The Beano Videostars

Last updated
The Beano Videostars
Directed byTerry Ward
Written byRichard Everett
Terry Ward
Based on The Beano
Produced byTerry Ward
Darren Kinnersley-Hill
Starring Jonathan Kydd
Gary Martin
Alex Patterson
Mark Pickard
Enn Reitel
Kate Robbins
Susan Sheridan
Jill Shilling
Nicola Stapleton
Music by Mark London
Francis Haines
Production
companies
Flicks Films Ltd
D.C. Thomson & Co.
Distributed by PolyGram Video
Release date
  • 10 October 1994 (1994-10-10)
Running time
54 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

The Beano Videostars is a direct-to-video animated film based on The Beano , originally released on VHS on 10 October 1994 and also broadcast as a television special on ITV. The video is a sequel to The Beano Video , and features an expanded cast of characters, including Dennis the Menace and Gnasher, Minnie the Minx, the Bash Street Kids, Billy Whizz, the Three Bears, and Ivy the Terrible. [1] It was produced and directed by Terry Ward at Flicks Films Ltd, with voices provided by Susan Sheridan, Kate Robbins, Enn Reitel, Gary Martin and Jonathan Kydd, along with newcomers Alex Patterson, Mark Pickard, Jill Shilling and Nicola Stapleton.

Contents

Both videos drew high enough ratings and video sales to kick off the 1996-98 TV series Dennis and Gnasher . [1] [2] The video won an award for Best Special in 1995 and a British Animation Award for Children's Choice Special in 1996, [3] [4] and was re-released on DVD 10 years later in 2004.

Plot

The video begins with a glimpse of the planet Earth. Two signs saying, "Beanoversal Presents" (a parody of Universal Studios), appear circling around the planet. Two aliens notice something happening on their ship's monitor and head towards Earth. The camera zooms on the Earth as spotlights appear. The spotlights come from the theatre, where a presenter from the Beanotown Broadcasting Company announces that it is presenting the world premiere of the new Beano movie, and introduces the characters to the audience. The first to arrive are Dennis the Menace and Gnasher, riding the Menace Mobile. Dennis shoots tomatoes at the presenter. The presenter then welcomes the Bash Street Kids and the Three Bears, who all run over him. They are followed by Billy Whizz, who runs a marathon outside the theatre and strips the presenter to his undergarments by running past him; Minnie the Minx, who parachutes towards the theatre and lands on top of the presenter; and Ivy the Terrible, who appears riding her space hopper and bounces on him. Just as the presenter is about to say goodbye from the Beanotown Broadcasting Company, the aliens appear, much to his frustration. He starts complaining about his inability to do his job if he is standing in his undergarments with the uninvited aliens, while they teleport to the theatre.

In The Snowman Army, Dennis and Gnasher march with an army of snowmen and play pranks on others, such as freezing the path solid and causing a colonel's soldiers to slip and fall, catapulting the snowmen at Walter the Softy and a park keeper, and covering the soldiers in snow from a roof. This leads to a snowball fight between the menaces and the soldiers, with the soldiers firing their snowballs from their tank.

Next, in Jelly Babies, Minnie recites a poem about jelly babies before using some minxing to get herself some green ones. She replaces a park keeper's hat with a red jelly baby, which attracts some bees. Wearing the hat and seeing a box of jelly babies in Mrs Blenkinsop's bag, she tells Blenkinsop that she has entered a "green-free zone", and that everything that is green wil have to be handed over to her. Blenkinsop dumps her cabbages all over Minnie. Fatty Fudge leaves a hair salon, eating jelly babies. Minnie hears Fatty's mentioning of eating jelly babies, and tells him that eating the green ones will make him go bald, much to his horror. He hands the jelly babies to her and runs off. Minnie celebrates with a dance, but Fatty becomes suspicious of her, asking why she is eating green jelly babies and has not gone bald, followed by Blenkinsop telling her that "green-free zones" do not even exist. Minnie begins running away, and Blenkinsop tells Fatty to jump onto some red quick-setting jelly, which he does. Minnie stops to giggle about how she has gotten away, only to be encased in the quick-setting jelly, to which she says that she does not like red jelly babies. Blenkinsop and Fatty laugh at her as she bounces home.

