Noozles

Noozles was an odd children's animated show that aired on Nickelodeon in the late eighties and early nineties. It featured a little girl named Sandy Brown, who had recently moved to a new house, only to find that there was a magical eucalyptus tree growing right outside her window. Not only that, but she had a magical talking powder blue koala bear that she got from her grandma, that came to life and lived in that tree. He had this watch that could stop time.

Crazy, Huh?

The Blue koala also had a sister, who of course was pink, and she had a little makeup compact that could open magical portals to a parallel dimension called Koalaland. Definitely one of the weirdest shows of my childhood.

Perhaps one of the greatest children's television shows of all time, back in the day when Nick, Jr. had an all-star lineup. You probably don't remember the name of the show, but you remember something vaguely about two koala bears and a girl. Everybody does, but no one knows the name.

Well, it's called the Noozles. (*waits for reader to jump out of their seat and exclaim, 'EUREKA! THAT'S WHAT THE NAME WAS!*) (Done yet? Good.)

The series starts when Sandy Brown, a young inquisitive girl, living with her grandmother, receives a package that was lost at sea for many years. Sandy's father, Professor Alex Brown, is away most of the time on archaelogical digs. The package is from him, containing a stuffed koala bear. Or so it seems.

The koala bear toy was actually the magical creature Blinky, who had escaped Koala-Walla Land. By 'noozling' it, or rubbing noses with it in an eskimo-like display of affection, Blinky would come alive. Within minutes, Blinky's little sister, Pinky, arrives on the scene. She'd come from Koala-Walla land to bring Blinky back.

Koala-Walla Land, you see, was a tripped-out cross between 2001: A Space Odyssey, Megaman III's Gemini Man Stage, and Australia. Unfortunately, Koala-Walla land was now a Nazi police state of some sort, with Gestapo Kangaroo cops patrolling the world (It wasn't all bad, though, because for some reason everyone in Koala-Walla Land was granted the ability to fly once it became a police state. This is never quite explained but I imagine it has something to do with it being a magical alternate universe where the laws of gravity work in tandem with the amount of martial law involved.) Blinky didn't want to go back. Suffering another blow, Sandy discovers her dad is being held hostage in a Koala-Walla jail.

The series revolves around the adventures of Sandy, Blinky and Pinky. Pinky has a makeup kit that can open up portals to the alternate universe, and Blinky has a watch that can stop time. Throughout the series they are chased by a bungling duo, Frankie and Spike, who are hell-bent on poaching them.

It was created by Fuji Eight Co. Ltd., Saban, and imported over to America for some piss-poor dubbing. Pinky, however, was voiced by Cheryl Chase (who would later go on to voice Angelica from the Rugrats). It aired 65 episodes and ran from November 8, 1988 to April 2, 1993.

The show was also called "The Wonderous Koala Blinky" in other english speaking locales, and "Brinky and Printy" or the phonetic spelling "Fushigi na koala blinky" (ふしぎなコアラ ブリンキー) in Japan. It was orignally animated by Nippon Animation, and Distributed by Fuji TV in Japan, and it was distributed by Saban Entertainment in the United States.

It Aired on Nickelodeon from November 1989 through April 1993. It was about a little girl named sandy who's grandmother received a package that had been lost on a ship for 38 years, and had been brought back up, the package was a blue stuffed koala, or so it seemed. Shortly after receiving the package, sandy gives the toy koala a "noozle" (an Eskimo Kiss) and much to her surprise, the Koala comes to life, his first word after waking up: "Blinky", his name. And shortly thereafter a second, smaller and rather more pink female koala shows up by popping in suddenly and immediately starts razzing Blinky for "sleeping" for so long and demands that he return to Koala-Walla Land with her. He refuses and Blinky, Pinky, and Sandy go on to have many adventures.

The final episode is also part of what makes this series so special, it provides a clear cut ending to the story, in which Sandy is separated from Blinky and pinky forever as the Koala-Walla land world is separated permanently from the earth. (I admit freely that this made me weepy)

Blinky got a watch that could stop time from pinky in the first episode, and Pinky could draw portals in thin air with her magic lipstick (and would always disappear through them when any adult got near). Pinky had a magic makeup compact that she could create magic bubbles and do other assorted things with. I always thought it was cool the way pinky would just *appear* out of nowhere, this had a really cool sound effect, too.

(And yes, Pinky does sound like Angelica on the Rugrats (both voiced by Cheryl Chase), this however is the only redeeming quality of the Rugrats, as all the nicktoons basically just bite). Blinky is amusing just because of his unrelentingly happy demeanor, and hilariously squeaky little voice. He's Voiced by Barbara Goodson, who is an accomplished Video Game and Anime voice actress. Blinky also has a surprising amount of personality and depth for such a seemingly simple character.

This show is also notable for proposing the theory that Uluru (or Ayers Rock) in Australia is the gateway between the Earth and Koala-Walla land, the gateway is at the end of a rather well hidden cave.

It is also discovered partway through the series that Sandy's father is now trapped in an Orb in Koala-Walla land, after having gone missing in the austrailian outback. (presumably while poking around Ayers Rock and accidentally finding the entrance to Koala-Walla land, and thus being arrested by the Kangaroo Cops, they *really* don't like humans).

Koala-Walla Land itself can best be described as a wild ass, tripped out amalgamation of every anime stereotype imaginable, with floating orbs and crystals and starfield backgrounds, and with flying kangaroo cops that would shout "Stop in the name of the High Dingy Doo!" (their version of "Pull over, Punk!") The High Dingy Doo was the ruler of Koala-Walla Land.

For the longest time I had the Memory of a show with a little girl and her two magical koalas that came on Nickelodeon in the late 80s. My memory of this show was so fuzzy for so long it's a wonder that I didn't forget it completely. Every now and then the memory would be triggered by something and I would sit and ponder, thinking "what the hell _was_ that show called?".

( I also remember having to suffer through the positively dreary (not to mention overbearingly moralistic) The World of David The Gnome in order to see this show, I scraped David off my boot a couple miles back)

One day, while being nostalgic and browsing around whatever-dude.com I found a page that described a show called "The Noozles"... And I too had one of those "Eureka!" moments as I smacked my finger against the screen. I sat there for a moment and grinned like an idiot as the loosely connected memories all came together again. I started to remember watching this on Nickelodeon in the late Eighties, and being absolutely enthralled with it, likely more so than any heterosexual male has the right to be.

So I was curious about what had happened to this fond childhood memory, And after some searching I found that it was in the hands of Buena Vista Home Entertainment, After the purchase of Saban Entertainment (which originally handled the distribution of this show in the United States)

I called them (@ 1-800-477-2811, press zero to talk to the operator) and asked them about it awhile back, and they knew nothing of it, I spoke with a woman named "Debbie", and she had no record of anything called "Noozles", I had to read off the Japanese name "Fushigi na koara burinkii" so that they could find reference to it, but then the only reference was the Japanese name with Nickelodeon listed next to it, and nothing else. I also requested that I be contacted in the event that this show could be found.

So they sent it to the research department,

And much to my surprise they called me back a couple weeks later and said that yes, they had acquired the Noozles, but had no plans to release it on DVD. *sigh*. They told me that my request had been forwarded to the Marketing dept.

I wonder if it's actually possible to get Buena Vista to release this again.