Angela Anaconda
From Free net encyclopedia
Angela Anaconda is a cutout animation cartoon from Canada that aired on the Fox Family Channel (now called ABC Family) in the U.S.. It revolves around an eight-year-old girl named Angela who has wacky brothers, weird friends, and hates a fake-French girl named Nanette Manoir.
It started as a short skit on the Nickelodeon show Kablam!. Angela Anaconda later became a series and was a hit on Fox Family Channel from 1999 to 2001. In 2001, when Disney bought the Fox Family Channel and changed the network's name to ABC Family, Angela was moved and cancelled after two months.
The show was created by two women: Joanna Ferrone and Sue Rose. Ferrone and Rose also created Fido Dido and Rose created Disney's Pepper Ann. The show is produced by Decode Entertainment and C.O.R.E Digital Pictures. It also airs on Teletoon in Canada. It premiered in the UK on Cartoon Network, and currently airs there on Channel 4.
The show features a very distinct art style, reminiscent of Terry Gilliam's animation from Monty Python's Flying Circus, in which all the characters are made out of cutouts of black and white photographs.
The characters also appear as an introduction to Digimon: The Movie, released outside of Japan. This is to help disguise the fact that the movie is three Japanese movies cut together.
The animation style is also copied for the music video "Kids in America" by Len, shown at the end of the movie.
Contents |
Characters
Angela Anaconda
A tomboyish girl with a vivid imagination and strong initiative. She is the third child in her family and constantly finds herself pushed around by others, causing her to imagine inventive and surreal punishments for them. She attends Tapwater Springs Elementary School and is in the third grade. Because of her short attention span and dislike of both her teacher Mrs. Brinks and the teacher’s pet, Nanette Manoir, she is often subject to unfair punishments such as clapping erasers during recess. Nanette is often seen conspiring against Angela so she gets punished despite of her innocence. Because of this, Angela resents Nanette and sees her as her arch enemy, and dreams up the worst vengeance for her. Angela is down to earth and hates pretentiousness and boastfulness, and can usually see through lies and false claims. Aside from her best friends, Johnny, Gina and Gordy, Angela is especially attached to her dog King, her little sister Baby Lulu and her parents. Being a middle child, Angela often finds herself slightly overlooked and often has to pick up the pieces her eccentric family leave behind, although she remains a happy, optimistic kid. Angela uses her imagination as a form of escapism and often pictures herself as anything from an astronaut to a queen. Her heroes include local celebrity Astronaut Bob and her alligator-loving grandmother Lou.
Gina Lash
Angela’s best friend, Gina Lash is the most intelligent child in the third grade. Possessing an encyclopaedic knowledge and vocabulary impressive in someone so young, Gina is always there to dispense reason and insight to her friends, although she will participate in whatever crazy scheme her friends are cooking up. Gina shares many interests with her friends, but her thirst for knowledge has led her to pursue a variety of other hobbies; she owns a microscope and other scientific paraphernalia. The other thing Gina is best known for is her appetite, which rivals that of any adult. She’s always hungry and can even fall prey to Nanette Manoir if she’s bribed with her gourmet chef’s cooking. Gina’s favourite foods include Abatti’s Pizza, cinnamon swirls and Tastee Swirl ice cream. Gina is in love with the Tastee Swirl mascot, a man with a whipped ice cream head who dispenses ice creams from his truck. Despite being overweight, Gina does not let jibes about her appearance affect her, remaining happy and confident. Gina also owns a pet turtle called Sheldon.
Johnny Abatti
Johnny is a sweet but dim child of Italian American decent. His parents are never seen in the show, and he appears to be under the care of his grandmother and uncle Nicky. Regarded as being good looking, Johnny takes pride in his Elvis-inspired hairstyle, and is the object of a few crushes. Nanette tries to flirt with him and refers to him as “John” even though nobody else does. Johnny is privileged enough to be invited to exclusive Manoir events, usually bringing Gina, Angela and Gordy along, often against their will. Despite this preferential treatment, Johnny remains totally clueless about Nanette’s affections, even though he doesn’t seem to dislike her like Angela and Gina do. Although he won’t admit it, Johnny may have strong feelings for Angela, as he becomes resentful of any rival for her affections- in one episode he even sends her flowers but forgets to sign the tag, and the credit for his gift goes to Angela’s imaginary boyfriend Bob.
Gordy Rhinehart
Gordy is a sensitive asthmatic boy who prefers pressing flowers and writing poetry to dangerous playground activities like tag or hide and seek. Skinny and physically weak, Gordy is the polar opposite of his burly ex-army dad Coach Rhinehart, although their relationship is good and the Coach seems to enjoy his son’s strawberry soufflés. Gordy loves animals and is the proud owner of an immaculately groomed dog called Fabio- He is also an expert on pet care and will worry about the welfare of any animal entrusted to Angela. Gordy is in love with Gina Lash, although his love goes unreciprocated.
