Marsupilami

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HOUBA!!

The marsupilami is a fictional animal species starring in two Belgian comic book series that got adapted twice into an animated series. Marsupilamis are monkeylike, black-spotted yellow creatures with an insanely long prehensile tail, from the Banana Republic of Palombia.

Marsupilamis were created by André Franquin for the Spirou and Fantasio album Spirou et les héritiers (Spirou and the Heirs) in 1956. Capturing one of these elusive and fictional critters was the goal of one the trials the titular heirs were tasked to do to receive their inheritance. The captured marsupilami (nicknamed "the Marsupilami") became a Team Pet for the duration of Franquin's run, serving as Comic Relief, Big Guy and Deus Ex Machina, thanks to his ever expanding list of anatomical peculiarities. When Franquin left the series, he kept the rights to the species, and the appearances of the Marsupilami dwindled in his birth series, before finally stopping in 1970. He remains one of the most popular characters of the series.

In 1987, Franquin decided to create his own publishing company, Marsu Production, and launched a spin-off comic about a family of marsupilamis, unrelated to Spirou's pet. They too started in Spirou and Fantasio, being the subject of a documentary within the series in the album Le nid des marsupilamis (The Marsupilamis' Nest). Mainly drawn by Franquin's assistant, Batem (Luc Collin), the series counts 22 albums in 2009 and is geared toward a younger readership than Spirou and Fantasio.

In 1992, a first Animated Adaptation was launched. Produced by Disney, it only lasted a season and had little in common with the original, beside the name and the general appearance of the hero. The titular Marsupilami could talk and was a laid-back smartass rather than a volatile Papa Wolf. All of the supporting cast was original. He was accompanied by his buddy, a big ape named Maurice, and met a lot of African animals.

A second cartoon was created in 2000 by a French production company. Much closer to the original than the Disney one in the first season, it was rechristened My Friend Marsupilami for the second season and centred upon a French human family that came to live in the middle of the Amazonian forest to study the marsupilamis.

And yes, that's two characters, one comic, two cartoons and a publishing house all named Marsupilami.

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Tropes present:

• Applied Phlebotinum: Is there anything the Marsupilami's tails are not good for? They can use it as a lasso, as a fist, as a big spring they can jump on...
  • In fact, the Marsupilami himself can be categorized as an Applied Phlebotinum in the Spirou series. How many times has he conveniently revealed New Powers As the Plot Demands?
• Breakout Character: As explained above, the marsupilami started out as the Team Pet of Spirou and Fantasio.
• Badass: Marsu eats piranhas, rips trees out of the ground, and punches out lions and crocodiles, to the point where he is the most feared creature in the jungle. Yeah, he qualifies.
  • And he savagely beats up a martial arts master who he saw as a threat to his masters, the two of them stopping him just shortly before he killed him.
• Banana Republic: The marsupilamis live in the jungles of Palombia, a Latin American country with a chronically unstable government.
• Canon Immigrant: All the characters (besides Marsupilami) from the Disney series.
• Cartoon Creature: The title characters.
• Cartoony Tail: Of course.
• Catch Phrase: "Houba!", present in both comic and animated series. Female marsupilamies go "Houbi!" and juveniles "Bi!". It's a big deal when they graduate to the adult versions.
  • Borders on Pokémon Speak, since it's nearly the only syllables they can ever utter.
    • Depends on the material. Franquin's work on Spirou has the Marsupilami growling, roaring and making all sorts of noises beside "Houba!"
  • The full phrase is "houba houba hop!"
    • In the Disney version, Marsupilami can talk and not just saying "Houba!"
• The Chew Toy: Bring M. Backalive.
• Distaff Counterpart: The Marsupilamie.
• Early Bird Cameo: Disney had the character show up in commercial bumpers on The Disney Afternoon in the 1991-92 season, a year prior to the premiere of Raw Toonage.
• Everything's Better With Monkeys: Maurice the gorilla.
• Great White Hunter: Backalive only wishes he could be one.
• Green Aesop: Destroying the Amazonian rainforest is bad, mmkay?
• Jungle Japes: The deep Palombian jungle where the Marsupilamis live.
• The Kiddie Ride: From the makers of the offensive Donald Duck ride, in the same offensive pose. Pass the Brain Bleach, please!
• Meaningful Name: Bring M. Backalive is a hunter whose obsession is to capture a living marsupilami. Counts as a Bilingual Bonus as well, for its French readers.
• Misplaced Wildlife: The Disney series had this a lot.
• Natural Weapon: The Marsupilami's tail is as good as one.
• Papa Wolf: You do not wanna touch Marsu's babies.
• Pandaing to The Audience: One adventure is about a baby panda.
• Piranha Problem: Marsu eats them.
• Portmanteau: "Marsupilami" is one of the words "marsupial", Pilou-Pilou (the French name for Eugene the Jeep, a character Franquin loved as a kid) and "ami", French for "friend".
• The Renaissance Age of Animation
• Shout Out: In the Disney Series, Four jungle men who sound like The Beatles are based on the four cavemen from the classic Disney short Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom.
• The Speechless: Maurice from the Disney series, who grunts.
• Why Do You Keep Changing Jobs?: Norman, the Antagonist of the Disney series.