Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch
Title card
Genre	Animation
Directed by	Charles A. Nichols
Voices of	Frank Welker Judy Strangis Paul Winchell Lennie Weinrib Don Messick
Theme music composer	Hoyt Curtin
Composer(s)	Hoyt Curtin
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	13 (39 segments)
Production
Executive producer(s)	William Hanna Joseph Barbera
Producer(s)	Iwao Takamoto
Running time	30 minutes
Production company(s)	Hanna-Barbera Productions
Distributor	Warner Bros. Television Distribution
Release
Original network	NBC
Picture format	Color
Audio format	Mono
Original release	September 7 (1974-09-07) – November 30, 1974 (1974-11-30)

Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch is an American animated television series, produced by Hanna-Barbera, which originally aired for one season on NBC from September 7 to November 30, 1974. The show aired for 13 half-hour episodes.

With an ensemble voice cast consisting of Frank Welker, Judy Strangis, Don Messick, Paul Winchell and Lennie Weinrib, the show follows an anthropomorphic car named Wheelie and a trouble-making motorcycle gang called the "Chopper Bunch". The series was produced by Iwao Takamoto, executively produced by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and directed by Charles A. Nichols. An accompanying comic book series, with contributions from artist John Byrne, debuted in May 1975, although he quit while finishing his second issue as he was unsatisfied with his creative control and felt he was overcompensated for his work. Other artists completed the series, which totaled seven comic books.

This series was commonly grouped together with Speed Buggy (1973) and Wonder Wheels (1977–78) due to the similarities in plot and characters. Reception-wise, several critics reacted negatively to the violence and portrayal of motorcycles in the series, prompting viewers to write letters to NBC in hopes that the show would be pulled off the air. It has since been released on DVD as part of Warner Bros.' Archive Collection on a three-disc set.

Premise

The series takes place in a world of anthropomorphic vehicles and centers on Wheelie, his girlfriend Rota Ree, and a motorcycle gang known as the Chopper Bunch. A writer for Cycle World described the premise of the show: "Wheelie, a car, is the hero, and the villains are a bunch of choppers who do everything dirty to get Wheelie, the clean, all-American car." Nearly every episode of the series focused on the Chopper Bunch attempting to outsmart Wheelie, despite their continual failed attempts. The show negatively depicted motorcycles and motorcyclists, and the Chopper Bunch typically received consequences for their actions, which sometimes involved the police.

Characters

• Wheelie (Frank Welker) is a red racing/stunt car resembling a Volkswagen Beetle. Depicted as heroic with humanlike capabilities, Wheelie often finds himself having to contend with the Chopper Bunch, a group of hoodlum motorcycles. Wheelie can only communicate in car horn 'beeps' and 'honks' that the other characters can understand, and also in words and symbols that flash on his windshield, including "Charge!" (accompanied by a bugle call and group shout) whenever he is aroused or angered.
• Rota Ree (Judy Strangis) is Wheelie's devoted girlfriend who is frequently subjected to the unwanted affections of Chopper.

The Chopper Bunch:

• Chopper (Frank Welker), the leader. He is jealous of Wheelie and wants only to get rid of him or at least make his life miserable, and to steal Rota Ree for himself.
  • Revs (Paul Winchell) who always talks in spoonerisms. Winchell's performance was very similar to that of the original Scrubbing Bubbles TV commercials from 1973.
  • Hi-Riser (Lennie Weinrib) who is unintelligent.
  • Scrambles (Don Messick), a minibike and the smallest and slowest member of the Chopper Bunch. He is also the one who constantly advises against most of the Bunch's schemes, but Chopper never listens to him until after the fact, at which point Scrambles endlessly shouts "I told ya! I told ya! I told ya!".
• Captain Tuff (Paul Winchell), a hardened, no-nonsense police cruiser.
• Deputy Fishtail (Don Messick) a police motorcycle and eager rookie obsessed with catching the Chopper Bunch, but whose attempts usually wind up ensnaring Captain Tuff instead.

Messick and Weinrib also provided voices for several other minor characters.

Episodes

See also

In Spanish: Astuto Wheelie para niños