Oggy and the Cockroaches

Oggy and the Cockroaches Oggy et les Cafards
Genre	Comedy Slapstick
Created by	Jean-Yves Raimbaud
Directed by	Olivier Jean-Marie
Voices of	Hugues Le Bars (seasons 1–4)[1] Michel Elias (Chatter Box only)
Music by	Hervé Lavandier (seasons 1–2) Hugues Le Bars (seasons 1–4) Vincent Artaud (season 5–7)
Country of origin	France
No. of seasons	7
No. of episodes	169 (501 segments) (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Aziza Ghalila Katell Lardeux
Producer	Marc du Pontavice
Editors	Laure Charossuett Lou Bouniol Patrick Ducruet
Running time	21-22 minutes
Production companies	Gaumont Multimedia (seasons 1–2) Xilam Animation (season 3 onwards)
Release
Original network	France 3 (seasons 1-2) Canal+ Family (seasons 3-4) Gulli (season 5 onwards)
Picture format	SECAM (seasons 1–3) HDTV (season 4 onwards) 4K UHDTV (remastered episodes of seasons 1–3; seasons 5, 6 and 7 onwards)[2]
Original release	6 September 1998 (1998-09-06) – present
Chronology
Related shows	Space Goofs Zig & Sharko

Oggy and the Cockroaches (French: Oggy et les Cafards) is a French comedy animated television series produced by Gaumont Multimedia (first two seasons) and Xilam Animation (third season onwards), and created by Jean-Yves Raimbaud, co-creator of Space Goofs, who sadly died during production of Oggy's first season. The show employs silent comedy: characters either do not speak, or use unintelligible vocalizations and gestures; the Indian version of the show has Hindi dialogue dubbed over the animation. The show premiered on September 1998 on France 3, and later expanded internationally, becoming a worldwide hit.

In September 2020, the series was reported to be rebooted as The New Adventures of Oggy in where Oggy takes care of Piya, a seven-year-old female elephant from India.^[3] Later in January 2021, the original series will be renewed with new episodes.^[4]

Synopsis

Oggy, an anthropomorphic cat, would prefer to spend his days watching television and eating, but is continuously pestered by three roaches: Joey, Marky and Dee Dee. The cockroaches' slapstick mischief ranges from plundering Oggy's refrigerator to hijacking the train he just boarded. In many situations, Oggy is also helped by Jack( Oggy's friend in the original series and his elder brother in the hindi-dub), who is more violent and short-tempered than him and is also annoyed by the cockroaches. Bob, a short-tempered bulldog, also appears in the show, and is Oggy's neighbor.

Episodes

Season		Segments	Episodes		Originally aired
					First aired	Last aired
	1	78	26		September 6, 1998 (1998-09-06)	February 11, 2000 (2000-02-11)
	2	78	26		September 4, 2000 (2000-09-04)	April 5, 2003 (2003-04-05)
	3	39	13		October 18, 2008 (2008-10-18) 2017 (DISCOVERY K2 Remastered)	December 26, 2008 (2008-12-26) 2017 (DISCOVERY K2 Remastered)
	4	74	26		January 2, 2012 (2012-01-02)	December 12, 2013 (2013-12-12)
	Feature film				August 7, 2013 (2013-08-07) (French theatrical release)
	5	76	26		June 30, 2017 (2017-06-30) (GULLI) July 1, 2017 (2017-07-01) (CN ASIA)	TBA
	6	78	26		May 16, 2017 (2017-05-16) (DISCOVERY K2) May 1, 2018 (2018-05-01) (CN ASIA)	TBA
	7	78	26		March 19, 2018 (2018-03-19) (DISCOVERY K2) June 2, 2018 (2018-06-02) (CN ASIA)	TBA

