Max & Ruby

Max & Ruby
Created by Rosemary Wells
Voices of Billy Rosemberg
(seasons 1–3)
Tyler Stevenson
(season 4–5)
Samantha Morton
(seasons 1–2)
Rebecca Peters
(seasons 3–5)
Julie Lemieux
Kay Hawtrey
Katie Griffin
Country of origin
  • Canada
  • United States
No. of seasons 5
No. of episodes 78 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s) Diana Manson
Tina Peel
(seasons 1–3)
Michael Hirsh
Rosemary Wells
Scott Dyer
Vince Commisso
(seasons 3-5)
Steve Jarosz
(seasons 3–5)
Running time 24 minutes
Production company(s) Hurricane Productions
Nelvana (Seasons 1–2)
9 Story Entertainment (Seasons 3–5)
Distributor Nelvana Enterprises (2002–2013)
Release
Original network Treehouse TV
Nickelodeon
Picture format 480i (SDTV) (2002–2010) 1080i (HDTV) (2011–2013)
Original release May 3, 2002 (2002-05-03) – February 11, 2013 (2013-02-11)

Max & Ruby is a 2002 Canadian-American animated series that is aimed at preschoolers. Created by children's book author/illustrator Rosemary Wells and based on the world of her Max and Ruby books, the episodes present stories about Max, a rambunctious and determined preschool-aged rabbit, and his older sister, Ruby, a patient, goal-oriented, sometimes restrictive rabbit.[1] A pilot episode for this series aired in 2001 and the program appeared as a regular series on October 3, 2002. According to Rosemary Wells on the Nick Jr. website, "Max & Ruby celebrates the relationship between Ruby and her younger brother, Max, and the universal nature of sibling relationships."[2]

Rosemary Wells, the author of the children's books the show is based on, says: "We don't see Max and Ruby's parents because I believe that kids resolve their issues and conflicts differently when they're on their own. The television series gives kids a sense about how these two siblings resolve their conflicts in a humorous and entertaining way."[3] For the first season, Jamie Whitney was the director, and the first episodes were mostly written by Kate Barris and Patrick Granleese. While some of the stories were adapted from the books, the number of TV episodes eventually surpassed the number of books written by Wells.

Katie Griffin was the voice of Ruby for season one, Samantha Morton took over the role and was the voice of Ruby until the second season. Billy Rosemberg was the voice of Max until the following season. In Season 3, Rebecca Peters replaced Samantha Morton as the voice of Ruby. In Season 4, Tyler Stevenson replaced Billy Rosemberg as the voice of Max.

A fifth season began December 10, 2011.[4]

The complete series can be found on the Canadian iTunes store.[5]

Overview

Each episode consists of three self-contained vignettes. Within each, Ruby is typically engaged in some sort of project or activity (which usually involves Max whether he's willing to participate or not), while Max has a particular interest of his own which either runs counter to his sister's or distracts her. Generally, Max's dialog within each story is usually limited to just one word or a two-word phrase, which he repeats periodically for the rest of the episode until the end, sometimes saying a different word (or on rare occasions a full sentence). Since he only uses the same word when communicating, what he is trying to say is often misinterpreted. By the end of the story, Max usually ends up helping Ruby in some way, to her benefit and delight, or outsmarts her when she is trying to restrict him. Their parents are never seen or mentioned although there is a family photo hanging in the entry room, however, their grandmother makes regular appearances.

Characters

Main characters

Max – A white rabbit who is Ruby's little brother. His typical role in every episode of the TV series is to come up with an idea or desire that conflicts with what Ruby wants. Ruby will try to talk him out of it, but Max will keep asking for what he wants, and will eventually find a way to outsmart Ruby and her friends. He usually says just one repeated word per episode to express his desire or idea, such as "faster", sometimes a phrase such as "bad egg", or even short sentences. This makes communicating with others difficult as they often misinterpret him. His best friend is Louise's cousin, Morris who acts as if he was Max's sidekick. Despite his young age, Max is quite smart and even able to read situations better than his sister. Though not actually a member of the Bunny Scouts, Max often helps his sister and her fellow bunny scouts with bunny scout activities and has helped his sister obtain several merit badges through his mischief and actions. In Ruby's Bunny Scout Parade, Ruby and Louise decide Max would make a perfect mascot as he fit the bunny scout manual's description of one, as he often brings them good luck when it comes to completing projects and obtaining merit badges. Since becoming the official mascot of Ruby's Bunny Scout troop, he often joins Ruby in Bunny Scout activities such as parades and camping trips in various episodes.

