This article needs additional citations for verification .(December 2009) |
Busytown | |
---|---|
Created by | Richard Scarry |
Original work | Best Word Book Ever (1963) |
Years | 1963–present |
Print publications | |
Book(s) | Best Ever series |
Films and television | |
Animated series |
|
Direct-to-video | Richard Scarry's Best Videos Ever! (1989–1994) |
Games | |
Video game(s) | Richard Scarry's Busytown (1993/1999) * |
* The latter year refers to when the game was remade. |
Busytown is a fictional town depicted in several books by American children's author Richard Scarry. Busytown is inhabited by an assortment of anthropomorphic animals, including Huckle Cat, Lowly Worm, Mr. Frumble, police Sergeant Murphy, Mr. Fixit, Bananas Gorilla and Hilda Hippo. [1]
Busytown also refers to the media franchise that spawned from Scarry's books. From 1989 to 1994, Random House Home Video and Jumbo Pictures produced the first basic educational learning animated series called Richard Scarry's Best Videos Ever! on home video. In the early 1990s, Cinar produced the animated series The Busy World of Richard Scarry , featuring the inhabitants of Busytown. The series originally aired on Showtime in the United States. [2] A board game and a computer game based on Busytown were also produced in the 1990s. Another animated series centered on Busytown, Busytown Mysteries , ran in the late 2000s.
Scarry's Busytown books consist of detailed drawings of busy animals engaged in scenes from daily life. He thought "children find it easier to relate to animals at that age. If you have a picture of a little girl with long blonde hair, then a dark-haired girl isn't going to relate to it as well as she might to a picture of a bunny rabbit." [2]
The most frequently seen characters include:
Scholars have examined Busytown as a representation for children of what adults do in daily life. For example, John Levi Martin conducted an analysis of the division of labor in Busytown. He noted, for example, that bears and leopards were overrepresented in jobs greater authority or lacking authority, but pigs overwhelmingly occupied jobs that were unskilled, demeaning or under someone else's authority. Further, pigs were the cause of some 75% of accidents. [6] Another writer described ''What Do People Do All Day" as "prophetic," since by saying "everyone is a worker." it predicts the paradigm shift change from "industrial" to the modern concept of occupation. [7]
Busytown has been praised for its educational value. By presenting animals in having different roles, for example "bear" and "mailman" young children are encouraged to conceive of objects as displaying different conceptual attributes simultaneously. That is, each one can be easily seen as belonging to two categories at the same time. [8] It has also been described as helping children learn prescience skills. The presentation of different scenarios along with questions like: "what do you think might happen next" taught children to interact with and think about what is happening in the drawings. [9]
Scarry was sensitive to claims his depictions of female characters in Busytown reinforced general stereotypes. [10] In one case, he said, his editor labeled a telephone worker Tom the Telephone Man even though he had given the character a pink bow and called her Tina. He refused to accept, however, that they promoted violence. [2]
Richard McClure Scarry was an American children's author and illustrator who published over 300 books with total sales of over 100 million worldwide. He is best known for his Best Ever book series that take place primarily in the fictional town of Busytown, "which is populated by friendly and helpful resident [animals...such as] Mr. Frumble, Huckle Cat, Mr. Fixit, Lowly Worm, and others..." The series spawned a media franchise.
The Five Find-Outers and Dog, also known as The Five Find-Outers, is a series of children's mystery books written by Enid Blyton. The first was published in 1943 and the last in 1961. Set in the fictitious village of Peterswood based on Bourne End, close to Marlow, Buckinghamshire, the children Fatty, who is the leader of the team, Larry, Pip, Daisy, Bets and Buster, Fatty's dog, encounter a mystery almost every school holiday, always solving the puzzle before Mr Goon, the unpleasant village policeman, much to his annoyance.
Len Carlson was a Canadian voice actor who has voiced various characters on many animated television series from the 1960s to the 2000s, an occasional live-action TV actor, and a Kraft Canada TV pitchman during the 1970s and 1980s. He was a native of Edmonton and a former professional athlete.
