Natasha Fatale

Natasha Fatale is a fictional character in the 1960s animated cartoons Rocky and His Friends and The Bullwinkle Show, collectively referred to as Rocky and Bullwinkle for short. She is voiced by June Foray.

Character overview

Natasha is a spy for the fictional country of Pottsylvania, and takes orders from the nation's leader, Fearless Leader (and occasionally the rarely seen Mr. Big). Natasha usually serves as an assistant or accomplice to her fellow spy, Boris Badenov. Like Boris, Natasha also delights in performing various criminal misdeeds. She seems to be a bit more intelligent, or at least more thoughtful, than Boris, and often points out flaws in his plans or voices slight contempt for his bungling, to which his customary reply was "Sharrup you mouth, Natasha." Also, Natasha does say "SHARRUP YOUR MOUTH!!!!" to Boris in one episode, as their car goes over a cliff in The Treasure of Monte Zoom.

Her past is something of a mystery. According to the Rialto Theater's Moosebill for "Downhill: The Musical" (a special table of contents insert created for the DVD box set Rocky and Bullwinkle & Friends, The Third Season), Natasha is supposedly the only child of Axis Sally and Count Dracula. A former Miss Transylvania, she was expelled from college for subversive activities at a local cemetery. She traveled from Transylvania to the United States at the age of 19, landing in New York, where she spent two years posing for Charles Addams and as the party girl who pops out of the big cake at embalmers' stag parties. She met Boris Badenov in 1948, when they were both arrested for throwing rocks at Girl Scouts hawking Girl Scout Cookies. Boris was immediately smitten with her charms, and they have been partners in crime ever since. In her spare time, Natasha raises tarantulas and is the National Chairman of the Society to Restore The Real Meaning of Halloween.

Usually, Natasha's and Boris's misdeeds are thwarted by Rocky the Flying Squirrel and Bullwinkle the Moose. She refers to them collectively as "Moose and Squirrel."

Natasha is almost always shown in a purple dress, but in the last season it is often red.

Natasha often appeared in the "Rocky and Bullwinkle Fan Club" segments, and appeared in two "Mr. Know-it-All" segments, "How to be a Beatnik" and "How to Teach a Mean Bully a Lesson at the beach." Only four Rocky and Bullwinkle storylines do not feature Natasha.

Catchphrases

Natasha's main catchphrase is referring to everyone as "dollink" — that is, "darling" as spoken with her thick Pottsylvanian accent (a mock-Russian accent) — an homage to actress-socialite Zsa Zsa Gabor and her habit of calling everyone "darling" (or in her Hungarian accent, "dahlink").

Name

Natasha's last name is a pun on the phrase femme fatale, with emphasis on the "fatal" part; in keeping with that, Natasha was drawn as a shapely, attractive looking woman. However, in nearly all episodes, the character is identified only as Natasha, with no surname.

She is apocryphally known as "Natasha Nogoodnik". However, she is identified in the series premiere by her proper name by the show's narrator, making "Fatale" her canonical and correct surname.

In other media

In the 1992 Showtimes Network film Boris and Natasha: The Movie, she was portrayed by Sally Kellerman. In the 2000 theatrical film The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, the live-action Natasha was portrayed by Rene Russo. The Internet Movie Database said Natasha will be played by Lauri Fraser for the short film Rocky and Bullwinkle.

In popular culture

A reference to Natasha was featured on an episode of Murphy Brown where Robin Strasser played a visiting reporter from Russia. Candice Bergen at one point got upset with her, and making fun of her accent, asks her, "Shouldn't you be chasing moose and squirrel?"

External links

• Hokey Smoke! Rocky and Bullwinkle - character profile for Natasha Fatale
• IMDB profile

References