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.

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.

Main

 * Mike Fox (voiced by Michael J. Fox in the show and Billy West in the video games) - 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) - Rocky's love interest.
 * 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 series and Grey DeLisle in the video games) - 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.
 * The Devil (voiced by Charlie Adler) - a crazy goat version of the Devil, who usually appears in different costumes and different roles.
 * Joey Turtle (voiced by Bill Fagerbakke) - (reserved for DonaldoC1997)
 * 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.

Supporting

 * Michael Fox, Sr. and Madison Fox (voiced by Christopher Lloyd in the series and Corey Burton in the video games 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 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.
 * Brandon Barker (Randy Sklar) and Chester Barker (Jason Sklar) – 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.

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.
 * 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.

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 Universal's rival studio 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 woodland creatures 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.

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. 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, make it to Netflix on March 2019, and like Spike's Ren and Stimpy 2003 revival, it only lasted for 6 episodes. However, this caused a controversy with its fans. The reboot was instead animated with Adobe Flash, and the characters went over-the-top with their humor like Kids WB!'s Coconut Fred's Fruit Salad Island. It was rather dark and mean spirited compared to the classic episodes, and other characters hardly have any screen time. The writing resorted to being poorly done, because of Casey Alaxander and Zeus Cervas entering production. Unfortunately, the reboot was very unsuccessful with audiences as if it instead imitated Cartoon Network's Teen Titans Go! and did not have the same original feel as the classic episodes. Worse than that, they replaced its catchy and groovy theme sequence with a very annoying theme sequence that is irritating. Another problem is that creator Robert Taylor did not return to work on the reboot, due to his death in 2014. Michael Jelenic and Aaron Horvath took over as producers, and executive producers/showrunners. The reboot had 3 episodes unfinished, and was finally taken down on May 2019.

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 live-action/CGI hybrid feature film based off the sitcom.

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.

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 entitled 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.
 * The Devil's voice and personality would be later recycled for another cartoon version of the Devil: The Red Guy from Cow and Chicken and I Am Weasel.