The Zula Patrol

The Zula Patrol
Genre	Science Fantasy Musical
Created by	Deb M. Manchester
Written by	Cydne Clark Nicole Dubuc Simon Jowett
Directed by	Brain Kindregan Kent Butterwoth
Voices of	Cam Clarke Colleen O'Shaughnessey B.J. Ward Nika Futterman Frank Welker Kurt Kelly
Composer(s)	Jeff Danna Fletcher Beasley
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	52
Production
Executive producer(s)	Deb M. Manchester Beth Hubbard Margaret Loesch
Production company(s)	The Hatchery Zula USA American Public Television Marvista Entertainment
Release
Original network	PBS Kids (2005–2007) Qubo (2007–present)
Original release	September 5, 2005 (2005-September-05) – June 18, 2008 (2008-June-18)
External links
Website
Production website

The Zula Patrol is an animated television series distributed by American Public Television to PBS stations in the United States. It is now also airing on Qubo and Smile of a Child TV. Some adaptations of the Zula Patrol also include planetarium shows.

The series deals with science as the title characters travel to space in vignettes that teach viewers about space, our galaxy, and friendship. The science topics are based on earth and solar science.

Characters

The Zula Patrol

• Bula (Cam Clarke) is the captain of the Zula Patrol. He thinks of himself as the mature leader of the force; however, even he often gets into trouble. His main catchphrase is "This is a job for the Zula Patrol!" In the first season, he constantly worries about his partner Zeeter, as she frequently gets into trouble. Some episodes, like "Bula's Spin Party", "Going Through a Phase", and "Forget-Me-Naut", focus on him because his antics sometimes go wrong. He and Zeeter recently started appearing in the Multo Moment in season three. He is green with bright red short hair on the top. In "Going Through a Phase", he turns into a Zulean Were-Mouse as a tradition to Zula due to him picking a Zulabane flower with blue petals around it that releases magical pollen. As he transforms again with the moon phases changing, he turns gray and gains the ears, nose, whiskers and tail of a mouse. As the moon becomes full, he becomes naked, furry and bigger with a red-orange belly.
• Zeeter (Colleen O'Shaughnessey) is the Zula Patrol pilot with a buglike head and the only member of the group to have a belt and gloves. She believes that doing is the best way to learn, which often puts her at edge with Multo, who prefers to research before doing. Nevertheless, she is still friends with him, despite his tendency to serve disgusting recipes. She has been Bula's best friend and sidekick for a long time, since they were in Zula Scouts (parody of Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts). She is purple with light blue eyelids shown when she closes them or blinks. Sometimes she wears rocket boots for going in speed. When she takes off her glove, it's revealed that she has light blue fingernails.
• Multo (Cam Clarke) is the scientist of the group, giving useful facts about things the Zula Patrol might need to complete their mission. Sometimes, he inadvertently causes some of the missions. He has a book called a Multopedia, which the team uses when they need an answer to their questions. Though often absent-minded, Multo is respected by everyone. Multo is also the host of the Multo Moment, where he reviews the subject covered in that episode, and is the announcer of several different events. While none of the episodes in the series focus on him, most adventures, like the Under the Weather film, mainly focus on his research. He also has a tendency to serve disgusting food that he likes but the others do not. He has a mentor-student relationship with Wizzy and Wigg, who host the Multo Moment with him. He is yellow with three eyes. The voice of Multo is a based on the voice of legendary comedian Ed Wynn.
• Wizzy and Wigg (B. J. Ward and Nika Futterman) are the smallest Zula Patrollers with wings on their backs. They are twin brother and sister, and though they bicker like most siblings do, they are mainly inseparable. Wizzy has a blue body and is female, while Wigg has a purple one and is male. They also look like butterflies. Some episodes focus on them as they gather information to answer their questions. They are good friends with Multo despite his tendencies to serve them his recipes. In the new episodes, Multo compliments them with the catchphrase, "You're thinking like scientists!" Their names are a reference to the term WYSIWYG.
• Gorga (Frank Welker) is the Zula Patrol's space pet. He was rescued by Bula, and has been his companion ever since. Though he acts like a dog, his nose has many functions like suction and video projection.

