Francine Alice Frensky

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Francine Alice Frensky is the name of a character in the book series and PBS children's show Arthur. She is voiced by Jodie Resther.


Arthur character
Francine Alice Frensky
Gender: Female
Age Eight
Voiced by: Jodie Resther


Contents

[edit] Character

[edit] Personality

Francine Frensky is an eight-year-old anthropomorphic monkey in the third grade. She is intelligent, often scoring higher on tests than many of her friends.[1] A tomboy, she enjoys and is good at singing and playing the drums, but she is unable to do both at the same time. She also enjoys being the center of attention, and tries to make everything go her way, often insulting her friends.[2] Francine is often known for being outspoken, very stubborn, and blunt, which often hurts her relationships with her family and friends. However, despite her bluntness, she believes she's one of the nicest people in her school. She writes, edits, and runs her own tabloid newspaper, whose controversial content has caused her friends to be upset.[3] She also loves horses. [4]

[edit] Athletics

Francine loves competitive sports, especially soccer and baseball. She often tries to help her friends with athletics, when she doesn't feel they are good enough. [5] She often lets her reputation get in the way of fun in sports. She also took horseback riding lessons once. [6] [7]

[edit] Religion

Francine and all of her family are practicing Jews of Polish decent, and she feels strongly about this. Muffy has insulted her, claiming that Hannukah wasn't as important as Christmas. This upset Francine greatly, but the two later made up.[8] [9]

[edit] Family

Francine is consistently jealous of her teenage sister Catherine. She is jealous often for her being a more advanced horseback rider. She is also so often also compared to Catherine, which creates feelings of resentment. [4] Catherine and Francine have also argued over room decorations, eventually causing Catherine to move out. [10] Francine also attended circus camp, an activity at which her sister excelled, but learned that she wasn't as good at it as Catherine. [11]

Oliver Frensky, Francine's father is a sanitation engineer in Elwood City. In one episode, Francine became very embarrassed because of this. [12] She also became embarrassed when she received her dad's old hand-me-down bike because her family couldn't afford a new bike. To get a new bike, she lied and threw the bike away. She eventually told the truth and made up with her father. [13]

The rest of her family includes Laverne Frensky, her mother; and Nemo, her pet cat [14]. Some of her extended family was shown in the 2000 primetime Christmas special Arthur's Perfect Christmas[15].

[edit] Friendships

[edit] Muffy Crosswire

Francine's best friend is Muffy Crosswire. They became friends when they discovered they had the same middle name: Alice. [16] The two have entirely different lifestyles, and don't always get along together because of it. [17] At one point, Francine grew tired of having to do what Muffy wanted (and vice-versa), which temporarily caused a rift in their relationship while Francine became great friends with Jenna. [18]

[edit] Arthur Read

Arthur and Francine have been close friends for years, and have gone to school together for a long time. At one point, it was suspected that Francine had a major crush on Arthur, but it was a rumor.[19]

[edit] Other friends

Francine's other friends include the Brain (Alan) Powers, Buster Baxter, Binky Barnes, Sue Ellen Armstrong, Fern Walters, George Nordgren, Jenna Morgan, Prunella Deegan, and her neighbor Mrs. Pariso. However, her stubbornness has temporarily ruined her relationships with her friends. She has upset the Brain because she refused to admit he was better than her in soccer. [6] [7]. She has had the bad habit of teasing Arthur about various things, such as his glasses and his baby teeth, a trait Arthur has held against her at certain points. She also became upset when she first met Mrs. Pariso, who pounded on the wall all the time when she felt disturbed. However, Francine discovered that Mrs. Pariso was just lonely and after realizing that they had so much in common, they became very good friends. She also had a fight with Fern. Francine teased Fern because she thought Fern was too quiet.

[edit] Trivia

  • Francine first appeared in the first book, Arthur's Nose, by Marc Brown.
  • She has the same middle name as her friend, Muffy Crosswire.
  • Francine's last name, "Frensky," is an alliterative play on the name of children's book author Stephen Krensky. In addition to collaborating with Stephen Krensky on such children's book titles as Dinosaurs Beware and Perfect Pigs, series creator Marc Brown was also his best man.

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Arthur Goes to Camp / Buster Makes the Grade". Arthur. Public Broadcastign System. 1996-10-21.
  2. ^ "Arthur's Birthday / Francine Frensky, Superstar". Arthur. Public Broadcasting System. 1996-11-11.
  3. ^ "Citizen Frensky / D.W.'s Backpack Mishap". Arthur. Public Broadcasting System. 2001-10-29.
  4. ^ a b "Francine Frensky, Olympic Rider". Arthur. Public Broadcasting System. 1997-10-20.
  5. ^ "D.W. Rides Again / Arthur Makes the Team". Arthur. Public Broadcasting System. 1997-01-27.
  6. ^ a b "DW's Snow Mystery / Team Trouble". Arthur. Public Broadcasting System. 1997-02-17.
  7. ^ a b "Arthur vs. the Piano / The Big Blow-Up". Arthur. Public Broadcasting System. 1997-11-10.
  8. ^ "Arthur's Perfect Christmas". Arthur. Public Broadcasting System. 2000-11-23.
  9. ^ "Francine's Split Decision / Muffy Goes Metropolitan". Arthur. Public Broadcasting System. 2002-10-09.
  10. ^ "Francine Redecorates / Arthur the Loser". Arthur. Public Broadcasting System. 1998-03-23.
  11. ^ "Francine's Big Top Trouble / George Blows His Top". Arthur. Public Broadcasting System. 2004-12-28.
  12. ^ "My Dad, the Garbage Man / Poor Muffy". Arthur. Public Broadcasting System. 1997-04-21.
  13. ^ "My Club Rules! / Stolen Bike". Arthur. Public Broadcasting System. 1997-05-26.
  14. ^ "Arthur's Dummy Disaster / Francine and the Feline". Arthur. Public Broadcasting System. 1999-04-26.
  15. ^ None of Francine's family members were named in Arthur's Perfect Christmas, but briefly seen and eluded to.
  16. ^ "Arthur the Wrecker / Arthur and the True Francine". Arthur. Public Broadcasting System. 1996-12-09.
  17. ^ "My Dad, the Garbage Man / Poor Muffy". Arthur. Public Broadcasting System. 1997-04-21.
  18. ^ "Hide and Snake / Muffy's New Best Friend". Arthur. Public Broadcasting System. 1999-09-13.
  19. ^ "Arthur's Faraway Friends / Arthur and the Square Dance". Arthur. Public Broadcasting System. 1998-01-28.
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