Brandy & Mr. Whiskers (2024)

Brandy & Mr. Whiskers (1)

One smelly rabbit and one pampered pooch
Fell from a plane with no parachute
Got stuck in the jungle putting down roots
Brandy & Mr. Whiskers!

Brandy & Mr. Whiskers is an American animated television series created by Russell Marcus that aired from August 2004 to August 2006 on Disney Channel, with concurrent reruns on Toon Disney.

Brandy & Mr. Whiskers follows the titular duo: a literal Alpha Bitch from Palm Beach, Florida and a Genius Ditz rabbit. After getting ejected from the cargo hold of a plane (Brandy was on her way to a spa, while Mr. Whiskers was going to be sold to a Paraguayan zoo for 39 cents), the two animals are forced to live together and strike up a friendship in the Amazon Rainforest, living in a treehouse built from the debris that fell out with them.

As time goes on, the dog and rabbit befriend the locals: Brandy makes attempts to get the jungle to become a civilized society by introducing elements such as fashion, hygiene, and currency (in the form of "shiny rocks"), while Mr. Whiskers revels in making all sorts of odd inventions. As a result, by the second season, the native animals have become as anthropomorphic as our main characters: a new market economy has been established, they have developed clothing, consumer products, restaurants, theme parks, TV commercials, a boy band called Sugartoad, and a shopping mall. By this point, Brandy has also lost her desire to return home, something that was a major motivating force in the first season.

This Disney Channel Original animated series contains examples of:

  • Animated Actors: The series will occasionally cut to black-and-white "Behind the Scenes" footage of the characters speaking directly to the audience, often to parody And Knowing Is Half the Battle when whatever moral the character is delivering ends up immediately being broken by said character.
  • Annoying Younger Sibling: Mr. Whiskers is a surrogate one for Brandy. He constantly acts like a fool around her and embarrasses her in front of the other animals.
  • Apes in Space: "To the Moon Whiskers" features Boris, a Russian chimp formerly from a circus who was sent into space until his capsule crashed down in the jungle. He butts heads with Brandy because she wants to push the emergency rescue button inside his capsule to get home, but Boris doesn't want to be found and sent back into space. In the end, the whole conflict turns out to be All for Nothing because the scientist who built the rocket made the rescue button just a box containing a peanut, in case Boris needed rescue.
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: From "I Am Rainfo".

    *Lola breaks in*

    Whiskers: "AAAH! The boa constrictor! It squeezes the life out of it's prey!"

    *Cheryl and Meryl break in*

    Whiskers: "AAAH! Toucans! they use their beaks to crush fruits, nuts, and defenseless animals!"

    *Ed breaks in*

    Whiskers: "AAAH! The river otter! It tells long, boring stories and has a very weak bladder!"

  • Artistic License – Biology:
    • In "A Bunny On My Back", Whiskers claims that rabbits are part of the order Rodentia. They're actually part of the order Lagomorpha, and contrary to popular belief, not true rodents.
    • Whiskers is also shown to have pads on the bottom of his feet, which real rabbits do not have.
    • In "The Monkey's Paw", Ed gets in danger of getting eaten by piranhas. In real life, giant otters are predators of piranhas.
    • In "I am Rainfo", Whiskers claims toucans use their beaks to "crush fruits and defenseless animals". In reality, toucan bills are too weak to crush even a grape. That being said it IS Whiskers saying this, and he's doing so while terrified.
    • Gaspar frequently tries to eat Brandy or Whiskers. Geckos only eat smaller animals, mainly insects.
    • The plot of "Private Antics, Major Problems" is kickstarted by Brandy destroying an anthill belonging to army ants. Army ants don't build anthills and instead cling onto each other, creating a nest made of ants. Also, army ants are known for being vicious carnivores forming into The Swarm, but the ones in the episode are more like common red ants that act like a literal army.
    • Jaguars and ocelots are depicted hunting in packs in two separate episodes, despite the two cats being solitary.
    • The show's "harpy eagles" look more like bald eagles.
  • Artistic License – History: Why exactly there are Mayan ruins in the Amazon when Mayan civilization itself never reached it is anyone's guess.
  • Big Bad: Gaspar. Almost every episode he appears in shows him as the main antagonist, and anything that isn't caused by either Brandy's selfishness or Whiskers' stupidity is usually caused by him.
  • Bloodsucking Bats: Double subverted where they meet a bat named Vlad. Whiskers is scared because "bats suck blood", but Vlad says he is a fruit bat. After some shenanigans we discover that Vlad is indeed a vampire bat, but he hides it because people are always too scared to hear any explanation. He also explains that he usually drinks blood from cows and horses, rather than dogs and rabbits.
  • Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: The three dogs who have been lost in the Rainforest over the course of the series are Brandy Harrington (blonde), Tiffany Turlington (brunette), and Sandy Carington (redhead).
  • Brains Versus Brawn: The season 1 episode "Lack of Brains vs. Brawn" plays with this trope when Mr. Whiskers has to deal with The Bully Lester. While Mr. Whiskers is portrayed as being nerd-ish relative to Lester, Mr. Whiskers is a Cloud Cuckoolander and often The Ditz of the show. However, as Characterization Marches On, in later episodes he becomes more of a Genius Ditz.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: A lot.

