List of Arthur characters

This is a list of characters that are featured in the PBS Kids television show, Arthur. The show is based on the book series by Marc Brown.

Arthur, the title character, is the main character of the series. The main supporting characters are D.W., Buster, Francine, Muffy, Binky, the Brain, Mr. Ratburn, and Arthur's parents. Over the years, the roles of each character have changed as more episodes focused on characters besides Arthur or D.W., most notably Buster, Francine, Muffy, Binky, and the Brain. Minor supporting characters such as Sue Ellen, George, and Fern have also had expanded roles in the series.

Like The Simpsons and many other cartoon series, characters in the Arthur series do not age in order to maintain the status quo, although their universe does age in parallel to the real world with the noticeable exception of chalkboards in classrooms, and that everybody is driving 1960s classic cars. Ages presented in this article are their ages in most of the episodes. Their ages do change occasionally and temporarily like in flashback scenes, future scenes, and birthday parties.

Children

Arthur Read

Main article: Arthur Read

Arthur Timothy Read is an aardvark[1] who attends third grade at Lakewood Elementary in Elwood City. He is eight years old and has two younger sisters: D.W. and Kate, as well as a dog named Pal. He plays the piano. His best friend is Buster. He is a very loyal friend. He wears a yellow cotton sweater, white dress shirt, blue jeans, and signature round brown glasses.

Title character Arthur Read.

D.W. Read

Dorothy Winifred Read, usually known as D.W. (voiced by Michael Caloz 1997–1999; Oliver Grainger 1999–2001; Jason Szwimmer 2002–2006; Luciano Rauso 2006, Robert Naylor 2007–2012; Jake Beale 2012–2014; Andrew Dayton 2014–present), is a middle child of the Read family and usually wears a white long-sleeved blouse and a pink sleeveless knee-length dress and has short brown hair. She attends preschool and enjoys watching Mary Moo Cow and listening to Crazy Bus much to Arthur's annoyance. D.W.'s other interests include science & music, and had created a percussion instrument out of common household objects. Many of the series' episodes revolve around tensions between D.W. and her brother. Others are about her preschool friends. She has a counterpart named "W.D.". Both D.W. and W.D. have been voiced by young male actors despite being female characters.

Buster Baxter

Buster Baxter (voiced by Daniel Brochu) is Arthur's best friend. He is generally happy and creative, with a good sense of humor. He is a white rabbit who wears a turquoise long-sleeve shirt and dark jeans. He suffers from asthma. He is also obsessed with aliens. He is interested in comedy, action figures, and is an amateur private investigator. He loves eating, studies food ingredients, and keeps expired food in his room and school desk. He has no siblings and his parents got a divorce when Buster was younger. He created and celebrates a no-frills holiday called "Baxter Day". His father travels the world from working as a pilot, and as a result they were given a spin-off series, Postcards from Buster.

Arthur and his friends Brain and Francine animated in South Park style as seen in the Season 4 episode "The Contest".

Francine Frensky

Francine Alice Frensky (voiced by Jodie Resther) is an orangutan. She has short brown hair, clipped back with 2 barrettes, blue jeans, and maroon sweater. Francine is athletic, sings, and plays the drums. Her family is devoutly Jewish, and observe Yom Kippur and Hanukkah. Her best friend is Muffy, who shares her middle name.

Alan "The Brain" Powers

Alan Powers (voiced by Luke Reid 1996–1999; Steven Crowder 2000–2001; Alex Hood 2002–2005; Paul-Stuart Brown 2004–2007; James Buckholder 2006; Lyle O'Donohue 2008–2012; Siam Yu 2012–2014; Max Friedman Cole 2014–present), usually known by his nickname "The Brain", is a bear of Senegalese descent,[2] and celebrates Kwanzaa. He usually wears a grey sweater. He is multi-talented, excelling both academically and athletically. He also assists his mother in a large ice cream parlor. He is obsessed with overachieving academically and fears that he will fail assignments. This is because he failed Kindergarten.

Muffy Crosswire

Mary Alice Crosswire, known better by her nickname Muffy (Melissa Altro), is an orangutan who usually wears a purple & white dress. She is the spoiled daughter of Ed Crosswire, a wealthy entrepreneur, and has an older brother named Chip.

