Edgar & Ellen
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Edgar & Ellen is a book series by Charles Ogden based on the mischief of the twins, Edgar and Ellen. It is a series of six books, but not all of them have been released yet. Rare Beasts is the first, followed by Tourist Trap, Under Town, Pet's Revenge, High Wire, and Nod's Limbs. Although they seem to go in order, the first three don't seem to have to be read in order--though they do have a continuity throughout these volumes.
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[edit] Books
- Rare Beasts 2003 ISBN 1-58246-110-4
- Tourist Trap 2004 ISBN 1-58246-111-2
- Under Town 2004 ISBN 1-58246-126-0
- Pet's Revenge 2006 ISBN 1-4169-1408-0
- High Wire 2006 ISBN 1-4169-1500-1
- Nod's Limbs 2007 ISBN 1-4169-1501-X
[edit] Overview
They live in a 13-story mansion on the edge of a town called "Nod's Limbs". They start out the series as 12 year olds—Ellen is older by 2 minutes and 13 seconds. Since their parents are on an around-the-world vacation, they live with their pet, Pet—a pile of hair with an eyeball (it looks a lot like a handleless mop). Their groundskeeper, Ronan Heimertz, lives in a small shack just outside the house. Their mansion is located near a now disassembled junkyard, which the twins had lovingly dubbed their "Gadget Graveyard". They take parts from it and create marvelous contraptions of trouble. Both of the twins wear striped footie pajamas and prank each other all day long. They are clever, sneaky, and always find a way to fill their everyday boredom. Starting from Tourist Trap their adventure starts of as trying to protect the Gadget Graveyard. But in the events in Under Town, it is one large vain attempt to stop the construction of the Knightlorian Hotel, and they are betrayed by a stranger called "The Mason". At the same time they stumble over a laboratory that is connected to their house via tunnel. In the lab they discover a journal made by a mysterious stranger and substance which the writer describes as "balm". More is answered in Pet's Revenge when the twins realise why Pet has been acting strangly. They find out that Pet eats the balm. They discover that their house was built by Augustus Nod (the founder of Nods Limbs). In High Wire more is answered including finding Nod's Balm spring and his skeleton. After several events they are betrayed by Heimertz's relative Ormond and their house is sentenced to be razed by the Knightleighs demolition team.
[edit] Characters
[edit] Edgar and Ellen
Edgar is an escape artist mastermind; he has a passion for playing the organ and comes up with the duo's schemes. His logic usually makes him the first to realise something. Ellen is a genius in botany—especially the creepy, mad-scientist kind. She has a vicious pitcher plant (scientifically Nepenthes sinestra); she originally had Berenice who was killed by Stephanie in Undertown. After though it was Morella (Berenices' seedling) she owned, who is responsible for saving Ellen in Pet's Revenge. Both Edgar and Ellen love booby traps and pranks, and they typically burst out in song or verse.
[edit] Pet
It isn't known yet whether Pet is a girl or boy, and Charles Ogden, the author, continues to refer to Pet as an It. At first, it seems that Pet is always the victim in all of Edgar and Ellen's plans, but really it's quite the opposite. Pet loves to watch television and nap in obscure places. In Pet's Revenge it was revealed that it assisted Augustus Nod when it was alive (who referred to Pet as Pilos or Pilosoculus.) it is fueled by the balm. It turns out in Hightwire that Pet is very wise and forgives the twins for all that was done to it.
[edit] Ronan Heimertz
Heimertz is the one thing that truly frightens Edgar & Ellen. A mammoth of a guy, he has a creepy smile and never, ever speaks. He's got this great knack of popping up when the twins least expect it, and it's unknown whether he's on their side. Heimertz loves the accordion. It turns out that he was supposed to guard the balm but tried to uncover the Balm and feed it to Pet to keep it alive. The only time that he speaks is in High Wire and has recently been betrayed by Ormond Heimertz.
[edit] Mayor Knightleigh and his family
Mayor Knightleigh is the mayor of Nod's Limbs. He is pompous, nosy, and bent on tearing down Edgar & Ellen's "eye sore" of a tower. His daughter, Stephanie, is Ellen's mortal enemy. She's the popular kid that thinks she runs the world with her "sweetness" but is really a snob who looks down on Ellen and wants her to be "normal". Mayor Knightleigh has a wife (Judith), a whacky son (Miles) who has more respect for Edgar and Ellens ways, and a faithful but klutzy intern named Bob who does everything for him.