The villains

• Dark Truder (Kurt Kelly) is the main antagonist. He often attempts to control space, but rarely succeeds. This is because he never takes the time to really sit down and look at his facts. In one episode they claim he has a soft spot, and he eventually is called a "big softie" in that episode. He also does a number of disguises including cross-dressing as Madame Luna. In the end of each episode he appears in (Excluding "Night of the Fweeebs"), he has a really big mess and trouble which makes him look like how he would be able to get out of the really bad situation. He's somehow similar to Dr. Robotnik from the old Sonic the Hedgehog TV series.
• Traxie (Colleen O'Shaughnessey) is Dark Truder's animated deep red toupee, who disapproves of his evil plans. She also comes in different styles and colors. She is sometimes placed on his head. Also, she has an uncle named Fred who appears at the end of "The Ins and Outs of Planets" and throughout the episode "Me, Myself and Io" as one of the three judges along with his niece and Truder in Jupiter's moon talent show. Traxie is also nervous of Haircuts.
• Deliria (Colleen O'Shaughnessey) is the other main villain, primarily in the second and third season. She is the owner of a factory that makes trash into items, though half of the time, they are mainly defective. She litters throughout space, and also speeds, so she often gets a lot of tickets from the Zula Patrol. Her body is rubbery, allowing her to shape-shift, but she always ends up showing some part of her face when she does. Though none of the other Patrollers can tell her disguises, Zeeter can somewhat make out the shape.
• Cloid (Dave Wittenberg) is Deliria's robot servant. He has a British accent and is a worry wart. Most of the time, he tries to share some of his knowledge of space with Deliria but she ignores him. Often when she needs to get away from the Zula Patrol, she lets Cloid take the blame. He also drives her space limo.

Space objects

• The Planets are planets in the solar system, orbiting the Sun. There are 9 (the eight current and dwarf planet Pluto) who appear in most of the episodes. The Planets have faces, personalities, and certain voices and they love the Zula Patrol. However, they are only main characters in which they appear and talk in, such as "Bula's Spin Party", "The Outsider", "Small is Beautiful", "A Tale of Two Planets", "Earth Hunt", "The Ins and Outs of Planets", "Club Mars", "Young At Heart", and "Case of the Missing Rings". Mercury (god of travel) has a little dark brownish color. Venus (goddess of love) talks with a Mid-Atlantic accent. Our planet Earth appears in "Family Feud" where she initially is sadly dried up because of the hydrogen and oxygen elements split up, but at the end as they're together again, she is happily restored with all the water. Mars (god of war) punishes Dark Truder and Traxie by blowing them away with his sandy wind for insulting him as "second-rate". The biggest planet Jupiter (king of the gods) makes a close-up cameo appearance in the beginning of "Family Feud". Saturn (god of agriculture, farming and harvest) has his rings that hover around him when he turns. Uranus (god of old age) is much more like a cool guy because of him wearing a black beret. Neptune (god of the sea) is a little sad his rings are gone in the episode "Case of the Missing Rings". Pluto (god of the dead) has a moon sidekick named Charon who has a feminine face and a kind personality. In the episode called "The Outsider", she tries to cheer him up as he is insulted by some other planets.
• The Stars appear in different colors. Some are feminine and some are masculine. Polaris is a yellow star who talks with a British accent. She only appears in "Night of the Fweeebs". The Sun, who is our light source, has a feminine face. When the Black Hole talks, she has an echoey voice. Protie appears in the Zula Patrol's filmstrip and is initially a protostar until she becomes a grown up star with a glowing aqua color. Byron, Buck Starburst and all the other protostars are asked to become grown up stars of the same color to power up the Zulean ship.
• The Moon: This character is also known as our planet's moon, which is also Earth's moon. In "Three Ringed Gorga", he is kidnapped in a big net, but then decides to escape the circus with Gorga to go on free adventures.
• The Other Planets' Moons: Besides our planet's moon, there are all the other moons in the universe. Some have been named Phobos, Deimos, Europa, Io and Titan. Titan is completely red and talks with an Irish accent. Io is the most colorful of Jupiter's moons and she has a perfect talent in singing.
• The Comets appear in different episodes. Conrad only appears in "A Comet's Tale" where he meets Zeeter, Wizzy and Wigg. Carlos only appears in "The Milky Way Galaxy Games" meeting them and the rest of the Zula Patrol.