Binky Barnes

Shelley "Binky" Barnes (Bruce Dinsmore) is a yellow bulldog usually wearing an orange shirt, blue jeans, and brown shoes. He is in the third grade for a second time. He is a member of the Tough Customers with a soft side. He plays the clarinet, spots butterflies, and enjoys Ballet. It is revealed that he has a severe allergy to peanuts. Binky has an adopted baby sister named Mei-Lin. In the episode "What's in a Name?", Binky discovers that his real name is Shelley and that he is named after his great-grandfather who saved a circus.

Kate Read

Kate Read (Tracy Braunstein) is Arthur and D.W.'s baby sister. Although she can't talk to older people yet, she's able to communicate with Pal and Mei-Lin Barnes. She has started to become more mature, and is starting to lose communication with Pal and some of her friends, but is also starting to understand Arthur, D.W., and Mr. and Mrs. Read's speech more and more.

Sue Ellen Armstrong

Sue Ellen Armstrong (voiced by Patricia Rodriguez 1997–2003; Jessica Kardos 2004–present) is a third-grader cat at Arthur's school, Lakewood Elementary. She officially moved to Elwood City in the winter of her third grade school year (but has appeared in Mr. Marco's second grade class). Her father is a diplomat, so her family has lived in various spots around the world. Unlike Tommy, Timmy, and Emily, she traveled with her parents. She is very close to nature, and became a vegetarian later in the series. She also has a deep interest in World culture, and is skilled in the martial arts. She practices karate (taekwondo in earlier seasons), and plays the saxophone. Sue Ellen was born as an only child, and keeps in touch with her brother-like pen pal in Asia. She is depicted with a cream vest, a teal dress, and now has curly orange hair contained in two ponytails. She was originally designed with another hair style in the Arthur Adventure books prior to Arthur's TV Trouble.

George Lundgren

George Lundgren (formerly George Nordgren before season 11) is a moose of Norwegian descent, celebrating Winter Solstice, and wearing an orange shirt with khaki pants (voiced by Mitchell Rothpan 1997–2002, Evan Smirnow 2003, Samantha Reynolds 2008–2010, Eleanor Noble 2004–2006; 2010–present). It is revealed in season 6 that he has dyslexia, which explains why he is seen daydreaming in "Arthur's Substitute Teacher Trouble". He is also feared because of his nosebleeds and his clumsiness. Despite this, he is capable of building items such as marionettes as well as winning talent contests by bouncing on a pogo stick.

Fern Walters

Fern Walters (voiced by Holly G. Frankel) is one of Arthur classmates , she is dog . She enjoys reading poetry and novels (especially Sherlock Holmes and Frankenstein's Monster). She has written many poems and stories of her own, most notably the Detective Virgule Watteau (a parody of Poirot). She is knowledgeable about computers, holds group poetry readings at the library, and is an amateur detective. Fern is usually a very shy and nervous person. Fern's mother, Doria Walters, is constantly trying to get Fern to become more extroverted. Even Fern herself sometimes worries she is "too quiet". She usually wears a purple long-sleeved blouse with yellow collars and cuffs, yellow pants, and a red ribbon on her head.

Prunella Deegan

Prunella Deegan[3] (Tamar Kozlov) is a girl of unobvious species. In 2011 PBS said she was a rat[4] but in 2013 Marc Brown said she was a poodle.[5] She is in the fourth grade. She is interested in yoga, fortune telling, and paranormal phenomena. She loves Henry Skreever (based on Harry Potter) and has studied Braille. She is a 4th grader who wears a blue dress with a white collar and a purple bow in her hair.

The Tibble Twins

Timmy Tibble and Tommy Tibble are twin bear brothers who are the same age as D.W. (four, with Tommy being two minutes elder) who routinely exasperate Arthur, D.W., and mostly everyone with their destructive antics. They are similar to Billy and Bobby. Tommy wears a red scarf and Timmy wears a blue scarf. They stay with their grandmother. In the Arthur Adventure books, The Tibble Family is supposed to be ordinary humans instead of taking their appearance from a bear. Their unseen parents work overseas and travel the world giving them souvenirs and gifts.

Emily

Emily (Sally Taylor-Isherwood) is D.W.'s best friend. She is a white rabbit with blonde hair, wearing a pink dress before season 6, and a blue dress since season 6. She is an expert in gymnastics and is knowledgeable in French culture. Her parents travel around the world similar to Tommy and Timmy's parents. She stays at home with her French nanny, Marie Hélène.

