The Animal Shelf

The Animal Shelf
Genre	Children's
Created by	Ivy Wallace
Written by	Chris Allen; Julia Allen
Directed by	Ellen Menske (Series 1 and 2); Andy Joule (Series 3 and 4); Susan Roman (voices, United States/Canada)
Voices of	Jimmy Hibbert; Sue Ryding; Susan Sheridan
Narrated by	Susan Sheridan (UK)
Theme music composer	Ernie Wood
Opening theme	Five Soft Toys on the Little Blue Shelf
Ending theme	Five Soft Toys on the Little Blue Shelf (Reprise)
Composer(s)	Ernie Wood
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	4
No. of episodes	52
Production
Executive producer(s)	Mark Hall
Producer(s)	Jackie Cockle (Series 1 and 2); Francis Vose (Series 3 and 4)
Production location(s)	Unknown
Editor(s)	Zyggy Markiewicz (audio pre-production); Jereen Nadorp (audio and mixing); Ronald Nadorp (audio and mixing, Series 1 and 2); Flicks (edit); Hullaballoo (audio) (Series 3 and 4)
Camera setup	Patrick Reets (model, Series 1 and 2); John Duffy (Series 3 and 4)
Running time	10 minutes per episode (approx.)
Production company(s)	Cosgrove Hall Films
Release
Original network	CITV (UK)
Picture format	4:3
Audio format	Stereo
Original release	1997 –; 2000

The Animal Shelf is an animated children's television series produced by Cosgrove Hall Films and based on the books written and illustrated by British writer Ivy Wallace. Aimed at a pre-school audience, the show first aired on ITV running for four seasons and 52 episodes, running from 1997 to 2000.[1]

Characters and Voice Cast

Timothy the Human Being (voiced by Sue Ryding/Marc Donato) is the owner of the animals, who is never really seen on-screen, just his shadow. This is the same with all of the other human being characters, including Timothy's parents and Mr Tompkins, the jumble sale's truck driver, (who only appears in Stripey To The Rescue) apart from the pet-shop owner, Mr Trigg, (whose face is never shown on screen).
Gumpa the Bear (voiced by Jimmy Hibbert/Chris Marren) is the leader of the group. Gumpa is quite lazy and he enjoys sleeping.
Woeful the Monkey (voiced by Jimmy Hibbert/David Berni) wears a red fez and coat. He often tells jokes, which are often found rude by the other animals. He enjoys getting his own way, and is quite bossy, which sometimes annoys the other four animals.
Stripey the Zebra (voiced by Jimmy Hibbert) is Getup's best friend. He seems to be quite wise, and it is revealed in the first episode, Stripey To The Rescue, that he and Getup are Timothy's two oldest animals.
Getup the Giraffe (voiced by Susan Sheridan) is Stripey's best friend who has brown curly hair on her long neck. Although Getup often falls over and speaks with a broad English accent, she is close friends with the other four animals. The material on her hooves is badly worn, which means that she often loses stuffing through them.
Little Mut the west highland white terrier dog (voiced by Sue Ryding/Jill Frappier) is close friends with Gumpa. He wears a pink bow on his back, and often ends up getting into difficult situations.
Mrs Mole and her Baby Moles (vocal effects performed by Sue Ryding) are a family of moles who live underground. The moles themselves only squeak instead of talk.
Kinker the Mouse (vocal effects performed by Susan Sheridan) is the animals' friend who only sometimes visits the blue shelf. Like Mrs Mole and her baby moles, he always squeaks instead of talking. In the first episode, Stripey To The Rescue, Getup meets him at a travelling fairground, where he lives.
Jick the Jackdaw/Carl the Crow (vocal effects performed by Jimmy Hibbert) - A bird that takes up residence in Timothy's garden. He likes shiny things and can be a nuisance by taking things, but can sometimes be really useful as well, particularly when the animals have to get high up to reach things like acorns and nuts. In the North American dub, he is named Carl the Crow.
Squirrel (vocal effects performed by Susan Sheridan) - is the animals' second friend who is never even allowed in Timothy's house, hence why he lives in a tree in Bluebell Wood just outside Timothy's garden.

