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Main Characters
Spot Helperman/Scott Leadready II
"I wanna be a boy!"
Click here to see Spot as Scott Leadready II
- Voiced by: Nathan Lane (English, season one, some episodes of season two and the movie), Kevin Schon (English, the rest of Season two episodes and singing voice in some episodes), Luis Alfonso Mendoza (Latin American Spanish)
Spot is the main character of the show. A witty, sarcastic and clever dog, he dresses up and masquerades as a boy named Scott Leadready II and goes to school with his master and best friend, Leonard. He will often quote a saying or give a history lesson at the end of each episode as part of the episode’s moral.
- The Ace: He is often shown to be the best student in Mrs. Helperman's class.
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: He is a blue dog.
- Big Brother Instinct: An Averted Trope example, Spot is a "big brother" figure to Leonard, and he is very protective towards Leonard should anything threaten to the latter.
- Blue Is Heroic: He has blue fur and is the protagonist of the series.
- Cartoon Dog Breed: A blue dog with a pale blue muzzle, dark blue ears, and a classic black spot in the middle of his back. He's whatever breed of dog can walk and talk like a human.
- Chick Magnet: He is always popular among his classmates, especially the girls (Leslie and Younghee, the former likes him the most besides Leonard).
- Civilized Animal: Is able to go to school and disguise himself as a human student, but other than that he behaves like and is treated like a normal dog.
- Daytime Drama Queen: It is implied that he used join Mr. Jolly and Pretty Boy in watching soaps and game shows before the events of the series.
- Deadpan Snarker: He tends to be very sarcastic and has a dry wit from time to time.
- Didn't Think This Through: A Fatal Flaw throughout the movie.
- The plot is about how Spot goes to Dr. Krank in order to become a human. When he does change him into one, completely ignoring that Krank is a wacko who wants everyone to see his experiments succeed by any means, so chances are that he would want to keep Spot as proof.
- He didn’t consider the fact that his friends and Leonard’s mom would wonder where Spot and Scott Leadready are, since he’s now a grown human adult.
- When Leonard kicks him out, he doesn’t have anywhere to go, since he doesn’t know the first thing about true adulthood and has lived life as a pet his whole life.
- Fully-Dressed Cartoon Animal: When he's in his Scott Leadready disguise.
- Insufferable Genius: Scott can be a bit smug, preachy and a show-off every now and then.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Whether he’s in or out of disguise, Spot sometimes does things that get Leonard in trouble. However, Spot and Leonard are true friends and are loyal to one another.
- Keet: A dog is always playful, impulsive and a bit of a show-off.
- Large Ham: Tends to exaggerate when things go awry. What else would you expect from a dog played by Nathan Lane?
- Line-of-Sight Alias: He goes by Scott when dressed as a human because Mary-Lou Helperman misheard him as saying his name was Scott, coming up with his human identity's surname from noticing that Mary-Lou Helperman was using a Leadready brand number two pencil.
- Mr. Imagination: Spot frequently lets his imagination run wild.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The braggy, show-offy, mischievous Red to Leonard's Blue.
- Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The manly man to Leonard's shy, timid, warmhearted Sensitive Guy.
- Smart People Wear Glasses: As Scott Leadready II, though he's pretty smart even without his glasses.
- Wise Beyond Their Years: He is much wiser, even wiser than his (dog) years.
Leonard Helperman
"Why can't I be a normal kid, like any other?"
- Voiced by: Shaun Fleming (English), Claudio Velázquez (Latin American Spanish)
Spot's human owner and best friend. He is not very popular at school because his mother is the teacher, and is often ridiculed and taunted for embarrassment. He knows of Spot’s charade and, while wishes he would remain his dog at home, he allows him to continue his alias as his school friend.
- Berserk Button: Leonard loses his patience when Spot decides to become his stepdad in order to stay with him.
- Big "NO!": Leonard reacts this way when he finds out Scott is actually his dog in the first episode. Second time in the movie when Dr. Krank is about to transform Spot into a human.
