Oggy & the Cockroaches
Oggy and the Cockroaches is a French animated cartoon series produced by Gaumont Film Company in 1998, creator of the popular series Stupid Invaders.
Cast Created by Jean-Yves Raimbaud Directed by Olivier Jean Marie and Thomas Szabo Produced by Marc du Pontavice (Xilam Animation)
Synopsis
The show centers around Oggy, a content and lazy, albeit very tender fat blue cat, who would usually spend his days watching TV and making food - if it wasn't for the three pesky roaches in the household: Joey, Deedee and Marky (named after members of The Ramones). The trio seems to enjoy generally making Oggy's life miserable, which involves mischieves ranging from (in most cases) stealing food to such awkward things like hijacking the train Oggy just boarded. The cartoon itself relies on slapstick humour, much like its "ancestor", Tom and Jerry, only amplifying the level of extremities up a notch; while "traditional" slapstick cartoon characters prefer dropping anvils and pianos on each other, this show sometimes uses even buses or submarines. Despite these however, most gags are easily accessible and enjoyable for younger viewers. There are no expectable endings for the episodes - happy endings are never guaranteed.
Production
The 30 minute show typically contained 3 shorts. In total, 52 shows were produced. The voices were all provided by Marc du Pontavice, but no spoken voice is heard. In Germany, witty poems relating to the screen action were dubbed over the original sound, spoken by actor Dirk Bach.
Characters Oggy is the protagonist of the show. Bearing some uncanny resemblances to fellow cat Garfield, Oggy usually spends his time either watching TV or doing housework - when not chasing roaches. Although sometimes acting somewhat female (or in some cases, dressing like a maid), his gender can be considered male (in one episode the roaches steal his laundry bag and keep dropping a track of clothes - Oggy picks them up one-by-one, but embarrassedly moves offscreen when a bra becomes visible among the boxershorts and socks) Joey is the self-proclaimed leader of the roaches. Even though he's the smallest roach in the gang, most of the time he's the brains behind the operations, but is often forced to go solo, because his companions think his plans are stupid. Deedee is an ever-hungry, devour-it-all roach. His appetite sometimes reaches insane regions, often resulting in the consumption of larger animals (such as hyenas in one case). Marky is a laid-back, suave heartbreaker roach, often not really caring about what the two others are doing. His hobby is, obviously, dating girls - even puppets. Jack is the other cat in the show. A complete opposite of Oggy, Jack is short-tempered, violent, arrogant - a perfect target for the roaches to annoy. He often finds himself building huge machinery such as roach-catching contraptions, most of the time resulting in backfiring. Whether he's related to Oggy is unknown. Bob, Oggy's huge neighbor dog, - though he's not mentioned in the opening credits - is one frequent star in the show. While Bob tries to live his life as quietly and calmly as possible, the next door racket usually results in destruction of his property, for which he usually responds with pummeling one of the cats. This mostly happens off-screen, usually because the image is changed to silly wallpaper-like backgrounds; the only hint the viewer gets is fighting sounds and cat-squeeling.
External links Official website
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