Rupert Bear is an English children's

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics terminology#Captio ...

character and franchise created by Herbert Tourtel and illustrated by his wife, the artist Mary Tourtel, first appearing in the ''

Daily Express The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first ...

'' newspaper on 8 November 1920. Rupert's initial purpose was to win sales from the rival ''

Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily Middle-market newspaper, middle-market Tabloid journalism, tabloid conservative newspaper founded in 1896 and published in London. , it has the List of newspapers in the United Kingdom by circulation, h ...

'' and ''

Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily Tabloid journalism, tabloid newspaper. Founded in 1903, it is part of Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), which is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the tit ...

''. In 1935, the stories and artwork were both taken over by

Alfred Bestall Alfred Edmeades "Fred" Bestall, Order of the British Empire, MBE (14 December 1892 – 15 January 1986) was a British writer and illustrator for ''Rupert Bear'' for the London ''Daily Express'', from 1935 to 1965. Biography Early life Bestall ...

, who was previously an illustrator for '' Punch'' and other glossy magazines. Bestall proved to be successful in the field of children's literature and worked on Rupert stories and artwork into his nineties. More recently, various other artists and writers have continued the series. About 50 million copies have been sold worldwide. The comic strip is published daily in the ''

'', with many of these stories later being printed in books, and every year since 1936 a Rupert annual has also been released. Rupert Bear is a part of children's culture in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, and appears in four TV shows based on the character.

Characters and story

Rupert is a bear who lives with his parents in a house in Nutwood, a fictional idyllic English village. He is drawn wearing a red jumper and bright yellow checked trousers, with matching yellow scarf. Originally depicted as a

brown bear The brown bear (''Ursus arctos'') is a large bear native to Eurasia and North America. Of the land carnivorans, it is rivaled in size only by its closest relative, the polar bear, which is much less variable in size and slightly bigger on av ...

, his colour soon changed to white to save on printing costs, though he remained brown on the covers of the annuals. Most of the other characters in the series are also

anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics to ...

animals. They are all scaled to be about the same size as Rupert, regardless of species. Rupert's animal friends are usually referred to as his "chums" or "pals." Aside from his best friend Bill

Badger Badgers are medium-sized short-legged omnivores in the superfamily Musteloidea. Badgers are a polyphyletic rather than a natural taxonomic grouping, being united by their squat bodies and adaptions for fossorial activity rather than by the ...

, some of the most enduring pals are an

elephant Elephants are the largest living land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant ('' Loxodonta africana''), the African forest elephant (''L. cyclotis''), and the Asian elephant ('' Elephas maximus ...

(Edward Trunk), a

mouse A mouse (: mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus'' ...

(Willie), Pong-Ping the

Pekingese The Pekingese (also spelled Pekinese) is a dog breed, breed of toy dog, originating in China. The breed was favored by royalty of the Chinese sovereign, Chinese Imperial court as a companion dog, and its name refers to the city of Beijing (Peki ...

, Algy

Pug The Pug is a breed of dog with the physically distinctive features of a wrinkly, short-muzzled face, and curled tail. An ancient breed, with roots dating back to 400 B.C., they have a fine, glossy coat that comes in a variety of colors, most ...

(who actually pre-dates Rupert), Podgy Pig, Bingo the Brainy Pup, the identical twins Freddy and Ferdy Fox, the identical twins Reggie and Rex

Rabbit Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also includes the hares), which is in the order Lagomorpha (which also includes pikas). They are familiar throughout the world as a small herbivore, a prey animal, a domesticated ...

, and Ming the

dragon A dragon is a Magic (supernatural), magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but European dragon, dragons in Western cultures since the Hi ...

. The kindly Wise Old Goat also lives in Nutwood, and helps Rupert in some of his adventures. One of the most unusual and evocative characters is Raggety, a woodland troll-creature made from twigs, who is often very grumpy and annoying. In the 2006 television revival of the series, Raggety has been transformed into a friendly

elf An elf (: elves) is a type of humanoid supernatural being in Germanic peoples, Germanic folklore. Elves appear especially in Norse mythology, North Germanic mythology, being mentioned in the Icelandic ''Poetic Edda'' and the ''Prose Edda'' ...