Characters

Main

• Oggy is a cat with a light blue body, green eyes, red nose, grey tummy and white feet. Oggy usually spends his time either watching TV or doing housework — when not chasing the cockroaches. Despite the constant mayhem caused by the cockroaches, Oggy has developed a sort of love–hate relationship with them, having lived with them for a long time. In the episode "The Ghost Hunter"/"Ghost Hunting", Oggy kills the cockroaches but is terrorized by the spirits. Whenever he finds himself alone in his house, he will eventually begin to miss the cockroaches along with their pranks (as seen in the episode "Priceless Roaches" and "So Lonely"/"Alone at last") followed by nothing interesting happening in his life. He also has a fear of heights, as shown in Season 1 episodes "The Rise & the Fall"/"Vertigo", but in "The Lighthouse Keeper" Jack has a morbid fear of heights instead of him.
• The Cockroaches are a gang of three cockroaches named Dee Dee, Marky and Joey, who loves playing tricks on other characters such as Oggy and Jack. However, if the cats left, they would miss each other as seen in "Moving Out".
  • Dee Dee is the youngest cockroach with a dark blue body, orange head, black nose, green eyes and black feet. Always hungry, his appetite sometimes reaches insane proportions, often resulting in the consumption of larger animals or other things that would otherwise be inedible (such as hyenas in one case and, due to the effects of a poisonous mushroom in another case, an insect; other instances include the fish on the wallpaper in "Oggy's Clone"/"Oggy's Costume" and a clownfish in "Scuba Diving"). He is known to like opera. Sometimes it is shown that his feet are so foul-smelling that the juice they produce is toxic and can melt objects, as seen in "Caught in a Trap"/"High Security Fridge".
  • Marky is the tallest and middle cockroach with a silver body, green head, black nose, pink eyes (originally red), and black feet. Although Marky originally used to love causing mischief just like Dee Dee and Joey, he has grown to be more laid-back as the series progress. In most episodes, he is shown with Dee Dee as his partner. His hobbies are dating puppets and reading books; he also has bad breath as revealed in "It's a Small World"/"Itsy-Bitsy Oggy". His eyes are red again in the ending of the episode "Teleportation" where he is stuck in ice cubes.
  • Joey (born 15 June 1991)^[5] is a cockroach with a purple-pink body, a pink right eye (originally red), a yellow left eye, lavender head, black nose, and black feet. Even though he is the shortest roach in the group, he is the most intelligent, always being the brain in the plans, but is sometimes forced to go alone because Marky and Dee Dee often think that his plans are stupid. He loves money, but his efforts always fall short, usually ending with him getting swatted or beaten up.
• Jack is a cat with an olive body, yellow eyes, red nose, pale pink stomach, and white feet. In contrast to Oggy, he is more short-tempered, violent, and arrogant than him. He often finds himself building huge machinery, such as roach-catching contraptions, and is very interested in physics and chemistry (that is, the more explosive parts of it). Jack mostly lives and sleeps at Oggy's house, and owns a green jeep in which he and Oggy go for journeys, beach, and fishing. He is sometimes seen trying to propose to Monica, but the cockroaches' pranks always make it stop. In one episode ("Don't Rock the Cradle"/"Oggy the Babysitter"), Jack and Monica seem to have a baby together and ask Oggy to babysit their child. In "Just Married", Jack plans to get married but it got canceled at the end due to roaches.In the Hindi-dub, Jack is shown as the elder brother of Oggy.
  

