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Arthur Read

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This article is about the titular character. You may be looking for Arthur, the TV show.

haha i hacked this arthur luvs muffy and every user on this wiki suckz

Season 10

Season 11

Season 12

Season 13

Season 14

Season 15

Season 16

Season 17

Season 18

Season 19

Season 20

Season 21

Postcards from Buster

Season 1

Other media

In the Living Books computer games that are based upon the books, Arthur had a light brown complexion in Arthur's Teacher Trouble and it was changed to pale in Arthur's Birthday.

It was likely due to color and tone restrictions during the 16-bit era of computers and software. He was voiced by Duncan Wold and Ben Ellis before the cartoon series replaced them with Michael Yarmush.

In the later games during the 32-bit era of computers and software (such as Arthur's Thinking Games), Arthur's appearance was the same as he looks in the cartoon series.

Personality and skills

Arthur card.gif

Arthur is a mediocre pianist, though he has shown that he can truly play when he is motivated. However, he can forget to practice the piano at times,[1] where he might not play the right note at a recital. He was originally taught by Mrs. Cardigan, who retired in "Arthur Plays the Blues" and was transferred over to Dr. Fugue's, but was once temporarily expelled for not practicing enough.

Although he is average to well in school most of the time, he occasionally receives help from the Brain.[citation needed]

Arthur enjoys reading - his best friends were shocked after he left a book on the ground in "Arthur Goes Crosswire." Also, he remembers reading many exciting books in "The Short, Quick Summer."

At times, he helps out Buster, who has a general dislike in homework, whom he feared was falling behind and could repeat the third grade.[2]

He is occasionally referred to by his full name when he gets into trouble, although his middle name Timothy wasn't actually mentioned until "Arthur's Big Hit" from Season 4.

Arthur is generally polite, kind and friendly with everyone. Despite his politeness, Arthur sometimes has a tendency to break promises his parents have given him, such as to not touch the computer during his mother's tax season, to clean up his room like being told, and to practice the piano - which he does other things instead. He is also known to "play with his glasses" whenever he lies, which D.W has caught him doing before.

Despite being a generally good natured kid, he is shown to have a meaner side in the episode "So Funny I Forgot to Laugh", where in which he teased Sue Ellen about a coat she had got as a present, and the teasing turned into harassment, going as far as Arthur Photoshopping a dog's head onto Sue Ellen's body and emailing it to her. While Arthur only thought Sue Ellen was overreacting thinking it was all in good fun he immediately apologized as soon as he realized he hurt her feelings showing that as soon as he realizes he's doing something wrong he'll do anything to make it right again.

He can also be quite bigoted when it comes to people's tastes, such as D.W.'s love for Mary Moo Cow and Crazy Bus that he claims are "babyish"; and for Francine's pet cat Nemo, in which he exaggerates about his only bad experience over a cat in the past, claiming that those animals are evil. Due to his bigotry, he tends to be stereotypical and insist that he's the one in the right mind.

Arthur is also not one to get angry so easily but when he snaps, the other kids are quite frightened by it. In "Arthur Cleans Up" while cleaning up the park with Pal for company he passes by the Tough Customers who start littering right in front of him and tease him about it but after Pal starts choking on their garbage, Arthur angrily stops the Tough Customers from leaving and scolds them to help him clean up. In "Arthur's Big Hit" D.W. tries to make Arthur's model plane fly and throws it out the window only for it to break apart, having told D.W. countless times that model planes are not for flying and she is not to touch it. Arthur's anger gets the better of him and he punches D.W.'s shoulder. In "A is for Angry" Arthur and the Brain play a best of 3 checkers match to see who will represent their school in a competition, at the start Arthur excited while the Brain is bored resulting in Francine and Muffy to start pep rallies to support Arthur and shun the Brain. Arthur gets annoyed by this, tells them to give it a rest only for Francine and Muffy to start pep rallies to support the Brain and shun Arthur. When Arthur learns of this, he snaps which scares off his friends and announces that he's quitting the competition and storms off home.

Arthur has the potential to be an intelligent person but tends to be one who doesn't use common sense, much to the annoyance of his parents (especially his father). An example of this was in "Arthur's Knee," when he told D.W. to not tell Jane and David that he cut his knee from a lima bean can (D.W. wanted to explain to David why lima beans are "bad" for you).

Arthur competes on Lakewood's soccer, track, and baseball teams, as well as on a bowling team against Mighty Mountain. He won the school Spell-a-thon, plays piano in the band, and was one of the founding members of the Lakewood Pride Committee.

Relationships

Family

Arthur home 04 roll.gif

A recurring theme in the Arthur series are the tensions between Arthur and his younger sister. Arthur is constantly pestered and ridiculed by his four-year-old sister D.W. Read, and even though she celebrated her fifth birthday during the TV series' third season, Arthur still referred to her as a "four-year-old" in the episode "Return of the Snowball", which aired in the seventh season.