- The Cutie: Leonard is Spot's shy, bookish and meek master who just wants to fit in with the others.
- Disappeared Dad: Leonard's father's disappearance is never brought up in the series, leaving fans to question if he died or got divorced from Leonard's mom before the events of the series.
- Extreme Doormat: Leonard is an easy target for the bullies only. An example in "Movin' On Pup", he is picked on by the three fifth graders, who dump him into the trash can and roll it (with Leonard inside) across the playground. Scott pities the poor Leonard who walks away crying. Even worse, in "Bad Fur Day", Leonard is easily recognized and mocked mercilessly by his classmates due to his horrible haircut.
- Fat Best Friend: Type B
- The Heart: He’s what keeps the main cast from falling apart.
- Like Mother, Unlike Son: Leonard is introverted, bashful and timid while his mother Mary-Lou is dynamic, perky and has a sense of humor.
- The McCoy: Combined with The Heart.
- Morality Pet: Serves this to Spot/Scott.
- Nice Guy: Leonard is generally kind, sweet, friendly and moralistic.
- Puppy Love: Has a crush on his best friend, Leslie.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The shy, melancholic Blue to Spot/Scott's Red Oni
- Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The sensitive guy to Spot's fun-loving, outgoing, sociable Manly Man
- The Scapegoat: Leonard sometimes gets blamed for things that are obviously Spot/Scott's fault. Even when his Scott explains it was really him, nobody believes him.
- Secret-Keeper: He's the only human character (until Dr. Krank and Ian in the movie) to know Scott's secret. And like said before, he does wish that he'd give up the act and just be a regular dog, but tolerates it because of how much it means to him to be a boy.
- Shrinking Violet: Leonard is timid, and shy around Leslie who he loves. He also can't talk around Leslie.
- Straight Man: When it comes to Scott's schemes.
- Vocal Evolution: Leonard's voice got a little lower as the show went on, as he was voiced by an actual kid. His voice actor, Shaun Fleming, was twelve when production began in 1999 and was sixteen when production on the movie was completed in 2003.
Mary Lou Helperman
"Now, doodle-bug, listen to mother!"
- Voiced by: Debra Jo Rupp (English), Andrea Coto (Latin American Spanish)
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parent: She does this to her son Leonard, even in school.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Mary Lou may act all cutesy and sweet most of the time, but even she has limits to how nice she can be. Sometimes she'll shift into a Stepford Smiler before she finally has enough, though she doesn't necessarily go berserk.
- Embarrassing Relative Teacher: As stated above, she is both Leonard's mother and his teacher, plus she embarrasses him a lot.
- Genki Girl: She’s a silly and enthusiastic teacher who is coming up with weird projects.
- Glamorous Single Mother: She is a single mother to Leonard, and she is very pretty.
- Like Mother, Unlike Son: Mary-Lou is extroverted, funny, and cheerful while her son Leonard is bashful, introverted and timid.
- Nice Girl: Very nice, caring, overprotective, loving and does her best to do things good.
- Overly Long Name: Her full name is Mary-Lou Moira Angela Darling Helperman.
- Redhead In Green: She has red hair and wears a green cardigan.
Mr. Jolly
"Oh, this is bad! This is very bad!"
- Voiced by: David Ogden Stiers (English), César Filio (Latin American Spanish)
- Camp Straight: He's a flamboyant and effeminate cat, but is shown to have a crush on Principal Strickler's cat Tallulah and also falls for a female cat named Ms. Regina Blubberina Fancypaws in the episode "Bad Fur Day".
- Cats Are Mean: Averted. Mr. Jolly is more neurotic than malicious.
- Daytime Drama Queen: Since he and Pretty Boy are alone at home while Mary Lou, Leonard, and Scott are at school, they spend the daytime period watching game shows and soaps.
- Lovable Coward: Cute but a scaredy-cat.
- Nervous Wreck: He has a tendency to get very uptight.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue to Pretty Boy's cranky, irritable Red Oni
- Those Two Guys: Him and Pretty Boy fill this position to a T. They're usually around one another and one is almost never seen without the other.
