Wowser, known in Japan as Bigger and Better: Dommel & Ron (どんどんドメルとロン), is an anime based on the Belgian comic strip Cubitus. It is the first TV anime to be produced by anime studio J.C. Staff. Telescreen Japan co-animated the series alongside J.C. Staff. It consisted of 52 two-part episodes the running time of 25 minutes in total, and it originally aired from 5 April 1988 to 27 March 1989. The show aired in the United States on The Family Channel in 1989.

Plot

Wowser is a large, white dog who has a big appetite and lives with his owner Professor Dinghy, a genius inventor. They live next door to Beatrice, an old lady with an apron; Linda Lovely and her brother Bob; and Ratso Catso, a black-and-white cat who often ruins Wowser's day or sabotages Dinghy's inventions.

Characters

Episodes

Foreign versions

The English-language version was produced by Saban Entertainment. Retitled Wowser, the series aired in 1989 on The Family Channel. The dub changed the names of the characters and replaced the original music. A promotional pilot trailer was made by Saban to sell the series, with Doug Lee as the narrator, Jeff Winkless as Wowser and Ratso Catso, Robert V. Barron as Professor Dinghy, and Iona Morris as Beatrice. Some scenes were removed or edited due to their violent or sexual nature: In the United Kingdom, Wowser aired on ITV and later on Channel 4 in the early and mid-1990s. Two videos of the series were released in two volumes by Stylus Video. In the USA, in 1990 and 1991, Wowser was released on video in four volumes in episodes with running times of 30 minutes and 60 minutes. In Canada, it aired on YTV between 1990 and 1993. In Malaysia, it aired on TV3 between 1991 and 1994. Elsewhere, the series was dubbed in Arabic in Jordan, and released throughout the Arab world; this version was named Ka'abool (Arabic: كعبول). In 1990, the series was dubbed in French as Cubitus; it was featured on the programme Avant l'école on TF1, and aired on Super Écran in Quebec. In Spain, it was dubbed into Spanish, Basque and Catalan, re-titled Gordi, Dommel Artzain Txakurra ("Dommel the Shepherd Dog") and Dommel respectively. It was also dubbed into Dutch as Dommel, airing on BRT, VARA and Kindernet from 1989 to 2003. The latter channel relaunched as Nickelodeon Kindernet on Comedy Central, and the series aired from May 2011 until 31 October 2013. Since 2015, it has aired on Pebble TV. The Italian version of Wowser was titled Teodoro e L'Invenzione Che Non Va ("Theodore and the Wrong Invention"). In Hong Kong, the series was re-titled IQ 零蛋多毛狗 ("IQ Zero Egg Hairy Dog") and aired on TVB Jade in 1989.

Songs

Japanese version

English version