In The New School, a school inspector visits Bash Street School and is unimpressed with its habits, so the kids are given an improved makeover and sent to the new Bash Street Academy. Plug's plastic surgery wears off, and he is expelled after seeing his classmates' makeover, particularly Danny and Smiffy. When he, Teacher, Headmaster, Olive, Janitor and Winston see the inspector put a nuclear physics disc inside the academy's robot teacher, this gives Plug an idea. They all record a music CD at his uncle Mike's studio. At Bash Street Academy, the robot reprimands Danny for putting his hand up to ask a question and nearly vaporises him with his laser. Plug replaces the robot's maths disc with his CD, rescuing his classmates, who dance and sing "We're the Kids From Bash Street School", all while changing back to their old selves. The robot dances along, and after getting too carried away, he begins malfunctioning. The kids escape before the robot explodes, taking the academy with him and leaving the inspector a homeless street busker.

During the interlude, Billy thinks that Fatty's drink is warm, so he leaves the theatre to get some ice. He whizzes to the South Pole and returns with the ice for Fatty.

In It's a Dad's Life, Minnie's Dad (here named "George") comes home from work, and Minnie plans to rebegin her unhappy dad's life. She dresses him as a baby, a school pupil, a clown, and the "King of Beanotown", with George calling a plumber his "good man" and a police officer a guard and a peasant. Minnie then meets George's boss, telling him that he has been working to hard and is very ill. Feeling that it is his fault, George's boss asks what he should do, to which Minnie suggests that he give her and George free tickets to the fairground. While riding the roller coaster, Minnie tells her dad to admit that his old life is not so bad, to which George replies that he supposes that it is not.

Afterwards is a little musical interlude, with the song "The Beano Rap". The song combines footage from the previous shorts and future shorts and segments (as well as footage of Gnasher dancing from The Beano Video) with original animation.

Next, in Bag Those Pipes, the Three Bears attempt to break into Hank's store, only to hear the sound of bagpipes. They enter the store, where Hank is playing the bagpipes and introduces himself as "McHank", telling the bears that he is having a "Scottish Day". He then shows them his Scottish food, including sized haggis, shortbread (which he stretches into long bread), Highland brand and scotched eggs, before resuming his bagpipe-playing. Unable to tolerate the bagpipes' dreadful noise, the bears exit the store and put aftershave on a cactus. Pa cuts down the cactus and throws it into the air. It lands on Hank, causing him to drop his bagpipes and run off. The bears decide to nab the bagpipes for themselves, and chase after them.

A series of parody commercials are shown, including Gnosher, Ma's Porridge, Dad, Rasher, and a compilation CD named Party Sounds from Beano Town.

In On Safari, Ivy puts her toy animals in her wagon and takes them outside to free them, which leads to chaos: Ally the Alligator is thrown down a slide in the swimming pool, scaring the poolgoers inside; Charlie Cheetah is pushed down the pavement in roller skates, knocking some pedestrians over; Trevor Tarantula is sent bouncing down a hill into the house of an opera singer; Gertie Gorilla is lifted up to a tree branch and falls on a park keeper when he nails a "No Bikes Allowed" sign to the tree, and elephants are tied to an old lady, a police officer, and a motorcyclist. When Ivy returns home, everyone complains to her parents about the animals. Ivy tries sneaking past her parents, disguised as Mrs Teddy Bear, but is caught and sent to bed with no supper. Before falling asleep, she wonders what her animals take to bed with them; her dream reveals them sleeping in the jungle and holding Ivy dolls.

Next, in Flutterby, Gnasher and Gnipper play with a butterfly, only for it to fly over the fence where Walter is skipping and holding a net, upsetting Gnipper. Gnasher attacks Walter and steals his bowtie, which Gnipper wears on his nose as if it were an actual butterfly.