Ruby – A white rabbit and Max's older sister.[6] Her role in the TV series to try to talk Max out of an idea or desire he has. She is taller than Max and wears a yellow dress with flower patterns in seasons one and two, then switches to a pink dress in seasons three and four. She is over-protective of Max and will often persuade him to do something against his will because, according to her, "it's what's best for him". Because she is older, she often thinks she knows better than Max and at times incorrectly misjudges things or how people may react to something. She often has a romanticized or girlish view of things, which often causes her to come into conflict with Max, who sees things more simplistically and is more perceptive than her. She is also somewhat of a perfectionist when it comes to certain things and like things to be neat and tidy, which is in contrast with Max who is messy and generally untidy. She also has a bad habit of forcing Max to play a role in her and her friends (usually Louise) games when he wants to do something else or play a different game, such as in Baby Max when she in Louise force Max to play the role of a pretend "real baby" when Max simply wanted to play on the slide at the playground. However Ruby and her friends often underestimate Max's persistence in getting out of playing their game, such as in Baby Max when Ruby and Louise fell asleep due to failing to realize that taking care of even a pretend "real baby" is a lot of work, allowing Max to play on the slide without their interference. She likes to have tea parties, or regular parties with her dolls or friends or Grandma as guests. She is often bossy or even rude to Max, often losing patience with him, however, she does love him. Sometimes gets so caught up in her annoyance and frustration over Max's antics interfering in something she is trying to accomplish she fails to realizes that she has actually accomplished what she was trying to do, such in Ruby's Home Run when she succeeded in getting a home run while trying to chase down Max's remote controlled stealth bomber as his remote control planes had previously caused her to strike out twice, but didn't realize it until after she had calmed down. Other times she fails to realize her brother is trying to tell her something or misinterprets things due to his limited vocabulary. She is a member of the Bunny Scouts and often engages in Bunny Scout activities, such as earning merit badges, raising money, and functions. Though Max has repeatedly helped Ruby in obtaining various badges though his mischief and attempts to help her, she often dismisses Max's help and usually tries to keep him out of the way or rejects his attempts to help her and her fellow Bunny Scouts, though this is out of a desire to accomplish things or earn badges on her own merit. She is usually seen with at least one of her friends, often Louise. In order to try to correct Max's behavior, she will occasionally tell him various "Bunny tales" which feature Max, Ruby, Grandma, and their friends replacing central characters of classic fairy tales such as Little Red Riding Hood, Big Bad Wolf, Three Little Pigs, and the Three Bears. These "bunny tales" act as fables with a moral at the end that Ruby intends to teach a lesson, however usually backfire or give Max a different idea, for example when Ruby tells Max the story of Jack and the Beanstalk to get him to eat his beans, Max gets the idea to plant the beans in the backyard to grow a beanstalk instead. Some of the fairy tales have other minor alterations (for example the Giant does not appear in the story of Max and the Beanstalk).

