Bonkers

Bonkers was an animated television series that aired from 1993 to 1995 on The Disney Channel, produced by Walt Disney Television.

Originally conceived as an animated version of the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, the show was forced to create original characters due to copyright issues. Still, the idea of a world where "toons" and humans co-exist, and the personalities of the two main characters were maintained. Unlike the film that inspired it, however, Bonkers was entirely animated and featured no live action.

The premise of the series was that Bonkers D. Bobcat, a popular toon movie star (he appeared in shorts in the Disney Raw Toonage series) had decided to retire from show business and become a cop. Unfortunately, he was made the junior partner of Detective Lucky Piquel, a grim and ill-tempered human who hates toons. Throughout the series, the pair work together to solve crimes in the Hollywood, California region. Bonkers repeatedly tried to win Piquel's praise, but usually just ended up messing things up with his antics.

After several years of working with Bonkers, Piquel was given an FBI job in Washington, DC, and with great glee was finally able to leave Bonkers, but finally realized that after all the times he hated Bonkers, he took a liking to him at the end of the "Lucky" episodes. Bonkers was given a new partner, the attractive Sergeant Miranda Wright, who although also human, was far more patient and tolerant of his antics than was Piquel.

The series played 65 episodes, as part of The Disney Afternoon. They were not created in chronological order: The "Miranda" episodes were actually produced first, excluding the two-part series premiere, which featured Piquel and Bonkers meeting for the first time. This discrepency becomes evident when observing the look of the main character in both sets of episodes. In the Raw Toonage shorts, Bonkers was orange with one brown spot, golf-club-like ears, and an undone tail. When the Lucky Piquel episodes (produced by Robert Taylor) were made, the character had a major overhaul: skinnier ears, two black spots on each his tufts, black Tigger-like stripes on his tail, and a different uniform. The Miranda Wright-era episodes (produced by Duane Capizzi) use Bonkers's original look from Raw Toonage. The series also occasionally featured episodes of "cartoons" from Bonkers's pre-police actor days, all lifted from the Raw Toonage series.

It was last seen on Toon Disney, but due to bad scheduling and the addition of JETIX, it has vanished completely off the network. Along with a number of other shows it was removed from schedules in November 2004 and has not been seen since. It is unknown if it will ever return, and Disney currently has no plans to release the series on a DVD set.


Characters

* Bonkers D. Bobcat - The toon cop.
* Lucky Piquel - Bonkers's partner from the "Lucky Episodes".
* Miranda Wright - Bonkers's partner from the "Miranda Episodes".
* Chief Leonard Kanifky - the absent-minded Chief of Police.
* Sergeant Francis Q. Grating - boss of Bonkers and Miranda.
* Fall-Apart Rabbit - Bonkers's clumsy friend, appearing only in the "Lucky Episodes."
* Toots - Bonkers's pet horn.
* Fawn Deer - Bonkers's girlfriend. (Also appeared in Raw Toonage).
* Jitters A. Dog - was Bonkers's sidekick in Raw Toonage, now Bonkers's "best friend", though Jitters himself would disagree.
* Grumbles Grizzly - was Bonkers's boss in Raw Toonage, appears occasionally in Bonkers.
* The Collector - the villain from the pilot episode ("Going Bonkers"), and therefore, the first criminal Bonkers encounters.
* Mr. Doodles - The Collector's evil henchman.
* Al Vermin - Bonkers's arch-nemesis from the Miranda-era.
* Lilith DuPrave and Flaps the Elephant - two more Miranda-era villains.

Many Disney characters created prior to the show made cameo, and sometimes unseen, appearances, including Goofy, Donald Duck, Darkwing Duck, Mickey Mouse, Dumbo, Marsupilami and Ludwig Von Drake.
Start screen of the Bonkers video game for SNES


Video games

Three Bonkers-themed video games were produced, one for the Super Nintendo, one for the Sega Genesis, and one for the Sega Game Gear.

* Bonkers (Sega Genesis), released December 15, 1994. Bonkers is on his first case alone, and must retrieve the Toontown treasure of the Sorcerer's Hat (from Fantasia), the Mermaid's Voice (The Little Mermaid), and the Magic Lamp (Aladdin).
* Bonkers (SNES), released October 1, 1995.
* Bonkers Wax Up! for the Sega Game Gear and its home console parent, the Sega Master System.



External links

* Bonkers episode guide
* Bonkers at the Internet Movie Database