The Wuzzles is an American short-lived animated television series created by Fred Wolf and produced by Disney Television Animation (then known as Walt Disney Pictures Television Animation Group) in their first of two productions. The series was broadcast from September 14 to December 7, 1985, on CBS. An idea pitched by Michael Eisner for his new Disney television animation studio, the premise is that the main characters are hybrids of two different animals. The series ran for one season of 13 episodes.

Premise

The Wuzzles features a variety of short, rounded animal characters. Each is a roughly even, and colorful, mix of two different animal species (as the theme song mentions, "livin' with a split personality"), and all the characters sport wings on their backs, although only Bumblelion and Butterbear are seemingly capable of flight. All of the Wuzzles live on the Isle of Wuz. Double species are not limited to the Wuzzles themselves. From the appleberries they eat to the telephonograph in the home, or a luxury home called a castlescraper, nearly everything on Wuz is mixed together in the same way that the Wuzzles are. The characters in the show were marketed extensively — featured in children's books, as poseable figures and plush toys (similar to Care Bears), and in a board game. Disney premiered two animated series on the same day in the same time slot, 8:30 AM ET, in the United States, with the other being Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears on NBC, and both series were successful during their first seasons. However, The Wuzzles ended production after its initial run. CBS canceled the show, and ABC picked it up and showed reruns during the 1986–1987 season; they aired it at 8:00 AM so that the two Disney shows would not be in competition with one another. The series was a bigger success in the United Kingdom, where the first episode aired as a theatrical featurette in 1986 alongside a re-release of Disney's Bambi. In the United Kingdom, The Wuzzles and Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears were originally screened on the same channel (ITV) in 1985/1986; therefore, both series enjoyed high popularity. Reruns of the show were aired on both the Disney Channel and Toon Disney. Songwriter Stephen Geyer composed the theme song and performed the lead vocal.

Characters

Antagonists

Episodes

Voices

Additional voices

Legacy

Butterbear and Rhinokey appeared in the DuckTales episode "The Lost Cargo of Kit Cloudkicker!" Unlike their original TV series' appearances, their designs are more realistic and animalistic and Rhinokey resembles a gorilla instead of a monkey. Additionally, they were created by a relic called the Stone of What Was, which bears Bumblelion's likeness and fuses any two animals that touch it into one chimeric monstrosity.