The Wild Thornberrys


The Wild Thornberrys is an American animated television series created by Arlene Klasky, Gábor Csupó, Steve Pepoon, David Silverman, and Stephen Sustarsic produced by Klasky Csupo for Nickelodeon. The series portrays the zany hijinks of a family of nomadic wildlife documentary filmmakers known as the Thornberrys, which consist of the nature documentary television host Nigel, his wife and camera operator Marianne, their 16-year-old daughter Debbie, their younger daughter Eliza, their adopted son Donnie, and a chimpanzee named Darwin. The series focuses in particular on Eliza, who has a magical ability to communicate with animals. The Thornberry family travels to every continent and wildlife environment in the ComVee, a recreational vehicle equipped with safety mechanisms to handle any terrain or body of water, to document their journeys in detail, with typical episodes involving Eliza befriending an animal and subsequently finding herself in peril.
Originally pitched by Klasky Csupo as an adult animated sitcom for Fox, the series was then retooled as a family-friendly animated series for Nickelodeon and premiered on September 1, 1998, as the eleventh Nicktoon and the third overall produced by the studio following Rugrats and Aaahh!!! Real Monsters. It ran for 5 seasons containing 91 episodes in total, with the series finale airing on June 11, 2004.
The series' fourth season premiere, "The Origin of Donnie", is a television special focusing on Donnie Thornberry's life before he was adopted by the family. A feature film, The Wild Thornberrys Movie, in which Eliza embarks on a quest to save a cheetah cub from poachers, was theatrically released on December 20, 2002. Rugrats Go Wild, a crossover feature film with Rugrats, was released in theaters on June 13, 2003. Spin-off media include DVD releases and three video games.
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Plot

The series focuses on a family of documentary filmmakers known as the Thornberrys, famous for their televised wildlife studies, as they travel the world in the "Comvee", a large, amphibious, multifunctional overland motorhome which doubles as their base of operations. It primarily centers on the family's younger daughter Eliza, and her secret gift of being able to communicate with animals, which was bestowed upon her after having freed a shaman masquerading as a trapped warthog.
The gift enables her to talk to the Thornberrys' pet chimpanzee Darwin. Together, the pair frequently venture through the wilderness, befriending many species of wild animals along the way, and discern moral truths and lessons through either their experiences or a particular animal species's lifestyle; often this means simply assisting the creatures by which they become acquainted in their difficulties.

Characters

Main

' is a 12-year-old girl and the youngest daughter of the Thornberrys. She has long red-orange hair that is usually worn in pigtails, and occasionally a ponytail, round eyeglasses, four big teeth connected by two braces, and freckles. She is able to communicate with animals, especially her chimpanzee sidekick Darwin. She must keep this gift secret or she will lose her powers. This happens in The Wild Thornberrys Movie when Eliza reluctantly tells two poachers her secret in order to save Debbie. However, after saving a herd of elephants from the same poachers later in the film, she is given her powers back. Despite her good intentions, she sometimes interferes with nature which causes more problems.
  • ' is Eliza, Debbie, and Donnie's father and Marianne's husband. He is also the son of Radcliffe and Cordelia Thornberry, an aristocratic British couple. Born in the U.K. and having attended Harrow School near London, he travels around the world with his own family making wildlife documentaries. He is eccentric, enthusiastic, and cheerful even in the face of danger, and is also known for his exaggerated facial features and love of kippers, which he offers frequently.' is Eliza, Debbie, and Donnie's American mother and Nigel's wife. She is the daughter of Frank and Sophie Hunter. She is the director and camerawoman of the Thornberry documentaries, even willing to put herself in danger to capture a shot. She mentions that she attended the University of California, Berkeley as revealed in "Rebel Without a Trunk".
  • ' is a feral boy adopted by the Thornberrys, who speaks mostly in gibberish and was raised by an orangutan in Borneo after his parents, Michael and Lisa, who were old friends of the Thornberrys, were killed by poachers. Debbie is usually left taking care of Donnie and she is constantly trying to keep him in control. Donnie's age is 4, turning 5 in "The Origin of Donnie".' is Eliza's sister, a popular teenage valley girl who is 16 and nags her family, especially Eliza, during her adventures. After the events of the movie, she becomes the only family member to know about Eliza's power but is warned that she will be turned into a baboon if she ever tells anyone. Debbie dresses in 1990s clothing and has a long swept hairstyle. Unlike Eliza, Debbie does not like traveling and wants nothing more than to live in civilization and make friends with people her own age.
  • ' is the Thornberrys' pet chimpanzee and Eliza's best friend. He usually wears a tank top with horizontal blue and white stripes and blue shorts. He speaks with a distinct, upper-class British accent. Although he is not too fond of Debbie, the two do share the same preference to living in civilization over the wilderness. He also acts as the voice of reason for Eliza whenever she tries to interfere in nature.
  • * Kane also voices others.