Catherine Disher is a British-born Canadian actress. She has won two Gemini Awards: in 2005 for Best Actress for her role in the Canadian mini-series Snakes and Ladders, and in 2010 for her role in The Border. She was also nominated for her role as Dr. Natalie Lambert in the Forever Knight TV series.
John Stocker is a Canadian voice actor. His career in voice acting began in the 1970s.
Julie Lemieux is a Canadian voice actress.
CBC Kids is a Canadian children's block on CBC Television. The block was launched as Hodge Podge Lodge in 1987 and contains programming targeted at children. The block airs on weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., Saturdays from 6:00 a.m. to noon and Sundays from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m.
The Busy World of Richard Scarry is an animated children's television series, produced by CINAR Animation and France Animation in association with Paramount Television, which aired from 1994 to 1997, first on Showtime, later on Nickelodeon, and ran for 65 episodes. The television series was based on the books drawn and written by Richard Scarry. Reruns of the show formerly aired in syndication as part of the Cookie Jar Kids Network block, but the show now continues to air on the Cookie Jar Toons block on This TV until October 26, 2013. Reruns of the show aired on Qubo from May 13, 2013, to September 25, 2016. However, it returned to Qubo on March 28, 2017, as part of the network's Night Owl block until May 26, 2018, and has also aired on Light TV, but has since left the network.
Richard Scarry's Busytown is a 1993 educational video game that was developed by Novotrade for preschool gamers. It was released for DOS, Macintosh, and Sega Genesis. This game was based on the series of Best...Ever! series of VHSes distributed by Random House's home video division preceding the TV series' The Busy World of Richard Scarry that was produced by CINAR and Paramount Television. It was remade in 1999 by Pearson Software for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS, with the visuals and animation updated to resemble that of The Busy World of Richard Scarry, and the dialogue re-recorded with Boston actors.
Corinne Orr is a Canadian actress. She is best known for her work on the English version of the anime series Speed Racer.
Best Word Book Ever by Richard Scarry was published in 1963 and became a best-selling children's book. Scarry had been illustrating children's books since 1950, but this was his first as both author and illustrator. The book also marked the beginning of the author's work on the "Best Ever" series. The original edition contains over 1,400 labelled pictures and the book sold over seven million copies in 12 years. The word book is designed to entertain children while teaching them words and numbers. It is divided into subjects on each pair of pages. Subjects range from sports to houses, with examples from all over the world. The pages have a small amount of text, which often challenge the reader to find something on the page. The characters are all anthropomorphic animals, often cats, bears, rabbits and mice, but many other animals are also used. The art for Best Word Book Ever was first drawn in, then painted in, which was by that time Scarry's normal method.
The Legend of White Fang is an animated television series based on the 1906 novel White Fang by Jack London. The show focuses on the main dog protagonist and a young human companion, 12-year-old female Wendy Scott, in the place of the novel's male trail guide, Weedon Scott. Spanning 26 episodes for one season.
Busytown Mysteries, also known as Hurray for Huckle!, is a Canadian animated television series created by Cookie Jar Entertainment. Currently, the series airs in Canada as part of the Kids' CBC block and on the Tiny Pop channel in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the show was scheduled to debut on Qubo, but it aired as part of the Cookie Jar TV block on CBS instead, and then returned to the United States on Starz.
Marvin Goldhar was a Canadian actor, best known for his voice work in animated programs and in made-for-TV movies.
Lowly Worm (LAHW-lee) is a fictional character created by Richard Scarry; he frequently appears in children's books by Scarry, and is a main character in the animated series Richard Scarry Presents The Best Series Ever!, The Busy World of Richard Scarry and Busytown Mysteries. In The Busy World of Richard Scarry, he is voiced by Keith Knight. In Busytown Mysteries, he is voiced by Paul Wensley.
The Mysteries of Alfred Hedgehog, also known as Les Mystères d'Alfred, is an animated series that airs on several broadcast and cable networks around the world. The characters of the show consist of mainly the anthropomorphic woodland animals such as raccoons, moose and voles. The show follows three anthropomorphic animal pre-teens — Alfred Hedgehog, Camille Wallaby and Milo Skunk—as they solve mysteries in Gnarly Woods.