The Wombles is a series of six British children's stories published across the late 1960s through the 1970s by author Elisabeth Beresford, comprising five short novels and an anthology of short stories. The series is perhaps better remembered for the Stop Motion Animated Adaptation that aired in 1973-1975.
The stories concern themselves with the titular Wombles; a race of small, ecologically-friendly, vaguely animalistic humanoids who dwell in large underground communities scattered around the world. Naturally averse to rubbish and mess, they have dedicated themselves to the endless task of clearing up the rubbish left behind by an oblivious humanity, battling pollution and trying to enjoy themselves in the process. The specific focus is on a single Womble clan that inhabits London — originally, they inhabit Wimbledon Common, but in the second novel, The Wandering Wombles, they are forced to move out of their original burrow, with a small contingent remaining in a previously disused smaller burrow in the common and the rest moving to a larger but also abandoned old burrow under Hyde Park. It isn't until the penultimate novel, The Wombles to the Rescue, that the original Wimbledom Common burrow is resettled.
The six published Wombles titles are:
- The Wombles (1968)
- The Wandering Wombles (1970)
- The Wombles at Work (1973)
- The Invisible Womble and Other Stories (1973)
- The Wombles to the Rescue (1974)
- The Wombles Go Round the World (1976)
This series includes examples of:
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Adaptation Displacement: The 1973 Stop Motion cartoon was so iconic it even prompted a redesign of the art in the books to match the cartoon's depiction of the Wombles. - Cartoon Critter: In the original iteration of the first two novels, the Wombles are described as resembling living teddy-bears with mole-like claws and only slightly smaller than an adult man. The cartoon reinterpreted them differently, with big human-like feet, mole-like claws, a hedgehog-like snout, round floppy ears, and a body covered in thick woolly fur, as well as being much smaller than a human, and this caused the subsequent novels (and reprints of the first two) to accept the cartoon's design. Both iterations are noted to be superb swimmers, with an excellent ability to hold their breath and largely waterproof fur, and the novels mention they can live to be around three hundred years old.
- Extreme Omnivore: Wombles can digest seemingly anything organic, and will happily consume all manner of food made from both foraged greens, nuts, fruit, tubers and fungi as well as scraps left behind by humanity — banana peels, orange skins, apple cores and egg shells are all perfectly usable recipe ingredients to a Womble.
- Humans Are Bastards: Wombles often express disgust, dismay or outright contempt for humans and their seemingly willful refusal to consider the environment. In the second novel, the Wombles of Wimbledon Common are forced to abandon their original burrow because the new super-sized lorries using the nearby road are too heavy and are causing the burrow to collapse. Towards the finale of the third novel, the Wombles cautiously estimate that they have just spent the day cleaning up four tons of rubbish in the wake of a hippie music festival in Hyde Park.
- Mouse World: Averted in the first prints of the original two novels, where the Wombles were more the size of a small human being. After the cartoon proved so popular, the subsequent novels instead went with the interpretation that the Wombles are more the size of small human children, which helps them in hiding.
- Not So Above It All: Despite often verbally looking down on humans, Wombles do appreciate a number of human inventions, such as sweets, and Womble culture often shifts to "borrow" notable traits from the neighboring human culture. For example, the Scottish Wombles use tartans and play the bagpipes.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Despite only being about 3ft tall on average, Wombles are surprisingly strong, allowing them to lift, haul and drag massive loads of rubbish.
- Scavenged Punk: Recycling comes naturally to Wombles, and most of their belongings and household goods are made from human rubbish that has been repaired, refurbished and otherwise made useful. Even the most basic of trash can find new life in the hands of a Womble, such as using sweet wrappers to make an insulative sticking plaster or shredded newspaper to grow mushrooms on.
- Serious Business: Cleaning up mess is Very Serious Business indeed to Wombles. When Bungo declares his intent to become a hippie and give up on trash collecting in The Wombles at Work, it lasts until the hippie song festival ends and he sees the absolutely enormous amount of rubbish left behind. He's so disgusted he immediately gives up being a hippie and gets right into cleaning up.
- Take That!: The Russian Wombles are implied to have picked up the flaws of Communist-run Soviet Russia, with Russian migrant Omsk describing how getting anything done in Russia requires endless byzantine and time-wasting committee meetings.
- Underground Monkey: There are a number of Womble subspecies. Water Wombles spend most of their time living in water and clearing up bodies of water, and so they have adapted to be even better swimmers — the famous Loch Ness Monster is actually a mistaken sighting of the Water Womble clan of Loch Ness. Meanwhile, Tibet is home to the Yeti, which are huge, snow-white Wombles.
- Wainscot Society: The Wombles live alongside but separate from humanity. They clean up humanity's rubbish and repurpose it to their own ends where they can, but strive to avoid interacting with humans as much as possible.
