Handy Manny

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Handy Manny
GenreChildren's television series
Created by
Directed byCharles E. Bastien
Voices of
Opening theme"Handy Manny Theme Song" performed by Los Lobos
Ending theme"Handy Manny Theme Song" (Instrumental)
Composers
Country of origin
  • United States
  • Canada
Original languagesEnglish
Spanish
No. of seasons3[1]
No. of episodes113 (208 segments) (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers
ProducersVanessa Tilley
Jane Sobol
Running time30 minutes
Production companyNelvana
Original release
NetworkPlayhouse Disney (2006–2011)
Disney Junior (2011–2013)
ReleaseSeptember 16, 2006 (2006-09-16) –
February 14, 2013 (2013-02-14)

Handy Manny is an animated children's television series that premiered with its first two episodes consecutively on September 16, 2006,[2] originally as part of Disney Channel's Playhouse Disney block. The show was created by Roger Bollen and Marilyn Sadler, and developed for TV by Rick Gitelson. The show's animation was produced by Canada-based animation studio Nelvana, and features the additional voice talents of Dee Bradley Baker, Tom Kenny, Fred Stoller, Nika Futterman, Kath Soucie, Carlos Alazraqui, Grey DeLisle, and Nancy Truman. The theme song is performed by Los Lobos.

Overview[edit]

Set in the town of Sheetrock Hills, the titular character, Manny, is a handyman who owns a workshop where he works with his anthropomorphic talking tools. Most thirty-minute episodes contain two stories. They typically begin with Manny and the tools interacting in Manny's repair shop. While there, someone, usually needing something repaired or assembled, calls Manny, who answers, "Hola, Handy Manny's Repair Shop. You break it..." and then the Tools shout "We fix it!" After hearing who needs help where, Manny and the Tools sing "Hop Up, Jump In" while the Tools hop into his tool box. In each episode (except for Uncle Manny, the only episode where Mr. Lopart isn't seen at all) when Manny and the Tools leave for the repair, they see Mr. Lopart with his pet cat Fluffy in front of (or inside) his candy store. Mr. Lopart would try to do something on his own without any prior experience. Manny offers him to help but Mr. Lopart says that he doesn't need any help, after Manny and the Tools leave the item Mr. Lopart was building would malfunction and cause a mess. Once Manny and the tools arrive at the repair site, they collaborate on the best way to fix the broken item. Manny then goes to Kelly's hardware store where she almost always has the item that they need. Once they have the items needed for the repair, they go back to the work-site and sing "Fix It Right" while performing the repairs. In each episode, the item is fixed.

Episodes[edit]

SeasonSegmentsEpisodesOriginally aired
First airedLast airedNetwork
15025September 16, 2006 (2006-09-16)October 8, 2007 (2007-10-08)Playhouse Disney
27441October 27, 2007 (2007-10-27)October 4, 2009 (2009-10-04)
3384719November 7, 2009 (2009-11-07)January 17, 2011 (2011-01-17)
5427February 14, 2011 (2011-02-14)February 14, 2013 (2013-02-14)Disney Junior

Characters[edit]

