The Angry Beavers

I love unique ideas for kid’s shows. It was refreshing to see The Angry Beavers because it wasn’t about a group of kids. These beavers are twin brothers that were kicked out of their family’s dam when their twin younger sisters were born. They live a bachelor style life out in the woods in their own souped up dam. And of course, the two of them are as different as night and day.

Norbert is the more responsible of the two. He’s smarter, and more level headed. He even looks like he takes care of himself better than his brother. Although, Norbert or  “Norb” or “Norbie” will definitely stoop down to his brother’s level and get in just as much trouble as he does. For some reason I always had a crush on Norb. Maybe it was his voice.

Daggett or “Dag” or “Daggie” is more pointy and squirrely looking. He makes little noises as he runs around the dam. He loves to make certain objects his own—like a two year old saying “Mine!” Perhaps the best thing about the brothers is that they unabashedly stay up to all hours of the night, sitting on the couch and eating junk food. My heroes.

Norbert and Daggett

Of course the beaver brothers get out of the house every now and then. They have many woodland friends including (but not limited to) Barry the Bear, Wolffe, Truckee the shrew (One of the best episodes includes Truckee and Daggett stuck in an upside-down dam a la Poseidon Adventure), Bing the chameleon, Big Rabbit, and a collection of other minor characters. Norbert’s love interest, Treeflower, should be included as well. She’s a hippie beaver that Norb met at a Woodstock type concert. She appears throughout the show with odd jobs. She also has really good hair. For a beaver, that is.

A part of the show that really connected with me was the way Dag and Norb spoke to each other. They almost had this weird little language where they would pronounce certain words slightly wrong. Norb would do it more often and Dag would copy him. For example, on their birthday, they were fighting over who would open their present and Norb said, “We need to save the cooly cool birthada present for tomorrow! I bet it’s a video game.” Dag responded “Video game? Hah! Bet you your half of the present that it’s a florescent pen light (batteries not included).” Then Norb said, “I bet you your half of the present plus half of next year’s present that it’s a vahdio game.”

I don’t know why I felt the need to type that out, but you get the picture. Norbert is my favorite character mostly because of all the sarcasm that he aims towards his brother. He’s reminds me of Owen Wilson, but in beaver form. One time, when the two of them had to leave their dam for a while, they let their little sisters Chelsea and Stacy take care of their place. Dag wanted to give them the most insane list of chores and finally Norb said, “They’re little girls! Why don’t you just ask them to raise the Titanic while they’re at it?”

The Angry Beavers actually taught me some important facts about beavers. Did you know that beavers, kind of like skunks, have a special scent that they can release from their tail that they can mark their property with? In one episode Dag finds this information out, and he starts marking all of his stuff. Norb starts to do the same and they have a fight with their smells. Pretty creative. I also learned the beavers can build amazing homes for themselves. Dag and Norb have spacious rooms, doors on the ground that opened into water, and canoe bunk beds. Norbert also built his fair share of secret rooms that held his inventions, first aid kits, and hair supplies.

There aren’t any good pictures of this show…

I don’t know why I bonded to these beavers. They just seemed like two guys I could really get along with. The show premiered in the US in 1997 and first aired in Canada in 2009! Think of all the poor Canadian children who were deprived of this show. And it’s about beavers! You would think Canada would’ve been the first to be on board with this show. Pity.

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