with broken English. There is also a recurring country Police Officer who is an adult dog named PC Growler. There are also a few human characters in the stories, such as the Professor (who lives in a castle with his servant, Bodkin), Tiger Lily (a Chinese girl), her father "the Conjuror," and several less frequently occurring characters such as Sailor Sam, Gaffer Jarge, Captain Binnacle, the Sage of Um (who is seen travelling in a magical upside down umbrella) and Rollo, the Gypsy boy. There is also a recurring Merboy. During his time as Rupert writer, Alfred Bestall added further characters such as the girl guides Beryl, Pauline and Janet, with Beryl's cat, Dinky. These characters were based on Girl Guides from Bestall's own church who asked him in late 1947 if they could have their own adventure with Rupert. They remain part of the comic series even today. The series often features fantastic and magical adventures in faraway lands. Each story begins in Nutwood, where Rupert usually sets out on a small errand for his mother or to visit a friend, which then develops into an adventure to an exotic place such as King Frost's Castle, the Kingdom of the Birds, underground, or to the bottom of the sea. Sometimes one of the Professor's inventions opens the door to one of Rupert's adventures. At the end of the story Rupert returns to Nutwood, where all is safe and well, and where his parents seem perfectly sanguine about his adventures.

Style

Unlike most modern

s, Rupert Bear has always been produced in the original form of strip with illustrations accompanying text, called "

text comics Text comics or a text comic is a form of comics where the stories are told in Cartoon caption, captions below the images and without the use of speech balloons. It is the oldest form of comics and was especially dominant in European comics from t ...

", as opposed to text being incorporated directly into the art; for example, within

speech balloon Speech balloons (also speech bubbles, dialogue balloons, or word balloons) are a graphic convention used most commonly in comic books, comics, and cartoons to allow words (and much less often, pictures) to be understood as representing a charac ...

s. Bestall developed the classic Rupert story format: the story is told in picture form (generally two panels each day in the newspaper and four panels to a page in the annuals), in simple page-headers, in rhyming two-line-per-image verse, and as running prose at the foot. Rupert Annuals can therefore be "read" on four levels.

History

Rupert's unspectacular introduction was in a single panel, the first of 36 episodes of the story "Little Lost Bear" written by Herbert and drawn by Mary Tourtel. Bestall expanded the stories and plots of Rupert; and in addition to precise and detailed drawings for the ''

'' panels he also created beautifully crafted illustrations in the Rupert Annuals. Bestall drew the Rupert stories for the ''Daily Express'' until 1965; and continued to illustrate the covers for the annuals until his retirement in 1973. Much of the landscape in Rupert is inspired by the Vale of Clwyd in

North Wales North Wales ( ) is a Regions of Wales, region of Wales, encompassing its northernmost areas. It borders mid Wales to the south, England to the east, and the Irish Sea to the north and west. The area is highly mountainous and rural, with Snowdon ...

(Alfred Bestall himself lived for many years in the north Welsh village of

Beddgelert Beddgelert () is a village and community (Wales), community in the Snowdonia area of Gwynedd, Wales. The population of the community taken at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census was 460 (rounded to the nearest 10). This includes Nan ...

)(the Professor's castle is based on Ruthin Castle), the Sussex Weald and

East Devon East Devon is a local government district in Devon, England. Its council is based in the town of Honiton, although Exmouth is the largest town. The district also contains the towns of Axminster, Budleigh Salterton, Cranbrook, Ottery St M ...

. Bestall's successor was Alex Cubie. Cubie created Rupert annual artwork between 1974 and 1977. His images are recognisable from the thicker black outlines around the characters and the use of more vibrant colours than Bestall employed. A Rupert Annual is still produced every year and Rupert appears each day in the ''Daily Express''. In 1978, his new adventures became illustrated by John Harrold; his drawings in the annual were usually coloured by Gina Hart. In 2008 John Harrold was succeeded by Stuart Trotter and a new style of annual (

sans serif In typography and lettering, a sans-serif, sans serif (), gothic, or simply sans letterform is one that does not have extending features called "serifs" at the end of strokes. Sans-serif typefaces tend to have less stroke width variation than ...

typeface) with a more modern Rupert to tie-in with the CGI-animation '' Rupert Bear, Follow the Magic...'', began. The Rupert Annual for 1960 contained a story called ''Rupert and the Diamond Leaf'', in which he visits "Coon Island", whose inhabitants are little " Coons". The Coons previously appeared on the cover of ''The New Rupert: The Daily Express Annual, 1954'' and in the interior story ''Rupert and the Castaway''. The first appearance was in the 1946 soft cover summer special ''Rupert on Coon Island''. Rupert appeared in

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained global fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and the piano, and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John ...