    Lola: "Brandy, this isn't a cartoon! This is real life!"

    Brandy: (a Beat, then she turns to the camera) "I don't have the heart to tell her."

  • Broken Aesop: Invoked in one episode. Whiskers had just gotten over his Compressed Vice of video game addiction and takes the lesson that people should do more than spend hours staring at a screen. He and Brandy then remember they're cartoon characters and very quickly try to claim television is the exception to the rule right before the viewer turns them off.
  • By the Lights of Their Eyes: Whiskers and Gina after being eaten in “Cyranosaurus Rex”, Whiskers, Brandy, Melvin and some pumas inside a cave in “Time for Waffles” and most of the cast in “The Vampire Bat”.
  • Chained Heat: Brandy and Whiskers spend an episode glued together back to back.
  • Cloud Cuckoolander:
    • Mr. Whiskers makes a complete fool out of himself in front of Brandy and pretty much the others, with whatever weekly eccentricity he wants to show off.
    • Ed is known for telling exaggerated stories.
  • Crack Defeat: Subverted. In "Pop Goes the Jungle" Brandy wins the singing contest because the judges are howler monkeys.
  • Credit Card Plot: The second half of "Trouble in Store" centers around this with Gaspar duping Mr. Whiskers into it.
  • Crying a River: In the episode "Believe in the Bunny", Brandy tells Mr. Whiskers that the Easter bunny is not real. As a result, he cries overnight until the treehouse is completely flooded.
  • The Cuckoolander Was Right: In "A Bunny On My Back", Whiskers' assumptions about Arturo the ocelot secretly wanting to eat Brandy for dinner turned out to be true.
  • Cursed with Awesome: "Radio Free Bunny", in which Whiskers swallows a meteor and starts emiting radio-signals. It makes him popular with everyone in the jungle... until everybody starts disturbing him from his sleep and hogging him in order to listen to their preferred radio station.
  • Cutaway Gag: Plenty in every episode, usually in the form of still, live-action photographs, that may or may not include the main characters pasted on them.
  • Deconstructed Trope: The episode "Auntie Dote" features the obligatory "House Keeper Equals Parental Substitute" plot. It ends with said house keeper revealing that she holds absolutely no maternal love for either of them; taking care of them was her job, she wasn't doing it out of love no matter how much the two wanted to believe otherwise.
  • Didn't Think This Through:
    • Brandy reinvented currency so she would regain her Rich Bitch status. What she didn't realize is the way money works; While the more intelligent animals followed up by constructing official buildings and workplaces to earn money, Brandy just sat there waiting. As a result, Gaspar ended up as a millionaire (even before tricking Mr. Whiskers into a huge credit card debt although it sure helped). Brandy on the other hand had to work on a fast food restaurant just to make a living. A job that she was too lazy to keep nevertheless.
    • The fact that she knows nothing about earning money means she would have been forced into bankruptcy soon enough. But even then she could have had a nice living at the beginning since she suggested to use an specific kind of shiny rocks as currency...but she never thought of stockpiling said rocks before making the suggestion.
  • The Dinnermobile: One episode sees Whiskers invent his own car made out of fruit, and he bets he can actually make it work. Subverted in that Brandy filled it with rodents to actually make it move. And Double Subverted when its revealed that each rodent decided to just let the rest do the work, meaning the car actually moved by itself.
  • Dirty Communists: Averted with Boris, but played straight with the corrupt engineers who sent him to space, leaving him abandoned for 40 years with nothing but a rescue button that only expended a peanut, for the kicks of it.
  • Even the Rats Won't Touch It: Even flies can't stand Mr. Whiskers' stench.

