Swirlies (June 29, 1988-April 17, 2014)

Creator Thomas Brown was a close friend of Garfield creator, Jim Davis for the majority of the orange cat's popularity until the two were involved in a massive disagreement. This disagreement resulted in Thomas Brown creating Swirlies, a direct competition to the popularity of Garfield comics in the 90s. And on June 29, 1988, the first ever Swirlies comic titled "Mail Order" was released in which it depicted the father of the house, Hemot Tebbo, the teenage daughter Jolly Dolly, the laid back hippie grandpa Peeko Tiko, and their house pet Pinga Penguin. In this strip, there's a mail order at the family's door. Peeko tells Tebbo to get it and Tebbo then tells Dolly to get it. The comic humourously ends with Dolly expressing irritation at her lazy family members before getting the mail. This strip unexpectedly sparked popularity with more being published. And by the end of 1992, Swirlies and Garfield were two of the most popular comic strips to read. This popularity led to the Swirlies animated series "The Swirlies" first airing on May 14, 1993. The series became popular for teaching kids good morals while being a show adults can enjoy as well. Every episode had a moral or lesson for either one of the characters to learn from, ranging from topics of bullies to recycling and ran from its air date to July 4th, 1999 in which the series ended with Dolly going off to college. In 2003, the show would be rebooted with the title "Dolo Days" in which it would explore Dolly's time in high school and cover topics popular in shows around this time with tone of the show itself being much more edgy and aimed towards preteens and teens and would become a prominent program among children of the time, many having only seen this series as opposed to the one before. The show would remain popular until its cancellation in 2007 due to the wider public losing interest. Swirlies wouldn't be touched again until 2012 when CGI french animated series would be released. This show saw a return to form of the original animated series from the 90s where the format remained the same but it took a much more cartoony approach. For example, Peeko was referred to everyone in the show as "Papa" where he was a retired war veteran and and heavily implied to be a stoner. While Tebbo was the classic all american working class dad while trying to be there for his own dad and for his daughter. And Dolly was an inventive nerdy girl that regularly made experiements with Pinga. The show saw moderate popularity and would gain a loyal fanbase even after its cancellation in 2017. While the show was being aired, two films would release; "Swirlies Get Real" on December 12, 2013 and "Swirlies in Space" on April 17, 2014. Swirlies Get Real was a live action/CGI hybrid film being centred around Dolly creating a machine that can travel to other dimensions which results in her and her family coming to the real world and trying to find a way to return home as they desperately try to avoid being hunted by the US government. Ultimately, through the help of some human friends they made along the way, they're able to make it back to their dimension. Swirlies In Space was a 2D animated film in which Dolly and her family are selected to land on Mars. Upon arriving there, they are stranded after the king of Mars destroys their ship. It's up to the family to save Mars from the Martian dictator and return home. In 2023, an announcement was made about an upcoming feature length film about the Swirlies that covers Dolly working with her dad and grandfather to stop an alien invasion with Dolly's new boyfriend, Lodo. Although there are only posters being shown, the general public reception of the announcement is positive with fans being excited for another iteration of their favourite marine family.