August 26, 2000 (2000-08-26) – June 9, 2002 (2002-06-09)
Maggie and the Ferocious Beast is a Canadiananimatedchildren's television series created byMichael andBetty Paraskevas.[1] The program was based on the 1996 bookThe Ferocious Beast with the Polka-Dot Hide and its sequels, which were also written by the Paraskevas.[2] The show started off as a series of shorts aired on the Canadian channel Teletoon (now as "Cartoon Network Canada") in 1998. Two years later, the first full-length episode was first premiered onNickelodeon as part of the preschool-aimedNick Jr. programming block on June 5, 2000, in the U.S. until premiering on Teletoon on August 26 of that same year inCanada.[3] The show ran for three seasons, airing its final episode on June 9, 2002.
A redheaded 5-year-old girl named Maggie creates her own map of an imaginary world known as Nowhere Land that, in reality, takes the characters nowhere. She imagines that the characters Beast and Hamilton Hocks are her best friends.
Maggie (voiced by Kristen Bone) is a 5-year-old girl with red hair (who later turns 6 years old) and the human protagonist of the show. She is Hamilton's and Beast's best friend, who is adventurous. They both look up to Maggie very much and always turn to her for advice. Maggie is the leader of the group and is always there to be the compassionate voice of reason to her dear friends.
Beast (voiced byStephen Ouimette) appears ferocious, but is actually gentle and kind. He is a yellowdog-like creature, with big red removable spots, and three horns on his head, he's half-bear, half-pig, half-cow, half-elephant, with the human's head. His catchphrase is "Great googly moogly!", which he says numerous times per episode including the opening sequence of the series. In the episode "Hide and Go Beast", it is shown that he is allergic to pollen. Beast likes pretty much any kind of food, especially Hamilton's cooking. He even likes taking baths. He often wears multicoloured galoshes which he pronounces as "Goo-lashes". Hamilton often corrects his pronunciation, but he does not believe him. Maggie and Hamilton are his best friends.
Hamilton Hocks (voiced by Michael Caruana) is ananthropomorphicpig who can be bossy and quite fussy, but he does have a warm heart. He lives inside a handheldcardboard box which he likes, is the best cook in Nowhere Land, and is a total-clean freak. Hamilton's most prized possessions are his handsome "H" sweater and his cardboard box, which also happens to be his home. In the episode "Hamilton the Ham", he has a great talent for singing. His catchphrase is "Hoo-wee!" Maggie and the Beast are his best friends.
Rudy (voiced by John McGrath) is a cheese-lovingmouse who lives in a large wheel of cheese in a part of Nowhere Land called Cheese Town. It is revealed in one episode that Rudy's hat and boots don't come off because they are glued to him. This character started off with the name Pippy but was renamed by the writers soon after.
Nedley (voiced byDwayne Hill) is a whiterabbit who speaks in rhymes. He says rhymes almost all through every episode that he appears in, but sometimes he talks normally a little before starting his rhyme again. Nedley lives in a rabbit hole next to his carrot patch in Nowhere Land.
The Moo Sisters are the threecows who live in a part of Nowhere Land called Mooville. They all love to sing and do it very often. They are sisters and their names are Millicent, Mavis and Marge.
Mr. Moon is the only non-human and non-animal character in the episode "Blue Moon". He appears as grumpy because people say he is made ofgreen cheese even though it hasn't been proven.
The Kindly Giant is the one who is not at all scary but instead kindhearted. The others are scared at first, but they soon get used to him and they sometimes go to him for advice or a favor. He refers to Maggie, Hamilton and the Beast as little ones. He owns a garden full of healthy food, from which he always lets the ever-hungry Beast wolf down a giant blueberry or two. His face is never shown, and he only appears in a few episodes. He is big and strong. Even the Beast seems small compared to the giant. The Kindly Giant lives in an area of Nowhere Land where all the fruits and vegetables are giant-sized. Normally, only his shoes and ankles are seen because of his largeness.
The Dream Sheep are whitesheep that make baa sounds. They are occasionally up in the clouds.
The Jellybean Team are a group of seven coloured jellybeans. There is a red one, an orange one, a yellow one, a purple one, a black one and two green ones. They are small, of course, but have big personalities. They also tend to argue with each other a lot because they each think they are more important than the others.
The Triplets (all voiced byJulie Lemieux) are Maggie's baby cousins. Their names are Zack, Max & Oscar.
Big Duck is a largeduck with white feathers who lives in the water. She appears in theseries' theme song.
Reggie Van Beast (voiced byDan Chameroy) is Beast's cousin. His colouring is the inverse of Beast's, being red with yellow spots rather than yellow with red, and he wears amonocle. Unlike Beast, Reggie is rather stuck up and rude, and he never really seems to enjoy anything that Beast and his friends want to do. He also often speaks in rhymes, just like Nedley.
B. B. Katz is atiger known for playing jazz music through his large bass. He lives within Mud Creek. His name is based on legendary blues musician,B. B. King.
Mr. Shivers is a talking snowman who lives in the Nowhere Land mountain.
Archie (voiced by Michael Caruana) is a Scottish-accented toyScottish Terrier. Archie's owner is unknown, and in the episode focused on him, he tends to be hyperactive, much to the others' annoyance, resulting to him being turned off. However, considering their actions a bit hard, they turn him back on and apologize, admitting their annoyance.
The theme song for the show is "Maggie and the Ferocious Beast in Nowhere Land", which is an original theme performed by Isabella Molley.Maggie and the Ferocious Beast was co-produced byNelvana Limited and with the participation of Teletoon, and directed by Jamie Whitney and Stuart Shankly. The show premiered in 2000 and aired its final episode in 2002. The show is distributed by Nelvana Limited.
In Canada, the show aired on Teletoon (now known as "Cartoon Network Canada") and laterTreehouse TV. In the U.S., prior to its Canadian premiere, the show aired onNickelodeon as part of the preschool-aimedNick Jr. programming block. On April 7, 2003, repeats were introduced and aired onNoggin, a channel co-founded by Nickelodeon. It continued to be aired on Noggin after its rebrand toNick Jr. until October 30, 2010,[4] when the show was pulled from its lineup.Qubo picked up the show by May 28, 2018, and aired repeats until this channel gave out all operations on February 28, 2021, due to Scripps' acquisition. In the early 2000s,Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment released the show on VHS and DVD.Phase 4 Films'Kaboom! Entertainment in Canada andShout! Factory in the U.S. released the show as well, withVivendi Visual Entertainment handling DVD distribution for the Shout! Factory releases. Currently, the show is available for streaming onTubi.
On March 18, 2021, it was announced that a revival was in the works. The 2D-animated reboot will be titledThe Ferocious Beast Show and will be produced by US-basedFrederator Studios. Production was scheduled to start in late 2021 for a 2022/2023 release. The show was co-created by Michael Paraskevas and his wife Maria Bruno, withMichael Hirsh as a producer. However as of 2025, there hasn't been any updates.[5]