Nanette Manoir
The richest kid in class, Nanette is the teacher’s pet, despite being an average student. She’s so manipulative that she’s managed to wrap Mrs. Brinks’ around her little finger, constantly praising her and giving her gifts. The perfect little angel to adults, Nanette is actually spoiled, devious, cunning, snobby and mean, exercising the worst of her meanness on Angela and her friends. She’s very proud of her looks and talents and engages in a variety of extracurricular activities such as baton twirling, ballet, painting and ice skating. Nanette uses her family’s wealth and status as a way of proving that she’s better than her peers. Because of her French last name, Nanette likes to believe that she’s 100% French and frequently sprinkles her conversation with inaccurate French phrases, explaining their meaning incorrectly. (She believes “pomme de terre” is French for “apple polisher”.) If Nanette is French and not faking it like Angela believes she is, she is at least 3rd generation, as she and both her parents have American accents. Nanette has a huge wardrobe full of designer originals, but nearly always wears a French girls’ school uniform to school, complete with beret.
January and Carlene
Nicknamed the “Copycat Clone Club” by Angela, January and Carlene are Nanette’s best friends and follow her around wherever she goes. Sporting bouffant hairdos, preppy clothing and beauty moles, they are very concerned with their appearance and look to Nanette for fashion guidance. When Nanette makes a statement, one girl instantly says she agrees, then the other says she agrees with it even more. When Nanette was bedridden with a head cold, they found themselves bereft of a leader and instantly latched onto Angela, who had the high status job of organising the school’s float in a parade. January and Carlene then proved themselves as disloyal to Nanette, willing to sell her out to be “somebodies”.
Josephine Praline
A devout Christian, Josephine acts as a moral rudder for many a classmate in need. She’s sweet and forgiving, but stern when she sees injustice, and has even set up her own confession booth in the playground, where her friends can come to talk to her about issues they’re worried about. Josephine urges Angela to see the good in Nanette instead of hating her, but is surprised when she can’t find any good qualities herself. Josephine frequently offers up praise and sometimes even glows with a heavenly, serene light.
Candy May
Candy May is an incredibly dim child who appears to have cut her hair herself and wears a shirt with a unicorn decal. She hesitates a lot, draws her words out and often confuses herself. She isn’t allowed near sharp objects and loves playing with glitter and paste.
Mrs. Brinks
Dedicated third grade teacher, Mrs. Brinks is an eccentric middle aged woman with a rather masculine voice and large manly hands. Although she’s not a bad teacher, she’s easily manipulated and plays favourites, her veto always falling in favour of Nanette, whom she sees as the perfect little girl. Something of a snob, Mrs. Brinks likes to believe she’s sophisticated and succumbs easily to flattery. Although she usually sees Angela as a bizarre and wayward girl, she soon makes her top of the class when she believes Angela’s poem about her dog is about her. She wears a huge grey beehive wig which hides her short ginger hair and is rumoured to be a weekend nudist with her husband, Connie Brinks. Angela and her gang often spy on her backyard from their tree house to find out if this rumour is true.
Other characters
Gen and Bill Anaconda: Angela’s loving parents. Bill is the inventor of Firm-a-Foam and Gen is a sculptor. Gen once was commissioned to sculpt Nanette and Ooh La La in pink marble, but the final statue was rejected by the Manoirs, who thought it was too small.
Baby Lulu: Angela’s infant younger sister, who shares her taste in food with the family dog, King.
Mark and Derek: Angela’s football obsessed older brothers. They’re rather dimwitted and enjoy head-butting each other in a typical jock fashion. They enjoy teasing their younger sister and making her the butt of their jokes.
Grandma Lou: Resident of Florida, it’s easy to see where Angela got her imagination and sense of adventure. Grandma Lou is incredibly energetic for her years and can even water ski.
The Manoirs: Moustachioed Mr. Manoir is an incredibly wealthy businessman who seems to own a lot of corporate properties. Mrs. Manoir is a Southern belle trophy wife who is especially attached to her daughter, and owns a bracelet made up of gold charms depicting Nanette in various stages of growth.
The Abattis: Grandmother Nona Abatti is the owner of Abatti’s Pizzaria, and is obsessed with beating her rivals, Sabatto’s Pizza. Uncle Nicky is a party animal in his thirties who always wears aviator shades and is usually accompanied by two glamorous women.
King: King is the Anaconda’s family dog and one of Angela’s best friends. King is in fact female in spite of her masculine name. She appears to be some sort of terrier, but is most likely a mongrel. She’s very fond of Nanette’s dog Ooh La La, although their relationship is frowned on by both Angela and Nanette. King is very loyal and loving, even though she can’t do any tricks.
Ooh La La: Nanette’s pedigree toy poodle, Ooh La La has had impeccable obedience training, and knows many tricks, which doesn’t stop him from running away from Nanette often. Nanette cuddles him and makes him wear a tutu and tiara, but Ooh La La would prefer to be rolling in mud and eating garbage like any other dog.
Barney: Grandma Lou's fearsome pet alligator, whom she hatched from an egg. Most people see him as a huge, scaley killer, but to her he's harmless and as cute as any puppy. Barney accompanies Grandma Lou wherever she goes, but is not completely trusted even by Angela, who imagines him as capable of devouring the more conventional pets in the neighbourhood.