's 1984

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

" We All Stand Together"; McCartney also made an animated video starring Rupert called '' Rupert and the Frog Song''. The short film, produced by McCartney won the British Academy Award. Rupert Bear Museum 001

Tourtel's home was in

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the county of Kent, England; it was a county borough until 1974. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. The city has a mild oceanic climat ...

in Kent, and the Rupert Bear Museum, formerly part of the Canterbury Heritage Museum, which has since closed, had collections that covered much of the history of Rupert and his friends, as well as Tourtel and other illustrators. The museum was geared toward families and those interested in the general history of Rupert. On 31 October 2005, UK Media Group

Entertainment Rights Entertainment Rights PLC (formerly known as Sleepy Kids PLC and SKD Media PLC) was a British multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate that specialised in television shows and cartoons, children's media, films, and distribution. ...

(which was later bought by Boomerang Media, then

DreamWorks Classics DreamWorks Classics is an American entertainment company owned by DreamWorks Animation, a subsidiary of Universal Pictures, a division of NBCUniversal, which in turn is a subsidiary of Comcast. Founded as Classic Media in 2000 by Eric Ellenboge ...

and now

NBCUniversal NBCUniversal Media, LLC (abbreviated as NBCU and Trade name, doing business as NBCUniversal or Comcast NBCUniversal since 2013) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational mass media and Show business, entertainment conglomerate (comp ...

) purchased a majority interest in the Rupert Bear character from the ''Daily Express''.

Books

Rupert Bear annuals

Every year since 1936, a Rupert Bear annual has been released, even during the years of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, during a paper shortage. * 1–38 = Alfred Bestall * 39–42 = Alex Cubie * 43–72 = John Harrold * 73–current = Stuart Trotter :1. ''The New Adventures of Rupert'', 1936 :2. ''More Adventures of Rupert'', 1937 :3. ''The New Rupert Book'', 1938 :4. ''The Adventures of Rupert'', 1939 :5. ''Rupert's Adventure Book'', 1940 :6. ''The Rupert Book'', 1941 :7. ''More Adventures of Rupert'', 1942 :8. ''More Rupert Adventures'', 1943 :9. ''Rupert in More Adventures'', 1944 :10. ''A New Rupert Book'', 1945 :11. ''The New Rupert Book'', 1946 :12. ''More Adventures of Rupert'', 1947 :13. ''The Rupert Book'', 1948 :14. ''Rupert'', 1949 :15. ''Adventures of Rupert'', 1950 :16. ''The New Rupert Book'', 1951 :17. ''More Rupert Adventures'', 1952 :18. ''More Adventures of Rupert'', 1953 :19. ''The New Rupert'', 1954 :20. ''Rupert'', 1955 :21. ''The Rupert Book'', 1956 :22. ''Rupert'', 1957 :23. ''Rupert'', 1958 :24. ''Rupert'', 1959 :25. ''Rupert'', 1960* :26. ''Rupert'', 1961* :27. ''Rupert'', 1962* :28. ''Rupert'', 1963* :29. ''Rupert'', 1964* :30. ''Rupert'', 1965* :31. ''Rupert'', 1966* :32. ''Rupert'', 1967* :33. ''Rupert'', 1968* :34. ''Rupert'', 1969 :35. ''Rupert'', 1970 :36. ''Rupert'', 1971 :37. ''Rupert'', 1972 :38. ''Rupert'', 1973 :39. ''Rupert'', 1974 :40. ''Rupert'', 1975 :41. ''Rupert'', 1976 :42. ''Rupert'', 1977 :43. ''Rupert'', 1978 :44. ''Rupert'', 1979 :45. ''Rupert'', 1980 :46. ''Rupert'', 1981 :47. ''Rupert'', 1982 :48. ''Rupert'', 1983 :49. ''Rupert'', 1984 :50. ''Rupert: The 50th Daily Express Annual'', 1985 :51. ''Rupert'', 1986 :52. ''Rupert'', 1987 :53. ''Rupert'', 1988 :54. ''Rupert'', 1989 :55. ''Rupert'', 1990 :56. ''Rupert'', 1991 :57. ''Rupert'', 1992 :58. ''Rupert'', 1993 :59. ''Rupert'', 1994 :60. ''The Rupert Annual: 75th Anniversary Edition'', 1995 :61. ''The Rupert Annual'', 1996 :62. ''The Rupert Annual'', 1997 :63. ''The Rupert Annual'', 1998 :64. ''The Rupert Annual'', 1999 :65. ''The Rupert Annual'', 2000 :66. ''The Rupert Annual'', 2001 :67. ''The Rupert Annual'', 2002 :68. ''The Rupert Annual'', 2003 :69. ''The Rupert Annual'', 2004 :70. ''The Rupert Annual'', 2005 :71. ''The Rupert Annual'', 2006 :72. ''The Rupert Annual'', 2007 :73. ''The Rupert Annual'', 2008 :74. ''The Rupert Annual'', 2009 :75. ''The 75th Rupert Annual'', 2010 :76. ''The Rupert Annual'', 2011 :77. ''The Rupert Annual'', 2012 :78. ''The Rupert Annual'', 2013 :79. ''The Rupert Annual'', 2014 :80. ''The 80th Rupert Annual'', 2015 :81. ''The Rupert Annual'', 2016 :82. ''The Rupert Annual'', 2017 :83. ''The Rupert Annual'', 2018 :84. ''The Rupert Annual'', 2019 :85. ''The Rupert Annual'', 2020 :86. ''The Rupert Annual'', 2021 :87. ''The Rupert Annual'', 2022 :88. ''The Rupert Annual'', 2023 :89. ''The Rupert Annual'', 2024 :90. ''The Rupert Annual'', 2025 Rupert Bear Annuals

