Bottersnikes and Gumbles

Bottersnikes and Gumbles are fictitious creatures in a series of children's books by Australian writer S. A. Wakefield and illustrator Desmond Digby. Four books were published between 1967 and 1989. The series is considered a classic of Australian children's literature^[1] and has sold more than 500,000 copies worldwide. A television adaptation of the same name has aired on Netflix and terrestrial television in 2015 and 2016.^[2]

Set in the landscape of the Australian bush the stories recount a series of conflicts between the lazy, destructive Bottersnikes and good-natured, hardworking Gumbles. Inspiration for the series came from the emerging environmental movement. The two species were intended to represent opposing attitudes towards the environment; those who destroy the bush, and those who clean it up.^[3] These themes however are diffused by the series' humour, absurdity, playful language and its sense of the ridiculous.^[4]

Bottersnikes have green wrinkly skin, cheese-grater noses and long, pointed ears that go red when they are angry, which is most of the time. They are perhaps the laziest creatures in the world. They eat mattress stuffing (preferably barbecued) and pictures of food out of magazines, and for sweets they like rusty nails and bottle tops. The Bottersnikes’ biggest fear is water, because they shrink when they get wet and have to be hung out to dry.

Gumbles, on the other hand, are the most friendly and cheerful creatures in the bush and can be squashed into any shape without being hurt, although when flattened out completely they cannot regain their own shapes without help. They are hopeless when they get the giggles.

Wakefield wrote four books about the Bottersnikes and Gumbles:

• Bottersnikes and Gumbles (1967)
• Gumbles on Guard (1975)
• Gumbles in Summer (1979)
• Gumbles in Trouble (1989)

In 1996 the four books were reissued in an omnibus volume under the title The Complete Tales of Bottersnikes and Gumbles.

Themes

While the books consist of light-hearted children's stories, there is a strong environmental message, mostly about the damage done to the Bush by littering. Wakefield also worked in some satire of more adult concepts: Gumbles in Summer deals with politics - especially far-fetched promises, election campaigning and vote-winning - through an election held to replace the King of the Bottersnikes when he dies of suspected food poisoning, while in Gumbles in Trouble, Chank the Bottersnike creates a newspaper, leading to critique of the media and biased reporting.

Characters

Bottersnikes

• The King – The King of the Bottersnikes, by far the fattest, meanest and almost the laziest.
• Chank – By far the smartest Bottersnike (he thinks) and believes he should be King.
• Gubbo – Chank's dull-witted but loyal sidekick.
• The Weathersnike – The oldest and most learned Bottersnike. He has been forecasting weather since Halley's Comet and is often blamed for the bad weather he predicts.
• Glob – The most cunning Bottersnike. He's the one who often thinks up ideas, especially catching Gumbles.
• Snorg – The laziest Bottersnike. Proudly the only one who can go to sleep hanging upside down.
• Smiggles – The only ‘snike whose dreams become solid. Quite handy when you need something now, but has the unfortunate catch of the previous dream disappearing to make room for the next one whenever Smiggles falls asleep. Quite precarious when you are a Bottersnike on a dreamed bridge and Smiggles is starting to doze.

Gumbles

• Tinkingumble – A Gumble with very good ideas. Each time he gets an idea, a clear, bright 'tink' sound comes from his head.
• Happigumble – The most worriesome and cautious Gumble, but likes fun as much as the rest.
• Tootngumble – Toots unconsciously when danger is anywhere near.
• Willigumble – The youngest, rashest and most danger-prone Gumble. He is always late for everything and has a tendency to be rather tardy, which ends up coming in useful on at least one occasion.
• Fixngumble – The best at working with his hands, whether it be alarm clocks, ladders or tape recorders.
• Burpngumble – Only mentioned once or twice, is Burpngumble, who frees them from the dry water tank by hiccuping
• Merrigumble – Only featured in the television series, twin of Jolli youngest after Willi who's singing is beautiful only to Snikes
• Jolligumble – Only featured in the television series, twin of Merri youngest after Willi who's singing is beautiful only to Snikes

Television series

An animated television series, Bottersnikes and Gumbles, was in development as early as 2012 by Cheeky Little Media.^[5] In early 2015, the streaming video service Netflix announced it had acquired the rights to the series and was released as 52 eleven-minute episodes. It later aired on the Seven Network in Australia from December 2015 and on CBBC in the UK in 2016.^[6] The cast includes Richard Grieve, Jeff Rawle, Kathryn Drysdale and Miriam Margoyles.^[7] It was released on Netflix in North America on 19 August 2016. It was redubbed with American accents.

References