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George Shrinks is a television series based on the children's book by William Joyce. It tells the story of an eight (or some say ten)-year-old boy named George Shrinks who wakes up one morning to discover that he has been shrunk to the size of a mouse. The show details his adventures with his friends and family and riding in his "Zooper car".
The series started on September 30 2000 as part of PBS Kids Bookworm Bunch. The Bookworm Bunch disbanded in 2004, but George Shrinks was given an individual PBS debut on January 6 2003. The first season consisted of forty episodes, targeted at children five years old and above. The final show aired in mid-2004, though it is still in syndication.
Content
George is the narrator of the show. Episodes range from trips to the aquarium to work around the house, vacations with his parents and playing outside. Because of his extreme size, even mundane activities often become dramatic adventures filled with excitement and learning. His primary mode of transportation is his Zooper car, able to transform into a helicopter, submarine, or plane. George often has interesting encounters with animals, who do not talk but show intelligence throughout the series. On two occasions, he encountered robotic aliens his own size, and helped them get back home.
The show affects a retro-1940s look, with simple animation and colors. Primarily jazz music is used as for background, reflecting both his father's occupation, his mother's freelance style.
Characters
People
- George — Estimated to be only 3 inches tall. Star of the show.
- Junior Shrinks — George's little brother, who often accompanies George in his adventures around the house. *Becky: George's best friend and his next door neighbour. They go on adventures together.
- Perdita Shrinks — George's mother, a freelance artist by trade. Often builds and sculpts with abstract style.
- Harold Shrinks — George's father, a musician in a jazz band. Constantly building and trying out new instruments, in the search for the perfect sound.
- Becky's mother
- Ellen — George's friend and neighbor. She is Chinese and has a chameleon-like lizard as a pet named Ling-ling.
- Ellen's brother
- Aunt Eunice — George's aunt. She's a world wide traveller and initially does not believe George is capable of doing everyday things because he is not conventional about them. He wins her respect when he fixes her bonsai tree.
- Russell; a retired veterinarian and a friend of George's who used to live in George's house as a child. George found a box of his stuff in the attic and also found his long lost toy in the pond.
Animals
- Sparkle Tangerine, a bad neighborhood cat
- Goldey, a fish
- Mouse, a mouse with a broken leg that George befriends while looking for the missing squeeker in Junior's toy.
Vehicle
- Zooper Car — an all-purpose transport vehicle, it is George's primary form of long-distance transportation. Can change from a car to a plane, a helicopter, a boat, or a submarine. Allows George to explore areas most people would not have access to. In some episodes, it has been modified to tunnel underground. It was made by his dad. It has been broken many times.
Plants
- Maurice — Aunt Eunice's prize bonsai tree.
Episode guide
1 On The Road
2 Friends and Anemones
3 If I Ran The Circus
4 Coach Shrinks
5 Becky In Wonderland
6 George Unshrinks
7 Migrate-est Adventure
8 Toy George
9 Lost and Found Art
10 If It Ain't Broke
11 Ghost of Shrinks Manor
12 Can We Keep Him?
13 Journey to the Centre of the Garden
14 Close Encounters of The Bird Kind
15 Dog Sitting Miss Daisy
16 Ants In The Pantry
17 Return To Sender
18 Round Up The Usual Insects
19 The More Things Change
20 From Bad To Worse
21 George-Lo-Phone
22 Sunken Treasures
23 Down On The Bayou
24 Snowman's Land
25 A Star Is Shrunk
26 Monster Mash
27 In the Duck Soup
28 George's Apprentice
29 The Lost World of George Shrinks
30 Tankful of Trouble
31 Zoopercar Caper
32 All Along the Clocktower
33 Down the Drain
34 Return of the Space Invaders
35 A Day at the Beach
36 Small of the Wild
37 King Kongo
38 Speed Shrinks
39 George vs. the Space Invaders
40 Hound of the Bathervilles
Trivia
- William Joyce, the author of the book that was the basis for the show, also wrote Rolie Polie Olie, another successful book that was also turned into a series.
- If you look closely in the house scenes, you'll find that the staircase in the Shrinks' house is a 2D, remodelled version of the house staircase in Rolie Polie Olie.
- In the episode Toy George, Harold and Perdita (the parents) use "snookums" as a nickname for each other. This nickname is a shortened version of "ookums snookums", a name used between the parents in Rolie Polie Olie.
- Several episode titles (like Becky in Wonderland) are parodies of famous titles and sayings. At least two episodes have reworked movie titles, being Small of the Wild and King Kongo. Another two episodes use book titles (with one of them unchanged), being Becky in Wonderland, and If I Ran the Circus. The titles are based off of Alice in Wonderland and a book that was actually called If I Ran the Circus. The books were written, respectively, by Lewis Carrol and Dr. Seuss.
- Some episodes feature characters playing one of the background songs of the show. This song is the same piece that George plays on the piano and the George-Lo-Phone in the episode of the same name. It's also the same song that Harold Shrinks plays on an invented instrument in Tankful of Trouble.
- In the episode George vs. the Space Invaders, George's father builds a spills and chills type instrument called the Scarimin. This is a play on the word Theremin, an instrument that makes a similar sound.
- George has been on all seven continents of the world; this happened when he got himself into a mail parcel that was to be sent to Africa as a birthday present for a pen pal. However, the parcel ended up going all over the world until it was finally brought to the right place. It would normally take weeks for a parcel to be sent around the world, but it only appears to take George a day. This happened in the episode Return to Sender.
- In the episode Coach Shrinks, George says "It's Hockey Night in Shrinksville!" as his family plays a game of table hockey. This is an obvious parody of the show Hockey Night in Canada.
- In the episode From Bad to Worse, George says that he has used his dish washing system "a hundred jillion times". However, we never see it in any other episode.
External links
- George Shrinks Home — PBS Kids
- George Shrinks Episode Guide at Big Cartoon DataBase
"George Shrinks"