Episode Guide

Every episode in The Animal Shelf series is 10 minutes long.

Series 1 (1997)

1. Stripey To The Rescue
2. Gumpa and the Paint Box
3. Getup Crusoe
4. Kinker Visits The Animal Shelf
5. The Treasure Hunt
6. Music In The Woods
7. The Animals' Garden
8. Woeful and the Waspberries
9. Gumpa Solves A Jigsaw Puzzle
10. Tidying Timothy's Bedroom
11. The Trail
12. The Model Monster
13. Little Mut Goes Flying

Series 2 (1998)

14. Babysitting For Mrs Mole
15. Timothy's Pet Balloon
16. The Great Explorers
17. The Alarm Clock
18. The Wolf In The Wood
19. Woeful Flies To The Moon
20. Captain Gumpa
21. The Hottest Day Of The Year
22. The Mystery of the Pictures
23. Timothy's Guest
24. Little Mut Finds An Egg
25. Kinker's Camping Holiday
26. Timothy's Homework

Series 3 (1999)

27. The First Snowflakes
28. Getup The Skater
29. Waiting For Santa Claus
30. A Very Special Day
31. Living In The Jungle
32. Little Mut's Long Rest
33. Woeful And The Tooth Fairy
34. The Art Gallery
35. A Lazy Afternoon
36. Woeful's Magic Wand
37. Buckets and Spades
38. The Jam Factory
39. The Characters Play a Story Game

Series 4 (2000)

40. Animal Watch
41. Timothy's Valentine's Cards
42. Gumpa's Halloween Lanterns
43. The Easter Egg Hunt
44. Gumpa's Ark
45. The Garden Sale
46. Looking For Big Mut
47. A Night In a Tent
48. The King of the Castle
49. Timothy's Racing Car
50. The Shooting Star
51. Get Down, Getup
52. Gumpa's Head

International Broadcast

The series has also aired around the world including the ABC in Australia, KTV2 in Kuwait, RTÉ2 in Ireland as part of their children's block The Den, Dubai 33 in the United Arab Emirates, the children's television network K-T.V. World and M-Net (as part of their series of children's lineup blocks K-T.V.) in South Africa, Premiere 12 (as part of their children's block Kidz Blitz), Eureka Learning Channel and Kids Central in Singapore, PBS and Television Malta in Malta, TVB Pearl in Hong Kong, SVT and SVT Barnkanalen in Sweden and TVNZ 2 and TVNZ 6 in New Zealand as part of their children's block Kidzone.

It's Itsy Bitsy Time

The series was also seen on an American children's wrapper programme called It's Itsy Bitsy Time along with several TV series from overseas and aired on the Fox Family Channel in America and Treehouse TV in Canada in 1999 with the British voices being redubbed with American and Canadian voices.[2] The voices were directed by Canadian voice actress Susan Roman who is best known for voicing Sailor Jupiter in the DIC and Cloverway Inc. versions of the English dubbed anime Sailor Moon. Roman also directed the American and Canadian voices for another British children's animated television series seen on It's Itsy Bitsy Time Tom and Vicky.

Merchandise

The series later had tie in story books from Ladybird Books and was also released on VHS and DVD.

References

Crump, William D. (2019). Happy Holidays—Animated! A Worldwide Encyclopedia of Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Year's Cartoons on Television and Film. McFarland & Co. p. 13. ISBN 9781476672939.
Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 434–435. ISBN 978-1476665993.

External links

The Animal Shelf on IMDb

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[1] Crump, William D. (2019). Happy Holidays—Animated! A Worldwide Encyclopedia of Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Year's Cartoons on Television and Film. McFarland & Co. p. 13. ISBN 9781476672939.

[2] Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 434–435. ISBN 978-1476665993.