Television Oddities: Fluppy Dogs

 

Television Oddities title card

The year 1985 was an important year for Disney Television. Disney, as a company, had been struggling for a few years after the death of Walt Disney with the idea of what direction to go. However, in 1984, Disney came under new management with the recruiting of Michael Eisner and Frank Wells as CEO and COO respectively. Eisner, who prided himself on being a creative CEO, was intent on Disney creating new characters and properties. Also, as someone who had once had high-ranking positions at major television networks, he knew there was potential in television.. So, he set about launching Disney Television Animation.

Now, this may not seem so crazy right now, but you have to understand that Disney just didn't do TV animation. A lot of the major studios from the Golden Age of theatrical animation didn't. It was generally understood that they couldn't match the quality of their theatrical output on a TV budget, so they didn't really bother. But in 1985, Disney launched two television cartoons: The Wuzzles, about an island of composite animals (Butterbear, Bumblelion, etc), and Adventures of the Gummi Bears, a fantasy adventure very loosely inspired by a candy that Eisner's children became enamored with at camp. And from those two shows came all the television cartoons Disney has made since, including Duck Tales, Chip and Dale's Rescue Rangers, Goof Troop, Gargoyles, Kim Possible, Phineas and Ferb, The Owl House and numerous others.

But not every show made it to series.

In 1986, ABC aired a Disney pilot for a show titled Fluppy Dogs. Fluppy Dogs, like many children's cartoons in the1980s, was meant to tie in to a line of merchandise including books and toys. For the record, here's a commercial for some of the toys:

Typical soft stuffed toy line aimed at young girls, right?

Disney decided to get a bit creative with it.

Fluppy Dogs TV title

The special opens with the main Fluppies of the series, Stanley, Tippi, Ozzie, Bink and Dink, traversing a dangerous mountain range in inclement weather. They eventually get to a cliff when one of the Fluppies pulls out a small, glowing crystal which they use to open a door in midair that leads them to another world, which they hope is their homeworld.

So, apparently, Fluppy Dogs can traverse the multiverse.  Also, points to anyone who thinks the travel method reminds them way too much of Kingdom Hearts.

They get chased through this new jungle world by a dinosaur-like creature until they find another door which leads them to our world. Well . . . a human world (it's still animated so it's hard to call it OUR world). The Fluppies end up causing a bit of trouble in a supermarket and escaping into the streets only to get caught by dog catchers. But not before getting the attention of the villain of the piece: J.J. Wagstaff, millionaire and rare animal collector. You see, Wagstaff knew about Fluppies already, having read about them in some old book. Now he was intent on adding one to his collection.

In the meantime, the Fluppies are in the pound with few means of escape. So, Stanley manages to get himself adopted by a woman who is there looking for a pet for her son Jamie. Jamie's less than enthused with his new pet, having expected a bigger dog. However, Jamie takes Stanley for a walk and after a brief escape attempt, saves Jamie from danger on a construction site. This reveals Stanley's extraordinary nature and after a brief explanation, the Fluppies now have their first ally on Earth.

The Fluppies and Jamie.

Jamie tries his best to help but his resources are limited. He manages to scraoe together all the money he has and manages to buy another Fluppy, Tippi, from the pound. Though, upon seeing this, his mom says “absolutely not” and makes him give Tippi to their teenage neighbor Claire.

Things go a little better that night when Jamie and Stanley are sleeping and Jamie starts scratching Stanley's head in his sleep. This causes the bed to start flying.

Yeah, it seems that Fluppies are just straight-up magic in some worlds. The flying bed scene is a really fun scene, but it also feels a lot like Disney animation was riffing on the flying bicycle scene from 1982's E.T.

Anyway, they fly to Claire's house to pick up Tippi (who is less than enthused with life at Claire's, since she seems to use Tippi as a sort of “dress-up doll”), and inadvertently reveal the truth to Claire (enter ally #2). They then go to the pound to stage a jailbreak, narrowly avoiding Wagstaff who had them open the pound so he could get the remaining Fluppies.

Tippi and Claire.

A good chunk of the rest of the special is the Fluppies finding more otherdimensional doors and opening them only to find that not only are they not the way home, but there's something on the other side that will cause trouble if it gets out. They open one door only for a huge flood of water to come through. They open another and a creature that Claire names a “Falumpus” comes through. In the meantime, Jamie is trying to help but the more he's involved the more trouble he gets in with his mom.

Wagstaff makes one more attempt at capturing the Fluppies, managing to actually nab Ozzie. Trying to keep Jamie out of it for once, Stanley and Tippi seek help from Claire who drives them to Wagstaff's mansion in her car. Jamie, though, sees them depart and he, Bink and Dink pursue by riding the Falumpus (which was still in Jamie's basement).

Things go south as Wagstaff and his butler Hamish manage to catch Stanley and Tippi and threatens to call the police on Jamie and Claire for breaking into his home. As a last ditch effort, Jamie and Claire “say goodbye” to the Fluppies by scratching their heads. This manages to release enough magic to rip the top floor of Wagstaff's mansion off and send it flying to the library where the actual portal to the Fluppies' homeworld is. The Fluppies open the door and go through, and Wagstaff and Hamish pursue only to get stuck on the other side (note: without his money and status and on a world where the animals he's trying to collect are the dominant species, Wagstaff will likely be at a disadvantage). This leaves Jamie and Claire alone on their own side of the door.

Months pass, the seasons change. Jamie and Claire are now good friends after their adventure. But they still miss their Fluppy friends. Then one winter day, Stanley and the other Fluppies appear saying that they miss Jamie and Claire too. It turns out that they found a way to stabilize the door between Earth and their world. As they open the door, hundreds of Fluppies stream through eager to have their own adventure on Earth.

So . . . how do you get from floppy dog plushies to canine interdimensional adventurers?

The Fluppies in their toy form.

Well, it's not unusual for animation studios to take a toy concept, even a seemingly gentle one aimed at young girls, and pump in some adventure and higher stakes.  I mean, even the Care Bears had villains like Dr. Coldheart and Noheart.

But it really seems more like an example of what Disney was doing and what headspace they were in regarding TV animation at the time. Turning a simple concept into a high adventure with appeal for both gender demographics. Heck, with Gummi Bears they took the name of a candy and some how turned that into a medeival fantasy adventure. And apparently they didn't stray too far from the initial concept. Certain details seem to have stayed. Like designating the Fluppies by their qualities. According to Wikipedia, the initial lineup of characters in the children's book were Fanci Flup, Cuddle Flup, Brave Flup, Cool Flup, Shy Flup and Silly Flup. The characters from the special are listed as Stanley the Loyal Fluppy, Tippi the Loving Fluppy, Ozzie the Cool Fluppy, Bink the Shy Fluppy and Dink the Playful Fluppy.

Anyway, the special aired on ABC on Thanksgiving, November 27, 1986. It got the lowest rating of any of ABC's TV movies during that week and of course did not go to series.

Should it have?

Well, despite the novel “cutesy animals travelling the multiverse” angle, I doubt it was any great loss to children's television as a whole. But it does show an interesting time in Disney television animation when none of it was really a sure thing yet and proves to be an interesting television oddity because of it.