odds with Mike. He mostly lives for simply having a good time and relaxing, which he sometimes achieves through selfish acts like lying or cheating. He is a Bugs Bunny/Woody Woodpecker-esque trickster, despite also being greedy and short-tempered like Fred Flintstone and Daffy Duck, coming up with various schemes to fool his rivals or to get money, despite still being kind-hearted to his friends and his mother. He gets that money-grubbing and con-man ways from his father. Despite this, he also has a soft spot for his nephew Freddie.

Originally, according to creator Robert Taylor in a 2001 interview. Rocky was originally intended to have a personality similar to Sherlock Holmes and Inspector Gadget and his voice similar to Humphrey Bogart, which is probably showing signs of that in the early version of the pilot episode (which was unaired), and a remastered version of the pilot with an improved storyline, visuals and different voice actors which came out on Fox, November 2, 1997. But somehow, the character's personality was changed which made Rocky the comic relief of the duo, and leaving Mike in the role of "straight-man".

Their grumpy neighbor, Mr. Grizzly, lives next door. He may be short-tempered and a little stubborn at times, but he has a slight soft spot for Mike and Rocky.

The duo's new neighbors, The Bearingtons, came all the way from Miami, Florida to live in New York where Mike's house is facing their house. Phillip Bearington, their teenage son, unlike his parents who have British accents, he has a Canadian accent. Jillian Bearington, their daughter has an American accent and she was born before her little brother during their vacation watching late-night hockey players in Canada.

Marilyn Fox, Mike's girlfriend is kind, considerate, and smart. She and Mike have also been around solving a few mysteries, even though the first episode, Detectives on the Case, had him pair with Rocky. On the other hand, Bonnie Raccoon, Rocky's girlfriend dislikes his interest in money-grubbing and conning people out and would probably leave him if he doesn't change his ways.

Main

 * Mike Fox (voiced by Michael J. Fox in the original series and the movie and Billy West in the video games and the revival) - One of the two main protagonists of the show. He is a red fox caricature of his voice actor. He is currently 23 years old.
 * Rocky Raccoon Jr. (referred to as Rocky Raccoon or just plain Rocky, voiced by Rob Paulsen) - A Brooklyn-accented friend of Mike Fox. He is 23 years old like his best friend. He is shown to be a liar and a cheater, and is the sneaky type for a raccoon. But deep down, he still has a soft spot for his best friend. Being a money-grubbing cheapskate and would do anything to get rich with his money-making schemes, he is paired with Mike in comic everyday situations while leaving Mike in the role of "straight-man". He also mentions that he has a sister who has a son which is his nephew, but she is never seen throughout the entire series. In the first episode "Detectives On The Case", his personality was much different from later episodes of the show. He is a professional detective and is willing to solve a case with his pal Mike as his partner. He wasn't that much of a jerk as he was later on, and instead had a Humphrey Bogart-esque voice rather than his later Spooky-esque Brooklyn-accented voice from The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper.
 * Freddie Raccoon (voiced by Jeff Bennett) - Rocky's 10-year old nephew in the series. He is considered to be the voice of reason, and is one of the only genius relatives in the Raccoon family.
 * Edward P. Grizzly (also known as Mr. Grizzly, voiced by Brad Garrett) - Mike and Rocky's short-tempered neighbor in the show. He is the owner of the Woodland Burger fast food restaurant.
 * Marilyn Fox (voiced by Tara Strong) - Mike's love interest on the show. She works at the Woodland Coffee Shop.
 * Bonnie Raccoon (voiced by B.J. Ward in the original series, the video games and the movie and Grey DeLisle in the revival) - Rocky's love interest. In Season 2, it is revelated she have a superheroine identity, BatRaccoon (a parody of Batman).
 * Vincent 'Vinny' Coonini (voiced by Tony Sirico) - Rocky's Italian-American twin cousin. His personality is the opposite of Rocky's money-grubbing and con-man ways. He debuted in the episode, "Rocky's Cousin Vinny".
 * Edwin G. Bearington (voiced by Dan Castellaneta) - a wealthy British-accented loud-mouthed bear who likes to talk about his life experiences and posessions. Mike seems to have respect from him and vice-versa, but Rocky finds him annoying. He is the major focus in the episodes' subplot. He debuted in the episode "Meet the Bearingtons".
 * Emily Bearington (voiced by Tress MacNeille) - Edwin's beautiful wife.
 * Philip Bearington (voiced by Seth Green) - Edwin and Emily's teenage son. He was born in Canada, however. He has a Canadian accent.
 * Jillian Bearington (voiced by Drew Barrymore in the original series and the movie and Grey DeLisle in the video games and the revival) - Edwin and Emily's (23-year old) ditzy young adult daughter and Phillip's older sister. She was born in the United States long before her brother in Canada.
 * Reverend Beaver (voiced by William Salyers) - The town's resident pastor of the Woodland Church, a laid-back, caring yet lonely and sexually frustrated man whom Mike looks up to for advice. Later on, he shares a healthy relationship with his formerly unknown interspecies soulmate, Charlene (whom he originally hit on), a punk-rocker who owns a sex shop.
 * Charlene (voiced by Britta Phillips) - One of the few humans to appear on the show. She was Reverend Beaver's former interspecies soulmate. She still continues to be a rock and roll star. After reuniting with her interspecies soulmate as friends, they shared a close friendship with one another.
 * Purebred Poodle (voiced by Becky Thyre) - One of the domestic animal characters to appear on the show. She is the leader of "The Purebreds" and is considered the most beautiful and popular poodle girl in the forest, even though all of her friends are identical. She often treats the middle-class people with cruelty, but she almost always recieves consequences for that.
 * The Devil (voiced by Charlie Adler) - a crazy goat version of Satan, who usually appears in different costumes and different roles.
 * Joey Turtle (voiced by Bill Fagerbakke) - One of Rocky's friends. His personality is based off of Barney Rubble and has a similar voice to Art Carney's.
 * Jake Sheepdog (voiced by Carl Banas) - A rebellious yellow-orange and brown Old English Sheepdog in his early 20s'. He is the strongest and smartest of the show and they almost always turn to him for help, as he usually knows how to solve the chaotic problems that arise in the forest of New York City, but he isn't always right. Whenever he is asked for help, he generally says, "I've seen this before", and then presents a solution.
 * Mona Otter (voiced by Jennifer Tilly) - One of Marilyn's friends.
 * Professor Fruitbat (voiced by Rob Paulsen) - One of Mike and Rocky's friends whom appears to have a German accent. He is well-known for his inventing, math and science skills.