Finally, in Dennis Meets His Match, Dennis and Gnasher are sitting outside their front door, moping because it is a nice spring day and love is blind in Beanotown, with the cats and birds being lovesick for each other. Walter arrives in a happy mood and tells Dennis that nothing can upset him today. The menaces try to prove him wrong by squirting him with the garden hose. However, Walter just laughs annoyingly, simply saying that a mere sprinkling of light summer rain poured down. The menaces try even harder to spoil his mood by making a loud din with their instruments. Walter just sings happily, and asks if he heard a pindrop somewhere. The menaces re-enter the garden shed as Walter says hello to everything that he sees. Dennis is angered even more by this and gets out his remote control jet plane, which drops eggs and flour onto Walter. He and Gnasher expect Walter to cry by now, but as the flour disappears, Walter is still smiling, and proves himself right; Dennis cannot possibly hurt him today, because he is in love.

A young tomboy named Cynthia then arrives, pushing her doll's pram. Walter is holding a bouquet of daffodils as Cynthia stops by and reveals that she has been Beanotown Beauty Queen for three years running. He then coldly rejects her for her cuddly dolly. Enraged, Cynthia stamps on Walter's foot, causing him to throw the dolly in the air. It lands in Cynthia's arms, and she uses it to whack Walter, launching him into the air. Dennis uses a trampoline as the final step in the plan to bounce Walter out of sight. He congratulates Cynthia over her "brilliant" menacing work. Meanwhile, Dennis' school teacher is admiring the prize marrow that he grew in his garden, and hopes to win first prize in the local competition, when suddenly, Walter crash lands onto the marrow, squashing it. The teacher blows his top at Walter over the obliterated marrow and angrily fires him as Teacher's Pet. Upon being fired, Walter begins to cry. Dennis and Cynthia begin celebrating Walter's defeat, when suddenly, Dennis endures his first on-screen kiss. Realising this, he screams in horror, and Gnasher howls. They then stop the film, jump out of it, and enter the projection room, where they cut the kissing scene out (Gnasher eats the strip) so it never happened. Just as Cynthia is about to kiss Dennis, he refuses, and the menaces decide to run away, while Cynthia watches.

After the end credits, Dennis and Gnasher escape the theatre and find the two aliens inside their UFO. Dennis bangs on the window, telling them to get him away from Cynthia. The aliens accept, and the UFO flies off into outer space as Cynthia begins crying. Dennis and Gnasher are relieved to have escaped Cynthia. However, to their horror, a female alien has stowed away on the UFO and is in love with Dennis, and wants to kiss him. Dennis screams again.

The scene fades to the theatre, where Olive is cleaning up after everyone has left. She breaks the fourth wall, reminding the viewers to rewind the tape if they want to watch the video again, before resuming work and muttering to herself, as "The End" appears on the screen and the curtains close.

Episodes and segments

  1. Dennis and Gnasher : The Snowman Army
  2. Minnie the Minx : Jelly Babies
  3. The Bash Street Kids : The New School
  4. Minnie the Minx: It's a Dad's Life
  5. Song: "The Beano Rap"
  6. The Three Bears : Bag Those Pipes
  7. Commercials: Gnosher, Ma's Porridge, Dad, Rasher, Party Sounds from Beano Town
  8. Ivy the Terrible : On Safari
  9. Gnipper : Flutterby
  10. Dennis and Gnasher: Dennis Meets His Match
  11. End Credits: "The Beano Videostars"

Voice cast

Credits

Broadcast history

United Kingdom

Related Research Articles

The Beano is a British anthology comic magazine created by Scottish publishing company DC Thomson. Its first issue was published on 30 July 1938, and it published its 4000th issue in August 2019. Popular and well-known comic strips and characters include Dennis the Menace, Minnie the Minx, The Bash Street Kids, Roger the Dodger, Billy Whizz, Lord Snooty and His Pals, Ivy the Terrible, General Jumbo, Jonah, and Biffo the Bear.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roger the Dodger</span> British comic strip character from The Beano

Roger the Dodger is a comic strip character from the comic magazine The Beano. He first appeared in his eponymous comic strip in 1953, and is one of the longest-running characters, characterised by his tactics for avoiding responsibility and his parents rules, or simply making chores easier, usually with the help of instructional "dodge" books.