Other characters

Grandma – Max and Ruby's grandmother. She likes to have fun and has an attic full of clothes and a treasure box that has a memory picture of herself and her husband (who has not made any physical appearances in the TV series) wearing some fancy clothes to a festival. She has gray fur, wears a blue dress and is frequently involved with her grandchildren. She loves her grandchildren equally but Max is often Grandma's confidant when she plans something special, since she knows Max can keep a secret. Even though Ruby believes that Grandma won't like Max's ideas she is always revealed to like both Max and Ruby's ideas equally, however she usually sides with Max when Max outsmarts Ruby and when Ruby assumes Grandma will love her ideas better than Max's. She is also depicted as being more patient and more pragmatic than Ruby is, for example in "Max's Bug Salad" she calmly convinces Max that a ladybug he had found would be much happier in the garden, where in contrast, Ruby had previously just put the ladybug back outside without any real discussion other than scolding her brother. She also shares Max's love of playing pirate as they are both depicted playing it in various episodes and like Ruby, she enjoys shopping and cooking.

Aunt Claire and Uncle Nate - Max and Ruby's aunt and uncle who Ruby mentions in "Max's Birthday". They end up sending Max a toy Wind-Up Lobster as a present for his birthday. To thank them for the Ruby planned to send them Thank You Cards, even though Max was less than pleased with his gift at first, though eventually he grew to like it and decided to keep it. Neither of them appear in the episode and are only mentioned by Ruby.

Louise (voiced by Julie Lemieux) – A tan rabbit who is Ruby's best friend. She likes to have fun and has a cousin named Morris who is friends with Max, and Morris also manages to be more clever than her. She is also known for liking to attend parties and events like Max's birthday, and beach parties. She has auburn fur and wears a green tartan dress. Physically, she looks similar to Ruby except she's slightly taller. She tends to view things in the same girlishly romanticized way Ruby does, but is more open to other ideas. She also shares Ruby's inability to understand typical boyish interests like toy cars. She also has the same girlish infatuation with Roger that Ruby does, though this doesn't get in the way of their friendship. She sometimes isn't sure about Ruby's ideas but decides to help her out anyway and mostly decides to join her in her ideas. Even though Morris is her cousin, she treats him more like a little brother.

Morris (voiced By Cameron Ansell) – Max's best friend and Louise's cousin, though she acts more like an older sister to him. He doesn't know how to talk as well as Max. Upon their first meeting, he was unfriendly towards Max, but they quickly became friends and takes on the role of Max's sidekick, going along with whatever Max is doing. Like Max he is a big fan of Super Bunny and often pretends he is Zoom-Zoom, Super Bunny's faithful sidekick when playing Super Bunny with Max.

Valerie (voiced by Alexis Walla) - A friend of Ruby's, she is brown, wears a red and gold dress, has glasses and is shorter than Ruby and her other friends. She is very talented at playing the recorder and is in Bunny Scouts with Ruby, Louise, and Martha.

Martha (voiced by Tabitha St. Germain) - A friend of Ruby's; however she is not seen as often as Louise or Valerie. She goes to, and is usually seen, at Bunny Scouts with Ruby, Louise, and Valerie, but sometimes joins them when playing. She has gold fur and is the only one of Ruby's friends with eyelashes.

The Huffingtons – A family consisting of Mrs. Huffington, Mr. Huffington, and Baby Huffington. Mrs. Huffington is a talented Baton twirler and cheerleader, and she taught Ruby and Louise how to twirl batons and is one of the new Bunny Scout leaders since the episode "Max's Nightlight", though considering her mother is Bunny Scout Leader, it is likely that she was a Bunny Scout in her youth and has since become a scout leader as an adult. Mr. Huffington is shown with various jobs, he has appeared as a clown and a photographer. Ruby is Baby Huffington's babysitter, with Max often tagging along and helping. Contrary to what Ruby believes, Baby Huffington enjoys noise and loves Max's noisy toys like his Green Alien Gorilla and Good Morning Macaw. Baby Huffington is sometimes called Baby H for short. During one episode Max helps Ruby discover that the secret to getting Baby H to fall asleep is the Huffington's Cuckoo Clock. He seems to like space rockets, robots, and Super Bunny. Due to their similar interests and likes, Max often proves to be a great help to Ruby when she is babysitting Baby H. Emily Scott voices Mrs. Huffington, John Torres voices Mr. Huffington, and Joshua Savage performs Baby Huffington's sounds.