Supporting

 * Michael Fox, Sr. and Madison Fox (voiced by Christopher Lloyd in the original series and the movie and Corey Burton in the video games and the revival and Russi Taylor, respectively) - Mike's parents.
 * Rocky Raccoon Sr. and Bertha Raccoon (voiced by Maurice LaMarche and Kath Soucie, respectively) - Rocky's parents. The mother is caring, good-natured, and has compassion and understanding. The father's personality is identical to that of his son, as his son follows in his father's footsteps.
 * Marshall and Miriam Fox (voiced by Jeff Bennett and Candi Milo, respectively) - Marilyn's parents.
 * Marty Raccoon and Jane Raccoon (voiced by Greg Burson in the original series, Joe Alaskey in the film and Jeff Bergman in the revival and Maggie Roswell, respectively) - Bonnie's parents.
 * Bluebeard Grizzly (voiced by Tim Curry) - Mr. Grizzly's pirate grandfather.
 * George Poodle (voiced by Billy West) – Mike's rich and snobby boss. He represents the power and arrogance of the people of Woodland. He is very condescending to his employees at the Woodland Jelly Factory, especially Mike and Rocky. He is husband to Pristine and father of Terrence and Purebred Poodle.
 * Pristine Poodle (also voiced by Becky Thyre) – Depicted to appear as a labrador retriever. She is the wife of George and mother to Terrence and Purebred.
 * Terrence Poodle (also voiced by Tara Strong) – The arrogant labrador retriever son of George and Pristine and brother to Purebred. He likes to taunt Rocky, along with his equally snobbish best friend Finn Wolf. He calls Rocky "Ratcoon".
 * The Purebreds (voiced by Pamela Segall Adlon) – A popular clique of identical poodle girls who dress alike and happen to all be named Purebred. Despite them all being identical to one another, each Purbred is the daughter of a different wealthy Woodland resident, with no relation. They seem to be a symbol of how most popular people tend to be conformists and lack originality and difference, hence why they're all named Purebred and have the same appearance. The Purebreds are often cruel to the middle-class Woodland residents, but almost recieves consequences for that.
 * Brandon Barker and Chester Barker (voiced by Randy Sklar and Jason Sklar, respectively) – Conjoined beagle twins who are attached at the waist and share a middle leg. They are depicted to have black ears and light blue fur, with Brandon having blond hair and Chester having brown hair. They happen to grow up together with Mike and Rocky. The conjoined beagle twin characters debuted around Season 3.
 * Gerald 'Ray' Bearington (voiced by David Odgen Steirs) - Edwin G. Bearington's father. Even though he is cynical and arrogant, he deeply cares for his son and is in better terms with Mike and Rocky. He is one of the few characters to debut around Season 3.
 * Willie The Puppy Clown (voiced by James Rankin) - Woodland's favorite TV clown.

