The Animal Shelf is a 1997 children's television series produced by Cosgrove Hall Films and based on the books written and illustrated by British writer Ivy Wallace. Aimed at a pre-school audience, the show first aired on ITV running for 4 seasons and 52 episodes, running from 1997 to 2000.
Characters and Voice Cast
Timothy the Human Being is the owner of the animals, who is never really seen on-screen, just his shadow. This is the same with all of the other human being characters, including Timothy's parents and Mr Tompkins, the jumble sale's truck driver, apart from the pet-shop owner, Mr Trigg,.
Gumpa the Bear is the leader of the group. Gumpa is quite lazy and he enjoys sleeping.
Woeful the Monkey wears a red fez and coat. He often tells jokes, which are often found rude by the other animals. He enjoys getting his own way, and is quite bossy, which sometimes annoys the other four animals.
Stripey the Zebra is Getup's best friend. He seems to be quite wise, and it is revealed in the first episode, Stripey To The Rescue, that he and Getup are Timothy's two oldest animals.
Getup the Giraffe is Stripey's best friend who has brown curly hair on her long neck. Although Getup often falls over and speaks with a broad English accent, she is close friends with the other four animals. The material on her hooves is badly worn, which means that she often loses some stuffing through them.
Little Mut the west highland white terrierdog is close friends with Gumpa. He wears a pink bow on his back, and often ends up getting into difficult situations.
Mrs Mole and her Baby Moles are a family of moles who live underground. The moles themselves only squeak instead of talk.
Kinker the Mouse is the animals' friend who only sometimes visits the blue shelf. Like Mrs Mole and her baby moles, he always squeaks instead of talking. In the first episode, Stripey To The Rescue, Getup meets him at a travelling fairground, where he lives.
Jick the Jackdaw - A wild bird that takes up residence in Timothy's garden. He likes shiny things and can be a nuisance by taking things from the animals without them realising, but he can sometimes be really useful as well, particularly when the animals have to get high up to reach things like acorns and nuts.
Squirrel - is the animals' second friend who lives in a tree in Bluebell Wood just outside Timothy's garden.
Episode Guide
Every episode in The Animal Shelf series is 10 minutes long.
The series was also seen on an American children's wrapper programme called It's Itsy Bitsy Time along with several TV series from overseas and aired on the Fox Family Channel in America and Treehouse TV in Canada in 1999 with the British voices being redubbed with American and Canadian voices. The voices were directed by Canadian voice actress Susan Roman who is best known for voicing Sailor Jupiter in the DIC and Cloverway Inc. versions of the English dubbed anime Sailor Moon. Roman also directed the American and Canadian voices for another British children's animated television series seen on It's Itsy Bitsy TimeTom and Vicky.
Merchandise
The series later had tie in story books from Ladybird Books and was also released on VHS and DVD by Disney Videos.