Bunny Scout Leader (Voiced By Sarah Adams) – The leader of the Bunny Scouts, to which Ruby, Louise, Martha, and Valerie are members. She is seen infrequently, usually testing the girls to earn badges. Ruby and her fellow respect her and Ruby has been known to mention things that she has learned from her, like in Max Get Wet when she tells Max that Bunny Scout Leader taught her to wait 1/2 hour after eating before swimming to avoid getting a cramp. She is Mrs. Huffington's mother, Mr. Huffington's Mother-in-law, and is baby Huffington's grandmother.

The Piazzas – A family who owns and operates the Market, consisting of Roger and Mr. Piazza. Roger's mother has never been seen. Roger is "almost seven and a half" years old.[7] Roger is athletically gifted and participates in a variety of sport. He treats Max like a little brother and is into basketball, football, sledding, hockey, and toy racing cars (to Ruby and Louise's dismay). Roger has a cameo in the episode "Max's Rocket Run" where he sleds down the biggest sledding hill, Rocket Run with a large group of bunnies, three days after Christmas which is his first appearance. Louise and Ruby are infatuated with him. In the first two seasons he says only "Uh-huh" and "Uh-uh", but speaks completely in season three, season four, and season five. He often helps his father at his store and helps out with Max and Ruby's projects such as in Max Saves the Parade. In later episodes, Ruby often has Roger babysit her brother in order to distract Max by teaching him how to play various sports in order to keep Max from interfering with her and her friends' various games and projects. Jamie Watson voices Mr. Piazza, and Robert Hall voices Roger.

Candi (voiced by Carolyn Hennesy) – Owner of the candy shop in . Ruby has worked in her store and visits her occasionally. Due to Max's love of sweets, he is quite fond of Candi as well as the sweets she makes and sells such as her Candy Apples. Besides candy, Candi's shop is shown to occasionally sell simple toys such as vampire teeth in Bunny Money.

Rosalinda (voiced by Anne Hill) - Owner of a gift shop that sells jewelry and collectibles and a friend of Max and Ruby's grandmother. She has a pet Parrot named Pandora. In Ruby's Autograph, it is revealed she also runs the dance studio that Ruby attends and in the past was the famous Ballerina Bunny Pavlova's dance teacher when she lived in East Bunny Hoop.

Katie (voiced by Yvonne Craig) - Waitress at the diner in East Bunnyhop.

Wind-Up Lobster - A wind-up Lobster toy that was one of Max's birthday presents in Max's Birthday, from his and Ruby's Aunt Claire and Uncle Nate which Max didn't like at first though after having fun being chased by it he finds he likes it and decides to keep it. After this it appears in various episodes. Despite being just a wind-up toy, it has an odd habit of causing trouble and as a result often plays the role of antagonist in Max's games and even in some episodes, albeit as an animate object that causes trouble, though it is often depicted peeking around corners menacingly like a stereotypical villain. Max simply refers to it as Lobster. In Detective Ruby, several of Ruby's things go missing and she plays detective to solve the mystery though Max realizes that his Lobster is responsible and tries to tell Ruby, but she thinks he just wants her to join him playing with his Lobster. In The Boy who Cried Lobster, Max is blamed for damaging Ruby's cake when it was actually caused by Max's Lobster and when Max tries to tell Ruby the truth, she doesn't believe him and ends up telling him a bunny tale of The Boy Who Cried Wolf, however after Ruby finishes the story, she sees the Lobster damage her cake, and realizes Max was telling the truth all along. In Ruby's Jigsaw Puzzle, it steals a piece from Ruby's ballerina jigsaw puzzle and Max tries to chase it down to retrieve it for Ruby, but Ruby unaware of the theft interferes in her attempts to get Max to leave her alone, though eventually she discovers the theft and together they manage to catch it. Despite all the trouble it causes, sometimes it can prove to be helpful such as in Ruby's Tent when its claw gets stuck on a rope of Ruby's tent, pulling up the tent allowing Valerie to pin the rope down with a peg, allowing her and Ruby to earn their tent merit badge.