Jenna Morgan

Jenna Morgan (Brigid Tierney) is one of Arthur's classmates. She is lactose intolerant, plays badminton, helps coach soccer, and received an Athlete of the Year award from Michelle Kwan. Jenna hates being the center of attention and dreaded an invitation to Muffy's slumber party because she feared kids discovering that she suffered from Nocturnal enuresis. Jenna wears a pink dress with yellow buttons.

Other recurring child characters

Adil Akyuz

Adil Akyuz (Aaron Grunfeld) is Arthur's Turkish pen pal who was introduced in "Dear Adil". He and Arthur have a lot in common. He is a dark brown bear. Adil has an younger sister, Ayse, who loves the Turkish version of Mary Moo Cow (Arthur became very upset when Adil and Ayse sent D.W. a Turkish Mary Moo Cow CD) and a best friend named Onder (pronounced AHN-door) who has a personality like Buster. His father owns a grocery store. He returned in the Season 13 episode, "The Frensky Family Fiasco", where Francine contacts him on advice on family get-togethers, and he also appeared in the Season 14 episode "The Long Road Home".

Alberto Molina

Alberto Molina is a teenage boy who is one of a family of four, who are Arthur's neighbors. He is a dark brown cat. He became a character during season six, following the departure of Mr. Sipple. Alberto and his family hail from Ecuador, bringing additional diversity alongside Francine and Sue Ellen. He practices kendo in his spare time, and enjoys reading El Conejo Bionico, the Spanish version of Bionic Bunny. He is voiced by a different actor each time he appears in a new episode. In a continuous storyline spanning throughout the entire Season 14, his soccer ball, lost by Francine, makes a prolonged journey around the world, and can be spotted as it appears in every episode.

Bud Compson

Bud Tucker Compson (Julie Lemieux) is Ladonna's younger brother, who also first appeared in "Based on a True Story". He usually wears black rain boots, blue jeans, lime T-shirt, blue vest, and red hat. He has an imaginary friend named Rapty, who everyone else sees as his beloved stuffed T-Rex. Bud is assertive, tough, and not afraid of the Tibble Twins. He attends the same preschool as D.W.

Carl Gould

Carl Gould (Dwayne Hill 2009–2010, Dylan Hoerner 2010–present) is a cream rabbit with brown hair and blue glasses. His favourite colour is blue. He has been diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome and his best friend is George Lundgren. He is depicted as knowing a lot about trains and rockets.

Catherine Frensky

Catherine Frensky (Patricia Rodriguez 1997–2002, Alexina Cowan 2003–2012, Robyn Thaler Hickey 2012–present) is Francine's older sister. Catherine is outgoing and skilled at horseback riding. She occasionally babysits for the Reads. She is embarrassed to tell people her father is a garbage man and likes to read teen magazines. She usually wears a white sleeved jean jacket with a white undershirt with black leggings, red socks, black and white shoes, and always wears her hair in a pony-tail.

Cheikh

Cheikh, (pronounced "Shake") (Thamela Mpumlwana) is Brain's cousin from Senegal who moves to Elwood City in the episode "In My Africa" and begins attending D.W.'s preschool. He is around the same age as D.W.

Chip Crosswire

Chip Crosswire (Cory Doran) is Muffy's older brother who is a college student at Tallahassee Tech, a fictional school. He was first shown in Muffy's family portrait in the book Arthur Goes to Camp that was published in 1982, and his name was first subtly revealed on "Arthur's Perfect Christmas" (there were separate Christmas stockings for Chip and Muffy side by side in their fireplace), but was later directly mentioned in the episode "Phony Fern". He wears a blue v-neck college sweater and a white turtleneck underneath. His first appearance was in "Matchmaker, Matchbreaker" when he comes home from college, where Muffy and Francine introduce him to Francine's sister Catherine.

James MacDonald

James MacDonald (Jesse Camacho 2003, Nicholas Wheeler-Hughes 2007, John Flemming season 2012–2014, Christian Distefano 2014–present) (not to be confused with James MacDonald the sound effects artist) is a white rabbit that wears glasses. He is in Ms. Morgan's class at preschool. He has an older sister named Molly MacDonald, which he imitated her bullying others.