  • Manuel "Manny" Esteves Garcia III[3] (voiced by Wilmer Valderrama)[4] is a handyman who lives in Sheetrock Hills, who works with the town's residents to fix various problems.
  • Kelly (voiced by Nancy Truman)[5] is a hardware store owner, who almost always has the materials that Manny and the tools need for their projects. She lives in Sheetrock Hills with her friends and family.
  • Mr. Leonard Francis Lopart (voiced by Tom Kenny)[6] is the middle-aged owner of a candy store next to Manny's workshop and Mrs. Lopart's son, who is known for his clumsiness, and is often seen trying to fix something independently. He initially declines offers of help from Manny, but eventually accepts when he realizes he cannot do the job alone.
  • Felipe[5] (voiced by Carlos Alazraqui) is a yellow Phillips-head screwdriver (hence his name) who is often self-centered and overconfident about himself. Sometimes, his ideas make a problem worse. which gets under Turner's skin and his headache, sometimes purposely.
  • Turner[5] (voiced by Dee Bradley Baker)[7] is a violet flat-head screwdriver who appears to be sarcastic and is bossy to Felipe, usually going against Felipe's overconfidence, but does show a genuinely caring relationship with him.
  • Pat[6] (voiced by Tom Kenny) is a sky blue claw hammer who is talkative, extremely silly and dumb, an idealistic tool, clumsy and not so intelligent, though he does have flashes of cleverness from time to time. He sometimes finds it hard to control his strength.
  • Dusty (voiced by Kath Soucie) is a red hand saw who is very smart and gives good advice. She acts as the big sister of the group and is very good with detective work by solving mysteries.
  • Squeeze (voiced by Nika Futterman) is a green pair of pliers. She loves to lend a helping hand, and is sometimes impatient to fix something (usually repairs that involve bolts). She appears to have a childlike personality which makes her a very lovable tool.
  • Stretch[5] (also voiced by Nika Futterman) is a pink tape measure who loves to measure things and speaks with a lisp. He can speak out accurate measurements, has a very mathematical mind, has a good memory, he knows everything especially for numbers and measurements and can use his tape as an extendable hand.
  • Rusty (voiced by Fred Stoller)[5] is an orange monkey wrench who is not very brave and is a worrier and frightened of everything, generally being frightened of pretty much anything. Most of the time he needs reassurance from his fellow tools and Manny. Sometimes his fear of stuff allows the others to lose patience with him, mainly Turner. He is the second-oldest tool.
  • Flicker (voiced by Grey DeLisle) is a marigold and blue flashlight with freckles who is the youngest out of Manny's tools. He flashes his light whenever he feels excited.
  • Fix-It is a robotic dog who lives in Manny's shop and is most likely to be Squeeze's best friend.
  • Mrs. Portillo (voiced by Shelley Morrison) is a bakery shop owner and one of Manny's good neighbors. She has two grandsons named Alex and Quinn. She became Manny's paternal step-grandmother once she married Abuelito in the episode, "Wedding Day", the same episode where it was revealed that her full name is Pilar Vargas Portillo and where Manny says that his full name was passed down from Abuelito (which would make Abuelito's full name Manuel Esteves Garcia Sr. or I) which is why Manny's full name is Manuel Esteves Garcia III (which makes Manny's father's full name Manuel Esteves Garcia Jr. or II). Initially in the Series Finale, Manny calls her Mrs. Portillo but later Abuelita. In that same episode, Kelly and Mr. Lopart call her Mrs. Portillo-Garcia. Whether Mrs. Portillo changed her name at all or not remains forever unknown. Her first husband has never been seen or mentioned on the show (except for when Abuelito, referring to himself and Mrs. Portillo, said "we have both been married before"). Abuelito's previous marriage before Mrs. Portillo is presumably the one to Manny's paternal grandmother. Whether she died or she and Abuelito divorced remains forever unknown. This is the same case with Mrs. Portillo, as whether her first husband died or they divorced also forever remains unknown. Mrs. Portillo has a Chihuahua named Carlos (voiced by Frank Welker). In that same episode, Mrs. Portillo revealed Carlos to be a gift from her sister.
  • Mr. Kumar (voiced by Brian George) is Manny's friend.
  • Jackie Greenway (voiced by Jane Lynch) works at the local park and a good friend to Manny and his tools.
  • Mrs. Thompson (voiced by Tonye Patano) owns a laundromat and is a teacher at the local preschool. She once helped Kelly with her dress for a party.
  • Abuelito (voiced by Carlos Alazraqui) is Manny's grandfather, who is retired and likes to spend time with Manny and the tools. He enjoys fishing and knows a lot about Aztec history.
