Henry's Amazing Animals (more commonly known as
Amazing Animals) is an educational children's nature program originally broadcast on the
Disney Channel in 1996.
The show centers around the interactions of its CGI protagonist, a day gecko with green skin and purple spots named "Henry the Lizard", and an unseen, unnamed human narrator. Each episode centers on a specific theme relating to the episode's subject matter, (such as Henry traveling through prehistory in a time machine during an episode about Prehistoric Animals.) In a typical episode, Henry is usually faced with some kind of predicament or work that Henry is doing (always relating to the episode's theme), which is resolved by the end of the episode, often learning a lesson of some sort in the process.
The preceding description comes from
The Other Wiki.
This series includes examples of:- The Board Game: Believe it or not. It didn't last that long, though.
- Catch Phrase: Several.
- "Excuse me, that's amazing!"
- "And that's straight from the lizard's mouth! So did I get an A or what?"
- "It's time for your report."
- "And now, ladies and gentle-lizards, it's time for Henry's Amazing Golden Gecko Awards!"
- "Oh, I do love when you're precise."
- Continuity Nod: In episodes aired after Seashore Animals, Henry's crab Tuesday becomes an occasional recurring character.
- Deadpan Snarker: Henry. And the narrator towards him sometimes.
- Excited Kids Show Host: Henry falls under type 3.
- Interactive Narrator: The narrator and Henry consistently talk to each other and make a few jabs at each others' expense.
- Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Henry.
- Lame Pun Reaction: The way the narrator reacts to most of Henry's jokes.
- Leitmotif: A Mickey Mousing-esque bass beat for when Henry is moving, as well as the intro theme during certain animal lectures.
- Medium Blending: Most of the time, the scene is blank white, sometimes with CGI objects and scenery, alongside CGI Henry and live-action animals. However, every episode involves animated, comedic shorts involving cartoon animals that loosely tie in the episode's theme.
- Once per Episode: Henry's report and "Henry's Amazing Golden Gecko Awards".
- Shout Out: Henry manages to reference The Bee Gees in a spot about the jacana.
- "The passenger pigeons decided there was no place left for them on Earth. So they built spaceships, and went to seek out new worlds, boldly going where no pigeon had gone before!"
- "Seashore Animals" had many references to Robinson Crusoe, including Henry adopting a crab named Tuesday, named after Friday from the novel.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Henry.
- Something Completely Different: One episode ("Scaly Animals") had Henry saying the title card (interrupting the narrator in the process) and doing most of the narrating for the episode, while the narrator did the "special report" (even screwing it up intentionally to get back at Henry). The episode also ended in a musical number, unusual for the show.
- Straight Man and Wise Guy: The narrator is the straight man, and Henry is the wise guy.
- Talking Animal: Henry.
- Unreliable Narrator: The focus of an entire segment of each episode, where Henry clearly didn't do any research for his report and explains 'facts' about animals that are clearly false (such as passenger pigeons building flying saucers and leaving Earth, or basking sharks being island-eating, cold-blooded killers). The Narrator has to step in at the end to explain the truth.
- The Voiceless: The characters of said cartoon shorts.
1 reviews