Ladonna Compson

Ladonna Compson (Krystal Meadows) is Bud's sister who first appeared in season 16, in the two-part episode entitled "Based on a True Story". She is a new student at Lakewood Elementary. Ladonna is a rabbit with brownish tan complexion who speaks with a dominant southern accent, and is native to Louisiana. She is the first new main character of the series since 9 Story Media Group began animating it.

Lydia Fox

Lydia Fox (Barbara Mamabolo) is a physically disabled and highly intelligent fox girl who helps Brain get over his temporary confinement to a wheelchair in "The Wheel Deal." Through her tutoring, he learns how to play basketball in a wheelchair, and almost wins a charity game of free-throws (though Lydia winds up taking over for the last few shots). Lydia was the winning entry of a children's contest to design a new character, sent in by Connor Gordon from Savage, MN.[6] In season 14, the voice actor credits gave Lydia the last name Gordon, but season 19 reverted her name to Lydia Fox.

Maria Pappas

Maria Pappas (Stacey DePass) is a rabbit who is in Mr. Ratburn's class. Her clothing usually consists of a striped shirt with blue dress. Her hair is brown and a similar style as D.W.'s. Maria's original character design included glasses. Maria is a participant in many clubs and activities but was never the center of attention. She appears in many episodes in the background except for "Francine Goes To War" in which Francine was insulted by her, and her breakout episode: "Maria Speaks" which she talks with a stutter. Her best friend is Jenna Morgan.

Marina Datillo

Marina Datillo (voiced by Helena Evangeliou) is Prunella's best friend, in 4th grade at Mighty Mountain Elementary School. It is revealed that she is blind in the show, but can get around quite easily by using her other senses. She is a white rabbit. A fan of Henry Skreever, she and Prunella met when Prunella unwillingly received a Braille edition of the latest release and let Marina borrow it, and since then they have become inseparable. Marina is notably good at yoga, soccer, and gymnastics.

Mei Lin Barnes

Mei Lin Barnes (Carrie Finlay) is Binky's baby sister, who was adopted from China. She is also Baby Kate's friend.

Molly MacDonald

Molly MacDonald (Maggie Castle) is close friends with Binky. She is a white rabbit, and a senior member of the Tough Customers. Due to being bullied at preschool, she became a bully herself, which she later avoided after she discovered she was imitated by her younger brother James. She is good at giving advice, but dislikes the fact that everybody comes to her for it. She became friends with Arthur & D.W. and is an effective babysitter for the Tibble Twins. Molly has long maroon hair that almost always covers her eyes and she often wears sleeveless shirts.

Rattles

Rattles (Scott Beaudin) is another member of the Tough Customers. Rattles has been a Tough Customer member since the first season. He was a grey cat in the earliest seasons, then was made a dog in season 8, and then a bear in season 18. He wears a backwards baseball hat, black leather jacket, green T-shirt, blue jeans and high tops. He speaks with a Northern New Jersey accent. It was revealed in "Arthur Unraveled" that he has an affinity for knitting.

Rubella Deegan

Rubella Deegan (Eramelinda Boquer) is Prunella's older sister. She is very spiritual and practices psychic and paranormal phenomena. She is typically depicted as mystical, and she often talks in a very dramatic tone. She often chides in on Prunella.

Sally MacGill

Sally MacGill is Arthur's babysitter in "Crushed". Arthur had a crush on Sally but became jealous after finding out that she had a boyfriend.

Tenzin Wangdu

Tenzin was originally a child in poverty living in Tibet that Sue Ellen had sent letters to for a while. He helped fill the void because Sue Ellen is an only child and doesn't have much in common with her friends. Sue Ellen mistakenly called him her "Little Brother". Later, he moved to Dharamsala, India where he started to email Sue Ellen. They eventually met which revealed that Sue Ellen and Tenzin are both the same age. He is a panda but originally had black fur. This was later retconned.

Slink

Slink (Michael Yarmush) is a 4th grader. He is part of the tough costumers. In his first episode in 1997, he convinced Arthur and Buster to be cool by doing bad things.

Vicita Molina

Vicita Molina (Alyson Wener) is Arthur and D.W.'s new neighbor. Her age is "Three And Seven Eighths" and as a result D.W. believes herself to be a role model. Vicita and her family is from Ecuador, and moved to Elwood City in Season 6 replacing Mr. Sipple.

W.D.