<i>The Bash Street Kids</i> British comic strip series

The Bash Street Kids is a comic strip in the British comic magazine The Beano. It also appeared briefly in The Wizard as series of prose stories in 1955. The strip, created by Leo Baxendale as When the Bell Rings!, first appeared in issue 604. It became The Bash Street Kids in 1956 and has become a regular feature, appearing in every issue. From 1962, until his death in 2023, David Sutherland drew over 3000 strips in his time as illustrator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gnasher</span> Comic strip character from The Beano

Gnasher is a fictional comic strip character that appears in the British comic magazine The Beano. He is the pet dog of Dennis the Menace, who meets him in 1968's issue 1362, and is also the star of three spin-off comic strips. Gnasher is considered just as iconic as his owner as both have been the stars of many children's television programming and are the unofficial mascots of The Beano. Gnasher reached nationwide news in the 1980s after he disappeared from the magazine for seven weeks, returning with his six newborn puppies, but usually interacts with his son Gnipper.

<i>Minnie the Minx</i> British comic strip character

Minnie the Minx, whose real name is Hermione Makepeace is a comic strip character published in the British comic magazine The Beano. Created and originally drawn by Leo Baxendale, she first appeared in issue 596, dated 19 December 1953, making her the third longest running Beano character behind Dennis the Menace and Roger the Dodger.

Bea (<i>Dennis the Menace</i>) Comic strip character from The Beano

Beatrice "Bea" Menace is a fictional character from the British comic magazine The Beano. She was born in issue 2931 and is the baby sister of Dennis the Menace. She appears frequently in her brother's comic strip, but would receive comic strips of her own to star in, including a crossover comic strip with Ivy the Terrible.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ivy the Terrible</span> British comic book character

Ivy the Terrible is a fictional character featured in The Beano. She is a four-year-old girl who annoys her parents with her misbehaviour. She first appeared in The Beano in 1985 in the comic strip of the same name, but has starred in other comic strips throughout Beano history.

The Dennis the Menace Annual was the name of the book that was published between 1955 and 2011 to tie in with the children's comic The Beano, specifically the Dennis the Menace comic strip. Since they are traditionally published in the northern autumn and in time for Christmas, since 1965 they have had the date of the following year on the cover. Before then no date was given. Until the 2009 edition, the annuals mainly featured reprints from around 14–15 years ago from the cover date of Dennis the Menace, Gnasher and Gnipper and formerly Gnasher's Tale and Rasher strips in The Beano, although there is some new material. The 2010 and 2011 editions contained all new material based on the updated style seen in the CBBC series.

Susan Haydn Thomas, better known as Susan Sheridan, was an English voice actress. Her roles included Noddy in Noddy's Toyland Adventures, Princess Sylvia in Muzzy in Gondoland, Trillian in the BBC radio series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Princess Eilonwy in the animated film The Black Cauldron.

Walter Brown is a fictional character that appears in the British comic magazine The Beano. He is the rival and antagonist to Dennis the Menace who is vilified because of his lack of interest in stereotypically masculine activities and attitudes. From his first appearance in 1953, Walter became the target of Dennis' pranks and misbehaviour but would brush it off. Sometime in the 1980s, Walter's characterisation changed after reader backlash and made him a snobbish rich boy foil to his enemies.

Jonathan Kydd is a British actor, voice-over artist, narrator, writer, producer and podcaster.

EPIC Magazine was a monthly British comic magazine published by D.C. Thomson & Co. Ltd It was originally a spin-off of the UK comic, The Beano. Each issue had 40 pages and costs £3.99.

<i>Dennis and Gnasher</i> (1996 TV series) 1996 British animated television series

Dennis and Gnasher is a British animated television series based on characters from The Beano comic, which was broadcast on BBC from 2 April 1996 until 7 May 1998. Reruns aired on CBBC until January 2009. The series was produced by Collingwood O'Hare Productions and D.C. Thomson & Co. in association with BBC Television, alongside Flextech and PolyGram Video for the first season only. It was distributed by HIT Entertainment worldwide and was directed and largely written by Tony Collingwood.