Other characters

 * Dr. Wolf (voiced by Rodger Bumpass) - (reserved for DonaldoC1997)
 * Nurse Deer (voiced by Jennifer Martin) - The Woodland Hospital nurse. She appears to have a soothing voice. Rocky sometimes flirts with her and goes, "HELLOOOOOOOOO NURSE!" (a gag referenced from Warner Bros.' Animaniacs). Mike tries his best to prevent his best friend from flirting over her.
 * The Woodland Female Chorus (voiced by Lillias White, Vaneese Y. Thomas, Cheryl Freeman, LaChanze, Roz Ryan) - The female chorus singers who appeared only in the opening title sequence which would later be recycled for the Walt Disney Pictures animated film Hercules.

Villians

 * Bodiless Consciousness (voiced by James Rankin) - He is a pink, bodiless consciousness who was once human and took bodybuilding too seriously. His friend told him that if he kept pumping iron like that, his body would quit on him (Which it did). He didn't find it in time and had to take the form of a basketball.
 * Thrasher, Howler and Nick (AKA The Greaser Wolves, voiced by Jim Cummings, Charlie Adler, and Tom Kenny) - A street gang consisting of three tough wolves. They act no differently from school playground bullies, picking on anyone either weaker or different from them, but usually by "pounding" them. Nick, the shortest member of the group and the only good one, have developed a crush on Jillian Bearington and they've continued to be together ever since.

Development
The series marks the first time that Universal Cartoon Studios developed a sitcom, following the steps of other studios such as 20th Century Fox. In the mid-90s, the studio's major hits were the television adaptions of Back to the Future, An American Tail, Earthworm Jim (which was rebooted by Paramount ten years later for its run on Nickelodeon) and Casper the Friendly Ghost. By the time that the series started its development, a Rocky and Bullwinkle-esque show featuring Walter Lantz Productions' stars Woody Woodpecker and Chilly Willy (later reworked as The New Woody Woodpecker Show, starring Billy West as the voice of the title character, premiering in 1999) was also pitched to the studio. The idea was dropped for some reason as if it felt like ripping-off the beloved characters.

All of the characters, including Mike Fox and Rocky Raccoon, were originally intended to be humans and the show's name was originally intended to be Mike and Rocky. But the characters were later changed to be animals with human characteristics during pre-production.

An early version of the first episode Detectives On The Case was made as Mike and Rocky: Woodland Detectives. This 22-minute pilot was produced with the use of traditional hand-colored cel animation, as opposed to the regular series using digital ink and paint. The pilot had different voice artists, Billy West as Mike Fox and Dan Castellaneta playing Rocky Raccoon, billed as "Rocky Road". Joey Turtle was voiced by the late Sid Raymond, the original voice of Paramont Pictures/Harvey Comics cartoon characters Katnip Cat (from the Herman the Mouse cartoons) and Baby Huey. Carl Banas, the voice of Schaeffer from The Raccoons, played Mr. Grizzly. Unfortunately, sound effects and a soundtrack are absent and would have been inserted had there been a final version.

The early version was not well received by Fox executives, and Brooks demanded a revised version of the pilot episode. The style of the Earthworm Jim cartoon featured the use of synthetic New Wave-like classical music scores by Will Anderson (which was being recorded at Advantage Audio Services), which the producers did not want in for a sitcom at all. The music recording ended up being done at Universal Studios post production sound services for the regular series.

The first change was the recasting of the voices for the main characters. Mike was recast to Michael J. Fox, Rocky was recast to Rob Paulsen, Joey Turtle to Bill Fagerbakke, and Mr. Grizzly to Brad Garrett. Carl Banas, Billy West, and Dan Castellaneta went on to do voices for the other characters such as Jake Sheepdog, George Poodle, and Edwin G. Bearington.