Recurring

• Bob is a fierce brown bulldog and Oggy's neighbor who has severe anger management issues with him, especially when Oggy, Jack, or cockroaches doing something that accidentally crushes Bob, or shaves his fur or destroys his house, with Bob then pummeling Oggy or Jack off-screen. Despite this, he has some sort of friendship with them, as notably seen in "Olivia", "Steamed Out", and "Back to the Past!". In addition, Bob also works as a police officer shown in several episodes. In one episode ("Back To School"), he was presented as teacher of Oggy and Jack.
• Oggy's grandma is the least known member of Oggy's family who appears in several episodes, including "Granny's Day" and "Oggy's Grandma". She appears to be very strict with Oggy's mannerisms and but supports Oggy and Jack with Monica. In said episodes, she attacks the cockroaches but is actually attacked by them in "Oggy's Grandma", one time getting her head flattened by the lid of Oggy's toilet. She also gets frequent, short-lasting bursts of energy from coffee, which aids her in defeating the cockroaches. In "Granny's Day", she captures Joey and Marky, but feels sympathy for them when Dee Dee cries on a picture of them with Joey and Marky crossed out.
• Monica is Oggy's twin sister and Jack's love interest, the latter of whom she has a child with in "Oggy the Babysitter"/"Don't Rock the Cradle"). Known for being ctive and likes to take on physical challenges such as sky diving and bungee jumping, she is sometimes seen roller skating. Of all the characters, Monica has the least appearances, although she makes a brief one in "Oggy Is Getting Married", where she sits next to Bob.
• In the hindi-dub, Monica is shown as a childhood friend of Oggy. She is shown to be co-incidentally born in the same hospital, same room and at the same time as of Oggy. Her and Oggy's parents were neighbors. She and Oggy studied in the same class of the same school. However, they lost contact with each other, when Oggy shifted to his new house in Billa-Dhaam ( the town where Oggy lives currently). But, she reconciles with Oggy after some years. Jack becomes her love-interest and later her husband. She and Jack(Oggy's brother in hindi-dub) are shown to have a baby in two episodes of the show.
• Olivia is a white cat with a yellow bow on her head who debuts in Season 4 and Oggy's girlfriend. Olivia is aware of the cockroaches' mischief, so she stops them when they are around by using some aggressive methods. Olivia cares a lot about her appearance as seen in the episode "Olivia's Pimple", where she refuses to leave her house when she saw a pimple on her face. In "Oggy Is Getting Married", as the episode title implies, Olivia and Oggy get married after a trip to Venice, Italy and she currently becomes Oggy's wife. However, their life after marriage is not shown later in the series.
• Lady K is a light yellow female cockroach who debuted in the Season 4 episode of the same name, as the cockroaches' new love interest (mainly Joey). She lives in Olivia's house which Olivia is not aware of, and hates her for unknown reasons. She frequently attempts to use the cockroaches as her pawns to get what she wants or her job done. ( She is known as Julie in the hindi-dub)
• Pit is a gray dog living in the same area as Oggy who debuted in Season 4. Like Bob, he is also strong, but does not appear in front of any character in the show except Oggy, Dee Dee, Marky, Joey and Jack.
• Bobette is Bob's daughter who debuted in Season 5. She is Jack's love interest, as seen in the episodes "Marky's Tournament" (where Marky also has a crush on her with Jack) and "Jackromeo and Bobette". She is seen in the episode "Emperor for a Day" as Napoleon's love interest.
• The Policeman is an unnamed human policeman who is normally seen in traffic or sometimes in Oggy's area. Sometimes Oggy or Jack accidentally annoy him due to the cockroaches. He appears in all seasons except Season 4.
• The Doctor is an unnamed human doctor who sometimes visits Oggy's house when Oggy gets sick. In the episodes "A Dog Day's Afternoon"/"Cute Little Puppy", it is shown that he has a pet puppy. He is also shown in "Missing In Action"/"Where is the Exit?" as an artist (painter), but does not appear in Season 5.

Appearances of characters in related show

The characters of the series also made their appearance in many episodes of its related show Space Goofs, like in third episode "Venus Junior" Oggy, Joey, Marky and Dee Dee are seen on aliens television, in "Doodle", the pictures of Oggy, Jack and cockroaches are shown and Monika with Oggy is seen in the episode "The Aliens Show".

Production

After a four-year gap in production, season 5 was released in late 2017 with two more seasons coming later.^[6][7] Season 6 episodes began airing on K2^[8] while Season 5 was previewed on Gulli.^[9]

Broadcast

Oggy and the Cockroaches originated from France, and the series originally aired on France 3 (seasons 1- and 2), Canal+ Family (seasons 3 and 4), Gulli (seasons 5-present, who also reran older episodes), with reruns airing on other French networks like Canal J, Canal+, Télétoon+, France 4, and Tiji. Later, it also aired in India from 2009. In 2015, Nickelodeon started rebroadcasting the show's older episodes.^[10] Later, the series was also picked up by Sonic Nickelodeon. In the Philippines, the show started on TV5 in 2010. Later, in 2021 it moved to Kapamilya Channel. Season 5 started airing on Cartoon Network from 14 August 2017.^[11] In 2020, Sonic Nickelodeon again started airing season 4.

Adaptations

Album

A music album titled Oggy et les Cafards: Le Show du Chat was released in France^[12] on CD and for digital download on 6 September 2010.^[13]

2010 : Oggy et les Cafards : Le Show du Chat (Sony Music Entertainment)