D.W. vehemently tries to get Arthur into trouble, although there are times when Arthur has retaliated by reciprocating the act of getting D.W. herself in trouble, even as far as hitting her once. Despite that, Arthur tries his best to ignore D.W.'s annoying antics most of the time, though very difficult, and often does her favors - sometimes on his parents' behest - against his will. Despite all of the shenanigans between the two, they are still a great brother and sister team, and they genuinely care for each other. D.W. often hugs Arthur most of the time when either Arthur or she does something that's a big deal, like in the episode, "D.W.'s Perfect Wish" from Season 3, Arthur talks about all the great stuff that D.W. did, and when he finished the story, D.W. hugs him because Arthur told her all the great stuff she did when she was 4, another episode was "Operation D.W." from Season 10, D.W. hugs Arthur probably because she's brave and for all that nice stuff Arthur did for her before the Operation.

He is also jealous of her for being a better songwriter, storyteller,[3] and fly fisher;[4] which embarrassed him, and made him believe she's a "show-off".

Unlike D.W., Arthur is shown to get along really well with his baby sister Kate Read, in Arthur's Baby he was shown to be nervous to how his new baby sister would act towards until he burped her to stop her from crying to which she is then seen snuggling into him and kissing his check. This is carried on in the episode "D.W.'s Baby" where he's feeding her milk bottle to her with no problem. Arthur has also been seen to make her laugh starting with the episode "Arthur the Unfunny" where he was purposely making mistakes on the piano while making funny faces. In "Binky Barnes, Wingman", Arthur dressed as a spider and brings Kate to school dressed as a fly to help with his report on spiders.

Arthur's parents include his mother Jane, who is a work-at-home accountant and his father David Read, who runs a catering business. She often disregards D.W.'s constant pestering of Arthur and gives in to her childish fits.

Friends

Arthur and Buster meet for the first time

Arthur's very best friend is Buster Baxter, a jolly but naive rabbit who enjoys works of science fiction (aliens especially) and eating, and has a knack for telling jokes. He lives with his single mother (Bitzi Baxter) who is divorced from his father, an airplane pilot. Arthur wearing bunny slippers and his friend Buster wearing aardvark slippers may represent the fact that they are best friends.

Arthur's other good friends include:

  • Ladonna Compson: In the season 16 opening episode "Based on a True Story". It shows that the Compsons just moved to Elwood City and Arthur is her neighbor four blocks down. He enjoyed her stories until she tells the fake story. When she asks him if he believes that the other stories are true he just replied "I don't know what to think". Then he tries to give her another chance and convinces Buster, Francine and Muffy to give her another chance. Then Ladonna lost her hat by a raccoon they (except Arthur) don't believe her after she told them what happened. After she finds the hat with Arthur then shows the gang and her and Arthur become friends.
  • Francine Frensky: She is one of Arthur's best friends. According to "Locked in the Library!", they first met in preschool; but in "Desperately Seeking Stanley" from Season 8 that aired seven years later, she went to his third birthday party. She often had the habit of teasing him. She called him a "four-eyes" when he started getting glasses and called him a "baby" when he hadn't lost any baby teeth. She also once accused him for calling her a "marshmallow" when she once wore a white sweater, yet they renewed their friendship. She also gave him Spin-the-Bottle for his eighth birthday, and other than that, there were many rumors where they would have a crush on each other; this is evidenced heavily in the book Arthur's Valentine, when she appears angered that Arthur has given a "mushy" (in her words) valentine to Sue Ellen Armstrong. Another example is in "Arthur and the Square Dance" where Muffy (upset that she has to dance with a clumsy Binky) spreads a rumor (with Binky's help) that Arthur and Francine are boyfriend and girlfriend and in love. This later scares the two of them and they admit that there are no romantic feelings between the two, or it just could mean that they weren't ready to admit their feelings, or they did not want to do so in front of anyone yet. She also appears to hang out with him and the other boys sometimes, besides her best friend Muffy. At the end of "And Now Let's Talk to Some Kids", they were shown as an elderly couple in the future watching The Magic Toolbox on VHS that turns out to be more than fifty years ago. In the books, they usually wear the same colored shirts (Arthur wears yellow and Francine wears red) and blue jeans unlike most other characters who wear different colored ones in different books and elements of each book, (Except Buster maybe).
  • Muffy Crosswire: She and Arthur are good friends. They both share the same birthday, although they don't usually hang out with each other that often, but they are still good companions. Their own parents are close friends with each other: Arthur's mother Jane works as a tax accountant for Muffy's father Ed who runs Crosswire Motors, and Ed is often the customer for desserts that Arthur's father David bakes and delivers to people. While Arthur tends to be quite annoyed by Muffy antics like when she talks about shopping, gloats about her wealth or talks about how she's better than anyone else he'll still lend her a helping hand should she need. An example is in "You Are Arthur" when Arthur notices Muffy about to bump into the railing. He asks her if she is alright, and helps her up.
  • Alan Powers: Another one of Arthur's best friends whom he and others nickname as "the Brain". The Brain usually gets an A+ and occasionally helps out Arthur with his homework. He also stayed at Arthur's for the weekend while his parents were out to the Ice Creamer's Convention, and was staying neat as a guest; but when he went back to his own house, Arthur found out that the Brain wasn't as neat as expected.[5]
  • Binky Barnes: There are times where Binky hangs out with Arthur and his other friends, although Binky often hangs out with a group of bullies known as the "Tough Customers", whom Arthur occasionally gets along with.
  • Sue Ellen Armstrong: She is said to be one of Arthur's best friends,[6] although they don't hang out alone that much. In the book, Arthur's Valentine, he expected her to be his secret admirer after she transferred to his school, but ultimately ended up with Francine instead. In "Arthur's Faraway Friend" she gave him the advice he needed to spend time with Buster before his long trip with his dad. In "Sue Ellen's Lost Diary", he and three of their friends were able to retrieve her diary she once lost in the Elwood City Public Library. In "The Secret Guardians" she invites him to sail her model ship with her near the tree house. In "The Best Day Ever", when she, Arthur and some of their friends were talking about their best day ever, Sue Ellen tells the group that Arthur returning her diary to her was her best day.
  • George Lundgren: Even though they might not hang out very often, they're together enough times to know they care about each other and have some sort of friendship. In "Arthur's Dummy Disaster", when George's dummy Wally fell apart when he was suppose to give a speech, Arthur talked to George and helped him overcome his shyness, while helping him realize he can have courage to speak without the use of Wally.

