Muzzy in Gondoland (Muzzy)
Genre	Animation
Directed by	Richard Taylor
Produced by	Richard Taylor Cartoon Films
Written by	Wendy Harris, Richard Taylor, Joe Hambrook
Starring	Jack May Willie Rushton Miriam Margolyes Susan Sheridan Derek Griffiths Benjamin Whitrow
Music by	Peter Shade
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Original channel	BBC
Release date	1986 (UK) 1987 (Spain) 1990 (USSR)

Muzzy in Gondoland (often shortened to simply Muzzy) is an animated film first created by the BBC in 1986 as a way of teaching English as a second language. The English version of Muzzy features the voices of Willie Rushton, Miriam Margolyes, Susan Sheridan, Derek Griffiths, Jack May and Benjamin Whitrow. DMP Organization later acquired the rights to Muzzy and translated into other languages (see below). It is unknown, however, who plays whom in the various dubbed versions of the film.

A sequel, Muzzy Comes Back was released in 1989.

Plot [edit]

The first part of the film simply introduces Muzzy (Jack May), Bob (Derek Griffiths), the King (Willie Rushton), the Queen (Miriam Margolyes), Princess Sylvia (Susan Sheridan) and Corvax (Derek Griffiths) and their personalities. It is not until later that the actual story gets going. When it does, Bob the Gardener is sweeping the garden, when Corvax the evil scientist, calls him over to count how many trees there are. He counts and there are 10 in all, then Bob counts how many bushes there are which there are also 10, but this time he counts them two by two, instead of one by one. Corvax then commands him to count how many flowers there are, he says he doesn't know but starts counting. By the time he reaches 108, the beautiful Princess Sylvia decides to elope as the two of them are in love. However, Corvax also loves Sylvia, and when he sees her elope with the gardener, he immediately rushes to inform the King and Queen of Gondoland about what has happened. Furious, the King decides they should track the two down by helicopter and catch them. So they do, and when they catch Bob and Sylvia, the latter is taken back to the palace while the gardener is taken to jail by the King's soldiers. In jail, Bob meets Muzzy, the titular furry greenish-blue extraterrestrial who informs him that he has been jailed for eating parking meters in the town square. (He eats metallic and other indigestible objects, with his favorite food being clocks.)

Meanwhile, back at the palace, Sylvia is getting ready to go to bed, when Corvax tries flirting with her, but she is clearly unimpressed. Crushed and sad, Corvax decides to duplicate the princess on his computer after Sylvia goes to bed. However, as it turns out the duplicate hates him just as much as the original Sylvia. Frustrated Corvax bangs the computer causing it to explode (but still works as revealed later) and produce five more duplicates who roam around the palace. (The first 6 Sylvia clones wear different-colored dresses, such as yellow, blue, black and white, brown, red, and green)

Bob, realising Muzzy's unusual diet, gets Muzzy to eat the bars to the prison cell, and the two prisoners jump out the window and are free. They head back to the palace. When Bob and Muzzy return to the palace, they find the real Sylvia in the garden doing her exercises. She tells them to wait in the tool shed for her to come to them with food for Bob and clocks for Muzzy at 7:00 p.m.

Back in the computer lab, Corvax has fixed the computer (or so he thinks) and proceeds to set the computer to vacuum up the six duplicates of Sylvia. Unfortunately, in the process, as opposed to getting rid of the clones, the computer simply makes more! Before long, hundreds of duplicates are swarming the palace.

Down on the ground floor, the King notices that the Sylvia duplicates are coming from upstairs, where he decides to go to investigate further. Seeing that Corvax can't stop the computer, the King decides to fix it himself. He pulls a plug attached to the computer, only to be sucked up inside it instead. The infinite duplication is stopped. Not knowing how to save the King, Corvax decides to escape by helicopter. Seeing him do so, Bob chases after him.

While this is going on, Sylvia, Muzzy and the Queen decide to rescue the King, although Muzzy does most of the work, by rearranging the computer programs Corvax installed and then sending the King out. Bob then returns with Corvax, and the latter is taken away. Bob and Sylvia are reunited, and the King eventually approves their union.

Afterwards, Muzzy manages to send all of the Sylvia duplicates back into the computer. Bob and Sylvia then get married, and Muzzy leaves Gondoland in his spaceship.

Characters [edit]

• Muzzy - a furry greenish blue extraterrestrial - played by Jack May
• The King - a lion - played by Willie Rushton
• The Queen - a rat - played by Miriam Margolyes
• Princess Sylvia - a poodle - played by Susan Sheridan
• Bob - a mouse - played by Derek Griffiths
• Corvax - a green goblin - played by Derek Griffiths
• Norman - a human - played by Benjamin Whitrow
• Corvax's cat - played by Susan Sheridan
• The Trader - a kangaroo - played by Derek Griffiths

Credits [edit]

• Directed by: Richard Taylor
• Executive Producer: Joe Hambrook
• Original English Scripts: Wendy Harris, Joe Hambrook, Richard Taylor
• Spanish version: Juan Antonio Ollero
• French version: Elizabeth Gruninger
• German version: Claudia Eilers
• Italian version: Arturo Tosi
• Animation: Richard Taylor Cartoon Films Ltd.
• Additional Animation: Jollification Pty.
• Music by: Peter Shade
• Produced by Richard Taylor Cartoon Films for BBC English by Television

As a language course [edit]

Early Advantage, based in Norwalk, Connecticut, licensed the rights to Muzzy in the United States in the late 1980s, and introduced the language course developed by DMP Organization that teaches children second languages. The original system was available in the following languages: French, Spanish, Italian and German. The program was well known for its long-running television commercial, which received heavy airplay on Nickelodeon.^[1] As of 2012, it is now available in the following languages: English ASL, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Mandarin Chinese, Russian, Esperanto^[2] and Portuguese.

References [edit]

External links [edit]

• Early Advantage – Muzzy Products
• Muzzy in Gondoland at the Internet Movie Database