Dennis and Gnasher is an Australian/British animated television series currently being aired on CBBC Channel. Based on the original comic strips from The Beano, it features the adventures of the rebellious schoolboy Dennis the Menace and his dog Gnasher. The programme is aimed for ages 6–12 and commenced on 7 September 2009 and ended on 2 March 2010 after 52 episodes. A second series started at 3:45pm on 8 July 2013 on the CBBC Channel. It was preceded by Dennis and Gnasher which aired in 1996 and a new series in 1998.
Production
The new series features the return of 10-year-old Dennis, Gnasher, Mum, Dad, Curly and Pie-Face and also features the introduction of Dennis' little sister Bea, as well as several original characters like Athena. The production shots also showed Dennis' treehouse with a more menacing design. Screenshots and an episode can be found at the production company Red Kite Animation's website. Images of the characters and production were featured in The Beano's 70-year anniversary. The show was a co-production between Red Kite Animation in Scotland and Sticky Pictures in Australia. Consisting of 52 11-minute segments, the animation is directed by Glenn Kirkpatrick with Executive Producers Donna Andrews and Ken Anderson and producers Jane Schneider and Sueann Smith. Jane Ubrien, Sarah Aubrey, Jimmy Hibbert and Keith Scott are confirmed to be voice actors for the series.
Changes
A number of changes have been made to the original format compared to the comics and previous television series. As well as being updated and modernised, Dennis lost his catapult and peashooter and no longer deliberately causes trouble. In addition Walter, Dennis's main rival, was made more masculine, removing elements like his pink pyjamas, a small poodle, effeminate voice and his friends being mainly girls. There were fears that Dennis could be seen as homophobic or at the least bullying Walter about his effeminacy. A Telegraph article claimed that the show had been toned down for reasons of "political correctness". However the producers have stated that "Dennis will not lose his sense of fun." Cartoonist Lew Stringer has refuted on his blog the political correctness claims made by some areas of the media, especially the reports that Dennis will no longer use catapults and Gnasher will no longer bite people. Describing these claims as "another 'political correctness gone mad' myth embellished by the media", he has posted videos showing that the show has not been softened up to the extent that the media has reported. Despite, or possibly because, of these changes, the show was received positively by the mainstream audience and a small number of professional critics, and the show was a ratings winner on the CBBC Channel at launch. For the production of series 2 it was decided that the series would change yet again. 'The Menace' returned to the title 'Dennis the Menace and Gnasher' and his personality changed slightly in tribute to the classic comics. The designs of Dennis' parents also changed to match up to the weekly Beano comic. The style of animation was also adjusted. Pie Face and Walter's voice actors have also been changed. He also got his catapult and peashooter back and uses them directly at them.
The full list of episodes has been released: The series took a break between 7 October 2009 and 31 January 2010.
Series 2 (2013)
Series 2 has incorporated Dennis' newly designed parents from weekly comic The Beano. CBBC presenter Chris Johnson has taken on the voice role of Dennis the Menace. It was also noted that Dennis appears more menacing than the previous series. Michael Stirling of DC Thomson had this say, "will be ABSOLUTELY more menacing…something which will become very clear to everyone when the series is officially publicised." This series took a break between 10 August 2013 and 17 November 2013.
60 Second Dennis
35 shorts were also made and air on CBBC. 60 Second Dennis is also the name of a former strip in The Beano.
5 DVDs have been released and all of series 2 is available to stream on Netflix.
DVD releases
Accolades
Book
On 6 February 2014, a book called The Diary of Dennis the Menace was released to celebrate The Beano's 75 Anniversary. The second book Beanotown Battle was released on 1 May 2014. The third book Rollercoaster Riot was released on 7 August 2014. Steven Butler wrote the books. Butler also released audio books for the first three titles. The fourth book Bash Street Bandit was released on 5 February 2015. The fifth book Canine Carnage was released on 2 July 2015. The sixth book The Great Escape was released on 4 February 2016.
