Homer Simpson

Homer Simpson

Homer is one of the most influential fictional characters on television, having been described by the British newspaper The Sunday Times as "the greatest comic creation of [modern] time". He was ranked the second greatest cartoon character by TV Guide and was voted the greatest television character of all-time by Channel 4 viewers. Castellaneta has earned three Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance and a special achievement Annie Award for voicing Homer. In 2000, Homer, along with the rest of his family, was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Homer Simpson

Homer Simpson

Mickey Mouse

Mickey Mouse

Mickey was created as a replacement for Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, an earlier cartoon character created by the Disney studio for Charles Mintz of Universal Studios.

When Disney asked for a larger budget for his popular Oswald series, Mintz announced he had hired the bulk of Disney's staff, but that Disney could keep doing the Oswald series, as long as he agreed to a budget cut and went on the payroll. Mintz owned Oswald and thought he had Disney over a barrel. Angrily, Disney refused the deal and returned to produce the final Oswald cartoons he contractually owed Mintz. Disney was dismayed at the betrayal by his staff, but determined to restart from scratch. The new Disney Studio initially consisted of animator Ub Iwerks and a loyal apprentice artist, Les Clark. One lesson Disney learned from the experience was to thereafter always make sure that he owned all rights to the characters produced by his company.

Mickey Mouse

Mickey Mouse

In the spring of 1928, Disney asked Ub Iwerks to start drawing up new character ideas. Iwerks tried sketches of frogs, dogs and cats, but none of these appealed to Disney. A female cow and male horse were also rejected. They would later turn up as Clarabelle Cow and Horace Horsecollar. Walt Disney got the inspiration for Mickey Mouse from his old pet mouse he used to have on his farm. In 1925, Hugh Harman drew some sketches of mice around a photograph of Walt Disney. These inspired Ub Iwerks to create a new mouse character for Disney called Mickey Mouse.

"We felt that the public, and especially the children, like animals that are cute and little. I think we are rather indebted to Charlie Chaplin for the idea. We wanted something appealing, and we thought of a tiny bit of a mouse that would have something of the wistfulness of Chaplin — a little fellow trying to do the best he could."

Mickey Mouse


Mickey Mouse

"When people laugh at Mickey Mouse, it's because he's so human; and that is the secret of his popularity."

"I only hope that we don't lose sight of one thing — that it was all started by a mouse." — Walt Disney

Mr. Disney originally named the character Mortimer Mouse, but his wife insisted that this was a poor name choice. Actor Mickey Rooney has claimed that, during his Mickey McGuire days, he met cartoonist Walt Disney at the Warner Brothers studio, and that Disney was inspired to name Mickey Mouse after him

Mickey Mouse

Mickey Mouse

Spongebob Squarepants Costumes

Spongebob Squarepants Costumes

Spongebob Squarepants Costumes! It is time to prepare for The Spongebob Squarepants Movie to be released on November 19th with Spongebob Squarepants Costumes from Costume Craze. Sponge bob costumes come in both child and adult sizes. You'll be the hit of the party in your Spongebob Squarepants Costume. These Spongebob costumes are definitely not just for Halloween!

Spongebob Squarepants Costumes

Lego SpongeBob Build A Bob

Build A Spongebob do some wild things! Lego.

Lego SpongeBob Build A Bob

Plankton on the brain! Just when you thought things couldn’t get any wackier in Bikini Bottom. Plankton has taken over SpongeBob's brain and is making him do some wild things! Plankton can make SpongeBob SquarePants spin his eyes, shoot jellyfish from his mouth, and change SpongeBob’s expression from a frown to a smile.

Homer Simpson

Homer Simpson

Homer Jay Simpson is a main fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons and father of the eponymous family. He is voiced by Dan Castellaneta and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987. Homer was created and designed by cartoonist Matt Groening while he was waiting in the lobby of James L. Brooks' office. Groening had been called to pitch a series of shorts based on Life in Hell but instead decided to create a new set of characters. The character received his first name from Groening's father. After appearing on The Tracey Ullman Show for three years, the Simpson family got their own series on Fox, which debuted December 17, 1989.

