Ruby Gloom
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Ruby Gloom is created by apparel company Mighty FIne, and is part of a stationery franchise, usually featured on pencil cases and backpacks. Recently her product line has been expanded to clothing, keychains and plush toys. The character of Ruby Gloom is a small girl with bright red hair almost similar to a Powerpuff Girl in proportion wearing traditional gothic clothing. Usually she is accompanied by her pet cat, Doom Kitty. Her catchprase is "The Happiest Girl in the World". Nelvana has made this franchise into a TV show, which began airing in Canada on October 13, 2006 on YTV. [1]
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[edit] Series synopsis
Ruby Gloom is an ironic comedy with an emphasis on the importance of friendship.
In a Victorian mansion on the outskirts of Gloomsville lives Ruby Gloom. Some kids might be afraid of the dark, the eccentric neighbours and the unknown things that dwell in the closet, but Ruby is different - she befriends these strange and sometimes scary creatures. In fact, Ruby finds them all delightful. She pays no attention to their unusual appearances, perceptive only to their hearts and souls. As Ruby likes to point out "Always look on the bright side - unless of course the dark side is your bright side and that's okay too!" Ruby's perfect day is a gloomy one, full of creativity and adventure with her offbeat circle of friends. Despite the series' gothic overtones, the characters in Ruby Gloom actually have a lot of parallels to characters of the old Harvey Comics brand, such as Richie Rich and Casper the Friendly Ghost.
(used with permission from YTV)
[edit] Main Characters
[edit] Ruby Gloom
The title character on which the series is based, Ruby has earned her title of "The Happiest Girl in the World". Much like Yotsuba Koiwai from the manga series, Yotsuba &!, Ruby is a girl who can find happiness in anything. "Look on the bright side" is a phrase she chants like a mantra, and it serves her well. There isn't a single thing in the world that gets her down or a single negative that she can't turn into a positive. And her solution to any problem usually seems to involve throwing a party of some kind, although Ruby never has any problem finding a reason to have a party. Her positive attitude is actually quite helpful, as it allows Ruby to act as the voice of reason in the mansion, keeping her wits about her under pressure while all of her friends are usually losing their minds. Her upbeat outlook also makes Ruby very loyal to her friends and there's almost nothing she wouldn't do for any of them.
[edit] Doom Kitty
As Ruby's pet cat, Doom Kitty has complete free rein of the mansion. As such, she is usually the only one who knows 100% what's going on in any given area of the house. This keeps her one step ahead of Ruby and the others most of the time, because whenever something strange happens in the mansion, Doom will usually have all the facts already while everyone else is still trying to figure things out. Unfortunately, since Doom can't talk, her only hope of communicating with the others is through pantomime. Ruby usually has a pretty easy time understanding her, but it doesn't always work.{cutest cat ever..except for mine..lol}
[edit] Iris
Like Ruby, Iris goes through life without a care in the world, but in a much different way. Where Ruby finds happiness in anything, Iris finds adventure. From safaris to fighting wild animals to even shooting herself out of a cannon, there isn't a single thing she won't try at least once, as long as she thinks it's fun. Unfortunately, Iris' adventuresome nature also makes her quite impulsive and she has a bad habit of jumping into a situation (often literally) without considering potential consequences. This usually results in trouble she didn't expect. However, Iris never seems to learn from this and as soon as the trouble is gone, she's off again on the next adventure.
[edit] Misery
If Ruby is the happiest girl in the world, then Misery is certainly the unluckiest. If there's ever a sign of severe property damage, it's a pretty safe bet that Misery was or still is somewhere in the vicinity. But Misery doesn't mean to be a walking disaster area. Her mishaps are usually a combination of clumsiness and extraordinary bad luck. Evidently, these traits run in her family, as Misery has had relatives who have been present at every single major disaster in recorded history. Fortunately, her friends are all kindhearted enough to take this in stride. Misery spends most of the time in a state of detached apathy. She does have tiny moments of happiness throughout the series, but unless they're few and far between, her bad luck rears its ugly head and strikes her down with a vengeance, usually in the form of lightning bolts. Sugar is also something that Misery needs to stay away from, because whenever she has any sweets, she goes into a hyper autistic frenzy, running around spouting everything that has ever gone wrong in the history of the world, from major catastrophies like an earthquake in China to small non-events like stubbing her toe in the kitchen. Despite these problems though, Misery has actually been revealed to be an incredibly gifted singer. However, this talent only shines through whenever she's asleep. Otherwise, her singing just comes out as banshee-like screams. Still, it was enough for Frank and Len to recruit her as lead singer for their band, R.I.P., during a major concert event. Their performance was a huge success, but it remains to be seen if Misery has become a full-time member of the group.