<i>Dennis the Menace and Gnasher</i> (2009 TV series) British TV series or program

Dennis the Menace and Gnasher is an animated television series which was aired on the CBBC Channel. Based on the original comic strips from The Beano, it features the adventures of the rebellious schoolboy Dennis the Menace and his dog Gnasher. The programme is aimed for ages 6–12 and commenced on 7 September 2009 and ended on 26 February 2010 after 52 episodes. A second series was started at 3.45 pm on 8 July 2013 on the CBBC Channel. It was preceded by Dennis and Gnasher which aired in 1996 and a new series in 1998.

<i>Dennis the Menace and Gnasher</i> Scottish comic strip

Dennis the Menace and Gnasher is a long-running comic strip in the British children's comic The Beano, published by DC Thomson, of Dundee, Scotland. The comic stars a boy named Dennis the Menace and his dog, an "Abyssinian wire-haired tripe hound" named Gnasher.

Jim Petrie was a British comic artist born in Kirriemuir, Scotland. He is most notable for drawing 2,000 episodes of Minnie the Minx, a comic strip featured in The Beano, after taking over from the strips original artist Leo Baxendale in 1961. Jim Petrie's first Minnie the Minx strip appeared in The Beano dated 6 June 1961 and featured Minnie destroying her mother's feather duster to make a red indian headdress and taking her friends captive. This strip ended with Minnie being caught by her father and subsequently slippered by him, a common end for a comic strip from this era.

Ian Robertson Gray (1938–2007) was a British comics writer and editor.

<i>Dennis & Gnasher: Unleashed!</i> British TV series or program

Dennis & Gnasher: Unleashed! is a British animated television series based on the Dennis the Menace strip from the British comic The Beano created by David Law. The strip first introduced in 1951. It started airing on CBBC on 6 November 2017 and is the third animated adaptation of the strip after Dennis and Gnasher and Dennis the Menace and Gnasher. The series stars Freddie Fox as Dennis. A second series began on 13 July 2020.

The Beano Video is a direct-to-video animated film based on The Beano, originally released on VHS in September 1993 and also broadcast as a television special on ITV and CITV. It marked not just the first animated release of the hugely successful children's comic that has spanned many generations, but also the first animated appearance for characters like Dennis the Menace and Gnasher, Gnipper, Minnie the Minx, the Bash Street Kids, and the Three Bears. The video was directed by Derek Mogford and produced by Jo Pullen at Living Doll Productions and Whizzline Productions. It features voices by Susan Sheridan, Kate Robbins, Enn Reitel, Gary Martin and Jonathan Kydd. Martin and Kydd would later appear in the 1996-98 TV series Dennis and Gnasher.

References

  1. 1 2 McLaughlin, Iain (21 April 2022). The History of the Beano. ISBN   9781526777867 . Retrieved 25 May 2024. The Beano characters were also in colour – and in motion – in The Beano Video, which was released in 1993. It was an attempt to take the magic of The Beano and turn it into an animated video. It followed the format of The Beano, being an anthology of short, snappy stories, which brought Dennis and Gnasher, Minnie the Minx, The Bash Street Kids and The Three Bears to life. It was broadcast as a special on CITV and renamed The Beano All-Stars for its DVD re-release. A sequel, with an expanded cast of characters, was released in 1994. While these videos did not challenge the top of the year's best seller charts, they did mark the first time any DC Thomson characters had been animated since Bananaman a decade earlier, and showed that the company was eager to push forward with bringing their characters to life on screen.
  2. 1 2 "David Law". Lambiek Comiclopedia. Retrieved 22 May 2024.
  3. ↑ Editorial Staff, Animation Magazine (1995). Animation Magazine. ISBN   152677786X . Retrieved 26 May 2024. Terry Ward won Best Special for The Beano Videostars and Simon Ward-Horner's The Legends of Treasure Island won Best Series in the Children's Choice awards.
  4. ↑ "The Beano Videostars". British Animation Awards. Retrieved 25 May 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.