Pretty Boy
"I ain't no fairy."
- Voiced by: Jerry Stiller (English), Ricardo Hill (Latin American Spanish)
- Covert Pervert: In "Being Mrs. Leadready", one of the things he demands from Spot in exchange for assisting him in pretending to be Scott Leadready II and Mrs. Leadready all at once is for his cage to be lined with the teeny weenie bikini issue of a sports magazine.
- Daytime Drama Queen: See Mr. Jolly.
- Deadpan Snarker: He's a loud-mouthed, sarcastic, bossy canary.
- Exposed Animal Bellybutton: Has one despite being a bird, a species which wouldn't have one in real life (since they aren't mammals)
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He tends to be a pretty big jerk to everyone in general, but he's definitely not one to leave those he cares about in danger and is indeed, a friend to the end.
- Joisey: He speaks with a pronounced New Jersey accent.
- The Napoleon: Small in size, but prone to anger.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to Mr. Jolly's paranoid, cowardly Blue Oni
- Those Two Guys: With Mr. Jolly.
- Toothy Bird: Not only does he have a full set of chompers, but he also always dons a toothpick in his beak.
Fala D. Roosevelt Elementary School
Leslie Dunkling
- Voiced by: Mae Whitman (English), Alondra Hidalgo (Latin American Spanish)
Leonard’s best friend and crush. She lives next door to the Helpermans and is very kind.
- Berserk Button: She doesn't like it when people are mean to her, or say mean things behind her back, or even worse, bullies. Plus, she doesn't like liars.
- Beware the Nice Ones: She's obviously a nice girl in Leonard's class, still she has limits, so don't push her too far.
- The Cutie: A sweet, innocent young girl.
- The Heart
- Girl Next Door: She lives next to the Helperman family and is very sweet.
- Nice Girl: She's very kind and caring, she knows a lot of facts, and she treats others nicely by who they are and not how popular they are.
- Puppy Love: She doesn't know Leonard likes her and yet she still cares deeply for him.
- Spoiled Sweet: She lives with her doting, wealthy parents, and she is extremely pampered, sweet and caring.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: The sweet, friendly Girly Girl to her best friend Younghee's Tomboy.
- Wise Beyond Their Years: She's much more mature than Leonard, as compared to Spot/Scott.
- Women Are Wiser: Probably the only one in Mrs. Helperman’s class with common sense and maturity, but thankfully, not enough sense to know that Scott Leadready is not human.
Younghee Mandlebom
- Voiced by: Lauren Tom (English), Lupita Leal (Latin American Spanish)
Leslie’s hotheaded Korean-American best friend. She is mean to Leonard and likes to make fun of him.
- Green and Mean: Why, obviously, of course. Her skin is green and she bullies Leonard.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She's usually mean to Leonard, but even at her meanest, she never does any bodily harm to Leonard and is shown to actually care for him on numerous occasions. The Valentine's Day Episode even reveals that she has feelings for him.
- Little Miss Snarker: Just about every episode has her make at least one snarky comment.
- Spell My Name With An S: The Disney+ closed captions have her as Yung-Hi.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: The hot-headed, saucy, sports-loving Tomboy to Leslie's sweet, kind, cheerleader Girly Girl.
Chelsey and Kelsey
- Voiced by: Cree Summer (English), Lupita Leal (Chelsey, Latin American Spanish), Alondra Hidalgo (Kelsey, Latin American Spanish)
Twin sisters who often gossip in class.
- Demotedto Extra: While this is the fate of all Leonard and Scott's classmates in the movie (save for Ian), they probably have it the worst as the only non-background characters who don't get any lines at all.
- Expy: Due to being twins voiced by Cree Summer, they are similar to Vanessa and Tessa James.
- Theme Twin Naming: They are obviously twins with rhyming names.