Rupert Little Bear Library

All of these books were written and illustrated by Mary Tourtel and originally published from 1928 to 1936, by Sampson Low. There were 46 books in the original series. # Rupert and the Enchanted Princess (1928) # Rupert and the Black Dwarf (1928) # Rupert and his Pet Monkey (1928) # Rupert and his Friend Margot (and Rupert, Margot and the Fairies) (1928) # Rupert in the Mystery of Woody (1929) # Further Adventures of Rupert and his Friend Margot (and Rupert and the Stolen Apples) (1929) # Rupert and the Three Roberts (1929) # Rupert, the Knight and the Lady (and Rupert and the Wise Goat's Birthday Cake) (1929) # Rupert and the Circus Clown (1929) # Rupert and the Magic Hat (1929) # Rupert and the Little Prince (1930) # Rupert and King Pippin (1930) # Rupert and the Wilful Princess (1930) # Rupert's Mysterious Plight (1930) # Rupert in Trouble Again (and Rupert and the Fancy Dress Party) (1930) # Rupert and the Wooden Soldiers (and Rupert's Christmas Adventure) (1930) # Rupert and the Old Man and the Sea (1931) # Rupert and Algy at Hawthorn Farm (1931) # Rupert and the Magic Whistle (1931) # Rupert Gets Stolen (1931) # Rupert and the Puss in Boots (1931) # Rupert and the Christmas Tree Fairies (and Rupert and Bill Badger's Picnic Party) (1931) # Rupert and His Pet Monkey Again (and Beppo Back With Rupert) (1932) # Rupert and the Rubber Wolf (1932) # Rupert's Latest Adventure (1932) # Rupert and Humpty Dumpty (1932) # Rupert's Holiday Adventure (and Rupert's Message to Father Christmas and Rupert's New Year's Eve Party) (1932) # Rupert's Christmas Tree (and Rupert's Picnic Party) (1932) # Rupert, the Witch and Tabitha (1933) # Rupert Goes Hiking (1933) # Rupert and Willy Wispe (1933) # Rupert Margot and the Bandits (and Rupert at School) (1933) # Rupert and the Magic Toyman (1933) # Rupert and Bill Keep Shop (and Rupert's Christmas Thrills) (1933) # Rupert and Algernon (and Rupert and the White Dove) (1934) # Rupert and Beppo Again (1934) # Rupert and Dapple (1934) # Rupert and Bill's Aeroplane Adventure (1934) # Rupert and the Magician's Umbrella (1934) # Rupert and Bill and the Pirates (1935) # Rupert at the Seaside (and Rupert and Bingo) (1935) # Rupert Gets Captured (and Rupert and the Snow Babe's Christmas Adventures) (1935) # Rupert, the Manikin and the Black Knight (1935) # Rupert and the Greedy Princess (1935) # Rupert and Bill's Seaside Holiday (and Rupert and the Twins' Birthday Cake) (1936) # Rupert and Edward and the Circus (and Rupert and the Snowman) (1936) Some of the titles were later published for the Woolworth's retail chain, with only 18 of the original titles. However, the titles and numbers for this series did not relate to the earlier published series. # Rupert and the Magic Toy Man # Rupert at the Seaside # Rupert and the Enchanted Princess # Rupert and Edward at the Circus # Rupert and Bill and the Pirates # Rupert and the Magician's Umbrella # Rupert in the Wood of Mystery # Rupert and Prince Humpty Dumpty # Rupert and the Magic Whistle # Rupert and Dapple # Rupert and the Greedy Princess # Rupert and the Wonderful Boots # Rupert and Willy Wispe # Rupert and Bill Keep Shop # Rupert and the Magic Hat # Rupert's Holiday Adventure # Rupert Goes Hiking # Rupert, the Manikin and the Dark Knight

