This week, Crackers brings you information about some of your favourite cartoon characters. Meet Ed, Edd n Eddy, The Rugrats, Dora the Explorer and more in our article, Favourite cartoon characters. And if you would like to share with us your favourite cartoon character, why not take part in our new competition. Send us your drawing of your favourite cartoon

character and you could be one of our winners.

Francesca Zammit who is only 10 years old sent us this colourful collage made of paper taken from old magazines. We should all follow Francesca’s example and use as many recycled paper as possible. Remember that

recycling things will help the environment to be kept cleaner.

A big thank you goes to KRS, the Model Shop and Playmobil for once again sponsoring our page with their competitions.

See you next Thursday

* * *

Favourite cartoon characters

The Cramp Twins

Meet Wayne and Lucien Cramp. They are 10-year-old twins who live with their hygiene-crazed mother and their western/country-crazed father in a small town called Soap City. The twins have nothing in common! Wayne likes fighting, collecting weird stuff and stuffing his face with candy. And he is blue – literally! Lucien is a vegetarian who is totally into knitting, studying and saving the world. In practically everything they do, the Cramp Twins are polar opposites.

Ed, Edd n Eddy

The series was first aired in 1999. It is currently the longest-running original cartoon on Cartoon Network. The show features the mishaps and adventures of three boys. Ed, who is slow-witted; Edd, who is usually called “Double D” and is rather intelligent, and Eddy, the greedy “leader” of the trio. The characters rarely leave their neighbourhood, and no adults are ever seen. As befitting a children’s programme there are comic situations, scenes that may relate in some way to real life. Ed, Edd n Eddy provides some of the most consistently and creatively funny television on the air today, animated or otherwise. The writers give us what we know should happen, before we even realise that we know – and they make it funny every time. Ed, Edd n Eddy is a Canadian/American animated television series created by Danny Antonucci.

Rugrats

The show revolves around four toddlers, Tommy Pickles, Chuckie Finster and the twins Phillip (Phil) and Lillian (Lil) DeVille, who are able to communicate to each other in baby speak (although viewers can understand them, because it is supposedly “translated”). Often, they mispronounce words or use poor grammar. Despite the toddlers’ inability and lack of desire to communicate with adults, they can understand their parents’ speaking, although they often misunderstand what they hear. On the sidelines, there is Tommy’s mean cousin Angelica, their friend, Susie (Carmichael) (same age as Angelica), and everybody’s parents. Angelica Pickles, at age three, is able to communicate and understand language from both the toddlers and the adults, which she often uses as an advantage when she wants to manipulate either party. The creators of Rugrats are Arlene Klasky and Gabor Csupo.

Dora the Explorer

A pilot episode for the series aired in 1999, and Dora the Explorer became a regular series in 2000. Dora the Explorer has been extremely successful commercially, generating over $3 billion in retail sales of associated licensed products since 2000, including $1 billion in 2004 alone.

In every episode, Dora goes on a quest, usually to help someone in trouble or otherwise to do a good deed for someone. Her quests often involve gathering key objects and/or surmounting obstacles, and are usually done in three stages. Dora always asks the viewers at home to help her do things or to tell her things she needs to know. She can think of a way out of any trouble she or her friends come across. Her love for exploring seems to run in the family. Her grandmother was an explorer just like Dora when she was her age.

Dora also enjoys sports as she was on a baseball team with her best friend Boots and her other friends and was coached by her father. She loves soccer and is very good at it.

Jimmy Neutron

The programme first officially aired on 6 September 2002. The series is about a child genius and inventor named Jimmy Neutron in the fictional town of Retroville, who gets in and out of trouble by inventing complex gadgets. He may have an awesomely overdeveloped brain and the ability to create out-of-this-world (literally) inventions, but he’s still the shortest kid in his class, and he’s still got be in bed by 9. Jimmy’s main catchphrases are “Gotta Blast!”, “Brain Blast!”, or simply the most overused phrases, “I’ve Got It!” or “That’s It!”, which he says after coming up with the ultimate idea to solve the problem. With his best friend/scientific guinea pig Carl and his trusty robotic dog Goddard at his side, Jimmy always finds the formula or grabs the gadget that gets him (and the rest of Retroville!) out of the toughest tangles! Jimmy typically has a “Brain Blast” once an episode, usually at his climax of the story when all other ideas have failed.

* * *

Happy Birthday

Belated birthday wishes to MATTHEW who celebrated his fifth birthday last Tuesday. Best wishes are coming from nanna Jane, nannu Twanny, nanna Emma, nannu Joe, mum Sue and dad Ian, aunts, cousins Laura and Stephan and last but not least from your brother Malcolm.

* * *

IN OUR CINEMAS

from 8 August

Action / Comedy / Family

The world’s most famous – and Hollywood’s most pampered – pooch is separated from his owner and ends up as the mascot of a hapless San Francisco fire station. There, he helps a 12-year-old boy and his father, a veteran fire chief, turn the station into the city’s finest.

Film released by KRS Film Distributors Ltd