I live in Venice, Florida, but also work in nearby North Port. In time, I've become friends with some of the folks at the local Culver's restaurant. Culver's is famous for its frozen custard. They also have blue plastic utensils. One day I decided to make a very unique cross over. Smurfs (using standard Culver's spoons), Jake Sully from Avatar (using a long ice cream spoon), and General Mills Cereal ghost Boo Berry (using a fork). The Smurfs and Jake Sully enjoy their familiar forest setting in a small house plant. Boo Berry enjoys haunting the house.
In 1984, Kings Island amusement park in Ohio was invaded by the Smurfs. The Smurfs had been around since 1958 in Europe, but they hit America with full force in the eighties thanks to the Hanna Barbera produced TV series in 1981. The Enchanted Voyage dark ride in the Hanna Barbera section of Kings Island got a Smurf makeover, and special blue Smurf Ice Cream was sold. By 1991, the Smurfs were evicted. Eventually, all the Hanna Barbera characters were kicked out of Kings Island. For a while, the park became Paramount's Kings Island, and Nickelodeon characters took over. Ultimately, even the Nickelodeon characters were discontinued when Cedar Fair took control of Kings Island, and Snoopy and the Peanuts gang became the mascots for the park.
The Smurfs may be long gone from Kings Island, but their legacy lives on in the form of Blue Ice Cream, which is still sold in the park and is a Kings Island tradition. I made this Smurf and his namesake Ohio treat using shells and shark teeth I found on the beaches in Venice, Florida.
I grew up in Alabama, but had family in Indianapolis, Indiana. We visited Kings Island in 1988 and I got to experience Smurfs Enchanted Voyage in all its smurfy splendor. Unfortunately, it rained all day when we visited, and none of us were in the mood to try the signature ice cream.
Disney's 1985 CBS Saturday Morning series "The Wuzzles" may have only lasted one season, but it is far from forgotten. In fact, the characters continue to appear on TV and in the movies. You just may not have noticed.
The Wuzzles was one of the first shows created by Walt Disney Television Animation, and it was better than it needed to be. The series was based on a toy line that Disney developed with the Hasbro toy company.
The Wuzzles lived in the land of Wuz and were two animals in one. "They got originality, living with a split personality." The fun, nonsensical, fantasy stories were narrated by Stan Freberg.
The main Wuzzles included Bumblelion (bee/lion, voiced by Brian Cummings---another lion named Lionel, voiced by Jim Cummings, appeared on the Dumbo's Circus TV show in 1985), Butterbear (butterfly/bear, voiced by Kathleen Helppie---who later became a producer at Warner Brothers named Kathleen Helppie-Shipley), Hoppopotamus (rabbit/hippo, voiced by Joanne Worley), Rhinokey (rhino/monkey, voiced by Alan Oppenheimer), Eleroo (elephant/rabbit, voiced by Henry Gibson) and Moosel (moose/seal, voiced by Bill Scott).
Visitors to Disneyland in the Eighties could meet The Wuzzles in person and see them in parades. At some point, The Wuzzles characters were evicted from Disneyland, and found themselves available for rent. The Wuzzles have been seen in a number of non-Disney commercials, movies and TV shows, including the Fox series "Grounded For Life" starring Donal Logue and Megyn Price.
Bumblelion can be seen in T-Mobile's 2012 "Bring The Game To You With T-Mobile TV" commercial.
Bumblelion has had a bit of cosmetic work (sometimes his antennae have been removed) and costume changes over the years for his different roles in commercials, TV shows and films.
I also remember seeing a Rhinokey plush toy on at least one episode of the TV show "Roseanne."
The story and voice work for the TV show was done in California, but the actual animation production for The Wuzzles was handled by TMS Entertainment (Tokyo Movie Shinsha) in Japan. TMS is well-known in the animation industry, and later worked on shows like "Tiny Toon Adventures" and "Animaniacs!" for Warner Brothers.
I thought the villains (Croc, Flizzard and Brat) were the best characters in the Wuzzles universe. I don't think they appeared on any merchandise. Maybe because they were a little scary. That's why I liked them so much.
The artwork in this comic book story is really impressive, and unfortunately, sort of uncredited. Note that even in the land of Wuz, there are dog-faced "background characters" so often used in Disney comics.
The Wuzzles debuted on CBS in the Fall of 1985. Their competition on NBC was Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears. The Gummi Bears won that fight, and The Wuzzles were done. Or so we thought.
The Smurfs and Alvin and the Chipmunks recently returned to movie theaters. A Fraggle Rock movie has been in the works for years, and ALF and Don Johnson never really left. Maybe someday we'll see a return of Disney's Gummi Bears.
The Wuzzles have successfully infiltrated movies and TV shows made by rival studios and in multiple commercials that you only subliminally noticed. You thought The Wuzzles were cute and innocent. You were wrong! I bet the Wuzzles are plotting their return to TV and the big screen right now.
Cincinatti, Ohio is home to Kings Island, a theme park that used to feature the Hanna Barbera characters as mascots. There was a whole section devoted to them---Hanna Barbera Land. If you watched The Brady Bunch, you may remember that the family visited the park and Jan switched Mr. Brady's architectural plans for a Yogi Bear poster. Stupid Jan! Greg also got a job dressing up like Hair Bear from show The Hair Bear Bunch.
Hanna Barbera Land featured a boat ride called Enchanted Voyage (1972-1982), which took passengers through a TV set and past animated versions of many different HB characters. When the Smurfs became popular, Yogi and friends were evicted, and the ride became The Smurf's Enchanted Voyage.
The figures in the ride were very simple, and much like Christmas window displays. Some had no motion at all. The pictures shown here were taken by my Dad in 1988.
The Christmastime Smurf scene was the ride's finale, and the boats went up a very small lift hill and went down a very small drop. In the original ride, the scene was a carnival scene, hence the exciting drop.
For 1992, the Smurfs were evicted and the boat ride was ripped out. The ride became Phantom Theater, which was an omnimover Haunted Mansion-style ride. It was still part of Hanna Barbera Land, but featured no cartoon characters.
In 2003, the ride then became Scooby Doo and the Haunted Castle, a ghostblasters dark ride. By then, Hanna Barbera Land had begun the transformation to a Nickelodeon theme, and Scooby Doo was the only surviving HB character. However, the end has come for Hanna Barbera at Kings Island. Snoopy is taking over the entire area, which will now be called Planet Snoopy.
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