Brainwaves Limited

Brainwaves Limited of

Basingstoke Basingstoke ( ) is a town in Hampshire, situated in south-central England across a valley at the source of the River Loddon on the western edge of the North Downs. It is the largest settlement in Hampshire without city status in the United King ...

, Hampshire, produced a series of Rupert storybooks in 1991 (no author or artist credited): * ''Rupert and the Golden Acorn'' * ''Rupert and the Elfin Bell'' * ''Rupert and the Popweed'' * ''Rupert and the Iceberg'' In addition, they published other Rupert series: * Rupert Mini Board Books * Rupert Hookbooks * Rupert Storytime Books * Rupert Shaped Board Books * Rupert Flap Books

Television series

''The Adventures of Rupert Bear'' (1970–1977)

Rupert first appeared on television in an ITC series produced for the ITV network that ran for 156 ten-minute episodes. The characters were all puppets, although the opening sequence featured a toy Rupert bear sitting in a live-action child's bedroom. Rupert's friends and flying chariot appeared straight from the ''Daily Express'' pages, although he was joined by some new friends including Willy Wisp, Drizzle, Della, Jimmy, Mr Grimnasty, Gypsy Granny, Chun-Mao, The Wise Old Wizard, and Mr Koskora The theme song, written by Len Beadle (also known as Frank Weston) and Ron Roker, sung by Jackie Lee, reached number 14 in the UK charts in 1971.

''Rupert'' (1985–1988)

''Rupert'' returned to television in 1985 to the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

, in the form of 36 five-minute-stories. In this series, each episode consisted of a series of still illustrations and narration. The sole narrator was Ray Brooks. The short title music is credited to Brave New World. In the US, these shorts aired on the

Disney Channel Disney Channel is an American pay television television channel, channel that serves as the flagship (broadcasting), flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney Entertainment business segment of the Walt Disney Company ...

as part of its "Lunch Box" program.

''Rupert'' (1991–1997)

In 1991, Rupert Bear featured in an

animated television series An animated series, or a cartoon series, is a set of Animation, animated films with a common title, usually related to one another. These episodes typically share the same main heroes, some different secondary characters and a basic theme. Series ...

with 65 episodes and five seasons (13 per season) produced by

Nelvana Nelvana Limited (; also known as Nelvana Enterprises, Nelvana International or Nelvana Digital; commonly known as Nelvana; stylized as "nelvana") is a Canadian animation studio and entertainment production company owned by Corus Entertainment s ...

(Canada),

Ellipse In mathematics, an ellipse is a plane curve surrounding two focus (geometry), focal points, such that for all points on the curve, the sum of the two distances to the focal points is a constant. It generalizes a circle, which is the special ty ...

(France) and Television South (TVS) for the first season (13 episodes), with

Scottish TV Scottish Television (now legally known as STV Central Limited) is the ITV (TV network), ITV network franchisee for Central Belt, Central Scotland. The channel — the largest of the three ITV franchises in Scotland — has been in operation si ...

taking over control from season 2 when Television South lost its ITV franchise. The show followed the style and tone Bestall established in the Rupert newspaper series, with many of the stories being almost direct adaptations of his or others' panel stories from the ''Daily Express''. It was aired in syndication on YTV in Canada. In the U.S., the show first aired on

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...

(as part of Nick Jr. block) before moving to CBS in January 1999; repeats of the series came to

Qubo Qubo ( ; stylized as qubo) was an American television network for children between the ages of 5 and 14. Owned by Ion Media, it consisted of a 24-hour free-to-air television network often mentioned as the "Qubo channel" (available as a digital ...

's digital service in January 2007. The show was aired in the United Kingdom on

CITV CITV is a British children's morning programming block on ITV2 and formerly a free-to-air channel owned by ITV plc. CITV, then Children's ITV, launched on 3 January 1983 as a late afternoon programming block on the ITV network for children aged ...

