Animated Shows Trivia Quiz

Your photo clue is of a lot of spinach leaves, which should have pointed you towards that famous devourer of that vegetable, Popeye. A bottle of olive oil might have worked too, as his girlfriend is named Olive Oyl.

The character of Popeye was created by E C Segar and originally appeared in newspaper comic strips. He was turned into an animated television character in 1960 and the shows have been syndicated around the world. Apart from Olive, other characters to feature were Bluto, also called Brutus, as Popeye's enemy and Poopdeck Pappy, his father. Whenever Popeye needed extra strength, he would swallow some spinach which made his muscles, especially the biceps, grow and bulge abnormally.

This is a more literal clue for this question, provided you know that the Thomas referred to is 'Thomas the Tank Engine', created by Wilbert Awdry for his books called 'The Railway Series'. The books appeared from 1945 until 1970 initially, with newer versions continuing into the 1980s and 1990s and also into the twenty-first century.

The animated television shows began in 1984 and are still being produced in the 2020s. They feature a bygone age of steam trains with the 'friends' of the title being other engines, such as Henry, Gordon, Edward and James. One of the most famous narrators was the former Beatle, Ringo Starr.

You should have recognised that the picture is of an aardvark. Arthur Read, originally created by Marc Brown for a series of books, was created as an animated character for the series called 'Arthur', which first appeared on US television in 1996. It was aimed at young children, from the age of four upwards, and continued until 2022 with Arthur himself, despite being an aardvark, coping with issues relevant to human children of his age.

In the series, Arthur is described as being aged eight and has two younger sisters, parents and a pet dog named Pal. The shows were relatively short, and had two separate stories on topics which the young viewers could relate to. These included issues at school, dyslexia and even medical issues such as cancer or, less seriously, wetting the bed. The show had quite a wide range of characters to include Arthur's class mates and friends.

'Bagpuss' is a pink and white striped cat, but pictures would be copyrighted so the photographic clue is based on another character in the show, Professor Yaffle. In case you're still wondering, yaffle is the old UK name for the green woodpecker, as depicted. The show was created by Oliver Postgate and appeared on British television in 1974.

Bagpuss is owned by a little girl named Emily, who loves him very much. The various toys are displayed in a shop window, but are not really for sale - they are there for the original owners to recognise and claim them. Professor Yaffle is a wooden bookend who comes to life, along with Bagpuss and the other toys, when Emily isn't around. The other characters include six mice, who sing songs, a doll named Madeleine and Gabriel, a toad.

'The Flintstones' lived in the Stone Age and had motor vehicles with wheels made from millstones, like the ones in the photo clue. Of course, they had no engines and were propelled by the characters' feet. The series first appeared in 1960 and was created by the well known American duo of William Hanna and Joseph Barbera.

Set in the town of Bedrock, the show featured two main families - the Flintstones (Fred and Wilma) and their neighbours, the Rubbles (Barney and Betty). The show was a comedy and featured situations common to modern times, but set in the Stone Age. Fred and Barney would go ten-pin bowling, for example. The families were shown as co-existing with dinosaurs and even had a pet dinosaur named Dino - in reality, of course, humans and dinosaurs did not co-exist. The programme was popular and ran until 1966 originally.

The clue was a little more subtle for this one, indicating an artist's palette. As you should remember, all four of the turtles were named for famous Italian artists - Raphael, Leonardo, Michelangelo and Donatello, although he was more of a sculptor. The characters were originally created as a comic strip with the animated television series starting in 1987. It ran for ten seasons, ending in 1996 but has been restarted several times with a fifth incarnation beginning in 2024.

The basis of the story involves a ninja master named Yoshi, who lives in the sewers of New York. He adopts four turtles, who are abandoned there. They turn into half human creatures when Yoshi's enemy, Shredder, tries to kill him with a chemical agent which instead transforms Yoshi into Splinter. The turtles are taught to become ninjas and develop into superheroes.

The British animated series of 'Wallace and Gromit' often showed Wallace on his motorcycle with Gromit in the sidecar. Even the colour is right, as the motorcycle and sidecar are red, but I couldn't find a pale dog with brown ears to look more like Gromit, unfortunately. Nick Park is the animator behind this amusing series, which began in 1989 and is still ongoing in the 2020s.

The shows consist mostly of short films which last for less than half an hour. The first one, 'A Grand Day Out', introduced the characters. Wallace is a lover of cheese, Wensleydale in particular, and is an inventor of various contraptions such as one that dresses him and another which prepares his breakfast. In this film, the pair build a rocket which takes them to the moon. Gromit never speaks, but his actions depict his feelings well and he is often responsible for saving Wallace from his wilder (mis)adventures. The shows have introduced other characters such as Shaun the Sheep and Feathers McGraw, an evil penguin.

In this animated series, Rocky was a squirrel and Bullwinkle was a moose, as shown in the photographic clue. The original versions of the show ran from 1959 until 1964. The characters were designed to appeal to both children (Rocky) and adults (Bullwinkle) - the latter character was particularly fond of puns.

The duo lived in Minnesota, in a fictional place called Frostbite Falls where they were constantly called upon to thwart the plans of the villains, Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale. These two were employed by a dictator named Fearless Leader, but weren't smart enough to outwit the two heroes. William Conrad, best known for portraying Frank Cannon in a detective series, narrated the shows.

This one ought to have been fairly easy to identify as the picture shows a typical fairground roundabout, or carousel as Americans would call it. 'The Magic Roundabout' appeared on British television screens from 1965 until 1977, narrated by Eric Thompson, the father of actresses Emma and Sophie. Nigel Planer, of 'The Young Ones', took over in the 1990s on a different channel and after Thompson's death.

The show originated in France but the narration added in the UK was completely different and was created by Thompson from the animated pictures he was seeing. The characters included a dog named Dougal, Ermintrude the cow, a snail named Brian and a rabbit given the name of Dylan. Although the show was aimed at children, Thempson's clever narration appealed to adults as well giving the show a wide appeal.

A more oblique reference for this one - the field is full of flowers, so it's likely to be spring time and the dog is a springer spaniel. I hope you worked out that this equalled Springfield, the setting for 'The Simpsons', which is probably the best known and most popular of all the shows in the quiz. The series began life as a segment of 'The Tracey Ullman Show' in 1987. Matt Groening created the show to be a satirical view of everyday American life.

The Simpson family consists of father Homer, his wife Marge and their three children, Bart, Lisa and baby Maggie. None of the characters age, so Bart is perpetually ten years old. The show has a wide range of characters including Homer's father, Abraham, his neighbour, Ned Flanders, and his boss, Montgomery Burns. Marge's family is also extensive. The show has remained popular and new episodes are still being produced in the 2020s, although the companies producing it have changed over the years.