6 Famous Cartoon Beagles

admin — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 16:05:12 +0000

1. Snoopy

Coming in number one on our list, Snoopy, is arguably the worlds most famous beagle. Created by Charles Schulz, Snoopy made his comic strip debut in 1950 as Charlie Brown’s pet dog.

According to Wikipedia, his original name was supposed to be ‘Sniffy’, but there was another comic strip already using that name, so Schulz went with the name ‘Snoopy’ because his mother said thats the name she would give to the next dog they got.

After sixty years of the limelight, Snoopy still makes appearances in comic strips and numerous televisions specials.

2. Odie

Coming in at number two for famous beagles, is Odie from the Garfield comic strip. Created by Jim Davis, Odie made his comic strip debut in 1978 as the pet of Jon Arbuckle’s roommate.

Originally named ‘Spot’, Davis changed his name to Odie because a fellow cartoonist already had a character by that name. Instead, Odie got his name from a commercial Davis wrote about a car dealership, which featured “Odie the Village Idiot”. With his unusually large tongue and pools of slobber, Odie is portrayed as the goofy best friend of Garfield.

Oddly, in the live-action movies, Odie is not portrayed as a beagle, but is actually a dachshund.

3. Underdog

Underdog is another famous beagle that got his animated start in a TV series that debuted in 1964 on NBC. The series ran for 124 episodes before going to syndication in 1973.

The series was basically a parody of Superman, with the premise being that Underdog was an undercover superhero living as ‘Shoeshine Boy’. Like superman, when needed, Underdog quickly changes in a phone booth and has the ability to fly, possesses super strength and is not affected by normal weapons.

4. Gromit

Gromit gets his fame from the animated series ‘Wallace and Gromit’. Filmed entirely in stop motion clay animation, Gromit is a silent beagle that only communicates through body language and facial expressions.

For a dog, Gromit is quite intelligent. He has a degree for Engineering for Dogs, he likes to knit, cook and read the newspaper. Interestingly enough, the folks at NASA were inspired enough to named one of their Mars explorer prototype robots Gromit.

5. Mr. Peabody, from Rocky & Bullwinkle

First appearing in the 1950’s, Mr. Peabody was a regular character on Rocky & Bullwinkle. Always appearing with ‘Sherman’, a naive young boy who was also his owner, Mr. Peabody was a genius dog that built a time machine that they used to travel through time to witness famous historical events.

Sherman and Mr. Peabody would discover that these historical events never went down as they were described in modern day, so they would try to change the course of history, in order to have the events happen as we all know it.

6. Poochie, from ‘The Simpsons’

Our next famous beagle is Poochie, from the Simpsons. He had a short-run career in “The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show“.

Poochie made his first appearance on ‘The Simpsons’ in 1997. In the episode, Krusty the Clown wants to boost his ratings, so to they decide to shake things up with a new character on ‘The Itchy & Scratchy Show’. Homer ends up voicing the character, but nobody likes the new addition, so Poochie is killed off shortly afterwards, despite Homers attempts to keep the character alive.

Honorable Mention – The Beagle Boys

You may know ‘The Beagle Boys’ from DuckTales. We have them listed as honorable mention, because, frankly, we’re not really sure if they are beagles. They are referred to as beagles, but they don’t really resemble the characteristics of the breed.

Referred to by their prison numbers, there were seven ‘Beagle Boys’ that made appearances in many Walt Disney productions, even though they are most commonly known from DuckTales. Ma Beagle was the head honcho and matriarch of the group, who would do anything she could to help her sons escaped from jail.

Odd fact: There is an Italian punk band that is named after the Beagle Boys. They go by Banda Bassotti.

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