  • Arthur, Buster and Francine

  • Arthur with his friends

  • Arthur and Francine on the TV show, Let's Talk to Some Kids.

Growth

It is hinted in a few episodes, that Arthur wants to be a lot bigger in size, for unknown reasons. In "D.W.'s Snow Mystery", he views himself as someone 1.5 times his normal size.

In "The World Record," he fantasizes as being the tallest person in the world. In the opening of "Buster's Best Behavior", he views himself as being able to make himself much taller. These moments are unexplained.

Sports

Arthur is seen playing many sports throughout the show. He usually just plays baseball and soccer with his friends, but in the episode, "D.W. Goes to Washington" he has a daydream about him playing golf with the President.

In "Team Trouble" he plays American football. He is forward and goalkeeper for the Lakewood Elementary Soccer Team.

Development

Arthur's signature, along with Buster's, from the "Arthur's Guide to Children's Hospital Boston" website feature.

Creation

Marc Brown first imagined the character of Arthur Read in 1976, when his son, Tolon Brown, asked him to tell him a bedtime story featuring a "weird animal." Brown then came up with an aardvark named Arthur, who worried that his nose was too long.[7] He decided to round the character's face off in the second Arthur book, so as not to frighten children.[8] Brown describes the character as being an "Everykid who experiences all the milestones, those things that are so important in the lives of children."[9]

Voice Acting

For the first five seasons of the television series, Arthur was voiced by Michael Yarmush.

For season six, Yarmush was replaced by Justin Bradley, and for seasons seven and eight, the character's voice was provided by Mark Rendall. Rendall also redubbed Season 6 due to complaints from Carol Greenwald stating that Bradley's voice was too low and he lacked the vocal range of Yarmush.[citation needed]

After Rendall left, Cameron Ansell took up the role for seasons nine, ten and eleven.

Starting with season twelve, he was voiced by Dallas Jokic.

During season 16 and 17, he was voiced by Drew Adkins.

During the eighteenth and nineteenth seasons, he was voiced by William Healy.

He is currently voiced by Jacob Ursomarzo starting with the twentieth season.

In the Living Books computer games: Arthur's Teacher Trouble and Arthur's Birthday, he was voiced by Duncan Wold and Ben Ellis.

In the Direct-to-DVD CGI film, Arthur's Missing Pal, he was voiced by Carr Thompson.[citation needed]

Trivia

Gallery

References

  1. ↑ "Arthur vs. the Piano", "Arthur Plays the Blues"
  2. ↑ "Buster Makes the Grade"
  3. ↑ "D.W. Tale Spins"
  4. ↑ "Cast Away"
  5. ↑ "The Perfect Brother"
  6. ↑ "So Funny I Forgot to Laugh"
  7. ↑ Arts in America; An Aardvark Gets to the Top (Literally) at a Museum. Sara Rimer, New York Times. August 4th, 1998. Retrieved on December 29th, 2008.
  8. ↑ KING 'ARTHUR' PBS' GENTLE AARDVARK RULES KIDS' TV; HIS SECOND SEASON BEGINS ON MONDAY. Paul Schultz, Daily News Entertainment. Tuesday, October 14, 1997. Retrieved on December 29th, 2008.
  9. ↑ Arthur the Aardvark accepts a Mission. Glenn Collins, New York Times. November 10th, 1996. Retrieved on December 29th, 2008.
  10. ↑ "Arthur Changes Gears"
  11. ↑ http://pbskids.org/arthur/backstreet/chat/index.html
  12. ↑ Arthur and the Square Dance



External links

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