    Fly 1: You know, I'll eat a lot of stinky stuff. But this? This is killing me?
    Fly 2: You've said it!

  • Exact Words: In "A Bunny On My Back", Arturo says to Brandy he wants to "bring her home for dinner", or in this case, eat her alive.
  • Famous Ancestor: Discussed. When Brandy believes that being a mongrel means she has no chance in the modeling competition, Whiskers reveals that he's descended from a long line of rabbits who did famous and amazing things. One grew the world's largest carrot, another (allegedly) signed the Declaration of Independence alongside America's forefathers. He points out that despite being descended from these great heroes and historical figures, Whiskers is still basically a nobody in comparison. He uses this to teach Brandy that your ancestry shouldn't determine your self-worth.
  • Fantastic Racism: In the end of "Curse of the Vampire Bat", after getting accused of being a vampire by Whiskers and later everyone else, Vlad reveals that he is a vampire bat, but hides it because he's sick of everyone thinking his species are actual vampires.
  • The Friend Nobody Likes: Both Brandy and Mr. Whiskers, but more so Brandy as she rubs into everyone else's face what a self-obsessed narcissist she is whereas Whiskers is just Innocently Insensitive.
  • Friend-or-Idol Decision:
    • In "Lame Boy", when in a collapsing cave, Whiskers has to rescue either the game he's obsessed with, or Brandy. He chose the latter.
    • In "One of a Kind", Brandy has to pick between returning to civilization with Tiffany or saving Whiskers from his out-of-control robot. She chooses the latter, because she realizes Tiffany was nothing like Whiskers and he cares about her more than anything.
  • Genre Shift: The first season revolved around the two main characters adapting and surviving in the Jungle with a heavy emphasis on Brandy's desire to go home. The second season features a far more civilized jungle with Slice of Life plots nearly indistinguishable from what would happen in a city, with Brandy no longer desiring to go home.
  • Gross-Out Show: Downplayed as many episodes focus on a serious plot, but that isn't to say that Mr. Whiskers doesn't deliver a good amount of Toilet Humor moments in this show.
  • Heroic BSoD: Brandy goes through this when she learns that, despite what she told Whiskers earlier, she's not a purebred dog. Disheartened by her new-found mongrel-hood, Brandy lowers herself to acting like a common dog and doing all the baser things normal dogs do. It takes Mr. Whisker's heartfelt speech (and grossing her out) to get Brandy out of her funk.
  • Hidden Depths: Mr. Whiskers is a highly skilled magician.
  • Hollywood Tone-Deaf: Brandy is revealed to be a horrible singer in "Pop Goes the Jungle". She ends up winning a local talent show since the judges are howler monkeys who appreciate her horrible singing.
  • I Choose to Stay: There are a few moments were Brandy is given the chance of leaving the jungle but ultimately stays out of friendship to Whiskers.
  • I Owe You My Life: The episode "Payback". Also hangs a lampshade on what normally happens in that sort of situation:

    Brandy: "This isn't that 'I saved your life so you become hopelessly annoyingly devoted to me' plot, is it?"

    Whiskers: "It is. Sorry, we had to do it sooner or later."