Super Bunny - Max's favorite Super Hero. Max has a Super Bunny comic book and Super Bunny pajamas, and often listens to Super Bunny radio program. In Ruby's New Shoes, Max wants to meet Super Bunny who is appearing at the local mall, but Ruby wants to find a new pair of shoes. In the end, Max and Super Bunny save Ruby from a falling stack of shoe boxes and Ruby finds a pair of new shoes in one of the boxes that fell. Max also enjoys emulating Super Bunny as Super Max.

Zoom-Zoom - Super Bunny's faithful sidekick. When playing Super Bunny with Max, Morris plays the role of Zoom-Zoom.

Bunny Pavlova - A famous ballerina who Ruby idolizes. Pavlova was raised in East Bunnyhop (where Max and Ruby live) and attended Rosalinda's dance studio. She is first mentioned by Grandma in Sugarplum Max and appears in Ruby's Autograph. In Sugarplum Max, Grandma mentions having once seen Pavlova perform the Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy when complimenting Ruby and Louise after they managed to perform it (with a little "help" from Max). In Ruby's Autograph, she returns to East Bunnyhop to visit her old friends such as Candy, Mr. Piazza, and her former dance teacher, Rosalinda. She is shown to likes Lemon Drop Candy, Bananas, and Pizza. Ruby who is a huge fan of Pavlova was determined to get Pavlova's Autograph and ignored Max when he sees Pavlova and tries to inform Ruby, who mistakenly believes he is pestering Ruby because he wants to have Pizza at Katie's dinner. However fortunately when Ruby gives up her search for Pavlova, she finds that Pavlova had stopped at the diner to have some pizza as well and Ruby manages to finally meet her idol. Ruby and Pavlova briefly dance together and Ruby finally gets her idol's autograph, thanks to Max.

Pets and animal friends

Ant Farm Ants - Ants that live in Max's Ant Farm. Due to Max's childish carelessness they have a habit of escaping their Ant Farm though Ruby appears used to it and it doesn't usually bother her as in Max Remembers indicates this is due to the fact they can be easily lead back to their Ant Farm. However, in Max's Ant Farm, Ruby is shown to fear Max's escaped ants will ruin the party she is hosting and has Max return them to their Ant Farm while she distracts her friends with party games and other party activities. However it the end Ruby discovers her opinion that her friends would not like Max's ants were unfounded as her friends were actually quite fond of Max's Ant Farm which they found fascinating.

Crab - A mischievous beach crab which Max calls Crab that appears in Getting Crabby at the Beach. While Max and Ruby are collecting seashells at the beach, Crab keeps stealing Ruby's seashells and Max tries to tell Ruby but she ignores him when she doesn't see the crab at first. Eventually Ruby and Max find that Crab has been stealing their seashells to build a tidal pool.

East Bunnyhop Bill - A local groundhog who predicts the coming of spring in East Bunnyhop every Groundhog Day (a parody of Punxsutawney Phil) that appears in Max and Ruby's Groundhog Day. Max simply refers to him as Groundhog. While everyone is gathered around the hole of Bill's burrow to wait his arrival, Max spots him peaking it he out of another hole and tries to inform Ruby and the others members of the community they are looking at the wrong hole. It isn't until Ruby reads that Groundhogs may have multiple burrows holes does she realize that Max has been trying to tell them that Bill has been using a different hole to exit its burrow.

Froggy - A little frog that lives in a waterway between Max and Ruby's home and their Grandma's house that is one of Max's animal friends. He appears in Max's Froggy Friend, Ruby's Easter Bonnet, Surprise Ruby, Max Drives Away, Max's Train Ride, and The Froggy Prince.