W.D., full name is Wilhelmina Dagmar Merkles (Raphael Cohen-Demers) is a tomboy counterpart to D.W. She is a bear. She has an imaginary friend Maxine, and her parents names are Herman and Ursa. They are great friends with The Reads; Meanwhile, W.D. and D.W. admittedly do not get along as much. Similar to D.W.'s voice actors, they are all young boys instead of female cast members, despite the characters being female.

Cousin Cora

Cousin Cora is Arthur and D.W.'s bratty cousin who appears in "D.W. Thinks Big". She acts like a brat when she's alone with D.W. but acts like a nice girl when adults are around. Her bratty nature is later exposed at a wedding.

Cousin Mo

Monique "Mo" is Arthur's oldest cousin, whom Arthur remembers when she had been awful to him in the past reunions and tries to avoid her, until it is revealed that Mo isn't as bad as Arthur thought. She, like Arthur, plays the piano, and claims that Arthur is her favorite relative. Mo is the daughter of Loretta and has a younger athletic brother close to Arthur's age, and an even younger sister close to D.W.'s age.

Cousin Ricky

Cousin Ricky is Mo's brother and Bud and Loretta's son. He is very athletic and somewhat bossy. His skin color changes in each episode he appears in.

Adults

Arthur's Family

A through M

N through Z

TV stars and merchandise

Guest stars

Imaginary

Maxine

Maxine is W.D.'s imaginary friend. Similar to W.D. being a counterpart to D.W., Maxine is a counterpart to Nadine. Similar to Nadine, she has an erotic purple hair style. Her apparition is based on that of an Elephant.

Nadine Flumberghast

Nadine Flumberghast (Hayley Reynolds) is D.W.'s imaginary friend. She portrays D.W.'s conscience, and usually appears when D.W. feels guilty, scared, or angry. Both D.W. and Nadine are aware that Nadine is imaginary. However, Kate, Mei-Lin, animals, and other characters' imaginary friends can see and communicate with her. One episode shows D.W. with her when she's much older, while another shows that D.W. does not need Nadine as much as she used to. She appears as a brownish-yellow squirrel. She has long platinum white blonde hair styled exotically in three pigtails and small buck teeth. She can create imaginary items and they can appear/disappear with magic. Her last name was revealed to be "Flumberghast" in the episode, "Read and Flumberghast".

Ghosts

Animals and pets

References

  1. Shultz, Paul (1997-10-14). "KING 'ARTHUR' PBS' GENTLE AARDVARK RULES KIDS' TV; HIS SECOND SEASON BEGINS ON MONDAY". New York Times. Retrieved 2009-01-08.
  2. Arthur #1409 "In My Africa"
  3. Armstrong, Sue Ellen (19 January 2016). "Sue Ellen Adds It Up". Arthur. Event occurs at 9. For Prunella Deegan Who taught me we are all math people (written on the bottom of her artwork above fountain)
  4. "What kind of animal is Arthur? What about his friends?". PBS.org. Archived from the original on 3 June 2011. The Brain is a bear. Binky Barnes is a burly bulldog. (Try saying that three times fast!) Muffy and Francine are both monkeys and Buster is a rabbit. Sue Ellen is a cat, Prunella is a rat, Fern is a dog and George is a moose. The Tibble Twins are bear cubs and, of course, the Read family appear at the front of the animal dictionary. They're aardvarks.
  5. Marc Brown Studios (17 July 2013). "A few individuals I know have confused Prunella to be a rat, when she clearly looks like a poodle. Which is she?". Facebook.com. Your instincts are correct; she is, indeed, a poodle! I'm 99% sure the only rodent related character is Ratburn.
  6. http://pbskids.org/arthur/allkidscan/
  7. "Clarissa Is Cracked". 08:00 – 08:08. Dave Read: "Grandma Thora called. She's dropping a travel column off with Bitzi Baxter and thought she'd stop by for dinner."
  8. Arthur #127 "Arthur's Substitute Teacher Trouble"
  9. Booth, John (2010-09-15). "Neil Gaiman Gets Animated on Arthur". Wired.
  10. "The Arthur and Buster Newsletter". pbskids.org. November 2004. FEATURED ARTICLE: Top Five Things Pal Likes About Fall By Pal Read
  11. "The Great Lint Rush". Arthur. 5 minutes in. Wait! I'm Pal Read, Toadie said I could see you!
  12. https://twitter.com/ArthurRead/status/497838604983730177
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