The second change was the use of the digital-ink-and-paint process. Back when Taylor produced his previously series Bonkers, everything was all done with traditional hand-colored cel animation. But when The Woodland Creatures was in development, Taylor always thought of a sitcom using digital ink and paint for the series and Brooks eventually agreed to this.

New characters were created for the show such as Marilyn and Bonnie, Mona, Freddie, The Bearingtons, and Vincent 'Vinny' Coonini. As production of the first season began in the summer of 1995, the characters were officially redesigned for animation. The artists spent months drawing out storyboards and character layouts for the character animation. Background layout artists tended to draw out backgrounds for the show and they would later be painted after. The backgrounds were scanned for to be placed onto the digital camera stage. Also, the character animation drawings would be inbetweened and then digitally colored at an overseas studio, such as AKOM. Animating an episode can take between six and eight months. During this time, retakes, music scoring, and sound design are completed. Once the animation is finished, it is sent back to the United States where it is being reviewed. The staff would look for mistakes in the animation or "things that didn't animate the way [the staff] intended". These problems are then fixed back to the foreign country, such as Korea and the episode is finished.

By the time season one completed its production on September 1996, the show was said to premiere November 3rd that year. But Fox delayed it to 1997, due to The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper airing on their Fox Kids programming block. As the series was held for another year, production on a second season began in August. The show premiered in prime-time at last on November 2, 1997, but it failed to find an audience. After airing the next episode Disfigured Purebred as the season finale, the show was abruptly cancelled which left five episodes unaired. Nonetheless, the second season continued production anyway with no halt. As the second season was completed in November of 1998 to air on Fox, it was forbidden to return on that channel. Thus, a third season was produced as the final season of the original series. It was their last attempt to get the show back on the channel, but Fox rejected the third season of that show to have any spare airtime as the show was presumed dead to finding audiences.

Writing
Some of the writers came from the Disney animated series Bonkers, such as John Behnke, Rob Humphrey, Jim Peterson, Kevin Campbell, and Mark Zaslove. While others came from DiC's Super Mario cartoon series trilogy such as Rowby Goren, Matt Utiz, Doug Booth, Michael Maurier, Sean Roche, David Ehrman, Perry Martin, Phil Harnage, and most notably Jeffrey Scott and even a few writers from The Simpsons came to work on the show, which was actually John Swartzwelder and Jon Vitti. Animaniacs writers, such as Sherri Stoner and Deanna Oliver were brought in to write the show too, however.

The show was rated TV-PG with occasional episodes rated TV-14 likely due to dark themes, humor and content.

Voices
Michael J. Fox was chosen to play his self-inspired character, Mike Fox. Rob Paulsen was the voice of his best friend, Rocky Raccoon Jr.

The voice recordings were directed by Kris Zimmerman Salter, who later went on to be voice director for Regular Show.

Animation
All of the episodes are animated at Toon City Animation in the Phillipines, both Rough Draft Studios and AKOM Production Company in South Korea, and Wang Film Productions in Taiwan, respectively. Both episodes, Disfigured Purebred from Season 1 and Car-Tune Capades from Season 2 were animated overseas at Cosgrove Hall Films and are the only two episodes to be outsourced to the UK. In Season 3, Koko Enterprises and Hanho Heung-Up were brought into the show to animate 6 episodes (due to AKOM, Toon City, and Wang Film leaving production after the show's second season). During the third season, however. Koko animated three episodes, while Hanho animated three more episodes as well, and Rough Draft animated 7 more episodes. Like The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper, this show uses digital ink and paint for the entire series.

The opening title sequence was animated by Tokyo Movie Shinsha (TMS Entertainment), which had a similar animation style to their work on Warner Bros.' Tiny Toons Adventures and Animaniacs.

Music
In order for the show to feel more like a real sitcom, the music for the series have to deviate from the standard for animated cartoons, which traditionally followed the works of Carl Stalling. The show's music was composed by Ron Jones and Walter Murphy.

