The Noozles

File:Noozles 9630.jpg

Trust us, it isn't as boring as this picture suggests.

Also known as ふしぎなコアラブリンキー (Fushigina Koara Burinkii or The Wonderous Koala Blinky), The Noozles was a 26-episode series by Nippon Animation Company that was originally released in Japan in 1984 and broadcast on Fuji Television. It was dubbed and shown in English beginning in 1988. It's mainly remembered today for being shown in seemingly endless reruns in the early days of Nick Jr., who would often eagerly snap up whatever animated series from around the world they could afford the rights to. For that reason, it's probably more popular in the U.S. than it ever was in Japan. A few episodes were also released on VHS by Celebrity Home Entertainment.

It is also known for starting out as just your average cute cartoon about a girl and her koala buddy — and then suddenly taking a turn for the very very strange. It turns out that Star Blazers and Macross director Noboru Ishiguro was involved in the program, which might help explain some things.

Here's the story. A little girl named Sandy lives with her oblivious mother and kindly grandmother. Out of the blue she receives a crate from her grandfather, who was believed to be lost at sea many years ago. The crate contains Blinky, who initially appears to be a magical stuffed toy that comes to life whenever Sandy rubs noses (or "Noozles") with him.

Soon Blinky's sister Pinky shows up. Pinky is a little pink koala who can fly and has magical powers. For much of the series, she gets in and out of trouble and / or causes Sandy and Blinky to get in and out of trouble with her powers. She insists that Blinky return with her to a place called "Koalawalla Land".

Do whatever you have to do to prepare, because this is where things get weird.

The characters eventually make their way to Koalawalla Land around the middle of the series. It tuns out to be an alternate universe populated entirely by anthropomorphic Australian animals, who each live on tiny planets floating in a psychedelic space. Koalawalla Land has heard of your Earth-physics and wants nothing to do with them; the residents float free of gravity and are able to travel from planet to planet simply by flying.

Sandy quickly learns two unsettling things about Koalawalla Land. First off, apparently, the residents are all Designer Babies. We learn this when Blinky proudly introduces Sandy to his "momma" — and she's an artificial incubator a la Splice. Except in the shape of a giant pink koala.

Secondly, there is the High Dingy Doo. Sandy must wear an animal mask whenever she visits Koalawalla Land. This is because the High Dingy Doo despises humans. Humans are arrested and jailed on sight just for being in his domain. Some humans are trapped within The Crystal Place, which helps hold the universe together but will trap your soul forever if you touch it. And the way he enforces this law is with his air force of — we promise you we are not kidding — Nazi Koalas.

It should be noted that this show had a small but loyal cult following among older Anime fans, simply because of these... unexpected plot elements. But what effect did all of this have on all the little kids who just wanted a cartoon about magic koalas?

Anyway, eventually the High Dingy Doo has no choice but to ask the humans who have stumbled upon the secret of Koalawalla Land (this mostly means Sandy's family) for help. It seems that the bond between the human world and the Koala world is breaking, and unless the separation is guided by the Wiseman Stones, both worlds could be torn asunder. Fortunately, Sandy's father and grandfather (who was actually trapped in The Crystal Place all this time) have found the stones, and that means that Blinky and Pinky must travel to Ayers Rock to oversee the separation of the two worlds. They succeed. Humans and koalas are forever isolated from each other, and Sandy and her magical Noozle friends never see each other again.

Yay...?

Compare to Adventures of the Little Koala, another anime series from 1984 involving anthropomorphic koalas (and other animals) which aired on Nick Jr. at the same time as Noozles.

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Tropes:

• Alternative Foreign Theme Song: That explains the Bait and Switch Credits.
  • Alternative foreign soundtrack, actually: as with most of Saban's anime dubs, the English and French dubs replace the original soundtrack by Reijiro Koroku with new music by Haim Saban and Shuki Levy. Those wishing to compare can watch episode 1 in Japanese at the Internet Archive.
• And I Must Scream: For a point of reference, the editor who started this page has seen End of Evangelion. She has seen FLCL. And one late crazy night, she even watched Dead Leaves. Nothing in any of those Anime series has been half as bizarre or disturbing as the sight of Nazi Koalas in little Scootie-Puff Jr. planes chasing down a little girl with the intent to trap her soul forever in a magic crystal.
• Bait and Switch Credits: We think the editors at Saban (yes, that Saban, see below) deserve a round of applause for this one. (Hideous Ear Worm warning.)
• Barefoot Cartoon Animals
• Big Lipped Alligator Moment: Happens Once Per Episode, whenever Osgood the frill-necked lizard shows up.
• Crap Saccharine World: Koalawallaland, in spades
• Creepy Doll: Blinky, sort of. He enters something called "Magic Sleepytime" to pose as a stuffed animal, which means he "sleeps" with his eyes open...
• Deranged Animation: This is one of the top "Oh thank God I didn't dream it; people I asked about this show thought I was insane" series for a whole generation.
• Deus Ex Nukina: The root cause of the dimensions separating. Really.
• Dub Name Change: Pinky's name is Printy in the original version. Other than that, most of the Japanese character names were retained in English (and the French dub, which was based on the English).
• Gratuitous English: The Japanese opening theme has some: "miracle telepathy", "my sweetheart", "goodbye memory."
• Hey, It's That Voice!: Angelica is a Fairy-koala? It explains so much!
  • In Japan, Pinky has the same voice as Pollon and Blinky shares a voice actress with, of all characters, Matilda Ajan. Sandy's voice actress was Kyoko in Plawres Sanshiro and - get this - Rie in Cream Lemon. It also has a few voice actors in common with the same director's Alice in Wonderland anime from the previous year, including TARAKO (Alice) as Mark (and the opening theme vocalist) and Kumiko Mizukura (Celia) as Olivia.
    • Also, the ending theme in Japan is sung by Ataru Moroboshi.
  • Hey, It's That Company!: The English version was produced by none other than Saban Entertainment (actually it was "Saban International" which was kind of a separate company, but was related to the other; long story), and this was five years before their most famous franchise. This does help explain some things; Saban had a tendency to snap up the rights to whatever Anime they could get their hands on, regardless of how strange it could get.
    • Naturally, many of the voice actors heard on this show would later become involved with Power Rangers.
    • The show could be an example of Playing Against Type for Nippon Animation, whose output at the time consisted largely of anime adaptations of Western novels (a few of which were also adapted into English by Saban). However, the series director (Taku Sugiyama) is the same one from Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds and the Alice in Wonderland anime.
• Magic Skirt: Sandy in an episode where she gets caught in a kiwi's snare.
• Mood Whiplash: Ye Gods...
• Names to Know in Anime: The director of this series worked with Osamu Tezuka and Toei Animation and also created Marine Boy in the '60s. Also, the show features episode direction and storyboards by Noboru Ishiguro, best known for his work on sci-fi epics like Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Space Battleship Yamato and Macross, and layout work by Yasuji Mori, a Toei and World Masterpiece Theater alumnus.
• Panty Shot: Sandy in a couple of episodes.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Sandy's koala disguise
• Rich Bitch: Sandy's friend (or should that be frenemy?) Olivia, in the episode "Sandy's TV Debut."
• Small Taxonomy Pools: Averted in that one of the species to inhabit Koala-Walla Land was the cassowary, a large flightless bird native to Australia that very rarely ever appears in fiction. Naturally, the dub didn't quite pick up on this, referring to them as ostriches in one episode and as emus in another.
• Team Rocket: Franky and Spike, two poachers who occasionally went after Blinky and Pinky. They are eventually trapped in The Crystal Place...
• What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made on Drugs?: Probably one of the most prime examples.