Other supporting characters

• The Zlorg Family and their blue-&-green pet Gloop are the giant characters of the series. This entire family appears in some episodes. They also have a vehicle of their own size and they all are bigger than the Zula Patrol, Dark Truder, Traxie and all the other aliens. In the episode called "Blubglub", only Chester and Lilly appear in the water fun park. They have a father named Charles and a mother named Madge who wears a purple beaded necklace.
• The Clouds appear in a couple of episodes. Cumulus is a white masculine cloud with a western accent. Stratus is a little gray masculine one with a cool agent's dialect. Cumulonimbus is a dark gray feminine cloud with a British accent and Cirrus is a light gray feminine one with a French accent.
• Testy and Beakini are Multo's talking glass containers. They have faces, arms and legs. Testy is a test tube and he sometimes says wrong answers to Multo's questions. Beakini is a round-bottom flask and she has a little Japanese accent.
• Voop is a Zulean volcano with a feminine face. With her spout, she releases white steam.
• Wilson is a giant space worm who lives in a colorful wormhole. He is really kind to the Zula Patrol.
• Iris Bloodshot is a pink mouthless alien with a single giant blue eyeball and tiny tentacles. In several episodes she appears to have a crush on Bula, calling him 'darling' out of the rest of the patrollers.
• Buzzy is a ferret who is friends with the Zula Patrol. With his translator collar on, he can speak human. He appears in two episodes titled "Take Me To Your Ferret" and "You're Cramping My Space".
• The Polkadotians only appear in the episode called "What Goes Up Must Come Down". They live in a planet called Polkadotia, which is smaller than Zula, which is heavy for them when they're in it. Moeb is the blue one with a language-switching nose that looks like a pig's nose. Larmee is the purple one with a pink suit and Quilee is the green one with chicken legs and yellow polka dots. They may be a reference to The Three Stooges, whose names were Moe, Larry, and Curly. Also, Quilee makes one of Curly's signature sounds.
• Professor Autofocus is a close friend of the Zula Patrol and one of Multo's many friends. He owns a telescope museum in Zulaopolis, and in the episode "Telescooped" he calls the Zula Patrol to help him find his telescope, along with the others that went missing. He only appears during that episode.
• Francis (nicknamed Frankie) is a talking flashlight who only appears in "Wigg and Wizzy Light the Way". His face is made of light when turned on.
• The Chromilians live in the Rainbow Village. One of them is named Roy G. Biv and another is named Ray N. Beau. He wears a horizontal rainbow shirt and the current owner of the Rainbow Inn. All the Chromilians have feelings depending on a color like yellow for happiness and blue for sadness.
• Professor Precipito is a professor who lives in the Zulean Mountains where there is a lot of snow and is a good friend of Multo's. She calls him "little sprinkle" because he likes his donuts with little candy sprinkles. She speaks with a Scottish accent.
• Flo is a silent Zulean flower with a petal base shaped like a heart and colored baby blue. She has a purple body with blue petals around the petal base. When she gets out of the soil, she walks on two feet and when she drinks water, she doubles herself up.
• Dr. Paramecium is a citizen of Itty-bittyopolis who looks like Multo only with little dots. He works as a scientist.
• Long John Jupiter is a pirate, an alien parody of Long John Silver. He first appeared on a treasure map.
• The Water Atoms: The Hydrogen Atoms in this show are light blue and all their names start with "H". The Oxygen Atoms are red and the only one whose name revealed is Ollie whose mother is Ma Oxygen. All these atoms have a Southern American accent, but the difference is there are more hydrogens than oxygens.
• The Wind Siblings are named Breezy, Gusty and Gale. Unlike her brothers, she's the most gentle even though they bully her, but later the behavior of the brothers changed.
• The Worms
• The Sand Figures originally live in a giant eroding castle. The one shaped like a human is Sir Godfrey who has a British English accent.
• Beethoven is a beetle whose helmet looks like human hair. He is named after the classical composer Ludwig van Beethoven.
• Wilhemina is a talkative flower with purple and pink petals. She is part of the Zulean garden.
• Chip is a talkative glacier who prefers cold places.
• Ziggy is a yellow lizard with a Cockney accent. He has a sister whom he mentions and has a nephew and niece named Drew and Sue who later hatch from their eggs.

Episodes

Season 1 (2005–06)

Season 2 (2007)

Season 3 (2008)

Awards

2006: Nominated Annie Award for best music in an Animated Television Production: Jeff Danna, For episode "Case of the Missing Rings".

Voice cast

External links

• Official website
• qubo page
• The Zula Patrol at the Internet Movie Database
• Zula hits movie theaters for one-time showing (February 27, 2008) at KidScreen
• "Zula Patrol creator prioritized fun" Los Angeles Times May 10, 2009