Goldfish - A goldfish that was one of the prizes at Mr. Huffington's Basketball Toss at East Bunnyhop's Penny Carnival in Ruby's Penny Carnival. Ruby was determined to win it though Max wanted to play other games forcing her to give Max's some of their carnival tickets. While Ruby kept failing to win the Goldfish, Max manages to win various prizes playing other carnival games. Ruby ultimately manages to win the Goldfish after Max bumps into her while wearing a space helmet prize he had just won. Ruby was overjoyed to win her goldfish but realized she didn't have a place to keep it, though fortunately they were able to make the goldfish a home using Max's various prizes: Max's Space Helmet became the fish's fishbowl, Max's bag of marbles to line the bottom of its fish bowl and Max's pirate ship made a perfect sunken ship for the fishbowl.

Hoppy - Max's grasshopper friend who appears in Max's Grasshopper and ends up becoming part of Ruby's Bunny Scout measuring science project after she and Louise discover he jumps much higher after he eats some of Ruby's bean plants. Unlike most of Max's animal friends, Hoppy was named by Ruby.

Lizard - The Bunny Scout's chameleon which Max calls Lizard, which Ruby and Louise build a terrarium for in Max's Lost Lizard. While Ruby and Louise are distracted by their project, Lizard escapes its box and Max tries to tell Ruby and Louise but their assume he just wants to look at the chameleon and ignore his attempts to tell them and so Max follows it around the house and becomes fascinated by its ability to change colors and ends up stealing various materials Ruby is using for the terrarium. Eventually Ruby and Louise discover the Lizard is missing and tell Max to put the leaves he had taken in the terrarium while they look for it, unaware that Lizard is on the green leaves due to its camouflaged. Max puts the leaves and Lizard in the terrarium and Bunny Scout Leader comes to check on the terrarium and assumes that Ruby and Louise had just assumed it had escaped cause they couldn't see the chameleon due to its camouflage and points it out to them that it is just blending in with the leaves inside its terrarium.

Pandora - Rosalinda's pet parrot that Ruby tries to teach to talk as part of a project in Ruby's Parrot Project.

Stick - A walking stick insect which Max calls Stick that appears in Ruby Gets the Picture. While Ruby and Louise were looking for an unusual insect to take a picture of for their Bunny Scout Insect Expert Badge, Max finds Stick and tries to tell Ruby and Louise about it but they think it is just an ordinary stick unable to tell it is an insect due to its camouflaged appearance and they get annoyed by his attempts to show it to them which interfere with them trying to take pictures of various other insects such as a horned beetle, a centipede, and a spotted swallowtail butterfly. Eventually Max gets Louise to accidentally take a picture of it with its eyes open and Bunny Scout Leader appears and informs them that they have found a walking stick insect causing both Ruby and Louise to realize Max was trying to help them find an unusual looking insect all along.

Episodes

International versions

Max and Ruby on stage

Max & Ruby Live (Our Favorite Things) is a live touring show of the series' two stars.

A musical version of Max and Ruby, entitled Max and Ruby, is produced by Theatreworks USA and tours the United States. The show was written by Carol Hall and Glen Berger.

Broadcast

Max & Ruby is broadcast in the United States on Nickelodeon and Nick Jr.. In Canada, the series airs on Nickelodeon Canada and Treehouse TV. The series is also shown in the United Kingdom on Nick Jr. and Nick Jr. 2. In India, the series airs on Nick Jr.. In Norway Max and Ruby airs on NRK Super and In Israel the series airs on הופ! (Hop!) and in France the series airs on Nickelodeon Junior and In Finland the series airs on Yle TV2 and Nick Jr. (Finland).

References

  1. ↑ Nick, Jr., About Max & Ruby
  2. ↑ Nick, Jr., Meet Rosemary Wells
  3. ↑ "Meet the Creator of Max & Ruby". nickjr.com. Nick Jr. Retrieved February 18, 2013.
  4. ↑ http://www.9story.com/site/showMaxRuby-s5.php
  5. ↑ https://itunes.apple.com/ca/tv-season/max-ruby-the-complete-series/id821649564
  6. ↑ "Max and Ruby". Retrieved June 23, 2013.
  7. ↑ Roger's age was stated in the episode "Roger's Choice"

External links

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