Homer Simpson

Homer is the boorish father of the Simpson family. With his wife, Marge, he has three children: Bart, Lisa and Maggie. As the family's provider, he works at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant. Homer embodies several American working class stereotypes: he is crude, overweight, incompetent, clumsy, and lazy; however, he is also fiercely devoted to his family. Despite the suburban blue-collar routine of his life, he has had a number of remarkable experiences.

In the shorts and earlier episodes, Castellaneta voiced Homer with a loose impression of Walter Matthau however, during the second and third seasons of the half-hour show, Homer's voice evolved to become more robust, to allow the expression of a fuller range of emotions. He has appeared in other media relating to The Simpsons – including video games, The Simpsons Movie, The Simpsons Ride, commercials and comic books – and inspired an entire line of merchandise. His catchphrase, the annoyed grunt "d'oh!", has been included in The New Oxford Dictionary of English since 1998 and the Oxford English Dictionary since 2001.

Homer Simpson

Homer Simpson

The Future of 'Scooby-Doo'

The Future of 'Scooby-Doo'

Given the sheer number of "Scooby-Doo" episodes, films, and videos, it seems there might be nowhere to take the franchise. But don't worry: As the current standout property in the Hanna-Barbera archive, there will always be more Scooby.

Scooby-Doo has additional home video titles in the works, like
"Scooby-Doo Pirates Ahoy" TM &
copyright Hanna-Barbera Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
More "Scooby-Doo" home video
titles -- such as
"Scooby-Doo: Pirates Ahoy" --
are in the works.
The cliffhanger ending to the final episode of season one of "Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get A Clue!" certainly offers evidence that a second season is being planned. "We would love to make more," said Eric Radomski, supervising producer. But those within Warner Bros. indicate that an effort is being made to push Scooby-Doo further into the realm of high tech.

The Future of 'Scooby-Doo'

The Future of 'Scooby-Doo'

Just imagine Scooby-Doo announcing that your cell phone is ringing. Or think about Scooby adventures showing up on your iPod. Scooby-related video games have, of course, been on the market for years, and there is every reason to believe that more are forthcoming.

Why is it that Scooby-Doo was such and instant hit when he debuted in 1969 and has continued to be one of the most endearing characters in the history of animation? A lot of it may have to do with his uniqueness -- there just isn't any other character quite like Scooby-Doo, who has truly human qualities but remains at all times a lovable dog.

Or maybe it is his timelessness. The Scooby of nearly 40 years ago is essentially the same Scooby today. Such is also the case with the members of Mystery, Inc., particularly Shaggy. No matter what our age, we have all, at one time or another, known a Shaggy.

When they created a talking Great Dane named Scooby-Doo all those years ago, they started a franchise -- and broke the mold.

The Future of 'Scooby-Doo'

The Future of 'Scooby-Doo'

sesame street characters

sesame street characters

Sesame Street is known for its multicultural element and is inclusive in its casting, incorporating roles for disabled people, young people, senior citizens, Hispanic actors, Black actors, and others. While some of the puppets look like people, others are animal or "monster" puppets of different sizes and colors. This encourages children to believe that people come in all different shapes, sizes, and colors, and that no particular physical "type" is any better than another.

sesame street characters

sesame street characters

In harmony with its multiculturalist perspective, the show pioneered the idea of occasionally inserting very basic Spanish words and phrases to help young children become acquainted with the concept of a foreign language, doing so almost three decades before Dora the Explorer debuted on Nickelodeon. Perhaps in response to the popularity of Dora, the recently revamped format gives Rosita, the bilingual muppet who "immigrated" in 1993 from the Mexican version of the show, more time in front of viewers, and also introduced the more formalized "Spanish Word of the Day" in every episode.

Each of the puppet characters has been designed to represent a specific stage or element of early childhood, and the scripts are written so that the character reflects the development level of children of that age. This helps the show address not only the learning objectives of various age groups, but also the concerns, fears, and interests of children of different age levels.

sesame street characters

sesame street characters

Sponge Bob face down in the mud

Get the Sponge Bob face down picture in the mud below

Sponge Bob face down in the mud

Sailor Chibi Moon

Sailor Chibi Moon was the ninth Senshi introduced in the series. Her civilian identity was Usagi "Chibiusa" Tsukino. She was the daughter of Neo Queen Serenity and King Endymion, Usagi and Mamoru's future selves. She came from 30th Century Crystal Tokyo, where she was a princess, and returned to 20th Century Tokyo for training.