[edit] Skull Boy
A man of many talents, Skull Boy is the mansion's official Jack of All Trades. From film directing to painting, cooking to cavern exploring, robotics to private investigating, Skull Boy can pretty much do it all. His only problem is that he can't seem to find one thing and stick to it for any serious length of time. But if Skull Boy doesn't know where he's going, it's mostly because he doesn't know where he's been. He spends a lot of time trying to discover his roots, hoping that this knowledge will give him a direction to focus his life in. There have been subtle hints that Ruby definitely has a crush on him.
[edit] Frank & Len
Rockers by nature, these two patchwork brothers live in the mansion's garage. Appropriate settings, considering that they have their own garage band, known as R.I.P (pronounced RIP). To their credit, Frank and Len are actually incredibly gifted musicians. Unfortunately, that's about all they're gifted at, as they both tend to lose focus on anything that isn't their music. This usually results in the two of them missing obvious things that are right under their noses. Frank is actually the more intelligent of the two, but he's only marginally smarter than Len. Still, it's enough of a difference that the two of them are almost never on the same page (even though they're both in the same body). About the only other thing that the two of them are in sync on (besides their music) is their crush on Ruby. Ruby hasn't seemed to notice this, however
[edit] Scaredy Bat
Just as his name suggests, Scaredy is pretty much...scaredy. Where Ruby finds happiness and Iris finds adventure, Scaredy finds only fear. He's afraid of reading nursery rhymes. Despite being a bat, he's afraid of flying and afraid of the dark. And as it turns out, he's literally afraid of his own reflection. Still, this constant state of fear is perfect for Boo Boo, the mansion's ghost, since Scaredy is the only one who's afraid of him.
[edit] Boo Boo
The mansion's ghost, Boo Boo sees it as his job to haunt. Unfortunately, it's a little difficult for him to do that when everyone thinks he's cute (and he hates being thought of as cute). When he first arrived at the mansion, Boo Boo wasn't an official ghost in that he couldn't phase through walls and only cats and psychics could see him. According to the leaders of the Ghost Family (two large, mobster-type ghosts who go by the names of Mr. White and Mr. White), Boo Boo couldn't become a full ghost until he had scared at least one person and Ruby's mansion was the house they'd selected for him. But since Boo Boo couldn't go through walls and Doom Kitty was the only one in the house who could see him, his job was next to impossible. However, when Doom Kitty splashed milk on him to reveal his presence, Boo Boo got a slight scare out of Misery when he almost splashed milk onto a tablecloth owned by Misery's great-great-really great-grandmother. Apparently, it was enough of a scare for Boo Boo to become a full fledged ghost, since he can now phase through walls and everyone can now see him. After that though, his only real motivation for staying in the mansion has been to torture Scaredy Bat, as he hasn't been able to scare anyone else since.
[edit] Edgar, Allan and Poe
Three dapper uptown ravens, Edgar, Allan and Poe live in an attached addition to the mansion. However, of the three of them, Poe is the one who is seen the most. Edgar and Allan are hardly seen and when they are, they never speak (it's unclear whether it's because they can't talk or because they simply don't have anything worth saying). As such, they seem to spend most of their time in the series acting as Poe's bodyguards and servants. Poe meanwhile, as a man of culture and sophistication (if he does say so himself), likes to think of himself as a role model to the rest of the mansion's residents. Unfortunately, he tends to be a little too attached to his image and likes to cover up the parts of him that make him look like less than what he makes himself out to be. For example, he'd rather tell people he's performing in an actual opera than admit that he's staying home to listen to opera records. Poe's pampered nature also tends to make him overreact to things that everyone else would more or less take in stride. Their names are an obvious reference to Edgar Allan Poe.
[edit] Mr. Buns
Is he "just a stuffed sock" or is he the mansion's "special, one-of-a-kind friend"? The jury's still out, but one thing's for sure. It's always interesting whenever Mr. Buns is around. A stuffed rabbit that Ruby created from one of her leftover socks, the floppy, yet enigmatic Mr. Buns pretty much finds himself in the middle of almost all the action in the mansion. But always the questions remain, is it real or coincidence? Did he really make off with a tray of Ruby's pastries right after she finished making him? Is he really Poe's talent agent? What will he do next? Is he even doing these things at all? Only time will tell if these questions will ever have any answers.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
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Theme song: "Bright side of the dark side"