  • Keet: Mr. Whiskers certainly knows how to hype it up. It basically overlaps with how much of a Cloudcuckoolander he is.
  • Like Brother and Sister: The theme song states the title characters are "like a dysfunctional brother and sister."
  • Miles Gloriosus: A rare female variant. Brandy becomes a lifeguard in "Better Off Wet". Naturally, she can’t swim and is in it for the glamour. When Ed is in danger of drowning, and the other lifeguards are taken out of action due to some carelessly spilled sunscreen, Brandy has to rescue him herself. She starts panicking the moment she goes into the water and also needs saving.
  • The Minnesota Fats: Sandy and Mr. Frisky.
  • Misplaced Wildlife:
    • South American tapirs are brown, not black and white (they live in Asia).
    • Lemurs can be seen in some episodes.
    • Beavers appeared in some episodes, though in life, they were introduced into South America's Tierra del Fuego back in 1946.
    • A giraffe appeared in one episode.
    • A lion appeared in another episode, though this is lampshaded by Brandy.
    • Wild boar appeared in a few episodes, mainly the second season, though like the beavers, boar were also introduced into South America.
    • One of the cutaway gags had cows and rhinoceroces in the jungle.
    • Inverted with Wolfie, a gray wolf that as a pup, fell from a plane.
  • Muscles Are Meaningless: In "Big Girls Don't Body Slam" Brandy becomes a pro wrestler and despite keeping her usual slim figure she defeats many really buff opponents.
  • Name and Name: "Brandy and Mr. Whiskers."
  • Naturally Huskless Coconuts: Coconuts throughout the show are drawn as seeds even when they are still growing on the palm.
  • Nice Guy: Ed the otter is a relaxed, friendly fellow who doesn't show any ill will towards anyone.
  • Nice Mean And In Between: Of the three dog girls in the show:
    • Sandy is patient and nice to her foil Mr. Frisky, and everyone else;
    • Tiffany is a bitch who would rather save her own skin than Mr. Whiskers;
    • While Brandy is the in-between who is an arrogant bitch but still cares for Mr. Whiskers and everyone.
  • No Ending:
    • We'll just assume they never go home.
    • After finding that giant shopping mall, it's likely that Brandy just stopped wanting to go back.
  • No Fourth Wall: Literally everyone in the series is fully aware that they are in a television show.

    Mr. Whiskers (when Brandy starts singing in a talent show): I can't let this happen!

    Lola: What are you going to do?

    Mr. Whiskers: The only thing left to do...spare the viewers at home! (leaps out of the television and changes the channel to a shopping channel)

  • Nothing but Skin and Bones: In the episode "Wolfie: Prince of the Jungle" Brandy has a bunch of fashion magazines on the floor. One of them has a literal skeleton on it.
  • Obsessive Hobby Episode: In one episode, Brandy finds a video game and gives it to Whiskers so that Whiskers won't bother him. However, Whiskers becomes obsessed with it and annoys Brandy. He then sacrifices the game for Brandy and tells the audience not to spend too much time in front of a screen... before remembering he's on TV.
  • Odd Couple: The snooty, rude, pampered Brandy and the annoying, ditzy, slobby Mr. Whiskers live with one another and learn to get along together.
  • Potty Emergency:
    • Happens to Whiskers in "Tree Huggin' Bunny", as part of Brandy's plan to incapacitate Whiskers long enough to tear down a tree. She even pulls out the old water imagery trick—mentioning walking pass the waterfall, stopping by the bathroom, and even saying "oui, oui"—all in the hopes of making Whiskers snap. Thankfully, it doesn't result in Potty Failure, as he manages to relieve himself in a nearby pile of bushes while his friends defend the tree for him.
    • Ed also suffers from a mild case of this in "I Am Rainfo", needing to desperately use Brandy and Mr. Whiskers' bathroom.
  • Rabbit Magician: In the episode "The Magic Hour", it is revealed that not only was Mr. Whiskers a Magician's rabbit, but that he was also a very accomplished magician before a mishap left his assistant's legs magically separated. When Brandy asks how he was able to accomplish his tricks (which border on legitimate sorcery), he just says that it came naturally to him since he is a bunny.

    Brandy: "Mr. Whiskers, that is the most amazing thing I've ever seen! How did you do it?"

    Mr. Whiskers: "Eh, I honestly do not know. I'm a rabbit, magic just comes naturally."