. In Australia, the show was aired on the ABC and on TV2 in New Zealand as part of the '' Jason Gunn show''. The show has been returned in the United Kingdom on the satellite and cable network Tiny Pop. As of 2009, the show also airs daily on

channel, although only the latter 26 episodes are being shown. In

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

, the show was aired in

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

by the

TV Cultura TV Cultura, or simply Cultura, is a free Brazilian non-commercial public television network headquartered in São Paulo and a part of Father Anchieta Foundation, a non-profit foundation funded by the São Paulo State Government. It focuses on ...

channel between 1998 and 2008. In 2000, the Canadian producer

made plans to produce a feature film about Rupert at

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...

studios, but the project was not implemented.

''Rupert Bear, Follow The Magic...'' (2006–2008)

In 2006, a new Rupert Bear stop-motion-animated television series was produced, skewing almost entirely towards small children. Changes to the characters are that Rupert wears trainers and his fur has a slight tan; Bill wears a dark blue leather jacket and blue trousers with yellow stripes instead of his suit and bowtie, and tends to carry a

personal digital assistant A personal digital assistant (PDA) is a multi-purpose mobile device which functions as a personal information manager. Following a boom in the 1990s and 2000s, PDAs were mostly displaced by the widespread adoption of more highly capable smar ...

with him at all times; Pong Ping has become a girl who uses magic and had her name reversed; Raggety, who rarely appeared before, has become a friendly tree elf; Ming a baby dragon and Ping Pong's pet; Edward no longer has tusks, his trunk has been straightened and he wears an orange T-shirt and brown shorts; and one of the fox twins (Ferdie) has been changed into a girl named Freda. There are new characters like Miranda the

mermaid In folklore, a mermaid is an aquatic creature with the head and upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish. Mermaids appear in the folklore of many cultures worldwide, including Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Africa. Mermaids are ...

; but characters Podgy Pig, his self-obsessed sister Rosalie and the timid Willie Mouse make no appearances. ''Rupert Bear, Follow The Magic ...'' was first aired on Five from 8 November 2006 until 1 February 2008. 52 ten-minute episodes were broadcast and subsequently repeated.

Film

A short film directed by Geoff Dunbar based on ideas/music/songs by

was made in 1984, titled '' Rupert and the Frog Song''. It follows Rupert as he explores the country one night and finds a special gathering of frogs. The film contains a song titled " We All Stand Together", written by McCartney and arranged by the

Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

' producer

George Martin Sir George Henry Martin (3 January 1926 – 8 March 2016) was an English record producer, arranger, composer, conductor, and musician. He was commonly referred to as the "fifth Beatle" because of his extensive involvement in each of the Beatle ...

. The song reached No.3 in the UK Singles Chart.

Video games

The British video-game publisher

Quicksilva Quicksilva was a British games software publisher active during the early 1980s. Quicksilva was founded by Nick Lambert in 1980. The name Quicksilva was inspired by a particular guitar solo in a track on the album Happy Trails by Quicksilver Me ...

adapted Rupert Bear for the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum 8-bit computers, in two game instalments: the 1985 '' Rupert and the Toymaker's Party'' and the 1986 '' Rupert and The Ice Castle''.

Stamps

In September 2020,

Royal Mail Royal Mail Group Limited, trading as Royal Mail, is a British postal service and courier company. It is owned by International Distribution Services. It operates the brands Royal Mail (letters and parcels) and Parcelforce Worldwide (parcels) ...

issued a set of eight stamps to commemorate the centenary of Rupert Bear. Featuring Bestall's artwork, they comprised two second-class stamps, two first-class, two at £1.45 and two at £1.70.

''Oz'' magazine obscenity trial

A cartoon of Rupert superimposed on a

Robert Crumb Robert Dennis Crumb (; born August 30, 1943) is an American artist who often signs his work R. Crumb. His work displays a nostalgia for American folk culture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and satire of contemporary American c ...

drawing, showing the bear in a sexual situation, was a notable part of the notorious edition of the British underground magazine '' Oz'' guest-edited by schoolkids. Subsequently, the adult editors and publishers of the magazine were prosecuted in a high-profile obscenity trial at the Old Bailey in June 1971; the inclusion of Rupert formed a part of the prosecution's case and defence witnesses were cross-examined on it.

References

Sources

* ''

'', 1 November 2005

External links