[edit] Augustus Nod
Augustus Nod Is the founder of Nods Limbs, the builder of Edgar and Ellen's house and before he died, a Lunatic. His discovery of the balm helped him make new types of candles, he also studied the balm with the help of Pilosoculus (Pet). Unfortunaly this "exposion" to the Balm caused him to get, as the twins call it, Mad Duke Disease that caused him to go mad. He died in the balm spring when the fire of his lamp caused the balm to explode killing him in either the explosion of the Balm or the falling rocks. His body was discovered in later years by the houses current occuapnts Edgar and Ellen. (it must be noted the that pet tried warning him (in the symbole language) "Oh Nod you fool you'll kill yourself tonight, add less than three pehsent of balm will ignites."
[edit] Minor characters
[edit] The Mason
This person appeared in both "Undertown" and briefly in "High Wire" Her real name is Eugena Smithy who was the daughter of Smithy and Sons (the local builders company) she was the president of the company but when she lost building the Knightorian hotel to another out-of-town company she was cast out of Smithy and Sons. When she found Edgar and Ellens plans in the sewers she used their plans to slow the hotel building process.
When the twins found out they struck a deal to stop the process altogether and she could take over the building prosess and build the hotel in a new spot. The mason changes her mind when she found her grandfathers grave and the building goes on with her in charge. She made a Brief appearance again in "High Wire".
[edit] Ormond Hemertz
Ormond is the escape artist of the Heimertz family circus. He appeared in "High Wire". Edgar admired his skill when he first met him not knowing that he and his sister would be betrayed by Ormond. He sent the twins to collect three pieces of amber that were hidden in the circus. afterwards he faked his death and stole the property deed from the ringmaster, knocking him out and in turn giving the deed to Stephinie Knightleigh.
Despite betraying them he still has a soft spot for the twins referring them as "poppets".
Though Ormond's plan has several weak point. when the ring master wakes up he will know that Ormond had betrayed them and if the rumor is true, then the family curse is on the Knightleighs.
[edit] Setting
Nod's Limbs is the town where Edgar and Ellen live. It's beyond the goody-two-shoes-ness of "Leave It to Beaver" and "Pleasantville"-- it's SOOO sickenly sweet that it makes your teeth hurt. There is no originality to the people that live there- which is why Edgar and Ellen are such a foil for them. The twins definitely liven up the place. It's a place so clean and shiny that you just want to throw mud at it just to mix things up a bit. Though nice as The Mason (Eugina Smithy) and Stephinie Knightleigh prove some of them can be quite ruthless.
[edit] The creators
Ogden, the author of the series, is an avid camper and fisherman and he collects bugs. He has travelled to the north and south poles and Poland. He lives in a cool, dry place far removed from prying eyes.
Rick Carton, the illustrator, has been drawing longer than he's been walking. In his Chicago studio he has a cherished collection of every pencil ever worn down to a nub during his lengthy artistic career. He has never formally studied art; instead, the art community has diligently studied him. They are yet to release their findings. He also co-created a company called Star Farm Productions in Chicago, that helps the Edgar and Ellen series come to life.
[edit] The cartoon shorts
Nicktoons Network airs Edgar & Ellen two-minute shorts before and after some programs every day. There are thirteen in total. Specials had begun on Nicktoons Network on Labor Day Weekend 2006. The Back-to-School special "Accept No Substitutes" was followed by a Halloween special, "Trick or Twins". A winter special dubbed "Cold Medalists", a valentine's special entitled "Crushed", and an April Fool's special "Nobody's Fool" will lead into the television series, which begins spring 2007 on the Nicktoons Network.
In Canada, YTV aired the special Back-to-School episode on September 4.
The cartoons mainly show the pranking activities of Edgar and Ellen, but they also include book characters like Mayor Knightleigh, Bob the Intern, Pet, Buffy the muffin lady, and several random Nod's Limbsians.
Edgar and Ellen hosted the Scare-a-thon on Nicktoons during Halloween weekend of 2005 and did so again in 2006.
[edit] The movie
The Koppelsons, who have produced such movies as Platoon, have signed on to producing a live-action Edgar & Ellen film. It is still in preproduction.
