| GENUS PEDIGREE: |
Marsupilami (mythical marsupial creature). |
| KNOWN ALIASES: |
Mars or Marsu. |
| KNOWN RELATIVES: |
unknown |
| KNOWN PETS: |
unknown
|
| CITIZENSHIP: |
A jungle habitat (Palombian Forest).
|
| KNOWN CONFIDANTS: |
"Mo" (Maurice the Gorilla); Stuart "Stuie" the Elephant. |
| KNOWN RIVALS: |
Norman the Poacher; Eduardo the Jaguar; Leonard the Lion.
|
| PARAPHERNALIA: |
His amazing prehensile tail. |
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| 1st PRINT APPEARANCE: |
European "Spirou" comics from the mid 1950s first appearing in "Spirou et les Heritiers" ("Spirou and the Heirs") in Jan. 1952; he has only appeared in one page gag comics from a couple of issues of "Disney Adventures Magazine." |
| 1st FILM APPEARANCE: |
"Raw Toonage" (Sep. 19, 1992), and "Marsupilami" (Sep. 18, 1993).
|
| VOICE ACTOR: |
Steve Mackall
|
| SIGNATURE: |
"Houba!" and his fabulous prehensile tail.
|
| BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS: |
Marsupilami may be the last of his kind as the TV show never revealed the existence of any other Marsupilamis, however, in the European comics, from which the Disney cartoon is based, there were others. Marsupilami is both the creature's species and his official name (the name literally means "marsupial friend"). Sometimes he is refer by a shortened version of his name "Mars" or "Marsu." He is fun-loving and carefree, with a devil-may-care attitude about life. His best friend is a gorilla named Maurice ("Mo") who is relatively stupid and often gives a 'blank' stare ("Hello. Is anyone home?"). Marsupilami has relatively few worries, though, as a rare creature, a poacher by the name of Norman is relentless in his persuit of Mars. Others who have threatened his continued existence include a jaguar named Eduardo and a lion, Leonard. Mars' favorite saying is "Houba!" |
| HISTORICAL FACTS: |
Marsupilami is based on a popular European comic book character which lives with two human boys named Spirou & Fantasio, and a squirrel named Spip. "Journal de Spirou" magazine was published simultaneous in France and Belgium, in French and Flemish. His complete story was collected into an album in 1953. In that story, Spirou and Fantasio go to a tropical forest on safari to find the mythical Marsupilami. Spirou, one of Belgium's and France's most popular weeklies in the 50's and 60's. Most of the stories had 44 pages and were collected into albums after they were serialized. Spirou was created in 1938 by Rob-Vel, who sold the rights to the Dupuis publishing house in early 40's. Other artists like Jije (Joseph Gillain) took care of the feature. In 1946 Jije quit "Spirou" (he was overloaded with work) and Andre Franquin became the writer/artist. Franquin created most of the supporting characters in the series, including Marsupilami in the above mentioned episode. Eventually Marsupilami became so popular that it got its own series in the 80's, then some time later Disney did the cartoon series that breifly turned Marsupilami popular in U.S. Disney's Marsupilami is very different from the European version. About the only elements that remain the same is the character's disposition and appearance. Apparently Disney defaulted on a contratual promise to the original owners of Marsupilami's copyright, and was successfully sued in 1997. |
| LITTLE KNOWN SECRETS: |
unknown |
| WORKING THEORIES: |
none |
Marsupilami 