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Générique Oggy et les Cafards"	0:39
2.	"Gaga des Gags d'Oggy"	2:48
3.	"Interlude « Le Réveil d'Oggy »"	0:19
4.	"Matez le Matou"	2:19
5.	"Interlude « Un Chat Bien Botté »"	0:21
6.	"Love Cats"	3:20
7.	"Interlude « Jack, un Ami qui vous Veut du Bien »"	0:22
8.	"Jack le Pote"	2:11
9.	"Interlude « Cafard-naüm »"	0:19
10.	"Oggy Rossini"	3:45
11.	"Interlude « Le Chat Volant »"	0:20
12.	"Dans l'Œil du Chat"	4:58
13.	"Interlude « Cat's Woman »"	0:20
14.	"Pussycat"	3:31
15.	"Interlude « Blues Cat »"	0:24
16.	"Oggy le Chat Chou"	1:53
17.	"Interlude « Cafards à la Playa »"	0:52
18.	"Le Ragga d'Oggy"	2:54
19.	"Générique Oggy et les Cafards"	0:42
20.	"Oggy Never Falls in Love (Bonus in dematerialised version)"	3:36

CD drama

A CD drama, Oggy et les Cafards Volume 1, was released in France on CD and for digital download in October 2012. It contains narrations of five episodes by Anthony Kavanagh.^[14]

2012 : Oggy et les Cafards Volume 1 (Sony Music Entertainment)

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Oggywood"	5:15
2.	"Tribulations en Chine"	10:26
3.	"Le Train Complètement Fou"	7:51
4.	"Papa Poule"	8:41
5.	"37°2 Toute la Journée"	5:45

Comics

A French comic series was adapted from the series, first started out in 2010. It is published by Dargaud, written by Diego Aranega, and drawn and colourised by Frévin, also known as Sylvain Frécon.^[15]

• 16 April 2010: Plouf, prouf, vrooo !
• 5 November 2010: Crac, boum, miaouuuuu !
• 23 September 2011: Bip...bip...bip...

An American comic was planned to be released in summer of 2019. The first issue was released on 11 December 2019, after being delayed two times.^[16] It is published by American Mythology Productions.^[17][18] The comic was released on a bi-monthly schedule, but was on a hiatus for four months after two issues were published due to the COVID-19 pandemic's effect on the comic book industry. Issue #3 was published on 24 June 2020. It is currently on hiatus as of 23 October 2020.

Home media

Five DVDs came out in 2003 in the United States, with 12 episodes each. In 2005, several VHSs were released in New York City.

On 8 October 2008, a French DVD box-set of the complete first season, plus the pilot and the episode "Working Cat", was released. On 6 September 2010, three French DVD box-sets of the complete first, second, and third seasons were made available. In July 2011, a French DVD box-set containing all episodes from seasons 1, 2 and 3 became available.

#	DVD name	Release date
1	Volume 1	4 November 2003
2	Volume 2	4 November 2003
3	Volume 3	25 November 2003
4	Volume 4	25 November 2003
5	Volume 5	25 November 2003

Magazine

A magazine called Oggy et les Cafards, le mag came out in France in 2009 (two issues),^[19] then again in 2011.

• n°1: 11 July 2009
• n°2: 21 October 2009^[20]
• n°3:^[21] 14 January 2011^[22]

Film

The film Oggy and the Cockroaches: The Movie (originally Oggy et les Cafards, Le Film) was released to theatres on 7 August 2013.

Spin-off

Oggy Oggy which centers on a kitten version of Oggy released on August 24, 2021.^[23] It will be CG-animated. The series was announced to be released on Netflix, and will be the first French original Netflix series.^[24]

Video game

A video game for the Game Boy Advance based on the television show was planned and developed by Xilam, but was cancelled.^[25]

Controversy

On 14 March 2015, TMZ reported that a young viewer had pointed out a brief image of a poster in the background with a woman's exposed breasts, shown in the episode "(Un)happy Camper!", which was broadcast on Nickelodeon in the United States on the same day, with some parents complaining about the incident to the network.^[26] However, the series aired in a timeslot (3:30 p.m. ET/PT^[27]) on the American Nickelodeon network, before most school-age children got home from school, so the incident did not gain mainstream media attention. The series continued to air on Nickelodeon in that timeslot until the season's episodes were exhausted, and it aired on sister network Nicktoons until 1 May, likely solely for contractual purposes due to Nickelodeon's worldwide deal for the series which requires an airing on its American networks. For future airings of the episode worldwide, and on the official Oggy channel on YouTube, the poster image is replaced with a neutral beach scene.

See also

• List of French animated television series
• List of French television series

References

External links

Media related to Oggy and the Cockroaches at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website
• Website of the producer Xilam (in English)
• Oggy and the Cockroaches at IMDb
• Oggy and the Cockroaches at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Oggy and the Cockroaches's channel on YouTube