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Avenger Penguins
Also known as	Hell's Penguins
Genre	Animation Comedy
Developed by	Granada Television
Written by	Jimmy Hibbert Phil Jackson Malcolm McGookin Roger Stennett
Directed by	Jean Scott
Voices of	Jimmy Hibbert Lorelei King Michael McShane Rob Rackstraw
Composer(s)	Phil Bush
Country of origin	UK
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	26
Production
Executive producer(s)	Mark Hall Brian Cosgrove
Producer(s)	Ben Turner
Running time	22 minutes
Production company(s)	Cosgrove Hall Films
Distributor	Fremantle Media
Broadcast
Original channel	ITV
Picture format	4:3
Original run	22 September 1993 – 9 December 1994
Status	Ended

Avenger Penguins was an animated series produced by Cosgrove Hall Films in 1993, it was animated by Alfonso Productions, a Spanish based animation studio also responsible for bringing Cosgrove's previous show Fantomcat to life. It aired largely on Children's ITV. It has the distinction of being the last Cosgrove Hall cartoon to be animated using freely hand painted cells; it was originally to be called "Hell's Penguins".

The story revolves around three bike riding Penguins that inhabit Big City, uniting to protect it and its citizens from the evil Caractacus P. Doom, an insane and reclusive criminal scientist. The Penguins attempt to prevent Doom's schemes but find themselves often hampered by their own miscommunicating and occasional scraps with other biker gangs infesting Big City, such as The Stink Brothers, a rodent squad of Hell's Angels The series poked fun at the popular concepts of having creatures performing inhuman action feats and stunts in an animated medium, made popular by the then enormously successful Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise, at its core the show's themes heavily rung of Biker Mice From Mars. The cast, like DangerMouse and Count Duckula had with David Jason, boasted a star talent in a major role, this time in the form of Michael McShane as the Penguin's un-coordinated but brash leader Marlon. To show how the series was mocking the often rushed animation style of the original TMNT series, two supporting characters known as "The Badly Drawn Brothers" were always left with the design construction lines still showing out of deliberate neglect.

Pop culture references were found in abundance in many of the episodes and in the characters, Doom himself is patterned on an elderly Orson Welles, Harry Slime (who talks like Peter Lorre) in the meantime is based somewhat on Harry Lime, a character from the movie The Third Man.

The entire series was released on a three disc DVD box set in March 2006 alongside Alias the Jester

Contents 1 Voice actors 2 Episodes 3 DVD and VHS releases 4 Credits 5 External links

[edit] Voice actors

Voices: Michael McShane (Marlon / Caractacus P. Doom), Jimmy Hibbert (Bluey / Harry Slime / Bella / Brown Badly Drawn Brother / Poodle Stink), Rob Rackstraw (Rocky / Doc / Cecil Stink / Irv), Lorelei King

[edit] Episodes

Season One (1993)

1. The President is a Fish - First aired: 22/09/1993
2. The Hog Jamboree - First aired: 29/09/1993
3. The Quantum Mechanic - First aired: 06/10/1993
4. Big City, Little City - First aired: 13/10/1993
5. Computer Chaos - First aired: 20/10/1993
6. I Married an Android - First aired: 27/10/1993
7. Cat Pig-Cat of Iron - First aired: 03/11/1993
8. Nightmare at Tea-Time - First aired: 10/11/1993
9. Star Struck - First aired: 17/11/1993
10. The Labyrinth of Doom - First aired: 24/11/1993
11. The Wild Wild Wild Wild West - First aired: 01/12/1993
12. A Winter's Tale (Part One Of Two) - First aired: 08/12/1993
13. The Revenge of Doom (Part Two Of Two) - First aired: 15/12/1993

Season Two (1994)

1. The 23rd Century - First aired: 16/09/1994
2. Mummy's Boy - First aired: 23/09/1994
3. Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Penguin? - First aired: 30/09/1994
4. Surprise Fate - First aired: 07/10/1994
5. High Doom - First aired: 14/10/1994
6. The Jewel in the Crown - First aired: 21/10/1994
7. A Christmas Carol - First aired: 28/10/1994
8. Fish Finger (Dream episode) - First aired: 04/11/1994
9. Disgusting or What? - First aired: 11/11/1994
10. Rock 'N' Roll Penguins - First aired: 18/11/1994
11. The Computer of Doom - First aired: 25/11/1994
12. Sherlock's Penguins - First aired: 02/12/1994
13. Beauties and the Beast - First aired: 09/12/1994

[edit] DVD and VHS releases

• In UK the entire two series were released on DVD in March 2006 released by Delta Media PLC.
• In Australia there were six videos from Reel Entertainment releasing all the episodes of series 1 and one episode of series 2. Each of them contain 2 episodes.

[edit] Credits

• A Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall film
• Director: Jean Scott
• Producer: Ben Turner
• Executive Producers: Mark Hall and Brian Cosgrove
• for Granada: Edward Pugh
• Written by: Phil Jackson, Malcolm McGookin, Jimmy Hibbert and Roger Stennett
• Music: Phil Bush
• Vocals: Paul Young
• Business and Finance: Phil Slattery
• Production Co-ordinator: Laura Cosgrove
• Animation Director: Carlos Alfonso (Alfonso Productions)
• Storyboard: Keith Scoble
• Designers: Andy Roper, Jon Doyle, Maggie Riley, Alastair Fell and Mike Whaite
• Colourist: Joan Jones
• Film Editing: FLIX
• Dubbing Mix: John Wood
• Digital Dub Editors: Darren Cox and Simon Hall

[edit] External links

• Toonhound's entry on Avenger Penguins
• Cosgrove Hall Films Official Website