  • Mayor Rosa (voiced by Nancy Truman) is the mayor of Sheetrock Hills and a friend of Manny and the tools. She has Manny's help with the community park.
  • Mrs. Lopart (voiced by Marion Ross) is Mr. Lopart's mother and they have a great mother-son bond. She likes to knit and baking cookies. She is very good at bowling which she played for the first time in Bowling Night. Her favorite color is purple.
  • Zip (voiced by Eddie Deezen) is one of the automobic team in "The Tools New Team". He first met Stretch and Felipe. He talks fast, knows it all and works super fast as Spinner and Felipe. Zip is a power socket tool.
  • Sneeze (voiced by Tom Kenny) is an aquamarine and orange vacuum cleaner and one of the Automotive Team. He sneezes saw dust and other things. In "The Tools New Team", Manny meets Sneeze hiding in one of the boxes. He has a long nose as an elephant and his dream is to become an actor in "Handy Manny and The 7 Tools". He is also friends with Elliot.
  • Ticks (voiced by Jesse Corti) and Totts (voiced by Cristobal Parson) are two socket wrench twin brothers. They each speak English and Spanish. They both meet Dusty and Flicker as they overheard them. They each has six sides like fixing Marcelo's bike. They are one of the automobic team.
  • Roland (voiced by Bill Fagerbakke) is the biggest, giant, red rolling toolbox. He can be clumsy like Pat and he forgets all the time. His snoring is so loud. He also carries the automobic team. His drawers are often seen opened with the automobic team inside the drawers. He is shown to be gluttonous as shown when he ate the chips when serving food and beverages on the plane in "Hank's Birthday". Roland meets Pat and Squeeze. He is one of the automobic team.
  • Lefty (voiced by Mark Decarlo), Lily (voiced by Grey DeLisle), and Junior (voiced by Kath Soucie) are combination wrenches and a happy family. They all met Turner and Rusty. Lily can be emotional at times. Lily is overprotective to Junior. Junior can be shy sometimes. Lefty knows that Junior can do his best. He is also shown to have a close father-son relationship with Junior as well. Junior is as cheerful as Squeeze. They are part of the automobic team.
  • Beamer (voiced by Steve Moreno) is a wobbly laser level. Beamer knows how to straighten things out. Beamer later got adopted by Carmella as her own tool.
  • Spinner (voiced by Carlos Alazraqui) is one of the two power tools. He is considered the fastest power drill in Concrete Falls, which he is best friends with Jack. Also appears in Big Construction Job.
  • Jack (voiced by Daran Norris) is a jackhammer and one of Manny's power tools. He can go fast too just like Spinner.
  • Pinzas (voiced by Kath Soucie) are a pair of needle nose pliers who shares his character with Squeeze.
  • Carmela (voiced by Yeni Alvarez) is an old friend of Manny. She loves painting, sculpting, and helping others. She even flirts at Manny sometimes.
  • Julieta (voiced by Isabella Pajaro) is a granddaughter of Senor Sanchez who loves to play, flowers, ballet, soccer and like to hang out with her friends, and she has a pet kitty named Patches. When Julieta and Senor Sanchez moved to a new home, Julieta thought that there's a monster in the closet, but there's no monster in her closet, it's just her toy bear.
  • Chico (voiced by Mindy Burbano) is a nephew of Manny, and he loves to see him and his tools with her Mother Lola and he likes to play and he's curious of things.
  • Paulette (voiced by Giada De Laurentiis) loves to make pizza. In that episode, her dough rolling machine is broken, so Manny and the tools come to fix the dough rolling machine, so Paulette can make pizza quick.
  • Susana (voiced by Isabella Pajaro) is a little girl who loves dolls and has a baby sister named Isabela. She used to be worried about having a baby, because she thought that her parents won't love her anymore, but that's not true, she learned about that with the help of Manny and the tools.
  • Mrs. Hillary (voiced by Kathie Lee Gifford) is the music teacher at Sheetrock Hills Elementary School. She loves the sound of music.
  • Marcelo (voiced by Sebastian Guerrero) is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Ayala. He used to live in Argentina, then he moved to Sheetrock Hills. He loves to play soccer, make friends and his family.
  • Senor Lopez (voiced by Mario Lopez) is the science teacher and meteorologist.
  • Tanya (voiced by Dawnn Lewis) is the vendor of the ice cream stand. She likes to give people any flavors of ice cream, but then one day her freezer is broken so she called Manny and the tools to fix it before the ice cream started to melt.
  • Ginny (voiced by Florence Henderson) is the director of Snow White and the Seven Tools and the owner of Sheetrock Hills Playhouse Theatre. She loves plays and her family too.
  • Dr. Ortega (voiced by Rosario Dawson) is a marine biologist. She likes to take care of animals and studying sea animals. With the help of Manny and the tools, things turned out well.