Episodes
See List of episodes

Voice cast

 * Michael J. Fox as Mike Fox
 * Rob Paulsen as Rocky Raccoon
 * Jeff Bennett as Freddie Raccoon
 * Tara Strong as Marilyn Fox
 * B.J. Ward as Bonnie Raccoon
 * Tony Sirico as Vincent 'Vinny' Coonini
 * Dan Castellaneta as Edwin G. Bearington
 * Tress MacNeille as Emily Bearington
 * Seth Green as Philip Bearington
 * Drew Barrymore as Jillian Bearington
 * William Salyers as Reverend Beaver
 * Britta Phillips as Charlene
 * Becky Thyre as Purebred Poodle
 * Charlie Adler as the Devil
 * Bill Fagerbakke as Joey Turtle
 * Christopher Lloyd as Michael Fox, Sr.
 * Russi Taylor as Madison Fox
 * Maurice LaMarche as Rocky Raccoon Sr.
 * Kath Soucie as Bertha Raccoon
 * Jeff Bennett as Marshall Fox
 * Candi Milo as Miriam Fox
 * Greg Burson as Marty Raccoon
 * Maggie Roswell as Jane Raccoon
 * Tim Curry as Bluebeard Grizzly
 * Rodger Bumpass as Dr. Wolf

Broadcast history
The show premiered Sunday, November 2, 1997 on Fox, but failed to find an audience. On May 17, 1998, Fox aired Disfigured Purebred, the eighth episode produced, as the season finale, leaving five episodes unaired. Despite the show being cancelled, two more seasons were produced in an successful attempt to return the series to television on Fox. But Fox already cancelled plans of returning the show to their schedule, so the series was put on hold until they could find another channel for the show to be on. Reruns of the first eight episodes, and the five unaired episodes, including the last two seasons (which were produced earlier throughout the end of the 90's) later aired on Cartoon Network's late night programming block, Adult Swim. Reruns of the series still continue to air on Adult Swim and as well as Netflix. The show also came around on Hulu and iTunes in September 2009, but they were eventually taken down from both by February 2012.

Revival on Netflix
On October 2018, the CEO of Universal announced that there would be a revival on Netflix and the shows new episodes would air here. It did, however, Regular Show creator J.G. Quintel and Ren and Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi were hired to be the writers of the revival (due to the death of Robert Taylor in 2014), with the latter's company Spümtwo (a revival of his original company Spümcø, whose first two projects are a Ren and Stimpy short and revival series) joining to the crew. Matt Selman and Jace Richdale, former employees of The Simpsons became the new executive producers/showrunners. The animation style would remain the same but a bit crisp, clear, and more remastered. Tokyo Movie Shinsha, (TMS Entertainment), Rough Draft Studios and Toon City Animation returned to animate for the reboot, but went through an upgrade with CG backgrounds for better depth in some extreme close-up scenes such as car chases. The revival received generally favorable reception for being faithful to it's source material, a variety of character development and soundtrack. The revival also broadcasts on Adult Swim, along with reruns of the original show.

Video game
On October 2001, a new video game adaptation was announced following the success of the series on Adult Swim. The game was released on the Xbox (TBA), Playstation 2 (TBA), Nintendo Gamecube (TBA), and Windows PC (TBA).

Feature film
See The Woodland Creatures Movie

On late February 2003, the CEO of Universal announced that there would be a film adaption based on the show, using the same animation style but a bit remastered.

Home media
The show was released as a complete series set on DVD by Universal Studios Home Entertainment, complete with beautiful color correction and restoration done overseas at [https://services.creativecow.net/s/264/prestodigital-colourgrade Presto! Digital Colourgrade] in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It contained all three seasons and was released February 14, 2002.

Notes/Trivia

 * The show is influenced by The Simpsons, Ren and Stimpy, Beavis and Butt-head and Rocko's Modern Life, being also considered as a predecessor to Regular Show and The Looney Tunes Show.
 * Gags and a few storylines were recycled from Taylor's previous show, Bonkers. Plus, some gags have been referenced from the Warner Bros. animated TV show Animaniacs.
 * Vinny's voice and mannerisms would be later recycled for a homonymous character on Family Guy (also voiced by Sirico), who served as Brian Griffin's temporary replacement.
 * One of the episodes from Season 2 had a homage to Knight Rider, an another TV show owned by Universal.
 * The Devil's voice and personality would be later recycled for another cartoon version of Satan: The Red Guy from Cow and Chicken and I Am Weasel.
 * One of their episodes from Season 3 parodied Sony Pictures Television's Project G.e.e.K.e.R. for an entire episode (even though the beginning and end are set in the show's original setting), which included Shawn Patterson's music scores of the show borrowed from Adelaide Productions.