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Arthur Timothy Read is the main titular character of Arthur. He was originally created for the children's book series Arthur by Marc Brown. He is a young aardvark who lives in Elwood City and is the eldest child of the David and Jane Read.
Why He Makes Every Day a Wonderful Kind of Day
- The show that he comes from is supposed to talk about his relationship with his friends and family on an daily life (you know, a slice-of-life) and he could be relatable to many. With that said, his relationships are just real and some examples can prove it. Basically, he's the average kid type that is relatable just like characters like Charlie Brown or Doug Funnie.
- For D.W., she and Arthur do have sibling rivalry in some parts of the show, but Arthur most of the time would ignore D.W.'s antics and would even get along with her.
- As for friends go, his friend is Buster who shows to do many good things together like what a good friend would do. Same goes for other friends in his neighborhood where he would make friends with certain characters like Ladonna, Muffy, The Brain, and even Binky.
- He also does well with the adults that he is around such as his parents. Not just his parents, he also does fine with other adults like when he felt concerned about Mrs. MacGrady or Mr. Ratburn in some episodes that he expresses this like "Arthur Takes a Stand" or "Lend Me Your Ear".
- While he does make some mistakes in some episodes that would question the viewer on Arthur's decisions, he still makes up for it like when he regrets being obsessed over desserts, getting upset over The Brain beating him in checkers, or making fun of Sue Ellen's sweater and shows his feelings that he really does mean mercy and learns from what he has done. Relatable right?
- One of the unique aspects that he has is that he can easily break the fourth wall in the show in order for viewers to understand what is going on (like in some prologues). With that said, it can result to being enjoyable when he talks in front of the viewers without being annoying or dumbed down.
- Every character in the show have situations that are realistic and Arthur is no stranger to this like when would get too much homework, dealing with tragedy, or accepting people as they are. Even kids and adults can learn from him (as well as the cast).
- For a third grader he's normally the nice guy and is mostly calm throughout the show and is also level-headed.
- He does have some intentional or even unintentional funny moments that never get old, such as:
- "THIS IS MY JINGLE, AND WERE GOING TO DO IT MY WAY!"
- "We all told you."
- "I know you bully me because you feel insecure."
- Or even his infamous "I TOLD YOU NOT TO TOUCH IT!", which is a meme of course.
- Even some of his dream sequences can also be hilarious.
- He takes good care of Pal since he's supposed to be his pet dog. He may not do some perfect care, but at least he still cares about him.
- He does some good deeds as well such as attempting to raise funds for the animal shelter ("Shelter from the Storm"), tell the truth to Mr. Ratburn ("Double Dare"), being the narrator of a play until Francine comes to the school albeit running late ("Elwood City Turns 100"), exposing a fake tiger hunter who turns out to steal dogs ("Buster the Myth Maker"), finding Sue Ellen's diary and keeping it private ("Sue Ellen's Lost Diary"), just to name some examples.
- He's active to go outside and play because he still enjoys getting out for a little while. If you seen Arthur before, views would point out that he has traveled outdoors before and even meet with his friends outside.
- He not really into contests, but he can still have a will to be in one like his school soccer team or being in a baseball team.
- He's pretty imaginative. For example, he made up his own superhero in "The Secret Origin of Supernova".
"I TOLD YOU NOT TO TOUCH IT!" Qualities
- He may be friendly, but can sometimes have a tendency to break promises or do bad things such as him not practicing the piano on time, clean up his room, become obsessed with dessert, insulted Francine, cheat on No Guessing, touching the computer during his mother's tax season, or even punching D.W. However, he does learn from his mistakes because of the nature of the show he comes from.
- One thing to point out that he was really unlikable and out of character in the episodes infamously known as “So Funny I Forgot to Laugh" and "Germophobia.”
- He can also be annoying in "The Secret Origin of Supernova" and "Buster Gets Real.”
- Sometimes, he lies (mainly when he plays with his glasses). In some cases, Arthur never intentionally meant to lie, but he did not know how nor when to tell the truth.
- Arthur can also be quite bigoted when it comes to people's tastes, such as D.W.'s love for Mary Moo Cow and Crazy Bus that he claims are both "babyish,” or for Francine's pet cat, Nemo, in which he exaggerates that all cats are evil because of a story he heard.
- Due to his bigotry, he tends to be stereotypical and insist that he's the one in the right mind.
- While he has a mild tendency to get angry, it can go out of hand at times and frighten others depending on the situation. Even worse, he sometimes gets angry over the littlest things.
- For example, in "Arthur's Big Meltdown,” he accuses Buster and the Brain for staining his new Bionic Bunny sneakers when they unintentionally smack a puck onto Arthur's cup of green smoothie, which splatters on his shoes. This results in Arthur losing his anger, storming out of the room, and brutally kicking a ball, which bounces back, and unintentionally destroying Muffy's room. It gets even worse when everyone at school starts spreading rumors about Arthur because of his anger issues, much to the point where everyone starts to become afraid of him, especially Buster, The Brain, and even Muffy, and when Arthur tries to apologize, they all run away from him. Thankfully, he finally apologizes to his friends and learns from his mistakes, even though that does not excuse what he has done.
- In Arthur's Missing Pal, his CGI design looks terrible.
- He can be a butt-monkey at times in some episodes, but not to the point that he does deserve it.
- Cameron Ansell and Dallas Jokic, while clearly giving it their all, made Arthur sound like a girl.
Trivia
- The reason Arthur's nose was gradually reduced in size to give him a more oval-shaped faced in the later years was due to it obscuring his mouth and also limiting his facial expressions. Because of his current design, some fans often confused Arthur for a mouse instead of an aardvark. This confusion becomes a gag in the show itself.
- Arthur's favorite color is yellow.
- On FETCH! with Ruff Ruffman, starting with the fourth season, the theme song of the show ended with Ruff Ruffman saying, "You know, I bet Arthur doesn't have to deal with stuff like this." FETCH! was another production of WGBH that aired on PBS.
- Sue Ellen hints she has a crush on Arthur at the end of "Sue Ellen's Lost Diary" resulting in him blushing.
- Marc Brown describes the character as being an "Everykid who experiences all the milestones, those things that are so important in the lives of children."
- In May 1998, the Children's Museum in Boston opened an exhibit titled "Arthur's World", featuring the character and his haunts in the fictional Elwood City.
- Arthur and his family are shown to be Christians as implied in some scenes in "Arthur's Perfect Christmas".
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