Special guests[edit]

Special guest stars in the series have included...

Release[edit]

Dubbed versions[edit]

The series not only aired Spanish-Dubbed versions of its episodes on the "Disney Junior en Univision" sub-block on Univision's Planeta U block (weekends from May 31, 2014 to May 26, 2018), but also aired Russian-Dubbed versions of its episode on Disney Channel Russia's Recognition Disney (later Disney Recognition) block, and also Hebrew-Dubbed versions of its episodes on Hop! Channel,[8] all alongside Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (the block on Disney Channel Russia had the exact same logos as Playhouse Disney (with the exception of the block using the former branding) and Disney Junior (with the exception of the block using the latter branding). When the series was released on Disney+, several dubbed versions (whose languages were derived from Latin) were made available. Languages of these dubs include (but might not be limited to) Spanish, European and Brazilian Portuguese, Norwegian, French, Dutch, Danish and Swedish. TV5 aired the series dubbed in Tagalog as part of It's "Disney Clubhouse/Disney Club" line-up.

Home media[edit]

Nine DVD compilations have been released.

DVD title Release date Episodes Other information
Region 2 Region 1
Tooling Around January 25, 2010 August 21, 2007 "Squeeze's Day Off"
"Amigo Grande"
"A Sticky Fix"
"Pat the Screwdriver"
Supremoguy
Fixing It Right TBA February 19, 2008 "Manny to the Rescue"
"Felipe Strikes Out"
"Pat's Big Idea"
"Rusty to the Rescue"
"Detective Dusty"
Manny's Pet Roundup July 6, 2009 August 5, 2008 "Lyle and Leland Lopart"
"Blackout on the Block"
"Squeeze Makes a Promise"
"Pet Problem"
"Kitty Sitting"
"Gopher Help"
"Renaldo's Pretzel Castle"
All the episodes in this DVD are related to animals and pets.
Manny's Green Team TBA March 31, 2009 "Saving the Turtles"
"Science Fair"
"Manny Goes Solar"
"Light Work"
"Bloomin' Tools"
All the episodes in this DVD are related to recycling and caring for the earth.
A Very Handy Holiday November 2, 2009 TBA "A Very Handy Holiday"
"Have a Handy New Year"
Language: English

Subtitles: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch.

Motorcycle Adventure TBA December 1, 2009 "Motorcycle Adventure"
"A Very Handy Holiday"
Big Race TBA April 20, 2010 "Big Race"
"Fast Eddie's Scooter"
"Bunny in the Basement"
Happy Birthday! April 26, 2010 TBA "Cinco-De-Mayo" "Piñata Party"

"Skateboard Park"

Big Construction Job November 7, 2010 November 16, 2010 "Big Construction Job"/"Good Fences"/"Butterflies"

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "News". News.toonzone.net. Retrieved July 31, 2012.[permanent dead link]
  2. ^ "The Seattle Times: Television: Kids will find a lot to like in this fall's new TV shows". Seattle Times. September 9, 2006. Retrieved September 18, 2019.
  3. ^ "Behind The Voice Actors – Handy Manny". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved March 23, 2015.
  4. ^ Perlmutter, David (2018). The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows. Rowman and Littlefield. p. 264. ISBN 978-1538103739.
  5. ^ a b c d e Terrace 2008, p. 428
  6. ^ a b Madden, John (January 23, 2010). "Mr. Lopart and SpongeBob stop by: a chat with voiceover legend Tom Kenny". Wired. Retrieved June 8, 2018.
  7. ^ Rudolph, Joyce (February 6, 2010). "The active voice". Burbank Leader. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 17, 2020.
  8. ^ "Univision Network Adds Disney Junior Hit Series "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" and "Handy Manny" to its "Planeta U" Saturday Morning Children's Block". Univision. June 3, 2014. Retrieved March 9, 2021.
Book references

External links[edit]