Avenger Penguins

Avenger Penguins is a British animated series produced by Cosgrove Hall Productions (Season 1)/Cosgrove Hall Films (Season 2) for Granada Television, with Thames International holding worldwide distribution rights. The series broadcast on Children's ITV for two seasons from 1993 to 1994.

The show has the distinction of being the last Cosgrove Hall production to be animated using hand-painted animation cels, and the last production not only to be produced by the studio under the name, Cosgrove Hall Productions but also under Thames' ownership and distribution. Series 2 was one of the first two productions produced under the rebranding, Cosgrove Hall Films. All 2D animated series from the studio thereafter would use computers for the ink and paint process; with the animation, drawings scanned and then digitally coloured.

Details
The story revolves around three bike-riding Penguins that inhabit Big City, uniting to protect it and its citizens from the evil Caractacus P. Doom, an insane and reclusive criminal scientist. The Penguins attempt to prevent Doom's schemes but find themselves often hampered by their own miscommunicating and occasional scraps with other biker gangs infesting Big City, such as The Stink Brothers, a canine squad of Hell's Angels.

The cast, like Danger Mouse, Count Duckula and Victor and Hugo: Bunglers in Crime had with David Jason, boasted a star talent in a major role, this time in the form of American comedian Mike McShane as the Penguin's un-coordinated but brash leader Marlon, as well as the villainous Doom. To show how the series was mocking the often rushed animation style of the original TMNT series, two supporting characters are known as "The Badly Drawn Brothers" were always left with the design construction lines still showing out of deliberate neglect.

Pop culture references were found in abundance in many of the episodes and in the characters. Doom himself is patterned on an elderly Orson Welles, Harry Slime (who talks like Peter Lorre) in the meantime is based somewhat on Harry Lime, a character from the movie The Third Man. The Season 2 episode, "The 23rd Century" also served as a parody of Star Trek, and of science fiction in general.

Voice cast

 * Marlon: Mike McShane
 * Rocky: Rob Rackstraw
 * Bluey: Jimmy Hibbert
 * Bella: Jimmy Hibbert
 * Caractacus P. Doom: Mike McShane
 * Harry Slime: Jimmy Hibbert
 * Various other characters: Mike McShane, Rob Rackstraw, Jimmy Hibbert and Lorelei King.
 * Theme song vocalist: Paul Young

Development
The series was originally going to be called Hell's Penguins, although was it renamed out of concern for how the religious audience in the US would respond. 26 episodes aired from 1993 to 1994.

The series' animation was outsourced to Alfonso Productions, a Spanish-based animation studio also responsible for bringing Cosgrove Hall's shows Count Duckula, Victor and Hugo: Bunglers in Crime, Fantomcat, Sooty's Amazing Adventures and The Foxbusters to life, and in-house by Cosgrove Hall themselves.

As with most Cosgrove Hall cartoons, the series poked fun at the popular concepts of having creatures performing inhuman action feats and stunts in an animated medium, made popular by the then enormously successful Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise. The core of the show's theme is coincidentally similar to Biker Mice from Mars.

DVD releases
The entire series was released on a three-disc DVD box set in March 2006 by Delta Entertainment.

The entire series was released on a three-disc DVD box set in March 2006 by Delta Leisure Group PLC and Fremantle Media.

VHS releases
During the show's original run, Avenger Penguins episodes were released on 3 VHS titles from Thames Video and Arena Home Entertainment, often in a different sequence than that when televised.

In Australia, there were six videos from Reel Entertainment releasing all the episodes of series 1 and one episode of series 2. Each of them contained 2 episodes.