Prickles the Cactus

Prickles the Cactus was a short created by Denis Morella and produced by Curious Pictures for the Cartoon Network. The short premiered on Cartoon Cartoon Fridays on August 11, 2000 as one of ten contenders for Cartoon Network's Big Pick, the winner of which would become the next Cartoon Cartoon. The short did not win The Big Pick, and was not picked up by Cartoon Network to become a full-length series.

Plot
Prickles loves living in the desert, but when a drought starts making life miserable for her dad and brother, Prickles goes looking for water, even though she's allergic.

Main Roles

 * Prickles
 * Egbert
 * Bert
 * Marci
 * Sunny
 * Little Cloud

Minor Roles

 * Mother Vulture
 * Baby Vulture
 * Mermonkey
 * Mama Cloud

Cast

 * Monica Lee Gradischek - Prickles, Baby Vulture
 * Lisa Fuson - Marci
 * Tom Kenny - Sunny, Egbert, Radio Announcer
 * William Hall - Bert, Mermonkey
 * Anndi McAfee - Mother Vulture
 * Denis Morella - Little Cloud, Mama Cloud

Web Premiere Toon
Later, Denis Morella got his animation team from WildBrain and Funny Garbage to animate a second Prickles short made especially for the internet for Cartoon Network's Web Premiere Toons on Cartoon Network.com. It was advertised along with the premiere of the TV short which also featured a promo of Prickles traveling from the TV set to the computer with Sunny instructing her. The short is about Prickles getting a tan to get sharp prickly pines needed for the Miss Green Teen Pageant 2000 located in the Cyclone Ranch where she faces against her palm tree rival, Becky and her snake friend, Cccynthia. Bert comes in and tells Prickles that her excessive use of electricity is increasing there bill and Prickles determines to pay the bill for him by winning the pageant. At the pageant, Becky and Cccynthia start there talent by juggling rats and they later give Prickles the rats to juggle. Then, Becky juggles goldfish bowls and rides on Cccynthia like a ball. Prickles does the same but uses Marci. They trade juggling items and Marci's addiction to rats causes her to jump to Becky for the rats and Prickles falls down and the goldfish bowls break on her causing her to swell up. She won the pageant but she disliked the photo of her swelled up.

There are two interactions in the short: the first one is where Prickles states to Marci that she can dance. Behind her is a jukebox with several options: Hawaiian, Hip Hop, Ballet, Salsa, Ballroom and Cartoon. Each move (except Cartoon) is required a quarter in order to play. Even if you put all of the quarters, it still costs 1 quarter per option as if you only put one quarter in. The Cartoon button makes the movie continue. The second interaction is during the end which shows Prickles' Miss Green Teen Pageant 2000 pamphlet, complete with interview questions, pictures of Prickles as a baby along with some misadventures with her friends.

Most of the cast reprise their roles; but Tom Kenny, who voiced Sunny and Egbert in the original TV short, voiced Bert the farmer in the web cartoon replacing William Hall who voiced him in the TV short. Sunny only appeared in the beginning before vanishing during nighttime and Egbert only made a cameo in the pageant packet that Prickles had.

The short can be viewed here:

Trivia

 * The character Prickles appears as a playable character in Cartoon Cartoon Summer Resort - Episode 4: "Disco Dilemma."