Recurring

Kip O'Donnell is a poacher and The Thornberrys’ sworn enemy who poaches and kidnaps animals with his partner Neil Biederman. Whenever they are not poaching animals, they are conducting schemes to make easy money. They would eventually be apprehended by the authorities after causing an oil spill while attempting to steal oil from an oil tanker in the episode "You Otter Know". Kip always refers to Eliza as "The Thornberry Girl".Tyler Tucker is Eliza and Debbie's cousin. He is Marianne and Nigel's nephew through Marianne's sister Nancy Tucker née Hunter. He is a year older than Eliza but acts more immaturely than Eliza does. He doesn't really understand the dangers of living in the wild. He's a know-it-all but generally has a good head on his shoulders, and he cares about his cousins Debbie, Eliza, and Donnie. His parents are Dennis and Nancy Tucker.Shane G. is a pop superstar who travels with the Thornberry Family for five episodes while they are filming in Alaska. The Foundation orders Nigel and Marianne to take him with the family to promote Wildlife preservation among young people and Shane's fans. Both Eliza and Debbie gain a crush on him, however Debbie loses interest when Shane shows to have more similarities with Eliza than herself.Santusa is a llama whom Eliza befriended in the Andes.Shango is an African elephant who Eliza first met.Phaedra is a female African elephant who appears in the episode, "Forget Me Not", and who Eliza and Darwin were riding at the beginning of The Wild Thornberrys Movie.Zita is an African elephant who was Rebecca's daughter and the mother of Shango, from the episode, Forget Me Not.Mali is an African elephant who was Zita's aunt and Phadera's daughter, when Eliza helps her.Juka is the leader of the Maasai legend between his wise Grandfather Makai Ben is a friend of Eliza's that Debbie teases her for having a crush on.Franz Fensterkopt is a documentary filmmaker who serves as a friendly rival to Nigel Thornberry.Dr. Jomo is a police officer who is a friend of Nigel Thornberry.Sri Mayasandra is a scientist who had found Donnie in the TV special.Baru is a young proboscis monkey who helps Eliza get back to her family, and his father, Baduk.Lugan is a baby orangutan who was in the TV special.Saiful, which was in the TV special. Adlon also voiced Tano, a Cheetah Cub who Eliza tries to help find and who she, Darwin and Donnie help try to find his mother in the episode, "Cheetahs Never Prosper".Shi Shou is a baby panda, and Mei-Mei, a mother panda.Conal is a golden eagle, and his wife Brianag.