  • Raised by Wolves: Wolfie was raised by monkeys. Ed hangs a lampshade on the fact that the monkeys in the rainforest act much more civilised than him and it's handwaved by saying his adoptive father was raised by a panther and the panther was raised by a palm tree.
  • Remember the New Guy?: Parodied in "You've Got Snail" with Mr. Cantarious. He claims to have always lived in Brandy and Whiskers' tree, but the characters say they have never heard of or met him. To prove his point, he cues a montage of old clips, but it's overlaid with a cardboard cutout held by a live-action hand.
  • Reset Button: One episode involved a wish-granting monkey's paw. After the inevitable chaos of badly phrased and poorly thought-out wishes, Mr. Whiskers makes the old wish that they never found it and sets things back to the way they were.
  • Rich Bitch: Brandy (Literally!). Eventually subverted: She invented currency in the form of shiny rocks... Only to realize she know nothing about EARNING money.
  • Saving Christmas: "On Whiskers, on Lola, on Cheryl, on Meryl"
  • Shaking the Rump: Mr. Whiskers's "Funky Bunny" dance mainly consists of shaking his behind.
  • Shaped Like Itself: In "Wolfie, Prince of the Jungle", Ed questions about Wolfie's uncivilized nature due to being raised by a monkey and points to a very sophisticated guy who was also raised by monkeys. Said guy in question? A monkey.
  • Shown Their Work:
    • While not always successful, as noted in Misplaced Wildlife, the series really goes out of its way to feature animals from the Amazon rainforest.
    • Black panthers are referred to as jaguars in a few episodes, referring to the fact that black panthers are really just melanistic big cats.
    • In "Blind Ambition", it is pointed out that millipedes are almost blind.
  • Shout-Out: In the first episode as Brandy and Mr. Whiskers fall from the plane into the Amazon, there's a shot of them clutching each other as they fall screaming toward the earth that mirrors a scene from a Bugs Bunny cartoon, The Heckling Hare.
  • Sluggish Sloths: In the episode "Stress Test", the main cast gets captured by hillbillies, with the only way to earn their freedom is by beating one of them at a banjo-playing contest. When that fails, the gangs opts to run for their lives instead, which proves to be far easier as the hillbillies are sloths.
  • Smelly Feet Gag: In "Happy Birthdays", he would rather stay home and smell his stinky feet than attend Brandy's birthday party.

    Mr. Whiskers: Oh, I just wanna stay home and smell my feet! (inserts his feet into his nostrils and deeply inhales before letting out a sigh of relief) Wanna whiff?

    Brandy: (grossed out) Gag, no...

  • Snakes Are Sinister: While averted with Lola Boa, this is played straight with most other snakes which are portrayed as vicious predators.
  • "Strangers on a Train"-Plot Murder: In Dog Play Afternoon, Gaspar and Brandy are understudies for the main leads of the play. Gaspar suggests Brandy to play dirty:

    Brandy: "Come on! If something happens to the stars, It would be obvious we did it!"

    Gaspar: "Ah, what if I took care of your problem, and you take care of my problem. If anyone asks, we both would have alibis. [Breaking the Fourth Wall]: It is a totally original idea, nobody has ever thought to use it in a movie plot."

  • Talking Animal: All of the cast consists of anthropomorphic animals.
  • The Mall: In season 1, the animals of the Amazon have no idea what a mall is whenever Brandy talks about it, leading her to help make a shopping area to help Whiskers. In Season 2, however, there actually exists an ancient mall which becomes a plot point in a handful of episodes.
  • Toilet Humor: A majority of the scenes revolving around Mr. Whiskers either have him picking his nose, digging for ear wax, smelling his feet, or burping or farting.
  • Trivial Tragedy: In one episode, Ed has to use the titular duo's bathroom and starts crying his heart out because he used their toilet paper.
  • Unexplained Accent:
    • Lola is the only Amazonian with a South American accent.
    • Mr. Whiskers' brain has a Yiddish accent, despite Whiskers himself having an American accent.
  • Weird Currency: Brandy establishes a market economy based on the exchange of shiny rocks.
  • Word, Schmord!: An episode is titled "Pedigree Schmedigree".
  • Worst News Judgment Ever: In the episode "The Tortoise and the Harebrain", when Mr. Whiskers challenges the tortoise to race, it cuts to a huge newspaper headline, with an announcer proudly declaring ladies' pantsuits are 50% off, before the camera pans to the tiny corner of the paper, with the announcer much less enthusiastically saying that the tortoise and hare will race. The gag is then reused at the episode's end when the tortise and Mr. Whiskers tie.
Brandy & Mr. Whiskers (2024)

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