Bottersnikes and Gumbles

Bottersnikes and Gumbles
(in publication order)
Bottersnikes and Gumbles
Gumbles on Guard
Gumbles in Summer
Gumbles in Trouble
Author SA Wakefield
Illustrator Desmond Digby
Country Australia
Genre Children's Literature
No. of books 4

Bottersnikes and Gumbles are fictitious creatures in a series of children's books by Australian writer S. A. Wakefield and illustrator Desmond Digby. Four books were published between 1967 and 1989. The series is considered a classic of Australian children's literature[1] and has sold more than 500,000 copies worldwide. A television adaptation of the same name has aired on Netflix and terrestrial television in 2015 and 2016.[2]

Set in the landscape of the Australian bush the stories recount a series of conflicts between the lazy, destructive Bottersnikes and good-natured, hardworking Gumbles. Inspiration for the series came from the emerging environmental movement. The two species were intended to represent opposing attitudes towards the environment; those who destroy the bush, and those who clean it up.[3] These themes however are diffused by the series' humour, absurdity, playful language and its sense of the ridiculous.[4]

Bottersnikes have green wrinkly skin, cheese-grater noses and long, pointed ears that go red when they are angry, which is most of the time. They are perhaps the laziest creatures in the world. They eat mattress stuffing (preferably barbecued) and pictures of food out of magazines, and for sweets they like rusty nails and bottle tops. The Bottersnikes’ biggest fear is water, because they shrink when they get wet and have to be hung out to dry.

Gumbles, on the other hand, are the most friendly and cheerful creatures in the bush and can be squashed into any shape without being hurt, although when flattened out completely they cannot regain their own shapes without help. They are hopeless when they get the giggles.

Wakefield wrote four books about the Bottersnikes and Gumbles:

In 1996 the four books were reissued in an omnibus volume under the title The Complete Tales of Bottersnikes and Gumbles.

Themes

While the books consist of light-hearted children's stories, there is a strong environmental message, mostly about the damage done to the Bush by littering. Wakefield also worked in some satire of more adult concepts: Gumbles in Summer deals with politics - especially far-fetched promises, election campaigning and vote-winning - through an election held to replace the King of the Bottersnikes when he dies of suspected food poisoning, while in Gumbles in Trouble, Chank the Bottersnike creates a newspaper, leading to critique of the media and biased reporting.

Characters

Bottersnikes

Gumbles

Television series

An animated television series, Bottersnikes and Gumbles, was in development as early as 2012 by Cheeky Little Media.[5] In early 2015, the streaming video service Netflix announced it had acquired the rights to the series and was released as 52 eleven-minute episodes. It later aired on the Seven Network in Australia from December 2015 and on CBBC in the UK in 2016.[6] The cast includes Richard Grieve, Jeff Rawle, Kathryn Drysdale and Miriam Margoyles.[7] It was released on Netflix in North America on 19 August 2016. It was redubbed with American accents.

References

  1. Henderson, Caspar (2013). The Book of Barely Imagined Beings: A 21st Century Bestiary. University of Chicago Press. p. 316. ISBN 9780226044705.
  2. "Netflix commissions first Oz series". Retrieved 27 January 2016.
  3. Warde, Amelia. "Litter - According to Amelia". Keep Australia Beautiful. Retrieved 7 September 2014.
  4. O'Conor, Juliet (2009). Bottersnikes and Other Lost Things: A Celebration of Australian Illustrated Children's Books. The Miegunyah Press. p. 78. ISBN 9780522856514.
  5. "Bottersnikes + Gumbles". Cheeky Little.
  6. "Netflix commissions first Oz series". Retrieved 27 January 2016.
  7. "Bottersnikes and Gumbles (2016)". Screen Australia. Retrieved 27 January 2016.
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