Guest stars

Production

The Wild Thornberrys was produced by Klasky Csupo. It was initially pitched as an adult animated sitcom under the name, Nigel Thornberry's Animal World, and was to be co-produced by 20th Century Fox Television for the Fox network, but it was ultimately rejected. It was then picked up by Nickelodeon under its own animation studio and was retooled as a family-oriented series with Nigel's youngest daughter Eliza being promoted to the main protagonist role. According to Eryk Casemiro, SVP of Creative Affairs at Klasky-Csupo Productions at the time of the series production, she was originally designed to look "quite frankly, very ugly" in order to contradict the stereotype that all young heroines are physically attractive. However, her design was later retooled to look "cuter" at the request of Nickelodeon. It premiered on September 1, 1998, and was the first Nicktoon to exclusively use 22-minute stories.
The series was designed to have a focus on parents, after focus groups run by Klasky and Csupo uncovered that children were talking about the real struggles of the parent-child relationship; this was opposed to Nickelodeon's view of only featuring kids in children's programming. It was also designed with the potential of being used in science curriculums. To accomplish this, the production crew hired a specialist who did research on different regions of the world, different cultures, and different species of animals, all of which were provided to the writers to help them develop ideas for episodes.

Broadcast

The show aired in reruns on "Nick on CBS" for two years from September 14, 2002, to March 6, 2004. The show aired on Nicktoonsters in the United Kingdom.

Home media

Nickelodeon released all five seasons on DVD in Region 1 with Amazon.com through its CreateSpace manufacture-on-demand service in 2010. Season 1 was released on June 24, 2010, and Seasons 2 through 5 were released on December 1, 2010.
CreateSpace ReleasesRelease DateDiscsEpisodes
Season 1June 24, 2010420
Season 2, Volume 1December 1, 2010513
Season 2, Volume 2December 1, 2010524
Season 3, Volume 1December 1, 20103N/A
Season 3, Volume 2December 1, 20103N/A
Season 3, Volume 3December 1, 20103N/A
Season 4December 1, 201026
Season 5December 1, 201028

On February 16, 2011, Shout! Factory announced that it had acquired the rights to release the series on home media and would be releasing Season 1 on DVD on May 17, 2011. Season 1 was released on May 17, 2011, followed by Season 2, Part 1 on November 8, 2011. Season 2, Part 2 was released on April 24, 2012. Season 2, Part 3 was released on January 15, 2013, as a Shout Select title. Season 3 was released on June 11, 2013, as a Shout Select title. Season 4 and Season 5 were released in a box set on September 10, 2013, as a Shout Select title.
On December 1, 2015, Shout! Factory released The Wild Thornberrys: The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1.
In Australia, all 5 seasons have been released via Beyond Home Entertainment. A 13-disc set titled The Wild Thornberrys: The Essential Episodes was released on June 3, 2015.
♦ – Shout! Factory select title, sold exclusively through Shout's online store.

Films

The franchise was extended through three movies, which were released toward the end of the series' run:The Origin of Donnie : This television film prequel discovers Donnie's life before he was found by the Thornberrys.The Wild Thornberrys Movie : This theatrical film earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song.Rugrats Go Wild : This theatrical film was also the final Rugrats film, and a crossover between Rugrats and The Wild Thornberrys.

Video games

A video game based on the television series titled The Wild Thornberrys: Animal Adventures was released only for PlayStation on November 8, 2000. During this time, another game was released, The Wild Thornberrys: Rambler on PC and Game Boy Color on August 7, 2000, and November 2000 respectively. The Wild Thornberrys Chimp Chase was released only for the Game Boy Advance on October 1, 2001. Characters from the series also appear in the Nickelodeon crossover games Nicktoons Racing, Nickelodeon Party Blast, Nicktoons: Freeze Frame Frenzy, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl and its sequel, and Nickelodeon Extreme Tennis.

Reception

Critical response

Common Sense Media gave the series a rating of 5 stars, praising it for its ability to encourage young viewers to be empathetic toward animals, to want to find out about other cultures and ways of life, and to understand the vastness and diversity of the world. Knight Ridder called the series "sympathetic". The Native Voice complimented the series on its commitment to fun, adventure, detail, accuracy, and honesty.
FilmRotten TomatoesMetacriticCinemaScore
The Wild Thornberrys Movie80% 69 A
Rugrats Go Wild40% 38 A−