Sailor Chibi Moon

She and her mother Sailor Moon were referred to as the Double Moon, and sometimes referred to by fans as the Princess Senshi.

In the manga, Sailor Chibi Moon became at least two heads taller than her civilian form after the transformation. This also occurred in the anime, but less dramatically.

Sailor Chibi Moon

Sailor Chibi Moon

How Scooby-Doo Works

In the fall of 1969, CBS and Hanna-Barbera Productions launched an animated half-hour comedy starring a cowardly but lovable Great Dane who traveled the world with his four human friends to solve spooky mysteries. Everyone involved was banking on the show's success, but nobody could have predicted that Scooby-Doo would become one of the most durable and popular cartoon characters of all time.

The history of Scooby-Doo and his gang -- Fred, Daphne, Velma, and Shaggy -- is a fascinating one. With the help of two creative forces behind Scooby-Doo who span the character's entire career -- Iwao Takamoto, vice president of creative design for Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. (which is now owned by Warner Bros.), and Eric Radomski, supervising producer of the most recent series, "Shaggy and Scooby-Doo Get A Clue!" on the CW Network -- we offer a behind-the-scenes look at these venerable characters.

The Birth of "Scooby-Doo"

Like most cartoon characters, Scooby-Doo did not spring forth fully formed. The first series, "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!," went through many developmental changes and alterations along the way -- in fact, the first passes at the show did not even star a dog.

The impetus for "Scooby-Doo" came from Fred Silverman, who was then the head of children's programming for CBS. Silverman was looking for a different kind of animated show. He wanted one that, among other things, employed full half-hour episodes instead of the shorter cartoon groupings that were the Saturday morning norm. To achieve his goal, he called on Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera, whose namesake company, Hanna-Barbera, was responsible for the majority of all animation on television.

Scooby Doo

"Fred came in and talked to us about doing a full beginning-to-end story that had enough time to have a little substance to it," said Takamoto. "He wanted to have a true half-hour show instead of the tricky breakdown kind of stuff that we had been relying upon and he had been programming for a couple of years." Silverman also wanted something within the mystery format, similar to the old radio show "I Love A Mystery."

Two young writers, Joe Ruby and Ken Spears, got the assignment of developing the show, which they initially conceived as a straightforward mystery/adventure centered on five teenagers. Eventually a dog character was added, but only as a comic-relief sidekick. As development progressed, the emphasis was shifted away from serious thrills and toward comedy. The dog began to play a larger role, eventually becoming the titular star of "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!" Earlier working titles included "Mystery's Five" and "Who's Scared?" The original "Scooby-Doo" premiered on September 13, 1969. It was an immediate hit.

"Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get A Clue!"

The latest series in the Scooby franchise, "Shaggy & Scooby Get A Clue!," contemporizes the classic characters in both tone and appearance. "The request from Warner Bros. was to stimulate the Shaggy/Scooby brand," said Radomski. "Comedy is king in Saturday morning cartoons, so [show developer] Ray DeLaurentis pitched a 'Dumb and Dumber' approach for the show -- 'Dumb and Dumber' being the epitome of 'buddy comedies."

That model also meant that the rest of the gang -- Fred, Velma, and Daphne -- now had to take a back seat to the primary comedy team of Shaggy and Scooby. "Attempting to include the rest of the gang in a show like this would have been difficult and cumbersome," Radomski said. The three do, however, show up occasionally in cameo guest-appearances.

This is not the first time Shaggy and Scooby have been separated out from the group -- they were on their own throughout many of the 1980s shows.

Scooby Doo

Similarly, the graphic style of the show has been altered. The designs of Shaggy and Scooby are a bit simpler, and they no longer have whites in their eyes (known as "dot eyes" in animation). "The contemporary art direction for the characters was chosen specifically to distinguish this series from all of the previous incarnations," Radomski said. "Also, the obvious graphic approach is a reflection of the popular digital aesthetic so prevalent in animated shows today. The 'dot eyes' seemed to blend well with the overall graphic simplification we were going for."

One thing that has not changed is the universal appeal of "Scooby-Doo." "The 6-to-11-[year-old] demographic is definitely the target of the CW Network," Radomski said. "But I never allow it to restrict my team from making shows that appeal to a much broader audience. There is no better compliment than hearing that older siblings and parents are watching and enjoying our shows, too."