Tyler, Taylor and Trevor
- Voiced by: Pamela Adlon (English), Gaby Cárdenas (Tyler and Trevor, Latin American Spanish), Pablo Vázquez (Taylor, Latin American Spanish)
Three of the coolest kids in school are classmates of Scott Leadready II, who they are friends with. They are more of frenemies with Leonard, as they are sometimes seen tolerating his presence since Scott's arrival, but also look down on him and occasionally bully him due to his insecurities about his mom being the teacher.
- The Dividual: Of the Syndividual variety. Diverse appearances and some minor personality traits aside, these three typically act as a unit and rarely show signs of individuality.
Principal Crosby Strickler
- Voiced by: Wallace Shawn (English), Jesse Conde (Latin American Spanish)
The principal at Spot and Leonard’s school who hates dogs.
- Dean Bitterman: Your average straight-laced, strict school principal who runs a tight ship.
- Expy: Due to the same voice actor and personality, he is similar to Principal Mazur.
- Fingore: He is missing half of his thumb because it got bitten off by a dog when he was in the fourth grade.
- Freudian Excuse: His hatred of dogs is suggested in the first episode to be the result of getting half of his thumb bitten off by a dog brought to school when he was in the fourth grade.
- Large Ham: Like any character played by Wallace Shawn.
Ian Wazselewski
- Voiced by: Rob Paulsen
The resident dweeb of Leonard's school, who is disliked by everyone else for his gross habits.
- Abhorrent Admirer: He has a crush on his classmate Ruth, and the feeling is demonstrably not mutual.
- Asian and Nerdy: He’s Tibetan and is a total dweeb.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Everyone hates Ian and he’s considered an outcast because he does disgusting and gross things.
- Gag Nose: His honker is quite huge.
- Hidden Depths: Ian is shown to be a great computer hacker and he uses this skill to help free Scott and Leonard in the movie.
- Nerd Glasses: He's a geek and he wears glasses.
- Nightmare Fetishist: In the movie, he calls to tell his parents how scary and unpleasant it is staying at his uncle's place. When his parents suggest he come home, Ian refuses and states that he actually likes being at his uncle's.
- The Pig-Pen: Tidy and hygienic he isn't.
- Spell My Name With An S: The Disney+ closed captions on the series give his last name as "Wazaloseky".
Movie Characters
Dr. Ivan Krank
- Voiced by: Kelsey Grammer
- Animorphism: He ends up turned into a mouse.
- Bald of Evil: What little hair he has on his head is located at his temples.
- Beard of Evil: He has a goatee.
- Berserk Button:
- He really doesn't like his creations Dennis and Adelle calling him "Daddy".
- What really sets him off is being called a wacko.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: It doesn't stop him from grounding him for letting Spot get away, but he is shown to be happy to see his nephew Ian when he first sees him.
- Evil Uncle: He is apparently the uncle of Spot and Leonard's classmate Ian.
- Freudian Excuse: He was picked on all his life for having a large head and resents everyone for dismissing him as crazy.
- Mad Scientist: He's a demented scientist who wishes to turn animals into human beings.
- My Brain Is Big: He has an enormous cranium to signify his vast intelligence.
- They Called Me Mad!: His main motivation is to disprove everyone's assertions that he is a lunatic.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Dennis and Adele love him like family, but the feeling is not mutual.
- Villain Song: He sings "I am I, Ivan Krank", where he describes his unpleasant upbringing and his desire to get back at everyone who called him crazy by turning Spot into a human.
- Would Hurt a Child: He plots to use Leonard as his next subject after Spot escapes, not caring how the boy might feel.
Dennis and Adelle
- Voiced by: Paul Reubens (Dennis), Megan Mullally (Adelle)
- Bumbling Henchmen Duo: They're Dr. Ivan Krank's two main lackeys and are both idiots.
- Half-Human Hybrid: They are the failed results of some of Dr. Krank's attempts at turning animals into humans, with Dennis originally being an alligator and Adelle originally being a mosquito.
- Minion with an F in Evil: They're both too dim-witted and amiable to be competent henchmen for Dr. Krank.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Dennis is huge and Adelle is tiny.
